Let's Play Dominions 6: Tir na n'Og is truly, truly outrageous

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play Dominions 6: Tir na n'Og is truly, truly outrageous

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

Let's Play Dominions 6: TNN is truly, truly outrageous

New video LP time! Recently, I finished my last video LP about a cute little trilogy of Disney SNES-games, and when Illwinter, the developers of the fantasy strategy series Dominions, released their 6th part, I wanted to do this as my next VLP.

The idea to what exactly, I want to play as, came after a long night of listening to the awesome music of Jem and the Holograms, and here we are: TNN is all about elves, who like to sing, and have the brand new magic path of Glamour attached to them. They're glamorous, they're elves, they're outrageous

In other words, the perfect fit to transport Jem to Godhood. Or is that Godesshood? Anyway, for weeks now I've been stockpiling videos to see if this would be a multiplayer or a solo affair (for the uninitiated: most of the fun in a game of Dominions is seeing what insanity the other human players are coming up with). But to the dismay of all things sane, I actually survived far enough to make this adventure worthwhile.

What the hell is a Dominions, 6?

Dominions is fun! But also a bit overwhelming. The principle sounds simple: Create a GOD, take CONTROL of a fantasy empire of weird dipshits, conquer the world and make your creation the Supreme Ruler of Creation.

Turn for turn, you'll order armies, scouts and mages around, put and script armies, scouts and mages. Priests do priestly things in the name of your "pretender", as the game calls it (as you haven't won, yet). New units and commanders (including scouts, priests and mages) have to be recruited, fortifications built or expanded, magic has to be researched and finally, whenever your armies clash with the enemy, the game dutifully calculates your scripted orders during turn procesing and gives you a little video to watch next turn. So you can see in detail where you hosed up.

Eventually, everything devolves into battlefield-wide combat spells clashing, while even more titanic global spells gently caress over the very world the current game plays in.

The current game even has tools to make your pretender gods and the maps for their wars. There's even a lobby now in case you just want to hop in into some rando's hosted game!

All of the above becomes stupefyingly complex as a game processes, only held in check if you play ridiculously small maps or play solo, as it's tradition in many strategy games, the AI is, of course, very bad.

Apart from new magic, like the new "Glamour"-path of illusions a mage can potentially have, the 6th game also added some diplomacy feature. So at least in a solo game, you can set a game up to enforce diplomacy rules, and then trick AI-controlled nations into peace treaties. A nice upgrade to older games, where a solo-game sometimes devolved into feeling like you were fighting a bunch of extremely stupid, but relentless terminators.

Anyway, if you want to know more,

-Links

Dominions Thread: The OP contains a lot of Info, and the people posting here can help, too.

Dominions Discourd: Our official Dominions-Discord. For talking and organizing games.*

*Added a perma-invite. Hopefully this works!

Libluini fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Feb 24, 2024

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 20:20

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 04:01

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

-Updates

Jem! 00: Intro and First Turn

Jem! 01: The game is still young

Jem! 02: More Firbolg Attrition

Jem! 03: Kill Horses

Jem! 04: Elf Maneuvers

Jem! 05: Illusion of Time

Jem! 05: Elf�

Jem! 06: Expand the Elfrealm

Jem! 07: Mekone Must Die

Jem! 08: Kappa is my friend

Jem! 09: Water: The Final Frontier

Jem! 10: Meet the Caelums

Jem! 11: Magic, Mekone and More

Jem! 12: Elfs vs. Giants

Jem! 13: The Mekonian War

Jem! 14: Mekone Strikes Back

Jem! 15: Contemplations

Jem! 16: Double Deep Strike Action

Jem! 17: Mekone, Trapped?

Libluini fucked around with this message at 15:27 on May 14, 2024

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 20:20

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 00

Well, let's get this show on the road. First video, first turn. And yes, because I now people will ask questions, the full intro is just for the first video. I just really like the music, OK?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDPjOPurfa8

If you enjoy this at least 10% as much as I enjoyed making it, I consider this a win.

Libluini fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Feb 24, 2024

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 20:20

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

Turin Turambar posted:

I've never played TNN, so it will be interesting to see what you do with them.

I can only guess Jem will be the Pretender. Rainbow or Titan chassis?

It's not much of a secret, considering Jem is a titan of music

(I found a nice titan chassis that did what I wanted it to do)

# ¿ Feb 24, 2024 21:46

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 01

Another update, before the work week will take over most of my attention again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO5A1q4uy-8

We're still at the very beginning, so most of what I talk about in this video is, I think, best described as "vague future plans".

# ¿ Feb 25, 2024 14:43

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

Mokotow posted:

So as I understand it, putting the slingers line behind but detached and to the left of the warriors line left them open for a frontal attack. If they were fully behind the warriors, they would have been less likely to get curbstomped and lose 18, right?

What I find challenging in the beginning is setting up the Dominion. I guess it makes sense to have the dominion strength maxed out, but hell if I know if it needs to be super hot or lucky.

Hopefully I remembered talking about it in one of the future videos, but slingers are easy to replace: Cheap in money, resources and recruitment points. They're also rather short-ranged for a long-ranged missile unit. They'll always struggle competing with real archers. They make good bait, though!

If you look closely at the battle, you see my line infantry throwing spears into the dumbasses attacking my slingers from behind, then closing into melee-range to roll them up from the side.

Consequently, my basic, still non-elf infantry looses 1 soldier and kills 23. The massacre was so complete, the sacred Tuatha Warriors I put into that army didn't even get to do anything.

Positioning matters.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2024 17:15

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 02

Luckily for you all, my last VLP taught me probably planning around my crazy work place demands, so I actually prepared some videos in advance, back on Sunday. No 6 months waiting on the next episode here, I promise. :lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT_RGZhzpr0

My quest to attrit my starting army down to nothing continues. How many deaths this time? Watch and find out!

# ¿ Feb 27, 2024 19:31

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 03

Welp, the last of my prepared stash. Back to the editing mines for me. :shepface:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOe475Xe48Y

Question of the day: Since Elves are unrelenting assholes, are my Fantasy World War I tactics actually justified?

# ¿ Feb 29, 2024 20:30

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

Qylvaran posted:

I don't know if it's been done before in Dominions LPs, but I've always thought would be a neat idea: Show the prep work for a turn and the results of that turn in the same update. For players there's a time gap, and the results of the previous turn lead right into the next turn, but LPs are usually played some number of turns in advance anyway. I think it would make things easier to follow and flow better to have cause and effect grouped together that way.

Regardless, Dominions LPs are fun to read. This is the first Dominions VLP I'm tuning in for, and I'm interested to see how it goes.

I'm trying to do this by editing turns together whenever possible. It's just, sometimes things slip me by, or a final video approaches a full hour already, and I really don't want to add even more stuff on top.

Also sometimes prepwork doesn't pay off for multiple turns, and since I'm making recordings several weeks removed from editing and uploads, sometimes I just am plain too dumb to remember what I was the hell talking about. Then I just edit things kind of haphazardly together and hope for the best.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2024 19:26

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 04

New Update!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM-zv-nESJ0

In Dominions 5, I would often Elf Expand with "groups" of 2-4 Sidhe Lords. As in, just the commanders using their Bless Powers to demolish everything. In this game, I slowly learn that Dominions 6 upgraded independent defenses a bit too much.

Luckily, I keep having Elf Lords survive the dumbest poo poo, thanks to the new rider + horse mechanic. Hits that should end my highly expensive cavalry instead just kill the horse, and Elf Lords get their animals back for free.

Anyway, for me the end result of the changes are more maneuvers, as I have to spend more time shuffling troops and commanders around then usual with Elf Nations. On the other hand, "normal" for Dom5 was also me expanding so fast I'd run into 3-4 players at the same time, resulting in a panic dogpile. :v:

Overall, the changes to Dominions 6 made me reconsider a lot of the insane risks I would sometimes take with high bless, bad scales strategies, and therefore not all my games end in under a year anymore.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2024 20:12

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 05

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUXUxD49Pm8

Finally, we discover our neighbors for real. The Elf Way.

Edit: Also marvel at my ability to gently caress up even the easiest editing tasks, the corrected video is down below.

Libluini fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Mar 8, 2024

# ¿ Mar 7, 2024 18:07

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

silentsnack posted:

Am I tripping or are the turns in reverse order here? Or maybe Winter happening before Early Winter is just some kind of elf bullshit?

Oh poo poo, you may be right. I was getting a fever when I was editing this batch of videos, and must have reversed those two turns somehow.

I'll redo and re-upload the video tomorrow.

Thank gently caress I decided to keep the individual recordings I made (I just move the ones I no longer need into a big folder labeled "processed").

# ¿ Mar 7, 2024 21:12

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

silentsnack posted:

Am I tripping or are the turns in reverse order here? Or maybe Winter happening before Early Winter is just some kind of elf bullshit?

Turns out that this error was even weirder: The source video was just both turns straight after another, so apparently, when I cut out a lengthy middle part where I was just patiently waiting for the turn end calculations to finish, I then actively switched both turns around.

Lesson for the ages, kids: Don't work a computer when you have a fever! :shepface:

(The repaired video is already rendering and will go up later today.)

# ¿ Mar 8, 2024 12:19

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 05 (Take Two)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUjr6vi88DA

The turns are now back in their correct order.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2024 14:01

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbFosJPmJmI

More early game expansion!

# ¿ Mar 11, 2024 23:11

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

Veloxyll posted:

How goes the diplomacising at this point of the game?

You've got the elfs you accidentally wiped out their expansion army of and your other neighbours

At that point it was a bit too early for that. And I was already sizing up Mekone for conquest, so I judged talking to be of not much use. I did talk to Vanheim's player for a bit, since that bump was really funny (like one of my Elf Lords just trying to solo the enemy on his own, or Vanheim's units just running forward piecemeal and getting suckered)

There'll be more diplomacy in the future, don't you worry.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2024 21:08

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 07

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCdUDM08hGo

The early game phase slowly comes to a close, as I cruelly start planning our first real war.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2024 19:11

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

Mokotow posted:

How far are we behind the game?

Something like 30-40 turns at this point. But the game just ended, so we're now steadily moving up.

silentsnack posted:

I'm guessing you eventually remember that shedlord doesn't necessarily have to keep limping around forever?

If you're talking about afflictions, I think I "remembered" that at some point in the late Dominions 3 era, so it has been a couple years that I've known about this.

Now, will I actually talk about afflictions some more?`

(Yes)

# ¿ Mar 14, 2024 18:54

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jidADPMRhKU

Our expansion on land may be blocked now, but there's still water

what do you mean, elves can't breath under water?

Edit:

By the way, in this update our Goddess awakes, and I totally fail to talk about the central point of this entire LP. Oops!

Libluini fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Mar 29, 2024

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 20:44

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 09

Sorry for the delay! My work week was awful, and I came home late all the time, so the editing work has backlogged a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nre0orSkL7w

The SEA! Unending horizons! But also: Evil, brainwashing fishes. Huh. Maybe we should stay away instead?

# ¿ Mar 22, 2024 18:49

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evFttJeIJkw

Two new neighbors join the circus: Meet Caelum and Arco!

Also, more troop movements for our war with Mekone.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 13:19

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 11

It's the Easter Days! Rejoice, for celebrating our own real life pretender arising from the grave draws near! (Does this mean Jesus had death paths?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnwawzaHVuU

The preparations for the invasion of Mekone reach their final stage, and I actually show my pretender for a bit and talk about magic. Me, being competent for once? Don't worry, it won't last.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 17:14

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL_y6UytYcM

Preparations are over. Elf vs. Giant, who will win? TNN troops are crossing the border, the War of Mekonian Liberation has begun.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2024 19:34

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWC4yQ586o8

The war against Mekonian aggression continues. Despite Mekone deploying the time-honored tradition of dumping a bunch of money into province defense, they can't stop us. For now, we are winning.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2024 21:13

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

Dominions 6: Jem! 14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCftyn1BtnU

Mekone took a couple turns to react to our invasion, but now it's time for: Mekone strikes back!

# ¿ Apr 21, 2024 14:39

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

silentsnack posted:

Yes I was talking about the guy with a couple of afflictions and I was specifically referring to the fact you explicitly pointed out your god is a Healer(1), but you just set her to research and apparently immediately forgot about her. Which makes it even funnier several turns later that you're searching your provinces for recruitable healers and conclude you can't heal afflictions, when you already can.

Oh, that was what you meant!

Yeah, it must have somehow slipped my mind to mention that I don't bother healing afflictions if the opportunity-cost is too high and they're not that bad. A mage that limps can still cast spells, after all.

Of course with Sidhe Lords, there's a certain mechanic that makes being crippled easy to ignore, as long as the animal they're riding isn't crippled, too.

We'll probably see this in later updates, since I've now created a whole bunch of walking Sidhe Lords. :v:

# ¿ Apr 21, 2024 19:18

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

Sorry it took so long for the next update, I'll try to go back to a regular 3 videos a week schedule.

Dominions 6: Jem! 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtrevtVIHkw

War, war is hell. In this case, we take a step back and evaluate our options.

# ¿ May 1, 2024 20:22

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

Next update!

Dominions 6: Jem! 16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgGI9wlCJvA

Mekone tries a deep strike with giants. Meanwhile, my own armies conduct a deep strike to cut off their retreat. Which of these two idiots will win the day? Stay tuned!

# ¿ May 7, 2024 22:52

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

Next update!

Dominions 6: Jem! 17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbzHViA1rF0

The deep strike has failed. It is now the Elf Year 1942, and the inevitable World War 2 comparisons begin. Can Mekone still turn things around? Stay tuned!

# ¿ May 14, 2024 15:26

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 04:01

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

Slaan posted:

I haven't played 6, but I vaguely remember you saying that going into twilight naturally destroys magic buffs/effects. Does the twilight spell do the same? Because all those blurs wouldn't matter if it does

Uh, no. But Twilight doesn't work if you try casting it at night or if there's an unnatural source of brightness around.

I also debuffs everyone with -2 precision when active, in addition to the +1 Glamour to all glamour mages. (The debuff doesn't work on units with Darkvision or True Sight)

So there's a tiny risk that if the game decides to have a night battle, you're hosed. Also, beware of astral nations and other sources of too much light.

Important to memorize: Elfs and caves do not mix. Darkness, magical or otherwise, also counters Twilight.

What you're possibly thinking about is me mentioning that there's another glamour spell that progresses Twilight into Night, which immediately breaks your +1 Glamour buff.

# ¿ May 15, 2024 21:57

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