Where to build Temples????
 

Putting aside the question of wanting to recruit priests, where should I build temples?

If, for example, I have my maximum dominion in Province-A and also have maximum dominion in all surrounding provinces, as I understand the dominion spread rules there is no advantage to putting a temple in Province-A (b/c temple-check dominion spread can only effect the province in which the temple is place or 1 of the surrounding provinces).

Thus, if I am trying to combat the dominion spread of my opponents, I should build my temples near the front lines or in provinces with opposition dominion?

Do I have this right?

Re: Where to build Temples????
 

Successful temple checks result in "Dominion blobs" which wander around unless they find a place to settle, i.e. a province with low or enemy dominion. This could be several provinces away .. . At least thats was the programmer told when I asked how in Dom2 my dominion could spread into a province 5(!) hops away from my border ....
AFAIK, the dominion system has not been changed in Dom3.

Yes, nevertheless: If you build all your temple into the center of your empire, you'll have max dominion there first, and only after all provinces are "filled up" the dominions will really spread into enemy provinces. With a temple at the border, there's at least a chance the "dominion blob" travels into an enemy province, so that you get a chance of increasing your dominion there now, instead of 20 turns later when your mainland is 'overflowing' ...

Re: Where to build Temples????
 

you also increase your maximum dominion by 1 per 5 temples you build. Aside from the obvious, that also lets you recruit more sacred units / turn. IF you have dominion strength 10, and enough temple, you can even recruit more than 10 sacreds a turn. That can be very usefull for some cheap bless troops (flagelants come to mind)

Re: Where to build Temples????
 

As to where:
I always try to build a temple where it will give me access to a new recruitable unit

Re: Where to build Temples????
 

Ironically, this max. dominion increase also means on the turn you add that fifth temple (or the turn after, depending on the turn order - too lazy to check), your dominion spread will slow down until dominion in your maxed-out provinces catches up with the new maximum. This should be most perceptible if your maximum dominion is low, as the probability of a temple check increasing local friendly dominion is (30-3x current dom)%.

Re: Where to build Temples????
 

Build temples on every province. Thats what I do.

Re: Where to build Temples????
 

That works pretty well in SP, where the AI will let you get away with it, and will waste lots of gems casting single raiding spells on your province, where they will be destroyed by an 11PD (I recently had Caelum "declare war on my unholy nation", and watched as they started casting multiple Call of the Wind for the next several turns - only they only cast one per province, and I never lost a single one). This is extremely efficient against the AI - which is very bad at dealing with dominion war.

In MP (at least in Dom2 - I haven't started playing MP in Dom3 yet), you won't be able to do that. If you start, you will spend a lot of gold, and end up drowning in raids.