[Norfleet]

It's a not-really-that-new strategy that apparently existed also in Dominions I, that I seem to be the flagship bearer of in Dominions II.

Basically, it involves building a castle in every province, then clubbing people over the head with some sort of fast-moving response force, generally SCs, as they try to siege your castles.

Certain individuals complain about it very vocally because they find it to be "boring", as if I was somehow obligated to make attacking me an enjoyable and pleasurable experience in blatant disregard of basic psychology, which states that this would simply reinforce this sort of (undesirable) behavior.

The Good:
Your magic site income, and the temples you build in the provinces to maintain your dominion, are protected from sudden burnination: Since anyone attacking the province must storm the castle before he can burn down the temple, you will never suddenly lose temples without warning. As nearly everything is castled, no obvious point of vulnerability presents itself. Your researchers and other squishes are protected from being suddenly annihilated by a surprise attack from teleporters, fliers, or Ghost Riders.

In addition, the damage caused by any invading army is thus contained for the low cost of only $300. No matter how large the opposing force, he will be stalled for at least one turn unless he choses to bypass the castle entirely and march onwards, which will leave the castle unstormed and the province will revert back to your rule upon the departure of the invading force, unless he cares to leave behind crap as he moves. Either way, the damage is no worse than if you had no castle. No amount of PD can provide this for you.

The Bad:
It's expensive: This tends to necessitate the use of a cheap, and therefore, crappy, castle to cut costs. It also makes it difficult to collect resources by means of the castle's admin rating....not that the crappy watchtower you'd take to facilitate this really HAS an admin rating.

The Ugly:
Certain individuals will whine loudly and complain about how boring this is. These are, incidentally, the same people likely to complain that the game is taking too long, or complain that their turns in a large-map game are now too much work because it takes them 2 hours to complete. This is because they have the attention spans of 6-year old hyperactive children and can't be bothered to concentrate on any task that takes longer than 30 seconds to complete. I place the blame firmly on the fact that they were not beaten frequently enough as small children and did not suffer sufficient hardship and deprivation while growing up. They are thus spoiled and weak, and complain that it is boring if an opponent does not simply roll over and die without resistance.

It should also be noted that the complainers tend to also be the same handful of people. I chalk this up to sour grapes because I always squash them in my preferred slow, deliberate, ponderous, and inexhorable style, which tends to be devoid of any dramatic attacks that tend to rampage unchecked for a bit, then finally fail as the entire mass is caught and annihilated by the defending force, preferring instead to advance gradually, consolidate holdings, and attack only with overwhelming force, or expendable probing attacks.