What The Conquest of Go is
The Conquest of Go is a Go game with a campaign wrapped around it. Go itself is simple to state: two players take turns placing stones, and whoever controls more territory at the end wins. The depth comes from how that plays out over a full board, which is why the game has survived for thousands of years. The rules are covered in full inside interactive in-game tutorials, so you can start from zero.
Beyond plain matches, the game puts Go inside a campaign where you fight nations for control of land and resources. Conquered land earns resources, and those resources buy abilities that help your army in battles. You defend territory by completing matches from preset board positions, and you fortify land by solving Go puzzles. Campaign settings let you adjust difficulty and preferences, and the AI's skill and handicap adjust automatically to match your level.
Playing it with a group
Your group has several ways to sit down together. Local multiplayer lets two people play on the same computer, and you can also pit the AI opponents against each other while you all watch. Remote Play Together is available for playing over a connection. The game includes five different AI opponents, each with its own difficulty levels, so a group can pick an opponent that fits whoever is playing.
Online, you connect to the Online Go Server community of over 350,000 ranked players. You can challenge live matches, or play correspondence matches that run over longer periods, which suits a group that can't all be online at once. There are casual and ranked matches, ranking ladders, spectating of active matches, and in-game chat with players and spectators. Note that regional firewalls may interfere with the connection to online servers.
Before you start
Go has a learning curve even though the rules are short, so the tooling matters here. Interactive tutorials cover rules, basic shapes, and strategy. Opening guides show recommended first moves for different board sizes and handicaps, a glossary teaches terminology, and an automatic shape detection system recognizes shapes as they appear on the board. After a match, the AI can review it and point out moves you could have improved, and you can toggle AI analysis to see recommended moves and variations, plus estimated win rate, score, and territory.
Board size ranges from 5x5 to 19x19, with settings for handicap, komi, and time, and there is a practice board where you can place stones freely. In the campaign you can team up with AI allies and alternate turns against other AI opponents, and you can play custom stories with characters, dialogue, and battles. The Steam Workshop adds puzzles, stories, board themes, tutorials, joseki, and match commentary, and the in-game editors let you build your own stories and color themes.