Why a game on Romans and barbarians?
Simple. This is a real-time game requiring “art)ficial intelligence” on the part of the computer. It’s tough enough to design algorithms that produce intelligent play, as in Eastern Front. Designing algorithms that run so quickly that they don’t noticeably slow down a real-time game is really tough. Thus, the algorithms for Legionnaire must necessarily be pretty stupid. Stupid algorithms imply stupid opponents. In all of military history, how many situations arose in which one opponent was generally recognized to be pretty stupid? Not just wrong- headed, misinformed, gutless, or foolhardy, but deeply and genuinely dumb? Not many. Romans and barbarians was the closest approximation I could find. Even this scenario isn’t quite fair to the barbarians, but fortunately, few barbarians buy software. That question is hard to answer. The very first version of Legionnaire was written in eight weeks around March 1979, on a Commodore PET. The game was fun but it didn’t seem to hit the nail on the
