Paper, Rock, Marignon!

[Cheezeninja]

after reading Gandalf Parker's post about the balance of Dominions 2 in the Pangea new age post: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=002539 i started wondering about what the more experienced people on this board think about certain nations trumping others. Mostly this is just for my education and the education of any other new people out there. What im looking for is kinda

beats because:

[Gandalf Parker]

None of them are absolute. Even my "paper, rock, Marignon" example (good catch picking up on ppaer-rock-scissor thing) isnt absolute. Ulm only does Marignon in shorter games and smaller maps. On the other hand Ermor is vastly damaged by small games and small maps. And of course the biggest factor is whether the nation is being played by a player who can really use that nation well.

It tends to work better when someone brings up a specific. Such as "what trumps Abyssia" or "what trumps Arcos"

I would like to see other peoples ideas for another Paper-Rock-Scissors though

[HotNifeThruButr]

Nobody absolutely beats anyone else. There are plenty of nations with the holy firepower to bLast Ermor to hell. Except Vanheim probably does best against killer dominions, better than even Marignon, I might add.

I'd like to add that Ulm might stand a fighting chance against Ermor if you have your Arbalests gunning for commanders, which would usually mean firing on rearmost. Better with Rangers.BTW, this is "theorycraft," if you're familiar with that term.

[velk]

Originally posted by HotNifeThruButr:
I'd like to add that Ulm might stand a fighting chance against Ermor if you have your Arbalests gunning for commanders, which would usually mean firing on rearmost.

I'm not sure about that actually, the motto of ashen empire is 'there's plenty more where those came from'. When you go into a fight with 500 units, expecting 70%+ losses, separating commanders just isn't as compelling as it is for other races. Especially with those particularly vexing immortal commanders.

[Kel]

I am not terribly experienced but it seems to me, that diplomacy and early expansion are the most important factors. Some nations are surely better against certain other nations and contrary to popular cliche, some nations are almost certainly just 'better', on average, than others...but starting position seems more important to me in practice.

- Kel

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by HotNifeThruButr:
I'd like to add that Ulm might stand a fighting chance against Ermor if you have your Arbalests gunning for commanders, which would usually mean firing on rearmost. Better with Rangers.BTW, this is "theorycraft," if you're familiar with that term.

The flaw with that theory is that normal units have no "Fire Rear" option.

[Anglachel]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by HotNifeThruButr:
I'd like to add that Ulm might stand a fighting chance against Ermor if you have your Arbalests gunning for commanders, which would usually mean firing on rearmost. Better with Rangers.BTW, this is "theorycraft," if you're familiar with that term.

The flaw with that theory is that normal units have no "Fire Rear" option.

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Hrmmm, you're the guy with a lot of experience with Ermor's undead themes so perhaps you can confirm that using the "fire large creature" command would be a viable alternative if "fire rearmost" isn't an option? It seems that in Ashen Empire and Soul Gate themes that the largest creatures on the battlefield would be the commanders of the undead horde. Or does shoot largest creature order go for size over overall power? Thanks in advance for your reply.

[ April 28, 2004, 14:50: Message edited by: Anglachel ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Anglachel:
Or does shoot largest creature order go for size over overall power?

Fire largest and attack largest target the physically largest creatures.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Anglachel:
Hrmmm, you're the guy with a lot of experience with Ermor's undead themes so perhaps you can confirm that using the "fire large creature" command would be a viable alternative if "fire rearmost" isn't an option? It seems that in Ashen Empire and Soul Gate themes that the largest creatures on the battlefield would be the commanders of the undead horde. Or does shoot largest creature order go for size over overall power? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Fire Largest would target the Behemoths and Bane Lords first, since they're the physically largest opponents: All of the other Ermorian hordelings are of regular human size. Commanders of Ermorian hordes are very good at blending in: Mound Kings are nearly entirely expendable and often attack en-masse with their troops, and Tribunes are also free, although they tend to hang back and may be susceptible to flier attack....if the fliers don't become confused and wind up attacking the back of the front pack instead.

[Anglachel]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Anglachel:
Or does shoot largest creature order go for size over overall power?

Fire largest and attack largest target the physically largest creatures.

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Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by Anglachel:
Hrmmm, you're the guy with a lot of experience with Ermor's undead themes so perhaps you can confirm that using the "fire large creature" command would be a viable alternative if "fire rearmost" isn't an option? It seems that in Ashen Empire and Soul Gate themes that the largest creatures on the battlefield would be the commanders of the undead horde. Or does shoot largest creature order go for size over overall power? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Fire Largest would target the Behemoths and Bane Lords first, since they're the physically largest opponents: All of the other Ermorian hordelings are of regular human size. Commanders of Ermorian hordes are very good at blending in: Mound Kings are nearly entirely expendable and often attack en-masse with their troops, and Tribunes are also free, although they tend to hang back and may be susceptible to flier attack....if the fliers don't become confused and wind up attacking the back of the front pack instead.

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Ok thanks for the answers guys. One Last question. If the order is to fire on enemy archers and there are none on the battle field(abysia for instance), who will they shoot at? Will they rush into battle instead? Does the AI take over at that point?