Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

I bought this complex game about a week ago called Dominions II. Although it is entirely too complicated and has more spells/items/units than is reasonable for any game, I find myself playing it more and more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

So I've done the walkthru and cannot bare to play a non-caster nation like Ulm. So I thought I would start on Mictian and get some advice on the web. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

As Mictian, I know that the blood must flow and my troops are the best at making that happen. Unfortunately it is mostly their blood, but hey it must flow right? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

So how can I make this nation work against all the other hardcore jugernauts out there? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

I figued I would do the Smoking Mirror as my pretender but should I go rainbow? or concentrate in a few magics?

Which magics should I try to research first? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Basicly in 150 words or less what are my strengths and I probably have too many weaknesses to name.

Got to love the underdog!

Christopher http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Couple more questions - Who do you make the prophet? And how does Dominion work with this nations or should I just take a low Dominion?

Christopher

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

A few tips.

A Moloch with fire 9 as your pretender is a good choice, as Mictlan relies on sacred troops until Blood summons start to show up in force. Mictlan has trouble keeping their dominion, so I'd take 8 of that. Since your troops are not resource expensive, you can take 3 Sloth and the 60 point castle, which, along with heat 1, leaves enough points other scales.

Rain Priests make good prophets, since they can cast Quickness. Smite isn't good enough to warrant using a Sun Priest.

Start hunting for blood slaves ASAP, with both scouts and your blood 1 priests. Construction and Blood are the main areas to research.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Hi Christopher,

It can be rather important to have a high Dominion value. If you do your sacrificed slaves count for something. There is a dom*10 % chance that a sacrificed slave gives an effect.

Make a prophet out of a High priest of the Sun or a Priest King.

The former is more powerful as a priest, but getting a priest who can cast fanaticism early is rather important to mictlan. The King has more leadership.


Your troops are reasonably good at conquering independents. Javelins are useful. Try to get an early empire and raise the province defense (next to taxes) so the AI do not attack you emmediately.

Your strenghts are blood and cheap numbers. Make tribal kings who pump out slaves. Have them patrol. Collect bloodslaves. Have one priest to sacrifice to keep your dominion OK.

Sun Warriors are good if blessed. Not very expensive, armed with javelins and brave. Fire and blood blessings give them more punch. Nature will increase their powers a lot, but your mages might go berserk at times.

Jaguar warriors will also benefit a lot from nature blessings.

Eagle warriors are useful to take out enemy archers and mages, but are vulnerable.


Construction 4 gives thistle mace => Priest king can cast Dark Vines (Blood 4 IIRC). They are very powerful, but slow.

You start with summoning spells. Use them until you get Dark Vines (after that as well).

Alteration and enchantment are good for buffing your monsters.

Horde from Hell is a most useful spell. You will get a devil commander that can be given magic items.


You have a wide spectra of mages, so searching for magic sites can give you an advantage. This is useful for construction of items for your summoned blood monstrosities (ice devils, arch devils etc).


You can dominion-kill other players easier than most nations. If you build temples close to the enemy and start sacrificing you can take down his dominion (AI at least). Underwater nations can be surprised by this as well. Put a high priest with jade knife in every temple surrounding an enemy capital and you get rid of him without sieges in no time.

However your dominion is rather weak. It will only spread where you sacrifice and that can only be done where you have a temple. So even if you can direct your dominion it will be weak in general.

Basically, you are dependant on your mages. They are used in battle, they spread your dominion, they find sites and blood for your summonings and they perform the constructions and summonings (and you will need to summon as your own troops are weak).

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Kristoffer has a lot of good thoughts there. To accentuate his point, since you need to do 9 things with your mages, you're going to need a TON of em. Sacrifice with your cheap priests, the ones that are 50g and 1 blood, and use a dowsing rod on the ones that arent sacrificing, for blood slave gathering, use your other mages for summons, and crazy stuff.

Your Jaguar warriors are about your only shock troops, nationally, aside from that, its summons. You have tons of cheap, useless troops, use them as missile shields, and cavalry charge shields, so your jaguars/sun warriors are mopping up, not being mopped up.

Edit: Spelling

[ March 15, 2004, 05:04: Message edited by: Ctennyson ]

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

The Cheap $50 Mictlan Priest is probably THE best L2 Priest at your disposal. He's sacred, and has an upkeep only slightly higher than a scout. With an SDR, he hunts 4 times better than a scout. With a jade knife, he can sacrifice as well as a Sun Priest (without). While in key provinces, you can use a Sun Priest for sacrifices, those are capitol only and hard to come by, even if cost is a nonissue. While Mictlan's dominion is difficult to spread early in the game, later in the game, once you get a blood economy going, you can dominionrush somebody like nobody's business: Plop down a ton of temples near your target, bust out the knives, and start a sacrificing frenzy. Every blood slave sacrificed is a temple check. That makes your temples work 4 times faster than an ordinary temple. Only Vanheim, Jotunheim, and Abysia can do this better, and they can't round up the slaves like you can, having no ultra-cheapo hunter.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Not only the best L2 Priest, he's one of the best ways to spend 50g in the entire game. A great bloodhunter, a great dominion spreader, sacred, for cheap upkeep, and he aint a bad researcher for his cost, either. What a bargain!

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Mictlan national priests are 80 gold. Independents are 50 but don't get the point in blood magic.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh, yes, that's right. Haven't played in a bit. Still, At $80, it upkeeps like a $40 unit and hunts 4x as well, with an SDR. A great buy.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I would avoid the Moloch. He's overpriced for what he does. You're paying a lot of points for an SC chassis, but the Moloch is a mighty coward who flees from every battle unless given a vast screen of troops to hide behind.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The Moloch is the least expensive fire-9 pretender available to Mictlan. And with their sacred troops you definetly want to give some kind of bless effect, even if it's only a minor one.

[ March 15, 2004, 05:37: Message edited by: Graeme Dice ]

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It's true you definitely want a bless effect. Mictlan's sacreds are basically utter crap without a potent blessing of some kind. There are certainly other options than Fire-9, though, especially given that the Moloch is otherwise a consummate coward. Of course, if you plan to never use him alone as an SC, then perhaps his cowardice will work in your favor.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not really. Air-9 is okay but nothing special, and costs too much unless you use the virtue, which has no survivability. Water-9 is too expensive as there are no good water pretenders. Earth-9 is also too expensive, and gives you only a little benefit since your mages aren't that impressive on the battlefield. The cyclops is also far to vulnerable to eyeloss. Astral 9 is useful, but doesn't give you anywhere near the punch of fire-9. Nature 9 is completely out, as it's a death sentence for your mages and is too expensive anyways. Death-9 is less than spectacular, and blood 9 has the same problem.

Astral, air and fire are the only bless effects that are both fairly cheap and useful. Nature would be nice, but it screws up your mages, and water is completely out of the question since a blue dragon has lousy dominion.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

I appreciate the advice so far and have a few more questions. Experimenting with the game I have found Sloth 3 really kills the resources.

This cuts down on my initial hordes and I've noticed Sun Warriors really appreciate resources if I want them in numbers. Not too mention I'm using indies at 6 so I can't just bust into them without either hording or using my Fire-9 pretender as an arty platform. (Trying not to depend on Mercs for MP reasons down the road.)

Just curious on what you guys think are the best settings to start out the game on besides Heat-1?

Also I'm not experienced enough to know how fortifications hold up in the long run. ie going for the citadel? vs forts or castles

-Christopher

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Are other people more likely to spend more on the merc you want in multiplayer than in single player?

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

The Moloch is the cheapest way to get a good blessing (fire 9) and high dominion. No-one else even comes close.

With sloth 3 you should recruit as many Sun Warriors as you can, and Eagle Warriors with the rest.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

Mictlan Priests are also good for Blood Sabbath slaves, and for leading demons into battle, and sometimes for spells. Give a few of them some blood slaves and have them all cast Summon Imp at the same time... muahaha...

PvK

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I did an Air-9 Virtue with Marignon, and I didn't find that a Mirror Imaged, Mistformed Virtue was poor at surviving, and in fact, was a fairly effective SC throughout the game, able to dispense copious amounts of whoopass. That Awe ability is actually amazingly effective against the masses, particularly in conjunction with some items that will give you a host of nice abilities. Maybe it's not as survivable as the Moloch, but that's because the Moloch is a coward who runs at the first sign of danger!

You may have a point that it's not the most directly applicable to Mictlan, though, as it does nothing to improve your punch.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

A Virtue can be Wind Rided and killed unless you give it an Ethereal Item or some ranks in Earth (which is not what we're talking about).

On top of that, there are only a few really good defensive spells for pure Air.

In the great game of things, Awe becomes more and more useless as the game progresses. Even if you CT in order to avoid summons/undead/mindless or anything with a decent morale (20+) she can be hammered down quite easily unless she is in her Domain or GoH which is hardly a consideration if basing things by a standard.

I'm a fan of the Virtue, but she's hardly a SC, and as the game progresses she is less likely to be much more than a support mage, even casting hyperpowerful Orb Lightnings, or Phantasms.

[ March 16, 2004, 04:11: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, so far, I've had very little problems with being Wind Rided. Etherealization is not really hard to come by, Air-9 lets you cast Dome of Solid Air which will give you a nice antimagic shield over the province, and the one time I *DID* get Wind Rided, my opponent had completely expected to catch something ELSE, and it ended in a very messy bloodbath.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Awe certainly decreases in value as the game progresses, especially towards mindlesses and the undead, but I never said this was the only trick in the arsenal.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You may have a point that the virtue is not the best chassis to build a late-game SC on, but nor is it completely unviable. Even late in the game, the Virtue remains a decent chassis thanks to a fair selection of innate abilities and hardpoints for different items.

Re: Newbie Bloodgod in Training - Learning on Mictian
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">In my experience it is. Especially from Air Heavy Nations if they know you are running around trying to use your /Under-size 6/ /no earth rank/ SC to do anything. The investment vs easy loss is as much a factor as anything else. But if Wind Ride is not used to it's advantage in your experience, I'm sure it won't in the future either.


<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I never said it was unviable. Throw enough artifacts and spells and empower her to hell and you can make anything a SC. It doesn't mean that a standard Air9 Virtue is much more than a mediocre SC and more of a heavy spell support unit.