I didn’t choose or request Lords of Conquest. The day I (Dad) bought Might and Magic II – Gates to Another World, he got Lords of Conquest for himself.
I remember him carefully considering the cover, front and back, then bringing it to the counter.
What was happening? Dad got himself a toy? Was he trying to open up to the concept of gaming? Was he just in it for the intellectual challenge? Was he silently telling me that “screen time” was now a good thing?
My mind was full of questions.
I regret to say that it ended there. He never played it. Eventually, I got curious and tore the blister myself to give it a try. I loved it… A grown-up game!
Hardware Limitations and “Thinking……………………..”
Strategy games back then were games you played on the side while doing something else. Staring at “Thinking………” with a new dot appearing every minute or so gets old even by the standards of the era.
Also, if the game got too complicated (numerous units, cities and the like to manage) it would often just freeze entirely. And that was despite the game only being able to handle 1v1 when playing against the CPU (as opposed to 5 hotseat human contenders).
Lords of Conquest was best played with siblings or friends.
Thankfully, now you can play a similar (improved?) ruleset by downloading Iron Ruler!