Dominions Nations Evaluations ;)

[Endoperez]

EDIT: ninja'd by quantum, and I guess his reasons wrong as well.


MA Ulm:
Early: 2
Middle: 2
Late: 3
Learning: 3
Use: 2

You'll need clever tactics to get to late game, and need Blood Stones to survive late middle/all of late. This drops ease of use, because blood hunting is boring.

[Amhazair]

EA Ermor: 3 4 3 2 3 (Solid yet unspectacular early game with legionaries, nice communion battlemagic potential in mid game. Low max levels in S prevent it from being the late game powerhouse other S nations can be. Mastering communions and lots of low-level not easy to boost paths make it quite tricky to learn. )
EA Sauromatia 4 4 4 3 3 (Just plain solid nation, with a large variety of strong options in all stages of the game. It might be worth a 2 in ease of learning simply due to the large number of options available, but in the end went with 3 as whatever option you choose is bound to be at least decent. )
EA Helheim: 5 3 3 4 4 (Obvious early game power. They do have a good number of mid/late game options available (magma eruption, good A/D magic, powerful(flying) stealthy raiders, but a lot of it is capital only, lowering their rating a bit. )
EA Yomi: 1 4 3 2 2 (Easily the most difficult expansion of all nations I played so far. Mid game with recruitable Dai Oni and strong battlemagic is very solid. Mastering early expansion, figuring the best uses for the quite crappy military, and the many uses of Dai Oni make them quite hard to learn. )
EA Oceania: 5 1 2 3 3 (Amazing early game potential, but getting out of the water is an unbelievable pain in the ***. Their only saving grace past early game is easy clam-access. )

MA Ulm: 2 4 2 4 4 (Your troops are decent enough for expansion, but you have a number of vulnerablilities in early wars. Hordes of smiths spamming magma eruption behind a wall of steel make mid-game their day of glory. Late game their lack of magic diversity haunts them. The limited number of magic paths make them quite easy to use and script. )
MA Abysia: 3 4 3 2 2 (Solid and fire immune if expensive troops and fire evocations make for a decent enough early and mid game. Late game they can leverage the power of blood, but expensive & capital only bloodhunters and lack of other tricks limits them. Crippling capital dependance, old age issues, blood magic, and path boosting difficulties make this nation hard to play.
MA C'tis: 2 4 3 2 2 (Recruitable everywhere marshmasters with skellespam and poison tricks make for a very powerful mid game. Late game marshmasters remain top-class mages, and shaman/couatls allow communions and astral tricks. The miasma makes it difficult to diversify their magic though (bringing their lategame rating down a notch) and also explains the low learning/ease of use ratings. )
MA Jotunheim: 4 4 3 4 3 (Easily massable sacreds for a potentially strong early game, cheap researchers, thugs and body ethereal in mid game. Somehow, despite having astral, death and blood magic I feel they slowly peter out towards late game. )
MA R'lyeh: 3 3 5 2 3 (Nothing extraordinary about the early stages of their game, but nigh on unstopable as soon as you get your Starspawn & cheap communion slaves going. Learing how to get out of the water with chaffy troops and communions make them not the easiest nation to learn. )

LA Pangaea: 4 3 3 4 4 (Two very different but equally nice varieties of sacreds and minotaurs make early game a breeze. Mid game your Pans can buff your very solid military to greater hights. High hp mages and troops and high MR are great assets for late game, but you lack magical diversity. )
LA Utgard: 4 4 4 2 3 (A very solid nation all around. Good sacreds, strong thugs, amazing cheap mages, strong communions, very decent S/D magic, and good blood access.
LA Atlantis: 2 3 2 4 5 (Strong but resource heavy troops. Coupled with strong W/D mages and cold resistant troops they make for a decent mid game. Late game the mages high hp and high death magic are useful, but appalling lack of other options leave them rather weak. That same lack of options and obvious strengths make them easy to use though. )
LA R'lyeh: 4 4 5 2 1 (I agree with QM about giving LA R'lyeh a 6 for endgame strength. Masses of freespawn chaff make for good expansion, and proper use of illithids and mages make early/mid game solid enough. Late game is ridiculously powerful, combining MA's magical power with virtually limitless chaff hordes - who suddenly become a lot more fearsome when massively buffed by your communions. Freespawn requiring two kinds of leadership, madness and large communions makes playing them a micromanagement nightmare. )

[Sombre]

A 4 for MA Ulm in MP? I would think they're one of the hardest to learn to use effectively and require quite a lot of micro, with loads of forging, necessary troop buffs etc.

[Amhazair]

Nah, I don't feel that's the case. They don't need to forge more than other nations, they just do it a lot cheaper. Same thing with buffing troops. And you can give all (well, most) their smiths the same script and be effective. Nothing like the T'ien Chi hassle to optimize scripting for a gazillion different mages with 1000's of different possible spells to cast.

Incidentally Ulm was the first nation I played in MP. I used a rainbow pretender and got away with it. In the huge endgame battles against Calmons Ermor I first had to figure out what to do with the various indy/summoned mages, assign one smith to army of lead duty, and then just script 37x [summon earthpower, magma eruption x4] That was the easy part.

[Twan]

Originally Posted by quantum_mechani

MA Arco 3 5 4 3 3

Strange to give a better note for Arco's midgame than early or late. Especially a 5.

Arco is clearly weaker between the moment when elephants become obsolete (because ennemies use MR spells, thugs etc) and when the level 8-9 extremely powerful astral spells are researched (and diversification to death or other thugs summons achieved).

[Twan]

MA Ermor 4 5 4 4 3 (in early game Ermor has to use a lot of commanders to reanimate ; and the kind of armies Ermor has become weaker in late game + 8hp mages are easily killed by mass spells ; so I only give a maximum note for MA Ermor in midgame, even if the nation is always strong)
MA Pythium 3 4 5 3 2 (troops are expensive for early expansion, then Pythium rocks, best defensive battle magic for armies, angels summons etc.. make it one of the best endgame nations)
MA Man 4 1/3 2/4 5 3 (longbowmen/knights are excellent against both indies and AIs, but a weak army base against players as it's easy to counter them with decoys, I'd give MP midgame a 1 but a 3 against AIs ; as well in SP access to the fog warriors + rain of stones combo + air queen thugs are sufficient to make Man an AI destroying nation in late stage, but not at all to make it good against players)
MA Ulm 2 1 2 3 1 (one of the weakest nations in midgame due to poor magic, for early game troops are correct but not that good, and vulnerable against tramplers ; if Ulm happen to reach late game and access to good thugs/SCs, forge bonus may be a consequent economical advantage, so I give it a little better note for LG)
MA Marignon 3 2 3 3 4 (correct troops for expansion, lack of thugs or magical economy forge in midgame, angels and astral magic make endgame potential rather good)
MA Mictlan 4 4 3 2 3 (sacred for expansion, good magical diversity for midgame, but not the best paths for late stage)
MA TC 2 3 4 2 3 (mage based nation, troops are not great, profits a lot from high level research)
MA Mackaka 3 4 3 3 3 (good sacreds for early stage but a little too expensive, then fire and earth magic are very powerful in midgame, and the nation also has good research and access to fetish hoarding ; but in endgame the lack of astral is painful, having death is good but not sufficient)
MA Agartha 1 3 2 2 2 (fine knowledge of the national summons -some very interesting some extremely niche- is needed so I give it a bad note for learning/use ; the nation can be rather good in midgame and isn't completely desesperate in late game if they are well used)
MA Abysia 3 4 3 2 3 (good early expansion with heat aura troops, then don't underestimate midgame power of fire magic, or late game power of demons -but lack of other tricks is a problem- bad learning note due to age problems)
MA Caelum 4 3 3 3 (mammoths make for a powerful early games, mages for a rather good mid game and medium late potential -access to some of the best paths but with low levels)
MA C'tis 2 4 4 2 2 (troops aren't very good, but having mages as good as marshmasters recruitable everywhere, powerful death and access to astral + clams forging, qualifies Ct'is as a strong nation for mid-late game ; vulnerability to cold and dominion killing your indies recruit make the nation rather hard to play)
MA Pangaea 4 5 3 3 3 (good early game with a bless, excellent midgame with hordes of freespawns, high hp troops and some thugable chassis, medium late game, maenads are easily killed by mass spells and sacreds no longer important, but earth and blood aren't bad path)
MA Vanhiem 5 4 2 3 4 (bless nation, become weaker over time, blood-air is not that interesting as the combo don't give uniques like blood-fire or water)
MA Jotunhiem 4 4 4 4 3 (like Utgard except a little weaker in midgame due to price of mages)
MA Bandar Log (never played no opinion)
MA Shinuyama (never played no opinion)
MA Ashod (not sufficiently played to have an opinion, except national summons qualify for a 4 or more in late game)
MA Atlantis 4 2 3+ 5 3 (sea tramplers and access to the extremely good dagon chassis are excellent for expansion, but the price of non capitol mages is an handicap in midgame ; in late game correct astral levels and mages with sufficient hp to endure mass spells make Atlantis an above average nation ; excellent note for sp learning as AIs are unable to defeat sea nations, and Atlantis is the best to expand in both sea and lands)
MA R'yeh 3 4 5 3 3 (high level astral mages with high hp make the nation insanely good in late stage)
MA Oceania 5 2 3 4 4 (excellent for destroying other sea nations, then globally lacking, but massive clam hoarding can make it very powerful in late stage if diversification to astral can be achieved)
MA Eriu 3 3 2 4 2 (medium nation, without the good paths for late game, rather easy to play against AIs unable to counter glamour)

[Zeldor]

I would give MA T'ien Ch'i rather 2 3 3 2 2 [or even 1 for MP micro]. The only SCs and thugs they can really access are Golems. I think that their mages are hardest to script. IF you want to make use of research you need to use communions as all your mages are low level. You have insane amount of randoms on your mages. For some of them you need master matrixes. You need to do a lot of booster allocating and swapping.

[quantum_mechani]

Twan said:

Strange to give a better note for Arco's midgame than early or late. Especially a 5.

Arco is clearly weaker between the moment when elephants become obsolete (because ennemies use MR spells, thugs etc) and when the level 8-9 extremely powerful astral spells are researched (and diversification to death or other thugs summons achieved).

I think it all hinges on where you call midgame. The elephants give them early stregth, but they really hit the peak of their power when they get mind hunt/soul slay/evocations. Normally, this power continues into the late game, but they have a fairly serious weakness there of fragile mages.

[Twan]

Hum yes I translated early game by expansion/rush (with say level 3 max magic researched). Midgame by when you have several schools at levels 4-6. Late when you have several levels 7-9. Also I value more mass astral spells than midgame ones, even if the two are powerful, my Arco's peak would be just in the beginning of late stage, when first level 8-9 battle magic (will of the fates, master enslave) is reached.

But my interpretation is probably not the best as I feel like a note is missing for after.

The end game (when you and all your opponents have most schools at level 9 and access to numerous tartarians able to cast spells like rain of stones) is very different than the beginning of late game, as human mages lose most of their offensive power. On the other hand calling "midgame" all the game between level 4-5 magic and the moment all magic is researched, would make hard to differenciate nations.

[krpeters]

Sombre said:
A 4 for MA Ulm in MP? I would think they're one of the hardest to learn to use effectively and require quite a lot of micro, with loads of forging, necessary troop buffs etc.

I don't know about MP, but in SP, MA Ulm is very easy to use and very effective up to the midgame (which is as far as I play). Recruit a "wall of steel" (soldiers with tower shields), lead them with a dwarven smith, have him forge a pair of earth boots, script him to cast earth power, and watch him obliterate AI chaff armies with blade wind and magma eruption.

Compared to most other strategies this is positively easy!