American Conquest: Divided Nation

What’s this?  A RTS game not set around WWII?  I can’t believe it, well actually I can.  I’ve been giving the WWII setting a hard time recently because of the sheer number of games being released set in WWII.  American Conquest: Divided Nation takes us back to a time when there wasn’t tanks or planes, when it wasn’t Americans versus the Germans.  We’re taking a trip to a time when it was American vs. American, the Civil War. 

American Conquest is based upon the Cossacks I engine which is a powerful engine that doesn’t require an extra powerful computer.  This is nice to hear since I wasn’t able to get the new Cossacks II game to even run on my computer.  The game will allow up to 60,000 troops to be on screen at one time.  The troops will even be a mixture of not only North and South soldiers but also mercenaries from Europe. 

The demo on display at E3 looked good with some quality detail on the soldiers, landscapes and buildings.  This isn’t a graphics beast but not every strategy game needs to be.  Say it with me folks, “It’s all about the gameplay.”  There will at least 9 different campaigns to complete.  The game does include a resource mode which you need to pay attention to along with the action on the battle field.  In order for you to have troops you will need to have resources such as food.  With every troop on the field there has to be a food supply to keep the troops going.  There will also be monetary resources as well such as gold so you have the money to spend on buildings and weapons.  At this time it’s undetermined how the multiplayer options will turn out in the final release. 

I’m just happy to see an RTS game that wasn’t based upon WWII.  If you’re a veteran of RTS games then you know what to expect from this game.  If not then American Conquest could be the title to get you into the RTS market.  Anyway you could use it as a history lesson since the Civil War happened before WWII.  Look for American Conquest: Divided Nation sometime later this year.

For All E3 2005 Previews