Europa Barbarorum

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Europa Barbarorum
Developer(s)	Europa Barbarorum Development Team
Engine	Europa Barbarorum: Rome: Total War engine Europa Barbarorum II: Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms engine
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date	Europa Barbarorum:  () 27 December 2005[1] Europa Barbarorum II: In development
Latest release	1.1 / April 7, 2008[2]
Genre(s)	Real-time tactics, Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Media	Free download

Europa Barbarorum (or EB) is a modification of the computer game Rome: Total War (RTW) based on the desire to provide RTW players with a more historically accurate game experience. Europa Barbarorum is a total conversion replacing all unit and building stats, for instance, and all unit models. It covers the period from 272 BC to 14 AD, and introduces a four-turn-per-year system on the campaign map (as opposed to the two-turn-per-year system of Rome: Total War) to better represent the flow of history.

Contents 1 History and goal 2 Features 2.1 Units 2.2 New factions 2.3 Faction changes 2.4 Cartography 2.5 Traits 2.6 Buildings 2.7 Non-Unit Graphics 2.8 Faction List 2.9 Game Mechanics 2.10 Audio 3 Release history 4 Awards and reviews 5 Europa Barbarorum 'Mini-Mods' 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History and goal

EB was originally founded in January 2004, eight months before RTW's release, when the Europa Barbarorum team who were following the game's development became concerned that "barbaric" factions such as the Gauls and Germanic tribes were being portrayed as stereotypical hordes of unwashed savages, in a manner that was not accurate. The EB team felt that such representations conformed more to a sensationalist Hollywood stereotype than historical fact, maintaining (as many modern historians do) that the ancient "barbarian" cultures are often judged and possibly misunderstood based on an interpretatio romana or interpretatio graeca due to the nature of ancient historiographical conventions. The true nature of these civilizations, says EB, is better revealed through archaeological evidence and what remains of their own ancient texts.

Despite the name, the changes in EB are not limited to "barbarian" factions. The developers of EB tried to convince the Creative Assembly (CA / developer) to alter their depiction of the period to make the whole game more historically accurate. Whilst some suggestions were taken on board and adopted in the final release of RTW, most were disregarded by CA due to publisher pressures / financial expediency. Some EB members continued to offer their services as historical advisors but due to inherent concerns over intellectual property rights, CA declined the offer.

Having exhausted this avenue for change, the EB members then resolved to modify the game themselves upon its release. To these ends they began what ended up being several thousands of hours of research and preliminary work.

Once released, EB immediately began work on the modification, recruiting a large team of volunteer skinners, modelers, coders, and historians to make the game better reflect historical reality. EB’s vision of edutainment was endorsed by CA, who offered limited help when able.

Slightly over a year after its release, the EB team finally made their initial open beta public on December 27, 2005. Over 135,000 downloads of the 0.80-0.81 versions were tracked, while the 1.0 version has been downloaded nearly 95000 times six months after release. The mod has also been included with demos and mods on PC Format and PC Gamer (UK), computer magazines published in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Even though EB gives the players the opportunity to experience the same age and (roughly) place as original RTW, this mod is a total conversion, which offers a very different gaming experience to Rome Total War. All units, buildings, map features and other modable parameters of the game have been reworked from scratch and have had new features added.

[edit] Features

[edit] Units

• All existing units have been removed and replaced
• Unit recruitment has been changed to a new system based on governments and assimilation, set up at region-by-region basis

[edit] New factions

• The Arverni, a new faction of Gauls
• Baktria, the central Asian Hellenic empire.
• Pyrrhus of Epirus and his Epirotes are now playable.
• Saka-Rauka, a heavily cavalry-based faction based in central Asia.
• Saba, the pre-Islamic kingdom in Arabia.

[edit] Faction changes

This section has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (April 2008)

• The Egyptian army has been changed to correspond to the Ptolemaic period in history.
• Sauromatae (Sarmatians) takes over as the regional superpower in ancient Russia, instead of the Scythians.
• The Gauls are split into two factions, the Aedui and the Arverni.
• The Koinon Hellenon (Ancient Greek: common Greeks) represents the Chremonidean League of Athens, Sparta and Rhodes.
• New families for all factions with members' ages and relationships that attempt to be as accurate as modern scholarship is able to reconstruct according to knowledge of the year 272 BC.
• Diplomatic relationships between factions are mapped out for the game's start in 272BC, to represent the state of diplomacy for the start date.
• Unrealistic " Fog-of-war" constraints partially lifted at the game's start, with each faction starting the game with its own unique, historically accurate view of the campaign map, to show more realistically each faction's understanding of political geography.
• More than 4,900 new names for generals and family members of Hellenic factions, transliterated from ancient Greek.
• Faction-specific alerts and messages for the capture of the most important unique buildings for those peoples.
• Diplomatic relationships of rebel cities with existing factions represented, with severe consequences for AI and human players who violate those alliances.
• Rebel forces have ethnic names and strengths.
• Absence of "fantasy" units such as Arcani.
• Special alerts and graphics representing the major stages of the breakup of the Seleucid empire, if the collapse occurs.
• A new faction-specific victory condition system, with each faction required to achieve variable goals.
• Nomadic, desert, and steppe cultures changed to represent in government types and resource development.

[edit] Cartography

• A new map as the base for the campaign mode, with expanded eastern and southern regions, and with Arabia, India, Central Asia, and the Upper Nile all receiving new territories.
• Faction specific naming practices with accurate unit names and accurate province names in the language of the controlling peoples at the game's start
• Terrain reconstructions, snow boundaries, vegetation types, and coastlines
• The Nile-Red Sea canal linking the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
• Province boundaries carefully reconstructed to represent the political geography of 272BC
• New campaign map vegetation models include palms, smaller battlemap tree models and denser forests.
• Ancient trade routes (such as the Amber and Silk Roads) which can be captured and used
• Special buildings representing trade with the rest of Africa and/or Asia for cities in provinces at the edges of the maps

[edit] Traits

• A new trait system based on and including a complex interaction of genetics, aging, family members, and health, affecting trait acquisition and development over the life of the characters. The number of new traits themselves is increased and more faction specific than Rome: Total War.
• Hellenic trait system based on ancient Greek perceptions of personalities.
• Roman trait system partially based on the moral tales of Valerius Maximus.
• All starting generals' personalities and traits mirror their historical personalities.
• Special Events Traits, like the Olympics where a Hellenic general can compete in and even win or a Triumph held in Rome to celebrate a Roman General's victory against a specific faction can gain them a significant Influence boost.

[edit] Buildings

This section has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (December 2007)

• A new government system that is region specific. For example, historically, the Casse faction never wound up in India. To represent this, different types of Governments are available in different regions, from Homeland regions to Expansion regions. In the SPQR campaign, Italia will be the player's Homeland, and northern England will be the furthest Expansion region.
• New faction specific buildings, including colonies, shrines, clinics, granaries, new barbarian governmental structures, new theater trees, stupas, and more.
• Over 50 new unique buildings or "wonders" for the map, present at the game's start, and affecting everything from trade and population growth to generals' traits and faction recruitment abilities, bonuses of which many are specifically tailored for and limited to certain factions.
• Temple systems representing the most popular temple types of each of the depicted factions. New descriptions of the numerous deities are also included in the mod.
• No fantasy bonuses, like equipment upgrades from temples of Vulcan.
• Capes, straits, mountains, and other terrain "unique buildings" provide bonuses to represent their historical importance

[edit] Non-Unit Graphics

• New faction specific special graphics for the faction selection menu
• New campaign map minimap and faction starting point maps in the campaign selection menu
• New faction icons, selection buttons, campaign map standards, and battle map banners
• A new campaign map siege, ship, unit, general, watchtower, and resource graphics
• Culture-specific advisors.
• New faction-defeated graphics for every faction.

[edit] Faction List

Below is a table containing the list of factions that appear in Europa Barbarorum, and their equivalents in Rome: Total War, if any. It also includes Rome: Total War factions that do not have equivalents in Europa Barbarorum.

Europa Barbarorum faction	Rome: Total War equivalent
-	Numidia
Getae	Thrace
Aedui	Gaul
Arche Seleukeia	Seleucid Empire
Arverni	Gaul
Baktria	-
Casse	Britannia
Eleutheroi	Rebels
Epeiros	-
Getai	Dacia
Hayasdan	Armenia
Karthadastim	Carthage
Koinon Hellenon	Greek Cities
Lusotannan	Spain
Makedonia	Macedon
Pahlava	Parthia
Pontos	Pontus
Ptolemaioi	Egypt
Romani	Brutii, Julii, Scipii, SPQR
Saba	-
Saka Rauka	Scythia
Sauromatae	Scythia
Sweboz	Germania

[edit] Game Mechanics

• A new fleet system with many more new ships available and more accurate strengths and weaknesses in battle, more accurately depicted with small fleets on the campaign map.
• New custom formations designed by the Europa Barbarorum team which give the AI greater flexibility and incentive to perform realistic battlefield manoeuvres.
• A campaign map with four turns per year, with the winter months limited to one of the four seasons.
• New unit animations, such as those of two-handed lancers and horse archers.

[edit] Audio

• As of August 2006, EB features its own music. This comes from two sources:
  • Most of EB's music was composed by Morgan Casey & Nick Wylie.
  • More recently, authentic music for the Celtic factions, created by Prehistoric Music Ireland^[3] was added to the mod.
  • Reconstructed and recreated Roman music, performed by the German group Musica Romana, has also been added for the current release.
• New classical Latin, Celtic, and ancient Greek battle map voice recordings.
  • Recordings in other ancient languages are also being worked on^[4].

[edit] Release history

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2008)

Colour	Meaning
Red	Old release; not supported
Green	Current release
Blue	Future release

Major Version	Minor Version	Release Date	Platform	Significant Changes
0.6.x	0.6.2	September 2005	Rome: Total War	?
	0.6.4	September 2005	Rome: Total War	?
0.7.x	0.7.2	?	Rome: Total War	?
	0.7.3	?	Rome: Total War	?
	0.7.3a	?	Rome: Total War	?
	0.7.4	?	Rome: Total War	See the following: [1]
0.8.x	0.80	12 June 2006	Rome: Total War	?
	0.81	18 February 2007 [5]	Rome: Total War	See the following: [2]
	0.81a	3 May 2007	Rome: Total War	See the following: [3]
	0.81a v2	?	Rome: Total War	?
1.0.x	1.0	October 12, 2007 [6]	Rome: Total War	See the following: [4]
1.1.x	1.1	April 7, 2008 [2]	Rome: Total War	See the following: [5]
2.0.x	2.0	?	Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms	See the following: [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

[edit] Awards and reviews

Europa Barbarorum has won numerous community awards, including Total War Center Best Mod 2006, Best Modding Team 2006, Best Gameplay 2006 and Best Map 2006, and Total War Org Most Promising Mod 2005, Favorite RTW Modification 2006, Most Accomplished RTW Modification 2006, Best RTW Classical Period Mod 2006, and Best Original Audio 2006.

Europa Barbarorum was featured and reviewed in the April 2005 edition of the Italian PC Gaming magazine Giochi per Il Mio Computer, the French PC Gaming magazine Canard PC in 2005, the Romanian PC Gaming magazine LeveL in 2006, the PC Gamer (UK) in March 2005 and January 2008, and the Portuguese BGamer in December 2007.

[edit] Europa Barbarorum 'Mini-Mods'

There are a number of fanmade sub-modifications for Europa Barbarorum, of varying scope. Their details can be found at EB's official forums [12] [13].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Rome: Total War Game Website
• Official Europa Barbarorum Website
• EB review on Heavengames.com