Rome: Total War Vanilla Enhanced brings 40 factions and a much bigger fight to the original game

There's something about the original Rome: Total War that still holds up wonderfully after all these years. The campaign map, the diplomacy, the satisfaction of watching thousands of soldiers collide on a battlefield, and of course, the occasional general making a spectacularly stupid decision that costs you half an army.

ZZzyzZZ's Rome Total War Vanilla Enhanced wants to give players more of that experience without completely abandoning what made the original game so enjoyable.

The mod expands the campaign to forty factions, introduces hundreds of units, and builds on the work of several earlier community projects. Seventeen factions are the creator's own additions, including Sparta, the Etruscan League, Massilia, Galatia, and the Indo Saka. There's a larger campaign map, more regional competition, and fewer conveniently undefended rebel settlements waiting around for you to conquer them.

That last part is particularly interesting. Instead of racing across the map swallowing territory with relatively little resistance, the creator wants expansion to feel more contested. Your neighbors have ambitions of their own, and you're going to have to work for those victories.

There are some technical considerations. This is built for the original Steam release of Rome: Total War using the REX framework, not Rome Remastered or the untouched original executable. The creator has also acknowledged some crashes involving rapid end-turn progression and army deployment, so it isn't a completely trouble-free release.

But if you're one of those people who still prefers the original Rome experience, and there are plenty of us out there, having forty factions fighting over the ancient world sounds like a pretty good excuse to start another campaign. Just don't blame us when it's suddenly three in the morning and you're still trying to take Carthage.