...AND TECHNOLOGY TURNING THE TIDE OF WAR
I experienced something interesting while playing a game of Endless Legend recently that I haven't personally seen in another strategy game up to now, which I figured was worth a post. Technological progress and innovations in conflicts can be fascinating, particularly in longer ones between somewhat balanced opponents, such as the World Wars or the Cold War. I'm not talking here about groundbreaking stuff like the atomic bomb or tanks in WW1, but smaller things from blind bombing radio technology to longer range escort fighters and increased fuel capacity for bombers.*
Most of the time these sorts of advances aren't going to change the course of anything by themselves, but games don't have to mirror this in how they handle tech. Too often I'm excited at researching a new tank, some better armour, or a fancy spell, only to find out it makes a fairly negligible difference in action. This is fine in games that abstract the combat more, or that involve large numbers of units - to use an old game as an example, I don't expect the unit upgrades in something like Age of Empires to make an enormous difference on an individual unit basis; the value comes from upgrading your entire force of that unit type to produce a big impact. But when it's a game with a pronounced rock-paper-scissors type combat and less units in play, I think some technologies should provide larger bonuses in certain situations.
Specifically, I think it could be interesting to see more reaction to new enemy technology, such as how the Allies had to react to the appearance of heavier German tanks like the Panther and Tiger. This isn't something I experience often in games, but it happened twice while I was playing Endless Legend. The game was unusual, since it was my first game after the tutorial, and I took a large break of a few months between the first half or so of the game, and finishing it.
My break in play came just after/during the climax - I didn't feel I'd won the game yet when I stopped playing, but I realized I had fairly soon after picking it up again. Since it was my first game I hadn't been that aggressive, but was doing fairly well due to the low difficulty, and I'd fought off another nation and taken their capital. Playing as the Wild Walkers (sort of Wood Elves) my tactics relied on fighting in forests to get an attack boost, and hitting the enemy with masses of crossbow fire while covering my rangers behind tenai walkers (giant tree men). This worked excellently against the slow, tough soldiers of the Broken Lords I faced in my first war.
Specifically, I think it could be interesting to see more reaction to new enemy technology, such as how the Allies had to react to the appearance of heavier German tanks like the Panther and Tiger. This isn't something I experience often in games, but it happened twice while I was playing Endless Legend. The game was unusual, since it was my first game after the tutorial, and I took a large break of a few months between the first half or so of the game, and finishing it.
My break in play came just after/during the climax - I didn't feel I'd won the game yet when I stopped playing, but I realized I had fairly soon after picking it up again. Since it was my first game I hadn't been that aggressive, but was doing fairly well due to the low difficulty, and I'd fought off another nation and taken their capital. Playing as the Wild Walkers (sort of Wood Elves) my tactics relied on fighting in forests to get an attack boost, and hitting the enemy with masses of crossbow fire while covering my rangers behind tenai walkers (giant tree men). This worked excellently against the slow, tough soldiers of the Broken Lords I faced in my first war.
However, while I was winning my small war, a force of insatiable semi-insects were conquering the rest of the world - the Necrophages. I had never been seriously threatened by the Broken Lords, but when the Necrophages first crossed my borders they came in force. What was worse, they came with powerful flying units - the necrodrones. My rangers and tenai walkers put up a good fight, but the necrodrones were too fast and could bypass the tenai, massacring my rangers before they could deal enough damage to put the drones down.
Fortunately, weapon upgrades in Endless Legend only require you to research a general technology allowing you to get better weapons of all types, with these improved weapons often requiring more rare materials. I already had a good weapon technology, so it was simple for me to design a new ranger variant using the other choice of ranged weapon - a longbow. While the crossbows are more effective up-close, cheaper, a tiny bit faster, and can be combined with a shield, the longbows have a higher attack value and deal more damage. But their real value is the Flying Slayer ability that comes with them. If I was smarter, given my tactics of keeping at distance, I should have switched to longbows already for the attack and damage boost, but better late than never.
The only challenge was building my new 'Necrohunters' fast enough to get a decent force together, and not using up all the uncommon materials they needed - but my existing forces managed to hold them off and soon my new units entered battle. The difference was day and night, with necrohunters in forests able to half kill a necrodrone unit with each attack. When they were being led by an experienced hero who could boost the range of all my archers up from four (already better than other faction units) to a massive five, necrohunters in forests just decimated necrodrone swarms, though getting caught in bad terrain could still leave us with casualties.
Fortunately, weapon upgrades in Endless Legend only require you to research a general technology allowing you to get better weapons of all types, with these improved weapons often requiring more rare materials. I already had a good weapon technology, so it was simple for me to design a new ranger variant using the other choice of ranged weapon - a longbow. While the crossbows are more effective up-close, cheaper, a tiny bit faster, and can be combined with a shield, the longbows have a higher attack value and deal more damage. But their real value is the Flying Slayer ability that comes with them. If I was smarter, given my tactics of keeping at distance, I should have switched to longbows already for the attack and damage boost, but better late than never.
The only challenge was building my new 'Necrohunters' fast enough to get a decent force together, and not using up all the uncommon materials they needed - but my existing forces managed to hold them off and soon my new units entered battle. The difference was day and night, with necrohunters in forests able to half kill a necrodrone unit with each attack. When they were being led by an experienced hero who could boost the range of all my archers up from four (already better than other faction units) to a massive five, necrohunters in forests just decimated necrodrone swarms, though getting caught in bad terrain could still leave us with casualties.
This was when I stopped playing, not for any particular reason that I remember (I didn't think it was hopeless or already certain I'd win, I reckon I just got sidetracked by something else). At that point it felt like the opening to a massive war between the last two serious powers in the world, but as it turned out I had a few more skirmishes, destroying several necrodrone swarms with few losses, and they asked for ceasefire and a return to cold war. I initially refused this, but then an unexpected attack in my defenceless rear territory from across the sea left me little choice. In short, I kept on researching and growing my cities (keeping a garrison in that rear territory!), while missing the Necrophages consuming every remaining faction in play - but I had maintained a stronger army overall, and industrial tech improvements meant I could switch to full military production quickly when war broke out again.
Things went much the same as before, with my longbow armed rangers massacring hordes of necrodrones, and my tactical successes easily countered their numerical advantage, allowing me to rapidly capture territory and expand my empire. This was when I knew I'd won. Nothing changed that state of affairs, but they did belatedly make a big change to their army makeup, switching from necrodrone groups to armies of centaurs - a smart choice since the centaurs are fast enough to run around my tenai guardians, but don't take massive damage from the Flying Slayer ability on my longbows. That led to some close battles, but we were too close then in productivity, and I could replace my losses.
Things went much the same as before, with my longbow armed rangers massacring hordes of necrodrones, and my tactical successes easily countered their numerical advantage, allowing me to rapidly capture territory and expand my empire. This was when I knew I'd won. Nothing changed that state of affairs, but they did belatedly make a big change to their army makeup, switching from necrodrone groups to armies of centaurs - a smart choice since the centaurs are fast enough to run around my tenai guardians, but don't take massive damage from the Flying Slayer ability on my longbows. That led to some close battles, but we were too close then in productivity, and I could replace my losses.
That is a long way to recount a short anecdote that could perhaps be summed up as 'new force of specialist rangers armed with the previously unused longbow devastates the necrodrone threat', but it sticks in my mind as a relieving moment after the initial tension of being almost overwhelmed by an enemy I hadn't faced before - thank god, the longbows worked! We aren't doomed to be consumed by ravenous insectoids...
I think the predictability of game technology is also to blame for the lack of moments like this - if I end up in a similar situation in future games of Endless Legend, I'm not going to have the same experience, instead probably more of a 'oh, time to make some units with weapon X' response. It makes me want to try a game mainly about researching new units and deciding which units to put your resources into, where you don't know how effective your new units will be until they've seen enough action - keep producing that new heavy tank which might get those reliability problems resolved soon, or switch focus back to the reliable but aging medium? Could be some interesting dilemmas.
*These examples are all air related since I've just finished reading the excellent Combat Crew by John Comer, which is an account by a B-17 gunner based in England from mid 1943 to early 1944.
I think the predictability of game technology is also to blame for the lack of moments like this - if I end up in a similar situation in future games of Endless Legend, I'm not going to have the same experience, instead probably more of a 'oh, time to make some units with weapon X' response. It makes me want to try a game mainly about researching new units and deciding which units to put your resources into, where you don't know how effective your new units will be until they've seen enough action - keep producing that new heavy tank which might get those reliability problems resolved soon, or switch focus back to the reliable but aging medium? Could be some interesting dilemmas.
*These examples are all air related since I've just finished reading the excellent Combat Crew by John Comer, which is an account by a B-17 gunner based in England from mid 1943 to early 1944.