After going through the summary graphs, now is a good time to talk about how I felt while playing the game. You could be forgiven for thinking that I had to force myself through it, and at times (particularly early on) I would probably have quit if I hadn't committed to doing the AAR. The worlds of Endless Legend are full of unusual resources and ruins, but very little that really felt exciting to me. Too few of those resources really resonated as interesting or important - they provide extra bonuses when you're building or expanding cities, but there are so many I tend to just place cities where they'll catch the most special features in their area of influence without worrying too much about the details. While there were a few important mountain formations (like those near the coast where we fought an important early battle with the Broken Lords) I couldn't remember much else - the bottleneck piece of land we fought over in Saradh as well. Both areas defined by battles, which Endless Legend does very well. Depending on your army and faction, you'll be looking for different things. Playing as the Wild Walkers with a bonus in forests, I was keeping my armies to the woods, circling enemy cities to strike from a side with trees, and that was very cool. When you are moving an army or looking to start a fight, then I think the map becomes interesting. But in terms of general exploration, not so much.
If I'm honest, I don't often find warfare in these 4X games that much fun. There tends to be a lot of micromanagement and details to attend to - which is fine, and fun, but not for every single little border skirmish that comes up. I like preparing for war: researching and producing new weapons, putting together armies, and making plans of attack, but the actual grind of war itself is often something I have to force myself through. I guess in games of empire like Endless Legend or the Civilization series, I'm a builder rather than a fighter. Give me a dedicated war game and I'll happily go for details - logistics and supply runs are something I can even enjoy in something like the Wargame series. But when I'm running an empire, the combat can feel like a distraction from the real business of settlement management, research, diplomacy, etc.
In this game, I enjoyed the battles on the way to Saradh - it was just the right length of war to avoid getting dull, and the objective was clear. I feel like I might enjoy wars more if it was a case of forming an army, spending a few turns manoeuvring and raiding to try and draw the enemy army into a battle at a place that's advantageous for you, and then after one or two big battles or a city being captured comes diplomacy and peace terms. I think most people enjoy the combat in these games more than I do, though!
In this game, I enjoyed the battles on the way to Saradh - it was just the right length of war to avoid getting dull, and the objective was clear. I feel like I might enjoy wars more if it was a case of forming an army, spending a few turns manoeuvring and raiding to try and draw the enemy army into a battle at a place that's advantageous for you, and then after one or two big battles or a city being captured comes diplomacy and peace terms. I think most people enjoy the combat in these games more than I do, though!
For instance, I liked a lot of things about Endless Space, but when I tried a game again recently I was put off by the combat. You can auto-resolve it, as with Endless Legend, but I didn't find myself in as many situations with such an imbalance of force that I felt comfortable doing it. The mechanic of waiting as the phases progressed, picking a special ability to play each phase, took too long without offering enough excitement for me - for some reason, though the combat in Endless Legend takes longer to play out, I found it much less dull than in Endless Space. I imagine it gets more interesting later in the game with more varied ships and abilities, but it was enough to get me to put the game down and not return on my last play.
On the other hand, I like the combat in Galactic Civilizations 3 - you prepare by designing your ships, positioning your fleets, and so on, but the actual battles are automated. You can give different ships 'roles' now, which affect what they target and where they deploy, but that's built into the ship design itself. I like this, since it means I don't have to worry about a war taking forever since I have to personally oversee a bunch of battles that I'll probably win and lack tension, but can't trust to the auto-resolve.
On the other hand, I like the combat in Galactic Civilizations 3 - you prepare by designing your ships, positioning your fleets, and so on, but the actual battles are automated. You can give different ships 'roles' now, which affect what they target and where they deploy, but that's built into the ship design itself. I like this, since it means I don't have to worry about a war taking forever since I have to personally oversee a bunch of battles that I'll probably win and lack tension, but can't trust to the auto-resolve.
Going back to the AAR, the Cultists were probably not an ideal faction for me since that one city limit meant there wasn't all that much building to do. Most of their game is going to be about sending armies across the land to convert and protect villages - to be honest I don't think I played them well at all, I imagine you need to be more aggressive and really try and keep the other factions from being able to build up too many good cities, otherwise they are likely to just out produce you. I didn't really enjoy the early game exploring and performing the quests to get villages to like me. It didn't feel like I was achieving anything, which is always a motivation drainer.
Things looked up once I got that quest to clear and convert Saradh. Initially I was annoyed at it being such a big task, but it actually gave me a clear goal that needed a bit of long term thinking and planning. The scouting, diplomacy and building of an army was involving and entertaining, as was the military campaign itself.
Things looked up once I got that quest to clear and convert Saradh. Initially I was annoyed at it being such a big task, but it actually gave me a clear goal that needed a bit of long term thinking and planning. The scouting, diplomacy and building of an army was involving and entertaining, as was the military campaign itself.
After that, it was the cruise to the finish and the wonder victory, as things slipped back into being fairly uninteresting, though my knowledge that the end was coming up helped things. I should have chosen a higher difficulty and a different faction - the combination of what I assume is meant to be quite an aggressive faction with no real need to express that aggressiveness is not a great recipe for fun times. The map type probably didn't help either, with the continents leaving me feeling disconnected from every other faction except the Broken Lords. A smaller map would also have provided more drama I think. Even by the end, there were plenty of unclaimed territories.
In summary, a fairly dull start and finish with some exciting moments in the middle. Boring finishes are quite a common feature of 4X games, if you've achieved a leading position early on, but I normally enjoy the start much more than I did this game - though faction choice and map setup may well have been the cause of that. From the other two games I've played (not many admittedly) I don't believe this AAR was all that representative of how Endless Legend usually plays. That's a bit of a disappointing note to end on for something that took me a while to write up, but that's the trouble with setting out to do an AAR from the start I guess - no guarantee that you'll have an especially fun or memorable game!
In summary, a fairly dull start and finish with some exciting moments in the middle. Boring finishes are quite a common feature of 4X games, if you've achieved a leading position early on, but I normally enjoy the start much more than I did this game - though faction choice and map setup may well have been the cause of that. From the other two games I've played (not many admittedly) I don't believe this AAR was all that representative of how Endless Legend usually plays. That's a bit of a disappointing note to end on for something that took me a while to write up, but that's the trouble with setting out to do an AAR from the start I guess - no guarantee that you'll have an especially fun or memorable game!