Producer: PSS
Retail Price: £12.95
Author: Rome Software

Nothing less than the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, managed over several centuries and possibly millennia, is the subject of this unusual game from PSS. The game concentrates on simulating the broad sweep of Rome's military conquests in the early stage of the game, then its struggles to keep control of its captured provinces against native uprising and the increasingly likely threat of civil war. Details of individual battles are not gone into, and military decisions are limited to very broad-based movement of units from one country to another. But the player has control over strategic factors influencing political stability and long-term military success, such as the appointment of legates, tribunes and regional commanders, the setting of the tax rate and the option of bribing the army to remain loyal if a revolt seems to be brewing.

Unlike most other games from PSS, Annals of Rome has no arcade element, and does not take place in 'real time'. The enormous timescales involved would make either of these factors ridiculous, but it must be said that having high BASIC content (and being alarmingly easy to break into - on my copy at least) there are parts of the game which are close to being maddeningly slow. It is the kind of highly strategic, abstract game which may not be too affected by a slow processing speed, but the moderately impatient may find that it detracts from playability.

The main map display shows Europe approximately as it was divided at the time of the Romans, rather squashed into a corner by two panel displays. I say approximately because of course the political map of Europe changed regularly from 273BC, when the game starts, and as far as I'm aware it's possible to carry on playing Annals of Rome indefinitely. This is an unavoidable simplification, but it does typify a flaw in the idea behind the game design. There are twenty-eight states, including Italia itself - which you control from the beginning. Possessions of the other powers are shaded in a pattern distinctive to each race, though there is no index or description of these 'fillings' in the manual. The Romans do not have a pattern, and the visual impression created by this is that the Roman conquest of Europe made the continent look a lot tidier! The countries are not identified by name, unless there is no overall ruling power in the area, but a corresponding map in the manual does the job and prevents the screen becoming too cluttered with information. A symbol on each country shows either the military strength established in the area (if it is over 10,000) or the 'code' of the ruling power. An unnecessary complication arises when you start to conquer territories for yourself; Roman forces are displayed in units of 5,000. An over-large message window below the map throws up information in a computer-controlled fashion. The player has no real control over the sequence of play or the accessing of information, but this doesn't make itself felt; the computer-generated sequence is complicated enough.

The game opens with a series of 'football results', which tell the player which powers predominate (and where) in 'the known world circa 273BC.' A detailed breakdown of each country's population is then given, and this information is updated at the beginning of every turn. Most countries are occupied by more than one race, although in normal circumstances only one has any military strength. Every time an army captures a province it brings with it a small core of its own people, which expands if the occupation prospers, or dwindles away if another power captures the territory. Vestigial remains of former occupations have absolutely no effect on the gameplay - the only thing that really matters is the strength of the native population in a nation's homeland, because for several turns after you capture the territory they will be persistently revolting - but it is an interesting touch of authenticity.

The economics phase which follows requires the player to set the tax rate between One and Two. A high tax rate will increase income (and so provide more money to spend on the army, which increases recruitment - I think) but it will also trigger inflation, shrink your population, and make you unpopular. Once the rate is selected the recruitment figures of that game turn are displayed in a confusing manner, and other facts and figures are updated. This phase is rather badly presented and does not merge smoothly with the main body of the game, partly because it is hard to see how the player's participation affects its outcome.

By contrast the next strategy phase is fascinating; the player is presented with a list of twenty-one personnel, all of whom start out in Italia as senators. The senators are individually named in a convincing fashion - although historically Romans had three names, not two - and their age is displayed with two figures which denote their ability, which never changes, and their loyalty, which can fluctuate depending on how they are treated. When more than one territory is controlled, the assignment phase enables the player to transport any number of officers all over the empire, and to change the governors of any province which might be a breeding-ground for rebellion. In the later stages of the game the assignment phase is of the highest strategic importance. Officers with good ability ratings are best saved for leading armies into combat, because loyalty is far more important than ability when it comes to choosing governors. If the popularity rating has fallen below zero, effective organisation of the empire has collapsed and the personnel assignment phase no longer occurs.

If a governor does decide to rebel, and more than one may do so at once, he will rampage across the empire - and, mysteriously, across unconquered territory - towards Rome. Rome has the option of mobilising loyal forces in other territories against the advancing rebels, but unless the rebel army is very weak this is usually a waste of resources. When arriving in Italia a battle is fought between the rebels and the loyal army there, and if the rebels win, their leader is proclaimed Dictator and the player thereafter takes his side. Apparently later in the game an Emperor can arise, though I can't say I've got to that stage yet. Civil war is absolutely devastating, because it wastes army resources and leaves hitherto secure territories without any occupying strength.

The longest and most important phase gives you the opportunity to vacuum-clean Europe in the name of Roman imperialism. Unfortunately this is where the game slows down - the manoeuvres of each territory are handled in turn, and the player has to watch while provinces belonging to enemy powers plod laboriously through their moves one by one. There are twenty-eight countries and the player starts off controlling only one of them; that means about five minutes of watching what the rest of the world is doing. Although it's important to be able to see what other races are up to, the execution of this part of the game is clumsy, unprofessional (especially by PSS's standards) and infuriating. Just a little more speed would have added an edge of playability to the combat phase.

When it is Italia's turn at last, the player is presented with information about his own military strength and those in the territories immediately adjacent. You can move troops into any one adjacent territory in an attempt to capture it, or you can choose to do nothing. There are three types of troop: Legionnaires, the excellent fighting units of the Roman army; Auxiliaries, who are non-Romans acting as support for the legionnaires; and Limitanei, fixed garrison troops who cannot be moved. Auxiliaries and Limitanei are recruited from captured territories. The player starts with a number of legionnaires, who, with a combat value of ten, are at a tremendous advantage compared to all the other armies in the ring. An army has to be led by at least one officer, chosen from a displayed list of personnel. Combat with the army in the territory you are intending to capture is resolved immediately, but represents the outcome of a struggle for power that has gone on during the period of years represented by the game turn. Sometimes, but not often, the conflict remains unresolved until the next game turn. If the Roman forces triumph (as they usually do in the early stages), the province comes under the player's control immediately, and if that country has still to have its turn, there is nothing to stop a march onto territories adjacent to it.

The sequence in which the countries move is random, but it determines the structure of play. If, for example, you march 30,000 legionnaires into Alpes in the first turn, whether or not you can proceed to capture Gallia in the same turn depends on whether Alpes has had its turn. It's therefore possible to capture several territories in the first turn, or possibly only one. This artificial limitation is unrealistic, considering that some of the game turns last twenty-five years, there is clearly no reason why troops could not march onwards without restriction if the way is clear. Something of this sort happens in the civil war phase, and although it would have required more thought to make flexible movement work in the combat phase, planning campaigns would have been easier and the game would feel less abstract.

Annals of Rome comes substantially packaged in PSS's usual laudable style, though the cover art is excruciating. And although the instruction manual contains the sort of 'game-mechanics' information that I would like to see more of, it is organised in a most unhelpful manner. Well-written and authoritive background adds immensely to the atmosphere of a wargame, which has after all, to compromise on its on-screen appearance. Annals of Rome shows no sign of lack of research or absence of a feel for the historical period, so it is disappointing that the authors don't share their knowledge with us in the manual.

I must say that I like this game very much, despite its faults of presentation and the painful slowness of the combat phase. There is something in the idea of recreating the entire sweep of Roman history that captures the imagination, and vacuuming Europe at the start of the game is very satisfying indeed. But I suspect that later on it becomes impossibly frustrating, as hordes and hordes of technologically advanced Goths and Vandals and Huns steamroll your legions in ridiculous numbers, no matter how well you play. It is a game that ultimately, you can't win.

PSS
£12.95

Friends, Romans, Countrymen! Lend me your Speccy! I've come to tell you the story of Rome, and how it became the ruler of the world and then went into a decline. Your job as Biggus Bossius (Biggus what? Ed) is to last as long as you can in the face of marauding Gauls, Goths, Vandals, Carthaginians and 33 other battling barbarians, as well as the odd cynical senator intent on Civil War.

The game starts in 273BC and lasts as long as you do. There's an average of four turns to every century, so don't be surprised if your games comes to an abrupt end - a lot can happen in 25 years you know! You get a 16 page booklet which is supposed to help you, though the amount of help it gives is debatable, and it's not the clearest thing I've ever clapped eyes on.

The game, unfortunately, is programmed in that most ancient of languages, Slowius Basicus, which means that it takes an age to play and crashes regularly. It's got a very messy screen display, and frankly, I found it fairly incomprehensible and terribly confusing. There's a moral note at the end of the booklet where it says that the most important lesson learned by the author is the ultimate futility of imperialism. Well, that may be so, but I'd have thought the ultimate lesson to be learnt is how to make a game of this type interesting and fun! Definitely one for those who're completely obsessed by war games!

Spectrum, £12.95cs
C64/128, £12.95cs, £17.95dk
Amstrad, £12.95cs, £17.95dk
Atari ST £24.95dk

A biggie this one. It starts in the year 273 B.C. and can continue indefinitely as the player struggles to keep his ever-expanding empire together whilst under threat from up to 13 hostile powers. Each game turn covers a period from one to 25 years and is composed of several sub-sections which allow the player to make strategic decisions concerning economics, personnel assignments and foreign or civil wars.

There is so much to this game that it will take you a long time to get to grips with it, but it is well worth persevering with because the amount of available options makes it very involving to play and no two games will ever be exactly the same. For the solo wargamer it's a must, but prepare yourself for long involved sessions. Thankfully the SAVE GAME option is available at the start of each turn, so you can carry on with the campaign whenever you have the time to spare.

MACHINE: Spectrum, Amstrad, CBM 64, Atari, IBM
SUPPLIER: PSS
PRICE: £12.95

The ancient world believed that every city had its gods watching over its fortunes, and surely no city ever had better gods than Rome. From 273 BC, when it had no more than shaky control of Italy, the Roman republic expanded into a mighty empire, the last vestige of which, the city of Constantinople, finally fell in 1453 AD, 1,726 years later.

The best way to describe the single player's role in this exciting and unusual game is that of the city's gods, overseeing its fortunes.

The known world of ancient times is shown as a map centred on the Mediterranean and split into 28 separate areas, each with its own population and possibly a ruling power controlling it.

Moves are of variable length, depending on how much is happening, but average at about eight a century. The player must control the careers of the senators of Rome, deciding which to assign to which task of protecting and expanding the city's rule.

This is not a case of separate battles but out of ten or 20 year struggles in which great leaders rise to prominence, grow old, and retire or die in battle.

New threats appear on the frontier or ambitious legates rise in revolt.

Books and epics could be written about this game. Over such a timespan individual effort shrinks to nothing, and it is the city itself which becomes the game's only hero.

This is an excellent game for the strategist, and could easily be used to teach the basics of political theory it is not fast.

The play of even three or four moves takes about two hours, with the computer cycling between provinces to determine the consequences of your decisions.

It is realistic in the sense that most rulers spent a lot of time looking at the map and worrying, but it can get very dull.

The game has no actual endpoint, the player decides when to stop if the empire has fallen and he sees no future in continuing.

The game has also two drawbacks when it comes to actual play. The instruction booklet, while giving a general outline of the game, does not actually explain which keys to press and what the symbols on the screen mean, and the player must work this out for himself.

Don't be put off by the artwork on the box, which shows the ugliest Roman I have ever seen.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.95, Diskette: £14.95

ALL THIS AND BARBARIANS TOO

Like the Amiga version of Power Struggle, Annals Of Rome is another conversion of a PSS strategy game already available on the 8-bit machines. Further conversions are planned for Battlefield Germany, Firezone, Final Frontier and Fortress America. Annals Of Rome was designed by Dr George Jaroskiewitz, an expert on Rome.

Take command of what was once the greatest Empire in the known world, the Roman Civilisation, spread its influence through Europe and avoid the inevitable collapse and sacking by the barbarians around the continent.

The main display is taken up by a map of the European continent made up of 28 regions with the heart of the Empire - Italy - taking centre stage.

At the start of the turn, your position can be saved to disk, a new game started or old game loaded in. The first phase in the turn is to set up an economic plan. A tax rate must be set up for the turn, increasing the treasury coffers - this also leads to inflation and lack of popularity.

The personnel phase follows with 21 commanders controlling the military forces of the Empire. Each officer has a loyalty and ability rating and a ranking from Senator up to Commander level. Commanders have an army. As each turn is up to 25 years in length, officers come and go.

Trust and loyalty are secondary to gaining power in the Roman Empire. If the leadership is unpopular, rebellion occurs throughout the ranks; commanding officers and their armies may even march on Rome itself to try and establish a dictatorship of their own. Armies bribed to remain loyal to the Emperor proves costly for the treasury.

Civil wars can erupt, officers starting rebellions against the Empire if the regime's popularity is low. Rebels and Loyalists to the Empire fight amongst each other. Rebel victories can pave the way to the conquest of Rome itself, drawn out civil wars lead to large scale unpopularity and a greater chance of rebellion in the further regions. If a rebel army reaches Rome, the leader takes over as Ruler of Rome. A new popularity rating is given and play continues but under new imperial leaders. Control can be changed by initiating further civil war although the resulting change could be for the worse. Following civil wars comes the final phase of foreign wars.

Around the European continent lie the barbarians: Gauls, Carthaginians, Macedonians, Celts, Goths, Numidians and more, all intent on seeing Rome burn and their own territories expand. While the Roman Empire grows, the barbarians also take control of countries, move their forces and fight battles. While not a collective band fighting as one against the Romans, the barbarians are a formidable threat because of their sheer numbers.

Annals Of Rome certainly provokes thought and questions, particularly as to how Rome survived so long with the threat of barbarian attacks all around.

Considenng the game's potential depth, player interaction is limited. At times the player watches the action unfold and can do nothing. Disappointing, considering the Amiga potential.

STRATEGIC THINKING

CPC464/6128, Spectrum, PCW, PC, CBM46, ST
Publisher: PSS

Do you dream or world domination? This is your chance to control the destiny of the entire known world. O.K. so back in 273BC the known world wasn't all that big, but there's enough to be getting along with. The Annals of Home puts you in the driving seat of one of the most successful imperial powers ever. The Romans controlled the entire coast of the Mediterranean and a great deal of Europe into the bargain for hundreds of years. It makes the British Empire seem a bit of a storm in a teacup.

At the start of the game, Rome consists of Italy surrounded by bigger nations with bigger armies. Your aim is to conquer as much territory as possible and hold it. Each turn is a random number of years long and no matter what the length, consists of a number of phases. The economics phase is largely automatic; the player can only choose the tax rate. The higher this is, the more money rolls into the old coffers, but harsh taxation will also decrease your popularity rating, inflation will rise and population growth may be stunted due to hardships. The computer works out which player controls which areas, population changes, revenue and armies for all the nations - Rome and the other races controlled by the computer.

LOYALTY

After this, the player can redistribute his 21 Senators and Commanders. Each of these has a military ability, loyalty and age. They can be moved around and given command of the various Roman forces dotted about. However, the older a commander is, and the lower his loyally rating, the more likely he is to rebel and try to use his army to depose the current leadership. This is especially dangerous if you give him a large army. But, if there's enough money in the coffers, you can try to bribe the legionnaires to ignore their commander and remain loyal.

If you have failed, the Civil War phase comes next. There can, if the present regime is particularly unpopular, be several different rebel factions. The computer controls all the rebel factions and you control the remaining loyal legions. If the rebels take Italy then they overthrow the government and install a new man.

Finally we come to the important bit - beating up the Barbarians. There are no less than 37 races of people intent on upsetting the Pax Romana. Fortunately, the 18 page rule book tells you where and when they are due to turn up. The map consists of 28 separate areas. If an area is controlled by Barbarians, the computer begins the attack. If it is a Roman controlled area, the computer checks that the Roman force has a commander assigned to it and then asks the player to select a neighbouring area to be attacked.

After all areas have had the chance to attack, play moves on to the next round. To score as many points as possible you must take areas and hold them.

I found this an absorbing, if rather long-winded game. Playing the whole thing right through to the bitter end is a truly mammoth undertaking. Some conversions play faster than others, but in just about all versions, the combat phase is irritatingly slow. If you are patient, the game amply rewards perseverance: there are so many factors to be finely judged. Particularly critical is the popularity rating.

Popularity takes a nose dive if the Barbarians successfully conquer a Roman controlled area or if too many Roman commanders or legions bite the bullet. It pays to be cautious - especially in the early years when the Carthaginians can really hurl the Romans (ie the 2nd Punic War). Rebellions are very annoying. At the very least, your legions will end up in the wrong positions, at the very worst, the army can very nearly tear itself apart.

REBELLION

If popularity drops below zero (on a scale of five to minus five) the player can no longer move commanders around. But the good thing about rebellions is that no matter who wins, the player controls the new regime. It is often a good idea to foment rebellion. This is easy; simply demote a commander and put someone really unpopular in charge in Rome. After a successful rebellion, the new regime will have a popularity rating between zero and five. On the other hand, if the old emperor simply kicks the bucket then the new regime will have a completely random popularity.

Once the whole map is under Roman control, the only two problems are invasions and rebellions. If a Barbarian race's home area (ie Gaul for the Gauls) is conquered - and their population level is not zero, then there may he a rebellion so it pays to garrison such areas securely. In time, an occupied race will die out; but it is not unusual to have people from three or four races living in an area. Invasions are similar except these come from outside the area of the map.

Things go relatively smoothly until the Goths, Vandals and Huns turn up around 400AD. Not only are there a lot of them, but they are also high quality troops. From this point the Roman player is just postponing the inevitable. Rome will eventually fall, although the Roman player can relocate his capital - usually to Turkey (representing the founding of Byzantium and the largely Independent Eastern Roman Empire which was formed in 300AD to ease administration). It is then a question of trying to defend this area and hoping the other nations get stuck into each other rather than attacking you. If you are interested in this period of history you may well find this a very absorbing game. However, its lack of speed means that it probably will not appeal to the casual game player who is not prepared to devote hours toil.

PEDIGREE

Robert Smith has been preeminent amongst Spectrum wargame authors for some time, he established his pedigree with Arnhem, confirmed it with Desert Rats and has further reinforced it with Vulcan. The game depicts the Tunisian campaign of 1942/43, which has not been exactly a popular subject for wargames; this is apparently the first time it has received attention on computers or board games. Hardly surprising, as the battle was rather one sided. The German army was bottled up around Tunis with their backs to a Mediterranean increasingly under allied control from air bases on Malta.

The terrain does little to excite the imagination; the campaign slogged through the muddy winter in the mountains with little room for manouevre. Why Mr. Smith picked such an unpromising campaign is totally beyond me. Perhaps D-Day or that perennial favourite the Ardennes campaign might have been a more fertile choice.

Despite this, I enjoyed this game. Anyone familiar with the two previous games will pick this one up very quickly. The large map scrolls in four directions showing the positions of the forces. Each player gets a chance to command each unit in turn. There are several commands: move, travel, divide, report, assault, reveal and skip. To move a unit, the joystick is moved and the fire button is pressed. The unit will then attempt to move as far as possible towards this position. A travel order is similar except that the position indicated must be on a road and the unit itself must be on a road. 'Divide' allows a unit to break down into its constituent smaller units.

The report order shows the current status of a unit. It's important to know what all the numbers on this report mean. Each unit has a basic strength which simply represents the number of men in the formation. The effectiveness rating reflects the fatigue of a unit it is reduced by combat and recovers if a unit rests. The current state of the unit's supply is shown and this reveals not only how much supply the unit is carrying with it, but also whether it is currently in a position to receive supplies.

If a unit is fortified, the status report will show how strong these fortifications are. A stacking rating shows how compact the unit is - each location of the map can take a certain value of stacking points and this number reveals how much of this allowance this unit uses up. Each unit also has an AMM rating which remains constant and reflects the unit's level of equipment and training (ie low for Italian infantry, high for the good old Afrika korps).

EXPENSIVE

The assault order is similar to a movement order, except that the unit will attack anything it meets - this is more expensive in terms of casualties and supplies. The reveal order allows the player to see what terrain is under a unit and the skip order allows the player to leave that unit where it is for the moment and come back to it later.

So far this is all old hat to Desert Rats fans. But the new bells and whistles that have been bolted on to the basic system add a new dimension to the game. An enemy unit not adjacent to a friendly unit is not displayed on the map. This allows players to spring surprises on their opponent and stops the game becoming a sluggish match. Both players will find themselves hoarding reserves. This allows them to attack suddenly and respond to enemy moves. This is emphasised by the lack of roads and the difficulty of moving units across mountains. Thus reserves sit at road junctions ready to move to the scene of the action.

The other innovation is the introduction of air units. These can either act like flying artillery or perform a recce role. While tills won't reveal the composition of enemy units, it'll reveal their location. These factors combined with weather, supply and effectiveness lead to a realistic stop-go sort of campaign. When an offensive bogs down, the wise player will stop, dig in the infantry, stick his armour in reserve, allow his units to recover effectiveness and hoard supplies. Then, through reconaissance, he will try to launch an offensive where he thinks the enemy is weakest. Part and parcel of this will be the use of feints to try and draw off enemy reserves before the main blow falls - and just hope that the good weather holds - a sudden downpour can stop a breakthrough in its tracks.

WALKOVER

The only trouble is that all this subtlety is rather lost on the poor old computer. The one player game is usually a total walkover. It's a good way to learn the game, but after you've thrashed it on every scenario, you'll be looking around for a fellow human being to practice your newly acquired skills on. Another annoying niggle is that even when you are fighting a unit, it is not identified. Some idea of its strength can be gained but that's about it.

It is not clear how hich of the four bits of terrain that a unit is sitting on actually affects combat and movement. Despite the way smooth way the supply rules work, there are times when they don't quite come off. If a unit is hopelessly surrounded there is plenty of time to get it out as stationary units do not use any supplies, unless attacked-which doesn't use up that much.

Reducing enemy pockets is a painful business, although if a unit runs out of supply altogether, it's demise is swift. The Spectrum 128 version has few added facilities. You can restart a game without reloading from tape, and there is an option to show the number of troops and tanks presently on each side and the number each side has lost.

Robert Smith is still streets ahead of the opposition in this field, and I will await his next game with eagerness - perhaps something a little less obscure next time - please?