Previous Next

Here is a chance to turn the clock back 2,000 years and try your luck at conquering the world. The nine armies of Rome, each commanded by a great general, consist of 18 legions, each with 5,000 legionnaires. You must decide how they will be divided among the armies and which country each army will attack.

You can display at any time the state of each army, its manpower, fighting ability, morale and strength, and also the deployment if your legions and their current manpower. Also available at any stage is a map of the world, showing the countries which you have conquered to date.

Another display gives the strength of your opposition. Using all the information available, you decide who to attack and the optimum size of your army.

An attack is then launched and continued until either the opposition is subdued or your army is wiped out (if you are anything like me, it will be all the latter).

The foregoing sounds simple, but tactics are everything. Also the world is a big place, and the object of the game is to conquer the world, nothing less. While you're doing this you also have to defend home against the barbarians who are just waiting for the defence to become weakened by excessive conquering and pillaging.

I had great fun switching my armies around, sending battle-weary troops home and replacing them with fresh men and launching raids to harass and weaken the defending armies.

I also found a way to conquer the world and lose hardly a man in the process, without cheating, but I'm keeping that to myself.

The game involves a lot of text and few graphics. I found it extremely intriguing, and it passes away the hours on a rainy afternoon.

A game, I think, for the mature player, who likes to use his head rather than shoot from the hip.

Adam Young