ANCIENT CONQUEST - Games - http://maxpages.com/strategyforum/Ancient

OVERALL: 78%

The Basics:
On first inspection Ancient Conquest has a familiar look to it, not unlike Age of Empires or even Heroes of Might and Magic. But on looking closer there are many differences. The main one being you are not fighting on land but on the seas and oceans. You need to build a navy, which as the title suggests includes the legendary ship The Argo. You have resources to be exploited and managed, money and food need to be obtained, as in the best of real time strategy games.

There are four parts to this game. all needing to be completed if you are to succeed within the game. Firstly you need to build and defend your town/towns. This will give you a good base from where you can carry out your quests. Secondly, you need to gather your resources, you need money to build with and fish to feed your crews with. Thirdly, ships need to be built, some are required to gather in your resources, others to fight with. And finally, the quest, each mission level has a quest, you need to complete this to finish the level.

The Plot:
For the purposes of Ancient Conquest there are 5 ages in the history of mankind. The golden age came first, with immortal deities living in the fabled Olympus, the overlord Cronos, has created mankind, this newly created race know no sorrow, they live happily and die painlessly.

The next age was the Silver age, humans like us were created, they knew pain and sorrow, Zeus was the Lord of Olympus, he was angry with the humans for disobeying him, he destroyed mankind.

Zeus tried again, a new age began, the Copper age, the humans belonging to this age liked war, the bloodier the better, they killed each other and descended to Hades.

This time Zeus created a race of semi-gods, a hero race, but they too liked bloodthirsty battles, and Zeus again became angry. He sent rain, a plague of water, to flood the land, the towns were flooded only Panassus with its twin towers stood above the flooded land.

Zeus then created a new race, the descendants of this race live today, this is the Iron age, almost all the gods have turned their backs on them, leaving them to survive as best they can.

The story begins in the 4th age, the heroes are living in the land of Hellenes on the Aegean Sea. Eson is the wise and just King of Hellenes. Great misfortune has befallen the people, and King Eson has gathered his nation together and spoken to them. "Citizens of Hellas! Our land suffers decline. The merciless sun burns out our fields of grain and pastures, murrains extirpate our cattle, game abandons our forests, fishes swim away from our coasts. Enemies are despoiling our distressful land. Persian hordes are approaching our borders. They are also domineering over the seas. Even coward barbarians are harrying our coastal settlements and robbing our merchant boats. The gods turned away from us!

But Delphic Oracle revealed a way that will redeem our land from the misfortunes and will lead it to prosperity under me. The way is hard. To propitiate the gods we have to go on a distant expedition to blessed Colchis and to get Golden Fleece there."

And so the adventure begins….

Graphics:
The graphics are cute, when you send your merchant ships out to fish, they lower their nets and catch the fish. Need Amber to convert into money, they happily go off to gather it in, (although one of the crew members, complains, "Always working"). When the ship is full they go back to the mooring area and unload it.

There are several different types of battle ships you can build, they do all look the same, it would have been nice if you could have differentiated between them visually, as it is you need to move your mouse over them to see what kind of ship it is.

The colours are bright, and graphically it is pleasant to look at, as I have said before, for me, gameplay is more important than fancy graphics.

Gameplay:
There is a very easy and intuitive interface, even without reading the text files, you will very quickly pick up how to play the game. When you click on various objects, another set of icons appear, letting you choose what you want next. You have a map which takes up 75% of the screen, unexplored areas, are shrouded with clouds. There is an information panel, which gives you wind direction, (this helps in battles, with the wind behind you, you can travel much faster), this panel also tells you how much money you have how much fish, and what objects you have. Amber needs to be collected and exchanged for money, fish is caught to feed the crew, and if you spot a Leviathan and hunt it successfully you are rewarded with money and fish.

The main characters are the Greeks, the Persians, and the Barbarians. The Greeks and Persians have similar properties, they have Settlements, where crews are trained, ships and fortresses are built. There are ports for loading and unloading weapons and resources. Workshops and smithies for building and upgrading weapons, armour and ram abilities. Towns need to be built from settlements, then you can build sage schools, temples and upgrade shipyards to docks. There are 2 types of merchant ships and 8 military ships, these range from Shipkillers - these destroy hulls and buildings. To Rammers - these ram ships (one of the best ships), there are Royal ship - these are the most diverse and can carry out several different functions. The Greeks and the Persians each have 2 ships unique to themselves. The Greeks have a Fire ship and a Quicklime ship, the Persians a Fire Rammer and a Ship of the Dead. The Barbarians have 3 different types of fortresses, but have no other land objects, no magic and cannot develop any technology.

As you progress through the game, and upgrade you will be able to build temples, having a temple allows you to use magic. The magic includes Magic of flame - Increases weapon strength Lightening - Destroys all enemy objects unprotected from magic. Magic Protection - Protects your objects from enemy magic attacks. Phantom Object - Makes a selected object invisible for a short time.

There are magic treasures that attract one of the 9 heroes on board,
The magic oar will bring Jason on board.
The magic sword will bring Hercules on board, and
The magic bow Atalanta.

Each hero brings a special ability to the ship they are on, with Jason on board, you will never get into a whirlpool, or strike a reef. With Hercules, the warship becomes invincible, with Atalanta your accuracy and rate of fire will increase.

You will fight 7 types of monsters from the Gorgon that will turn your ship to stone, to the Harpies that will damage your crew. The Artificial Intelligence comes at you with a vengeance, even playing on the easy level, you will find yourself outnumbered shipwise. Careful planning is essential if you are to limit the damage done after a foray into enemy territory.

Multiplayer is available through TCP/IP, IPX, modem and serial connection for up to 8 players, also playing it through M Player is an option. In the multiplay games you can make an alliance with another human players, and should a player drop out, the AI can take over.

Sound:
The sounds are good, with a choice of background music, or you can choose to have none and just the sound effects. The voices are a little repetitive, but not enough to spoil the game, one sounds very like Sean Connery.

Bugs and Performance:
I had no trouble with the installation, and the game ran very smoothly on a Pentium 200. There will be a choice of installation size and as always the larger the installation the better it will run, I found no bugs during the time I was playing it.

Final Thoughts:
Ancient Conquest is an interesting departure from the usual type of strategy game. It needs careful planning, and you will find you become totally absorbed in it. A couple of niggles, both to do with the AI, when you are attacked by the enemy fleet, because you need to instruct each of your ships individually to attack, the AI seems always to have gotten a good few hits in before you start. The other thing is even on the easy level, the enemy seem to have a bigger and better fleet. Still there are some nice touches as well, seeing the merchant ships queuing to unload at the docks is unusual in this type of game, and the battleships will move out of the way, if a merchant ship needs to get past.

All in all it is an interesting departure from some of the other games in this genre. It is obvious a lot of thought has gone into the story line and the actual gameplay. With over 14 missions, and 40 additional custom missions, plus a built in editor, Ancient Conquest will keep you busy for a long time.

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Page Updated Mon Nov 22, 1999 8:46pm EST