Legion’s executive director explains how this new PC product bridges the gap between real-time strategy and turn-based games
By Michael Lafferty

Rome rules the world, or does it?

That is up to you when you step into the world of Legion, a PC release from Paradox Entertainment and Strategy First.

From the Gaul campaign to the shores of England and Scotland, players are invited to take control of a tribe, city-state or league in Italy in the days prior to Rome’s domination. By controlling cities, managing resources, building fortresses and training regiments, game players will be transported back in time to visit ancient battlefields, and re-invent history.
 

Game features include:

· Huge game areas with accurately mapped real world locations. All maps are based on real atlases of the ancient world.
· Battles based on historical data with hundreds of men are displayed in epic battles.
· Each game can have up to 20 AI opponents, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, based on the nations of the time period.
· Three-dimensional battlefields with terrain elements that can affect the outcome of battles.
· A detailed economy.
· Great replayability.

Fredrik Malmberg, executive director at Paradox, took time to talk with GameZone about Legion.

Question: There seems to be a growing trend in the RTS genre to revisit an historical era, and let players recreate history. What kind of research went into recreating the era, and have the designers taken any liberties or is the game true to the time frame?

Fredrik: “Firstly, I should point out that Legion is not an RTS. It is a turn-based strategy game, with a combat system that allows you to view battles in real-time.

“As for research, a lot of effort has gone into trying to provide an accurate campaigns for the game, in terms of what cities were called, the types and relative strengths of various combat units, how they look, buildings etc.

“However, it isn’t entirely historically accurate, because first and foremost we wanted to make a game that was fun to play. Sometimes we’ve had to bend history a little to get the best game play out of it!”

Q: How will this game differ from other programs? Has anything been added to the interface? Has any new technology been introduced?

Fredrik: “As you mention, there are a number of RTS games out there and some are very well established. We decided we did not want to compete directly with them and started looking for a new angle. We decided on a turn-based strategy layer with battles you visualise in real time.

“People are always trying to categorize Legion as an RTS or a TBS (Turn-based strategy), but we have elements of both but also many differences from both. Because we don’t fit neatly into the RTS or TBS genre we have a number features that have not been seen before in a strategy game.

“Strategy games traditionally suffered from relatively poor game values. By this we mean UI design and the look of the game. We have tried to make the interface as intuitive as possible, hopefully to entice people who are interested in strategy games but are normally put off by the apparent complexity.”

Q: What do you feel will be the biggest drawing point of the game?

Fredrik: “We were aiming to create something that sits mid-way between games such as C&C and Civilization. Players who enjoy empire building, but don’t want to have to micro-manage every aspect, and those who are more combat oriented, but don’t want yet another frenetic click fest, should both find something to their taste in Legion.

“Seen from the Civ point of view the battles in Legion are both more fun to watch and more complex strategically. To the RTS player we hope to offer a ‘deeper’ gaming experience than is the norm in this genre with more emphasis on ‘the big picture’ with more reliance on planning than on a fast mouse click.

“And of course there’s the eternal appeal of all things ‘Roman’ evinced in the recent popularity of films like Gladiator.”

Q: What aspect of the program presented the biggest challenge? What element, once in place, was the most satisfying to realize?

Fredrik: “As we consciously set out to keep the spec of the final game as low as possible, without compromising the games looks and playability, this has probably been the biggest challenge.

All too often nowadays games are aimed at top-end machines in order to incorporate elements that, frankly, add little to the gaming experience. It would have been easier for us to take the route of upping the resolution and rendering everything in 3D but this instantly excludes a large segment of the gaming public, not least of all the ever growing market of those who like to play games on a lap-top, so we went with a bolder, hand-drawn look. This allowed us to keep the spec right down and hopefully also makes the game a little easier on the eye than many ‘serious’ turn based strategy games. We hope that anyone who wants to play the game will be able to play the game.

“The battles are probably the most satisfying element of the completed game, and the thing that sets Legion apart from the competition. Even knowing the exact workings of the AI it is impossible to predict the exact outcomes of most battles and hence even we, the creators, can be surprised by the results.”

Q: If you could break it down, what percentage of the game is resource management, and what percentage is combat? Is diplomacy an option? Does the game incorporate special units that will help circumvent the efforts of the game-player's foes?

Fredrik: “The resource management/diplomacy/combat are totally interlinked so we feel it gives a false impression if we try and break it down into how much time you spend with each aspect of the game. We prefer to think that Legion is 100% strategy, be it in the juggling of income, troop movement or tactical deployment. The influence of terrain on the outcome of battles and the speed at which units traverse the game world also plays a major role in any decisions made by the player so I’d have to say it’s a strategic/tactical hybrid featuring elements of combat and resource management.

“Diplomacy also features strongly, as much of the player’s income can be derived from the tributes or bribes paid by opposing sides, and winning or losing largely depends on whom the other main players are at war with at any point.

“As we are basing the game on real world units, there are no “special” units as such, but each unit has its own strengths and weaknesses.  E.g. Cavalry will cut down skirmishers in the open, whereas Hoplites with their long spears will easily defeat the cavalry. Every unit is rated at how good it is at fighting against every enemy unit in every type of terrain. We don’t think any other game has ever had this much detail, giving the player almost infinite options when deciding how to fight the battle.”

Q: What should a player expect from the game's AI?

Fredrik: “The AI is playing by the same rules as the player, as far as possible. It has to manage its cities, allocate workers, choose what to build, when to recruit troops and what to recruit. It makes diplomatic decisions about who to ally with and who to declare war on. It manoeuvres its armies around the campaign map, deciding when to attack. When a battle results it analyses the terrain and deploys its troops, choosing the best formation and orders it can find for the situation.

“Just managing the basics makes the AI quite complex. Even for us, trying to work out what it’s doing at times, as part of development can be quite challenging.

“When making decisions the AI takes into account things like its relationship to other nations, how strong they are, how strong the enemies are, who is allied to who, how mobilized a nations army is, how long the border is with an enemy nation. On top of this we have given each AI player characteristics such as aggressiveness, rashness, greed etc and these characteristics modify that sides behaviour. On top of this there is a small random element that prevents the AI becoming predictable.”

Q: What are the multiplayer options?

Fredrik: “In Legion, we decided to focus on the one-player game. We analysed the type of game we wanted to make and how it could be converted to multiplayer. We looked at other strategy games out there with multiplayer modes and felt it was just not something that was needed.

“We’ve tried playing multiplayer games of Civ, Heroes of Might and Magic etc., but they are all unsatisfactory as multiplayer games. Multiplayer suits real-time games that can be completed in a couple of hours – i.e. a single sitting so you don’t the logistical problems of trying to get everyone to meet up again. Turn-based games and those that take many hours to play are just not as well suited to multiplayer.”

Q: Is there any aspect of the game that you wish could be expanded if either time or technology permitted?

Fredrik: “We have so many ideas we don’t know where to start listing them. We could spend the next two years adding enhancements to the game and we still be begging the publisher for ‘just one more week to get this really cool feature in!’  We’d like to expand the battles, increase the campaign scope, add new enemy nations etc, etc. At some point you have to call it a day though and say this is all we can get done for this version.

“Anything that doesn’t make it in, you can be sure will go on the list for the sequel.”

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your company - other titles you have created, the company mission and break it into a bit on the primary designers' gaming backgrounds?”

Fredrik: “No, it’s a secret. If we were to tell you who we were and what we’ve done we’d be forced to kill not only you but your entire families too. Sorry, but that’s just the rules.

“Actually, we can reveal that we’re a small new independent UK developer. This is our first game as Slitherine, but previously we’ve individually worked on titles such as Red Alert, Dune 2000, Dune Emperor, Desert Strike, Urban Chaos, Deus Ex, amongst many other less notable titles!

“Our aim is to create approachable strategy games with addictive game play, whilst maintaining a low minimum spec, and we think we’ve achieved all of these objectives with Legion.

“Our lead designer (Iain McNeil) designed Dune 2000 and Dune Emperor for Westwood, as well as being a double World Champion at tabletop wargames.”

Legion is slated for release in early June.

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