Nemesis of the Roman Empire – PC – Review

Nemesis of the Roman Empire is the sequel to Celtic Kings: Rage of War. It adds two new races, the Carthaginians and the Iberians, to the previous Gauls and Romans. The Punic Wars are the basis of the story, and provide a wide span of time and campaigns that is just right for a strategy game.

At first glance, the game’s primary format seems very simple, as there is no building, and minimal resource gathering. Buildings are acquired by capturing either villages or strongholds with pre-existing structures, and there are only two resources, food and gold. However, rather quickly into the game it becomes apparent that starting and maintaining steady supply lines of food and gold is crucial just for your army’s continued existence, let alone winning the game.

Each battalion, which is assigned to a hero fifty units at a time, is dependent on a constant supply of food for individual units to survive. Food is supplied to the armies by either having the armies stand in close vicinity to town halls, or by assigning pack mules to the groups. Up to 1000 units of food can be loaded onto the mules, which is necessary for the long journeys they’ll have to undertake out in the field, as they pillage the countryside. Gold isn’t quite as crucial, but early on into the game it will become necessary to convert excess food into gold in order to buy more troops and upgrade the existing ones.

The four races all have the same number of specific units, along with a special magic user. They also each feature heroes, which can be placed in charge of the battalions. This allows the special attributes and abilities of the heroes to be imparted to the units attached to them. These abilities can be improved over time as the armies fight and gain experience. There are also a few scattered powerups that can be collected and used one time for a special benefit. The units, while having some similar characteristics, are differentiated enough for each race to play uniquely. For instance, the magic user of the Iberians can train troops without having them go into combat to gain experience, the war elephant of the Carthaginians can sustain a lot of damage with its regeneration ability, the mountaineers of the Iberians are invisible and don’t require food supplies while on the move (yay!), and the woman warriors of the Gauls can kill with one devastating blow if their enemy’s damage meter is under 50%.

Only a few villages and outposts are usually available at the beginning of the scenarios, so it’s important to immediately send out scouts to spy out the lay of the land, and then send in the troops to take over the villages. These villages and outposts will help supply and move the food necessary for the troops to move around the map in order to attack the bigger strongholds, which are needed in order to upgrade the troops, made possible by the types of buildings available in these more complex cities. Most upgrades are accomplished by research done at these buildings.

All the structures are prebuilt, and there is no structural improvement or building available in Nemesis. Upgrades to resources are only available through capturing more cities to increase the supply.

Combat is simple, and is executed by either clicking on icons on the menu displayed at the bottom of the screen, or by hitting hotkeys. Troops can also be assigned formations. The movement of troops is accomplished by clicking on either the troops, or on their attached heroes. As far as I could tell, there is no hotkey command for moving units by groups or the heroes. Having a hotkey designation for the heroes would be useful in moving several groups at once, as it is difficult to tell the hero from the rest of the crowd when they’re all bunched together, and this makes for delays in moving across the map.

Speaking of maps, the map interface here is easily the best I’ve ever seen in an RTS game of this type. It’s a simple map, yet it displays all the needed information as to troop movement and belongings. It allows for troop movement, trade routes and commands to be executed with a few clicks of the mouse. The map can be toggled back and forth with the space bar during the course of the game at any time. Want to send food to an outpost? Just click on the supplier, then right-click on the recipient, and it’s done. Troops can be sent across the map by first selecting the desired hero in the main game view, then popping up the map and clicking on the destination. Other games feature this map traveling ability as well, but it seems to work much more smoothly in Nemesis.

The AI in this game is better than most, and there won’t be any suicide attacks against your stronger forces. There also won’t be any mercy shown in the computer’s defense of strongholds or in attacking and taking over supply routes and villages that are left unguarded.

The main strategy of Nemesis is in the setting up and maintenance of supply lines for resources and troops. Controlling the map requires constant vigilance in order to keep ownership of the towns, as the enemy isn’t just idly sitting by while you leisurely conquer the map. This is more complex than it sounds, as careful thought has to be taken to decide whether it’s better to immediately attack certain strong settlements which have needed structures, or wait until more resources have been built up by capturing weaker villages and setting up supply routes to strongholds, which can then be converted to gold to buy troops. And, keeping the moving troops constantly supplied with food is difficult, as the food on the pack mules runs out fairly quickly and the units can end up starving off before they can return to a village.

The map does make handling these supply routes easier, but it can still get a bit overwhelming, especially for those of us who aren’t good at multi-tasking. The learning curve isn’t steep, but it may be wise to keep saving the game progress every little bit in the first few scenarios, until this unusual strategic format is down pat.

Despite the Punic Wars setting, there is a strange lack of any real historical basis for this game. Having magic users is odd, and the campaigns don’t really bear much resemblance to the real wars. This will only bother history buffs, though.

This RTS game incorporates the usual features of games of this type, but also adds a new element with the supply lines for the troops, which makes for an interesting dimension that’s not common to RTS games. Being different and interesting at the same time is a good thing. However, this feature also dominates the game, so much so that researching and building up units can be hard to pursue, and often gets shoved onto the back burner, while the constant search for more food supplies continues. The lack of building and improving structures is also missed, and would have added more variety to the game. Granted, though, I’m a big one for city-building games like Caesar and Zeus, so this may be my own personal bias and not bother anyone else. I also lament the missed opportunity for more historically based scenarios and settings, given the setting for the game, but again, this is a small quibble.

For anyone looking for a good strategy game that offers something a little different from the overcrowded field, there is plenty to enjoy in this game, especially if multi-tasking on a visual level doesn’t intimidate. A nice strategic offering.

Gameplay: 8
The gameplay is interesting and deep, and will take players a few tries in the first scenarios to get everything in the supply business down pat. More variety in structure improvement and building would have added to the fun, but many may not care that this feature isn’t present.

Graphics: 7
While the graphics are good, they’re nothing to jump up and down about. But, graphics do not a game make.

Sound: 7
Again, the sound is good, but isn’t anything to get overly excited about.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The game isn’t difficult overall, but at first the mechanics can be a little overwhelming in trying to figure out basic strategy in setting up and maintaining the food supply. However, it’s as easy as pie to save the game with the handy “quick save” hotkey at any time during the game.

Concept: 8
The supply lines for resource replenishment is handled differently here than in other games, and is the crux of the strategy of this game. A great presentation of new ideas, and a good implementation of tried-and-true ones.

Multiplayer: 7
There is a multiplayer feature which has an editor function for choosing options such as map types, features and special added bonus abilities. These options make for a good variety in multiplayer mode.

Overall: 8
A very good strategy game that offers plenty of strategic thinking opportunities, plus there’s always something to do. However, this something to do usually involves food and gold, and can become a little repetitive. Having more variety of things to do would have enhanced the overall game experience, but there’s still much here to like.