A Legionary's Life news & patch notes

• Patched Unity's CVE-2025-59489.

I have also updated the free demo.

• In A Legionary's Life you are a conscripted ordinary citizen at the beginning of the game. In Never Second in Rome you will start off as a freshly promoted centurion. You will not only control your character, but also your century and specific individuals within it.
• The character generation in A Legionary's Life is random. This is not the case in Never Second in Rome, which uses completely different mechanisms.
• Main battles are experienced not only at individual level as in A Legionary's Life, but also at formation level. Individual fights can erupt under proper conditions during this phase.
• Individual combat differs from A Legionary's Life in many ways, some very apparent and some subtle. You should not assume you already know how each combat action works because you played the first game. Besides, actual numbers have replaced the old visual indicators, while modifiers and dice rolls have replaced the old percentages. You can also see in detail how each stat and condition affects each available combat action.
• Unlike A Legionary's Life, there is no permadeath in Never Second in Rome, although I might add an option at a later time, for veteran players looking for a different kind of challenge.
• And many more you will find as you play.

Changes

• I have added a brief description to over 40 enemy types. The description can be seen in the details screen of each enemy, below the name. It should provide more background information to players who are not familiar with the time period, and also add more depth to the encounters. Special thanks to flori2412, who once again offered to translate all the new content into German for free.
• Fights against enemies who have the terrain advantage are preceded by an alert that explains the situation and its consequences. The icon indicating this condition and your Stance circle are highlighted for a brief moment. High ground is a crucial factor in combat and it was commonly overlooked by players. This change should make it less elusive.
• When fighters enter the fray, a tip will remind you that you can click on their avatar to see detailed information about them. If you find this feature annoying, you can turn it off in the Combat options.
• Every time you adjust your Attitude (and you should do it very often), a basic tip will appear next to the slider to show whether your Attack and Defense are being affected positively or negatively. This should help new players figure out as early as possible how Attitude affects their performance, and its extreme importance in combat.
• Libyan spearmen now spawn in the second campaign with exactly the same range of possible stats they have in the first. Before this change, it was possible that they spawned with slightly higher skills. This made no sense from a historical or logical point of view. In general, I have a strong disliking for any form of level scaling in RPGs. This was the only thing in the game that resembled level scaling, so I'm happy to get rid of it.
• If your missing Health is less than 10% of its maximum value (for example, if your current Health is 46/50), you won't lose Morale when you spend turns during the camp phase. If the missing portion is 10% or more, the behavior will be the same as before.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that could prevent ambushes from triggering at the appropriate time.
• Fixed a bug that could make a fight freeze at its conclusion.
• Flori2412 sent me a couple of corrections to his German translation, which I thankfully applied.

Changes

• The hand-to-hand fights against phalangites now last 24 rounds instead of 20.
• The difficulty of the rolls for the first three places of the elite javelin contest based on distance (part of the contests you can select shortly after your first raid in Upper Macedonia) has been reduced a little.
• Your share of the loot after the siege of New Carthage is now 120 denarii instead of 80. If you volunteered for the hazardous assault on the citadel, you get a prize worth 150 denarii instead of 100.

• The first change requires a little explanation: as the majority of you already know, when fighters use the Recover action and have not been attacked since their last turn, the action succeeds automatically with no roll involved. As usual, it is true for both player and AI controlled characters. This is already explained in both the action tooltip and the combat manual, but I decided to make it more noticeable. From now on, whenever a character benefits from an automatically successful Recover action, the message will be "Succeeded! (Undisturbed)" instead of the ordinary "Succeeded!". The combat log will also contain a more detailed explanation. I hope this makes the mechanism a little more conspicuous, especially to new players.
• Flori2412 kindly provided some refinements to his German translation. I have imported them into the game.
• The implementation of the Hall of Fame has been improved.
• If your job in preserving the lives of your men at Ottolobus is deemed "excellent", the impact on your reward at the end of the battle is bigger.

Deutsch

Visible chance of full success for Feints and Shield Attacks

Partial hits

Changes to javelin throws

Changes

• There is a further indicator for Feints and Shield Attacks. It shows the overall chance of full success (that is, the combined probability to pass both the primary Skill check and the Resist check).
• When the chance to hit is extremely low, attacks will succeed only partially. The target will be Grazed instead of being Hit, and the damage will be reduced to 30% of its value. Weapon Skill values above 35 will progressively reduce this possibility. The victim's lack of Stance will also make this occurrence more rare.
• Bull's-eye shots are only possible when the chance to hit is at least 50%.
• The mechanics of how javelins can break shields has been reworked.
• First javelin throws (the text-based ones) have been revised. Direct kills are only possible if your chance to hit the enemies is good enough.
• Stance damage for successful Charge attacks reduced from 80-100 to 60-70.
• Stance damage for successful Knock attacks reduced from 64-80 to 48-56.
• Stance damage for failed Shield attacks of any kind reduced from 30-60 to 20-35.
• Stance damage for successful Shield Push attacks against the phalanx increased from 16-20 to 24-28.
• Knock attacks are a little more likely to hit.
• Min damage of all weapons increased by 3.
• Max damage of all weapons decreased by 1.
• Handiness of Gladius Hispaniensis - type V raised from 51 to 53.
• Damage protection of quilted linen cuirass increased from 7 to 8.
• Torso Cover of pectoral plate increased from 35 to 40.
• Torso Cover of back-and-breast plate increased from 50 to 57.

Fixes

• When a character with low Virtue tries to speed up his career by removing the opposition and fails miserably, the Game Over is properly handled.

• Workouts are initially 50% more likely to improve your Attributes. The odds will drop a little faster than before the farther you get from the initial value. Overall, the progression curve is significantly more favorable to the player and I think it also makes more sense than before.
• Similarly, your mental Attributes will improve more often when you successfully complete a foraging mission or show good leadership.
• The chance to skip a combat turn because of slow speed has been decreased. If a character has a Quickness score of 50, the chance to skip a turn and the chance to obtain an extra action are now the same (assuming full Stance, no Fatigue and Content Morale). Suboptimal Stance and levels of Fatigue will still significantly slow you down. Morale will continue to have a small effect, too.
• The Phalanx had its Quickness reduced.
• Fixed a minor bug that allowed users to interact with the Health bar in the main character screen. The underlying Health value was unaffected, so it was substantially harmless.
• The name you choose when you generate a new legionary is saved and reused as default when you create the next one (it won't work for currently active characters: the name is only saved when you assign it to a new character).

• Added full localization support. Well, the game had already been developed with potential localization in mind, but some less urgent aspects were postponed.
• A certain fellow legionary whose life you can save in Hispania should be a little more resilient.
• During the third main battle, there is now an opportunity to change your equipment after the scouting mission.
• The way the persistence of the Hall of Fame is handled has been changed to allow a more user-friendly approach in case something very unfortunate happens, like a power shortage at the exact moment the file is being written. The solution adopted in a previous version wasn't effective enough.
• Fix: when polearm using enemies were hit by a javelin thrown by the player, the disrupting effect on their Reach advantage lasted for one round longer than intended.
• Fix: joysticks are now prevented from interfering with movement during foraging missions. Hopefully, this should solve the rare problem some users have reported. I haven't been able to replicate this issue, so feedback is appreciated.
• Fix: a Cup could be wrongly assigned to the player character after defeating a normal Gallic mercenary, if a mercenary leader had been defeated in a similar encounter during the same game. The Cup should only be assigned when the leader is defeated in single combat, not when one of his henchmen is killed in formation fighting.

• Movement speed in foraging missions has been increased by 40%.
• Fighters skipping their turn or performing a Second Action are a lot more conspicuous in the combat UI.
• You can always adjust your Attitude before melee combat begins, even when you don't have an opportunity to hurl your javelin or you are out of missiles.
• The tooltip of Feints and Shield attacks has been extended to explain more clearly that you have to pass both checks for the action to succeed.
• Second actions are no longer possible during the first round of combat.
• The volume of the combat music has been reduced.
• The skills of the weakest possible companions that can spawn to help you during the siege of New Carthage have been increased a little.
• The chance of an Expert Militiaman spawning during the fight in the streets of New Carthage has been halved.
• At Baecula, if your maniple takes part in the flanking maneuver and you face the Libyan spearmen, there is no longer a chance that your companion will be a green recruit with low skills.
• Fixed: bug that could delay an ambush happening during foraging missions until you went back to camp.
• Fixed: potential freeze during foraging missions that could happen when time ran out at the end of a text event.
• Fixed: hunting and fishing actions not consuming time as they should. To compensate for this change, you have 15 more time units to complete foraging missions. Besides, failures yield 50% of the supplies you get when you succeed (it was 30% before this update).
• Several UI elements have been enlarged, including buttons, icons and text.
• Minor changes to the engine.

• When characters fail to Recover twice in a row, their chance to succeed is increased by 16% for each further consecutive attempt. The increase is 8% if the character is Fatigued and 4% if Tired. Exhausted character do not benefit from this bonus. Like every rule, this applies to both the player and the AI controlled characters. Success is still guaranteed for characters who have not been attacked for a whole round.
• The AI should Respite more often, especially when it is more fatigued than its opponent(s).
• During the third battle, your Fatigue is partially reduced before you are attacked by the light infantry.
• The way the Hall of Fame is saved has been changed to protect it from potential data corruption in case of extremely unlucky events, like power shortages happening at the exact moment the file is being written.
• Ambushes in forests during foraging missions have a brief cooldown period.
• Fixed: potential crash while skipping the introduction too fast at the beginning of a main event.
• Fixed: a few more typos.
• Other minor changes.

What is new in version 1.0

• Successful attacks on limbs increase the victim's Fatigue, based on the damage received. You can find more details in the tooltip of the specific Attack. This should serve the double purpose of offering a new tactical option and reducing the length of duels. It might need fine tuning, feedback is appreciated as always.
• The difficulty coefficient of each body part is no longer partially randomized after each round.
• Thumbs have been replaced with something more decipherable.
• You can press Control to view Attributes and Skills during text events.
• It is no longer possible to skip your turn in the first round of combat because of low Quickness.
• It is no longer possible to skip two turns in a row if a character's Stance is full.
• The first time you show good leadership when attacked by slingers in a specific random encounter, there is a chance to increase one or more of your mental Attributes. Only the first time for each game.
• A little more text as been added to the initial part of the epilogue, based on the money you have accumulated. If you have less than 2500 denarii, it is the same as before. Above 2500, 5000, 7500 and 10000 denarii, you will see a slighly different description of how you fared right after your return from Greece.
• The damage of all weapons has been increased by 1.
• The influence of Strength on damage as been reduced a bit. The overall effect of this change and the one above is that weak and average characters will do a little more damage than before. Characters with high Strength shouldn't notice a significant difference, unless they are very close to the human limit of 99. Even then, they lose very little because of the increased base damage of weapons.
• The damage protection of all armors has been increased by 1.
• Enemies you meet after a rotation are likely to be more fatigued than in previous versions.
• The Rally action of the phalanx has a cooldown and won't happen more than once per "cycle".
• The AI parameters of the phalanx have been tweaked. It is more likely to attack, especially when the player is vulnerable.
• You can now view previous messages during text events, in case you suddenly find yourself clicking through a branch you have never visited before, after playing the game many times.
• The help section of the Equipment screen contains an explanation of weapon Handiness.
• The cost of Skill enhancements has been decreased from 4000 to 3500.
• Ultra rare items with quality 7 are back in the inventories of merchants and camp followers.
• Foraging missions can no longer happen more than once after each battle.
• Armillae are easier to win right after landing in Africa and at Zama.
• There is a new option to use keyboard and mouse on desktop computers and laptops with a touch screen.
• Fixed: sound effects not affected by volume settings in the score assignment screen.
• Fixed: several typos and mistakes.
• Fixed: the Veteran achievement not unlocking when you finish the game.
• Several other minor changes.

Features and changes

• You can now modify your equipment during some battle phases, if circumstances allow. There is an icon on the Inventory button to point out that you can view your equipment but cannot change it.
• Equipment penalties are suspended if you visit the Numidian camp, since you are supposed to be under disguise and without your usual equipment.
• If you meet a patrol of spearmen during a random event, you'll no longer get a cup if you attack along with your men and defeat one of them. Also, the fight times out after about 35 rounds. You'll still get a cup if you kill their leader in single combat.
• It is slightly more difficult to train your skills above 63, but you should barely notice. By the end of part eight, I can still consistently train my legionary to be more skilled than any enemy he can face up to that point.
• The length of Lull phases is no longer partly random.
• The cost in points of all the equipment pieces that can be acquired during the Character Enhancement phase has been reduced. The only exception is the Chain Mail.
• The bonus to your Centurion Opinion at the beginning of the second campaign is Consul Opinion*2 instead of Consul Opinion*3.

Fixes

• Fixed a potential freeze during the “harsh winter” random event.
• Improved the way some attempts to cheat are handled.

Features and changes

• Added an option to make combat go slower or faster than normal.
• Added a VSync option to limit the FPS rate. This is enabled by default.
• Added an introductory note that appears on the first character creation screen. It should help new players to get an idea of what to expect.
• The tutorial part about the “thumbs up/down” indicator has been expanded a little to provide an explanation. Unfortunately, in the tutorial I have to be as concise as possible or players could get bored and skip it, missing important information.
• If you kill the leader of the mercenaries in a settlement during a foraging mission, you are rewarded with a Cup.
• The bracelet stolen from the enemy camp yields 121 denarii instead of 28 if you share the profit with Nasidius. If you kill Nasidius and take it all for yourself (your Virtue has to be pretty low for this option to show up), you get 242 denarii instead of 56.
• Changed “Malus” to a more understandable “Penalty” in item descriptions.
• The max quality of items generated in shops is now capped at 6 instead of 8.
• The base damage of spears has been reduced to 4-15 from 5-16.
• The Awareness penalty of Etrusco-Corinthian helmets has been reduced from 5 to 4.

Fixes

• Himilco is now correctly shown on the list of vanquished enemies.
• A crash happening after you return part of the supplies to the villagers after defeating the mercenaries should be fixed.
• During foot races you are correctly told when the second lap begins.

• The weight of Attitude in combat has been increased by 60%. A very defensive Attitude won't make you 100% safe, but it should improve your survival rate. Remember that Attitude is a double-edged weapon: if you are aggressive, you will see your chance to hit go up, but you will be more exposed than before, so be careful.
• The probability to improve your mental Attributes after leading a successful foraging mission or after a display of good leadership has been increased. The chance of *not* improving any Attribute is now about 20%; it was 35% before this change. As always, the odds of improving will gradually go down as your current values grow more distant from the initial ones; this process is so slow that you probably won't notice any difference for a while.
• Attributes that are suffering penalties due to equipment are highlighted in red.
• One of the branches of the battle at the end of Part V, specifically the one that involves staying in the ranks, lacked an appropriate reduction of Fatigue at the end. Now you should get a little rest before the next onslaught.
• There are two new random events. One of them only triggers if you have the rank of optio.
• The sound effect for shield blocks has been changed.
• I have made some changes to the engine regarding the way the Hall of Fame and saved games are handled.

• You can use hotkeys to select combat actions and activities during the "Lull" phase. You can press Ctrl at any time to highlight the available hotkeys.
• Combat Tutorial: the first time you enter the melee phase of a fight, you will see a detailed tutorial. It is automatically disabled when closed, but can be reactivated in the Options dialogue.
• Shared kills: when an enemy has suffered any kind of successful attack from both you and an ally (resisted Feints and Shield attacks do not count as successful), it won't matter who landed the killing blow: the kill is always counted as *shared*. All bonuses and points are halved (and rounded up, where necessary). This makes combat with allies feel more cooperative, as the "race" for the killing blow was admittedly frustrating.
• There's a new Help in the Character screen.

• An alert will appear three rounds before a rotation happens.
• In addition to the above, if you reduce an opponent's health to less than half its full value when you are rotated, you will receive half the bonuses for a kill (rounded up). The opponent will also figure in your list of vanquished enemies with the prefix *Wounded*. The only circumstance in which this does not apply is if a companion helped in the fight. In other words, a vanquished entry that is both *Shared* and *Wounded* won't count, as that would be way too cheap (it's a very rare scenario anyway.).

• The Help shown during foraging missions should be more informative.
• The minimum amount of settlements appearing has been increased by 1, while the Intellect influence on the time spent to gather supplies and the Awareness influence on the collected amount of supplies have been halved. With these changes, the overall difficulty shouldn't change for expert player, but it should be more accessible to new players.
• It is now rarer to skip two or more combat rounds in a row (i.e. the Quickness check is much easier to pass after the first failure).
• The militiamen in the very first fight have "Content" Morale instead of "High". This should make the battle a little easier.
• The Shield Skill check used in the "safe" option when assaulting the walls of New Carthage is now easier than before.
• The frontal assault during the second battle lasts two rotations instead of three.
• In the alternative route of the same battle, the Fatigue penalty for failing the Endurance check during the flanking maneuver has been reduced.
• The Morale penalty you receive for failing to understand what's going on at Ilipa has been reduced.
• The loss of Morale after wounds is now constant rather than random.
• The "bandits" random event won't trigger unless you have a Rank or your Sword and Shield Skills are both at least 35.