Question on ages?

[HiroPinata]

What are the main differences in the ages, and which one is the most interesting and fun one to play?

[mac5732]

it depends on your taste. Personally, I like Early era, I believe as to the different eras, the amount of magic in each one and different races or changes in the common ones in the different eras, I'm sure someone here will correct me if i'm wrong. Your best bet is to try each era and see which one you like. Have fun experimenting

[NTJedi]

Earliest age has a higher percentage of magic sites which can be adjusted.
The later age has capitals with less gem income yet most units have higher protection than the earlier ages.

[Wish]

earlier ages are more machaka/mictlan/tribal styles of countries and fiefdoms.

middle ages seem to align as closely to the standard dom 2 experience as possible (playing nations without taking their special backgrounds, like spring and autumn, etc.) you do get stuck with miasma ctis

late ages you get everyone becoming ulmish (circa dom 2 ulm) from what I read, anyway. I have yet to play it because early age is what appeals to me most.

and jesus christ someone thank the creators for putting yomi in the game. so cool. worth every $.

[Taqwus]

Late era's nations tend to be less healthy, conceptually -- Agartha and Ermor being fairly extreme cases, with catastrophes also having affected Abysia, R'lyeh, Atlantis, and other nations. Fantastic beings are fewer, bloodlines have become diluted, humans have supplanted Those That Came Before, magical phenomena have become corrupted, and so forth. Technology is higher, with heavy armor and weapons being more common. More steel, less bronze. One water nation even becomes a land nation.

Fun depends on tastes, really. High-bless strategies and massed archers are generally less overwhelming in late era with fewer extremely-powerful sacreds and greater use of shields, for instance.

[Endoperez]

Early age:

All nations start with income of 6 gems, with the exception of Mictlan who gets 5 gems and 3 Blood Slaves. Mictlan has to sacrifice slaves to spread their dominion.

All nations have powerful mages. Many nations have very expensive commanders that are worth their deep price: Jotun (giants) have HUGE Niefel giants, Atlantis (Deep Ones) have huge mages with very good paths for combat spells, Kailasa and Lanka (monkeys!) have sacred celestial beings and demons ruling the monkey people, etc.

Independents are mostly light infantry and archers. There shouldn't be any crossbowmen. Heavy Cavalry have mediocre protectio, but are still quite deadly. Some nations have access to protection ~12 troops with good shields, but against most nations archers, Blade Wind and similar are very deadly. Independent mages are common, and you'll probably find at least one of them even in small game. N1 tribal shamans, amazons and druids are more common than in any later age.


Middle age:

All nations start with gem income of 5, except Pythium which gets 8 gems. I'm not sure why they get this many gems, and it might even be a bug. In DomII, when 5 was the norm, they got 6.

Most nations still have powerful mages and/or priests, but some nations are magically weak. MA Ulm has just E2F1 smiths with 10% randoms, as an example. National units with lots of hp are rare and generally limited to few spesific nations like Jotunheim or Agartha. Elite national units tend to have better equipment, morale and attack instead.

Independents are better equipped. Some independent heavy infantries actually have better armor than many nations' units in MA. Crossbows exist, but are still usually a bit rare as independents. Various nations have good, cheap, effective ranged units that are deadly when massed (MA Man, Ulm, Marignon), and unlike the EA archer nations (Tien Chi and Sauromatia, mainly) these can get access to Wind Guide or Flaming Arrows. Protection varies wildly, with the heaviest armor being between perhaps 12 and 20 for various nations.


Late age:

Most nations have gem income of 4. Mictlan has more now that it's a blood nation again.

Mages with starting level in one path being 3 are starting to be rare. Expensive mages and units are quite rare. Different nations aren't made from just a single race any more: Mictlan has Atlanteans, Ulm has Vampires, Jotun and Vanheim rely heavily on humans, R'lyeh enslaves everyone, etc.

There are two death-dominion nations: LA Ermor's dominion kills population (gold and supplies) AND gives them free undead, and LA R'lyeh's dominion drives both population and armies mad, giving R'lyeh free madmen and stalling enemy forces as their commanders decide to look at the pretty flowers. LA Pangaea has Nature/Death, and for the first time can aim for their Enchantment national spells which eventually lets them cast Carrion Woods global, which makes them a third pop-killing, creature-creating nation of deadly dominion.

Late Age is all about death, Death, blood magic, corruption, decline, sorrow and failure. Agarthans are dead, Abysians dying, Jotun and Vanir rare, Ulm lost the secrets of forging Black Steel, Marignon gave in and is a blood nation, Oceania was wiped out, Atlantis sought refuge from frozen coastland to avoid the madness of R'lyeh, Tien Chi was conquered by barbarians... Strange randoms are also common: LA Man has a spy/engineer who often, but not quite always, has Air and/or Earth and/or Astral!


Independents have all kinds of stuff, and usually of the armored variety. As an example, while Hoburgs of earlier ages had just few light infantries in EA, and crossbows and guards in MA, they have HI, crossbowmen and Hog Knights in LA! National units are likewise almost always heavily armored. Shortbows are starting to get useless, and slings are even more useless than they were. Crossbows are very common, though, and archer/infantry or archer/heavy cavalry hybrids are pretty common. Sacred units are usually pretty weak when compared to those of earlier ages, or at least limited to just the capital.

[HoneyBadger]

Here's my attempt at explaining what everyone else already did a pretty good job of explaining already, in more or less the same way, but maybe a little different:

Early age usually has the most personal power (from their bodies and minds) per individual, while Middle age has the most individuals, while Late age has more individuals becoming more powerful through their equipment.

It's also sort of a balace between magic being very powerful and stable in Early age, and technology being either very uncertain or weak, to Late age technology being powerful and stable, and magic being either very uncertain or weak. You can kind of compare the "feel" of the ages, also, to the seasons-Early Era is high summer, everything is bright and strong and magical, Middle Era is autumn, there's lots to eat, lots of babies, and everyone lends a helping hand, Late Era is Winter, everything's dying and everyone's sick, or atleast irritable, and the sun doesn't stay out too long, most days. Those with the brains and the money to do so are sitting around at home, inventing things.

[Endoperez]

HoneyBadger said:
Here's my attempt at explaining what everyone else already did a pretty good job of explaining already, in more or less the same way, but maybe a little different:

Early age usually has the most personal power (from their bodies and minds) per individual, while Middle age has the most individuals, while Late age has more individuals becoming more powerful through their equipment.

I like this definiton very much! I'd rephrace it slightly (perhaps as so:
"Early Age has the most powerful individuals, Middle Age has most individuals and the Late Age has individuals with most powerful equipment.") and put it somewhere where everyone can see it. It works very well!

[Tichy]

If the meat of Endoperez and HoneyBadger's answers to this question haven't been added to the strategy wiki yet, they darn should be.

[Endoperez]

Wohoo, I get to wiki!