Europa Barbarorum modification for Rome: Total War
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Buildings

Map

Traits

Europa Barbarorum is a total conversion modification, where very few things have been left as they are. Much has been changed, and more features have been added to the game.


Factions

New factions:

  • The Arverni, a new Gallic faction to compete with the Aedui, Sweboz, and Romans in western Europe. More units and a more realistic depiction of the interaction between tribes awaits you.

  • Play as Baktria, the Central Asian Hellenic empire with a vast array of Greek, Iranian, and even Indian units!

  • You are now able to play a full campaign as Pyrrhos and his Epeirotes. Don't make the same mistake he did and die fighting in the streets of Argos, but instead lead your phalangites and cavalry into Makedonia and up the spine of Italy, bringing along your elephants if you dare!

  • Be in charge of the cavalry armies of the Saka-Rauka and show why the sedentary Central Asian kingdoms lived in fear of their steppe neighbours.

  • Take control of the Sab'Yn or Saba, the southwestern Arab kingdom and expand your influence by trade or by sword, across Arabia and Africa.

    Faction changes:

  • No more Mummy Returns  Egyptians. Accurate Ptolemaic unit lists and generals' figures and avatars.

  • The Sauromatae faction takes over as the regional superpower in ancient Russia, instead of the Scythians whose power was in decline.

  • The Gauls are split into two factions, the Aedui and Arverni.

  • The Koinon Hellenon represents the Chremonidean League of Athens, Sparta and Rhodes, instead of the Greek Cities faction  which were made up of cities who who were united only by the title of "Greek".

  • Spain remade into the Lusotannan or Lusitanians representing perhaps the strongest and most warlike Iberian tribe.

  • New families for all factions with members' ages and relationships accurate (as far as modern scholarship is able to reconstruct) to our current knowledge of the year 272BC.

  • Diplomatic relationships between factions thoroughly researched and accurately mapped out for the game's start in 272BC, accurately representing the state of diplomacy for our start date.

  • Unrealistic "fog-of-war" constraints partially lifted at the game's start, with each faction starting the game with its own unique, historically accurate view of the campaign map, to show more realistically each faction's understanding of political geography.

  • More than 4,900 new names for generals and family members of Hellenicfactions, all of them transliterated from Ancient Greek using modern scholarly onomastika and prosopographies.

  • Compelling faction-specific alerts and messages when a player captures unique buildings important to his or her faction

  • Diplomatic relationships of rebel cities with existing factions accurately represented, with severe consequences for AI and human players who violate those alliances.

  • Rebel forces now have accurate ethnic names and strengths.

  • No more fantasy units.

  • All existing units from the original Rome: Total War campaign have been removed and replaced with units of our own creation.

  • Complex and compelling procedures and goals for attaining a Roman Triumph for your hardest working and most successful generals.

  • Special alerts and graphics representing the major stages of the breakup of the Seleukid Empire, if the collapse occurs.

  • A new faction-specific victory condition system, with each faction required to achieve goals as diverse as conquering provinces, raiding cities, capturing unique buildings, and destroying other specific factions.

  • Nomadic, desert, and steppe cultures much more accurately represented in terms of government types and resource development.


    Cartography

  • A detailed new map with greatly expanded eastern and southern regions, and with many new territories in Arabia, India, Central Asia, and the Upper Nile. Terrain detail, city naming, and city placement have all been thoroughly researched and adjusted by a large team of gamers, researchers, and professional historians to provide players with as historically accurate a campaign map as it was possible to create, as well as the best possible gameplay.

  • Faction specific naming practices with accurate unit names and accurate province names in the language of the controlling peoples at the game's start.

  • Accurate terrain reconstructions, snow boundaries, vegetation types, and coastlines.

  • The canal linking the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea added.

  • Province boundaries carefully reconstructed to represent the political geography of 272BC.

  • New campaign map vegetation models include palms and denser forests.

  • Many of the most famous ancient trade routes and royal roads have been added, from the Amber Route and Silk Road to the Persian Royal Road and the North Germanic bog road system, all of which are indestructable.


    Traits

  • A revolutionary new trait system based on and including a complex interaction between genetics, ageing, family members and health, affecting trait acquisition and development over the life of your characters. The number of traits has been greatly increased and traits are now faction-specific.

  • Hellenic trait system based on ancient Greek perceptions of personalities. Some traits are actual civic and religious offices from the Hellenistic world. Many traits are now more related to personality are based on the "Characters" of Theophrastos (an Athenian philosopher who died just a few years before our game's start date) and Aristotle's conception of virtues and vices centered around the Golden Mean, from his "Nicomachean Ethics". Individual levels of each trait are accompanied by descriptions of ancient examples of the trait.

  • Roman trait system partially based on the moral tales of Valerius Maximus. Individual levels of each trait are accompanied by his examples, both postive and negative, of Romans with such traits.

  • All starting generals' personalities and traits mirror their historical personalities.

  • Special Events have been added, along with Special Events Traits. For example, Hellenic family members can now compete in the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games, and possibly even become victors - a feat which would give them a significant Influence boost.


    Buildings

  • A complex new government system has been introduced to more accurately reflect the choices of government types available within individual factions for the provinces they begin with and conquer. For example, the governments of Sparta and Athens - both of which are cities controlled by the Koinon Hellenon at the game's start - have been given historically accurate government types, providing different benefits and unit recruitment capabilities, as well as different disadvantages.

  • The nomadic factions have a different government system to represent the social and administrative differences between their governments and those of the settled factions. A chart is available for reference.

  • Many new faction-specific buildings, including colonies, shrines, clinics, granaries, new barbarian governmental structures, new theater building trees, stupas, and many, many more.

  • Over 50 new unique buildings or "wonders" for the map, present at the game's start, which affect everything from trade and population growth to generals' traits and faction recruitment abilities, and many of which provide bonuses which are specifically tailored for and limited to certain factions. All of them come with new constructed images and new icon graphics.

  • New temple systems representing the most popular temple types for each of the depicted factions as well as new descriptions of the numerous deities.

  • No more fantasy bonuses, such as equipment upgrades from Temples of Vulcan.

  • Capes, straits, mountains, and other indestructable terrain-type "unique buildings" provide bonuses to represent their historical importance.

  • A totally new multifaceted recruitment system with unit recruitment affected by faction, geography, unit ability, and government type, presenting the player with many compelling recruiting goals.


    Non-Unit Graphics

  • All new faction-specific graphics for the faction selection menu.

  • An attractive new campaign minimap and faction starting point maps in the campaign selection menu.

  • Beautiful and historically accurate new faction icons, selection buttons, campaign map standards, and battle map banners.

  • New campaign map siege, ship, unit, general, watchtower, and resource graphics.

  • New culture-specific advisors.

  • New Faction Defeated graphics for every faction.


    Game Mechanics

  • A new fleet system with many more new ships available and more accurate strengths and weaknesses in battle, more accurately depicted with small fleets on the campaign map.

  • New custom formations designed by the Europa Barbarorum team which give the AI greater flexibility and incentive to perform realistic battlefield manouvers.

  • A campaign map with four turns per year, with the winter months limited to one of the four seasons.

  • New unit animations, such as those of two-handed lancers and horse archers.

    Audio

  • New soundtrack recorded specifically for Europa Barbarorum by Morgan Casey & Nick Wylie.

  • Authentic Iron Age music from Prehistoric Music Ireland.

  • New Classical Latin, Greek and Celtic battle map voice recordings, thoroughly researched and complete with accurate ancient pronunciations and accents. More language commands are also being translated and completed by the voicemod team to include the languages of other factions in the near future.