Dominions Nations Evaluations ;)

[JimMorrison]

triqui said:

Fair point. We should ask JimMorrison to define it then, becouse it will be a bit absurd if someone rate "Bogarus Early game" based on rush (or rush survival) potential while other base it on indi expansion rate and some other base it on cuteness of their sprites

Whatever definition JimMorrison want to use is the one we would use. If he chooses to rate "early game" by "graphics cuteness" then i will rate Bogarus 5/5

I actually did somewhere, but I type a lot. Let me reiterate.


Early Game- Initial expansion phase of the game. This phase is overall dominated by the ability to rapidly and efficiently harvest indie provinces, and preferably to do so without overlooking the things normally associated with moving into Mid Game, like a couple of castles, and a bit of research ability. Indeed, without research capacity, there is no mid game, as I'm looking at it. Rushing ability is definitely one potential component of the early game - but it can be especially misleading for the newer players that I am hoping gain the most benefit from this chart (if it ever gets enough input to be feasible ).

Mid Game- Development of first advanced strategies. You can look at it as 4 in a particular school, though for some nations and with some research goals, it may not be until 5 or 6 in a path, or 4 in two paths, or it may hinge primarily on your ability to shift production from cheaper troops to something more exotic. In any case, it's the point in the game where your strategies involve more than "Attack Rear". It also tends to directly imply the first real wars in the game, where people are not raiding or rushing, but taking these first big tools, and assuming that they will be enough to take someone else in a toe to toe fight.

Late Game- Well, I think this is the most straight forward, as the most confusion really is just where the breaking point is between Early-Mid. But just to clarify, this is when people start casting globals in earnest, summoning SCs, forging artifacts, exploiting (pun intended) Battlefield Enchantments, and generally just pushing the entire game to the limit. By this point everyone has at least 1-2 schools at 8-9 research, and they are rapidly filling out the others to diversify capabilities beyond what they already focused on as their intended strategic focal point. That is to say, most people have reached the fruition of the primary strategy that they wish to employ to win the game - the rest is just insurance.

[triqui]

I preffer to set the "early" and "middle" game as hard-set turn limits, ie: first 12 months, or 18 months, etc. Becouse stating it as "when you reach lvl 4 in research" might mean that some nations or strategies have a very short "early game" (EA arcos focusing on buiding castles and philosphers with an awake Sage will be there faster than you can say "middle game", while a drain 3 pangaea might need 2 years). You might not "rush" into Middle game, but that does not mean the other players would not either. And that you dont have a single school of magic with level 4 does not mean the game is not in Middle Game status. Earth in Modern Era, even if some Amazonian Tribes are still in stone age. Those tribes would painfully discover so when they try to destroy a M1-Abraham tank with an AtlAtl.


However, i would use your recomendation and will rate a few nations myself, to contribute to what i think it is one of the best threads nowadays in the forum.

[triqui]

Early Age.

Tien Chi: 4-5-3-2-3. Strong expansion with either Dual Blessed W5E, or simply with very good Composite Archers (that dominate EA indy). Strong middle game (one of strongest imho) due to wide broad of choices in magic (that allow tailor-made strategies versus different enemies) and very good summonable sacreds. It's late game is not bad thanks to magic diversity, but it does lack true power on Blood, Astral or Death, they dont have access to good Thugs or SC and 9hp mages tend to die fast versus global damaging spells. Broad selection of choices make them hard to learn (and easy to make wrong decissions)

Lanka 5-5-4-4-4. A real powerhouse in the expansion phase with very potent sacreds and good archers. Middle game they have strong and easy "out of the box" thugs, they have worldwide recruitable potent sacreds, access to good middle game spheres (air, death) and excelent national summons. Late game they have powerful blood second to none, and enough death and nature to make them "natural" Tartarian makers, plus their own national blood SC. They are easy to learn to play correctly, and they do a lot of things and almost all of them very well done.

Niefelheim: 5-4-4-5-5. They can expand against regular indies using armies of ONE single sacred. They couple that with skinshifters and Jarls for one of the best expansion rates in the game. Middle game they have a wide magic selection (everything but earth and fire, most of it strongly tied), recruitable Super Combatants, strong troops, good stealthy thugs (the scout ) and access to powerful communions for evocations. Late game they have Blood, Death and some Astral, as long as 30 hp mages and recruitable SC. Their Astral might not be that high, but it is good enough to get started.

Middle Age:
Ermor: 5-4-5-5-5. Yep, they are that good. Powerful bless expansion with ethereal sacreds, powerful middle game with competent mages, decent infantry and excelent units, and awesome late game machine with high Astral and Death. I simply love this one.

Late Age
Marignon: 3-4-5-3-2. They have decent human troops with good morale, good missile and good cavalry. Coupled with properly done Awake pretender they can do nice enough in the expansion phase. They get a quantum leap as soon as they reach lvl 4 (flame arrow), and from that point forward, they only get better: Full access to all magic but nature (which is easy to get from indis), cheap and powerful blood, good national thugs, and the best SC chasis there is as a national summonable. They are trickyier to play properly than most nations though. My favourite nation in flavour so far.



Will add a few more later.