Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Wow, what a suboptimal starting location. And my first turn is away.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Marignon's first turn is locked in. I wound up making some last-minute adjustments to my original plan...hopefully they won't haunt me later.

Only two left now. Will the next turn host early if all the turns come in before the deadline, or will it wait until the last minute either way?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

It will host early once all the turns are in.

By the way hope you enjoy the game guys!

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

BTW, since these early turns take so little time, if you are the last to send in your turn please wait until the game hosts and then complete your next turn. A brisk pace early on helps get everyone into the game. :)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Hmm, I think I know where you are. Well, on the bright side it's a chance to work on your diplomacy skills? ;)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Yeah, that is going to be very important. In most of my testgames I had a lot of provinces after 12 turns. Not going to happen I think. Ah well, lets just hope the indies I'm surrounded with aren't 80+ knights or barbarians.

Wait... the small crowns on the map, do these indicate capitol provinces?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

No, I think they're victory point provinces. Even though we're not using VP. Not sure why the game does this.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

I think I might be in a different timezone to everyone else, all the turns had been done by the time I sent mine in... :p

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Second turn unrest at capitol: 29. Love those unrest events... fffffuuuu (and I only took misfortune 1 just to prevent this).

Ah well, at least the neighboring indies are easy to conquer.

Greetings from the cold north everyone. Hope your starts are better than mine. (of course that is a lie, I wish you all turn 1 knight attacks ;)).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Oh no! My Pretender who is definitely a Prince of Death and not anything else just got hit by a meteor! Oh, why did I take turmoil/misfortune 3?! :hurt:

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Yeah, it helps to get lucky with timezones and schedules. Still, if everyone does what you just did and immediately works on their next turn when they are last to send in a turn, the game will move at a good clip. :up:

That's tough. It can really slow down your expansion if you are playing a nation that needs reources. Actually my last game on this map I was also hit with a couple of unrest events early on (also playing with only M1). I was very lucky I already had one expansion party out or it really would have killed my expansion efforts.

Lol. Ain't that the truth!


Random thoughts: You can glean a good amount of information about people's builds by looking at the score tables early on. Also, don't forget to look over the available mercenaries. They can provide a boost to your expansion and, a bit later, allow you to site search in paths you don't have.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Looks like Pythium thought of the mercs first.

I have a nice range of indy difficulties around me. Lets hope the 20 milita and light infantry is as easy as it seems.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Here is the link:
http://www.llamaserver.net/showScores.cgi?game=BootCamp

Lot of interesting stuff there actually. 2 awake pretenders (or at least 2 with magical paths, I suspect pythium also has an awake pretender used for patrolling in the first turn (700+ gold? wow!)).

But I cannot really interpret the dominions part, and does pythium start with better gem sites? (because they have 8 gems, instead of just 5).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

My guess would be a pretender that gives free gems. I did 140% tax and patrol. You can do higher and have better scales. I just stuck with 140% because high quick often left me with unrest.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Damn you Heavy Cavalry! In the one spot that would most negatively impact my first three turns of expansion. Oh, and what's this? Bloodhenge Druids right smack dab in the middle of my ALTERNATE path to efficient expansion. That's awesome how that happened.

At least it's not as bad as that one test game where literally every adjacent province but one was all Heavy Cavalries.

I choose to blame Pythium for this outrage based on the fact that I was totally gonna buy those mercenaries.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Wow, I have double everyone else's dominion. o.o'

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

You have an alternate expansion path? Bah, we giants of the frozen north only need one. And our god Loki, in all his wisdom has only given us just what we need.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Which is a bad start for a nasty dominion type nation :). You are already a threat ;). (I guess you took dom10, and awake).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Bahhhhhhhh, you didn't want those cowards anyway... they just ran away and cost me most of my starting army!!:eek:

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

How could you possibly know that? The earliest turn in which a mercenary could be involved in combat hasn't resolved yet!

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Thanks for posting the link, I should have thought to do that.

The dominion part can be tricky. It can help to combine it with the research scores. Generally if someone has an awake pretender they'll have them research the first turn rather than attack blindly. In the case of C'tis we see very high dominion and some research the first turn. This indicates an awake SC with some magic and very high dominion.

Yes, they start with 8 gems income (1w2a5s) for no good reason balance-wise. My best guess is the devs thought it thematic. It would actually be nice for CBM to reduce them to 5 gems.

140% is a safe bet and I go with this a lot because usually I'm expanding with a few elite troops and don't want to risk high unrest reducing my resources to recruit them. A nation like Caelum could safely overtax much more because flyers make such good patrollers.

Yeah, I consider heavy cav/knights to the the worst overall (well, aside from things like those air mages that will lightning you to death). Barbarians can pack a punch but if you have archers or can recruit indie archers you can deal with them easily enough.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Some thoughts on expansion:

If you don't have archers recruit indie archers. Very useful in dealing with things like barbarians. Even if you do have archers you may want to recruit indies to free up resources at your cap for recruiting other troops.

If you are attacking a province with archers use decoys. Just put a couple of units in a squad and place them in front and a little to the left or right of all your other troops. The archers will attack the first squad that comes in range (your decoy) and keep targeting it until it is killed/routed. Archers work best on massed targets and sometimes those decoys will survive quite a long time (sometimes the whole battle).

When facing heavy cavalry put your worst troops up front to absorb the first strike from the lances. Just as with archers, feel free to recruit indies for this rather than using cap resources.

If you are using an SC to expand don't attack a lizard province. Lizard shamans will cast curse on your SC. This will greatly increase your chance of receiving afflictions when wounded. Lizards are actually pretty hard hitting with two attacks per round but even if you escape that battle unscathed you've increased the odds of picking up an affliction along the way, impairing your expansion and reducing the deterrent effect of your SC. Being cursed is especially dangerous for pretenders without regeneration. BTW, use archers against lizards the same way you would barbarians.

Recruit indie scouts. Intelligence is very important and early on also has the added bonus of allowing you to contact other players and work out a deal before your expansion forces accidentally collide.

After you take whatever provinces around your cap you need for resources aim to expand outwards and set your borders. You can always come back later and take indies inside those borders. But don't be too aggressive. If you box in another player they may just attack, feeling they have no other choice. Also, if you take the province lead (especially a large lead) you'll become a target.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

5s? That makes the capital a nice big target :). Neah, currently i'm not going to be in a position to seriously threaten anybody. :)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

There are quite a few tough ones I run into semi often like the evil druids and undead that I have trouble with. There are others I've only run into once like Pegasus Cavalry, Kappa and the Dwarven guys so I don't know how strong they are.

Using Indies is something I'm unsure about because they often have quite low resource provinces so I can only get a handful of soldiers per province and it seems a lot of work and time to get them into your army. I guess this could be because I have too little indy generals. I do get some to fetch troops from my capital but at points they'll end up standing around doing nothing and I feel like I wasted money on them. I think I might be getting too little scouts as well. It's hard to know if I just want a few or if I should be buying commanders regularly or if there is a balance and what it is.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Depending on your type of expansion force, the amphibious guys with the nets can also be very dangerous. Trapping your elite units while the chaff beats them to death.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

I meant to say aside from mage provinces but even then I don't think my statement is correct. You both listed some good examples (definitely am wary of those nets with small forces of elite troops). Another type that can be a nasty surprise is elephants. So it depends on what you're fielding and whether you knew the province had those units or it was a surprise.


Resources can definitely be a problem, especially if you took Sloth and your dominion spreads. I generally look for the tribal archers. They have map move 2 (the lion tribe actually has map move 3) and have a low resource cost. If you can get a province with about 30 resources you can recruit them quickly enough to help out in expansion. So I'll recruit a commander in one province and 10 tribal archers in another. The next I recruit another 10 archers and the commander goes to pick them up.

I wouldn't go overboard on recruiting non-scout indie commanders but having a few idle doesn't cost that much. To me it's better to have them available than to have to reinforce troops and need to use a mage to do it (assuming they have the leadership necessary to move the troops in sufficient numbers).

I'm a big fan of scouts. Of course the biggest reason is for intel. You can also use them to carry gems or other equipment for your armies. And they can act as mind hunt and seeking arrow catchers (obviously not in stealth mode for the latter use).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

And before you all start thinking about getting froggy with Pythium....that 5S is a STARTING little stash NOT every turn (and I personally see no reason to decrease it). Besides, I have to have SOME research before those gems come into play anyway.

I can see where that old Western song is relevent here when expanding, I had never thought of it until V mentioned it, the I heard the sound of 'Don't Fence Me In' coming to me.

"Archers...Archers, my 5S for a pack od archers!!!:p

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

No, it's every turn.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Shhhhhhhh, OK then...come and get em:eek:

(lol, you would think I would know that):doh:

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Aaaaaand Knights. In not one, but TWO provinces. Thus, the holy trinity of Most Common Independents You Don't Want to See is completed. Five fire gems say that I strike a rich vein of Elephants within three turns. Any takers?

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Normally I wouldn't use mages in expansion but you've got great research. Maybe it's worth doing some Evo. research and just have a mage fry those knights? Flame Bolt will basically kill each time it hits and with a precision of 7 you should get a good number of hits.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

The list of Nations has no Mictlan , yet I seem to have run into them. Could someone please tell me who Mictlan is. OR, if I am mistaken, could the person that just ran into Pythium please let me know who you are.

Thanks

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Well this turn went great, no death in the expansion party, no new bandits popping up. I did see a province under the influence of some heathen god. No just hope that nobody else will attack the same prov as me :).

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

I won but half my cowardly monkeys fled. Time to go back and fetch them

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

I like my starting position. Lots of farms and mountains for income/resources, and my expansion went pretty well, with only a couple of deaths (there were four unexpected Heavy Knights in there). Now to spread the plague as far as it can go! :sick:

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Nevermind, got a little confused there.....

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Not only am I very underwhelmed with my starting position, but the random events and general streaks of bad luck I have encountered have made this the worst start of any game I've tried, single or MP. Unrest at my capitol is so high (with a tax rate barely sufficient to cover my expenses) that I'm almost to the point where I can't recruit troops.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Ugh, I see what you're talking about. I've had SP test games where my unrest was that high this early in the game but never been that unlucky in MP.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Hi Pythium, Hi Caelum.

Pythium, could we come to some agreement about Obalshin? I would hate for us both to bump heads there.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Check your privite messages:)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Whoops, forgot to recruit another researcher!

Drat mountains, there goes my lovely smooth expansion plans. Ah well, it let me restock and resupply my army, at least...

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Oh god, it's a black candle spreading Heat and Death. There are only two answers to that riddle, and they're both just awful.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Well that'd be me. Hello neighbour! (Positive scales in your dominion are negative to other nations, right? Hence the death?)

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

No, whatever your scales are they are for everybody, meaning that the owner of that dominion almost certainly took Heat and Death. Death is generally a very unpopular choice, so I figure the most likely owners are C'tis (who have a vested interest in making their dominion a hellhole for everybody) and Abysia (who allegedly are not affected by the supply penalty for Death scales). Those being the two nations that I really didn't want to start near.

It's technically possible that the province just had a site that increased its Death scale, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

A death scale site would be nice. Usually generates Death gems, which are always useful.

Somehow one of my provs has misf 3 at the moment, so I think there is a site there.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Scales DO show up the same for everybody, yes. However, positive scales are not positive in negative dominion. Technically I think that what we decided was that most scales turn out to actually be neutral, with the exception the luck scale. However this is one of the more arcane subjects in dominions, and I can't be absolutely positive my recollection is correct here (there's a lot of conflicting statements on the matter too, and I can't be bothered to go looking right now). Anyways, assume that enemy dominion means neutral effect at best, and negative at worst.

*waits for calahan to come in here and rail at him for spreading misinformation :)*

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Wait...so if I control a province as Marignon, but its dominion is firmly under the influence of Man, and Man has Growth 3, I see three wheat symbols but there's no effect on the income or population growth in that province? But...what if I also have Growth 3? Normally dominion effects gradually change from one side's alignment to another's as dominion strength changes hands, doesn't it? So do I instantly jump from effectively neutral Growth effects to Growth 3 as soon as dominion becomes neutral or friendly in that province? Or do I whittle it down to Growth 0, and then back up to a working Growth 3?

This is no fair. I read the instructions and everything! I should know stuff like this!

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Extension asked for:

I will be going on a field trip to a 'Dig' in South America for part of my Grad school work in Anthropology. This will be starting starting Weds Sept 15th and I will return Monday Sept 20th.

Obviously, because of the location in the jungle, I will not be able to get internet time and would ask for an extension for that period. I understand we are moving right along, but this was an unexpected opportunity (to be asked to go) and I need to take advantage of it.

If you don't or can't wait, I will try and find a sub. But at this late date it will be hard to find a suitable sub AND fill them in on what the heck I am doing (as I am not really sure)

I will be able to do a turn late Tuesday or VERY early Weds and another on the following Monday evening.

Please Let me know, and BTW other than the occasional normal work (yep,I have to do that also) or home crisis, I am in for the duration.

Sorry guys:sick:

Rags

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

That sounds like a great opportunity! But that's a long time to put the game on hold at this early stage. See if you can find a sub and if you don't have any luck I'll see what I can do. Worst case scenario, and if the other players don't object, I can sub until you return. If you haven't found anyone by Tues. please send me any whatever guidelines you may have and I can either pass them on to a sub or follow them myself.

Re: Boot Camp - Newbie intro to Dominions MP - Send pretenders!
 

Personally I don't mind if we put the game on hold.