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Your lobo guard are pretty much the best chaff in the game for acting as blockers for your rearguard mages and mindblasters. Illithids can lock down big powerful targets by spamming them with mindblast to keep them paralyzed so your troops can get at them. I think people are also fond of using their crab hybrids but i havent played with them in Dom4 yet. Pretender wise you could go for some good scales to complement your gold hungry and resource cheap troops so sloth can work well, tank your temp scales because they dont matter underwater so its free points there. I have no idea how luck would work underwater i imagine there wouldnt be as many events so going luck probably wont get you much. Otherwise you can go for a simple supercombatant or perhaps an early researcher to give you any magic diversity you feel you need but once again underwater so a ton of spells wont ever actually come into play. This is my awful advice.
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 18:50 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 03:28 |
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UberJew posted:Dom4 doesn't even appear to have come with a manual
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 18:54 |
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UberJew posted:Using this mention of R'lyeh as a flimsy excuse for a segue I've just joined the waterworld MP game (all UW nations from all ages in an all-water map) as MA R'lyeh at the behest of a friend, despite having not played any Dom4 yet and having never played MA R'lyeh in Dom3. Like LordLeckie said, lobo guards are really efficient chaff. I know MA R'lyeh was considered the strongest UW nation in normal dom3 games, but in an all UW dom4 game I'm not sure. You definitely need an awake expanding pretender. The Kraken and sea dragon are probably the best ones. Sloth 3 is obvious because their good troops take negligible resources. Also everyone should remember that shallow sea provinces are only very slightly affected by temp scales, and deep see provinces aren't affected at all, so they're pretty much free points.
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 19:51 |
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UberJew posted:Using this mention of R'lyeh as a flimsy excuse for a segue I've just joined the waterworld MP game (all UW nations from all ages in an all-water map) as MA R'lyeh at the behest of a friend, despite having not played any Dom4 yet and having never played MA R'lyeh in Dom3. Well here is a list of all spells castable by MA R'lyeh underwater. Probably want to take this into account when designing a pretender for a game that takes place completely underwater. From glancing at the list there is probably not much need to worry about diversity. Hint: don't take blood.
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 19:53 |
LordLeckie posted:Your lobo guard are pretty much the best chaff in the game for acting as blockers for your rearguard mages and mindblasters. They die extremely quickly under any kind of pressure, since R'lyeh tends to be short on really high N mages to cast all of the cool battlefield troop enchantments, and they require magic leadership, so you can't get any scrub indie commander to pick them up without adorning them in equipment. I've always been partial to Fir Bolg as general purpose blockers/chaff. OK, they're 13g, but they have good MR, morale, solid attack and defence (11 after shield reduction, 15 including the parry, but that's not quite the same any more), more HP than most human-sized units, extra strength and so on. On temp scales for underwater nations, C3 is usually a good call anyway to increase the power of various water evocation spells and leverage cold-aura Death summons you have reasonable access to in the drink. jBrereton fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 20:50 |
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The nice thing about Lobos and Shamblers is that they don't retreat.
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 20:52 |
If everyone is underwater, I guess I'd avoid picking an SC, because underwater troops tend to hit like a truck full of trucks (especially Oceanian ichtycentaurs), and also tend to have relatively good morale or be mindless, and there's a lot of net access down there, so your Wyrm or Kraken or whatever can get mauled even with Awe +2, and you never want to get excess priests just to call your god back. MA R'lyeh is actually pretty bad if it doesn't have a bunch of time to itself, and underwater-only evocation/enchantment is not that hot, so you're in a bit of a rough spot. You're probably going to want to rush Thaum 2 for Mind Burn, but I'm not sure how effective that's going to be against anyone that isn't the other two R'lyehs (since they're likely to spam a lot of Lobo Guards which are mindless, which I'm not sure is a very good idea if your mages can't cast anything terribly interesting for ages and ages) or EA Atlantis (shite MR). Early on, I guess your best spell is going to be Earth Meld which any E Starspawn will be able to use in a communion with Star Children/each other even without E2, but it's going to knacker them out for maybe not that much effect if you don't have much to follow it up with (other than Shambler Thralls/Crab Hybrids, you kind of don't, because your non-magical slave units are unreliable due to how bloody underwater combat usually is). Pretender-wise, maybe something like an awake Dominion 7 Ghost King, E4D4, scales O3S1C3D1L3D1. You don't want to be too short on production if you find some Ichtyids early on, because those are the shiznit; the game is probably going to be short enough that the Death won't matter too much (assuming you're using the usual ~15 provinces per player); and O3L3 offers some of the best events in the game, as well as protecting you from most of the worst effects of taking Death/Drain. The ethereal freespawn is going to help you out against anyone without magic weapons, no question, and R'lyeh has the undead leadership on quite a lot of Starspawn to make use of it. E4/D4 also allows you to get right up the Death and Earth chains as well as providing early battlemagic with Earth Meld for 20 fatigue and most of the skellyspam in the game right out of the gate. jBrereton fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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# ? Jan 23, 2014 21:17 |
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Is there a list - even an out of date one - of sites and their effects anywhere? Kind of wanted to see which ones were unique, and what lets you recruit what. Also I'm still a pretty big newbie at this game, but other than Wishing for population, which is hardly viable, there's no real way to increase the population of a province, correct? No 'Wild gently caress' spell or whatever to help give the population a boost.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 04:16 |
Growth scales obviously but I don't recall anything other than random events.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 04:18 |
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Yeah, thought so. I'm not such a newbie that I didn't know about the scales, though. Just was wondering, once the game was begun, if there was any way of boosting it. Seems kind of odd, given how fertility rituals and talismans and magic are such big things in most cultures and in traditional religious and mythological ceremonies.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 04:27 |
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:Yeah, thought so. I'm not such a newbie that I didn't know about the scales, though. Just was wondering, once the game was begun, if there was any way of boosting it. You could justify this by imagining that growth scales improve the health of your people, thus increasing your population of adults, while any sort of jump in birthrate would take 15ish years to really have an effect on your adult population, at which point the game is (hopefully) done with.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 04:32 |
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There's a Blood spell called Blood Fertility (B2/N2) at research level Blood 4 for 10 slaves + a number of extras to set the duration of the spell. It is supposed to increase 'the fertility of the land'. As far as I can tell from a bit of testing, what this actually means is that it gives you +2 growth scales* in the province it is cast in for a number of turns equal to the number of bonus sacrifices. Multiple instances of Blood Fecundity on a single province don't add to the growth levels. Gift of Nature's Bounty, in spite of it's flavor text, doesn't seem to add any population growth. *This means you go from 3 death to 1 death, or 1 death to 1 growth, etc. Not really a worthwhile spell for most people, as I see most blood powers suggest taking growth scales anyways, and it only goes in one province per cast. Still, if you happen to take only growth 1 or worse on a blood/nature nation you might look into casting it in your capital and maybe other high income provinces.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 04:56 |
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I did it. I have no idea what I'm getting into but I bought the game, signed up for the game service, and did a few test runs. Only one way to go from here!
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 10:44 |
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Apparently thrones are listed in province number order in the thrones screen. This info is going to get spread around and once you know it it's very hard to un-know, so I might as well post for everyone now. e: would also not be surprised to see this bugfixed in the future
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 12:59 |
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UberJew posted:Can anybody give me a breakdown on pretender creation and basic strategy for these guys? This Guide is for Dom3 but most of it is still applicable, note that while it says its for LA as well it's actually an MA guide.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 14:17 |
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So I'm trying to cast Hidden in Snow in a cold mountain province but it tells me it's the wrong terrain for the ritual. Is it because it's also a forest province?
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 21:58 |
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It may still be hosed up and require mountain terrain rather than the much more commonly used border mountain terrain.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 22:00 |
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dis astranagant posted:It may still be hosed up and require mountain terrain rather than the much more commonly used border mountain terrain. Welp, that would also be it. Goddamn, it seems like none of the mountain graphic provinces actually have mountains instead of border mountains.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 22:10 |
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Randomly generated maps use one or the other (there's a checkbox for it) and quite a few of the available maps are just dolled up random ones so poo poo happens. Pretty sure border mountains are even the default.
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 22:18 |
I finally tried random maps. They generator is surprisingly fun! I am on a peninsula in a huge map as Tir na nog with an awake fire dragon. After kicking off Berytos and absorbing Kailasa, I am bullying my way up the peninsula to the rest of the map fighting a two front war against Oceania and Machaka. I am beelining to Wish because my first site search was an alteration site. On of these days I will do multiplayer! So Esuboten is an excellent nation that I forget isn't vanilla now. Are there other nation mods with that high a quality?
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 22:25 |
How do you feel about 29 protection dwarfs?
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# ? Jan 24, 2014 22:33 |
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Quick question: What level of magic and technology is required to be able to make those mechanical arms I've heard so much about? Since my white Minotaur commander managed to lose his arm in a battle, and I don't want the #1 living combatant in the game to have an impairment such as this; especially not when there are so many battles going on that he could tip the scales in. Also, I've got another question, now that I think about it - what's a good general-purpose army composition for Pangaea? Since at the moment I'm using a core of Satyr warriors (double line, attack closest) with Cantaurites (or whatever they're called) lined up behind targeting large monsters or cavalry, and a flanking force of Minotaurs (double line, hold+attack rearmost) and the commander up at the far/top end of the formation. However, I feel that they could be more effective against some of my enemies, but aren't. (I'm versing Ermor, Helheim, Odo, and POSSIBLY another) Thanks
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 01:12 |
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Major Isoor posted:Quick question: What level of magic and technology is required to be able to make those mechanical arms I've heard so much about? Since my white Minotaur commander managed to lose his arm in a battle, and I don't want the #1 living combatant in the game to have an impairment such as this; especially not when there are so many battles going on that he could tip the scales in. It's a "copper arm", you need Construction 6 and a E3F1 dude to build it.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 01:16 |
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So, just finished my second of three planned single-player learning games before giving MP a go. First one was MA Man and Flaming Arrows; the second I've just finished was EA Lanka, learning about the wonders of dual-blessed sacreds and trying to put together a blood economy (also ended up with "holy hell now I understand what people were saying about Forge of the Ancients that thing is ridiculous"). Took me a bit longer than it probably should have done to really get going on that, but I think I've got the basic idea at least (and I did finish the game off by cloud trapezing a variety of geared Dakini and Mandehas onto the final throne, so I must have got somewhere presumably). So now I want to explore the late age, and I was thinking that the remaining thing I really need to do is Astral magic and communions, since I ignored Sabbaths as Lanka (probably should have used them to boost my Air battlemagic, but eh, ). I've also not played a nation with any substantial Earth, though in both games I've managed to get into it in a small way (a single E5 caster in each case and a few lower ones). So who should I play as, to give me another different experience? (I doubt I have the patience for doing the micro for any of the freespawn nations).
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 02:20 |
LA Agartha has Astral and Earth, and some quite interesting national summons, as well as solid-ish light troops, they might be worth a shot. Arco has inconsistent Earth but lots of Astral, but its troops are kinda shonky.
jBrereton fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jan 25, 2014 |
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 02:31 |
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Hoplites are decent. Unless you're talking about EA Arco, which doesn't have anything that great except Wind Riders.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 03:15 |
amuayse posted:Hoplites are decent.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 03:20 |
jBrereton posted:30 res and MM1 in an era with a lot of pikes and hard-hitting ranged weapons, though, when LA Arco has no A to cast Arrow Fend etc. with. Yeah use their armored elephants with a phalangite arrow screen. LA arco elephants are the best with their heavy armor and priestesses to clear limp/cripple/battle fright.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 14:51 |
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Nature magic increases age right? If I have a national hero that for some reason I think is the amazing and wanted him to live a bit longer, would empowering him via nature magic do the trick? How about giving him a magic item that increases nature magic?
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 20:17 |
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I wouldn't be surprised if it only worked when the unit is first generated but I have not tested it.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 20:29 |
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Excelsiortothemax posted:Nature magic increases age right? If I have a national hero that for some reason I think is the amazing and wanted him to live a bit longer, would empowering him via nature magic do the trick? How about giving him a magic item that increases nature magic? Dryad at N1: Dryad empowered to N2: Same happens when you start with no nature magic. Empowerments + other increases to N will alleviate old age penalties, but you need at least some nature magic to use boosters.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 20:38 |
Nuclearmonkee posted:Yeah use their armored elephants with a phalangite arrow screen. LA arco elephants are the best with their heavy armor and priestesses to clear limp/cripple/battle fright.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 21:32 |
jBrereton posted:Lot of early charm spells for animals, though. Charm Animal is thaum 5. Panic, Terror, false fetters, prison of fire, paralyze etc are really the goto for early elephant murder. Regardless, you can get plenty of mileage well into year 2 and most people aren't going to be researching thaum early. Arco also has easy access to berserking spells to negate any attempt to hit their morale which are usually the first counters to enter play. If you are still leaning hard on elephants later than that, you are doing it wrong. However, I still like to stick a couple with an indie commander on guard to soak spells even into the late game.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 23:35 |
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Excelsiortothemax posted:Nature magic increases age right? If I have a national hero that for some reason I think is the amazing and wanted him to live a bit longer, would empowering him via nature magic do the trick? How about giving him a magic item that increases nature magic? Or gets boots of youth from blood forging.
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# ? Jan 25, 2014 23:39 |
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The one thing that worries me about buying mammoths/elephants is that I sometimes get the feeling I'm throwing all my gold into a bottomless hole.
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# ? Jan 26, 2014 00:06 |
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amuayse posted:The one thing that worries me about buying mammoths/elephants is that I sometimes get the feeling I'm throwing all my gold into a bottomless hole. Well sure they're not a real long-term investment but you can put that bottomless hole in any one of the 15 provinces they effortlessly bulldoze through.
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# ? Jan 26, 2014 00:09 |
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Just do a 1 for 1 Mage elephant ratio when you buy them. That way your not letting your magic power dwindle while still keeping some HP tanks.
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# ? Jan 26, 2014 00:41 |
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Also, I figured out that you can't be an expansionist dick to other players if all you're relying on is elephants. I pissed off Agartha and their Olms hosed me up. Even Atlantis trashed me with their shamblers of all things.
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# ? Jan 26, 2014 02:18 |
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Penguingo posted:Dryad at N1: Each path in nature increases maxage by 50%, each path in fire decreases it by 5% to a maximum of -5 years per path, each path in death increases maxage for undead dudes (I don't know why either) and decreases the chances of getting afflictins due to old age for living dudes. Neruz fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Jan 26, 2014 |
# ? Jan 26, 2014 03:49 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 03:28 |
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Esubonten "DinoMod" v0.06 Available After taking into consideration feedback here and at the Dom4mods forum I have a new version of the EA dinosaur-centric mod ready to go. The changelog looks like this: v0.06 posted:* Added head butt attack that is a near copy of weapon 300 but with the #bonus tag and flat damage. This weapon only applies to the hadrosaur as a mount. Additionally I changed the kente of the cavalry units to make it easier to distinguish man from hadrosaur, and I swapped out the old triceratops sprite. The new one may need some more tweaking but after a long break from working on these sprites I'm not ashamed of it so in it goes. Thanks for the feedback from the last round, and I hope you enjoy playing with the new version!
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# ? Jan 26, 2014 04:34 |