Welcome to Anacreon!

A galaxy in ruins. A civilization torn asunder. And here and there, the powerful, the cunning, the ruthless, rise up to build an empire out of the ashes of a nuclear holocaust.

This is a game of imperial conquest set in a far and savage future in which only the strong survive. As the despotic ruler of a fledgling empire, you must subjugate the worlds around you and rise to dominate the galaxy.

Getting Started

Launch Anacreon and start a new game. Anacreon supports many different scenarios; some are small with only a few dozen worlds while others take place amid hundreds of worlds. If you've never played Anacreon before, pick a beginner scenario such as The Pirates of Jakarta. After a few text screens describing the scenario, you will be asked to pick the number of players. Then you will be asked to select the name of your empire. If you're playing with other people you may want to pick a password so that others will not be able to command your empire. Otherwise, a password is not needed.
The first year you will have very little information about surrounding worlds. Use the Empire/Launch Probe command to launch a probe to the selected sector on the map. You will not see any data from the probe until your next turn. Select Game/Next Turn to advance the game one year.
To conquer another world you must first send a fleet to it. Use the Fleet/Deploy... command to deploy ships from your capital. When you do send out attack fleets, remember to bring transports filled with infantry. You cannot conquer a world unless you land infantry on the surface.
Hunter-killers, jumpships, and jumptransports can travel ten sectors per year. Use these ships when taking worlds more than three sectors away.
Don't send out too many attack fleets. You will need at least 500 infantry divisions to conquer a pre-warp level world. Since each jumptransport can only carry one division, you will need at least that many jumptransports per attack fleet.
Once you've conquered a world, use the World/Designate... command to determine how the world will contribute to your empire. More advanced worlds will be able to builds ships for the empire; primitive worlds will only be good for farming and mining.

Additional Information

Visit the Anacreon Web Site for more information about the game.

Write to anacreon@neurohack.com with comments, bug reports, and feedback.

Redistribution and use of this program is permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions must include an unmodified copy of this license.
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