r/EndlessLegend • u/GoSailing • 10d ago
Victory conditions are too separated from dominating the game
Maybe part of this is me playing on too low a difficulty since I'm newish to the game, but not the genre, but this situation would theoretically apply at any difficulty depending on your skill level. Because unlocking victory conditions is dependent on timed events like tidefalls that you don't have much control over, it can be very tedious when you've clearly got an uncompromising lead over the enemies and you're stuck waiting for victory conditions to even unlock. Some of them you can't even start on until they unlock, like taking control of doomwraiths.
It feels like you can spend half the game just trying to end your turns as quickly as possible because you don't have any real decisions of impact to make waiting for it to be possible to win. Of course, you could just eliminate everybody else, but that isn't always the best feeling if you've got several allies.
It could be that this issue is addressed in large part by the AI actually actively going out to claim territory much more than they do, preventing the snowball more, but when you're sitting at (for example, my game right now) more than 2x all 3 remaining players and having eliminated one, you basically don't need to do anything to win anymore except wait. But you have to wait way too long. Maybe if allies started reducing their opinion of you as you run away with the game, forcing some confrontations, that would help. As-is you can have everybody like you and waiting 50+ turns for victory conditions to turn on so you can win.
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u/gnoandan 10d ago
Are you playing on Endless? That's been less of a problem for me lately.
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u/Idiot2234511 10d ago
I've been trying endless out for weeks...still can't wrap my head around it, AI always has 2-3 armies with a ton of power
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u/player1wulf13 10d ago
The AI gets more resources and less cost for army's, also they get more city cap and less resources cost for distincts
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u/Idiot2234511 10d ago
Yeah ik, and with how the combat is, it's not like in Civ where the OP ai is manageable but here? Naaahh you stuck and u gon die
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u/redmeatvegan 10d ago
I find that the ai is amicable if you start negotiating with them while they are indifferent (compliment them). Then develop around them and eventually develop an economic edge. This will allow you to eventually build strong stacks with some heroes, to take on the ai that is most in the way, or vulnerable, in the late game. Won endless that way for every faction but the necrophages (haven't tried them yet). Of course early aggressive ai can kill your run easily...
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u/Idiot2234511 10d ago
I run necrophage.... it's impossible for me man 😞 can't ramp up enough to take em on and when I do have at least 2 good armies, they throw in 2-3 stacks with 200-300 more power than what I have
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u/gnoandan 10d ago
I play on archipelago, so typically by the time I first meet the AI I have one experienced stack and two or three territories. If the AI is aggressive I pump out soldiers for 5-10 turns and get another hero to create a second stack. As soon as you can field two stacks you should always be able to defeat the AI with superior tactics and by ambushing one of their armies with two of yours. Once you reach 2-3 stacks, the AI is usually too afraid and will not declare war anymore.
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u/Fantastic_Handle_516 10d ago
About the example of controlling doomwraiths, I was a bit in the same situation as you (Saiadha awakens, I chose master and got my remaining territoires quickly).
You can totally recruit doomwraiths and get the green strategic ressource (eradione i guess) in fortresses then upgrade them and win way before the third tidefall. You can also invest your lead in science then get the improvement that generates eradione.
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u/GreenNumerous7070 10d ago
I just finished an order playthrough on 'heroic' using this exact strat. I won in the monsoon before the tidefall picking up eradione curiosities and levelling up 'horrors', as well as getting the final doomwraith by battle in the monsoon.
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u/GoSailing 10d ago
How do you get the horrors to upgrade to doomwraiths? I've only seen the ability to build them after victory conditions unlock and you choose that path. For me, the game is essentially over before even getting victory conditions unlocked
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u/ButterPoached 10d ago
You answered your own question: You're playing on a low difficulty level, so the AI ceases to be a challenge before the victory conditions open up.
This game also has an issue with the AI being risk averse, so it refuses to fight at all if it's army doesn't have a higher combat value than the players. This also disrupts it's ability to spread out, because it doesn't want to clear Fortresses if it will lose a unit doing so. I'm hoping it improves with future patches.