I wrote this for the Google computer strategy group and then figured I should register and post it here as well. Hope its not to long for your tastes.
Game settings to make for a tough game:
Aran map
Independent strength 5,
7 impossible AI�s � Machaka, Tien Chi, Mictilin, Jotunheim, Marignon, Man and the Van.
Win by Dominon total (500 I think)
For my first game I picked a Dom I favourite � Abysia � and took the new theme � Blood of Humans. For ease of starting I choose a race design similar to what I used to play:
Order +3, Prod +3, growth 0, Heat +2, luck +1, magic 0
Fountain of Blood with Blood 5, Wizards tower, Dominion strength 10.
You can�t use Heat +3 or a positive magic scale with the Blood of Humans theme otherwise I would have taken magic +3, to make the Newt�s good researchers, and Death 3.
My pretender choice was completely wrong as it turned out that blood hunting in your home province is not a good idea in Dom II.
The start proved fraught with problems as my laboratory was destroyed by a random event on the 2nd or 3rd turn and bad events rained down on provinces I conquered. I tried a blood hunt early with the Fountain of Blood as I was curious and while the lab was being rebuilt I couldn�t research � big mistake. I also fiddled with taxation levels as in Dom I order 3 allows 130% taxation whereas in Dom II it increases tax take ands it took awhile to figure that one (thanks Johan). So I siffered from a lot of low level unrest which I had to get rid of by lowering tax rates thus underming the speed of my start. My final early problem was that I couldn�t work out how to turn my fire gems into gold for extra cash. This all added up to a slow start � by turn 10 I had about 6-7 provinces.
My first army was lead by an Anathement Dragon (fanaticism for morale plus some early kills with Flare to get into the hall of fame) and an Abysian commander who got onto the hall of fame and got a standard ability which furthur helped morale. My troop of choice was the Humanbred with plate, 2h axes, strategic move 2 and Tower shield!? I guessed the shields were a bug but though I�d enjoy the consequence for one game and go back to the axe, tower shield plate ones for the future. This army kicked butt and the infantry proved rock solid.
My prophet assasin moved into an adjacent tough province, prayed to get dom up and then proceeded to assasinate all the commanders and then take the province � his heroic ab\iltiy for getting into the hall of fame was quickness making for even more slaughter. He finally die to a hunter knight around turn 37 due to a propensity to get into combat when he didn't have to.
Between turns 10-20 I expanded at a moderate speed. I added fire drakes (remember old hands I wanted to check all the options to test the new balance) to my armies as mobile artillery (don�t fight with them in the front line they just die), got the blood hunting going, searched for gems and sent my first fireballers out � Anathement Salamanders � to test out fire battle magic. I also built some Summer Lions and decided after a bit of play that at twice the old cost they were useful as mounted but not as a front line.
In this period I bumped into Tien Chi to the north and overran them with my main army and besieged their capital. To the south I meet Machaka who attacked me around turn 20 and the Jhotun to the north and front - with whom I maintained an armed frontier with.
By the time I had finished off Tien Chi I had a couple of assasins with contracts (two Imps per battle round now) and Fire Helms (worked brilliantly with one but my Prophet with quickness always ended up in combat). As it was getting up to turn 30 I figured I better hurry if I was going to get a victory and Jhotuns dominion was almost equal to mine. So I attacked Jhotun,while still at war with Machaka - besieging their capital and playing chase versus a couple of armies. Initially the war went well and with the addition of Devil producing contracts things were looking pretty good. My key army was cutting Jhotun in half at the middle while I cast Calls of the Wild up north with some independent druids and made good progress. At this point I bumped into Marignon who was at war with Jhotun and attacking with an army of ~600. My 80 HI plus two ahll fo fame commanders and a fire Drake didn�t prove quire enough � routed all their close fighters except three remaining summer lions but they still had a massive horde of archers. Fortunately the Anathement Dragon got away and retreated to gather a new army but Anog the fearless was cut down. I suffered a few furthur setbacks as Jhotun got an army in my rear which proved illusive but with Marignon and Jhotun hammering it out I was able of regroup and rebuilt for the next effort while slowely mopping up Machaka. This was when turn 40 arrived.
I finished the game leading by a bit from Marignon and Jhotun in all areas except provinces (Marignon) and army size � lotsa people. I made a mess of the start and had huge piles of unused gems of various types at the end of the game as I didn�t want to take the time to develop alternate magic strategies beyond the Druids and Call of the Wild. Overall this would indicate that, as some people have said, the AI is not up to experianced players (which I guess I am). However the AI can provide a good challenge if you are not doing things in a focused manner � certainly the case when you first learn the game as it�s a tough game to learn due to the extremely high skill factor. For me AI questions are secondary as multi-player is where its at for me.
This was by far the most enjoyable SINGLE PLAYER game of Dominions I have played. I loved features like the �n� key to make sure I had moved everyone plus a myriad of other improvements in the interface. Because I messed up the start it was also a close game with plenty to keep me on the ball. Dominions II is definitly a much better single player experience than Dominon I.
The options for starting games - varied victory conditions, research costs � are great. Combined with the ability to tailor maps so people start with say 6 provinces 2 castles and lvl 2 in all magic and you have a much better multi-player game than before. I will only be playing in games which set the victory conditions low enough to avoid the �oh no my empire is big to be fun� scenario. Having to grind out a victory when you have 40+ provinces is not my idea of fun though I know there are those who love it.
The Controversial questions.
Any one who checks the Shrapnel Dominions board will be aware that there is fair degree of controversy over changes and lack of changes. I�ll dive into a couple of these issues.
The biggest problem � light troops/heavy troops.
To put it simply LI suck and HI rock. LC suck and HC can rock. As in Dominions I I generally found myself outnumbered heavily (3-4 times) and winning comfortably because I had heavies they had lights.
I am in agreement with the �realists� who argue that this is because Dominions needs to reflect more closely the historical role of LI/LC. The idea that history is largely irrelevant as put forward but the �anti-realists� is contradicted by the fact that Dominions is a game deeply based in � Hypastpists? Hastati? Velites? Hopilites? Triari? Principes? They are all historical troop types � even the myths and legends of Dominions are historically inspired. If you still don�t understand go and read Tolkien followed by the Sword of Sharnara. HOMM is Sword of Shanara (little or no relationship to reality) Dom is Lords of the Ring � deeply inspired by history. I don�t want to carry this comparison too far but hopefully you know what I mean.
So how to fix light troops ?
1. LI/LC historically played an important role as foragers so allow the first 20 light troops in an army not to count against supply points.
2. Fire and Retire orders would allow light troops to deploy out the front to draw the enemy on and then retire before contact behind more heavily armoured troops who take the shock of impact � this provides a battlefield role for light troops which closely mirrors their historical one.
3. The idea that armour has no maintanence cost is bizarre. HI historically always had a much higher proportion of servants (often 1 to 1) than light troops who genrally had none � or were the servants. The reason is that maintaining armour of campaign in a huge job added to the extra social status of the HI.
4. As Jasper has pointed out LI did not form up in close order so having them at � density would better reflect their combat performance and could allow them to be given a compensating bonus to defense due to the extra room to move.
I�m not so concerned about militia etc would shouldn�t be much use. However quality light troops made a huge contribution to historical armies.
Blood Magic.
Is Blood still overpowered? I simply don�t know but I do think that part of getting Blood right is improving the lesser Blood summons. I tried summoning all the different devils I could to check their stats but I doubt I would bother in a PBEM game � gotta go straight for the uber demons. The contract for devils is to my mind overpriced now while the contract for imps seemed fairly innocous but still handy. Certainly Blood is largely a waste of time in the demo due to being limited to magic level 4 so it better be pretty staunch at high levels. Sure you can get a lot of slaves but there are very real limits on what you can spend them on and late game super combatents are not the threat early ones are. Are Arch Devils really that scary that blood is overpowered for Abysia? I wouldn�t have thought so.
Fire Magic.
I gave Fireballs, Firecloud and Rage a good try without being very impressed. Other than my initial Anathement Dragon none of my combat mages got onto the hall of fame. The AD had 43 kills and next highest was 14 and then a Salamander at 13 and then on down to 5 � this is for experianced mages. If the battles had been bigger they might have done better but the truth is they are so inaccurate as to sometimes be irrelevent � but then some battle they make the difference. In general I would say the demo fire battle magic was fairly weak and there still remains an issue over the low precision of fire spells and Abysian mages. It just looks silly watching the battles � please lower than damage and improve accuracy if you are think the balance is right Illwinter.
Speed of watching battles.
Ho hum � those arrows and fireballs could go 4 times the speed no worries. This is actually quite a big issue as the game goes on. Is this a video card issue? I have a Matrox Geforce 4.
Summary
Add it all up and I would say that Dom II is a quality sequel to a quality game. As long as you are not graphically obsessed (the graphics are weak and in significant part the same as Dom I�s) and you are in to intense, deeply involved, highly challenging strategy games then multi-player Dom II may well be the best computer strategy gaming you will have ever done. Sick of silly fantasy games, feel that you are up to playing the real thing � try Dom.
I spend more time off the computer involved in Dominions than on. To me this is the mark of a truly excellent game � as much, if not more, fun is had in thinking about the incredibly deep strategies and tactics than actually playing the game.
Congragulations Ilwinter.
Cheers
Keir
Ps. If only Jeff would decide publish Stars! Supernova (with or without a distributor) my computer strategy gaming world will be complete. So sad to think all that thought and energy will likely never be seen in completed game form.
My first Dominions II Demo game - long
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