Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

In an MP game, always make your initial scout your prophet... unless you have H3 recruitable Priests. An H3 recruitable priest can be made into an H4 prophet... very nice. But otherwise the scouts do just fine, and can even stealth preach when needed.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

If you have death gem income and recruitable D2 mages, I think it's better to research Conj1 first, then summon a Black Servant and make him your prophet. He can then reanimate dead, and he'll also make a pretty decent thug for homeland defense if you get rushed.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Spam temples isn't good. Do not put a temple in each province, becasue I will get for those 400g some troops and you will loose against my bigger army. Temples should be placed only to recuit priest for blesses/raise undeads or inside castle to recruit units if you aren't a dominion bases country (LA Ermor, Ryleh...).

Extra forts are for extra mages. You build extra forts to build more mages to research more. Specially if you have low cost sacred mages. You need magic 1 to have them skyrocket but even without it they rock.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I disagree to that. I always use my starting commander to make a prophet, because using sermon of courage and smite helps a lot in winning early fights (and limiting losses).

A scout is disposable, weak and prone to early death...

The advice I'd give would rather be "Don't forget to always have a prophet. And don't forget that making someone a prophet gives +1 holy magic if the commander has that magic or sets holy magic to three."

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Kasna, making your scout a profet gives you access to something most countries do not have: stealth preachers.

Just try doing your scout profet and have him travel with firt army and you solve both problems at the same time.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

What is the point of having a single stealth preacher ? Stealth preaching has counters and works only with mass of priests anyway. It's not that useful in early game because you don't really have a lot of immortal units. Stealth preaching doesn't really has any other useful side that both of those...

Moving with the scout prophet creates another problem : I may be strange but I use the scout to scout.

Well, as I said, it may have a use... but it is not in my opinion good enough to make it "noob tip".

That's what I would call a noob tip : fill the map with scouts, especially in MP !

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

There is not really a need for a stealth preacher in early game as the prophet spreads dominion automatically anyway.

It is difficult to say which unit should be the prophet because that depends on the nation your playing and what strategy you are planning.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I agree with kasnavada. Making your scout a prophet isn't always a good idea. Always having a prophet is though, as is the +1 holy level tip.

"Becoming a prophet sets his holy magic level to 3, or adds +1 level if he's already at 3+. It also gives him bonus to stats when in friendly dominion, makes him sacred and keeps him automatically blessed at all times"

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't equip armor or low level weapons on military commanders. It just replaces the equipment the commander comes with.

Learn to choose assassin targets with care. They almost always lose to knights and other mounted commanders.

This is not Civilization. You cannot always do everything you want/plan to do. You can only build one commander per castle and must choose between military, priest, research, site search or battle mages. At first, with only one castle, this is a huge issue.

Do not waste your money/resources on the lower military units.

Learn castle admin values and what type you are building. A province between two castles who admin adds up to 100% will go to zero resouces which means you cannot recruit in that province. Murphy's law will mean that a valuable indy mage is no longer recuitable.

The people that complain about the poor AI are experienced and skilled Dom3 players. Until you learn the 7 skillion complexities of the game, the AI will kick your ***.

Magic users can kill your (seemingly)invincible armies.

This is a rock/scissors/paper game. There is always something to beat everything else. As a collary, you may not have the reasearch gems or mages to play the card.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Remember the Dominions ethic. Soldiers suffering from terrible diseases or crippling disabilities are not discharged or treated. They are to be promoted to hold the glorious position of point men (aka arrow/javelin/lance fodder). Point men work best in small groups positioned in front the your main melee forces.

This serves to practical purposes:
1. Wastes "ammo" attacks, especially the dangerous Lance charges of cavalry.
2. Kills these subpar units so you don't have to pay upkeep.

Addendum: Commanders are usually an exception of this rule, and eye and heart injuries can be "treated" with Thaumernetic implants, such as Eye of Aiming. But if it's a crap commander (like a diseased scout) don't hesitate to stick a cursed or suicide item on him and toss him at some enemy (or send him to the deathmatch). With luck some foolish enemy commander (or Pretender) will pick up the cursed items.