Mare Nostrvm
Mare Nostrvm (Latin: “Our Sea”) is a turn-based hex grid naval battle wargame developed by Turnopia. Inspired by board wargames and ancient Mediterranean history, it is one of those games where a minimalist interface and plain graphics are a misleading cover for complex mechanics and a steep learning curve in gameplay.
Featuring a historically faithful single-player campaign and a robust skirmish generator in both single and multiplayer modes, Mare Nostrvm will appeal to either turn-based combat buffs or history buffs, but the former may not care much for the setting and the latter may be put off by the difficulty, which is non-negotiable.
– Real player with 23.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Wargame Games.
So after trying the tutorial battle, then reading the manual(takes about 15 mins) and then replaying the tutorial, here are my thoughts:
This is a turn based(WEGO system, my favorite) “tabletop” style wargame, with utilitarian graphics. It is easy to get into but still feels challenging to play.
I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes this period of history, likes TB wargames and doesn’t mind minimalist graphics. If you’re an RTS kind of gamer who needs state of the art “bells & whistles”, stay away from this one.
– Real player with 22.8 hrs in game
Rome: Total War™ - Collection
RTW has an epic feel.
As of today, this game is nearly eleven years old. So, the battle graphics are not as crisp as newer titles, the historicity of some units is sketchy (or just made up), and it seems that multiplayer is not smooth in Steam. Fortunately, none of these mean a thing to me. The heart of the game is in the grand strategy and the personal narrative.
With over a hundred regions in which to play, the strategic game is where RTW shines. You need to plan where you will expand and where you will defend… and then be ready to adapt when the AI does not do what you expect. You may be the pawn of the Senate and serve at their beck and call. You might try to expand against the weak. You can follow the trade routes to gain riches through conquest. You will find yourself occupying regions merely to stymie your enemies (and your allies). Or you might work your way towards all seven Wonders to reap their benefits.
– Real player with 1982.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Historical Games.
Classic game, it uses a realistic battle engine which simulates battles down to minute details, in a way no longer found in newer engines which depend apon flashy graphics to generate interest. The sheer effort put into this game really tells you its creators cared about it they were not just throwing something flashy out there to get as much money as possible. The game makes up for its old and ancient graphics with interesting game mechanics that you just DONT get in the newer RTS games with intricate tactical aspects in addition to intriacate strategic ones. since so much attention has been given to FPS games in recent years. The game is well made and it shows. In modern total wars and other RTS games, troops getting into 1v1 cinimatic fights where thy slide around on the map rather than recreating actual formation dynamics and combat in a believeable way as Rome 1 does. In Rome 1 TW you don’t just have static groups of people fighting in one spot like other games, your troop formations collide and dudes go flying, people get knocked down. The larger force slowly pushes the smaller one back while its formation fluxuates, troops arrange sheilds to defend against attackers leaving weakspots open to well positioned archers. Every part of the strategic map is mapped out into battle maps that mirror that place on the stratiegic map. I am not talking you get a different set of cookie cutter template battle maps depending on your region NO!!! I mean the battle map is an EXACT copy of the terrain on the stategic map. You see a hill on the over all map and move your army to it so the enemy will attack you on ground you choose that hill is on the battle map valleys mountain you name it the battle is in that spot not a faximally of that spot THAT SPOT. The same goes for citys, each is unique and grows in unique ways and this shows on the siege map. Build something in a city and its on the battle map, if a saboteur destroys something it is destroyed on the battle map, Your family members/ generals grow as a result of the situations you put them in becoming complex individuals, put them in a big city with librarys and academys and they may become a soft person but a good organizer, or maybe if the city is a religious center he may become pious or slowly go insane, or become blood thirsty if you constantly send him into battle and he gets kills in said battles (yes even what he does in the battles matters). Another really cool mechanic is that when you recruit units the men are taken from the local populus and when disbanded the men generally resettle in that region! and city level is determined by population so recruit to many from a populas and the city will grow slowly while inversely you can move your populus around to level up citys. Another difference from newer games is the factions, they are few in number compared to the scores of factions in newer games but each faction in very unique, with some factions sharing cultures and others with similar but different cultures. Each culture has a unique city style ect.
– Real player with 1183.0 hrs in game
Total War™: ROME II - Emperor Edition
I think I’m getting the hang of it.
– Real player with 6679.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Rome Historical Games.
TLDR: CHECK OUT my 2021 VIDEO REVIEW of Rome II right here: https://youtu.be/qi6DNAHwIK0
FINALLY reviewing this game after almost 900 hours and over 8 years of playing. If you’re willing to pay for it, especially on sale for cheap, there is a ton of content here, likely making Rome 2 the biggest historical Total War experience out there. It definitely lacks depth in certain areas, depth its successor, Attila did a lot better. But despite its faults, Rome 2 is leagues better than it was at launch, and has honestly become a really strong Total War game in its own right.
– Real player with 875.2 hrs in game
Concordia: Digital Edition
Great electronic version of the game. There are options that make scoring easier to visualize during the game. The UI allows take-backs before finalizing an action, which is also very helpful. Realtime games would be a great update.
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
It’s really addicting. I only play vs AI but it’s just a joy and with my novice experience every game feels close. I would recommend turning off visible scoring to mimic the board game and not make bad decisions looking at short vs long game.
UI could be improved a little bit for me to easily see what I have (housing resource count) at a glance, the various overlays don’t quite do it for me. Maybe there is a better way and I’m just too new.
Music is great though I wish there were some more varied tracks instead of what feels like the long “one” song built in.
– Real player with 37.2 hrs in game
Rome: Total War™ - Alexander
Oliver Stone’s Alexander Revisited being one of my favorite sword and sandal epics, I was looking forward to playing this standalone expansion after having finished Rome: Total War.
Big mistake; should have played Alexander before Rome’s Grand Gampaign, as this feels like another tutotial campaign with many limitations compared to the Grand Campaign.
Not only is the world map smaller (in the sense that there is only Asia to conquer but this is something we all expected), no, even the Asia part is SMALLER than its size in the regular Grand Campaign of Rome Total War!
– Real player with 37.1 hrs in game
I finally got around to playing this 2006 expansion (11 years old) to a 2004 game (13 years ago) that at the time was a true gamechanger and a “game of the year” level historical RTS game. The age is important to note because from my experience, the lack of recent patches has made the game buggy on, say, Windows 10. There was a particular bug which sometimes (maybe 33%?) led to game crashes in the transition from the battlefield back to the world map. What that meant (and because the battlefield can take a while) is that I had to do frequently crazy saves (some 2-3 minutes apart). And that’s because there’s nothing quite as annoying as pulling off a brilliant battlefield win (that you easily could have lost)… and then have to do it all over again !
– Real player with 37.0 hrs in game
Field of Glory II
If the Panzer General of old was considered a Beer & Pretzel game, then Field of Glory II is surely the craft beer and gourmet pretzel of the wargaming genre. With its simple to comprehend mechanics, yet deep tactical applications, it is a direct translation from table top to the computer (with all the benefits that entails) and a love letter to the history of ancient warfare as well. Before you shake your head, let me tell you, it’s true.
Field of Glory II is a turn based (IGOUGO) system, which allows for a leisurely, thoughtful pace, while making far reaching tactical decisions, hopefully three steps ahead of your foe. How fast you click has no bearing on your generalship and ability to conduct war. There’s plenty of time to think and plan and execute. It’s a play style that compliments the game mechanics as well as the Early Roman (and DLC) era battles, quite nicely. But don’t let that fool you. There is as much stress and imminent threat in a given round of FoG II as any Real Time game can offer (when your center fragments during the first move of your opponent’s turn you’ll understand). And woe unto you if you think the enemy can’t take advantage of a mistake you make during your turn. He can and he will.
– Real player with 367.7 hrs in game
Update 2017.10.14
Just wanted to post again to comment on the AI. The higher level AI does have some issues with specialized battle types. I played the Advanced Guard and Escort Baggage Train types and the AI didn’t seem too interested in fulfilling the objectives, however it still gave me a challenge to win the scenario. I’m not really counting this against the AI; for instance the Advanced Guard scenario is kind of a odd fellow, the object is to keep as many of your units over in the center of the opponent’s side of the map for as many turns as possible. The AI pretty much doesn’t care about that, it just wants to beat you. I’m OK with that.
– Real player with 129.9 hrs in game
Total War: ATTILA
Attila is, in my opinion, the best Total War.
A lot of people complain about optimization issues, I’m not saying they’re lying, but I don’t have these issues so it’s not impossible to run the game properly.
What Attila does GREAT is giving you very different campaign experiences: you can pick from massive empires under pressure, small tribes with one settlement, small hordes that have to flee from the Huns and try to conquer some land and settle down, or as a massive horde that will grow, loot and pillage.
– Real player with 798.0 hrs in game
Disclaimer:
Please note that this review, as with all reviews, is heavily influenced by personal opinion. I am in no way attacking you should you love the game, I just want to let others know the good AND the bad of this game before they purchase it. And if they like some of the things that I have listed in the bad? Then it’s all good, at least they are informed.
tl;dr - Great launch, graphically pleasing, better AI response from units. Badly designed Horde mode, Limited choice of factions that all boil down to three types that generally look the same, jacked diplomacy system, all the illegitimate children of the world come from one of your general’s loins, campaign AI are all led by the Joker. They just want to watch the world burn.
– Real player with 717.4 hrs in game
Last Day of Rome
A promising game, but so much bugs after only a couple of hours ! This game is clearly not finished and broken. I would really like to play this game, but at that point, it’s more a pain than a game. Too bad.
Here are some. There are probably more:
- the biggest bug : manual battles! I had to Alt+F4 so many times because it seems to freeze if I move the mouse too fast over an unit while some are fighting (not sure about that). Or when I’m attacked and have defense buildings, the game freeze after the IA made his attack. Really painfull. This is one of the major bugs to my point of view.
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game
New game in my library - Last Day of Rome
This is a military-economic strategy about ancient Rome since the 2nd century AD.
In short: we take command of a people within the borders of Rome. We will have to use both tactics and strategy, and
diplomacy. Therefore, it is possible to gain respect among their own people and, for example, to raid or launch a campaign against the 1st Reich xD
Actually, the system is nothing new, we control any country in Europe, we build buildings and
infrastructure in their regions, that is, we focus on the development of our army through the study of new technologies.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
Total War: ROME REMASTERED
~ DIFFICULTY ~
🔲 My 90 year old grandma could play it
🔲 Easy
✅ Normal
✅ Hard
✅ Dark Souls
It can be changed to hard or Dark Souls depending of your difficulty settings and your faction choice.
~ GRAPHICS ~
🔲 Graphics don’t matter in this game
🔲 MS Paint
🔲 Bad
🔲 Meh
✅ Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Masterpiece
~ MUSIC ~
🔲 Soundless
🔲 Just SFX
🔲 Not special
🔲 Bad
✅ Good
🔲 Beautiful
~ STORY ~
🔲 This game has no story
✅ Like playing Temple Runners for the story
🔲 It’s there for the people who want it
– Real player with 156.2 hrs in game
Even with it’s problems it is the best way to play Rome Total War. Wish the new menus and intros were better and wish it got more updates and also that co-op campaigns would be added. Other than that it’s a great looking game and a lot of fun.
– Real player with 153.7 hrs in game
Age of Gladiators II: Rome
A diamond in the rough.
The short review……
An epic upgrade giving fans of the first game many requested features and priced for perfection based on the value you get back gameplay wise. Basically a business mgmt game set in ancient rome, this will test your budget balancing skills and planning ahead. The learning curve exists but if your smart its not to punishing to figure out whats going on. The game is such a dynamic upgrade to the first one that its a must own for fans of this genre. A lot of people have been waiting for a game like this and with the rpg and new tactical combat features its truly a gem among casual games. It adds so much depth of choice and strategic options with budget and gladiator mgmt along with the new option to fight yourself it almost knocks itself out of the casual genre which is why you see mixed reviews. Honestly those reviews are very unfair and treat the game like a AAA title from a huge developer. This is one guy who made a great game with a lot of features and options. It’s not meant to be battle brothers in ancient rome, it’s meant to be an upgrade to the first game and its a hell of an upgrade. If you want to manage a ludus this game is for you.
– Real player with 119.0 hrs in game
BLUF: If you always wanted to run a stable of detailed gladiators with RPG levelling you will like this game. If you are looking for X-COM-like depth in the tactical combat aspects of the game though, this isn’t nearly to that level. Dev involvement is swift and sure (huge plus).
There simply aren’t many gladiator simulators out there anymore…. the reigning combat king (especially for asymmetric multi-layer) is still the old BBS door game *Melee! (the exclamation point was part of the title)
– Real player with 95.6 hrs in game