Slitherine's announcement that Legion was coming out on the iPad took me by surprise -- if for no other reason than that I'd previously been unaware that they had a grand strategy title set in the ancient Roman world. (I'm guessing it was overshadowed by the Total War series at the time, and most obviously RTW in particular.)
Despite it now being an older game (released back in 2002), it looks like it could be fun. Anyone have experience with this one?
On paper, at least, the description sounds like it would be right up my alley. (Of course, appearances can be deceiving.)
I have it and it is a faithful adaptation of the old PC game. Not a stripped down port.
Battles are not like total war. This is because you have no control of your units. You just set formations and tactics at the start and then it's a free-for-all. Maybe it's like Dominions 3.
***Mods, maybe this should be discussed in the Mobile section.
Maybe if they would release it on Android as well I could give you some input. ;)
I have the PC edition...i think it must really cool on an ipad, so get it!
I wouldn't recommend the pc-edition though as it's really more like a board game (challenging) but with the upcoming Rome2, it's really too old now. I have it on my netbook though which is really nice as it's a pure TBS game.
Cheers
The later versions of these old Slitherine games were one set during ancient Egyptian/Assyrian/Babylonian period and, notably, Spartan and the Gates of Troy expansion, which was the biggest of the set.
I enjoyed the games, they're fun grand strategy turn-based ones but they're pretty long in the tooth these days. I still load up Spartan and play, sometimes. The hands-off tactical combat turned some people off, but I kinda like it for being resolved so quickly and keeping the player from exploiting bad Tac AI that is so common in Grand Strat games that have it. The screen resolution is an older 4:3 fixed thing, so I prefer it on a smaller monitor (the notebook).
I really wish they would make a sequel to the series. I wanted to get the earlier bronze age one but never quite got around to it. I'd also like to see them all get sequels, with improvements.
After Legion Gold (which is what I expect this port is) and the Spart/GoT games, for some insane reason they decided to just focus on the battle system for a while (maybe because of competition with the juggernaut of Rome: Total War), which led to Legion Arena (and a fantasy/undead expansion), then to The History Channel: Great Battles of Rome which was an upgraded remake of Legion Arena (in effect). (I have the game but haven't played it.) No strategy per se; the whole game simply involves modding up your army with bling between missions and then setting up to let the battle system play out.
They did take the battle-system to the next stage with The History Channel: Great Medieval Battles (or something like that), with more of a grid-based company system -- I played several missions and there's much more control over troops on the field than in previous games, but they still hadn't come back to a real strategy game yet. The overall presentation seemed kind of cheap, too.
Chariots of War, which seems to have had the most developed strategy and most variable rtb system of the old versions of the games (although in 2D sprites), and which featured a unique historical setting (the rampant micro-empire situation of Palestine during the rise and fall of Judah and Israel, plus their surrounding neighbors), was sort-of prequel/sequeled with another History Channel tie-in to the Engineering an Empire series, this time focusing on Egypt. I got it for the Playstation Portable, but the control scheme was too assy, literally made me nauseous trying to play it on the road. Unsure how good it is for the PC or other platforms.
Well Pip from Slitherine was kind enough to post a link for the demo. After having played it a bit, I think I'm going to pass on it.
Not so much for its age -- I still play quite a few old games, including MTW/VI (when my machine would deign to run it) -- but the scale just didn't seem...grand enough for my tastes. Guess the Total War series has spoiled me... :-\
keep an eye open for chariots of war and especially spartan if they release them on ipad. Spartan is still a great game.