0. 2 Description 3 Credits

this issue.

examples:

Sphinx pretender god (Astral 8, Water 3)

Magic Items: Amulet of Anti-Magic, Pendant of Luck

Spells cast upon entering combat: Quickness-Body Ethereal-Astral

Shield-Breath of Winter
Example #2

Great Mother pretender god (Earth 3, Nature 1)

Magic Items: Main Gauche of Parrying, Charcoal Shield, Robe of

Shadows, Horror Helmet, Boots of the Messenger, Pendant of Luck,

Amulet of Resilience

Spells Cast upon entering combat: Invulnerability

the two most common themes.

The teleporting ‘rock‘, and the trampling menace.
There are a variety of strategies that a player may use to counter a

Super Combatant, however much depends on the capabilities of the

nation in question and the vulnerabilities on the particular Super

Combatant being attacked.

This is probably the easiest counter to create since it involves

troops that might be available to a player naturally or through

acquired provinces. Crossbows are ‘armor piercing’ and

can sometimes overcome a Super Combatants high protection value. Then

again, often they won’t, and some combatants will have missile

countering mechanisms. This is unreliable but is often the only tactic

available to a player under surprise attack.

The spell curse requires one level of astral and one level of nature

magic. Jotunheim starts with the spell and mages that can cast it.

C’tis has the mage, but needs to do research. Most other nations

will have to get lucky with a mage that gets a random magic or will

have to pick up a mage from an independent province (usually a lizard

shaman). You may also craft the magic item ‘Totem Shield”

which casts curse in combat, but you still need astral/nature to make

it. There is no defense versus curse, and it lasts forever. Once a

Super Combatant is cursed it will have a greatly increased chance of

acquiring battle afflictions. A stack of afflictions can often

debilitate a combatant, or even better might curtail or destroy its

ability to cast spells. Many combatants are dangerous to touch, and as

such the best way to get in those afflictions is to curse, then pepper

the combatant with missile fire or summoned creatures.
* Spell Failure Casualty

There are a variety of spells that will debilitate or destroy a Super

Combatant if it fails a single spell check. Many combatants are not

vulnerable to some of these spells, and many combatants will have high

(and augmented) magic resistance. Still you may get lucky, and you

only need to get lucky once.

Some spells you should keep in mind are: Soul slay, disintegrate,

charm, polymorph, paralyze, bone melter, and control.

Similar to the category above, any being hit by and ethereal crossbow

must make a magic check or die. This requires a successful crossbow

hit on top of the magic check and isn’t easy to get, but

sometimes you don’t have many options. The crossbow works

underwater and during storms, plus can be fired by any commander. If

you are lucky it can do the trick.
* Bow of Botulf

If you are lucky enough to hit the enemy with this weapon it may drive

them ‘insane’, an affliction that will impede their magic

abilities.

Fall Bears)

As these ritually summoned creatures have 50 morale and do not fatigue

they may be good for hammering on a Super Combatant. They will often

fare much better than common troops. In particular if you can use

winter wolves versus combatants using breath of winter or use summer

lions versus combatants using a charcoal shield/fire shield you may be

able to dodge one of the combatants more unpleasant properties. Still

these spirits are expensive and are often considered a players elite

troops. Putting them in against a Super Combatant is risky and may

incur serious losses even if successful.
* Elementals

Elementals are similar in power to the seasonal spirits but have the

benefit of being inconsequential to lose since they are summoned anew

every battle. A group of mages can overwhelm a combatant with

continuous summonings. Even if overwhelmed combatants are not killed,

they can often be routed. Better still, if the combatant becomes

immobilized by the mob of elementals (more common with air elementals)

then the combatant will eventually “auto-perish” after

many rounds of unsuccessful rout. This is probably in the game to

prevent infinite combats, but also can be twisted to help fight hard

to kill combatants.
If you do not have any of these counters handy, you are playing Super

Combatant roulette.

Perhaps you’ll get lucky… Perhaps not.
2> Instant Magical Movement

There are three spells that allow players to move characters and

armies to a location of their choice. These are Cloud Trapeze,

Teleport, and Gateway. Cloud Trapeze and Teleport allow the casting

mage to move, while Gateway allows the entire army to transport. This

magical movement is incredibly potent for two reasons. First, it

allows you to go anywhere in one move/turn. I hope I don’t have

to explain why this is powerful. Second, this movement occurs during

the magic phase BEFORE ordinary movement. Hence by making a magical

move you may land an attack on an ordinary force before they can move

away, and thus you will have the advantage of choosing your fights.

There is no real counter for instantaneous enemy movements beyond

staying aware that it can happen and trying to anticipate it. Keep in

mind that Pythium, Arcoscephale, and R’lyeh have native mages

that can cast both teleport and gateway once they have done the spell

research. Some Super Combatants (Sphinx and Monolith in particular)

will use teleport to make their ‘move’ versus your armies.

Many players take astral skill on their pretenders just so they have

some access to gateway later in the game. No joke folks, expect it.
3> Magic Duel

Magic Duel is a third level battle evocation. Two mages with astral

skill ’duel’ and one dies. The spell description states

that the mage with higher skill is the likely winner. I have witnessed

many duels, and have never seen the weaker mage kill the stronger

mage. At this time I consider the higher level mage to have a certain

victory, although there is a chance that the low level mage can win

and I just have never seen it happen. Magic Duel has two major

influences on the game. First if you have mages with astral skill and

you go into battle versus a nation that has mages using more astral

skill, you will watch all your mages get blown away! This can be quite

a shock if you didn’t know about Magic Duel. If you have astral

skill you must have the most, or stay out of battle. The other effect

of Magic Duel is that it creates a default “Astral King”.

The Astral King is the character in the world with the MOST astral

skill. This mage trumps all other astral mages. Astral skill is also

used for movement spells (see #2). As such once spells have been

researched the Astral King tends to dominate battles since he can

teleport/gateway into conflict with other astral mages and lay down

the law. If you are playing with astral skills (and you do want to)

then you also want to be the best at it, because with Magic Duel in

play there is little room for second best.

There are a wide variety of magical creatures that mages can summon in

this game via rituals.

Most are very potent and are a great way to get efficiency from your

gem supply. Elemental mages will summon seasonal spirits (Summer

Lions, Winter Wolves, Spring Hawks, and Fall Bears).

They are extremely potent and will be the elite forces of most wise

players armies. In straight up combat these spirits will do very heavy

damage to ordinary troops. Spring Hawks are extra dangerous since they

can fly, and often dive for commanders (routing the commanders

troops). Seasonal spirits do not have morale issues, nor do they get

fatigued.

Death mages will summon a variety of undead from wimpy skeletons to

mighty behemoths.

Nature mages will tend to create Vine Ogres or Lamias. There are other

fearsome summons to be sure, but these are the ones you will see most

often.

Most summoned magical creatures require magic command skill or they

The best way to counter summoned creatures is to kill the mage that is

controlling them. The best way to catch enemy mages is with missile

fire, flyers, or cavalry on the flanks. Sometimes your enemy will make

things difficult for you by screening their mages, using missile

counter measures, or using a pretender god. If you can’t kill

off the enemies that provide magic control then you will have to duke

it out with these toughies. Your own spirits, elementals, and knights,

will fare best in these instances.
5> Battlefield Summons

Mages with elemental magics can summon elementals. Much like seasonal

spirits they have no morale issues and do not fatigue. Many players

cultivate large numbers of capable mages and use them to summon up a

blizzard of elementals during combat. If you have never seen it

happen, you will be shocked when you encounter a group of enemy mages

who grind your army down with a relentless stream of summons. The

most powerful are the air elementals, since they fly into combat this

allows the controlling mages to sit far back on the battlefield.

Furthermore, air elementals are exceptional at running down routing

troops. Death mages will tend to summon masses of low level undead,

and nature mages usually summon wolves (howl).

Much like the ritual creatures, the best counter is to kill the

controlling mages (see comments in #4).

After much research is done, many nations and pretenders whip out

combinations of battlefield spells that are simply devastating. We

are not talking about a fireball that blows away a few infantry. We

are talking about spells that consume armies. More often than not this

is a combination of a spell that affects a wide area (or entire

battlefield) and an immunity (natural or created) for your own troops.
Some combinations you will be surprised by eventually are:

Poison Ward - Poison Cloud (weak, but available earlier than

others)

Thunder Ward - Shimmering Fields

Winter Ward - Grip of Winter

you will be blown away.

Storms is a magical effect from a mage that casts it as a level 3

evocation or by any character carrying a staff of storms. The staff is

popular since it’s effect is on the battlefield right from the

start and does not need casting. Storms cancels all missile fire.

Most flyers cannot fly during a storm, the exceptions being storm

guards, air elementals, spring hawks and storm demons. Missile troops

and flyers are rather popular and the ability to cancel out their

abilities is a huge slam sometimes. Storms is often used to protect

valuable mages who then no longer need to fear arrows or flyers.

What can you do if your enemy is using storms? First stop relying on

archers and flyers. Second use mages in battle. Why not, your enemy is

screening for you. You might try the ethereal crossbow or piercer

(another crossbow) both of which work in a storm. There isn’t

much else you can do, which is why storms are extremely popular.

The same mages that can cast storms also cast summon air elemental.

Here they come now…
8> Army Blasting

There are a few spells that allow mages to hammer armies from the

convenience of their own labs. The beauty of this magical artillery

should be self-evident. The first time you get hit by one of these

effects you are going to sit there and stare at the screen wondering

‘what the heck am I going to do now’? Now that your enemy

has done the research (and it was a lot) he will probably blast an

army of yours every turn. What will you do? Your response will be to

write the offender a nasty letter and pretend like your aren’t

hurting all that bad. Ask your girlfriend to hug you. Tell other

players in the game what’s happening. Perhaps you get an ally

out of other players fear that they are next. Pray that your enemy

only has one caster that can use this spell, and send in multiple

armies. Take him out fast as you are on a slippery slope.

Murdering winter, Flames from the Sky, and Leprosy.

Leprosy kills slowly but is available early and is the spell you are

most likely to encounter.

Arcoscephale has priests that heal afflictions and Pangaea’s

troops heal naturally, so Leprosy is less problematic for these

nations.

Murdering winter and Flames from the Sky will kill a bunch of troops

instantly, but these spells take a serious amount of research before

becoming available.

from enemy spells, but since you can’t win by sitting your

armies inside your own provinces, this isn’t really a good

option.

There are a variety of spells that do harm to enemy provinces. There

are two basic types. First we have spells that cause about 20 unrest

and often have a secondary effect. This would be spells such as wolven

winter, baleful star, hurricane, raging hearts, and blight. These

spells are not very impressive with a single casting but can be potent

if used to cripple key provinces. This depends a good deal on the map

being played. Smaller maps with key provinces offer a strong target

for these spells. Large maps offering dozens of rich provinces make

these spells less valuable. If your enemy has a few key provinces then

creating massive unrest can cripple his economy and possibly prevent

production (unrest over 100 stops production). Beyond these spells are

the province smashing spells. These take a dedicated research

commitment but are appropriately devastating. Among these spells are

Black Death, Tidal Wave and Volcanic Eruption. Striking an enemy

province with these will kill very significant amounts of population.

With repetitive castings a good deal of harm can be done to the

targets economy. Once an opponent starts pounding you with these your

only real hope is to win before they cripple you. If you get a chance

you can try to put up some of the ‘Dome’ spells which

prevent enemy castings into your provinces, however these will not

stop all spells and it will be difficult to protect all your big

provinces.
10> Assassination

There are two basic types of assassination. The basic method is to use

an assassin character to strike at enemy characters in his own

province. Assassins are not very dangerous without augmentation, but

with a few magic items they can be potent. Knocking out a key

character at the proper time can be a major development. Sometimes

assassins are frustratingly difficult to use well, and other times

they can make a big difference. Some magic items that make assassins

potent (without going overboard) are: Lifelong Protection Contract,

Skull Talisman, Skullface, Wraith Crown, and the Bag of Wind. All of

these involve bringing in extra flunkies to help in the fight. The

beat way to protect versus assassination is to have troops

‘guard commander’. Raising province defense above 20 will

greatly increase the chance that the assassin will get caught while

‘passing through’. You might try giving a few guards to

mages that cast battle summons spells and put these in the provinces

that you feel are at risk. Often these guarded mages will act as

assassin land mines.

The second method of assassination is by ritual spell. There are a

variety of interesting spells that can be used to zap an enemy

character. You might try, seeking arrow, mind hunt, vengeance of the

dead, and wind ride. To protect yourself from such attacks you may

hide in a province with a ‘Dome’ spell, or wear an amulet

of anti-magic to increase your ability to resist hostile forces.

Ultimately you best recourse is to figure out who is shooting these

spells at you, and remove that nation from the game.

everything when they happen.

I hope that you will find this information of use both on offense and

defense.

little point if it remains unread.

6.12.2 How to defend against masses of air elementals

having trouble countering masses of lesser air elementals. Countering

air elementals is a major pain in Dominions, and it's something most

players will encounter often.

have written the following essay. Hope it helps someone. ;)

Longbows of Accuracy work well. Unfortunately if your enemy is using

storms, then this will be countered.
2> Put rings of tamed lightning on large troops like a Wyrm or

Knights. Haveing a few strong lightning immune troops can help a lot.

can't trample cavalry. Using larger troops can slow the elemetals down

a lot.
4> Fire Elementals. They are much harder to get into the correct area,

but in a stand-up fight they beat air elementals. Getting them into

position without losing mages/troops is hard, but if you can do it,

they will have the advantage.

elementals faster than they are made. This is tricky due to friendly

fire and the need to place the mages forward on the battlefield, but

it can be done.

elementals. Thunder Ward will give your entire army protection from

electrical attacks. Getting a character with two levels of air skill

and doing the research for thunder ward is always a very high priority

for me in almost every game I play.
Many nations can generate the extra air skill with a communion if they

need it. For example Marignon or Abysia have mages that have astral

skill and also have one random magic pick. They can get a mage with

one air fairly quick. Have that mage cast communion master and have

two others cast communion slave. This will get the master the second

level of air, and then with two air gems you can cast thunder ward.

Spheres (at an expense of astral gems). That also does the trick for

an extra point of air skill if your mage has astral skill.
Getting Thunder Ward:

Abysia - One Warlock with air-1, power of spheres, or 2 extra astral

mages & communion

Atlantis - Kings of the Deep sometime come in with air-2

Pythium - Arch-Theurgs have air-2.

Man - Crones have air-2.

Ulm - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.

Ctis - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.

Arco - Mystics sometimes come with air-2, or use power of spheres, or

2 extra astral mages & communion

Caelum - Seraphs have air-3.

Ermor - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.

Marignon - One Grand Master with air-1, power of spheres, or 2 extra

astral mages & communion

Pangaea - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.

Vanheim - Vanjarls have air-2.

Jotunheim - One Norna with air-1, power of spheres, or 2 extra astral

mages & communion

Rlyeh - Starspawn sometimes come with air-2, or use power of spheres,

or 2 extra astral mages & communion

These nations must either find an air mage at a new province, or must

prepare in advance with a pretender that starts with air.
When I have no thunder ward capable mages, I always try to serach for

air sites aggressively. As soon as I get a mage with air-1 I send him

out to search. The hope is that I might uncover a special location

that produces air mages. These sites are rare, but worth the effort if

it gets you your thunder ward. If nothing else I try to get a sage

with air-1 to go out and do seraching. Sage sites are pretty common,

and it gives everyone some hope.
7> Howl. This spell summons three wolves onto the battlefield from a

random direction. The reason why this is good is twofold. First even

if your enemy is using storms, you might catch his mages from behind.

Second the summoned elementals tend to leap at the closest enemy.

Sometimes they will go after extraneous wolves, giving your main

troops time to close the distance. It might not be the best way to

deal with air elementals, but it is somewhat effective.
8> Faery Queen. If you have reserached conjuration-8 and have a

nature-5 mage you can summon a Faery Queen who has air-3. This is a

long route to a thunder ward capable mage, but sometimes you have to

do things the hard way.

these mages can toss a thunder ward. They are available in spaces

occupied by the Crystal Amazon tribes. They are not common, but there

are often a few of these locations on each map. You don't need to

seach for any special sites to utilize them. These are always a good

thing to find.

Illwinter claims to be changing the storms/archery/air elemental

dynamic in the next version. I hope they do a good job of addressing

this issue.

6.12.3 WHAT A PATROL CAN DO