American Conquest
I have decided to write a game review, but I couldn't decide on what to write. I took a look at my old games and rediscovered American Conquest. I checked here and couldn't find a review so I decided on this one.
American Conquest is a series of three games, consisting of the original (Britain, USA, France, Spain, Aztec, Inca, Huron, and many more as factions), followed by American Conquest: Fight Back, which gives you several more factions (Germany, Russia, Haida, Portugal and the Netherlands), and American Conquest: Divided Nation, which deals mostly with the American Civil War. They have three main modes of play, not including multiplayer: Battle, Campaign, and Custom Battle. There is also a "Single Battle" mode which is sort of like a mini-campaign.
The game play of each are pretty much the same. You have two classes of land based units: Peasants and military. The peasants are responsible for collecting several resources: food, wood, gold, stone, coal, and iron. Unlike other games where food is deducted for just the recruitment of units, food is continuously drained from your supply, depending on how many units you have. Same with gold, with larger amounts being drained depending on how many military units you possess, as wages. Coal and iron are used for ammunition, with larger units (such as ships) taking more coal and iron per shot. Wood and stone are mostly used for construction, naturally. One of the more unique aspects of the game is that you must create peasants and send them to forts to train military units, rather than being able to create them on the spot. In addition, you must have enough "living space" consisting of various buildings in order to support larger and larger populations.
A small British army wipes out a French force with grapeshot
Original and "Fight Back": In battle mode, there are three "centuries" (16th, 17th, and 18th) of units that can be recruited for the European factions. You advance to the next "century" of military units by investing in and upgrading your technologies. These men consist of everything from halberdiers/pikemen all the way up to fusiliers. Cavalry, artillery, and navy are also available. Some factions have unique units, such as Spain, which can field Conquistadors in the 16th century. North American native factions essentially field the same units no matter what the era, though they are given some advancement (such as the acquisition of guns), while Central and South American natives essentially stick to the bow and arrow.
Not every faction has its own campaign, but some of the more notable ones include the American Revolution, from both sides, Pontiac's Rebellion, and the Spanish Expedition into Mexico.
Soldiers of the Union and the Confederacy face off at Antietam
Divided Nation: There are 4 playable factions in campaign mode and battle mode. These four factions are Mexico, Texas, Union, and Confederacy. In battle mode you can play any faction against each other, and it is essentially the same style of gameplay as the previous two, and there are no "centuries" to advance to, but you do improve technology throughout the each game.
There are four campaigns, two for the Civil War and two for the Texas War of Independence, one for each side, respectively.
For Single Battle, there is two additional factions, the USA and Britain, and it takes place during the Battle of New Orleans. You can also use the two factions during Custom Battle, though they have no infrastructure so they can't really be used for anything other than messing around.
Texans bravely defend The Alamo in campaign
Ratings:
American Conquest and Fight Back:
I'd give the game an 8/10. The AI isn't perfect: the European factions often sends 17th century units in platoon strength or so to attack your town(s) even when they have 18th century units available, which they typically use for guarding structures like mines. They often don't utilize artillery and almost NEVER use their navies. Also, assaulting towns can be a long process, as EACH and every building is capable of firing back so long as it even has one person inside of it. It is difficult to kill the defenders from the outside and is typically easier to either destroy the building (especially in cases such as forts and blockhouses, which can hold large garrisons, leading to higher rates of defensive fire and even cannons from the forts and fortresses) or just send your soldiers in to engage in melee, which can often be disastrous with larger garrisons. I recall losing 500 men, four large "grouped" units (as in, held together by an officer, drummer,and flag) to take a single fortress once, and the attack FAILED. In addition, trying to take a single building that is supported by others manned with people can often be impossible without unacceptable casualties. Also, the artillery is pushed rather than horse drawn, giving it a slow nature. As for the native factions, the same problems can occur. Instead of sending groups of warriors to attack enemies, the native factions will often send hundreds of peasants (armed with bows) to attack in wave upon wave. I have stuck one or two pieces of artillery supported by two regiments of 196 men each (the largest "group" that can be organized), and they can tear the native "armies" to pieces, especially with grapeshot enabled, without any casualties. In additions, their garrisons of bowmen can often be far more deadly than gunshot due to the rate of fire. What brings the rating up for these two games are the numbers of factions as well as the custom battles, which can be "played" as you make them, adding units in as more fall.
Divided Nation:
I give it a 9/10. The AI is a little bit better but it is still flawed, with the AI sending squad sized groups at you in battle mode, usually without support. The same problems with assaulting garrisons persist in this game, as well. The campaigns can be fun and challenging, as they re-enact battles from the past, and what units you are given at the start is all you get. Unfortunately, you only get a couple main types naval units, the Monitor for the Union, the Merrimack/Virginia for the CSA, and a sidewheel steamer for Mexico and Texas. The CSA also gets a bonus unit, the submarine Hunley, but unfortunately it is bugged and if you attempt to use it in-game it will CTD. What bumps this game up in the rating is the larger number of units per faction (For the Union and Confederacy, you get different "state units"), the fact that artillery is faster in getting to places (due to being drawn by horses rather than pushed), the more fun campaigns and single battles that re-enact historical battles, and just in general a better game.
One more thing. It isn't that big of a deal, but in the unit descriptions there are a LOT of spelling errors. It seems almost as if the unit descriptions were rushed at the last minute.
Closing Thoughts:
These games are fun for mindless violence. They require little thought as you kill THOUSANDS of people per game, hundreds of thousands if you face native factions. They are fairly easy to play once you get used to the different resource and training system compared to other games (imagine having to train peasants and then essentially having to upgrade/train them again every time you wanted a new military unit in TW games). I like playing them mostly for the custom battles, but I enjoy all modes of play.
I hope this was an informative review. This series of games are fairly old(er) than others, but are still what I would consider a classic.
An American company makes its last stand against a horde of Natives
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Originally Posted by The Noble Lord
