Rome: Total War review

Indeed, mastering low-level tactics on the battlefield is vital to effective progress on the campaign map. And happily, it's hard to see how the combat part of the game could have been improved any further. The Total War games have always revelled in differentiated units, elaborating on the scissors-paper-stone paradigm that underlies all strategy games. But Rome cleverly veers away from the obvious solution of introduing more unit permutations - a tactic which threatened to capsize the game's balance in Medieval. Instead, it enables you to use unit types more skilfully as they are more specialised. If you use even a basic unit correctly, it'll give you an advantage, meaning that the richest and biggest armies won't always win. The obvious example is cavalry versus polearmed troops. Forming a slow-moving phalanx, cheap, moderately armoured infantry will resist a head-on charge from even the most powerful cavalry. But engage the pike-wielders with a unit of swordsmen and charge the cavalry into their side or rear, and you'll quickly decimate them for the loss of few lives. Battles are therefore more taxing to win outright, but far more satisfying to win when you know you've used your units to the best of their abilities.

Success is more elusive than keeping your archers away from cavalry, though. Cunning manoeuvres on the campaign map is where you gain an edge and avoid a beating on the field. If you have the jump on an enemy force, splitting your own troops into two can pay dividends, because a second army attacking from another direction is directly translated onto the field: the classic pincer movement.

Although there's a logical lack of gunpowder, artillery certainly doesn't lack in effect or visual excitement. Any ranged weapon (the onager catapult is a favourite) can launch burning ammunition. And while the incendiaries may do less physical damage, they can cause panic to spread more quickly among enemy ranks. Artillery is just as useful in the pleasingly expanded sieges, but other pieces of siege equipment also play major roles.

Sapping points are tunnels which can be used by foot troops to undermine and collapse fortifications. Covered battering rams are more common, and are brutally effective at opening the gates of all but the biggest walls. Although if you've managed to install a spy in a city prior to a siege, the gates can be sprung by his treachery when you take the field. A more risky and fiddly tactic is the classic siege tower which rolls up to the city walls and deposits assault troops straight into combat.

These options can be explored through the pre-battle screen that accompanies every clash of arms. It enables you to recce the forces ranged against you and to choose the moment of attack, or even opt to starve out the hapless denizens. Constructing your choice of fiendish siege machinery may take a number of turns or no time at all, depending on the number of troops at your disposal. Not all items are available for all sieges; there wouldn't be much point sending a siege tower to take on what's little more than a fence.

Though we'd all dearly love a multiplayer campaign mode, it's simply impractical. Even so, Rome still manages to improve on Total War's multiplayer battles mode. In team or all-in 'deathmatch', you can mix and match the 20 factions drawn from the single-player game until your heart's content, across dozens of maps including siege scenarios. Then there's the ten exquisitely balanced historical battles, including the Battle of Trebia and the sieges of Sparta and Gergovia, which offer the delicious tactical challenge of outdoing the great generals of the past. The expansive 'custom battle' option offers a skirmish battle of exactly your choosing whenever the whim takes you, again with 20 factions, and dozens of maps.

But it's the campaign that looms like the Colossus of Rhodes over this game. As any faction, one goal is clear: conquer Rome. The 'long' victory conditions also demand you take control of no fewer than 50 provinces, and that you outlast the other Roman factions (if you're playing as one). There is a briefer option - control 15 provinces and outlast two other factions - but, quite frankly, why would you want to curtail the experience of the best wargame ever created?

The venerable Civilization series covers more ground, it's true - 6,000 years of history is not to be sniffed at. But the balance, immediacy and convincing atmosphere of Rome consigns even Civ III to its place in history. As a museum piece, dare I say. And Warcraft III may justifiably lay claim to the throne of story-telling. Fine. Rome gives you the tools - a veritable Greek epic-writer's pencil case - to create your own mighty tales. And those tales are all the better because they're embellished by an imagination fired by Rome's convincing, real-time portrayal of war and empire-building.

Eight pages in, and nearing the close of this tale, we've still not covered all that is good. Intricate diplomacy in which carefully balanced deals can be struck; mercenary types becoming available to Generals according to their location, soldiers shuffling nervously as their leader delivers a pre-battle speech tailored to the conditions... Rome is a masterpiece of conception, design and execution, a visual feast, a sprawling behemoth: uncannily tight and fearsomely involving.

And Medieval? Grow up. It's time to put away the things of your youth. Rome is here to plunder your time, trample your weekend plans and hear the wails of your enemies.

Rome: Total War is out now