In this frequently asked questions thread, you should be able to find all the answers to your problems concerning Barbarian Invasion, Rome: Total War's Expansion. If you cannot find a question & answer on a particular subject, please post in this thread about it, if not already included, and I will be more than happy to add it, as long as you also provide the answer to go with it.

Posted- 1-14-2006 10:11pm
Edited- 1-29-2006 6:00pm

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Q1. What is Barbarian Invasion?
Q2. How do I make all factions playable?
Q3. What is the best unit to sustain happiness in a city?
Q4. How do I play the Multiplayer part of the game?
Q5. Does anyone understand how a factions religion is set? How do I convert my official religion to another?
Q6. What are these "Trigger" factions I keep hearing about?
Q7. Are the objectives for the factions in BI a lot easier than in vanilla?
Q8. How do you use the Night Attack Ability?
Q9. What factions can use the horde ability?
Q10. Why dose my horde disappear after I take a few cities?
Q11. Where can I find cheats for BI?
Q12. Has anyone found a way to get titles back if the character who holds them dies?
Q13. How do you beat horde factions?
Q14. Can Romans and other ‘civilized’ factions sack cities?
Q15. Is it me or has destroying siege gear gotten harder?
Q16. What is a shock troop and what qualifies it as one?
Q17. Can I re-name my cities?
Q18. Squalor, what does it mean? And how do you stop it occurring?
Q19. What is the best way to get a good economy?
Q20. What year does a campaign end?
Q21. What are these ‘Roman Eagle’ thingies I hear about?
Q22. How do you ‘Horde’?
Q23. Back to the last question, what area of the map is best for settling?
Q24. How do you play non-playable factions?
Q25. What are these mystery factions, the White Huns and the Moors, that don’t seem to be mentioned anywhere?
Q26. What dose ‘Vanilla’ mean, and can I have some?
Q27. I keep seeing rainbows when playing night battles! Is this a feature or is there something seriously wrong?!
Q28. Suddenly the game doesn't allow me to destroy buildings anymore. What’s the problem?
Q29. Are there any patches available and where do I get them?
Q30. What does it mean when my units light up and twinkle?
Q31. If I install BI will I still be able to play RTW whenever I want or would I have to uninstall BI first?

Q1. What is Barbarian Invasion?

A1. Rome: Total War: Barbarian invasion is the recently released expansion to the popular 2004 strategy game from The Creative Assembly. It is set in the period of the late Roman Empire. The Empire has been split in two and is facing invasion from all sides. Barbarian Invasion is a powerful game with many new features, which make it unique, and devilishly fun!

Q2. How do I make all factions playable?

A2. Currently, the two best Mods for this are the following.

Borsook's All Factions Mod for 1.3 & 1.4

This is for un-moded versions of RTW and BI but may be done manually. Make sure you back up all files before installing!! This Mod allows you to play as the non-playable factions within BI. It also includes the Mod that allows all factions to be played in RTW. Just install it into your Main RTW folder, and replace all files that it asks for, or use the read-me file to manually install the mod.

Epistolary Richard's All Factions Mod

This mod is similar to Borsook's Mod but this also included the emerging factions to be playable as well. Maps for Unplayable factions, descriptions and Character Faces have also been adder to enhance the game. This mod allows you to play as all of the factions within BI as they appear or emerge within the vanilla game. If you choose to play as an emergent faction, the game will go on autopilot until the faction emerges and it will then pass you control.

Q3. What is the best unit to sustain happiness in a city?

A3. Peasants cause the most happiness in a city. It is true that Each soldier or peasant produces the same effect, but the more men in a unit, the more the happiness. Naturally, the most cost-effective is the Peasant, since the cost per soldier is the cheapest.

Since Peasants are the largest units in the game, they yield the most happiness.

Q4. How do I play the Multiplayer part of the game?

A4. Basically the same way as in the original game. There is really no need to register to GameSpy to play. This is just the hosting network for MP. To play BI's Multiplayer, you will have to have an Original Copy of RTW. From this you will use the CD key that came with RTW and enter it for Barbarian Invasion. From there, either Join a game, or Host a game.

Q5. Does anyone understand how a faction’s religion is set? How do I convert my official religion to another?

A5. One determining Factor in religion is the Governor you put in that settlement. The City's Religion is chosen based on his beliefs and his current religion, and also decided based on the religious structures already in the city. Religion of a settlement is also based on the surrounding cities. If all the cities around yours are Christian, then your will most likely be as well, unless you already have a strong presence of a different type there. To change it completely you must destroy the structures of the opposite religion, have a Governor to help the process of keeping your people happy in the switch, and having the surrounding cities be somewhat the same religious base.

Q6. What are these "Trigger" factions I keep hearing about?

A6. "Trigger" factions are also known as spawn factions. These factions suddenly appear after a certain event has happen, for example a destruction of another Faction, or the taking over of a specific city. There are many spawn factions in this game.

The British Romano appears after you have run the Eastern Roman Empire out of Britain, and Londinium.
The Osthrogoths appear when there is a revolt of a city in the region of the Goths.
The Slavs appear after Burgundi is defeated.
The Western Roman Rebels and the Eastern Roman Rebels appear when civil unrest is caused in a city and it revolts. Instead of becoming a Rebel city it become a Roman Rebel city. The faction can be removed by taking back the city, but these two are the only ones that can respawn again and again. Every time a Roman city revolts it becomes a Roman Rebel city.

Q7. Are the objectives for the factions in BI a lot easier than in vanilla?

A7. In the Original RTW, there was an evenly set goal for each faction to gain 50 settlements and hold Rome, or the option of a short campaign to only hold 15 settlements. In Barbarian Invasion each faction has its own unique set goal to achieve. A different amount of settlements is needed for different factions. And certain cities need to be taken to win. Personally I would say BI objectives are easier because there aren’t as many settlements to capture, but for some getting them is a hard job. And a lot of the factions goals are so part apart as well, such as trying to get 32 settlement compared to 15. It all depends on your faction of choice.

Q8. How do you use the Night Attack Ability?

A8. In order to use this function, a commanding General of an army must have the ability to do so. Its a trait that is needed to activate it, which is said to come when that character has enough command stars. If your General does have this trait, then there will be a gray box in the side of the battle panel in which you can choose to have a night battle at any time.

Q9. What factions can use the horde ability?

A9. Only the Franks, Goths, Huns, Sarmatians, Vandals, Burgundi, Lombardi, Osthrogoths, Roxolani and Slavs can form hordes.

Q10. Why dose my horde disappear after I take a few cities?

A10. When you choose to settle down in your first conquered settlement rather than sack it, half of your surviving horde units will be quickly disbanded. The people in these units revert to their non-combatant status and join the conquered settlement's population. When you choose to conquer a second settlement half of the remaining units (i.e. 1/4 th of the original horde) will be quickly disbanded and added to the settlements population. When you choose to conquer a third settlement your remaining original horde units will be quickly disbanded and added to the settlements population.

Q11. Where can I find cheats for BI?

A11. Although most forummers agree that cheats ruin games, its all up to the person who owns it.
Barbarian Invasion Cheats at GameSpot

Q12. Has anyone found a way to get titles back if the character who holds them dies?

A12. Titles 'respawn' if lost on another appropriate character in the right place. You can check out the individual triggers if you want to see 'how the magic works', but I always think that spoils the experience of playing games a little. The titles are - as some people have noticed - a cunning variant on the retainers in the game.

There are around half-a-dozen Roman titles for each half of the Empire and one or two for most of the other factions. The exception is the 'Friend of the
Emperor', as there can be a large number of them in circulation at any one time as it's a catch-all sign of favors rather than a specific job.

Q13. How do you beat horde factions?

A13. As Adder puts it, run away. But that’s not always necessary. To kill off a hording faction you must completely destroy every unit they have. In battles you must kill every single man in order for that army to disappear. Then you must do that for every one of the hordes armies. It is preferred just to avoid hordes if possible.

Q14. Can Romans and other ‘civilized’ factions sack cities?

A14. No other factions can sack cities other then the ones who have the ability to horde. Also, those factions can only sack a city when in Hording mode.

Q15. Is it me or has destroying siege gear gotten harder?

A15. Siege equipment in the original Rome Total War usually was easy to destroy. Now in BI, accounts have been made that 5 volley of flaming arrows barely takes down most equipment. But others say they have been able to easily bring them down. It may also depend of the level of difficulty that other players use. One thing many agree on though is that this subject will never close. Its hard to determine weather or not it has gotten harder you destroy, but most will find out eventually through personal game play.

Q16. What is a shock troop and what qualifies it as one?

A16. Shock troops usually are units that use brute force and an initial attack to send the enemy routing. Usually units with attack points of 15 (w/o upgrades) are considered shock troops. Examples are Berserkers, Hounds of Cullen, Chosen Axe men, and Comitatenses. Also cavalry units can be categorized there as well suck as Grall Knights, Catafractii and Elephants.

Q17. Can I re-name my cities?

A17. Yes it is possible. Simply open a city scroll, and up at the top where it shows you the city name, e.g. Rome- Huge City, double click, backspace and enter a new name, then close the menu, and it will be re-named.

Q18. Squalor, what does it mean? And how do you stop it occurring?

A18. Squalor is like pollution, filth, resulting from high populations. Early on you can fight it with cess-pits, sewers, etc., but it seems to me that once you get past a certain population size, it’s like a bad penny - you'll never get rid of it. All you can do is keep it in check by upgrading hygiene buildings and some temples. Left unchecked, you population happiness will drop and you risk outbreaks of disease.

Q19. What is the best way to get a good economy?

A19. Usually it isn't so much your income that's the problem as your expenditure. Make sure that the only troops you use to garrison your cities are peasants (which are better for keeping order anyway) and don't be supporting any armies you don't need. Certain units have the wonderful distinction of being both crap and expensive to maintain. If you have any of them sitting around that are not likely to be needed in a battle in the next couple of turns disband them to save money. Once you start upgrading your military buildings and producing higher-quality units, disband all the older types unless they have lots of experience.
To start with a good economy, try to build and upgrade mostly economical building such as ports, traders, and roads. This increases your income, and having fewer troops, as stated above, will drop your expenditure, thus creating a solid base economy.

Q20. What year does a campaign end?

A20. The campaign supposedly start in 363 and ends in 476. If you haven’t completed your assigned goals by that date, the game ends. But if you have completed your goals, and have the options of continueing, the game is endless. Once it reached 476 it will keep going. The only limit is conquering the whole map.

Q21. What are these ‘Roman Eagle’ thingies I hear about?

A21. It means that you captured the heart and sole of the Legion. To lose the eagle was like betraying Rome it self. It would be like losing the national flag in times past. You capture them by destroying a Roman Legion. Once you do though, the enemy will always try to get it back, probably for honor, so be prepared to defend. Also capturing an Eagle gives you command stars.

Q22. How do you ‘Horde’?

A22. To be a horde you can only have one city. Go to the city build window and you will see the 'Go to horde' button shaped like a tent, click it.

Usually when you horde its for a desperate purpose of too many enemies, or its just that your starting city and surrounding area suck. When you horde, you’ll want to move to a known economically powerful region, s use your spy provided to scout the area and find a suitable homeland.

Q23. Back to the last question, what area of the map is best for settling?

A23. The General consensus of the people at this site, say that the following cities are best to choose from.
Rome, Antioch, Carthage, Constantinople, and Alexandria. Those cities have some of the highest starting upgrades for buildings.

Q24. How do you play non-playable factions?

Q24. Stop Asking!!

Q25. What are these mystery factions, the White Huns and the Moors, that don’t seem to be mentioned anywhere?

A25. White Huns are Hun rebels, like WRE rebels and ERE rebels. Moors are a faction like RB that pops up in Mauritania if the conditions are met.

Q26. What dose ‘Vanilla’ mean, and can I have some?

A26. No, you cannot have some. Vanilla, as referred to by forummers, is a un-moded version of the game. No mods or patches, out-of-the-box condition.

Q27. I keep seeing rainbows when playing night battles! Is this a feature or is there something seriously wrong?!

A27. Don’t worry, first off you haven’t been doing drugs (hopefully). This problem occurs usually when you don’t have a Graphics Card that matches the requirement of the game. Or your setting for the game are off. You might need to buy a new one.

Q28. Suddenly the game doesn't allow me to destroy buildings anymore. What’s the problem?

A28. Most buildings can be destroyed, with the exception of walls, Governor's structures, farming improvements, mines and roads. You should be able to destroy any military buildings, temples and economic buildings. It sounds like a bug to me... but maybe there's some undocumented cutoff which prevents you from destroying more than "x" number of buildings in a campaign. For the most part, that’s all we know right now.

Q29. Are there any patches available and where do I get them?

A29. The game BI comes with version 1.4, and version 1.3 for RTW. The newest patch is version 1.6. To make it all work though you must download and install RTW 1.5 first then the 1.6 patch for BI.
These patches can be found on the Total War website Here

Q30. What does it mean when my units light up and twinkle?

A30. The Twinkling stars you see around your units that seemingly randomly appear during an engagement is a visual cue that means units the effect surrounds, have gained experience.

Q31. If I install BI will I still be able to play RTW whenever I want or would I have to uninstall BI first?

A31. Barbarian Invasion is basically a totally different game, but all files for it, are stored in your original RTW folder. You ll see a folder labeled BI where all the data and contents for the game is stored. Since its a different file, in format, it dost not interfere with the original RTW. So fell free to keep playing RTW without un-installing BI.

To play RTW, all you must do it insert the CD, either Auto play will come up or you must manually start it from your desktop, and you can play. To play BI instead of RTW, insert the BI CD, and the auto play/desktop icon, will let you play BI.

[This message has been edited by MaximusDecimus (edited 01-29-2006 @ 06:00 PM).]