Aluminium Christmas Trees: Yes, Celtic and Germanic women fought as warriors, even if not exactly as portrayed in the game.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Ghost Wolf from the first game. While a talking wolf is not overtly out of place in a setting with zombies and spirits, it is never explained what the damn thing is, why does it talks or why does it attack Larax, and the latter's reaction (a hilariously dumbfounded "huh?") just completes the scene.
Demonic Spider: Norman chiefs are a pain to fight against, but the tutorial of Imperivm II turns it up with Runakh, the foreign warrior the player is tasked to defeat. In this case, it's not that he is invincible - is that the tutorial insists for some reason you should face him with an army of archers, which is basically the best matchup possible for him given his massive points and lifesucking abilities. A new player will probably witness how his hordes of archers are massacred one after another until he decides to throw the orders aside, fight fire with fire and just swarm Runakh with heavy elite guards.
Faux Symbolism: The cryptic speech of the mountain druid. It is clearly meant to be a Leaning on the Fourth Wall koan referring the player, but some of its parts are genuinely obscure.
"To know half a truth is the same as to know nothing. That I can assure you. You found life in death. You’re looking at the world from above. What empowers you weakens you, but your weakness will strengthen others. You have a mouse. Agh, not even I can myself understand those things."
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Perhaps naturally given the historical events portrayed, the franchise is an absolute classic in Spain and Italy. The early Imperivm tournaments were the first e-sports competitions in the history of both countries.
Memetic Mutation: In the Spanish community, the characters' battle cries became a mark of identity for the fandom, as they tend to be so hammy and spirited that it's hard not to love them. Many YouTube vids have the comments section filled with Spaniards quoting them.
Iberian elite guard: HEADS WILL ROLL!
Carthaginian nobleman: To me the Sacred Legion!
Egyptian Horus warrior: Horus JUDGES, we EXECUTE!
German Teutonic rider: I have got the fastest horrrrrse!
(And many more)
Narm: Roman liberati wear only flesh-colored loincloths, which have the effect of making them look completely naked.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The character captions and some of their stats were changed from II to III, yet some changes were more popular than others.
Germany is probably the least liked civilization in III. Its glaring defense holes, emphasis in cavalry and just plain weird resource management make it basically a Glass CannonFragile Speedster faction, which means that any player wishing to play as it needs to be good in guerrilla fighting and high-speed gameplay almost to the extent of overspecialization in order not to become an embarrassment in the battlefield. This contrasts tellingly with the fan favorite Egyptian faction, whose toughness and grinding skills are very starter-friendly and generally allow the player to relax and think instead of strategizing for his dear life from the beginning.
Gaul also receives a good amount of dislike in the III community, as the installment turns it into a faction with no clear specialization that somehow has surprisingly weak regular units at the same time. Its only outstanding figures are its heroes, warrior women and Fand warriors, to the point that instructionals for the game often advise to use heroes as regular cavalry instead of the actual cavalry and to use all the regular units as a deliberate Red Shirt Army to give the two other mentioned units a chance.
Civitas
Contested Sequel: It's fit to say that, while some people liked Imperivm Civitas and its focus on managing a Roman city, many people disliked the Genre Shift away from strategy.
Game-Breaker: In Imperivm Civitas III (Grand Ages Rome):
If you have bought the expansion Reign of Augustus, you have the option to play with a maxed out character from the start at the character creation tab.
The Pontifex Maximus talent doubles religious satisfaction. The Temple of Jupiter provides 50% religious satisfaction at base. Do the math.
The "Family" talent skills are often subject to this, as many of them make certain missions that would have been difficult an absolute joke. Some even give immediate access to late game buildings without needing research, provided you have the materials.
The Lucii family tree focuses on resource production. This also includes instant upgrades without needing research or denarii along with the lack of a demerit when using slaves instead of plebs. You can also draft up to 3 squads, a talent that no other family has. The result? Practically unlimited resources along with a good standing army within the first 5 minutes of play.
The Julii has the "Thespian" talent. It doubles the theater's base buff of 50% satisfaction to a whooping 100%. Just build these and you never have to worry about entertainment for your citizens ever again.
The Triarii squads. Their biggest advantages is their special ability, the turtle formation which makes them immune to ranged attacks and that they gain more overall health the more levels they gain. Activate the turtle formation, send them first against the enemy army. The A.I. will waste their ranged attacks on them while melee attacks will be shrugged off. Deactivate the formation once they reach the archers and watch the havoc unfold.
