Vanheim Musings

[Agrajag]

My advice to you, spacepain, is to come to this forum for advice before every game with your mates, so that we can enlighten you in the ways of exploiting cheesy tactics that exist only in unpatched-unmodded-Dominions, so after each ***-kicking be sure to explain to your mates how you would not have been kicking their asses had they installed the latest official patch and CB mod

Other than that, the most obvious tip I can give you has been mentioned already - F9W9 blessing on vans. With their high innate defence and the defence bonus from W9 they become almost untouchable and F9 makes sure they can pack enough of a punch to take down any common unit.
But even so, I'd say that in the end game, the vans pale in comparison to SCs, mage squads and summons, so you'll probably have to go for somewhat of a "rush" tactic to capitalize on their early strength. (though the wealth that the early rush will provide you should definitely make up for that. Just be careful not to get ganged up on!)

[Endoperez]

If you want to try the "human" thug route, you can always use Vanir commanders. Blessing, inherent bonuses, few magical items... Air also has some buffs, although I don't think Mistform helps against magic, and I'm not sure about Mirror Image when they already have Glamour.

[Spacepain]

"My advice to you, spacepain, is to come to this forum for advice before every game with your mates, so that we can enlighten you in the ways of exploiting cheesy tactics that exist only in unpatched-unmodded-Dominions, so after each ***-kicking be sure to explain to your mates how you would not have been kicking their asses had they installed the latest official patch and CB mod"

Haha, thanks for the help. They'd prolly just stop playing dominions 2 before patching, though, as it takes far less energy to do.
Questions put here are done in retrospect of my matches with friends. Matches with friends are spontaneous all-nite 100-200 turn blitzes. There isn't any really any time to prepare specific strategies. Me thinks, I'll just leech off the collective brilliance of you folk till I'm a compedium of Dominions 2 information that's bursting at the seams.

"Other than that, the most obvious tip I can give you has been mentioned already - F9W9 blessing on vans. With their high innate defence and the defence bonus from W9 they become almost untouchable and F9 makes sure they can pack enough of a punch to take down any common unit."

Thank you, for confirming they're still a completely legitamately useful unit. The forum I read had them priced at 35 gold apiece. In (my version) the game has them at 70 gold, which made me cringe at first. I've played with them a little bit now, and they do actually seem to be pretty flipping sweet early game.

[quantum_mechani]

Spacepain said:
100-200 turn blitzes.

Heh, playing that many turns in a one sitting blitz... that's just insane. I have played all day blitzes as far as maybe turn 50, and that's getting toward 1-hour turns or more. In fact, I am not sure I have ever heard of a multiplayer game of any kind played by vetrans that gets to turn 100 without it being basicly decided.