The sale I bought the original Endless Legend on was an insane steal, practically paid 10 bucks for what was truly a 50 dollar experience. This DLC could literally ♥♥♥♥ in my face and I'd still be glad to put some money into the studio that created Endless Legend, because the goodwill they sowed in me from both that and Dungeon of the Endless has about 40 unclaimed dollars. Eat your money grubbing heart out, Firaxis...

Fortunately, I still have 40 dollars of goodwill left in my heart, because, unlike Guardians, which was a rather ephemeral bit of content for ten bucks, Shadows upgrades the experience significantly with a whole new layer of gameplay, that of paranoia.

Picture this: you control the entire world under an iron boot, and no empire can stand against you. The hippie dragons don't have nearly enough influence to force a truce, the cultist missionaries are crushed each time their pathetic envoys come anywhere near your villages, and newsflash for Roving Clans: you can't bribe a god. But suddenly, one turn, dissent in your cities turns to outright rebellion, the score of the Forgotten shoots up hundreds of points in a single turn, and you realize what your mighty empire was all along; a glorious string of dominoes, all of which fall one by one, as your intense expansion falls flat on its face. Governor after governor is assasinated, city upon city turns against you, donning the dreaded purple flag, statues of your likeness topple mere days after they were erected in freshly conquered lands, and you find yourself, teary eyed, desperately begging your new Forgotten overlords for just one tiny city. They smile, and offer a trade for a truce. Surrender all your gold, all your looted possessions, disband your armies, politically castrate your entire empire... and they will return a single city, renamed to "♥♥♥♥RHere".

I could go on, saying that the appeal lies in how seamlessly the mechanics fit with those already established, as if a new layer of political intrigue has been unleashed by this faction, and yet was available since the game's inception. Suddenly it takes a lot more than just a steady production line to keep your civilization safe, now you must be wary of traitors within your walls, as a turncoat at a crucial time is the only difference between a crown on your head and a knife in your back. I could also go on to say the Forgotten feel like a fresh faced equal of those that came before, with a new strategic angle to go about conquering the world, or a new and deadly adversary to defend your mighty empire from, throwing a wrench in the proverbial plans of mice and men.

But I won't go on, because as I said, this game could literally ♥♥♥♥ in my face and I'd still heartily recommend it, and seeing as it didn't, and actually handed me delicious nuggets of Ferrero Rocher to delight in, all the more reason to recommend it. I guess the next one has to murder my entire family to get a thumbs down, and I wish it the best of luck, because I've been trying for years and the best I've managed is a single economic victory against the punkass ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s...

Endless Legend already is an excellent game in it's base form. I have to admit that I haven't played it as much as I've wanted due to time restrains but that will definitely change now with this expansion. Sure it only adds two things to the game:

1) A major faction called the Forgotten which I'm still trying to figure out how to play. And since they do not produce any science, being science phobics, they can only gain techs in two ways. Either buy them for dust, which already is in high demand needed for the usual stuff like upgrading units and such. Or steal them from other major factions using the new . . .

2) Espionage system! Which is simply the best implementation of such kind in any turnbased game I've ever played in my 30+ years of gaming. You can spy on the other factions, knowing what your enemies-to-be are building and where they move their troops is very useful and enables you to adapt accordingly. You can even sabotage their cities in a number of ways, like hindering production or damaging fortifications. Or even pillage resource extractors and villages for some quick loot and disabling them for their owners for a number of turns. But remember, what you can do to them, they can do to you too. So being the neighbourhood bully suddenly became much more dangerous even when playing against AI's only.

How this will affect all humans multiplayer sessions I can only speculate at this moment but odds are things will become pretty interesting. A definite thumbs up and recommended buy.

spying is a nice adition which gets better in the lategame. the new faction takes advantige of that and focuses on lategame too. they use pillaging with combination of their naturaly stealthed units to kickstart their economy, but their units are below average in strength, so numbers and avoidance tactics will be crucial in using it to the maximal eficciency.

Overall the dlc is a nice addition but not required to fully immerse with the main content

tl;dr: It's worth it if you want more of a challenge

Shadows definately makes the game a little bit more challenging. Rather than exploring outright, you may need to keep some troops close by your cities in case of roamng pillagers during the early parts of the game. Espianage and security are yet more things you need to keep a look out on over all the other things.

Playing as the forgotten is another challenge as you have no science production at all, and technologies must be bought out with dust, making the Forgotten very score tight during the earlier turns. Not to mention that Forgotten units are actually a little bit weak as to balance out its innate stealth abilities.

I've got mixed feelings about Shadows, still wading into the espionage system and the new faction quest, but the inability to generate science (having to buy it with gold instead) is more irritating than immersive. Feels more like an artificial constraint for game balance and distinctiveness rather than something the faction needed. It's still a fresh and wonderful game overall, though.

I don't know if it's worth the asking price, it seems like a lot of money for the small amount of content -- it's a bit like the pricing of a Civilization 5 or Crusader Kings 2 DLC, too expensive unless you're a rabid fan. Which I am.

Espeionage is grossly broken. Even when at peace with neighbors, they can and WILL hit you with espionage tactics that cause damage to your cities. There is no repercussions for these actions and no retaliation except for you going into a long and protracted war.

If you send a spy at me, and i identify you as the spymaster, then you are violating our peace, and you are caught in an act of war, but no. No the game doesnt see it this way. You must declare war, which is at a personal cost to you and your relations with all other nations.

In my case, i lost ALL my allys when i went to war with a nation i was supposed to be at peace with. Even though the AI was the one who had crippled my population 3 times and been caught every time.

There is also no diplomatic option to tell them to cut it out, or issue a warning to them, or anything else.

ESPIONAGE IS BROKEN and you will regret adding it to your game if you play non violent.

Well I bought this expansion and also played with
the new faction "the forgotten".

They have some alternative game mechanics. And this is one
of the selling points of Endless Legend. Each faction does have
a different feel and strategy. But...

But these new stealth elements don't really contribute much to
the game experience. And here's why

1. Infiltration
You'll need an Army in the enemy teritory to infiltrate a city.
For this action influence is necessary (40 +)
And then you'll need to assign a hero to this city to act as
a spy.
The first options for infiltration only affect the city.
To access better options which affect the whole empire,
your hero has to stay in this city for 5, 10, 15 turns.

So in my opinion that's just too long, and too many
ressources have to be spent on this. Army, Influence,
and most importantly a hero!!

Instead I can just spend the ressources to build
a powerful army with a hero and just
siege the city, and then take it. Why bothering with all
this stealth stuff?

2. Stealing ressources
I need a army in the enemy teritory. Then they
have to occupy one single ressource or luxury resource.
And for each turn they steal some of the
ressources. But only from that one source.

Its easier and cheaper to buy the ressources on the
market in my opinion. Why bothering to spending several
units on this task?
And if I want to attack the economy of the enemy, I
can just siege his city.

3. Buying Technology
The forgotten do not have any science generation.
So they have to buy the technology with dust.
Or steal it through infiltration, which can fail.

Dust is too valuable to spend it on technology alone.
You'll think that you could progress faster, but it takes
time to gather the necessary amount of dust.
So your progress is actually slower compared to other
factions.

So none of these mechanics are good enough to match
the traits of other factions. And thus this expansion
does not affect gameplay at all.

Just save the money for something else.

Pretty great expansion to a very deep and compelling 4x strategy.

New Mechanics:
-Spies
Utilizing spies is expensive, and uses a hero, and takes time. All factions can do this, and the Forgotten heroes are the best for it. The benefits for having a really good spy may not seem worth the effort, and if you're able to build an army to destroy all of their armies pretty easily it's not worth it. However, if you are behind, a spy can open up opportunities for attack, and can be a general parasite on another faction.
Ex. I wanted to attack and take a city, but their defenses were too strong. I reduced the fortification of the city, then several turns later with another spy, I lowered their morale as much as possible (-45% atk/def) for a couple turns. I attacked. My hero had the +Atk% when attacking a city, and by using positioning for a positive morale, I brought the Atk on my units to 200-300, and reduced theirs to 60-80, even though their units were double my level.

-Pillage/Camo
Camo is mostly useful against players. It could help hide a scouting unit you're using to Pillage.
Pillaging is a great way to harass a player without declaring war. It gives you bonus resources, and disables an expansion of theirs. The Forgotten can get double dust from pillaging, and can more easily pillage in 1 turn.

-New Faction, The Forgotten
Challenges:

These guys are difficult to play. They are kinda like a parasite faction that uses the two new mechanics really well. Their units have below average stats, but they have really good capacities. If you play this faction as a turtle, without scouting the map, their effectiveness drops immensely.
This faction cannot get science, and uses dust for research. Because of this, research speeds are fast in Era I, slow in Era II, and start to pick up again from Era III onwards.

Advantages:
Their spies can steal technologies very easily. Their pillaging gets x2 dust, and is faster. All of their units are stealth (outside of a 2 tile distance from a hero or city i think), so they can pillage and hide very well, or sneak into enemy territory to plant a spy.
This faction gets a free unique hero with dual unique swords. You can build your starting hero as your spy, or your unique one, but you get a really good spy, and really good hero weapons pretty early.
Aggressiveness with this faction is about leeching off another faction's cities with spies and pillaging, then setting up a coup where you debuff their city/units with a spy and attack. This process is more complex and more things can go wrong, which is why they are difficult to play.

Great expansion, and basically an insta-buy. Also, fantastic new music for the new faction.

Not a bad DLC, get a nice new faction based on stealth and new options to pillage and spy on other empires.
BUT it feels not alot of content for £10 tbh, feels more like a £4.99 or so DLC for what you get with it.

Buy it when its on sale, I dont recommend its full price like I paid.

Whilst I loved the main game and felt as though the first expansion added upon it in a fitting manner, this expansion seems clumsy and I have basically stopped using it. The espionage mechanics are ok, but fairly shallow and the AI bombarding you with this expansions' version of pillaging (shutting down extractors) just feels annoying rather than adding something fun. Actually that is probably what I would summerise the expansion as; added complications, but with no more joy.

I'd skip it unless on super cheap sale (which it is at time of writing) and your curiosity outweighs the need for a small amount of cash ;)