Ancient Wars: Sparta

Ancient Wars: Sparta (Russian: Войны древности: Спарта) is a real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows. Developed by World Forge and published by Playlogic, it was released in Russia in December 2006, in Europe and North America in April 2007, and in Australia in October 2007.

Set in the Eastern Mediterranean during the years 485-479 BC, the game features three playable races — Egyptians, Persians, and Spartans — each of whom has their own campaign, featuring fictional depictions of historical figures such as Xerxes I, Leonidas I, Demaratus, Inaros II, Pausanias, Mardonius, Artabanus, Megabyzus, and Miltiades. Although the three campaigns are separate, they do combine to loosely tell an overarching story, depicting the Egyptian uprising against Persian rule, the Second Persian invasion of Greece, and Sparta's resistance to Persia, culminating in the Battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea.

World Forge's debut title, the game featured a newly designed game engine dubbed the Ancient Wars Engine (AWE) which was specifically developed by World Forge for Sparta. Only a few days after the game was first published, World Forge accused publishers Playlogic of failing to provide the agreed-upon funding during development. Issuing a breach of contract notice, World Forge claimed that the rights to the game had reverted to them, and so they sued Playlogic. The District Court of Amsterdam later ruled that the game's rights were owned by Playlogic and had never reverted to World Forge. The game was originally intended as the first entry in a franchise to bear the Ancient Wars name, but no further titles were made under that banner. However, World Forge did release three further real-time strategy games using the AWE and with very similar gameplay - Fate of Hellas (released as Great War Nations: The Spartans in North America and Sparta II: Alexander the Great in some territories), The Golden Horde, and Age of Alexander.

Ancient Wars received mixed reviews. Although some critics praised the graphics and the ability for the player to arm their soldiers with opponents' discarded weaponry, many found the game's pace too slow and the combat devoid of strategy. The voice acting and script were singled out as especially poor, and most critics felt the game was unoriginal, bringing nothing new to the genre, and failing to stand out from current and previous real-time strategy titles such as Medieval II: Total War, Supreme Commander, and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.