Commander Battles

[Knai]

In playing around with Dominions 3, I have discovered an odd format that I really like, nicknamed Commander Battles. Basically, you cannot ever assign troops to commanders, except for when killing off initial troops (Troops are still allowed to take advantage of Gift of Reason or similar), indies are set to 9, and everyone has at each other. However, I find myself wondering how to play the nations without strong death magic so that they can compete. Some are easy enough (Vanheim can basically butcher indies with about 10 mages once you get evocation 3, Arco has the Oreid, which is SC material), but others don't work as well. If anyone else has done this, what nations are more fun to do this with, and do you have any advice for nations that have more trouble (Oceania for instance.)

[Squirrelloid]

Wow, talk about horribly imbalanced. Hi, i'll play with Nieflheim. Its not about the death magic, its about the SC power that is the Niefl Jarl.

Vanheim doesn't need 10 mages, they just need a decent bless, alt 3, and a thug with gear.

But Marveni is hopeless, as is most of the Ulms, and a decent number of other nations. Recruitable thugs/SCs rule the day, and taking an SC god is virtually required unless you have good blessable thug/SC commanders.

Of course, Nieflheim just wins. There isn't much you can do about that. Can easily expand no later than turn 3, and can pop out an SC virtually every turn, all without an awake pretender.

Troops are essential to nation balance - some nations can't do without them.

[Quitti]

With a proper bless, niefelheim will work easily enough. Also I'd guess eriu works similarily to vanheim, and with some evo research abysia will probably work well enough too.

Edit: Squirrelloid ninjaed the niefelheim issue. Well played, sir!

[Knai]

Yeah, of course it is horribly unbalanced. That much is basically a given. Nobody is expecting balance, but it would be nice to have a vague idea of what is completely hopeless, what has an absurd edge (Neifleheim was an obvious one, EA atlantis seems to have an edge in the Basalt King as well), and in general what can work for a fun game. Certainly a competitive game would have to be highly restricted in nations, but the nation difference actually does seem kind of nice if there is a significant difference in player skill(ie, taking EA Arco and letting a player who isn't as good have EA C'tis.

Death magic and SCs are the big things, and while some are obvious, I'm just trying to weed out surprises.

As for Vanheim. Alt 3 is a reference to mistform, correct?

[Squirrelloid]

mistform. Also gives them mirror image as an anti-thug/SC spell.

Niefl/Hinnom(Ashdod)/Yomi/EA Atlantis/Fomoria strike me as the probable big winners in approximately that order.

Helheim/Vanheim/Eriu have top tier thugs but a decent research burden before they come online. Also have the advantage of being scaleable (ie, every fortress can produce an excellent thug). In this particular ruleset, probably want an awake SC (Cyclops?) to expand while they research, so they can throw up a 2nd fort after not too long.

EA Arco's Oreiad can easily SC against indies given suitable research and gear. And EA Arco has the research tools to get the job done quickly.

[kianduatha]

EA Oceania would be awfully fun to play like that--Triton Princes and Kings all day long. In CBM at least Amulets of the Fish are cheap enough to pass around.

Jomon or another of the assassin-heavy nations would also be amusing--you might be able to make a run for fast expansion with ninjas.

Here's an unexpected one: Bogarus. Call Lesser Horror does a number on indies, and ultimately their troops sucked so bad they didn't really mind losing them.

[Tolkien]

I would say LA Ulm as well, although they lose Ghoul Guardians. The Send Lesser Horror strategy goes well with them. The same goes for LA Marignon.

[Knai]

Bogarus? That probably could work fairly well. That's unanticipated, to say the least. I've also been looking at Mictlan recently, they seem potentially very powerful, largely complements of the Succubus and how incredibly easy it is for them to get large amounts of them. Why is Yomi so powerful though?

On EA arco. Skeptics get a lot better at dominion killing people when you can't actually assign units to patrolling commanders. Granted, there are obvious ways to get a huge boost to patrolling, but in the early game, they are nasty. They are actually pretty nasty under these rules.

[Frozen Lama]

yomi has dai oni and shura. enough said

[Tolkien]

When you have a recruitable SC with H1F2D2E3?1, you're pretty much set. Blessing, Phoenix Pyre, Soul Vortex, Invincibility, Fire Shield. Summon Earthpower+Iron Will can be substituted in, when necessary. And they have a second form. Oh, and with Earthpower, Earthquakes.

Game Over.