New Player questions

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by RegnorVex

That's truly weird and leads to some really interesting scenarios ...

What's weird about hotseat play? A standard feature in turn based strategy games.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by RegnorVex

I noticed something very interesting. I was given the option of playing either of the humans (my son or mine) when I fired up my 2nd Dom3. I also remember from setting up the server that I could choose multiple nations to be controlled by humans. If I am understanding things correctly, it appears that my son and I could actually start up a game where both of us controlled multiple nations and pretenders?

Yes. You can play 1 nation vs your sons nation.

Then you can try you and your son allied vs multiple AI (computer played) nations.

Then try each of you taking two nations. The uniqueness of the nations goes nuts when you consider how certain nations ally well with other nations filling in the gaps and making best use of the abilities.

Then you can run multiple allied nations vs multiple computer-run nations which are also allied with each other.

The unmodded game allows for something like 25 nations in any combination you want. With modded nations you can add another dozen or so above that. With the ALL_Nations mod you can go up to (if I remember right its now up to) 63 nations and add additional modded nations to take the total up to 95 nations on a 1500 province map. Feel like playing the same game for a whole year?


Gandalf Parker
--
The necessary components for such insanely extreme Dom3 games can be found at
http://www.Dom3Minions.com

[Black Sun Empire]

How do I set a unit to automatically cast the site search spell?

[Dragar]

Shift + m, then select the appropriate ritual

[Black Sun Empire]

After reading the Newbies v Vets Multiplayer game, there was talk about the difference between the two sets of players is in expansion.

What are some of the tricks to expanding quickly and not using huge armies?

I've started 3 little games, just seeing what I learn from the first 20 or so rounds. End of the day, I just follow the good old safety in numbers trick.

Mass produce archers with a few foot soldiers as buffer. Being very new, I have no idea how to maximise Bless (not even sure what it does).

If anyone can help me with some early round tips that would be great. I'm also partially guessing that your pretender can make a huge difference in tactics.

[Gregstrom]

An awake SC pretender can make a big difference in expansion (try a Wyrm with Dominion 10). Beyond that you need to look at your national troops, as expansion strategies vary by nation.

Archers with an infantry screen is a reasonable route, though. One rule of thumb is that you want to be sending out an army capable of taking territories every 2-3 turns if you can. Knowing which nation you're playing would help.

[Agema]

One thing that only comes with experience is judging how powerful your units are; how much damage they can do and how resilient they are.

What I'd do is try a few test games with a nation that has a good bless unit - MA/LA Vanheim as an example. See how many basic huskarls you need to clear out indies. Then compare it to how many Van (unblessed) you need for the same job. Then try Vans with a huge combat bless (E9W9, F9W9, etc.) Also look at huge units like Pythium's Hydras or elephants/mammoths (Arco, Bandar Log, Caelum).

As these things are experience-based, there's no other way to find out than to playtest yourself and get an idea of what they can do.

[RegnorVex]

[quote=Gandalf Parker;698456]

Originally Posted by RegnorVex

Feel like playing the same game for a whole year?

LOL, I think I'll try a nation at a time till I'm more familiar. I played Dominions I and II a lot, but I'm a newbie at III and quite a bit has change. Just as fun as I remembered, though. Not surprisingly, this forum is incredibly busy even after all these years.

Nice to talk to you again, Gandalf. Many years ago we corresponded regularly on the strategic.games newsgroup. Here we are, still gaming.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes.
Love your sig of
Men do not stop playing because they grow old. They grow old because they stop playing. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

My version is:
-- Get a life? No thanks. Just had one.
Im retired now and get to play games all day. (envy me)

Gandalf Parker