Total War: Rome II is a grand strategy game set in the antiquity from 341 BC to 290 BC (the tutorial uses the three Samnite Wars as backdrop and the main campaign starts in 272 BC) and covers the whole known world from Spain to India. The game simulates overall 117 factions and the player gets to pick one of nine: Rome, Carthage, Parthia, Pontus, Iceni, Averni, Makedonia, Egypt or Suebi (more are available as DLC). The goal is always to take dominance of the antique world by taking control over the majority of provinces; either primarily through military, economic or cultural means. Each faction also has a set of unique goals to fulfill.

The main part of the game is spent on the turn-based (one turn represents one year which means no seasons) world map on which the player manages the empire. Here it is important to watch all aspects which influence the empire's growth and the relationships to its neighbours, e.g. recruiting and moving armies, research, diplomacy, trade, taxes or keeping the population happy/fed. In contrast to previous Total War games, each province consists of a capital city and up to three more cities. This has major effects on province development as all resources of a province share a pool. Depending on the faction, the player also has to deal with internal politics, e.g. in Rome there are three families which tend to rebel if one of them gets too weak or powerful or as Iceni, the Germanic tribes have to be united before outside action can be taken.

Whenever a fight (including ambushed and sieges) occurs and the player does not choose to calculate the result automatically, the game switches to a real-time battle. Here the goal is to defeat the enemy by using the different unit types (which have advantages and disadvantages against or unit types), the environment and troop morale to the own advantage. Other influencing factors are the generals (which gain experience over time and may receive active abilities like morale boost) and the newly introduced army tradition. When an army levels up, the player gets to choose a tradition which gives bonuses on statistics like ranged combat or morale. Those traditions are even kept when an army is wiped out and re-filled with new soldiers. Also new is that sea and land battles are not strictly separate anymore.

Additionally to the campaign, there are are few historical real-time battle scenarios, a two-player multiplayer campaign (either co-op or competitive) as well as real-time battles for up to four participants.

When Total War: Rome II - Emperor Edition was released on 16th September 2014 users were upgraded for free to that version which became the base version of the game, also replacing the initial release in the Steam digital store.

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Critic Reviews

Girl Gamers UK	Windows	Sep 25, 2014		90
Girl Gamers UK	Windows	Sep 03, 2013		90
Gameplay (Benelux)	Windows	Sep 27, 2013	86 out of 100	86
GameStar (Germany)	Windows	Sep 02, 2013	84 out of 100	84
Games Finder	Windows	Feb 24, 2014	8 out of 10	80
Mana Pool	Windows	Mar 21, 2014	7.5 out of 10	75
Games Arena	Windows	Sep 26, 2013	7.2 out of 10	72
4Players.de	Windows	Sep 13, 2013	70 out of 100	70
PCGamesN	Windows	Sep 02, 2013	7 out of 10	70
Diehard GameFan	Windows	Sep 11, 2013	Unscored	Unscored