Grand Strategy Noob plays Dominions 5

[Malakal]

How are your gems and gem income? You need to inform us about your resources first before we can recommend a strat.

 

[Galdred]

I have just casted Earth Blood Deep Well, but it will probably be dispelled at some point.

I have a ring of sorcery, bost earth boosters, and I am making Air now, but my Air income is too low. I still have some provinces to search for air, but not that many.

 

[Infinitum]

Amulet of the Fish on Bishop Fishes, along with Shadowmails and Flying/Mapmove boots as needed, then go win. NAPs mean nothing in a machiavellian diplomacy game. Are the thrones forted? If so, you might need to prepare with a bunch of Gatecleaver Vanjarls for the alphastrike. If not, getting to Wizards Tower/Three Red Seconds before rushing is adviced but not necessary (claiming thrones comes first in the turn sequence, so if you cast fort spells on all your conquered thrones as you claim them there is nothing your oppnents can do to keep you from winning*). Start planning out your rush some 4-5 turns in advance to make sure everythings is where you need it. Good luck.

*Short of randomly killing your fort spell caster by assassination spell earlier in the magic phase, and managing to retake the throne province that turn.

 

[Trash Player]

Unfortunately, B-fishes have no boot slots. All the holy boosters are artefacts. Are two throne claimers enough?

 

[Malakal]

Well, that is a pretty bad gem income overall but at least your main gem types are very useful. Realistically I don't believe you can transition into a solid blood economy in a reasonable time tho.

You can afford a hidden in sand cast every two turns with some pearl alchemy, I think that or hidden underneath are your best bets. Solid mages and solid troops for no upkeep. Get alt6 for sure to boost them with darkness.

As a matter of fact alt7 seems like a priority for darkness, fog warriors. Surprised you did not prioritize that more.

Get some D boosters on a D4 base mage and get some pale riders to increase the size of your armies, with fog and darkness they will be useful in actual fight too.

Identify all the T3 thrones with astral or water scrying spells unless you already know where they are. 4 more points is either 2 x 2 or 3 and 1 pointers, but unfortunately you need two thrones in any case. 2 claimers are enough for that though so no need to make more claimers with bishop fish (also they fly with carpets not boots, I have also previously empowered them in S and equipped to teleport...).

 

[Infinitum]

Coulda sworn they did. Carpets it is then.

 

[Galdred]

Thank you. I claimed one throne with my pretender, and another one with the prophet.
I got attacked by Pangea while attempting to storm the throne from Sauromatia, and I managed to win the 3 battles (unstealth/teleport battle, movement battle, and castle storming).
I met literraly no resistance with the other throne (I sent 5 Vanjarls with Blackhearts + Lifelong Protection Contracts to soften the fort, then sieged and stormed).

I am surprised the other players didn't try harder to stop me (Xibalba had a massive research lead, but I had top gold and gem income).

 

[Berekän]

Just to plug a bit, KN started a new game on the playground, more people needed.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...hirty-something-the-return-to-madness.135534/

 

[Humbaba]

I have unearthed this thread to tell you that after 160+ hours I have finally found 1 nation for each age that I can play reasonably well, offline at least. Now I am in the process of trying to win at least 1 game with each against mighty AI, having already won one with Hinnom. Maybe after another 160 I'll be able to try multiplayer.

 

[Nutria]

My problem with multiplayer is that I come out with some strategy that worked against the AI and then I find out that humans learned how to beat it 15 years ago.

 

[Malakal]

My problem with multiplayer is that I come out with some strategy that worked against the AI and then I find out that humans learned how to beat it 15 years ago.

The beauty of this game is there is no strategy that will always win, everything can be countered but not by every nation. Some strategies are next to impossible to stop by certain nations, that is the best you can do.

 

[Johannes]

Vs AI, just dump PD everywhere and watch the AI suicide to it over and over. Then put togethr armies / supercombatants that can mow thru endless trash easily. You do need passable expansion to be succesful vs top level AI, but it's ultimately dull and not really preparing you to fight vs decent human-led armies either strategically or tactically. Playing out the expansion phase, the first 10-15 turns where you mostly fight the indies and maybe rush someone (and in a real game, get rushed), is still fun and useful to optimise vs the AI.

But who am I to speak how to start out with this game, if it's only after being spoiled by MP that you realize how braindead the AI is

 

[Humbaba]

Vs AI, just dump PD everywhere and watch the AI suicide to it over and over. Then put togethr armies / supercombatants that can mow thru endless trash easily. You do need passable expansion to be succesful vs top level AI, but it's ultimately dull and not really preparing you to fight vs decent human-led armies either strategically or tactically. Playing out the expansion phase, the first 10-15 turns where you mostly fight the indies and maybe rush someone (and in a real game, get rushed), is still fun and useful to optimise vs the AI.

But who am I to speak how to start out with this game, if it's only after being spoiled by MP that you realize how braindead the AI is

Tbf it is not uncommon for the AI to beat your PD with a much smaller force, for example if your troops are a bit shit in general or when the enemy manages to snipe the commander or assassinates him with summoned wisps. Tramplers work very well too.

 

[Johannes]

Vs AI, just dump PD everywhere and watch the AI suicide to it over and over. Then put togethr armies / supercombatants that can mow thru endless trash easily. You do need passable expansion to be succesful vs top level AI, but it's ultimately dull and not really preparing you to fight vs decent human-led armies either strategically or tactically. Playing out the expansion phase, the first 10-15 turns where you mostly fight the indies and maybe rush someone (and in a real game, get rushed), is still fun and useful to optimise vs the AI.

But who am I to speak how to start out with this game, if it's only after being spoiled by MP that you realize how braindead the AI is

Tbf it is not uncommon for the AI to beat your PD with a much smaller force, for example if your troops are a bit shit in general or when the enemy manages to snipe the commander or assassinates him with summoned wisps. Tramplers work very well too.

You really can spam huge amounts of PD vs the AI, and you should vs the highest difficulties... 20 PD where you get the 2nd commander is still low numbers here, and if the enemy has stuff that could plausibly snipe both, just bring an extra commander with bodyguards to sit back and complement the PD. You put smth like 60 PD in a buffer province, the AI will just keep suiciding stuff there over and over again, while you can build proper armies and research back home without attrition. If your national PD troops are really crap, that would hurt this ofc.

 

[Malakal]

I legit put 60pd in MP a few times, added a few mages to cast mass buffs. Really fucks with the enemy.

 

[Humbaba]

You really can spam huge amounts of PD vs the AI, and you should vs the highest difficulties... 20 PD where you get the 2nd commander is still low numbers here, and if the enemy has stuff that could plausibly snipe both, just bring an extra commander with bodyguards to sit back and complement the PD. You put smth like 60 PD in a buffer province, the AI will just keep suiciding stuff there over and over again, while you can build proper armies and research back home without attrition. If your national PD troops are really crap, that would hurt this ofc.

Yeah, I was thinking of my last game with LA Marignon, which really has a crap troop lineup and my PD got fucked regularly by much smaller armies.

 

[Fluent]

Hey guys. Sorry to attempt to hijack the thread (i'll do it quickly, don't worry ), but I've heard the phrase "Don't play Dominions against the AI". I assume this is true because it ends up being too easy. But is there a mod that actually makes for interesting and effective AI for enemies? I don't really like playing multiplayer against other real people, i'm a lone wolf at heart and always appreciate a decent to good AI. Are there any options for me to play this game comfortably against the computer? Thanks!

 

[Nutria]

It's not that the AI is bad, it's more that the game is incredibly complex. There's hundreds of spells and thousands of creatures and each individual person has their own unique characteristics down to the last foot soldier. So an experienced human can put together some combination of those and come up with a brilliant strategy that you would never anticipate.

It's still fun to play against the AI though. I'd guess I've probably got a couple hundred hours in the series over the past several years and I'm only starting to feel like I need more challenge. Even if you start getting better than the AI, keep in mind that there's dozens of different nations to play as, so just switch to another one where you need to learn a completely different way of playing.

 

[Fluent]

Thanks, fellow bluebro! Appreciate the detailed response. Sounds like I can in fact have plenty of fun against the AI. Cheers!

 

[mondblut]

Hey guys. Sorry to attempt to hijack the thread (i'll do it quickly, don't worry ), but I've heard the phrase "Don't play Dominions against the AI".

Don't listen to autists, they are just butthurt that they aren't invited

I assume this is true because it ends up being too easy. But is there a mod that actually makes for interesting and effective AI for enemies?

There is a number of mods that disable recruiting worthless neutrals, thereby preventing AI from spending most of its gold on shitty militia. Of course, the AI doesn't know all the cunt moves the players do (like stalling their turns until you get bored and quit, so they can win). On the other hand, if your one trick pony strategy you were beelining after since the moment you have chosen your nation suddenly stumbles, you can go back to the drawing board and come up with something else, unlike MP, where every gem, coin and unit turn spent suboptimally paves a way to your failure.

Just play the way you want.

 

[udm]

The most fun I had was with human opponents (the amount of backstabbery that went on was glorious), but yeah, AI's decent enough. You can make the same argument with most 4X games anyway.

 

[Galdred]

The most fun I had was with human opponents (the amount of backstabbery that went on was glorious), but yeah, AI's decent enough. You can make the same argument with most 4X games anyway.

Not really because the other ones are usually not as "playable" as Dom 5, unless you consider End Turn/Start turn APM challenge in civilization meaningful.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

"Don't play Dominions against the AI".

Simply bullshit. Playing against the AI can be fun LARPing since the game has so many blocks to play with.

MP is also great but almost feels like a different game, so to speak.

 

[lecrop]

AI can be very bad strategically, but this wargame is so brutally extensive that just by trying different strategies you can spend a lifetime playing against AI.

...and then you play in a multi and everything learned is useless muhahah

 

[AgentFransis]

You can have fun "with the AI" but you're actually just playing with yourself since the AI is braindead. There's plenty of toys to play with so it's still an entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying experience. And it gets tedious after a while since fighting the AI is an endless series of fending off random armies of trash and attacking massive PD dumps.

I recommend playing with AetherNomad's Hellenica mod, it has lots of cool stuff to mess around with.