Endgame Strategy List
 

After ~ 1 year of Dom 3 MP I have now seen many endgame strategies e.g. those goals you are working toward while you expand and research in the early/mid-game:

1. Tartarian Factory: Bootstrap your death magic to summon Tarts, Gift of Reason them, and hopefully use the Chalice / Gift of Health to make them whole.
2. Vine Ogre Factory: Summon tons of Vine Ogres (or Manikins/other Chaff) and use Army of Lead, Fog Warriors on them.
3. Enslave: Be able to cast Master Enslave/Undead Mastery on your enemy (try to cast it first), followed by Antimagic, Fog Warriors, etc. and preferably with Rune Smasher, Eye of the Void, Spell Focus, etc. for max penetration
4. Clam Hording: building clams throughout the game to generate huge astral income that leads to wishes.
5. Chain Wishing: wish for more gems, then Seraphs. Other ways to play this one out?
6. Market Crash: Spamming remote attacks like Ghost Riders / Horrors with Scouts /other stealth units following up with an attack to quickly bring down an economy

I'd be curious to compile some others as I think one of the toughest aspects of learning this game for a noob is not knowing what you are working toward and overestimating the strength of conventional troops. Perhaps a list like this exists somewhere else but I did not see anything comprehensive in a forum search.

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

Is Utterdark included in #6? (With or without Gift of Nature's Bounty.)

Arcane Nexus is pretty similar to chain wishing (I assume you mean on an Alteration site so you make a profit).

-Max

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

Arcane Nexus is good in combination with wishing for gems. That way you spend more non-astral gems, which then fuel up your nexus income. You spend 100 astral gems for a wish which gives you 150 other gems. And when you spend them you get 37 astral gems through nexus. That way you actually spent 63 gems for your wish.

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

I don't think you get astral gems or blood slaves through the Nexus. Am I wrong?

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

Actually, the Nexus produces ONLY astral gems for the caster. What it does not do is absorb Astral or Blood spells. So if you're opponents are only using Astral or Blood, you'll get nothing as far as I know. What Pyscho was saying is that if you wish for gems, get a bunch of non-astral gems and spend them on non-Astral spells, that spending will be translated into Astral gems by the Nexus.

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

Well, actually, since wishing for gems returns you 25 pearls too, you actually only pay 75 pearls to gain 150 gems of other kinds. Minus those 37 the nexus returns to you makes 38.

I like that kind of exchange rate. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

You are right. How could I have not noticed that before. Wishing for gems is even better than I thought.

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

This is my biggest problem with this game.

I absolutely LOVE the starting out time. This is when I can expand into 10 or so territories and wait for my god to appear if he is sleeping, etc.

However, then I run up against Ermor or something who have 200 units in every province and I realize "OMG, I don't know how to play this game properly"

I am pretty good at most strategy games, play this only on normal difficulty AI and yet, at every turn I get ganked.

I made a nice small map with Atlantis, Ryleah and Oceania.

We had a small little island surrounded by water. I was able to beat Oceania pretty fair and square.

When I get to Ryleah though they have half the map and untold amounts of troops. There is no way I can beat them because by the time I get my troops in to take one province they will swarm me somewhere else.


I realize that sounds noobish but now multiply that by 20 when playing on a large map. I had made this VAST empire of Ermor undead and then in the endgame phase of it, it was ridiculous. We simply couldn't win because we were being attacked in every province all the time by all the remaining empires.

I tried to stay focused on building up large armies and having them for defense, and I think where I break down is in siege's, it seems they just last forever when I siege and my enemy can break my walls and crack my fortress in 2 turns.


Specific feedback about how to get past the mass hordes?

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

It really depends quite heavily on what nation you're using, and what you're going up against.

The AI usually recruits a lot of chaff, crap units, everywhere it can get them, which leads into a swarm attack, since they can optimize them across the board... the AI will never forget to research or scout, for instance. But usually this is from having an increased difficulty level.

If you're playing on Normal level, well, find a chokepoint and buy a lot of PD. The AI is sucker for PD.

Lastly and most important, check out the strategy guide list and start doing some research. It'll help you be the best player you can be!

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

You have to realize of course that when you run up against a large empire in the mid- or endgame you're running up against 60 turns' worth of troops. You're not going to degrade that many troops in 3 turns. Plan on wars taking a year or two and don't expect to crush his armies as quickly as you crushed indies early on. (Especially because indies die when they rout and national troops don't.) That also means it's worth using gem-costing battlefield spells like Fire Storm, Fog Warriors, Army of Lead, etc. Sieges are annoying, and there you have two options:

1.) Use vast armies of chaff (LA Ermor)
2.) Bring along siege items like Gate Cleaver and Wall Shaker (?).

Aim to have at least 200-300 in siege-penetrating power with every sieging army. That's either 200 troops or 50 troops and 3 Gate Cleavers. More is better, depending upon what kind of forts you're sieging. Ideally you want your progression to go "Invade province and kill PD, storm fort, move to new province and kill PD, storm fort, etc." That means you have to crack the fort in the same turn that you move into it, hence 200-300 requirement.

-Max

Re: Endgame Strategy List
 

If you are running into undead then
A) shift to a hold-position tactic for awhile.
B) start producing lots of priests
C) build temples in any frontline province that can get priests so you can quickly make more priests
D) create equip such as Herald Lances and Flambeughs then give them to the leaders that would normally just stand behind the troops. You might also consider sending any extras to other nations who border the undead nation.

If the other nations using alot of death scale then start creating cauldrons and wineskins. When you do halt their advance and try to expand into their territory you will need those.