I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders....
 

I'm fairly new to dominions....played dozens of games at this poin but I *ALWAYS* fail heh. I've tried eremor and citis with massive undead armys combined with death mages, i've tried calaecium(sp?)-the winged guys, with virtue pretender.........

I just can not win lol! I've thoroguhly played the newbie guide out.

Anyone have any advice, or any guides on making a good pretender, or on general gameplay strategy?

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

There are some good tips for newbies in this thread (sorry, my own thread was the only one I could think of to link to http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif).

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Here is another thread that might be useful: 10 Turn Challenge!

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

I am WELL informed on buffing, I think, heh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

I have already read that thread(and actually, know everything in it).

For my pretender I USUALLY put 4 into earth, 4 into astral and max out one other skill. Earth for item crafting, astral for the many astral spells.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Well, do you build lots of mages? A good rule of thumb is to make about one mage per turn if at all possible. Also, what kind of scales are you using? Taking full order and magic are very important, particularly in the base game.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

I use tons of mages, whoever I play. I always use mages as the backbone of my army-whether they are casting offensive spells or support, EVERY army I field is high on mages.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

That may be your problem then, if most of your mages are out on the battlefield, you don't have enough researching. Over 50% should be back at home researching in most cases. For this reason, buy a lot of your nation's cheapest mages, they may not be great on the battlefield, but they are the best research bang for the back ehen you have a magic scale.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

I crank out lots of mages in my capital(usualy one every turn or two) to research.

The problem is I eventually just get zerged in such a huge amount that I can not stop them, OR I get really unlucky and despite being uber beyond belief, my pretender dies(game over, as the loss of magic is a crippling blow).

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Well, as long as you are just fighting AIs there is one cheap trick to use if it gets to hard. If as soon as you border an AI you take 11 province defense in that province, and then as you border more AIs always put 11 PD in all border provinces, they will very rarely attack you. Of course, if don't want to use that trick, on a big enough map you can usually outfit several combatants capable of destroying almost unimited AI armies. On a small map it is more difficult, but usually you can hold them off long enough to get your combatant factory going, particularly with a pretender like a VQ.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

One thing I could really use is a guide to making pretenders... if anyone has one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Heh. I was going to write one as a follow up to the guide to buffing but I havn't gotten around to it... though if you are not using Zen's mods there is not a lot to it. Just pick a ghost king, load him up with 4-7 paths (exactly which depends on what nation you are trying to fill in the magic holes for), take full order, full sloth, full death, full magic, misfortune 2, watchtower (once in a while other forts, but never a citadel) and leftover points into dominion.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

With your pretender (few high magic paths) you can just call him back (have priests Call God - command only available after He is dead). He will lose one point from every path, but that shouldn't hurt too much, as you still have at least level 3 in all and that is enough for boosters.

You might also want to try to find a nation that suits you. You have a playstyle (you use lots of mages), and instead of changing it to play a nation you should change a nation to play as you enjoy. Especially if you have played BASE Ermor (recruits units, instead of getting free undead as the other two themes) you don't really have that powerful mages. Caelum has very good mages (flying, cold immune, water gives quickness and lightning good attack spells, CHEAP). Jotunheim Iron Woods and Utgård have cheap mages (Vaetti Hags or Seithkona), powerful province defence (you are very good in defense, so you can research high-powered spells). Iron Woods' other mages are hideously expensive, but at least one in four Vaetti Hags can bloodhunt and about half the undead are Giants. Utgård is probably magically more powerful, and all those researching Seithkona become EVIL after you get Evocation 7 and Nether Darts.
Pythium has very good starting income, good and flexible mages, and can use communion to boost battle magic beyond awesome. The Theurgs have Water, Air and Astral, which give them Quickness, some good attack and protection spells and some awesome high-level spells. Also, remember your mages can use both Luck and Body Ethereal not only to themselves, but to legionaires as well.
Machaka has lots of mages, of lots of paths, and Machaka Hoplites are very good.
Arcoscephale has high Astral and will get good Elemental mages in time. They also have lots of mixed magics, so use Power of the Spheres and/or your choice of Quickness, Magma bolts, Acid Bolt, Sulphur Haze, Rust Mist. Their priestesses can heal afflictions of non-undead pretenders, and their province defense isn't as worthless as Pythium's and Machaka's.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

For my twopenn'orth I don't think your problem is with mages (though you may not be using them optimally). If you are still getting stomped by the AI's massive armies of chaff in the late game then you need to build more SCs. A single SC pretender can only take (or hold) one province per turn - by the late game you need a few more. If you equip them with flying boots they can zip around plugging holes your armies cannot reach, or zooming in to attack behind enemy lines.

So what is an SC? Well there are people far better qualified to answer that than I, but the easiest to acquire seem to be the six Ice Devils (Blood 5, 55 blood slaves each). If you don't like mucking about with blood hunting then there are ten elemental monarchs (3 Air, 3 Water, 2 Fire, 2 Earth - all Conj 7). The AI rarely summons any of them. Equip any of these with good weapon(s), armour, hat & misc items and they can take out whole armies on their own. There are tons of threads discussing the best equipment for the different SCs. Even a Bane Lord (Conj 5, very cheap) can take out small armies if it is properly equipped.

Of course, SCs require a whole boatload of mages to research construction and then actually to make the items, so they're not trivial. Despite this, many players frown upon the use of SCs against the AI, because (like undead hordes) it does not defend against them at all well. There are "anti-SC" strategies which human opponents will use but the AI will not.

Finally, don't forget that the AI does not build castles (though it occasionally obtains extra castles from random events). When waging war on an AI nation, take its capital (and other castles) as quickly as possible, because it will then be unable to recruit its best units. The rest of its provinces will then fall easily.

Good luck,

CC

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

SLEN.... when you say you can't win.... are you talking multiplayer or singleplayer ?

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Single player.


Magnate you said there are tons of threads on making good SCs....if there are, I am missing them... don't see any on search.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Yes, the search function on this board is icky - I still have huge problems getting what I want. If you try this search string

+"SC" -"Re"

you get at least four likely-looking threads on the first page, and plenty more on subsequent pages. Read the anti-SC threads as well, they will have useful nuggets too.

CC

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

The biggest thing that I think blows away new players is the default setting on the natives. Turn that up to 6 or 7 and you will have a much better game. Yes expansion is slower but the AI does much better against weak natives than you do so at 2 or 3 you will always get rushed.

As to pretenders, they all have their pros and cons so they can be as personal a choice to your style as the nation is. Some people make great use of high magics, or flying, or high hit points, or stealth, or diplomacy, or the fact that the pretender tosses out its own units each turn.


Gandalf Parker

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

I'll try cranking up the difficulty of the natives.






Magnate, I tried that.... got one page of responses, none of which were usefull.

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

Speaking of Dom 2 guides, has anyone put together a spreadsheet that I might use to show and sort the Spells. I would love a utility that would tell me what spells become available if I have given path levels (as well as their effects, gem costs, etc...)

Thanks, sorry if this question has been asked before.

Alarik

Re: I need some guides... help me heh? Pretenders
 

I think the online Grimoire is what you want.

What's good about typos is that they make searching for known sites so much easier.