Dom II, feedback please

[Gin]

Gandalf,
Where do I set the indy strength?
Gin

Gandalf Parker said:

When you first start out I recommend setting the indepents strength to 5 or 6. The default of 3 will have the AI rushing you quickly

[Gin]

OK Endo. In trying your advice a few questions arose:

1-Where do I do the '1 pick in Order, Production, Growth and Magic"?
2-When creating a new game, which nations should I include?

Sorry, I'm a total newbie at this.

Thanks
Gin

[Turin]

I´d just play around for a while, get crushed by the AI and then ask specific questions.

As for your questions:

1) he referred to the scales you choose when you pick a new god. You can set them from +3 to -3.

2) I would include all nations except ermor and maybe Caelum. Ermor is too strong vs other AIs and Caelum is very annoying with seeking arrows and call of the wilds.

indy strength means independent strength. The higher you set it during game creation the more independents will garrison the neutral provinces.

[Gin]

Thanks Turin. Just where does one set indy str. and the scales. I saw no scales when I picked my god, Phoenix. I just had choices within magic, dominion etc.
Thanks again
Gin

[Turin]

Well the scales are in the dominions screen during god creation. You pick your scales by umm clicking on the scales there.

Independent strength gets set under game settings. It´s the second line under number of provinces. It´s above special site frequency.

You get to the game settings screen after you chose the map.

[Gin]

Thanks Turin.
Gin

[OG_Gleep]

Do keyword searches for the various nations that you try. I am pretty sure every race has some sort of discussion thread.

There are numerous docs that have been made by fans, after you play through a couple games I would take a look at them as they are great resources but will mean nothing unless you have some sort of grasp on the general concepts.

Also, try Ulm with a rainbow mage (Rainbow means a mage with multiple paths, these are excellent at site searching). I still think they are the best for illustrating the basic concepts of the game. They also make for great crafters, which will give you insite on the magic item creation system.

Once you have a handle on that, move to a race with a bless strategy. Ulm doesn't have any sacred troops. If you have a pretender with atleast 4 picks in any path of magic, you can pass on special abilites to your sacred troops. At certain points, you get certain abilities. For instance Fire 9 (very popular) gives your sacred troops flaming weapons (+8AP dmg). Fire 8 however would only get you +4 attack.

Also the Dominions I guides are still semi-relavent and are a good read, and actually explain the basic mechanics pretty well.

The forum is a awesome resource, and you can go back multiple years and pull up information. This has also been one of the most helpful communties I have ever been a part of.

The Dom II Library http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/ is a great resource, and also has links to other sites (dominions-x..has the correct link here, unlike the illwinter site). The Illwinter site also has some good resources and has mod links as well.