Spellforce: Conquest of Eo by Owned by Gravity is a deep turn-based strategy game that is a bit hard to describe and plays much differently than most games in the genre. To help kick off your first run, here are ten tips I have after over 300 hours spent with Spellforce: Conquest of Eo.
1) Start the game at Goldenfields with the Alchemist or Artificer. The Necromancer and the other starting areas don’t showcase the game as well and should be saved for later play-throughs.
Goldenfields is categorized as the “easy start” for good reason. It is easier to get started here than it is in the other regions, but that does not mean it is boring or uninteresting. Instead, it is one of the most flexible starting areas and has the most possibilities of where to go and what to do. So even players that prefer starting on higher difficulties should still choose Goldenfields as their first region.
All three of the mage types are interesting, but the Necromancer is less able to interact with certain subsystems than the Alchemist and, to a lesser extent, the Artificer. The Alchemist and the Artificer really give the best introduction to the game.
2) Try to keep your initial goblins alive as long as possible.
The initial starting units are generally not very strong and, depending on the starting area, will quickly and easily be outmatched. However, they do have a very handy trait that makes them economically unmatched in the early game: the “Follower” trait. This means they require no maintenance. The hard part is keeping them alive. They are weak and will frequently be pushed in front of enemy unit stacks in order to keep archers and other back liners alive. They can easily be replaced by just recruiting more goblins. However, none of the new goblins will have the Follower trait, which means each and everyone will end up being a drain on income that can be avoided as long as the Follower goblins remain alive!
3) Every stack should have a healer, and goblin shamans, with the right upgrades, can serve that role well all the way through the end game.
Units do not heal completely after a fight, and the base healing rate for units per day is not great. This can be patched up with upgrades, and I usually do so, but it is even better to get a unit with the Healer trait or in-battle healing capabilities. The exact units used will vary depending on the game’s start and how it develops, but an option that is available from the earliest part of the game is the goblin shaman. While it has the same weaknesses as other goblins, it has the advantage of improving other goblins if they are in the same stack and doesn’t have the same scaling issues as goblin archers and warriors. While they are fragile, they can pick up some very strong abilities that turn them into healing powerhouses and they are one of the few starting units that can be useful well into the late game.
4) Try to build a tower room that provides units before moving out of the starting area to avoid awkward situations.
Many of the starting regions feature a nearby city that has a relationship reward that provides a room that allows units to be trained in the tower. Being able to replace units from the tower will save a lot of money and it is likely that, by the time the tower is ready to be moved out of the initial region, it will be important to recruit Tier 2 units to replace dying or overly weak Tier 1 units. This issue can be temporarily avoided by finding the right unit camps (orc or human camps are decent), but getting a unit room in the tower makes this unnecessary and will save a lot of stress later.
5) Rooting is the best status effect in the early game and can win fights that would otherwise be impossible.
Spellforce: Conquest of Eo has a variety of solid status effects but none of them really compare to Rooting in the early game. While not all enemy units are vulnerable to it (especially look out for enemies with elemental resistance) it is an excellent way to defeat enemies that would normally wipe the floor with an army. Being able to lock down an enemy bruiser while more vulnerable enemies are killed can be the difference between victory and defeat. I usually put my Immobilization/rooting gear on my apprentices if I find it, and it is one of the first things I try to craft when playing an Artificer.
6) Need gold? Go to the northern mountains and use an apprentice to claim one or more mines.
When transitioning armies from Tier 1 units to Tier 2 units and increasing the total number of stacks, it is not uncommon to start struggling with finances. While there are some other gold sources and even mines in other parts of the map, the mountains on the northern side are particularly dense with them. Some of these mine defenders are… challenging, so it is wise to be judicious about which ones to seize. Regardless, it is very much worth it to send at least one apprentice stack to the north in order to deal with any monetary issues.
7) Always try to spend the early game holding a construction site. You’ll need it sooner than you think.
The construction site appears to have limited value because of its finite uses as well as the fact that it does not provide any money itself. However, the tower quest that upgrades the capabilities of tower rooms requires that a construction site be somewhere in the player’s domain. It is very easy to simply never put a construction site in the domain or use it briefly and move away from it later. But it is essential to get the tower quest reward that comes from the construction site and, by the time it opens up, it is quite possible the tower will be too far away from any of the construction sites needed for the quest. So, claim a construction site early and keep it claimed until this quest is completed.
8) Try to have extra stacks ready for the second apprentice and hero.
The first recruited apprentice comes with their own stack of follower units. Unfortunately, the second apprentice and hero units, which appear not too long after the first, do not have any followers. Getting a stack ready to go fetch the second apprentice when proficiency level 10 is reached or being ready for the arrival of the hero after turn 40, can keep the forward momentum going and is likely to pay off through faster resource exploitation and development of overall power level. Going bankrupt while doing this helps nobody, but maintaining enough gold income to pay for two or three stacks is generally good practice and will pay off in the long run.
9) Do not anger the Circle Mages before they can be handled.
While most players will eventually build army stacks that are strong enough to handle anything the Circle mages throw at them, it is possible to get on the Circle mages’ bad side and lose the game as a result. In general, it is worth doing any quests that they give, avoiding entering their territory, and refraining from attacking their army stacks. In the event there is a particularly hostile Circle mage threatening your borders or attacking held locations, it may actually be most wise to just relocate. It is not mandatory to be in any specific part of the map and, if it is not possible to handle the heat a Circle mage is bringing, simply relocate until the time is right to bring them bloody, magical revenge.
10) Spellforce: Conquest of Eo is a modern masterpiece, in my humble opinion. Enjoy the ride!
While I beta-tested Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, there was no guarantee that I would like it or even play it for the amount of time I did. What pushed me to do so was the sheer quality of the game and the way it riffs on and innovates the strategy genre. I feel that, on the whole, the 4X genre has gotten a bit stale and Conquest of Eo has done an excellent job of shaking things up. It is both fun and refreshing and even with over 300 hours of play. I expect to have a lot more fun with the game in the future as well.
One of the ways to extend the experience and enjoyment of the game is by simply avoiding doing everything in a single run. While technically it is possible to play until exploring the entire map, discovering every site, and making friends with every city, this is unnecessary. The victory conditions are set as they are for a reason, and by finding the best and most fun ways to accomplish them, it is possible to extend the game’s fun for a long time to come.
WE HOPE THIS HELPS YOU AS YOU VENTURE INTO THE WORLD OF SPELLFORCE: CONQUEST OF EO.
Ready? Set. eXplore!
