Dormancy?

[Archonsod]

Depends on the pretender, nation and the strategy to be honest. It's possible with many nations to design a good scale/bless strategy to not actually need your pretender.

I guess it depends on how you spend those extra points. There's certain advantages other players will gain from having an awake pretender which you can't do anything about, but with a good design you should have advantages from those extra points that they don't.

[dirtywick]

It depends. Gem producing pretenders, like Enchantress or Mother of the Rivers, or troop producing pretenders, like the Ghost King or Vampire Queen, are nice to have awake for the gems and troops in addition to whatever else they'll be doing like researching or fighting or site searching. A lucky pretender, like The Lady of Fortune, will give you some events that can be a boost. The Great Sage will get you a couple of levels of magic by himself. Nations with bad starting armies need the help.

The points help more in the long run, but they're not everything if you're sitting on your hands and waiting.

[FrankTrollman]

An Awake Dragon can capture 8 provinces in the 12 turns he isn't dormant. That translates to money, resources, and gems that a dormant god wo't provide.

On the other hand, if you intend to enter a cold war situation, where your expansion is going to be curtailed by the limits of an opposing army and just stare at each other for 20+ turns while you both build up troops and technology, then the dormancy period isn't shorting you on more than maybe one province.

I think it's pretty neat that a dormant god strategy and an awake god strategy can be played along side one another and have the ultimate victor be up in the air.

-Frank

[Gandalf Parker]

Its simple. Some nations and some strategies rely heavily on the god. Others rely heavily on the scales.

I dont consider anything in Dom to be a no-brainer. It just tends to seem that way to people who have settled into their own personal playing style. Saying that something is an automatic choice will lead to being majorly surprised in multiplayer games.

Oh yeah, and the size of the map can have a large factor. Not so much size as the formula of prov/player. On maps of 5 prov to player then a god can be more important. On maps of 10 prov per player then the waiting period isnt so much of a problem.
IMHO

Gandalf Parker

[FrankTrollman]

There are factional no-brainers. As Black Forest Ulm you need to have Blood and Death on your god, because the only other way you're getting your counts out is by finding Circle Masters with Dark Knowledge - and you just can't count on that.

But even then there's available strategies where your god begins in play and does the blood hunting itself to bring about the first count, and there's an available strategy where your god doesn't even come into the world until later and arrives to find a pile of girls collected by members of the second tier who can be sacrificed to form a vampire economy right away.

-Frank

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
I dont consider anything in Dom to be a no-brainer.

You'd play Late Age Ermor with an imprisoned pretender?

Saying that something is an automatic choice will lead to being majorly surprised in multiplayer games.

I was under the impression that you had only played a very few multiplayer games.

On maps of 5 prov to player then a god can be more important.

Less important more likely, since you won't be able to build equipment or research buffing spells before enemy contact.

On maps of 10 prov per player then the waiting period isnt so much of a problem.

10 province per player maps will likely see the first capital sieges before turn 10.

[Chazar]

Nevertheless, the size of the map is probably the major factor here.

[upstreamedge]

Ya I agree, I am going to be part of a newbie game which will theoretically be 20 people on cradle of dominion I am playing Oceania, any ideas?

[Twan]

I think the nation has a big importance too. In our cradle game the 2 players with the more provinces have an awake pretender of course, but we are also Man and Machaka. Man has his uber and cheap longbowmen, and Machaka (I) can produce lots of weaker archers per turn (their cost is only 3 ressouces... so why I've twice more troops than anybody is not a mystery). Taking an awake god allowed us to have a bigger income fast to make more archers and take more provinces with them in addition to what our pretenders take. Nations producing only heavy units can't compete with Man & Machaka before turn 10 or so in the number of provinces we can take, with or without an awake god. Later, when only provinces with heavy units will stay independant, we will have far more difficulties to expand than others and scales, magic, etc... will probably become more decisive than our good start.

[Gandalf Parker]

Graeme Dice said:

You'd play Late Age Ermor with an imprisoned pretender?

Id have to look at it but Im sure there is some strategy. If for no other reason than to make use of other people expecting the usual tactics.

I was under the impression that you had only played a very few multiplayer games.

But I think Ive hosted more than most. Its not that Im unaware of multiplayer games. I just dont enjoy player-vs-player games. Granted I do have much more experience in DOm games that stressed alliance.

Less important more likely, since you won't be able to build equipment or research buffing spells before enemy contact.

Really? I expected you of all people to say that a large stomping god would be an advantage on small maps. Particularly with many players where the bidding for mercs is so fierce. A stomping god can be very useful for early growth.

10 province per player maps will likely see the first capital sieges before turn 10.

I meant to say 10 or more. 10 is the games default suggestion for games. You are right. 10 is probably not a good dividing line for this. Im not sure how many games larger than that get played.