Fun drinking game: over the course of this run, take a shot every time you hear the words "Cretan Archers" and "Mercenary Hoplites." If you develop liver failure, congratulations, you've won.
Buying mercenaries also takes them out of the population! (At least it did so in the original) Though that probably isn't the limiting factor here. Edit: It doesn't anymore :( You can see after he got the Sarmatians around 48:24
@@macroglossumstellatarum5932 I never realized that before! I meant doing it with peasants though since that was the cheapest, largest unit. Even if it did work now, it would be prohibitively expensive
@@macroglossumstellatarum5932 Actually, I'm fairly certain it never has. Hiring mercs and then breaking them down is a good way to improve population without even needing to remove population anywhere.
@@polygondwanaland8390 different faction technically, so aye, he damn well should. And that goes into the original code, too, purple Roman is not any of the other three for faction, and was bound to them by arcane spaghetti
Everyone is worried about Jon but he got Aquincum. The unbreakable city of Marcus the Gambler. If all else fails he can hunker down in there and Sally forth.
@@barryausten3578 A shield divided into three fields, the upper one with a carton of eggs, the lower left picturing a book and a cup of coffee, and the lower right - a cat.
*Chooses Dacia over Germania... "Alright, not the most doable decision, definitely very challenging." *Expands AGGRESSIVELY towards 3 allied Roman factions... "Jon, you absolute madman..."
Dacia in a nutshell: Poorest lands No ports Angry Neighbors including OP Scythia Worst barbarian mercenaries in the game And they're super exensive. Well... I'd straight up relocate in Greece.
Love your content man. I'm you've never really cared about playing the trending games, just doing what you enjoy and being genuine. Been a fan for a while and will stay one as long as you keep being you. Take it easy man
@@ManyATrueNerd my girlfriend, after only overhearing me watching your videos, knows you as "the nice nerdy man you watch on UA-cam" I think that's adequate testament to your charm and likeability. Incidentally she only knows nerd3 as "the weird shouty one" take from that what you will
1:02:56 "The wolves aren't at the gates anymore. They are through the gate, they've found the key, they've let themselves in, they're on my sofa, and they're eating my biscuits." Never Change Jon!
I became a subscriber only a couple years ago, so I had never seen the Total War playthroughs when they were new. When I saw the remaster of this game, I read in the comments about the previous playthroughs, and I binged them. Thank you comment section for that, now I'm addicted to Jon's Roman adventures.
@@Simon39759 Makes me wish they added a unique merc system for Carthage where only it can recruit certain units other factions cannot and said units are some of their best.
I believe the first 15% of casualties are healed from the battle. Ranged fire is usually the first to kill men so it just seems like the ranged damage gets healed
Never knew that. If true, there's an argument to use your best units to charge the enemy first, and leave your crappier units to mop up, which is usually the opposite how I play, preferring to keep my elites in reserve.
In my games, it's always seems to be the units facing missiles that heal up, but I suppose it could be an illusion supported by less than wholly truthful docs. The Elephants have a lot of hit points, RTW missiles aren't so strong, it's a risk of then berserking and killing your own side, that's the risk.
@@Joe125g20 it's probably why going hunting with light cav and general, trying to be chased by an enemy unit, which you can draw into range of your missiles, then rout and pursue with rested light cav is OP. The losses you take heal, so long as you win the battle.
My dude be like: This game sucks the population cost is not there any more! Developers: Sorry, sorry, we added them back The man next day: we have a challenge where we won't interact with population cost system now! Developers be like: Son of A
Casualty replenishment is based on the first units to die are the first to recover, regardless of how they died. Because the skirmish phase is often the first phase of battle it often looks like those dying to ranged attacks are the first to recover but it's just a coincidence. You can get a unit of elephants and send them in to die right at the start, then as long as you take a few hundred casualties after that it'll fully revive the elephants, even if they ran into a phalanx. There is a cap to how many revive, which can be increased slightly with traits/retinue but it's a % of how many die, and you need to win the battle to get it.
"It... it's not like I like you or anything, Dacia-kun!"- Sycthia Senpai from the anime "That time I built an empire, now I hire nothing but mercenaries!"
Believe me watching a series once complete is so much better. I binge watched so many and when it come to the ones I caught live I found myself wanting more like it was my drug
Been following you for 5+ years and love seeing that this game cane back to the channel! About to binge the entire series! I remember playing medieval total war viking invasion on my first pc back in the day.
Jon was talking about how the barbarian towns are really good defensively because of the hill built into them... and I could only remember that time I conquered Gaul with a single army and the 5 units of scorpions did almost all the work every siege. Edit: Though to be fair, he is probably talking about that in regards to the ai
I don't believe healing has anything to do with range vs. melee, it's just the first troops that die in the battle that get healed. You can cheese that a bit if you have a high value unit like elephants-- send them in to die first, then make sure a bunch of cheap irrelevant troops die, voila, you get your elephants back.
elephants are a really good choice as they are really expensive, do a lot of damage but they will do bezerk and die. By sending them in first you get them back for free and don't have to worry about the elephants killing your own army.
Halfway-through-the-video-Jon: "I'm expanding right into the Romans, that might not be the best idea". End-of-the-video-Jon: "Well, that opens up Patavium!"
Barbarian mercenaries are excellent hold the line or ambush troops, or anti cav meat shields. They rip apart early tier units with a good flanking. Only skirmishers or heavy cavalry really counter them. Also good for population boosting in poor population growth regions, which is a lot of the barbarian regions.
Your love for this game really shines through, I too spent far too many hours on it at uni, it your classics background lets you really rise to the peak of your field. Bravo!
LMAO! ...I was resting in the bedroom and heard this intro play, far away. It wasn't my fiance, so apparently one of our neighbors watches you, too! Pretty sure the guy upstairs is a gamer, and usually his TV is easiest to hear, so I bet it's him. Small world!
Given the influx of extremely vocal relative newbies whinging about not liking Rome Total War etc, let me take the opportunity to say I'm extremely excited for the series.
Yeah, I'm surprised that there's so much hate on the series considering the OG Rome Total War is one of the channels most memorable and successful series. The main argument I seen is that "its another GTS game" which is such a bizarre argument when MATN has always been a GTS channel + Rome Remaster has been hyped on the channel for the last month now.
I honestly never liked these games or gave them a chance until I watched Jon play them. I still don't always love them, but a lot of this content is damn good.
@@jidk6565 Grand Title Strategy. Basically any game or series of games whose campaign or maps can hold more than 10 players at the same time fall under that category. So games like Stellaris, the Total War Games, Civ 6, CK3, etc. which are all games Jon has played on the channel and has MULTIPLE series on.
The healing is not about range/melee. It is just the ones that die first. The amount of healed depend on casualties taken + the commander. It allows for interesting necromancy, like send Elephants first until they are all dead. Then sacrifice some expendable units and you get your elephants back
I was so delighted when I heard of the TW: Rome Remaster. I don't even intend to play it, I just tought: "Oh, nice. Jon's gonna be so happy about this." So, dear Jon: Enjoy.
Ah yes, the return of Rome Total War, and with it, the return of Jon saying a battle is going to be very hard seconds before annihilating everything in his path in seconds without breaking a sweat.
had this on in the background while cooking dinner, and suddenly heard Jon getting really excited about War Crimes adding +10 attack and thought I'd switched to the Spiffing Brit's channel
Did that challenge as Carthage a few years ago and it actually was tons of fun! The Greek territories, Iberia and Scythia are by far the best territories for mercenaries. Egypt and Asia minor by comparison suck hard.
Unless they changed it for the remaster, the reason you think range kills stick less is most range kills happen in the beginning skirmish phase of the battle. And how it actually works is just the first 15% of casualties are healed. Which is why sometime just sending your elephants ahead to fight to the death alone at the start is a good strategy cuz they just heal.
Rome returns and I am sent spiralling backwards in time to the era of being a cringy character account and not one of the funny ones. To those of you who WERE funny, I salute you
I love the mercenary mechanic, it makes armies evolve with the area they are working in. I thought it was such a shame that the later games didn't have something similar especially considering that Warhammer could have things inspired by the old Dog's of War book.
A good thing about Dacia is the mountains around the starting area. A bunch of forts in the passes can give you a lot of time to respond to aggression, especially from Scythia and Thrace. Also I think you can block river crossings the same way but I might be misremembering.
Good Video Jon and I like how Mercs cannot just be retrained everywhere but only in regions that share the unit type which makes sure they are not OP since without that being able to recruit them everywhere without their huge upkeep from Med 2 would have unbalanced the game. Others have said as such so it nice to see that potential issue cleared up. However that bit at 29:10 represents a big problem any old time Rome 1 player would agree to never see anymore and that's the bad Pathfinding getting your units killed when you clearly want them not to. I really hope Feral puts more work on that because it was a huge issue back than, and continues to be one now. Hope you let them know we need better Pathfinding especially in cities. Hope to see more content for you man.
units that die first are first to be healed it's like 5/10% of your casualties after you win a battle heal so you can yeet war elepthants chariots into stacks then send hordes of trash in to rez them
28:14 "Their general's decided, 'Uh oh, uh oh, I've made a horrible, horrible mistake, actually." -Jon, just before realizing (uh oh, uh oh) he's made a horrible, horrible mistake, actually.
Next challenge run: peasants only Almost certainly not possible, definitely not a good idea, though I would watch it anyways Edit: even if only just to see how far Jon can get, because if anybody could pull it off then it would be the carton of eggs himself
Back in ancient (internet) history Legend of Total War did a Full Map completion with peasants in Medieval II. It is... best for a heavily edited campaign. You spend a LOT of time waiting.
barbarian peasants are actually pretty good. Also peasants get much better as you go up in unit size as their unit size goes up much more then other units. It's much easier to surround an enemy unit with peasants on large unit scale then it is on normal. also large scale peasants can easily block up the walls, streets, and wall breaches letting the towers kill large amounts of enemies as they try to siege your city.
Bro that fight at the end was so epic. Outnumbered 3 to 1 yet the brilliant generals Scyles and Jon still prevail! I'm getting real hype for this series now
I first started watching this channel because of the first Rome: Total War series. I rewatch it every year or so, it was just so fun. Glad to see it back again :)
The early game is about getting Crete and then well, it’s only a matter of time for Jon to paint the map. But he’s gonna lose everything else first and be down to one or two cities for sure, maybe lose the homeland.
I've read the title as "The Merciless Challange" and my first thought was: is this a Rome Total War: Kill Everything Run, where you massacre population in every city you capture?
10 minutes into the challenge and Jon is rushing to share a border with the Romans, who pretty much always attack anyone they are bordering, almost never make peace (unless their AI behavior has changed), and will definitely shred you with three factions hitting you at once. This will end well.
It always hurts me to see cavalry not out dancing infantry until the infantry is exhausted and the cav is fresh. The exhausted penalties in this game are super harsh and the ai never rests their troops. This is the one total war game were walking your troops is super important if you have the time for it.
@@69moron69 It’s become so widely used to display shock or surprise that I find myself saying it daily now, believe me it gets confusing for others when I’m talking to them face to face but I make it work
Has anyone else noticed that they removed the swooshing sound effects from the javelins and projectiles? I don’t know if it’s just because the audio from John is louder than the game but I remember projectiles being more loud and wooshy
@@indieWellie That is definitely news to me. I've played Shogan 1, Rome 1, tried Medieval 1 for about an hour before giving up, played shogan 2 (like it less than the original, but the graphics are super cool) and played Warhammer 1. So healing merc units are a totally new thing to me, I might have to see what version/s of rome total war I've got on steam these days as oppose to my original CD version.
In reference to troops healing after battle, I think that the first troops to die are more likely to heal up after the battle :) I believe legendoftotalwar taught me that one.
>hears what the challenge is >hear that he's trying it with Dacia ... Right, so what's the new series you've got lined up for next month? Edit: at 25:15 I swore I heard that we wants war crimes up the jaxy. Had to relisten there
I see Jon is playing Renissance Italy style Mercenary Armies! Thankfully you won't encounter the issues those italians had, that the enemy just payed the army to leave
I can’t wait to play this game. I recently got a laptop and have been really enjoying Three Kingdoms and Rome was the game that really got me interested in the total war series.
I'm really looking forward to the faction-specific achievements. I want to figure out which factions players like the most and least. Aside from Rome, of course! Ave! AVE!
While I'm loving the "Mercenary Only" challenge run, I think that you should give a think to a "no missile unit" run....It'll force you to change up your tactics a little more than normal
Fun drinking game: over the course of this run, take a shot every time you hear the words "Cretan Archers" and "Mercenary Hoplites." If you develop liver failure, congratulations, you've won.
It's good too see the grand Tiberius Brutus once again
... I wonder how many of the old character accounts will return in this series...?
@@ManyATrueNerd Most of them I hope, I miss them
@@ollie8759 I miss my Dad. He took off in a spaceship one day and I haven't seen him since.
LET US HOPE THE WORDS CRETAN ARCHERS ARE HEARD MANY TIMES!
“Tsundere Scythians” is a phrase I would never have thought I would hear in my lifetime
But now you have, and you will always see them this way xD
I can never unhear it🤣
"I-it's not like I want you to hire my mercenaries, I just happened to train too much!"
You can almost hear the sound of Scythians spinning in their burial mounds all the way over in South Russia xD
You are being too yandere imo
Devs add population feature just for Jon. Jon: does mercenry only challange.
That's what makes the challenge so difficult. Moving your population is one of the most OP strats from Rome 1
Buying mercenaries also takes them out of the population! (At least it did so in the original) Though that probably isn't the limiting factor here.
Edit: It doesn't anymore :( You can see after he got the Sarmatians around 48:24
@@macroglossumstellatarum5932 I never realized that before! I meant doing it with peasants though since that was the cheapest, largest unit. Even if it did work now, it would be prohibitively expensive
@@macroglossumstellatarum5932 Actually, I'm fairly certain it never has. Hiring mercs and then breaking them down is a good way to improve population without even needing to remove population anywhere.
@@EorldeJonge You beat me to it, I was going to say that as well!
MATN, "Anything you dont train is fairplay." Proceeds to immediately dispand units he didn't train himself.
Maybe he should have said "Can't train"
I was surprised by that too. I wonder, if he had chosen a Roman faction, would he accept Senate gift units?
@@polygondwanaland8390 different faction technically, so aye, he damn well should. And that goes into the original code, too, purple Roman is not any of the other three for faction, and was bound to them by arcane spaghetti
@@polygondwanaland8390 Maybe that would be too easy for him.
@@polygondwanaland8390 no
Everyone is worried about Jon but he got Aquincum. The unbreakable city of Marcus the Gambler. If all else fails he can hunker down in there and Sally forth.
"Rome fell because it relied too much on mercenaries."
John: "Observe."
But at least now, we see unit coordination rather than sending in weak units unsupported.
I don't know what's more exciting. Jon playing Rome in a new way, or the fact I can read the U.I without squinting.
"I'm not sure it is possible or a good idea" - a motto for all MATN challenge runs.
The next piece of merch:
A MATN purple / pink shirt, with that motto translated into Latin, and a coat of arms which consists of a carton of eggs.
@@barryausten3578 A shield divided into three fields, the upper one with a carton of eggs, the lower left picturing a book and a cup of coffee, and the lower right - a cat.
Thank you for making me choke with laughter!
Story of my life
@@MadTurnip I honestly thought that the coat of arms would be designed ONTO an egg carton rather than a shield
*Chooses Dacia over Germania... "Alright, not the most doable decision, definitely very challenging." *Expands AGGRESSIVELY towards 3 allied Roman factions... "Jon, you absolute madman..."
peace was never a option
Dacia in a nutshell:
Poorest lands
No ports
Angry Neighbors including OP Scythia
Worst barbarian mercenaries in the game
And they're super exensive.
Well... I'd straight up relocate in Greece.
Bless you Balkans, may you never change...
Dacia Sandero on the other hand...
@@MrColbster94 Good news!
@@FonVegen Is the new Dacia Sandero almost here?
@@MyoldAccount306 Oh no! Anyway...
Everyday our numbers will grow, Jon will spread us across the land, and slowly but surely we shall watch everything
Praise
Love your content man. I'm you've never really cared about playing the trending games, just doing what you enjoy and being genuine. Been a fan for a while and will stay one as long as you keep being you. Take it easy man
Same. Most of the time I don't even watch for the game, but MATN himself.
@@ManyATrueNerd my girlfriend, after only overhearing me watching your videos, knows you as "the nice nerdy man you watch on UA-cam" I think that's adequate testament to your charm and likeability. Incidentally she only knows nerd3 as "the weird shouty one" take from that what you will
1:02:56 "The wolves aren't at the gates anymore. They are through the gate, they've found the key, they've let themselves in, they're on my sofa, and they're eating my biscuits."
Never Change Jon!
🤣😭 legendary
I became a subscriber only a couple years ago, so I had never seen the Total War playthroughs when they were new. When I saw the remaster of this game, I read in the comments about the previous playthroughs, and I binged them. Thank you comment section for that, now I'm addicted to Jon's Roman adventures.
Check the comments in each video, thats where the magic is
Carthage would’ve been perfect for this challenge, and perfectly accurate
I do that a lot with Carthage, actually, Spain has some really good mercs and Carthage's own troops are mediocre at best until the late game.
Yeah, that was my first thought when John described the challenge.
Maybe not difficult enough for him?
And, historically, Carthage was known for hiring Mercs.
So, it makes a lot of sense
@@Simon39759 Makes me wish they added a unique merc system for Carthage where only it can recruit certain units other factions cannot and said units are some of their best.
@@rorschach1985ify Or they get inherent bonii to make their merc cheaper or to have access to more...
I believe the first 15% of casualties are healed from the battle. Ranged fire is usually the first to kill men so it just seems like the ranged damage gets healed
Never knew that. If true, there's an argument to use your best units to charge the enemy first, and leave your crappier units to mop up, which is usually the opposite how I play, preferring to keep my elites in reserve.
@@Joe125g20 Legend of Total War actually throws his elephants in first to get them healed while also doing a lot of damage
In my games, it's always seems to be the units facing missiles that heal up, but I suppose it could be an illusion supported by less than wholly truthful docs.
The Elephants have a lot of hit points, RTW missiles aren't so strong, it's a risk of then berserking and killing your own side, that's the risk.
@@Joe125g20 it's probably why going hunting with light cav and general, trying to be chased by an enemy unit, which you can draw into range of your missiles, then rout and pursue with rested light cav is OP.
The losses you take heal, so long as you win the battle.
@@RobBCactive The losing side always recovers men if you don’t kill 85% of them. I see it in every battle.
3 Denarii. At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime!
Don't forget to cross the Danube in winter when it freezes and plunder Roman caravans full of wheat, Jon.
The Brutii run a few years back got me through high school. This should be really fun to watch.
"This guy's a genius." also "This man shouldn't be trusted running a shrimp stall"
“There are naked, angry, Thraceans coming up the back of ya!”
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday
A mercenary challenge? Given the quality of a certain mercenary in the past this won’t be too difficult...
Full stack cretan archers
We live in hope that he may return to us...
(Prays in Latin for a bald captain)
@@McNubbys bold*
@@ManyATrueNerd he will rest in peace in his shrine in Mars.
My dude be like: This game sucks the population cost is not there any more!
Developers: Sorry, sorry, we added them back
The man next day: we have a challenge where we won't interact with population cost system now!
Developers be like: Son of A
Casualty replenishment is based on the first units to die are the first to recover, regardless of how they died. Because the skirmish phase is often the first phase of battle it often looks like those dying to ranged attacks are the first to recover but it's just a coincidence. You can get a unit of elephants and send them in to die right at the start, then as long as you take a few hundred casualties after that it'll fully revive the elephants, even if they ran into a phalanx. There is a cap to how many revive, which can be increased slightly with traits/retinue but it's a % of how many die, and you need to win the battle to get it.
"Tsundere Scythia" is my new favourite faction
1 hour in and Jon is one step away from taking Patavium just like he did 4 years ago.
Let’s see if he gets an epic battle this time lol
"It... it's not like I like you or anything, Dacia-kun!"- Sycthia Senpai from the anime "That time I built an empire, now I hire nothing but mercenaries!"
Anime? That's definitely a Light novel title.
This will be my first time watching one of your Rome total war series as it goes on and not binge watch the entire thing, I’m looking forward to it!
How's the lumbago, Uncle?
Believe me watching a series once complete is so much better. I binge watched so many and when it come to the ones I caught live I found myself wanting more like it was my drug
Been following you for 5+ years and love seeing that this game cane back to the channel! About to binge the entire series! I remember playing medieval total war viking invasion on my first pc back in the day.
Jon was talking about how the barbarian towns are really good defensively because of the hill built into them... and I could only remember that time I conquered Gaul with a single army and the 5 units of scorpions did almost all the work every siege.
Edit: Though to be fair, he is probably talking about that in regards to the ai
Ironic, in my games I would be taking them out much earlier, but it was Barb Merc backed by Ilyrians, which formed the mobile flanks.
I don't believe healing has anything to do with range vs. melee, it's just the first troops that die in the battle that get healed. You can cheese that a bit if you have a high value unit like elephants-- send them in to die first, then make sure a bunch of cheap irrelevant troops die, voila, you get your elephants back.
elephants are a really good choice as they are really expensive, do a lot of damage but they will do bezerk and die. By sending them in first you get them back for free and don't have to worry about the elephants killing your own army.
Jon: makes well laid out plans that are sensible.
Also Jon: forgets plan less than five minutes later, and does something far more stupid.
Halfway-through-the-video-Jon: "I'm expanding right into the Romans, that might not be the best idea". End-of-the-video-Jon: "Well, that opens up Patavium!"
MY PROFILE PICTURE IS RELEVANT AGAIN!
PRO VICTORIA ROMA!
Barbarian mercenaries are excellent hold the line or ambush troops, or anti cav meat shields. They rip apart early tier units with a good flanking. Only skirmishers or heavy cavalry really counter them. Also good for population boosting in poor population growth regions, which is a lot of the barbarian regions.
Your love for this game really shines through, I too spent far too many hours on it at uni, it your classics background lets you really rise to the peak of your field. Bravo!
*DID SOMEBODY SAY MERCENARIES?*
Oh no, not again
LMAO! ...I was resting in the bedroom and heard this intro play, far away. It wasn't my fiance, so apparently one of our neighbors watches you, too! Pretty sure the guy upstairs is a gamer, and usually his TV is easiest to hear, so I bet it's him. Small world!
Given the influx of extremely vocal relative newbies whinging about not liking Rome Total War etc, let me take the opportunity to say I'm extremely excited for the series.
Yeah, I'm surprised that there's so much hate on the series considering the OG Rome Total War is one of the channels most memorable and successful series. The main argument I seen is that "its another GTS game" which is such a bizarre argument when MATN has always been a GTS channel + Rome Remaster has been hyped on the channel for the last month now.
I honestly never liked these games or gave them a chance until I watched Jon play them.
I still don't always love them, but a lot of this content is damn good.
@@frogdoin I actually dont know what GTS is
It's four hours in, I scrolled down three pages and I didn't see a single complaint.
@@jidk6565 Grand Title Strategy. Basically any game or series of games whose campaign or maps can hold more than 10 players at the same time fall under that category. So games like Stellaris, the Total War Games, Civ 6, CK3, etc. which are all games Jon has played on the channel and has MULTIPLE series on.
I hope we get blessed and the soul of a certain bald man finds its way into the captain of some mercenaries.
Is it me?
It's not me is it :(
The healing is not about range/melee. It is just the ones that die first. The amount of healed depend on casualties taken + the commander. It allows for interesting necromancy, like send Elephants first until they are all dead. Then sacrifice some expendable units and you get your elephants back
I was so delighted when I heard of the TW: Rome Remaster. I don't even intend to play it, I just tought: "Oh, nice. Jon's gonna be so happy about this."
So, dear Jon: Enjoy.
Ah yes, the return of Rome Total War, and with it, the return of Jon saying a battle is going to be very hard seconds before annihilating everything in his path in seconds without breaking a sweat.
had this on in the background while cooking dinner, and suddenly heard Jon getting really excited about War Crimes adding +10 attack and thought I'd switched to the Spiffing Brit's channel
So in other words you have become barbarian Carthage
That's just Carthage. Damn barbarians!
I think not choosing Carthage for this is criminal.
I know my second campaign is going to be Mercarthage for sure.
Most of their unit roster in vanilla is trash so you end up doing a diet version of this challenge anyway until the late game
merc elephants oh yeahhhhhh
Did that challenge as Carthage a few years ago and it actually was tons of fun! The Greek territories, Iberia and Scythia are by far the best territories for mercenaries. Egypt and Asia minor by comparison suck hard.
Unless they changed it for the remaster, the reason you think range kills stick less is most range kills happen in the beginning skirmish phase of the battle. And how it actually works is just the first 15% of casualties are healed. Which is why sometime just sending your elephants ahead to fight to the death alone at the start is a good strategy cuz they just heal.
Rome returns and I am sent spiralling backwards in time to the era of being a cringy character account and not one of the funny ones.
To those of you who WERE funny, I salute you
Who were you?
I'd rather not embarass myself by saying who
@@adelaide2511 Your description gives it away hehehe.
@@kingcreeper938 hoisted by my own petard
@@adelaide2511 if that is a reference, I sadly do not get it great Minerva
I love the mercenary mechanic, it makes armies evolve with the area they are working in.
I thought it was such a shame that the later games didn't have something similar especially considering that Warhammer could have things inspired by the old Dog's of War book.
A good thing about Dacia is the mountains around the starting area. A bunch of forts in the passes can give you a lot of time to respond to aggression, especially from Scythia and Thrace. Also I think you can block river crossings the same way but I might be misremembering.
Good Video Jon and I like how Mercs cannot just be retrained everywhere but only in regions that share the unit type which makes sure they are not OP since without that being able to recruit them everywhere without their huge upkeep from Med 2 would have unbalanced the game. Others have said as such so it nice to see that potential issue cleared up.
However that bit at 29:10 represents a big problem any old time Rome 1 player would agree to never see anymore and that's the bad Pathfinding getting your units killed when you clearly want them not to. I really hope Feral puts more work on that because it was a huge issue back than, and continues to be one now. Hope you let them know we need better Pathfinding especially in cities. Hope to see more content for you man.
Hey me, yes us, it’s you from the past here but also there saying hi to ourselves when we inevitably watch this series again in 5 years
Really been looking forward to this!!!
I like how at no point did Jon have a plan to not stick to
The beacons are lit, the old Roman Character accounts call for aid!
And we shall answer their call!
Watching this series from the beginning again ahah, this was so good, you should do another!
units that die first are first to be healed it's like 5/10% of your casualties after you win a battle heal so you can yeet war elepthants chariots into stacks then send hordes of trash in to rez them
28:14 "Their general's decided, 'Uh oh, uh oh, I've made a horrible, horrible mistake, actually."
-Jon, just before realizing (uh oh, uh oh) he's made a horrible, horrible mistake, actually.
All I can hear is the end card from FO4:frost.
Next challenge run: peasants only
Almost certainly not possible, definitely not a good idea, though I would watch it anyways
Edit: even if only just to see how far Jon can get, because if anybody could pull it off then it would be the carton of eggs himself
Back in ancient (internet) history Legend of Total War did a Full Map completion with peasants in Medieval II. It is... best for a heavily edited campaign. You spend a LOT of time waiting.
You’d definitely have to start as one of the most powerful factions lol
2kliksphilip did it as Brittania. Killed the Gauls, Germannia and the Julii
barbarian peasants are actually pretty good. Also peasants get much better as you go up in unit size as their unit size goes up much more then other units. It's much easier to surround an enemy unit with peasants on large unit scale then it is on normal. also large scale peasants can easily block up the walls, streets, and wall breaches letting the towers kill large amounts of enemies as they try to siege your city.
Bro that fight at the end was so epic. Outnumbered 3 to 1 yet the brilliant generals Scyles and Jon still prevail! I'm getting real hype for this series now
On my birthday too! Thank you so much! Good luck!
Great idea for series, looking forward to seeing how this one plays out
I first started watching this channel because of the first Rome: Total War series. I rewatch it every year or so, it was just so fun. Glad to see it back again :)
The early game is about getting Crete and then well, it’s only a matter of time for Jon to paint the map. But he’s gonna lose everything else first and be down to one or two cities for sure, maybe lose the homeland.
I've read the title as "The Merciless Challange" and my first thought was: is this a Rome Total War: Kill Everything Run, where you massacre population in every city you capture?
10 minutes into the challenge and Jon is rushing to share a border with the Romans, who pretty much always attack anyone they are bordering, almost never make peace (unless their AI behavior has changed), and will definitely shred you with three factions hitting you at once. This will end well.
And only after he conquered did he realize that it was a bad idea. Classic Jon.
before it even gets going when Jon says another full series my excitement levels went through the roof!!!
pretty sure romans hiring of mercanires and severe reduction of roman born soldiers is what led to the end of the empire.
so this is basically a mercenary only challenge lol.
It always hurts me to see cavalry not out dancing infantry until the infantry is exhausted and the cav is fresh. The exhausted penalties in this game are super harsh and the ai never rests their troops. This is the one total war game were walking your troops is super important if you have the time for it.
I have been waiting for this day for years
The little white trails that follow ranged attacks bother me a lot more than I thought they would
i subscribed during an early total war : rome playthrough, i'm so thrilled to see it again, it was such a great time, and a really interesting game
A beginning of a great series! :)
Brings a tear to the eye
Jesus I prayed and begged my farther for another Rome series and he’s finally answered my prayers
Its a bit weird saying your first name in front of a sentence.
Like, "Bob I prayed and begged..."
But hey, dude, keep up the good work👍
@@69moron69 It’s become so widely used to display shock or surprise that I find myself saying it daily now, believe me it gets confusing for others when I’m talking to them face to face but I make it work
HAhahahaah
Thank u
You prayed to yourself? Thats pretty dope.
It is the miracle of Easter
Jon please remember loose formation, it helps reduce casualties from ranged fire quite alot, and loose units can even man battering rams
I was on the edge of my seat by the end! Brilliant.
About casualties healed: The people going down first are the most likely to survive.
Rome Total War? New series?? And an impossible challenge run!? Oh my Jon, you do know how to treat a lady.
Ave, True to Julianus Vatinius
what do you mean that's not the quote? it is you can fite me
I've been waiting for some more edited Rome Total War Remastered videos, so this is very much exciting.
Has anyone else noticed that they removed the swooshing sound effects from the javelins and projectiles? I don’t know if it’s just because the audio from John is louder than the game but I remember projectiles being more loud and wooshy
I'll listen for that in the games, if it's missing I will report as that kind of detail helps know what's happening without conscious looking
Wait, did many a true nerd just say that merc's regenerate? that's a first time I've ever heard of that happening in rome total war
it's in the remaster, it was a feature in medieval 2 from 2006.
@@indieWellie That is definitely news to me. I've played Shogan 1, Rome 1, tried Medieval 1 for about an hour before giving up, played shogan 2 (like it less than the original, but the graphics are super cool) and played Warhammer 1. So healing merc units are a totally new thing to me, I might have to see what version/s of rome total war I've got on steam these days as oppose to my original CD version.
A gameplay style that doesn't lead to him steamrolling all his enemies? That's compelling.
Apparently all it requires is taking every single option for "very hard" difficulty and slapping an additional massive handicap on top of it
But mercenaries were never so bad as the forums made out. Upfront costs aren't the most important thing.
In reference to troops healing after battle, I think that the first troops to die are more likely to heal up after the battle :) I believe legendoftotalwar taught me that one.
Not going to lie, I'm slightly disappointed that the Barbarian Mercenaries don't all look like Kurt Cobain anymore.
there's a toggle menu for that.
>hears what the challenge is
>hear that he's trying it with Dacia
... Right, so what's the new series you've got lined up for next month?
Edit: at 25:15 I swore I heard that we wants war crimes up the jaxy. Had to relisten there
"Tsundere Scythia" had me laughing so hard. "It's not like I want a military alliance with you or anything!"
I see Jon is playing Renissance Italy style
Mercenary Armies! Thankfully you won't encounter the issues those italians had, that the enemy just payed the army to leave
I can’t wait to play this game. I recently got a laptop and have been really enjoying Three Kingdoms and Rome was the game that really got me interested in the total war series.
Casualties healing from ranged fire is the funniest. Just picturing a random Illyrian, takes an arrow to face, tis but a scratch!
Finally I get to pace myself with a live release of a total war series. My work and social life is safe.... for now.
I'm really looking forward to the faction-specific achievements.
I want to figure out which factions players like the most and least.
Aside from Rome, of course! Ave! AVE!
I'm in HD now.
And still a disappointment to your father... good work on the Amazons though
@@Joe125g20 he doesn't have any traits yet. How could you judge him?
I would love a construction set addon 😍 imagine being able to mod this game without having to keep going back into the directory!
You will need Julianus 2 electric boogaloo to win this one Jon
"...or a good idea..." Jon, we watch because you routinely ignore '...good idea...'
While I'm loving the "Mercenary Only" challenge run, I think that you should give a think to a "no missile unit" run....It'll force you to change up your tactics a little more than normal
I can't concentrate on your voice with that new Victory music playing :)) It's too joyful
"I have not planned this."
Well... I'm guessing we're getting the VTM:B series sooner than expected
Well, when was the last time Jon planned something and actually stuck to the plan?
@@Classic_Frog I think the last time was the moment he started F4 YOLO. It all went downhill from there.