Pre Dominion NES

[Seon]

The Man? They apprently are middle Age Humans

 

[Northen Wolf]

looks nice!

 

[nutranurse]

@ Kyzarc: Here, I suppose.

 

[LDiCesare]

All, ok here's a summary of those who expressed interest:
- Ninja Dude (Groga in Lanka island)
- Neverwonagame3 (Bogarus?)
- orangelex44 (?)
- merciary (Vanheim)
- Kyzarc Fojatge (Arshnoc in T'ien Ch'i)
- Immaculate
- thomas.beruberg (Ermor)
- Nutranurse (Abysia)
- Seon (Pythium)
- T F (Shinuyama)
That's already more than what I said I could handle.
I can try to fit everyone in, but no more.

orange, there's Ulm which is low on magic: They were neighbours of the Sacred Lands of the One, and respected its law. They are much like medieval Germany, have the best smiths in the world, rely on heavy infantry, steel-clad knights, heavy infantry,crossbowmen, heavy infantry, sappers and heavy infantry. Some earth and fire magic, good at forging magic items and with good starting gold income, some spies but generally bad at magic.

 

[nutranurse]

All of the nations are alike to their in-game counterparts, correct? If so as Abysia I am a nation of lavapeople+demons+peoplewhotanwell, right?

 

[LDiCesare]

To all who showed interest:

I'll PM you some details on the nation you picked. You can kill them all and replace by yours (that's probably what's going to happen to Lanka for instance), change them slightly or heavily. The background will remain (so for instance Lanka used to be inhabited by monkeys and demons), but you can change the current-day story as you see fit. I'll provide you some hints about possible pretender gods that are available to your nations. All have access to titans, archmages, dragons, but some may have access to more thematic beings.

Fuschia: I didn't put you in the list because you said you didn't know, let me know if you're interested in joining, but I already have many players.

Kyzarc Fotjage: I expect one pretender god, not several. This is mostly because:
- your pretender is powerful and his/her mere presence in a province will increase the faith in that province.
- if your pretender dies in a fight, he will come back with prayers.
Having several, even weaker, would be somewhat unbalancing. So one would have to be the Pretender, with others being powerful mages or prophets.

I'll post details on pretender god design when I have my notes back. Roughly, you will have to choose or design a type (human archmage, titan, dragon, phoenix, prince of death...), paths of magic (is your god gifted in magic at all, in fire, air, or other?), dominion (how much faith does he inspire and what effect does it have on the surrounding - "scales"). Archmages tend to have more and diversified magic, titans are strong physically and more focused in magic, while dragons and other special beings are often very strong and specialised or not good at magic at all.
If you pick a strong god with strong magic and strong dominion, you'll have to pay for these strnegths with bad scales, and conversely you can have a weak god but who causes his realm to be rich and prosperous. More details to come.

For stories, you can write them here, I'll try to move them to the new thread when I create it this evening (at home with my notes and all).

 

[LDiCesare]

All of the nations are alike to their in-game counterparts, correct? If so as Abysia I am a nation of lavapeople+demons+peoplewhotanwell, right?

Yes. For those who know Dominions, it's Middle Era and you'll be able to become Late Era by researching techs/doing some magic (don't look at Ermor that way). It's also possible to call back some Early Era knowledge by research (or whatever weird stuff you can thiink of).
Although if you want to have your nation differ or be something original, it can be done, as long as I have enough material to understand what your armies and mages would look like and what kind of summons you should get.

 

[Immaculate]

I'll take Mictlan...
(probably edit them to be non-humans though)

EDIT: what are these 'scales' you speak of?

EDIT2: @LDi: after playing with you in FFH NES II and seeing some of your very insightful posts and questions i thought you would have been a good mod and i sort of wished you had been able to pick up the mantle of mod for FFH NES I (at the time). I am much happier however to see you modding something i know you enjoy playing a lot (for those who don't know- Ldi compares lots of stuff to and has only good things to say about 'dominions') because in my opinion, good games come from enthusiastic moderators.

 

[LDiCesare]

A short description of the nations with more details over those that I haven't detailed yet:

Eriu - Irish myths. Milesian and Fir Bolg humans ruled by Sidhe (faerie) lords, with air and nature magic.
Ulm - Germanic, weak magicians, masters of forge and steel
Man - Think King Arthur. Crones of Avallon, knights and longbowmen.
Agartha - Ancient cyclops reverred by humans who build them statues (golems).
Caelum - Kind of Winged Iranians. They have mammoths and like cold. Some of their sacred troops cut their own wings in sign of devotion.
Pythium - Byzantium, with strong church of theurg magicians. Thye lack horses but have lizards and hydras nearby.
Shinuyama - Japanese. Some human bandits but most of the land is held by bakemonos (small and big), with some kappa and the ability to summon Oni.
Arcoscephale - Greek, kind of seleucids. They have healer priestesses, mystics and astrologers with varied magics and astral magic respectively, and all kinds of hoplites as their main troops.
Pangaea - A nation of Pans, satyrs, harpies, minotaurs. And maenads attracted by those huge bullish beastmen.
Mictlan - Aztecs. They stopped their human sacrifices in order for their churches to remain under the Pantokrator, and are ruled by priest kings, priests of the sun, rain, moon and winds.
Machaka - Zulu. They use giant spiders for mounts. Witch doctors and wizards make use of nature, fire, earth and even death magic.
C'tis - Egyptian lizards who taught the rest of the world death magic. Also adept at fire magic, they like the desert and its hot climate.
Abyssia - Lavamen and half demons loving fire (and blood).
Ashdod - Biblical giants. They have a tendency to eat people, are not numerous but mighty physically and in magic power.
Lanka - A land of monkeys which was ruled by rakshasa (shapechanging demons).
Marignon - Spanish inquisitors.
Vanheim - Norse gods.
Jotunheim - Norse giants.
Bogarus - Russian. Poor troops and very strong magic research.
Ermor - Rome bent on death magic.
Bandar Log - Ramayana apes.

This is common knowledge when the NES will begin, but those nations may have been replaced by something else, although some parts are bound to remain (be it wild monkeys in hte nearby jungles or something deeper).

 

[LDiCesare]

Scales are (usually) the most noticeable effect of your dominion oer the world:
They are:
Death/Growth. Do people, plants and animals multiply or do they get lots of diseases?
In Dominions, there's also Production/Sloth but I'll probably skip this one, must check my notes: Do people produce more or are they lazy?
Order/Turmoil: Is the country calm, orderly, with lots of gold flowing regularly in your coffers, or is it more chaotic, with less regular revenue but more random events which may help you (or not).
Luck/Misfortune: Are people lucky in your lands or do you bring misfortune? (Usually a good idea to have order if you cause misfortune, and to have luck if you cause turmoil.)
Heat/Cold. How warm is it? Do you like a hot place where fire devils feel happy or is it cold so your ice armours don't melt?
Magic/Drain: Is magic easy to come by or is it hard to perform? Magic helps research and makes magic resistance harder in your land while drain causes magic research to be more difficult (except for Ulm, and to a lesser extent Man) and spells easier to resist.

 

[Seon]

Hmm... No horses and archers (according to dominion 3 wikia)... Well time to change government

 

[T_F]

Shinuyama - Japanese. Some human bandits but most of the land is held by bakemonos (small and big), with some kappa and the ability to summon Oni.

So it probably does mean Dying Mountain.
Sounds interesting. I get to be a nation of bakemono!

 

[nutranurse]

For those of you who are not familiar with the game I suggest you head over to the Dominions Wiki ( http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dominions_3:_The_Awakening ).

On a sidenote, if I can remember correctly, aren't the Ermor like Caesar-era Romans, but with dinosaurs?

 

[LDiCesare]

aren't the Ermor like Caesar-era Romans, but with dinosaurs?

Ermor are Republic-era Romans, but with undead, so that's about it, but not dinosaurs.
In fact Ermor is, military-wise, Republic based (velites, hastati, principes, triarii), while its religious orders move from polytheistic to monotheistic from Early to Middle Age.
In Late Era, Ermor has been overcome by undead and turned into an undead nation.

Those who have dinosaur-like things are Pythium, and they're not dinosaurs. They have hydras and serpent (lizard) cataphracts and are much like Rome too (although they are more byzantine).

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

Spoiler :

Stheran looked out the window of his palace and sighed. “Are you sure he’s gone Kyzarc?” He asked sadly.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. Kathnesjac just left without a word. What do you want me to do?”
“Find him, we must know where he went, people would lose faith in our unity if we start disappearing. I’ll do my best to keep this country going, but without you two it will be more difficult. Kyzarc, I will need your power in order to allow Arshnoc to survive.” Stheran turned to face Kyzarc and placed his hand on his head. Kyzarc bowed his head and placed his own hand on Stheran’s head and a strange light filled the room. Kyzarc began to age past his original 20 years, rapidly becoming over 60. Lines drew themselves across his face and wrinkles folded as his energy poured into Stheran. Kyzarc collapsed onto the ground, breathing shallowly.
“Kyzarc, it is up to you to find Kathnesjac. I place a Geas upon you to not return until you find him, now go.” Kyzarc staggered to his feet and walked to the door.
“I will not fail you Stheran,” were his last words and then he was gone.
“I know you won’t” Stheran replied softly and he left to meet his advisors with something surprising, a tear rolling out his eye.

As he wandered through the streets of Arshnoc, Kyzarc started thinking of when they first came here. Over a decade before they had wandered into this province, a place filled with pointless bureaucracy and nonstop backstabbing. They had enforced peace between the nobles and overthrew the reigning empress, Deyna. They went among the people and set up a local democracy in the towns, becoming an oligarchy higher up, topped by them. They had stopped the Ancestor Worship, turning the potential power onto them instead. Magic had been allowed into the lives of the commoners, a fact that had saved them during the initial rebellion. Nonstop war had destroyed much of the incredibly fertile land and drove the peasants into the dirt. They had put a stop to this. Allowing weapons to be used, massive projects that cut unemployment, using the army for the benefit of the people by stopping bandits, and more were all reforms they had forced upon this land. And now this; Kathnesjac leaving just when they had finally triumphed. He had asked everyone that would have an idea but nothing, the Mages weren't able to scry him, the Thieves had lost track of his going, the only possibility was that he had gone out into the world, the alternative Kyzarc didn't dare think of. This would be harder than he had thought. Kyzarc resolutely marched into the setting sun, turning to countries unknown.

I hope none of this is to off track, I checked with Caesar and he seemed ok with it.

 

[Seon]

By the way, Pythium cannot build archers and horsemen, right? So what do they get to compensate (aside from awesome geographical position to control trade ?

 

[orangelex44]

I'll be the German Ulm dudes.

 

[LDiCesare]

By the way, Pythium cannot build archers and horsemen, right? So what do they get to compensate (aside from awesome geographical position to control trade ?

Pythium has very strong mages (theurgs and arch theurgs) and some tehurg communicants who can form communions boosting their mages even more (other nations must use mages for comunicants so that's not as effective). They get to summon bad-ass angels when they complete the conjuration research.
They can have serpent cataphracts (not horse-mounted but lizard-mounted (slower but tougehr, as the lizards will keep fighting when its rider is dead).
They have nice infantry (like Roman legions) with strong elite troops.
And they have hydras. These are quite tricky to use, as you don't want to mix tehm with non posion resistant troops, but they are big, poisonous, regenerate and have many heads. They are quite expensive though.

Note that horses, lizards, giant spiders, elephants, hydras and such recruitable animals are usually tradable resources and some nations will have to expand into a neighboring province in order to get access to them (or trade with others). You'll know it if that is the case. As long as these provinces are independent from any player, you can also make hunting parties to get what you need without conquering the province but the natives may get angry.
Also note that getting access to horses when you don't natively have access to cavalry will let you build some if you research a tech for it, or if you hire mercenaries there. Basically, having access to the resource will give you access to troops, but they won't be as good or reliable as national troops.

 

[nutranurse]

Why would natives be angry at us for capturing rogue Hydras?

 

[LDiCesare]

Well, they might worship their hydras. Or they might be unhappy at you stealing their wild horses.