Questions about DOM 1 Demo
 

Hi,
sorry to ask you some silly questions, but I am new to the dominion 1 game and I am playing the demo at the moment. (seems very interesting)

-is it possible to have ships? (each castle has so many units but up to now I did not see any galleys or similar)

-if there are no ships in the game, how can I cross oceans? There are some sort of sea-lanes, but I cannot move an army across it to enter the land on the opposite end of the lane.

-what are the different heavy infantry slots in the castle counter mix for? (ULM). I mean there are axeman, flailman (alle labeled HI) etc. Just to show different icons? Because it seems that the HI has almost the same stats. (some small differences in protection, but not spectacular)
The same is for the ULM commanders. Many icons, same name, almost no stat diffence. Weird. Maybe a bug in the demo?

-how can I build temples?

-Is there an easy way to explain how the combat is resolved? (what are the stats like protection, att, def, Hitpoints etc. for)

Thanks for your time.

bye
klausD

Re: Questions about DOM 1 Demo
 

'lo! Welcome!

Let's see . . .

First off, there aren't any ships. One of the nations, Vanheim, can cross sea provinces, but the others need to use aquatic troops or water magic.

Many of the units with similiar names are equipped differently. If you check out their weaponry and armor, you'll find that some have (for example) maces and shields while others are equipped with two-handed warhammers.

Temples can be built only by priests, which includes your prophet. Just give them the Construst Building order to put them to work. The usual cost is 200 and it'll take just one turn.

Combat boils down to first a check between the attacker's attack stat (which is often boosted by weaponry) and the defender's defence stat (which, again, is often affected one way or the other by equipment). A random number is generated for each side (something like rolling 2d6, but there's a small but still extant chance of rolling much higher than a 12) and those numbers are added to the attack and defence stats.

If attack is higher, the blow connected. The same comparison process, including the random number generation, is used to compare the attacker's strength with the defender's protection. If the strength is higher, the difference is inflicted as damage to the defender's hitpoints. If protection is higher, the blow bounced off.

If the defender is reduced to 0 hitpoints, he is dead. If he survives, he has a chance of receiving an affliction. The chance is based on how many of his hit points, proportionately, he lost in the attack. The afflictions are normally permanent and include such things as a lost eye or a limp.

The attacker will receive fatigue equal to his encumberence for every blow he makes. Fatigue will slowly lower both attack and defence skills, giving fresher troops the edge, and a high fatigue will give a growing chance that an attacker can slip through the defender's armor and thus half the defender's effective protection for that blow. If a unit hits 100 fatigue, they fall unconscious but begin to recover 5 fatigue per turn until reawakening when below 100 again.

That's it in a nutshell, although there's also repelling attacks to consider. When the defender has a weapon with a longer reach than the attacker, the defender has a chance to repell the attack. If this is the case, the same kind of check is made between the defender's attack skill and the attacker's defence skill, before the attacker's blow is even considered. If it succeeds, the attacker must pass a morale check or abort the attack. If the attacker passes, there is a comparison (again with the random numbers added) between the defender's strength and the attacker's protection. If the defender's adjusted strength is higher than the attacker's adjusted protection, the attacker takes 1 HP of damage.

Re: Questions about DOM 1 Demo
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There aren't any ships as such (although certain Vanheim units gain the ability to cross seas to represent their navigation skill). Sea provinces can only be entered by aquatic or amphibious commanders and troops (or by commanders with water magic or special items). I believe they can be crossed (but not entered) by flying troops as well, but I'm not certain about that...

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The weapons themselves actually have different stats that may not be reflected in the unit stats. Right-click on the name of the weapon in the unit's description for details. Also, some of these troops have different armour and shields (these bonuses ARE reflected in the main unit stats though).

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You need to have a priest commander (or a prophet) in the province. Click on the orders for that commander and select 'Construct Building'. Temples will be listed there.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Check out this link. It has a lot of useful documents, including FAQs and at least one full tutorial. I'm pretty sure the answer to this is in there somewhere (probably in the FAQs), plus there's a lot of other useful info as well.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No problem. Enjoy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Edit: Or, you could just read Psitticine's more timely post with most of the same info (and more)... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif That'll teach me not to post and watch TV at the same time... lol ]

[ September 29, 2003, 02:37: Message edited by: Bard of Prey ]

Re: Questions about DOM 1 Demo
 

Depending on the map, you may also be able to cross from island to island without going under water. That is, via adjacent land provinces which have water shown between them.

PvK

Re: Questions about DOM 1 Demo
 

Many thanks to you all for the interesting replies. Now I am a lot more informed.

klausD