Help! It's not fun!!

[llamabeast]

I recommend reading a strategy guide for a nation you find interesting. They tend to give an impression of the really huge range of options open to you. Baalz's ones are good.

[Clownhammer]

Thank you all for the replies (except for the guy who took the trouble to post only that there was something wrong with me)<rolls eyes>.

Apparently, multiplayer is where it's at. However, I am a large map solo type of player. That being said, it seems that I need to do two things to achieve the fun factor:

Get past the initial expansion phase (first 20 turns or so) and figure out which nation suits my style. I tend to like to start slow and research. With that in mind, would any of you have any suggestions as to which nation and pretender god I should go with?

Again, thank you all for taking the time to get me going. If I didn't believe that the game was excellent, I wouldn't take the time to try to get my brain around it!

(edited for punctuation)

[Sombre]

I generally point new players to Abysia because it has lots of pretty battlemagic, it's very straightforward and you can see how powerful magic can be. You also can't hurt your own troops with friendly fire and you get some neat sacreds and units to play with as well as lots of gems to experiment with fire spells.

As for the pretender, I suggest a rainbow (a pretender with relatively low levels of magic in lots of paths) so you can try out more spells should you wish and find more interesting magic sites by searching.

[llamabeast]

Abysia is very cool. If you are more of a fan of human nations with cavalry and archers, Marignon is another excellent option.

[Sombre]

llama makes a great point about guides by the way. They often inspire me to play nations I had only briefly tried before.

I also find if I see a TV show or film about romans or greeks or dragons or demons, I want to play a related nation in dom3. Reading the book Rubicon had me playing EA Ermor for quite a while.

Btw llama I'm moving to oxford next month for a job at OUP. Little studio flat on Woodstock road.

[Gandalf Parker]

Generally for hold-back researchers I recommend Arcoscephale.

Also if you set the independent strength higher you will keep the AIs off your back for longer. They dont tend to be as smart as you in choosing who to attack and when to attack them. Strong dependents give the AI setbacks early in the game. Dont give in to the temptation to set the game parameters to easy magic research. The AI will be blasting you before you get it figured out.

If you use the games map-generator to make maps then two things can help you in the early learning curve.

A) Turn up the mountains. Setting it about 50 will give you lots of chokepoints. Basically a maze. You will be able to use those better than the AI.

B) Make the maps skinny. A really large map (1000-1500 provinces if your machine can handle it) that is only wide enough to handle one nation at a time can keep you from getting swarmed. I have two versions. Tower (really tall but so thin that its only about 10 provinces wide). And Pipleline (really long but only tall enough for about 10 provinces). That way I have two enemies, one on each side, to worry about. At least until the magic research hits a fun level.

[Clownhammer]

Again, thank you. I will check out those nations and their respective guides.

That last post was particularly helpful. Much appreciated, Sir.

[Ironhawk]

Clownhammer said:
I tend to like to start slow and research.

With respect - if you are finding the game to be dry, you should aim for a fast start with fast research. This will get you out of the "mundane" portion of the early game and into the parts where you are can really play with battle spells/tactics and blow up whole armies with rituals and whatnot.

Go with Aby or Mari as people have suggested since they are straightforward. You might also consider an SC pretender as they give you quite a range of tactics pretty early on, depending on how you choose to equip them.

[MaxWilson]

It also helps if you have everyone start with 9 provinces. Honestly what we really need for this situation are some more scenarios, but I'm not aware of too many and I haven't gotten around to making any myself. Real Soon Now. After I finish my T'lan Imass mod, and implement a rule-based AI for Ms. Pac-Man.

-Max

[JimMorrison]

Hey ummm, for starting nation choice I would really suggest T'ien Chi, either Early or Mid (they lose something in Late ). Both nations get incredible magic diversity in their national mages, and both get excellent national troops with solid PD.

They are not a nation that you can so easily get a real "handle" on, but they have some of the best cheap troops to deal with the AI stepping up the fight, as well as huge magical diversity so that you can really explore different spells and different tactics within one game.

Using Fast research is one way to get into the more "exciting" parts of the game, I would also suggest boosting Magic Sites to at least 70. A large gem income will give you the chance to empower your pretender in all paths, and try out all of the summons and global spells that you are curious about.

Also bear in mind, the interactions of the stats are far less "spreadsheet-like" than you might imagine. First, paying close attention to the combat mechanics in the manual will show you how things like Shield Parry, Repel, multiple attack Defense reduction, encumbrance, and so many other factors start to open up so many potential interactions even just with the basic troops. But it's when magic becomes more prevalent, and you start adding in interesting buffs and summons (and a little fire and brimstone, too) that the battles really start to come alive.

Ultimately, what makes Dom3 sparkle is not so much the gameplay itself, as it is the content. And there is so much cool and interesting content, it's nearly impossible to become deeply familiar with all of it (very few succeed in that quest, most dehydrate first).

Also if you think the action is just a tad too slow - try a game where you take a pretender who has Fear +? and give a starting Dominion of 10. Don't bother boosting his magic, and keep him awake. On the first turn, attack blindly, and laugh as he massacres the independents. Continue fiddling with that game until he dies or gets a horrible affliction. Now go back, do it again but pay attention to the magic, make sure he has 1 Astral (Ethereal and Luck), or 2 Nature (Regen), or 2 Water (Quickness) or something that gives some solid buffing that doesn't take forever to research (like Soul Vortex is neat, but you won't get it in the first year), and then go straight for those buffs, and see how long he lasts. Almost everyone has immense fun with supremely powerful critters, it's just too hilarious to watch them eat things. It's by no means the only path to victory, but it's a fun way to open up your eyes to the vast potential that the game has to offer.