Hands-On With Conquest

Digital Anvil's Conquest: Frontier Wars has undergone a few changes since last we saw it, and the design team gave us a demonstration of the game to show us the new updates. The game still looks very good, with full 3D ships and colorful 3D backgrounds. There are thick and misty nebulae, pockmarked and solid-looking asteroids, and plenty of highly detailed ships.

The core of the game remains the same. It is a 3D real-time strategy game in space that plays on a 2D plane. You build structures and fleets and then engage in epic battles with the enemy. However, in Conquest, each map is split into multiple sectors, so you must warp between different regions to do battle. Before, there were going to be four races and one resource: money. In the time between the last Gamestock (where Conquest was presented) and this event, Digital Anvil discarded one race (the lizard-like Virium) and fleshed out the resource model. Now, the three races will be human, Mantis, and Celerian. The three resources will be minerals, gas, and crew. There will be different planet types that will offer different quantities of each resource. For example, a Terran planet might have average quantities of both minerals and gas and a high quantity of crew.

You'll have to build structures around planets, with larger planets having more slots to house buildings. From these buildings you'll recruit your ships. All the ships under your command will be large capital ships, carriers, frigates, and cruisers. You won't ever control individual fighters, but they will be available via your carriers, which will send formations of tiny fighters to pick at the enemy.

Conquest retains the supply dynamic, which basically affects how long you can sustain a battle. Every ship has a supply rating. For a battleship, that supply might mean ammo, while for a carrier, it might mean ships. Over time, supply will run out. When it does, your ship is effectively powerless, and it will be idle and vulnerable. That means you'll need to keep a steady number of supply ships in your fleet to keep your ships well stocked. Luckily, the resupplying is automatic; as long as your ships are within the supply ship's range, their supply will remain high.

The 3D graphics are quite impressive, although the default view is definitely a traditional top-down one that gives you a more strategic view but hides the depth of the engine. You can zoom in to a close-enough level to see a gigantic Mantis carrier take up your whole screen and to see the multiple v-formations of tiny fighters buzzing around in a defensive pattern.

Although news on Conquest has been rather minimal at this point, we see a lot of potential here, and we will bring you a more in-depth preview and more information in the near future. In the meantime, view these screenshots.