Ermor / Ashen Empire: How to get dominion ?

[Ragnarok-X]

Well, see the topic. Im having HUGE problems to get dominion when using the Ashen Empire theme. I was using start dominion of 6 and though my prophet and god were wandering the near provinces i lost dominion very fast and thus was not able to get more units.

thanks for the help !

[Master Shake]

Build temples! In every province.

[Graeme Dice]

You need both a high starting dominion of around 9 or 10, and as many temples as you can afford. You'll also want to protect your temples with castles, as 200 gold is a very large expense for Ermor. This also has the benefit that each castle acts as a auto-recruiting centre for your longdead velites, longdead horseman, and with a temple, the Knights of the Unholy Sepulchre. To get this gold, I recommended using your troops to pillage any newly conquered provinces, and to alchemize fire gems. You can improve your fire gem income greatly by searching with a fire dusk elder that has built himself a skull of fire.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Ragnarok-X:
Well, see the topic. Im having HUGE problems to get dominion when using the Ashen Empire theme. I was using start dominion of 6 and though my prophet and god were wandering the near provinces i lost dominion very fast and thus was not able to get more units.

thanks for the help !

Well .... 6 is perhaps low for Ashen Empire, especially in a MP game where your opponents are probably going to have at least 5 or 6 themselves. Since Dominion makes your troops, I don't think I'd try Ashen Empire with less than 7 or 8, especially since you should have about a thousand points to spend once you are through with scales. (Remember, AE and SG have no use for any scales except, maybe, Magic and Luck.)

The other thing to do is build temples. Temples increase dominion; just as importantly, every 5 (or 6?) temples you build raises your maximum dominion by 1. Build some temples near your borders to aid offensively; build more back from the front lines, where they're less likely to be razed by the enemy. Again - you won't, shouldn't, be buying troops, so you don't have much to spend gold on except for temples, forts, a couple of labs, and maybe some independent mages if you find really good ones.

[LintMan]

Another (but harder to do) way to help with Ermor dominion: If you can get some living units as holy/unholy priests, they can preach even though your undead ones can't.

It seems that if you purchase the standard independent H2 priests they become U1 unholy priests. Even with a temple they can't boost your domion very high, but they can help a bit with negative dominion. The big problem is that 50 gold plus their upkeep is a lot for Ermor to spend for a U1 priest, and other indy mage/priests cost even more.

There's Contact Harbinger, giving a 2A/3H Harbinger, and later on, Angelic Host, which gives a F3/H4 Arch Angel if you can swing the necessary 3S or 5S to cast them. (I don't know if they convert to unholy)

Another later-game summon, the Coatl is a very useful 3S/3N/3H for 40 nature gems and no upkeep, if you can find a spectre or something to cast it. (Again, I don't know if it converts to unholy-2 or something).

I wonder if Telestic Animations can preach for Ermor? (and if they keep their H3 or convert to unholy?)

In my SG Ermor game, I receieved an H3 priest (unfortunately with a batch of militia) as a lucky event. He was still H3, not converted to unholy.

Other thoughts:
- Go after enemy temples when you spot them. Try using the remote attacks like Arouse Hunger and Ghost Riders if they are in weakly defended provinces.
- Stone Idols can help pull down enemy dominions.
- For late game, Juggernauts can help spread dominion as well, if you can cast/afford them.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by LintMan:
There's Contact Harbinger, giving a 2A/3H Harbinger, and later on, Angelic Host, which gives a F3/H4 Arch Angel if you can swing the necessary 3S or 5S to cast them. (I don't know if they convert to unholy)

Another later-game summon, the Coatl is a very useful 3S/3N/3H for 40 nature gems and no upkeep, if you can find a spectre or something to cast it. (Again, I don't know if it converts to unholy-2 or something).

These summons don't become unholy.

I wonder if Telestic Animations can preach for Ermor? (and if they keep their H3 or convert to unholy?)

I think I remember having an unholy Telestic, but I forget whether it was holy-3, unholy-3, or unholy-2.