It is up to the player to take control of a Barbarian tribe and carve out a kingdom of his own, or to take control of one of the halves of the old Roman Empire and try to forge a new Pax Romana. Countless Barbarian tribes are trying to settle the lands of the dying realm, while themselves trying to avoid being swallowed up by the rapidly expanding kingdom of the Huns. The Western Roman Empire is in a dire state, while the Eastern Roman Empire is thriving.

Barbarian Invasion depicts the situation in the late 4th century AD: The Roman Empire has split into two halves.

When two enemy armies meet, they fight a battle in real-time, with the landscape reflecting that of the campaign map. The campaign map has been changed from Risk-style movement of troops between provinces to a more detailed turn-based game that allows precise positioning of armies. For one, the units on the battle field are now depicted in full 3d, rather than the sprites used in Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War. This entry introduces several changes compared to the previous games, however. If the player controls a Roman faction, his goal is not merely to forge an empire for himself, but, when the time comes, to take on the other Roman factions in a brutal civil war with the ultimate goal to be declared Emperor.Īs with the other games in the Total War series, Rome is a mixture of Real-Time Strategy and Turn-Based Strategy. As the title suggests, Rome is one of the big players here (initially as The Roman Republic and later The Roman Empire), and is in fact divided up between three families, the Julii, Scipii, and Brutii, as well as the Senate.

Starting around the time of the First Punic War, the game allows the player to take control of one of several factions vying for supremacy in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Rome: Total War is the third game in the Total War franchise of strategy games.

Rome total war factions