I wish I had time to dwell on all the dud Roman themed games that have passed in front of me. The half finished Pax Romana and Great Invasions, the laughable Legions, the boring Hannibal: Master of the Beast, Haemimont’s Roman city builders, Haemimont’s RTSes. Most of these games aren’t very interesting as reflections on […]
Entries Tagged as 'Feature:Anc'
No King But Caesar – An Epilogue
April 30th, 2008 · 20 Comments · Ancients, Design, Feature:Anc
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Rome: Total War (2004)
April 28th, 2008 · 17 Comments · Ancients, Creative Assembly, Feature:Anc, Retro, Review
It’s hard to believe that Rome: Total War is almost four years old, let alone that the Total War series is not new anymore. Shogun: Total War debuted in 2000, was an instant hit, and Creative Assembly has never really paused since. Aside from a couple of ill-advised forays into action gaming (Spartan: Total Warrior […]
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Praetorians (2003)
April 20th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Ancients, Feature:Anc, Retro, Review, RTS
Though there is no rule that a discussion series should have ten parts, it felt odd to leave my list at nine. One spot came down to three titles: the HPS Ancient Warfare games, the Tin Soldiers games or Praetorians. All three took their turn on draft lists, and I will certainly get around to […]
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Legion (2002)
April 15th, 2008 · 7 Comments · Ancients, Feature:Anc, Retro, Review
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if champion gamers were given a chance to design their own game, then you should probably take a look at Slitherine’s games. Iain and J.D. McNeil are competitive DBA/DBM players, with Iain winning a world championship in 2001 and both regularly placing in the top ten. Slitherine is […]
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Age of Empires (1997)
April 11th, 2008 · 14 Comments · Ancients, Ensemble, Feature:Anc, Retro, Review, RTS
It’s now one of the most established brands in strategy gaming, but it’s easy to forget what an oddball title Age of Empires was at the time. Bruce Shelley, Sid Meier’s partner in design for many years, left Microprose to form his own studio, Ensemble. With real time strategy games quickly becoming the most popular […]
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Great Battles of History Series (1997-98)
April 8th, 2008 · 6 Comments · Ancients, Feature:Anc, Retro, Review, Wargames
Given the long history of portraying ancient battles in board games, it’s surprising that it took so long for historically faithful interpretations of the battles of Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar to hit the computer. Avalon Hill’s Alexander the Great portrayed the battle of Gaugamela way back in 1971. The same year saw SPI do a […]
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