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30th November 2006 - Chariots of War Manual

For those of you with the digital download version or if you have just lost your manual, here is a low bandwidth version for you to download.

Download manual

6th July 2006 - Legion Arena V1.0101 Patch

V1.0101b for English, French, German, Italian & Spanish CD versions

LegionArenaPatchV1.0101b

Patch Details
Unfortunately there was some corruption in the V1.0101 patch. This has been fixed and the patch updated to V1.0101b. The corrupted V1.0101 has been removed, so if you are experiencing any problems please download V1.0101b. When you install V1.0101b choose the Repair option if it is available, otherwise install normally.

• A new larger multiplayer army size has been added. You can now recruit armies up to 10,000 denari with up to 30,000 xp. 
• The balancing of numerous units has been tweaked to improve multiplayer and make Romans vs Gauls a fair fight. 
• A speed controller has been added to the options menu on a slider bar. Only works in single player. Can go from 25% normal speed up to 200%. This should cater for everyone! 
• A screenshot dump key has been added. Press F8 during battle to dump a tga file of the current view to a Scre_#DATE_#TIME dir in the games directory. The dir will be data & time stamped for easy location of your screenshots. 
• Army reports have been added. You can dump out an army report by pressing F1. An army report includes information about the current army including a list of squads, their skills & their stats. This makes it easier for players to compare armies and to post information on their armies to the web on their own web pages. 
• Generals now gain xp for commanding the army & get a % of the army xp. This means he no longer has to fight to level up. 
• A bug that caused squads not to disengage a destroyed squad has been fixed. 
• Damage of over 10 is shows as a 2 digit number. E.g. 25 instead of 10, 10, 5. 
• A bug where the Roman campaign became locked if you completed the Celtic campaign has been fixed. 
• A bug where the timers for timed missions started counting down during the fly by before battle has been fixed. 
• In multiplayer random maps are selected by the host PC before they enter deployment. This means if the client enters deployment first they will not see the default map until the host turns up and then switch to the real map, they will always see the real map. It was not a bug, but led to accusations of cheating so we wanted to resolve it. 
• At higher levels XP was growing too fast so this has been reduced. 
• There is extra support for MOD files. Add a MOD directory to your game directory. Inside this you can place your mods. Each mod must have its own directory & the dir name is how it will be labelled when you come to select it, so use a name you'll recognise & if you intend to pass it on to others, a name that's descriptive. When you run the game it checks for a mod dir. If one is found it open up the mod menu & allows you to select from all mods installed on that machine. Inside each mod directory any files you wish to use must replicate the directory structure of the full game. E.g. if you wanted to create a mod where all Legionaries had 2 javelins instead of one, you'd need to make a copy of the data\squads.txt file. You'd need to put your modified copy at "mods\my mod\data\squads.txt". This means you should never modify any files in the game dir, always make a copy & edit them in the mod dir. Please remember that if you use a mod, your opponent in multiplayer must use the same mod or you will go out of synch and be unable to play. It's not possible to cheat by modifying your files when your opponent has not, but it is possible to break multiplayer!

14th May 2006 - Legion Arena Manual

For those of you with the digital download version or who have just lost your hard copy here is a low bandwidth pdf version to download in English or Spanish.

English version
Spanish version

27th April 2006 - Legion Arena Mods

This mod pack includes the additional British campaign by Possum and the Berserker mod from Slitherine.

Download Mods_27_4_06.zip

Possum's British Campaign Mod

Please note this is a fan created mod, not an official mod from Slitherine.
Player Notes

1. This campaign is intended for the experienced player, who has completed both of the standard campaigns in Legion Arena. This campaign is intended to be played on the middle difficulty setting ("Hard", in the English language version). This campaign is intended to be challenging. But feel free to play it any way you like. Because lower difficulty settings yield less fame, it may be the case that playing on the "Normal" difficulty setting is not really much easier, (see note #2 immediately below). 
2. Fame is handled a bit differently in the early game. Most of us are accustomed to having huge excesses of fame, won in major battles witnessed by thousands, (and affecting the fates of many times that number). The initial parts of this campaign deal with obscure events off on the fringes of the empire, or hidden away from public view. Thus, the gain in fame is very small at first. Instead of accumulating a huge surplus of fame, you may find yourself doling out what little you have for much-needed replacements. This is intentional, but really only an issue for the first three scenarios, while you are en route to Britannia.
3. If the "Heal All" button is not active, but the hearts are red, it means you don't have enough fame to heal all units. You can still heal some by double-clicking on the spinning red heart of the unit you wish to heal. 
4. If the hearts are black, it means you are not allowed to get replacements now. The next battle happens very soon after this one, and there simply isn't time. 
5. Do not neglect the direct combat skills of your leader, or his personal equipment. To win the 7th scenario, he will probably need to have Weapons 2, a helmet, and a half-dozen combat skills. The ones with the little sword next to them are my personal favourites.
6. In scenario #3, watch out for the bandit skirmishers, they may be the one dangerous enemy unit in this scenario. 
7. Suggestions. My suggestion is that you keep all 4 of your starting units. The first 8 units you buy might be something like this - 1x Archers, 1x Nobles, 3x Warriors, 3x Veterans. And try to get your units to Weapons 1 and Armour 1 as you go along. Don't try to fill the roster before starting to buy equipment.

Historical Notes

1. This is historical fiction. In actual fact, Britannicus stayed in Rome to contest the succession with Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Lucius or his mother Agrippina murdered the Emperor Claudius, Lucius took the throne as emperor Nero, and Britannicus was murdered shortly before his 14th birthday.
2. Agrippina was known as Agrippinilla in her youth, because her mother was also named Agrippina. 
3. The general period was one of great unrest and turmoil. The actual Iceni rebellion ended rather differently, but it was followed by the Batavian rebellion 7 years later, and the year after Nero finally died was known as the year of 4 emperors. So while the scenario is fiction, it is by no means impossible.

Install Notes

1) Point the unzip operation at your Legion Arena directory. This is usually C:\Program Files\BlackBean\LegionArena. The zip file will create a \mod directory and the \brit directory under that.

Player Notes
In this mod you will get vastly restricted amounts of fame. This means that if you lose a battle badly you may not even have enough to replace all your men. You'll have to decide who to replace and make sure you minimize casualties. This adds a whole new dimension to gameplay. Missions that used to be easy are now transformed as you care how many casualties you take. This is actually what we intended Legion Arena to be about, but some players found it too hard and we had to scale back the role of fame.
We hope you enjoy the mod!

Install Notes
1) Point the unzip operation at your Legion Arena directory. This is usually C:\Program Files\BlackBean\LegionArena. The zip file will create a \mod directory and the \berserker directory under that.

20th March 2006 - Matrix Patch

The only patch available for Gates of Troy is for the Matrix digital download version. If you did not buy your game from Matrix then you already have the latest version and do not need to update.

Some people seem to be experiencing a problem with the Matrix version of Gates of Troy. The Achaean Noble units graphics are corrupted. To fix the problem download this patch. You then need to go to the dir you installed the game to. Look in the "data\battle\units" directory. Here you'll see a number of files with the name Ach-Nob-XXX.pcx and Ach-Nob-XXX.pcs. Delete all of these files. Make sure you only delete the Ach-Nob files & not any other units! Then copy the files from the patch into the "data\battle\units" directory. Next time you run the game everything should look fine! We're not sure what caused the problem, but this seems to fix it. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Download MatrixPatch

12th February 2006 - XLS Files For Modders

Download tools & instructions on how to edit Legion Arena & the Cult of Mithras data. The zip contains a number of xls files intended to make it easier for mods to make changes to the game.
Remember a mod must sit inside the LegionArena\Mod\MODNAME directory. Each mod must have its own directory and must replicated the directory structure of the game. E.g. if you wanted to change the squads file at LegionArena\data\squads.txt, you would need to put your modified file at LegionArena\Mod\MODNAME\data\squads.txt.

Download ModToolkit

15th June 2005 - Spartan Mods

We've created 3 mods for Spartan that anyone can try out. Just download the mods you want & unzip each one with its directory structure intact to your Spartan dir. To run a mod, install the files as instructed & choose it from the main menu & then just play as normal. If you have any questions post them to the Slitherine forum at forum.

Mod 1 "Berserker"
This is for those of you who think the game is just too easy. It makes the AI much stronger. 
Download  BerserkerMod.zip

Mod 2 "Barbarians Everywhere"
This make barbarian invasions much more common & more powerful. On some maps its really a matter of seeing how liong you can last rather than trying to win the game! Greece & the civilized areas are easier to play as there are far few barbarians, but the eastern nations & tribal nations have loads of barbarians to deal with. 
Download BarbarianMod.zip

Mod 3 "Camp It Up"
Well, we just had a little fun with this..... 
Download CampItUpMod.zip

27th April 2005 - The Chariots of War demo

The Chariots of War demo is fully featured, but limits you to 3 hours of gameplay.

Download from Gamershell

Download from Worthplaying.com

Download from Game Guru Mania

Download from Gamezone.com

Download from Computer Games Romania

Download from Warcry.com

Download from The Battlefield

Download from Strategy Informer

17th April 2005 - Spartan Patch V1.017 (8 MB)

Please make sure you download the correct patch for your version. If you have a Spartan digital download you do not need any patches. In fact, if you try to apply any of these patches to a digital download version of Spartan it will break the game. If you have a boxed copy, check the logos on the box and find the publisher & language which matches your copy & then look below to find a link to someone who is hosting the patch. If you download the wrong patch it will not work with your version.

This patch includes all of the changes in previous patches & will bring any version up to 1.017.

Patch Information

This patch contains all the updates in any previous patches and is the only patch required.

Fixed in V1.017
This patch mainly addresses gameplay & AI issues so there are hundreds of minor tweaks not mentioned, but here are the main changes.

• The difficulty levels have been adjusted as new gamers were finding it far too difficult. After 6 months of playing Spartan we decided the beta testers were no longer the best source of feedback for how hard the game should be!
• The AI no longer starts with many more resources than the player & no longer rushes player at the start of the game
• The AI maintains production of units into the later game & reacts more quickly to the situation presented by the player & other AI sides.
• The starting positions of some nations adjusted to make them more playable - most notably Sparta/Lacedaimon
• The AI’s research choices are now much more balanced allowing the AI to compete with the player on a much more even footing. 
• The Persian & Roman invasions are more powerful 
• A bug where the buy prices for generals & maintenance was incorrect has been fixed 
• The AI will no longer attack you without cause. The AI will now only attack its enemies, so careful attention to diplomacy now really pays off. 
• Friendly fire casualties have been reduced 
• A bug where relationships were not effected by naval battles has been fixed 
• The UI & list box behaviour have been improved to work more like Windows 
• The AI deployment logic has been improved 
• A bug where you were offered the wrong battle resolution options when the AI attacked one of your fleets has been fixed. 
• A bug in the diplomacy order descriptions has been fixed
• The formula used for Auto resolved combats has been improved

Fixed in V1.013

• The AI will gather its troops together for more concerted attacks. 
• A bug where the AI would not siege player controlled cities has fixed. 
• If you block the AI's path at a river crossing it will now attack the army guarding the pass instead of trying to find an alternative route. 
• The way the AI researches has changed. Instead of spreading its research around it now picks one technology to go for and will keep pace with the player in the technology race much more closely. 
• The resources the AI was willing to spend at the start of the game have been reduced to stop the AI rushing the player. The AI is now much more conservative and presents a consistent challenge throughout the game instead of peaking and slumping. 
• A problem where there would be screen flicker on some graphics cards has been fixed. 
• A bug where AI Naval invasions would sometimes get stuck at sea has been fixed. 
• A bug where patrolling fleets would sometimes get stuck patrolling and never return to land has been fixed 
• The AI will make sure it does not send out more than 10% of its army on naval patrols. 
• A bug where some diplomatic actions could earn you hundreds of thousands of silver has been fixed. 
• A bug where some buildings failed to display their graphic on the city screen has been fixed. 
• Descriptions of units that are not available in the scenario will no longer appear in the Pedia. 
• A bug where the Persian invasion force was inactive after an initial assault has been fixed. 
• Alliances have been made easier to attain. They do not require such a high relationship and are now a more realistic gameplay option. 
• A bug that caused diplomats not to be sent out on some maps has been fixed. 
• Sparta has had its woodmill swapped for a farm to ease its food needs at the start of the game and make it far more playable for a new player.

Fixes in V1.009

• BACKSPACE and DELETE keys now cancel the movement path of a selected army at the campaign level 
• A mercenary barracks has been added to the build tree - available at Silver Tech 2. It allows you to recruit Mercenary Hoplites who are similar to normal Hoplites, but are cheaper to recruit and very expensive to maintain. Mercenaries are also better trained - i.e. have better combat stats but with lower morale to reflect the lack of loyalty to your cause. 
• When you gain a tech level, any research points that spill over are add to the research into the next technology level. 
• Difficulty levels have been adjusted to make them more slightly easier on the lower levels as many players were finding Spartan too hard. 
• Some players with colour blindness were having problems telling the difference between the morale indicators in battle. The icons are not very big so we did not have many options, but we have tried to differentiate the symbols with shape as much as colour to assist any colour blind players. 
• A crash on below min spec machines has been fixed relating to smoke from sieges & castle walls. It was related to the machines not supporting the Pentium Pro instruction, but we have found a work around. 
• AI bug where AI would sometimes forget about its armies has been fixed. These armies would freeze and never move again on the campaign map. 
• AI bug where the AI would sometimes constantly change its mind about who to attack has been fixed. 
• A city in Orestis that had a lumber mill but no wood resources has been given wood level 3.

10th September 2004 - Legion Gold Manual

If you have the digital download version of the game or have lost your manual, just download and print out this pdf version.

Download Legion Gold Manual