History VideoGame / ExpeditionsRome

* RubberBandHistory: [[spoiler: Julius Caesar is your commander, but gets killed early on. PlayerCharacter takes up his historical place and role, while the majority of historical events involving Caesar take place one way or another]].

* RubberBandHistory: [[spoiler: Julius Caesar is your commander, but gets is killed early on. PlayerCharacter takes up his historical place and role, while majority of historical events involving Caesar takes place one way or another]].

* RelationshipValues: Played with, the game has approval values, based on a character's personality traits. That said your companions will never turn on you - generic Praetorians can however.

** In the endgame. [[spoiler: Syneros is poisoned while testing food for the Legatus]]

* SeeminglyHopelessBossFight: The surprise ambush fight with Ambiorix is extremely difficult and the player is not expected to win, with Lurco coming to save the player after the player is defeated. However, it IS possible to win the battle.

* BladeOnAStick: Triarii can carry giant armor-shredding spears.

** The Egyptian priestesses on the load screen make sure to BareYourMidriff.

* FighterMageThief: Principes are Fighters, acting as tank, blocking enemies, soaking damage, and with a great ability to shrug off assaults. Triarii are Mages, with high damage attacks, and various AOE and Support abilities to buff their allies. They are not as durable as Principes. Veles and Saggitarius are the Thieves. The former focusing on mobility, high damage, stealth and flanking, as well as debuffs. The later being the game's sole ranged class, using bows. Both are very vulnerable to damage and rely on being out of the enemy's reach for safety.

* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Vitellius Scaevola is set up to be the main antagonist, being the person who married the player character’s older sister in order to seize control of the family and the villa. This is further helped by his appearance assisting Mithridates against Rome, and the player can choose to gather evidence of his treason. This all comes to nothing; he is killed off at the end of Act One, offscreen, by his brother,if player secured evidence, while he lives but fades into background as Lurco takes over the stage]].

* TheseQuestionsThree: Syneros's side quest ends with him and the Legatus answering riddles.

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: At the very beginning of the game the player meets a friendly young man, one Gaius Julius Caesar. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted, as it turns out that this game is an alternate history in which Caesar is killed during the Mithridatic War. This version of Caesar will never get the chance to become Pontifex Maximus, conquer Gaul, or become Dictator for Life. The player, on the other hand…]]

* MsFanservice: Cleopatra's portrait prominently displays a NavelDeepNeckline, and much of her dialogue with a male chyaracter [[TheTease is flirtatious]], with many [[DoubleEntendre suggestive phrases and innuendo]]. Given that the player is effectively [[spoiler:taking the place of Caesar, whom Cleopatra had a very famous affair with]], this is not entirely surprising.

* BloodKnight: Bestia in spades. Potentially the Legate as well.

* CharacterCustomization: The player can choose the name, gender and appearance of the Legate, and can rename any of the centurions who are recruited from the barracks. Notably, in a case of ShownTheirWork, female protagonists are not able to have a first name, as was Roman custom.

** In the endgame. [[spoiler: Syneros is poisoned while testing food for the Legate]]
** If the Legate gets the evidence against Scaveola [[spoiler: then Lurco kills Scaveola offscreen. Which eventually causes the Legate's sister, Liviana to be killed offscreen by raiders.]]

* EasyLogistics: Averted with the Legate's party. Each character needs to eat food every 8 hours, except for those with the Ascetic trait. However the Legions can travel anywhere and do every mission available as long as they move back to the garrison after completing the mission.

* {{Irony}}: Lurco chastises Marcellus for letting the Legate's party out of his sight, and Marcellus tries to defend himself by saying "it's not like they'll set the palace on fire!" That's exactly what Bestia had just done.

* MultiplePersuasionModes: Persuasion checks in the dialogue are done by one of three rhetorical styles: ''Ethos'' (appeal to authority/tradition), ''Pathos'' (appeal to emotion), or ''Logos'' (appeal to reason), with the Legate getting one style for free at character creation and optionally learning one more from Cicero at the start of Act 2. Mechanically, each style is exactly the same: having it unlocks corresponding conversation options in dialogue trees, which always succeed automatically; but there are very few instances after the tutorial where more than one of the three options are available, so if you don't have the necessary style at that point, you have to make do with the inferior default dialogue options.

* TheseQuestionsThree: Syneros's side quest ends with him and the Legate answering riddles.

* UngratefulBastard: Lucullus’s co-Consul, Marcus Aurelius Cotta, is [[spoiler:captured by Mithridates early in the game (which really happened), and the first act is largely focused on rescuing him.]] Once you get back to Rome, Cotta is short with the Legate to the point of outright rudeness, and his only expression of gratitude is also highly sarcastic. His relatives assure the Legate he's actually grateful, but his ego is bruised at having been rescued by a junior, fresh new commander, and he's fully aware his rescue serves to empower Lucullus and the Legate politically.

** If the Legate gets the evidence against Scaveola [[then Lurco kills Scaveola offscreen. Which eventually causes the Legate's sister, Liviana to be killed offscreen by raiders.]]