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[Cruxador]

Magic items aren't the same as artifacts. Artifacts are Construction 8, and are unique. They are always recovered after combat, however.

[Jilladilla]

There's a small handful of nation locked (ish) items, actually. C'tis has 'em, ferex, and beyond ragha you could make a half-hearted argument that some of the reanimation nations do, too, since the boosting amulets only work for specific corporeal undead (not manikins, not incorporeal ones, etc.). Pretty sure one of the UW nations got some kind of jellyfish stick or somethin' relatively recently. Probably some I'm forgetting, heh.

Quite a few. Mictlan has that Blood Sacrifice boosting knife, LA Agartha has Mercury Barrels, Ermor (Zombie Apocalypse Flavor) gets a thing to make their Lictor summons more efficient..... And I'm drawing blanks now, then again it's bed time for me so I'll leave it up to others to finish the list.

Frumple, it's not undead who can reanimate, it's undead PRIESTS who get that ability (In exchange for the normal priestly preaching). Doesn't matter what nation you're playing. (Note that Mound Fiends (Conj. 7 research, D3 caster required) is D3H2, undead, and available to everyone)

Magic items aren't the same as artifacts. Artifacts are Construction 8, and are unique. They are always recovered after combat, however.

Argument could be made for Ragha's crown thingie, while it's not at Construction 8, it is unique (although it is always destroyed after being lost rather than always recovered...)
And for Frumples sake, the thing casts Fanaticism and gives a whole lot of leadership (And the +1 morale boost for troops thing) and finally gives +1 to priestly powers, although given that the only units who can use it are only H1, this only really helps for blessings and vs undead...

Now, I'm probably gonna wake up tomorrow and find like 5 errors in this so I'm gonna go to sleep now before I ramble on more to you guys.

[Kagus]

You can, however, prophetize a shah and then give him the crown, leading to a level 4 priest. Should you happen to want a level 4 priest, that is.

On the matter of reanimating, demons also count as "undead" as far as that's concerned. Demonic and undead creatures with holy levels automatically get some form of reanimation, depending on what nation they're serving. I tend to prophetize an Oni general as Yomi specifically so I can get someone to start pumping out a little freespawn.


Also, yeah... You can just go into the mod inspector to see which items are nation-specific, and to which nations they are specific. Jade knife, jellyberd (which is actually pretty damn mean), black laurel etc.

[Jilladilla]

You can, however, prophetize a shah and then give him the crown, leading to a level 4 priest. Should you happen to want a level 4 priest, that is.

H4 is actually useful for Fanaticism..... But the Crown already does that... So yeah, don't do that people. (But if you really want to, remember: Prophetize THEN Crown)

[Kagus]

Fanaticism, bigger banishments... Uhh... Boosting to H5 with an artifact or some finagled communion... Sheeit, I'unno. But yeah.

[E. Albright]

H4 is actually useful for Fanaticism..... But the Crown already does that... So yeah, don't do that people. (But if you really want to, remember: Prophetize THEN Crown)

The order doesn't matter; the crown is a booster, not an item that increases the actual unit holy level. Prophetizing a shah wearing the crown takes them from H2 to H4.

H4 is also better for preaching.

If you get to the point where you have one of the priest-boosting artifacts, I'd say give it and the crown to a non-prophet shah so they can charitably act as an additional throne-capper (obviously the flappy shah is more useful for this than the six-legged one).

And for Frumples sake, the thing casts Fanaticism and gives a whole lot of leadership (And the +1 morale boost for troops thing) and finally gives +1 to priestly powers, although given that the only units who can use it are only H1, this only really helps for blessings and vs undead...

It's probably also worth mentioning that since the leadership boost is +100 normal (as well as +25 magic and +25 undead), the standard you-get-+1-awe-for-every-100-item-granted-leadership rule is in effect, so the crown also effectively grants +1 Awe.

[Bitoru]

Guys
How do I

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

get good

[chaoticag]

In order to get good you first must get less bad. Since Dominions is a thinking game a lot of this is basically going to be trying to make yourself more familiar with the game.
 So here's the two big resources I recommend you peek at.

the first is the manual:
http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/manual_dom4.pdf
Even if you read the manual you should have it handy. There's a lot of dense information in there you might otherwise hav missed from playing the game, and sometimes it's easier to understand the manual when you know the game better.

https://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/
So you read the manual, and wanna try out a nation? This is the mod inspector to help you scout a nation you wanna play as to see what their national units are like without loading the game and setting a game up. Ever annoyed that you don't have easy access to stats of summoned units? Well, the mod inspector also lists those, as well as all the spells. Same for what paths it takes to magic item.

Next up, when playing the game make sure to hit the ? key. Nearly every screen has some handy shortcuts or outright functions you won't otherwise be able to access. Spell lists too big? Hitting r limits things to ritual spells, c to combat spells, and each path can be filtered down as well, with only one filter at a time I think. Tired of adjusting the amount of research points in a school to get the most out your research? The + and - buttons help out in that regard as well, modifying by the smallest possible increment.

When it comes to the philosophy behind god design, you gotta move from thinking that your nation should serve your god. You only have one god, and they can only be in one place and do one thing. A good god serves their nation instead. Does your nation need a spell they can't normally cast? Good scales to bolster their armies? A bless to make sure you have elite troops? You should be asking those questions and more. (sidenote, mostly mentioning this since the game asks you to design a god before you manage to get a closer look at your nation. Feels like it primes players to think about their god first instead of their nation).

Another thing is get used to analyzing and really thinking about the troops you recruit. What do they do, why are you hiring them. Every troop you recruit is taking up valuable space if you have another option better suited to the task. In fact, the AI in dom4 actively ignores some units because it cannot utilize them well. It's not that shocking if you play a game where you don't recruit a commander or unit in that game ever.

Lastly, if you wanna get better you gotta get to the game and play it. And fail at it. Then learn from those failures. When you learn to play well against the AI consider joining a multiplayer game. Those make you really think about what you are doing.

[ThtblovesDF]

What chaoticag said.

playing with someone who knows the game in team games helps, but for me personally it was learning to use turns well (do a lot early game), build a 2nd fort soon, value mages very highly, knowing some of the spells and reading a lot of primers. And losing a lot.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not good either thou

*edit*

Mostly one should aim to get the most value out of any unit and spell in any given situation. Mass protection protects all units, so it is better used on a 200+ Army then with 20 guys. Much of the game is planning and guessing right - can you win this fight? If not, why? If the enemy is just to large, with a set of mages and buffs that make them impossible to defeat? The game allows you to work around that, just ignoring the doom-blob and hitting everything else...

[Neonivek]

To get good you must do what most people on the internet do...

do what someone else does unquestioningly.

[Jilladilla]

To get good you must do what most people on the internet do...

do what someone else does unquestioningly.

Don't do this. Seriously Don't. There's a time and a place for every strategy, being flexible is better than being rigid.

Now doing what veteran players say to do? It'll help. But never do it unquestioningly.

But all in all, what cag said. You learn far more from a failure than a win in my honest opinion, but still, try going against the AI first a few times, gives you good expansion training (first 12-15 turns or so) and let's you come to terms with the mechanics.

[Cruxador]

Guys
How do I

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

get good

Play the game a lot. Do it as different nations. Play multiplayer, and pay attention to what your neighbors are doing. Read guides and AARs. Write your own guides and AARs, explaining everything thoroughly so that you get a better understanding of it for yourself too. For that purpose, I write AARs as I do my turns, and enunciating my thinking helps me think more deeply about it.

If the enemy is just to large, with a set of mages and buffs that make them impossible to defeat? The game allows you to work around that, just ignoring the doom-blob and hitting everything else...

Size, mages, and buffs aren't going to make it impossible to defeat. For something like that, you can catch it in a defensive trap and use battlefield-wide spells to take everything out at a great price. It's only if the unit stats are also really good that you can't do that, but really good units are also expensive units so the numbers will be lower.

[ThtblovesDF]

@Cruxador
Sure, but it can be close to (impossible) for your nation in the current situation or plainly not worth it.



We started Round 25 of the Bay12 Dominion Games.

This is a play-by-mail system where various people from the Bay12 community play with and against each other.
Anyone with a forum account is welcome to join. The details of the round will be discussed withhin the thread.

[Frumple]

The worth is pretty proportional to the amount of spite you have in your heart, I find. You have to make the decision whether ruining part of the map is worth that extra real time investment. If nothing else, you can always take those last few turns and use them to tear down your buildings and pillage your lands, so as to give your aggressors little but wasted time and a great deal of unrest to deal with :3

... seeding as much of the map as possible with high stealth (servants) bane venom carriers is pretty great, too, when you've got the death access and gems for it. Even if you don't win, if you can make someone else lose it can be a moral victory, heeheehee.

[feelotraveller]

Just in case anyone is interested Dominions 4 is on sale on Gamersgate for 85% off.  https://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DOM4TA-STEAM/  For the next 6 days...