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- Dominions 3: The Awakening (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=138)

- - Fomoria (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=38463)

thx for the help with sauromatia, it helped me a lot.
Now i am here for another tips: How can i play fomoria?
Their giants and king seems good nut i dont like them.
theri infantry is good but the affliction chance is something i should be worry about?What bless i should use for unmarked?(i will never use giants)

Take E 9-10 and N 4-8 bless, there's no exceptions. For research, alteration 7 and evocation 6 and enchantment 6 have all the good air stuff. Fomorian Kings are ridiculously good thugs/SCs due to low level air buffs and soul vortex. Cloud trapeze gives them teleport ability. For scales order 3 is a must and magic 1 or 3 is also very good.

I've had good results taking lich rainbow (so no bless obviously) with good scales and recruiting only javeliners (both types).

Ehm I personally don't know Fomoria.. never played them

but only thing I know of them from the forum is that they have something to do with giants.. so not using the giants seems.. well.. not so smart.. why not choose another race?

caveat: I am new to dominions, and I've never played multiplayer
(MP), only singleplayer (SP). Most of my strategies are based on
reading other peoples' guides. Pashadawg generously gave me some
of the saved game files from the recent RAND game
which was won by Micah playing Fomoria, so a great deal of this
guide comes from examining his moves.

The RAND game is here:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...art=1&vc=1

1. troops

Fomorian Warrior: This is your best soldier, and generally the
only non-capital troop that you'll recruit.

Unmarked: This is the cheaper of your two sacreds. Most of your armies
will be made from these. Try to recruit as many as you can.

Fomorian Giant: The more expensive sacred. These guys are super powerful,
especially with your bless (more or than later), but at 110gp each,
you're not going to be able to afford many. As cash flow allows, try to
buy a few of these instead of unmarked.

Nemedian Warrior: capital only, stealthy glamour heavy infantry
with 16 defense. Clearly has raiding potential. Spare resources at
the capitol (after building a king, and all your sacreds) should
go to these, when you can afford them.

[TODO: more on the other units]

2. commanders

Fomorian Druid: your only non-capital mage, and the main commander
you'll be recruiting in your non-capitol forts. A cost effective
researcher at 150gp,sacred, with 3 research. The druid also has
10 leadership, which is enough to lead ten Fomorian Warriors.
Surprisingly (to me anyways), one Druid and ten Formorian Warriors
can take out most indy provinces / mild province defense, so that
gives you access to lots of small raiding parties.

All Formorian Druids can cast aim, and one in four can cast eagle eye too,
so they make great combat spellcasters. They also make excellent
combat artillery (more on this later). The Formorian Druid
comes in 4 variations:

A2 can forge thunder bows, can summon storm power/thunderstrike, can cloud trapeze
A1W1 can forge ring of water for W2, then forges frost brand, sword of swiftness, boots of quickness, water bottle, etc
Or arm with a bow, cast aim, quickness, fire closest
You'll also want one (at W2) to cast voice of apsu.
A1D1 raise skeletons, cheap blesser if you need it.
A1G1 with a bow and boots of quickness, script aim, eagle eye, fire closest
One of these should walk around site searching.
As soon as you can, You'll want to empower one to 2G, which unlocks thistle
maces and haruspex.

Fomorian King: this is the centerpiece of Fomoria. Properly
outfitted, the Fomorian King isn't just a thug, it really qualifies
as a supercombantant (SC). They are also excellent combat spell
casters. You should aim to recruit one every turn, after the first
few turns.

There are three common variants of Fomorian Kings:

A4D2 thunderspam, can cast storm with 2 gems or an air booster,
can forge air boosters, or staff of storms
A3D3 as a thug: bless, mistform, soul vortex, attack.
Or, traveling with an A4, summon storm power, aim, thunderstrike
x3 In the late game, with air boosters & travelling with blesser
and staff of storms, consider thunderstike x5
A3W1D2 as a thug, cast quickness, mistform, attack. Or with a
water ring and gems, can cast quickening to haste your warriors.

Nemedian Sorceress: if you recruit a Sorceress, you aren't recruiting a King.
Don't build these; instead, save up for a King.

3. general overview

With a decent bless (e.g., E9/N4), you have incredible rush power.
At alt-3, a king with 6-8 Unmarked and 1-2 Giants can kill most anything that's
around in year one.

You lack magical diversity, especially astral, which is critical.
Astral indy mages are a high priority for you, and you should
probably splash astral on your pretender as well (and possibly
fire, too). If your pretender has S3E2 you can construct golems, which have at least S2 (S3 with cap, S4
with crystal coin, which your pretender can forge). This
will unlock astral forging (amulets of antimagic and caps
for all your kings), althought it takes construction-7,
which is pretty late.
You have a possible end-game in Death magic - well
of misery, tartarians.

Don't forget mercenaries! Even an S1 mercenary can cast arcane probing
for three rounds, which is three chances at sage, crystal mage,
etc.

4. research plan

Alteration: Your first research goal is Alteration-3. This unlocks
mistform, which helps your Kings immensely (along with
Quicken Self on the W1 kings).
Alt-3 also provides Protection, which your A1G1 druids can cast.
Along the way you'll pick up Resist Lightning, Cold Resistance,
Barkskin, Aim, Eagle Eyes, Quicken Self.
Enchantment: take ench-1 for skellispam.
Evocation: Your next goal is Evo-5, for storm. Along the way
you get summon storm power, thunderstrike, and a handful
of other good combat spells.
On your way to Evo-5, break for the site searching spells at
Thaum-2, Conj-2.
Enchantment: Ench-4 has the critial cloud trapeze. Along the
way you'll pick up skellispam (ench-1 and ench-3). Also at
Ench-4 is twiceborn which all your Kings can cast. I'm not
sure if this is a good use of 10 death gems or not, but it's
an option. Probably worth it on the rare 1 in 10 kings with
an extra magic path.

Evo-5 probably marks the transition into mid-game for you, as
you change from small stacks of thugs to massive thunderstriking
power. At this point, you probably want to take
construction to 4 or even 6.

Late game options: construction 8 for forge of the ancients and artifacts;
or ench-6 and conj-9 for lichcraft-tag-tartarians.

5. tactics
5.1 Thugs
Without any equipment but a good bless and alt-3, kings are already
pretty excellent thugs. Splash in frost brand or sword of swiftness,
shields (vine shield is in reach at N2), boots of quickness,
etc, and they're vicious.

All your kings can cloud trapeze as well, so large
air-raids are easy for you (read Baalz' Eriu guide for details).

You desperately want S1 for amulet of antimagic and starshine skullcap
to boost your King's magic resistance.

5.2 storms, thunderstrikes, and you

All your kings and druids work great with storm, summon storm power,
and lightning evocations. With a screen of your incredibly tough
of Unmarked, Fomorian Giants, and Fomorian Warriors, your mages
can pile on evocations with impunity.

5.3 artillery druids

All your Druids can cast aim, and some of them can cast eagle
eyes or quicken self, too. Armed with a bow and quickness
(either boots or self-cast), they make great artillery commanders.
Some decent bows are available at construction-2, which is
sooner than evo-5 for storm. A few standout bows are Black Bow
of Botulf (cheap at 5 death gems), Thunder Bow (10 air gems,
deals *strength* armor negating damage, and your druids have
21 strength), Vision's Foe (5 air, 5 death, arbalest with +10
precision). Add in Eyes of Aiming (all your druids can forge
them) for even more precision.

I really like the synergy with Thunder Bow and the high strength
druids. However, your opponents are probably expecting lightning
damage and may prepare with lightning resistance, so use with
caution.

6. pretenders and scales

6.1 chassis

Because you have Formorian Kings, you don't need an SC pretender,
and you don't need an awake pretender. All your mages are
sacred, and you have fantastic sacred units, so a bless is in
order. You lack magical diversity, so splashing a few magic
paths your pretender is probably also good idea. So for chassis,
your best bet is the cheap rainbow mages. The enchantress is
probably the best among them, but tinker and see which fits
best for you.

6.2 Magic paths

The key bless for you is E9, which helps all your spellcasters
with invigoration (thunderstrike is tiring!), as well as a handy
+4 prot for your troops. Regeneration from the Nature bless
works well for you too, since all your units have high hit
points. But avoid N9 -- when your mages catch an arrow (and
with 32hp, your druids will survive a few), they'll berserk,
rush forward and attack, and you'll be very unhappy.

If you go with the E9 bless, your have a good shot at
the forge of the ancients; also, your pretender can make
golems which will help you crank out all those amulets of
antimagic and starshine skullcaps that your Kings need.

You need Astral. S4 gives a little boost
to your MR-weak Kings, and unlocks ring of sorcery/ring of
wizardry.

6.3 scales

Order: Kings are expensive, you need cash. Order-3 is a no-brainer.
Productivity: You need at least enough productivity to recruit
a King and 5-6 Unmarked or Giants at your capitol, so I wouldn't
take Sloth. But Production isn't really necessary either.
Heat/Cold: You will not have large numbers of troops, so the
supply reduction from heat/cold doesn't bother you. A point
of heat or cold is a cheap way to get a few more design points.
Growth: Not sure about this either. Perhaps 0?
Luck: This is another place to get some design points. Misfortune-2
is probably safe.
Magic: Since you will be using your Kings right from the start, and
relying on research-3 druids and indy mages for research, a
few scales in Magic are very helpful for you.

An example pretender:
Imprisoned Great Enchantress, E9/N4/S4/F1, dominion 5.
Order-3, Cold 1, Misfortune 2, Magic 1
or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 2, Magic 2
or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 3, Magic 3

[[some edits; thanks Endoperez.]]

Re: Fomoria *DELETED*

Post deleted by churl

Edit is on the same line as date of the post, before reply and quote buttons.

Wow, now there's a first post! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Nice work Churl.

His second post sucked though.

Quote:

Sombre said:
His second post sucked though.

Second post? What second post? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Still batting .500, not bad.

Thanks, all. I'm not totally happy with the formatting, but I'm also too lazy to go back and re-edit everything. It looks great in vi. :/

I happened to catch Micah on the IRC channel yesterday, and he mentioned a few more things:

- he never used druids in combat; only for research and forging. So, perhaps all the stuff with bows only works well in SP?
Basically, he said since you have Kings, don't waste
gems on druids. I've had good results with druids and bows in SP, but everything works in SP.

- he wouldn't cast quickness on a thug king, because of fatigue concerns.

- he doesn't use storm, because of its negative effects on precision.

- he suggested building one Nemedian Champion early on (before you have the gold to be making kings every turn).
Keep the champion in reserve so that you have someone to lead your Nemedian Warriors.

- The Nemedian Warriors work well for a one-two capitol fort capture: on the first turn, surprise attack the fort with the stealthy nemedians, to kill the province defense. On the subsequent turn, bring in the main army (kings set on thunderstrike with a wall of unmarked). This way, you avoid fighting the enemy's mages and PD together, which will cause your mages to thunderstrike his PD. I suppose all of this assumes some cooperation on the part of the opponent: that he has his capitol mages set on retreat, until he sees your army coming, and then sets them up to attack.

- Fomorian Militia are a good unit to build right before being sieged: you can crank out a ton of them quickly, and they'll rebuild the fort and delay the siege.

- Fomorian Javelinist is pretty good, if you don't have the cash for Formorian Warrior

- the real power is at evo-4: thunderstrike. It might be so good that you should just rush to evo-4 first.

The Nemedian Warriors defeating PD is more due to the fact that mages research unless they need to fight. When the stealth force attacks, the mages are still researching, or perhaps forging some last-minute items.

Quote:

I suppose all of this assumes some cooperation on the part of the opponent: that he has his capitol mages set on retreat, until he sees your army coming, and then sets them up to attack.

Why? Usually if you don't expect an attack, there's only the PD there, and mages are busy doing research, so sneaky atttacks will never face the mages (maybe just a few of them who were patrolling just in case, but that's likely a waste of mage time most often).

Ok, I get it now. no cooperation required.

Im playing Fomoria in SP right now and it hit that owl quill spam could be really beneficial in the early game. There aren't really all that many good uses for Air gems in the early game, and setting a couple A2 druids to forging owl quills can give you a good use for them and also provide a little jumpstart to your research. I was just wondering what others thought about this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trumanator (Post 639896)

I did the same thing with MA Man. Owl Quills aren't as good as Skull Mentors, but they are cheaper.

Of course, the best way to supercharge research is to combine Owl Quills and Skull Mentors. LA Atlantis (my current game) gets enough Angakoks with Air randoms to supply me with plenty of Owl Quill Powah!

On a somewhat related note, what kind of equipment is good for your kings at cons 2. I've been making them Horror Helms since it synergizes well with their high D magic, but I just leave the rest as is. It did lead to the hilarious event of 3 of them routing ~90 barbarians after killing only about 4. In retrospect sending them against barbarians was probably dumb, but it worked this time.

I like sending in teams of one druid set to bless a group of ten unmarked, with an E9N8 it kicks at least as much *** as you paid for the group. On top of that, I love love love gift of reasoning Morrigans. Morrigans are nasty, nasty units and everyone should use them. On that note, Dance of the Morrigans is a fantastic spell, so use that.

The Kings are really great and while I am sure they are worthy of a big bless personally I like a Rainbow with a multiple minor bless which will fill in some gaps in your magic. You can get better scales that way too.

You will want order and some magic. As I think Fomoria are a Thug/SC nation I don't see Production as a priority. The sacreds are good but pricy and capital only. After buying a King there is not always the money to max out on sacreds. And I certainly would not want to buy sacreds before Kings once I had Mistform and probably not before either!

Earth is a must whether its big or small one, at least E4. It opens up a lot of forging with the hammers and you will want a lot of those to cut down the cost of equiping all your Kings. Plus the Kings worst enemy is fatigue with all that fighting and casting potential. You can't really have enough earth, but whether more than E4 is worth it I'm not sure. There are plenty of reinvigoration items (and all Kings want them) plus the E9+ bonus is nice but not essential with a King who has access to many buffs, inc. mistform and has lots of hp (and regeneration).

And some nature to for some regeneration to limit afflictions, at least N4. I like Hydra skin armour for the Kings as it adds Poison immunity and Mistform is the main protection so I am not sure a heavy regeneration is necessary rather than just desirable.

S4 will allow you to forge all the Astral boosters. Plus it opens up the communion matrixes but I am not sure this is a worthy use of your pretenders time. But it can help your Kings caste the bigger battle spells if you have access to Shamans/Amazons/Sages etc. for slaves.

I like F4 which gives your kings a minor attack boost but also opens up more forging potential especially the Charcoal shields which go well with the Kings. But you could go with air, water or death instead.

The Rainbow mage can be sleeping and will forge / caste globals for most of the game. You need a huge gem income to equip the number of Kings you will have so any of the gem producing globals are worth it. There is no point in having the forge as the main goal in mp as everyone wants it. But it is a game winner for Fomoria.

Early on before you can recruit a King each turn I would build Nemedian Champions NOT Druids. Although Druids are in some ways better they can be built at any fort so you will end up with lots. The NCs are capital only and do (with stealth and decent command) fill nieche rolls. You won't want to build one instead of a King but if you can't buy a King having a few later on will be appreciated.

I think Fomoria is very powerful. It is also a great beginner power as the Kings (whatever you do) are tough and fun to play around with.

Playing fomori in a 6 player multiplay at the moment. The game is on a 10 day hiatus, as one player got a case of real life and is abroad visiting Holland (and probably out of his gourd on pot-muffins). :neth:

Anyway, here's a few observations from turn 40.

Very easy access to Thunder Strike. Cloud bungee get's the casters where you need them, and TS brings the artillery, mix with Shadow Blast as strikes your fancy.

Hunting for magic sites is a total bastard. Death and Air are the only easy paths. I traded for gems and empowered a lot of people.

No reason to go for a big fighting pretender. You have the kings for that... and especially the heroes. Balor is just about the scariest national hero I've ever seen! I got an imprisoned fomorian sorcerer with Death 9, nature 6 and earth 4. The point was to get good value for those sacreds. Death weapons, regeneration and reinvigoration, and those size 6 giants are kicking *** and taking names. Remember to make good use of the javelins they throw like siege engines. I made one of the Kings my prophet as soon as I could, and he's been all the fighting SC pretender I need.

I've actually brought very little of the smaller giants... the reason for that are the unbelievable good Nemedians. Golden, magical weapons and shields, rediculously good fighting skills, glamour and good armour for the age. These guys feel like seriously blessed elites, even though they aren't even sacred.

Mass 10+ of the big guys and you can take sea provinces against fairly serious resistance. Also don't forget to make good use of the sailing ability.

I feel like I should go easy on some of my opponents with all this going for me. :smirk: