I have been playing "Never Second in Rome" - Second released game on Steam from a lone developer: Alessandro Roberti.
Played and liked his first game "A Legionary's Life", so it was on my wishlist for consideration. At the moment in early access.
So in this second one you don't play a base legionnaire in the war against corinth (and others) But this time you start as a centurion under Caesar rampaging through the Gauls' Lands (France, Belgium. Short expeditions against the Germans and English. The early access covers 10 chapters so far. (The story goes over... eh, i will say that every Chapter is a "War Season" - Maybe not all, but quite a few years and ends after you get assigned to another century - if you can make it)
So you start with fresh 74 legionnaires + admin staff. Set Attributes and a background for your centurion, roll up your optio, signifier and tesserarius - Set training weights and manage these young lads through the campaigns against those FILTHY BARBARIANS.
Game is heavy on historical correctness and the many, MANY fights are super-slow, very in-detail. You (should) play not only the tactical combat, line vs line (or wild storming barbarians) but each individual short clash between your main officers (+4 significant legionnaires: 8 characters in total). This takes SO much time (The most negative reviews are solely pointing it out. The fights are very slow and deliberate: Always looking at your stance-bluff-feint-compose yourself, trick, stance shift.. AHA, OPENING - Cut his Leg - didn't get him, regain composure - Ah, clash over: see you next rotation, Belgian savage - NEXT TIME you WILL be more tired...)
So there are three layers:
1. Bad season (Living in the fort, training, a few events here and there but you mostly shuffle just training-points around to maximize skill-gain and morale)
2. War season - Mostly some texts with some checks and decisions to take some risks or do stupid stuff. Sometimes small clashes, duels, ambushes or army-stat checks.
3. Main battles. Sometimes in multiple tiers - encapsulating a LOT of short clashes.
4. Sometimes bonus games - Engineering: Building bridges, forts and traps, or foraging/scouting. Those are just mostly 2-3 Buttons for how much you want to drive your dudes and get hated for it, or improving quality etc.
Also: The path is fixed. Caesar or the Legates tell you where to go, and what happens is what happened in real life. It is just uncertain if you are promoted, if your were the one coming up with some intel or a clever tactic or someone else; how many people you lose or if your century is one which just gets crushed in a siege, ambush or main battle. And if you let your people devolve and plunder, pillage and rape or hold up honor and duty and discipline.
Overall i liked it. Very grounded. I see some Problems with:
1. Checks are: Have the stat high enough or not. It doesn't tell you the difficulty directly, but shows a bar. (I can just measure the bar and calculate if i can make it, or not.) Needs a slight random element for risk/reward.
2. Needs more small events AND some more options. (It is often just "Do Check and get something", or "do nothing")
3. Needs a perfectly fair auto-Combat for your 7 hanger-on characters. (It does have a "Skip Fight Button, but tells you it will not generate heroic victories for those characters (which are important - it is one of the measurements of the Century and your success))
4. Maybe a bit more differences and some more options in training and management, so far i think only small adjustments make sense. A bit more stuff to spend your sesterces on (I would like to not only get myself quality gear, but give my old equipment or buy some gifts for heroes in my command, bribe some people and so on.
(So far you can only get some better gear for yourself, buy slaves, art, luxuries and Once a Season hold a feast for morale))
So: 40 hours in (Played 5 Characters, one through all 10 chapters, 3 dead (i play ironman, no save-scumming - And it turns out challenging a foot-taller-than-me warchief-gaul with a giant axe to a duel after being exhausted by a night of fighting in formation is a bad idea.)
So: ~6/10 + niche appeal with a lot of room for improvement (Which could realistically happen)