Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?

Meglobob · #1 October 6th, 2006, 04:27 PM

This is a new feature of dominions 3, I think it adds a lot of new strategy to pretender creation. What r yr thoughts on it?

I have only played the demo 1 day and the full game 1 day, but here r some thoughts about it.

If u r going to create a SC, the pretender should be awake. A SC pretender is most useful at the beginning of the game, when he can on his own or with a little help conquer indies, expanding yr empire very fast early in the game. He can further be developed then over time by magic items, spells etc...

A bless strategy, means u can go dormant or imprisioned, as yr sacred troops still get there blessings. Also this means yr pretender will have at least one powerful magic path lvl 9 or 10 usually, so he should be designed to be primarily a strong spellcaster. By the time he comes out of prision, u should have researched a global enchantment or high level summons, so is impact on the game is powerful and immediate.

Pick a figurehead pretender, ie ...crone with zip, imprisioned, good strategy she can't die! Then spend points on really high dominion and fantastic scales ie... +3 order, growth, luck, productivity and magic. It would be nice, once released that yr figurehead pretender could be given stealth to keep her out of trouble/harms way. The crone would only be good for spreading yr dominion and transporting troops.

I am pretty new to dominions what do u think? What cunning ideas have formed in yr head? Please share.

Archonsod · #2 October 6th, 2006, 04:29 PM

Use imprisoned, max out the beneficial scales (with possibly a decent bless, depending on nation) and conquer the world with your national troops.

Works quite well as a 'rush' strategy. Twice with EA Ulm I've managed to win the game before my Pretender broke free.

Nerfix · #3 October 6th, 2006, 04:33 PM

Depends on the situation and what I am trying to achieve.

I'm sort of partial to Dormant.

st.patrik · #4 October 6th, 2006, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Nerfix said:
I'm sort of partial to Dormant.

Me too - imprisoned takes so much longer, yet that for 100 points more vs. dormant's 150 points (over awake that is). I just started a Late Man game with a dormant pretender with decent (but not awe-inspiring) magic, plus mostly maxed out scales - thought about going imprisoned, but I got enough with dormant so it didn't seem necessary.

tibbs · #5 October 6th, 2006, 04:41 PM

Im playing eary era jomon and they have poor research so I chose that god that gives a bonus to research and gave him a rainbow setup. Seems to work pretty well.

Gandalf Parker · #6 October 6th, 2006, 05:00 PM

I think you have it down pat. Awake for a god that is useful early on. Dormant for blessings. And imprisoned for gods that you dont plan to ever really use.

Dormant also saves me from myself. I tend to kill my god by using him too early. Making him dormant insures that I have a nice elite force ready to accompany him.

Tortanick · #7 October 6th, 2006, 05:08 PM

Am I the only one who likes gods with both good scales & good magic (normally high in air for precission and maby one other) even if I have to wait 3 years for it.

DominionsFan · #8 October 6th, 2006, 05:13 PM

Quote:

Archonsod said:
Use imprisoned, max out the beneficial scales (with possibly a decent bless, depending on nation) and conquer the world with your national troops.

Works quite well as a 'rush' strategy. Twice with EA Ulm I've managed to win the game before my Pretender broke free.

I doubt that it would work too well. I prefer Dormant. Worked like a charm in my MP game today.

Endoperez · #9 October 6th, 2006, 06:16 PM

Yep, many strategies. Dormant pretender, any of them, really helps research. On the other hand, good scales helps everything whole time.

For the scale-heavy pretender, something with high starting dominion is a must. Oracle and the Fountain of Blood, and the more expensive immobiles, are all good chassises for scales bless.

PDF · #10 October 6th, 2006, 06:39 PM

I'm rather Dormant, as it gives approx the points we used to get in Dom2 !

That's not a good rationale though, so there are others :
- unless you want/need an early SC, Awake gives you a rather weak pretender and/or scales.
- Dormant gives +150 points and you'll have your pretender in 10-14 turns, so still in early game.
- OTOH If you go Imprisoned you get only 100 more points, and won't get him before 35-40 turns, that's looong, and unless you go for a really big bless you can go without...