I have never won a sp game...

[isodea]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice Endoperez.
To answer your Q's...

I had drain 3, order 2, and 7 dominion since it said their priests are weak, which they are. My preists were preaching to a deaf audiance. The evil reptillians of C'tis dominated the dominion side of things. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Envy.gif[/img] Now that I think about it I also totally forgot to make a prophet! Definatly need to work on dominion heheh.

In each of my armies I had mainly archers and heavy inf. supported by 10-15 black knights, a wizard and a master smith. Black Knights are some bad dudes

Two of my armies had an elite group of knights that collected experiance on loads of indies. C'tis was mowed down by them Infact only those 2 armies survived with any considerable numbers left at the end. Would have been a lot easier if my pretender's death wasen't so ill-timed. He (master druid) commanded an army of vine ogres and crushers and supported a golem. The golem still went on to cause some damage but in the chaos of war I forgot to get him another wizard for support and he died. Some wasted potential there. I'll probably make more golems next time. They seemed powerful if used right.

I also tried to recruit every merc that had a big army. Often I didn't have the money to support them for long so I would send them on suicide missions just so C'tis coulden't use them. One of the mercs was a really cool priest that banished tons of C'tis undead. He was a big help and contributed to the win for sure.

At first I had master smiths research and look for magic sites. Then when I found the wizards I switched them to item making, lab building, and a few supported armies. I made a few dwarven hammers, tons of lanterns, armor/trinkets for my main commanders and spys. Didn't think about buffing their earth skill, should have done that.

I really can't remember all the spells I had. There are tons of them. I know I had a few buffs and some summoning spells that helped. Don't think I had much offense spells. My prentender had battle fortune which was nice but I only got to use it once before the horror took him.

[shovah]

if by golems you mean regular golems they are s1 commanders and therefor self supporting, dominion 7 is wasted for ulm since you priests can only bring it up to their low priest lvl so... im guessing the priestly mercenary was the inquisitorial one? did you pretender get horror marked by an iten you gave him or something? and just for the record unless the commander is a very valuable mage or such its not really worth giving them trinketsand such (unless its a bow of war/spell casting itme or some such)

[isodea]

Yes the golem was a commander, by support I mean someone to heal him and weaken the enemies, cast enchantments etc. so he is more effective.
I wasen't sure about dominion. I thought higher would make it spread faster or something.
Yes I had the inquisitor. He died before the end but was really helpful.

Don't have any idea what happened to my pretender! Don't know what sort of item would curse him but if it says it does so in the description I don't think I made any.

I gave my commanders skull talismans and horror helms mostly. Probably gave them some useless weapons since only a few of them actually fought directly.

[Agrajag]

IIRC, higher starting dominion increases the chance for each temple-check to succeed, so a high dominion is useful for those without priests.
You need to remember, though, that dominion has to "fill up" before it can spread further, so a higher dominion score also means it will take your dominion longer to spread further.

Atleast, that's what I remember from all the previous "how does dominion work?" threads...

[Endoperez]

On the other hand, Ulm usually has enough money to build a couple of temples. AFAIK, each temple would spread the high dominion, even if it would first have to fill up the province it starts from. Also, every temple stops enemy dominion from going further, even if the temple province's dominion can be lowered.
There is a great document explaining dominion in great detail. I think it's on www.dominions-2.org, but I don't remember even its name ATM.

I think you did quite well in the army department, and did use your mages quite well. The fact that you used a support mage with a Golem was also very good. Just learn to use and look out for your dominion a bit more. It also helps if you know what priests can do for you, and knew little more of the Evocation spells, but that will come with different experiences. You're doing very well IMO, especially for a first win.

[isodea]

Endoperez said:
There is a great document explaining dominion in great detail. I think it's on www.dominions-2.org, but I don't remember even its name ATM.

Thanks. Useful guide. Have a much better picture of how dominion works now.

Going to start the next game soon.
(plz no horrors, plz no horrors)

[isodea]

Game #2: Arcocephale vs. Mictlan at Siltrock (great map!)

I was going to go with Machaka but I decided what the heck and picked Arco. The combination of astral and nature looked fun. Picked Titan for pretender. Spent a lot on magic but specialized in only 3 schools. 5 dominion, don't remember the scales but I think I had magic 1. Decided I was going to get tons of spells and try some global enchants etc.

After getting used to arco's units and making some armies I put up gift of health which was neat. Killed the dragon at Siltrock which was a lot of fun. Once I took his province and could train Trogs, Mictlan was in a world of hurt along with all the remaining indies.

I don't know if it's just that Mictlan AI is weak or I dominated that much, but they hardly did anything the whole time except build armies. I made it a priority to take as much land as I could ASAP. Maybe that cuased them to turtle as they only took 5 indie provinces then entire game.

The only thing Mictlan ever did that cost me was casting over my enchantment Eyes of God or whatever (for seeing all the provinces)

I made it a point this time to have a prophet ASAP. Trained atleast 5 priests and built 4 temples. Did much better with dominion this time. Even though Mictlan didn't do much I think it would have been good enough to hold my own against a more aggressive dominion.

Went crazy with research. By the time it was over I had atleast lvl 5 in everything except blood. Built 3 big armies, loaded them with support mages & went right at Mictlan. The whole show was over in about 5 turns from there. There was 7 battles, 6 of which I won. The battle I lost was a stupid mission to see if my golem could kill their prophet who was lightly guarded on an island. The golem didn't quite live up to what I thought based on the items I gave him. He lasted a looong but didn't deal near as much damage as I thought. All the other battles were very easy. Think I only lost 20 something troops all told. I usually set up battle fortune+weapons of sharpness and then launched into attack magic.

Trogs are some bad dudes. Spirit Helmet is nice too. Game was over at turn 49.
I hope the next game is much harder. (and no horrors killed anyone this time lol)

[Emelio Lizardo]

Oh but I disagree, horror marking your god or prophet can be fun, and gives you something to do once you've stomped the AI and are experimenting. I'm trying to capture Ashen Angels and horrors. Problem is my arch angel and his guards kill them too quickly to to capture. I horror marked my PG (all 12+, natural, no wishes) because my cyclops looked so cool in the robe of the magi. I'm trying to find the right spell setup to capture the buggers. Wow, to have an army of AAs and Horrors! Unfortunately I've reduced my remaining AI opponent to the stoneage so I'll have to build him up so I can have fun with him again.

[Wish]

you can't capture them

I've tried, they disappear after combat, even if you hellbind heart them. Might work with enslave mind, (be sure to have lots of penetration gear)

You can wish for them, however. even wished for horrors have something like a 10% chance of dissapearing after combat, from my experience.

[Saber Cherry]

isodea said:
Don't have any idea what happened to my pretender! Don't know what sort of item would curse him but if it says it does so in the description I don't think I made any.

Well, unfortunately, they often don't

Lifelong Protection and Soul Contract give horror marks, and some armors and artifacts do as well. I suggest you download Zen's Magic Item Quick Reference guide (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/d2/6.htm) as it lists some of the unmentioned side effects... of course, it also spoils some of the fun, so don't read things you don't need to read

A unit with horror marks eventually gets attacked by a horror, which is usually fatal, unless you gear it specifically to fight horrors (they have high defense, are ethereal, and ignore protection - lucky coin + fire sword are a good cheap combo that will often keep soul-contracted Jotuns safe from horrors). Horror marks can also be a result of magic sites and random events (IIRC) and hostile battle spells, though. Never put horror-marking items on your god, even if (s)he is very powerful; it's just not worthwhile.