Early strategy suggestions

[Caduceus]

I guess I am a moron, but I can't seem to get out of the box I get into every game. I research for a few turns, get a few more units (higher end infantry or archers of some sort) then sally forth and get a province or two. Then I stall. I can't seem to
a.) continue to conquer more provinces because there are either to many independents or another player has them
b.) support a large army on these provinces because of income problems or cap out on leader's numbers of troops beneath him
c.) research any new spells because I send my pretender out and he gets creamed early on.

Any basic strategy points?

wildcard

[PvK]

Larger map with fewer AI nations set to Normal or lower difficulty might help.

Use a scout to determine which local provinces have weak independent defenders, and attack those first, usually beginning about turn 2.

Hire someone besides your pretender to do research, and perhaps give your researchers magic items which help them research faster. And/or, research and ritual/item cast with your pretender at home, while hiring someone else to do you your super-heroing and site-searching. Whom you can hire depends on your nation and independent sites you might find.

When a commander can't lead all your men, hire another commander.

Once you've chosen a nation to play, do a search on this forum for threads about the strategy of that nation. And/or search the web and/or Illwinter's web site for such (there are tips for all the nations which were in Dominions I, and the basics of those have generally not changed).

PvK

[ January 30, 2004, 00:55: Message edited by: PvK ]

[Targa]

Be sure you're not making the same mistake I did when I first got the game and enabling ALL the other nations at normal difficulty.

I suggest, at setup, only enable 2 other nations (to start as a beginner), and put them on "easy AI" (which is a very misleading term for a beginner...they are NOT that easy when you're just learning the game). You say that after a few turns another nation already has nearby provinces, so it sounds like you're making too many nations active.

Resist the temptation to "buy the best". Recruit the cheapest units (about 20-30) and put them in the front-center of the army. Put your archers to the front but way off to the side (bottom and/or top as you look at the green box). Put your heavy-hitters off to the side a bit, slightly behind and to the side of your "cannon fodder" troops. Make sure you order all your Commanders, priests, and spellcasters to "stay behind troops". With this strategy, the cheap units will absorb the initial shock of the attack, and so what if a handful get killed...they're cheap. This will allow your other, more expensive units to break the morale of the enemy once they start attacking.

Income problems: When you conquer a province, there will be a certain amount of unrest (because of the war turmoil factor). First turn, lower the taxes to about 10% for every 5 unrest. ie: If unrest is 11, lower taxes to 70% for one turn. On the next turn, unrest should be zero (unless there's a hidden magic site causing unrest), so change the tax back to 100% on this turn. Always conquer the provinces that border up against your starting province first, as this provides your starting province with more resources for recruiting units.

With the cheap units, some will probably rout every battle and run to a nearby province, so have a "cheap commander" on hand that can round them up and bring them back to the front lines.

Don't use your pretender in melee if he's getting killed. Give yourself some time to learn the game mechanics. If all this doesn't help, no worries. Do this:

When you create a new game, the Last screen you see has a bunch of options. The top one is "Strength of Independents". You can change this to a lower number, and it'll be easier to conquer provinces. Change "world richness" to a higher number to get more money. Change "special site frequency" (or whatever it says) to 50 instead of 40. I forget off-hand what the rest are, but they should help you be able to play a decent game. Just be aware that if you lower the strength of independents, it also makes it easier for the computer AI to expand.

Oh, and use the "Aran" (topmost) map to start.

[Raz 24]

Or better yet BONK the enemy!

[asparagus]

As the saying goes....

"An army of sheeps lead by a lion can defeat an army of lions lead by a sheep"

I usually start out with a pumped up commander (like a spellcaster with priestly powers) usually to make him perform double duty. A high leadership rating would be a plus when selecting a commander, around 25 would do but 10 is bad. Make this commander lead the cheapest units as possible... a militia is good here coz it can hul stones as well as attack in close range.

It doesn't matter if all of your units are militia or archers... your goal here is to stay on top with superior numbers.

[void]

another suggestion: hire mercs. you'll get huge potential to your early-exploration.

[ January 30, 2004, 06:01: Message edited by: void ]

[Graeme Dice]

The starting strategy you use is highly dependant on which nation you pick, what kind of pretender you have chosen, and most especially, what the independents strength setting is. At 3, your starting army should be able to take on just about any province other than the ones with lance-equipped heavy cavalry, Knights, and dark vines. At independents 6, you should be able to take a province on turn two with most nations, and only a very few will have to wait till turn three. This usually only occurs when you get rather unlucky in your choices for starting provinces.

As an example, I'll take Pythium, which has a fairly easy time with most heavy infantry provinces. With Pythium, a workable starting strategy is to pick a very low cost pretender like the oracle, and give it astral 4. Then put your scales at order 3, prod 3, growth 1, magic 2, dominion 7, wizard's tower. You could also have similar setups with the sacred statue, or even the blood fountain if you feel like getting into blood magic later. You'll be relying on your powerful national mages for your magical firepower in this setup, but that's not a problem for Pyhtium, especially with the cheap, fast-building wizard's tower.

In the first turn, I take and put all of my units together in a single squad, then place it as far forward as possible and set them to fire closest. I then put te centurion back as far towards the back as possible and put him on (hold)(hold)(hold)(hold)(hold) stay behind troops. I don't want a lucky crossbow bolt to kill him and rout my initial army.

I then decide whether to purchase a theurg or theurg acolyte. With magic 2, theurg acolytes make excellent magic researchers, so they are a good choice. In a neutral magic dominion, I'd probably pick a theurg. I put the oracle on research, then decide whether I want quickness (alteration 2), lightning bolt(evocation 2) or the site searching spells (thaumaturgy 2) first. Usually I'd go for quickness first, then head straight for orb lightning. It would also work to go for thaumaturgy 4 early to get paralyze, or to go for construction magic and use your very large initial gem income in some manner.

Once I've made this initial choice, I purchase a standard bearer, and as many principes as I can for the turn. Principes have the best morale of the javelin equipped legionairies, have decent protection, and have tower shields to catch independent arrows. I also bid on any mercenaries that might be available.

In turn 2, I look at the surrounding provinces, and try and find one that lists units of types: militia, light infantry, heavy infantry, archers, crossbows. I avoid heavy cavalry and knights until much later, and try and get a province that reports less than 4 enemy units. I send my initial army (with the principes and the standard bearer added into the initial squad) to this province, then purchase new units and move onto the next turn. On higher independents settings I will purchase a few assasins instead of mages in the early turns to use for expanding into provinces. Assasins only have to fight against commanders (and sometimes a bodyguard if they have one), and can thereby remove the leaders from an independent nation. An army with no leaders autorouts, so an assasin can take on fairly difficult provinces in a matter of a few turns.

That's an initial starting strategy that I've used a bit, it works fairly well to get you initial expansion off the ground.

[Gandalf Parker]

a) put everyone on patrol except a scouting unit.

b) send the scout in the direction you will be the weakest (no mountains, water, chokepoints, to strengthen your position)

c) turn taxes up to 200%

d) hire whatever mercs are available, offer 10 more than they ask (in a multiplayer game make that 57 more)

e) if you have a pretender heavy in magic then have it research "Enchantment" to level 1

f) make at least one commander every turn. A scout if nothing else. A leader if your leader is full. A mage if you can afford it. Save priests for about turn 10 or later.

g) use the formation button to see what troops you have. More importantly what ones you dont have and wont have even with the mercs. If you are low on cheap frontline fodder then build those. If you have no shooters then build those. flankers? flyers?

h) ok thats the end of turn 1

Now IF you have played your nation for abit you should see at least 1 spot where those instructions will not fit who you are playing or the way you play or who you are up against. If not, then those instructions will probably be good enough.

Dont leave home without mercs in the front line, or at least twice the army you started with. Dont leave home without turning the taxes back down or a large group of cheap fast units left home to patrol. Research magic getting 1 lvl of enchantment, then 1 evocation, 1 alteration, 2 in construction, 3 conjuration all in that order, then go get 2 enchantment, 2 evocation, 2 alteration, 1 thaumaturgy, 1 blood then start working toward 4 construction.

[ January 30, 2004, 13:33: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[aldin]

...and back to pretender creation for a moment. When you're having a hard time getting started, a "combat pretender" can really help turn the tide of those early battles. Try picking a pretender that costs a lot of points but has little or no magic ability - those are combat pretenders. Also, make sure you buy dominion up to at least five or so. A higher dominion will help you get information from nearby provinces without having a scout there.

~Aldin

[Adept]

If everything else fails (of just to have some spectacular fun!) try a dragon.

Now that dragons have the +5 fear effect (I'm pretty sure they didn't use to) they can take on armies even though they don't trample.

Take a dragon pretender, boost with fire, air and earth if you want. Change him into dragon form and set orders to fire.

Send him alone to conquer provinces. As soon as you can equip him with amulet of missile protection and ring of regeneration, do so. Some type of helmet is also good. The horned helmet gives the dragon a much needed extra attack.

I tried this recently, lamenting the fact that dragons don't trample, and to my great success the fear (which I hadn't noticed) made all the difference. I conquered 12, independent strength 5 provinces, and trounced up some tough Ulm armies before finally being defeated on the gates of Ulm.

Definitely something to try if you have trouble getting started.