First Impressions of a Newbie

Endoperez · #1 October 27th, 2007, 03:44 PM

You might want to go for 1 VP per capital, normal victory points, and control of most of the capitals required to win. This has the side-effect of letting you see where your enemies are, but it gives the game a sensible ending.

HJFudge · #2 October 28th, 2007, 06:00 PM

Ive been messing around with MA C'Tis lately, and have discovered that I really like summoning spells. Especially undead!

The Behemoths are my favorite. 3 of em in front of my main force taking all the attention and smooshing the little troops is way cool.

Another discovery I have made is that big games with tons of nations take FOREVER for each turn to process! Oh and to cast some battle spells I need to give the commander gems. Annoying micromanagement, that is.

NTJedi · #3 October 29th, 2007, 01:01 AM

Quote:

HJFudge said:
Especially undead!

The Behemoths are my favorite. 3 of em in front of my main force taking all the attention and smooshing the little troops is way cool.

Unfortunately in my opinion the cost of the Behemoth is too high. For the price of 2 Behemoths you could also have one spectral mage OR 75 dispossed spirits OR 40+ pale riders OR 40 undead archers which carry those banefire bows!
I would enjoy casting/testing other summoning spells like Behemoth or Ziz... unfortunately the gem/cost ratio makes them a bad investment.

Quote:

HJFudge said:
Another discovery I have made is that big games with tons of nations take FOREVER for each turn to process!

I've noticed the 'AI Thinking' phase takes the longest for these huge games. I've heard if you temporarily turn off the battlefield graphics the turns process faster... yet I haven't tried it myself.

Folket · #4 October 29th, 2007, 07:41 AM

Strange, AI thinking never takes long time for me.

Edi · #5 October 29th, 2007, 07:56 AM

Depends on your machine specs, game size and number of units in play. My old machine would have run Dom3, but would have had serious trouble on big maps in late game (it already did with Dom2). My current one doesn't really care much. I have yet to see it struggle with Dom3, but it's just a year old and topline for that time.

Edratman · #6 October 29th, 2007, 11:45 AM

My 3 year old machine takes about 3 or 4 minutes to resolve end turn when there are many battles. But I don't consider that a problem having spent 20 to 30 minutes doing my turn. It is a welcome respite allowing me to get a cold one, burn one, or whatever.

The time spent doing my turn is why I seldom (if ever anymore) finish games and I really wish that there was some way to reduce the turn time. Most nights I only get about 1.5 to 2 hours to play. When I only complete 2 turns in a session I usually start a new game.

NTJedi · #7 October 29th, 2007, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Folket said:
Strange, AI thinking never takes long time for me.

Try playing a map of 500 or more provinces and place one AI far away from you yet provide the AI with powerful scales, some strong starting SCs and three castles with extra magic sites each 7 provinces apart. By the time you reach turn 90 the turns do process slower for AI thinking.