First Impressions of a Newbie

[HJFudge]

Hello

Just recieved the game in the mail today (hooray no more waiting!) and eagerly ripped open the package and shoved the disk in my computer and started the install. It went very quickly, compared to Mask of the Betrayer which I also recently bought. I was expecting to have more time to peruse this nifty manual that made up most of the package.

Well, the beginning of the manual talks about a tutorial. Looking at the SIZE of this thing, I figured it'd probably be best to run through it so I can get a grasp of some of the more important commands. It was interesting to play but I got bored halfway through of reading and decided I wanted to design my OWN god thank you very much.

Just to be safe, I skimmed the remainder of the tutorial in the book to see if there was any important commands I might want to look at. There were a couple and I left the manual open as I went about choosing a race.

The amount of choices, while neat, was very daunting at first. What was the difference between all the ages? How many different sacreds where there in each army? I really didnt feel like going through every. single. choice. to find out. Instead, I checked the manual. AH! Good. Nation descriptions. Well, it at least gave me a start.

Having been perusing the forums as I waited for the arrival of my copy of the game, I had a very basic idea of some game elements I dont think wouldve been obvious from the manual and tutorial alone. For example, I knew what a bless strategy was (just not how to make a good one or which nations it was good for). I knew I wanted to be able to make cool magic items and lay some serious beat down with my troops. So I decided on one of the Early Era Giant Races...the Nefeilheim! I figured nature would let me have REGENERATING giants and I figured right. I set myself on the small Still Seas map and played my first real game.

It was slow going, as I tried to figure out what does what. I got bogged down in a race to get back my provinces as the Enemy army would take a province when I moved away from it to take one of theirs, refusing to fight me. Grr! Well, I gave up some ground and found a couple spots I could advance my armies in a 2 by 2 formation, one army on either province moving up at the same time.

I learned giants are good for stompin and dont die alot.

Figuring out how to take an enemies fort also gave me some problems. I kept getting messages about needing more men, but since I didnt know how to build my OWN forts (I learned, but by then I was well away from the one fort I had and getting new troops up to a spot useful for making forts took several turns) my troops just sat there seiging em. One army began to starve.

Anyway, long story short, I managed a victory. One that took WAY longer than it should have Im sure but hey. I thought to myself 'Hah! This aint so hard.' and chose a bigger map with more enemy nations.

What followed was a thorough thrashing. 3 games I tried, 3 games I lost horribly.

Erg this is a long post. Lets summarize.

Dom3 seems awesome and its going to take me awhile to figure out what choices I prefer (I find I like the lizard guys, C'Tis, the best so far) and how to actually be proficient at the game. Its got alot of depth to it and as I play more and pour over the manual I think I'll get it.

The magic system is whats confusing me, with all the spells. I am trying to learn what to research to get good casts, and what summons to shoot for. It took me awhile to figure out HOW to summon. The enemy also always seems to be casting better magic than me, even though I am researching alot with Sauromancers.

The combat system is cool, giving orders and letting your troops be in charge of carrying em out.

There are so many choices though, and the map has SOOOOO many icons each turn is taking me a long time.

I am reading alot of people having bought this game new like me because of the stardock offer. Maybe all of us newbies should get a MP game together or something.

If you read all this, congratulations. You win a death gem. This game rocks and Im having a blast figuring it out.