Rome: Total War

I've been playing this off and on since early this year. Picked it up as one of the two games I bought for $50 in the computer game shop at Arndale. For a couple years before that I'd been playing Medieval:Total War. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I'd not played a campaign through to conclusion. I'd learnt, however, that the game poses different levels and types of problem to solve at differing stages of the evolution of a campaign. The issues in the first turns are entirely different from those in the fiftieth, for example.

Anyway, Rome has been at least as entrancing though possibly not as much fun. The relative 'arcadishness' and board game style of Medieval kept it a simpler interface (both conceptually and aesthetically speaking) than Rome. The later, full of interactive detail and personifcation of the systemic structure of the game, adds a fair bit of complexity.

I guess that, once I reach the level of instinctive interactivity I did with Medieval, the deeper depths of the game experience will unlock themselves and I will be as infatuated as I am intrigued.