This was one of my first games. The concept of this game is to colonise star systems, build up economies on them, build up a fleet of starships, and take over the colonies of the other side. Similar to other turn-based strategy games of the era, it allowed you to play against each other, or the computer.
There are a few scenerios, with each sides starting with various star systems already under their control. The long campaign is basically a raw start, in which both sides start out with only two systems, and have to colonise other systems and build up their forces from there. The short campaign is a jump start, with most of the star systems already under the control of one of the sides. There are also specific scenarios for different starting dispositions.
One things about this game is that it allowed you to design your own spaceship. Each ship can have up to 15 modules, and you can choose from transport/cargo, point defense, short range attack, long range attack, and area defense modules. While you cannot control individual ships during combat, these modules will affect the defense and firepower of your fleets in combat.
See what Carl A.Lund has to say about Stellar Crusade and some other SSI games by clicking here.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Stellar Crusade
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I loved Stellar Crusade. One of the best galactic conquest games ever made. But sadly, in order to appreciate it you need to learn all the rules that were redacted from the manual, and also to set the proper options on. For example, if you turn spare parts off the computer will still build them and you'll have a tremendous advantage without even realizing it.
What I really enjoyed about this game is that you really have to plan how to proceed. Colonizing a planet is a MASSIVE undertaking that pays off only in the very long term, and needs to be carefully planned and coordinated. Similarly you need to allocate a large portion of resources into maintaining a good transport pool and to ensure that your fleets are well-stocked with spare parts. I guess this can be called tedious, but I think it makes for a much more interesting game than the standard "research, build, send tons of ships:"
Big downside, by the time fighting actually begins (usually _well_ into the game), the game has typically been decided by economic development. But the economic side is so much fun that it didn't bug me.
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