Incline Dominions 6

[Dayyālu]

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Uhhh.... play Asphodel instead? Heard it got some buffs and now it's very interesting to play.

Ermor never had variety in its strategic options, sadly. They're probably the most one-tone nation bar some Giants nations, and it's all thugging while using chaff to cover. It is how it is. If we ever get to a MA game (you were interested, maybe I can get another one going when we reach the 72h phase of the current one) maybe you can test it.

 

[Johannes]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

 

[Malakal]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

Yea fairly sure you need dusk elders way more than any lictors.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

I guess the other alternative is using your Mages? Rigor Mortis/Unlife Spells/Terror?

Dusk Elder can also be a Thug I assume due to Undead/Ethereal, especially if you get Earth/Water? 2 of the Heroes for MA Emor are amazing but I am not sure if depending on Heroes to be your Thug is viable due to RNG

 

[Johannes]

Spiritform undead like Dusk Elder can't benefit from -skin buffs, but does Invulnerability work for them?

 

[Demo.Graph]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

I guess the other alternative is using your Mages? Rigor Mortis/Unlife Spells/Terror?

Dusk Elder can also be a Thug I assume due to Undead/Ethereal, especially if you get Earth/Water? 2 of the Heroes for MA Emor are amazing but I am not sure if depending on Heroes to be your Thug is viable due to RNG

IIRC MP metagame up to Dom 4...
Ermor almost never spends D gems on chaff. All D gems go to mages, research skulls, globals, important battles, maybe some crafting.
And this's a problem of lictors and wailing ladies - there's no reliable way to get them without D gems, so they almost never see play.
Ermor serously lacks path diversity and RP generation, so unless you have recruitable sages AND a bunch of dwarven hammers AND you already have well of misery and maybe BOT, you have no D gems to spare. And even then you maybe want to spam death eaters and tartarians, not lictors. And the rest goes to alchemy for aforementioned path diversity.
Ermor hungers for D (pun intended) so much, it almost never even wants to summon national priests, since indep priests are available. The only exception is H3 priests that go with each army of 30+ Knights of the Unholy Sepulchre. These are Ermorian sacred chaff, not lictors. You spam forts and IIRC temples to zerg spawn knights.
The only thing Ermor wants as much as D gems is gold, because you want temples and forts literally everywhere.

 

[Malakal]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

I guess the other alternative is using your Mages? Rigor Mortis/Unlife Spells/Terror?

Dusk Elder can also be a Thug I assume due to Undead/Ethereal, especially if you get Earth/Water? 2 of the Heroes for MA Emor are amazing but I am not sure if depending on Heroes to be your Thug is viable due to RNG

You get an army for free and if you get research it can fight with anything, in darkness, with army of bronze mistformed skeletons can defeat massed giants. The problem is getting to that with pathetic Ermor research.

 

[Johannes]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

I guess the other alternative is using your Mages? Rigor Mortis/Unlife Spells/Terror?

Dusk Elder can also be a Thug I assume due to Undead/Ethereal, especially if you get Earth/Water? 2 of the Heroes for MA Emor are amazing but I am not sure if depending on Heroes to be your Thug is viable due to RNG

IIRC MP metagame up to Dom 4...
Ermor almost never spends D gems on chaff. All D gems go to mages, research skulls, globals, important battles, maybe some crafting.
And this's a problem of lictors and wailing ladies - there's no reliable way to get them without D gems, so they almost never see play.
Ermor serously lacks path diversity and RP generation, so unless you have recruitable sages AND a bunch of dwarven hammers AND you already have well of misery and maybe BOT, you have no D gems to spare. And even then you maybe want to spam death eaters and tartarians, not lictors. And the rest goes to alchemy for aforementioned path diversity.
Ermor hungers for D (pun intended) so much, it almost never even wants to summon national priests, since indep priests are available. The only exception is H3 priests that go with each army of 30+ Knights of the Unholy Sepulchre. These are Ermorian sacred chaff, not lictors. You spam forts and IIRC temples to zerg spawn knights.
The only thing Ermor wants as much as D gems is gold, because you want temples and forts literally everywhere.

In 5, some people were touting that maxing Lictor bless and Lictor production is the best way to play Ermor. Don't know personally, never was in a game with them or played them, but it's plausible that that was strong and still is. But kind of a dead end since by investing D gems there, you're totally forgoing research.

But Dominions isn't played competitively enough for the game to be figured out at all, let alone when we got a new version now. Just do your own research and testing and see where it takes you.

 

[Andnjord]

You get an army for free

The only cost is your sanity as you’ll have to spend an inordinate amount of time shuffling around your chaff and sacreds (that spawn only a couple at a time in your mountain of forts). Oh and Scelaria can get exponentially more skellies than you do.

And your dual elders are also all astral 1, so they’re free magic duel targets to anyone who’s expecting you.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

Is there ANY way to play MA ermor that doesnt involve Lictor spam?

I like their style of popkill + freespawn but if I have to do the same thing every game it will kinda be boring

Can't say whether spamming Lictors is mandatory, but just because you have a staple unit, doesn't mean it always plays the same - certainly you can vary how much you lean into it

I guess the other alternative is using your Mages? Rigor Mortis/Unlife Spells/Terror?

Dusk Elder can also be a Thug I assume due to Undead/Ethereal, especially if you get Earth/Water? 2 of the Heroes for MA Emor are amazing but I am not sure if depending on Heroes to be your Thug is viable due to RNG

IIRC MP metagame up to Dom 4...
Ermor almost never spends D gems on chaff. All D gems go to mages, research skulls, globals, important battles, maybe some crafting.
And this's a problem of lictors and wailing ladies - there's no reliable way to get them without D gems, so they almost never see play.
Ermor serously lacks path diversity and RP generation, so unless you have recruitable sages AND a bunch of dwarven hammers AND you already have well of misery and maybe BOT, you have no D gems to spare. And even then you maybe want to spam death eaters and tartarians, not lictors. And the rest goes to alchemy for aforementioned path diversity.
Ermor hungers for D (pun intended) so much, it almost never even wants to summon national priests, since indep priests are available. The only exception is H3 priests that go with each army of 30+ Knights of the Unholy Sepulchre. These are Ermorian sacred chaff, not lictors. You spam forts and IIRC temples to zerg spawn knights.
The only thing Ermor wants as much as D gems is gold, because you want temples and forts literally everywhere.

In 5, some people were touting that maxing Lictor bless and Lictor production is the best way to play Ermor. Don't know personally, never was in a game with them or played them, but it's plausible that that was strong and still is. But kind of a dead end since by investing D gems there, you're totally forgoing research.

But Dominions isn't played competitively enough for the game to be figured out at all, let alone when we got a new version now. Just do your own research and testing and see where it takes you.

Well you have to do the black laurels for the lictors to be worth the gems but yeah I think i'll just try to learn a different undead nation the lack of research just limits your flexibility so much. It's a shame though cause I just find them very cool... I've been playing therodos in EA and their mobility is great

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Just had a small noob only EA MP game endded in 3 years because.... nobody is scouting the map enough to see that Muspelheim is sitting in all Thrones so at one point he decided just to claim them all in 2 turns and win

The game also had EA Pyrrne which was on war with me when the game ended. Tanaka how do you think to play the nation? I assume they are kinda Thug/SC nation? While you can go hard on Scale, their troops sucks to say the least and their Sacred is just glorified Heavy Infantry that's cap only.

They guy at one point has like 500 Infantries and Heavy Infantries.... which doesn't matter by end of year 2 because any decent sacreds with decent blesses just manfight them and win (my Gandharvas that game had Stygian Flesh and Berserk and +1 Morale). The Giants are nice to expand with I guess, but in army to army battle they just got killed too easily.

 

[Tanaka]

Just had a small noob only EA MP game endded in 3 years because.... nobody is scouting the map enough to see that Muspelheim is sitting in all Thrones so at one point he decided just to claim them all in 2 turns and win

The game also had EA Pyrrne which was on war with me when the game ended. Tanaka how do you think to play the nation? I assume they are kinda Thug/SC nation? While you can go hard on Scale, their troops sucks to say the least and their Sacred is just glorified Heavy Infantry that's cap only.

They guy at one point has like 500 Infantries and Heavy Infantries.... which doesn't matter by end of year 2 because any decent sacreds with decent blesses just manfight them and win (my Gandharvas that game had Stygian Flesh and Berserk and +1 Morale). The Giants are nice to expand with I guess, but in army to army battle they just got killed too easily.

Yes thug heavy go for construction. Their troops suck very much...

 

[Hag]

Started a SP game, normal AI, after finishing my first MP game.

Man, I'm wrecking that AI. If I want a throne I can walk there in a straight line and I get it. Playing against humans really ups your skills.

 

[Andnjord]

Started a SP game, normal AI, after finishing my first MP game.

Man, I'm wrecking that AI. If I want a throne I can walk there in a straight line and I get it. Playing against humans really ups your skills.

ThroneSitters II is going to be my first MP game, I am terrified at the prospect of having to do more than just killing chaff with no mage support.

 

[Trash Player]

Dusk Elders are duel baits and Ermor is so horrible at research and diplo, going Lictors is the only way to stay alive in a reasonably aggressive MP setting.
I know you vets don't look highly on this, but they were noob stompers back in 4/5 when hell bless is a very affordable option.

 

[Malakal]

Dusk Elders are duel baits and Ermor is so horrible at research and diplo, going Lictors is the only way to stay alive in a reasonably aggressive MP setting.
I know you vets don't look highly on this, but they were noob stompers back in 4/5 when hell bless is a very affordable option.

Right now in 6 I'd say going under water is more viable since you get D gems from temples too and land nations will have bigger problems removing you from there.

Also rushing someone unprepared with massive skeletal hordes. Sacreds are obviously useful but you have to use your resources well...

 

[Hag]

ThroneSitters II is going to be my first MP game, I am terrified at the prospect of having to do more than just killing chaff with no mage support.

Be sure to have a plan against 20 prot SC wielding greatswords of sharpness and all will be ok.

 

[Andnjord]

ThroneSitters II is going to be my first MP game, I am terrified at the prospect of having to do more than just killing chaff with no mage support.

Be sure to have a plan against 20 prot SC wielding greatswords of sharpness and all will be ok.

They better bring a lot of cold resist for frozen heart spam, ‘cause I should have a lot of W1 running around. Or MR for mind/burn soul slay communion or that glamour discount version of it. Or elf counter-thugs with their own weapons of sharpness and self quickness buff. Bring it on!!

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[TheDarkUrge]

I'm in a dominant position with ermor in my first ever MP game . I managed to snag a death throne from someone and rushed conj7 (after lictor spam) and now have 5 harvesters of sorrows going capital to capital to ensure a slow death for all. My biggest move in this game was to vulture a post-war weakened Ind's capital to prevent them from killing me late game with their insane priests. Me taking Ind's capital started a panic and now 3 others are coalition warring me. If I hold off these players desperate attack I think it's all but guaranteed I win. My wailing ladies and dracolich shouldnt fail to rout them along side my thousands of skeletons and lictors I hope.

 

[Malakal]

I'm in a dominant position with ermor in my first ever MP game . I managed to snag a death throne from someone and rushed conj7 (after lictor spam) and now have 5 harvesters of sorrows going capital to capital to ensure a slow death for all. My biggest move in this game was to vulture a post-war weakened Ind's capital to prevent them from killing me late game with their insane priests. Me taking Ind's capital started a panic and now 3 others are coalition warring me. If I hold off these players desperate attack I think it's all but guaranteed I win. My wailing ladies and dracolich shouldnt fail to rout them along side my thousands of skeletons and lictors I hope.

Darkness + rigor mortis + wailing winds is very hard to beat if you reach that far and it seems like you did! Congratulations!

 

[TheDarkUrge]

I'm in a dominant position with ermor in my first ever MP game . I managed to snag a death throne from someone and rushed conj7 (after lictor spam) and now have 5 harvesters of sorrows going capital to capital to ensure a slow death for all. My biggest move in this game was to vulture a post-war weakened Ind's capital to prevent them from killing me late game with their insane priests. Me taking Ind's capital started a panic and now 3 others are coalition warring me. If I hold off these players desperate attack I think it's all but guaranteed I win. My wailing ladies and dracolich shouldnt fail to rout them along side my thousands of skeletons and lictors I hope.

Darkness + rigor mortis + wailing winds is very hard to beat if you reach that far and it seems like you did! Congratulations!

I was really dumb and only have high research in conjuration (nearly 8) and evocation (5) right now. I now know that enchantment is probably the best school to research next time for ermor. Rigor mortis to put a timer on the battle in my favor seems too good to pass up. My idea behind conjuration was that the game was pretty passive and I wanted to get the extra death gems from well of misery and the immortal wraith lord, but it takes sooo long you are better off going enchantment just to claim territory for more death gems. I'd almost certainly have earned more death gems way faster by just site searching after warmongering. At least my 7 harvesters of sorrow will guarantee I win by killing everyone's population eventually, if I hold them off.

Anyway, the big battle still hasn't happened yet because he ignored the death throne and is beelining toward my capital instead. My army is right underneath his army now in a random castle because I was regrouping and got lucky even though I didnt expect this. He's an Ulm with 9 construction (saw him lose with an artifact in the arena just this turn, lol) so he's got some kitted out guys. 300 of his high quality versus 3500 of mine. I'll have more mages than him. My plan is shadow blasts and banefire darts. Not sure how it'll go but as long as I get a big cool battle I'll be happy.

Also there's a ton of random angels and stacks being blown up all around me, this is the latest I've gone in a game and it's getting crazy.

 

[Hoodoo]

Can someone give me a step by step guide to how forming communions works? Cause i watched hours of YT videos and I still don't think it's working. Dominions constantly makes me feel stoopid

 

[TheDarkUrge]

Can someone give me a step by step guide to how forming communions works? Cause i watched hours of YT videos and I still don't think it's working. Dominions constantly makes me feel stoopid

As a new player I found it easiest to practice with just a soul slay spamming communion.

1. Get two or four level 1 astral mages, and one level 2 or 3 astral mage as the master.
2. Get each slave to cast communion slave
3. Get your master to cast communion master then spam soul slay. Ezpz. (Note, not sure if it's worth to communion for soul slay it's just what I found easy to practice setting it up with)

You get an increased level in all your paths for every 2, 4 , 8 , 16 slaves. Your base magic path differences between master/slaves matters a lot for fatigue sharing

https://youtu.be/1bYs-nWzNAg?t=653 this was the video that helped me understand communions. Short and sweet for like 5 minutes as the step by step part so you will probably find it easier than those others you tried.

 

[Hag]

Can someone give me a step by step guide to how forming communions works? Cause i watched hours of YT videos and I still don't think it's working. Dominions constantly makes me feel stoopid

I find this guide useful.