Dominions 4; Good luck, im behind 7000 supayas!

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:15 pm #173753

Bottom post of the previous page:

Ive asked around, but can't find anyone to sub into Pangaea

Set a deadline and then if no subs are found by then make them AI?

cinless · Post by **cinless** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:28 pm #173755

Hold on I might have someone, give me a day or so to ask

cinless · Post by **cinless** » Wed May 04, 2016 5:38 pm #173793

nope, he turned it down

Lumbermancer · Thu May 05, 2016 11:44 am

So could you log in one more time and become computer controlled? k? k.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Thu May 05, 2016 1:36 pm #174053

Cinless wasn't the Pangaea guy
Dezzmont was Pangaea

Lumbermancer · Thu May 05, 2016 3:07 pm

Fine. It's AI.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Thu May 05, 2016 5:53 pm #174092

I'm sorry Yomi

That must have hurt
But you can't out-death Ctis

Preamble · Post by **Preamble** » Sat May 07, 2016 3:51 am #174607

How many gems did you spend on those dogs?

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat May 07, 2016 10:40 am #174660

Not a whole lot, really

D10 pretender so it was a maximum efficiency barkstorm. Death magic points really help in summonning them

I got like 30 per turn for cheap

Preamble · Post by **Preamble** » Sat May 07, 2016 4:46 pm #174706

Also, can I get a 4 hour extension?

Lumbermancer · Sat May 07, 2016 5:12 pm

So be it.

Lumbermancer · Sun May 08, 2016 4:18 pm

Tien'Chi AI'd. I'm not feeling this game anymore.

cinless · Post by **cinless** » Mon May 09, 2016 3:44 pm #175203

looks like my game just ended. Anybody want to start a new game? MA again, r'lyeh spoken for again

Lumbermancer · Mon May 09, 2016 7:01 pm

Sorry for attacking you. I thought Pan took the fort.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Mon May 09, 2016 7:06 pm #175263

Not really feeling it either for EA

Kinda feels like the entire north of the map, minus Rlyeh's water, is AI now

Also I'd be up for another MA

Lumbermancer · Mon May 09, 2016 7:27 pm

Who wants finish EA and make MA? Preamble is Yomi. Who is Ermor again?

cinless · Post by **cinless** » Mon May 09, 2016 8:54 pm #175283

I am ermor. everyone i border on but ctis is ai. can we just scrap the game i'm in NAP with c'tis so the only thing in my future is several boring turns of scrapping two AI nations.
On the subject of the MA game, current interested players are me, Lumbermancer and XSI. 3 players makes for poor dominions, anyone else interested?

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Mon May 09, 2016 9:31 pm #175291

Ideal Dom4 is ~10 players for a small game I think

cinless · Post by **cinless** » Mon May 09, 2016 9:46 pm #175293

10 players is a pretty big game

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Mon May 09, 2016 9:55 pm #175295

20 players is a pretty big game. 10 is the upper limit of what I'd say is a small game. So I think medium game works better

Preamble · Post by **Preamble** » Mon May 09, 2016 11:44 pm #175313

Yeah, I'll play a MA game.

Lumbermancer · Tue May 10, 2016 11:39 am

But we also want to wrap up the EA.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Tue May 10, 2016 9:48 pm #175544

I am still interested in seeing what happens with Yomi and Ctis, but aside from that EA seems kinda AI city

Just checked and like 6 hours to go till the turn ticks and only I have send in a turn so far

cinless · Post by **cinless** » Wed May 11, 2016 6:09 am #175648

my phone is busted, i no longer get notifications when i get mail so i just plain forget

Lumbermancer · Wed May 11, 2016 11:57 am

Someone needs to set up to that MA!

Lumbermancer · Fri May 13, 2016 9:37 pm

There's only 2 people left in EA game. Ermor stalled 4 times in a row, Yomi 2. I'm gonna scrub this. gg.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat May 14, 2016 10:48 am #176408

I kinda figured that, seeing as nobody was actually doing things except me

Oh well
How about that MA then?

Deitus · Post by **Deitus** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:21 am #189455

so do people actually play this? im trying to decide between attempting to sell shit and scrounge up enough in my steam wallet to get this or getting the new expansion for endless legend, which i bought a while ago but never really started playing.

Incomptinence · Fri Jun 24, 2016 12:22 am

Well I had a satisfying experience.

Zellion · Post by **Zellion** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:34 pm #189824

If you have the autism like I do you'll never get tired of this game, they recently added a new race too

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:46 pm #189828

Now we just need a multiplayer game to play them in

Lumbermancer · Fri Jun 24, 2016 10:55 pm

Deitus · Post by **Deitus** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 1:45 am #189860

so does this not have multiplayer or am i being memed on

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sat Jun 25, 2016 10:44 am #189931

It does

We just need to start a multiplayer game for this again

Preferably one we actually finish

Incomptinence · Sat Jun 25, 2016 9:15 pm

I finished. Losing is not only fun but concise.

Deitus · Post by **Deitus** » Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:40 am #191077

bought it, will start tomorrow. if you nigs are memeing me you owe me $17.49

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Wed Jun 29, 2016 10:51 am #191146

Worth it

It will satisfy your autism for a long time
And even longer if you can bully these people here into starting up a multiplayer

Incomptinence · Wed Jun 29, 2016 11:22 am

always willing on my end time zone allowing that or pbem

read up on llama server more likely to find people to play with there

Lumbermancer · Sun Nov 27, 2016 7:53 pm

who wants to play over lama

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:16 pm #230555

Sure

EA/MA/LA?
Map?

srifenbyxp · Post by **srifenbyxp** » Sun Nov 27, 2016 11:13 pm #230559

im always good for dominions, whats the time and place

dezzmont · Post by **dezzmont** » Mon Nov 28, 2016 6:12 am #230712

Point is to make it so there isn't a time nor place. Just email games.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Mon Nov 28, 2016 6:19 am #230717

llamaserver is email games, yeah

That said, time and place could refer to what age and what map
Which I suppose would depend on the interest and people's goals

Deitus · Post by **Deitus** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:12 am #231603

ive decided im gonna really buckle down and try to learn this shit. im already gonna use http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/manual_dom4.pdf , but do you guys have any other tips for a dumbass beginner?

dezzmont · Post by **dezzmont** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 8:31 am #231612

TL;DR: Always make sure your troops have good scripts and formations because that makes them amazingly more efficient. Your national, recruit at any fort troops are the backbone of your strategy, and good players plan around supporting them with magic rather than having magic do everything. Don't neglect scales, as some nations are crippled without extra income or resources. Set things up to constantly recruit and fuel your war machine, use forts to get important units and independent commanders and troops to move them out to the front lines and to provinces that need defense.

Really come to understand some combat mechanics. Armor and precision are big ones that dramatically affect how fights play out and misunderstanding them can be devistating. For example you should never use basic fire magic to try to kill armored targets, even though the spell has the AP effect and something like magma bolts doesn't, because the way the final calculations happen makes stuff like fire flies pathetic vs armor and magma bolts amazing. The math isn't super complicated, but it is important to understand how certain things play out so you can properly apply buffs. For example: Precision buffs are more powerful if the unit already has high precision, and are less powerful if they are low, which is counter intuitive.

During early expansion formations and unit ordering matters a lot. Some nations literally won't work if you don't do things like order you front line to hold and attack so that your archers can get a few more shots in for example. Even though your mages really are what the game is about, the real thing dominions 4 is about is being willing to figure out optimal scripts and macro strategies, so don't ever get lazy and blob troops: always subdivide as efficiently as possible and remember even the front line's script can totally change the fight.

Focus on basic, easy to understand spell strategies that synergize with your troops in middle age games. Early ages are about summons and you don't really come to learn about magic that way. Likewise late age nations are super complicated beasts. You should look in the manual at troops, find a strong one for your nation that is cost efficient, and then look up a spell that would make them crazy good. A classic example is Man Longbowmen: you set it up so your pretender can easily craft air and fire boosters so your national mages can cast wind guide and fire arrows, and use man's extremely powerful and accurate longbows to great effect, as precision gets much stronger the more you have. Basically figure out a good way to support your troops, because most high end dominions games are going to be heavily decided by level 3-5 magic rather than late game level 9 mass enslave stuff: you can't wait that long vs non-AI. Basically find something your nation is good at and figure out how to make it better. Summon and doomsday strats are viable but not a good way to learn.

Don't use blood magic when first learning. Avoid nations that require it. Many nations like Pangaea can use it but don't have to, these are fine to use, but don't start with blood magic as it makes logistics dramatically more complex.

Resist the urge to make a rainbow pretender to site search and just do scales. Scale pretenders are important in MP mind, but learning what pretenders can really do for you is important and most nations can work with an active or dormant pretender. Especially never use rainbows, they are just a crutch for weak site searching. I recommend learning the game on pretenders who splash something vital into the nation but do so in a way so that their removal won't cripple you.

Don't empower when learning. While there are times and places to empower, it is rarely the ideal way to get more magical power. Path boosters are more critical, and learning to play the game without empowering is important.

Province defense is important, but get very used to micromanaging troops to set up static defenses as well. Province defense is not super efficient past low levels unless the area will remain in your hands and have a lot of fighting happening. In general avoid using more than 5-10 province defense in most places unless you are up against a very raidy enemy. Even then, get really used to learning to micromanage indy (independently recruited units that you get from provinces you conquer) commanders to ferry around troops, as it is much less expensive to place 20 or 50 troops in a province with a cheap commander than to get 50 province defense. A good rule of thumb is to, with rich nations like Man, have all your povinces recuriting some local units while continually moving troops from your forts to the front lines and around your nation. This also lets you muster armies more efficiently by having your local troops rally to a province to sally forth, it lets you project force much more efficiently.

Understand the value of non-capitol units. Your strongest units are almost always capitol recruit only, but your best units are ones that can be recruited at any fort you make. Make sure to start setting up forts to help your economy and troop recruitment, and figure out your best units based on your ability to produce them. Most of your army will not be coming from your capitol, so while using powerful capitol troops as your elites is good and encouraged, understand that you need to plan around things you can get anywhere.

Always make sure your pretender is at least dominion 5, and really for a new player 7 is best. Don't underspend on dominion scales: Some nations are crippled without the economic benefits of order, growth, or production, such as ulm or man.

Don't go crazy crafting combat magic items for humans. For the most part they do little to help them. Magical armors and shields and swords are for giants for the most part.

If you have a hot or cold nation, get a hot or cold scale one higher than their ideal, because it actually helps keep more of your territory at their ideal temperature: Winters are colder and summers hotter and some areas just naturally colder or hotter, so having 'overcharged' scales keeps things more even through your empire and you can use the extra points to make things even more consistent.

If you are an underwater nation, always get cold or heat to 1. Most likely cold, because high heat nations suffer more from cold than vice versa.

Seriously! Read the spells and pay attention to anything in your element that majorly affects your troops! That is the most important part of this game! While summons are important too, and you should always have mages summoning if you can, every nation can summon, your nation is special based on the synergy between its elements and troops. Man's domination of archery with air and fire makes them terrifying. Ulm's superheavy troopers with further defense buffs don't die. Pangaea can use its massive armies to rout its foes with morale effects and in combat summons to hopelessly outnumber troops until they literally can't pass their rout test. Just because all 3 of those nations, especially Pangaea, often summon, doesn't mean their national troops get to take a vacation.

Lumbermancer · Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:28 pm

Deitus wrote:ive decided im gonna really buckle down and try to learn this shit. im already gonna use http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/manual_dom4.pdf , but do you guys have any other tips for a dumbass beginner?

Watch a youtube guide or playthough.

I think I enjoyed this one,

But then I have 100 hours played and still don't know how to play this game properly.

XSI · Post by **XSI** » Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:40 pm #231781

Deitus wrote:ive decided im gonna really buckle down and try to learn this shit. im already gonna use http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/manual_dom4.pdf , but do you guys have any other tips for a dumbass beginner?

Play Mictlan and get 9 fire, 9 blood, 9 water on your pretender
And I forgot the other one
Then just pump out sacred troops and kill everything

Spoiler:

In all honesty though, Dezz pretty much explained it.
I recommend just trying a game vs AI to practice your expansion and learning the controls of it. Just don't think playing against AI is in any way relevant to playing against humans aside from experiencing the interface and such

Deitus · Post by **Deitus** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 1:44 am #234131

is conquest of elysium 4 good too? by the same people and looks pretty fun, do any of you guys have it?

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 6:42 am #234201

Real men play Abysia with DWAYNE SCORPION "THE ROCK" KING JOHNSON as their pretender and don't look back.

Lumbermancer · Sun Dec 11, 2016 8:03 am

Deitus wrote:is conquest of elysium 4 good too? by the same people and looks pretty fun, do any of you guys have it?

It's ok. It's simpler. More like HoMM. I don't like how you can't set up your armies nor give them orders.

Deitus · Post by **Deitus** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 8:11 am #234220

Lumbermancer wrote:
Deitus wrote:is conquest of elysium 4 good too? by the same people and looks pretty fun, do any of you guys have it?
It's ok. It's simpler. More like HoMM. I don't like how you can't set up your armies nor give them orders.

im an idiot and dont know what HoMM is

do you think it'l be worth grabbing elysium 4 during the sale?