What is the easiest nation to play?

[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

[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.

[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

[OmikronWarrior]

Originally Posted by Ironhawk

No, I think midgard is a bad nation for a new player. You are talking about the persons *first game* for goodness sake. They dont need to be able to have the ability to explore additional magic paths. They need to be able to get a handle on the base level complexity that is dominions without the 5234 other moving parts of the game.

We all take it for granted since we have experience with the game. But I remember when I first played and it was totally overwhelming. And I'm no rookie to strategy / empire games! I even gave up on dominions after trying the demo since it was too complicated. Only came back to it some months later out of boredom and finally got hooked. So, the best route for the new player is the easiest, most limited one.

Shame on you for calling Midgard complicated! Dominions and getting the most out of any nation is complicated. That incredibly useful guide which gives a very straight forward way to use troops and mages is simple as simple comes in dominions. Pick up positive scales, mass produce Skinshifters (recruitable anywhere!), use your air mages (which only have 16 permutations) to all cast Thunderstrike. Easy Peasy. Anything beyond that is gravy for experimentation.

[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.

[VedalkenBear]

Fate: Most would argue that Bandar Log requires Summoning as well. Also, when you consider that there are definite chains that you want to follow (Yakshai -> Nagas, etc.), it might be better than Patala.

[Wrana]

To Fate: MA Arsoscephale doesn't reguire Bless in any way. Maybe you meant EA? General principle is sound, though.

[chrispedersen]

And Mictlan is the premier example of a bless rush nation.