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Best way to learn Alea Jacta Est system?

chuft

Augur
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
496
I bought Alea Jacta Est: Birth of Rome recently. I have read that it is a good game but not easy to pick up. My time and energy have both been more limited lately than I would like so I am looking for the path of least resistance to get off the ground with this game.

What do you think is the best way to learn this system? The 98 page manual? The in-game tutorial? Some video on Youtube or elsewhere you found particularly helpful?

Would appreciate any advice on how to get into this game with the least pain up front.

Thanks.
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
4,456
Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I bought Alea Jacta Est: Birth of Rome recently. I have read that it is a good game but not easy to pick up. My time and energy have both been more limited lately than I would like so I am looking for the path of least resistance to get off the ground with this game.

What do you think is the best way to learn this system? The 98 page manual? The in-game tutorial? Some video on Youtube or elsewhere you found particularly helpful?

Would appreciate any advice on how to get into this game with the least pain up front.

Thanks.

Play the Spartacus scenario
 

manassassas

Novice
Joined
Apr 10, 2017
Messages
18
Location
UK
I've played several AGEod games but not AJE (although from what I've read it's one of the easier ones to learn).

My usual learning curve usually goes thus: I blunder about blindly in my first few games, make tons of mistakes, shake my head in confusion as my armies march into the same territory as my enemy and refuse to do battle, send thousands of soldiers to their deaths in pointless skirmishes and many thousands more to die of starvation atop a forgotten mountain somewhere because I hadn't figured out how supply worked. Finally, things begin to click and when my soldiers die in pointless battles or of starvation it's because I've forgotten to do something which I knew how to do, rather than not knowing how to do it in the first place.

Serious answer though, the tutorials are okay at giving you the basics but won't teach you the more complicated stuff like supply/unit postures so you may need the manual for those. I've certainly never read any of the manuals from cover to cover - I've only checked them when something happens I don't understand (like the supply issues I mentioned). I don't watch many 'let's play' type videos because I find them a little bit, um, boring (although the ones I did watch for Civil War II did give me one or two ideas for the best ways to fight as the CSA).
 

rezaf

Cipher
Joined
Jan 26, 2015
Messages
650
I've played several AGEod games but not AJE (although from what I've read it's one of the easier ones to learn).

It indeed is - AJE has none of the more complicated mechanics the AGE engine is capable of, such as corps mechanics, tons of provincial improvement etc.
I'm not sure, there might be some of the latter, but you can get through the game without ever using them in most cases IIRC.

Other than that, what you write sounds about correct. ;)
 

Beowulf

Arcane
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
1,963
There are provincial improvements/regional decisions, but yeah - it's one of the easier AGEOD games, as it indeed doesn't use the corps mechanics or advanced supply system.
I'd recommend going through the tutorials, then reading the manual, then playing the aforementioned Spartacus scenario.

The most important things are - the management of troops postures and properly transporting units across the seas.
Other than that you basically move your stacks from area to area.

Or just jump straight into a PBEM.
 

Jazz_

Arcane
Joined
Jun 13, 2016
Messages
1,069
Location
Sea of Ubiquity
This is 60% off on BundleStars right now, thinking about picking it up, I'm a big roman history nerd but the supposedly hard learning curve puts me off a bit tho (for the same reasons TS stated), and by watching some gameplay videos it seems that the game is mostly centred around logistics? like setting up supply lines for your armies etc? Is that the bulk of the game? And is it heavy on micromanaging?
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
AGE is mostly about stack organization and movement from town to town to town. Let the enemy wither and lose cohesion on the retreat into no mans land while you take important supply points when the weather is favorable and you have full cohesion. And hold them at all other times. It's actually quite simple once you are able to read and digest the numbers in this game.
 

Jazz_

Arcane
Joined
Jun 13, 2016
Messages
1,069
Location
Sea of Ubiquity
The UI in this game is so counter-intuitive, my Gawd... how the hell do I lay siege to a city? Why some legions have commanders while other are without commanders even if I have generals/legatus doing jackshit in the same stack? For instance:

WYeHg4K.jpg


The V Macedonica and the X Fretensis have commanders as you can see but the XV Apollinaris is without a commander and I have generals chilling out in the same stack (Sextiulius Felix, Titus) doing nothing, I can't seem to get them to command that legion for some reason. I'm enjoying the game but it is so convoluted and ass-backward in a lot of design decisions..
 

TripJack

Hedonist
Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
5,132
to siege park a force in the same tile as a city in offensive or defensive posture

generals just need to be in the same stack with units, some special units do come with attached leaders but you can't control this
 
Last edited:

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
Yes, if a unit is in the same province and no other armies are present, they will siege and wear the defenders by attrition. It is important to have a lot of artillery to reduce heavy fortifications. If you want to attack right away, that is also possible, set your besieging stack to "assault" posture.

In my very first game I found the UI and the general mechanics just as confusing as you, but after a day or so it becomes clearer. Keep in mind what I wrote before, that this is actually a real time game with phases based on 7 or 14 days. That's why many things you expect from a turn based game are missing and that makes your head spin. But it makes sense if you consider that the "turns" are resolved in real time, day by day.
 

Beowulf

Arcane
Joined
Mar 2, 2015
Messages
1,963
The V Macedonica and the X Fretensis have commanders as you can see but the XV Apollinaris is without a commander and I have generals chilling out in the same stack (Sextiulius Felix, Titus) doing nothing, I can't seem to get them to command that legion for some reason. I'm enjoying the game but it is so convoluted and ass-backward in a lot of design decisions..


Did you try selecting both the commander and the Legion (using Ctrl) and then joining them (a button with a "+" should be coloured in the "tent" menu, which is next to the postures)?
 

Jazz_

Arcane
Joined
Jun 13, 2016
Messages
1,069
Location
Sea of Ubiquity
That did the trick, thanks Beowulf. Well, my fist campaign as Vespasianus is almost over (5 turns left) and I have just now managed to ''pacify'' the jews but now a couple of those areas are overrun by the goddamn parthians, I have also lost my lands in the east (Mauritania and some other territories east of Mauritania) to Othonian forces. And my legions in Moesia took a long ass time to get unfixed. This is a weird mechanic btw, do all AGEOD games have activation checks? it feels so arbitrary that some armies get stuck for no apparent reason, especially since the scenarios are not very long with the 1 month long turns, well at least this one isn't, imo if limiting armies is integral part of the design they should have went with something less arbitrary and gamey like for example your army in this turn can't move because of bad weather/exhaustation/mutiny/whatever, something that makes sense, not random activation checks.
Anyway, I guess this scenario is lost because in 5 turns I ain't gonna take Rome, but there's Otho himself roaming about in my lands in Moesia with a couple of legions so I guess if I manage to kill him with my legions there I should win in the end (Vitellius is doing horribly so I'm not worried about him)? Game is great but I still have to figure out how a lot of mechanics work.
 

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