Another newbie with questions

[Vynd]

My copy of the game arrived yesterday and I had a lot of fun playing around with it Last night. But of course I also ran into some things I couldn't figure out...

1) Can I capture provinces through dominion alone? In other words, if my rating gets high enough will they just join my nation? Or is military conquest the only way to take territory?

2) The manual says that Water mages can travel underwater, and take some troops with them. How do I determine how many a given Water mage can "carry"?

3) How do I tell if a creature is Magic and requires a special commander? I'm playing as Pythium and I thought the Hydras might be magic until I tested it out.

4) How do I view and/or alter the victory conditions for a game?

Thanks in advance!

[rabelais]

1. Nope. Dominion has a number of effects, primarily influencing the scales of a province, but other than a morale modifier for potential battles it has little effect on ownership.

http://www.maladjustite.com/dominion.pdf

This document explains all. It rocks.

2. Water mages can take 1 troop with them for every magic level they have minus one.

(i.e. the first level sustains the mage itself.)

Items, thetis' blessing and the water cult theme are the traditional methods for keeping your favored landlubbers breathing.

IMHO the number of troops should be increased quite a bit. The water fringe benefit is weak, relative to the other paths. Even x5 wouldn't be outlandish.

3. There is a little symbol under the unit, with its misc. characteristics. Make sure you upgrade to the 2.08 patch, as the iconography improves quite a bit.

4. Under "Options" there is a "View Game Settings" button. For Non-Last God Standing games, data on relative progress can be viewed under Statistics ---> Score Graphs.

HTH,

Rabe the Longwinded

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Vynd:
1) Can I capture provinces through dominion alone? In other words, if my rating gets high enough will they just join my nation?

No.

Or is military conquest the only way to take territory?

I've been told that wishing for "provinces" gives you a couple more. There are also a few nations (Ermor, Pangaea, maybe others) that can invade others' territories thru random events, but it's quite rare.

2) The manual says that Water mages can travel underwater, and take some troops with them. How do I determine how many a given Water mage can "carry"?

Hmm, IIRC it depends on the size of the units the mages bring with them. Something like 1 human-sized critter per level of water magic. Can't remember how much is needed for an elephant, probably 4 or 5.

3) How do I tell if a creature is Magic and requires a special commander? I'm playing as Pythium and I thought the Hydras might be magic until I tested it out.

There's a special icon for that (small fairy, just like undead beings have a skull icon). Try a game with R'lyeh and check the units in the recruitment screen.

4) How do I view and/or alter the victory conditions for a game?

View: hit escape in the main screen, pick 'View game settings'

Alter: you can't do that after the game has been created.

Water Path Magic to give Water Breathing is posted in the FAQ at the top. It's WaterPath*2 Total Size. Water 1 = Up to Size 2 of Units, Water 2 = Up to Size 4, etc. So in order to take an Elephant underwater you'd have to have at least Water 3.

Certain Creatures and Magic Items have different formulas, I thought I had changed the MIQR in order to give a total size, but that must have been the one I had a work instead of the one at home since it still has the old values.