Colonial Conquest

Colonial Conquest is a conquest simulation set during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the great powers expanded through warfare. You play as one of six major powers—Great Britain, Germany, France, the USA, Japan or Russia—and seek to become the dominant power in the world. You can play against the computer or other human players, or take turns in hotseat mode, with an option to limit each player's turn to 4 minutes.

Scenarios and victory

The game offers three scenarios: a historical setting beginning in 1880, historical positions in 1914, and an open, non-historical Standard scenario beginning around 1870, in which nations own only their starting home territories. A game lasts until a victory condition is met. Depending on the scenario and custom settings, you win by scoring the most Victory Points (VPs) or by being the first to reach a preset VP threshold.

To score VPs, you capture regions around the world and defeat your enemies in battle. The world contains about 130 regions, with different income and VP values; in the Standard scenario, these values are set randomly. A region's values remain unknown until you conquer it or gather information about it through espionage. Regions not held by a Major Power are usually owned and defended by independent Minor countries. A Major country is controlled by a human player or the computer, or can be designated neutral, in which case it acts as a Minor country.

Turns and phases

Each turn represents roughly one season. Players enter the game's phases in sequence: a spring Build Phase, followed by Movement and Combat phases. The Build Phase includes army and navy construction, fortification, economic aid, espionage and subversion.

During the Build Phase, you can:

• Construct armies and fleets: create them at your Supply Centers.
• Fortify armies: fortify army units, except those in Supply Centers, which are already fortified.
• Provide economic aid: lend money to another Major country, adding it to that country's Treasury, or to a neutral Minor country, which uses it immediately to build armies.
• Conduct espionage: learn approximate, and not always accurate, information about a Minor country's army strength and income, or about the income and VP value of a region controlled by a Major country.
• Subvert a Minor country: spend money to bribe its army, weakening its defense or causing a coup that gives you control of the country.

Move and fight

In the Movement Phase, which takes place every turn, armies can move only to adjacent regions. Navies can move alone or carry armies from one port to another, including in amphibious landings on enemy holdings. In the Combat Phase, battles can last up to twenty rounds, with naval combat first when ships are present, followed by land battles.