A supremely accurate expansionary mod for Rome: Total War may seem like a strange thing to highlight on a blog about game narratives, but Europa Barbarorum builds on the historical premise of the game it modifies and develops it into a more immersive experience.

The mod extends the campaign map into Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and the steppes of central Asia, hosting kingdoms like the Mali, Saka, and Bactria absent from the vanilla Rome Total War campaign. All factions have been bolstered with historically accurate towns, buildings, governmental systems, family members, and military units, with names and voices in the appropriate language.

It’s a stunningly complete package that turns Rome: Total War into a history lesson. A massive volunteer team of modders, artists and historians organized even before the game’s 2004 release and have worked steadily ever since to make their mod as accurate as possible, from place names to lengthy building and unit descriptions and “this year in history” reports.

But the point of Europa Barbarorum is not education. All these complex changes to gameplay make the empire-building campaign much more immersive. They allow players to invest themselves in the historical persona of a third century BC superpower, to adopt their culture, utilize their heroes, and fight their enemies.

Conquer a new city and chose whether to make it an ally, a subjugated state, or a fully incorporated province of full citizens. Each choice has economic and military consequences, accurately reflecting the true complexity of state building. Invest yourself in the role of an evil overlord or benevolent republic and all the while feel like you’re playing a part in a very real historical narrative.

From a gameplay perspective, Europa Barborum is well balanced and plays much like the original, just with greater time requirements and a demand for closer player involvement. Only the Romans felt complete in the original game’s campaign, and the barbarians of Europe were severely underdeveloped. The EB team fleshed out each faction in unique ways, including governments and historical reforms.

The guts of Europa Barbarorum’s changes are in the campaign, but battles are made more interesting through modified mechanics and the addition of new units, factions and landscapes. The strange flaming pigs of Rome: Total War are replaced by regionally recruited infantry, naked Germans, and far-flung Indian elephants.

Version 1.1 of Europa Barbarorum was released in April and is expected to be the final version to introduce significant gameplay changes. The same team is already hard at work on a Europa Barbarorum II mod for the Medieval II: Total War which will take advantage of that engine’s graphical and gameplay improvements and offer an expanded map and ten new factions, including hordes. Check out the development diaries on the EB forums.