Dominions 3: The Awakening

Wikipedia has no entry yet about Dominions3. It is a strategy game and shall be released on Oct. 2nd, 2006. It is part of the Dominions Serie from Illwinter.

Know yourself
Are you a beginner strategy gamer? It is time to get better in that case, and learn how to play with this excellent strategy game called Dominions 3.

Are you easily getting frustrated? You want to be sure that you will win? Play hard and have fun!

Do you like to discover new stuff and "role-play" your god? Dominions 3. is your game then. Hundreds of different effective strategies are available for the game.

Know your enemy
Are you up against the A.I or against human enemy(s) ?

The first turn
The first turns are nearly equal for each player:
 * Scouting: Move your scout or spy into enemy territory. You will find the heartland of your enemys fast, so don't attack independent provinces with your scout if not necessary. On the way you may discover usefull indy provinces like amazons ore druids.
 * Probing: Most players will expand into the indipendent provinces around their home citadel. A probe attack (scripting a lone, cheap commander to "retreat" and placing him on the rear of the battlefield) will give you a good idea of the upcoming battles.
 * Prophet: Depending on your blessing strategy, you can recruit an suitable priest to make him/her a prophet on the next turn. Or use of one of your existing commanders to become a prophet. Note that any commander can become a prophet, even a scout.
 * Mercs: Is a merc auction going on ? Mercs give you throw-away troops fast. Only bid if you want attack in the next turns.
 * Recruiting: You usally can recruit your best commanders (like mages) only in your capital while you can get an "normal" troop leader in every indy province. The same goes for troops, your elite troops are mostly capital-only. Don't spend turns recruiting cheap troops in your captial if not necessary.
 * "blind" attack: It is risky to attack indys without knowing what you will face. If you trust your combat pretender (preferable an immortal one) enough you can try it and win a province while the other players sit around idle.
 * diplomacy: write every human player a message. Keep in mind that every human player is your foe and *will* backstab you.

The second turn

 * intelligence: Make sure to read every combat report and watch the battles. The first border reports from neihgboring provinces should come in now. Move your scouts/spy !
 * random event: The worst that can happen is that your temple burn. In that case, you can not recruit any priests. But only priests can build a new temple. Solution: Make some commander the prophet. Any commander will do, and he can build temples.