Dumb QUESTIONS
 

1. How do I get my Commanders to build forts,
2. How do I get my priests to build temples?
3. How do I get my Prender God to research Magic and stuff?

one suggestion. In the Army Set Up window, could you PLEASE put the EXIT button on the top. Thanks.

[ August 03, 2004, 07:57: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

In the map screen:
L-click on the text with the orders of said commander (default will be 'defend'), or alternatively press SPACE. You will get to a menu where you can select his new orders.

If you have multiple commanders highlighted at the same time, you can give orders to all of them this way.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

lol

1. select "construct building" from the commander actions (click on the activity on the bottom of the commander icon), then choose "fortress", and have sufficient gold

2. remarkably similar to 1.

3. same, but choose "research"

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">from any windows in the game you can just hit 'Esc' to close it!

good play
Liga

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Search for spots on all the menus that will let you click them for another menu. And on those menus that can be clicked for a further menu.

If you Right-Click on a province that you do not own then the display for that provice you can hit "i" for info on who is there if you can know (its close by, or you have dominion strength there, or a sneaking unit there). You can also click the scale icons for info on whats affecting it.

If you own the province you can click on scales, and on taxes, and on defence. Defence gives free troops if you are attacked. Local militia which differs with each nation. It can be very helpful for not losing provinces too much. I tend to use defence numbers like 1, 6, 11, 21

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I can sympathize with that. In SEIV, warp points are natural chokepoints and you tend to see huge fleets cluster at either sides of a key warp point.

In the Dom maps, it seems that there aren't many chokepoints. Because of this, in my Tien Chi game I'm finding that I can win every battle with my better quality, massed troops, and still lose strategically because I can't chase down every one of the enemy's troops. It's real frustrating.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Feel like you're in Iraq? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

In the single player game, if you attack the computer players' home province, it will draw their fleets like a magnet, saving the annoying "whack a mole" syndrome.

The AI tends to attack the most weakly defended province. You can't catch enemies by attacking where they are, but once you get the knack you can often catch them by moving to where they are going to be.

Another option, which works also in MP, is to simply defend the important provinces, and ignore the others.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I used this exact technique to devastating effect versus Ashikaga in my AAR. I "ambushed" the AI's armies in and near his capital, repeatedly, to weaken the AI until I was ready, and confident, that I could take his capital without fear of an effective counterattack.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

Thanks guys. Hit the end of my second round with the demo. Kicked butt. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Man it is easy to get spread thin in this game. I was moving my troops from my core regions to the outer ones to fend off the MAN people. I was running real thin and lost a few regions to them. Although I took twice as many from them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I assume you mean his capitol. That won't work for me. In my game, I'm fighting the Caelum AI and they're far and away the most powerful nation on the map. They've taken down the Jotuns, Pythium and Machaka and now only me and Abyssia are left. This means that his capitol is a long, long way away from where I am.

I think Caelum's troops are crap compared to mine, since I get huge kill ratios in my favor all the time whenever I can catch one of their armies, but like I said, I can't field enough armies to hold a frontline against them, so they're all over the place.

What I'm doing right now is summoning an angelic host every 3 or 4 turns and having them raid behind enemy lines destroying temples. Caelum seems to have a temple in every province they control.

Note: Abyssia shares a border with me but don't seem to be attacking me. Is the AI smart enough to realize that it should ally with another nation to beat off a more powerful enemy even though there's no diplomacy in the game?

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

Just finished my third game. Man this game is addictive. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif The micro-Managment though can become a bit tiring though.

Another question, how do you attact water cities? There was a peach of one just off my coast and I could not figure out how to attack them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Also are there naval units? What other units are available in the full Version of the game? Air, additional ground, etc???

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The AIs will preferentially tend to go after the biggest perceived threat, which as you describe is Caelum. The AI (at least for most of the nations) also tends to build temples in every province.

While Angelic Hosts are one of my favorite summons, because they can act as "fire brigades" just like you're using them for, the normal angels of the host are somewhat fragile (especially compared to the archangel leader). You might want to step back for a bit and switch to building SCs capable of taking and holding the provinces you're presently raiding into. Especially if you have death magic and good death gem income, which is excellent for such purposes.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why 6, 11, 21? I tend to go 2 ( because a scout _might_ get lucky against PD 1 ), 5, or 10, and only very very rarely pay the expense of going to 15 or 20, if I think I'm going to immediately be on the defensive with my army there also.

( For the inexperienced players : A benefit of jacking the PD up in a contested province that also has your army in it : The PD acts as chaff, soaking up a lot of casualties that your army, and quality troops, might otherwise take. And then, as long as you managed to hold the province, the PD regenerates, even if it was _all_ killed. )

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">With water-breathing troops and commanders. Besides spells and magic items that impart such ability, every mage that has water magic can have 1 troop per level of water magic enter the water along with the mage (the troops must be in the same "stack" as the mage; that is, under the mage's command).

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Because empirical testing hints that when enemy AIs look at what provinces are strong or weak, a PD value of 11 or 21 gets interpreted as 20 or 30 (respectively), and thus that extra +1 gets rounded up to the next "breakpoint" of 10 when the AI decides if it has enough strength to take on the defenses. I've tested this a bit. I had the AI attacking a province with PD of 20. I reloaded the game, upped the PD to 21, and then ran the turn again and the AI chose somewhere else to attack. Consistently over more than a dozen repetitions of 20 vs. 21, and ditto for 10 vs. 11, etc. Other people have observed similar behavior. Either that's the way the game is coded, or we're having a mass delusion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

Also, I think you get an extra commander at 11 and 21. Small thing, but sometimes having a second commander can prevent a rout.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

You get one commander at 1, and another at 21. There's no such thing as a commander at 11.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You get the second commander at 20, not 21.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

Atrocities, how did you get nearly 8000 Posts?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why 6, 11, 21? I tend to go 2 ( because a scout _might_ get lucky against PD 1 ), 5, or 10, and only very very rarely pay the expense of going to 15 or 20, if I think I'm going to immediately be on the defensive with my army there also.

( For the inexperienced players : A benefit of jacking the PD up in a contested province that also has your army in it : The PD acts as chaff, soaking up a lot of casualties that your army, and quality troops, might otherwise take. And then, as long as you managed to hold the province, the PD regenerates, even if it was _all_ killed. ) </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It also might really depend on what nation you are playing and what stage of the game you are in. Sometimes I will invest in higher PD if I have a nation with good PD and have some extra cash but no acute provincial goals and do not wish to purchase additional troops to keep my upkeep down; I like to get troops right before a big battle. Also, higher PD may help if you are getting hit by many Calls of the Wild or similar spells if you play a nation with good PD. PD is upkeep free. PD is also regenerating, which is good if you use a lot of poison or diseasing or other self-damaging AoE spells -- your PD may be crippled beyond belief, but they'll be fresh next turn.
Sometimes PD is truly dangerous, like if you have commanders getting ready to launch a Wrathful Skies attack but before they move, the province is hit with a Call of the Wilds or whatever; if in a province with PD, the PD may actually cause your commanders to rout because you killed your PD with wrathful skies.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

8000 points? You lost me.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You misread his question. It's 8000 Posts, not points. And, I presume, you achieved such a lofty number of Posts by being on the Shrapnel forum, which includes many other games besides Dominions (such as SE4), for over 3.5 years.

Re: Dumb QUESTIONS
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If you think that's something, you should check out Fyron's post count on the SEIV forum. Over 12,000 and counting, and official Shrapnel Fanatic!