Victoria II: Heart of Darkness - Roma Delenda Est Mod is a free video game utility that diverges the gameplay timeline of the strategy game, Victoria II. Developed by a_random_magos, this slight Historical Project Mod (HPM) presents an alternate history in which several key events in the past change much of the 19th century. While dabbling in history, this mod focuses more on gameplay rather than the finer historical details like province names and flags.

Rome doesn’t fall

Victoria II is a 2010 grand strategy game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It is the sequel to Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun and similarly covers much of the 19th-century Victorian period, from 1836 to 1936. The game spawned two main expansion packs: A House Divided and Heart of Darkness. This second one offers a new colonization system and naval combat system, new map modes, and new international crises.

With the Roma Delenda Est mod, there are various new changes to the timeline. Some countries hadn’t been colonized, some had survived, and some cultural expansions hadn’t really spread out once the 19th century began. Rome, in particular, lives on as a sturdy city-state—and the mod’s name itself cheekily hints at this. The change in influences now means that you get new opportunities to colonize more nations. This also leads to new chains of events.

The mod also adds more starting units and military goods factories. You can now take land from enemies at war. Some of the Casus Belli has reduced infamy. The AI is now twice as aggressive, as well, and they can easily impact your economy. Unfortunately, while the start looks promising, things can get dicey pretty fast around the 1840s with the lack of preset firearm suppliers to catch up with the demand.

Need more tweaks

Overall, the Roma Delenda Est Mod is a great alternate history mod to try out if you’re finding the Heart of Darkness pack a bit stale. Not only does it present new scenarios and possible future events, but it gives you more chances to improve your nation in a different way. It’s only too bad that the game doesn’t have a lot of polish with smaller details like new insignias and names.