Rome First Look (Trajan) Video

[Magil]

That's why I said it is 'decently useful' - yeah those are probably mechanically useful bonuses - but they aren't really engaging, interactive or fun when compared to crazy unique stuff like Kongolese religion, Brazilian special projects, French espionage or Norwegian navy.
Those things require interaction and change the way game mechanics work - Roman bonuses are generally "you get free automatic stuff". Kinda boring.

The Legion, at least, seems to be a tactically engaging unit. Provided building forts and roads through foreign and enemy territory is a tactically useful choice.

 

[Khalid]

Am I the only one a bit disappointed by Rome?

I mean, very easy road building is cool feature but other uniques are neither 'epic' nor very interesting or very strong.

They might not be epic, but they are really strong IMHO.

The free monument for the capital is a substantial one. You now do not have to plan where to sneak the monument into the early build order. Also you get the first civic on t4 meaning you can start using policies couple turns earlier than anybody else.

 

[Vaclac]

The free monuments is big.

It means Rome can storm ahead in the civic tree. Does this make Rome a strong contender for first religion?

I think this is a really underrated part of their ability. I already thought monuments were strong enough that you probably want to build them first, so this means you get that benefit immediately, plus you get all the other things you were going to build later that many turns earlier. Plus, this effect will compound as new cities also don't need to waste their time on monuments, making rapid expansion much faster. Admittedly, this ability will get much weaker as the game goes on, but by that time it may be too late if it has allowed you to claim much more land than everyone else and have an early-game culture and gold lead to go with it as a result of the free trading routes and monuments. One major risk of early expansion, leaving your military stretched too thin to protect all your cities, is also mitigated by the free roads between your cities, which should help you defend all your territory with fewer units.

 

[Ulthwithian]

footslogger: While true, they can do it when no one else can (i.e., in the Classical Era).

On Offense, the Legions can build roads for their Invasion Superhighways.

On Defense, the Legions can build forts and do a good 'You Shall Not Pass!' impression.

Like many people, I thought I would play Greece first, but it's very hard for me to pass up 'free Monument'. (I'm a culture freak.)

My only concern is that Greece and Rome are ironically NOT the best Civs to play first, because you may assume that the free bennies are always there and thus not correctly learn how to play the game 'in general'. (As an example, Rome never has to learn where in their initial build order they should build their Monument.)

Edit: Another point in Rome's favor is that they'll own a lot of land. Not just because of many cities, but because free Monuments mean that they get tiles more quickly. (Assuming that tile acquisition works the same as it did in CiV.)

 

[thecrazyscot]

Trajan though...

Doesn't he have a 20 hour manuscript written to honour how manly he was? Wasn't he a career warrior? Why is he so scrawny? From the statues he seemed like a pretty buff dude...

Doesn't that sound just a bit like overcompensation?

 

[ThisNameIsTooLo]

Am I the only one a bit disappointed by Rome?

I mean, very easy road building is cool feature but other uniques are neither 'epic' nor very interesting or very strong.

This Roman Empire gets no bonus to military, and is based on "free stuff appearing automatically" - free road, free outpost, free city building. Doesn't sound that engaging or exciting to me, those are quite passive bonuses. It is probably decently useful but "free building usually monument" isn't on the same level as China "with little effort you get 10% cheaper technologies".

So far America, Greece and Rome are at the bottom of my list regarding gameplay uniqueness (what doesn't help is the fact I am bored by all those cultures and not particularly excited to roleplay Roman empire for 1000th time, so they are at the bottom of general interest as well).

I would be inclined to say that these three civs make up the beginner's tier: easy to learn, easy to use, but not very fun. You'll have to learn the mechanics of the game before you're ready to use a more interesting civ.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Rome may have passive bonuses but to take advantage of the bonuses you need to play very active and aggressive. If you do not expand as Rome you are literally playing the baseline civ. Most other civs you can stay small and get substantial advantage but that is not the case with Rome.

 

[Ikael]

YESSSSS

And now, let's dwelve into the dettails:

UA: All Roads Lead to Rome - all cities start with trading post, new cities within trading range of your capital start with a road leading to them. Trade routes earn extra gold for trading through trading posts in your own cities.

It is hard to tell how much powerful this UA will be since we don't know anything about the trading post mechanic, but it would seem to me that this will make Rome an economic powerhouse and a very easy to defend wide civ due to fast troop deployment. This seems compounded by...

UU: Legion - stronger and more expensive than swordsman which it replaces, can build forts and roads (limited number of builds, looks like 2). This gives Rome early access to forts.

Stronger than swordman and doubles as military engineers too! Synergizes greatly with Rome's UA. I love how Rome's uniques can be used in order to expand fast and turtle as well.

UD: Baths - replaces aqueduct. Provides amenities and more housing. Unlocked at Engineering.

Ok, so Baths will be like Aqueducts, but with extra termae on them. Sounds great to me, and one of the most powerful unique districts so far, as it would allow you to go both tall (extra housing) and wide (extra amenities).

LUA: Trajans' Column - all cities start with one free building in the city center (most of the time will be Monument which is +2 culture)

Kinda bland, at least on paper, but it fits Trajan's historical involvement with public infrastructure projects. Also, I wonder what other buildings can spawn. Perhaps the type of free building will be dependent on your city location? (ej: settling on plains gives monument, coastal cities get lighthouses, etc). That would be really cool, and it would help to make this LUA more flavourful, me thinks.

In short: Rome seems like a powerful civ for begginers, with many effects being passive rather than requiring the player to modify his gameplay style or to play a very active role, even if it will likely appeal to veterans of the saga with a penchant for conducting a very active expansionistic style.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

As others have stated, Rome looks very strong... but somewhat lacking in uniqueness. I expect them to be very good AI relative to other AIs

 

[Haggbart]

Probably the later version of it when it becomes obsolete. Usually Broadcast towers.

Broadcast centers aren't built in the city centre, but the theater square. I don't think a newly found city will get a building that would require a specific district to be built.
AFAIK water mills, walls and granaries are the other options we know of so far.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Broadcast centers aren't built in the city centre, but the theater square. I don't think a newly found city will get a building that would require a specific district to be built.
AFAIK water mills, walls and granaries are the other options we know of so far.

The potential for free walls would be useful for such an expansive civ.

 

[Abraxis]

Doesn't that sound just a bit like overcompensation?

If he wrote it, but he did not, it was written by Rome to honour him

To put it into perspective for those who havn't read about his reign, this is like casting the guy who played littlefinger to play a young Robert Baratheon.

 

[thecrazyscot]

If he wrote it, but he did not, it was written by Rome to honour him

I'm sure flattery wasn't involved unless he were dead when it was written.

To be clear, I'm not arguing whether it's accurate or not, it's just the idea of a 20-page manuscript of manliness amuses me.

 

[Zaarin]

Normally, I have absolutely zero interest in Rome; historically I find them uninteresting, and in both Civ4 and Civ5 they were monumentally boring by design. This Rome, however, is quite interesting. A trade bonus makes sense but was unexpected; if I can ever get enough out of my comfort zone to play an expansionist, I might actually give Rome a shot.

 

[Nikolai II]

Why is it "Most of the time will be Monument"? I wonder what would be the odd cases.

Advanced starts, perhaps?

 

[Slayan]

Holy Crap I love this Civ!!

 

[Sansa_Stark]

Id say it could be monument as default, and granary if you start without fresh water access.

And Rome is awesome. I am really shocked when people use words like "underwhelming" in this thread. What I see is 16 great and unique civs, and Rome is definitely in upper half in terms of uniqueness.

 

[thecrazyscot]

It would be nice if they created a different model for "ancient" forts, even if only Rome can build them.

 

[Joketa]

Is it possible that the free building is random and that there's a higher probability for monument over graneries and water mills?

 

[Magil]

Is it possible that the free building is random and that there's a higher probability for monument over graneries and water mills?

On reddit, the Firaxis rep (Pete Murray) had this to say: "It is not random. It is typically the easiest city center building to construct. ...No, but the list of edge cases when the building is not a Monument exceeds the scope of a Reddit post."

So it's going to be a Monument except in "edge cases".