[Endoperez]

Early age:

All nations start with income of 6 gems, with the exception of Mictlan who gets 5 gems and 3 Blood Slaves. Mictlan has to sacrifice slaves to spread their dominion.

All nations have powerful mages. Many nations have very expensive commanders that are worth their deep price: Jotun (giants) have HUGE Niefel giants, Atlantis (Deep Ones) have huge mages with very good paths for combat spells, Kailasa and Lanka (monkeys!) have sacred celestial beings and demons ruling the monkey people, etc.

Independents are mostly light infantry and archers. There shouldn't be any crossbowmen. Heavy Cavalry have mediocre protectio, but are still quite deadly. Some nations have access to protection ~12 troops with good shields, but against most nations archers, Blade Wind and similar are very deadly. Independent mages are common, and you'll probably find at least one of them even in small game. N1 tribal shamans, amazons and druids are more common than in any later age.


Middle age:

All nations start with gem income of 5, except Pythium which gets 8 gems. I'm not sure why they get this many gems, and it might even be a bug. In DomII, when 5 was the norm, they got 6.

Most nations still have powerful mages and/or priests, but some nations are magically weak. MA Ulm has just E2F1 smiths with 10% randoms, as an example. National units with lots of hp are rare and generally limited to few spesific nations like Jotunheim or Agartha. Elite national units tend to have better equipment, morale and attack instead.

Independents are better equipped. Some independent heavy infantries actually have better armor than many nations' units in MA. Crossbows exist, but are still usually a bit rare as independents. Various nations have good, cheap, effective ranged units that are deadly when massed (MA Man, Ulm, Marignon), and unlike the EA archer nations (Tien Chi and Sauromatia, mainly) these can get access to Wind Guide or Flaming Arrows. Protection varies wildly, with the heaviest armor being between perhaps 12 and 20 for various nations.


Late age:

Most nations have gem income of 4. Mictlan has more now that it's a blood nation again.

Mages with starting level in one path being 3 are starting to be rare. Expensive mages and units are quite rare. Different nations aren't made from just a single race any more: Mictlan has Atlanteans, Ulm has Vampires, Jotun and Vanheim rely heavily on humans, R'lyeh enslaves everyone, etc.

There are two death-dominion nations: LA Ermor's dominion kills population (gold and supplies) AND gives them free undead, and LA R'lyeh's dominion drives both population and armies mad, giving R'lyeh free madmen and stalling enemy forces as their commanders decide to look at the pretty flowers. LA Pangaea has Nature/Death, and for the first time can aim for their Enchantment national spells which eventually lets them cast Carrion Woods global, which makes them a third pop-killing, creature-creating nation of deadly dominion.

Late Age is all about death, Death, blood magic, corruption, decline, sorrow and failure. Agarthans are dead, Abysians dying, Jotun and Vanir rare, Ulm lost the secrets of forging Black Steel, Marignon gave in and is a blood nation, Oceania was wiped out, Atlantis sought refuge from frozen coastland to avoid the madness of R'lyeh, Tien Chi was conquered by barbarians... Strange randoms are also common: LA Man has a spy/engineer who often, but not quite always, has Air and/or Earth and/or Astral!


Independents have all kinds of stuff, and usually of the armored variety. As an example, while Hoburgs of earlier ages had just few light infantries in EA, and crossbows and guards in MA, they have HI, crossbowmen and Hog Knights in LA! National units are likewise almost always heavily armored. Shortbows are starting to get useless, and slings are even more useless than they were. Crossbows are very common, though, and archer/infantry or archer/heavy cavalry hybrids are pretty common. Sacred units are usually pretty weak when compared to those of earlier ages, or at least limited to just the capital.