Dominions Player Preffered Playstyles "Poll"

[Boron]

I would like to know which troops , summons , items , spells , mages and SCs are the favourites of the players .
Since there are too many answers to do it as a poll i would suggest that everybody makes a small ranking system with small comments why he chose it this way :

Here i start with my preferences :

I.National troops

1.All Upkeepfree ones , e.g. Carrion Beasts
2.Blessable troops , mainly Vans + Jaguar Warriors
3.Elephants + Mammoths
4.Jotunheim troops
5.Longbows ( together with flaming arrows + wind guide )

II.Summons

1.Devil (Cheapest)
2.Mech Men (overall most useful troop because of good abilities + cheap price with 1,5 earthgems each)
3.Vampire (2nd cheapest)
4.Abomination/Iron Dragon (best for special lategame tasks)
5.Black servant (best hoarding mule)
6.Most other Bloodsummons

III.Mages (without considering wishing unique mages like Belphegor)

1.Tartarian (best combat mage)
2.Demilich (best homedefence SC killer , ghost rider caster , Tartarian summoner)
3.Ivyking (charm spam , GoR duties)
4.Spectre (cheapest way to get flexibility with magic less flexible nations like Abysia/Ermor , also good researcher , can also be used as mule for fetishes)
5.Vampire lord (can be used for most bloodneeds : Blood forging , Vampire hoarding , Horde from hell , Forces of Darkness , in times of need a halfdecent combat mage also , at least either skeleton spamming or wither bones casting is easily possible)
6.Good national mages , mainly King of Deep , Pan and Starspawn , because they are extremely flexible but expensive though
7.Good rush mages , but fragile , hence obsolete in lategame like Seraph/High Seraph , Theurg , Sauromancer
8.The big rest

IV.SCs/Thugs

1.Devil (cheapest Thug and together with the banelord the best Thug)
2.Aella (best SC)
3.Ettin Mandragora (best SC in Undeadarmies)
4.the other uniques , common feature : not worth to be wished , ADs and IDs in particular are very good though
5.Bane Lord

V.Playstyle

Normally turtling + hoarding , if possible starting wars at turn 80-100 and then hopefully winning them . Normally i design my nation around hoarding and chose no real SC pretenders , rather either good scales or a rainbow or a hoard enchancer like the daughter of land .
My most liked maps are Edi's faerun and small faerun , Karan , Cradle of Zen and Inland .

VI.Game parameter preferences

Magic research : Normal-VH
Magic sites : 40-50%
Indeps : 6-9
Renaming allowed (this is a must for hoarding)
Map richness : Normal

VII.What i like most in Dominions 2

I like most hoarding and then the huge wars in lategame where all the gigantic deepness of Dominions is shown .
You have so many different strategies there and against slightly unfair things like the earlygame hard to defend against caelian false horror mass raid are now easy to defend against .
So you can win lategame only by deep understanding of dominions and good tactics .
Also the battles are beautiful to watch with thousands of combatants at each side and lots of spells etc. being used .

VIII.What i dislike in Dominions2 and should be improved in Dominions3

I only dislike peanuts in Dominions2 . If they get improved in Dom3 though it would be even a step closer to the perfect game .
Main dislikes :
-About 95% of National troops and 80% of Summons are obsolete very quickly , most even from the beginning , e.g. as pythium i only build principes , theurgs and communion slaves and a few arch theurgs . Similiar with most other nations .
-Bad Ai , if the dominion3 ai could build castles + use SCs or good combos of mages , troops and the fitting spells e.g. tartarians with lightning resistency ring + mech men + wrathful skies + storm would be awesome
-Better UI , as very good example for comparison i recommend Victoria - An empire under the Sun which is probably even deeper then Dominions though there the main focus is on Economy and not on Warfare
-Not full modding abilities in dom 2 , please full modding abilities in dom 3 when it is published already




My 2 main reasons for this poll are 1st to help Kristoffer + Johan spotting little used Troops etc. by most players that they can think of improvements for them in Dom3 to add to the flexibility and deepness of Dom3 and 2nd my own curiosity if there is something like a trend or if playstyles differ to much that you can say there are basically 2 categories : Rushers and Hoarders .

[Kristoffer O]

Lol!

> My 2 main reasons for this poll are 1st to help Kristoffer + Johan spotting little used Troops etc. by most players that they can think of improvements for them in Dom3 to add to the flexibility and deepness of Dom3 and 2nd my own curiosity if there is something like a trend or if playstyles differ to much that you can say there are basically 2 categories : Rushers and Hoarders .

The current unit count is 1400. In dom2 it is 1101. Showing 1-5% of the most used troops is actually not a good way of spotting little used troops. It's a receipt for nerfing rather than improvements.

Thanks anyway! It's always interesting to hear about how people play dominions. It was a while since I played an MP game, but I believe I have never played it long enough to see the gigantic deepness of it. I have probably never played a game that lasted beyond turn 65.

[Boron]

Kristoffer O said:
The current unit count is 1400. In dom2 it is 1101. Showing 1-5% of the most used troops is actually not a good way of spotting little used troops. It's a receipt for nerfing rather than improvements.

Thanks anyway! It's always interesting to hear about how people play dominions. It was a while since I played an MP game, but I believe I have never played it long enough to see the gigantic deepness of it. I have probably never played a game that lasted beyond turn 65.

Hopefully some ppl will participate but if most ppl agree that when they can they use almost exclusively devils , tartarians etc. then you could see it also the other way round to up the other troops a bit .

In my mordor mod i try this by making the orks cost only 1-2 gold in order to be massed .

So not the 5-10% of units and commanders which proove to be good in this poll should be nerfed but the rest of the units should be upped .
If militia would cost only 1 gold i would probably buy hordes of militia every turn . Also if knights would need only few resource costs in lategame i would buy lots of knight armies as well .
But atm in unmodded dominions even if you would pick a productivity scale + a good castle you just can't build more then 10-15 per turn unless you have a 200 province empire .
In lategame thanx to fever fetish hoarding i would have though an extra income of 5000-15000 gold per turn from my fetishes alone cause i wish for 1 ulm master alchemist pretender in lategame then i get 30 gold per fever fetish , if i also have the alchemist stone even more .

The only nation which can build national troops en masse in dominoins 2 is though ryleh where you could just build hordes of illithids and then gateway them to the front .


You should once try a lategame maybe Kristoffer it could be fun .
When you have a gemincome of 500+ gems per turn you can start even completely new strats like successfully using globals like haunted forest .
In my current mp game with machaka i planned exactly this , casting a 999 gem haunted forest . I had there the 30% enchantment bonus site so it would have been probably almost undispellable .
I would have bought then 125 pd in every single province and out of a sudden the crappy machaka militia becomes invincible . 567 possible manikins from my pd alone . I would have parked 1 patrolling tartarian in every province also and i guess this "province defence" would have required then extreme effort to be taken out

[Kristoffer O]

> You should once try a lategame maybe Kristoffer it could be fun .

Perhaps, but by then someone would have won the game. No one I know and play with hoards. Actually one does, but everyone knows and tend to attack him as they find it an annoying practice. I would probably not be able to control myself if I tried to hoard. War is more fun than research. To wait one or several months to make war is not very rewarding. I do not have the time to play blitzes. If I must wait one or more days to play my turn I want something interesting to happen. War is the most interesting thing that can happen in Dominions. I'm not likely to ever play a late game Dominions II.

> When you have a gemincome of 500+ gems per turn you can start even completely new strats like successfully using globals like haunted forest .

Globals might be used to good results before that.

> In my current mp game with machaka i planned exactly this , casting a 999 gem haunted forest . I had there the 30% enchantment bonus site so it would have been probably almost undispellable .
I would have bought then 125 pd in every single province and out of a sudden the crappy machaka militia becomes invincible . 567 possible manikins from my pd alone . I would have parked 1 patrolling tartarian in every province also and i guess this "province defence" would have required then extreme effort to be taken out.

As I said, planning for something that will bear fruit in two months time is not my biscuit. To act and respond to unforseen developments is in my opinion more rewarding.

[The_Tauren13]

Kristoffer O said:
> You should once try a lategame maybe Kristoffer it could be fun .

Perhaps, but by then someone would have won the game. No one I know and play with hoards. Actually one does, but everyone knows and tend to attack him as they find it an annoying practice. I would probably not be able to control myself if I tried to hoard. War is more fun than research. To wait one or several months to make war is not very rewarding. I do not have the time to play blitzes. If I must wait one or more days to play my turn I want something interesting to happen. War is the most interesting thing that can happen in Dominions. I'm not likely to ever play a late game Dominions II.

Hear, hear! I play small maps, difficult - very difficult research, and low magic sites(30 - 45), so i can duke it out immediately with everyone and anyone I like to build the best armored national troops, and the most useless but nontheless fun summons like wyverns, behemoths, and horned serpents. And spamming undead. Gotta spam skellies now and then.

[Boron]

Which mapsizes do you always play Kristoffer ? On Maps like Karan or Cradle i always hoard though i wanted in my last game to play without hoarding but i found then luckily azure mages + jade sorceresses early as machaka and so my hoarding started again .

But from my experience so far if you attack a hoarder with this act you normally greatly lower your chances of winning . I normally hoard but defend a bit also . Because if everything goes as well as hoped diplomatically i am not in a war in the first 70 turns . So i can invest like 30% of my resources in defence like Mech men , maybe a few SCs etc. and the rest in hoarding and since i never lose anything cause i am not at war i am not the easiest target around .

And what do you do if your friend who hordes plays atlantis or ryleh ?

All my games so far have lasted to about turn 100 and weren't finished . Mainly karan , cradle , inland and similiar maps .
Surprisingly in most of them i didn't get attacked also i didn't do particular much diplomacy .


I wonder if there is another Dominionsplayer around that enjoys hoarding + lategame as much as me .

[Zooko]

I'm really enjoying the new multiplayer game I just started. It is my third real multiplayer game, and there are only two teams. Therefore, I am immediately interested in spending my resources to scout out my enemies and planning to attack them as soon as I can even though it is only turn 10.

I'm also interested in spending my resources to help my partner, which is fun because I get to spend time talking to him and it makes it more of a "social" game than a "loner" game.

There are two teams, each with two players. If this were an "all against all" game then I would not be willing to spend any resources or any planning on how to attack one of my three enemies, but instead I would be trying to expand, research, hoard and so forth as fast as I can.

All-against-all games are somewhat more of a "race" than a "war". Each player races to get the best summons and artifacts and hoardings and whoever gets there first wins.

If you want diplomacy but you also want to avoid the effect of "all against all is a race not a war", then consider the pentagram style:
pentagram diplomacy

[quantum_mechani]

National Troops

1. Anything blessable
2. Jotun troops
3. Pythium troops
4. Elephants & Mammoths
5. Longbows

*Note that I don't consider useful non-magic commanders troops

Summons

1. Lamias
2. Fiends of Darkness
3. Sea trolls (with court)
4. Trolls (with court)
5. Vine Ogres

SCs

1. A pretender with quickness, ironskin, fire shield, ect.
2. Niefel Jarls
3. Air Queens
4. Van/Tuatha mages
5. Wraith Centurions

Mages

1. Sages
2. Sauromancer/Marshmaster
3. Caeleum Mages
4. The enchantresses with 2A2S and a sorcery random
5. Daughters of Avalon

*Note that this is not including SC mages like Vans and Niefel Jarls

Playstyle

I usually play much like Gandalf's 'waters of the dam'. If I don't get into a war by turn 20 (common on my usual map, urgaia), I will probably do some hoarding. Hoarding much riskier and more interesting on tight maps. Sometimes I will try to create an alliance against a player that is getting very powerful, but normally I let them come to me.


Settings

Usually default except higher indies. Though I like to play around with other setting to make each game a little different.

I also usually play with Zen's mods, though for the purpose of the ranking I assumed without.

What I like about DomII

The variety and flavor of all the nations, summons and spells. The fun to watch battle system. All of the little details, unique magic sites, artifacts with interesting properties, unique independents, national heroes.

What I dislike

That some options don't have much of any use. I would put the number at more like 25-40% though. The AI could use a some help too, but I don'treally play SP anymore (and it would be an unimaginable amount of work to bring the AI to a level where I would find it interesting to play against).

[Gandalf Parker]

Of the ones you listed..
I.National troops
1.All Upkeepfree ones , e.g. Carrion Beasts
2.Elephants + Mammoths
3.Longbows ( together with flaming arrows + wind guide )
4.Blessable troops , mainly Vans + Jaguar Warriors
5.Jotunheim troops

I tend to make a strong effort to use any specialized troops. Spys, assassins, sneaking priests, etc.

II.Summons

With summons I prefer mass summonings. Call of, hordes of, that type of thing.

III.Mages (without considering wishing unique mages like Belphegor)

I concentrate on searching/forging mages. Especially anything which has the chance of getting 3 or more in any magic type.

IV.SCs/Thugs

I rarely use them. The closest thing I have would be some of the massively magical (blood, astral, water) sneaks which are "black hearted" into assassins and pile high with equipment.

V.Playstyle
Mostly diplomatic. "Some play to win or lose, others to stay in the game". I usually go for being a superb support/feeder ally to someone who is willing to take the front-line combat position.

Alternatively (not like this is a surprise) I play Sneak. Instead of my massive army coming to meet your massive army I will be all over the place as an onging irritant until you sue for peace.

Sometimes I will play as "the Waters of the Dam". WIlling to be peaceful for as long as others allow it. Expand slightly then build up. The first person to attack me gets everything I have for as long as I can keep it up.


VI.Game parameter preferences
Magic normal
Magic Sites 65%
Indeps &
renaming allowed
Maps normal (but huge)

VII.What i like most in Dominions 2

I like that its not "programmer obnoxious". Im not forced to watch long movies that only seem to be there because its someones pride and joy. I dont feel like Im just learning the strategies that the developer had in mind. I like that there are some things and settings in the game which the developers themselves might not have have been able to come up with a reason for or which they didnt think anyone would ever use but its there anyway (and getting used). Its deep and I feel like Im actually able to explore strategies that are entirely a new surprise to everyone.

VIII.What i dislike in Dominions2 and should be improved in Dominions3

Only along the same lines as my likes. As a mostly solo player I would like more variation in pretender settings, castle stats, the ranges on game settings, etc. But I do understand that those things are difficult to balance and not a good idea for multiplay which is the games main target.

[Huzurdaddi]

Boron said:
4.Abomination/Iron Dragon (best for special lategame tasks)

Boron, could you explain what you find these good for? Perhaps their use is a side effect of hoarding making resource costs irrelevant? Since price/performance they both seem to be lacking.