Journey vs Destination

[Darius]

For me, it seems to be all about the Journey rather than the Destination when it comes to video games. For example, in EB, I have soooo much more fun building up my empire until it's a superpower, but once nobody is able to rival me, it sort of goes downhill as I no longer have any challengers. Do you guys feel the same, or do you prefer the feeling of accomplishment upon equaling and/or exceeding your factions victory conditions?

[Mediteran]

I'd say the journey.. i always have the most fun in my first turns when i have no money, and no army

[HunGeneral]

I would say I enjoy the beginning, the middle of the Journey and the Destination.

The first turns can be great fun, however I like the greater decesive battles in the middle game and the time when you have succuded in your faction victory conditions and its time to conquer the world pluss you can start roleplaying massively (this can be different with some factions: with the Romani and the AS you often have most of the map under control by the time you achieve the victory conditions).

[Zarax]

The problem with most mods is that by the time you got a medium sized empire you're swimming in money with almost no way to go in red.
The so called "snowball effect" makes the latter stages of the game much less of a challenge.
In XGM and XC we tried to counter this by increasing corruption faction-wide each time you conquer a foreign capital.
While still no ideal, it prevents the player from running around with a couple dozens full stacks of elites

[Cute Wolf]

Tasteless XGM advertisements

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bah, XGM always overpowered the evil side... trigger a faction wide corruption will made roleplaying in XGM a complete ruin... In EB, If u educate your family in a good condition, corruption should arise, but only for a few selfish guy... When I play XGM, extended culture... my previously good Carthago FM's all go nuts and thanks to that crap, my dilligently earned, and drilled family lost all their good vices..., so the next thing I do is WAAARRGGHHHHH **** XGM, and back to EB, FATW, and VI II...

BTW, back to topic, I tends to enjoy middle game mostly... as u fight soo many enemies in soo many directions, with regular fullstack vs regular fullstack.... early game is nearly nothing (yepp, easy beginnings) for those Big four faction (Romani, AS, Ptolemaioi, Karthadst), and hard earned and full of briliant tactics for the others... challenging, but the battle of 1FM with 6 Hoplitai haploi, and 3 sphendonetai against 1 FM, 4 phalangitai and 1 bunch of toxotai and 1 akontistai, is not comparable with full stack of thorakitai vs argyraspides...

Late game just need much patience, except there was only 2 superpower... (really fun late game)

[Fierro]

I find the early and middle game to be most enjoyable. Late game can get much too tedious IMO. When each turn takes upwards of 30 minutes (not counting battles) on top of that you have several (usually) large battles each turn; you end up playing a whole day but just get through a few turns. When it gets to that point it becomes more of a chore or orbligation to continue playing rather than the fun of actually fighting quick decisive battles and actually having a chance you might be on the losing side in the early and middle game.

[Darius]

I find the early and middle game to be most enjoyable. Late game can get much too tedious IMO. When each turn takes upwards of 30 minutes (not counting battles) on top of that you have several (usually) large battles each turn; you end up playing a whole day but just get through a few turns. When it gets to that point it becomes more of a chore or orbligation to continue playing rather than the fun of actually fighting quick decisive battles and actually having a chance you might be on the losing side in the early and middle game.

That, right there, is exactly how I feel in my current Romanii campaign, I have all the Mediterranean, all of Africa, Gaul is mine, Germany is mostly mine, Hayasdan only has a province in former Sarmatian lands far to the north, I've pushed all the way east to Babylon and Seleukia, and the Getai are only a distant memory. The Arab guys (not even gonna try to spell it) have only one province left as well and I got an army marching there who should arrive in a few turns. All in all it feels more like I'm mopping up the world rather than conquering it now.