Empire Management

Empire Management in Rome: Total War is one of the deepest simulations you will ever come across. This is played out on a huge tactical map showing Europe, Northern Africa, and goes as far to the east as what used to be called Persia.

It’s a huge map, with all territories on it divided into provinces, with each province having a capital city. You must capture and control this city if you wish to control the province.

In a change from previous Total War games, your armies are no longer represented by chess-like pieces, and cannot be simply placed within each province. You must actually manoeuvre them from one spot to another, with each army having a set number of ‘move points’ that determines how far they may march in a single turn.

To add to the depth, these move points are determined by the composition of your armies, with cavalry having more move points than infantry, and infantry having more move points than peasants. Also, armies with Generals are represented differently from armies without Generals.

To help you get through the initial confusion of learning a new interface and game mechanics, Advisors pop up every now and then when you have accessed a new feature for the first time, and will guide you through how to play the game, either on the Empire map, or in battle.

There Are Many More Of Us…

Armies are not the only units you can manipulate and control. You can order all manner of units all over the map. These include naval fleets, Diplomats, Assassins and Spies, all with their own differing roles and functions.

Diplomats help establish trade agreements, ceasefires, bribes, and alliances. Spies and Assassins are invisible to enemy factions. Their functions are self-explanatory. Naval fleets are needed to transport your armies over seas and over larger distances than marching alone could carry them. And yes, there are now naval battles in Rome: Total War, but these are always resolved automatically.

Manoeuvring and managing your armies seems difficult enough, doesn’t it? But no, that isn’t the most difficult and involving aspect of Empire Management. Armies are but one part of it all. Running your day-to-day empire is a lot more complex than you could have imagined. For starters, let’s look at the economic model.