How to successfully utilize your "Dominion Wall"?

[Wish]

I find averaging around 5 is not overly expensive, and is sufficient to prevent most early AI dominions, which are sometimes very high, from overwhelming you.

[Ygorl]

One thing I noticed in the "Council of Wyrms" game was that my high dominion (8) combined with lots of early temples (cheap for Man) meant that my no-magic pretender was able to comfortably take out nearly any independent province, even those with knights and the like that other more magically-endowed pretenders were falling to. The difference between a 200hp Wyrm and a 400hp Wyrm, especially when you consider the doubled regeneration, is pretty significant.

Of course, there are plenty of pretender designs to which this does not apply nearly as much, and there are many bad things to be said about taking no magic on your pretender. Just another example where different strategies can all work pretty well.