Seals Victory - what is that ?

[Edelward]

I am trying SP random scenarios to set an interesting game .
The question is what is The victory by seals ?
I have no ideas ,really ,but would love to know that .
Thanks

[M0S5Y.ctn]

It's an alternate win condition that got added with the Golden Realms expansion. If you tick it on there will be a number of "Seals" structures placed on the map. The goal is to conquer and hold them. Every turn you hold a seal you get a point (and 2 points if you hold 2, 3 points if you hold 3 and so forth). The first player to reach X points will win the game.

Interesting to note is that you do not hold a seal by having it in your domain; you need to have a stack of units on top of it. Be careful though, as the seals will periodically summon defenders to try and get you off of it.

[MattStriker]

Note that Seals victory works really, really poorly on bigger maps (the game does tell you that if you try to start a game with those settings) because it's possible for somebody to find a seal, take it, and win...without their opponent ever reaching them.

The smaller the map, the better Seals work.

[Brodziej Głóg]

^ That or map has to be chock-full of seals. ;>

[Eagle 11]

Seals encourages camping, unlike Beacons which promotes conquest and playing with multiple races.
Seals also have the habit of appearing clustered on a very large map. There have been a case where my empire was at east part of the map and all the beacons remaint at west side, conveniently in reach of the only opponent remaining. Still won that one, thanks to Airships from Racial Heritage mod.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

I've always found the Seals to be well enough distributed. Usually more in the centre of the map, but that's fine. Of course, I rarely play Extra Large maps.

However, especially on larger maps, the number of charges should be increased to the maximum. That makes it much more of a challenge to win just by defending, and also makes it hard for anyone to win by accident.

Against the AI, I think the seals victory works much better than the Beacon victory. The AI is much more pro-active about taking them, for one. With beacons, they just max out their primary race and take absolute ages to start on their second race.

The AI is also much better at dealing with the player's seals. They will mount strong assaults on your seals and can pose a credible threat, especially if you're running up score. (Then all AIs will attack you at once, except of course for your allies.)

The Seals victory also means that the most important battles happen in the field, instead of around cities. Fewer sieges is a big advantage for me, since all city maps are pretty much the same.

All in all it's my favourite victory condition.

It CAN be abused to make the game easier (few charges to win, snipe a seal and hold it) but it can also make the game harder. (By having all the AIs gang up on you.)

[A4Phantom]

I feel that the Seals Victory is appropriate for Sorcerers, who care more about arcane power than conquering the world. I also use it as Druid because most Druid units don't fly until the endgame and so are at a disadvantage taking cities. I use conquest as a Warlord or a Dreadnought (with cannons to blast down walls), and Beacons with a Rogue (Courtesans plus the good orientation sphere let you buy up all the independent city-states as vassals).

Seals are a good victory condition if you're not evil and don't want to spike your alignment by starting a lot of wars. The other players will start them instead.

[Move2Bastyon]

Sounds Interesting, will have to give it a try one day.

Do roaming Armies and Independents also attack the Seals?

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

Once every few turns, armies of neutral elementals spawn and attack the seals.

Other neutrals may also attack the seals, but it's a bit more random. If you get something like a Troll King event, expect some more attacks on your seal garrisons to be sure.

[A4Phantom]

The elementals that try to retake the seals are about the same as the the ones who guarded it in the first place, so if you easily beat them the same army should have no trouble beating the newcomers. However, you might need that army to conquer other seals and fight off the other empires once they declare war on you. In that case you might defend the seals with a more threadbare force, OR you can hold the seal with just one sacrificial unit and still collect the victory points. Then rush a sufficient army back once the avenging elementals appear and retake the seal.

If I remember correctly, the defensive spells on the seal will always attack your units, whether you're assaulting or defending the seal. So if you can, attack the elementals when they appear next to it instead of letting them hit you on the seal.

Finally, conquering seals tends to produce some really nice loot, particularly for a site that can be attacked by multiple armies from all sides and not just six units who go inside like most high-end structures. So it might even be worthwhile to liberate some seals if you're not going for a seals victory, for the gear and to tie up rival empires' units defending them. Of course, you have to be confident this won't lead them to actually winning.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

Originally posted by A4Phantom:

If I remember correctly, the defensive spells on the seal will always attack your units, whether you're assaulting or defending the seal. So if you can, attack the elementals when they appear next to it instead of letting them hit you on the seal.

Specifically, the Cosmic Spray elemental attack always attacks non-neutrals. So if you're fighting another player on a seal, the spray could hit either you or him. But if you're attacking or defending against elementals, you're always toast.

[A4Phantom]

On the plus side, since you'll probably be attacking the seal from more than one side you don't have to worry about the elemental defenders flanking you, so you can put your troops in a loose formation and not get splashed too hard by each Color Spray.