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?