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Greetings fellow goons. New Dominons player here. I heard about Dom3, but you know, the graphics/UI/comments about being mainly a multiplayer game as the AI sucked always made me pass up on the game. Also, the price. But with Dominions 4 I finally tried it, and I'm liking it. Also it helped that in the interim, I played CoE3 that in a way it's a mini-Dominions. My first game (against Normal AI) was with EA Ulm. It went... not good. The wraparound map without seas and the fact maybe there was more nations for that map than I would like meant I had 4 war fronts, one in every direction, and every time I took a province, they took one in other side, and vice versa. At some point I got frustrated of playing the whack-a-mole game and I started another one. Also, I sucked. The second game was better, with EA Arco, in the Aran map. I got to destroy one of the AIs. Alas, I was in a peninsula surrounded by water, water owned by Oceania (was it? the one with Itchosatyrs, Itchotaurs, etc) which made constant raids to my territory including the area of my capital. I could reconquest always, but that situation slowed my expansion by a lot. Meanwhile Ctis owned the hell of another nation in the mainland part of the map, and when I got around to fight them, they had twice the provinces, twice the armies, etc. Still, I thought I could slowly conquest their territory (even as a noob, I have better strategic foresight than the AI!), but in the end, I was dom-killed. By the AI. Ugh. In my noobness, I had only purchased Dom 6 and I still didn't have a good grip on dominion spread mechanics and what's the normal amount of temples to build (and the AI loveees to build temples). My plan was to beat drat Oceania, I had summoned some Sea Troll kings and had forged a pair of barrels of Air, but the pressure of C'tis delayed my plans and between being C'tis temples and Oceania temples around me, baam dead. The third game, I finally won. It was with MA Atlantis in the Valanis map. Now, that was a interesting game strategically speaking. I rushed War Lobsters and beat the rival sea opponent somewhat early that gave me all the river for me, and that allowed me to do raids. I identified the important points in the map, the river passes, some provinces that were choke points because there were mountains around and took control. There were some reversals and drat Ashdod troops killed easily my weak Atlantis troops (one of the weakest nations, I understand) by in 12 years I won the game. Not that I'm going to touch again MA Atlantis. God what a boring nations. No cavalry, archers, special troops, no spies, or assassins, or heretics, no national spells, no nothing. Just seven melee infantry troops that are near identical between them, and a pair of tougher ones that are still on the same category. Good leadership, priests and water mages but it's all waves of Coral Guards and Shamblers. Now I want to try some undead nations (yeah, I know about the micro). Because I already played EA and MA, I wanted to play now in LA. So... Lemuria. Any general hints for them? Pretender strategies? I know I need at least Death 3 to summon the undead commanders. How the freespawn work exactly, I know they appear in forts but also in temples?
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Feb 2, 2014 12:29
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:58 |
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The Lemuria game was pretty short, I chose a small map to change airs and avoid extreme micro in the late game, and yeah, the AI can't play against undead nations. So... say, what should be my next game? You can choose the faction! I played EA Ulm, EA Arco, MA Atlantis and LA Lemuria. This time I will bump up the AI to hard! (here Dom veterans will laugh) LA Ulm? the whole Dracula/Transylvania made me laugh when I saw the connection. Mictlan in some age? Abysia? I want to try Blood, and I only dabbled in Fire magic. EA Yomi? I read they are kind of bad. A giant nation? The norse ones, the hebrew ones? Any of the indian/ape nations? They have a nice array of units. Agharta in a map with decent cave system? I prefer a nation with strong theme, originality, and a decent scope of possible tactics and strategies (if a nation is 'good', but it's just good based on using the same specific unit/bless/spell combo, it's less interesting for me).
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Feb 4, 2014 13:00
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"You want very little mixing with independent troops, since your helltroopers will burn them alive if they're too close in formation" Question, all the "auras" do friendly fire? Fire, cold? Fear, awe? I suppose Fear only works with the enemy. Wait, was Awe an aura or just a normal about-to-hit effect?
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Feb 4, 2014 13:22
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From the description of the Abysian infantry: "They radiate a furnace-like heat and are impervious to all forms of fire, but are vulnerable to cold. The chill of winter slows them down and lowers their morale." Is it true? In the game or inspector site I don't see any effect or trait that indicates that. Is it just part of the heat aura?
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Feb 4, 2014 14:16
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Vaos posted:"Precision 1" on the spell means that you ADD 1 precision to the caster's stat when using the spell, not that the precision is lowered to 1. So it's always good to have the precision increased up to 15/16 (precision count double for accuracy from there) if you want your mages to actually hit bad guys and not friendly fire half your army. If it works like precision in mundane combat (ie. arrows), it doubles up from 10 onwards.
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Feb 4, 2014 17:53
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TheresNoThyme posted:Abysia can blood sac so they have that option to patch up the domspread inside their own turf. It's a pity that Abysia have the bonus of ignoring the Death scales penalty income, because Death it doesn't go well the with Blood magic right? You want growth.
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Feb 5, 2014 15:11
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Nuclearmonkee posted:Blood works fine with death. It just gives you extra pressure to expand and you will deplete 4-5k blood hunting provs very quickly. With Aby though death scales do hilarious things to your mages every winter. It was a trap question, in truth I'm playing already an Abysia game with some death scales. I'm doing it well, after the first two years I'm the number 1 on provinces and have 3 armies attacking 3 different enemies. Hell, the only flaw is me using my Pretender, I cleared 10 provinces in the first ten turns with him and a twenty guys squad, so I kind of got overconfident and attacked an indie province without noticing it had higher quality troops than usual, including a squad of heavy cavalry that killed the Pretender. And at that moment I didn't have any priest to start the recalling. And because men never learn from their mistakes, I got him later in another fight that left him with the affliction that makes more afflictions over time.
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Feb 5, 2014 15:45
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Neruz posted:Having Fire resist 5 or Cold resist 5 makes you immune to the negative effects of the appropriate scale. Nations with a preference stronger than 1 in either direction typically have all or most dudes with the appropriate resist. Being 3 or more temperature steps past your 'comfort zone' provides a morale penalty. Not sure exactly how many steps it is but I've definitely seen morale penalties for heat preference nations fighting in cold 3 scales. Maybe this is what it referred to. It isn't in the manual, I believe.
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Feb 5, 2014 15:54
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Decrepus posted:The line about they ignoring income penalty is bullshit anyway. Just misleading flavor text to trick you into ruining your nation. Abysia still takes the income penalty by picking up the Death scale and still loses the income by the pop dying just like everyone else. The only thing they benefit from is that they don't take a supply penalty... Really? drat you Illwinter, daaamn youuu!
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Feb 6, 2014 09:41
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Smerdyakov posted:I pretty mcuh agree with you: Abysia really has to expand in a controlled way and use diplomacy as much as possible until the fire casters become relevant. What are the 5-6 key Fire spells, in your mind?
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Feb 6, 2014 09:44
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drat the mages are all half blind, their fire spells miss a lot. A reason more to go up to Firestorm right? Meanwhile, I will try to craft a few eyes of aiming.
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Feb 6, 2014 15:37
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Try to put the Hydras in the top most flank with attack rear orders and the rest of squads in the bottom flank with attack closest orders. They should be able to fight in the same battle with minimal interference between them. Maybe.
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Feb 7, 2014 16:53
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WHY there is so much micro in Blood Hunting? God why. Do you have to take little sacks of gold, transferring them to scouts, and move the scouts to labs where they ferry back the bags to gain gold in the game? No? Is abstracted if the province is connected to a fort right? Do you have move one by one the magical gems? No, right? Then why I have to micromanage every individual slave blood >  .It's one thing having to search what individual provinces to blood hunt, being careful with the conditions (unrest, population) and having to send guys with the knowledge and equipment (with that they make a point that blood magic is different than any other magic school, more special, but it needs care); but it's another thing having so much micro to do. Once you do the blood hunt action the slaves should transfer automatically to the closest, connected lab. Maybe put an modified action like control+blood hunt if you don't want to send them back, because you plan to use them soon.
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Feb 8, 2014 11:11
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How people take tri-blesses? It really tanks your scales. Is it worth it apart from using with Mictlan? In general, what are the nations with most Bless synergy?
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Feb 8, 2014 19:09
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Man, I've been comparing troops like crazy in the Inspector, and Mictlan not only have their wtfopness bless troops, even their regular average troops are very cost effective, because they are a bit cheaper than they should be (in comparison with other nations). An EA warrior with 10 in every stat including prot except defence 12, with spear and ranged sling just 9 gold / 6 res?? It should be 10g/10res (or at minimum, 9res). Which it seems a pittance of difference, but if someone is recruiting full armies of them in every fort every turn, the difference is notable. edit: they have move 1 instead of 2, I didn't see at first, but it isn't so bad. Which so many special provinces (forests, swaps, mountains, wastelands, etc) most armies end up moving just 1 province/turn. Turin Turambar fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Feb 9, 2014 |
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Feb 9, 2014 13:01
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So, how much chance there is from being horror marked when using a tainted item like Soul Contract? How horror marks work, in general?
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Feb 11, 2014 14:13
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I read something like that before, for now I'm building soul contracts with my Pretender but giving them to cheap priests/researchers in my capital.
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Feb 11, 2014 14:46
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This a weird question but, at what turn you usually reach the "late game"? Do you even reach it? Do you reach levels 8-9 of magic paths?
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Feb 13, 2014 11:49
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I know from reading it in several places that research costs were cheaper in Dom3, so people used more the national armies in Dom4. It seems a good idea. But that said, I wonder if they went a bit too far, the later levels (7-8-9) are insane to unlock, maybe you can rush one if you focus your research on it for most of the game, but most nations need several paths at level 5-6 (evocation for these battle mages, alteration for these thugs, thaumaturgy for this global ritual, construction of course, etc). From what I've seen, games are already won or at least they decided before anyone reaches level 8 of any school (maybe the game isn't won, but there is a player clearly on control and mopping up).
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Feb 13, 2014 15:05
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Yep, at the end of the day it's more clear. Just put the chances of a S2 beating a S1, another S2, and a S3.
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Feb 14, 2014 01:54
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Smerdyakov posted:Change the thread title to "Dominions 4: Practicality was never considered." Nice one. Any comments about the Void Gate of MA/LA R'lyeh? Does the summons you win are good enough to justify the investment in mages and risk involved? Any tricks to improve your chances?
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Feb 14, 2014 19:22
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Also remember that even if you aren't strong enough to break the walls, you are besieging them and they can't recruit units in that fort nor receive income from the province.
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Feb 15, 2014 23:25
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quote:2014-02-20 22:45:00 +0100 Baam. Caelum archers are sacred.
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Feb 21, 2014 10:08
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Kitfox88 posted:Wait, does this include the spell or just the f9 bless? Don't make my archers useless again illwinter The text says "Fire and death bless arrows now requires a hit to take effect", so the bless.
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Feb 22, 2014 10:36
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amuayse posted:I wonder, are Abyssians good guys or bad guys in the grand scheme of things? From the manual quote:Abysia The race itself isn't evil, but the nation turned to it with time. Slaves, devil worship, human sacrifices.
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Feb 22, 2014 22:21
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Jabarto posted:Are there any good guys in this game? I guess Maringon has a chivalrous knight thing going on...at least until they make a deal with the devil and start rounding people up for blood sacrifice, and it honestly seems like every single country in the late era has either declined significantly and/or been plagued/cursed/tempted by dark magic. Man? They are 'Arthurian'. Arcoscephele, maybe.
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Feb 22, 2014 22:23
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Gamersgate has the game discounted http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DOM4TA/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascension Just in case you want to gift it to some friend...
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Feb 24, 2014 21:08
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Flython posted:I guess it's time to pick it up then, thanks for the help people. Now it's 75% off, so yeah, really it's the time to pick it up!
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Feb 25, 2014 12:19
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Cainer posted:Finally picked up Dominions 4 after being in love with all the lets plays, too bad they always die off, 75% is just too sweet of a deal to pass up. I have no clue what I'm doing but it looks like fun. First step: read the manual. It isn't optional!
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Feb 25, 2014 23:55
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Smerdyakov posted:Not exactly a lie per se, but the price of globals don't really correlate to their effectiveness. Uhh.. yeah, that isn't to lie, it's the player who have to think which spells are more effective and which less effective, and in what conditions.
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Feb 27, 2014 16:22
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Smerdyakov posted:...there's always one knucklehead. While dom4 is an interesting game with lots of niche situations, some spells are clearly better than others if you have a choice between the two of them, and the official documentation about globals is still/will always be pretty spotty. There are plenty of spells that sound awesome but end up sucking in practice, and vice versa. Who would've thought the most powerful blood spell would be called "rain of toads?" ... So some spells are better than others, mostly when you haven't tried for yourself in the game. ...How that means that the manual is full of lies??? I could understand if there was strategy notes in there saying "this spell is good", "this isn't so great", but it's not the case.
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Feb 28, 2014 12:37
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Pomp posted:On that day, humanity received a grim reminder Imagine an AoT mod! :P
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Mar 1, 2014 17:02
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MrBims posted:Wraparound mitigates the ability to hunker down on chokepoints. Without wraparound, you end up with less possible avenues of approach to some provinces so it is easier to plop down a ton of forts and armies in the few avenues that are available. Comparatively, that gives a big disadvantage to players who start in the middle, who have much larger fronts they have to deal with. Wraparound maps are more balanced yeah, but I feel they wraparound makes them too small as the enemy is "around the corner", in all the fronts. Usually if the map is wraparound, I like to play it with two less players than the recommended setting. Turin Turambar fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Mar 3, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 10:21
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Libluini posted:Oh, thank god. It may sound stupid, but this question kept bugging me over the last days and I wanted to be sure I didn't misunderstood the bless mechanic. One thing that confused the hell out of me at first with blesses, was why my priests and my pretender was ignoring my bless orders. It happened to be, Pretender does an automatic pre-battle bless! ¬¬
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Mar 3, 2014 15:08
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Yeah. No thank you. One of the problems of Fallen Enchantress was the make-your-own-unit system subtracted personality and identity to each nation. I prefer the old Master of Magic or Age of Wonders style of races/nations. This race has cheap but weak troops to amass, that race has trolls with regeneration and centaurs as cavalry, this one has stealthy assassins and holy mages and that one has amphibious monsters that you can summon. Differences.
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Mar 13, 2014 19:36
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Nuclearmonkee posted:Monkey nations would be very sad if the siege penalty for animals was actually a thing. Monkey nations units shouldn't have the animal tag, they are supposed to be intelligent apes, not "normal" ones.
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Mar 16, 2014 19:38
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TOOT BOOT posted:Is Conquest of Elysium 3 any good? While fun for a number of hours while you try different races and poo poo, I would say it has -worse AI- than Dominions 4. It literally will have armies way bigger than yours thanks to cheats but won't be capable of directing it to your main territory, going back and forth as going crazy about what part has more priority if this tile or that tile.
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Apr 1, 2014 00:13
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Saith posted:There's a Dominions 4? The game have been in several 50% and 75% off sales. You could have bought it even cheaper  .
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Apr 5, 2014 14:02
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Chomp8645 posted:
Your own fault for dabbling with infernal forces! Good guys don't have that problem! :P
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Apr 7, 2014 10:30
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:58 |
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quote:2014-04-06 22:45:21 +0200 Speculation about the new attribute guys? With the name, it may be some kind of permanent bodyguard for commander in the form of some spirit.
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Apr 7, 2014 23:47
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