The day has come! Rome:Total War is shipping to retailers in North America on Sept. 22.

...and there was much rejoicing.

Prepare for the rest of the RTS\TBS genre to be left in the dust.

Here's the Official word from Activision


ACTIVISION ANNOUNCES THE CREATIVE ASSEMBLY'S ROME: TOTAL WAR (tm) HAS BEEN RELEASED TO MANUFACTURING

Santa Monica, CA - September 13, 2004 - Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that Rome: Total War(tm) has been released to manufacturing and will be shipping to retailers in North America on Wednesday, September 22. Developed by award-winning developer The Creative Assembly, Rome: Total War is a revolutionary new title in the best-selling Total War(tm) series that will carry players into the midst of ancient history's most intense conflicts. Rome: Total War for the PC is rated "T" ("Teen" - Violence) by the ESRB and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.

Rome: Total War features groundbreaking technology that brings the epic, cinematic battles of the Roman era to life with graphics and gameplay beyond anything previously seen in a PC game. Players will be transported to the battlefields of ancient history's greatest conflicts and control mighty armies. Up to 10,000 fully polygonal, highly detailed, motion-captured warriors can appear on the screen at once. They control vast armies led by history's most legendary generals including Julius Caesar and Hannibal, and must use a combination of brains and brawn to successfully conquer the Roman Empire. For more information and regular updates on Rome: Total War visit: http://www.totalwar.com.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $948 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's World Wide Web site, which is located at www.activision.com.

****! And I just bought Medieval Total War + Viking Invasion not 3 days ago because my Shogun Total War was busted. I hope I didn't waste my money.

Well, there is good news and bad news about that.

First the good news. You'll love Medieval: Total War. It's one of the best strategy games. Ever.

Now the bad news. Once you play Rome: Total War, you'll probably never feel the need to play M:TW again.

How would you know? Have you played the game? :p

Anyway, MTW is a lot more complex than STW which isn't always a good thing. And I'm still looking for that all powerful unit. So far it seems the only realistic choice are the Hurcarls. Any kickass cavalry in the game?

I assumed Rome: Total War went gold right after the demo.

Won't be buying it anytime soon, still hooked on Warcraft 3. The hero system is just so cool. Plus it's the Warcraft universe! I'll probably check out Rome:TW once I get bored of Warcraft.

Oh, I guess you're playing the Viking Invasions expansion first eh?

In terms of Cavalry, during the timeframe of VI, the cavalry was mostly light and not such a powerful force as during the Middle Ages.

However, in the Original Medieval: Total War game, the Spanish Lancers, the German Gothic Knights, and the Byzantine Kataphraktoi are all superb cavalry and I believe the best in the game.

After playing the Rome demo, I just can't go back to the really slow moving units of M:TW. In Rome:TW, they march, charge, and fight at much more realistic speeds, made all the more impressive that now with the new 3D Batttle engine, you can zoom down any time you like and see the battle being fought at ground level. (Of course, this is only one improvement)

I was talking about cavalry in Medieval. I already know the ultimate unit in Viking: Hurcarl. Actually, Jom's Vikings are better, but they are harder to get.

Well, which faction are you playing as in the campaign, and I will tell you which units are the best for what.

Yay!
Between Rome: Total War, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (download the demo, if only for the amazing intro video), Tribes: Vengeance, and Sid Meier's Pirates (sequel/remake) I'll be set until next year.

Has anyone seen "Decisive Battles" on the History Channel? They use Rome: Total War for all of their battle reinactments. It's pretty cool.

Yeah, this is going to be awesome. I can't wait, because this game looks to be one where I can use tactics instead of having to mass a certain unit. I mean there's no cooler feeling than thinking you're an ACTUAL general.

Yeah, definitely. Actual battle tactics rock! Other RTS\TBS games can only stand and watch in awe and RTW
(*cough* Battle for Middle Earth *cough*- oh and on the subject of BFME, has anyone else noticed that in ALL the trailers, they ONLY show cinematics with more troops than the engine can handle in real-time to make it look like RTW, when the real-time battles will be unzoomable and the camera will be like every other RTS ever made, just with more units on screen).

Battle for Middle Earth will be the hotness. You can die and go to hell.

I'll probably still like Starcraft better than any of them. Meh. :p

Yoshi...ummm...right....strong words there.

Don't get me wrong BFME will be "good", but we all know RTW is the perfect game engine for a LOTR strategy game.

I'm sure a LOTR RTW mod will bring that to life. I mean, imagine playing the battle of Helm's Deep with with an army of only 600-1000 actually against 10,000 Uruk-Hai in real-time.

*drools*

I'm playing the Byzantines and I figured out what the best unit was by trial and error: Varangian Guard(Cavalry Archers give them problems though). However, Byzantine Infantry is second best and is less than half the price and half the build time. I will probably use them the most when I play a serious game. Right now, I just want to **** up some kingdoms so I put in a money cheat.

The words aren't strong if you've ever seen South Park. But yeah, how about we play BFME instead of a half-assed LOTR mod for a game where people just reskinned models. Not to mention that, but BFME has better gfx. Yeah.

Rome Total War will be better if except for one reason. Turn based strategy world map.

NON-LINEAR CAMPAIGN

You're right, the Varangian Guard are definitely one of the best infantry units in the whole game. Although, I would have to say that the Turks have THE best infantry unit in the game, with their Janissary Heavy Infantry. The Byzantine Infantry are reliable swordsmen, and relatively inexpensive to their worth. They should hold your main battle line, while the Varangian Guard are on the flanks. Ideally, you should be able to pin the enemy with your Byz inf., and strike them in the flanks or from behind with your Varangian Guard. Of course, you must know the value of Kataphraktoi Cavalry on your flanks as well.

The only problem with the Varangian Guard is that they are Vulnerable to Cavalry, as their weapon is an axe. The main weakness of the Byzantines in general is their lack of a strong spear unit. They have only the basic spearmen, which well into early period, are very outdated. However, I'm sure you'll conquer lands that will give you some good spear units to hold your main battle line.

If you happen to face the Italians anytime soon, watch out for their Italian Infantry. they are THE best spear units in the game. They can hold a line like no other. Which is one of the reasons why the Italians are my army of choice in multiplayer.

Umm...BFME's graphics do not compare to RTW's. RTW is much more realistic, even to the LOTR movies, than BFME is. The animation, especially of cavalry and archers in BFME are terrible.

They didn't even do that good a job copying the movie's designs. Have you seen all the walls and buildings in the game? They all look WAY scaled down. The deeping wall in Helm's Deep is only like double the height of an Uruk.

Same thing with the walls of Minas Tirith. Oh, and seige Towers are TINY compared to ROTK.

On, the other hand, look at RTW: Fully zoomable 3D camera, Full scale walls, buildings, ladders, seige towers, etc... not to mention a total engine capacity for 30,000-40,000 men in real-time(compared to BFME's 500-1000 max). And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Once again, I'm sure BFME will be "good", but it's just not on the same level as RTW.

I think BFME is a step above RTW, a step or two. After playing the RTW demo, and watching the BFME trailers, RTW looks nice, but BFME looks better.

You're confusing graphics, and realism. Remember--just because it's more realistic, doesn't mean it's more fun (America's Army).

Dude, you've played the RTW DEMO, and what have you played of BFME yet?

The fact is, you can't compare the graphics to RTW because it's a classic RTS view in BFME, and you can't zoom in to ground level like they would have you believe in the trailers. The trailers for BFME show nothing but cinematics, cutscenes. They have not shown in ANY of the trailers even ONE shot from actually in-game.

The in-game portion just cannot be compared to RTW, graphically or otherwise.

And vice versa.

You forget, the road runs both ways, buddy. But it DOES use SM3.0, which means at the very least, the lighting will be much better.

Tell that to the Kats, Feudal Knights, and Royal Knights I slaughtered with my Varangians. Fighting uphill too.

Anyway, another thing I will do when I play a serious game is mixed unit armies. Right now I'm using Byzantine Infantry(don't have the VG's yet) backed by Spearmen to be used as garrison units and for chasing archers around.

well, if those Cavalry had low valor, then the VG's could have easily taken them, as they have a very powerful attack.

Both VG and the Cav had 0 honor, weapons, and armor. No point in having more variables in my experiments than necessary.

The only Cav I need to worry about is the Late stage Fuedal Knights(I can't remember their name, and I'm not sure because I haven't tested it yet), but I don't think you can get those in the Early Stage.

You mean the Teutonic Knights, Chivalric Knights, Knights Templar, Knights of Santiago, and Knights Hospitaller etc...?