Beginner-Intermediate Guide to Dom4

Overview

Dominions 4 is a complex game, rich in Lore and strategy. This guide is meant to give you some things to think about to take you from just playing, to having something of a strategy, and help you judge whether your first turns are going well. I am assuming that anyone reading this guide has at least played Dom4 before and is familiar with certain concepts and terms.

Introduction

First I want to make clear that this is a very generic guide. Without writing an entire book, it would be impossible to write a guide that covers everything you need to know. My intention is to give you some things to consider that should help you come up with your own strategies and pretender designs. If you want someone else’s strategy and pretender designs, there are plenty of nation-specific guides you can look at to give you ideas. Nation guides for Dominions 3 are often applicable to Dominions 4 as well.

One of the most useful things you can do is read the manual. Even if you just skim over it, download it. It’s free. Understanding how the game works will help immensely.

Types of Pretender

The first, and perhaps most important thing you will do, is creating your pretender. There are many ways to go about this, how you choose to build your pretender will depend largely on your preferences and the needs of your nation. In general a Pretender should compliment a nation’s strengths and shore up its weaknesses. When choosing the chassis for your pretender, you should have in mind a specific role for him to play. There are three main types of pretender:

A Super Combatant (or SC) is a powerful Pretender meant to single-handedly demolish enemy armies. Typically, this is achieved by creating a Dormant or even Imprisoned Pretender who is physically powerful with specialized magic and decent scales. The goal is that by the time your pretender awakens, you will have some key research completed and some powerful items crafted. You then script your pretender to cast some buffs or debuffs, give him the necessary items and unleash him on your enemies.

Sometimes people like to have an awake pretender, such as a dragon, which many argue against. The reason being that he may kickstart initial expansion, but often his usefulness tapers off mid game, leaving him as little more than a glorified researcher in late game. You may also have to sacrifice scales or magic in order to have him awake.

If your nation has good sacred units, you may consider a Bless strategy. A Bless pretender usually has exactly two jobs:

• Provide good scales
• Provide a poweful Bless

Your scales and Bless are effective whether or not your pretender is awake, so most Bless pretenders are at least Dormant, and are often Imprisoned. They are often cheaper chassis, even immobile. When it awakens, a Bless pretender will fill a very specific role, usually researching, casting very powerful rituals, or crafting powerful items.

This Pretender is a sort of Jack-of-all-trades. He usually has a wide variety of Magic paths, often 1-3 in most or all paths. He is often Awake or Dormant, and when he awakens, is used for research, item crafting, site searching and, rarely, combat.

A rainbow mage can also be highly specialized once you know a nation very well. You may take only a few magic paths to cover the needs of your nation.

Creating a Pretender

If you do it correctly, making a good Pretender can be the hardest and most time-consuming part of playing a Dominions game. First you’ll want to look closely at your nation. A good resource for inspecting a nation’s unique traits can be found HERE (Dominions 4Mod Inspector)[larzm42.github.io]. Some things you’ll want to look for:

• Which troops will I be using the most?
• What is the cost of my troops?
  • Do they cost a lot of gold?
  • Do they needs lost of resources?
  • Do they have any special traits, such as needing extra, or fewer supplies?
• What magic paths do my mages have access to?
• What spells will my mages be able to cast in combat?
• What should my research priorities be?

With these things in mind, you can begin building your Pretender. You can tackle the next steps in any order, but you should put thought into all of them. I’m going to list them in order from top to bottom on the creation screen

Before choosing a chassis, you’ll want to have a role for your pretender. Take notice of things like, point cost, starting Magic Paths, New Path cost, starting Dominion, and physical traits. Choose a chassis that suits your needs. For example, if you want a Rainbow Mage, who will see little to no combat, you may be served better by a cheaper Arch Mage with cheaper Magic, than by a Dragon. However, if you want an SC who will cast powerful Fire Spells and not much else, choosing a Red Dragon and boosting his fire could be the best option.

This is the candle next to your paths. It is tricky to decide on a level. Some nations can deal with a low Dominion, others really need a high Dominion. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

• You lose if you have no Dominion
• Sacred troops are limited to your maximum Dominion (which CAN be increased with temples)
  • However, most Bless strategies should have Dominion 9 or 10
• Dominion 9 and 10 grant Awe +1 and +2, respectively
• Dominion 4 or 5 is typically a good starting place if you don’t need it very high, but don’t want to be overpowered too easily.

A note on terminology. We abbreviate magic paths by using the first letter of the path, followed by the level. The exception is Astral, which uses the letter S instead of A, to avoid confusion with Air. When listing a bunch of paths we usually don’t include spaces.

This part also requires some research. For a Bless or Rainbow Mage, it a little more straight forward. you pick the paths for the Bless you want (shown in screen when a path is high enough, or choose a variety of paths. I cannot find it now, but I saw someone do some tests and determined that a Level 2 search is far better than a Level 1 search. Higher than 2 do not yield much better results, until you get to much higher levels. This is to say that a Rainbow Mage for site searching should be Level 2 in all Paths (except Blood, unless you are a Blood nation!) with any extra points going towards Paths needed to fit your nation.

Making a SC or a specialized mage is where it gets fun. For a SC, you will want to use the Mod Inspector[larzm42.github.io] to find useful spells to buff himself, or debuff enemies. For offensive spells, you’ll want to focus on more powerful spells that can affect many enemies at once, especially battlefield-wide spells. Then you’ll want to make sure that your pretender has the paths required to cast these spells. You can also use information in the next paragraph to save a few points.

A specialized mage is probably the biggest undertaking here. You’ll want to look at ritual spells, battlefield spells, and items you want to craft, specifically Magic Boosters. Here[www.desura.com] is a great resource for finding how to increase your paths. I won’t rehash that entire post, but the basic idea is that your pretender will be (at least) the minimum required to forge a booster. You then attach that booster to your pretender, or someone else, in order to summon a more powerful caster. You then give the booster to that caster, who either creates a more powerful booster or summons an even more powerful caster. By doing this you can eventually acquire someone with the paths necessary to cast some really nasty spells.

Basically the specialized mage will need very specific paths in order to craft specific items and cast specifc spells to support other mages.

READ PAGE 51 IN THE MANUAL FOR DETAILS ON HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO BUY MAGIC I’m not going to retype it, but it’s important to know if you want to maximize your points. Just because one chassis has a higher New Path cost, does not mean that it will be more expensive than another chassis with a cheaper New Path.

For a dumb example, let’s say I want F2A2W2E2. I’m looking at two imaginary chassis, one with A1W1E2 and a 40pt New Path cost. The other has S1 with a 10pt New Path cost. In order to bring the first one (which at first glance may seem more expensive) up to my desired paths, I’ll need to spend 40 points for F1, 16 for F2, 8 each for A2 and W2, for a total of 72 points. For the other guy, I’ll need 10 points each for the starting level of each path, plus 16 for the second level, for a total of 104.

The point is, don’t be fooled and do your research.

Here is where you’ll be glad you spent all that time looking at your units. You’ll want to choose scales that make it easier to recruit your best units. For example if you need a lot of gold, but few resources, you can take some Order, and some Sloth to save some points. If you have giants, who are supply hungry, you’ll want Growth. I can’t speak to the levels at which you should place your scales, as it varies from nation to nation, strategy to strategy. Check the manual[www.illwinter.com] to see exactly what each scale does. There can be interactions and unkown consequences of certain scales. For example, Turmoil increases the likelihood of events, but not whether they are good or bad. Luck increases the chance of an event, and increases the chance of it being good. This can be a powerful combination. However, certain scales, such as Death can unlock some particularly nasty events.

This will depend on your needs, but do not be afraid to delay the awakening of your pretender. If you don’t have a specific plan for your pretender early game, like site searching, getting some very fast research, or being an early game SC, then you can deal with him being Dormant or even imprisoned. The extra points are usually worth it! With some strategies it’s even a bad idea for him to be awake from Turn 1.

So here are my recommendations:

Awake

Only for rainbow mages and SCs, and maybe a specialized mage. A mage will site search and get some fast researching done. A SC will obviously go out and fight.

Dormant

This is situational, can be useful for rainbow mages to save some points and SCs if you are confident you can set the requisite research done and items crafted. I’ll also use this whenever I know I have the scales and Magic Paths I need and would rather have my pretender sooner, rather than have a few extra levels in Magic.

Imprisoned

You’ll want to use this for your Bless pretenders and SCs. For a Bless, your pretender is often next to useless until later in the game. An imprisoned SC will ensure that you have enough points to make him powerful, and enough time that when he awakens you’ll have the right spells reseached and items crafted.

Turns 1 and 2

On Turn 1 you’ll have very little information, except for the location of your capitol. There are few things you can do on your first turn, and fewer that you should do.

Make Prophet

Unless you have a plan for your prophet, most people will make either their scout or starting commander their prophet. If you do your scout, you’ll have a stealthy prophet who can preach in enemy territory, which can be quite useful. Your commander will be able to Bless your troops if doing a bless, cast Sermon of Courage (very useful for morale), and Smite.

Making someone a prophet brings their Priest level to 3, or +1, whichever is higher. In most cases this means you’ll end up with a Level 3 priest, unless he was already Level 3, in which case he’ll be Level 4.

Scout

If you start with a scout (or other stealthy unit), send him anywhere, really. If you are playing with thrones, you might send him in that direction. That is, unless you’re making him your prophet this turn. If you don’t start with a scout, be on the lookout for Indy scouts you can recruit in conquered provinces.

Recruit troops

Your starting army usually isn’t strong enough to attack on Turn 1. Recruit troops best suited for your nation and strategy, this is where all your research comes in handy.

Recruit a Commander

On Turn 1 you’re going to want to recruit a commander. Note that Mages count as commanders, even if they can’t lead many or even any troops. Sometimes your starting commander isn’t great, and you may want to recuit a better one. Usually this isn’t necessary, but in some cases (especially when your troops have Morale problems) you might want to recruit one with a better bonus, if available.

Usually instead, I’ll recruit a mage for researching. There are a few things to remember. First of all you currently have no research done. This means that there are very few spells a mage can cast, and these aren’t especially useful in combat. This is to say that a mage casting Fire Flies most likely isn’t going to make the difference between victory and defeat. The second thing to keep in mind is cost to research. There are a lot of mages who cost more than double the next tier down, are slow to recruit, and have less than double the research. So for less gold and the same time you can have more than twice the research than if you recruited the expensive guy. Also factor in that your best mage isn’t going to useful in combat yet, and your best choice for early research is likely to be a cheaper mage. On turn 1, I’ll usually spend all I can on troops, then spend whatever I can on a mage, removing a few troops from the queue if I must.

If your troops are particularly poor, you may want to recruit a Troop commander instead, whether for the Morale bonus, or to ferry troops around on the following turns.

Set Research

If you are familiar with a nation, or using a guide you may have a research order you want to follow. You can go ahead and set it now so that you don’t forget later. If you have an awake pretender intended for research, you can set him to research.

You probably shouldn’t attack

You can’t see who is around you on turn one. You could send your only army into its exact counter. You could send them into 70 units, you never know. I do not suggest attacking on Turn 1, unless you really know what you’re doing. An Awake SC (which I rarely use) may be OK to attack on turn 1.

Attack!

On this turn you’ll see the independents around you. Make sure to put your newly recruited troops under your commander and send him to attack someone. There are many factors to consider here, such as troop composition (yours and your enemy’s), army sizes, which nation you are, etc. Most nation shouldn’t have much problem taking out an army of 20 or 30 on Turn 2. Some however, do have issues. You’ll have to play around and experiment if you find this to be a problem.

Recruit more guys

You’ll want to recruit more troops based on your preferences.

At this point, which commander you recruit depends on your needs. If your first army is strong enough to continue expanding, you could recruit another mage. If you think they’ll need reinforcement you’ll want a commander so that you can take the new troops to the army, rather than having them come back to the capitol and lose a turn of expansion.

Scout

Begin or continue scouting around. You are looking primarily for other players, checking the strength of thrones, and good places to put a castle.

Year 1

Continue expanding around your fort. Remember from the manual that Forts gather Resources from adjacent provinces, so the provinces immediately adjacent to your capitol are the most important so that you can recruit more troops. Also, you’ll be able to reinforce your army more easily by sending a commander with the troops, instead of bringing the army back home and losing a turn of expansion.

Continue expanding until you can’t, for whatever reason.

A good yard stick to measure your expansion is one province per turn. If you are gaining one province per turn from turn 2, you are doing just fine. More is obviously better, but not always possible. One/turn is the standard I hold myself to. If you dip below this rate, it’s not the end of the world, some strategies might even require it.

Your Second Fort

Here is another milestone I use. You should be building your second fort on
or preferably before Turn 12. Take note of how much one of your nation’s forts cost, and what your income is. You may need to make a special effort to save gold for this!

The placement of your fort is also important. Hopefully you read the section in the manual about forts and Admin. In short, don’t place it next to another fort. If you need lots of resources, you probably don’t want to put certain forts within one province certain other forts. Forts also distribute supply. This means that with clever fort placement, you could make a wasteland more hospitable to supply-hungry armies.

Also note that fort construction be stopped and started as needed. Also any commander can build a fort. I like to use indy commanders for this, so that my national commanders can do more important things.

Temples and labs

Depending on your Dominion level, you may want to build a lot of temples, or very few. You’ll typically want labs on your forts, and you may build more in other locations in order to build certain indy commanders there.

If spreading your dominion is important to your strategy, temples help greatly. Again, read the manual about spreading your Dominion so that you can be effective.

People often overlook the Battle Orders, at least for their Troops. Some armies do fine with no setup or tactics, and that’s okay. However, you can do much better with a little strategy. I can’t tell you some magic setup that will work with every army, it depends on the nation, troop composition, and available spells. Here are some main points:

• Script your casters. if you don’t they’ll often cast useless spells and ignore the ones you’d prefer. This is especially important mid- to late-game.
• You can give slightly more detailed orders by having a squad Guard Commander, then script the commander.
• Real-life tactics work.
  • Phalanxes
  • Manipoles
  • Cohorts
  • The Romans were onto something…
• Be creative. You can defeat a “better” army by having superior scripting. An entire undead or Mindless army can be destroyed simply by taking out the commander.
• Read about combat in the Manual and learn how combat works, things like repel, fatigue, shields, etc. This information will help you formulate tactics.

You’ll need to keep research going early game, often with a focus on Construction and some strategy-specific spells. When you have some good spells researched you can begin recruiting more powerful mages, like the Slow to Recruit guys. You can start crafting items and sending mages with your armies to support them with offensive or defensive spells, depending on your strategy.

Keep an eye out for items that boost research, these are invaluable.

General Tips

At this point your nation- and pretender-specifc strategy should be emerging. Obviously the mid- to late-game is beyond the scope of this guide, due to the specificity of various strategies. At this point all I can really offer is some more general advice:

• Continue building forts periodically. Try to find choke points and places with good resources
• Equip your commanders. Some items can make the difference between victory and deafeat.
• Give your casters gems, especially if you aren’t using those gems for something else! Giving your mages access to gems lets them cast spells at higher levels, and cast more powerful spells.
• Don’t attack thrones until you’re ready. Level 1 thrones are somewhat more powerful than an indy province with a similar army size. Levels 2 and 3 are much harder.
• WATCH YOUR BATTLES! I can’t stress this enough! Watching your battles will tell you whether your tactics are working or not, and how you can improve them. Did you fight a force half your size and lose? Find out why! Then fix it!
• Watch ALL battles you see! You’ll see battles that happen in provinces where you have stealthed units. This is especially important when playing with humans. You can see the tactics they are using, and how you might counter it. I’ve watched my friends’ battles and saw that they had very little scripting aside from some spells their mages cast. This means the whole army moves forward leaving the commanders in the back. Guess what? Have a small force hold and attack rear. Done.
• Check your provinces for recruitable independent troops. Indy commanders are great for moving troops around, without having to tie up your capitol making one. Sometimes you’ll get a province that provides a class of troops that you don’t normally have access to, such as crossbowmen, or cavalry.

Example – MA Pythium – Nation Overview

One of my favorite nations to (try to) play is MA Pythium. I like their lore, and they just plain seem cool. I had an old strategy from Dom3 that I’m trying to adapt for Dom4. It seems to be working so far so I’ll share some of my thought process. I’m not going to go over every unit and spell like an actual in-depth guide would, but I’ll touch on the ones that stand out to me.

The first thing I’ll do is examine the nation, either in-game or using the Mod Inspector. I’ll take note (not literally on paper- unless you’re into that) of certain things, as well as just anything that catches my eye. Here are some observations:

• Commanders
  • Among the non-magic commanders of Pythium, one stands out- the Legatus Legionis. He has better stats than the Centurion (whose stats are still good), has GREAT leadership, including a good morale bonus, and only costs a bit more than the Centurion. I’ll be using these guys a lot
  • I also notice the Hydra Tamer, who looks like the only guy who will effectively be able to lead Hydras without, you know, dying.
• Maximum Recruitable Magic Paths
  • For Pythium my recruitable paths are FAWS. The Arch Theurg has A2W1S3H3 with a 100% chance for one of FAWS and additional 10% for another of FAWS, meaning my maximum in those paths individually is F2, A4, W3, S5. Obviously a single Arch Theurg will not be F2A4W3S5 – at least not without boosters
• Troops
  • Pythium has very poor ranged units. I’ll not be using them at all, and keep an eye out for independant archers and crossbowmen.
  • Lots of heavy troops with subtle differences. They are seemingly modelled after Roman troops. All have shields, with most having Tower Sheilds
    • NOTE that Pythium’s troops need lots of resources and have an above average gold cost.
  • The very interesting unit called the Theurg Communicant. These guys autocast Communion Slave at the start of a battle. This will make commuions almost trivial for my Theurgs.
  • There is also the Serpent Cavalry, which I’ve honestly never really used. Maybe I’m missing out? But I’ve never needed them so far.
  • HYDRAS. These guys seem great, right? Well they are, to a point. They are great for early expansion, but have some counters and cost a lot in upkeep. Use them sparingly.
• National Spells
  • Pythium has some powerful summons starting in Conj6. Luckily for us, an Arch Theurg with the right randoms can cast all but one of these, and will need some boosters for the last
• Other spells of interest
  • This part requires either some experience or a lot of research. I already know of some spells I feel would be useful
  • Fog Warriors. Alt7 A5. This will need either an Arch Theurg with the correct randoms, or… a communion. As we’ve already established, communions will be easy for my Theurgs thanks to the Communicants.
  • Teleport and Cloud Trapeze. These spells will help my Arch Theurgs (and boosted Theurgs) get around the map faster.
  • Lightning Bolt. Evo2 A2. This will be nice against heavy troops. If time allows, or the need arises
  • Various Astral combat spells (Mind Burn, Soul slay, etc) these can be cast by my Theurgs. With a boost from a communion they’ll be even more powerful.
  • Master Enslave Thau 9 S8. Pythium and its communions are just BEGGING to cast this!
  • Based on this information, I won’t need a whole lot of boosting. Hopefully I can get an F2 Arch Theurg and boost his Astral either through empowerment and/or some items so that they can cast the later Conjuration spells. So my research priorities are:
    • Evo2 early for lightning. Maybe increasing later for Orb Lightning
    • Thau2 at least, for Communion spells at Thau1, Mind Burn at 2. I’d often go to Thau3 for Teleport. Later in the game, Thau5 for Soul Slay and Thau9 for Master Enslave, if you can.
    • Const4-6 for some items
    • Alt7 for Fog warriors, making use of Phantasmal Army and Attack along the way
    • Conj7 or 9 for the national summons.
    • I’d focus on Alt before Conj, since the spells I mentioned will be useful for all armies, whereas summoning angels is only good for as many angels as you can summon, who you’ll then want to equip.

  With this information we can start on our Pretender.

Example – MA Pythium – The Pretender

There is a lot you could do with a Pretender, and it’s mostly up to your preferences. I’m sure Pythium could make a formidable SC. I personally haven’t tried or even heard of Pythium trying a bless, but someone better than I could likely make it work. For me, there are a few things I want:

• Good research
• Ability to craft a wide variety of items for my angels, and some boosters.
• Site searching
• Good scales
• Fill in the gaps left by my Theurgs.

So it sounds like a rainbow mage is what I’m looking for.

There are many chassis that could suit my needs. In the past I went with an immobile chassis, like the Fountain of Blood or Oracle. This last game I played I noticed the Divine Emperor. He is discounted for Pythium, so he’s cheap, and has a low New Magic Path cost.

As I said, my main goals with this guy are site searching, crafting items, specifically some boosters for himself, and others. This is the build I used for my last game, which is the first time I’d tried this chassis. There are some things I could probably tweak, but what I ended up with is:

E4S3D2N2

Fire
I don’t have a whole lot of use for fire here. My Arch Theurgs can go up to F2 without boosters. I might have gone with F1 so I could craft the Skull of Fire, but didn’t think I’d need it this game.

Air
My Theurgs have Air covered for the most part.

Water
Water is not super important to this nation, and my Theurgs have some.

Earth
Earth obviously opens up a lot of crafting, and allows an item I like, the Dwarven Hammer. This reduces the number of gems needed to craft an item. Unfortunately the Emperor can’t use it himself, but I can give it to me Theurgs so they can more easily crank out Owl Quills.

Also, E2 combined with S2 lets me make an S booster

Astral

Astral is also covered, however I need at least 2 for the Crystal Coin. I gave him 3 to unlock some rituals, such as Teleport and make boosting easier for other rituals.

Death

Death is not found among Pythium’s mages. Considering that I’ll be doing a lot of research in Conj, and D has some nice items, I gave him 2.

Nature

Here is another that isn’t utilised by my Theurgs. By taking N2 I can craft the Thistle Mace which I can give to Indy Shamans for site searching. I can also use it myself so that I can craft another booster for summoning and rituals. Post-game edit: I lied, the Divine Emporer doesn’t have hands so can’t use the Staff.

Blood

Blood is very tricky. In the end, your nation either is, or isn’t a blood nation. You can’t force it. That said, Blood can be very useful since my guys are old. I used to choose the Blood Fountain and spend some time Blood Hunting so that I could make some of the helpful blood items. However this time, I didn’t.

Obviously my numbers aren’t set in stone. They can be tweaked as need. As we saw before, I need good income, and good resources. Supply isn’t really an issue, and I’d like to research faster and ease the fatigue on my mages and their communion slaves. I intend to have lots of money to build temples and I have powerful priests. I’m also not bulding a lot of sacred units, so I don’t need my dominion to be very high.

I took Dom4 O3P3M1. I could have taken some Heat or Cold, as supply isn’t really an issue. With such high order I could have taken some Misfortune, and there really isn’t a reason to adjust Growth or Death. I’m finding this game that I do indeed have a lot of gold (which is okay), and my recruitment is limited by resources, but it isn’t terrible. In the future I’ll probably try swapping Order and Production, and I may take some of those negatives to increase my Dominion or Magic, or Growth to help make up for only having Order 2.

I wanted to get some early research done and also site searching, so I left this guy awake. I wouldn’t go past Dormant, because by that point he’ll almost have passed his usefulness, aside from crafting items. By taking Dormant, however, you could have more Magic, or slightly better scales. But I’ll point out that in my current game he’s doing just fine as is.

Example – MA Pythium – First Turns

Of course, I’m not attacking this turn. I don’t know what’s out there. Pythium’s starting army is strong, but you could walk them right into a much larger army, or even special units. Instead, I’ll recruit a Hydra Tamer, a Hydra, and as many Hatchlings as I can, up to 9 (Hydra Tamer can lead 10 troops). If I have anything left, I’ll recruit as many Principes as I can. These are always the work horse of my armies. They are equipped exactly like the Hastatus, but are little more expensive and have a little better stats. The rest is spent on whatever troops I can afford, including a possible Communicant for an early start.

An H4 prophet is nice for the Fanaticism, but I won’t have an H3 priest to turn into my prophet for a while. Plus, Pythium has troops with good Morale. I usually make my scout my prophet, especially now considering that my dominion is somewhat low. This way he can spread it around while he scouts, and even preach steathily.

I’ll also set my Pretender to research and set that research to Evo.

Now I start scouting and send out my armies. The starting army should be able to take anything of equal size, maybe even a little larger. I’ll typically send my Hydras after the weakest province. Avoid Cavalry, special units and guys who go berserk.

I’ll recruit a Legatus Legionis and as many Principe as I can. Any leftovers go to Alae Legionnaire (the guys with spears) or Velites (the other guys with spears who are worse). The Legatus will ferry troops to the main army while it expands around the Capitol.

It’s not big deal when the Hydras finally die. In my opinion, the upkeep isn’t really worth it. Hydras are great for two things: Crushing Indies, and scaring other players. Otherwise they have limited uses.

The first mages I recruit will be either Theurgs or Theurg Acolytes, depending on what I have left to spend. This is because my Arch Theurgs can’t do a whole lot right now, and the small increase to research isn’t worth the extra gold at this point. My pretender can do a lot of research by himself, so the focus is on troops, researchers are extra right now. If I have anything left I’ll recruit a communicant to get an early start.

Once I have some researchers to take over from my Pretender, I’ll have him start searching for sites, possibly in tandem with a Theurg. This whole time I’ll be expanding, looking for a place to put my second castle. Obviously looking for somewhere rich in resources. As soon as I can I’ll have a Theurg make Owl Quills to help with research.

I usually don’t buy Arch Theurgs until I get my second castle. Then, the second castle can recruit Theurgs and Legatus..es? Legati? And the Capitol can start on Arch Theurgs with the occasional Legatus to create an army from the units that have been gathering in the garrison. I’ll also use Indie commanders to move troops to the main armies, and build my forts.

At some point I’ll move my Pretender back to a castle and lab to start making items. I especially like a Dwarven Hammer for my Theurg on Quill Duty.

Once I get most of the research I need, I’ll start using communions heavily, casting Fog Warriors, Phantasmal Army, Master Enslave if I can, Legions of Steel, and other more situational spells, like Storm, or Iron Bane (< I had to do this last game).

I’ll also start crafting items I need, and summoning angels who are literally Awesome. They are invulnerable, usually have Awe, flying, they are just great. By giving them a robe of shadows, they are VERY hard to kill. An attacker has to first make a morale check to get through Awe, then ethereal, then do enough damage to get through invulnerability. Fear items are always a good choice for Thugs or SCs.

Example – MA Pythium – Tactics

Battle orders are where things get interesting. Good tactics can win over a stronger enemy with poor, or no tactics. This isn’t to say that my tactics are the best, there may be something better for Pythium. Some armies, like EA Abysia with a good bless are suited just fine for a simple formationless rush headlong into the enemy. Here is simply what I’ve been doing with MA Pythium, and why. Hopefully you’ll get some ideas about what you can do with your armies besides Box formation > Attack closest.

Early on I’ll be using mostly mostly Principes and Alae Legionnaires. The legatus gives a good Morale bonus, and if I add a Standard, it’s even higher. So I’ll stick my Alae with their spears out in front in a line or double line depending on their numbers. They will be followed by the Principes also in a line. At first, I’ll just have them attack closest, sometimes have the Principe’s hold and attack, or slightly offset to the North or South and set to Attack Rear.

The reason for the two lines is that one, it’s how the Romans did it and I think it’s cool. Second, it puts the slightly worse Alae in front. A lot of times missile units fire at the closest, so in this case they will hit the Alae. Both Alae and Principes are heavily armored and have Tower shields, so bows aren’t going to do a whole lot, BUT if they do, they will be injuring my cheaper Alae first, leaving my Principes mostly unharmed. The third reason is that the Alae will be the first to meet any enemies, and Alae have spears with Length 4. If you read the manual, you’ll know that long weapons can repel shorter ones, and they’ll help against any cavalry they run up against.

Hopefully by the time the Principes arrive the enemy will be damaged and fatigued.

As I expand, I keep an eye out for Archers and Crossbowmen to augment my armies. Once I have some, I’ll put them in the back, also often in a line, set to attack either the closest enemy or Large monsters, depending.

I’ll set my melee troops to hold and attack, in the same setup as before. I trust their shields and armor to protect them from enemy missile fire, so this will give the ranged units time to wear down the enemy some.

I mentioned before that I haven’t done much with Pythium’s cavalry, however I plan to experiment soon, since the Legatus can lead so many troops. I’ll likely have them Hold and Attack Rear, positioned to the North or South so they can find a hole to break through.

Once I have some research done I’ll start adding mages to the mix, scripting them to cast lightning bolts, or other spells depending on the situation. It won’t be until Fog Warriors is researched that I really start casting Buffs, and some of the bigger spells the I’ll be abke to cast with communions.

Also be sure and give your mages gems! Unless you are using them all, or saving them for some purpose, give a few to each mage so that he can cast some more powerful spells!

Finally, don’t forget the minor paths. With a communion, or spells such as Power of the Spheres or Summon Water Power, your W1 Theurgs can be boosted to W2 and above. Then you can summon some Water Elementals, or cast other spells based on what you’ve researched.

Post-game Notes on MA Pythium

We just finished our game in which I played MA Pythium, and I learned some things. Such as, I had a LOT of gold most of the time. I can probably adjust Order down a little bit. The Thistle Mace is unusable by my pretender chassis (should have paid more attention!) so I was unable to boost into anything very useful in Nature. If I want to make use of N magic, I’ll need to have it higher to start, or I could drop it all together and use the points for something else. Earth Magic proved VERY valuable, for hammers, coins, and matrixes. The Serpent Cataphracts were pretty good, but did not seem necessary in most situations.

The next time I play MA Pythium I’ll definitely make some adjustments, but overall it was a decent build.

ALSO, I hate Ashdod. They suck. <3