No love for Holy??

[Jarkko]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

For lurking newbies:
Dont downplay the priests. They are easy to overlook but the name of the game is Dominions for a reason.

Somewhat OT (blood sacrificing is not your normal priests preaching), but I saw in a 4-player blitz game played last week (I was eliminated first through "normal" methods though :P) an awesome dominion kill from Abysia. From practical zero (after the two first of us were killed off) to full dominion kill in 6 turns. He made an excellent AAR on our private forum with pictures and all, I hope he'd post it here too, quite educational


Even "regular" priests together with Dominion 10 can be a suprising killer in a game. This does not include LA R'lyeh or Ermor, as they have other huge bonuses with a dominion spread and Dominion kill is what they will attempt by default.


The following strategy is something I love with Pangaea (cheap temples and stealthy preachers), the sad point is of course that when people realise what you are attempting, they will forget all their internal quarrels and try to bring you down fast (you effectively become an Ermor or R'lyeh in their eyes) It works better in single-play though, but nobody prevents one from occasionally trying it in MP

Send in the H1 (or higher, if you just have access to them ) priests in bunches to provinces without your dominion, build a temple and convert the province by preaching. Move on to the next to do the same. If you have stealthy preachers, send them in to hostile lands to preach the words of wisdom. With areas around your capital getting to Dominion 10, your dominion will start to roll until it reaches the avalanche point and nothing can stop it anymore (with dominion 10 provinces and plentiful temple checks the dominion has nowhere else to spread except to hostile dominion). If you also can blood-sacrifice (like EA Pan or Sauromatia for an example), just before the avalance effect becomes apparent, start blood-sacrificing like mad.

[thejeff]

Only one level higher for a temple, according to the manual.

Still mostly useful for getting rid of enemy dominion.

Actually then manual says "Preaching can only raise dominion as high as twice the level of the priest", so a H1 should be able to raise dominion to 2, 4 with a temple.
Is that right? Going from memory it doesn't seem to match when the game tells me preaching won't work.

[SlipperyJim]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Still mostly useful for getting rid of enemy dominion.

That can be a very useful thing to do. Fighting under enemy dominion give a -1 penalty to Morale, while fighting under friendly dominion gives a +1 bonus. That two-point difference can be important in a close fight, or if you're dealing with troops whose Morale isn't unshakable.

(Think province defense.)

Then there are all of the other advantages that can come with friendly dominion, such as your scales. The effectiveness of various global enchantments also depends on dominion.

Like Gandalf said, the game is called Dominions for a reason.

[HoneyBadger]

Sneaky little priests undid my triple 10 (Earth, Water, Nature if I remember correctly-Niefel doesn't need a water bless, by the way...) bless Niefel giants in an MP game.

I wasn't winning, but I was holding my own against LA Ermor (it was the first all-nation game), for a little while atleast, until Pan's sneak-priests pulled my Dominion out from under me.

[Lingchih]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

Sneaky little priests undid my triple 10 (Earth, Water, Nature if I remember correctly-Niefel doesn't need a water bless, by the way...) bless Niefel giants in an MP game.

I wasn't winning, but I was holding my own against LA Ermor (it was the first all-nation game), for a little while atleast, until Pan's sneak-priests pulled my Dominion out from under me.

You don't still hold a grudge, do you Honey?

[Epaminondas]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

Sneaky little priests undid my triple 10 (Earth, Water, Nature if I remember correctly-Niefel doesn't need a water bless, by the way...) bless Niefel giants in an MP game.

I wasn't winning, but I was holding my own against LA Ermor (it was the first all-nation game), for a little while atleast, until Pan's sneak-priests pulled my Dominion out from under me.

How is it possible to have a triple 10 bless and still play the game?! Did you have negative 3 on every scale and 1 dominion?

[Szumo]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

Sneaky little priests undid my triple 10 (Earth, Water, Nature if I remember correctly-Niefel doesn't need a water bless, by the way...) bless Niefel giants in an MP game.

I wasn't winning, but I was holding my own against LA Ermor (it was the first all-nation game), for a little while atleast, until Pan's sneak-priests pulled my Dominion out from under me.

Ha, i remember that! Dryads are really nice for that kind of thing

[JaghataiKhan]

I read some H5 H6 h7 and H8 spells somewhere, am I mistaken?

[ano]

Actually then manual says "Preaching can only raise dominion as high as twice the level of the priest", so a H1 should be able to raise dominion to 2, 4 with a temple.
Is that right? Going from memory it doesn't seem to match when the game tells me preaching won't work.

From what I know, level 1 priest can preach up to dom level 2, 3 with temple. Level 2 priest can preach up to dom level 3, 5 with temple. So the math is
dom = lvl + 1 or
dom = lvl*2 + 1 (with temple)
I always use this numbers and they seem true.

[HoneyBadger]

Ofcourse not but I'll likely not forget it either...