- Update 1.4.2 - 8 September 2026
Each of the enemy units you face in battle is accompanied by a brief descriptive text now. It will appear in the detail screen, which can be opened by clicking on a unit's panel in the battle UI.Because the color introduced in version 1.3.2 for log entries of unsuccessful rolls and reduced stats could cause readability issues for some players, I've added a new setting to restore the old, lighter red color. It can be found in the Video tab of the Options.A tooltip has been added to the Formation Attack Support value in the Individual Conflicts section of the batte UI.Different tooltips are now used for the warning icon that appears next to the Imbalance stat, depending on whether Imbalance is too high or below 0.During the Melee Phase of a battle, the tooltip of the Fatigue Tier icon of a formation now correctly shows info specific to the current Tier, rather than generic info concerning…
- Update 1.3.2 - 21 July 2026
Colors have been added to the battle and combat logs to help identify information more quickly.In the battle log, some elements have been revised and changed.Quick fade-out messages have been added to the battle UI in correspondence of the Initiative/Momentum/Advantage rolls of the Melee phase and of the rolls of the Throw phase. They can be disabled through a setting in the usual Gameplay section of the Options.In the Individual Conflicts section of a battle that is about to finish, it is now possible to skip the remaining fights of your legionaries if enough damage has been accumulated to bring the enemy's Cohesion to 0.The occasional Valor loss of a signifer with insufficient Bravery has been reduced from 5 to 2 advancement points. When the loss occurs, a brief text pops up in the signifer's panel to inform the player. Before this change, the penalty was reported only in the battle l…
- Update 1.2 - 22 June 2026
The most important changes of this update concern four Attributes: Strength, Constitution, Quickness and Coordination. Experienced players already know the importance and effectiveness of Endurance, to the point that the other four physical Attributes felt less relevant, especially Constitution. The newly introduced changes aim at reinforcing their usefulness in combat and at offering more strategic and tactical options.Quickness and CoordinationThe default Attack bonus of the Rapid Attitude has been lowered from +8 to +6, but Quickness and Coordination now play a significant role.When the Rapid Attitude is active, if the attacker's Quickness is superior to the defender's, a bonus of +3 is added to the Attack Modifier. For every 4 points of difference, the Modifier is further increased by 1.If the attacker's Coordination is superior to the defender's, a bonus of +2 is applied to the Att…
- Update 1.1.3 - 25 May 2026
Today's update introduces a few QoL improvements, the most important of which is an option to increase the speed of the battle rolls. Just like other similar settings, you can find it in the Gameplay tab of the Options.I have also revised the way altars work: now they add a bonus to your legionaries' Combativeness as well, both as a unit and at individual level. It is smaller than the bonus received by the main character, but it can be very effective, especially if combined with other existing means to increase the Morale of your troops.ChangelogAll battle rolls, including the Threat/Kill rolls, can be sped up in the Gameplay tab of the Options.In addition to the main character's Combativeness, now altars give a (smaller) bonus to the Century's Combativeness as well.The other side of the coin is that altars are now twice as expensive as before.If your Religion level is very low and your…
- Never Second in Rome is out! - 5 May 2026
Before getting into the details of this update, I want to thank all the players who have expressed and shown their support during these years. Without you, a solo developer such as myself would never be able to create and publish games.Ironman mode and meta-progressionVersion 1.0 introduces a new optional Ironman mode, featuring both permadeath and meta-progression. It is unlocked after finishing the standard game at least once. In Ironman mode you earn points after each game according to your rank, the awards won by you and your subordinates, and whether you survived until the end. The top five games generate a combined weighted score that allows you to buy improvements for the next run. Other changesSeveral Bonus Features available during character creation have been tweaked to make them more useful.Drill, Share Hardships and the training of physical Attributes improve Endurance to a…
- Release date of version 1.0 - 21 April 2026
I'm happy to announce that Never Second in Rome will leave Early Access on May 5, 2026.Since the first playable version of the game came out, there has been a demand for the introduction of some form of meta-progression, following on the heels of my first game, A Legionary's Life. Although Never Second in Rome was not designed to include meta-progression, I offered to open a discussion with the player base as soon as the story part of the game was completed, which happened last month. The discussion provided a lot of interesting feedback, and a good compromise was reached.The biggest change of version 1.0 will involve an optional Ironman mode that includes both meta-progression and permadeath. It will be unlocked after finishing the game at least once in Standard mode. In Ironman mode you will receive points at the end of each game, according to several accomplishments: your centurion r…
- RP: Please read before you buy, especially if you come from A Legionary's Life - 16 March 2026
I'm reposting an old announcement, since the original is no longer visible on the store page.It is impossible not to notice that most of the negative feedback that Never Second in Rome is getting comes from players who enjoyed my first game, A Legionary's Life, and who are let down by the differences between the two.I want to be as clear as possible: Never Second in Rome is *not* A Legionary's Life 2, it was never meant to be, and it certainly has never been advertised as such. Even if you liked A Legionary's Life a lot, do not assume that you will automatically like Never Second in Rome. There is a free demo available, please try it before you buy the full game. It is here for exactly this reason, so that anyone can evaluate the game for free, at a comfortable pace, and decide whether it's worth spending their money on. The demo saves are compatible with the full game, by the way.Thank…
- Final chapters - 9 March 2026
The final chapters of Never Second in Rome have been released! With this update, the content is fully done. You may have noticed that I have not taken the game out of Early Access yet. Before I do that, I'd like to launch a discussion in the forum aimed at the player who have finished the entire game, about the possibility of introducing some form of meta progression or an alternative solution. ChangesFive new chapters, which complete the story.In addition to its previous effects, the Share Hardship setting will increase your Integrity by 2 advancement points for each turn.The bribery event will no longer appear in Part 2, since it's still the same year as Part 1.In battle, the Shield Push special order doubles the Momentum Superiority bonus for the side that gains the Advantage Opportunity.Art pieces will become more expensive after each new purchase. The same applies to luxury goods.I…
- Current plans | Price increase - 23 February 2026
Since last update, as many of you already know, I've been working relentlessly on the final chapters of the game. The finish line is approaching, and if there are no delays, I should be able to release them about two weeks from now.As soon as the update is published, I will increase the price from $9.99 to $12.99. The game will consist of 20 chapters, twice as many as those released when Early Access was launched.Try the demo firstIt's up to you whether you want to buy the game now while the reduced price is still in effect, or you'd rather wait until the content is complete. Whatever your choice, my suggestion is to always try the free demo before you buy, even if you played my first game, A Legionary's Life, and liked it. Although there are similarities, they are two different games and not everyone who loved a Legionary's Life will necessarily enjoy Never Second in Rome.I have decide…
- Update 0.11.7 - 4 October 2025
Fixed Unity's CVE-2025-59489.Fixed typos and other errors in the text.I have also updated the free demo.
- Update 0.11.6 - 1 October 2025
I'm currently working on the final chapters of the game, which I hope to publish in Q1 2026.In the meantime, I've released a small patch.Several typos and grammar errors have been fixed. Special thanks to the people who helped in this thread.The tooltips of generic Skill and Attribute training have been expanded a little.
- Five New Chapters - 16 September 2025
Chapters 11 to 15 are out! This update also includes a lot of changes and tweaks, which you will find detailed below.I've also updated the free demo.ContentFive new chapters, bringing the total to fifteen.Battle MechanicsImbalance causes no penalties for values going from 0 to +6 (in previous versions, it was from -5 to +5).Imbalance can go from -4 to +16 (before, it went from -20 to +20).Determination is penalized by 10 (instead of 5) for each point of Imbalance below 0.First Impact triples the Determination changes based on the Commitment of both formations, instead of doubling them.If you damage the enemy's Cohesion by a reasonable amount beyond the Primary Goal, you get a small bonus to Valor and Caesar's Opinion in proportion to the damage. The larger bonus awarded when you reduce the Cohesion to half the value of the Minimum Goal or less is still in effect and works as before.In s…
- Please read before you buy, especially if you come from A Legionary's Life - 26 August 2025
It is impossible not to notice that most of the negative feedback that Never Second in Rome is getting comes from players who enjoyed my first game, A Legionary's Life, and who are let down by the differences between the two.I want to be as clear as possible: Never Second in Rome is *not* A Legionary's Life 2, it was never meant to be, and it certainly has never been advertised as such. Even if you liked A Legionary's Life a lot, do not assume that you will automatically like Never Second in Rome. There is a free demo available, please try it before you buy the full game. It is here for exactly this reason, so that anyone can evaluate the game for free, at a comfortable pace, and decide whether it's worth spending their money on. The demo saves are compatible with the full game, by the way.Thank you for reading.
- Update 0.10.1 - 10 June 2025
I have decided to release a handful of minor changes I made as I worked on parts 11 to 15, mostly because there was a mistake in the text that bothered me. I won't hazard a guess on the release date of the five new chapters, but it's still a matter of a few months.Tweaked some decisional parameters of enemy formations related to Disruptive Commitment Shift.The amount of money soldiers are willing to spend to bribe their way out of duty is now dependent on their basic pay. The final result is the same as before in the current chapters, but it will become more relevant later.Fixed an oversight in the text that wrongly attributed the Fifteenth legion to Pompey in the winter of 54-53 BC.Changed the text that accompanies the rewarding of torques.Added a tooltip to the Century Info panel of the Century Summary.Fixed a few typos.
- Update 0.10.0 and future plans - 5 May 2025
I have made several changes to the building mini-game, in order to make it less simplistic and somewhat more challenging. I have also added a couple of unrelated options that some of you should like, especially the first. Changes Added an option to skip the animated rolls in individual combat. Added an option to hide the exact numerical difficulty of checks in text events. In the building mini-game, warning icons are shown in the last turn if the current selection is insufficient to complete the work, or if completion is possible only with a successful Bonus Production Roll. The way Superior Quality production works has been changed: now it is more efficient in the first quadrant of the work progression. In the second quadrant it is still slightly better than it was in the previous version of the game. In the third and fourth quadrants it gets worse and worse. The option to "push your m…
- Update 0.9.2 - 22 April 2025
Today's minor update is mainly about a couple of fixes. Counters related to a specific type of mini-event should not be carried over when abandoning the current game and starting a new one. Fortunately, this did not affect any positive mini-events in the current version of the game, only a negative one, but it would definitely have affected future content. The list of recently used events should be properly cleared when abandoning a game and immediately starting a new one. At the end of the seventh chapter you can move up two ranks instead of just one if you meet the requirements. The ranks that can be attained do not include that of Pilus Prior, which, just as before, becomes available at the end of the following chapter. Fixed a spelling error in the tenth chapter.
- Update 0.9.1 - 1 April 2025
Before diving into the details of this update, I'd like to take the chance to thank all those of you who have been supporting me. The resources of a solo developer are very limited, and this activity is possible only with the backing and encouragement of the players. Changes You can give nicknames to your staff and notable legionaries. The complex tooltips of some battle stats have been divided into two sections, a summary with a concise description and the details. This way, a new user should be able to learn the basics without having to get into the complex technicalities. Same as above for the tooltips of Recompact and Encourage, available during Lulls, and for most individual combat actions. The tutorial page that explains the battle stats (Cohesion, Front, etc.) has been simplified. A few more hints have been added to help the players gain their bearings and get the gist of the gam…
- Update 0.8.1 - 19 March 2025
Changes Two new special orders have been added to formation combat. The Direct commission background comes with an additional 5,000 sestertii to your starting money. The initial Sword/Shield/Javelin Skills are now 47/47/33 instead of 43/43/29. Two new mini-events have been added. Mini-events are more frequent. Most of the mini-events that regard the tesserarius now also affect the Other Duties score. Your companion in the fight for the first Civic Crown should behave more carefully. It is a lot more difficult to grab the Initiative with a Cautious or Very Cautious Commitment. If you reduce the enemy's Cohesion to 0 ahead of time*, each unused Melee phase makes torques easier to win. The minimum Goal for the first battle is now 1350 instead of 1200. No more than 3 combats can trigger in the same battle turn. Disruptive Commitment Shift now lasts for an entire round instead of just one tu…
- Update 0.7.1 - 5 March 2025
Changes When your Formation Attack Support is negative, you are now allowed to skip the individual fights of your legionaries during battles. These fights will be auto-resolved. This comes at a cost: you will miss the opportunity to gain Valor and other advantages that an interactive combat might have yielded, and your fighter will suffer wounds according to his stats, those of the enemy, and other applicable conditions like the ground. Only the fights of your subordinates can be skipped, not those of your own character. Several small changes have been made to the formation combat UI, to make it clearer who is acting, which formation the numbers belong to and how the Momentum value is determined. Also, the colors of the arrows indicating the direction of the "Gain Momentum" and "Advantage Opportunity" rolls have been changed. The previous colors were too similar to those of the standard…
- Update 0.6.5 - 18 February 2025
In preparation for the Early Access release, I have implemented several small changes and improvements. Changes In addition to its previous effects, a positive Supervision score offers a small bonus to the efficiency of your century's training. This bonus improves as the score increases and is applied both to the unit as a whole and to the individual soldiers. Similarly, a negative score makes the training less efficient. Each Melee (i.e. Sword or Shield) training will cause a little Strain for every turn in which more than 3 Training Points are allocated. Other Duties offers a larger bonus to Discipline than before when more than 3 Training Points are allocated. Endurance training by Workload alone has been reduced. The contribution of Physical Attributes and Drill training has been changed so that a single Training Point (the minimum) gives no bonus at all to Endurance, while 3 or mor…
