I'm playing Alea Jacta Est, a
grand strategy game by AGEOD.
The game covers an interesting period of history: the Roman Civil
Wars. Each of the six scenarios (a satisfying amount of content) has
two or three fighting factions, with the objective to earn the most
victory points by killing enemy units and holding important cities.
Compared to AGEOD’s last effort, Pride
of Nations, Alea Jacta Est has a more manageable scale and
much shorter turn resolution. The tutorial just teaches the basics
and instructs the user to read the manual for more information, and
multiplayer can only be played by e-mail. The interface is very
familiar to any veteran of AGEOD games, receiving no major
enhancements. As before, units are organized into large groups
containing several to many individual units, and each element is very
detailed in its attributes. Leading each group is a commander that
also has very detailed attributes that affect movement and
performance in battle. Taxes are spent recruiting new units onto the
field, and a range of decisions can be made to influence specific
territories. Supply lines must be kept, and combat is completely
automated but detailed. The AI seems to play the game decently well
and is aggressive when needed, while defending when appropriate.
While Alea Jacta Est plays very similarly to other AGEOD games, those
with an interest in the time period will find their money well spent.
