Hetzer
4341
So who is playing Tir anyway?
Yeah, I am, but for logistical reasons it’s hard for me to do more than guard Niefelheim’s flanks at the moment.
Anyway, with all the scouts I’m losing in your territory, I’m pretty sure you’re watching your borders already.
That would be me.
Funny, that was the argument I made to you 10 turns before starting our war, when I suggested that we form an alliance and focus our expansion toward the west to try to minimize Van and TC’s natural geographic advantages. Your lack of response spoke loudly about your intentions, so I figured I might as well start things up on my own terms rather than wait for you to do so on your terms.
Its hard enough trying to hang on in a 3v1. The last thing you want to try is to fight on all 3 fronts. It was easiest to ignore TC. If he took more than a few border provinces he would wind up with an empire shaped like a “Q” with a very long tail. Not exactly defensible.
Actually, my lack of response was due to my miserable scouting and not having a clue as to where ANYBODY was, and being sort of busy at that time. It seemed silly to make agreements when I didn’t know anybodies location, which turned out to be prudent as Pan was in no position to take any territory. I actually did send you a response a few turns later, only it somehow got sent to Tien instead of you. Bugs, these things happen. And regardless of response, my armies went to the west, not by and large to the south. Had you approached me to ally against somebody else, I probably would have agreed as it would have meant my flank was secure. And you did just fine in terms of indie conquering with or with out explicit agreement.
That is the problem with “lack of response speaking loudly”, isn’t it? There is a lot of wiggle-room for the listener to misinterpret the silence. My experience with Niefel as a neighbor is that they pick one neighbor and make a beeline rush for their capital. Certainly common enough that I was darn well going to plan to counter it, especially when the Niefel player didn’t answer my email :)
qfwfq
4346
Does anyone want to take over the once-mighty nation of Pangaea in Banefire? froggyfish.net port 8082.
If no one is interested, then this post is both my surrender and congratulations to Marignon, who bested 4 different nations to take the crown!
Q!
Does that count me? Because with my crummy starting position death by dominion should hardly count as “Besting”.
Mist Spell
If you are in the south eastern corner, please consider PM’ing me. We probably have “things” to discuss.
so Mr Perkins’ attempts to bamboozle me into staling my first turn have succeeded…is there no end to the man’s D3 villainy?
wahoo
4350
Well, if it’s any consolation I think Matt stalled as well and I’m still not sure if he had the right password to Sauro.
MistSpell:
Be wary of Great Atlantic. I reached agreements with him last game and then died horribly. I just hope Marignon is my nearest neighbor.
Hey now… I’m back on top of both games, no stalled turns on either game. So na na.
I’ll be sure to reserve a special place on my mantle for your head.
You mean the guy who provided you with gems and weapons is the reason you lost to Ermor’s undead hordes? I even forgave you attacking with out provocation earlier in the game. I was attacking Ermor with high level magics to the south, but had the same problem as you, I couldn’t win a battle against the sheer numbers, and even when I did he had another 3k army sitting in the next province over. If anybody is to blame, its Hetzer for refusing to join the alliance and in practice keeping Man out of said alliance against the leading power in the game.
wahoo
4354
Did I blame you? I just laid out a timeline of events. I partnered with you and then died to Ermor.
You did everything well and helped me hold the line and get a big victory in 1 fight. But the setup for the board really helped Ermor since you were the #2 most powerful and couldn’t get through to him. With Hetzer kamikazing, Ermor had basically a one front war and 1 province border with you.
You know, I actually planned this. My strategy was built around mass production of skinshifters, a great buy for 20 gold. They have good HP with two forms and regen and can do a lot of damage in one hit due to weapons and strength, just poor protection and no shields. Basically ideal to take on heavy infantry, especially when backed by air magic. As a trade off, they are vulnerable to missle attack. I was certain of my ability then to beat C’Tis, and with research I’d have Arrow Fend, Storm, Mist, whatever to nullify Man’s arrows. The hordes of Ermor gave me pause, however, as I had no nationally recruitable priests outside my capital, and my units would be very vulnerable to javellins and just plain sheer numbers. Hence, I thought it would be clever to let Man and C’Tis fight the boogie men (R’lyeh and Ermor), for which they’d get minimal gains in terms of gold and usable provinces. Then I’d wiggle a way to beat the two of them. Its one of the reasons I didn’t aggresively take Mictlan resources provinces, as it would have brought me directly into the conflict.
Problem was, as has been mentioned, was Ermor just had to much going for it. War should have been declared immediately upon Mictlan’s fall and I probably should have led the charge. Eh, for my first “real” MP game, I don’t think I played badly.
Rollory
4356
What’s wrong with masses of indie priests? 1/turn/province-w-temple, you get a lot, fast.
Hoplite
4357
Greetings.
I am considering purchasing Dominions 3. My question would be where to start. I haven’t played any of the proceeding games in the series. I tried reading through some of the postings on this thread and lost it real quick. Is the tutorial with the game sufficient for learning the game? Thanks.
Enidigm
4358
Yes, and no.
Yes, the tutorial will show you how to play. It won’t show you how to play well.
If you intend to only play against the AI, that’s fine. The AI is a fun skirmishing partner, and does a good job at raising hordes of armies that need to be destroyed.
However, you will probably have a long learning curve, and several games, of multiplayer against humans before you can hope to compete.
However this is just a reflection of the richness overall of the game, and how much fun it is to “discover” strategies and tactics on your own. There well may be a “perfect” strategy compared to the others, but it’s buried underneath a hundred others.
wahoo
4359
I’ve gone from complete noob to a semi-experienced poor player. It’s been a fun progression unless you’re a person that can’t ever stand losing. I’d pick a country and play a few turns AI so you can understand the country. then just jump in a MP game and let the beating/learning curve commence.
The game is so vast that you’ll learn better playing against other people. You figure out some tricks and try to prepare some of your own. Learn which combos work and which rock can beat their scissors (Rain vs flaming arrows/fliers)
My biggest mistake at the strategic level is trying to play too many countries instead of learning how one works really well. But that’s mostly b/c the game has so many cool countries and ideas.
What TheSelfishGene said.
The problem with Dom3 isn’t that it’s hard to learn, the UI is bad but can still be picked up along with basic game concepts in a relatively short time. The real problem is all the damn stuff. Myriads of troops and magic items and spells clutter the game. 90% of them are worthless, 8% are situationally useful, and the remaining 2% are gold. It’s learning that 2% and tailoring gameplay strategies to utilizing that is the mark of the experienced dom3 player.
Of course, in multiplayer there’s a strong diplomatic aspect to the game. My current dominant position in the Lanka game is proof that strong diplomacy can cover up some pretty fricken huge gameplay blunders.
