4X · Strategy

Strategic Conquest

A turn-based strategy game for the Apple II and Macintosh in which players aim to capture the world.

Released: —
Platforms: Apple II macOS
Genres: 4X Strategy Turn-based strategy
Developers: —
Publishers: —

About

Strategic Conquest is a turn-based strategy game based on the wargame Empire. It was written by Peter Merrill for the Apple Macintosh and released in 1984 by PBI Software, and later ported to the Apple II in 1986. Delta Tao Software took over distribution for later Classic Mac OS releases. It is sometimes shortened to Stratcon.

Like Empire, the player's objective in Strategic Conquest is to defeat the enemy and conquer the world. The world is divided into islands that contain cities that can be captured to produce military units. Victory is achieved when all enemy cities have been conquered or when either player surrenders. It differed from Empire in a number of details, most notably its system for creating the game map. It can be played against the computer, or by two human players taking turns on one machine or two machines connected over an AppleTalk network.

Keywords

modern warfare
helicopter
war
tank
modern military
submarine

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Strategic Conquest was first developed in 1984 and 1985 by Peter Merrill on an Apple Lisa for the Apple Macintosh. It is based on Walter Bright's Empire, but Strategic Conquest was published before Empire was ported to personal computers. The first published version appears to have been in 1984, sometimes attributed incorrectly to John L. Jamison.

Strategic Conquest Plus was released in 1986. In later documents this is generally referred to Strategic Conquest 2.0. The Apple II version of 1.0 shipped the same year, and the Plus version the next year.

Reception

An eight-page review in MacUser covered the 2.0 version in depth, including strategies for dealing with various units. It concludes that "With this wonderfully playable yet intricate program, PBI has superseded the tired genres of shoot-'em-up arcade spiels and rigidly structured text adventures" and awards it 4.5 out of 5.

William H. Harrington reviewed the 1986 release of the game for Computer Gaming World, and stated that "Strategic Conquest Plus is one of those rare games that the author seems committed to improving. With a host of innovative new features and the ability to withstand a billion or so replays, SC+ is certainly worth taking a look at. Just keep the sound down if the boss is around."