Conquest of Ellyssium 3

I've recently tried this game and it's really interesting -- it was described to me as a cross between a rogue-like and a 4-X strategy game, but it's not quite either. I will say that I've only played for a couple of hours and probably should have read the manual first because that might have helped me avoid some really dumb mistakes. Or maybe not lol.

Anyway, You start by selecting a size map to play on, from tiny to enormous, and a type of society: Dark Agees, Agricultural, Empire, Fallen Empire, Monarchy, or Dawn of a New Empire, or you can have that set randomly. Each society has a different distribution of various types of landmarks (towns, farms, mines, ancient battlegrounds, seaports, etc.). There are also several different options for team play (which I have not tried).

Then you have to pick 1 of 17 classes, including Baron, Necromancer, Warlock, Burgmeister, etc. From what I've read, certain classes have advantages or disadvantages based on the society that you choose to play on.

From the little I've played, I can tell that each class can play very differently. For example, I just was playing for the first time as a Necromancer (which was where my comment regarding reading the manual comes in). Necromancers collect Hands of Glory from large villages and towns that they control, and consume them for their dark rituals -- for summoning the more powerful undead. They also can raise less powerful undead at no cost at battle fields and other places where people have died (there's a ritual to detect sites like that).

In my game, I thought I was doing great, summoning normal, lesser, and greater undead, etc. growing a humongous army. What I didn't realize was that Necromancers go a little bit... insane... every time they raise undead. I couldn't figure out why my necro's apprentice was insane, and would refuse to move, and then I saw the 'insane' icon and the number next to it. And I also noticed that the number kept increasing as the game went on. I eventually ended up with my apprentice being fairly useless.

Another gotcha moment in the same game... One of my other apprentices was wandering around enemy territory in the winter (there are seasons in the game) and I moved him and his huge army over a frozen lake, chasing an enemy army around. Then it turned to spring (wasn't watching the calendar), and the necro and all the human (not undead) troops with him drowned in the lake when the ice melted. That was my major force... gone... And I couldn't move the other necro to recover the remaining undead because, although he was nearby, he was solidly bonkers and refusing to do anything at all.

/edit btw, I found out (in the manual, of course) that there IS a way to cure a necromancer's insanity, and a way of making yourself immune to it, but both are incredibly expensive.
So the game can be punishing in this way, just like a rogue-like.

Anyway, I thought this game may be of interest to you guys.

 

I like what I have seen. Check the links here if you are on the fence. It currently is on sale at $8.99 from Desura or Steam. But Desura is the way to go in my never humble opinion simply because it offers all platforms of it whereas Steam only officially supports Windows, and they pretend to support Mac too, but Linux cannot be supported by Steam due to conflicts of interest on the part of Steam...
http://www.illwinter.com/coe3/index.html

And here is the Desura page:
http://www.desura.com/games/conquest-of-elysium-3

And finally here is the Steam page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/211900/

 

Nope. I had no clue they finally pulled their heads from another part of their anatomy. Joy for Linux users!

*Edit* Deleting two posts so I am not actually triple posting...

I just bought the game. I had other plans for the $8.99, but at 70% off I could not afford to wait and pay more. I will be posting more later after I see what is up with this one. Thanks to both Haldurson and Daynab. (The first for the reference to the game, and the second for informing me that there will be a Steam option for Linux.)

A tip for those buying the game:
Alt-Enter to change to a window mode so you can shrink your browser/text editor to see the CD-Key as you type it in. It tries to do this fullscreen and somehow loses what you typed between Alt-Tabs. So just make it window mode with Alt-Enter and adjust the size of your game window and whatever you are reading your CD-Key from to make it easy as pie.

 

Wait, the same people that made dominions 3, and it doesn't cost $55? is it 1/5th as good as Dom3? I'd be all over that.

 

Its by the same people as made Dominions 3 (2-man team in Sweden). One programmer and one professor of Religio-Mythos.

Its not the same publisher so its cheaper and available multiple places (Desura, GamersGate, Steam) but that also means no PR, the forums suck, and customer support is questionable.

Dom3 is bigger than you can ever play to the max, and a turn can take a day.Its geared toward MP games mostly. CoE3 is smaller, faster, less micro-management, better AI, and geared much more toward solo play with some MP capability. But the Team play is fantastic.

Both games, play the demo first. If you like that then the game is worth the cost because the unique nations make it like a new game. Just learning thru the nations in the game covers the cost. MP and team play can extend playability beyond that. And if that gets old, there are mods and scenario maps to make it all new again.

 

Thanks for the comparison. I usually don't MP games like Dom3, so I'll have to snag the demo.

 

I am rather disappointed in that there is exactly zero control over what happens in combat.

Other than that detail it is a nice game and better than most in the genre.

 

For the few here who may have purchased it but have not checked, there is a new version now. 3.16. It is just a bugfix version though. No major changes.

 

This game is available in the current IndieRoyale bundle, so now is your chance to get it on sale. Yay for procrastination!

 

I would have saved money if I waited for that sale...