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 "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. (The Software Renderer is experimental, and no use for this game.)
• 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).
• Want Shaders - whether to enable shaders. Disabling this makes the graphics look poorer, but the option is here in case there are problems running the game on your machine.
• Terrain Splatting - enables the smooth transition between textures on the map.
• High Dynamic Range - improved range of colour rendering (3D view only).

You start with a "Settlers" unit, which can be used to build cities. Click "Build City", or press 'B', to build your first city at the current location. The City Window will then open, giving details on your first city. By default, the city will produce Peasants. You can change this by selecting in the "Change Build?" list, and then clicking "Change Build". Initially the only options are Peasants and Fort. You can obtain information about what can be build by clicking "Info." Click "Okay", or press Return, to return to the game.

Next you have a "Peasants" unit to use. You can choose between:

• Explore nearby, using the arrow keys or numeric keypad.
• Start building roads - move to the square you want to build, and press "R" or click "Build Road". Roads take a few turns to be built. Roads allow for faster movement of units, and increase the Science output of nearby cities.
• Press "F" or click "Fortify", keep the unit defending the city. You will no longer be asked for orders for this unit, until you reactivate it. For units at a city, click on the city to open the city window, select the unit from the list at the bottom, and click "Activate Unit". For units not at a city, simply click on the unit.

When all units have moved, the turn will automatically end. If you've built your first city, you'll be asked what Technology you want to start researching. Note that you can end the turn at any time with the "End Turn" button. If no units need to be moved in a given turn, you'll have to click this, or press Return, to move to the next year.

After a while, your city will grow to size 2. At this point, you are able to build new Settler units, which can be used to explore and build more cities. Note that cities can only be built if they are at least a certain distance from other cities, so if the option to build a city is not available, move the Settler unit further away.

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.
• 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).
• 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).
• 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• F4 - List all your technologies.
• F5 - Gives details on the civilizations you have met.

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.
• 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.
• Moves - The number of moves.
• Visibility Range - How far the unit can reveal unexplored squares.

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:

• Iron (grey) - Found in Hills. +1 production for cities with a Mine. Requires Iron Working to see.
• Coal (black) - Found in Hills. +5 production for cities with a Mine. Requires Steam Power to see.
• Wine (purple) - Found in Hills. Makes the city grow more quickly due to increased trade.
• Gold (gold) - Found in Hills. Makes the city grow more quickly, if the city has a Market improvement.
• Sheep (white) - Found in Grasslands. Makes the city grow more quickly due to increased trade, if the city has a Farmland improvement.
• Fish (yellow) - Found in Oceans Makes the city grow more quickly, if the city has a Harbour or Port improvement. Requires Sailing to see.

Note that building a city will remove any bonuses at that square - you should build on a nearby square to make use of the bonus.

Roads and railways, when built on grasslands, artic and desert, also increase the science output of a city.

Please contact me at mark dot harman at ntlworld dot com .

If you are reporting a bug, please send me:

• The latest save game file (for Windows, located in "%APPDATA%\Conquests\savegames" ; for Linux, located in the "savegames" folder inside the folder where the program is located). The start of the current turn is automatically saved under "auto.sav".
• The "log.txt" file (for Windows, located in "%APPDATA%\Conquests" ; for Linux, located in the same folder that the program is located). It's 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"; in the case of assertion failures, it will also be copied to "log_assertion_failure.txt").
• 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.

Version 0.12 (2011/05/08)

FIXED   Crash when starting new game after playing an existing game, if the
        mouse moved to the edge of screen.
FIXED   Crash on exit if one of the 2D shaders failed to load.
FIXED   Fixed the documentation regarding location of save game files.
FIXED   AI shouldn't have been able to see units inside enemy cities.
FIXED   On city window, clicking Destroy City, then cancelling, incorrectly
        returned control to the main game loop.
FIXED   Load game window now shows file times in local time, not GMT.
AI      Variation in AI speech.
AI      Don't declare war if the AI has no cities.
AI      AI sometimes considers sneak attacks (declaring war) against cities
        that it thinks may be weak or likely to be undefended.
AI      Reduced weighting of building improvements that only contribute to a
        Civilization's Power.
AI      Tweaked some AI weights for Industrial era technologies.
AI      AI was missing an opportunity to build Settlers, as city size grew from
        1 to 2.
RULES   Fog of war: enemy units can now only be seen when near to your cities
        or units. Satellites technology eliminates fog of war.
RULES   Air units can now perform Reconnaissance, to reveal fog of war for that
        turn.
RULES   New units: Galleons, Ironclads, Dreadnoughts, Battleships. These can
        accompany units attacking by sea, and defend against incoming invading
        units.
RULES   Entering enemy territory is now an act of war, unless you have a Right
        Of Passage agreement.
RULES   Contact is now made with enemy civilizations by moving adjacent to
        their territory.
RULES   Special bonus resources: Iron, Coal, Wine, Gold, Sheep, Fish.
RULES   Sailing requires Ocean near a city to research; Iron Working requires
        Hills near a city to research; The Wheel requires Forest near a city to
        research.
RULES   New technology: Trade.
RULES   New improvement: Market.
RULES   Captured cities of size 1 don't start resistance (unless already
        resisting). Give player the option of using troops to deal with
        resistance, for cities of size less than 10. This reduces the
        population, and reduces the resistance.
UPDATED Improved performance for automated units; avoid odd behaviour for
        automated units where they spend ages moving around railways in
        changing directions.
UPDATED Tweaked highlight colour to be more readable.
UPDATED Don't centre map on target when the player is the one bombing an enemy
        city.
UPDATED Page up/down, home and end for textfields.
UPDATED Pressing Escape now closes more windows.
ADDED   Units become veterans after a successful combat, giving them a 25%
        attack and defence bonus.
ADDED   Pressing control plus left mouse button on player cities now brings up
        shortcut menu to change production.
ADDED   Pressing shift plus left mouse button on player cities now brings up
        terrain info and units window.
ADDED   Scores Advisor window now gives Civilizations' territory size.
ADDED   Inform player when entering a new technological age.
ADDED   New City Stats button in city window, to display more detailed
        information on what affects city production, science and growth.
ADDED   City build list displays how many turns to build each item.

Version 0.11 (2011/03/24)

FIXED   Assertion failure on some maps, due to 3D view with terrain splatting.
FIXED   Fixed AI bug when deciding how long it would take to build defensive
        units.
FIXED   Close help windows when ending turn.
FIXED   Fixed AI bug, getting confused by ocean squares when deciding whether
        to build worker units.
FIXED   Fixed AI cheating - AI was reading information from squares it hadn't
        yet explored.
AI      Tweak to AI code when deciding whether to build growth improvements or
        defensive units.
AI      Give priority to building growth improvements over harbour/port
        improvements.
ADDED   Fade effects.
UPDATED AI code rewritten in Lua.
UPDATED Civilization races now read in from external Lua script.
UPDATED Technologies now read in from external Lua script.
UPDATED Improved performance for Dijkstra's algorithm (path finding).
UPDATED Updated documentation.
UPDATED Improved AI path finding behaviour, when dealing with moving around
        enemy units.
UPDATED Improved AI performance - avoid repeatedly calculating decisions for
        each unit.
UPDATED Page up/down, home and end for list boxes.

Version 0.10 (2011/02/10)

FIXED   Checks to avoid infinite loops in AI movement - now even if an AI bug
        causes this to happen, the unit gives up moving.
FIXED   Units didn't upgrade if the immediate upgrade unit was already
        obsolete. Now we upgrade to the latest unit.
FIXED   All air units can now travel between cities with airports.
FIXED   Don't show explosions if square not yet explored.
FIXED   "Press RETURN or click End Turn" text shouldn't display when automated
        units are moving.
FIXED   Crash to do with travelling.
FIXED   Potential crash in AI since v0.6 (rushbuilding nukes).
FIXED   Bug in path finding with travelling that led to potential infinite loop
        in AI movement.
FIXED   Progress of road/railway building wasn't being saved!
FIXED   Incorrect calculations in path finding regarding Travelling.
FIXED   Placement of buttons on city window.
FIXED   Logging enabled on Linux.
AI      Tweak to avoid weak units attacking stronger units more often.
AI      AI now uses nukes before attacking with other units.
RULES   New technology: Space Militarisation.
RULES   New improvement: SDI Lasers.
RULES   Increased power-per-turn of some improvements.
RULES   Coastal Defence can now only be built by coastal cities.
RULES   Harbours, ports, airports shouldn't allow making contact with other
        civilizations.
RULES   Temporary bonuses are now awarded when a civilization's power reaches
        certain levels.
ADDED   Option to Fortify All units, when clicking on several units.
ADDED   Texture background rather than plain black, for unexplored map regions.
ADDED   Sound effect for GUI clicks.
ADDED   Makefile for Linux (no longer need Code::Blocks to compile).
ADDED   3D graphics view (can switch between new 3D and old 2D view).
ADDED   New game option for controlling level AI aggression (normal corresponds
        to the level of previous versions).
ADDED   Goto option.
ADDED   Square info window now shows x/y map coordinate, and road/railway
        building progress.
ADDED   Info window for improvements now shows "Replaced by"; and for
        improvements and units now shows "Made obsolete by".
UPDATED Mouse wheel now controls zoom level.
UPDATED Increased movement speed (actual, rather than game) when moving along
        railways; removed sound effect.
UPDATED Use "scientists" instead of "wise men" for industrial age onwards.
UPDATED New city icon for modern era.
UPDATED Save games list now gives date of files.
UPDATED Save game files on Windows are now stored in
        %APPDATA%\Conquests\savegames. On Linux, folder name changed to
        "savegames".
UPDATED Preferences config file on Windows is now stored in
        %APPDATA%\Vision3Engine.
UPDATED Log file on Windows is now stored in %APPDATA%\Conquests.
UPDATED Ask for user confirmation before overwriting a save game file.
UPDATED Don't warn if we fail to save the autosave file (otherwise the warning
        may end up showing every turn).
UPDATED Further UI improvements for 640x480 resolution.

Version 0.9 (2011/01/06)

FIXED   Game still runs properly even if sound not available.
FIXED   Large font wasn't displaying as bold under Direct3D renderer.
ADDED   Ported to Linux (need to compile from the source).
ADDED   Player can now choose city names.
UPDATED Now uses SDL for windowing and input routines (graphics still done with
        Direct3D or OpenGL).
UPDATED Now uses SDL_Mixer for sound instead of DirectX.
UPDATED Load/save windows no longer rely on Windows GUI.
UPDATED Improved UI for 640x480 resolution.
UPDATED Mousewheel now works for scrolling listviews.
UPDATED Text entry boxes now display flashing cursors.
UPDATED Improved scrolling behaviour, now happens also when mouse is near edge
        of window.
UPDATED Stripped out some unnecessary logging.
UPDATED Preferences program for graphical settings now uses Qt instead of .NET.
UPDATED Preferences program source code now included in source release.
UPDATED Source archive now includes necessary data files (so Linux users don't
        have to download the Windows archive).

Version 0.8 (2010/11/28)

FIXED   Alt-tab behaviour in fullscreen mode caused graphics corruption on
        Direct3D 9 renderer (broken since v0.3!).
UPDATED No longer show "fps" messagebox when quitting.

Version 0.7 (2010/11/26)

FIXED   Assertion failure in some cases when loading some save game files.
FIXED   Assertion failure when cost of technology being researched was reduced
        due to other civilizations discovering it.
AI      Improved decision making when attacking enemy units.
RULES   New concept: Power.
RULES   New improvements: Church, Temple, Spaceport.
RULES   Land units can now only attack enemies by sea if they are foot units.
RULES   Cities have "resistance" when captured, which reduces their science and
        production output. Resistance falls with time, and it can be more
        quickly reduced by the presence of military units in the city.
RULES   If improvements are destroyed so that a city is larger than maximum
        allowed size, the city's population shrinks over time instead of
        growing.
ADDED   Option for "flat" or "round" world maps ("round" means wrap-around is
        allowed).
ADDED   Indicator bar added to indicate multiple units at the same square (bar
        to the left of the unit).
UPDATED Map window now draws a box for the region currently shown on screen.
UPDATED When enemy planes attack and are shot down, window now displays name of
        the city that was attacked.
UPDATED Improved performance of drawing units.
UPDATED Technologies window (F4) now displays info on the selected Technology
        that you've discovered.

Version 0.6 (2010/10/18)

FIXED   Civilizations are now encountered if their cities are discovered (not
        just their cities).
FIXED   Don't enable "End Turn" button when automated units are moving.
AI      Don't move settler units to a square for building a city, if a settler
        unit is already in that square.
AI      AI gives higher preference to building nukes if its stockpile is too
        small.
AI      AI more likely to make peace, and less likely to declare war, against
        civilizations with nuclear weapons.
AI      Give preference to building cheaper improvements that allow city growth
        (Farmland, etc), compared with expensive defensive units that would
        take ages to build.
AI      Settlers prefer building cities near a forest.
RULES   Allow land units to attack enemies by sea (if they can travel there).
        Sea attacks have 25% bonus to defender (50% with Coastal Defence).
RULES   New civilization: Vikings.
RULES   New improvements: Anti-Air Guns, SAM Launcher, Bomb Shelter, Coastal
        Defence.
RULES   New technologies: Spaceflight, Satellites, Microprocessor, Stealth,
        Genetics.
RULES   New units: Modern Infantry, Modern Tanks, Jet Fighters, Jet Bombers,
        Stealth Bombers.
RULES   Each civilization now has a free starting technology.
RULES   Airport also required for air units to bomb; Missile Launcher also
        required for missiles to be launched.
RULES   Missile Launchers are immune from bombing attacks.
RULES   Technology cost is reduced by up to 50% depending on number of other
        civilizations that have already discovered it.
RULES   Rocketry also increases the range of airports.
RULES   Changed stats of Infantry, Tanks.
RULES   Changed cost of Tanks, Fighters, Bombers, Cruise Missile, Fission Bomb,
        Nuclear Missile.
RULES   Bombers, Jet Bombers, Stealth Bombers, Cruise Missile can now causes
        population damage.
RULES   Missile Launcher now requires Factory.
RULES   Industrial Revolution adds 4 to city production.
ADDED   Ability to zoom view in and out.
ADDED   Player can now choose which civilization to play.
ADDED   Choice of how many opponent civilizations to play with.
ADDED   New difficulty level, Insane.
ADDED   Option to destroy player's own cities.
UPDATED New sound for nuclear missile explosion.
UPDATED Improved const-correctness in code, ensuring deep-const where relevant.
UPDATED Updated info displayed for units.
UPDATED Dark background for on screen text.

Version 0.5 (2010/09/20)

FIXED   Possible infinite loop when handling automated units.
FIXED   When loading game from intro screen, the year was incorrectly advancing
        by 1, and unit moves were incorrectly being reset.
FIXED   School should increase base science (so greater effect with Library,
        etc).
FIXED   Only show "fire" effect on cities if the square has been explored by
        the player.
RULES   New technologies: Computer, Flight, Fission, Advanced Flight, Rocketry,
        Nuclear Missiles.
RULES   New units: Biplanes, Fighters, Bombers, Cruise Missile, Fission Bomb,
        Nuclear Missile.
RULES   New improvements: Airport, Lab, Missile Launcher.
RULES   Removed technology Electronics.
RULES   Factories now require a Mine improvement.
RULES   Agricultural Revolution adds 2 to city production.
ADDED   City advisor list centres on city when clicked.
UPDATED Map now scrolls when modal windows are open.
UPDATED When showing units at a square, preselect the first unit that still has
        moves left.
UPDATED Improvements list for City window is now a listbox.
UPDATED More information displayed for Units: what unit they are replaced by,
        and whether upgradable.

Version 0.4 (2010/08/23)

FIXED   Info text for Armourer was incorrectly saying it was required to build
        Pikemen.
FIXED   When Musketeers became available, Barracks reverted to producing
        Peasants instead of Musketeers.
FIXED   Fixed terrain texture generation so it didn't change each time due to
        different random seed.
AI      AI builds more defensive units in important cities, during war.
RULES   New technologies: Atomic Theory, Electronics, Explosives, Motorised
        Warfare.
RULES   New units: Infantry, Tanks.
RULES   New improvements: Hospital, School.
RULES   Medicine now adds 20% to all units' attack and defence.
RULES   Armourer is now made obsolete by Firearms.
RULES   Some unit types now automatically upgrade at end of turn, if located at
        a city, and that city can build the newer unit type (e.g., Spearmen
        upgrade to Pikemen).
RULES   Increased cost of Pikemen, Cannon, Cavalry and Musketeers.
ADDED   Option to display world map (shortcut "M").
UPDATED Added more information in descriptions for technologies.
UPDATED Modified graphics for Militia and Riflemen.
UPDATED Removed dependency on InfoWindow::activeWindow.
UPDATED World maps are now random, complete with option for different sizes.
UPDATED Allow map scrolling when City window is open.
UPDATED Fire effect when cities are captured, destroyed, or lose population.
UPDATED Don't blink units when a modal window is open.
UPDATED Improved look of intro screen.
UPDATED Display "wait" mouse pointer when loading a game.

Version 0.3 (2010/05/06)

FIXED   Texture splatting (i.e., drawing the terrain graphics) failed to work
        properly under Direct3D9 on Windows Vista / 7 (NVIDIA 6100, 8600)
        (error: "ps_3_0 shader can only be used with vs_3_0+ shader (SWVP or
        HWVP), or transformed vertices").
FIXED   Roads weren't being drawn in squares when there were no roads in
        adjacent squares.
FIXED   Fixed bug where unit that was building a road would move, and still be
        marked as building a road.
FIXED   It was sometimes possible to build units even if they were "replaced"
        by units of newer technology.
FIXED   If user loaded or saved game from another directory, the default
        directory would get changed (causing the log file and autosave to be
        saved in that new directory).
AI      Reduced problem of settler overproduction in later stages of game.
AI      Various general tweaks to AI behaviour.
AI      Bug fixes to pathfinding.
AI      Improved performance of pathfinding (now using Dijkstra).
RULES   New unit: Militia.
RULES   Changed Legion to Swordsmen.
RULES   All technologies in one era must be obtained, before a civilization can
        start researching ones from future eras.
RULES   Walls, castle and fort have no effect if attacker has Gunpowder.
        Gunpowder also means you can no longer build these improvements.
RULES   New technologies: Feudalism, Gunpowder, Firearms, Magnetism, Physics,
        Medicine, Scientific Method, Electricity, Steam Power, Agricultural
        Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Nationalism, Combustion.
RULES   New improvement: Factory.
RULES   New units: Cannon, Cavalry, Musketeers, Riflemen.
RULES   Military Tactics now requires Iron Working, as well as Archery.
RULES   Barracks now produce unit every 25 turns, instead of 20.
ADDED   Introduction options screen.
ADDED   Difficulty levels (easy, medium or hard) - medium corresponds to the
        level of difficulty of previous versions.
ADDED   Railways.
ADDED   Warn before activating units that are building a road.
ADDED   Show potential city border for Settler units, if they can build a new
        city.
ADDED   Option to activate all units of the selected type, in the units
        advisor.
UPDATED Now compiling with Visual Studio Express 2008.
UPDATED If a better "replacement" unit becomes available, cities will
        automatically switch to building the better unit.

Version 0.2 (2010/01/21)

FIXED   Bug where mouse clicks would be registered after closing a city window,
        which could cause the city window to reopen.
FIXED   Shouldn't show "build roads" help text for Settlers (issue when loading
        saved games).
FIXED   Wasn't displaying Civilization graphical image in Contact screens, when
        using OpenGL.
FIXED   Wasn't freeing data properly if failed to start up.
RULES   New option to share world maps with the AI.
RULES   New technologies: Sailing, Maps, Castles, Education, Medieval Arms,
        Navigation.
RULES   New improvements: Harbour and Port (allow sea exploration and travel),
        Armourer (allows building Men-At-Arms and Knights), Castle (increases
        city defence by 50%), University (increases research by 50%).
RULES   New units: Knights, Men-At-Arms, Pikemen.
RULES   Cities lose population when successfully attacked (not just when
        invaded), unless the city has Walls improvement.
ADDED   Units can be automated for road building.
ADDED   Can now move units by right clicking on adjacent square.
ADDED   Clicking on squares now shows terrain name.
ADDED   Play sound effect if user tries to move unit to an invalid square.
ADDED   Copy log file to "log_assertion_failure.txt" on assertion failure.
ADDED   Option to display map grid.
ADDED   Automated testing.
AI      Cities were building workers for unimproved squares, even when those
        squares couldn't be reached (i.e., they were across water, with no
        harbour/port).
AI      Sometimes builds city improvements before other possibilities, after
        Year 100.
AI      Don't build science bonus improvements (Library etc) if all techs have
        been discovered.
AI      Improved road building, build roads between (close) cities.
AI      Randomisation of AI exploration directions.
AI      Improved behaviour on choosing which units to defend cities (e.g.,
        avoid sending Spearmen out to attack, etc).
AI      Improved behaviour on choosing where to build cities, based on terrain.
AI      Settlers avoid building cities if adjacent to an enemy.
AI      More randomness in AI choice of technologies to research.
UPDATED Improved performance for drawing roads.
UPDATED Up/down key control for list and text boxes.
UPDATED Restricted map view scrolling at bottom and right.
UPDATED List total production for each civilization in Scores window.
UPDATED Units Advisor doesn't close window when activating fortified/etc units.
UPDATED Units Advisor centres on units as you select them from the list.
UPDATED City bonuses shown for combat, if relevant.
UPDATED User can now click on single units to show a window displaying their
        information.
UPDATED Centre on home city after loading a saved game.

Version 0.1 (2009/08/17)

First public release.