Let's play ''Legion Gold'' by Slitherine Software

[Jazz_]

With my mouse dead and the new one still waiting to be shipped by Amazon I can only play games where the mouse is not required, and this is one of them and a game I've always wanted to finish as I have fond memories of it. I haven't touched this game since the neolithic playstation 1 times and despite loving the atmosphere I never managed to finish it back then, maybe this time I'll finally complete it.

I skipped the ''tutorial'' level in Cambodia with Werner Von Croy because I'm already familiar with the commands (btw playing the old Tomb Raiders on a keyboard is rather..clunky), anyway just for the record, Werner is a condescending oldfart german archeologist who remains trapped in a Cambodian temple trying to snatch an old artifact, while Lara narrowly escapes the crumbling site.

First some ambient music to set the tone:

Spoiler

Valley of the Kings: Level 1: The Tomb of Seth

Spoiler

To be honest I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing in this tomb as I've skipped the cutscene, but anyway here we are, with an egyptian guide, let's call him Abdul.

We begin the descent, no enemies except some puny scorpions here and there:

I reach my first descending hallway:

that leads to this enclosed room (sticking your hand in the four rectangular holes on the walls makes the door open):

some early 3d boobs:

and the next room is a room being slowly filled with sand where we have to retrieve the artifact on the left:

Notice the repeating hieroglyph patterns on the walls (due to that 1999 memory limitations I assume):

I go on in the next area and I reach the sphinx (brief cutscene here), as you can see the sand prevents me to access the opening in its mouth, so I have to find a way to get rid of the sand:

I jump directly on the lower floor aaaand first death:

This time I carefully walk to the next room, and Abdul triggers the big blades trap on the side, so that I can retrieve the artifact safely:

Combining the two artifacts I found so far grants me the key to access the next area:

This hallway leads me to the first puzzle of the game. Again, notice the repeating patterns on the walls (tech-limitation or just laziness?):

As you can see Abdul expects me to find a way to open the door:

Going upstair and pulling the rope activates the first puzzle:

fairly straightfoward, all I have to do is to jump on the symbols where light comes thru (kinda frustrating tho as even touching the border of the squares forces you to start all over again):

Once the puzzle is done the door opens up for both me and Abdul downstair, and I retrieve a hourglass on the floor. I'll need it in the next area:

I find Abdul in the next area:

Now...the next room spooks the shit out of Abdul who promptly gtfo leaving me alone:

oh well..

There's a statue in the next room:

This is where I use the hourglass I have just retrieved and guess what? the room gets filled with sand:

and that's the same sand that was obstructing the passage on the sphinx, so I can finally climb in the sphinx's mouth:

Once inside the sphynx's mouth, jumping down and deepthroating it ends level 1, hooreey:

 

[Excidium II]

The only womb raider I finished was 2, incidentally the first 3d game I played.

Her tits are rounder here at least.

 

[abnaxus]

Classic Lara at age 15 had bigger tits than nu-Lara

 

[Jazz_]

Well, this started as a TR4 let's play but I was getting bored and I quit around the fourth level, during the shitty car section in the desert.

This is now a ''LEGION GOLD'' let's play!

Part 1: The Aequi

Spoiler

What's Legion Gold? It's a turn based strategy game with real time combat developed by Slitherine Software in 2002.

​

You have several scenarios to choose from for your campaign, I went with ''Unification of Italy'' because it makes sense to start from the earliest scenario (and probably easiest? the other italic tribes don't seem to have very formidable troops, we'll see):

Here we go:

We start with 3 cities: Roma, Latins and Hernici. Now, as far as I know there were no cities called ''Latins'' and ''Hernici'' back then, those were tribes, I guess they just figuratively grouped all of Hernici's cities under ''Hernici'' and they did the same for the Latins.

This is where you manage your city buildings and recruit your troops, you need to obtain food/ore/wood to produce stuff, this is accomplished by building things like a lumber mill for wood, farms for food and mines for gold and/or by vanquishing your foes and stealing their resources:

This is the diplomacy screen, as you can see the color of the tribe represents their ''friendliness'', green = good terms, yellow = neutral-ish, orange = they don't quite like you, red = hostile

As you can see the Etruscans and the puny Aequians hate my guts, while the Caeretans to the north seem to be friendly:

It stands to reason that I shall form an alliance with the Caeretans and blitzkrieg those mountain yokels Aequians. However the Volscians in the south are a potential danger as they are kinda hostile already.

Gotta look out for them volscians. Anyway I go ahead with my plans:

After the Aequians crumble the plan is to march on the Sabines and the Faliscans.

Let's end the first turn:

Well, the Volscians declared war as I feared, that means a probable detour from my initial plans in the east and north as I'll have to deal with them in the south. Anyway let's march on the Aequians fast:

As I approach the Aequians stronghold the sneaky Volscians bring out their troops:

After 4-5 turns I'm finally on the Aequians:

Battle Time! Now, how does the combat work in this game? Well, it's in real time and you can't actively influence it, you can arrange your army into formation (the type of terrain is an important variable depending on the units) and give some instructions pre-battle but the actual battle plays out in real time and you can only sit back and watch it unfold, in the manual they justify it like this ''There's not much you can do to influence the battle's outcome once the armies meet. This is an accurate depiction of ancient warfare. There was no expedient way to communicate the commander's wishes to his troops''.

This is how it looks in game, kinda reminds me of the old Cossacks games a bit:

Anyway, I won the battle but I took heavy casualties against a way inferior army. I think I screwed up my orders pre-battle, told them to wait too long before engaging, my legion and cavalry units were routed and I won basicly thanks to the archers and velites.

RIP valiant Aequi, you are now thoroughly Romanized:kwafuckyeah:

 

[Agesilaus]

This is now a ''LEGION GOLD'' let's play!

Thank the gods for small favours