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[E. Albright]

Well, there is one exception to this rule, and it also laughs at Magic Duels. For the Colossal Fetish, Astral 1 is noooooo problem. Tragically, though, only Machaka is permitted the correct response when challenged to "Go Mindless or go home"...

[rumpel]

I consider getting the game because of the sale. But I read that it mainly focused on multiplayer because the AI only sends you massive amounts of armies. Is that true? Would I have fun playing singleplayer? And how is the multiplayer - is it a lobby or whatever?

[Frumple]

Well... I enjoy single player, at least. The AI's not the smartest thing in the world, but it's not entirely braindead. Their tendency to just hurl hoards at you makes for some fun times knocking said hoards back down -- and they can still grind you down, they're just not nearly as tricky as a human can be.

As for MP, it's either PBEM (play by e-mail, if you're not familiar with the term) or hotseat, iirc, the latter of which is only helpful if you've got someone in person to game with.

[Delta Foxtrot]

There are people who enjoy the SP component more. The game has plenty of flavour to cater to that audience. But yes, it shines in MP.

MP can be handled by two ways:
Players directly connecting to the server (ran by one of the players in the set game). This setting is rarely used unless we're talking about blitzes, which are short 1-5 hour matches of mostly continuous playing. There's no lobby, you'll have to communicate the port number/IP between the players. From the few blitzes I've played I can say it's very easy and painless to set up.

Majority of MP is done via PBEM, in which every player sends and receives turns from a server (usually llamaserver, server ran by a prominent dom4 community member). If you've never done PBEM, it stands for Play-By-E-Mail. You need to manually send and receive turn files through your email client for it to work. Some people find that very tedious, some don't. This type of game usually lasts several months. I think 2-5 months for most games would be a fair guesstimate. Depends a bit on the settings and size of your game.

If it isn't clear from the above, you pretty much need to organize a game outside of the client. There's no fast drop-in drop-out gaming for dominions. As an MP experience, it requires a bit more commitment than your average team fortress/starcraft match. Not everyone's cup of tea.

If you think you might enjoy the MP, I'd say the current steam sales price is definitely worth it. If you're pretty sure you'll just play for single player, at that price I'd still seriously consider getting it. There's quite a bit of variety and interesting bits to explore in the SP portion alone if you're into that.

[rumpel]

I never played Team Fortress or Starcraft. :p

So it's like Civilization multiplayer? That's cool! At least sounds like I'd enjoy single player and the occasional dozens of hours long matches with friends locally while chatting and drinking beer and stuff. I mean, the Civ AI kinda does the same. You can beat its ass up to the moon.
Just thought there would be some kind of lobby because people making MP a big deal on Dominions 4 Steam forums.
I assume there's a forum where people meet to get a PBEM match started?

Thanks for you replies! I think I'm going to get it.

[Shadowlord]

To give you an idea of how popular it is here, there are four PBEM Dominions 4 games currently in progress in the Play With Your Buddies subforum, another that just ended after less than 30 days (403), and another (406) that will be starting soon and already has 12 people signed up for it.

There's a huge manual in pdf form (also orderable in dead tree form), clocking in at around 400 pages (IIRC) including informational charts and so forth. It's entirely possible to just start a singleplayer game with a random nation and make a pretender on the fly without knowing what you're doing, just to see how it goes and learn from the experience, but you wouldn't want to do that in multiplayer, obviously, and generally folks will study a faction's units and their capabilities before deciding how to design their pretender. You can also make a pretender, and then test it out in SP. You'd want to have some understanding of the gameplay while designing a pretender, ideally, but you can get that either from reading the manual, or from skimming the manual and then just making something and trying it out in the game (and for me at least, experimenting is an easier way to learn than trying to read, understand, and remember a 400 page pdf).

It's also much faster than civilization multiplayer in terms of what you can do in one turn.

[RexMundi]

Well, i'll have to be passing on the sale it seems, so guys, enjoy the next game without me. But what i've played, single player is still pretty fun

[Delta Foxtrot]

Games here are organized in the play with your buddies subforum. You can check a few of the threads there to see how they got started if you're interested. Basically one guy makes a thread saying they want to play and then a bunch of other players join up and discuss the exact settings and start playing.

That seems to be the case in other places I've played or lurked in. Notably, dominions forum on desura is the official one. Correspondingly it has a sizable number of players. Dom4mods is another community that's built purely around playing and modding dominions 4. You'll probably want to check the modding board there eventually even if you're not looking to play there.
Many major online gaming communities seem to have a side dish of dominions.

[Mindmaker]

Yes, Astral being the weak point.
It's just that all of the chassis I want to use have S1, even though I don't need it for what I have planned.
I basically need to put it as 4 or 5 just so my pretender can leave the house.

[chaoticag]

I will say that the Desura forums are a pretty cool place as far as multiplayer goes, if there are no Bay12 organised games running. Mind you, I'm participating in a game over there at the moment, so my experience is kinda limited. Secondly, I think one of the better ways to learn dominions through multiplayer would be through disciple style games where there's at least someone more experienced on your team. You guys can bounce strategies back and forth that way, and you can have your strategies double checked, as well as grab some advice. Plus you get to know some pretty cool guys depending on your team.

Still, playing around in singleplayer is a good idea. It's a lot more slow paced than multiplayer, and you can take your time to come up with strategies, and evaluate what you have, and you get enough leeway to bury things under a mountain of troops. It's always fun seeing how battles turn out no matter where they happen, and in singleplayer you get to see more of those wonderful big huge battles, so yeah. Honestly, if this game is up your alley, you can enjoy it quite a few ways.

[Delta Foxtrot]

I've played some matches over at Desura. I'd say it's a bit more hit 'n miss than here, but that's probably because there are a tons more games being played too. As long as you know the game you're joining, it should be ok. By that I mean there should be a clear rule about going AI and you're ok with that rule, as well as diplomacy options in general. Whether it's liberally allowed or extremely regulated. Definitely a good place to get your first game if there's no noob games going on in here.

I've heard some people really like and make use of "learning" games with the disciple system. I haven't tried it myself on either side of the teacher-student divide. But if there's one available it's certainly worth considering.

[azurelao]

Does anyone have tips for playing EA Ulm?

The Desura forums have a guide generally described as pretty solid.

Thanks! I've been playing with them and they seem pretty decent.

[Il Palazzo]

Can anyone tell me if death/fire weapons from bless enchant arrows?

[Biowraith]

They do.

[LongDongSilver]

Is there a way to get rid of unwanted units aside from using them in suicidal attacks?