Dominions 5 - Pretender to the Throne!

The Newest MP Player Dominions game that is starting in early March of 2021. So far, we have 7 players, @Kolbex, @Mysterio, @pyrhic, @Evil_Steve, @dfs, @Mellified, and myself. We have room for up to 3 more if anyone is interested.

Service used - Llamaserver will be our game provider
http://www.llamaserver.net/index.cgi
Map - Peliwyr - 129 Land Provinces and 17 Sea Provinces
Settings - Late Era.
Independent Strength - 5
Score Graph - Off
Hall of Fame - 20
Special Site Frequency - Default - (a lowly 40% but we can increase it)
All Multipliers - 100%
Random Events - Common (I think it’s usually Rare but Common seems more interesting)
Starting Provinces - 1 (although I’m open to 3 or 4)
Renaming - On
Research - Standard
Random Starting Research - Off
Global Enchantment Slots - 9
Human AI Level - Master
Artifact Forging Limit - Limited to 1 per turn
Story Events - None

Victory Conditions - There are 5 Level 1 Thrones, and you must control 3 of them. That should make the game go a little faster. This was changed to 12 Level 1 Thrones, and control of 7, because 3 out of 5 was too easy to blitz.

Cataclysm - After 84 turns (that should give us plenty of time to wrap it up).

Nations and players -

Evil_Steve - Vaettiheim
Kolbex - Atlantis
Mysterio - Bogarus
pyrhic - Arco
dfs - C’tis
legowarrior - Patala

I am the only one that changed.

Diplo is not binding, except for trades.
That being said, we have new players here so, let us not be too Machiavellian.

Mods - the game will use 3 Mods
Lucid’s Gem Generator - Adds items to the game that can produce temporary gems. Lucid's Thematic Gem Gen :: Dominions 5 Modding
Worthy Heroes - Updates each nation to have powerful and useful heroes
Worthy Heroes 6.25 :: Dominions 5 Modding
CBM - One of the Balance mods, and currently my favorite. It’s at .72 right now.
ttps://steamcommunity.com/app/722060/discussions/2/1750106661704000669/
Dom5 Balance Mod Collab - Google Docs

That’s it for now. Try out a few test games with the mods in question. A good rule of thumb is the ability to take about 15 provinces by the end of the first year.

Oh and something I created that might be helpful.

This spread sheet can help calculate the gold cost of different scales put together. Keep in mind, CBM changes the Order from 3% to 4%. If you take Ragha, you’ll need to change the Heat/Cold Scale to .025 because they only suffer half the penalty from heat or cold. If you take Abysia, you’ll need to change Growth/Death to .01 and .001 respectively, because they get only half the penalty/benefit from it.

If you want to maximize gold as anyone but Abysia, take 3 Growth, +/- One heat or cold from your starting position, and 2 points of Sloth.

After you are done, please set it back to zero.

Finally, if you are relatively new to the game, I suggest the following discords. They’ll usually help you out with any questions you might have. Especially useful if a spell is pretty vague or if you want to know a value of a summon (most are not worth it).

Oh boy, jumping in head first. Just hope there isn’t a rock under the surface.

If you haven’t yet, do try a few SP games to get yourself ready.

Also, the Wiki is good to use. https://illwiki.com/dom5/

The mod makes some changes, but mostly to beef up some of the weaker factions.
Also, to remove Magic Duel, and make spells like Rain and Foul Vapors harder to cast.

Oh, and it makes Titan’s Pretenders cheaper, and Monster pretenders less useful in the late game.

Haha, MP Dominions is Trial by Fire.

In a good way though.

I think I narrowed my options to 3 nations. We’ll see if any of them gets picked.

So, let’s start it off with the nations if we can. I need to get some practice in, in case my nations get picked!

being one of the more experienced players, i’m just deferring to the others. If you’re picking last, and dfs before you, then that’d make me 5th. So that’s @Kolbex or @Mysterio or @Mellified

Are they just all available? There are quite a lot, aren’t there?

vaettiheim for evil stevil! toot toot! me me me. or am i 4th… boo hoo hoo

Anything Late Age (prefixed LA). Probably suggest against R’lyeh and Erytheia as their underwater nature makes them a little more complex (especially R’lyeh). Atlantis I don’t think starts underwater, they seem to garner a lot of interest in LA I believe. Easy to see why because they have the ability to go underwater natively.

Otherwise, pick a nation with a theme you like, and mixed with strong national troops to help early expansion. And probably without blood magic (or at least significant blood requirements) as that is a whole other resource to manage effectively. That cuts out Mictlan particularly because dominion spread depends on capturing slaves and then using them. So lots of hunting. In contrast, I did ok with Bogarus in a game as they do have blood magic, but also many other options to choose from.

Well, i’m gonna chose Xibalba then!

Haha! Like, no.

Atlantis is probably a go to nation for starting players. It’s got great starting troops with access to magical weapons for fighting Ethereal units. It doesn’t have any issues going underwater, since all it’s standard troops are amphibious.

There capital only mages are great, and have sailing (definitely read up on that).

Finally, like Jomon and LA Mictlan, you want to get at least one castle underwater, because you get access to some new mages that just add to your game.

Oh, and you go Cold 3, which makes it harder to get into mountains, but many of your troops get a boost to protection in colder climates.

I get the feeling you’re judging everyone on their picks

Not at all, but @Kolbex is a new player and MA Ulm and LA Atlantis are most commonly suggested nations for new players. It’s pretty forgiving and comes with a decent tool set.

As @Evil_Steve suggested, something without blood is for the best, but LA loves it’s blood magic.

Edit: That is not entirely true. Anyone that picks a popkill nation will be judged, and judged harshly!

If I’m understanding this correctly, each of us is to select our preferred LA nation. Are those selected nations then assigned randomly?

Nope, first come first serve. Just don’t take a Popkill nation. Not that I’ve forbidden it, but please don’t.

A few of us are picking last to give others a shot at their favorite nations.

I think @Evil_Steve has taken Vaettiheim, and @pyrhic wants to have Xibalba, (although I believe if some newer player wanted it, he would be willing to switch).

With CBM, a lot of the less powerful nations have gotten a buff though. Personally, I’m curious about Jomon, but I won’t be taking them this game because I think they might be over buffed. Not sure though, but I’m going to try to take something with fewer changes to the nation.

Ok, I’ll take Atlantis, then!

I have no idea which ones are! Haha

Guess I better fire up the game and pick a nation. Is there a due date for nation picks?

Since we probably want to start in March, the end of the week would be best. That gives everyone a chance to practice with the nations they have.