Conquest: Frontier Wars is a real-time strategy game released in 2001 by Ubi Soft and developed by Fever Pitch Studios. A good amount of the development was done at Digital Anvil in Austin, Texas, a startup developer originally owned by Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts, Eric Peterson, John Miles, Tony Zurovec, Marten Davies and Robert Rodriguez. Once Microsoft purchased Digital Anvil, Eric Peterson and Tom Mauer left to form Fever Pitch Studios Inc, and lead a team to complete the game as originally intended by the team. On December 9, 2013, the source code was bundled with every copy of the game purchased on GOG.com.

Bases can be constructed on any discovered planet in any system, but would not be operable until a wormhole connecting that system to a friendly one was locked with a jumpgate or until a friendly Headquarters, Cocoon (Mantis) or Acropolis (Celareon) was constructed in the system. Supplies play a vital part in offensive operations, as each ship carries only a limited amount of supplies, which are depleted as weapons and special devices are used. Ships with fully depleted supply stores are completely ineffective except as cannon fodder until they return to a supply base for resupply. For this reason, players usually cannot maintain the momentum of their assaults in enemy-controlled systems unless their fleet is accompanied by supply vessels.

Conquest features a number of Admirals in the single-player campaign, which function similarly to hero units. In single-player skirmish and multiplayer games, Admirals act essentially as leader units (Warlords for Mantis and Magistrates for Celareons). Entire squadrons of other ships can be grouped with an Admiral shuttle; this endows the Admiral's combat bonuses upon the entire fleet and allows the player to better control their forces. When a Leader is joined with a fleet, every ship in the fleet is given at least a 10% bonus to supply, damage, speed, etc., and usually depending on the Leader's flagship in the Terran campaign, an additional 10% bonus is given to certain ships in the fleet for all statistics.

All Leaders are different, and give a 25% bonus instead of the standard 10% bonus to certain statistics depending on their flagship and their role in the campaign. For example, Admiral Steele enters the campaign at around the same time the Terrans meet and form an alliance with the Celareons. Due to differing factions within the mechanical-energy race there becomes a hostile Celareon faction, and Admiral Steele's career garners him more experience in warfare against Celareons than any other Admiral. As a result, in skirmish or multiplayer games Steele has a special bonus to damage solely against Celareons. Likewise, Warlord Kertak, a Mantis rebel and ally, possesses a fighter carrier flagship; her fleets have special bonuses to carriers' fighters instead of larger ships, improving their agility, targeting, and damage.

Conquest's storyline is set two hundred years in the future, where interstellar travel was possible by jumping through networks of wormholes leading to other systems.

Following a series of internal conflicts, mankind has discovered a wormhole leading to an unknown system, Tau Ceti. Arriving in the Tau Ceti system, the TNS Andromeda, under the command of Rear Admiral Tackwhether Hawkes, is caught between a small, fast, unidentified alien spacecraft and its pursuers. After the Andromeda is destroyed in a collision with a massive alien warship, you, as the anonymous Commander, are ordered by Admiral William Halsey to investigate. With the help of Captain Thomas Blackwell, you begin exploring uncharted wormholes in order to discover what happened to the Andromeda and to find and rescue Admiral Hawkes if he is still alive.

After learning that Admiral Hawkes escaped the destruction of the Andromeda and has been taken prisoner by the unidentified alien race, dubbed the "Mantis", you penetrate deeper into hostile territory in order to rescue him. Soon, Earth and its Navy find themselves embroiled in the middle of a Mantis civil war, with the usurper Queen Ver'Lak fighting her sister, Warlord Ker'Tak. Fearing for its own safety in the face of the massive Imperial Mantis fleet, Earth assists Ker'Tak in the fight. In response, Ver'Lak assigns her chief Lieutenant, Warlord Malkor, to hunt down and destroy Earth.

During a dangerous mission to rescue Mantis warlords still loyal to Ker'Tak, Captain Blackwell's corvette is lost in a rogue black hole while trying to see what happened to a ship you send to scout beyond an uncharted wormhole. In spite of this tragic loss, Halsey and Ker'Tak order a large-scale offensive against Malkor's supply lines in the Orion Arm, assigning Admiral Benson to assist you. Benson is a good soldier, but is hardly pleasant to work with, as she fully blames you for her friend Blackwell's death.