BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front: They nailed it. Slitherine-AGEOD's new grand strategy game Field of Glory: Empires is here, and I think it just set the standard on how challenging it was to be top dog in the days of Rome. I'm talking at least XII 'Ave's for not only producing one of the best ancient grand strategy games on the market, but because the designers have also taken the genre one step beyond. We've a lot to cover, so let's begin.
Officially, Field of Glory: Empires (FOGE) is an area movement, grand strategy game where each turn represents a year and each military unit is about a legion's worth of troops, some 5,000 men.
By grand strategy, I mean that you are the man in charge - Caesar, as it were - and your primary job in the game is supreme resource manager (plus). You have control over all the traditional stuff seen in such games such as agriculture, mining, trade, industry, the military, pretty much everything. To be successful, you must juggle all these commodities and more in order to pump up your military and expand your territory at the expense of other countries who decline to accept your benevolent rule. At the same time, your juggling act must also keep your people happy, prosperous and your political competition subdued.