So, how do you play this game?
 

First of all, thank you very much Illwinter and Shrapnel for releasing this for free, it is perfect to play while waiting on late-game turns to finish on big maps in Dom 3. But I feel kind of like I am wandering in the dark here. OK, so I got that you have heroes, and you click the little blue swords to assign troops to the selected commander, and you move them around to kill things and capture villages/farms/other things. But I am left with a lot of questions. If anyone could help me out with them I'd really appreciate it.

1. Is there any sort of documentation available? I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth here, I'm just wondering if there is a FAQ or walkthrough or something written by someone at some point. I chose an enchanter (almost named him Tim) and was wondering what all those interesting symbols mean on my golem's status page.

2. Should I be so poor? Am I falling way behind because I am terrible or is that normal?

3. Are there functions on the keyboard that I can't get through the mouse? If so, what are they?

4. Any way to slow down the battles?

5. Speaking of battles, how do they work? Right now I'm sending my guys in and hoping they don't die. Do mixed arms work better? Worse?

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

1) manual.txt in the game folder
2) Everyone starts poor as a church mouse. you get more income when you capture things that give you money (farms, villages, mines etc)
3) see 1)
4) see 1)
5) Mixed arms are good, the more the better, and see 1)

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

Starting as a Warlord seems to be a bit simpler. I flailed my way through several false starts, but now I'm playing a game as a Senator in the Empire stage, and it's going rather well. I'll try some kind of magic-y type for my next game....

Edi already answered your questions, and I can't really improve on his answers. So here's some general advice from one newbie to another:

• Combined arms are your friend. In particular, don't neglect your missile troops. A handful of archers and/or crossbowmen can do a fair bit of damage to the badguys.
• Know thine opponents. Dwarves are surprisingly tough. Knights are tough, too. Goblins are wimps. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
• Beware of walls! Enemies inside of walled cities, towers, castles, etcetera are much harder to defeat than a similar force in the open field. Siege units might be a good idea, or just overwhelm them with sheer numbers.
• Mind your surroundings! Independents can walk in and re-capture those lucrative villages, towns, farms, & mines that you worked so hard to add to your empire. You probably won't have enough money to recruit enough troops to defend everything, so you might try a "zone defense" strategy. Let the independents capture your farm for a turn or two, but re-conquer it ASAP.
• Always keep a decent gold reserve if you can, just in case some tempting commander becomes available to hire. I'm very bad at this. It's frustrating to be informed that Schlomo the Wizard has offered his services, only to find out that I only have 18 gold in my treasury!
• Winter sucks. No, really. Your income drops by something like 75%, so forget about recruiting any troops.
• Save your game before you try anything risky, so you can reload if it doesn't work out like you hoped it would. There are probably some purists who will mock me for saying this, but I don't care. It's a single-player game, and I don't have to answer to anyone for how I play it.

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

When I'm considering an attack where it's not obvious I can win, I click on my and their troops and add up the total melee strength vs. hit points. I still get surprised sometimes by special abilities of things I haven't run into before.Don't fritter away your troops by attacking neutrals that aren't occupying a revenue space or a strategically placed fortification.

The first game where I got a decent revenue stream going was playing a Cardinal of El. Most of your commanders can bless squares to increase the income, and your deity periodically gives you another commander for free.

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

If you find the game hard try the necro or the druid.

As a necro look for spots where there are lots of dead, and use your apperentice to raise the dead. He will eventually go insane and become immobile. If you raise at a terrain where there are sufficent number of corpses you will gain beast of disorder, which are somewhat similar to the eater of the dead in dominions. Note that humans killed in battle will up the corpse count. As a necro you will also collect hands of glory, you can use these to summon undeads or transform yourself. If you transform yourself into a Vamp it will cure any insanity, if you transform yourself into a Lich you will be immune from insanity. Since a lich is immune to insanity it can grow it's forces after each battle with humans. Hands of glory use is cheaper in fallen temples, haunted castles and haunted cities. Vamps Liches and Carrions are immortal, as long as you reatin you homecastle you will ressurect there when you die.

As a druid, note that the most powerful summons are only available if you are currently in a mountain or great forest square. In the great forest you can get beholders which are ridicously powerful.

If you play demonlogist or evil priestess lower your tax, or your villagers and miners will revolt from the sacrifice collection.

Kill brigands they are more likely to enter income squares than non income squares. If you find a brigand lair, clean it out, it generates new brigands if not captured. Independents only spawns in darkened map areas, so if you play a nation capable of capturing forests you will be less bothered by independents.

If an enemy summons the horsemen of the apocalypse or the inquisition be sure to have more than one citadel. They will walk towards one random citadel and capture it, and then walk towards the next. As long as they remain alive.

If you play a shaman you can use their ability to posess to let your attacks count as defense instead of offense and thus gaining firststrike advantage. Remember to posses first though, since you cannot posess troops in battle. Nightmare last 2 rounds, by using both your shaman and totem pole for 2 rounds you can posess powerful independent units like hydras, mountain giants, beholders or vampires.

Try binding elementals if you are a warlock. Don't bind waterelemtals though. I don't think they ever gained aby functionality when bound. If you have fire or earth elementals you can wait with binding them until they are damaged.

In general spellcasters are more powerful in the lategame. Warlords and nonhuman in the shortrun.

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

You can slow down everything in the game by pressing 3 during your turn, or speeding up by pressing 1. In battle speeed up with s.

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

Hahaha, I can't believe I missed that. I really feel like an idiot. Now I know why my magic creatures weren't healing.

Anyway, thanks for the other information. I'll try a necromancer or baron then. I was actually surviving as an enchanter until a gigantic stack of priest guys came which I assume was either the Inquisition or some really strong enemy and completely destroyed me.

EDIT: I just got Sir Robin. Very nice touch! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

Wow the 's' shortcut is a life saver, esp. when its 2AM in the morning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thank you!

Re: So, how do you play this game?
 

I haven't been successful as a Necromancer yet, but I had some very bad luck when I tried. My next game will try again.

This is great advice. I just beat the game as a Druid, and it wasn't too difficult. Grab every forest, jungle, swamp, marsh, and (especially) ancient forest that you can see. Stockpile the herbs. Then head into an ancient forest and call the council of the animals. This ritual will summon a veritable HORDE of critters to serve you. Hand off the critters to another commander to keep your Druid free for more summoning duty. Supplement the critters with a few archers and crossbowmen for added killing power.

Meanwhile, stockpile MORE herbs. Head into the mountains and summon legendary critters. I got a basilisk and a bunch of chimeras this way. Both of those guys are great for clearing out hordes of chaff.

I only managed to summon the guardian of the woods (or whatever the top-level forest critter is called) twice. Once, I got a pair of giant moose. That was wacky. The second time, I got an Ent. Cool!

FYI: Many of the Druid's coolest critters (like the Ent) are vulnerable to fire. Beware of demons! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Nobody expects the Elysian Inquisition!
 

Trying a Cardinal of El in the 'Empire' age might also be easier; more high-population, high-congregation squares should let you boost your Congregation value rapidly. Once it's fairly high, you get to bless your troops, get free paladins and saints, get the inquisitors and their troops running around on your behalf...

I have stomped around as a Necromancer, but it does take finding at least a graveyard before somebody else is ready to stomp you, and pref. getting a Flesh Heap.