10-23-2007, 01:12 AM
Fall of Rome
Lord Thanatos, aka RICK GHAN, cheers his opportunity to be crowned Emperor ...
OUR SPIRITS soar upon learning of the valiant deeds of King Arthur and his mighty knights. Our imagination takes flight contemplating the heroism of Beowulf. And, ah, the possibilities we consider when remembering the power and brutality of Attila the Hun. Each of us yearns for such exciting, consequential lives!
In the secret depths of our being we believe that the glorious legends would echo our own names through eternity if we had just been born in more exciting, fearful times. While some consider history mundane, all of humanity thrills at the daring exploits of its legendary figures. 'Ah, to be king!' We have all dreamed of the possibilities - may as well admit it.
The opportunity to become the persona of some of history's greatest commanders, leading their subjects in both prosperity and conflict while subjugating neighboring countries after crushing their armies and toppling their towns is now upon us. Fall of Rome is a brand new turn-based, computer-moderated, highly detailed strategy game from the fertile mind of Rick McDowell, the creator of the multiple award winning Alamaze PBM game.
Fall of Rome has just completed its Alpha and Beta testing phase. Flagship customers will be among the first to play this exciting, highly interactive, turn-based strategy game online. (After you finish reading this article rush online and check out the wonderful gaming features and stunning artwork.) The intuitive graphical user interface combined with artwork by both Brom and Frazetta allow one to enjoy the gaming experience offered from the first moment the web site loads. Truly a fantasy gamer's dream made reality!
Fall of Rome is set just after the majestic Roman Empire tears itself apart. This is a time of great political upheaval that gave rise to legendary actors and heroic deeds. The game setting has been extensively researched and surpasses the most stringent historian's expectations. The names of regions, cities, towns and characters are authentic for the era and the kingdoms are equipped with the appropriate troops with which the various tribes and heroes historically conquered their enemies. Will we be as successful? Have we dreamed of commanding armies in the pursuit of wealth, power, or peace? Fall of Rome combines exacting historical detail with an intuitive interface designed by our fellow gamers. History awaits: will we measure up?
Multiple award-winning game designer Rick McDowell (who made his mark as Senior Vice President at Blockbuster before leaving the corporate arena to focus his efforts full-time on game design) has attracted a talented team to bring us Fall of Rome, including Fletcher Dunn, author of the book 3D Math Primer for Games and Graphic Development and lead software engineer for titles on all major gaming platforms (PC, Mac, Playstation II, Xbox, and GameCube). This technical expertise has seamlessly melded historical accuracy, the inherent complexity of turn-based strategy, with a easy-to-use computer interface and brilliant artwork to provide a level of gaming that will exceed every expectation.
Logging on to http://www.fallofromegame.com, we feel welcome from the first moment our web browser loads the opening video and soul-stirring music, which bring us to a crescendo of delight and fuels our expectations. Fall of Rome will more then meet those high expectations. Customers of Flagship are accustomed to the best in gaming and Fall of Rome will not disappoint.
First decisions
Each kingdom has an advantage built into the gaming format that is based on an historically accurate faucet formerly enjoyed by the tribe in real life. Armed with this advantage, and the appropriate fear our neighbors will have of us, we will issue orders to agents, nobles, military commanders, high priestesses, and peasants in our cities, towns, and villages to carry out our will. Competing against eleven other players on a regional map containing population centers of various sizes and unexplored areas containing fearsome guardians of legendary artifacts, imposing our will beyond the borders of our own kingdom is the most challenging aspect of Fall of Rome. Fail in this and our names will never be remembered: succeed and our names will be written in the Halls of Valhalla forevermore! There are status points to be garnered from victory that will be kept track of so that the Hall of Valhalla shall become a bragging-rights area that will make our own names famous within the gaming community!
Covert operations are quite important and agents can eventually become the most feared of all character classes. That is provided we don't needlessly waste these resources for early-game goals that are all too fleeting. How one balances the desire to use a low- or mid-level agent to prevent a neighbor from attaining an objective against the necessity and required expense of training agents to a fearsome high-level can easily determine one's fate. Miscalculate here and we can be crushed late in the contest, or eliminated early on. Only by skillfully walking the strategic tightrope will our kingdom rise to the pinnacle of success and claim our rightful victory!
Nobles wield great influence on behalf of their king. Keep the noble court happy and they will spread word of our daring exploits throughout all the realms. Skimp on the expensive nobles and face a deaf-ear from the rabble in cities. We must adequately fund the noble court, from the Crown Prince to the lowly ambassador, if we desire foreign kings and their hard-working peasants to learn of our grand accomplishments. After all, what value is there in great deeds without an adoring public to sing our praises?
Military leaders throughout our kingdom demand more recruits, mercenary units, and greater training every turn. This all requires great sums of gold and supplies. Woe to the king who dares risk the wrath of his generals should the military not be paid commensurate with its skill and loyalty! Our armies will subjugate our enemies and conquer rich lands in our name, provided we don't spend our wealth in frivolous pursuits. But what fun is that? Ah, the weight of responsibility. Are we truly meant to be a legendary king? One of the twelve players is: will it be us?
Once we own the land and command the love (or fear) of the peasants, we must build temples to the gods, taverns for the populace, markets for the merchants, storage silos for the winter, and monuments to our own enlightened rule. Future historians will not learn of our legendary deeds unless there are great monuments built to outlast the petty memory of mortal men. Where will these funds come from? Our enemies, of course! Thus we must conquer those around us.
War
Battle is, therefore, inevitable. Fall of Rome provides a great range of tactical choices when enemy armies meet in a clash of arms. The morale of our troops, the skill of our commanders, the quality of our arms/armor/mounts, the attrition remaining from previous battles, the composition of our units, the experience of our troops, and the orders we issue all impact the results of battle. This aspect of Fall of Rome is not being overstated. Each one of these items is taken into account by the detailed simulation system. There is a depth to military conflict that is unequaled in any other strategic game presently available. A range of defensive orders such as hold at all costs, strategic withdrawal, or counter-assault each have particular requirements in the way of command level, morale, troop skill and terrain before the order can be issued. So too are there requirements for offensive orders such as hunt, flank, oblique, frontal assault and others. A skilled player can lure an enemy into unfavorable terrain and crush a much larger force. Alternatively, a less thoughtful tactical decision can result in ruin for the lives of our soldiers. We must rise to the challenge or fall in anonymity: such a fate is worse than death. The bards must eternally sing our names!
The battle reports generated when our legions crush those raised by the pretenders to our throne are marvelous in both detail and spirit. Our leaders' actions are described, the impact our unique troops or equipment have on the battle field are related to us, the terrain and its affect upon the battle are written in the report, and the offensive and defensive effect of artifacts are made clear. The battle reports are almost like short stories made from eye-witness accounts. Just short of achieving the historical significance found within the ballads to be sung by the King's Bards these written reports are majestic in scope and truly convey a sense of victorious elation - or devastating defeat.
Artifacts, thought lost to the world forever, impact many aspects of the game and are avidly sought by every king. The Holy Grail, the Spear of Odin, and the Bow of Heracles are just a few of the kingly artifacts contained in Fall of Rome. One must discover these powerful items, or steal them from pretenders to the throne, if for no other reason than to keep them away from one's enemies. Artifacts are few and difficult to retrieve, but generate great power to the king who controls them. Yet, be careful not to seek them with too much avarice or the rest of the kingdom will fail because of inattentiveness. We can certainly balance all the complexities of rulership and can make certain that the other players fail in their goals: remember that the victors write the histories!
Submitting orders
Although we have always wanted to be mighty leaders and warriors of great renown, we assume these that titles imply lackeys, servants, craftsmen, etc to carry out our wishes (orders, actually). In Fall of Rome we will be able to submit an average of about fifteen to twenty-five orders every turn - depending upon how skillfully we act upon the sage advice we receive. The player interface program which accepts our orders has been thoroughly debugged and tailored to eliminate over 90% of potential errors. Those orders which are apparently 'errors' but 'might' be proper depending upon events early in the turn are allowed to be entered, but a warning message is provided. Great effort has gone into making as certain as possible that we kings are saved from any embarrassment that might result from failed orders. This also means the royal executioner remains available to fulfill our commands, instead of having to work daily to eliminate those who failed in their duties to their king.
All turns are processed via computer every 72 hours. This allows you to select the most convenient time to review your turn results and enter your next orders. Midnight, noon, 6:03 am, etc are all accommodated equally via the web browser. No having to worry about scrambling to enter orders when one's allies are online. Every kingdom's orders are processed simultaneously and the results are available for viewing within minutes of when the turn is processed. No lengthy delays (the bane of all avid PBM gamers) makes this contest truly inspiring. There is also quite detailed information available online regarding the turn sequence and other formulas (in descriptive text) that explain how various orders interact so that the first-time player will not find himself at a technical disadvantage.
Understanding the turn sequence is an essential element of success. By the time our noble court performs its duties the realm may have changed, even changed significantly, due to military actions, agent activities and economic matters. As a general example, battles occur before movement and agent actions occur before political activities. Thus, we must gather information carefully and make wise determinations as to likely occurrences that will affect our desired strategy. This element enables the skilled player to rise to the top of the contest. The advanced contests held between players who have all played in previous games are truly competitive and require a great deal of brilliant decrees. Of course, we kings-to-be would want it no other way!
Strategy
No single strategy dominates the game. Diverse play styles all have an opportunity for success. There is a standard victory available for a king to be declared The Rex by conquering and defending for a few turns three complete regions. This is a difficult accomplishment among skilled players and when achieved entitles the victor to lord over his fallen foes for quite a while. The Halls of Valhalla shall sing of these mighty deeds forever! Additionally, there are three secret victory conditions available which stress military, covert, or political emphasis. Any one of these three victory conditions can be chosen by the twelve players in each contest (before turn three). Therefore, whether our kingdom is to become a shadowy realm filled with sharp-eyed, clever assassins living in fear of our wrath, or a light-filled airy realm consisting of happy, enthusiastic politicians and avid scholars is determined by the decrees we issue - and the unequaled might of our legions, of course.
The game lasts a set number of turns (24 enjoyable, complex, strategic turns) and requires no lengthy build-up period. Each player begins the contest with the tools to immediately rise to rulership, become a Kingmaker, or simply protect what we begin with. However we elect to play it, the contest will end upon the completion of turn 24 if nobody has claimed victory before then. At this point the victor is determined via 'The Lion's Share' calculation. Status points are accumulated every six turns and are worth double on the final turn of the contest. Whoever gains the most, 'The Lion's Share', will be declared the victor. Victory, however achieved, is indeed a sweet, sweet wine!
Fall of Rome is a fast-paced contest where every turn, nay every order actually, is an intensely important and exciting brick in building the road to our throne. Every turn we must react to the edicts and accomplishments of our neighbors. They, of course, must react to ours as well. While it is true that the foolish bumbling of our neighbors is not ever going to be a threat to us, it is equally true that one can hardly wait each turn to observe how much closer we have come to realizing our dream of absolute power!
This is a game to be savored for its attention to detail in the minutiae of each turn as well as for its sweeping simplicity in portraying the strategic advances we have made over the course of the contest. There are three levels of maps available to us, which display the global expansions of the kingdoms, the strategic/tactical level upon which our armies and characters move, and the operational level describing the construction of defenses, markets, storehouses, etc of each of our individual population centers. We also have the ability to access all of our previous turns so that information is never lost and we can share with all of our real life friends the obviously inspired decisions that have led to our present triumphs. Ah, the adulation of the multitudes is truly our right!
Fall of Rome is a thrilling and complex strategy game sure to challenge the most avid gamer. We need only a web browser and a desire to crush our competition. Look for the avatar of Lord Thanatos on the message boards and within the game to test one's mettle. Which of us will have our names ring throughout history in awe and envy?
Fall of Rome at a glance
A turn based fantasy wargame with an historical setting, played online from Enlightened Age Entertainment, Inc. Price $6.47 for the first month of play.
Lord Thanatos, aka RICK GHAN, cheers his opportunity to be crowned Emperor ...
OUR SPIRITS soar upon learning of the valiant deeds of King Arthur and his mighty knights. Our imagination takes flight contemplating the heroism of Beowulf. And, ah, the possibilities we consider when remembering the power and brutality of Attila the Hun. Each of us yearns for such exciting, consequential lives!
In the secret depths of our being we believe that the glorious legends would echo our own names through eternity if we had just been born in more exciting, fearful times. While some consider history mundane, all of humanity thrills at the daring exploits of its legendary figures. 'Ah, to be king!' We have all dreamed of the possibilities - may as well admit it.
The opportunity to become the persona of some of history's greatest commanders, leading their subjects in both prosperity and conflict while subjugating neighboring countries after crushing their armies and toppling their towns is now upon us. Fall of Rome is a brand new turn-based, computer-moderated, highly detailed strategy game from the fertile mind of Rick McDowell, the creator of the multiple award winning Alamaze PBM game.
Fall of Rome has just completed its Alpha and Beta testing phase. Flagship customers will be among the first to play this exciting, highly interactive, turn-based strategy game online. (After you finish reading this article rush online and check out the wonderful gaming features and stunning artwork.) The intuitive graphical user interface combined with artwork by both Brom and Frazetta allow one to enjoy the gaming experience offered from the first moment the web site loads. Truly a fantasy gamer's dream made reality!
Fall of Rome is set just after the majestic Roman Empire tears itself apart. This is a time of great political upheaval that gave rise to legendary actors and heroic deeds. The game setting has been extensively researched and surpasses the most stringent historian's expectations. The names of regions, cities, towns and characters are authentic for the era and the kingdoms are equipped with the appropriate troops with which the various tribes and heroes historically conquered their enemies. Will we be as successful? Have we dreamed of commanding armies in the pursuit of wealth, power, or peace? Fall of Rome combines exacting historical detail with an intuitive interface designed by our fellow gamers. History awaits: will we measure up?
Multiple award-winning game designer Rick McDowell (who made his mark as Senior Vice President at Blockbuster before leaving the corporate arena to focus his efforts full-time on game design) has attracted a talented team to bring us Fall of Rome, including Fletcher Dunn, author of the book 3D Math Primer for Games and Graphic Development and lead software engineer for titles on all major gaming platforms (PC, Mac, Playstation II, Xbox, and GameCube). This technical expertise has seamlessly melded historical accuracy, the inherent complexity of turn-based strategy, with a easy-to-use computer interface and brilliant artwork to provide a level of gaming that will exceed every expectation.
Logging on to http://www.fallofromegame.com, we feel welcome from the first moment our web browser loads the opening video and soul-stirring music, which bring us to a crescendo of delight and fuels our expectations. Fall of Rome will more then meet those high expectations. Customers of Flagship are accustomed to the best in gaming and Fall of Rome will not disappoint.
First decisions
Each kingdom has an advantage built into the gaming format that is based on an historically accurate faucet formerly enjoyed by the tribe in real life. Armed with this advantage, and the appropriate fear our neighbors will have of us, we will issue orders to agents, nobles, military commanders, high priestesses, and peasants in our cities, towns, and villages to carry out our will. Competing against eleven other players on a regional map containing population centers of various sizes and unexplored areas containing fearsome guardians of legendary artifacts, imposing our will beyond the borders of our own kingdom is the most challenging aspect of Fall of Rome. Fail in this and our names will never be remembered: succeed and our names will be written in the Halls of Valhalla forevermore! There are status points to be garnered from victory that will be kept track of so that the Hall of Valhalla shall become a bragging-rights area that will make our own names famous within the gaming community!
Covert operations are quite important and agents can eventually become the most feared of all character classes. That is provided we don't needlessly waste these resources for early-game goals that are all too fleeting. How one balances the desire to use a low- or mid-level agent to prevent a neighbor from attaining an objective against the necessity and required expense of training agents to a fearsome high-level can easily determine one's fate. Miscalculate here and we can be crushed late in the contest, or eliminated early on. Only by skillfully walking the strategic tightrope will our kingdom rise to the pinnacle of success and claim our rightful victory!
Nobles wield great influence on behalf of their king. Keep the noble court happy and they will spread word of our daring exploits throughout all the realms. Skimp on the expensive nobles and face a deaf-ear from the rabble in cities. We must adequately fund the noble court, from the Crown Prince to the lowly ambassador, if we desire foreign kings and their hard-working peasants to learn of our grand accomplishments. After all, what value is there in great deeds without an adoring public to sing our praises?
Military leaders throughout our kingdom demand more recruits, mercenary units, and greater training every turn. This all requires great sums of gold and supplies. Woe to the king who dares risk the wrath of his generals should the military not be paid commensurate with its skill and loyalty! Our armies will subjugate our enemies and conquer rich lands in our name, provided we don't spend our wealth in frivolous pursuits. But what fun is that? Ah, the weight of responsibility. Are we truly meant to be a legendary king? One of the twelve players is: will it be us?
Once we own the land and command the love (or fear) of the peasants, we must build temples to the gods, taverns for the populace, markets for the merchants, storage silos for the winter, and monuments to our own enlightened rule. Future historians will not learn of our legendary deeds unless there are great monuments built to outlast the petty memory of mortal men. Where will these funds come from? Our enemies, of course! Thus we must conquer those around us.
War
Battle is, therefore, inevitable. Fall of Rome provides a great range of tactical choices when enemy armies meet in a clash of arms. The morale of our troops, the skill of our commanders, the quality of our arms/armor/mounts, the attrition remaining from previous battles, the composition of our units, the experience of our troops, and the orders we issue all impact the results of battle. This aspect of Fall of Rome is not being overstated. Each one of these items is taken into account by the detailed simulation system. There is a depth to military conflict that is unequaled in any other strategic game presently available. A range of defensive orders such as hold at all costs, strategic withdrawal, or counter-assault each have particular requirements in the way of command level, morale, troop skill and terrain before the order can be issued. So too are there requirements for offensive orders such as hunt, flank, oblique, frontal assault and others. A skilled player can lure an enemy into unfavorable terrain and crush a much larger force. Alternatively, a less thoughtful tactical decision can result in ruin for the lives of our soldiers. We must rise to the challenge or fall in anonymity: such a fate is worse than death. The bards must eternally sing our names!
The battle reports generated when our legions crush those raised by the pretenders to our throne are marvelous in both detail and spirit. Our leaders' actions are described, the impact our unique troops or equipment have on the battle field are related to us, the terrain and its affect upon the battle are written in the report, and the offensive and defensive effect of artifacts are made clear. The battle reports are almost like short stories made from eye-witness accounts. Just short of achieving the historical significance found within the ballads to be sung by the King's Bards these written reports are majestic in scope and truly convey a sense of victorious elation - or devastating defeat.
Artifacts, thought lost to the world forever, impact many aspects of the game and are avidly sought by every king. The Holy Grail, the Spear of Odin, and the Bow of Heracles are just a few of the kingly artifacts contained in Fall of Rome. One must discover these powerful items, or steal them from pretenders to the throne, if for no other reason than to keep them away from one's enemies. Artifacts are few and difficult to retrieve, but generate great power to the king who controls them. Yet, be careful not to seek them with too much avarice or the rest of the kingdom will fail because of inattentiveness. We can certainly balance all the complexities of rulership and can make certain that the other players fail in their goals: remember that the victors write the histories!
Submitting orders
Although we have always wanted to be mighty leaders and warriors of great renown, we assume these that titles imply lackeys, servants, craftsmen, etc to carry out our wishes (orders, actually). In Fall of Rome we will be able to submit an average of about fifteen to twenty-five orders every turn - depending upon how skillfully we act upon the sage advice we receive. The player interface program which accepts our orders has been thoroughly debugged and tailored to eliminate over 90% of potential errors. Those orders which are apparently 'errors' but 'might' be proper depending upon events early in the turn are allowed to be entered, but a warning message is provided. Great effort has gone into making as certain as possible that we kings are saved from any embarrassment that might result from failed orders. This also means the royal executioner remains available to fulfill our commands, instead of having to work daily to eliminate those who failed in their duties to their king.
All turns are processed via computer every 72 hours. This allows you to select the most convenient time to review your turn results and enter your next orders. Midnight, noon, 6:03 am, etc are all accommodated equally via the web browser. No having to worry about scrambling to enter orders when one's allies are online. Every kingdom's orders are processed simultaneously and the results are available for viewing within minutes of when the turn is processed. No lengthy delays (the bane of all avid PBM gamers) makes this contest truly inspiring. There is also quite detailed information available online regarding the turn sequence and other formulas (in descriptive text) that explain how various orders interact so that the first-time player will not find himself at a technical disadvantage.
Understanding the turn sequence is an essential element of success. By the time our noble court performs its duties the realm may have changed, even changed significantly, due to military actions, agent activities and economic matters. As a general example, battles occur before movement and agent actions occur before political activities. Thus, we must gather information carefully and make wise determinations as to likely occurrences that will affect our desired strategy. This element enables the skilled player to rise to the top of the contest. The advanced contests held between players who have all played in previous games are truly competitive and require a great deal of brilliant decrees. Of course, we kings-to-be would want it no other way!
Strategy
No single strategy dominates the game. Diverse play styles all have an opportunity for success. There is a standard victory available for a king to be declared The Rex by conquering and defending for a few turns three complete regions. This is a difficult accomplishment among skilled players and when achieved entitles the victor to lord over his fallen foes for quite a while. The Halls of Valhalla shall sing of these mighty deeds forever! Additionally, there are three secret victory conditions available which stress military, covert, or political emphasis. Any one of these three victory conditions can be chosen by the twelve players in each contest (before turn three). Therefore, whether our kingdom is to become a shadowy realm filled with sharp-eyed, clever assassins living in fear of our wrath, or a light-filled airy realm consisting of happy, enthusiastic politicians and avid scholars is determined by the decrees we issue - and the unequaled might of our legions, of course.
The game lasts a set number of turns (24 enjoyable, complex, strategic turns) and requires no lengthy build-up period. Each player begins the contest with the tools to immediately rise to rulership, become a Kingmaker, or simply protect what we begin with. However we elect to play it, the contest will end upon the completion of turn 24 if nobody has claimed victory before then. At this point the victor is determined via 'The Lion's Share' calculation. Status points are accumulated every six turns and are worth double on the final turn of the contest. Whoever gains the most, 'The Lion's Share', will be declared the victor. Victory, however achieved, is indeed a sweet, sweet wine!
Fall of Rome is a fast-paced contest where every turn, nay every order actually, is an intensely important and exciting brick in building the road to our throne. Every turn we must react to the edicts and accomplishments of our neighbors. They, of course, must react to ours as well. While it is true that the foolish bumbling of our neighbors is not ever going to be a threat to us, it is equally true that one can hardly wait each turn to observe how much closer we have come to realizing our dream of absolute power!
This is a game to be savored for its attention to detail in the minutiae of each turn as well as for its sweeping simplicity in portraying the strategic advances we have made over the course of the contest. There are three levels of maps available to us, which display the global expansions of the kingdoms, the strategic/tactical level upon which our armies and characters move, and the operational level describing the construction of defenses, markets, storehouses, etc of each of our individual population centers. We also have the ability to access all of our previous turns so that information is never lost and we can share with all of our real life friends the obviously inspired decisions that have led to our present triumphs. Ah, the adulation of the multitudes is truly our right!
Fall of Rome is a thrilling and complex strategy game sure to challenge the most avid gamer. We need only a web browser and a desire to crush our competition. Look for the avatar of Lord Thanatos on the message boards and within the game to test one's mettle. Which of us will have our names ring throughout history in awe and envy?
Fall of Rome at a glance
A turn based fantasy wargame with an historical setting, played online from Enlightened Age Entertainment, Inc. Price $6.47 for the first month of play.