Rome city builders

[Jack Nastyface]

Gentles all,

I have a strange desire to do some Roman city building.  The last game I played of that ilk was Caesar III (available on GoG).  Any other recommendations?  I heard just okay stuff about SimCity Rome.

Ave,

Jack Nastyface

[Bison]

I think Caesar is the best, but you can try Grand Ages of Rome.  It's fun, but doesn't have the depth of the older Caesar title IMO.

[Nefaro]

There is

Imperium Romanum Gold 
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-IRG/imperium-romanum-gold

Which I prefer over the following:

Grand Ages: Rome Gold
http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-GARGE/grand-ages-rome-gold-bundle

both by the same company.

GA Rome kinda does away with the varied products needed to do other things, and instead 'dumbs down' the building part of the gameplay to an extent.  But it also has better campaign play with a vaguely RPG-style decision making in between maps (you choose a Roman family and some perks as you move along).  I've not messed with that part of campaign play since the base city building part felt very linear with no resource choices to make (build this building, which opens this other building, etc).  I'll have to give it another good go sometime (probably soon - ROOOMMMEE!)

Imperium Romanum is more like the city-builders of old and still looks okay even though it's about four years old.  The only issue I had with it was some of the sound files had a slight *pop* sound at the end and I could hear it all too well when wearing my headset - repeating itself since some of those sounds loop continually.  This wasn't much of a problem on my desktop speakers at low volume, though.  I had went through and fixed the sound pops (editing like 130 sound files that had it) but found out that the file packing program I used to extract them couldn't re-package the modded sounds properly so all that modding time wasted.  :-[  Anyway, IR is a more classic style city builder compared to GA.  Both by the same company.

Civ City Rome is out there, but I've not played it.  The consensus seemed to be pretty MEH about it when it came out.   But user reviews on Gamersgate doesn't seem to be too bad.
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-CCR/civcity-rome

There's a Caesar 4 but that may be the one I recall people complaining about, now that I think of it.

[Nefaro]

And if you want the best of the ancient builders, get Children Of The Nile (Gold?)

No, it's not Rome, but it has the best gameplay of the ancient city builders released over the years.
http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-COTNEEA/children-of-the-nile-enhanced-edition-and-alexandria-bundle


On sale for 38% Off at Gamersgate right now!!!  $16 for the complete set!


Edit:  I say it's the "best" because it has the deepest goods-services-population system I've seen.  Lotsa depth in the guts of it.  8)

[Anguille]

CivCity: Rome is really not bad at all. It requires more micromanagement than others as you have to move the houses of better citizens once they change levels (not every level though).

Overall i prefer Imperium Romanum gold's gameplay.

The best looking Rome is game is Grand Ages Rome Gold but the gameplay is fairly different.

Cannot really comment on Caesar IV as i haven't really started it (on my to do list).

[Gusington]

Cool thread. It makes me realize I want a Roman city builder to prepare my gaming palette for the new Roman releases coming.

Do any of the above games include combat?

I am thinking of picking up Imperium Romanum. And on a slightly unrelated note, also thinking of picking up Praetorians.

[Anguille]

Cool thread. It makes me realize I want a Roman city builder to prepare my gaming palette for the new Roman releases coming.

Do any of the above games include combat?

I am thinking of picking up Imperium Romanum. And on a slightly unrelated note, also thinking of picking up Praetorians.

They have all combat but it's fairly basic. Imho, the only city-builder with good battles was Caesar II.

[Jack Nastyface]

@Nefaro,
Wow...thanks for the excellent feedback!
FWIW I am painting a bunch of 28mm Imperial Romans (Warlord minis) for a friend's son, and I have been opening my old text books (I minored in history / classic studies in Uni, and did some archaeology at The Lunt military site near Coventry, England) and looking at on line resources (redrampant.com) so I guess I'm just in an "Imperial Roman state of mind" (to butcher Billy Joel).

[Nefaro]

You're welcome.  :D

Sounds like Imperium Romanum and CivCity Rome are good bets, judging from everyone's feedback here.  Sounds like CivCity Rome may have a bit more little details to delve into, from Anguille's mention.

[Gusington]

I'm going to buy Imperium Romanum tonight, I think. Thanks Nefaro.