Three races battle it out in space, one human, one insect-like, and one highly advanced and very mysterious.  At first glance it might look like a description of StarCraft, but the game being described is Conquest: Frontier Wars.  Although on the surface it will generate comparisons to StarCraft, strategy players should take a closer look at Conquest: Frontier Wars before dismissing it as simply another real-time strategy clone.

Conquest: Frontier Wars takes place in the late 22nd century after the human race discovers the means to explore the vast reaches of space: wormholes.  Unfortunately, what they found at the other end of the first wormholes soon dragged humanity into an interstellar conflict. 

Conquest: Frontier Wars inherits its basic gameplay from the real-time strategy games that have come before it.  Players will need to gather resources in order to build structures that will in turn build ships or research unit upgrades.  However, Conquest: Frontier Wars is far from an entirely derivative game, introducing several interesting new concepts into the mix.  First of all, bases are built in orbit around planets appearing on the map.  Each planet has a limited number of slots in orbit, so there is no guarantee that you'll be able to build every structure that you want unless you go out and conquer additional planets.  Secondly, resource gathering has been streamlined by providing intelligent gatherers that will seek out new resource sites when the current sites are mined out and by the fact that different types of planets can provide a steady stream of selected resources.  Next, there are the aforementioned wormholes.  These allow travel between different sectors of space, which in effect allow games to span across multiple maps.  Finally, Conquest: Frontier Wars introduces the concepts of supply and admirals.

Ships leave orbit with a limited amount of supplies - missiles, weapons, etc.  Engaging in combat causes ships to expend these resources and should they be completely consumed, the ship will no longer be able to attack or defend.  To resupply, it must make its way back to a planet with supply facilities or rendezvous with a supply ship.  Planetary facilities require supply as well, and there must either be a headquarters facility in the current sector or a line of wormholes protected by jump gates that can be traced to a system with a headquarters. 

Admirals are heroic leaders that can be placed in charge of fleets of ships.  In addition to providing bonuses to the fleet, they can also help control the fleet for you.  Give the fleet an attack order, and the admiral will effectively guide your ships, targeting enemy ships and withdrawing damaged or unsupplied vessels.  While you'll still probably want to handle critical engagements on your own, admirals can help you more effectively manage large or far-flung fleets.

Conquest: Frontier Wars can be played in three modes: campaign, quick battle, and multiplayer.  The campaign game provides 16 episodic missions which open when a Terran research vessel stumbles out of a wormhole and into a galactic war.  The quick battle mode allows the player to specify mission parameters such as number and race of opponents, victory conditions, and map size and then jump right into battle.  Multiplayer support for games over a LAN or through Ubi Soft's free player matching servers is also provided.

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