[Alneyan]

For what it's worth, Entwined Destiny (6 teams of two players) has also resulted in a lot of fighting, and a fairly balanced game I would say. We are only on turn 35, but two teams have been destroyed, and the third one isn't exactly in a good shape (a godless Marignon, busy proving that indeed, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition). For now, the game has been rewarding the warmongers, but we shall see what happens next.

I would also agree with your point about the length of the game: the slightly more aggressive French players (heh) don't really have the experience of games where hundreds of clams are the norm, and such games can indeed happen. When you have an Astral Nexus, two hundred clams and the Forge of the Ancients, everything seems a lot cheaper for some reason. Likewise, if you have the time to recover gems invested in your Air Queens, they aren't so expensive; if you get dragged in a war meanwhile, you will miss all those air gems/alchemised gems.

An another interesting note: in that 2vs2 game, Vanheim was currently summoning creatures considered to be way too expensive for what they do. More specifically, I have seen some Cave Drakes, a few Wyverns, and creatures along those lines in their ranks. In a game where you aren't in danger of a war, I don't think such summons would have been used, as there are much better things available... if you can afford to wait for them.

Of course, for all of this to work, players have to feel like waging a couple of wars: I guess a 1vs1 game could still end up in a Maginot mentality, if both players do not feel like launching an attack (resulting in the same matter of hoarding resources, chain-summoning, and the like).