Endless Legend - The Fantasy 4X spin off of the Endless Space

I've had my eye on this for a while, picked it up during the Steam sale, along with Guardians. New to 4X, but I really loved the art style, the world, the factions... Yeah, so I am completely new to 4X games, and this wanted me to get into them.

I wish I'd have remembered to buy Guardians for the Summer Sale, but I forgot about it.

I already got guardians but haven't done anything with it.

The trick to this game is to figure out what your faction does best, and plan out your resources around that. If you're the Wild Walkers, settle in forests. The Broken Lords should go for rivers and deserts. The others all have their strengths and weaknesses too. So settle somewhere that favors your playstyle and build up. Anomalies can help you fill in the gaps if you find the right ones.

So what faction do you recommend starting/learning with?

edited 24th Jun '15 10:30:42 AM by Ninjaxenomorph

broken lords

Vaulters.

Vaulters and Wild Walkers (AKA ranged dudes) are pretty useful if you don't get the hang of combat yet.

I also became so well-liked by the other factions I became world-leader, cheers! That was fun, good game, very good game indeed... Now I kinda wish I paid full price for the game, rather than through the Summer Sale

edited 24th Jun '15 11:22:19 AM by YoKab

Make up for it by buying Endless Space.

broken lords have a mediocre early game but they are remarkably simple to use due to the removal of food and pushing dust into the main resource in every single aspect. come mid game, you should be prospering, and come end game, making a shitton of money that basically makes you nigh indestructable because you can just heal after every match.

the ardent mages are more complicated, but i dont think they're any harder than any of the more standard versions. they're interesting is the main point in their favor, but they got pretty good early game i found, since their units are quite heavy hitters and ranged to boot.

vaulters...are pretty boring imo.

I have to thank you all for the recommendation for Broken Lords as a good first go. I am really liking the whole gameplay, and the features from Guardians. I'm having fun with my Dust guardian. Lots of fun.

My first race were the Wild Walkers. They seemed like a good middle ground without drastically changing the way any given race would play. Broken Lords were tempting, but I didn't want to go into my second game unsure of how to optimize for food, or being too reliant on using Dust to heal or increase population.

On a different note, I'm not sure if this is a The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard moment or some other related trope, but I was playing against the Cultists in one game and somehow they reached the beginning of the quest ending without having a level 3 district (and one of their quest requirements is definitely to have a level three district)

Oh, fun fact. he fewest districts needed for a level 2 is five (although a sixth can give you two more), and the fewest for a level 3 is nine. A pity only the Cultists can get that one.

I think Wild Walker is the most "neutral" of the factions. They're really good at building stuff, but other than that don't have much in the way of unique mechanics. Everyone else is some sort of major twist on core game mechanics: Broken Lords don't use food, Necrophages need to eat slaves, Roving Clans can't declare war, etc.

The second least weird faction would be the dragons, since while they have major diplomacy bonuses and can force peace on people, it's more of an option they have than a limitation. Third would be the Vaulters, who are pretty much normal except the game never really explains what a Holy Resource is, so you might get confused if you don't already understand the rest of the game.

edited 26th Jun '15 12:15:35 AM by Clarste

Definitely agreed.

Then the rest... Of course ignoring the Mezari.

Roving Clans, Cultists, Broken Lords, Necrophages, Ardent Mages. In order of most normal to least. I almost put Necrophages higher, but the inability to parley or bribe minor factions isn't a small thing, to say nothing of all the other stuff they have as unique mechanics.

edited 26th Jun '15 3:53:10 AM by Sabbo

are ardent mages really that strange?

maybe its an end game thing, i tend not to have patience to play for that long...

I wonder how you exploit some of the geological formations in the game, like Shaking Stones and whatnot.

Every anomaly has resource boosts. You can still plop down districts next to them to collect those boosts for your city.

And yeah, the best way to build up districts is in a double line. You can do it in triangles, but the double line is more efficient.

Alright then.

I actually got what a Holy Resource is by playing another faction; "Oh, that's how resource boosters work... Oh, that's what a Holy Resource is!" Just finished up another game as Drakken, this time I went for a Quest victory, though if I had stalled a few turns, I would have gotten a Wonder victory instead. I'd have to say that I preferred playing the Broken Lords, but the Drakken are a close second.

Ugh, I'm annoyed by how fast the eternal winter happens. I'm into the 290s already and barely anything's happened.

If you're playing against AI, you probably need to be more proactive. Halfway through my game, I tend to have wiped a faction or two from the map. Usually Necrophages or Cultists. Cultist as AI are ridiculously easy to steamroll.

They only have one city after all. They're built for that city state challenge, like Venice in Civ V.

ETA: The trick with them is to build a few solid Cultist armies for dealing with trouble in your home area, and then just relying on converted villages to provide the bulk of your expeditionary forces.

edited 3rd Jul '15 3:10:27 PM by Journeyman

Yeah, but I like to expand gradually. I'll have to keep that in mind next time.

I don't always expand at all, and almost never beyond my starting island. I play on island maps where there aren't any mainlands.

That's probably why. The sea game in Endless Legend is pretty weak.

Yes and no.

If you play them how they're meant to play, they're really weird, as they get two entirely unique game mechanics. However it is entirely possible to play them as one would play as the Wild Walkers, so long as you aren't bothered by being reminded about not placing pillars every dozen or so turns. End game just vastly broadens the options for those two game mechanics.