Integrating Strategies

[WolfHati]

I've been playing dominions a lot recently (single player--I don't have very regular internet access, unfortunately), and I am trying to incorporate more magic-based strategies that are more sophisticated than simply massing heavy cavalry (which will usually stomp the computer's armies). The problem I've been having is essentially that I win the battles but lose the war. I get one or two unstoppable juggernaut groups that the computer simply can't win against, but since I have de-emphasized conventional warfare in my pretender picks, I really can't hold the territory I capture and thereby get the resources to expand further.

Any ideas from more veteran players here?

For example, my more recent experiment was with Bandar Log using a W10 bless and communion buffs to make a really nasty thug squad of Yakshas and Yakshinis, unfortunately since I sucked at expanding early on and the monkey's PD isn't worth a darn, I got pushed back to my home territory. So now my thug communion is pushing 300 kills per member (and occupying the entire hall of fame) and all I have is my home province, the 2 water gems a month from my mother of rivers pretender, and a gold income that's barely in the positive. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Omnirizon]

I think most players tend to make too big armies. Don't use a sledgehammer to kill a fly (the advisors on Romance of the Three Kingdoms used to quip me that all the time. I still remember it after all these years).

first, try reading Baalz's BL guide.

I can offer a little general advice:
With the right kind of army, even very small ones can kill anything the computer throws your way. For SP, you can just roll this way through the whole game. For BL early on you might want a big bless, but not Water (you get Celestial Quickness, making Water partially redundant). I'd go E9 (perhaps S9 too). Use White Ones with markata chaff and elephants. Have mages spamming Healing Light and some berserk invoking spells on the elephants; they work pretty good that way. You can cast Mossbody on the markatas.

Later, get Yakshas and Yakshini, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, ect. Get Celestial Quickness. Even very small groups of Gandharvas with E9 and Celestial Quickness can survive a lot of what the AI throws your way. Outfit your Yaksha/shinis as battlemages (cloaks of etherealness/invulnerability, penetration items) outfit your Kinnaras and Siddhas as thugs (firebrand, charcoal sheild, dragon helm, something for luck, something for regen, either boots of flying or the messenger. they have four arms, you can be pretty creative with that). Siddhas are the ultimate raiders, and can even provide very flexible support (they can jump into a battle with just about any army.)

You can have a big army for plowing through to capitals, and use small elite groups or even single thugs for raiding and holding onto your provinces.

[WolfHati]

Err... wait I'm being dumb. I meant Kailasa, not Bandar Log.

But I guess my more general question was how do you handle early expansion if your pretender is focused on mid to late game advantages?

[Dragar]

It is probably atypical to rely on your pretender for early expansion, dormant builds are normal and imprisoned not unusual. Virtually all nations have a way of doing it without, particularly if they have strong blessable sacreds or large units like elephants or hydras. Giant nations find it particularly easy. If you look at the strategy guides for any nation they normally describe typical indie clearing forces.

Note that taking pretender magic to level 10, such as your proposed W10 bless, is rarely worthwhile. The huge cost of the extra level will very rarely be worth it

[OmikronWarrior]

I'm going to advice a thug/SC strategy. Try to find a build that lets you take on oppossing armies with a single unit (preferabbly with flight. This will let you "chase" after behind the lines AI. Also, bulk up on PD, it won't stop a large enemy army, but it will wear it down with casualties until AI can stop it. Then, focus on capturing fortresses to shutdown enemy unit production.

[Omnirizon]

Ah... Kailasa, one of my favorite nations.

You can, literally, kill almost any SP army with about 20 of Kailasa's sacreds (Yavana's I think) with an A9S9 bless. The only problem will come if the AI has summoned Clockwork Horrors, lots of undead, or has berserk troops.

try:
Imprisoned Oracle A9S9 Order3Sloth3Growth?Heat3Misf1Magic? Dom8
(you can play with the Growth and Magic scale, both could be good. With Order3 and Growth3 you can actually Tax at 110 with no penalty; good synergy. Magic3 is always nice though.)

recruit and prophetize that cross-legged monkey on your first two turns.
for the first year, attempt to recruit mostly Yaksha or the non-cross legged monkeys (when you don't have enough money for a Yaksha) and use them to lead troops. The Yaksha can lead and bless, the white monkeys can only lead (ie, you will need a priest), the cross-legged guys can lead more than the other white monkey, but they have a map-move of only 1. One of your first priorities should be building a temple next to your capital where there is a recruitable priest.

You need the same guys you might use to research to be leading troops this first year. Ignore research and just conquer provinces. You should favor recruiting more sacreds over recruiting another Yaksha at this point. Recruit your sacreds and markata archers. About 8 sacreds and a troop of markata archers can conquer about 5 provinces before you've lost too many sacreds and need to get some backup (when you get less than 4 or 5, you should probably get more). You should be able to send out another expansion party every turn. By turn 12, you should have close to 20 provinces. Do note that after the first year, you should _ALWAYS_ recruit a Yaksha/Yakshini (you only would not at first so you can get more sacreds for a quick initial expansion).

You will now be pressing up against opponents. Slow your expansion and get a couple of extra forts built, if you havn't already. Start researching. Research site search first (thau2 Evoc2 Conj3). site search and summon Apsaras. Research thau6 for Celestial Quickness next. This will also net you good Astral spells. Now start banging down Evoc and Alt. I'd go for Evoc4 first to get some battle magic, then Alt 4 or 5 so your Yakshas/Yakshini can buff themselves so they can sit on frontlines with little danger. Get to about Alt 6 and Evoc 6 before you start thinking about reearching anything else. That will get you some really nice battle magic that your mages are perfectly set to use.

Use Panic, Destruction, Iron Bane, Bladewind, Earthquake, Paralyze, and the like. You should focus on your sacreds, massed archers, and battle magic. With Kailasa I would ignore thugs until you have at least Alt and Evoc 6, then think about Conj and Const. Use the fact that you can destroy stuff with very small armies backed up by battle mages and spread your forces about (rather than use big armies for main battles with thugs for raiding). Use your kick-*** scales to build extra forts and temples and keep your research and priests (for blessing) flowing.

If you have to deal with Undead or berserkers, capitalize on the fact that they are typically poorly armored and allow your Bladewind ready mages and masses of archers to mow them down. YOu can use markata chaff to hold them back (but they will die in droves, well that's ok, that's what chaff is for). I actually find the sacreds are still OK against these opponents. They don't have to fear your own archers / bladewinds, their high defense helps even if they don't benefit from their Awe.

Later on recruit Kinnaras and Siddhas as Air battle mages. Use them with Thunder Strike, Wrathful Skies, Storm, and Shimmering Fields paired with your sacreds. They can toss these evocations around and your SR75 sacreds don't need to worry too much about collateral damage. If you get some spells that bestow additional SR, you can make your sacreds immune to those spells altogether.

Kailasa is one of my favorite nations because they can be so powerful if played right. They are elegant but brutal, very twitchy though (if that makes any sense to you).

[WolfHati]

The impression I'm getting is that my biggest mistake with Kailasa was not having an astral pretender to get all those yummy summons more easily. And concentrating too early on good commanders instead of sacreds for the early game.

Hmm, but maybe I can get out of my current predicament by outfitting one of my commanders as a professional arrow-catcher and still using a small force of sacreds. Scales are good enough that that probably wouldn't break the bank, even with 1 province. Though hopefully the high defense bless will make up for the fact that I'm against Pan and Marverni! Yay berserkers...

[Tolkien]

In all honesty, the problem with Pan will be the boatloads of undead chaff. All with sleep vines. But if the Pan hasn't gotten Carrion Woods...it's only Minotaurs.

[Omnirizon]

Originally Posted by Tolkien

In all honesty, the problem with Pan will be the boatloads of undead chaff. All with sleep vines. But if the Pan hasn't gotten Carrion Woods...it's only Minotaurs.

not with EA Pan, they don't even get Carrion Woods (at least I don't remember them having it).

[WolfHati]

I think they can cast it if they really want, but the computer isn't using mannikins at last check so it's kinda a moot point for this specific situation.