"A great spin on an ignored genere."

American Conquest is a game that takes place in North and South America, around the time of Columbus's first voyage to the American Revolution. This time period is commonly, ignored, which makes for a fresh breath of air for this game.

The game has two groups of units, 17th, and 16th century units as well as Indian units. The 16th century units have access to heavily armored units, such as pikemen or musketeers. While the 17th century relies more on gunpowder than melee, with rapid-firing, accurate soldiers such as fusiliers. Indian units are the most unique, you can play as many different Native-American tribes, as well as the Empires that were in South America. The Indians have many different units, like archers,axe-throwers,gunman and some tribes even have access to some of the game's best calvary. Indians still have weak units though, and rely on overwhelming their opponents.

The 17th century may cut back on value though, as their units are small, you only need to make use of Fusiliers,Calvary and some cannons, that will get the job done. But 16th century players can have a more wide range of troops to choose from, but I believe 17th century battles are more epic in this game anyway.

The sound is great, the sound of muskets firing, and solders fighting each other in a big fight can make for a pleasant battle. The music is good, but some tracks are just repetitive, but the ones that are good, are great.

The detail of the map may be a weakness, the water is not too well detailed, and the trees and ground all seem flat and lifeless, but they did a nice job on waterfalls and such.

The battle is interesting too, the morale of your soldiers can affect the outcome of the battle, if they are improper trained and are not well led, they will scatter when enough units are killed at once. Some will retreat, others will too, soon, you will have your entire army in retreat. The game is programmed that you cannot select panicking units, but they cannot be attacked by enemies either. That's nice of them. But back to the point, some units gain experience from killing units, which make them stronger, when units are in formation, they also do a lot better. Sea battles are interesting as well, but you are limited to a few units. However, ships can sprain leaks and loose health until they die, and when a nearby ship explodes, debris can damage other units around it. The unit cap is huge, I've never even reached it, you can fit so many units onto the field, with virtually no slowdown whatsoever.

You construct units from your buildings, as always, but it's not like you think it is. Your workers can be captured and used as slaves to the enemy, if not properly guarded. Workers are constructed from Dwellings, and can be employed to cutting trees, building, or farming. But the most interesting part is, you send them to a fort, and train them into solders. Yes, you must send a worker into the fort and train him into a solider, it's the only way you can have solders on the battlefield. This makes it more interesting.

In all, like I said before, this game is a great spin on a ignored genre, what I mean is, this time period hasn't been milked to death. For anybody out there looking for a good strategy game for this time period, you should get this. It's an ignored game, that deserves more than it got, but this also means that it's not too expensive.I got this game about 4 years ago, and I'm still entertained by it, it's got good replay value, as every battle is different. There's also a lot to be learned from this game, so your History teacher wont or wouldn't have been mad at you.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/06