New to Dom 3 - Seeking Advice

[Sencha]

Hello, I'm a newcomer to the Dominions series. However, I've been playing strategy games for years so fortunately, I'm not new to the genre.

Before I start I just want to say I did read through the manual and follow along with the tutorial that was included. So I do have a general understanding of the game's main concepts.

However, I would like a few things cleared up for me so I can do better. Firstly, does the age you play in effect how difficult the game is? I've started out with early age games and having a somewhat difficult time establishing my nation.

Secondly, how much does map size and player number effect the difficulty? I've been playing small maps with about three or four AI opponents.

There's just one more issue I'd like to bring up. When I take my turn, I'm doing everything in my power that my current resources and gold allow me to do. I build temples and fortifications when I can. I raise my pd, I am always recruiting, researching, preaching, and forming armies. So I think I'm doing everything right. Yet the AI, who I assume is doing the exact same things, under more or less the same limitations, ends up doing it far better. So I'm wondering if it knows something I don't?

Even though I'm still getting the hang of it, Dominions 3 is awesome! Please help, I'd appreciate any support you could give me, thanks.

[Hellboy]

I'm far from an expert myself, and doubtless some more advanced player will come along soon enough, but in the meantime, I'll take a stab at some of your questions.

Sencha said:
Before I start I just want to say I did read through the manual and follow along with the tutorial that was included. So I do have a general understanding of the game's main concepts.

Good for you for reading the manual. That surely does not happen every time someone picks up the game!

Firstly, does the age you play in effect how difficult the game is? I've started out with early age games and having a somewhat difficult time establishing my nation.

Age (or era) should not directly affect difficulty directly, although your style of play may work better in one era than another. The general idea is that the later the era the more advanced the military units, and the less advanced the magic commanders and less available the magic resources. Since magic likely adds more complexity to the game than advanced military units, it might be the case that early era is somewhat more difficult to master than late era.

Secondly, how much does map size and player number effect the difficulty? I've been playing small maps with about three or four AI opponents.

The primary impact of map size should be game duration, but it is possible that on very small maps you'll encounter the AI much sooner than you would on large maps (the primary factor here will be the # provinces/player). OTOH very large or sparse maps could make it possible for a juiced up AI to build up large forces by the time it does encounter you.

There's just one more issue I'd like to bring up. When I take my turn, I'm doing everything in my power that my current resources and gold allow me to do. I build temples and fortifications when I can. I raise my pd, I am always recruiting, researching, preaching, and forming armies. So I think I'm doing everything right. Yet the AI, who I assume is doing the exact same things, under more or less the same limitations, ends up doing it far better. So I'm wondering if it knows something I don't?

Yes, the AI absolutely does know things that you do not. Dominions is a game now in its third generation and there is a huge body of knowledge on how to play this game well. While the expert players have a rather a low opinion on the ability of the AI, there is definitely some of that body of knowledge encoded in the AI (eg standard strategies, tactics and the like).

At the least, you're in the right place to tap into that body of knowledge, and you'll find lots of answers to your questions here. There are also various fan sites that have some of those answers, as well. One of the things that is common in Dom3 battles is that there are various combinations of tactics, unit useage and magic spells that are particulary effective (or in some cases particularly disasterous). You will certainly need to learn some of those combinations in order to play effectively. So, one way to start on that learning curve is to look for particular battle situations that are going badly, and ask specific questions about turning that around, here on this forum.

Anyhow, hope that helps, and good luck with picking something up out of that "huge body of knowledge"!

[Edi]

I suppose Arralen covered most of your questions. Can't really add anything more since they were so general in nature.

However, if you later have any more detailed and specific questions, fire away and you'll find a lot of people willing to help you out there.

I'll also give you a tip for the early era: Do NOT choose the Vanheim or especially Helheim as one of the AI opponents unless you like getting stomped flat, because they have a tendency to get out of control and you could end up facing a fairly powerful nation with two or three times your own resources and stacked with the AI bonus modifiers. Once you get a finer grasp of the various aspects of the game, you should be able to stand up to them.

Edi

[Meglobob]

Edi said:
Do NOT choose the Vanheim or especially Helheim as one of the AI opponents unless you like getting stomped flat,
Edi

On the other hand if YOU want to stomp the AI, select Helheim in particular to play yourself, Helheim is a very, very good nation for a beginner to play. For various reasons Helheim is something of a supernation and you should do very well even through you will make alot of newbie mistakes.

A powerful bless (lvl 9 in a magic skill on your pretender) works very well with them.

I have purposely been vague so as not too spoil your enjoyment of the game, if you require more specific answers just ask.

How I wish I could go back to the time when I struggled to beat the AI, those where real fun games.

[Gandalf Parker]

Sencha said:
However, I would like a few things cleared up for me so I can do better. Firstly, does the age you play in effect how difficult the game is? I've started out with early age games and having a somewhat difficult time establishing my nation.

One of the main strengths of the game is that it has alot of variety. Your best bet is to play all of the nations and get a feel for which one matches YOUR playing mode. Are you into armor, magic, stealth, offense, defense, swarm?

So...
the ages tend to be that early uses more magic, and late uses more armor. Other than that there shouldnt be a difficulty difference.

Secondly, how much does map size and player number effect the difficulty? I've been playing small maps with about three or four AI opponents.

Again it ends up being more about the way you play. Small maps work better for swarm tactics. Various early-game rushes. Large maps work better if you are more of a defensive or researching player. In any case its not so much the size as the number of provinces per player. In the game itself when you "Create a New Game" if you hover on the map sizes then the popup tells you that Illwinter considers a small map to be 10/player, medium is 15/player, and large is 20/player. By the way, to slow down the AI try setting the independents harder. The AI doesnt make as good decisions on how to attack as you do.

There's just one more issue I'd like to bring up. When I take my turn, I'm doing everything in my power that my current resources and gold allow me to do. I build temples and fortifications when I can. I raise my pd, I am always recruiting, researching, preaching, and forming armies. So I think I'm doing everything right. Yet the AI, who I assume is doing the exact same things, under more or less the same limitations, ends up doing it far better. So I'm wondering if it knows something I don't?

Sorry, again depending on your play mode. You dont want to leave any of those undone but you should tweak it. Try to figure out the unique strengths of your nation and go with that. In general.. dont make structures too close to each other. PD works better at 6, 11, 21, 35 altho I forget all the reasons for it, but always take at least 1 no matter how poor you get. Try not to be at war with more than one nation at a time.

Gandalf Parker

[Nick_K]

The AI shouldn't get an advantage in gold or resources on average difficulty AFAIK. In fact, they often have bad scales - if you have, say, order/growth/productivity then you should have a considerable edge.

The AI does often have bigger armies though, because they build more 'chaff' troops. This is actually a weakness though. It's been toned down since doms2 though so AI army composition isn't terrible any more.

Starting conditions can seriously affect your income. Most maps have areas with quite a few of the very high-income farmland provinces. If you start in an area of forests, swamp, mountains or wasteland then you can end up with much less income than an AI with lots of these provinces. The reverse is also possible.

Are you using mercenaries? These can give a huge boost to early expansion. The AI always bids the minimum necessary to get them, so by bidding 1 or 2 more you'll always win. This could be considered a bit of an exploit, but dominions is actually quite a hard game for beginners so I'd recommend it!

As for nations to avoid... van/helheim are tough although I think the AI does not take advantage of them anything like as much as a human would. I'd avoid the sea nations if you're on the land on smaller maps. Late age Ermor is also quite a challenge unless you know how to deal with them. It took me a loooong time before I could beat Ermor in Dominions 1.

[Sencha]

Thanks for the feedback, I think I'll try Helheim and see if I can get my confidence up. I like the idea of employing mercs too, that was definitely something I could have paid more attention to in my earlier games.

[Aleph]

I started out pretty recently - decemberish? and am still learning a lot. It's a deep game. Of course, I really enjoy about half the nations and generally don't like MP games, so my learning curve is limited to fighting the computer and asking questions here.

I'll give you this advice, which I only picked up recently - many, many nations benefit strongly from jacking tax to 200% and patrolling with their starting army for the first turn. You'll lose a chunk of population, but the starting gold advantage can be huge. Don't forget to lower it shortly thereafter (unless you're playing someone like LA Ermor, in which case tax away).

And hit F1 frequently. It gives you an overview of your whole empire (which can be altered for more or less detail with TAB) and that's a valuable thing to have (for example, knowing which of your provinces have been searched for what magic site types).

[Sencha]

I could try raising tax levels, but if I lose too much population what will happen?