Noob, needs advice please

Edratman · #1 October 30th, 2007, 07:55 AM

You initially asked for a powerful early nation. I would suggest Helheim, with good troops and glamour which will give good kill ratios. You will need independent archers, but that is easy. Helheim will allow you to expand early and easily.

Another easy nation is Nefelheim with good sacred giants. Go for good scales, and at least a 4 nature/4 earth bless using a dormant rainbow pretender for searching. On your setup screen go for 300 gold, 300 resources and 300 supply. On normal difficulty you should be able to crush the AI on a small map (40-50 prov) with 3 opponents just with the sacred giants. Game will seem easy.

After a couple of games with the "HEIMS" to get a feel for the game, go to a circa 250 province map with 15 opponents still staying with whichever Heim you liked best. Stay at the 300 settings of gold/resource/supply. There are some good maps that come with the game in that size range. You should be able to expand like mad early. Here it is very likely you will see the limitations of the Heims and encounter the complexities of the game because the AI overwhelm you unless you are a better player than I .

Then you are on your own for the wonderful experience that is DOM3.

llamabeast · #2 October 30th, 2007, 08:03 AM

Hmm, these things are obviously very much a matter of opinion.

Personally I would always play on default settings for gold, resources and supplies, otherwise you are not really getting the normal Dominions experience. Also I get worn out on larger maps, so would probably play one with 100-odd provinces, e.g. Parganos. But everyone plays the game differently.

Edratman · #3 October 30th, 2007, 08:32 AM

Quote:

llamabeast said:
Hmm, these things are obviously very much a matter of opinion.

Personally I would always play on default settings for gold, resources and supplies, otherwise you are not really getting the normal Dominions experience. Also I get worn out on larger maps, so would probably play one with 100-odd provinces, e.g. Parganos. But everyone plays the game differently.

I suggested the high settings because it makes playing the Heims fairly easy against normal AI. This would help him learn many facets of the game while starting out. Moving to normal settings should come with time as he learns and experiments.

I suggested the large map next because I anticipate the AI starting to attack on many fronts when he expands to around 20 provinces. That should not be excessively time consuming to do his turns.

The sequence I suggest gives some experience with the game, some forging, minor magic and some easy victories to start. Then he should start out well with easy early expansion on the large map, similar to the easy victories on the smaller maps, and subsequently get thumped when the AI attacks from all over the place. After a couple of these he will realize that there is a lot to learn about the game and start to try other things.

There are about a skillion different ways to learn how to play this game. This is just my suggestion.

DanielDrache · #4 October 30th, 2007, 12:45 PM

lol cheers, i suppose getting thumped is good.....

300 settings of gold/resource/supply
Wouldn't that also mean more for the AI?

sum1lost · #5 October 30th, 2007, 01:23 PM

Pythium and man are both good starter nations, with simple tactics. With pythium, get good scales. Then build principes and archtheurgs and theurgs, with the occasional indy commander to escort your large numbers of principes. Use theurgs and archtehurgs to cast spells on the battlefield to support your theurgs.

Man- recruit either longbows or knights. Both are excellent units, but too gold intensive to build both. Recruit some mages to support them and cast buffs. Storm, arrow fend, mass protection, relief and mass regeneration go well with knight armies, while windguide and evocation spells go well on longbows.

I don't like starting with sacreds simply because they allow you to walk over the computer too easily, and you never have to try other strategies.

Folket · #6 October 30th, 2007, 01:28 PM

If you did not get the book when you bought the game I would say that you have been riped. Whoever still have the manual is probably playing the game just as much as before.

Edratman · #7 October 30th, 2007, 02:01 PM

Quote:

DanielDrache said:
lol cheers, i suppose getting thumped is good.....

300 settings of gold/resource/supply
Wouldn't that also mean more for the AI?

Yes, the player and the AI both get the settings on normal difficulty. When you increase the difficulty the AI gets a multiple of these. The multipliers are listed in several places in the forum.

And as for getting thumped, the purpose is not to humiliate you, it is to enable you to learn that a single military strategy will not work and you have to learn how to inegrate the military, forging, magic spell and summoning components into your game. I suggested two nations to start with that you can use just a military strategy that will usually be successful on a small map. But when you move up in map size you will find that one dimensional strategies do not work and the larger map will show that the AI is a very competent and challenging opponent until you learn a lot more of the game. This is the most significent difference between this game and CIV. In CIV a strategy that works will always work. In this game you will use different strategies for different nations and even for different starting neighbor opponents.

Then you can go back to a small map, try a different nation, such as Ermor and see that the nation change requires a totally different military strategy because the troops of the Heims are very good in the early game and Ermor are of more average quality.

MeisterSin · #8 November 1st, 2007, 07:37 PM

Hopefully this isn't hijacking the thread or that,

I usually play the Nefelheim, with the Beholder Pretender (mod)
Assuming I'm playing a 120 land areas, with 30 ocean areas map, Early ages.

What would sum good (vulnerable/weak) opponents be?

I figure with me having a high dominion, the Abyssia would be weaker because they like heat,
Strong dominion (with cold 3pts) makes the my land & the surrounding provinces colder, weakening them

& Ermor don't look to stong.

For Ocean going I choose Oceania, becuase their magic is crippled on land, but in the ocean they are above average.

P.S the Glamor ability, does that really help during battles?
I just don't see how it would help.

OmikronWarrior · #9 November 1st, 2007, 07:57 PM

Big N invading Abysia is a BAD investment, usually. If we're talking early game, that means fighting them on their dominion, and your best units (neifle giants and jarls) get substantial stat penalties in hot lands. Of course, if we're talking AI, then the chances are they'll be poorly played.

As for Glamour, its a huge bonus in combat. On the field Glamour translates into "mirror image", which means for every additional immage, a soldier might hit the fake one instead of the real unit. Adds a lot to the defense and survivability of units. Though the real advantage of glamor is the stealth and (in MP) not showing up on the tactical map.