8.6 /10 1 Votes
86% Metacritic Initial release date 4 November 2003 Publisher Atari Platform Microsoft Windows | 8.5/10 IGN Release date(s) November 4, 2003 Series Civilization Genre Turn-based strategy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer Developers Firaxis Games, BreakAway Games Similar Civilization games, Firaxis games, Turn-based strategy games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Civilization III: Conquests is the second and final expansion for the award-winning and best-selling computer game Civilization III. It was published in 2003. This expansion added eight new civilizations to the game, and including the eight civilizations from Play the World this brings the total number of playable civilizations up to thirty-one (the maximum supported by the game). The new civilizations are the Byzantines, the Dutch, the Hittites, the Incans, the Mayans, the Portuguese and the Sumerians. In addition to these playable civilizations, graphics for the Austrians are present in the editor so one can replace an existing civilization.
Contents
Two new special traits are added in this pack: seafaring and agricultural. Many of the new civilizations take advantage of these new traits (e.g. the Sumerians are Scientific and Agricultural), and some old civilizations are changed to more appropriate ones (e.g. the English have been changed from Expansionist and Commercial to Seafaring and Commercial).
New governments have also been added to the game, Feudalism and Fascism, and new Wonders of the World such as the Statue of Zeus and the Mausoleum of Mausollos. Four new bonus resources have been included, two of which provide food bonuses to previously unprofitable terrain. Oases can now be found in deserts, tropical fruit in jungles, sugar on plains and hills, and tobacco on grasslands and hills. In addition, two new types of terrain have been added. These are marshes and volcanoes. Players cannot construct cities on marshes, and cannot improve volcanoes in any way. Like jungles and flood plains, cities that have at least 1 citizen working a marsh may succumb to disease. Volcanoes may periodically erupt, destroying all improvements and cities and killing any units in some or all adjacent squares.
The centerpiece of this expansion pack, however, was the inclusion of scenarios, intended for multiplayer gaming. Unlike the main ("epic") game, these scenarios took much less time to play, and focused on a specific period in history.
Generally the reception of this expansion pack was much better than that of Play the World.
One year after Conquests was launched, the latest Civilization III stand-alone version, Civilization III: Complete was also released. This version included Civilization III, Play the World and Conquests. This version also includes several patches.
Two years later, in 2005 Civilization IV was released.
Conquests
The Conquests are official scenarios, nine of which are included in this expansion, Mesopotamia, the Rise of Rome, the Fall of Rome, the Middle Ages in Europe, Mesoamerica, the Age of Discovery, the Napoleonic Wars, the Sengoku period in Japan, and the Pacific Theater of World War II.
The first Conquest, Mesopotamia is centered on building the 7 Wonders of the World. There are seven civilizations, all of them playable; Egypt, Mycenae, Babylon, Medes, Phoenicia, Sumeria, and the Hittites. Michael Soracoe, aka Sullla, described Mesopotamia as "the most peaceful'" of the Conquests and that due to the peaceful nature of the scenario, it "is not a very good Conquest for multiplayer."
Rise of Rome features four major civs: Rome, Carthage, Persia, and Macedon. Rome is in a locked war with Carthage, as is Macedon with Persia. Four non-playable nations are also present: Egypt, Celtia, Scythia, and the Goths. The goal is to defeat your locked enemy and become the dominant power on the Mediterranean.
Multiplayer community
Civilization III Conquests has a very active multiplayer community, that includes players from several countries, with the best being from Brazil, Finland, United States, Serbia and Slovenia.
Players usually report their victories at Civ3 Ladder - http://www.civplayers.com/ - in order to keep track of their win history.
There is also a monthly tournament, called "The Clan Championship Challenge", or CCC, a series of tourneys of different scenarios played by around 8 clans that last around 2 days, followed by a single 4v4 ancient start game between the top 2 clans to decide CCC winner.