Grand Strategy So, Europa Universalis: Rome

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I was wanting to play some Paradox goodness, but I am currently stuck with a crappy laptop that will probably die on me if I try to play EU3 Divine Wind, Vicky 2 or CKII. HOI2, EU2 and CK/Vicky 1 seem too primitive for me now (not Vicky 1 so much, whereas CKI seems throughly mostly obsolete to me), so I've decided to play this Europa Universalis: Rome, which, from what I've heard, is a mix of CK with EU in the times of the rise of Rome. Also the Sys-Req doesn't seem to be a problem. Seems interesting.

I haven't had the time to play yet, but I wanted to ask the Codex's opinion on it. I even got the last non-beta patch, no idea how to download the beta.

Any Megamods of note? Which is the best and why?

Any suggestion for starting nation?

 

[Whisky]

I think most of us pretend it doesn't exist. Most people were not very favorable of it when it came out. I tried playing it for about five minutes before I got bored.

Do you have the expansion? I remember some people saying the expansion improves it a little.

You can usually install the Paradox beta patches by registering your game and going into their technical support forum for the game.

 

[Trash]

I loved the game. It felt like a mix between the dynasty management of CK1 and the civ building of EU2. At release it was a buggy and unfinished mess but the patches and later expansion really fleshed it out. Playing as Rome is a blast. Generals ready to march on you the moment they gain enough power, wealthy politicians jockeying for power, young upstarts climbing the social ladder, treacherous governors proclaiming their regions independent when you least expect it and barbarian hordes ready to invade at the most inoppertune moment.

The game really needed at least one more expansion to fully flesh it out and turn it from a flawed gem into a gem but sadly Pdox never did give it the chance. Fortunately Wiz however did incline it massively. Yup, the same modder who made CK2plus and later got hired by Pdox first started by making a total overhaul for EU: Rome called Reign of the Ancients. Massively improving the game. Give it a try.

Beta patch 2.36b: http://www.mediafire.com/?ocyrjwgz6scg2yi
ROTA: http://www.mediafire.com/?uwo69ue70dd7be6

I'm still holding out for a sequel to this one.

 

[curry]

Rome was the worst Paradox game until Sengoku

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

What Trash said. Rome had really great potential, and the timeframe was a very fun one.

 

[Bulba]

never played it patched or with expansion (didn't have an internet conection to download them at the time), but from what I've played I think it's okish. it would be unfair to compare it to eu3 (total crap otherwise), but it's different and comparing to other (non paradox) strategies around it's a good game.

 

[Malakal]

Rome wasnt all that bad and until this day has some great features that didnt get transferred into other games, which is kinda unique for Paradox. You have population count in provinces with social ladder which is great, you have extremely good civil war mechanics coupled with troops being loyal to their generals, aforementioned governor problems, factions in the senate bickering for power. From the political point of view its the best Paradox game ever.

Unfortunately whats holding back the game is really shitty colonization system (with lots of provinces to colonize), few enjoyable factions and few factions overall (most of the map is just empty) and rather bare war/diplomacy/economy and trade systems.

In my opinion its quite nice to try just so you can experience the only Paradox game where the challenge comes from within. If they added politics from Rome to other games forging and maintaining an empire wouldnt be so easy anymore...

 

[Tigranes]

Rome is nothing great, but it's not *bad*. It just is a kind of watered down mediocre cousin in the family. If you love your Paradox games it's worth a short romp.

I don't remember it well enough to say purist or ROTA, but the latter doesn't make too controversial changes.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Purist will make you abandon the game after 2 hours. ROTA is the only way to go.

God Emprah Wiz always provides.

 

[Trash]

I loved the game. It felt like a mix between the dynasty management of CK1 and the civ building of EU2. At release it was a buggy and unfinished mess but the patches and later expansion really fleshed it out. Playing as Rome is a blast. Generals ready to march on you the moment they gain enough power, wealthy politicians jockeying for power, young upstarts climbing the social ladder, treacherous governors proclaiming their regions independent when you least expect it and barbarian hordes ready to invade at the most inoppertune moment.

The game really needed at least one more expansion to fully flesh it out and turn it from a flawed gem into a gem but sadly Pdox never did give it the chance. Fortunately Wiz however did incline it massively. Yup, the same modder who made CK2plus and later got hired by Pdox first started by making a total overhaul for EU: Rome called Reign of the Ancients. Massively improving the game. Give it a try.

Beta patch 2.36b: http://www.mediafire.com/?ocyrjwgz6scg2yi
ROTA: http://www.mediafire.com/?uwo69ue70dd7be6

I'm still holding out for a sequel to this one.

Thanks for the links, bro!
I will probably be able to play by Friday, and then I will post my thoughts about it.
Should I go straight ROTA or have a Purist First Game?

Go straight to ROTA. It inclines the game massively and fixes most of the problems mentioned in this thread. More victory conditions, more provinces, more factions, better national ideas, improved economy, civilisation comes with negatives like your people not jumping at every chance to die in battle, much improved balance in diplomatic matters, better traits, events and a much improved political part. It really is almost like the second expansion we never had. Oh, and expect those civil wars and uprisings to really bite you in the ass. Do play as Rome and remember, the biggest turmoil you can expect will be from your most succesfull generals and governers.

In my opinion its quite nice to try just so you can experience the only Paradox game where the challenge comes from within. If they added politics from Rome to other games forging and maintaining an empire wouldnt be so easy anymore...

Best description of what makes the game so special. Kudos.

 

[Spectacle]

Rome has the nicest music of any of the EU games. I hope they make another one, building on the experience from CK2.

 

[Borelli]

EU:Rome is a shitty game unworthy of having EU in it's name with few good ideas in it.

The bad:
-The game stinks of romeocentrism because it has Rome in name (yes i am that petty), same problem i have with TW:Rome, was it that hard to name the game EU ancient or EU: BC or something like that? But it's not only name, if you play as a non-Rome republic (like Carthage) you have to suffer through roman names for government officials and positions.
-There is a totalwar-ish mass of neutral unplayable nations which is a heresy for a Paradox strategy game, the right to play as any state, no matter how small or insignificant it is is a sacred right. Since all those neutrals can only be colonized, not conquered this arbitraly reduces the expansion of many many barbarian states, their gameplay being similar to playing uncivilized in Victoria 2 because you must wait >50 years to get civilized enough in order to have fun. Although there is slight fun to be had here because killing natives here provides slaves so you can grab your army loot&grab slaves and then retreat which is cool.
-It crashes a lot, i had to abandon several games because the longer i played the more unplayable it would get.
-Monarchies are less fun than republics because no senate and thus character management is less important

The good:
-The civil war system and character management in general is fantastic. Every single unit has it's own loyalty tracker and if a general gets enough loyal units and is ambitious you get a 100% non-scripted civil war with province defecting to him. Awesome.
-The senate, your actions are limited by what political parties are currently in power, all republican and parliamentary systems in all other Paradox's games must have this imported

I have not tried the supermod Trash is talking about yet, once i do my opinion of this game might change.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Won't change by much, but Wiz makes it playable at least. Uncolonized provinces are replaced with other barbarian tribes/nations that you can play as, civilization and colonies are tweaked to work better, civil wars are less frequent but more destructive, with governors actually plotting a few years with each other before making their move. You will also notice that assaults are disabled (there were a couple of bugs with them that were deemed unfixable after much effort) which makes sieges harder and longer affairs.

It will last you 4x the time EU:Rome gave you. Try playing the Seleucids too, I fucking dare you. Political intrigue and civil wars 24/7 every day forever.

 

[curry]

You know it's garbage when you need a massive mod to "make it playable".

I've tried to play Rome many times but I've never just liked it.

 

[titus]

Fuck, getting problems. Didn't start because of d3dx9_41.dll, got the dll from the internerds and it just starts, then the screens keeps black and the game locks, gives me a "This game is not answering, brah" message and leaves.

Don't get the dll from the internerds. Get the latest DirectX package and install it. It should solve all your problems.

 

[Average Manatee]

You know it's garbage when you need a massive mod to "make it playable".

I've tried to play Rome many times but I've never just liked it.

No Paradox games are playable on release.

 

[Tigranes]

CK2 was, which is probably one reason it became an unexpected hit (by their standards).

 

[titus]

EDIT: I just found the problem, and no I didn't fix it. The problem is simple: Clausewitz Engine games aparently don't support native resolutions lower than 1024x768. (fuck you, Paradox!) Being a netbook, this one has 1024x600 resolution. Is there some way to force Rome to play in a lower resolution? Editing settings.txt ins't working.

Have you tried window mode?

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

EDIT: I just found the problem, and no I didn't fix it. The problem is simple: Clausewitz Engine games aparently don't support native resolutions lower than 1024x768. (fuck you, Paradox!) Being a netbook, this one has 1024x600 resolution. Is there some way to force Rome to play in a lower resolution? Editing settings.txt ins't working.

Have you tried window mode?

Yes, no sucess. I wet searching and there was a post in Paradoxplaza where Johann or someone else essentially said that Clausewitz engine games woud't support 1024x600, aparently because they saw no reason to adapt it to shitty netbooks (which were shitter than mine at the time).


Now I think its better to search for some program that forces the game to run on a lower resolution. I think there was a program that did this for Eador Genesis, wonder if something can help me here as well.

 

[titus]

Yes, no sucess. I wet searching and there was a post in Paradoxplaza where Johann or someone else essentially said that Clausewitz engine games woud't support 1024x600, aparently because they saw no reason to adapt it to shitty netbooks (which were shitter than mine at the time).


Now I think its better to search for some program that forces the game to run on a lower resolution. I think there was a program that did this for Eador Genesis, wonder if something can help me here as well.

There's one "display changer" from http://12noon.com/
I`m not guaranteeing anything though.

*edit*
I think that's changing the monitor's settings, not patching the exe or something like that... so it probably won't work.

 

[Sranchammer]

Beta patch 2.36b: http://www.mediafire.com/?ocyrjwgz6scg2yi
ROTA: http://www.mediafire.com/?uwo69ue70dd7be6

I'm still holding out for a sequel to this one.

You may be a liberal, but I love you.

 

[oscar]

No Paradox games are playable on release.

And become unplayable again for about a month after each expansion.

 

[Agesilaus]

It sucked; like a weak version of CK and a weak version of EU mixed into one. Pathetic.