Every once in a while, video games allow me geek out on history. If it’s not Civilization, it’s Total War. After watching Total War: ROME 2’s Battle of Teutoburg Forest trailer, I sat with my mouth open for a solid 30 seconds. This trailer is incredibly-historically accurate, and everyone should appreciate the work Creative Assembly has done with this.
In the beginning, when you hear a voice saying “Varus! Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” that is Rome’s Emperor Augustus. This takes place after Battle of Teutoburg when Augustus hears about how many soldiers he lost and is banging his head against the wall.
The second voice you here saying, “Arminius will betray Rome” is Arminius’ wife’s father warning General Varus of the ambush ahead since he did not approve of their marriage. Although Rome had raised and trained Arminius, he always considered himself Germanic. Thus he worked with the Germanic people secretively despite becoming Varus’ trusted advisor. When the father warned Varus he ignored him, thus the “Arminius a traitor? I think not.”
Unfortunately for Varus and Rome, the father was right and Arminius makes up a fake uprising somewhere. When Varus’ troops come to stop it they get ambushed by a Germanic army. Thus the Battle of Teutoburg Forest occurs in 9AD. Apparently Creative Assembly wanted to give us all a bit of a history lesson today through Total War: ROME 2 – well done!
History aside, the trailer is pretty remarkable. Between the graphics, smoothness, and flow of the armies clashing, it is hard to keep your eyes focus on one thing for too long. Check out the video above and know you’ve just been educated.
Historian, teacher, writer, gamer, cheat master, and tech guru: follow on Twitter @AndrewC_GZ
