SpellForce: Conquest of Eo

[Gusington]

^I just tried that last night as well, including moving my tower for the first time...but the rest of my armies were not strong enough to take the rest of that factions nodes :/

[devoncop]

^I just tried that last night as well, including moving my tower for the first time...but the rest of my armies were not strong enough to take the rest of that factions nodes :/

They can have some tough units guarding the node so it's no walkover.

[Gusington]

^I noticed last night 

I only played for about a half hour last night as I was really tired and could barely think straight, but I feel like I hit a point in the game where I don't know what I'm doing anymore and lost focus.

How to regain focus here?

[devoncop]

You have a choice here. Either concentrate on a side quest given by a city and visit all the locations that are linked to the quest to complete them in turn to improve relations and get units promoted ....or...decide to laser focus on the main quest and concentrate all your heroes and stronger units in one stack and try and take out the All Fire nodes one by one.

That gives you your best shot of beating the garrisons.

My strongest stack now has a power of about 650 and that is proving enough so far to take on the Undead stacks in the South to give you some idea.

[Gusington]

Hmm ok. I also need to explore the map further. I have tons of side quests to do but I am not strong enough to do some yet. It also looks like new parts of the map may be inaccessible for now?

[devoncop]

Hmm ok. I also need to explore the map further. I have tons of side quests to do but I am not strong enough to do some yet. It also looks like new parts of the map may be inaccessible for now?

I haven't come across any inaccessible parts as yet though some routes are quite circuitous via passes etc.
Make sure you take the "consume corpses" upgrade for any undead you are fielding as it restores their health when they eat the enemy dead on the battlefield 

[Gusington]

^Yes - quite circuitous 

[devoncop]

Just got to a brick wall down south.

Have got close to the second All Fire node but there are 3 or 4 demonic stacks walking around with a power of about 700....

I have 2 stacks of about 650 but am pretty outclassed and haven't got to the All Fire garrison yet....

May be a game over.

I probably spent too long fannying around v the Independents...

[Gusington]

^I have definitely been fannying  around way too much.

[FarAway Sooner]

I took the plunge this weekend and I am LOVING this game!  It is a crazy deep combination of RPG and 4X that I'm not sure I've ever quite seen before.

The floating castle (with resources that typically deplete over time) and the ability to construct smaller "Apprentice Lodges" keep it from turning into a micromanagement nightmare (like so many 4x games do), but the endless amounts of tower customization (15 rooms to build, lots of blueprints to choose from, and 1-3 extensions/enhancements for each room), the intense role played by crafting ingredients, the balancing act between gathering and fighting, the way quests are tied to various tower upgrades...  It's all very intriguing.

Like Gus, I've spent a lot of time figuring out what's going on and I've been spam-saving on multiple occasions as I figure out "Oh, I really don't have any way to fight these particular guys and win".  Like Gus, I've felt like I have little idea what I'm doing or what I should be doing next.  A few learnings:

• Summoning a Wisp to go scouting early on works very well.  They can Fly, which means they can cross mountains and rivers, making it very hard for enemy raiders to hunt them down.
• It takes a lot of mana to move your tower.  Once you figure out how to move your tower...
• Even well-promoted T1 units can't hold a torch to newly hired T2 units.  I'm just turning my T1 units into farmers and miners.
• I have no idea how the system works, but you can customize your Wizards.  So far, there are only 3 classes to choose from (the Alchemist/Artificer/Necromancer split) but there are also 5 or 6 "schools of magic/play styles" to choose from.

[devoncop]

Agree with all your observations though I will say that fully upgraded tier 1 units can still make a mess of certain tier two units.

You are right about the depth of the game though. It is lice an iceberg....what you see on the surface is only a hint of what lies beneath.

I am taking a break from this for a bit to play Pathfinder War of the Righteous but I will definitely be returning to Spellforce.

BTW it runs really smoothly for me with no bugs I have found which is pretty impressive for a new game.

[Gusington]

I have also put it aside temporarily while I consider getting what looks like a competitor, Shields of Loyalty.

[devoncop]

Oh heck.....is that another one I am going to get dragged into 

[solops]

Why do you move your tower? Is it a retreat? Have not played yet, still playing Master of Magic.

[FarAway Sooner]

You only have one "city", and it's your magical tower.  Most (not all) resource sites within your domain (typically a 3-5 hex radius from your tower during the game) get depleted over time, so you'll need to move if you want to keep your traditional resource flows up.

In addition to the traditional resources (money, mana, etc.), another really important resource in the game are ingredients.  You use these to cast or learn important spells, to build new rooms in your castle, to craft magical items, etc.  You can get some ingredients (and magic items) simply by winning battles or completing quests, but as a Wizard, it's very important to find the right ingredients to help you cast more powerful magics.  So if you need to harvest resources from a particular region, you have to fly your tower there.

Your tower is a bit of a cross between a "base" (a la X-Com) and a "city" (a la Civilization), with limited selections but lots of customization options large and small.  So it seems early on, in any event.  There are a few other ways to establish local domains, but all come at a cost, so decisions about when to move your tower take some planning.

You can hire/acquire new units from time to time, but without the ability to spam cities, resource and ingredient access limit you to what feels like a handful of small parties, as opposed to one stack of doom and then tons of tiny garrisons.