# Conquest of Elysium 3: Team Up Against the Map

Build a turn-based fantasy team with up to eight player slots, mixing friends and AI. Online allies can combine attacks; hotseat play shares one computer but keeps that team limitation.

[PLAYNEXT](https://playnext.party/) · Published: 10/2/2026

![A caster's spell list is open over a forest map in Conquest of Elysium 3.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/fb5afbff-2898-42c9-81a0-bee5602cb1dd/ss-6db260df9aea1758a89a428193b45c901d1a8f23?width=1200)

Conquest of Elysium 3 lets you and your friends form a team in a turn-based fantasy skirmish, then fill other seats with AI opponents. A game can hold up to eight players total, and a team can win by being the last side left on the map. You are not following a co-op story campaign: you are trying to outlast rival factions, wandering monsters and the strange rules of a randomly generated world.

That setup can make a small group feel like a proper faction alliance. Your allies share the board and the same broad goal, but each person still controls a separate leader, army and economy. A Druid who gathers herbs in forests and a Dwarf Queen who depends on mines can bring very different tools to one team. The fun comes from making those uneven factions part of the same push across Elysium.

## One map, up to eight players

When you start a game, you choose a map and add player slots. Each slot can belong to a person or the computer, and you can put players on teams before the match begins. The game gives you space for up to eight player factions, so your group can add AI rivals when there are fewer than eight humans. Two friends can also take on computer opponents. You do not need an even human-versus-human lineup to make a team match.

Victory belongs to the last player or team standing. Each faction has commanders, citadels and its own way of assembling troops; losing all commanders or all citadels can eliminate a player. In a team game, an optional Common Cause rule can tie the team's survival together, so an individual ally is not out just because their own forces take a bad turn. Your group is still building toward conquest, not clearing a chain of authored co-op missions.

The team setting affects how the map feels. Allies can pass through one another's armies and occupied locations, then defend a shared square as one force when an enemy arrives. In online network games, allied armies can also join an attack together. That gives your group a clear way to combine pressure instead of marching as separate rivals who happen to share a color.

![A forest map shows armies, resource sites, fog of war and turn commands in Conquest of Elysium 3.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/fb5afbff-2898-42c9-81a0-bee5602cb1dd/ss-abb5982151a11d88f4676d00f0033f8eb067bb51?width=1200)

There is one useful distinction if you are playing hotseat on a shared computer. Allied factions can defend together in single-player and hotseat games, but they cannot combine attacks there; that option is specific to network multiplayer. Hotseat still gives you team settings and AI opponents, but it is not a full substitute for online team combat. If your plan depends on two allied armies striking the same enemy at once, set up a network game.

## Your factions do not share a job description

The factions are not a set of balanced hero classes with one tank, one healer and one damage role. Each is a small strategic system with its own recruitment, special resources and rituals. You and your friends can pick factions that behave differently, then work toward the same victory condition without having to fill a prescribed team composition.

A Druid gathers herbs from forests and jungles to summon creatures of the woods, so the value of a territory depends on where the right plants grow. The Dwarf Queen is more tightly tied to mines: she produces troops steadily and improves them, turning a hard-to-replace force into a long-term investment. A Necromancer looks for the remains of battles and other sources of hands, then raises the dead or spends that resource on summons and transformations. Those examples change what each friend wants from the map, and why a particular patch of forest, village, graveyard or mine matters.

That difference gives cooperation a strategic texture. One ally may be eager to claim a mine while another is looking for a forest, and both still want enough gold to recruit or maintain a broader force. Your factions do not automatically merge into one shared economy; each player manages their own pieces and needs. You are coordinating separate expansions, and alliances let armies cross paths or hold ground together.

The range runs well beyond those examples. A Baron raises human troops, an Enchanter can turn wealth and metal into constructs, and a Demonologist spends sacrifices to call demons that may turn dangerous. A Troll King is itself a fearsome frontline presence. Some rituals offer strong creatures or map-changing effects, but the exact results can depend on chance. A faction that looks powerful on paper can still need a particular resource or a good opening region before its unusual tools come online.

![Hösne the Goblin Witch Doctor’s roster shows trolls and goblin archers beside units stationed at Troll Forest sites.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/fb5afbff-2898-42c9-81a0-bee5602cb1dd/ss-7276953471daaf0c8f80b45b9c37d8297b723b76?width=1200)

## Turns are about space, supplies and risk

A turn takes you from the world map to a series of practical choices. Commanders move across the map, claim places that produce income or faction-specific resources, recruit or summon units, and try to keep their citadels and leaders alive. You can choose to press toward an opponent or spend a few turns building an army around a useful location. The map is a patchwork of towns, mines, forests, ruins, lairs and other sites, so the route between two enemies may be as important as the battle at the end of it.

Not every faction can make the same use of every site. Gold is broadly useful, but other resources power specific rituals and unit types. A Witch's fungus, a Necromancer's hands or a Druid's herbs can pull a leader toward one part of the map, while the same locations may be less valuable to a teammate. Conquest is not only about painting territory in your color; it is about finding enough of the places that let your faction keep expanding.

Battles resolve automatically once armies meet, but their composition still matters. Units are arranged in front, middle and back ranks. Close-combat fighters usually take the front, with archers, mages and some leaders behind them. A row of sturdy troops can keep fragile spellcasters alive long enough to use their abilities, while a large monster may be hard to overwhelm with only a few attackers. The game resolves attacks, damage and spell choices for you, so the tactical question is mostly what you bring into the fight and where its units sit in formation.

This structure makes allies useful even when they are not controlling a shared avatar. An army that needs to defend a resource-rich area can occupy the same square as a teammate's force, and the two can protect it together. Online, you may also commit allied armies to an assault. Those interactions are concrete but indirect: your friends affect each other's options through territory, timing, faction mechanics and the armies that arrive at a contested point.

## Elysium is not an empty board

Rival teams are only one source of trouble. Independent creatures and wandering armies roam the same map, while random events can change what appears or what becomes dangerous. A quiet stretch of expansion can turn into a scramble when a neutral monster walks into an exposed town, a mine becomes contested, or an enemy team emerges from beyond the fog of war. You are protecting a growing set of holdings while trying to find opponents whose positions are not always obvious.

The map generation helps make each match feel different. The game offers six world societies, from early agrarian settlements to a fallen empire with undead strongholds, plus several map sizes and randomly placed sites. A map editor can also supply a prepared world. The societies shift which locations, settlements and dangers fill Elysium, while the faction mix changes how valuable those places are. There is no fixed sequence of levels that explains the story; the match itself is the thing your group makes together.

Seasons affect movement and resource access, so the strategic picture can shift as turns pass. A commander that can cross a route easily in one season may slow down later, and income or special opportunities can change with the world. Your allies are solving the same shifting puzzle from different faction starting points. An opening that gives one of you a nearby mine might leave another searching for a forest or graveyard, so the first turns can have very different priorities even within the same team.

That uncertainty is part of the appeal and part of the risk. Random events, creatures and faction mechanics can create memorable reversals, but bad starts or unlucky encounters can also make a match feel unfair. Random starts can give one side a better opening position than another, and roaming monsters can take exposed holdings. You may spend more time clearing neutral threats and reclaiming territory than trading attacks with another human team. If your group wants every problem to come directly from a rival player, the independent monsters can feel like extra chores between the strategic confrontations.

## Online hosting versus a shared computer

For online play, one player starts a game server and the others connect to it using its network address. After connecting, players choose their slots, factions and teams, and can leave remaining slots under AI control. This is more hands-on than clicking into a matchmaking queue: the game uses a host-and-connect setup, and a remote host may need to make the server reachable on the internet. A local network can avoid that public-address step when everyone is playing from the same network.

The Windows, Mac and Linux versions are currently aligned for online play. Minimum requirements are 64-bit Windows 10 or later, 64-bit Linux, or MacOS 13 or later on an Apple Silicon M1-or-newer processor. The hardware requirements are modest, but an older Intel Mac does not meet the Mac requirement. Windows, Mac and Linux builds support online cross-play, but your group still needs a host and a working connection.

Hotseat offers a simpler in-person alternative: share one computer and hand it over as turns pass. You can use the same setup for a team game against AI, though the team-combat limitation still applies. This is a better fit for friends who want a low-bandwidth board-game pace than for a group looking for everyone to act at once. A long network match can be saved, the server shut down, and restarted later when everyone is ready to reconnect.

## A strategy night for patient map readers

Conquest of Elysium 3 gives you a lot of replay variety without asking you to learn a different control scheme for every match. Its 18 factions, six society types, random events and changing map locations make the same broad conquest objective unfold in different ways. A team match can be a compact fight with a few AI seats or an afternoon of taking land and defending scattered sites; map size and player count change how far your armies have to travel.

The presentation is deliberately old-school. The map, sprites and menus carry much of the information, and the interface can take a while to read comfortably. The game includes a detailed manual, but it does not ease you through its systems with a modern tutorial sequence. Combat is an automated display of small units and spells rather than a separate tactical battle map. If your friends want cinematic missions, direct control of every strike, or a guided campaign, this will be a poor match.

If your group enjoys turn-based planning and can laugh when a surprise monster ruins an elegant plan, the game gives each friend a separate faction to develop on one shared world. You can make a true online alliance against AI and rival factions, or take turns on one computer with allied defense and a more limited kind of teamwork. The differences between those modes matter; the appeal comes from knowing what kind of team game you are setting up before the first army leaves its citadel.

## On Steam

- **Play together:** Remote Play Together, Cross-platform multiplayer, Co-op
- **Playing now:** 2
- **Platforms:** Windows, macOS, Linux
- **Developer:** Illwinter Game Design
- **Publisher:** Illwinter Game Design

[View on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/211900/)

## Similar games to Conquest of Elysium 3

- [Songs of Conquest](https://playnext.party/en/games/songs-of-conquest/)
- [Age of Wonders III](https://playnext.party/en/games/age-of-wonders-iii/)
- [Dominions 3: The Awakening](https://playnext.party/en/games/dominions-3-the-awakening/)
- [ENDLESS Legend™ 2](https://playnext.party/en/games/endless-legend-2/)
- [Deity Empires](https://playnext.party/en/games/deity-empires/)
- [Age of Fear 3: The Legend](https://playnext.party/en/games/age-of-fear-3-the-legend/)


Choose your next game with friends.

[Start a session](https://playnext.party/app/?lang=en)

---

Source: https://playnext.party/en/games/conquest-of-elysium-3/

Language: en