The minimum requirements to run Conquest! Medieval Realms are below, please note that Conquest! will not run correctly unless these requirements are met.
Once the software has been started, you will be presented with a screen that gives you a variety of options. These options will be discussed here.
This option presents the single player set of dialogues. Select this option if you want to play a game that won't involve any other human opponents.
This feature allows you to start a game with as little hassle as possible and start playing against a set of AI opponents.
Play one of the pre-bundled campaigns or one of your own design. Experience the sweep and history of some of the medieval era's most brutal conflicts! You will play a series of battles recreating (or changing) history due to your actions.
Play a single battle against the computer. Either play on one of a set of pre-built maps or randomly create one of billions of possible maps using the random map generator.
Continue a game from exactly where you left off from. This feature will load both skirmish and campaign maps, so you don't need to worry about where you save or how long to set aside.
This is the option to choose for games that do involve other humans. You can play with up to 7 other players on either your Local Area Network or on the Internet – see the multiplayer section for more.
Starts the process of hosting a multiplayer game.
Allows you to join a game that is already being hosted by another player.
This option displays a short tutorial that walks you through the core features of Conquest! Medieval Realms so you can get started and playing the game quickly.
Here you can find a selection of editors, from map design to campaign creation. See the editors section for more information.
Starts the map editor to allow you to create individual maps for use either in your own campaigns or in skirmish-mode battles.
The Scenario Editor lets you set up players, descriptions and objectives for custom scenarios that you build.
The Campaign Editor allows you to chain scenarios you’ve built into a full campaign and to provide the information associated with it.
Modify your sound and display settings here, to help get the experience you want.
Displays the version number and credits.
Not recommended. Clicking here will take you back to the less fun Windows desktop.
Conquest! Medieval Realms comes with a set of historical campaigns, and you can access these from the campaign button on the main menu. You will see the following screen:
Select a campaign to be presented with a description of it. If you decide you wish to play this campaign, click the forward arrow to proceed to the next screen or the back arrow to return to the main menu. You can either change the AI difficulty here or on the next screen.
The next choice you need to make is which battle in the chosen campaign you wish to play. Initially you can only fight the first battle and others will be greyed out – as you complete battles more will be unlocked and can be selected here. As with the campaign, you can read a description of the battle along with information on how you may wish to fight it if you so desire. If you have not yet done so, you can still change the AI difficulty for this coming battle at the bottom of the screen (1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest).
Once you have decided on your battle, select the forward arrow to begin or the back arrow to reselect the campaign.
Skirmish battles are single stand-alone battles of various types. Once you have selected this mode, you will see the following screen:
The screen may seem a little daunting, but is actually very straightforward. The top section of the screen contains the (up to) 8 players that can take part in the game, while the rest of the screen gives access to the game settings.
Each player is represented by a spearman figure - if the spearman is faded, that player will not be taking part in the game. Which players take part in the game is controlled by the three icons to the left of the spearman. The top icon indicates the human player (there is only one human player in a single player game, so this button will be disabled) while the middle button indicates an AI player and the remaining button removes the player from the game. With a combination of the last two buttons you can easily control who is in the next game.
The names of the players can be edited simply by clicking on the names and typing a new name for that player. Clicking on the round coloured icon in the top left of the block you can change the starting position (only affects custom maps) and the colour of that player.
AI difficulty can be set using the boxes at the bottom of the screen - 1 for the easiest AI, 5 for the toughest AI. If the advanced mode is off certain units and buildings will not appear in the game. While this removes certain strategic options it may be easier for new players.
Clicking on the map allows you to change map settings. When you click on this you will be presented with a new screen as shown below.
On this screen, you can select the settings to generate a new random map, or you can load a custom map to play on.
If the random map option is selected, you will be able to select the size of the map, and the amount of the map which will be covered with land. Once these are set, clicking on the preview button in the centre of the screen will cause a new map to be generated based on these settings. Each time you click the preview button, a different map will be generated.
If you select the Use Map Seed button, some additional options will be made available - you will see a text box with a number in it, this is the map seed. If you click the preview button at this point, it will always create the same map. You can click the text box to manually enter a different seed number, or you can click the randomise button to pick a new random seed value. If the seed value, map size and land percentage settings are all the same, the same map will always be generated - if there is a map that you particularly like, you can take a note of it's seed value and you will be able to play the same map as often as you like.
When the Load Map option is selected, you will see a list of available custom maps to play on. Simply click on a map to see a preview of it.
If you decide that you wish to play on a particular map (whether randomly generated or a custom map) clicking on the forward arrow will load that map and return you to the game setup screen. If you decide instead that you would rather use the map that was already selected, clicking on the back arrow will return you to the game setup screen without loading the new map.
Once the game settings are to your liking, the forward button will start the game. The back button will return you to the main menu.
This screen consists of 2 main parts - the campaign map dominates and is your main view of the battlefield, where orders are directly issued. On the right, various tools and controls will enable you to administrate your empire.
The pause menu gives you access to the same sound and display options as you can reach from the main menu, plus you can also surrender if the battle isn't going your way.
The next area contains the minimap which gives you a cut-down version of affairs map-wide, and tells you which part of the map you're currently looking at. At the start of any turn, any towns which have not yet spent any money will be coloured red. Blue dots are units that still have a move this turn.
The next 3 sections contain information on the territory you have selected, which will be discussed shortly.
The second section from the bottom contains objectives (if playing a campaign map) or a graph showing world ownership (if playing a skirmish). Completed objectives are highlighted in green, black objectives have still to be achieved.
The three buttons at the bottom are (from left to right) Undo Last Move, Select Next Territory and End Turn. It is possible to undo several moves in sequence back to the beginning of your turn, while End Turn makes all moves final.
Tiles you own will be shaded your colour - other player's tiles will be shaded in their colour and un-owned tiles will not be shaded at all.
You can look around the map using either arrow keys or by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen in the direction you wish to move. If you wish to jump to a particular location, select it in the minimap.
Any two or more tiles belonging to the same player and touching each other/connected by a water crossing are considered a "territory". Everything that occurs in the game is based on territory; they have their own supply of money, their own units and their own buildings, independent of each other. Clicking on any territory that belongs to you will highlight it, allowing you to perform actions on that territory such as buying buildings, moving units, etc.
Once a territory has been highlighted the three areas previously mentioned on the right will contain information relating to that territory. The first section displays territory finances - income is displayed in green, expenses are displayed in red and the total amount of money the territory currently holds is displayed in white. The middle section allows you to purchase units. The bottom section allows you to purchase buildings. Holding the mouse over an item will give a description.
Left-clicking on it will purchase one for you to place. If you change your mind before you place it, you can right-click to sell this item back. The new unit will be placed on your mouse pointer until you left-click on a suitable tile to place it.
Regardless of what your objectives might be, ultimately it all comes down to capturing territory held by someone else, and making it your own. In order to do this, you must send out your armies to claim these lands.
To select a unit for movement, simply click on it with the left mouse button to pick it up. The unit can then move to any of the following locations, as long as no unit is already present:
The unit system for Conquest! Medieval Realms is relatively simple, with only a couple of concepts to grasp.
Firstly and most importantly, a unit with a higher level always beats a unit with a lower level.
If levels are even, advantage is decided on type. A spear will always beat a horse, a horse will always beat an archer and an archer will always beat a spear.
They can also block any unit unable to defeat it from moving next to it (ZOC). This applies both to level and type.
An important detail to remember about units is that if next turn begins with you unable to pay the wage bill for a territory, -ALL- units will die. You cannot build up a massive debt - you will simply start from an empty treasury again. However, the loss of units may leave you open to attack.
The unit types are, and fight, as follows:
| Defender | Attacker | |||||||||
| Spearman | Pikeman | Halberdier | Scout | Lancer | Knight | Archer | Longbowman | Arquebusier | ||
| Spearman | ||||||||||
| Pikeman | ||||||||||
| Halberdier | ||||||||||
| Scout | ||||||||||
| Lancer | ||||||||||
| Knight | ||||||||||
| Archer | ||||||||||
| Longbowman | ||||||||||
| Arquebusier | ||||||||||
Mobs are a unique character that reduces the value of a tile to zero. Every turn, there is a very small chance for any unoccupied tile to develop a mob.
A tile will produce no cash as long as there is a mob on it. Mobs spread if left alone and can even swamp the map.
A mob can be destroyed by any level of unit, as long as it can get access to the tile however, removing a mob counts as an attack and the unit attacking will have moved for the turn.
Note that towers, towns and castles will not let you pass through them.
There are 5 unique kinds of terrain.
Lands and territories change hands often - sometimes, two borders will touch or an existing territory will get divided - the rules are as follows:
If a town is destroyed, any savings are destroyed, and as usual the tile no longer provides any cash to the previous owner. A new town is created randomly somewhere in the territory, wherever a space can be found.
If a market or mine is captured, the tile income is lost, and so is the bonus income.
If an archery range or stable is captured, the ownership transfers and the ability to train the appropriate units is transferred with it.
If you capture a tile and your territory now borders another of your territories, they combine. The two territories become one - the new territory has all the income, savings and expenses of the old territories. One town has to be removed - the town belonging to the largest territory always survives.
If the opposite happens - a tile is captured and some parts of a territory can no longer link back to the town, then a new territory has to be created. This new territory has an extra, is responsible for the income/expenses of all the cut off tiles, but do not inherit the savings.
Once again, any territories that cannot pay their wage bill at the start of a new turn lose all their units. Buildings have no upkeep, and cannot be destroyed this way
ZOC basically means that if a unit cannot attack another unit or building, it will also be unable to attack any tiles directly adjacent to that unit or building.
The protection extended by a unit or building only applies to tiles which belong to the same player - enemy or neutral territory is not affected.
Multiplayer consists of two very specific parts - hosting and joining. Only one person has to host, and all others join that person.
Hosting is very similar to skirmish mode setup, so much of that section is repeated here, especially since Multiplayer is essentially a skirmish with more than one human player. However, any differences are outlined.
The screen you are presented with appears very similar to the single player skirmish screen. Unlike that screen however, the human player icons now have a function.
If the human player icon is selected, the slot is considered to be "open" for another player to join. Once a player joins, the icon will be outlined in green and the slot is considered to be "filled". The AI and No Player icons work almost the same as in single player games, but be aware that clicking either of these buttons on a "filled" slot will cause the player to be kicked from the game.
The other difference to this screen is the "ready" light in the top right corner of each player area. Before the game can begin, each human player must click on this button to signal that they are ready to start. Clicking it a second time will "un-ready" the player and the game will no longer be able to start.
Be aware that changing game settings is likely to 'un-ready' non-AI players, since they may not agree with the new settings. Changing personal setting may 'un-ready' yourself.
Finally, the game host is able to change the settings for any AI players in the game, allowing them to resolve any problems which may arise if a human player wants a colour which is already taken by an AI player.
Once everything is decided, use the forward button in the bottom-right corner to start your game, or the back button if you have a change of mind. Bear in mind, if you cancel the game, it will also disconnect any players connected to you at the time, and they will not be consulted in the decision.
Joining a multiplayer game requires you to know a couple of things - the host "IP address" of the person hosting the game, and the port number the game operates on. Typically, the default port number should not change, but the IP address will be unique. If the host does not have this information and this is a LAN (local network) game, have them ask whoever runs the network for this information. If the match is taking place over the internet, have the host find the information on the internet if they do not already know how to get this information themselves, have them consult a website such as "whatismyip.com" or similar to retrieve their IP address for them.
Once you have joined the host and their "server", you will see a screen exactly like that of "Multiplayer Host". However, you will only be able to chat and edit your own details. Once everyone sets their ready light and the host launches, the game proceeds as any other, except some of your opponents will be human, and you are not guaranteed to be player 1 (that is usually the host).
Sometimes, multiplayer just doesn't work. The good news is, the majority of problems are easier to solve. Conquest! Medieval Realms has a relatively simple network system and thus has less trouble than many bigger games.
The first item to check if you cannot connect to someone's server or they cannot connect to you is any firewall software you may have. You can either deactivate it (for testing purposes only, and even then use at your own risk) or more safely consult your firewall documentation for a way to make an exception for Conquest! Medieval Realms. Firewall software blocking the application is the most common problem people experience with networking.
Secondly, if you have a router, ensure that port 2300 (TCP traffic, if necessary) is forwarded to the computer running the game. This ensures the router directs the packets to you and that they don't get dropped on the way.
Check other software, and see if that software can connect to your partner successfully or not. Networks are fickle, and it may be that a cable has broken or loosened since you last played a network game.
In the case of a LAN/local network game, check all cabling and make sure there is a connection. Make sure you can connect to the other computer.
The map editor is integrated into Conquest! Medieval Realms, when you click on the map editor option from the main menu you will be presented with the following screen:
This screen is very similar to the main campaign map screen, however instead of controls to run your empire, you have controls that will allow you to shape the world.
The minimap functions exactly the same as the in-game version - it shows an overview of the entire map, and you can click on it to quickly move around the map.
The map size and number of players options allow you to specify settings to be used when a new map is created - the map size can range from 10x10 up to 32x32 tiles, and do not have to be square. The number of players can range from 2 to 8.
The middle section of the panel shows different options depending on what you are currently doing, and these will each be discussed shortly.
The buttons at the bottom allow you to create a new blank map, load a map, save a map or quit the editor when you are finished.
The "selection" option allows you to change what you are editing - by default you will start out editing terrain, which allows you to place different types of land on the map. The 4 options and how they work are outlined below (in order from left to right):
When this setting is active, you can choose a type of terrain and then left click on the map to place a tile of that type. If you wish to place more than 1 tile at a time, you can increase the brush size option. If you want to remove tiles instead, you can right-click on the map to do so.
You can also click on the place crossing button to begin the process of placing a crossing to connect separate pieces of land together. Once you have clicked on this button, other functions will be unavailable until you either finish placing the crossing or cancel.
To place the crossing, first click on the start tile - this must be a land tile which is next to water (and cannot be a mountain tile). Next, click on each of the water tiles that make up the route for the crossing. Finally, click on the land tile where you wish the crossing to end.
If you change your mind about the crossing, or make a mistake, you can cancel it by right-clicking the mouse at any time.
If your map has a crossing you wish to remove, select the delete crossing button, and click on either of the end-points of the crossing. Again, if you change your mind you can right click instead to cancel the action.
With this setting selected you can place buildings on the map. Simply select the building you want to place and the player it should belong to. Once the building is selected, you can place them on the map (or remove them) in the same way as terrain.
When buildings are placed, the tile they are placed on will change colour to reflect the fact that it now belongs to a particular player. If you want a building to be neutral, you can use the territory controls to do this.
The only setting you have here is which player you want to change the territory for. When a player is selected, left clicking on the map will change any tiles clicked on to belong to that player. Right clicking will make a tile neutral.
Placing units is the same as placing buildings - select the unit type and player number, then left-click on the map to place the units or right-click to remove units.
As with buildings, placing units will change the ownership of the tile - units cannot be neutral.
The scenario editor is a separate application - it can be launched from Conquest!, or it can be used separately.
Once it opens, you will be presented with the following screen:
The file menu will allow you to create, load and save scenarios.
All of the details for a scenario are entered on the 3 tabs, which are as follows:
This tab allows you to specify the descriptions for the scenario, the files related to it, AI difficulty, and other general data.
The start date and turn length options are purely cosmetic - they have no effect on gameplay, but if you are making a historical scenario they can be used to make it more accurate.
The starting cash multiplier determines how much coin each territory will start with - the starting coin for a territory is the number of tiles in the territory multiplied by this value.
The map file must be set for the scenario to work - it references a map file created using the map editor. The map file must be located in the Conquest! Data folder or it will not allow you to select it.
Briefing and history allow you to specify the information that appears on the battle select screen (or the popup that appears before a battle when playing them in sequence).
The short description appears only on the battle select screen. It appears at the bottom of the screen when the battle is selected.
Map icon location determines where on the battle select screen the icon which represents the battle will appear. This allows you to position it on the map. The values range from 0 to 10000, where 0,0 is the top left corner of the screen and 10000,10000 is the bottom right corner.
If force AI difficulty is set, the player will not be able to change the difficulty before starting the battle. Instead, the value provided here will be used.
The objectives tab allows you to specify what the player must do in order to win the battle (or what conditions would cause them to lose).
If nothing is specified here, the game will create a default objective of "defeat all enemies".
To add an objective, select the type of objective you want, and click the "add objective" button - it will be added at the bottom of the list of objectives.
If you click on an objective in the list, you can modify it's specific settings (these will vary depending on the objective type selected), you can use the up/down arrow buttons to move it up or down the list (this only affects where it appears in the list and has no effect on gameplay), and you can delete it by clicking "delete selected objective"
In order to win, the player must meet the conditions of all of the specified objectives, and they must not lose any which specify failure conditions (for example a turn limit).
The players tab contains one line for each of the (up to 8) players that can be in the game. For each player you can specify if they will be in the game (and if they will be the human player or an AI player), their colour, and their name.
If a player is set to "AI - Disabled" then they will occupy the slot, but they will not move any units during the game.
The campaign editor works the same way as the scenario editor - it can be started from the main menu, or on it's own outside of the game. Once it starts, you will see the following screen:
As with the scenario editor, the file menu allows creating new campaigns as well as loading and saving.
This editor only has 2 tabs:
On this tab you can set the basic details of the campaign.
The image file specifies either a .bmp or .png file which contains a map to be displayed on the battle select screen when this campaign is loaded. This must be a file in the data folder.
The description box allows you to modify the text that will appear on the campaign selection screen.
The icon location works exactly the same as for the scenarios, but these icons appear on the campaign selection map instead.
This tab simply contains a list of the scenarios which make up the campaign.
Clicking on the "add scenario" button allows you to insert a new scenario at the bottom of the list. If you click on a scenario in the list the up/down arrows allow you to change its position in the list, and the "delete scenario" buttons allows you to remove it.
| Name | Cost | Upkeep | Level | Type | Requires |
| Spearman | 10 | 2 | 1 | Spear | Nothing |
| Pikeman | 20 | 6 | 2 | Spear | Nothing |
| Halberdier | 30 | 18 | 3 | Spear | Nothing |
| Archer | 10 | 2 | 1 | Ranged | Archery Range |
| Longbowman | 20 | 6 | 2 | Ranged | Archery Range |
| Arquebusier | 30 | 18 | 3 | Ranged | Archery Range |
| Scout | 10 | 2 | 1 | Cavalry | Stables |
| Lancer | 20 | 6 | 2 | Cavalry | Stables |
| Knight | 30 | 18 | 3 | Cavalry | Stables |
| Name | Cost | Level | Requires | Special |
| Town | -- | 1 | Automatically built | Holds territory cash |
| Tower | 6 | 1 | Nothing | |
| Castle | 15 | 2 | Nothing | |
| Market | 1-8* | 0 | Nothing | Adds 1 income |
| Mine | 2-16* | 0 | Hills | Adds 2 income |
| Archery Range | 8 | 0 | Forset | Allows Ranged |
| Stables | 8 | 0 | Plains | Allows Cavalry |
* = The cost of these buildings increases as you build more of them
| Key | Function |
| ESC | Display in-game menu |
| BACKSPACE | Undo last move |
| RETURN | End turn |
| F1 | Display mission briefing (campaign only) |
| 1 | Buy Spear Unit |
| 2 | Buy Ranged Unit |
| 3 | Buy Cavalry Unit |
| ALT+1 | Buy Tower |
| ALT+2 | Buy Castle |
| ALT+3 | Buy Archery Range |
| ALT+4 | Buy Stables |
| ALT+5 | Buy Market |
| ALT+6 | Buy Mine |