Most hated race MA?

[Xietor]

What race would you prefer not to run into at the start of a game? It may depend on what race you are playing. Typically I play a very crowded map with either 16 or all of the races on the cradles of dominion or a made 275 province map.

When playing Ulm, i hate being near the water and having the ryleh go to war with me early. The low mr of the troops makes them sitting ducks for the mind blasts. Also sucks not being able to go into the water effectively and fight them.

Even as Pangaea, with higher MR, i hate warring early with the ryleh because it takes a while until i can get into the water and hurt them.

[Velusion]

MP or SP?

In MP Vanheim unless you start in the water...

[Meglobob]

What a fun thread, you should make one for each age.

If playing MA Ermor avoid MA Marignon at all costs.

If playing MA Ulm avoid MA Bander Log at all costs.

MA Mictlan is always a pain no matter who your playing.

If you come across MA Agartha try to destroy them as early as possible, they are a powerhouse the longer the game goes on.

MA Man struggles against MA Arco especially later on.

Errm that about it for me, I still have lots of races to play and fight...

I believe the game overall in a particular age is balanced, as every nation has at least 1 other nation that can just walk all over it fairly easily. I appear to be in a minority believing this to be true however, virtually everyone else thinks Dom3 is unbalanced in some way.

Velusion for example above mentions MA Vanheim, yet in the very MA game he himself hosts containing every nation, MA Vanheim was one of the first nations destroyed.

[lch]

Since I am not that experienced with Arco, why does Man struggle against it in late game?

[Meglobob]

lch said:
Since I am not that experienced with Arco, why does Man struggle against it in late game?

Man as no astral magic for one. In a MP I was in Arco Mind Hunted my commanders to oblivion, we are talking 6 - 12 commanders/mages dieing per turn here, its only 2S gems to cast.

Also, soul slay in battle (bye bye pretender, bye bye SC's), doom (all my units instantly cursed), will of fates(all his units have luck) and of course teleport hit squads which sooner or later build a lab. Then its gateway a huge army in your rearlines, end of capital, game over man!

As you can see it really spoilt my day...

[Meglobob]

Oh yea another one MA Machaka struggles badly against MA Man, as they have no air magic. Which of course means no lightning/thunderstrike/wraithful skies+staff of storms counters.

[KissBlade]

... I'm really confused. You can easily counter most of these with your pretender build. Not only that, I'm almost certain that MA Machaka does not struggle against MA MAn. Between a solid pretender option (the wood dude), better batle mages and spider knights, I don't see why Man will be able to beat Machaka so easily. You say they have no counters that combo, but not only is wrathfulskies + staff later game, before that, you can just use darkness/raise skeletons to HOSE man.

Also, it's odd that your Man struggles against Arco late game, but then again, the only real experience I've had against Man was playing against qm so I can't really judge that one. I really don't believe in this, "every nation has a counter nation". Maybe a few have weaker game against certain types of troops, but that's pretty much IMO.

[Tyrant]

Any nation with zero astral has an increasing problem as the game goes on.

[Xietor]

If you start with no astral you should plan to have plenty by midgame.

The race i have played the most especially against human players is ulm. But I use the ghost king pretender, and i give him 4 nature, 3 air, 2 astral, 5 death, 2 water. I also sleep him, and take 2 cold, so i can also take 3 order, prod, and 1 growth.

So even playing ulm i get access to most gems. And, of course, you get gems of people you kill off as well. I typically research 3 enchantment, 6 construction, 5 conjuration. Then i crank out 2-3 bane lords, give them pendant luck, fire brand, charcoal shield, boots quickness, ring regen, marble armor and horror helmet. this makes them
deadly solo, but even more so when mixed in with black knights, and ulm crossbow men, so they will not be sole focus of smites and enemy spells.

I also try have at least 2 troll king courts up, with the troll kings having plus 1 earth boots and 3 revig items, and some zero encumbering chest item.. I script them summon earthpower, invulnerability, cast spells. They can wipe out lightly armored troops with blade wind.

[Gandalf Parker]

Which returns it to game and map size being a big factor when talking absolutes.