SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - strategy RPG from Fantasy General 2 devs

[ArchAngel]

I played it until 4am, it causes the one more turn syndrome. I do not think it has a lot of replayability but one run while learning how to play is fun.
Balance is off in many things and I hope they keep working on it.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Well, after giving this few hours in the morning, I have to say I'm liking it more than I was expecting to.

Too bad it seems to suffer from a certain lack of content/variety, because what's there is surprisingly solid.
Even the game visuals have a lot of charm.

No sure what to make of the alchemy system, though, It seems to want for me to "experiment" to come up with recipes and shit, but on the other hand these resources seem to valuable/rare enough to make the player fairly wary of wasting them.

 

[Harthwain]

Kind of sad to see how small-scale the engagements are. I'd love to see a game like this done on a really strategic scale, akin to big maps from Battle for Wesnoth, where it would possible to turn tactical advantages into strategical gains.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I'm a bit confused. Does it have a campaign with multiple scenarios/maps or is it just one big map for the whole game?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I'm a bit confused. Does it have a campaign with multiple scenarios/maps or is it just one big map for the whole game?

It has a single (but large and fairly detailed) map where different campaigns can take place.
It looks like according to your starting point and faction you can have fairly different experiences, not to mention a lot of quests and shit are procedural stuff.

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm not surprised people are confused, THQ did a shockingly bad job at marketing this game. Some people even give it a bad review because it isn't an RTS. That's totally coconuts of course, but that just goes to show how unclear it is what this game is about.

 

[ArchAngel]

Well, after giving this few hours in the morning, I have to say I'm liking it more than I was expecting to.

Too bad it seems to suffer from a certain lack of content/variety, because what's there is surprisingly solid.
Even the game visuals have a lot of charm.

No sure what to make of the alchemy system, though, It seems to want for me to "experiment" to come up with recipes and shit, but on the other hand these resources seem to valuable/rare enough to make the player fairly wary of wasting them.

Not just for alchemy but also for Grimoire upgrade stuff, they just tell you to get something with no or very little instructions on how to do it. I mean people are going to write down all recipe at some point and put it in a wiki.. it is a bit irritating.
As for resources, I get a lot. Game is very slow, I am like 100 turns in and only getting my heroes close to lvl 10 and very slowly progressing. I was only able to move my Tower twice so far into better area but I don't have a clue what is optimal way to play. I pissed off one of the circle mage factions (necro one) and his stacks are super strong and hard to fight vs. He has tier 3 units while I got a mix of t1 and t2

 

[Skorpion]

tl;dr If you liked master of magic or age of wonders 1-2 then this is a definite buy, if you didnt like those games then avoid for now

Alright my impressions after 8 hours would be this is the game I wish Age of Wonders 3 had been but wasn't. It seems the developers looked closely at what made AoW 1 and 2 so fun and went with that. Its not a copy but its so close it feels like the true AoW3 I wish I had gotten instead of the souless game that turned out to be. They also seem to have looked closely at some of the funnest parts of the original Masters of Magic game and included those as well.

Im playing the first scenario in the campaign on standard difficulty with a Artificer and going in completely blind. Not sure if there are guides/recipes etc online yet but Im not looking anything up this first playthrough. That said its fairly intuitive, rune making is basically looking at color combinations on items and ingredients and combining them in different ways to see what you could get. Fairly simple and I had no problems figuring that out personally.

Spell research is fairly straight forward. Research what you have unlocked and new things get unlocked. Im not sure if its random each playthrough as to what spells unlock when as this is my first playthrough so we will see.

Units are actually really interesting and fun, you can mix and match whatever you want inside a stack (no moral malus for goblins hanging out with humans for example) and stacks are kept very small so you dont have big doom-stack battles which I prefer. Im up to 4 in a stack plus a hero but the undead mage guy can have 7 total in his stacks so not sure if that increases or undead just get larger stacks to start. Im 11 weeks in so not too far.

Art is beautiful and really pulls me into their world. The handcrafted world map is full of character and interest. These feel like HOMM maps from back in the day rather than the generic procedurally generated shit that always feels AI-art, passable but just not right. Unit art and effects are charming without being overcomplicated.

Music is ambient and inoffensive but also not very interesting or unique.

UI is lean and to the point but not so stark as to feel out of place in the fantasy world, Solasta Im glaring at you with this comment.

Challenge isnt too hard so far but I am just now getting into it with the undead mage faction and I lost a stack to destroy his invading stack. I was able to revive my hero afterwards so it wasnt a huge deal and he left me alone after that although again Im only 7+ hours in and cant speak much to challenge until Ive won/lost my first attempt.

Finally the randomized adventures are well written and simple. They make the world feel a bit more alive and fleshed out as they are handcrafted but spawn proceduraly. Not sure how well this will hold up in repeated playthroughs but the writing on the tin says there are a tonnage of them so hopefully they wont get repetitive fast. I do wish there was a separate mini-quest journal as it can get really confusing who needs to go where and some quests require you to return to x and unless you just memorize that fact you may never complete it later.

So these my first impressions for now. I would say Ive gotten my money's worth already as I will be definitely playing this past the 1 dollar/1 hour ratio I judge games on at the most basic level. Hope this helps some here make a decision one way or the other with a bit more information going in.

 

[ArchAngel]

Nice write up, I will add a bit more info. You can combine different faction units but there are racial buffs that you lose on if you do. For example Goblin shaman gives a passive bonus to goblin units. Beasts and goblins can get pack tactics perk that does not do anything for humans in the team. Multiple factions have heal spells but it does nothing for Undead that cannot be healed. and stuff like that.
Also I found a non caster Hero to lead one of my stacks and it is nor a random nobody but a full companion with a backstory and whole quest page in your Grimoire. I have not seen this before in MoM, HoMM or AoW games. Some of the ideas in this game are excellent. Also your mobile mage tower has a lot of upgrades and the whole system is very cool.

Combat is also pretty good, it is not simple. One small decision can mean losing units in combat. I lost a few lvl 5 + (even 10+) and it hurts as lvl 10+ units even if tier 1 can have some nasty abilities that you lose access to. This is actually first time I am not just looking to fill all my stacks with highest tier I can find as lvl 10 tier 1 is more powerful that just recruited lvl 1 tier 2 unit or even lvl 1 tier 3.

 

[ArchAngel]

Pro tip - either be an Alchemist or hire some Alchemist dudes as your healers and level them up. They suck ass initially, especially compared to the gobbo shamans, but some of the potions they can get at higher levels are nuts.

I am (ab)using a lot healing food, fire elemental pots, explosive pots, +3 range and no range penalty for ranged pots and sacred water pots vs undead which is most of my enemies. Using potions and that stuff is just 1 action and can be done with any of your guys and there is no limit to how many per turn you can use, only limit is free action points of your troops. They are especially good for healing troops as healing costs 1 action but ends the turn so I first use pots and then heal.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I don't really care about there being 1 map as long as campaign is good. I almost never play a game a 2nd time anymore, I have way too many games to play and I am going to die with a backlog, I don't need to play some game over and over again unless its some epic shit like Icewind Dale, and I doubt this is that.

 

[Alienman]

Fun game so far. Long time since I played a game like this. It reminds me a lot of Fallen Enchantress but much better executed.

 

[ArchAngel]

Fun game so far. Long time since I played a game like this. It reminds me a lot of Fallen Enchantress but much better executed.

It is way better than that shit game.

I found a crazy upgrade for my tower. At one point all your buildings in tower can get enchantments. One of these (which is super expensive and you need to find components for it somewhere) is to make all Beasts under your control Followers which means they cost Zero gold or mana upkeep.. which means you can have infinite amount of Beast armies which is crazy because Beasts are not any less powerful than others. You can summon magical ranged beasts and recruit melee beasts from Kennel in your tower.

 

[thesheeep]

I'm not surprised people are confused, THQ did a shockingly bad job at marketing this game. Some people even give it a bad review because it isn't an RTS. That's totally coconuts of course, but that just goes to show how unclear it is what this game is about.

That's true, but you also have to keep in mind this was a 10 people dev team.
THQ threw only the absolute minimum amount of resources at the project and the lead dev said they had to fight for even those scraps.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

It also looked quite cheap on a quick glance due to asset reuse from Spellforce 3. I'm surprised at how it actually turned out.

 

[Lacrymas]

I like it quite a lot and there are only 1 and a half things I can complain about at this point. The big one is that defending is too powerful, there is almost zero reason to attack anyone in melee unless you've flanked them or you kill them with the first hit. Originally, I thought it would be the other way around, i.e. you always have to attack first because retaliation is triggered after getting hit, but it turns out that does more damage to your units as opposed to just defending. Not only do you get damage reduction for the entire duration of the enemy's turn, you also can't get flanked, which is kookoo bananas. This incentivizes having a ranged-heavy army with minimal amount of melee support so they can hold the line. I know the idea is to trade action points favorably with the enemy, i.e. you attack them first to get rid of their actions for the next turn and then you can attack freely, but that only works well in a 1v1 situation. Maybe it's different once you get better units than just goblins, though. The eh thing is that there aren't enough quests and enemies to get a city's reputation up, necessitating putting an apprentice's lodge next to their taverns or whatever. Which is bizarre since you do nothing for a city and get max rep after 2 weeks ;d That's how I got Siebenburg's maxed.

Also, alchemy lets you summon elementals behind enemies' backs and it's always hilarious doing so. This isn't a complaint.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

So the Konsensus is that this worth buying yes? Some sort of Fallen Enchantress/Endless Legend, 4X with tactical layer?

Are all faction similar with tech difference like Civ game or is it more Endless Legend?

 

[ArchAngel]

I like it quite a lot and there are only 1 and a half things I can complain about at this point. The big one is that defending is too powerful, there is almost zero reason to attack anyone in melee unless you've flanked them or you kill them with the first hit. Originally, I thought it would be the other way around, i.e. you always have to attack first because retaliation is triggered after getting hit, but it turns out that does more damage to your units as opposed to just defending. Not only do you get damage reduction for the entire duration of the enemy's turn, you also can't get flanked, which is kookoo bananas. This incentivizes having a ranged-heavy army with minimal amount of melee support so they can hold the line. I know the idea is to trade action points favorably with the enemy, i.e. you attack them first to get rid of their actions for the next turn and then you can attack freely, but that only works well in a 1v1 situation. Maybe it's different once you get better units than just goblins, though. The eh thing is that there aren't enough quests and enemies to get a city's reputation up, necessitating putting an apprentice's lodge next to their taverns or whatever. Which is bizarre since you do nothing for a city and get max rep after 2 weeks ;d That's how I got Siebenburg's maxed.

Also, alchemy lets you summon elementals behind enemies' backs and it's always hilarious doing so. This isn't a complaint.

I do this, I have 2 tanky melee and rest are ranged or casters (mostly white damage casters as undead are toughest enemies I must fight). It mostly works well but I lose one of those two melee from time to time. All goblin armies are not bad, goblins get powerful abilities at level up. For example I kept one goblin archer alive from the start and he now can attack twice per battle with white damage arrows instead of normal attack.. that lets him do pretty good damage vs many enemies. And Goblin shamans are good, they get two healing abilities and get fireball later which lets them choose if they want to attack with white or elemental damage depending on what are enemy resistances. Combine that with shamans giving passive buffs to all Goblin units and everyone can get pack tactics it makes them fairly powerful. I have yet to see more tier 2 and tier 3 units from their group. I would hope you can combine Orcs with Goblins.

As for cities, every one I reached lets you get quests there that levels up reputation with them pretty fast. I found a king's seat and managed to get gud with them, now they offer me their tier 3 knights and priests.
Yea summoning elementals 2 squares from enemy you want to kill is fun tactic. They get 3 attacks from perfect range for max damage and then enemy goes after them wasting actions and life on unit that goes away after battle anyways.

 

[ArchAngel]

Also I managed to piss off Undead faction enough that guy declared war on me. As a result two stacks with tier 4 and tier 3 units spawn 2 turns away from your tower... so be careful in your games as this is a stupid mechanic.. Now I got to avoid them for 4 turns until 4 pots of Sacred flasks are being built (and still I am not sure if that is going to be enough for 2 stacks and I only got one stack of units close by and without those flasks that one cannot beat even one enemy stack).

 

[Lacrymas]

So the Konsensus is that this worth buying yes? Some sort of Fallen Enchantress/Endless Legend, 4X with tactical layer?

Are all faction similar with tech difference like Civ game or is it more Endless Legend?

It's like King's Bounty with non-stacking units but more than 1 army. You do build stuff in your tower, move it around and can place some structures in the overworld, but that's it. There are no factions like in EL or Gladius per se, there are different races, but you don't select one at the start, some units are whatever race they happen to be (you start out with goblins for example). Some races give bonuses, some maluses (like goblins). But yeah, the KKK is that it's pretty good and it will hold your attention for a while.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

It's like King's Bounty with non-stacking units

So instead of open ended free game, it is like KB semi open world style RPG? Looks good.

How is the tactical layer?

 

[ArchAngel]

It's like King's Bounty with non-stacking units

So instead of open ended free game, it is like KB semi open world style RPG? Looks good.

How is the tactical layer?

It is pretty Open world, it is just you have a main quest that is only way to actually get a victory screen but it has like 6 things you need to do to accomplish it but you only need to do 3 of those so you are left with freedom to do what you want. It is pretty cool. Otherwise map you plan on is very large, I have played like 120+ turns and I barely left human lands. By this speed I will need 300 turns or more to finish this, and that is if I rush it and not go for conquer everyone option.

Tactical layer is excellent with 50+ different enemies, tons of special abilities (both active and passive) to learn how to use or play against and very tactical with focus on good positioning. I just wish they showed us more info, like I have seen my guys get high ground benefits when attacking but when moving to such spots you don't get any info about it.

Also this game is not really 4x, whoever marketed it as such is stupid. If standard Spellforce is a RPG/RTS hybrid this is a HoMM/RPG hybrid.

 

[Lacrymas]

It is a 4X game, but the building aspect is very limited and you don't have multiple cities/towers. It's kind of like Age of Wonders on a static map and a single city. It sounds worse than it is.

 

[ArchAngel]

It is a 4X game, but the building aspect is very limited and you don't have multiple cities/towers. It's kind of like Age of Wonders on a static map and a single city. It sounds worse than it is.

It is even less 4x than HoMM series as there you get multiple cities and get to manage static and stable resource income. Also this game has no diplomacy. Your reputation with other Circle Magi can go up or down but they didn't even implement a screen to show you all their reputations and a way to talk to them outside quests (not to mention trade or anything else).

 

[Lord of Riva]

without reading the thread: Is it good?

To many games, not enough time.

EDIT: At least I can rely on having people with knowledge on games for the ratings, I missed that. Thanks!