Conquests should work on any Windows or Linux PC with any DirectX 9 (for Windows) or OpenGL 3.2 (for Linux) or later graphics card. Conquests needs about 27MB of free space on Windows, and at least 7MB on Linux (as of version 1.0).

Conquests is tested on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 10.10 64 bit, and with Intel HD 4000, Baytrail and NVIDIA 675M graphics. Older versions ran okay on Windows XP, 7, 8, and with Intel GMA 3100, ATI Radeon HD 6570 and NVIDIA (6100, 8600GT) graphics.

If the game fails to run, or has graphical problems, please try the following:

The game defaults to using Direct3D 9, running in windowed mode at 800x600 (although on Linux, OpenGL is always used). This can be changed by running the "Conquests Preferences" program:

• API (Windows only) - choice of Direct3D 9 or OpenGL. Depending on your graphics card, one of these might give better frame rates. It's also worth trying OpenGL if there are problems running the game on your machine.
• Resolution, Fullscreen- resolution of the window, and whether to run in windowed or fullscreen mode.
• Anti-Aliasing- level of anti-aliasing (smoother appearance) (3D view only).
• High Dynamic Range - improved range of colour rendering (3D view only).
• Debugging options - try unticking some or all of these if you are having problems.

Select New Game. You will be asked for various choices:

You can save the current game, or load a previous one, by clicking on the appropriate buttons. The existing and previous turns are automatically saved, under "auto.sav" and "auto2.sav" respectively.

• Escape - Quit game (or if Goto/Travel/Bombard/Reconnaissance squares are highlighted, then cancel this mode).
• Arrow keys and numeric keypad - Move the active unit to an adjacent square.
• Space - Use up the active unit's moves for this turn.
• Return - End turn, if all units are moved.
• A - For units that can build roads/railways, automate it so the AI controls it automatically (click on the unit to reactivate it and disable the automation).
• B - Builds a city (if the current unit can build cities, and a city can be built at this location).
• B - Bomb enemy city (for air and missile units) (press Escape or click right mouse button to cancel selecting a bombard square).
• C - Centre on the active unit.
• F - The unit remains where it is until reactivated (click on the unit, or go to the City window if the unit is located at a city).
• G - Select a target to automatically move the unit to (click on the unit to reactivate it and disable the goto) (press Escape or click right mouse button to cancel selecting a goto square).
• H - Centre on your first city (if you have built any).
• L - Load a previously saved game.
• M - Displays the world map.
• N - Start a new game.
• R - Builds a road/railways (if the current unit can build roads).
• R - Reconnaissance, allows you to pick a region to reveal the fog of war for that turn (for air units) (press Escape or click right mouse button to cancel selecting a reconnaissance square).
• S - Save the current game.
• T - If at a city with a Harbour, Port or Airport improvement, allows the unit to travel via sea/air to nearby land squares (press Escape or click right mouse button to cancel selecting a travel square).
• W - Tells the active unit to wait until you have moved other units.
• Z/X - Zoom out/in.
• F1 - List all your cities.
• F2 - List all your units.
• F3 - List the civilizations you have met. You can also select one to contact, and either declare war (or make peace), exchange technologies, share maps (if you have both discovered Maps), or make Right Of Passage Agreements (if you have both discovered Writing).
• F4 - List all your technologies.
• F5 - Gives details on the civilizations you have met.

• Right click on square adjacent to current unit - Moves the unit to that square (if a valid move).
• Click and drag on terrain - Scrolls the viewpoint.
• Click on one of your units - If the unit is automated or moving under "goto", it undoes the automation/goto. If the unit has moves left, the unit is activated, unless there are multiple units at that location, in which case a window opens allowing you to select the unit to activate. If the unit doesn't have moves left, a window opens showing you the units at that location.
• Click on enemy unit - Displays information about units at that location.
• Click on terrain - Displays information about the terrain.
• Click on one of your cities - Opens the city window.
• Control + Click on one of your cities - Shortcut to change city production.
• Shift + Click on one of your cities - Displays terrain and units (similar to when clicking on terrain).

The world is made up of different types of terrain:

• Grassland - Move cost 1.
• Desert - Move cost 1. Cities built on a desert square will grow more slowly.
• Artic - Move cost 2. Cities built on an artic square will grow more slowly.
• Forest - Move cost 2. Cities that have at least one forest square within their radius will have +1 production.
• Hills - Move cost 2.
• Mountains - No unit may pass through mountains.
• Ocean.

Note that building a city on a Forest square will convert it to a Grassland square.

Some squares also contain a bonus resource, which will provide a bonus for a city if within the city's radius. This is identified by a coloured sphere in the square:

Your civilization is made up of one or more cities, which can be built with Settler units. You can display and control details for one of your cities by clicking on it. This opens the city window:

• At the top of the city window, general information about the city is displayed.
• Towards the left, the list displays improvements and units that the city can build. To change the item currently being built, select it in the list, then click "Change Build". Click "Info." to display more details about the currently selected item.
• At the top right is displayed a list of the city improvements that this city has already built.
• Below that is a list of elements that this city holds. See below for more details.
• At the bottom is a list displaying units that are located at the city square. You can use the buttons to activate the selected unit, activate all units, or fortify all units.
• Click Okay (or press Escape or Enter) to close the city window. Destroy City can be used to get rid of a city you no longer want. City Stats displays some information on factors that affect the city's output.

Each unit or improvement has a basic "cost"; the city's production contributes to this cost each turn. E.g., a unit with cost 20, for a city with production output 2, will take 10 turns to build. However, many units and improvements also require a certain amount of elements in order to build. The following types of elements exist:

• Wood - City produces 1 wood unit per turn for every Forest in the city radius.
• Stone - Requires a Quarry. City produces 5 stone units per turn, plus 1 for every Mountains in the city radius.
• Bronze - Requires Bronze Working. City starts off with 20 bronze units, and produces 2 per turn, plus 1 for every Hills in the city radius.
• Iron - Requires Iron Working and a Mine. City produces 5 iron units per turn, plus 1 for every Hills in the city radius.
• Gunpowder - Requires Gunpowder and a Powder Mill. City produces 5 gunpowder units per turn.
• Oil - Requires Combustion. City produces 30 oil units per oil bonus in the city radius.

Each city can hold a maximum stock of 200 of each element. Once you have discovered Steam Power, the cities will automatically distribute excess stock to other cities with less stock.

Units are grouped into land units, sea units and air units. Units can have the following statistics:

• Attack - How strong the unit is when attacking an enemy unit.
• Defence - How strong the unit is when attacked by an enemy unit.
• Moves - The number of moves.
• Bombard - For units that can bomb cities: the percentage chance of a successful attack.
• Bombard Power - For units that can bomb cities: the maximum build cost of Improvements that can be destroyed.
• Air Range - How far air units can bomb or travel.
• Air Attack - How strong an air unit is against defending air units.
• Air Defence - How strong an air unit is against attacking air units.
• Sea Attack - How strong a sea unit is against enemy sea units.
• Sea Defence Range - The range for which a sea unit can defend against invasions.
• Visibility Range - How far the unit can reveal unexplored squares.

Units can also have the following special properties:

Land units can attack enemy units by attempting to move into the square containing the enemy unit. As a result of the combat, either you or the enemy unit will be destroyed. To attack enemy cities, similarly attempt to move to the enemy city square. Once all enemy units there have been defeated, you will capture the city. For cities of population greater than 10,000, they will experience "resistance" for the first few turns after capture, which reduces their productivity (this does not apply if you are recapturing a city that was recently captured by an enemy). For cities of population less than 75,000, you are given the choice of using your troops to crush the resistance. If you do, this will reduce the city's population, but also reduce the resistance.

Units may travel by sea from cities that have a Harbour or Port improvement. Press the Travel button, and then select one of the highlighted squares to move to.

Foot soldiers have the ability to "invade" - they may attack an enemy unit or city directly by sea.

Later on, sea units become available. Sea units can defend against enemies landing or invading within that civilization's territory, to squares within range of where the sea unit is located:

• If the attacking unit is travelling from a city which has a sea unit, then the two sea units will first engage in combat. If the attacking side loses, then the invading land unit is also destroyed.
• If the attacking unit has no sea unit to accompany it, then the attacking unit is automatically destroyed by the defending sea unit.

Therefore, it is risky in later stages of the game to invade by sea to enemy territory, without a sea unit to protect your unit.

Sea units can themselves travel, but only to other cities that also have a harbour or port.

Units may travel by air from cities that have an Airport improvement. Units can only travel by air to other cities within range, that also have an Airport.

Air units be used for bombing enemy cities, and/or to defend against incoming air attacks. Fighters located at a city will try to defend against any incoming air attack automatically.

Air units can also perform reconnaissance, to reveal the fog of war within a region.

Your Power is a measure of the size and success of your civilization. It is dependent on your total population, and grows over time; in addition some improvements also produce additional Power every turn. You will receive a random bonus everytime your Power increases beyond a power of 10. Power is also used to determine the winner of the game, after the specified number of turns (unless you wipe out all other civilizations - or are defeated yourself before that time).

There are 10 civilizations to choose from, each of which has a specific starting technology. Each civilization can also build a Great Project - this is an improvement which only that civilization can build, and which offers greater benefits than most other improvements:

• The Romans - Colosseum (+4 to growth rate to the city).
• The English - Stonehenge (+4 growth rate to the city).
• The Egyptians - Pyramids (+1 production to all cities).
• The Americans - Apollo Programme (increases base scientific research by 100% for all cities).
• The French - Eiffel Tower (+2 production to all cities).
• The Greeks - Colossus (+5 to growth rate to the city).
• The Vikings - Hammer of Thor (all units are automatically veterans).
• The Russians - Mir Space Station (increases base scientific research by 100% for all cities).
• The Japanese - Himeji Castle (+50% defence for all cities).
• The Mayans - Great Temple (+5 to growth rate to the city).

For complete reference details on all Technologies, Units and City Improvements, see the reference.html file (on Windows, run Conquests Reference from the Start Menu; on Linux, this is installed to /usr/share/doc/conquests/ ). When playing the game, you can also access in-game help by pressing the "?" button.

Please contact me at mark DOT harman DOT apps AT gmail DOT com .

If you are reporting a bug, please send me:

• Any reported error messages.
• The latest save game file. This can be found:
  • For Windows, located in "%APPDATA%\conquests\savegames".
  • For Linux, located in $HOME/.config/conquests/savegames (in Ubuntu, go to menu Places->Home Folder, then make sure View->Show Hidden Files is selected, then open the folder .config).
  The start of the current turn is automatically saved under "auto.sav".
• The "log.txt" file. This can be found:
  • For Windows, located in "%APPDATA%\conquests".
  • For Linux, located in $HOME/.config/conquests (in Ubuntu, go to menu Places->Home Folder, then make sure View->Show Hidden Files is selected, then open the folder .config).
  The log file is overwritten each time you run the game, so you'll have to take a copy straight away - although note that the last-but-one game log will be available under "log_old.txt"; also on Windows, in the case of assertion failures, it will also be copied to "log_assertion_failure.txt").
• If under Linux and no log.txt file is generated, try running conquests.out from a Terminal window, and note if that gives any error messages.
• A description of what happened, and what steps you took that resulted in the bug.
• Any details of your system may also be helpful, e.g.: operating system, CPU, graphics card, Direct X version if relevant.

If you would like to contribute to Conquests, there are various ways you can help:

• Porting - Feel free to port Conquests to other platforms. If you send me the files, I can integrate them into the main source. Please contact me if you want to port, and are after help or advice on what changes are required.
• Art/Sound/etc - I've managed to create Conquests using 3rd party artwork or procedurally generated content, so there isn't any "programmer art" that needs replacing right now. However there are various areas where more could be added, e.g.: images/icons for each technology or improvement; images for certain events (e.g., combat, air raid); small icons for the bonus resources, to replace the current coloured blobs; additional sound effects; music (e.g., music for each civilization, or background music whilst playing). Please contact me with any contributions.
• Tell people about it! - If you like the game, then please feel free to tell other people about it, on your blog/Twitter/website/etc :)
• Give me a rating :) (On the various project/download sites.)