Europa Universalis: Rome - Gold Edition

This game has been an enthralling dive into history of Rome. Its blend of historical accuracy and strategic depth offers a captivating experience. Despite its learning curve, mastering its mechanics is immensely rewarding. While visually modest, its immersive world and soundtrack transport players to the heart of Roman antiquity. Overall, it's a must-play for history buffs of Rome, and grand strategy fans alike. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258130393 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3152324124

better than imperator rome

Steam makes it too hard to get updates. There is a update on the makers website that steam does not allow/get. I have a common problem with the cheksum failure that crashes the game and makes it unplayable. Tried to wipe and reinstall and it still happens. Steam has many users that have made this known and they have failed to fix/allow a fix to happen digitally (meaning easy to fix).

A simple yet addictive game! I have been playing it on and off for many years, but I do recommend looking into mods as the game can get a bit stale.

For its time (crummy graphics in other words) it was a fun expansionist game.

The Negatives


Terrible treaty AI: The AI will basically just take random territory it controls during a war leading to border gore. A bigger issue however is that the AI likes to permanently occupy larger countries and never make peace.

Civil Wars: The rebel faction just gets a bunch of random provinces for their rebellion. This just makes civil wars tedious and worse, Its bad strategy because preparing and adapting them is just pure luck.

Populists: Its a bit ridiculous that they can win elections despite low popularity and few seats. This kinda undermines the whole point of managing the senate. Its not game breaking but you're punished with a changed national idea if you get a populist in power. You'll basically just have to occasionally arrest nobody senators who somehow find themselves next in line for the Consulship.

Casus Belli: Its hard to find excuses for war. You gotta either wait for border incidents or spam assassins.

Lack of factions: Not really a bad thing but the northern tribes are basically unplayable and the monarchies are boring. Stick to Rome and Carthage.

Buggy: The game crashes and installing mods is actually pretty difficult. The patches needed to run most mods are hidden inside obscure threads on the Paradox forums and were apparently not made with Steam in mine.


The Positives


Generals: The game knows what its trying to be. The difference between a 9 general and 10 general is thousands of deaths and this means that you'll have to do everything in their your power to get incredible generals infront of your armies. Most good generals will earn a following of soldiers who are loyal to them instead of the state and will tend to be ambitious. These generals will want promotions, triumphs and bribes and if they're especially ambitious they'll even start a civil war. Another nuanced mechanic is that units who are loyal to a general will fight better under that general so you have to try and balance your generals popularity with their threat to the status quo.

Senate: The senate isn't perfect but managing it is focus of the game rather than an annoying side attraction. You get bonuses depending on which faction is in charge and get punished harshly with a changed national idea and negative modifiers if the populists get in. The senate is not a boring side attraction, its a den of intrigue and fun for those who like to autistically micromanage things. You want to switch which faction is in charge depending on your needs.

Barbarians: Germania and Spain are made up of colonial provinces that spawn hoards. These hoards lack organization and equipment but their numbers and occasional brilliant generals make them a threat. As Rome you basically need to garrison the north because its unpredictable. You need to build forts and set up buffer states as at any moment a giant hoard that's actually a threat could spawn. The northern tribes are playable but they obviously only exist just to be made into buffer states by the player as they lack any mechanics or way to actually resist the barbarians.

Less Mana: You can't instantly convert provinces culture or religion with some magical points. This means you have to actually manage your empire and deal with diverse populations. This means the game actually has a late game instead of a boring slog of steam rolling. Much of your great army will be resisting the barbarians and guarding against rebellions. You'll have to rely on a smaller corp of elite units with good generals to continue painting the map. That means you can't neglect the senate or stop managing your generals.
This may seem like a minor detail but makes the late game fun.

Chance: Battles come down to terrain, army makeup, modifiers (based on laws/government), numbers and generals. There aren't too many ways to game the system. You will get destroyed if you pick bad generals or attack across rivers but luck might be on your side and you might win despite your poor choices. However, the luck of the dice roll can also undermine even the greatest of generals. This randomness is lacking in newer Paradox games and its sad because chance adds a layer of depth to strategy games.

Challenge: Even Rome is going to have a hard time in the early game. Macedon, Epirus and Carthage all have generals that are actually good, much larger fleets and access to cavalry and even elephants. The challenge extends into the late game as more land means more governors, generals and influential senators to manage. You may also find yourself with less manpower in the late game as your population of small landowners is replaced by a society of slaves and citizens who want bread and circus. Its a game with problems but its also a game that avoids all of the problems of a modern Paradox title.

With Imperator's release imminent, there's no reason to play EU:Rome, except to understand the systems in Imperator by looking at their ancestor, which is why I've bothered to play it.

Compared to regular Europa Universalis, EU:Rome is a strange beast. It incorporates some of the character focus of Crusader Kings, and a little of the economic management of Victoria, while adding a little of it's own flavor to the mix. The problem is, that since this game came out well before Crusader Kings 2 (which imo revolutionized Paradox games) it's playability is extremely hampered by a lack of quality of life UI improvements that came with later titles.

For example, in modern PDX games, every army has a little number next to it, saying how many men are in it. Not so in EU:Rome, all you can see is an army marching towards you, and that's it. Now, you can pause the game, hover your mouse over the unit, and see the number, but it's quite grating to have to grind everything to a halt just to see some basic information. On top of that, if two armies are on the same province, and they both move to another province, one army's sprite will completely override the other, and there's no graphical indication the other army is there.

You are also inundated with events, on par with playing the U.S. in Victoria 2, every waking moment. Even a relatively experienced Paradox-game player like myself found it to be quite difficult to keep things straight when some loser named Gnaeus Barbilus spams you with Senatorial events over and over.

I tried to play nations besides Rome, but it felt second-class, quite a departure from later titles where even the smallest nation can be interesting. The Populist faction rivals Anarcho-Liberals in Vicky2, with how damned annoying they are to beat down. It's real fun to have to check the character screen for any Populist with better than 4 Charisma and imprison them, so they don't pull every Senator from Rome to Hispania to their faction.

The positives of the game are primarily related to the loyalty system. A general wins a few battles, a few legions think he's a pretty cool guy, then he decides to take his army, march on Rome, and install himself as leader. Quite the balancing act is required by the player to have effective leaders, while checking their power.

Little side notes:
Characters are all hideous potato-human hybrids.
x5 speed (a.k.a. the game runs as fast as your CPU can handle) on modern hardware is so fast, it's near suicidal to play on.
The map feels small with such massive provinces, can't really blame a game from 11 years ago for that, though.

Mix of Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II with an Ancient Era theme?
As mentioned before this game somewhat finds the middle ground between Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II set in the Classical Era, while keeping it a bit more simple. There are individuals with personal properties who are part of families which you can appoint to perform certain tasks in your realm, but you are not playing as a dynasty gaining and losing lands by inheritance. For some people this type of gameplay might make CKII a bit hard to comprehend (or even annoying when you lose your realm because of some patrilineal/matrilineal screw up, or lose your alliances at the death of your ruler), in which case Europa Universalis: Rome offers a nice alternative because you are playing as a state while still having a fun mechanic with indivuals with personal traits.

Trade
I really enjoy the fun mechanic for trade in which each province produces a type of goods that can be traded with neighbouring countries or countries linked by trade routes over land or sea. Each province can trade its good once, or more often when you construct buildings like markets or harbours.

Demographics
I like the way each province's population is divided into the three classes: slaves, free men and citizens. The three classes function as the base for tax, manpower and technology respectively.

Colonisation
It's fun to have a mechanic of colonisation in this Classical Era theme, and I like the requirement to have a somewhat developed population in an adjacent province. This mechanic could be improved however by giving it some more depth, for example with a colonisation policy, either nation wide or local. The way in which you colonise now is a bit too simple, and the requirement to reduce the barbarian population in the designated province sadly makes it necessary to position troops there and wait till you trigger an uprising.

Barbarian hordes
On the other hand, the barbarian hordes spawning in the non-state lands are an interesting mechanic, picking up strength when passing through different barbarian lands and reducing technological development in raided provinces, or even destroying colonies. There is quite some empty lands in central and northern Europe, so these armies can pick up quite some strength on the way.

Celtic and Germanic tribes/states
Partly as a result of the many barbarian hordes it is rather difficult to play as one of the celtic or germanic states. If you manage to survive the ravaging by these hordes, it is highly likely that the Romans or Carthagians come and sweep you up. The mechanics for playing with these states could definitely be improved. However, you can quite easliy create your own mods in text files in which you can create more, bigger, or wealthier "barbaric" states.

All in all, I love the game because of the Classical Era theme (including the music) and think it's a good change every now and then to the extensive micromanagement of Europa Universalis IV. Sometimes you just want to play a simpler game which still has a good variety of interesting mechanics to enjoy.

I can't wait to see what the follow up "Imperator: Rome" will be like!

Europa Universalis: Rome

I played this game a lot in high school, and I'm probably one of the few who actually liked it.

It's a solid game about doing one thing, and that's having a rome focused game. It's not as detailed or varied as future pdx games.

But I kinda love this game for what it does do.

No idea about all the whiners here.I probably have much more hours in this game cause i didn't always play it in steam.
The game feels like a classic paradox game in Roman era. Don't expect the perfect historical accuracy or the perfect game. The one mechanic i didn't like much is the colonize. Like rome total war 1 game there are the factions and there are some areas like the rebel ones in the rome 1 total war, but the difference here is that you don't conquer them, you colonize them. And to colonize you need to be colonized at a 40-50 percent i think. So if you want to play let's say a barbaric faction like the aeudi(gauls) you can't colonize the locations next to you.This make expanding harder for barbarians. But, like most other games, mods exist and mods make the games better. So if you want to try a Rome paradox game( paradox is the best company for grand strategy games) you can buy this game OR wait for the next one called Imperator Rome.
And pleease for the love of god.Don't compare a total war game with a paradox. I am fan of both and can easily say that their games are totally different in terms of gameplay!

(I actually have ~50 hours in this game, but Steam merged the DLC entry into the base game)

This is EU3-lite with a dash of CK1.

It is fun, but it's quite maddening in that there's so much potential that it didn't capitalise on.

Can't wait for Rome 2....

Another ongoing review...

So far I found EU: Rome to be a lot simpler than more recent iterations. Even if compared with CK and CK2 it feels like it's been stripped off of many features. Still, the game holds on pretty well, and it might be a great entry point for anyone interested in this series, or any other grand strategy game from paradox.

Graphics are obviously dated, but they do not detract from the experience. Sound is great, and interface... well, it's a paradox game. You be mauled by text and tons of info most of the time, but you'll learn to work with it. The setting is great, and despite not being entirely faithful to historical data (generals, citizens and kings are rolled before the game begins, for example), there's a fair amount of historical background holding the scene together. Just don't try using it in history class or on your homework, if you're still at that stage of life.

Mechanics hold up quite well. There's more waiting than in, say, EU IV, but it's manageable. Kingdoms and empires are a riot to play. AI is good (better then most strategy games out there, by the way) and pacing is great. Many interesting and unique moments are bound to arise. I'm preparing a story compilation from a few playthroughs for the youtube channel, so as to exemplify it.

Solid recommendation!

P.S.: as with all paradox grand strategy games, READ THE DAMN MANUAL!

Basically a mix of Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis at an ancient time setting. Better than one might think.

If you buy the game, make sure to download the 2.36 beta patch and the reign of the ancients mod from the paradox forums. It really helps this game reach it's potential.

Also, if you're having trouble installing the mod on windows 10 then follow Thypus's installation instructions instead.

1 Have a clean install of the game
2 copy the province_texture folder on the map/cache folder and stick it in the desktop for example
3 patch to 2.36b in the rome folder
4 install the mod in the mod folder
5 change the name of the cache folder (in map folder) to cache_vanilla
6 create a new folder named cache in map folder and then stick inside the previous province_texture that you have copy in the desktop
7 then stick in the mod/map/cache folder the province_texture folder aswell

And if you have the problem which makes parts of the map blue in terrain view then do this:

"you have to follow Thypus's installation instructions and then replace everything in the rome/map folder except the province terrain folder with everything (except the province terrain folder) thats in the mod/map folder."

All of that should only take ten minutes to setup at the most. (as long as you don't mess up)
Hope this helped your decision!

My most played game on Steam, and it deserves a review.

Its very indeph with loads of micromanagement, and if you happen to like the timeline, you are welcome to buy it.
You can tune it to play it with unlimited time, if that bothers you.

What sets it apart from normal EU games, is the barbarian mechanic.
There are lots of uncivilized lands where barbarians are uprising all the time, and it takes near the end of the game, to civilize them all. If you play a nation that borders to them, it makes the game very "fun" and unpredictible.
Also, you can have children and start very long dynasties. Its fun to watch.

Combat is very much EU-like and simple. A good general is the most important thing.
There is lots to know about the game, you can read on it for a very long time to understand everything indeph.
Casus belli, how to play wars, the differences of the political systems and how they work, diplomacy, techtrees, jadda jadda.

I enjoyed this good micro/macro strategy for a very long time.
Its really hard to beat it with something like a little gallic state that battles the roman empire.
But if you make it, it was an experience thats worth it. If not, you want to try again. ;)

The only bad thing i have to say about the game, is that it has a nasty bug with soldier loyalty.
It randomly applies it to characters that never led an army.
But this bug is so nasty, it really dampens the experience.
You can play around it, but it simply sux a-s-s, and its a shame Paradox never fixed it, because this is one of their very best games.

This game had a lot going for it but it is prone to crashing and freezing. Unfortunately Paradox is treating this game as abandonware and has walked away from support.

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm an experienced but not expert player of the Paradox Games. That means that I've played Hearts of Iron III a few years ago (and enjoyed a Communist Greece, amongst my other "achievements") and also love Europa Universalis IV. I saw EU: Rome on Steam and, basically, bought it to give it a try.

CONS
1) For a 2008 Game, Graphics should've been better.
2) Not the variety of factions that HoI3 or EUIV have.
3) Steam version forces you to search for the manual here. Also, the tutorial could've been better.
4) Surely, not as worth as EUIV but I'd love to try something until HoI4 goes public.
5) There are no mods is Steam for this game. Maybe the CD version (regular installation) supports them, but I couldn't find anything here.

PROS
1) Cheap. 10 euros for a Grand Strategy Game by Paradox. It's God's will!
2) The "Vae Victis" expansion and all patches are included.
3) Historical accuracy and interesting gameplay. It starts with the Invasion of Pyrrhus in Italy and the wars between Romans and Greeks.
4) Variety of historical starts. From an early Roman Republic to the Civil Wars and the foundation of the Roman Empire. Yeah!
5) Awesome music. That may sound stupid, but have a look at YouTube... Yeah, you're welcome.
6) Don't know if it's the way the AI works, but a huge advantage of the game is that factions like Rome, Carthage, Seleucids, Egypt, Macedon and Pontus actually grow up. So, a player gets to experience the "anxiety" of fighting Rome in Magna Graecia or Carthage in Africa. If you're a TWR2 player, you'll see a huge difference. Factions like the Illyrians don't consume Empires in no time, like in Rome 2. You hear that CA?

I don't guarantee that it'll be an unforgetable experience, but it's a nice, fun game to play, balanced enough for its kind.
Have fun! God keep you all safe.

Owning this and comparing it to the other Europa Universlais games, this one is not as in depth... to me at least. For example, you can choose a emmissary to send to an enemy country to declare war on them, which is good to eliminate bad apples in the family because they are usually killed the the enmy country. But unlike in EU3 and EU4, you can't have cabinet members that give your country bonuses ( trade does that, but it's not as interesting). But I do like this more than the other games because:

1. It's a longer game than EU3. I don't know about EU4 because I haven't ever played it.

2. The time setting is much more interesting to me than EU3 and EU4.

3. Altough this game looses some features, it also gains ones. For example, the troops in your army can become more loyal to their general than their country. This means if that general has loyal units and decides to start a civil war, you have a problem. But it is not all bad, because the generals pay their troops instead of you so you get more money.

Overall, It is a great game and should be bought by Europa Universalis fans. 8/10

For those of you that consider picking up this game:

Europa Universalis: Rome is a game I like very much at the moment, I have not played any other Europa Universalis games and some of them might be better (after I bought the game I heard from people that 3 is better) I however do not regret my purchase since I like the ancient world theme a lot more than almost anything else set in the real world and is for me a tie with the cold war.

Why did I like this game?

I think It is mechanically very sound, the combat mechanics are very limited but unlike for example civ 4 I do not find it annoying to fight wars and the combat does not distract too much from what works really well with the game.
So what does work really well in the game? The economic gameplay in the game is solid, it is less about buildings than for example Rome total war 1, however there are various other things that have an influence on the economy such the governors of the province that you can select (very much like Rome total war 1) but also stuff like the people you have chosen to take positions in nationwide politics, the laws you have passed, religious blessings, trade and the kind of civ you have( for example dictatorship monarchy and various kinds of democracies).
That brings me to something else that works pretty well in this game, Politics. The game has 5 political factions that battle (sometimes in case of civil war literally) over political control of your nation. Each factions power can grow or diminish depending on your actions, the populist party will for example gain more political attraction if either peace or war last too long, while the religious faction can grow from invoking blessings on your nation or sacrificing to the gods, but all factions grow from having representatives in important functions for (for example the research positions) the people taking these functions are chosen by you. But on the other side the factions can also influence your decisions, if you don't have the political support in the senate you can't start wars or make use of various other mechanics in the diplomacy interface.

What doesn't work?

The game doesn't do such a good job of explaining to you what various mechanics in the game do and how they are calculated (I for example still don't know fully how diplomatic skill is calculated) most of it however isn't that annoying and can in a way even increase your enjoyment, since you get the feeling that after your first playthrough you really got to know the game, therefore also giving you an incentive to try another one. It also isn't that bad, now after some wiki reading I think diplomatic skill is the only thing I do not really understand that I would like to understand. The game could however do a better job of presenting its information, the game could for example tell you what the traits characters could gain during events do before you need to selects them. Also I think the game could have been better if the people of your nation belonged to larger but fewer families and give you a better way (for example the family tree in Rome total war 1) to look at these families and their relations to other people in your nation

In the end I sill liked this game very much but it could have been better

I first started off playing startegy games using hex games, then with my first computer when I played a demo of CIv 1 for the Atari STE. Since then I have played most of the TW series. Especially countless hours on Rome Total War especially modded and yes I like Rome 2 with mods.

Recently this year I have started to get into the Paradox titles starting with Crusader Kings 1.

I therefore recomend Europa Universalis: Rome - Gold Edition very much.

It's Ironic to think that this game has content that the recently released Rome 2 hasn't. Ok it hasn't real time battles as a TW title but I haven't missed it in this game. The depth that is lacking in the former is in Europa Universalis: Rome - Gold Edition

Europa Universalis Rome is Paradox's attempt at creating a game to bridge the gameplay gap between the great but somewhat generic grand strategy of Europa Universalis and the personal management and dynastic aspects of Crusader Kings. Unfortunately this is not a marriage made in heaven and the two styles does not mix well in this game.

Rome is a grand strategy game, you pick your nation among those that were around at whatever start date you chose and then go about doing what ever you please. War, trade, diplomacy, like in other Paradox grand strategy games you can play your country however you please but the game is still geared heavily in the favor of warfare. You will simply gain more and gain it faster by taking it from others.

Introduced in this game is a myriad of characters that rule your cities and lead your armies all with their own traits, preferences and family relations. Unlike in Crusader Kings you don't have your own family tree in this game but instead simply try to manage your various powerful subjects in this manner. Although this is a great idea in principle it is fairly poorly executed. Managing the many, many characters available to you is a huge task that only grows larger as the game goes on and if you chose to ignore the micromanagement for too long you might have a revolt on your hands.

Rome is a game that brings a lot of cool aspects together from two very great game but it is also a game that has a lot of issues with implementation and execution that makes it a chore to play at times. It is still a Paradox grand strategy and that means there is quality underneath it all but it is still the weakest one in their lineup.