Advanced mechanics and Competitive multiplayer

Overview

Introduction :- Join our Discord : https://discord.gg/8SyR5tC- This guide explains how to thoroughly use each mechanic of Endless Legends to become a better player with a competitive mindset against A.I but more importantly, against other players.- I have tried to make this guide as complete and detailed as possible so that it is self-sufficient.- I am Jojo_Fr, one of the best players of this game. I got 3000 hours of playing, including 1000 in multiplayer. Other notable players I’m currently aware of are Grinder, Light_Spectrum, Bigballs, TransPersonnalPsy or Ivanson.All expansions are included :Guardians : The giant guardians, wonders and legendary deeds.Shadows : Forgotten faction, pillaging, stealth and spying.Shifters : Allayi faction, winter and pearls.Tempest : Morgawr faction, sea weather and sea fortresses.Inferno : Kapaku faction (which I nickname the “Pikachu”, it’s easier to memorize ^^), the volcanic lands and dust eclipses.Symbiosis : Mykara and Urkans.Acknowledgements :First, I would like to thank,- My mother, without whom I would not be here… ^^- More seriously, I thank Grinder, a top Russian player. He helped me write this guide. We have taught each other many things. We owe to him the discovery of the important and very powerful empire strategy of era II at turn 10, explained in the guide. Grinder is an excellent optimizer, if you want to find your master you will find it on Steam. ;)- I thank Reactormonk for his help in correcting multiple spelling errors in this guide.- I would also like to thank all the nice and interesting players with whom I had the pleasure to play, and of course Amplitude, who created us the pearl of 4x strategy that is Endless Legend.- If you like Endless Legend, buy all of its extensions. They are all excellent. And the more Endless Legend works, the greater the chance that Amplitude makes us an Endless Legend 2 increases …Additional notes :- As a lover and geek of Endless Legend, I made a list of re-balancing proposals for the game, and some feature suggestions which might interest those who create Endless Legend 2, who knows ? ^^https://www.games2gether.com/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/19479-list-of-suggestions-by-category-shifters-update- The player Foetus sub mundi has written a guide that I recommend you read. It’s called “Endless Legend: Tips, Tricks and Exploits”. This guide has a list of clever tips on the game. It includes the Guardians and Forgotten expansions and does not go beyond that. But it remains very interesting to read ! :https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=512897067Some streamed videos of multiplayer games :My Youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xXoIOBS0b9i15H38mdiswUpdates notes : Decembrer 2019 : Two new parts have been added for Mykara. I explained even more in detail how they work effectively.Novembre 2019 : I added a part about the “Salting” strategies.February 2019 : I updated this guide to include Morgawr (Tempest expansion), Kapaku (Inferno expansion), Mykara and Urkans (Symbiosis expansion). The guide is complete now.In this regard, the Morgawr are one of the 3 most powerful factions. The Kapaku are very overpowered, and banned in competitive multiplayer. On the other hand, the Mykara are extremely weak and everyone is waiting for Amplitude to give them strong buff in the hopefully upcoming patch.August 2018 : I updated this guide to include the new Inferno expansion. We are at patch 1.6.4. The Kapaku faction is currently too powerful. An absolute patch is necessary to rebalance Kapaku, and even few others factions.

Which settings choose for multiplayer ?

– Difficulty : “Serious”. It is better to choose a high difficulty, because if the AI s weak, it will be easy for a human player to conquer their cities. But for the balance of the game, it is better that the AI is set to “Serious” or higher.

– Game Speed : “Fast”. For shorter multiplayer games. There is no debate on this issue. Even if you’re playing by yourself, I recommend to set game speed to “Fast”.

– Custom Factions : Generally no. Custom factions open towards a very unbalanced game. For example, Allayis can play in the “We selected few” trait. Freed from the population growth limitation of their city, they become very overpowered. However, moderate use of custom features is possible to make weak factions more playable. For example, the “Advanced Diarchy” trait allows all factions to access the Empire II empire plans from the 1st era. Another useful idea : removing the Pitiless trait will slightly buff the Necrophages , by allowing them to parley with villages, and pacify them through quests.

– Game Pace and Battle Pace (Timers) : On. Difficult at first but necessary for the comfort of the game. Timers force you to think faster. 30 seconds per city is useful. Important point : always put the fight animation speed at maximum speed “The fastest”. Manual fighting is one of the most painful sources of slowing the progress of a game.

– Victory Conditions : All activated.

– Empire Scores : Partial. This hides the scores of other empires: you will not be able to see their military power graph, their scientific progress etc. The only way to access this data is by getting a hero to infiltrate a rival city. Partials scores makes the game much more exciting and the keep players on their guard. You better scout more with units to see if the enemy is not building an army secretly.

– Advanced Winter and Winter Harshness : On, and Moderate. Winters and winter special effects are interesting features to adapt to and control (by investing pearls). Choosing more intense winters will make the Vaulters more powerful (because their harvest of strategic resources is tripled during the winter) as well as the Allayis, whose units are immune to the effects of winter (reduction of characteristics and movement) and even made stronger in their winter form (especially the Monks).

– Eclipse Frequency : Short and Often, in general. But you will have to act fast if you want to use the power of conflux on a stack to lead an attack against a player for example. It is for these reasons that I tend to prefer setting Eclipses to Long and Often, even if they favor a few factions with better benefits (like Wild Walkers who move very quickly in the forest).

– Anomalies : High. There are more anomalies, and they are more often clustered. The consequences are a faster game (more dust, more industry etc.) but also incentivize players to colonise more at the early game.

– Weather Difficulty : Harsh. I like the harsh because it makes moving on the sea slower and more dangerous. Fights can also be more tactical (because more storms and other weather effects to take into account).

– World Shape and Continent Shape : Pangea with land at 70% in general. 70% is enough for Morgawr, it will be enough space for several fortress to spawn in the ocean. Setting world shape to islands can also be very interesting to play. I like to set Region Size to Large rather than normal because I find that it keeps the cities away from one of them, which makes the world more “realistic”. In addition, large regions benefits looting, as improvements (such as resource extractors) tend to be farther away from the city centre, making the intervention of garrisoned units more difficult.

– Topography : Great lakes are an interesting tactical features to manage. Putting a lot of rivers gives a big advantage to the Morgawr, who move faster on them. Ridges and Cliffs make exploration more difficult and give considerable advantage to remote units and flying units. Obviously, a high frequency of volcanic regions is a factor that will favor Kapaku.

– Empire Spawn : Spread. This is the best option if you do’nt want players to start too close to each other. Ideal FIDSI looks attractive for balanced starts, but alas it does not seem to work.

– Strategic Resources and Luxury Resources : Normal offers a good compromise. However, Abundant can be interesting because level 2 and 3 resources (such as palladium or hyperium) may be too scarce in Normal, making it impossible to build advanced buildings or good equipment units.

– Minor faction Difficulty : Normal. It is a sufficient brake on colonization. Hard can be interesting too. Necrophages particularly like Hard difficulty because it provides them with more cadaver resources and parasitic units for their Proliferators. Beware however, on Hard, wandering monsters go directly to the headquarters of your cities, even if they do not come from the same region !

Dispersion or Symmetrical are original options to test, but not really useful. New world is more interesting : each player starts on a medium island, where the only available strategic resources are titanium and glassteel. Players will be forced to turn to the ocean and the central pangea which provides abundant resources.

The problem with these fixed presets is that you will not be able to change any setting on the map. For example, the land will be able to compose only 40% of the surface of the world, which will give a strong advantage to Morgawr (maritime race).

Where to settle your first city ?

– So this is it, your game begins. The first question obviously is : where to settle ? This is one of the most important questions because the whole game will be affected by it. Moreover, every action made in the early game will have a massive impact on the rest of the game.

– First, you must first divide your starting army to explore the surroundings. You must find a good place, with the maximum cluster of anomalies. Also try to search the ruins to find boosters (and activate) before settling.

– In the early game, having a lot of food is useless because you will build settlers. But when a city builds a settler, its food production will be set to a maximum of 0 and growth will stop. Priority must be given to industry, anomalies of happiness, and science, not food.

– If you have the choice between two locations of similar quality, choose the one that is the least embedded within the region because the closer your capital is to other regions, the faster your settlers will be able to reach and colonize them.

– Wild Walkers : Because of their +1 industry bonus for each forest tile, it is often better to choose a forest location even if it has one less anomaly.

– Roving Clans : Their tremendous nomadic ability to transform them into Setseke means that they do not have to find the perfect location on turn 1. If you find a good location on your turn despite your previous settling location , I advise you to settle in the place with more science. Use your population to do something other than industry. And choose the transformation into Setseke. As always, choose Parley as the first technology to look for. In turn 2, you will be able to start minor faction quests and see which ones you can accomplish, and you will have explored more. You should be able to find a much more interesting region.

– Necrophages : The effective settling strategy that works For Necrophages is to settle in a region other than the starting region if you “feel” there are 2 or 3 villages there. I’ll explain why in the Necrophages section.

– Morgawr : If your starting place is a bad river place, without anomalies, or in a poor sea place, you should move to another region and try settle at turn 2, or 3 at maximum. The sea or lake hexagon are great.

– In each era, the cost of production of units increases, including settlers. This is because in each era, the default level of the unit is increased (level 2 for era II). This is why it is better to produce a maximum of settlers in era I rather than era II. It may be advantageous to slow down the transition to Era II, to finish your settler just before.

Which early technologies should you prioritize ?

– Parley is the first technology to research for any situation. It Enables minor faction quests which are crucial during the early phase and must be started at the earliest.

– First thing to know: there is no need to queue technologies. If after a desired technology you have not selected anything, the accumulated science will be reused later. However, do not leave the choice of technology empty for more than one round, otherwise you will lose the accumulated science!

– Search Party is in second choice of early tech. Usefull if you search for ruins a lot. After this, you can choose either Mill Fundry or Public Library, which may be necessary if you are aiming for rapid scientific progress. Mercenary Market is good if you need to sell your units. Extractor technologies are useful to quickly get a legendary deed or finish quests for pacification (one of them often comes back and requires 5 gold titanium glassteal).

– Other technologies are useful and must be acquired according to what you need.

– The useless technologies of era I, which are to be thrown in the trash, are Pillage the level 1 weapons and armor technologies. In rare cases, the Military Science can be useful in case of early aggression.

Which minor faction quests should be done first ?

– Quests are not the only way to pacify the regions, but in addition it is a way to find resources, influence and other rewards.

– Some quests are accomplished very easily. For example : The quest that asks you to wait 5 turns until there are no hostile unit in the region. Let’s talk about difficult quests.

– There is a quest that requires giving 50 dust to a village, then going to another village, and bringing either a hero, or 5 titanium, or 5 glasteel. If you have this quest in a nearby and interesting region, give it priority, of course. Search the ruins, but immediately make the choice to build the requested resource extractor. Getting a beautiful region with three villages is priceless.

– It is a good idea to first activate the quests of the regions that interest you because the first quests given by the game are statistically the easiest to accomplish. Then you can move to other villages.

– Sometimes the villages refuse to talk which is very painful. A few turns later, randomly, they will agree to speak. There is nothing to do other than returning regularly to talk to them.

– In some cases, the quest given by an interesting region is unfeasible. If the region interests you, you can attack and destroy this village, then try to talk to another village in the area, and get a more accessible quest. Minor factions still have short memory. ^^

– When you approach the completion of the “circle” of era I technologies needed to move into era II, you will be able to activate a quest that will require you to move to era 2 in the next rounds. To activate this quest, consider visiting the villages when you have almost finished your era I.

Next : Where to settle your next cities ?

– In the best cluster of anomalies, of course, close regions. Where the villages are pacified for if possible, and close to your capital if possible, for an easier defense. If you are not far from a rival empire, I advise you to quickly take possession of the region(s) between you two if the contested region is desirable, otherwise they will be able to colonize it before you.

– Very important tip : Move your cities by self-destroying each turn. In Endless Legend, you can self-destroy a city and recover a settler by select the “Salt the Earth” option in the construction window. You do not have to wait until you reach the desired location to build your city. This is a specificity that is very important to exploit. So, if you move your colon, you have better build and raze the city each turn, moving. The benefits are these :

* You exploit the FIDSI field every turn (better a land rich in science and dust, rather than industry and food).
* You exploit the pacified villages present in the region, so each village is added to your population that you can dedicate to produce influence or dust.
* You can use your militia if you have a military unit within range. You can clean the neutral units that are lurking in your area.

This trick is of course even more interesting with the Setseke Roving Clans, because unlike the colonists, they keep their population and their buildings!

– How many settlers to build in era I? Between 1 and 3, if you have beautiful areas. Going beyond is usually a bad idea because you will not have enough approval, which will hurt your productivity. And you will also have great difficulty producing enough influence to choose level 2 empire plans.

– Only once your cities are well developed, and you have the means to produce a lot of influence with the building Glory of the Empire, you can consider to colonize new regions a bit later in the game.

What to produce in cities in the early game ?

– Broad topic. In era I, you should produce at least two settlers. Between each colon you can produce either a building, like the Mill Fondry, or a unit, useful for exploration.

– Then, you will have to build in your cities all the buildings of the era 1. Starting with the most useful, namely in general the Mill Fondry, the Seed Storage, then the Public Library or the extractors of resources, according to the context .

– In cities that you will self-destruct to need less influence points on turn 1, you can use them to produce a small unit, or even one or two buildings of era 1. A Public Library by example is still useful, even if it only works for 5 laps.

– From era II, you must first look for Glory of Empire technology. This building will be essential for you to invest in the influence for your next empire plan. Many players make the mistake of neglecting influence because it is not immediately profitable (unlike industry or dust). This is a major mistake. We must always think upstream the arrival of the empire plan, think about those we choose, and keep the points of influence required.

Salting

It is the fact of using and optimizing the “Salting the Earth” city feature.

This feature gives the order to your city to self-destruct, and gives you a settler on the next turn.

Understanding this feature and using it well is difficult but extremely important. You must do it if you want to become a competitive player.

Rather than softly moving your settling from your capital to a distance area, you’ll settle for each round until you reach the spot you want.

And you will exploit FIDSI and pacified population points for, during for exemple 4 rounds. You will not lose anything other than an expansion penalty.

The earned FIDSI will obviously be useful to you, just like the Influence and the Dust.

Finally, and this is the most important point of Salting: you will have turn 10, or 20, only one city placed on the map. Thus the cost in ressources boosters, and in Influence will be significantly reduced for this plan empire. It is an abyssal difference.

If you have prepared your strategy well, you will have turn 21, a lot of Dust available to buy the buildings of your cities rebuilt (with the purchase reductions of “Slaves & Market” + The empire plan effects).

Finally, note that without the Salting, Endless Legend would be much more linear and much more repetitive than it is. The development strategy would always be the same: two cities in round 10, three in round 20, four in round 30 etc.

I consider Salting as the best design accident that happened to Endless Legend. 😉

– You can assimilate a useful faction (for exemple Silics, which will be lost on turn 20 when you go Salt, but you will benefit for several useful turns).

– You keep control over a region, preventing or dissuading a player from coming to colonize it.

– You can use your militia to eliminate wandering monsters, quest monsters (the yellow ones) or units of rival factions lying around.

– Settler Healing: If your settler has been attacked, and you have retreated, put your city then salt it will give you a fully healed settler. This is undoubtedly very useful!

– The cost of the settlers. In industry and in blockage of population growth. That’s not nothing.

– The cost in dust. Each city costs an upkeep that you will have to pay. Sometimes the cost will be higher than what you will be able to have with the FIDSI of the areas that you will settle while moving.

– Expanding cost Dissaproval. As long as you’re at least 45%, it’s bearable. Discontent or below, you really have to avoid that. It takes time to learn how to produce the number of settlers (and therefore cities) that you must not exceed.

Having multiple cities makes you vulnerable to two forms of annoyance: first, being attacked and conquered. This is not necessarily fatal for you because losing an undeveloped city is not the end of the world.

But the second nuisance will be deadly: it’s being besieged on turn 19 (or 29), just before your plan empire.

If you are under siege and can not afford to buy a mercenary to eliminate the besieger, you will have to pay twice as much influence for the empire plan you had in mind. Activation of the boosters you plan to do will also be made impossible.

This can totally ruins your game. And the enemy does not even need to take your besieged city, he only needs to besieged it during one turn and then he can leaves if he wishes.

This flaw in Salting’s strategy can hurt a lot. The solution is to have few units to scout this kind of thing, and eliminate the little bastards who dare to do it.

Skyfins (Allayis) are particulary good to do this game. They are very fast and very resiliants.

The Vaulters are good at defending against that, since they can teleport their armies and attack the besiegers on the same turn.

The Necrophages recycle their own corpses to stockpile food, including the corpses of their militia. Salting is a way to place your militia within range of the villages they interest you to farm, then you can move in another place.

You will be able to produce mobile factory cities for cannibal meat production. Charming is not it?

The Offensive Settling is about slowly but surely approaching one or two settlers of a target rival city. Then to settle your cities, declare war and attack a city you want, or simply besiege it. You will take advantage of the support of two or four militias..

It’s very interesting in some situations. Experienced players can feel when this kind of cunning tactic will happens. ^^

The best for offensive settling are the Forgottens, who can move unseen and undetectable settlers.

The Vaulters are also good at this little game, since they can suddenly teleport an entire army into any city on the map.

Note that the offensive settling can turn against you: if the enemy begins to besiege your offensive city, you will no longer be able to Salt it, or perhaps bring reinforcements. I have seen this kind of thing many times. 🙂

What to do with your surplus dust if you have a lot at the beginning of the game ?

If you have a lot of dust, and you do not know how to do it, you have several possibilities :

– You can buy a hero that will serve you as you wish (this could be a future governor).

– You can wait to access the resource market (via Imperial Coinage technology) to buy industry reserves for example.

– You can also expect to have the level 2 empire plan that lowers the cost of producing buildings, and the cost of buying buildings with dust.

– In general, a hero is rather a bad investment. There is one exception, however : it’s the industrial hero.

– An industrial hero is a hero who offers bonuses in industrial production output for specialized citizens. I think of all the Necrophages heroes who are Slavers, or Exid the Chosen, the very coveted cultist hero, the most powerful industrial hero.

– But these heroes need a high population, say 6 population points, to start being really effective. The best way to expect a high population is to build the Husbandery Center (+5 food per citizen working food on the city), preferably in your most beautiful region (the one with for example 3 pacified villages).

Once this building is built (with the Seed Storage naturally), you put your points in the food, and you go up to 6 of minimum population.

Then, you can put your industrial in this city and switch to industry.

The ideal is to have a Necrophage Slaver hero before the growth phase, because its bonus applies to both industry and food population point.

In what situation should I manufacture other things than the classical buildings of the era I ?

– If you have just awakened yellow units chasing you (randomly, the three horrible centaurs), and you need a unit within range of your militia to intercept these creatures.

– If you simply need to explore, search the ruins, enjoy an Eclypse to search the temples.

– If you fear a rush and you have to scout your close rival. If you see his stack coming at the last moment, it’s probably too late to counter it. Scouting is easy especially with a flying unit, it will be stupid not to be careful.

Incidentally, here is a very simple little psychological trick : if the enemy sees your scout, he can tell himself that you are about to attack him. Thus he will make units, and will remain on the defensive, which will have lost valuable development time…

– Or, if you have no other buildings available to do, and you have to produce something.

What’s about wonders ?

– Wonders are very interesting to build. And even if you fail to finish them before the other players, you recover your resources and a decent amount of dust. However, the time you invested in building it rather than building other things will not be recovered. That’s why if you start it late, without the ability to rush it quickly, it’s better not to even start it.

– Wonders are special districts. They do not require the two population points that normal districts require. If you are targeting a district triangle (6 districts grouped in one triangle, to have three two level 2 districts), you normally need 10 population, which takes a long time to finish. But if you build a wonder, you will only need 8 points to complete your triangle. This is one more reason to be inspired to build wonders !

– If you race with another player, you can use a dirty technique to prevent him from finishing his wonder : send a unit to sit in his city. This will impact its industry and completely block the production of new districts (including its wonder !). : p

– Finally, the disadvantage of a marvel is that it will make your city very coveted. A smart player will be able to send you a stack of 4 fast units, and you take it a wink. That’s why surveillance work is always important, especially if an enemy is not far from your territory.

– The Museum of Auriga is the best wonder. Its cost in industry and resources is low. The production cost reduction and hapyness bonuses are so high that this wonder will almost have to be banned from the games… If you can, it is better to build it in a region rich in science in dust and in science. But hey, the important thing is to rush it as soon as possible so do it anywhere, before others ^^.

Of course, you must quickly surround this wonder of four quarters, so that it reaches the level 2. The ideal is to build it where you will build later your Center for Mineralogy (specialization in science) or your Dust Transmitter (from the era III technology Dust Alchimy).

– The Industrial Megalopole is also excellent. It is less powerful than the Museum of Auriga, since its bonuses are more balanced. The lower cost of neighborhoods is useful in the long term, especially for Necrophages, because they already have a -50% bonus in neighborhood cost. So they arrive at a -70% drop in cost (if the calculation is so simple, but sometimes it is more complicated than that).

– On the contrary, the Pragmatic Scientist is much less interesting. The bonuses it brings are less than the Industrial Megalopole, but it is more expensive. I do not recommend building it unless you really have nothing better to do.

– The Elder of Auriga is even worse. This wonder is almost a bad joke. Its cost is prohibitive, especially these strategic level 3 resources, which are extremely rares. A marvel to build in solo games, to please yourself if you want to win by diplomatic victory as a Drakken.

– The Inspiring Commander is more interesting. It remains very expensive in terms of resources, compared to what it brings. -50% military cost means -100% if you have the military empire level 3 plan. Either military fees of zero ! It’s interesting, except that at this stage of the game, the military costs do not count much on the colossal amount of dust you will produce each turn. Your armies may cost you 400 dust per turn, but it’s not much when you produce 2000 dust per revolution.

We feel that the developers wanted the cost of the wonders to correspond to the productivity of the eras that correspond to them. But the effects they produce are very insignificant compared to previous marvels and their cost.

Next : What to do about your first empire plan of the turn 10 ?

Ok. We are approaching the first empire plan of turn 10. You are going to have your 2 or 3 cities. You have to calculate how many influence points you will need. Think about the following points:

– The Science and Industry Empire Plan (right) is a no brainer choice. No need to think. Science is always good.

– The Economy and Population Empire Plan (left) is useful if you are going to need dust. And in general, you will need it. In addition you will often have a minor faction quest that will ask you to invest in this economy plan.

– The Military Empire Plan (top) is generally not to be taken unless you plan to do more than one unit.

– The Empire and Expansion empire plan (bottom) is useful if you have multiple units on the map and want to speed up exploration.

But that’s not all. There is also the question of the cost of the empire plan. Do not be fooled :

– Each city doubles the price of the empire plan. That is why it is better in most situations, to self-destroy cities without buildings, and rebuild them the next turn. Again, this is a crucial tip that I have already mentioned earlier in the guide, and it is imperative to learn how to use.

– If you have the Advanced Diarchy trait, as Drakkens, you will have immediate access to level 2 empire plans, even without going to era II. An era II empire plan is a powerful but expensive in influence. You will need at least 30 of influence in Science and Industry, to buy it.

– Similarly, if you have produced enough science to move to era II on turn 10, you will have to anticipate it and bank enough points of influence.

The grand strategy of the first level 2 empire plan at turn 10

– It is difficult but possible to access the level 2 empire plan before turn 11 (ie turn 10). It is difficult because it requires to have a high production of science per turn. But the benefits are very great:

– + 33% Bulding production cost reduction on cities. It makes you produce the buildings or better.

– If you also get the 2nd level empire plan in Economics, and the Prisoners, Slaves and Volunteers technology, available in era II, you will be able to rusher with dust your buildings and improvements. And the development of your cities will go even faster!

– At first sight, it does not look lightning. But if that is it. It’s a game changer. Try and you will see that you are going skyrocket !

– I want to thank Grinder, one of the best players and optimizers of Endless Legend ! It was he who discovered that it was possible to obtain the level 2 empire plans on turn 10, with other factions than the Drakkens (who naturally have the Advanced Diarchy).

– If for X reasons you think your dust production will be low, or if you for example have a titan bones booster available at turn 10, it may be better to only produce industry with your population, rather that dust. In this case, you can also invest two points in the Empire and Expansion plan. You will earn +25 of happiness which will be very useful to you.

– Although this strategy is extremely effective, it has a vulnerability : aggression. A clever enemy can very well invest in units, and come to bother you. By the time your beautiful buildings are ready, you will have the unpleasant surprise of seeing a suspicious pile ready to melt on you !

– Drakkens : Advanced Diarchy naturally gives them access to level 2 empire plans. They do not even need to do science (although it is advisable to produce them anyway, to get buildings faster useful from the era 1).

– Ardent Mages : Through their pillars, they can get a great science right from the start. And their hero has a very useful trait of Science Reinforcement. Attention it is better to raise your hero at level 2 and him before using it, and give him a point in skill in strengthening science.

In addition, the Ardent Mages quest is easy to get started and gives you very interesting bonuses : two free units from the start, then influence, or resources.

– Mezaris : They are better than the Vaulters for this strategy, because their hero has a level 2 Science Reinforcement trait, while the Vaulter hero has a level 2 Science Yield, which is significantly less interesting at this stage of the game.

Mezaris and Vaulters have science bonuses on the science field, so they are highly qualified for the early Level 2 empire plan strategy.

– The Forgottens : As the technologies are cheap at first, they can easily gather enough dust on turn 10, to pay them. They can destroy neutral villages (it brings them dust), and sell their units if necessary.

– The Kapaku : If they have a good starting field, if they build a Public Libray, the science they gain by searching the ruins can allow them to enter era II before turn 11.

– What about other factions ? Well they are really bad for this strategy. In many cases, they can not possibly get it. If you have a good starting region, beautiful anomalies, it is theoretically possible, but very difficult. Exceeding 40 science per turn is a tour de force for them.

This is the reason why these factions are sadly not often played in competitive multiplayer : we love all the Necrophages or Wild Walkers, but it’s frustrating not being able to play in the “big leagues” with them.

There is a “solution” to this problem : activate the “Custom Factions” option and allow players to take the Advanced Diarchy feature. It’s not something that imbalances the game so much.

– Of course, first build the buildings of era I because they cost little. If we have the buyout reduction of the Economy Level 2 plan, as well as the Slaves and Market technology, the population must be sent on the dust, and not on the industry (the final output of production will be well superior).

– We must invest all the gold we have in the buildings of the era I, but also of the era 2. The roads for example, of the Imperial Highway technology, create considerable revenues in gold in science. It is also possible to rusher the wonders, but it is still very expensive.

– Rushing buildings with dust (when, I repeat, the economy level 2 is on, and Prisonners, Slaves and Volunteers technology is owned) is much more profitable than investing in heroes. Even industrial heroes are to be neglected compared to roads, Glory of Empire or Central Market.

What if you start the game in close position with a player ?

– It is prudent to leave at least one unit in your nearest city. If you see a stack moving forward, you can use this unit to trigger an attack by your militia units. Even if you do not destroy the stack, you will have at least hurt him. And you’ll be able to retack it the next round, if it’s not too fast for you.

Be careful, it must be attacked before he sits in the city. Otherwise the militia will not regenerate.

– You can also opt for trust, and take no precautions. Often it works because your rivals will be busy with their own expansion.

– The worst faction to have ready of its territory, it is the Cultist. They have early units from the villages they convert. The player has every interest in attacking you early, to gain industry reserves, and get rid of you in the long run. A real nightmare. One must obviously have a unit in garrison, and why not a scout to periodically check what he is doing. The danger with the Cultist, also comes from the fact that the threat is decentralized : its units can potentially come from any direction, as their spawn from villages, not only from its city.

On the other hand he will be very vulnerable in his converted villages, which are easy to attack with a fast unit.

Next : The choices of technologies at Era II

First possible technologies : Imperial Coinage, Imperial Gold Glory of Imperial Highways :

– Imperial Coinage it is if you got some resources or some stockpiles (stockpile industry mainly), or if you got some resources and luxuries you want to sell.

– Imperial Highways to boost science and dust immediately.

– Glory of Empire if you need to influence your empire plan.

Now, let’s take a look together at the other technologies of Era II.

– Hydrology : The Canal System is useful in regions where there is natural industry by hexagon (forests for example). And the Locks Canal is an absolute must have to put in your city that already has the Husbandery Center. By combining both, you will quickly get a city with a high population (6 minimum) and a high usable industrial productivity for what you want.

About the Locks Canal, it is useful to build it only when your city is ready to shift its population from food to industry. As long as you grow, there is no point in having it.

– Management Sciences : The Lumber Mill is situational. But the Apprenticeship Registry, which gives +1 industry per farm (ie all hexes your city uses, minus the districts themselves) will provide you with a constant and growing supply of industry throughout the game, for a low cost.

– Central Market (unless you are cultist of course, or unless you have a lot of wine booster) : Happiness is something that you have to keep high in your productive cities. The Central Market is cheap and you will have to build it everywhere.

– Alchemy Workshop : 15 science and 20% science is a high bonus that you should not miss. Unless your acess of titanium is insufficient or nil of course (in this case, the titanium must be reserved for the Canal Locks, which is much more important).

– Meritocraty : Attention, we must always look for this technology, but it must be done at the right time, that is when we really need it. As long as you do not need it (to attack or defend), it is better to look for other technologies, even if you are already in the Era III. No hurry.

Let’s go back briefly to some technologies of era I :

– Military Science (+ Dirty tactics about city Defense): This technology is generally not very useful. But it can still be useful if you fear an early attack. For a derisory cost in the industry, you improve the survival time of your cities. In addition, there is a vicious secret tactic that I advise you to use : build the two buildings of this technology, and “hide” your units in ambush ready for the vulnerable city. When I say hide, I mean : you put them slightly behind the city, but still close enough to intervene if the city is attacked.

When the enemy approaches the city with his nice stack, he will see that it will be empty. He will see the high fortifications, but if one army is consequent, it will be said that to kill three militiamen with 200 of fortification will remain easy thing. But when he attacks, he will have the horrible surprise of seeing your other units intervene with them too 200 of fortification ! Suffice to say that things will not go as well as he hoped !

This dirty tactic works even better with the Forgottens, who can literally hide their units anywhere on the map! They can use it even in an offensive situation !

– Boarding Vessel : These fast little ships are good for exploring the oceans, and even conquering the fortresses. The Fire Ship of era II is more powerful, but slower. Conquering Ocean Fortresses is a strategic game that few players think of. The “Enginner” accessory is necessary to fight the Fomorians effectively (+ 30% damage against them). The conquest of the seas will give you resources, other interesting bonuses, without increasing the necessary influence that new cities would require !

Let’s go back to the technological era II :

– Citizen Armies : The defensive building, Defensive Ward, is made to protect from a direct attack your most important city. This is logically your industrial city, or otherwise, your capital. The Conscription Center is much more useful but it is better to combine it with other bonuses of experience : I think in particular the Quicksilver, which will increase by +100% XP points given to the units produced in this city !

Higher level units are more powerful, but they also have a higher value for resale on the Market !

From the moment you have this kind of XP bonus, the Conscription Center becomes really useful to exploit it at best.

– Public Granary : Really not very effective most of the time, because you will specialize your citizens in dust, influence etc. but not in the food because the return on investment is too low. Two notable exceptions : if you are Necrophages, this building is essential, as it will dramatically increase the efficiency of your specialization in food (conferred by the racial trait “Cull the Herd”).

Another possible exception : you have a lot of Spices, which increases + 50% food production. In this case, this building can be useful to quickly increase your cities to the population 8 or 10 (to be able then to build your 6 districts).

– Aquacultural Science is very seldom sought. It can be useful if you are lucky to have one or two cities on rivers. This technology can do a lot of good to Morgawr, as they place their cities by the sea.

– Native District : Situational. As soon as you have two or three villages of a minor faction whose effects interest you, take it there.

– Shipyard : Situational. If you are on an island, you will need it.

– Diplomat’s Manse : Situational. If you want to make lasting peace with a player to create trades roads with a player, take it there. If you have an extremely interesting quest for peace, take it (you still need a player to accept your peace).

– Alchemics Alloys : Powerful if you have enough resources. Units with these weapons are about twice as powerful as units with standard weapons. We talk about fighting later. Tip : You can keep poorly equipped units in garrison and re-equip them as needed at the last moment. The enemy will appreciate the surprise. 😉

– Alchemics Armors : The armor can be useful if you have a lot of resources (I think especially Vaulters and Mezari, who have the bonus Technolovers). But more than that, the equipment is essential if you go to war : the “Army X Boost” (like the Army Damage Boost 2) in particular, and the initiative if it is useful. The others equipement, like science yield, dust yield and fast lootingt, dust, and fast looting equipment, can also be useful from time to time. The looting is especially for the Forgottens heroes ! 🙂

When should you produce units ?

Well, as soon as possible, it will be good to have at least four units wandering on the map, and partly on your territory. Having permanently deployed units on the map is always helpful:

– This is a light but viable defense against the incursion of a small group of enemies. These units will “activate” your militia units and that will be enough to hurt them.

– They clean the neutrals that will begin to loot you.

– They will be ready to harvest the pearls when winter arrives.

– They will be ready to absorb the conflux when the Eclypse is there, and to search the temples a second time (very very useful).

For all these reasons, you should make the effort to produce some units, even in early game.

– Now, the question is to know from when is it wise to start switching from a production of buildings, to a production of units to the chain (in your industrial city in particular).

– The answer is : from the moment when your industrial city has at least 8 of population, all its buildings of the era 1 and 2, its Canal Locks and its 5-6 districts (in triangle of preference).

– From here, you can build buildings of the III era if you are fast in scientific progress, or you will not be able to. And even if you can already, it might be better depending on the situation to start doing scout units (for ruins, pearls etc.), or military units to build a stack of 6 units (useful in attack as in defense).

– You can also make units for resale on the mercenary market.

– Finally, you can also make settlers to take the beautiful regions around.

When does the Center for Mineralogy (National Science Yield Wonderl) need to be built ?

– We have to build it when we have enough dust per turn, and we already have a beautiful industrial city. In other words, we must build it only when we use it non stop (send its population in science, for the rest of the game).

– It does not make sense to switch the population to dust, or industry with this city. Sometimes switching to influence can be useful if you’re going to need it for the next empire plan.

– If you need a building in this city, wait for it to be built with the industry of the ground, or to rush it with the blow of dust.

– If the population of the city is high, it is better to use it with a hero specialist in science yield (for example Vaulters Petrov Judith, who has +2 in science performance). But heroes are expensive, you must not have the obsession to have them.

When exactly does one have to start rushing buildings with dust ?

– As this is a very important point, we must return to it.

– The rush with dust becomes interesting only when you have at least :

* The level 2 science and industry empire plan (-33% building cost).
* Prisoners, Slaves and Tech Volonteers (-25% buyout reduction on cities).

If you only have one of them, it is better to keep the dust for something else, and to specialize your population in the industry rather than the dust. It will be more productive.

That said, from the second empire plan (turn 20), you should have most of these two conditions, but also this third condition:

* Economy and population empire plan level 2 (-25% buyout reduction on cities).

The rush becomes half cheaper ! It becomes more interesting to switch all your cities in dust production (except your industrial city, with the Canal Lock, and your scientific city, with the Center for Mineralogy) !

To try it is to adopt it.

We can even increase even more the power of all this:

– Take a Hero Wild Walkers. Raise his Behemoth Tamer skill (from the skills at right) to level 2. The production cost of buildings drops by -24%.

– Assimilate three villages Urces. The cost of production of buildings drops by -15% !

In total you will have :

– 33% building cost, of the empire plan.
– 24% of Behemoth Tamer.
– 15% from the Urces.

That’s -72% ! And the price of the rush remains lowered by -50%. Suffice to say that everything will go faster ! The Urces are besides the best unit to assimilate. Not only are they very solid, but their empire bonus is fantastic …

In conclusion, we must understand all this. There is an abyssal difference in speed of development between a player who understands empire plans and knows how to rusher buildings, and novice players, who only operate at normal production, to pure industry.

How to best use luxury boosters ?

Luxury boosters must be used at the right time. Here are different cases for exemple :

– You find in turn 1, 10 Wine (+30 happiness). When you have not yet landed your first city, the boosters cost only 5 points. So use these two boosters immediately.

– You find the turn 1, 10 Emerald. But your city will already has 70% happiness. In this case, it is better not to use this booster unnecessarily.

– It’s turn 5. You find 10 Titan Bones (+50 % industry output !). Should we use it right away or wait ? Wait of course. Wait until your future cities are in a position to be definitively settled. Wait until the first empire plan passes. Then take it, activate your booster, and put down your cities.

– Another case : You managed to get the Legendary Deed “Weath Harvester”. You have won 130 Emeralds. Should it be used ? No. Because the Emeralds offer a useful bonus very low : 5 of happiness. I advise you to sell this big package of Emerald on the Market. 🙂

– You have 20 Dices (+ 50% influence production). Knowing that the booster will last for 5 turns, it is better to wait for turn 25. Then use it, and switch your population points to influence. Thus, you will maximize the power of this booster. And you don’t need to use all your influence in the next empire plan. Use what you need.

Do not hesitate to buy at market the luxuries you need to activate a booster.
It is obvious that luxuries are a key weapon for victory.

How to build city districts ?

– A level 2 neighborhood is a neighborhood surrounded by 4 neighborhoods. Level 2 neighborhoods offer a better return, and they offer a bonus of happiness.

– That’s why the ideal form of a district group is the triangle. A triangle creates three level 2 districts. You can also build the districts in a row. It is less effective but sometimes necessary according to the map.

– It is intelligent that the development of the districts are made towards the lands which interest you. That’s why you do not always have to make a triangle. For example, if you want to “follow” the course of a river, because you have specialised buildings which exploit the rivers hexagones, do it.

– The triangle of 6 districts corresponds to a population of 10. But later, in late game, you can go beyond in population, and build other districts. The problem is that their cost increases with each new district. But there is often better to do, better to build, at this stage of the game. For example, colonizing a new region gives access to additional resources, and overall offers more interest, than trying to be “tall”, ie building more districts, and wanting an ever higher population.

– Necrophages with a production cost of the districts of -50%, they have interest to develop gigantic cities. By gigantic, I mean cities of 10-12 districts maximum (after it’s better to plant new cities, their districts will cost much less.

– Because in Endless Legend, each population point is more expensive than the previous point. It is an increase of geometric nature (which is multiplied each time). This phenomenon is logical because the population does not cause discontent, or sanitation, as on Civilization games serie. Suddenly, it was necessary to find a way to encourage players to colonize new cities, rather than concentrate everything in a few cities.

– The consequence is that it is not productive to target a very high population. There are several late game buildings specializing in population growth, but these are unfortunately useless because I repeat, their investment cost (in industry, in resources) is too high compared to the benefits they bring. .

– On the other hand, investing in science, industry and dust buildings is always useful because this ceiling system by increasing the exponential cost does not exist.

How to manage the hero governors ?

– It may be appropriate to switch the heroes between them. For example, if you with hero Ipsa Wacha (an industrial hero) in a city that has completed the most important things, you can send it to rule another city, to produce there faster.

– This technique is particularly useful if you do not yet have access to the empire plan that drops -25% the cost of dust rush. You need production everywhere, and you will not be able to decentralize it with dust. But you can move your hero. 😉

– You can also do that with a Slaver Necrophages Hero. Mit for 5 tours in an area with 2-3 villages, it will help you get up their population quickly, if that’s your goal.

– It is not useful to put a hero governor in a small city. It is more interesting to use this hero on the map: he will gain experience, exploring and beating, and he will glean resources for you.

– Giving a fighting equipment to the governor heroes is useless. Giving them a special yield bonus equipment that suits them is very useful. The most useful equipment is the series of experience boosters, the Tome – Dust. Your industrial heroes must always have one and you must, at each new later age, give it a higher version.

– There are other equipment rarely used because expensive in rare resources. In general, this equipment is expensive for what it brings back. These scarce resources are better to be used elsewhere (in buildings, and units). Here are some examples of very rare pieces. 🙂

Great for units in defense of a city (cost : 39 Mithrite !).

Great for… everything.

Very strong if you figt in forest with Wild Walkers ! (It buff thieir defense AND their natural attack boost in forest).

How to effectively use the retrofitting of units ?

– Build units are expensive. Especially in the advanced eras because their basic level is increased. If you are attacked and you do not have a very productive industrial city, it will probably be too late to react

– You will not be able to rusher units directly with dust. It’s way too expensive. The solution to this problem is to always keep units in defense, but with empty equipment. By vacuum, I mean, level 1 equipment. If you see the enemy coming, you can retrofit these units with the equipment of your choice.

– This is not a perfect solution, because you will still need enough dust to retrofit these units.

– This strategy has an advantage is that if you choose weapons in strategic resources, you can take the ones you need. This is not possible if your units are already equipped. For example if you have Foragers (Necrophages) and you see that the incoming stack is composed of archers, it is better that you give them an axe (anti-archer) and a buckler (anti-archer) rather than claws.

Note also a curiosity of the game (a bug in my opinion) : at equivalent level, for example an Iron Combat Equipment era II, it costs nothing to change the type of equipment. Switching from an anti-cavalry spear to scratches will cost you zero dust. A nice advantage for the defense.

About combat and equipment (1/4)

First of all, it’s good to understand technically how a fight is going. You have this helpful page, among others : [link]

– The weapons (technologies of Alloys) made in strategic resources are much more powerful quality / price than the armor. It is better to invest your resources only in weapons, unless you have access to a lot of resources (if you with assimilated Silics, or if you are Vaulters in particular).

– However, putting armor in strategic gear on heroes is a good idea, since they can not die. Whereas with a unit, if you lose it, you lose the resources.

– Sometimes you will activate quests that will give you weapons or level 3 armor. Level 3 weapons are particularly powerful, and remain effective until the VI era !

– Some special equipment are must have : The army damage boost 2, army health boost for example.

– The army initiative boost is only useful if you have interest in having units that have the initiative. For example for archers. But some units do not have utility to have the initiative. Including all units with claws. Claws increase damage to the counterattack, and they hit three hexes. So you with all interest to be attacked first, and therefore, not to have the initiative.

– Army boosters are more powerful in advanced eras. For example the army attack boost 2 costs 22 Paladium but it increases + 30% the attack of the whole army. While army damage boost 2 costs 11 Titanium, but only increases damage by 10%.

– It is better to choose to boost the higher statistics in your units. For example the Stone Sentinel of Kapaku, has a high natural defense. Defense is the ability to decrease the damage received or nullify (0 damage). For complicated technical reasons, it is in your interest to reinforce your best feature (attack, or defense) rather than reinforce your weak feature. The reason is that a particularly high characteristic will have a very strong effect (a very high defense will often tend to nullify the damage).

Defense is more useful for Necrophages, who inflict damage continuously through their Disease. A high defense gives them a longer life, more enemy units can be crippled for a long time.

– The speed of movement on the map is useful, but not as useful as one might think. If you use roads, speed is not necessary. If you stay in garrison, it’s the same. Nevertheless, one thing to know that is important is that having the speed equipment of era 1 (the tasliman that gives +1 in motion) gives +1 in motion in combat. Level 2 and 3 necklaces have the same effect.

However, a unit that has +1 in motion is a unit that may wait for a turn faster, enemy units. Especially if you are in the forest. You cross two forest boxes rather than one! Speed ​​in combat is therefore very important, especially for melee units. Less for archers. So I advise you to equip all your units of melee of this equipment.

Taliman speed is absolutely necessary on Silics and Titans (Vaulters) because their natural speed is only 1.

– You should equip your scout units with two equipment : a speed talisman, and a vision ring. The faster you go, the faster you can cross the map, avoid wandering creatures, and search ruins. The further you will see, the faster you will explore the regions. However, with the Empire and Expansion Level 2 doctrine, you will already have +2 vision for your units. We can consider that it is enough to discover the map quickly.

– That said, if you equip your scouts with a superior vision, you will have the advantage of increasing their value on the mercenary market, since each equipment increases this value (and the more the equipment is expensive in industry, the more the value is increased). I will talk about the resale of units later. Scouts are often sold on the mercenary market because they are often attacked by wandering creatures, and it is better in this case to resell them if they have almost no HP.

– Vision equipment is useful for units that will fight archers. Sharp Sense increases from +20 to +40% defence against ranged attacks ! And it also increases the vision of unity on the map. Your Scout units have every interest in having this ring of vision. You have to know that Sharp Sense is already given by the shields. So, it’s useless to give this ring to a unit that has a shield.

About combat and equipment (2/4)

– Each type of weapon has a specialization. The two-handed sword hurts the infantry. The spears hurt the cavalry units very badly. Etc.

There is one exception : the longbows. Archers with longbows are supposed to perform against flying units. But in fact, they are average. They are average because flying units often are often fast, have high initiative, strike hard, and break their moral at contact.

You have to see archers with longbows as viable units a little better against flying than if they had a crossbow and a shield.

However, against a flying unit army, it may be useful to have archers reinforce them, because unlike the contact units, they will be able to do damage even on a battlefield filled with units hindering mobility.

– Hammers with one or two hands are very useful because of the stun (which lasts two turns and neutralizes any counterattack or action during this time). The problem is that the units handling a hammer usually have a low initiative. But to be able to stun, to defend oneself does not work, it is necessary to be able to attack. The best thing to do is to have half of your army made up of a high-powered unit to block some of the enemy’s units. And the other part of your army consists of unit which is stun with hammers (including Urces and Silics, who have a powerfray attack).

If you fight a pure army of archers, you will inflict your stuns since the ranged units will not consume the action (counterattack) of your hammer units.

– The Claws are the best weapon of the game. Without question. from +75% to + 125% damage when hit back, and touches three hexes … what more can you ask for ? It’s overpowered, but we’ve gotten used to it, and units that have access to claws are limited. It’s better if your units that have claws do not have the initiative (unless they are fighting archers), otherwise the boosted counter-attack effect will not work. If you have the initiative, it is better to bring your unit closer to enemy units than to order him to attack. Thus, she will hit against attack, and it is stronger as well.

– The quarterstaff, wands and longcepters are special weapons that do small damage, but that cripples the target unit for two rounds (Slowdown effect, -30% defense, or -30% attack).

– The Slowdown effect is powerful if used properly. That is, used on slow creatures. It must be used by moving back units.

– The defense reduction is better if you want to destroy this unit in the next two rounds. Order your units to attack the target unit, since it will be more vulnerable.

– If you’re going to fight infantry units, is it better to have a two-handed sword, or a sword and a shield? The two-handed sword is better. You will take a little more damage, but you will do a lot more damage. If you are going to fight anything other than infantry, and in addition you have a weak initiative (for example the Stalkers of the Broken Lords), it is better to have a shield.

– The Forgottens are the only race that can carry a weapon in each hand. The damage of the weapon in second hand is reduced (-50%), but the weapon still gives its specialization bonus (anti archer or anti infantry) to the unit. That’s why it’s better to always have a sword and an ax. There is no point in having two swords, or two axes.

– The dust ring is always useful (more health point), especially if you have nothing better to use.

– The combat regeneration ring is useless and expensive. The regeneration obtained is far too weak to be interesting.

– The titanium ring that increases the damage is a must. The problem will come from your lack of strategic resources. This ring is useful throughout the game, even with respect to a ring of life in dust.

– The other rings of era 2 are useful, but generally rather expensive for what they are.

For example, the Talisman in Glassteal increases + 60% the bonus of High Ground. The High Ground bonus gives + 30% attack if you are in the upper position (on a hill compared to a lower hex). Note that this bonus works against, or for, flying creatures.

+60% of 30% that makes +48%. It’s good but you have to be able to exploit it, but you will not know where the fight will happen.

– The superior initiative ring, in glassteal, is more efficient. You have to use it on the units where you really want them to have the initiative. Ideally in any massive combat (those involving reinforcements), you should always have two quick units to block both reinforcement units on the joining flags where they appear.

It’s a very powerful technique. With two fast units (eg fast cavalry units) you will be able to accomplish this job remarkably.

Having a high initiative is generally useful for archers to eliminate enemies before they arrive.

On the other hand, it is useless and even harmful for units that have claws, since the claws give all their power in response.

– The titanium talisman that gives Glory or Death is an expensive but valuable tool if used properly. +1 Morale for each adjacent enemy unit. Send your unit into contact with the maximum number of enemy units to exploit it. I recall that positive morale increases +15% attack and defense of a unit. With +6 in morale, a unit has +90% in attack and defense!

Glory or Death is particularly powerful on the Guardians who go to melee (I think in particular to Gios, the Guardian of Earth).

– Several rings are ultra situational. For example, there is a ring that gives +30% damage against minor faction units. Certainly but for the same price you have the ring of improved damage 2, which gives +20% damage against all types of units. It is rare for a player to make only minor units anyway.

– Marvelous Armor technology (Tiers 2 Adamantium / Palladium) gives access to the Whispering Bracelet, which gives + 50% XP gain. It is a very useful faculty to increase the level of your heroes. The higher a hero, the more he can access army skill skills. It’s worth the cost of using this equipment.

– Finally, among the rings of advanced eras, some are powerful. I’m thinking for example of the Mithrite ring that gives the Shock ability. A shocked unit suffers a morale penalty for three rounds. Very good. But will you really invest mithrite, so rare and precious, in this ring ? Is it not more sensible to invest its mithrite in weapons, which will be less expensive in resources, and will bring a much more powerful effect?

– The most powerful accessory is the Eye of the Farthinker, achieved by the achievement of the Legendary Deed “Warrior’s Warrior”. This legendary deed is hard to get, and that’s good thing. This accessory costs 5 titaine and 5 glass of action. A very low price for Free Counter, the most powerful faculty that a unit can have (the Jotus and the Centaur naturally have this faculty). Free Counter almost doubles the power of a unit. It’s as if you had two on the battlefield : a unit with Free Counter that has attacked will be able to retaliate if attacked (two actions). If she has not yet acted but is attacked twice, she will fight back twice !

About combat and equipment (3/4)

– An elite army is an army composed of units much higher than the standard units of the present era. For example units made of palladium or adamtium of tier 1 are considerably more powerful than iron units of the same era. If this army is well managed, it can fight with little loss, no loss, standard armies.

– Also, if you block the reinforcements with two high-initiative units, you can decimate the standard army. And once it is decimated, you will decimate each turn the reinforcements that will arrive. A total victory of quality over quantity !

– The problem of elite units is their cost. If you lose the preciously invested resources, it will be a mess. Using healing units (Ceratan and Eyeless Ones) is especially useful for healing your elite units during combat.

– The Brokens Lords are the best to take care of their elite units, because on the one hand they have Dust Priest, which are units of care and attacks combined, and on the other hand they can take care of all their army once per turn. Which means that even if you end a fight, your elite units are seriously injured, you can heal them right after, if you have an action point, or you can do it at the next tower.

– Retrofit equipment from one strategic resource to another is a waste because resources will be destroyed. But retrofitting equipment from a lower level to a higher level only costs the difference in resource cost.

– For this reason, you should create specialized unit designs. For example your adamtium / palladium units should be in a certain design, so as not to mistakenly retrofit their equipment into anything but titanium.

– It’s bad to retrofit units in steal glass / titanium into adamantium or something because you loose all the strategic resources. But if you retrofit from the tier 1 (for example) adamantium into tier 2 adamantium, the cost is very reduced. To retrofit the right units into the rights of equipment.

– Some units are perfectly fit against a unit class. The Foragers, Necrophages, can carry an axe, anti-archer, and shield, which protects it from shooting. The disease that it will spread among the archers will do additional damage. In addition, its basic cost is low.

– The problem of the Forager is that it is neither fast nor flying. If the fight takes place in a forest area, that will be problematic. Flying units despite their vulnerability to the longbow, remain very interesting.

– Some factions do not have unit types that can effectively counter a given type of unit. For example, Broken Lords have anti-infantry, and their shields give them a solid defense against archers. But they do not have anti-cavalry spears. When you fight them, you know that their army is likely to be mainly Stalmart and Dust Priest.

So, try to oppose them with a cavalry army that has anti-infantry weapons. I think of Dorgeshi. They are formidable against the infantry, and their stun is formidable too.

Another example : the Vaulters against the Allayis. The Marines are weak against the Monks, especially in winter (the Monks in winter metaphorosis mode have a triple attack…). The Titans are better, but as they are infantry, they are vulnerable to the large two-handed swords used by the Monks. The Dawn Officers are useless against the monks, since they have only one function : they are killers of archers.

The Vaulters have a problem with the Allayis, a difficult problem to solve. The use of a one elite Gios (Stone Guardian) is an effective counter but expensive against the Allayis.

About combat and equipment (4/4)

– Beyond the composition of the army, the choice of terrain is crucial too. If you have an army of archers, try to trigger the fight in an advantageous situation : in the forest, on a high position, and in winter if possible because the speed of the units is less, they will take more time to come to contact. In addition, in winter the High ground bonus goes from + 30% to + 60% attack !

– Don’t just move and attack. The differences between two area can be the difference between the victory and the defeat !

– Using Conflux’s bonuses is obviously extremely usefull. +30 % initiative or +30 % attack are an obvious buff. Hexagones with Dust storm are a blessing if you fight archers. We talk about the effects of Eclypse later.

– The most useful skill for commanding heroes is Keen Observer. It increases from two to three units per turn, then to four units at level 2, the number of units that can come to strengthen your army in combat. It’s a skill that will change the outcome of battles if you have multiple armies !

– There are only two classes of heroes that have this skill : the Drakkens and the Ardent Mages. This skill is acquired from level 3. These heroes are among the best possible commanders.

– The equivalent of Keen Observer exists too in the Infantery hero (for example the hero Necrophages) under the name of Rallying Call. But it requires level 5.

– The “ultimate” skill is Cold Operator. The one at the top, in the center, of the skills tree. It gives immunity to ANY winter penalty to your team OR the city he governers. That’s damn overpowered… but it’s like that.

– Others commandment skills (the left branch) are often interesting, just read them to see it. But they are weak compared to the benefits of Cold Operator. But as Cold Operator requires to have a point in each skill that precedes it, it is better to go directly to him (still thinking to put two points in Keen Observer).

– Others are looking for something better compared to the reinforcement skill. They are useful of course, and it is easy to understand their effects. The best effects are the percentage buffs. For example, Artisan’s Eye increases the damage of your entire army by 20% (if you max him up to level 3). It’s better than a direct bonus (+12 attack). But your priority is Keen Observer (if your hero has it) and Cold Operator.

– For a commander, none of them has any interest (except Cold Operator). The center branch is a dead branch, unfortunately.

– Only Face Reader and Inspirationnal Leader can be useful to Heroes Governors. Face Reader is made to give your Round Up maximum efficiency. Lord of the Trance is useful on Spy heroes, but they have much more useful skills to develop before that one.

Combats : How to cope with an elite army ?

Facing an elite army, here are the possible actions :

– Save time by sending a fake attack on one of his cities. This may encourage him to backtrack in some cases.

– Save time by increasing your fortification value. This can save time but it could turn to your other less fortified cities.

– Buy mercenaries and deploy them. They can make a difference.

– Use weak units but in number. This works especially with Necrophages because of the effect of poison, and Proliferators, which will bring you units for each fight.

– Attack twice a turn. An injured elite army can be finished. When you attack twice, you must knowingly use only part of the units you have, otherwise they can not be used.

– The problem of an elite army increase further if you face the Broken Lords (dust heal), or a faction that has a high health regeneration per turn (for exemple if the army has absorbed a Regeneration Conflux). We must try to attack it relentlessly. In any case you have no choice. Either you win or you die trying. ^^

– A problem arises if you manual the fight. The fights last a long time and you may not be able to do the second fight in the same round…

– Otherwise, if you are the Roving Clans, you can also move your cities. Or your city, the one he’s going to attack. This is not a very effective military strategy, but it can break his balls and dissuade him from pursuing you. ^^

– As a last resort, you can offer him a Truce in exchange for your resources, your women. Of all. Up to you. ^^

Do you have to fight in auto or manual ?

If you are 100 % to win with no lost, or if it’s a boring mirror match (like 6 Stone sentinels vs 6 Stone sentinels), you should auto.

But in others cases, you should generally manual. In manual you :

– Auto gives sometimes aberrant results. Losing all your army, without inflicting a single loss, it surprises a lot. For example, I have observed that units with Stun are underestimated by the game, while effective manual use of Dorgeshi makes them formidable. In addition, sometimes even with a domination of the balance of power, the game is losing one or two units, while if you had manual fight, it will not happen. In the end, it is difficult to predict the outcome of an automatic fight, unless the balance of power is overwhelming.

– In auto combat, you will never be able to practice the strategy of blocking the reinforcement units when they arrive. This strategy can reverse the outcome of a battle, it’s a pity anyway.

– The problem of manual combat is that it takes a lot of time. Which is painful for other players. Nevertheless, it will be stupid to lose a game that lasts for an hour, just to “save” a few minutes, right? If it’s an important fight I recommend the manual.

– Sometimes, manual is useless because the situation is such that there is not really any smart management possible.

– Note that in auto combat, it is useful to choose one of three positions : Attack, Defense or Hold positions. In Defense mode, I observed that you lose fewer units after the fight, but you will also do less damage. I think Defense and Hold positions are best suited for situations where your starting ground is defense-friendly (such as a city, or a wooded area). But I’m not 100% sure of what I’m saying.

Use the Alt and Ctrl commands.

– Alt instructs your unit to move to the indicated space, even if it is occupied by another unit (an enemy unit, for example). Without Alt, the unit will seek to attack the unit or be it, rather than move on that spot!

– Ctrl gives a second order to your unit on the same turn, for example : go to that hexagon, and attack that unit specifically.

This is very useful for targeting the right targets, but also for ordering a health unit to heal itself (in this case, target it itself) rather than foolishly attacking the enemy.

– We can combine ALT and CTRL, that is to say we can order : You will go on this hexagon which is currently occupied, and you will try to attack this target there.

– Shoot while retreating with your archers, thus avoiding damage for part of the fight.

– Choose to occupy the best locations (forests, high position).

– Use your units to limit the impact of devastating ripotes with claws.

– Target the right targets, and use your healers better than the AI ​​can ever do.

Using or abusing of retreat

– Retreat is an overpowered ability on Endless Legend. With fast units one can freely explore wild areas. Just be smart and responsive. Nevertheless it’s like that, so abuse it.

– If you have high regeneration (for example, having assimilated Sisters of Mercy), the negative effects of retirement are almost nullified. That is to say that next year, your army will be like new. ^^

– The retreat is something easy to exploit. You can use a single unit to black the way of a big one. You will double the movements points he needs to move forward, and he can’t destroy your solo unit in one turn… This is usefull to prevent this army to siege your city immediately, for example. These kinds of action are a bit lame.

What minor factions should we choose to assimilate ?

– The assimilation bonus of a minor faction is the first reason for assimilating it.

– Sometimes it is the unity as such that interests us first and foremost. For example if you are going to fight archers but you do not have an anti-archer unit, you may want to assimilate Gaurans.

If you play Morgawr, having a viable minor faction unit is fundamental since the Mastermind, unit supports quite weak, is the only unit you will be able to produce.

– Using units that your enemy does not get along with can ruin their strategy. For example, if you play Kapaku against Broken Lords, this one will surely use long two-handed swords to do damage against the Stalwarts. But if you use Dorgeshi against him, he will be taken aback because he will not (normally) have an anti-cavalry unit, while your Dorgeshis will be anti-infantry, and will hurt him very badly.

– Some minor factions give fantastic bonuses. I am thinking in particular of Silics and Dorgeshi. They double (from two assimilated villages) the harvest of strategic resources and luxury resources. If you are Vaulters, the Silics are even more powerful, since you already have basic, multiplied collection.

Of course, these bonuses are only useful if you produce a lot of these raw materials. But if this is the case, the difference is considerable : you will produce for example twice as much Titan Bones, you may be able to leave this bonus permanently activated…

– Keep in mind that each regionally owned assimilated village reduces the production cost of this minor faction by -8%. It is therefore much more interesting to build this unit here than elsewhere. Some minor units are very interesting and not very expensive in basic cost. For example the Urces, or the Eyeless One (the least expensive minor unit in basic cost I think).

So you can make mass to flood the mercenary market, you make a lot of money, and break resale prices on the market. How to kill two birds with one stone ! 🙂

– Creatures possessing immunities with winter effects are very useful. I think of Gaurans, Hurnas and Wargs. These units have no speed reduction in Winter, you can continue to move them quickly, you can attack. In short, they are very useful.

How to quickly earn XP to your heroes ?

– There are several ways to quickly earn XP to a hero.

– Produce units in a city : I do not know why but with equal industrial value, it is better to produce units than to produce buildings in a city.

– Build buildings in large numbers, and rush it : Rush buildings will increase the XP gain of your Hero Governor. It’s a good idea to do this if you want to reach level 8 before the others (to get the Legendary Deed that offers +20% health regeneration).

– Fight wandering creatures : You must know that the more the fight is against you, the higher the XP gain will be. So do not use full stacks to clean up wandering creatures. But only one hero, with one or two units to help him. This is a dangerous game, but well calculated, you will win much faster XP.

The consequence is you can quickly climb to level 8, without participating in any major battle.

As such, the best heroes are the Drakkens, because on the one hand they have the skill Fast Learner 1, which increases by + 25% all the gains of XP, and on the other hand they can heal the units. But care is a powerful faculty to use when fighting neutrals. On a good field, you can fight in sub number and win.

The disadvantage is that it will take manual, and it takes time. By the way, speaking of Drakkens heroes, they are worthless as governors, but they are the best commanders of armies because they have the skill of fast army reinforcement, that they have the Fast Learner skill, and they heal. The best of them being Archivist Nachampasaka, who owns an Army Life Boost of 3.

– One last thing, each garrison unit earns +1 XP per turn to the hero. It’s not insignificant. A hero also earns XP for each unit he commands in his army. But a little less I think.

Era III, what technologies to look for ? (1/2)

– In era III, several buildings significantly increase dust generation. Since players will have already resold on the market many units, it will become less interesting to produce units for immediate resale. As a result, it becomes your units better to be used as scouts (pearl collectors, ruins, quest activator and scout quite simply), or as normal military units.

– The buildings of era III tend to specialize more your cities. If you lack strategic resources, you should only build them in your specialized cities (for exemple the Advanced Alchemy Lab which increases science yield). But if you have enough strategic resources and no military priority, it’s better to build them everywhere. Even in an industrial city without boxes producing mist, it will always be useful to have a +30 dust and +20% dust (dust that will come from your city huts and your trade routes).

– The highest priority technologies are generally Dust Alchemy (for the Dust Transmutter building), Bread and Circus (for the Expansion Disapproval Bonus on Cities) and Smelting Station (extractors resources).

– Dust Transmutter : This unique national wonder produces a fantastic effect when it’s built in a dust-rich region. You gain +10 dust for each hexagon producing at least 1 dust naturally. The ideal is to build in a city already well developed, and if possible while we are there, with the Museam d’Auriga (+40% dust produced!). The revenues generated are very high, that’s why this building should be your priority of the era III (except of course if you have neither land rich in dust nor glassteal).

– Bread and Circus : The big advantage of this technology is that it applies immediately. You do not need building or resources. If you have difficulty keeping a maximum happiness, this technology is indicated.

– Smelting Station and Reaping Station : The sooner you start harvesting, the faster you can build the buildings of the era III that requires it. If you have the Legendary Deed that requires producing the four strategic resources, getting this technology must be your top priority in era III. Because getting this Legendary Deed not only gives you the opportunity to equip an army with great resources, but it stops anyone from getting it in your place and coming for a courtesy visit.

– Dust Refinery : This building is better in cities producing a lot of dust. But it is still interesting elsewhere, because you will always produce a little fog, at least by the commercial routes and the huts of cities.

– Plow Factory : +3 food on all exploited boxes (except volcanic huts), even if they produce no food. What more ? It’s perfect. A little strange that a desert can produce all this food thanks to plows? Do not ask too much question, Auriga is a magical world. : p

This food technology is enough, and it’s the last one you’ll need. The technologies of the higher eras are useless because your objective must be 10 population points per city (for 6 districts). But this building will give you such a bonus (unless you have many volcanic areas, in which case it will be good to look for the technologies that increase the yield of your population allocated to the production of food, such as the Public Granary).

– Highways Outposts : A building always useful to boost your trade routes. The improvement of detection range of the towers is always appreciable. Note however that your watchtowers will cost much more to build when you have researched this technology. It is better to build them before.

The regeneration improvement of the health points is situational. It is noticeably useful for regenerating a wounded guardian, as these are slow to regenerate.

It is better to build this III era building before the others, because the sooner you boost the growth of your population, the better.

– Public Works : Especially useful in your cities that produce non-stop influence. It is nevertheless useful elsewhere.

– Cargo Docks : Useful on sea map, with islands. Major Fidsi buff + trade by sea. If you have settled and built your cities along the coast. The industrial bonus is colossal. Docks also increase happiness. Note that you can put the docks at level 2, and double the output of the hex where it is placed. It is still rare to be able to surround a dock in four districts.

– Bathysphere : Third maritime unit technology. Its power is very low compared to the Fire Ship of era II. In fact the goal of the batysphere is that it is being stealthy, and has the ability to detect other stealth units on the map. A small fleet of Batyspheres can sink military units that dare to venture recklessly at sea. It makes its little effect “U-Boat” ^^

– Statistical Methods : These buildings are quite explicit to understand. They have their place in your cities specialized in science, but can still be useful elsewhere, in your largest cities. But it’s still better in general to use your production and resources for things that are more useful in any circumstance, like military units for example.

– Fluid Biomechanics : Quite explicit. A technological search and build in your cities specialized in science and / or rich in rivers and ocean hexagons. It’s situational. In general you will not be in rivers and seas.

– Unskilled Labor : The impact of this technology (and the next one, in era IV) is so strong, that I consider it to be cheating. With this technology, your old stockpiles (built with pearls, or buy on the Market) instantly gain +500. A serious nerf must be done on these technologies. These technologies greatly benefit the factions that produce stockpiles through their gameplay (such as Cultists, who gain industry and science stockpiles by razing cities, or Kapakus, who gain industry stockpiles by besieging / destroying fortifications of city).

– Uncommunal Alloys : These First Tiers weapons are significantly more powerful than the iron weapons available in this era. And it’s very well thought out, because the production of these resources is just starting in this era. Even without the armor that goes with it, you will see the difference. Roughly speaking, palladium greatly increases the initiative, while adamantium greatly increases the damage.

– Uncommun Armors : Useful if you have a large production of adamantium, or palladium. Special equipment is also useful, especially the Adamantium Tome, which increases industrial efficiency by +1, or Register of the Taiga Hawk, which increases the security of X.

Other equipment is in theory useful, but expensive for their effect. It is better a titanium ring that gives + 20% damage, an adamantium ring that will give only + 15% in defense.

– Magma Hydraulics : The Lava Works building is great in a large city building on lave. A non brainer. The Flameworks item give immunity to lava damage, in battle or in campaign map. A very situationnal item. If one day, you have to cross two lava rivers to reach a city, you may need it…

Era III, what technologies to look for ? (2/2)

– Scyther : A flying unit specialized in the fight against the guardians. It is expensive, but if you can afford it, they will be viable against the Guardians and against all units because they have high characteristics, they fly, and they have a ray attack (which is devastating if you have the initiative!).

– Borough Government : In some rare cases, these buildings may be useful. If for example you have a Cultist not far from your borders. Put two units in garrison and this building will save you some time if an army springs up to besiege one of your cities.

But otherwise in most cases, it’s better to just have scout units, and a quick and mobile intervention force.

The Medical Center, on the other hand, is exceptionally useless. He must be able to authorize regeneration for the besieged units at least. But no.

– Guardian of Dust : The very first guardian. Not very powerful. An interesting spell effect, albeit random. In theory, it is supposed to be useful for his care. In practice, it is rarely needed. He is a very situational guardian.

– Unexpected Allies : Anti-looting buildings. Certainly, but in practice it is better to use armed units to the teeth to destroy the units that dare to loot you. The Inquisitor Divinity which increases the security, is very interesting in useful situation.

– Artillery Ship : These ships are the most powerful of all. And they can attack the fortifications of a costal city (which does not besiege the city and its FIDSI). A besieged city can no longer produce a naval unit. If you manage to block the few maritime cities that your enemy has, he will no longer be able to produce naval units to break this blockade… an easy victory and a little blade on the edges.

Although the Artillery Ship is powerful, my observations make me think that the Fire Ship is more powerful than the Artillery Ship, because of the power of their “Endless Flame” weapon.

I think that in big battles, the significance of the Artillery Ship must be important.

Era IV, what technologies to look for ?

Preamble on the era IV food technologies :

– I said it and I repeat it : it is useless to invest in the growth technologies of food production beyond the III era (ie beyond the Plow Factory). The underlying reason is that each population point sees its cost of food increase geometrically. Earning a point in a population will quickly require to put all your population in food. All this to win only one other point of population. It is much better to invest in a settler, and to colonize a new region.

The only exception to this law may be the Necrophages, who are food specialists, who have an interest in having a building like the Refrigeration Plant. Necrophages can voluntarily mount to 16 of population, see 20 if they have the Public Granary, the Refrigeration Plant, 3 Villages, and a booster of spices.

– Body Signal : Increases the number of maximum units in your stacks by two. Crucial if you are at war.

– Brigade System : Increases the defense of your units by + 20%. Same as the technology above.

– Rare Metal Foundy and Advanced Harvester : The necessary technologies in most cases. Since these resources are rare, it is sometimes better to ignore them completely, and focus on the existent ressources you will have (like Adamantium). What I mean it’s producing Hyperium is not vital, as Adamantium or Palladium can be.

– Anaerobic Mycrobiology : Currently neither the building nor the volume is useful. Waste technology.

– Isolation Sciences : I explained above that it was a little useful technology for its price, given the deep functioning of population growth. Except the Necrophages.

– Nutrition Chemistry : Idem.

– Cultural Endoctrination : Great if you have a third minor faction to assimilate. If you got a military bonus to assimilate, you can consider a military tech buff (an equivalent to Brigade System).

– Hospitality Den : In multiplayer, technical alliances are rare. But it may interest players who want to play team this way.

– Endless Mechanism : The speed bonus on the roads is useful. But the bonus that interests us here is the fact that we can search a second time each ruin. In the IV era, we can find a lot of resources, a lot of dust, and activate quests whose rewards are grandiose (for exemple technologies of weapons level 3 in Mythrite / Hyperium).

Obviously, the more you have already searched the ruins, the more attractive this technology is. You may decide to look for this technology in the V or VI era, as the rewards of digging will be even better.

– Industrial Processing : The Production Line building is obviously made for your industrial cities. The second building, national and unique, is extraordinary if you have interesting boosters, such as the Titan Bones (to put in your industrial city), the Quicksilver (which goes from +100% XP bonus to the creation of unity, at +200%!) or Moonleaf (to put in this case in your scientific city).

– Borer’s Guild : Automated Production is easy to understand: it must be put in all large cities, with a rich industry. The Mining Rights doubling the production of strategic resources, its economic or military utility, is quite obvious.

– Organized Labor : An overpowered technology. We talked about it in the section on era III. The efficiency of this technology is total and obvious.

– Rare Alloys : Perfect if you have reserves of these resources. No need to take these technologies if it is not the case.

– Rare Armors : Same thing here. The special equipment is generally uninteresting, in the sense that the bonuses they bring are low compared to the high price they cost. If thanks to the Silics, you run out of resources, you can think of using them for your heroes and even your units.

– Guardian of Earth & Guardian of Fire : I will talk about the Guardians in a dedicated part of the guide.

– Brigade System : To take before the decisive battles. + 20% in defense is always useful.

– Signal Corps : Same answer. This technology has priority over Brigade System, because having two more units per army is much more useful.

– Mercenary Corps : A totally useless technology. The units bought on the market are very expensive, and can not conquer the cities. Only Roving Clans have the utility of using mercenaries in large armies.

– Civic Instruction : The Army Manual is very very useful for your, or your, industrial cities producing units. Obviously this kind of bonus is to maximize with Quicksilver (+200% XP for armies recruited on city !!!). The National Military College is strange, I do not quite understand how it works: I believe that it increases by 100% the attack of the units which, fighting ready of the city (for example during a siege), are positioned on District hexes in the city.

Era V, what technologies to look for ?

– This is the last era before the last one. The new buildings should only be built in your most beautiful cities, in order to make the astronomical cost of resources and industry profitable.

– Marvelous Alloys : Quickly retrofit your elite units in adamantium and palladium. At this stage of the game, the military risk being maximal, it is necessary that your armies are always ready.

– Marvelous Armors : Idem. Special equipment is very useful too.

– State-Approved Theater : Useful if you have a lot of city (-25% Expansion Disapproval on Cities).

– Improved Dust Alchemies : Clearly, Dust Revitalizer is to be built in your big cities rich in dust. And Advanced Extraction needs to be built … in your cities with good extractors.

– Town Criers : Its usefulness is obvious.

– Arts Council : A building usually useless at this stage of the game. You should have enough happiness from other sources. Situational utility.

– Imperial News Network : Idem. It’s situational. But if you are not subjected to intense military pressure, well, why?

– Modernized Administration : Aura of Empire is to put in your influence producing cities (which must have in general, a Cultist governor, the best for influence). Custom Ministry is very interesting especially if you have a trade agreement with an allied faction. In this future city, it is very advisable to use a hero Roving Clans and boost its capabilities in trade routes. They are specialists in the trade routes and they will multiply your income.

– Dust-Enhanced Buildings : Arenas of Champions is obviously to put in your city the most productive in influence (the one with your National Aura, which will already increase by +50% the production of influence). The Octogon is a joke not funny : this building is totally useless, for an astronomical blow …

– Enlighted Trade : Scientific Envoy is very useful and has to build in all your cities. Remotuoscope Factory is nicer for your towers, which will offer a maximum health regeneration bonus, and a huge detection range.

– Advanced Quarry : The second sinister joke of the V era. No interest (it is rare to have a strategic resource on a district, it’s lucky to happen), for a dull cost.

– Scientific Specialization : Living Lab Tools is a must for your main scientific city. Climatology Guild is of very little interest. +15 science per district level 2, this gives +45 for a city in full triangle (which has 3 district level 2). +45 it’s nothing at this stage of the game. Basically: do not do it, it’s not worth it.

– Volcanic Leecher : A very overpowered building. +5 for all the strategic resources extractor, it’s more than the x3 that the vaulters earn, in winter, with an activated booster ! And this +5 is all the time, winter and summer.

In addition I do not like this building, because it is potentially constructible in all Kapakus cities, since they can volcanooform everything they want…

– Security Theory : Capturing Spy with Traitor’s Lottery is important. Razor Palisades is pure theory. In practice, Pillage is rare, and it’s easier to prevent it with your armies.

– Guardian of Water and Guardian or Air : See the Guardians section of the guide.

– Inoculation Station : A great building in your industrial militarist cities.

– Militar Reserves : Usefull if you count on Massive fortification / reprisals strategy.

Era VI, what technologies to look for ?

– In 90% of situations, the Itera Serum is a priority choice. With +100% attack and life, your units will be demi-gods compared to those of others. You will be quiet in defense, to continue developing your cities. And you can of course attack. It is also very advisable to do it, if you have the Serum and him no. If you do not look for Ira Serum do you say that your enemy is going to look for im…

– In some rare cases, if you are in turtle mode and you feel safe, it is better to choose to search first the Dust-Driven Distillery (+ 100% of dust), or the Difference Engine (+100% science ).

– There is not much more to say about this era. As always, you should of course re-equip your units and heroes with this new level 3 dust equipment. They are not worth the equipment in strategic resources of elites (palladium, hyperium).

– When you are in the VI era, it is not necessarily good to immediately look for a technology of this era. These technologies cost ten times more in science. It is better to finish looking for the technologies that interest you from previous eras (IV or V in particular).

– Note that at this time, you will be able to activate quests that will give you access to secret technologies, unavailable in normal times I think of weapons technologies and rare tack, ie hyperium / mythrite level 3! It goes without saying that their power is unmatched, and to the extent of their exorbitant price.

The Guardians : Know how to use and counter them (1/3)

– Guardians are super elite units. They are expensive and are delicate, but they are formidable. Many good players underestimate them.

– The guardians are formidables but they are not ultimate units, you still have to protect them. As a result, try to always use the guardians as reinforcement army, not as main army. In reinforcement army, you will have your 6-8 reinforcement units on the ground + your guardian who will come in reinforcement at turn two. Otherwise, you have your guardian +2 reinforcement units each turn. This is a very different situation where your guardian will be much more fragile.

– However, hand-to-hand guardians are better able to fight alone without support. I’m thinking of Atmos and Gios in particular.

– The guardians are hard to heal. But you can use Skoros skincare ability for heal instantly. Otherwise you can also absorb the conflux of regeneration, or leave them in town a few turns.

– It is better to use the special weapons and equipment for the guardians. In general they give them higher stats, but also special abilities like the Circular Attack Strick Back.

– Funny little trick : you can sell your guardians on the market. Obviously it’s not very clever, but the resale price is still very high.

– The Guardians are slow on the world map. You can help them move faster with a Level 3 Expansion empire plan (+3 speed for all your units).

– Because in some cases your units, even if they are precious resources, will not be able to counter what the enemy will have. Take the example of Monks (Allayis). The Monks have a very high initiative. In winter metamorphosis, they hit three hexagons. They fly which makes them very fast on any battlefield. And they can wield swords with both hands, making them infantry unit killers.

But if you are Vaulters or Wild Walkers, you have no ideal counter against the Monk :

* Your Dekari Rangers even with long bows, will be surpassed in initiative, will see their morale collapse because they will quickly contact the monks (morale decrease for the units of distance shooting), and will be decimated because weak point of life .

* Your Tenei Walkers are sturdy and their claws counter attack hurts. But as they are infantry, they are vulnerable to the Monks’ swords.

So, even with numerical superiority, you’re not going to work miracles.

In this situation, you will have only one solution, one. The A-Team.

^^. Or else you have Gios, the Guardian of Earth. Give him his Club of the Lost Core + Glory or Death (+ morale for each enemy unit in contact) + the Free Counter item, and the balance of power will radically be reversed. A Gios is always very scary, it is an investment that will save your skin when the least will arrive.

– Finally, the guardian’s second main interest is that it is difficult and time consuming to destroy them. On the contrary, elite units are destructibles. If you protect your guardian well, he will survive for a long time, and will gain levels.

Skoros, Guardian of Dust :

The Guardian of Dust is a fragile unit made for support. He can use three types of weapons. These three types of weapons correspond to three possible modes of use:

– The Scepter of Speed ​​: Doubles the movement speed of one unit for three turns. This is useless in most cases, but there is a situation where it is very useful : Gios. Gios is a monster but he has a great weakness : his slowness. It moves only one hexagon per turn. He is vulnerable to moving archers. The Guardian of Dust’s Scepter of Speed ​​doubling its speed is a huge advantage for Gios as he will get to contact twice as fast !

– The Scepter of Survival : Increases the attack of one unit by 75% for two turns. It’s very effective on the guardians. A Gios with +75% Attack has a high probability to critically hit ALL units his mass attack will do !

– The Scepter of Supremacy : Will give the ability to care. This is useful if you use your guardian as a support for a conventional army of units. In addition, this weapon greatly increases the damage of the units, which of course makes it stronger, and allows it to heal many health points.

– The Crystal of Loyal Flame accessory, which gives the shared wisdow, is perfect for this support guardian, who remotely shooting, has an interest in staying in the center of your other units.

– By the way its Mind Control attack is always useful if you have no useful buff to distribute for a given turn.

– His power of Guardian Aura is very interesting to heal a wounded stack, or another guardian in agony, during a crucial moment, between two battles.

Gios, Guardian of Earth :

– Gios is considered by many to be the strongest and most deadly guardian. I share this opinion. The peculiarity of Gios is its Earthquake attack. When attacking, he deals 25% of his damage to ALL enemy units in the battlefield. It’s like the Haunt’s lightning chain, but it hits all the units, and that’s a lot more damage !

The Achille’s heel of Gios is his weak initiative. Faced with many units with high initiative, Earthquake will not be able to express itself. But there is a way to do something. Let’s see the three types of weapons he has to do his job:

– Club of the World’s Root : A basic weapon that gives Sharp Sens 3 (+ 40% defense against ranged attacks). It does not increase Gios’ initiative. Even if you fight archers, you have better choose the Club of Dust Strata.

– Club of Dust Strate : This weapon increases health, defense (+125!), And +31 initiative. The high defense will give a higher resistance to your Gios. This is usually the best weapon to have because of the high initiative it gives to Gios. The Dust Slaver 4 is a very nice bonus against archers or any other support unit.

– Club of the Lost Core : This is the weapon to use if you think that you will never have the initiative, and that your Gios will just suffer attacks. As always, you have better equip your Gios accessories GLory or Death, and Free Counter. Thus, you will hit twice per turn with a devastating counterattack, and a very high morale (so an attack and an outstanding defense). Note that a smart player will not surround your Guardian, and stupidly choose to loose some units. But he can be forced to quit the fight, to temporarily give up his conquest, if he wants to avoid losing all his melee units.

I emphasize the fact that having the superiority of initiative is crucial. This is why the Stone of the Core accessory can make you defeat, since it decreases the initiative of enemy units by -25% in contact with your Guardian. A Gios attack is much more powerful than a Gios that only counter-attacks.

– The Fortify power is nice but very moderately useful. The bonus of +200 fortification lasts only 5 rounds. It does not work in the newly conquered cities.

The Guardians : Know how to use and counter them (2/3)

Fotios, Guardian of Fire

– Fotios is a sniper : he is the opposite of Gios because he is rather fragile, but does not need to go into contact, and hurt a single target. It is a bargain in many situations, but in most situations, nothing beats a good old Gios. Let’s see his weapons.

– Flames Without Fuel : Perfect for fighting infantry units. And this weapon is cheap in scarce resources.

– Flame Without Hope : Gives a superior move, a lot of health (+500), and Precision 3. This is especially useful for knocking out heroes or shooting. units powerful but fragile. I think that in general, it is not useful to have a range of 6 squares (the range given Precision 3). It’s better to have a normal range, and a +80 defense. It’s good to have +500 health, but it’s all about it, it’s useless …

– Flame Without Mercy : Does not give more life, but gives a high defense (+80). Also increases the damage by +100 (up to 400). Wood Burner increases + 25% damage to units on a forest hex.

– Fotios’ special attack is the Eternal Fire. This means that you will lose 15% of each other’s turn to the end of the battle. 15% for the 5 remaining turns that’s -75% health at the end of the fight… Normally, this unit will have to die. Note that these special damages work against other guardians. Normally the guardians are immune to debuffing, but it is debuffed of the type of those inflicted by the scepters, such as slowing down, or a decrease in the attack score.

This makes Fotios a perfect Guardian killer.

– The power of Revelation is cute but serves only very rarely. Be careful, it does not reveal the invisible units.

Neros, Guardian of Water

– Neros does tremendous damage if he charges, ie if he moves and attacks. The problem is that his initiative is weak and difficult to increase. If he did not have this problem of initiative, he will be much more powerful than Gios.

– You can assimilate Nidyas, you can use a Stone of the Core (Initimidating Aura, -25% initiative to nearby ennemy units). You can also use units with strong initiative, to block the high-initiative units available to the enemy. This is especially feasible with units in Full Glassteel Equipment. If you do not have the initiative, your guardian will lose a lot of interest. This is the case for most guardians, especially Gios and Neros.

Let’s see his weapons.

– Vortex of the Waves : Slight feature enhancement with this weapon, but Flying Slayer 4 (+50% damage against flying units) is very appealing if you battle armies of flying units, which happens very frequently in multiplayer.

– Charybdal Vortex : A sharp increase in characteristics, which gives the Infantery Slayer 4. This is obviously the weapon to use if you are going to face infantry.

– Vortex of the Polar Ice : A clearly increased defense, and several points of life and more. This weapon will make your Neros particularly resistant. In addition, it increases the damage inflicted by the load. Combine with high movement (Swift Conflux during Eclypse, or Acceleration of a Skoros), you will do epic damage if no unit blocks the attack of your Neros !

– The special attack, the Tsunami Charge, is a cone-shaped zone attack. The more hexes you cross to attack, the longer the cone. The power of this attack is obvious.

– The unique power Flood is almost useless. Sometimes destroying a watchtower may be appropriate to hide the movement of your units.

Atmos, Guardian of Air

– Powerful of course, but not as impressive as a Neros. His strength comes from his counter-attack when he uses the weapon tempest, or simply from his characteristics that are very high. Let’s see his weapons.

– Windchill :No special interest, except that it is the ideal counter to cavalry (Cavalery Slayer 4).

– Cyclone : ​​Stun 4, an increased initiative and a huge defense. When you do not need to counter-attack, for example against archers, this is the weapon to choose.

– Tempest : An increased attack and damage, as well as Sweep Strick Back. Combined (as for any guardian) with the Free Counter of the Shard of the Lost accessory, your Atmos will be a counter-attack killer.

– Blood Rage is powerful but difficult to control. You have to try to kill one unit with your Atmos. Then your Guardian will do +50% damage until the end of the fight.

– Teleport is the best single power of all guardians. You can flee a situation even after using your point of action. You can teleport by surprise to an enemy city to attack it, or even your own besieged city, to protect it !

The Guardians : Know how to use and counter them (3/3)

– The Tome of The Endless Savagery is a special quest gear, but easy to get by rummaging through the ruins. Only heroes can equip it. It increases by +50% the attack and the damage done to the Guardians. Pretty but useless in fact since you will not have 6 heroes deployed on the battlefield to kill guardians.

– Scythers are anti guardian units. They have +100% attack and damage against the Guardians. The problem is that they are expensives to build in industry and resources. Nevertheless, they have powerful characteristics: they fly, they have a good initiative, and a ray attack. If you’re overflowing with strategic resources, you can use them as a conventional unit.

– More fundamentally, it is imperative to prevent some guardians from starting their attack. These guardians are Gios and Neros. Gios made damage to all enemy units on the map. And Neros makes a very powerful zone attack. To do this, the safest way is to have at least two very high-powered units in your army. For example two Dawn Officers (Vaulters) in Equipment Full Glass of Steel. You’re not going to annihilate Gios with that, but you’re going to nail him down, neutralize him. Your other units will have time to do what they have to do : destroy other units of the enemy army, or destroy the Gios (or Neros).

In addition, with a good use of these high-initiative units, you will avoid the devastating counterattack by placing only one unit within range of its response.

– In general, there is always a stack of units to accompany a guardian. The ideal situation for the player who has a guardian is to attack with his stack of units, and use his guardian(s) as reinforcement. That’s why you should try attacking the guardian directly. Thus, the units of this stack will come two by two in reinforcement, and will be much less dangerous. If you also use fast units to block his units on the reinforcement hex, you can isolate this guardian, and do a lot of damage.

This trick is the basic method for dealing with our friends the guardians. Moreover, it is also a basic trick for armies : always attack armies with fewer units, and no heroes to command them. If he accepts the fight, he will start it in a bad way. And if he refuses, he will lose half of his life on this army.

– As I explained above, Fotios is a guardian killer, because it hurts a lot, and because he’s doing continuous damage with his Eternal Fire power. Any unit hit by his attack will suffer a -15% hit until the end of the fight. If you hit your target on turn 1, you will make it 15% for another 5 turns, or -70% at the end of the fight. This must be enough at least to seriously hurt him and force him to retreat.

Stealth, Spying and Pillage (1/2)

– You can scout wild areas without risk of attack. Like a Skyfin.

– You can scout a player without being detected by him. If a player has not met you yet, he will not expect an attack.

– You can leave your scout at your rival as much time as necessary to monitor his activities, whether he does units or not.

– You can conquer any undefended city with a small undetected force.

– You can loot an upgrade with a unit to lure garrisoned units, then attack those units with greater force. If the enemy does not have a good detection, he has no way of knowing how many units you have actually brought. All of this can make him paranoid and frustrated, and he can decide to fall back to his cities. ^^

– You can hide your army in your own territory. An enemy arriving to target your city, will see it undefended and attack it. Except that your reinforcement units will come with the fortification bonus, and will hurt it very much… This trick also works if your army is in one of the city’s districts (but not in garrison). Hu hu hu.

– You can have Scouts all over the map, watching the map, collecting pearls and temples during the Eclypse. You will have a very strong map control, and the enemy will not be able to do much (except to walk on the map with few hero with a detection item, something that never happens in reality).

– Infiltrating a spy is good if you play with the game option “Empire Scores : Partials”. This gives you access to information graphics (such as Power Graph, to compare your military powers). To see these curves, press F10.

– The value of Seniority is important to understand. It is the ability of your hero to quickly reach the level of infiltration, and thus, access to more powerfull undercover actions.

The factors of increase of Seniority are :

– The longer your hero has infiltrated the city, the higher his seniority.
– The more your hero general infiltration points, the higher his Seniority. Hence the interest of Forgottens heroes, who generals a lot thanks to their natural skills and acquits.
– The lower level of security, the faster you will increase your infiltration level (without increasing the value of seniority).

– By the way, the perfect time to place a spy in a city is just before or after it is conquered by a third player. As soon as you get to the top of the game, you’ll be able to get your point of view. And it will be impossible for your enemy to make an effective round up.

– The skill Lord of the Trance of the central branch of the skills, increases the number of points of infiltration gained by turn. It is however a difficult skill to obtain.

– Accessory Scope of the Adept (Adamantium) increases your infiltration points earned per turn.

– First, if your hero is already injured you can simply exfiltrate him before the Round Up ends. Thus the enemy will find nothing and he may think that he has unfortunately failed to hurt your hero (since the probability exists). And he can decide to start a Round Up again, without ever knowing if your spy is there or not.

You can directly re-infiltrate your hero in another city where he will have time to regenerate his health.

– You can also assimilate the Sisters of Mercy faction. They increase health regeneration by 5% per village for all your units even your infiltrated heros. This is a great bonus for Forgotten who use a lot of spies. You can fully reign your wounded hero at 50% in a few turns. You are no longer afraid of besoing simply hurt, you still fear to be seriously wounded (and directly send back to the academy), or to be captured.

– Forgottens heros have the ultimate skill for a spy : One Step Ahead. With two points invested, you do not even fear being captured. Enjoy your James Bond.

Empire Wild Infiltration Actions :

– Decrease Vision : Reduce to minimum visions of Watchtowers / Cities / Regionnal Buildings / Armies (depends of the level of infiltration). Nice on the paper, but it’s largely better to choose action to reduce the power of the ennemy armies, or fortification level.

– Reveal Spy : Excellent if you are heavy infiltrated. At level it’s -75 % of the life for all these spies.

– Decrease Moral : Decrease the morale of the units of the enemy empire in all the fights that will take place in the 3/5 turns. In addition you must know that this penalty accumulates if you activate it with several spies. An extraordinary effect to use at the decisive moment !

– Steal Vision : Gives you the position of enemy units, including stealth units, and reveal what they can see. Which is smart it’s the bonus long last 10 turns which is a lot. Can be usefull against a dangerous Cultist if you don’t have the vision of the map.

– Decrease Diplomatic Cost : Very usefull if you are making a team game. You can exchange ressources or tech for a lower cost !

– Reduce Science Production : Good if you need to weaken a specific empire. Science can be more important than industry in the long term.

– Steal Technology (Forgottens only) : The classical infiltration action for the Forgottens. The reason why you should in long term infiltrate all cities. Gaining a leval 3-5 is saving a lot of dust. Even if your spy is hurt, it worth it.

City Infiltration Actions :

Decrease population : Completely useless. Who care to reduce from /-2/-3-4 the population of one city ?

– Damage Fortification : Reducting fortification is perfect for attacks. It must be used from level 4 as it completely destroys the fortification (for a few turns). If you use it just before the end of a turn, and you besiege the city in stride, you will hurt the units installed on the districts or in garrison. It’s lame to do that but it’s not an exploit.

– Decrease Industry Production : Great. You completely neutralize the industrial city of the empire, for some decisive turns. You can also use it in early game to prevent the enemy to complete the construction of a wonder.

– Target Governor : Hurt the Governor is very useless. Because the player can just heal him for 200 dust maximum… Capturing it (level 5) is fun, if you can negotiate with the player to make it for ressources. Otherwise, it is useless.

Stealth, Spying and Pillage (2/2)

– The power of looting is underestimated by the players. It is not only the Forgottens who can loot effectively. The resources obtained, including luxury boosters, can be extremely useful. A Titan Bones booster changes the course of the game.

– How looting works : It is 1 + level of unit + potential pillage buff accessory + potential empire trait (such as Forgottens’s Practiced Pillage).

It means equipement or stats does not matter. You can use units with no equipement at all to go raid. Good to economise industry, with the only small problem they will be very weak if they are attacked ^^.

– When you loot a player, you stress him. Especially if he does not know how many units you have. He can imagine that you will soon attack him, while not at all. A single small unit that loots can be annoying, and push the player to send units to stop the looting. This can be a way for you to take your city with a hidden military force.

– In some cases, you have no interest in conquering cities. If you are Cultist, it is better to simply destroy the city. But looting also has its utility. If you are Allayis, you have an exceptional penalty for expansion, and it is profitable to use your units (usually Monks) to loot rather than take the city. From 6 units, looting takes 1 to two rounds maximum. Which means that you will immediately perform the looting action, and touch these resources and this dust.

– When a region is large, it is not possible to use the militia to take part in a fight against looters located in a remote point of your city. In many situations, you can regularly raid a region without the enemy being able to intervene. And if he intervenes, you can withdraw before he reach you. In the meantime, you will have force him to build units, and you will have gained informations and resources.

– The main disadvantage of looting is that you remove the effect of surprise. If you had brought an army directly, you might have been able to conquer his city by surprise.

– Plundering the AI ​​is very easy, too easy. Especially with stealth units. The AI ​​does not react when it does not detect the units, whereas a human player will react to it. For these reasons, it’s a good idea to forbid looting AI in a multiplayer game.

– The accessory in Glassteel, which gives Faster Pillage 2, is very useful especially used with a hero who has the skill Functioning Isomaniac at level 2, which only heroes Wild Walkers and Forgottens own. The difference between looting between two turns and looting in one turn is huge : instant looting may does not give the enemy time to react by sending forces. And you can start to loot a second improvement the next round, after reassigning your hero to speed things up.

Urkans

– The Urkans are kind of wild Guardians, who spaw like minor faction units. They start spawning around turn 16.

– They never attack units or cities, but the larvaes they produce can attack units.

– The Urkans occupy the regions they inhabit. It is impossible to build a city.

– Urkans can not be killed, but they can be captured. When a player kills a Urkan, he takes it. When a Urkan is killed in a fight between two players, and the result of the fight is a tie, that Urkan becomes wild again and escapes the control of both players.

– Urkans can be tamed (captured) in two ways : by bringing the resources it claims, or by defeating it in combat. Most of the time, it is much more advantageous to satisfy it with resources, because on one hand you will not need to invest in the units necessary to overcome it, and on the other hand you will recover a Urkan in perfect health with its four larvae that you can use right away for the war.

– Until you reach Age III, the Urkans will request Level 1 resources (wine, gold, etc.). At the beginning of the game, it is better to consume certain resources to boost your development (especially wine). But other resources should be kept in case the Urkan claims them. For example gold or emerald. 40 gold is a low price to get a Urkan.

– Some resources are far too valuable to be offered to the Urkan. For example titan bones.

– From a certain stage of the game, when your ability to produce units becomes important, it is better to systematically conquer rather than pay in rare resources, the Urkans.

– Capturing a Urkan is in theory much more difficult to do. But being smart, we can do it with a relative small number of units. For example, if the Urkan is close to your territory, you can send two settlers. You put two cities within range Urkan. Then, each turn, you trigger a fight (and sacrifice few units in this fight).

In three to four rounds, with only a few weak units, without a hero, you will capture the beast inexpensively.

– The risk that exists with a capture of Urkan is that it will remain vulnerable to attack by other players. If you send it to migrate to an exposed area, without trying to protect it, it is a certain risk.

– Urkans have three functions : combat, pumping resources, and regional influence.

– In terms of combat, if you want your Urkan to be really powerful, you have to increase his level. But it is difficult to increase the experience of a Urkan in full life with all its larvae. You will crush the monsters without difficulty, and thus gain little XP. So what to do ?

An effective trick is to fight your Urkan with very little life. One or two units will help him eliminate the monsters. Of course, it’s a dangerous game : if you underestimated the monsters, they can very well kill your Urkan, which will return to the wild.

This trick is the fastest way to quickly earn XP from a Urkan. As well as all units, a level 10 Urkan is much, much more powerful in combat.

– The big problem of Urkans is that they are very slow to heal. Suddenly, a Urkan captured by force, can not be used in combat, and is vulnerable to sniping on the map from a skilled player. There are three ways to quickly heal a Urkan:

* You have assimilated Sisters of Mercy (at least 2). By several turns, your Urkan will be fully cared for.

* You have obtained the legendary deed of the III era, that which increases by 20% the regeneration of the points of view per turn (in fact, one goes from a natural regeneration of 10% to 30%, a tripling! ).

* Third tip, the most clever is to fight your Urkan with a hero healer (or healer units like Driders) and one or two weak units to occupy the monsters. In two or three fights, your Urkan will be put back on foot !

– From the moment you reach the corresponding era, your Urkan can pump all the resources of the region. You do not need the technology of the extractors. However, the extraction range is variable : sometimes it will be tiny (some hexes), sometimes it will be huge. I did not understand how it works.

I believe that the unique factor is the range of vision of the Urkan. In winter it is reduced. One of Urkan’s technologies increases Urkan’s field of view by 5, which is more useful than it looks.

It is also possible that a wounded Urkan will have a reduced range, the time it is healed, while a healthy Urkan will immediately reach a maximum range.

– Warning, when in armed mode, Urkans are attacked by neutral creatures.

– I give you a very vicious but funny tip: if one of your rivals moves a city at a given time (before the empire plan for example), you can migrate your Urkan to steal his region. ^^

– The Urkans have three possible bonuses of regional influence: + 30% food (Kazar), + 20% dust (Fakir), and + 50% science (Chaka). This science bonus is also the most powerful of them and makes Chaka the best Urkan’s influence booster (unless you are Forgottens…).

– This regional aura affect all your cities adjoining the Urkan region. And it also negatively affects the rival cities that are there.

– There is one last aura : the aura of expansion approval. It increases +50 the satisfaction of the city ! This aura is difficult to obtain since you have to have two Urkan (Chaka and Fakir) and invest scarce resources (a 25 tier 2 ressource) to get it.

Note that this aura also has a negative influence on rival cities. You will really ruin the productivity of a rival city thanks to it (and also enjoy a sharp drop in its Security level, useful for spies infiltrators). This could push the enemy to attack you, interesting if you are Roving Clans for example.

– Urkans have their own personal might, but they also have powerful bonuses if they are present in Army Mode in the region where the battle will be fought. These bonuses only work if they are in Army Mode, not installed in the region after migrating.

– These bonuses are all useful (increased attack, damage etc.) but one of them is especially useful for your Urkans as it increases the speed of regeneration by +20 % of your units, including Urkans (and Guardians) present in the region. This is one of the three technologies of Kazar.

– This ability is useful but it requires the possession of the three Urkans, which can only happen in very late game, and you are lucky to have the three Urkans on hand. It should be accessible with only two Urans in my opinion.

This ability deals about 120 damage per turn to the fortifications. You do not need to besiege the city to use it, it is enough that your Urkan is present anywhere on the region. If two Urkans use it, the damage is cumulative. This ability is very useful if you are going to face a heavily fortified city that has high retaliation damage.

Cultist (1/2)

– High Seat of the Queen : Only one city. THE specificity of the Cultists, which changes their entire strategy. The ability to build level 3 districts. Level 3 districts are useful but not exceptionals.

– Weapons of the Enemy and Destructive Analysis (Technology) : This is the reward that Cultists get for destroying any civilization. An industrial stockpilen + A stockpile science for each population point in the destroyed city. It’s very interesting to get in early game. Be opportunistic.

– Conversion : The ability to convert peaceful villages. You must search for extraction technologies, otherwise your villages will not bring you any resources… And it is also a priority that must be given to the extractors of the era III and era IV.

– We are Legion (Technology) : +40 XP for naturally spawned units in your villages. This represents a level, see more if you have a Quicksilver booster enabled. Not extraordinary but useful and free since not requiring any investment.

– Start with Langage Square (Ability to speak to neutral villages). Excellent if you find a beautiful area on the quest easy to accomplish on round 1-2.

– Having a unique city with a good hero governor allows you to focus early on the wonders, while the other players will normally focus on the settlers.

– The Forgottens cannot feed by pillaging on a Cultist since they have no improvements to loot (and destroy the converted villages does not yield anything) nor cities to be made safe to infiltrate. In addition the Cultist citadel t is still well defended, shot a surprise attack is not possible.

– Each converted village increases the cost of a booster and empire plans. But the increase remains low compared to the colonization of one region by an additional city, for the other factions. So, you’re better off getting luxury resources on the market, and you’re able to quickly get advanced empire plans.

– Few players are able to properly handle a high-speed mid-game invasion Cultist army (which includes the Level 3 Expansion empire plan, which adds +3 to the movement of your units) and thus able to traverse a great distance in one lap. Under these conditions, it is difficult to protect all of its cities at the same time. Still, it’s possible, but you have to be very experienced.

– You start the game with Language Square, which is very useful if you find a beautiful region from round 1, with interesting villages to pacify.

– The faction quest of Cultists and interesting to do and gives interesting items.

– Having only one city implies a net economic, scientific, military, long-term disadvantage. You will fight against a player, see players (because the Cultists are not much loved, we understand why …).

– You must defend your converted villages. This involves locking a large territory to enemy units. And the villages have no natural defense other than the units you put in garrison : no militiamen, no fortification. If you are careless, a force of a few quick units can destroy all your converted villages in a few turns.

– The wonder Museum of Auriga is a top priority for a Cultist. It increases + 40% (at level 2) your revenue in dust and science provided by your city AND by your converted villages. In other words, your output will increase universally by + 40%. This is a great strength of Cultist, but it is also a weakness, since it means that if you fail to build this wonder, you can make a final cross on these + 40% !

– If your city is besieged, you lose all FIDSI contributions from your converted villages.

– The presence of a Cultist in a game is perceived as a universal threat. You are exposed to an early rush to stop before you become a threat. What’s more, the Cultist cities are well developed and often with wonders, which are a strong incentive to invasion.

– Even if you have a defense army ready to intercept enemy units threatening your villages, you will not be able to deal with Stealth units. The Forgottens are very difficult to manage for a Cultist. The only way is to have one or two heroes with the detection item (Pillage Technology) that circulates a little randomly on the map. Cultists should have a technology for their converted villages to have Detection.

Cultist (2/2)

– You have only one city, and villages. But then how to compete in the long term against players who have several cities well developed ? The solution is in two phases : getting stockpiles, and increasing them with stockpile technologies. Whenever you shave a city, you gain an industrial stockpile (and a stockpile science with Destructive Analysis technology, which I highly recommend you take in era II). You can directly use these reserves, for a small temporary boost. Or you can wait for the Unskilled Labor technology that improves stockpiles. If you think you will get few stockpiles, it is better not to use them.

– A stockpile gives +100. With the first technology in era III, it gives +600. It is therefore +500% more efficient. It’s a revolution. From Unskillled Labor, your stockpiles become intensely efficient. Organized Labor, in the IV era, adds +1000. Your stockpiles become immensely effective. By the way, stockpiles are completely overpowered as they are right now. Good competitive players are reduced to banning all technological research on stockpiles as they are overpowered and totally break the game. But that’s another subject.

The dynamics of Cultist game is this one :

– Find a nice starting region, if possible with two-three villages and an easy quest to do.
– Make XP hero at level 3 or 4 by doing quests, searching ruins and killing monsters, to invest two points in Impassionate Preacher and make it a good industrial hero or influence. Install him as governor definitively.
– Get the Museum of Auriga as soon as possible.
– Convert about two villages (the costs in influence start to be high after).
– Build the Center of Mineralogy to go to era III as soon as possible.
– Attacks of small vulnerable cities with units from villages to obtain reserves.
– Use these industry and science stockpiles to produce what you want : other units, buildings.

Continue the process until extermination of nearby civilizations. By eliminating them, you will gain stockpiles, you will eliminate the risk they pose to you and your converted villages, and you will be able to convert their pacifide villages.

The surest means against espionage is to prevent any rival unit from approaching your city. No need to round up, no problem.

– Unique city : One city to defend. Strategically, it’s much easier to defend yourself against an attack or against spying. First, if you are actively watching around, no single enemy military unit will even be able to approach your area. Which means that she will not be able to implant a spy in your sacred city, nor see your forces or the surrounding villages. If he cannot see the villages, he will not know which neutral faction units you can lay against him.

– Stealth units are a problem because they excel to approach quietly and you will not even know if a spy has been placed. Either you do detection rounds (it must happen that they are well placed) with some fast units ready to eliminate the stealth units that will try to approach. Either you do not even want to surprise the spies, but in this case, you have to invest in Inquisitor’s Divinity, a powerful anti-espionage building of the era III, and you decide to periodically round up the city.

– This building is very useful because you have to wait for the highest possible security value if you want to try to seriously hurt or even catch the spy. It will be a shame to invest in a round up, without being able to hurt or even detect, a potential spy.

– Round up decreases the general output of the city for two rounds. Since you only have one, it will hurt you economically. But it’s better than doing nothing. When I say periodically, it’s once every 8 turns. This is sufficient to prevent a spy from reaching level 4 of seniority, and to activate its worst acts of sabotage (destruction of fortification or suppression of industrial production).

– The conversion of a large number of villages makes sense only when your governor is able to produce a lot of influence. To be done it must be at level 3 minimum, see 4, and if possible have the Glory of Empire building. Farmer’s influence without these conditions is expensive.

– From a certain point, if you have enough map control, you can start mass converting the villages on the map. You will be able to produce only influence in your city, to allow this infinite expansion of conversion, always gaining more FIDSI and resources.

– Preacher : His buff is useful but he does not replace a combat unit. Common problem for all support units. In early game it is still useful for beating neutral armies, thanks to its slowdown. It is fundamentally not a unit made to fight but to convert the villages. You can also produce it for resale on the market.

– Fanatic : An average cavalry unit. No skill. She has Claws, so a good counterattack. His main interest is his speed, always useful for a Cultist who likes counter-attacks.

– Nameless Guard : A good archer unit. With a high attack score. This unit is generally better than your Fanatics.

– Worshipers Frenzy : +10% on attack, defense, damage, and health by level of city center for all your minor faction units. That is + 30% maximum. A very thematic bonus and very interesting, which stimulates the Cultist to use more often other units than their Fanatics or their Nameless Guard.

– Moreover, the Cultists are particularly adept at exploiting the Eclypse, by the fact that they have numerous units on the map to search the temples : those coming from their villages, and their other units. This is a similar case for the Allayis, who normally should quickly have several units on the map available to search the temples during the Eclypse.

Drakkens

– Advanced Diarchy : This allows them to access the level 2 empire plan without having to reach era II. Which is extremely useful. They only need 30 points of influence to have the Level 2 industry plan, which decreases the cost of all buildings by -33%. They can also take the Level 2 expansion empire plan, which gives it +25 of happiness for 30 of influence.

– Endless Excavation : The ruins in the field of exploitation of your districts give +2 science and +3 influence. It’s always useful.

– Diplomatic Pressure (Force Truce / Peace / Alliance) : An extremely powerful ability. You can use it as well in defense as in attack.

– Well Connected : Reveals the location and gives you the contact of all the players from turn 1. Not useful.

– Protector of Auriga (Technology) : This technology replaces the Drakkens Native District technology. Very little useful. It is rare to equate two factions before era II.

– An earlier level 4 military empire plan: Advanced Diarch allows you to obtain it from the 4th era. This empire plan turns any army into an elite army (+50% health). In addition Drakkens units have the most natural health points. They take advantage of the bonus.

– Hero Drakken, Archivist Nachampassesa is the best of all the commanding heroes. He has Fast Learner 1, he wins +25% XP. He has Army Healt Boost 3, a formidable army buff. And it is a healer, a very effective capacity that allows to fight neutral armies in sub number. If you manage it well, you need to be able to level it up to 8 before everyone else. On the other hand, like all Drakkens, he is not worth anything like Governor.

– The Drakkens start with Langage Square. They can immediately activate the village quests, which is very useful if you find a nice area to set up your capital.

– The main quest of the Drakkens is interesting. The bonuses it gives are useful especially the Aura of Leadership technology, which gives +3 influence per turn for every pacified village present on your empire.

– No weakness, except maybe their units. The Drakkens main units (Drakkenling and Ancient) are resistants, but their damages are not great, mainly because their weapons are rather weak. Units with Claws are always better. That’s why you can choose to make Wyvernes, which are flying and fast units. In my opinion, they are in many cases better than the combo Drakkenlings + Ancients.

– For a small fee, you can break an invasion. It’s a great power worthy of Professor Xavier of X-Men ! But you can also use it in attack: you take a city and you do Force Truce immediately after. The enemy can not even claim to take back his own city. Which, moreover, is completely opposed to the initial pacifist and defensive spirit of the Drakkens. I mean to interrupt an aggressor, why, but to secure his own aggressive conquest, it should not be possible. But that’s how it is.

If the enemy declares war on you, and in the same round, launch an attack on one of your cities, that will not save you, the city will fall.

The easiest way to prevent this from happening is to declare war on an enemy that you feel is coming home, then Force Truce immediately. The enemy will have to spend hundreds of influence points to attack you.

You can also close your borders pre-emptively. To penetrate them, the enemy will have to declare you war. And if you have fast enough you can Force Truce just before it attacks one of your cities.

– The Peace Force and the Alliance Force are of the same order. In multiplayer it does not change much, but against the AI, it is very useful in a diplomatic victory.

– Strategically, Force Truce allows you to not worry about your military vulnerability. All you have to do is scout correctly, or place a few units in garrison, to be safe from any surprise attack. When I attack a Drakken, I have to be sure that I can take his city in one attack, otherwise my attack will be useless.

– Note that when in my games, I impose a rule on the Force Truce : the Drakken player can only use it once every five rounds against the same player. Without this rule, it can be used several times per turn, making any military operation against the Drakken impossible. Which in the end makes this power an obstacle to any game. That’s why I impose this rule.

– Force Truce is useless against the Morgawr’s Black Spot. Nothing can stop a Black Spot, which can attack a city even when in alliance or force truce.

Drakkens units have all Fast Learner 1. Which means that they benefit more from buildings and other XP bonuses when creating units. And that they increase more XP fighting of course.

– Drakkenling : It’s a tank. Many points of life and a good defense. Its characteristics are close to those of Stalwarts, of Broken Lords. But unlike him he can not handle a two-handed sword, but an anti-cavalry spear.

– Wyvern : A unit rarely used but interesting because of its high speed (but not its initiative) and its attack with claws (formidable counter-attack).

– Ancient : One of the best units in the game. Its XX increases +1 morale of each friendly unit near Ancient. So your concentrated units will have maximum morale, and want to keep your units focused during the fight. In addition the Ancients debuff effectively, and hurt. They are not support units like the others, fragile. You can even use them in pure groups without Drakkennlings to protect them.

– Mystical Words : Dust Eclipse Effect -50% Influence cost of diplomatic declaration and diplomatic treaty on empire during Dust Eclipse.

Not really great in multiplayer. More usefull in solo.

Roving Clans (1/2)

– All their starting units have 6 of movement. Even their settler. This gives them a very enviable speed in early game, and beyond.

– Nomadic Cities : Their ability to transform their city into Setseke is a fantastic innovation to quickly colonize the best regions.

– Peace and Prosperity : Commercial and Reserche Agreements are free. If you are connected to the cities of another player, it is interesting to look for Peace Technology, to make a peace treaty, and to propose these two agreements (which gradually increase the performance of trade routes, which is very interesting obviously).

– Cut Both Ways : Earning 8% of all trades on the Market is a nice little bonus. I think the gain is lower than the 8% indicated, so it would be a bug I think.

– Insider Trading : Seeing all the trades made on the market is a useful bonus to monitor what your enemies are doing. If an enemy buys a spy hero, he can use it against you. If he buys a Slaver Necrophage, it means he will soon be able to have a high industrial output.

– Immediate access to the mercenary market, and market ressources, at turn 1. They can before era II, buy heroes, stockpiles of industry or resources. It is often very useful.

– Keys to the Market : This ability to ban anyone in their market access, is a weapon of intimidation. Anyone who declares war will have to quickly eliminate you, otherwise he will remain banned for a long time. You can also rack up resources to a player under the threat of a ban. ^^

– Mercenary Comforts : +100% health for all mercenaries, +1 movement and -33% upkeep. Useful in some situations.

– The faction quest Roving Clans is interesting to do and gives progressive bonuses very useful.

– Their inability to declare war makes you very passive. It’s all the soul of this faction, but also all that of painful as a player. For example, if you are in a game where a player has started to conquer another player, you will not be able to intervene. You will witness the conquest and snowballing of this player, after taking the beautiful cities of his conquered enemy.

– Drakkens can complete abuse of their Force Truce power. They declare war on the Roving Clans, take them to a city, and when it pleases them, they force peace. Nice huh ?

– The only way to conquer cities without declaring war, is to benefit from a Morgawr Black Spot, used against the enemy you want to conquer. You can not besiege these cities, but you can attack them and conquer them.

– They are of course predestined for an economic or scientific victory. If you make a good start and continue to colonize new areas, you may be in a dominant position where the other players will be fighting against you.

– From the era II, it can be really useful to eliminate an enemy by sending him Privateers Armies, unlockable from the era II with the unique technology Freelance Guards. It is an expensive choice but can be justified in the long term, to eliminate by surprise a dangerous opponent. Well used, there is no defense possible. If you recruit 2 Haunts and 2 Demons who will have an Equipment of the era II and + 100% in point of life, it will be able to do nothing. Only two units can suffice against two small militiamen. You can attack and destroy its industrial city, and immediately bring back your own settler to take his peaceful villages.

– The power of their mercenaries is enviable, but it is not an advantage that is easy to exploit. You can have fun using them to loot the improvements. But their cost is far too high, and the looting time far too long.

– If you are attacked and can not afford to defend yourself, you can move Setseke to your city, or your cities, and flee as far as possible. But we do not win a war with evacuations.

– By transforming a city into Setseke, you can instantly get rid of a spy that way. It’s radical, much better than a raid. The problem is that reinstalling districts take one turn per district. Which is a waste of resources and huge time. So it’s not really a viable long-term trick.

– Transforming a moving city into Setseke, keeps the food accumulated during transport. Thus, you can move far away while continuing to accumulate useful population points later.

– When you colonize a region, you should first put your Colon (or your Setseke) on the extractors before settling permanently in the best place you have identified. So you will gain a lot of industry. This is particularly useful for advanced extractors (adamantium and beyond) because they are expensive in industry and resources.

– Keep in mind that when your city turns into Setseke, you continue at the end of the turn, to gain the profits provided by your city and its buildings. So the “only” disadvantage is that you lose all your industry, as well as your possible districts. Which is still a pity. ^^

– If you use it in early game (say before turn 10) you will severely cripple this player. In Era I, with only one city, it will only cost you 16 points of influence. He will not be able to buy a hero for his industrial city, or as a general. He will not be able to resell his resources too much. And worse, he will not be able to resell his units too much. It is therefore a huge strike force. Against a powerful player, I really advise you to use it, even if it will irritate him a lot.

– There comes a time in a game, where the Privateers, these pseudo neutral armies, are no longer useful, because your enemy expects their presence, and has a garrison sufficient to protect themselves. I remind you that you can not use a hero to command an army of Privateers.

– An alternative is to sit in a city, and racket resources to the player in exchange for a cessation of hostilities. I must admit that it is very theoretical, in practice I have seen it only twice.

– An even more fun thing : using Privateers and pretending to be wandering creatures, who moves “by chance” here … sometimes it can work if you come with two units, not 6 at once. ^^ in any case it is useful to sit viciously a city turn 19, and completely break the empire plan of your rival. The Roving Clans is definitely the faction that has the biggest nuisance potential !

– Finally, the most effective use of mercenary power is perhaps the early purchase of Fomorian mercenaries. A single Fireboat is considerably powerful, and can take a fortress, and rest. Four Boarding Vessel (buy at least era II) will be fast, and will conquer the entire ocean. If you have surplus gold that sleeps before turn 20, investing in these boats will give you a big advantage. Plus, you can even buy some without being on a hill. Just place a city on the coast, buy it, and move it around the next round.

– The price of mercenaries is their level, not their base cost. So it is much more interesting to buy Demons or Haunts, than Eyeless Ones for example !

– The mercenary units sold on the market by players are sooner or later available to you. If you are allied with a player, you can ask him to sell units that interest you. For example Myst or Proliferators. Surprise guaranteed. ^^

– Do you know that access to mercenary units depends on neutral villages still unpeaceful in the world ? If all villages are pacified, there will soon be no mercenaries on the market unless players sell their own units.

Roving Clans (2/2)

– Dervish : Not very powerful but its ability to Stun and Charge 2 (+50% attack if the Dervish moves and +10 % attack per movement point spent) makes it very effective on the battlefield, especially against archers given their speed and shield. An anti-cavalry weapon useful as needed.

– Kassai : The fastest unit of the game on the battlefield. Particularly effective against slow units, in forest land. Like all the archers’ units, they are less useful to see are decimated, against fast units with high initiative.

– Yirmak : A Panzer. Attention, it is an infantry unit, contrary to what its appearance testifies. He has Fast 1 skill, which makes him on the battlefield a natural three-movement unit, see four with a speed accessory. He does not have the life of a Titan (Vaulters) but his speed is precious, his damage is high and his attack on three boxes, is exceptional. What a shame that the Roving Clans must wait until they declare war to be able to use it!

– Their bonus is unfortunately very low. Their Setseke is faster, which is useful in some situations (distant colonization), and it is also much more powerful, so you can use it to destroy the neutral units lying around. Avoid attacking too large groups, it will be a shame to lose your entire city.

– +20% better health regeneration is of really low interest.

– Compared to massive bonuses like the Wild Walkers or Ardent Mages, Roving Clans have almost no bonuses during the Eclypse…

Ardent Mages (1/2)

– The Ardent Mages have the most powerful military force. Their Inner Fire (or Rising Fire) which increases their attack when their units are wounded. Their spell Incantation of Enervation, which stun on an area of ​​7 hexes, is ultra powerful. And their Wings, who resurrect, are the most powerful unit of the game !

– Thanks to their science pillar and their hero as governor at level 2, they can easily reach era II on turn 10, and access the early empire plan. They do not need to start on a field rich in science to achieve this.

– Their pillars can help them, especially the pillars of influence. They are expensive but it is a worthwhile investment. In general, a maximum of four pillars are used at the same time.

– An excellent faction quest, which gives exciting rewards, especially the Alchemic Alloys at Level 3 Technology, which allows them to build an elite army. Even better if used on Wings.

– Useful spells, although basically only the Incantation of Enervation spell is really useful. He surpasses others so much that they become overshadowed by his power.

– No particular weakness.

– They do not have a particular strategy, although their multiple advantages on the battlefield encourage them to opt for an aggressive strategy in the long run. Their bonus of Ardent Fire during the Eclypse, is a great incentive for them to attack during the Eclypse.

– Since they easily access the early empire plan, they are particularly good at exploding from turn 10.

The pillars are a way for three mainl things:

– Get a lot of science quickly, especially allowing you to crawl era II to turn 10.

– Convert your dust into science or influence. Useful because it often happens that you have a lot of dust, but not enough influence.

– Specialize more your cities. For example, in your city building the National Arena, you have better focus your pillars of influence.

– Note that pillars are more useful in cities with two to three districts because they affect more hexes. In the absolute ideal, you should be able to place a pillar in a hole that will be at the center of your districts. In practice, however, this is not possible because the way in which the districts operate to level 2, strongly encourages to fill this hole by another district.

– Two magic values ​​must be distinguished : the Arcana Level on the spells increases the power (area of ​​effect) of the spells. While the Arcanal Level on the pilars increases The Arcana Level increases the power and range of the effect of the pillars. Pillars of range 2 or 3 can reach for two cities at the same time, if your cities are nearby (which is rare but it can happens).

– The first pillar of science costs 20 dust and gives +2 science on 4 hexes (three hexes operated by your city center + your city center itself) for 10 turns. That’s 80 science for 20 dust. This is clearly interesting especially at the beginning of the game, but even later it is interesting. The second pillar costs 50 dust. It remains interesting. On the other hand, the third pillar costs 100 dust, for 80 of science. Less interesting, but interesting if you need a lot of science.

– The Speed ​​Pillar works on the map AND on the battlefield. And it works ALSO for the Guardians (Hello super fast Gios !) Few people know it. -50% of movement cost, it means a doubling of the speed of your units. This is EXTREMELY useful against armies of archers (Wild Walkers ?…) because in one round you can start to decimate them. And you can combine it with the Incantation of Enervation, to paralyze the archers and get in contact with them from turn 1… It’s also great if you have archers units and you need to hit & run with them.

If you have the winter pillar technology (obtained through your faction quest), the speed pillars are supposed to be even more effective, and bring the cost of movement to -100%. But the effect does not work, -75% is the maximum. Anyway it does not matter, -75% is largely enough.

– The pillar of influence is probably the most useful because the influence is difficult to obtain in early game. If you have dust but you will not have enough influence for the next empire plan, this pillar is your friend !

– The pillar of dust costs dust, but allows to gain more dust on ten turns. Well, why not, especially in a city specialized in dust (with a Dust Refinery for example).

– The pillar of food (Pillar of Regeneration, from Arcana of Renewal, of era IV) is very interesting to quickly rush a new city. You can artificially increase its population at a very fast rate. The problem is that this pillar is acquired very late, in the IV era. It’s a shame because it would have been more useful one era earlier.

– Note that the Dust Mechanics and Sacrifical Amplifier technologies, which increase the efficiency of your pillars, also increase their cost. This somewhat mitigates the usefulness of these pillar upgrades. But it is much better to have them. Attention, only the new pillars, post-tech, exploit the increased effect. The elders do not benefit.

– The technology of the winter pillars is obtained by advancing in the faction quest. This technology improves the effect of the pillars during the winter. Cool.

– As I said, the spell Incantation of Enervation, which stuns all enemy units as friends, on 7 hexes, eclipses all other spells. Having a little more attack or a little more defense via the basic spells, will never replace completely neutralizing a unit group, and rendering them unfit to attack. In addition, the stun also works against the Guardians …

The damage spell and the heal spell are incredibly underpowered.

Ardent Mages (2/2)

– All Ardent Mages units have the unique feature of Ardent Fire. It increases the attack of a unit in proportion to its level of health. If your unit lost half of its life, it has +50% attack. This bonus is considerable, but difficult to contro: it should be able to make your injured unit attacks, without exposing itself to a counterattack. It is sometimes possible to achieve this in manual combat, but sometimes it is not possible.

The use of the stun spell is an aid to let your wounded units strike without fear of counter-attack.

– Telsem Warlock : A unit that has Fast 1, which hurts from its Claws, but is fragile for infantry. His high natural initiative unfortunately tends for her to prevent him from using his counter attack with claws.

– Ateshi Zealot : An interesting unit because of its slowdown or attack that reduces the attack. His slowdown allows him to control the movement of units on the battlefield. Unfortunately his initiative is rather low, so it is difficult to achieve it. His zone damage is very interesting. Because of its fragility, it is rarely used. I think it’s a specialized unit that needs to be used en masse against slow units. For example she is formidable against the Titans (Vaulters) because it is certainly fragile, but it reduces the speed of the Titans, so it can handle several at the same time, and it does not fear their powerful counterattack.

– Eneqa Wings : The most powerful unit of the game. It’s also the most expensive, but it’s normal. Excellent initiative, Claws as weapons, excellent characteristics, it flies, and above all, it turns into an egg and regenerates in this form. An egg that survives three rounds then transforms like a phoenix in the end of the third round in Wings with half of its HPs. If the egg survives at the end of turn 6, it will be resurrected as a Wing with 50% HP at the end of fight !

You should know that besides the eggs are buggued : if one of your units moves on the hexagon of an egg, it becomes unreachable. Your Wing will be able to resuscitate on the same hex that where your unit is. This can be considered as an exploit if a player purposely protects his eggs like that.

The combined strength of the Ardent Mages’ military assets makes them the most powerful military faction of the game, before the Vaulters (who have a capacity of powerfull elites armies because of their abundance of resources and Technolover traits). The military benefits of the Magi are recapitulated :

– Best unit of the game, Wings. If the enemy fails to destroy a single egg, the fight will have been a total loss for him who will have lost units, without destroying yours.

– A monstrously powerful stun usable three times per fight for a low price. It can block your reinforcements from round 1, which is great.

– Attack Buff (Inner Fire) that makes your units very strong.

– Easy, systematic access to Level 3 Alloys in II, by their faction quest, which will make your units even more deadly.

– An extraordinary Eclypse buff since it increases the damage in proportion to the damage already suffered (on the same model as the Attack, with the Ardent Fire).

You do not have to target only Wings. They are still very expensive. The Warlocks can be very satisfying.

The enemy may attempt to divide his forces to prevent the bulk of his units from taking the stun. But at that moment he loses the benefits of having a high morale bonus. Elite armies have a great advantage to regenerate quickly between two rounds (something that can be done via the Legendary Deed Leader of Leaders or the assimilation of Sisters of Mercy).

Necrophages (1/4)

Necrophages are my favorite breed. Yet they are far from being the most powerful. They belong to the lower group, with the Broking Lords and the Roving Clans. But I really like their background and their gameplay so unique.

1. Strenght of the Necrophages

– Disease : Their units poison enemy units with a kind of poison that damages time. They lose 10% of their hit points per turn. Even if you do little direct damage, you will necessarily hurt the army you are fighting.

– Recycling : They get a supply of food (+120 of food to use) each time they kill 8 units, enemies or friends.

– The Necrodrone : Finally, it owns the Necrodrone, which is one of the most powerful military unit of the game, with Monk and Myst. Having a powerful flying military, fast and deadly is a great strength. Some factions have remarkable economic bonuses, but they lack a military unit power to dominate the battlefield (I think for example of Wild Walkers).

– Proliferator : They have a single unit, the Proliferator, which at the end of the battle transforms each contaminated and killed unit into Battleborn, an infantry unit. A factory with free units.

– Cannon Fodder (Technology) : They have a unique military technology that reduces military costs by 50%, which encourages them to maintain a large army. Combined with the level 3 military empire plan, which also reduces military costs by -50%, they can get zero military fees, which means total free maintenance for their entire army !

– Cull the Herd : They have this unique feature, which means that for every minor faction village owned, they add +2 points to the performance of each population point spent on food. This is the bonus equivalent of the Public Granary Building, era II. And this for EACH assimilated village. or +6 points of maximum return. This trait makes Necrophages specialists in the population explosion in record time.

– Cellulose Mutation : They only need one population point to build a new district, instead of 2. That means they only need to build 5 districts, a population of 5 rather than 10 is enough !

And on top of that, their district has a reduced cost of -50%! They are therefore strongly encouraged to build large cities.

– Will of the Hive : Natural trait that gives them + 10% attack for each faction with which they are at war. Contrary to what the description says, it is not “declared war” but rather “active war”. This is a maximum incentive to induce them to aggressive politics. If you are at war with 5 factions, you will have +50% attack for all your units, and that as long as you are at war (info to check), which is a huge bonus ! Note that this bonus disappears if you exterminate the faction with whom you are at war.

– Fast Epimorphosis : +5% Health regeneration. Good.

– Demanding Gods (Technology) : A technology that does not attract players. Yet it is worth it. A point of population is very quickly regained on a city Necrophages. The +30 effect is high, and requires no strategic resources. It is immediately usable. I only sacrifice from 8 population points, so that the effect lasts a long time.

– Pitiless : Necrophages can not negotiate with minor factions. Which means that they can not pacify them, so they have to destroy them one by one, and then rebuild them at a high price. And they lose all strategic resources and luxury, as well as dust, acquired by completing these quests. This is a huge penalty that hamper their development during the crucial phase of the early game. Despite a lot of effort, compensating for these penalties is very difficult.

– Agriculturally challenged : -1 food for each hexagon. A strong malus but that is legitimate, and that is easily compensated if one collects corpses quickly.

– The Quest of the Necrophages : No competitive player goes beyond the first phase of their faction quest. Indeed, they must provide 10 strategic resource (titanium for example), 20 luxuries, and 150 dust to get their hero Ka-Riss, and continue their quest. It is absurd to ask for so much investment at this stage of the game. It is the opposite of a natural quest, which is accomplished by killing units, searching ruins, and such natural actions.

Moreover, the rewards are not at all balanced compared to other factions. For example the Ardent Magi get very quickly two free units, a free booster luxury resource (wine, Dyes, sometimes outright Titan Bones!). The Wild walkers get a technology that earns them 4 influence points for each building or improvement built on a region. They have a building, certainly very useful, but expensive to build, the Fungal Laboratory.

– The fact that you can build a lot of low-cost districts encourages a Tall model, ie few but powerful cities. But on the other hand, the fact that you have an interest in harvesting corpses and using proliferators, also encourages planting cities elsewhere. This contradiction is interesting to play and difficult to grasp.

The Allayis, on the contrary, are made to play Tall, and they have no real interest in spamming settlers. The Necrophages are Tall and Wide at the same time (they must grow in height AND in width, that is to say to have more cities).

– Generally speaking, as you will use Proliferators, you will end up with a lot of Battleborns. You can certainly sell them on the market, but their resale price will drop quickly if you flood the market. That’s why the most reasonable thing is to keep those Battleborns for war. After all, that’s a Necrophage, is not it ? Where else will the world go ? ^^

Necrophages are the most difficult faction to play well. It is technical and requires a lot of micro management to be effective. They must fight to be competitive with the other factions in early game. Their unique characteristics must be fully exploited to develop well. Here are the three main strategic axes to exploit for them:

– Cannibalize your own people : Massacre your own militia to the hostile villages to get corpses.

– The mobile meat factory : Move “cities” by self-razing them, to fetch food from hostile villages.

– Proliferation : Make proliferators as soon as possible, to go “Eat the World” and create the maximum of Battleborn that we can sell on the market.

Necrophages (2/4)

For any faction, it’s a crucial choice, of course. But it’s even more so for the Necros. You must be ready to lose three turns to find a good region. Attention, a good region is just a nice place with 2 or 3 anomalies. No. For a Necrophage, a good region is more above two things :

– An area with two or three villages (and not one).
– An implantation site that will be within range of at least one village of “slow and powerful creatures”, where you can massacre your own villagers.

An area that has two or three villages

– Why two or three villages? Well to exploit your Slaver hero of course ! This one draws its strength from the regions to two or better, three villages. The faster you will have a high population, and the rebuilt villages, the more you will have a high industry. And that’s all the strength, and all the weakness, of the Necros: either you have the skill, and the luck, to have a good start region, and you will quickly highlight your hero and this region, either you with a region of low quality, and then there you will have a ball for the whole party, since not only you will not exploit your hero governor, but in addition you can not count on good quests of pacification of the regions surrounding, what other factions can hope for, if their start is bad !

– It is difficult to see chance to “find” a region of two or three villages. Having a lot of experience, I can predict with some success the number of villages in a region according to its form. When I feel there are three, I take the risk of losing one or two turns. But this is not an exact science, especially in round 1 or 2, when we see that a small part of the region. You have to think carefully about the choice: sometimes it’s better to choose a starting location in your area than a village rather than being greedy and definitely want an ideal region.

An implantation site within reach of at least one village of slow and powerful creatures

– I then speak “of a site of implantation within reach of at least a village of slow and powerful creatures”? But what does that mean! In the next part, I explain all the trick, all the malice, that you will need to exploit if you want to remain competitive with the Necrophages.

– When you fight, you win a corpse for each friendly or enemy unit killed. This means that if you destroy a village, you will gain two corpses. This is little. In theory, it takes four villages to obtain a reserve, or 100 of food. All this takes a lot of time.

But if you’re trying to get the corpses not primarily from enemy units, but from your militia units, you’re going to harvest a lot more corpses. Your militiamen do not cost anything. They regenerate each turn, and they are weak, which suits us since we seek to sacrifice them, not to kill the enemy. What you have to do is attack the village with a single creature, a Forager for example, and try not to participate in the fight with your forager. The trouble is if you’re dealing with fast units, it’s likely they’ll want to go after your Forager and not your militia.

Sometimes it’s manageable, you can hide it behind your militia. Sometimes it’s not. If the units are too fast for your Forager, you can use a Necrodrone. With an Improved Movement 1, it will be even faster on the battlefield. And you will be able to maneuver, not to be reached by these hulks who will try to reach you.

– Powerful and slow units are ideal for farming on your militia. The absolute top was Silic. Silic is frightfully slow, a hexagon by everything. As a result, your Forager will be completely safe. And the Silic is very bad and he stun (neutral Silics always have a hammer, not claws, suddenly they stun). Against the Silics, you must place your militiamen in a position of voluntary weakness, namely : you approach the silics, without attacking them. Thus, he will stun you (in any case there will be a high probability), and if you position your militia behind each other, he will touch two or three at once. The village of Silic is a dream for a Necrophage, because it will stay alive a long time, several turns.

– Let’s mention other slow and powerful creators : the Urce, the Tetike (the dog with two heads who shoot and who has free counter) or the Haunt.

– Always pay attention to the situation of the card. If it’s a forest, it will slow enemies, who will focus on your brave little militia fresh meat. But if you are in the field, the Tetikes will have the unfortunate propensity to rush on your Forager, and hurt him a lot. In this situation, it is sometimes better to use a fast Necrodrone, which you can safely move to prevent it from dying. Which is a shame because when you lose the fight, you lose all the corpses of the fight !

– When a player moves to era II, the equipment and level of village spammy creatures increases. Moreover, in all logic it should also be the case for the creatures in the village, but this is not the case. This phenomenon is a godsend if you are scientifically behind, your militia will be level 1, facing much more powerful creatures. So no more corpses.

– We must ask ourselves whether we will exploit a maximum of a hostile village without destroying it, or if it exploits it to destroy it.

The advantage of a destroyed village is that you can rebuild it to exploit it to grow your population directly, or use it by your hero Slaver.

The disadvantage is that it will not be able to spammy creatures that you can farm with your militia and later, your proliferators.

Generally, I tend to say that it is better to destroy the villages. Because of course, you lose the advantage of future creatures that will spammer, but you get some corpses immediately. In addition, certainly you destroy these villages but the map is large and there are many to exploit elsewhere. The Necropahgians are not in a green vision: when there is nothing more to eat at home, they go to eat elsewhere !

That said some creatures, I think Silics or Urces, are really interesting to keep alive, because they can kill several waves of militia before dying.

– There is a global quest named A Plague of Savagery. This quest increases a lot the power of all neutral factions. This is a boon as Necrophages since the weaker your militians are, the longer you can cannibalize each turn, and the better.

– Playing with a setting of Minor faction difficulty hard is an advantage for Necros as it increases the frequency with which neutral armies spawn on the map.

Necrophages (3/4)

– The next step in the industrialization of “cannibalism” is the mobile meat plant. The mobile meat plant is to make settlers in order to put two militiamen, which can be used where it is necessary to farm food. As soon as you kill the wandering creatures, or the village you want, you will auto-raze and go somewhere else. Imagine a kind of nomadic hunter’s camp, let’s put deer. Well, a meat factory is that, except that Necrophages hunters also eat their own meat. The Amplitude Devs are definitely perverts ! : p

– In addition, the big advantage of this tactic is that not only do you create food reserves, not only you exploit the boxes of your mobile downtown, but in addition you can move in the direction of your future city ​​location. Suppose you have a good location in mind : it has three anomalies and three villages in this area. In this case, to go from point A to point B, you will collect one or two reserves, which you will use in your new city. Your mobile meat plant will become a real city.

– So you can have on the map one or two, or more, mobile meat plant. You can decide to turn them into a city, or not. The disadvantage is that you will have a lot of micromanage to do. And that you will lose in happiness, since each new city increases Disapproval Expansion.

– Beyond food, it is still useful to pacify a region. This is also a trick that any faction can use to clean a region. With one unit and two militia we can do the job.

– One can of course combine the use of a proliferator with a mobile meat plant. But often, it is not possible. We must not wait to have a proliferator to do this, we must exploit farming as soon as possible.

– Stockpiles have a greater utility in new towns than in cities with a high population. So I advise you to put reserves only in city with, let’s say between 1 and 5 pop. But sometimes you don’t have small city to feed, then you don’t have choice.

– I remind you that it is useless to use more than one type of reserve per tower per city. They are not cumulative, the effect of the second will be completely ruined.

– Necrophages win two Battleborns for each food reserve (recycled) used during an Eclypse of Dust. The obvious consequence is that if you already have one or two cities that has reached a correct population (say between 6 and 8), it is better to wait for the Eclypse to use your reserves !

– The problem is that this Eclypse feature does not fit with the interest of the Necrophages, which is to immediately use the reserves they have. The Eclypse is an event impossible to predict exactly, the choice to keep its reserves to wait for his arrival, is difficult to take. It is better mostly, in early game or mid game, to directly use his reserve.

– In the long run, you should have a lot of reserves, and the Eclypse will become more useful.

– Your proliferators and your units will cost you dearly. That’s why this technology should be your priority.

– As I explained above, you should use your first Battleborn as a selling resource on the market. You will gain several hundred Dust units, which is huge. You have to realize that you are going to make a huge return on investment: with a few hundred of a year of industry you will produce a lot more in the form of Battleborn, which you can sell, while harvesting corpses, and new Battleborns.

– An interesting thing : Proliferators can create limitless proliferators in the army. You can have armies 8 units, 10, 12 etc. However, you will pay exceptional military expenses. So exceptional, that it is better to avoid having a bigger army than your technological level allows you (ie 4 units +2 with Meritocraty and +2 still with Signal Corps).

– However, if you combine Cannon Fodder with the level 3 military empire plan, all of your units will not cost you anything, even your huge, unnatural Battleborn armies. These armies are hard to beat, sometimes unstoppable. This is one of the great strengths and great originality of the Necrophage in mid game or late game.

– The Proliferators must be manual when you use them in an army with overwhelming military superiority. If you self fight, you will get only one Battleborn, or even none, because the AI ​​will not manage your units to kill only those units infected by parasites. It will be a pity.

– Proliferators must obviously be used in war against other players if possible. They must also be garrisoned cities (one to two per garrison for a garrison of 4 Foragers / Battleborns). You will lose units in your battles, but you will recover them with your Proliferators, which is demoralizing for the enemy.

– Wands are better than Claws for Proliferators, as they have a high initiative, they strike first.

– Some units are immune to Parasitism, the debuff of the Proliferator. There are the Silics, the Haunts or the Sisters of Mercy for example. Silics are particularly painful because in addition to being immune, they are powerful.

– +2 yield for each village pacified. This means that you have an interest in producing food with specialized citizens. This effect is cumulative with all the buildings that increase it: I think in the first place to the Husbandery Center, which increases +5 the yield. There is also the Public Granary in era 2, which increases + 15 food per turn, and especially +2 the yield of citizen food specialists. It’s as if you had another rebuilt village in the region. There is also the Refrigeration Plant in era 4, which increases +3 the yield per population working the food, and + 25% the global output in food !

– Concretely, this should guide your development choices in this way : rebuild the villages of your main industrial region, put your Slaver hero as governor, then build the Husbandery Center and the Seed Storage. And focus entirely on food until you have 10 people. From there, your city will be ready to welcome a Canal Lock, which is the key building to make your city an industrial city.

– This way of proceeding is to be reproduced everywhere. To know : first Mill Foundry and the Public Seeds, then the villages, then the Public Granary (if you have Glassteal, and as soon as possible), then we go on population growth until waiting 8-10 of population. This ability to reach a high population quickly combines very well with the ability to build districts faster. The other factions are still handicapped by the slowness that new ones are cited to develop. We have to wait for the population to increase to allow ourselves to have new districts.

Necrophages with their recycled food reserves and the Cull the Herd trait, can make their minor cities big cities in a short time. This is one of the main strengths of the Necrophages from mid-game.

– Note anyway that it is not good to climb too high in population. 8 in the towns with a village, and 10-12 elsewhere, suffice. Going beyond costs always more expensive in population, for a low gain because this +1 in population, you would have had much more easily in a new city than in this big city.

– The Spice Booster increases + 50% food production. This is the best luxury resort that exists for Necrophages ! You must give priority to obtaining this resource, even if it means installing a city in a region of one village.

– With it you can grow at a phenomenal speed, gaining in the 400 food points per turn in your big cities. You can then afford to grow even higher in population, on 14-18 of population.

Necrophages (4/4)

– The Necros are unable to produce enough science to reach the II era at turn 10. By cons you must be able to quickly have era II after turn 10, to access the proliferator and produce enough for the surrounding area (a figure of 4 proliferator is sufficient). Obviously it is better for this to have the level 1 military empire plan, which increases by 20% the speed of production of military units.

– If on turn 20 you have only one real city and not enough influence to take the 2nd level economy and population empire plan, you can stay on the industry level empire plan. Level 2. Your Slaver hero is made to produce food, or industry. There is no point in using it for dust. Suddenly, this plan of empire can be satisfactory. Moreover it is quite viable to completely do without the dust rush, and opt for the level 2 expansion empire plan, which increases +25 the happiness of all your cities. From turn 30, it’s better to always have the level 2 economy empire plan, because it’s still better for your new cities.

– The low cost of districts and the ability to build one for each population point, should not make you stop building them. Remember that even at -50% cost, their cost remains exponential (in any case it believes in geometric speed) while their profits remain linear. Six districts is quite satisfactory. We can add four more to form a triangle of dimension 4, but it is not necessary.

– Always do what you need most. Why add districts, when it is better to build a new city, or to produce military units to conquer a beautiful city to the enemy ?

– If you are lucky to have the Industrial Megalopole, you will have -20% in cost of districts. Your districts will cost -70% to build. In this case then, yes, you can afford to see things even bigger, and build cities of 10 districts minimum everywhere.

– Districts maximize the impact of buildings that improve FIDSI performance (Food, Industry, Dust, Science and Influence). I am thinking in particular of the Dust Transmuter which increases by +10 the dust yield of each hexagon which naturally produces at least 1. In your city possessing the Dust Transmuter, having a lot of district is very interesting.

Vaulters / Mezari (1/2)

– The Vaulters are an underestimated faction. Their ability to teleport is unique. They can protect any city from any distance. And their superior strategic resource harvest is long-term access to military victory because nothing is more important in the long run than having elite military units.

And besides, they are stylish huh? I speak of Mezari there, their skin is much more class than that of the basic Vaulters. ^^

– Knack for Knowledge : +1 science for each hex with at least 1 in science. A fast scientific progression to access era II (and the early empire plan) on turn 10.

– Holy Resource (Teleport) : Teleport your units from city to city instantly. This allows you to build cities anywhere on the map. The question of proximity to your other unimportant cities since you can teleport units to defend it. Even if she is besieged. This ability changes a lot of things strategically.

The teleport combined with the roads makes it reasonable to pass combat speed equipment. The Level 1 is useful to go faster than a hexagon in combat. It is necessary for Titans who are slow and melee. But we can do without it for the Marines, who shoot from a distance. A titanium ring or glassteel (high position bonus) can usefully replace it.

An elegant strategy is to have 200 fortification, and two garrison-resistant units (titans). If you are attacked by surprise, you should be able to hold the shock during a turn. And the next turn, you can teleport your main army to make a cultural exchange with the invader. ^^

The teleport is also useful for teleporting settlers.

– Veins of Auriga : +1 to strategic resource income. In Quick Speed, the bonus is double, so it means you go from +1.5 per turn to +3 per turn. You can use these resources to do what you want, for example elite units.

– Holy Resource (Extractors Bonus) : Triple your strategic resource yield (which at the base is already doubled by Veins of Auriga) when you have activated at least one time your strategic resource in the winter. It is considerable.

Note one important thing: for the bonus to be active, you do not need a booster to be active, you need to have one once before, to select your sacred resource.

The nuance is important: it means that you should activate your booster only if necessary, and not waste your ressources.

The bonuses provided by the resources are interesting but at the beginning of the game it is better in general to save the resources rather than consume them just for these bonuses. These bonuses become really interesting in the long run. So interesting that it becomes advisable to always have an activated booster (either Titanium or Glassteel.) Avoid wasting precious Adamantium or Palladium in summer.

– Technolover : Increases by +35% the effect brought by the equipment in strategic resource if they are made in the same material as the activated sacred resource. It’s a big bonus. Your equipment, which gives you attack, defense, damage, etc. will see all these bonus features increase by + 35%. Your units will be at a higher qualitative level. The Vaulters are good at teaching others what “elite army” means…

– Deep Generator : Generally increases the overall returns of the city. To build everywhere, unless you need titanium / glassteel.

– Strength of the Vault : A low resource cost, for a building with low profits, given the low utility of fortifications in Endless Legend.

– Endless Reclycling : A very interesting science gain. If you have enough titanium or glassteel, it is to build in your cities of two or three districts of level 2.

– The Vaulters quest is rather easy. The first reward in strategic resource is great and falls perfectly. Subsequent awards, like the Winter Shelter, are very moderately interesting. Besides, the Winter Shelfter is not really worth it, but it fits the background of the Vaulters, and that’s great.

– Their main hero is Petrov Judith. It’s a shooter. And shooters are fragile to fight wandering units and villages. In addition, his commanding skills are uninteresting. He can not have +2 reinforcement per turn, and that’s a handicap.

Moreover he has no interest in governor because having a high science output can be useful only from the mid-game.

– Besides, the reason why it is better to play Mezari than Vaulters is that their start hero, Avara Lasmak, has a Science 2 reinforcement rather than a science achievement. But this reinforcement is very useful at the beginning of the game. With a good starting position and a public library, you certainly reach era II at turn 10. This is highly important for this strategy.

Besides that, the Vaulters have no particular weakness. On the military side they are complete : a firing unit, a very fast “cavalry” unit and with archer slayer, and a massive unit of melee counter-attack. In addition the Dawn officers are so fast on the battlefield, and his initiative is so high, that he is perfectly qualified to nail on the spot the reinforcements arriving on the battlefield on turn 1.

– Get for an early empire plan to turn 10 is the right strategy most of the time. The Vaulters are among the three races to be able to obtain it (with Ardent Magi, Forgottens and Drakkens). Your high level of scientific production will allow you to acquire Imperial Coinage as soon as possible, buy industry reserves on the market and resell your strategic resources.

– Or if you want to attack someone quickly, you can start from a purely military strategy : you take the two weapon technologies (weapons & armor) of era II, the Meritocraty, and it’s part for a quick attack! This versatility is very pleasant with the Vaulters.

– The Silics. If you discover it in a nearby colonized area, you will have a decisive advantage in quickly assimilating it as Vaulters. They increase production by +0.5 per extractor for each assimilated village. And this bonus is in addition to your bonuses as Vaulters. This is the ideal assimilation bonus for you. When I see a good player Vaulters with three village Silics, I know that I will have to attack early in the game because the more time passes, the more he will accumulate resources that he will sooner or later invest in elite units (palladium / adamantium of thirds 1), see Guardians.

– As Vaulters, what you lose in industrial power (which for example has Wild Walkers or Necrophages normally), you regain it as units (armor and elite weapons). You will surely have fewer units but they will be much more powerful. Avoid making units of poor quality, iron or dust, in large numbers (what the Necrophages do), except of course if you have no choice, or if you opt to wait for the third 1 adamantium / palladium to equip your units.

– The teleport of units allows you to defend yourself on several fronts at the same time. What multiplayer is very useful because players can coordinate to attack in several points, something that never happens solo against the AI.

Vaulters / Mezari (2/2)

– The Marine is a correct unit. He has no specific power. He is a basic archer. You can put a shield or a long bow on it, depending on the situation and the terrain of confrontation.

– The Dawn Officer is I say it again, the perfect counter against the archers. It’s a cavalry unit, despite the fact that it’s visually, an infantry unit. He has a high natural initiative as well as high speed on the battlefield. So, even if you do not fight archers, you have a use to use it to block the reinforcements from the turn 1. If you have the superiority in initiative against the enemy archers, it is not useful to give it a shield. The shield is good against archers damage, but it is better a two-handed ax if you have the initiative, ie the attack first.

– The Titan is one of the most powerful units of the game. A huge defense and a lot of life points. His special counter-attack damages all enemies around him. The Titan is perfect as a low-initiative unit, which acts after all others. 90% of the time, it is better to give him Claws, to reinforce his counter attack. Sometimes the sword and the shield are better if you fight archers and want to cash in more. Apart from these situations, the Titan should be the backbone of your army, because it will counter very well the flying units and other fast units, very frequently used in multiplayer.

– If you are going to fight an army of archers, use Dawn Officers. If you fight an army of fast, high-flying units, use Titans. If you fight rather slow units, or a mixed army with archers, use Marines. Of course, you can also mix. Four Marines and two Dawn Officers get along very well.

– The more time passes, the more strategic resources take precedence over industrial production to determine which player will have the military advantage. This also determines the ease with which you can build advanced buildings, as well as Guardians.

– Plus, as you know, the more time passes, the more winters are common on Auriga. And summer lasts less and less. As a result, the harvest bonus in winter on Sacred Resource becomes more and more useful.

– Remember that if your industry is limited, you have the opportunity to trick into creating empty equipment units (in Iron of the I era), then redisign them with strategic resources to retrofit them as soon as it is necessary.

– Apart from the Silics and Resource Boosters used in winter, there is also a little known way to increase the strategic resource harvest: the Strategic Intensifier. It doubles the crop per turn that a normal harvester will give you. Ideal for Vaulters.

– The problem is that you must have the chance that a deposit of resources is by chance, attached to your city. But you can force luck : you plant your new cities ready deposits. Quite simply. Anomalies are much less important in the mid-game or late game, while harvesting twice as fast strategic resources superior conditions much more your ability to win.

– The bonus that the Devs had the idea to give to the Vaulters during the Eclypse is I find the most interesting strategically, and the most original, of all the bonuses of Eclypse. This bonus is that during the Eclypse, you can with an activated booster, teleport your units not only from city to city, but also from city to hero. And this hero can be anywhere on the map. It can even be stealth, it works!

– Teleported units lose their movement but not their point of action. They can therefore directly attack the same turn !

– You can only teleport units, not a hero. And the receiving hero’s army must have available places to teleport the new units. But we can teleport a unit and the next turn, move it and assign a hero who can receive new units.

– You can use this teleport on a hero lurking on the map, to lead a surprise attack. You can also teleport a settler to a hero in a wilderness area that interests you (randomly, a region with Silics…). This tool gives you great flexibility, and it’s very interesting.

– Note that the offensive teleport is potentially devastating, but in reality I have never seen it used before. And fast, stealthy units can produce the same result as an offensive teleport. This is not a kind of ultimate weapon, but rather a way to simulate a faculty (the high speed of movement on the map) that Vaulters do not have.

– And no, Guardians can’t teleport. Dont ask. ^^

Broken Lords

– Dust Care : Instantly heal their Broken Lords units at the price of an action point and dust. Big military advantage.

– Appetite for Dust (No food) : Does not care about the lack of food on some land, especially volcanic land, which brings only positive for them.

– Appetite for Dust (No food) : Does not care about the winter food penalty.

– Appetite for Dust (Pop rush) : Can rush their population with gold, as is done for buildings. As a result they can erect new productive cities in record time, provided they have a lot of dust of course.

– Dust Bishop : The most powerful support unit of the game

– Broking Lords are particularly effective in using Elite armies, as they can keep them alive for a long time thanks to their Dust Bishop and Instant Heal.

– Have no access to food. They therefore lose all the “F” in the FDSI output, and have to pay a high price for their growth. It is a heavy economic handicap. It is what explains why good players very rarely play Broken Lords, because they do not like to put themselves in a situation of losing suddenly. They do not have access to the Animal Husbandery, the primary building to which all other actions have access, which allows them to wait for a high population (8) quickly. There must be a special building to compensate for such a handicap.

– Can not regenerate, they must pay all care for their units. Which is expensive especially in early game.

– Do not have a particularly powerful unit. The dust Priest is powerful but has weak initiative sadly, and does not like it to be glued to close combat with cavalry charges or flying units. And Broken Lords don’t have access to the claws weapon, which is the best existing counterattack against powerful units that dominate the battlefield (such as Monk or Necrodrones).

– Possesses the weakest cavalry unit, the Ryder, whose absorption of life is cosmetic, and who can not even wear a shield (it can only carry a two-handed spear, or a hammer has a hand … without a shield).
 
– A quest for faction totally zero. The worst of all. It requires 12 era I technology ! We force ourselves to look for useless technologies. And it starts again in era II ! For a dissapointing bonus item.

– For colonization and early game, things happen as for other factions. We separate our units, we explore, we do the quests, we colonize and so on.

– Of course, try to colonize suitable land to know those with dust, and without food. Passable forests because they still have industry.

– Then it depends on the situation.

If you are isolated, you have no choice but to develop normally. Either you definitely ask one or two cities that will not be salted on turn 20, or you only keep your capital, so you can activate all branches of the empire plan in era 2 (the cost will be 120 d ‘ influence, or 100 if you do not take the level 2 military empire plan).

If you are ready for a player, you can consider the rush. You are economically handicapped in your development, but can you heal your units ? Never mind : vent your frustration on an innocent neighbor. Make a stack of 4 Stalkers and 2 Dust Bishop, and play the music.

Speaking of rush, the ideal is to attack turn 20, after taking your empire plan. But sometimes it is better to attack before the enemy could build units. There is a probability that you take his Canal Lock if you attack his industrial city (which I advise you to do naturally).

– As I said above, the Broken Lords are particularly effective with an army of elite, given their ability to heal themselves by the dust priest, and by their Dust Bishop. That’s why get the Legendary Deed from the Market Alchemist, in the era III, which gives 80 adamanitum or paladium, is something that is very useful to them. If you then equip your army with this equipment (at least weapons), it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a player, to succeed in destroying will be only one of your units.

Moreover, it’s good because there is a Broken Lords hero who has the natural skill of Army Defense Boost 3. It increases the defense of your army by + 40%. This is ideal for Broken Lords units, which already have a high natural defense.

– Avoid producing settlers in cities with high population. Redeeming a point will cost you dearly. Better to do in cities with two populations.

– Do not exceed 10 population point. The population will cost you more and more. You will have a district triangle (or staggered) full of 6, and it will be good enough.

– Stalwarts : A solid idea but not a lightning war. Effective against archers with his shield. Very effective against infantry thanks to his two-handed sword.

– Ryder : Unit of little interest, as I explained above. In addition she is slow. A cavalry unit slow and disappointing.

– Dust Bishop : I talked about it earlier. Use it behind your Stalwarts, to maximize the effect of heal halon. You can also use it in group of six, it is more fragile but the care works even better.

– You are part of factions that have no real shooter or flying unit. You will be vulnerable in battle situations where you are in the forest, with cliffs. Flying units may hit you, but you will not be able to retaliate.

Wild Walkers

– Wild Walkers are a vanilla faciton. They do not really have specificity. They are in a basic way, an industrial powerhouse, because of their industrial bonus in forest hex.

– Living town : +1 industrial bonus in the forest. Always useful and always to take into account when you ask a city. In some cases the Wild Walkers have an interest in settling in the forest rather than lending anomalies, hands away from the forests.

– Forest Rage : +50% attack for any unit of wild walkers that attacks or defends from a forest slot (it’s your hexagon that must be a forest, not the one on which the enemy unit is placed). Great bonus worthwhile throughout the game. In defense you will have more efficient units. And in conquest, you will conquer more easily cities that have the bad idea of ​​being placed in the forest.

– The Sharing : A radar. Not a heathbreking feature but an interesting feature. First, it serves to see where the units of wandering creatures are, to avoid them. Secondly, it is useful to spot the scouts of your rivals, to see the armies that have come to conquer you. AI units always move in the same way: at the beginning of the turn, and erratically. If you see an exclamation point that goes straight ahead on your capital, pay attention. ^^ A note that during the Eclypse, the Sharing works all over the map. You can detect the presence (or absence !) of enemy units on the map. Unless she is garrisoned.

– Way of the Woodlands (era III) : Gives +25% defense in forest. A bonus always useful to take if you are in a military situation to need it.

– To all these bonuses, I add their Vision of Glory quest reward, easy to get in early game. This reward (see screen) is very exceptional and will serve you throughout the game to maintain high reserves of influence points. The Wild Walkers are not able to reach the II era at turn 10, but this very interesting bonus is part of features that compensate for this handicap.

Moreover, the Wild Walkers faction quest is probably the easiest (relatively) to accomplish. I have already seen several Wild Walkers players win in building the Temple of the Planet. This is a rarely sought-after victory, but one that is actually achievable.

– They have no weakness.

– Dekari Rangers : They are cheap. They are fragile but have a range of 4 (instead of 3) and a high initiative. They are among the best archers in the game. They are perfect for hit & move. They are very good in defense because of their range. This is the basic unit of Wild Walkers armies.

– Agashe Shaman : In theory, +75% in defense for two turns should be useful. In practice, except for a very particular map with a bottleneck where to place a solid unit, or unless you want to buffer a Guardian, the Shaman is one of those support units that has never been used (like the Geomancer Kapaku). It is better to have 6 fighting units than 4 fighting units and two fragile support units.

Agashe Shaman have a very strong advantage : their base cost is very cheap. Perfect to mass produce them to the Market !

– Tenei Walker : These are solid and versatile units: powerful against archers, and powerful against melee units, if you give them claws. They are better against flying units than longbow archers.

– Their high industry and low science predestines them to colonize several regions before the II era. They will definitively put their third, fourth or fifth city only after the plan of empire of the turn 20.

– The Eclypse allows them to circulate very quickly in the forest. This favors a distant colonization (if you see a beautiful distant region).

– They can do everything. A military victory or a more economical and defensive strategy suits them.

– They have the best bonus of Eclypse : they move twice as fast in the forest as on a normal hex. Forests act as roads for them. As a result they can search the ruins much faster, which is extremely useful for picking up the treasures they contain. You can preposition your units to be ready to pick up Eclypsed Ruins very efficiently.

– In addition, this bonus move also apply in combat. Your units are crossing forests with supernatural speed. Very interesting against slow units (for your archers).

– This supervisor can also be used to attack a city by surprise. You can bypass your enemy’s frontline city (the one where he expects you to attack him) and attack a city deeply in its territory. That’s great. A very good idea of ​​Eclypse bonus for them, and very thematic.

Forgottens (1/2)

– This faction is the most unique of all. One of the most difficult to master. Economically, she is the weakest of breeds, inferior even to Broken Lords. But it compensates for this weakness by its exceptional military and espionage benefits.

– For me this is the most unique faction that has been brought by Expansions Endless Legend (by the expansion “Shadows” in this case).

– Stealth units : All your units are stealthy including your settlers. I wrote earlier in the guide the multiple benefits of stealth units (see the part of the guide “Stealth, Spying and Pillage”).

– Sciencephobic : Buy their technology with dust. The technology cost system is made in such a way that the first technologies are cheap. It is quite possible to reach era II at turn 10.

– Practiced Pillage : Your military units cost you -1 dust per turn. And especially, the looting is done a little faster. If you additionally use a hero who has the Insignia of Resentment accessory (Faster Pillage 2), you can loot improvement with 3 units in 2 or even 1 turn !

– Knowledge Seekers : Your infiltrated heroes can steal technologies. Knowing that a technology is expensive is very interesting. Knowing that each acquired technology increases the cost of acquiring the next technology, it is better to buy your next technology before stealing a technology (rather to do it the other way).

– Expert Foragers : Earn a small reward usually in dust, sometimes in luxury resources, for each hostile village destroyed.

– What’s Mine is mine (Technology) : The natural security of your cities is raised by +15. So you are naturally better in round up, counter-spying. And your infiltrated heroes gain 3 more infiltration points per turn. This is useful if you start using several infiltrated heroes.

– Caudata Sanctuary (Technology) : -80% Margin of Error for season predictability on Empire, -100% Infiltration cost on Empire during Winter and -30% Infiltration action cost on hero. Does not worth it. Each techs cost a lot and you have a better use of this tech. In rare cases, predicting precisely the winter can usefull, if you plan to attack only during winter.

– Dust Sens (Technology) : +100% of dust obtained by looting. It’s interesting that unfortunately looting is not a really interesting strategy compared to the pure and simple conquest by surprise, of a beautiful industrial city. Why loot when one can simply take the city, deprived of an enemy of its industrial city and therefore of any means of counterattacking ?

– Learn from Others (Technology) : +4 XP for all your heroes possessed for each infiltrated hero. If you have three infiltrated heroes, all your heroes (whether they are governors, commanders or XX) will gain +16 per turn. Which is a lot. A technology is really useful only if we use several heroes infiltrated.

– Powerful units, especially the Myst.

– A very interesting faction quest that brings very useful rewards (like
Ziema Adya in her 2nd form).

– You completely eliminate the contributions of science from regions with high science content. As a result, some regions are very unattractive to you. Sometimes your departure region is as such unappealing because rich in science. Which is a disaster for you.

– Small science buildings like the Public Library will never give you their bonus either. But these small buildings still bring significant bonuses throughout the game. All of this makes it difficult for a Forgotten to be economically efficient. You need Dust for everything : your heroes, rushing your buildings, and buy technologies.

– You cannot get on a Cultist because he has only one city, and therefore very few improvements to loot, and this city will be defended as a citadel. Same problem with the infiltration of spies.

– You do not have the stealth advantage against the Morgawr, because their Mastermind sees stealth units and has a high field of vision.

– You will not be able to plunder a Drakken which makes you a Force Peace, because in situation of peace, the looting is not possible.

Forgottens (2/2)

– I really like to play the Forgottens because they are versatile. If you want to conquer cities, you can do it early in the game. The rush is as such, effective. But with stealth units, it’s even more unpredictable and deadly. In addition, even if you do not intend to invade your neighbor you can make him believe that it will happen. If you move stealth units on its territory, it hears the noise that the stealth units moving, but without being able to know how many there are. If you start looting his villages, his extractors, he may think that this is the sign that you are going to attack him soon. So he will make units and be defensive, and it is likely that he will not dare to move his army home, lest you take advantage of it to attack one of his cities. The Forgottens are gifted for psychological warfare !

– First category of possible strategy : Conquest. You can attack early a city that has a wonder. Why get tired of taking empire plans and investing in long term buildings when you can simply take a wonderful city to an imprudent gambler ?

– Second category : Pillage. You can use your produced units to loot. It is better for them to add a hero commander who owns the Skill Functionning Isomaniac at level 2 and the accessory of Faster Pillage 2. It will allow you to pillage with twice less units. Each turns you send your hero in another pillaging army.

– Third category : The infiltration of many spies, and the theft of technologies. It feats well with a strategy of developing yourself not agressively, while watching carefully what your rivals do. But you do not need to infiltrate cities for this. It only takes a few well placed units. Sometimes, even when watchtowers are built, there are areas where their detection range does not extend…

– The first strategy works well and allows you to snowball if the conquered city is beautiful and well-endowed in buildings (like the Canal Locks). It combines well with the ifiltration of a spy who destroyed the fortification of the city (action that required the fourth level of infiltration).

– The second strategy has the advantage of avoiding confrontation with the main army of your enemy, if he has one. He may decide to stay in protection of these cities, abandoning his improvements and extractors to your looting. You also do not need to capture a beautiful city for it to be interesting, you can stay a long time gorging yourself by looting. If the resistance of the enemy becomes too strong, you can simply go somewhere else or go home, without losing your units.

Pillage brings back dust, but above all it brings luxury resources and boosters that are extremely interesting. Spice, Titan Bones, Wine. We can find in the villages. Watchtowers heal the wounded units, which is great when you need it. You will be able to colonize new areas, while continuing your looting, accumulating boosters for your war economy.

– The third category (mass infiltration of spies) works particularly well on empires that have a low level of happiness and therefore low security. Seniority advances much faster in these conditions. And the risk of being injured or captured is very low. Moreover, there is a winter effect that lowers the level of security of the cities of -25. It’s perfect for the Forgottens.

Once your spies are infiltrated into the cities, you can use them to steal technologies but also potentially destroy industrial production (if you want to conquer this empire) or destroy the fortification. Spies are versatile.

– In general, I advise you to buy heroes to infiltrate cities. This will pay you more in the long run than buying technology, since every spy will start stealing an era III technology. And the longer a hero remains infiltrated, the higher his Seniority level will increase, which will greatly increase his ability to recover his ability to perform high level infiltration.

– I do not recommend selling your Forgottens units to the market because they may be bought for use as scouts. It is better for you that this faculty is exclusive to you.

– The bonus of the Forgottens is totally useless because no player keeps more than 500 dust in reserve. You will steal a fraction of a sum that will be small. This forgotten Eclypse bonus should really be changed.

– By cons the Eclypse is particularly proflitable for the Forgottens, because their stealth makes them able to move where they want to seize the wealth of the temple during the Eclypse, without risking being attacked by wandering creatures.

Allayi (1/2)

– Shifting Deeply : Your Allayis units take a special shape in the winter. A shape in general more powerful. Incitement to attack in winter.

– Breath of Auriga : Prediction of the arrival of winter and summer. Helps you plan your actions to be ready for the winter (ie attack or loot).

– Pearl Sensitive : Displays pearl cluster rentals on explored tiles. Pearls received on ruins search. Very useful for harvesting pearls. No need to the vision, as long as we have already explored the land map.

– Battlefield Symbiosis : +15 % on Initiative for each positive Morale on units. It works on non Allayi units too ! It gives you most of the time the initiative on enemy units, which is great against archers or Guardians. Attention, initiative is not always useful. Against units with Claws, it is bad.

– Mercurial Diplomats : -25% cost of diplomatic declarations during winter. -25% cost of diplomatic treaties during summer. A nice little bonus for those interested.

– Shapeshifters (Winter technology): Can spend pearls to change form of your Alllayi units for the current turn. Great because winter form are strongers. You can use it to have Monks in winter form for their excellent attacks, or Skyfin for their attach which debuff the moral !

– We Chosen Few : + 150% expansion disapproval generation on cities. + 100% growth required per population on empire. A horrible trait, which limits the Allayis to be able to found only two or three cities maximum, unless being in late game. This trait also strongly deters deliberately raising your population up. Aim for 6 to 8 population points in your city with Animal Husbandery, and not beyond. The other population point will have to be captured to the enemy, taking his cities.

– Units all fast on the map due to their natural speed and immunity to movement penalties in winter. Even their colon is fast. All this facilitates the taking of a first city in a nice spot.

– The Monk, which is probably the best unit of the game in price / efficiency ratio. The Ardent’s Mages Wing is stronger, but the Wing is extremely expensive, while the Monk has an average price, barely higher than the base price of the Seeker.

– Skyfin. A delicious creature that looks like an innofensive manta ray, while she sniffs pearls faster than a cocaine addict sniffs the white powder ^^. It is a key unit of Skyfins to acheive a total map control. The Allayis are the masters of map Control.

– The Garth of the Allayi : It only requires one population point to be built. But it requires pearls.

– Luxury Alchemist : + 20% to all your boosters already active when you activate a new type of luxury booster. The time bonus is not cumulative with the activation of the SAME ressource booster but requires different booster each time (thankfully).

– All their disability comes from their trait We Chosen Few. Without this trait, they would be the most powerful faction. But it will not make sense to play them without it. This trait requires you to win with few cities, which is difficult in the long run. Either, just use your formidable military power brought by your Monks, to conquer your neighbors from the mid game in general. It is still possible to win without conquest, because the Allayis by collecting resources, you bring great economic bonuses. In this case, the best way to win is surely the Allayi quest and the construction of the Temple of the Earth’s Core.

– The Allayis also have a weakness, it is their dependence on pearls. They need them for their Garths, their special districts, and their Skyfins. You have to learn to focus on harvesting pearls, even in enemy territory. The Skyfins do this job very well. Like a long-range bomber, they can cross a territory, take the pearls, and retreat safely.

– Find a good capital location. Look for pearls with units. Build the Autel of Auriga. Continue to doing your faction quest as long as it’s easy feasible.

– Found your second city in general after building the Museum of Auriga (if you could build it). The second city is useful but it impacts the happiness is your capital, so be careful with that.

– The Allayi are basically a race destined for conquest. Not by nature, like the Necrophages, but because having great difficulty in developing new cities, it is much easier for them to conquer those of others.

– Once your first city (your capital) or your second city has its 6 districts built, you can start the mass production of Monks, which you will use to target your designed victim ^^.

– With your first Skyfin and your other units, you will not only collect pearls and resources on the map, but you will also be in a good position to take the resources and temple dust activated during the Eclypse. The Allayis are the best breed to enjoy the Eclypse.

– The monk is the key element of the Allayi. His features are high, he flies, and he can use a two handed sword, which makes him excellent against the infantry. But the main specificity of the Monk is his Shifting Rage in the Winter form.

Here is how it works :

– First attack of a monk is normal.

– Second attack strike on 3 hexagones (in arc) and the attack and damage are increased by +20 % (up to +60 % then). The summer form works the same, but it triggers only in the counter-attack. It’s rare to see Monk in counter-attack, as their initiative is naturally high (especially if their Moral is high with Battlefield Symbiosis).

– After three attacks/counter-attacks, the sequence is reseted.

– As I said, given the high initiative of the Allayis, your monks will have a superior initiative. Which you try to have to activate this powerfull skill. It double, or triple, the damages done by your monks. It’s really better to fight in Winter form if you have the initiative superiority. You can use the Winter’s Technology Shapeshifters which changes completely the course of things.

– Summer-shaped mornings are difficult to exploit unless you have a lower initiative than your enemy. They have the same ability as the less winter, but only when they counterattack.

Allayi (2/2)

– Your goal is to get the most pearls on the map. On the one hand you take them for yourself, on the other hand you prevent your rivals from taking them.

– You can also use your skyfin in early game to gain the missing strategic resources you will need to make the Museum of Auriga.

– Skyfins make superfluous the search for extractor technologies. Moreover, as you will have few areas, you will have few extractors to build.

– Do you know that a Skyfin who aspires to a resource in one of your regions, increases +10 the happiness of the city? (Can it stack with several Skyfins?)

– You can finish your movement by sending your Skyfin to an extractor. Next around, you’ll move it somewhere else, picking up your pearl quest.

– From the middle of the game, there may be a stadium where in summer, most of the pearls will have been picked up on the map. So, you will not have anything to do with your Skyfins. You can place them in absorbing resources in different places. So, as soon as winter arrives, your Skyfins will be strategically placed to harvest pearls as closely as possible. If you manage to place several Skyfins on the map you have the ability to pick up a large portion of the pearls in a few turns. You can then quickly send your Skyfins back to absorb the resources that interest you.

– The accessory Ring of the Boreal Own (from the Pillage technology) gives the camouflage (stealth in forest), is an excellent protection against the persecution of your poor little Skyfins. You can send them safely in undercover operation all over the world.

– Seeker : Fast and rather efficient with his load (talk about it). However, as soon as the monk is available, it is better to use the monk who is superior in all and has the same weapons as the Seeker (anti-cavalry spear and two-handed sword).

– Skyfin : Besides its main economic and strategic function, the Skyfin is much more interesting in combat than one can think ! Its Shifting Awe effect increases your morale by +1, and the effect spreads to all your units. So in a few turns, you can have maximum morale which changes the outcome of the fight ! The same for the winter-shaped Skyfin, which reduces the morale of your enemies, with the same chain effect.

The Skyfin is also a very strong unit, with huge health points, and exceptional speed on the battlefield, allowing it to be relatively safe. That’s why I advise you to use Skyfins as reinforcement in all your fights.

– Monk : I already wrote earlier what to think of Monk, which is probably the best unit of the game quality price.

– You may have a lot of pearls in reserve. It is not healthy to want to build ever more Garth. The best use is to make Skyfins, which will always be useful for you : for pearls, and as a mobile ressource pump.

– In some situations, you can also equip your monks with a pearl equipment (Winter technology). This one is slightly superior and cost less industry than the iron equipment of era II, which can in some cases make the difference.

Each piece of pearl equipement give immunity to vision reduction, movement reduction or winter attribute reduction. But as Allayi you have a natural immunity to vision and movement reduction so potentially only the attribute immunity (pearl armor) can be interesting, if a special negative effect has been chosen when it’s winter.

– Call of Auriga : Having two action points per turn allows you to attack twice, or to flee twice. It’s rarely useful, but sometimes it is. The +2 movement bonus is still useful.

Morgawr (1/2)

– Neptunian Affinityn : Free Embark / Disembark. Improves transport ships unlocked by the shipyard technology. Obvious feature for the maritime faction.

– Riders of the Wild Winds : +4 sea movement during the Eclypse. To exploit to the maximum of course, to send far your settlers, to explore the map, and especially to conquer oceanic fortress faster.

– Catspaw : A very interesting power, and very funny. A very vicious power that makes the player Morgawr unpredictable. It can be used to :

– Return the Fomorian units against themselves in oceanic zone.
– Support your units, your hero, or one of your cities, in danger.
– Attack enemy units wherever they are, anywhere on the map.
– Besieging enemy cities to prevent them from self-destructing just before an empire plan (!).
– Destroy an enemy city with little defense.
– Support an enemy city attack in appearance with a Mastermind, but in reality with a small hidden army of cat’s spawn (I say hidden because they appear as neutral minor faction on the map, they do not appear as visible reinforcement in the Pre battle battle screen, in short the enemy has no way of knowing that they will participate in the next battle !).

– Hydrophilic : Make the placement of your city on the coast interesting, even without anomalies. Ditto for lake areas (lakes are even more productive than the sea) and river areas. Do not think about the coast, think about lakes and rivers. A cluster combining anomalies and rivers will give exceptional performance.

When placing near a sea, it will become great in the medium term, when you will have access to Docs, in Era II (the Morgawr can look for this technology as early as Era II, rather than Era III).

All this to say that in certain situations, it is better to choose a coastal location that is not as good in anomalies, but more interesting in the long term.

– Sea Traders : Access to Imperial Highways technology, which gives access to watchtowers to roads, is prohibited. But you can look for Docs technology from Era II.

Not having a road is an interesting vulnerability and well adapted to your background. This makes your distant cities vulnerable, and lowers your trading income.

Not having a watchtower is not a problem at all because of the fact that you have the Mastermind, which are inexpensive and highly efficient mobile watchtowers (Detection).

In addition, your commercial revenue through the docks, are doubled (I think it’s doubled, in any case, they are greatly increased). This combines with the multiplier effect of controlling a sea (when you control all the fortresses of an ocean, the trade incomes are doubled).

However, exploiting this feature is difficult in practice. Your cities should be built on both sides of an ocean. This is not easy at all since it involves your settlers crossing the sea, the villages are pacified, and you can defend your territory in two very distant points. However if you get there, the commercial income will be enormous.[

– Seeds of Dissent : Another fun “magic” ability that is rarely useful. It is useful if you want to rot the territory of an enemy, and try to destroy one of its cities. Indeed, each village that suffers this power instantly generates two neutral units, available for a cat’s spawn. With three villages, you can have three groups of two units, groups that can potentially destroy an unprotected city.

– The Black Spot : A power less useful than it looks. No, you will not be able to summon Kracken to come and destroy your enemies, as in Pirates of the Caribbean. Anyone who destroys a unit belonging to the targeted enemy will gain a modest amount of dust.

The real interest of Black Spot is to bypass the Force Truce of the Drakkens, or allow the Roving Clans to attack the marked target, without having to be at war.

– Breaching Wave : A slight but passive bonus on the FIDSI production of fortresses that any Morgawr must choose.

– Amphibian : Masterminds, settlers and Morgawr heroes move more slowly on Earth, and in combat (-1 hexagon) but they move at very high speed on rivers. This is a huge advantage : you can explore the map much faster, you can scout your rivals and go back in case of danger, you can explore the ruins with your hero faster, and quickly get XP. We can also colonize distant lands but interesting. No need for roads between your two cities if you have a river.

Be careful though, the Masterminds are support units, they are not made to be used in homogeneous pack. You can not rely on them to build a powerful mobile army group, except to attack undefended cities.

– Cities often distant if we want to take the best spots of colonization + No road to connect the cities = Military vulnerability.

Fortunately there are rivers to act as a natural road, and Masterminds are the best scouting unit of the game.

– No dedicated military unit. You have your weak support Mastermind units, and that’s it. You must assimilate a good minor minor faction’s unit for combat. It is sometimes necessary to colonize a mediocre region to gain a good unit (Urces / Silics / Boss for exemple).

– Playing the Morgawr well is difficul because you have to think about the land but too about the ocean, which you have to conquier as fast as you can. In addition, the Morgawr starting regions are sometimes very poor.

– The heart of the Morgawr strategy is to conquer the ocean as quickly as possible, with a minimal investment in naval units. To do this, you must try to complete fortress quests, and use your hero. No need to invest in Vore normally. Except if you really want, the 2 Vore accept by the main quest.

– The problem is that the hero Morgawr only becomes able to conquer fortresses from level 2 or 3 of his naval military skill. You must give priority to the rise of your hero in XP by the three natural means of exploring ruins, doing quests, and fighting monsters.

Use the rivers to do all this as soon as possible. Avoid moving your hero on firm ground without a river.

A clever trick is to confront creatures with superior power over you, and to win.

The more the balance of strength of the fight is unfavorable, the more XP you will earn by killing the monsters. Instead of winning 10 XP, you will earn 40.

You have to manage the combat skillfully : use slowdown, shoot backwards, choose a favorable map configuration (forest for example) and choose slow creatures (Silics, Urces etc.).

Learning to know which monsters to fight and which monsters to avoid is for any useful faction, but even more so for the Morgawr, because the faster your hero will be level 3-4, the sooner he can begin to conquer the fortresses.

– Your hero will be hurt in oceanic battles. Do not let him die stupidly. Try to assimilate Sisters of Mercy so that he can heal very quickly. Or else, send him to rest for 5 rounds as city governor. In addition, with its enhanced yield with Influence, you can use these 5 turns to farm a valuable influence.

Morgawr (2/2)

Because for a minimal investment cost (your well used hero and some Masterminds), each fortress will give you one or more of the following regular bonuses:

– Fidsi.
– Resources and luxuries and strategic.
– Stockpiles.
– Special bonuses (like the Influence Center).

And this, without you having to invest neither in the technology (like the extractors) nor in the cost to produce it.

In addition, at each new era, new bonuses are available in the fortresses. Without effort, immediately.

Unlike a city, a fortress can not be destroyed or looted. And it does not increase the cost of influence of the empire plan.

In short, it is for these reasons that Morgawrs are so powerful. If no player comes to challenge the mastery of the oceans, it becomes very difficult to deprive them of a wide domination of the game.

Note that as a player, I like to let the Morgawr player take care of the elimination of sea fomorians. Then, when the job is done, I send fast boats (or fireboats that are more powerful) to gently resume the fruit of his effort. 🙂

– Hero Morgawr : A special note about the hero : his Hecatomb ability is underestimated. It lasts 4 rounds, and it deals 30% damage to all enemy units that are in contact with this unit if it dies. If the target unit has a lot of HP, you will do a lot of damage. In any case, much more damage than a direct distance attack.

– Mastermind : The Thirsty for Blood last 2 turns. It gives +2 movement, +30% initiative and +30% damages. Used on the right unit, it’s really good. And it’s super good if used on uber units: full strategic resources units, or Urkan / Guardians. Especially the very slower, powerfull goal, Gios (stone guardian).

– Vore : A buffed fireboat. Not much interesting things to say about it.

– Leviathan : A powerfull military unit. Very rarely seen in multi, as the naval map are rare. Compared to the standard Submersible, he is very efficient. And off course, he is stealth.

Kapaku

The Kapaku are currently overpowered. And this, despite the fact that the devs have slightly nerfed during a previous patch.

– Higher FIDSI : Their FIDSI in volcanic terrain is superior to the FIDSI of the other factions.

– Golem Rider : Their cavalry unit is very powerfull. High attack, high damages, fast unit, circulary attack (very powerfull), Charge (distance bonus) and use Claws, the best weapon of the game good against everything !

– Free upkeep for Stone Sentinel : Their Stone Sentinel quickly get -100% upkeep thanks to their faction quest. -100% is a huge benefit that no faction has. Having a large army of golems is not an economic drag for Kapaku. Their Stone Sentinel is immunise to poison and parasitism, the perfect counter agains Necrophages (and the only unit of major faction who has this ability. Even Broken Lords don’t !).

– Powerfull starting hero : Their basic hero is powerful and very fast. Very useful for killing the minors factions of archers.

– Excellent Fidsi Hexagons bonus for heroes : Their heroes greatly boost the yield of volcanic lands (+2 FIDSI) at level 3 already.

– Volcanic anti-regeneration is a great defensive feature : It prevents healing of your invaders, whatever healing bonus he may has (like Sisters of Mercy). Good in prolonged siege battles. But more than that, you can combine it with a strategy of high retaliation fortress : any damaged units with retaliation will never heal from turn to turn. It makes the retaliation a lot more harmfull !

– Attractive faction quest rewards : Their quest is easy enough to do. And the rewards are interesting, including the item Sway of the Mastery, available during part 5 of the quest (see here : Link[endlesslegend.gamepedia.com]).

This item gives Slavery to all your heroes. Slavery is a skill of hero Necrophages who add +1 in industry or food yield for every specialized citizen. It’s very powerful if you combine it with an industrialist hero (Exid the Chosen for exemple).

– Born of Ash : An obvious trait. It implies that you must volcanoform all your exploited hexes. And it is better to do it before asking your cities.

A triangle-shaped city will only need 3 volcano transformers if you place them correctly (+1 if you build a golem camp).

Volcanizing conquered cities is more difficult because you can not place them on the districts but only next to them.

– Shaman’s Knowledge : A very interesting racial faculty.

You see where are the conflux and what is their nature in the fog of war.

Better still, the bonuses of the conflux are definitely increased : +6 in speed of movement, +50% in initiative or +50% in attack ! The usual bonuses for reducing unit fees, or regeneration are also increased. You should really use these bonuses for attack during the Eclypse your enemies.

Finally, remember that conflux also works for Guardians and Urkans. A Gios with a huge initiative and a movement speed of 6 has no problem fighting archers armies, since he can reach them in the first round…

– Stargazers You can know exactly when the Eclypse will start, allowing you to better preposition your units either to attack a target (after you are force-fed with one or two conflux), or to collect the dust on the ruins and temples Eclypsed.

– Endless Fascination : A useful bonus. Seek to found your cities near the ruins, if possible (obviously always prefer clusters of anomalies). Beware, the science harvest only works if you select a technology. Otherwise, the harvest is lost.

– Golem Camp : A very expensive building in industry, but useful when you can afford it. You can put it in a cluster of anomalies, or otherwise on a scarce ressource (this will save you from paying the cost of building the extractor). Watch out, Golem Camp is vulnerable. It is sometimes better to place it near your city, at firing range from your garrison.

– Siege Engineering : A very interesting bonus especially if you are looking for stockpile technologies. Note that there is no need to do siege damage besieging the city. To conquier it is enough, because the attack destroys the fortification at the same time.

Many forces at Kapaku, and very few weaknesses, apart from :

– Their main weakness is the rising cost of vulcanotransformers. The amount of strategic resources needed can become prohibitive when you have a lot of cities. There is no easy way to compensate for this weakness, except to produce a lot of resources, or to assimilate Silics.

– Their second relative weakness is that their only truly effective unit is a cavalry unit. Many units can carry spears, the anti-cavalry weapon.

Kapaku can of course use Stone Sentinels, but they are mediocre compared to Golem Riders’s firepower.

– Kapaku are a vanilla faction. They are not ocean focused, or one city focused etc. as a result, they can opt for any strategy (fast rush in era II, long-term economic investment, etc.).

– However, their ability to predict the appearance of the Eclypses and to better exploit the power of the conflux, gives them an advantage to the aggressive strategy. It will be a shame not to use it.

– Stone Sentinel : An average unit that must be thought to equip according to the units opposite. Sword against the infantry, ax against the archers. Not very strong against the rest. It is effective against archers on open ground, but its slowness makes it less effective as soon as there are forests or cliffs.

– Geomancer : It’s kind of a garbage unit. However, it can be useful in some situations : if you have Urkans or Guardians, his stats boots last two rounds, and are very useful on these juggernaut units. If you are going to fight against slow units in rough terrain, slowdown will be very useful. In addition, their ranged damage is high for a support class unit.

– Golem Rider : I already said what I thought of this unit, in the part about the Kapaku strenght. Very strong unit. A bit expansive, but it worth it in most situations. And you don’t need to have the initiative : as you can have claws, it’s even better to don’t have initiative, as counter-strike is stronger than normal attack (except against archers).

Mykara (1/4)

– The Mykara are very underpowered without the ELCP. With the ELCP, they are still underpowered but more playable and fun. LeaderEnnemyBoss ressurected them.

– The Mykara are the Cultists-like faction. However, their improvements on the map, the fungals, are much more resilient than the Cult villages. Fungals cannot be one-shoted, you need few turns to pillage them. They can spread anywhere on the map, while Cultists should keep their villages within range of their capital.

– They are less warmonger than Cultist. What you should aim with Mykara is not the complete destructin of one ennemy faction, but conquering one small city, and keep it during 3 turns at least. To gain the assimilation bonus. It’s an interesting sniping-warmongering strategy.

– Creeping Presence : No settler. Fungal Blooms. Teleport on ruins.

Ok this is the core design of your faction. I will talk about it further in this part.

– Twilight Flourish : During Eclipses, you can instantely deploy Fungal Blooms using Dust. A very interesting and very strategic feature of Eclypse ! The advantages are : to finalize a construction, or to build it from scratch allows to have ruins immediately ready for the teleport. The military potential for surprise attack is enormous.

This also allows you to not have to pay the price each turn in food. Which is very interesting.

This allows you to wait for the tour of choice of the empire plan, to ask the fungal you want, so you do not have to pay the surcharge in influence and boost that fungal you will have paid if you had finalize before the tour of the empire plan (important to understand this well).

It also allows you to build fungal blooms without having to worry about enemy units looting them as they develop. During the growth phase, they are very vulnerable to looting.

Strategically, all this means that the Mykara have interest in having to bank a lot of dust when the Eclypse starts. A dust that will be much more profitable than it would have been food.

Organic Defense : Useful because applies to fungal blooms. Make them more resilient to looting (if you interrupt it of course).

Organic Industry : A little useful passive bonus. Strategically it does not change anything. I mean that when you need industry, do it directly, do not rely on a pure specialization in food to produce the equivalent in industry.

Overgrown Cities : The effects of assimilation are available here : Link. [endlesslegend.gamepedia.com] An attractive feature and very adapted to the background of the vegetal race.

Likewise, without ELCP, the extra cost of influencing and boosting the conquered city is far too high (and should be removed) to motivate a player to keep the conquered cities.

Urkan Encampment : A very very uninteresting technology without ELCP. At the limit if you have a Urkan who is very injured, and you want to prevent him from dying, you can look for this technology. But this situation will happen very very rarely because you can simply place units to get ready for it to protect it the time it heals and makes new larvae.

It would be nice if it brings additional benefits of the type : Urkans are cheaper to tame with resources, Urkans Mykarans heal twice as fast, or it becomes possible to negotiate a rival city for overgroth without having to go to war (this could give Mykara the possibility of a more peaceful long-term strategy).

Urkan Politics : A very situationnal technology but still interesting. Very good with ELCP if you need tame one Urkan. From two controlled Urkans, -40% for all technology transactions, becomes interesting. This reduction can also (probably) be combined with a reduction in the cost of influence, obtained by the corresponding spying action.

Other Mykara forces include :

– Resilience : Fungal Blooms very resilient once completed. Neutral minor factions do not attack them, and they are very resistant to looting (in fact, the extractors are fragile, but the ruins, towers and villages are very resistant). So, you can install them or you want on the map. And then you can also invade a ruin to have enough to teleport units when needed.

– The teleport : An essential feature. We will talk about it later.

– Powerful starting hero : A starting hero who hurts with his big two-handed sword, and who owns the powerful Free Counter feature. He can fight against enemies higher in number, defeat, and win a lot of XP.

– Higher Health Regeneration : The faster regeneration of Mykarans units for each fungal bloom possessed. A modest but interesting regeneration from the mid-game.

– Very powerful faction quest final reward : A slow faction quest to start and get but whose final win is very interesting: the total amount of Fidsi coming from fungal bloom is tripled! Such an economic advantage can justify in multiplayer, that one seeks to accomplish the quest for faction as quickly as possible.

Mykara (2/4)

– If we put aside their extreme weakness today, the development potential of a single city is necessarily less than that of several cities. The Cultists are currently able to successfully offset this weakness by obtaining stockpiles, and owning their villages. Mykara are far from weight. Faced with a passive and ineffective AI, invading half of the map with your fungal bloom is easy, but in the face of aggressive players, single-city factions have much more trouble (Cultists can for example in a few turns be done shave all villages by a smart player).

– The fact that you have only one quickly exposes you to the same risk as the Cultists : the risk of a sudden and brutal attack, making you lose the game immediately if you do not have a sufficient garrison.

– The infiltration of your city by a spy who could choose to ruin your production for several turns or annihilate your fortification. There is no real solution, except exercise a strong map control (including detection tower) all around your city. Difficult but not impossible. Best against remaining spies, not the round up, but to completely deny access to your city’s surroundings to any other player’s unit.

Mykaran units are mediocre :

– The support unit is useful but very fragile in the face of any array of fast units or ranged fire that exists.

– The cavalry unit is supposedly glass canon, but it is rather glass very short : the damage it inflicts are far from formidable. And since it is a cavalry unit, it is easy to counter it with spears, but many units in the game can use spears (eg Drakkeling, Burdeki, Dervish etc.).

– The infantry unit has poor stats. His ability to suppress movement for two turns (the current turn, and the next turn) does not change much in the course of the fight. It is an ability that can be useful from time to time, especially against all cavalry units that like to charge a lot to do bad things (like the Roving Clans Dervish, or the Allayi Seekers).

– Fungal blooms cost food and slightly increase the cost of influence and boost.

– Extractors of strategic resources : We must build only what we need : 3 extractors of strategic resources (for the main quest) see more if we need more resources (to make a wonder for example).

Keep in mind that Mykara have a great advantage over advanced resources (adamantium, hyperium etc.) : your extractors have the same cost as those of era I. And you do not pay the price in resource of super extractors of the IV era !

– Luxury Resource Extractors : The luxuries resources are interesting to fungalise if you have the utility of these resources. Some resources are by nature very interesting, like the Dye (+ 50% influence), others are of little use (like gold, which reduces maintenance costs on the city. only one city, and you have better to do your food than take this resource there).

– Villages : With regard to the villages, there is first of all the faction quest which requires 5 villages. There is no need to further fungalise villages. The advantage of being Mykara is that you can invest in any region, without having to be close to protect it. So you should systematically look for the most interesting factions to assimilate, such as Urces, Silics or Dorgueshi. 3 villages of Silics, that’s good. But 6 assimilated villages, it’s much better !

– Ruins : The ruins are as you know from teleport gates. Teleporting units is of course useful for defending and exploring the map, but it is also useful for harvesting ruins under the Eclypse. Just have some fungalised ruins arranged on the map, and have several fast units on hand. You can teleport them as soon as the Eclypse starts, and try to harvest as quickly as possible the beautiful blue glow.

Fun and useful, the fungalised ruins block the access to ruin to other players, whether for a quest or to explore.

– Watchtowers : They have little interest. If you fear a stealth unit infiltration around your city, you can build it.

They become radically interesting from the Era V (very late game) where a commercial technology increases its radius of exploitation by +1, making it the equivalent of a Cultist village.

At this point it becomes interesting to produce everywhere, especially during the Eclypse, to save food.

– Retaliation Towers (Pearl Towers) : These are available through the Winter Graces. Those of level 1 are useless. But those of level 2 have a +1 radius in operation. You should build everywhere on the map. Of course, they require a large amount of pearls. Like all fungal bloom tower (or villages) they are resistant to looting, and you will not have to worry about protecting them, unlike the converted villages of Cultists.

– The offensive teleport, ie the surprise attack with some units, preferably during the Eclypse, is extremely effective, and is difficult to counter. The enemy would have to regularly monitor all the regions on the borders of his cities.

– The teleport is also great for quickly attacking a Urkan. No need to waste time getting your units across the map. And they can quickly return home once the brutal domestication work done.

– Your Urkans can use the teleport. It’s sometimes practical.

– Ipotane : A unit more powerful than it looks. She is remarkable for fighting infantry units with her slowdown. Good initiative, good speed, and good damages.

– Gorgon : A unit with high initiative. Useful for blocking reinforcement units in their home hex. As an ambidextrous unit, it must always carry both types of weapons (sword & ax) because there is no use in carrying the same weapon twice. Thus your Gorgons will always be effective against the infantry, and against the archers.

– Shambler : An average unit, with a particularly low attack score (10). It’s a unit made to tank. Its special combat effect that blocks the movement of the struck unit is sometimes useful. The big advantage of this unit is that its base cost of production is low : 80 of industry, like each other Mykara units elsewhere.

Mykara (3/4)

Mykara are a very special faction. They have great strengths and also great weaknesses.

It is very difficult to learn how to play this faction well. So I decided to add new parts on them, to explain them more deeply. There will be a bit of repetition.

At the top level, the Mykara remain underpowered in my opinion, although LeaderEnnemyBoss has helped them a lot with the ELCP.

– The assimilation bonuses of the villages: You are not limited by the distance between your city and these villages. You can, you must, choose the best assimilation bonuses and accumulate the villages. The best villages are Silics and Dorgueshi. Three villages double your extraction speed. It’s huge, it’s like doubling the amount of your fungal extractor without extra cost in food and influence/boosters at empire plan.

– Advanced extractors are cheap: Fungalize the advanced extractors does not cost more than the first level extractors. Do you realize that fungalizing hyperium, takes only three turns, without any cost of production or resource? This is a considerable advantage. This is one of the reasons why Mykara become particularly dangerous in late game.

– The power of the Towers: The fungal towers are stronger than they appear. Even in Era II they can be useful, if you can one anomaly or more, you should build them. The Winter Towers are much better. It is a bit the equivalent of a Cultist village, but without fear of being one-shot by a unit with the con who walks on the map.

One of the big advantages of the tricks of which many players are not aware: they automatiquely uprape as soon as you have the necessary technology. You should focus on towers blooming, more than having good empire plans (which are expansive). You can outright ignore the level 2 industrial if you are limited in influence at turn 20.

– Teleporters, with or without the Eclypse. You can hit any point on the map with a teleporter. Obviously useful for conquering an isolated city (for the Symbiosis bonus).

– They are impredictable for the others factions. The other factions generally expect to have their beautiful city with 8 population and a Canal Lock to start the mass production of units. Not the Mykara. They can make a small group of 2-3 units, and send it to conquer a far city, for the Symbiosis. Losing the city does not matter as long as the Symbios is accomplished.

– Another great strength: their fungals are very resilients. Unlike Cultist villages, you cannot one-shots fungals. And even if an enemy destroy your fungals, you can rebuild them later. Rebuilding villages need to have a a Preacher, and enough Influence.

– It’s basically their difficulty to explode in Fidsi and Science compared to well-managed normal factions. If you are in close start against a player who has a good start, dying is a very real possibility. If you play Mykara you have better be very good if you want to compete. 🙂

– In rare situations, you will have enough dust to buy a Mykara governor at turn 10-15. If you find a best Mykara Governor, or simply a better Governor you prefer, you will keep your hero as commander.

– But my strong advise, it to level him up to level 3-4 as fast as possible, then putting him as Governor. He will like doubling your food production, which means more industry, more fungals.
In theory it’s better to use the best Mykara Governor (one of them has Influence Efficienty 2, the other one has Industry Efficiency 2), but in practice it’s better to use what you have.

– Some players think that we should use non Mykara Hero as Governor. The Necrophages hero named Strike Far is quoted. He has Food and Industry Boost. Unit reduction cost (-24 %, it’s a lot), and he has +45 % food production (if he invest in the skill).

My opinion it’s they have wrong. They should compare him with a Mykara governor. Nothing match with a +3 Food on all exploited titles. It’s immediately usefull. Not the unit reduction cost. The more fungals and towers you have, the more usefull it is. And after these 3 invested points you can directly go to Inspirationnel Leader, a much better stats than the +45 % food output for the necro governor.

– Boosters has to be used at the right moment. You don’t have to haste yourself to use your Moonleaf if your science is not high. Keep it for a better moment. And use Market to buy the ressources you need when you will need it.

– Start puting fungals as soon as possible. Do not wait for turn 8-9-10 to do it to economise influence point for turn 10 (that’s something some players do).

– Do not stupidly spend your influence in empire plan. Your production of influence is limited with the Mykara. The necessary plans are Vision and Science. Vision help exploring faster, seeing threat, seeing pearls. The military plan is only useful if you plan the mass production of units.

– Destroying a village is better than Pacify it. Because destroying them will bring you XP. Of course, you have to attack only the easy-to-defeat villages (with your hero, the Bosses for example, and with your Ippodanes, all the villages of slow monsters, like the Ercys or the Haunts).

– Fungalize only the villages you need for assimilation. Each additional fungal will cost more. Be sparing. Unless you have a lot of food and nothing better to do.

– Same with the ruins. Beginners fungalize them. A good player only fungalise ruins he will need. Ruins can be put only to threaten an enemy. Force him to produce units because he will expect an attack at any time. Effective psychological weapon!

– Do not fungals the useless ressources : Emeralds (+5 happiness?), Grassilk (+100% trade roads). Unless you have 3 Dorguesi assimilated. And if you already have a lot of a resource in the bank, you do not need to add more extractors.

– Eclipses are powerful for Mykara. The priority target to fungals are the teleporters and the towers. They will quickly become very profitable.

– Since you will not be so or when an eclipse will happen. You should take the technology of the Era II Towers as soon as possible. Before the Imperial Market, or right after. To be ready, just in case of an Eclipse.

Mykara (4/4)

– If you have three Silics -> Fungalize all the extractors, and take the technology of alloys of Era II. Then go to war to whoever you want. Some improved Ippodanes will easily take a well protected city.

Even if you do not have the opportunity to conquer someone, you can still sell your resources to the market.

– If you have three Dorguesi and few extractors -> You should assimilate them to have permanent boostesr. The Dorgueshi are less useful than the Silics in Early Game, but they become extremely useful from the 3rd era (Titan Bones, Moonleaves etc.).

Speaking of luxury resources, think of quickly taking technology Market. For example, if you have 10 spices, but you need 13 to activate a booster, use the market!

– Erycis -> Strong map control. Fast Pearl collect, so more Winter Towers. Efficient surprise attack. One of the best faction to assimilate for the Mykara.

– Hurnas / Ceratan (Attack, Defense) etc. -> Good in mid-late game, when they are decisive battles. If you have 4 Ceratan for example, try to combine it with with a hero with a Defense bonus for his army, and with units who have a high natural defence (like the Shambler) to maximize the percentage effect!

– It may be interesting to assimilate one village with a fast unit. Nidya for example, are cheap scouts. They will pick up your pearls and hunt intruders (ie everything that moves on the map). The Magtay are excellents because of their devastating power. You will be surprised by their effectiveness.

– Dwelvers are not recommended because Mykara do not usually produce a lot of Dust. They rely on the sale of their units on the Market. By cons, Bos and Haunts are excellent, as they have a universal economic impact (your city, and your fungals).

– The other minor factions have little interest. Urces in particular, are a noob trap for Mykara. They are of little use (unless you have nothing better) because you have only one city.

– Two possibilities: either you manage to lock the access to your city (it is possible to do it with a good map control). This is the best anti-espionage strategy imaginable.

– That’s not always possible. And in this case you will be infiltrated by spy(s). In this case, the best is to research the technology Inquisitor’s Divinity of the Era III. This building increases the Security by +20. If you round up your city, Security will goes up to +40. On a Fervent city (which a +40 Security), it will put your Security level to the maximum You will have a high probability of capturing spies, or returning tthem the Academy.

– I advise you to take this technology, and then lock access to your city. It’s easy with the multiple detection towers of Mykara, and some fast units. A remark : if you put your urkan near your city, the players will have a vision on your city, then will be able to infiltrate it. ^^

– Reduce Industry, or Destroy Fortification, are two particularly feared effects for Cultists and Mykara. Capture Governor is also catastrophic.

– Urkan Encampement special technology makes Urkans a lot better military. What is the most useful it’s the army reinforcement brought from +2 to +4 units per turn. You can decide to use Urkans militarily, but it would be necessary to heal them fast, first. Use healer unit to this, like Ceratan, brought in battles against minor monsters. In few turns your Urkan will be healed fully.

– But to put it simply, you can leave your Urkans close to your citadel. Who would like to give up a +50% Science? A + 30% Food, or +20% Dust?

The more time passes, the more the Mykara are hard to stop. Here’s why :

– All buildings that increase the yield of the output of a city, ultimately works on all Fungals. Since all Fungals are brought back to the city. It’s the same with the Cultist and their converted villages.

– All efficiency buildings in the “+10% Science” style must be built. And the most powerful of them is the National Craftworks (Double the Effects of Luxury Resource Boosters on City). Combine it with Dorgueshi and your Titan Bones, Moonleaves, Dyes or Spices bonuses will be doubled. Which is a huge advantage!

I’m also thinking of the Living Live Tool, Era IV. It doubles all the science production of the city (and therefore, I repeat, of your fungals).

Your enemies will have these buildings but they will only work at a regionnal level, a single city.

– As I wrote above, at this point, you will probably have a lot of strategic resource extractors, and assimilated Silics. Few factions will be able to produce as many superior strategic resources as you can. You ll can make most of your armies elites armies.

– To defungalize will not be very useful, and not sustainable. Unless your ennemis have more powerful and mobile units, making it impossible to use your own units. Fighting Mykara on the map control & fungal problem won’t be very effective in mid-late game.

– If you played well, you should have accomplished at least one Symbiosis. Almost all Sympbios have useful economic or military bonuses. The economic bonuses will obviously be exponentially useful to the Mykaras. Military bonuses (such as the Stealth on Forest) will be a sore spot for other players, unable to see your units on the map.

Misc tips

There are three care units : Drakken Hero, Ceratan, and Eyeless Ones

– Healing a unit does not require any attack score. And it is not possible to miss his care, or to make a critical hit. The only value that counts is the dammage. As a result, it is useless to increase the attack of your care units.

– Units of care are generally not recommended. Why ? Because they occupy the place of a military unit that will hurt. It is better to hurt and cash rather than to heal. There is one exception : that of elite units.

It is very interesting, very wise, to protect your elite units, expensive and rare, with care units. If you heal 50 points on a full titanium unit, it’s a lot more cost-effective than healing 50 life on a normal unit. In addition, hurting an elite unit is more difficult than hurting and killing a normal unit, as its defense score and hit points will generally be higher.

– The Eyeless Ones is a better healer than the Ceratan, because it has a healing aura for the units around. The Ceratan is effective, but it has the disadvantage of stun the neat unit. So she will win + 100% in defense but she can not act in the next round, or fight back. It is therefore a very special power, to use with intelligence (the ideal being to treat the same unit several times per turn with the Ceratan, rather than several units, which will all be stunned). If the map has a bottleneck, you can place a unit on that box, and put a defensive cocoon on it. This is the ideal.

– A Defense Army boost is excellent if you have units of care because it will decrease the damage suffered by your units.

– The Wild Walkers governor skill tree offer you the Behemot Tamer skill, which reduce -12% to -24% the building cost. You can combine with the empire plans and the Slave & Market tech. Moreover, the Wild Walker hero can have level 2 of the skill which reduces the cooldown of hero moving from one city to another. It’s rare to use this trick, but if you can succeed it will cost you less than 20% of the original dust cost. A superb trick.

– Functionning Isomaniac is another great skill of the Wild Walker hero. It decreases from 5 to 3, then to 1, the number of turns to reassign your hero. It’s great if you want for any reason, reassign him quickly to another army. It’s great too if you combine it with Behemot Tamer, because you will be able to rush with Dust the buildings he makes you in your city A, then the next turn, reassign him to your city B, and repeat the process ! The interest is of course to benefit from the tremendous drop in cost of -24% !

– Let’s do the math: -33% to the cost of the buildings by the level 2 -24% industry empire plan by Behemot Tamers. it gives -57% of the cost of the buildings. If in addition you with three identical Urces, one removes another 15% and one passes to -72% !

– It’s a trick that I rarely use, but that is really attractive and is worth it especially if one possesses assimilated Urces.

Jojo’s rules for a non lame multiplayer

– The ELCP technically solves most of the problems that these rules intended to solve. 😉

– It is forbidden to use the Nwere ring. He gives the Ghost Force skill to your hero. This skill gives stealth to the entire army. It’s very overpowered because normally only Forgottens heroes can get this skill, at level 4, by choosing a specific skill path.

– It is forbidden to search for any technology that improves stockpiles. The effect is much too powerful and completely breaks the balance of the game. Exception: Cultists have the right to seek the first technology, in era III.

– It is forbidden to destroy the buildings of a city that has just been conquered, or to kill the population through an action of Sacrifice (Necrophages technology). By these acts of anti-gambling, one can completely ruin a city that a player can easily reconquer. This is only allowed when the city has passed 100% under the control of its conqueror.

– It is forbidden to self-raze his cities just before leaving the game, in order to “punish” the player who is conquering you.

– It is forbidden to use the unlimited Drakken Force Truce / Peace / Alliance power against a given player. The rule is that you can only use it once every 5 rounds per player. Without this rule, the Drakkens can be almost invulnerable to war.

– It is forbidden to use the Morgawr Black Spot power against the Roving Clans to conquer his cities. The reason for this rule is that it will be impossible for the Roving Clans to reclaim their own cities, since it is impossible for them to declare war! You can still use Black Spot to force a border opening or attack their units.

– Using Force Truce and its variants against the Roving Clans is forbidden. Because they could not declare war to take back a city that you could have taken from them. It’s very lame.

– It is forbidden to use the power of Roving Clans Market Ban without limit against a given player. Permanent exclusion without recourse is too powerful. The rule is that if a player forces his deban of the Market, it is necessary to wait the next turn to have the right to ban it again.

– Neros is a very overpowered Guardian. His charge attack with waves is ultra overpowered. For this reason it’s very wise to ban him.

– Morgawr on Pangea map have the whole ocean for themself. They win from the mid game, a huge amount of influence and ressources, for no cost. It the hands of a good player, Morgawr tend then to be very overpowered. It can be wise to prohibit them in a Pangea map, where no one will revendicate the fortress but them.

The Essential ELCP Mod

Link :

[link]

– I suggest you to install this excellent, this essential mod. It brings smart and discrete improvements and rebalance.

– It increases too a lot the skill of the A.I, which is great in solo.

– One of the most important rebalance is about the fortification effect. It’s the new fortification rule. This feature is revolutionary. Defenders no longer have to sit in their city – it makes the offensive use of Fortifications possible ! As long as a City Battle Counts have a City Battle Armor.

It makes the defensive strategies really more viables, in a game where offensive is too easy.

– The installation is in one click. And uninstallation too (read the link).

– LeaderEnemyBoss is the creator of the Endless Legend Community Patch. Thanks you very much to him !

Join your Discord here : [link]

Conclusion

It took me several tens of hours to write this guide, and to update it.

If you are rich, contact me. ^^

I think I have passed on a lot of my experience on this great game.

Thanks again to Amplitude,
Thanks to LeaderEnnemyBoss, the creator of the awesome ELCP mod,
And thanks to all the good players and the good people with whom I had the pleasure of playing,

Jojo_Fr