Noob questions!

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by DominionsFAN:

1. What is the best combination of magic schools to make a decent pretender? Take lot of astral levels? I read something about those magic duels but I don't understand it at all.

Most of the time you'll pick magic schools your national mages aren't proficient in.

Above all, if your nation sucks at air magic, pick air 3+, so you can protect your troops against lightning and shut down enemy fliers and archers by casting Storm or forging a Staff of Storms.

Earth 2-3 is useful to locate Firbog castles and forge Dwarven Hammers, and allows super combattants to cast Invulnerability on themselves (increases protection up to 30).

The air 3/earth 2-3 combo is cool as it allows you to forge Staves of Elemental Mastery, a nice enhancing item to have.

Fire and water magic have less to offer than the 2 other elemental schools - IMO. When I do choose them, I usually pick fire 3 (or only 2 if I have a bit of death magic), and water 2.

Astral magic is one of the most useful schools, if you're not afraid of being magic duelled.

Nature and Death are also interesting schools with powerful enchantments and conjurations, but nature and death independent mages (druids and Harab Seraphs) are not that uncommon, so you can skip these schools and still hope to find these in your starting area.

Blood magic is special, if you're not ready to commit to it seriously you'd better skip it completely. Since blood slaves aren't collected at magic sites, blood magic is more potent on maps with a low magic site frequency. Its main interest is the ultra-powerful summons you get at research level 4 and 6.

Magic Duel is an astral spell which have you confront an enemy astral mage. The most skilled mage usually wins, and the loser dies - plain and simple. That's why there's a race for astral supremacy in Dominions.

2. What is better? Recruit and summon the strongest armies what you can, or mass the weaker units?

Look at morale and protection first. Then look at the damage rating of your primary weapon - or at weapons with multiples attacks if your main enemy uses low-protection troops like flagellants.

3. Is it worth to take 6+ levels in a magic school -> Specialize? Or take 3-4 levels from more?

Usually the later, although I sometimes go with high astral (7+) because I'm a coward, or mid-high death to get the most out of reanimation and conjuration spells.

4. What is the purpose of Dominion strength?

(a) Without it you die.
(b) Higher morale for your troops in your dominion
(c) Increased stats for your pretender and your prophet.
(d) Keep Ermor in check! ;-)

With most nations a dominion of 3-6 is OK. A bit higher for cold/heat loving ones. Underwater nations often take it higher because it's harder for them to maintain a steady dominion unless they conquer several coastal provinces.

5. How the supply is working exactly? Is it good to build castles in all provinces? Castles are sucking the resources away from other provinces???

Supply is based on the population of the province you're in, its growth/death scale and its heat/cold scale. In addition nearby castles send supplies up to 5 provinces away, based on their administration value, as long as a friendly path can be traced to the province. Nature mages provide a few supplies to their troops. A few items and special creatures also do this.

6. How can I raise the amount of the resources in a province?

Lower unrest. Build castles.

[DominionsFan]

Whoa! Thanks for your replies, vets!

[ywl]

Originally posted by DominionsFAN:
I am very new to Dominions, so I have some strategic questions:

1. What is the best combination of magic schools to make a decent pretender? Take lot of astral levels? I read something about those magic duels but I don't understand it at all.

I won't call myself a vet but here is my two-cents.

I'm not trying to put you down . But if you even need to ask this question, the best pretenders will be a Wyrm with nothing, a Moloch with only Fire 3 (for generating devils) . Put all other nation points into the beneficial scales.

Recruit all heavy infantries (some minor variations for some of the nations). Rely on brute physical force and economical wealth. You can beat the computer easily with this approach. It'll be more tricky while playing human, but you'll at least survive to the mid-game to see what can go wrong . You'll eventually figure other combos to give your opponents some nasty surprises but such simple, direct approach can carry you far enough.

Dom II might be a totally different beast. We'll have to wait and see.

[Pocus]

just an added note, if you liked in your youth those surprise boxes which had half a dozen unknown toys, then choose luck +3 (and some disorder scale).
You wil get interesting random events, like mines which will boost permanently gold and resource productions (well mostly gold) in the province targeted by the event.

[Nerfix]

Before this turns into The Eternal Duel Between House Order and House Disorder and Luck, i'll just say this:

Taking Order, Growth and Productivity is like making investments.

Taking Luck and Disorder is like gambling.

I'm not saying which one is better...
It also depends on the nation.

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by Pocus:
just an added note, if you liked in your youth those surprise boxes which had half a dozen unknown toys, then choose luck +3 (and some disorder scale).
You wil get interesting random events, like mines which will boost permanently gold and resource productions (well mostly gold) in the province targeted by the event.

Even more fun: take disorder 3 and misfortune 3. You will now be able to see your empire crumble without the intervention of nasty enemies. You can do it all by yourself. There are more bad events than good ones so if you like diversity I recommend this approach.

[Mortifer]

Dominions is very unique and lot more complicated than the usual strategy games, so you can choose lot of different tactics to win.