Just Me and My Pretty Birds (A N00b Dominions 4 MP AAR)

[Jaron]

Very nice, sbr! I used to love Dominions 2 (I used to play with Martinus a fair bit). This sort of game really lends itself to story oriented AARs, and I appreciate that in a game.

I was never a fan of Mictlan. Be careful that your seraphs don't end up as blood sacrifices.

[sbr]

Turn 7



Two pieces of good news and one that is bad news.

The good news:  Zaelon, the Harab Elder, found a Magic Site.



And we defeated the Lizard Warriors in Scantrast.



The bad news is another random event that is bad.  I chose +2 Luck in my Scales when I created my Pretender God, but this province is affected by another Dominion and it is making me very unhappy.



The map at the start of the turn:



I have found two more human nations, Atlantis to my north and the aquatic nation R'lyeh.

Last turn I recruited a second Storm General in Caelum so I can have a second army and hopefully speed my expansion up.  For know though Tathryavant will meet Parshanta in Ecnaphale.



To finish my turn off I forgot to recruit in my Capital province,   I remembered and went to resend my turn but it had processed 15 minutes before.

I may not continue to do an update every turn until things get more interesting.

[sbr]

And thanks Jaron.

[sbr]

Turn 8

I really screwed last turn up.  First off I didn't recruit anything in Caelum.  Obviously that is bad because now my army, and thus my expansion against the Independents will be lagging.  Also The Capital-only mages (Caelian Seraph and Harab Elder) are the most important and now I am I down two; I recruited a second Storm General early now I missed a turn completely.

Last turn I moved both of my armies into Ecnaphale, the farmland just east of my capital.  The second mistake I made that turn was that I didn't script the second army.  I don't know if that was the sole cause of my trouble but taking Ecnaphale was a Pyrrhic victory.



Besides the casualties a good portion of my army routed, but they only had 2 provinces to choose from and one was my capital.  One Storm General went home to gather the units I didn't recruit last turn and the other headed south west to gather those cowards.


Here is the map situation



That is the nation of Arcoscephale to my southeast.  I sent him a message and he told me that he was planning on building a fort in the province you can see here and that he was going to take all of the provinces surrounding it.  I let him know that that was not acceptable and that I would be taking the province just east of Ecnaphale but he could have the rest.

This turn I recruited a Harab Elder and a bunch on infantry, including some of the crappier Caelian Infantry because they are cheaper and I need to build up quick after missing a turn.

Turn 9

No response from Arcoscephale so I will now take the province I told him I would be taking.  Both Storm Generals converge there, with properly scripted troops.

I recruited a bunch more Raptorian Warriors this turn, and no Mage since the Elder is Slow to Recruit.

Turn 10



This battle went better than the last one, but now I am rethinking my decision to buy the cheaper Caelian Warriors, as they almost al just died.



The random event is a decent one though.



34 free Caelian Warriors.  The free units are great to replace the missed turn of recruitment, but they are pretty much crap.

Map start



We now share a border with Chelms, the Nation of Man, and it is at the province I told Arcoscephale they could have.   I sent Chelms a message informing him of my diplomacy with Arco and letting him know that he could have the province just north of our border but anything east of that was mine.  I also urged him to move north west ASAP to stem Atlantis' progress that way.  I really want those mountains between Atlantis and I for now.

My second Harab Elder finished, and it is another good one.  The one random point went into Earth Magic which will be nice.

My two Storm Generals split up again with one heading to Gray Forest to pick up the new religious warriors while the other heads home to grab the new recruits there.

Pretty standard recruiting, a Caelian Seraph and more Raptor Warriros.

[sbr]

Turn 11



Chelms, Nation of Man has agreed to the border I offered.



Finished Level 1 of Alternation Magic



Again I will be ignoring the Fire and Nature magic spells.

Hand of Death and Fists of Iron are melee attacks by the caster; Charge Body give off an electrical charge if hit in melee combat and Skeletal Skin makes the Mage resistant to piercing weapons caster and none of my Mages will ever be in melee range so we ignore them too.

Personal Luck will be a spell I will use once I have my Pretender in combat; it gives him a much better chance to evade blows that would otherwise kill him.

Aim is interesting, it gives an increase in Precision but for only one unit.  Unless I knew how to get it to target a specific Mage I don't think it is too helpful.  Giving 1/30 of my archers a bonus seems a waste of a spell.

Earth Grip and False Fetters are crowd control, limiting the movement of 1 or 2 units.  Not too interesting when facing a 40+ enemies.

Earth Might gives a small number of units increased Strength, could be useful.

Yay Magic Sites!!





Meh to the Nature Gems.  Earth Gems good.



Death Gems good.

A couple of good Random Events







The plan for this turn is too take two more provinces.  My army is already split, half in Caelum the other half in Gray Forest to pick up the free recruits from last turn.

Parshanta will grab a couple of Mages out of the Lab and take them northwest to take Wic Forest, the last province on the border with Mictlan.

I am expecting to see about 40 enemy units.  Archers will make up most of the army, along with Militia and Heavy Infantry.



Since I have two Priests here I can cast both my Blessing and Sermon of Courage on the first pulse of combat.




The basic plan here is to get the army buffs up first, then the Mage's protection spells.  The Caelian Seraphs will Slime the battlefield to limit the enemy infantry's movement while the Warriors fly to the rear and take out the enemy Archers.  The Harab Elder will rain Lightning down, as will the Seraphs after the battlefield is sufficiently Slimed.

A couple of new spells that are script here



Only my Prophet can cast this because he is the only Level 3 Priest.







The other Strom General will take the Harab Elder in Gray Forest with him south to Marshlands.  I am expecting fewer Independants here, but the Nation of C'tis is bordering this province now I am hoping to not accidentally bump into any of their units here.  I considered sending a message telling C'tis I was going to move in here this turn but decided not too. 



The Marshlands Independent Army is mostly Militia and Heavy Armor, with some supporting Archers so I will go with the old Kill What is Closest theory.  I only have one Priest so he will have to cast Blessing and Sermon of Courage here, otherwise the script is the same.  I also have another Seraph flying down from Caelum to muddy up the battlefield.

The recruiting is just the standard Raptor Warriors and Archers.  Once I start taking the mountain provinces to the north of the Capital I will be able to start making some more interesting units.

[sbr]

Turn 12

First the list of all of the Pretender Gods



Then Messages








Predictably the battle that featured the most enemy heavy Infantry was the worst one.  Both battles went about as I expected, but I was disappointed in the Slime spell.  It didn't seem to do much, even when it hit an enemy formation.  I will likely continue to use it for the defensive bonus, even if the movement penalty doesn't seem worth it.  I assume since my units Fly they are not affected by it if they get hit with friendly fire.

We found an Atlantis spy in Scantrast and killed him like the heretic scum he was.



I'm not entirely sure of the effect of killing the brigands.  I assume it helps with unrest.

Map Start:



I got both provinces I went after last turn.  That leaves 3 Independent provinces in my territory.  I will take one this turn and hope to get the last 2 next turn.

The units in Marshlands (the far south) will return to the Capital to rest up and grab this turn's new recruits for action next turn.

The unit in Wic Forest (western border) will meet up with Nininsina and this turn's fresh units and head to the middle of the three Independent provinces.



Nininsina has a couple of new spells scripted.







The Caelian Seraphs are accompanying the armies they were with last turn with the same scripts.  Both Harab Elders are staying behind and Searching for Magic Sites in the new provinces.

In my other far western province I am going to start the construction of a fort.  I should have started this much earlier, once that border was set with Mictlan.  Oh well.



I went with the Citadel.  Once the Fort is built I will add a Temple and Lab.  I will get a Fort on the Eastern border started as soon as possible.

On the recruiting front I am going to start going for Quality rather then Quality.  I have enough units to take the rest of the Independents, so it is time to start thinking about fighting human players.  Instead of the Raptorian Warriors I will start building Storm Guards.



They have better defense than the Raptors, but also they are resistant to both Shock and Cold so I don't have to worry about friendly fire as much.  The downside is that they fight much better in my Cold Dominion and I had having trouble keeping my own lands under my Dominion, much less spreading it out to foreign lands.

[sbr]

I stopped taking screenshots properly, but nothing too exciting has been happening.  It is now Turn 18 and things have begun to heat up dramatically.

Turn 13

I took Gipha, the middle of the three mountain provinces north of my capital.

My Harab Elders found 3 Magic Sites in the 2 provinces they searched.

I set my army to take the last 2 mountain provinces.

The new mountain province has added a significant number of Resources to my capital for recruiting.

Turn 14

I took both Troll Peaks and Rim Mountains; both battles were bloody but I mostly lost the Caelian Warrior chaff I got for free.  All of my armies returned to Caelum this turn to rest and refit.  At this point I was not planning on expanding against the Independents any more.

I Researched Alteration Magic Level 2, the best spell is Mirror Image which is a defensive A1 spell that creates magical copies of the Mage making him harder for enemies to target.  At this point I shifted my Research to Construction which allows the Forging of Magical Items.

Turn 15

My Research is strong enough that I Researched Construction Level 1 in one turn.  The even numbered Levels of Construction are the ones that allow the Forging of new Items, so most odd numbered levels are a waste but Construction Level 1 is good for me.  It allows me to cast the Ritual Spell Corpse Man Construction.  This summons 1 Corpse Man at the cost of 1 Air Gem.  The Corpse Man is an Undead unit that has very high HP (50), Strength (15) and Morale (50), they are lightly armored and need to be in a squad led by another Undead creature or a Mage skilled in Death Magic.  There are more powerful Items I can Forge later that will increase the number of Corpse Men that are created each time I cast the spell with no increase in the number of Gems required.  I will make heavy use of these as meat shields once I can increase the efficiency of the spell.

Last turn I was not planning on expanding anymore, but I figured that I am already one of the smallest Nations in terms of number of Provinces so I can't sit back.  I moved my armies to the east side of the small island in the sea to my south west.  I might run into or piss off another human player, but I can't sit back.

Turn 16

I took the province on the island with few losses and all of the armies returned to Caelum. I really love being able to move 3 provinces at a time, it really changes things as opposed to having to plod along one move at a time.

I also reached Construction Level 2, which give some nice Items for Forging, including one of the important ones early, the Dwarven Hammer.  This Item reduces the number of Gems that are required to Forge an Item by two.  It costs 15 Earth Gems but I have a nice income in Earth Gems now and it won't take long for it to pay for itself.  It will be very nice when it is used by my Iron Crafter, who already has a Forge Bonus of 1, but his limited magic limits the Items he can make.  Fortunately he can make some Earth based armor which will be useful in the early game.  I don't think I will be able to make much use of him later, but I need to survive early game to get there to worry about that.

This is when things really start to get interesting in the game.  My neighbor to the west, Mictlan, has been attacked by Lemuria; an undead Nation played by an experienced player.  My neighbor to the we1st, Men of Chelms, has been attacked by Atlantis, played by another experienced player.

[Kleves]

I'm enjoying the AAR as well, sbr. 

[sbr]

I'm enjoying the AAR as well, sbr. 

Thanks.

[sbr]

Quick Interlude

My timeline from yesterday isn't quite right but it is close.  All of the things I mentioned happened but I don't think they were all in the order I mentioned.  Either way I have taken all of the Independent provinces I can and my Army led by Nininshina herself, is back in the Capital.  The Iron Crafter is using the Dwarven Hammer to start Forging some cheap armor, mostly to be worn by Nininshina, as losing her in battle would be a death blow.

This seems like a good time to give a quick overview as the game goes from Early Game expansion against AI Independents to Middle Game fighting against other human players.

The game offers in game graphs that let you compare the Nations.  They are not very useful as just a picture, because you really need to be able to click and interact with them to remove layers to really understand them.  Here is the current graph showing Province numbers:



My line is kind of light blueish-purple that meets an aqua line 3rd from the bottom.  The leader is R'lyeh the underwater Nation to my southwest.  Lemuria is the purple line; Atlantis is the next blue line down; Mictlan is the aqua line that meets mine at the end and Men of Chelms is a green line that is completely covered by other lines. 

I would guess that doesn't help you all follow the game very well.  However, the server that processes the MP turns supplies some nice charts that will help.  Here is the same info as on the graph above:



Obviously I am disappointed I am as low as I am.  Outside of the mistakes I have already mentioned I don't think I have done anything terribly wrong, my units are soft and squishy and I didn't want to lose an entire army in a silly battle against a better armored and stronger enemy.

Forts:  I am building 2 forts presently.  The first will finish this turn, and I have sent a Mage and Priest to have a Temple and Lab finish in that province all at the same time.  The other is still 4-5 turns away.



I should have started my second Fort much earlier.  I had a Commander sitting on his thumb in that area for quite a while but I didn't want to build so close to my Capital.  As soon as I made a peaceful border with Mictlan I should have started that Fort knowing I wouldn't be expanding that direction anymore.

Income:



I am doing pretty well here considering how few provinces I have in comparison.  The two farmland provinces plus my Dominion bonus for Order is helping.

Gem Income:



Decent but want to be doing better obviously.  I have searched most of my provinces with Harab Elders, but will need to continue to search the rest of the provinces and with Mages that have different paths and levels.  I have a feeling I am not going to have enough Gems to do everything I want, but I suppose that is the point.

Research:  This is the total number of Research points spent so far.




I have reached Level 2 in Evocation, Alteration and Construction.  I am continuing to put all of my Research into Construction for now as I want to get to Construction 4 as there is some really useful Items at that Level.  Obviously Level 6 and 8 are better and more powerful but they are a long ways off and cost a small fortune in Gems.  I am researching slower than I would like, recruiting the second Storm General and missing a complete turn of recruiting has cost me 2 Seraphs that could have been researching for me.  I have also been using Mages in combat more than I would normally do against an all-AI game but I needed to expand as quickly as I could before the other humans squeezed me out even more than they already did.

Dominion:  I assume this is the total number of White Candles on the map.



Need more Temples but I always seem to have other pressing matters.

Army Size:



I'm doing well here.  My units are pretty cheap and weak though.   I am starting to recruit better more expensive units now.

C'tis, R'lyeh and Lemuria all get free spawning units that require no upkeep, that is why their numbers are so high.  I assume they are not very strong units, but numbers have their own strength.

There is also a Victory Points category, but that is the number of Capital cities owned and no one has lost theirs yet so that is just a flat line for everyone.

[sbr]

Turn 18

The only message at turn start was a random event in Troll's Peak that reduced provincial income by 10.

Here is the map at the start of the turn



The two provinces bordered in pink have been taken from the Men of Chelms by Atlantis.  I don't have much of an idea about what is happening in the other war, it is too far away and I haven't been paying attention.

I mentioned my 2 forts in the statistics updates.  I don't remember f I mentioned them when I started building them.  The first:



You can see the Seraph building a Lab and the Harab building the Temple here.  Those buildings only take 1 turn to build, so those units just last turn and will get these buildings built then move off.

The second fort:



This is still 5 months away.  I will hopefully build a Lab and Temple here too, timed to finish right at the same time again.

The Items I mentioned that I had forged for Nininshina





These both give added Protection to the wearer.  The important note on these is the lack of Encumbrance.  Units take fatigue during battles; when a unit gets to 100 fatigue they pass out unconscious.  Fatigue also reduces a units attack and defense values (-1 per 10 fatigue) and the chances of getting a critical hit against a fatigued unit greatly increases as well.  The example from the manual is crits against an unfatigued  are very hard to get while a unit with 60 fatigue will take a critical hit 25% of the time they are hit.

For each attack a melee unit takes its Encumbrance value as fatigue.  Spell casters take even more fatigue.  Each spell has an inherent fatigue cost, but that can be reduced if the caster has a higher than required path level.  An A2 Mage casting an A1 spell only takes ½ the fatigue; an A3 only takes 1/3.  Mages also get a fatigue penalty based on their Encumbrance.   Keeping the Encumbrance low on casters is very important which I why I crafted the Weightless Scale Mail instead of something stronger, but heavier.

I have been recruiting the same Caelian Seraphs, with the occasional Harab Elder thrown in.  My units have mostly been the Storm Guards I mention previously, along with some stronger but flightless units.  These units are my strong Sacred units but the lack of Flight is making me reconsider using them; they will probably just be my home defense force while the Flying units are my offense.  The Storm Guards only have a movement of 2, instead of the 3 I have been used to so that sucks too.

As soon as I saw Atlantis taking a province from Chelms 2 turns ago I knew I was going to war with Atlantis.  I don't know if Atlantis intended me to get into this war, or if Chelms was just their best option to expand.  The Men sent messages asking for help and we responded that we were on our way even before he asked. 

The other alternative would have been to stab Chelms and take what I could from them before Atlantis swept them up, but I decided on war for 2 reasons.  One because even if I took a few Chelm provinces I would still have a much stronger Atlantis on my border I would almost assuredly be their next target.  I should also have an ironclad ally on my western border if we can win this war which would let me stab one of my other neighbors without too much worry about my west border.  Second, I felt that Atlantis and I were destined to fight this game, especially once we started off so close together so we might as well get it on.

The envoy from the Men and I have been talking strategy in the last couple of days.  My original thought was to fly the 3 spaces and just hit the Atlantis Capital directly; that would help tp dry up their recruiting base and cause a serious problem to their rear.  After talking with Chelms we decided not to do that but to try and catch the Atlantean armies in a pincer.  This is where the Strom Guards' movement of 2 really hurt me, I was hoping to fly in and hit them hard with no warning.  With that reduced movement I need to move my units closer to the front before I can make a worthwhile attack.  The province I am moving to borders one of Atlantis' new provinces so they will see me, but it also borders 2 other nations so hopefully he will think I am up to something else.  I will lie to him if he asks me directly and tell his I am stabbing Chelms.

So all of my flying troops:  36 Storm Guards, 24 Raptorian Warriors and Spire Horn Warriors, and 56 Archery units led by Nininshina, along with 3 Harab Elders and 3 Caelian Serpahs are moving east to fight the Altanteans.

[sbr]

Ugh.  My bandwidth limit will reset in 2 days.

Should I move away from Photobucket?  If so where?

[sbr]

Turn 19



Not sure about the battle in Gnome Peaks.  The units from Chelms routed immediately against an Atlantean Scout.  I could see this battle because I had a Scout in the province.

The event was a nice one



And my Prophet died.  Not good.  I can appoint a new Prophet in 6 turns, but this is going to make it even harder to keep my Dominion up even in my own provinces.

The map at Turn Start (or close, the Gray arrows are my Scouts moving around)



I have been active on the Diplomatic front recently.  I have been constantly reassuring Arcoscephale, to my south east, that he doesn't need to worry about the large number of troops that he can see on our border.  He is asking what my plans are but I have been very vague while reassuring him that he is in no danger.  I also sent a message to Arcosecphale trying to work out a trade for my Nature Gems; I have no use for them now and no future plans for them so if I could turn them into Air, Earth or Death Gems without having to use Alchemy it would be great.  Arco doesn't have any extra sources of what I am looking for so that is a dead end.

This turn I have sent a similar message to C'tis, to my south.  They don't need Nature Gems as much as Arco would, but I see C'tis as one of my biggest threats and a trade agreement is always nice to keep relations up.

I have been in constant contact with Chelms since he was attacked by Atlantis.  We have been sharing scouting information and trying to come up with a plan to fight the Atlanteans.  A tricky thing in this game is there is no formal alliance or military access, if my armies and Chelms' armies end up in the same province we will fight a battle.  We had hoped for me to attack 2 of Atlantis' provinces this turn, but I am not willing to do that now.



The original plan was that I send the majority of my force into Jebero (the northern province on this map) and a token force to defeat the Provincial Defense in Barra.  However, Atlantis has moved 40 units into Muspel and is now 1 move from both Jebero and Barra and I with my lack of information I can't risk splitting my group; my army is small enough that those 40 units moving to either province could turn the tide.  My token force would lose if they moved to Barra and if I split my army and those Atlantean units moved to Jebero I may not be able to take that.  Of course, there is a chance that I will lose the fight in Jebero no matter what I do, but I feel I need to play it safe here and keep my forces together.

The final script for my army.  It is pretty similar to everything I have been doing before, but I am still limited by Research so I couldn't do much more even if I wanted to or knew what to do.



I will announce the war against Atlantis after this turn, once I have attacked him.  We have not had any diplomatic contact so this can't be considered a back stab in any way, especially considering he did the same to Chelms.

[fhdz]

I'm enjoying the AAR as well, sbr. 

Me too. Dominions

[Alcibiades]

Ugh.  My bandwidth limit will reset in 2 days.

Should I move away from Photobucket?  If so where?

Move to imgur, use the chrome imgur extension and its a one click rehost.