In case of titanium and glassteel (armour tech) I'd recommend to check out the equipment for heroes, if used as governors. I.e. you have equipment what comes along with boosts for science and dust income per population. In case of weapon I usually don't make use of them - for the reason you wrote about. As Sublustris pointed out, the battlefield preview option is part of vanilla game.

Sublustris wrote:

onomastikon wrote:

Thanks much. That doesn't seem to work for me, I don't get any preview either. Maybe this is because you are using that ELCM, and I am waiting to finish my first playthru to install that?

No, it's in default game. You select an army with left-click. You point at the tile you want it to move to (if you do), you press and hold right mouse button (don't release it!), you move cursor towards nearby tile with an enemy button with RMB still pressed, like drawing a vector - battlefield preview shows up. Then you move mouse back to where your army standing and release the button - order clancelled.

Thanks much, honestly I can't get this to work. I select an army, and when I hold RMB my army already moves without me letting go. I do not see a battlefield preview :(

onomastikon wrote:

Thanks much. That doesn't seem to work for me, I don't get any preview either. Maybe this is because you are using that ELCM, and I am waiting to finish my first playthru to install that?

One more question: Titanium and Glasssteel seem to become obsolete so much faster than I can use them. By the time I have unlocked the research to farm them, and *then* unlocked the research to build weapons or armor with them, I am basically on to the next level of iron gear, which is equal to the previous level of "special" gear. I am underwhelmed. Then Adamantium and Palladium are just SOOOO much better than any tier of glassteel or titanium, I can no longer find a use for the former, and selling it gives me tuppence. Endless Space 2 (the first game of these devs that I tried) seems to have balanced that much better in that you need the "earlier" techs to at least fund weapon *slots* on ships, unit creation seems far superior in ES2 than EL, I am quite surprised. Does the ELCM help balance the obsoletion of titanium and glasssteel at all? (I don't know much about the last two, hyperium and mithril, since I am just now researching the ability to harvest them.) 

There is no ELCM. Only ELCP (the community patch) and ELCMT (the updated map modding tools for creating custom maps for ELCP). 

In general, you should almost never research Era1 strategic gear since - as you noted - its simply too weak and becomes obsolete quickly. ELCP buffs it considerably by merging both techs and buffing some stats/making it cheaper, however its still intended to be a rather niche choice. Its roughly on par with Era2 iron gear but way cheaper, so should mainly be used if you want to rush early on (era1/era2).

However there are also Era 2/Tier 2 Titanium/Glassteel techs, which remain useful a bit longer. This is especially true for the Armor tech, because the Accessories it unlocks are useful for Governors and Generals throughout the game. If you are very lucky you can also get Tier 3 Titantium/Glassteel techs, but those can only be gotten via quests or sometimes in ruins.

Note: Each Equipment tech reduces the resource cost of ALL equipment that uses the corresponding resource, so Era1 techs arent completely useless, as they also make Era2 Glassteel/Titanium equipment a bit cheaper.

Ok thanks and sorry for the false acronym. I liked the fact that in es2 the first two resources (blue and yellow) were always slightly useful for at least some purpose, I do see the governor accessories though. I was surprised at how even tier 3 iron makes blue and yellow obsolete in EL! 

onomastikon wrote:

Ok thanks and sorry for the false acronym. I liked the fact that in es2 the first two resources (blue and yellow) were always slightly useful for at least some purpose, I do see the governor accessories though. I was surprised at how even tier 3 iron makes blue and yellow obsolete in EL! 

Titanium and Glasssteel are useful for a lot of things (amongst them very important buildings even in era 5). As for equipmentr:; Accessories remain useful, and if you are lucky you get Tier 3 Equipment which can carry you into Era4 or 5. Also Vaulters benefit more fro  strategic Equipment due to holy resource mechanics.

HeliumPrime wrote:

There are many ways to acquire more strategic resources, some of these methods do not apply to Cultists and Mykara:

- Trading with other empires or purchasing from market

- Pillaging pacified villages and strategic extractors of other empires

- Make scouts or spec a ruin-searching hero with Movement 3 trinket and auto-explore them across the map to fetch ruins for you (and once all ruins are searched, research Endless Mechanisms in Era 4 to reset all ruins).

- Buying any boat to explore Sunken Ruins (I prefer Bathyspheres)

- Conquering ocean facilities

- Settling new cities directly on top of the strategic resource and then salting the city right before Empire Plan turn (settling on resources instantly builds the extractor if you unlocked the tech to extract it).

- Assimilating Silics

- Building Mining Rights building in city (Era 4 tech called Borer's Guild)

- Building Volcanic Leechers in cities that exploit at least 1 tile of Volcanic terrain (Era 5 tech)

- Building Strategic Intensifier (a district unlockable with pearls during and after the 3rd winter) directly on top of your preferred resource

Thanks.

Pillaging? I was wondering why I seem to only be able to siege and attack cities. How does one pillage? When searching for this topic, I came upon this wiki entry (https://endlesslegend.fandom.com/wiki/Pillage) which baffles me because I cannot see this tech. The only era 1 tech I have not researched is Search Party. I do not see this option anywhere. What am I missing? Does this require a specific DLC?

I am guessing that many of the other techs you mention require DLC since I also have never heard of them. I am currently only playing with Shifters, although I believe I do now own 1 or 2 other DLC

onomastikon wrote:

LeaderEnemyBoss wrote:

onomastikon wrote:

Ok thanks and sorry for the false acronym. I liked the fact that in es2 the first two resources (blue and yellow) were always slightly useful for at least some purpose, I do see the governor accessories though. I was surprised at how even tier 3 iron makes blue and yellow obsolete in EL! 

Titanium and Glasssteel are useful for a lot of things (amongst them very important buildings even in era 5). As for equipmentr:; Accessories remain useful, and if you are lucky you get Tier 3 Equipment which can carry you into Era4 or 5. Also Vaulters benefit more fro  strategic Equipment due to holy resource mechanics.

Thanks much. I'll try to be patient then. I'm already in Era 4 and adamantium seems to be just sooooo nice ;)

Ofcourse if you are ion era4 and have the necessdary resources to upgrade, go ahead and do that ;). You dont need to research every weapon tier, typically you should do it when you need it (i.e. planning for or expecting a war).

thanks much!

Would you mind clearing me up on pillaging? Is the wiki quiet on the fact the the tech for this is in a DLC or am I missing something again?

Ok I'll activate that the next game then thanks. I'll try that community patch as well.

Just to clarify, you need Shadows DLC and also research the Era 1 Pillage tech, and then you get the option to Pillage while beside outlying buildings.

You also get a hero trinket that lets you see the invisible Forgotten units before you get Watchtowers, can be handy.