bleeping hell

[Agrajag]

I'd say AE VS SG, AE is probably more fun while SG is probably better.
Im not speaking out of MP expirience, but I'd say an immortal commander with nice stats as a national spell is quite nice, and you can equip your dusk elders to be able to summon all of the national summons.
OTOH you have AE which has X20 more troops, which is fun, and can summon all national summons with no magical items or empowerment.
Better wait for a more qualified Ermorer though =P

[Turin]

I have played SG ermor in two games now and it´s my favourite nation and seems to be very strong. I couldn´t find anything better about ae ermor, those freespawns become pretty useless soon anyway and you don´t have the fantastic wraith centurions.

My setting is this:
Lich queen with 4 fire 4 water 4air(or 4 astral) 2 earth death 6
dominion 10
luck 3 magic 2 cold 3 sloth 3 turmoil 3 death 3
castle 20 points

fire and water make for nice bless effects and nice combat spells and you really need the fire sites for extra gems, air is just too good for wrathful skies and needed to find air sites so you can forge flying boots, the bless effect is nice too. 2 earth is enough to forge a hammer after you have forged earth boots and your troops don´t need the earth 4 bless effect. death6 has a very nice bless effect as well

the game goes like this:
first turn prophetise your wraith centurion, research construction with the queen. Second turn summon a dusk elder and attack one province under your dominion with everything you have.
Your wraith centurion prophet should enter the hall of fame now and should be able to take most indies alone. Send the lich queen out to search for magic sites and continue summoning wraith centurions until you have about ten, afterwards researchers or more wraith centurions if you need them. As soon as you get a freespawn priest, temple like mad and use 20 gp scouts for mad castle building(alchemize fire gems). Research strategy is const 4 for skull mentors(cheaper than newer mages), then conjuration 9 for spectres,wraithlords, tartarians, well of misery and that 33wraith riders spell. You don´t really need the other schools, since you will rely mostly on your immortal wraithlord thug team for defense.

If you find gold producing sites, try to eliminate the population as fast as possible there (with 200% taxes, pillaging and patrolling) . As soon as the population is gone the mine will produce at 200% without causing unrest.

[Vorkosigan]

I gave Soul Gate a quick try Last night. The Wraith Centurions are ridiculously fun. I tried to use them mostly them in my own dominion. That plus the significantly reduced freespawn rate meant SG didn't have the unstoppable juggernaut feeling of AE. Expansion was very calculated and borders were carefully defined.

It never ceases to amaze me that ievery race and theme has a completely different feel. I've played a bazillion TBS games and only MoM comes close to matching the variety and flavour of Dominions.

[Vorkosigan]

I am not happy.

I found a site with a 20% conjuration bonus. Woohoo, Dusk Elders for 16, Wraith Centurions for 12! I quickly built a lab and castle. To my horror I discovered that my Dusk Elders still cost 20, and my Wraith Centurions were still 15. Researched conjuration spells received the 20% reduction, but not the starting ones.

That is really, really irritating.

[archaeolept]

those are national spells not conjuration spells; ie. they are not listed under the conjuration school either ingame or in the manual.