Now that I have played 8+ hours I have to say that I think this is a seriously underrated game. I am an ancient world nut and have, literally, dozens of books on the ancient Med, including works by Plutarch, Thucydides, Herodotus, Caesar, etc. I think this is a great "overview" level game that dips into the operational level.There is not really anything new, but there really does not need to be to make a good game. These guys seem to have taken all of the good bits from lots of other games and put them together quite well. The game seems to get better the longer I play and the deeper into the tech tree I go. I am still learning the systems.
Things I do not like:
Individual units fight - no stack or combined arms type combat. given the scale, this is not unreasonable, but...
UI - better than I thought, once I got used to it, but still a bit cumbersome in a very few places. Lacks easily available feedback in a few things.
Diplomacy - Deep in many ways, but allows diplomacy too early to nations too far separated. Has nice
touches like time lag.
At the moment (180 BC) I am fighting Carthage in the Central Med and Egypt in Greece. Resource constraints are severe problems, mainly lumber and metals. Coal supplies are barely sufficient. I cannot wait to restart and do some things over and I really cannot wait to start a BIG, slow random map game. If we ever get a fantasy unit set, this may become my main game. So says solops, in the early learning days of a new game (always the best of times....familiarity reveals warts).
