Below is another article from one of our newer blog contributors, David Waldorf. You can find his previous InsideGMT articles covering Conquest of Paradise here. Enjoy! -Rachel

In this series of articles, I’m looking at how Conquest of Paradise crosses genre borders in unique ways. I’ve already shown that it is a historical simulation game with strong euro and wargame elements; today, I’ll look at how well it holds up as a “4X” game.

The GMT website calls Conquest of Paradise a “1-4 player 4X Game”.  For those unfamiliar with the term, 4X denotes a genre of games that focus on the four “exes” of exploring a map, expanding an empire, exploiting resources, and exterminating opponents. Often such games are set in space, as in GMT’s very own Space Empires: 4X (which is a nearly perfect example of a game that balances each of the exes well). Conquest of Paradise does not have the same balance—total extermination is almost impossible—but I can still see why it would be called a 4X game. So let’s look at each of the exes individually.

Exploration

Exploration is really at the heart of Conquest of Paradise. You must send explorers out into the unknown and uncharted waters of the Pacific in search of new islands to colonize. Sometimes they might find lush new tropical paradises, sometimes nothing at all—and if they push their luck a little too far they could get lost and forfeit valuable time.  The game’s chit-pull system used for exploration is easy and fun, with a slick mechanism built in for determining how far your exploring vessel may go on your turn.  Aside from getting lost, the only real hazard of exploration is getting carried off course, which is annoying but not insurmountable.

Expansion

On the heels of your explorers come the colonists, expanding outward and building villages on previously uninhabited islands. Expansion in this game is really the flip side of the exploration coin: as soon as you find new islands, you will want to send people out to settle them. The more you settle, the more victory points you get and the better your economy is. I like the fact that you have to actually bring colonists out to island groups and drop them off, rather than just plunking down a village as soon as you discover a habitable slice of land. It makes the game more realistic.

Exploitation

This “ex” is the weakest of the four in this game. Which is not to say that it does not exist, because it does—in an abstract way, wrapped up in the game’s economic system. Your villages each produce one Build Point, which is the currency you use to purchase more villages, units or cards. Obviously, as you build more villages you get more Build Points. This simulates your people exploiting the island’s resources to improve and grow their communities and ultimately the empire. In the advanced rules you can also send your explorer off to search for sweet potatoes to bring home, which grant you more victory points. This sounds a bit more like actual exploitation from a thematic perspective, but mechanically it does not change your economic system much, and only provides a one-time benefit.

Extermination

While complete extermination is unlikely in Conquest of Paradise, combat is certainly a feature. My previous article considered the game as a wargame, so I do not think I need to belabor the point. Combat happens, pieces get eliminated or driven back, islands get conquered. Unlike some other 4X games, though, combat is not very deadly. Pieces are more likely to retreat than to be killed, and you are probably not going to harry your opponent from one end of the board to the other trying to knock him out of the game. You could if you wanted to, but it would be expensive and laborious, and there are better ways of getting points. It is more likely that you will skirmish over key islands or spring a surprise attack on your opponent to induce a setback.

In conclusion, Conquest of Paradise does fit comfortably in the 4X genre, despite having a weaker exploitation aspect than other games of its type.  I would not call it a definitive 4X game, but if your favorite aspects of these types of games are the exploration and expansion parts (with some combat thrown in), you definitely get that here.  Plus a great historical theme and some nice euro mechanics that make it a change of pace from your typical 4X fare.

Author: David Waldorf