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Conquest (also called Marie Walewska) is a 1937 film which tells the story of a Polish countess who becomes the mistress of Napoleon in order to influence his actions towards her homeland. It stars Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Reginald Owen, Alan Marshal, Henry Stephenson, Leif Erickson, Dame May Whitty and Maria Ouspenskaya.
The movie was adapted by S.N. Behrman, Samuel Hoffenstein, Helen Jerome and Salka Viertel from the novel Pani Walewska by Waclaw Gasiorowski. It was directed by Clarence Brown and Gustav Machatư (uncredited).
It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Charles Boyer) and Best Art Direction.
This movie was MGM's biggest money losing movie prior to 1949.
Conquest is also a turn-based game playable via IRC, along with other media. It is about ten years old, and now has a web and telnet interface; players take the part of lords in medieval Europe, complete with jousting for honors, land wars, magic, a complex artifact and hero system, and the ability to choose from six different player classes, including a vampire class which can use mind control on other players.
Players get 5 movement points every 15 minutes, and lose a proportion of unused points every 6 hours when the housekeeping process runs; movement points are needed to preform most actions in the game.
The game is arguably lacking in complexity of gameplay, though troop selection and hiding from one's enemies can become difficult for advanced players. However, the availability of an IRC channel for player discussion, taunts, and scheming adds a whole level of complexity arguably lacking from many web-based games, where players who are offline are somewhat out of the loop.
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