Took the Dominions 5 plunge, now what do I do?

[MetalDog]

I have made my pretender and picked my Civ, Uruk.  I am in my second game.  I learned a lot from my first to my second and have a better position this game because of it.  I am getting the hang of building troops, picking Commanders I need, and trying to fit in Research and Forging and Preaching and Building and on and on and on.  I am digging it so far, but I am interested to hear some of the opening moves you make as a general rule.  Do you start off aggressive?  Do you take time to marshal Resources for troops or Temples and Forts?  And a big one for me so far, HOW THE HELL DO I GET IN THE WATER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!  Commanders can Forge items to go in the water, but, how do I get the troops to get in the water?  My Civ has access to water troops and Commanders.  I thought I would get access by building Palisades in a coastal province.  Do I need to upgrade the walls first to gain access to the water units?  They aren't appearing in the Recruitment box.

Anywho, whatever knowledge you want to drop on a n00b is appreciated.  And let me know when the next one starts.  I think I am in ;)

[Gusington]

I am watching with interest...

[al_infierno]

DasTactic, Attica, and Perun are all good youtubers for learning the game.

I find Das's videos to be particularly newbie friendly.  He has a whole series explaining the entire game, with this one being a good starting point.  His series covers just about every aspect of the game, including how to get yourself underwater as a non-UW nation.  I'd scan his playlist to see particular topics that interest you.

As a general rule, you want to basically eat up as many independent provinces as you can grab, especially high-income provinces.  A good number to aim for is having about 12-ish provinces (including your capital) by turns 12-15.  Hitting this number involves practicing with a nation and figuring out how to make the most use of their vanilla troops to effectively take down independent provinces.

There's no official diplomacy system, but depending on what personality the AI is given, they usually won't attack you if you respect your borders with them while expanding into indie provinces.  Once you or them attack one another, it becomes an all-out total war to the death in most cases.

For your getting wet predicament, if you can find any mercenaries that happen to be amphibious, that would be ideal.  Otherwise you can often recruit amphibious independent troops from certain coastal provinces, like mermaid soldiers or turtle men.  There are forgeable items that can get you underwater, but in the early expansion phase when you only have access to items that give personal water breathing or breathing for like 5 guys, it can be useful to just give one to a mage or super-combatant who can take down a province defense by himself

[MetalDog]

I actually watched the 'SuperCombatant,' vid before even loading the game.  I gave the manual a once over this afternoon.  It made things even clearer.  I hadn't thought to make a SC and send him to take on a province.  That'd be useful.  Not being able to enter water opens HUGE holes in my defense.  Guess I just have to be a little more aggressive in gobbling up land.  Kind of makes sense though.  A little like city spam in Civ.

[solops]

I'll probably break down and take some time to make some newbie comments. I can't really help you in a positive way as I always lose, but I can sure point out things to avoid.

[MetalDog]

Gave up on the second game.  Got much farther conquering territories.  Even had two Thrones of Ascension.  Just couldn't get into the water and the water province causing all the trouble literally touched five of my Provinces.  With no way to stop them from using that Province, it was just a matter of time.  Killed one of the AI Pretenders duking it out for the second Throne.  His worshippers didn't like that and vowed to wipe my civ from the planet.

[al_infierno]

Gave up on the second game.  Got much farther conquering territories.  Even had two Thrones of Ascension.  Just couldn't get into the water and the water province causing all the trouble literally touched five of my Provinces.  With no way to stop them from using that Province, it was just a matter of time.  Killed one of the AI Pretenders duking it out for the second Throne.  His worshippers didn't like that and vowed to wipe my civ from the planet.

95% of my Dom5 experience is giving up on games I spent a stupid amount of time building a pretender for.   O0

[SophiaDJames]

First you check the option of the menu then if you want some need to upgrade the walls maybe you gain access to the water units I am playing DOMINIONS many time but i didn't faced this type of problem. but i sure that it must be dominions rules issue.

[Yskonyn]

Gave up on the second game.  Got much farther conquering territories.  Even had two Thrones of Ascension.  Just couldn't get into the water and the water province causing all the trouble literally touched five of my Provinces.  With no way to stop them from using that Province, it was just a matter of time.  Killed one of the AI Pretenders duking it out for the second Throne.  His worshippers didn't like that and vowed to wipe my civ from the planet.

95% of my Dom5 experience is giving up on games I spent a stupid amount of time building a pretender for.   O0

Lol! I can relate to that. Makes you wonder why many claim the AI is rubbish.

[W8taminute]

MD definitely look at the game setup options carefully each time you create a new game.  I would set the strength of independents to 5 or below if you want to have a chance while still learning the game.

In the beginning don't be afraid to recruit a boat load of trash troops.  They may be trash but they are cheap and a bunch of them are usually more than enough to wipe out independents.  In the early game land grab is king and you need to do it fast.

Don't forget to recruit research mages at least every other turn and get a fort up and running before turn 12.  More forts = moar money, more research mages, and more troops.

[MetalDog]

Thanks for the tips, W8!  What exactly constitutes a, "research mage"?  And for that matter, is it better to pick a few lines of Research and go hard at leveling up?  Or is it better to just start at Conjuring and work down the list, gaining one level at a time and then starting back over at the top?

[JasonPratt]

I see that the Touring Test has been failed recently... ;)

First you check the option of the menu then if you want some need to upgrade the walls maybe you gain access to the water units I am playing DOMINIONS many time but i didn't faced this type of problem. but i sure that it must be dominions rules issue.

[al_infierno]

There are 2 different kinds of "research mages."

There's the low-level "research monkeys," which are cheap and quick to recruit and have basically no use besides providing research points.  These are useful to recruit in the early game, but their usefulness has a dropping return on investment the further into the game you get.

Then there's your mainline mages, which are usually the best ones you have available.  Some take multiple turns to recruit.  These are always good to get, since they're super useful in mid/late-game combat in addition to sitting around in your forts reading books.

As for research priorities, it mainly depends on what magic types you're working with and what spells you want to use.  For example, some nations like C'tis favor rushing 1 spell tree (Enchantment in their case) because of their specialty in water/nature cross-paths for using the spell Foul Vapors.  If you press various hotkeys on research screens (S for astral, F for fire, D for death, etc.) it will help you narrow down spells you have access to once you fulfill the research.

Oh, and remember to never bother with Blood Magic unless you're a nation that specifically has blood mages.  O0

[MetalDog]

There are 2 different kinds of "research mages."

There's the low-level "research monkeys," which are cheap and quick to recruit and have basically no use besides providing research points.  These are useful to recruit in the early game, but their usefulness has a dropping return on investment the further into the game you get.

Then there's your mainline mages, which are usually the best ones you have available.  Some take multiple turns to recruit.  These are always good to get, since they're super useful in mid/late-game combat in addition to sitting around in your forts reading books.

As for research priorities, it mainly depends on what magic types you're working with and what spells you want to use.  For example, some nations like C'tis favor rushing 1 spell tree (Enchantment in their case) because of their specialty in water/nature cross-paths for using the spell Foul Vapors.  If you press various hotkeys on research screens (S for astral, F for fire, D for death, etc.) it will help you narrow down spells you have access to once you fulfill the research.

Oh, and remember to never bother with Blood Magic unless you're a nation that specifically has blood mages.  O0

Thank you, sir, for the helpful advice.  If I could impose upon the group mind again, is there a general strategy for spreading dominion?

[al_infierno]

There are 2 different kinds of "research mages."

There's the low-level "research monkeys," which are cheap and quick to recruit and have basically no use besides providing research points.  These are useful to recruit in the early game, but their usefulness has a dropping return on investment the further into the game you get.

Then there's your mainline mages, which are usually the best ones you have available.  Some take multiple turns to recruit.  These are always good to get, since they're super useful in mid/late-game combat in addition to sitting around in your forts reading books.

As for research priorities, it mainly depends on what magic types you're working with and what spells you want to use.  For example, some nations like C'tis favor rushing 1 spell tree (Enchantment in their case) because of their specialty in water/nature cross-paths for using the spell Foul Vapors.  If you press various hotkeys on research screens (S for astral, F for fire, D for death, etc.) it will help you narrow down spells you have access to once you fulfill the research.

Oh, and remember to never bother with Blood Magic unless you're a nation that specifically has blood mages.  O0

Thank you, sir, for the helpful advice.  If I could impose upon the group mind again, is there a general strategy for spreading dominion?

Generally speaking, if you pick a Dominion rating of 5 or higher in Pretender creation, you shouldn't have to worry about spreading dominion.  That's basically considered the bare minimum for MP.  If you're finding yourself encroached by a player with aggressive dominion, you can pump out some priests to preach in your outlying regions, but generally that shouldn't take precedence over producing mages.