It's a significant shift that affects everything from how armies are constructed to how territories operate on the strategic map. The legions they command are also persistent entities that can gain stat-buffing 'military tradition' affixes over time.

Now troops cannot move at all unless they have a general, and the number of generals you can have is limited by the size of your empire. Previously, you could raise tiny armies of a couple of troops and a leader would be picked from their ranks. That's why I felt a twinge of guilt about poor Crassipes. When your armies meet resistance, you dive into a real-time battle and command the troops personally. You must guide your chosen nation to glory by managing cities, conducting diplomacy, plotting espionage and moving armies to conquer new settlements. Total War has come a long way from the papery maps of Shogun, but its form is the same. What a beautiful board it is - an intricate papier mache caricature of Europe, decorated with landmarks, rivers and exaggerated topography.

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But will they talk of the fleet barely a mile away that sat still and watched the great man lemming his way into the history books? Do they realise that the patriot they adored was sent intentionally to his death? I wonder what that would do if they knew that the fate of Crassipes and all the armies and settlements of Rome were not beholden to the gods, but to one bearded games journalist moving them like pawns on a vast playing board. They'll talk of how he burned the gates and took the central square, and how a dozen Averni javelins ended his illustrious command of Legio I Italica there. They'll talk proudly of how the great general threw himself against the walls of Massalia. The Roman senate will weep for Crassipes.

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