However, as we draw closer to the game’s release on September 3rd, the guys at Sega and Creative Assembly have really upped the ante on what they’re showing off, and as we know more, the more excited we can’t help but feel. In a recent presentation and interview session at Creative Assembly’s offices, we were finally shown the campaign map for the first time.
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| The team seem to have put a lot of work into the visuals of the campaign map this time around. Apt, considering you spend a lot of your time there |
This, arguably, is the most important part of the game, and yet it’s the part that CA consistently shows last. Given this is our first encounter however, we’ve strived to find out as much as we can about it - from insights gleaned from the presentations, to interviews with members of the team. Please be advised that the information contained here isn’t final, and while accurate at the time of writing, is subject to change. Also please bear in mind that some of this may already be known information, but we’ve listed it here anyway to provide a complete account of what we know so far.
So without further ado, enjoy reading about everything you could possibly ever want to know regarding the strategic mode for Rome 2. In Part One, we deal with the Campaign Map, Factions, The Political Meta-Game and Agents:
Terra Notum - The Campaign Map
First and foremost, let’s start off with the campaign map itself. It’s huge. To crunch some numbers for you, we’ve been told that there are a total of 173 regions, which are divided into 57 provinces ( a province can consist of up to 4 regions). Additionally, and this has been confirmed in previous interviews, but ‘the sea’ is now once again divided into regions, like it was pre-Rome: Total War. There are 30 Sea regions in total, three of which are ‘Great Rivers’ – so Rivers you can sail fleets down. The Nile is definitely one, as we were shown around the Egyptian portion of the campaign map.
The campaign map itself is reportedly the “biggest, most region-rich” map they’ve ever created, and it spans from the Iberian Peninsula and the upper reaches of Scotland, all the way over to Bactria (modern day Afghanistan), and even extends down the Nile and into the Red and the Arabian Seas, stopping just short of where Afghanistan becomes Pakistan and India. The map also technically extends north into Kazakhstan and Russia, and south into Sub-Saharan Africa, but these regions don’t have any provinces in them. Anything south of North Africa and East of modern-day Poland and Ukraine is empty, although the territories just north of the Caspian and Black Seas are present. Check the mini-map in the campaign screenshot we have for a better picture.
The main driving force for this enhanced scope, especially in the middle-east towards India, was so that the major eastern factions had more gameplay opportunities, and so that the team could tap into their history a bit more. For example, Bactria, which is at the farthest eastern portion of the map, was a major independent kingdom that had a lot of interaction with some of the more well-known powers in that area, like the Seleucids, Parthia etc... more independent states in that region also provided more land-mass for Parthia and other Alexander successor kingdoms to fight over.
Same thinking goes for the Arabian peninsula north-eastern areas, where Sarmatia and Scythia are located, and it also provides an alternate route for East to West (or West to East) expansion. As James Russell told us: “By including the Red Sea, Horn of Africa and Indian Ocean allows natural movement of fleets between Africa and Persia, circumnavigating Arabia and allowing Eastern players who are far from the Med to engage in some naval conflict of their own.”
The new rendering engine makes the campaign look gorgeous – there are loads of nice visual touches – from great wonders such as the pyramids, to lots of different and detailed flora and fauna, every general region in the map has a different feel to it. We were originally showed the Egyptian area, which was bright, and fairly dry, but during the presentation the camera panned and zoomed all the way over to Germania, where things became darker, murkier and... well, damp. Every area has a different atmosphere, and the effect is subtle, but profound. Regions also develop visually as they are developed on. The most obvious examples of this was when the demostrater added a new building slot and building to the provincial capital, which caused a new section of the city to just spring up (Game of Thrones style, almost). Regional towns also develop in this way, and the landscape of the map visually changes depending on what’s being built.
There are also visual clues as to what one may encounter in any given place – for example, if you saw a group of camels hanging out in the desert, that’s not just for aesthetics – that betrays the presence of camel units which can be recruited in that area.
A note on Roads – Roads now develop organically depending on the relative prosperity of the two points (provinces, towns etc…) which they connect – they can develop and decline in real-time (well, on a turn by turn basis, we assume), and each part of the road network will be unique and individual.
Power Struggle – Major vs. Minor Factions & Rome vs. The World…
After the campaign map, the next important aspect of Rome 2 is obviously going to be the Factions themselves. Just to reconfirm, there are 117 different factions in the game, which are divided into a number of different generalised ‘culture’ groups. At the time of writing, 12 of those factions have been confirmed as playable (including the Pontus DLC faction which is free, and due either on or after release day, and the three Greek City States which are currently pre-order bonuses). Whether you’re playing as Rome, Parthia or the Seubi though, the guys at Creative Assembly have strived to make sure every faction is fleshed out to their fullest – no more favourites this time.
As for the relationship between ‘Major’ (Playable) factions vs. ‘Minor’ (Unplayable) factions – According to the team, there is going to be very little distinction between them. That being said, the playable factions will all get minor bonuses to ensure they have a chance to remain relevant, especially when it comes to interacting with their neighbours.
There are many playable factions that seem to only start off with a single province (going by the list up on totalwar.com), however, we’re assured even these small starting entities will be able to rise up and become a dominant power, and we imagine that the bonuses will help with that from an AI perspective. Also, the neighbouring territories are also likely to only be single-faction entities, so that one can strike out without getting overwhelmed by a superior force too quickly.
Only Rome & Carthage are able to transition from one form of Government to another (so from a Republic to an Empire/Monarchy). Every other faction is essentially locked into a monarchy system from the beginning. However, the political Meta-game does allow for Civil Wars to be triggered in other ways, for example like the player-faction losing too much authority, or gaining too much.
Even though the Roman faction is the titular focus of the game – they’re apparently not given preferential treatment this time around. They do not get a greater variety of units than other factions, and other factions won’t be out-classed from the first turn. Their starting position is competent and one of the better/larger ones, but there’s also Carthage and the major Mediterranean powers, and we’re told that even expanding into Gaul isn’t going to be a cake walk. AI-controlled Rome is given enough to ensure they’re not wiped out too easily, but not so much that they become ridiculous to take on as a player.
Sidenote - Barbarian factions of the same culture-group also have a chance to merge and ‘confederate’, which provides a diplomatic route to growth. We’re not sure if other culture groups also have this ability.
Lend me your ears – The political meta-game
This is one of the most heavily revised portions of the game. In the original Rome: Total War, only the romans really had a political meta-game to contend with, and even then it wasn’t great – Rome was divided into three sub-factions, with the Senate as a fourth issuing orders. It was an abstraction, and I’ve always maintained it served its purpose well enough, but now Creative Assembly think they can do better.
Generally speaking, every faction in the game has the same political meta-game to contend with. Rome and Carthage have further, unique options when it comes to consolidating power and forming ‘Empires’, but apart from that there is little difference between factions how this part of the experience works.
Essentially, you take on the role of the ‘CEO’ of a faction – you get to control everything that goes on externally, and as far as internal management and development goes, you get full control there as well. We’re not sure if other factions revolve around ‘Families’ as Rome and Carthage do, but when you start the game you essentially pick which faction is ‘your’ faction – each family has different traits and bonuses, which will affect how the wider game plays. Playing Rome as the Junii and playing Rome as the Cornelii will be two subtly different experiences.
This is where the political meta-game comes in – the other two families (and in Rome’s case, a third faction in the form of the Senate) will still be ‘present’ in the game. Characters, like Generals, may not always be part of your family – the Cornelii could have generals in one or two of your armies, whilst the Junnii could control one of the provinces, etc... All these characters on the campaign map will generate influence for their family, and your missions is to essentially ensure your family remains on-top – or at the very least, relevant.
You have to be careful though – you can’t just remove characters from the other factions from positions of power on the campaign map – that would have consequences and affect your family’s standing. On the other hand though, if they do too well, they’ll generate too much influence for their family.
Political Capital has been introduced as a new resource unique this meta-game. From what we can tell, it generates turn-by-turn depending on how your family is doing (possibly relative to how the other families are doing). This can be spent on marrying off daughters, adopting or recruting people to your family/cause and other actions which are all part of the machinations of internal politics.
From time to time, random characters will turn up who aren’t affiliated with any faction, but are still relevant to the political meta-game. These characters are called ‘Subjects’, and these can be randomly generate or figures drawn from history. When they turn up, they will remain ‘in play’ until they are dealt with in some way, and they could have positive or negative effects.
An example given to us was the arrival of Marcus Tulluis Cicero. His effect was to basically reduce the played houses’ political capital turn by turn, so he was a negative force in the game. Players can also spend political capital in dealing with these subjects – for Cicero, the options were Discredit, Assassinate, Support and Extort, and depending on what you chose (and if you had enough capital), would depend on what happened. The demonstrator chose to assassinate him, which was successful but if he had failed, Cicero’s negative buff would have been increased.
Events and Dilemmas (similar to the Shogun 2 system) can also be triggered due to the state of the internal politics – the more balanced things are, the fewer events are triggered. No individual event is meant to be ‘game-changing’, but you can get a chain of events that could lead to drastic outcomes.
According to the team, if your power gets too low, or if you centralise power too much under your own families banner (and in Rome’s/Carthage’s case, trying to change into an Empire can also cause massive resistance), the other factions may deem you too troublesome to keep around, and so a Civil War starts. Every faction can suffer civil wars, so they are not so much fixed events as a potential consequence of certain choices from the political game.
It’s unclear what specifically happens during a civil war – whether or not whole provinces, regions and armies rebel against you, or rebel forces simply ‘spawn’ in, but you’d have to fight and win this civil war, otherwise we imagine it’s game over.
It’s not really possible to observe or effect and AI faction going through a civil war, but it is possible to instigate rebellions and exploit splinter factions in order to chip away at another empire’s territory.
Et Tu, CA? - Agents
Agents in Rome 2 are based on the set-up that you had in the Fall of the Samurai expansion for Shogun 2, in the sense that they are very versatile, and what they can do depends on where they are assigned – friendly towns or armies to boost, enemy towns or armies to subvert. All agents can attempt to kill all characters, or manipulate foreign agents into joining them.
There are three agent-types in Rome 2 – The Champion, The Dignitary and The Spy. For balance purposes they have the same function across all cultures and factions, but some cultures will have “flavour variants”. When agents are spawned, they have a background skill or ‘profession’, which is determined by certain factors with regards to where the agent came from, like culture, for example. These ‘profession’ can be invested in in addition to or instead of the conventional skill-tree.
Agents (along with Generals, Armies, Provinces and Settlements), have a set of three attributes. Each agent as a dominant attribute, so for example, the Spy’s dominant attribute is subterfuge.
The only agent we know some details about is The Champion – passionate warriors, loners, but they are incredibly skilled warriors. Buff certain unit types and help with training when embedded in a friendly army. Can reduce enemy army morale, set traps, harass and can assassinate generals.
Agents can’t interact with fleets at the moment (other than perhaps for transportation?), however if a fleet is docked in a port, an Agent can try and damage it by committing arson.
The way agents approach missions is the only significant change to the agent system – each hostile action as three possible ‘approaches’, which are linked to each of the three attributes an agent has. Each ‘approach’ has slightly different effects and outcomes – for example, if you send a Spy to interfere with an enemy army, they could try intercepting that army’s orders, which would slow them down and may reveal information on any unknown possessions. Alternatively, they could try wrecking their supply train, which may slow or stop them while temporarily removing the benefits of any special equipment being used by their troops.
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| The UI seems very minimalistic as well, leaving more room for the players to take everything in |
When it comes to calculating the chance for success, the relative attribute values for the agent and their target is taken into account – depending on the targets competency, and players may find that their preferred approach is going to be hard to pull off or too expensive, so it comes down to a choice between trying anyway, or opting for a less ideal approach.
And there you have it for Part One. In Part Two, we cover Army Management & Progression, Battles, Province management and construction and the last bits of miscellaneous information we could dig up.
