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Review Alea Jacta Est gets a Tacticular Cancer Review

Trash

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Tags: AGEOD; Alea Jacta Est

Ageod's Alea Jacta Est has been released and our new reviewer Cenobyte put on his sandals to put this Roman era wargame through the paces.
Another interesting change from previous AGEOD games was done for the supply system. Instead of supply being produced, stocked and distributed in certain structures on the map, supply in AJE is never stocked inside a province or distributed to other provinces. Instead, forces in a province have to resupply every turn from the supply produced in the province they are in. Therefore, building a dedicated supply chain to supply large armies is very difficult (it can only be done by manually reshuffling supply units from supply-rich provinces to your armies in the field). If your troops become unsupplied through some unfortunate events, the effects are very severe. All in all, the changed supply system makes the maintenance of your forces much harder and limits your ability to field large armies.

Amateurs talk tactics while professionals talk logistics? Check out our review to learn more.

Read the full article: Alea Jacta Est gets a Tacticular Cancer Review
 

Burning Bridges

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Fantastic first review, Cenobyte!

:bro:


However, most scenarios closely follow the historical accounts of the famous writers of antiquity, such as Appian or Plutarch, and are thus not designed to allow for an equal, open-ended campaign, but will favour one particular side in a given scenario. Therefore, playing as a faction that historically lost the depicted civil war or conflict makes a scenario much more difficult and challenging, and the AI can win or even outright overwhelm you in this case.

Presuming the "most" in this sentence was not just a superfluous word, can you compare which scenarios are actually more open and which ones are not?

I want to play the scenarios in some order, but cannot figure out which. But since I do already know that AGEOD games require deep understanding of the situation and geographical knowledge that comes only from repeatedly playing scenarios, I will probably play in chronological order (the map gets larger).

has an extensive manual (which sometimes seems to be contradictory to the actual ingame features).

In fact, the game interface hardly explains a damn thing. But I wouldn't hold it against them. It's one thing to develop games with such complex rules with 3,4 people, another to write down everything and keep it up to date too.

The problem is that there are simply too many small things. I have a printed manual for AACW, and played for many years, but I still constantly run into questions like "how does the strategic rating of a commander influence the speed of entrenching" or "does the 5% cohesion bonus apply to a brigade or the whole division" or "do I need offensive stance if I want to attack merchants in the shipping boxes", etc.

I once tried to explain the command point rules in a concise tutorial, therefore I know that it would be really hard to write down every single rule, if you still want to be productive in other areas. Instead I learned to play the games by intuition (which is much better than powergaming the rules) and figure out the missing parts by trial and error.

For AACW there is a wiki that explains many things (may apply to all games): http://www.ageod.net/aacwwiki/Main_Page

The supply system, the unit recruitment and replacement and the playing of decisions is also quite straight-forward and easy to understand. However, there are also some problems with the interface. First, in scenarios with many sub-factions, it is quite a lenghty process to toggle through all sub-factions and their replacements.

This is the exact same problem that I criticized in my review for Revolution under Siege.

Such things can all be lived with, but I found some of the interface changes from AACW not very felicitous. Why didn't they stick with what they had?
 

Cenobyte

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Fantastic first review, Cenobyte!

:bro:


However, most scenarios closely follow the historical accounts of the famous writers of antiquity, such as Appian or Plutarch, and are thus not designed to allow for an equal, open-ended campaign, but will favour one particular side in a given scenario. Therefore, playing as a faction that historically lost the depicted civil war or conflict makes a scenario much more difficult and challenging, and the AI can win or even outright overwhelm you in this case.

Presuming the "most" in this sentence was not just a superfluous word, can you compare which scenarios are actually more open and which ones are not?

Thanks, Burning Bridges!

I think the Roman Civil War scenario (Caesar vs Pompeius) is the most open one. Both sides have advantages and a secure resource and recruitment base at the start of the game. This scenario also allows you to recruit new legions, so even if you completely loose an army, you should be able to rebuild your strength if you make a determined effort.

The Emperor civil war scenarios are also quite balanced, especially the Septimius Severus scenario (in the 4-Emperor's Year, the Otho faction has a significant disadvantage against the other two factions, which are roughly equal in strength).

The other scenarios are pretty much one-sided, and are very challenging even against the AI. In my first test game, I played as the Populares in the Marius vs Sulla scenario, and while I could hold out and successfully defend Italy against Sulla's onslaught, I lost in victory points at the end of the game.
 

ValeVelKal

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Good review, "fair and balanced".

n the actual gameplay, AJE shows some differences to its predecessors. The most obvious is a return to a monthly scale for the turns, instead of the 15-day turns in most preceding games. Therefore, especially veterans from older AGEOD games should be careful not to forget to adjust their orders to use all of the added time during a single turn.

WIA already had monthly turns, so really it depends on the AGEOD games (ROP / RUS / AACW : 15 days ; WIA / AJE : 30 days ; NCP : 7 days).

However, while Roman forces, especially the legions, rule the battlefield, forces without access to legions (for example the kingdom of Pontus with its Greek-style Hoplite armies) have a significant disadvantage. Especially since they, unlike Roman legions, cannot build siege equipment on the fly and thus have much greater difficulty conquering enemy cities. While this has certainly a historical justification, it makes the game very challenging and sometimes outright frustrating for those factions.

I agree ; playing a non-Roman faction (mostly Pontus, if you don't have the Spartacus scenario) can be downright frustrating for people not unexperimented people : the supply logistics is extremely difficult, and you lose with 4 : 1 ratio due to limited frontage - frontage not being clearly explained in the manual - so you don't understand what you can do. Well played, they really can be a match to Sulla's legion, which the Populares cannot be.

Gameplay in AJE not only consists of moving forces on the game map and ensuring that they have enough to eat, but it also includes many aspects of the political and strategical management of your forces. Introduced by Ageod's Revolution under Siege and Pride of Nations, AJE also uses decisions that can be played for a small cost on provinces on the game map. These decisions have a wide array of functions and effects, most of which are not really that useful or important, but they nevertheless can make your campaign easier.

I agree that the "provincial decisions" could be improved. Some are really useful and imply a real sacrifice, some are boring and "free" (Merchant : free 5 money per merchant with almost no constraint), some are not so usefull but cosmetic (building Roads - that's what Roman did !). I believe balancing this stuff will be on the dev'list once the remaining bugs are killed.

Speaking of expensive, the game features five basic resources. Victory points, Engagement points, Money, National Morale and Prisoners. Victory points are earned by holding key objectives and provinces, and are mainly used to determine the winner of a campaign if no side can achieve a total victory until the end of the game. Engagement points are earned from certain cities and through events, and are used for strategic choices and decisions. Money is earned through a lot of ways, but is also spent in a lot of ways. You have to pay for the upkeep of your forces every turn. National Morale is gained by winning battles and conquering objectives, and determines your overall efficiency in combat. It's always a good idea to make sure your National Morale stays around 100. Lastly, prisoners are taken during battles, and they are used in turn to recruit legions made of prisoners or to make some easy profit... well, we are in the antiquity after all.

In case you wonder, no, there is no manpower resource in the game. Instead, your ability to recruit new troops is limited by the forcepool available for your faction. In many scenarios, you cannot recruit new legions, only auxiliaries and mercenaries. This makes the legions available to you even more valuable. Meanwhile there is a pool for reinforcements by nationality and unit type which can grow through events or by you spending money on them.

Looks like my Beginner's Corner was useful :)


other thing is that many scenarios have empty areas in barbarian territory that are nevertheless already part of the campaign map. Cunning players will immediately guess that something will happen in those places during the course of the scenario, and prepare accordingly. This gives the player a little bit too much information.

That's a difficult balance for AGEOD games : either you do a lot of "historical events", but PBEM players need to have a pre-knowledge of the scenario to be on equal footing, and you don't, but then those events make SP even more interesting.
Note that the apparition of the Barbarians in some scenario is random to an extant, so you might prepare against - say - a Dacian raid for nothing.

I didnt't experience any serious bug or problem, but there is some room for future interface improvements. And of course, more scenarios are always more than welcome, but the next scenario pack, featuring conflicts during the rise of Rome, has already been announced and is scheduled for 2013.

There are quite a few issues (non crashing bugs, balance issues) outstanding, but I am confident they will be fixed in a short time. The team is really working on them. Most of these bugs you won't see if you don't start to bean-count (which I love to do).
As a beta, I am responsible for some of these bugs being not detected at release :/

(which sometimes seems to be contradictory to the actual ingame features).

It is going to be the object of a significant effort I believe ; the game changed a lot since the beta - and sometimes the manual was not kept up to date.
 

Trash

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The other scenarios are pretty much one-sided, and are very challenging even against the AI. In my first test game, I played as the Populares in the Marius vs Sulla scenario, and while I could hold out and successfully defend Italy against Sulla's onslaught, I lost in victory points at the end of the game.

Cool, It's actually the one that convinced me that AJE is more open than most of their titles. The AI really has different approaches and the scenario can play wildly different from what they try. Not to mention the events that this time really are randomised to an extent that can make quite an impact. If by open however you mean balanced I agree fully that Caesar vs Pompey is the one. Still, winning never felt impossible to me unless either I or faith messed up.

non crashing bugs

Unfortunately my own copy has a tendency to crash and burn regularly. Hardlock and everything and even data corruption upon reboot. Memory issue, soundcard or plain nasty bug I dunno. Seen several people have similar problems on the forum and do hope Ageod figures it out.

Anyway, already looking forward to more scenarios to be released. This game got me hooked.
 

Trash

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Any chance of a Parthian Wars preview or just a personal verdict, Trash ? I'm getting an itch for Roman buggery.

Haven't played it yet. So far AJE together with the Birth of Rome expansion and the two smaller DLC campaigns is an amazingly complete game. Love it, although be warned that it is foremost a wargame with some political decisions thrown in and the like than your standard strategy stuff. Parthian Wars however is looking pretty solid with a few interesting campaigns and engine additions like heat waves and so on.
 

Trash

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Dunno if he means AJE or the entire Ageod library. Their games like most Paradox ones do share a whole lot of similarities. The expansions and DLC for AJE add mostly more scenarios to play through together with the odd new gameplay mechanic. That also comes through the free patch. Personally I like them. Most of the new scenarios have been rather interesting to play with, although I'm still waiting for truly classic stuff like Caesar's conquest of Gaul.
 

Burning Bridges

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Of course that's what I meant. If you have played AJE or BoR you already know what to expect. It's just a new scenario.
 

Burning Bridges

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Birth of Rome had serious balance issues in the Punic War scenario, and I would like to know if they have done better this time.

And another thing, I must correct myself there are 5 new scenarios not 1!

· The Carrhae Campaign 53BCThis scenario is about the attempt by the wealthy and ambitious Roman Triumvir Crassus to conquer the Parthian Empire in 53BC, and the ensuing events until the start of the Roman Civil War between Caesar and Pompeius in 50 BC.


· “What if” Caesar’s Revenge 44 BCThis scenario is an hypothetical situation which simulates the campaign that Caesar had planned against the Parthians, before his assassination during the Ides of March 44 BC.


· Marcus Antonius 40 BCThis scenario covers the great Parthian offensive against the Roman East at the time of Marcus Antonius in 40 BC, and Rome's counter-offensive led by Ventidius Bassus.


· Traianus Imperator 114 ADThis scenario covers the great war led by Emperor Trajan against Parthia and Armenia in 114AD, with the aim of finally crushing and annexing both nations.


· Severus Strikes Back 197 ADThis scenario covers the Parthian offensive in the East while a civil war between Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus takes place in the West, and in the second stage a violent counterstrike by Severus in 197 AD that led him far into the heart of Mesopotamia


 

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