Capturing Capitols

[Edratman]

I think that a player should be able to retrieve a portion of the gems and gold when he captures an enemy capitol. There is more than ample historic precendent for the government ending up with a substantial share of a captured cities wealth, after all Napolean financed much of the French economy in his early years by looting conquered territories, and there are countless other examples that I could cite.

The portion I propose would be a variable percentage (using the infamous six-sided dice of course) It could vary between 0 and 50% and still maintain a very realistic approach. You could even include giving a part or all of this loot (at least the gems) to the mages that participated in the castle assault.


Another bonus that one should get from capturing a capitol is a random probability of recruiting some of that nations troops and/or commanders. In this aspect the historic precedent is enormous. Again I would use the six sided dice with a low probability of success.

[Shovah32]

But players can easily get rid of their wealth by racking up pd before the final siege or giving it away. Gems are similar as they can be used in the final fight, given away to others or simply given to commanders to go down with them.

[Meglobob]

Edratman said:
I think that a player should be able to retrieve a portion of the gems and gold when he captures an enemy capitol. There is more than ample historic precendent for the government ending up with a substantial share of a captured cities wealth, after all Napolean financed much of the French economy in his early years by looting conquered territories, and there are countless other examples that I could cite.

I agree with this, but I will go further and change 1 aspect of it. When you capture a players last laboratory you should capture 100% of all magic items still left in it and 100% of any gems, blood slaves and gold.

Shovah32 said:
But players can easily get rid of their wealth by racking up pd before the final siege or giving it away. Gems are similar as they can be used in the final fight, given away to others or simply given to commanders to go down with them.

Shovah32 is of course right that a determined player can spite a attacker by getting rid of all his gems, gold and magic items but you should still be able to capture anything he has not disposed of. Rather than the gems, gold and magic items just disappearing into thin air.

[Shovah32]

Even more incentive to dispose of them.

[Foodstamp]

The issue is (as Shovah has pointed out) that this will not enable you to gain magic items, gems or gold from a capital. It will just require your opponent to be subject to yet more micromanagement as he will surely dispose of the assets. In single player games though, this would work as intended.

[Gandalf Parker]

I think that a random chance of being able to recruit units would be hard to do. It already is kindof kludged in with the magic sites defining nationals. Altho if you wanted to, it might be possible to create a map to play on which would make those "capturable". That might be a fun game alternative. I should experiment and see if I can break that.

On the "spoils to the conqueror" thing, that might be easier. The contents of the lab be "dumped" onto the battleground as if it was being carried by commanders with the same random chances of being picked up.

But another consideration is that labs are all inter-linked. How would you handle it if his capital was taken when he has another lab someplace else? Should EVERY lab taken offer a percentage of the take? Should only the last one?

[Meglobob]

One of the reasons I would like to see the conquerer get the spoils is it would encourage more attacking play in MP. Often you can end up with a stalemate situation abit like this:-

3 Players ABC, roughly the same in power. None dares attack each another because the player not involved in the war will wait until the 2 warring factions exhaust themselves or until one as nearly defeated the other and then move in and grab everything. Seen it done many times.

To a certain extent Dominions 3 rewards those players who sit on there butts building, building, avoiding wars until later in the game and only attacking the weak or war exhausted.

[Sandman]

It's not inconcievable for a player to lose their last lab, and still being far from defeat. Especially when you take lab-destroying events into account.

[Ironhawk]

The issue is more complicated. What happens if you capture a capital without killing a player? Do you still get thier money and gems?

[LoloMo]

In MP it definitely just serves to increase micromanagement. Before their capital gets taken over, people would send all their stuff to an ally, after the capital is taken over, send the stuff back.

Capturable site would be better. I would suggest adding a site to each capital only national site that mimics the national troops, but at a slightly lower stats to reflect non native conquerors recruiting them. Perhaps even eliminating sacred status, or increasing costs. Would require a big mod though.