Post by samt on Oct 19, 2015 17:30:55 GMT
Sidenote: "I was planning to do the Niefelheim article first but my computer crashed right before I finished so I need a break from that."
Dominions 4 is a strategy game based on warring gods trying to become the supreme god of the world via extermination, ascension, or conversion. Towards that end each pretender god will lead a nation towards victory by commanding them, setting research goals and casting certain spells that would be hard to reach otherwise. Each turn is a month and there are seasons that occur that might help or hinder your nations as well as a variety of events that can occur.
Pretender concept and design
I was thinking about writing this in, but I feel Zinegata on Desura sums it up really well
www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions/forum/thread/primer-pretender-design
The key eras of play and the basic goals in each
Early Game
Early game is one of the most micro intensive periods for dominions 4 due to the sheer volume of things that have to be done to win. The reason being that your nation is at its weakest, being a single province surrounded by independent nations you have to "convince" to join your nation. The rate you want to expand at is one territory per month minimum and much more if possible. The reason being that your nation has three main items it needs to win the Ascension war: gems, resources, and gold. Gems are given from magic sites you find in your provinces, events, or population if your trying to use blood magic. They are needed for all sorts of spells such as higher battle magic and the multitude of ritual spells that will aid you. Resources are found in every territory but vary based on the terrain, level of unrest, your scales, and population. They can be gathered by an adjacent fortress and become the hard cap on the amount of troops you can recruit in that fortress each turn. Gold is well it should be obvious but they recruit troops, train mages, pay for mercenaries, and fund all your building projects till you get access to very powerful ritual spells. It is also affected by terrain, unrest, scales, and population. All of these will increase if you have more territory so it is almost always beneficial for you to have more of it. Other than conquest you have to keep recruiting troops to fund more conquests and to reinforce your expansion parties as they inevitably take casualties and form your border guard as they approach the expanding borders of other nations. This is the golden age of troops so any army that can outfight others without magic support will be strong at this time. Mercenaries are also highly contested at this time due to them being recruitable in any territory you own provided you can outbid everyone else. Since many nations can take a quarter to half a year at times to reinforce their expeditions, non mage veteran mercenaries are incredibly valuable. You also need to focus on training mages to research key magic spells needed for upcoming conflicts with other growing nations. To this end you have to build fortresses when possible to make your territory harder to take and to increase the amount of mages you can produce as most nations need at least a fortress and a lab to recruit mages in a territory.
Midgame
The first real fights between nations occur here as most nations do not have the capabilities to fight an extended campaign without plenty of men, money, material, and mage support. This typically starts during the second year as independent territory is running out. The key here is to give your armies enough mages with useful spells to win battles but still leave enough at home to continue researching higher tier spells to in turn use on your foes. You also need to send mages out to search for magic sites or bloodhunt if your a blood magic user in order to increase your supply of magic gems to in turn summon more troops and cast the larger spells your researching. Every nation will have different combinations and knowledge of magic paths and it is up to the player to know what spells will be most effective out of the multitude that exists. This without a doubt is the hardest part of the game to pick up due to the necessary forehand knowledge of spells, their effects and their effectiveness against your enemies. It is also the longest and most decisive time in the game so it is worth learning the ins and outs of your nation during this period of gameplay intimately.
Lategame
This period of the game is subjective as it is not a specific time but a situation that arises when you have researched all the spells you need. This is determined by your pretender and all available mages including the summoned ones. At this point you have to go all out because there is no longer a need to hold mages in reserve to research. Throw every spell and dirty trick you can in order to win the game cause there is likely another nation whose late game is more delayed but stronger. Its do or die time.
Basic Victory conditions
There are typically three main ways to win a game. The first is to claim enough thrones of ascension on the map and gain enough victory points to win. The number of points needed is determined before the game starts. Furthermore not all thrones are equal with some being worth up to three times the points compared to others. All thrones spread dominion when they are claimed and they usually give some kind of extra effect that can be beneficial or harmful depending on the nation your playing. The second is to wipe out all other players dominion on the map. This can be done with temples, massive numbers of priests preaching your religion, or blood sacrifice for the few nation that can do it. The third and final is the most simple as it simply is conquer every piece of territory owned by your enemies.
With this and Zinegata's Pretender Guide you should be able to cobble together a second to third rate strategy that you can improve upon till you kick my teeth in should we play against each other.
Dominions 4 is a strategy game based on warring gods trying to become the supreme god of the world via extermination, ascension, or conversion. Towards that end each pretender god will lead a nation towards victory by commanding them, setting research goals and casting certain spells that would be hard to reach otherwise. Each turn is a month and there are seasons that occur that might help or hinder your nations as well as a variety of events that can occur.
Pretender concept and design
I was thinking about writing this in, but I feel Zinegata on Desura sums it up really well
www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions/forum/thread/primer-pretender-design
The key eras of play and the basic goals in each
Early Game
Early game is one of the most micro intensive periods for dominions 4 due to the sheer volume of things that have to be done to win. The reason being that your nation is at its weakest, being a single province surrounded by independent nations you have to "convince" to join your nation. The rate you want to expand at is one territory per month minimum and much more if possible. The reason being that your nation has three main items it needs to win the Ascension war: gems, resources, and gold. Gems are given from magic sites you find in your provinces, events, or population if your trying to use blood magic. They are needed for all sorts of spells such as higher battle magic and the multitude of ritual spells that will aid you. Resources are found in every territory but vary based on the terrain, level of unrest, your scales, and population. They can be gathered by an adjacent fortress and become the hard cap on the amount of troops you can recruit in that fortress each turn. Gold is well it should be obvious but they recruit troops, train mages, pay for mercenaries, and fund all your building projects till you get access to very powerful ritual spells. It is also affected by terrain, unrest, scales, and population. All of these will increase if you have more territory so it is almost always beneficial for you to have more of it. Other than conquest you have to keep recruiting troops to fund more conquests and to reinforce your expansion parties as they inevitably take casualties and form your border guard as they approach the expanding borders of other nations. This is the golden age of troops so any army that can outfight others without magic support will be strong at this time. Mercenaries are also highly contested at this time due to them being recruitable in any territory you own provided you can outbid everyone else. Since many nations can take a quarter to half a year at times to reinforce their expeditions, non mage veteran mercenaries are incredibly valuable. You also need to focus on training mages to research key magic spells needed for upcoming conflicts with other growing nations. To this end you have to build fortresses when possible to make your territory harder to take and to increase the amount of mages you can produce as most nations need at least a fortress and a lab to recruit mages in a territory.
Midgame
The first real fights between nations occur here as most nations do not have the capabilities to fight an extended campaign without plenty of men, money, material, and mage support. This typically starts during the second year as independent territory is running out. The key here is to give your armies enough mages with useful spells to win battles but still leave enough at home to continue researching higher tier spells to in turn use on your foes. You also need to send mages out to search for magic sites or bloodhunt if your a blood magic user in order to increase your supply of magic gems to in turn summon more troops and cast the larger spells your researching. Every nation will have different combinations and knowledge of magic paths and it is up to the player to know what spells will be most effective out of the multitude that exists. This without a doubt is the hardest part of the game to pick up due to the necessary forehand knowledge of spells, their effects and their effectiveness against your enemies. It is also the longest and most decisive time in the game so it is worth learning the ins and outs of your nation during this period of gameplay intimately.
Lategame
This period of the game is subjective as it is not a specific time but a situation that arises when you have researched all the spells you need. This is determined by your pretender and all available mages including the summoned ones. At this point you have to go all out because there is no longer a need to hold mages in reserve to research. Throw every spell and dirty trick you can in order to win the game cause there is likely another nation whose late game is more delayed but stronger. Its do or die time.
Basic Victory conditions
There are typically three main ways to win a game. The first is to claim enough thrones of ascension on the map and gain enough victory points to win. The number of points needed is determined before the game starts. Furthermore not all thrones are equal with some being worth up to three times the points compared to others. All thrones spread dominion when they are claimed and they usually give some kind of extra effect that can be beneficial or harmful depending on the nation your playing. The second is to wipe out all other players dominion on the map. This can be done with temples, massive numbers of priests preaching your religion, or blood sacrifice for the few nation that can do it. The third and final is the most simple as it simply is conquer every piece of territory owned by your enemies.
With this and Zinegata's Pretender Guide you should be able to cobble together a second to third rate strategy that you can improve upon till you kick my teeth in should we play against each other.