Fall of Rome

October Newsletter

Greetings, Noble One!

Here we bring you some updates on the web site. We will soon be changing the text on the Introduction page (where the Kings are introduced in the flash movie) to something like this:

"Featuring the best qualities of role playing games (RPG) and war games in a breakthrough online turn-based strategy game, Fall of Rome goes far beyond what other multiplayer online strategy games have been able to accomplish.

Leading your people as one of twelve great Kings like Attila the Hun or King Arthur, you will issue commands that affect military, political, economic and covert aspects of your kingdom through your unique characters who gain power over time in the great tradition of the best online role playing games. See why this combination of online RPG, online war game and above all, online strategy game has become the premier online multiplayer strategy game anywhere!"

We'll try to explain to new players a bit about what playing Fall of Rome – unlike any other game out there – is like. Here's what we have in mind for the new "What is Fall of Rome" page on the website:

"Fall of Rome is a breakthrough turn-based strategy game that combines the best elements of multiplayer strategy, role playing games (RPG), and war games in one exciting, epic contest. Match your skill and cunning in the world's premier online turn-based strategy game against eleven human rivals from around the planet. Only one will ultimately triumph in his quest to become The Rex – sole ruler – in a new world of his making. Only one will stoke the furnace of industry, harden his warriors into invincible legions, fire the imagination of his people, and wrestle power from his rivals by imposing his will upon them!

Each turn you will marshal your armies and choose their battle tactics, command a court of powerful nobles and war leaders, use nefarious and skilled agents to diabolical ends, command your heroes to adventure forth to recover a powerful artifact like Excalibur, drive your economy and use intrigue in your dealings with rival players. In the tradition of great role playing games, your characters will advance in power as they gain experience.

If you've enjoyed war games such as Risk or Axis and Allies or many others too numerous to mention, you'll instantly appreciate the multiplayer online strategy game that is Fall of Rome. While Fall of Rome offers more tantalizing choices and levels of game play (economic, political, military, role playing game elements, intrigue, espionage, diplomacy, and multiplayer game negotiation – all are important elements) than the others, it is not an overly complicated online strategy game. Players don't waste time hassling with supply lines, resource collection, and lots of minutia: they focus on important strategic choices and react to what the other players are doing in a competitive, unpredictable contest where no two games are ever the same.

Each kingdom is unique and faces different challenges and opportunities. The clever player will form a strategy to accentuate his kingdom's strengths, while being flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances brought about each turn by his eleven rivals. Fall of Rome offers the best virtues of the greatest online strategy games, war games, and RPG ever and brings forward new multiplayer strategy game dimensions yet provides its players unprecedented convenience, ease of play and plenty of role playing game feel."

Many players have never played online, turn-based strategy games (weird, huh?) where the strategy requires more than a few seconds and a quick mouse click. Here's how we explain it:

How is Fall of Rome Played?

Imagine your favorite board or PC strategy game expanded to accommodate twelve human players with perfect execution of each player's actions and with no waiting around for the other eleven to decide what to do! That's what Fall of Rome provides, in a scintillating, epic setting for this terrific multiplayer online strategy game. There are no huge files to download or software to buy at a store: you can play anywhere you have an internet connection.

Using Fall of Rome's graphic user interface (GUI), you will issue more than a dozen commands to your forces each turn. The higher your King's Rulership, the more commands you may issue. Issuing the commands is a snap; the exquisitely devilish part is choosing which of the more than sixty different kinds of commands available to you will be selected, guided by your strategy, alliances, and ever-shifting game developments.

In this online turn-based strategy game, you choose the times you wish to play, picking the most convenient times within the 72 hour period available to all players to determine their moves before the time counter in the bottom right corner of the game screen counts down to 0:00. When that happens the game server processes all commands issued by all players simultaneously according to a specific sequence of events (for example, battles will be resolved first and legions move later in the turn). You will then learn the results of your tactical and strategic decisions, including how your legions performed in battle, the success of your espionage efforts, the production and improvements to your economy, what new intelligence and reconnaissance have been collected on your adversaries as well as whether the diplomatic promises of other players were honored! The time counter is also restored to 72:00 hours remaining and you are again free to plan the moves of the next turn at a time of your choosing. Advance your objectives through your own efforts and perhaps by allying with others in multiplayer strategy against a common foe by using each game's messaging system.

Games last a maximum of twenty-four turns. There are several ways to win including The Rex, The Visionary, The Conquering Hero, the Mastermind, and the Lion's Share, providing even more important role playing game considerations that impact your strategy in the game. Interestingly, you can wait until the third turn to choose your secret victory condition.

Fall of Rome is true online strategy. That is, it is turn-based strategy where each of the twelve players in any one game seeks to outwit, not out-click their opponents: this is not "real time strategy" or yet another "mmorpg". You can be a top Fall of Rome player (if that is your goal) spending no more than a few hours in a three day span, far from the countless mind-numbing hours required in those other RPG's necessary to create a "viable" character and position. But many Fall of Rome players are more interested in the thrill of exhilarating competition in any given game with other live players and role playing the style of their in-game persona (trustworthy, diabolical, mysterious, etc.) than in the immortality that others enjoy through recognition in Valhalla, our listing of top players. Fall of Rome is unique and will challenge and entertain you for years.

Hope you enjoyed – see you in Fall of Rome!

Rick McDowell

President Enlightened Age Entertainment Inc.