Let’s take a look at the awards a legionary can win in the game. Awards are worth a lot of points, especially the most important ones, and points will be the means to improve your next character in the full game.
Even in the mid-Republic days, long before the adoption of a professional army, the Romans used a rich system of rewards in order to encourage acts of bravery. These are the decorations you’ll find in A Legionary’s Life:
Cup. The prize for a legionary who killed and stripped an enemy, but only in circumstances where he voluntarily engaged the opponent in single combat when he didn’t have to. So, for instance, killing enemies during pitched battles or sieges didn’t matter. There are a few chances in the demo to win this award and it’s probably the easiest to receive.
Armillae. There are three types of armillae in the game; in order of importance: gold, silver and bronze. To win an armilla, you have to perform especially well during a battle. The better you do, the more precious the metal. Not much is know about them from history records, but it seems that the recipient’s status had some importance in deciding the reward type. For this reason, in A Legionary’s Life you’ll receive a silver armilla only if you have a rank. If you are just a simple soldier with no rank, you’ll get a bronze one even if you qualified for the silver armilla. Similarly, you’ll receive a gold armilla only if you are a centurion (either prior or posterior, it doesn’t matter). This particular mechanics is not present yet as of version 0.4.11, but has been implemented in the development version and will be part of the next update.
Mural Crown. A very important prize. This was given to the first man over the wall during a siege. In the demo there are no chances to win this award, given that the only siege present is New Carthage and that’s our legionary’s very first battle. A chance to win such a reward so soon would have been out of line, in my opinion. In the full game there will be quite a few chances to win a mural crown, as the game progresses through the campaigns in Africa and Macedonia.
Civic Crown. Despite being made of inexpensive materials, this crown of oak leaves was the second most important reward in the Roman army. In order to win it, a soldier had to save the life of a Roman citizen by killing an enemy and holding the position afterwards. In the demo, there is only one chance to obtain a civic crown, and it’s very difficult. I wonder if anyone has managed to win it yet. In the full game, there will be more, but not too many of course.
Grass Crown. This simple wreath of grass and flowers plucked from the battlefield was by far the most valuable decoration for the Romans. It was so rare that only eight people obtained it in the centuries-long history of the Roman Republic. It was awarded to the man who saved a whole legion or army through his actions, and this explains its rarity. Naturally, there will be only one chance to win a grass crown in the whole game and that will come at a later battle.