Direct Link : Aeon of Discovery
Publisher : Trisystech

Price : $9.95

Genre : Strategy/Simulation

Rating : 9 out of 10

The Pocket PC is the prefect system to handle turn based games. Aeon of Discovery is a near perfect turn based game, with the emphasis on simplicity. You choose one of four maritime powers, either England, France, Spain or Portugal and colonize the 31 territories of the new world during the 15th century. You have many obstacles in your way including 31 different native tribes, pirates, plagues and enemy raids.

While you are building up your colony, the computer controlled opponents are doing the same. You each get along in your own way, until sooner or later your paths cross and then you either form an alliance or go to war.

The idea of the game is to become the supreme ruler wiping out all other civilizations. This is easier said than done, but then you do want to be challenged, don’t you?

The first thing you need to decide on is whether you want to colonize or trade with an area that’s indicated with a country scene icon, or send some of your men and an explorer into the unknown areas. The benefits of exploring are potentially large, but then so are the dangers. Once an area is colonized, you can then decide whether you want to:

• Hospital : To treat your territory if an outbreak of the plague occurs (You only get this option if your territory is developed enough)
• Develop : Upgrade your infrastructure, which costs a set amount of money for each development point.
• Coerce : Force the natives of your colony to do your bidding. Basically this forces the natives to be your slaves, creating an income
• Gift : Gice the natives a gift to appease them
• Garrison : Fortify your land against attack
• Attack : Attack the natives of your colony
• Delegate : Hand over 75% of the territories revenue in exchange for the mayor running things for you.

During your turn you can also hire colonists, soldiers, slaves and ships, but this comes at a cost. Each colony has the means to provide money and food to sustain you.

You can also choose to enter your opponents territories and either:

• Raid : Send in explorers and soldiers to attack. If successful, this can lead to plundered loot and the control of the territory.
• Diplomat : Send in a diplomat to negotiate terms of friendliness
• Tribute : Send a monetary gift to appease your opponent

Although the gameplay is relatively simple, when compared to games like the PCs Civilization, there’s still enough to do, to keep you occupied. I started an easy game, to find my feet about 6 days ago and I’m still playing. Mind you most of the screen now shows it’s controlled by me, so I have global domination to look forward to soon. It’s early days yet to determine how effective my gameplay is, but it seems to be working. I usually take control of a territory and then heavily develop and fortify and build a hospital as soon as I can. Once I’ve done that, I wipe out all of the natives and then move onto the next territory.

As of yet, I haven’t concentrated on my fleet of ships, but it seems that I can pretty much let them run themselves on the easy level.

Finally let us not forget the taxman. Every 10 years, the King asks for his pound of flesh (levied ta) and it usually entails you having to dip into your own fortunes if you don’t have enough in the treasury, which you acquire by raiding and coercing the natives. Your personal fortunes are not taxable, but you need to do your bit to send money back to the homeland. In return the King gives you ships, solders, colonists and slaves.

Conclusion : This game is an excellent example of value for money. Not only do you get excellent game play, but you also get real depth. The graphics are a bit on the basic side, but the music is very atmospheric. My only warning is that you can get engrossed pretty quickly and it’s sometimes hard to put the Pocket PC down, but that’s a complaint I can live with