Mare Nostrvm

Product received for free do You like to decorate your car with brass spurs? Do you See the drawing of a galley and you feel like rowing in a park bench? Your cat the Llama salami? Don't think about it anymore. Mare Nostrum is your game. Finally a tactical game on old galleys for today's wargameros. Nothing like this had been done until now, if we discounted Rome Total War 2, whose naval battles are more Hollywood than reality. Its Creator is the Spanish company Turnopia, already famous for its first and original launch: Quadriga. This second project on antiquity leaves the Roman circuses and passes to the Mediterranean Sea, to offer us a wide selection of naval battles that go from the 6TH century BC to Actium (31 BC). Apart from a skirmish mode, it allows us to create our own fleet to fight the IA or a rival human on a map to choose from. The appearance is similar to the wargame of board by turns, you drive a fleet against another rival with figures of boats moving on a marine board divided into hexagons. But the shifts are WEGO, that is, simultaneous. You Move and at the same time move the AI or your human rival. Then you will see the result of your orders in the resolution turn, which can be accelerated or retarded to your liking. So you have to predict the opponent's movements and trust your intuition, like any old admiral. The fleets have admirals and secondary commanders, with range of their orders, represented by ships with banners. Out of range, the boats move to their air, oblivious to the control of the player, so you have to be careful not to scatter the fleet. The orders that can be given to the boats can be group or individual orders, which are three: bogan, use the spur and try to moor to another boat. From These premises, ships can be sunk, caught, crunched, burnt, with oars broken by an gunwale (or both) or suffer the death of most sailors by enemy artillery, which is automatically shot when approaching a boat from the side Contrary. The battle can become a hell of boarding, drifting ships, wrecks and captured ships fleeing the desert. In The collisions you see soldiers in the form of cylinders of the color of your side occupying the opposite boat. It is Not that it is a graphic virtuosity like the representation of the ships, but it complies. The boats are very diverse, an ample list that covers the five centuries of the game. From small "Lembi" and "Pentecónteras" to the grandiose "decares" Ptolemaicos and Romans, not forgetting the mighty Quinquerremes Carthaginians. In all, 14 models of ships. Moreover, in skirmish mode these boats are configurable, being able to add candles, machines, more men and even the Roman "Corvus". The game also includes features of accentuated realism, such as crew fatigue, fog, rain, wind and special rules for treasure ships, anchored boats and transport ships. At first glance, it is divided into campaigns, which are a succession of battles at a certain time (Medical Wars, I Punic War, etc...), which must be winning one by one. They are All represented with a remarkable historical realism and it is a pleasure (and some anger) to play them. But where more shines Mare NOSTRVM is in skirmish mode, either solo or in the multiplayer. The latter, with the already famous Slitherine system, is of tremendous ease, allowing you to play multiple historical battles and skirmishes at once, making it an ideal game for tournaments and championships between players. The only one but it is the lack of a scenario editor, that would give him a lot of extra life. Anyway, if you like naval battles or tactical games with a decent IA, Mare NOSTRVM meets the expectations.