Is there an email game I can join? I’m playing the computer a fair amount, learning that I’m still learning this damn game. I’d love to play against some people… :)
Also, got any tips for me as a new player? I went through the tutorial, I’ve created a couple of different games and gods… I have a decent grasp on the game, but I’m sure I could use some pointers.
Get into a game with some experienced humans. Have every expectation of being trounced. Humans play waaaay differently than the AI does, it’s a night and day experience.
Here’s some fun pointers for single players, just to get a taste of how humans play. Get yourself a wraith lord (death spell, conjuration level 7). Equip him with a Wraith Sword (or Hell sword if you have blood magic), a ring of regeration, an amulet of antimagic, some boots of quickness, some elemental armor, and a horror helmet. Now script him to cast soul vortex and then attack nearest. Send him up against AI army, no matter how large. Watch him win. Then try and figure out what your response is when someone does that to you :D
Don’t underestimate battle magic as I did. Lots of heavily armored infantry guys are nice in the beginning, but soon the battle field will belong to the battle mages with their blade winds, frozen hearts, nether darts and and and. At that point soldiers are merely a meat shield. In the beginning spend a lot of your gold for mages, and make them research. Later in the game they can take their place as battle mages. Look for provinces with sages, for they are the consommate research mules.
Oh, and watch out for Ermor. Always make an anti-Ermor alliance with your fellow players. Squish Ermor in the beginning, or be ultimately squished.
Two useful sites are:
and the forums for dom2 at
What Nick is referring to above is a “SuperCombatant” or SC (wraithlords, ice devils, arch devils, air queens, etc.). The life draining weapon (hell sword, wraith sword, blood thorn) allows the SC to regain hit points and fatigue.
I’ve just lost a game because I didn’t prepare for these guys. Much of the strategy revolves around aquiring / countering them (nail them with spells or one of your own SCs).
As Chris mentions, magic is also very important. Your nation’s normal troops become much less important as time goes on. There are spells that will wipe out whole armies.
Playing a game or two is the best way to see what the other guys will do. Coming up with counters is a lot of the fun, in my opinion, and the subject of much of the discussion here and on the shrapnel boards.
I still haven’t managed to counter this stuff, but it’s fun trying. Personally, I’m trying to use strategies that run counter to conventional wisdom (with crappy results so far, but what the hell :D )
And to get in a new game (ip, not e-mail) go to the multiplayer forum at shrapnelgame.com and ask about the blitzes they run on Sunday afternoons. I find it difficult to enter new games, but they say the blitz games run every week. A blitz is a game where everyone stays online for a few hours and they try to get 15 turns or so in before switching to dail/48 hour turns.
I did it once when I first started and it was fun.
Another tip: Explore Blood Magic.
I recommend Abysia as they have good blood mages and their dragon priests kick butt when scripted for phoenix power, falling fires, falling fires… etc. put a phalanx of Lava Warriors in front and you have a force that compete even in the late game.
Abysian Blood Factories. Take a pretender with 4 in earth…get the rejuve on your mages and forge a dwarven hammer ASAP. pump out some warlocks and move them to provinces with pop greater than 4,000. Set taxes to zero and the commence blood hunting. Once you have 60 blood slaves forge a soul contract. Best way to get this is start with a pretender with 5 in blood or 4 and first forge a blood thorne…make sure to get the Dwarven hammer first though. Make 10 plus contracts and keep them all on sages or scouts in a castle. Devils will be you mid and late game cannon fodder as well as rapid reaction force when an opponent starts jumping around in your backfield.
If you want to see lots of the lategame content, you could take over for me(marignon) in the faeruntest game.
You will have plenty of toys to play with.
So if you are interested, send me a pm.
If you want to have a look first at the game before deciding if you want to join, that´s fine as well.