Iron Angel Edition
Previous Pantokrator >>146603775
Dominions is a fantasy turn-based strategy game created by two dudes. One of them is a teacher.
The game combines a simple presentation with an extremely wide array of strategic options, including over 2800 units, 800 spells and 300 magic items. Turns are resolved simultaneously, with players planning battles rather than directly controlling them.
It has simplistic graphics but is easily moddable and extremely deep.
Basically, it's an autist’s wet dream of a strategy game.
>Steamgroup
Join the steamgroup for multiplayer
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/vanheimageofvidya
>Group chatroom
steam://friends/joinchat/103582791434709795
>Our work-in-progress wiki
http://dom4.wikia.com/wiki/Dominions_4_Wiki
>Our pastebin
http://pastebin.com/dHdZ1cch
>Dom4 Manual
http://jaffa.illwinter.com/dom4/manual_dom4.pdf
>Dom4 Inspector
This is a community resource that has every unit, spell, and item in the game in an accessible database.
http://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/
>Play by email guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=202096551
>Debug Mod:
For testing battle formations and spells
http://dom4archive.kermodebear.org/www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions/forum/thread/debug-mod.html
>Where do I get it?
It is available on Gamersgate and Steam (currently -50%). Desura is kill.
>THE BASICS
>Read the manual
>Read the wiki
>Read the pastebin
>Watch some LPs by Maerlande or NuclearMonkee
>Start playing multiplayer games
Submit completed games here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jHX_ZoJi6zIvDq6ANdp-W1Y89W5_fmShuDyHmAj5qC4/viewform
Results Here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dlrvyEqLFYIaXRc49TheMmfdoP8jEh1m5rZJHJAzDWQ/edit?usp=sharing
>>146951241
The only thing dominions really needs is a thorough balance going over (including giving neglected nations some good national spells), and some UI/ quality of life changes
And mod commands for everything so that people can fix Illwinter's shit more easily
>>146951449
An actually decent interface
Asking again for the new thread. What exactly would you change in Dominions as far as 'polish' goes? Is there anything bigger you'd change?
Also since it's a new thread and everybody will be looking have more screenshots of me killing Nazca.
>>146951741
We already told you, interface and balance
>>146951786
Ye, but I'd like to know if there's anything more to it than that. Maybe if the game was picked up by a publisher it could have fancier servers or something?
>>146951828
higher resolution Nephilim dicks
>>146951828
>Fancier servers
Why?
Admittedly it would be pretty shit if llamaserver disappeared for whatever reason, but it's perfectly functional for what it does with the exception of setting people AI remotely.
Aside from that, balancing dominions will be tricky and depend on what direction whoever is balancing the game thinks it should go. One issue is that blood is just so much better than every other path in lategame, it's not even close to gem based paths in how scaleable it is, and someone looking to balance that would have to decide whether just to nerf blood or change the gem economy somewhat so there's an excuse to summon all the cool shit that's in the game but never gets used because it's simply not efficient.
>all this game needs is more balancing!!!!!!!
Sure, if you think of it as a tactics game with a clumsy, tacked-on strategy overworld.
The reason no-one besides you guys and your small community are playing it isn't because it's "deep" or "complex", it's got nothing going for it beyond manipulating the spell system for battles.
It's sad, because Illwinter has shown that they can make something remotely workable as a proper strategy game, even if it's ridiculously barebones (Conquest of Elysium), but they'd rather repackage the same game with minor fixes and sell it to braindead fans over and over again.
>>146953202
>clumsy, tacked-on strategy overworld
meme criticism. The simplicity of the overworld is a good thing. Having to make sure that every province has adequate plumbing wouldn't make the game better.
>>146953306
> Having to make sure that every province has adequate plumbing wouldn't make the game better.
Yeah, that's a fair and commonplace example!
We're at page 7 already, where's the wolf poster?
>>146953805
I hope he died.
>>146953802
I was thinking more Rome: Total War than Civilization there. I love Rome to bits but the 'squalor' system was such fucking bullshit that did nothing but kill my enthusiasm in long games.
And Civilization's tree doesn't really work as a side-by-side comparison with Dominions as Dominions is a wargame not a 4x. There's a case to be made as to why Dominions only allows advancement in magic, leaving conventional armies in the dust late-game, and maybe a couple of other things too but infrastructure would be nothing but busywork that would distract from the purpose of the game.
Dominions is about organizing a range of military resources more cleverly and efficiently than your opponents. There's only so much you can do there before you're changing the base of the game.
>>146954008
We'd be the deadest general in /vg/ if it weren't for him.
>>146953202
>>146953306
>>146953802
>>146954053
tbhfams people's disappointment with dominions comes from people miscrediting dominions, both from people trying to shill the game so they have more people to play with, retarded shitters that are easily impressed by everything, and faggots who try to brag about anything to make themselves look smart to others
Dominions should be shilled as a 'tactical risk with magic', because that's really what it is, and there's nothing wrong with this because the game really is good.
But it's not deep, it's not complex, the difficulty in dominions comes from burden of knowledge, there's a huge variety of options given to you and you must figure out which one is the best one for a given situation. The difficulty is also tactical, and other than that, the strategic difficulty comes from learning to use your tools in a smart way so you don't shoot yourself in the foot 50 turns later or don't prepare yourself.
If people weren't misinforming faggots in the first place, we wouldn't have these discussions and memes about dominions, you bring this on yourselves every thread you keep that marketingspeak pasta in the OP, you bring this on yourselves every time you try and shill the game to others, steam reviews bring this to ourselves, etc
>>146954416
>retarded shitters that are easily impressed by everything, and faggots who try to brag about anything to make themselves look smart to others
When did this happen
>>146954416
>But it's not deep, it's not complex, the difficulty in dominions comes from burden of knowledge
I'd almost agree, except I can't think of a strategy game which this couldn't be easily applied to.
Dominions has a heavier than usual burden of knowledge, but most strategy games do not have complicated choices once you've learnt them.
>>146954705
This website is full of faggots like this, just look at /gsg/
>>146954053
Thank you awoo poster, you keep the threads alive so that we may shitpost in harmony and contentment.
>>146954738
Yeah, I didn't phrase it right, I should've said dominions difficulty comes from a burden of knowledge far bigger than other strategy games, and it's not as deep or complex are people make it sound like
PEACEANDHARMONY theredos.
do your fucking turn.
>>146954974
or else?
>>146954767
You find a lot of idiots in other generals, yes, but when did that ever happen in the context of dominions and in this general? Aside from the occasional lone shitposter, it's not like there's some circlejerk going on about how dominions players are supa speshul, this general isn't busy enough for that.
>>146955115
/v/ and /tg/ dominions threads, which now that we mention them, I don't think there's been any for a long while
>>146955205
From what I've seen of those threads, there wasn't really much of that going on. I'm pretty sure /tg/ only really likes it because there's a bunch of cool monsters and mythology in the game to mash together, and people on /v/ get excited when seeing 10,000 skeletons
This game is shit
>>146955617yes
>>146954904
I still think it's more complex than any other strategy game I've tried.
If you look at the spell/item/unit lists and take out things which are useless or not available to you, you're still left with lots of choices. Much more than most other games of the type.
More usable options doesn't necessarily mean more depth, but they usually go together.
>and it's not as deep or complex are people make it sound like
Yeah, I can agree with that.
In the defense of whichever anons are saying this crap, fans of basically every game exaggerate the good qualities of it in just the same way.
>>146954416
>tactical risk with magic
that's about how I describe it when asked about it. It's like Risk only if you were to play irl you'd need to upend a shipping container worth of dice to play out every turn.
Kingofbullies Lambert send your turn REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
how do we fix LA R'lyeh
>>146958827
Nerf LA Atlantis
>>146958827
Make the free spawn less rubbish.
PeaceAndHarmony admin, get your butt here
>>146960597
Hello.
>>146960919
Guess who I am and whom I'm subbing for?
>>146961015
Lambert, and therodos?
You're a madman. I'll get in steamchat, gimme a second.
Will you want a restart, so you can submit your own pretender?
LastMAnStanding is full, when will it start?
Sorry agartha, but i have to post this.
MAGE SUBBORT.Arcane domination was casted two times with pen4 before army of lead and fog warriors came in
>>146961979
WIZARD HELP
>>146961979
Arcanist Aid
>>146961979
Also i managed to enslave mind a oracle of the dead, but he didn't survive the fight. Sad.
Who's sent their turn in:
Yomi Waiting for 2h file
Therodos 2h file received
Agartha Waiting for 2h file
Pangaea Waiting for 2h file
Marverni Waiting for 2h file
Abysia Waiting for 2h file
R'lyeh Waiting for 2h file
Caelum Waiting for 2h file
C'tis Waiting for 2h file
Hinnom Waiting for 2h file
Niefelheim Waiting for 2h file
Fomoria Waiting for 2h file
Well, this is less than ideal, but luckily R'lyeh and myself can have ammicable diplomatic relations as they can't do shit on land.
>>146962701
What's stoping rlyeh from bullying your face and taking more gems and delicious extra gold?
>>146962841
The fact that I'm in a 2 province pond and he can't get onto land in any meaningful way
The aliveness of a general is inversely proportional to how good the game is
>16 IPs
This is some extreme popkill right here.
>>146965873
go away malakal
>>146956894
Wait who is Lambie? If it's Newgartha I'm going to lmao.
>>146966224
it'sNewheim
>>146966214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Beda3kFNjo
>>146966327
Oh good, so he's the other person I think wants to kill me.
>>146966495
no worries, he's too busy trying to destroy the righteous and persecuted hinnomonians as elves are want to do during my righteous invasion of dying africans to liberate them of their aids
>>146965873
so true
>>146953202
Dominions is wargame, not 4X
>>146966462
are you sure? that's exactly what malakal would have said
>>146966495
Too paranoid Arco, when there is much juicier slaves to be reaped.
>>146967297
>>146967431
Are you kiding? You should at least take your name off before posting stuff like this.
>>146968226
this is getting silly
>tfw you'll never be as famous on /domg/ as Malakal, Lambert, Rejakor, Cirno, Sum1, etc.
>>146969515
Tell me who are you and I'll make a meme out of you.
>>146967353
I've lost many games due to bravado, but few because of caution. Watching myself
>>146969515
Suits me
Although, famous on /domg/ is like saying you're an especially well known Latvian interpretive dancer
>>146969815
I wouldn't be unknown if I made a habit out of posting my name in public, would I?
>>146969815
I'm you
>>146969908
Well that's kind of a big deal if you live in Latvia.
>>146969815
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64
Turn 4, guys.
>>146970042
Let's get down to business
To become a god
Did they send me hoburgs
When I asked for sneks?
You're the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a meme
Out of you.
Tranquil as an Irminsul
But with F9 within.
Once you find your thrones
You are sure to win.
You're a spineless, pale pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue.
Somehow I'll make a meme
Out of you.
I'm never gonna win a game
Say goodbye to those who allied me
Boy, was I a fool in creation for cutting Growth
These thugs got them scared to death
Hope he doesn't have mage support
Now I really wish that I knew how to play
BE A MEME
We must shitpost like a mad Rejakor
BE A MEME
With all the speed of Lambert in 30 games
BE A MEME
With all the balance of a Sum1 mod
Your win rate is the measure of your pride
Time is racing toward us
'til the next game starts.
Read my every guide
And you might survive.
You're unsuited for this video game
So go AI, uninstall, you're through
How could I make a meme
Out of you?
BE A MEME
We must shitpost like a mad Rejakor
BE A MEME
With all the speed of Lambert in 30 games
BE A MEME
With all the balance of a Sum1 mod
Your win rate is the measure of your pride
BE A MEME
We must shitpost like a mad Rejakor
BE A MEME
With all the speed of Lambert in 30 games
BE A MEME
With all the balance of a Sum1 mod
Your win rate is the measure of your pride
Color me <2% proud
>>146962072
>>146962040
All y'all meming about mages, but this battle would never have been won if not for the overwhelming military superiority coming from
1215 POLYPAL SPAWN
>>146970385
HAH
I'm guessing someone got their cap sat on quickly. Thank you bas
>>146971368
ironically they never got to melee because if the fort wall.
it was all about mage support, malakal.
>>146971368
None of them died, so they obviously never even made it into combat.
>>146971567
>calling other guy malakal to deceive everyone else
nice try, malakal
>>146971567
>>146972104
Malabakas all of you
Guys, stop. Malakal is a faggot, I agree, but can we just go back to laughing at Rejakor?
>>146971567
>>146971647
It is clear to me that the true reason that they never died was their overwhelming military superiority
Are philosophers a trap?
>>146972731
Yes.
>>146972236
Nice try, Malakal ;)are you coolstory? forget about Rejakor, the meme is now Malakek
>>146972236
I haven't seen him around latelythough that might just be because I've got his trip filtered.
>>146972236
Rejakor is a fine, strapping young lad.
But honestly, bullying anyone is dumb. If people say dumb things you can call them out on it, but just randomly insulting people with their names seems pointless.
>>146972909
He hasn't used his trip at all aside from that one day that he made it.
Guys please, could you stop?
It was never fun, stop making fun of me already you retards.
ya'll got any more of them...magic gems
>>146972236
I've seen Malakal be really unkind to people for no reason. What a piece of scum.
https://wanwan.moe/
Malakal Malakal Malakal
>>146973786
We need more shit like this.
>>146974119
http://astral-corruption.corgiorgy.com/
>>146972731
The EA Arco guide recommends recruiting them in the first few turns as you save up for your first fort, which I think is valid, but I'd rather get some mystics to support my bless rush.
>>146974253
this is my favorite meme on /domg/
>>146974119
Like epilepsy?
OUCH
Putting aside game mechanics, how would this be represented "lore wise", are people vomiting their food back or something?
>>146976508
I tried to meme, but in the end jews reigned supreme
>>146976552
It means excess. They have so much food from the nature mages and pots that they are just throwing it away.
>>146976552
It just means you're producing more through magic means than you're using up, so the local reserves aren't being used.
>>146976626
What if excess supplies increased population growth?What if Elvis was still alive?
>>146977701
>Pangaea suddenly becomes a million population metropolis due to transformed Panii researching
>>146977943
Those orgies the satyrs are having have got to count for something, right?
Noob here, what can I do early on against fire elementals? I'm EA Marverni if it counts for anything.
>>146978883
Water elementals stuff fire elementals hard.
>>146978883
Fire Elementals are ethereal and (obviously) deal fire damage, so what you want are magic weapons/attacks and fire resistance buffs.
Arcane Bolts will kill them, but unfortunately you're going to need to invest more mages in them than your opponent will summoning them, since each bolt will at most kill one form of the fire elemental and they can miss. Depending on how many troops they're bringing, it might be more worthwhile to try to use communioned soul slay to kill enough dudes to force a route and accept that your own chaff are going to suffer losses to the elementals.
Your first AoE fire resistance spell using national paths is Fire Resistance in Alt 5, which you can get with a communioned W random dude. That's most likely a ways away, since I assume they are using these at conj 3
>>146979341
>>146979401
Actually, this lad is right. Use water elementals.
They aren't actually perfect answers if you're both using Size 3 summons since they're FR 6 vs 18 flame strike damage (which ignores defense) and 9 fire shield, but they'll trade decently unlike your troops
>>146979341
>>146979401
>>146979668
What if you have no W access?
>>146979725
EA Marverni has W randoms on two of its mages
Amuys here
I will be gone for a bit for basic training
Have fun!
>>146979908
Fight to protect waifus from methheads everywhere
Let's say you have a choice between those two guys, and you're facing a similarly shitty army. Would you combine them or use only one type of dudes as your blockers?
>>146979891
3*
It actually has a W random on all of its mages except the stargazers.
>>146979908
Good luck dude!
>>146979908
Training in what?Drug pushing?
>>146979996
If you have a lot of gold, you can get two Light Infantry for each Spearman, and while one spearman will beat a light infantryman usually, two light infantry will win often.
>tfw you're finally going to strike the decisive blow in a long-lasting war on the next turn
>>146979341
>>146979401
>so what you want are magic weapons/attacks
Yeah I've been wondering how do I get that?
Also water elementals it is then.
>>146979978
>>146980127
Navy and then nuclear school after that.
>>146980295
Watch your ass then. Unless you're into that sort of thing.
Abyssia this is a turnbully. Do you turn. I want to take my 3rd move before sleeping.
>>146980295
>Amuys in charge of a nuclear submarine that could trigger a world war at any point
and they said this autistic game would never lead anyone to anything big
>>146980221
What if I make spearmen cost 8 resources?
>>146980280
In Marverni's case, you're essentially limited to spells and summons. Arcane Bolts are nice in that they will always target the elementals and your own troops can't take damage from them unless you've summoned them yourself, and your dinky stargazers can cast it. It's still an imperfect answer, though, since a single enemy mage can summon 2 fire elementals in 2 rounds and you will need several bolts to hit to kill each one.
>>146980221
>you can get two Light Infantry for each Spearman
It's more like 3/2.
>>146980894
I would pretty much only ever get the light infantry there simply because of javs.
Given their low cost, I'd consider giving the light infantry lower morale or, if you want to make having cheaper than usual units be a thing for these guys, give the spearmen formation fighter. Compare these two to Arco's jav / spear guys
How would you do a cavalry-focused nation without resorting to giving them elite sacreds that rape everything (like centaurs or ponymans)?
>>146980929
Yeah, but those stargazers are like 45g. You can have a lot more of them than your opponent has mages.
>>146981606
Pygmy calvary
>>146981606
Not making them pay barding tax on their cav would be a good start
>>146981710
While that's true and 'more mages' is generally Marverni's best answer to everything, in this case it's not a great counter just because it takes multiple stargazers several turns to kill each fire elemental which, in the meantime, is also killing your front line.
Also early game you're more limited by fort turns than gold, which makes the 'even more mages' response harder to use
>>146981606
LA TC. Basically, recruit anywhere mobile horsemen with good stats and great flexibility.
>>146981606
cheap cav with more then one attack. Look at LA china for one of the better examples
>>146981606
What do you envision for a nation being cavalry focused? If your cavalry is more efficient than your other troops, you'll use them.
LA TC is a strong cavalry-oriented nation, because their heavy horsemen are gold efficient and foreign recruit. In Summod, Sauro is also pretty good with a reliance on its cavalry, since their statline is good enough for their price for them to be worth using as the bulk of Sauro's army and Sauro infantry is unimpressive.
Better?
>>146982262
Now rename them to Peltasts and Cardaces :^)
>>146982262
Also, tests have shown that spearmen are crazy good against two-handed dudes, while light infantry gets demolished by them. So the spearmen line + light infantry in the second row + archers decimates most indies. Now to nation vs nation tests.
>>146982760
That's quite surprising, desu. I'd have thought that the javs would make more of a difference than the marginal stat differences. I guess that 6 prot really must matter.
>>146980498
>nuked by a methhead.
Why should I bother with blesses when mages win games, and money makes mages
>>146983857
Because B9 is scary, N9 is super versatile, and W9 makes melee units blenders.
>>146983857
Lots of reasons.
>you might have sacred mages which love an E bless
>having a bless makes some nations extremely good at expansion, which means more land which means more money which means more mages
>some sacreds are very good against enemy mages with a bless (like B9)
>some sacreds make for excellent evo catchers with a bless (like N9) which means their mages will be wasting their turns while yours are being useful
>N9 is also great for thugs/raiders which can raid to deny your enemy income and/or used to cut off his retreat
>some nations simply don't need lots of scales, so you have points left over to beef up your sacreds with a nice bless
And so forth.
>>146983857
>play pythium
>take E9N9
>win
>>146983990
>>146984339
>>146984494
more money means not only more mages, but more fodder units as well, and all they have to do is hold the line
>>146984665
if a nation has garbage troops it's not a bad idea to consider a bless unless your sacreds are garbage and none of your good mages are sacred
Who needs gold when you can destroy armies with a single spell?
>>146984785
If you're playing a nation with garbage units, garbage sacreds, and garbage non-sacred mages, you should probably reconsider your strategy
Also major bless gods are often superb battle mages
who needs gold when you can destroy capitals with a single holy stack
It depends on your nation m80. Some nations like vanheim have expensive troops and great sacreds which can chop up your mage-dependent Marvernis and Ulms before they can get their research done. Other nations want a monobless to help them expand (which gets them more gold &c than expanding with nonsacreds with scales). Other nations have crap sacreds or no sacreds and don't want to bother with a bless for them. Yet other nations benefit from something like N9 for thugging purposes and don't lose many scales by taking it.
In short, Dominions has different nations with different strategies, so when talking about a bless
I T D E P E N D S
>>146984905
>If you're playing a nation with garbage units, garbage sacreds, and garbage non-sacred mages, you should probably stop playing Machaka
fixed
>>146985559
Bouda are pretty good non-sacred mages.
>>146985559
Machakan sacreds are quite good actually.
>>146985925
40 gold, 26r for a size 3 one attack heavy infantry sacred.
>>146954416
>huge variety of options given to you and you must figure out which one is the best one for a given situation. The difficulty is also tactical, and other than that, the strategic difficulty comes from learning to use your tools in a smart way so you don't shoot yourself in the foot 50 turns later or don't prepare yourself
As a non-player who would love to get into the game if not for the fatal combo of awful interface+burden of knowledge (one is fine, but both in the same is horrible), I get a strong impression that Dominions really is a deep, hard strategy game,easily one of the best tere is.
>>146985925
>Size 3 with one attack
U sure bout that laddie?
>>146986204
Just play it, desu. You'll be disabused of both of those notions.
>>146986204
How is the UI bad? Just curious since I like the minimalistic design.
>50+ hours dom3
>75+ hours dom4
>never played online
>can beat the ai, but not overwhelm it
How do I git gud?
I haven't played in like nine months.
>>146986596
6 months of SP
>>146986596
Play online and get beaten up a lot
>>146986596
Join a new non-meme game, read a guide, and try things out.
>>146986596
Online is the only way to go.
>>146986673
I've done that. Been playing on and off for over two years.
The hours are just my Steam playtime.
>>146986712
Multiplayer sounds fun, but the whole email thing sounds like a hassle.
How long are normal turn times?
>>146986204
Well I wasn't saying the game isn't deep or not strategical, or atleast, meant to imply so, I definitely worded my post wrong. The jist of it is that people overrate the game for the wrong reasons. It's still one, if not my favourite strategy game on the market right now and I totally recommend it to everyone interested, but beware of all the vague praises to this game, especially the steam reviews, that make it sound like it's the epitome of 4x grand real unreal 2x turn time tactical 3x strategy 1x
Also don't worry about the interface or the burden of knowledge, the interface is indeed shitty but it's also functional, it's only shit late game. About the burden of knowledge, you'll slowly and naturally learn it as you wet your feet into the game.
>>146986135
>>146986245
Try them vs giants and see for yourself.
They have a niche. Plus they expand well.
>>146987032
Giants are some of the worst troops in the game.
>>146986432
Positioning 40+ mages with troops to block against flyers is FUN. Just being able to put multiple commanders in a formation would be helpful so I don't need to manually position each one for just regular evo spam needs woud be nice.
Also troop sorting is nearly nonexistant. Not just in terms of sorting out the same units between multiple commanders, but there's no options for selecting similar troops (eg - archers, infantry cavalry). Things get even worse when you want to combine units of different sizes (eg - Jotun giants want Vaetti to fill the lines). It's almost impossible to do this using just one squad, so you actually need to put a line or box of giants in front and then a line/box of Vaetti behind and hope that they filter forward fast enough.
>>146987008
>How long are normal turn times?
24 hours at the start, increasing as the game goes along.
>>146987178
Did I say troops? Try Melquarts or Jarls or Fomorian Kings.
>>146987032
Or you can compare them to actually good sacreds which cost less and chop them to pieces.
>>146987349
Sounds doable. It's summer and I work in tourism, so it's long and odd hours right now.
I should probably just pop my online cherry. Thanks, Anons.
>>146987642
Ah, so they're anti-thugs. I can see that, given the AN stun damage and magic weapons. I wouldn't take a bless for them, though, and some thugs like W9 ponymen won't even get hit by them.
>>146987665
Different uses, try killing a Melquart with other sacreds and then come back to tell about your experience.
>>146987928
Elves called.
Their message was:"ez"
>>146987992
Elves cant punch thru 30 prot and temper skin.
>>146988112
They can if you believe in them.
>>146987928
Personally, I prefer it when my sacreds are generally useful and good at killing enemy armies, and then have magic phase movement thugs of my own to deal with enemy thugs. Y'know, like Vanheim has. Part of the advantage of thugs is their mobility. If someone is using a solo melqart/king/jarl, they probably are choosing where they can send it with either a magic phase attack or boots of flying or shademail etc. This means you need to predict where they're going to attack with your sacreds (in which case, in most instances, you can use a bouda or other mage to beat them as well).
What do you guys think about the thaum spells outside of astral, like Confusion for air mages, the Rage spells for fire, and the fatigue spells for water?
>>146989395
They're almost never useful.
>>146989568
Unfortunate. Can you explain why? I'd imagine that making blocks of enemy units fight each other would be great.
>>146980472
I'm sorry senpai, given the first turn I had no idea the Second would be so fast.
I can have it done once I'm at a comp (i.e. in an hour or two)
>>146972236
Given Rejakor was the person who subbed is as sauro in the team game and got wreckt last threadwe should laugh at him regardless of anything else.
>>146989837
Well, let's start with fire. And right away we have to keep in mind that generally (at least in my experience) most elemental nations don't really want to research Thaum.
Bonds of Fire: that would've been a great anti-thug spell, but morale check basically makes it useless against good troops. And you want to evospam to kill more people, not single small shitty units that may or may not escape the very next turn. Besides, I don't think mages will EVER default to this spell if they have even the shittiest evos, so you have to script it. Which is stupid on its own because range 15.
Rage: same shit, but it seems that it's marginally more useful. Except that MRN can fuck it up and you'll waste 20 fatigue on nothing. Precision 100 is its only saving grace. Again, you have a bunch of F2 mages. Will you cast phoenix power and spam evos that can hit AoE1+, or will you cast this shit and hope that a single shitty swordsman will somehow break the enemy's line? And AGAIN mages will not default to this (good for them), so you have to script it.
Prison of Fire: wow, now THAT looks promising. Problem is, to escape dudes will have to make morale checks, so elite troops will just take 1 turn of damage and escape it. It's just plain better to either cast fire cloud that is guaranteed to stay and hit shit (especially if you're playing abysia) or fireball or some shit that actually hurts.
Hydrophobia: I'll be honest, I never saw this spell used, and never intend to use it myself. Thaum 8 has Soul Drain that will win you every battle with a single cast, Black Death that nukes enemy's capital, and Stygian Paths that allows skellingtons to win games in three turns. I'm not interested in some shitty version of berserk spell with MRN. If I want something to die at that point, I'll kill it with armageddon spam.
>>146991063
>Air
Steal Breath: when you researched communions, and for some reason still don't have good evos, so people can't spam summon storm power/lightning bolts. MRN stun damage? Utter shit. At least those useless A1 random events mages can spam it, but then again, 1 air gem per battle and you're doing actual damage AND stun damage with lightnings. Xib has this shit but with 20+ stun and no MRN, which is okay for a low-level spell (but still utter shit in the long run).
Confusion: you have A3 mages, and you don't want to cast storm + t-strikes? Wew lad. Better cast this super useful MRN AoE1 spell.
>>146991063
Good post mea familia. Thanks for breaking it down.
>>146991063
>>146991568
Death for anti-undead spells is decent though, same with anti-animal stuff
>>146991568
>Water
Dessication: you know, it's like all that I have to do to shit on those spells is just open Evocation Spells table in the second window and just copy and paste shit. Tell me if you heard this one: MRN, acts sloooowly over time, fatigues. I think if want to cast shit at range 25 that acts slooowly, you don't like winning. Again, Evo1 Cold Bolt, range 45+, deals actual damage (although to a single target, but come on now).
Sailor's Death: I have no idea what this does. At W3 water mages can cast a lot of enchant battlefield spells.
Curse of the Desert: see Dessication, but now it needs W3 which, again, allows you to cast Quagmire, Shark Attack, Grip of Winter, Wave Warriors etc.
>>146992460
>Earth
Iron Will: AoE 1 magic resist. Use Antimagic. HOWEVER ULM STRONG FUCK MAGIC BLACK STEEL FOLDED OVER A PANTOKRATOR TIMES STALING SINCE 1999 REEE SEND YOUR TURN IN VIRGIN DISCIPLES.Tanslation: Tempering the Will is gud.
Xib also has an earth thaum spells, but I dunno.
>Atral
Not going to say anything. Everyne knows why Astral is good.
>>146992460
>Sailor's Death: I have no idea what this does. At W3 water mages can cast a lot of enchant battlefield spells.
It deals 14 damage +3/level in water over 3 (eg - 17 at w4, 20 at w5, etc).
It is MR-negated, but deals armor negating damage (so great vs armored units, bad vs antimagic buffed sacreds).
Aquatic, lifeless, amphibious, and undead units are immune to it
>>146992953
>Tanslation: Tempering the Will is gud.
>MR negates easily
>gud
No. Use antimagic
>>146992953
>Tanslation: Tempering the Will is gud.
MR Negates Easily is acceptable when it means taking control over every unit in the enemy's army. It is not when it refers to a buff spell.
>>146987024
Yeah, a lot of the reviews make it seem like a high energy grand strategy game of crazy magic when really it's more like Risk with a lot of tactical choices and cool descriptions. A grand strategy game with magic on the level of global enchantments would be incredible but that isn't what Dominions is.
>>146993496
It's literally Diplomacy as the base game, down to the movement
>>146987237
Speaking of this, is there a hotkey to give multiple mages gems at a time? I've been shadow blasting out the ass in one of my games and it's painful.
>>146993714
Hahahahahaha no
>>146993335
>>146993491
>MR negates easily
Seriously? What the fuck, Ulm, you were our only hope.
>>146992953
>Death
Now we're talking. That's what skellingtons do when they need BoT and want some cool stuff. That's what counters skelespam (sometimes). That's why Lemuria only ever needs 1PD per province.
Firghten: AoE fear check. Watch Lemur Acolyte from PD cast it on an enemy commander and stop a raiding party. Take all your revenants out of their labs (actually, don't do that) and spook the enemy army. Only Thaum 1. Best deal for the best price.
Dust to Dust: anti-skellington spell. Good. Nuff said.
Decay: I tried using it as a final one-up to my opponent with my lab d1 mages, but its range is shitty, and it's MRN. Make it hard MRN, sum1, and maaaaybe some memers will consider using it. Otherwise wait for Wind of Death.
Terror: mass frighten with 25 range. Good if you don't have anything that can end the battle quickly. Good when skelespaming. Generally, Wailing Winds is the only spell you'll ever need for morale checks as a high D nation, and it's only a single cast.
Leeching Darkness: why did Illfraud had to do a second worst Cloud of Death? Marginally useful. Again, look at evos (hi, Shadow Blast), and never look back.
Control the Dead: most skellingtons have shit MR, so it works, I guess. Although it's MRN and only AoE 1, so maybe just wait one research level for
Wither Bones: the ride concludes, skellingtons. Less damage than DtD, but higher AoE6+, and skelespam dudes don't usually need much damage to die.
Plague: it's a wonky but hilarious spell. Cast on people in the middle of a doomstack, and watch it die. Cast it on a forward arrow catchers (and you usually will), and lose a gem. MRN, so almost useless against good thugs, elite troops etc. Masses of crossbowmen though. Worth using on them at least once in your life.
Undead Mastery: see screenshot. Enough said.
Dessication is actually ok, just -extremely- situational
>>146995283
Desiccation+That earth fatigue spell from Alt+Quagmire+Other fatigue spells
>>146995843
Not even. More like "when you have water mages against Atlantis / Ulm"
Generally speaking, they'll have some buffed up 6attack/square infantry with either built in cold resistance or cold resistance from buffs in anticipation of your water spells or both (generally both). This makes falling frost spam or freezing fog (usually okay-good spells) basically useless. These guys also have like 8 MR, so even if they are buffing it, your desiccation will hit fairly frequently. Assuming that your own front line isn't useless, you'll be putting their army to sleep, and you'll be doing it with mages that would otherwise be useless for anything but elemental summoning (which you're presumably using anyways).
>>146994702
>Nature
Sleep Touch: this is a spell that has great destiny. It's sole purpose in this world is to be cast ONCE in a millenium in arena deathmatch, and let a single N1 mage win against a fully kitted giant.
Fascination:
>The caster TRIES to project images and scents in an enemy's consciousness. SHOULD it succeed the enemy will be distracted for a short while and HOPEFULLY enable someone to strike the enemy down.
See, even Illfraud wasn't sure this spell was worth including in the game.
Sleep: boy, I really don't want to be a nature mage in that world. It's like studying for an english lit diploma. Single-target, precision 4(!).
>The target is made unnaturally tired by this enchantment.
Well, I'm unnaturally tired from looking up those shitty spells. Actually, Sleep Cloud (which is, again, Evo 3 for some reason) is extremely good in some circumstances. It only needs N2, it's AoE, it persists for 2 turns, it can be spammed onto people near fort gates, or people engaged in a fight with skellingtons. That can basically make C'tis forts unbreakable without good spells or fliers. I know because I saw that situation a couple of times.
Berserkers: berserk is a very good quality, but it's hard to buff it with just range 1 AoE1. Most people wait for stronger spells (like Rage of the Cornered Rat or Growing Fury, which are good, so I'm not going to describe them here).
Panic: a worse Terror, but only need N2 and Thaum 3. Useable, can be good. (Illfraud probably made some intern design it)
Wildness: remember those fire confusion spells? Well, now they're even more situational. Good against marverni and B9 boars though.
Ravenous Swarm: an anti-skellington battlefield enchantment. Eats 1 square of skellingtons per round (but almost never works on ghosts), so not very impressive, but useful in big battles along with other anti-skellington measures.
Charm: liked that titan guarding the throne? He's yours now. A good spell. I'm impressed, Illfraud.
>>146996384
Forgot Beast Mastery, and it's good, but it's not a definitive end-game spell like Master Enslave or Undead Mastery, for example. A lot of nations can use undead, and almost all nations have regular units with standard MR, but not that many nations use animals. This kills Marverni though, and sometimes can even take control over your opponent's transformed nature mages.
I think that's it. To summarize, most Thaum spells are not really that bad, most of them are just often unreliable, and situational, and slow. Increase their range, make them hard MRN, and they will be used a little more often.
>>146996829
Kailassa + monkey troops are all animals.
>>146996923
Yeah, forgot about monkeys.
Also, in my opinion, Thaum shouldn't be that one school that everyone must research to win magic battles (like, I dunno, Evo). It should include situational spells. The thing is, when a spell from Evo that should be GENERALLY good at anything is better than a Thaum spell that should be SPECIFICALLY good against certain thing, this create a sense of uselessness. The solid example of Thaum done right is animal spells, anti-undead spells, astral. Bad examples are, oh god, almost everything else.
For what purpose would you transform a mage?
>>146998454
Removing upkeep, mostly, but it also gives a chance at bonus paths and a stronger or otherwise more useful chassis
>>146998454
Bonus paths (sometimes), no salary, cool chassis like giant eagles, giants, or some shit.
>>146998454
Saving on upkeep.
>>146998454
no upkeep
>>146998454
More HP + prot for turn 1 spell survivability.
Magic Expanded good?
>>147001271
No-one knows, the game keeps failing.
ded thred.
LastMAnStanding starting when?
Can anyone explain how the fuck this happened?
>>147008608
What am I looking at? Were they attacking from an adjacent province owned by one of their teammates?
>>147008739
literally seperate from my entire team. I'm abysia/agartha/formoria nd somehow I got random indies attacking machaka and sending the land to me
>>147008608
>>147008830
Was there an event from the province's original owners stating that mercenaries hired by your kingdom attacked? Because that's a thing that can happen, which you have no control over. You just get the province if they win.
>>147008608
>>147008830
Event id [id]: 2201
Rarity [rarity]: always
Requirements:
Nation in play [req_nation]: EA Abysia - Children of Flame
Maximum defence [req_maxdef]: 12
Rare [req_rare]: 1%
Triggering events [linkedReqCodes]:
Effects:
Owning nation [nation]: 13
Commander [2com]: Commander x 2
Units [4d6units]: Heavy Infantry x 4d6,
Archer x 4d6
A band of mercenaries has attacked unexpectedly. They seem to have been paid by one of your rivals!
>>147008865
There are also national versions of this event (like an Ermorian Death Cult that features necromancers + mercenaries + skeletons that gives the province to Ermor, or an angelic intervention that gives an Ermorian province to Marignon)
>>147008962
huh neato, abysia sure are scumbags
>>147009064
Event id [id]: 702
Rarity [rarity]: common bad
Requirements:
Miniumum pop [req_minpop]: 100
Coastal [req_coast]: must be coast
Nation in play [req_nation]: LA R'lyeh - Dreamlands
Not nation [req_notnation]: LA R'lyeh - Dreamlands
Minimun turn [req_turn]: 8
Rare [req_rare]: 20%
Effects:
Owning nation [nation]: 92
New province dominion [newdom]: 3
Commander [com]: Mad Priest
Units [3d6units]: Madman x 3d6
Madness has spread like an epidemic! A mob chanting unnatural names is attacking the garrison.
>>146951476
Link to the communion calculator?
>>147009064
There are a lot of events like this for different nations.
>>147015587
>next turn.jpg
>next turn.jpg
I've just been looking at the Doom Glaive and it appears to be a pretty much straight upgrade to the Bane Blade. Does that sound right? Would it be a reasonable alternative to the reliable old frost brand? I don't think I've ever seen anybody use one before.
>>147016508
It's shit. It doesn't do AoE damage, it does AoE decay and single target damage.
>>147016589
>AoE decay
that sounds kind of cool but doesn't sound useful at all in practice.
>>147016769
If it was AoE damage it could've been marginally good. But see, you're sacrificing your shield slot.
how does one host a blitz game and then join your own game? I'm teaching a friend to play and I want to just team with him vs AI while he learns basic mechanics.
but when I set up the hosting I don't see how I can also join as a player
>>147018582
Have you tried asking in the steam chat? The people there run blitzes all the time and could probably answer all your questions easily. I've only joined blitzes so I wouldn't know.
>>147018582
Go to a "what is my ip" website or check ipconfig, that's the first bit to put in to connect, then whatever port number you chose when setting it up.
>>147018891
I know how to get him to connect but I don't know how to be able to choose a nation and pretender as host
I can't back out to the join-as-client step without ceasing to host the lobby, no?
>>147019047
You need to actually create a pretender beforehand for blitzes.
>>147019047
You need to launch dominions twice, have one running the server then connect through the other window. It's weird, I know.
>>147019125
yeah I made a test one called test
>>147019335
thanks I'll try and see if I can do that
>>147019363
If you've got the game through steam you need to launch it from the .exe file because steam thinks your retarded if you try to launch the same game multiple times.
>>147019465
yeah I ran into and figured that out too...
now to hope I don't have to deal with port forwarding issues once he's ready to play
>>147019817
Shouldn't have to, or at least that wasn't an issue when I did it, can't remember firewall problems either but it was a while ago
Play your turns
>>147023012
Make me you wuff slut
>>147023012
I'm really concerned about your persistent fixation on a single imaginary character. Have you ever told your mother about it?
>>147023369
Awoo poster doesn't strike me as insane. It's only saving images.
>>147023369
It's basically just used as a 'bump' post desu. I don't mind
Which pretender wud u fuq?
Reminder that you should sub for Patala, or Mictlan, or C'tis.
Don't let this game end with throne racers through stales.
>>147024285
Fountain of Blood
>>147025383
That's either pedophilia or something worse, depending on which aspect.
I'm proud of all 3 remaining players for their resilience.
How's the game going? If you still remember, what do you think about the multi-province start?
Now that you're in super late game, what do you think about the capital capture VC?
Eliminated players can, of course, feel free to chime in.
>>147025843
My opinion won't help much since until now i had no idea this game had multi-province start, butI kind of liked it in other games I was in.
I found this VC annoying, but I'm not sure if I like thrones too much (because of gems and magic sites) or it's an actual valid opinion.
I feel like caps tend to be more protected than thrones, because of cap-only mages and so.
I also feel like win-rushing is harder with capital capture VC since you need to actually finish a nation to be able to get his capitals (if you are defeating someone they could move out of their Thrones, but there is no way they are moving out of their caps).
Again, they are probably similar and i'm not biased because of how fun thrones are.
Now about the players:
This game kind of disappointed me, since:
-Marignon and first R'lyeh chainstaled really early into the game.
-Patala and Bogarus basically sent blank turns from the beginning until they got eaten.
-Ragha was basically an AI (sorry for being mean, but you got a lead early game but researched nothing and NEVER used mages, basically suiciding your sacred stack into an actual army).
-I was told Yomi was a competent player, but I didn't really see him since after I joined he chainstaled.
Only Agartha actually played while Abysia and me sit in our lands gathering power.
Agartha almost won, but I managed to teleport all of the stuff i had into that siege and destroyed him, while losing my 11 golems to turn limit and my queens of air to routing into enemy provinces.
After that battle, Agartha and me got really weakened and last some time to recover, and Abysia didn't lose anything, plus blood nation. So he basicaly has the lead right now, unless we can somehow defeat him.
>>147028347
>>147025843
I'm a bit tired of it by now but I'm certainly guilty of not being a big hurry to end it either. I've seen what happened the last two times Agartha tried to bumrush the last VP he needed so I'm trying to take a more methodical approach. Frankly, I'm not at all skilled at this level of play this late in the game and have been mostly reactionary the entire game. Still, at the very least I can confirm that there are plans and they are being put into motion.
Extra starting provinces was neat but I'm not sure how big of a difference it really makes, especially since I already had solid expansion. Worth trying it out in more games.
>>147028314
I feel like it's a pretty even 2v1, to be honest. Especially with your globals the two of you beat me out in resources. My major mistake was not capitalizing on my advantages immediately after Agartha's foiled attack on Man. Cancer globals and death march towards Agartha's territory might have been a more decisive end to this. But, again, we've plainly seen the large advantage the defender has in that situation.
Your terror attacks and Agartha's huge number of bodies are significant obstacles to my actually winning the game but it's certainly not over yet.
