I ALWAYS loose.... I need advice and have MANY questions heh!

[Gandalf Parker]

Turn up the independent setting. That slows them down.

If you are talking about Ermor, thats his basic tactic. The answer is "make priests". As soon as you see ermor coming, start making priests. Their banishment spell makes big holes in that swarm. Of course you build your tactic around giving them time to cast that many times. Heavy infantry, set everyone far back on the battlefield, have the infantry do "hold and attack closest" or maybe just "guard commander". Dont charge the enemy, make them wear themselves out charging you.

[SelfishGene]

Originally posted by SelfishGene:
"In Illwinter's game Dominions 2, you can build temples, wage wars against pagan neighbors, and research fantasitcal magical spells. But Wish requires exact spelling.... and it doesn't take American Express.

VISA, its everywhere you want to be."

Just in case nobody got it, you can successfully wish for VISA.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by SelfishGene:
Just in case nobody got it, you can successfully wish for VISA.

What happens if you do?

[Boron]

Originally posted by Lach:
Most of my earlier questions turned out to be from lack of understanding game mechanics..... the problem still persists however. IF I can live long enough to get high level magic and a big gem income I can win...... or get close enough that I am satisfied.

The problem is that the computer just SWARMS over me with ENORMEOUS troops numbers.... how the hell can I counter that?

the faerun map is optimal for learning the game .
because there you have plenty of time and most likely will meet your first opponent after you already control 10-15 provinces at least .
and it is not wraparound . this makes orania a not so easy map if you play with all 17 ai opponents ihmo .
if you have luck and they fight mostly against each other for a long time it's easy to win because you will have superior summons .
but if you are already in battle with 1 ai at turn 5 and 1-2 others at turn 10 which often happens and they go with all their stuff on you it is very hard to survive .
if you play standard ulm or marignon this is not so hard to come by because your starting troops are just great but with other nations .
playing ryhleh is ihmo very optimal for beginners since your only opponent in the beginning is atlantis if you did turn them on .
so you have time and can decide against the ai when the carnage should start by deciding when you go on the continent .

finally a tip : to see if you expand "fast" enough look often at the provinces score graph .
if you are in the upper third it should be enough . depends on nations though and since you play nonstandard ermor they don't need to expand very fast in the beginning

i think the ai is not too bad because their swarming keeps you busy in early-midgame and often successfully disturbs you quite a bit .
rarely but it happens sometimes the ai does even summon magic troops like summer lions .
only thing i haven't yet seen is summoning them one of the unique summons .
general i think the ai is good enough to be a challenge in most cases if you do not play under extreme settings.
when i started playing dominions 6 weeks before i first thought exactly the same they always have more than me and the ai is very good .
you already found out yourself that at high magic levels the ai is very beatable but i really think it is good enough at impossible settings since it is a challenge even for sc pretenders with its hordes in early - midgame

The Faerun map is not opitimal for learning the game. It is actually the worst map a newbie could possibly use to learn the AI or strategies for anything but the very long, got as much time as I want with no consequnce, type of games.

It won't allow you to learn much of anything, but it will allow you to *Do* everything if you make a Dead Ermor Pretender with every path and all sites jacked up to 75.

Just because you can do everything doesn't allow you to learn anything.

[Boron]

Originally posted by Zen:
The Faerun map is not opitimal for learning the game. It is actually the worst map a newbie could possibly use to learn the AI or strategies for anything but the very long, got as much time as I want with no consequnce, type of games.

It won't allow you to learn much of anything, but it will allow you to *Do* everything if you make a Dead Ermor Pretender with every path and all sites jacked up to 75.

Just because you can do everything doesn't allow you to learn anything.

i meant it mainly because of motivation purposes .
since you lose most likely all your first games it is demotivating if you never saw a highlevel summon and so on.
on faerun you have not the problem to be in contact with enemy too soon so you can test everything highlevel and this helps you to get motivation again .
finally it is not wraparound which helps you greatly defending against the ai .

the best way to really learn the game is of course play mp. but most humans play completely diffirent than the ai and don't rush with cheap hordes as the ai does .

[Gandalf Parker]

If you like big maps for expansion, there are bigger maps than that one. Ugly, but bigger.
www.dom2minions.com