RTW has an epic feel.

As of today, this game is nearly eleven years old. So, the battle graphics are not as crisp as newer titles, the historicity of some units is sketchy (or just made up), and it seems that multiplayer is not smooth in Steam. Fortunately, none of these mean a thing to me. The heart of the game is in the grand strategy and the personal narrative.

With over a hundred regions in which to play, the strategic game is where RTW shines. You need to plan where you will expand and where you will defend... and then be ready to adapt when the AI does not do what you expect. You may be the pawn of the Senate and serve at their beck and call. You might try to expand against the weak. You can follow the trade routes to gain riches through conquest. You will find yourself occupying regions merely to stymie your enemies (and your allies). Or you might work your way towards all seven Wonders to reap their benefits.

The twenty factions all fall into one of the major religio/cultural groupings. Some conquered peoples will not like your religion, but a few might. Some conquered peoples will happily accept you as overlord because you share the same cultural values... and the Spanish clans just don't like anyone. Some factions have great infantry, some have cavalry, and some do many things well. Yet, you can usually find mercenaries (disgruntled locals, rival tribes, or thugs) who might fill the holes in your army.

Yes, most negative reviews harp on about the lag in multiplayer and the poor graphics in battles. If you need gratuitous violence or managing pixels in a free for all, then watch Mad Max: Fury Road or play League of Legends. If you want to make decisions that will impact your dominion fifty turns down the road, then this game can give it to you. What kind of temples will you build in each region... or should you let the people keep their native religion? Will a town become a recruiting station or a cash cow? When you conquer a region, you'll have to decide to either just incorporate it into your lands as is, relocating half the people by enslaving them, or just slaughtering most of the inhabitants and stealing their goods.... and you'll find yourself using each throughout the campaign, because one size does not fit all.

And guess what? I don't fight the battles. If I did, I'd never finish a campaign. I hit the auto calculation button every time. Why? Well... there are a number of positions which you will fulfill in a game. Benevolent multi-generational spirit guiding your family, governor of a province, Commander in Chief, general of an army, and captain of a unit. Playing all of these breaks the narrative for me... I play the macro game, i.e. the big picture. I plot and scheme, I build cities, and recruit armies. Then I send them out into the field. How they do is up to them. If they win... great! I must be a genius. If they lose... nuts. Back to the drawing board.

Two friends of mine, let's call them Doc and Bro, played RTW like this... Doc played the campaign map, i.e. he decided what units were built and where the battles were fought, but Bro fought all the battles. Doc was the CinC and Bro was the General. They played two campaigns in three years, but they remember both as epic stories of their teamwork.

In addition to the war... campaign strategy, building armies, transportation of armies, theatres of conflict, fog of war, etc... you'll have to deal with natural disasters, (In one game, a young woman of my family married a promising young fellow, but he died a year later in an earthquake.), piracy, rebellions, brigands, bribery attempts upon your armies, old age, death in battle, adoptions, plagues (stupid unwashed barbarians), and assassination. (In one game, the youngest son of my German leader was sent to subdue Gaul and Hispania. This gave him a command of 10. I marched him and his elite German veterans across the Alps to conquer Rome... but the Romans assassinated him. With my hordes leaderless, the Romans proceeded to sieze Gaul and invade Germania.) All of these additional factors help create a unique narrative for each game.

Oh, and when you play as a Roman faction, you'll need to keep an eye upon the Senate... how they view you, how the plebs (the masses) view you, Senatorial missions, and the official Senatorial stance with every other faction. For instance, you may have a great trade agreement with the Egyptians and a low standing with the Senate, but the Sentate demands that you attack Egypt... attacking Egypt will hurt your income considerably, but offending the Senate may cause them to label you as a rebel... what will you do?

Certain events always happen... Aetna erupts and the plague breaks out in Macedonia, but certain other events happen only when certain triggers occur (the Marian reforms), while others, such as floods, are random. But the big event for Roman players is the Civil War. At some point the plebs will want you to deal with the Senate and/or at some point the Senate will either have enough of you or become paranoid of your growing power that they'll demand the head of your family to commit suicide. If you agree, they'll do it every turn until your family ceases to exist. If you're not ready for war, then you can comply with the Senate for a few years (and prune your family tree of bad apples in the process), but at some point you'll have to stand up to the Senate... at which point you go to war with all other Romans. Talk about raising your anxiety.... sheesh!

All of your characters really flesh out the narrative... the story of your family. Spies, diplomats, assassins, admirals, generals, and governors all have character traits that make them who they are. Some will be drunkards, perverts, and ne'er do wells, while some will be loyal, moral, and cunning. They'll also tend to generate a following of hangers on, freeloaders, men of honor, mistresses, etc... For instance, a son might come of age in your family with a command of 3... a natural born general... but on his way to the frontier to defeat the Dacians, his inner circle grows to include a Drunken Uncle and an Actor and they decrease his command ability by 3... Ouch! He's now a zero...

In the first two Total War games, Shogun and Medieval, you had family members, but not nearly as many as Rome. So to help you manage them (and for the sheer fun of telling a story), RTW includes a family tree.

The game's not perfect. The legendary/semi-mythological units can be frustrating and the Egyptians were certainly not using chariots in the second century BC. Naval combat results can make you scratch your head. Negative income numbers on the campaign map are definitely misleading. There is always the point at which you know you've won even though you may only be forty to seventy percent of the way to the finish... but that's true of a lot of games.

There may be other games out there that have made improvements to the grand strategy game, but I've always found this one to be fun to return to.

RTW has an epic feel. As of today, this game is nearly eleven years old. So, the battle graphics are not as crisp as newer titles, the historicity of some units is sketchy (or just made up), and it seems that multiplayer is not smooth in Steam. Fortunately, none of these mean a thing to me. The heart of the game is in the grand strategy and the personal narrative. With over a hundred regions in which to play, the strategic game is where RTW shines. You need to plan where you will expand and where you will defend... and then be ready to adapt when the AI does not do what you expect. You may be the pawn of the Senate and serve at their beck and call. You might try to expand against the weak. You can follow the trade routes to gain riches through conquest. You will find yourself occupying regions merely to stymie your enemies (and your allies). Or you might work your way towards all seven Wonders to reap their benefits. The twenty factions all fall into one of the major religio/cultural groupings. Some conquered peoples will not like your religion, but a few might. Some conquered peoples will happily accept you as overlord because you share the same cultural values... and the Spanish clans just don't like anyone. Some factions have great infantry, some have cavalry, and some do many things well. Yet, you can usually find mercenaries (disgruntled locals, rival tribes, or thugs) who might fill the holes in your army. Yes, most negative reviews harp on about the lag in multiplayer and the poor graphics in battles. If you need gratuitous violence or managing pixels in a free for all, then watch Mad Max: Fury Road or play League of Legends. If you want to make decisions that will impact your dominion fifty turns down the road, then this game can give it to you. What kind of temples will you build in each region... or should you let the people keep their native religion? Will a town become a recruiting station or a cash cow? When you conquer a region, you'll have to decide to either just incorporate it into your lands as is, relocating half the people by enslaving them, or just slaughtering most of the inhabitants and stealing their goods.... and you'll find yourself using each throughout the campaign, because one size does not fit all. And guess what? I don't fight the battles. If I did, I'd never finish a campaign. I hit the auto calculation button every time. Why? Well... there are a number of positions which you will fulfill in a game. Benevolent multi-generational spirit guiding your family, governor of a province, Commander in Chief, general of an army, and captain of a unit. Playing all of these breaks the narrative for me... I play the macro game, i.e. the big picture. I plot and scheme, I build cities, and recruit armies. Then I send them out into the field. How they do is up to them. If they win... great! I must be a genius. If they lose... nuts. Back to the drawing board. Two friends of mine, let's call them Doc and Bro, played RTW like this... Doc played the campaign map, i.e. he decided what units were built and where the battles were fought, but Bro fought all the battles. Doc was the CinC and Bro was the General. They played two campaigns in three years, but they remember both as epic stories of their teamwork. In addition to the war... campaign strategy, building armies, transportation of armies, theatres of conflict, fog of war, etc... you'll have to deal with natural disasters, (In one game, a young woman of my family married a promising young fellow, but he died a year later in an earthquake.), piracy, rebellions, brigands, bribery attempts upon your armies, old age, death in battle, adoptions, plagues (stupid unwashed barbarians), and assassination. (In one game, the youngest son of my German leader was sent to subdue Gaul and Hispania. This gave him a command of 10. I marched him and his elite German veterans across the Alps to conquer Rome... but the Romans assassinated him. With my hordes leaderless, the Romans proceeded to sieze Gaul and invade Germania.) All of these additional factors help create a unique narrative for each game. Oh, and when you play as a Roman faction, you'll need to keep an eye upon the Senate... how they view you, how the plebs (the masses) view you, Senatorial missions, and the official Senatorial stance with every other faction. For instance, you may have a great trade agreement with the Egyptians and a low standing with the Senate, but the Sentate demands that you attack Egypt... attacking Egypt will hurt your income considerably, but offending the Senate may cause them to label you as a rebel... what will you do? Certain events always happen... Aetna erupts and the plague breaks out in Macedonia, but certain other events happen only when certain triggers occur (the Marian reforms), while others, such as floods, are random. But the big event for Roman players is the Civil War. At some point the plebs will want you to deal with the Senate and/or at some point the Senate will either have enough of you or become paranoid of your growing power that they'll demand the head of your family to commit suicide. If you agree, they'll do it every turn until your family ceases to exist. If you're not ready for war, then you can comply with the Senate for a few years (and prune your family tree of bad apples in the process), but at some point you'll have to stand up to the Senate... at which point you go to war with all other Romans. Talk about raising your anxiety.... sheesh! All of your characters really flesh out the narrative... the story of your family. Spies, diplomats, assassins, admirals, generals, and governors all have character traits that make them who they are. Some will be drunkards, perverts, and ne'er do wells, while some will be loyal, moral, and cunning. They'll also tend to generate a following of hangers on, freeloaders, men of honor, mistresses, etc... For instance, a son might come of age in your family with a command of 3... a natural born general... but on his way to the frontier to defeat the Dacians, his inner circle grows to include a Drunken Uncle and an Actor and they decrease his command ability by 3... Ouch! He's now a zero... In the first two Total War games, Shogun and Medieval, you had family members, but not nearly as many as Rome. So to help you manage them (and for the sheer fun of telling a story), RTW includes a family tree. The game's not perfect. The legendary/semi-mythological units can be frustrating and the Egyptians were certainly not using chariots in the second century BC. Naval combat results can make you scratch your head. Negative income numbers on the campaign map are definitely misleading. There is always the point at which you know you've won even though you may only be forty to seventy percent of the way to the finish... but that's true of a lot of games. There may be other games out there that have made improvements to the grand strategy game, but I've always found this one to be fun to return to.