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Dominions 4 Play By Email - Game Complete!

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
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Location
Shaper Crypt
We're so far into the game that I might post more things like this for fun, as "winning" has kind of lost its allure(and is quite hard with our throne setup).

Maybe it's heretical to suggest so, but if our game has become a chore we can devise something. Not talking about surrender or whatever, but maybe a single series of duels or something. It would be bad if the game results to be an annoying work instead of relax.

Yeah, that particular guy is geared out a bit much, but I have a lot lying around so I was messing with some builds.

Just the shield + spells would be decent against chaff, but sometimes I want to kill them a bit faster, or be capable against tougher enemies. Just SV and basic attack has taken quite some time against tougher Atlantis/Abysia infantry. My armies aren't lasting long in battle these days. I've got a couple others roaming around with different builds.

In our game it's a common theme that Ragha has a lot of equip, thanks to having two globals up for a lot of time. Roughly half of MY equip is battle spoils from Ragha/Caelum.

Honestly, many of your thugs are overgeared and you do not use them against me aggressively enough. For example, your vampire: the only time I've fought one on the battlefield he simply flew right into a unit of Ice Guards. High Morale+ Magic Weapons = died in two turns. 27 Hp just don't cut it, even with regen. Of course, you are quite smart to avoid to use them against my infantry in all occasions.... and Abysia keeps inflating your kill count. :roll:

Your SCs are all another song, of course. Even my elite infantry fails to do enough damage. And N9 Zhayedans are a major annoyance. They can be killed by specific spells (Frozen heart) but in groups do wonders.

My most succesful Thug was a Spectral Mage: Vine Shield, Frost Brand and.... nothing else, I think. W2D1, casting Quickness and Stygian Skin. Excellent against PD and infantry. Died in a stupid way by failing a morale check, like my other good Thug, a vampire with Frost Brand and something I do not remember. Failed a morale check, retreated, died.

So, Codex, pimp my Golem. I need hints to stand against the endless amout of Raghan SCs.

Golem_zps23a2aeab.png

One of my SCs at a basic level of equip. Vine Shield and Shadow Brand are both self-explaining. Jade Armour is for Quickness, the helm is a substandard choice because I have little gems to spare and that's good enough (plus Fire Resist is good against Ragha), Flying shoes is obvious, Burning pearl to augment the substandard fighting skills of the golem (mindless, so he does not gain exp) and Lodestone Amulet is a cheap way for more MR (useful against Blindness or the like). Then, obvious battlefield buffs with Astral (Body Ethereal and things). Is this good or he can be rebuilt and improved?
 

Grimwulf

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We're so far into the game that I might post more things like this for fun, as "winning" has kind of lost its allure(and is quite hard with our throne setup).

Maybe it's heretical to suggest so, but if our game has become a chore we can devise something. Not talking about surrender or whatever, but maybe a single series of duels or something. It would be bad if the game results to be an annoying work instead of relax.

Yeah, that particular guy is geared out a bit much, but I have a lot lying around so I was messing with some builds.

Just the shield + spells would be decent against chaff, but sometimes I want to kill them a bit faster, or be capable against tougher enemies. Just SV and basic attack has taken quite some time against tougher Atlantis/Abysia infantry. My armies aren't lasting long in battle these days. I've got a couple others roaming around with different builds.

In our game it's a common theme that Ragha has a lot of equip, thanks to having two globals up for a lot of time. Roughly half of MY equip is battle spoils from Ragha/Caelum.

Honestly, many of your thugs are overgeared and you do not use them against me aggressively enough. For example, your vampire: the only time I've fought one on the battlefield he simply flew right into a unit of Ice Guards. High Morale+ Magic Weapons = died in two turns. 27 Hp just don't cut it, even with regen. Of course, you are quite smart to avoid to use them against my infantry in all occasions.... and Abysia keeps inflating your kill count. :roll:

Your SCs are all another song, of course. Even my elite infantry fails to do enough damage. And N9 Zhayedans are a major annoyance. They can be killed by specific spells (Frozen heart) but in groups do wonders.

My most succesful Thug was a Spectral Mage: Vine Shield, Frost Brand and.... nothing else, I think. W2D1, casting Quickness and Stygian Skin. Excellent against PD and infantry. Died in a stupid way by failing a morale check, like my other good Thug, a vampire with Frost Brand and something I do not remember. Failed a morale check, retreated, died.

So, Codex, pimp my Golem. I need hints to stand against the endless amout of Raghan SCs.

Golem_zps23a2aeab.png

One of my SCs at a basic level of equip. Vine Shield and Shadow Brand are both self-explaining. Jade Armour is for Quickness, the helm is a substandard choice because I have little gems to spare and that's good enough (plus Fire Resist is good against Ragha), Flying shoes is obvious, Burning pearl to augment the substandard fighting skills of the golem (mindless, so he does not gain exp) and Lodestone Amulet is a cheap way for more MR (useful against Blindness or the like). Then, obvious battlefield buffs with Astral (Body Ethereal and things). Is this good or he can be rebuilt and improved?

Cheap&Effective, as it should be. I would replace burning pearl with regen ring, tho. Lodestone is tolerable, if you have absolutely no means of crafting anti-magic amulet.
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
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Messages
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Location
Shaper Crypt
Cheap&Effective, as it should be. I would replace burning pearl with regen ring, tho. Lodestone is tolerable, if you have absolutely no means of crafting anti-magic amulet.

Old Dom3 habits die hard, but now we have the *gift* of Limited Regeneration. Does not work on Lifeless. Ragha has its N9 blessing that gives True Regen, and that works even on Undead and everything. Like, Luck now does not work on undeads.

About Anti-Magic amulets, I can craft them, but they are roughly 1/6 of a New Golem. I prefer to pump out more of them as fast as I can, as the only damaging spell Ragha has ever employed against them is Blindness, and that did not work so well. Plus, even blind golems have their uses, despite the crippling 4 moves. But maybe it's my obsession with matching numbers that's speaking, and I should forge AM amulets and shuddup.

EDIT: That said, if I can bother further the resident Dominions gurus (without going all the way to Desura) in another match I'm playing now I tried my hand with EA Atlantis. Ouch, I must say. Any hint on how to leverage their strenghts? I have a nice empire with good gemcount,research, and I went for scales, but I'm surronded by N9 giants or sacred nations and I feel uncomfortable. An attempt to fight Fomoria went worse than France '40 against N9 Unmarked and Fomorian Kings SCs. EA Atlantis, how does it work?

EDIT 2: Opposition I do not fear much. Ragha has not dozen of S mages, as I have. I would fear more Magic Duel, that's a sure kill for S Scs.
 
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Grimwulf

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Old Dom3 habits die hard

True. I noticed that other people have easier time recognizing Dom3 and Dom4 specific features. Don't know why it's all messed up in my memory.

Yer golems should beware of Opposition, not Blindness. Depending on how much you rely on them, it might be worthwhile to equip them with AM amulets. Especially if they are the only magical creatures in the army.
 

hoverdog

dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
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Project: Eternity
As this seems to be the main Dom4 thread right now:

are there any other total useless noob players wanting a multiplayah campaign? Something that'd look like this:

I-Have-No-Idea-What-I-am-Doing-17.jpg
 

Grimwulf

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As this seems to be the main Dom4 thread right now:

are there any other total useless noob players wanting a multiplayah campaign? Something that'd look like this:

I-Have-No-Idea-What-I-am-Doing-17.jpg

I would gladly join a pbem. Haven't played in ages, and wasn't too gud before. Does that qualify as useless?

Have no probs hosting a party on llama, and explaining stuff. Can modify maps too.

web.jpg
How about Talis? Gud 3-player map, I marked default starting points. I'm ready to play underwater. All EA and MA underwater nations suck beyond any imagination, except for MA R'lyeh and maybe MA Oceania.
 
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Malakal

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
10,266
Location
Poland
Dayyālu Why are you using golems for anti SC duty? Golems are horrible for that due to very very low attack/defence and generally shitty stats.

As for your equipment its totally wrong for anti SC. This is normal thug/SC anti chaff equipment you shouldnt even consider using against enemies.

What you need is weapons that inflict afflictions (axe of hate for example) or instantly kill enemies (heartfinder, that sword that does banish to inferno). Also your unit has to be mobile so either S3 for teleport or A3 for cloud trapeze.

I had very good results with demon lords anti SCs - Ashmedei the Prince of Lust, Pazuzu the Headless Bird (Lord of Plague Wind). Give them blood thorn, brazen vessel, armor of souls to Ashmedei, script them to cast life for a life, teleport into ANY SC and watch him die in two casts. If you dont have access to blood then air royalty dual wielding axes of hate with quickness item does wonders - especially against non shock immune units.

If any of those is not available to you then there are sub optimal choices like golems. But you WILL need attack boosting items because I've seen SCs with defence in the 30s easily and that golem wont hit anything sand the aoe part of the attack is mr negates. Then there are other sub optimal choices like liches and wraith lords who rely on predicting enemy movement to work.
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
Shaper Crypt
As for your equipment its totally wrong for anti SC. This is normal thug/SC anti chaff equipment you shouldnt even consider using against enemies.

Nay, it's rather effective against enemies. Normal ones or even sacreds, I mean. But that is the stock equipment for Golems, not the one I keep for SC killing. My mistake in bad phrasing.

What you need is weapons that inflict afflictions (axe of hate for example) or instantly kill enemies (heartfinder, that sword that does banish to inferno).

I have access to B2 mages, but I've decided not to bother with Blood magic, until now. All my troops are needed on the front, not to patrol some backwater to obtain blood slaves. Axe of Hate is a nice item, maybe I'll try use that. Any other SCs killing items (cheap ones, please) I'm not aware of? Or good spells?

Also your unit has to be mobile so either S3 for teleport or A3 for cloud trapeze.

I had very good results with demon lords anti SCs. If any of those is not available to you then there are sub optimal choices like golems. But you WILL need attack boosting items because I've seen SCs with defence in the 30s easily and that golem wont hit anything sand the aoe part of the attack is mr negates. Then there are other sub optimal choices like liches and wraith lords who rely on predicting enemy movement to work.

:lol: If I had that amount of resources ("Well, you can summon a Demon Lord.". "No shit. With what? Blood research 9!?!?" "Or Air Elemental Royalty!" "No shit. With what? 50 air gems a pop?") this game would be already over. I've lagged behind Ragha all game, and only when I got Maelstrom up I could reach his gemcount. Plus, that's all Blood stuff. LA Atlantis is awesome, but I have only a single indie B2 mage around. Thanks for the hints, anyway!
 

Malakal

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
10,266
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Poland
Dayyālu Dusk daggers, axes of hate, elf bane (situational), gate cleaver (AN!), flesh eater, lightning spear (if no shock res), heart finder sword. Those are usual anti SC weapons I use. A flesh eater/axe of hate dual wield is very potent.

Getting some blood slaves just for forging works really well.

Also I do not know your particular situation but you must have some gems surely. 50 a pop isnt THAT much really. Im not telling you to wish for seraphs.
 

Berekän

A life wasted
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Joined
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Messages
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As this seems to be the main Dom4 thread right now:

are there any other total useless noob players wanting a multiplayah campaign? Something that'd look like this:

I-Have-No-Idea-What-I-am-Doing-17.jpg

I'd be up for joining a game too, anyone here can confirm that I'm terrible.
 

hoverdog

dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
Developer
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
5,589
Location
Jordan, Minnesota
Project: Eternity
As this seems to be the main Dom4 thread right now:

are there any other total useless noob players wanting a multiplayah campaign? Something that'd look like this:

I-Have-No-Idea-What-I-am-Doing-17.jpg

I would gladly join a pbem. Haven't played in ages, and wasn't too gud before. Does that qualify as useless?

Have no probs hosting a party on llama, and explaining stuff. Can modify maps too.

web.jpg
How about Talis? Gud 3-player map, I marked default starting points. I'm ready to play underwater. All EA and MA underwater nations suck beyond any imagination, except for MA R'lyeh and maybe MA Oceania.

you're doing a fucking LP, which means you'll wipe me out with an immobile pillar pretender without any magic.:codexisfor:

I'm up for it.
 

Grimwulf

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you're doing a fucking LP, which means you'll wipe me out with an immobile pillar pretender without any magic.:codexisfor:

I'm up for it.

But I am willing to play underwater! Ok, since you made a proposition - you decide on era. Early Ages or Middle Ages? We could play Late, but it doesn't have those weakling underwateries.

Once you make up your mind, I'll host that shit.

Edit:
Berekän and hoverdog, I hope you got licensed games. Coz playing torrented stuff in mp is a butt pain.
 
Last edited:

Johannes

Arcane
Joined
Nov 20, 2010
Messages
10,487
Location
casting coach
Old Dom3 habits die hard

True. I noticed that other people have easier time recognizing Dom3 and Dom4 specific features. Don't know why it's all messed up in my memory.

Yer golems should beware of Opposition, not Blindness. Depending on how much you rely on them, it might be worthwhile to equip them with AM amulets. Especially if they are the only magical creatures in the army.
Regeneration never worked on Lifeless in Dom3.

Usually you want a Starshine Skullcap on your Golems, so they reach Teleport. Then a weapon, shield, armor. Then possibly something more if you're anticipating fighting something besides chaff.
 

KoolNoodles

Arcane
Joined
Apr 28, 2012
Messages
3,545
I'm glad my mentioning an overloaded vampire thug has led to the creation of another game. :)
 

Grimwulf

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Wanted to post a picture of one of my "Thugs", as Dominions players like to call them. Basically it's just a single leader who has the gear/skills/spell casting abilities to take on small armies by him/herself. I think he technically doesn't have enough Hit points to be a "Super Combatant", aka improved Thug, but that line is not really solid. Pretty sure Atlantis and Abysia have both seen this guy, so it's not a big deal. We're so far into the game that I might post more things like this for fun, as "winning" has kind of lost its allure(and is quite hard with our throne setup).

So far he has 133 individual unit kills. Didn't point out everything.

MfbuUTC.jpg

Say, why wear the belt? AoE effects of brand weapons don't benefit from high strength. And you don't need reinvigor at all (he doesn't cast magic and has Enc 0).

Just give him regen ring or imp contract. I would also give him another chest armor, but that one good enough too.

Speaking of regeneration, your vampire would still benefit from regen ring. Limited regen doesn't work only on Lifeless. It works on Undead, if they are not Lifeless, like vamps.
 

Johannes

Arcane
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Messages
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casting coach
Regeneration never worked on Lifeless in Dom3.

Who told you that? It worked perfectly fine.
Try it.

Just did. You must be playing with mods.

Also, Dom3 doesn't have the green numbers poppin up. So you have to check it by right-clicking on units after each turn.
Something like that is not moddable. Try again closer, they might get the icon but they won't regenerate from items or spells.
 

Grimwulf

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Regeneration never worked on Lifeless in Dom3.

Who told you that? It worked perfectly fine.
Try it.

Just did. You must be playing with mods.

Also, Dom3 doesn't have the green numbers poppin up. So you have to check it by right-clicking on units after each turn.
Something like that is not moddable. Try again closer, they might get the icon but they won't regenerate from items or spells.

Look. Regen worked on ABSOLUTELY any unit in Dom3. Always did.
 

Johannes

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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casting coach
Regeneration never worked on Lifeless in Dom3.

Who told you that? It worked perfectly fine.
Try it.

Just did. You must be playing with mods.

Also, Dom3 doesn't have the green numbers poppin up. So you have to check it by right-clicking on units after each turn.
Something like that is not moddable. Try again closer, they might get the icon but they won't regenerate from items or spells.

Look. Regen worked on ABSOLUTELY any unit in Dom3. Always did.
Oh fuck off.

ElIrK0C.jpg


How much more obvious can it be?
 

hoverdog

dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
Developer
Joined
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Messages
5,589
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Project: Eternity
you're doing a fucking LP, which means you'll wipe me out with an immobile pillar pretender without any magic.:codexisfor:

I'm up for it.

But I am willing to play underwater! Ok, since you made a proposition - you decide on era. Early Ages or Middle Ages? We could play Late, but it doesn't have those weakling underwateries.

Once you make up your mind, I'll host that shit.

Edit:
Berekän and hoverdog, I hope you got licensed games. Coz playing torrented stuff in mp is a butt pain.
obviously :obviously:

I've probably got one friend who'd also play, plus I think Azira is game too, so that makes five players.
 

Grimwulf

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Regeneration never worked on Lifeless in Dom3.

Who told you that? It worked perfectly fine.
Try it.

Just did. You must be playing with mods.

Also, Dom3 doesn't have the green numbers poppin up. So you have to check it by right-clicking on units after each turn.
Something like that is not moddable. Try again closer, they might get the icon but they won't regenerate from items or spells.

Look. Regen worked on ABSOLUTELY any unit in Dom3. Always did.
Oh fuck off.

ElIrK0C.jpg


How much more obvious can it be?

Fuck it.

you're doing a fucking LP, which means you'll wipe me out with an immobile pillar pretender without any magic.:codexisfor:

I'm up for it.

But I am willing to play underwater! Ok, since you made a proposition - you decide on era. Early Ages or Middle Ages? We could play Late, but it doesn't have those weakling underwateries.

Once you make up your mind, I'll host that shit.

Edit:
Berekän and hoverdog, I hope you got licensed games. Coz playing torrented stuff in mp is a butt pain.
obviously :obviously:

I've probably got one friend who'd also play, plus I think Azira is game too, so that makes five players.

Five players can't fit on Talis. Let's play Aran then (93 provinces).

web.jpg

It's still kinda big for 5 players, considering I'll go underwater, but at least it's not wraparound.
I suggest MA. And hope that nobody minds if I play Oceania. Wanted to try her out in pbem for a long time. (still underwater, still sucks)
 

Grimwulf

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Double-post master reporting.

Azira
Berekän
hoverdog
mysterious_friend_of_hoverdog

The game is here: http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=IHNIWID
MA Aran, all settings are llama defaults, except for research (standard) and Worthy Heroes 1.21 mod.

I've set 6 players max. Now yer actions are:
1. Create a Pretender God in Game Tools. Don't forget we play MA.
2. Go to Game Tools - User Data Directory. In opend window choose Savedgames - Newlords. There you will find Pretender file. If you've got a shitton of Pretenders already, be sure to find the right one (check the manual on how to do that, or just delete Pretenders you won't use).
3. Once you find the file, send it to
pretenders@llamaserver.net
Type in the topic:
IHNIWID
4. Create a new folder in savedgames. Name it "IHNIWID".
5. Once all players gather, and the game starts, llamaserver will send you turn file. Download it to "IHNIWID" folder.
6. Start the game, choose "Play Existing Game", there "IHNIWID". Make yer turn, bash dat ESC button, and choose "Save and Quit".
7. In yer "IHNIWID" folder you'll find a .2h file. Send it to
turns@llamaserver.net
8. Once all player send their turns, the server will host dat shit. Then you'll receive new turn file. Return to 6 and repeat until you win.
 
Last edited:

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
Shaper Crypt
:negative:

Immagine_zpsab2c7459.png


And this pretty much ends my chances. Three fully equipped SCs and 400 troops lost. A single Thug (that Bane Lord) placed itself near the Gate and all my infantry surrounded him. It was hilarious, instead of killing the mages ten meters away they kept surronding the Thug while the SCs were slowly cut down by the Earthbounds.

Caelum, if you are still reading this thread: mark my words: you are still an incredible annoyance even after I killed you off.
 

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