Introduction
Elemental is a turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy world filled with magic, monsters, quests, and danger. The player takes on the role of a Sorcerer (or Sorceress) who can “channel” magic and perform increasingly powerful spells as they level up.
The setting of the game is approximately a century after a great war between the Titans. They are gone but the land was decimated. Life has started to return to the world and people are scraping by. The more ambitious have taken to exploring the world looking for signs of civilization to join their cause to. The less ambitious have, sadly, gathered in refugee camps or fallen into lawlessness.
The great gift that the player has is that they can bring the world back to life by sacrificing some of their very finite life essence. Known as the spell “Revive Land”, it is, at first, the only spell the player knows. It will bring the land back to life enough that it can support a small settlement. Fear not, once the spark of life is reignited, it tends to spread out.
This walkthrough will hopefully help you understand the game and how to play it.
The Campaign
New players are recommend to play the Campaign (Elemental: War of Magic – Book 1). The campaign isn’t available in the beta so we’ll skip to the “sand box mode” which is where most people will play the game.
Setting up a new game
The World
When you begin a new game, you can choose how large you want your world to be (Micro, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large) as well as the Land Mass (Single continent, Multiple Continents, Islands).
This screen also allows players to determine what victory conditions are present:
- Conquest. The traditional method of victory – destroy them all.
- Diplomatic. Ally with all the players in the game.
- Master Quest. Complete the exceptionally challenging master quest and win the game.
- Spell of Making. Gather the resources necessary to cast the ultimate spell and win.
[In beta 2, only conquest is enabled]
Who are you?
Players can choose amongst the 5 Kingdom sovereigns or the 5 Imperial sovereigns or you can make your own.
When designing your sovereign, you get a limited number of character points. If you’ve ever played a role playing game, it’s very similar.
When you are done designing your sovereign, you can design his/her “Info Card”. This will allow you to easily identify your sovereign at a galnce on the map and gives him a bit more uniqueness.
Choose your Faction
You can then choose among the 5 pre-made Kingdoms and 5 pre-made Empires or you can create your own. The factions you create you can later play against.
[In beta 2, you cannot create your own faction].
The Early Game
Turn 1:
On Turn 1 your Kingdom’s population = 1 = You.
As a rule, Elemental tries to avoid too much abstraction. This is your kingdom. These are your people. You are building it from scratch.
SUGGESTION: Hit Control-G to turn on the grid.
SUGGESTION: Use the LEFT mouse button (press it down) to grab the map and move it around rather than using edge scrolling.
SUGGESTION: Use the middle mouse button to rotate the map around.
Walking over to the female on the map, we discover her name is Lejadiri. To build a kingdom, we will need all the help we can get.
Walking over to the crates next to Lejadiri is a potion left by some long lost wizard which, if drank, will increase my combat speed by 0.25 points.
Combat speed determines who many actions you get per battle turn. In tactical combat, it’s a very important number as it determines how many “moves” you get in tactical combat. In quick battles, combat speed is simulated and equally deadly there as well.
Founding my first city
Each city is more expensive than the last to build so make them count. I am building my first city here because it’s reasonably close to the scenic view and to a nearby beach.
Because the land is forsaken, I must sacrifice 3 of my life essence into the land itself. Players only start out with 15 essence total so every point is precious. Essence determines the maximum amount of spell mana a unit can hold.
We must sacrifice our essence to revive the land.
With the land revived, we can build our city and begin improving it immediately.
I’d like to build a study so I can start researching technology. Unfortunately, I need 2 materials.
This warehouse would let me build faster but I need a level 3 city.
To raise my city level, I need more people. But to do that, I need food. The land, while revived, is not good enough for farming. However, with 2 materials, the city is capable of growing a small amount of food in a garden.
TURN 2
My First Quest
Oh the rats in the basement quest…
Meanwhile, Xander (my sovereign) is exploring as well.
He has found a weapon.
When you find a weapon, you will want to equip it. To do that, click on your player portrait.
Then click on the item you want to equip.
Researching
Once you have begun to gather knowledge, you can start researching technology
Kingdoms get 5 categories of knowledge:
- Civilization
- Warfare
- Magic
- Adventure
- Diplomacy
[In Beta 2, Magic, Adventure, and Diplomacy are disabled]
Civilization allows you to improve your Kingdom via mundane means.
Warfare allows you to train better combat units.
Magic allows you to improve your Kingdom via magical means.
Adventure gives you access to better quests and more useful recruitable characters.
Diplomacy provides you with options for dealing with other kingdoms and empires.
Through research, your kingdom’s capabilities will grow.
Caravans
Caravans are a crucial part of your kingdom.
Once researched, a player can train one (if the city has a command post) and send it to a target destination. Upon reaching that destination, a road is built. Over time, this road will get better and better.
A caravan will deliver to your kingdom a fractional amount of what a city produces each turn based on the quality of the road and the distance between cities.
[In beta 2 this has not been balanced].
MID GAME
[In the public beta 2 series, because there’s no diplomacy, magic, or adventure, the mid game is somewhat sparce]
Luckily for the player, the AI in the beta 2 series is still relatively weak. So the AI isn’t exactly catching the world on fire with its uint design (i.e. it builds a lot of cheap units).
The mid game in beta 2 largely consists of acquiring the technologies necessary to conquer.
More to come…
