Dominions 5: Pretender Design and Analysis Step 3

 

Step 3: Analyzing your opponents

You have chosen or been given your nation.  You've clearly looked over your options and have a pretender concept in mind and some tactics for the different activities.  What about those wankers who are ALSO in the game?  What a pain in the ass.  If single player was at least a competent challenge I could avoid the agony of getting beat by other players.  And let's face, even the best player loses about 5/6 games or 9/10 depending on their preferred game size.

What are we looking for?  Let's go over some obvious major issues.

• Nasty dominions.
• Dangerous sacreds.
• Powerhouse blood.
• Blood sacrifice.
• Stealthy thugs.
• Recruitable super combatants.

You can't predict all the things that your opponents will do.  You can make general predictions.  Is early age Niefelhiem in the game?  They will probably base their strategy on Jarls and a monster bless.  What do you do?  I don't have all the answers and it's a tough thing to measure.  But you will have a rough time if you do not consider your opponents fundamental goals.

Let's break it down.  You have say 9 opponents.  Look at their nations.  What will they likely do?  Try to have a plan for the most obvious actions.  Sure it's hopeless to plan for everything but the key is to keep in mind the obvious actions.  This section of my guide is in some ways the weakest but in others the most critical.  I can't hold your hand through every situation you might encounter but the point is to keep things in your plan.  Look over who you have to face.  What might they do and most importantly what things they might do that are most dangerous to you.

LA Erytheia Example:

The game I am for which I am designing a pretender is all veteran players who needed to convince the administrator that they had the experience to compete effectively.  It also has a number of long term players from Dominions 3 time who have returned.  The possible strategies are broad and hard to pin down.  My opponents and my estimate of their likely strategies are:

• Gath: I expect Gath to use a major bless but may use a dormant pretender to keep good scales.  Gath has giant thugs and fair magic diversity.  I don't have a good grasp of current preferred Gath strategies.
•  Caelum:  Caelum has large amounts of inexpensive flying troops with a good ability for air magic and some earth and death.  The great mobility and the addition of storm immune troops can make castle defence very difficult.  Fast siege is likely backed with air elementals and thunderstorm.
• Xibalba:  Xibalba has good potential to take water provinces.  That could create conflict.  It's a major blood nation with cheap fast flyers that die like flies.  But every forest can make more.  Another case of high mobility and rapid siege.
• Marignon: Fire and blood magic are typical for Marignon.  A bless is likely along with evocation magic and fire elementals.
• Patala: Patala has good potential to get into the water with nagas and naga magi.  On the other hand, the nagas are difficult troops on land with cold blooded and high encumbrance.  I personal tend to scales with Patala and consider it a valid design.
• Ulm: Good blood potential although the hunters are pricey.  The national spell for vampire counts and usually good research suggest a scales build.  They get free wolves as patrol chaff.  Ulm also has good communion/sabbath potential.  The ghoul guardians are popular to deal with enemy sacred units.
• Vaettiheim:  I am not very familiar with the new Vaettiheim nation.  My understanding is that it's similar to Utgard but with stealthy goblins and moose!  Go Moose Go!  I expect a moderate blood economy.
• Mictlan: Mictlan has the excellent jaguar warrior sacreds.  I expect a major bless and a good blood economy.
• C'tis: A nation with mostly cold blooded magi and troops so likely to go for heat scale.  It has excellent death magic with some nature and other.  I have played it and find the sacred units difficult to get in large numbers so tend to play it with scales and use large numbers of the general troops and skeleton summoning in battle.
• Abysia:  Late Age Abysia has moderate blood potential.  Basic assassins are available in every fort.  I expect a scales build with a focus on evocation and a research rush going for lightless lanterns in Construction 6.
• Pangaea:  Good magi and excellent cavalry in the centaurs.  Bless is quite viable but from what I've seen a broad rainbow style bless is very effective.
• Bogarus:  Bogarus has good cavalry for basic expansion and excellent research potential with blood magic on the side.  I would expect a scales build with perhaps a light bless.
• Arcoscephale:  A broad base of magi and classic greek troops with pikes and tower shields.  It also has good astral and communion potential.  I expect another scales build.
• Man:  I recently played a game with man.  Communioned air magi and cheap spies are good.  The crossbows are excellent.  It also has some very interesting national spells that are near impossible to cast with the national magi.  I would play it with a pretender to fill those diversity issues and a light bless.

Looking over the list, I can see a potential for some very aggressive early rushes especially from nations that go with a big bless.  It's my view that a focus on fast research is critical for rush defence.  With the high research potential for Erytheia there are two options: very good scales to buy a lot of magi or an awake research pretender.