SpellForce: Conquest of Eo

SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is a 2023 turn-based strategy game developed by Owned by Games and published by THQ Nordic. Taking a massive, highly successful detour from the franchise’s traditional Real-Time Strategy (RTS) roots, Conquest of Eo completely shifts the series into the realm of 4X turn-based strategy (reminiscent of classics like Master of Magic or the Age of Wonders series) while retaining the deep, lore-rich RPG elements the franchise is known for.

The narrative drops players directly into the high-fantasy world of Eo, but from a vastly different perspective. You do not play as a warrior or a general; you play as an ambitious, up-and-coming wizard. Your beloved master has been mysteriously murdered, leaving behind his magical, levitating wizard’s tower. Inheriting this tower, you must unravel the secrets of his death, decipher his legendary grimoire, and amass enough magical power to directly challenge the Circle of Mages—the incredibly powerful, tyrannical cabal of wizards who rule the world and brook no rivals.

Gameplay

Conquest of Eo completely abandons the fast-paced, click-heavy RTS base-building of the previous games. Instead, the game operates on two distinct turn-based layers: a massive, grand-strategy overworld map, and intimate, tactical hex-grid battlefields.

Key gameplay mechanics and massive genre shifts include:

The Mobile Wizard’s Tower: This is the absolute centerpiece of the game. Instead of building a sprawling empire of static cities like in Civilization, your entire base of operations is a single, massive flying tower. As you gather magical energy, you can literally uproot your tower and levitate it to new regions of the map to harvest fresh resources, escape overwhelming enemy armies, or project your influence into new territories.
Turn-Based Tactical Combat: When your armies clash with an enemy on the overworld map, the camera zooms into a localized, hex-based tactical grid. Here, you take turns moving your units, managing action points, flanking enemies, and casting devastating global spells from your tower to turn the tide of battle.
Wizard Archetypes: At the start of the campaign, you choose your magical discipline, which fundamentally changes how you play the game and build your armies:
- The Alchemist: Focuses on brewing potent potions to buff troops and lobbing explosive vials into enemy formations.
- The Necromancer: Focuses on harvesting the souls and corpses of fallen enemies to permanently reanimate cheap, unyielding undead armies.
- The Artificer: Focuses on mining rare glyphs and ores to forge incredibly powerful, magical artifacts to equip on mortal troops.
Hero Units and Apprentices: While you command massive armies of generic troops, you also recruit named Hero units and Apprentices. These function like traditional SpellForce RPG characters—they level up, equip specialized loot, and can lead your armies or explore ancient dungeons for rare crafting materials.

Development and Legacy

Released in February 2023 for PC (and later that year for consoles), Conquest of Eo was a brilliant gamble by THQ Nordic. Handing the beloved IP to the Austrian studio Owned by Games (known for their deep turn-based titles), the goal was to see if the rich lore of the SpellForce universe could thrive in an entirely different genre.

The reception was incredibly positive. Strategy fans praised the game for its unique take on the 4X formula—specifically, how the flying tower mechanic eliminated the tedious, late-game “city micromanagement” that plagues many grand strategy games. It kept the focus tightly on exploration, high-stakes tactical combat, and magical research.

Today, Conquest of Eo stands as a wildly successful spin-off. It proves that the world of Eo is versatile enough to support vastly different styles of gameplay, offering a slower, deeply cerebral, and highly addictive “one-more-turn” experience that perfectly complements the frantic RTS action of SpellForce 3.

Key Features:

A New Genre — Experience the rich, high-fantasy lore of SpellForce completely reimagined as a deep, turn-based 4X strategy game.
The Flying Tower — Command a massive, levitating base of operations, migrating across the world map to harvest resources and project your magical influence.
Hex-Grid Warfare — Engage in highly tactical, turn-based battles where flanking, high ground, and spellcasting are the keys to victory.
Deep Crafting Systems — Choose your path as an Alchemist, Necromancer, or Artificer, utilizing entirely distinct mechanics to brew potions, raise the dead, or forge legendary gear.
RPG Exploration — Send your powerful Apprentices and Heroes into ancient ruins to fight monsters, solve quests, and recover lost magical artifacts.