PC Games on Ancient Greece and Alexander the Great

[Gusington]

I am currently playing Hegemony and I am enjoying it more than I expected to. This has opened up a whole new world to me, having never read or gamed anything on ancient Greece at all. So now I am kind of hooked. What do you guys recommend?

[mikeck]

Well, I enjoyed "tin soldiers Julius Caesar"....never tried it, bit I know there is a "tin soldiers Alexander the great"...or at least I think there is. Also try "Greek wars" by hps

[Gusington]

^That was one of the series I was thinking of. Is there a campaign in Caesar?

[mikeck]

Yes, tin soldiers Julius Caesar has a campaign. It is very basic though...basically just a series of battles where your units same casualties carry over from one battle to the next. It's been awile since I played it so someone chime in if I'm off.

[Bison]

That's correct mikeck and the Alexander Tin Soldiers is the same.  The Caesar is the more recent of the two games.

[Gusington]

I'll check it out, thanks Mikeck.

Anything else?

[Bison]

It's really a neglicted era and your options are pretty limited.

HPS Ancient Wars - Tactical
Tin Soldiers - Tactical w/ card based bonus/penalties
Spartan/Chariots of War - Civ style ancient game with very limited control tactical battles
Rome Total War w/ Alexander expansion - You know about this one
Great Battles of Rome - Tactical battles w/ limited campaign similar to Tin Soldiers pick a battle and upgrade army and it's not Greek.
EU Rome - Strategic campaign.  You can play the Greek kingdoms.

There might be a few more out there, but it's pretty sparse in the Ancient Greece gaming selection and honestly not too much more on Rome.

[Gusington]

You like Spartans? Sounds decent:

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/312/details/Spartan

[Bison]

I do, but I've not played for a long time.  It's a pretty easy game to get into but as with all things YMMV.  If you are not a fan of CIV style games, then I wouldn't get it.  I know there are some youtube videos out there, which I would watch just to get a feel before purchasing.  The games are not for everyone.  There is also a patch with a .dll file you need to pull off of Slitherine's downloads page to get it to work on Win 7.  Not a huge issue, but it needs to be put into the main game folder for it to work.

The battles are not going to blow your tactical socks off.  There are like 3 commands you can issue after arranging your forces irrc.  Something like rally, retreat and some other such command.  The overland tactical strategy revolves around building up your city states buildings and trade to build your armies to conquer your rival Greek city states. 

[besilarius]

Gus, you can try Spartans.  There is a demo download for free.  I got it from Gamershell.com.
It's a decent game, rather simple but with enough to do that it's pretty involving.  Helps a lot if you like the period.
A game that is off the radar of most folks is Strength and Honor.
There is a demo of that also.  It's pretty good, but the tactical battle system is too generic for my tastes.
Where the game shines is the setting.  It is in the period right after Alexander's death.  There are Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Seleucids, and Indians.  The whole ancient world.
Every empire has a group of generals and ministers, each with different strengths and weaknesses.  Each major city has a govenor.
For the strategic, global gamer, it is really good.
If you focus on the armies and tactical actions, the differences between the troops of different nations, that is not so good.
Id give both demos a try and see if the games are to your liking.
Now what may be a great game is Ageod has announced that their next game will be on the Roman Empire, including Julius Caesar.  (Poor Big Julie, got it right inna rotunda - the worst possible place.)
They have also promised an expansion for the Roman Republic, which would be the wars with Carthage,  the Samnites, the German invasions, and against the different Diadochi.
If you liked their American Civil War game, you would probably enjoy this, too.

[Nefaro]

The Ancients are definitely under-represented in wargaming these days.  Hell, I still load up the old Great Battles Collection by iMagic just for some good ancients battles (GB Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar).  Thankfully it works just fine on modern OSes, with a specific interface option or two turned off.  The HPS one looks like it's somewhat similar to these oldies (and, in true HPS style, also looks like it came from 1996-97).  I've heard mixed stuff about the HPS one - something about a bunch of time wasting away, so I'll just stick to the Great Battles one I already have.

Spartan from Slitherine is a nice turn-based grand strategy game of the Greek era - exactly the spot you're looking for.  I suppose comparing it to Civ may be somewhat appropriate, but it's more detailed in that there are many different trade/building goods and they're wonderfully limited enough to force tough decisions on you regarding buildings, military units, and trade.  The battles are quite unusual in that you get limited intel on the ai's forces before your battle setup (generally a few to none of them) depending on how much cavalry you have in your army (for better recon).   Then you place your units, give them a basic pre-start command (such as how long to hold position before advancing, to charge/flank, etc).  Once the battle begins, there's not much you can do to influence it so your initial setup strategy is key, and your recon ability helps immensely.  Some people complain about it's combat, but unlike many grand strategy games, at least it has tac battles.  My biggest complaint is that it's getting aged and the screen resolution is stuck at 1024x768  :( (and still costs what? $30?).  I usually pester Iain about when a newer version will be made, when I see him about the forums.  Spartan is the only other grand strat game focusing on the Greek period besides Hegemony.   The 'grand campaign' is pretty big and can take a good amount of time.  I recall the AI difficulty level needed to be raised up a couple notches above default before it used everything in it's arsenal.

But since you are already playing a grand strategy game for the period, perhaps a tactical wargame is what you're looking for.  Tin Soldiers: Alexander is probably the droid you're looking for - not sure if you can even find the old Win98 Great Battles Collection on sale anywhere - I recall someone asking me if I'd be willing to part w/ it because they couldn't find it anymore.

I'm looking forward to AGEOD's new Rome game, but I'd still like to have a newer Grand Strategy one that covers from the Greek period on up.  >:(

[Gusington]

^Thanks for detailed responses...didn't realize so many of you are ancients fans. Tin Soldiers sounds like the best one, or I can just stick with Hegemony...

Besilarius is Strength and Honor by the same guy who did those Japanese historical games? The title escapes me.

[Bison]

Anguille is a Strength and Honor guru.  It did not strike a chord with me.  I found the interface to be too obtuse to even want to learn or deal with.

[Gusington]

^Sounds like it is by the same guy that did those Japanese titles...wtf is the title?? I remember Anguille loved those games too and I hated them :/

Bes' description of Strength and Honor's historical setting is hitting that sweet spot for me though...dammit.

[Gusington]

Here we are: Magitech. And the Japanese games are Takeda. Thank God.

I see there is a Strength & Honor 2...

http://www.ezgame.com/Mobile/page_PC_Games/