Best - worse magic paths

[Endoperez]

I think he means that his armies haven't starved (severely) yet.

[PhilD]

Corwin said:
What do you mean - "no longer starve"? I thought I saw the starvation message in Dom3. Do you mean - they no longet get desease from starvation in dom3?

I can testify that armies still starve, and get diseased, and other afflictions as well. What seems to have changed is the effectiveness of the Enormous Cauldron and Endless Bag - or is it just me?

[Agrajag]

Its just that troops are much more common and supplies more plentiful than dom2, so in comparison to dom2 the +supply items aren't that good. That's how I see it anyway

[Cainehill]

PhilD said:
I can testify that armies still starve, and get diseased, and other afflictions as well. What seems to have changed is the effectiveness of the Enormous Cauldron and Endless Bag - or is it just me?

Yeah, seems like they should've been boosted so they'd still seem worthwhile, given the increased supplies available, since one of them might have doubled how many troops you could have in a province in Dom2, and only allows 20% more troops now.

[Meglobob]

Corwin said:

What do you mean - "no longer starve"? I thought I saw the starvation message in Dom3. Do you mean - they no longet get desease from starvation in dom3?

No, starvation is alot more rare in Dom3, well in Dom2 it was fairly common. In Dom2 when embarking on a war u had to plan yr logistics correctly, equip supply items so yr army avoided starvation and disease. In Dom 3 u can just wing it, I have fought lots of wars across lots of maps now and lack of supply/disease no longer stops yr army in its tracks even when a enemy raises unrest or adopts scorched earth policy.

[FrankTrollman]

Cainehill said:

Yeah, seems like they should've been boosted so they'd still seem worthwhile, given the increased supplies available, since one of them might have doubled how many troops you could have in a province in Dom2, and only allows 20% more troops now.

They were. The Bag of Wine produces 50 supply instead of 25. All the supply items are worth double to go with the new larger expected army size.

That means a good marching army no longer needs 8+ Bags of wine, but can instead do it on more like 4 or 5.

-Frank

[RonD]

It sure seems as though supplies are so plentiful that a good marching army can do with zero bags of wine. Maybe my games just haven't yet hit a point where folks can muster up 500+ strong armies.

The supply boost really hurts Agartha. At first glance, one Agarthan advantage is that they do not need supply. So it seems like it should be a good plan to take a bunch of heat and death scales, to hinder any invading army that does need to eat. But those Agarthan provinces *still* have 300+ supply points.

[Taqwus]

...ex. if you're playing the Dreamlands with high dominion, you'll acquire hordes of really, really lousy freespawn that still eat as much as far more useful troops.

Of course, since they're freespawn, you might not actually care that they starve -- but if you have real troops backing them up, you may want enough supply because you can't guarantee that it'll be the freespawn who starve twice in a row and get diseased.

And also where you are, of course. Wandering through the former territory of the Ashen Empire, you'll still want supply items.

[dirtywick]

Meglobob said:

No, starvation is alot more rare in Dom3, well in Dom2 it was fairly common. In Dom2 when embarking on a war u had to plan yr logistics correctly, equip supply items so yr army avoided starvation and disease. In Dom 3 u can just wing it, I have fought lots of wars across lots of maps now and lack of supply/disease no longer stops yr army in its tracks even when a enemy raises unrest or adopts scorched earth policy.

I've found it's only a problem in wastelands and swamps, and even then only if you don't have swamp or wasteland survival. Most other provinces have plenty of supplies. It's not as much of an issue at all, but it hurts if you're not prepared.

[Truper]

Graeme Dice said:

[Vine ogres never made anybody automatically win. They were cost-effective meat shields and nothing else. Anybody who lost to an army of vine ogres would have lost to any competent player, using any powerful strategy. A single bane lord with a blood thorn, charcoal shield, lucky pendant and jade armour would have been enough to kill 50+ vine ogres in a single battle, and a failure to field such a unit to deal with an army of vine ogres is the fault of the losing player, not game balance. Now, thanks to a doubling of their gem cost, they are barely cost-effective. Bizarrely, lamias, which were already the best nature summon, have been made cheaper.

This "analysis" ignores the fact that vine ogres can be buffed, and do not operate in a magic-support-free vacuum. In Dom2, Vine Ogres were absurdly underpriced. Calculate the number of gems spent on that Bane Lord, and then calculate the number of hitpoints possesed by an army of Vine Ogres on which an equal number of gems was spent.