E3 2001 Preshow ReportConquest: Frontier Wars

This real-time strategy game was originally announced in 1998 by Digital Anvil, the studio founded by Chris Roberts. The game was going to be published by Microsoft, but when the software giant acquired Digital Anvil, it dropped Conquest and assigned the team members to other projects. Since the game was very close to completion at the time, the developer continued to work on it and continued to look for another publisher. On Monday Ubi Soft announced that it will publish the game, much to the relief of fans who have been following the game's progress.

Conquest: Frontier Wars is set in space, and it features a traditional mix of strategic building, resource management, and tactical combat. Several elements of the game will set it apart from other space strategy games. One element that will provide an interesting strategic twist to the game is the support for maps with up to 16 different star systems connected by wormholes. Wormholes can be passed through freely, but they can also be defended by fortified jump gates. The game's supply-line based resource management will also require additional strategic consideration, since ships on extended missions can be lost if they run out of supplies. The game will also feature advanced fleet commander artificial intelligence that will reduce the amount of micromanagement required, since the game can be set to control a group of ships in tactical situations.

According to the developer, Conquest: Frontier Wars has been all but finished for several months now, with the team making only minor tweaks and balance adjustments, so we can expect Ubi Soft to be showing off a nearly complete build of the game at the E3 show.