120 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
120 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST is the best pure-strategy game I've found. In your quest for
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global domination (which, of course, is the only worthy goal for an armchair
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commander), you'll control an army, a navy, and an air force. There's nothing
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like acquiring real estate through sheer force of arms. (This review is based on
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the Apple IIe version; Macintosh version notes follow.)
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Perhaps the best thing that can be said about any game is that it's addictive.
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST is exactly that, and here's why: Every game is played on a
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unique computer-generated map; each time, there are different starting locations
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for both you and your computer opponent.
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The catch is that, at the outset, the world is unknown (except for the small
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square indicating your starting city). Map sectors are revealed only by moving
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your units into them. It's up to you to explore this world and tailor your
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tactics according to your discoveries. Each situation requires subtle
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adjustments in strategy. If you find yourself starting on a small, remote
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island, you might want to build an aircraft carrier to transport reconnaissance
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planes beyond the range of your air bases. If you share a continent with the
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enemy, you'll want to put nearly all your initial production into armies, for a
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conventional, front-line slugfest.
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In this game, production is the most significant function of cities: The more
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cities you control, the more units you can array against your computer foe. Each
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city is capable of producing one unit at a time, and at any point in the game,
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you can specify which type of unit the city should build.
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Every city can produce armies, fighters, and bombers; coastal cities can al
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produce a variety of naval units, including destroyers, submarines, transports,
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carriers, and battleships. Each unit requires a certain number of game days to
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produce, from four days for a basic army to 25 days for a battleship.
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What to build? First, you need armies, since they're the only units capable of
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taking over cities. You'll also need fighters, because their long ranges help in
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locating those cities -- and the enemy. Transports, too, are a must; amphibious
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invasions are a staple of STRATEGIC CONQUEST.
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After that, it depends on the flow of the game. Each unit has different
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capabilities: What's irrelevant in one game can make the difference between life
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and death in the next. Just when you think you've got a foolproof production
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plan, the enemy is likely to arrive in sufficient numbers to require a hasty
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revision.
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST sounds complex, but the game's elegant command system makes
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it easy to direct all of your various units. For example, in the Apple IIe
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version, you can specify a destination for a whole stack of units simply by
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pointing and clicking. The computer won't prompt you again until the unit have
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either reached the specified destination or encountered the enemy. You can order
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individual units to patrol along a specific or random route. The game also
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allows you to put units to "sleep," so that the units held in reserve stay quiet
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until you have a job for them.
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Another thing I like about STRATEGIC CONQUEST is the visibility rule: You don't
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know the exact location of the enemy's units until you fly over or run into them
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with your own. Even then, the units you've spotted only remain visible for a
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limited number of game days afterward. This feature definitely enhances the
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realism of the game. Like a true commander, you'll rely on constant probes and
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patrols to stay abreast of the enemy's schemes.
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST has fifteen levels of skill. Despite an early debacle or
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two, levels one through four do not seem particularly difficult to me. (That's
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as far as I've progressed as of this writing.) Games can last from as little as
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two hours to as long as ten hours, at the higher levels.
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You may save the game at the end of each turn, but restoring it can be tricky:
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You must start a new game before you're offered the option of restoring a
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previously stored position. Pay attention, or you'll end up saving the new game
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on top of the old. It's more than a little annoying to erase a position you've
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spent five or six hours building.
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Another caveat for Apple IIe owners: STRATEGIC CONQUEST was written first for
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the Macintosh, so it's designed to be played with a mouse. Moving the pointer
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around with the open-apple and arrow keys is, at best, tedious. Pull-down menus
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are a similar pain for the mouseless. Note, too, that STRATEGIC CONQUEST plays
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on a monochrome monitor, and the IIe version requires 128K.
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MACINTOSH VERSION NOTES
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I'm sure I must have played the different Macintosh versions of STRATEGIC
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CONQUEST for well into the hundreds -- perhaps even thousands -- of hours.
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Considering that just one game can last several hours (and I must have played
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hundreds of games), that's fairly easy to do.
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST PLUS (version 2.005 for the Macintosh) is the latest upgrade
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of this addicting war/strategy game. I played it on my black-and-white Mac Plus
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(just like I played most of the other versions), but this time I was able to use
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my hard disk. All the other versions were too heavily copy-protected: This one
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has no copy protection at all -- a courageous step for the new publishers,
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Premier Technology, Inc.
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Not only was I able to play it on my hard disk, I was able to do so without
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worrying about turning off my disk cache or any of the many INITs I use. The
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program seems to be completely bug-free. I would not have been able to say that
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about any of the older versions.
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Instead of immediately giving you the choice to start a new game or resume an
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old one, the program still goes through the process of starting a new game every
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time it's booted. But that's the only complaint I have. Even this quirk can be
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easily bypassed by clicking the saved game's icon rather than the program's
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icon.
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Map and enemy positions are randomly selected each time the game is played, and
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some games are easier than others, no matter which level you choose. Most of the
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games last only an hour or two before you know whether you've won or lost, but
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some can take quite a long time.
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You can play against the computer or a human opponent, either on an Appletalk
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Network or on a single computer. There's also a "hide the game from the boss"
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option.
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST is one of my all-time favorites on the Mac, and I recommend
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it highly to all strategy/wargame lovers.
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STRATEGIC CONQUEST is published by Premier Technology, Inc.
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*****dOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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