Tips for newbs - just add
 

After attacking a lizardmen province in one of my early turns with my pretenders I would like to share:
( I know it's known to most, I had even read it somewhere before )

TIP:
DO NOT ATTACK LIZARDMEN INDIES WITH VALUABLE TROOPS/COMMANDERS/PRETENDERS

reason: the damn mage will cast curse on you, getting a cursed pretender is not nice

--> plz add more general newb info, I and I suppose other have a lot to learn (preverably not the hard way)

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't attack independent barbarians with your pretender in the beginning, they can hurt. Barbarians can't handle arrows.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Heavy Cav / Knight provinces are also dangerous to attack with high value units due to thier lances.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Always buy at least 1PD in every province. Don't buy more than 10PD unless you have a specific reason to do so.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

-Always script Divine Blessing and Blessing if you have sacred troops, because the casting AI is not smart enough to do it.

-Alway double-check Stealth commanders, because they Stealth as a default and won't join battles.

-Mercenaries are a great way to site search for Paths your nation doesn't have naturally.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Yogolgna is a great way to build underwater temples, if youre a landlubbing nation.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

give to your mages exactly the number of gems they need for casting what you have scripted

give all the other gems to a scout, always in stealth moving with your army.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Unequipped assassins only work once against a human player - so make it count. After the first attack, they will put bodyguards on all thier useful commanders.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

If you have 200 gems of one type in the bank, and no plans for them, you are doing something wrong.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

You can't seduce Lifeless things. However, undead who are not Lifeless like Banelords or Ghouls can be seduced (eewwwww!).

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't view your mages simply as research batteries. Many nations profit from using (some) early mages as artillery.

Using Hold and Attack with infantry is almost always better than simply Attacking when you have archer support. (About the only exception is when your normal infantry have missile weapons, such as EA Ulm or any 'legionnaire'.)

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

When you have an elite army type which is vulnerable to missle fire (something like EA Tien Chi warriors of the 5 elements) Place a decoy unit of 5 or so throw away or shield untis at the front left of the battle and have them on "Guard Commander" orders. Place a commander at the rear left of the battlefield with "holdx5" orders. Place your elite units in the middle. The computers archers will target the forward placed units on guard order and will keep moving forward to shoot the units who are moving back to guard the commander on "hold X5" This allows your elite units to slaughter the incoming infantry without taking missle fire and then proceed to the archers who will be closer to your elites. *Note* watch for enemy light infantry with Javelins as they will throw them at your elite missle vulnerable troops"

You can use this tactic to create 2nd and 3rd expansion armies very quickly with elite Blessable troops that would normally get decimated by archer fire.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

If someone offers a non-aggression pact (NAP), never give an unconditional "no" when a conditional "yes" will almost always work much more in your favor -- and that's vastly understating things.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't put an "Eye" magic item on a commander missing an eye.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't leave your army's blood mages unscripted in battle, or they will cast "Hellfire" and get themselves horror marked. (unless of course they are expendable)

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Also, don't be like the AI and give your Cyclops an Eye of Aiming. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Blood slaves are pooled among all blood mages standing next to each other, so unless you want blood slaves being used up unscripted, keep commanders with slaves on the other side of the screen of any blood mages you don't want casting blood spells.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Ignore the arena battle for SP games... the AI opponents will always send their large pretenders. The prize is not worth the risk.

Sit back and watch the AI pretenders kill each other.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

If you teleport underwater commanders to land, do not forget to give them a an Amulet of Fish.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I am strongly opposed to this thread.http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

It's ruining any chances of amusing first posts.http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

In an MP game, always make your initial scout your prophet... unless you have H3 recruitable Priests. An H3 recruitable priest can be made into an H4 prophet... very nice. But otherwise the scouts do just fine, and can even stealth preach when needed.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

If you have death gem income and recruitable D2 mages, I think it's better to research Conj1 first, then summon a Black Servant and make him your prophet. He can then reanimate dead, and he'll also make a pretty decent thug for homeland defense if you get rushed.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Spam temples isn't good. Do not put a temple in each province, becasue I will get for those 400g some troops and you will loose against my bigger army. Temples should be placed only to recuit priest for blesses/raise undeads or inside castle to recruit units if you aren't a dominion bases country (LA Ermor, Ryleh...).

Extra forts are for extra mages. You build extra forts to build more mages to research more. Specially if you have low cost sacred mages. You need magic 1 to have them skyrocket but even without it they rock.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I disagree to that. I always use my starting commander to make a prophet, because using sermon of courage and smite helps a lot in winning early fights (and limiting losses).

A scout is disposable, weak and prone to early death...

The advice I'd give would rather be "Don't forget to always have a prophet. And don't forget that making someone a prophet gives +1 holy magic if the commander has that magic or sets holy magic to three."

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Kasna, making your scout a profet gives you access to something most countries do not have: stealth preachers.

Just try doing your scout profet and have him travel with firt army and you solve both problems at the same time.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

What is the point of having a single stealth preacher ? Stealth preaching has counters and works only with mass of priests anyway. It's not that useful in early game because you don't really have a lot of immortal units. Stealth preaching doesn't really has any other useful side that both of those...

Moving with the scout prophet creates another problem : I may be strange but I use the scout to scout.

Well, as I said, it may have a use... but it is not in my opinion good enough to make it "noob tip".

That's what I would call a noob tip : fill the map with scouts, especially in MP !

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

There is not really a need for a stealth preacher in early game as the prophet spreads dominion automatically anyway.

It is difficult to say which unit should be the prophet because that depends on the nation your playing and what strategy you are planning.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I agree with kasnavada. Making your scout a prophet isn't always a good idea. Always having a prophet is though, as is the +1 holy level tip.

"Becoming a prophet sets his holy magic level to 3, or adds +1 level if he's already at 3+. It also gives him bonus to stats when in friendly dominion, makes him sacred and keeps him automatically blessed at all times"

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't equip armor or low level weapons on military commanders. It just replaces the equipment the commander comes with.

Learn to choose assassin targets with care. They almost always lose to knights and other mounted commanders.

This is not Civilization. You cannot always do everything you want/plan to do. You can only build one commander per castle and must choose between military, priest, research, site search or battle mages. At first, with only one castle, this is a huge issue.

Do not waste your money/resources on the lower military units.

Learn castle admin values and what type you are building. A province between two castles who admin adds up to 100% will go to zero resouces which means you cannot recruit in that province. Murphy's law will mean that a valuable indy mage is no longer recuitable.

The people that complain about the poor AI are experienced and skilled Dom3 players. Until you learn the 7 skillion complexities of the game, the AI will kick your ***.

Magic users can kill your (seemingly)invincible armies.

This is a rock/scissors/paper game. There is always something to beat everything else. As a collary, you may not have the reasearch gems or mages to play the card.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Remember the Dominions ethic. Soldiers suffering from terrible diseases or crippling disabilities are not discharged or treated. They are to be promoted to hold the glorious position of point men (aka arrow/javelin/lance fodder). Point men work best in small groups positioned in front the your main melee forces.

This serves to practical purposes:
1. Wastes "ammo" attacks, especially the dangerous Lance charges of cavalry.
2. Kills these subpar units so you don't have to pay upkeep.

Addendum: Commanders are usually an exception of this rule, and eye and heart injuries can be "treated" with Thaumernetic implants, such as Eye of Aiming. But if it's a crap commander (like a diseased scout) don't hesitate to stick a cursed or suicide item on him and toss him at some enemy (or send him to the deathmatch). With luck some foolish enemy commander (or Pretender) will pick up the cursed items.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

In general, it's more helpful to choose a pretender that diversifies your nation, rather than a pretender that builds on your nation's existing strengths.

So if your nation has strong Nature magic, don't waste design points giving him a lot of Nature magic.

If your nation has access to flying commanders, don't waste points on a flying chassis.

If your nation has powerful non-capital mages, don't waste points on a Magic-3 scale.

Etc.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

What do you mean "waste"? Faster research is faster research, even if your researchers are also good in fights. There might be better options, but that doesn't make this one weak or wasteful, just not-quite-optimal.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I agree that the prophet scout isn't always the best plan. Especially in EA, where indy scouts are rare, that may be the only scout you'll have for awhile, unless you use precious castle turns building your national scouts.

Making your starting commander a prophet has the advantage of being slightly less vulnerable to stray arrows (and leaving your scout free to scout), but the disadvantage of having higher fatigue due to armor. Also you can't patrol first turn for more money. It's a trade off.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Also, people tend to forget that Magic 3 gives several other benefits than just research points. For example:

• * 30% less fatigue when casting spells in combat.
  
  * -1 MR (actually good if your troops/mages have high MR and the enemy has low).
  
  * Some spells effectiveness rely on magic scale.

Pushing that magic scale into enemy lands (with dominion) could benefit your invasion a lot. It is also a good thing to have if attacked in some cases.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

use boots of quickness to double the effect of items with spell (acid staff, Tempest, Sceptre of Corruption, Rod of Pheonix, Herald Lance, Rod of Kurgi, Sword of Justice, Crossbows & Bows, Crown of Overmight, Wand of Wild Fire, O'al Kan's Sceptre, Sun Slayer, Standard of the Dammed, Winter Bringer, Skull Standard)

ex : a non-mage commandant can cast 2 drain life per turn with boots of quickness and a Standard of the Dammed

Awaken Sleeper are great for this purpose : high precision and lot of hit points

About Combattants and low level paths
1 level in Water is good for quicken self
1 level in fire for fire shield
1 level in astral for luck / body etheral
1 level in death for reanimation
1 level in nature for protection / forge food / eagle Eyes
1 level in air for aim
2 level in air for mistform
3 level in death for soul vortex
1 level in blood for blood Vengeance



In blood :
Blood Boil is the only battle spell usable without slaves (1b & 1f)
Agony is really useful with High level caster, Harm too.
Infernal Prison or Claws of Kokytos are usefull for casting under astral corruption or to send to hell big horrors

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

On eye & heart implants - unfortunately, in Dominions they work differently than in Earthdawn where the idea appeared first. So - do NOT use them on commanders which suffered such injuries. Especially not in case of eye - commander won't have his missing eye replaced with a magical one, he'll lose his remaining one! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif
BTW, I'm also against this thread (and we have trivia one!) - but I think that many people still won't read it so we'll still have amusing posts in MPs...

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Generally speaking, do not mix units with different movement speeds into the same squad. It will cause the squad to break formation as they charge the enemy and make them easier to kill.

There are some notable exception to this rule (like with Tramplers), but it generally holds.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Some good events and bad events only happen with non-luck scales. For example, Magic means more gem events. On the flipside, Death lets foreign princes die in your lands and drop magic items and loot into your lap.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Things that I wish I knew early on... part #1

Start only one MP game early in your Dom 3 Multi-Player (MP) career unless you forsee that 8 weeks down the road you'll have lots of time to take your turns. There is probably an equation to the effect
Turn creation time is a function of (Turn# , held Provinces , #potential province battles, your personal micromanagement threshold, nation type, etc). I understand that some late game epic battle take hours to set up.

Micro management, though time consuming, does pay dividends.

Site searching early often pays back big later on in the game.

Multi-front wars often end like Hitler's...

In game diplomacy can be just as (and even more) important than research, units, and tactics.

Like many other turn based fantasy games magic and gem income rule the roost in later turns.

Read Sheap's tips.

Make sure all your NAPs (Non-agression pacts) are non-ambiguous.

Is there a Dom3 acronym list posted anywhere? I remember GoR, GoH and others throwing me early on.

Try to be a little unpredictable in MP games. Fortune tends to favor the bold.

-SSJ

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

The tips sansanjuan is referring to was a collection of advice about how to conduct yourself personally in an MP game:

Sheap's Tips

I agree with sansan also about MP diplomacy. In MP games, you are fighting not one, but two wars. The regular dominions one, but also the diplomatic one. If you lose either, you lose the game. This is a key fact which very often seperates the veterans from the newbies.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Is there anything about being prophet that makes your commander less vulnerable to arrows? I know there's a +2 defense bonus, but that shouldn't help...

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Prophets are less vulnerable inside your dominion because of higher HP, plus any air bless if applicable, plus E9 bless if applicable.

But I'm pretty sure thejeff means starting commanders are less vulnerable to stray arrows than scouts.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

I think he's referring to the fact that most commanders have much better armor than scouts. And sometimes shields too.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

And remember that having a Magic-3 dominion can hurt you just as easily as it can help you in battle, for the same reasons.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

pp. 289-290 of the manual, but that's not an exhaustive list.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Don't recruit light cavalry. It's a sucker's bet.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Are you kidding, cleveland? If your race has no access to any cavalry and you don't have much resources in the region, I say recruit them. They are great if used properly, so put them on the flanks and let them rampage through archers and mages.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Even at the best of times I think light cav are unlikely to recoup their gold cost in terms of damage dealt. It's possible, but that's true of almost any unit.

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

Not to mention that how much position troops (and cavalry especially) to the sides and set them to attack rear they usually end up attacking the sides of the main body of troops advancing towards me. Very rarely teh actual rearmost units are reached

Re: Tips for newbs - just add
 

If you don't let the enemy advance first they will not attack the rear as the rear is still the enemies in the front rows. So the solution is to put them way back and set them to either hold and attack rear or guard commander, and then set the commander to holdx3-4 and attack rear. All depending on what enemy you face. Works pretty well if you do it right.

Light Cavalry are also good raiders and pillagers.