[13lackGu4rd]

it seems like there are quite a few newbies(including myself) who have recently joined the Dominions community. all the guides available on these boards as well as on the wiki are very helpful, however they cover specific nation strategies and assume that you already know all the basic things. for example, in most of these guides the end game says "all the usual things", "easy access to tarts", etc. however there is nowhere(at least not that I found) that explains in detail what to do with tarts(and other SCs, Thugs, etc for that matter) once you summon them, how to best utilize them, how to equip them, etc. when guides refer to blood they usually say it's the most powerful magic path for those nations with good access to it, however, to the newbie, on first site the blood summons don't seem all that extraordinary and game breaking.

basically what I'm trying to say that what the more experienced players consider as "basics" are exactly what us newbies are missing. the guides available, which obviously are more useful to newbies than experienced players(though these can still learn things from them), just don't seem cover the very basics of dominions as a whole. perhaps a guide to Thugging(with more in depth basic details than Baalz's current Zen of Thugging guide), SCs, Blood(again aiming more towards the basics than Baalz's current blood hunting guide), Late game strategies in general(just Tarts or other useful things that can apply to all nations), basic strengths and weaknesses of each element, and why some like Fire are considered weak while others like Astral are considered very strong, etc.

yes, experience will eventually teach all these things, but than again, if you wish to pull the experience card than why make guides at all? and no, this is not a criticism post on the current guide makers, quite the contrary, those are a blessing! it's just that from my own newbie's perspective it seems that the first few steps in the staircase are missing...