The Gaming Den

No mods, no crazy draft stuff, I'm still learning the basics. You people and a couple LPs got me really interested in playing this game. Especially the strategy and magic paths discussions by Frank/K/Zine/etc. Not sure how many people are interested or available. It may well be that the Den's Dominions capacity is saturated and/or not enough people would identify themselves as relative newbies at this point.

Leaning EA because why not. I could be talked into something else. I have been convinced to do MA! It took a lot of effort.

Normal magic site frequency, high event frequency, normal indie strength. Intend to use Llamaserver assuming I can figure out how it works.

Faction prefs:

1. Mictlan
2. Man
3. Ermor

Takers?

Edit: Shuffled faction prefs around. Era is now MA. We have always been at war with Oceania.

Game Name: DenNoobsTwo
Map: Small Divide (wraparound)

Players!
---------

Archmage: Mictlan, Man, Ermor
Mr. Sinister: Machaka, Shinuyama, Ryleh
DSM: Ashdod, Ermor, Pangaea
Orion: Shinuyama, Bandar Log, Atlantis
Drago: C'tis, Caelum, Pythium

I would recommend not making your first game EA. Your list of factions is currently:

1) Very weak faction.
2) Good, but tricky faction.
3) Brain asplode faction.

See the problem?

I would recommend trying MA first, since the factions there are generally much more balanced, with just a few genuine turkeys. Additionally, I would recommend your first Dom3 game being small - 6 players at most IMHO.

If you're still gonna go for EA, here's my list of preferences:

1) Pangea
2) Agartha
3) Sauromantia

If you're gonna take my advice:

1) Machaka
2) Shinuyama
3) R'lyeh

First off, Mister_Sinister is right. If you want to play R'lyeh, I insist that you bump the era up to MA (or LA, but they're a strange beast there). It's for your own good. Caelum is a little specialized, so you'll want to know what you're doing. T'ien Ch'i is very versatile, so you'll have to try and not to drown in your own options. But both are totally doable. If you want to play an EA underwater faction, the other two are safer bets.

Secondly, I kind of want to play, but I might be biting off more than I can chew. One game in which I'm dying a slow, painful death fighting Caelum while T'ien Ch'i conquers the world with Seraphs, one game in which I'm totally at peace but who knows how long that can last, and one game about to start up. Then again, that doesn't sound bad. While my NewDom3Game turns are always depressing, none of my games are currently particularly time consuming and one will probably end shortly, so...

Screw it. I'm in, if we can find enough players.
EA preferences:
1) Lanka
2) Niefelheim
3) C'tis

MA preferences:
1) Ashdod (attempt #2!)
2) Ermor
3) I dunno. Whatever. Pangaea.

I would really prefer EA to MA, and a brick in the face to LA.

Edit: I swapped my MA preferences, and now I am mostly EA-MA neutral. If you go MA, I really just want to give Ashdod another shot, I barely got anything out of them last time.

Advice is good and I definitely need it. Like whoa.

MA it is, then. In which case I'd want:

1) Mictlan
2) Man
3) Ermor

And if any of those are particularly bad picks for my first MP game, please, give me a heads-up.

(I will readily admit to having initially been all "OOH! EA R'YLEH!" because of my undying love for aboleths.)

Aww. I was looking forward to Lanka. But an Ashdod is fine too. Hopefully this time I will find some freaking death sites somewhere in my death nation's territory.

I don't actually know what you do with MA Mictlan, but I know you have jaguar warriors so great start there. Put on big blesses and watch them cut things to pieces.

DSMatticus wrote:I don't actually know what you do with MA Mictlan, but I know you have jaguar warriors so great start there. Put on big blesses and watch them cut things to pieces.

That's pretty much where I was headed. Also, no blood sacrifice in MA! Yay!

I'm not very supportive of the idea of using MA Mictlan as your starting faction. They need a bit of finesse to work (and require a bless for their troops which limits your Pretender options).

Man is good if you're playing against the AI to learn troop scripting, but against humans it tends to be gimped.

Ermor is powerful, but it's also a faction that tends to play very differently from others.

Personally, I'd say the best learning faction for MA is Vanheim - easy mode expansion, good magic.

I figure every faction is going to have its quirks. Having already made selections, changed the era of the game, and so forth, I figure I'll stick with the picks I've made and see what happens. Play experience against thinking human beings (and fun!) is the main goal here.

Though I welcome a more detailed explanation as to why you think Vanheim is an excellent MA noob nation if you're willing. Isn't it a Blood nation? Or at least a nation with Blood being a main path? I'm kind of avoiding those on purpose right now.

Vanheim can expand using Skinshifters, which are very, very easy to use. Just mass 20 of them, point them at the nearest bunch of enemies, and they'll generally tear them to pieces for you as long as you have equal numbers. And they do all of this without needing any blesses to give you more leeway to design your Pretender, albeit you'd probably want Order Scales (which Vanheim needs regardless)

For first time players, who may have troop-scripting problems, I always recommend playing with a faction with this kind of brute-force expansion capability so you aren't gimped.

Whereas Mictlan's Jaguar Warriors do require a bless and some extra finesse, which limits your other options for Pretender design.

I disagree with with Zinegata. I just finished winning the first MP-game I played, and I did it as MA Mictlan. It's true that it requires some "finesse" to exploit to the fullest because you have a lot of mages and a lot of different magic, but your armies are insanely easy to use and you have so much magic it's okay if you don't fully utilize all of it. Plus, and this is a big one, a lot of their mages don't have randoms or have narrowly confined randoms, which makes scripting friendlier.

It's true that you need a bless, but you don't need an insane one. F9 or W9 all by itself should be everything you need, and while it's possible ot rush with double-stacked blesses, for a first play I would recommend a more balanced approach with positive scales.

If there's room for me, I will go with:

Shinuyama
Bandar Log
Atlantis

There certainly is. Edited the OP. More than happy to pick up one or two more, as per earlier recommendations.

I'm interested.

R'lyeh. If you don't want an aquatic nation (a fair call) my preferences tend to Man, then Ulm.

I do have some experience, but no MP games with R'lyeh or Ulm.

Since my days are numbered in my current MA game i'll join this one.

Choices:

1)C'tis
2)Caelum
3)Pythium

Drago wrote:Since my days are numbered in my current MA game i'll join this one.

I feel your pain. I was also one of the two to start it, so there's that. I'm getting my just come-uppance.

And Drago makes six.

Map preferences? I'm thinking ~12-15 provinces per player with about 15 of those being sea provinces, since we have one underwater nation.

Also, standard victory or VPs?

Small divide has 65 land provinces and 13 sea; that is exactly 13 each. I think that's the one Mister_Sinister, Drago and I played for Newbie EA Game, so there's that. Not sure if I want to revisit that particular land so soon, but it's an option.

Orion wrote:It's true that you need a bless, but you don't need an insane one.

The point with Vanheim is that you don't need a bless at all and still have a scary strong army (Skinshifters) that you can rely on from start to finish.

This also means you aren't totally screwed if you make a mistake in Pretender design as Vanheim. Very many Dominions games end before they even begin because of poor Pretender choices. Not everyone knows MA Mictlan needs a Fire 9 bless to live.

Moreover, Van's mages are powerful and easy to use even without finesse. This is a faction with mages that can Thunderstrike / Earthquake spam out of the box.

It is a very, very forgiving faction for the critical early and mid game period; whose only real issue is the lack of lategame firepower (albeit this is mitigated in an environment with few Blood competitors. In most cases however - since Archmage is concerned about this - Vanheim very rarely goes full-Blood because its blood magic is so weak).

It also has no special gimmicks (i.e. Mictlan's ability to summon chaff) that can teach bad habits. That's why it's arguably the best newbie MA faction.

=====

Also, always VP. Non-VP games never properly finish.

Zinegata wrote:Also, always VP. Non-VP games never properly finish.

The difference between properly and effectively is a very bland game over screen. I don't think it's quite as essential for small games.

Rampaging Roaches could also work, if you don't think that will screw Ryleh over too badly. I have some concern about the viability of underwater expansion, but haven't played enough games as underwater nations (or period) to say for sure whether it'd be an issue.

DSMatticus wrote:

Zinegata wrote:Also, always VP. Non-VP games never properly finish.

The difference between properly and effectively is a very bland game over screen. I don't think it's quite as essential for small games.

The difference between properly and effectively is that in the former case (with VPs) there is generally much less drama.

In a non-VP game, even the end game is subject to drama as people try to convince others not to give up yet, and/or try to find subs who suddenly take their nations into crazy directions.

Vote VP for sanity .

I vote for Small Divide wraparound (always wraparound!) and VPs.

Mister_Sinister wrote:I vote for Small Divide wraparound (always wraparound!) and VPs.

Seconding, then.

Mister_Sinister wrote:I vote for Small Divide wraparound (always wraparound!) and VPs.

If we do VP's, which I'm fine with, it's possible to set it up such that some are in capitals, right? I'd like to force the eventual winner to have to at least break down a few other faction's doors.

Edit: And if Sinister doesn't mind another go on Small Divide, I'll third it.

DSMatticus wrote: If we do VP's, which I'm fine with, it's possible to set it up such that some are in capitals, right? I'd like to force the eventual winner to have to at least break down a few other faction's doors.

I think that capital provinces are VP provinces by default. I've yet to see a VP gme wherein a capital was not a VP province.