Windows Phone

To win in this game of Rome, you’ll need to defend your city with towers, traps, walls, gates and garrisoned units and fight epic battles by hiring and training an army. You can also hone your skills in the arts of war by taking on a challenging solo campaign.

If you’re still looking for good deals before the end of the year, check out the 12 Deals of Red Stripe collections in the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. These apps, indie games and Xbox titles are on sale for at least 50 percent off their original prices – but only until Jan. 1.

Usually, you need a content subscription if you want to read more than three articles a day, but starting Friday, you can enjoy all-access to The Gray Lady at no charge for 30 days.

With these Xbox classics, you can earn achievements, compete with your friends, submit your scores to leaderboards and track your personal gameplay statistics. And this is even more awesomesauce: you can play, pause and resume these games across Windows Phones and Windows 8 PCs and tablets. So wherever you go, you can continue your brain twisting.

In “Total Conquest,” you begin as a Roman governor, but with the right strategy, you may end up with the ultimate victory: total control of the Roman Empire.