How to play

Assimilation is a turn-based strategy game with very simple rules. The aim of the game is to dominate each board with counters of your color.

This is achieved by moving your counters next to an opponent's; when this happens, any neighboring counters are converted to your color. You can also dominate the board by locking out your opponents so they cannot move.

To move, simply click on the counter you want to move to see all possible options from that position. You can move in one of three ways:

Cloning - this creates a copy of your piece, leaving the original counter in place. You can only move to adjacent spaces with this move.
Jumping - this move leaves a empty space in place of the original counter, but you can move twice as far, and jump over other pieces. Beware - this may leave you open to counter-attack!
Teleport - on the larger boards, teleports allow players to jump across large distances. To use a teleport, you must first occupy one with one of your counters. Then you can jump to any unoccupied destination points, or destinations occupied by your own pieces, as indicated by a pulsating red light. Any neighboring pieces will be assimilated when you jump.

The game continues until the entire board has been filled, or only one player is able to move. In games with more than two players, when a player is no longer able to move, their counters are removed from the board and they can no longer participate in the game.

It is thus possible to pursue an aggressive strategy of locking in other players to remove them, in addition to the basic policy of expansion (see Hints and Tips).

NOTE: if three rounds pass with no player making a move (move time out), the game will automatically end.

Options

Assimilation can be played in Single Player and Multiplayer modes. This section covers basic options for both game modes; for specific information on setting up a multiplayer game, see the section below).

Setting up a game

In both game modes, you'll be asked to set up a game. You can choose your name, the board layout (from a choice of ten), the AI difficulty level (Novice, Normal or Expert), the time per turn and the number of players.

The board layout selected will determine how many players can compete at once - only the larger boards will allow 4 or 8 players simultaneously. The maximum number of players for each board is indicated in brackets next to the current number of players selected.

Time per turn affects the amount of time given to each player to make their move. This can be set to 5, 20, 40, 60 seconds or no time limit.

In a multiplayer game, only the person hosting the game will be able to change these options (see Multiplayer).

In-game Options

Once a game has started, you can select the following options (displayed as icons in the top left hand corner of the screen):

Auto Fill - finishes the game by automatically filling up all empty spaces based on the current state of play. This is useful for ending games which have become stale-mated, but requires the consent of all players if activated in multiplayer mode
Music on/off
Help page - displays a summary of possible moves
Ripple effect on/off - toggles the assimilation "ripple effect" for players with lower spec machines.
Quit current game.

Multiplayer

To play against other human players, select Multiplayer from the main menu. You will be given three choices: Host A Game, Join A Game and RealArcade.

To run a private game, all participating players will need to know the host's IP address - you can find this out easily by selecting Host A Game and noting down the number next to "IP Address".

Privately hosted games can either be run over the Internet or over a network - the procedure is the same for both.

Hosting a game

Each private multiplayer game needs one player to act as the "host". Other players then choose to join the game started by the host.

The host determines the board layout used, the number of players, the game's name and other variables for each network game (click the "?" symbol by "Level" to alter details such as AI difficulty and move timer).

When the host is satisfied that the game is set up correctly, clicking on create game will allow others to join. Once all players have joined the game, the host can select "Start Game" to begin playing.

Joining a game

In order to join, all you need to know is the host's IP address. (Unfortunately the game can't find this out for you, so you'll need to communicate with the host independently to find it out!)

Enter this number on the Join Game screen. If the host has a game set up and waiting, you'll be able to select it and join battle.

Chat option

During multiplayer games, you can send messages at any time simply by typing them into the keyboard. If you want to send messages to one person only, without others receiving them, type their name followed by a colon and the message you want to send.

GameSpy

Start up GameSpy Arcade and join the Assimilation lobby. Here you will find other players to chat with and play against. (If you do not have GameSpy Arcade installed, you can download it from www.gamespyarcade.com).

To start a game, click the Assimilation icon in the Games section to join the Assimilation lobby. Then click on the "Create Game" button and you will be taken to a second lobby, and the game will be listed as available to other players.

When someone joins your game and is ready, press the "Launch Game" button to launch Assimilation and play. The host will be asked to set the game options as in a private network game.

To join a game, select an available game and click on the "Join Game" button. You will be taken to a second lobby screen with the host, and after you have clicked the "Ready" button, just wait for the host launch. Once in the game you will have to wait for the host to select the game options.