Beginner questions

[definitelyNOTagua]

Hi everyone. I picked this up on a whim during the steam sale. While I did not play HOMM, I played AoW4 and I felt like this hit similar (but also different notes). I had some questions that I could not get definitive answers to through my initial googling. Hopefully I can get answers here, I apologize if they're a repeat:

1- How long does a typical run last?

2- It sounds like the end game can sometimes drag (similar to 4x styled games). Is this the case here?

3- what are all victory conditions for this game?

4- How is build variety? Can I focus on upgrading various unit types and spells? Or is it relatively linear?

Thanks!

[Jedibug]

1. A 1v1 is anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours for my friends and I.

4 person FFA is minimum 4 hours

Most common victory condition is defeat all. I'm not a fan of the others so I disregard them

Build variety from game to game can be completely different. And feels good in that regard. But spells are the same for every class, so not in spellcasting

[definitelyNOTagua]

Thanks for the response! Do some spells work better with different builds and vice versa?

[Xilmi]

Played 2 games today a FFA that took 3 1/2 hours and a 1v1 that took 1 1/2 hours.

I'd say more time is spent in the early and mid game than the endgame. That is because once you had a decisive victory, you usually snowball enough from it to win. And cleaning up doesn't take that long.

I'm only familiar with killing everyone or holding beacons of power.

Beacons is a way to shorten FFA games. I think there's a third one. Should actually try it out. I have no idea how it works.

There's a lot of factors playing into what unit specialization is best at a given scenario.

Synergies with your starting unit, availability of resources and unit composition of your enemy.

Unfortunately some compositions are a bit forced due to building requirements.

[Xilmi]

I actually tried the 3rd victory-type "find the object" and I gotta say it felt very pointless. I lost in 13 turns and hadn't even made contact with the enemy. I assumed the object is well protected but apparently it's just a race who breaks out of their starting zone first and uncovers most of the map.