Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian

[JDScherrey]

I bought this complex game about a week ago called Dominions II. Although it is entirely too complicated and has more spells/items/units than is reasonable for any game, I find myself playing it more and more.

So I've done the walkthru and cannot bare to play a non-caster nation like Ulm. So I thought I would start on Mictian and get some advice on the web.

As Mictian, I know that the blood must flow and my troops are the best at making that happen. Unfortunately it is mostly their blood, but hey it must flow right?

So how can I make this nation work against all the other hardcore jugernauts out there?

I figued I would do the Smoking Mirror as my pretender but should I go rainbow? or concentrate in a few magics?

Which magics should I try to research first?

Basicly in 150 words or less what are my strengths and I probably have too many weaknesses to name.

Got to love the underdog!

Christopher

[JDScherrey]

Couple more questions - Who do you make the prophet? And how does Dominion work with this nations or should I just take a low Dominion?

Christopher

[Teraswaerto]

A few tips.

A Moloch with fire 9 as your pretender is a good choice, as Mictlan relies on sacred troops until Blood summons start to show up in force. Mictlan has trouble keeping their dominion, so I'd take 8 of that. Since your troops are not resource expensive, you can take 3 Sloth and the 60 point castle, which, along with heat 1, leaves enough points other scales.

Rain Priests make good prophets, since they can cast Quickness. Smite isn't good enough to warrant using a Sun Priest.

Start hunting for blood slaves ASAP, with both scouts and your blood 1 priests. Construction and Blood are the main areas to research.

[Kristoffer O]

Hi Christopher,

It can be rather important to have a high Dominion value. If you do your sacrificed slaves count for something. There is a dom*10 % chance that a sacrificed slave gives an effect.

Make a prophet out of a High priest of the Sun or a Priest King.

The former is more powerful as a priest, but getting a priest who can cast fanaticism early is rather important to mictlan. The King has more leadership.


Your troops are reasonably good at conquering independents. Javelins are useful. Try to get an early empire and raise the province defense (next to taxes) so the AI do not attack you emmediately.

Your strenghts are blood and cheap numbers. Make tribal kings who pump out slaves. Have them patrol. Collect bloodslaves. Have one priest to sacrifice to keep your dominion OK.

Sun Warriors are good if blessed. Not very expensive, armed with javelins and brave. Fire and blood blessings give them more punch. Nature will increase their powers a lot, but your mages might go berserk at times.

Jaguar warriors will also benefit a lot from nature blessings.

Eagle warriors are useful to take out enemy archers and mages, but are vulnerable.


Construction 4 gives thistle mace => Priest king can cast Dark Vines (Blood 4 IIRC). They are very powerful, but slow.

You start with summoning spells. Use them until you get Dark Vines (after that as well).

Alteration and enchantment are good for buffing your monsters.

Horde from Hell is a most useful spell. You will get a devil commander that can be given magic items.


You have a wide spectra of mages, so searching for magic sites can give you an advantage. This is useful for construction of items for your summoned blood monstrosities (ice devils, arch devils etc).


You can dominion-kill other players easier than most nations. If you build temples close to the enemy and start sacrificing you can take down his dominion (AI at least). Underwater nations can be surprised by this as well. Put a high priest with jade knife in every temple surrounding an enemy capital and you get rid of him without sieges in no time.

However your dominion is rather weak. It will only spread where you sacrifice and that can only be done where you have a temple. So even if you can direct your dominion it will be weak in general.

Basically, you are dependant on your mages. They are used in battle, they spread your dominion, they find sites and blood for your summonings and they perform the constructions and summonings (and you will need to summon as your own troops are weak).

[Ctennyson]

Kristoffer has a lot of good thoughts there. To accentuate his point, since you need to do 9 things with your mages, you're going to need a TON of em. Sacrifice with your cheap priests, the ones that are 50g and 1 blood, and use a dowsing rod on the ones that arent sacrificing, for blood slave gathering, use your other mages for summons, and crazy stuff.

Your Jaguar warriors are about your only shock troops, nationally, aside from that, its summons. You have tons of cheap, useless troops, use them as missile shields, and cavalry charge shields, so your jaguars/sun warriors are mopping up, not being mopped up.

Edit: Spelling

[ March 15, 2004, 05:04: Message edited by: Ctennyson ]

[Norfleet]

The Cheap $50 Mictlan Priest is probably THE best L2 Priest at your disposal. He's sacred, and has an upkeep only slightly higher than a scout. With an SDR, he hunts 4 times better than a scout. With a jade knife, he can sacrifice as well as a Sun Priest (without). While in key provinces, you can use a Sun Priest for sacrifices, those are capitol only and hard to come by, even if cost is a nonissue. While Mictlan's dominion is difficult to spread early in the game, later in the game, once you get a blood economy going, you can dominionrush somebody like nobody's business: Plop down a ton of temples near your target, bust out the knives, and start a sacrificing frenzy. Every blood slave sacrificed is a temple check. That makes your temples work 4 times faster than an ordinary temple. Only Vanheim, Jotunheim, and Abysia can do this better, and they can't round up the slaves like you can, having no ultra-cheapo hunter.

[Ctennyson]

Not only the best L2 Priest, he's one of the best ways to spend 50g in the entire game. A great bloodhunter, a great dominion spreader, sacred, for cheap upkeep, and he aint a bad researcher for his cost, either. What a bargain!

[Yossar]

Mictlan national priests are 80 gold. Independents are 50 but don't get the point in blood magic.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Yossar:
Mictlan national priests are 80 gold. Independents are 50 but don't get the point in blood magic.

Oh, yes, that's right. Haven't played in a bit. Still, At $80, it upkeeps like a $40 unit and hunts 4x as well, with an SDR. A great buy.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
A Moloch with fire 9 as your pretender is a good choice, as Mictlan relies on sacred troops until Blood summons start to show up in force.

I would avoid the Moloch. He's overpriced for what he does. You're paying a lot of points for an SC chassis, but the Moloch is a mighty coward who flees from every battle unless given a vast screen of troops to hide behind.