[Pablomatic]

Thanks again to everyone who responded. I appreciate the advice, and it has helped me understand things better.

Of course Shrouds of the Battle Saint are perfect for mages. I balk at putting them on combatants, because they negate the units' inherent armor, but for mages they're perfect, and a good reason to go with an earth bless for nations that don't have holy mages.

I'm still going to keep trying to find a way to make the Celestial General viable. It's painful to spend all those points to get Dominion 10 for awe, so I'll work on something else.

JimMorrison wrote:
"I am kind of new-ish, so I don't see quite the necessity of such strict adherence to a small list of pretender choices. Obviously, some of the pretenders are just shabby or in no way cost effective, but it all comes down to strategy, and if you think yours through well enough, just about any pretender should be capable. Just don't get too pissed off when someone's cyclops shows up at your capital on turn 5."

This is how I *want* the game to be. The reason I don't play simpler but flashier games is that I want deep, subtle, and varied strategy choices, rather than rushes with one powerful unit. I want there to be a use for most or all units and spells in the game--otherwise why have them? Whether Dominions 3 is this type of game is debatable though I guess.

I've read some posts that claim MP boils down to a "rush for Tartarians." With everybody going for more or less the same spells and everybody having a Cyclops pretender or something similar, I'm not sure I'll enjoy MP as much as I had hoped. I'll try it out and see. I'd like to be the one who surprises my opponents with an effective ORIGINAL strategy. Is that a losing cause?

Also, nobody said anything about the two Jomon sacred samurais not working together, as implied in the unit description. I've never had a problem (that I discovered anyway) so I'll keep doing that.