It is funny that the best resource I have to learn how to be better at the game is to discuss plans with the people I’m at war with. The fog of war in Dom2 is pretty darn thick, especially in Bruce’s online game where he turned all the stat charts off. That’s like playing in the dark with both of your eyes poked out to boot. I’d love to be able to stop everything, discuss strategies, and then get back at it. But, I’m enjoying the games too much to trash them now.
I’m the same way, except that I’m happy to discuss tactics and stuff because it’s, you know, just a computer game and all that. I mean, I won’t tell Tom that last turn I moved my guys to attack his southern army–OR DID I???–but I like to talk shop in the sense of what battle plans people use, what spells are useful, how the game mechanics work, etc. Besides, I hope that Tom will think it’s all an elaborate smokescreen or double-bluff and will be so paralyzed trying to figure out whether it’s I know he knows I know, but does he know that I know that he knows that I know? or whatever that he’ll just collapse into a sweaty, twitching heap and surrender.
I’d love to have those damn charts switched off. I think having them is totally lame.
Here’s a general question:how much importance do you guys put into the Construction school of magic-for that matter,how much effort do you put into research,period?It’s kind of expensive to recruit research heavy mages at the expense of building armies.
I’ve a sinking feeling that I’ve neglected research in COnstruction in all my games,at any rate.
It depends on who I’m playing. Some nations get pretty good mages, and I’ll research quite a bit. Same if my pretender is a good mage. But others are more centered on priests, or troops, or whatever. For example, in Bruce’s game, I’m playing Arco and my pretender doesn’t have a ton of magic skill, so I’m not putting a lot of effort into research, preferring to use the cash on troops and priests and province defense.
As for construction, I am still just beginning to feel that part of the game out. I blew it off in my games against the AI until late in the game when I had research to spare. Researching it just for the item upgrades (i.e., when you don’t have any earth mages) seems like a bit of a waste IMO, but I don’t know enough to have a strong opinion. I always feel like between tying up your mages researching, tying up other mages forging items, using gems, and having to get your commanders to a lab to pick up the items, it’s just a lot of effort without enough gain (most of my commanders don’t fight, so the only items I give them are things that improve command rating or give a special ability like water breathing or something like that).
My question: what about searching? I hardly ever search, and I wonder if I’m being stupid. I’ll do it if a commander is sitting still in a province anyway, but most of the time my problem is having too few commanders, not too many.
I search all the time,but I’m not sure if it’s good strategy or not.It can pay off with some nice gem/gold bonuses.It probably depends on if you’re playing a mage rich race or not,along the lines of what you mention above.
I’ve read on the shrapnel forums how the experienced players are always giving their leaders this weapon or that armor, so I try and kick in at least 2 levels so that I can get a broader range of magic items available. I wouldn’t say the items have made much of a difference overall though.
One general question I have is whether people try and max out a school of magic, getting it to the highest level possible, or do they spread out the research between schools. I’ve done the latter, thinking that I’m giving my lesser wizards more spells to choose from. It sure would be nice to have access to some of the higher level spells once in a while.
Most valuable independant leader you can recruit: the sage. For 80 gold you get 8 research points.
Does your school choice affect your mages? I thought it didn’t. IOW, buying 9 Air for your pretender just gives your pretender 9 Air. If you’re playing Man, your mages still get 2 Nature or whatever their default is, nothing else. The only other effect I thought it had was on blessed troops, who get bonuses if you have high levels in a school.
I have usually gone with one or two schools, usually matched to what my mages naturally get. I’d like to try a “rainbow” mage at some point, but haven’t gotten around to it.
Sages definitely rock. If I find a library, I’ll recruit a sage every few turns until I have a nice little research institution going.
I always go the rainbow mage path. He usually follows in the path of my conquests, kicking rocks over and finding gems. You can find some very good sites for hiring mages, let alone sites which offer a gold bonus. When he finds a lab, I usually empower him to help find more things. If I recall, anything over level 4 is a waste for finding sites. Finding fire and earth gems is especially good as they can be converted to gold if you’re in a pinch. I’ve tried to use my pretenders in battle but all I end up with is an annoying time clicking on my priests to call him back when he dies a turn or two later.
Construction items are also great. With a mage with death 2, he can create the skulls which add 10 research points to your researchers. It costs 10 death gems but my rainbow mage has usually discovered a pile of death sites by the time I’m ready to build them.
Check out p27 in the manual.
Branching out somewhat in magic research is probably better in most cases since the research cos is 20 40 60 100 160 (the cost increase is exponential converging on the golden mean, appr. 1.6). If you have specific spell required for some strategy you have deviced focused research might be better though.
Now I’m confused. Again.
Johan, are you saying that the choice of magic for your pretender somehow affects the mages you recruit? Because Rywill is saying it doesn’t, which was my understanding as well.
And as near as I can tell, the table on page 27 just shows a list of bonus applied to a mage or pretender who knows that particular school of magic.
-TomYeah, I thought the same as Tom. In other words:
Your pretender’s magic skill affects only three things: the spells your pretender can cast, the path bonuses your PRETENDER gets, and the bonus that your blessed troops get. It confers no bonus on your recruited mages (neither extra magic paths nor stat boosts from p.27).
Your recruited mages get whatever magic skills they’re supposed to have, as well as the bonuses on p.27 depending on their path. This stays the same no matter what magic skills your pretender has.
I’m totally confused. I’m talking about the school as in construction, summoning, evoking, etc. Not fire, water, air, etc. I’m going to leave blood out of this because, well, you know.
My pretender usually has 2 or 3 ‘elements’ (I can’t remember the book’s title for them). But then my research is spread out amongst the schools so that my leaders with 2 fire or air or whatever have more spells to choose from on the battlefield.
Whoops, you’re right. I’m confusing path (Air, Water, etc.) with school (Evocation, Thaumaturgy, etc.). For paths, I usually buy one or two and take them reasonably high (4-6). For schools, I usually spread out. It all depends on who I’m playing, though. E.g., if I have high nature, I might spend a lot of research on whatever the school is that gets you summoning, because they summon some cool stuff. But as a general matter, as Johan said, I’m usually better off spending 10 or 20 points to pick up level 1 or 2 or whatever, than spending 120 to get one more level in something I’m already good at. But it really depends. Whenever I finish research I always go look at the spell schools to figure out what I want to do next.
Hence the complaints about the docs. Carry on.
Regarding construction…I get a kick out of building items. Some of the artifacts really rock. Of course, I have yet to win a game so building items probably isnt that effective towards victory.
A couple of my favorites are:
The pocket lich, which puts a skull necromancer on your side during battles. Visions of Morte. There is one of these that summons a knight too, although the Lich seems better.
The one that lets you cast Call of the Wild gem free (spell that summons a werewolf and 20 wolves to attack the province of your choice…after the battle you get to keep them. They are all stealthy too.)
Nethgul/Green Eye. Intelligent items that defend your commander with spells, pretty good ones sometimes.
The one where you get a neverending supply of imps to protect you in exchange for your soul sounds cool, but I have never tried it.
olaf
The imp one is insane. In a long battle, TONS of imps get generated. Also good for assassins.
Sorry about that. No the path choice of your pretender doesn’t affect your mages, bar potentional bless effects. I thought Rywill said that there was no additional effect from the magic on your pretender beyond what spells you could cast and what bless effects you could get. Sloppy reading. I also confused school with path.
Eh-heh. No. In 2 of the 3 MP games I’m in, I’ve been the first one out, dead in just over 20 turns.
Guess I shoulda played some single-player before joining the game Johan O was in. Of course, the “normal” AI still kicks my ass, so maybe I just really, really suck.
Oh yeah, one question from the lord of suck (ie, me)–if I “Horror Mark” some poor bastard, does this mean Horrors will naturally be attracted to him, ie, they’ll appear and attack him randomly, or does it mean that WHEN a Horror is summonded, it’ll charge at him first?
To ask the same question in a different fashion, can Horror Mark alone kill a unit, or do I need to summon a Horror too?