Dominions 4: Pretender Design and Analysis Step 1

Here's the story.  You joined a game and you got a nation.  I wrote this guide for Dominions 3 and much of it is still applicable.  I'm revising it with what I now know about Dominions 4.

Step 1: Review what your nation has.

Start up a test game with the correct mods required by your game.  Just take a default pretender and look over your troops.

General Review

You want to ask these questions.

1. What kind of sacred units do I get?
2. Are they capital only?
3. What kind of sacred commanders and magi do I get?
4. Are they capital only?
5. Do I have any other capital only units?
6. Do they have special abilities?
7. Do I have capital only commanders or magi?
8. What are my common magic paths? Is this capital dependent?
9. What magic randoms will I get and how can they synergize?
10. What sort of researchers do I get? Sacred?  Low cost?  Recruit anywhere?
11. Do I have slow to recruit elite commanders and are they important to me?

Bandar Log Example:

A very interesting game was setup on Dom4mods, Intense, with extremely high gold and resource settings.  I decided to play Bandar Log which has always been one of my favourite nations.  Bandar Log gets the very excellent capital only Tiger Riders and recruit everywhere and inexpensive White Ones for troops.  It also has cheap sacred researchers and more astral magic than you can usually use.  I tend to use a very limited amount of the regular troops.  Three stand out as high utility.  The Atavi Archer is very cost effective at 9 gold and 3 resources for fighting soft targets with it's short bow.  The Markata has some surprising utility.  It's size one so can swarm larger units and it has defence 14.  They are very ineffective against archers but can block most any melee troops including cavalry.  I am also fond of the Light Bandar Warrior with sticks and stones.  It doesn't look like much but can launch two volleys per round at range 15 and 12 damage each.  If you cast Strength of Giants on them you boost it to range 18 and 15 damage.  That's enough to crack some moderate armour.

You have the key Rishi mage (Astral 3, Nature 2, with good randoms) with capital only and slow to recruit.  However, a few of these can go a long way.  They are your main communion masters and can teleport.  For your regular recruitment, Yogis are fine researchers, communion slaves and buffers with Body Ethereal, Cheat Fate, and Luck.  Gurus can cast a number of good battle spells, summon your nationals, and do some forging.

Troops Review

Now you need to look carefully at the statistics of your national units.  Things to watch for include:

1. Do my units get good att, def, or str stats?
2. Do I have precision bonus?
3. Do I have cost effective archers? (10 gold or less and low resource)
4. Do I get high power ranged attacks?  (long or composite bows.  Strong javelins.  High strength sticks and stones.)
5. Do I have high protection units (15+) and what defence do they have?
6. Do I have units with extra high enc?  (eg. Atlantis)
7. Do I have other bonuses? (recuperation, stealth, tower shields, fast move)

Bandar Log Example: 

Reviewing the monkey troops there are some glaring weaknesses.  All the monkey troops except the sacreds have low magic resistance.  But you do have fairly easy access to the spell Antimagic which can resolve some of that issue.  The Bandar troops are also size 3 which is more of a disadvantage than advantage.

The core of my idea for this game is using the two sacreds.  Tiger Riders (capital only) at 70 gold 17 resources are some of the best sacred cavalry in the game.  They have excellent combat statistics, 3 hard hitting attacks, and if the rider dies the tiger keeps fighting.  That increases their toughness in combat by a very significant amount.  It's another 21 hit points to finally kill the tiger.  White Ones are a bit expensive and have only a single, although strong, attack.  They are not the core of the idea but if you have a bless, they are more cost effective than Bandars.

Elephants are an option but one I don't usually use with Bandar Log.  Tiger Riders with a good bless are more effective for significantly less cost.  However, if you need them, send some Yogis along to cast body ethereal and you increase the durability greatly.

Mage Review

The magi you can buy largely determine your mid and end game potential.  Troops are still important but the core of your ability to project power will be summons, forging, and battle magic.  Globals are important as well and to cast them will need planning such as forging boosters or high path on an elite mage or pretender.

Here are some questions to ask about your magi:

1. What is my primary magic?  Most nations have one best path.
2. What is my secondary magic path?
3. Do those two paths synergize?  For example take fire and earth for magma magic.
4. What kind of tertiary paths do I have?
5. In the tertiary paths am I stuck with level 1's or do I have a good shot at level 2's.  I define a good shot as a 50% random of 4 options.  10% randoms with more than one path are near junk.
6. What boosters can I forge with my national magi?
7. What boosters will I really need to project power?  Example: Bandar Log really wants to summon it's national astral magi but the higher ones will require some boosting.  The Starshine Skullcap is easy but needs construction 6.  The Crystal Coin is your second astral booster but needs astral and earth.  1 in 4 Rishi get earth one but getting to earth two is a challenge.  Happily, you get Summon Yaksha to fix your limitation with earth magic although it's expensive at 25 nature gems but one or two will solve many forging problems.  Rishi have foot slot so a Yaksha can make some dwarven hammers and earth boots so a Rishi can forge the coin.
8. What cross path summons, forgings, and battle magic fit my nation?  Example: Unlike Kailasa or Patala, Bandar Log doesn't have a good opportunity to cast Gifts from Heaven, one of the most dangerous evocations for smashing giants, thugs and super combatants.
9. Am I missing any critical magic paths that I will be crippled without.  The most common one here is a lack of astral.
10. What about my priests?  Do I have recruitable holy 3 priests?  Or can I get holy 2 with crystal shields?  Example: Bandar Log has weak priests but does have options to communion it's national summons to cast divine blessing.
11. Are any of my magi tough enough to be thugs too?  Self buffing thugs are extremely powerful since they need very little equipment.  Example: None of the Bandar Log recruitable magi are viable thugs.  However a number of it's summons can work well.
12. So I have movement problems?  Watch out for map move 1 magi.  You'll have trouble getting them to battle if you need them.  Example: The Rishi is map move 1 and this is a challenge.  Summoning an air mage and making flying boots may be critical to keep Rishi with an army.
13. Do I have age problems?  Abysia is by far the worst case here.  A method to manage it may be required.

Bandar Log Example:  

We start with the Rishi.  You will get a decent number of Rishi in S3N3, W1S3N2, E1S3N2, and S4N2.  This gives good manual searching coverage for 4 paths which you can later supplement with a summoned Yaksha (E3) and Yakshini (W3).  Rishi can forge both basic nature boosters: Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet.  This opens up the use of Nature Magic globals like Mother Oak and Gift of Health.  As discussed above, summoning a Yaksha resolves forging the Crystal Coin and Earth Boots and Dwarven Hammers.  A Yakshini can forge the Robe of the Sea providing solid water magic for forging and battle support.

 It's important to plan for Conjuration 6 and get one or two Kinnara to get air magic going.  In the very long term you can break into fire and death magic with Rudra at Conjuration 9 but that is not likely to occur in  most games.  If you really want fire or death magic for your plan it's best to use your pretender.  However, in my game I went with the basics and planned to hit hard early.

Gurus and Yogis are pretty self explanatory.  Gurus can research, summon nationals, and forge.  They can also join a communion as masters or slaves.  I generally recruit 1 or 2 gurus per fort.  Map Move 1 is a difficult limitation so they mostly sit at home.  I like having some in each fort to allow emergency summon of the national troop summons: Apsara and Gandharva.  I mostly prefer to use my astral pearls for the mage summons like Kinnara and Sidha but there are times you just need bodies.

Yogis are my core mage purchase.  They are very cheap sacred researchers (for the upkeep saving) and have map move 2 with forest survival which works well with most of your troops and other commanders.  They are fine communion slaves, can cast magic duel cheaply, and can be used alone for simple buffs.  With a Rishi casting Light of the Northern Star they all become Astral 2 and can blast thaumaturgy spells and the very fine Stellar Cascades at enemy troops.