Slitherine

While the board posts seem very positive, after watching some playthrough videos I'm not sure it is for me: My main concerns are that the game play might be a little basic and that the theme is fairly superficial and it is really a generic 4x game with an ancient veneer. I'm not saying this is true, it just seems like that to me from the online videos. Could experienced players let me know your thoughts as I'd like to buy it?

(For benchmark purposes, Europa Universalis 4 is my guide for depth and theme, but I'd say Civ 6, Stellaris, and Endless Space 2 also pass muster for me too to varying degrees. Of course, these are mature, mega budget games by large studios so comparison isn't really fair, I'm just providing some reference points for grand strategy/4x games I'm familiar with.)

The game is a good design and nice graphics. You should buy it.

This game is one of the best that I've bought in years. There is a lot more depth to managing your civilization than appears on the surface. You have to manage happiness, food, resources, where to build cities and what upgrades to give your cities, what military units to build and what upgrades to give them, etc. You also have to manage trading. Some civilizations in this game do not have enough of certain resources and you either try and trade for them or conquer them.
I hope this helps.

The game trades "complexity" for "depth." There are far fewer systems to master in Aggressors: Ancient Rome than any of the games you've mentioned. Where Aggressors: Ancient Rome excells is in forcing meaningful trade-offs most every turn due primarily to: (1) the interdependence of resources (i.e. producing military costs population, but population is necessary to advance in the tech tree and generate influence so you need to prioritize), (2) the relative scarcity of resources, especially on higher difficulty levels, and (3) the complex trading and diplomatic functionality that is necessary to master to obtain needed reaources. Like others have said, the AI is much better than most 4X games so this is also a strong selling point, if you are looking for a challenge. The biggest weakness of the game, in my opinion, is the lack of faction differentiation. There are twenty odd factions to choose from, but they aren't really all that different from each other. I hope this helps.

Thank you im gonna buy this game.