Centurion: defender of Rome
Centurion: defender of Rome is a strategy in which you play a centurion and your task is to conquer the known world. The world map contains the whole of current Europe, north Africa and part of the middle east. Not only can you take over a country with shear force but you can also try diplomacy. Along the way you have to collect taxes and keep the new citizens of the Roman empire happy by holding gladitorial games and chariot races.
You start out with only a single legion under your command and until you gain ranks you will not be able to form more. You’ll gain money (talents) and ranks by conquering new lands, this can be done through diplomacy but most of the time you’ll have to fight it out. It takes only a single battle to win a country so you better prepare before battle and you can strengthen your army with citizens from newly conquered lands but be sure to pick fierce warriors or you’ll find your army retreating before the battle is over. A battle is played out on a single screen and you have to select your battle tactics before the battle begins as once the battle begins there is very little you can do except call for an allout attack or retreating. Later on you will face more exotic battles when your enemies have cavalry and elefants at their disposal and sea battles will also be necesary.
Battle isn’t the only thing you have to worry about though as you’ll have to collect money ranging from easy taxes to bleeding them dry. Keeping the citizens happy is also important as you don’t want them revolting against you and you can hold gladitorial games or chariot races to improve your popularity. Both of these are played out in arcades sequences and if you do well the people will think you’re great but fail and not only will you have wasted money but the citizens might like you even less than before.
Centurion is an excellent strategy set in Roman times and the minigames altough very short fit in well with the strategy parts. I also like the fact that you need to gain ranks to control more armies so you can’t just go out and form armies like crazy but you need to take care of the legions available to you. Anyone who likes stategy game should definately check this game out.
Overal rating: 8/10
This game was released for three different systems here are some notes:
| Amiga | Released in 1991. Game has been tested but not completed with winUAE v0.9.91. The game is almost exactly the same as the DOS version but once again there are some loading times which can be annoying. |
| DOS | Released in 1990. Game has been tested but not completed on a DOS and win2k PC. Works without problems on a windows system. |
| Others | This version is not available. Sega Megadrive released in 1991. |
| Date added | Mar-22-2005 20:18 |
| Name | Centurion: defender of Rome |
| Developer | Bits of magic |
| Publisher | Electronic arts |
| First released | 1990 |
| Genre | Strategy |
