Minimum dominion?

[Sombre]

I've used 5 quite a lot and never had problems from it.

4 really is low though.

[Edratman]

I've gone as low as 3 with Shinyama in SP because they don't have sacreds. With sacreds 5 is the lowest I'll go.

I always build a lot of temples to boost sacred builds and dominion. From what I read, that is not a workable MP tactic, but it works in SP.

[Saxon]

Mildly off the topic, any suggestions on how to quickly kill off someone who has a low dominion? Sure, build temples, but what else can you do to up the pressure on them?

[Sombre]

The best way to quickly domkill someone is with massed H3 blood saccing. That's something LA Marig can do better than anyone else, more or less.

Other than that, burn down their temples, kill their prophet and god, kill their priests with remote spells,.. all the obvious stuff.

[Saxon]

So nations that can blood saccing can pursue a pure dominion strategy, but everyone else has to do the military/build strategy. The military solution is also easier to defend against. If you know there are no blood sacc nations in your game, would it then suggest you could then risk a lower dominion in your pretender design?

[Twan]

I think the size / start positions of the map decides it.

On big maps or maps with spaced fixed positions I'd use even dom 3 or 4.

On typical random 15 or less prov/player maps where capitols may be only 3 provinces away I'd rather take 5 minimum, and usually 6-8 if my pretender isn't awake.

Also scales are a thing to consider. Taking good scales is a waste when your dominion is too low.

[PvK]

Yeah, it depends a LOT on the competition: How strong their dominion is, whether they are pushing it and how, how many of them there are, and how much space there is on the map.

IIRC, a couple of my edge cases:
I've succeeded in MP with a rainbow mage with dominion strength 4 at least once, on a medium map with about eight players. I got dominion-killed by surprise with dominion strength 6 once, on a small map with about three close neighbors and about four distant neighbors.

[Sombre]

I'd say dominion kill, if you see it coming, is extremely easy to defend against. Unless they own so much of the map that you can't build enough priests to preach in your home province and stay alive. In which case they could probably have outmuscled you more easily militarily.

As far as I'm concerned there is no 'pure dominion strategy'. If you pursue one you will lose horribly.

[Saxon]

When I say “pure” dominion strategy, I am thinking along the lines of an opportunistic quick kill in the early stages of the game. If you were lucky, a neighbor might have low dominion and you could try to take them out primarily via dominion. This links to “how low can you go with starting dominion.”

It seems to me that except for the blood sacrifice nations, it really isn’t an option. If you are going after their temples to do it, you are essentially rushing them in the conventional sense. That said, if you are trying to take them out with dominion, you will still want to rush them conventionally to some degree, to make sure you take over their territory.

All of which brings us back to the question, how low is safe? Alternatively stated, at what level does your neighbor’s low dominion look like a tasty opportunity…

[QXel]

Off topic because SP only, but ...

It depends on sacred units, national priests level, and factors like possiblity of expanding and money availability (to build temples), but usually, I take 5-6.

Sometimes more, and in these cases, I go 9-10 for sacred blessed strategies, or to really benefit from my chosen scales if I found it strategic.
Sometimes again, if I can really count on my priests and my money, I go lower, but I never tried lower than 4 ... except perhaps in my really early days of Dom2

I usually don't care about dominion until I have securised a base of provinces and have money running to build priests and temples. Then, at this moment, I attack this part and build maximum temples I can afford to rise my domminion at maximum level.
Two reasons (not exclusive): rise maximum recrutability of sacred, and/or benefit from my scales (say heat for Abysia or cold blooded nations, cold for Niefel, and so).

Of course, if I am too low in dominion and near a possible domkill, I react before.