Dominions Nations Evaluations ;)

[JimMorrison]

Twan said:
Blesses are always assumed in early game notes for bless nations I think (at least in my notes ; many nations having 4 or 5 in EG would desserve a 2 or 3 without bless). Some other nations may succeed with a bless but it hasn't to be valued as what they can do with an awake pretender or good scales is about the same (ie : I assume that LA Atlantis will have an awake pretender + a simple bless, or an inferior/non-awake pretender + a strong bless, or good scales instead of a bless allowing to recruit more ice armor troops, in the three cases the nation desserve about the same good early note).

Absolutely! That's exactly what I was trying to say. Rate them according to what you can expect them to have, which includes what YOU give them. If your whole strategy is banking on finding a territory you can recruit Cavemen (RANDOM example! ), then your rating of 5 can't account for how uncommon it is to fulfill your expectations. >.>

Though I find particularly interesting the few nations that can be played as peak competitors either with a strong dual bless, or without a major bless at all, like Hinnom. But that goes more to boosting Ease of Play, than the actual strength rating.

[fantasma]

Regarding Marverni against small elite armies:

Marverni has - besides slingers - cheap javelin throwers. There is the spell farstrike at zero research for druids and early thaumaturgy research has good anti elite spells, I think.

The best bet Marverni has is to come out with fast expansion and lots of gold and diplomacy to demonstrate that you will make the attacker pay hard for an early attack. If you have to dedicate mages to counter rushes you have partly lost already, but the attacker will not get far either.

I would rate Marverni as 3 4 4 but very difficult to learn.
What you field with what orders depends so much on the opposition. You have to learn communions to be effective. You need to research extremely fast, building lots of forts.
It's endgame really depends on what you do about SCs. Your only thug is the golem.

[Fal]

Having played Tir na n'Og in several MP games...

Early Game Strength 3 (poor infantry selection, no calvary, poor ranged troops, taking SC pretender is a bad idea)
Mid Game Strength 5 (Ri, Rain of stone + Fog warrior, many powerful battlefield spells)
Late Game Strength 2 (lack of powerful summons due to early focus on battlefield magic, lack of astral and death)
Ease of Learning (SP) 3 (not that difficult to learn, but takes skills to learn it right)
Ease of Use (MP) 2 (I find it hard to use this nation in MP, even harder to win with it).