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Learn more about Divided Nation on the game's official web site.
CDV Official
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CDV is American Conquest: Divided Nation's publisher.
Review: American Conquest: Fight Back
by Marty McKone
Introduction
American Conquest: Fight Back is an expansion of CDV's American Conquest which allows players to gather resources, build outposts and fight tactical battles against the natives of the Americas. Players can use the combat forces of gunpowder, horse, and steel to seize the lands for King and Country or the guile and courage of the natives to retain their native lands.
CDV have released American Conquest: Fight Back as a stand-alone expansion to the popular American Conquest which followed the successful Cossacks series. The game is a historical Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game set in the period of conquest and discovery in the Americas. The expansion boasts 50 new units, and several new campaigns plus a new tactical battlefield system.
American Conquest: Fight Back is beautifully presented. From its detailed cut-screens to wonderfully crafted models of buildings and units, all provide an engrossing visual background on which the game is based. The game is targeted directly at the RTS-loving community, who have lined up for games like Age of Empires, Empire Earth and the Cossacks series.
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A bustling Portugese Settlement typical of Fight Back's detailed authentic buildings. |
Game Elements
American Conquest: Fight Back comes with 25 missions in 8 historical campaigns, each based on the European colonial conquest of the Americas. Each of the scenarios are linked to historical styled missions that depict situations or encounters that occurred at the time. The scenarios are linear: players must successfully finish one before proceeding to the next. The campaigns include the Spanish pitted against the Maya and the Aztecs at Yucatan; The British against the Indians on the Potomac and the Russians in Alaska against the Haida. The scenarios are well developed and provide balanced and challenging gaming. The mission goals are a mix of military, diplomatic, and economic objectives which provides for well-balanced play.
As with the original American Conquest, players can take on single missions or games they have created through the game editor. A new function of American Conquest: Fight Back is the battlefield system. Players get a top down view of a battlefield. They start with the capability of changing their troop structure. Players are given a tactical objective to obtain through purely military action. There are no resource gathering or building tasks to accomplish, though there are resource restrictions and some upgrades that can be undertaken. The battlefield system is a good wargaming system and adds a new dimension to American Conquest: Fight Back.
In all combat modes players get to control massed units over some very large maps. A refreshing aspect of this RTS gaming system is that it factors in morale, which can affect the way both the player's and the AI's forces react. The use of leaders and units helps to shore up a force's morale and well-controlled volleys often turn around numerically superior forces.
Installation
The game installed without difficulties, taking up 1.3 GB of hard drive space. The game ran smoothly and I encountered no glitches in the game in all modes playing both single and multiplayer. My internet connection has been woefully slow and I was unable to test that the Internet protocol worked smoothly.