Expeditions: Rome - the final Expeditions game from Logic Artists

[Spectacle]

Whenever the villain in this game appears I can't help be reminded of his namesake the xenarite tech-priestess in Warhammer 40000 Mechanicus. Strange to have 2 major characters sharing such an unusual name.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

So did you guys side with Zenobia or Theophilus?

 

[notpl]

So did you guys side with Zenobia or Theophilus?

Are you seriously asking whether I chose to simp for some random woman or murder her when given the chance?

 

[Jinn]

That was an option? I talked to the guy, he told me to fuck off basically, so I did. On my way out, the old lady offerred me to shank him, so again, I did. It felt so straightforward, I didn't even realize there was c&c there. I got a golden amulet out of this. But that's because I chose to push his mistress around instead of poisoning him. I was sure that was the big choice of the quest.

Pretty sure one of the rhetorical style choices gives you the option to negotiate directly with him. Beyond that,

Spoiler

you have an option to provoke him into a fight through manipulating a priestess he's been fucking and killing him in front of everyone, acquire some poison and convince an underling to feed it to him, or trick him into having a "secret meeting" with an envoy of Mithriditates. I did this last one, where you have the choice to murder him outright or to take him prisoner and use him as a bargaining chip in a later scenario. I took him prisoner.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I did this last one, where you have the choice to murder him outright or to take him prisoner and use him as a bargaining chip in a later scenario. I took him prisoner.

Did the same one, but let him rule instead and took Zenobia as prisoner. Guy seemed like the more reasonable choice since the people were loyal to him. And he only betrayed Rome when faced with annihilation from Mithridates' army, so I doubt that he'd do the same thing again once Asia Minor gets pacified.

 

[Jinn]

Did the same one, but let him rule instead and took Zenobia as prisoner. Guy seemed like the more reasonable choice since the people were loyal to him.

Yeah, I was tempted. Felt like Zenobia would be easier to manipulate in the future if I needed to (or if it's even an option). I didn't dislike the guy or his motivations. His hatred of Rome as a whole just seemed too dangerous to go unchecked.

So yeah, a good amount of c&c going on in the quest.

 

[Larianshill]

I killed him. He already plotted against Rome once, and no matter how noble his motives were, he would probably do so again. It was a shame, he was a good guy, but I could not justify letting him live to myself.

 

[The_Mask]

I liked Zenobia more too. I negotiate and give in good faith. Rome is generous to her allies. Traitors get rekt.

 

[Saduj]

I'm only a few missions in but it seems to me like sword and board is by far the best melee class. Much tankier and seems to do as much damage as the DPS class. Rangers have their use and I'm assuming I'll need a dedicated healer as the game goes on. But is there any reason to take the dual wielding class? Abilities all seem meh too.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

It was a shame, he was a good guy, but I could not justify letting him live to myself.

That's how I'll feel about Mithridates once I get to defeating him. Reasonable guy:

 

[Sensuki]

I'm only a few missions in but it seems to me like sword and board is by far the best melee class. Much tankier and seems to do as much damage as the DPS class. Rangers have their use and I'm assuming I'll need a dedicated healer as the game goes on. But is there any reason to take the dual wielding class? Abilities all seem meh too.

Movement speed and later on apparently number of attacks per turn. I've found the Veles class good in the Pacification missions for being able to get to a torch or pilum dispenser and throw it in the first turn etc and then even have some MP to move somewhere else. There's some skills later on that are crazy apparently such as unlimited movement.

I've also found the sword to generally be better than the spear so far.

 

[Tyranicon]

Probably way too early, but I hope someone gets a custom companion mod going.

Even if all the current companions are top-tier character writing (lol), I'd still prefer to have a bunch of career military men as companions.

 

[Jinn]

All the companions have been likeable enough so far. Don't really get what the problem is besides maybe Julia. Also, I think you could conceivably do just that by recruiting praetorians at the barracks and using them instead of your companions the majority of the time. Might just take an hour of two into the game before you're able to.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I'm only a few missions in but it seems to me like sword and board is by far the best melee class. Much tankier and seems to do as much damage as the DPS class. Rangers have their use and I'm assuming I'll need a dedicated healer as the game goes on. But is there any reason to take the dual wielding class? Abilities all seem meh too.

Movement speed and later on apparently number of attacks per turn. I've found the Veles class good in the Pacification missions for being able to get to a torch or pilum dispenser and throw it in the first turn etc and then even have some MP to move somewhere else. There's some skills later on that are crazy apparently such as unlimited movement.

I've also found the sword to generally be better than the spear so far.

I personally go for 3 Principes + 3 Triarii. Principes with spear and shield, making the enemies bleed and tanking them; triarii with pikes hitting the enemies from the backline and healing the principes.

 

[Tyranicon]

All the companions have been likeable enough so far. Don't get what the problem is.

Besides being able to mix and match class composition how I want, the five companions I know about include only one with real military experience. The others include an old dude, a gladiator, a spy lady, and a beefy-armed Amazonian.

I understand that gamedevs want interesting characters, but I just want a bodyguard squad, not people with questionable loyalties and immersion-breaking dialogue.

 

[Sensuki]

That's what the Praetorian guard is for right ?

 

[Jinn]

Yeah, like I said in that post, you should be able to do that with the praetorian guards that you can recruit in the barracks. You just might have to play with the default companions for a couple hours before you get to that point in the gameplay.

The reason I would encourage seeing this as an option is that I kind of doubt someone is going to make a mod for full party creation.

 

[notpl]

Besides being able to mix and match class composition how I want, the five companions I know about include only one with real military experience. The others include an old dude, a gladiator, a spy lady, and a beefy-armed Amazonian.

I understand that gamedevs want interesting characters, but I just want a bodyguard squad, not people with questionable loyalties and immersion-breaking dialogue.

You literally can almost immediately recruit a no-dialogue bodyguard squad.

 

[notpl]

Agreed that the shield class seems a bit OP, but mostly just because shields themselves are great. Everyone without a shield gets shredded by archers on the very first round on higher difficulties.

The Veles is at least capable of dishing out damage, though. My MC mastered the assassin talent tree and can just delete any one enemy on the map on turn 1, often ending the mission instantly.

 

[Jermu]

So far I have found princeps and triarius best (second hardest difficulty). Flagbearer, destroyer and medic are all great paths. Veles classes seems kinda bad but I have not tried assassin yet.

Glad to see Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus make comeback. HBO Rome was such a good show.

 

[Urthor]

So how is the actual fundamental gameplay loop of this game? After all the bugs are fixed in 2023 is it going to be decent?

What bugs ? The game is remarkably stable and bug-free so far, considering its scope. I am nearly 30 hours in the game and not a single bug, not a single freeze or crash to desk either, with everything set on Ultra, everything seems to be working as intended, the only mild annoyance/oversight is that players who started with the demo won't get some of the early achievements unless they start a new game, like the one for getting command of the legion or meeting the Consul, these should be attributed automatically to players importing saves from the demo.

I've got multiple full sized games in my backlog, I've got no desire to play a game until it's had multiple patches.

If the game wasn't getting patched at all I wouldn't even touch it. There are so many games it's not worth my time to play anything that's not top quality.

 

[The_Mask]

I just want to put this out there for my monk bros, that there is a way to play a character that uses hand-to-hand things only. And it's pretty cool on lower difficulties. On higher difficulties, it's a bit tough.

 

[Tyranicon]

Yeah, like I said in that post, you should be able to do that with the praetorian guards that you can recruit in the barracks. You just might have to play with the default companions for a couple hours before you get to that point in the gameplay.

The reason I would encourage seeing this as an option is that I kind of doubt someone is going to make a mod for full party creation.

You literally can almost immediately recruit a no-dialogue bodyguard squad.

Huh, it's on me for not knowing that. Gonna get the game at some point then.

 

[Sunri]

So did you guys side with Zenobia or Theophilus?

I helped Theophilus you don't make deals with hoes, they ain't loyal

 

[Zarniwoop]

Wait what, if you get stomped in combat you can go do other quests first, level up and come back and the enemies have the same power as before?

It's almost like, an actual RPG with no level scaling. Imagine that.