So what do you think? Divide Et Impera? Ancient Empires? or both! Check out the mods below! DEI Steam Page - steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=294694062 Ancient Empires Steam Page - steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1385069240
@@LeftyCrusher9000 no worries mate. I heard it might be called classical empires but AE is great. Also tons of other fun mods for Attila Rome 2 is still fun in other ways and don't miss out on shogun 2 with Blood DLC and vanilla supreme mod it's awesome
Ancient empires is in early stage, DEI has years of development therefore it's more polished. It will be interesting to keep an eye for future AE updates
Nothing can save Rome 2 as it is a broken game. But it did make it more playable for a bit..but in the end the design of Rome 2 is a total fail as a strategy game.
i did played both, and i do play both, but i never put equal sign between them, DEI scale is more complex, and has a lot of mechanics. Ancient Empire falls victim to AI campaign map from Attila TW - on campaign map AI is very passive. Also the graphical campaign map in Attila is very big disapointment for me - Sicily has only 1 settlment instead of 3 like in Rome2. Trees looks like bushes, the texture ground is blured, etc. But the battles in Ancient Empire are epic. i think they are even better than in DEI due to graphics, not necesary to mechanics. There is no comparation between them, DEI does best in Rome2 and AE tries do best in Attila. Also AE - starts late around ZAMA events, and the period was not very famous during history. the Ancient Empires battles are EPIC, yes epic, the graphics are top notch compared with Rome2, but the weakest point is in the campaign point. Also AE doesn't use any kind of agents. IT has a different aproach to events, and the scale of wars are much smaller. I could stomp AI as Carthage, and conqure Rome with no challenge, while DEI prevented this by rising new armies for AI when you invade Italy itself. I stay in contact with both developers teams on discords. I think their work is amazing dedicated. Also, i cannot tell you how much work has been done into Ancient Empire, and also their strong conviction they never gave up and keep continue to improve the mod, even if it's not so popular as DEI. So all appreciation for their work !~
AE still very much in development Ai is improved with the last update,but we can't rly compare the 2 of them DEI is more complex in all sections and the unit diversity is immensely better (not necessarily historical accurate) Personalty I enjoy both and are my Favourite til now
@@ivvan497 in attila its way more engaging, you constantly have something to do, in rome 2 you basically point them to 1 direction and just wait for everyone to kill each other, also the calvary in attila actually does something theyre impactful. And of course the graphics and ui are beautiful
I recently began a campaign as Pontus on ancient empires, I gotta admit, this one does portray war economy like a marvel: the farther your forces are from your territory, so does the upkeep rise, and rise like a volcano. It was actually PROFITABLE for me to lose a battle so I could win the war: Galatia attacked me after I sieged their city. I lost the first battle, including half my units, but I managed to kill or whittle down most of their strong units, mostly deadly infantry. right when the turn started, I used the extra income to hire more mercs and ended up beating Galatia to a pulp! (well, this time the AI placed me on the hill, so you know...). a few turns later, and my public order was pretty bad, I decided to make use of the old and trusted mechanic of letting your province revolt and wait until public order drops down, BUT, each turn, the cities rioted and my buildings were CONSTANTLY being destroyed, similarly to how it went in Napoleon when the lower classes were unhappy. After one battle, I chased the remaining rebels with my first army, but my income suddenly went from +1500 to -5000! I had to disband the second army because of that! I don't think any other mod has got me so immeresed in any game... perhaps Master Of Strategy from shogun 2... truly, go ahead and play this mod!
AE takes it for me, has all the nostalgia of the original EB mod for RTW. Only thing it's missing at the minute is the more complex options when conquering settlements but this was taken out due to instability.
Great review! I enjoyed both mods a lot, although Ancient Empires is really unforgiving for newer players. But it can be even more rewarding, when you master the challenge.
I like the 'give region' option that Attila has, I can basically rebuild a destroyed empire (like Carthage) and basically have them as an ally so we can attack rome on two fronts when i play the seleucids or macedon. I use the extra building slot mod too that is so nice
I've never played DEI but the one thing I will add about AE is that it can be really hard to play from a casual perspective. I usually play my campaigns on normal because fighting AI who is constantly cheating just feels really cheesy to me, but AE on any difficulty is a huge challenge on the campaign map. Both the economic and social structure of the mod are built very cumulatively, that is to say that public order and your economy are designed to snowball. The right decision to make will very rarely be apparent at first, with the effects of your decisions occurring much further down the line; with the advantage of your position being much harder to uproot than it is vanilla. It definitely takes a while to get used to Ancient Empires, but it has managed to achieve something spectacular that no other mod has in my opinion; it has managed to encourage the player to actually think like a ruler of antiquity to make the best decisions. Coming from a series like Total War where everything basically gets boiled down to an excel spreadsheet of optimal doomstacks and build orders Ancient Empires feels like you are playing a completely different game.
Yep AE is a total beast when it comes to campaign management. Rome is a total s***t show for the first 20-30 turns trying to micro manage every little detail and make sure you can maintain an empire. Even smaller factions are tough in AE, whereas DEI is a little easier I would say.
@@TheTerminatorGaming AE's main obstacle for players is that impossible early (and confusing ) campaign mechanics that you need to read about in advance. Most players are teens or a bit older looking for a little strategy then a battlefest. I spent 6 months arguing with the devs in 2018 but they just ignored this perspective. AE will become good when someone is able to release a "trainer" submod. People also complain AE is stuttering or buggy, like the guy below.
Both are amazing mods made and supported by incredibly talented and passionate devs. But for me it is DIVIDE ET IMPERA, mostly because it runs great and hits a nice balance in almost every department. Now, if Ancient Empires was on the Thrones of Britannia engine then I would prefer it for sure. (Unless a miracle occurs and CA updates Attila with the improvements made to the engine at the time of ToB including 64bit support). I just hate how Attila was abandoned so fast unlike Rome 2 and/or other CA tittles.
Both are great, but AE has one thing DEI doesn't have. Siege maps that are custom and well built. Ancient Empire's rosters for Eastern factions are a bit lacking tbh, and I'd want more unit rosters. Otherwise, both are good. AE has a more complicated system of buildings as compared to DEI which you can still figure out.
I would say AE over DEi. Personally I enjoy Wars of the Gods the most cause of the many sub mods you can use with it-plus the battles are just way more fun.
@@98pixelscreative77 that might be your PC and the game not being optimized properly. I have zero issues. Have all graphics on extra high. The only time it gets laggy with those settings for me is when I double the unit sizes and both armies have reinforcing armies coming in.
did they fix the one remaining guy on the map that you couldn't kill? always stuck to 1 when chasing the armies with cav at the end, stranage (ancient empires)
I played Attila with Ancient Empires before I bought Rome 2. I bought Rome 2 to try out DEI. I would say that I have more fondness for Ancient Empires. The direction to where they took battles I think should be the model for Total War in general because of the emphasis on fatigue. There is that in DEI too but I feel like running over long distances has more consequence in AE, plus I don't like how in Rome 2 or DEI if you have a unit currently in combat that you need to drag them out of then you don't loose very many while you're dragging them out. I like that cost being in AE cause it forces me to commit to the fight they're in. As for campaign I'll start with saying that the building stats in Ancient Empires are my favorite buildings of any Total War. There's buffs for very different things you might want. From food output, income from all sources, factionwide naval upkeep, reasarch rate and even chance for local characters to have babies. The debuffs makes more sense than in Rome 2. I don't get a public order penalty from building something that gives the town food and the building upkeep helps to make me think about not just upgrade as much as possible. I didn't really like the way that squalor is given in Rome 2 by upgrading too much but I still like the included building upkeep. The one thing I think DEI have in that department over AE is that the local resource is being produced by the main settlement building instead of having to force me to create a certain building in one of the slots. I wish both could do what the 1212 AD mod did to Attila and make every region it's own. I also like the Area of recruitment variety more in Ancient Empires than in DEI. It's just amazing how when I pick a faction I don't have to worry as much about not having a wide recruitment pool from the native cities. The thing that DEI has over Ancient Empires is obviously the polish and there's a greater abundance of cities, especially the classic ones in greece like Sparta and Athens. But the main problem with Ancient Empires in my opinion is that sure, there's plenty of challenge from early game to after mid-game because of having to handle unit upkeep with the economy but eventually if you get yourself over the hill you can get to a point where you're the strongest faction in the game and don't need as many armies to fight numerous wars as you do in DEI Rome 2. In that game I feel like there's more effective use by the AI to recruit enough armies to keep you on your toes for longer. And of course I like the manpower/population system in DEI - how it forces army variety and drawing your forces from your native mainland. I would agree that both are worth trying. I go to either Rome 2 DEI or Attila's Ancient Empires depending on the mood. If I were to play as the romans I would probably go to DEI because I'd be more into playing them with the population mechanic and I hear that they have more AOR units than the other factions in DEI. When I play Rome 2 I like to think about the societies and civilization of the time periods, maybe I'll check some articles in the history magazine I sub to on my phone. When I play Ancient Empires I feel more immersed and invested in my generals and in the story that I imagine them going through. I owe it to DEI for making me enjoy my time with Rome 2
Ancient Empires just edges it for me. The aesthetics of the map, politics systems is better, building tree and building cards and effects are brilliant. My only criticisms of AE is the music in 2.0 has been ruined compare to version 1.x and its still a little buggy for me. As you rightly suggest DEI is more polished than AE and still the only way to play Rome II. Great analysis by the way, thank you for making this content. Subbed.
I do miss the old building system of Rome total war, it felt like you always had something to build. Now I have to wait like 25 turns before I can upgrade 1 building
Yeah DEI feels like the old classic very reliable parent, and AE feels like a teen :D They have great potential and even do few things better then its parent, but has some growing up still to do before being epic :D
Yesterday I started an ancient empires campaign with Baktria on challenging difficulty IT IS challenging and sweet but as you said just now DEI released its new public beta and it’s also so sweet as well and more polished and nearly complete while ancient empires is still in the works with less updates while badly needed! Now as Macedon will test the new beta!
i love both mods with respect to features i choose divide et impera also ancient empires is still in earlier stage it will pickup paces and more to improve on like adding population
Hi! Is this review still relevant today (04.2024). If I haven't played either of them with witch should I start. Are both mods still receiving updates and bug fixes? Has Ancient empires been polished enough that is playable?
DEI is the best mod for Rome 2 but I don't play it that often. I usually play Para Bellum. The reason? DEI turn wait times is out of control. If I play it I need to have like a book handy or something. Para Bellum plays so much smoother and has a satisfying Rome 2 experience in my opinion. Haven't played Ancient Empires yet but Attilla's problem is of course horrible optimization. Also I have to run it at 1080p on my 1440p monitor since there is no scalable UI! Atrocious. Still, I'm def gonna check out Ancient Empires!
I really like DEI. Especially playing as Massilia. Do like the Building Browsers better in Wars of the Gods. Also you're overdue for an Empire video. 😉
- the mod is taking 40+ Go in two places (workshop and data) - 1+ hour for the mod manager to finish launching - and yes, everything is on a SSD I'm just amazed you people can play Ancient Empire. Is it because the mod manager also load files for Shogun 2 and Warhammer 2 at launch? Is it because of the 80 extra mods for Attila/Age of Charlemagne? Do you have a separate, distinct installation of Attila+Mod Manager+Ancient Empire? Europa Perdita? Launches flawlessly. I paste AE into its intended location, the system grinds to a halt.
As someone who's never played a Total War before but likes the campaign mecanics (economy, buildings...) is Rome 2 (with this mode) better? Or Attila (with ancient empires)?
Hope soon all minor settlement (in fact and historically, not all that is minor settlement) will have wall, after some turn or upgrade, so war will feel more real
the problem with DEI is they never got the time scale right with movement. for example AI ships will travel like 3x the distance that you can, and still dismount, and take your city, while it would take you 4-5 turns to do the same. The entire time your guys start attritioning even if you have a supply ship. I played DEI from the start before there even was a logistics system and I feel like it isn't implemented well or at least is too hard to make compelling when working with the region/province system messing it up
I wish there was a way to let your allies use your armies for a limited amount of turns or give it to them permenantly in dei it would make Dei a bit more immersive and realistic
I dont know why i cant play ancient empires, it always crush, but i dont think its because my computer, cause i can play normal attila or with other mods - do anyone know why it always crushes?
The main problem of modders on Attila is that they take the wrong historical time for global mods. What does not fit the game engine and suffers from gameplay and player involvement. This applies to both 1212ad and AE. DIVIDE ET IMPERA - takes the mechanics of the game and the approximate period as a basis and improves it, due to this it looks like a whole other game. Modders had to make a global mod, for example, at the time of the rise of Islam on the Attila engine, and not climb into antiquity. Then everything would look more solid and better.
To me Classical Empire and 1212 AD just feels massively superior to Rome. I love i can play 3 different historical time plus Lotr cus Attila wonderful mods.
ROME 2 DEI is a great mod where more in depth for politics, population, supplies for army, weather factor etc where wish was more indepth for these factors. however for me doesn't address two of the most fundamental issues in the grand campaign. this being the lack of towns and cities in the grand campaign map. there are keys towns and cities that need to be added. they are in certain campaigns like caser and gaul, rise of the republic and wrath of Sparta/ Greece but this those campaigns only deal with a small part of the known world. i know what the response going to be that the game only allows a certain amount of town and cities but still it needs to be sorted. the other factors that ties into the amount of town and cities is the deck of units in each army. where can only recruit 20 units in a pack. with the pack being in effect a legion and we all know how big a legion was. the standard thing is to increase the amount in each unit but with that you lose maneuver, there is a mod i used a while ago where you could increase the units from 20 to 70 units or more in a pack but with that due to the lack of cities and towns you cant support multiple legions that size.
To the comment about DeI's difficulty, it should be noted that it is specifically balanced for normal battle AI difficulty. Playing on Hard breaks the game.
Anyone that has played AE as a barbarian faction - how the hell do you constantly compensate for the insane integrity loss every turn when armies are in home territory? I tried to play as the cimbri and the -17 integrity per turn while trying to recruit troops seemed way too harsh, especially if you ever need to bring troops home to replenish.
It's one of the thing i cannot understand in AE, just to much on that malus. It creates a negative spyral cause you always has to be at war with someone because you need to stay in foreign territoty so you also have the diplo malus ..... and plus you'll run out of supplies. Playn Iceni, with some tech and skills i've managed to get the integrity malus to zero for one of my armies ... but not the other one, twenty turns 2 wars fighted, just to time to build up things ...
"Rome Total War." Theme from the original game by Jeff Van Dych. (The entire game soundtrack is incredible.) Other songs from it are playing throughout this vid. "Epic" also plays: A rare track from the first game, usually not heard by players, as it was removed from the game proper. But it's incredible.
Hey there Terminus 😅 AE and DEI are my favourite 😍 due the time period. Well,personally I enjoy both and and tbh we can't truly compare them AE is still very much in development,but I have faith, is still young 😅🤣 DEI Atm it is superior in every department from unit diversity mechanic's Population system and being polished over the years (No mod out there for a total war did better job imo) let's have faith in AE also 👏 few things are better then DEI 😊. BTW still waiting for you to cover Radoius Mod for Attila and tell me what you think about battles 😊take care !
I just can not stand the attila . It is something in the graphic system that i can't specify but it annoys me. I will recommend DEI just because it is a rome 2 mod. But apart of that , from a historic perspective i really enjoy the historical accuracy of the units. Their equipment and embels are so correct. The only thing that they need to fix is to make the odryssean kingdom "hellenic" and no "balkan".
Odrysians were heavily Hellenized but they were still a Thracian confederation ultimately maintaining Thracian deities, language (it was only written using the Greek script). There would be a better case for making Ardiaeai Hellenic but even then both factions already have a lot of Hellenic elements.
@@Userius1 Orpheus ,who is one of the oldest heroes,was Thracian and Greek. I see no point not to consider thracians as a greek faction. As you said they wrote in greek. That says it all. They also lived in Aimos. As far as their pantheon not even the spartans and atheneans had the same gods . Every greek faction had different gods and different way of speaking greek .
@@atreast.4331 With the Greek alphabet they still wrote in their own language. An inscription of a horseman was found writing what would translate to "mezenai". In Greek I'm sure you know horse derives from "hippos". Hippotoxotai being horse archers. Persians wrote with Aramaic, that doesn't make them Arameans. Anyway in DEI the Odrysians get a bonus from Hellenic culture.
@@Userius1 What you call "own language" is as i told you their own way of speaking greek. In MODERN Greece if you put a Cretan, an Arbanitis, a Maniatis, and a Pontic Greek to communicate with each other they probably fail. Every part of Greece has a different way of speaking calling that "ντοπιολιαλια" (regional speaking). The same applied to ancient times (attic dialect, Doric dialect etc). Now as far as Thracians are concerned, they were the northest of greeks in Aimos. So they had been in touch with other cultures as well and as a result they were influenced by them. The southest of the Thracian tribes were of course less dehellenised. For example modern odrysseans called themselves "ΠΟΜΑΚΟΙ" derives from "ΙπΠΟΜΑΧΟΙ" which means the ones fighting with horses since they used to be horse-skirmishers. See there, the greek "hippos " that you you told me about.(see it depends from tribe to tribe). Anyway in prehistoric greek mythology we see them fighting in Iliad speaking Greek and believing in Greek gods, they had hero Orpheus and king Diomidis who was killed by Hercules. Even the Athenians share Many things with Thracians (eleusine mysteries were of thracian origins). Plus consider byzantine empire which was greek based and the capital was in Thrace. Anyway i can write for hours but it will be exhausting. If you want search more about that. Generally what i have understand is due to political reasons, the Bulgars (who came from Bolga) are trying to present themselves as Thracians for political reasons and that is why they "invented" "Thracology" while greek ""Thracology" is heavily obstracted by greek politicians unfortunately. If that are not enough for you... well they are enough for me. I strongly believe that "Thracology" is so badly written cause it does not take what i told you into consideration.
I can play as Pontus in the 1st century. BC in the Imperator Augustus campaign by the DEI mod. This is enough for me to answer which one I like better.
Tried DEI a couple of times, and even though I m an hardcore TW veteran, playing basically since Shogun 1, I find it too difficult and not really enjoyable. Maybe just because I like quick nice armies and various economic buildings like in Roma Surrectum 2, and DEI dont let be even replenish that the cheating AI has already built 2 new armies. Fighting 15 battles during 10 turns as Rome just to conquer Samnium (only victories, if necessary to mention), seeing my poor 7 principes/triarii/equites units not replenishing because of population freaking slow and greedy system doesnt make me feel like I can conquer the world, I m just struggling against the game to maintain a decent army and build maybe one shitty farm per turn, praying the AI wont swamp me with 3 armies everytime. Felt almost the same with Medieval Kingdoms 1212, beautiful ok but disgusting happiness penalties if I expand too much ? What's the point then of TW ?? In Ancient empires, the campaign map could be improved indeed, (just Syracuse in Sicily ? No Athens nor Sparta in Greece ? Come on !) and the economy needs a special care to avoid bankrupcy at each turn, but hell I can conquer the sand box without being trolled by the AI. Roma Surrectum 2-3 also kicks ass (rome 1 old engine yeah ok) , 100 k investments for economy and raising great armies every turn, amazing variety of buildings and units, huge battles ! you really feel you manage an antic state (spaming new armies every year isnt realistic but who cares ? ). Anyway, I recommand both mods as the Terminator, but concerning DEI, I probably wont be back soon, I ve got enough problems in real life to fight against the mod instead of playing on it , and if I want complex games , I can just launch Stellaris or E U IV...
well "friend" , who delete honest commentaries,two years past amd DEI won for sure,AE,tried recently, is still full of bugs,the discord is almost abandoned and mods like expanded building slots don't work
AE is unstable crashing unfinished mod which is a shame because if it wasn't so bad on the technical side there would be potential to be better than DEI but unfortunately it isn't and there is no effort by the developers to fix bugs and crashes, and apparently they are no longer working on the mod
They are working on their successor mod, called "Classical Empires." Apparently, this just started. They are recruiting devs. Check out the many new youtube videos about Classical Empires.
I love both but I’ll play ancient empires over DEI every time. The fact that in AE barbarism’s can be a actual horse with the Attila horde mechanic, the visuals are so much better with settlements burning, scripted historical events and objectives that are awesome. I was so pleasantly surprised when I beat Carthage finally and then a conquest of Macedonia against Philip began. DEI only scripts one event and that’s the Punic war then you’re on your own. The only thing DEI has on AE is the population mechanic but to me I can live without that for the benefit of a much more immersive and visually better looking gamr
DEI for me. I literally dont give a fck about graphics, I dont understand why is that more important than game mechanics. Only some rando casuals would think like that.
Well these are the 2 mods people wanted me to compare… so thats what I did. I’ll be spotlighting radious soon, deserves its own video really don’t you think?
DEI is my favorite. But never liked Attila's battles. They are just the worse. So that kills it for me. Campaign is amazing....battles....even moved? Eh
I played Vanilla, Parra Bellum, War of the Gods, Radius, Ancient Empires, and DEI. After playing all these mods I have concluded that DEI is a work of art, although I like ancient expires battles and graphics You can get a similar effect in DEI with graphic mods such as mighty effects, Aztec lighting, etc. that will do the job to compensate for the superior graphics of Ancient empires. War of the god's battles and armies look great but the campaign gameplay is total trash, parts Bellum is one step up from vanilla. Radius also isn't that great and is similar to the war of the gods.it's important to know these things before you invest 100 hours into a Mod.
Wars of the Gods has over dozen different campaign submods and I am sure you have never even used them. Calling the campaign trash is absurd. Comparing WOTG to Radius is also completely absurd as is calling DEI a work of art. DEi has some good unit models and reskins...but the campaign is a tedious boring slog and the battles are just giant mosh pits. WOTG and Para Bellum have the most fun campaigns.
@@jasonargos110 I have, I have played all mods extensively. But DEI is the best balanced and most challenging. The population and supply system makes the game way more immersive along with other nuances. I feel war of the gods has better battles and graphics, but everything else is broken.
Specially better performance. Try then Attila engine on 4 vs 4 players battles and it will stutter to hell and back. In DEI it runs smoothly due to Rome 2's engine.
Both are really great mods but if I had to pick one I would pick DeI. AE has several shortcomings. Factions except Rome and Carthage have 4-5 units in total. While it may be more historically accurate it is simply more boring from gameplay perspective. The even greater issue is the campaign AI. It simply falls apart under the weight of new recruitment and building system. While some factions are doing fine, the factions like Rome barely recruit any proper units. They just run around with some local AOR troops and aimlessly raze poor gauls. For example, if you are playing as Macedon, your endgame - the ultimate big boss Rome will disappoint you. However, DeI is the place where campaign AI thrives. AI Rome in DeI is like a proper endgame mechanic. They come at you with finest troops, it feels like fighting proper antagonist faction. DeI team simply have more experience. They manage to add features without botching the campaign AI.
do you know how many times I attack a city with roughly equal troops (i have a bit more) and the garrisoning army just flees to avoid destruction, despite the faction not having any more cities? many times i have seen this in DEI since day one
DEI is better (specially if you want to play as the Romans). Ancient Empires is different but still good. Sadly DEI is stuck in Rome II so Ancient Empires or any Rome 1 mod for me.
i really don't like DEI. it makes the game twice as slow. doesn't really improve important parts, and i absolutely loathe the reform system. especially the roman ones. polybian reforms after 40 turns are you fucking kidding me?
wdym it doesn't improve important parts? It literally improves game mechanics and gives the game a much needed complexity.. Are game mechanics not important to you lol?
