The Battle for the Ancient World has Begun! Centuries before Caesar, Alexander or Philip, the forested hills and rocky coasts of ancient Italy draw cultures from across the Mediterranean with promises of wealth and prosperity. Bronze-clad hoplites from the powerful Greek city-states set sail across the Adriatic to carve out bridgeheads of Hellenic culture amongst the native Italic hill tribes, while aggressive bands of Gallic Skirmishers make the trek South across the Alps in search of fertile new land. And along the marshy banks of the Tiber river, a small upstart city called Rome battles for independence from the established Etruscan confederacy. But only one faction can rise to become the greatest empire the Mediterranean has ever seen. Will Rome fulfil its destiny to rule the ancient world or will history be rewritten to forge a new Etruscan, Gallic, or Greek hegemony!
perfect
Excellent game, anyone interested in this time period should get it, it's a must for ancient history based strategy games.
Untapped modding potential.
very cool game. quite fun too.
Brilliant game. Constant improvements by Longbow and endless modding potential. Any Grand Strategy enthusiast should own this. !
I can whole-heartedly recommend to everyone who's already played a few other strategy games and feels mature enough to suffer a few set-backs while playing, to get this game into his/her game library. In summary, these are the pros and cons I can see at the moment.
Major pros
+ offers an interesting scenario in Italy before the rise of Rome
+ has a "seamless" zoom that goes form a strategic map (not unlike a grand strategy game) to a tactical map where armies can be manoevred (not unlike a Total War or Age of Empires, although more condensed)
+ a supply system that truly deserves the name and mechanics that give a sense of progression (e.g. army and leader upgrades, tech tree)
+ great art and music bringing the ancient world to life
+ it's pretty hard and demanding on the player to juggle the ressources, over-extension is definitely a thing in this game
+ the DLC "The Eagle King" expands on this game and there's another DLC in the pipeline for 2021 "Isle of Giants"
Minor cons
- maybe not the kind of sophisticated graphics known from AAA-games
- diplomacy and trade are somewhat lacking (although that might be rectified with the next update)
- the AI might need a touch here and there
- on the flip-side of the above point (over-extension), this is not a game where one can lean back and take one's empire for granted
- no multi-player mode (probably the dev had not enough budget)