Balance on small maps

[Endoperez]

Twan said:
I think the default game settings are not supposed to be balanced on very small maps and have no reason to. Dominions is a game about gods fighting for the domination of the world, not of the Luxemburg.

On maps of 50 provinces or less, try settings like 250% gold & ressources (or like 50% gold if you want less sacred instead of more normal), easy research and 70% sites, then the number of normal troops would probably be sufficient to counter high bless rush a sufficient time to make battle magic efficient and summons available (and to have good scales would be far more important).

Doesn't work.

with both gold and res at 250%, both Van and Helheim can produce 10 sacred units/turn, WITH Sloth 3. Order 3/Prod 3 nations would have a huge surplus of gold (1500+ gold on turn 4), but second castle can't be built quickly enough for it to matter, and the numbers aren't comparable to the devastation the Glamoured sacred units bring. 150 units aren't enough. Perhaps 200-250 untis recruited at max, little more if they are unarmoured bowmen. Sounds big, right? That'd have to cope with 10 sacred units/turn that have taken no losses. 60, 70, 80, 90 Helhirdings? Won't do.

I also tested 250% resources. The same problem, in a smaller scope. It didn't actually slow down the recruitment of non-sacred units, but there was less surplus gold. 150 units can't deal with few dozen Helhirdings. 90 units can't deal with 8 Helhirdings and 10 Glamoured Huskarls.