How difficult is this game?

[Fenris99]

Thanks for th advice, HotNifeThruButr . I shall try that tonight.

I played out a game last night. I didn't lose but I was losing when I went to bed. It seems to me that after turn 2 or 3 you have to conquer a new territory every couple of turns to stay competitive. Because that's what the AI will be doing.

In RTS I tend to be a turtler but I see that's not really an option here.

[VedalkenBear]

Re: Raven Feast, the formula is right in the book. 'The exchange rate is gems = sqrt(corpses)/3.' (DomIII Rulebook, p.208). Since it is 4 gems, the 'normal' conversion rate from Aireath is 4:1. Substituting that into the formula, you can solve for how many corpses you need to generate how many gems. Here is a quick table.

Gem Corpses
1 9
2 36
3 81
4 144
5 225
6 324
etc.

Note this means that if there are 36+ corpses in a province, you will receive more gems than through alchemy. The really interesting part is that at 144+ corpses, you get at least a 1:1 ratio.

This is in addition to the fact that it eliminates all corpses in the territory, which can be useful in its own right.

The nations I can see this primarily useful for are EA Caelum (definitely can cast it, have Death mages with no Death income, IIRC), EA Ermor (would need pretender, but same dilemma), and, ironically, LA Ermor. Again, needs a Pretender, but their entire engine runs on Death gems, and they have the corpses to burn (almost literally).

Fenris: In regard to expansion, you generally want to take one province _or more_ starting from the third turn.

[Fenris99]

VedalkenBear said:
Fenris: In regard to expansion, you generally want to take one province _or more_ starting from the third turn.

Gah! That's a lot!!

[VedalkenBear]

But, IMO, virtually required. General flow for first few turns:

1) Prophetize your non-scout commander, recruit mercs if you can (assuming they're any good), purchase troops and mage (if possible)

2) Send initial army + Mercs after easiest nearby province. Keep recruiting troops. One idea is to build another 'leader commander' to keep bringing new recruits to the army so that your initial commander doesn't lose turns going back to pick up more troops.

[Fenris99]

How do I defend territories that have been conquered? Do I leave armies behind or keep pushing forward with them?

[llamabeast]

Recruit "province defense" (PD). To do this, find the "Defense" number in the top left bar thing, and increase it. Then you create a standing militia that will defend your province, that automatically replenishes any losses it suffers and which costs no upkeep. It's very helpful.

[thejeff]

The general early game advice of averaging at least one province/turn for the first year applies as long as you have indies to conquer. Turtling vs rushing really begins when you start running into other nations.

In the expansion, in an SP game, don't worry too much about defense. Independents don't attack, so all you have to worry about is random events. Once you have a border with another nation, defend that. Buying up PD is the usual defense, maybe supported by a few troops to cover your PD's weaknesses.

[Endoperez]

As for buying PD:

level 1 always shows you who conquered the province. Spending 1 gp for that is very much worth it.
1-3 PD, depending on nation, is enough to beat enemy scouts, small groups of fliers, etc solo guys that your enemy might want to use. In multiplayer, most provinces have PD in this area.
11 PD has a small chance of finding and fighting against stealthy enemy forces or commanders. In single-player, buying some PD in provinces neighbouring enemy nations can keep the AI from attacking you.
21 PD has a bit better chance at finding the enemies, and it starts getting troops of better quality. All nations get another type of commander, who is sometimes a mage or a priest. This much PD is rarely used even in SP, but in some cases having lots of automatically replenishing units is worth it even if you can't script them - even in MP.

Quality of provincial defense varies wildly between nation. The nation list at the end of the manual also describes the units the nation gets from its PD. Some nations have excellent PD, some have useful PD, some have very, very weak PD.