Dominions 4 Thread #2: Preaching to the dead edition

T'ien Ch'ink
How the fuck are you holding two thrones and kicking ass yet always being the last nigger to send in a turn?

Are the Chinese really the niggers of asia?

I didn't think you niggers would have taken all your turns in 4 hours.

ERMOR GONNA GIT IT

gtg fast

Filipinos are the true niggers of Asia.

No they are the mexicans, also known as Mictlan.

If we don't know what the hell we're doing then the enemy surely won't either! Luckily my priestesses are healers as well

That seems likely, I don't think I have seen any talk about that EA game besides Lanka and myself shit talking each other so TC and giants are probably getting 2strong in the background. Also liggers still exist.

...

ARCO TAKE YOUR DAMN TURN YOU PEARL NECKLACE WEARING QUEER

Here's a guide to playing as Ermor.

GOD SPEED SKELLIES
*Casts quick root*

NEW TURNS ARE OUT, NEW TURNS ARE OUT, BRING IN YOUR TURNS, BRING IN YOUR TURNS

...

ONCE AGAIN ARCO WE ARE WAITING ON YOU

Threadly reminder that a delaying player is always better than an AI.

Ass Poodle wants to fight some elves eh?

Well Ass Poodle, this outcome was expected.

Expect your receipt soon

I think all you're doing is pointing out how unbalanced some of the factions are.
Point by point there isn't a single reason you should of won that battle.

Eriu is one of the weakest factions in the middle age with it's only saving grace being easy to recruit thugs for surprise attacks (something I haven't had a chance to do yet), you also messed up by making your guys move in stealthily (Though the outcome would had been the same, they just would had routed sooner because of undead destruction)

The thing is, you're overly reliant on chaff on that fight, and that is why you lost. It's the same reason why Ermor is losing as well, you guys are relying on undead for numbers but you don't come at me with any shock troopers.

Well I guess you did, those Minotaurs were the only reason why my Daoine Sidhe's were dying.

Next time we fight though it's going to be a lot harder for you, because I'll have better magic backing me up and better troops

Ah fuck it, I'm just going to have to go with burn the earth strategy.
Start a single player game with MA asphodel with the magic expanded mod.
Understand what exactly you are fucking with.

I beta tested it :^)

You wont make it to carrion dragons

I think you are underestimating the situation

Well I guess we'll see when the time comes, I just want to be given a good fight, but now that you've agressed against me It's going to be harder for you to fight back.

You've seen japanese tentacles right?
It will be the same just with vines.

Yes, good goyim. Fight amongst yourselves.

Whatever Rlyeh, you smell like fish!

Also you had your chance Asphodel, you should had picked someone else to fight.

When were you thinking of hosting said disciples game? Unfortunately I'll be gone Friday-Sunday and can't play but I've talked a friend into joining, we both enjoyed the last disciples game despite getting blown the fuck out by underwater centaurs.

Oh and since I'm out then, whoever is the host of the LA game, would you please postpone the match then? I can play normally until then but will be unable to over the weekend.

I was those underwater centaurs btw

Anyway Im glad you guys are going to play again I guess we might just do doubles? I think it would be better to go with larger teams this time but at the same time I don't know

I know Lanka from last time will be itching to go again, and this time around I think everyone has a better grasp of the game so things will be a lot more interesting.

all I know is we'll play with Magic enhanced and the standard hero mod, other than that the map will be not Ragnarock I was in like 5 games with it when it came out so IM done.

the main thing I cant decide is how to assign teams, I'd like to do teams of three, or two big teams I think.

I want a show of hands of everyone who is interested first though, and when I put up the game for people to make their teams, so we don't get any match makers like Rlyeh/Ermor last time.

So are we talking disciples or teams?
If it is teams there should be a team blood of all blood nations.

Your lucky I remembered the password.
Also do you regret what you did like I said you would?

SERVER CRASH INCOMING

Well Disciples /teams is the same thing really.

Me and my friend this time are thinking about going Eriu/Man since magic enhanced actually makes them bearable to play.

If we did teams of 3 then I'd also like a Y's to play with us.

I regret nothing, although that fight where I tried to backcap with a captain was an impressive fuckup, didn't think you would drop that much PD down.
Also, it turns out that due to a schedule change I won't be gone Friday-Sunday but from next Monday-Wednesday

Then submit your turn queer boy.

...

What era?
If it's EA or LA I'll throw in my hat as a disciple.

MA

Ermor do your turn fgt

Arco you're really trying to chip away at my dominion, how's that working for you?

ITS FRIDAY LETS GET THESE TURNS SENT IN

BEHOLD EVERYONE THE BLEATING DEATH RATTLE OF ASPHODEL AS THEY MARCH HAPHAZARDLY TO THEIR DOOM!

Why do you sound scurd?

There is nothing scary about you, you have barely thought through this attack and you're going to pay dearly for it.

You're bringing some mages this time, which is an improvement but it's not enough, because when we fight you'll realize what you fucked up on.

Yea whateva fam its just a game tbh

CTIS I'M BEGGING YOU

you're right, but part of the fun is being competitive and bantering at each other.

Anyway waiting for Ermor now.

ARCO I'M BEGGING YOU

Turns up for the LA game

And now the MA game

I was gone all day so it surprised me that I wasn't the guy holding things up.

I have to say that I'm really enjoying LA mari, nearly all the time in my turns is spent transporting lolis for sacrifice to demons. Dom 4s soundtrack makes that surprisingly comfy; I think I'll return to play a different blood nation in a later match, maybe berytos or the Jews.

HELP
HELP
NEGATIVE ONE THOUSAND CASUALTIES
HE GAINED 1000 MORE TROOPS THAN HE LOST
HELP

Jews are one of the funnest blood nations imo, they are just frustrating to play balancing scales with bless, especially EA.
The troops require so much gold and resources even the mages to where if you lose you early army you are fucked.

Ha, you got fucked.

Is there a new game planned soon ? Yomi was fun but that was ages ago when all the games had scrub in the same i got rekt or dropped out from other games eventually at the time but now i feel like playing again.

Well we're starting a disciples game soon, other than that there is nothing planned. Our other games are pretty far along at turn 50 in the EA, 36 in the MA and 34 in the LA so maybe it wouldn't be a bad time to start a new game.

Is LA atlantis dead? He's stale turned 3 times in a row now.

He must be pretty butthurt his early advance on me was defeated by some badass Russia mages in communion.

Speaking of asspain, arco how does it feel to have one of your own mystics send your god insane?

That's fuckin hilarious. I'm not happy about it, but hot damn. This game isn't going as poorly as the last game where I played Pan. I hope I was at least an inconvenience in that match. Also I'm expecting some sick OC.

Early on in the beginning of our war, if you attacked me with your main forces together instead of seperated you would of probably of one through attrition.
Also you should of been attacking my water provinces 20-30 turns ago.

FUCKING KILL ARCO ALREADY REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Working on it.
This is a pretty bad infestation of Greeks, its going to cost you about 130 death gems to remove it.

He's also always the lase one
TO SEND IN THEIR FUCKING TURN

Probably could have, yeah. I just wasn't particularly confident in my dudes. If I was, I would have attacked earlier.

How did that even hit any chinks? Pretty sure that you're nowhere near my dominion.

Well at least it was good for a few laughs

Atlantis I set you to AI since you stalled 5 times in a row.

It attacks the entire world, but it is strongest in your dominion and in areas with turmoil scales.

Anyway Assphoodle Im going to catch up to you!

Oh I had thought it only struck in my dominion. Guess I had misread that one.

Like the dog catching up to the car.

Welp I can't set Atlantis to AI as we have the same Cd Key when I send it in.
So I'll just force host when I see both of us have sent in their turn.

Since I'm getting knocked out of the EA game soonish I should probably pass the admin password over to one of you who is not dead as fuck.

We could get atlantis a sub from here, or more likely someone who can just set the guy AI and forget about it.

You won one, I was proud of you.

But will you win round 2?

I'll admit that plan of mine was ill advised.

too many skeletons, but regardless you'll have to deal with the Fianna now

Arco why do you want to go out with a bang instead of a whimper?
At this rate all your soldier will abandon

NO TROOPS

Come on Rlyeh we're on a good roll right now with the MA game

Can say the same about Tien Chinks

It's literally the same person playing them, I already figured that out.

just like you're asphodel/Lanka

and I'm Ulm/Eriu, and the Oceania that beat your monkey butt

You won literally, I won figuratively.

how does your twisted mind come up with 'figuratively' you dummy.

play your poodle turn and let the fianna settle this

So guys lets actually discuss dom 4 instead of talking shit.

What is your favorite NON-national summon?
I really love the demon knight however its a pain finding a good amount of caster to summon them and it takes blood 9 to cast them in bulk

I agree with you on the Demon Knights, though you don't really need to make them in bulk right away I've found.

making just 5-10 if you're feeling wimpy is enough to make a good fear battery for your main army.

I would say my favourite non-national summon is probably the green lions, but if we're counting in combat summons.

Air Elementals are amazing, and when you get Living Clouds it's even better.

I've tried with Bogarus, however even with casters that have a path in earth it costs 30 earth and 80 slaves to get them.
Agartha would be the next choice but even then they suffer from the same problems.
Storm demons on the other hand aren't nearly a problem as several nations have access to them out the gate.

...

...

it's a good thing that Ermor was nipped in the bud huh

ERMOR DINDU NUFFIN
HE WAS A GOOD SKELE, HE WAS JUST TRYING TO SPREAD THE WORD OF JESUS THE FIRST UNDEAD

Niefelnig you can have almost all of Bandar lands for yourself if you want, I was going to take them but lack the ability with me taking arco's cap.

However I will want and NEED the provinces directly around my castle to the east of Bandar and 157 as its close to my cap.

Alright the Atlantis in the LA game has been set to AI.

This is good.

I HATE THIS GAMES FUCKING AI
Bandar is losing castle after castle to fucking Niefelnig and yet the AI believes the best course to take is sieging a castle they can't damage with an army of 400 when they could be taking back provinces.
Fucking stupid.

Is there a "how to play this fucking mess of a game" guide somewhere? I really want to actually play it, but god damn the UI is a clusterfuck and nothing is explained anywhere.

What specifically are you struggling with?
The game at least for me was pretty straight forward on what everything was and what everything does.
Mechanics are a little harder to figure out, are you playing dom 4 or dom 3?

There is the manual over at illwinter.com/dom4 that describes features fairly extensively and includes a written tutorial on how to go through pretender creation and some early turns in the preset scenario.

What I'd like to know is how the AI makes targeting decisions, especially the caster AI so I can figure out how well an S3 mage with a clam of pearls can substitute for an assassin.

From my experience if you are assassinating a mage they will ALWAYS self-buff before doing anything.
For your mage, it seems they target what is closest, which is why handful of acorns are so useful, however most chaff is easily banishable or undead.

Maybe the AI has been programmed to be spiteful faggots.

Assassinating someone by scripting summon elemental has worked out for me in the past but that cast blows all of your fatigue for a turn or two.

If you have a crazy research rate bottle of water might be worth researching.
It really feels that way, Bandar went to war with me, lost two battles then went AI, ever since then the AI seems to have been butthurt over losing.

Should have clarified on what I meant.
I've come up with a possible replacement for assassins based on 3 spells.
The idea is that the mage teleports into a province with a high-value target then hits them with a horror mark and goes back home.
It's much safer, but I need to know how the target selection for horror mark works to get any use out of it.

Well I believe you can't horror mark mindless units.
So in the case of skeleton warriors, vinemen and soulless none of those would be targeted.

Same with shit happened with Machaka in EA and Rus in MA to me,they would just keep backcapping from me, really pretty annoying. I just killed Rus last turn and the Kangs died underground to someone else. I'm dying soon but I'm glad they're out before me.

*Same shit happened

It turns out that healers can fix retardation. Wish I knew that 6 turns ago.

Lol arco just give up.

Come and end it then.

Nope you've refused to give me a single large battle so this will be a slow and careful process.

Okay, I'm in no real hurry anyway.

Right, its not like you're going anywhere.

I know that, but what are the priorities of the caster AI regarding what to horror mark?
I suspect it has something to do with size, since attempts with aboleths tended to get soaked by sea serpents.

My friend had told me they prioritize squares with the highest # of total HP but I dunno how true that is.

This was probably not worth it

Yeah but its good for a laugh.

NEW GAME
Since we still haven't firmed up when we are playing this disciples game I have made a new EA game.
Its going to be a smaller game for at max 6 people though we will go in 2 days regardless of players.
I will of course be playing Lanka as nothing gets me harder then a red skinned woman.

forgot link
llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=EATheFutureIsBright

What's the game's stance on water nations?

I have work in 5 minutes, so fuck it.
Sent in a R'lyeh pretender

Will be joining that one as Marverni.

There are enough water for a single water nation.

GAME LOBBY IS ALREADY HALF FULL LETS GO GOYIM THIS CAN GET POPPING TODAY

True enough.

Kikes reporting in

ONLY 1 MORE SLOT LEFT
Lets get this going!
Which God is the baddest motherfucker around?

bump15

Did anyone else get some events, at least? Was there a dire portent about it?

...

It said you would get Cthulhu, you got jewed.

Lets get em in

I thought the Cthullu one was LA only, because he's the dreaming god.

I know it works in LA

If it makes you feel better (or worse) my Samhain spell's conjuration and enchantment cost reduction isn't working either.

Not sure about the Aos Si war parties though, and atleast Im getting the magic/growth scales

The Aos Si keep decapping my provinces. At least its not as bad as the looming hell is in the LA game. I'm only managing to convince independent heretics hiding in provinces and not atlantis' troops.

yeah in our last LA game where I was LA Ulm, I found Looming Hell to be very underwhelming and lame.

You managed to kill one of my commanders and almost killed one of my starets

It doesn't seem worth 150 slaves, but slave collection shouldn't be an issue once you get to blood 9 anyways.

But killing one commander in 5 or so turns of having it up is pretty lackluster.

Yeah I would say it's not worth the slaves, you'd be better off summoning the Demon Lords in quick succession than casting the looming hell.

Its only within your dominion, the very first turn you cast it, it happened.
I just got my commanders out next turn and pushed out your dom.

I imagine it would be very effective if a army with a lot of commanders or mages went on the offensive.

I've already pulled out 2 demon lords, I'll probably go for arch-demons next. I have a bunch of soul contracts for the monthly devils so that shouldn't be an issue, I'm enjoying this LA game a good deal so far.

nec13

Aw poo. Guess I just missed the new game. Well, I created another one if anyone is interested. I'm open to suggestions for mods and maps.
llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=8somethingsomething

Like pottery

Make it MA or LA, add chocolate thrones and magic enhanced.
I love playing Lanka but I can't do 3 games as theme, without fucking my shit up.

Also it might be cool to play on Valanis, we've tried a few games there but everytime we end up switching maps because of lack of people.

Added chocolate thrones and made it ma. Couldn't find the magic enhanced mod or the valanis map

Alright joining as Abysia.
Yeah the mod finding is awful on llamaserver.
See if you can find worthy heroes 5.5 NN which is the /domg/ balance.
Then Chocolate thrones 1.3.1
Also Magic Enhanced is at the very bottom of the mod list, however I really don't care if its in or not.

Yeah the mods might be screwing things up, as I sent in my pretender and its telling me I sent in a pretender for dom 3.

llamaserver is being a pain in the ass right now. Getting an error when I submit my pretender. Let us know if you can submit yours.

alright gimme a sec

Still getting that error even after I remove the problem mods and the right mods seem to not appear in the list at all. Maybe someone else should give it a try just to confirm whether something is up with llamaserver right now or if I'm just retarded.

Absolutely make sure you have it set for Dom 4, and not Dom 3

I am, in fact, retarded. I clicked the (read me first) then followed the link from there.

Join this game
llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=thisoneworks

Signed up as Ermor.

As is standard procedure, the jews are in.

Fug.
Guess I'll play Ulm then.

Sorry. Didn't mean to jew you over.

Signed up as abysia

here, i fixed your image

Wanting to try playing this but the old version in the OP is chugging when running in Wine. Anyone know if it runs a lot better natively on Linux or am I going to have to face that my beloved Chinkpad can't cut it?

It does run much better natively than it did through wine, on wine I had some mouse lag issue that bothered me. If you're getting lag during the battles then you should disable the background. That fixed the lag on my end at least.

checked

and
noice

On my shitty lenova at work I can run it as long as I turn off the background and effects.

Joined this one as mummy incas.

also bump

fug clicked the first one with link i saw and it was the wrong one

NIEFELHEIM IT WAS JUST A JOKE I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY

PLEASE NO MORE

what master:slave ratio do you guys use for communions?
I'm playing EA Ermor singleplayer and 8 slaves 3 masters works decently enough if you buff the slaves with power of the spheres and phoenix power. I usually give my dudes with D3 a skull staff and keep them out of the communion, D4 is plenty powerful and if I recall correctly slaves get extra fatigue when a master casts from a path the slave doesn't have.

Give me blood slaves and I will stop the weeb rape train.

If you have blood you can just spam reinvigorate using one sabath master and that will remove all fatigue of slaves.
On top of that just a few items will make fatigue manageable.
The absolute best however is undead communions/sabbaths.

Is 30 enough?

That will do.

While your here niffelnig I will be taking those provinces agreed upon, you might want to get your necromancer out of there

What's the best way to set up a formation of infantry and crossbowmen/archers?

I don't think there is much to it, put the infantry on hold and attack, put archers behind infantry. Also you can split them into smaller units and/or have some bait as necessary. Now with arches there is a bit of a choice of what you should order them to shoot at. Closest is easy to bait with some spread out forward units, same with archers so you have to anticipate what you are going to shoot at a bit.
Well i guess there is a bit to it than, not sure if that's the answer you expected though.

Exluding domkill nations (but assuming that they are your opponent probably), what are the best kind of nations and strategies to fare with a situation where every single province on the map is unpopulated?

Extreme late game and rare scenario I know, but still.

What's the point of becoming god of an empty world? Just let go.

I just want to know how you would deal with it.

Make everyone of your mages undead with that second life spell or whatever it is called?
Do undead mages still cost upkeep?

Or let's at least assume a very underpopulated world, where only some core territories have population and your enemies are all in a stalemate.

Everyone that can tech into undead could probably scrape by somehow. Daemons could work too i guess but you would have trouble getting the slaves to get more of them. You need a class of summons that can self summon more of themselves so undead seem like the most obvious ones.

No, I think there are some exceptions however like Nazca.

The real only way I can think of how do mitigate the problems with low pop would be to depend on Gem forgery, Unique gold ring.
If you have turmoil and luck you could also hoard any gold you got from events provided your upkeep was low enough.

can you explain to someone who only watches, but doesnt play dominions 4 what that means? :3

???

Demons and undead do not pay upkeep, most summons have spell access or ability to summon more by default.

There is a Gold Ring that gives you 200 gold a turn by possessing it.

I mean if you can summon undead death mages before everyone dies out those would probably be able to summon more mages and more skelletons.

There are also the precious metal mines that would give you some gold if you tried to maintain normal units but they are random sites.

Didnt find it in dom inspector

Are there ones who can summon undead without needing gems (like scelerian priest) or would now things work on a gem economy?

Then maybe you should play the game queer.

Depends there are a ton of things you can summon not only death magic and some of those can summon allies which costs nothing.

For some reason first time i tried to do that I put the xbowmen on hold and they just joined the infantry despite them being at what looked like a sufficient range, fire and keep distance did the trick though.
I also managed to lose my inquisitor and witch hunter to the same volley of arrows who were in the middle of my ranged units which caused the rest of my guys to rout, but if I place them further away they can't bless the infantry anymore.

Just playing against the ai for now to get familiar with the game.

Summon on the map, right? Not just battlefield?

Yes for example werewolves can summon more werewolves.
Which they can then lead into battle, then summon more provided they do not die.

Sometimes they have conditions however like only summon able in forests.

All undead (and daemon and some death nations like sceleria) priests can summon some troops for free. There is the mound fiend that everyone can have. But any commander you will have to pay with gems.

Yeah, if you want ranged units to actually fire you have to give them a fire order at some point otherwise they will default to melee and just run forward.

bump
we only need one more
llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=thisoneworks

A tip for archers, if you have archers with decent armor, stats and equipment, and you are facing fliers, the fliers will most likely fly at your flanks attacking your archers.
If you have keep distance on they will try to move instead of attacking with swords or what not.
Fliers usually have low health so you can kill them on the round they attacked and get back to shooting.

Fixed that for you.
Though really, you should just set your archers to fire anyway, since fliers will just murder them if they try to run, and if the enemy somehow hasn't broken by the time they run out of ammo, you're going to need all the bodies you can get between the enemy army and your commanders.

Naga archers and heavy ulm crossbow archers can wreck fliers as long as they aren't heavily blessed.

Does it take a really long time for a match in this game to get interesting? Played a few solo matches but research takes fucking ages so the most I get out of magic is commanders spamming some attack spells.

Also, can you actually create equips to give to your troops, or do you generally just give things to your commanders?

Any other tips would be welcome.

you can't equip troops, instead you cast buff spells like Legion of Steel.

You equip your commanders and turn then into thugs, or super combatants depending on their magic skills or hp.

If you want to make things interesting learn how to be aggressive and pound some faggots face in and capture his capital before he has a a chance to think

Thats what I've done and I've won almost every single 8ch game, except for 2 where one I had a bad start and couldnt fight against a Mictlan that snowballed in power, and one where I was beaten so soundly by Tien Chi I couldn't really concieve a strategy to fight them back because I had just lost 500 guys and killed 30.

Aggression wins wars, but you've got to schedule these things perfectly and it also depends heavily on the nation you're playing imo, something like Caelum could not pull off the strategy I just mentioned but it's a good start in most cases, because most people in this game cannot handle the stress that comes with being attacked because of their irl psyche.

How do I into EA Ermor?

Communions are your bread and butter. I've seen the sacreds do well but I tend to rely on Hastati/Principes to hold lines while you spam , leves are good too for how cheap they are but don't expect your leves to stand up in melee. I've only played 2 matches as EA Ermor but I have to say that on contact with the enemy you will lose LOTS of legionaries, it's an inevitability so don't get too attached. The javelins can do a good bit of damage if you cast flaming arrows by the way.

So i was playing the abysians after successfully getting into dominions. I had them become a nuetral province when it comes to farming and death but a little later into the game everything under my control became triple death scale. What happened? Do blood sacrifices do this? How do i stop it since i can't go into other provinces for blood sacrifices?

If you cast Second sun that increases death scales, it's also possible you got an event that just gave you plague or something

Fuck i didn't know that is what did it. But the abysians love the sun right? why would increasing the heat be detrimental to us?

This game is great but i wish i could get a grasp on the magic items. I didn't know second sun would fuck me when i'm an abysian who loves the heat and when i could forge boots of youth before i can longer do so.

There any way to dispell my own second sun?

Its not, Abysia doesn't take any hit to income because of population.
However you won't find many supplies or blood slaves.
Second Sun is what you want to use when you are making your final push.
You will fare better then everyone else however if you are preparing don't cast it as it will destroy your blood hunts.

Also its great for when you are facing Ermor or any army with tons of flak, eventually it gets so hot that flames will appear randomly on the battlefield, absolutely wrecks ermor if combined with heat from hell.

Wew cripplechan just ate my post.

Abysia's income doesn't change based on population until the LA.
But you only want to cast it during EA or MA anyway as it will fuck up most casters and troops in the LA.

You only want to use it during the Late game when you are making your final push to conquer the world.
It will fuck up preparing, so only use it when your absolutely sure you are ready, also try to use it when there are 5 global enchants out for maximum salt.

A side benefit to the spell is that Second Sun+Heat from hell will have flames popping up all across the battlefield which wrecks many low health armies like Ermor, Caelum, Xibabla, and most mages if a flame pops up right in their circle.

I just lost because another god several province away from my home spread his dominion around the world. Next time i'm getting a must have 8 dominion strength.

If that was the case then you've must of had no dom.
Dom is tricky, view it more as a water.
When it gets past its max it "spills" over into a neighboring province.
Low dom isn't too bad as long as you have ways to manage it.

For example Arco has been using skeptics which reduce dominion of the province they are in, however they can be found pretty easily as they are pretty bad at sneaking.

Put those around your borders in your opponents provinces and you can get by just fine with low dom.

Since Dom is being discussed there are several rules to follow to have an easier experience.
If you have good dom (high scales like order or productivity) keep it in your provinces, you don't want your neighbor who has 3 turmoil to be having extra 250 gold a turn because your dom is leaking into his provinces.

If you have bad dom (death scales, turmoil, sloth) spread it absolutely everywhere.

If you are attacking you want to have dom in the provinces you will be taking, if you are defending vice versa.
Don't worry about dom in other provinces that aren't yours UNLESS, they are Asphodel or Ermor as they will kill population making those provinces pointless.

We now have 8 players for the valanis game. I will start it later this evening unless anyone objects and would rather wait longer for the full twelve.

Waiting for 12 will likely take far too long. I'm all for starting now.

how do i join? I just started playing dominions for the first time ever

On second thought maybe i'll pass for now. I can't even beat the normal AI and mine is pirated.

Don't worry about beating the AI. I mean, do it if you want, but all that's necessary is to practice early-game expansion in single player. The rest you'll really only learn in multiplayer.

I need a mod anyways so i think i'll pass regardless. Next time there's a thread up i'll try to join

SEND IN THOSE TURNS

Why isn't it on GOG goddamn.

It makes my ass burn every time I'm reminded.
I would've bought it months ago.

Well Arco I'm pretty sure I just killed your god.

Do you have blood vengeance? Because that would explain why she got instant killed

I thought it was because I took your castle but your right I would of gone first because of defender.

Got divine blessing off and you know the rest.

Hey, Marverni and Nazca from EATheFutureIsBright and thsioneworks here.
You may :^) have noticed i haven't sent in my turns. Due to some circumstances i don't have internet at home until tomorrow, so i ask for an extension.

now that i think about it i could try getting my laptop to a hotspot to send my turns but it seems like effort, might still try it later though, i still ask for extension just in case

I gave a 36 hour extension.

Man I wish there was an army tester so you could make custom armies to test units against one each other.

I wish i didn't get zerg rushed by the AI everytime. Sometimes you don't get what you want. On a side note i've noticed that there is some kind of wage war system in place but there is no diplomacy at all. Sometimes the Ai won't attack me unless i attack them first but it isn't until after we've slaughtered each other for several years that they decide to wage war on me.

As far as the AI goes, I have the same problem on Mighty or above the AI will always attack you unless you fuck-huge.
I think it has to do with the AI getting resource and income bonuses the higher the difficulty is set, so no matter what they always view you as having less income and resources then them compared to other nations.

I once had a nation wage war on me despite not having a single province near them, they ended up getting wrecked by another AI before they managed to get a single unit in my provinces.

This game seems cool and all but the strategy portion of it seems to fall when you don't know what the enemy army composes of. Might just spam my highest tier units into one massive army to curbstomp the opposition while putting the cheapest in front to take the arrows. I really wish i could tell my flying units to go for the mages after a few rounds of combat.

If you have a province nearby you get an estimate which can be higher or lower.
If you have a scout in the same province you get a rough number.
If you have a spy you get the number of units, and the PD number.
If you need to know the EXACT figure, then you can attack an army with a scout.

You can kind of, put fliers on Hold and Attack and have them target rear.
9/10 times they will end up close to mages.
La Marignon is doing that currently with his devils and managed to kill one of my starets.

Murder balls only work up to most the Middle game, once you hit late game mages can fuck your shit right up.

Isn't it just magically-enhanced murder balls at that point?
Or am I thinking of the early late-game phase?

Depends some nations with Earth mages will be buffing, or using RoS or Earthquake.

Other nations that use mainly other priests may be using nukes, for example blood has very little buffs but many battlefield wide or single unit spells.

Death is more summoning and battlefield.

Fire only has buffs for fire resist and I think archers.

Troops are essentially buying time for your mages late game.

Shit i thought that was the same thing. I was thinking more that you don't really need to plan fights out much. The one with the higher numbers wins. I've seen what mages do in late game. Can cause an army to retreat before they reach the spellcaster

Higher numbers are better, but proper planning can mean the difference between winning a battle by the skin of your teeth or fending off a hostile strike force while only losing 6 chaff units.
Also, you generally don't want to fight an underwater nation with poor amphibians unless you have a huge numbers advantage, or they're golems.

Not to gloat but take a battle that I had with LA atlantis in our LAfutureisbright game.
I was attacked by a superior force, while he fucked around trying to chip away at my gate I gathered an army with spellcasters.

Used the lightless lanterns I just made in mass for two turns to up my Research.
I got a level in Thau and a few levels in evocation.

Despite facing an army mostly comprised of Ice warriors which are more powerful the colder the climate (which sucks for bog because they are cold nation) I managed to defeat him with spamming firecloud and other spells.

My military didn't do shit but take a beating well my mages did the heavy lifting and this was in year 1-2 of the game launching.

Magic is incredibly important even at low levels, but so is properly designing an army that can optimally defend your mages and push kill their army, the former being more of priority of the later.

WHATS UP NOW NIGGER, BOTH YOU AND YOUR GIANT SHITTERS HAVE GONE AI, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN, HOW DID YOU LOSE TO ASSPOODEL? THE COUNTRY OF DEAD THINGS AND VINES? I HAD ZERO INCOME AND NO TROOPS AND YOU STILL WENT AI!
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

If you don't script your mages they end up casting stupid shit when they could have otherwise won the battle.

I think you would have won this fight if you didn't cast that arcane tempest.

Yeah, Bogarus is fucking broken.
I really thought I could make them work, but their troops are absolute shit, their spellcasters even the slow to recruit ones are fucking awful and are only useful for communions.

They have like 5 diffrent summons all of which revolve around water, but not a single fucking water mage other then baba yaga who is fucking 1 in water.

Just absolutely complete shit, and it didn't get any better that Atlantis fucking rushed me in turn 10 which fucked him over because the dumbass didn't think he would get attacked.

Oh well, you lose some you win some, and in this case you played better then I did, I have no army, no gems and my mages are usefull for fucking nothing.
So I declare you the winner.

How can you go about using units like Jotun Javelinists that can attack at range but are primarily for melee?

If they're told to attack they don't bother throwing, if they're told to hold then attack they're only going to attack at range if enemies get close enough, and if you have squishy Mages you generally aren't going to want to let their frontline get close just so you can chuck some javelins.

You put them on Fire closest.
They willl walk to get in range and then after spending ammo attack or attack normally if the enemy walks into melee range.

Guess I should have waited for 9 players. Should realize by now there's always that one guy who joins just to stall right from the start.

In the last two days turns have gone almost still.
Why?
I just want to play.

NEW TURN FOR EA8BIGGUYS

You probably should have, i didn't have internet for a while, now i should take my turns regularly though.

New turns for EATheFutureIsBright and thisoneworks.

Also did someone drop already from EATheFutureIsBright ? What happened ?

Neifelnig dropped, Idk know why probably due to his real shitty expansion.

NEW LA GAME

LATENIGHTFIGHTNIGHT
ONLY 3 OF THE BADDEST DUDES MAY APPLY ONE WHICH PREFERABLY IS A WATER NATION

llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=L8NightFightNight

I refussssssssse to poo in loo.

Of all the days to be moving.
I don't suppose a 1-day extension would be too much to ask for?

Any tips for using EA Vanheim? I like them a lot but they seem a bit iffy with magic.

Spear Huskarls just wreck shit, they wear down incoming infantry with javelins and then have crazy defense and decent damage output.

Does a D9/D10 pretender seem like a decent idea? It would turn Blessed Vanherse into death machines between the "HP Boost" and Death weapons buff. Having good Necromancy would also help offset the high cost of Vanir troops.

Either death or water, or possibly both.
If you want to go crazy I think, D9, E4, W4-6 would be good.
Bumps the defense bonus up even higher, gives the cup so they don't die to undead hordes.

Without extending it you already have till 4 tommorow, if you still need more time let me know.

We'll probably need an extension, the computer i got will take a little longer than expected to reach a usable state.
Damn thing didn't come with a desk, for one thing.

Any suggestions for dealing with a situation like this? It basically ruined my last A.I match.
Unless I was to plan for this and take an awake amphibious thug pretender it seems this situation is just guaranteed to give you a bad time.

I decided Nature+Earth seems like a better combo, large HP boost is better than undying since they drop dead after the battle if they go negative. Recuperation+regeneration also means they can last a long time, only downside is they don't get death weapons, but a dual wielding berserker already deals nutty damage so whatever.

You can make pills of water breathing at construction 4 and with an airmage 2.
You can make barrel of air at con 6 with 4 airmage.
You can make the goblet of water at con 8 with lvl 3 water mage.

Rings of waterbreathing can also be made at lvl 2 con wit level one water mage.

Taking just one water province with good indies will allow you to push them back, also if you are playing a nation with good mages then just give them water rings and hire indies for flak.

If its the AI then mages and thugs can handle them with very little problems.

Also unless I'm mistaken the only water nation that spawns on land is La Atlantis.

TIEN CHI YOU ARE ALWAYS LAST

Man I like how long the EA game has been running, other then Africa being fucked up early on.

RELINKING THREAD BECAUSE NO READS THE THREAD
2 MORE SLOTS IF SOMEONE WANTS TO WATER NATIONS
llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=L8NightFightNight

I sent in a Jomon pretender

Hey, could you remove my Jomon on second thought I'd like to switch to Rlyeh

Sorry man was away, someone stole Rlyeh already, that going to be cool? If you want I can reroll the turns and you can submit a new one.

I am that Rlyeh, so I got sent 2 first turns. I didn't check to see if you had game autostart on, my bad.

Alright so I moved it back to start, I'm going to remove jomon

Sent in an Agartha pretender, so we're good to go again.

Well with that
L8NightFightNight Begins!

Fuck spoke to soon, the Direct Download mod isn't working, going to restart after switching mod.

Just change the name of the mod file and it works fine.

Tried didn't work, I may of just fucked up either way I already restarted it, it will take ten minutes tops, and its not like the start is hard to redo.
My bad all the same.

I'll send in a turn and see if I'm spreading falsehoods.

uh

Go on

The mystery behind this post will haunt me for all my days.

TURN MOMENTUM IS SLOWING DOWN, LETS KEEP IT UP GOING GOYS!

SEND EM TURNS

So i finally played Dominions 4 after years of seeing it and people telling me that it's in depth. After a few hours into the single players I've noticed a few things about the depth of the game. The troops each have their own stats and are individually tracked but it seems like this is a bit wasteful since most of the time it doesn't have any meaningful impact on the battle unless it's one of your leaders or every single troops has somehow lost his arms. Most battles that I've fought in when I played Abysia, Ermor, and that monkey faction all play out the same. The one with superior numbers and moral wins. It's not very strategic when all games play out the same. The one that takes over the most provinces in the beginning will have the advantage of numbers and kick the shit out of the rest of the map. I would buy it and judge the multiplayer because I'm sure that it's what people like about this game but I feel like I'll be setting myself up for disappointment.

A single mage mid game with RoS can wipe out an entire army of flak units.
Abysia can be countered with fire rend and destroy.
Any blood nation can spam agony, bloodletting or blood rain and make an army route.
A melqart with vine shield, firebrand and belt of vigor can wipe a medium army.
A melqart with all those things and access to self buffs can rout an entire army.

For fucks sake LA Ulm routed two of my armies with a summon killing 400+ units and 100 hydras with dual bless, with ONE unit.

You have obviously not played very much or have decided what the game is about after getting your ass handed to you on normal difficulty AI.

It really isn't that straightforward (although I've only started playing this in the last week). Correct troop positioning and use of mages/blessed units can let you massacre larger forces easily.

Common strategy I use against Independents with no cavalry is a force of defensive units going up the center where they will hold the line against the infantry charge, then blitz units flanking on both sides that cut them to pieces and avoid taking the brunt of damage from enemy infantry.

Example being Vanheim with Huskarls holding center and Vanheres flanking, or Agartha with Ancient ones center and Troglodytes flanking. In both cases troop bless was important too, with Agartha I had heavy earth and some water as blessing bonus. This bumps Ancients defensive ability considerably (one of their only weaknesses) and also gives them Reinvigoration so they aren't crippled by cold climates (another weakness). Troglodytes flanked as while they can steamroll infantry they have shit defense and get torn to pieces in a head to head charge. For Vanheim I had high nature and some death. The end result being my Vanheres effectively had 28HP and regenerated 3HP per turn. So despite being crazy dangerous blenders who can kill 2 enemies per turn if lucky they could take a ton of abuse.

However if I was going against Cavalry I'd have to change things because Cavalry generally comes in from the flanks, which would rape troglodytes, although Vanheres with the above bonuses are so crazy that they can generally decimate cavalry head-on.

This, attacking an army with an bigger force then what you need is inefficient.
You have to split your troops often and take multiple provinces.

I could of taken Arco's capital with just some soulless and archers.

He had a flying hero right by his spellcasters so setting my 100 archers to aim at fliers made them pelt his spell casters with arrows killing almost all of them.

That was pretty smart for a corpsefucking monkey, good work.

Way to show how indepth it can get. Thank you for pointing out my ignorance that a single unit can cheese an entire army, it's the sign of a good strategy game. seriously though i have nothing against the game you just respond like a butthurt faggot when someone criticizes your favorite game

I initially just gave my first impressions. I'm going to play several different factions and i'm saving mid age Ermor for last since I only started playing because of the necromancy poster that this game gives off. My composition is the fodder up front with the heavy infantry right behind them and cavalry on the flanks. I usually set cavalry on one side to hold and then go for archers and any ranged units behind me go for cavalry if there are any. I love flying units because they essentially teleport so i set them to attack enemy archers after holding so that they'll attack spell casters directly. As Abysia, I recruit the demon bred assassins as normal troops and it might be expensive but it basically negates any magic that the enemy might use after the first few rounds of combat.

You really don't understand what this game is about.

Armies exist to be cheesed in this game. it's really a duel of mages. You pay attention to what your enemy is using and research what you think you'll need to wipe it out and hope your enemy doesn't catch on.

I guess it's not my kind of game. Great game, I'll play it ever now and then. Have fun with Dominions.

Fair enough, the game is kind of hard to recommend given the price and niche gameplay. Do you like other games in the genre like HoMM?

I think I downloaded Heroes of Might and Magic once but I didn't play much of it. Should i revisit it? If so where should I start?

3 is the best, avoid the 'HD remake' because it actually has worse spritework than the original. If you want there is a mod for widescreen support of the original game here
sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/ If you want other mods then 'In the wake of the gods' is a popular one for HoMM3.

For other games in the genre,I thought Eador: Genesis is pretty fun, for a more modern game. Also master of magic if you're feeling up for a Dos game. Age of Wonders is good, although I never could get into Age of wonders 3, the first is great.

Thanks user i'll go check it out. That image is actually what brought my attention to Dominions all that time ago. I'll be sure to play a bunch of Ermor in the mid ages to actually get some of that sweet necromancy power.

Are there any other multiplayer games where everyone's turns are compiled simultaneously?

That image is from HoMM3.
heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3/creaturesnecropolis.shtml
Ermor can get similar numbers of undead going but they usually get ganged up on by a couple of players who don't want every province depopulated by skeletons.

I would say most games with PBEM multiplayer.

All this time i thought it was dominions

Are there any other good PBEM multiplayer games?

I can't really say user, the only game I've played PBEM is dominions.

bump
Try not to stall. We've barely begun our MA game.

M8Deathmatch should be named
THE ATTACK OF THE AI'S

Agartha has chainstalled the last 3 turns. Maybe we could try and get a sub or something.

Right you are user, I still don't understand why Eiru quit.

Not sure anyone would want to play a nation that staled three turns in a row but we can try. Or I'll just set him to AI if he stalls once more.

I wonder what the default setting for the AI is when its switched over.
Though the AI sucks in army comp it is a fucking master harasser if you have a province with 5 PD it will find it.
Imagine what the AI will do with all the gold thats been accumulated.

It will probably sit around and wait for somebody to roll over it.

We're only 5 turns in, not like this is far off and away into the 3rd year.

That is generally the behavior, until someone starts fighting them. When that happens they start back capping through your lightly defended provinces.

...

Does anyone have any advice for MA Ashdod?

I've tried to play them quite a bit but there need for food is fucking ridiculous.
Should I just use thugs and a few sacreds?

You brought this on yourself.

Shieeeettttt, I wish you niggas posted more info like this, since I've been fighting with Arco I haven't a fucking clue what has been going on across the map.

Yeah, Agartha is stalling and it's holding up the game, i doubt it's going to send in the turn this time either. We should at least set it to AI, but we need someone who is not in the game to volunteer to send in the turn.

Also 3 stalls might not be THAT bad if it's on repeat recruitment, it's gonna be behind in expansion but probably still playable. If it's not on repeat it's probably screwed.

Well this is a pain in the ass. I'll see if I can find someone to set agartha ai. Who still visits our little steam group? I'll try starting a discussion in there so someone can PM me their email.

bump

Well its nice since the EA games are going slow as shit our LA game has had 4 turns today

Yeah, I'm glad that we're doing these low pop games too, already done more in this one today than the other games I'm in go through in a weekend.

TURN BULLYING

I propose a global pact: all nations will join forces to find and wipe out agartha.

Agartha is the caverns.
I Abysia, born of noble soul and fiery will, will take it upon myself to destroy the negligible staller.

Pangaea here, I'll steal their waifus

Godspeed, you strange little creatures. I will guard the shekels while you're gone.

You guys have my moral support.

Few questions:

*Videos I watch keep telling me that as soon as I find some decent foreign magi I recruit some to start site searching, but lab+temple costs a shitload in the first year or two. Should I still do it anyway?

*At what point in time do early and mid game end? For instance does early game end after year 3 when everyone should have their pretender, etc?

*Are there any "goals" I should be hitting by the end of year 1? For instance should I try to have 3 forts up, control a certain amount of provinces, have a certain amount of income?

Temples and labs are almost always worth the money. I tend to build temples in whatever provinces have black dominion as soon as possible. I tend to build labs whenever I have idle mages so that they'll be able to research and cast rituals as they sit there. So, labs tend to get built in forts and also sometimes where a big army is camped. That's just me though.

Your other two questions really depend. It's subjective how to divide a game but I'd say early game is expansion and the start of conflicts, mid-game is around when everyone has their big armies and the weker nations are about knocked out, late game is when there are 2-4 nations left and high-level spells are researched and there are some valuable empowered mages out there.

Goals for the end of year one really depend on how strong independents are and how big the map is. You really can't know where everyone will be until you get in there. However, if you aren't building your first fort by turn 7 (or are about to) then you've probably fallen behind in expansion.

It Depends
If you a playing Tien Chi, or Bogarus both nations with national summons and spells they do not have access to with native mages then yes.
Also if you are trying to save up gems of a specific type to rush out a global enchantment using gems not normally locatable with natives.

It Depends
Its not uncommon for every nation to have a shitty start due to map placement or world wide event.
Also a game where everyone has been at peace will have an end game sooner then at war as Research and armies build up.

At year one, you would normally have no forts up, you should always expand as quickly as possible THEN build forts when your borders become clear with your neighbors.
If you do not expand you will die either later or earlier.

If you really must have a goal I would look at research, you should at least have 50 research going so you can actually use mages effectively in some form.

Said by someone who has never played a Turmoil 3 nation.

Don't you want to spread dominion if you have turmoil?

Not at the expense of 400 gold, if you take 3 turmoil, you will be getting a fraction of what an order 1 gets, and when you start to make money it will be going to upkeep and mage recruitment, when you have turmoil 3 you have to carefully calculate which province is worth temples, labs and castles.

You are rarely going to have your turmoil scales hamper your enemy to any real degree, you only want it in case your troops gain from turmoil or to make provinces useless when retaken.

Or you can throw luck 3 in with that turmoil 3 and name your pretender RNGesus

New thread soon

I found an item in inspector that makes reference to two other planes of existence and says it makes it easier to return from them. It's possible to send units to other planes of existence?

Both the void and Kerbytos or whatever its called are places a mage can be banished.
Which means he will be as good as dead, then randomly you can get an event where he is attacked in that plane of existence usually by a horror if they are in a void.
There is a chance that they can come back, sometimes with increased magic power or an item, but its rare.
I've had it happen all of one time and that was with an Illilid which are pretty good at coming back from the void.