Caesar - on SynTax PD 527
               (Strategy/wargame for ST only)

              Reviewed by James Judge on an STe

It is 200 BC. The fight for dominance in the Mediterranean is at
its peak. Six empires have aspirations to power, but only one can
win...

Right, that's the plot and introduction out of the way, let's get
down to the game. (Yes, that was the plot).

If you've ever played the board game Risk you'll know what this
game is like but not quite.

The game is a strategy game with you taking the part of one empire
that is fighting it out with five other empires and the neutral
countries for total dominance of Europe and the Mediterranean. The
playing area is split up into sections that can be ruled by any of
the warring factions and may or may not have a capital city.  To
start with all but six of the sections are ruled by the neutral
countries (this neutral team attacks on whims and has no strategy)
with the other six being the home base of the empires. From these
bases the empires can expand outwards conquering sectors that are
adjacent to a sector they own or in reach of their armada.

Each empire has its own army that can be put whereever you want
in your empire and split up.  The same applies for the neutral
countries who, all together, have a decidedly larger army than you
start out with but, luckily, you'll only meet a few thousand at a
time and the other empires will be taking their toll on the number
as well.

The army can only move to adjacent sectors (no matter the size)
unless there are enough ships in the sector, and the sector's next
to a sea/ocean they can then be shipped to another sector that is
next to water and attack there.


That, so far, is what Risk is like but, because this is a computer
game, more things can be added in to add to the depth of this
game. The author has taken this opportunity and increased on the
number of options you can do and the playability of the game.

Not only must you handle armies you must feed the starving
thousands with grain that has to be grown or bought, negotiate
with the enemy on items such as religion, borders, peace, wealth
and economy in a number of different ways (usefully, friendly,
serious, determined etc.), manage the yearly budget, hire pirates,
expand your armies and ships, help other countries, make pacts,
fortify your own countries, dabble in a bit of blackmail or arson
and overall expand your empire and increasing the amount of work
that has to be done. (Phew).

All of this may seem a monumental task but, thanks to the
simplicity of the game's controls and some helpful hints in the
README document supplied on the disk, you can gradually start to
build your empire and smash the other empires.

To make the game even more playable there are three difficulty
levels (according to the author nobody has completed it on the
hardest level), you can have up to six human opponents plus the
neutral countries and there is a special empire for all you clever
dicks out there. This empire has been given the worst starting
position on the map, a weak army, not much grain and a small
population so, once you're an adept at the easier levels, you can
challenge yourself with this one.

Graphically this game is not a masterpiece with just a simple
political map with arrows showing who's going where etc. but they
do their job adequately.

Sound. Uuurgh, sound. You mean, thump, thump, thump every time two
armies meet and beep, beep whenever you use the menus, don't you?
It is awful. I feel that the author could have made a better
effort on this side with maybe a few sampled voices telling you
you won or lost a war. If this was not possible to squeeze into
512K he should have produced a megabyte version and improved the
game tenfold. (Well, a little bit at least).

Overall a very good game that can seem a bit daunting at first
but, once you've strung a few friends into playing against you,
you'll come to appreciate the finer art of empire building and
enemy smashing.

Get it if you like these kind of games (I certainly do) and you'll
thoroughly enjoy yourself. If you don't or you've never tried one
this may be the perfect start, if you've got patience.