Difficulty with Magic Victory

[Drewskie]

I need some help. Attempted a Magic Victory tonight. Didn't realize every AI faction would declare war on me the turn after casting the spell. Two of them were my allies. Other ones were neutral towards me but at war with each other. So I go from having no enemies to having 6.

Is this normal? From a systems standpoint it makes sense. Doesn't really jive with the rpg/story aspect of the game until that point though. I also had the #1 military rank in that game, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to survive that many stacks for 15 turns. I'm new to the series so I have no doubt I could have played it better. Any help would be appreciated appreciated.

[BigJ]

Pretty normal

Essentially you are casting a world ending spell that will ascend you, so it's normal everyone turns on you.

[Drewskie]

Ok yeah that makes sense. Definitely have to reinforce more next time. Not the easy victory I was thinking it would be. Thanks

[MrLuckless]

Going down the Astral tree makes doing a magic victory easier. Teleporting your whole army (or armies) back to your home town can do wonders for defense.

[darkholyPL]

This is besically the Doomsday Device victory from Planetfall. And when you call it that (Doomsday) it makes a lot more sense why everyone truns on you.
'Magic Victory' just doesn't have the same ring to it, you know? xD

[Atma]

It's quite a normal behaviour. To increase your chances place the Seeds of Magic (or Beacons of Light, if you're going for expansion victory) in the provinces that are farthest from the enemies. That way most of the opponents won't be able to reach you even if they set out immediately. It works the other way around too - if a farthest enemy from you starts the same victory routine, you won't be able to do much.
Your points of interests will be attacked by neutrals of a bit less than 2000 power at turns 3,6,9 and 12 so be prepared for that.

[=][=Alduran=][=]

Hmm, I have done the Magic victory but I only got attacked by a swarm of independent armies. 3 to 4 stacks every 2 rounds spawned in. All other ai players were bussy to wage war against each other. I didn't check if declared war on me but they certainly didn't come to fight me.

[Саныч]

This is the easiest victory if geographically you are in a closed defensive position. If the AI is at a distance, they are unlikely to come after you, all you need to do is fight off the emerging neutrals (therefore, the three buildings of the heart seed and the root should be placed as close to each other as possible to make them easier to defend). This is how I won my first time without doing anything at all and without fighting the whole world.

[tiamats4esgares]

Originally posted by ==Alduran==:

Hmm, I have done the Magic victory but I only got attacked by a swarm of independent armies. 3 to 4 stacks every 2 rounds spawned in. All other ai players were bussy to wage war against each other. I didn't check if declared war on me but they certainly didn't come to fight me.

I won this victory on my first game last night, and it was pretty easy. But I was playing on what I assume is like the "tutorial" map with only 3 total players including myself, so yeah, not that hard.

One of the other players declared war on me immediately, and the other started a series of negotiations to become my ally. XD Right before I had started the spell, I plopped a 5th city by the opponent that declared war on me. They spent the entirety of the 15 turns trying to take over a city that had nobody there to defend it and was useless to me and I won because they never *actually* tried to stop me.

I allied with the other one, then on turn 14/15 I broke the alliance. AHahahaha.

[Iry]

It's normal.

It warns you this will happen in the description.

It's been this way since the original Master of Magic in 1994.

[Syrris]

Doomsday victories in Planetfall did not cause allies to turn on you; presumably they were included in the "safeties" for the relevant one thematically, and they counted as winning the game alongside you as well (so no reason for them to object).

Everyone who wasn't an ally, on the other hand, would either immediately seek alliance or go hostile.

[MrButtermancer]

Be ready for it. It's normal.

That said, you get a 70% discount to casting point costs in your chosen affinity on top of whatever other shenanigans the spell gives you during the countdown, so there's a good chance you literally can fight everyone at once. If you're at a T5 tome, you should be huge.

[Elexymorph]

Originally posted by Drewskie:

I need some help. Attempted a Magic Victory tonight. Didn't realize every AI faction would declare war on me the turn after casting the spell. Two of them were my allies. Other ones were neutral towards me but at war with each other. So I go from having no enemies to having 6.

Is this normal? From a systems standpoint it makes sense. Doesn't really jive with the rpg/story aspect of the game until that point though. I also had the #1 military rank in that game, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to survive that many stacks for 15 turns. I'm new to the series so I have no doubt I could have played it better. Any help would be appreciated appreciated.

I just did the Magic Victory and I had 5 Ai Allies (Alliance all with +800 Relation) and not one declared on me. Maybe your relations need to be higher? And when you say Allies, do you mean Defensive Pact or Alliance?

[Gilmore]

I got a magic victory in a game with 8 AI on normal difficulty and only 1 of them declared war on me when I started the spell. Your allies should't declare war on you because they will also win the game when your spell is complete.

[Drewskie]

Originally posted by Elexymorph:

Originally posted by Drewskie:

I need some help. Attempted a Magic Victory tonight. Didn't realize every AI faction would declare war on me the turn after casting the spell. Two of them were my allies. Other ones were neutral towards me but at war with each other. So I go from having no enemies to having 6.

Is this normal? From a systems standpoint it makes sense. Doesn't really jive with the rpg/story aspect of the game until that point though. I also had the #1 military rank in that game, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to survive that many stacks for 15 turns. I'm new to the series so I have no doubt I could have played it better. Any help would be appreciated appreciated.

I just did the Magic Victory and I had 5 Ai Allies (Alliance all with +800 Relation) and not one declared on me. Maybe your relations need to be higher? And when you say Allies, do you mean Defensive Pact or Alliance?

We were in an Alliance, but things had been souring. I think I was sitting at around +200 for both.

[Ralph Pootawn]

In my game I had befriended a some Hedonistic Sex Elves and placated a rival race of Catfolk until I stopped caring and let them grievance the ♥♥♥♥ outta me. They built an outpost right on my borders on the coast. The audacity. I expanded and blocked them out, pissing them off and declaring war on me. Sex Elves have my back and send their only group of armies after these Catfolk and my Battletoads were free to cast the Magic Victory spell.
I was set on winning either Magic or the Score victory at 150 turns. on turn 147 I was moved to second place and then on turn 149 I won with the Magic Victory. No achievement for such a close win was very sad.
Edit: point of my post was that, the Elves didn't turn on me during my 15 turns. Good to know everyone turns on you for my next runs.