From the game's electronic manual World Empire II is a game that blends strategy and luck to achieve world conquest. The object of the game is simple: defeat the other players (human or computer) and conquer the world! You begin the game with 56 Armies (actually divisions) placed in a randomly selected country. Your strategy will likely be heavily influenced by this initial positioning. You can only attack countries that border a country that you already own. Also, attacking one continent from another can only be done from certain countries. For example, an attack launched at Asia from Europe can only be accomplished through the Ukraine - an attack launched at Africa can only be accomplished through Spain. Also at the beginning of the game, each player is assigned an IDEOLOGY, or set of beliefs, for which he will fight for the duration of the game. A randomly selected number of countries around the world are also assigned that player's ideology. These ideologically "friendly" countries are easier to conquer than those who are friendly to another player. They also require only ONE army of occupation. The winner of individual attacks is determined randomly by electronically throwing dice (though you don't see this). If you get the highest result, you win. If these "dice" come up doubles and the country you are attacking shares your ideology, then you win the battle. If, however, that country shares someone else's ideology you lose the tie. User Summary The game was released as shareware with the full game available via mail order. The registered version included the option to play up to seven AI opponents (maximum of one in the shareware version).