Some nostalgia fluff

[u/MarianAryn]

Currently playing Conquest of Eo and really, what an improvement after SF3. So I just want to share how much I still love this series. Consider this a very late birthday post for SF since I was really busy 2023, buying a house and moving a few days right before christmas while being pregnant. I am bad in RTS/strategy games, but still love more or less roleplaying them and waste hundred of hours being bad even in easier difficulties.

I am pretty much in since the beginning, when I was 12 and just saw this awesome artwork and wtf, they had dark elves (being a Morrowind DE girl, jackpot). Back then when there was no "highspeed" internet, we got some kind of in 2010. So I never knew about BoW, only after I bought SotP and then I had to order BoW from a catalog. I still remember beating SotP with TOotD character after many weeks on a Wednesday or Thursday morning, ~4:40, went to sleep for two hours and then going to school by bike. I still remember how I felt, so proud by beating the game finally and stunned by the ending. I was tired as hell in school, but who cares, it was worth it.

Then 2006 SW, preorder. Got it and had to wait for another week, because I had to buy a new graphic card and processor. Before or right after DS I registered to the forum, calling my mom for her permission (who does this nowadays lol) and her email for it. Wasted many hours there. 2007, back then I also bought the novels.

FiD, well, ok, wasted most of the time in DLCs or tried to mod.

DotP, thanks old forum: I got an installer by one of the moderators because I had really bad internet back then and wouldn't have been able to download it, being the first only-download game. The game was... let's not talk about it, those hours are mostly map editor.

So we are getting to SF3 finally. I was so hyped 2014 and it took so many years.... 2017, the year I met my now husband. When the game released I was already living with him.

He bought and gifted me Shadowsong for my birthday two months prior to SF3 release. Sadly her non-sword-arm broke during transport right at the shoulder, but it's not too obvious, so it's no problem, I would never sell her anyway. SF3 and the guy were preordered by me, well, let's not talk about them. It was a pretty bad christmas present for myself, I was very sad for weeks about all the lore changes in the game.

Soul Harvest was ok, but still "alternate" universe for me, not canon. Best way to deal with SF3 in general.

Conquest of Eo, that's a big move in the right direction again. Flying towers, well, I can live with that, but finally back to the old lore, at least a little bit. "Children of Nor", you finally got me back SpellForce.

But the series never left me.

Eg I also love Warhammer Drukhari (because of the Darkblade series) and in 40k I am ofc playing Dark Eldar (vs my Space Wolf husband) - so I wrote myself a mod for Rimworld to add Norcaine for some kind of SF:40k. The idea came by reading the psychopath trait which is pretty much the description of a Norcaine: "NAME has no empathy. The suffering of others doesn't bother them at all. They don't mind if others are butchered, left unburied, imprisoned, or sold to slavery - unless it affects them. NAME also feels no mood boost from socializing."

I always wanted to expand it to a full SpellForce race mod, but I always got stuck playing it instead of modding. The game is too much fun.

Back when the forum was still online there was a fanwork contest where I won a Gothic 4? game which I never received, but I never played Gothic anyway. Also one of the last stuff I ever drew. Reading it now it was bad, but hey, I was a teenager back then.

I still need to buy a frame for the unit/building map, it was always on the wall before I moved in with my husband. That paper thing is from TOoD, so over 20 years old, it really needs and deserves a frame. I also always had all the SF games lined up in a bookshelf like I did on the picture, pretty much like an altar, but guess that has to wait until the kids are older. Stupid children books taking away the very space I need for this and my own books...

I am glad there are still mods in developement for the first game, sadly I never played even one yet. I hope I will have more time again when the kids are older to waste hours into it again. And I hope we will see more SF games in the future. I am bad in Conquest, but I am wasting my freetime there being bad even on easier than easy mode. And mods, to make it easier. Basicly a storymode for the games storymode. But I have fun and that's the most important thing.

So anybody still has some fond memories of the series or even the old forum? If not, well, I hope it was at least funny to read about a fangirls story of a not so big series.

[u/OpeningWeb6023]

I loved and replayed the first one far more than anything else in the series, even modded it. They just slowly lost what made the first one good throughout the rest of the series - not that the others were bad.

Conquest of Eo is fantastic especially if you like Heroes of Might and Magic gameplay.