Bogarus Rises! Dominions 3.14 Now Available!

[ano]

Yes, it is

[Kristoffer O]

Hi!

I hope you like the patch.

The Bogarus graphics are made by Gabriella, the IW intern. Not sure if that is mentioned in the press release, but she's in the credits.

I have references to the concept of the fivefold fivefold angel in my encyclopedia of religion, but they didn't remove their hands. I think that was Gabriella's idea. I'm quite fond of how they turned out.

[MKDELTA]

The graphics are nice, albeit different from the general Dominions 3 style. The bit "stretched" horse graphics are my only quibble too. I haven't compared units pixel to pixel, but Bogarussians also look slightly taller than ordinary humans in Dominions.

[Taqwus]

Oh, spiffy. Sounds inteeeerresting.

Been distracted quite a bit by an (unfortunately quite buggy, currently) computer port of EiA, but will have to check this out -- and the changes to Touch of Madness sound very nice. Once had a minor caster cast it on my pretender, heh.

[VedalkenBear]

Taqwus: EiA... Empires in Arms? There's a port of it?

Re: Bogarus:

1) Their national troops are quite bad, especially for late era. Luckily for them, that isn't their focus.

2) Incredible magic for LE. Cheap site-searcher in the Occultist (I think his name is), a good versatile capital-only mage, and a researcher. Plus varied other stuff.

3) Lady of Springs is quite an interesting pretender for them, since she gives them Water and Nature magic, and the gems to use their water summons. I actually was playing a Water-4, Earth-2, Death-1, Nature-4 AWAKE Lady of Springs for a bit. Bought the capital-only Mage first turn, prophetized my original commander, and could immediately search for every site possible between those 3.

4) Summons are quite interesting.

a) Dog: It's armed with a Falchion? Is this a bug? OTOH, it flies and has a patrol bonus of 20. IOW, it can catch most anything.

b) Firebird: Pretty much one-shot wonder, given the lack of defense. Other stuff is more likely better.

c) Lady Midday: Looks really good. Flying, Ethereal, _not Undead_, Fear(0), and armed with a disease-carrying Scythe. Oh, and troop. I can imagine getting 20 of these together will cause havoc.

d) Sirin: Interesting Seductress, but can't kill anything if she doesn't actually seduce the target.

e) Next Harpy: Holy-3, Standard(20), Flying Leader. Looks good to me.

Haven't really seen the others yet.

5) Heroes:

I got one that might be a multihero. Basically, a Holy-1 Leadership 120 Standard(20) beater. (Cavalry)

Aaaaand... Baba Yaga showed up. She's Air-3, Water-1, Death-4, and Nature-2. And she flies (as she should). Note she has many paths (Water, Death, and Nature) that you generally can't get otherwise. Also, she is by far the best Leader I've seen for Bogarus to command their magical/demon flying troops. (Lady Midday, Devils, and Storm Demons.)

More when I find it.

[BesucherXia]

I love this patch and can accept those "stretched" horses, but feel those 250gold/12rp mages really a little too uber. Are they really supposed to be so powerful?
I mean, even in EA it is quite rare too see a national researcher with 10+ rp, and usually I can only purchase a 6-8rp mage with those 250 gold.

[MKDELTA]

VedalkenBear said:
d) Sirin: Interesting Seductress, but can't kill anything if she doesn't actually seduce the target.

Give them those skeleton summoning amulets (I forgot the name :/). That'll kill a lot of regular commanders.

[archaeolept]

well, they don't have much other than those mages... we'll see how "uber" they actually are in MP soon enough

[VedalkenBear]

Well, you have mages that are akin to EA or good MA nations. OTOH, you also have national troops that are akin to EA or bad MA nations (and, IMO, that's being _generous_).

Basically, you can think of Bogarus as an odd 'port' of S&A TC. You have quite a few different mages, some quite good. But your military is (IMO) worse than S&A. Sure, you _could_ go with the Cavalry, but they're extremely expensive and not especially worth it in the Late Age.

Besides, their researcher is 160g for Astral-2, and one random in... what, Fire, Air, Astral, or Blood? That's not bad, but it compares interestingly to Jomon's Onmyoji. You lose one random off of the mage in exchange for 3 RP and the ability to actually get your pick in the path you already have.

Also, I'll point out the distinct lack of anything resembling a bless strategy in their national troops. Their bless 'troop' is incredibly specialized, and they don't get mage-priests for that kind of bless, either. Nothing I've seen in the summons shows much in the way of summoned bless troops.

Also, they're not the most efficient blood nation on the face of the earth, given that their 'best' blood hunter is 110g and non-sacred.

[Shovah32]

I haven't seen any of the summons above level 5, and not all the ones below it.
Zmeys are great chaff killers. With multiple attacks, decent health and firebreath they are very handy.

The Lady Midday is probably my favourite. Ethereal, fear and flying allow them to reach the enemy quickly and scare off many weaker troops. Any who stay around for a while often get cut down by their Scythes(19 damage magic weapon at 11 attack and causes disease?).
On attack rear or archers, they are monsters. Most troops back there, other than very high defence rear-guards, will fall to these guys. Archers will run(8 routed 30 archers in 1-2 turns) and commanders - particularly the giants I was fighting, get cut to pieces.

If you can get the mages, 1-2 castings of Send Bukavac will take out most underwater independants. Follow it up with either a flying, amphibious commander(I like to give my fivefold angels winged shoes, so a ring of water breathing can be added too) or a Send Vodyanoy spell(who can also search for many underwater sites) to get a nice hold in the water far away from your main empire. Get up a lab and you could start gating in troops to strike an enemy far away from under the sea.