Dominion
 

I am having a problem I have never had before, I am playing Arco and have Dom 9. The problem I have is that I seem to be getting run over by some critter that is eating my Dom up.

This is even with a Temple and 4 or 5 Priests preaching in the province, I have 5 red candles. I am the one used to doing that (with skeptics) but it MUST be pretty strong to overwrite 5 preachers and a temple. This isn't one border province but quite a few in places it shouldn't happen.

I have Flying Patrols to try and catch one of these guys but to no avail.

My question...(crispederson is a big proponent of this), Can I use Skeptics in my own province to kill HIS domain and at the same time use preachers to jump start my Dom?

It would seem that the skeptic part would work (if I had enough), but will Priests help it along...OR will it even work.

I hope someone understands what I am trying to get at.:doh:

Thanks

Re: Dominion
 

Both will work together, as long as you have enemy dominion. Obviously once it's yours, the skeptics will counteract the priests.

Since he's getting his own dominion up, not just killing yours it pretty much has to be stealth preachers, right? Assuming it's not leaking in from the borders, in which case I'd guess blood sacrifice. Stone Idols would drop his as well. Juggernauts aren't stealthy. What else is there?

Re: Dominion
 

Well, you're playing Arco. That's your problem right there. :)

Re: Dominion
 

Dom spread tends to one of the buggiest things in the game. Just keep doing what you are doing.

Re: Dominion
 

Just to be clear, this isn't dominion that could have spread in from a border? Like, you have dominion all around it, but this is still happening?

Does anyone know how that astral spell works that "makes people fanatical, and then they attack" or whatever? Does that increase dominion of the caster?

Re: Dominion
 

Arco is awesome at least in EA and MA anyway.

Re: Dominion
 

It's probably border spread if your aerial patrols can't get rid of it. Remember, it's a lot harder to get rid of large numbers black candles with preaching.

After you cleanse your land of your opponent's dominion, you should position your skeptics on territories where your opponent has temples or near them. This will mute the spread of his dominion. A skeptic has a 90% chance of nullifying a point of dominion minus 5% per enemy candle, so in a 5 red candle province, a skeptic still has a 65% chance of nullifying a candle each turn.

You can't really stop blood sacrifice dominion spread easily if he's using it extensively because each sacrifice counts as a temple check, so if he's burning 10 slaves a turn, that's like having 10 temples in that province which means that you would need about 11 skeptics in that province or in the general vicinity to squelch his sacrifice provided the provinces your skeptics occupy have 0-1ish dominion.

If you surround a temple with skeptics, you can nullify it's power in a similar manner to sitting on the temple itself. This is good in cases where, for instance, he has 10 dominion on the temple square (where your skeptics will have only a 40% chance to nullify a candle), and only 3 dominion in surrounding provinces where you'll have a 75% chance to nullify.

Essentially, position your skeptics inside enemy dominion where the enemy dominion is the weakest to exact the greatest loss of candles.

Remember that a temple boosts the power of your preaching, too, by 1 level.

Re: Dominion
 

Each slave acts as two temple checks.

Re: Dominion
 

And the max number you can sacrifice per turn in a given temple is 6 for lvl4 priest equipped with jade knife. No more than one priest can sacrifice in a temple per turn

Re: Dominion
 

Check the shape of the dominion spread. If it is more or less symmetrical, you are probably dealing with temple checks.

if not, you are probably dealing with stealthy preachers, belphagor etc.

Generally speaking, mass your sceptics in a border province with little dominion. Your chances of building a firewall are MUCH greater than trying to knock down high enemy dominion.

Beware dominion based globals.

If you are using my typical arco build, you can use melancholia to knock off a couple of crucial dominion points.


Consider casting telistic animations - these are l2 priests as I recall. Which doesn't sound very impressive - however, 2 or three castings a turn can rapdly build up a large number of priests without using your fort builds.

finally if it is blood sacrificing - go after the root cause - blood hunting. Wild hunt can be OK early in the game, so can anything that increases unrest, or decreases population.