Strategic Conquest
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Strategic Conquest is a classic two-player turn-based strategy game for the Apple Macintosh, based on Empire. It was originally published by PBI Software and later by Delta Tao Software. Strategic Conquest allows the player to control modern warfare units. It can be played either by two humans, or with a computer opponent. It also has the capability to be played over an AppleTalk network.
The player's objective in Strategic Conquest is to conquer the world. The world is divided into a rectangular grid made up of randomly-placed islands. Islands contain Cities, which are central to game play. Cities can belong to either player, or they can be neutral (neither side has conquered them or side that has already conquered the city has been removed by bombing). Cities are used for the production of units, which are produced at regular intervals. Victory is achieved when all enemy cities have been conquered or when the human or computer opponent surrenders. The computer opponent surrenders when the human player has a large advantage.
The game runs under older versions of the Mac OS and in "classic" mode under Mac OS X. As of 2007, version 4.0.1 is available from Delta Tao.
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[edit] Game Setup
There are four types of games available: one-player games, two-player single-Mac games, AppleTalk master two-player games, and AppleTalk slave two-player games.
When playing a one-player game (created by selecting "Single Player Game" in the setup window), the opponent player is the computer. Since version 3, in one-player games, the player can also select a skill level from one to fifteen to make the game more or less challenging. The difficulty is increased not by increasing the skill of the computer player but rather by giving the player increasingly marginal starting positions in regions increasingly poor in available neutral cities.
Additionally, the computer player has the advantage of being able to produce each unit type in fewer production days than the human player. This effect can be seen if the player captures all but one enemy city, surrounds it, and then observes the turn intervals between new enemy units emerging from that city.
In a two-player single-Mac game (created by selecting "2 Player Single Mac Game" from the game setup window), the players share a single computer and simply take turns. In an AppleTalk master two-player game (created by selecting "AppleTalk Master" in the game setup window), Strategic Conquest will use the AppleTalk protocol to initiate a game with another computer that must designate itself the AppleTalk slave (by selecting "AppleTalk Slave" in the game setup window).
The player(s) need to select a map size. The map is a horizontally oriented rectangle divided into a grid of unit-sized rectangles. Measured by playable grid units, the player(s) can choose a map that is small (48 x 32), medium (96 x 64), or large (124 x 96). The top and sides of the map do not 'wrap around,' i.e., units cannot transit the edges to go from the right to the left side of the map, the top to the bottom of the map, or vice versa.
There are three terrain settings: "wet" (mostly islands), "dry" (land including some bodies of water), and "normal" (mostly larger islands). The terrain setting has a major influence on the type of game play; water-based units play a much more prominent role in a wet terrain while such units play little or no role in a dry setting that by necessity is dominated by land and air forces.
[edit] Game Play
[edit] Cities
Cities produce units for players. When a new city is conquered, the player is able to choose which type of unit will be produced at that city. All cities can produce land-based and aerial units. All cities can also refuel aerial units.
A special subset of cities are port cities, which are cities that are next to at least one water grid unit. Only port cities can produce water-based units. Additionally, if a damaged water-based unit is placed in a port city, the unit will be repaired at a rate of one unit of strength per day.
[edit] Units
All units may attack up to two times per turn. After two attacks, a units turn is over. However, a unit may first move and use its last two moves to attack.
All units with a strength greater than one suffer a reduction in their number of moves per turn if they suffer sufficient damage in battle but are not destroyed. For instance, a tank with a strength of one has only one move per turn.
| Unit: | Tank | Artillery | Fighter | Helicopter | Bomber | Transport | Destroyer | Submarine | Carrier | Battleship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days to Produce: | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 25+ | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 20 |
| Strength: | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 18 |
| Attack Range: | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1+ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Captures City?: | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Moves On: | Land | Land | Land/Water | Land/Water | Land/Water | Water | Water | Water | Water | Water |
| Moves/Turn: | 2 | 1 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Fuel: | N/A | N/A | 20 | 10 | 30 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
[edit] Land-Based Units
[edit] Tank
Tanks are relatively weak and do not fare well in battle against other types of pieces but are the speediest land-based units, making them useful for quickly conquering cities.
[edit] Artillery
First added in version 4.0, artillery units are slow movers but their attack range (a 9 x 9 grid unit area) lets them attack from a distance and run no risk of suffering damage on an attack, even if attacking a unit directly next to them.
[edit] Water-Based Units
Water-based units can only move on water and on port cities. If a damaged water-based unit is in a port city, its strength will be repaired at a rate of one unit of strength per day.
[edit] Destroyer
With four moves per turn, the destroyer is the quickest of the water-based units and is useful for quickly exploring the outside the range of the aerial units. Its attack is not particularly powerful but it is useful against transports.
[edit] Submarine
The submarine has two outstanding features. One is that its attack is extremely powerful against non-submarine water-based units. The second is that it remains hidden to the opponent unless the submarine attacks or the opponent moves directly onto the same grid unit as the submarine. If the opponent does so, the opponent will automatically attack the submarine. This will cost an aerial unit a unit of fuel which can cause the aerial unit to crash if the remaining fuel is insufficient to return to a city or carrier.
[edit] Transport
The transport's main purpose is moving land-based units across water and, accordingly, its attack power is negligble. It can hold up to eight land-based units at a time. Land-based units on a transport can only attack an adjacent land-based unit or city from a transport; artillery units cannot fire from a transport. Transports are vulnerable to attacks from every other unit.
When a transport is in a city with land-based units, up to eight land-based units are automatically loaded onto the transport. Thus, if a transport in a city with land-based units is destroyed, the land-based units in the transport will go down with the transport.
[edit] Carrier
With a strength of twelve, the carrier is a strong water-based unit on its own but its main purpose is to carry fighters and helicopters, of which it can hold up to 15 at a time. Fighters and helicopters are also refuled when on a carrier. A carrier with several fighters on board can be an effective way to quickly explore unexplored areas.
[edit] Battleship
The battleship is the most powerful sea based unit. With the same attack range as artillery pieces and up to two attacks per turn, it can be used to attack any other units in range. Its high strength makes it difficult to destroy.
[edit] Aerial Units
Aerial units can move on land or over water but are limited in their movements by the amount of fuel that they carry.
[edit] Fighter
The fighter covers the most ground in a single turn of all the units, making it ideal for exploration. It's fighting capacity is not particularly strong but it can often destroy helicopters, transports, destroyers, and submarines. The fighter is not particularly effective against land-based units.
[edit] Helicopter
First added in version 4.0, the helicopter is an attack aircraft that (somewhat counterintuitively) does significantly more damage than the fighter. It is especially effective against land-based units.
[edit] Bomber
The bomber is the game's equivalent of an atomic bomb (minus radition poisoning and nuclear winters) and each can only be used once, after which it is destroyed. In this sense, the bomber represents the bomb itself, rather than an aircraft.
Any land-based units, any sea-based units, and those aerial units that are in a city or on a carrier in the blast area will be destroyed. Enemy cities in the blast area become neutral, suffer no other damage whatsoever, and can be used to produce units normally by the next player to capture them.
Aerial units that are in the air over the blast area will not be effected. If a bomber attacks another aerial unit, it will attack normally rather than use its bomb. A bomber is not an effective combatant outside of the use of its bomb and is vulnerable to being shot down.
A bomber cannot detonate at will; it must attack an enemy city or an enemy unit that is not an aerial unit.
The blast area of the bomber gradually increases throughout the game. The bomber starts out needing twenty-five days to produce a bomber with a blast radius of zero, i.e., one grid unit. As the number of days to produce increases, the blast radius can be determined by the following formula:
Blast Radius = (Days to Produce - 25) / 5
So if it takes thirty days to produce a bomber, the blast radius will be one, etc. The blast radius gradually increases during the course of the game.
[edit] Initial Position
Each players starts out with just one city. All other cities are hidden and are neutral. The entire map - besides the player's city and the adjacent eight grid units - is black and must be discovered by sending units into it.
The first thing the player must do is choose what unit to produce. The default selection is a fighter, and with good reason; the fighter can quickly explore the surrounding areas.
[edit] Turns
The players then alternate turns. A turn is completed when all of the player's units have an order given in a previous turn or have been given orders in the current turn. During the turn, players may also change what units their cities are producing.
[edit] Detecting Enemy Units
A fog of war system is used, in that enemy units that are not adjacent to an enemy unit are invisible to the player. Enemy units become visible if they are discovered by the player in the course of his or her turn, until contact is lost and the enemy unit is no longer visible.
[edit] Strategy
[edit] Exploration
The player's first unit should be a fighter, followed by a tank for the second unit. The fighter can search out new cities and the tank can then take the city more quickly than if it had to search out the city on its own. If it turns out that you are on an island with no other cities, a transport is a wise choice for the third unit, to get your army to that city.
A fighter can explore the most area by first going out ten spaces diagonally in each direction from the initial city.
When a unit is exploring in a horizontal or vertical line, simply sending them across will reveal with a width of three grid units. However, by making them go diagonally up one, you can explor a four-grid-unit band without missing any grid units.
[edit] Port Cities
Port cities are crucial. Only they can build transports, only transports can carry ground units to other islands, and only ground units can conquer cities. The island continents within the map may form barriers. Often, the only means for a player to expand past that barrier is to obtain a port city on the other side of the continent, in the desired direction of expansion. By locating and sealing off port cities, the player can hamper the enemy's expansion. By capturing key port cities, the player may continue expanding against the enemy.
[edit] Computer Players
The AI behind the computer player has numerous quirks which can be exploited to your advantage.
If you manage to capture a city (or an island) from a computer player, the computer player will often focus its efforts on and continue attacking that same city or island until you either push it back further or it regains it. If the player can at least hold the computer player to a draw over such a territory, it can expand freely elsewhere while the computer player puts all its efforts towards that one goal.
The computer will often leave islands undeveloped in its rear area or on its flanks while taking on the player, giving the human player and opportunity to surround the computer player.
The computer spends a vast amount of production capacity building ships. These ships block the seas but they do not do so completely.
The computer does not use its naval advantage well. Enemy fleets tend to group in one area only (similar to the Attack Island command), usually the center of greatest activity, but they leave the other areas of the sea open, enabling the player to make flank attacks and to seek still-neutral cities.
[edit] Bombers
The key to defending against bombers is simply to shoot them down before they cause any damage. Vigorously patrolling with fighters can often allow a player to intercept and shoot down enemy bombers before they cause any damage.
Another way to prevent bomber attacks against a computer player is to simply to not destroy one of his units in a potential blast area, as a computer player will not use a bomber if any of its own units will be destroyed. Thus, for instance, a player can refrain from attacking an approaching tank until after an approaching bomber is destroyed.
Bombers can be used to wipe out enemy invasions once their radius has increased above zero. When the shift from zero-radius bombers to one-radius bombers occurs, the player can, for example, destroy a newly-landed enemy troop transport along with all the land-based units that it just sent ashore.
The smallest islands can be wiped clear of defenders with one- or two-radius bombers, and as the bomber's powers grow, so does the size of the islands that can be completely cleared by bombers.
[edit] References
- Strategic Domination, a similar multi-player web-based version
- Mother Of All Battles - a version of Strategic Conquest for Windows
