Caesar II

This second installment of the Caesar series includes field combat, which means that you can send a Legion out to deal with barbarian invaders or conquer rival villages BEFORE they reach your city. One of the other Caesar games allows field battles to be exported and played out in a related (Siege?) game (which I did not see on GOG), while most of the later games have your defenders deal with invaders (or fail to) in an unrealistic piecemeal fashion on your city map, PLEBS ARE NEEDED - Yes, because you assigned too many tasks without sufficient manpower to accomplish them. This is one of the first things you learn to deal with and keep track of throughout the game, and is one of the primary ways that the game limits the player's expansion so you don't "win" the scenario in 15 minutes. Working efficiently within your budgets of both money and manpower are the keys to victory. I find this one a bit more refined than Caesar 1, and a bit more relaxing than 3, a good compromise in my opinion.

I may be looking at the game with rose tinted glasses. Caesar II was the first city builder I ever played, it set the stage for how I look at all other city builder games. In laymen terms your objective is to take a backwater province build a city that caters to the needs of your citizens and also send tribute (money) back to Caesar and Rome… if you fail your avatar spends the rest of its life chained to an oar. You need to plan ahead right from the start, your people want food, water, education, healthcare, baths, entertainment, security and etc. etc. But you either don't have access or cant afford all of these things at the start. If you ever played Rinworld and thought Randy Random was unfair, well meet his many times great uncle. You’ll get to many points where everything seems to be smooth sailing and then boom half your city is on fire, barbarians are invading, your last tribute offended the emperor, all the stockpiles in the city are suddenly empty and just when you were about to spend your limited funds someone broke into the temples and made off with your money. And thats just on city only mode, Province mode is even more “FUN” I’ve played 3 and 4, they just seem to lack something that this one had.

plebs are needed ... plebs are needed

Such a fun game from the good old 90’s!! Wish they would remake them for younger generations to appreciate. Or a new version for us all to enjoy.

I played it decades ago and still this is my favourite of all the ceasar, pharao, Zeus, etc etc series. It takes you on two management levels: town and province. Province lets you deal with barbarians, invasions, etc and, the thing I appreciate most, units ain't limited to heavy and light infantry, while you have a plethora of auxiliar units... Have fun