Pangaeda: New Age - the redheaded stepchild of Dom2?

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Blitz:
This is my first in-depth strategy essay on Dominions 2. Having near-obsessively played this game since it's release, I'd like to share some of my ideas about one of the least played domains, that of Pangaea: New Age. It isn't the strongest (IMHO Emor is horribly unbalanced), nor is it the most versatile (probably Tien Chi), but it's infantry and cavalry units are second-to-none which make this a very good race for beginners.

Nice write-up. Personally I love Pangaea but New Age is a theme I dont tend to play. But you seem to have gotten alot of the Pros and Cons figured out. I place Pangaea:New Age as a next nation to try after a new player tries Ulm. Still rather Ulmish but with some more options.

Keep in mind that balance in this game is not the same as in others. Balance here does not mean that each nation is able to hold its ground against each other nation. Instead of ALL the nations balancing, each nation only has to have A BALANCE somewhere. Ermor cannot win if Marignon gets angry. Marignon will fall if Ulm finds them too soon. And Ulm will have a hard time doing anything but surviving against Ermor.

Other games try to balance everybody. The problem with that is that even a tiny advantage or decent tactic makes that nation the absolute king. In this game, no nation is absolute best. In fact, the biggest factor is finding a nation whose abilities fits your playing style.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Let me correct a couple inaccuracies:

1) New Era don't get any archers.

2) New Era cataphracts have 20 prot, not 18.

[Blitz]

Ugh... Ulm. I've been trying desperately to come up with a winning strategy for black forest Ulm. It works, but not well enough. It seems to be a mish-mash of mediocre units thrown together with almost no synergy. That theme badly needs a 180 gold DDD necromancer with some research ability. Then we'd have a theme.

Iron Faith Ulm on the other hand, is pretty decent. The problem is that Ulm's infantry is at best on par with grove guards (cost/unit), and superior magery and flanking would carry the day. Ulm badly needs cheaper crossbows, and not those slow alabests or whatever they are called.

I know in theory Ulm beats Marignon, but as a Marignon player, frankly it never happens that way. The Emor rolling scenario isn't theory, but a reality. It's not so much Vanilla Emor, but the other two themes that are the problem. In our playgroup, we've Banned both the Vampire Queen and the two Emor alternate themes. Everyone knows the theory behind beating Emor (banish, holy pyre, solar rays), and there are ways to kill a Vampire queen, but we believe that just because it's POSSIBLE to beat a strategy dosen't mean it's not overpowered.

Anyways, let's not turn this into another Emor/VQ thread. Everyone already has an opinion, it's probably already been stated. I only posted mine because I've never adressed the issue before. It's Banned in our games, the rest of you can do what you like

1) New Era don't get any archers.

2) New Era cataphracts have 20 prot, not 18.

1) Everyone gets archers, you just have to go look for them . Would be nice if New Age got a longbow centaur, but alas we only get independant archers.

2) Fixed.

[ April 27, 2004, 23:46: Message edited by: Blitz ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Blitz:
It seems to be a mish-mash of mediocre units thrown together with almost no synergy. That theme badly needs a 180 gold DDD necromancer with some research ability. Then we'd have a theme.

Fortune tellers only cost 90 gold, and give you 5 research, that's definetly good enough. As for their other units, the rangers are the best missile unit in the game, they have very high protection infantry, and infinite supplies of cannon fodder from the wolves. The vampire counts make an amazing defensive force when given only minor items.

Their other mages are also very stealthy spies, which can shut down enemies production centres very well. They can also cast antimagic to remove Ulm's weakness to MR negating spells. Then they also have access through communion to all the sorcery battlefield spells.

Iron Faith Ulm on the other hand, is pretty decent.

I very rarely use IF Ulm, since they have no research ability to speak of.

[Blitz]

Fortune tellers only cost 90 gold, and give you 5 research, that's definetly good enough. As for their other units, the rangers are the best missile unit in the game, they have very high protection infantry, and infinite supplies of cannon fodder from the wolves. The vampire counts make an amazing defensive force when given only minor items.

Their other mages are also very stealthy spies, which can shut down enemies production centres very well. They can also cast antimagic to remove Ulm's weakness to MR negating spells. Then they also have access through communion to all the sorcery battlefield spells.

Well you've given me some things to think about to be sure. I know Rangers are pretty good, but I maintain that compared to other themes, Black Forest leaves something to be desired. Obviously the Vampire Counts are the big draw.

It's not a theme I've used in MP yet, just played around with it against the AI a few times. I can tell you one thing though... that Burkhard Nachtzehrer hero might just be my favorite from any theme. Not the strongest to be sure, but one of the coolest.

[Cheezeninja]

cooler than Etimmu???? 8O (<--this is a face) this i have to see.

[ April 28, 2004, 01:08: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

BF is by far the strongest theme of Ulm. There are alot of drawbacks to normal Ulm but you can still play them very well, but BF if played correctly is hard to rival. Their inherent weaknesses are very apparent, but if you use your Pretender to circumvent that flaw, they are very competitive.

BF Ulm is the consummate Rusher.