Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

That's the way I prefer to play, but most games/players are otherwise.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

In a game of purely testing strategy, then there usually isnt diplomacy. There doesnt tend to be diplomacy in chess. Also random events, random maps, any kindof luck really.

In a more role-playing game, diplomacy is part of the role playing. So is taking your lumps with random things. Yes, this is my preferred playing style. Im afraid that I got alot of the random stuff added to the game. Try not to hold that agaisnt me.

Dominions tends to be split. There are those who play their god, and there are those who consider their god just another piece in the game. Since there is no easy way to keep diplomacy out of the game, I think this one will have alot of it.

Side Note: I do have a list of hacks I did to try and create a game with no diplomacy. Blind email accounts all off of my server, watching the log and reporting any msgs between players, etc etc. It still ended up short of absolute but I might host a game like that one day down the road.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

i like them

just that they are considered very weak has not to mean that i cant play them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. But as i think over it early or late might be the better choice, lets go to change my opinion, before anyone notices http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

Early Era nations are more powerful magically with better sacreds, but lack Holy, mounted Knights, and x-bows. Death is less common in the Early Era as well.

Since Magic or Sacreds > all in Dominions, in the long run, i'd say Early Era nations would be more powerful on average than LA nations. AI, though of course, do not use magic or sacreds correctly, so LA nations are probably stronger in AI hands.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

I would not try actively to catch anyone teaming up. It would simply be the honor system. I see no point in cheating in a game? What would be the point of winning a game you had an unfair advantage playing in?

Now there may be people at the start, that say flat out they intend to team up, and if that is the case i can live with that. Albeit no amount of good strategy can overcome 4-5 people ganging up on you.

Despite Pangaea(MA) having limited mages and gems, I could see it doing well in a big game. Its units, with berserk, are never really obsolete. And stealth never really becomes obsolete either. With the use of blood, which i do not use against the AI, you could have very powerful assassins, and the spine devil is a cheap early unit that can give certain nations fits.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

EA T'ien Chi

Wide range of paths, good summons and ok nats. I usually play with a chaos economy, but would think hard about going good scales for such a long term game.

I've recently started playing around with Growth/death scales at the extremes more and earlier there were posts saying death-3 has a minor long term effect. It seems noticeable, but survivable. My last FOTM was Pangaea, and growth 2 or 3 was noticeable late game as well - I could actually regen the provinces I would decimate hunting.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

MA Ermor is very strong, probably stronger than LA Ermor now. If they had Soul Gate, i'd love them to ...um, death.

What hurts MA Ermor is finding some mage time for research.

EA Ctis is very much like MA Ermor, with just a couple more negatives and several more positives. I like MA Ctis in theory, but i've not really played them in multi in all honesty. I just like free Disease dominions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

The problem i have with MA ctis, is holding water squares. You cannot buy pd, and if you hire indies they die of disease.

Obviously you could try to have a horde of undead in every square, but that gets expensive. And on land, you would like to hire some good indies, like cross bowmen. But they die of disease as well. maybe if you took a pretender that could heal, but that would be micromanaging hell.

I doubt Ctis could keep gift of health up, or get the chalice.

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

I would probably go for LA Ulm with some growth just because i like them and they grow into a great late-game power(almost every count you summon increases your blood income for yet more counts until all your huntable provinces are being hunted in)

Re: playing ANYONE against everyone
 

Of course the issue with LA Ulm is that counts aren't really good for anything besides blood hunting.

R'Lyeh is one of the few nations with access to W/N mages, so it will always be one of the most powerful in the late game.