Nemesis of the Roman Empire is a real-time strategy game set in the
time of, you guessed it, the Ancient Rome. It’s a bit different than most
strategy games you’ve probably played, unless you’ve played Celtic Kings before.
If you’re a Celtic Kings veteran than Nemesis will seem very familiar – to the
point where you can probably think of Nemesis as “Celtic Kings Deluxe”.
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| Battle for control of a city. |
The first thing that you’ll notice about Nemesis that sets it apart from a
lot of other strategy games is that there is no base building. You start the
game with a small walled city that has everything you need, including a barracks
for creating units, a temple for creating healer units, a blacksmith to research
higher level units, and a coliseum to research unit training. You’ll see plenty
of peasants running around, but you’ll have no control over them. The collection
of the game’s two resources, food and gold, is pretty much automatic and
requires little in the way of interaction from you. Your primary concern in
Nemesis is fielding and training your army, and keeping them supplied in the
field when you send them off to war.
Nemesis puts a big emphasis on supply. While gold is required to recruit an
army, that army travels on its stomach and so you’ll need to ensure that they
have a steady supply of food when on the march. If you venture too far afield
for too long, your units will begin to take damage and will eventually starve to
death. To establish supply you must conquer the various villages, forts, and
barbarian camps that dot the map. Towns and villages where your food is
generated can be linked to the conquered sites via pack mule trains, moving the
food to the front where your soldiers need it. This all adds a strategic dynamic
not found in other strategy games. You must be methodical about your expansion
and be careful to protect your supply lines because if the enemy manages to
flank you and capture one of the vital links in your supply chain then your army
is in serious trouble.
Units are built pretty quickly if you have the gold required on hand, but a
rush attack is just not possible in Nemesis because of the supply restriction.
This also means that games play out over a longer period of time than most.
After an initial push to capture supply points the game shifts to battles along
the frontier until one side can press an advantage and “supply site hop” their
way across the large maps to their opponent’s city. The long gameplay time is
demonstrated by a scenario included in the game that gives you 45 minutes to
prepare for an enemy attack. 45 minutes!
Nemesis includes four playable factions, Carthage, Rome, Gaul, and Iberia.
Each has its own unique look and style of play, so at least one of the factions
will suit you. Each of the factions includes hero units which can command large
numbers of units while bestowing a bonus to those units. As the hero gains
experience in battle, this bonus increases. The heroes make managing the large
armies that you build in the game a lot easier. If you assign units to a hero,
you only need to issue orders to the hero and the attached units will follow
suit. In addition maps contain neutral factions such as the Teutons to cause you
trouble and provide additional potential supply sites. There are also wandering
wild creatures and so you may find yourself having to keep the wolves at bay.
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