Dom3: Revenge of the Den

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:59 am

Rabelais wrote:I did get a few hellbind hearts off but mostly that just meant I got trampled extra when they routed.

Yeah, I was wondering why the Mammoths were retreating towards your edge of the map. Hilariously a couple just barely missed trampling your head casters

.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 2:26 am

Ikeren wrote:Uh...start with easy AI and a strong nation; Frank recommends MA man, which is probably a good suggestion, then start with real slow/careful turns, and read guides while waiting for the turns to run?

Actually, if I recall correctly Frank suggests MA Man because its troops are most closely similar to the indies - only a little better. Which works okay against an AI that uses a lot of indie troops.

Having played the game more extensively though, I think the best learning game is to actually play with any "normal" nation (not LA Ermor or R'yleh!) but to make sure that you start out with a rainbow pretender from this guide:

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/User:Sec ... ster_guide

As this will teach you how to improve your paths and eventually let you try out all the spells and forge a very wide variety of items.

I'd also personally recommend picking EA Ermor for the starting nation - as Ermor has pretty good starting troops which you can supplement later on with Rainbow magic, albeit it's not an ideal nation if you want to learn how to make a non-magic combined-arms army work.

But then again, there's not a lot of nations in Dominions that put equal importance to archery, infantry, and cavalry anyway, and "Just recruit Princeps" greatly simplifies things when you should really be focusing on magic anyway.

Akula · Post by **Akula** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:19 am

LA Ti'en Chi works very well against the AI. It has excellent PD and good troops and mages for the age. Plus the sacreds are badass. They can do most things and do them quite well.

Rabelais · Post by **Rabelais** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:32 am

If you have the full game. another good nation to use is machaka.

They have stealth troops, assasins, cav of various interesting flavors, good battlemages, very mobile archery and very solid infantry.

They are especially fun under cbm 1.8 which is what most medium to large, MP games will be played with.

They aren't overpowered and have lousy province defense, which is good, because playing SP with overpowered nations or nations with good province defense (LA TC has the best PD in the game!) teaches bad habits. PD works against the AI much better than it does against humans.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:12 am

I'd say it's actually fairly easy to beat up the AI once you figure out how to do magic properly, regadless of nation.

What's more problematic for newbies, I feel, is that they could run into a fair amount of frustration if they can't expand properly.

EA Ermor, Abysia, and various Nordic nations with Skin Shifters all have fairly solid mainline troop choices which do very well against indies for early expansion. Which frees up your pretender to be a rainbow so you can learn how to build up and use magic.

Because the alternative to strong initial troops is either a bless pretender or an SC Pretender. And while both of these builds can be very strong, they won't necessarily teach you how to do magic.

Once a player has figured out how to use magic, only then they should pick a nation that they like the "feel" of and figure out its intricacies. That's a major reason why I picked Chelms - I really liked its theme and its emphasis on Castles - but it'd never have been competitive without me learning "Do it yourself" magic tricks first.

Akula · Post by **Akula** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 6:37 am

Rabelais wrote:nations with good province defense (LA TC has the best PD in the game!) teach bad habits. PD works against the AI much better than it does against humans.

Sure, and I don't recommend sticking with them forever, but LA Tien Chi is so solid on so many levels that it really does have freedom to execute whatever strategy you might want to go for. But the AI has this annoying tendency to dogpile and having good PD can really make it a lot less tedious if you are struggling to win at all.

TheNotSoEvilNecromancer · Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:34 am

A Proclamation from Agartha!

I hereby declare war on the indiscreet nation blabbermouths and tonguewaggers that is T'ien Ch'i! In three months time we shall join the forces of Man in righteous battle against our common foe/tattletale.

Chelmian arrows will blot out the sun and the Pale Ones shall march again!

-Pud

Advisor to the Prime Minister's Advisor

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:17 am

BNN Update:

Chelmian Army Conquers Gryphon Spires. TC Fortress at Halemyre Under Threat!

BNN Bards have confirmed today that the the Gryphon Spires have fallen to the advancing Chelmian Army. TC forces are reportedly rushing reinforcements for a last-ditch effort to defend their fortress at Halemyre.

Chelmian analysts have estimated that should Halemyre fall, well over a third of TC's cavalry production would be lost. Both sides are now reportedly gearing up for a massive battle that could decide the Chelmian-TC war.

Rabelais · Post by **Rabelais** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:56 pm

I'm going to need a 12 hour delay please. I cant get llama to accept my turn.

Gnosticism Is A Hoot · Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:50 am

Rabelais wrote:I'm going to need a 12 hour delay please. I cant get llama to accept my turn.

I could do with an extension also, real life has intruded pretty heavily today.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 3:18 am

Looks like a couple of people staled. Do we do a roll back? I haven't opened my turn file yet.

jimbojones1971 · Post by **jimbojones1971** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 3:39 am

Zinegata wrote:Looks like a couple of people staled. Do we do a roll back? I haven't opened my turn file yet.

Yeah, three people. I'd be cool with that. (I did wonder why Abysia hadn't started knitting his dispersed forces together just yet, guess this explains it.)

Anyone else got a preference either way? Three is a hefty minority.

Akula · Post by **Akula** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:08 am

I personally wouldn't care about a rollback, either way it shouldn't effect my turn much, I only made one attack anyway.

TheNotSoEvilNecromancer · Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:57 am

So at this point are we sticking with this turn or trying to rollback, I made my turn earlier so I'm not adversely effected by the result, but I'd like to know whether I should start acting as if this current one is canon.

Oh and for everyone involved here is the schedule with my NAP with T'ien Ch'i.

Turn 33: I declared war.
Turn 34: NAP still in effect. Two turns to go.
Turn 35: NAP still in effect. One turn to go.
Turn 36: NAP still in effect. Shit's about to get real.
Turn 37:

Rabelais · Post by **Rabelais** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:59 am

Yeah, got my turn done a tiny bit early, but couldn't get llama to take it. Not sure why. I have a memory leak that makes on svchost grow until it crashes, which sometimes mucks things, but I restarted and it didnt help.

Childcare left at 4 so I didnt have too long to debug...and usually my wife is home by 9:00, but in this case she didnt get home until almost midnight, so I had no shot to try again before hosting.

Definitely going to need a rollback I think. I havent looked at the turn, but midgame stales just before late winter are killers for everyone especially abysia. Not to mention my boots of youth clients. Last time we had a rollback I had much better events during the phantom turn, so I think I will just stay blind.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:40 am

Ergh, has Korwin been in here lately?

Gnosticism Is A Hoot · Thu Mar 10, 2011 1:16 pm

Rollback is fine by me.

jimbojones1971 · Post by **jimbojones1971** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:00 pm

Zinegata wrote:Ergh, has Korwin been in here lately?

Possibly not, since he has been eliminated. I'll try PMing him (I think he is also on the Shrapnel board).

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:14 pm

Sorry guys, I got "The Crippled God" today.
Doing an turnback now.

Dont forget to clear your folder from the .2h files, otherwise the game will crash.

Rabelais · Post by **Rabelais** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:40 pm

Do I need to clear my unsubmitted .2h?

I havent downloaded turn 34, and have turn 33's .2h ready, but I can download 33 and do the turn again fresh if that is necessary.

Zinegata · Post by **Zinegata** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:06 am

I don't think you need to clear if you haven't downloaded 34.

TheNotSoEvilNecromancer · Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:37 am

Just a heads up, if you're ever unsure if a turn in going to be recalled save it into a different save folder than your main one. That way you can avoid creating a Dominions Time Paradox.

Korwin · Post by **Korwin** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:32 am

Turns don't need to be resubmitted.
As I understand it, the next turn is dangerous, if you looked at (or did anything in) the now nonexistend turn.

TheNotSoEvilNecromancer · Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:12 pm

So I'm less upset about Bogus sieging my fort after reading this.

Rabelais · Post by **Rabelais** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:30 pm

Why are most people's turn 33 .2h's unsubmitted if llamaserver saves them all, shouldn't it just have been ulm tc and me unsubmitted? I was told changing your turn could break the game, but maybe I misunderstand, shouldn't the stored .2hs get used?