Ceasar II on Impossible and Finding Windows 95 CD Version

So I decided I totally wanted to play Caesar 2. Caesar 2 and I have a weird relationship. It was one of my first games, when I was but a merry boy and dad gave me the demo to play with. Years when I was a pre-teen later a local magazine (Fullgames? CD Expert? Will have to search) released a CD Version of the game. It was awesome, it was a Windows version with Music, higher resolution, etc. Oh, and the CD also featured demos of other city-builder favorites of mine, Pharaoh and Zeus.

So I started to play it, but my cd had a problem. Dad brought another one for me. But it broke/disappeared/can't remember. Also, I never went far into the game because at the time my english was nill (I think my knowlodge of english only became good when I was 13 or 14) so I barely knew what to do and always ended up rowing in the galley.

So recently I get the game again. I play it a bit, then notice that the version I have had a error that didn't allow me to properly fight battles for some damn reason - Said a file was lacking when I decided to command a battle myself. Fuck.

So one of those days I get it YET AGAIN from another abandonware site. Since I'm older and my english is more developed, I decide to play it on INSANE, because real men play games on the hardest dificulty rating.* Gods help me! My city, its its... ITS FUCKING SUICIDAL! I have to pave the streets with plazas to keep neighboors attractive. The money in the beginning is shit nothing. The Emperor (in 300 BCE?!) gets pissed off all the time. And then there are the Barbarians. Oh god there are Barbarians. Just when I think I'm suceeding, barbarians appear from a lone disolate village and attack my city. Or a random band of barbarians come from somewhere else and attack me, often taking Roman towns and turninig them into little barbarian villages which will eventually pose a threat to me. Sometimes even huge armies like 800 greeks simply show up and attack me while destroying all buildings in their way. Iupiter help me!

So now that my DOS versions all seem to be buggy (and lacking the music, which was cool in the CD version I had), I'm going to find and get that Windows version. I think I've just found it.

Still gonna be dificult, through, and I won't use any walkthroughs or such because such things are for fags.


*Except if its Eador Genesis. Mars help us!

 

Reading this rekindled my interest as well. Time to dig up the CD!

Also: http://plebs.ytmnd.com/

 

I was a Caesar 3 man. I borrowed it off a friend, except he was one of those friends I never really saw very often, so I ended up keeping it for about 3 years. Good times. I was pretty useless at it - I don't know why, I recall I wasn't great with Sim City or Civ either - so had to resort to the Well cheat to stay afloat. Made some beautiful cities, though.

I seem to recall a Caesar game, or some similar Rome city builder, where when you went into battle mode you actually had a separate screen, your legions would be shown lined up against the enemy on the top half, then the bottom half was an interface full of battles, and it was actually a kind of phasebased combat where you chose commands and then they'd be played out? Does anyone remember that or am I hallucinating?

 

Caesar 1 allowed the player to utilise Cohort II for more advanced combat, so that might be it. It has been quite a while since I played it, though, so it is all quite fuzzy.

 

Caesar 3, it took some time to me to discover import iron/export weapons = lots of moneys and the skirmish guys could be used to kite and kill most of the enemy army without losses, from what Brazilian Slaughter is experiencing it appears that Ceasar II is alot more brutal and unforgiving ... this give me a sudden desire to try out.

 

Never played Caesar 3, how does it compares to, say, Pharaoh, which was released at around the same time (if my memory doesn't fail me)?

On combat, Caesar 2 also has its own tactical combat too, Seems similar to what you've described. Its not very complex, but its pretty nice and can be hard.

 

I never had any problems with Caesar. Hardest city builder I ever played was Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom where you couldn't make enough money to stay afloat in any difficulty above very easy. Labor costed a shitton and without it you couldn't produce enough shit to make your dwellings grow. Feng Shui further complicated things.

Fucking great. Reinstalling.

 

Caesar 3 I find is a great city-builder, but for some reason I never got to trying the likes of Pharaoh, Zeus and even Annos for more than a little bit at a time. Pharaoh is pretty similar to C3 from what I've heard.

 

Pharao is a copy of Caesar3, with a couple of added features like the roadblock and the monuments. Other than that they are clones.

 

Seems I am getting the hang of it. Started with Corsiga & Sardinia, managed to win despite some problems and constant barbarian attacks. Most barbarian attacks (especially early game) were quite innefectual, all I had to do is make a wall to funnel them towards the side of the river I haven't built at. See the barbarian at his natural enviroment; failing to archieve supremacy over the simplest elements of nature, like RIVERS! No doubt we're destined to rule and they're chaff. IMPERIVM ROMANORVM SVPREMVM DOMINATVS!

The other ones, through, I had to repeal the hard way. Almost got bested by a bunch of Mauri who defeated my Cohort, but managed to defeat them in a second battle. Also came close to ULTIMATE DOOM when a 650 gauls came at me (after innefectually descending upon the deserted island of Corsiga for many times ) and I beat them back with 640 legionaries and a lot of flanking, through it was a very close battle.

Now I'm administering Campania, used all my stored money to give myself a boost to make the city good enough to get some quite decent pop taxes, now I gotta hope Greeks don't show up soon and that the Emperor ceases making those annoying requests for goods. Good thing he's at least my bro after all the bribing gifting and the conceeded requests in the previous missions.

EDIT: What's up with Pompous Maximums conquering land in weird places? First it was Illyricum (ok), but then he conquered... Dacia. Not a bad land, but Dacia bros. Seriously. If I was utterly stark raving mad I would use his Dacia conquest to hop towards Pannonia Exterior, which has been described as "Aside from imported silks, is there anything to be gained in this conquest but bloodshed?"

But... but... Egypt! Pharaohs! The Nile! Kingdom view! Fighting with invaders and sending troops and resources to help elsewhere!

Can it have been all... just... a... clone?

 

I used to moderately enjoy these games untill I realised they are all gimmicky puzzle games that also have you make towns that in no way at all look like actual towns. Not to mention the disdain I feel for setting everything along straight roads in every fucking setting there is.

Seriously, a game that would actually let you play as a Egyptian/Ancient Greek/Roman/Medieval mayor type character would fucking rock. Too bad noone ever made one.