SpellForce: Conquest of Eo

Nice game with excellent soundtrack and artwork, that is quite innovative in how the player interacts with the map by means of his flying mage tower. Highly recommended if you like games like HoMM, AoW and Disciples but with a fresh take on the genre that focuses more on quality instead of quantity.

A unique TBT exploration game with rpg elements. A beatiful map mixed with a decent story and plenty of units to play with. While it will take a few failures to understand some mechanics the game has a well carfted relaxing experience.

I friggin' love this game. But I also know it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. S:CoE was made by MoM fanboys. That's very obvious. So if you're a MoM fanboy too, like me, I'm here to tell you you can't go wrong with this purchase, even at the full asking price. If you're not, though--and especially if you're expecting something like the previous Spellforce games--you're going to be not only disappointed, but probably pissed off. It is not those games. It's a turn-based MoM reimagining. But get this: imho, it's BETTER than MoM. Don't get me wrong. It's a different game. There aren't nine different mages you assume the part of. There are three archetypes you can either adopt as-is or mix and match to your liking. You are a faceless mage ruling from on high; you will never see your own pic in the game, and except for the monsters you fight all the personages in the game are highly abstracted. Everything is communicated through (very competent) text and some splash screens that get used over and over. However you might feel about that (it's nowhere near as bad as it sounds), the strategy part is extremely well done. There is just enough variety in the skills and spells to keep things interesting, but not so much as to overwhelm you, as in AoW 3 & 4. The unit count of your armies is typically low as well, making it possible to micromanage battles without devoting a weekend to each one. Battles play out in minutes rather than hours. You won't be tempted to autoresolve to avoid the time sink of big battles like you might in other games. Also unlike MoM and AoW, you do not run around capturing and developing towns. You have a mage tower that you can pick up and move around (via a spell), and indeed you HAVE to do that as your resources in an area will run out over time. This is an interesting mechanic, and a welcome change of pace from the same ol', same ol' Civ formula. Dang, I'm out of space. Get this game if it sounds at all interesting. PS: No bugs.

Needs a Random Map Generator and more factions…

I'm a big fan of the Spellforce franchise since the first game (and I actually think the third is the best), so this game came like a pleasent surprise. I think it's mostly fanservice, particularly if you liked the writing of the circle mages in 3, however, is it lovely made and well written fanservice! I gladly spent over 80 hours in it :) I would have given it 5 stars if it had an actual main story, maybe something leading up to the convocation, however, even experiencing the worldbuilding via all those small quests was very nice!