An active beta for Rome 2 is now available, letting you try out the so-called Mars Update. Find out what’s changing here.
Creative Assembly had already made a surprise announcement in May that, with renewed ambition, they plan to provide updates even for older Total War games. The first in this series is the initially controversial but still popular Rome 2. It was the last classic, truly massive historical Total War game and was released back in 2013.
Three major “Pantheon Updates” are set to bring Rome 2 up to speed; the first of these is called the Mars Update and, unsurprisingly, focuses on real-time battles. The beta for this update is available now! The team has outlined exactly what changes the update brings to battles in a blog post.
Overall, it seems as though battles end a bit faster as a result, but are generally much more tactical than before.
How the Mars Update Will Modernize Battles
With the Mars Update, Creative Assembly aims to implement a lot of the feedback gathered over the years for Rome 2, as well as introduce some features from later games in the Total War series. The sole focus is on combat! The Mars Update is designed to optimize real-time battles.
Combat
- Every hit in battle can now potentially be a critical hit that instantly kills a unit. The higher the armor value, the lower the chance of this happening.
- Armor now has a certain chance to completely block damage. Armor-piercing weapons reduce this chance.
- Armor-piercing weapons no longer completely ignore armor. Damage is now reduced by the armor level to a lesser extent than with normal weapons.
- The Expert Charge Defense trait now halves the charge bonus of cavalry, and defenders deal more damage. Horses also retreat from spears depending on the exact length of the polearm.
Morale
- Units no longer automatically receive a +30 bonus to morale.
- The morale penalty when a unit is flanked is now applied again.
- The morale bonus when many units are killed in a short period of time has been reduced to 0.
Exhaustion
- Various actions now cause units to reach different exhaustion levels more quickly.
- Standing still or walking slowly allows units’ stamina to regenerate faster.
- Shooting and reloading have a greater impact on stamina.
- Blocking ranged attacks with shields also depletes stamina more rapidly.
- Exhausted units are now even weaker in combat, as Charge, Melee Defense, and Precision are also affected.
Shields
- A shield no longer automatically protects against attacks from the left and from the front. Instead, it provides protection in a 150-degree arc in front of the unit. This is intended to better reflect the in-game visuals.
- However, special formations such as the classic turtle formation can influence the degree of this arc.
- The turtle formation now provides even better protection against arrows.
- Shields no longer have an armor value. This means that if an attack isn’t blocked, the full damage is dealt. However, attacks are now blocked by shields more frequently.
Controls
- Units are now moved by holding Alt and dragging the mouse, as in newer games.
- Units can also be rotated using Ctrl + Alt + mouse drag.
How will this change battles?
That’s a lot of detail, but how exactly will this affect combat? The team hopes to make battles in Rome 2 more tactically challenging once again. It should no longer feel like the unit with the highest stats simply wins.
New mechanics related to stamina and morale are designed to make flanking maneuvers and other tactics more effective. For example, if you continuously fire at a unit, it lowers their stamina and weakens them, setting them up for a charge. On top of that, it may happen more often that a few soldiers go down right from the first volley of arrows due to critical hits. Overall, ranged units seem to be getting a bit stronger.
Battles might also play out a bit faster again with the Mars update. Wear-and-tear battles are expected to be less common, since quickly killing units no longer boosts their morale. As a result, it may be easier for a unit to flee. Shield-bearers are now also more vulnerable to attacks from the side.
Overall, everything in the update is designed to reward your positioning in battle more heavily.
Here’s how you can try out the update
However, it’s not yet set in stone that the Mars Update will go live exactly as described. For now, a beta version has been launched. The developers are still gathering feedback and reserve the right to revise details of the changes before the update’s official release. Here’s how to test the beta:
- Right-click on Rome 2: Total War in your Steam library.
- Now click on the “Properties” menu item.
- On the left, switch to the “Game Version and Betas” section.
- In the list, switch from “Public Standard Version” to “pantheon.”
- Steam will now download about 20 MB of data, and you can try out the Mars update.
Keep in mind that many mods will become incompatible with this update or at least won’t work properly. The developers are aware of this. That’s why, once the Pantheon updates are officially released, there will be a permanent version branch on Steam that keeps Rome 2 exactly as it is now. This way, all your mods will remain available.
