Newb ?.. Dominion, what does it mean?

[Gandalf Parker]

I always thought that the "candles" used to show dominion strength was a pretty god choice. Its as if the effects of your godhood is spreading like a light across the land. The stronger it is, the stronger you are. And to a lesser extent your people also. Dont neglect the power of dominion in the game called dominion.

Gandalf Parker
-- Do not go quietly into the night
rage rage rage against the dying of the light - Dylan Thomas
What does that mean? It means dont be a putz and quit the
multiplayer game before all of your candles are snuffed.

[Endoperez]

Others have told you what dominions is and that Caelum is powerful, but I haven't yet seen anyone comment on why Caelum is powerful. Here are some more hints to get you going:


Magic:
Evocation:
All lighning attacks go right through any armor. No nation is immune to lightning. Thunder Strike both damages the enemy and deals out lots of fatique.
Also, Cold-based spells don't harm your own units.
Alteration 2:
Quickness
All your Seraphs and Arch Seraphs can cast this. If they cast this as their first spell in battle, they will cast two times as many spells until their fatique goes over 100 and they go unconscious.
Alteration 6 or 7:
False Horror
False Horrors only have 1 hp, but att/def 16, high Fear rating, attack (not very good, though), and few Seraphs can summon lots and lots of them.

Armies:
Mammoths are powerful troops, but their morale is low. Also, when they rout, they will run *over* your units. To make them hurt the enemy more than you, mix them in same squad with high-morale units: Wingless. Temple Guards are good, but you need many units for every Mammoth, 4-6 per Mammoth will probably prevent routing, and you often have to take powerful magic for your pretender to make sacred units worth their cost.

All winged Caelians are size 3 (right-click on their hits to see size), and use 2 food per unit (food formula: [unit size-1, at least 1), so your armies get hungry fast. Read Chazar's post and remember Endless Wineskins (Construction 6, Nature 1, 5 gems 25 supply points per item)

Priests and Dominion:
As Caelum, you can and should take Cold 3. This gives you 120 more points to play with, weakens your enemies and gives Temple Guards and Iceclads higher protection in your provinces. You should also take high dominion, so that your whole empire is cold and you get the full income. It is probably best to also take some good scales to get full worth out of that high dominion. Again, read Chazar's post.

Castle:
Choose a castle that is quick to build, probably either Watch Tower or Wizard Tower. Check Chazar's post for additional information about why Wizard Tower is good. Watch Tower is good because it is cheap both to build and to choose.

Strategy:
Build lots of Castles, and recruit lots of mages. Research Alteration 2 and lots of Evocation, and go around bolting everything.

[Oversway]

Is False Horror a national spell for Caelum? For some reason I thought it was.

[Alneyan]

Thankfully it isn't; Wind Guide (+5 precision to "Whom it may concern", mages included) is their national spell. I wouldn't know what the starting spell of Return of the Raptors is, but they aren't really Caelum anymore.

[Oversway]

Thats good to know, thanks

[Rathar]

Thanks for the advice folks~!

Rathar

[Alneyan]

Two other points on Dominion:
- Positive Dominion allows you to see who owns the province; if you play with Arcoscephale, you will even know what sort of troops protect the province.
- Positive Dominion slowly reduces unrest, while negative Dominion increases unrest; higher unrest means fewer resources and gold coins every turn (and no troops recruited at all, if unrest starts to climb very high).