Aggressors - Ancient Rome

This obscure historical game is turn based strategy / tactics to dominate the world starting in 280 BC by default, but adustable from 1000 BC to 500 AD. It is single player and is my personal choice for game of the year. I have played it for over 480 hours in the past 60 days. It is published by Slitherine and available through them, on Steam and GOG.

Where I am coming from
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I am the curator of Strategic Win https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/9074928/ and have reviewed 142 games there in the past 2 years. I bought this game from Matrix games.
I strongly suggest that readers take lightly any review of this game by a player that has not put in at least 50 hours whether the review is good or bad. There is just no way to pick up the subtle way things interconnect in this game with less playing time. People doing reviews with less than 2 hours are a joke not a review.

My personal long term favorite game other than this is Galactic Civilization 2 ( for the excellent options and AI ) I have played 1223 hours on challenging, tough, and painful levels.

Pros
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This is the most intricate balancing of playing factors I have ever seen. Most decisions will affect other things in your and your enemies empires.

The 20 factions are real empires that existed then. There are 3 main ones in the campaigns Rome, Carthage, and Ptolemiaic Empire. Those 3 have tutorials so you start off right.

Developer is a friendly accessible fellow named Pavel. He has been designing games since he was 10 years old. He has spent 10 years making this game the last 3 full time. You can find him actively engaged in the steam game discussions and on their discord channel. He will happily answer any questions. There is a link to discord channel pinned in discussions. You will never find a better dev them him. (IMO)

Playability - The entire game can be adjusted through the games settings / game options before starting and the game settings menu can also be accessed in game.

Replayability - you can play any of the 20 factions, at least up to medium difficulty and win - you can create your own scenarios with the built in editor. There are 7 levels of difficulty available. Random maps can easily be generated in the program.

Help playing - as mentioned the steam discussions, discord, a 240 page online manual, and the aggressors online library available while playing.

Music - over 100 period flavored songs come with game - you can switch to next song / last song with a menu button easily

Bugs - In 480 hours play I have encountered one (1) bug at the 195th hour - It had already been fixed in the accessible beta next version.

AI bonuses (cheats ) - so far as I know the AI does not cheat. As far as I have seen there are not unfair advantages to the AI.

AI opponents - Almost all AI in most of these type games are total simpletons as we all know - in this you will be surprised at higher levels - it will hide, it will sneak attack, it will ambush you. It conducts well planned invasions especially from the sea.

AI turn length ( Pause ) - the AI will play it's turn for all 20 factions in about a minute - unless you turn on watch AI battles - which will then take longer

Memory leaks - none or if there are I cannot detect them - the game does not slow down to a crawl as so many do unless you reload

Surprise events - rebellions, earthquakes, the plague, civil wars just when you thought you had the world by the tail. All can be fixed / prevented - if you have enough resources to do it all ( hint - you don't ).

Research tree - quite extensive and based on the historical norm - can be slowed down if desired in the menu

Modding - almost everything in the game can be modded if you have the inclination.

Tooltips - there are tooltips available for almost everything

Fog of War - literally fog - over any type of enemy territory - until you get close - hides ships, cities, enemy units - as usual you can turn it off - but I never will

Planned expansions or DLCs - I have heard rumors of something mysterious coming our way but there is no official news.

Cons
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The user interface - yes it's busy but in a game this intriacate that is a nessassary evil - the default mouse controls are different than most games of this type but in the menu you can turn on the alternate mouse function and get what we are used to - so that is a null point really.

Graphics - yes they are a bit dated as the programming for this began in the era of Civ IV - it looks Civ IV now - personally I couldn't care less as I get totally immersed in what is going on.

on screen hints during AI turns - bit distracting but informative for players learning - and like practically everything else can be turned off if desired in the menu

Total reality based - no - some elements had to be adjusted for playability.

Nato counters ( for grognards ) - nope not available - but Nato came about in 1949 and this game is set in 1000 BC to 500 AD so that's fine by me

Micromanagement - the only one that is a real pain is settlers - but there are so many possible actions there is no way to automate them well.

This is not a game for your six year old - it is easy to learn and play but not to play well - it requires planning especially at the higher levels of difficulty. (but he can still enjoy playing).

Summary
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This game is not Total War style or CK2 or EU4 style - if I have to compare it would be to Civ 4 but without the emphasis on civilization building, more like stripped down to the pure war elements. Hugely affected by economic conditions and resources and political events.
This game is UNIQUE and not a clone or copy of anything however.

For me as a turn based lover of historical, 4X, and strategy games in general.

9.5 out of 10 and 2018 turn based game of the year

Update Jan 3 2019
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In addition to the above customization options are available - random maps are included up to 3X the size of campaign game, opponents can be set from few to many, the game start can be from 1000 BC to 500 AD, you can start with just one settler or one city or many cities, less or more improvements, less or more advanced troops, chooseable victories, 5 levels of map size, difficulty, type of terrain, and climate, choice of turn length from 1 to 20 years. The game variations available to you are almost infinite without modding.

Update Jan 9 2019
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I'm up to 370 hours now - I stll note reviews by people with minimal playtime complaining about a lack of depth - they could NOT BE MORE WRONG.
Also complaining about the user interface - only if you don't take the time to understand it.

The shallow AI - I have just spent 30 or 40 turns assembling ships and troops to invade my main enemies capital - big blow to him if I succeed. I got the troops trained, loaded my large fleet and was 3/4 of the way there - he caught sight of me - then I discovered he had moved his capital from one end of the map to the other and inland where I could not invade directly from the sea - now I ask you - for a human it would be a graat move - if he thought of it - but when is the last time an AI did that to you? Without cheating? And I am only playing on medium difficulty, There are three higher levels.

Update Jan 21 2019
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441 hours played - at medium difficulty as the Ptolemiaic empire the Romans have beaten me back for dozens of turns - they then invaded me and took my capital. As a result my allies cancelled our cofederations and I have resigned as I see no hope of winning. I don't think the AI cheated, the romans just have superior legions and starting territory.


TO PLAY WELL YOU NEED TO PLAY AND LEARN BY TRIAL AND ERROR OR READ SOME OF THE MANUAL OR INGAME LIBRARY OR WATCH SOME LET'S PLAYS - YOU CANNOT JUST CHARGE IN .