Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dominions FOUR: Sequel to the Best Game Ever

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Nah, it's all shadow vestals. Probably not the best use of resources, but I mostly like to play around with the unique units and the sacreds.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 06:19

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# ? May 13, 2024 22:52

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Strudel Man posted:

Hm. My caster is already pretty busy with unholy blessing and powering of the sepulchre and raining and antimagicing.

That's only 3 mages' worth of spells for one turn. You have a ton of turns after that and hopefully a ton more mages. Communion up and make the most of your shared paths and very powerful holy magic (especially since Shinuyama in particular usually barely uses sacreds outside of Bakemono Sorcerers). You don't need super slow Grand Thaumaturgs, you just need a few more slaves.

e: As to the best easily-gained undead leader, it's a Revenant. They have tons of leadership and MM3, are hard to kill with things like Seeking Arrow because they have quite a lot of hitpoints, and D1 means they'll raise stuff if there's an assassination attempt, which is usually what you want to happen.

jBrereton fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 06:21

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Hm. Apostasy doesn't seem to work very well. I even gave the guys rune smashers to boost their magic penetration, and the spell succeeds only very rarely against ordinary level 1 priests.

It's okay, though. Casting antimagic at the start of the battle really cuts down on the losses from banishment.

Strudel Man fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 06:58

akulanization: Dec 21, 2013

Strudel Man posted:

Hm. Apostasy doesn't seem to work very well. I even gave the guys rune smashers to boost their magic penetration, and the spell succeeds only very rarely against ordinary level 1 priests.

It's okay, though. Casting antimagic at the start of the battle really cuts down on the losses from banishment.

Antimagic increases their mr too, so yeah apostasy probably will not work too well with antimagic.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 08:07

wiegieman: Apr 22, 2010; Royalty is a continuous cutting motion

Strudel Man posted:

Nah, it's all shadow vestals. Probably not the best use of resources, but I mostly like to play around with the unique units and the sacreds.

Shadow Vestals are great and you should use them, especially with a W9 bless that synergizes very well with their low encumbrance, but one of the huge huge strengths of Sceleria is the ability to magic up massive hordes of free skeletons with very cheap priests. That should always be the front rank of your armies once you hit midgame. You can lose 200 longdeads and not really notice.

Like, move your stack of 50 H1 indy priests to about 2 provinces behind the front, and have banes or wraith lords swinging back to pick up more chaff.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 08:29

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

akulanization posted:

Antimagic increases their mr too, so yeah apostasy probably will not work too well with antimagic.

I don't think it increases enemy magic resistance. At least, the mod inspector indicates that it only affects friendlies, and the priests that I watched it fail against only had 12 MR when it was failing, though I'm not 100% sure if I had cast antimagic by that time.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 19:44

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Antimagic only affects your own side.

Apostasy is a little unreliable but can be fantastic if you use a lot of it, especially since you actually keep what you get in its 'proper' form instead of it being an enslave-type ability where you have to GoR/Divine Name stuff back.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 19:53

Have Some Flowers!: Aug 27, 2004; Hey, I've got Navigate...

Sceleria has a built in MR buff for undead. Your Vestals should be mostly ignoring Banishment.

Apostasy is great for punishing low MR sacreds like Machaka Black Hunters, Mictlan Jags and Eagle Warriors, Tiger Riders and White Ones. It will also help you quickly break into Nature by jacking an indy nature mage while expanding.

Vestals have a tough time punching through heavy prot, and they evaporate once battle magic is added into the picture. They make early expansion super easy even without a bless, though.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:02

amuayse: Jul 20, 2013; by exmarx

Yeah, Apostasy is excellent against stuff like jags or flagellants.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:54

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

...isn't literally anything excellent against flagellants? The only thing they have going for them is their numbers. Which actually makes apostasy not that great, since it only deals with one at a time.

Anyway. Is anyone able to successfully cast Transformation? Seems like when I do it I get an error message reading "getitemfx: bad cnr"

# ? Sep 14, 2014 21:26

Turin Turambar: Jun 5, 2011

Do you know what could be cool? A spell that nullifies the sacred effect on troops temporally.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 21:27

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Seems like it would fit Ulm pretty well. Maybe instead of their 'halt heretic' effect.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 23:18

RBA-Wintrow: Nov 4, 2009; Clapping Larry

Strudel Man posted:

As far as philosophical clashes go, that one seem to have a clear-cut victor.

Incidentally, can that "reincarnate" ability do anything interesting?

If it dies in combat in friendly dominion it reappears in your cap as a slightly different unit. There is a short list of possible forms. Some more powerfull then others.
It may also "become one wih god" giving you a candle on the map but you lose the unit.

# ? Sep 15, 2014 05:46

sullat: Jan 9, 2012

RBA-Wintrow posted:

If it dies in combat in friendly dominion it reappears in your cap as a slightly different unit. There is a short list of possible forms. Some more powerfull then others.
It may also "become one wih god" giving you a candle on the map but you lose the unit.

Technically, I think it has to die of non-combat related stuff. Disease, assassin spells, and death during retreat count, whereas death in battle does not.

# ? Sep 15, 2014 12:41

akulanization: Dec 21, 2013

Hey guys, I'm looking at EA Agartha and while I want to be breaking seals and mindblasting fools, I really don't know where to go with pretender design for the nation. Anyone have words on EA Agartha things that are fun (bonus if also good)?

# ? Sep 15, 2014 20:01

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

sullat posted:

Technically, I think it has to die of non-combat related stuff. Disease, assassin spells, and death during retreat count, whereas death in battle does not.

Yeah, I gave it a try tossing a stack of gurus into combat. They all died, and nothing reappeared. Oh, well.

akulanization posted:

Hey guys, I'm looking at EA Agartha and while I want to be breaking seals and mindblasting fools, I really don't know where to go with pretender design for the nation. Anyone have words on EA Agartha things that are fun (bonus if also good)?

Well, seal guards have lots of HP, decent protection, but pretty bad attack/defense. Maybe a fire bless to let them stab folks a little better?

Strudel Man fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Sep 15, 2014

# ? Sep 15, 2014 21:04

jBrereton: May 30, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Strudel Man posted:

Yeah, I gave it a try tossing a stack of gurus into combat. They all died, and nothing reappeared. Oh, well.

The prostrat is to cast Burden of Time and win with a gigantic dompush, obviously.

# ? Sep 15, 2014 21:12

Azram Legion: Jan 23, 2005; Drunken Poet Glory

jBrereton posted:

The prostrat is to cast Burden of Time and win with a gigantic dompush, obviously.

You're missing a crucial part of this strategy: Empowering all your mages in death magic and having them all cast Twiceborn, obviously!

# ? Sep 15, 2014 21:32

tooterfish: Jul 13, 2013

Sacred monkeys are rather disgustingly long lived considering they're animals. It'll take 30 odd years before most even hit old age, the mages even more... like 50-60 years.

Must be all that clean living and meditation.

# ? Sep 15, 2014 21:34

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

After running into phoenix pyre as Sceleria, I actually had the idea of using it for a suicidal supercombatant. The spell lets you pop back up alive indefinitely as long as you remain conscious, with a big area-effect fireburst every time you die, so I figure if you toss a bunch of reinvigoration effects on someone who can cast it, you can just toss them into battle and laugh every time he's struck down until the enemy army is burnt to a crisp.

Unfortunately, it didn't work as well as all that. Unsurprisingly, you rack up afflictions like crazy. But the more immediate problem is that getting killed over and over again is really hard on morale. My two test dudes didn't actually die (permanently, that is), but they ended up running away after getting killed a couple times, after accumulating lost arms and battle frights for their trouble.

Thinking about it, it might still be somewhat viable if I made them go berserk, since I think that makes them immune to breaking. Though it also hurts fatigue, I understand. The injuries are probably a bigger problem. Could give them a wound fend amulet, but even that's not going to make much difference in the long run.

# ? Sep 15, 2014 22:07

I Love You!: Dec 6, 2002

Strudel Man posted:

After running into phoenix pyre as Sceleria, I actually had the idea of using it for a suicidal supercombatant. The spell lets you pop back up alive indefinitely as long as you remain conscious, with a big area-effect fireburst every time you die, so I figure if you toss a bunch of reinvigoration effects on someone who can cast it, you can just toss them into battle and laugh every time he's struck down until the enemy army is burnt to a crisp.

Unfortunately, it didn't work as well as all that. Unsurprisingly, you rack up afflictions like crazy. But the more immediate problem is that getting killed over and over again is really hard on morale. My two test dudes didn't actually die (permanently, that is), but they ended up running away after getting killed a couple times, after accumulating lost arms and battle frights for their trouble.

Thinking about it, it might still be somewhat viable if I made them go berserk, since I think that makes them immune to breaking. Though it also hurts fatigue, I understand. The injuries are probably a bigger problem. Could give them a wound fend amulet, but even that's not going to make much difference in the long run.

yomi.txt

# ? Sep 15, 2014 22:20

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Actually, I tried it with early-age Abysia, their super-priest-mage-guys whose name I can't recall offhand. Why, would yomi be particularly appropriate for that?

# ? Sep 15, 2014 23:51

Smerdyakov: Jul 8, 2008

Strudel Man posted:

Yeah, I gave it a try tossing a stack of gurus into combat. They all died, and nothing reappeared. Oh, well.

Well, seal guards have lots of HP, decent protection, but pretty bad attack/defense. Maybe a fire bless to let them stab folks a little better?

Do not try to make seal guards better at offense in combat, it will not work. They are an expensive, cap only, awkwardly sized unit with terrible attack value. They can be ok as walls of HP if you commit to a double bless and maybe a minor too, but trying to win battles with them is a huge waste of resources.

EA Agratha has a super simple path ever since their patch:

1. ABU-- Always Build Ulms.
2. For other stuff, from early to late it should go: trogs + indie chaff + magma children ----->earth elementals + living mercury + cavegrubs +buffs----> living mercury + umbrals + summons + thugs + buffs. Add combat magic throughout laying the groundwork for mass earthquakes and spamming elementals, but don't go nuts with bladewind or flying shards early because you'll hurt your own guys severely.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 00:02

Neruz: Jul 23, 2012; A paragon of manliness

Smerdyakov posted:

Do not try to make seal guards better at offense in combat, it will not work. They are an expensive, cap only, awkwardly sized unit with terrible attack value. They can be ok as walls of HP if you commit to a double bless and maybe a minor too, but trying to win battles with them is a huge waste of resources.

EA Agratha has a super simple path ever since their patch:

1. ABU-- Always Build Ulms.
2. For other stuff, from early to late it should go: trogs + indie chaff + magma children ----->earth elementals + living mercury + cavegrubs +buffs----> living mercury + umbrals + summons + thugs + buffs. Add combat magic throughout laying the groundwork for mass earthquakes and spamming elementals, but don't go nuts with bladewind or flying shards early because you'll hurt your own guys severely.

You forgot to mention Magma Eruption; a significant amount of EA Agartha's midgame cap mage recruitment should be going towards Oracles of the Subterranean Fires because they can Earthpower and then Magma Erupt for about 10 fatigue which is absolutely brutal for midgame battlemagic. (They can magma erupt out of the box but if you earthpower first they do it at 1/4 fatigue and get reinvig to spam it even more.)

# ? Sep 16, 2014 01:10

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

I mean probably my advice is trash, since I'm not good at the game at all and I mostly look for ways to make sacred units into awesome fighty mans, but he asked about pretender design, not general strategies.

edit: Speaking of awesome fighty mans, it's shocking how much better a fire blessing is for archers than an air blessing. Most of the air blessing seems like it's aimed at archers, what with the +precision, +range...but that doesn't really help you actually land a hit, particularly if you have decent precision in the first place. But 6 points of armor-negating fire damage? Sheesh. I picked a Solar Disc for LA Caelum, and a volley of fire arrows just destroys whatever it's aiming at. Earthbounds in the front to soak up returning fire and fight in melee if necessary, iron hail archers in the back to pound them every turn.

Of course, I could probably duplicate that entirely with the Flaming Arrows spell. But, yeah.

Strudel Man fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Sep 16, 2014

# ? Sep 16, 2014 01:23

Kitfox88: Aug 21, 2007; Anybody lose their glasses?

nerf blowpipe pd it's too stronk

my lightning bolt casters did more damage to my own ranks than they did the dragon, those blowpipes carried the battle on their backs like true heroes :patriot:

# ? Sep 16, 2014 03:20

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

I do like the epithets that you can have. Including how bizarre they often are. I got Lugal'dimmerankia, the Kindly One, King of Agriculture...and Eater of Filth.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 03:47

Eschatos: Apr 10, 2013; pictured: Big Cum's Most Monstrous Ambassador

Strudel Man posted:

I do like the epithets that you can have. Including how bizarre they often are. I got Lugal'dimmerankia, the Kindly One, King of Agriculture...and Eater of Filth.

That combination actually makes sense. He's just really into fertilizing his fields for maximum crop yields.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 06:42

Have Some Flowers!: Aug 27, 2004; Hey, I've got Navigate...

Kitfox88 posted:

7w 5d dragon

Someone's researching Thaumaturgy~

# ? Sep 16, 2014 15:14

GenericOverusedName: Nov 24, 2009; KUVA TEAM EPIC

Strudel Man posted:

I do like the epithets that you can have. Including how bizarre they often are. I got Lugal'dimmerankia, the Kindly One, King of Agriculture...and Eater of Filth.

One of the ones for my pretender in SoreLosers is 'the Windbag'.

Also, RIP super chill goast dragon.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 16:06

Inexplicable Humblebrag: Sep 20, 2003

Strudel Man posted:

I do like the epithets that you can have. Including how bizarre they often are. I got Lugal'dimmerankia, the Kindly One, King of Agriculture...and Eater of Filth.

That sounds like fire/nature with order scales, and the eater of filth kinda makes sense in that situation if you think of "eater" as "get-rid-of-er".

Beverage/Bewerage is still the weirdest one.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 16:12

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

Have Some Flowers! posted:

Someone's researching Thaumaturgy~

He's lemurs though so he's terrible at it. It's ok.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 16:18

amuayse: Jul 20, 2013; by exmarx

Please murder anyone that claims the throne of beats.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 16:46

Nuclearmonkee: Jun 10, 2009

amuayse posted:

Please murder anyone that claims the throne of beats.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 16:53

Libluini: May 18, 2012; I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...; Grimey Drawer

Have Some Flowers! posted:

Someone's researching Thaumaturgy~

Not anymore. Instead I'll have to set my level 3 death mages to call god for a couple turns. (They're secretly also level 3 priests. :ssh:

)

Also I've learned to use a bit more chaff next time. Overall, it doesn't look to bad. Right now it's a race until someone can overcome my dragon in a more reliable way then depending on blowpipes. (I think I set most of my chaff on attacking archers instead of closest to prevent this from happening again.)

Of course, it also helps that evil ghostly ghastly Lemuria is fighting the broken wet dream of Illwinter that is Ragha, so dogpiling me would just mean handing Ragha the game.

At this point I should also point out that Ragha can summon a lot of BOT-immune mages, so helping Ragha to get at my death games would be doubly painful for everyone else. It's like two Lemurias fighting to gently caress up the world first. :v: