Aggressors Ancient Rome









by









Slitherine

























In the Eastern Mediterranean, the age of the Diadochi (Alexander's Successors) has passed. It is now the age of the Epigoni (the offspring of the Diadochi). The year is 280 B.C. and Pyrrhus of Epirus is about to invade Italy and start a war with Rome, and anyone else near him. Let us not forget that Rome was in peril. Hannibal supposedly listed Pyrrhus as the second greatest general right after Alexander. The stage is set for you to become the next great conqueror of the Ancient World. Most of the states you can play are still young and vigorous. Of course, it is up to you to make sure they keep their vigor, and do not go long in the tooth or worse.





Choosing your country in the historical scenario







Aggressors Ancient Rome is another 4X(EXplore, EXpand, EXploit, EXterminate) type game. So, the first question is why did anyone bother to make another one? We have been inundated with 4X games from AAA ones to small indie games. To be honest, the genre rarely grabs my attention. Most are just poor facsimiles of the newest Civ game at the time. Pick your numeral from I-VI. History is usually only given lip service with the addition of a historical leaders name. I am very pleased to tell you that this game is mostly none of the above. It does have some mechanics from some of its well done predecessors, but doesn't fall into the pitfalls of the worst ones.





First screen when starting the historical scenario





So let us look at the game itself. Instead of rewriting the game's information, I will use the description from Slitherine:





"A mix of deep gameplay and rich historical flavor, Aggressors lets you relive history as the ruler of one of the mighty civilizations of the Mediterranean world. Will you bring glory to Rome and conquer the Mare Nostrum? Will you build an immortal trading empire with Carthage? Will you bring the light of Athens to the world? Or maybe you will restore the rule of the Pharaoh? Choose one of twenty available factions and conquer the world.



You can manage all aspects of your empire: war, trade, internal politics, diplomacy, cultural development. Play on your strengths, beware of your weaknesses. The ancient world is brutal, for no mercy shall be given to the defeated. Vae victis!



Rich historical flavor



A lot of time and many sleepless nights were put into historical research in an attempt to give a real historical feeling to the game. The game’s systems are tailored towards a faithful representation of history.



A world which feels alive



Twenty factions, from migrating barbarian tribes to advanced empires which interact with each other through an extremely detailed diplomatic system. Make use of more than ten available diplomatic agreements, including the possibility of forming Federations and Confederations as well as affecting nations and provinces in your Sphere of Influence.



Real strategic decisions



Experience the incredibly deep combat system, with each unit having its abilities and traits, and terrain truly affecting the war outcome in a meaningful way. Army morale and the supply system are crucial and need to be taken into account. You will need all your guile and strategic mastery to triumph on the battlefield.



Detailed political & economical representation



Rule your empire by managing its internal politics and developing its economy. Establish trade routes to reap wealth, ensure the loyalty of your citizens, manage demography, technological research, internal reforms, laws… the tools at your disposal are endless and seamlessly integrated with each other. Citizens react to the current situation and they can move to other places when they are not happy.



Customize your own world



You have complete freedom: you can decide to start with an advanced nation surrounded by newer civilizations, or you can decide to start as a young tribe, ready to take on an older and decadent empire… or you can decide to completely randomize the map and play in a randomly generated world. The choice is yours!



Easy to learn



Aggressors is very easy to learn thanks to the extremely clear tutorial and tool tips. Dive in the game gradually and explore all the options available to you."









Antigonid Start







When using the historical start, each nation is presented with the situation it was dealing with at the time. There has been no cookie cutter used to make the different civilizations. Playing each one does feel different than playing another one. For those of you who want a random game, the game can be set up to play that way with random maps etc. The developers, Kubat Software, stress that the game is meant to be incredibly mod friendly. When playing a random map, the civilizations do not start with a city; this type of game will make a regular 4X player feel more at home. You will have to work from the bottom up in your civilization.







Starting as Rome









My kudos to Kubat Software for their very well done tutorials. There is both a basic and advanced tutorial for three civilizations: Rome, Carthage, and Ptolemaic Egypt. Most tutorials in games seem to be slapped together at the end, if they are present at all. The ones in Aggressors take the player by the hand through the game.





Starting Rome map







