How difficult is this game?

[Twan]

Yes there are 5 difficulties from easy to impossible (impossible AIs may be really hard to beat, but mostly because they start with lot of bonuses).

edit : and sector24 is right, there are also a lot of ways to make SP challenging once normal maps become too easy

How does it compare ? Hard to say.

I think the dominions AI isn't as good as the really good ones (ie Civilization or Galciv AIs), but far better than the AIs of Paradox games and most indie wargames.

About complexity I would say a dominion SP game against non impossible AIs (if you just use what you need to win = perhaps 5% of the content) isn't more complex than any of these games, but there are then several more layers of deepness once you play against humans (the only games I see with an as big number of combos are card boardgames like Star Chamber).

[KissBlade]

The AI is frustratingly difficult if you limit yourself from abusing it. There's no real middle ground though since if you use anything like good magic scripting, thugs/SC's, PD, you pretty much roll over it. The game becomes incredibly fun when you play online though.

[jimkehn]

Fenris99, I have been computer gaming since the early 1980's, with an old Atari 400. I've had games of all stripes and genres. I have to say this is the one game that has kept my interest the longest. I've had the game about a year, now and on these boards, people are still mentioning aspects of the game I have never seen. With all the nations and eras, I have yet to try ALL of them. There is soooo much to discover and learn. I come from a military simulation (historical) background in gaming, and to be honest, I don't even play those anymore. I can sincerely say that Dominions3 is the ONLY game I play. SP or MP. I still am challenged by the AI. In my SP games I normally will use 8-9 AI nations on medium sized maps. I let the computer randomly choose the nations and I set a few at mighty and difficult. I know there are a lot of much better players than I, but I routinely get my butt kicked at these settings. I can also honestly say that compared to most $40 wargames I own, $100 for Dominions 3 would not be overcharging. (I hope the Devs don't act on that statement) The game just has more lasting value than any other game I have run on to.

Buy it. You won't regret it.

[Tichy]

There's also the active participation of the game developers on the forums, and continuing active development of the game in the form of relatively frequent free patches with new content, often incorporating features requested by players and modders.

SP can be challenging, but in different ways than MP. I can reliably beat Impossible now as long as I don't fall to an early AI rush. In SP on impossible you need to contend with the AI having orders of magnitude larger armies than you, but know that it doesn't effectively use the magic system or item crafting, and often makes mistakes in battlefield strategy.

In MP you have to contend with extremely talented players who will drop a house on you and your mom without trying...but then you can oftentimes diplomatically attach yourself to a different talented player and learn a lot about the strategy of the game by watching the titans battle each other.

[Fenris99]

Well, I picked up a copy.

[DonCorazon]

I can give you the noob perspective as I bought the game a couple months back. I consider based fantasy war/empire games by far my favorite genre, and while I missed Master of Magic, I have tried most everything else: HOMM, AoW, WarCraft and Warlords. None of those comes remotely close to capturing the “epic” nature of the genre the way Dominions does. The game plays out like a Steven Erikson novel and like Erikson, manages a subtle sense of humor. Its quite dangerous for your personal relationships, so make sure your significant other has something to occupy their time while you waste away the hours trying to figure out how to stop the Shinuyaman hordes from overrunning your Ulmish empire…

[LoloMo]

Dominions 3 is the best turn based strategy game I have ever played. And I don't think we have yet seen all that can be done with the "engine", which the patches are uncovering bit by bit. So Dom3 is the best turn based game I have ever played, and is still improving with every patch.

Oh, and I will also credit the decline of my fencing career to this game. I used to fence 4 hours a day 4 times a week before I met Dom3. Now I'll be lucky to get in a session once every other month. My gf might be next. Wahahaha

[Fenris99]

Hmm I just loaded it up and I don't know how to do anything. Obviously I need to read the manual first.

[Micah]

Check out the tutorial as well, though I would recommend reading the manual at some point as well. One caveat to that though, is that some things in the manual have changed since it was written (that's a nice way of saying that they're buggy). So take everything with a grain of salt and chalk it up to learning when you find something that diverges from the printed material, it'll save you some frustration to keep that in mind (speaking from personal experience here).

Some things off the top of my head:
Your rate of dominion spread does not increase with every 5 temples you build.
The morale system is (I'm pretty sure) much more complex than the rulebook explanation, you don't get random routing of elite units due to a bad morale roll. (Which I'm glad is the case)
Critical hits due to fatigue do not simply halve the protection value of the unit when they occur, the effect is much more severe in practice.

There's other stuff in there I'm sure, but that's a sampling. Don't mean to scare you off, as this is without the doubt the best money I've spent in my life on a game, just wanted to keep you from taking everything in the book as gospel.

[hnchrist3]

If you are a strategist, this game is unequaled.

At first you will be overwhelmed, because you have no ability to find a balance or even useful strategy. There are something like 600 spells in the game alone. Most are garbage, but the trick is in using specific spells against other Nations (even the "crappy" ones). Not only that, you have to choose "paths of magic" to study, so a spell you want or like is only available if you put your researching abilities to it. In the mean time, there may a simple yet unavailable spell that would make your life grand, but you chose something else.

THAT is the nature of this game. Choices.
Every turn you are forced to make choices that can win or lose it for you, right now. And then there are the choices within the choices, such as what to recruit; how to use THOSE choices.

Effectively you are playing in a gaming soup. Not only are you playing against the other players (be they AI or real), but you are playing against yourself.

There's a saying of mine that applies to all games:
"An 'always-losing' strategy, always loses."

I have seen people try-and-try-again the same losing strategies to games and then wonder why they lost.
If it didn't work the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd times, on what planet does it work on the 4th time?

Adaptation.
It is the name of this game.
You either adapt, or you lose.
But here things are not that simple. To start with you have to choose an era (early/middle/late) and a nation. Already you're looking at 150 choices. {Apologies to developers, this is an arbitrary number; I did not work out the possibilities.}
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Personal note.
When I first started playing, I settled on Helmheim as my 'Nation of choice.' But time and time again, I was humbled by (Late-Age) Ermor. So then I started playing LA Ermor, and that became my love. ALL OTHER NATIONS HATE ERMOR. (A bonus to me!)
Huh? Surely. Anyone who challenges me early is doomed to die. I may go with him, but que será, será.
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Why we (the community) love this game is that we are challenged at every turn (literally).

Faithfully submitted,
HNC3 = Howard N. Christ III