American Conquest

Question: "Who Discovered America?" was once as rhetorical as, "How much is 2 + 2?" But people are still evolving, computers were created, marijuana, the world moved on. Today's preschooler, when asked about the discoverer of the American continent, begins to describe the first expeditions of the Vikings in these regions, a less learned teenager will start to poke fun at that no one has discovered America, because it was not covered with anything, and anyway, it is a continent large enough to he would find it easily. The Columbus myth is starting to get dusty and it's good that someone has decided to refresh this topic. Although the American Conquest is not entirely devoted to this great explorer - it covers the period from the landing of Columbus in 1492 to 1813 - however, the whole action takes place on both continents of America, the civilization of which we owe to this Italian sailor.

These were the years in which the fate of the American continent was at stake and which in the AC were divided into eight campaigns: Columbus's Journeys 1492-1502, Pizarro's Invasion 1532-1544, The Seven Years' War 1756-1763 (separately through the eyes of the French and British), Tecumseh Rebellion (through the eyes of the Indians and Americans), the War of Independence 1775-1783 (through the eyes of the British and Americans). In total, we have 42 missions to play, the completion of which is quite time-consuming, even on the simplest difficulty level. However, doing this will give us not only great satisfaction, but also useful knowledge - before each mission, we are given a lecture on the historical background regarding the task that we will be carrying out in a moment. As we have the opportunity to look at some battles through the eyes of both sides of the conflict, there are situations in which we fight on identical boards in two different campaigns (which is by no means a downside). The very assumptions and goals of subsequent missions are not limited only to the extermination of the enemy. Of course, combat is an indispensable element of the game, but we often come across more or less original ideas of the tasks that are set before us. Conquering and defending strongholds or cities, finding an enemy commander, reaching a designated place on the map, extracting a certain amount of resources, seizing enemy buildings - the missions are quite interesting and varied. It is worth, among others to mention the first mission in the Tecumseha Rebellion campaign (through the eyes of the Indians) in which we must unite the five Indian tribes; performing the task itself is very similar to RPG games. We conduct individual operations not only with huge armies, but also with individual units.

But it is huge armies that are the main marketing slogan in promoting American Conquest. Several thousand armies can meet in battles, which is a number that gives much food for thought. Already Shogun: Total War offered fights with thousands of samurai, it also forced the creation of 2D units and a well-thought-out command system. Commanders in the AC serve to control such large armies, and we assign them under the command of a certain number of soldiers. We can create divisions consisting of 15, 36, 72, 120 or 196 people. Each such team can form three different formations and although this number seems ridiculous, it can be said that it is enough. To such a unit you can (and even need to) add a banner keeper and a drummer (a guy with a drum), who will improve the morale and strength of the entire regiment.

When two armies clash in direct combat, we lose control of our people anyway, and the whole clash resembles one big, pulsating blur. However, seeing the confusion with your eyes is a great difficulty, because there are only two types of view of the battlefield. Apparently everything would be ok, if it were not for the fact that the ordinary camera gives a little too much zoom, and the alternative perspective (activated with the "L" key) moves the view far into the clouds, from where our troops look like blurred points. Unfortunately, the "L" view is the only rational option in cases where we are engaged in great battles.

The not very readable graphics are the fault of the slightly outdated engine on which the game is based. It is the engine used in the hit three years ago - Cossacks, but much improved; innovations alone account for about 50%. However, I cannot say unequivocally that the appearance of the game is terrible, because the graphics of American Conquest are one of the nicer 2D ones that can be seen in current strategies. The zoom-in and zoom-out thing was just kicked. However, let's leave it alone and deal with the graphics itself. Buildings and three-dimensional units do not offend with pixels and, most importantly, their rational proportions have been kept. The very behavior of soldiers on the battlefield does not raise any objections. Let's take a closer look at e.g. cannons. Four men are assigned to operate the cannon, who perform such activities as cleaning the barrel, loading a bullet into it and firing a fuse, even the recoil of the cannon during the shot is taken into account. Individual soldiers are also not soulless clumps of pixels and react to boredom, for example, in a manner typical of homo sapiens. It is true that they do not turn on the TV ;-), but left without an order, they clean their weapons, kick pebbles or just simply in the world - they fidget (whatever that would mean ;-)). All the animations of movements are very credible, and the process of building the buildings was also reproduced well. Let's move on to the world that surrounds our compatriots. Although the game is two-dimensional, the terrain itself was modeled in 3D, which looks extremely good. It is worse with the flora and fauna occurring in these areas. On the maps, we meet animals such as buffalo, bears, goats and deer, and each of them can be an additional source of food. It is surprising, however, that birds have been forgotten, so the sky in AC is not teeming with even insignificant life. Of course, I am not some fanatical ornithologist, it is also possible that such attractions would only disturb by obscuring the already not very readable image on the monitor. In addition to the moving fauna, we can see the rippling water and ... And that's it. I cannot blame the fact that the stones do not move, but trees and shrubs should bend at least a little under the pressure of the wind. Or maybe you forgot to bring wind to the game? ;-) The solution to this puzzle is waving grain ears. So the wind is ... Only trees are so static, and yet in The Settlers 2 you could admire similar effects. Finishing the topic of the game's appearance, it is worth mentioning the possibility of graphics configuration. However, it is difficult to call it a configuration, because the only variable parameter to which we have access is the screen resolution in the range from 1024x768 to 1600x1200 (10 possibilities in total). After all, it is hardly a disadvantage, if only because of the low system requirements. It is not a game with graphic fountains, in which you have to turn off great 3D effects to be able to play on weaker equipment.

The American Conquest offers 12 different races, which can be divided into two types: the invading states (or explorers from Europe, if you prefer) and the Indian tribes, i.e. the indigenous people of the discovered continent. The first group includes: England, France and Spain. The second includes Indian tribes such as: Aztecs, Delawars, Incas, Hurons, Iroquois, Pueblos, Sioux and Mayans. In addition, we have access to a country - the USA (United States), which can certainly not be classified into any of these groups. Each of the nations presented here has separate units and buildings, and the total number of available buildings is over 100. The diversity in the ranks of the army is no worse, as there are also over 100 different types of military units in AC. Such diversity should therefore result in broad tactical and strategic possibilities. And it can be said that it also happened - in order to defeat a demanding opponent, we must fully understand the rules of fighting, and skillfully use the enemy's weak points. The introduction of morale influenced the decent representation of the atmosphere on the battlefield. Mentally weak units, seeing a large (not always more numerous) enemy army, often start to flee. A similar effect can be admired when circling an enemy, well-aimed flank attacks, or with cavalry charges on redskins. For example: a several times larger group of Indian basic military units may not cope (e.g. due to low morale) with a few disciplined soldiers of civilized countries. For some time now, an inseparable element of every strategy is the typically eRPeG element of gaining experience by individuals. In AC, we can also meet it - each killed enemy gives our soldier additional points to his skills. It may not be an extremely important aspect, but it is worth taking care of especially meritorious fighters. Another and probably the best idea of AC developers is the ability to place units in buildings, which allows you to create powerful bastions even from ordinary wooden sheds. Getting even a regular hut with several defenders in it can be very problematic. In such a situation, the assault is not the best solution and it is worth using it only after killing the majority (at least 80%) of the defenders. Well, we might not exactly "knock out", but we'll fire. It is best to start taking control of the defended buildings by stuffing the barricaded people with bullets. Of course, you can't count on the enemy hidden inside waiting to die calmly - after all, he has the advantage: he is fortified and also has weapons. Keeping people (even ordinary peasants) inside buildings for typically defensive purposes should be learned at the beginning of the game. This is because not always our only enemy is another human - e.g. farmers working in the field are exposed to attacks by wild animals, which can thin our population. To avoid this, it is enough to locate a few peasants in the mill, and they will kill any beast that comes in a dangerously close distance. The real strongholds are of course the forts and fortresses, which were the main advantage of the invaders from Europe in the fight against redskins.

The bastion, filled to the brim with defenders, is very difficult to conquer (even with cannons, as peasants stationed near the stronghold can repair the damaged building on a regular basis). Not only can the defenders of fortresses conduct powerful rifle fire, but they also have artillery that can destroy nearby buildings. Thus, fortresses can be used not only for defensive purposes, but also for typically offensive purposes. Sea battles are a separate topic. Unfortunately, they are not very exciting and you can say - at the level of a typical middle class RTS. OK, there are probably too many of these stories about wars and battles, it's time to look at the economy, without which the military aspect would not exist.

Although in AC the economy is not one of the most complex parts of the game, it is the core of the game and requires at least a bit of thought on the part of the player. There are six resources in American Conquest: wood, food, stone, gold, iron, and coal. Each of the materials is used not only to create buildings and units, but also to work on new technologies. A nod to realism is, among others, food that is constantly depleted (soldiers must eat something after all), or coal consumed by carabinieri. There is also a different need for particular raw materials for Indians and explorers of the new world. Redskins use, among others huge amounts of wood and food, and these are the raw materials they have to pay the most attention to. It is also worth discussing how to extract and store resources. We obtain wood by cutting trees that are brought to the warehouse by lumberjacks, in the same way as in the Age of Empires series. We can obtain food in three ways: by cultivating grain from the fields around the mill (to which it is brought), by hunters who hunt game and take the meat to their hut or warehouse (again the same as in AoE) and by catching fish (which only Indians can.) The extraction of the remaining raw materials that require the construction of mines may be a controversial issue. Not only are the underground deposits unlimited, but also the raw material mined does not have to be transported anywhere and goes straight to our resources. The number of possible improvements and types of technology that we can research on deserves praise. However, it must be remembered that AC is a typical war strategy in which the economic aspect plays a rather marginal role.

The way our army is formed is also worth mentioning. Well, in order to train a soldier in a barracks (e.g. in a fort or fortress), we must first place an ordinary peasant in them, who will then be trained in the military field chosen by us. By the mere recruitment of peasants, we control economic development (we decide how many people will work in the extraction of particular resources) and it is the production of ordinary workers that is the main machine driving the flourishing of our civilization.

As for the acoustic feelings during the adventure with AC, ... the speakers were rather turned off. The sounds of nature are almost imperceptible, but you can hear the buzz of the fight, such as drum sounds warming up for battle or shots from rifles and cannons - and ... it even sounds quite good, but it is not enough, there is no groaning of the wounded and dying , clang of weapons, etc. As for the music itself, it should not get bored for several dozen minutes of playing. Some songs resemble those that could be heard in the game (by the way very good) Knights & Merchants, often our ears are also bombarded with quite patriotic (for the nations available in the game) melodies - in general: it's not that bad, but it could be (much) better .

It is quite difficult to assess the degree of difficulty of the game here, as there are both extremely easy and extremely long missions. On the two simplest levels of difficulty, we should not have a problem with any task, and the only obstacle may be the time needed to complete the objectives entrusted to us. Playing with the demanding Al. computer, however, it is not so easy and most players should skip it, because the average level gives enough excitement. However, there are missions (such as defense or city conquest) where it is worth raising the bar to see if we really belong to the elite of computer strategists ;-).

The game offers both LAN and Internet gameplay, unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to test them personally. However, browsing foreign websites and mailing lists, I often met with favorable opinions about the Multi mode in AC. The germ of on-line fun can be games available in the single clash with the computer mode. When choosing the map on which we will compete, we can refer to the works of the game's creators, and for more creative players, a map editor has been prepared. The gameplay in this mode does not resemble the one we will get to know in the Singleplayer campaign. Depending on the number of opponents and our own location, we have to use the right tactics and carry it out scrupulously. Only here will we get to know the taste of real combat and competition - I highly recommend it (this mode is also available in the AC demo version).

I was going to rate the AC at 70, 75% top, but I remembered the last two weeks I spent in front of the computer and I have to admit that there is something about this game that does not let you tear yourself away from it. Of course, there are moments when the monitor beats monotony, but looking at the time I spent with the AC, I must admit that it was worth it. If only to play a difficult and time-consuming 2D strategy for the last time before the release of the second part of the Cossacks.

Attention! A very time-consuming game.

Daniel "KULL" Sodkiewicz