To those of you who didn't have the priviledge of trying out the earlier iteration (way back in early 3d), Rome Fortress is a total conversion mod that aims to being some historical realism to the game. If you feel like a change, than you'll love this mod. Note that some of the early things that were in the first Rome Fortress are gone or changed around a bit.
It comes prepackaged with 40c in the download; feel free to tweak the ini settings as you please if the defaults I've set don't appeal to you.
Instructions: click the link, save it somewhere, extract the .zip file, play the dwarfort.exe like usual. It is 6mb in size, there no save included.
It's been only loosely tested by me, but I have yet to find any errors so if you do find any, please post here and I will update the link.
Here is a list of the things changed/removed (spoiler tag if you want to stay surprised):
New civs:
All existing civs are gone, and are replaced by;
Romans: The late-era Roman Empire was a powerful force. They typically use the gladius short sword, the pilum throwing spear, and a round or square shield called the scutum (both the gladius and scutum were borrowed from the early Spanish). The legionary is the typical roman infantry, though they are also able to field the bucelari, a primitive crossbow, as well as basic spearmen. However most armies should be fielded of gladius-wielding legionaries, as the gladius is by far the best weapon they can use.
Carthaginians: An offshoot of the ancient Phoenician Empire, the Carthaginians quickly became a dominant Mediterranean mercantile power. After some rather nasty clashes with the growing Romans, however, they were thoroughly conquered and the jewel of the Mediterranean, Carthage, was burned to the ground. They can trade with the Romans in Rome Fortress but they tend to get into wars with them quite often as well. 'At least they're not barbarians!'
Greeks: The Greek empire was once a vast and powerful nation, but fragmented after Alexander's the Great's death into several autonomous regions, most of which were eventually conquered themselves. In Rome Fortress, the Greeks are willing to trade with the Romans and occasionally get into wars with them, but are generally not much of a threat.
The Greeks can field the slow-moving, but heavily defensive hoplites - spearmen with large, heavy shields, and the powerful Spartan hoplites who wield longer spears. They also have a good variety of bowmen.
Persians: Largely, the Persians are like the Greeks: too far away to make much of a difference, and don't wish to war with the Romans if they can help it. Instead, they will send trade caravans. Todo: create spices for them to trade with.
Germans: Big, hulking barbarians from the North, the Germans are everything the Romans are not. Uncivilized, uncouth, unintelligent, the germanic tribes are the very definition of barbarism. They envy the Roman wealth, though, and some will try to sneak in and steal. They wield bows with great skill, but their favorite weapons are gigantic great-axes wielded by their fearsome berserkers.
Gauls: Similar to the Germans, the Gauls are fearsome barbarians who primarily live and hunt in the forests. They tend to use more bladed swords than the axe-favoring Germans, however.
Celts: Wild barbarian tribes from the isles of Britain and Ireland, the Celts once spread their influence surprisingly far, such as into Gallic lands, Iberia, and even as far as Greece. The kilt-wearing savages love nothing more than to charge into the fray wearing nothing but a kilt, a gallowglass twohanded sword, and a wild look in their eye.
Note: As Romans you cannot speak with the barbarians and you will always be at war with them.
New creatures:
Some new domestics: Pigs (trainable), chickens, sheep.
New wild animals: wild boars, rhinos, coyotes, and so on.
Many new vermin, 4 new varieties of bat, etc.
Completely new list of plants, many of which can only be grown in certain seasons and in certain areas. All of them have jams, thread, juices or extracts that can be used for a variety of purposes. Olives, grapes, and flax are of definite importance in Roman daily life.
New items: Many of the items have been shuffled around and changed or removed entirely: armor for example has a wider variety, such as 3 Roman types of armor: Lorica Segmentata, which is thick plates of overlapping steel, Lorica Hamata, which is Roman chainmail, and Lorica Squamata, which is small overlapping metal scales forming a protective suit.
Many new/changed weapons: All civs use proper weapons for their civilization; Romans use the gladius shortsword, Carthaginians use the falcata blade, and so on. All civ entries also have picks and hatchets if you feel like changing it to allow them to be used in Fortress Mode instead of the Romans only.
Damascus Steel: The legendary patterned steel can be made out of a special type of iron, Wootz Iron, found in small pockets in various stone layers. It is 50% more effective than regular iron and 23% more effective than steel (150% compared to 133%), and weighs less.
The entire language list has been converted to Latin, by hand. Yes, all 2112 words. Since I have not converted them to, for example, German or Gaelic or Greek, all civs will use Latin whether or not their culture actually used it. If you want to convert the whole dictionary to ancient Germanic, be my freakin' guest.
Please feel free to comment here if you have questions, comments, flames, or anything at all. I love getting feedback.