Rome: Total War E3 2003 Preshow Report

Creative Assembly has had a successful run with its Total War series, which has spanned two full games and two expansion packs since Shogun: Total War was released in 2000. The unique appeal of the games has been that they successfully combine large-scale empire conquest with tactical battles between thousands of troops. The next Total War game promises to represent this far-ranging epic scale even better by moving to a completely new 3D engine for both the strategic and tactical portions of the game. Each one of the thousands of soldiers will be represented in full 3D glory, with motion-captured animations.

Rome: Total War, as the name suggests, sets the clock back to the time of ancient Rome. It challenges you to rewrite history and be proclaimed imperator of Rome. You can fight as, or against, legendary generals, including Julius Caesar, Hannibal, and the rebel Spartacus, as you lead your faction to the gates of Rome. There will be a range of playable factions, and each will have a mix of exclusive units of various nationalities--the armies of the Romans, Greeks, barbarians, Carthaginians, and Egyptians will all be present. There will be hundreds of different troop types available, with frontline units such as legionaries, hoplites, barbarian hordes, war elephants, gladiators, and scythe chariots, as well as war machines like siege towers, battering rams, and catapults that hurl flaming missiles into enemy cities and strongholds.

Battles will take place on more than 10,000 unique battlefields based on the actual topography of Europe and North Africa. As cities develop on the game's strategic level, the growth of settlements and regional improvements, such as roads and bridges, will appear on the 3D battlefields. The campaign game will be made more accessible to new players as a result of automated city governors, which can handle military and infrastructure building as well as taxation levels. No release date has been announced, but the game will have its first public showing at this year's E3.