Turn 6 This was always going to be a quiet turn of course. No new sites found and that's sad an- oh god an event on my cap please don't let it be free thinkers. I don't want population loss or cap unrest on turn goddamn 6  oh whew false alarm I'm just popular.  Cry me a river, buddy. also i see i didnt get the mercs who did get the-  motherfucker I also see that TC got some other aquatic mercenaries but if he comes underwater I will absolutely eat his face.  Anyway the turn overview and hey who is that over there?  It's uh, good ol' Phlegra played in this game by Ewie. Phelegra is a wild ride to play in my experience. You get some huge cool thugs in the Tyrants and some weird nifty communion mages and slaves who you can use to cast big spells in combat in a sort of cumbersome way. You can freespawn slave troops using the Tyrants too. They have a lot of downsides though. They are unwieldy to use, their Tyrants cause unrest and recruiting free slaves is mage turns your Tyrants might want to better spend some other way. You don't have any sacred troops but to be honest if you DO have a good blessing you can forge shrouds for them to wear so that they get it regardless. Playing Phelgra I felt like I was always barely keeping it together and on the brink of collapse but also weirdly strong where I wanted to be? It was a mess. They seem to be pretty far from the coast for now which suits me fine.  So looking at that land province in my cap circle I think I can actually take it and there isn't much recourse for someone to take it back from me between the only two land connections to it being a throne and a mountain pass. With my cold scales it should be impassable most of the time. So in a possibly sub-optimal move I will leave my amphibious closed realm sacreds in my capitol while I recruit even more amphibious troops while my water-only army goes for the kraken province. I bring a shambler along with so I can have him start a fortress off of a subsequent expansion. You usually want to have a second fort done or near to done by turn 12.  Here are the amphibious troops I am recruiting.  They will be led by a Conqueror of the Closed Realm. These sacred priest-mage-warrior guys are a cap-only recruit. They are an h1 mage so they can bless troops, and also come with a point of either astral, earth or air. They can lead a bunch of troops are are pretty good.  I'm not made of resources and money yet so I pad out my army with a lot of these guys. They are chaff without much survivability. They have almost no protection and extremely average defense and stats. Between the nets and the poison spears they can tangle up enemy armies long enough for the real troops to do the job I hope.  And that is the turn. There are no mercenaries to bid on and my spending is limited by 'resources' so I can't spend all my gold this turn. It will sit in the bank for now. All units have associated costs to hiring them. In Dominions 4 it was 'gold' representing you know, just paying the drat dudes, 'resources' which was arming them. Now we also have 'recruitment' points. Recruitment points represent manpower I suppose but I don't especially care for it and I don't think I've found anyone jazzed about their addition yet. It tends to mean that population loss can impact recruitment caps in a province. In practice if you have 3 different pools limiting your recruitment ONE of them is probably going to be annoyingly low. I will say that the maybe one positive to the addition of recruitment points is that it disincentivizes casting massive population killing globals like Burden of Time for most nations. Even if your troops are immortal elves the province population loss begins to put the hurt on your troop recruitment. Maybe. Sacred units have an additional resource they take called 'holy' points which is a function of your dominion strength and maybe we will get into that later. But next time lets kill some trolls and stuff!
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Mar 29, 2019 11:08
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Ramc posted:They can't hire indie priests to summon skeletons anymore though, as they made 'reanimator priest' a unit tag rather than a nation one. Trading that for the ability to recruit 2 cultists per turn from forts was very much a trade in Sceleria's favor.
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Mar 29, 2019 11:25
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my dad posted:Trading that for the ability to recruit 2 cultists per turn from forts was very much a trade in Sceleria's favor. The painful thing is that those priests are competing for recruitment with your actual study wizards. Research is a pain point with Sceleria.
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Mar 29, 2019 13:27
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Sceleria is mind-numbingly painful to play due to having to create commanders for that endless supply of undead chaff, but also interesting to play in that their armies start to operate more like a fluid than like usual discrete groups. You really do point a skeleton hose at people and wait for them to drown.
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Mar 29, 2019 15:30
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 Better Down Where It's Wetter: Water Blesses The way blesses function, and we might get into more specifics later, is as a function of the magic paths on your pretender god which go from about 0 to 10 in any given path. You buy them up with design points at creation and the higher the path you are buying the more expensive it gets. If you have 4 or more dots in a path you get bless points to spend equal to your path rating. If you have water 3 you get 0 bless points, if you get water 4 you have 4 water bless points. This isn't hard and fast- some nations get bonuses to certain paths but that isn't really ground we're covering here. Here we are checking out water blesses.  Here are your options, friends. The addition of a scale next to the cost means you have to have at least that much in the scale. Some blesses require you to have cold scales, you see, and Quickness wants a magic scale. Are water blesses good? Is anything good? Let me make some snap gut judgements here. Minor Cold Resistance At a cost of 1 water point it offers 5 points of cold resistance to sacred units. If you have leftover bless points, go wild I guess. A side benefit of cold resistance is that you take less additional encumbrance from very cold weather. Winter's Gift At a cost of 1 water point all your sacred units have snow move. In Dom5 units take additional movement penalties going through a (land) province with cold scales if they don't have snow move. It requires cold scales of course. It's okay if your nation can handle snow in general as only your sacreds get the buff. All your non holy dudes have the trudge through the hip deep powder like all the other scrubs. I got this as Pelagia because I had 1 point left over and thought I might be able to leverage it with my cold scales. Water Walking All your sacred units can cross rivers. For 2 water points. Rivers are impassible for non-amphibious troops in warm weather so I guess this could be okay for someone but I wouldn't get it personally. It's too map dependent. Major Cold Resistance Same as minor but 10 protection instead. It costs 3 points. Cold damage isn't so prevalent I'd consider it normally. Defense Skill Flow like water in an extremely Bruce Lee voice. This grants +2 defense for 3 points. That's not too bad as getting hit isn't great. I picked this up as Pelagia as it helps my already tanky sacreds. The minimum water bless points you can have is 4, so if you are just dipping your toe in you end up with what feels like an awkward amount to spend between these options here. Frost Weapons In what I think is a recent change since the start of this game Frost Weapons are now 4 points and no longer incarnate. Your weapons do an additional 8 cold damage when blessed. I would have seriously considered buying this instead of defense+winter's gift but alas it was more expensive when this game started. Cold is a pretty commonly resisted damage type against some of the more annoying enemy troop types (the undeaaaaad) Chill Aura An aura of fatiguing cold surrounds your sacred troops and also grants the troop 10 cold resistance so as they don't self-own. Enemy units in a radius that expands or contracts with cold or warm weather scales take fatigue damage if they are not resistant to cold. This can pair well with a tanky sacred who can tire out enemy troops. As it is Incarnate you need your god to be alive and awake for this to work. Many of the good blesses that would help with expansion necessitate your god being awake for said expansion meaning there is more creation point tax to bear. Chill Aura is a cool bless if your troops can swing it. Maybe not optimal, but cool. Water Breathing The infamous water breathing bless is fraught with peril and also is basically a war declaration versus any aquatic nation existing in the game. That said sending your water breathing god into water out of candles will result in your god losing his or her or its water breathing power and thus drowning. And if your god dies all incarnate blessings go down incarnate blessings such as water breathing and now all your water troops are dead and your invasion of Atlantis has taken a TERRIBLE TURN. 7 water points is a LOT and really not worth it unless you have a real good reason for it or you want to do some real silly stuff. Quickness Quickness is Real Good. Double attacks and move speed bonus attack and defense it has it all but it is also REAL EXPENSIVE. The magic scale just makes it even more expensive because you can't tank your scales for it. On some troops it turns them into absolute terrors but it is a huge investment and having it from turn one means you are gonna have to make sacrifices. Any bless requiring 10 dots is suspect just from cost alone but you... could do it I guess. Water is a mostly 'ok' bless path. It suffers- as almost all bless paths do- of having weird math kind of pigeonhole you. The game in general could do to have their bless lists fleshed out for variety's sake.
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Mar 29, 2019 17:45
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the genius ramc trying to talk about quickness as if it's a balanced blessing and not the root cause of elf degeneracy
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Mar 29, 2019 18:37
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Normal Adult Human posted:the genius ramc trying to talk about quickness as if it's a balanced blessing and not the root cause of elf degeneracy What a Dominions 4 way of thinking.
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Mar 29, 2019 18:48
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i'm from la marignon and i say put em to the torch
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Mar 29, 2019 19:21
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Normal Adult Human posted:the genius ramc trying to talk about quickness as if it's a balanced blessing and not the root cause of elf degeneracy While I'm tempted sometimes, I tend to go for the more sillier options when playing elf nations, so I never used quickness. I'd rather putting on airs, ha ha 
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Mar 29, 2019 19:48
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Ramc posted:The painful thing is that those priests are competing for recruitment with your actual study wizards. Research is a pain point with Sceleria. True, but you'll be making GBS threads out forts what with all the gold leaking out of your ears and not much else to spend it on, and will be able to quickly catch up. You don't actually need much research to be able to support your skeleton hordes adequately early on. Corbeau posted:Sceleria is mind-numbingly painful to play due to having to create commanders for that endless supply of undead chaff, but also interesting to play in that their armies start to operate more like a fluid than like usual discrete groups. You really do point a skeleton hose at people and wait for them to drown. Undead command blessing is a thing, and it makes indie priests useful again. But yeah, the "micro" is Ermor/Lemuria level of UGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. I should probably stop posting about Sceleria at this point. 
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Mar 29, 2019 20:22
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my dad posted:I should probably stop posting about Sceleria at this point. Sir Not Appearing in This LP
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Mar 29, 2019 20:26
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it's good to know W9 chainsaws still exist and are still Good and Balanced
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Mar 29, 2019 20:59
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ChickenWing posted:it's good to know W9 chainsaws still exist and are still Good and Balanced What nations get the extra water bless point to do this, as opposed to needing W10?
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Mar 29, 2019 23:53
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LA Mictlan does for sure.
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Mar 29, 2019 23:54
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Honestly, I'm kind of interested in what nations get extra bless points in general.
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Mar 29, 2019 23:56
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I honestly found Quickness to be kind of overkill on elf nations. Their elves will kill the everliving poo poo out of regular units with a much lighter bless anyway.
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Mar 30, 2019 00:14
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Corbeau posted:I honestly found Quickness to be kind of overkill on elf nations. Their elves will kill the everliving poo poo out of regular units with a much lighter bless anyway.  Lord Koth posted:Honestly, I'm kind of interested in what nations get extra bless points in general. Not as many as you'd think or hope. Off the top of my head Marignon gets bonus fire, astral AND blood. Agatha gets an earth bonus and Mictlan gets a few random bonuses. I wish more nations had bonus points. Also more blesses. Also I wish the bless system had like 1 or 2 more steps of polish and diversification.
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Mar 30, 2019 00:40
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Ramc posted:Not as many as you'd think or hope. Off the top of my head Marignon gets bonus fire, astral AND blood. Agatha gets an earth bonus and Mictlan gets a few random bonuses. I wish more nations had bonus points. Also more blesses. Also I wish the bless system had like 1 or 2 more steps of polish and diversification.
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Mar 30, 2019 01:05
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Are Jaguar Warriors still ultimate bless-carriers?
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Mar 30, 2019 01:06
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the ultimate bless carrier is probably jotun wolves or something, mictlan suffers very badly from the addition of a third kind of resources that their forts are poo poo at
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Mar 30, 2019 01:27
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Did they ever fix basic things like multiple nations having nation summons they have no natural path into?
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Mar 30, 2019 01:33
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goatface posted:Did they ever fix basic things like multiple nations having nation summons they have no natural path into? That's a feature, not a bug.
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Mar 30, 2019 01:41
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goatface posted:Did they ever fix basic things like multiple nations having nation summons they have no natural path into? no, caelum still exists and people will tell you they're a good and fun nation with totally earnest hearts
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Mar 30, 2019 01:57
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violent sex idiot posted:the ultimate bless carrier is probably jotun wolves or something, mictlan suffers very badly from the addition of a third kind of resources that their forts are poo poo at Their defense and protection is low enough they tend to die easily though.
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Mar 30, 2019 02:04
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low def/prot/hp is actually a good thing because it means you can take luck and be invincible
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Mar 30, 2019 02:40
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goatface posted:Did they ever fix basic things like multiple nations having nation summons they have no natural path into? Search your heart, friendo.
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Mar 30, 2019 03:05
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Going through this makes me want to play Dominions 5 again, but I just started playing Conquest of Elysium 4 a couple of months ago, and honestly I think I prefer the CoE version of these games, the vaguely roguelike mechanics with more emphasis on maneuver and logistics vs programming the best battleline really appeals to me.
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Mar 30, 2019 03:58
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scavy131 posted:Going through this makes me want to play Dominions 5 again, but I just started playing Conquest of Elysium 4 a couple of months ago, and honestly I think I prefer the CoE version of these games, the vaguely roguelike mechanics with more emphasis on maneuver and logistics vs programming the best battleline really appeals to me. There's also the fact that there's less micromanagement when it comes to troop placement, as all your units have assigned positions that make sense. Still about the same amount of micro headache when it comes to nations with freespawn, like the Dryad.
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Mar 30, 2019 05:42
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violent sex idiot posted:the ultimate bless carrier is probably jotun wolves or something, mictlan suffers very badly from the addition of a third kind of resources that their forts are poo poo at damage also spills over into jaguar form so being crushed by a meteor or giant will kill them instead of making them angrier
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Mar 30, 2019 09:26
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What's the meta in 5? Judging by how blesses work now I guess year 1 heavy blessed sacred rushes are out of favour. I really want to get back into Dominions but I don't have the time 
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Mar 30, 2019 11:47
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In dominions 5 they changed turns to be simultaneous right? Whereas in dominions 3 it was defender first then attacker, repeat ad nauseam? right? or am I wrong about this? The reason I ask is because... I wonder? How does this effect quickness? Getting to attack twice before the enemy could do anything at all was amazing in dominions 3 (you almost always struck first because you moved so much further than the enemy). In dominions 5 do quickness attacks get interrupted by enemy attacks? Or does every unit in the battle go one at a time? Meaning each quickness unit gets both of it's attacks in, then one enemy unit goes? then another quickness unit goes? Being that this is the first dominions 5 let's play, and dominions 5 seems to have a lot of new features... well... I guess I'm curious about how some of that minutiae works. Mostly because I have no clue! That said, it kind of feels good to be in the dark, rather than an addict who singleplayer simulated battles in dominions 3 in preparation of multiplayer battles wasting hours per turn until I almost went insane.
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Mar 30, 2019 12:33
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Normal Adult Human posted:low def/prot/hp is actually a good thing because it means you can take luck and be invincible I thought Luck only helped against the first successful hit?
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Mar 30, 2019 13:17
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namad posted:In dominions 5 they changed turns to be simultaneous right? Whereas in dominions 3 it was defender first then attacker, repeat ad nauseam? right? or am I wrong about this? Correct I'll get into that at some point. Ynglaur posted:I thought Luck only helped against the first successful hit? That's Twist Fate a different astral bless.
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Mar 30, 2019 14:09
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Turn 7 Two new events but first we have a brawl with some underwater big boys.  Yeah so this is not remotely scary to the trained Dominions eye.  A giant kraken should by rights be scary as hell thematically but it has less protection than an armored soldier and an abysmal 7 defense. It has 4 attacks which is something of course but they are of average accuracy. A kraken is going to get mobbed down really fast with a defense score like that. If you want one to be scary you really need to buff it or give it a bunch of crazy equipment.  Sea trolls are bricks of hit points who regen and regen even better underwater. But they are really big (Which isn't good) and have a single attack with very low accuracy. If your defense is a few points higher than the enemy's attack they are unlikely to hit. This guy has a 9 to hit and our KNIGHTS OF THE DEEP have something like 20.  They also have this nerd. A w1 mage yeah good luck buddy that's going to stop a charging seahorse with a grudge on a mission from god.  Absolutely annihilated.  Flawless victory. There was even a site that gives me an earth gem per turn on it too. I probably could have done this with a lot smaller force to be honest but better safe than sorry. On to events so lets see...  UNDER DA SEA... UNDER DA SEA was performed, I assume.  That's actually kind of a lot of water gems.  So here is the map view. You can see my scout found Phelgra's capital province. He hasn't cleared his cap circle but also neither have I.  I prep my land squad.  And rename its commander appropriately.  I have lots of money so I am gonna hire a l a r g e b o i and also some more amphibious troops just in case.  This is what I am going for. Triton Kings are sort of interesting and sort of weird. There is a lot going on here. They are EXTREMELY good water mages with W4 base. Then the game rolls two more times to see if they get an additional level of astral, air or nature. Then there is a 10% chance they get an extra level of water, astral, air or nature. They can turn 4 water gems into 4 pearls as a mage turn and also passively summon a hippocampus or two every turn if they are in your dominion candles. They are pretty extra.  I am also hiring better mermen. Wave Warriors are going to be a staple of of armies because they are just all around decent, massable and amphibious. They hit hard enough and have reasonable protection. They're good, friends.  Anyway we move armies out further and ideally will set up a fort. What is going on in chat anyway. (samog = jsoh here) quote:samog So sounds like C'tis and Vanheim found each other. quote:Ari Sounds like good times for I think Shinuyama??? Well we will see if that is so when scouts find them. Ramc fucked around with this message at 14:15 on Mar 30, 2019 |
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Mar 30, 2019 14:11
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There are a handful of "independent brigands/knights/peasants/etc" attack your province to remove your unjust rule type events. Putting IIRC 6 points of PD basically negates all but the very worst of them. Try and put PD down when you expand, friends.
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Mar 30, 2019 15:45
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How are u posted:There are a handful of "independent brigands/knights/peasants/etc" attack your province to remove your unjust rule type events. Putting IIRC 6 points of PD basically negates all but the very worst of them. Try and put PD down when you expand, friends. That's when the game glares at you and spawns one of the larger barbarian invasions instead. Or, if it really hates you, Mr. Troll Hero and his merry band.
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Mar 30, 2019 17:06
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Lord Koth posted:That's when the game glares at you and spawns one of the larger barbarian invasions instead. Or, if it really hates you, Mr. Troll Hero and his merry band. Man, this brings me back. Back to the time when multiple barbarian invasions wiped out my early gains and locked down my cap. One of the very few times I set myself AI in the early game It also taught me to never ever max out the bad luck scale ever again
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Mar 30, 2019 17:13
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Wave warriors suck. 13g for a troop with middling prot, low ap and no shield and they’re hard to mass cause lmao uw resources. Turtle men have a shield and are far easier to replace while being better at the job of getting in the way for wizzzards
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Mar 30, 2019 17:15
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Are Assartuts (or however it's spelled) still good? Or did the bless changes dumpster them.
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Mar 30, 2019 17:21
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wiegieman posted:Are Assartuts (or however it's spelled) still good? Or did the bless changes dumpster them. They’re still decent expanders but you can’t rely on tiny baby cap only sacreds in LA beyond early game
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Mar 30, 2019 17:28
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