MMO city builder Romans: Age of Caesar launches this month

pcgamesn.com:

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it certainly wasn’t built by one person. Romans: Age of Caesar is a city-building game in the works at Firefly Studios, the developers of the Stronghold series. The Romans: Age of Caesar release date is set for April 27, Firefly has announced.

Romans: Age of Caesar is what Firefly Studios describes as an ‘MMORTS.’ It draws from the experience of the original design team that worked on the Impressions classic Caesar III, giving players the chance to build and administer a classical-era Roman city. The new wrinkle in Romans: Age of Caesar is that you’re building your city cooperatively – up to 16 players can be working together on a single city, and those cities all form part of a Roman nation created collectively by thousands of players.

As your city grows and becomes more prosperous, you’ll want to establish trade routes, which you’ll need to protect from barbarian raiders. There are real-time tactical battles to fight when raids happen, or when you get into territory disputes with other players that can’t be peacefully resolved.

Here’s Firefly’s Nick Tannahill in the Eternal City itself explaining some of the inspiration for Romans: Age of Caesar.

Ambitious leaders will eventually cast their eyes on the Roman senate, and there’s another layer of gameplay here as you plot, bribe, or murder your way to the top. Once you’ve attained the coveted title of Caesar, you’ll naturally have a big target painted on your back, and you’ll have to use every lever of power at your disposal to remain the supreme leader of Rome.

Fortunately, Romans: Age of Caesar launches at the end of April – you’ll have a while before the Ides of March rolls around again.