Dominions 6 - New Players - Judging Fights & Unit Stats

So how can you tell who is going to win a fight? We go through a basic introduction to unit stats and talk about some rules of thumb for conquering indies.
Combat mechanics: illwiki.com/do...

[@fishbones1397]

A yes, the wonderful hidden mages. What do you mean there were 3 air mages in here and they just killed half my sacreds?

[@gdtms28]

Every time I play a neifel nation: cap circle cloud mages.

[@Zarpd]

I've watched a lot of beginner guides, and this is the most useful one so far. Many other videos give warnings like "beware of barbarians" and "get some chaff for heavy cav", but the notes you gave here help way more. "you can fight 1:2 with elites", "try to fight 2:1 with chaff", and "20+ resources is expensive" is CRAZY useful! I know they are not rules that I can win a game on and I'll still get my schmass kicked by the schmolf tribe, but at least now I know enough to not go in COMPLETELY blind! Economy and magic are still a mystery but hey -- one field down!

[@fabienherry6690]

Really nice video ! It's your videos that got me into MP and understanding the game more. I used to try to do mass thunderstrike communion in SP and getting tired of the AI spam. Understanding the DRN is the most important for understanding how stats interact with each other !

[@Milorada7375]

Bows are better now in Dom 6 arguably because they can hit the mount 50% of the time who sometimes have low protection. So shit bow can shoot the Fay Horse who had protection 4 from under Van or Sidhe Lord or whatever who are much better than their horse So you can now do what English did in Agincourt to force the knights to walk. If only Dominions simulated fatigue from walking in heavy armor

[@TheGallantDrake]

It kind of does? There's encumbrance

[@Milorada7375]

@@TheGallantDrake Encumbrance only is for combat and some rare other situations. The only way to get fatigue from movement in Dom 5 was if you opponent cast Curse of Stones and your guys failed MR. Maybe something changed in 6?

[@TheGallantDrake]

​@Milorada7375 oh, fair, encumbrance is combat only. As much as I think movement encumbrance would be cool, I can see why it wouldn't be incorporated in this game's systems. Adds too much stuff to pay attention to in the battles

[@-Kidzin]

On a flip side I'd say xbows are worse, now heavy cav has that 50% chance to be shot on sack of horse HP that can take 2-3 bolts and dismount rider while in the past you'd 1-2 shot them and call it a day.

[@thefool8224]

the closest i can think of is the clockwork soldiers constantly getting fatigue every round just by being there

[@gregathol]

Gotta say, I love your new player guides for Dom6

[@I-ONLY-BUILD-MECHS-AND-DUSTERS]

REALLY liking this series. I intend to get dom6 when it goes on sale.

[@Dayrell-sr9tj]

It was on sale at launch I think. I got it discounted. Hoping another sale comes soon for you. It's a fun game.

[@Cruxador]

Nazca is Incan themed, not Egyptian The main thing you missed here is expansion with thugs or awake expanders, which probably deserves its own video anyway

[@88Factor]

Awake expanders especially I think need their own video, as there are some nasty new player traps in areas like scripting during expansion.

[@XMENFAN54]

Thank you for this video, Lucid! Even though I own Dom 5 and 6 I still consider myself a newbie because I never got a hang of the stats. I'm a slow learner and the stats always confused me. However, now I think that I get it thanks to you and Dastactic and the Dominions Discord server. I can not wait for the next video! Also, I thought that I was already subbed to you but apparently I was not. So I liked the video and subscribed. Thank you again for the help!

[@reedlockwood4989]

This was a good video, thanks! Some other aspects of the game I'm curious about (and maybe you have other videos about these things and I just haven't seen them yet) are 1) What is a good price for a unit with X stats? Often I'll see you or another presenter say "this guy has poor defense for someone who costs this much" or "this guy has high magic paths for his cost" and I have no reference for that - is there some sort of baseline or another unit you're comparing these to in your head? 2) Magic remains a bit of a mystery to me - with so many spells, clearly there are going to be certain ones that are only useful in certain niche situations, but what are the sort of dominant bread-and-butter spells and research paths to go for? Maybe it's too dependent on nation, idk. 3) magic augmentation and bootstrapping - I've heard that magic diversity is important for late-game play, but only have a hazy idea of how to go about doing it, mostly by manually looking at items in the mod viewer Anyway, thanks for putting out quality videos for so long!

[@Rogue0071]

Really good video! One additional aspect of combat I think it's important to note for new players at a basic level is that units tend to have their defense score reduced when they are fighting multiple enemies - this is listed in game as the harassment penalty to their defense score. This means even units with very high defense still usually can't just wander into a big crowd alone and do well. It's a significant part of what Lucid discussed in the previous guide video where isolated groups of units that get surrounded tend to get killed very quickly.

[@plubog]

Thanks for another great guide. This game makes me want to run back crying to Conquest of Elysium

[@perryshaffer8358]

That was actually . . . lucid. I didn't want to have to do that, the voices made me. I'll show myself out.

[@ClubbingSealCub]

the schmolf tribe really is very deadly, much stronger than the schmeer tribe PD: isn't nazca Aztec, not Egyptian?

[@LucidTactics]

Whoops!! Its incan!

[@Milorada7375]

What about phone tribe? 😅

[@GamerDadAntpile]

Mictlan is Aztec. I'd say Ctis is more Egyptian

[@misterogers9423]

Nice video. Is it just me or the expansion a bit harder in dom 6 compared to earlier versions? I have seen indies with lamias, elephants, fir bolg, dark vines, or some times 150+ defenders for a seemingly normal province. Is this just me? This was also EA, and MA and LA has its own challenges with heavy cav, or other tough indies like 100+ barbs or caves with 100+ cavemen.

[@LucidTactics]

Yeah it’s definitely harder. Probably 50% more indies.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Expansion in LA wasn't too bad imo but I haven't played a ton yet. Definitely bigger armies but I think the ability for troops to route individually changes the way that bigger battles play out over time. Defeat is more gradual, but their damage output fades over time instead of just stopping

[@misterogers9423]

I still have managed since I am experienced, but expansion is not as free as it was before especially if you are using a chaff nation with strong bless. People in MP will make more mistakes and it will be slower, especially if you get unlucky with 150+ tough units in your cap circle. Outside of that there are more unique defender scenarios, especially in EA with more mythical and non-standard defenders. LA doesn't seem as changed despite just more defenders.@@TheGallantDrake

[@Dayrell-sr9tj]

Elephants wreck me.

[@battlemode]

Nice work!

[@LucidTactics]

Thanks!

[@pougetguillaume4632]

Nazca are actually very heavily inca inspired. Incas were known to make heavy use of mummification, lord kroak in warhammer is another example of inca inspired mummified battle mage

[@ed2365]

Very helpful thank you

[@chrismann9652]

Great video (that I just came back to)

[@LucidTactics]

Thanks dood :D

[@tomastichy4215]

operation human shield, just what I needed!

[@-Kidzin]

MA Ulm love

[@Dayrell-sr9tj]

Iron blizzard ftw

[@LucidTactics]

Watched your ma ulm vids :D Great minds think alike.

[@Daanetrain]

Is there a good pre-made map for testing against indies? I haven't dug deep in the map editor, so I'm not sure what you can create to make testing easy

[@Milorada7375]

Maybe Arena, it is in the Steam workshop

[@LucidTactics]

There were in dominions 5 - not sure if they have been ported to dominions 6. For testing against Indies i mostly just load up a game on any map, with very easy ai - i kill the independents then restart the game.

[@Madhattersinjeans]

Honestly having a testing ground for players to try out different units and such in a small arena would be great for players figuring out how combats will go beforehand. Even if it's just limited to independent army types. I'm a bit surprised the in-game Arena event doesn't actually have a seperate mode for sending in a small squad of guys, it fits right in with the aesthetic. and/or a dedicated tutorial map that walks the player through the things Lucid is explaining here would go some way in helping new players too. This is just something I'd like to see in the official game. I'm a returning player from Dom 5 but i'm a bit rusty with remembering some of the key parts of combat and such so I'd find it useful as well.

[@JanJansen985]

7:04 When your only commander gets hits with an arrow to the face for 30 damage you never trust armor

[@gatovolador7798]

"Nazca, kind of like an egyptian-themed nation" Oh Lucid... Inca-themed. The name is a reference to the Nazca lines in Peru

[@MiaTaylor-t7f]

Lucid I am expanding with EA Pelagia in a Heavy Cav province (27 Heavy Cav, 68 Heavy infantry, 3 Mounted commanders and a priest), and I brought 4:1 in troops, and I still lost big time. What am I doing wrong?

[@LucidTactics]

I’d have to see it, but Lance bait is quite important. If you don’t have it, it can cause a chain reaction where not only do you lose the first guys in the squad that is hit, but losing those guys causes more the squad they are in to route… which can trigger the whole army to eventually route. A problem with ea pelagia is their troops are garbage; might be good to include indie barbs in a pelagia army; barbs hit hard enough to kill the cab after others ate the lances

[@Madhattersinjeans]

Yeah Pelagia is a hard nation to play as, most underwater nations are just that little bit trickier because underwater combat is different and poor amphibian/amphibian units in general are a bit weaker than their non-amphibian competition so you're at a bit of a disadvantage fighting on land. Then there's the issues with making scripts for fighting land vs water (extra time spent), half your mages can't even go on land. And your sacreds are aquatic so they can't go on land, that is a huge problem even for an experienced player. It's just a whole extra slew of problems to overcome, so much so I'd recommend playing just about any other nation than EA Pelagia. lol

[@Dr5269]

At 12:40 you say if a unit has an attack skill that's 3 pointshigher than an opposing unit's defense skill, then they're going to hit 70% of the time. Could you please make a video delving into depth about the math behind this? I don't quite understand it, and I'd like to be able to evaluate the % possibility to land or block attacks. Maybe you can share the formula? Thanks.

[@juliang8676]

Its because the added dice will be symmetrical. So what you want to know is given a units def and the att stat, what is the proportion of hits that will connect. But if def and att are subtracted from each other you only need to know the difference, i cant go into the math because i dont know it but the important bit is that you only care about the difference betweeb the numbers and not the absolute values

[@TheKaygent]

The Illwiki link has it, but at a baseline. You need Attack-Defense+DRN (random number) to be at least 0. The DRN follows dice roll probabilities, of 2 positive standard six sided dice minus two negative six sided dice, and if any individual die rolls a 6 you roll it again and subtract 1 from that individual die. A notable thing is that the DRN distribution is symmetrical around 0.5, where the probability of success at 0 (call this P(O)) is 1 minus the probability of success at 1, P(-1)=1-P(2), etc. Notable break points are that 2 is about 60%, 3 is 70%, 5 about 80%, 7 about 90%, 10 about 95%, and 15 about 99%, from which you can get -1 at 40%, -2 at 30%, -4 at 20%, -6 at 10%, -9 at 5%, and -14 at 1%.

[@darckco9428]

moral doesn't evade a repel, it ignores it taking the damage

[@LucidTactics]

If you fail the moral check, the attack is over & no damage. If you pass the morale check you take damage but execute the attack.

[@GregDevStuff]

Idea for video, "How to kill INSERT SOMETHING TRICKY FOR NEW PLAYER" i have issue killing giants of Niflehelm without trading an enormous army against them.

[@Flimflame4]

Where can I find beginner friendly multiplayer matches?

[@LucidTactics]

Join one of the dominions discord and ask someone to host.. You can also host it yourself on the lobby & announce it on the discords as a new player game.

[@TheGahta]

Ma ermor rule of thumb: ehh that'll do 😂

[@Colderslave]

Hey Lucid! Quick question somewhat unrelated to the video: What's a good ratio for research per maintenance cost? Is roughly 1 RP for 10 gold considered good?

[@LucidTactics]

Hmm i dont know a number off the top of my head. Id focus more on making mages you know you can use in a pinch than just efficiency. Maybe i should look into it more.

[@GamerDadAntpile]

If you can get a 10 gold per research ratio, you are doing pretty good. With magic scales and certain factions, you can even top that; its not common though. Some nations research better than others. Some just won't be able to get anywhere near 10 per research. That's just a downside of that particular faction.

[@sachad964]

the game needs expansion victory added win by taking over a % of land like 51% and map making in which you can input the amount of provinces you want like 500 or 600 provinces instead off how many provinces per nation added

[@duartemarco]

thrones do this but better. just have a single lvl 2 throne per player, and 50% (or 50% + 1) to win

[@videobruj]

I recently bought the game and spent the first like 7 hours not even really play much but just looking at all the different empires and their units and testing things out and seeing how different pretender gods worked. So far I've played 2 campaigns and they have both went pretty good but I quit the first one after my pretender got permanently cursed and gained a lot of never healing wounds. My second game as Ulm has also gone pretty well but since ive gone pretty much unopposed from the easy ai I'm probably going to begin a new game with normal ai. Something I've noticed is that all the ai pretender gods are generally dominion type 1 and very weak. Is there a way I can make sure at least some of the ai choose more powerful titans or at least monsters? Also, my pretender God for ulm also ended up getting permanently cursed and gained some afflictions. How do I avoid curses?

[@evanlogan3595]

High magic res can reduce the likelyhood of curses taking effect; but ultimately curses only need to succeed once on a unit. Chaff can work, as casters tend to target units that are the least likely to pass the check, but they may just die or be killed by your pretender god's auras (if they have them).

[@varian3822]

this guide is almost as handsome as you

[@TTHJJD100]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't size also a really big calculation inclusion in repel?

[@throeawae2130]

i think at size 5 or 6 you can +1 on your reach

[@Madhattersinjeans]

Page 64 of the manual explains repel. I'll copy paste it here but there's lots of other important stuff in there that's worth a read too. The giant sized units (size 6+)weapons are +1 longer than the human version. Repel is how Dominions represents the effectiveness of long weapons, such as halberds, pikes, and the like. If a unit attacks an enemy who has a longer weapon than the attacker, the defender may actually repel the attack and prevent it from happening. This occurs as follows: Any defender that has a longer weapon than the one used by its attacker makes a repel attack automatically upon being attacked. Attack and defense rolls are made. If the result is a hit, the attacker must pass a repel morale check or immediately abort his attack. If the attacker passes the repel morale check, he may make his attack, but the defender’s attack then generates damage and protection rolls. If damage is inflicted, the attacker takes one point of damage and continues his attack. Repel morale check Attacker morale check: morale + DRN + (attackers size - repellers size) Repeller check: 10 + DRN + (the number by which the defender won the repel attack) / 2 This simulates the defender successfully placing his longer weapon between himself and the attacker. All of this occurs before the attacker’s strike is resolved. Note that units with low morale are more likely to be repelled, and thus using long weapons against low-morale troops is very effective. Also, units with claws and bites (weapon length zero) are easier to repel. The repelling unit gets a lingering -2 to its Repel roll which is gradually removed over a short period of time. So it’s harder to repel attacks when they come in quick succession, and easier if they are spaced out in time. Giant sized units (size 6+) wield longer weapons than normal humans. The length of their weapons are 1 point longer than ordinary human weapons. So a giant wielding a mace (length 2 for giants) would be able to repel humans with ordinary maces.

[@alexanderj2630]

Helpful, but I would have definitely talked a little bit more about the DRM. You refer to it a few times as a "dice roll" but it's really important to know that it is essentially 2D6. It's not any more complicated than anything else covered in this video. Also, it's kinda backwards to talk about protection first and then attack/ defense, since attack defense happens first.