Rome: Total War Hands-On Preview

Here's an example: on the strategic map I pinned a massive enemy force between two of my armies. With my enemy between the mountains and the sea, I attacked from both sides. Sure enough, when the battle began the enemy had arranged his forces to meet my assault. Suddenly, my reinforcements came, attacking from behind him! Half of his units tried to swing around to meet the new threat, and then I hit their flanks with a cavalry charge. With the sea beside them the panicked troops had no place to flee except inland, through the remainder of their army. This demoralized them right before we sandwiched them from both sides: it was a slaughter! We had started with roughly equal troop numbers, but because of good strategic planning on my part and tactics on the field we absolutely decimated them.

That's the promise of Rome: a deep game that's satisfying on every level. The full game is expected come late September -- we'll be keeping our eyes on this one.