empire

classic full-scale war strategy game

TLDR

Start a new game

$ empire

Start with mostly water (island map)

$ empire -w [90]

Set message delay to 500ms

$ empire -d [500]

SYNOPSIS

empire [-w water] [-s smooth] [-d delay] [-S interval] [-f savefile]

empire is a classic full-scale war simulation strategy game. Two emperors compete for world domination on a randomly generated map, producing armies, fighters, ships, and other units to explore, conquer, and hold territory.The game plays on a grid map with cities, land, and sea. Units are produced in captured cities and commanded individually. Fog of war means only areas near your units are visible.

PARAMETERS

-w water

Percentage of map that is water (10-90, default 70).

-s smooth

Map smoothing level; low values create islands, high values create continents (default 5).

-d delay

Delay in milliseconds after informational messages (default 2000).

-S interval

Auto-save interval in turns (default 10).

-f savefile

Specify save file name (default empsave.dat).

PREVIEW

 . . + . ~ ~ ~ ~
 . A . . ~ ~ ~ ~
 . . . . . ~ ~ ~
 ~ ~ . . . . ~ ~
 ~ ~ ~ . . . . .

CAVEATS

Complex controls and steep learning curve. Games can take a long time to complete. Terminal must be at least 80x24.

HISTORY

Empire was originally created by Walter Bright in the 1970s and is considered one of the first strategy war games. The Unix version was rewritten by Chuck Simmons and is maintained by Eric S. Raymond.