How long does it take to win

[Loren]

I find the comments about dominion kills being very slow odd. With a good base dominion I normally get a dominion victory controlling no more than half of the map and I've gotten one almost without a fight--I took out my closest neighbor and then dominion-killed the next one, gobbled his lands, repeat.

I'm currently playing a game on a large map against a whole bunch of AI's. Since I knew this was going to be a long game I optimized for it--An imprisoned crone with dominion 10 and very good scales. Being tired of one AI running away with the game I set the independents to max strength.

At present I have taken out two AI's near me and I'm currently mopping up the remains of the second one (it was a dominion kill). The water near me is unoccupied, I've got some giants down there with barrels of air taking them and building temples. Two giants, they started with 29 giant armies each. I've taken and templed about a dozen provinces now (remember, this is against max strength independents) for a total loss of two giants.

I probably have 20% of the map, 4 of the 5 globals up are mine. In terms of dominion, though, I have more than half of the map. One pretty big nation is pretty close to being dominion-killed.

[Wish]

dude, just empower up a giant and give him some gear such that he can cast thetis' blessing. then stomp on in.

to further your dominion push, find any hoburg or woodsmen priests and have them sneak-preach. build juggernauts at the borders of your land. also keep your pretender, prophet, and the ark out on the edge as well.

i don't remember if giants get to blood sacrifice. i think probably not, but thats also how people dominion push.

[Shovah32]

A crone with dom10 is a bad and very expensive idea.

[danm]

Dominion wins can be VERY quick if you get lucky with the opposition setup...

I had a game on Silent Seas the other day where My awake dom10 earthmother pretender started out ~2 provinces from 2 different low dominion AIs who crumbled by around turn 4. The income and gems from those 2 capitals funded enough temples to wipe out the 3 remaining AIs by maybe turn20 or so without a single signifigant fight (just rolling up the empty provinces of each dominion killed enemy as they became "available")

The very next game I stupidly got her killed on turn3 against some unexpectedly tough longdead horsies, and was promptly wiped off the map by some opportunistic giants.

Honestly, I am amazed at the strategic options available in this game... I don't think I've even really scratched the surface of EA Agartha in SP at this point. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but each game still shows me new possibilities, and teaches new hard lessons in what to be careful of (note: cold-blooded troops do NOT fight well in the snow -- d'oh!)

And someday, when I'm happy that I know how to handle EA Agartha properly... theres only 50 other nations to figure out.

oh my...

[Ironhawk]

Loren said:
I find the comments about dominion kills being very slow odd.

Not sure why? Dominion victory is a painfully slow process compared with military victory. Against a reasonably sized empire, you might take 20-30 turns of extremely agressive preaching to drive out all thier dominion. Whereas if your military is dominant, you could roll over them with armies and SCs in a fraction of that.

[thejeff]

I know LA Man's temples have the normal (400) cost.
Not sure about MA.