Invasio Barbarorum

Infobox VG
title =


publisher = Invasio Barbarorum Development Team
designer = Invasio Barbarorum Development Team
engine = Rome: Total War Engine
released = 2005
genre = Real-time tactics
modes = Single-player and Multiplayer
ratings =
platforms = PC
media =
requirements =
input =

"Invasio Barbarorum", also known as "Invasio Bararorum: Flagellum Dei" or "IBFD", is a comprehensive modification for with a series of campaigns focusing on the late Roman Empire. Sub mods include "Rio's IBFD" and "Imperium Julianorum". The aim of the modification is a balance between enhanced gameplay and historical accuracy. Set in 410 AD, the year of the Sack of Rome by Alaric's Visigoths, the modification features a complete rebuild of its parent game, "".

History

The mod was started by Atilla Reloaded under the name of "Atilla's Real Late Roman Army Mod", because at that time it was just a pack of more realistic new models and skins for late romans only. These models were originally created for the now defunct Imperia Romana (whose members are now working on the M2TW mod The Gathering Storm). The 3rd version of this pack could be perceived somewhat as the real start of the mod: the pack had his first fans, and not only Romans but even Sassanids had their new models. Soon the Franks, Saxons and Celts were redone. Some little graphic work started with the insertion of new faction symbols.

Atilla Reloaded was then the only modder, as it also clear by the name of the pack. In search of some coder to add a building to recruiting Foederati units, to insert in his 4th version, Mylae offered to help; other players also started to give lots of suggestions and asked for historical accuracy.

Suggestions from Mylae about starting the mod in 410 were accepted, and the forthcoming version had several new changes: almost all facions had new units, and the modpack 4.0 get the name of Invasio Barbarorum - Flagellum Dei 4. A 4.1 version soon appeared to fix some bugs. It was clear that at this point what was needed was just a continuous work to make the mod better. This version however had still Sarmatians and Roxolani, and started in 363 CE, because took time to implement the numerous suggestions from several players. The map featured more than twenty new provinces, the riot risk was increased - and it was a motive of pain for Romans players. There were over 30 units of Romans, with a more heavy eastern Roman Cavalry, a full remake of Romano-British, Sassanids with large flags, Franks, Saxons and the conversion of the Celts to Picts. The West Roman Rebels were substituted by the armies of Constantine III (but under the unhistorical name of Imperia Gallorum, the name was used for an earlier usurper Empire established in Gaul). There was even new loading screens.

Riothamus started to transfer the IBFD units to the BI WarMap II V0.4, and to set as starting year the 450 CE. This was the start of the Rio's IBFD submod. In fact, the new versions increased rather than satisfied the demands of the players. There was a 4.0.3, with his 4.0.4 patch, followed by a 4.1 and his 4.1.1 fixes, all in .exe files, tweaked by GershomPathmos.

After some time, it was generally agreed to use a new, larger map to give Sassanids more space in the east, and for this purpose Sounds Like Killing released a short-lived transposition to WARMAP v1 (made from IceTorques). A little building addon made by Mylae appeared and inserted few new buildings and some unique one across the world, and a 4-turns-per-year script was inserted. Ramon Gonzales y Garcia released a "Constantine the Usurper v0.1" that inserted the Vandal hordes in Spain (before they were placed around the Rhine).

A curiosity: the mod was known for a certain time as IB-FG. It was either a simple typing error made by Atilla Reloaded, or he may have substituted the English equivalent of 'God' for the latin 'Dei'. All of Atilla Reloaded's IBFD had this name, but strangely none noticed it until a few months later. A poll was made to decide wheter to use IBFG (that had become familiar to many) or IBFD. With 14 to 1 the latter was decided.

Setting

Invasio Barbarorum is set in 410AD, the year of the Sack of Rome, at the time of the great migrations, in the Late Roman Empire, at the start of the Dark Ages.

Factions

The modification has the following factions:

Roman Factions

Western Roman Empire (Imperium Romanum Occidentalis)

Eastern Roman Empire (Imperium Romanum Orientalis)

The Gallic Empire of the usurper Constantine III (Imperium Constantini).

The Romano Britons.

Eastern Factions

The Sassanid Empire.

Persarmenia.

The Lakhmids Arabs.

The Berber Amazigh.

Barbarian Factions

The Saxons Tribes.

The Frankish tribes.

The Alamanni.

The Burgundii.

The Langobardi.

The Vandals, Alans, and Sueves.

The Visigoths.

The Ostrogoths.

The Slavic peoples.

Nomadic Factions

The Hephthalites

The Hunnic Empire.

Known Historical Inaccuracies

The game (7.03 ver) still has several unhistorical features, that are mantained for enjoying the gameplay. Probably most of them will be eliminated in the future version. They consists of:

* Artillery available to Barbarian/nomad factions (historically, they never developed it);Barbarians can "upgrade" buildings in Roman cities and they will appear as barbarian building, with a very bad - and unhistorical - look.

* Temples, churches and other religious buildings still exclude each other, like in vanilla BI.

* Barbarians/nomads could recruit their barbarian units in Roman lands.

* In the Mediterranean Sea there are some unuseful Roman ships here and there.

* Even with forced diplomatic stances, East Roman Empire tend to attack the West Roman Empire.

* Onager, Scorpio and Ballista are still the old unhistorical vanilla ones, new artillery models should be made.

* Some units should be tweaked both in model and skin.

* Other little things.

References

* [http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?p=122042]

External links

* [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=113]
* [http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=233]