Songs of Steel: Hispania

All achievements achieved in under 30 hours, review time. Neat and sweet game that kind of reminds me of Expeditions: Rome, but shorter and more grounded in historical reality. Story is short, yes, but still sufficient to get me immersed (and also serve as a mini history appetiser for those who don't know about it, though if you're buying a Rome game you probably already know the history). Combat involves very little RNG; you hit your enemy, you deal damage. You fight on rough terrain or low ground, you get penalties. You flank an enemy, you deal more damage. Your missile troops have obscured line of sight, they deal less damage. No 50% chance to miss at literal hugging distance because you didn't luck out on dice rolls. The hand drawn graphics are charming. Soundtrack is wonderful and deserves its own paragraph. The English narration sounded awfully familiar, until the credits showed that it was done by Guy Michaels who also sometimes does narration for the Kings and Generals channel, so if you've watched K&G you might like the narration. Conclusion: game good deserves more attention, buy if you are a Rome enjoyer, soundtrack amazing go listen to it.

The creators of this game attempted to create a strategy game with some verisimilitude vis-a-vis the Roman conquest of Spain. There were fun parts to this game - but I can't recommend it for two major reasons. First, numerous bugs - I can no longer progress my campaign because of crashes after I complete a side mission in Chapter X. The second is more nuanced: there are issues concerning the depictions of the Romans and the Celts. Playing as the Romans, one gets a glimpse into the difficulties of the campaign, the real loss of war, and a challenge to the myth of Roman hegemony in battle. All of that is to be praised. That being said, following certain romantic, post-Roman notions concerning the siege of Numantia, the game breaks down at least in the Roman campaign - the Celts are far more numerous and powerful than their battle-hardened Roman adversaries to the point of breaking the verisimilitude towards which the devs aimed. Celtic skirmisher units or basic infantry take down Triarii simply because they are "ferocious Celts." Celtic heroes abound and have special abilities that the Roman units do not have. Rather than commend the player for making use of combined arms warfare, on…

The game is too tactical for leading an army, you got small numbers and expected to fight a horde? Story wise, what do you mean we're keep losing even though we defeated the army? Buy it on discount.

Fun tactical turn based game

Needs to offer more content and freedom for how you field your armies. The Celt campaign was definitely way easier, confirming that the Romans were getting hamstrung badly by rule limitations and constantly unfavorable scenarios. I hope they make a sequel, and if they do, they let me just field whatever units I want, and let them perma-die because there are so many feeble and useless ones that clutter up your ranks. Otherwise this was a fun and addictive distraction.

Short: I don't normally go for linear games, but treat this one as an engaging, challenging (if somewhat rough around the edges in terms of gameplay - although that gives extra charm). Graphics: A+ Gameplay: B+ Immersion and Music: A