Dominions 3 Q&A

[Huw the Poo]

I believe a commander has to be set to patrol in order to fight outside the fort.

[Bison]

Hmm...I'll try to set them to patrol and see if that does anything.  It's not something I've seen in other regions with defense and army.

[Lunaje]

When there is a Castle in the province being attacked, "Patrol" is the order you need if you want your armies standing there to join the Provincial Defense in case the province is being attacked. In a province without a castle, any units standing there that are not "hiding" will join the defense. But in a province with a Castle, if your enemy comes, your troops set on "Defend" will defend, but inside the castle :P. When you move an army from an adjacent province towards a Castled one, you can give an special order not available otherwise: "Move and Patrol"; that means the troops will move to the Castle province but no go into the Castle, thus defending the province if someone attacks.

Keep in mind that you PD is erased if defeated. So if an enemy beats your PD, you will have to raise it again. That maybe happening with the repeated "the province is undefended" messages.

As for boosting magic paths, there is a very good guide here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37423

I don't know if it's completely up to date, but it's very good. Something many people plan ahead when designing a pretender is for him/her to have certain paths you will need in the future (for forging or casting key items or spells) or him/her being able to forge the needed booster.
Though this is more common with "Rainbow" pretenders (that provide access to a variety of magic paths) than fighting ones. But a combat (SC) pretender can have certain paths your nation doesn't have helping diversity that way.

[Bison]

Thanks Lunaje.  That clears up castle in province defense nicely.

Thanks for the link.

[JasonPratt]

Hmm, yes, I'd forgotten the province defense garrison has to be rebought if it fights and loses.

What if it fights and wins with losses? e.g. a garrison with strength 30 manages to repel a sally but loses half its troops in the process? Does it automatically recharge to strength 30 next season? (Presumably not the same season, though?) Or is it strength 15 now (or whatever) and the extra levels have to be rebought?


Some errata and addenduma to previous posts:

There is one way (aside from directly buying individual units and setting them in the garrison slot) to slightly control what units will show up in garrison province defense (PD): at strength 10 and again at strength 20 a commander will be added. Not sure if this continues for greater strengths 30 etc.


Also, I was wrong about fortifications having no effect on gold income -- they increase income for the province they're in based on a fraction of some characteristic of the fort. I don't recall what the fraction is or which number it's a fraction of, but different forts will provide a different income benefit in different areas.

So early forts pay for themselves eventually and generate profit beyond what the province would normally have done without the fort, for the rest of the game.

(I don't know for sure, but forts may also reduce unrest levels in a province: I have one tucked away on a map that has no troops but a fort and maybe 20 PD, which I rarely generate troops from since it's out of range of the action compared to other forts, and I've had 120% tax there for at least a year without a single bit of unrest. Other areas with forts and similar garrisons with even stronger dominion and scale effects still generate unrest at 120% tax, however, so there may be some other factor.)

[Huw the Poo]

Forts double the gold income in the province in which they're built.

[Bison]

So would you all say forts/temple more important for expansion?  I guess I don't really see the need for multiple labs.  What's the benefit there beyond another research site?

[Huw the Poo]

Labs are the only places where ritual spells can be cast, and they're also universal gem storage (put gems in one lab and they'll be available at all labs).

Forts are important for expansion but I strongly recommend you read about them in the manual.  They pull in resources from surrounding provinces, greatly boosting the province they're in but to the detriment of surrounding provinces.  However they do provide defense.

[Phobos]

the administration value of a fort (can be seen by clicking on the fort tab) will act as a sort of percentage modifier for gold income and the resources available in the province.

This means a new fort built for troop recruitment should be on or adjacent to high resource value territories, like forests or mountains.  This is a basic rule, sometimes you just want to put a fort somewhere because of the strategic value.  Forts provide supplies for an army, so if you want to garrison a lot of troops in a supply-poor territory, building a fort can help prevent them from starving.

My general rule is that if I have remaining gold after I recruit commanders and troops, I save it and put it toward contructing a new fort.  Once upkeep gets so high this becomes unfeasable, it's time to stop constructing forts and invade someone.