Praetorians is set during the time when Rome was seeking to conquer the known world and the Roman Legionnaire was the Tank of the battlefield of today. His armor, tight formations, and weighted pilum made him a formidable unit on the battlefield. The key then for Praetorians to be a success would be how well this was portrayed in the game and how well the combat played out. We are glad to say that Pyro Studios have done a fine job.

The game mechanics are different from the usual resource gathering you would expect from a bog standard RTS game. No food or wood gathering in this one but rather you capture villages that in turn allow you to recruit troops of varying types. This is done by demolishing the enemies tower in the village and then building one of your own. Once that's done you move your General into the village and start recruiting. The villagers regenerate slowly and the amount of units is determined by your General's allowable level. Each 'unit' in the game is made up of a number of men, so one Cavalry unit could have 30 men in it for example.

There are three factions in the game:- the Romans, the Barbarians and the Egyptians. The Romans of course can build Legionnaires but you also need to balance your army out with Auxiliary Infantry, Bowman and Cavalry Units. You can also build the Praetorians which are the elite of the Legion. There are also some specialist units such as a Physician and a Scout. The Scout is a bit quirky with each one being able to use their 'familiars' (a Hawk or Wolf) to scout ahead of the main army. For history nuts the inclusion of this semi-magical aspect may be disappointing however these and some of the other factions special units certainly add more depth in game play.

The Barbarians get the usual Spearmen, Axemen, and Bowmen. The have a special Berserker unit and also a Druid. The Egyptians have in addition to the stadard Spearmen and Bowmen both Camel riders and Chariot units. Every faction can build Catapults, Ballistas, Rams and Towers. This is done by utilising your lowest units (in the case of the Egyptians it is your slaves) who then reduce in number as they man the various equipment.