Spellforce 1 strategy guide

[Walsingham]

I recently bought Spellforce platinum from STEAM and while I hate to do down the efforts made by the chaps who've written walkthroughs I've noticed what I think are serious weaknesses in their grasp of potential strategies for this surprisingly excellent RPG/RTS. I therefore thought I would try to write a bit of a guide myself and thereby earn the abuse I richly deserve for criticising the work of better men.

 

This is just a general guide, rather than a detailed campaign walkthough. Which I thought might be less spoilerrific anyway. I'm also going to assume a pretty high level of intelligence from the reader by going to the theory rather than hand-holding every practical application.

 

1. The golden rule

The aim of all combat is to knacker operational weaknesses in the machinery the enemy intends to use by applying a locally superior force. Doing this means leveraging the right factor/s from point three.

 

2. Kick him in the nuts

The machinery the enemy will use is of three types. He has production facilities, assault groups, and defensive groups. In almost all cases the enemy will eventually resupply assault and defensive groups almost as fast as you can kill them. By which I mean the rate of supply increases the longer time you spend on a map. I don't know why this is, but it can get bloody dangerous, even if the units in question are quite weak. Therefore in every case you MUST prioritise the production buildings, and do so as soon as you enter a map. How you do this will depend on leveraging the factors from point three.

 

3. Fighting Factors

As in all forms of combat, you must get your head round several factors in your armies. These will permit you to achieve locally superior force and achieve your aim:

- Lethality

- Manoeuvreability

- Survivability

- Sustainability

- Know wotz

- Tempo

- Undermining your enemy's fighting factors

 

N.B. To appreciate all thes factors in play the best way is to watch the MST3k episode with the film The Killer Shrews.

 

4. Lethality

Lethality means how effective your groups are at killing enemies. There are attack type vulnerabilities in the game, but they make sod all difference so far as I can tell, as I found when I accidentally ran a group of fire casters into a fire dragon. Obviously you need to observe how much damage each shot causes, but for group combat a far more important point is how great the range on a weapon is, and what the rate of fire is. Because your aim is to achieve and sustain as high a total output as possible. This may sound obvious, but this underpins three things the other strategy guides seem to ignore.

 

4a. Firstly, melee units might sound cool, but their killing range is only arm's length. This means that in a straight scrum your actual damage is limited to your front line. So in a narrow valley your fifty strong army of elite dwarven elite becomes a mere handful with along queue behind them. By comparison, a large mob of archers can typically apply their entire number to a single target. Which more than makes up for their comparative weakness (see survivability and sustainability).

 

4b. Every time an attacker moves or a target dies the process of targeting preparing and firing (either ranged or melee) must begin again. Different units have very different targetting and preparation times. Elves may look very cool, but compared with upgraded dwarven defenders they take an age to retarget and fire. The effect of a mob of elves is dramatic, the effect of a mob of dwarves is... industrial. like a meatgrinder.

 

4c. Your civilian workers are respectable at destroying buildings. Buildings are your primary target. Workers are fast off the start, and almost free. You work it out.

 

4d. Something everyone should agree on is that lethality trumps survivability. The best way to not die is to kill the other guy so fast that he can't apply enough force to kill you.

 

5. Manoeuvreability

Manoeuvreability is weird, because although everyone moves at the same speed the movement AI is rubbish. Remember that your main aim is to bring superior local force to bear. This means getting all your chaps onto the target at once wherever possible. On the whole this means appreciating how disorganised your army will be every time it goes through a narrow pass such as a ford or valley, and grouping the most important (i.e. archer) units into small subunits of between 9 and 10. More than this and you not only have trouble targetting them, but they will also jostle each other on arriving at a destination, throwing off their ability to shoot! Move your army in bounds, from point to point, doing recce, and for the love of God don't get caught by an attack when on the move. Finally, when you DO intend to start a scrap use expendable skirmishers to pull an enemy onto you, rather than you moving to them.

 

6. Sustainability

Units in spellforce often need specialist resources to build, and a lot of waffle has been written about mastering these in each quest. Provided you leverage the fighting factors correctly you can win with tier one units (I assume you don't need help to get the most basic resources like wood). What should concern you far more is how fast you can produce a unit, and how quickly you can get it concentrated with its mates. Because of the nature of the game and most maps this means low tier units are often actually better because they build fast. It also means that you want to assemble and take casualties close to your production points. Unfortunately, war being generally a bit annoying you won't get to do this much unless you are losing.

 

Once you have got into the fight the aim is to have the enemy apply his lethality to units which can be quickly and cheaply replaced. This is important, because you should have already spotted that the units which take the damage and the units which dish it out don't have to be the same. This means that civilian workers, being free and bloody quick to build - in addition to being the only units who can be relied on to stand f***ing still - are my top tip for the shield wall.

 

When you form a campaign plan for a mpa keep in mind that you want to either ensure your lethality is so good that you don't need replacements or that you are always fighting big battles near reinforcement.

 

A further point to keep in mind is unit cap. This can be expanded by building HQ upgrades, but to begin with you won't have many warriors compared with your civilian worker cap. Again, I don't wish to sound callous about sending peasant levies to be slaughtered on an Imperial Guard scale but...

 

7. Survivability

 

This is pretty simple. Be big and tough, and don't die. Expensive elite units are usually a good idea for taking damage in the front line, but keep in mind that they are expensive to replace (see above). Personally I'd rather have a cheap disposable front line of pressganged peasants.

 

8. Know wotz

 

This means three things, and with the utmost urgency

 

8a. Know the ground layout, i find the overhead view and map almost completely useless, so I drew some sketch maps and plan from them. It also helps later for marking where quest givers live and so on. But mainly ground defines where you fight and how you fight.

 

8b. Know where the enemy is. Remember that in order of priority you need to find his production centres, keep an eye on assault groups as they form and march, and in doing that you'll almost certainly know where the defensive groups are.

 

8c. Once you know the above bloody well do something about it. Find out when the production centres are weak and hit them fast.

 

9. Tempo

I cannot stress enough how important it is to make a quick start on hitting the enemy and not let upuntil near completing a map. This doesn't so much apply in the early maps, but once you hit midgame you simply cannot rely on simply taking punches from an intact enemy machine.

 

Later on tin the game it is time to think about your overall campaign. This means earning XP and cash. you get both in small quantities even if you don't kill an enemy yourself. Put simply I find it convenient towards the endgame to settle in for a bit of organised baddy farming. Find an enemy production facilty, restrict their exit to one choke point, then prepare defensive works on a massive scale. If you do the job properly you should be able to leave your entire force in position and go away to come back levelled up, and with the ironing done. You can also make a literally staggering quantity of cash (presumably by selling all the corpses of your foes as fertiliser. If this seems unfair just consider that it's the enemy who has unlimited resources which you are only defending yourself against.

 

A small word of warning is that if you choose too small an enemy to farm then they will peter out to a trickle. So make sure there are healthy breeding quantities of zombies etc.

 

10. Undermining the enemy's abilities

 

This means making every bad thing which could happen to you happen to the enemy.

 

10a Lethality - make him fight on a narrow front. Use valleys if you can, but HQ buildings can be set up to narrow an access point.

10b Manoeuvre - make him change directions, make him run around, and especially round corners. His force will get strung out and confused. In particular I forgive elves a lot because their ice towers and ice archers freeze an enemy in their tracks for a split second. Which may not sound much until you see a barrage of ice going in, and the enemy is literally frozen in place to be minced by arrows/throwing hammers.

10c Sustainability - in theory you'd want to hit him in his expensive units a long way from home, but the enemy produces so quickly that this is irrelevant. Go in hard and fast for his production centres.

10d Survivability - You can and should prioritise on a basis of lethality /toughness. As every good child knows you always kill the wizard first. I don't need to tell you this.

10e. Know wotz - the enemy is pretty dumb. Kill his scouts so you get maximum time to build your own forces. Use skirmishers and decoy groups to get him chasing shadows into traps.

 

11. Turning the principles into a game plan

 

Using all these principles my operational format is generally as follows. You are probably a bit more mentally agile and could handle more ambitious applications.

 

Step 1. Using just my avatar and any party members I will mount a rapid recce assault on any small production facilities, prioritising those which make ghouls. I hate ghouls. This works by leveraging my manoeuvreability and the fact that by mid game your avatar should be able to get in, destroy a building and get out without dying. Do NOT engage in attrition at this stage. Just get in and knacker the spawn buildings. You can mop up any defensive forces at your leisure.

Step 2. Very swiftly you should have a rough idea of where your HQ will be and the general lie of the land. Pick an area which you can operate easily in and try to make sure it has two distinct flanking sectors, with two distinct choke points. One is going to be defended against. the other is going to get comprehensivley pwned as fast as possible. Now begin setting up the base. My first ten civvies form a suicide squad to follow my avatar around; the whole generally being referred to as kampfgruppe Bastard. Any after that are set to gather the basic prerequisites. The aim there is to get a decent tempo of resources so I can sustain both defensive and attacking operations.

Step 3. By now the enemy will have got defensive groups up and running in earnest as well as a few tiny assault groups. You should begin using towers to cover the choke from the defensive flank, and have a flying platoon of fighters to mop up attackers. Do not be afraid of building cheap buildings just to absorb enemy attacks.

Step 4. Meanwhile KG Bastard should hoof about, nailing enemy spawn points. Your civvies will get horribly slaughtered, but they can be quickly and cheaply replaced between attacks. Just remember to hit the production and bug out. Don't hang around glory hunting.

Step 5. Hopefully your defensive preparations will have been keeping pace with attacks from the defensive sector. Remember to apply all the rules about knackering the enemy's fighting factors. So for starters you should always try to get the enemy to bog down in the defensive kill zone. Early on this shouldn't really tax you but later youw ill have lots of options. Ice towers, tree farms are quite a sneaky way of breaking up attacks, ice archers, and counter attacks by bait mobs of civvies. This last means that when an attack starts you send a group of three civilian workers haring out past the attackers. This will often split his force as some run off after them.

Step 6. If all is going well you will now have eliminated the production in your designated assault sector. This now effectively becomes a quiet sector, although you may want to mop up so you can better exploit its resources. make bloody certain, that there are no hidden back routes or spawn areas lurking in the hills and valleys.

Step 7. Now recce the defensive sector with suicide squads of screaming civilian workers. This will show you what you need to hit, and what you can safely farm for XP and cash.

Step 8. Build your resources, build your favourite army.

Step 9. 'Invade' the defensive sector. Use your military forces to kill baddies, and your civilians to wreck infrastructure.

Step 10. Bottle up the baddies in your baddy farm. Go do the washing up. Come back.

Step 11. When the baddies eventually give up, kill them.

Step 12. Smile broadly.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Walsingham

[jaguars4ever]

Poor Walsy.

 

I think they omitted to tell you that nobody plays Spellforce 1.

[Purkake]

Submit it to gamefaqs/neoseeker?

[RPGmasterBoo]

You could start WWIII with this

[Purkake]

Maybe he just got some adderall from a friend?

[Pidesco]

I've owned Spellforce for years and it kind of sucks. Sorry, Walsh.

[Humodour]

Poor Walsy.

 

I think they omitted to tell you that nobody plays Spellforce 1.

 

Rubbish. Spellforce 1 is awesome. I'm playing it now myself, as are my friends. I'm obsessing over the best build for my character.

 

Tossing between

* White Magic -> Boons & Heavy Combat Arts -> Large Blade or Blunt

* Fire, Ice, Earth elementalist

* Mind Magic -> Offence + Defence & some damage magic like Necromancy, Death, or Ice.

 

RTS-wise I found the game a bit easy, but still fun and enthralling. I haven't finished the main campaign, though, and also have the two expansion campaigns to go.

[Walsingham]

I agree that it sucks in some respects. I mean how ****ing hard is it to include the location of a target in a quest note? Although thsi wouldn't be so much of a problem were it not for the long and torturous walks you have to do looking for things which are often tiny on screen. but ultimately the fighting is challenging but fun. So it gets my vote.

 

On the plus side I've been levelling up my character's mental spells and reached the conclusion that I lucked out when I picked them*. Sure there are a lot of biffing powers, but biffing is why I have an army. Mental powers let you do things like turn invisible (although you can't move). This meant that when I had to get through a particularly tough defensive cordon I ran, turned invisible, waited for the guards to disperse, then legged it forward only to disappear again. Like playing 'whats the time mr wolf' with Satan. Nerve wracking, but ultimately I am sure it was the only way I could have got through. You can also summon illusory copies of yourself which aids immensely when you realise you've picked the wrong fight and need to go running away like a small girl. On the other hand, as usual the charm spells are a waste of time. I haven't seen a single one work.

 

In general I'd advise picking healing spells/skills, since this will improve survivability and take the strain off sustainability. But as I say, for special operations fun, go for the mental enchantment powers.

 

Weapons wise as usual you get more buffs if you equip a shield. On the other hand you have to have shield skills to do this, and that takes away from your skill points which you need focussed elsewhere. I think heavy armour and a 2H weapon works well. I chose 2H blunt, because I like the style, but 2H blades are definitely more common.

 

 

 

*Although I really didn't think through my other choices and now have random skills in small blades and bows which I simply won't use. This game specialises like crazy.

[Humodour]

I agree that it sucks in some respects. I mean how ****ing hard is it to include the location of a target in a quest note? Although thsi wouldn't be so much of a problem were it not for the long and torturous walks you have to do looking for things which are often tiny on screen. but ultimately the fighting is challenging but fun. So it gets my vote.

 

On the plus side I've been levelling up my character's mental spells and reached the conclusion that I lucked out when I picked them*. Sure there are a lot of biffing powers, but biffing is why I have an army. Mental powers let you do things like turn invisible (although you can't move). This meant that when I had to get through a particularly tough defensive cordon I ran, turned invisible, waited for the guards to disperse, then legged it forward only to disappear again. Like playing 'whats the time mr wolf' with Satan. Nerve wracking, but ultimately I am sure it was the only way I could have got through. You can also summon illusory copies of yourself which aids immensely when you realise you've picked the wrong fight and need to go running away like a small girl. On the other hand, as usual the charm spells are a waste of time. I haven't seen a single one work.

 

In general I'd advise picking healing spells/skills, since this will improve survivability and take the strain off sustainability. But as I say, for special operations fun, go for the mental enchantment powers.

 

Weapons wise as usual you get more buffs if you equip a shield. On the other hand you have to have shield skills to do this, and that takes away from your skill points which you need focussed elsewhere. I think heavy armour and a 2H weapon works well. I chose 2H blunt, because I like the style, but 2H blades are definitely more common.

 

 

 

*Although I really didn't think through my other choices and now have random skills in small blades and bows which I simply won't use. This game specialises like crazy.

 

 

Some of the best Mind Magic spells are:

Meditate (instantly recharges mana - LOL!)

Shock (damage based on intelligence - formidably later in the game with lots of casters)

Shockwave (AOE Shock - same as the Ice, Fire, Earth versions)

Chain Shock (Shock jumps to targets - same as the Ice, Fire, Earth versions)

Mana Shield

AOE confusion, hypnotise spells

 

I've decided I am going to make a mind mage like so (I planned it so that they would be able to max both skill trees):

20 Mind Magic

- 20 Defensive Mind (Mana Shield, Mana recharge spells)

- 20 Offensive Mind (Shock, AOE hypnotise)

20 Elemental Magic

- 20 Ice Magic (Ice elemental, Frostburst, AOE Frostburst, Freeze, AOE Freeze, Blizzard, Chain Frostburst, Iceshield - freezes attackers)

 

Arguably Enchantment or an extra Elemental school would be better than Defensive Mind, but mana shield and instant mana recharge seem hard to pass up.

 

Stats to max would be: Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence.

 

 

White Magic: Boons is also one of the best skill sets in the game (lots of undead) because of the powerful fighting buffs plus undead damage spells plus a god-mode spell. Similarly, Necromancy is very strong since your later-level minions cast high-dmg Death spells, and you have Lifetap for heal and dmg.

[Walsingham]

Why are you doubling up offensive damage capacity? Surely if you have elemental you don't need offensivemind?

 

Heh. Offensive mind.

 

I don't recall mana shield, although that would seem to make sense if it does what it says on the tin and takes hit from mana. Equally, having the capacity to go 'ping' and recharge that shield sound good. But at the same time it sounds as if in a crisis you will be standing still and casting longwinded buffs rather than kiling teh enemy or running away, and that sounds like a good way to get turned into undead snakpak.

[Humodour]

Variety.

 

Mana shield is a lvl 13 or higher spell, so you'll only get it in the Shadows of the Phoenix campaign I believe.

[Walsingham]

I'm getting properly annoyed now about how many 2H blades there are lying around when NONE of the rune warriors you can pick up or buy actually use them. Of course it doesn't help that I myself chose 2H blunt... But a word to the wise - choose 2H blade or small blunt if you want lots of choice. This includes quest given forged weapons which never allow you to go blunt for no obvious reason.

 

EDIT: I just checked, and according to lists online there appear to be roughly comparable numbers. However this takes no account of the speed weighted damage they do (blunt do damage slower) nor the way they crop up in adventures. 2H blade is the way to go.

Edited March 9, 2010 by Walsingham

[Rostere]

Every time I read someone posting about Spellforce in forums, I confuse it with

and get very happy to hear about people playing such an old and obscure game :S

[Walsingham]

I'm now playing the Aryn campaign. Naturally I chose 2H blades and of course now I can't move for 2H blunt! Goddamnit!

[Humodour]

I'm now playing the Aryn campaign. Naturally I chose 2H blades and of course now I can't move for 2H blunt! Goddamnit!

 

Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that to you. Oops.

[Walsingham]

I'm now playing the Aryn campaign. Naturally I chose 2H blades and of course now I can't move for 2H blunt! Goddamnit!

 

Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that to you. Oops.

 

You bastard.

[Arkan]

Forget Spellforce 1, is Spellforce 2 really any good? I've had a copy of it lying around for a while now....

[Humodour]

Forget Spellforce 1, is Spellforce 2 really any good? I've had a copy of it lying around for a while now....

 

Spellforce 1 is good.

[Walsingham]

Forget Spellforce 1, is Spellforce 2 really any good? I've had a copy of it lying around for a while now....

 

Spellforce 1 is good.

 

And that answers the question how?

 

The expansion Amyra campaign is on a higher difficulty curve than the OC, which is understandable since you are supposed to know what is going on. What is less forgiveable is the straightjacketing of your options. There are no apparent sidequests beyond the 'go somewhere obvious and kill something' variety. Combat places a heavy emphasis away from towers by the simple trick of not letting you build any. This in itself might not be so bad but there are several levels with infinite enemies. Oh, yes, and expect your avatar to die very very easily. So much so that the whole point of having him -i.e. leading from the front and having a good time - is obviated.

 

Unless I'm just rubbish at this game.

[Humodour]

Forget Spellforce 1, is Spellforce 2 really any good? I've had a copy of it lying around for a while now....

 

Spellforce 1 is good.

 

And that answers the question how?

 

Because Spellforce 1 is good.