Total War: Rome II is a strategy game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega, released on 3 September 2013 for Microsoft Windows. The eighth standalone game in the Total War series of video games, Rome II is a successor to the 2004 game Rome: Total War.
Gameplay
Total War: Rome II is set in classical antiquity, and focuses on portraying each culture of the era as accurately and in-depth as possible, as opposed to its predecessor which focused almost solely on the Roman Republic and its politics. The grand campaign begins in 272BC, and lasts for 300 years. However, the player also has the option to play further, as there are no timed victory conditions in Rome II.
The Warscape Engine will power the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
Armies and navies will also have changeable stances on the campaign map. These stances determine many things, among them total movement points per turn or the ability to deploy traps for an ambush. These stances will initially be called "Forced March" that will enable an army to march further, but will also tire out its men and reduce their fighting ability; "Defensive Stance" will enable the player to place stakes and perhaps build temporary forts and finally "Ambush Stance" will enable the placing of bales of hay that will be set alight and rolled into the enemy's formations when ambushing, for example. Armies in Rome II can be made up of a maximum of 40 units, including naval and land units and must have a general to lead them. There is also a cap on the number of armies a faction can have at any time based on the faction's power. A faction can gain more power by conquering more regions and filling its coffers with gold. This system has been implemented to make battles more decisive and for them to have a bigger impact on a war between two factions. Players will have the ability to name units in an army and change their emblems.
