Favorite nations so far?

[Archonsod]

Gandalf Parker said:
I was surprised by it also. I considered it luck and kept running the tests. Apparently with a single minded AI on all of the nations, thats how it played out so something is there.

Doesn't surprise me. One of the first games I played was the Silent Seas map (EA) with the three water nations & AI C'tis (I was playing Argatha). Was a close run thing, with the water nations proving to be the most challenging opponents (Atlantis was the worst of the three, but they had managed to drive a wedge between me and Oceania, so I had few encounters with Oceania until they'd managed to drive the Atlantians back).

[Foodstamp]

Ironically in an EA random map I was playing last night with all EA nations, Oceania was the first to go, and a very fast death it was!

[Quietly]

Currently in love with EA arcosphale...

Running some sick games with bless/thug strategy, with different flavors based on scale choice (production being the main, such a hard choice given moderately resource intensive units on one hand, and philosopher research scale on the other... I think I am leaning towards sloth for better other scales/research, though that sort of puts me at the mercy of starting position)

[Peter Ebbesen]

EA Yomi, Oni Kings is probably my favourite at the moment; A bit strange, since it does not really work. I find myself using almost exclusively Dai-Oni with a few Demon General commanders to lead hordes of Bakemono archers since none of the normal troop demons are worth the cost, but even so, 'tis fun. Probably because Dai-Oni are so versatile on the battlefield once a bit research has been done.

LA Ermor, Ashen Empire... I don't really know about this one. Making Soul Gate a national global enchantment is an interesting move and certainly voids some of the more abusive SG strategies, and I like that, but doing that AND significantly reducing the Wraith Senators and Consuls in power (lost one holy level so they have the same holy strength as the Bishops/Archbishops - who cost half the gems, and Ermor lives - and dies - by its gems) as well as making Wraith Centurions, Senators, and Consuls only accessible at high conjuration levels just doesn't seem to work all that well. By the time you can afford them you are probably better off using standard spawning mound fiends for troops and stay using archbishops (despite the risk of "gem-loss" compared to using Wraiths if they die in your home province)... It would probably work better if the "Soul Gate" global enchantment also boosted the magic paths (including holy, or perhaps only holy) of all leaders that are Soul Gate aspected. But perhaps this should be in a separate thread. Who, playing LA Ermor, actually use the national Wraith Summons?

[Agrajag]

Peter Ebbesen said:
Who, playing LA Ermor, actually use the national Wraith Summons?

The Wraith Centurions with their immortality are still powerful by the time you get them if you can keep your dominion high, and they aren't that expensive.
And since Conjuration is LA Ermor's most important school anyway, it won't take that long to get them.
Also, now that you start with +15 death gems per turn, LA Ermor gets +6 RP per turn and another +6 every four turns, and if you are a bit lucky with searches, you can get much more, so LA Ermor isn't as handicapped as it used to be as far as research goes.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Agrajag said:

The Wraith Centurions with their immortality are still powerful by the time you get them if you can keep your dominion high, and they aren't that expensive.
And since Conjuration is LA Ermor's most important school anyway, it won't take that long to get them.
Also, now that you start with +15 death gems per turn, LA Ermor gets +6 RP per turn and another +6 every four turns, and if you are a bit lucky with searches, you can get much more, so LA Ermor isn't as handicapped as it used to be as far as research goes.

Ok, let's start a separate thread on LA Ermor one of these days. Mind you, noting that Ermor gets 50% more gems on normal difficulty allowing for more researchers (~50% more in the early game but not scaling +50% with increased gem income from site-finding as you expand) without noting that gold income has been doubled, which could result in 100% more researchers if other nations kept the same troop/researcher ratio as in Dominions 2 (and this scaling does continue when a gold-researcher nation expands territorially once he has enough labs to recruit max mages desired every turn) seems a bit weird; With this taken into account, do you really believe that Ermor is better off vs. other nations research-wise in Dominions 3 than in 2? As far as I can see, despite being able to research faster than in 2, they are considerably worse off compared to the opposition in 3. (This may or may not be a good thing - I'm not decided on that - but certainly I cannot see Ermor's position as improved on that account)

[Theonlystd]

Hey Peter Ebbesen

Bit off topic You dont happen to partake in posting on the Paradox Forums alot?

[Belcarl]

I haven't played all my old favorites from Dom2 yet but anyway.

I have fallen in love with Middle era Man. Cheap researchers, Good combat magic with the Witches (2-3A), and good durable troops with the wardens and knights of avalon.

Early and Middle age agartha should suit my regular style with lots of summons, however, I'm struggling to get them rolling. My temples keep getting raised by earthquakes, Bogus and Co: kills my prophet and main battlemage etc. Bad luck I guess, but I like the background theme.

Pythium got potential, but as with Agartha, I'm struggling with them in the early game. Once I pop out the angels they are great though. I have a few ideas I need to try out to get the Grand Theurgs and communions working despite the old age problem that might change my view of them.

[Theonlystd]

La,Ma R'Lyeh



Bandar Log god i love those monkeys.

And Sauromatia suxors its EA only