Dominions II Game FAQ

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This FAQ is for both new players to the game of Dominions 2 as well as a resource for those who have been playing a while but look for more in depth answers to common questions.

Sabre Cherry's older (yet not outdated) FAQ can be found in HTML Form here .

Q. How do I start a game?
Answer:
1) Click "Create New God".
2) Choose a Nation.
3) Choose a physical Pretender God form (shape).
4) Set up the God's magic, dominion, theme, and castle [Read below for scale effects, magic, dominion, theme, and castle differences].
5) Password [Ignore this during Single Player, for Multi-player choose a Password so that noone else can play your turn.]

Then:
6) Click "Create New Game".
7) Choose the Nations to be present, and their AI strength.
8) Make sure there is a nation set to "human". You can only make a nation human if you designed a Pretender God for it!
9) Choose a Map.
10) Choose your settings. For beginners leaving these standard is advised.
11) Enter a game name for the game file (like "Game1").

Now, the pre-game setup is done, and none of that has to be repeated for that game.

To Play:
1) Click "Play an Existing Game".
2) Click on the game name, so that the circle gets a check mark.
3) Click "Play Game".
4) It says "Select Nation to Play", and unless you are playing multiplayer, there will only be one choice (the human nation). For example, it might say "Ulm - Turn Nbr 1", "Host" and "Exit", so click "Ulm - Turn Nbr 1".
5) Now you are at the "Messages" screen, showing all the events since the Last turns. Read them, then exit, and you will go to the strategic map. You can always return to the Messages screen by pressing "m".
6) Now you're at the strategic map. Build things, set up and move armies, and give commands to leaders.
7) When your turn is done, you click "End Turn" in the upper right corner.
8) You're back at the "next turn" screen, so choose "Host". This makes each nation execute the orders that were given.
9) The turn has advanced, so repeat steps 4 through 8 until you win.

Q. How do I play the game?
Answer
You can have AI's of any nation, but humans can only play about 6 possible races in the Demo.
Before you play a race as a human, you must design a Pretender God for that race.
Right-clicking (or hovering) on things you don't understand can be very helpful.
Press "?" from the main map screen for a list of keyboard shortcuts.
To exit most screens: Esc. To exit a battle replay: q.
Scroll strategic map: Arrow keys, or hold down middle mouse button while moving the mouse. Pageup/pagedown zoom in and out.
Scroll tactical battle map: Arrow keys. Pageup/pagedown zoom in and out.
Pause tactical replay: Spacebar. You can right-click on units for info while replay is paused.
Select a province: Right-click on it. Press "i" for more information.
Province/leader/army info screen: F1
There are 2 kinds of units: Normal troops, and commanders. Only commanders can lead normal troops, or get orders and move on the strategic map. But when they move, they take all normal troops assigned to them with them.
In the production screen (anvil), you can only produce one commander per turn per province ... commanders form the bottom row of units. You can produce as many normal units in a province as you have the gold (global quantity) and resources (province-specific quantity) to create.
To attack a province, you order a commander to move into the province. Multiple Commanders will all engange in only 1 combat if moved into the same province.
During Combat Press "f" to Fast Forward Combat and "n" to skip to the next round of Combat
To give troops to a commander: From the "Army Setup" screen, you select units (they get highlighted) and then click on the commander to drop them under the commander's command. Troops not set to a commander will not move on the strategic map! Certain troop types can only be commanded by certain types of Commanders (Mages, Undead).
Selecting multiple troops: control-click and shift-click work like in Windows. To merge troops into the same group, highlight troops and click on the group you want them to join. Clicking on the commander with put them under the commander, but in a new group.

Q. How do you do assign orders?
A. On the left side strategic map, below the commander's portrait, it will say "Defend" or "Move". Click on that word and it will bring up a menu of strategic map commander orders. If multiple commanders are highlighted, it will change all their orders at the same time. You may also use any hotkey when a commander is selected.

Q. How do I speed up combat?
A. Press "f" to Fast Forward, press "n" to skip to the next round of combat, pressing "w" to eliminate the background may help with lower end computers.

Q. I picked a Dragon/***** Queen pretender. Why do I have a human instead in the game?
A. Most pretenders that can change shape start out in human form. You can switch them back and forth with the "Change Shape" order. This can be useful to trick opponents, so you may not want to reveal too soon your Druid is really a Green Dragon. This command is usable both on the Strategic Map screen and in the Battle Commands.

Q. What is the difference between resources and gold?
A. Gold is generated by every province, and stored in your treasury. It is used to buy troops, hire mercenaries, and build buildings. Resources, on the other hand, cannot be stored - the represent the amount of labor or production capability of a province. Heavy armors and weapons require more resources than, say, leather armors, spears, and slings.

Q. What is Upkeep and how much is it?
A. Upkeep is the Gold required to keep a troop or commander in your employment. Upkeep is the initial Gold Cost of a Unit/15 for units that are NOT sacred. For units that are Sacred it is the Initial Gold Cost of a Unit/30 per turn. Resources are not used for upkeep. Certain Summonable Monsters have an Upkeep and others do not determined by the type of unit.

Q. What happens if I do not have enough Gold for my Upkeep?
A. Units will desert you. Starting with those with the lowest Morale up and until those with the highest.

Q. How do mercenaries work?
A. You bid on them, and if you are the highest bidder, they work for you - the price reflects a 3-month (3-turn) contract. They start in the province in which you hired them, so hire them near where you want to use them. If they flee in battle, they die. However, they are essentially disposable, and unlike normal troops, cost zero resources to create.

Q. How do you research?
A. Use the commander order "Research" - only mages can research, and they must be in a province with a lab. In Dominions 2, you just command them to research, and their research points go to a research pool... from the Laboratory screen (L) you can allocate this research pool. Note that when you gain a research level (for example, evocation 0 to evocation 1) you learn all the spells in the new level. But you can only cast the spells for which your mages or God has the requisite magic levels - for example, learning Fireball (an Evocation spell requiring 3 Fire Path) will not allow you to cast it, if you have no 3 Fire Path mages.

Q. How does "Stealth" work - or, why did my army not fight / participate in combat?
A. Stealthy commanders (e.g. Scout, Spy, Monk, Assassin, Slayer, Druid) can move undetected in enemy lands, without attacking. If they can command other units (not all commanders have leadership!), and all units under their command are also stealthy, they can sneak a stealth army into an enemy province, and hang out there. Highlighting a stealthy leader and clicking on a target province (which normally issues a "move" command) will, by default, issue a "Sneak" command, and neither he nor his army will fight in the target province. If you want a stealthy leader/stealthy army to fight, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the destination, which forces the "Move" command rather than the "Sneak" command. You can also click on the word "Sneak" and change it to "Move". Note that a stealth unit's stealthy icon shows a number when you right-click on it (like "Stealthy +20"). Higher numbers are better, and low numbers mean the unit is more likely to be caught by patrolling enemies.

Q. What do unit stats mean?
A. When a unit attacks in melee, whether it hits or not is determined by comparing (the attacker's attack skill plus 2d6) to (the defender's defense skill plus 2d6). If the attacker's number is higher, then he hits. The damage dealt to the defender's HP is (the attacker's strength, plus weapon damage rating, plus 2d6) minus (the defender's protection, plus 2d6). The dies are 6-sided, but "open-ended" so they can (rarely) go up arbitrarily high. There are more combat mechanics but those are the basics.

Q. What are fatigue and encumbrance?
A. "Fatigue" starts at zero and increases as the unit takes actions - generally, fatigue increases by "Encumbrance" each time the unit attacks. High levels of fatigue decrease performance, and when fatigue reaches 100, the unit falls unconscious and can be easily slain. Heavy armor increases encumbrance. Fatigue is only recovered in 3 ways:
First, an unconscious (100+ Fatigue) unit recovers 5 fatigue per turn.
Second, a unit with reinvigoration (from an item, spell, or heroic ability) will recover the Reinvigoration Modifier (Number) of fatigue each turn.
Third, some spells can reduce fatigue (Like Relief or Reinvigoration).

Q. What is a 6-sided open-ended die?
A. This is used for all Dominions die rolls. The rolls are mostly 2d6 (2 six-sided dice), sometimes called 2d6* because they are open-ended. The die used is a normal die with 6 sides, labeled 1 through 6. It is worth the face value if you roll a 1 through 5, but if you roll a 6, it is worth 6 plus the value of the next roll. However, all additional rolls are 6-sided dice labeled 0-5. Fives can be chained forever, but high rolls become inverse-exponentially rarer. So a single die can roll 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 ... etc. While 1-5 are each rolled 1/6 of the time, 6-10 are rolled 1/36 of the time, and so forth. For a complete analysis, look here:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000772

Q. My god died! Do I lose?
A. No. Your priests (units with holy magic) can be ordered to "Call God", to summon him back. Every Pretender God requires 40 Levels of Holy to Call them back. So 1 Level 4 Holy Priest would take 10 Turns to Call God. 4 Level 2 Holy Priests would take 5 Turns to Call God and so on. Every time your Pretender dies, he will lose 1 in every path of magic that he has until reaching 0.

Q. My immortal god or immortal unit died! I thought he was immortal!?
A. Immortals are only immortal in friendly dominion (white candle provinces). If they are killed within their dominion, they reincarnate in the capitol, so check there. In hostile dominion, they die normally. Incidentally, Dominion shifts after battle, so if you attack a province that is stated as having friendly dominion your immortal pretender will be reborn even if that province on your current turn is in hostile dominion.

Q. How do I get rid of battle afflictions like Blind, Limp, Chest Wound, and so forth?
A. You get these from being wounded, and Regeneration makes them (10x) less likely to occur, but does not solve existing afflictions. Gods sometimes lose afflictions when reincarnated, and Immortal units or units with Recuperation heal them automatically over time. Normal wounded units are wounded forever, unless they're diseased, in which case they die quickly gain additional afflictions. Gift of Health and the Holy Chalice can remove afflictions. There are other units with the Heal Troops command, such as a Tien Chi national hero and the Nature summon Faerie Queen, and the national Arcoscephale Priestess.

Q. How do I make my mages more powerful in magic?
A. There are only 7 ways:

Empowerment - Infusing the commander with gems at a laboratory - permanently increases his level by one in that path (There are no gems for Holy/Unholy).
Forging a Magic Item - Like Earth Boots and giving it to the commander increases his Earth Level by 1, but only if he already has magic in that path. In other words, giving Earth boots to an Earth-1 mage makes him an Earth 2 mage, but giving them to a Fire 1, Earth 0 mage does nothing. This is Permanent as long as the unit is using/wearing the item.
Casting a Combat Spell - At the beginning of combat spells like "Summon Earthpower" will increase the mage's Earth level for the entire battle. This is temporary for only the duration of the battle.
Communion or Sabbath Master - Increases all magical levels of the Master depending on the number of Communion Slaves. This is temporary for only the duration of the battle. (Including Holy/Unholy)
Gem Boosting - Personal Gems allows them to use gems during battle to increase power. Some spells require gems others do not. If an Earth-2 mage wants to cast the Earth-3 spell Blade Wind, he can use an Earth gem from his gembox to boost his level to 3 for that one casting only. You may only use as many gems to "Boost" your level as base paths you have. So if your Earth 2 Mage wants to cast an Earth 4 Spell he can boost up 2 Levels of Earth with 2 Earth Gems, then cast the spell. Up to 1 gem can be used for path requirements any other gems above 1 are only applied to increasing power for purposes of calculating fatigue. Sometimes the AI will use Gems to Boost levels of casters in order to cause less fatigue from the casting. This is temporary for only the length of the battle.
Becoming a Prophet - Holy and unholy "magic" can be increased by making an existing Priest a Prophet. They gain +1 to Holy or Unholy. A Pretender God may not become his own prophet.
Wish - You are allowed to "Wish" for magical power. This will grant you +1 in all Magical Paths (except Holy/Unholy).

Q. How do I forge Magic Items?
A. Magic items are classified according to level:
Trinkets - Construction Level 0
Lesser Items - Construction Level 2
Greater Items - Construction Level 4
Very Powerful Items - Construction Level 6
Unique Artifacts - Construction Level 8

You have to research the appropriate level of Construction before you can forge those items. Also, items have requisite magic path levels. More powerful items require more gems, higher magic path level, and sometimes even multiple paths.

The gem price is always 5*2^((path level)-1) for each required path. Example: 20 Earth gems and 10 Blood Slaves needs an Earth 3 Blood 2 mage. Some items (like the Dwarven Hammer), units and magic sites give a "forge bonus", which reduces forging cost by that percent of the bonus (final cost rounded down).

Q. How do I find magic sites?
A. There are magic sites in all magic paths, plus holy and unholy. Magic sites primarily give a certain number of gems depending on the path and type of site. These are usually hidden, and each has a level of magic that must be met in order to be found. So, any mage or priest can search, and if a site can be seen by the commander, it will be revealed on the first try. Some players make a "Rainbow Mage" pretender with level 2 or 3 in every path (except holy and unholy) and use him just for searching to find the most sites for the least amount of time. Magical Site frequency is based off of the setting at the creation of the game and the map played on as well as terrain.

Once a site is found, it is found forever, and if the province is captured, the site will be usable by the enemy without having to search. As far as anyone knows, there is a limit of 4 magic sites per province, and it is never necessary to search in the capitol.

Around 95% of the sites are level 3 or lower, but every path has at least one level 4 site. There are no sites that require searching above level 4. Magic sites that produce gems send them straight to your lab (you do not need to build a lab in these provinces). Sites that let you recruit special mages require a lab for the mage to be recruited, the same can be said for sacred or priest units. Sites can also give forge bonuses, summoning bonuses, and other lab-related actions. Several spells allow site-searching in a remote friendly province, and can be very efficient. These are as follow:

Conjuration 2: Dark Knowledge (Death 1, reveals all death sites)
Conjuration 3: Voice of Aspu (Water 2, reveals all water sites)
Conjuration 3: Voice of Tiamat (Water 2, reveals all elemental sites in an underwater province)
Conjuration 5: Acashic Record (Astral 3, reveals ALL sites)
Evocation 2: Arcane Probing (Astral 1, reveals all astral sites)
Evocation 9: Strands of Arcane Power (Astral 7, special)
Thamaturgy 2: Gnome Lore (Earth 2, reveals all earth sites)
Thamaturgy 2: Auspex (Air 2, reveals all air sites)
Thamaturgy 2: Augury (Fire 2, reveals all fire sites)
Thamaturgy 2: Haruspex (Nature 2, reveals all nature sites)
Blood 2: Bowl of Blood (Blood 2, reveals all blood sites)

Q. How does trampling work?
A: Trample uses a lot of fatigue, and can only be used by a larger unit against a smaller unit (right-click on HP to find the unit's size). There is no weapon-repel attemt versus a trample. Also, in one combat round, a unit can trample and then make an action - for example, an Earth Mother can trample until her move points are gone, then cast "Flying Shards" or attack.

Trampling always succeeds. Troops with high defense (not counting shields) can avoid damage, but always take at least one point of damage. Trample damage is armor-piercing and size dependant (dmg=size*4). High size difference allows several tramplings in one turn. Strength and Attack are not relevant when trampling. Trampling units rout through their own ranks - so morale is very important for tramplers!


Q. What are the differences in terrain types?
A. Mountain - Good for resources and magic sites, bad for Money
Forest - Same as mountain, but less so
Farmlands - Good for money, Bad for resources and sites
Swamp - Just plain bad
Waste - Good for magic sites, Bad for money
Sea - Good for Underwater Nations
Freshwater (meaning a land province holding a lake or river) - Good for income, but can flood
Plain - Standard

Another important thing is that movement is more difficult in certain terrains and is modified by Survival in certain terrains (Certain Survivals negate movement penalties in their specified terrain).

Q. How much research will my pretender or mage generate?
A. Research ability is:
Base 2
+Sum of all magic paths (Not including Holy/Unholy)
Type of Mage
+4 for Sages and Adepts of the Metal Orders (except the Iron).
+5 for Wizards.
+6 for Lore Masters.
+8 for the Great Sage Pretender.
-2 for Witch Doctors
+ 1 per Star of Experience
+/- Scale of Magic (+1 per Magic or -1 per Drain)
+ Magic Item and/or Heroic Ability

You suffer from your own drain scale or hostile drain scales, but get no research benefit from enemy magic scales.

Q. How do you calculate total protection on a unit with natural protection (thick skin) and armor?
A. Pb = base protection, intrinsic, from stone skin etc. Pa = protection from armor. Pt = total protection. Pb and Pa are always restricted to 40 or less.

Pt=Pb+Pa -(Pa*Pb)/40

So a unit with 10 intrinsic protection and a total of 18 in equipment armor would have an effective armor of: 10+18-(10*18)/40 = 28-4.5 = 23.5, rounded up to 24.

Q. What is supply?
A. Supply is, essentially, food. If your army uses more supply than the province generates, starvation occurs. While a unit is starving, an icon appears in the unit menu, and it gets a temporary -4 morale and other penalties. If it starves 2 consecutive turns, it becomes deseased and will die quite quickly. Commanders never starve.

Q. How do I calculate supply usage?
A. Some fantastic units like undead, trolls, magical creatures, and vinemen do not eat (They have a "Need not eat" icon). For almost all other units, supply usage is (size-1) with a minimum of 1.

Size can be found by right-clicking on HP in the unit stat screen. So, an army with 10 barbarians, 1 barbarian commander, and 1 hoburg champion leading 10 heavy cavalry will use 32 supply total: 11 size 2 units = 11 supply, 1 size 1 unit = 1 supply, and 10 size 3 units = 20 supply.

Q. How do I avoid starvation?
A. Use heavy, expensive units, which use less supply per unit of power. Summon undead and magical units. Avoid large units like light cavalry and shamblers. Stick to plains or farmland, stay near castles, or take a growth scale. Avoid mountains, wasteland, swamps, places with death or heat/cold (vs your preference) provinces, depopulated provinces, or provinces with high unrest. The easiest and best solution is of course to use magic. There are magic items as well as mages with Nature Path picks that provide a Supply Bonus (They have a "Supply Bonus" icon detailing a specified amount).

Q. What causes routing?
Routing is caused by three things - morale loss, total leader loss, and total unit loss. If all leaders are gone, the normal units will rout ... and if all normal units die or rout (not including bodyguards [Those set with "Guard Commander"]), the commanders will rout either immediately or as soon as one is damaged, regardless of the commander's morale. So, sending a powerful dragon pretender into combat alone might allow a victory, but if he leads a militia unit that is killed, the dragon will rout immediately even though he has 30 morale (which will generally prevent any morale-based routing). Sending a powerful army with only one commander, who charges into combat first is not usually a good idea since if that leader is killed all the normal units will be leaderless and rout. As long as a single leader remains on the battlefield, you will not rout; even if you have 500 normal units, and all your commanders get killed except one who has only 10 leadership and is frozen, paralyzed, feebleminded, mute, diseased, poisoned, unconscious, blind, crippled, and entangled, your normal units will not rout due to commander loss. The free commander you get from province defense counts as well. Units in a province with no leader will rout in combat but if you have even 1 point of province defense you get a free leader and they will not route from leaderlessness.

Q. When does morale cause routing?
A. A group (one line of units on the army setup screen) can lose morale when any of its units are hit for damage or affected by spells (Terror or Frighten) or are near a unit that "Causes Fear". The probability that the group will lose morale from such attacks depends on the affected unit's morale (so a group of units with 11 morale each will have higher initial group morale, and will be less likely to lose morale when a unit gets hurt, than a group of units with 10 morale each). When the group morale drops enough, they rout, and will run away no matter what ... unless the group contains berserkers, who will never flee combat when berserking. The non-berserking group members will still flee, though.

Q. How do I regain lost morale?
A. First, this can only be done once some morale has been lost - not on the very first turn of the first side in battle. To regain morale, there are some useful spells, the best of which are the Holy spells "Fanaticism" and "Sermon of Courage" ... it is generally useful to have a high-level priest (such as the prophet) casting Fantaticism or Sermon of Courage constantly in battle. Alternately, troops with a "Standard" (such as Pythium's and Ermor's "Standard" unit, or Ctis's Sacred Serpent) restore some morale to all nearby units each turn, so placing one or two in each group will help. Standards have a range equal to their modifier. Certain Magic Items provide a Standard effect.

Q. How do I prevent morale loss?
A. Use mindless units that never lose morale. Use high-morale units, that are unlikely to fail individual morale checks. Use heavily armored units that are unlikely to be damaged often. Use Blessed sacred units, that gain +3 morale. Use berserkers, that gain 99 morale when damaged, and thus cannot ever fail a morale check. Use units with long weapons (spears, pikes, halberds, glaives, greatswords, tridents) because attacking a unit that has a longer weapon triggers a repel attempt - thus, a unit with a dagger can be hurt, and thus get a morale check when attacking a spearman. Enemy archers can rout your units before they even get into melee range, so when fighting archers, use units that have shields (shields block arrows somewhat), are heavily armored, or are very fast (and thus close to melee range quickly), and put them at the very front so they don't have to sustain arrow fire for many rounds. Combining all your units into one huge squad makes routing less likely. The higher the squad size the higher initial morale. Alternately, multiple small Groups are likely to rout individually but it is less likely that your entire army will rout ... and as a hybrid solution you might want a small group of cheap, shielded units (or just wounded soldiers you want to get rid of) in front to draw archer fire while your main melee group(s) close(s) in. And most importantly - use your own archers and spells to rout the enemy before it gets close enough to hurt your own units!

Q. How do I disband troops?
A. You can't, but you can put them in the front to die or kill them by drowning.

Q. What kind of bonus does a morningstar get versus shields?
A. It ignores the shield Defese when rolling to hit.

Q. How many troops to water mages get to take underwater based on their magic?
A. Water Path*2 Size. So a Mage with 2 Water would allow you to carry in 4 Size worth of units (4 Hoburgs, 1 Giant or 2 Humans). You cannot bring troops underwater if they will drown - they will be automatically removed, so don't worry too much about counting just right. However, don't leave land units in an underwater garrison and take the mage away, or they will drown.

Q. Why is weapon length important?
A. It only affects repel attempts and dual-weapon use (short weapons are easier to dual-wield). Any time a unit strikes another unit, if the defender has a longer weapon (like a Spear - length 4, versus a Dagger - length 0), the defender gets a repel attempt, and the attacker must make a morale save. If he fails the morale save (50% chance at morale 10), he will not attack. Also, even if he does attack, he may be hit by the longer weapon while attacking, though repel damage is capped at 1 ... so the attacker won't be hurt badly unless the weapon is poisoned or in some way has an additional effect.

Q. What affects repel attempts?
A. The success or failure of a repel is determined by the attacker's morale and defense, and the defender's attack. If all these values are 10, there is a 25% chance of a successful repel (neither side is damaged). Not that weapon's specific length does not affect repel success rate, or morale saves; all that matters is that the defender's weapon is longer, not how much longer.

Q. What do all the Strategic Map Orders do?
A. Alchemy: Converts magic gems to other gems, or gold. Only Earth and Fire gems may be alchemized to gold (Fire = 15 Gold, Earth = 10 Gold). Blood slaves are not considered gems for purposes of Alchemy. This may only be done by a mage in a Lab, and happens instantly. Some mages (particularly the Alchemist pretender) perform alchemy more efficiently and recieve a bonus.

Assassinate Commander: Attacks a random commander in the current (enemy) province. The assassin fights only the commander and his bodyguards to the death. There is no retreat from these battles and if there are no commanders left there will be no assassination attempt. Provincial Defense Commanders cannot be targeted for Assassination.

Become Prophet: Makes the commander your Prophet. You can only have one Prophet at a time, and if he dies you have to wait 6 Months in order to appoint another. The Prophet becomes Sacred and permanently Blessed, +1 Holy/Unholy if he already possesses Priestly Magic or if the appointed does not gains 3 Holy/Unholy. The Prophet also gains +2 Attack, +2 Defense, +2 Precision, and 30 Morale as well as an HP bonus or penalty dependant on local dominion strength. Prophets are spread Dominion and like a Pretender God automatically increase dominion in their current province, regardless of their orders.

Blood Hunt: The commander tries to find Blood Slaves each turn. This increases unrest. Any commander may blood hunt, but those with skill in blood magic will have much better success than those without. Blood slaves are used like magic gems (by mages, to cast spells), but only for Blood Magic. Troops under the commander do not increase the probability of success or the yield; the factors that increase yield are low unrest, high population, high skill in blood magic, and holding a Sanguine Dousing Rod.

Break Siege: Used only by defenders under siege. Charge out of the gates and hope you defeat your besiegers. The castle defenses will not help you in this fight and if you lose your troops will not return to the safety of the castle – they will either retreat to a nearby province or die if all adjacent provinces are hostile.

Call God: If your god dies, priests gain this command. Setting priests to "Call God" pools their holy points - 1 point per holy (white) or unholy (black-purple) magic candle symbol. A normal independent priest (2-holy) contributes 2 points per turn. When the pool reaches 40 points, the god is reincarnated at the capitol (even if the capitol is under enemy control).

Capture Slaves: Used only by Mictlan Tribal Kings and Priest Kings, it's used to press people into your army. Such troops have poor training, morale and equipment, but have excellent potential as cheap fodder for arrows, blade winds and the once-per-battle lance attacks of Knights. Please don’t confuse this with Blood Hunt (above).

Cast Monthly Ritual: This does not appear on the orders list (bug). But pressing shift-m while highlighting a mage casting a ritual will make him recast it each month.

Cast Ritual Spell: The mage casts a ritual spell, such as summoning a magic creature. This can only be done in a lab, and requires gems or slaves.

Change Shape: Some commanders, particularly Dragons, have the shape-shifting ability. This instantly changes them back and forth, so that you can control which form they are in on the strategic map. Dragons can fly, for example, but their human forms cannot. Shape shifters start a battle in the form they were in on the strategic map (though they can also change form in battle).

Compete in Arena Deathmatch: The commander fights champions from each nation to the death in an arena, for a prize. Only one commander may be sent per nation, and he must be sent the same turn that the arena contest is announced.

Construct Building: Builds a laboratory, temple or a fortress in the province. Any commander can build a fort (which takes several turns), but only priests or the prophet can build temples (1 turn), and only mages can build labs (1 turn). Forts and labs can be captured, but captured temples are burnt to the ground.

Continue Fort Construction: Forts generally take multiple turns to build. If interrupted, you can resume construction with this option from the Construct Building menu. It costs you nothing but the commander's action since you've already paid upfront.

Corrupt Commander: This functions the same way as Seduce Commander (probably with a better success rate), but is only available to one Demon Lord, Belial. If the corruption succeeds, Belial and the corrupted commander will appear in the owning player's capital province. If it fails, he will attack the commander as if it were an assassination attempt.

Defend Castle / Defend Province: Defends the province against attacking armies.

Demolish Building: This only takes 1 turn and any commander can demolish any building, except structures that are part of a magic site (like the Fortress of a Firbolg Fortress).

Empowerment: Makes any commander more skilled in a magic path, by infusing him with the power of many gems (or slaves). This can only be done in a lab, and requires gems or slaves.

Enter Magic Site: Some magic sites can be entered by one or more commanders in that province. Often they require skill in a Magic Path. The effects vary, from free units each turn to bonus experience for units. The commander brings his troops with him, when appropriate.

Forge Magic Item: The mage forges a magic item, and places it in the lab. The item may then be given to any commander at a lab. This can only be done in a lab, and requires gems or slaves.

Heal Troops: Some commanders, for example Arco priestesses, can heal battle afflictions of troops in their province. Only a limited number of afflictions can be healed per turn by a given commander.

Hide: For stealthy units, stay in the current province and do nothing except gather information. If the province is attacked, the stealthy unit will stay hidden and not participate, though you will be able to view the battle.

Instill Uprising: A spy ability. Gradually increases unrest in the province. This can effectively cripple rich enemy territories, as unrest decreases gold and resource production. If you suspect an enemy is doing this to you, patrol the province to catch the enemy spy.

Move: Move to the province indicated (bringing units assigned to that commander).

Move and Patrol: Combination order; it automatically sets troops to patrol on arrival. Useful when you want the troops to defend outside the castle instead of remaining inside it. Since the default order is “Defend”, if you “Move” reinforcements to a castle, and an enemy attacks the same turn, the reinforcements will hide inside the castle rather than fighting. “Move and Patrol” forces them to engage.

Patrol Province: Patrols the province, reducing unrest and defending the province itself. Unrest reduction is proportional to the size of the patrolling army. Patrols can also catch enemy stealth units. Note that reducing unrest with patrols kills about 10 population per unit of unrest reduction.

Perform Blood Sacrifice: Sacrifices blood slaves in order to increase your local Dominion; each slave sacrificed increases dominion as much as one temple for one turn. Only priests of Abysia, Vanheim, and Mictlan can perform blood sacrifices, only at a temple, and only with the blood slaves in their personal inventory. Note that Mictlan MUST do this to increase dominion.

Pillage: Kills population to gain gold and (temporarily) supplies. The bigger the army, the more population is killed and the more gold is generated. This increases unrest. Physically larger units and units that cause fear are more effective.

Preach the Teachings of God: Gradually increases your Dominion in the province. Only for priests. This is more effective in provinces with temples, and for priests with a higher holy level. Multiple priests can preach in the same province for cumulative effect.

Research: The mage contributes his research points to the research pool each turn. This can only be done in a province with a lab. The research pool may be adjusted from the Magic screen.

Reanimate: Unholy priests can freely raise the dead. To reanimate soulless (from the strategic map or in battle), there must be unburied corpses in the province. Other reanimations will kill population in order to reanimate (ghouls, apparitions). Others have no other requirements (longdead). The more powerful the Unholy power of the priest more animations and options for reanimations exist.

Search for Magic Sites: Magic sites are hidden in some provinces, and can only be used once discovered. Only mages and priests can find magic sites, and only sites up to the level of their abilities. If a site is present, and within the power of a mage/priest to find, it will be found 100% of the time, so you never need to search the same province twice with the same mage. The province info window records which level the province has been searched in which magic fields.

Seduce Commander: When in the same province as enemies, a succubus can attempt to seduce an enemy commander. Just as with assassination attempts, the player cannot choose which commander will be seduced. If the seduction succeeds, the succubus and the seduced commander will appear in the owning player's capital province. If it fails, she will attack the commander as if it were an assassination attempt.

Siege Castle: Tear down the castle walls. You get this option when occupying a province with an enemy castle. You cannot Storm the castle until the fortress defenses have been destroyed.

Sneak: Move to the province indicated, stealthily (bringing units assigned to that commander). This will not cause combat, and the stealth army will not participate if a fight occurs in the province where he is sneaking.

Summon Allies: Some commanders, like werewolves, can freely summon units (like wolves) every turn. Sometimes there are certain conditions in order to summon greater or lesser numbers (Like summoning double the # of wolves if in a Forest Province)

What Nations kill population with their Domain and how quickly?

Ermor (Ashen Empire) -5% Per point of Domain
Ermor (Soul Gate) -4% Per point of Domain
Pangaea (Carrion Woods) -1% Per point of Domain

How do I use mods
* First you need to update your Dominions II version by downloading and applying a patch. Version 2.02 (on the CD) does not support modding.
* Unzip the mod of your choice into the 'mods' directory. Usually this directory will be in c:\programs\dominions2\mods in windows or ~/dominions2/mods in linux or osx.
* Start Dominions II and enter preferences/mod preferences and select the mod you want to use.