What part of the game is the most fun for you?

[Tiltowait]

To me, Master of Magic has a pretty clearly defined beginning game, midgame, and endgame. Which part of the game do you like playing the best, and why?

I define the part of the game up to your first Miner's Guild as the beginning. Once you have that Miner's Guild in your capital, you're making 30-40 hammers per turn and can really start cranking out units. I call this the midgame. When you can make top-end units like paladins and magicians, I call that the start of the endgame.

I like the beginning the best. It's such an uphill challenge, you have to explore the map, see what's happening in this world, and there is always a worry of losing the game outright. There is the anticipation of your first hero: will it be the lift of the heart that Zaldron, or Serena brings? Or will you crap out and get Brax. I really like building a hero stack and then doing low level ruins, and maybe a neutral city. A group of bowmen and cavalry against ghouls or swordsmen is always fun. The piddly rewards from low level ruins can make a big difference, too. 100 magic crystals can be a big boost at the right time.

The midgame is good too, you're getting some good units that will change the game. That and doing lots of building. Those universities and cathedrals take a while. You can clear out some ruins with your hero stack and get going. Conquer some neutrals if they exist in your game, and the computer players declare war on you after you contact them. Still, spending too many hammers on military units at this point will hurt your long-term growth. But building a huge army is the only way to get a badly-needed peace treaty in place.

The endgame is really in two parts: when paladins and such start appearing, and when paladins are as common as infantry. This is when you can really start kicking ass, taking on Great Wyrms and other huge creatures. You've got the casting skill to finally cast those world-busting spells like Flame Strike. But sometimes this part of the game can lack tension, as you've got your Stack-O-Doom which functions like a queen on a chessboard, winning wherever it goes. I like that the CPs actually defend their capitals now, it's much more of a challenge to beat them.

[I like Serena]

I like the midgame best.
The beginning game is just like waiting forever until something happens, or be wiped out without being able to do anything about it. I wouldn't skip it, because it really is the forming part of the game.
Then again, I don't usually build a miner's guild in my capital anytime soon, rather using it more for support.
I build and buy my miner's guild in the city that I want to use to crank out units. Preferably with adamantium or mithril deposits.
My capital is only to bridge the gap. I may build a fighter's guild to protect it in a timely fashion, but I'll tend to postpone anything else.
I guess I consider the midgame to start when I have the fighter's guild in my capital in place.
Alternatively I might not crank out units at all, conjuring units instead, depending on my chosen theme.
The endgame is to see if I can actually crack those skydrake's nodes, usually postponing defeating my last opponent, just for the satisfaction of it.
Actually, I know that with enough champions, levels, and artifacts I can defeat any opponent - regardless of cranking out units - unless they defeat me first.
I consider the endgame to start when I'm ready to crank out top notch units, (adamantium/mithril) paladins or some such, and/or champions.

[Seravy]

Midgame, clearly. That's where I need to use my brain the most, where it really feels I'm playing a game where the outcome only depends on my skill.
Early game is also fun but for an entirely different reason, exploration. Unlike most other games, here the maps are varied enough that you can't know what you'll find and it has a huge influence on the game. Which wizards you got as enemies is exciting to find out, too.
Late game, depends. If difficulty was set hard or lower (on CoM, not in vanilla, there even impossible is often too easy) then the late game tends to be boring. I already know I'm winning, but I still have to go around the map and raze all those 50 cities. I guess better AI might help a little in this, every once in a while I get surprised and find out I can't win as easily as I expected, unfortunately this usually just means I have to waste an extra 8 hours on winning instead of just 2. On higher difficulty however, late game is the most exciting part, since the outcome actually is not yet decided. Enemy drakes and colossus start roaming the map in large numbers, everyone starts casting global spells from armageddon to suppress magic, these make the game a lot more exciting.

That said, this is now and in CoM.
I played vanilla MoM way too long ago but I think I liked the late game most back then, enjoyed all those overpowered crazy things that were completely unstoppable, heroes, paladins, crazy spell combos, etc...
only problem with that was, it felt like I'm smashing ants, the AI was pretty much nonexistent so...all that power I had was completely unnecessary...

[Nelphine]

I have to admit, I'm looking forward to playing an endgame CoM game. My first serious attempt at impossible, I had too much of an advantage. They had barely started getting Storm Giants by the time I could crush most of their empires simultaneously.

So for me, the early game is over when I have enough troops to protect multiple cities.

However, I'm really not sure where midgame vs endgame is. For instance, my current impossible game, 1413, I have multiple Demon Lords roaming around, as well as Eternal Night cast and .. the death spell that increases enemy spell cost.. But my opponents have 0 globals cast, and the strongest unit I've seen with the AI is basilisk. And I've only taken.. half a dozen lairs, and no nodes. But I only have 4 spells left to research before Spell of Mastery. So I'm very conflicted as to what part of the game I'm in.

[Nelphine]

I think this is the state I like the most. Late game where I have a cess to very rare spells, but before I have enough power to use them enough en mass. Myou opponents should be able to hold their own against my stronger stacks, and threaten me in many areas, forcing me to constantly reconsider where my forces are, and what I should be focusing on.