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Boing
Jul 12, 2005

trapped in custom title factory, send help
In my opinion if you're going to spam unforted temples and make priests out of them every turn they may as well be making their own skeletons :smug:

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Decrepus
May 21, 2008

In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.


Prepares for an counters enemy invasion. Loses in 1 turn to ponies who are his other neighbor.

Baudin
Dec 31, 2009
Turn 20:
IRC Quote of the Turn:
(1:09:30 PM) FatSamurai: Everything in Dominions ends in tears

More troop movements, in a circle almost.



I found some elusive lights!



And my scout was discovered by some longdead.



Poor guy.

I’ve got a nice little set of gems now. I should start making it work for me soon.



I’ve decided to finally make my move - I’ve been holding off on attacking Morlockia (Burlap) for a while, but he’s got a fancy new castle on my borders, I need to do something about it.



Time to start making some ancient ones. What could possibly go wrong?

I’ve also sent various mages out site searching, and my scouts are once again moving around the map, trying to track who’s doing what. Knowing who’s actually attacking whom and general locations are very useful. So is diplomacy.

I’m moving a LOT of troops around.



Lets see if they all die horribly! I’m rather constrained right now - at least I seem to have stable borders, though that could change very quickly!

End Turn!

Baudin fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Sep 14, 2015

How are u
May 19, 2005

by Azathoth
Still baffled that you picked Ancient Ones for any reason whatsoever.

Decrepus
May 21, 2008

In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.


?sonshi

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Units getting younger is good news for everybody, right? Nobody's getting aged back into children or anything?

Baudin
Dec 31, 2009

How are u posted:

Still baffled that you picked Ancient Ones for any reason whatsoever.

If my opening post where I detail that I'm bad at this game hasn't clued you in yet I don't know if I can help you.

fool of sound
Oct 10, 2012

Glazius posted:

Units getting younger is good news for everybody, right? Nobody's getting aged back into children or anything?

Yup. In fact one nation, Hinnom, can get literal infants as event units who fight like fully grown baby eating giants.

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

fool_of_sound posted:

Yup. In fact one nation, Hinnom, can get literal infants as event units who fight like fully grown baby eating giants.

I cannot find these guys in Mod Inspector and it's imperative I do so. Please tell me how the murderous giant babies are called. I understand this may be a joke, but I want to believe.

ChickenWing
Jul 22, 2010

:v:

They're generic Nephilim that you get from events triggered by having Grigori around - look up Nephil in the mod inspector

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.
Nephil are the offspring between Grigori and Avvi, not murderous giant babies :confused:

On the other hand, pixel dicks, which are fun in their own way.

ChickenWing
Jul 22, 2010

:v:

Fat Samurai posted:

Nephil are the offspring between Grigori and Avvi, not murderous giant babies :confused:

On the other hand, pixel dicks, which are fun in their own way.

That's actually exactly what they are.

The events are all "<grigori> has sired an offspring"

Implying that the Nephil you get from the event has just been born.

Implying that it is, in fact, a giant murderous baby

Libluini
May 18, 2012

I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...
Grimey Drawer

ChickenWing posted:

That's actually exactly what they are.

The events are all "<grigori> has sired an offspring"

Implying that the Nephil you get from the event has just been born.

Implying that it is, in fact, a giant murderous baby

Maybe the message from your civil registry office was just really, really late. Like "Oh yeah, that rampaging giant? He was born eighteen years ago. Turns out that grigori under your command sired him about 19 years ago. Sorry we never mentioned this until now, our bad. Here's the birth certificate, by the way. We put today's date on it so it doesn't look like we're incompetent jackasses processing stuff 19 years too late"

gbuchold
Oct 7, 2007

We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.
Pillbug

Fat Samurai posted:

Nephil are the offspring between Grigori and Avvi, not murderous giant babies :confused:

On the other hand, pixel dicks, which are fun in their own way.
Note their Age: 1 (1000)

Congratulations! It's a beautiful bouncing monster giant! Oh he's eating me

Decrepus
May 21, 2008

In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.


They are born horny.

Samog
Dec 13, 2006
At least I'm not an 07.
same.

Libluini
May 18, 2012

I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...
Grimey Drawer

gbuchold posted:

Note their Age: 1 (1000)

Congratulations! It's a beautiful bouncing monster giant! Oh he's eating me

I'm telling you, that's just a filing error. Someone should file a complaint about shoddy bureaucracy with whoever your pretender put in charge of the civil registry.

TheDemon
Dec 11, 2006

...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.
e: wrong thread

Tom Clancy is Dead
Jul 13, 2011

Etalommi posted:

Baudin and I are hosting a nationgens blitz Sunday. We'll use the FuckYou rules, so random unseen nations (no peeking!) and random gods. It's great because you don't have to have your stupid nation for too long, like the suckers in the real game do. He's bad and I'm new so if you're starting out and want to try blitz/nationgen, now is the time. If your experienced and want to experiment, netflix and chill, you do you.

Start will be somewhere between 17:00 and 23:00 UTC. If someone has a preference, we'll go with that, otherwise we'll decide tomorrow night.

Tom Clancy is Dead fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Sep 19, 2015

Baudin
Dec 31, 2009
Turn 21:



The Mongler Horde is officially dead.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNmiNJMxPF8

And I managed to do it again, when it comes to starvation.



It also appears as if my target know I’m planning to invade soon.



That is a lot of earthbound.



And this is all that I have to bring to the party. It might not be enough, so I’m moving troops in from my other forts.

I’ve also ordered my water mage (former giant) hero to craft one of these:



If I can keep him alive long enough maybe I’ll start summoning cool things, or use him to do cool water based things. Highly unlikely though.

I’ve also started to recruit Magister Arcanes in my capital. I have a lot of resources, so I probably don’t need to worry too much about master smiths for now there.



End Turn!

Tom Clancy is Dead
Jul 13, 2011

Etalommi posted:

Since no one has expressed a preference, be on IRC at 19:00 UTC if you want to play in the randomnations blitz.

BurlapNapkin
Feb 11, 2013

Baudin posted:

It also appears as if my target know I’m planning to invade soon.

That is a lot of earthbound.

From the other side of the border this turn, what Baudin thought was a defensive buildup on my part was actually a barrier action against Thespookydanger. Elves in dominions have an ability called glamour, which gives them mirror images in combat, and makes them completely and utterly undetectable on the strategic map. They also get +65 stealth, so they can bypass outer provinces and go straight to besieging your forts, if they so chose.

With a neighbor like that, you have to be aware that they might try something if you don't show them a lot of army. So in this case since Thespookydanger hasn't been sounding particularly friendly, I've sent longdead and earthbound to patrol our border. My territory at this point is the same size as Baudin's (very small), so that front is also visible from Baudin's side.

Unfortunately, at this point Baudin's done a good job of diplomacy, acting like he wants to deal with the elf threat. So next turn is going to be a nasty surprise for me.

Donkringel
Apr 22, 2008

BurlapNapkin posted:

From the other side of the border this turn, what Baudin thought was a defensive buildup on my part was actually a barrier action against Thespookydanger. Elves in dominions have an ability called glamour, which gives them mirror images in combat, and makes them completely and utterly undetectable on the strategic map. They also get +65 stealth, so they can bypass outer provinces and go straight to besieging your forts, if they so chose.

With a neighbor like that, you have to be aware that they might try something if you don't show them a lot of army. So in this case since Thespookydanger hasn't been sounding particularly friendly, I've sent longdead and earthbound to patrol our border. My territory at this point is the same size as Baudin's (very small), so that front is also visible from Baudin's side.

Unfortunately, at this point Baudin's done a good job of diplomacy, acting like he wants to deal with the elf threat. So next turn is going to be a nasty surprise for me.

I cant wait to see it!

Ramc
May 4, 2008

Bringing your thread to a screeching halt, guaranteed.

I was under the impression the game was like zany expensive for a computer- paradox level- but it looks like it is 35 bucks on steam. Am I missing something here?

Neruz
Jul 23, 2012

A paragon of manliness
Naw, it used to be zany expensive but then Illwinter went to Steam and learned what a real computer game costs.

It's still pretty fuckin expensive for what it is though.

How are u
May 19, 2005

by Azathoth
It goes on sale for 1/2 off pretty often. Grab it then!

Ramc
May 4, 2008

Bringing your thread to a screeching halt, guaranteed.

Neruz posted:

Naw, it used to be zany expensive but then Illwinter went to Steam and learned what a real computer game costs.

Invisible Hand of the Free Market will be my pretender name if I buy this game someday.

Decrepus
May 21, 2008

In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.


Ramc posted:

I was under the impression the game was like zany expensive for a computer- paradox level- but it looks like it is 35 bucks on steam. Am I missing something here?

It has gone down to $5 iirc during holiday sales.

e: I paid $70 for Dom 3

jBrereton
May 30, 2013
Grimey Drawer

Ramc posted:

I was under the impression the game was like zany expensive for a computer- paradox level- but it looks like it is 35 bucks on steam. Am I missing something here?
Dominions 3 was, on Shrapnel, because they only sell wargames for $$$$s.

Speleothing
May 6, 2008

Spare batteries are pretty key.

Neruz posted:

Naw, it used to be zany expensive but then Illwinter went to Steam and learned what a real computer game costs.


They were under contract with Shrapnel, and had no say in pricing until about 6 months before Dom4 came out. Then they got on Steam and Desura and never looked back.


I paid full price for a physical copy of Dom3 :smug:

Elric
Mar 31, 2011


Same here. The manual is loving huge.

Donkringel
Apr 22, 2008
That was actually a topic point in the old Dom 3 threads." Yes we know the game is expensive. Stfu talking about the game price."

Baudin
Dec 31, 2009
Turn 22:



Nothing important happened, thank goodness.



I’ve decided to make my move - probably waiting too long and giving my target a lot of notice. Still, how badly could it go!





I’ve also decided to summon a pack of wolves


I’ll be summoning another turn of these and then moving them next door. Time to start doing blood hunting.

Not that I’ll start on blood magic right away.



I’ve also ordered my nearby troops to move to my capital. From there I’ll reinforce the other troops. Not that I have a lot of them.



I’ve also equipped the Robe of the Sea to my water powered hero



Here’s an overview of the entire map:


Lets see if I manage to not-die next turn, or if my troops all die to skeletons and death magic!

Baudin
Dec 31, 2009
Turn 23:



Of note Theai (Kitfox88) has now been killed off. Two down, tons more to go.

Now for my first real engagement. I’m very nervous about the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY4OYHxHP6w



Ok that’s interesting. I think I just killed about 1k worth of stuff. drat.



Apparently Pax (Fleurs) lost a single Dai Oni to a pack of Barbarian invaders.



And Goran (Rotekian) lost a lot of dudes taking a throne





Rest in peace, glorious Titan of Heaven


Now to see if I can not-die to those hordes of deadly skeleton men.



This is going to depend in large part on turn order - if my troops move first I can escape his deadly, deadly wrath. Otherwise I’ve got problems. This could be interesting…

I’m also moving to finish off evocation 5 so I don’t have to worry about those hordes of skeletons.

At this point I also ask around for advice on map movement, wights, and earthquake - in general the map movement advice is “it’s pretty much random,” the wights advice are “they suck” and earthquake “rocks.” Awesome.

BurlapNapkin
Feb 11, 2013
Movement seems complicated, but I learned from jousting with Thespo all game (he also invades me this turn) that it's actually predictable.

First something weird with stealth move happens, units are considered to be stealthed but do not yet move. Rituals that would cause battles with them or hit them find nothing. Stealth attack moves will unstealth units and put them in the move order, I am unsure if a ritual targeting the province where an army initiates a stealth attack move will hit them.

Next up rituals go off, which actually do cause an immediate magic battle phase if applicable. This means that, since movement has not happened yet, wizards will screw with your armies where they were standing last turn, not where they will be on the new turn (if they survive).

After magicks assassins can strike, again before movement. If a commander is killed before he can move his troops, they don't move and such.

After that, movement happens. There is a distinction between friendly and enemy movement that actually isn't super helpful to understanding how movement works. The statement is that moves into friendly territory happen first, but actually since there is only one way for units moving to block other units moving (more on that later), it's pretty unimportant. Basically all units complete their move orders if valid, and take up their new state in a province. Note that this can be safely inside a fort, ignoring battles.

The aforementioned movement interruption, in my experience, only occurs when two units move into eachother's province. The game then has to decide in which province combat occurs, how it picks this seems to have some randomization, but again, only happens when two armies are attacking the province the other was in at the end of the turn. The game needs to get them to fight, and without this special case they would not, because...

Finally the main battle phase happens. This takes all units that are in the same province and calculates a battle for them (being in a fort is not considered to be in a province, patrolling in a fortified province is). Units that retreat (win or lose) will try to move to a friendly province after battle resolution, they will not fight if there is no friendly province, in some kind of non-combat state. These units are killed during the turn's cleanup for being in enemy territory.

Did I say finally? There are actually 3 further battle phases *after* the main battle phase. Immediately following is the storm forts order, this is not a main battle phase action, mostly so that it does not interfere with a friendly force moving into a province from outside, joined by a 'break siege' (move to province) order from inside the fort. Basically storming has to wait until after battles, units storming can end up fighting two battles in a turn this way, watch out for your gem use.

Then random events happen, indies invade you mostly.

A bunch of further stuff happens, and there is a final, rarely used battle phase for summon malfunctions and the like.

Hope that was informative. The main takeaway is that movement is a bit complicated, and people who have a vague understanding of how it works will screw you over with it.

Absum
May 28, 2013

Movement can also be interrupted if the path along which the units were gonna move is broken and there are no other paths (only possible using magic or stealth units already in the province because of turn order) and by putting up the perpetual storm global which will cancel all flying and sailing moves that aren't possible without those things, I am not sure if moves that are possible without them go through if your army has either. In addition, two armies can in fact "miss" each other and end up switching provinces.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Ah, so it's kind of like Diplomacy movement rules, where the destination is the only thing that matters.

BurlapNapkin
Feb 11, 2013

Glazius posted:

Ah, so it's kind of like Diplomacy movement rules, where the destination is the only thing that matters.

Yes that's a good general rule of thumb, but I've not actually elbowed around in their code or anything.

Absum seems to have observed conditions where an army in the only province path available to a destination gets in the way, and it may actually check the path for that? But it would be friendly movement, so in theory it would 'go first' anyway. If one of the random outcomes of charging at each-other is actually getting lost and not fighting that's hilarious (though it hasn't happened to me yet).

Absum
May 28, 2013

Armies missing each other is really rare. If you want to see it happen you'd probably have to use two full glamour armies. The interrupting movement thing I specifically mention it has to be magic or already-present stealth units. Normal enemy movement can indeed never cancel movement because friendly movement does happen first.

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TheDemon
Dec 11, 2006

...on the plus side I'm feeling much more angry now than I expected so this totally helps me get in character.

Glazius posted:

Ah, so it's kind of like Diplomacy movement rules, where the destination is the only thing that matters.

If you grok this you get 95% of army movement cases in Dominions.

The remaining 5% is when an army is moving directly opposite to an enemy army, "into each others' provinces". In that case alone, who moves is random. Nothing else is random.


Then magic fucks you over but magic always does that.

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