Dominions 3: The Awakening/Things to know

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! :-) Learning to lose a game against the AI without losing your good mood is the most important qualification before participating in multiplayer games. Maybe choose few enemies carefully for a beginner game. Maybe just one or two enemies. Avoid undead and underwater nations for a start. Better yet, play them yourself.

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. Play for fun, winning is an optional side-effect. Do things just because you can. You play a god, after all. Become a bit erratic, just for a change. Take the loss of faith in one of your provinces very personally. Punish a whole province with high taxes. Add blood hunting. Let your troops pillage this province. Create a horrible demon and let him quell revolts (if there is still population left). That will teach 'em !

Know your enemy
Are you facing enemies controlled by the computer A.I. or humans? Both computer and human players have a range of attitudes from passive to aggressive, with strategies and tactics suited to those attitudes. Knowing about them can give you an edge. Computer players set at a higher than normal difficulty have bonuses to their resources.

A.I. Attitudes

 * Aggressive The A.I. may seem to declare war on everyone, maybe even when you haven't seen their provinces yet! Can be dangerous if you are not prepared for a number of national troops, though the nation may tend to burn out in long war.


 * Defensive The A.I. tries to stay at peace as long as possible; only declaring war when you have an obvious upper hand or you are the only enemy left.


 * Normal This is assumed to be a middle ground between the two extremes.


 * Random The A.I. may have any one of the above three attitudes.

Human Attitudes
There are as many ways to play Dominions as there are players. However, you may be able to guess a player's general strategy within a dozen or so turns with good scouting and experience. The list of strategies below may help you in categorizing a player's particular style.

Know your world
The optimal strategy can change drastically depending on the size and structure of the map and how many players are participating. There are several things you should consider even before knowing your starting position:


 * How many provinces are there compared to players?
 * How strong is the independant province defense?
 * How many water provinces exist compared to land? Are there any "port" connections for travelling over them?
 * How many natural resources does the map have (population, magic sites, resources)?
 * Are there any important choke points?
 * Is the map wrap-around? If not, is it possible to claim a corner?
 * Are there any special preset provinces?

Common Abbreviations
You will often see on the message boards or IRC various aspects of Dominions 3 referred to in short-hand abbreviations. This is a list of the most commonly found abbreviations found in the game.


 * A - Air (Magic Path)
 * AN - Armor Negating - ignores defender's armor protection
 * AP - Armor Piercing - half of the defender's protection value used
 * AoE - Area of Effect
 * AQ - Air Queen (Unit)
 * B - Blood (Magic Path)
 * BoW - Breath of Winter (spell)
 * D - Death (Magic Path)
 * DM - Death Match
 * E - Earth (Magic Path)
 * EA - Early Age
 * F - Fire (Magic Path)
 * GK - Ghost King (Unit)
 * HI - Heavy Infantry
 * ID - Ice Devil (Unit)
 * LA - Late Age
 * LD - Life Drain (Spell/Effect)
 * LI - Light Infantry
 * MA - Middle Age
 * N - Nature (Magic Path)
 * PD - Province Defense
 * Rainbow mage - Skilled in most (if not all) paths of magic, used for searches
 * S - Astral (Magic Path)
 * SC - Super-Combatants
 * VO - Vine Ogre (Unit)
 * VQ - Vampire Queen (Unit)
 * VP -Victory Points
 * W - Water (Magic Path)

Things to read
"The Art of War" is a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Players of Dominions 3 may find it interesting. Find out more about it at wikipedia or read the original at wikisource