Themes

[st.patrik]

Is there any chance you guys (illwinter) could tell us a little more about the themes available in Dom II? How many themes are unique to the nation, and how many (if any) are themes available to all nations? I like the sound of the Ulm theme you mentioned - how about a couple more details of some other themes? Indulge our curiousity!

[Teleolurian]

Yes, please spoil us- I've got hours of work time and nothing to do except flit between csipgs, DomX, and this site... a little theme knowledge could make me belle of the ball (among my Dom-playing friends anyways).

[Pocus]

yes I want to be spoiled too, throw me any infos you want

[Nerfix]

*starts to lurk for info snippets*

[Daynarr]

Lets just say that Pythum has a nice theme I really like (won my first game with it). You have less special commanders (not units) but you get a special mage-priest commander with poison immunity (priest level 3, level 1 water, level 2 nature and has a random magic pick as well). So its great all around unit that costs only 180 gold! It’s going to be hard to stop them when they lead Hydras, trust me, and they are excellent for taking care of Ermor. I was even able to take out Atlantians with them since they have water magic; well them and sea troll kings .

Also they are possibly the shortest path to mass produce vine men/ogres since they can get level 3 nature, make a staff that gives you nature +1, then make a staff that gives you nature +2 and bonus to summoning vine men/ogres (you need level 4 in nature to make this staff), and make a crown of ivy king that gives additional bonus (or just summon ivy king - you need level 5 in nature which that staff will give). I know that ivy king with that staff could summon 6 ogres in 1 turn costing only 1 nature gem! And my mage with crown and staff could summon 7 vine men (not as much ogres as ivy king) per turn. So you get army real fast that costs almost nothing in gold or supplies. Best thing to stop Ermor in its tracks since those armies wont care for lack of supplies in their territories.

[Nerfix]

I know what those mage-priest-commanders are:
Serpent Acolytes
Am i rigth, do i have prophet skilz?

And i believe the "staff" that gives you +1 to nature is Thistle Mace. The other "staff" is something new.

[ September 21, 2003, 10:16: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

[Daynarr]

Correct. The other staff is Treelord's Staff (two handed weapon).

[Nerfix]

Treelord's Staff is in Dominions I too. I forgot that it would give you bonus to Vine >critter< summoning.
Does Caelum have Harab Seraph theme? I think i saw it being mentioned somewhere, but i'm not sure...

[Daynarr]

The costs aren't different.

I was just referring to max damage you can do with them early, not the cheapest way (6 vs. 2 ogres is quite a difference). Of course, getting 5th level in nature also enables you to cast Mother Oak and Gift of Health so its sort of "side effect" and getting Mother Oak early would make up for nature games you spend before.
Panganea can do it too, probably even faster, but they would have trouble with water nations and won't have Hydras to accompany those Vine Ogres (deadly combo).

On smaller or special-site-rare maps its probably not possible but on larger you will probably find enough nature sites to get this done (of course there is a luck factor in it all).

[Daynarr]

Not 100% sure but Druids are much harder to find, however Sages are much more common.