#Centurion defender of rome game how to#

Otherwise there are nearly no sound effects, the hardware didn't provide with more at the time. Just a simple background tune for each situation, but really atmospheric, appropriate, and epic. So you don't command a whole fleet in battle, as you do with armies.Īnother great point in this game is the music. In naval battles, you command the flagship against the enemy's, and the outcome of that combat will modulate the rest of the battle, which is otherwise about whose fleet is bigger. (However you can defeat an enemy by attacking several times with several legions, fighting several battles-which means losing all but the last.) And you can't command more than one legion into a battle this is a very important limitation, because it means that you can't buy yourself as many numbers as you want,even if you have the resources. For example platoons can move in four directions only, and between discrete spots (squares that the battlefield is invisibly divided into). Unfortunately there's a couple of important limitations that don't simulate real elements of warfare too, but they were probably due to hardware limits. (The enemy is equally limited, he doesn't react to your choices-even if from your perspective it looks as if he acts afterwards.) Also, you can't see the enemy formation until you decide your own, and you won't know the enemy tactic until you decide your opening move and the battle commences. For example morale: when faced with defeat platoons will flee-but they can also be killed. There are some details that aren't found in all tactic games and they're very good to see. (Carthage also used elephants, which never won any battle but were another nice problem to throw at the Romans.) But it doesn't get so crazy as modern RTS games á la Age of Empires: formations are not permeable-yet they can be broken with superior concentration of fighting power.Īctually, because of the remarkable accuracy of the (very simple) simulation, the kind of battles you'll play in this game will result very similar to the ones actually fought in the Greco-Roman era: two opposed lines of solid infantry with a chiefly passive role, and mobile units on both sides, at the same time covering the flanks and menacing the enemy ones, manoeuvring to doom the entire enemy army with a smart move, or superior shock power or manoeuvrability.

#Centurion defender of rome game how to#

You must plan how to flank the enemy and protect your own flanks: a single platoon can wreak havoc in many enemy ones-and decide the battle-if those aren't properly manoeuvred or supported on time. Troops move only so fast, so you must anticipate the situation both offensively and defensively. The opening formations are few and can't be modified, but that actually agrees with Roman military practice, which dictated standard ways to deploy an army for a pitched battle, tending to disregard the situation at hand (which is why they couldn't deal with Hannibal before Zama). You are given pre-defined choices for battle formation and starting tactic but, except against the weakest enemies-and even so in case you mind crippling casualties-you have to give new orders every minute for single platoons at critical spots (the fighting pauses when you're giving orders). The battle system is of course simple by today's standards, but it's actually very good, made with just a few elements. Besides in Centurion the execution is very nice: the armies are animated, and that's what made this game actually impressive. Back then tactics was rare to be seen in a game (even war games, most of which were strategic), and a long time would pass before it was a usual element in video games. So, what makes this game so cool? Probably battles will be first on everyone's list. Yet, it was a blast to play, and it still is only not for days and days like other deeper games. I must admit however, that experiencing it again now that the strategy genre has long reached the adult age, makes you think of all the ways it could have been made a better strategy game. But, pay what is Caesar's to Caesar, Centurion in its time was too cool for school. It sounds rad or what? A modern audience wouldn't surely think much of this little game, come from an innocent past era of video games history. It is 400 years after the Founding, and a young Roman centurion is camped with his legion on the banks on the Tiber.