We love you, Illwinter, but DO NOT DO THIS!

[ioticus]

NakedLunch, how's that preview coming along?

[NakedLunch]

Pretty good. Here's what I have so far. Remember, I'm kind of a Dominions noob and I don't have any documentation to go by so be gentle
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Let�s recap: I had just finished polishing off a nice little preview of Illwinter and Shrapnel�s delightful 4X turn-based strategy game Dominions 3: The Awakening. I had gone over the basics and touched upon a little of this and that and then wrapped things up. Now, with over several weeks of gameplay under my belt, I�m ready to dive right into the game and get into the nitty-gritty of the newest game in Illwinter�s flagship series.

A WHOLE NEW ERA

When you begin your new journey into the world of Dominions, you first must choose which Era to begin in. Eras are a new feature to the Dominions games and add an extra layer of strategy to the game. You have three Eras: Early, Middle, and Late. Each Era sports different nations and magical/traditional warfare slant. Early is bent towards magic and thus plays a large part in combat and your overall game. Spells are more powerful, mana is more plentiful, et cetera. It features a boatload of new nations, many �primitive� that rely on magic and have roots in history (The Ape Kings in particular, who come off with very heavy Indian/Hindu vibes). The Middle Era is, as you may have guessed, a middle-ground featuring a balanced emphasis on magic versus traditional combat and is mostly made up of the nations from Dominions 2. It should be noted that Dom2 had only a mere 17 nations, while Dom3 boasts over 50. We�ll go into that a bit later. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Eras. The Late Era, following the pattern, is based around medieval warfare as it occurred here on Earth, with emphasis on flanking, more reliance on proper troop placement and selection etc. Not to say the Early Era was devoid of this, quite the opposite in fact, it is just more in the foreground in the Late Era. Once you�ve chosen your era, it�s onwards to select the nation you will have Dominion over.

BIRTH OF A NATION

As stated before, Dominions 3 boasts an astounding 50+ nations ranging from your standard medieval kingdoms to Lovecraftian civilizations (The game even includes R�yleh as a playable nation!) to Ape Kingdoms and nations rooted in history such as Rome and ancient Japan. Obviously, there�s a great deal of variety to choose from.

So how does one choose which nation to play as when he is confronted with such a deluge of options? Well, each nation has specific ups and downs; such as what kind of units they can recruit, what pretender gods are available to them, and how well they work with magic. For example, Mictlan priests can utilize potent blood and water spells, but their infantry uses weaker, archaic weapons. Plus, the Pretender God must be sated with blood sacrifices which are difficult to undertake.

Other examples of nation traits are dominion balance (I�ll get into this later, in the pretender god section), research points, etc. Sadly, at this time not all of the nations are fully completed so it�s hard for me to really talk about balance between them. Suffice to say, the game is not perfectly balanced (what strategy game is?) but I feel Illwinter has done a decent enough job ironing out the nations, even if some seem a bit too similar at times. If you�re interested, Illwinter keeps a tidy little log of all the things they update which is available here.

STILL TO DO:
- Pretender Gods (awakening)
- Game Interface
- Turn Options and how they affect the game (magic, prophets, etc)
- Combat and the importance of orders and position
- Sounds/Graphics
- Conclusion

[ioticus]

Sounds interesting and well written. Thanks for the sample. You mention Lovcraftian Civilizations (plural). Is there more than one besides R'yleh?

[NakedLunch]

I remember there being R'yleh, and maybe a couple of others that were sorta like. Or is my mind playing tricks on me again?

[Agrajag]

NakedLunch said:
Spells are more powerful, mana is more plentiful, et cetera.

Mana?
What exactly are we talking about here?

*guess*Did you mean magical gems?

[NakedLunch]

Yeah, sorry. I've been playing a lot Shadow Magic recently and the mana = magic powar thing's floating around in my mind.

[Fate]

Nice Article, but...

NakedLunch said:Eras are a new feature to the Dominions games and add an extra layer of strategy to the game.

not to nit-pick (which I am a about to do, ) shouldn't it read "Eras add a new layer of variety" or "add to the replay value" or something similar?

Thats all, can't wait for it to be finished!

[Graeme Dice]

Cainehill said:
Wouldn't be very exciting as Oracle or Monolith.

A monolith could be the ultimate turret. What wouldn't be very exciting would be the sphinx.

[NakedLunch]

not to nit-pick (which I am a about to do, ) shouldn't it read "Eras add a new layer of variety" or "add to the replay value" or something similar?

Thats all, can't wait for it to be finished!

Well, it does kinda add a new layer of strategy when it comes to designing a custom Pretender God and such, as you have to take Eras into consideration. That said, I'll put "Adds to the replay value" in there, just to make you happy.

[Fate]

NakedLunch said:

Well, it does kinda add a new layer of strategy when it comes to designing a custom Pretender God and such, as you have to take Eras into consideration. That said, I'll put "Adds to the replay value" in there, just to make you happy.

You are nice, kudos to you