In the annals of human history the greatest and most famous fighting army was that belonging to Rome. From its humble beginnings as a small town on the Tiber, Rome rose through a series of wars to be one of the greatest empires in human history. The instrument that made the empire work were the professional armies Rome raised and provided, coupled with the professional officers and Centurions that commanded these armies. Now you can re-fight the battles of Rome from her humble beginnings through the Imperial period with Legion Arena.

Legion Arena is a real time battle simulator that lets players command the forces of Rome and in other campaigns those of her enemies such as the Gaul. Players select the makeup of their forces for each battle, and choose formations and placement on the battlefield and try to accomplish each battle objective. The way the game is setup, each battle will normally only take a few minutes, so many battles can be fought at a single sitting, and over time your forces will improve and more troop types will become available as will superior weapons, tactics and equipment.

The campaign and scenarios all begin with excellent historical commentary on what the battle you are about to take part in represents. As Rome, early on you have few powerful types, but instead must rely on town militias and hastily raised forces with low morale. But these forces are good enough to win the early wars and can be upgraded considerably as the game moves along.

The battles themselves are an improvement on the Sparta/Gates of Troy system of battles previously used by the game's designers, Slitherine. After hearing the objective and historical commentary, you place forces on the map that is always different for each fight. Matching the correct troop type to terrain is very important as it gives combat advantages to you and the AI will suffer penalties for using the wrong troops in the wrong terrain.

As you place troops you must decide their formation as this affects their combat ratings. As your forces increase in experience, more formations become available to use for each of your units. Once troops are placed and the battle opens, you can give orders to each troop type to engage, move, stand ground, charge and several other commands. An effort has been made to simulate unit facings to attacks on flanks, and the rear of the enemy will be incredibly more effective then frontal assaults.

Once the battle is underway, the ability to issue orders is limited by your general's abilities. If he is killed it becomes much more difficult to command the troops and there is a moral loss as his presence will enhance all forces within his command radius. Many of the oddities of ancient warfare are demonstrated in this system in that numbers are far from the most important matter on the battlefield. High moral and top equipment will often overcome immense disadvantages in numbers just as was seen in the battles of the ancient world.

In this era it was quite typical for soldiers to run if they believed they were losing. Even though they often were not losing, this feeling to flee for self-preservation often caused these battles to be more tests of wills than arms and the game does show this. Once an army takes to its heels it would often suffer enormous losses, especially if enemy cavalry were in the area. You will see this in the game as formations break and horsemen chase them down and kill them. Generals can sometimes rally the fleeing soldiers, but once they run in great numbers battles are lost.

If you lose a battle you will have to keep re-fighting that particular fight until you win to continue the campaign. Most of the battles I played through seemed to be easy enough to win, and I only had to re-fight one against the powerful forces of Carthage. The enemies you face depend entirely on where you are in the campaign. In the early days you will fight the Etruiscans, the Gauls, and then advance to fight the Samnites and then on to more familiar Roman foes such as Carthage and the Greeks.

In between battles you can make upgrades, buy new forces and enhance the combat ability of troops. Each battle you win gives you both fame and money, and this is the coin used for this. You will also replace losses from existing forces, and you can even change the uniform colors of your forces. Several choices are provided for each unit and you can also give each troop formation its own name if you wish or simply use the generic names provided.

The troop types provided are all accurate up to a point, but there is a problem that I often see game designers make. Many players love elite forces, so game designers like to include some elite unit type in forces for players. In the case of this game its called 'Praetorians.' These troops historically were the personal guard of emperors, selected at first from men who earned distinction, but eventually it was just handed down from father to son. But they were not elite shock troops of the republic or empire, but they will be for you in the game.

The graphic engine is fully three-dimensional and the troops are well designed and move quite well. The bad news is - to really follow how the battle is going - you have to zoom out so far you can barely see them. The Music is quite good and fits the mood of the game very well and the voiceover work is well done. The control interface is extremely easy to use and this game is very easy to learn, play and should give no trouble at all.

As the battles are unique, you can kill quite a bit of time with this game. There is a role-playing element in that you select forces and their looks and names, but I wish the strategic element were used more. You really are just a unit commander sent where you are told and you fight who is in front of you; there is no building of infrastructure or choosing the course of enemies. It's a fun little game for combat fans and those who love Rome and its history.

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