This game is really cool with the whole sandbox deal. However, it seems the AI doesn't attack each other or something I dont really know for sure it just seems that way. Anyways, you train armies with the city states in the ancient greek era and I guess try and unites all of Greece.

It has a pretty neat economy system as you need to set up supply routes from farms and mines to your forts and cities and if your soldiers dont get any food their morale drops.

Nice strategy as you need to think of how to outwit the enemy if you seem to be outnumbered. Your soldiers also gain experience and you can improve them.

Overall a pretty cool game.

This game has offered me a lot of fun times. There is a lot to do and quite a few ways to accomplish it, if you're patient (which I'm not, but i still enjoy it) The graphics arent fantastic, but the map transition from close up to the general map is pretty seamless and makes it really easy to work out what areas need focus.

Sometimes the game is overwhelming, as things can happen all at once, but you can always pause the game when that happens and plan out your actions accordingly.

Might not be worth a whole $30, but if you see it on sale and you like grand strategy, definitely spring for it

A great strategy game with real time campaign (also with the sandbox version); the battles are managed directly on the strategic map. Political, logistic factors are taken also in the planning for the victory. Naval battles are played also. You have three main campaign that of Philip of Macedon, and two about the Peloponnesian War. Each culture have own proper unit types, and you can also enroll mercenaries units when you conquest another culture cities. YOu can associate generals to units for improve their values. Bigger your empire grow bigger armies you can have, but more garrison you need for manage insurrections. A great game where only a multiplayer side is missing.

Overall this was a pretty solid game. I had already bought the original on steam and played it for hours. I did feel the original was lacking in some pretty basic concepts that the expansion certainly came through on (such as upgrading supply lines and the sandbox mode). The gameplay can be slow at first but as you expand it gets faster and you definitely need to use that pause button more often ;). The greatest thing that the expansion has over the original is the sandbox mode. You can play as any of the tribes/city states/whatever else is in Greece and just proceed to conquer everything. However, some of the factions are much easier to play than others. I did find myself starting it up a couple of times only to find that my faction had several cities scattered throughout Greece and a limited army. Overall, however, the sandbox mode is amazing. If you like games like Europa Universalis, and other games like it, this is positively a game for you. However I would recommend getting the gold version if not just for the sandbox mode alone.

This game gains part of its value from the historical accuracy effort made by the designers: the detailed map with all the cities, the region-specific units and factions, the characters, etc. Even the help capsule are detailed enough to be compared to that of games like Civilization or the Age of Empires series.

The combination of real-time battles with large-scale strategy is also an interesting mix, reminding a bit of the Europa Universalis style. The game does not provide the depth of a Paradox game however, with very limited administrative gameplay. Most of the time your just moving units from point A to point B, the only options to improve your cities being the construction or destruction of walls. This simplicity might however please the RTS fans in some ways, since you only have to manage food supply and gold income.

Graphically the game is rather beautiful, and the interactive game map adapting itself to the level of zoom comes in very handy as soon as your empire starts to expand. A simple colour system also allows you to immediately identify any problems in or near your cities. The backfire is that micro-management of those issues is often required, slowing the game pace a lot after one hour or two in a game. Placement of units in specific formations can also be tedious due to a not-so-good control interface.

Overall its an interesting concept and game that Ancient Greece fans ought to check out, but one that also has enough flaws to make it only a mixed product.

The game's concept and idea are interesting as it incorporates a plethora of features of strategic and tactical warfare in classical Greece. Still, the permanent need to pause the game to review the situation and to make decisions before you unpause it in an interval of 5 to 10 seconds, combined with a very user-unfriendly game control mainly caused by the slow mouse movement, makes the game sometimes unplayable. I played it for two or three days before I decided that I had enough. If it hadn't been the beautiful graphics and the music, I therefore wouldn't have given it 3 out of 5.