[Saxon]

The comment that the end game is busy work is pretty accurate. The solution, from my point of view, is to ignore a lot of it. I stop worrying about every little thing, push the big things, and rush through turns. Sure, I win on turn 100 instead of 95, but I finish about three hours earlier. Once you reach the end game and you know you will win, either call it a night or rush through. If you are really strong enough, cutting corners will not matter. Your grand plan is in place and usually just needs a few more turns to work, rather than more fine tuning.

I resisted this for some time, but gave in Saturday night and raced through five turns in the time of one. Lo and behold my dominion based strategy crushed Vanheim, even though I had ignored the strategy, only moving the big armies against Ulm. I took a few minutes longer on the next turn to snap up the now empty provinces, then fast forward again. I pumped in all the cash I was not spending into overly high provincial defenses, it was quick and protected me.

I guess what I am suggesting is that if you really want to play the game to the end, change your approach. It is fun and fast.