are stealth units targeted by flames from afar..?

[Boron]

Your experience differs greatly from mine.

I have yet to be in a game decided by clamhoarding, nor by choice of nation.

IMO, the most important factors are, in order:
-skill/knowledge of players involved, in particular regarding early expansion, strategic development of the nation played (design, research goals...) & battlefield tactical performance.
-diplomacy.
-starting location & map choice.

yeah sure . but starting location + map choice you can't influence .
surely an unskilled player who only clamhoards looses .
but a skilled player designs a good god too and knows what to research + battle tactics .
since clams are extremely cheap , only construction 2 so clamhoarding as a sidestrategy is good .
if you survive until lategame and have clamhoarded this becomes really a key factor .
lots of good clamhoard nations like pythium + arco are already strong without and clamhoarding doesn't need much effort . it is almost a "no-brainer" .

i agree that diplomacy is one of the most important factors in dominions . but a good player does this too.

i want to point out that i think 2 things are a bit too strong :
- not clams themselves but that they can't be destroyed by strategic measures like flames from the sky when they are hoarded on hidden stealth leaders .
- a critical mass of vampire lords + vampires . lategame you can even pick battles via stygian paths .
you have to fight these immortal armies endless when you attack a strong blood nation in mid-lategame because they always have friendly dominion while you have to defeat every other enemy army only once ( expect demiliches + wraith lords + vq + the other immortal pretenders but they are all either unique or too expensive / need equipment which is still lost ) .
vampires need no equipment to be brutal when you reach a critical mass .

sure an army with lots of wither bones / holy pyre casters + a staff of storm can defeat a vampire horde easy . but this is one of the really few armies which have good odds defeating 300-500 vampires without at least losing 20% of their own troops . against these special armies you counter then via e.g. storm demons + a few scs ( pazuzu e.g. ) .

finally : you can easy say you have seen no game won by clams because you don't see clams in the gem income scoregraph and don't see the enemy stealth units hoarding them too . so it is hard to tell if the winner hasn't clamhoarded too and this ensured in lategame his supremacy .