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.

[Chris1959]

Definately the journey, though my current Romanii campaign has been modded and roleplayed and is at 10AD with 4 years to go, at least once I'll play all the way to 14AD. I must admit the last 70 years have dragged a little with no doubt as to the outcome, and I rather lost interest in my FM's apart from trying to get the Augustus character to trigger Imperial reforms, the annoying sod wouldn't develop expert recruiter for about 20yrs so I only got them in 14BC
Perhaps the most disappointing part was the composition of AI armies declines towards the end, even the Getai and Sweboz where I deliberately left their barracks intact when I raided cities.

[Apázlinemjó]

I like the early and middle game, when I have more than 40-50 provinces it becomes very slow (real time) to advance and I just get bored, because of that.

[Fluvius Camillus]

The point were I have a chance to lose is my favourite, because I experience that the least

~Fluvius

[Mikhail Mengsk]

I enjoy the mid-game more than early and late games.

In the early phase, you have to concentrate yourself on growing and surviving, and you don't have access to you faction's elite units. It's fun, but lacks of epic battles, often.

In the late game, you are usually TOO powerful, and it's only a matter of time and patience to achieve victory. Sure, if an AI faction had gained the upper hand in a certain region it could be an epic war, but even full stacks of seleukid's elites aren't a real match to a good player with good armies.


So, i like mid-game. You are not too powerful, but not too weak. You can build up strong armies, but it won't be so easy to prevail against a major enemy faction. Your economy is good, but you can't build all that you want.

[The General]

Early-to-mid game is usually the most fun.

[Andronikos]

I like the mid-game most, when you fight many enemies with huge armies, your armies don't consist of FMs and militias, but still don't have money for elites.
Beginnings are fun too and it was more fun when I was new to EB and starting positions were harder than in RTW, I was loosing and had to figure out the best starting strategy, now I know tactics for many factions how to get through harsh beginnings so it is more routine.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Total War games are definitely about the building up of an empire to me. I never play a faction that starts with an empire and once I've established one with a little faction I usually get bored. Once I have an empire I have to do a lot of role-playing, game editing, and forced-diplomacy to keep myself interested in the campaign.

[mountaingoat]

yeah i like to play with the small starting empires .. like the previous post

when it starts to get near the end game ,and i guess it depends on your factions goals ,it can be like a chore , updating your towns and gathering armies ... I guess this is when auto resolve comes into play too .