Legionnaire

Legionnaire is a computer wargame for the Atari 8-bit series created by Chris Crawford in 1982, and released through Avalon Hill. Recreating Julius Caesar's campaigns in a semi-historical setting, the player takes command of the Roman legions in real-time battles against the barbarians. Gameplay Similar to Crawford's earlier groundbreaking Eastern Front (1941) in terms of display and general gameplay, Legionnaire added a real-time computer opponent, and is one of the earliest examples of a real-time tactics (RTT) game. In the game, the player takes the side of the Romans, playing the role of Julius Caesar and giving orders to their forces in real time. The computer plays as generic barbarian tribes, in blue, with the player's legions in pink. There are three types of units: infantry is represented by a sword, cavalry by a horse head, and Caesar's own Imperial Guard by an eagle. Orders are given to the units by moving a cursor over them with the joystick and then holding down the joystick button; existing commands are displayed as a moving arrow, and new orders can entered by pressing the joystick in the four cardinal directions. Like Eastern Front, the Legionnaire playfield consists of a large grid of square cells with various terrain features displayed on it. Unlike Eastern Front, the new map includes varying altitudes, displayed as a series of contour lines. Movement is affected by the contours as well as by the underlying terrain, making positional combat an important part of the game's overall strategy. The screen shows only a small portion of the entire map at one time, smooth-scrolling around it when the joystick-controlled cursor reaches the edge of the screen. Unlike Eastern Front, the map contains no cities or strategic locations, and the game starts with both forces placed at random locations on the map.