Matrix Games Forums

Just got hold off Spartan after trading in Callof Duty, Sim City 3 and Secret Weapons over Normandy all rather silly buys.

Anyone played this game?

Ive just played through the first tutorial and all seems good so far.

Yup... although not much. Most of my strat time has been take up with Dominions 2 since I got it so Spartan is awaiting a rainy day or five.

What I've seen of it so far is very positive - a good strategic layer (if a little too much emphasis on resources for my taste). The battles look great, and the rest of the game is nicely presented, too. You don't have much control over battles, and I've seen reviews moaning about that - but IMHO it's pretty realistic. Once an ancient commander had deployed his troops and given basic orders there wasn't a lot more he could do, other than grab his sword or chariot reins and pitch in.

never heard of that game, a link perhaps ?

First rate. Good support. Tough AI too.

http://www.slitherine.co.uk

Chariots of War and their first Legion are still around though I havent played them.

Yes I didnt relise that resource mangement was involved howver its not as bad as RTS games. I also love the giving the battle orders then watching the battle unfold. Far better than if it had been an RTS click fest which nearly every damn game is these days.

Yup, this is a good game. You have to think of it like Civilization takes a stop in time during this period. The battles play out much like a Civilization type battle would if it had a tactical battle sequence, basically just giving us more eye candy and detail of the combat instead of watching a health bar go down. I like it. You do get to give some basic deployment commands and setup your armies in formations, but, after that you get to watch the battle and get 3 battle commands to issue during the battle, "charge", "rally" and "retreat" with retreat definitely being an improvement over previous versions of this style of gameplay, you no longer lose your whole army if you are losing a battle and retreat, but, you do lose a sufficient amount to amount to the slauthering that went on in the battlefields when armies did rout. Lots of throat slicing yah know? hehe

Be sure and update to the latest patch at the official site. Some people found the game too "hard" before the recent patches! lol can you believe that, people complaining about the ai being too hard. I love it. On normal before the patch it could kick your butt pretty quickly.

It has a tendency to build the same units all the time, calvary and low level infantry, but, they are working on that also. It does like the horde effect.

Be prepared for the normal cheats of Civilization on the HARDER settings, I repeat the HARDER settings, it doesn't cheat on easy or normal, but, on the higher difficulties be prepared to lose and lose often. heh

If you are a Total War fan this game should tide you over until RTW comes out in December. It has lots of replay value with 100 different factions to choose and play, plus a two player multiplayer feature, something RTW doesn't have or any of the other Total War games.