New Game?

Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War is a new and innovative turn-based strategy game that puts you in command of the Carthaginian military during a period of total war over land and sea with the young Roman Republic. With this military juggernaut of the ancient world at your disposal, you will vie for control over Italy, Carthage, Spain and the Mediterranean Sea using a combination of strategic political maneuvering and sheer tactical skill both on land and sea. Play consists of two layers; the first is a strategic layer where you must prudently steer your forces to the destruction of Rome’s army and the ultimate destruction of the Republic and city itself. At your disposal are a variety of unit types and historical commanders from which to form your armies. On the tactical scale, when meeting the enemy in battle, skilled leadership and a knack for war come into play as you use a simple but engaging battle system to best your opponents.

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Alikchi2
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RE: New Game?

Post by Alikchi2 »

As always, the art is gorgeous for all the dialogue options. And that sounds like a really deep fog of war/scouting/intelligence system! Excellent!

Happy new year!
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Nikel
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RE: New Game?

Post by Nikel »

Hi. I am new here.


Nearly 10 years have passed since this thread was started! [:)]

But you continue developing the game. Thanks Mercenarius.


Regarding AGE engine, it was created by Ageod, a french company that developed many wargames along the years. Among them was Alea Jacta Est, that included scenarios of early roman republic, punic wars, civil wars and parthian campaigns.

Unfortunately they not released a late empire set of scenarios, the last covering Septimius Severus in 193 AD and 197 AD.


Which one of these will be included in this game? Here is a list of scenarios in Imperium Romanum III.



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mercenarius
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RE: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

Thanks Orm, and Alikchi2, for your kind words! I'll try to post a couple of new screenshots this weekend. And Happy New Year, too!
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RE: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

Wow. I haven't seen I.R. III. I do have a copy of I.R. II. I haven't actually ever had a chance to sit down and play it with anyone.

My own scenario list is much more modest. Here are the 12 scenarios that are sure to make the cut:

Year of the Four Emperors - 69 AD. Twelve years in length.
Trajan's Reign - 98 AD. Eighteen years in length.
Marcus Aurelius - 161 AD. Probably eighteen years in length.
Year of the Five Emperors - 193 AD. Twenty years in length.
Aurelian & Zenobia - 270 AD. 5 years in length. Perhaps Zenobia will get more time or different victory conditions.
The Tetrarchy - 284 A.D. Sixteen years in length.
Constantine the Great 306 AD. Twenty-five years in length.
Sons of Constantine - 337 AD. Twenty-five years in length.
House of Valentinian - 364 AD. Probably twenty years in length.
Stilicho & House of Theodosius - 395 AD. Fifteen years in length.
Grand Campaign - 96 AD. 400 Years in Length.
Late Campaign - 378 AD. 100 Years in Length.

The actual final names of some of those scenarios will be different, but I have used more conventional terms here for familiarity.

Unlike "Hannibal" which has yearly turns, The Fall of Rome will use seasonal turns.

I would like to add about another 4 scenarios, but they may need to be some kind of expansion modules or downloadable content. Julian deserves a module by himself. So does a late empire game with Galla Placidia and Aetius and Boniface. But I do want to handle those topics, of course! Same thing - probably - for playing as the Persian Empire. But we'll see.

The Late Republic is something that I'd like to tackle in a separate game, if/when I get the chance.
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Nikel
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RE: New Game?

Post by Nikel »

An updated version of Al Nofi's by Decision Games, new map, new graphics, updated rules, some new scenarios,...


Image


Rules and scenarios (with a lot of info) available online.

https://decisiongames.com/wpsite/wp-con ... es_V3F.pdf


https://decisiongames.com/wpsite/wp-con ... os_V4F.pdf



Thanks for the detailed answer [:)]

Modest? No, you have a lot of them including a Grand Campaign? Cannot even imagine how you can model so a long period of time!

And a late campaign is also impressive.

With Aetius comes Attila, so I guess the only important missing is Belisarius or Justinian wars, for the DLC?


I hope that you are also interested in ancient Greeks, any possibility of a Peloponnesian War game? Even in a (very) distant future? For some reason this is a topic completely neglected by designers, perhaps they (you) think it will not sell [:(].



Nepos96
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RE: New Game?

Post by Nepos96 »

This is so beautiful to read, I love that focus on the later empire and that grand campaign (400 years, 1600 turns) seems ambitious and like it is going to keep me entertained for a long while, especially if it keeps throwing enemies at me (I guess it will be a sort of survival mode).

The only things missing seems to be the Aetius scenario (but it is coming at a later moment so that's not a problem), Justinian (as noted above) and Heraclius. Would really love to see them as DLCs. Maybe even a late V century scenario (but we already have an Adrianople one covering almost a 100 years, so maybe not that necessary).

I remember also seeing a while ago some screenshots of Eugenius vs Theodosius. Is that part of Adrianople (makes sense but at the same time I wonder how the game will recreate the conditions for that conflict) or a scraped scenario?

Anyway I literally can't wait to get my hands on this game.
I hope we get to play it soon, in the meanwhile I'll go back to Hannibal.
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mercenarius
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RE: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

Thanks for sharing the map of I.R. III!

As for the Grand Campaign, well, that will be programmed last. I have to work out a couple of things with the issue of succession. I certainly am not going to have the players try to maintain a continuous dynasty for 400 years. As for modelling social conditions, yes, it's a problem and that is one reason why I am cutting this game off at about 500 AD. I haven't included the Slavs, and we can't go much further without them, I should think. This falls into the category of "We'll See."
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RE: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

Many thanks for your kind words!
I remember also seeing a while ago some screenshots of Eugenius vs Theodosius. Is that part of Adrianople (makes sense but at the same time I wonder how the game will recreate the conditions for that conflict) or a scraped scenario?

That was from one of the historical battles. It's possible that a specific "Theodosius" scenario or even a "Theodosius vs Arbogast" scenario is possible down the road. I was/am a little shy about doing a larger number of shorter scenarios, at least in the initial release. That's because the overhead of programming a decent AI goes up (in terms of scripting opening moves and so on). For a board game, it's another set of victory conditions and new orders of battle, etc. However, it certainly seems to me that a number of shorter campaigns are possible as some kind of DLC.
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RE: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

I promised some new screenshots and I have two modest entries. The first is pure chrome, admittedly.

When the detailed information for non-Roman leaders will be show, I decided that they shouldn't use Roman cultural norms in key design elements. So, for example, here is the leader dialog for a Persian King:



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RE: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

The old two-power game summary doesn't work for The Fall of Rome and many of those pieces of information will be available through the Administrative Interface. However, players will need some specific notes for the current game. And it occurs to me that it might be harder to remember the level of difficulty chosen for a scenario. So I have created a small info dialog that the players can access.

Here is the current version. It will get tweaked a little bit down the road; for sure it will eventually include some kind of total for victory points.





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Re: New Game?

Post by Orm »

Perhaps an update for Easter?
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb -- they're often students, for heaven's sake. - Terry Pratchett
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erichswafford
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Re: New Game?

Post by erichswafford »

I find it ironic that the greatest historical wargame ever made (Hannibal: Rome and Carthage) has no sequel yet.

My theory is that greatness on this level must be really hard to deliver.

HRC has never left, and will never leave my (HDD->SSD->Crystal whatever). It teaches you more about the 2nd Punic War than a stack of history books ever could. I have seen through Hannibal's eyes and stood in his...sandals. Each playthrough is like reading historical fiction.

Even if the sequel never arrives, I thank you, Forced March Dudes. You nailed it.
"It is right to learn, even from the enemy."
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Nikel
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Re: New Game?

Post by Nikel »

There is an excellent series of videos on the Second Punic War in the History Marche channel, strategic, operational and tactical levels.

Still ongoing, the last covering Cumae 215 BC.


1-5 https://youtu.be/e3JPe75W-Eg
6-10 https://youtu.be/BWH_6ie7Pi4
11-13 https://youtu.be/zDQDv-znHIE
14 https://youtu.be/U4wMKvnvwUo
15 https://youtu.be/W1ElBFeaNF0
16 https://youtu.be/av6D0cubXhk
17 https://youtu.be/nX-eR9lLurA
18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHZ9xen25cY
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mercenarius
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Re: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

Perhaps an update for Easter?
Absolutely! I am working on the logic for recruiting new units. Here is the basic dialog for that. This is a work in progress, so it's not quite complete:
Recruit New Units.jpg
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Re: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

If a player wants to customize the equipment or other parameters for new unit recruiting, that checkbox in the dialog is unchecked and clicking on a unit icon will bring up a customization dialog. It looks something like this:
Recruit Unit Options.jpg
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Re: New Game?

Post by mercenarius »

erichswafford wrote: Thu Mar 31, 2022 6:10 pm I find it ironic that the greatest historical wargame ever made (Hannibal: Rome and Carthage) has no sequel yet.

My theory is that greatness on this level must be really hard to deliver.

HRC has never left, and will never leave my (HDD->SSD->Crystal whatever). It teaches you more about the 2nd Punic War than a stack of history books ever could. I have seen through Hannibal's eyes and stood in his...sandals. Each playthrough is like reading historical fiction.

Even if the sequel never arrives, I thank you, Forced March Dudes. You nailed it.
Many, many thanks for these kind words! Much more praise than I deserve!

I conceived of The Fall of Rome as a game with more features and more effort on the artwork, and that has made the project 10 times harder to do than "Hannibal" was. And I apologize for the delays in getting it out to all of you. But that is a familiar tune here, so I won't harp on it. (Is that a mixed metaphor? :) )

I am finishing up the recruiting logic this next week or so and I'll post some final versions of those dialogs when everything is working. I still have to finalize a system of calculating delivery costs. It should be easy to understand and the system will be mostly opaque - just have good roads, ports (when relevant), and no enemy interference. The closer the arms factories are to the recruiting area, the cheaper it will be.

If a legion's Prime Cohort is in garrison in a fortress, it has an arms factory rating of 2. In the field, zilch. That changes with Diocletian's reforms, of course. In that case, all arms are produced in permanent factories only.
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mariovalleemtl
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Re: New Game?

Post by mariovalleemtl »

Good news !
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Nepos96
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Re: New Game?

Post by Nepos96 »

This is honestly amazing, the level of detail of this game and the amount of decisions we can take. Hannibal was already great in itself despite being a fraction of this new game. I am not kidding when I say that this could be the greatest game about ancient/late Rome ever released. I see myself spending countless sleepless nights on this when it gets released.
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Re: New Game?

Post by Orm »

Thank you for the update. :) The game looks marvellous.

I bid you all a nice Easter.
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb -- they're often students, for heaven's sake. - Terry Pratchett
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erichswafford
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Re: New Game?

Post by erichswafford »

The new game looks amazing. Just remember: The Perfect is the enemy of the (really really) Good.

Just sayin'
"It is right to learn, even from the enemy."
- Ovid
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