Spellforce

BlitzKrieg

Started playing this a while ago, pretty good, not great but good enough its a european rpg/strategy game (think its german) which has an interesting way of melding the two.

I know its german cause one of the bugs is that it aint fully translated (some dialogue is in german) also i started a while ago stopped cause it took 2 hours to do one mission and i had exams, back now and i'm finding it much easier...


The idea is your a rune warrior, someone who can summon soldiers etc from ancient monuments, so in every level you go to there is usually a monument to either Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Dark Elves, Orks, and goblins. But as well as the the monument you need a base to allow access to more complicated heroes. So u gotta build a base around the monument.

The strategy side of it is a bit average, the fact you can mix and match armies from two different races is great and can give great tactical advantage (best so far is a dwarf/elf mixture) but each race on its own is really crappy. The controls a tad iffy, youcan make formations and teams but simple controls like patrol and gaurd are difficult to remember. The early missions are truly huge, which is kind of annoying. The games tacticul element lies with awareness. The enemy will send out scouts to search the map, kill the scout before he informs his base of your base and they dont attack. But the size of the scout force gets bigger each time you kill them, so u have a time limit to put your plan into action until th scout force turns into an army.

This sounds great, and at first it is. But in later levels its a real pain in the a** cause very quickly the game has you fighting more then one enemy base. For example the 4th or 5th level has you against about 6 orc bases, this level is huge and near impossible at first. You have all the human abilities (new abilities are gained via rune stones which you place in your characters personal tablet) but you let one orc scout escape and all six bases attack...*gulp* so the result for me was pushing up to a point in the level where there is a bottle neck or similer choke point they have to pass and fill it full of archer towers and healing towers then back them up with more archers and knights. Then while they are holding the enemy at bay you replenish your force use your hero to pinpoint the next choke point and push to that point. Rinse and repeat. very atmospheric when there is a wall of orcs coming at you (sadly the game has 2 flaws with this...a) it eats up ram like no tomarrow and can slow down very quickly b)you cant build walls in the game, they would BE BLOODY USEFULL, but no you cant) The main flaw strategy wise isthe lack of artillary or large widespread damage units, even the magicians are specific attack spells. No catapults or other wide spread damage guys to break a wave of undead/orcs/goblins/ other nasties. The upside to this is some very LOTR style few men against the swarm. Of course the humans seem to suck, they are the most balanced of all the sides (good hand to hand and distant) but if you find a elf and dwarf monument on the same map (actually quite common) then you will find a line of elite or defender dwarves in front of elven archers is far more effective. The later levels are even more ridiculous, one map has you facing 5 undead generals and then another HUGE undead army after that (of course there is a sneaky trick i will explain later)


The RPG side is really good though, i'm not a huge rpg player but this is making me want to. the levels are all inter connectable and some have towns or forts with merchants etc. In each one you can find side quests and little bits of info that can really help your game, stuff like example the Spider master in one you have to choose wether to help him and then he will help you, or kill him to avenge a father whose kid he killed (I cheated and did a save and went both ways, better to help spider king, but you feel like a jerk) Not only are there many things to do RPG style (small quests and so on) but it fits well with your RTS, your character can pick up on his journeys rune stones to add to your armies, some cannot be found unless you do these side quest (The Forester and wheat farm are very usefull and i recommand you look for them) They dont diverge the rpg/rts elements so during some huge battle you can pick an item needed by some blacksmith to make a cool weapon, so after the battle you use a rune marker (save point + teleporter) to drop back to that town and give him the stuff and then plop back. The only annoyance is that you cant plop out during a battle because if you leave a level everything you summon disapear grrrr.

You can summon Heroes at the Hero monument up to 6 can travel with you and again you pick up their rune stones. These are great and can be used as generals in your armies (due to being ultra strong, or have lots of healing power) or just to bck you up. The downside the only character that can be customized is yourself, everyone else comes with pre-set stats. You can give Heroes new armour and weapons but not spells or level them up. But you find new rune stones along the way. Some levels have been designed so specific areas for Heroes only but overall the two areas have mixed the best of most games.

TITANS also exist in the game, kinda semi-Heros, they are BIg monsters that each race cn summon. But you can summon only one and if he dies you dont get anymore for the level. Humans have Griffen Riders which use a mixture of spells and attacks. Elves have (ahh cant remember wha they are called) Tree like creatures which have weaker attacks but have healing and invincibility spells. Dwarves have big Rock monster which is ultra strong and casts spells to make others around him strong. The problems with the Titans is that they can die too easily...Not beefy enough, most of my heroes are stronger but i can resummon them as many times as i want. Also you cant direct the spells, they just get blasted out whenever enemies are close which is annoying for the Griffen Rider cause he normally hits the wrong guys...grrrr


There are most of the usual stuff, army limits, experiance, a interesting day night time system on it which can make night time defence a pain (shorter range of sightm, also some units are weaker during the night etc


Dieing is interesting, your sent to the last Rune stone save point thingy with some lost experiance points. Also something like half a day has passed so if you died during a huge enemy assualt it will be over and your base is either in RUINS or being destroyed. kinda clever. but 9 times out of 10 without you any sort of assault on the enemy will fail unless you outnumber the enemy 10 to 1. Where it will still be going on with most of your troops dead...

but my min gripes are:

-The lack of artillary
-The lack of development for fellow heroes
-The crappy TITANS
-The actual lack of choice for good or evil,your good but whatever RUNE stone you find you can use, like ORCS or GOBLINS (havnt found any mouments though yet.) But the cool aspect is if you summon a ORC army and a Human army you will have to keep them seperate or else they will kill each other.
-the loss of your army everytime you leave




Now for those reading, here is a sneaky trick which if you feel would ruin your game then ignore

Its really annoying when in the later levels you start to build a base just o have waves of scouts and then...if they find out about you. A HUGE WAVE OF MONSTERS. here is how to easily avoid all that. sadly it will only really work in later levels so your main goal in early levels is to pump your character ALOT put him on the front line of most fights. Then when you feel he can kill at least 10 baddies on his own without problem (Berserker is great for this trick) perform the following when you enter each level. DO NOT BUILD A BASE> DONT TOUCH THE MONUMENT. only open a hero monument if the level has one and then with your heroes explore the map, perform all the rpg quests etc if they have any. And then hunt down the enemy bases, kill all the baddies inside (normally only 5-20 at the moment) and burn the buildings down. You see they will only start producing troops when you do. Therefore without your base you have very few enemy who are easy to kill. Repeat for all the bases you CAN reach and easily destroy on your own (usually 1 or 2 are near impossible alone) then proceed to build base, it tends to be alot easier now without worrying about 6 huge armies and only 1 or 2. This is a life saver in the undead levels (ALOT OF UNDEAD)

p.s course with the hype for ground control 2 i've started replaying that...and i have to complete X2 aswell ...too many LONG TERM GAMES!!! MUST BUY ACTION GAME SOON

BlitzKrieg

forgot to add details about units...sadly i only got to three races


Humans:

You got a variety of knights from light recon ones up to heavy armour ones and then a paladan (who is a heavy knight AND a healer) YOur magicians are mentallist which try to confuse enemies and boost moral (they suck) and you have two type of crossbow men the recon ones and the stronger defender ones. Units can be upgraded various buildings and can gain new abilities (like a fire sword for the heavy knight)

Your Resources are annoying as Humans need so many for a good army: Wood, Stone, Food (used for increasing army size) magic power, iron.

Your Titan is the Griffen who is allright but like the Humans tries to balance between magic and combat. Humans can collect food like elves do with their hunting (see Elves for complaint which applies here) but can grow grain instead which is usefull. The main pain with humans is wood. Cut it down and it doesnt grow back (yet Iron does WTF?) so you end up scourign the land dry for enough wood for your army (and it just so happens the lat bit of wood is behind that huge orc army...crap.



Elves


Elves are noticable weaker in combat but they got damn good archers. There Magic users are also the most usefull. The Druid Heals while the frostQueen is great defence wise as they freeze enemies, (a small group of these with archer towers can kill an enemy assault) But once you get the iron armoury that you get the Protector and Wanderer, The protector is the closest elves have at a close range fighter who is any good, but can be magically upgraded to have magic spells while fighting. The Wanderer though is brilliant, it is a dam good archer, but also it shoots arrows (if upgraded) which freeze enemies while also hurting them. Hence i have these babies backingup my dwarves.

Elves need less resources then humans, wood, food and magic leaves. Course you'll need Iron for the Iron armoury, which i'm not sure but at moment my elves cant mine iron and rely on humans or dwarves to do it. The main pain with elves is that they collect food via HUNTING or BERRY GATHERING. Hunting is a pain cause they hunt anywhere even (in many cases) in enemy bases, i've been made aware by orcs not by their scouts but by my hunter chasing a pig into their base (stupid bitch) and berries give very little and run out too soon. Great thing is you can build forresters which replant trees, unlike the humans.


The Elf Titan the big tree thingy is great support as it heals and all, and it can still hold its own in fighting, but its the weaker of the three titans i have seen.



Dwarves

I love Dwarves,they have beefy little F*ckers who can take a beating and dish it back Warriors are fast and have cool Axe moves which hurt all the bad guys around them. Course the closest they have to long range attack is the defender f*cking his hammer at everyone but the fact that the defender is still an evil **** up close makes up for this in so many ways. THey have BattlePriests their magic guy, who is a healer and still a vicous killer. And the Elite can get a anti dark magic shield which is great cause they are the frontline those tough buggers. I still need to find the elder the last unit for dwarves so i assume he is their offensive magic guy,

Dwarf's rule simply cause of their resource, Stone, Food, Iron, Moonstone. All easy to find and all replenish over time. Dwarfs have pig farms so no worry about hunters or needing wood. But they dont have any defence buildings which is a pain. But these buildings take alot of punishment so a small group of defenders/warriors is good enough.



I Like the Dwarf Titan Big Stone Giant with a mallot. usefull for ensuring scouts stay far far away and can increase the attack power of the dwarves around him. So a charge with him and a group of elites can punch BIG HOLES in the enemies defence...

Pugsley

You still not at Dark Elves yet? omfg WHAT AN ARMY! they kick ass to a degree never before witnessed in RTS games, honestly. Their titan is a huge half spider thing, and she can raise skeletons fro mthe dead to support her in battle, whats better is the skeletons arent on a timer, they last until they die. The dark elf higher fighters (the last one in particular) all have lifetaps on their melee class's, and the highest one can summon Wraiths to support it in battle, their unstoppable beasts in combat when you add the numbers, however their also the last army you get.

The orc's are the first of the evil armies you get, and their not really too great, their highest fighters arent that tough or powerful compared to the units you used to (eldars + elites), which seriously weakens the orc army as a whole, but they have Drummers and Musicians to support them in battle which is nice. They also have the coolest titan in the game, think of a Balrog from Lord of the Rings, pretty much identicle really, but super cool and awsomely powerful, he is the main tank of the orc force's (hits for over 20 damage usually, and is dual wielding so hits quick as hell).

The ogre's are the second you get, while their units damage output is massive, and respectively tough to kill, they are severely gimped by the fact you NO healing units at all, so hope your hero has healing. Their champion's (highest ogre unit) is awsome as far as raw damage is concerned, however the highest dark elf would still beat them, with their wraith and life taps, but very powerful regardless. Suprising Ogre's ranged units (they throw stones) are shoickingly powerful too, the higher ranged unit gets Fire rocks, which is pretty much fireburst2, when it proc's its a good 20 damage extra. The ogre titan is probably the worst of the three evil race's, while he hits as hard as the orc titan, he use's a huge club, and only 1 of them, so he hits slowly, giving him lower oevrall damage, however he is obscenely hard to kill.


As far as Avatars go, I specc'ed mine to be an Archer Healer, with full in ranged weapons, life magic and nature magic. He still hits like a train in close combat too (about 25 damage a hit when i cast aura of strength, which added with War Cry whacks me up to 40 damage a hit), and because he use's Dragon Fangs (130% combat speed) he hits really quickly, for prolonged melee fights I will swap my bow for a second dragon fang mid fight, then take the bow back out afterwards, because later on every little helps (after your fighting the blades for a while you wil understand, their relentless).


When you get later game you start getting several armies at a time, for example on the current mission Im on you start with all 3 evil race's, and then half way through the mission you lose your evil armies and get 3 good armies instead, which is the part im Currently stuck on. As humans elve's and Dwarfs just arent a match for the level 18 blade's attacking the front of your base, and to top it off you have level 23 spectre things attacking from the back of your base, about a 2 minute run for your hero, so you NEED other units to help your hero defend, no hero portal either, considering just doing it all solo, as my hero can happily take on 5 or 6 level 18 blades (at one point he ended up solo'ing 6 level 18 blades, 3 level 13 icecasters, and a level 22 blade commander, and won!), however being at level 24 certainly helps in these scenario's, combiend with my Salvo which hits all enemies in front of you with your bow for about 40 damage a shot, a good shot will do in exsess of 300 damage, and Trueshot just hits one person but for an insane 150-200 damage.



ok end rant, this game rocks, go buy it, now. Its the best of Never Winter Nights, but it will actually last you quite a while becauset he campaign is MASSIVE, on mission 27 now, and some missions last well over 4 or 5 hours, one mission lasted nearly 7 hours. And the base building, while not as good as some true RTS games, is still very respectable with a great selection of units and 6 totally diffrent armies, each with their own style of play (send melee elve's against dwaves and they WILL beat you even against 3 to 1 odd's if they have eldar's and elites, send dwarves against Ogre Champions and you WILL lose, but even though each are gradually stronger in melee, their gradually weaker at range, elves are unbeatable at range).


ps: what do you mean crappy titans? I won a mission before by leaving 8 ogre champions and a few dark elve's with life tap arua to defend my base and just attacked with my 3 titans and my avatar, titans strength isnt their damage output, its their toughness, my titans are far tougher than my hero, even in his Armour Factor 100 Dawn Platemail, and 42 Helm, and 50 grives. The good guys titans are below Par, the griffon is really direly bad, the Tree dude is OK, but not tough enough ,respectable damage output tho, and the Dwarf one is just poo, but good against buildings.

BlitzKrieg

well i'm only at Godwall.


i'm level 18 i use a combination of light combat arms and a heavy shield and armour thrown in with a backing of fire and earth elementals (earth so i can find my resources and fire to weaken archers while i melee) My avator is a beast in combat his armour points are so high that the enemy need to send half their army plus alot of archers to kill him if i am using him alone (concentrating on healing and berserking my way through specific targets to weaken them enough) But in the midst of a great battle he can get easily overcome by the fact every enemy goes for him while my troops are too weak to break through (happens too much in godwall) Currently in weapons i have the crappy Fireblade...But i am one level away from the cool Soulblade, and i have everything but the demons blood for the earthblade, which i think i'll have soon.


one gripe that i'm beginning to really hate. The fact that the enemy are relentless at times, Godwall is such a pain cause the mercenaries dont stop coming and it takes my hero 10 elven archers and defence towers to hold them back while i organise an army.


Of the Titans i have seen, they suck and dont really last in battle, twice i had to pull my two titans in this level (Elf and Dwarf) out of battles because they were getting so badly maimed.

Pugsley

Titans dont last unless you look after them really, the advantage of having level 8 greater healing i suppose. I rarely lose a titan, only titan I have ever lost was the Ork one on the first level you get Dark Elves (and even then you ONLY get defence towers for them and workers, with the resource buildings to build them).

I dont like havign to tell you this, but you dont get the demon's blood for a while yet, level 21 or something, and even then its quite hard to get. The level with the Cursed Guardians (Medusa's) its in the top left corner.

I actually found godwall quite easy, done most of it with my hero and millions of turrets, they key to that map is getting 3 or 4 foresters down at the bottom at your starting base, with 3 large wood cutters. Then use 6 builders to build millions of turrets (3 builder pet turret, 2 turrets at a time), a very cunning trick I used to hold the first town was build turrets to shoot the enemy as they ran down the ramp, build them along side the ramp, got about 15 towers down to shoot at them before they reached the final wall of 12 towers, NOTHING got past, ever. Then when I got to the dwarf base I just build a wall 4 thick of about 28 turrets, and left my 6 workers there to repair any damage turrets, and used my aries to attack. A key thing to do early'ish tho, is when you get a basic army up, and take the first town (I done it solo with my hero), send your hero to the gates of the town, and get up about 6 or so turrets for now at the base of the ramp, just to slow them down for now, finish it later. Then send ure hero off to the right to take the other camp of Merc's (he will be able to solo it no problem, or at least should, may have to run off to heal half way though). Then finish the turret walls as said above, work your way with your army to the dwarves (quite easy) where you find a finished base, build the army and slog it the rest of the way up the mountain. I fought off all the othr camps by sending in my titan first, to take all the initial damage, and kept him healed up while my archers shot in, then when the army was weakened I sent in my Elite's. By the time I was at the top of the mountain I had only lost about 5 units, and my titan was still going strong.

BlitzKrieg

i have a similar tactic its just i concentrate on chokepoints at certain points of maps (where the path turns or gets thinner. i have at most 10 turrets with a support of ice shooter thingies...my resources are no probs. My problem i think is just i've only gone back to the game recently so my memory on controls is a tad hazy...is there a button for your workers to auto-repair? I spend so much time in micro managment of my defence and army that i never get around to attacking....sigh and when i did my comp crashed...

Pugsley

More turrets you build less you have to repair them

10 turrets wont hold either when the higher level guys start rushing you either, get 15 or 20 at least man, gonna lame up do it right

BlitzKrieg

well got sick of trying to defend myself so i rushed my army up through their bases and used my hero to burn their spawn points...got to the end only to meet 3 Griffon riders...bloody pussies the lot of them.

so finished Godwell but had to go before i could start next level, will so tomarrow.

Pugsley

3 Griffons? musta been some serious casualties in your troops, spose its the end of the mission anyway so it doesnt really matter. I took the griffons one at a time, pulled with my hero then just let my men dig in, never lost a man to the griffon, generally the whole way up the mountain I only lost about 8 men tho, but I like to do it very slow and steady

BlitzKrieg

actually the griffens were pussies...took them down with the loss of 2 men...they kept trying to get my hero who i made run around in circles as my men butchered the chasing griffons...now onto mulindar...which i'm slightly worried about...

Pugsley

Mulindar is NOT a nice place, and you will find yourslf dieing quite often
However this is where you get your demon blood, look in the north west area, the guy who has it isnt hard to kill, but getting to him is quite tricky (unless you plan on killing a cursed guardian of course), which I wouldnt recommend doing, can run past all of them anyway tho.

BlitzKrieg

got through mulindir...(barely) couldnt find the guy with the blood so i intend to go back when i'm stronger. Right now its time to play with my new army...ORCS!!! yippeee i'm gonna play helms deep from the baddies side. CHARGE!!!!

Pugsley

The guy with the blood isnt hard to get too really. At the base of the ramp which leads up to the Guy you collect the piece's for, (the T junction) keep going left, and just keep going until you find another 3 way junction, the route heading north brings you to the blood, watch out though, the cursed guardian there is quite hard to sneak past, you wait til she runs up the north roue a bit, then go down the west route, when she turns around to the eastern route (where oyu origionally came from) you can sneak past and head north to the fire demons, the named one drops 2 vials of demon blood.

pyrogenx

I love strategy but yet never heard of this game :-(

could someone please post up a link to some screen-shots ?

thanx,

pyrogenx

Pugsley

Here's all you ever need about it

_CreeD_

Well you guys sold me on it, I picked it up a few days ago. I'm only a little into it so far and it's pretty damn good. The only thing that really bugs me is the voice acting - possibly the worst I've ever heard, the cutscenes make me cringe...Not good for suspension of disbelief.

BlitzKrieg

good good...join us...




i agree with the voice acting...but the text turning into german is just as funny...

Pugsley

Aye the acting is no better than what you see in a 15 year old Jackie Chan film, but still, superb game. Really worth getting well into.