Let's Play Spellcross! Update #8

[chzr]

0) Introduction
1) Mission 1
2) Mission 2
3) Missions 3 & 4 + retake.
4) Missions 5 & 6. Battle Sector #1 finished
5) Battle Sector #2
6) Battle Sector #3
7) Battle Sector #4, part 1
8) Battle Sector #4, part 2

Recruits as of update #7

Squad:                     Unit Type:                Codexer:

Yeesh's Rangers            Rangers                   Yeesh
Noodle's Commando          Commandos                 Flying Spaghetti Monster
Gondolin's Hummer          Hummer                    Gondolin
Forlorn Hope               Heavy Infantry            Fens
Azira's Infantry           Paranormal Infantry       Azira
Eklektyk's Infantry        Light Infantry            Eklektyk
Cassidy's M106             M106 (Artillery)          Cassidy
Lightbane's Leets          Commandos                 Lightbane
DramaPopcorn's M1          M1 Abrams                 DramaticPopcorn
Laclongquan's Inf.         Mortar Infantry           Laclongquan
Spekkio's Flamers          Flame-throwers            Spekkio

____________

So I decided to LP another tactical game, however, this one is rather unknown, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. I played this game many years ago but I never finished it and I don't remember much anyway, so I won't be smug about it then you. I'm also doing this for those who are looking for some nice tactical game because I'm almost sure most of you never heard about it (at least in America it should be completely unknown), but of course, I don't want to underestimate codexers.

There's little eng info on wikipedia. It's a 1997 game from Slovakia, despite poor sales, the game had quite positive reviews.
The plot is about invasion of Earth by units of 'Other-side', so nothing special, but that's not what is it about.

We are controlling forces of 'Alliance', so pretty much survivors of the invasion. Weird or not, enemies are actually all sort of fantasy races we know from games and books (I'd like to say more, but I don't know much more than you, all I can say is that first enemy units that we'll see are Orcs.). The game has some similarities with x-com. It contains research, units even gain experience and I think there are tactical/strategy parts.

Finally, there are 2 versions out there, Czech and English. I picked eng because it should be slightly updated and it's, well... English. However, I only found a ripped version so it'll be without intro and movies (if there are any.)

Anyway, stay tuned for the first update I'm currently working on with some basic explanation of the combat and so on.

 

[Gondolin]

Obscure European game is intriguing.

 

[spekkio]

Screenshots look like the shit.
I approve!

 

[Zdzisiu]

I finished Spellcross once, Polish version. It's a good game, tedious at times but good.

Shame you have the ripped version, the intro movie (only from Czech/Polish version) is awesome and the small cut-scenes in game are also nice. English version have shorter intro and no cut-scenes (as far as I can tell after playing it for 5h).

All in all, proceed gentleman, I will be watching.

 

[Gondolin]

Spellcross (czech intro)

 

[LazyD]

I just watched a trailer for this. Fucking looks really good. Gonna give it a try and ignore this LP as much as possible. Thanks for puttin this on my radar

 

[chzr]

Here we go!

Raep incoming.

Our objective is to get on the other side of the map, sounds simple, doesn't it? Also, captain Alexander (the single guy) must survive.

Ok, I'll try to explain what's up on this screenshot. That bar and those stars under the unit tab shows current experience. The yellow bar should be morale, the blue one shows action points and those red dots are a number of attacks.
Green bar is 'strength', so same thing as health. The 3 numbers under it stand for maximum, current and injured. Injuries work similar to jagged alliance, you have 'temporary' damage (here as injured) that can be healed (units can heal themselves spending all their APs), and permanent (here as 'dead'), that is healed after the mission.
The last 4 icons are attacks against unit types. Obviously light, heavy and flying, the shield is defense.

I guess you already noticed it's TB game :< Also, terrain matters a lot, hills grants you visibility, trees cover, you can move faster on roads etc.

Since it's a first mission, captain Alexander is extremely strong, he doesn't take permanent damage and enemies usually attack him first, so that'll help a lot. However, he is far from being unkillable (3 enemy units will tear him apart). On the right side of 'hud', you can see our target. As I mentioned before, these guys are orc. Good thing for us is that at this point, enemies attack only from close range. But again, that's not a win itself, because it takes only about one turn to get close enough for them.

As in other tactical games, there's never enough cation, so i shot few times and retreated.

As you can see, like in x-com, unit will use their remaining APs to shoot incoming enemies.

Some enemies appeared thirsty for Alexander's blood. The brown potatoes with legs are wolves. Notice when enemy unit is targeted (with mouse cursor over it) how the game highlights what attack is used and enemy defense rating. In the middle of the hud is how many APs and attack are left after the action is done.

First interesting thing is it seems like the "hit" factor is extremely random. Units can either just miss, do laughable damage or take 1/3 of enemy HPs.

We killed 2 units of Orcs, but another wolf and the starting Orcs (almost killed by Alexander) emerged. Alex got also slightly wounded. Enemy orcs HP bar shows how it works.

So we survived this encounter. Time to move out.

The objective is on far right, also the map looks quite large.

After few steps, we found some friendly soldiers that were willing to join us.

Encountered another orcs and wolves, even if light infantry got slightly wounded, Alex can kills most enemies with about 3-4 shots so it's not that hard.

After few more orcs along the road, our guys encountered THIS.

Looks like a gargoyle. Anyway, it managed to hit Alex but it looked more dangerous than it was.

After it was dead, some orcs and wolves attacked.

Half way through and so far, without any losses, that's p. good.

After few more orcs and wolves on the way, soldiers found this river. The yellow dots above those wolves is fortification. Units can fortify themselves if they stand more turns in one place, if they get hit, they lost those 'fortification' points instead of health.

Even if those wolves ran away, some unlucky soldiers got caught by orcs

After they joined me, I tried to get out with them but the orcs were faster. RIP.

This was a little bigger battle, but our forces managed to win. It's also interesting, that if enemy ai focuses on one target, it doesn't block it with units but attack and retreat so more units can attack.

We made our way to this crossing, killing few more orcs.

Nothing else was in the way, only some fortified orcs that didn't spot me so a ignored them.

And here we go.

Last orcs...

Another orcs appeared but i just ran to the evac zone with Alex.

Here is little view into 'strategy' part, more coming soon. Also, it looks like units can have names, so if anyone is interested 'leading' a unit, feel free to write it down. (you can see units we have so choose from them, anyone has balls to lead a light infantry?)

 

[Yeesh]

I remember playing this, unless my ancient mind is playing tricks on me. Eager to see more, and I'll volunteer for Yeesh's Rangers.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

The game looks good. When did it come out?

And sign me up, general. I'm ready to die for the cause of killing furfags.

 

[chzr]

The game looks good. When did it come out?

And sign me up, general. I'm ready to die for the cause of killing furfags.

1997 czech release, 1998 english.

Also, choose a unit to lead ^^.

 

[LazyD]

well I guess I won't be ignoring this LP as much as I'd like to.. I seem to not be Dosbox literate enough... as it keeps asking for the cd... shame too it looks like I'd have a lot of fun with this one..

 

[chzr]

well I guess I won't be ignoring this LP as much as I'd like to.. I seem to not be Dosbox literate enough... as it keeps asking for the cd... shame too it looks like I'd have a lot of fun with this one..

just imgmount the .iso (if you have same rip as me.) as D:

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Noodles' Commandos

 

[Zdzisiu]

Command for mounting cd rom in dosbox is as follow:

Mount c c:\ -t cdrom

Of course, you have to change the hdd letters to fit your settings.

And notice the spacebars. Also, the first letter c must be the same as the one you have as your imageDrive (the one with .iso mounted), you can check it in the spelcros.cd file in your SpellCross folder, open it with a notepad.

Btw, Veteran? I remember it being hard, really.

 

[LazyD]

ya i did some self help after i posted that and learned hour to do the -t cdrom. got it workin..

havin a lot of fun with it.

edit:

I don't have the same rip. Its .rar i found on some random site its only like 55mb. When i was trying to make it work I also dl'd a .iso and its liek 445mb.

I might install the .iso version for cut scenes and such.. its a thought..

Thanks again to op newfag for exposing me to this gem

 

[Twinkle]

Ah, Spellcross. Good memories. Surprisingly strong atmosphere despite outdated graphics and cheesy setting. Core gameplay was too simplistic as it encouraged to play defensively thanks to enormous bonus from cover. However, the game countered it with great variety of units and upgrades both for you and the enemy. I liked how game represented evolution of the conflict. For example, human army progressed from generic infantry, APCs and tanks to paranormal ninjas, laser cannons, power armor a la Fallout and jetpacks. Conversely, Forces of Darkness started using firearms and rocket launchers.

Don't expect it to be on par with X-COM or JA, though.

And don't forget to name one of the Destructors after me.

 

[chzr]

Yea, just finished 2nd mission and the cover is extremely effective. I guess destructor is some end game unit but if it can be upgraded from something feel free to take that ;P. Anyway, next update coming soon.

edit:

Thanks again to op newfag for exposing me to this gem

I might install the .iso version for cut scenes and such.. its a thought..

I found the iso too and it was the czech version. maybe you found another one ^^


Well next update ETA = 9 hours. stay tuned. ;P

 

[GarfunkeL]

It's a great game and quite challenging. Trying to balance reinforcements with new units and research is difficult enough, what with the counter-attacks and such and let's not forget that the game pulls no punches even in the first strategic map. Good luck!

 

[chzr]

So here is the 'strategy' part. Here, we manage stuff and either attack sectors or wait, it's TB too.

This is our income , the numbers mean that we have 12 money for 10 turns. I have put half of our income into research and started researching things called 'About magic'. Other options were encountered enemy units.

Here are our brave warriors.

So basically light infantry is basic unit surpassed by heavy infantry, heavy infantry is sort of all-rounder, rangers are defensive unit with good sight, commandos have good attack against light, mortar is... mortar but it's too expensive and hummer is fast scouting unit.
Because mortar was so expensive a bought another commandos and waited 2 turns.

There are 3 sectors we can attack, i picked the north one because of course, fuel and munitions = phat lewt.

I placed our units and went on the right hill. The idea was to wait some turns and see if we can kill some rushing enemies.

There was no need to hurry so while infantry was fortifying, hummer went to scout.

And soon, enemies spotted it and started to attack.

One more wolf riders. Those are actually quite dangerous because it's first enemy ranged unit and quite damaging. The flying gargoyle is just a scout, he can attack only flying units.

Lured few more orcs, although hummer took some damage in process.

After some more scouting, I found area with those warehouses. The objective is to spot all of them and to kill all enemies.

I don't know how 'agroing' works here but this doesn't look good.

I don't know what would happen if those units weren't fortified.

More fighting, some wolf riders appeared. Don't know if that gargoyle can land but he haven't done that so far.

Almost losing one infantry, i finally managed to kill everything. With all enemies down, i just took the hummer and scouted the last warehouse.

This one was close, i could have been raped by those orcs badly.

Any new volunteers?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

How did my boys do? I mean, they survived, and that's all well and good, but how much evil blood did we get on our blades!?!?

 

[Gondolin]

Sign me up. I'm willing to lead whatever unit you need.

 

[chzr]

How did my boys do? I mean, they survived, and that's all well and good, but how much evil blood did we get on our blades!?!?

Well every our unit is one level up. Actually, there's no kill counter and I have yet to figure how experience grows. It increases every hit, there may be a bonus with successful mission., that's all i can tell.

 

[Azira]

Signing up for fighting filthy orcses! Azira's light brigade is here to be abused and ultimately killed.

 

[Twinkle]

If I remember correctly xp is awarded for every enemy killed (not wounded!) so any unit performing finishing attack usually gets the most.

 

[Zdzisiu]

Small amount of xp is awarded for every hit on enemy, but a bigger amount is awarded to the unit which kills the enemy unit.

Btw, Yes, Gargoyles can land. You will find about it soon.