Beginner Questions
 

I've seen enemy commanders with magic gear and the battle says Commanders were killed, yet I never find anything.

Do random maps have Fog of War? I started a game with a random map just for fun, and I noticed the screen wasn't completely available like the pre-built maps.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

It depends. Against indies, if the enemy routs it counts as a kill on the message screen even though they didn't actually die. If you did actually kill that commander, there's a percentage that you'll find the item if one of your commanders has a slot open to hold it.

As for the fog of war, not that I'm aware of. Were you playing a pre-built wraparound map? Random maps aren't wraparound, maybe that's what you're seeing?

Re: Beginner Questions
 

This question isn't related to Buatha's question, but I'm a beginner so I thought this place was appropriate.

An independent province separates me from my enemy and I planned to take it, but I've failed a couple of times already. The independents have assorted barbarian units and knights that probably came from random events, they number about 100 or so.

The biggest problem is a priest commander there that has Soul Contract? item in his possession. I don't know if it's a random event or if the priest is a reminder from a defeated pretender, but there are hundreds of devils in the province, probably about 400 or so. They just fly to my troops and tear away most of it on the first turn. My army routs or just gets decimated. I'm new so I don't know what to do. Devils keep making babies or something.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

That happened to me once, Patriot. What I did was send in an assassin to take out all the commanders. Then send in one dude to attack and all the devils should rout.

Good luck.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Assassins and assassination spells (ex. Seeking Arrow) are reasonable.

If you have a Staff of Storms, that'll help -- devils can't fly in storms, and their heat will probably set some of the indy troops on fire.

In some cases, it's simply easier to use stealth or magic to bypass the province.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Additionally, you could prepare a strong ground force, spearmen (longer weapons will repell the demon attacks) mixed 1-to-1 with something with a strong melee, and have two mages with them casting an armor buff and fire-resist buff (or one mage, if you've got someone strong enough to do the earth spell "skin of gold", which does both). They'll fly to you and get ripped apart by a sufficiently strong force that knows what they're up against, but you'd need a good 500-600 human troops to do so.

I'm used to playing Ulm or Man, and throwing a million troops at a problem is usually my playstyle, because hey, people are cheap. And a properly buffed army of 100 cheapo units can take out an unbuffed army of 100 giants.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

If there are 400 devils in the province. 500-600 troops will not do it. They will get trashed in one turn before having time to buff.

You either need a massive army with staff of storms, assassins, assissin spells or a very powerful SC.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Was your non-random map a Wraparound map? Most Dominions map are squares or scrolls or what-have-you, with definite borders. Some are spesifically made to be wrap-around maps, so that if you go left for long enough, you'll be at the place you started from.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

A commander with the Staff of Storms and a generous amount of mages casting Blade Wind should wipe out the devils with no problems. They don't have very high protection.

Having some higly armoured troops to engage the devils while the blades are slicing them up would probably be needed though.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

It's extremely unlikely that there are 400 devils, as a soul contract produces only one devil per turn.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Thanks guys, although there was 5 commanders in the province, I managed to assassinate them all and I took the province.

I was turtling in a large random map with the maximum computers, but I think I'll play on a smaller map or be more aggressive next time because this was a pain in the butt. I'm surprised that a computer didn't take it before it got out of hand.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

plus, soul contract makes imps, not devils (at leats it did the last time i played dominions) I would send a bunch of priests to keep the imps off your back. Keep your commanders safe and barbarians are not really a big problem.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Soul contract makes devils and did in Dom2. 1/Turn

Infernal Protection summons imps during combat.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Soul contracts produce 1 devil per turn, and have a chance of horror marking the commander carrying them. Lifelong protection contracts produce two imps per combat round.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I have a few more questions about Pretenders.

I'm having a hard time creating my Pretender as I'm new to Dominions. It's like picking furniture for a house I haven't seen yet.

When you choose their Level of magic, say Astral 3, is that their max level? In the demo, your God was a Level 3 Astral mage, but you had to research Level 1 spells to use them. Can you go beyond Level 3? Does researching past Level 3 automatically get you to Level 4 using the example above?

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Research and paths are orthogonal.

Research is split along areas -- ex. Conjuration, Enchantment et al. Research dictates what magic incantations your nation 'knows'. Holy is special in that all prayers (holy spells, essentially) are automatically researched.

Paths, on the other hand, are per commander. Thus, each mage has level ratings in FAWESDNBH. To cast a spell, not only must your nation 'know' it, but the caster must (at the time of casting -- there are ways to temporarily increase magical power here) have sufficiently high prowess in one or two paths.

You don't increase magic paths by researching. You don't gain research by increasing magic paths. (Well... you do increase research speed for that commander.)

Re: Beginner Questions
 

You can increase their magic levels withing the game too. Either by crafting items which grant a bonus to one or more paths, or by empowering the commander/pretender (spending gems to increase their level). The maximum level available at creation is 10, though you can increase beyond that by using items (Since mages gain less fatigue for casting spells under their level, this can sometimes make sense. It's also handy for spells which have effects or number of effects depending on the caster's level in a certain path).
Research is independent of magic levels. You can research a field all the way up to level 10 regardless of your mage or pretender's levels.
In short, the only real permanent effect of the initial path choices of a pretender are the blessing effects. These will stay set at whatever they are at creation, regardless of whether you later increase (or decrease) the pretender's paths.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Might also mention that other than pretenders, mages with greater than, hm, level 3 or so in a given path are actually fairly rare. There are national heroes and some summons that go up to level 5, but they're not that common.

If you're looking to cast some powerful global enchantment that needs level 8 or 9 in a path, it might be best to start with a pretender that can reach that level without too much additional cost.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Okay, I think I got it now. Now I understand the initial choices for Path levels. Archonsod hit what I was looking to know about Empowerment, but I didn't know that items could be crafted to raise the Paths. Cool!

Thank you for the responses. More than likely, I'll have more questions as I learn the game.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Re: Buatha
The chosen amount of magic isn't the max level. It can be increased in game by empowerment or by pathboosting items. However, your blessing, the effects of which can be seen at the bottom of the magic page, is based on what you started with.
I'm not sure I understand exaclty what you mean by the rest of your post, but I'll try to answer as best I can. If you have a god with astral three, he can cast ANY spell that requires astral 2, 3, or 4. However, he has to research those spells first. So, at the begining of the game, he can cast twist fate. If you research alteration 1, he can cast personal luck, an astral 1 spell. If you research alteration 9, he can cast any alteration spell that requires astral three or less: Twist Fate, Personal Luck, Body Ethereal, Luck, Baleful Star, Control, and Battle Fortune. His astral magic doesn't go up as you research more spells. If you want him to cast wish (alteration 9, requires nine astral) you would need to empower him, or give him astral boosting items.
Research works as follows: you need X points to get level one (starting settings can change what X is) once you put X points into that school of magic, you have all level one spells researched, for all mages. You then need to put a certain amount of research into that same school to get level two spells. (It allways cost more to research a level than it cost to research the previous level.) The manual, on pages 83 through 91, has a lot more detail about this.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

You should also note that a character needs at least one level in a path in order to benefit from an item bonus for it. For example, a thistle mace (grants +1 nature bonus) will only work for mages who already have at least 1 level in nature magic (taking them to Nature 2). Mages without nature magic won't gain the bonus (though they would still benefit from any other abilties conferred).

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Has anyone found a liking to Blood magic? I know that Mictlan practically relies on it, but how about with other races? Sacrificing and gathering virgins makes people angry and I'm killing off the population as I patrol it. Should I take Growth when using Blood magic? Or should I just let them suffer and die?

Also, has anyone ever found a Blood magic site? I think I've seen an Arena one day, but it gave like +25 gold.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I've found the Blood Citadel and Vale of Infinite Horror. The first one is nice, the second one...well, is not nice. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif There are some blood magic sites but they aren't very common. Some of them are very, very nice (Mountain of Power, Devil's Den) while others are just lame (that Villains site).

Blood magic was considered overpoweringly good in Dominions 2. I don't play that much with blood nations, so I don't know how strong it is in Dom 3.

Growth can nullify the poploss a bit, but it won't stop it.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Growth will allow population to grow back it you stop bloodhunting in that province. Ideally, you will use 2 neighboring provinces, one resting and getting population up and other for bloodhunting (it's like farming http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif)

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Ideally, you'll use <font color="red">ALL PROVINCES YOU OWN LET THE BLOOD FLOW! </font> http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Mount Chaining, if memory serves, is a blood site which offers a 40% discount on... conjuration, IIRC. The minor blood sites tend to give just unrest, or a little gold; but some do offer devils, discounts, et al. Damned Merchant is convenient, although the impact is minor if you've got even a couple of teams of blood hunters.

Turn off auto-tax, drop taxes to 0, use a couple of B1+ hunters with Sanguine Dousing Rods, move 'em along when pop drops a lot or make 'em pause when there's high unrest.

Blood got a couple of nice new high-level combat spells, and some high level ritual eeeeeeeevil (Horror Seed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif), and there are some fun items to forge... but it's still a summoning school at heart.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

For public information, Disease Demon is 267% Evil.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Blood magic is probably the most interesting school/path (with blood magic, they're basically the same) there's a lack of stunning battle magic, although the best buff in the game is probably blood vengance. But blood has tons of cool summons, and gets some of the best, if rarest sites in the game. Summoning Circle? 60% blood discount? Lets cast Infernal Forces for twenty slaves! A somewhat related blood magic question? Am I the only one that is finding blood hunt to be way, way more effective? I'm having blood 2 mages getting about 10 slaves a turn, without a dousing rod. Seems like more than it used to be.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Lack of battle magic? What about hellbind? life for a life? claws of cocytus (well... maybe not)? Bloodletting? (I like it).

And call horror is cool too.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I have a question about blood slaves:

Since they show up in battle as units, can they be killed by sorcery spells that target units in the map, like Fires From Afar or Wrath of God? That might be interesting if they could.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I don't think so.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

In the game startup I select the option that allows "Renaming." What exactly does this allow me to rename and where is it done. I have been unable to find a way to rename cities or mages/priests.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

when you are viewing a commanders personal info, hit r (if I remember right)

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Thanks much. Maybe with terrific names my guys can win some battles....

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Tactics question:

Should you sacrifice troops in order to build a 2nd temple early in the game? Seems like building an early second temple gives you an extra check and more dominion spread but at the sacrifice at province expansion.

Is the dominion spread worth it?

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Hmmm everything has its pros and cons, but generally Id say.. its not worth it that soon.

I would at LEAST make sure that you have taken all of the provinces connected to your castle (press the 8 key to help you tell). And usually I would go another loop or so before I start thinking about another temple. By then I tend to find someplace that needs a temple. Someplace I can recruit special units if I have a temple there.

Of course, if undead armies at approaching fast then toss out everything I said.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

With a nation like Abysia I would though. I always have heavy good scales with it, and the starting army can take all of the provinces around my capital 9 times out of 10, so the faster I get my scales out there the more troops I can build later, and I don't need them immediately.

Most of the time it can wait though.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Ahh yes. the nations with cold and heat requirements would have a sooner need for temples. Good point.
Probably the death nations also who benefit from pushing death scales. Their armies grow faster because of it.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

hoo -"Conquer now, consolidate later" is generaly a good motto, but if you are starting an MP game with a low dominion (say 5 or lower) a second temple early might be wise, but only if you can protect it. Climate nations and free spawn dominions might also be in a bit of a rush.

Patriot- Many people,including me, aviod BF blood magic not because it's ineffective, but because it's a pain in the neck. You have to haul the slaves around with you and keep them alive until you use them, there are only a couple blood spells that do not use slaves, and most blood spells have very high fatigue.

The strength of blood comes from a few excellent items (Hell Sword, Soul Contract, Lifetime Contract), and, most especialy, it's many excellent summons. In fact, i do not think that there are any blood summons that are bad, and nearly all are good or excellent. The unique devil lords in particular are highly thought of by nearly all experienced players. One drawback though- they are mostly single unit summons.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Ferry the slaves around with scouts. In fact, ferry all gems/slaves around with scouts if you're not using them. Also ironically enough, the demon lords are considered subpar by nearly all experienced players. I think you mean the unique Arch Devils and Ice Devils though, those are beasts for their cost.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I actually find it no more annoying than regular magic. On the other hand, I don't usually use Blood Magic during combat, so it's kind of unfair to say, I suppose. For me, it's Death magic to keep my casters useful in battle, and a combination of Death and Blood for my outside-war needs. (Hellbind Heart is an exception) I also throw in whatever my national casters are good at. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Sometimes you don't need to ferry slaves around, all you have to do is give your commander the order to blood hunt and he might pull a few slaves out ready for the next battle.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

I do use scouts for carrying things around, but blood slaves are still a pain and blood spells still cost alot of fatigue. (in Dom3 i have also seen the AI attack with the slaves!) And yes, i did mostly mean the Arch and Ice Devils, though i also think the others are worthy except that it's often too much research to for just a couple summons that you may not be sure are still available by the time you get there.

(BTW, not sure i ever congratulated you on your excellent victory in the Dragon game- Gratz!)

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Hehe, thanks, you had me sweating there for a moment though when you managed to take down those SC's so easily. After that, I just stripped all the SC's down and said the hell with it and just sent in them as battlemages instead =).

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Hey, here's something that looks "not realistic" (using quotes because I'm not sure how having God wannabes taking over a whole world and sending whole nations to destroy each other - or themselves can be said to be "realistic"): I can see magic gems as being something a trained scout/spy could move about relatively easily while avoiding detection as usual, but I have a harder time picturing the same guy moving about stealthily with 30 white-clad virgins in tow...

Re: Beginner Questions
 

Also "special dominion effect" nations like R'lyeh. I was having a lot of trouble until I got the dominion cranking and all my neighbors started acting erratic.

Gives the squids lots of chaff to throw at arrows, too.

Re: Beginner Questions
 

All eyes r on the 30 white clad virgins...so the scout hides in the background even easier... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif