Grimwulf
Arcane
1. Introduction; Creating a Game; Turn 1.
2. Turn 2.
3. Turn 3.
4. Turn 4.
5. Turn 5.
6. Turn 6.
7. Turn 7.
8. Turn 8.
8.1. Bonus Video (beware of DRAMA).
8.2. Battle of Dead Snows.
9. Turn 9.
9.1. Arena Rules and Preparations.
9.2. Arena, part 1.
9.3. Arena, part 2.
10. Turn 10.
11. Turn 11.
12. Turn 12; First Year Summary.
13. Turn 13.
14. Turn 14.
15. Turn 15.
16. Turn 16.
17. Turn 17.
17.1. Eginolf and Bobo Showdown.
18. Turn 18.
19. Turn 19.
20. Turn 20.
21. Turn 21.
22. Turn 22.
22.1. Agiwulf vs Codex Troll: Battle of Prophets.
23. Turn 23.
23.1. Union Against Helheim.
24. Turn 24; Second Year Summary.
24.1. Battle for Helgate.
25. Turn 25.
26.1. Turn 26, part 1.
26.2. Turn 26, part 2.
26.3. Helgate: The Last Stand.
27. Turn 27.
The List:
Dominions 4 features managing a lot of commanders*, and I like to give them custom names**, just for flavour. Feel free to enlist in glorious armies of Helheim!
Here is the full list of recruitment. Includes only names that were proposed in this thread by followers of this LP.
1. Crispy the Wight Mage. Hired, undead and well. Used to be a svartalf before death.
2. LundB the Vanjarl. Hired, alive and well.
3. Andhaira the Wight Mage. Hired, undead and well. Used to be a svartalf before death.
4. Grimgravy the Vanjarl. Dead.
5. Valescere the Van Scout. Hired and alive. In critical condition. Slowly succumbs to his wounds.
6. ArtB the Van Scout. Hired, alive and well.
7. Grunker the Helkarl. Hired, alive and well.
8. Ulminati the Helkarl. Hired and alive. Suffered a heart attack during research.
9. Azira the Svartalf. Currently arriving at the capital.
10. Luzur. Awaiting recruitment, commander type wasn't specified.
11. JohnTheRevelator. Awaiting recruitment as Bane/Bane Lord.
12. SerratedBiz. Awaiting recruitment as "some kind of soon-to-be-demented trash or summin'".
13. Matalarata. Awaiting recruitment as "the less human-ish the better".
14. Lizzurd. Awaiting recruitment as a cold-blooded commander.
15. PocketMine the Van Scout. Hired, alive and well.
16. Helly. Awaiting recruitment as "any monstruous/undead commander".
17. Dreaad. Awaiting recruitment, commander type wasn't specified. "HOWEVER first chance you get I must be equipped with 2 shields and a lightning bolt helmet!"
18. Andnjord. Awaiting recruitment as Svartalf.
*Commanders of Dominions 4 tend to suffer and die a lot.
**Every commander in this session also suffers from my incredible image editing skillz.
The Memorial:
This is a humble memorial for those who died during this bloody war. Includes only names that were proposed in this thread by followers of this LP.
1. Grimgravy the Vanjarl.
Grimgravy the Vanjarl joined our cause during late winter of the second year, and died in early summer of the third year of the Ascension Wars.
All that time he was stationed in Helgate, providing invaluable help with research, forging and – most noticeably - battle support. He participated in two grand battles against forces of Caelum (24.1 and 26.3). Both times Helheim was severely outnumbered. Both times we were victorious.
Grimgravy was killed during Caelum encounter, known as Helgate Last Stand (26.3). In early summer of the third year of the Ascension Wars, a 500-unit army of Caelum stormed Helgate fort, with less than 50 defenders protecting it. Heroic defenders managed to fend off the attackers, despite the odds. Grimgravy’s spellcasting was perfectly timed, precise and effective. He killed 8 enemies during this battle single-handedly (including 1 in melee) and wounded countless more.
He met his death at the very end of this battle - surrounded, grievously wounded, and out of stamina. Treacherous lizard warriors pierced his chest with spears.
Grimravy now watches over his friends from Helhalla. His brave deeds will be remembered.
INTRODUCTION
So here I am, unable to overcome my addiction to this game. No matter how long I avoid this drug, I just need another dose at one point or another. Losing my sleep, making crazy schemes and even larping that shit during coffee/cigarette breaks. Sigh.
If you never heard of Dominions, then maybe it should stay that way for greater good. There are other, “healthy”, global tbs out there. You can always play Civilization series or Paradox Interactive games, which are much more user friendly.
Seriously though, I know quite a number of people who couldn’t play any other games after trying Dominions. They have been stuck with it for years. Keeping a safe distance is essential here.
If, however, you are not afraid of gazing into the Abyss of over-complicated gameplay, featuring unbelievable amounts of micromanagement, next-to-none graphics, and absence of any kind of AI diplomacy – you are welcome to this Let’s Destroy the Fucking World!
Before I start, there are words of warning need to be said:
1. I think I qualify as a vet of Dominions 3 and 4 in both single and pbem games, but thanks to severe cases of amnesia and alcoholism, I kinda lost my grip lately. Besides, during this game session I plan to try out something more or less original. After all, Dominions is a game about Ideas, no matter how crazy and laughable they might be. That being said, if anybody hopes to find some decent tactics, strategies and pro-tips – don’t. If you’re a pro and want to give me some valuable advices instead – feel free, but don’t expect me to follow. Also, I will answer any questions about game mechanics to the best of my ability, and there you go with a good encyclopedia about Dominions 4 stuff:
http://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/
You’d better start with official manual though, if you want to cover the basics and play it yourself. I know that there are 397 pages in it, and YES - it is neccessary to read them ALL in order to play. But I’ll try to make this session understandable for everyone, even for those who know nothing about Dominions.
2. The game was meant for mp sessions, and it’s not as fun in single. However, doing live stream of ongoing mp game session is not too smart, to say the least, for all your opponents would see what are you doing and planning. And AARs lack detail and intrigue. Besides, there are not so much LPs of Dominions, neither on youtube, nor on forums, and nobody bothers to do some. So if you don’t like the map/nations/era/configs/singleplayer and whatever – I’m sorry. You won't find any democracy here. Another thing is, when I started the game and saw all those new nations and changelogs, my head started to spin. Last time I played, it was v. 4.07, now it’s 4.14 already. There won’t be any new nations in my game session. Coz I'm too old for this shit.
3. As you may have noticed, English isn’t my native language and I tend to be drunk more time than being sober. That usually makes things… complicated in midgame, but to hell with it. I need to get some inspiration. If you are a Grammar Nazi, I’m not afraid of you.
4. Consider it a longplay. I like to take my games slow, spending hours and even days on planning my moves in late game.
On the bright side, I’m expecting this to be fairly challenging with tactics I want to try out, especially in early game. I also expect you to propose names for commanders. Every turn a new commander or even several of them will be hired. Do you want YOUR name to be given to them? Could YOU be the one to lead the armies of Helhalla to glory? Just say so ITT, you won’t have to ask me twice. Oh, and when you see yourself loosing both arms, both legs, demented and being tortured by demon rapists – don’t blame me. This is Dominions.
There goes the Introduction. Still don’t have a slightest idea what is it all about? Ok, here you go with a more graphical expression:
This part is only interesting for those who’s not very familiar with Dominions. I will explain some basics and shit. I’m not gonna talk too much about my plans in this section, so you might as well skip it.
For those who dig: Helheim, Dawn of Dominions, 11 Impossible AI, unplayable Pretender design, 15 HoF entries, limited unique artifacts forging, enabled score graphs, other settings are hard presets on scenario maps.
As you can see, I’m currently playing v.4.14 with Worthy Heroes mod installed. I prefer to keep my game as vanilla as possible, but Worthy Heroes is so classy, I simply can’t resist. It adds/changes/rebalances unique national heroes, which never play a major role anyway. And they may or may not appear in the game session randomly. Just for flavor.
For some forsaken reason, my laptop only takes screenshots in windowed mode, so get used to those up and bottom panels – I’m too lazy to delete them from every single pic. Moving on to maps.
Dawn of Dominions, I choose you! Yes, this map is incredibly old even by Dominions 3 standards. Yes, this is a “scenario” map, meaning there is a lot of unchangeable presets, including era, nations and their starting positions. And it lacks some specific Dominions 4 features, like river/mountain crossing and such. Also, with Caelum being overpowered in 4.07 it could raep all neighbours pretty fast. But still, I like this map. It looks good, it was balanced well in Doms 3 (before super Caelum), it has unique hand-made features, like custom province names. Besides, the nation I’m gonna play usually has some REAL hard time surviving early game on that map, which I definitely incline. All in all, it’s an old-fashioned map for old-fashioned guys.
Here you can see that there will be 12 nations participating in this battle, including me. I’ve set AI to impossible, coz I’m hardcore like that. Besides, it will give me an excuse when I’ll be raped. AI nations are set to “random”, coz it doesn’t matter anyway – scenario map predefines specific nations on specific starting locations. I could’ve also set AI type do “agressive”, “defensive” or “standard”, but meh. Let it be a nasty surprise. As for me, I will play Helheim.
Don’t listen to them Dom vets who tell ye that Helheim is a straight-forward nation, just because they have “glamour ponies”. We won’t play no standard tactics this time. Let us just embrace the atmosphere of Helhalla and hang ourselves for Greater Knowledge. All is left is to design a Pretender God. Let’s see...
Yes. I'm satisfied with that. I’ll try to explain wtf do all these numbers mean as brief as I can (I’m not a damn manual): upper attributes are pretty self-explanatory. 10 is avrg. human level (10 STR, 10 attack, 10 def, etc.). Empty inventory slots are what they are – empty fucking slots. Below are magic schools. This Pretender God has lvl.4 in EVERY school, except Death (lvl.5) and Nature (lvl.3). Usually these designs are called “Rainbow Pretenders” and they were moderately popular in Dominions 3, while barely ever used in Dominions 4 for many reasons. But King Grimwulf isn’t a rainbow pretender, coz he won’t do what rainbows do (magic gem searching). He is there just for research (books icon with 84 number). 84 is absolutely INSANE amount of initial research and no fucking AI would be able to keep up with me for a long time, no matter how much handicap he’s got (and he will get plenty on Impossible difficulty). This research will let me grab one particular global spell that’s gonna be DEVASTATING in early game, but I’ll get to planning later. So, all those icons to the right of research level are:
- Fear (5) – units who try to fight King Grimwulf in melee will have to pass a check or skip their turn;
- Shock (8), Fire (8), Cold (8), Poison (6) resistances;
- Supply Bonus (30) – means that he can provide food/water supplies for 30 human-sized units in the same province (or 60 hobbits, or 15 giants, etc.);
- Inspiring Researcher (+1) – all researchers in same province receive +1 bonus to their research level;
- Adept Researcher (+15) – King Grimwulf gets 15 more points of research, no matter what (already included in his 84);
The candle with number 6 is level of dominion influence. Bigger is better. 10 is max. 6 is usually a death sentence in pbem games, but hopefully it will be enough against AI.
To the right of dominion candle are scales. There are 6 scales in Dominions, which can be changed from -3 to +3. In my case most of them are negatives, so I have more points for magic schools and research. The reason why there are only “3” and not “-3” is when you have a negative Life scale, it “transforms” into positive Death scale. “Life -3” = “Death +3”, you get the idea. So, Helheim with King Grimwulf as a God looks like this:
Order 3 (income +15%, unrest reduction +3, events -6%) – the only positive scale I got. If I go negative on Order, I’m going to lose all my money lightning fast, and I need them early on. Eventually my income will be zero anyway. Unrest reduction helps getting 100% of taxes from provinces and makes hunting for virgins easier (otherwise the population may get upset when you take virgin gurls for blood sacrifices). Lesser events are also good, coz I don’t have a positive luck scale and most of random events are gonna be negative.
Sloth 3 (income -6%, resources -45%) – resources are needed to recruit well-equipped units, which I don’t plan on anyway. Citizens of Helheim have better things to do than work.
Cold 3 (income -10%, supplies -20%) – Helheim is a cold-lovin’ nation, and Cold 1 is perfect for them. So Cold 3 doesn’t give that much of a penalty. Supplies are needed to feed living units. If a big army marches through a province with little supplies, units will starve, become weaker, die, lose morale, and desert. In no particular order. I don’t plan on having bigass armies anyway, and enemies will hopefully have a hard time going deep into my lands. Critical cold scale have another “hidden” negative effect – troops get tired faster during combat. Hopefully, enemies will run out of fatigue sooner than me.
Death 3 (income -6%, supplies -45%, growth -0.60%) – population of Helheim will slowly decrease until everybody dies. Don’t worry tho – they will all join their brethren in glorious halls of Helhalla!
Misfortune 3 (events +15%, luck -45%) – what is there to say? Shit happens. And it’s gonna happen A LOT in my game.
Drain 3 (research -3 RP) – meaning EVERY single researcher in Helheim will have 3 RP less, including King Grimwulf (who doesn’t give a fuck with 84 RP). I don’t plan on having 129327472386 researchers like Dominions players usually do. I won’t have much money to keep them anyway, so I can live with that. On plus side, high Drain scale also increases magic resistance, which will help me against some magic spammin’ suckers.
Next comes configuration window. Usually it’s 3 times bigger, but you can’t change much in scenario maps. I enabled score graphs, coz It doesn’t matter much vs AI. 15 Hall of Fame entries instead of standard 10 are kinda adequate for 12 player game. Limited unique artifact forging would prevent me from becoming super op in late game. If I survive that long, of course.
Standard starting messages for you to understand wtf is going on. As if I needed an excuse to destroy the world, pff.
ARE YOU REHDY?!
Here we are. City of Helheim, the capital of Kingdom of Helheim. Not the coziest of all places, as you can clearly see.
Population 29720 and falling. Rapidly. Let us look what random titles was King Grimwulf granted.
“God of the Gallows” – yes, very thematic indeed. “King of the Clouds” – Valkyries be my witnesses! “He, who Confuses the Way” – that gives me an idea of how to name my Prophet.
The titles are given randomly, based on magic schools and dominion level. Usually Pretenders take no more than 2-3 magic schools. Soon I’ll test my memory and skillz and try to guess what kind of Pretenders are my neighbors. But first, let’s look at what we’ve got.
So, King Grimwulf will be researching every turn. Being just a Great Sage and not some kind of Titan, he is pretty damn vulnerable in combat and should watch out for assassins, and try not to go outside of capital alone. I’m going to assign some bodyguards to him, but that’s not something to be concerned of early on. Let him research. Whoever can guess what I’m researching, receives a psychiatrist diploma.
Next we have a Helkarl.
I hearby name him Codex Troll and make him my Prophet. The Prophet in Dominions 4 is… essential. Let’s just leave it at that for now. I can have only one Prophet at any time of the game, and that status is life-long. I can’t make a new Prophet unless Codex Troll dies, nor can I deprave him of that status. He currently has 10 huskarls and 15 serf warriors. Not much by any means. You can see any unit’s stats in here: http://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/ (just select early era Helheim and set filter to “only national units”). If I make a screenshot on every single unit, I’ll die of old age before I finish year one. It’s gonna take a turn for this guy to become the Prophet, but it’s ok. I can hire some troops meanwhile.
Then we have a scout.
Any Dominions vet would say that I should have made my scout a Prophet, so he can spread my dominion, moving stealthy into enemy territories. But no, he will just wander around enemy turf for some time, then return home to build some castles. I’ll just name him Jon Snow and order to move south-east. Right there we can see a Throne of Ascension.
Our Goal is to claim enough Thrones to win. We need a total of 7 points, while every claimed Throne grants us 1 and one of them grants 2. Thrones are generated randomly, even on this scenario maps. I guess I’m lucky to have one right next to my capital, but it’s most likely heavily guarded. We’ll see.
Now it’s time to get down and dirty with layout and global strategy. Look at all those menacing names.
Right now I will concentrate only on my neighbors. Starting clockwise.
1. Up on that mountain lies Caelum.
As I already mentioned, Caelum went through MAJOR rebalancing in 4.07. I doubt that AI can make advantage of every single change, but he can still be a serious threat. It’s crucial for me to conquer and fortify the province marked 1a, so I can fend off Caelum effectively and force him to attack Ulm instead. Caelum doesn’t give a flying fuck about my cold climate, and AI tends to spam a lot of mammoths too. Not an easy fight, so it’s better to hold my defence and delay attack for later. They worship “Amrav, Master of Suicides, The Harvester”. Judjing by the titles, my guess is Blood Magic school. I may be wrong tho. Why would Caelum need blood Pretender is beyond me.
2. In thick cold forests surrounded by unforgiving mountains thrives Ulm.
These men do not rely on pesky magic, archery or sneaky backstabs. For them, it’s not about Gods and Ascensions. It’s about blood, sweat and cold steel. And if you never saw Impossible AI playing Ulm – goddamn, it’s hard. A major threat that is able to crush me in early game easily, especially if they took awaken Wyrm or any other super combatant Pretender. My best bet is partisan tactics, diversions and wasting his time on wrong maneuvers until midgame. But hopefully Ulm is gonna be preoccupied with Marverni and Caelum. If I get EXTREMELY lucky, Ermor will also attack him from south early on. Titles of their Goddess Kantena leave me clueless. “Guardian of the Dead” is most probably Death school, as for others – who knows?
3. Marverni doesn’t really bother me much.
There may be some border brawling between us, but I believe they will have their hands full defending against Ulm. Ermor should also give them a punch or two, as well as Vanheim. They would make a fine first target for me, but I’m pretty sure that Ulm will ANNIHILATE Marverni by the time I lose virginity. Speaking of virgins, Marverni worships Philia, and looking at his(her) titles, I bet my left ball on Earth+Nature Pretender. Great Boars (national Marverni summon) under E4N9 blessing isn’t something to take lightly. “Undisciplined” and “Trample” traits will make them exhausted VERY quickly in cold climates, and thus almost useless against me or Vanheim, but they can fend off Ulm and Ermor for quite some time.
4. Vanheim. Fucking Vanheim.
Most of other Dominions players I know consider Helheim “almost Vanheim, but slightly worse in every aspect”. And they may have a point. Vanheim is much easier and noob-friendly, especially on this map. And he is going to be my Enemy №1. Thing is, I am his ONLY neighbor. Yah, there is Oceania to the south of him – an underwater nation, practically helpless on land. And he might even ignore me and go for Marverni for some forsaken reason. In that case, I’ll be fucking surrounded by Vanheim anyway. There will be war. Province marked as 4a is my top priority. I’ll try my best to get it first and fortify as fast as I can, but chances are, I’ll suck some viking dick instead. If that happens, I’ll just have to go full defence and pray for miracle. I fear that small number of titles speak of high scales, which means a LOT of money and resources. An army of berserkers-Vanheres combined with mounted hirdmen can wipe out any nation on this map for good. Vanheim has definitely the best position and probably the strongest raw force on the map. And I am his target number one, for fucks sake.
That covers turn 1. Now if you excuse me, I must fulfill my duty as King of Helheim.
2. Turn 2.
3. Turn 3.
4. Turn 4.
5. Turn 5.
6. Turn 6.
7. Turn 7.
8. Turn 8.
8.1. Bonus Video (beware of DRAMA).
8.2. Battle of Dead Snows.
9. Turn 9.
9.1. Arena Rules and Preparations.
9.2. Arena, part 1.
9.3. Arena, part 2.
10. Turn 10.
11. Turn 11.
12. Turn 12; First Year Summary.
13. Turn 13.
14. Turn 14.
15. Turn 15.
16. Turn 16.
17. Turn 17.
17.1. Eginolf and Bobo Showdown.
18. Turn 18.
19. Turn 19.
20. Turn 20.
21. Turn 21.
22. Turn 22.
22.1. Agiwulf vs Codex Troll: Battle of Prophets.
23. Turn 23.
23.1. Union Against Helheim.
24. Turn 24; Second Year Summary.
24.1. Battle for Helgate.
25. Turn 25.
26.1. Turn 26, part 1.
26.2. Turn 26, part 2.
26.3. Helgate: The Last Stand.
27. Turn 27.
The List:
***SPOILER ALERT***
Not recommended to read this section before you finish reading every update listed in Table of Contents. You have been warned.
Not recommended to read this section before you finish reading every update listed in Table of Contents. You have been warned.
Dominions 4 features managing a lot of commanders*, and I like to give them custom names**, just for flavour. Feel free to enlist in glorious armies of Helheim!
Here is the full list of recruitment. Includes only names that were proposed in this thread by followers of this LP.
1. Crispy the Wight Mage. Hired, undead and well. Used to be a svartalf before death.
2. LundB the Vanjarl. Hired, alive and well.
3. Andhaira the Wight Mage. Hired, undead and well. Used to be a svartalf before death.
4. Grimgravy the Vanjarl. Dead.
5. Valescere the Van Scout. Hired and alive. In critical condition. Slowly succumbs to his wounds.
6. ArtB the Van Scout. Hired, alive and well.
7. Grunker the Helkarl. Hired, alive and well.
8. Ulminati the Helkarl. Hired and alive. Suffered a heart attack during research.
9. Azira the Svartalf. Currently arriving at the capital.
10. Luzur. Awaiting recruitment, commander type wasn't specified.
11. JohnTheRevelator. Awaiting recruitment as Bane/Bane Lord.
12. SerratedBiz. Awaiting recruitment as "some kind of soon-to-be-demented trash or summin'".
13. Matalarata. Awaiting recruitment as "the less human-ish the better".
14. Lizzurd. Awaiting recruitment as a cold-blooded commander.
15. PocketMine the Van Scout. Hired, alive and well.
16. Helly. Awaiting recruitment as "any monstruous/undead commander".
17. Dreaad. Awaiting recruitment, commander type wasn't specified. "HOWEVER first chance you get I must be equipped with 2 shields and a lightning bolt helmet!"
18. Andnjord. Awaiting recruitment as Svartalf.
*Commanders of Dominions 4 tend to suffer and die a lot.
**Every commander in this session also suffers from my incredible image editing skillz.
The Memorial:
***SPOILER ALERT***
Not recommended to read this section before you finish reading every update listed in Table of Contents. You have been warned.
Not recommended to read this section before you finish reading every update listed in Table of Contents. You have been warned.
This is a humble memorial for those who died during this bloody war. Includes only names that were proposed in this thread by followers of this LP.
1. Grimgravy the Vanjarl.
Grimgravy the Vanjarl joined our cause during late winter of the second year, and died in early summer of the third year of the Ascension Wars.
All that time he was stationed in Helgate, providing invaluable help with research, forging and – most noticeably - battle support. He participated in two grand battles against forces of Caelum (24.1 and 26.3). Both times Helheim was severely outnumbered. Both times we were victorious.
Grimgravy was killed during Caelum encounter, known as Helgate Last Stand (26.3). In early summer of the third year of the Ascension Wars, a 500-unit army of Caelum stormed Helgate fort, with less than 50 defenders protecting it. Heroic defenders managed to fend off the attackers, despite the odds. Grimgravy’s spellcasting was perfectly timed, precise and effective. He killed 8 enemies during this battle single-handedly (including 1 in melee) and wounded countless more.
He met his death at the very end of this battle - surrounded, grievously wounded, and out of stamina. Treacherous lizard warriors pierced his chest with spears.
Grimravy now watches over his friends from Helhalla. His brave deeds will be remembered.
INTRODUCTION
If you never heard of Dominions, then maybe it should stay that way for greater good. There are other, “healthy”, global tbs out there. You can always play Civilization series or Paradox Interactive games, which are much more user friendly.
casuls
If, however, you are not afraid of gazing into the Abyss of over-complicated gameplay, featuring unbelievable amounts of micromanagement, next-to-none graphics, and absence of any kind of AI diplomacy – you are welcome to this Let’s Destroy the Fucking World!
Before I start, there are words of warning need to be said:
1. I think I qualify as a vet of Dominions 3 and 4 in both single and pbem games, but thanks to severe cases of amnesia and alcoholism, I kinda lost my grip lately. Besides, during this game session I plan to try out something more or less original. After all, Dominions is a game about Ideas, no matter how crazy and laughable they might be. That being said, if anybody hopes to find some decent tactics, strategies and pro-tips – don’t. If you’re a pro and want to give me some valuable advices instead – feel free, but don’t expect me to follow. Also, I will answer any questions about game mechanics to the best of my ability, and there you go with a good encyclopedia about Dominions 4 stuff:
http://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/
You’d better start with official manual though, if you want to cover the basics and play it yourself. I know that there are 397 pages in it, and YES - it is neccessary to read them ALL in order to play. But I’ll try to make this session understandable for everyone, even for those who know nothing about Dominions.
2. The game was meant for mp sessions, and it’s not as fun in single. However, doing live stream of ongoing mp game session is not too smart, to say the least, for all your opponents would see what are you doing and planning. And AARs lack detail and intrigue. Besides, there are not so much LPs of Dominions, neither on youtube, nor on forums, and nobody bothers to do some. So if you don’t like the map/nations/era/configs/singleplayer and whatever – I’m sorry. You won't find any democracy here. Another thing is, when I started the game and saw all those new nations and changelogs, my head started to spin. Last time I played, it was v. 4.07, now it’s 4.14 already. There won’t be any new nations in my game session. Coz I'm too old for this shit.
3. As you may have noticed, English isn’t my native language and I tend to be drunk more time than being sober. That usually makes things… complicated in midgame, but to hell with it. I need to get some inspiration. If you are a Grammar Nazi, I’m not afraid of you.
4. Consider it a longplay. I like to take my games slow, spending hours and even days on planning my moves in late game.
On the bright side, I’m expecting this to be fairly challenging with tactics I want to try out, especially in early game. I also expect you to propose names for commanders. Every turn a new commander or even several of them will be hired. Do you want YOUR name to be given to them? Could YOU be the one to lead the armies of Helhalla to glory? Just say so ITT, you won’t have to ask me twice. Oh, and when you see yourself loosing both arms, both legs, demented and being tortured by demon rapists – don’t blame me. This is Dominions.
There goes the Introduction. Still don’t have a slightest idea what is it all about? Ok, here you go with a more graphical expression:
CREATING A GAME
This part is only interesting for those who’s not very familiar with Dominions. I will explain some basics and shit. I’m not gonna talk too much about my plans in this section, so you might as well skip it.
For those who dig: Helheim, Dawn of Dominions, 11 Impossible AI, unplayable Pretender design, 15 HoF entries, limited unique artifacts forging, enabled score graphs, other settings are hard presets on scenario maps.
As you can see, I’m currently playing v.4.14 with Worthy Heroes mod installed. I prefer to keep my game as vanilla as possible, but Worthy Heroes is so classy, I simply can’t resist. It adds/changes/rebalances unique national heroes, which never play a major role anyway. And they may or may not appear in the game session randomly. Just for flavor.
For some forsaken reason, my laptop only takes screenshots in windowed mode, so get used to those up and bottom panels – I’m too lazy to delete them from every single pic. Moving on to maps.
Dawn of Dominions, I choose you! Yes, this map is incredibly old even by Dominions 3 standards. Yes, this is a “scenario” map, meaning there is a lot of unchangeable presets, including era, nations and their starting positions. And it lacks some specific Dominions 4 features, like river/mountain crossing and such. Also, with Caelum being overpowered in 4.07 it could raep all neighbours pretty fast. But still, I like this map. It looks good, it was balanced well in Doms 3 (before super Caelum), it has unique hand-made features, like custom province names. Besides, the nation I’m gonna play usually has some REAL hard time surviving early game on that map, which I definitely incline. All in all, it’s an old-fashioned map for old-fashioned guys.
Here you can see that there will be 12 nations participating in this battle, including me. I’ve set AI to impossible, coz I’m hardcore like that. Besides, it will give me an excuse when I’ll be raped. AI nations are set to “random”, coz it doesn’t matter anyway – scenario map predefines specific nations on specific starting locations. I could’ve also set AI type do “agressive”, “defensive” or “standard”, but meh. Let it be a nasty surprise. As for me, I will play Helheim.
Don’t listen to them Dom vets who tell ye that Helheim is a straight-forward nation, just because they have “glamour ponies”. We won’t play no standard tactics this time. Let us just embrace the atmosphere of Helhalla and hang ourselves for Greater Knowledge. All is left is to design a Pretender God. Let’s see...
Yes. I'm satisfied with that. I’ll try to explain wtf do all these numbers mean as brief as I can (I’m not a damn manual): upper attributes are pretty self-explanatory. 10 is avrg. human level (10 STR, 10 attack, 10 def, etc.). Empty inventory slots are what they are – empty fucking slots. Below are magic schools. This Pretender God has lvl.4 in EVERY school, except Death (lvl.5) and Nature (lvl.3). Usually these designs are called “Rainbow Pretenders” and they were moderately popular in Dominions 3, while barely ever used in Dominions 4 for many reasons. But King Grimwulf isn’t a rainbow pretender, coz he won’t do what rainbows do (magic gem searching). He is there just for research (books icon with 84 number). 84 is absolutely INSANE amount of initial research and no fucking AI would be able to keep up with me for a long time, no matter how much handicap he’s got (and he will get plenty on Impossible difficulty). This research will let me grab one particular global spell that’s gonna be DEVASTATING in early game, but I’ll get to planning later. So, all those icons to the right of research level are:
- Fear (5) – units who try to fight King Grimwulf in melee will have to pass a check or skip their turn;
- Shock (8), Fire (8), Cold (8), Poison (6) resistances;
- Supply Bonus (30) – means that he can provide food/water supplies for 30 human-sized units in the same province (or 60 hobbits, or 15 giants, etc.);
- Inspiring Researcher (+1) – all researchers in same province receive +1 bonus to their research level;
- Adept Researcher (+15) – King Grimwulf gets 15 more points of research, no matter what (already included in his 84);
The candle with number 6 is level of dominion influence. Bigger is better. 10 is max. 6 is usually a death sentence in pbem games, but hopefully it will be enough against AI.
To the right of dominion candle are scales. There are 6 scales in Dominions, which can be changed from -3 to +3. In my case most of them are negatives, so I have more points for magic schools and research. The reason why there are only “3” and not “-3” is when you have a negative Life scale, it “transforms” into positive Death scale. “Life -3” = “Death +3”, you get the idea. So, Helheim with King Grimwulf as a God looks like this:
Order 3 (income +15%, unrest reduction +3, events -6%) – the only positive scale I got. If I go negative on Order, I’m going to lose all my money lightning fast, and I need them early on. Eventually my income will be zero anyway. Unrest reduction helps getting 100% of taxes from provinces and makes hunting for virgins easier (otherwise the population may get upset when you take virgin gurls for blood sacrifices). Lesser events are also good, coz I don’t have a positive luck scale and most of random events are gonna be negative.
Sloth 3 (income -6%, resources -45%) – resources are needed to recruit well-equipped units, which I don’t plan on anyway. Citizens of Helheim have better things to do than work.
Cold 3 (income -10%, supplies -20%) – Helheim is a cold-lovin’ nation, and Cold 1 is perfect for them. So Cold 3 doesn’t give that much of a penalty. Supplies are needed to feed living units. If a big army marches through a province with little supplies, units will starve, become weaker, die, lose morale, and desert. In no particular order. I don’t plan on having bigass armies anyway, and enemies will hopefully have a hard time going deep into my lands. Critical cold scale have another “hidden” negative effect – troops get tired faster during combat. Hopefully, enemies will run out of fatigue sooner than me.
Death 3 (income -6%, supplies -45%, growth -0.60%) – population of Helheim will slowly decrease until everybody dies. Don’t worry tho – they will all join their brethren in glorious halls of Helhalla!
Misfortune 3 (events +15%, luck -45%) – what is there to say? Shit happens. And it’s gonna happen A LOT in my game.
Drain 3 (research -3 RP) – meaning EVERY single researcher in Helheim will have 3 RP less, including King Grimwulf (who doesn’t give a fuck with 84 RP). I don’t plan on having 129327472386 researchers like Dominions players usually do. I won’t have much money to keep them anyway, so I can live with that. On plus side, high Drain scale also increases magic resistance, which will help me against some magic spammin’ suckers.
Next comes configuration window. Usually it’s 3 times bigger, but you can’t change much in scenario maps. I enabled score graphs, coz It doesn’t matter much vs AI. 15 Hall of Fame entries instead of standard 10 are kinda adequate for 12 player game. Limited unique artifact forging would prevent me from becoming super op in late game. If I survive that long, of course.
Standard starting messages for you to understand wtf is going on. As if I needed an excuse to destroy the world, pff.
ARE YOU REHDY?!
No, you dumbfuck, we are sleeping. Get to the game already!
TURN 1
SPRING IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE ASCENSION WARS
Here we are. City of Helheim, the capital of Kingdom of Helheim. Not the coziest of all places, as you can clearly see.
The titles are given randomly, based on magic schools and dominion level. Usually Pretenders take no more than 2-3 magic schools. Soon I’ll test my memory and skillz and try to guess what kind of Pretenders are my neighbors. But first, let’s look at what we’ve got.
Next we have a Helkarl.
Then we have a scout.
Now it’s time to get down and dirty with layout and global strategy. Look at all those menacing names.
As I already mentioned, Caelum went through MAJOR rebalancing in 4.07. I doubt that AI can make advantage of every single change, but he can still be a serious threat. It’s crucial for me to conquer and fortify the province marked 1a, so I can fend off Caelum effectively and force him to attack Ulm instead. Caelum doesn’t give a flying fuck about my cold climate, and AI tends to spam a lot of mammoths too. Not an easy fight, so it’s better to hold my defence and delay attack for later. They worship “Amrav, Master of Suicides, The Harvester”. Judjing by the titles, my guess is Blood Magic school. I may be wrong tho. Why would Caelum need blood Pretender is beyond me.
2. In thick cold forests surrounded by unforgiving mountains thrives Ulm.
These men do not rely on pesky magic, archery or sneaky backstabs. For them, it’s not about Gods and Ascensions. It’s about blood, sweat and cold steel. And if you never saw Impossible AI playing Ulm – goddamn, it’s hard. A major threat that is able to crush me in early game easily, especially if they took awaken Wyrm or any other super combatant Pretender. My best bet is partisan tactics, diversions and wasting his time on wrong maneuvers until midgame. But hopefully Ulm is gonna be preoccupied with Marverni and Caelum. If I get EXTREMELY lucky, Ermor will also attack him from south early on. Titles of their Goddess Kantena leave me clueless. “Guardian of the Dead” is most probably Death school, as for others – who knows?
3. Marverni doesn’t really bother me much.
There may be some border brawling between us, but I believe they will have their hands full defending against Ulm. Ermor should also give them a punch or two, as well as Vanheim. They would make a fine first target for me, but I’m pretty sure that Ulm will ANNIHILATE Marverni by the time I lose virginity. Speaking of virgins, Marverni worships Philia, and looking at his(her) titles, I bet my left ball on Earth+Nature Pretender. Great Boars (national Marverni summon) under E4N9 blessing isn’t something to take lightly. “Undisciplined” and “Trample” traits will make them exhausted VERY quickly in cold climates, and thus almost useless against me or Vanheim, but they can fend off Ulm and Ermor for quite some time.
4. Vanheim. Fucking Vanheim.
Most of other Dominions players I know consider Helheim “almost Vanheim, but slightly worse in every aspect”. And they may have a point. Vanheim is much easier and noob-friendly, especially on this map. And he is going to be my Enemy №1. Thing is, I am his ONLY neighbor. Yah, there is Oceania to the south of him – an underwater nation, practically helpless on land. And he might even ignore me and go for Marverni for some forsaken reason. In that case, I’ll be fucking surrounded by Vanheim anyway. There will be war. Province marked as 4a is my top priority. I’ll try my best to get it first and fortify as fast as I can, but chances are, I’ll suck some viking dick instead. If that happens, I’ll just have to go full defence and pray for miracle. I fear that small number of titles speak of high scales, which means a LOT of money and resources. An army of berserkers-Vanheres combined with mounted hirdmen can wipe out any nation on this map for good. Vanheim has definitely the best position and probably the strongest raw force on the map. And I am his target number one, for fucks sake.
That covers turn 1. Now if you excuse me, I must fulfill my duty as King of Helheim.
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