SpellForce Platinum - TIPS FOR NEW PLAYERS

[Wormic]

To start off, I know there are lists such as this.
The reason I'm making something like this is so that people have it all in one place (+ some tips of my own that I haven't seen anyone mentioning)

AVATAR CREATION :
Something everyone is going to mention if you ask them for Tips; Pick a fighter character.

Building a fighter avatar does make the game a lot easier at the early stages, especially if you pick Heavy Combat Arts. Light Combat Arts isn't bad either, but you do have less HP (and resistances in some cases!) with it. One of the strongest combinations you can take is the "Paladin". Basically, you take what's good in HCA (heavy armor + large blade weapons) and add some Healing white magic to it. This avatar is one of, if not the strongest one in the Campaign.

If you do decide to go for a full Heavy fighter, just max out everything in the Heavy Comabt Arts skill tree and put all of your atributes into Strength and Stamina

Here is a list of some other avatars and how to max them out : http://forum.spellforce.com/showthread.php?t=67777

IN GAME TIPS :
Always try to find out where the resources and enemy camps are BEFORE you activate the rune monument!

Queue up workers when starting to build a base.

If you want to run faster, go into 3rd person mode and control your avatar manually, it can save you quite a bit of time.

Save often - there isn't such a thing as too many saves.

If you're playing with a mage and/or archer, try and summon close combat troops early.

CTRL(hold) + Right click - attack move (units move to a location, attacking all enemy units/buildings on the way)

SHIFT(hold) + Right click - set waypoint (units move along set waypoints)

ALT(hold) + Right click - set patrol points (unit will walk along them and back, attacking enemy units which come close)


Not every merchant sells/buys items for the same price.

Do sidequests as soon as you can (even if you can't complete it fully yet). The 1-2 levels you could get from them mean more at the start than in the end.

Always check if you have the best worker runes (you can sometimes buy better ones than the runes you get in chests)

Towers are OP. If you are ever stuck on a level (like Godwall) and the enemy just sends too many patrols for you to handle, start tower production early. This is especially easy to do with elves since they can produce their own wood.

If you ever feel like you're behind in levels with your avatar, set up a hardpoint (a LOOOOOT of towers + your units) in a direction the enemy is coming from and let them come. Leave your PC on at night if you want. This can give you quite a few levels.

You can rotate buildings ( CTRL + turn mouse wheel )

Summoning many ranged units (such as elven windarchers or dwarven defenders with upgrades) is really strong as long as you have someone to hold the enemy while they shoot. ( Like a Heavy combat arts avatar! )

Light (Humans, Elves, Dwarves) and Dark (Orcs, Trolls, Dark Elves) races DON'T share resuorces and they will fight eachother if you put them close to eachother. Dark races will attack any Light allies you have.


PERKS OF EACH RACE :

HUMANS - Good close and ranged fighters. Magic units (apart from healer) are not that good. Can produce unlimited food. They are weaker when fighting during night time!!!

ELVES - Weak in close, but strong in ranged combat. Not much armor or most units. Strong when it comes to magic. They take less damage when fighting in the woods(close to trees)!!!

DWARVES - Strong up close, weak ranged combat (upgraded Defender still OP). Magic is weak but they can take a lot before going down. They have a regular unit for taking down enemy buildings. If a dwarf kills a units he levels up which makes him a bit stronger. You can see what level he is by the number of stars above his head. One he levels up, he stays like that, so try to heal the ones with more levels first!!!

DARK ELVES - Super strong in close combat, but no ranged units apart from mages. Strong magic spells. If they kill an enemy at night they get a Skeleton slave which you can control!!!

TROLLS - Strong close and long range figters. No magic units. Really good armor, but they don't have a special building to gather iron. Because of that they gather it really slowly. It's good if you combine them with another dark race and let them collect iron for the trolls. If a troll has lost half of his HP, he goes berzerk for a few seconds dealing more damage with his attacks!!! They also have a building which can be used to transform corpses (after a fight) into food, but I've never found it to be that usefull.

ORCS - Strong in close combat, a bit weaker in ranged combat. Good with magic. They have units( Drummer and Hornblower) which empower other units in a fight. If an orc only has 1/4 of his HP left, he flees from the fight.



I probably missed some things, but I still hope it'll be helpful for people new to the game.

[Tario]

well... Not everything is right.
For instance, in BOW campaign you should skip Heavy blade weapons for Blunt becouse there are just more of them, and, well, they are just better.
Basicly in normal Campaign you shouldnt have any problem with enemy patrols or attacks becouse their spawn is not that fast like in BOW, but these advices should be taken into consideration when you play breath of the winter campaign, and they will be useful. In normal one, not so much.

One thing about merchants.

The merchants that have best prices, are usually the ones you have helped in the past.
For instance, when you finish a quest for elf in greyfell to deliver her supplies, she will become merchant and have better prices for you than the rest, INCLUDING money you get from selling items.

Quests, its true, but the most important thing is that there are few quest like that
Quest with ghosts in Liannon, Quest with echoing graves in Greyfell, that becomes avaible after you came back from Wildland Pass.

The key is to understand how experience system works in this game.
The more and more you kill one type of enemy, the less experience you will get from another one on the same map. For instance you will get 30 exp for killing a banding, and after killing whole bunch of them you will get none. Thats why farming is acceptable but just to certain degree, after it it becomes pointless and you should finish the map.
Some maps dont have fast spawns though, like Liannon, or Greyfell. First map you can farm is from what i remember Eloni, then Shiel.

IN Breath of winter campaing you have to be sure that you get at least one level from JUST farming on the map becouse otherwise you will be reaaaly behind. At least i was, and i didint died that much, maybe once or twice.
That makes 2-3 lvls on nearly every map. There are few good farm points that i pointed out in other topic on this forum.

Regarding races -> It was said that LIght and Dark dont share resources. But the thing you have to remember in BOW campaing is that DARK races are also at war with each other in that campaign. You cant have Dark elves and ORC npc nearby becouse they will attack each other, its not a problem in normal campaign though.

For people that want to end the BOW campaign i have few more advices.

Play on hard, it will benefit later. You can take your time finishing maps, time is your friend.
Every death cost exp, remember about that.
The races you will play the most in that campaign are ->
Dark Elves - You will play them at two very important maps, first that lets you farm, and the map with the ghosts and shadow blade, it can be hard but you have to be prepared to face realy powerful enemies, and their stunning towers will do miracles there.

Elves - You will also play three times with the elves, first time in Frostfall where you have to buy yourself some time, it can be hard but you will have to use your troops as a decoy. Second time its easy becouse you already have HUMAN camp build, you dont even have to start the elven one.
Third time you will face Wolflings and Crimson soldiers. Wolflings are realy hard opponents for your elves and if you wont wipe them out fast, you will have big problem. Question is what you want, more exp or less trouble.

Orcs - You play four times with the orcs so better get used to it. At start of the game there is not much to tell, but later you will have to gather food and survive against crimson enough time before you will switch to the elves. Next time you will play them on Shal'dun. where you have to face Dark elves, ones that are immune to fire, and ones that are not. Of course your troops are underleveled so you will have a hard time, or will you utilies troops Craig Un'Shalah has given you properly, Dont bother with building towers from the south they are immune.
Fourth time is in firefangs, and it depends from you where will you go first, to the ORC monument or the elven one. I would prefere Elven one and wouldnt even start the orc becouse it will only be harder, and is hard enough with elves to survive if you are not fast enough, and you wont be fast enough, you can start monument to start spawning of enemies in south-east part of the map.

Dwarves
Your main guys beside the orcs in BOW campaign. Welcome the Dwarves. They are played on three maps but you will be back soon enough to rebuild your base and do side quests, and you will need an army for that.
First time is winterdeep, and Fastholme. My advice is, as fast as you can do and upgrade unit with throwing hammers, it takes so long to make them but they are you salvation becouse your troops will be always underleveled in that campaign. Dont bother too much wtih other units, but you should untilies the warriors becouse they are cheap. Be careful about your moonsilver it goes to none realy fast with doing dwarf army.
One thing i can say is that You will play them at your last map and be sure that you will need these flying hammers :D Theres just no other way.

[Wormic]

Thanks for adding to it. And you're right, I did write Platinum in the name, but they were more or less for TOoD.

[Ailon]

it's good to see that after all these years there are still people that share words of wisdom with everyone :D

[Gill_Magical]

THANK GOD there is an attack-move after all.

[Wormic]

Originally posted by Gill_Magical:

THANK GOD there is an attack-move after all.

ikr

[BlackPhanter]

rotating buildings *mindblown*

[Borbarad]

When you research an upgrade it doesn`t affect the units you built before.
Is another tipp for new players

[Borbarad]

And if you build multiple forges/temple of light etc, your units spawn faster
this one isn`t not that important anymore, now that units get produced faster after the patch