About to start first MP game

[Ignus]

I've owned Dominions 3 for a while now, but only recently decided to get stuck into my first multi player game (10 player glory of the gods).

I'm using MA R'lyeh based heavily off of this nifty guide http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=34929 so I've got the more specific advice down. What I'm looking for is more general stuff. For instance, I've always been slightly confused as to how to place forts. Do I dot them everywhere? How many is too many? What about province defence, is it worth investing it it?

SP has made me lazy and complacent, help me tighten up!

[quantum_mechani]

You can't really have too many forts, just so long as you have enough money left over to keep up in research. Don't obsess too much about where to place them, late game often ends with more places forted than not.

Province defense 1-4 is a must to avoid scouts and Call of the Winds stealing your province, past that only buy more if you have good reason to expect an attack that PD can repel or help repel.

[OmikronWarrior]

I do not think anyone has ever written formally on forts.

But there are some rules of thumbs.

1) From the start, forts are mostly needed to start recruiting additional national commanders, especially mages to speed along research. This means placement and type are less important than build time and cost. Hence, swamp provinces (usually only 800 gold and 3 turns to build) are great places to place forts.

2) As the game progresses, more forts will be built and upkeep costs will rise resulting in less gold to spend on new commanders and troops every turn. Thus, building new forts does not result in the ability to recruit additional commanders per turn as gold is now the limiting resource.

3) Forts are excellent, albeit very expense defensive structures. Building them on particularly rich provinces or provinces with important sites can be a good investment.

4) Every nation has different types of forts with different stats. In general, high fortification is less useful than high administration and supplies, espeically if costs are equal.

[Kref]

Forts protect labs and temples from different raiders and invaders which can not hold invaded province for long. So, the obvious reason to build fort is if you need constant lab presence - to recruit indi mages from particular province - or (and) if you need a constant temple presence (if you are going to recruit some indi sacred staff or you want to expand your (or protect the income of hostile) dominion in that province).

[Ignus]

Thanks for the clearing that up.

I found another question: As an aquatic race, what do I do when I start a game in a very small area of water? Is it advisable to just cleave a way across land the the ocean and risk the other players panicking and going to war, or do you try to do it via magic? And if so, what's the best way?

[Finalgenesis]

I find that where possible sticking to coastal provinces yields the best result for Ryleth.

Players are more wary of waging war on you as your raiders from the sea can be very annoying, and logistically it's much easier to move troops between coast and Sea. Coastal province are where you can project your sea power. Whereas if you have large inland provinces the logistic becomes difficult and you become a juicier target to land nations, not to mention you can't build your core national mage/troops inland (and limited ones for coastal forts, star child + hybrids).

Unless you are playing UGWIM mod, most land nation have great difficulty attacking you in water before late game and are forced to invest heavily into such an effort, combined with no UW PD for most land nation means that they have to either invest in a lot of actual troop garrison in water or risk being raided with impunity (scouts, starchild, teleporting starspawns). To summarize, attacks into water against a settled water nation takes immense effort, most land nation can't commit to (and any such invasion will likely fail unless they are much much stronger) this during early-mid game as they have to contend with other land nations, so as long as you don't dangle too big a fruit (say a clump of inland province) and stick to where you can project and threaten with your viking tactics, you should be okay.

I'll also say if land nation do attack your land holding in force, it's usually better not to meet toe to toe unless you are clearly superior, it's much more sensible to go viking/guerrilla style and take full advantage of your sea nation status, your army lineup don't compare favorably on land to most land nations and require heavy magic/summon/thugging backup. Poke them endlessly from the water where they can't feasibly touch you, combined with good diplomacy will take you a long way. Think on Baalz's analogy, you're a submarine, they are battleships (land nations).

[Septimius Severus]

About forts, I would just add that location can be important. Placing forts at choke points, mountain passes, and/or key defensive locations is a usually good idea, of course you should consider the other factors (terrain/poptype/magic sites, etc) mentioned by the previous posters.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Ignus

Thanks for the clearing that up.

I found another question: As an aquatic race, what do I do when I start a game in a very small area of water? Is it advisable to just cleave a way across land the the ocean and risk the other players panicking and going to war, or do you try to do it via magic? And if so, what's the best way?

It's all the way up at Thaum 6, but you might have a look at http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Imprint_Souls, which can target water provinces (probably more effectively than land provinces, even.)

Also - re: forts, the other caution I'd give is that you can potentially suck away all the resources from surrounding provinces if you build too many nearby high-admin forts, which can present a problem if e.g. you wanted to recruit a mage from a magic site there.

[Ignus]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

It's all the way up at Thaum 6, but you might have a look at http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Imprint_Souls, which can target water provinces (probably more effectively than land provinces, even.)

Also - re: forts, the other caution I'd give is that you can potentially suck away all the resources from surrounding provinces if you build too many nearby high-admin forts, which can present a problem if e.g. you wanted to recruit a mage from a magic site there.

Nice! I'll be trying this one out. Up till now I'd been teleporting in 2-3 casters, blind, and spamming school of sharks. Effective but dangerous.


(P.S. Cheers for all the help so far gentlemen)

EDIT: I've been reading a bit about the spell and noticed the fatigue cost. Wouldn't that amount do bad things to the caster?

[Squirrelloid]

I should note that with Rlyeh, where possible, don't build in deep sea provinces. You get a really expensive fort that isn't worth much. Your regular sea forts are cheap, however.

Don't listen to QM about number of forts, he builds too many =)

When you can build a mage at every fort you own each turn, and have little left-over gold, you have the right number of forts.