Bogarus Quick Guide

archaeolept · #1 January 29th, 2008, 04:39 PM

no no, give them a falchion

Nikolai · #2 January 29th, 2008, 06:53 PM

I am only one who thinks that this good looking troops should not be just waste of space?

If this nation modelled after trade cities of Novogorov, Kiev, etc... they should have decent citizen militia. I like slow movement for peshti (infantry) because they would not like to go away from home. But broadsword guys should be a bit better. At least 11 in attack/defense - they would have SOME soldiers that are OK on foot.

The black hoods (karakalpak) feel a bit wrong too. Why the heavy, full helmet? Kalpak is 'hat', and in this case, it's a fur hat - like mongols, tatars, etc... Leather cap at very best. And they should have bucklers - same for Grid Druzhina - eastern horse archers mostly had bucklers.

Actually, lack of shields is strange. The knyaz also should carry a shield, with 'coat of arms'. Why does black hood carry the banner anyway? They were displaced nomads, working as mercenaries. Not ones to carry flags. Give it to druzhinik...

As for magic, I find dominance of blood over nature strange. It would make sense if we get a 'middle era' Rus, based on nature, wise women, etc... But as it is, without back story, it feel strange.

By the way, I am not Russian :-) Not my fault that my name could be.

johan osterman · #3 January 29th, 2008, 08:03 PM

The answer to all of your questions is that dominions does not make any claims of complete historical fidelity. Bogarus is not the nations which inspired it.

Kristoffer O · #4 January 29th, 2008, 08:30 PM

In the osprey books used for inspiration the black hats wear visors to protect their faces from incoming arrows, thus the name black hats/hoods.

The mid age Vanarus will be more nature oriented.

DrPraetorious · #5 January 30th, 2008, 12:39 AM

Those troops are *not* a waste of space. I would've given the Peshti kite shields (no need to change the artwork, those are kite shields they're holding,) and I think the Malai Druzhina is paying too many RP for his barding, but the army is useable as is.

Firstly, they suck, and you're never going to conquer another player with them, however many you recruit, because other players are geared to fight indies who also have hosts of crud. But hosts of crud are NOT useless...

Against most enemies, I'd rather have 5 Pre 8 shortbowmen than 4 pre 10 shortbowmen, and the combination of fire and air magic practically cries out for wind guide + flaming arrows, which you get relatively quickly for your research bonus, making you much better at this than Shinuyama.

The suck infantry are better than most militia, and they cost 8 gp. Against many enemies, it doesn't matter *what* you have because all your troops are chaff, so cheaper chaff is better.

The heavy infantry really wish they had javelins and a better shield, but:
* With spears, they are relatively low resource cost and have a repel attack, making them useful meat shields for your mages.
* The axemen and swordsmen do quite well against equivalent resource worth of hvy inf from other nations. Their armor isn't great but it isn't hugely resource intensive either.
* The voi infantry are cheap and expendable, and do fairly well as far as blood hunt patrollers go.

The big weakness of their military is the strategic move of 1. No human opponent is going to let you get away with that.

So their military is pretty weak, but you still use it, especially the elite components, and it's balanced against the strength of their magic.

archaeolept · #6 January 30th, 2008, 01:41 AM

the one strat move makes their troops nearly useless except in marginal ways. i'd end up buying 2 stat indy shortbows and a whatever for a little meat shield.

the cavalry are useful, though, as is usual, rather costly in gold and materiel.

the khylist are close to useless... not worth getting any real bless, and complete crap w/out one. They do, however, have strat move of 2

Lingchih · #7 January 30th, 2008, 02:32 AM

I'm having a hard time beating the AI with your build, DrPraetorius. POD gets afflicted easily, I can't seem to buy a decent number of troops, so the AI keeps attacking me, and, although the research is great, I just can't seem to keep ahead of the curve of the AI building massive numbers of troops to attack me before I can utilize the research.

I have to think that a build with no sloth, so I can build my national Knights, and maybe some drain, since it doesn't really hurt research too much, would be better. At least in SP. In MP, who knows? It would depend on your diplomacy skills.