Mix and mash all the wonderful Paradox Development Studios grand strategy games together, what will you get? Well, the upcoming Imperator: Rome grand strategy title seems like an answer. The game’s setting comes from its spiritual successor Europa Universalis: Rome (2008), the empire building aspect is similar to Europa Universalis IV, and even Stellaris has its saying in the sense that you won’t have total control on your technologies research and their acquisition! Last but not least, don’t forget the Crusader Kings II part in all of this as the Imperator: Rome characters greatly resembles the former title!
Taking features of their previous franchises and making them better with updated user experience and player agency while increasing the overall depth and complexity sounds like a neat idea, and truly, it does cause a lot of excitement while waiting for the final Imperator: Rome verse to come out! With some of the most familiar features of other Paradox games being present, you can once again expect to witness the dance of the tables! Imperator: Rome grand strategy game has plenty of these, however, the warm and welcoming marble and light-greenish coloured UI and a clever AI tutorial make your first steps a ton easier!
Even though Imperator: Rome is looking to be the most complete and vast game on its release date, knowing Paradox, this is just the very beginning of the game’s evolution. Paradox grand strategy games tend to evolve over for more than several years after their initial launch, and according to Johan Andersson, the lead designer on the team, this is but the beginning on what they have in plans for this thrilling experience. After all, if there’s a demand for the additional content that induces the game’s growth, there must be a corresponding supply for it as well.
The new Paradox Development Studio title, Imperator: Rome is scheduled to release on 26 of April 2019. However, you can already pre-order what looks to be the most massive historical grand-strategy game to date on our Eneba store! The following part of the article aims to provide a short brief about the five most important aspects of this new and thrilling journey back in time.
1 – Map & Setting
2 – Characters – POPs
3 – Characters – The Elites
4 – Combat & Strategy
5 – Concluding Thoughts
Map & Setting
The year where the action is just about to begin is 304 BCE, and Paradox developer expects the campaign to run for about 300 years or so. So, expect your gameplay to reach as early as the 1st Century CE. However, don’t expect to immerse in all the Christianity biz with this one, at least not on the official game’s launch. And even though the official game’s campaign end date hasn’t been revealed yet, it shouldn’t go further than the year 32 AD.
Imperator: Rome presents a war-torn era where the new civilizations are just being born. State borders are not a thing yet and there’s but a simple rule going on around – if you can hold a piece of land, it’s yours to keep. Basically, the setting in which you’re brought into presents yet still good-for-nothing Italian city-state called Rome. The inhabitants on this small piece of land don’t even imagine what changes are about to befall on their everyday lives.
Map? With over 7K distinct regions the Imperator: Rome map, it spans from Ireland in the Northeast to the Horn of Africa in far South, it also includes entire India and the bigger part of Tibet in the East front. And if you look to the North, smaller part of Norway and Sweden are also in the picture! Thought Europa Universalis IV game field was large? Imperator: Rome map’s scale and size beg to differ with literally twice as much surface on offer.
While in a sense Imperator: Rome RTS is the spiritual reincarnation of the 2008 game Europa Universalis: Rome, that was a spin-off, and this one does its own thing entirely. Just a single glance over the map strikes with a massive scope, scale, and detail of everything that the game offers. It’s immense, to say the least. The game will vary depending on your chosen grid: kingdom, tribe, republic. The game will also have numerous ways to switch your regions state. E.g. unified tribes may form a kingdom, or dictator may overthrow the Republic scheme.
Such feature as zooming-in has definitely become a real eye-treat in the latest Paradox games and thus, by looking at Imperator: Rome world map from afar you see the true vastness of it. But just try to zoom in and there’s entirely another story unwrapping. You can literally count the feathers and the leather straps on the soldier’s armour! Just by this sole factor, Imperator: Rome map & setting promises to be superior to other Paradox grand strategy game by a large margin.
Characters – POPs
It’s all about POPs in this one! POPs are the units of population in-game that grow or decreases depending on the resources available. POPs consist of citizens, freemen, tribesmen and slave groups.
When It comes to Imperator: Rome characters, citizens are the part of your population that represents the intellectual elite of the nation, they facilitate the commercial factors and are also responsible for the progress of inventions and generally all ideas that’ll provide your empire with much-appreciated bonuses. The downside is that they are not keen on fighting and aren’t really productive when it comes to stuff getting made.
Other Imperator: Rome characters include freemen, slaves, and tribesman. Freeman represents the group of people that have been fully integrated into the civilized society, these men and women offer an abundance of manpower, tax income and military use. Slaves, of course, are the cornerstone of an ancient economy drive, as simple as that. While, tribesmen do commit to manpower and tax ordeals, however in small amounts, as they are not as keen to follow the rules of society as the Freemen.
Characters – The Elites
There are POPs that represent the common folk, and then there’s the more specific Imperator: Rome characters, these are the elites of importance. This elite group consists of respected politicians, generals, and heads of state. These characters will have names and full 3D modelled faces (first time in Paradox strategy game!) they will also age throughout the span of time! Furthermore, they will have their own stat system with such values as Martial, Charisma, Finesse, and Zeal determining their overall effectiveness and efficiency.
The elite of importance Imperator: Rome characters belongs to the families in power, as well as the political factions such as populists, militarists, or the religious fanatics. They’ll either reward you for acting according to their beliefs or become heavily upset if you go against them. These characters can come in terms of friendship or rivalry amongst one another as well, and the complexity of these inner-relationships comes at a level which you haven’t yet witnessed in any of Paradox grand strategy games.
Combat & Strategy
When it comes to combat as well as in any of the previously mentioned aspects of the game, Imperator: Rome doesn’t disappoint. You’ll be able to manoeuvre, control, and command a vast array of unit types (a significantly larger amount than in the previous Paradox games, at least in their initial, pre-DLC states.) The battles are being managed at a more granular level as well, specifying the priority for engaging troops along with managing the size of your flanks comes as very welcome additions.
These flanks can also be split into smaller, more dynamic groups, and each move of your army in the midst of war should be carefully considered, the smallest mistake can be punished with great losses. To be fair, Imperator: Rome’s strategy is truly one of the most impressive of the game’s aspects, that is when it comes to conducting wars! The polished decisions that you’ll be constantly required to make are shaping up this title as a wargame in its truest sense. Such factors as terrain, enemy movement, fortification placements and travel times should most definitely be taken into consideration in every scenario.
Your military units in Imperator: Rome, will consist of cavalry, archers, and light/heavy infantry but you’ll also have culture-specific military units. Traditions, location, and the right resources will determine your military’s potential and power. E.g. while the British may have access to chariots, other nations may horse archers, or even have elephants in their line-up! The unlockable bonuses will differ significantly and will mostly depend on your chosen region. For example, due to Rome’s traditions, speed is not really a concern, as the great empire lays permanent roads wherever they travel. This may increase the army’s speed for as much as 50%!
Lastly, Imperator: Rome strategy game has the newly added rock-paper-scissors army stance mechanic which will dynamically change how your battles will roll-out! Want an edge in battle? Just make a guess about which stance your opponent is most likely to use, if your guess comes true, you’ll gain massive strategic benefit. Other strategic factors include rest and patience. These are now major parts to your units’ manoeuvrability, efficiency, and performance. To manage these, you can make regular stops or reorganize your army’s stance to lower the speed and boost up the recovery, all in order to avoid exhaustion.
Concluding Thoughts
To sum up, the upcoming Imperator: Rome grand strategy game is going to be broader, vaster, and more expensive than any of the previous Paradox releases, and we do know just how broad Paradox games can actually get. The game is promised to stay here for the long-run with multiple in-game additions already drawn on the planning board!
And even on its launch state, it’s unbelievably attractive, detailed, and not only brings the offers the very finest detail that the previous games brought to us but also adds its own unique gameplay as a cherry on top. Imperator: Rome is a grand strategy game which, we are sure, will satisfy even the pickiest strategist to the fullest. Prepare to experience the birth of greatness!
