What is the easiest nation to play?

[Ironhawk]

Originally Posted by Akela

Well thanks to all the good advice here I now have two brothers hooked! One to go.

The first game seems to be, at least in my limited experience, a matter of moving large masses of troops around the map, watching them fight, and building more of the same.

No problem, Akela. Glad you are enjoying the game!

Yep, that confirms what I've been saying. New players have enough trouble getting thier heads wrapped around regular military and production. Dom3 ultra basics. They dont need path diversity or anything like that - those come in later games once the basics are learned.

[Trumanator]

FYI, Marverni is not exactly a good nation to start out with. I'm judging by your sig.

[MaxWilson]

I liked Marverni, even in the demo. They've got decent troops and recruitable-anywhere Druids; you just have to research Evoc-4 and learn to spam Blade Wind. Then you learn about Conj-3 and Summon Earthpower, and start to spam more Blade Wind (and Gifts from Heaven).

-Max

[Tolkien]

For my first few games on the Dom2 demo, I pretended magic didn't exist. It accelerates learning of conventional warfare. Once you get that down, you can start figuring out the twisted world of magic and items.

[Redeyes]

I played my first game as Hinnom and destroyed every ai on the map without needing to stop for even a breather.
If you want an easy time, that's one of the nations I would recommend

[Tifone]

I think, instead, that magic makes wonders in making a newcomer understand how the game is worthy. Using always just your recruitables will be boring soon. Putting on a squad of 5 fire drakes on fire closest... or seeing your mage cast blade wind/falling fires/thunderstrike for the first time... now that is funny, and not so hard to accomplish that I'd suggest a newbie not to do that

[Tolkien]

Originally Posted by Tifone

I think, instead, that magic makes wonders in making a newcomer understand how the game is worthy. Using always just your recruitables will be boring soon. Putting on a squad of 5 fire drakes on fire closest... or seeing your mage cast blade wind/falling fires/thunderstrike for the first time... now that is funny, and not so hard to accomplish that I'd suggest a newbie not to do that

Of course: but you want to really wait meddling in magic until you get decent experience in regular troops first when you're first learning.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by Tolkien

Of course: but you want to really wait meddling in magic until you get decent experience in regular troops first when you're first learning.

Not necessarily. Actually, some nuances of regular troops usage won't be understandable until you spent quite some time meddling in magic. Nor will strong parts of some regular troops be clear.

[Tolkien]

Originally Posted by Wrana

Not necessarily. Actually, some nuances of regular troops usage won't be understandable until you spent quite some time meddling in magic. Nor will strong parts of some regular troops be clear.

Touche.

[Fate]

I started with Ulm, and I have to say I learned very little from it, besides troops production which I think can be picked up from any nation (except LA Ermor).

I did not understand Summoning until I tried LA Ermor (becuase you can ONLY summon). I would also suggest Patala (because they have strong summons).

For learning battle magic I would suggest Caelum or Abysia and researching Thunderstrike or Fireball, respectively.

To get the hang of Bless rushes I would suggest Abysia, Vanheim, or MA Arcoscephale (there are more, but that is a short list).

I didn't have any luck with thugging until I tried Yomi and researched Alt-6, Ench-3 (Dai-Oni scripted to Fire-shield, Soul-Vortex rocks). Other easy examples include EA Arco with Constr-4, Evo-2 (Shield of Gleaming Gold and shockwave spam). Or try fiddling around with charcoal/vine shields and the brands (and horror helm if you can get it).


I guess my overall point is that Dominions is a very complex game and not all techniques are necessary for every nation. The quickest way to learn something (thugging, battle magic, summoning, etc...) is to play a nation that REQUIRES it. After I understood a couple simple tricks it became easier to try other variations.