Dominions 3: The Awakening

It is a strategy game and shall be released on Oct. 2nd, 2006. It is part of the Dominions series 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! :-) 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.

A.I. Attitudes

 * Aggressive (More details will be available, after the game has been released.)


 * Defensive (More details will be available, after the game has been released.)


 * Normal    (More details will be available, after the game has been released.)

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?

The Eras

 * Early 'Magical' Era (The presence of magery is very strong in this era.)
 * Middle Era (Balanced era.)
 * Late Era (This era features an emphasis on more conventional warfare and less magic.)

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 enemies fast, so don't attack independent provinces with your scout if it is not necessary. On the way, you may discover useful indie provinces that are home to amazons or druids.
 * Probing: Most players will quickly expand into the independent provinces around their capitol. If you have no scouts in a province, however, you may not have good information about what you may face. A probe attack can give you a good preview of an upcoming battle. To execute a simple probe attack, place a cheap commander in the rear of the battlefield and script him to retreat.
 * Prophet: Any commander can become a prophet. A Scout prophet has the advantage of stealth, which means you can increase your dominion in enemy-held territory. A priest becomes one level more powerful when made a prophet.
 * Mercenaries: Is an auction going on? Mercenaries can act as quick throw-away troops, and sometimes you can hire a force much more powerful than you can otherwise have early in the game. Only bid if you want attack in the next few turns.
 * Recruiting: You usally can recruit your best commanders (like mages) only in your capital while you can get a generic troop leader in every indie province. Some elite troops are also capital-only. Don't spend turns recruiting cheap troops in your captial if not necessary.
 * "Blind" attack: It is risky to attack indies without knowing what you will face, but if you trust your combat pretender (preferable an immortal one) enough you can try to win a province while the other players are busy researching.
 * Diplomacy: write every human player a message. Keep in mind that every human player is your foe and *will* backstab you (eventually). You are playing to win, after all.

The second turn

 * Intelligence: Make sure to read every combat report and watch the battles. The first border reports from neighboring provinces should come in now. Move your scouts!
 * Random event: The worst that can happen is that your temple burns due to a random event. In that case, you can not recruit any priests. But only priests can build a new temple. A good safeguard is to make a commander the prophet, who can then build temples. Be careful with your prophet early in the game; if you lose him, it will take six turns before you can prophetize another.