Conquest of Elysium 3

[Nefaro]

Yeah.. I can tell that learning all the details is essential since battles are won or lost by the preset commands you give your units, with a heavy emphasis on the spells your casters will use out of the gate.  It also looks like creating your custom Pretender God, focusing on that nation's strengths, is a must too but those aren't as glaringly obvious to see as with most other games.

About the ages: magic availability is the biggest change. And factions.
I never played Late and prefer Early.

So my big question about the Age setting:  Are Magic Sites less common in the later ones?  The kind that you must search for in order to earn magic gems?  Or are there extra/more magic "Drain" values on provinces?  Things of that nature?

It seems most people here prefer Early or maybe Middle Ages.  I suppose I'll start checking out more Early Age ones.

[Yskonyn]

So my big question about the Age setting:  Are Magic Sites less common in the later ones?  The kind that you must search for in order to earn magic gems?  Or are there extra/more magic "Drain" values on provinces?  Things of that nature?

It seems most people here prefer Early or maybe Middle Ages.  I suppose I'll start checking out more Early Age ones.

Yes. And the troops of LA factions drift more towards traditional armies and focus less on bless and casters.

[JasonPratt]

So my big question about the Age setting:  Are Magic Sites less common in the later ones?  The kind that you must search for in order to earn magic gems?  Or are there extra/more magic "Drain" values on provinces?  Things of that nature?

It seems most people here prefer Early or maybe Middle Ages.  I suppose I'll start checking out more Early Age ones.

Yes. And the troops of LA factions drift more towards traditional armies and focus less on bless and casters.

That's largely a factor of the armies themselves however. The characteristics of any map can be tweaked, so it's possible to play with Early factions on a map largely destitute of magic or vice versa. (And of course all factions can really play against one another at any time.)

I've been out of the loop for a while, however, so I don't know what the CBEM mod is.

[Nefaro]

I found the reference to the 'Age' setting changes, in the manual.  It says that the frequency of sites is progressively lower the later the Age (something like 45-40-35) and that can be manually set no matter which Age you play in, anyway.  So I guess it's mostly about the flavor of the individual factions generally having less crazy mythos of the ancient kinds, and perhaps proceeding into a bit more of a traditional fantasy lineup in the Late Age.

I see some cause for concern at people playing the sea-dwelling nations.  Is that just because the landlubbers have to suit-up (and magic-up) to fight underwater, to get at them?  I ask because the two Lovecraftian nations are primarily underwater ones, but didn't know if there are often house rules against them in multi-player.  Fhtagn.

;D

[Yskonyn]

From my experience most newbie-friendly game exclude players from taking the underwater nations.
It is indeed a bit hard to combat them, but so is the case for them to land factions.

[son_of_montfort]

One more thing on Late vs. Early - the Late age has stronger units in the sense that they are better armed and armored. Early age units are more magical/holy and have more reliance on enchantments and magical support. Also, the late age units tend to be more humans versus monster.

I actually like playing as the late-age Empire (I think they are the undead faction), but they tend to be a bit overpowered against an AI that does not know how to use holy spells to banish them.

I am a big fan of the devil-led Abysia.

[Nefaro]

I am a big fan of the devil-led Abysia.

That one looks like fun.  I'm also planning on checking out the C'tis (cl**oris? I AM THE C'TIS COMMANDER!) and the Vanheim giants next.

[Yskonyn]

I am a big fan of the tiny winged folk of Caelum but they are darn hard to play!

[son_of_montfort]

I am a big fan of the tiny winged folk of Caelum but they are darn hard to play!

Given they literally wear ice armor that turns to water in hot realms, I would say so!

C'tis is a lot of fun (and not just for the naughty connection you made). They can raise the dead, have giant snakes, and spread their helpful-to-them-harmful-to-others realm outwards. Just remember to create a god with a high realm power score for them.

The Jotun are amazing and get VERY darn hard to kill by the end of the game. You let them burst out and produce large armies of their big guys and you have a problem.

[Nefaro]

The Jotun are amazing and get VERY darn hard to kill by the end of the game. You let them burst out and produce large armies of their big guys and you have a problem.

I've heard the Jotun are pretty cool but I've been curious about the other nordic-inspired giants, the Vanir (aka Vanheim).  The ones with the innate Glamour and Mirror Image abilities.. perhaps a bit more magical in nature?  All tricksy 'n sheet.  :D

[son_of_montfort]

The Vanheim are not giants, per se. They are like the Norse Gods. In fact, I think the Vanhir were some of the Norse gods. They have this ability, it is pretty awesome, to avoid hits. They don't have the stopping force of the Jotun, but are cheaper. They also have stealthy agent units, which are nice.

[Nefaro]

The Vanheim are not giants, per se. They are like the Norse Gods. In fact, I think the Vanhir were some of the Norse gods. They have this ability, it is pretty awesome, to avoid hits. They don't have the stopping force of the Jotun, but are cheaper. They also have stealthy agent units, which are nice.

Yeah, you're right.  I think they're supposed to be taller than men, but not giants.  Their Mirror Image ability is what helps them avoid some hits, I suppose, if it's anything like the spell of the same name. 

I also thought they might be interesting because they also dabble in blood magic, along with the more spellcasting focus than the big bruisers, and in (some?) Ages you get Valkyries which, if I understand correctly, help quicken your sieges (and help attack an enemies back row more quickly?) due to being a unit with Flying. 


******
Also-
What is a good Nation-to-Province # ratio for single player games?  I used a 30-to-1 ratio when adding nations to my modest 150 province map that I first started playing on, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps the AI may do better with 25 or even 20 per.  Or more?  Also.. I read that turning on 'Partial Independents' helps the AI focus more on building it's nation units as opposed to some of the crappy indie ones they find, along with turning on Team status so the AIs don't attack each other (may save this last for later when I'm ready to be ganged up on).  Any other suggestions for single-player map creation and AI setup?

[JasonPratt]

Is anyone else hankering after some multiplayer PBEM now?

I AM THE C'TIS COMMANDER!

With... a giant snake.

(And in the game!  ;D )

[Huw the Poo]

Right that does it - at the end of the month I'm going to see if I can pick Dom3 up. :D

In the meantime, I've finally started playing CoE3 properly and I think I love it!  The classes seem to play really differently and it's clear that a lot of time has been spent designing them.  Coupled with the roguelike nature of the game, I think CoE3 really has legs.  I'm no longer put off by the ridiculously abstract combat screen; although more graphics would be nice, it does give you all the info you need.  Especially now that I've discovered that battles can be paused and the message log can be scrolled!

So far the two classes I've put the most time into have been the barbarian and the necromancer.  I love that it's so easy to get units as the necromancer but it's balanced by your commanders being insane half the time.  I also like the barbarian because recruitment is quite cheap but still yields decent units.  It's going to take ages to explore every class.  I think I'll go for the witch next.

[Nefaro]

One thing that bothers me about the two games, and most notably COE3, is how the brightness fades in & out especially on the screens with a black background (and some ghost-like monsters in the army who have the fade effect). 

While the game has an option to turn the Fade Effect off, it doesn't seem to work at all.  I still get a steady darkening for a couple seconds, in CoE3, when checking info on my armies and the units start blending into the dark background more - screws with my eyes.  And, again, the setting does nothing to stop that as I expect it to.

Still some fun games.  I've not been gaming much lately, however, so I haven't finished exploring the possibilities in Dom3 (still quite noobish).  CoE3 is one of those light games I can pick up without requiring too much time or concentration investment.