 Hello everyone hello this is Ramc here bringing to you, our gentle readers, an account of a Dominions 5 multiplayer game still in progress. What is Dominions 5? Dominions 5 is like Dominions 4 with like an update patch that added some new spells, combat quirks and nations but because your code was so labyrinthine you had to make a whole new game. Dominions  Wonder no more. That aside, Dominions is a wonderfully complex multiplayer strategy 4x game. You could play against the AI but the AI is profoundly stupid and it can't hate you back like a player can so what's the point? There are dozens of nations to choose from from across three different ages, hundreds of spells, probably thousands of units and on top of that a modding community that lets you play clowns. On top of that you can cast world-altering global enchantments to break the world that you are trying to dominate. You can probably fix it after you win, right?  You can play a colossal stone head that teleports onto the capital of another nation and eventually sieges it down even as your own nation falls to a nation of virtuous apes and monkeys if you want. That happens. I've seen it.  In THIS game I will be playing the nation of PELAGIA and we will get more into what that means when we get to the first turn. Links to Old LPs They are probably all in the archives but buy archives because Lowtax needs the spine tax. Gemstallnacht Mo Money, Mo Problems More to be added as I dig them up or they are supplied. The thread for Dominions 5 in the Games forum! Is here! Turns Turn 1 Turn 2 Turn 3 Turn 4 Turn 5 Turn 6 Turn 7 Turn 8 Turn 9 Turn 10 Turn 11 Turn 12 special guest host my dad Turn 13 special guest host my dad Turn 14 special guest host my dad Turn 15 Turn 16 Turn 17 Turn 18 Turn 19 Turn 20 Turn 21 Turn 22 Turn 23 Turn 24 Turn 25 Turn 26 Turn 27 Turn 28 Turn 29 Turn 30 Turn 31 Turn 32 Turn 33 Turn 34 Turn 35 Turn 36 Turn 37 Turn 38 Turn 39 Turn 40 Turn 41 Turn 42 Turn 43 Turn 44 Turn 45 Turn 46 Turn 47 Turn 48 Turn 49 Turn 50 Turn 51 Turn 52 Turn 53 Turn 54 Turn 55 Turn 56 Turn 57 Turn 58 Turn 59 Turn 60 Turn 61 Turn 62 Turn 63 Turn 64 Turn 65  Blessing Chat Water: Better Down Where It's Wetter. Nature: The Seaweed is Always Greener. Air: No Troubles, Life is the Bubbles. Fire: And Why Does It (What's the Word?) Burn? Death: Poor Unfortunate Souls. Blood: It Won't Cost Much. Earth: What Have They Got, a Lot of Sand? Astral: They Weren't Kidding When They Called Me, Well, A Witch. Combo Blesses: Thingamabobs? I Got Other Posts Prophet Names God and Scales Chat The After Action Report So You Want To LP Dominions 5 Q&A What's the spoiler policy? If you have knowledge of the game's future from playing in it, please don't spoil the game even in tags. If you have spoilers on the game because discord is IRC if IRC was a cop recording everything you did, please don't spoil the game even in tags. Discussion of the nations, spells, tactics, events, etc is perfectly fine. A discord? It's here. Is this game modded? A little. There is Who else is in this game? I will reveal and update this as it becomes relevant but if you are in it feel free to say so that's fine. ok enough of that lets GO 
Ramc fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jun 2, 2019 |
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Mar 24, 2019 16:09
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Cool Stuff by Other Posters Phaecia Overview by Howareu.  Decrepus has some bad news for my Pretender God  frankenfreak got us all a gift for Easter (or Passover) Mu. has a story to share.  The Chad Jihad submitted this. We were ASTONISHED by his DOCTRINE  Lando131 delivers a deep hybrid meme.  Rappaport provides a valuable scouting report. Ramc fucked around with this message at 18:26 on May 17, 2019 |
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Mar 24, 2019 16:09
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 Hello everyone and welcome to turn 1. I am playing the nation of PELAGIA  Pelagia is an underwater nation which by default carries some pros but mostly some cons. Getting underwater is a pain for most nations so early rushes are not a threat barring another UW nation, and Pelagia is reasonably amphibious allowing us to strike and fade as we like. The downsides are that being underwater is a PAIN because everything moves so slowly. By and large your units are only moving one province per turn and that can be incredibly vexing, making it tedious to mass troops. We will get to know these units as we recruit them.  This is our capital province, complete with a cool fort and a site that gives us 4 Water and 1 Nature gems per turn. Pelagia tends to sport a pretty good W income that can turn into a pretty good Pearl income. Gems are used for summoning spells and battle magic and forging items by and large.  I take a moment to name the prophet of our god, Disney's the Normal-Sized Mermaid. Our god is currently dormant so we won't be seeing him until like turn 12 at least. One can also opt to have their god awake, but it costs you design points. You can make them even MORE dormant (imprisoned) so as they probably won't show up until year 3 (turn 36 or so) for even more points but man that's a pain especially if you have a bless that requires your god to be awake to function.  This is my starting army here. Not bad. Perfectly serviceable. But we can do better.  I put my money into hiring these dudes.  The Knight of the Deeps are one of our sacred troops recruitable only in our capital and also totally aquatic per that little shark symbol on their bar there. They hit hard, have high defense and can recuperate from permanent afflictions every month. This will probably all make more sense as they go. They can also be blessed. More on that later.  This guy is a bog standard research mage. He always has 1 level of water magic and randomly will have one additional level of water, earth or nature. He is amphibious so he can go above water without aid which is nice sometimes. So the reason I decided to LP this game was because Kremath, the game host (and also a player therein) used one of the good custom mapmakers to make a 'balanced' map. But the map maker works if the game has a number of players divisible by 4. 13 people signed up so Kremath decided to create 3 'dead' underwater starts. Which means that.  There is enough ocean for like 4 UW nations and no other UW nations to compete with. That's a... big ocean. I hope everyone likes expansion.  Here are the other nations in the world, august personages. Names that demand respect. Burnie WOULD have won. We will address them as we find them. Anyway lets buckle in for a long haul. Nothing can harsh this buzz noth-  kremeth why Ramc fucked around with this message at 02:47 on May 30, 2019 |
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Mar 24, 2019 16:10
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Perfect map, perfect thrones.
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Mar 24, 2019 16:19
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Pelagia. Without a hell scales. I am very disappointed. Very.
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Mar 24, 2019 16:23
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Watching with interest. Ever since Dom3, this series has been the kind of game that's fascinating to watch LPs of but looks godawful to actually play.
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Mar 24, 2019 16:33
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you didn't take an imprisoned god with good scales so you're already teetering on the abyss, if i don't see some province defense at max i'm afraid i'll need to vote this 1 it's always good to see another dom lp, especially since i still don't own 5 yet 
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Mar 24, 2019 16:52
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I better see some glorious magic fuckery.
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Mar 24, 2019 17:00
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This map setup is making me cry inside. Also outside, but you can't see that either.
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Mar 24, 2019 17:16
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Corbeau posted:This map setup is making me cry inside. Also outside, but you can't see that either. "it... it was never meant to be used... like THIS..." Donkringel posted:I better see some glorious magic fuckery. Eventually. Kitfox88 posted:you didn't take an imprisoned god with good scales so you're already teetering on the abyss, if i don't see some province defense at max i'm afraid i'll need to vote this 1 Cynic Jester posted:Pelagia. Without a hell scales. i am so sorry Cythereal posted:Watching with interest. Ever since Dom3, this series has been the kind of game that's fascinating to watch LPs of but looks godawful to actually play. no you are right
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Mar 24, 2019 17:19
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gently caress to ocean
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Mar 24, 2019 17:39
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Kitfox88 posted:you didn't take an imprisoned god with good scales so you're already teetering on the abyss, if i don't see some province defense at max i'm afraid i'll need to vote this 1 Dom5 goes on sale on steam for like $14 all the time! And yeah gently caress the ocean
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Mar 24, 2019 18:07
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Wow! Haven't heard much about this game, looking forward to learning a lot as the LP goes on! 
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Mar 24, 2019 18:10
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Oh, another LP that will make me pick the game and suicide my pretender on PD un turn 3. Good luck!
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Mar 24, 2019 18:32
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Corbeau posted:This map setup is making me cry inside. Also outside, but you can't see that either. I'm playing this hell
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Mar 24, 2019 21:11
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Ramc posted:"it... it was never meant to be used... like THIS..."
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Mar 24, 2019 21:22
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Blesses only work if your Pretender is active in Dom5?
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Mar 25, 2019 00:30
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Capfalcon posted:Blesses only work if your Pretender is active in Dom5? the big blesses require your pretender be active, but the little ones don't
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Mar 25, 2019 00:32
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Istvun posted:the big blesses require your pretender be active, but the little ones don't This is both kind of a good idea and also feels kind of poorly implemented in practice by and large. Also your god has your blessing so long as they are in your own candles. There is also a water breathing bless now that is incarnate. If you know the game take a minute to unpack how fraught that is.
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Mar 25, 2019 00:54
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Hard Brexit... or HARDO GAY Fuuuuu~
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Mar 25, 2019 00:55
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Ramc posted:This is both kind of a good idea and also feels kind of poorly implemented in practice by and large. Also your god has your blessing so long as they are in your own candles. It means there is one more epic ending available. 
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Mar 25, 2019 02:51
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Fat Samurai posted:Oh, another LP that will make me pick the game and suicide my pretender on PD un turn 3. Yea Ramc was even messaging me with snips from this LP like a jerk. Now I want to play Dom5 again... What a guy.
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Mar 25, 2019 02:56
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Nothing like a good Dominions LP. I have next to no interest in playing this game but I loooooove reading about other people playing it.
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Mar 25, 2019 03:02
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Hot dang am I excited for this. Love me a Dominions LP!
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Mar 25, 2019 04:05
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And we're back. In the second turn we get a ton of announcements as declaring your prophet triggers a global announcement. We will review and harshly judge these names in a special post later.  When your domain is over an area you can see certain characteristics of the province even if you don't actually control it. In this case I see that this province is worth 176 gold lol ok that's a lot. Trolls and Kraken I could PROBABLY take but... Probably isn't definitely.  Here is the army I will be expanding with. My prophet can cast Divine Blessing to activate ~my bless~ for all sacred units on the battlefield. And also he can, as a H3 priest, cast smite!  Smites (and banishments) in Dom5 have more flavor than Dom4. In Dom5 the smite has some cute extra effects depending on what your god's highest path is. If the highest path is blood you just get vanilla banishment though. Mine, in this case deals an extra 5 lightning damage which can stun. My highest path is Air so far as the computer sees.  I check mercs this turn and see that the mother fukken Ship Wreckers are available. I want those guys they're incredible I put in a bid. From here we can also see that Tien C'hi has hired some sword nerds. In the middle era TC is your Three Kingdoms era China.  I give orders for my first expansion. Some people expand blind the first turn with an awake pretender, or even their starting army if they are insane. The risk there is that you can't see the estimates of what the indie defenders are and risk running into some pretty wild stuff and dying. We're going for some low risk targets here though. Expansion is going to go on for... awhile so lets get the Stockholm syndrome to kick in early. next time- FIRST BLOOD
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Mar 25, 2019 14:17
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The post for prophet names will be up later today because work.
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Mar 25, 2019 14:17
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Ramc posted:This is both kind of a good idea and also feels kind of poorly implemented in practice by and large. Dominions.txt
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Mar 25, 2019 14:23
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Fat Samurai posted:Dominions.txt The entire new bless system- which I will probably try to get into at some point in the future- definitely smacks of '"well this is a good idea and a fine first draft to iterate on bu- oh we're shipping this now?"
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Mar 25, 2019 14:32
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I've got a weird relationship with Dominions LPs in that I read them all, still have absolutely no loving idea how the mechanics work, but still love them for the diplomacy aspect and in-character missives. Never tried playing the drat thing, couldn't even decipher the UI for Conquest of Elysium. Re: the waterbreathing blessing - is it because you can immediately expand underwater with land-based factions? What happens when the blessing runs out after the battle, does the army just... suffocate? anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Mar 25, 2019 |
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Mar 25, 2019 14:38
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Dominions wouldn't be Dominions without the jank rear end systems.
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Mar 25, 2019 14:39
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anilEhilated posted:Re: the waterbreathing blessing - is it because you can immediately expand underwater with land-based factions? What happens when the blessing runs out after the battle, does the army just... suffocate? It's on all the time (this is another new feature of some blesses, so you can have things like forest survival blesses etc. that affect strategic movement), but the key word is "incarnate"... meaning that it's only active if your pretender is awake and alive in the world.
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Mar 25, 2019 14:46
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^^e: wait, do lifeless pretenders not get their incarnate bless?anilEhilated posted:I've got a weird relationship with Dominions LPs in that I read them all, still have absolutely no loving idea how the mechanics work, but still love them for the diplomacy aspect and in-character missives. I haven't run into the bug, and I'm not actually very versed in the deeper aspects of the mechanics. But one thing I could imagine is that the game on loading a save might check whether a unit has water breathing or not, before calculating the player's dominion, resulting in it finding that the pretender doesn't have waterbreathing, making them drown. If the game had calculated the candles first, it would have found the god to have waterbreathing.
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Mar 25, 2019 14:48
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Hooray, another Dominions LP, the only way I'll ever see this game played well!  Ramc posted:Anyway lets buckle in for a long haul. Nothing can harsh this buzz noth- 
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Mar 25, 2019 14:54
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By the way, if I'm reading this right, you need 4 of the 10 Thrones of Ascension to win? How high are the chances that there are 4 underwater thrones?
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Mar 25, 2019 15:27
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Torrannor posted:By the way, if I'm reading this right, you need 4 of the 10 Thrones of Ascension to win? How high are the chances that there are 4 underwater thrones? Very high, but they lucked out and don't have 4 in Ramc's huge ocean.
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Mar 25, 2019 15:31
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Corbeau posted:Very high, but they lucked out and don't have 4 in Ramc's huge ocean. Oh right, there's a map of the whole world in the first turn update. That's reassuring, but it's obviously still very dumb. How many ascension points would be right for 10 thrones? 24 to win?
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Mar 25, 2019 15:42
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anilEhilated posted:I've got a weird relationship with Dominions LPs in that I read them all, still have absolutely no loving idea how the mechanics work, but still love them for the diplomacy aspect and in-character missives. I also have a weird relationship with Dominions. I understand the basics, I understand concepts like how-to-thug and what spells are good for what. But when I comes to playing my brain defaults to DOOMSTACK and that is stupid and, bad. Now days I just watch various LP's on YouTube in between DCSS ones. If you can get a full series it's pretty good to watch. I recommend GeneralConfusion and his friends; plus NuclearMonkee and the other goons when they can be hosed. I don't like DasTactic much because he just does single player and that is a world of difference to multiplayer strats.
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Mar 25, 2019 15:59
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frankenfreak posted:This is gonna be a good one, I can tell.
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Mar 25, 2019 16:43
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Torrannor posted:Oh right, there's a map of the whole world in the first turn update. That's reassuring, but it's obviously still very dumb. How many ascension points would be right for 10 thrones? 24 to win? Yeah 12/30 points does seem pretty low. 50-66% seem to be what most games go for.
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Mar 25, 2019 17:37
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At least they're level 3 thrones, which usually require large armies and some prepwork to take. Or 1 good thug with lightning resist gear is some cases.
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Mar 25, 2019 18:08
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