How many turns is early/mid/late game?

[Swaggaccino]

I hear everyone talking about it but no one is specific. Let's also say for normal difficulty.

[Ardariel]

Cant say for normal, but generally wi would say that early is up to 30 turns, mid up to 50-6 and late is 80+.

THat is realy vague, since a lot depends on situation on map overall, mods you used etc. It all comes down to units on field, economy and empires size.

[wpegg]

As Arda said, it's very subjective, and I think it depends heavily on whether you're playing Mortal Empires or Vortex.

I'd say for Vortex it's as above, for ME it's a higher threshold, most people would split the game up by the Chaos invasions so coming up on Turn 80 for early, then coming up to the second one around turn 140, then post is late game. Of course that's just my opinion.

[SpeaksTooFast]

I think of it less in turn number and more of unit type. Early game anything higher than T3 units will have been from starting armies or event stuff. Mid game is where T3-T4 units are available and the norm. Late game is where T5 units are available and regardless of your ability to field them the stronger AI factions can bring them against you in force.

[Swaggaccino]

Originally posted by wpegg:

As Arda said, it's very subjective, and I think it depends heavily on whether you're playing Mortal Empires or Vortex.

I'd say for Vortex it's as above, for ME it's a higher threshold, most people would split the game up by the Chaos invasions so coming up on Turn 80 for early, then coming up to the second one around turn 140, then post is late game. Of course that's just my opinion.

Mortal Empires. I think I've done 5 or so campaigns already but I get what you guys are saying. The more I learned, the easier the game got for me. Right now it feels like mid game is past turn 50 and late game is past turn 150 but I was just curious what everyone else classified it as.

On my Yvresse campaign, I sorta backed myself into a corner by never agreeing to an alliance until it was too late. By then Karak, Reikland, and Bretonna controlled 50% of the map and I the other 50%. I wanted to see how the final showdown was gonna be and it was brutal lol. Plenty of maxed out hellrockets and stacks as far as the eyes could see which would make a Chaos invasion a joke. And to top it off, no lightning strike. But yeah thanks.

[Mr Robert House]

It’s about the tier of units you’re fielding not the turn number.

early is 0-3, mid is 3-4, late is 4-5

Ofcourse some lower tier units remain useful though

As some factions you can win without actually getting to the late game

[Ardariel]

Originally posted by Mr Robert House:

It’s about the tier of units you’re fielding not the turn number.

early is 0-3, mid is 3-4, late is 4-5

Ofcourse some lower tier units remain useful though

As some factions you can win without actually getting to the late game

So if you turled wiht dwarf into turn 200+ wiht tier 3 units, got assaulted from every corner by stacks of t5 rank 9 units, you still in midgame?

Sorry, what you say have no sense whatsoever. Sure, your decisions on campaign map dictated by units aviable to you and resources at hand, but limit separation of game stages by unit tier would only lead you to pretty dumb contradictions.

[Present]

I personally consider early to be up to 40 turns, mid being up to 80, and post 140 turns to be late game.

[Raider Deci]

I consider lategame to begin with the chaos-invasions, so around 90-100. After the second invasion your are definetly in the lategame. Decent marks. Middle around 50 where you are expected to gotten off the ground, upgraded your towns & so. How far one has come when lategame begins is irrelevant though and doesnt really matter.

[Dallar]

150 turns for the late game is a bit much tho? My both ME campaigns were over by that point, with both me and AI using max lvl stuff for a long time prior to that.

[Ardariel]

Originally posted by Dallar:

150 turns for the late game is a bit much tho? My both ME campaigns were over by that point, with both me and AI using max lvl stuff for a long time prior to that.

Have you actualy never thought that way yourself? I remember thinking like that guy too. THe more i play the more my perception shifted. ANd it is pretyt descent mark, cause after chaos invasion last big player (empire and or dwarfs) would be in a game as long as you dont take it down and map is pretty much set. SO why not?

But you are also right, cause how map is haped after chaos invaion is pretyt much decided between turns 80-120. That is lategame as it is, major forces on map clash with each other and no longer drawn in local squabbles and you need ot find your place in it.

[Basarab Laiota]

Late game is when the only factions left are you and the Ordertide

[Father Ribs]

Originally posted by Swaggaccino:

I hear everyone talking about it but no one is specific. Let's also say for normal difficulty.

Phase of the game has little to do with the number on the turn indicator, and more to do with the state of your faction, and those that share your campaign.

I haven't put a definition on it, but I guess you could say that "early" game is the most fun; everyone is pretty much 1:1, you have a lot of choices for expansion, diplomatic options, and there are few factions that could wipe you out with no chance of you surviving. It's not easy yet because you haven't made any doomstacks and your generals have a good chance of dying if you aren't careful.

Midgame is when factions carve out home territories, are larger and have higher-tier buildings, and you'll start facing things like tier-4 armies. Likewise, your own forces should be able to hold their own as long as you manage your game. At least your best generals and heros are level 20 so that they don't die if you lose a battle, which is a huge boost. This is the second best phase, but a lot depends if the ai factions have created unbeatable alliances or if you have.

Endgame is when the results are sort-of telegraphed, but you could still screw up if you're not careful, or if you're an "evil" faction, the ordertide is going to be sending stacks and stacks and stacks of armies at you. At this point it turns into a slog...wars of attrition, lots of simular battles because your armies have reached their final setup, likewise the enemies are going to have lots of max-tier units. This can be a boring phase if you're not being challenged, and I usually stop playing at this point because the thrill that the early game provices is so much better, I'd rather start a new campaign.

(This is all with the obvious caveat that I'm speaking from the point of view of an average player, as opposed to those who play legendary for entertainment or exploit the map and AI.)

[Ardariel]

Originally posted by Father Ribs:

Originally posted by Swaggaccino:

I hear everyone talking about it but no one is specific. Let's also say for normal difficulty.

Phase of the game has little to do with the number on the turn indicator, and more to do with the state of your faction, and those that share your campaign.

I haven't put a definition on it, but I guess you could say that "early" game is the most fun; everyone is pretty much 1:1, you have a lot of choices for expansion, diplomatic options, and there are few factions that could wipe you out with no chance of you surviving. It's not easy yet because you haven't made any doomstacks and your generals have a good chance of dying if you aren't careful.

Midgame is when factions carve out home territories, are larger and have higher-tier buildings, and you'll start facing things like tier-4 armies. Likewise, your own forces should be able to hold their own as long as you manage your game. At least your best generals and heros are level 20 so that they don't die if you lose a battle, which is a huge boost. This is the second best phase, but a lot depends if the ai factions have created unbeatable alliances or if you have.

Endgame is when the results are sort-of telegraphed, but you could still screw up if you're not careful, or if you're an "evil" faction, the ordertide is going to be sending stacks and stacks and stacks of armies at you. At this point it turns into a slog...wars of attrition, lots of simular battles because your armies have reached their final setup, likewise the enemies are going to have lots of max-tier units. This can be a boring phase if you're not being challenged, and I usually stop playing at this point because the thrill that the early game provices is so much better, I'd rather start a new campaign.

(This is all with the obvious caveat that I'm speaking from the point of view of an average player, as opposed to those who play legendary for entertainment or exploit the map and AI.)

Pretty much agree with you, but mind you, that w/o mods, you clearly can diffirentiate stage by turns, as enemy on other side of map is not much affected by you until lategame, so their development have pretty predictable tempo, and you cant affect much of it for enemy on other side of map until lategame.

But that lead me to other thought... what if we consider "lategame" as phase, where you can manipulate enemy economy and wars for faction o father side of map from you?

Not sure if it is good differentiation, need to think about it more thoroughfully, but at least that is what allighned with my "feel" of game and explains that much difference in answers betwene players.

[Verchial]

I think it depends mostly on faction.

Mid game for the empire is late game for the beastmen, for example.

[Father Ribs]

Originally posted by Ardariel:

enemy on other side of map is not much affected by you until lategame, so their development have pretty predictable tempo, and you cant affect much of it for enemy on other side of map until lategame.

One of the enjoyments I get from the game is every time there was one of the larger patches or DLC that messed with the balance of power. Any time I see the Greenskins or Vampire Counts carve up the order factions, or Dark Elves overrun the Elf Donut, I get warm fuzzies.