Dominions 5 Strategy - Basic Battlefield Positioning

[@james82257]

I think you were talking about Tir na n'Og and Eriu when you were talking about a nation that had mage cav and no cav troops for the target cav order

[@sophiem3560]

so takeaways for defending mages: -spread the mages out in the mid-line -hold+attack infantries in the rear to catch fliers -bodyguard the rearmost mages with low-hp high-prot infantries, not high-hp or large units -anti-cavalry units on the flanks

[@catneko6855]

Ermor: *SLAPS ON A TON OF SKELETONS* "PERFECT!"

[@battlemode]

Just what I was looking for, great work GC!

[@danieltabin6470]

Im pretty sure troops can attack rear, but not fire at rear.

[@GeneralConfusionPlays]

That's correct. I thought that was what I said - if not, my bad!

[@mikeharrington6469]

Really appreciated this video, thanks!

[@alfarabi73]

Very enlightening. How many bodyguards would you assign per mage, if you went that route?

[@Slayerlord13]

I currently just play Dominions 4, not Dominions 5 so this might be different between the two games but I have a question: If some of my troops are commanded by commanders who don't come with any magical capabilities and also wouldn't last long in melee (such as independent commanders/mounted commanders or many of the national commanders), would it be a good idea to give them bows and tell them to fire at the enemy's rear?

[@GeneralConfusionPlays]

That can definitely work! It kind of depends on what gems you have though - it's not terribly efficient, but if you can afford to equip several indie commanders or scouts with some of the more useful magic bows they may be able to snipe a mage or two in a battle, which can be very useful. That said, most of the time you recruit indie commanders just because they're cheap and giving everybody five or ten gems worth of equipment sort of defeats that purpose.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

aha interesting info. I wonder if you change the position of your mages based on how many spells you have available? So for the super early game would you still position your mages in these risky positions to maximise their weak spells or would you be more conservative with them and hold them in the bacK? I would think you would want to hold them a little further back, I don't think it's worth risking a mage in the early game just to get a handful more kills. And in those battles where the handful would matter I probably shouldn't be taking such risky fights in the first place.

[@Kaiser282]

Evocation is fun.

[@kuutonen666]

Thanks for the tips!

[@kdhlkjhdlk]

Does this hold for Dom 4?

[@GeneralConfusionPlays]

Only partially. Targeting algorithms are largely similar, but the turn-based I-go-you-go nature of Dominions 4 combat introduces some very different factors - like the fact that the defending army *always* gets to cast first, and the way the predetermined order in which mages cast is exploitable - and makes exact placement on the grid a lot more important.

[@ResandOuies]

Does these tips on placement hold for fights against AI too, or are or mostly PvP?

[@battlemode]

The AI won't take the same precautions as these necessarily, which means some of the things you are protecting yourself against here can be used to exploit an AI's weaknesses. I think generally these tips are applicable to any opponent, but you'll have to use your judgement and experience to decide if an AI is capable of some play or other. That might not sound like it answers your question, but I've found the AI can and will do some surprising stuff (and not all of it effective) which means that if a battle is crucial you'd be wise to take precautions all the same. It's also worth considering that correct placement of troops also seeks to mitigate the effect of random dice rolls going heavily against you. The AI more or less directly exploits the numbers game where as a player only does so with some thought. To elaborate, the way that the AI picks targets based on HP concentration and threat level, as GeneralConfusion has stated when talking about how mages select a target, is an example of this direct procedurally directed choice of tactic the AI uses. A player however needs to be aware of a tactic and actively pick those targets based on judgement of probable outcome. In short, if you think like the AI, you can predict at least some of what it is capable of, but take you should random chance into account. With a player. there are probably more variables because humans have more options available to them.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

For PvP it's a good idea to mix up your tactics for each engagement you're about to take. People will watch what orders you give your men and position their own to counter that. So you really want to diversify how you use your army or else risk being hard countered in a major engagement and wiped. But PvP is kind of harder to get into than singleplayer just because you're going to want a better understanding of the game before jumping in.