Total Conquest is a strategic-level fantasy PBM campaign game, focusing on economy management, politics and warfare. The highly realistic economic system allows, among other things, population expansion and sophisticated trading. The game uses a simulation system so that non-player characters are introduced, making the general population react towards the player's actions. The players can influence and control powerful individuals such as army commanders, provincial rulers, tribal lords and kinglords, enabling them to fight great battles with fantasy armies, made of anything from just ten heroes to great legions. An advanced political system enables the formation of alliances of any size and style.
At the early stages of the game, the player controls the leading ruler of a reasonably sized population along with a small group of fairly powerful individuals. The player must lay the foundations for his newly formed kingdom by choosing a race and its cultural state. Depending on your choice of culture and race, you are faced with new and exciting possibilities for expansion. Are your people a peasant rabble gathered together under the banners of a handful of feudal nobles, or do they hail to a higher authority, flocking to the call of a mystic crusade?
Special individuals join forces with you to achieve their higher goals and so become your most trustful heroes. Quests are set forth to explore the lands of Total Conquest and find legendary treasures, gain instant fame and get hold of mythical items of arcane power. High priests and wizards will use their mystic might to strengthen your kingdom and people, while others will assist your armies in their dangerous battles. Assassins and thieves can be used to infiltrate the enemy camps and bring to you plans and maps for the forthcoming battles, giving you the much-needed edge in the ongoing war...
The people of the Lands consist of four major races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Humans) while other minor races will be encountered throughout the game. Deciding which race to play is one of the most important decisions in Total Conquest. Each race has specific strengths and weaknesses, and playing to these can often help you win the game.
Apart from the main population, wandering tribes will be visiting the kingdom or be encountered by scouting parties throughout the game. Various monsters, which are scattered around the world, wander the Lands and can even take part in your battles to achieve their own goals.
In the first part of this handbook of rules you will find all the information required to decide if Total Conquest is a game matching your style. A complete set of rules is provided so that you can create a young kingdom and join the first game available. At your own pace you can read the following chapters in order to learn all the basic and most advanced features of the game.
Play by Mail Games
Play by mail (PBM) first originated in the United States and the United Kingdom and has been around since the seventies, but its enthusiasts have always been few, no more than a small percentage of the overall gaming crowd. Although the name suggests the use of a postal service, a number of PBM games have emerged lately, providing their services over the Internet.
The main advantage of PBM games over more conventional forms of gaming is in the number of players each game can accommodate. With conventional board games the number of players is limited to 6-8 players, while PBM games vary from the rare, solo player games to huge campaigns capable of handling hundreds of players at the same time. Furthermore, theoretically speaking, a player can eventually communicate with every other player in the game. For most PBM games, however, the number of players is about 20-50 players per game, which is still greater than in most other forms of gaming. It is a tremendous experience to compete with many other players at the same time, trying to fulfil your goals in a quasi-real environment. The inevitable interaction enforces diplomacy between players, which partially explains the vast enthusiasm and devotion with which so many PBM players embrace their favourite hobby.
Most well produced PBM games are designed so that they can be processed with the help of computers, thus automating many stages of the process; but the use of computers does not require the player of a PBM game to own a computer or indeed to know anything about computers at all. Computers are simply a tool with which PBM companies can provide more sophisticated game rules or otherwise produce an ‘interactive simulation’.
In almost all games, the processing of turns occurs once per week or every other week, allowing the player more time to spend on planning his/her actions and communicate with other players. Furthermore, the processing of a turn in a PBM game does not require the presence of the player at a specific venue. This convenience enables players from different countries to be part of the same game. In a way, it's rather like playing an ordinary computer game on your home computer, or a solo game book (you also play these whenever you feel like it!), but the difference with a PBM game is that you're competing against many other real life players, in a detailed game world, designed purely for your enjoyment.