Conquest of Elysium II

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Conquest of Elysium II ("II" denotes the version 2.0, the first Windows compatible version) is a computer game developed by Illwinter Game Design. It is a fantasy turn-based strategy game. The game can be played with up to eight human players. Single player against computer is possible. The game has support for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and Solaris.^[1]

The goal of the game is the elimination of other players by either eliminating their commanders or capturing their citadels. At the start, the player can choose whether they want to create a random map or load a scenario. Random maps ask not only the size of the map and the amount of some terrain features but they also require the player to select the society the map will be based on. The societies affect how many settlements there will be, what kind of non-player creatures threaten the players and what kind of general shape the map takes. For example, the "Monarchy" setting has independent castles surrounded by farms and minor settlements as a dominant feature. Available societies range from early human settlements to a crumbled central empire.

Next, the player must choose which character to play. There are seventeen different characters.^[1] The characters are split into Warlords, Magic users, Priests and Non-humans. The character is, in practice, the "nation" the player selects. Different characters have different strengths and require vastly different playstyles. Warlords have strong military units and occasionally some special features such as the ability to levy soldiers or construct watchtowers. Magic users gather a unique resource, and their strength is in their summoned or constructed creatures. Priests differ greatly from each other but generally need to either capture civilized settlements (for converts or blood sacrifices), or gather herbs or fungi (for use in summoning or attacking).

The game map, made out of separate terrain tiles, is littered with different terrain types and locations including old battlefields, settlements of varying size, mines and locations which can be used as additional citadels. Certain locations have other uses for different player characters. Seasonal changes affect money and spells. For example, Winter greatly reduces tax income and stunts growth of herbs and fungi.

The game is heavily combat oriented as the control of your nation is basically limited to buying units or changing the tax. Units are recruited centrally and are deployed into special structures called "citadels", which range from castles to wooden watchtowers. Large cities also double as citadels. Units troops require a commander to be moved. Troops range from spearmen to siege engines and mythological and imaginary creatures of varying strength.

Combat is handled in a separate mode: when two armies clash the game calculates combat results in the turn generation and the player gets to see the battles during the turn generation. The combat is completely automated and the player can only watch once the combat starts. The opposing armies line against each other. Some units have special abilities which come into play in combat. The combat's graphical presentation is simple: the only things displayed are the units on a black background and the possible walls protecting the defenders. Sound effects are few and simple as are spell effects.

The game's interface is partially usable by both mouse and partially keyboard only. While this ensues that the game runs in truly minimally equipped computers it also makes the interface somewhat awkward to use.

Despite being one of Illwinter's lesser known games, they continued to support it for years after its release, and a patch was released in 2014. On August 15, 2011, Illwinter announced development of Conquest of Elysium III.

• http://www.illwinter.com Homepage of Illwinter Game Design.