"How it started."

[Zen]

I thought since there seems to be more activity with the lure of Dominions 3 coming out in the foreseeable future and the tidbits that Kristoffer has given out to the changes that I would start this thread.

I was thinking back and wanted to ask other people who are currently playing or at the least are still very much are interested in playing the game Dominions and anticipate it's newest incarnation a question.

Do you remember when you realized that you really enjoyed playing Dominions (1 or 2)? If you do, do you remember how it started and will you relate it?

I myself decided to think back and I wanted to relate to everyone my own, since it would be unfair to ask what I myself wouldn't do.

For me the moment I thought Dom2 was one of the best TBS games I had played in a long, long time was back before the final release of Dom2.

I was still playing the limited demo before the release of Dominions with it's limited selection of Nations and Research. I had a hell of a time figuring out what exactly everything ment. I understood the concepts that were presented to me but I had no real idea how they all worked together to make the game. I had played a few game as different nations, they all sounded interesting and it felt as if each one held it's own mythology that I was creating. I was crushed quickly in those first few games. I had learned over the past few games to keep my Pretender, no matter what he was the hell away from combat. I had finally started looking in depth at the commands on my units as I was playing a game with C'tis. I was sneaking around with my empoisoners and actually killing most of the independants I was dealing with. My Pretender was at the head of the greatest C'tis army I had ever known composed of a few Lizard Kings, a Sauromancer and what I thought was a ton of troops, snakes, undead, poison slingers, animals that no army could destroy.

I was at the hind end of the magic, I had spent most of my money on building up my fortresses and amassing my huge army of destruction. It was on a big map with only 2 other AI, I had learned I was immediately in trouble with more than 4 or 5 opponents, since I didn't know what was going on and got smashed to bits. It was about turn 35 of the Demo so I knew it was soon over.

I wasn't ready when Abysia came in and declared war on me. He attacked with some lame force initially in a corner of my provinces, I drove over my superarmy and was about to smash into this force. I didn't notice that there was a huge block of enemies ready to reinforce because the province lines were hard to read. I sent in my army and it came to meet with a massive Abysian firefest of destruction. The AI had tons of Salamanders, Summer Lions, heavy black infantry with smoke drifting off them and smack in the middle was a red dragon. He had nearly as many troops as I did between all his own, plus he had some Warlocks and heroes.

I watched the battle and I saw my huge masses of troops get decimated by these salamanders. My lizard kings were keeping my troops moving forward and they just got crushed in the middle. When the Salamanders broke my units were fighting Summer Lions they didn't seem to be able to hit. The dragon was buffing and casting spells but the Warlocks, AnaSalamanders, and demon-bred were casting fireballs all over the place, imps coming out of everywhere as blood slaves were sacrificed.

Needless to say my army didn't last long after that point and not many escaped that day due to the Lizard King's insistant Fantatisim. My God had bit the dust too, not looking too damn impressive as he went down. His equipment of trinkets and some heavy armor didn't last long since he was very encumbered and fatigued, though I didn't know that at the time. The stragglers I did have were all over provinces and that enemy block looked huge and my capital wasn't very far away from it. I knew I had just been schooled I was pretty stunned. In a fog I clicked on my Lizard King , who had the sense to flee at the end, to see what I had left and my eye caught the command "Call God". I suddenly knew I had to be able to play this game more than 40 turns.
That is also when I knew that this game was awesome.

Any takers?