Editing Total War (section)

===Total War: Rome===

''Rome: Total War tells us there were once Italians with a competent military. What greater fiction could there be?''-Youtube

Rome: Total War takes place in the era of Classical Antiquity, just before the beginning of the First Punic War. The campaign setting is that of the Ancient Euro-Mediterranean world, with its borders stretching from the coast of Portugal to the West, just past the Caspian Sea to the Northeast, and the edge of the Sahara to the South.

Players have the choice to take control of a variety of factions, from the Elephant-riding Carthaginians, to the fierce and savage Barbarians of Iron Age Europe (Celts, Germans, steppe nomads, etc.), the pike phalanxes of the Hellenic States and Egypt, the superb cavalry of the Parthians, and finally the wrecking ball legions of Rome herself.

Interestingly enough in the campaign, Rome is actually divided into four factions; the House of Julii, who focus on the northern barbarians and securing Western Europe for Rome, the House of Brutii, whom primarily are concerned with expanding Rome Eastward and thus are in conflict with Macedon, the Greek city-states, and the Eastern kingdoms, the House of Scipii, whom vie with Carthage and Egypt for control of the Mediterranean and are focused on securing Africa for Rome, and finally the Senate itself, whom directly control Rome and thus boss around the Three Houses into doing their bidding (and unfortunately no, you can't play the Senate faction and boss people around). The advantage to this is that you only have to worry about attacks from a single direction, as the other Romans quite literally have your backs. The disadvantage is that if one House becomes too popular and decides to march to Rome to declare himself Imperator, then a huge civil war breaks out among the families, with a huge player determined battle taking place near Rome, usually. The worst part was that the Senate initially gives you free missions to expand into the world with handsome rewards, and as time goes on, the missions start having no rewards...but instead, punishments for neglecting. When all three factions cover the whole world, Senate gives you obscene missions, the final one that you have to kill yourself. Yes. That's the moment you realize that Senate must have been storing their wine on lead pots and if you have a brain, start the civil war or sacrifice an incompetent ruler to earn a few turns of preparation time. (And considering that ALL three factions at this point had conquered the FUCKING WORLD, basically you start an onslaught worthy of [[Khorne|Khornate]] worship.)

The game was also very historically inaccurate with Gaul, Germania, Britannia, Scythia, and the Greek Cities all being one unified faction (from a gameplay perspective, this is a game balance to ensure that each faction has at least more than one province to start out with so that they don't immediately get steamrolled). The Egyptian units are all based on New Kingdom Egypt when by the year 272 B.C, the Greco-Macedonian Ptolemy's were ruling Egypt, Rome's lands being divided into three separate factions (though Rome being a Republic with decentralised rule makes sense), Greek Hoplites wielding fucking pikes like Macedonian phalangites (to be fair, many Greeks at this time did adopt Macedonian tactics, but the models and formations are still closer to pre-Alexander hoplites), and the Parthians looking like they were ripped off of Miller's racist depiction of Achaemenid Persia even though Parthians were more central Asiatic than Iranian around that time. But perhaps the biggest (and coolest) inaccuracy is a special little easter egg, where if you manage to get an army all the way north past a massive forest, you'll discover the home of the [[Amazon]]s, Themyscira. Yes, the fucking Amazons are in this game and not on your side. The Egyptian inaccuracy is by far the worst in the entire franchise, and it was due to being intentionally made pre-Persian domination Ancient Egypt due to being used in a clip for some production before the game came out.

Also of note are the two expansion packs; Alexander (takes place during Alexander the Great's conquest of the Middle East and Central Asia and sadly only lets you play as Alexander.), and Barbarian Invasion (takes place during the Germanic Migrations). The latter was an incredible update around the time of Hunnic invasions and all factions save for Rome were polished to perfection, including the new Horde system: Basically "nomadic factions" have their population start as "horde units" who are soldiers in loose formation, one guy per 3 population units. The "nomads" are fleeing before the similarly "horde" Huns and end up dog piling the Romans who had fuck-all armies (even when you were rich, Roman armies are at least 3 times as expensive to maintain and recruit with half the stats!) to fight them off. Notable for the Sassanids, Parthians' grandchildren being monstrously overpowered in the strategic screen: fertile and stable middle east, Germanic Migrations ruining your enemies, Clibinarii cavalry who are basically Iranian [[Mongols]] who wore armor fit for a [[Dreadnought]], wielded maces AND composite bows, and a safe Map edge to expand.

This game is either: The best Total War game ever and no other Total War game will ever supersede it because it was the first I played and all the current games suck because its not a remake of it.
 
OR 

It is a great game. In 2004. But now it's just a mess that hasn't aged well and literally every aspect of it sucks compared to all games released after it and the only people who like it are a bunch of nostalgic neckbeards who still wish it were the early 2000s.

OR

With mods such as Europa Barbarorum and Roma Surrectum, it is still a fantastic game both in terms of graphics and gameplay.

N.B.. The game is so simple from a graphical point of view that is had been ported to the I Pad, making it light years ahead of most of the competitors on the platform.