Conquest: Frontier Wars

A 2D space RTS

With all the hype over the 3D space RTS games out there like Homeworld and the Rift, it seems odd that Digital Anvil would choose to create a 2D space RTS game like Conquest. We saw it last year at E3, and it seems to have progressed a bit in terms of interface and graphical detail.

Two Terran fleets gather

Nice weapon effects

3 races, 3 resources

Combat is fleet based, with ships built out of orbital construction yards. Capturing planets means gaining control of that planet's resource as well as more space to create buildings. Three races are present in Conquest, each of which is mainly dependent on a different resource (yes there are three resources to mine). The race descriptions, as much as we hate to say it, bear a great deal of similarity to Starcraft

• Mantis - a swarming insectoid race
• Terran - the versatile humanoid race
• Solarian - the energy based, high tech race

Need a pit stop

One thing that sets Conquest apart is that ships have a supply aspect associated with them. The more they fight, the more their supplies deplete - players need to maintain a line of logistics or face combat with ships that don't fight at 100% efficiency.

Bases are built around planets

Up close

Another neat aspect is that every "map" includes several star systems linked to one another by jump gates. It's basically like having several maps connected to one another, so players need to keep careful track of their units and bases. With a little more polish and tweaking, Conquest could make a nice little strategy game for players who don't necessarily want all the complexity of a 3D space RTS like Homeworld.

Chain lightning	Bye bye laser turret
Rockets in flight	Boom!
Missile Cruisers unleash	More lightning

Expected Release: Q4 2000