Anime Dominions 4 Codex Noober PBEM

[Muty]

For those who don't know, you can also see some scores over here:
http://www.llamaserver.net/showScores.cgi?game=IHNIWID

Meh, that was fun while it lasted.

I'll take good care of your people. They will all find happiness underwater.

Die in a fire.

 

[Dayyālu]

Turn....turn 17.... and everyone bar Oceania and Agartha still with their cap only? That's not good, children of the Gods.

This is destroying my idea that Dominions is not too complex. And if vet players could help the newbies instead of pointlessly discussing about Misfortune barbarian attacks that would be great, or maybe it is too much hassle? Guys, the Dom4 LP on the playground explains a lot of the starting points, plus the manual, guides on Desura or old LPs in the Let's Play Archive can give you an idea of what are you doing.

Fortresses are very important as places of mage recruitment. Get fortresses up in good places, where you can maximize resources: remember that fortresses obtain the resources of nearby provinces and can thus let you rectruit more resource intensive national troops. Or "good indies", if such a thing exist. Plus, they have the traditional role in strategy: place fortresses in chokepoints, places you would defend (Thrones, good sites). But it is important to build them FAST! Some guides that I've read and the two games I've played prove that you should start building your second fortress on turn 4 or even 5. So you can recruit faster more expansion parties, more mages for research and site searching.

 

[Norfleet]

So fortresses are still as important as they were in 2, eh? I pioneered the YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS fortress strategy of turning my lands into a concretium jungle which would thus require you to take a minimum of two turns to take any of my clay from me, giving me the time to mount a response to it. Very few people ever managed to take any of my clay as a result.

 

[Grimwulf]

And if vet players could help the newbies instead of pointlessly discussing about Misfortune barbarian attacks that would be great, or maybe it is too much hassle?.

Hey, don't blame me.

On the other hand, I'm feeling kinda guilty participating in this, having some experience in Dominions. Coz other dudes don't bother building at all:

Spoiler

And Vanheim doesn't seem to know how to use PD. I kid you not: he hires units every turn in every province, but doesn't hire PD at all (not even PD 1).

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No offence meant, underwater trannies still love them gay vikings!

You don't expect me to copy/paste entire manual in here, do you? I point out their mistakes to the best of my ability.

Also, you should script your Rockheart to cast Flying Shards instead of smiting. Ordering E4 caster to Smite is just a waste.

Argh the curse of Ulm. All the money in the world, but lack of resources, but that steal Armour is Lovely.

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You do know that Ulm smiths povide resource bonus, right?

Ulm doesn't use halberds? Being Agartha's neighbor?

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Let's see his comment on this:
"Real men do not need PD", - he told our interviewer. It's not what we were asking, but okay.

Those who can hear will listen, or whatever they say.

 

[Malakal]

Forts are super important mkay. Build the cheapest ones and as many as possible, preferably in rich provinces and not next to each other.

There are SOME nations that dont NEED a lot of forts but they never hurt.

Good benchmark is having another fort under construction before year one ends.

 

[Grimwulf]

I am still willing to pass my nation to any newbie who REALLY wants it. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to participate in this, after all.

Hell, I can even relieve Vanheim's capital from my sieging forces. If one particular Viking God made me a proposition

 

[Grimwulf]

Sigh. I guess I'll have to do all diplomacy myself.

Muty, if you send me 30 earth gems, I'll resend my turn right now, ordering my units to go back underwater. More so, I promise not to attack you until turn 36 (end of year 3), unless you attack me first. That includes sirens, rituals, etc. - no agressive actions. Codex be my witness. All you have to do is choose "send magic gems" in "send message" menu, and send 30 earth gems to Oceania, should be easy.

Spoiler

You can resend your turn anytime you want, and redo them as much as you want, untill all players send their turns. Once new turn hosted - it's too late. So you've gotta tell me if you agree or not BEFORE you send your turn to llama

Deal?

 

[Muty]

Sigh. I guess I'll have to do all diplomacy myself.

Muty, if you send me 30 earth gems, I'll resend my turn right now, ordering my units to go back underwater. More so, I promise not to attack you until turn 36 (end of year 3), unless you attack me first. That includes sirens, rituals, etc. - no agressive actions. Codex be my witness. All you have to do is choose "send magic gems" in "send message" menu, and send 30 earth gems to Oceania, should be easy.

Spoiler

You can resend your turn anytime you want, and redo them as much as you want, untill all players send their turns. Once new turn hosted - it's too late. So you've gotta tell me if you agree or not BEFORE you send your turn to llama

Deal?

Deal, but I'm not sure that I have 30 earth gems.

 

[Grimwulf]

Sigh. I guess I'll have to do all diplomacy myself.

Muty, if you send me 30 earth gems, I'll resend my turn right now, ordering my units to go back underwater. More so, I promise not to attack you until turn 36 (end of year 3), unless you attack me first. That includes sirens, rituals, etc. - no agressive actions. Codex be my witness. All you have to do is choose "send magic gems" in "send message" menu, and send 30 earth gems to Oceania, should be easy.

Spoiler

You can resend your turn anytime you want, and redo them as much as you want, untill all players send their turns. Once new turn hosted - it's too late. So you've gotta tell me if you agree or not BEFORE you send your turn to llama

Deal?

Deal, but I'm not sure that I have 30 earth gems.

You have 3 e.gems/turn right from the start. It's turn 17, so you should have them even if you spend them like a madman. Ok, resending my turn right now (withdrawing).

 

[Muty]

Sigh. I guess I'll have to do all diplomacy myself.

Muty, if you send me 30 earth gems, I'll resend my turn right now, ordering my units to go back underwater. More so, I promise not to attack you until turn 36 (end of year 3), unless you attack me first. That includes sirens, rituals, etc. - no agressive actions. Codex be my witness. All you have to do is choose "send magic gems" in "send message" menu, and send 30 earth gems to Oceania, should be easy.

Spoiler

You can resend your turn anytime you want, and redo them as much as you want, untill all players send their turns. Once new turn hosted - it's too late. So you've gotta tell me if you agree or not BEFORE you send your turn to llama

Deal?

Deal, but I'm not sure that I have 30 earth gems.

You have 3 e.gems/turn right from the start. It's turn 17, so you should have them even if you spend them like a madman. Ok, resending my turn right now (withdrawing).

Done I resent my turn and sent 30 gems to you.

 

[Norfleet]

Forts are super important mkay. Build the cheapest ones and as many as possible, preferably in rich provinces and not next to each other.

Yeah, but if you don't build them in every province, then that province is basically totally unprotected and anyone can simply waltz in, take over all your magic sites, and burn down your temple totally unopposed. Even a single cheapass fort stops this cold: Someone tries this stunt, they have to kick in the door before they can do anything. This gives you at LEAST one turn to respond to this aggression. Such attacks can even be performed totally anonymously in a way which will cause someone to blame another neighbor for it, if they don't talk. Not to mention the expense of rebuilding constantly burninated temples, the alternative being not to build temples at all, in which case, "Wait, what, no temples?".

Has this changed in 4? I could see that working if someone must manually burninate the temple, but if it's still auto-burninated on flip...

 

[Grimwulf]

Resent my turn and moved everybody away. Thine Truce is now active.

And i have THIRTY EARTHGEMS! Where is your god now, Agartha?

 

[Malakal]

Forts are super important mkay. Build the cheapest ones and as many as possible, preferably in rich provinces and not next to each other.

Yeah, but if you don't build them in every province, then that province is basically totally unprotected and anyone can simply waltz in, take over all your magic sites, and burn down your temple totally unopposed. Even a single cheapass fort stops this cold: Someone tries this stunt, they have to kick in the door before they can do anything. This gives you at LEAST one turn to respond to this aggression. Such attacks can even be performed totally anonymously in a way which will cause someone to blame another neighbor for it, if they don't talk. Not to mention the expense of rebuilding constantly burninated temples, the alternative being not to build temples at all, in which case, "Wait, what, no temples?".

Has this changed in 4? I could see that working if someone must manually burninate the temple, but if it's still auto-burninated on flip...

Raiding is every bit as dangerous as always and this has not changed. But you simply can not waste money on fortifying every single province because then you wont have troops and mages. I fortify choke points and watch out for elves/other stealth shits.

 

[hoverdog]

still got more though

 

[Dayyālu]

Yeah, but if you don't build them in every province, then that province is basically totally unprotected and anyone can simply waltz in, take over all your magic sites, and burn down your temple totally unopposed.

Cheapest fort is Palisades, 50 defence, 250 gold. Shit fort, but with that maybe your strategy could work. Standard forts are 800- 1000 gold a pop plus 5-6 turns of construction. No way you can spam them in every province. In My Nooobish Opinion, it's safer to have a solid Dominion and build unprotected temples only in regions far away from the frontline, were the game of province swapping WILL happen in war.

At 400 Gold, better to build them in a protected position and sparingly. Gold is a commodity, and balance is already quite different from Dom3, I can only imagine how different is from Dom2. If someone started spamming forts in all his provinces the only result I can foresee is a gimped army, weak research and slow expansion. That means, by the Red Queen hypothesis, death.

Of course, Noobish opinion. If someone wants to correct me, go wild.

I am still willing to pass my nation to any newbie who REALLY wants it. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to participate in this, after all.

I did not wanted to imply this, simply that this is a intro game, and newbies mistakes and basic strategies should be clearly expressed for the enjoyment of everyone. But you are already doing that with the LP, what I can say if not

 

[Grimwulf]

Yeah, but if you don't build them in every province, then that province is basically totally unprotected and anyone can simply waltz in, take over all your magic sites, and burn down your temple totally unopposed.

Cheapest fort is Palisades, 50 defence, 250 gold. Shit fort, but with that maybe your strategy could work. Standard forts are 800- 1000 gold a pop plus 5-6 turns of construction. No way you can spam them in every province. In My Nooobish Opinion, it's safer to have a solid Dominion and build unprotected temples only in regions far away from the frontline, were the game of province swapping WILL happen in war.

At 400 Gold, better to build them in a protected position and sparingly. Gold is a commodity, and balance is already quite different from Dom3, I can only imagine how different is from Dom2. If someone started spamming forts in all his provinces the only result I can foresee is a gimped army, weak research and slow expansion. That means, by the Red Queen hypothesis, death.

Of course, Noobish opinion. If someone wants to correct me, go wild.

I mostly agree with you. One minor thing, though:

it's safer to have a solid Dominion and build unprotected temples only in regions far away from the frontline

Returning to Misfortune 2-3 scale, you just can't leave your temples unprotected. Neutral attacks happen more often than you wish they would. Building a temple and leaving it with PD 1 and nothing else is not a gud idea, if you play with Misfortune.

Also, Throne of Gaia and Throne of Beasts spam neutral attacks on everybody. Previously Gaia attacks were endless as long as the Throne was claimed by anybody. But IIRC, this issue was adressed in 4.07.

But of course, there are other methods of spreading your dominion, temples are not the only way. Blood ceremonies, stealthy preaching, some ritual spells, special artifacts and summons, etc.

I'm not a pro, btw. Just something I heard from smarter-than-me guys.

 

[Grimwulf]

Dawg, stop this genocide. We've done nothing to you!

Spoiler

 

[CrimsonAngel]

Resent my turn and moved everybody away. Thine Truce is now active.

And i have THIRTY EARTHGEMS! Where is your god now, Agartha?

Is that a lot because i got a lot more?? I mean i got totally less and i am not planning something stupid from my side.

So dumb as i am i forgot to move one of my units and fucking warewolfes spawn out of some kind of pocket dimension and murder his ass.

 

[Grimwulf]

Is that a lot because i got a lot more?? I mean i got totally less and i am not planning something stupid from my side.

For a nation without any earth gem income at all? Yep, it's a lot. Two Dwarven Hammers, to be exact.

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Still not enough to give up on siege that you would otherwise win, but we are playing for fun, right?

So dumb as i am i forgot to move one of my units and fucking warewolfes spawn out of some kind of pocket dimension and murder his ass.

It's totally normal for this game

 

[Raghar]

Dawg, stop this genocide. We've done nothing to you!

Spoiler

Chieftain eaten by dog?

 

[Grimwulf]

Chieftain eaten by dog?

Dog is vicious. Attacked me this turn and defended against my attacking force. All is lost.

Also, another kraken pwnd my throne and PD 20, destroying my almost-finished-fort (1 turn was left).

Finish me off, Dawg. I don't want to play Oceania anymore.

 

[Norfleet]

Cheapest fort is Palisades, 50 defence, 250 gold. Shit fort, but with that maybe your strategy could work.

Yeah, that's the kind of fort I would pick and spam in 2, too.

Standard forts are 800- 1000 gold a pop plus 5-6 turns of construction. No way you can spam them in every province. In My Nooobish Opinion, it's safer to have a solid Dominion and build unprotected temples only in regions far away from the frontline, were the game of province swapping WILL happen in war.

Well, unless the rules here have also changed, it's 5 temples for every point of Dominion, IIRC, so most maps probably don't grant you enough space to build enough temples UNLESS you spam them in every single province. But yeah, I would definitely not go with the 1000-gold forts for a fort-spam strategy. Most of the features of forts, like remote-resource-harvesting, are wasted if you spam them in every province, and the goal of a fort is to provide a roadblock so you can actually respond, plus maintain ownership-by-default over the province unless your enemy invests an effort into trying to actually take it from you.

But of course, there are other methods of spreading your dominion, temples are not the only way. Blood ceremonies, stealthy preaching, some ritual spells, special artifacts and summons, etc.

Yeah, familiar with, and done, all those things: Blood Sacrifice, requires temple and protection for your sacrificers, as blood priests are lousy combatants due to their behavior of bringing their slaves onto the field and getting them killed. Cannot stealthy-preach in own province. Artifact-bearers and summons, again, both require protection from sudden attack, which means an early-warning post so you can respond if the enemy does anything. Otherwise, your option for response is zero, because there is zero time between "nothing is happening" and "someone else now owns all your shit and all your dudes are dead".

 

[hoverdog]

Chieftain eaten by dog?

Dog is vicious. Attacked me this turn and defended against my attacking force. All is lost.

Also, another kraken pwnd my throne and PD 20, destroying my almost-finished-fort (1 turn was left).

Finish me off, Dawg. I don't want to play Oceania anymore.

remove fish
you are worst fish. you are the fishidiot you are the fish smell. return to ocean. to our water cousins you may come our contry. you may live in the zoo….ahahahaha ,oceania we will never forgeve you. cetnik rascal FUck but fuck asshole fish stink oceania...fish genocide best day of my life. take a bath of dead fish..ahahahahahOCEANIA WE WILL GET YOU!! do not forget dom4.oceania we kill the king , oceania return to your precious mongolia….hahahahaha idiot fish and oceania smell so bad..wow i can smell it.REMOVE FISH FROM THE PREMISES. you will get caught.

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mwahahahaha

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RIP Bow Wow, succumbed to disease, your 23 research point will be sorely missed [*]

but wait

ONE TURN EARLIER

 

[hoverdog]

Muty

 

[CrimsonAngel]

Hey asshole get that flying shit bird of my land.