Line #9 YMMV/RomeTotalWar


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2	* AngstWhatAngst: If you choose to exterminate the populace of a city you've just captured, roughly 2/3 of the population will be killed. However, the city will then be ''happier'' as a result than they would have been if you simply occupied it. This is because overcrowding is no longer an issue, and since that is one of the main sources of unhappiness, the remaining populous will be happier.
3	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The soundtrack is full of fantastic music with pounding drums, menacing strings, and (of course) OminousLatinChanting which sounds like it came straight out of ''Film/{{Gladiator}}''.
4	* DemonicSpiders:
5	** Chariots. While they have enough weaknesses to turn them into a GlassCannon, you typically need to specially prepare your army to take advantage of the "Glass" part and they can ''still'' deal a lot of damage thanks to the "Cannon" part. Even with an army kitted out to be as anti-chariot as possible, expect a lot of casualties in any battle where the enemy deploys a high number of chariots.
6	** Cataphracts. They are LightningBruiser units with very few counters. While they are the slowest horse cavalry units in the game, they are still much faster than any infantry and their FoeTossingCharge is second only to ''elephants'' in damage. Thanks to their heavy armor, they can even stand up to all but the most elite spear infantry in protracted melee combat as well. Thankfully, they are a high tier unit in the tech tree, they're very expensive, and they can only be recruited by a few factions - the normally [[PerpetualPoverty perpetually broke]] Parthia and Armenia who will struggle to afford them and can only surround them with weak infantry and {{Horse Archer}}s, and the Seleucid Empire, who ''can'' afford them as well as back them up with all of the might of a Hellenic power...but usually [[EarlyGameHell doesn't last long enough in the campaign]] for this to matter.
7	* FanNickname: Eastern Infantry are widely known as "pajama soldiers" because they look ridiculous and die really easily. They've become something of a meme themselves.
8	* GameBreakingBug: In certain instances, the "handlers" of a unit of War Dogs may all be killed or routed, but the dogs will continue to fight on. When told to attack the dogs, your units will be unable to target the dogs themselves. This can lead to a handful of dogs shredding lines upon lines of your units while you're completely unable to do anything other than try to run from them. More than a few players have edited the game's text files to remove War Dogs from unit rosters in frustration.
9	* GoddamnedBats:
10	** Missile Cavalry, ''especially'' [[HorseArcher Horse Archers]]. They're the fastest units in the game, are programmed to fall back as soon as an enemy unit approaches, and can shoot at you as they fall back. Expect a [[MarathonBoss Marathon Battle]] whenever you face an army employing many missile cavalry units, as even if you defeat the rest of the army, you'll spend quite a while chasing the missile cavalry units around the battlefield until you're lucky enough to box them in or they run out of ammo and decide to retreat.
11	** Rebel armies. They can pop up anywhere, ambush you, block the paths of your armies and agents, and cause devastation in the province they're in. Since they can pop up anywhere, even in the heart of your empire where it's possible that there has been nothing but peace and prosperity for decades, you're forced to maintain garrisons of troops capable of chasing them off at all times. They're generally not very threatening, but if they happen to ambush a lone General traveling between cities or a single unit of soldiers on their way to a waypoint, they can become dangerous.
12	* GoodBadBugs:
13	** It's possible for assassins in ''Rome'' to assassinate '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM-tO0AOE1c themselves]]'''. And yes - [[LuckBasedMission they absolutely can fail to do so]].
14	** There is an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQMgUZ-5_C0 apparent glitch]] that happens when a Phalanx unit goes into phalanx formation at the mouth of a bridge - some of the men don't stop moving but they instantly kill any approaching enemies regardless of armor and hitpoints.
15	* GrowingTheBeard: Most fans look at ''Rome'' as the point in which the ''Total War'' series, as we know it today, really established itself. It made some fairly significant changes away from the style of ''Shogun'' and ''Medieval'' and laid the foundation on which all future games would build and grow.
16	* MemeticMutation: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txKsySfXJFA opening to the Julii campaign has become a community copypasta.]]
17	** "Gods, I hate Gauls. My grandfather hated them too, even before they put out his eyes. Did you think I'd be out here on the frontier without good reason. Yes, Rome needs a strong frontier. No, Rome does not need unwashed barbarians at her gates. So that's why I'm here, the leader of the Julii, to bring order to stinking Gauls. Revenge, that would be good too. This war against the Gauls wont last long, and when it's done, I got plans. This is all about Power, Power in Rome. Going down that road means dealing with all my rivals. The Senate, the Greeks, those Carthaginian elephant riders, The Skipii and the Brutii families too. After all, the man who controls Rome rules the world, and one day, I will be emperor."
18	** The [[https://totalwar.fandom.com/wiki/Eastern_Infantry Eastern Infantry unit]] rapidly attained (and still keep) the nickname of "Pajama Warriors," due to their incredibly garish color scheme. They are also loved ironically for easily being the single worst unit in the game, sometimes losing to PEASANTS.
19	* NarmCharm:
20	** Egyptian soldiers dress like they're still in the Bronze Age, rather than the way they did during the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Several fans, particularly history buffs and those who desire historical authenticity, weren't too thrilled with this, but others found the idea of shirtless pharaoh cosplayers doing battle in snowier regions of the world and suffering no penalties to be utterly hysterical.
21	** Parthia's coloration is a garish bright pink, and many players found the idea of military units in this color to be just as outlandish and hysterical as Bronze Age Egyptians.
22	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: ''Rome'' was a critical and financial hit when it was released, and really set in motion many of the best aspects of the series that were built upon by the games that followed. However, the [[GangUpOnTheHuman still-primitive]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder diplomatic system]], [[SuicidalOverconfidence Suicidally Overconfident]] campaign AI (even on higher difficulty settings), and the [[AIBreaker easily exploited]] [[ArtificialStupidity battle AI]] tend to turn a good number of players off who are used to the sophistication of later games in the series and other, more modern GrandStrategy series. The Remastered Edition [[AuthorsSavingThrow addresses all of these complaints and then some]], bringing the game up to modern standards.
23	* ScrappyMechanic: If you are allied with Faction A and at war with Faction B, then Faction A allies with Faction B, your status with Faction B will automatically be set to "Neutral". This will cause your armies to break any sieges against Faction B holdings, which can be quite annoying if you've build up siege equipment and/or are only a turn away from the city having to surrender/sally out as this progress will be lost.
24	* ThatOneAttack: Chariot charges. They're second only to elephants in how much they can disrupt your lines. They, like elephants, can be panicked with fire attacks, but they're much faster so you may only get off one volley of fire before the chariots go from out of range to your front lines. Also, the factions with access to chariots, especially Egypt, tend to recruit them in far greater numbers than factions who can recruit elephant units do.

Context YMMV / RomeTotalWar