Musopticon?

So was the comic. I mean, if you do like French comics. I mean, other than Moebius, who is getting more and more "western".

Well, there's the possibility of faction change. I think there's a mod that allows you to change faction during play. Then you can just send the save to the next fellow and he plays his turn, etc. Or do it like some crazy AAR-guys do and play till faction leader dies and then give the save to the next fellow.

Try Ground Control 2. The good stuff of GC, but it's possible to save and get new units on the battlefield.

What constitutes an important city? Well, most major areas have more than one walled city and all but one faction start with a walled city so no one is seriously nerfed. Important cities tend to be bottlenecks, major trade hubs and historically important cities, like Pergamon, Sinope, Rome, Alesia, Osca etc. But greece is not a siege fest, neither is Italy, the devs weren't Romecentric or Greekcentric, so the amount of walled cities are well spread out over the map. It does change the focus a bit when you can conquer and lose several in a turn, but that only happens in truly major offensives, since it's better to set a decent garrison to a newly conquered province and began building auxilia than devastate the same province by expanding too quickly and leaving it relatively open for several counterattacks. Another thing you tend to do is trying to conquer important cities the first. Which is actually historical. It's great, I tried Pontus(which is next to Seleucids and my fav faction in any game) and wasn't instantly run over by Gray Hordes even though I thought I'd be. The thing is that the same problems you have, the enemies tend to have too, so big powers are continuosly harassed(Seleucia and Ptolemaics, Greece and Rome and Macedon, etc) and leave a relatively open playground for the smaller factions. Except Armenia. It's freaking wacko. Try it out, you can run Metronaval on the side of Platinum, it's a separate "install".

That's why I use cheap sword mercs to storm the walls. Or hypaspistai/gaesatae/bastarnae after a decoy.

Wait, isn't that a prequisite for all characters?

Hevein - As far as the eye can see

\,,/

And then you host an rpg in OpenRPG, right? Thought so.

I recently uninstalled everything relating to RTW=nine gigs of modded files. And Ahriman's Prophecy.

Co-op. And you know what I think of co-op.

Linkie? You might like to post your top ten mods, Mus?, too ... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Will do. Check this site for most modding projects: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=141 1. This added to this = bliss. 2. Europa Barbarorum The oldest(dev work started before Rome was released) total conversion that focuses on bringing more depth on the barb factions while still retaining their theme: Quisque barbarus est aliquo. Very elaborate and very historical. The mod has a ton of custom content and a very different model for conquering, modeling such things as supplies, seasons and ethinicities. It's currently in unstable beta but the new version for 1.5(from 0.74 to 0. is going to come out next week. It's going to be a second christmas for me. 3. Rome: Total Realism Gold This little fellow has the questionable fame of being "the most popular mod available for 1.2". Whatever that means. It aims on bringing the most historical gameplay possible(adds Bactria, Ptolemaic Egypt, huge map, etc) while still being user-friendly enough for non-history freaks. Ton of mods are available for the thing and it's pretty much a whole new modding platform for a ginourmous community. Forums are down for host change right now though. The newest available version will be 7.0 and it adds a ton of stuff and updates the game to 1.5. The change log is gigantic, so I won't go into that here. Check this forum out for more info including the yummy map. 4. Ran No Jidai (another) It's a total conversion that aims to bring Sengoku Jidai into RTW engine. Some of the best skinning and modeling work I've ever seen(and I've frequented a million communities) and I like the simplicity of their combat model. Of course it's not available yet but who cares! I have all the trust in the team. 5. Blue Lotus It's an awesome fantasy mod set in mythical Orient. An army of demons under the banner of Yomi Legion is advancing on the kingdoms of Asia and the Kharazai Mongol khanate is already trembling under the onslaught of undead and monsters. If you want something entirely different, this is the thing. A very finished beta is available, but there's a nasty CTD related to demon settlements. 6. Hegemonia - City States Wanna kick Persia off the coast of Hellas? Wanna remake history and push Sparta to the sea in their very height of power. Remember Thermopylai? Remember Marathon? Well, this thing is gonna cause sleepless nights galore once it gets in external beta. Freaking wack. They're going to implement an argive system and really really focus on Greece. And yes, only Macedonians fight in phalanx. This is custom stuff all the way. 7. Terra Expugnandae "Conquerable lands", right? This mod is severely lighter than all the giants I listed and anyone can pick up the thing without really learning any complicated government systems or economy models(like in EB or RTR) first. Adds a big map and several historical factions(Epirus for example) and makes normal RTW generally more enjoyable, this is pretty much the thing RTW should have been out of the box. A fine mod in open beta. 8. Goth's All Factions Mod 2.2.1 This is the thing that makes BI better. I like it, there's a ton of little fixes and historical features and it's still Barbarian Invasion. 9-28. Just check the link under "Will do". Stuff like Rise of Persia, Flagellum Dei(translate somebody "___of God") and Imperium Julianorum I'm slightly hyped about, but they are in pretty early stages.

Yeah. Just not phalanxes.

It used to be 8 minutes, right? I mean before infinite editing time. Hevein - Walk(Pantera cover, I think)

You are a sad, sad man.

Yeah, nine gigs of awesomeness. One has to move on eventually, so I thought it was time after 1,5 years of almost nothing but Successor warfare. Plus I want to try BI before I lose my dvd-drive.

Barbarian Invasion is cool. My only peeves about it are that all the units are too freaking brightly colored, especially Berbers and Persians and that there are even less regions than in normal RTW. Fortunately I found a nifty mod that fixes those things.

Hee, Bactria is giving the Seleucids hell in that pic(of course that map information could be old as heck, but I go with what I'm given), don't worry about any grey hordes of stacks on your your neighbourhood. Seems like you don't need any help. Ah, I just installed Gold Edition. Here goes Barbarian Invasion for the first time.

And tentacles, don't forget the tentacles!

I just uninstalled everything relating to RTW. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I'm crying from too much laughter.

Great setting for an rpg, that one. I wanna play as a Minstrum!

:D Zombie elephants are the new black!

Oops, I meant to write RTW, not RTR. If you want my view of the situation(post a campaign map pic, plz), well here goes: It's not really worth conquering Britain, it's a huge army grinder and since it's on border of the map, the garrison costs and such can be horrid thanks to distance to capital amounting to public order. If you are playing normal RTR, there's going to be hell to pay every time you meet the bugged chariots there(54 damage, armor piercing, troop piercing and splash damage ON BOWS). The Islands were more than likely intended as a bonus, a challenge. Maybe get there later. Gauls are a pushover, since their morale is so low and they hardly ever tech up to Chosen Swords and naked fanatics/gaesatae. You just face endl ess warbands and slingers. It could be a good idea to beat them to a pulp and make them a protectorate(kill all standing armies, siege their existing towns and then offer some towns back for protectorate relations=works almost always). Mainland Gallic towns are pretty worthless, thanks to the tradecentricity of RTW economy. Farming hardly gives any income, which is seriously unhistorical(there's a mod called Metropolis that changes this). And most of the gallic towns don't have gold mines. This is why it's best to stick to coastal provinces there. Unless you are creating a historical Roman empire. Or just like conquering a whole lot. Next RTR release is going to feature the Arverni, so Gaul will be much more interesting. About the Macs, those buggers are still unbalanced, but they will be nerfed a bit in the next release(have to win their motherland from Galates, etc historical hindrances). Luckily there is a great way to kill them off or at least severely hinder them. Load up an army or two in ships and sail to Peloponnesus or whatever place in Macedonian territory that doesn't have much troops at all. Then conquer or raze all towns(exterminate+destroy all buildings for serious cash=) there before the Black Hordes can avenge. Macedonian economy will be done pretty soon. You can just sail to a new place every time the situation starts to look grim. Viking we shall go! :D

Once the dev studios under Microsoft's wing(a rather greedy and opressive wing :D) start to use 360's power to it's full potential(God of War and RE 4 on PS2 anyone?), then and only then will I be even remotely hyped by any pretty screens. The thing is, that right now every game that's covered in optic caramel, is suffering AI-wise and most enviroments are still just pretty pipes. This isn't exactly what was promised during the mass-hype period. But I'm hopeful that after a few years, if MS has enough patience to not spew out the next consolge gen, we'll see some amazing games on 360.