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[Frumple]

What's everybody's favorite era? I'm most used to the middle ages. I ask because I'm wondering about which era to do the blood magicks in.

Definitely early, m'self... so long as I'm not playing freespawn nations. If I am it'd be middle age, with late a very close second.

Though... I think thematically, at least on the net, I kinda' like LA the most. The whole (relatively) low fantasy vs. rampaging gods is a neat backdrop. It's just that EA is a lot more interesting, in general -- more fancy stuff, more variety, etc., etc., etc. If LA's the most interesting me on the net, EA is on every particular. More than the sum of its parts type stuff, heh. On every individual part, EA wins for me, but on the whole it's LA.

MA's just... in between. S'aight, has ermor and asphodel, but otherwise, well... it splits the difference between high points. The compromise age, basically, and, well. You know what they say about compromise. It's the one where no one involved walks away happy

Not that I really dislike any of them, mind. Just definitely prefer other-than-middle-age.

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As for best era for blood magic, it'd almost certainly be early. Early's... basically the best era for any magic, in general. More mages, stronger mages, more magicy bits in on the whole (iirc it's even got a built-in slight boost to magic site rate). If you want to break things with magic it's probably the era you default to muddling around with.

After that it's LA, iirc. Want to say it just has more blood access than MA, though it's certainly soon enough after waking up I could be forgetting the overall compositions.

[Kagus]

Gotta say I agree with The Frump regarding ages. One thing is that MA has a few good nations, people like T'ien Ch'i, C'tis, Shinuyama and Nazca really come into their own (or don't exist anywhen else), but then there are the "awkward stage" nations going through a weird transition from EA to LA. Stuff like Xibalba or Mictlan. Heck, even R'lyeh seems a bit unsure what it wants to be when it grows up.

I've been really trying to find a good "fit" nation-wise for LA so I can start appreciating it a bit more.


As far as blood magic is concerned, EA is probably the best bet, yeah. There you've got Mictlan and Lanka, pretty much the two ultimate blood powers. MA is fairly dry as far as that's concerned, it's basically just Abysia and to some extent Pangaea/maybe Jotunheim.

LA picks things up again with a return-to-roots for Mictlana, Bogarus getting jiggy with it, Marignon, Abysia kicking it up a notch, Ulm etc...  You'll have more options for bloodiness in LA, but more power doing it in EA.

[Frumple]

Ehehe. MA R'yleh is actually my favorite for that nation. Most of the power of either one, without the domkill or the aquatic casters. Much less trouble to play, imo. Certainly the least thematic of the three but I'll take gold and/or my commanders going where I tell them to over style points just about any day of the week :V

[Shadowlord]

I prefer MA myself. It seems more balanced than EA.

I haven't really played LA much and tend to just avoid playing it.

[Kagus]

Ehehe. MA R'yleh is actually my favorite for that nation. Most of the power of either one, without the domkill or the aquatic casters. Much less trouble to play, imo. Certainly the least thematic of the three but I'll take gold and/or my commanders going where I tell them to over style points just about any day of the week :V

My main gripe is that they don't get void spectres/Dreams of R'lyeh. Or any other way of getting delicious void beasties outside of just the void gate... Although, really, that is still a pretty dang great deal.

Still, LA R'lyeh has a special place in my heart for one very specific reason...

Step 1: Go insane
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Prophet

[Delta Foxtrot]

I like LA. Not fully sure why. Less annoying stuff when it comes to popkilling dominions and elves. Though I'm not actually sure if LA has the least popkill.

Might be the general theme/look of it. While all ages have cool nations I think I prefer the comparatively "high" tech/low magic setting. More contrast like that, giants of Gath feel more mythical than giants of Hinnom. Higher tech all around and low-tech LA nations like Gath and Jomon just feel more special amongst all the crossbows and full plates. Settings-wise I prefer LA with EA magic settings. I just can't stand the lack of gems. Far as I'm concerned magic system is big part of the fun in this game and gems directly help or hinder that.

Step 1: Go insane
Step 2:
Step 3: Prophet

 

[Frumple]

I like LA. Not fully sure why. Less annoying stuff when it comes to popkilling dominions and elves. Though I'm not actually sure if LA has the least popkill.

It's matched with MA, isn't it? Asphodel and Ermor, Lemuria and R'yleh. Least popkill is EA, iirc -- far as I recall there's only Therodos (and tbh it's probably the easiest of popkill nations to contain... still has a pretty rough time getting going, from what I recall.). Maybe changes a bit if you include nations that just have popkilling units, but those are the dominion linked ones.

[Neonivek]

I like LA. Not fully sure why. Less annoying stuff when it comes to popkilling dominions and elves. Though I'm not actually sure if LA has the least popkill.

It's matched with MA, isn't it? Asphodel and Ermor, Lemuria and R'yleh. Least popkill is EA, iirc -- far as I recall there's only Therodos (and tbh it's probably the easiest of popkill nations to contain... still has a pretty rough time getting going, from what I recall.). Maybe changes a bit if you include nations that just have popkilling units, but those are the dominion linked ones.

LA's Pop-kill entirely depends on one faction... think of LA as having all the popkill focused into one single faction who do it far better then any faction in any other period.

So if they aren't in the game... Yeah really low popkill.

[Kagus]

I haven't the foggiest idea what you're on about mate... I think you might be thinking of a different version of Dominions where the Ashen Empire was LA.

Also, just saw a thread where someone said R'lyeh's priests should be able to assemble cultists/hybrids like other nations reanimate the dead. I thought that was kind of a clever idea actually.

[Frumple]

... are you sure you're talking about D4, neo?

Ermor and lemuria are about on par as far as popkill goes (though a different focus on unit use, since consuls are freakishly good), and r'yleh is a thing despite how relatively disliked their dom makes 'em to play. Probably less likely to be played than asphodel, but still.

And that... it'd be neat, kag, but significantly less useful than it is for actual reanimators. LA R'yleh already has nightmarish supply issues, heh, and being able to haul in more mouths... maybe pair it with a way to sacrifice said cultists and hybrids for void beasts?

... alternately, just have insanity reduce supply usage. That'd be an incredible usability change for la r'yleh.

Though mind you, a non-undead equivalent to reanimation would be awesome just to have the functionality. Expanded slave gathering or somethin'.

E: Though playing a game of LA r'yleh again, it'd also be pretty amazing if insane troops could group with mindless ones. Notable boost both to player quality of life and the usefulness of said troops.

[Kagus]

I was thinking more for MA R'lyeh or something. LA is when all shit has indeed broken loose, so the end times the cultists would be talking about have already kinda gotten started.


On another topic, a little fun fact regarding Asphodel... It would appear that F9 bless affects sleep vine attacks.

You can summon a self-blessing 24 hitpoint recuperating chassis with two sleep vines plus one hoof attack, so a total of 7 different attacks each capable of proccing the +6 AP damage. For 8 nature gems.  Worth noting.

[Frumple]

That would mean doing something besides making more manikins with the centaurs, though :V

It would also be pretty a'ight on their sacred freespawn, for what it's worth. Iirc it'll work off the ranged attacks, too, and other than the extra vine bow attack and lack of H1 the chassis is pretty much identical. Well... actually, checking it, the carcasses are marginally better than the summoned centaurs -- +2 attack and precision, 3 more morale. Not amphibian, though, and obviously no kit unless you're GoRing sagittarian carcasses for some reason. Or divine word, I guess... can't remember if GoR still works on the manikin stuff.

Lack of self-bless isn't really an issue, either, since asphodel has H3 access on the carrion lords...

E: Ah, actually, no, they're a bit different. Swaps out one sleep vine attack for a vine whip, so it's 7 chances vs 5 + ranged. Bright side, though, that vine whip is a lot more accurate. +4 attack instead of -1, and an extra point of length t'boot.

[Kagus]

Sure, blessing sagittarians is great, but they're wildly less reliable when it comes to getting hold of them. You basically just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best, while the carrion centaurs are a bit more on-demand. As far as manikins go, yeah... But it's the question of what exactly it is you need at that point. Also, I think that since the vines and hoof are all intrinsic weapons, they won't get overwritten by giving the fellow even more armaments.

Just worth noting... And yeah, firing bolts of flaming ivy at the enemy sounds appropriately bizarre.

[ThtblovesDF]

Don't temples, forts and labs (as well as growth) change what kind of freespawn you get?

[Kagus]

Temples, forest provinces and I think forts change/improve the freespawn you get, yeah. I'm not familiar with the particulars though. Growth scale is supposed to improve the rate at which dead people are converted into manikins, while the temples/whatnot modify the resulting units. There's also, as always, the question as to what role, if any, the luck and magic scales play.


So basically, "yes".