Your most magic-less game

DigitalSin · #1 January 24th, 2008, 05:40 PM

I have to say, I almost never play with low magic teams, and I find the magic one of the most fun parts of the game. I don't think I've ever really had a magicless or low-magic game..

DrPraetorious · #2 January 24th, 2008, 05:43 PM

My suggestion would be:
* Very difficult research.
* 125% resources and supplies, 100% gold.
* All pretenders must be *dormant*, neither awake nor imprisoned.

Everyone would still go for a strong bless or a supercombatant, it is true, but that's okay if everyone knows that up front.

ano · #3 January 24th, 2008, 05:59 PM

Doesn't it almost *kill* certain nations and certain strategies with no chance to defend themselves from double-blessed van (who takes the imprisoned pretender anyway) at least with PoD. I find Sombre's suggestion much more viable.

MKDELTA · #4 January 24th, 2008, 06:09 PM

Except that AI can't do double blessed Vans, and I don't play Vanheim because I find the theme boring. I wanted this to be a thread about experiences with low-magic games, not another minmaxing thread.

Endoperez · #5 January 24th, 2008, 06:25 PM

As far as hard-research games go, would it help if starting dominion was limited to, say, max of 5? Hard to keep SCs inside own dominion, no awe, and for most nations recruitment of sacred unit was just cut in half. Some nations (Niefel) aren't going to be hurt that much because they can't recruit that many sacreds any way, but at least Niefel has harder time spreading the cold around.

DrPraetorious · #6 January 24th, 2008, 08:15 PM

I don't think that any of this helps hard-research games. I think it helps games in which you're trying to play dominions without using pretenders, blesses or magic.

A dormant SC can stop a blessed rush on a decent sized map. He shows up on turn 12 and he can appear with equipment.

At very-hard research, const 2 costs, what, 260 RP? That's easily achievable by turn 12 by Pythium (for example.)

The difference here is that you can't take a prince of death and have him leap on your opponent's face on turn 3

.

HotNifeThruButr · #7 January 24th, 2008, 10:13 PM

I played a few games against the AI where I jacked up the difficulty of magic in every way imaginable.

Frankly, it wasn't very fun. The thing is, most nations have an extremely limited roster of troops, out of which 3/4 are probably useless anyways and there is really only one or two ways to set up your army to really make it effective.

And there's really no way to improve your troops aside from getting more of them... which is kind of lame.

MKDELTA · #8 January 25th, 2008, 09:16 AM

Quote:

DrPraetorious said:
I don't think that any of this helps hard-research games. I think it helps games in which you're trying to play dominions without using pretenders, blesses or magic.

I'm not really trying to play Dominions that way.

It's just that I have been with the series since Dom 1 and now I think it's time for me to try some more unorthodox settings with the game. I've found some magic impaired games fun because at least in SP (don't know about MP, I don't really have patience for MP) it seems to make magic feel more significant. Since it's harder to get it, I can apreciate that Lightning Bolt, Bane Lord, Falling Fires, good items etc more. It's really just a psychological thing. I also use Indies 9 because it slows things down a bit. You'll also have to prioritize things more. I'm perfectly fine with blesses myself, it's one of the greatest things added into Dominions since it made the game and it's nations feel less generic. Maybe some of the most powerful blesseable units as of now could be summonables a la Lanka/Bandar/Mictlan/etc. Since I play SP, I go for thematic pretenders anyway, even though I often go for good blesses (F9, W9/N6 and so on), but I find the concept of a god with F9 W9 a bit too schizophernic for my tastes - not to mention when it's a god leading a norse nation. Which I don't play, because no matter how powerful Vanheim I find the norse themes pretty boring. Same with Pythium and Arco. Greeks & Romans are boring, in my opinion. I'm looking things at from a SP perspective because if I'd play MP I would find the minmaxing bothersome. Perhaps the rules you suggested would be good for MP.

Quote:

A dormant SC can stop a blessed rush on a decent sized map. He shows up on turn 12 and he can appear with equipment.

This would have to be throughly tested. With slowed down research the essential buffs and items could be more difficult to get. A horde of quickened fire-weaponed glamour cavalry could be tough nut to crack, though I suppose you could do it with an SC by turn 12-14. Actualy, it could be fun to try to find an "optimal" designs for this. Dormant-hard research anti-bless SC designs.

Quote:

At very-hard research, const 2 costs, what, 260 RP? That's easily achievable by turn 12 by Pythium (for example.)

Maybe the level 2 itself. Going from 0 to 1 in s 100 RP with very difficult research. Hmm. Well, maybe the level 2 could be 160 RP. I'm not 100% sure how the multiplier goes. It's certainly less problematic for Pythium and other magic heavy nations than say, oh, hmm, Fomoria.

Quote:

The difference here is that you can't take a prince of death and have him leap on your opponent's face on turn 3

.

That's true. Also, I think, with somewhat slowed pace of game (can't get those killer spells so fast, though blessables and such remain) bad sclaes could be potentialy more detrimental.