Your favorite nations / themes -- and why! please participate!

[tinkthank]

[quote]Originally posted by Kel:

quote:

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[qb]
I do hope that I can pull one conlcusion from this poll (not that it needed any corroboration...):

If it's about balance, I don't think you can draw any conclusions from a poll about what people like to play. A lot of people like to play weaker nations as a challenge. The only real conclusion is the direct one, what people on the Boards like to play.

- Kel

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Firstly, thanks to all for all the Arco tips -- I will have to give them another run-through.
I hope I was clear enough in my poll itself and in my comments as well, too, to indicate that I dont think this is about balance. Need for tweakage, YES, but that is rare and only to spice up those nations that seem just plain bland (Tien BK, for example, in comparison with S&A) and hence less enticing to play.

[SelfishGene]

I choose Tien Chi default because i just simply love Imperial Troops and Imperial Consorts; Marignon Diabolical Faith because of Goetics (and its wide variety of spies and assassins), and Man's Tuatha because, well, i always play them as 3-luck/3-magic and i like that extreme, unusual combination - though there is no good reason i can't pick those scales with another nation, its a bit of roleplaying mixed in with the Tuatha seemeing to be closest to 'good guys' in Dom2 as you can get. It seems my preferences have something in common - infiltration, spies, unrest, and/or assassination . I generally prefer attacking indirectly. Against the computer, 10 Consorts, 3 or so to each fort, will literally shut an empire down in a handful of turns, and cripple his economy. Spies tend to be uncovered somewhat more regularly - it takes a very large patrolling force to uncover +30 stealth units.

Imperial Troops are quite like Pythium's and Ermor's legions, in that they are moderately armed but highly skilled. Overall this is a better combination in practice than one extreme or the other - Ulm's troops have great armor but only average skills, terrible defense, and poor morale. Imperial Archers are well protected from counter-archer fire, which is rare for ranged.

Marignon's easy access to blood makes it easier to buff their assassins with contracts and weapons that any other although the Abysian Slayer is a better assassin overall, (and oddly ive never had any luck with Machakan Spider Warriors despite their high cost). Personally i think Marignon as a blood nation is just plain better than Mictlan because of the cost efficiency of Goetics and the fact Marignon's base troops don't suck. And eventually you can move to Succubi assassin builds.

With the Tuatha i don't find much to be excited about, but i seem to play them frequently. I generally find Man to be dull, but something about the Tuatha keeps me coming back for more.

I've been having more and more fun with R'yleh recently. I haven't really found a set of scales and magic paths that just fire me up, but for some reason Meteoric armor and hybrid troopers are just interesting enough to keep me coming back. The Traitor Prince and Illithid Lord are both very powerful thugs.

[tinkthank]

Hey thanks so much -- 85 people have participated! (How many people visit these Boards regularly, do you think?)

I know too litle about statistics to draw any conclusions about the game from this anyhow, but it seems that there are very many reasons for choosing just about anything, and that the game does in fact offer many options for choosing a playing style that its players like.

The only conclusions I think I can draw from this is about the players (or the players who participated anyhow). And it seems to me that this poll shows a very large "fun" aspect of the game that goes way beyond other forms of motivation found in other games (e.g. the treadmill of RPGs or the pure fun of beating others in other strategy type games). Yey for Dom2!

[Gandalf Parker]

Mood Nations.
The only reason I have multiple Favorites is because I have multiple moods. Some of these nations DEFINATELY fit certain moods that I might want to play. At least for solo games.

[tinkthank]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Mood Nations.
The only reason I have multiple Favorites is because I have multiple moods. Some of these nations DEFINATELY fit certain moods that I might want to play. At least for solo games.

Great point, and good concept.

I am a big SP fan as well, too (I am not good enough for competetive MP), and moods can take full reign there, yesindeed.

[The_Tauren13]

As i am a newbie who hasent even played any MP, i can only share my SP experiences. Before i start a game, i pick a completely random race with a couple dice. So i have played nearly all the races. For the poll, i picked the 5 i enjoy playing most. Probably my absolute favorite is pythium, because i enjoy watching my hydras destroy the AI's massed armies of crap.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by The_Tauren13:
Probably my absolute favorite is pythium, because i enjoy watching my hydras destroy the AI's massed armies of crap.

Do you prefer Serpent Cult Pythium with their blessable hydras, or do you prefer the regular Pythium?