Conquer / Player's guide / First turn · Deutsch · Español · Polski · Português (Brasil) · Русский · 简体中文

Tutorial · 10 minutes

Your first turn

A real first turn of a new nation, key by key: sign in, read the reports, march out to take land, draft troops, and hand in your orders. Every screen below comes from the game itself.

The recording above is the real terminal: pause it at any moment, and select and copy its text.

Step by step

  1. 01 Sign in and open the menu

    1

    Press Play now on the home page and sign in with your player account. The menu says who you are and which nation is yours. Press 1 to play.

    Veterans: No shell prompt, no conquer -n: the menu starts the game for you.

  2. 02 Type your nation password

    your passwordEnter

    Your nation opens directly. Type the nation password (up to 7 characters) and press Enter. Nothing appears while you type; that is normal.

  3. 03 The title screen

    Space

    The same title screen players saw in 1988. When the game says PRESS ANY KEY, press any key; Space is the usual choice.

  4. 04 Read the main screen

    just look

    This is where you spend the game. It has four parts:

    • The map, left. C is your capital. Letters in reverse video are sectors you own. The others show the land: ~ water, - flat, % hills, ^ mountains, # peaks.
    • Your units, top right. * marks the selected one, > the others in the same sector. mv is how far each one can still move this turn, st its orders.
    • The sector under the cursor, bottom right: owner, what it is used for, vegetation, terrain, people.
    • The status line, bottom: turn, treasury in gold talons, season, and You have Conquer Mail when there are messages.

    You start with only your capital. Everything else has to be taken.

  5. 05 Read your mail

    R

    Press R. Messages come from the game, the administrator and other rulers. Any key shows the next one; Enter deletes the message you are reading.

  6. 06 The next message

    Space

    Your nation's founding notice. Press Space again to go back to the map.

  7. 07 Check the budget

    B

    Press B. Your people pay taxes (here 330,000 talons from 33,000 people in the capital) and your troops cost money (100,000 for 2,000 soldiers). The last line is next season's treasury.

    Look at the granary too. With only a capital you grow no food, and a nation without farms starves within a few seasons.

  8. 08 Meet your armies

    Spacea

    Press Space to leave the budget, then a. Army 0 is the garrison: 250 soldiers that never leave the capital. The King and the Barons are leaders. Further right (press any key other than Space to scroll) are your field armies, which can march. Press Space when you are done.

  9. 09 Pick a field army

    Spaceoo

    p selects the next unit and o the previous one. Press o until the * is on a field army with movement left: here army 20, 112 infantry, 10 moves.

  10. 10 March out to take land

    mj

    Press m, then a direction:

    y k u
 h l
b j n

    Each step spends move points; hills and forests cost more. If the game says Can't Move Here (water, usually), press a key and try another direction.

  11. 11 Finish the move

    Space

    Press Space to stop. The sector now belongs to you: the report says owner: tidewater.

    An army takes empty land only if it is big enough: at least 75 soldiers, and at least one for every 350 of your people (about 95 for a new nation). Army 21, with 70 soldiers, is too small on its own.

  12. 12 Draft new troops

    kDI50Enter

    Move the cursor back to the capital (k), then press D to draft, I for infantry, type 50 and press Enter. Troops are raised in cities and in the capital, and cost talons and metal.

  13. 13 As a new army

    y

    Answer y to form a new army. If you answer no, the troops join the army in the sector, and that army loses its movement for this turn. New troops cannot march until next turn anyway, so let them guard the capital.

  14. 14 Look at the other nations

    SpaceS

    Press S. Every nation starts as UNMET. Once you meet one, Enter lets you set your status (allied, neutral, hostile, war…). To write to another ruler, press W on the map. Press Space to leave.

  15. 15 Save and quit

    Spaceq

    Press q. Your orders are saved, and the menu asks whether you have finished this turn.

  16. 16 Mark your orders done

    y

    Answer y. When every nation has done the same, the turn update runs straight away; otherwise it runs at the scheduled time. You can come back and change your orders until then.

  17. 17 A new season

    Space

    In this game tidewater was the only player, so the update ran at once. Play again to see the new season: your new sector, the newspaper (N) and your mail. That is the whole rhythm of Conquer: read, order, quit, wait for the news.

Four rules that save your first year

Big enough to conquer. An army takes empty land only with at least 75 soldiers and one for every 350 of your people. Send your largest field army.

Drafting stops an army. Troops added to an army use up its movement for the turn. Raise them as a new army.

Food first. A capital alone grows no food. Take flat land with good vegetation and turn it into farms (r on a sector you own).

Quit when you are done. The turn cannot run while you are in the game. Press q and mark your orders done.

Practise without risk

Option 7 in the game menu opens your own practice world: the same game, with nobody else in it. Try anything, run the next turn yourself and start again whenever you like. The coach (Coach button above the game) walks you through this same turn inside the terminal.

Play with the coach Or try it in your browser, no account needed Back to the player's guide