#Conquest of elysium 5 units series#

You begin by choosing a faction (one of 18 character classes) and a map type (one of six eras), and when you start play, the following screen is straight out of every 4X ever made: One look at Conquest of Elysium 3, the new fantasy turn-based strategy game from Illwinter Game Design, and you would think you’d stepped into a classic 4X.

#Conquest of elysium 5 units series#

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Conquest of Elysium

Note: the above comments are based on a review copy supplied by the game’s developer, Illwinter Game Design. The resemblance is there in the eyes and nose but the soul behind them is entirely its bearer’s own. After playing heaven knows how much Dominions 3, my early experiences with COE3 have been rather like meeting the child of an old friend. The net effect is that Dominions 3 fans shouldn’t go into Conquest of Elysium 3 expecting more (or less?) of the same. The overall feel is of leading a few small bands through a savage land think Mad Max or Fallout: The Strategy Game. Even later on, an army of 100 human soldiers (a modest task force in Dominions 3) would be an awesome host in COE3. Then it’s time to march back to your castle to pick up fresh recruits, if you can afford them – early on, amassing enough coin to recruit 5 or 10 soldiers is a big deal. But if you leave 3 men to hold this village, and 5 to hold that gold mine, sooner or later those garrisons start adding up.

Once you’ve taken the sites, you can’t just abandon them: wandering monsters are a constant threat. Your handful of commanders, and their retinues, must explore the map in search of farms and villages and mines, then fight their independent defenders tooth and nail – or, frequently, just move onto easier targets. They are the main threat, not the independent provinces meekly waiting to be bulldozed.ĬOE3, in contrast, is about scarcity. And your rival pretender gods do the same. You will raise enormous armies across dozens of provinces script elaborate orders for your sorcerers constantly research new and better magic. Every turn, tax revenues and magic gems will flood into your treasury, and even though you will never have enough of each, you will typically have enough to spend on something. Your resources are vast, but so are the claims on them. It was only after playing a few games that I realised how dissimilar COE3 felt.ĭominions 3 is about the clash of empires. Setting up a new game was an experience straight out of Dominions: I chose which era I wanted to play in, chose my leader ( COE3’s equivalent of a Dominions faction+pretender combination), and emerged on the map screen to see sprites, and hear sound effects, taken straight from Dominions. My very first impressions of COE3 were misleading. Dominions Lite, here I come! Instead, I found something very different. And so I jumped when I heard Illwinter’s latest title, Conquest of Elysium 3, was simpler and quicker-to-play. This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Conquest of Elysiumĭominions 3, Illwinter’s 2006 magnum opus, is one of my all-time favourite games, but its depth and complexity make it a time-consuming beast.