Devil Review

[alexti]

Boron said:
When you only castle the important provinces with e.g. a citadel or high admin castle then you won't have a lot temples .

So to protect your temples a bit you normally castle .
Otherwise you get probably either dominionproblems or the enemy kills your temples with ghost riders / other raiders always .

Many strategies are not dominion-oriented and you don't suffer too much from fighting in enemy's dominion, so you don't need too many temples. If you're doing well, it's not uncommon to have 1/2 of your provinces outside of your dominion. And often it's a good idea to pick up your castling neighbour. With him spending his gold on castles he often is an easy prey. Then you can build your temples in his forts and reuse his labs as well. On top of everything you will get temples right where you need them - in hostile dominion

[Cainehill]

Yep, you'all should listen to Alexti. He's almost as good as, er, no, he's probably better than me, he's almost as good as ... Cohen or Boron or Stormsomething

Ahen - sorry, no insult meant to Alexti by use of those names. A lot of people have been put up on pinnacles as being "good", and frankly, most of them aren't - or at least, they're good at particular strategies, and not at the game as a hole.

(A hole - like a house, in which you throw money).

I'm the same way - I have certain nations I'm solid at, so of course I like to play those. In theory, I don't need dominion as much if I'm building forts far outside my territory - I can take drain 3, misfortune 3, if I start building strongholds in the territory that Last of Tuatha has _so_ nicely made Growth, Magic, and Luck for me. (I may not get the benefit of the Luck or Magic - but 0-magic is _so_ much better than drain 3, don't you think?)

Dominions is deep enough (and one of the _few_ games deep enough - chess isn't as deep in comparison, albeit more focused (and yes - I could dredge up awards that might indicate that I have a clue about chess, at least ) ) that different strategies have a real chance. For instance, in Chess, no one wins by claiming the outside ranks. It's all about the center, unless perhaps you play a Reti-based opening, or one of a couple of gambits.

On a more solid tangent - I've got several games in which I'm rolling along, having taken a _lot_ of castles from someone else (literally castles) where all I had was watchtowers or mausoleums.

I got their labs for free, their forts for free (minus my cost in taking them) and simply built my temples - 36 at Last count in one.

If someone spends all their money on mages, on forts, on temples - they're vulnerable. If others are too pacifiscist to take advantage of that - may there be more pacifists.