Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.

The Game Library

One of Xconq's distinguishing features is its extensive game library. The variety can be rather confusing; which game should you be playing? To make matters worse, many of the games are still experimental, and not yet polished creations.

The following sections list the notable games in the distributed library The list is necessarily incomplete, and details of the games may change from release to release, so treat this only as a guide. Read the game's own instructions and notes for detailed information; if those are sketchy or missing, then it is most likely that the game is still being developed.

Generic Games

Xconq belongs to what might be called the "Empire" family of computer games; players each start with a small country and attempt to take over the world. The available units, which players must build for themselves during the game, are generally modern military but somewhat abstract; armies, airplanes, battleships, and suchlike. The actual game designs in this category are just variations on the theme, being more/less complex or faster/slower-paced.

intro
This is a simple game designed for newcomers to Xconq. It is not really very interesting once you've learned how to play.
standard
The standard game is, well, the standard Xconq game. It is by far the most developed, tested, and polished. You can enjoy Xconq for years playing only this game and its variants.
classic
The standard game of version 7 has been enhanced to take advantage of its new features, such as rivers and roads, but if you like the standard game of 5.x and want to continue with it, classic is a very close approximation.
crater-lake
This is a classic of 5.x, so named because of the mountain ring with lake in the middle. The real notable feature of this is the difficulty of mounting any offensive; this game has been fought to a stalemate time and time again.
old-empire
Stroll down memory lane. This is a workalike of the old simple Empire game, complete with imbalance, slow pacing, and other problems. Compare how it plays versus the standard game; the flaws should be obvious.
earth-2deg, earth-1deg, earth-50km
The entire Earth, at scales of 2 degrees/cell, 1 degree/cell, and 50km/cell, respectively. This means that the areas are 180x64, 360x140, and 800x320 cells in size, which makes for games that are simply gigantic.

Ancient History

pelops
If you're a fan of ancient history, try this version of the Peloponnesian War. Although its game parameters need more work, you can get some idea of the scale of the conflict. This is also a three-sided game, allowing for someone to play the Persians and perhaps win by exploiting the Athenians and Spartans.
rom-civ-war
The Roman Civil War, played out on a very nice map of the Roman world.

European History

voyages
This represents the Age of Discovery.
magellan
Attempt to re-create Magellan's voyage around the world. Based on voyages.
1756, 1757
These are renditions of the annual campaign seasons that made up the Seven Years' War.
1805
Napoleon's Austrian campaign of 1805, of which the battle of Austerlitz proved to be the key action.
red-october
The Russian revolution.

American History

gettysburg
This is a set-piece version of the Battle of Gettysburg, at the brigade level with hourly turns. The setup is very detailed, but the mechanics too simple, which unfortunately allows some rather bizarre-looking battles to develop.

WWII

The WWII games listed here are technical, detailed, and specialized to particular time periods or scenarios.

panzer
This is a fast-paced tactical Eastern Front game, similar to the board games on the subject. Features include strict line-of-sight (thus you can hide behind hills and trees), ranged fire, and a wide assortment of hardware. It's not really very accurate, and it's stretching Xconq to use it for a tactical game, but great fun anyway.
magnusvew
A large scenario based on a Panzerblitz(tm) board game scenario designed by Robert Harmon.
cherbourg, cobra, normandy
These are all battalion-level games using the base game ww2-bn. The cherbourg scenario covers the capture of Cherbourg in the Normany campaign, while cobra is a reenactment of Operation Cobra, and normandy is the whole invasion! While cherbourg is reasonably sized, the others are monster games that will need lots of memory and lots of time to play.
nw-europe
This game is at the division level, being about the entire NW Europe campaign. Although you can open by landing in Normandy, you can try invading anywhere you like.
ww2-eur-42
This is a theater-level simulation of WWII in Europe, starting in January 1942. The Germans are on the ascendant everywhere, the Soviets hard-pressed, and the Americans only just getting involved. The game has a lot of sides; either AIs have to play them or you'll need to round up a bunch of players.
ww2-38, ww2-39, ww2-42
These are full global scenarios for advanced WWII. Can they really be played as games? Probably not -- but so what, we just want to scroll around and admire it all!
ww2s-eur-42, ww2s-42
WWII again, but using the unit types and terrain of the standard game, and with only two sides, Axis and Allies. It's not realistic enough for purists, but can certainly be exciting to play.
flattop
This game is a somewhat abstract version of tactical naval combat. You have a force of carriers and battleships, plus a contingent of smaller vessels, and a similar opposing force somewhere out there. Use your PBYs to find them, before their subs and destroyers get in to sink your capital ships.
coral-sea
This is the battle of the Coral Sea, both land and sea, at the operations level. Airplanes are simply part of carriers' combat abilities.
midway
The Battle of Midway.

Empire-Building

The games in this category include more economic development than the combat oriented generic games.

empire
An Xconqification of "true" or "net" Empire, which is a large and complex economic/military game.
modern
Stan's conception of modern times.

Fantasy

Although Xconq was never designed for the swords&sorcery genre, it turns out to be able to support some rather interesting games.

cave
A basic dungeon game, where you wander around a maze and collect valuable items and battle various monsters.
u-midearth
Tolkien's Middle Earth, what else?
ring-quest
Middle Earth, but pursuing the One Ring specifically.

Science Fiction

Xconq was never really designed for outer-space games either, there are some fun if unrealistic designs.

galaxy
A sort of generic outer space game with units mixed from various fictional universes.
starwars
A moderately silly game very loosely based on Star Wars.
tokyo, monster
Inspired by a description of an old board called "Crush Crumble and Chomp", this is a game featuring one side as Godzilla and the other side as Tokyo. Hard to say whether it's more fun to play Godzilla and stomp on buildings, or to play the national guard and try to defeat him before Tokyo is entirely flattened! If you ask for just monster, you will get a randomized setup for this game.

Miscellaneous Games

Some games just don't fit in any category.

beirut
A somewhat disrespectful renditions of the goings-on in Beirut during the early 1980s. Seven different sides, all fighting each other with tanks, death squads, and car bombs.
duel
Two tanks, small area, no tricks.
hill
Play the children's game "King of the Hill". As an early tester said, "Man, I figured you must have been on some really good drugs!"
mormon
This is a downright blasphemous version of the heroic age of the Mormon pioneers in Utah. The Mormons try to reproduce faster than the US Cavalry and the Ute Indians can massacre them; to strike back, the Mormons have their Avenging Angels. (I can do this, I'm descended from Mormon pioneers. -sts)

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.