Conquest of Elysium is a series of fantasy Turn-Based Strategy games developed by Illwinter Game Design in 1997 and released as freeware 10 years later. It's a prequel of sorts to the Dominions series of games also developed by Illwinter. It allows anywhere from 2-8 players at the same time, any or all of which may be human; however, multiplayer is hotseat only.
Each player takes on the role of any of 20 different classes of faction leader which can be broadly organized into four different categories (Warlord, Mage, Priest, Nonhuman). Each player starts with two or three leaders, a modest army, a Citadel, and a few small villages that provide income. Unlike many similar games, there is little economic management; money and resources are collected from locations that the player controls and is used to hire units or power rituals. For the most part, the only influence the player has over the economy is setting the tax rate, although a few classes have rituals that construct infrastructure or otherwise increase their long-term income. There's no diplomacy; the game is essentially a straight-up free-for-all among all the players. The ultimate goal is the conquest of Elysium, which is accomplished by vanquishing all enemy leaders and capturing their Citadels.
Like in Civilization and similar games, the world is procedurally-generated each playthrough; this, combined with the large variety of units, magic items, and enemies provides for significant replayability.
Conquest of Elysium 2 is available for free download at Shrapnel Games
. Conquest of Elysium 5, meanwhile, is available on Steam.
Conquest of Elysium provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Like its successors, there is almost no documentation in-game, not even a tutorial. However, the manual is useful for picking up the basics.
- All Trolls Are Different: The Troll King.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Scourge Lord from Conquest of Elysium 5. Even accounting for the Unreliable Narrator nature of their descriptions, their magic works by killing the planet in exchange for power.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Siege weapons can be this for field battles, as they take a long time to reload, can be pretty inaccurate and usually move pretty slowly. The best use for them is, unsurprisingly, sieges, where they get a full pre-battle phase to fire at the enemy.
- The Senator's late-game upgrades also count as this. They're incredibly powerful but very expensive, costing 600 gold just to coronate him, let alone allow him to reach his final upgrade (which takes a further 1000). Once he does, though, he becomes a God-Emperor, an incredibly powerful unit that can take on small armies on his own; Potentially, if he was coronated in a Fallen Capital, he can even become the God Emperor of the Underworld and cross into Hades!
- Becoming the Dark Emperor as the Senator in a non-Fallen Empire era is even more extreme. The alternative route in eras without a fallen capitol is to crown yourself in the capital of the underworld or the capitol of hell, neither of which you can access normally, and both of which have stronger defenses than you're ever likely to encounter in the course of a normal game.
- Powerful slow units in factions consisting of largely non-slow troops generally fall into this. While they may provide incredible advantages, it is rarely worth slowing down your entire army for them.
- Black Comedy: Many of the unit descriptions are extremely sardonic, particularly about the futility of the unit's life and their hopes for survival.
- Bragging Rights Reward: In Conquest of Elysium 4, conquering most of the other planes is this. By the time you have the forces and powers necessary to reach and conquer the capital of Inferno or the elemental citadels, you could have much more easily won the game.
- Most of the Senator's late-game upgrades fall under this, since even the easiest ones require conquering the capital and then spending an absurd amount of resources; while the benefits for the final upgrade are huge, you'll usually have won already by the time you get them. But special note goes to the option of becoming the Dark Emperor via the capital of Inferno, which combines all the difficulty and cost of upgrading the Senator, with all the difficulty of conquering Hell, when you have no native way of reaching it and no units remotely capable of fighting effectively there. If you can do all that, you don't need to be the God Emperor of the Underworld.
- Cannibal Tribe:
- Tropical areas in 2 had a lot of cannibal villages populated by very stereotypical non-player controlled dark-skinned cannibals (archers with poisoned arrows), some of which also took tigers or apes into battle. Surprisingly, though, they weren't aggressive and were content to stay in their villages and surrounding jungles.
- Tropical natives also exist in 4, but are more-fleshed out and removed from the outdated Darkest Africa stereotypes of the earlier game, and are not referred to as cannibals at all. On the other hand, the natives of Mayincatec Azlan are described as cannibals, but the description is written in the voice of an in-universe scholar and may reflect the scholar's prejudices rather than the objective truth.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The method through which an Emperor can ascend to Godhood is implied to be this: The building of enough statues in large settlements ensures the Emperor is everpresent in the minds of everyday citizens, giving him a 'divine aegis' that he can then manifest into himself.
- Church Militant: The Church of El maintains a strong military, including highly skilled Templars.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The church of El is this. Its hierarchy and modus operandi are modeled after the medieval Catholic Church, while El and his supernatural servants are mostly based on the God and angels of the Old Testament.
- Dual-World Gameplay: In Co E 4 and beyond, Hades is a mirror world to Elysium, full of ghosts and the dead. Necromancers have rituals that can transport entire armies between corresponding points on the two worlds, and both they and the Barbarian have units that can travel between them at will.
- Elemental Powers: Warlocks use gems containing elemental power for various things.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Every unit you or an ally does not control is considered by the game to be hostile, though whether they seek to conquer you or much, much worse depends on the faction in question.
- Easy Evangelism: Usually averted on the part of the Voice of El due to converting provinces costing a fair amount of money and AP, but Played Straight with the 'Conversion' spell and those like it, which can be used in the middle of combat. Bonus points if the converted unit was from the cult of Ba'al.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Senator is pretty much an Elysian Expy of Rome.
- Hobbits: Hoburgs are the resident species of hobbit. They are skilled farmers and ironworkers, and normally live as relatively peaceful people under the rule of Burgmeisters. However, some Hoburgs who live in remote and barren lands have adopted human-style feudalism under a Markgraf, and have adopted necromancy as part of their arsenal.
- God Is Evil: Played distressingly straight in '4'. There's the Voice Of El, which despite preaching of El's forgiveness knows that he isn't very forgiving of sinners; there's the cult of Ba'al and Priest-King which use human sacrifices to appease their respective gods, and then there are cults worshipping literal Deep Ones and Horrors. However, this can also be defied by Senator players in a Society with a Capital, albeit priceily; It costs a full 1600 gold to both coronate and ascend (a major city, for reference, brings in *five* a turn), but once they do so, their leader will be a powerful God-Emperor capable of leading Elysium to greatness.
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Unless you're the Voice of El anyway. Not only is El Himself (as described above) stated by the Voice's unit descriptions to be a bit of a Jerkass who would happily cause armageddon the moment he's freed, but the forces of Inferno aren't much better, capturing and enslaving even innocent souls from Elysium to feed and empower the Demons and Devils. In practice, you'll find yourself having to fight both of them if they make their way to Elysium, no matter what faction you are.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Summonable, by the Cardinal of El.
- Human Sacrifice: Practiced by several factions. Some use sacrifices to bargain with demons, while others do so as a devotion to their god.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: The 'warlord' classes tend to be at their strongest in the early- to mid-game, fielding large armies of mundane forces that can sweep aside the troops of most other classes early on. However, in the late game, the 'priest' and 'mage' classes can field powerful creatures or even Gods, and turn back the tide against the 'warlords'.
- Magikarp Power: The Senator class has perhaps the weakest leader unit at the outset. However, if in a Society that has a Capital of some kind, if you conquer it and bring him there (and have a massive stockpile of gold), you can declare him an Emperor, allowing him to build statues to himself in settlements that defend it and (depending on the type of Emperor he is) increase its tax revenue or summon undead spirits to patrol your lands. Alternatively, he can appoint Governors to do this for him in addition to raising Limetanei garrisons in fortified locations. But it doesn't stop there. Bring him to a temple and amass a further 1000 gold, and you can make him an insanely powerful God-Emperor capable of taking on entire armies alone and equipped with great divine power, in addition to (once again, depending on Emperor type) potentially allowing him to cross over into Hades itself.
- Mineral Macguffin: Warlocks collect gems which can be used to give them different powers. Dwarven Rune-Smiths also use gems in their crafting.
- Military Coup: In the "Empire" and "Dawn of a New Empire" societies, even Senator players are still considered hostile by the troops in the Capital. This however also makes it possible for a Senator that conquers the Capital to declare themselves as The Emperor.
- Nature Is Not Nice: Considering even the deer are flesh-eating, and many new players' games are lost by groups of wildlife wandering into their starting citadel, Ancient Forests and Anthills (which spawn wild animals) are generally either conquered or destroyed as soon as possible. True in-universe as well; for example, Tower Guards were developed by the Baron because Giant Spiders would crawl up the walls to kill his prior Longbowmen. Classes like the Druid and Dryad Queen that use it to their advantage are viewed as misguided but dangerous at best, and feared at worst.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Dragon Lord.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same:
- The Dwarf King in 2. His faction collects more money from mines.
- An unusual version in 4 with the Dwarf Queen, who is essentially an insect queen constantly giving birth to Dwarf Workers, who can then be upgraded to fill more specific roles (e.g. Arbalest, Guard, Warrior). Dwarves are superior miners but terrible at collecting income from towns. They are also highly collectivist, and frown upon individualism — the only ones who do so are the so-called outdoor Dwarfs, who live apart from their kin and do most of the dealing with the world outside the mines.
- Our Elves Are Different: Two different Elf leaders, an Elf King and an Elf Queen, appear in 2. Both are able to control forests as well as towns, and friendly units will periodically spawn on their own. They are not available in 4, but the Dryad Queen plays similar to the Elf Queen.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The Orc Warlord in 2. Orcs are powerful fighters, though weak against magic.
- Rising Empire: The "Rise of a New Empire" era has one of these, ruled by a council intent on preventing the mistakes of before. Also possible from the Senator class, as it has a ritual to declare the Senator as a new Emperor.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: A wide variety of factions can summon (or, in El's case, break free) beings of immense power, but most of them have... unpleasant plans for humanity. As such, these are usually only used either in the very late game when they can be more reliably controlled or when there is literally no other option, although the latter is just as likely to backfire on you as well.
- Shout-Out: As an Easter Egg, a group of NPCs identical to the Fellowship from Lord of the Rings can sometimes be found wandering around (two hoburgers, a human hero, a marksman, a dwarf, and a white wizard.)
- Summon Magic: Many Mages and Priests have the ability to summon various units such as mythological creatures and demons. Requirements vary from gathering herbs and mushrooms in the forest to sacrificing your own population.
- Take That!: The descriptions for the Always Chaotic Evil Scourge Lord and their minions tend towards this, making them sound like internet trolls and similar acceptable targets; among other things, it says the steles they use to drain the life from the planet work because they are engraved with "destructive jokes, offensive rants, and counterfactual news", while their minions are described as largely having been basement-dwellers before the Scourge Lord recruited them.
- Überwald: The Markgraf's German low-feudalism and necromancy evoke this aesthetic.
- Unreliable Narrator: In Conquest of Elysium 4 and beyond, units have descriptions written in the voice of in-universe scholars, which one of the developers describes as "clueless mage-scholar and frothing at the mouth El fanatic narrative voices"; frequently the descriptions are mocking or dismissive towards rival religions or civilizations, and at one point they flatly and confidently state, in the description for Priest King's Dire Beast giant panther, that such creatures are primitive superstition and definitely do not exist.
- Vestigial Empire: Playing as the Senator in the "Fallen Empire" and "Monarchy" Societies. The Empire has fallen not too long ago, and any vestige of Imperial authority with it. Now, you are the only outpost of that former empire left, and you only start out with a military outpost, a quarter-strength Centuria, and a walled town.
- Walking Wasteland: The Scourge Lord's magic depends on killing living things to operate, so the world around him slowly turns into a wasteland, both as a result of his own casting and the obelisks he builds to drain the life force from the world.
- Zerg Rush: The Baron's conscription lends itself to this once he conquers enough settlements, especially in the early game. He has among the easiest times assembling armies thanks to his policy of conscription.
