D2 vs Aow:SM

Elmo · #1 November 25th, 2003, 01:00 PM

Can anyone who has played both comment on the main differences between the two game systems? I intend to d/l the D2 demo but I'm interested in what people who have played the full D2 think about it vs AoW:SM. Tried a search or two but didn't find any in-depth comparison. Thanks.

NTJedi · #2 November 26th, 2003, 02:20 AM

Dominions_II is like Civilization_III with fantasy elements but much more evolved. Dominions_II provides more control and direct influence for upcoming battles then Civilization. I really enjoy being able to place the location of my units before going into battle for Dominions_II. The computer then plays out the entire battle between you and your enemies since hundreds of units are involved. Dominions_II has two great weaknesses...
first: there is no diplomacy with computer opponents. Even if settings could be placed just between the computer opponents it would be nice for providing a greater challenge.
second: the artificial intelligence of computer opponents makes it easy to predict some army movement actions. I also have yet to see the AI opponents to try and assassinate one of my commanders. The largest topic on this forum is about improving the AI... but that's the way it is with most strategy games.

Bossemanden · #3 November 26th, 2003, 02:31 AM

I have seen assasinations of my leaders. Both succesfull and otherwise.
I am only playing SP in the demo, so that is the AI attempting to kill off my leaders.
Once my butcher of a Moloch pretender with 80 kills was targeted by the nightmare spell (forgot exact name), that sends as many undead after the target as the target has killed. He was much too strong for them. The only problem was that he was cursed and had two afflictions already (Weakened and lost arm). Slowly they pulled him down, but he killed something like 70 of them first (and got MANY afflictions). This was not an assasination, but still a devious way of pulling down a warlike pretender.

Nerfix · #4 November 26th, 2003, 02:49 AM

They are so diffrent kind of games...

But i stopped playing AoW 2 when i found Dominions I, so

...

Elmo · #5 November 25th, 2003, 03:05 PM

So there are two differences mentioned so far:

No diplomacy with the AI in D2.
No control of tactical combat in D2.

One similarity:

Weak AI.

Anyone else have something for comparison to help me decide whether to get D2 or not?

NTJedi · #6 November 25th, 2003, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bossemanden:
I have seen assasinations of my leaders. Both succesfull and otherwise.

What you mentioned earlier was with spells. I was referring to the AI opponents using 'Assassins'... as I have never seen stealthy units used for assassinations. Magic attacks are different types of attacks in my book.