Dom I Strategies which WON'T work in Dom II

[Patrik]

Oops! That went away a little bit to fast...

Originally posted by Wendigo:

1.- Diplomacy
Yes, diplomacy!. Nothing more fustrating than being ganged by 6 opponents. While diplomacy can sometimes work in favour of a better game by giving the big guy a challenge it most often than not is used as a way to get an easy, unchallenged win. Diplomacy is the most powerful weapon in the game.

I cringe when I see demands of an increase of this in MP games with stuff like 'right of passage', the Last thing we need is to make these gangfest easier. No problem with an increase of diplomacy options regarding the AI in SP, but diplomacy is strong enough as it is in MP.

2.- The full economy+combat pretender with no magic+full taxing/patrolling triada: Either you play this way or you are handicapped, because all the MP games I have played have either been with Normal or Rich settings, and this is the way to go in such games.

Hopefully this is going to change in Dom II, and we will see funnier designs with more magic & less economy.

3.- Supercombatants: Wyrms & Nataraja types early on, IDs, Pazuzus, FIs and other breeds later on.
This is the way to go for victories with no cost, they are an all or nothing bet, but when they win they win big.

This is also being tonned down a bit for Dom II, which is good. I like playing with these guys, it's funny to equip them & tailor them to the opposition, but they are too strong as the game stands.

4.- The army of summoners backed up with relief. I am surprised this doesn't get complained about more...field 20 mages, have them cast spells as if they were 60 instead, what's balanced about this?

The above 4 are my 'whamies', and IMO you need to use at least 2-3 of them in a vet game or you will see them used vs you & lose. I consider army bLasters secondary when compared to the above four.

--editted grammar[/QB]

Excellent post! Some comments on the Wendigo's whammies:

Economy: Only the order scale affects income with 5% per step (just forget the old system!) Growth and production scales no longer affect income. High taxes kill population (fast!!). Negative order/prod/growth scales are now quite viable and allow many more points for pretender design. Most betatesters have used expensive/very expensive pretenders compared to DomI.

Summoners: Battlefield summons (for example lesser elementals and Howl) now cost gems. This will address the relief/summoning combo.

I fully agree with you concerning diplomacy. No doubt the strongest weapon - very frustrating if you don't have the time to indulge in it. I guess specific setups/rules like HEXBlitz can be the solution.

Supercombatants have been altered with increased costs, limited availability and changes in the damage shields etc. Early pretender supercombatants might still be an issue, on the other hand the bless effects can give you really potent counter troops (Regenerating berserking giants, Spider knights with flaming weapons, prot 29 black knigths etc).