This will be my third game of Endless Legend. My faction of choice this time will be the Cultists, who only have one city and convert the minor faction villages to be more dedicated allies than for other factions. I enjoyed the Wild Walkers and their forest bonuses in my first game, but found the Drakken much less interesting in my second. Probably because I had a better grasp of the game mechanics and was still playing on a low difficulty I found it too easy, so I didn't have much call for the diplomatic special powers of the dragon people. If nothing else, having only one city should change the game substantially. I'm playing on a large map with six empires on Hard difficulty. The world gen options are fairly standard.
To start, I spend a couple of turns exploring the immediate area, figuring that if I only get one city it better be built in a good place. I find a position next to an Earth Tower and a field of Clay which offers excellent production from the start. It isn't so good for food production, but there is an open plain to the east, so I plan to expand in that direction first. I also rename the region from Whieschiel (or something like that) to Citadel. I must admit I don't often find the region names in Endless Legend very inspiring.
I start by researching Seed Storage, also to boost my food income. Technology in Endless Legend is split into a number of different ages, and to progress to the next age you need to have researched a certain number of techs from the prior age. However, every new tech costs more, so if you complete every tech from an earlier age for the sake of it, not only are you not progressing towards a new age, you're also making future techs take longer. It works nicely to keep you focused on what you actually need rather than just grabbing stuff because it'll only take a couple of turns now due to being old tech.
I also get my first faction quest - convert two villages. Should be easy enough. Before I can convert the nearby Hurnas village (Orc archers, effectively) I can fight them or do a quest. They ask me to kill some monsters in nearby ruins, which I accept.
I also get my first faction quest - convert two villages. Should be easy enough. Before I can convert the nearby Hurnas village (Orc archers, effectively) I can fight them or do a quest. They ask me to kill some monsters in nearby ruins, which I accept.
Gathering my troops, I begin the fight. They're tough opponents, with beam attacks which hit units in a line. I position my troops to hopefully avoid getting in lines, with my hero set to defensive mode. It turns out I have forgotten entirely what that means, since they run to the back of my formation, leaving my ranged Preachers exposed - and he sets up a nice line for one of the enemies to boot! Luckily the battle goes better after that, with one Preacher boosting my hero to smash one of the beasts, while the other slows and picks away at the other. Our first victory!
I then investigate the villages near where the beasts were, and find that they want Dust, and then Titanium. Having both, I decide to pay up and win the loyalty of the Kazanji, who are sort of burning skeletons. I convert one of their villages, which will produce flying lightning shooting troops for me. However, these free units will not be upgraded I believe, so later in the game if I want to make use of them I will have to properly assimilate the faction and develop my own variant of the unit.
While waiting for enough influence to build to convert the other Kazanji village, I meet a group of insect-centaurs (Drider), who ask me to protect their region for 5 turns, leading to an easy battle. They are pacified soon after.
At turn 20 I have a chance to choose an empire plan, but having such a plan costs influence, so I don't bother at this point. Before long I've researched enough tech to get into the second age, and shortly after I complete my first quest, converting the second Kazanji village. The second faction quest will be easy: assimilate a faction. I just need to wait for 30 Influence to build up. Once I do the Kazanji will be the chosen ones, since they are good combat units (their chain lightning hitting multiple enemies is very nice) and they offer a boost to influence, precisely the resource I see myself needing a lot of. I also pick my first tier two research with this in mind, going for Glory of Empire so I can boost my Influence production. I also meet my first competitor, a Broken Lords AI.
I set about exploring the world, and gathering a bit more experience for my hero, Andom the Seer. He's going to be a combat hero, so I'll mostly be going along his Infantry skill tree - all heroes have three trees of skills, based on their class, their faction, and a generic tree in the centre. The first winter falls, which will slow everything down but otherwise shouldn't matter too much at this stage. In previous games, winter was often a tough time because it reduces movement so much, and your armies can no longer properly protect the same amount of territory - that won't be an issue for me this time, since I'll only ever have the one city. As long as I have one decent army protecting the Citadel, the others can do what they like and take as long as they need.
Shortly after summer breaks, I discover the Broken Lords capital, Ndortara. Their city is about as large as mine, and their score is a little higher. They seem to have more military; I've seen two armies of three units moving around, one led by their hero. Soon I'm going to have to research the Mercenary Market so I can hire a second hero to convert more villages, but I want a little more economic and production power first. While exploring some ruins, I get a very interesting quest - if I go to war with another faction in the next 10 turns, I'll get a third age technology, National Museum, which just so happens to boost influence production. Since I've not met anyone else yet, I think I may end up at war with the Broken Lords soon.
I'm not too concerned about that since they don't have territory close to mine, and I'm confident my one army can handle whatever they send at me (provided it's not their entire force, which I think is unlikely). By coincidence, a turn later the Broken Lord leader sends me a message praising my peaceful behaviour and how it's best for everyone. I feel a little guilty.
I've completed a couple more steps in my faction quest, having assimilated the Kazanji, and then taken an army with two level two minor faction units to a specific ruins site. The next stage calls for my home territory around Citadel to be kept entirely free of invaders or outsiders for five turns. Given the location, this should also be easy. It proves to be so, and my next objective is to raise my capital district in Citadel to level two, which is done by building four other districts around it. I was already working towards this anyway, so it should be done in good time. I'm building a third district already, and then will only need one more.
I spot a larger Broken Lords army. He must have researched military tech allowing him larger army sizes - I can muster two smaller armies of course, but one of them will have to enter the battle as reinforcements, meaning they may appear away from the fight, and only two at a time. I start researching advanced alloy weapons, and once that's complete I'll design some new units, and begin research on the tech to increase my army size. None of this will be ready by the time I have to declare war, but it's a long journey from Ndortara to Citadel, and since I don't plan to actually attack him, maybe he won't be too aggressive himself.
My optimism there is tempered when he destroys one of my Kazanji daemons I was using to watch his capital - understandable I suppose. Annoyingly, while searching some ruins I get a new quest, to search a number of different ruins within 15 turns, so I'm going to have to attempt that while fighting a war. And sure enough, shortly after the declaration, he moves troops in our direction.
My optimism there is tempered when he destroys one of my Kazanji daemons I was using to watch his capital - understandable I suppose. Annoyingly, while searching some ruins I get a new quest, to search a number of different ruins within 15 turns, so I'm going to have to attempt that while fighting a war. And sure enough, shortly after the declaration, he moves troops in our direction.
We spot an army of his near ours, and withdraw to a better position atop a hill - we have one more unit than him, but I have no real sense of who is actually stronger. His force is a mix of infantry and cavalry, with one support ranged/healer, while mine is a few support ranged/boosters (the Fanatics) and mostly daemons with their flying and lightning attacks. I also have a ranged/healer of the same type as him, a Drider. I converted one of their villages, I'm not sure where he found his.
My initial relief when he appears to go in a different direction entirely changes to apprehension when I realize that he just might be heading to a beach, planning to sail across the tiny body of water separating his army from Citadel. I don't quite know how the boats in Endless Legend work - I did use some in a previous game, but it was quite a while ago. Hopefully you need to sail from a city, but I don't think this is the case. If he has the tech for it, I'll have no way to get my army back to defend the city, and it's probably game over. So I move my troops back down the mountain and attack, still from a good position.
My initial relief when he appears to go in a different direction entirely changes to apprehension when I realize that he just might be heading to a beach, planning to sail across the tiny body of water separating his army from Citadel. I don't quite know how the boats in Endless Legend work - I did use some in a previous game, but it was quite a while ago. Hopefully you need to sail from a city, but I don't think this is the case. If he has the tech for it, I'll have no way to get my army back to defend the city, and it's probably game over. So I move my troops back down the mountain and attack, still from a good position.
The ensuing battle is chaotic, with my daemons initially proving a bit too aggressive and breaking their line. One ends up tying up the enemy commander for the whole battle, and dealing a decent amount of damage in return, before dying. My other units get into a messy brawl around the mountains. None of my units or even my hero have upgraded gear, but I think they account for themselves fairly well.
Battles in Endless Legend only last a set number of rounds, so this isn't a decisive battle. Ultimately the casualties are in his favour, as I lose a daemon and my drider for only one unit of cavalry, but he has taken a lot of damage as well. Now we'll see what he does. If he can sail from the nearby beach, it could be all over.
It isn't. Instead, he attacks me - I'm a little hesitant, but decent the odds probably won't get better. The setup is the same as last time, but now I make sure to keep my units in place at the chokepoint. That seems to make all the difference, as do the flying daemons. We have the height advantage, and in a duel between my commander Andom the Seer and his Baron Jocelyn III, Andom comes off much better. We annihilate them without losing a single unit (though it's close). I didn't expect that.
I still decide to quickly fortify Citadel properly (I have two defensive upgrades from earlier techs which only take one turn each to produce, and improve the size of the city militia and boost the fortification of the city), and design and build a new combat unit. The Gargoyle is a Kazanji daemon with a titanium weapon and full iron armour. After that I'll probably shift to building the fourth district and upgrading my capital.
We meet a couple of other factions, Vaulters and Wild Walkers. Given the map, they must have sailing technology. I'll have to be careful, and improve the defences at Citadel. I've completed the Mercenary Market research, so I can now save up to buy a new hero to garrison in the city. They'll be focused on skills that improve city production of course, but it'll still be good to have them there if an attack happens.
The hero recruitment is one of the things I'm not so keen on in Endless Legend. There's a lot of atmosphere and character in the game, from the main factions to the minor villages you encounter. This is somewhat undermined by all heroes of the same type and faction having identical names, just with a higher number after them. It might have been better to go with more generic hero archetypes and either random names or no names at all to avoid this. You could still get across the character of how life in the different factions tends to form different heroes, without having the odd situation of potentially ending up with two or more heroes who are identical clones, sharing the same life story. A minor gripe of course, but given how good the game can be elsewhere in world building it stands out (like the territory names).
The hero recruitment is one of the things I'm not so keen on in Endless Legend. There's a lot of atmosphere and character in the game, from the main factions to the minor villages you encounter. This is somewhat undermined by all heroes of the same type and faction having identical names, just with a higher number after them. It might have been better to go with more generic hero archetypes and either random names or no names at all to avoid this. You could still get across the character of how life in the different factions tends to form different heroes, without having the odd situation of potentially ending up with two or more heroes who are identical clones, sharing the same life story. A minor gripe of course, but given how good the game can be elsewhere in world building it stands out (like the territory names).
I complete the fourth district, and I'm onto to the next stage in the quest. I have to go to a region I've not seen yet, convert all villages of a particular minor faction, and destroy any city that's there. This could be interesting. I'll have to research sailing technology soon in order to explore and find where this is. The quest says 'make sure the region's city is destroyed', but I don't know if that means that there is already a city there or not. I hope it won't be anyone's capital. I've had scouts near Ndortara, and the Broken Lords still have multiple armies of 3-6 units moving around. I should try to make peace soon.
It's turn 70, in the second winter, and it seems a good place to end this entry. But...
It's turn 70, in the second winter, and it seems a good place to end this entry. But...