Centurion, Defender of Rome

Title		Centurion, Defender of Rome
Game Type	Strategy
Company	        Electronic Arts
Players		1
Compatibility	All
Submission	dledgard@hotmail.com

Review
Centurion, Defender of Rome - or Centurion, Defender of Boredom as I
remember it, good for killing time. You begin as a Roman Officer in
charge of the Roman Empire's one and only province - Italia, with one
Legion, and Rome's Garrison, which can not attack, only defend Italia.
You must rise through the ranks (Centurion, Tribune, Legatus, General,
Praetor, Consul, Proconsul, Caesar), by gaining (and holding!) Provinces
& Legions, and winning Games. You can only become Caesar by conquering
the entire known world (Europe and the Mediterranean).

There are five main sections to the game: The province map, land
battles, sea battles, gladiatorial games, and chariot racing. Each can
be set at a different level of difficulty, so if you are bad at one
thing, and good at another, you can compensate.

There are 27 Provinces, most can be brought into the Empire by
negotiation. Some will join as Allies, but will never advance beyond this,
and will always be in an Angry state. There are 3 options at a time in
negotiation, only one will be the right one. Some options are far more
effective than others. A negotiation ends in 3 ways, the legion withdraws
from the provinces, goes to war, or the Province becomes an Ally and the
legion stays in place that turn. Some Provinces join sooner than others,
as Allies, depending on your rank, and how many turns have passed. Do not
bring Provinces into your empire you can not protect, as once lost, they
will never re-negotiate, and must be conquered, joining the Empire in an
Occupied state. You can also negotiate your way into Cleopatras bed.
Sometimes it is better to invade than wait for an Alliance, as that
province may raise 2 or 3 barbarians armies in that time.

Provinces can be in four states: Occupied, Ally, Colony, and Citizens.
They change state over time, providing they are not lost, and bring in
more taxes with each improvement in state. They also provide
reinforcement troops to repair damaged legions. Legions fight best when
at full strength, and commanded by a good General. Allied provinces
provide a vast number of recruits the first turn, enough to raise a
Legion, sometimes.

Taxes are required to repair and raise Legions. Also to hold games to
keep provinces in order. Each province has morale: Content, Restless,
Angry, and Rebellious. If Rebellious, you will soon lose that Province
unless you hold games, reduce taxes (or have none for a while in that
province), or maintain a Garrison to crush any uprisings. Soon after it
is likely to raise a barbarian army to threaten your borders. Tribute
levels can be raised for a few turns, if necessary, but rebellious
feeling will sweep your empire, so don't keep them high too long.

When Rome becomes unhappy you must have a Gladiatorial game, you can't
just pay for this, you must fight it. Make sure to fight well, or the
people will remain unhappy, deciding whether the opponent lives or dies
greatly affects happiness, so please the crowd, or else! Paying for a
better Gladiator helps, but also drains your treasury. If Rome rebels,
you don't get any new taxes until it is reconquered. The Romans seem to
want games, very often, the game would have been a lot better if this
feature could have been turned off, as in one game you have to fight
several dozens games, all the same, lasting 5 minutes each, EXTREMELY
BORING, but very necessary. You can play without looking, so I used to
flip over to a TV channel for the duration.

Another problem is the fleet, you need several dozen ships to transport
a legion - which costs a fortune, yet minor kingdoms regularly raise
fleets to send armies to attack you. If you wait to save enough tribute
to build a fleet, you will have conquered enough provinces to attack
North Africa by land! Fortunately some countries can be gained
(if not held) by a small force sent to negotiate. Tribute can be gained
gambling at the chariot races, lose a little money a few times, and your
odds will go up, then gamble a lot, and win. It seems an unrealistic way
to build your fleet though. I can only win chariot races at the lower
levels. They can also be quite boring, as you have to do several laps,
and bet several times, to make any real money, you also have to start
with a reasonable stake.

Fleet battles are extremely tough, fight them at your own risk. If you are
defeated you will lose expensive ships, plus the troops in them.

Land battles are the core of the game. Each legion gets a different
general, Scipio Africanus, is the best. DON'T LOSE HIM! There are a
number of infantry and cavalry (for speed) cohorts which can either be
automated or directed. They fight better attacking at the side, or
ganging up. You fare better, if you control all the cohorts, but this is
tedious, and tricky. If you lose your General the armies courage goes
down, and you can no longer direct cohorts, the same applies for your
enemy, so try and get his General if you can.

 You get better armies once you become a Tribune, gaining some two
Cavalry groups, fighting without Cavalry is a nightmare. When you become
Consul, you get two more Cavalry groups, (though they are not very easy
to field), and more & higher strength cohorts, so they fight longer
before folding and inflict more damage. Of course against Elephant or
Cavalry, you will lose more troops. Once you have Consular Armies, you
lose much less often, but have a new problem of finding lots more
recruits to replace the higher casualties, and upgrade to larger armies
(previous to this only Rome's Garrison is Consular, so sometimes it is a
good idea to retreat a weak army and let the Garrison fight).

Much depends on which formation your enemy chooses, it's largely random.
Each legion has a courage level, which improves over time (training):
Panicky (only one Province luckily), Weak, Good, and Fierce. Courage, is
effected by how high a regard they have for their general, and how many
casualties the cohort has taken. The courage of each Province varies so
try and recruit Fierce troops, all the time (they come mainly from the
west), so in the costly eastern battles, you may not have enough good
recruits (or they may be too far away), so you will have to compromise.

At higher levels, enemy elephants (you are not allowed any, even if you
capture Provinces which have them), act very much like tanks, and
decimate your Legions.

Most provinces in the east are weak but can't be taken, as they can't be
held eg. Pontus, with weak mercenry troops, where Caesar did his 'I came,
I saw, I conquered' thing. It's interesting to note the mighty Julius came
to Britain, but did not conquer it, it was 100 years until Cladius mounted
a successful invasion (shipping problems?). The Romans thought they would
fall off the end of the earth, when they went to Britain.

Barbarian armies are forever appearing in Provinces, and rampage through
other provinces (without ANY loses - not very realistic), until they get
to you. They always terminate in Italia, either conquering it, or being
defeated.

To conclude the game is great fun, and absorbing. You can suffer great
defeats, but with sacrifice fight back. There are however too many
tedious bits, which you should have been able to turn off. The fleet is
too expensive, perhaps you should begin with one. Historically Rome
attacked Sicilia, Hispania, Carthago, and Macedonia by sea, before
expanding elsewhere. Also you should be able to make peace with the
Cathagian, Greek, Egyptian, and Persian Empires (but not the barbarians)
- perhaps for tribute, of course they could decide to break the peace if
you get too strong, or attack each other - but the chance of unprovoked
attack should be greatly reduced. And it would be good to play as one of
the other powers, perhaps with Elephants. The casulty rate at the end is
interesting, I usually take about 100,000 dead to make the empire. Worth
it? Perhaps, better than endless barbarism.

Alphabetical list.