INTRO:
Rome: Total War was a pivotal entry in the Total War franchise, then-enhancing the already sophisticated gameplay of the Total War franchise with its improvement of the province-based strategic map. However, it had some balance issues, especially regarding the Roman forces.
Barbarian Invasion fixes these problems, but fortunately it had more value than just this, specifically in the form of the mechanism of migration. This especially highlights the aforementioned improvement that Rome: Total War has over its predecessors, though one can also argue that it makes risk an even stronger element in the gameplay.
BACKSTORY:
The timeline of Barbarian Invasion is advanced ahead of that in Rome: Total War. Many empires had fallen, and though the Roman Empire had somewhat endured the entropy of time and fickle fate, it had split into two factions that have a tenuous relationship with each other.
Meanwhile, the Huns have run into difficulties surviving in the harsh steppes of their homeland, thus threatening the neighbouring nations with their eponymous invasion-cum-migrations.
EXISTING GAMEPLAY:
Like the previous game, the campaign mode of Barbarian Invasion has the player taking on the role of the immortal manager of a civilization, or as the game calls it, a "faction". The player has to develop his/her existing territories in order to obtain the economy and stability that is needed to develop an army or the wealth necessary to take over the territories of other factions, with the ultimate goal of becoming the dominant faction (defined in-game as the one that has managed to obtain and hold onto a vast majority of the world map, as well as meeting other secondary goals).
Armies are still moved about the world map according to their marching speed, and not province to province as in Shogun: Total War. Settlements are still fixed locales that can be blockaded or occupied by armies as in the previous game, and rare resources are still there, making certain provinces more valuable than the rest.
Balancing finances and the moods of the populations under the player's governance is still an important part of the gameplay. The franchise's take on real-world religions is still there as a gameplay device and source of risk.
The characters that are known as Generals are still around, acting as leaders for the player's armies and governors for cities, as well as members of the player's ruling family. Having the ruling family die out is still a game-over scenario. Secondary characters such as the Diplomats and Assassins also return, providing the same services as they had in the previous game.
Battles in the campaign mode can still be played out either via automated calculation or manual battle. Although it may appear that the automated calculations may be better this time around, this is more likely due to the different factions that can be played in Barbarian Invasion.
As for battles that are played out manually, the participants still field armies, either by having regiments already on the field or having some in reserve. There is still a limit on actively participating units, with any excess units in any army being held back in reserve. Terrain still plays an important role in combat, as do the stamina, morale and level of experience of individual units. Ranged units still have limited ammunition that can run out during battle.
In other words, the fundamental design of Rome: Total War appears to have been retained in the expansion pack. That is not to say that there have not been additions to the gameplay, and it so happens that these additions are the main appeal of the game. There are also changes to gameplay balance, though not everyone would be enamoured with these.
DIFFERENT FACTIONS:
The types of factions in Barbarian Invasion appear to be tremendously different from those in the previous game.
The tribal and theocratic factions, namely most of the African tribes and the Egyptians, that were once endemic to Northern Africa are either gone or reduced into unplayable factions such as the lightly armed and armored Berbers. The Greeks and their successors appear to have died out virtually completely. There are some vestiges of these factions in the form of mercenary units that can be hired to supplement the player's forces, but they are otherwise no longer as easily available as they were in the previous game.
The Roman factions are now a lot weaker than their predecessors in the previous game. Instead of the tough legionnaire units that their predecessors have, they have revised units that are comparable to those of other factions, especially the Sassanids (which will be described later). They have also lost their technological edge, meaning that they are not the only ones with siege weapons that are more sophisticated than catapults.
However, it has to be mentioned here that a lot of them have Latin names, so those who are not already history buffs may have to read the descriptions of these units to know what they do and their roles in battle. Otherwise, they have the usual roles of infantry, heavy infantry, cavalry, heavy cavalry and such that Total War veterans would be very familiar with.
Anyway, there are now only two Roman factions. At first glance, it appears that they have different units due to the Latin names, but they are structurally the same. In the campaign mode, however, they start with different advantages and problems: the Western Empire is very corrupt and has plenty of internal troubles but start with more troops to compensate, whereas the Eastern Empire is more peaceful and prosperous but will soon bear the consequences of complacency.
There are also non-playable Roman factions, namely the Romano-British, which is a fusion of the Bretons and the Romans of the previous game. They are mainly there to serve as a thorn in the side of the player that decides to play the Roman factions.
The Sassanids are the successors to the Parthians and rulers of Persia. They appear to be the only faction that is still practising Zoroastrianism and the only one that still uses the devastating war elephants. Many units that cause elephants to panic from the previous game, such as the flaming pigs, are absent from the rosters of regular units in Barbarian Invasion, so there is no easy way to make war elephants panic this time around. On the other hand, war elephants are much more expensive in this game, to reflect their decreasing rarity. However, the Sassanids compensate for this by having units and technology that is comparable to the Romans'.
The barbarian factions, which are the Saxons and Alemanni, return from the previous game but with different names and slightly better technology for their infantry. They are still deficient in cavalry and artillery, however, though these are not needed to defend their heavily forested homelands.
The non-playable barbarian factions act as competitors to the playable ones, as well as occasional threats to the Roman factions.
The nomadic factions appear to be similar in temperament and structure to the barbarian factions, but with a stark contrast: they have a focus on cavalry units over infantry, as they originated from the steppe regions of the world. Their cavalry units generally have superior speed and stamina over the cavalry of the other factions, giving them a tremendous advantage in mobility. Otherwise, they have the same disadvantages as the barbarian factions, which is lack of technology.
However, the most notable aspect of the nomadic factions is that they are particularly associated with the gameplay feature of migration/invasion, which will be described later.
If there is an issue of recycled units among factions in the game, it would lie in the design of the non-playable nomadic factions. These appear to be virtually exact copies of the playable ones, only with different names.
The Huns are a nomadic faction, but unlike the others, they are severely lacking in technology, being incapable of building even fundamental infrastructure, such as ports. On the other hand, they are the most devastating at utilizing the migration/invasion system, as well as arguably most of the best cavalry units in the game.
One of the most peculiar factions in the game is the Franks. They are actually a hybrid of the barbarian factions, Roman factions and nomadic factions, having the fundamental strengths of all of them (including being able to invade/migrate), though not having elite units that are as comparable. Nevertheless, the Franks' versatility can be a gameplay balance issue in campaign mode.
As in the previous game, only a few of the playable factions are available from the onset; the rest have to be unlocked via achieving victory in the first campaign session. Interestingly though, the player can unlock some of the factions by wiping them out in the very same first campaign session, if he/she does not have the patience to complete the first one.
DIFFERENT WORLD MAP:
The "world" map is still most of Europe and part of Asia. The North African region appears to have been reduced slightly, which was likely a decision on the part of the developers to de-emphasize it. The world map has been extended to include more of central Asia, namely the steppe region that is the birthplace of the Huns.
This steppe region is understandably rather sparse and difficult to develop, which in turn encourages the indigenous factions to leave in a migrating horde. The placement of rare resources is also different in Barbarian Invasion, especially the placement of minerals. The climate of certain provinces have also changed, especially those at the fringes of the steppe region.
In other words, veterans of the original game may have to relearn a thing or two about the world map in the campaign mode, which somewhat makes the campaign mode in Barbarian Invasion a bit more refreshing, though most of its appeal comes from a gameplay feature that will be mentioned later.
REDUCED NUMBER OF RELIGIONS:
There appear to be only three religions in Barbarian Invasion: Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Paganism. Some of the factions are wholly associated with one of these, which mean that they would not initially have issues with religious unrest, unless they start conquering provinces with people of different religions.
Gone are the different temples to different gods that can be built for different benefits. There appears to be only one for each religion, and the main function of this building is to produce the units known as priests. These priests actually participate in battle, acting as maintainers of morale, but they are terrible in actual combat.
In the campaign mode, religion appears to be a stronger factor of social unrest in the first few in-game decades. The Western Roman Empire is particularly affected by this, being a faction with plenty of leaders and populations of different religions.
MIGRATION/INVASION & HORDES:
The titular gameplay feature in Barbarian Invasion is unique to all nomadic factions and some of the barbarian factions.
These factions can uproot all of their settlements at any time, forming massive armies that are known in-game as "hordes"; the number of these hordes depends on the populations that they are drawn from. Their settlements are scrapped to being practically uninhabitable, so there is no turning back from creating hordes.
Hordes have compositions of mostly elite units, thus making them almost unstoppable if their controlling players decide to simply rampage across the world map. Alternatively, if these factions lose their last settlement, the last settlement automatically generates a horde, though this is smaller than if their controlling players decide to form hordes with several settlements under their control.
Nevertheless, this makes such factions difficult to defeat, as the horde that is created from this last settlement can easily retake the settlement if the armies that defeated them earlier have overextended themselves. A more reliable way to defeat them is to slay all of their ruling families, though defeating the hordes is still a viable option if the player already has immense armies.
Interestingly, hordes do not require money to maintain. However, they cannot be replenished in any way and if the player cannot satisfy them with a constant stream of war spoils, they lose their numbers to desertion and starvation. Therefore, coupled with the fact that the hordes cannot return to their original homes, the player that has decided to form hordes must send them after the territories of neighbours to either conquer them or sack them.
Conquering defeated settlements causes part of the hordes to settle down, leading to reductions in the hordes in return for settlements that the player can develop in order to have some long-term assets. In fact, the very first settlement that they conquer will become the capital, so the player has to decide very carefully which settlement to hit first.
Sacking settlements raze them, destroying much of the population and buildings in it; this also happens to irrevocably damage diplomatic relations. This also renders them owner-less, allowing anyone else to come by and claim them, though they have to be rebuilt from scratch. However, sacking settlements can take a while, which takes away momentum from the hordes.
In the campaign mode, if the Huns are A.I.-controlled, they are likely to hit the nomadic factions first, who in turn migrate/invade to get away from the almost unstoppable Huns. This in turn threatens the more established factions, namely the Roman Empires.
Overall, the migration/invasion mechanism makes for a tense campaign mode. Although the player that creates the hordes may get a suddenly huge military advantage, it comes at the loss of any supporting assets, namely the settlements. The hordes are vulnerable to attrition. As for those who are defending themselves from hordes, there is the prospect of war for many seasons to come, with often nothing but ashes to claim when they try to salvage whatever the hordes have left behind, if they even survive the onslaught.
CHALLENGES IN CAMPAIGN MODE:
In addition to the migration/invasions, the player has to worry about the different requirements for victory that different factions have in the campaign mode. For example, the Western Roman Empire has some of the highest requirements, which balances their initial advantage in military might and territory expanse; this faction also needs to be mostly stable politically in order to win.
The challenges also include different modifiers for their leaders' development. For example, the corruption in the Western Roman Empire is reflected via the tendency of their leaders to garner terrible traits that make them useless as governors or even commanders.
In fact, one may observe that the leaders in Barbarian Invasion are more than likely to develop bad traits than those in the previous game; the likelihood increases if they live in peace times and are governing wealthy cities, where they might develop bad habits such as being greedy. Although this makes the campaign mode in Barbarian Invasion a lot more frustrating than that in the original Rome: Total War, such difficulty is perhaps understandable, considering that this era was one that was not known for leaders of great integrity.
SKIRMISH & MULTIPLAYER:
The skirmish and multiplayer modes of the game appear to be fundamentally unchanged from that in Rome: Total War. Players can still play one-off battles, which are perhaps of limited appeal to veterans of Rome: Total War as the new feature of hordes and migration is not present in these. There are a couple of new historical scenarios to be had, of course, if players want to relive the epic battles of this era.
Unfortunately, there is officially no multiplayer campaign mode for Barbarian Invasion. This was the case in the original game, but the lost opportunity here seems to be even more significant; wondering when enemy players would create hordes could have been quite exciting.
GRAPHICS & SOUNDS:
As Barbarian Invasion is an expansion pack, most of the quality of the game's graphical and aural designs has not changed by much. There have been improvements in the stability of the graphics and a lot less cutting out of sound clips when there is a lot of commotion, though these came from the patches for the original game. Most of the music soundtracks have been transferred over to the expansion pack too, though there are a few new orchestral tracks.
However, the new factions do come with new models for their units. Although the animation scripts and sound effects for the different categories of units have been copied over wholesale (which would be apparent to keen-eyed players), the new models do appear to look appropriate for the game's timeline and featured civilizations.
On the other hand, the player would need to be quite the history buff if the new models are to be appreciated better. The only models that would be familiar to most players are those for the Huns, whose practical, fur- and leather-made clothing would evoke a memory or two about the typical representation of the Huns in works of fiction.
Moreover, although the player may have seen plenty of models moving across the world map before, the sight of hordes coming down a strategic map and leaving broken settlements in their path can be quite worrisome. There are also new speeches that generals would make before battle in the campaign mode, as befitting the culturally different factions in Barbarian Invasion.
Otherwise, there does not appear to be much of anything refreshing that a veteran of Rome: Total War would not have seen or heard.
CONCLUSION:
Barbarian Invasion would seem to be a mere repackaging of the previous game, exchanging the content in the previous game for content that are not really remarkably different. The new feature of migrations and hordes can be exciting enough to compensate, though its inclusion also highlights how many lost opportunities that Barbarian Invasion has, namely the opportunity to have a multiplayer campaign with this entertaining feature.