The problem of low hit points on humans

[PvK]

Clearly we have very different perceptions of this game series, Graeme.

Regardless of your perception, though, it is clearly a gross exaggeration to say that the magic part of the game was "replaced" by armies. Magic still seems to me far more powerful AND far more cost-effective than mundane armies in Dom 3, though the point were it gains a decisive advantage may be delayed more than in Dom 2. It's always been influenced by the scenario settings (nations, map, settings) but even moreso now that one can easily set the gold/resources/supplies on game creation. So if you like the Dom 2 pacing better, you can of course do things like set faster research, higher magic sites, or even lower the gold/res/supply multipliers.

Personally, I find the non-magical military side of the game to be quite interesting and prefer the magical and fantastic elements to be exceptions that gain their meaning by contrast to the mundane norm, and not by completely dominating it, as I thought was the case in vanilla Dom 2.

"So you are increasing the power of magic and/or reducing the cost of mages?"
- No, I'm increasing the gem costs and path requirements of the strong magical effects so that they require much more investment to amass, and thus become rarer.

As for your argument about how I "misunderstood" combat mechanics is unconvincing. Even with all attacks during a turn concentrating on one fighter at a time, it is still quite helpful to have guards for a commander. Also, as I've been playing with melee commanders and watching their combats for years, and mine generally do survive and achieve good success, while you say yours generally die, I would say that practical experience shows that proper placement/orders/guards definitely make a large difference in their survival rate.

PvK

Graeme Dice said:

It's a dumbing down because the part of the game that took practice, good decision making, and the ability to apply strategies, which was the magic part of the game was replaced by pushing armies around the map. That's something that the AI can manage to do.

So you are increasing the power of magic and/or reducing the cost of mages? Because that's where the balance currently lies. Magic doesn't become powerful enough to even be worth sending many nations' mages onto the battlefield till about level 5 research arrives, which is long after the balance of power in the game has been decided.

You are still labouring under your previous misunderstanding of the Dominions battle mechanics. Any unit that fights against a full grid square of size 2 units is fighting a 3 to 1 battle, even if it has two other friendly units in the same square. If the commander is to be useful, ie. be able to kill his own gold cost in units and still survive the battle, then he has to be able to survive against three to one odds.

I want commanders to be as effective for their gold cost as mages are for their gold cost, and I'd leave the gold costs for heavy infantry alone, since they are probably about the right cost. Light infantry would have their price quartered to represent their actual battlefield utility.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

I dunno. One of the major points of mods seems to me to give the ability for individuals to tailor the game to their own desires. E.g. to modify your favorite nation/race to have 15hp--or even 30hp--commanders.

I don't see it making that big of a difference as long as each of the players in that particular game agree to the change/s.

With my previous offering of the "Seasoned Champion" I was just offering a concrete example of such, and proferring the view that for each "heroic" trait (such as hugely increased hp or def) the cost of such a recruitable unit be doubled. E.g. 30gp commander with 20hp would be 60gp; if you add a standard to him it becomes 120gp; if you then give him def 20 he costs 240gp; and then if you add minor regeneration he would cost 480gp. None of this is outside the bounds of the game, and none of it would ruin the game. Mods alter the flavor on an individual basis--which I feel is appropriate here. OTOH, if you were to double or triple the HP of all human commanders (as some have suggested), then you would fundamentally change the game itself.... It might be interesting, but then it would be "Dom IIIb" or "Dom IV: Warlords" or somesuch.