Dominions 6

[Irenaeus]

In Emphyrios defense, he is fighting 2v1

I'd like to remind the crowd that he attacked me and @Decline in the same turn.

Attacking Decline was actually an accident and part of my horrible luck that turn but war was inevitable so I went with it.

Anyway, raising the truce flag for a minute here, if you're really strained irl to play this we can call it a stalemate and all who want to keep playing mp dominion move on to the next game. I'm hyped for my LA Abyssia build that I practiced in sp at least 30 times already (not kidding).

[Boontaker]

This sounds like fun, I have Dom 6 but not nearly enough knowledge or practice for MP. Can anyone recommend some resources to read up on the game? I don't have the free time to sink 30+ hours learning the game and developing a strat on my own.

[rusty_shackleford]

have you guys considered just outsourcing your turns to chatgpt

[Irenaeus]

This sounds like fun, I have Dom 6 but not nearly enough knowledge or practice for MP. Can anyone recommend some resources to read up on the game? I don't have the free time to sink 30+ hours learning the game and developing a strat on my own.

This will help you A LOT with getting off the ground: https://illwiki.com/dom5/bcnoexceptions ... ayer-guide

The whole wiki is golden for content, and despite being about Dominions 5 plenty of mechanics and content remain the same, then it's just playing and learning the differences. Which is what we're doing here!

[Emphyrio]

@Irenaeus gg wp no re (for a couple months)

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[Boontaker]

Rate my BIG ROCK

[Emphyrio]

@Oyster Sauce

Here's the world map. I'm black (Na'Ba, arabs), Decline is green (Asphodel, beastmen + undead plants), Irenaus is pink (Pythium, Romans), Nemesis is red (Vanheim, vikings), Kalarion is brown (Jotunheim, ice giants + goblins). The big stack of pink guys next to the deserts in the last image is what Irenaeus's army looked like last turn. This turn I flew a bunch of mages down to that isolated black farmland, where I figured he'd move as he ran away, and had the battle I posted above.

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This is the battle with Decline yesterday where he declared the game already decided. The numbers are pretty big but the manikins aren't the big deal (at least from my perspective), the centaur warriors are. They're the toughest recruitable unit available to anyone in our current game except for Kalarion's capital-only sacred giants, super-fast and stealthy. They can beat my 'Adite Elite giants one-on-one easily.

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Decline and I had basically this same battle the entire game: he puts his centaurs in a big line all the way in the back behind his manikins. I put my units in a tight box on one side to make it slightly harder for him to flank me (though he still can). His centaurs charge and reach me at the same time as the manikins while my malikat throw fireballs at them and my 'Adite elite giants die holding the line.

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These are the graphs. They came from a magic site which shows some of the graphs that's deep in Decline's land. I captured it but Decline took it back about three turns ago so I don't have current info on everybody else.

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[Emphyrio]

Rate my BIG ROCK

For MP honestly extremely bad. I'll explain why:

1. The main reason to take candles is that it's the maximum sacred troops you can recruit each turn. Fomoria's are pretty expensive and resource intensive so you won't be able to use all 10 and the price of each marginal candle is quadratic.
2. The main way to win is capturing thrones. Thrones require an H3 mage, a prophet or a pretender to cap them. Fomoria like most nations has no recruitable H3 and your pretender can't move so you'd only have your prophet. That rules out a throne rush strategy. Some people don't mind that but I do.
3. If you're going to take an imprisoned pretender you need to know what you're doing. Any bless effect that says "incarnate" won't work until your pretender is awake. If he's imprisoned you'll have nothing to help you out for the first 3 years, and that's a long time. Our three games here so far lasted only about 3, 2 and 3 years.
4. Your bless effects don't really synchronize with your sacreds. You have sacred mages, sacred giants recruitables and your sacred Fomorian Kings can be turned into what's called a "super combatant" with some research and gear, which is a guy who can kill unprepared armies by himself. I haven't played with sacred giants since Dominions 4 and blesses have changed a lot since then so this might not be the "Best" answer but you'd be better off with Regeneration or that earth bless that gives +5 protection.

My preference would be an awake god who can move and has a decent bless for your giants.

[Decline]

That rules out a throne rush strategy. Some people don't mind that but I do.

I would add that in the small games we play a throne rush is relatively more strong than in a "normal" 12 player game. I would argue that in small games going awake is mandatory unless you are playing a meme nation (like Asphodel).

Most of the bless effects you picked are incarnate so you'll have nothing to help you out for the first 3 years, and that's a long time.

It is important to understand that the longer the game goes on, the larger armies become and the stronger magic becomes (e.g. army wide buffs and battlefield wipes) the less effective the sacreds become. Plus most nations sacreds are cap only recruit meaning you will never churn out more of them than candles/turn.

There are exceptions to this rule but IMO sacreds peak in the early-mid game and can be used for winning your first war. But you need to have clear strategy transitioning out of them.

So the trade-off you make in scales vs. candles/buffs is 'Do I want to be strong with my sacreds early mid? Or am I in it for the long game?' The answer to these questions highly depend on your Nation.

Fomoria's Sacreds are an interesting exception to the general rules above. Because they're cheap and bad, they require a strong bless to perform early game but they also take buffs very well so they tend to be useful later in the game as evocation sponges.

For EA Fomoria I would probably go with an Awake Fear or Awe bless, forgoing scales, taking one of the immovable chassis to also be able to reach high candles. But that would obviously require me to win against Emphyrio Turn 30.

[Irenaeus]

@Irenaeus gg wp no re (for a couple months)

Alright, with this fucking ambush you managed to kill 60% of my mages and the arch theurgs who are the best. I don't think even Soul Slay spam with what's left now can kill enough of your mages now - your armies would be easy, see your 100 nabaean archers failing to take a 11 pd province this turn.
Anyway, I don't have a good counterplay anymore, except for wiping out vans. The jotuns are harder to kill.
Congrats on your 3v1 coalition defeating me.

PS: Yes, I'm pissed.

[Emphyrio]

For EA Fomoria I would probably go with an Awake Fear or Awe bless,

Yeah you're right those are better than regen and protection.

[Boontaker]

I completed some small SP games and have some questions.

1. How do forts really work? Do they "pool" the recruitment options and resources of nearby provinces? Should you place a fort 3 every 3 spaces as you expand? (With the goal of claiming all the zones around your fort

2. Are you supposed to recruit infinite mages? What is the reasonable limit?

3. Does a pretenders starting magic stat matter for the faction you have chosen? (Ex. I make a fire pretender and choose a water faction)

4. How does dominion rating effect province wealth? If a zone produces 100 gold per turn, how does 1 dominion vs 10 effect the production?

[Emphyrio]

I don't think even Soul Slay spam with what's left now can kill enough of your mages now - your armies would be easy, see your 100 nabaean archers failing to take a 11 pd province this turn.

I don't think soul slay would do much. Malikat have 18mr base and 20 in magic 3 dominion. The mages probably wouldn't even target them but would go for an Adite Elite or Gryphon with more hp and less mr. I didn't see anybody in that battle even try to cast soul slay.

yeah shielded slingers seem to hard counter desert warriors.

[Emphyrio]

1. How do forts really work? Do they "pool" the recruitment options and resources of nearby provinces? Should you place a fort 3 every 3 spaces as you expand? (With the goal of claiming all the zones around your fort

Most people build forts with 1 unforted province in between them so that they get maximum resources. If you build 1 fort immediately adjacent to your cap it will make it a much tougher defensive position, the tradeoff is that resources in that province won't go to the cap anymore.

2. Are you supposed to recruit infinite mages? What is the reasonable limit?

Recruit as many as you can is the received wisdom. I tend not to recruit as many mages as other people in year 0 but my research suffers for it.

3. Does a pretenders starting magic stat matter for the faction you have chosen? (Ex. I make a fire pretender and choose a water faction)

Very complex question. Depends on the nation.

4. How does dominion rating effect province wealth? If a zone produces 100 gold per turn, how does 1 dominion vs 10 effect the production?

good effects of scales don't work while you're under black candles. More candles reduces unrest automatically, and unrest is super bad for income. Iirc it's like -2% for each point of unrest.

[Decline]

For EA Fomoria I would probably go with an Awake Fear or Awe bless,

Yeah you're right those are better than regen and protection.

I think both are viable but you will also be able to point buff prot/regen ~T10.
So it is a little redundant. And Fear/Awe works in the later stages of the game while keeping attrition down in early game.

[Boontaker]

What is the benefit of a dominion 1 pretender? Since you won't have the research for the potentially high rated magic, is it for access to powerful blessings/crafting? In the early game are they just research bots?

[Decline]

What is the benefit of a dominion 1 pretender? Since you won't have the research for the potentially high rated magic, is it for access to powerful blessings/crafting? In the early game are they just research bots?

The Idea is that you spend points into the scales.
They're basically your most flexible option.

Practically they're used mostly for imprisoned rainbow blesses.
When you look at them you will notice that the cost of a new magic path on them is only 10 points.
A good-to-know rule is that 3 points in every path, 4 in 'native' paths gives the most number of bless points for the least amount of points (i.e. has the highest efficiency).

The standard would be an 3all 4F arch mage for the most efficient buff chassis in the game.
Make sure to only take non-incarnate blesses, so resist and/or stats.

You will see that you can also have good scales with such a build.

Awake research pretenders are rarely used and are either nation specific or are used in highly memetic strategies.

As a beginner I would not spend too much time thinking about pretender chassis, just pick what feels good. It is not the most important thing in the game.

Don't forget to join RPGHQ4 to learn the ropes.

[Boontaker]

OK last question for awhile, how do you fight elephants in EA?

[Emphyrio]

OK last question for awhile, how do you fight elephants in EA?

Early, have plenty of guys with high-damage weapons who can just whack them as they charge into your square. Elephants are only really good against guys who are spaced out or using weak weapons.

Later when you have some research, elephants have very bad magic resistance so there's lots of other ways to deal with them.

[Decline]

OK last question for awhile, how do you fight elephants in EA?

Early, have plenty of guys with high-damage weapons who can just whack them as they charge into your square. Elephants are only really good against guys who are spaced out or using weak weapons.

Later when you have some research, elephants have very bad magic resistance so there's lots of other ways to deal with them.

Elephants also have very low morale, so just bring someone with Fear 'n Awe.

[Emphyrio]

You guys are still doing turns, you want I should set ai so you can keep playing around with it or what?

[Boontaker]

For MP games outside RPGHQ which era is mostly played? Should I be practicing EA or MA? What eras have you been running? Can eras change in game? I haven't noticed if they do

[Irenaeus]

You guys are still doing turns, you want I should set ai so you can keep playing around with it or what?

Our turns take like 3 minutes to do
I'm waiting for the next game to begin and playing while it doesnt to pass the time.
You should probably set yourself to AI as your turns take hours and you don't like them (simple as).

[Irenaeus]

For MP games outside RPGHQ which era is mostly played? Should I be practicing EA or MA? What eras have you been running? Can eras change in game? I haven't noticed if they do

All eras but I think LA was played a little less in Dom5, dont know about Dom6. You should be practicing EA and MA in my opinion first because of that. We are changing eras in each game, last game was LA, this game was MA, next game will be LA. Eras cant change during gameplay, they are fixed.

[Decline]

For MP games outside RPGHQ which era is mostly played? Should I be practicing EA or MA? What eras have you been running? Can eras change in game? I haven't noticed if they do

I doubt anyone knows the answer to this. The common consensus is
* LA is the most balanced
* Then comes EA
* Then MA

A nation must be seen within the context of its age. It makes no sense to 'practice' for a certain age.

We've been rotating through all ages.

[Decline]

On another topic, should we create a thread per game? It can get confusing when we're running more than one in parallel.

[Decline]

The battle of The Woodlands:





Asphodel carried the day!

Unfortunately Thestor the Panic Apostate perished while heroically holding the line against the Nabean hordes. (I blame myself for it, not believing in victory I dis-invested from him the turn before.)

[Emphyrio]

The battle of The Woodlands:





Asphodel carried the day!

Unfortunately Thestor the Panic Apostate perished while heroically holding the line against the Nabean hordes. (I blame myself for it, not believing in victory I dis-invested from him the turn before.)

yeah, that's going full retard this turn to test some things out. It actually went better than i expected, 1 or 2 more mages or a few gryphons would have made the difference. Just wanted to see if I was overestimating the centaurs on the walls (nope). Desert warriors are really good but they absolutely can't handle counterarchery. Without air shield at least.

Fire From Afar kinda sucks now too. It used to be good for killing provinces full of mages.

On another topic, should we create a thread per game? It can get confusing when we're running more than one in parallel.

You said you wanted to quit
@Acrux @WhiteShark @rusty_shackleford @Wretch @Nammu Archag @Boontaker @DagothGeas5 @Ratcatcher @Oyster Sauce join rpghq4 so decline can move on with his life. No experience necessary

[Nammu Archag]

The battle of The Woodlands:





Asphodel carried the day!

Unfortunately Thestor the Panic Apostate perished while heroically holding the line against the Nabean hordes. (I blame myself for it, not believing in victory I dis-invested from him the turn before.)

yeah, that's going full retard this turn to test some things out. It actually went better than i expected, 1 or 2 more mages or a few gryphons would have made the difference. Just wanted to see if I was overestimating the centaurs on the walls (nope). Desert warriors are really good but they absolutely can't handle counterarchery. Without air shield at least.

Fire From Afar kinda sucks now too. It used to be good for killing provinces full of mages.

On another topic, should we create a thread per game? It can get confusing when we're running more than one in parallel.

You said you wanted to quit
@Acrux @WhiteShark @rusty_shackleford @Wretch @Nammu Archag @Boontaker @DagothGeas5 @Ratcatcher @Oyster Sauce join rpghq4 so decline can move on with his life. No experience necessary

still waiting for sale

[Decline]

still waiting for sale

Not going to happen.