Heres an article from (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/355853/rome-2-total-war-interview-were-aiming-for-the-most-awe-inspiring-battles-youve-ever-seen-in-a-game/)
Rome 2 will be the biggest Total War game yet. The game's budget is 40% higher, and Creative Assembly has almost double the amount of people working on it. After seeing an incredible demo of the game in action, we sat down with lead designer James Russell to talk about the studio's plans.
Why did you decide to go back to Rome?
It's the one that everybody wants. It's a fantastic setting in terms of the variety, the evocative nature of what Rome is, and what a Roman Legion looks like. The ancient world occupies a place in the public imagination. It's the classic empire-building era in history.
Following on from Shogun 2 we learned a lot about focus and containment. Keeping the feature set polished. But now we're ready to take those lessons and branch out with a broader scope. By the time Rome 2 comes out, it'll have been 9 years since the original. We feel now as if we can do it justice in a way we couldn't back then.
It's an epically huge world, and that's what makes it so exciting. In Shogun we were focused on one culture, but here we have barbarians in the Northern forests, exotic Eastern kingdoms in the deserts. We've got a huge variety of cultures to show off in our next-generation Total War engine.
Naval and land battles used to be separate, but now you can do both in the same battle. What kinds of interesting tactics does this open up?
On the campaign map, we're breaking down the boundaries between armies and navies. It means that navies can now capture territory in a way that'll transform how important the interplay between land and sea is on the map. The Punic Wars were about naval domination of the Mediterranean. In order to build empires on land, you've got to have safety at sea. All the great powers of that era were built around coastal cities.
On the battle map, it really gives you a sense of scale. As well as that, we're doing multiple ships in each naval unit too. Before it's always been one ship, but ancient world battles weren't about 8 ships; they were about many, many ships. So now we've got a few in each unit.
You can now zoom into individual soldiers and see the battle through their eyes. What do you think this will add to the experience of battle?
What's special about Total War is that there's always so much going on in the battlefield. Any unit you look at, something is going on with them. Whether they're in combat or marching somewhere. So we wanted to have more emotional connection to them. Things like if one soldier gets hit by an arrow, his buddy will look 'round and react. Or if a guy gets injured, his friend might help him up. We want them to behave more humanly.
What can you tell us about the new engine?
We've got a whole new lighting system. We've got new particles too, and they'll cast proper shadows and receive scene lighting. It's a real upgrade, and we're not even halfway to alpha. We're working on destruction, new animations, and tighter combat. In Shogun you had these people paring off individually, but in Rome it's a total meat grinder.
We're looking to render the campaign map using the battle engine. This is a huge step forward for the campaign map, because we want to to look really breathtaking. The goal for the battles is for them to be the most awe-inspiring sight you've ever seen in a computer game. It's a big goal, but it's achieveable. We want it to be a spectacle when you zoom out and see the battles.
But at the same time, we want to run on machines that aren't the best machines. We want to take advantage of the best PCs that are out there in a year's time, but at the same time we know people are playing on laptops more, and we want to make it accessible to lower end machines as well. Shogun 2 has a reasonably forgiving min spec, and our intention is not to change it. We can't guarantee that obviously, but that's our intention.
With such an epic increase in scale, how are we going to keep in control of all our units?
We're trying to execute scale in a different way. It's not about more units. It's about land and sea combined. It's about more ships in a unit, and bigger city environments. More impressive battlefields. It's not just about having more units on the screen. We're not trying to make the game harder to manage. We want to evoke that sense of scale without creating a cognitive overload.
The tactical map will help. We've got AI group controls, so you can set aside a group of units and give them to the AI to control. Tell them to defend a point, or go and attack. We won't be giving you more entitites to control than in previous games.
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ROME 2: TOTAL WAR!!!!! OMG OMG OMG. I nearly pissed my pants when I heard about the sequel.
A bit of history... Rome Total War was the first 3D game in the legendary PC exclusive serie. It recieved EXTREMELY good reviews from a promise of cinematic and awesome battles with full and total control which it flawlessly delivered. This game allows you to take full control up to 10,000 soldiers with battles that could reach up to 100,000 men. With battles that could be done in different scenarios, from a simple skirmish to a full-on Castle-assault/Siege. This game was also know for being not so historically accurate in which the RTR mod , provided by a loyal band of modders, kicked it back in to place. I still play the vanillaversion though 
Lest see some EPIC screens
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So now... ROME 2 Total War, ive skipped all the Total war games except for Shogun 2 TW and Medieval 2 TW as I fancy melee warfare more than ranged "hand cannon" warfare. I really can't wait for this game. Ive been playing Rome total war for years now. Its still my favourite game. Sorry Shogun 
If you haven tried the total war series. Your missing out.
Yay!!!
