Lords Of Conquest

"Lords of Conquest" is very similar to the classic game "Risk", but unlike "Risk" "Lords of Conquest" can be played with adjustable levels of luck involved. I liked the game of "Risk" but it was always annoying to me how much luck could play a factor in the game. If you like luck "Lords of Conquest" gives you the option to increase it, but I think most people who play strategy games like to determine their own fate by the quality of their strategy, not by random luck.

"Lords of Conquest" is a turn based game and as such, there is no real time element involved. The game has an extraordinary amount of skill levels to play through. The game starts by picking a map on which to play. There are many choices available to you and you can also generate your own with the map generator. As you can imagine, the choice of map can have a great effect on the game and the strategy involved. Once the map has been selected each player chooses a territory until all of the territories are owned. Once this has been done the game can begin.
The main items to concern yourself with are gold, horses, and weapons. You can use the gold to buy weapons and build cities. The amount of horses (which represent force in the form of cavalry) you have will depend on the territories you selected at the beginning of the game. Any territories you selected that had the ability to breed horses will continue to do so after each turn in the game.
Like "Risk" each territory represents a force of one and any territory bordering on it also represents a force of one either in support or opposing. If the territory contains a city, weapon, or horse, the amount of force bearing against or in support of it changes accordingly. Moving these icon representations of your army strategically around the map and your accumulation of gold and where you build cities (which increase force by one and double gold if the city is built in a territory that produces gold) will determine the outcome of your battle. The game is won by either defeating your opponent outright by taking his territories or by building a pre-determined amount of cities before your opponent.
This factor lends itself to the great strategy involved in the game because you may have to make a decision to either overwhelm your opponent with force by spending your gold on weapons or just outlasting them by building the required cities first. If you try to overwhelm your opponent with force and they decide to just try and defend while building cities you may find that you are unable to defeat your opponent with force before they beat you buy building the required amount of cities. The game even has a sense of humor when you are playing against the computer. Instead of being forced to play the game to the very end even though the outcome is obvious, you have the option of surrendering and the computer opponent will usually communicate to you by way of message that they "could beat you if they had more time, but they really have to go!" or some similar type of message before you are declared victorious. Final Verdict: This game has a lot of depth and replay value and is clearly one of the best games ever made for the Commodore 64 if you like strategy games.
Graphics: Not important because they are not important in this type of game, but they are fine. Sound: Again not much of a factor in this game, except in the form of a victory song at the end of the game. No problems here. Gameplay: 9 or 10! This is what the game is all about! Replay value: Very high!