Mictlan

[Nerfix]

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Why would they summon their new national summons when they can always cranck out Devils?

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[DominionsFan]

What are the national summons for Mictlan?

[Nerfix]

Lots of things with complex mesoamerican names. Tlaloque and Onaqui pop into my mind first.

[Caduceus]

Those are Aztec/Mayan names.

TLALOC, the rain deity, belonged to another most memorable and universal cult of ancient Mexico.The name may be Aztec, but the idea of a storm god especially identified with mountaintop shrines and life-giving rain was certainly as old as Teotihuacan. The primary temple of this major deity was located atop Mt. Tlaloc, where human victims were sacrificed to fertilize water-rocks within the sacred enclosure. In Tenochtitlan another Tlaloc temple shared the platform atop the dual Main Pyramid, a symbolic mountain.

[Oversway]

Why would they summon their new national summons when they can always cranck out Devils?

I'd prefer that a nation have more possible strategies, not fewer.

[Kristoffer O]

> Why would they summon their new national summons when they can always cranck out Devils?

Devils might be nerfed. Tzitzimitl star demons might be powerful. Or they might just be more fun.

[Nerfix]

Kristoffer O said:
> Why would they summon their new national summons when they can always cranck out Devils?

Devils might be nerfed. Tzitzimitl star demons might be powerful. Or they might just be more fun.

That might be a satisfying answer.

[NTJedi]

Kristoffer O said:
> Why would they summon their new national summons when they can always cranck out Devils?

Devils might be nerfed. Tzitzimitl star demons might be powerful. Or they might just be more fun.

Well the issue with most national troops is 'most' summoned creatures are usually a better long_term package. Most nations have national summons which have an expense of initial gold cost, food supplies, and gold upkeep.
Now compare this against 'most' summoned units which have an expense of initial gem cost... and that's it. Not to mention some summoned creatures are significantly stronger and more likely to survive horror attacks, SC's, ghost riders and other such nasty enemies.
I play mostly large maps of 200 or more provinces and my experience is the national troops for most nations are only needed during the very beginning unless using some F9 / W9 setup.

*** One suggestion I have for making national troops more popular throughout the game is by having their existence within a province increase the population. Don't do the increase by percentage or gamers will just be dropping the national troops in grassland areas... each soldier should increase population by 10 per turn, thus provinces destroyed by death can be reborn. Soldiers are known to socialize with local ladies unless it's Ermor of course.
-- hope this helps

[DominionsFan]

NTJedi said:

Well the issue with most national troops is 'most' summoned creatures are usually a better long_term package. Most nations have national summons which have an expense of initial gold cost, food supplies, and gold upkeep.
Now compare this against 'most' summoned units which have an expense of initial gem cost... and that's it. Not to mention some summoned creatures are significantly stronger and more likely to survive horror attacks, SC's, ghost riders and other such nasty enemies.
I play mostly large maps of 200 or more provinces and my experience is the national troops for most nations are only needed during the very beginning unless using some F9 / W9 setup.

*** One suggestion I have for making national troops more popular throughout the game is by having their existence within a province increase the population. Don't do the increase by percentage or gamers will just be dropping the national troops in grassland areas... each soldier should increase population by 10 per turn, thus provinces destroyed by death can be reborn. Soldiers are known to socialize with local ladies unless it's Ermor of course.
-- hope this helps

You know, there should be a way to "upgrade" the national troops. Example regular national swordsman -> veteran national swordsman -> elite national swordsman. Thats 1/2/3 levels. Now, as they reach a new level, they gonna be more powerful and get better equipments. I have no idea, that how could this be implented with the Doms 3. engine. However there is an easier way. Add them as summons maybe. Like Abysia level 2 national troops would be a level 3 fire spell, level 3 national troops would be a level 5 fire spell.
If these things can be modded [I think yes], this is actually a good idea for the modders.

[Ygorl]

Experience already does this, to a limited extent. The difference between a group of troops with two stars experience (about the most you generally see) and a green group is pretty major; still, the difference between those two-star troops and, say, a pack of lamias or wights is even bigger. Perhaps that's as should be, however. National troops are useful until you've researched the ability to do something better - that research represents an additional cost.

I wonder, actually, if things might be more differentiated by concentrating the summons into a small number of schools. Right now, every school except Evocation and Thaumaturgy gives you a way of putting together an army that will stomp any hired army (in the case of Alteration, that army is assembled on the battlefield), so almost no matter how you research you're going to quickly render your national troops obsolete. If all these spells were moved into one or two schools, then unless you researched those schools, you'd have to rely on your hired guys. These would probably be buffed by the spells or items that *are* in the schools you researched; your buffed hires would be going against the enemy's unbuffed summons, and it might still be a good match.

This could even make an interesting mod...