Update — After Strategy

Endless Legend 2: Retold Tales Rebuilds the Quest Window and Two Faction Quests

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Update #29 of ENDLESS Legend 2, Retold Tales, went live on July 1, 2026, while the game was still in Early Access. It replaces the quest window, rewrites the main quests of the Kin of Sheredyn and the Necrophage, and adds new artwork. The point is simple: a complaint raised in the first weeks, a story that took too many clicks, finally gets a concrete answer.

Update, October 26, 2026: ENDLESS Legend 2 reached version 1.0 on September 17, 2026, with the Sandshapers, two Rogue Factions (Order of Zelevas and Severed Claw) and the Mangrove of Harmony. See the launch announcement on Steam.

A rebuilt quest window

Amplitude explains in the Update #29 notes that the community missed the narrative presentation of the first Endless Legend and found the old one too click-heavy. Quests now open in a larger window, with an opening text that sets the scene and a piece of art. Dialogue plays on its own, text speed is set in the options, and a left click shows the full line.

The rework was also a chance to add 2D art for major and minor factions. Minor factions that still lack their illustration share a temporary picture. The resource panel stays visible during events, which helps compare choices and rewards, according to the June state of the game.

The Kin of Sheredyn and Necrophage quests

The Kin of Sheredyn quest is the oldest in the game, and the faction has changed a lot since. Chapters 1 and 2 are swapped: you start with a cautious builder chapter, then move to exploration objectives. Nested choices create four branches from chapter 1, to vary playthroughs. Chapter 3 becomes an investigation rather than another rescue of Pryjza, and the tie to the United Empire from Endless Space 2 is made clearer.

The Necrophage quest is rewritten for tone. The designers want a hive driven by instinct, dangerous rather than merely strong. Some Necrophage see outsiders as prey, others as a source of knowledge about the world. Rarely triggered branches are cut, such as the one that asked you to ransack a hero haven, in favor of more compelling objectives.

Resources and roadmap

The resource window gains three heavily requested tools: automatic selling above the maximum stock, bulk buying and selling, and automatic booster renewal. Events also become less frequent, and lone wolf events only trigger after the hero reaches level 7.

The summer roadmap is the part to read carefully. According to Shacknews, it places faction world quests, minor faction improvements and quality-of-life tweaks in a July-August window. A new playable faction and more minor factions are planned for 2026, undated. Custom Factions and the Endless Monsoon are not part of it: they shipped on March 12, 2026 with Update #16.

What to watch

The July public branch, opened on July 16, already tests what comes next. It redoes the awakening quests for each major faction, partly disables simultaneous turns so the AI only moves its units after you end your turn, sharpens minor faction asymmetry and buffs the Necrophage, per the public branch announcement.

The risk is a two-speed story: only two of five faction quests are redone, and Amplitude says art is still to be finished for some minor factions. The 1.0 date had not been announced by the end of July.

Going further

Our Endless Legend 2 hub: every article on the game.
Endless Legend 2 1.0 release date and the Sandshapers: what came after the roadmap.
Endless Legend 2 faction guide for 1.0: the playable factions.

Civilization VII 1.4.1: Hotseat Multiplayer, Government Overhaul, and the Brush & Blade Japan DLC

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Civ VII Accelerates: Hotseat, Feudal Japan, and Reworked Governments

Firaxis has unveiled the full contents of Update 1.4.1, arriving the week of June 22, 2026. Alongside the free update comes the first half of a new paid collection, Brush & Blade, focused on medieval Japan and Korea. Two months after the Test of Time update in May, the game continues to evolve at a steady pace.

What 1.4.1 Delivers Free to All Players

Three major additions arrive at no extra cost:

Hotseat Multiplayer finally makes its debut in Civ VII. Previously absent from the game, this mode lets multiple players share a single device and pass the keyboard between turns — a franchise staple that at last finds its way back.

The Archipelago map type is completely rebuilt. It now uses procedural Voronoi generation to produce more natural, unpredictable island layouts. Every playthrough promises a genuinely different geography.

The Government system receives a deep overhaul. Government Traditions now persist across Ages, leaving a permanent mark on your civilization’s history. The Happiness and Celebrations systems have also been reworked to offer sharper strategic choices each era.

Brush & Blade Part 1: Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Feudal Japan

The paid Brush & Blade collection explores the tension between refined high art and battlefield violence in medieval Japan and Korea. Part 1, launching alongside Update 1.4.1, includes:

Toyotomi Hideyoshi as a new leader. A lowly foot soldier under Oda Nobunaga, he rose to become the first unifier of Japan during the chaotic Sengoku era — a warlord who was equally a patron of the arts.
Heian Japan — a civilization centered on cultural refinement and diplomacy, embodying the relative peace of the Heian period (794–1185).
Sengoku Japan — a militarized civilization reflecting the era of warring lords who tore Japan apart before Hideyoshi’s unification.
Four new Wonders: Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace, Nachi Falls, Mireuksa, and Seongsan Ilchulbong (the latter two anticipating the Korean Part 2 content).

Part 2 Arrives Later This Summer

The second half of the Brush & Blade collection will introduce Yi Sun-sin, the Korean admiral renowned for his naval victories against Japanese invasions, alongside the Goryeo and Joseon civilizations. No exact release date has been confirmed yet.

The Bottom Line

Update 1.4.1 addresses two long-standing gaps in the game: the lack of Hotseat play and a weak Archipelago map generator. The Brush & Blade Part 1 content targets fans of medieval Asian history, a relatively unexplored angle in the franchise. To see how these new civilizations fit into the current meta, check out our Civilization VII tier list of the best leaders and civs.

Sources

EU5 Rossbach patch review: two months later, do Unit Templates really deliver?

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two months. That’s the window we gave ourselves to judge Europa Universalis V’s 1.1 “Rossbach” patch. Enough time for the hype to fade, the Paradox community to digest the changes, and the rough launch bugs to get patched out. We can now talk seriously.

TL;DR:

Unit Templates and Rally Points transform late-game army management — this is the real breakthrough
Peasant Enfranchisement opens a new social playstyle, but remains unbalanced
The Brandenburg disaster is a great idea but its triggers are inconsistent
Regional reworks (Manchuria, Andes, Mesoamerica) are solid but nearly invisible

Unit Templates: the evolution we’ve wanted since EU4
Peasant Enfranchisement: a novel social lever, but unpolished
The Brandenburg disaster: historical immersion or clunky script?
Regional reworks: the invisible groundwork
Bugs and hotfix 1.1.10: stability check
Verdict after 60 days

Unit Templates: the evolution we’ve wanted since EU4

Paradox sold it as the patch’s “quality-of-life centerpiece”, and for once the promise holds. Unit Templates let you define a standard army composition — say 10 infantry / 4 cavalry / 6 artillery — and redeploy it anywhere on the map with a single click.

The change kicks in hard from the 17th century onwards, when your armies swell from 30k to 150k men. No more manually rebuilding each stack after a lost battle: you pick the template, the game reconstructs the army from available regiments, and Rally Points send reinforcements directly to the front.

It brings back the kind of fluidity that’s been missing since Hearts of Iron IV’s template system. The difference here is that Paradox adapted the concept to EU5’s tempo: more manual, closer to the ground, less automated. Exactly the right dose.

This is the most ambitious feature of the patch. Peasant Enfranchisement lets you progressively grant rights to the lowest strata of your society — in exchange for lost influence with the nobility. On paper, it’s a social mechanic that’s unique in the genre.

In practice, after 20 hours of post-patch play, the verdict is mixed. The mechanic is genuinely interesting for players who want to simulate a transition toward a parliamentary monarchy or a bourgeois republic — Louis XIV’s France, for example, or the Dutch Republic. But the political cost is too low: once the nobility is unhappy, the negative effects are negligible if you’ve got a king with a decent Administrative stat.

The Paradox Plaza forum has opened several threads asking for a balance rework of the noble influence cost. Paradox added it to their roadmap for patch 1.2, but that patch focused on economy (Urban Rights) — so Peasant Enfranchisement stays as-is for now.

The Brandenburg disaster: historical immersion or clunky script?

Turmoil in Brandenburg is the new mid-game disaster introduced with Rossbach. It simulates the region’s 17th-century instability — chained revolts, internal religious conflicts, and external pressure from the Holy Roman Empire.

The intent is excellent. Players running Brandenburg (the future Prussia) needed a mid-game challenge to avoid the series’ classic Snowball drift. The disaster forces hard decisions — realigning religious policy, choosing between imperial protection and independence.

The problem is the trigger. Multiple players report the disaster firing without sufficient warning, even when internal stability looks fine. Others, conversely, have never seen the disaster trigger across 10 campaigns. Paradox confirmed a trigger adjustment is coming, probably in patch 1.2.1 or 1.3.

Regional reworks: the invisible groundwork

This is the part of the patch nobody talks about, and it’s a shame. Rossbach ships:

A complete Manchurian rework: new representation of the Jin dynasty, scripted events for the Ming → Qing transition, balancing of the Jurchen tribes
Economic refinements in the Andes and Mesoamerica: the Inca Empire and the Aztecs now have more coherent development bonuses, and Spanish colonial conquests are no longer trivial from 1500 onwards
Several minor border corrections in East Africa and South India

These are the small gestures that keep a 300-year campaign coherent. If you play outside of Europe, Rossbach clearly improves the experience.

Bugs and hotfix 1.1.10: stability check

The March 5 launch came with a few notable bugs: a recurring crash during combined naval sieges, a display issue for Unit Templates in certain languages (French was affected), and a land pathfinding regression in the Balkans.

Hotfix 1.1.10 on March 17 fixed the majority. As of today, version 1.1.10 is stable. Two bugs linger: the template UI occasionally glitching in multiplayer, and slight map misalignment on ultra-wide screens.

Verdict after 60 days

Rossbach is not the revolutionary patch some were expecting, but it’s a solid consolidation update. Unit Templates alone justify a return to the game if you dropped out in late game. The other features (Peasant Enfranchisement, Brandenburg) are interesting additions that still need polish.

The real news is that Paradox held their pace: a major patch 4 months after launch, targeted at the real friction points the community reported. This is exactly what we hoped for after the chaotic opening months of November 2025.

Next up: patch 1.2 is already out, overhauling the global economy. And we already know 1.3 will lay the groundwork for the first paid expansions.

Update — After Strategy

Endless Legend 2: Retold Tales Rebuilds the Quest Window and Two Faction Quests

A rebuilt quest window

The Kin of Sheredyn and Necrophage quests

Resources and roadmap

What to watch

Going further

Civilization VII 1.4.1: Hotseat Multiplayer, Government Overhaul, and the Brush & Blade Japan DLC

Civ VII Accelerates: Hotseat, Feudal Japan, and Reworked Governments

What 1.4.1 Delivers Free to All Players

Brush & Blade Part 1: Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Feudal Japan

Part 2 Arrives Later This Summer

The Bottom Line

Sources

EU5 Rossbach patch review: two months later, do Unit Templates really deliver?

Table of contents

Unit Templates: the evolution we’ve wanted since EU4

The Brandenburg disaster: historical immersion or clunky script?

Regional reworks: the invisible groundwork

Bugs and hotfix 1.1.10: stability check

Verdict after 60 days

See also

Sources

Update — After Strategy

Endless Legend 2: Retold Tales Rebuilds the Quest Window and Two Faction Quests

A rebuilt quest window

The Kin of Sheredyn and Necrophage quests

Resources and roadmap

What to watch

Going further

Civilization VII 1.4.1: Hotseat Multiplayer, Government Overhaul, and the Brush & Blade Japan DLC

Civ VII Accelerates: Hotseat, Feudal Japan, and Reworked Governments

What 1.4.1 Delivers Free to All Players

Brush & Blade Part 1: Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Feudal Japan

Part 2 Arrives Later This Summer

The Bottom Line

Sources

EU5 Rossbach patch review: two months later, do Unit Templates really deliver?

Table of contents

Unit Templates: the evolution we’ve wanted since EU4

Peasant Enfranchisement: a novel social lever, but unpolished

The Brandenburg disaster: historical immersion or clunky script?

Regional reworks: the invisible groundwork

Bugs and hotfix 1.1.10: stability check

Verdict after 60 days

See also

Sources