Conquest

You command an expeditionary force landing on an unknown, inhabited planet. Build armies, aircraft and fleets in the cities you hold, explore a 64 × 64 world one square at a time, and take every city before your rivals do.

Loading the game

Conquest comes in four parts: a small loader, the title screen, the BASIC control program (conque.B2) and the 13 KB machine-code game (conque.C1, loaded at address 52399). Two ready-made maps, map1.C1 and map2.C1, follow them on the tape.

From tape or an emulator

1. Insert Conquest.tap.
2. Type LOAD "" and press ENTER. The title screen appears, then the main menu.
3. Leave the tape in place. When you choose a map or a saved game by number, the program searches the tape for it.

Don’t use RUN: The program keeps its constants and the Commanders table in BASIC variables, and RUN or CLEAR erases them. If you stop the program, type GO TO 4 to get back to the menu.

The main menu

Key	Option	What it does
1	New Game	Set up players and a map, then play. See section 3.
2	Load Game	Asks for a game number and loads gameN.C1, then carries on where it was saved.
3	Save Game	Saves the game in memory as gameN.C1 (20,882 bytes), then offers to continue it.
4	Map Editor	Draw or generate a world. See section 12.
5	Save Map	Saves the map in memory as mapN.C1 (4,097 bytes). The map must have passed Verify Cities first.
6	View Commanders	Games played, games won and win percentage for up to 20 commander names. Press any key to leave.
7	Quit	Stops the program. GO TO 4 returns to the menu.

Controls

Conquest was written for the TS2068’s built-in joystick port. This edition also works fully from the keyboard: the cursor keys stand in for the stick and ENTER stands in for the fire button. On most emulators the PC arrow keys already send the Spectrum cursor keys.

Action	Keyboard	Joystick
Move a menu bar or the map cursor	CAPS+5 6 7 8 (left, down, up, right)	Push the stick
Select, place, confirm, continue	ENTER	Fire
Commands	Lower-case letters and the digits 0–9	—

Questions typed at the bottom of the screen (names, numbers, y/n) are ordinary BASIC INPUTs and need ENTER after the answer. Questions inside the game itself (Continue?, Resigns y/n, Accept?) take a single keypress.

Starting a game

1. How many players? Two or three.
2. How many human players? Anywhere from 0 to the number of players. Humans play first; the remaining places go to the computer. With no humans at all the computers play each other in a demonstration, and the game pauses for a key after each move so you can follow it.
3. Names. Each human enters a name of 1 to 8 letters. Computer players are called Yellow, Red and White, the colours of players 1, 2 and 3.
4. Production and Ability for every player (see below). Type u or d and ENTER to change the flashing value; o and ENTER accepts it and moves on. Answer n to Okay? to start again.
5. Music on? In-game, m turns the music on or off and e does the same for sound effects.
6. Random map? y builds a new world at the start of play. n asks for a map number to load from tape (1 or 2 for the maps supplied), or press ENTER alone to use the map you have just made in the editor.
7. Give computer players map? y shows the computer players the whole world from turn one. That makes them much stronger opponents.

Production and Ability

These two numbers are handicaps. They let a beginner play a strong computer on even terms, or let one player give another a head start. Both start at 10.

Setting	Range	Effect
Production	0–18	How fast your cities build. Build times are worked out once at the start from B = 20 − Production. An army takes B÷2 turns and a battleship 4×B, so at 10 an army takes 5 turns, and at 18 it takes 1.
Ability	0–20	How well your forces fight. In each round of a battle your unit hits with a chance of about Ability ÷ 20, before modifiers. At 10 that is an even 50%.

The map screen

The world is 64 squares by 64 and wraps around at every edge, so sailing off the right edge brings you back on the left. The screen shows a window of 22 rows by 31 columns of it, with the map row numbers down the left edge and the column numbers along the bottom. Coordinates are always given as row/column.

You see only what your cities and units have seen. Unexplored squares are black. Each city and unit sees the eight squares around it. Enemy submarines stay hidden unless one of your cities, destroyers, cruisers or submarines is next to them. A submarine, for its part, sees only ships.

The bottom line reports on the unit whose turn it is, for example 1 ATrans (0A) Rng:16 Go:None: unit number 1, an air transport carrying 0 armies, 16 moves of fuel left, and no destination set.

Terrain

• Sea: Blue with white waves. Ships only.
• Land: Green. Armies only.
• Mountain: Impassable except to aircraft.
• Shoal: Cyan. Impassable except to aircraft.
• Neutral city: White and magenta grid. Take it with an army.
• Your city: Filled with your colour: yellow, red or white.

Units are drawn in their owner’s colour: yellow for player 1, red for player 2, white for player 3. The icons are shown in section 7.

How a turn runs

Each round opens with a TURN n screen. Then each player has a go in order, and every go follows the same steps.

1. TURN OF: name. Press a key when you are ready, so other players can look away from the screen.
2. Production. For each of your cities that has finished a unit, the game shows the city, its position and the new unit, then asks Continue? Press n to open the PRODUCTION screen and build something else. Any other key keeps the city building the same type.
3. Losses Since Last Turn. If you lost cities or units during your opponents’ turns, they are listed here.
4. Orders. The screen centres on each of your units in turn and waits for orders. Units that already have a destination move on their own until they arrive or are blocked. Units that are asleep (loading or on sentry) are skipped.

Before turn 1 each human player chooses what their home city will build.

Giving orders

Move one square with the digit keys. The numbers go clockwise from the upper left: 2 is north, 4 east, 6 south, 8 west, and the odd numbers are the diagonals.

Send a unit somewhere: move the cursor with the cursor keys or stick, then press ENTER or fire. The unit sets off at once and keeps going on later turns.

Command keys

Key	Command	Details
1–8	Move	One square in that direction. Moving onto an enemy attacks it. Moving an army onto a neutral city attacks the city.
ENTER / fire	Go to	The square under the cursor becomes the unit’s destination.
0 or SPACE	Stay	The unit stays put for the rest of this turn. Aircraft still burn fuel for the moves they don’t use.
9 or w	Wait	Skip this unit for now without finishing it. It keeps only the moves it has left.
s	Sentry	Armies only. The army sleeps (drawn as a hut) and wakes when an enemy comes into view.
l	Load	The unit sleeps and waits for cargo (“Loading”). Armies next to a loading transport, and fighters next to a loading carrier, board it. It wakes when full or when something appears.
u	Unload	Wakes the armies or fighters carried by this transport or carrier so they can move off.
o	Orders off	For all your units: cancels every destination and wakes every sleeping unit.
h	Home	Aircraft only. Flies to the nearest city of yours within fuel range.
p	Flight plan	With the unit in one of your cities and the cursor on another of your cities no more than 20 squares away, sets a standing route (“F/P Set”). Fighters that refuel in the first city then fly on to the second by themselves. With the cursor anywhere else it clears the route (“F/P Canceled”).
x	Production	If the unit is in a city, opens that city’s PRODUCTION screen.
i	Information	Coordinates, unit number and type, destination, fuel (Rng), cargo (A = armies, F = fighters) and strength as (hits left/full).
r	War report	See section 10.
a	All the world	Shows the world you know in nine screens. Press ENTER for each.
c	Centre	Centres the view on the unit.
f g t v	Scroll	Moves the view one column east (f) or west (g), or one row south (t) or north (v).
m / e	Sound	Turns the music or the sound effects on and off.
z	Resign	Asks Resigns y/n. y gives up the game.
q	Quit to menu	Returns to the main menu with the game still in memory, ready to save.

Units

Build times depend on the Production setting (B = 20 − Production). The last column shows the times at the default setting of 10. A city that switches to a different type also pays a one-off change-over cost of 1 turn (army) up to 8 turns (battleship).

Unit	Hits	Moves	Damage	Goes on	Carries	Build	At 10
Army	1	1	1	Land, cities	—	B÷2	5
Fighter	1	5	1	Anywhere	— · fuel 20	B	10
ATrans	1	4	1	Anywhere	2 armies · fuel 16	1½B	15
Sub	2	2	3	Sea	—	2B	20
Destroyr	3	3	1	Sea	—	2B	20
STrans	3	2	1	Sea	6 armies	2½B	25
Cruiser	8	2	2	Sea	—	3B	30
Carrier	8	2	1	Sea	8 fighters	3½B	35
Batlship	12	2	3	Sea	—	4B	40

Aircraft and fuel

ATrans is an air transport. It can fly two armies over sea, mountains or enemy lines and can be built in an inland city. STrans is the sea transport.

Fighters and air transports use one unit of fuel for every square and refuel fully when they start a turn in one of your cities. Fighters can also refuel on a carrier. The final step into a city or onto a carrier costs nothing. A plane that runs dry is lost (“No Fuel”), so watch the Rng figure and use h when in doubt.

Ships, damage and cargo

Damaged ships slow down; a battleship with 5 hits or fewer left crawls along at 1 square a turn. Ships are repaired one hit each time they sail into one of your cities (“Docked”). Nothing else repairs them.

Cargo moves with its carrier and is lost with it. Damage also shrinks the space aboard: a transport with 3 hits or fewer holds twice its hits in armies. Entering one of your cities unloads the cargo automatically.

Cities and production

Cities are the only source of new units, and holding them is the whole point of the game. Each player starts with one city. A map has between 50 and 63, and they start out neutral.

The PRODUCTION screen lists what a city can build, its build time (TURNS) and how many of your cities already build that type (UNDER). Choose with the cursor keys and ENTER. It opens when the game starts, when you capture a city, when you answer n to Continue?, and when you press x with a unit in the city.

• Ports and inland cities. A city next to the sea can build anything. An inland city can build only armies, fighters and air transports.
• Changing your mind costs time. Choosing again restarts the countdown, and a different type adds its change-over cost.
• Stacking. Any number of your own units can share a city. Entering a city ends that unit’s move.
• Unit limit. When the unit table is full (about 350 units in play) the game shows PRODUCTION SUSPENDED and cities pause until units are lost.

Combat

Move a unit onto an enemy to attack. The two sides trade blows until one is destroyed. In each round the attacker hits if a random number from 0 to 19 is less than its owner’s Ability, and then the defender gets the same chance. Each hit removes the attacker’s damage value from the target’s hits, and damage stays after the battle.

Modifiers

• A unit defending inside a city loses 2 from its chance, and a ship in port cannot fire back.
• An army defending against a cruiser or battleship fights at half strength.
• Air transports, submarines and sea transports defend at half strength.
• Transports and carriers attack at half strength.
• An army attacking straight off a transport loses 2.
• Neutral cities always defend with an Ability of 10. An empty city falls to the first hit.

Who can attack what

• Armies and cities on land can be attacked only by armies, fighters, cruisers and battleships.
• Units at sea or in the air can be attacked by anything. An army has to be standing on land or in a city to attack.
• An enemy city with units inside is defended by its strongest unit. An empty one can be taken only by an army.
• Capturing a city uses up the army, which becomes the garrison, and you choose the city’s new production.

The war report

Press r at any unit’s prompt.

Column	Meaning
Capt	Cities you hold
Exist	Cities in the world
Exp	Percentage of the map you have explored
CN	Your cities building this type
Nx	Turns until the next one appears (255 = none on order)
Fld	How many you have in the field
Des	Enemy units of this type you have destroyed
Lst	Your own units of this type lost

Winning, saving and quitting

A player is out of the game once they have no cities and no units left, or once they resign. The last commander standing wins. Their name appears under CONGRATULATIONS, and the Commanders table on the main menu is updated for every player in the game.

• Resigning: press z and then y. Your cities become neutral and your units disappear. In a three-player game the other two fight on.
• Computer surrender: after turn 150 a computer player that has fallen well behind may offer to resign (“Red Resigns / Accept?”). Press any key to accept. n refuses, and then no computer will offer again.
• Stopping to save: press q at any unit’s prompt to return to the menu, choose 3 Save Game, give a number, and answer y to Continue game? to play on. Load it later with 2.
• Keeping the Commanders table: the table lives in the BASIC program. To keep it between sessions, quit with 7, type GO TO 9992, and save the program over the old conque.B2.

The map editor

Choose 4 from the main menu. The editor’s menu bar always starts on ALL SEA, which wipes the map without asking, so move off it before you press ENTER.

Item	Effect
ALL SEA · ALL LAND	Fill the whole world
BLOTCH LAND · BLOTCH SEA	Brush: a solid blob up to 9 squares across
GROW LAND · GROW SEA	Brush: a scattered speckle over 15 × 15 squares
PUT LAND / SEA / CITY / MOUNTAIN / SHOAL	Brush: a single square
CREAT WORLD	Build a complete random world
SCATTER CITIES	Add cities at random, then verify
VERIFY CITIES	Check the map is playable (required before saving)
WORLD VIEW	Look at the whole map in nine screens
SAVE MAP	Leave the editor and save the map to tape or disk
EXIT EDITOR	Back to the main menu

Painting with a brush

Choosing a brush item puts a white * cursor on the map. Move it with the cursor keys or stick and press ENTER or fire to paint. f g t v scroll the view, c centres it on the cursor, i shows the coordinates and terrain under the cursor, a shows the whole world, and m or q returns to the menu. The cursor can’t reach the screen’s outer row and column, so scroll to paint there.

What makes a map playable

• At least 50 and at most 63 cities. With fewer than 50, Verify shows “Cities: 50 – 63”.
• At least 768 squares of land or mountain before cities can be scattered (“Not Enough Land”).
• Every city that touches land needs another city on the same landmass within about 11 squares. Every coastal city needs another coastal city on the same water within the same distance.
• A city that breaks the rule flashes, with Illegal City Land? or Illegal City Sea? at the bottom. Press n to accept it as it is. Any other key stops the check.

The same check runs when a random world is built for a new game, so you may see the Illegal City prompt there too. Press n to carry on. Any other key throws that world away and builds a new one.

Tips for commanders

• Set your home city to armies first. Cheap armies take nearby neutral cities quickly, and every city you take adds to your output.
• An inland start is not a trap. Air transports carry armies over water and mountains.
• Fighters are your scouts. Send them out and back with h, and use a flight plan (p) to keep them cycling between two cities.
• Leave an army on sentry (s) in or beside a city you hold. It wakes when enemies approach.
• Your naval screen needs destroyers, cruisers or subs: they are the only ships that can spot submarines.
• Damaged ships should put into port. Each visit repairs one hit.
• Against a stronger computer, raise your own Production or Ability, or say n to giving the computers the map.