Has anyone else found the AI to be weak? I attacked an army that was almost 3 times the size of mine with the power bar indicating almost 100% win chance for the AI, nether less I fought the battle on the field. Which ended up as a blood bath for the AI. Now Im not the best TW player but that was pretty ridiculous and as a result Im going to play shogun 2 for a bit until it get fixed so I can enjoy the game better instead of steam rolling all those who stand in my spartan warriors way!

Yeah I was surprised that the army gets naval automatic transports just by stepping in the ocean and doesn't have to build them, during Prologue I wasted a few turns building a port and then researching naval tech waiting for the naval unit build icons to show up in the port city before eventually googling and finding out all you need to do is step in the ocean...

With that said, those questionable gameplay changes don't seem to stop me from having fun with the game so far, maybe I'm just not a hardcore TW player these days (Rome BI was the last time I was really hardcore)... mainly I'm wanting a mod to slow the battle speed.

Hope the patch tomorrow helps those with hardware probs... for me I'm about 5hrs into it on Ultra settings and just 2 CTDs which is actually more stable than Shogun2 on my system.

Was the battle at Thermopylae ?

The AI is rubbish in every way possible. Not only do they seem to route easily compared to your own troops but there's simply zero tactics being applied to their playstyle. Battles are just the entire army forming a massive blob running at you. On Very Hard me and my friend still aren't challenged, they are so easy to kill, counter and predict.

I'm super disappointed.

And I love how you can organize the army to a set formation and they maintain it......until they engage and as you say it turns into a blob

I haven't touched it since release day. Will try it again tomorrow after the patch has been applied and if it is still in the same sorry state I will look into getting my money back as even if the hardware issues are sorted the gameplay design decisions are utter #%&*$#! There was a rumour that it had changed so much from Shogun 2 (which pretty much had a perfect balance for me) as CA/Sega wanted to move it onto consoles and that would answer a lot of the questions about the crappy gameplay and UI that's been implemented.

Why else would they move so far away from Shogun 2? Don't tell me they wanted to try something different as that doesn't wash.

Patch note, nothing about the ai really

Here are the patch notes for Total War: ROME II Patch 1 (due for release on 06/09/2013):
For additional information on improving graphical performance visit this thread.

• Higher average frame rates with out-of-the-box settings (more conservative settings)
• Fix for DirectX 10.0 Lighting issue reported - environment map wasn't being created leading to black reflections.
• Fixed a sunken Samothrace temple complex world wonder on the Campaign map.
• Fixed defender being able to create encampments when involved in a combined battle.
• Added some localisation fixes to audio packs in French, Russian, Italian, German and Spanish.
• Fixed lock up in Multiplayer Campaign battles when a desynchronisation occurs. Players are now notified of the desynchronisation, and the battle ends.
• Fixed Multiplayer Campaign battle "overrun" prompt, which was not being shown to a player if they were a reinforcement and the other player was spectating.
• Fixed corrupt loading screen when changing to fullscreen / windowed mode after a battle, and then going into another battle.
• Fix for Multiplayer Campaign host being unable to move the camera in campaign, after reloading a save game on some rare occasions.
• Safe guards added to prevent a very rare crash in coastal assault battles.
• Fix for game lock up during end turn sequence / Celtic AI faction turn in single player campaign.
• Improved AI use of walls on Athens large settlement battle map.
• Improvements to Auto-resolve balancing in Single Player and Multiplayer Campaign modes.
• Aligned ship unit upkeep costs with land units - made mercenary ships more expensive and non-mercenary ships cheaper.
• Fixed slow turning rates for transport ships.
• Improved civil war balancing in relation to campaign difficulty.
• Fixed vehicle ground pipes, to prevent Siege Towers becoming immovable when they are left empty during the Deployment Phase of a Siege Battle, then units were moved into the Siege Tower when the battle has started.
• Fixed bug when ramming sideways into moving ship, which caused the ramming ship stick to target and strafe along with it in battles.
• Reduced the chance of Naval units sometimes clipping through the ground or harbours / ports during Port Assault battles when attempting to disembark.
• Fixed issue where armies would be stuck in Muster stance and could not exit that stance in Campaign modes.
• Fixed case where spies could get stuck on top of fleets in Campaign modes.
• Fixed rare post battle lockup in Campaign modes.
• Improved unit pathfinding in Barbarian village battle maps (fixed no go zones).
• Fix for Multiplayer Campaign lock up when the player was reinforcing an AI ally who was victorious in battle, causing the player to become stuck with no victory / continue / exit battle user interface functionality.
• Fix for cultural influence bonus from the Shrine of Neptune building
• Fix for “Zone of Controls” of hidden armies being visible to both players in head to head Multiplayer Campaign mode on mouse-over.
• Assorted minor fixes to city battle maps.
• Fix for "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" achievement failing to unlock when its requirements were met in some situations

I'd rather they actually fixed the AI. You know, the thing that is the entire foundation of a game where you play against it.

The hardcore crowd will probably wait for a Darthmod or something similar. Problem is, it will probably be quite a while before you see one.

Darth won't be doing anything for Rome 2. ( Plus Darthmod makes the games so easy, I doubt anyone 'hardcore' would use it ).

Slower units mod has been released!
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?618660-Released-Slower-Units-mod
(to install, just unzip into the Total War Rome II\data folder)

Aw excellent! The patch last night had given me a few more FPS but the movement speed was still annoying the hell out of me. This is a step in the right direction.

Shame these don't work in multiplayer.

Thank goodness. I was finding myself auto-calcing a ton of battles simply because I didn't want to have to watch all of the units morphing themselves across the battlefield in less than 1 minute...

Now we just have to wait for a mod that lets a unit stand up in a fight for more than 7 seconds...

There's a mod that tweaks morale too over on TWcenter, meaning they fight up until 75% casuality ( Depending on how elite the unit is, some might even go 85 or more ).

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?618513-Radious-Battle-Mod

This contains both the slower units and better morale.

Thanks for the heads up on both mods!

Wait no more, woeful legionary! 't Is here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?618513-Radious-Battle-Mod
[edit: Sethos beat me to it) Alternatively, there is also this mod: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?618795-Close-Combat-mod

With these few changes, the battles have become bearable for me so I can finally start playing the other half of the game. It'll take some more time before the mod tools are working properly so that the balance can be redressed (e.g. slowing down the units has made the effects of missile fire more severe).

Compared to Rome 1, I think I will like the Rome 2 campaign a lot more. Compared to Shogun2, I'm not so sure yet.

Until CA turn the speed down I cant play MP unless it depends on the host? I really cannot stand that speed.

Also disappointed how my cohorts don't stand at shield wall and fight like legionaries should instead of the Saturday night brawl it is now.

Another very interesting post analyzing the reasons for this mess of a release:

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.ph...8b8d76aecb47d2d

Yep.