Rome Total War-Barbarian Invasion

Here is a fun game that I have played on and off for years (it must be over 10 years old). Basically, you start as Rome in the fifth century, with awesome armies, a big empire...

and then the horde arrives

These are Vandals, but there are also Franks, Lombards, Celts, Huns, Goths, Parthians etc. There armies are huge, their generals are nearly unstoppable, and they move in such masses that victory in battle is rare.

The battles are PRESTAGS on steroids: spearman, swordsmen, archers, cavalry, leaders, each with their strengths and weaknesses that you can manoeuvre with God-like precision to take a flank, stiffen a front, or run away to right another day.

However, being the fifth, you have another problem. Christianity is taking root in the empire. So you have to choose to follow Constantine or Julian the Apostate. This means that there is massive unrest in the empire, cities frequently revolting if they do not like your religion. If you build a church in the city, the pagans revolt, if you move a heroic pagan general into a Christian city (to rebuild his battered armies), the Christians revolt. The only solution I have found to this is lots and lots and lots and lots of crucifixions of rebels.

Paul would be impressed to know that you can take Catholic Priests into battle:

While they are useless at battle, when they chant next to your soliders they fight better and the enemies are disheartened. They also speed conversions.

Finally, you are broke at the start. So broke that you cannot afford to pay your army (which means you get more revolts). I find that you have disband all your best troops early on, accept that you will lose a lot of cities quickly, and rebuild your economic infrastructure: road, ports, markets. Cities are fun to improve, but a bit repetitive, something that has been changed in later Total War games:

Your mission, should you play long enough (this is the first time I have completed this game - it takes  loooong time), it to reunite the key provinces of the Roman empire:

When you do, you get a short movie (5 seconds - a bit underwhelming) and the offer of one more turn!

Being so old, this game should run on anything and is still sold for about $10. So if you have nothing to do with the next three months of your life....