Game:

Rome: Total War (2004)

Duration: 13:48

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21

The remaster's changed reputation system makes it so canceling tributes is no longer as detrimental as in the 2004 release. This makes it so region buying with tributes and then canceling tributes/declaring war can be used to get quite literally free regions. The only prerequisite is that you have a decent, peaceful relationship with the faction and 6-15k gold in your treasury, depending upon how many territories you're buying. The result is a pretty unoptimized and low-RNG 12:46 speedrun. While slower than the Scipii 2004 route at 2x the length, it's much easier, with around 50/50 odds for a decent run compared to 2004's 5% chance of playable rng.

MotH (Man of the Hour) abusing is also a lot easier, as shown in this run. Once a region is bought, its garrison can attack the evicted enemy garrison and will most of the time give a free general through the now easier Man of the Hour mechanic. This is used most notably after buying Germania to take their capital, Carthage to take Sicily and Carthage itself, and Seleucids in order to take the fabled Antioch (which now also has much better odds than the 2004 route, with a nearly 100% winrate compared to 2004's 33% chance).

The route has a ways to go. If timed right, it would be nice to be able to take out the Julii faster than they can take Caralis and stay living after Italy is conquered. It is also possible to take Antioch before Rome, hence my splits getting messed up when you take both on the same turn (The greek diplomat in Sicily enters diplomacy whenever he wants, so recruiting a diplomat in Lilybaeum may be an option). Also, my menuing was pretty mediocre and could be better near the mid and late game. Overall, a massive improvement over the 2004 Britannia route, and could maybe even compare to the Scipii route with more work (*cough cough Kevmeister*).

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