Anacreon is a computer game originally written by George Moromisato , and published by TMA in 1988. The game's theme was galactic conquest, with the setting strongly inspired by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of novels. It is considered one of the better computer strategy games, and is an example of the 4X genre of computer games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate).

Game play

Anacreon is a turn-based game in which human and computer players explore the a galaxy, conquering worlds and putting them to use to fuel their war machines.

The game play focuses on optimizing resource management on a network of conquered worlds in order to fuel further conquest. As worlds are discovered and (hopefully) conquered, they are put to uses that best suit their climates, natural resource bases, and technology levels, with networks of transport fleets relaying various types of material from world to world. These captured worlds and vulnerable transport fleets must be protected against incursions from competing players, both human- and computer-controlled. Success in Anacreon requires a good grasp of micromanagement strategy.

Anacreon is perhaps most noteworthy for the wide variety of space megastructures that can be built, ranging from minefields and simple space stations to star gates and artificial planets.

Strategy

Winning Anacreon requires constant attention to patterns of resource flow, as mentioned above. It also requires careful ability to judge where and when an enemy will strike at the player's vulnerable planets and transport fleets, as well as determining points at which an enemy is vulnerable themselves.

A key principle in Anacreon is that of specialization. A world optimized to produce spacecraft working in tandem with a world optimized to produce raw materials will produce more ships than the same two worlds configured to be self-sufficient.

See also

• Anacreon (planet)

External links

• Anacreon 2.x home page, maintained by George Moromisato.
• The Anacreon Reconstruction Project, a coordination page for Anacreon 1.x reimplementation efforts.
• Project page for ArdReil an open source reimplementation of Anacreon 1.x.