Centurian is one of my favorite games of all time. Talk about addictive! You start out in Italy with one legion and set out to gradually take over other territories and build your forces until eventually you conquer the entire known world which in those days was Europe and lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
This is a turn based game which gives you time to think about your next move. On the easier settings this is a fairly easy game to win but set to the highest difficulty this is an extreme challenge and you will have many setbacks as you struggle to survive against all the barbarian attacks.
The battles are real time but you can pause them which are just as well because you require a lot of concentration to avoid being overrun. The generals are the key to winning the battles because the lesser ones are severely handicapped by their inability to command any troops that are not very close to them. It pays to protect your better generals because it is hard to win battles with incompetent leadership.
The early stage of the game is the critical time when you have few legions and limited reserves and money. If you are careless here you will not only lose battles but even if you win you will deplete your troops and simply not be able to get enough
reserves to fend off the next onslaught. This is when you need to play with the most care and concentration or you will simply be overrun by the barbarian hordes.
Managing morale and finances is something you had better not neglect or you will end up with rebellions taking over some critical territories and attacking you from behind. Too much tax leads to rebellion while not enough tax means you can’t afford to rebuild your legions and eventually they get destroyed.
As you progress in the game your rank improves from centurion all the way up to Proconsul. As you progress in rank then you are able to command bigger armies and more armies and this gives you the ability to control more territory.
There is a lot of satisfaction in making it to Proconsul and being able to build huge armies and dominate the surrounding region. Once you get to this point you should win the game unless you get careless. You can still lose if you take too many casualties in your battles and run out of reserves so watch out.
