Your favorite nations / themes -- and why! please participate!

[tinkthank]

I am trying to be as comprehensive here as possible...

For this reason, I am including some voting options for various reasons, including no Favorites and including options for how often you may change your mind, and why.

It is clear to me that for most of us, there is no one single favorite all the time -- this game is just too groovy for such simplicities as that. But please try to see the "favorite" as a form of "Well, this may not be my "favorite", but I sure do play *this* one much more than *that* one...", just a kind of heuristic device.

It would also be great if people could post here some elaborations on their choices.

I am trying to limit the number of choices in the second vote to 5 -- I hope, however, that people will be more selective than that.

I don't know really what to expect, but I do expect at least a few corroborations and conflicts with two earlier polls of mine.... but I'll wait to see the results first.

Thanks very much for participating and for commenting!

[spirokeat]

There are a number of the races that appeal to me generally and I think the sheer diversity available in Dom 2 is what makes it such a playable game.

Although most of the magic styles appeal on various levels I found myself playing Blood and Death more than any other. I remember in MOM casting dark rituals on my cities and being tickled at the little ritualists sacrificing in the town square, so initially it was most certainly a style decision as i had no idea what the spells etc would be.

In most of my early games I did not use the blood summons at all either, as I almost always couple it with death and found it easier as a new player to create hordes of skelly-type chaff or ghouls.

Mictian appealed instantly as they seem an underdog....have to sacrifice to generate domain and national troops have archaic weapons and Marignon have that Maleus Maleficarum witch hunter feel on their blood theme...Oh, and Im notoriously biased towards human nations, I was never fond of exotic races like abysia or Ctis.

Death I feel is not represented as a nation in any capacity I can enjoy. I am not keen on the ars magica feel of Ermor though I think they are well themed, so despite it being a deep favourite magic, I find my use of death a secondary line in most nations.

But then thats the beauty of modding and Im beavering away on a new nation for myself that is themed as I wish it. Blood, Death and Plague.

Spiro.

[WraithLord]

Pythium are my Favorites but I have multiple reasons.

1. I like their flavor. I get the feeling of expanding the roman empire as an ancient Caesar.
2. I like their strength in MP. What with the astral domination, communions and high priestly powers.
I absolutely love the emerald guards, they shine in tough battles. I have seen them in countless battles and can attest to their prowess.
3. I can use them without the conventional SC pretender since they have very strong army.
4. They can counter (imo) some of the other tier 1 nations effectively. For example, Ermor with priestly power and assassins, R'lyeh with astral domination.

[Gandalf Parker]

You are getting good at this. Most of these polls its usually pretty obvious what the poll writer feels on the subject by how its worded, and has gaps showing responses that the writer didnt consider. It looks like you actually dredged up alot of the common trains of thought on this subject and put them in your poll. Good job.

[ July 08, 2004, 14:23: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[PvK]

I think it's a very well-done and interesting poll.

I still haven't played with all of the nations, but I've at least looked at nearly all of them.

I find that I have multiple play styles, or that my play style adapts to the nation and god choice, at least to a certain degree.

There are some that seem to fit my taste and styles better than others, though. It also changes a bit as I learn more magic tricks, and depending on whom I'm playing against and what the research and magic site settings are - sometimes the settings make it a bad idea to focus more or less on different kinds of magic. With Very Hard research, one wouldn't want to base a strategy around high-level magic. With very common site frequency, one would want to be able to find sites and use magic gems, and not place too much stock in, say, Ulmish armor!

PvK

[Truper]

I choose the "I haven't even played all the nations" answer to the 1st question. There a still a few nations/themes I haven't tinkered with beyond designing a quikie pretender and starting up a game just to see what the units look like.

For number of Favorites, I chose one, because I have one clear favorite, though I enjoy and play several nations.

That favorite nation is Vanheim standard theme.

I chose straightforward/uncomplicated as the reason why, although there are certainly a lot of ways the nation can be played. What I was getting at is that I like both Air and Earth magic a lot, and have a clear idea of what to do with both of them. I hem and haw over strategies for Astral magic for instance - that's partly because I'm a summoner at heart.

I chose just don't try to draw conclusions since even though I chose to respond to it, I don't think polls like this are very valuable

[Demosthenes]

I tend to play the same nations even though I haven't played them all. But most of the fun for me is trying to create play styles and then execute them. It's what IMO opinion makes Dom2 so fun, you can deliberately play in so many different ways.

I like to make metagames out of my gaming.

heh.

[Schmoe]

I chose Machaka as my favorite nation. They are very diverse, with access to decent magic and solid troops. They have the tools for a number of different strategic options. Of course, there are so many different ways to play Machaka that I still can't say that I've found one that works well for me, but I'm having fun One idea that I've had was to go with very strong dominion, either Restless Worshippers or Ceremonial Faith, and really push dominion with the Ears of the Lord. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it could be fun.

If I ever get off my Machaka kick, I'll probably explore Vanheim Helheim or C'Tis Miasma. I tried one game with Helheim and was completely lost, so that would be a fun challenge. I'd also like to see how a strong dominion defensive strategy works with Miasma. Tien'Chi S&A looks very interesting, too, but they are further down on my list.

Honestly, each nation represents weeks upon weeks of playing time. I can't see how anyone could possibly have a good understanding of every different nation and theme.

[Cohen]

I answered Abysya (both themes) and Marignon (all themes except CotS, I dislike that guerrilla raiding).

I like Ulm too however, except the BF theme.
And I'm getting in fond of Pythium even if not liking it a lot, since I notice in a game my allied player Pythium is doing pretty well where I often failed.

I find them to suit my gameplay.

I like a lot blood, and strong national troops, usually HI and Cavalry or both of them (I like a little Man, but infantry isn't so heavy and disciplined.)

I believe my choices are not 1st tier, since I believe they're Ermor and Air magic based nations like Vanheim and Caelum (I dislike them a lot because they're too strong IMO).

I like too Arco because I'm fond in ancient grece too, and ancient rome ... well I'm Italian, my land is fullfilled of this ancient lore.

I dislike what I see as mass poorly equipped troops like Mictlan and Machaka (well big spiders aren't so mass ... but ... I like humans - I considers Aybsyans uber-humans elite troops).
I love hand-to-hand combat and dislike those michievous raiders like Thuathas and Vans.
Don't like too to be under sea ^^

Well probably I expanded my answer to my feelings about many races so I stop myself there.

[HJ]

Abysia and Niefelheim. Plain, hardhitting, powerful, and relaxing to play without too much micro. And it suits my play style well (I always choose fighters in RPGs). Ulm would be the third, but leading stocky humans is not nearly as impressive thought as leading hellhumans and frost giants. For the same reasons, I'll probably never play Vanheim, Tuatha, or Caelum.