1581

I am weak.

1582

Alright vets, for us new folk, what do we need to know/read? ;-)

1583

Damn, nine bucks on Steam? Awesome! I hope a lot of new people discover what a fun/weird/frustrating game this can be.

1584

ok, so what’s this conquest of elysium i am hearing so much about? Is it a cross between civilization and HOMM?

1585

According to GamersGate (where it’s on sale for $8.96):
“Conquest of Elysium 3 is an old school turn based fantasy strategy game. You start by choosing one of 17 different characters, e.g. Necromancer, Demonologist, Dwarf Queen, Troll King or maybe a High Priestess of Ba’al. The different character classes vary wildly in what special abilities they have and what parts of the world they should focus on conquering. E.g. the Demonologist needs sacrifices that you gain from towns and villages, but the Druid want special herbs that are found in forests. But of course gold is always good to have, so all classes can make use of a gold or silver mine, but only the Enchanter can make a Gold Golem out of it…”

Metacritic gives it 82%.

1586

Tom had a good review that explains some of the game

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/02/23/where-does-conquest-of-elysium-3-get-those-wonderful-toys/

I wouldn’t compare it to Civilization (at all), and only a tiny bit of HOMM.

1587

I just read Tom’s review again that Giaddon just linked and that was really well written and explains a lot of the same reasons I enjoyed the game. I really only quit to move on to all the other really good games released this year. I may have to try out this new race, though.

Certain factions and ages are easier on folks new to the game. The Baron is widely recognized as a good starter race, I believe, since they can drop off free defenders in towns and are more straight forward in their units. Some ages have more high level tough wandering monsters, I believe, so it can help to start in a more peaceful age like maybe Agricultural?

As mentioned, reading the manual can really help get a handle on things.

For those looking for a challenge, the Trials that were linked earlier in the thread at the CoE3 Proboards gave me a lot of enjoyment and challenge. I especially liked the ones where there were teams or the enemy all allied against you. I guess I mostly treated each map as a scenario and the wandering monsters were a part of the challenge. I can understand some would be frustrated at the individual AIs, but I never really looked at them that way as long as my overall experience trying to win each map was good. EDIT: If you are being overrun by wandering monsters, look for a lair or graveyard or Ancient forest or something that can generate these - if you take that, the wandering monsters should drop considerably.

Another thing that really helped was try not to get stuck in a rut playing the same race. I really enjoyed the Witch and Burgmeister as they opened up all kinds of neat new summons and mechanics that the Baron just didn’t have. The witch summoning in forests and swamps as they moved, building armies as they go and not having to ferry troops from towns all the time. The burgmeister got some pretty nasty summons from the various gems that were a nice addition. Then there were the various schools of spells that can really change a game.

I think I just talked myself into trying another game and buying again on Steam to support Illwinter again :). Congrats on the Steam addition too! Would like nothing better than for you guys to see more success.

1588

Also:

Three Moves Ahead with Tom and Troy on CoE.

Troy’s thoughts

This for me was one of those games I bought at full price, never got into, and now wish I’d just waited for a sale. But then given Ilwinter’s history, who’d have thought there’d be a sale?

1589

That wasnt Illwinter. That was Shrapnel. Illwinter split from them this time over the “only one outlet” policy. Unfortunately by jumping from Shrap they lost a lot of other things. We need to see how well their decision pans out.

Some of the nations are early-game or small map champions (like Baron) and others have late-game punches (like Witch)

Burgmeister or Dwarf Queen are great turtling nations. Troll or Necromancer makes a good horde. Senator is good for history buffs. Enchanter is good for economy students. High Cultist can be really good IF played strategically (use the ability to raid from the ocean, escape thru lakes, and send horrors).

The best thing of all is alliances. Barons can put PD into their allies cities, Necromancers can collect undead from allies cities, Barbarian can plant totems, Priest King can collect slaves. El can convert and collect donations. You can hide in each others castles, put units in their castles to help them hold a location you consider strategic. Use each others portals and libraries. And send a minor unit to do some resource collecting but jump into your allies army when you run into something scary. Even the AI will do these if you partner with them.

1590

Hmmm Steam has trouble with the MP part of CoE3.
So I am guessing it would have the same problem with Dom3.

I always open one copy to set it as server, then open another as client to play. Apparently Steam doesnt allow that? Anyone have a suggestion?

1591

Depends on how they did the Steam integration, but sometimes you can open the game folder in the Steam common folder and then run the .exe directly without it hitting Steam at all. The trick is some companies code Steam support directly into the .exe, but some don’t.

1592

Well Im sure the programming aspect is out.
I wonder if making another copy on the same machine would help. Or another serial

1593

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get a chance to really play this but I recently bought it. Tried one quick game and tied on 2nd turn to a mushroom. Boo!

Next get to read the manual…But Illwinter has always done right by me in their games.

1594

Think HOMM without having control over the battles or think Age of Wonders where you auto-resolve the battles. Definitely feels more Age-of-Wonder-ish to me.

Then again, what do I know, I haven’t won a game yet and those packs of deer are murderous!

1595

No need. You can activate your key from Desura on Steam.

1596

Thanks for the tip vyshka. I’ve got nothing against Desura, but COE3 is the only game I own on that client, so its nice to load it into Steam.

I had to Google how to find your Desura keys without installing the Desura client. You need to go to:
https://secure.desura.com/cart/cdkeys

Tony

1597

That was recently enabled, since I tried doing so immediately after the game was made available on Steam, but my Desura key wouldn’t work. It now works.

Thanks for prompting me to try a second time!

1598

oh. Thank you very much.

1599

Bah! I bought it on GamersGate. :(

Edit: Oh hold up, the actual CoE3 serial # registers on Steam, not anything associated with Desura directly. Neat!

1600

I bought it on GG and registered it on Steam and only paid about $7.60 to boot!