Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Atlantis, Emergence of the Deep Ones: Difference between revisions

The [[../Atlantis|Atlantian]] race has only recently emerged from the depths and the old Deep Ones, monstrous creatures that look like hybrids of a deep sea fish and a human are still around. These Deep Ones are resistant to Fire and Cold and are stonger but they have less Magic Resistance. They are ruled by Basalt Queens and Basalt Kings, but both of the ruling castes are strangely disinterested in the surrounding world. The Queens handle the religious matters in the Basalt City of Atlantis and the kings sequester themselves staring at the Dark Crystal that is in a gorge in the middle of the city. Early Atlantis has the [[Dominions 3: The Awakening/The Eras#Early Era|Early Age's]] most heavily armoured unit, the sacred Living Pillar.

An underwater nation of monstrous human-frog-fish hybrids that has come from the great depths. They are vulnerable to missile weapons and some of their units have low Magic Resistance. They however have the most armored recruitable unit of Early Era, acces to some great battle magic and possibly very advantageous start underwater.

*Reduced effects of taking Cold or Heat because of Fire/Cold resistant units and Heat/Cold doesn't affect money generation in the seas

*Partial or full Darkvision on all units

;Cons of Atlantis

*Vulnerable to missile weapons

*Somewhat low precision of the units makes spell aiming harder

;Reef Dweller:

:A pale green Atlantian toting a Coral Spear and wearing a Coral Cuirass and a Turtle Shell Shield. His stats are above those of a human, precision excluded. He is very cost effective for what he does and his Coral Spear poisons enemies! His Coral Cuirass will also enemies who use Lenght 0 attacks on him. A superb unit in the start. I like to buy them in batches of 10 when I hit 100+ resources in my capital. They can also be recruited in costal forts.

;War Shambler: Gold 35, Resources 7

;Coral Guard: Gold 40, Resources 26

;Deep One:

:This particular Deep One unit uses only his natural weapons, claw and bite and no armor. He isn't a very useful unit if you ask me and I practicaly never buy them.

;Shambler of the Deep:

;Warrior of the Deep: Gold 40, Resources 11

:Living Pillars are Capital Only.

;Unit: Gold x, Resources y

:Description

;Coral Priest:

;Shambler Chief:

;Coral Commander:

;Mother of the Deep:

:An old Deep One mage, the Basalt King is a Sacred mage with 1 Fire, 2 Water and 3 Earth picks with a 100% chance to get either a pick of Fire, Water or Earth magic and a slim 10% chance of getting another pick of Fire, Water or Earth.

:Since Basalt Kings start with 3 Earth they are quite obviously suited for Blade Wind casting, but this spell can also hurt your own troops. But since Basalt Kings are exceptionaly tough and can cast buff spells like Quicken Self, Fireshield and various protection spells from Earth they can make good mage-thugs as long as you don't slap a too heavy armor on them. Even if you don't use them as thugs they are exceptionaly tough battlemages.

:They can also cast Claymen and Fire Ward which can be used to make the already resistant Deep One units immune to fire. Yes, immune. You can then use Fire path spells without worries with your Deep Ones!

:Basalt Kings can also forge some very useful items such as Fire Brands and Charcoal Shields.

:Basalt Kings cost 500 gold and are Capital Only.

;Summon Giant Fish:

:(not available in the demo)

Many of your units cost around 30 Gold or more and your mages and more powerful priests are also quite expensive, so taking Order might be a good idea.Taking Growth could also work if you want to turtle in the seas. Not necessarily a good plan though, but Growth can be helpful. However it might be that you can't afford it.

You can take Heat and Cold with reduced effects, but Cold/Heat still affects encumberance and supplies even under the seas. Gold generation isn't affected though. Taking Cold works against Agarthan attempts to invade the seas.

Noteworthy pretenders for Atlantis are:

;Dagon:

:An undying favorite of Dominions players, the Wyrm starts with no magic but you can give him some magic at the cost of 50 points for every new pick. I'd focus on only one path. He regenerates and gets two attack per round with a highly venomous bite. He hasn't got much slots, but he can wear two helmets.

The tanky Living Pillars and the magey Basalt Kings benefit from the following blesses:

;Earth:

:Your Living Pillars will have huge fatigue problems in battles longer than 9 rounds and reinvigoration never harms mages, so Earth blessing will be very beneficial for you. Too bad there's no easy way to it for Atlantis.

:Your sacred units have 30-40 HP and Regeneration given by Nature bless can give them some more  staying power.

:Your Living Pillars have Magic Resistance of 8 which is low, too low. Astral bless gives you more Magic Resistance.

Some Strategies and Tactics for Atlantis

;Massed Blade Wind:

:All of your Basalt Kings can cast Blade Wind once you research enough Evocation, and they can further boost themselves by casting Summon Earthpower which helps them with the fatigue the spell causes. Having three-four or more Oracles scripted Summon Earthpower - Bladewind - Bladewind - Bladewind - Bladewind can do massive damage against unarmored troops which are common in the Early Age. Summon Earthpower is not necessary but it makes Bladewind more powerful since it scales well with increased Earth magic and it helps with spellcasting fatigue.

;Overcoming the poor Precision

;Armor Destruction

;Choosing the Right Tool

:Use the "reef" Atlantean units against enemies who use mind affecting/MR-resistable spells and the Deep One Atlanteans against enemies who use elemental magics. Admitedly this is more of a concern for the full version where there are spells that affect entire armies and can be MR-resisted. But it does feel good when that Marverni Druid doesn't everytime succeed with his Mind Burn or when your Firewarded Warriors of the Deep shrug of Abysian fire spells. Mind Blast and Enslave Soul attacks you might run into are also resisted by MR.

:Evocation 5 brings the Falling Frost, the quintessial combat spell of Water magic in Dominions. Since you have acces to mages that have potentially 4 Water from the start and Falling Frost scales well with additional levels of Water magic you will have a significant weapon in your magic arsenal once you research this.

;Alteration: Alteration offers the various Earth based protection and debuff spells. Keep in mind that those Earth spells tend to give you armor with some payoff, namely weakness to some element. Some of Alteration spells that you have acces to can be highly useful such as Frozen Heart, Destruction, Earth Meld, Blindness, Petrify and so on while others could have been useful if they would be three levels downwards in the research tree (Boil).

;Thaumaturgy: Since you aren't really an Astral nation your gains are limited mostly to Fire and Earth site scanning spells and Sailor's Death which aren't really worth the investement if you ask me.

;Blood magic: You really can't use it. Sorry, this is not Dominions 2. No Ice Devils for you.