You also need to make sure you have a handle on the needs of your people, Plebs for instance require only a small amount of food, entertainment and a little religion whilst Equites and Patricians require varying amounts of all three. Once you have a working settlement with a good production you need to keep an eye on your consumed resources compared to the production, running out of a valuable resource like bricks for instance could doom your town before you've even started to build it. To this end there is are a couple of tutorials: a building tutorial that covers the basics of the game and a battle tutorial to help you learn how to recruit, train and control the various units that make up the seamless RTS element.

It is essential to play the tutorials to learn how to construct a fledgling and working village in the game, before you try and build a city. The Family talent tree is unique to one of the five families. You have 3 kinds of talents, City, Military and Family. These can range from the first 5 houses that you build are free, to more soldiers per recruitment in your army.

You can amass personal wealth to buy estates that unlock bonuses and also talent points to buy special perks as you progress. You are allowed to create a male or female character from one of the many Roman families these houses have different abilities/talents that you can choose from during the course of play. City building and administration couldn't be easier now, the GUI has been tightened up and the objective panel allows you to see exactly what you need to do in any given map/situation. Grand Ages: Rome is a better game than Imperium Romanum by far and comes with lots of brand new additions to the experience. What a difference a bit of foresight, planning, GUI polish and a rebuild can make to a game.

You will build fledgling trade ports, small empires and eventually administrate over some of the most bustling cities in the empire. There is a non-linear campaign that spans several historical events during the Roman Empire and allows you to tackle them with a character of your own choosing. Taking many cues from history Grand Ages: Rome is a return to the city builder/conquest RTS that began with Imperium Romanum. Rome was not built in a day, so it's a good job we have city builder games to help us accomplish that task.

Grand ages rome city layout