Grand Strategy Noob plays Dominions 5

[Galdred]

How is the AI in this game for singleplayer?

The AI is not good (but probably not worse than in most 4X), but you won't be good either for a good time, and with some bonuses, it can still pose a threat.
You can also force AI to be in Disciple/Pretender teams to make things harder for you.

Btw, how are indie number displayed?
The Wolf Tribe numbers I had last turn were:
30 for both provinces
Now, it is 20 and 60.
Does it mean the first one has between 20 and 40 opponents (20+50%=30, 40-50% = 20), and the second has between 40 and 60 (60-50% = 30, 40+50% = 60)?
Or do they vary over time?

I am close to a province with Shades and Shade beasts. How strong are they? I haven't met them in any test game yet.

 

[Dayyālu]

I am close to a province with Shades and Shade beasts. How strong are they? I haven't met them in any test game yet.

Hardier than most indies, due to Ethereal. Get some magic weapons up or some priests with Banish equivalents (they're different in Dom5 depending on your bless). Don't use living chaff against Shade Beasts as they can resurrect as zombies enemies they slain.

Recon without scouts is by design skewed, it can be anything between what you see. It's to simulate unclear recon. They don't get variations over time tho,so a single scout+retreat battle (careful you can lose the scout) gives you the precise numbers.

EDIT: the AI in Dominions is "functional" . If you want to play weirdo SP, play Conquest of Elysium instead.

 

[Galdred]

However, some don't like the random everything in CoE (hero recruitment choices, spells, ...), and the micromanagement can get even more intense than in Dom 5.

 

[Infinitum]

iirc adjacent province reports are anywhere from 50% to 200% of real enemy numbers (eg if you see 100 enemies in the report it's anywhere from 50 to 200 for real). Supposedly scouted and/or scryed province reports are more accurate but then again who the fuck knows?

Shades will prbably kill your troops and permanently strength drain your thugs, and undead provinces tend to have shit income.

 

[Galdred]

Thank you! I will avoid them for now.
Regarding wolf tribe, I ran into them in a test game, but my Ormr got 1 lvl before reaching them, and they were already in the dominion.
It felt like a piece of cake for him (its health never dropped below 90% against 20 warriors, 1 chieftain, 1 shaman and 28 archers).
But I am not sure it means I can engage 40-60 of them outside of our dominion (it provides fateweaving, barkskin for +1 armor, and shock+fire resistance, which doesn't do anything here).
Should I preach until the province switches or can I engage with the Ormr safely?

 

[Galdred]

My Ormr eventually went against the wolfies, without his dominion bonus.
That was relatively close, as his health dropped to 66% but they retreated.
What is my best option against long dead horsemen?
The Ormr fear won't help at all, and he is a mediocre fighter without it.
Do glamour work on undead?

I need to take a mountain pass from 30 militias, heavy infantry and archers, but with our cold dominion, it will be closed all of the time.
What would be my best option to take it?
Dis+Valkyries, or levied barbarians, and/or wolf tribe warriors (for mountain survival).
Valkyries seem to die a lot more easily than the Helhirdings.

 

[Infinitum]

Friends don't let friends do Valkyries. Helhirdings already have a million mapmove, and gift of flight is one of your very few videly attainable buff spells. Throwing ~400 gold worth of otherwise useless barbarians or warrior women at it might win you the province, but morelikely than not you won't make back the investment in the first year, and strategicallya province you cannot defend is a liability. See if you can wrap around, otherwise Dis thugs later on. Maybe. Spirit Sight doesn't nullify glamours as far as I can tell so the helhirding should be able to beat skeleton horsemen without much trouble. I'd scout the porvince first just in case there are liches or similar about, and again undead provinces have very little in way of population and income.

I'd just keep pumping Helhirdings with an eye towards expanding onto your closest neighbours land in close order.

 

[Malakal]

I'd also like to point out that there exist orders of "attack cavalry" and "attack fliers" and that is a big issue when almost all your commanders are cavalry and you can only get very limited flying troops...

Just a thing to consider for when you fight players as sacreds you recruit will be your main advantage for most of the game.

 

[Galdred]

Valkyries are bad even for attacking enemy commanders?

When should I build my first castle, and start transitioning to research/other commanders (Dis for flying ? Handagrot for spellcasting? Svartalf for research? )?

My research output is currently 0 (late Summer year 0, and I have 5 provinces outside of my capital, with an expected number of 8 after this turn, and I have 4 Vanherses and 1 Helkarl.
One of the thrones in my reach is defended by 140 Atavi infantry, phantasmal warriors, Atavi and marakata warriors , and some sorceresses.
What is the best way for me to deal with sorceresses and phantasmal warriors at this time?

 

[Infinitum]

Valkyries are just worse except for the flying, and the flying is available through bttle magic. You want a few Svartalfs for sitesearching and smithing, then transition into Hangadrotts and never turn back once you can afford them. Be careful not to lose your drotts, as they have native access to most of your good lategame spells (wailing winds/Wind of Deth in particular, also Storm/Wrathful Skies with boosters). Send in a scout on Retreat and see what paths and gems the sorceresses, and if any other mages are present. Elemental spam is bad, otherwise it shold be manageable.

 

[Malakal]

Valkyries are bad even for attacking enemy commanders?

When should I build my first castle, and start transitioning to research/other commanders (Dis for flying ? Handagrot for spellcasting? Svartalf for research? )?

My research output is currently 0 (late Summer year 0, and I have 5 provinces outside of my capital, with an expected number of 8 after this turn, and I have 4 Vanherses and 1 Helkarl.
One of the thrones in my reach is defended by 140 Atavi infantry, phantasmal warriors, Atavi and marakata warriors , and some sorceresses.
What is the best way for me to deal with sorceresses and phantasmal warriors at this time?

Basically the only situation where you recruit valkyries over your sacred cavalry is when you can't afford the cavalry.

For research you have to, basically, recruit indies as the most effective way plus svartalfs. Locate good indie provinces (bone tribes get a good shaman, for example) to fort, supplement with vanherse, research cons2 and then 4 and make quills and skulls (also gives you thug items you already want). With that in mind you basically peak with alt4 and cons4 researched plus ench2 (flight) after that you are going to get weaker and weaker as enemy researches spells that kill your elves.

At this time you need massed numbers to kill that province, nothing else you can do really.

As a general tip too remember that any entangling effect will absolutely MURDER your guys since it removes their def as a viable form of protection.

 

[Galdred]

I am at first place in provinces (9), now, but I feel my Helhirdings are running out of easy conquests (I can probably take 6 more without too much trouble, but then, I will be blocked by either other players, peaks, thrones, and shades/shadebeasts).

So I will start addressing the 0RP problem now by starting my second castle and only churning dwarves/Hangadrott from my capital, while I get a few Vanjarls from the future castle.

I was thinking about transitionning to Owl Quill/Skull mentor factory for the whole team (then let Ulm, the other disciple on my team, take over the construction route while I branch to something else?).
Wouldn't legions of Steel and Weapons of sharpness make both my infantry and cavalry relevant again if I stick to construction?
I guess conjuration or Blood magic would be the standard road given my native Death/Blood mages (but I fear I would have more competition in the blood magic department).

 

[Johannes]

You gotta see who you're facing and what kind of sacreds and other stuff they are using to make longer term research decisions.

Conjuration has air elementals, but that takes time yo reach the big ones. And depends on the enemy if they're useful, do they have magic weapons, shock resistance? Evo has thunderstrike/storm (get storm power from conj), you can thunderstrike with a communion without a storm too. Lightning bolt can be good vs some enemies too if you have a lot of jarls. Alteration has mistform and other buffs. Ench has skelespam.

Conj and Ench both have some summoning spells to make use of your D gems.

But see what you're against, and think of what could work against them.

 

[Malakal]

Cons4 (quills, skulls, thug gear), alt4 (mistform, temper flesh), conj3 (earth power, air power), ench3 (cloud trapeze). After that probably alt5 (maws) conj5 (eles and air summons for army) evo5 (shadow blast).

 

[Galdred]

I reallly regret not having taken a rainbow research focused pretender. My Ormr has been underperforming, and is already crippled (chest wound).
But I secured a farm and a gold mine, so recruiting researchers should be easier.
My Ulm Teammate has been attacked(not bumped) by Xibalba (so Ulm+Helheim+Kalasia pretender vs Xibalba + Fomoria + T'ien'Chi pretender).
But I guess there is not much point going after them instead of focusing on Thrones?
We have 5 within our borders, and 2 that would be easy to reach (out of 8).

 

[Galdred]

Cons4 (quills, skulls, thug gear), alt4 (mistform, temper flesh), conj3 (earth power, air power), ench3 (cloud trapeze). After that probably alt5 (maws) conj5 (eles and air summons for army) evo5 (shadow blast).

How strong need my Vanherse and Vanjarls be to be able to airdrop to most thrones (I have never used cloud trapeze, but it is only the caster and not the troops)?
Edit: I still need to cartapult the Ormr there, so I should probably thug him first.
I think it would be the easiest road to victory for our team (but my research is abysmal, so it would still take quite some time).

 

[Malakal]

Cons4 (quills, skulls, thug gear), alt4 (mistform, temper flesh), conj3 (earth power, air power), ench3 (cloud trapeze). After that probably alt5 (maws) conj5 (eles and air summons for army) evo5 (shadow blast).

How strong need my Vanherse and Vanjarls be to be able to airdrop to most thrones (I have never used cloud trapeze, but it is only the caster and not the troops)?
Edit: I still need to cartapult the Ormr there, so I should probably thug him first.
I think it would be the easiest road to victory for our team (but my research is abysmal, so it would still take quite some time).

You will have to scout thrones and inform us what is defending them, assuming you meant indies. T3? T2? T1?

For T1s a mistformed thug with a frost brand and a shield (vine or charcoal) will suffice in almost all cases, could go wrong with skele spam so send 2-3.

For T2 if its a titan it depends what paths it has, you need to counter equip, if its mages then D will need charcoal shields or your guys will die to fatigue.

T2 and T3 also need to be checked for what troops are present. Some defenders have magic weapons that will pop mistform, other hit hard. Stuff like throne of watchers (lightning statues) with monolith require extensive planning, copper plates, anti statue weapon etc.

What thrones are present in the game?

 

[Malakal]

Ah, also UW thrones, even T3 are laughably easy to take as at most they get some shark tribe and a few azure mages and initiates (W2 and W1).

 

[Galdred]

2 thrones display very low troop counts (but without any scouting report) inside our dominion:
1: About 10 enemy units, mostly Deer tribe cavalry
2: About 10 enemy units, mostly heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.

Even if it is deflated 50%, can I safely engage blind?
I could send a scout, but it would have a high opportunity cost, as my troops would be better used near one of our opponent (I have a river border with Tien Chi, and I am not too far from Xibalba, both being in the same hostile team).

 

[Malakal]

2 thrones display very low troop counts (but without any scouting report) inside our dominion:
1: About 10 enemy units, mostly Deer tribe cavalry
2: About 10 enemy units, mostly heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.

Even if it is deflated 50%, can I safely engage blind?
I could send a scout, but it would have a high opportunity cost, as my troops would be better used near one of our opponent (I have a river border with Tien Chi, and I am not too far from Xibalba, both being in the same hostile team).

What tier are those?

 

[Galdred]

2 thrones display very low troop counts (but without any scouting report) inside our dominion:
1: About 10 enemy units, mostly Deer tribe cavalry
2: About 10 enemy units, mostly heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.

Even if it is deflated 50%, can I safely engage blind?
I could send a scout, but it would have a high opportunity cost, as my troops would be better used near one of our opponent (I have a river border with Tien Chi, and I am not too far from Xibalba, both being in the same hostile team).

What tier are those?

The tier is the same as the number of ascension points?
If so, all of the thrones are worth 1 point.

 

[Malakal]

Ah. Yea then, throne rush is very easy, assuming you can claim them fast. T1s are very weakly defended.

This is a mistake btw, the game can end before turn 20 easily.

 

[Galdred]

So I need to rush the thrones to redesign my pretender. Ok

 

[Malakal]

So I need to rush the thrones to redesign my pretender. Ok

List of monsters I like:
1. Dragon - expensive but you can't rly go wrong with a dragon, flies, breathes, 18 base prot, solid pick.
2. Hound of Hades - cheap, loads of attacks, fear, solid prot, kinda low strategic mobility but eh.
3. Myrcoleon - same as above but even more fucking prot into the stratospheric levels and FE magic instead.

Anyway in your situation you guys need mobile H3 to quickly claim the 8 thrones. Alternatively pre position them o unclaimed thrones and claim them all at the same time. Don't let your enemies realize what you are up to (kinda easy as an elf honestly).

That having said your team has no H3s so only pretender and disciples can claim thrones and you can not summon anything with H3 until wayyyyy too late. Looks like you will have to win this fair and square.

 

[Galdred]

So I need to rush the thrones to redesign my pretender. Ok

List of monsters I like:
1. Dragon - expensive but you can't rly go wrong with a dragon, flies, breathes, 18 base prot, solid pick.
2. Hound of Hades - cheap, loads of attacks, fear, solid prot, kinda low strategic mobility but eh.
3. Myrcoleon - same as above but even more fucking prot into the stratospheric levels and FE magic instead.

Anyway in your situation you guys need mobile H3 to quickly claim the 8 thrones. Alternatively pre position them o unclaimed thrones and claim them all at the same time. Don't let your enemies realize what you are up to (kinda easy as an elf honestly).

That having said your team has no H3s so only pretender and disciples can claim thrones and you can not summon anything with H3 until wayyyyy too late. Looks like you will have to win this fair and square.

Wouldn't a rainbow sage complement Helheim better(both for site searching and research)?
That would help with the early research problem, and I have found that the sacred were good enough without very strong blesses (because fateweaving, thunder/fire resistance, and barkskin are marginal for Helheim IMO).