FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Q: What is this game about?

A: Apollo4X is essentially a game about buying and selling goods between planets, making and spending profits, and fighting a defensive war against an oncoming enemy.

You colonize three planets initially, and decide what goods each will want to import.  Exports are dictated by the planet itself.  Then you build cities on the planets to generate production that is spent on further upgrades.  You can colonize additional planets to broaden your trade potential, but each additional planet will increase the number of social demands you have to meet each turn.  Social demands of colonies cause you to gain and lose political favor, which is spent to unlock new abilities.  Think of it as “Interplanetary Shipping Tycoon + Colony Manager”.

Combat is played out in card game fashion, but with an unusual complexity to it.  Each military unit has three “orders” to choose from, which let them do different things and have different stats.  The key to winning is using the correct units in the best sequence and with the right orders.  Scout the enemy, determine what you can exploit, and give orders to your troops accordingly.

The game is available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux computers.
Just about any machine can run it.  2GB RAM and a 3D capable graphics chip (integrated is fine).  300mb disk space

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Q: Does this game have AI opponents?

A: The combat sub-game does have an AI that will play a strong 1:1 game against you.  The trade and colony management section of the game doesn’t have the typical “AI factions” NPC players that are simulated to play the same type of game you are.  The game is more akin to golf, where your real opponent is your own performance.  If you lose, it’s because you know you could have performed better and not because of some random fate of the dice that robbed you.

 

Q: What are the Centaur?

A: They’re four-legged intelligent “ravagers of worlds” that are modeled as four factions based on the four horsemen of the apocalypse: War, Plague, Famine, Death.  They look like weird space dragons, and like to eat people.  Each faction has different combat units and employs a different general theme to their battle tactics as a result.  Their galaxy map presence will spread like “creep” across the planets in their path, and is a doom clock that ticks faster the more worlds they are allowed to expand to without player intervention.  Eventually they will begin to invade your colonies or even Apollo itself.  They consume everything in their path, and will attack the closest planet to them each time they expand.

 

Q: Is there space combat?

A: No.  The Centaur don’t seem to employ spaceships.  All combat is ground-based.  They’re more than happy to allow you to land freely, because you’re like a self-delivering pizza lunch.  Have you seen Starship Troopers?  It’s inspired by that, in that you land your marines and then fight the enemy.

 

Q: How do I win the game?

A: There are a variety of victory conditions.  Firstly, you can eradicate the Centaur factions from the map by destroying their homeworld(s).  You can do this by a chain of successful invasions with troops, or by completing the construction of a planet destroying weapon project.  There are economic victory conditions as well, such as completing the Vault of Apollo project, unifying the planetary nations into a single government under your control, befriending the alien fleets, etc.  Completing a certain number of project objectives can win the game.