catw 1.2.4 or classical-age: total war "Samniti Bello" is about the ancient world in 300 BC and the last Samnite war. This release brings both 05.3 and 05.4 updates that has been cooking for a year.
CATW 05 has been released two years ago in 2016 as a response to the problems experienced on steam with catw 1.2 and catw 2.0. In addition to be fully playable on RTW 1.9/BI/Alex, it now integrates a new faction compared to the original, the Samnites (instead of the Boians), and Massilia (instead of Pontus which did not existed in 300 BC).
The timeframe indeed here is very important: It's 300 BC, just before the last samnite war in Italy, or just one year after the war of the diadochi officially ended with the defeat of Antigonos Monophtalmos, ageing Alexander companion, and partition of his former empire between Lysimachus, which took the lion's share of his former empire, the ptolemies, Seleucids, while Kassander kept the Macedonian homeland. Rome was far from being the dominant power in Italy. With this last roll of the dices, the Samnites could crush Rome, with the added power of the Etruscans and Celts. While on the other coast, the turbulent Illyrians and to their south, an ambitious raising small kingdom, Epirus, are also waiting for opportunities. Further east in the Balkans, the place is crowded, between Cassander's Macedon, Lysimachus thrace, the barbarian Getai further north and the rich cities of Bosporos, in contact with the Scytho-Sarmatians.
But the world is not a quiet place elsewhere. In gaul, two confederacies, the Arverni in the south, Senones in the North, and the Belgians are poised for the dominance of Western Europe and Britain, while further north and east, the powerful Suebi confederacy is poised for conquest too, with plently of opportunity southwards and eastwards, and only the Boians standing in their way. In Africa, Carthage already possesses a wide empire stretching from southern Iberia to Thyrrenian islands, the coast of north africa around Libya and western Sicily. In Spain, the dynamic and fierce Celtiberians are ready for the conquest of the peninsula. In the east, the immense Seleucid empire has feets of clay, and near the Maeotis lake, a fierce tribe is poised for conquest, the Parni, while a satrapy loosely independant can also aspire to local power, Armenia, with only Media Atropatene and Bythinia in its way...
----Changes bring to CATW 1.2.4/054---------------
-ReallyBadAI G5
-Correct (non vanilla) strat Pictures and banners
-Working historical battles
-Rebalanced independent factions (some were really over the top !) to left some chances to regular small factions to expand.
-Rebalanced samnites: Less powerful units for the Samnites and only Apulia as starting region.
-Rebalanced thracians: Conquest was a pushover: Far less money for Lysimachus Empire, starting armies decreased.
-detail changes in animations (many two-handed)
-added socii barracks (from catw 1.2 and 2.0): Many italic troops and cavalry recrutable by the Romans
-added mercenary barracks: Mercenaries from all over the map recrutable by many factions out of AORs (settled merc system)
-auxiliary barracks: AOR units recruitment tree
-Senones rebalanced with units posted
-text corrections
-recruitment fixes for the Romans
-campaign bugs fixed
-Excessive squalor/morale loss fixed
-New Epic music
-Illyrian names fixes
-Some minor changes to the vegetation map
(1.2.3 and 1.2.4 included).
Error when extract RAR file
Error when extract RAR file
Please try using 7-zip, it's free. I used it to compress the archive.