When you begin SpellForce: Conquest of Eo, the first thing the game prompts you to do is choose your archetype. The selection menu describes which archetype suits the style of play you’re going for, which is one of the more important aspects of choosing your archetype. Each archetype also has a different flavor — the alchemist is more about precise calculation, the necromancer about raising the undead, and the artificer about craftsmanship.
Once you’ve played through the game a few times, you’ll probably be tempted to create a Custom Mage, combining the best of all worlds to play the game exactly as you want.
Alchemist
Playstyle Keywords: Precision, Mastery, Choices
The Alchemist is a classic style of mage and my favorite of the SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Archetypes. An alchemist presents a good combination of tactics in combat. You’ll generally have more potions in your inventory, and you can also control creatures you summon. As combat scales and you have more options in game, this is the Archetype that makes you feel like a master of a chess board.
It uses Alchemy for crafting, with a Primary School being Nature and Secondary School being Enchantment.
Drawback: You have to constantly collect and win ingredients to ensure you have what you need.
Necromancer
Playstyle Keywords: Hefty Army, Unfeeling, Sacrificial, Ends Before Means
The Necromancer can pick up the dead from the battlefield and bring them back as something better — even if that means sacrificing living units to do so. This means that the Necromancer needs to stay one or two steps ahead of their opponent in battle (thus the artistry of playing this Arcehtype). However, it’s so easy to amass a large army as this Archetype, that it’s sometimes hard to make a mistake.
It uses Necromancy for Crafting, with a Primary and Secondary School of Death.
Drawback: Your army doesn’t exactly heal (due to being undead and all). It’s big, but easy to damage.
Artificer
Playstyle Keywords: Buffs, Small Army, Craftsmanship
If you’re more of a tinkerer, the Artificer might be the best of the SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Archetypes for you. When playing one of these, you’ll typically end up making artifacts and glyphs to buff your troops and find more secrets in the game than other Archetypes are privy to. However, your army will be a little smaller, and after investing a lot into one individual unit, it can really hurt to see them be defeated.
It uses Artificing for Crafting with a Primary School of Earthmaster and a Secondary School of Guardian.
Note about Artificers: Artificery requires ore, so an Artificer works best in an ore-heavy land. Consider this when selecting your starting location.
Drawback: If you don’t have ore, this is not a fun Archetype to play. Everything you do depends upon it.
Custom Mage Creation
When you choose a Custom Mage Archetype, you can select your own Crafting, Primary, and Secondary Schools. These combinations create a lot of replayability in the game, allowing and encouraging you to experiment and try new things.
This does allow you to select the Mentalism school, which is particularly fascinating. I suggest you add this as one of your schools if you choose a Custom Mage — it’s really fun to mess with the heads of your enemies’ armies! Having a Mentalism option is the primary reason to go Custom on a second or later playthrough.
Again, when you get to choose your starting location shortly after choosing from the SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Archetypes, make sure you pick one that aligns well with the character type you’ve selected or created.
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