Conquered Kingdoms is a fantasy strategy game that was both developed and published by Quantum Quality Productions. It was released for play in the very early nineties and was created only for play on the personal computer. This medieval fantasy title plays out entirely from the very user friendly top-down perspective.
Conquered Kingdoms has a Risk-like atmosphere. There are many maps from which to choose, or the user can choose to have one randomly generated for play. Movement, however, takes place in a Risk style environment, only in a fantastic world. The units, however, are not Risk-like in any way. The units are divided into two categories: basic and advanced. The basic units are just that and host only human members. Some of these include catapults, archers, and infantry. The advanced units feature exotic creatures, as well as people. The wizards, dragons and other fanciful creatures in the advanced units have special powers, such as teleportation, powerful shooting, and frightening the opposition away.
Each game has a fixed number of turns, and the user can choose to play short, middle-ranged or long games, based on the numbers of turns. During the user’s turns, he must manage resources, which is much like a standard strategy game. There is wood, coal and gold to be harvested. While managing resources, the user must also mount a military in order to take and hold castles. Castles are very important because all new recruits are hired, trained and equipped in the castles. Without owning at least one castle, the user will not be able to acquire reinforcements for his waning armies. The user gains points based on the number of territories he owns, gaining more exponentially for the castles he owns.
The game features a very unpredictable AI to play against. The AI players have very different personalities, which greatly add to the replayability of the game. While the user interface and the comprehensive manual will make the Conquered Kingdoms extremely easy to play, the depth and variety of AI will make it impossible to completely master. The interface is point and click, for everything from harvesting resources to moving armies and attacking the enemy.
Overall, Conquered Kingdoms is a great strategy game with fantastic themes. The magical exotic units are fun to command and learning their nuances is half of the game. The artificial intelligence is also fun and varied, and will keep the user guessing. Conquered Kingdoms can be as challenging or as easy as the user wants it to be, making it appropriate for all skill levels. It comes highly recommended for download.
Written by:
~Shannon
