Fun drinking game: over the course of this run, take a shot every time you hear the words "Cretan Archers" and "Mercenary Hoplites." If you develop liver failure, congratulations, you've won.

“Tsundere Scythians” is a phrase I would never have thought I would hear in my lifetime

Devs add population feature just for Jon. Jon: does mercenry only challange.

Everyone is worried about Jon but he got Aquincum. The unbreakable city of Marcus the Gambler. If all else fails he can hunker down in there and Sally forth.

MATN, "Anything you dont train is fairplay." Proceeds to immediately dispand units he didn't train himself.

I don't know what's more exciting. Jon playing Rome in a new way, or the fact I can read the U.I without squinting.

"Rome fell because it relied too much on mercenaries." John: "Observe."

*Chooses Dacia over Germania... "Alright, not the most doable decision, definitely very challenging." *Expands AGGRESSIVELY towards 3 allied Roman factions... "Jon, you absolute madman..."

"I'm not sure it is possible or a good idea" - a motto for all MATN challenge runs.

Everyday our numbers will grow, Jon will spread us across the land, and slowly but surely we shall watch everything

Dacia in a nutshell: Poorest lands No ports Angry Neighbors including OP Scythia Worst barbarian mercenaries in the game And they're super exensive. Well... I'd straight up relocate in Greece.

Love your content man. I'm you've never really cared about playing the trending games, just doing what you enjoy and being genuine. Been a fan for a while and will stay one as long as you keep being you. Take it easy man

1:02:56 "The wolves aren't at the gates anymore. They are through the gate, they've found the key, they've let themselves in, they're on my sofa, and they're eating my biscuits." Never Change Jon!

I became a subscriber only a couple years ago, so I had never seen the Total War playthroughs when they were new. When I saw the remaster of this game, I read in the comments about the previous playthroughs, and I binged them. Thank you comment section for that, now I'm addicted to Jon's Roman adventures.

Carthage would’ve been perfect for this challenge, and perfectly accurate

I believe the first 15% of casualties are healed from the battle. Ranged fire is usually the first to kill men so it just seems like the ranged damage gets healed

Don't forget to cross the Danube in winter when it freezes and plunder Roman caravans full of wheat, Jon.

A mercenary challenge? Given the quality of a certain mercenary in the past this won’t be too difficult...

The Brutii run a few years back got me through high school. This should be really fun to watch.

My dude be like: This game sucks the population cost is not there any more! Developers: Sorry, sorry, we added them back The man next day: we have a challenge where we won't interact with population cost system now! Developers be like: Son of A

3 Denarii. At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime!

"This guy's a genius." also "This man shouldn't be trusted running a shrimp stall"

"It... it's not like I like you or anything, Dacia-kun!"- Sycthia Senpai from the anime "That time I built an empire, now I hire nothing but mercenaries!"

"Tsundere Scythia" is my new favourite faction

Casualty replenishment is based on the first units to die are the first to recover, regardless of how they died. Because the skirmish phase is often the first phase of battle it often looks like those dying to ranged attacks are the first to recover but it's just a coincidence. You can get a unit of elephants and send them in to die right at the start, then as long as you take a few hundred casualties after that it'll fully revive the elephants, even if they ran into a phalanx. There is a cap to how many revive, which can be increased slightly with traits/retinue but it's a % of how many die, and you need to win the battle to get it.

1 hour in and Jon is one step away from taking Patavium just like he did 4 years ago.

“There are naked, angry, Thraceans coming up the back of ya!”

This will be my first time watching one of your Rome total war series as it goes on and not binge watch the entire thing, I’m looking forward to it!

Given the influx of extremely vocal relative newbies whinging about not liking Rome Total War etc, let me take the opportunity to say I'm extremely excited for the series.

Jon: makes well laid out plans that are sensible. Also Jon: forgets plan less than five minutes later, and does something far more stupid.

I don't believe healing has anything to do with range vs. melee, it's just the first troops that die in the battle that get healed. You can cheese that a bit if you have a high value unit like elephants-- send them in to die first, then make sure a bunch of cheap irrelevant troops die, voila, you get your elephants back.

*DID SOMEBODY SAY MERCENARIES?*

MY PROFILE PICTURE IS RELEVANT AGAIN! PRO VICTORIA ROMA!

Jon was talking about how the barbarian towns are really good defensively because of the hill built into them... and I could only remember that time I conquered Gaul with a single army and the 5 units of scorpions did almost all the work every siege. Edit: Though to be fair, he is probably talking about that in regards to the ai

So in other words you have become barbarian Carthage

Been following you for 5+ years and love seeing that this game cane back to the channel! About to binge the entire series! I remember playing medieval total war viking invasion on my first pc back in the day.

I was so delighted when I heard of the TW: Rome Remaster. I don't even intend to play it, I just tought: "Oh, nice. Jon's gonna be so happy about this." So, dear Jon: Enjoy.

Rome returns and I am sent spiralling backwards in time to the era of being a cringy character account and not one of the funny ones. To those of you who WERE funny, I salute you

Next challenge run: peasants only Almost certainly not possible, definitely not a good idea, though I would watch it anyways Edit: even if only just to see how far Jon can get, because if anybody could pull it off then it would be the carton of eggs himself

had this on in the background while cooking dinner, and suddenly heard Jon getting really excited about War Crimes adding +10 attack and thought I'd switched to the Spiffing Brit's channel

Your love for this game really shines through, I too spent far too many hours on it at uni, it your classics background lets you really rise to the peak of your field. Bravo!

Unless they changed it for the remaster, the reason you think range kills stick less is most range kills happen in the beginning skirmish phase of the battle. And how it actually works is just the first 15% of casualties are healed. Which is why sometime just sending your elephants ahead to fight to the death alone at the start is a good strategy cuz they just heal.

I like how at no point did Jon have a plan to not stick to

I've read the title as "The Merciless Challange" and my first thought was: is this a Rome Total War: Kill Everything Run, where you massacre population in every city you capture?

10 minutes into the challenge and Jon is rushing to share a border with the Romans, who pretty much always attack anyone they are bordering, almost never make peace (unless their AI behavior has changed), and will definitely shred you with three factions hitting you at once. This will end well.

The healing is not about range/melee. It is just the ones that die first. The amount of healed depend on casualties taken + the commander. It allows for interesting necromancy, like send Elephants first until they are all dead. Then sacrifice some expendable units and you get your elephants back

Did that challenge as Carthage a few years ago and it actually was tons of fun! The Greek territories, Iberia and Scythia are by far the best territories for mercenaries. Egypt and Asia minor by comparison suck hard.

I hope we get blessed and the soul of a certain bald man finds its way into the captain of some mercenaries.

28:14 "Their general's decided, 'Uh oh, uh oh, I've made a horrible, horrible mistake, actually." -Jon, just before realizing (uh oh, uh oh) he's made a horrible, horrible mistake, actually.

Ah yes, the return of Rome Total War, and with it, the return of Jon saying a battle is going to be very hard seconds before annihilating everything in his path in seconds without breaking a sweat.

I love the mercenary mechanic, it makes armies evolve with the area they are working in. I thought it was such a shame that the later games didn't have something similar especially considering that Warhammer could have things inspired by the old Dog's of War book.

Ave, True to Julianus Vatinius what do you mean that's not the quote? it is you can fite me

LMAO! ...I was resting in the bedroom and heard this intro play, far away. It wasn't my fiance, so apparently one of our neighbors watches you, too! Pretty sure the guy upstairs is a gamer, and usually his TV is easiest to hear, so I bet it's him. Small world!

Barbarian mercenaries are excellent hold the line or ambush troops, or anti cav meat shields. They rip apart early tier units with a good flanking. Only skirmishers or heavy cavalry really counter them. Also good for population boosting in poor population growth regions, which is a lot of the barbarian regions.

Watching this series from the beginning again ahah, this was so good, you should do another!

A good thing about Dacia is the mountains around the starting area. A bunch of forts in the passes can give you a lot of time to respond to aggression, especially from Scythia and Thrace. Also I think you can block river crossings the same way but I might be misremembering.

Brings a tear to the eye

The beacons are lit, the old Roman Character accounts call for aid!

The early game is about getting Crete and then well, it’s only a matter of time for Jon to paint the map. But he’s gonna lose everything else first and be down to one or two cities for sure, maybe lose the homeland.

It always hurts me to see cavalry not out dancing infantry until the infantry is exhausted and the cav is fresh. The exhausted penalties in this game are super harsh and the ai never rests their troops. This is the one total war game were walking your troops is super important if you have the time for it.

Hey me, yes us, it’s you from the past here but also there saying hi to ourselves when we inevitably watch this series again in 5 years

Casualties healing from ranged fire is the funniest. Just picturing a random Illyrian, takes an arrow to face, tis but a scratch!

On my birthday too! Thank you so much! Good luck!

Great idea for series, looking forward to seeing how this one plays out

Has anyone else noticed that they removed the swooshing sound effects from the javelins and projectiles? I don’t know if it’s just because the audio from John is louder than the game but I remember projectiles being more loud and wooshy

The little white trails that follow ranged attacks bother me a lot more than I thought they would

"Tsundere Scythia" had me laughing so hard. "It's not like I want a military alliance with you or anything!"

before it even gets going when Jon says another full series my excitement levels went through the roof!!!

Jesus I prayed and begged my farther for another Rome series and he’s finally answered my prayers

Really been looking forward to this!!!

I'm in HD now.

About casualties healed: The people going down first are the most likely to survive.

In reference to troops healing after battle, I think that the first troops to die are more likely to heal up after the battle :) I believe legendoftotalwar taught me that one.

A gameplay style that doesn't lead to him steamrolling all his enemies? That's compelling.

I see Jon is playing Renissance Italy style Mercenary Armies! Thankfully you won't encounter the issues those italians had, that the enemy just payed the army to leave

I have been waiting for this day for years

I first started watching this channel because of the first Rome: Total War series. I rewatch it every year or so, it was just so fun. Glad to see it back again :)

Jon please remember loose formation, it helps reduce casualties from ranged fire quite alot, and loose units can even man battering rams

I was on the edge of my seat by the end! Brilliant.

Finally I get to pace myself with a live release of a total war series. My work and social life is safe.... for now.

"I have not planned this." Well... I'm guessing we're getting the VTM:B series sooner than expected

Ahh... I see you have chosen the Carthage route. Good choice!

>hears what the challenge is >hear that he's trying it with Dacia ... Right, so what's the new series you've got lined up for next month? Edit: at 25:15 I swore I heard that we wants war crimes up the jaxy. Had to relisten there

I would’ve gone with Greeks for their mercenaries. Hoplites and Cretan archers can carry the day. Egypt would probably be the best pick, a lot of mercenary pulls and easy rebel places to start with. Picking Dacia is like bringing a knife to a gun fight but then holding the knife in your bad hand

Good Video Jon and I like how Mercs cannot just be retrained everywhere but only in regions that share the unit type which makes sure they are not OP since without that being able to recruit them everywhere without their huge upkeep from Med 2 would have unbalanced the game. Others have said as such so it nice to see that potential issue cleared up. However that bit at 29:10 represents a big problem any old time Rome 1 player would agree to never see anymore and that's the bad Pathfinding getting your units killed when you clearly want them not to. I really hope Feral puts more work on that because it was a huge issue back than, and continues to be one now. Hope you let them know we need better Pathfinding especially in cities. Hope to see more content for you man.

Rome Total War? New series?? And an impossible challenge run!? Oh my Jon, you do know how to treat a lady.

So cool the devs agreed to bring back the population feature.

I would love a construction set addon 😍 imagine being able to mod this game without having to keep going back into the directory!

I’m so stoked on a new Rime Total War series

I'm really looking forward to the faction-specific achievements. I want to figure out which factions players like the most and least. Aside from Rome, of course! Ave! AVE!

Bro that fight at the end was so epic. Outnumbered 3 to 1 yet the brilliant generals Scyles and Jon still prevail! I'm getting real hype for this series now

i subscribed during an early total war : rome playthrough, i'm so thrilled to see it again, it was such a great time, and a really interesting game

While I'm loving the "Mercenary Only" challenge run, I think that you should give a think to a "no missile unit" run....It'll force you to change up your tactics a little more than normal

I've been waiting for some more edited Rome Total War Remastered videos, so this is very much exciting.

units that die first are first to be healed it's like 5/10% of your casualties after you win a battle heal so you can yeet war elepthants chariots into stacks then send hordes of trash in to rez them

You will need Julianus 2 electric boogaloo to win this one Jon

Your rome brutii campaign is what brought me to your channel.

pretty sure romans hiring of mercanires and severe reduction of roman born soldiers is what led to the end of the empire.

A beginning of a great series! :)

Can't wait to see all our lovely old role-playing accounts come back