DEATH!!!

[Shovah32]

Its either 30 or 40 points afaik, dont know about others but thats what i remember.

[Velusion]

It's 40.

[Hellboy]

And does it help if your priest is doing his call god from a temple?

[Jazzepi]

I don't think it "helps" so much as the only place you can Call God is from a temple.

Jazzepi

[Meglobob]

You can call god from anywhere I believe. No temple needed. Your points equal your priest level and it is 40 points. I have called my god back playing Caelum back in just 1 turn later in the game.

[Nick_K]

The number of opponents is a matter for personal taste. As an extreme example, On the Dom1 demo I would often play with every land opponent except Ermor on the (small) Urgaia map.

Having 5 players for 45 provinces seems fine to me.

Dominions is quite hard at first, much more so than most strategy games. I think only MOO3 and Football Manager 2005 made me lose as much when I started. It's pretty normal to lose a lot at first.

You can call a pretender back with the 'call god' command. They appear at your capital once you've done it enough. The returned pretender will lose 1 level from each magic path. Some of the afflictions they had will be cured, but not necessarily all of them IIRC.
Your bless is not affected by this loss in magic.

With the demo you probably don't have time to win outright without a fairly dull rush strategy. For example:
Taking fire 9 / water 9 on your pretender gives a great bless.
Then take strong dominion, imprisoned (for points), death 3, sloth 3, drain 3 (points... don't need growth or magic with the time limit). Order 3 (for gold).
Build lots of your sacred melee guys. Put your prophet in charge and have him cast 'divine blessing'. Put them near the front of the battlefield and give them attack orders.
They will annihilate almost any independant or AI force you're likely to meet on a small map. poor against humans because they're very vulnerable to archers.
This is a quite dull tactic though... If you want to win you could try it but I doubt you'll find it interesting for long.
Sadly, the turn limit means that it's hard to win in the demo while using the fun stuff of dominions. With Kailisia in the full game you can summon Gandharvas - they are awesome!

[Ironhawk]

You need to be in a temple to Call God

[jimkehn]

No matter...I just started over anyway. The God's name was Destroyer of Worlds??? Since I don't have the manual, I am not sure what all this "bless" and having a strong "bless" means or not having my "bless" affected. I am pretty much learning by trial and error. And still not real clear about magic in general. Like, what effect on the rest of the nation having a god with 6 nature has. Or does this just allow him to cast spells with 6 nature icons? I read somewhere about having to have at least 5 levels of magic with a person to get a "bless" Does that mean to get a bless spell? As my holy men have been casting bless all the time. Another one.....I have a mage with 2 fire levels. Can he cast any 2 fire(only) spells? Can he cast a 3 if he has a fire gem? But not a 4?? That's how I have been understanding it, anyway. I also understand that some spells require a certain number of gems. If they are in a lab(?) or is it a fortress(?) they can draw out of the pool. But if they are in a province without the proper building, can they cast those spells if they have those gems on their person?

Anyway...took the same pretender, just a different strategy. Pretty much stayed put until I got a Yaksha(??) and several Yavanas built. And had some Guru along. The little Markata aren't so bad if given courage. God you can build thousands of them for almost nothing. It is a sight to see them fire missiles at approaching infantry. I also summoned some help (horned serpents and cave drakes). Expanded a little bit more slowly. Seems to help. I am thinking Kailasa is not such a sucky nation to play. At least it seems to be going better, now. My AI opponents are Niefelheim and Pangea. (Please forgive my butchering of names). Question....does pure, raw odds have anything to do with morale?? Example: I attack 30 infantry with 30 of my better troops (Bandar maybe) and they won't seem to run as easily if I have 90 or 100 of the little monkeys. I dunno...maybe just cuz I get a kick outta those little monkeys throwin rocks and overwhelming the enemy.

Sorry this got so long.....Just having fun.

[Wish]

In Dom3 a "strong bless" is reserved for when a player suffers from a "strong sneeze"

actually when you are selecting magic for your pretender you might notice things popping up at the bottom of the magic window like 10% regeneration (in the event of a 6 nature pretender)

these are the extra effects, besides a morale boost, that your bless will give sacred units.

playing with increasing other paths above 4 or 9 will show you the other effects, even without a manual.

[Wish]

markatas are nice when you have the ability to cast wind guide and fire arrows on them.