Each village has a certain number of people available for recruitment and when the village is emptied it can take quite a while for it to repopulate. The game has only one resource - villagers. This is by far Praetorians' strongest feature. Praetorians immediately distinguishes itself from the pack of 'me-too' RTS clones by shifting the focus away from the traditional mechanic of 'build base, build massive army, crush opponents' to a most welcome emphasis on actual strategy and tactics. The good news is that the game manages to be a lot of fun despite some serious missteps the bad news is Praetorians falls far short of the greatness that it might have achieved.

in a period of aggressive Roman expansion. Praetorians is a very solid real-time strategy title set during the first century B.C. Away from the main mode of play, single players can also engage in once-off battles in the Skirmish mode. Multiplayer support is offered for up to eight, across both LAN and Internet connections, allowing players to command any of the three in-game factions (as opposed to the single-player campaign, in which only the Romans are playable). Terrain also plays a vital role in determining the outcome of battle - allowing players to hide particular troops in forests and tall grass, or position them on higher ground for an even greater advantage. When not crushing the hapless enemy forces underfoot, players will find themselves defending strongholds from siege attacks, racing to the aid of allies, and even occasionally retreating from battle under the threat of increasing enemy numbers. Praetorians offers a range of different mission types.

By capturing villages - the game's only resource - players obtain a supply of new recruits that can be used to replenish their ranks. The single-player campaign sees players trudging through 24 missions that take place as far away as North Africa and the Middle East, as they help expand the might of Rome. A real-time strategy game from Pyro Studios, the development team responsible for the Commandos series, Praetorians forsakes conventional base-building and resource-gathering, instead allowing players to focus on the art of war alone. Set at the height of the Roman Empire, when Julius Caesar reigned supreme, Praetorians puts players in the role of an up-and-coming Roman general, battling for supremacy against both the Egyptian and the Gaul armies.

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