Dominion 3 Strategy & Questions

[Akula]

Atlantis is probably the best of the water nations. It gets pretty decent casters and troops with a lot of nice things out of the box (darkvision, cold and fire resists, a magic weapon) and a recruitable SC.

[Username17]

Vanheim
Niefelheim
Caelum

It's a cold day, I'm in a cold mood.

-Username17

[cthulhu]

Yeah, but this is kinda a low bar.

[Username17]

EA Atlantis is a poor to mediocre position. But they have a lot of freedom, because all the other EA underwater nations are terrible.

In the absence of another Water position, who is going to come after you? Agartha? Yomi? Those guys ain't so hot either. From a position under water, you can pick your enemies one at a time from people who are already losing wars and hopefully get to the late game with a decent empire and a giant pile of gems.

It's a better position than Rlyeh or Oceania, where you have to wait until later research comes in before you can mount a credible threat on the land, just as your enemies mostly have to wait until research comes in to be a credible threat against you.

-Username17

[Endovior]

I don't know... I kinda like those Mind Lords.

I feel bad about liking them, in much the same vein as, say, the Dai Oni from Yomi. Fantastically awesome unit hampered by the rest of the nation that it's attached to.

Of course, using them effectively on land requires, what... Construction 4 and at least one point of Air on your Pretender? Less under CBM, IIRC? Not terribly hard to do, given that it should take you some time to actually conquer the rest of the water first.


That said, I'm in.
R'lyeh
C'tis
Sauromatia

[Kaelik]

FYI, I'm out, I was only going to compete if there was a shortage, and there doesn't seem to be. I probably couldn't compete very well anyway.

[name_here]

I'd hate to take EA atlantis up against EA r'leyh. Those Ithilids everyone fears are more expensive than the light Aboleth mindblasters.

I dunno, it might work out, but it'd hurt.

[Korwin]

I had an idea, not shure if it would be enjoyable...

Here it is:

Two games,

• same players with
• the same nations and
• the same pretender
• on the same map

[Endovior]

Um...

Why?

[name_here]

Branching strategy stuff, I guess. I'd personally find it both boring and annoying to do, possibly fun to watch

[Akula]

Akula:
Lanka
Caelum
Ulm

name_here:
T'ien
Arco
Mictlan

Orca:
T'ien Ch'i
Mictlan
Abysia

K:
Lanka
Sauromatia
Mictlan

angelfromanotherpin:
Vanheim
Abysia
Caelum

Korwin:
Sauromantia
Niefelheim
Lanka or Mictlan

Frank:
Vanheim
Niefelheim
Caelum

Endovior:
R'lyeh
C'tis
Sauromatia

There is a lot of conflict here; Lanka is on three lists, as are Sauromatia and Caelum. Mictlan is on four lists. T'ien, Abbysia, Niefelheim, and Vanheim are all chosen twice.

The only unconflicting choices are:

Akula:
Ulm

Endovior:
R'lyeh
C'tis

name_here:
Arco

So, I don't think that we can roll dice this time around. With that established, these are the people that want the more popular nations:

Mictlan:
K
Korwin
name_here
Orca

Lanka:
Akula
K
Korwin

Sauromatia:
K
Korwin
Endovior

Caelum:
Akula
Frank
angelfromanotherpin

I'm not sure what the best solution is, we could just go by post time? Or maybe we could narrow lists down to top two? Suggestions?

I am inclined to say that if you want a nonconflicting nation, you can just have it.

[K]

Branching strategy stuff, I guess. I'd personally find it both boring and annoying to do, possibly fun to watch

Strategy tends to branch a lot depending on what sites you find and who you expect to fight. I mean, finding a single mage site can turn you into a major power of a color your nation doesn't even have.

[cthulhu]

The way to resolve it is assign a preference order and determine on that basis.

If you assume the lists are preferenced order unless otherwise stated, the only conflict is Orca and name_here you could either flip a coin or give Orca his pick as he posted first then bump name_here to his second pick.

The other way to do it is pick names out of a hat and then give someone their top most preference that is available and otherwise pick randomly.

Overall, it's not even a problem.

[name_here]

I'll take Arco, then.

[cthulhu]

Realistically, we need to pick a map first and proceed from there.

[Endovior]

Hmm.

Well, I think the threat of me as EA R'lyeh has scared off anyone else considering a water nation; given that cheap Aboleth mind blasters should be able to triumph over just about anything anyone else brings to the table underwater, save perhaps a well-executed SC pretender.

Given that (and provided, of course, that the map in question is one with a reasonable amount of water), I'm fairly happy with R'lyeh.

[cthulhu]

It's only because he ignored my stated desire to play a water nation on the previous page, because I hadn't listed three nations in particular

[Endovior]

Ah. You're up for fighting me immediately for supremacy of the seas, then?

Or, you're taking all three water nations as your three picks, possibly trying to contest me for EA R'lyeh in the process?

[Akula]

I wasn't going to put words in your mouth.

[cthulhu]

It was entirely reasonable to ignore me as I hadn't committed - sorry if that sounded like a critique (it was fair enough)

[Akula]

I was making the list mostly because I was thinking, "Shit, the blood nations are coming up a lot." And because one person wanted to get moving on nation selection so they could start crafting a strategy.

That is to say; I wasn't trying to be exhaustive in my list, I had one concern I wanted to voice, and I was kinda myopic about the other stuff.

[cthulhu]

Okay having hugged and made up, lets talk maps.

I like these:

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Land_of_Legends

131/18 (16 land provinces per player 18 for a single sea player.)

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Land_of_Milk_and_Honey

135/20 (16 land provinces per player 20 for a single sea player.)

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Urraparrand_with_harbors

135/35 (16 land proviences per player and 17.5 per sea player)

Cradle of dominions (Stock map

199/23 ( 24 per land player, 23 per sea player assuming 1 sea player)

Thoughts?

[angelfromanotherpin]

I'd prefer a stock map. Cradle seems a touch big, though. The general guidelines I heard were 10/player for a fast game, 20/player for a long one. (That could be BS, I don't know.)

At ~15/player and 8 players, stock maps are The Desert Eye and Parganos. Any reason to reject those?

[Endovior]

'Stock' is overrated; it's not a big deal to download a map, and these don't appear to be the sorts of maps that have wildly unbalanced things in them.

Urraparrand sounds good, particularly 'with harbors', presuming that cthulhu wants to fight me underwater. At the very least, Urraparrand's definitely a fair way to go about doing that (as opposed to another map, where it's a ZOMG instant-rush necessity, on account of water scarcity).

[Akula]

Urraparrand sounds good, particularly 'with harbors', presuming that cthulhu wants to fight me underwater. At the very least, Urraparrand's definitely a fair way to go about doing that (as opposed to another map, where it's a ZOMG instant-rush necessity, on account of water scarcity).

I hate to break it to you, but if it were me, I would rush you on that map too. On the other maps it would be a necessity to survive, but here I could win me the game by making me the largest nation while no one else can really attack me.