Dominions 4 Teasers

[Ancient History]

If Man still has cheap temples, then monks are going to be an easy way to fortify (and keep) dominion, especially in the early game. Not that I've ever seen Man fall to a DomKill, but it could happen.

[Korwin]

Man, Agartha, and Ulm. Alright, I'll check them out one at a time. Starting with Man:

I think there is an recruit outside of an fort mage for Man.
I'll check when I get home.

[Korwin]

FAEN +1 100%

[Korwin]

MA Ulm:

Scout is a spy. I'll post only the mages.

Capital only:



Mundane Researcher, Resource Bonus (10), Forge Bonus (1)


Black Priest: 10% FAES Random


Master Smith: 20% FAES Random
Mundane Researcher, Resource Bonus (10), Forge Bonus (2)


Saw no national commanders outside forts.

[Korwin]

MA Agartha:

10% FWED random

Edit:
Current map has no caves, so not shure if there are some non fort recruits.
(looked at an mountain province, but nothing there.)

[Ancient History]

So...MA Ulm is still full of overpriced, underpowered shit?

[Korwin]

Mages are cheap and none are slow recruit. The recruit everywhere mage is immune to the drain scale.
Magic diversity is still bad.

If Man still has cheap temples, then monks are going to be an easy way to fortify (and keep) dominion, especially in the early game. Not that I've ever seen Man fall to a DomKill, but it could happen.

Man still has cheap temples (and Monks, like Logrian Wise Man) dont need forts to recruit)


Edit2:
After creating Pretenders you can look them up, afterwards.

MA Ulm Pretenders:


Edit3:
If someone wants to see an screenshot from an specific unit, ask and I'll post it.
But I'm to lazy to post all of them, like Avoraciopoctules did.

Edit 4:

With the price point on even low end mages so high, I think you'll go a lot of turns unable to recruit casters in every fort. Being able to squeeze out a monk for 25 gold is something I foresee doing much more than I would have in Dominions 3.

-Username17

How much did the Mictlan Priest cost in Dom3?

[Korwin]

For those of you playing with the beta version, feel free to share any interesting new observations you have. A lot of us have been looking forward to Dominions 3++, but the big question is whether Dominion 4 is a step forward, sideways, or backwards.

Recruitment screen capital:


Captiol only mage:


Recruitment screen inland:


Recruit everywhere researcher:


Recruitment screen in an Fort on the coast:


Recruit everywhere on the coast

[Username17]

The big determiner of whether Ulm is still garbage is how well their soldiers do in combat, which has a lot to do with fatigue mechanics and I haven't done or seen any tests. Still, on first, second, and third look Ulm seems to be a pile of garbage. MA Agartha I'm pretty sure is garbage. I don't think there are any surprises that could be waiting for us in their special spells or whatever that would make that faction not be shit.

How much did the Mictlan Priest cost in Dom3?

60 gold. Even the lowliest of casters has been made more expensive, with the cost premium for being a more powerful caster being increased considerably. And the research benefit is relatively smaller. At Magic 1, two Mictlan Priests equals a High Seraph, which did not used to be the case.

Expect people to field across the board less high end mages compared to how many troops they have. Even before we take into account the fact that some units are slow to recruit and simply won't be purchased in quantity at all.

-Username17

[Avoraciopoctules]

Ulm soldiers died pretty easily when I swarmed them with cheap light infantry that was morale-buffed.

The resource bonus on ulm's smiths might make a difference.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Summon Ogres is like Conj 1 or 2, it only requires a little Earth, and it gives you burly neanderthals with clubs. I've seen squads of ogres repeatedly take out lightly-geared-and-buffed archdevils in melee, so I'm thinking they'll make respectable thug counters.

Gives Ulm something to do with Earth gems, at least.

[Shatner]

It looks like Ulm's mages have gotten even cheaper than they were in Dom3. I don't know what a resource bonus is, but I assume it's the percent discount they get while forging (which means it's been reduced to 10%). The big question is what the Forge Bonus does. Does it count as additional paths for forging purposes (like when Forge of the Ancients is up), meaning the Master Smith is considered an E4F3 when forging? That might be something...

Don't know. But I would be sad if the same nations were the joke options for their era. The dunce cap should be passed around a bit from revision to revision.

EDIT: A big thanks to Avoraciopoctules and Korwin for the screenshots.

[Korwin]

Forge Bonus = reduce gem cost (no longer %)*
Resource bonus = increases resource in province for recruitment.

so an master Smith + dwarfen hammer creates 5 gems items for One gem.

[Shatner]

Forge Bonus = reduce gem cost (no longer %)*
Resource bonus = increases resource in province for recruitment.

so an master Smith + dwarfen hammer creates 5 gems items for One gem.

Huh... that's a really interesting take on it. You'll be recruiting master smiths every turn everywhere because (sad though it is) they are your best researcher, battle mage, forger, and site-searcher (unless Holy sites have made a big comeback). Also, you'll be trying really hard for that 20% random path on the Master Smiths. And while the smiths are piling up (and it seems they are quite cheap by Dom 4 standards) your in-province resources are increasingly steadily. More Smiths = more troops. And if Ulm troops still cost next-to-nothing gold-wise then having an army that is actually massable in the mid-game and costs virtually no money or upkeep might actually be something.

Assuming, of course, that the resource bonuses stack from multiple smiths.

[Korwin]

Ulm Test:
First turn:145 R
Second turn: 155 R (1 Master Smith)
fast forwad
11 turn: 216 R (10 Master Smith's, 24 Unrest - I suppose some bad Event)
No Expansion, Production 3

Ulm Test 2 (with Sloth3):
First turn: 55 R
Second turn: 65 R (1 Master Smith)
11 Turn: 155 R (10 Master Smith's, no unrest this time)

I'm surprised the Bonus from the Smith is not influenced by the scales...

[name_here]

Ulm doesn't seem to have countered their fundamental problem, which is that they're about not having magic in a game that is about having magic. Unless they've either got some seriously awesome E1/E1H1 spells hiding somewhere or their basic troops are packing special abilities or superhuman stats (or their encumbrance has been dropped a whole bunch) they're mostly fucked. I guess that making mages more expensive for everyone else and making the best ones take multiple turns to recruit buffs them via nerfing everyone else, but probably not by enough.

[Ancient History]

Even if they're pumping out cheap magic items and fielding lots of troops, they still don't have any good inherent recruitable thugs as far as I can see.

[K]

The Ulm playthrough that I watched seem to have focused on using the pike-men. I think that long weapons now seem to parry shorter ones about 50% of the time and negate the attack, making Ulm really beefy.

[K]

Anyone mind checking Lanka for me?

[Avoraciopoctules]

Anyone mind checking Lanka for me?

Preliminary scan:

Rakshasarajas are not slow to recruit. Rakshasi are slow, however.

Palankashas get Chaos Power, so order scales weaken them.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Okay, ALL recruitable rakshasas have Chaos Power 1, which means a point of nerfage for each level of order in the province. Rajas still look like powerful mistform thugs, and Palankashas still cost 55 gold.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Jumping back to Ulm, Summon Ogres is Conjuration 2 and requires Earth 1. Basically all your mages can cast it easily.

5 Earth Gems turns into 5+ ogres. I think this looks like a seriously nice deal, you could churn out like 40 ogres on the turn you finish researching to Conj 2. And your 5 cap gems are all Earth, you can probably afford it.

[K]

Anyone mind checking Lanka for me?

Preliminary scan:

Rakshasarajas are not slow to recruit. Rakshasi are slow, however.

Palankashas get Chaos Power, so order scales weaken them.

Holy nerfbat, Batman!

Well, I guess I need a new favorite nation.

[Avoraciopoctules]

What do you want in your dream nation? If it's just great bless troops, I haven't checked out any giant nations yet.

[K]

What do you want in your dream nation? If it's just great bless troops, I haven't checked out any giant nations yet.

Based on what I know now, some Bless-able giants who can recruit some national mages from provinces using only a lab. I seem to remember that one of the new nations did that.

Still sad about Lanka. The nerfs to Blood hurt and the nerfs to Air were negligible, but ruining my Rakshasa is just too much.