Hello everyone

This is a playthrough on Endless with the Allayi.

They´re an extremely interesting faction that share many small but awesome characteristics with other factions of the game. They lack food and can build districts with only 1 pop like necros. They have very high mobility from turn 1 like Roving Clans. They have 2 flying units like the Drakken. They have a very durable and damage-dealing T2 Flying striker like the Ardent Mages. Their hero has an area of effect healing based on his damage, like the Bishops, and is a much more useful general than a governor, like the Vaulters. They are quest oriented like the Wild Walkers. They have a certain flexibility in acquiring resources like the Forgotten. They´re better off with a very small count of cities, and ultimately the only thing that matters is their capital, like the Cult.

Some very useful observations when playing quest are regarding Science and Peace.
-You want to focus your game on a very high rate of tech acquisition because the main limiting factor for them will always be harvesting 40 mithrite and 55 hyperium. You need to discover where the deposits are as fast as you possibly can to count as little on the market as possible.
-Making sure you´re Peaceful towards neighbors can turn one of the steps from considerably hard into considerably easy. You´ll need to scout the map in search for 2 regions in order to talk to the villages there, and first search a ruin in one and then either take a level 3 Skyfin on Dark-Mode or kill an army in the second. In case the regions in question belong to a player/AI which has closed their borders to you, you´ll need: a) to pay for them to open them (unlikely and expensive), b) to sneak in there with Stealth units (very troublesome and potentially expensive), c) to count on Winter effect to open everyone´s borders (good luck with that), or d) to declare war and deal with it (potentially troublesome).

They have very particular and tactical units I could discuss in more details if anyone´s interested, but this game was played all auto. They do suffer considerably from the AI using their units poorly, much like the Forgotten.


I´d also like to make a note on the game´s AI in general - it´s so much better. It can actually be challeging late in the game. More than a couple of times I failed the last step of the quest (conquering any 3 cities) simply because I chose to tackle an AI which already had a huge military advantage on me and that took me ages. The AI will now force you into checks, it will narrow passages with useless armies that will just retreat if you waste your action points on them, it will go great lenghts to target your vulnerable Solitary units like Guardians and Skyfins, and - probably most important of all when talking about domination victories - it is now resilient. It doesn´t make truces it shouldn´t. Makes steamrolling 5 of them incredibly harder with all their industry.

I´ll post the turns in the sequence, any comments are welcome.

I'll be very interested in seeing the details of our playthroughs, what techs you prioritized, what pearl improvements you built, how you leveled up heroes...etc.



I'm also quite interested in how you envision using the Allayi on a tactical level. I've personally already formulated a 'doctrine' for them that I apply effectively, but it would be nice to see how you approach them.

Settings





Turn 1 - Start - Ok place, but not for a capital.



You need some source of either food or dust in order to avoid overwhelming your population. Rivers are great, but I wouldn´t find any. I found this instead. I found that a lot as the Allayi, but most importantly, you will rarely ever not a find a good place. You don´t even really need an approval anomaly - find somewhere with high industry or high science and a prospect of Water tiles. You high mobility units will very often find some luxury on ruins - keep it! You´ll need to use them after building the Sewers and the Altar of Auriga in order to reach Fervent in your empire. Also, don´t settle until then, unless you´re going to salt it.



Since their hero has 5 movement, you can split him up first to liberate the settler. Then just teleport back if you need to save dust.



Turn 2 - Trying to stay close to the ruins for step one of Quest. - Tech Path



Turn 3 - Quest Step 1 - Quest Step 2 - I´m right next to two already, slight downside of moving.



Turn 4 - Keeping the Fin on the titanium - Mobility Trait



Turn 5 - Getting ruins



Turn 6 - Meeting the Broken Lords



Turn 7 - Pacification quest. I would stop focusing on science now to produce enough influence. Take would take a small toll. If I didn´t have the approval now, I´d go for sewers first and seed storage after the settler.



Turn 8 - Unlocking the Market to make an informed decision regarding my dust - Tech Path



Turn 9 - Going after glassteel



Turn 10 - Regrouping - Empire Plan - Wayra Sigo



Turn 11 - Winter is coming...



Turn 12 - Altar built, training a cheap unit while I don´t have anything better to do. - Quest Step 3



Turn 13 - Now I get a settler. - Quest Step 4



Turn 14 - Settling second city.



Turn 15 - Winter gone, I now make the math and see I can assimilate these guys.



Turn 16 - Starting the Megapole - Tech Path



Turn 17 - Avoiding to get pearls within sight of the Wild Walkers for that good diplomacy.



Turn 18 - Retrofitting to fight roaming minions



Turn 19 - Peace



Turn 20 - Fast Megapole - Empire Plan



Turn 21 - Capital preparing to level up Altar and Megapole. Note that I built the Altar in the wrong place so it will take a while to level up my city center. Not a big deal.



Turn 22 - I was trying to kill a Sisters of Mercy village for Tier 3 strategic armors, but that wasn´t gonna happen. - Capital



Turn 23 - Loser Fin



Turn 24 - Getting production. - Quest Step 5 - Capital - Tech Path



Turn 25 - Quest Step 6 - This is where it can get tricky. I was lucky enough.



Turn 26 - Pearl gathering - Blessing: Chapel of Auriga



Turn 27 - Approval - Quest Step 7



Turn 28 - Avoiding overstaying my welcome on Wild Walker´s land so that they don´t close borders.



Turn 29 - Extractor - Tech Path



Turn 30 - Fin getting glassteel for Era 3. - Quest Step 8 - Exid the Chosen - Empire Plan



Turn 31 - Taking some armies because this is the Version of their Quest that you have to fight an army of the Minor Faction you talk to. Alternatively, the game will ask you to bring a Skyfin level 3 in the Dark form. - Second City



Turn 32 - I´ll kill skoros for the loot. - Quest Step 9



Turn 33 - Chasing - Peace



Turn 34 - Target spotted - General - Tech Path



Turn 35 - Going Dust Refinery since I lack tiles with dust. - Quest Step 10: time to grow - Pearl Discount



Turn 36 - Winter comes and it´s time to get a bunch of blessings: Winter borough, Strategic Intensifier and Anomaly District. - Capital - Second City.



Turn 37 - Pearl gathering



Turn 38 - The units will give my Allayi hero a lot of xp for discount level 2 on pearls



Turn 39 - Pearl gathering



Turn 40 - Increasing my science to fly through era 3. - Empire Plan - Blessing: Wards since it´s a step in the quest



Turn 41 - The sea is awesome for pearls (who would´ve thought) - Tech Path



Turn 42 - Pearl gathering



Turn 43 - Getting a settler for quest and positioning army for tough fight against Scythers. - Quest Step 11



Turn 44 - Engaging - Quest Step 12 - Prediction - Result - Round 2 - Quest Step 13



Turn 45 - Building Wards. Could´ve built both already, but brains also fart.



Turn 46 - Building Wards part II. - Tech Path



Turn 47 - Unlocking resource market for the wonder. - Quest Step 14 - 8th Blessing: Ice Works - Quest Step 15: and now I need science.



Turn 48 - Keeping my tiles productive. - Capital building Garths with 40% discount. Also, that +4 dust on all exploitation is from winter borough.



Turn 49 - Expanding the capital. - Wild Walkers Trait for Wonder - Spy to plant on the Broken Lords since last step of quest is conquering. - Buying resources.



Turn 50 - Building up my army. - Empire Plan



Turn 51 - Increasing my influence for level 4 empire plans. - Tech Path - Sea Pearls



Turn 52 - Score - Military Overview

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
I'll be very interested in seeing the details of our playthroughs, what techs you prioritized, what pearl improvements you built, how you leveled up heroes...etc.



I'm also quite interested in how you envision using the Allayi on a tactical level. I've personally already formulated a 'doctrine' for them that I apply effectively, but it would be nice to see how you approach them.

Thanks!



Later I´ll post here about their units with pictures of their abilities to better explain them.

Just one question... This was a Wonder Victory, but not the mission victory. That's correct? I'm still quite noob at Endless Legend :S

Epikuros wrote:
Just one question... This was a Wonder Victory, but not the mission victory. That's correct? I'm still quite noob at Endless Legend :S

Yes, correct. After you finish the main quest-line, you can both proceed for a Quest Victory by searching the Ruins with a Pillar of Light or for a Wonder victory, like I did.

So, a military playthrough.



Basically, their units are defensive during the Summer and offensive during the Winter.



Shifting Charge will reduce the enemy attack during the summer, which is ideal for charges per se - you go in on odd turns targetting low attack units, then go out on even turns to stack up morale and watch them chase you around with a high chance of about half their army dealing half or no damage. If you target high attack units, even though it´s natural to think the debuff will be more significant, the fact is that you will be engaging a unit that has a high chance of dealing full damage on your low health cavalry; at the same time that the targeted unit might still have enough attack after the debuff to continue having a high chance of dealing full damage.



This means Summer Seekers are best at neutralizing enemy support lines or glasscannon strikers like icewargs and dwarves - usually units with a low initiative and attack that depend on their special attack to be the most useful. Not only you´re stopping those Driders, Caecatores and Bishops from healing on the charge turn, you´re also lowering the chance that they will deal any damage on the off turns.



Shifting Charge will reduce the enemy defense during the winter, which is ideal for support roles. While in the charge you´ll look to gang up whenever possible to play with differences of attack/defense and hopefully avoid damage during charging turns, in a support role you´re looking for the most 1:1 engagement possible, because you´ll be using the cavalry to disable the counter against your flying strikers, and not against other cavalry. If you have only one pair of Seeker/Monk, the seeker must always use all its movement to soften an enemy that´s surrounded by units in order to increase the efficiency of Shifting Rage.



This means Winter Seekers are best at neutralizing enemy strikers or infantry lines - those who would take a huge toll on your own strikers if left unchecked or simply on a 1 on 1.



Playing with their initiative is very important. A large amount of glassteel might allow for glassteel weapons on both seekers and monks, but otherwise it´s best to leave that to seekers. In any case, since their morale provides initiative, you can always deploy monks on the flanks.



Now, mid post, something came up, but there´s a sequence of turns for the military playthrough already uploaded in my steam, I just need to do all the ctrl+c / ctrl+v over here. I´ll finish commenting on the Shifting Rage, Awe and Nova later.



ps: damn it´s hard to write so many "shifting" without a single ugly slip

I have the same mindset when playing them tactically. I focus on defence, initiative, and HP on Seekers, while also giving them Death or Glory to ensure they always act first.



In winter, I use the seekers as a pinning force, a "mobile anvil" if you will, to pin high initiative targets down, giving monks free rein to destroy everything.



In summer, I use Seekers to attack support units or units that are more potent when attacking (icewargs are more potent when retaliating, in fact), while putting their high initiative units in a dilemma. Either they focus on the seekers, giving my monks free rein to dish out free damage. Or they focus on the monks, activating shifting rage on counters.



I find their winter form more devastating, but I like the fact that you need to alternate tactics depending on the seasons in order to make optimal use of their units. It gets even more interesting when you shift units and have combined forms (though it may be unnecessarily complicated).



Thanks for the in-depth turn info. Did you use pearl stockpiles at all?

Settings - I went for a small map to do this on the first try and to allow me to focus on units from very early without having to deal with the consequences of letting a far away AI get too much of economic advantage on me. This kind of build still works pretty well on 6 people multiplayer on a normal map since only a few players out there will be able to emulate Endless-level economic growth without the AI bonuses or a lot of space.



I had hoped for some interesting manual battles to actually show their units during the turns, but there really wasn´t any. If I find those battles now, independently of entire playthroughs, I´ll post something.



Unfortunately, in this game the AI showed some of its old unexplicable behavior, in the form of an AI Ardent Mages that could stand attrition for a long time, but settled for a truce+20 pearls right after losing its capital. An AI Wild Walkers with comparetively less armies accepted the truce alone, again right after, but I had a significant advantage by that point.



Turn 1 - Good start really, but it´s always best to explore first. And then I found this, so I moved there.



Turn 2 - Focusing on science. - FIDSI - Tech Path



Turn 3 - Buying out the memorial



Turn 4 - Getting that for wonder while there´s no one around.



Turn 5 - Getting the ruins around it.



Turn 6 - Running away from the Ardent Mages. - Tech Path



Turn 8 - Trying to kill these dwarves and somehow the AI manages not to. I was not about to demonstrate the great tactics involved in controlling 4 units against 2.



Turn 9 - Capital. Had to sacrifice one of the seekers just because the AI is a cold bastard that couldn´t hold that one little guy back, and he´s definetely not worth more than a few seconds of my time. I´d exchange one seeker for 3 population and some luxury any day of the week in any case.



Turn 10 - Unlocking the market which didn´t prove to be useful for now, but you always kinda need it open because you can´t predict those 100 dust ruins or future Exid the Chosens in 3 turns, and very very little in the game is more valuable than a really great governor or general. - Empire Plan - Had to activate that or market could have been an even poorer choice (instead of an early Dust Dredger for example).



Turn 11 - Meeting the Roving Clans. Going to do what I can to stay on the good side of these guys.



Turn 12 - Salting while I don´t complete Fervent step. Not really needed, I just wanted the reward and the village here was dead so it couldn´t make any difference.



Turn 13 - Winter comes, still salting. - Tech Path



Turn 14 - Two cities



Turn 15 - Going for production



Turn 16 - Capital



Turn 17 - Sending hero to govern since there´s no good governor for hire.



Turn 18 - Sending a spy to find the last faction and already infiltrate them, in order to avoid losing control over distant campaigns.



Turn 19 - Starting the Megapole



Turn 20 - Scouting - Empire Plan



Turn 21 - Not the fastest Megapole, it´s safer to invest on Canal Locks first on mp.



Turn 22 - Peace



Turn 23 - Close to light green - Tech Path



Turn 25 - Found it



Turn 26 - Capital in the winter with Pearl Discount and Blessings: Ice Works and Chapel of Auriga



Turn 27 - Scouting



Turn 29 - Getting ready to queue monks.



Turn 30 - Sell this guy to buy a Necro governor - Empire Plan



Turn 31 - This is where I give up on the quest, since the Village I need to talk to is surrounded by hostile AM.



Turn 32 - Running away



Turn 33 - So, it´s late Era 2 and From Dust to Rust is about to kick in. I equip a version of my units (in this case, solely the Monk) with strategic equipment and then queue them below a bunch of cannon fodder units that I don´t really care about producing.



That´s because these cannon fodder will most likely end up being sold when era 3 kicks in in order for me to have money to equip my generals and good obsolete units. The well equipped units not being produced are simply reserving the strategic I have at a low cost. I don´t want to produce them at Era 2, because in a very short time I will be able to produce them at level 3 and with better equipment that I would have to spend dust to retrofit on the level 2 ones.



At the same time, if From Dust to Rust happens to kick in before I´m able to make a new design and a new queue line, I then preffer to train level 3 units on tier 2 armor that do not cost me 50% extra strategics. I usually keep at least an entire army in this queue, but when I have silics or got a bunch on quests and ruins, I equip my main general with insignias and reserve all the rest. Whatever I produce during era 3 I then use for buildings.



Here are their abilities -

• Shifting Nature
• Shifting Rage - protip: drop the "f" for hilarious effect
• Shifting Charge
• Shifting Awe
  
  

I forgot Shifting Nova, I´ll add and I´ll talk about these later too.



hm, I submitted instead of previewing ^^ This goes on, about 30 more turns.

Turn 34 - Roads



Turn 35 - Era 3 and new queue - Tech Path: this barely matters from now on really.



Turn 36 - Sell some guys to plant another spy.



Turn 37 - From Dust to Rust



Turn 38 - Training units with Necro discount



Turn 39 - Taking a peek



Turn 40 - Almost ready - Empire Plan - General´s Equipment



Turn 41 - They declare on me kindly enough - Military Overview



Turn 42 - Waiting



Turn 43 - Next Turn



Turn 44 - Siege after a sabotage, then engaging an unprotected army. I was absolutely sure the AI would just retreat, so I autoed, and turns out this was probably the best fight in the match. It would still be a poor example for me to talk about good tactical handling since they would be so outnumbered to begin with. I think slaughter is a simple concept.



Turn 45 - After killing the remaining hero, the city is mine and she accepts a questionable Truce.



Turn 46 - Marching towards Wild Walkers, planting spy in my way there.



Turn 48 - Spy planted - Military Overview



Turn 49 - Soon...



Turn 50 - After sabotage and Empire Plan, the engagement. I did manual this battle, and I can upload the two pictures of it if anyone wants it, but it´s not very interesting. My almost dead units soften them up on turn 1, they´re slaughtered on turn 2. Turns out the AI chose not to bring the reinforcements from the surrounding cities and armies, so they were largely outnumbered.



I´d like to comment here because I remember pointing out during earlier stages that the AI would use reinforcements when it shouldn´t, like a capital city garrison to save 2 units outside the city, and ended up losing everyone. Now that´s rare, but I think there should be some critical value exclusive to the capital that will always lead the AI into defending it as well as it can, even at the expense of several other cities and armies.



Because it would make a lot of sense if the AI were looking to preserve the rest of its strenght for a continued fight, to regain the Capital with the units it didn´t lose, and I don´t doubt that´s its "intention" or plan, but then it doesn´t manifest that by accepting an instant Truce deal.



It´s "either or". Either it offers less resistance based on a solid commitment to exploit that scenario to its fullest (I won´t lose armies because I will continue fighting), or it acknowledges that losing the Capital is such a blow that´s not feasible to continue fighting in case it loses it and then act accordingly.





Turn 51 - Anyway, marching on...



Turn 52 - lalala



Turn 54 - Siege after sabotage.



Turn 55 - Done



Turn 56 - GG

KnightofPhoenix wrote:
Did you use pearl stockpiles at all?

Nope.

I´m the kind of guy who tries his best to see the developer´s intention behind things, and tries not to make hasty judgements about complex mathematical questions; but try as I might, I cannot see any value or merit on any kind of stockpile in endless legends, except of course for Necro´s food. The only possible situations I can imagine in which it would be more advantageous to spend research and industry and turns on stockpiles instead of units would be either a full Roving Clans game, or game with a special rule of No-War-Allowed. Aside from that, there´s just no point.



If war is allowed, then security is an issue, then units are always worth more than gold. Especially when you can actually turn them into gold.