One of the most enduring legacies of the past has been the glory that was the Roman Empire. Expanding thousands of miles across three continents, this great empire of the past left ruins of its power and glory that are spectacular to view to this day and still inspire the imaginations of people across the globe. These epic examples of city building have always been a most interesting subject to the gaming public and gave rise to one of the most popular series of city builders in gaming - namely the Caesar series. The fine tradition of this franchise is carried on in the latest example, Caesar IV.

Caesar IV is a real time strategy game in which players construct Roman cities using the tolls and terrain available in each scenario in order to meet the victory criteria of a given scenario. The game is arranged using the programmed instruction method so players do not have to learn everything the first time they play but instead they learn a bit at a time, meeting the limited goals of the early scenarios and adding a little bit more to each city as they advance through the game.

The first order of business in your new town is you must have common people who will live and work in the city. The way this game works is every building must be connected to a road. If a building is not connected it will not function at all. The building placement controls can be a little tricky and you have to be careful that the building you place is really road connected as sometimes it looks like it is but it really isn't. If you do mess it up the game will tell you the building isn't working and why.

One of the best features of this game is that buildings will now tell you exactly what they need to improve and evolve and what you need to do to make that happen. Unlike the early versions of this game when they required a bit of guess work it's now spelled out completely, greatly easing play and it makes city management a lot less taxing on the players. Simply clicking on a given structure reveals what kinds of food and items it has access to and what is required if you want to see it evolve into something better.

One you have your basic housing you have to start providing for them. What they absolutely must have is water and food. Early on - before you have set up elaborate water facilities - the easiest way to get water is to build a well; these can be constructed without regard to aqueducts and reservoirs, so in out of the way places or some low level areas they may be the only choice to build. Remember you can always remove things and change them around, so feel free to build wells early on.

So now you have homes and a little water, so the people must eat. Food can be had two ways: you either grow it yourself or you trade for it. Trade is learned later in the game so farming is the way to get our early food. Only some of the land on a given city plot is suitable for farming; you can tell as it looks different from the other terrain. Farms themselves must be road connected for workers to reach, but not so with fields. Fields are built near the farms on arable land and you will see your people begin to work the land.

Once you have fields and farms it's time to consider how to get the food to hungry citizens. First the food must be stored somewhere and the building for that is the granary. This building must be fairly close to the farms or it won't be used by the locals, who are quite lazy about walking too far for goods and services. The last step in the food chain is to build a food market that must be close to both the granary and the homes of your citizens.

Man does not live by bread alone and neither do your virtual roman citizens. They require more then food to stay happy and as the city's leader they expect you to provide it. Also if you want a higher class of people to move in to your city you must give them what they want and usually what they want first is pottery and furniture. You will provide for these needs by either importing them or creating the industries for them in the city. Both are simple to do - they require the correct raw materials and industries to be up and running. And they also require the correct markets to sell the finished products.

It's critical that you have higher classes of citizens, as they are the ones that pay taxes and do more advanced work such as sun the water systems. They require food and items just as the average citizen does, but they demand more out of their governor, such as pretty surroundings and medical facilities. As you play the game it's very important that you provide not just basic items, but also basic amenities that Romans expect, such as Bath houses, clinics and fountains of flowing fresh water. You will also have to provide a police and fire department in the form of Prefect offices and engineers who look after the welfare of citizens and the conditions of buildings.

Fires, plagues and collapsed buildings are only part of the many challenges you will face. As you progress you will have to deal with foreign armies, defenses, worship of the gods, and many other problems. There is a beautiful interface of advisers to help with this which are fully animated and where you can check on all aspects of your cities' development and progress.

With a clean and easy to use interface, excellent graphics and voice acting, this offering is top notch. You will spend many enjoyable hours designing and building a thriving society in the Roman Empire. The many decisions, such as building trade and meeting requests from the empire, will provide challenges as your city grows and prospers. This is not a game to be missed.

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