After 13 years, Total War: Rome II will overhaul its gameplay - a beta patch with combat changes has been released

The developers decided to refine various aspects of the game.

In September, Creative Assembly returned to the grand strategy game Total War: Rome II and introduced a beta update for it called MARS. This is the first patch in a series of planned updates designed to improve various aspects of the gameplay.

With MARS, the developers are making changes and improvements to the combat system. For example, they added "critical hits," which should increase the likelihood of soldiers dying after a single hit, and this update also includes:

• Changes to armor and damage mechanics: armor will have a more linear effect, base damage will be more consistent, and armor-piercing damage will no longer completely ignore it.

• All spears now prevent horses from using "charge" (rush).
• Morale rebalance to increase the importance of flanking attacks and terrain.
• Changes to unit movement and mass values: they will become more "heavy," and "charges" will be more impactful.
• Fatigue rebalance to make it more significant.
• Fixes and improvements to group formations used by player and AI armies.
• Various changes, bug fixes, and improvements.

A full description of the first MARS beta update for Total War: Rome II is available at the following link. The developers are currently collecting player feedback – they are encouraged to post it on the Creative Assembly studio forum. You can join the testing through the game's properties in Steam in the "beta versions" section.