What makes a skillful Dom 3 player?

[moderation]

What is it? Incredible strategic insight? Encyclopedic knowledge of all the units, counters and counter-counters? Micromanagement skills and tricks? Ability to minimax the heck out of the game engine? Excessive quantities of free time? Diplomatic skill? Something else entirely? I am interested in your opinion on this question that has been bugging me lately.

[NTJedi]

Diplomacy, knowledge of your opponents tactics, turn efficiency, knowing confidently what will happen in future turns and being correct, knowing the best methods for spending gems and gold(hence not summoning eater of the dead), knowledge of your opponents personality, and a touch of luck.


Dominions is full of moves and counter moves.

[ano]

I guess it is strategic thinking plus micromanagement plus knowledge. Diplomacy is also important. Knowledge will greatly help the other two in reaching of the goal but it is definitely not the main thing. You won't win a game with pure knowledge.

[K]

moderation said:
What is it? Incredible strategic insight? Encyclopedic knowledge of all the units, counters and counter-counters? Micromanagement skills and tricks? Ability to minimax the heck out of the game engine? Excessive quantities of free time? Diplomatic skill? Something else entirely? I am interested in your opinion on this question that has been bugging me lately.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, not necessarily, yes, and I'll explain.

The most important thing is to realize two key facts:

1. Everything has a use. Even spells or units that people say suck actually have a use in certain circumstances.

2. This is a turn-based game, so turn advantage is the key to many things. Speed, efficiency, and long-term planning count more than having the right race.

[Ironhawk]

This is what makes a skilled Dominions player, in order of significance:

1) Diplomacy: Without question the single skill which has the most dramatic effect on the result of a MP game. It can make a weak nation strong when used right and a strong nation weak when ignored or used poorly.

2) Strategic Planning: Picking a nation, design, and overall strategy is the foundation of a strong empire. Adapting to what dominions offers you, be it geography, gems, and most importantly sites (a single good site can change the course of your empire). Lastly knowing yourself, the nations opposing you, and the diplomatic situation well enough to know who to strike and when.

3) General Dom Concepts: Focus on the key concepts of dominions rather than memorizing the minutiae. The way one unit class fares against another. Boosting your mages magic paths. The interplay of armies vs battlefield magic/enchants and research. Building and killing SCs. Beyond this there is only a little to memorize - some key summons, very dangerous spells, SC chasis, and perhaps a couple of signature or sacred units.

4) Tactical Experience: You need to know, at a glance, how your forces will fare in a battle against a (mostly) known enemy force. What tactics you can use to improve your odds and what tactics your enemy is likely to use given thier forces. Its also quite helpful to be able to accurately predict where your opponent will move thier armies and when they will engage or retreat.

[Micah]

I'd like to add in early expansion as a critical concept to master, though I agree with pretty much all of the above as well.

While I don't agree that EVERYTHING has a use, as per K's post, I was forced to eat my words on the utility of crumble and iron walls...normally they're still pretty bad, but in a VP situation they can be very much worth casting.

[Edi]

I'm going to defer to Ironhawk and the other experienced MP gamers in the thread, but I must say that in my very limited MP experience thorough knowledge of the DB has come in pretty goddamn handy many times.

[Lingchih]

Diplomacy: It's what makes the world go round.

I am not a skillful Dom 3 player. I have no head for numbers. I have never won an MP game. But in almost all of my MP games, I have stayed around til the endgame... because of diplomacy. I have kept Mega powers from attacking me, through diplomacy.

You might say I am cowardly, but I am not. I have attacked game leaders when the time was right, even though outclassed. But I have had fun in most all my MP games. And the key to that was diplomacy.

[Renojustin]

Edi is so right that it's not even funny. Just from a casual glance at the database, I learned things about my situation ingame that led to large differences in gameplay.

Encyclopedic knowledge is key.

You can have poor diplomacy and win from a corner of the map, or even with luck and gumption as your potential opponents slaughter each other for being too visible.

You can think everything has a use and get proved wrong time and time again as people who utilize key units and tactics slaughter your motley crew.

Knowledge of magic, how it's used, when, what you can do with different paths at different levels of research is essential to Dom3 mastery.

Min/maxing your empire according to its strengths and weaknesses is extremely helpful and ties in to all-around game knowledge. Learn everything you can, the game is deep.

With a general knowledge of tactics, and a vast knowledge of game minutae, you are a very dangerous nation indeed... even if you never so much as glance at your game forum thread, never send a message to a neighbor, and never trade a gem.

[moderation]

Hmm, the encyclopedic knowledge is probably the part that probably stymies new players the most (at least it stymies me ). Separating what choices in pretenders, spells, items are the best versus choices that are mediocre or "just for fun" is a pretty hard job in the beginning. Whatever part of he game you are in, it seems like there is a main line of most effective choices that most experienced players, and then maybe a set of choices that do the same thing, but are less efficient to varying degrees. The challenge for new players is really separating the best choices from the chaff. Until then, it's really easy to make suboptimal choices and not realize it under it's too late.