Remember The Old SSI Game Colonial Conquest?

orpheus · July 28, 2015, 02:51:12 PM

Quote from: Queeg on July 28, 2015, 01:45:41 PM
For my money, Imperialism II remains the best historical strategy game ever made.

Gosh yes... and Europa Universalis also. Always thought the strategy part was underrated, but was a great game :)

Jarhead0331 · July 28, 2015, 04:07:31 PM

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2014/05/05/ten-reasons-imperialism-ii-greatest-strategy-game-ever-made/

Really good read on Imperialism II.

bbmike · July 28, 2015, 04:49:28 PM

Another interesting article on Imperialism, mostly because co-designer Bill Spieth talks about the games!

Greybriar · July 28, 2015, 09:46:18 PM

Well, is Colonial Conquest worth $8.99 or should I just boot up my old game of Risk? ???

FarAway Sooner · July 28, 2015, 10:05:07 PM

Imp II was a great title. I actually got to be pretty good friends with Ted Spieth and his wife (who was the project manager/lead developer who really gave the thing life, I understand), before I even knew they designed that game. If I could find a way to produce money quickly, it was usually a cake walk over the AI, but otherwise, it was a great title.

Ted was the one who told me that having really good AI in a computer game is much more about building a game system that a computer can understand, rather than building a great game and then figuring out how to build a good AI on top of that.

kassdhal · July 29, 2015, 07:58:44 AM

Quote from: Greybriar on July 28, 2015, 09:46:18 PM
Well, is Colonial Conquest worth $8.99 or should I just boot up my old game of Risk? ???

I spent some pretty good time yesterday night playing it. Pretty close to the old amiga game with some good innovations.

Greybriar · July 29, 2015, 08:48:59 AM

Thanks for the input, kassdhal! O0

DennisS · July 30, 2015, 10:00:40 AM

I purchased this myself as well. Here's some observations

--Very Risk-like, only armies and navies
--To move 100 armies across water, you need 100 navies
--Each country has a different cost for armies and navies. Russia gets cheap armies, Britain gets cheap navies
--Stack O' Doom tactics are seriously in play
--Not much else to do, as far as game mechanics. You can scout adjacent territories, at a cost, and at games start you can set up each province to provide a random amount of VP or monies
--500 vp game takes about 20 minutes. You can set this on infinite VP, requiring a total win
--Up to six different countries to play..and each of them can be deselected as an AI opponent. Thusly, 2-6 "players."
--You can give money to a minor player (one of 124 provinces), and they will IMMEDIATELY use that to purchase armies...or regiments in this case
--I played the first game on easy, and won easily. There are several different AI levels...the quality of the programming logic for the AI is as yet undetermined.

After this first game, I will give it a seven. Beer and pretzels, for when I don't feel ambitious enough to fire up the dramatically better/deeper game, Victoria II.

Queeg · July 30, 2015, 01:32:09 PM

Quote from: DennisS on July 30, 2015, 10:00:40 AM
I purchased this myself as well. Here's some observations

--Very Risk-like, only armies and navies
--To move 100 armies across water, you need 100 navies
--Each country has a different cost for armies and navies. Russia gets cheap armies, Britain gets cheap navies
--Stack O' Doom tactics are seriously in play
--Not much else to do, as far as game mechanics. You can scout adjacent territories, at a cost, and at games start you can set up each province to provide a random amount of VP or monies
--500 vp game takes about 20 minutes. You can set this on infinite VP, requiring a total win
--Up to six different countries to play..and each of them can be deselected as an AI opponent. Thusly, 2-6 "players."
--You can give money to a minor player (one of 124 provinces), and they will IMMEDIATELY use that to purchase armies...or regiments in this case
--I played the first game on easy, and won easily. There are several different AI levels...the quality of the programming logic for the AI is as yet undetermined.

After this first game, I will give it a seven. Beer and pretzels, for when I don't feel ambitious enough to fire up the dramatically better/deeper game, Victoria II.

Good summary. I played a quick game last night and had the same reaction: a step above Risk in terms of complexity and with much more historical flavor; nowhere near the depth of V2 or PON but a fun change of pace.

em2nought · July 30, 2015, 10:34:57 PM

I could swear I had an old, old, old box game passed down from my brother & sisters with metal dreadnoughts by this name. It definitely wasn't by SSI. I'm talking late 1950s production.

tgb · July 31, 2015, 12:05:07 PM

I just ran into a rather amusing - well, not exactly a bug - with the game's RNG. I started a new game as France and had it randomize all the value of the minors. On the first turn I wanted to take Spain, so I sent a spy over first. She must have had a little too much Sangria, because she reported the count of Spain's defense as 1 (one) (uno) (eine) (diddly) (jackshit).

Thinking it must be a problem with the text, I went ahead with the invasion only to find poor little Pedro, all by himself, up on a hill with his rifle, trying to hold me off.

It kind of ruined the immersiveness.

Greybriar · August 01, 2015, 09:34:30 AM

My curiosity about Colonial Conquest got the better of me so I bought it. Instead of buying ships or investing in defense, I spent all my money on armies and began conquering the neighboring territories. In less than six turns I had the 500 necessary victory points to win. There really wasn't any challenge to the game at all.

amandachen · August 01, 2015, 11:16:27 AM

Quote from: Greybriar on August 01, 2015, 09:34:30 AMIn less than six turns I had the 500 necessary victory points to win. There really wasn't any challenge to the game at all.

LOL. Was feeling kinda tempted by the game, but now not so much. Thanks for the warning.

tgb · August 01, 2015, 11:23:19 AM

Quote from: Greybriar on August 01, 2015, 09:34:30 AM
My curiosity about Colonial Conquest got the better of me so I bought it. Instead of buying ships or investing in defense, I spent all my money on armies and began conquering the neighboring territories. In less than six turns I had the 500 necessary victory points to win. There really wasn't any challenge to the game at all.

How did you have the AI set? On the first setting (1 diamond) it's a cakewalk, but above that the AI gets quite aggressive. Also, what country did you play? Playing a power that's relatively isolated (Russia, US) is a lot easier than France or Germany.

Greybriar · August 01, 2015, 04:01:45 PM

Quote from: tgb on August 01, 2015, 11:23:19 AM
Quote from: Greybriar on August 01, 2015, 09:34:30 AM
My curiosity about Colonial Conquest got the better of me so I bought it. Instead of buying ships or investing in defense, I spent all my money on armies and began conquering the neighboring territories. In less than six turns I had the 500 necessary victory points to win. There really wasn't any challenge to the game at all.

How did you have the AI set? On the first setting (1 diamond) it's a cakewalk, but above that the AI gets quite aggressive. Also, what country did you play? Playing a power that's relatively isolated (Russia, US) is a lot easier than France or Germany.

Difficulty was set to Standard and I played as the United States.