Review: American Conquest

by Jim Cobb

Introduction

Pre-nineteenth century RTS games have been growing up slowly from two sources: Creative Assembly's Total War series and CDV's Cossacks series. Creative Assembly's progress has been noticeable, but the add-on and sequel to Cossacks: European Wars exhibit only marginal improvements over the first product, sprucing up an interest derivative of the Warcraft paradigm. With American Conquest, CDV is attempting to explore more than one "New World". The question remains whether the product found a new gaming continent or simply circled the Canary Islands.

American troops occupy a Native American building in a raid. The green health bars are visible.	British troops form up on a Boston square before heading off to Bunker Hill.

The Forest Primeval

American Conquest takes on a topic that has been surprisingly neglected by RTS games: tactical combat during the Age of Discovery in the Americas. Eight campaigns, with linear but unlinked scenarios, cover the period from Columbus' early attempts at colonization, to Tecumseh's revolt against early domination by the United States in the early 1800s. Of particular importance are the French and Indian War (also known in Europe as the Seven Years' War), and a campaign detailing the American Revolution. Several of the campaigns can be played from both sides, and each scenario has a well produced spoken historical prologue, showing a nice progression on the part of GSC Game World. For those who played any of the Cossacks games, rest assured that the campaigns and introductions are much more polished and clear now. The producers obviously invested more time and money in their translation to English as well, to the point that many of the campaign intros can be used confidently as educational tools. A few are a bit on the lengthy side, but they are all well done. 

Nine single missions offer stylized representations of actual battles, such as the French attack on Fort Pitt, and random maps provide player-modified challenges. The three major colonial powers, Spain, France and Britain, are represented with seventeenth and eighteenth century units and equipment, with the US showing up appropriately in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century garb and gear. Much more interesting is the inclusion of eight indigenous nations including the Aztecs, the Mayas, and the Iroquois. American Conquest shows their unique units and buildings with interesting depictions of their variety. 

A line of British troops flank and roll up a French line.	Settlers are protected in a British square.

The Forest Primeval

Installation is a snap with the usual install wizard, on-line registration and links to web pages. The 76-page manual covers all the bases, albeit with small print on glossy pages. The readme file provides helpful hints on hotkeys and interface issues. Although no tutorials exist per se, the early scenarios of Columbus' campaigns introduce players to basic concepts in a tutorial-like fashion. Players unfamiliar with the Cossack system would do well to play these early missions at varied difficulty levels to learn the subtleties of play. 

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