Interview Tacticular Cancer Interview: Alea Jacta Est

[Trash]

Tags: AGEOD; Alea Jacta Est

With the imminent release of Alea Jacta Est, we got a hold of Ageod founder Philippe Thibaut to ask him some questions about this small but influential wargaming development house and their latest game.

Wargaming is a rather niche genre, and yet there are quite a few studios active in it. What makes this niche so attractive, in your view, and how do you feel the genre is doing at the moment?

Well, this has been a key issue in the last years. Only a few companies believe in those games, mostly because these games tend not to reach those volumes high enough to make huge profits, worse, you may even lose money. It happened to us twice on games we had the highest expectations for, but failed to meet a large enough public to make a small profit, barely covering cost. This has moved all majors to leave the field, or to concentrate on FPS genre. The good thing in our opinion is that the crowd is here, faithful, and always hungry for more… our main worry is not the great customers that we have, it’s how to make us live decently while developing those long and costly projects (lol)​

Apart from the setting, what makes Alea Jacta Est unique compared to other wargames and what makes it stand out to you personally?

We believe that we shall show, when the whole series will be complete (.i.e. after quite a few packs) that Rome was not made in a day, but, most important, managed to self-destroy herself. I mean that players will see that defeat comes mostly at the hands of other Romans, and I always felt that internal issues cause the Fall of Rome…in that sense, I believe the game and its expansion is here to tell this aspect of the story that is largely unknown.​

Read the full interview for more about Ageod's future plans, the wargaming genre and a look into what the first and second expansion packs for Alea Jacta Est might hold!

Read the full article: Tacticular Cancer Interview: Alea Jacta Est

 

[Crooked Bee]

Despite the answers being short, this is actually a pretty good interview. Looking forward to the review.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It happened to us twice on games we had the highest expectations for, but failed to meet a large enough public to make a small profit, barely covering cost.

It would be very interesting which games he means. My bet would be Napoleons Campaigns (a total failure because it came without real campaign mode) and either Pride of Nations or another game except AACW.

In fact, their only game that has been really successful so far seems to be American Civil War, which makes it all the more surprising why they never came up with a sequel. The option of making a proper Napoleons Campaigns II is now moot, after Paradox snatched it for their real time engine. What a great game it could have been otherwise.

 

[ValeVelKal]

It must be NCP, which failed spectacularly, and PoN, on which they put huge expectations, and did not sell as well as expected (thus few DLCs). AACW was a huge success (>100K sales), and so were BoA/WiA. RoP did not sell so good, but they did not expect much. No idea for RUS.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Yes it must be NCP but as you said, PoN, RoP and RuS were all no successes.

I ordered my copy of AJE today and hopefully will have time to play it soon. From the very first impression it looks absolutely solid but I vastly prefer AACW. Compared to all other games AACW has way more options. It's the only one that feels like playing an open ended campaign, whereas in the other games I'm playing a scenario. That's what eventually killed RuS for me and I'm afraid it will kill AJE too. In comparison I am still playing campaigns with AACW, after 5 years.

And tbh I really don't like these restrictions, like "this region cannot be entered in this scenario" for 3/4 of the map. If things were like that in real life Hannibal could forget about his march over the Alps. He must go through civilized terrain like every one else

Well in terms of realism and gameplay it's probably the best available time capsule for fans of the Roman era, but it's a scenario game, even if the scenarios are huge.

 

[Trash]

What I like so far are the different playstyles and goals the scenarios have. The Spartacus one as the slaves is a prime example of a game twisting your usual playstyle. Spartacus can only grow stronger by keeping away from superior Roman forces and cannot get bogged down in sieges. It's mobile warfare at its best and you constantly have to keep on your toes not to get cornered and destroyed. Very different from my usual 'turtling' approach.

The bigger scenarios also give you a pretty immense theater to play around in and plenty of time to do so. Ceasar vs Pompey is awesome in that aspect.

As a big fan of the Roman era I can see myself play this one for a long time.

What I would like to see otoh is something RPS said very well in their preview.

More significantly, Alea Jacta Est is yet another wargame disappointingly short of small evening-sized introductory challenges. Some brief Northern tribe-suppressing mini-campaigns perhaps – even if they were semi-fictional – would have been a boon for newcomers looking to transition from the trim tutorials to the continent-spanning splendour of the large multi-year scenarios.

Apart from the semi-historical part this is something I very much would like to see. With a little thought even smaller campaigns against barbarians (the like the Romans engaged in for centuries) can be fun and challenging. Not to mention a nice breather from all the huge scenarios that fill the roster. Part of why I dig the Spartacus one is because it is on much smaller scale and yet very inventive.

Wasn't there a big campaign in RuS btw? I think I remember one tho I might be wrong?

 

[Burning Bridges]

I missed the preorder .. does that mean I never get the Spartacus scenario, and will never have use for my 6,000 crosses?

And in case you don't know, WiA has many small scenarios of the type you describe.

Wasn't there a big campaign in RuS btw? I think I remember one tho I might be wrong?

Yes there was one. It's just not that open as the one in the ACW. If you watch closely you are basically reacting to scripted events most of the time. This is ok if you play the first time, but replayability is not good.

I would also welcome large, ahistoric, sand box like campaigns. The stuff you describe like conquering Barbarians is exactly what I want too, even if it's not historical. But not in this game I am afraid.

 

[ValeVelKal]

After the first few turns where it all "sets in place", the Caesar vs Pompeius becomes very open. The other scenarios are really open as well - what would have been events in other games (reinforcements, ...) has become decisions.

 

[Trash]

I missed the preorder .. does that mean I never get the Spartacus scenario, and will never have use for my 6,000 crosses?

Apparantly it will be released for general consumption on a later date. If it's going to be part of a free patch or paid DLC I dunno.

And in case you don't know, WiA has many small scenarios of the type you describe.

Yup, was the game that made me learn to appreciate Ageod.

After the first few turns where it all "sets in place", the Caesar vs Pompeius becomes very open. The other scenarios are really open as well - what would have been events in other games (reinforcements, ...) has become decisions.

You still get events that have a big impact. Difference seems to be that events aren't set in stone in most cases and often seem to have different variations that might trigger. What does seem to be the case is that the game really seems to have gone for more open scenarios.

 

[MicoSelva]

I've never played anything Ageodian, mostly because I'm not really interested in the time period in which their games have been set so far. This one looks pretty cool, though. I really wish I had more free time.

Good interview, btw.

 

[Cenobyte]

I ordered my copy of AJE today and hopefully will have time to play it soon. From the very first impression it looks absolutely solid but I vastly prefer AACW. Compared to all other games AACW has way more options. It's the only one that feels like playing an open ended campaign, whereas in the other games I'm playing a scenario. That's what eventually killed RuS for me and I'm afraid it will kill AJE too. In comparison I am still playing campaigns with AACW, after 5 years.

For me, it's the other way round. My favourite AGEOD game is RuS (for now, maybe AJE will change that), and I think the team did a great job depicting the Russian Civil War in a detailed but still playable way. At the same time, AACW was the only AGEOD game I have played that I couldn't really get into. For some reason I always loose interest half-way in the campaign :D