Maybe I’m a hypocrite
but maybe after the temperature has come down regarding Return of Rome, we can discuss which character could be the character for a Roman campaign with a poll, because I don’t remember a poll
If Aetius does not come out on top I will eat my hat.
Zeno would be a fairly interesting character. He does not tend to get as much love as others.
I thought about adding him but most of his campaigns are against another Romans. However, as with Justinian, it would have an interesting gameplay, as it could be Byzantine and train legionaries and centurions
I’m surprised there’s no Stilicho, probably the last effectively triumphant western Roman general (the last arch in Rome was built for him afaik) when Romans still had a Roman army even if they already had to rely a lot on barbarians…
And here’s the problem with later guys like Aetius and majorian, there barely was an army at their time so training an army of legionaries and centurions wouldn’t feel that accurate anymore. But you could say who cares since in Attila 5 you fight exactly that. But wre army at that time was really more of a Germanic federation better represented by goths or at least you could give the player the possibility to train Germanic units like huskarls throwing axemen etc.
You would also need vandals for majorian.
Constantine would be the best showcase of a late Roman civ because the army was still fully effective and even reconquering some space. No more wars of conquest for wre after Valentinian.
Theodosius coming after Adrianople was already short of men and, given the game’s logic where eastern Romans are byzantines since the very beginning, you should play with byzantines mostly against Romans.
However Stilicho and Aetius would work better as mirror campaigns for Alaric and Attila (even if Stilicho is somehow completely ignored in the poorly written Alaric plot).
Justinian and Belisarius don’t fit with the game’s logic of presenting the ere as byzantines even before heraclius when they were in fact still very close to late Romans in army and administration if not culturally. Byzantines in this game have greek fire, no legionaries or reference to early times apart from cataphracts and the recently added dromons so they fit more for a post 700 AD campaign (their civ emblem is from the paleologi dynasty).
Zeno, Maurice and heraclius would be other great characters for a late Roman campaign if you ignore the game’s logic and popular understanding of what is Roman or byzantine.
Finally me I’m gonna make a Julian custom campaign for Romans sooner or later since I’m sure that won’t happen in the original game. Julian was the last openly pagan emperor (if you ignore the ephemeral priscus attalus appointed by Alaric after the sack of Rome) and make for a really dramatic and tragic character that better encapsule the struggle to maintain alive Hellenism and the ancient world in face of Christianity and the middle ages. He was a philosopher like Marcus Aurelius and a very eccentric personality. You would also fight with a proper Roman army and civ in a time the empire was still somehow functioning while already in decay.
Constantine III could be another interesting campaign I never see coming up.
Totally forgot about him!
We already have campaigns for which real history tells you they barely have an army. And we also have other campaigns that end in defeat
We had franks for burgundians for years. We can have vikings for vandals too. Filthydelphia used Goths in his Vandals scenario
If I had to choose I would prefer vikings than goths for vandals. I planned to make a campaign about Gaiseric as well and in my mind they would have played as a mix of Sicilians and Vikings with demo ships bonus and genitours later on.
I mean you can basically create your own custom civ with scenario triggers but no new units, buildings, architecture etc.
For Stilicho or Aetius you don’t need vandals (Stilicho was half vandal but it’s not that important once he’s a Roman general) but for majorian and ricimer it would be better. Plus it would synergize very well for a dlc if you add a vandal campaign which will be 99% Gaiseric.
Your hat is safe for now!
Good. It’s a Babylonian one. I don’t want to try to eat the horns.
The Vandals would be a cool new civ. People know very little about them (myself included), so their campaign would be interesting.
I think Stilicho would also be a good option for a Roman Campaign.