14 DAY TRIAL // When the first Rome game was launched, players were basically forced to play as the Romans for their first game, choosing from one of the three houses, and only a successful campaign would unlock the other factions from the period.
The community did not appreciate the design decision from The Creative Assembly and while I have completed a lot of games in the first Rome game, both classic and enhanced with mods, I almost never touched the faction again.
After installing Rome II, I took a quick look at the Romans and played for about ten years before I again became disappointed with the smug would-be rulers of the Ancient World.
Sure, Rome II places a lot of limits on their early expansion and even their armies seem a little less capable than they were previously.
But I still root for the underdog and that means that I have decided to play my first serious game with Carthage, the power that came arguably closest to crushing the Roman military and dominating the Mediterranean.
It’s remarkable how little we actually know about the culture, apart from their founding myth and their military operations, but the team at The Creative Assembly has done a good job of piecing together disparate info in order to create a Carthaginian flavor for the faction.
They basically need to focus on trade and mercenary troops in order to close the gap to the professional armies of the Romans while deciding whether they are aiming to dominate Spain and its wealth or if they will try to move towards Italy via Sicily and the rest of the islands.
The one interesting decision is to create an allied Carthago Nova faction, which might serve as a useful partner in the near future, although I would have liked to personally control those cities.
The decision was probably due to balance concerns.