A Legionary’s Life – Walkthrough

A walkthrough of the choices and what you will expect to see each time you play in version 1.3.7. For your first couple of playthroughs I recommend being cautious about fighting and prioritise surviving. Some parts might be a bit confusing to follow as there are quite a few branching paths in this game. I may at times be using a word like Centurion and switch to tribune. This is dependent on what rank I happened to be at the time I was adding that bit to the guide. I try to use the word “may” when something might happen vs “will” when it happens every time you run into the situation.

Tips

Note: Credit goes to MegaMidboss

Physical Attributes

• Strength – More damage.
• Endurance – Larger fatigue pool and respite success rate.
• Constitution – HP pool.
• Quickness – How frequently you will have no turns and how frequently you will go twice in a turn. To view your second action and no action rates go to your inventory. Your second action and no action rates are also affected by stance fatigue and morale.
• Coordination – Success rate on recover and amount of stance recovered.

Mental Attributes

• Charisma – Chances of getting opinion boosts when doing things like certain leisure activities and pulling off difficult maneuvers. The higher your troop opinion the more reliably you can train with better opponents at the various skill levels.
• Awareness – Used when attempting or resisting feints. Also slightly used to determine the available equipment quality when buying gear.
• Intelligence – Used to determine the available equipment quality when buying gear and certain strategic skill checks. Also used when playing the board game Latrunculi which will have a better win ratio compared to playing dice the higher your intelligence score is. With high enough intelligence this can replace hang around for restoring morale and gaining troop opinion as well as winning some extra denarii.

Skills

• Sword aka Weapon – Used for attacks, feints and soft spot attacks
• Shield aka Defense – Used for defense, and I think for shield maneuvers but I could be wrong about that
• Javellin – Used for your scripted and in combat ranged javelin attacks. To see your bullseye percentage go to your inventory.

Alternative things which affect combat

• Morale – The higher your morale the better
• Stance – Can be depleted with feints and shield maneuvers
• Fatigue Level – Slowly increases as combat goes on and you attack or do maneuvers other than respite
• Weapon handiness – Can be viewed on the weapon’s item page
• Weapon reach – Spears will have a greater reach
• Environmental conditions – Like height advantages or walls

Javelin throw results

• Aim is amazing! Killing officer victim on the spot – gain 3 troop, 3 tribune, 1 proconsul and 4 morale.
• Aim is amazing! Killing non-officer victim on the spot – gain 2 troop, 1 centurion and 3 morale.
• Hit that disables the enemy’s shield
• Hit that the target skillfully deflects – 1 morale
• Miss decent throw – Nothing miss embarrassingly – 2 troop opinion loss as well as lose 2 morale

Secondary skills

• Long sword – Not in use?
• Polearm – Not in use?
• Axe/Mace – Not in use?

The below gear coverage is a simple idea of what coverage enemy gear may have. You may find gear when buying (chain mail is the one that immediately comes to mind) that may have different coverage. Since penalties are mostly based on quality I won’t be listing them here.

Helmets

• Sinew Cap – 60 head coverage
• Light Celtic Helmet – 50 head and 10 neck coverage
• Konos – 60 head and 5 neck coverage
• Celtic Helmet – 75 head and 25 neck coverage
• Etrusco-Corinthian Helmet – 80 head and 25 neck coverage
• Tracian Helmet – 90 head and 40 neck coverage
• Attic Helmet – 75 head and 35 neck coverage
• Phrygian Bearded Helmet – 95 head and 55 neck protection

Armour

• Torso Plate – 40 torso
• Back and Breast Plate – 57 torso
• Quilted Linen Cuirass – 100 torso, 90 groin
• Thracian Cuirass –
• Reinforced Linen Cuirass – 100 torso, 90 groin coverage
• Short Chain Mail – 100 torso, 90 groin coverage
• Chain Mail – 100 torso, 100 groin and 5 leg coverage

Leggings

• Greaves – 30 leg coverage

Swords

• Dagger – 2/1 quality sword with only 1 reach. 26 anti-armour and 57 handiness.
• Sica – 3/3 quality sword, 24 anti-armour, 60 handiness.
• Seric Iron Gladius – 6/8 quality sword with 41 anti armour and 78 handiness or 4/8 quality sword with 41 anti armour and 66 handiness.

If you plan on playing offensively versus troops the area that you should target with your attacks is based on what armour the enemy is wearing and the enemy’s stance. I will try throughout this walkthrough to provide suggestions on which area to target but the enemy’s gear varies each playthrough. So, your best bet is to see how much each piece of gear covers a body part and target the body part that gives good accuracy and damage. For your first couple of playthroughs your target may be the torso and hoping for the best.

For defensive fights versus strong opponents I recommend spending almost all your time in defensive attitude and use respite. Then going full aggressive attitude to either land a hit, use more respite or try a feint when the enemy’s stance drops a bit. This is because the first thing the enemy does when one of their attacks misses is to try to recover their stance. However, if you just spend all your time instead of some of your time in defensive attitude you will slowly lose morale. So, if you do what I suggested and change your attitude to aggressive when their stance drops you can avoid that morale loss even if you aren’t doing an attack.

The situation in combat changes between round 15-18 and combat will end between round 18-21 unless otherwise noted in my walkthrough. Combat normally ends 3 rounds after you get notified of the situation changing. So if you’re notified on round 16 combat should end at the end of round 19.

The game will ask you once you get high enough rank if you want to stay and fight. If you do you can end up in 3 sections of combat instead of fighting 1, rotating out during 1 and fighting 1. The benefits to this is higher proconsul or consul opinion +1 vs -1 if you rotate out voluntarily. You can even just sit there and use respite and not have to take out enemies to get this boost in opinion with the proconsul or consul.

At the end of the war phase you may be notified that you would be promoted if an opportunity was available. If your virtue is low enough you could *create* an opportunity by removing the person occupying the position you’re aiming for. The game will warn you that if you get caught you will be sentenced to death. If you choose to go ahead with your plan and it works the game will say “It worked! The officer is demoted and put under arrest after *robust evidence* of his illicit activities is found.”

Foraging Party Tips and Events

The main things to takeaway form this minigame is to hold down a mouse button to preview the map. You will also want to prioritize gathering from villages versus picking up small bags of grain on the ground. Keep in mind that sometimes the bags of grain on the ground will be a full bag provided you follow the path of smaller bags that grow larger and larger.

Hunting will require a throwing, awareness, quickness and coordination check.

Fishing will require an awareness quickness check.

Some of the peasants may keep throwing nervous glances at each other. You will close ranks and get ambushed. You will end up in a 1vs1 fight.

Your scouts may report there is something wrong with a hamlet. Your choices are to keep away from the village and go in regardless. Going in will reveal a party of gallic mercenaries have already sacked the place. Your options will then be to rally your men and go for their leader a tall guy wearing short chain mail. Choosing to go for their leader will result in follow up options. Those being to try to lure him where he’ll be at a disadvantage and fight him where he is. Luring him requires you to pass a intelligence, awareness and quickness check which will negative his long sword’s reach advantage. He will be wearing a helmet and short chain mail which he drops upon death along with 27 denarii. Rallying your men will require a charisma check and you will fight a Gallic mercenary. Beating the Gallic Mercenary up awards 27 denarii. Your options will be to take everything and leave something for the unfortunate hamlet dwellers. Choosing to leave something will bring up a prompt asking how much to leave. Half, a smaller portion and take everything are your options. Leaving half will require a charisma check with no other benefits upon success.

A frail old man may approach you. He cries and pleads for mercy as his people won’t make it through the month. You can either be compassionate or push him away. Being compassionate requires a charisma check with no effect upon success. You will gain 7 virtue.

A girl will walk towards you. She will address you in Latin. She will try to negotiate that you take a smaller share. You can agree, discuss with her to try to gain more supplies and to take what you need by force if necessary. Choosing agree will require a charisma check. Failing will cause you to lose 5 troop opinion. Your virtue will increase by 3. Choosing to discuss with her will require a charisma check and upon success she will double the amount she is willing to offer and if your virtue check is high your morale will increase by 3 and your virtue by 3. Failing that charisma check will result in troop opinion dropping by 5 and increase virtue by 3.

There may be a man in his middle years wearing nicely crafted short chainmail who will address you in a mixture of latin and punic and introduce himself as Himilco. He will challenge you to a duel. Your choices are to face him in a duel, have your men overwhelm him and leave. If you have reinforced linen cuirass, a celtic helmet (not the light variety) and some greaves you might have a chance versus him provided you can outlast his fatigue. If you face him in a duel your virtue will go up by 2. He will be wearing a helmet and short chainmail. He will drop a quality 4 short chain mail, a quality 5/4 gladius Hispenius III, a quality 3 celtic helmet,4 denarii and one cup. If you have your men overwhelm him your troop opinion will drop by 5, tribune by 3, morale by 5 and virtue by 3. If you leave you will lose 3 troop opinion.

Some villagers may try to bribe you to leave their village alone. If you choose to take the bribe and burn the village you will gain 107 denarii and lose 20 virtue. If your virtue is high enough you will lose 5 morale.

You may not find many supplies and become suspicious. Looking harder requires you to pass an awareness and intelligence check to find the well hidden stack of provisions.

A hail of stones might greet you at a village. Your options being negotiate, attack them and try to capture avoiding bloodshed. Choosing negotiate will require a charisma save. Succeeding will raise virtue by 4. If you fail at capturing avoiding bloodshed one of your retinue will die and you will have to fight a peasant who doesn’t have a shield who gets reinforced twice upon death. You will get 1 dagger upon beating them up.

You may come across a settlement under attack by bandits. Your character will think its under attack from Haimon. You will be not only outnumbered but Haimon is known as being a renowned swordsman. Your choices are to attack the bandits and to leave. Choosing to leave has no penalties. Attacking will result in a hail of javelins separating you from your party. You will fight 3 bandits armed with clubs and axes with no armour. Their weapons will cause them to have penalties for using a reach weapon in a confined space. Upon defeating them you will be given the option to retreat while you can and going ahead. Choosing to go ahead will result in a duel with Haimon. He will be wearing just a quilted linen cuirass for armour. He will drop a 5/3 xiphos, quality 1 quilted linen cuirass and 3 denarii. Your options are then to take a large share of their supplies and to be generous take only an equitable share. Choosing an equitable share provides 10 virtue and you follow an elder inside his house. He will show you some greaves. If you fail an int check an interpreter will say they belong to his ancestor. The greaves cover 55 are quality 4 and have no penalty to quickness. Your options are to wear them right away or wait until you return to camp. I chose wear them right away. You will then be awarded one cup.

You might come across some not-so-well-hidden valuables while supervising the loading of supplies from inside one of the cellars. Your options will be to pocket the jewels or if your virtue is high enough to resist the temptation. Pocketing the jewels will decrease virtue by 5. If your virtue is too high you will hesitate too long and lose the opportunity.

Thread of Life Events

Two soldiers may be playing dice. Metellus turns on Volunsenus and accuses him of being a cheater. If the game says you are not sure whether he’s right or wrong you will have failed a hidden stat check. If you pass an intelligence check it will say Volusenus’ winning streak is not so far-fetched and that Metellus is notorius for his bad temper. If you then decide to choose Metellus despite not passing a stat check you may lose 5 troop opinion as everyone sides with Volunsenus. If you choose to defend Volunsenus after passing the intelligence check everyone will join his side and you will gain 5 troop opinion.

You may be stuck with an especially aggressive sparring partner Decius. You can complain, —, —. If you succeed at complaining he will offer an apology by raising his hand and change his attitude.

More and more soldiers in your camp may get stricken with a fever. A constitution and intelligence check means you stay healthy.

If you fail an awareness check you will sleep well last night. However you will lose 30 denarii and 2 morale after you get robbed.

Gaius Egilius was a carpenter before the war. He will start speaking ill of the centurion. Your options are to report him and just let him be. Choosing just let him be will increase virtue by 2.

The centurions and their optiones will be hard-pressed to make the maniple execute a complex maneuver. If you choose “step in, see if you can help” you will be presented with 2 options to be very harsh and be assertive. Choosing to be harsh is the easy path and will cause you to lose 3 troop opinion. There will be a follow up charisma and awareness check. Choosing to be assertive just goes straight to the charisma and awareness check. It will will provide 5 centurion opinion upon success. You will also have a chance to increase your mental stats.

You may give instructions on how to arrange a large quantity of seized goods for transport. A soldier will point out that you are doing things inefficiently. After you consider what he says you realize he has a point. Your choices are to listen to him, reprimand him for not knowing his place, and find a compromise to save face. Choosing to listen to him will increase virtue by 3. A charisma and intelligence check will occur. Upon success you will gain 1 troop opinion.

Epidius may boast about his wrestling skills. If you challenge him your options are to push him out immediately, try with a standard grip and use your speed and wits to wear him down. Pushing him out does a strength and constitution check. Trying a standard grip does a strength constitution check. Upon failure he will attempt to lift you. Holding on requires a constitution coordination check to be passed. He may also attempt to trip you which checks your coordination and awareness stats if you succeed you can either follow up now that he’s off balance or waiting for another opportunity. Trying speed and wits will require a quickness coordination and intelligence check. A hidden follow up option shows up when you try speed and wits provided you have high enough intelligence that checks quickness, awareness, coordination and strength where your character lures him to the edge of the arena by dodging his charge and pushing him out the square. Winning by 3 to 0 provides 7 troop opinion and 4 morale. Winning by 3 to 2 provides 4 troop opinion and 3 morale. Failing by — lowers troop opinion by 3 and morale by 1.

Part 1 Thread of Life Events

Potentially fully mapped events?

You may have the choice to spend 25 denarii on buying adequate clothing for winter or not buying anything. I recommend spending the 25 denarii. Not buying anything will require a constitution check passing it will still decrease your morale by 5.

Your soldiers will see you as a reliable and just leader if you pass a charisma and virtue check.

Provided you pass an endurance check you will get the following message. During marches and drills, you are always dynamic and full of energy. You gain 3 centurion opinion.

You will be told that more than a few soldiers look at you with suspicion if you fail a charisma and virtue check. You will lose 4 troop opinion.

You may have to face a particularly brutal practise opponent. Your choices are to complain, keep going and attempt a spectacular counterstrike. Complaining will require you to pass a charisma check. Failing will drop troop opinion by 2. Keep going requires a defense (shield) check which if failed does 11 health damage.

You may talk to Gavius and have an int check. Passing will let your character know that his people and yours used to be sworn enemies but now are trusted allies. Choosing the homesick option increases morale by 1. Choosing imperturbable requires you to pass a charisma check. Succeeding raises morale by 2.

You may be on guard duty and hear a strange noise. Investigating it and failing the int check will convince your character that the owl is a bad omen and you will lose 3 morale.

Quintus may be acting differently recently. Failing the charisma, intelligence and awareness check will have him snap at you. Your virtue will go up by two and troop opinion will go down by 3.

You may be gathering firewood and require a strength and endurance check. Upon passing the check your centurion and troop opinions will go up by 2 and 3 respectively.

There may be ladder drills. If you approach nonchalant and confident it will require an awareness check. With a hidden follow up check on your coordination and quickness which if passed results in your centurion opinion going up by 3. Choosing to be careful and concerned will result in losing 2 troop opinion and 2 centurion opinion.

You may be on a forced march and the man to your right runs out of water. You can give him some water or do nothing. Giving him water provides you with 3 troop opinion and 5 virtue. A follow up endurance check sees how good you are with reduced water intake. Choosing do nothing lowers your morale by 2.

Upon passing an intelligence check you will be told your ability to organize the guard is irreproachable, even when you are understaffed and have to fill the gaps. You gain 3 centurion and 1 proconsul opinion.

You may get sent out in a group of 20 to fight bandits if you are tessarius rank. There will be an intelligence and awareness check which will let you take advantage of cover. You will then have the option to put a leash on your men and seek help or to challenge the bandit leader to single combat. The bandit leader will be wearing a pectoral plate and sinew cap. His sword and shield skills are at 50% making it somewhat hard to land a hit. If you manage to defeat him you will get a 3/3 quality sword a quality 3 pectoral plate, a sinew cap and 6 denarii and you get awarded 1 cup.

You may find a soldier named Quartius asleep on duty when you are tessarius rank. He will offer you 100 denarii to forget about it. Your nearby soldiers will try to look at the ground. Your options are to have him court-martialed, refuse the bribe and give him another chance and to take the bribe. Court-martialling him will increase centurion opinion by 3. Refusing the bribe provides 3 troop opinion. Taking the bribe reduces virtue by 8. A successful follow up charisma check will ensure the witnesses don’t mention the incident in your presence. However word will reach your centurion and proconsul anyway whose opinions will drop by 5 and 2.

You may hear of a talented weaponsmith charging 125 denarii to make swords. You can accept or ask to see a few samples of his work to get an idea of his skill. You might have a hidden intelligence check when viewing his sample that might let you see that he is showing you a Celtiberian sword but he’s supposed to be an Iberian smith. Your options after this deception is to buy the sword anyway and leave. I leave at this point because he will make a 3/3 sword and I normally buy a 3/3 sword as part of my character start. If he is authentic he will make a 66 handiness sword that has crafting quality 4 and material quality 3 instead of a sword that is crafting quality 3 with materials quality 3 with only 60 handiness. If you feel like gambling after losing the hidden intelligence check or a 3/3 quality sword is good enough for you go ahead and pay the guy.

You may escort an ambassador to meet a local chieftain. There will be an option to try to help or stay quiet. If you try to help it will require a charisma check and upon success you will gain 4 centurion and 2 proconsul opinion. If you stay quiet one of the chieftains warriors will place his hand on his weapon hilt. If you stay still the ambassador will cool the situation down.

Your centurion may challenge you to Latrunculi. Choose try your best as winning will get you money and he will be pleased to have a worthy opponent. Losing means you lose 1 denarius. Winning gets you 3 centurion opinion, 3 morale and 1 denarius.

Your scouts may report that Libyan spearmen are ahead of you. Your options are to give them a wide berth, challenge their leader to single combat, stay behind and order your men to attack and lead the assault. Choosing to give them a wide berth says that you decide there’s no need to risk your men’s lives (and incidentally your own) in a meaningless attack. If you challenge their leader he will be wearing a helmet, quilted leather cuirass and maybe greaves. He will drop a quilted leather cuirass, a thracian helmet and 10 denarii. You will also gain a chance at increasing your mental attributes. Choosing to lead the assault will pit you against a Libyan spearman.

You may be escorting a quaestor in his daily routine. If you choose try to socialize and fail the charisma check your proconsul opinion will drop by 1 and your morale will drop by 2. If you are Tesserarius or Optio rank the game will say “You’re a lowly Tesserarius/Optio he has no need for your friendship.” which might indicate that if you get this event at a higher rank your chances of success are better but that is just conjecture on my part. If you pass the charisma check you gain 2 proconsul opinion. If you choose to focus on your duty rather than socialize you will gain 2 virtue provided you are a virtuous character. If you focus on duty as a non-virtuous person you will lose 2 morale.

You may dream about a vaguely familiar place. You will be surrounded by an olive grove and smoke is rising from a large city on the horizon. Your choices will be to take the path or move towards the city. Choosing the path will lead to a beach. You will fly over the waves. You will lose track of time and lose control over where you are going until you see an archipelago and an enormous island next to it. Hundreds of ships are attacking each other. Countless death cries will reach you. A successful intelligence check will reveal it as the battle of the Aegates and increase your morale by 3. If you choose to move towards the city you will be walking through Rome. There will be corpses everywhere and your family will be in chains. Failing a charisma and intelligence check causes you to lose 3 morale.

A slave may bump into you. If you choose to check whether he’s ok your virtue will increase by 3. if you kick him for his clumsiness your virtue will decrease by 5. You may have a follow up message notifying you that he was actually a thief and you will be missing 26 denarii.

Part 2 Thread of Life Events

You may be pelted with rocks. Trying to find the culprit will require an awareness check to be passed. If failed Rustius points to a figure withdrawing behind a nearby building. Catching him requires a quickness check. Once you catch him you can scare the kid straight with a charisma check. Troop opinion will go up by 3 if you can manage all that

A merchant may request an escort and offer you 20 denarii. Accepting declines your virtue by 3. You will arrive at your destination without issue and get 20 denarii.

Someone might propose to have a javelin throwing contest based on distance. There is a 3 denarii entry fee. It will do throwing and strength checks. Winning will get you 30 denarii, 5 troop opinion and 2 morale. If your javelin lands a couple of feet short of the best throw you gain 3 troop opinion.

Your troops may be in awe of you. Maintaining discipline will come as easily as the 3 and 2 troop and centurion opinion this event provides.

You may also find out that Gaius Antius has died and has a sturdy helmet that can be won in a foot race. It will be 1 quickness, a quickness and endurance, then an endurance quickness check for the third lap if you choose going at a steady pace 3 times. If you’re close to others winning the race there will be a fourth quickness endurance check. If you win you will get 5 troop opinion, 2 tribunes opinion and 3 morale. The helmet will be a quality 4 celtic helmet that only has a 2 penalty to awareness.

You may be given a lighter wheat ration. Complaining makes a charisma skill check which if passed increases morale by 3. Failing a charisma and strength check causes you to lose 2 troop opinion and 3 morale. I am not sure why strength only shows up on the failure.

Every time the Centurio Prior is not present and you have command of the maniple, he knows he can rely on you completely if you pass a charisma intelligence check. 3,5,1 opinion boost with troop, centurion and consul.

Scipio may be drilling the troops relentlessly. This will require an endurance check. If you fail your morale will go down by 3. If you pass there is a follow up charisma and intelligence check regarding your troops being battle ready. If you pass that you will gain 4 centurion opinion and 2 consul opinion.

Lucius Junius will bet 5 denarii that he can beat anyone dueling with swords. You can challenge him and he may remark that he won’t hold back based on your rank. If your virtue is high your character will expect nothing less. Your options are to go on the defensive or offensive. Considering how your sword skill should be your higher stat trying going on the offensive. This will require a weapon (sword) check. Succeeding will throw him off balance and give you 5 denarii and 5 troop opinion. Losing make you lose 7 health and 5 denarii.

You may run into a seer. If you pay 2 denarii and pass the intelligence check your character will show his cynicism that the seer is saying things that can be tailored to any outcome. If you fail your intelligence check your morale will increase by 7. If you decline to get your fortune told nothing happens.

Laetorius may tell you about how he survived the tragic battle at Cannae. Your options are to be sympathetic or cold and unmoved. Choosing sympathetic will give you 3 troop opinion.

Falcidius may end up trying to impress the camp with his dagger juggling. Your choices will be to try to imitate him, try to outperform him and just enjoy the show and relax. Trying to imitate him will require a coordination check and give 2 troop opinion upon success. If you choose to try and juggle 4 daggers it will require a coordination check. If you fail you take 2 damage.

Marcus Alfenus is a lazy and undisciplined soldier. Your choices are to confront your centurion in public, confront your centurion in private and let it go. Choosing to confront the centurion in public will result in 5 virtue. A follow up charisma check will be done. Upon failure you will lose 5 centurion opinion, gain 2 troop opinion and lose 3 morale. Choosing to confront your centurion in private will increase your virtue by 5. A follow up charisma check will lower your centurion opinion by 1 if you fail. If you are non-virtuous choosing let it go will further lower your virtue by 2.

Your patrol may be chasing a group of unarmed people they saw from afar. You will stumble across a Numidian warrior on the ground. Your options are to take him back to save his life or to abandon him and resume your chase. Choosing to save his life increases your virtue by 5 as well as increases your tribunes/centurion opinion by 3 and proconsul by 1. Choosing to abandon him and resume the chase causes you to lose 10 virtue. Upon catching them you will gain 3 morale and the option to steal something for yourself or this stuff belongs to the army now. Stealing something for yourself requires a quickness and coordination check. It will decrease your virtue by 5 and you will gain 78 denarii. You will gain 3 tribunes opinion and lose 5 morale.

There might be a merchant selling a brooch for 8 denarii. If you buy it and keep it you gain 5 morale. If you resell it you will get 100 denarii. If you pass a charisma check he instead offers 140 denarii for it.

While playing a game of Latrunculi with Balventius, you sacrifice one of your pawns to lure him into a trap. You feel uncomfortable for a moment. Your choices are to share your thoughts with Balventius or to let it go and focus on the game. Choosing to share your thoughts results in Balventius nodding and getting 1 troop opinion score. After passing an intelligence check you get another 1 troop opinion score for winning the game. Choosing to let it go and focus on the game will do a follow up intelligence check which if failed costs you the game.

You may come across a barrel chested Libyan heavy spearmen unit taunting you from high ground. You can choose to duel him on even ground or keep silent. If you keep silent you will lose 2 morale. He will swap out his spear for a large axe and you will gain 5 troop opinion. In battle he will be wearing a celtic helmet, reinforced linen Cuirass, and an axe with a reach of 3.

You may have to leave your marching column to answer a call of nature. Should you pass an awareness check you will find red stones marking a hallow tree trunk. If you choose to shove your hand inside you will find an envelope with 97 denarii.

You may have a nightmare about a fire in the night. It will decrease your morale by 4.

You may have to appoint a new tesserarius. Your options are Lucius Didius, Aulus Coponius and Quintus Sempronius. Choosing Lucius Didius increases virtue by 5. Choosing coponius will give 5 troop opinion and decrease tribunes opinion by 2. Choosing Quintus Sempronius will give 2 tribunes opinion.

You may have to build a bridge to cross a river. Your options are to help the engineers, do the grunt work and supervise while the rank and file does the work. Choosing to help the engineers and failing the intelligence check results in a 3 troop and 5 centurion opinion loss. Succeeding at helping the engineers will provide a 3 and 5 troop and centurion opinion boost as well as a 3 proconsul opinion boost. Choosing to do the grunt work will provide a 2 opinion boost to troops but decrease morale by 2. A follow up success on your strength and endurance when doing the grunt work will provide a further 3 troop opinion and 2 tribune opinion bonus. Otherwise failing the strength and endurance check says you do your share of the work, nothing more. Choosing to supervise while the rank and file do the work provides 1 morale.

You may see an Umbrian being picked on by soldiers. Choosing to join the veterans in tormenting the recruit will decrease your virtue by 3. You will get caught by a senior officer which will cause your centurions opinion to drop by 5, virtue to drop a further 3 and morale to drop 5. Looking the other way will cause virtue to decrease by 3 and morale by 5.

Part 3 Thread of Life Events

You may be crossing an irregular stony trail. A viper will be right next to your left foot. Your options are to attack it with your sword and to step away very carefully. Attacking it with your sword will require a weapon, quickness and coordination check. Upon success troop opinion goes up by 2. Backing away carefully with take a coordination check which upon succeeding the viper will slither away.

Your soldiers may recount tales at the campfire. If you chose not to tell any tales and fail the int check you will gain 2 morale.

Cavalry scouts may report the presence of a heavily guarded convoy. It will be accompanied by soldiers in chainmail called thorakitai. The rest of your raiding party will be too far away. If you fight with your current troops you will be against tough, well trained and well equipped opponents. Your choices are to attack or give up before trying as well as a hidden intelligence option where you remember an ideal ambush spot. Choosing risk everything has a secondary check asking whether you wish to attack or let them pass. You will open with a javelin throw and then start a fight versus two enemies. They will be wearing helmets and short chain mail. Another enemy will join on round 25. Beating them up will give 3 quality 3 short chain mail and 3 helmets along with 30 denarii. Your troop opinion will drop 5 but your tribune and consul opinion will increase by 5 and 3. Choosing the hidden intelligence option will say that the ground there will nullify their numerical advantage partially but the battle won’t be easy. Your options are then to attack or call off the plan. Choosing attack lets you open up with a javelin throw. Upon success you take out his shield and make him fall back and get 1 troop opinion and 2 morale. You will end up in a 1vs1 fight after that successful javelin throw. The enemy will have 10 points of height disadvantage. You will gain 3, 5 and 5 troop, tribune and proconsul opinion. The wagons will have silver, iron, gold and a small bar of strange metal. Its like iron by has wavy streaks you’ve never seen before. You will take the prisoners and cargo back to camp. You will be awarded 250 denarii from the consul and get 5 morale. If your reputation with him is high enough he will gift you with the ingot strange metal. You take it to the best weaponsmith you know of. If your virtue is high enough he will talk about seric iron. He will say that he was happy to be of service to someone as high-principled as you. You will have to go to your inventory to equip the 6/8 Seric Iron Gladius. If your virtue is too low he will look at it and say he has no idea what kind of metal it is and offer you 50 denarii. If you pass an awareness check you will know that he knows what kind of metal it is and haggle him to 350 denarii. Your choices will then be to take the money and demand he tells you all he knows, threaten him if necessary. Choosing to demand he tell you and threatening him will decrease your virtue by 8. If you then pass a charisma check he will tell you it is seric iron. It will only be a quality 4/8 Seric Iron Gladius. With this weapon in hand you can 3 shot end game enemies that wear quilted linen cuirass if you target their crotch. This is much more reliable than trying to land a neck shot.

Your independent thinking and decisiveness make you stand out during drills. If you pass this check on your intelligence and awareness you get 3 consul opinion.

You may have the opportunity to buy a cape. Your options being to pay the exorbitant price, try to haggle the price down and not buy it. Buying it will increase your morale by 5, and increase opinions by 4, 2 and 1 for your troops, centurion and proconsul.

There may be an overturned cart. Ignoring them causes you to lose 1 virtue.

There may be a discussion between your comrades regarding whether the earth is round. Your choices will be to provide your opinion or to stay silent. If you choose to provide your opinion you can then agree that the earth is flat, agree the earth is round or change your mind and stay quiet. If you agree the earth is round it will require an intelligence check which upon failing troop opinion drops by 1. If you succeed at convincing them the earth is round you will gain 3 troop opinion. if you agree with the majority it will require an easier intelligence check which upon success will increase troop opinion by 1 and decrease virtue by 1.

Part 9? There will be a Thracian auxillary named “The Bulwark” who is a seven and a half foot tall warrior who will challenge you to fight. If you pass an int check you will realize that out in the open his mace would give him an advantage over your sword. Your options being to take him on or decline. Should you decline a warrior named Gaius Curtius Rufus will offer to fight the guy. If you let him fight his head will be crushed and you will lose 5 morale. You then get the option to avenge Rufus or continue to not fight. If you choose to make him stay within ranks there are no penalties for choosing not to fight the guy from what I could tell. If you choose to fight the guy after Gaius Curtius Rufus dies you will gain 5 morale. You take note that he has a rhomphaia strapped to his back and doesn’t have any javelins and troop opinion will increase by 7. He will have 0 fatigue despite the earlier fight with Gaius Curtius Rufus. His strength and constitution scores are maxed. He will be wearing a Phrygian Bearded Helmet, Thracian Cuirass and greaves along with his 3 reach mace and shield. Defeating him will drop his quality 3 Thracian Cuirass which only has 80 torso coverage and 50 groin coverage, quality 4 Phrygian Bearded Helmet, quality 4 greaves, 109 denarii and one cup.

If the consul holds you in high opinion he will offer to let you train with an old gladiator master who is part of his retinue. It will let you train in sword, shield and javelin. Choosing sword will increase your sword skill by 3 and an additional 1 if you have natural talent (im not sure if this is from having high sword skill or the 3600 point skill you buy on character creation)

A mysterious camp follower will approach you and say he may have a job for you, something your bosses would not approve. He knows you are the kind of person he is looking for and promises your purse will be filled with silver. Your options are interested and not interested. Choosing interested involves helping take something out of the camp. You will get 250 denarii for your trouble. You will lose 5 virtue. You can then accept or ask for more. Choosing ask for more will cause a charisma check. Upon success you haggle the deal to 400 denarii. 3 days from now, one hour after dawn, a cart is going to leave by the main gate. All you have to do is make sure it is allowed to pass unchecked. You do what he requests and get your 400 denarii and lose 10 virtue.

You may run into a group of scutarii by a stream and if your awareness is high enough you will notice one of them is a chieftain wearing chain mail. Your choices are to challenge any of them to a duel or say its not worth your time. Choosing to challenge any of them to a duel after failing the awareness check results in a large warrior trying to surprise you with a javelin but his aim leaves something to be desired. Choosing to challenge any of them to a duel after passing the awareness check results in that same large warrior trying to surprise you with a javelin and his aim still leaves something to be desired. You will fight a scutarius. Winning will get you a 3/3 sword, a sinew cap and 6 denarii. Your fatigue will be reset. If you issue another challenge another man will come forward. He won’t be as massive as the guy you just fought but he is covered in chainmail. Defeating him awards you with a quality 3 chainmail, a quality 4/4 gladius hispaniensis and a quality 3 celtic helmet.

Part 1 New Carthage, Hispania

Preparation Phase

The game will provide back story on Rome and how Scipio’s son stepped forward to be appointed proconsul.

Your goal is to get your sword level to at least 37 before the war starts. Keep in mind that you will get 2 free javelin training, 2 free sparring and 2 free workout sessions each preparation phase. By free I mean they don’t increase your stress level when done. Choose solo practice under training until your over-exercise stress level becomes yellow. Once it is yellow go to misc and choose offer sacrifice. This should give you 20 morale if your intelligence is below 60. Morale affects your effectiveness is combat and it is generally preferable to go into combat with superb morale. Do some patrols in misc or hang around in leisure to lower your stress. Do some more solo practice. Do a “have fun” under leisure which will turn 10 denarii into 5 morale the first time and 10 denarii into 4 morale the second time per preparation phase anything beyond that starts lowering virtue. Once you achieve your goal of 37 sword or more I recommend doing 2 workouts. Just do some evenly to raise your stats.

You will get thread of your life events throughout your training. These will provide various benefits and downfalls based on your stats.

Choose move on once your time runs out.

War Phase

The camp will burst into activity and you end up in New Carthage.

Throw your javelin into the enemy ranks. If you miss embarrassingly you will suffer 2 troop opinion loss as well as lose 2 morale. You will then get to the battle screen. You will want to have an aggressive attitude when fighting a single enemy and a defensive attitude when using respite or recover. Set your character to aggressive and throw your javelin at the militiaman. Then providing your H sword bar for a torso attack is at 60 – 75% start attacking his torso. If your enemy misses and loses some of his blue stance bar go for an attack on his head. If you miss you should set your stance to defensive and use recover. Each kill you get will add +1 to your troop and centurion opinions as well as 2 morale. At round 16-18 you will be notified that the battle situation is shifting. This means (for this fight at least) that you either better get a killing blow soon or defend more as this skirmish will end soon. In other battles it means that you may be rotated out to recover 1 level of fatigue before having to fight again. Once you get high enough rank you can choose to stay in combat up to 3 times. Battle will end in this instance at the end of 3 rounds after you are notified. So if you are notified on round 16 this section of combat ends at the end of round 19. (I am including these numbers in case you didn’t read my tips section)

Your first war skill check (I dont consider the javelin check as counting) will come up where it will check your defense (shield), weapon (sword), strength and constitution values. If they’re high enough you will get an easier mission to complete where you walk through water to attack a portion of the walls. Otherwise you’re stuck with the schlubs who get to risk their lives rushing up the ladders. You will get an offer from your centurion of a portion of his reward should he be the first to make it up the walls. Seeing how I normally take no damage in the first portion I normally choose the “Do your best to help the centurion” option. If you decide to risk your life you will face a quickness, coordination and awareness check. I don’t know if passing this check will reduce the difficulty of your defence check. If you get hit it will check your shield (defence) value. I had my health get decreased by 15 one time. And if you get hit once you will get hit the second time for about 7 health. Despite failing to help your centurion (because lets face it you will fail) your centurion’s opinion will still go up by 5. If you chose just try to stay alive you will have a single defense (shield) check and if you fail you get hit for roughly 9 damage.

You will then have to face either another militiaman or an expert militiaman. If you’re fighting an expert militiaman defend until your reinforcements come otherwise try for torso hits and head hits when his stance lowers and recovering when your stance depletes. On round 7-9 you will get 2 legionaries that will join your side. You will get to choose after combat whether to feel elation or pity on the militiaman’s death. Elation gives 3 morale and pity gives 2 virtue. Virtue affects whether you gain or lose morale on various events, what decisions are available to you and when/if you eventually become a leader what your troops think of you. One such choice within this war phase is whether to loot now or after the fighting is done. If you have low virtue you can choose “Take a chance to sneak away in search of a quick profit.”(although I do not recommend choosing it on your first couple of playthroughs as you will face 2 expert militiamen) It will say at the first opportunity you slip out unnoticed and come across a craftsman’s workshop. As you search a man and a woman will show up from another door across the room. At first they look frightened but then start shouting at you. You can then give up and leave or scare them off. If you choose scare them off the man is easily scared but the woman will grab something off a shelf and throw it at you. This will prompt a defense check which if failed causes 5 hp of damage. You can then leave empty handed or attack them. Attacking them will decrease virtue by 40 and provide you with 150 denarii. You will then have to fight two expert Carthaginian militiamen. You will gain a further 20 denarii from their corpses. You will then run as fast as you can to the rally point.

Your final part of this war is choosing whether to take up the proconsul’s offer of a more than doubled loot share in exchange for volunteering to assault the last bastion. I recommend choosing back off for this as it pits you against a garrison mercenary who has armour, a helmet and a 5 point height advantage when you may have already taken quite a bit of damage just getting up the walls. Your chance to hit will probably be in the 35% range even with full stance and aggressive attitude so just have a defensive or balanced attitude. You will gain 5 troop opinion, 8 centurion opinion and 2 consul opinion for choosing to assault and his reward is 100 denarii later on in the fight. You will get a chance to throw a javelin prior to fighting. The second rotation enemy will have 25-50% fatigue.

With the fighting over you will gain 8 morale, 80 denarii if you don’t take up the proconsul’s offer, 100 denarii for participating in the citadel assault, 5 sword shield and javelin skill and an additional 1 sword shield and javelin skill if your deeds take you one step further. You will get promoted to Tesserarius if you participated in the citadel fight and killed enough units.

Part 2 War in Baecula, Hispania

Preparation Phase

You’re back at camp now. I think you recover half your hp upon returning to camp and you lose 5 morale to heal 15 hp damage left after that. Do your leisure activities and extra guarding when your stress gets too high. Preferably doing extra guarding or training/working out with yellow stress when your morale is maxed. Feel free to do extra patrolling near the beginning when you can recover from any bad encounters. You should have enough for a quilted linen cuirass and a 3/3 sword if this is one of your first playthroughs.

If you went up in rank you should now start to get foraging minigames once per preparation phase while at camp.

War Phase

This section has a split path of whether you go up a slope and get harrased by horsemen or missles. You will get horsemen if the game says your maniple is kept in reserve.

Attacked by Horsemen

It will be over a year since the capture of New Carthage. Eventually you will end up climbing a slope and a cavalryman harasses you with javelins. You can either respond with a javelin or keep marching. Should you choose to retaliate with the javelin and miss there might be a defence (shield) check based on how badly you missed with your javelin. I managed to get hit on my armour it absorbed 10 damage. If you hit the cavalryman with the javelin you will gain 6 troop opinion, 4 centurion opinion and 7 morale. If you choose to keep marching there will still be a defense (shield) check but it may be a lower check threshold to pass. They will recall their troops and ride away after this attack. You will face an endurance check while climbing the slope. If the endurance check is failed you will be fighting with almost 1 level of fatigue.

This fight can feature you and one other legionary versus a libyan spearman, a one on one fight vs a Gallic Mercenary and I believe I once had a 2 on 2 fight here. Feel free to spam respite during any of these fights if you failed that endurance check. At any rate you should notice that your chance to hit is considerably lower than versus those militiamen from part 1. This is because the enemy has a more shield value. The spearman will also be wearing armour covering his torso and legs so you won’t do much damage to him on those parts. You can view more details on the enemy by clicking on them. You will want to do some feints to lower the spearman’s stance so you and your buddy have a better chance of hitting if it turns out to be a 2vs1 fight. Remember to change your stance to aggressive. If an opportunity presents itself to get a hit in (such has hes at 30% stance) don’t bother hitting his torso as his armour will have pretty good coverage. Instead go for a soft spot head attack. If you need a semi reliable way of dealing damage (and one that increases his fatigue) aim for his arms. Combat should end on round 18-21 with the enemy routing. Should you fight the Gallic Mercenary his weapon will have a debuff for being in a confined space. So he will have a hard time hitting you but his defense stat is still fairly high.

Attacked with Arrows

It will be over a year since the capture of New Carthage. Eventually you will end up climbing a slope and a shower of missles will rain down on you. A defense (shield) check will be made. Following that the man next to you will stumble. Your options are to support him before he falls and to keep going. If you manage to successfully support him there won’t be a defense check as his shield will protect you. Choosing to keep going will drop your virtue by 3 and cause you to do another defense (shield) check as his shield won’t be there to protect you. You will lose about 8 hp if you fail the second defense check.

A unit of caetrati will be waiting at the top. Throw your javelin at the enemy ranks. The caetratus you fight will be wearing a sinew cap and you will have an 10 point disadvantage to your stance due to the enemy having the higher ground. Target his torso. Eventually combat will end and you will start throwing rocks at the enemy. Then the enemy will descend into chaos after getting surrounded.

You will be presented with 2 options regardless of the previous split in combat opponents. Your choices are to split up and to stay with a large group. Splitting up and searching a tent will provide you with an opportunity to gain extra money if you feel like trying to shortchange the army of loot and provided you pass a charisma check with Nasidius. He will want to hand over a bracelet to the legion. Your options are to say that’s exactly what he’s supposed to do, propose to keep it for yourselves and sell it later and if you have low enough virtue (like from attacking that couple in the war phase of the first part of the game) to attack him and take the loot. The bracelet is worth 120 denarii if you keep it for yourselves. Saying that’s what he’s supposed to do does nothing. Attempting to persuade him to keep it for yourselves will reduce virtue by 5 regardless of outcome. Failing the charisma check to keep it for yourselves lowers troop opinion by 5. Success on the charisma check gets you 120 denarii. Attacking him and taking the loot will do a weapon, quickness and coordination check which if successful decreases virtue by 40 and you will gain 242 denarii. Staying with the large group will end up with you bumping into a small group of men and women who have weapons. If you are the highest ranking legionary present you can try to quiet things down, give the order to attack or let things run their course. Trying to quiet things down requires a charisma check and upon success confers an immediate 3 troop opinion bonus, 5 virtue and later on gives 2 proconsul opinion. Failing to quiet things down will result in losing 2 opinion with your centurion. Being no rank means you can only let things run their course.

Hasdrubal will escape the army and the proconsul will refuse to give chase leaving the army frustrated. Your character will lose or gain morale based on your intelligence. You will gain 30-50 denarii. Your sword, shield and javelin skills should rise by 4.

Part 3 War in Celtiberian and Carthaginian Camps, Hispania

Preparation Phase

If you’ve made charisma your dump stat you will probably start to regret that from here on out as your troop opinion affects the level of sparring you can do reliably. Thankfully training your javelin is still available and is only limited by your coordination stat.

War Phase

When the third spring in these lands comes war will begin again. Rome will be in control of most of eastern Hispania. You may have an endurance and charisma check during a forced march. Passing it will increase troop and centurion opinions by 4. Failing it causes you to lose 2 morale. Silanus will form scouting teams. Should you volunteer and subsequently take the risk it will involve a quickness, coordination and awareness check. Should you pass that check it will involve an awareness and intelligence check to remember the camp details and communicate it to your superior officer. Should you succeed you have a chance at improving your mental attributes. if you choose not to take the risk it will require an awareness and intelligence check. Upon failing that you can only corroborate in broad terms what the guides already told you.

On your way back there will be an awareness check. Should you pass it you will hear a fight in progress. If you run towards the noise it will require a quickness check. Passing that will provide you with the option of joining a fight in progress which will be a 2 vs 3 fight or waiting for your companions. The game awards 10 virtue for joining the fight without hesitation. I haven’t chosen wait for your companions before when reaching the fight in time but I know that after the 2 vs 3 fight is over one of your companions has a twisted ankle. That being said if you fail the initial quickness check your companion doesn’t twist his ankle and you end up in a 3 vs 3 fight instead. The 2 vs 3 fight is one of the only few situations in the game where you are rewarded with a civic crown as well as 8 and 4 troop opinion and 8 centurion opinion and 4 proconsul opinion. If any of your companions die during the 3 vs 3 fight each death provides you with a 10 morale loss. If you fight the 3 enemies they will be 3 caetratus with sinew cap helmets. Target their torso with your attacks and target their groin when their stance is a bit depleted from a failed attack. You will be awarded sinew caps if you get the killing blow along with a total of 63 denarii when you do the 2 vs 3 fight. You will get cups for each enemy you land a killing blow on.

If you fail to notice the previously mentioned fight going on you will have a hidden intelligence check to determine that the enemy base got alerted after they detected some of your scouts. The ground might be very difficult there and it will disrupt your formation. You might become separated from your maniple while passing through a patch of undergrowth. An enemy vanguard will reach you right at this time and many duels spark off. If you see the above text minus the intelligence check there you will be presented with the option to hurl a javelin to interrupt an enemy or defend vs their javelin. I chose defend because I usually neglect my javalin skill until late game. You will then be put into a 2vs2 fight. Otherwise it will be a standard throw into the ranks vs targeting an enemy. If your throwing skill is below 40 just target the group. You will then be put into a 1vs1 fight with a libyan light infantryman who gets reinforced when he dies with either a scutarius or inexperienced scutarius. You will get rotated out then fight another 1vs1 with a libyan light infantryman who gets reinforced when he dies with either a scutarius or inexperienced scutarius. If you don’t manage to kill that libyan light infantryman you should get rotated out and fight an inexperienced scutarius.

Your morale will increase by 5 upon capturing Hanno. Your sword, shield and javelin will increase by 2 and 1 for your skills increasing in battle and if you do enough deeds.

Part 4 Battle of Ilipa, Hispania

Preparation Phase

Your morale will increase by 5 upon hearing that Hasdrubal’s army has been defeated before it could regroup with Hannibal at about 75% time left. Focus on working out and raising troop opinion if your troop opinion is still low. If you’re an optio you can do extra coaching now which doesn’t have the associated risks of lowering morale. I recommend buying a Reinforced Linen Cuirass or short chain mail if you have the money for either. Chainmail costs between 600 – 2000 denarii. Short Chain Mail costs roughly 450 – 578. Reinforced Linen Cuirass costs roughly 481. Quilted Linen Cuirass costs about 100. All of which are better than a Pectoral Plate. Chain mail of the quality that costs between 600-800 covers the same area as the reinforced linen cuirass but provides a bit more protection on the hit which is a bit overkill. If you do buy chainmail later on try to buy a set that has arm protection. The highest arm coverage I have seen is 27 on a piece that cost 1542. The arm coverage doesn’t seem to be tied to the material quality.

War Phase

You will be fighting Hasdrubal and Mago’s army of Carthage. There will be text about the cavalry fighting each other. Eventually a Numidian horseman will be able to be challenged. Choose the “don’t leave the safety of the formation” option if this is one of your first playthroughs. Otherwise if you’re high enough rank (Optio or higher) your choices will be to make the last line of the maniple form a shield wall or face him yourself. Choosing to form a shield wall will require a charisma check which passed causes nothing to happen. Choosing to fight him as an optio causes you to lose 3 centurion opinion and gain 7 troop opinion. You can then use your javelin like a spear or rely on your sword. Using your javelin like a spear will cause a weapon, defense, intelligence check which when failed causes you to lose 24 hp if he finds an opening. Succeeding with your javelin means he can’t charge headlong at you and you then attempt a counterstrike. A follow up weapon check is done. If you succeed this second weapon check to counterstrike you will hit him square in the chest and he dies. You then get 6 troop, 4 centurion, 7 morale and one cup. If you fail on the counterstrike he will avert your attack with his shield and rides past controlling his horse with just his legs and you gain 2 morale. Relying on your sword causes a weapon and defense check which when failed causes you to lose 8 hp. He will try to trample you with his horse if you fail but some of your maniple will come forward to protect you. On success with the sword check it will say that you skillfully deflect his lunge as he rides past but your weapon is too short to counterattack. He will then acknowledge your boldness with a motion of his head and pull away and you will gain 2 morale. Nothing else eventful will happen.

If your intelligence is too low you will fail a check and lose 3 morale due to the lack of fighting going on. If you pass that int check your character will wonder why Scipio has changed tactics and gain 3 morale when you see the formation change. You will regain 3-13 hp if you tried to fight the horseman. You will lose another 3 morale when your maniple loses cohesion if you’re low rank otherwise it will require a charisma and awareness check to pass the complex maneuver. There may be dialogue here about one of the elephants losing its rider and rushing to your direction. Your options being to maintain discipline and attack the elephant with your javelin. Choosing to maintian discipline requires a charisma check which when passed provides 2 centurion opinion. Choosing to attack with your javelin requires a javelin check. Failing it makes you lose 5 morale. You may get 5 morale if you passed that earlier intelligence check and you will know that you are going to face light troops as well as knowing that the enemy had no time to eat this morning due to the surprise attack.

You should have a javelin score of about 44 at this point so feel free to pick off a specific target to get a chance at an opinion boost with your troops and increasing your own morale. Failing to hit doesn’t do anything provided it was a good enough throw. You will fight a Caetratus and you should have a decent hit chance against him. He shouldn’t have armour defending his torso so hit that. You will be rotated out once and have to fight more enemies.

If you’re low enough rank you will then be presented with an option to fight vs enemies on a slope or hold back. Choose hold back and lose 2 virtue. If you instead choose to fight it will be a fight where you have a 10 point disadvantage on height and the enemy will be a libyan spearman wearing a helmet, armour and greaves. I recommend fighting defensively until his stance drops and then targeting his arms. Otherwise, if you’re high enough rank you will just supervise while the fighting goes on. On your way back the visibility may be poor. Your options will be to bring back legionaries going astray or letting them find their way on their own. Choosing to bring them back increases virtue by 3. You will have a follow up awareness intelligence check where if you pass you gain 3 troop opinion if you’re high enough rank. If you fail the awareness and intelligence check you lose sight of everyone. You will stumble around for hours and run into a wiry scutarius. Your optoins are to let him go and attack. When choosing attack he will hurl his spear at you prompting a defense awareness check. You both will have 10 points of adverse terrain affecting your stance. He will drop a 3/3 sword, a sinew cap, 6 denarii and you will be awarded 1 cup. A party of Italic soldiers gets close. You will explain what happened and go back with them to camp.

You will gain 10 morale for defeating Hasdrubal and Mago despite them escaping. You may gain an increase to your mental skills if you’re high enough rank. You will gain 2 and 1 sword, shield and javelin skill based on you fighting in a real battle and your deeds. You will have the option to enlist and having enough which ends the game. Choose enlist. Having enough of the war gives a small bonus to your score for living but ends your playthrough for that character. Your consul’s opinion of you will increase by 2 if you re-enlist. Your opinion with your centurion will increase depending on your consul’s opinion of you. I had one run where it only increased by 2 because my int was in the 40s causing numerous failures to organize the guard. Another run I went up 34 opinion. You might get promoted from optio to centurion posterior to centurion prior if you perform well enough.

Part 5 Utica, Africa

Preparation Phase

More training and working out. You may also be sitting on a big pile of denarii at this point so you may want to spend it on equipment if you didn’t follow my instructions to do so in part 4. If you’re optio rank you now have the option of doing extra coaching to raise troop and centurion opinion.

War Phase

Scipio’s year as consul is over. A thick fog will envelop you while you’re on the fleet. A choice will show up to cheer up the troops or do nothing. Successfully passing the charisma check provides you with — troop morale. If you fail to cheer up the troops their opinion of you will drop and you lose morale. Doing nothing just causes you to lose 3 morale. You can then choose to lead the assault or stay behind versus enemies on a tall fence. If you choose to lead the assault you will end up with a 22 point disadvantage to your stance versus 2 militiamen with spears and no armour. One or both may turn out to be an expert militiaman depending on your playthrough. Thankfully their sword and shield values are low. Feel free to do head attacks to them if the hit chance is high enough. Should you kill them quickly enough you will gain 3 troop opinion, 3 centurion opinion and 2 proconsul opinion. I think the latest you can get this opinion boost is turn 8 but I could be wrong. If you choose to stay behind you will try not to expose yourself and you get told that it shouldn’t be long before the fighting is over.

You will be presented with a choice to get into the large building in front of you and to enter the house to the right. The large building never seems to contain anything… at least until you pass a hidden intelligence check which boosts your centurion’s opinion of you by 1 for finding wax tablets that seem to hold an inventory. The house option has a trapdoor which requires an awareness check to find 2 kids and their mother. If you grant her wish you end up getting 10 virtue by selling her into slavery but sparing her kids (how virtuous). You can then leave some food behind for the kids for an additional 4 virtue. If you choose to warn the others of your find you will gain 2 troop opinion and lose 10 virtue. If you fail your awareness check in the house to the right you don’t find anything.

Your group will get ambushed on its way to another raid and you should regain about 6 hp prior to the ambush fight. You will have to hold out until cavalry arrives. The game presents 2 options to either stay in the ranks or go straight for the leader. A third option will show up if you are a centurion to keep the ranks in close order and resist until help comes. If you choose go straight for the leader you will have to fight 2 libyan light infantrymen. One of them will have a helmet and they will have better skills compared to those two militiamen you fought earlier. Feel free to throw a javelin at one of them. They should be fairly easy if you have 60 sword and 59 shield like I did at this point of writing this walkthrough. I usually don’t opt to follow through on fighting the leader since there is no rest in between. If you decide to fight the leader he will have fairly high defense (shield) skill and is wearing a helmet and armour whereas you start the fight with whatever fatigue you ended the last fight with and it will be a fight to the death (of you most likely if this is one of your first playthroughs). If you beat him you will get a 4/4 gladius Hispaniensis, a light celtic helmet quality 4, a quilted linen cuirass quality 0, 3 denarii, and at the end of this war phase 3 cup awards. If you instead chose to stay within the ranks you just end up fighting 1v1 versus a libyan light infantryman with no helmet or armour. He will get reinforced upon death.

Feel free to pick off a specific target when throwing your javelin for that opinion and morale boost. You will end up fighting a libyan spearman (with 8 points of ground advantage and yourself having fully restored fatigue if you beat up the leader in that previous engagement). He will have a helmet and armor consisting of a back and breast plate as well as greaves. If this is one of your first playthroughs just try to survive by staying defensive in attitude and only leaving that stance to aggresively feint after his stance drops. If its not one of your first playthroughs try to attack his arms when his stance drops. You will rotate to the back of the troop and then re-engage in combat. Your cavalry will arrive and force the enemy to retreat.

You will gain 115-235 denarii (based on rank) and 3 morale. You will also gain 1 and 1 sword, shield and javelin skills for fighting in a real battle and for your deeds.

Part 6 Utica, Africa

Preparation Phase

Numidian horsemen will join the army. This will provide 3 morale near the start of your downtime which will be useful if you took considerable damage and are taking morale damage. The upcoming war phase will thankfully be easier than previous encounters which will give you a nice reprieve if your morale is still low if you fought that leader and didn’t do very well.

Scipio will order the siege to be abandoned causing you to lose 3 morale with 25% of the time left.

War Phase

Scipio will try to negotiate with Hasdrubal and syphax to buy time. The next part varies based on what your rank is. If you’re low rank (below optio) you will be leading a patrol and you can make your men stand down or force a confrontation. Making your men stand down requires a successful charisma challenge to be passed and gives you 2 virtue and 2 opinion with your centurion and 1 with the proconsul. Forcing a confrontation will lower virtue by 8 and decrease your centurion and proconsul’s opinions by 2 and 1. In the forced confrontation fight you will be fighting a single numidian light infantryman which is easily cut down. After the forced confrontation you and your men will be put on rations of barley which will decrease your centurions and proconsuls opinions by 5 and 2. Your morale will decrease by 10. If you do manage to become part of the infiltration team you have a chance of getting the Master Spy achievement for fully scouting the Numidian camp. If you choose to keep a very low profile it will require an awareness and intelligence check to be passed. Upon success you will get 2 proconsul opinion as you learn a lot of how things work and how their shortcomings can be exploited. Upon failure it will simply say other centurions have been more successful. If you choose to wander about the camp taking risks to spy it requires a charisma and intellect check to be passed. Followed up by awareness and intellect to learn the camp’s vulnerabilities this will net you 5 proconsul opinion if you succeed. If you fail the charisma and intelligence check you lose 2 proconsul opinion.

If your virtue is too high you will lose 5 morale for butchering the enemy while their buildings burn.

You will then enter a fight which ends up being you and 2 legionaries versus a single carthaginian levy soldier. He will have a helmet and will wear armor on his torso. Feel free to feint and even use your shield to knock or charge if the hit chance is high enough. He will get reinforced upon death.

An awareness check will initiate while you are supervising the horde of people trampling each other to get out. A subsequent intelligence and awareness check will follow to see if you notice one of the people is wearing fancy clothing. There is quite a bit of play here based on your rank on whether you get a say on keeping them alive or killing them. If it says your superior orders them to be killed you can convince him not to kill them with a charisma check. If you take them prisoner after identifying them as important you gain 5 centurion and proconsul opinion and 225-375 denarii.

You will gain 160-200 denarii and 8 morale. No skill increases this time as there was barely any fighting?

Part 7 Campi Magni, Africa

Preparation Phase

You have reduced time to do actions here.

War Phase

Hasdrubal convinces Syphax not to give up.

You can volunteer to scout the surrounding area. If you choose not to scout there will be an option to bet on whether Hasdrubal will be captured, whether he will escape again or not bet anything with Helvius. I bet he would escape again. Should you choose to scout you will go out with Publius Arrius. You will run into a Carthaginian soldier near a shallow brook. You can challenge him to a duel or scare him off. Challenging him to a duel makes you lose 5 virtue. You will fight a Carthaginian levy soldier. He will have a helmet and armour. Focus on hitting his arms. He will drop his 0 quality Quilted Linen Cuirass which has 100 torso and 90 groin coverage with 8 damage protection, a 3/3 gladius and a quality 3 thracian helmet as well as 4 denarii. The helmet will protect your head quite well its just that it has an awareness penalty of 6 instead of your helmet’s penalty of 2. After beating him in a duel you will lose 2 troop opinion. You will also be awarded a cup. Also if your virtue is high you will lose 5 morale. Scaring him off requires a weapon (sword) check. This will provide 5 virtue and 3 troop opinion.

The next day will have a group of retreating velites get pinned down. Chosing to intervene will get you 12 virtue and face you off against 3 Syphax’s veterans who have no armour. If your virtue is low enough you will regret your snap decision and lose 8 morale. I recommend to stay where you are as facing 5 warriors fight is quite tough. If you decide to fight them anyways I recommend staying in balanced attitude and hitting whichever enemy has the lowest stance. Thankfully they have no armour. If you defeat them you will get 45 denarii. Rescuing the wounded velite afterwards will require a strength and quickness check. If successful you will gain 10, 8 and 6 troops, centurion and proconsul opinion and a civic crown. When failed you will have to choose between protecting the injured veles from a horseman or watching out for yourself. Choosing to watch out for yourself leaves the injured guy dead. You will be awarded 5 cups for fighting those enemies. You may recover roughly 7 hp if you took damage.

There will be a tough looking chieftain. The only option available here is to let the situation continue and not risk your neck on another skirmish if you are too low rank (optio rank is too low). If you are high enough rank the option to challenge the chieftain to combat becomes available. He will attempt an attack with a spear which will require a defense check. Upon passing you successfully deflect it. You will then enter combat with a Chieftain Scutarius. He will have a sinew cap and chainmail and now be using a sword instead of his spear. I recommend hitting his legs with attacks when his stance gets low. He will drop a quality 3 chainmail, a 4/5 quality sword, a sinew cap, 6 denarii and a cup.

You will regain a further 3 hp if you have taken damage. Hope that your awareness lets you find an officer and hurl that javelin. You will have to take the centurion’s place in the fight if you are optio or lower rank. You will be fighting a veteran Scutarius. He will have a helmet and either a pectoral plate or back and breast plate on his torso. Focus on his groin if the hit chance is good enough. You will either rotate out once and have to fight again or be presented the option of staying and fighting if you’re high enough rank. This next veteran Scutarius should have high fatigue. Feel free to attack his legs provided hit chance is good enough.

When you are ransacking the enemy camp you may notice two soldiers of your maniple stealing and keeping stuff for themselves (this may be rank based). Your options are to turn a blind eye, ask for a bribe and report them. Turning a blind eye decreases virtue by 5. Asking for a bribe (as an optio) will decrease troop opinion by 2, virtue by 10 and you will gain 60 denarii. Reporting them gives you 2 centurion opinion, removes 2 troop opinion and gives you 3 virtue.

Hasdrubal will go back to Carthage and with that you should win that 5 denarii bet if you bet he escapes again. (Let me know if you get a different ending). You should get 8 morale and 1 and 1 sword, shield and javelin skill for fighting a real battle and depending on your deeds.

Part 8 Zama, Africa Preparation Phase

You will beseige a city. You will have the option to have your say in building the ladder length. It depends on your int I believe but you won’t see a int check for this. You will only know of its result once the ladders are deployed. You will have the option of going for the mural crown yourself, helping your centurion and just doing your job depending on your rank. As an optio you will have to ask for permission to join the fighting. I usually choose to help the centurion. This will require you to pass a quickness, coordination and awareness check which if you succeed and it says you are so quick and nimble they can’t take am from the ramparts there won’t be a follow up defense check. Otherwise, it will follow up with a defense (shield) check. You will then have to fight 2 militiamen with a 42 point height disadvantage and I think the amount of enemies you fight total depends on whether you’re going for the mural crown or not. With the total being 6 enemies that you have to fight if you’re aiming for the mural crown. If you are Centurion posterior you have the option of going for the crown yourself. If you are Centurion Prior rank you can go for the mural crown yourself with your mantiple’s help which will involve a charisma check to see whether your troops are helping you. The situation will change around round 60. I successfully completed on round 21 and got 7 troop opinion, 5 tribunes opinion, 4 proconsul opinion, the mural crown and 450 denarii. I think the latest I have succeeded was round 31. If you play a central role in helping your centurion succeed as a lower rank you will get 12 centurion opinion and he will award you 150 denarii.

Your centurion may claim to be the first to scale the wall and you will clearly see that he wasn’t. One of your options is to testify against him and the second option is to do nothing. Should you testify against your centurion you will gain 8 virtue and 10 proconsul opinion while losing 20 centurion opinion. If your proconsul likes you enough you may get assigned to another maniple to negate that centurion penalty. This will provide a 30 centurion opinion bonus. If you choose to do nothing your virtue will decrease by 5 for withholding the truth. If your virtue is low enough you can lie and testify on his behalf. This options decreases virtue by 8, increases centurion opinion by 12 and you gain 150 denarii from him.

Later on you will get additional denarii based on your rank for the sacking of the enemy camp and capture of nearby enemy cities. I got 730 denarii as a Centurio Prior and as low as 490 on another run. Syphax being captured will provide 2 morale.

Part 8 Zama, Africa War Phase

Hannibal will be threatening you again. You will have to split up the party. Option 1 being to go down the path descending towards the bank of a narrow stream. Option 2 being to go up the snaking path to the left to an area littered with oaks and shrubs. Choosing option 1 will require an intelligence and awareness check. Upon success you will examine the ground and see rocks in the mud that are disturbed and you will follow these tracks to a large rock and get 3 centurion and 5 proconsul opinion for finding a spy. Upon failure your legionaries will find a man hiding behind a large rock who surrenders immediately. Two more spies end up captured. Scipio will treat them nicely and show them around the camp and escort them away. Choosing option 2 when splitting up the party will require an awareness check. If you succeed you will notice movement behind a shrub. This will result in 3 tribune and 5 proconsul opinion. If you fail your men will find a man hiding behind a large shrub. Two more spies will be captured. Scipio will treat them nicely and show them around the camp and escort them away. You will get a message that Hannibal wants to meet Scipio after the mananimous treatment of his scouts. They meet and word gets out that they will fight tomorrow.

Battle will be tomorrow your choices are disappointment and eagerness. Disappointment will lower morale if your virtue is low. Eagerness will give you 3 morale. If the elephants get close enough your morale will decrease by 3.

The Hastati Issue

Low rank (Optio)

The hastati may be experiencing a powerful shock. The centurion in charge of your maniple will spring into action. You have to stand back and guard the rear. The maniple of hastati right next to yours seems about to fall into chaos. Their optio is having a hard time. Your options are to give him a hand and there is no time for that. Choosing there is no time for that results in nothing happening regarding your character from what I can tell. You will have to fight a Carthagian Levy Soldier. He will be reinforced upon death.

Medium rank (Centurio Posterior)

The hastati may be experiencing a powerful shock. The centurion in charge of your maniple will spring into action. Your options will be to dash into the fight or to stand back. Choosing to dash into the fight will increase your virtue by 3 and require a coordination check. Upon success you manage to keep your balance but get separated from the ranks. 2 enemies jump and a 1vs2 ensues and the situation will change eventually.

High Rank (Centurio Prior)

If you are even higher of a rank you get to make the call that the centurion npc normally makes. The hastati may be experiencing a powerful shock. Your options are to then lead your maniple forward to help the hastati and to stand back and cheer the hastati on. Choosing to lead your maniple forward results in a coordination check and a fight versus two Cartharingian levy soldiers. They will have a helmet and quilted linen cuirass. Then there is a follow up 1 vs 1s with Cartharingian levy soldiers for roughly 20 turns. Cheering the hastati will result in a charisma check. Succeeding will result in the hastati holding the line until your character sees them streched to the breaking point before leading his men forward. You will fight a single Cartharingian levy soldier.

The enemy infantry will be fleeing. You will see Hannibals veterans. Your choices are to do as you’re told or to forget about the orders and regoup as many as you can. Choosing do as you’re told regarding the difficult maneuver will require a charisma, awareness and quickness check. Passing it provides a 3 and 2 opinion bonus for your centurion and proconsul. It also provides a bonus to your mental stats upon success. Failing it means you regroup in the middle. This check seems to affect how many of Hannibals veterans you end up fighting. Your next option is to motivate your men in this situation surrounded by mutilated bodies and say nothing. Motivating them successfully provides a 3 troop and centurion bonus and 5 towards your morale. Your mental attributes may increase here as well. Failing to motivate them decreases troop opinion by 3 and morale by 5. Your companions may recognize some of the enemies as Bruuttians. Your options are hate and keep cool. Choosing hate with low virtue will increase morale by 3. Keeping cool will do a virtue check which if high enough will provide 3 morale.

if you succeeded at that earlier maneuver you will be fighting a Bruttian Warrior. His armour doesn’t protect his groin. There will be another Bruttian Warriors after the situation changes. And then one of Hannibal’s veterans after regaining 1 level of fatigue. Target Hannibal’s Veteran’s arms as they wear armour on their head, torso and legs. Even with 90 weapon skill and the veteran losing a bit of stance by hit rate was about 60% when targeting their arms. So, you may just want to hold out until reinforcements come. If you failed at that earlier maneuver you will fight Hannibal’s veterans right away instead of Bruttian Warriors. You may get a notice that your troops are sliding into disarray. If you fail to properly keep it in line you lose 4 centurion and 1 proconsul opinion.

You receive 240-380 denarii and 12 morale. You should gain 1 and 1 sword, shield and javelin skill for fighting in a real battle and for your deeds. This time the game prompt will show you the you had enough choice first and the volunteer option second. Volunteer and your consul’s opinion of you will increase by 2.

Part 9 Ottolobus, Macedonian Border

Preparation Phase

Train and work out more. You should have enough reputation with your troops by now to do best training provided you don’t have poor int and charisma scores.

War Phase

This part of the walkthrough is a bit more involved with the branching options.

You will cross the lands of the Dassaretae. Phillip will keep refusing to have a head on fight and instead send out cavalry and light infantry to harass units. This next section is quite involved with the branching choices. You and your troops will be picking wheat when cavalry arrives. Your options are to order everyone to run and give the order to close ranks. Choosing close ranks requires you to pass a charisma check. Success means you and your men fend off the cavalry as well as potentially increasing your mental attributes. Failing to close ranks gives a 12 morale decline and have some troops trying to run for their lives and get cut down. Your defense (shield) will then have to pass a check regardless of success or failure of closing ranks and upon failure will give a roughly 15 damage hit. If you choose to order everyone to run it will require a quickness check. Upon success you don’t take damage but some men will be missing and you will lose 5 morale.

Arrows may start falling all around you in the forest prompting a defense, quickness, coordination and awareness check (this only seems to occur after failing to close ranks and probably after running in the previous section). You end up missing 2 people and suffering another 2 morale hit if the arrow event occurs.

Or… You may hear noises of battle coming from not far away if the arrow event doesn’t occur. You can choose to get ready for battle and follow the noises or to keep away from the noises. Choosing to get ready for battle will increase your virtue by 5 and you will come across some legionaries trying to fight off Thracian auxiliaries. The game will then tell you whether you have enough men to turn the tide of battle or whether your previous losses left you with less men than you would have wished. I don’t think this affects the fight in any way. It will be a 1 vs 2 fight versus Thracian auxiliaries which are equipped with a helmet, greaves and and Rhompaia for a weapon. Torso hits will be accurate and damaging. Go for the arm hit when his stance drops as he has half fatigue towards the next fatigue level. They will drop greaves, helmets and 25 denarii (each I think) upon defeat. Successfully rescuing the soldiers will give 2 troop opinion.

From a hilltop you will see the direct route to camp is through the plains. But cavalry presence dissuades you from going down. There are two alternatives. Wooded ragged land to the left and a marshland to the right. Choosing the wooded area will end up with a soldier falling down an escarpment. Your options are to go to his aid and to see if someone else will rescue him. Choosing to go to his aid will boost troop opinion by 3 and virtue by 5. It requires a coordination check. Both Aquillus and Quirinius will collapse from javelins. You will know that whoever did it possesses great skill and training. Choosing to run will decrease virtue by 5. A follow up check will see if your virtue is high and give you a 4 morale hit. Choosing not to leave Marcellus to die leaves you fighting one peltast, Philip’s elite troops (until he takes care of Marcellus at least). One goes towards you and the other towards Marcellus with the added pressure of having to dispatch your foe before Marcellus dies (end of round 15 at the latest). Your opponent will be wearing a helmet, Quilted Linen Cuirass and greaves. Your best bet is to target his arms. The second enemy joins on the beginning of round 16 after they kill Marcellus at the end of round 15. They drop quilted linen Cuirass, greaves, phygian bearded helmets, xiphos, 6 denarii and later on you get 2 cups. You will gain only 5,5 and 3 troop, tribune and consul opinion if Marcellus dies. Otherwise you gain 8, 6 and 5 troop, tribune and consul opinion as well as a civic crown if Marcellus lives. Choosing the marshland when presented the option will require an endurance and coordination check to keep up. I haven’t chosen the marshland option enough to fail the check to see what happens.

If you end up reaching the camp from the woodland choice only to explain that you are the only survivor of a disastrous ambush you don’t get penalised opinion wise. If you lead back many men you will get 4 troop, centurion and consul opinion. If you lead back more than could be expected you only gain 3 opinion. You will have a chance to increase your mental attributes if you successfully told your men to close ranks when the cavalry started harassing you.

Part 10 River Aous, Epirus Preparation Phase

I found this section a bit hard to keep track of as the time remaining meter doesnt show up during these events. I didn’t put these events into the events section as they are guaranteed to happen.

At 75% time remaining you will learn that Phillip comes close to catching your army unprepared near Pluinna and you are forced to retreat. You will march into the upper macedonian region of Eordaea. A narrow pass being the only way in. Galba resolves to force his way through. You will end up watching the fight wondering where Philip’s remaining army is.

With approximately 55% time remaining you will get some text about troubles north of the enemy army. Your consul will choose the city of Pelion as the base of operations against Macedonia. Then you storm the city walls. You will have the choice of having your say building ladders vs letting others do it for you. If your character’s intelligence is sub 50 choose to let others do it for you. Doing an outstanding job while building ladders requires you to pass an intelligence and awareness check and ends up provides 3 troop opinion and 2 centurion opinion. Misjudging the walls will result in 5 troop and 3 tribunes opinion hit. The proconsul offers a mural crown to the first over the walls. I decided to choose to help my centurion instead of going solo or just doing my job. This requires a quickness, coordination and awareness check. Followed up with a defense (shield) check. This fight features a militiaman and an expert militiaman with a 42 point height advantage. Neither of which have any armour. Aim for the militiaman’s head with your hopefully 67 sword skill at this point. The expert militiaman will require torso shots. Doing an excellent job at killing these two enemies will get you 5 opinion with your centurion. If you are centurio prior you can try to go for the mural crown yourself and try to have the troops help you with a charisma check. If you try to climb at breakneck speed and fail you trip up and have a defense check which if also failed decreases your hp by up to 7 and 12 depending on if you get hit on a protected body part. Since you’re Centurio Prior rank I recommend aiming for their heads until their stance drops then aim for the neck provided they don’t have a helmet. It will be a 1vs2 fight versus 6 enemies total. I failed to complete this challenge by round 27 and successfully completed it by rounds 16-18 so use those numbers to get a rough estimate of how many rounds you have available to you to get the mural crown. If you get the mural crown you will get 7, 5 and 4 opinion with your troops, tribune and consul as well as 450 denarii later on when the city is captured.

Your centurion may claim to be the first to scale the wall and you will clearly see that he wasn’t. One of your options is to testify against him and the second option is to do nothing. Should you testify against your centurion you will gain 8 virtue and 10 proconsul opinion while losing 20 centurion opinion. If your proconsul likes you enough you may get assigned to another maniple to negate that centurion penalty. This will provide a 30 centurion opinion bonus. If you choose to do nothing your virtue will decrease by 5 for withholding the truth. If your virtue is low enough you can lie and testify on his behalf. This options decreases virtue by 8, increases centurion opinion by 12 and you gain 150 denarii from him.

You will be given orders to kill everyone you meet on the streets. You run into an old man if you have high virtue. Choosing to spare him will provide 7 virtue. A follow up charisma check will be made regarding whether your men trust you. If you fail that charisma check your troop opinion will drop by 3 as your men fail to understand your reasons. You will get 1 opinion with your troops regardless of the charisma result. Choosing to follow the rules will result in a 4 hit to morale if you have high morale. If you have low virtue you will be presented with the option to send the troops away and loot the temple. Your troop opinion will drop by 3 if you choose this option. The following text will say that you lose 8 virtue. There may be 3 militiamen hiding there who prepare to fight. A coordination check is required to not slip on the marble floors. Beating them or just looting the temple without finding them will get you 741 denarii and drop your virtue by 12. Failing an int check will lower your morale by 5.

Shortly after that last event you will be notified Philip was apparently dealing with an invasion from Dardanians from the north. Galba will turn westwards for winter. You will gain 624-746 denarii. Part of the money from raiding goes towards a series of games that are being held. Your options are to join the three-lap foot race, join the javelin contest based on precision and javelin contest based on distance and to join none of them. If you joined the three-lap foot race choosing going at a steady pace 3 times results in 2 endurance checks and one endurance and quickness check for the third lap and a final sprint for the finish line with a quickness and endurance check. I think it only allows you to sprint once. The javelin contest based on precision will test just your javelin (throwing) skill. The javelin contest based on distance will test your throwing and strength skill and attribute. You will gain 1000 denarii upon winning as well as 8 troop opinion, 6 centurion opinion, 4 consul opinion and 7 morale for winning. Placing second provides 250 denarii, 5, 4 and 2 troop, tribune and consul opinion as well as 4 morale. Failing to make it into the top 3 but holding your own against the best gives 2 troop opinion, 1 tribune opinion and 1 morale. Closing in the middle group of racing will give just 1 troop opinion. If you do badly you will lose 1 troop opinion and 1 morale.

Around 50% time remaining Galba’s term of office as consul will be over and Villius Tappulus will take over. His reinforcements will come and either increase your morale by 2 or will mutiny. If they mutiny they will claim they never volunteered and have served long enough and have the right to return to their families. If you have a high enough charisma you will be presented a special option other than being sympathetic or unsupportive that says “*CHA* use your exceptional diplomatic skills to mediate.” Choosing sympathetic will boost troop opinion by 3 while reducing consul opinion by 1. Choosing unsupportive will lose 5 troop opinion, gain 1 consul opinion and decrease virtue by 2. The consul will negotiate a deal with them regardless of outcome. If you choose the hidden charisma option you will get 7,3 and 3 troop, tribunes and consul opinion.

At 15% time remaining the arrival of spring comes and Tappulus is eager to move towards the enemy. The new consul Titus Quinctius Famininus unexpectedly arrives and sends Tappulus back to Rome. He brings 3000 men who boost your morale by 2.

Part 10 River Aous, Epirus War Phase

This war phase has a branch based on whether you fight the phalanx as your very first fight versus whether you fight the phalanx later on. Keep in mind that for the following fights if the enemy has a pointy helmet (konos helmet) it provides no neck protection.

Fighting the phalanx is unique in that almost all your regular fighting options are replaced. You will have slash, decoy, shield push, and chop. The phalanx will be able to use rally to restore 15 hp once per engagement. An engagement being what I call the roughly 20 rounds you take while fighting. If its your first couple of playthroughs just endure the fight. Otherwise, alternate between using chop and slash if you don’t have high endurance as using just slash will use cause quite a bit of fatigue for not much damage dealt.

1a. Early phalanx Fight

Two tribunes will discus the present situation. The younger one wants to take the long route and bypass the enemy and invade Macedonia. His colleague will reply nothing will be achieved and that they need to fight now. You are marched to the River Aous where the enemy is. More negotiations ensue. Fighting breaks out between patrols on the plain separating the two camps. Your unit will be sent out to relieve the pressure. Phillip will send reinforcements as well. You will notice the twenty-feet tall pikes held by the rear ranks. The phalanx will approach. If you defeat it you will end up fighting a phalangite wearing a pointy helmet and a quilted linen cuirass. Another enemy will join on round 2 and 4. If your sword skill is hovering around 90 do soft spot head attacks until his stance drops then do a neck attack. Killing them all will provide 3 consul opinion as it describes you as a fierce barbarian warrior. You will chase the enemy towards their camp. They will shoot you with a ballistae and your shield will get smashed. As a centurion you have the option of taking a shield from a random legionaire and sending him to the back of the line, not staying there and fight without a shield, and stay where you are and fight even without a shield. Choose to take the legionaire’s shield if the option is available due to your rank. You will be fighting a thureophoros at a 10 point height disadvantage. He will have a helmet and quilted linen cuirass for armour. The skirmish will eventually die out.

1b. Moonlight raid without a phalanx fight

Your maniple and many others will be silently gathered in the intervallum between the ramparts and the tents. A tribune will be in charge with a bound man next to him. You will march under the moonlight away from the enemy initially then take a path through the mountains. On the third night you will be told to be doubly vigilant. If you fail an awareness check one of the other legionaries will give an alarm and point to the rise off the path. You will see helmets glinting in the moonlight. Your options will be to take part in the chase and wait there. Choosing take part in the chase will process a quickness, endurance and awareness check. You and Drusus Terentius will keep up with the enemies. A 2 vs 2 fight will happen with 2 theurophoros. Both sides will have fatigue. You will be awarded a cup.

2a. Early troop fight

Two tribunes are discussing the present situation. The first says to take the long route. One will say that you need a decisive win now. Flaminius will agree with a tribune and you are marched to the River Aous. The enemy’s position will be very solid. Several skirmishes will break out. You will meet a number of retreating Velites who are running from Thorakitai. You prepare to throw your javelin. Choose a specific target for your javelin. Your opponent will be missing leg armour so focus on the legs. The situation will eventually change. You will face more Thorakites. Something will cause the Macedonians to withdraw. You start giving chase. Your pursuit leads you into range of a ballistae. Something will smash your shield. As a centurion you have the option of taking a shield from a random legionaire and sending him to the back of the line, not staying there and fight without a shield, and stay where you are and fight even without a shield. Choose to take the legionaire’s shield if the option is available due to your rank. You will be fighting at a 10 point height disadvantage. The skirmish will eventually die out.

2b. Left behind at camp so that you can face the phalanx

One night you hear faint noises at night. The next day camp will be noticeably empty. Two more days will pass. A column of smoke will appear behind the enemy camp and you will be ordered to advance. You will face the phalanx. See the advice for fighting it earlier in the guide. If you manage to defeat the phalanx you will fight a single phalangite who will get reinforced on round 2 and 4. A third enemy will come on round 5. Eventually you will open up a gap in the phalanx and your allies will follow and engage the enemy. Either your reinforcements will appear from behind and you’ll rout the enemy or if you beat the Phalangite units fast enough in the 1vs3 after defeating the phalanx you will gain 3 consul opinion as it describes you as a fierce barbarian warrior sowing death among enemy ranks.

Morale will increase by 5 and you will gain 175-210 denarii. Your fighting skills will increase by 1.

Part 11 Cynoscephalae, Thessalia Preparation Phase

Preparation Phase

Train and work out more. There will be more guaranteed events.

Flamininus is known for being a philhellene an admirer of Graecian culture. If you are virtuous his opinion (he’s the consul) of you will increase by 1-4. If you’re not virtuous nothing happens.

At 80% time left the consul will be determined to capture the city of Phaloria but the defenders have been driving back every assasult. Days after the siege began your patrol will capture a group of merchants not far from the city. Your options will be to try to pry some information out of them or to just take them back to camp. Trying to pry information straight up fails. With a subsequent choice of using any means necessary or to again just take them back to camp. If you choose to use any means necessary as a high virtue character your character will have no stomach for it, give up, learn nothing and lose 5 virtue. Choosing to use any means necessary as a low virtue character will cause your virtue to decrease by 12 and he will swear he knows nothing of the defenses but he will tell you where a stash of valuables is located hidden in Phaloria. If you choose to take them back to the camp nothing eventful will happen.

A ladder prompt will come up where they are deciding the ladder’s length. Choose let others make the appropriate assessment if your intelligence and awareness is low. If you do a good job on making the ladders you will get 3 troop and 2 tribune opinion. A wall will then be rushed with ladders. If you choose to help your centurion you will be subject to a quickness, coordination and awareness check. Failing it means missles rain down on you from above. That check will be followed up with a defense (shield) check to see whether you take zero (2 successes), a single hit (on climbing success and defense failure) or two hits (on climbing failure and defense failure). You will fight a Garrison soldier with 42 height disadvantage. Focus on his groin and do soft spot groin attacks when his stance drops. If your sword skill is high enough you can do soft spot head attacks. If you try to get the crown for yourself its harder compared to the previous garrison you may have attempted to do based on this opponent’s armour and skills. I managed to get the mural crown on round 26 one time after I successfully passed the charisma check to convince the troops to help and failed the breakneck ladder speed. I also got it after 30 turns with a successful charisma check to convince the troops to help and successful breakneck ladder check. The mural crown gets you 7, 5 and 4 opinion with troops, tribune and consul. You will gain 204-245 (rank based) denarii afterwards regardless of whether you used any means necessary on the merchant. The mural crown award comes with 450 denarii. If you used any means necessary on that merchant you will arrive at a warehouse. You will find a loose floorboard with valuables. Your options are to share the loot with the army and to take what you can without being discovered then share the rest with the army. Choosing to steal what you can nets you a material quality 5 helmet which only has 2 awareness penalty. You will also get 631 denarii, 8 morale, a recduction of virtue by 5 and gain 3 centurion opinion.

Your centurion may claim to be the first to scale the wall and you will clearly see that he wasn’t. One of your options is to testify against him and the second option is to do nothing. Should you testify against your centurion you will gain 8 virtue and 10 proconsul opinion while losing 20 centurion opinion. If your proconsul likes you enough you may get assigned to another maniple to negate that centurion penalty. This will provide a 30 centurion opinion bonus. If you choose to do nothing your virtue will decrease by 5 for withholding the truth. If your virtue is low enough you can lie and testify on his behalf. This options decreases virtue by 8, increases centurion opinion by 12 and you gain 150 denarii from him.

You will suffer a setback at Atrax. The siege engines will tear down a section of wall only for a phalanx to form in the hole. You proceed to raid the surrounding towns and get 566-681 (rank based) denarii.

Elateia will fall before winter. You will gain 192-230 (rank based) denarii. If you have low enough virtue you will gain an additional 4 morale, lose 5 virtue and gain 215 extra denarii. If you have high enough virtue you will mediate a dispute and gain 3 consul opinion and 5 virtue.

Around 50% time remaining the achaean league will join the anti-Macedonian coalition. Your army will gain thousands of reinforcements from home.

Part 11 Cynoscephalae, Thessalia War Phase

War Phase

The game will explain that you camp within proximity of Phaere and mention that this seems to be the final culmination of your tireless service in the war. You will be accompanying a vanguard with the goal of finding the Macedonians’ whereabouts. You promptly find your quarry. You don’t have orders to attack on sight. The game gives you the option to issue a personal combat challenge. Choose not to do anything foolish. If you choose to issue the challenge you will have an intelligence check which if you pass it asks whether you really want to do this. Responding yes will result in their leader who is named Aegma Chilliarch comes forward. He might ask if you are [your character name here]. He will hurl his javelin at you prompting a defense check. You will see his fancy sword called Gladius Hispaniensis get unsheathed. He will cave your face in unless you happen to have that 3600 skill you can buy on character creation I scraped by with 91 sword and 80 shield skill and stats in the 60s. If you kill him he will drop a quality 5 reinforced linen cuirass, a 6/4 gladius Hispaniesis, a quality 4 greaves and a quality 4 phygian bearded helmet and his riches of 3 denarii. Wield the sword. You will get the Mars’ Favourite achievement as a result of defeating him. The tribune will send a physican to look at your wounds. You will recover 9 hp and you will get 1 cup. In the morning there will be info on your cavalry’s prowess. Then there will be a storm in the night and you will regain another 9 hp. Morning will reveal a fog across the land. Word will come back of the patrols meeting a large force of enemies. The fog will dissipate. Mercenaries will attack you.

You may fight a Thureophorus with 8 points of height disadvantage. He is wearing armour and a helmet. He will have considerable fatigue. A legionary will join you on round 6-7. Another legionary will join you on round 10. Upon killing him the phalanx will make another appearance.

You will be presented the opportunity to hurl your javelin. Pick off a specific target if the enemy officer doesn’t present himself as a target. This time you fight the phalanx with an 8 point height disadvantage. The situation will change on round 19 and end on round 22. You can choose to rotate out and back in. Upon returning the situation will change on round 16. Combat will end round 19. If you manage to destroy the phalanx you then have to fight a unit that was a part of the phalanx. A buddy of his will come on round – and round -. Defeating the phalanx this time isn’t enough to rout them and they will soon reform another phalanx.

Your troops will rally based on the uneven ground providing little advantage to their advance. You will see your elephants move out of your field of view as the mountain is in the way.

You will re-engage the phalanx which will have 1 level of fatigue while you should be good to go. The situation will change on round 16 and end on 19. Take the opportunity to rotate when it presents itself. Round 16-18 will change the situation again and combat may end on round 19-21. If it doesn’t you go for one more round versus the phalanx. The situation should shift on round 16 and end on round 19. If you manage to destroy the phalanx you then have to fight a Phalangite. A buddy of his will come on round 2 and round 5-6. Your proconsul opinion will increase by 3 if you pierce the spear wall, sowing death and panic. The next part is best experienced without a walkthrough in my opinion If you break through the spear wall twice in a row and defeat all the enemies that fight you each time you will gain 5 proconsul opinion. A small gap will appear on the flank of the enemy. If you pass the int check it will say you could use the gap to attack one of the enemy formations from the side. You will have very little time to execute this plan and the Thracian auxiliaries guarding the flanks will surely try to stop you. Your choices are its too risky and attack. If you choose to attack the phalangites will be caught off guard by your move. It will be a 1vs1 fight versus a phalangite. After you kill 2 enemies it will say Thracian auxiliaries are coming to the rescue of the phalanx. Now you will be in a 2vs3 fight with two auxiliaries and their chieftain. There will be 1 auxiliary that will reinforce if you kill the auxiliaries first. If you manage to kill them all it will say that the Thracians are faltering and you can renew your assault on the flank of the phalanx. There will be too few of you to to rout them but you can keep them pinned. The formation on their immediate right cannot advance without exposing its left flank, and the effect propagates all along the battle line. Your mental stats may increase. The retreat that threatened to degenerate into a rout at any moment is forestalled. Your compatriots will look up to you in a peculiar way, as if they were ready to worship a new god of war. For a long time the situation will hang in balance. If you fail the int check the gap will close and the opportunity will melt away.

You will think you see enemy reinforcements coming from behind the phalanx. Some survivors will hold a pike with both hands. This will cause an int check to be done. Failing it means your units continue to slaughter them. Passing it provides the opportunity to tell your comrades to stop the slaughter and take prisoners with there being no need to kill them now. Your second option being to let the butchery continue. Choosing to tell your comrades to stop will increase your virtue by 12. Choosing to remain silent decreases virtue by 40. If you managed to destroy the phalanx twice, passed that int check and defeated those auxiliaries the soldiers of the maniples that were in the left wing will acclaim you as their saviour. A crown made of grasses and flowers picked from the battlefield is offered to you. You will be the fifth Roman to receive such a high honour in the whole history of the Republic. You will gain 100 troop, 30 tribune and 20 proconsul opinion.

Ending Information

You will get some fluff based on how much denarii you hoarded. Another int check will be done. If you fail your companion Tidus Modius says the Graecians have traded one master for another. If you succeed you come to the realization on your own. You will also have one final virtue check for the ending regarding fluff. If you become a triarii in the epilogue you may become first centurion and gain the associated achievement. You will have a weapon (sword) defense (shield) check during the epilogue to see whether you are respected as an exceptional fighter. As a first centurion you will have a seat in the council of war along with the man who had been your commander when Hannibal was defeated. As a triarius will hardly see any action. If you won a civic crown or two earlier in the game you will have a follow up intelligence charisma check. Upon failure you don’t gain admission to senatorial rank. Upon success you gain the senatorial rank and achievement. If you won 3 civic crowns you will be admitted to senatorial rank. If you won a grass crown there is no intelligence and charisma check you just get the senatorial rank. A follow up intelligence charisma check will determine whether you become involved with politics. Another intelligence charisma check will happen which if you fail you will be elected to serve as a quaesar though your career will go no further. If you succeed the second intelligence charisma check you will eventually be elected consul. You might even be elected aedile after serving a term as a quaesar (I think with no check if you get the grass crown). With only 10k gold I lacked the financial resources to organize truely memorable games, but my dedication to my responsibility to maintaining public buildings was widely acknowledged. In the final years of the character’s life war will be delcared on Carthage a third time. Carthage will be razed to the ground by Scipio Aemilianus.