American Conquest Map Options

Nations
Your nation is one of the most important factors of a random map or multiplayer game. Your nation decides which tactics will be available to you and where your strengths and weakneses are. For example you don’t want to be a Indian nation on a map involving lots of water as you can be easily overwhelmed by the european warships… however it’s not advisable to play as a european nation with 5 minutes PT against an indian nation like delaware on a land map.

Victory Conditions
In the game you get to choose between playing until the last man is standing or playing for highest score over a set period of time. If you aren’t the type who wishes for lengthy sieges and wishes more to carry out a series of smaller skirmishes and invasions against the enemy then playing for points will suit you best. However if you aren’t happy until the blood of your enemies is spread around you should play a deathmatch. May the best warrior win!

Landscape Type
The type of land you are faced with can change your tactics in a split second. Land maps lead to huge battles in the centre when yours and your enemies’ armies face each other face to face whereas on a map with water your invasion fleet must land and hope that the enemy has not prepared a beach full of defenders and defences for you.

Nature of Ground
Nature of ground affects your tactics generally but in some instances it can affect which nation you should choose. In mountainous territory you need to use guerella tactis best suited to indian nations compared to european nations where regiments are the key to victory. On plain territory Indians can easily be slaughtered as your european troops can simply line up and slaughter them by volley fire.

Climatic Zones
Climatic zones are one of the least effecting variables in maps. The climate merely affects the look of the maps, its wild animals and the neutral tribes living there.

Initial Resources
Initial resources greatly affect your nation. When playing in a millions game you can grow quickly but in a normal resources game it is a bit of a struggle to get your economy going.

Mineral Deposits
Mineral deposits merely determines the amount of mining areas that will be available. Normally this will not affect you unless you are a poor economist or if you have to fight for control of resources.

Map Size
Map sizes affect how long it will take for you to attack an enemy. When playing on a huge 4×4 map it is a struggle to keep your invasion forces reinforced whereas on a normal map reinforcements can be shipped easily. When playing on a 4×4 map, water can be a key characteristic in whether your nation will survive or not.

Start Options
Start options affect how quickly you can get your nation up and running and whether you will have defence ready in a short amount of time. An army of peasants is the most useful in long peace time games as you already have a large workforce whereas in a short peace time game an army can be useful to hold off raids.

Fog of War
No fog of war is useful as you can immediately forget the need for scouts. However if you want to keep in with history when no such technology could provide this fog of war is the way to go.

Cannons
Cannon options are most useful when you are playing as an indian nation and have no wish for your warriors to be turned into a mess by grapeshot. However in history cannons were deployed so it’s your choice over whether you want an easier game or whether you want to stick in line with history.

Peace Time
In American Conquest there is a minimum of 5 minutes peace time which has been implemented to stop rushes from occurring. Peace time affects whether you will have a long drawn out game with epic battles at the end or whether you will be faced with smaller skirmishes until your forces can overwhelm your enemy’s base.

Autosave
You can select whether or not to have the game automatically saved periodically. Obviously this does not affect you tactically.

Index