Very much disliked the rule of victory holding beacons or symbols of commitment when enemies constantly appear on them. It is unclear why to introduce such complexity. This is accomplished by building them in three neighboring cities. That is, as if it is a complication for the sake of complication.
#Winning conditions
autumn fractal
frail plume
I don't really like it either. It already takes a lot of production and then 15 turns to win. Isn't that enough time for your opponents to respond? Must there also be neutral armies working against you as well?. Makes military victory look much easier in comparison. It would also be nice to understand why neutral armies would care who wins?
somber ferry
It's probably nationalist partisans who don't want to see the realm get united.
terse lance
How big are the attacking armies, by the way?
autumn fractal
Three squads of five or six units
terse lance
3 squads per objective, or 3 squads total? And do they respawn after being killed?
frail plume
3 squads per objective, or 3 squads total? And do they respawn after being kille...
For expansion victory, they begin appearing when the countdown begins after lighting the beacons. They seem to respawn every few turns at one of the 3 locations. I assume it's the same for magic victory
rustic creek
I had 2 full armies every 3 turns when I did magic victory.
frail plume
It's probably nationalist partisans who don't want to see the realm get united.
That's sorta how I framed it
rustic creek
I just put a teleporter near every location. Makes it a lot easier.
Or you can build all three of them together somewhere where you have 3 cities touch.
terse lance
That's my plan currently
At least magic victory gets you a nice sustained effect to help with the rush. Expansion seems a bit rougher.
frail plume
Right, not saying it's hard to win them. But I'm not sure the additional antagonism is necessary. Seems like it should be up to the other players to stop it. Just my early opinion
I guess it's to counteract the advantage you have from being in your own domain
frail plume
At least magic victory gets you a nice sustained effect to help with the rush. E...
Already feels like a pretty big accomplishment to acquire and hold all that territory
rustic creek
I'm pretty sure the AI players can't mount enough of a threat to actually make you defend. They'll get all confused, and siege random cities, or something.
wheat wave
Last night I did a game as evil barbarian orcs and got a military victory as I was also going for an expansion one (noticed the last AI was easy enough to beat down since marauders kicked their ass) and they beacons will get 3 stacks of 5 or 6 (15 minimum) plus it seems they become a target for any marauder bands left roaming the map too. AI never threatened them and I had the beacons near my well defended throne city but it definitely seems a bit excessive having them all spawn right around the beacons. Maybe they could be spread out more and march en masse towards different beacons to make you spread your forces even more, but at the same time I think beating one final wave of them at once should be enough for the victory if you haven't lost a beacon
frail plume
i think having them as roaming bands doing more than just stand on your beacons would be more interesting. Like if they would pillage and attack your cities as well
terse lance
So, after doing a magic victory, I actually don't think the event monsters were that big of an issue. It was only 2 stacks (one with high tier enemies, one with low tier enemies) by one of the victory conditions and they only spawned every 3 turns or so. Not sure if it's more annoying for the expansion victory or not, but for magic it was very manageable.
jolly canopy
I know the one time I did Magic victory I had to spam Warbreeds, transmuters and Balors as every wave was like a 3k stack, I had to reload to a few turns before the first wave because I was under the impression they would come from somewhere. Rather than just spawn on top of the Seed, Root or Heart of Chaos. Which I was unprepared for. So I had to churn out doom stacks from all three cities. This makes me not want to try for a Magic victory anymore.
somber ferry
My strategy for magic victory was to keep a hero and two stacks of regulars at a beacon. Wherever the mobs spawned, I chain-summoned reinforcements to that area.
rustic creek
First time I had a teleporter near every location.
Expansion victory, I just made the beacons in adjacent provinces of three different cities, and stationed some armies there.