Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith

I didn’t play much Dom4 but I feel like I need to put my expensive ‘Dominions U’ education to use and play the heck out of Dom5! Man, I still get shivers when I think about the day I sat down and dedicated myself to learning Dominions (3?). It was around Easter, and I had a few days off from work and I glued myself to my PC. Look at me getting all nostalgic! wipes tears

Anyway, I am excite for Dom5!

Who summoned me?

Holy crap, he’s back! Now, if @Scribble, @Mysterio and @Dave_Perkins actually join a new game, it will be like 2012 all over again!

I just might jump back in with this version, since I like the changes to combat! Have to see if my funds allow it, though.

Sadly, I have a rule about full priced games, so I will wait until it goes on sale. Any sale really. Even 10% off. But I don’t make the arbitrary rules, I just follow them.

Okay, I did make that arbitrary rule, but have you seen my backlog?!

Will Illwinter ever do a publisher set on Steam?

My previous posts were more for the veterans who want to know the nitty gritty details, but there is value in having a shorter, easier to look at, more condensed, list of new features. So here it is:

TLDR Dominions 5 new features/changes

-Real time combat
-Custom blesses (77 individual effects)
-New and unique banishment and smite spells for every magic path.
-History playback after game over.
-Better random maps.
-New recruitment system for commanders and normal units.
-New build/upgrade forts system.
-New, more granular movement system in strategic map.
-Winter shown on map and affects movement
-Dominion overlay.
-New retreat rules (units can disperse after battle, good leaders prevent this).
-Improvements in AI.
-Better 3d performance, better looking terrain.
-Three new nations (Uruk, Rus, Erythea).
-Some old nations have been reworked and updated (Marverni, Sauromatia, Yomi, Abysia, Lemuria, Ur and others).
-More spells, magic items, special abilities, events, monsters, titles, thrones, …

-Improvements in UI.
*Conservative casting is now saved with script and is shown in UI.
*More info related to province defese, supplies, attack and defense siege scores, commander max squads and type shown.
*Monthly casting and monthly forging are now options in the UI.
*Nation description show more info like unit roster.
*More info for items.
*More info in Battle summary log.
*More info conveyed in province connections.
*Spell lists show gem cost and type (ritual or not).
*Magic sites show up as icons in the map.
*Events show thumbnail image of the location.
*Much better army setup, with less micro.
*New UI screen: Battle Overview.
*Holding TAB in army setup will show hearts for afflicted units.
*Multi turn order movement for armies (saved for the next turn)
*Provinces flags are highlighted indicating where you can move to.

-Updated battle system:
*Repel weapon changed
*Critical hits bypass less protection
*Shields can be damaged
*Units recover 1 fatigue/turn
*2-hand weapons do more damage
*Str contributes to bow damage
*New orders: hold & fire and advance & cast.
*Harassment penalty halved
*Better cavalry
*Flying needs one turn to move from one point to another
*Formation fighter increase unit density
*Pierce damage affects shields
*New stun and new sleep effects

-Changed mechanics:
*Sieges are faster now, and need time to repair damage
*Limp or cripple affects strategic movement
*Fear effect is capped, so overlapping fear auras aren’t as strong
*Stronger gem income on every age
*Pillaging made more effective
*Pretender gods get their own bless
*New UW province types.

-New setup game options:
*Max turn limit/game mode on games (Cataclysm: Horrors attack!)
*Selectable AI level for mp games.
*Customizable global spell slots.
*Customizable story event settings.
*More customizable site frequency.
*Random starting research option.

Wait, does this mean that combat is no longer hands-off??!

Not at all, it’s just that the fight plays out in real time, instead of each unit taking it’s turn very rapidly. There is also a much more detailed combat log to go along with this, so you can really drill down and see what happened even to individual units now.

They really need to give this to some streamers to play for folks.

Any chance they’ll put a bundle together on steam with all their games? It would mean a small discount for those of us that have been supporting the developers for a while, and a chance to get some of the older games on steam.

Watch the trailer in the Steam page, I will give a good idea of how it is.

I have to ask… what would be the point? Both Dominions and CoE series are pretty iterative in that you are buying it’s an improved and expanded version of the previous game.

I think I already stated why.

I made a few CoE videos in the past so I’ve been gifted a Steam code for Dom5. My subscriber base won’t be too keen on Dom5 but I’ll probably make at least one video to help spread the word, maybe even net a few sales for illwinter. In the meantime, here’s a short video of the credits with an astounding background track that gets the heart pumping:

Oh good, been waiting for YouTube videos to start popping up, will definitely give any videos you want to put up a watch.

Am I the only one who kind of wishes this series would get a major graphical overhaul? I know it’s a pretty niche game and it isn’t about the graphics, but I feel like there is a happy middle ground between what I’ll generously describe as “functional, quirky and retro” and Total War Warhammer 2. I realize even asking probably makes me a bad strategy fan, it’s just that this will be my 3rd Dominions release (I didn’t get on board till Dominions 2) and I’ve felt like a jerk for kind of hoping they’ll step up the graphics game each time.

I’m sure there are dozens of you. Dozens!

Almost everyone?

Alas, it’s a wish that will never get fulfilled. Illwinter is clearly not interested in being a normal game company.

Dominions soundtrack has always been fucking amazing.

I’ll ruin the party a bit by saying that while the credit song is less traumatising than whatever was used for the teaser video, I was longing for something more Dråmatic.

It’s the same, though in the trailer it starts near the middle.

In any case, new spell:
Asphodel only, N4D2, Enchantment 4.

Troop composition has some variation, but seems to be 31 manikins troops. They stay around after battle. Spell also causes +10 unrest and kills 110-130 pop (at least for small/moderate sized forest provinces

Enkidu Elder lost the ability to use line formations, but gained PD organizer 1 and tax collector. Eunuch went from PD organizer 1 to 2.

Owning a province reveals names of province 1/2/3 steps away in EA/MA/LA. Makes finding capitals in LA significantly easier on small maps

Youtuber compares Dom4 & Dom5:

and starts an AAR