Tips for newbs - just add

[cleveland]

In general, it's more helpful to choose a pretender that diversifies your nation, rather than a pretender that builds on your nation's existing strengths.

So if your nation has strong Nature magic, don't waste design points giving him a lot of Nature magic.

If your nation has access to flying commanders, don't waste points on a flying chassis.

If your nation has powerful non-capital mages, don't waste points on a Magic-3 scale.

Etc.

[Endoperez]

cleveland said:
If your nation has powerful non-capital mages, don't waste points on a Magic-3 scale.

What do you mean "waste"? Faster research is faster research, even if your researchers are also good in fights. There might be better options, but that doesn't make this one weak or wasteful, just not-quite-optimal.

[thejeff]

I agree that the prophet scout isn't always the best plan. Especially in EA, where indy scouts are rare, that may be the only scout you'll have for awhile, unless you use precious castle turns building your national scouts.

Making your starting commander a prophet has the advantage of being slightly less vulnerable to stray arrows (and leaving your scout free to scout), but the disadvantage of having higher fatigue due to armor. Also you can't patrol first turn for more money. It's a trade off.

[Dedas]

Endoperez said:

What do you mean "waste"? Faster research is faster research, even if your researchers are also good in fights. There might be better options, but that doesn't make this one weak or wasteful, just not-quite-optimal.

Also, people tend to forget that Magic 3 gives several other benefits than just research points. For example:

• * 30% less fatigue when casting spells in combat.
  
  * -1 MR (actually good if your troops/mages have high MR and the enemy has low).
  
  * Some spells effectiveness rely on magic scale.

Pushing that magic scale into enemy lands (with dominion) could benefit your invasion a lot. It is also a good thing to have if attacked in some cases.

[mathusalem]

use boots of quickness to double the effect of items with spell (acid staff, Tempest, Sceptre of Corruption, Rod of Pheonix, Herald Lance, Rod of Kurgi, Sword of Justice, Crossbows & Bows, Crown of Overmight, Wand of Wild Fire, O'al Kan's Sceptre, Sun Slayer, Standard of the Dammed, Winter Bringer, Skull Standard)

ex : a non-mage commandant can cast 2 drain life per turn with boots of quickness and a Standard of the Dammed

Awaken Sleeper are great for this purpose : high precision and lot of hit points

About Combattants and low level paths
1 level in Water is good for quicken self
1 level in fire for fire shield
1 level in astral for luck / body etheral
1 level in death for reanimation
1 level in nature for protection / forge food / eagle Eyes
1 level in air for aim
2 level in air for mistform
3 level in death for soul vortex
1 level in blood for blood Vengeance



In blood :
Blood Boil is the only battle spell usable without slaves (1b & 1f)
Agony is really useful with High level caster, Harm too.
Infernal Prison or Claws of Kokytos are usefull for casting under astral corruption or to send to hell big horrors

[Wrana]

On eye & heart implants - unfortunately, in Dominions they work differently than in Earthdawn where the idea appeared first. So - do NOT use them on commanders which suffered such injuries. Especially not in case of eye - commander won't have his missing eye replaced with a magical one, he'll lose his remaining one!
BTW, I'm also against this thread (and we have trivia one!) - but I think that many people still won't read it so we'll still have amusing posts in MPs...

[Ironhawk]

Generally speaking, do not mix units with different movement speeds into the same squad. It will cause the squad to break formation as they charge the enemy and make them easier to kill.

There are some notable exception to this rule (like with Tramplers), but it generally holds.

[K]

Some good events and bad events only happen with non-luck scales. For example, Magic means more gem events. On the flipside, Death lets foreign princes die in your lands and drop magic items and loot into your lap.

[sansanjuan]

Things that I wish I knew early on... part #1

Start only one MP game early in your Dom 3 Multi-Player (MP) career unless you forsee that 8 weeks down the road you'll have lots of time to take your turns. There is probably an equation to the effect
Turn creation time is a function of (Turn# , held Provinces , #potential province battles, your personal micromanagement threshold, nation type, etc). I understand that some late game epic battle take hours to set up.

Micro management, though time consuming, does pay dividends.

Site searching early often pays back big later on in the game.

Multi-front wars often end like Hitler's...

In game diplomacy can be just as (and even more) important than research, units, and tactics.

Like many other turn based fantasy games magic and gem income rule the roost in later turns.

Read Sheap's tips.

Make sure all your NAPs (Non-agression pacts) are non-ambiguous.

Is there a Dom3 acronym list posted anywhere? I remember GoR, GoH and others throwing me early on.

Try to be a little unpredictable in MP games. Fortune tends to favor the bold.

-SSJ

[Ironhawk]

The tips sansanjuan is referring to was a collection of advice about how to conduct yourself personally in an MP game:

Sheap's Tips

I agree with sansan also about MP diplomacy. In MP games, you are fighting not one, but two wars. The regular dominions one, but also the diplomatic one. If you lose either, you lose the game. This is a key fact which very often seperates the veterans from the newbies.