Newbie questions

[kendric2]

Thanks for the fast response

[Nick_K]

In general units with the amphibian or poor amphibian abilities can move underwater. Poor amphibians suffer some stat penalties. Aquatic units cannot go onto land. The various water nations may have some aquatic units but they will also have amphibious units so they can attack land provinces. They'll tend to be weaker on land than land factions though.
If you can take even one water province you can recruit underwater troops there, as well as summoning underwater-only summons with water magic.

I haven't got Dom3 yet, but there were quite a few ways to attack underwater enemies in Dom2 that should still be there. I'll list the ones that spring to mind.

1: Some mercenaries are amphibious. Ship Wreckers may be the best ones.

2: Some land provinces allow recruitment of amphibious units - icthyids and shamblers

3: There are magical items that grant water-breathing (basically the same as 'poor amphibian' IIRC. Some affect only the commander but some also affect his troops. If the commander dies the troops probably drown though. In Doms2 these were in the water and air paths.

4: A few commanders have the special ability to lead men underwater, at least according to their flavour text.

5: Some land nations have recruitable amphibious units. All Agarthan pale ones seem to be good amphibians.

6: There are many summonable units that are amphibious:

Water magic has many aquatic summons, but you need an underwater lab and a water magic capable of going underwater to cast them. There are also some amphibious water summons that you can cast on land. Sea Trolls are the most obvious example.

Many, but not all, undead are poor amphibians and can go underwater.

I believe that many constructs (generally earth magic) are poor amphibians.

7: There might be some global enchantments that can help. I think there was one in Doms2, but I never used it...


Water nations are also very vulnerable to dominion problems because each sea province usually borders many land provinces which could all have temples. If you find yourself in a stalemate where you can't conquer the seas but you can hold all the land then building enough temples may grant you victory.

The AI does not focus much on underwater provinces when playing as an underwater nation. They often do not take sea provinces far away from their home province, focusing instead on nearby land ones. This allows land nations to get a good foothold in the seas. Land nations are much weaker underwater, but if your economy is stronger you may be able to recruit enough tritons etc to hold off a sea nation. Big armies of magical summons could flatten pretty much any AI army with ease in Doms2. The underwater summons were never quite as devastating as those on land but they were potent enough...

[Ballbarian]

The AI does not focus much on underwater provinces when playing as an underwater nation.

This does not appear to be a problem in Dom3. In my current game Oceania & Atlantis started in seperate large bodies of water. They held every water province and were starting to clash with my forces on land before I was finally able to enter the sea with summons & shamblers.

[hoo]

Question about movement and Combat.

Let's say I have armies in Provinces A & B and my opponent has armies in province C And D. Province B does NOT border province D! I attack Province C from both A&B. My opponent attacks province A from C&D. How does it resolve? To my 2 armies meet his 1 army in province C? Or do the armies in the provinces being attacked stop and defend so it's 1 army vs 1 army? Think of a province setup like a "Z" and how it's resolved.


Finally, let's say there's only 2 provinces(this is simpler) and We attack each other at the same time...Is there a defender or do you meet on neutral ground?

thanks bundles.

[calmon]

This is explained in detail in the manual. Page 64+ (MOVEMENT). The Dom3 Manual is quite cool!

1. All Movement in friendly provinces happens
2. Movement in enemy territory followed in a random manner. So the answer of your questions should be clear

[hoo]

I read the manual turn order pages and understand movement in friendly provinces happens first. Random manner doesn't exactly answer my question. I know that entering an enemy provinces stops your movement. but my question remains.

If the enemy moves first into a province, are you then blocked from moving out of a province? If the movement is random will your forces possibly attack piecemeal if they're coming from 2 differnet provinceS?

[calmon]

Thats explained on page 68.

"...
For example if 2 armies attack each other one of the 3 things can happen:

- there is a battle in the enemy province
- there is a battle in your province
- the armies miss one another and exchange place
which event occurs depends on the size of the armies and the terrain involved"

So eventually your army is 'pinned' in your province.

[PhilD]

Like calmon says: either your army will be prevented from moving, and combat will occur in your province between your army and the enemy army, or both armies will move (possibly resulting in position exchange), or your army will move first and the enemy army won't (resulting in battle in opponent's province).

Thus, sometimes you try to coordinate attack from more than one province, and only part of your army get there, which may result in battle loss (hey, where's my left flank?). And, sometimes an army was supposed to vacate a province while another followed, and both end up in the same province, resulting in starvation.