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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
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Don't worry, i tend to be always too lazy to do MM to the degree Arch, Turin or Yurri do it. So if i make the "fault" to try to MM in the next game with them as much as they eventually i will stop Micromanaging so much and get soundly beaten by them again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif. Quote:
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Some of the summons might soon get summoned, i got a strong incentive to research conjuration. I found the ultimate gateway this turn !!!!! |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Ultimate Gateway, isn't that the 40% bonus to Conjuration site? Wow! Talk about luck!
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Oooooh. Even better.
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"Winter in the year 2 of the ascension wars"
http://img326.imageshack.us/img326/2324/1uh6.jpg We found the Ultimate Gateway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif. http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/9783/2ke8.jpg So soon we can try out some of our national summons. Nation specific summons that are only summonable by 1-2 nations are in blue. We have 5 nation specific summons in conjuration and some more in the enchantment school. Currently all gems still flow into finding new sites though and the others get stockpiled till we have more research, because our nation has good troops, so for us there is not much need for those lowlevel summons imho http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Show the enchament tree next! Pleaseee~?
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Special update for Jurri http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Jurri said i have not written enough yet about reasoning behind my strategies i did so far. Well the reason is because there was no strategy at all behind my turns, i just did random stuff http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. More seriously though Jurri is right i think so i will try to explain my plans (and lose the last bits of reputation as good strategian i might still have along the way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif ). We are still in the early game phase of the game. This is a good opportunity to use QM's excellent early game guide for Dom2: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...art=1&vc=1 It is basically still true for Dom3, but there are lots of changes of course, so QM's guide needs to be rewritten for Dom3 eventually on the one hand because of new indies and changed indies and on the other hand because of the slowed down research. So SC gods become less important in Dom3 in the earlygame imho. There are two categories of game types for Dom3 imho. Expansion differs for them. Category 1: Blitzkräääg games Blitzes (how surprising http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif ) and small SP/MP games. I think you could use provinces per player as the main criteria, lets say any game with less then 10 provinces per player averagely. In those games fast expansion is probably most important. If the game is MP then you can rush some players earlygame and maybe completely neglect diplomacy. Category 2: Sitzkrääääg games Those games are very long games which reach the very lategame stage almost always. At least if the province count is > then 20 provinces per player averagely then it is almost granted that the game will last at least 100 turns. Here we should differ if the game is SP or MP, but imho in both modes, though the reasons are different, it is best to not overexpand. SP: Some additional castles are more important than some more provinces imho. In Dom3 getting new castles is tougher than in Dom2, and most indy mages are much weaker than in Dom2. Also most nations have very good troops, much better than the indy troops too. So in Dom3 it is imho better to have 40 provinces and 5 castles than 1-2 castles but 60 provinces at the same time in a huge game. MP: If you are number 1 in provinces and gold income and have a rush strategy, your opponents will fear you and ally vs. you. The Ironhawk style is imho the best for longterm games. Do friendly diplomacy with all the players, grow in secrecy and optimally have one player who rushes to mark as badboy. You will be rank 2-5 in most scoregraphs but in truth you are number 1 in power. You try to hoard as many uniques as you can get and eventually you start hostilities when you feel strong enough by "dowing" the other players indirectly, e.g. through casting some globals in 1 single turn. Time will tell though if this strat is still as good in Dom3, because gold is a more important resource and hoarding is harder. Ok enough about game classifications. Our SP game clearly belongs to the Sitzkräääg category http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. My thoughts about Argatha: My two most important units, the Necro and the blindfighter, are both non-capitol only, but have only 1 Mapmove. So many castles close to the front are important. Because they are so slow expansion will be a bit slow though. We speeded up our expansion by heavily use of mercs. Imho though Argatha is never the fastest late game expander. But it is not important. Argathas strongest time will be in midgame. The Argatha Crossbows look promising too, but my experience with them is not so good. Versus HI and HC they tend to lose. Since their precision is rather low they tend to inflict huge friendly fire casualities too. The cave knights are too expensive, and the various argatha infantry units are not bad, but imho the blindfighter is the best one out of them. Argatha LI needs too many resources. It is more MI, but they cannot be used well in combination with your crossbows and they take casualities vs. enemy HI/Crossbows/HC. 10-15 Blindfighters with my bless can take most indy provinces without taking losses. Only barbarian provinces and provinces with lots of HC/Knights i avoid. Knightprovinces i avoid in general, vs. Barbarians i use either indy shortbows or Argatha light crossbows. My initial research goals depend. Thaum 2 for augury and gnome lore and conjuration 2 for dark knowledge are normally my first research goals. After that i usually try to get conjuration 3, enchantment 3 and evocation 6 asap. Once those goals are researched Argatha is ready for some pvp conquests. Your Necros can then do probably the most impressive midgame battlemagic in late era: -Skellyspamming -Banefire -Gifts from Heaven -Magma Eruption -Blade Wind Also as support magic they can cast summon ep. And my bless gives them another 4 reinvigoration. If you fight undead hordes you can also research wither bones. So in midgame as long as there are no good counters Argatha rocks. My Necros can easily kill hordes of lightly armored troops with blade wind, heavi troops with magma eruption and enemy SCs with banefire and gifts from heaven. If you get rushed by humans earlygame you can defend with skellispam. It only gets problematic once your enemies have counter spells. Rain of Stones, Flames from the Sky and Mind Hunt are the spells i fear most in longterm MP games. But in midgame normally you should be able to rush some opponents. So by the time the above mentioned spells become available you can hopefully overwhelm your opponent. Also your national summons and classical thugs are good options. For lategame you could try the demilich/wraith lord/ghost riders/tartarian/flames from the sky route. And when your great mother awakens she can summon a faery court. Then you get access to air magic too. And ivy kings for vine ogre spamming. Only getting access to water and blood is complicated for Argatha. But for late era they are a magically extremely flexible nation. That are my thoughts about Argatha so far, ideas and discussion are very welcome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
It seems that you've thought out the things, but it's kind of a pity that some units are apparently not worth it.
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But if the argatha units are worth it or not is hard to say http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. And it is only my opinion for this special game. In MP more units would be worth it. Also if i do not decide to do a bless i need to use other units than blindfighters. So better do not read it generally, but specifically for my game with my scales and god http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. In SP surviveable troops are imho important, like my blindfighters. Argatha is really tough though nontheless. If i play them in a mp game vs. QM i usually try to use only indy shortbows as troops. Argatha is really complicated. Your Crossbowmen get beaten by archers normally. Only the heavy ones would have decent protection. But the heavy ones get easily owned by meelee troops. Your light infantry is too resource heavy, so you cannot really mass produce them, hence not use them like real LI. Your HI is too high encumberance and too resourceintensive, so they lose vs. enemy LI hordes. Also none of your troops survives friendly fire hits from your necros anyways. So in MP i tend to use only masses of slingers or shortbows with my necros if possible. But that is only my playstyle http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead AAR
I'm wondering what this "Partial Darkvision" ability does? I never noticed it in Dom II. Is there a spell that turns day into nighttime? I might as well ask also if PD shows up in the little army icons that represent enemy defenses on the map.
Man, this is going to be good. Caelum and Abyssia right next to each other! You could not ask for more interesting neighbors. I kinna wish in Dominions there was a way to view which nations were already at war with each other :-). Too bad I never thought about it before, hehe. =$= |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Dominions 2 had "darkness" spells. Non-undead units got huge penalties to attack, defense, and precision in darkness. I assume that darkvision simply ameliorates those effects.
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Also, as mentioned in the progress list, Fiends of Darkness have special ability which makes them more powerful in dark and less powerful under the effects of Solar Brilliance. |
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I agree, Jayded. These developers are extremely creative with the details to their game. It's a major reason why I love Dominions, as well!
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Currently my AAR is a bit paused, i got carried away recently with Silent Storm Sentinels. They had it this month in a pc game magazine, so i bought it a few days ago. Since i loved Ja 2 i am now addicted to Sentinels. But in a few days i should have finished the campaigns (Sentinels campaign and Silent Storm Axis campaign) and then i am done with Silent Storm for a while i think and can fully focus on Dom3 again.
But currently i am curious about when i meet my first Panzerklein http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Well, hey, I'll take your beta copy if you're not using it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
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Hm my Sentinels Addiction is almost gone not because of Sentinels but because of PCPowerplay, the gaming magazine that offered Silent Storm Gold as full version in their magazine. They did only use Sentinels 1.0 and because the CD is not original you cannot patch it. Has probably been the last time i buy a game this way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif. At least it is positive for you, now i will soon write a new chapter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
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But a turn for the AAR takes now already at least 30 minutes playtime http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Ahh, a new chapter. I'm hoping we get to see some of those summons.
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
"Late winter in the year 2 of the ascension wars"
WAR !!! http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/9004/1ee2.jpg http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/1093/2if0.jpg Fortunately we only border 1 ermor province so far, nontheless the ermorian DOW is annoying. We have basically no forces in this area, and research is not ready for ermor neither (we only have evocation 4 so far). My idea how to deal with this problem is to defend only the next turns and research thaumaturgy 6 for wither bones and evocation 6 for the other goodies mentioned already in my update for Jurri. “Early spring in the year 3 of the ascension wars” http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7051/3bp4.jpg A barbarian attack into the heart of our empire http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif. Here you have your first summon, Nerfix http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8133/4gt0.jpg Costs 3 deathgems. Not bad, but i won't use them i think and rather wait for other summons. The attack and defense ratings are simply too low for my taste. http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/9412/5yo1.jpg At the end of our turn. The barbarians will keep the province 1-2 more turns, x-bows move slow, and there are 70 barbarians, so i need to amass at least 50 x-bows to have a reasonable chance of routing them before getting into melee range. The conquest of the seas is slowly proceeding though. But our expansion slowed down quite a bit and now our misfortune 3 scale starts taking its toll. Almost every turn at least 1 negative event. Our gem income per month is ok: 7 firegems 1 airgem 2 watergems 18 earthgems 15 pearls 15 deathgems 3 naturegems Most of our land provinces have now been searched for fire/earth/astral and death. With the underwater provinces i wait, i hope to somehow find an indy water mage for voice of tiamat or get very lucky with a necro that i can turn him into an accashic record caster. Theoretically it is possible to get an astral 2 necro because of his 100% and 10% randoms who can both be astral too. But the chance for that is rather low, i am no statistics expert, but my guess would be that the chance is like 1 out of 100 or so. Maybe i instead empower a necro simply. Since accashic is conjuration with my 50% bonus site it becomes then competetive even costwise with the normally better way to sitesearch via the single path searchspells (that's what i did so far). |
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Currently there are "only" 18 nations in late era, so late era is the nation with currently the fewest nations. For early era there are currently 20 nations and for middle era 21. New nations are probably added via patches (like it was done for Dom2, Dom2 got at least 5 new nations iirc via patches http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ). So eventually there might be about 25 nations per era i think http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Out of curiosity, what utility do you see the cavern wight having? With his low scores in attack and defense, as you pointed out, he doesn't seem like he's much better than most national units and 3 death gems a pop seems a bit much if you're only getting one at a time. I guess his hps make him a nice buffer between your mages and attackers, but is there some use beyond that for him that I'm missing?
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He is amphibian and poison resistent, so for conquering the seas if you find no ichtyids he might be rather useful. Then at level 8 there is the spell hall of dead. There for 30 death gems you get 20 such cavern wights. But if you can cast that spell conjuration 9 is not far, and then the old wights from dom2 are there. There you get 20 wights for 30 gems too. And those have bane blades. Hm maybe they get a cost decrease in a patch http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. As they are they are okay but not outstanding and there are better alternatives with the classical death summons for them. If they would cost 2 gems and 15 gems for the mass summon spell, they would be useful though i think. Now they already have that amphibian niche, so they have their uses, but only 1 out of 20 games or so. And their mr is rather good, so they don't get banished easily. |
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I think they are a bit better than that. They have Str 17 and glaives - even with their att of 10, they'll massacre any unshielded heavy infantry, and even against shielded infantry or cavalry they should fare quite well. They are also available in MA, where they'll just massacre e.g. Ulm.
They are tough for non-mindless undead, and have exceptional morale for non-mindless units. If there was an item comparable to Ivy Crown, they would be just plain better than Vine Ogres, and Vine Ogres are good. They also have the excellent mapmove 3 of most undead, and their high magic resistance makes them more resistant against most common undead counters. They aren't exceptional unit, or even something you'll want to summon in every game, but they are good in few situations (underwater, against heavy armor) and a bit more useful in MA than in LA. |
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Oooh, Cavern Wights. Expensive, perhaps too expensive but they look like they can pack a punch.
Let's hope the Ermorian DoW won't be too problematic. |
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I don't remember how many option a necro gets for his random, but assuming 4 (ie all sorcery picks), that makes it a chance of 0.00625 (or 0.625%) [which is (1/4)*(0.1)*(1/4)]
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
"Conjuration 9 is not far"...I was thinking maybe with the deccelerated research, the gap from 8 to 9 might be more substantial? You'd have to tell us how that goes.
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
"Spring in the year 3 of the ascension wars"
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6945/5bu8.jpg Ermor attacks the same indy province i attacked. http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3499/2hr4.jpg I had only 50 crossbows, ermor wins with huge losses. Maybe i do not know Dom2 as good as i think, but i think those ghuls are new Dom3 Ermor units http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3299/3of7.jpg The poison claw has additionally to damage a paralyzing poision effect which does fatigue damage i think. This effect seems to have no MR-savethrow, so a huge horde of them might be dangerous for a SC. The ghuls are size 2 so they can swarm well. http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7097/4fq8.jpg I almost overlooked it. We found Loremasters http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif. Loremasters seem much much weaker than in Dom2, BUT they are in fact much more useful in Dom3 because they are probably the only mage that can have all 8 paths! This reduces MM a lot. Eventually i will get an Astral2 Loremaster and sitesearch with accashic then http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. It will take at least 10 more turns though to get evocation 6, construction 6 and conjuration 5. But i have searched enough classically imho, so i will stop searching now and save all pearls for accashic http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
The ghouls were in Dominions 1...and 2...and they've always been cheap fodderdead. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif
And yay for Loremasters! |
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Hm i think i will attach all screenshots normal again, this is probably better than linking them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. |
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I can't recall ever getting ghuls as Ermor AE or SG, they only got soulless as freespawns i think. Maybe i misremember though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif |
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You misremember, Ermor gets them as freespawn. Ermor and other unholies could aslo reanimate Ghouls and there was a spell that summoned ghouls.
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I don't think that they had the poison claw before. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
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I looooved ghouls (as you can probably tell by my avatar), and use them probably more than I should have in my BE Ermor game a while back. They're actually not too bad at taking down units like Jotuns, and it can be a pretty irritating way to reclaim lost provinces if you're sick of Black Hawks or have way too many death gems.
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Looooving ghouls sounds wrong. Somehow it does.
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Man, I had no idea ghouls had poisoned claws. That makes them a bit more desirable in my eyes, now. =$= |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
So, does that mean that AR is Astral 2 now?
Oh, and ghouls were not that common mainly because IIRC they cost population to reanimate, which was kind of a rare resource playing as AE or SG http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif |
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I said astral 2 cause then i can forge starshine skulcaps, as Endoperez already hinted http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. Quote:
But in earlygame and midgame you lose many turns compared to Dom2, and in lategame eventually you should be able to accumulate at least with some nations about double research than in Dom2. So in lategame you likely research almost as fast as in Dom2 but in early- and midgame you lose many turns of course. If you play on a very large map though you might maybe even research faster than in Dom2 with all the extra space. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Well, one thing to bear in mind is that even with the gold income being doubled, you can still only buy one commander per province at a time. So, you're still slowed somewhat on purchasing your researchers, at least until you build enough castles to buy those non-capital spellcasters. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
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Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Yeah, I'll keep all this in mind when I get the game. To be honest, I don't even know the precise reason research costs were doubled. I don't know if the intent was to delay magic in the early game (in that case, it worked perfectly) or to make it harder to get to the powerful spells in general (in that case, more would need to be done). I'm kind of making a mathematical observation here - and I may draw a graph to show it - that going from high level spell to higher level spell will not be any different than it was in dom2. In fact, I'd predict the nations that will be hit the hardest from the research changes will actually be the same ones that suffered in Dom2 from not having the reseach potential of the other nations. Again, a graph would show that. Of course, if it's all intentional, it's all good.
Anyway, I don't want to go OT any more; I'm becoming rude. I'd start a new thread, but it's probably not worth it. =$= |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
I would say the reason for the doubled research costs are very simple- the amount of gold was doubled but they didn't want to make research comparatively easier.
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Hm all in all research is slower in Dom3. Not much slower than in Dom2 though in the lategame. But unlike in Dom2 in Dom3 magic diversity is harder to achieve with the new random system. Most indy mages got nerfed a lot too. They are more valuable than before for diversifying your magic, but they are weaker than in Dom2. In this game i am very lucky to have found the loremasters. But even with them it is harder than in Dom2 to diversify. Some booster items have higher requirements to forge, and then there is the old age, so eventually many of my loremasters and necros will die. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
OT: New Screenshots look uglier than the old ones because i turned down graphics to a minimum. My PC is not the newest and has problems with mass battles.
Nothing important happens the next turns. We get averagely 2 provinces per turn but lose one province per turn through a random event attack. We have now 300 research points, so research is slowly progressing. "Fall in the year 3 of the ascension wars" Caelum dows and attacks 1 province in which it wins. We have almost finished our war research though, magma eruption and the other toys are already ready. Here is the secret test vs. barbarian "volunteers" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/2274/1wc9.jpg Magma eruption is my favourite non-gem battlefield anti-troop spell. 1 successful hit kills 10+ troops often http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8088/2xl2.jpg The border situation with caelum. They took 1 province, but i have many castles there and they have not much troops there, 50-200 troops per province. I will need 2-3 turns to position my armies, but then my necros in combination with the blessed fighters should overwhelm caelum fine. |
Re: Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead
Speaking about gold, income, blah blah... how about profits from Alchemy ? Were they increased, or has transforming gems to gold become comparatively useless ? Does it still matter that fire gems fetch best prices ?
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