What the hell is up with Dominions 3???

[quantum_mechani]

Cainehill said:

While I would personally agree, and have about the same speed taking those first few turns, these are experienced players, regulars on the forums and in the blitz games. I have pretty much no clue why the first turn or two could possibly take so long, but... shrug It's like they're scripting their mages before they have any.

*Deploying decoys

*Arranging the rest of the troops to one side of the map and usually as far forward as possible (just slightly farther back than the decoy)

*Rescripting them depending what indies you are facing (for instance vs. barbarians or lizards you usually want to set all your troops halfway back, and have your melee troops on hold while your ranged support whittles them down a bit)

*Setting plain military commanders in the back to(hold)(hold)(hold)(hold)(hold) Stay behind troops

*Optimizing taxes and patrolling

*Setting research

*Optimizing resources and gold to come as close to zero each turn as possible

*'Scout probing' indies

*Scripting prophet/priests (and rescripting them and all the troops each time you hit an undead province)

*Scripting and possibly equipping pretender

*Planning the best order in which to take indies, reevaluating it based on losing a battle or taking heavy losses

*Deciding how much to bid on what mercs, and where to place them

*Recruit indy commanders to shuffle new troops to your expanding armies

*Checking the graphs and HoF (optional)

*Watching battles (optional for most)

I must admit for me what probably takes me the most time is evaluating indies. It can be very complex to deploy the minimum force to take the best provinces, and then also have it planned out how the army should move and be resupplied with troops in order to continue to take new provinces every turn with no breaks for the maximum amount of time.