Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Time for some random thoughts.

I play Dominions 2 exclusively in single player mode. Reading this board makes me realize how much I’m missing in my approach to the game.

Races I can play well include Pythium, Caelum, Vanheim, Arco, Jotunheim, Man, Ulm, Ermor, and Marignon. Vanheim is by far my favorite. In most cases I pick a base strategy that works well (massed longbowmen with fodder in front & wind guide, mammoths & wingless, archbishops summoning horsemen, lots of van, etc) and build around that.

Abysia I’ve tried, but I haven’t found anything that works particularly well, especially versus high strength Indies. Ctis I’m determined to master, somehow. Both those races rate highly on this board and it annoys me I can’t make them work.

I get the impression that in MP it really helps to have a SC pretender. I have yet to be really successful with any SC pretender, excluding Arco/Nataraja. They invariably get horrible afflictions or die. I give them decent items, especially defensive ones. My failing here is likely not building them to take advantage of key defensive spells. Or maybe I just suck.

I like RPs. Great site searching, great research to start, and the ability to cast key spells or build key items. Without a RP, site searching becomes slow and painful. You don’t want to lose your RP, but against the AI you shouldn’t. I am finally beginning to think that a more focused approach to Pretender design is better. Going from Death 2 to Death 5 is not fun.

Mini SCs have been on my build list for a while. Wraith Lords and Ice Devils are particularly tasty. I confess I somehow managed to miss the potential of the Queen of Air. I’m quite curious about building a “Bane factory”. In my Last game I finally tried Tartarian Gate. Titans with GoR are so much fun! Anyone know how many different ones you can get?

A note about Conjuration 8: with Vanheim I build Doom Dwarves – basically, dwarves with earth boots. They search like crazy for every earth site in my dominion. Then I get Conjuration 8. Want to stop an invading army in its tracks? Earth Attack! Want to clean out all commanders in a castle? Earth Attack! You can even pick off Pretenders if you’re lucky. I usually have a dozen Doom Dwarves in my Vanheim games, so that’s 12 possible Earth Attacks per turn, gems permitting. I’m sure this tactic doesn’t work in MP, what with Domes everywhere, but in SP it is a bLast.

Someone made a comment about watchtowers being common in MP games. I found that most interesting. That would save a ton of design points, and the ability to build a tower in 2 turns for 300 gold is great. So where do you put the points? Order, Production and Dominion? More often than not, Growth, Luck and Magic are all 0 in my games. Watchtowers may not be great in games with strength 9 indies.

I think my biggest weaknesses in Dominions 2 are gem distribution and an appreciation of the most powerful combat spells. I’ve tried Thunder Ward/Wrathful Skies once or twice and was not hugely impressed. My mages don’t usually carry gems with them. With Man I had scouts with gems to resupply my mages, since mages take great delight in wasting my hard-earned gems. Maybe it's their revenge for not having a pension plan.

Okay, random thoughts all done. Comments are welcome!


Caseus

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Download Zen's SCQR (available from my website) and count them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

With Abysia you have to bloodhunt heavily . You can get then ice devils / arch devils easy and either hoard vampire lords or soul contracts .
The blood gives you good flexibility :
-The best overall weapon , the blood thorn .
-Arch/Ice devils .
-Best massproduceable troops , for Abysia's mages Devils and Fiends of Darkness are easy to produce in masses , especially a soul contract massproduction is attractive .
-Some of your warlocks can get Earth , then you can start hoarding earth bloodstones as well and plan on casting FotA / produce lots of dwarfen hammers .

With SC pretender : There is the VQ . Horrible expensive but because of her immortality she works extremely well .
In SP normally even an unequipped VQ is enough to reliable kill/rout 300-500 Ai troops .

A Ghostking works quite good as SC too and he is quite cheap so you save a lot of points for scales .

There are iirc 8 different tartarians .

A tip : Get the various good dominions documents if you don't already have , especially :
-Zen's MIQR + SCQR
-Edi's Unit's ID excel chart
-The unitattributes excel chart
-Saber Cherry's Dice Odds

All extremely helpful http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Some random responses to your random thoughts... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

There's two ways to keep your Pretender from getting mangled fighting Indies. One is to take a Pretender with Immortality or Recuperation. Either ability means that they will eventually heal whatever afflictions they get. Regeneration reduces the chances of getting afflictions, I think, but doesn't prevent it entirely.

The other way is to keep your Pretender from getting hit very much. This is why most people who are building a Pretender for early game expansion give him/her air magic to cast mistform and mirror image. High protection or Earth magic to cast Ironskin is also important. Etherealness helps a lot too. Combine all of this stuff and you can get through battles with barely a scratch.

Wrathful skies is more effective if there's a storm. Try bringing a Staff of Storms along with you next time you want to use it.

Earth Attack is a just plain nasty spell. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Yeah normally Ghost Riders is more effective because it can kill SCs too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif .
Earth Attack only kills the weaker commanders but e.g. Sauromancers / Dusk Elders / Demilichs who can cast drain life will very often defeat the Earth elemental as well as SCs of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

I thought Ghost Riders attacked a province. If so, a SC inside a castle or protected by a decent army is likely safe. Earth Attack avoids the army issue entirely.

I haven't seen a lot of commanders that can withstand multiple Earth Attacks. I saw one Pretender, may have been Ctis, with Ritual of Returning and some spell that turns him into a wight when he dies. I cast 6 earth attacks that turn, and he died on the 5th. All it takes is a couple of hits per elemental.


Caseus

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Well, I've used Body Ethereal. That works great. Mistform? Mirror Image? Umm...used those all the time! Yeah! *coughs*


Caseus

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Okay, now I just have to try Abysia. It'll give me a good excuse to try those bloodhunting scouts I've heard so much about.

What kind of growth scale do you use? I know Abysia isn't affected by growth/death scales, but their population does die if you take death, and bloodhunting doesn't help matters.

Blood thorn is the best overall weapon? *blinks* I thought that was the +1 blood weapon.

I'm really itching to try a VQ. A friend told me he loved Moloch as a SC for Abysia, but that was in Dom1. I think Moloch has changed since then.

I can tell Dominions is going to win out over work today. And I refuse to feel guilty about it.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Blood thorn is an outstanding weapon becuase it has life drain and it is single-handed, so can be used in conjunction with a shield.

It's low stats are not a huge hindrance for most proper SCs, which should have high strength anyway, and in case usually outwieghed by the benefit of being able to use a shield, like the lucky coin or shield of gleaming gold.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

One of the big advantages of Abysia is the heat scale. If you can push strong dominion ahead of you then it will drastically fatigue high strength (usually hvy armor) indies. Capitalize on it by not charging them. Stand firm and let them charge you.

Ctis has mage/assassins which can be useful. Strong dominion can help them also.
I find SC gods to be handy in small crowded maps. It takes a larger map with more space between opponents to make a rainbow pretenders work well.
My problem with RPs is that I tend to search too long and too far away from the castle. Learning when to switch from site-search to home/summon/contruct is important.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

The scout bloodhunting was nerfed w/ an earlier patch (2.12, I believe). Here's a thread w/ some analysis: thread. And here's a more recent thread on the subject: thread

With Abysia, I usually do my bloodhunting mostly with Warlock Apprentices and a few Demonbreds (both using SDRs). Its true that Demonbreds are cheaper in the long run, but the break even point is something like 80 turns, so I think it's more accurate to think of WAs as cheaper.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Exactly! So, does this mean that you're ready to step up to the plate and start playing MP? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Yeah ghost riders only attacks the province .
But if there is no castle in the province or the SC is sieging a castle of yours etc. he can only escape via magical movement on his own .

Your earth elemental kills of course Ai pretenders etc. but on a human SC you can cast a lot cause they have only an attack rating of 9 so they won't hit often and with trampling this works not very well against high def and against etheral SCs it is almost useless .
A Vq e.g. is even unequipped almost impossible to kill by the earth elemental .

Normally ghost riders do more damage and they are lifeless too .
And most important with most nations Death 5 casters are easier to get than Earth 4 casters for earth attack :
Just a demilich with a skull staff with the sidebenefit that the demilich is a formidable unit on it's own too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


For ultimate SP fun try the following VQ : Air 2 , Water 2 , Fire 2 , Death 3 , Earth 3 .
You can cast then Invulnerability , quickness , mistform , cloud trapeze for magic travel , mirror image , soul vortex , fire shield , phönix pyre .
For the ai this VQ is very hard to kill http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .





What is a RP ? Rainbow pretender ?

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

I have had abysmal success killing VQs with Earth Attack. My record is 0 kills for 20+ attempts. I've never seen so many experience stars on a Pretender before....

After checking the manual I will concede that Ghost Riders are pretty damn disgusting. 5 death gems gets you 33 longdead horseman and a FREAKING WRAITH LORD??? Who cares that they're not under your control. For 30 death gems you can have 198 horsemen and 6 wraith lords running amuck in some schmuck's home province.

That VQ sounds pretty terrifying. What's soul vortex?

RP is rainbow pretender. As Gandalf said, they work great on huge maps.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Sure! But I'm a complete newbie. I can barely find the research screen. Can I play the first 10 turns by myself, and then everyone else can start on turn 11? Or better yet, let me design my own race!

*smiles innocently*

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Soul vortex is alteration 6 . Needs death 3 to cast . It is a drain life damage shield http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. Works very well with Wraith lords too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

Because VQ is etheral trample hits only in 1/4 th of the cases or in 1/8 if the VQ has luck too . VQ has regeneration and not too bad DEF so no wonder that you had no success with earth attack http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .


With ghost riders it is 2 edged . If the defender has a castle and nobody on patrolling then you only wipe out his PD , the ghost riders disappear and the province converts back to his owner .
Ghost riders is an excellent spell to kill single SCs or smaller armies which attack you . Ghost riders is a reason why you should castle important provinces http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Oh you're kidding. Wraith Lords can cast a drain life damage shield? That's just disturbing.

My Wraith Lords typically run around with wraith swords, chainmail of displacement, spirit helm, boots of flying, amulet of antimagic and pendant of luck. Their mission is set to Attack Rear. Should I script it cast Soul Vortex, Attack Closest Enemy instead? I could probably eat a whole lot of regular troops that way.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Soul vortex can drain life from any nearby units, including your own. So be careful how you use it.

Attack rear doesn't work all that well, except with flying units.

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

With scripting against the Ai i prefer attack archers .
Very often his mages are close his archers so the chances are not so bad to hit the mages too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

One of my favourite Wraith Lord loadouts is :
- Blood thorn
- Lucky coin shield
- Boots of flying
- Jade armor
- Amulet of Antimagic
- Starshine Skullcap ( for +2 MR )
- Either a 100% FR or 100% SR ring depending if you fight an Air or a Fire nation .

Script : Soul vortex , Attack enemy archers or rearmost .

Luckily a Wraith Lord is built in etheral so normal troops don't hit him very often and he is quite save from trampling with this too .
So normally if the enemy can't kill the Wraith Lord in 1 turn he heals himself to full health again via Soul vortex + 2 Blood thorn attacks .

Humans will of course use more unfair means like a Drain life or wither bones or Petrify casting mage brigade or they will attack you with both fire and air magic etc. etc. .
If you die then in friendly dominion you still lost your equipment .

The wraithlord is good in SP but not so good in MP there Banelords are more cost effective and later Tartarians are way better too .

Re: Enlightenment of a SP Addict
 

Soul Vortex gives the caster a life-draining aura for the duration of the battle; every turn it tries to drain life from those in nearby randomly-chosen squares, including friendlies.

Ghost Riders is pretty brutal; it's a good argument for building castles to protect your temples. Conj 9 is strong for death nations, with both Ghost Riders and Tartarian Gate.

If you want to try an assassin pretender right out of the gate, try Mictlan's Lord of the Night. He also starts battles with a couple of Fiends of Darkness, which helps make things even more unfair.

Regarding searching, I suggest using the path-specific searching spells as soon as you can; it takes one mage turn instead of two (one to arrive, one to search) and can be easier than getting a level-four mage. For certain paths this is easier than others, e.g. Astral Probing, Dark Knowledge require only one level of astral or death respectively.

For something different, try R'lyeh. The Void Gate is like a wacky slot machine that can feeblemind or kill you, but also might give you Vastnesses, Greater Othernesses, and Things that Should Not Be. For observing the joy of Orb Lightning spamming, try Pythium with a large communion...