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halfzware said:
Howdy, I've been playing Dom2 on and off for ... maybe a year? Long time. Its a great game, and theres something about it that keeps me coming back again and again.
I tend to play on sorta hard settings against the AI. I tend to stick to the inland map using all the land based civs, I usually do something like 4 easy, 4 normal, 3 impossible AI, as this gives some weak 'feeder' civs to the AI, and gives the impossible AIs some additional forts - I modded the resources/gold/supply to be considerably higher - as I think the AI performs better under these conditions. I also use the recruitable rebalance, and the conceptual pretender mod. So introductions aside...
It seems like dominions 2 vs the ai ends up being this awful war of slow attrition. Again and again, I've found in my D2 games, that even though I win all the fights, I inevitably lose the war.
In my current game, at around turn 80 I simply cannot field enough armies to secure any kind of sensible border. I only have about 14 armies, although these win every fight with very low casualties (they're almost all wraiths/trolls/vine ogres/sea trolls), I still can't secure my empire.
Thankfully, my enemy put out Burden of Time...him being Pangea means he's getting punished to all hell for it, while meanwhile my 'desert tomb' c'tis is having a field day. Anyway, there is a chance I'm gonna win. Thats cool and all, but the very, very slow war of attrition required to make it work will be grueling, time consuming and dull.
Am I the only one who thinks that the best part of dominions 2 is the rare occurance when two truly powerhouse armies collide - or putting together the right balance of troops for a really kick *** army. Even putting together the right set of commanders with the right equipment and the right troops.
I don't want to put together 35 crappy armies each with one or two interesting elements that makes them not suck. I want each of my armies to have character, personality, and basically... to be fun.
I hope that Dominions 3 streamlines gameplay just a little bit - encouraging the clasing of fewer larger armies. Even just something like having to briefly 'siege' a province for a couple turns before taking it over would be a huge improvement - as it would force you to actually be able to HOLD enemy ground, and therefore actually.... win fights against other armies.
The Dominions games have such tremendous potential, its frustrating to all hell that seemingly minor gameplay mechanisms can take so much away from it.
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All this doesn't sound like AI or game problem at all. You use fewer higher quality troops while he uses more low quality troops with which he floods you. Sounds like AI uses correct tactics against you and you use wrong one against AI. For example, you want some way to prevent AI from taking your provinces instantly. That's what castles are for, you just need to use them properly.
Some tips - when you start game you are NOT at war everyone. There is no diplomacy screen but you get at war with some AI only when you attack his territory or when he declares war at you (you get a message). Assassinations count as attacks too.
Chances that AI will declare war on you are partially random and partially based on your relative power vs his relative power.
Also, if there was no fight for some (undefined) time between two nations an 'uneasy' peace comes in effect, but you can never be 100% sure about it since there is no message about it (that's part of the games charm I guess). The point is, you don't have to fight everyone at once unless everyone declared war at you. Usually, its 2, 3 AI's tops that will attack you. The rest will fight each other.
Second tip is to buy castle that is suitable for the map. If you fight in open maps like Inland then you need to get cheap to build castle (wizards tower is probably best on that map) and build it all along your borders. Then you build up your local defenses where castles are. After that (this is important), you buy a commander in those castles and give him your best troops you can buy there. Generally, best troops for that task are heaviest infantry you can get there and lots of archers. Set that commander on constant patrol as he will reinforce your local defenses. Doing this properly will give you HARD border that only huge AI forces will be able to break through. Don't use those border castles to build up your forces, use those in the back (like your main castle). That has 2 effects; your will be able to build up armies without interruption there and those forces you build up in your rear can be used to deal with any incursions in your rear (bad events or spells). Once you have forces ready send them and harass enemy for a change.
Works like charm when used properly, trust me.
P.S. this is for single player only, in multi player its completely different story.