Dominions 6 | EA Ermor | Ep. 01 - Intro & Pretender Design

It's time for another Dominions single player series. This time I'm playing as Ermor in the Early Age, with their Roman units, Christian-like priests and fortune telling mages they're really, really interesting, especially when you throw a rather dark fascination with Death magic into the equation.
Dominions 6 is the latest game in a venerable series of fantastic fantasy strategy games from Illwinter Games Design. Without a doubt one of the most complex and potentially intimidating video games ever made, it is also incredibly playable and fun, and in this single player series, I hope to show how the game can be played in a thematic way that plays to the lore of the game.
www.illwinter.com

[@KermodeBear]

KZbin recommended your Dom6 content, and I'm glad it did. You have a wonderful voice that makes these longer videos easy listening.

[@battlemode]

Hey, thanks I really appreciate that :) Glad to have you on board

[@slice9996]

Looking forward to it.

[@darkwar25]

Time to start a new battle mode series and time to have no idea what’s going on but in a good way

[@battlemode]

Hopefully I'll explain things well enough!

[@endo779]

So stoked!

[@Timlagor]

Rather like BATTLEMODE's fires (he says he's not going to focus on fire magic but we know).

[@battlemode]

Me too! Some friends were discussing EA Ermor on the eXplorminate discord recently and I thought "I should play those guys on YT"

[@gabrote42]

​@@battlemode did you know that they don't consider Dom6 a 4X game despite now including fog of war, and also saying in an article that Dom5 is a war focused 4x?

[@battlemode]

Rob's not a fan, he prefers less complex and better looking games. I think he's missing out, and whether it's a 4X or not is irrelevant really.

[@gabrote42]

@@battlemode I disagree on not mattering, as you get better attention to the game if people come into it with the right expectations (and you access the correct player share), and it also made him exclude it from his upcoming 4X lists, but his preference is his own and I will not argue about it. Thanks for the timely replies.

[@Yarkoonian]

He returns!

[@battlemode]

I didn't go away, just needed a spare hour to record the first bit and managed over the weekend

[@merrydiscusser6793]

20:02 The Recuperation will not actually do anything on the Arch Bishop. It doesn't work on old aged units. You would need to take an Unageing bless. But given that you have recruitable healers, it's not actually that big of an issue. 24:43 They go into FUN-Land on a vacation. Because of that you don't see any unit or commander previews in their MA nation overview. :P 29:21 If you go death themed, how about making your sacreds death themed too? Reanimation, Half Dead, Undying? Have you tried Spark of Divinity in Dom 5? The one for Dom 6 is currently getting made.

[@battlemode]

No, what's Spark of Divinity? A mod?

[@merrydiscusser6793]

@@battlemode Yes. It's a mod that changes all the Pretenders. It gives every Pretender thematic powers, making them far more interesting than just scales/blesses and one super unit. Examples: Spawning free units in certain terrains/at temples Giving all your priests a special item Raising mage or holy level of nearby mages/priests Big starting bonus (army, gold, items) Spawning thematic sites (discount, recruitment, income, summoning) New events (attack on enemy provinces, Poptype changes, auto-claiming temples, unrest and income changes)

[@Grim_Ether]

Really quickly want to throw out, you know trinities get reduced paths right? Grey ones specifically get 1/2 the value in water, death, and glamour. Really important to know if you plan to use them to cast globals or any higher path spell.

[@battlemode]

Thanks! Yeah I knew they got reduced paths if split. No biggie, I went more for flavour in this game than really high path access but I can navigate the path booster system to get higher levels if I need it.

[@gabrote42]

So hype. Was hoping for a Im Gorgon or Virtue SC, but this is not bad either

[@battlemode]

Yeah!

[@gabrote42]

@@battlemode sorry edited the comment after you saw it. Wish you luck and fun

[@battlemode]

@@gabrote42 no worries. I wanna try the Trinity Pretender, could be fun! Will pick a monster next time I reckon

[@Bill_Garthright]

@@battlemode I'm eager to see the trinity pretender, since I've never understood how they work. (Thus, I've avoided picking one.)

[@Warraci]

Lucid had a MA Ermor series about 3 years ago, and used the Gray Ones, naned them Salt, Death, and Taxes. It was a great series on Dom 5.

[@HectorDart]

I dont know if Im crazy but I find your voice to be a bit similiar to kim kitsuragi in disco elysium xD anyway thanks for the video! im just starting out dominion and thinking about starting whit emor so im gonna look at how your doing it on your side!

[@battlemode]

Haha! I get told my voice is relaxing from time to time. I find it kinda weird listening back to it. EA Ermor are great, really interesting nation and quite strong in the early game. The communions can be a little complex but I'll try to show them off

[@christopherreid4857]

I think Slingers are a better siege chaff than your accensus purely because they are cheaper to mass. Plus, in a siege battle they will stand in the back and throw instead of rushing forward to die.

[@battlemode]

Ideally I don't use siege chaff in battle, not unless I can help it, but I agree that slingers are better for combat, for sure. Unless you're worried about friendly fire, in which case I'd probably pick Leves over those other two.

[@saulspanco854]

👍🏻

[@DrQuackzalver]

20:08 you can't, in fact, put crystal matrix on a pure priest - you need a flamen or pontifex for that.

[@battlemode]

Yes I made a mistake there, thanks!

[@Bill_Garthright]

Rainbow mages aren't as good in Dom 6? I never did this in Dom 5, but I've been trying a site-searcher rainbow mage in Dom 6. If I'm playing a nation without much magic diversity - especially when they start in the caverns (EA Abysia, for example) - a dormant rainbow mage can find gems _and_ indie mages pretty quickly. For the most part, this is mostly a scales build, but you do get lots of options for blesses. You just don't get the really high blesses, of course. But to my mind, Dom 6 gives you more options for blesses on a rainbow mage than Dom 5 did, since you don't have to match the magic paths so well. With a rainbow mage, you can get whatever low-level blesses you want - _and basically as many as you want in any path,_ despite having just low levels in that path. I've only just started trying this, so who knows? But so far, I've been amazed at how many gems - and even indie mages - my pretender is finding. Of course, I might just have been especially lucky in this game.

[@imperialus1]

I think it can be effective, but a risky proposition. I feel like there are much more valuable things a rainbow mage can do when they are in play than search for sites. First big issue I see is that it is likely your rainbow is also the only one able to make use of the gems they are finding... but they can't do anything with the gems if they are out gem hunting. I mean sure it is nice to sit there and look at death gems in the bank, but if you only found them because you have D3 on your pretender... what are you going to do with them? I mean I suppose summon a Revenant and make a Skull Staff, but then what? What I like to do is try and pick paths for my Pretender that mesh with my primary paths, but I really value paths where low path access but I can reliably site search... Like if you have A2, it can make sense to take A4 on your God so you can make the winged helmet and boost your mages to A4... Or if you have E1 mages. E1 is useless. E2 can cast Summon Earth Power and make Earth Boots. So taking 3 or 4E on your god opens a lot of doors.

[@battlemode]

I love playing with Rainbow mages in single player because they do give you access to basically every path in the game, and that means more spells to play with. I'm assuming you're playing single player here Bill at least. The reason why I said Rainbow mages aren't so good in Dominions 6 is that the changes to the way Bless points work now means you're less incentivised to spread your paths out low and wide, as you just don't get so many Bless points as you did. But I think if you're only going with a scales build then that doesn't really matter.

[@Bill_Garthright]

@@imperialus1 The idea is not just to find gems, but to find sites which give you new mages. Playing a nation with very limited magic diversity, those mages might be particularly welcome, don't you think? And I'm mostly playing a scales build, so I don't rely on a _powerful_ bless. But yes, I just play single-player. The only time I've tried this, it certainly started out great. Unfortunately, I just started playing Starfield, so I might not get back to Dom 6, let alone that particular game, for some time. I'm hooked on exploring space. :) PS. At the same time, I'm busy playing Divinity: Original Sin II with my little sister (only 71 years old), co-op. So many games, so little time!

[@blackleon1708]

Is there a Jesus option?

[@battlemode]

No but if there was you know I'd take it!

[@gabrote42]

No, but you can favor a Virtue or a son of an emperor as a herald

[@Thurasiz]

@@battlemode I mean, this game is pretty easily modded when it comes to changing or adding units, like a jesus option. For example i missed the option to have those roman troops getting turned into the next better version with experience, so i made a mod for that.

[@snarfbomber298]

I assumed there would have to be at least a robed human pretender that could play an analog to jc.

[@Thurasiz]

@@snarfbomber298 Oh there are several kinds of mage-pretenders you could use as that.

[@imperialus1]

Puts on history hat... I feel like Ermor is a weird (and very cool) hybrid of Early Republic and Late Imperial Rome. The City State aspect is basically Rome just before the Third Punic War, with the Lizardmen Axuillia and pre-Marian (which included the Hastati) manipular legions, but the religious aspect is very much based on the very late post split Eastern Roman Empire. Basically right around the time of Constantine when Christianity was becoming the state religion. Like the 'Prophet' is Jesus 100%. Even the fact that their Sacred Cav don't fit with the rest of the theme makes sense as Republican Rome with Jesus tacked on. Really cool concept for a nation that's for sure.

[@battlemode]

Thanks Imp! Appreciate it