Tips for newbs - just add

[MaxWilson]

Dedas said:
Also, people tend to forget that Magic 3 gives several other benefits than just research points. For example:
[list]* 30% less fatigue when casting spells in combat.

Well, sort of. Depending upon the mage and the spell, the base encumbrance cost can be a significant fraction of the spell fatigue cost, and Magic scale doesn't help with that. For instance, if you're in a Communion, IIRC *every* communion slave takes encumbrance fatigue for every spell he participates in. In that case, you might as well be in Drain dominion because encumbrance is 80+% of your fatigue anyway. Magic helps when you cast big expensive spells on your own, not so much when you're casting cheap little spells like Cloud of Death.

-Max

[thejeff]

I agree that the prophet scout isn't always the best plan. Especially in EA, where indy scouts are rare, that may be the only scout you'll have for awhile, unless you use precious castle turns building your national scouts.

Making your starting commander a prophet has the advantage of being slightly less vulnerable to stray arrows (and leaving your scout free to scout), but the disadvantage of having higher fatigue due to armor. Also you can't patrol first turn for more money. It's a trade off.

[moderation]

thejeff said:
Making your starting commander a prophet has the advantage of being slightly less vulnerable to stray arrows (and leaving your scout free to scout), but the disadvantage of having higher fatigue due to armor. Also you can't patrol first turn for more money. It's a trade off.

Is there anything about being prophet that makes your commander less vulnerable to arrows? I know there's a +2 defense bonus, but that shouldn't help...

[vfb]

Prophets are less vulnerable inside your dominion because of higher HP, plus any air bless if applicable, plus E9 bless if applicable.

But I'm pretty sure thejeff means starting commanders are less vulnerable to stray arrows than scouts.

[BigDisAwesome]

I think he's referring to the fact that most commanders have much better armor than scouts. And sometimes shields too.

[Renojustin]

And remember that having a Magic-3 dominion can hurt you just as easily as it can help you in battle, for the same reasons.

[sansanjuan]

Things that I wish I knew early on... part #1

Start only one MP game early in your Dom 3 Multi-Player (MP) career unless you forsee that 8 weeks down the road you'll have lots of time to take your turns. There is probably an equation to the effect
Turn creation time is a function of (Turn# , held Provinces , #potential province battles, your personal micromanagement threshold, nation type, etc). I understand that some late game epic battle take hours to set up.

Micro management, though time consuming, does pay dividends.

Site searching early often pays back big later on in the game.

Multi-front wars often end like Hitler's...

In game diplomacy can be just as (and even more) important than research, units, and tactics.

Like many other turn based fantasy games magic and gem income rule the roost in later turns.

Read Sheap's tips.

Make sure all your NAPs (Non-agression pacts) are non-ambiguous.

Is there a Dom3 acronym list posted anywhere? I remember GoR, GoH and others throwing me early on.

Try to be a little unpredictable in MP games. Fortune tends to favor the bold.

-SSJ

[Ironhawk]

The tips sansanjuan is referring to was a collection of advice about how to conduct yourself personally in an MP game:

Sheap's Tips

I agree with sansan also about MP diplomacy. In MP games, you are fighting not one, but two wars. The regular dominions one, but also the diplomatic one. If you lose either, you lose the game. This is a key fact which very often seperates the veterans from the newbies.

[capnq]

sansanjuan said: Is there a Dom3 acronym list posted anywhere? I remember GoR, GoH and others throwing me early on.

pp. 289-290 of the manual, but that's not an exhaustive list.

[cleveland]

Don't recruit light cavalry. It's a sucker's bet.