Originally Posted by
X~Calibur
Back to the merry-go-round. This is an old thread, which means that comments like this were addressed the first time around, but to put this properly in context.
Endgame does not mean "End of game", which seems to be the sense in which you are using it (repeatedly).
Endgame is a technical term. It ultimately derives from use in other contexts, where perhaps its meaning can be made clearer. For example, the game of chess is generally divided into A. The Opening B. The Middle Game. C. The End Game. The opening may last for 10-15 moves. The middle game can be either long or short, depending upon what is happening. The end game is properly defined as the point at which most of the pieces have been traded out, especially the Queens, and what primarily remains are Pawns, the Kings, perhaps a Rook, Bishop and/or Knight.
Notice that the way the game is played at each phase changes considerably, and that is the big key between telling the differences in phases.
Evony, despite being a more fluid and elastic game, still has phases where the game is played rather differently. The first week(s) of a server, you play the game one way, something that works like the Opening in Chess, as you attempt to build new cities, research your techs and build troops as quickly as possible. The equivalent of the Middle game happens when players start interacting with each other much more frequently. But at the start of this phase, they may not necessarily be wielding full 100k attack waves.
Notice that there is some variance because people play at different rates, build at different rates, and have different goals in their play-style. So a good definition of the Evony endgame: When the vast majority of players have all of their techs completed, several cities from which to produce troops, and the possibility of having a competent defending force in each city.
I can and should probably nuance this a bit further for Age 2, to take into account the Historical Cities. For example, I see the game being played now much differently than it was 3 months ago, since the majority of HC are taken on the early servers, and this forces more PvP interaction to cap off player-held HC, usually with very strong armies involved.
In short, there is an end game in Evony, and it happens at the late phase of a server, where players don't generally enjoy tech advantages over each other, and generally don't need to bother hitting enemy cities with no armies in them.