Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion

Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion
Studio	Creative assembly
Publisher	Sega Feral Interactive (Mac version)
Erstveröffent- lichung	Windows September 27, 2005 Mac OS X February 5, 2010 iPad March 28, 2017 iPhone May 9, 2019
platform	Windows , Mac OS X
genre	Combination of real-time strategy game and turn-based strategy game
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer (real-time mode only)
control	Mouse , keyboard
system advantages preconditions	OS : Windows 98 / 2000 / ME / XP CPU : 1 GHz RAM : 256 MB Graphics card : 64 MB Storage requirement (HDD) : 2.9 GB
medium	3 CD-ROMs , download
language	German
Current version	1.5 / 1.6
Age rating	USK PEGI

Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion is the first expansion for the game Rome: Total War , which was released in 2004. The add-on as the basic game of Creative Assembly developed and Sega released. On March 28, 2017, ROME: Total War - Barbarian Invasion by Feral Interactive was released as a standalone app for iPad in the App Store, on May 9, 2019, Feral Interactive released the iPhone version.

The add-on addresses late antiquity : In 395 AD, the Roman Empire disintegrated into two parts, the Western Roman and the Eastern Roman Empire , and is threatened by barbarian tribes on the European side .

Gameplay

→ Main article : "Principle of the game" in the article Rome: Total War

General

Barbarian Invasion largely takes over the gameplay of the base game. As before, the player takes control of a great power of the time such as B. the Western Roman or the Eastern Roman Empire , the Frankish Empire or the Sassanid Empire and tried to expand their influence. Diplomacy is available to him for this, but primarily warfare. The turn-based part of the game takes place on a campaign map, on which the player controls the economic, political and military development of his nation through building buildings in cities, army movements, attacks, defenses or the use of agents. The real-time part is represented by the battles that arise when armies of rival nations meet. The player then takes control of an army and fights the opposing troops on the battlefield.

Innovations

As in the predecessor Medieval , religions, Christianity , paganism and Zoroastrianism are again present in the add-on . Every state in the gaming world is permanently shaped by one of these religions. For each city there is an overview of the strengths of the representatives of different religions. If the religious affiliation of the majority of the population differs from the state religion, this has a negative effect on the satisfaction of the population and the risk of uprisings increases.

Furthermore, new factions can arise in the course of the game through rebellions. These include usurpers in the Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths. Characters on the affected side can defeat the rebels if they have low loyalty. This is indicated with a number and influences how loyal a figure is to its ruler. If this is rather low, the characters are more likely to overflow in a rebellion.

Factions

In Barbarian Invasion , the factions are essentially divided into two groups, the Roman factions and the barbarian factions.

The barbarians, for their part, are divided into two camps. On the one hand there are the local barbarians, for example the Franks , Saxons or Goths , who gained power in the course of the collapse of the Roman Empire and are now threatened by the storm from the east. They are at odds with one another and wage wars against their neighbors and against each other.

On the other side are the approaching homeless cavalry hordes like the Huns or Vandals who are attacking Eastern Europe and North Africa and trying to make a home for themselves. These peoples start as a cavalry hordes . With their strong cavalry , they hardly have any problems in field battles, but they find it difficult to conquer cities, as infantry and siege equipment are often scarce. If the Horde conquers a city, the conqueror has the choice between looting or resettlement. If the city is not sacked, 1/3 of the Horde units become part of the population and the city becomes the capital of the newly established empire. Certain factions can become a horde army if they lose their last city. The faction is then no longer considered defeated, as in the basic game, but still has the opportunity to continue fighting for a longer period of time.

Overview of the political groups
fraction	Culture	religion	Playability	Remarks
Western Romans	Roman	Christianity	playable	some cities are already Christian
East stream	Roman	Christianity	playable	some cities are still pagan
Goths	barbaric	Christianity	playable	can become a horde
Francs	barbaric	paganism	playable	can become a horde
Alemanni	barbaric	paganism	playable	can become a horde
Saxony	barbaric	paganism	playable	can become a horde
Sarmatians	nomadic	paganism	playable	can become a horde
Longobards	barbaric	paganism	not playable	can become a horde
Burgundy	barbaric	paganism	not playable	can become a horde
Celts	barbaric	paganism	not playable
Roxolans	nomadic	paganism	not playable	can become a horde
Huns	nomadic	paganism	playable
Vandals	nomadic	paganism	playable
Sassanids	Persian	Zoroastrianism	playable	only Zoroastrian side
Berber	African	Christianity	not playable
Western Roman rebels	Rebel side	paganism	will appear later	appear when a city of the Western Romans rebels
Eastern Roman rebels	Rebel side	Christianity	will appear later	appear when a town of the Eastern Romans rebels
Ostrogoths	Rebel side	Christianity	will appear later	appear when a city of the Goths rebels
Romano-British	Romans / barbarians	Christianity	will appear later	appear when the Romans were driven from Britain
Slavs	nomadic	paganism	will appear later	appear at a specific time

reception

reviews publication Rating Eurogamer 8/10 GameSpot 8.2 / 10 GameSpy 4.5 IGN 8.8 / 10 Meta-ratings GameRankings 82.65% Metacritic 82/100

Steve Butts from the UK online magazine IGN Entertainment gave the game good ratings in all areas. He assessed the new epoch, the new factions and the new units as interesting and realistic. However, he complains that despite new elements such as night battles or the religious system, the variety is not as great as with the previous one. The opportunity to improve the game graphics was also wasted. Nevertheless, he finally concluded that Barbarian Invasion had become a successful and recommendable expansion for the main game.

Jason Ocampo from GameSpot praised the exceptionally large size for an add-on. The artificial intelligence that controls the computer opponent has also become much stronger and more challenging. He criticized the too frequent micromanagement, which would distract the player too much from the essential tasks. He also criticizes the fact that the concept of sea battles, in which the PC always automatically calculates the outcome of the battle when fighting on water, has remained unchanged and is therefore heavily dependent on luck.

Web links

• Official website for the Total War series (multilingual)
• Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion at MobyGames (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Marcus Schwarten: "ROME: Total War - Barbarian Invasion" appears in March for iPad. iPlayApps.de , January 13, 2017, accessed on January 13, 2017 . 
2. ↑ "Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion" now also on the iPhone. In: appgefahren.de. May 9, 2019, accessed on June 17, 2019 (German). 
3. ↑ Historically this is of course not correct, after the death of Emperor Julian in 363 and the brief reign of Jovian there was a separation of the domains between the emperors Valentinian I and Valens . Only after the death of Emperor Theodosius I was there a (in retrospect) final division, see division of the empire in 395 .
4. ^ ^{A b c d e} Jason Ocampo: Test "Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion". In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , October 10, 2005, accessed April 17, 2014 . 
5. ^ ^{A b c d} Steve Butts: Test "Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion". ign.com, September 29, 2005, accessed April 17, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Kieron Gillen: Test "Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion". In: Eurogamer . Gamer Network , September 30, 2005, accessed April 17, 2014 . 
7. ^ Dave Kosak: Test "Rome: Total War". GameSpy, October 6, 2005, accessed April 17, 2014 . 
8. ^ Meta-evaluation "Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion". In: GameRankings . CBS Corporation , accessed April 17, 2014 . 
9. ^ Meta-evaluation "Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion". In: Metacritic . CBS Corporation , accessed April 17, 2014 .