'Bloody Romans. What have they ever given us?' Well, if you live in a spa town like Bath, year-round hordes of tourists and plenty of 'authentic' ruins. Oh, plus irrigation, sanitation, proper roads and the rest of that quote, of course.
But they've also given us the Caesar series of games. The original was released aeons ago by Impressions, who until then had been responsible for a steady stream of desperately mediocre strategy sims. Caesar, however, had that certain je ne sais quoi: a blatant SimCity clone, but set in the time of the Roman Empire with all its trappings. It was a surprise success, and the sequel even more so ' that particular effort sold half a million copies. Now, with exquisite timing, part three has actually pre-empted SimCity 3000.
So what's changed? Well, on the face of it, nothing much. Once again you play the part of a poxy Roman governor charged with building up a series of cities far from the madding luxury of Rome itself. Beginning with a teeny budget and a threatening word from the Emperor, it's your task to build a thriving city that's pleasant to live in, generates plentiful income, and is safe from attack. At the same time, you will naturally increase your profile and catch the attention of Caesar.
There are actually two game modes in Caesar III. The main challenge is the Career game, where each map gives you set objectives: a certain target population and ratings for favour, prosperity, culture and so on. Completing a Career map means a promotion and progression on to the next, tougher city.
The other mode, the City Construction Kit, is more like SimCity in that it's completely open-ended. Here you choose a map from the ten or so available, covering a wide range of sizes and difficulties, and simply build up a city for as long as you like. There are no set goals in the Construction Kit; unfortunately, there's no map or mission editor either, which is a shame.
Town-building principles should be instantly familiar. Top priority is, of course, housing space; allocate some and the immigrants soon flood in. Most structures, houses included, need road access, so they come next. Food is vital too. Farms of varying types can be built, but only on fertile land, indicated by little tufts of wheat. You'll also need a granary to store raw food materials, and a warehouse to take the excess. A bit later a market will distribute the food as necessary, and also act as a focus for trade in other commodities when they become available.
Even the most primitive residential area soon suffers from crime without sufficient policing: kids joyriding carts, that kind of thing. Building a prefecture sends out a, well, prefect to patrol the streets and keep the peace. Similarly, any building will simply fall apart after a few years without proper upkeep, so build an engineer's post too to keep your structures in good condition.
Caesar III uses a system of 'walkers' and 'access' to determine the influence of a particular building. If, on his wanders, an engineer passes a building that's damaged (which occurs automatically with age), he'll fix it. If a house is to evolve into a more sophisticated, high-tax-paying building, it needs walker access to all manner of establishments and commodities, which forces you to think not only of where to place your buildings, but also how to connect them with roads.
A decent water supply is vital for anything but the scummiest, low-rent labour camps. Wells will do the trick but most folk hate them, so build a reservoir next to water and connect it to inland ones using aqueducts. You can then place fountains and later bath houses that supply fresh water to large zones, encouraging a better class of clientele who like their creature comforts.
Employment is your other major priority. A lack of jobs leads to unrest and eventually rioting, so keep your plebs occupied in farms, docks, workshops, theatres, hospitals and so on. In a growing town where your budget is tight, high unemployment is usually a major problem.
Income sources are twofold. First, and most importantly, you can open land or sea trade routes with neighbouring cities via the Empire screen (the latter needs a dock, obviously). You then import needed commodities or export manufactured goods made in your workshops, such as pottery from a clay pit, weapons from an iron mine, and olive oil from an olive farm. Without a decent trade income, you'll be limping to Caesar for more money in a few months.
Secondly, there's income from tax. The cushier a house's surroundings are, the more evolved it becomes and the more tax it pays. Rich patricians are the fat cats of the era: they don't work, but they're vital for creaming an extra few denarii from your metropolis.
Now and again, depending on the map, you may be attacked by natives or rival factions. Combat in Caesar III is decidedly different to its forbears. Previously, you had to juggle the city, province and battle screens, with battles themselves being carried out on some generically bland backdrop. Now, any invading army marches directly on your city itself, in real-time - and you'd better be ready for them, because once they get inside they're a bugger to stop.
All combat is defensive - you can't attack other cities - but that doesn't necessarily make it easy. In a town where war is a threat, it's best to build a thick defensive wall early on, and sprinkle it with towers. These are armed with ballistas that fire on any invading army as they attempt to break through the walls.
Towers need a barracks to supply soldiers, but for more advanced armies you'll need to build a fort outside of town and train legions. Javelin and mounted auxiliaries can be created immediately, but the more devastating heavy cavalry require a supply of weapons too.
Once a legion is complete, it can be placed simply by moving its standard. Two formations are available, plus a third if you build a military academy. The ideal is to use your legions to repel attackers before they breach the city walls. Once inside, prefects and citizens will do their best to battle the invaders, but it's often a hopeless task and you can wave bye-bye to great swathes of your beloved city.
All credit to Impressions, who have staunchly resisted going down the real-time strategy game route with the combat element. Caesar has always been more about city management than conquest, and in fact, if you don't want to, you don't have to engage in any combat at all (see 'War? Huh!'). The lack of directly controllable units and more varied
battle tactics might put off some, but that only serves to confirm that this is not a game for the tank-rush-minded.
Caesar III is, by and large, beautifully balanced. Little, if anything, occurs at random, even the actions of the gods - any consequences are all down to you. There's always enough going on to keep you at it full-tilt, and to call its overall challenge formidable is perhaps understating the case, but you're never swamped with that sinking 'I can't cope' feeling that Constructor engendered. Indeed, the game encourages studied, careful growth rather than mad expansion in all directions, which is a sure-fire way to wind up in debt (and have Caesar's enormous armies breathing down your legions).
What Caesar III doesn't do is add anything very much to the genre, except perhaps real-time combat. It's polished and play-tested to peak performance, but there isn't anything here you won't have seen before. Is this a problem? Not particularly. City-building games are resolutely unfashionable and apart from that ubiquitous Other One there aren't exactly a heap of good 'uns to choose from these days. The lack of multi-player support may disappoint some, but the game would not lend itself to it.
Which makes Caesar III all the more remarkable and enjoyable. It's slick, well-designed, extremely attractive and most importantly exudes that 'just-one-more-hour' factor. We can but see how SimCity 3000 fares against the might of the Roman Empire, but for now this will do very nicely indeed.
