Rome II. Such a devastatingly wonderful game, not to mention the Total War series from as much as I've played, has always been the most intricate balance of politics (not my favorite bit), city-management and tactics. The sheer capability of some of the units, and their formations are entirely bewildering. One group of seasoned, high morale soldiers can topple an army by themselves. This game makes such little things have such a monumental impact on gameplay. The enemy General has died, leaving more than half of your adversary's army demoralized, panicked, and routing within moments after losing another solider. I've yet to this day play a game where a wealth of things actually mattered. I find myself in awe, seeing so many say such poor things for this game due to faulty mechanics or whatever they could complain about. I've rarely ran into issues that prevent the game from playing as it does. Perhaps this was just too much of an adventure for lax souls, for it takes a pure senate, and unstoppable armies to grow and expand, but be wary! Controlling too much, and poor behaviour will lead to rebellions and worse! Civil War could find its way in your home, distributing your territories to all the other parties within your senate, an uprising to quell you from the known world. Even through this all, I've covered nothing in terms of the mechanics, and ingredients of what make Rome II what it is! Typically when a game has an encyclopedia in its name, you're either stepping into a lore-laden universe, or one complicated yet delicious mass of information.

I hope this is helpful to someone, this game is undoubtedly worth a purchase - the Emperor Edition adds a wealth of buildings, units, formations, actions, and so on... where the Steam Workshop has useful mods like Four Turns Per Year, and Realistic Formations will allow your generals, agents, and senators age properly, and live to the expected age of 40-50 before they pass. It also takes you through the individual seasons of a year, and each season has an effect on the province, the food that province produces, the health of your armies... it's impossible to not write a book about this game. The aforementioned realistic formations mod allows most units to have shield walls, which fans them out and produces a stance where holding a frontal line is best. Square formations are best for bracing against enemy charges, being in control when surrounded by a greater enemy force, and generally surviving. Rank Rotation is the neatest of all the included changes, making it to where the soldiers in an individual unit cycle through the ranks, preventing exhaustion and battling fatigue it is an invaluable inclusion.

I sure hope this helps get some good out there through the perpetual loathing that people seem to love doing. If you've ever been keen on strategy, or a tactician of any caliber or sort, this is the epitome of what could ever possibly be offered to you and what's best, is that no other developer can produce something so vast and wonderful.