The Wargamer

Introduction

Barbarian Invasion has brought many changes on both the campaign mode and the battlefield; some are obvious while others are tacitly conveyed but nevertheless crucial to understand. For better or worse, the AI has most certainly improved since the original Rome: Total War, and a soldier’s psychology also plays an increased role on this ancient digital battlefield. Morale is complicated and an entire army’s psyche is no longer a quantifiable statistic that can be manipulated and played with ease. In addition, some units have been changed, added, or taken out altogether to reflect the changing conventions in warfare during the split of Rome and the subsequent power struggles between peoples that followed. To help acclimate gamers to this new breed and style of combat, let’s take a look at what this Barbarian Invasion changed and what gamers can expect to recognize from the original Rome: Total War battlegrounds.

The Units

Perhaps the most drastic change the came with the transition from Classical warfare was the abolition of the phalanx, a staple formation in many-a-gamers army. Gone are the days of Spartan spearman holding hordes of elephants and charging cavalry at bay with a strong arm and unbreakable will. In fact, the nature of the spearman in an army has largely changed. Rather than offer a static block of soldiers that are very vulnerable while moving but extremely hard to defeat unless flanked, the new breed of spearman sport much shorter spears and have no special formation to stave off cavalry or provide and immovable defensive position.

The obsolescence of the phalanx is only part of a trend that runs through Barbarian Invasion which placed a substantially increased emphasis on either extraordinarily well armored cavalry or very light and fast mounted archers. There are still, however, pedestrian powerhouses such as the Hound of Culann who claim their home in Britain, Chosen Axemen who are found in Alemanni, Lombardi, and a few other factions, and the Burgundii’s ferocious Golden Band warriors. These foot soldiers work very well against mount-centric factions like the Huns and Sarmatians if the player can get in close enough to the enemies infantry, but Elite Hunnic Warriors who are incredibly fast and lethal with a bow can easily dispatch any infantry unit through sheer attrition and tireless will. Like their ancient predecessors, all cavalry archers have the deadly Cantabrian circle in their bag of tricks. Although only marginally effective on other ranged cavalry, even the mighty Hounds of Culann, who are nearly unbeatable when in bloodlust, cannot withstand the dogged stamina of cavalry archers. The best way to drive cavalry archers from the battlefield is an equally strong resolve and patience. Mounted archers are the fastest units in the game and attempting to send even heavy cavalry after them would waste a unit’s strength and incur needless causalities. The best way to neutralize a pesky cavalry archer unit sitting on the player’s flanks is to fight fire with fire: send whatever mounted range units one has to exchange arrows with the enemy cavalry. 

By that same token, to effectively battle a clearly stronger enemy infantry such as Golden Band warriors, cavalry archers can effectively make these once might units completely useless. This is especially true for units like the Hounds of Culann who are capable of bloodlust. Bloodlust is much like the “Running Amok” condition that elephants would often enter when frightened in the original Rome: Total War. When a unit enters bloodlust the player loses all control over those soldiers as they go on barbarous rampage through the enemy’s lines. These soldiers are nearly invincible, killing with one swing and not pausing to catch their breaths’ even for a second. This, however, can be used to the advantage of the player on the receiving end of bloodlust as cavalry archers can slyly lure blood lusting units away from the action and send them on a chase they will not be able to win. Enraged at the sight of a mounted unit running away when being attacked, units like the Hounds of Culann, who generally have little or no armor, will chase after these horseback riders in a fit of immutable malevolence. Slowly, but surely, the cavalry archers will continue to outrun these poor foot soldiers and pick them off one by one.