Alea Acta jest, Birth of Rome or HPS Rome games which are better?

[Hudson]

And has anyone actually played them all?
And which Matrix Game is better Birth of Rome or Alea Acta jest?

Any thoughts on HPS Sims Roman games like Punic Wars etc etc?

[panzerde]

Birth of Rome and Alea Jacta Est use the same game engine.  Both are strategic level simulations of a variety of Roman wars.  Which one is "better" depends on what part of Roman history interests you more.  Birth of Rome is (obviously) the early Republic with a focus on the First Punic War and the Latin Wars.  Alea Jacta Est is late Republic/early Empire and deals more with the civil wars during that period.  An expansion is coming out that includes the wars against the Parthians.  These games really have the "one more turn" effect on me.

I have HPS' Gallic Wars and Roman Civil Wars and really enjoy them both.  These are a completely different scale than the AGEOD titles at Matrix.  These are completely tactical games focusing on specific battles.  The heart of the system is the detailed command and control rules and the WEGO movement scheme.  These aren't the prettiest games, but they're probably about the most accurate simulation of ancient warfare you're going to find.  If you're looking for something that competes with Total War Rome II in the graphics department and is real time, these ain't it, though.

[Hudson]

No I understand that. Im a wargamer not a RTS gamer so Total War is out for me its wargame light.

I was just wondering which people though played better in terms of AI and things like that.

I also was wondering why the expansion for Alea jacta Est are out and no support for Birth of Rome but I guess Birth of Rome kind of only covers one period.

[Kushan]

Birth of Rome is a standalone expansion for AJE. If you have both AJE and BOR installed running the BOR exe will allow you to play scenarios from both games.

[Nefaro]

No I understand that. Im a wargamer not a RTS gamer so Total War is out for me its wargame light.

I was just wondering which people though played better in terms of AI and things like that.

I also was wondering why the expansion for Alea jacta Est are out and no support for Birth of Rome but I guess Birth of Rome kind of only covers one period.

Birth of Rome is the second title in the series.  AJE was the first and had a small DLC.  They're both standalone titles so you don't need to buy everything in one shot to get to a BOR.

I kinda prefer BOR just for the earlier Republic period and a bit more variety in the enemies.  In AJE, you'll be fighting other Roman armies as much or more than foreigners but since it's a later period, the conflicts often stretch across a larger area of the map (so they both have their merits). 

The Ancient Warfare series from HPS is more of a classic hex-based wargame, although it's phased WEGO.  The interface can be frustrating at times and I find the decent looking pixel art pseudo '3D' view nice to look at but impractical to play on.  This series seemed to have more of a learning curve for me, largely due to figuring out how to give commands to large amounts of units efficiently.  The larger scenarios can get quite unwieldy and take awhile for each turn to be resolved even when you have Fast Movement turned on (but still want to see how the turn unfolds).

AJE/BOR is on a grand scale covering Europe & N Africa.  Each title in the AW series just covers specific battle scenarios mainly focusing on a certain conflict between two specific empires or peoples in a certain time period.