Producer: Lothlorien
Retail Price: £9.95
Author:

A curiously uninformative title, behind which lies a game concentrating on simulating the role which naval warfare played in the Punic Wars. The Punic Wars were quite as important as the Napoleonic Wars, and were largely about who was going get the chance of making an empire of the world, the Romans or the Carthaginians. It is to this conflict that the famous episode of Hannibal and his elephants belongs, but the wars in their entirety lasted from 264BC to 146BC. The turning-point came in 203BC when Rome won a decisive land victory at the Battle of Zama, after which Carthage was a doomed city and its eventual destruction was inevitable.

The main reason for the Cathaginian defeat was the Roman success in neutralising her powerful naval position. In 264BC the Roman people voted to aid the Mamertines of Messana against the Carthaginians, and met Carthage for the first time on the Island of Sicily.

The objective of the game is to move ships into neutral and enemy ports, and ship gold from them to the capital city. You must also engage the enemy when they happen to be encountered in the pursuit of these goals.

The player must first design his fleet, in a manner which is inevitably slightly artificial but nevertheless contains an impressive variety of choice and detail. He starts with a treasury of 1000 gold pieces with which to buy the navy. There are five basic models of ship offered, in ascending order of price from the small two-oar bireme to the slow and massive Ct Heptares. Once the type of ship has been selected the player can decide what kind of crew to assign to it, including whether to have specialised marines and archers aboard. He must also decide on 'optional extras', like towers and sails, to add to the basic design. A good crew and extras increase the fighting efficiency of the ship but they all cost money. The most expensive ship it is possible to design costs 214 gold pieces, and only four can be bought with the initial funds By contrast the cheapest ship, a bireme with a crew of slaves, no marines, archers, or extras, only costs 15 gold pieces. In between, there is a vast permutation of possible prices and the maximum fleet of sixteen can be built up of any combination of ship designs. There s a copy facility to duplicate a ship you've designed if you want more than one to that specification.

Once the fleet has been built to the player's satisfaction, the program moves onto the main map screen. There are two maps, one a static large-scale representation of the Mediterranean area between Italy and Carthage and the other a scrolling small-scale map showing detail. Most of the action takes place in the small map, as orders are given via it, and the ports and ships can only be seen on it.

Orders are given to the fleet by a series of icons. After the idiot-proof clarity of the purchasing procedure, this is where the operation of the game can get slightly confusing. With a little perseverance and patience you can get the hang of the system, and it does not remain hopelessly cumbersome to work.

Each ship must be given its orders individually after being selected by means of a cursor on the small-scale map. Movement is subject to how fast the rowers have been instructed to go and which course is set for them. If fully rigged, the ship will go with the wind direction without intervention from the rowing crew. The system is clumsy but no doubt reflects real-life difficulties of navigation and co-ordination. Gold can be loaded and unloaded from ships when in port, and damaged ships can also be repaired at a cost.

Combat with the enemy can only happen when ships collide, and the result of these encounters has already been influenced by the type of ship and crew selected. The players role in these encounters is limited to the option to grapple or degrapple. Combat can go on at the player's choice for as many rounds thereafter as it takes to sink one of the ships.

One interesting feature is the user-definable victory conditions, which add variety but detract greatly from the feeling of historical authenticity. Victory is defined in terms of gold accumulated, enemy ships sunk, and ports captured.

It is very easy to set an extremely low set of victory conditions and win after the first turn, but the maximum victory conditions of 2000 gold pieces, sixteen ships and fifteen ports take a long game to achieve.

There is a two-player option, but in one-player mode the player is always Carthage. This may well be to disguise the fact that both sides start with exactly the same naval resources, something else which detracts from an authentic feel.

The game lacks variety, there is nothing to do beyond ferrying gold to the capital and bashing into enemy ships that get in the way. As an end in itself this presents a satisfying task, but it is slightly divorced from a real historical context despite the Greek trimmings of the construction stage. The overall impression is nevertheless refreshing, and anyone with an intrinsic interest in the era, or in naval warfare, will find a lot to enjoy in the game.

Lothlorien
£9.95

This is a two player strategy game set around 200BC, the time of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. One player commands the Roman navy, and the other commands the Carthaginian fleet and each side has to try and sweep the Mediterranean clean of the enemy's ships.

First of all each side has to build up its navy. You'll need fast galleys, called biremes, to grab money from outlying ports and zip it back to you. But you'll also need some bigger, tougher ships 'cos you can be sure that the enemy is going to come steaming (well, rowing, anyway) after you.

Movement is as simple as building ships. The main map shows you the whole playing area - the Mediterranean between Italy and North Africa. To the right of the big map is a smaller tactical map - a blown up view of the area surrounding the cursor on the main map. To move around you choose the move icon, put the cursor over one of your ships on the tactical map and move the cursor to where you want it to go. Remember, though, that ships start off slowly and build up speed, so don't expect to sail from Carthage to Rome in one go. Also, ships are gurt big clumsy things and they tend to run into each other. Not that this is a bad thing - the better you get at ramming the enemy, the more likely you are to win, 'cos it you ram them often enough, they'll sink!

The only things missing from Legions Of Death are the legions themselves - nary a foot soldier in sight, they're all sailors! However, it's great fun, so let's hear that Old Roman war cry, Delenda est Carthago, and into the galleys, lads!

Label: Argus
Author: Lothlorien
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Gary Rook

Argus has been a bit naughty with this game. It's called Legions of Death - and what a great title that is, all blood and marching feet - yet there isn't a single legion to be found in it.

In fact, there aren't any soldiers as such at all. So how can you have a wargame without soldiers? Simple, you make it a naval wargame. And that's what it is.

What we have here is a two-player strategy game, which gives you the option of having one side controlled by the computer. The playing area is the Tyrrenian Sea, which for the uninitiated and the non-Diplomacy players means that bit of the Mediterranean which lives between Italy and Tunisia.

One player is the Romans, the other the Carthaginians. Capture a certain number of enemy cities, destroy a certain number of enemy ships, or collect a certain amount of gold in your capital city. I'm not certain whether you have to do one of these or all three - the instructions given with the game don't actually make it very clear. Anyway, whichever, you get to set the victory conditions yourself, so you can make it just as hard or easy as you like.

You get 1,000 gold pieces to spend on ships. You can choose between five types: bireme, trireme, quinquereme, quadreme and ct heptares. Ct stands for cataphract and apparently means it's armoured.

Choices are made by using an icon-driven menu. You have the option of designing a ship or - to cut it short - you can copy an existing design. If you choose to design one afresh, you get a menu-driven checklist covering all the different things you can spend your hard-earned sertertil (that's Roman dosh) on.

As ever it's a trade-off. The bigger the ship the more fighting men and gold it can carry. But it also costs more and is slower. Then you can fill your ships with armies and archers; these are important because combat at sea in Roman times wasn't like today, where you shoot at each other from miles away. Galleys would ram each other, grapple together, and the troops on board would fight just as if they were on dry land. You can also buy extra equipment for your ships, things which will make them go faster (Roman equivalent of go-faster stripes), or will give you the edge in combat. Another thing you should consider very carefully is what sort of crews you should give your ships. Can you get away with cheap slave crews, or should you splash out on seasoned seamen who will sail and manoeuvre better?

So much for the setup phase.

Now you have to decide where to put them.

Switch from the right-hand third of the screen, where all the menus appear, to the maps. There are two, one strategic and one tactical. Who said this isn't complicated? The strategic map shows you the whole playing area, while the tactical one only shows you the small area immediately surrounding your cursor. Move over a coastline on the strategic map. Ships appear on the former as little (one pixel) dots, while on the latter you get a little graphic representation, about two characters long by one wide.

Once you've placed ships, you have to start being cunning and working out where to move them to. Be very careful, as movement is a hell of a lot more difficult than it looks, and it's very easy to crash into your own vessels. That's not the idea - the idea is to crash into the enemy's ships. Then your marine and archers battle it out.

You can also win by capturing enemy towns - by having your ships there and none of theirs - or by getting a certain amount of gold back to your capital. Each of your towns will produce gold, and you have to use your ships to carry it home.

If all this sounds confusing, just try playing it... But don't worry though - you soon get the hang of it.

Legions of Death is actually a pretty excellent game, even if it's not what I expected from the title.

A great little strategy game that should keep the dedicated gamer busy for quite some time.

AN OUTSTANDING NAVAL WARGAME SET IN A BACKWATER OF HISTORY.

Lothlorien
£9.95

Lothlorien have chosen one of the lesser known war zones of the ancient world to stage their latest military strategy game. This time we are afloat in the Mediterranean sometime between 264BC and 146BC aboard either the Fleet of Rome or Carthage. If you haven't guessed already (and if you have, award yourself a diploma in military history) we are fighting the Punic Wars.

The historical context is that Rome and Carthage were locked in a struggle for the Med and much of this prolonged war centred on the control of the sea channels.

Legions of Death is a one or two player game in which you must ensure that your fleet is victorious in battle and succeeds in protecting its home ports. It is a test of your ability to marshall your seaborne forces over a large area and a bewildering number of situations each calling for a swift command decision. A good touch is added very early in the proceeding when you choose your "conditions of victory", ie the amount of captured gold, territory and destroyed enemy ships that constitute a knock out. This option allows you to vary the length and complexity of the game.

Legions of Death could quite accurately be retitled Legions of Icons. Originally icons were meant to simplify command input but now we've reached the point where there are so many icons to use that things have become just as complex. But with Legions of Death I'm certainly not complaining as it's a game of great depth and possibilities depending on the degree of commitment from the players.

First off is the fleet building phase where you have 1000 pieces of gold to build, man and equip your ships. There are five types of vessel ranging from the fast but vulnerable Bireme to the slow but formidable Heptares. Selecting modifications to your ships should be thought out in terms of improving your "grappling" capability - the ease with which you can get alongside and board an enemy vessel. One distinctive feature of ships at this time was the Corvus a stout boarding plank that makes boarding more efficient, the disadvantage of course is that it provides an excellent means of entry onto your own ship.

There are so many element to consider that this initial phase of ship selection can take a good while especially when you are getting used to flipping through the icons. The next stage is the dispersal of your fleet and this is achieved very smoothly on a large scale map of the Med and a close up view of the local are you are in.

ICON COMMAND

Once you have placed your ship we get onto the hard part - winning the war. That this will be no easy matter is indicated by the stern tone of the instruction manual. "To issue orders to your fleet required correct manipulation of the command and enquiry structure of the program." Which means that there are a lot ore icons on the horizon and to achieve what you want you have to give orders in a preset way. This icon hopping once mastered will take you to the heart of the game and into the action. When two ships are in combat the bottom third of the screen is given over to an animated sequence of the ensuing battle.

Legions of Death will certainly appeal to wargamers who are looking for something a little out of the ordinary and surprisingly setting it in a relatively little known period gives it a fresher feel rather than replaying battles in yet another WWII or Napoleonic scenario. Through the icon driven system Legions of Death is fairly easy to get into but its complexities become more and more apparent the deeper you get into the campaign. the beginner may find the difficulty level against the computer too daunting but it is a multi faceted game which offers something for strategy gamers of all standards. Well packaged and with an easy to follow manual, Legions of Death should offer hours of enjoyment and might teach you something about the Punic wars as well.