Dominions 5 Nation Analysis - EA Rus

[@pirateray]

You're threatening to dethrone GeneralConfusion as the premiere source of quality Nation Analysis here Perun, your output at the moment has been fantastic

[@TheMelnTeam]

GC hasn't done one in a while right? I've found all of Perun's, Lucid's, GC's, and Attica's breakdowns useful, and would probably say that about others if I saw them too. Vastly different styles and emphasis sometimes, which isn't surprising because Dominions gives you a lot of options, potential interactions, and different recent experiences.

[@comeonandslamandwelcometot2418]

@@TheMelnTeam personally i just watch them all, MAXIMUM INFORMATION INTAKE

[@nicolinrucker5181]

S2N3 is freakin amazing though? He gives you caps! EDIT: Leshiy are the capstone of the craziest nature boosting with pure national spells in the game. From N0 to N9! As LA Bogarus, you get either of the heroes with W/D(Baba Yaga and the heartless dude), they summon a Rusalka, Rusalka gets you UW, UW you get a Vodyanoi, Vodyanoi summons a Naiad, Naiad summons a Mountain Vila, Mountain Vila gets empowerd in B, makes N boosters to get N6, summons Leshiy, Leshiy can be boosted all the way to N8 easily(Treelords, Twisting Vines, Moonvine Bracelet), if you can get a Copper Arm they can go to N9, 30 E gems gets an Alchemist to E2 and for other forging and ritual stuff you might wanna(Troll Kings are handy). Entirely impractical, ludicrously expensive, super unreliable, but going from N0 to N9 is just so perfectly Dominions to my mind. Just that makes LA Bogarus one of my favorite nations.

[@gibbcharron3469]

The Worthy Heroes W2N3B2 guy can also give you the paths for Vodyanoi and company if you can get him underwater.

[@TheMelnTeam]

Great video as usual. A few comments: - Sulfur haze: once you phoenix power with a gem air random Rusian wizards can cast it, and like other clouds it can be pretty devastating. Especially alongside sleep clouds. Both are available by evo 3, so are a small investment to pick up. IMO this spell is good enough that the air random Rusian wizards are worth considering as combat mages, in matchups that don't ignore both the heat and poison effects. - Similarly, air random Rusian wizards are adequate if you're going the storm power route. Between these putting out phantasmal warriors and priests putting out ghost wolves, there are some thug/SC setups you can time out with air junk spam similar to how death nations use skeletons. Which is a bad thing for them, since a subset of your mage corps will have access to spells like curse of the frog prince or (with some effort) charm. This by itself can time out/kill stuff like bronze/wooden colossus if you're defending a province they move into as well. Usually you'd prefer air elementals or evos, but don't forget you have this! Between this and howl you can drown small numbers of comparatively elite things in garbage until they die to spells, die to troops hitting them hard, or get converted. - Perkunu turbo slaves: Like skratti, they hold up with regen in bear form. They even have built in recuperation. With regeneration and a few mages nearby to healing touch them, you can churn a lot of spells through that hp pool...picture 12 or more masters for 2 Perkunu (and a few N1 healers outside communion). Getting enough astral randoms to use it will be the hard part. Indies with astral can plug into this and be oppressive. If trying this, however, remember that bear form has berserker and make sure the slaves have enough fatigue. Probably not hard if you're overloading them into HP damage from fatigue in MOST cases. - I would definitely consider both fire and shock resist in bless. Rus can do firestorms, and that can punish skelly spamming nations/anybody who doesn't have FR. Own stuff ignoring that is beneficial (wizards can self-buff FR and a little SR with elemental fortitude, other mages can stack those alongside bless). Wrathful skies can similarly put incredible pressure on large opposing armies. - Sleep clouds + earth melds or tangle vines are also a way to deal with opponents who otherwise counter all of your elemental things. Especially if you take magic weapons, walking up and smacking things to death is valid with Rus, their troops hit hard enough for that. You don't have strength of giants easily, but enlarge/army of giants are options if someone is prot-stacking and that will get the job done, especially on berserked skin shifters. Against elves obviously don't bother with enlarge, just take away their defense and hit them with density of attacks. Jotun hero also gives you water access, to find water sites/summon your national water. Late but it's something. Probably want water sooner if you are going for those water summons. Zmey are cold blooded according to mod inspector, which is really awkward. If this nation had access to quickness fluffing and they wouldn't fall asleep in dominion, I'd consider them because they have a lot of attacks. But nope.

[@ZanGames]

They weren't mentioned too much, but I do want to highlight that the Chud Hunters are insanely good units. They eat up a lot of gold, but are very low in req/res points. They hit hard with a piercing weapon, berserk, and more importantly throw a javelin. A very accurate javelin(9prec at range 13). If you add wind guide and flaming arrows, an extremely accurate(14prec at range 13) and painful javelin. They are undisciplined so other buffs can be rough, but they are a solid unit. A group of 10 of them + stealthy rusian commander can wallop the usual 6pd without breaking a sweat. This nation can elf very well using that tiny force. If you have the gold, you can likely create a raiding squad of that every turn from every forest. Quick edit. They'll be at 15 attack with a length 3 spear while berserking. Enough to repel most length1-2 often enough that its noticeable.

[@balazsjakabffy2556]

I agree I used them both in expansion and raiding because they are so easy to mass

[@PerunAU]

Once I mentally get myself past their price, I can definitely see the utility. Not bad as a raiding option and a possible good complement to bear warrior hordes (that are decently gold expensive anyway).

[@jb9515]

I've often wondered if Illwinter's early relationship with Russian players from the old website Something Awful contributed to the "Russian" themed nations having updated pixelart and being the most flushed out.

[@Benjaminy2k]

I think a lot of it is just that rus and vanarus were later additions.

[@agihammerthief8953]

Fun fact, Bogarus (including the Rusian summons) has the only art in Dominions made by an outside artist, the rest was entirely done by the two main devs (or downscaled from stock photos, of course).

[@Doombot221]

Great video! The Rusian wizards with the weird crosspaths do give you some interesting gear so I'd view them as research/forging utility. I'd also note that Baba Yaga can do stygian rains if you wanted to be silly with a magic weapons bless maybe, and that the (probably Skrattir) worthy hero can also get you N5 and B4 access by making the armour of twisting thorns for boosting NB, the thistle mace, and the blood thorn. That could provide higher nature access--possibly into faerie queens if you needed more air magic lol, or just the nature globals--and gives you some bigger options for some niche blood if you want.

[@tornielsen2888]

On the firebirds. The events do indeed scale with your scales. And so the investment can quickly start to pay off. When you have 30-40 of them in your cap. Else doh Perun. That was a trick question. Of course you spend your limited death gems to troll people with unrest and bad events. This IS Dominion after all.

[@PerunAU]

You're right of course, trolling is the highest of all strategic objectives.

[@skitharixoftheshatteredmin5711]

Dobro jutro braćo i sestre!

[@evilmurlock]

Dobré jitro! Yea, I also love rus, especialy the slavic cultural sumons, they are the reason I play rus and its age variants. Pták ohnivák goes brrrrr

[@MrThedumbbunny]

Playing Rus right now. Feels super forest dependant and I didn’t plan on flaming arrows early enough. Also in hindsight I feel like this troop roster really wants earth access which I didn’t plan for.

[@evilmurlock]

37:34 Na topole nad jezerem seděl Vodník podvečerem: „Sviť, měsíčku, sviť, ať mi šije niť. Šiju, šiju si botičky do sucha i do vodičky: sviť, měsíčku, sviť, ať mi šije niť. Dnes je čtvrtek, zejtra pátek - šiju, šiju si kabátek: sviť, měsíčku, sviť, ať mi šije niť. Zelené šaty, botky rudé, zejtra moje svatba bude: sviť, měsíčku, sviť, ať mi šije niť.“

[@DarkSideBrownie]

Wasn't really talked about in the video, but the Vilas are also healers which is supremely useful when you want/need it. It really opens up the mind hunt game for Rus. It can also help a small army recover from a Foul Vapors trap. On the Zmey as well. I was dismayed when I noticed cold-blooded. They really only seem to be worth it in enemy dominion.

[@catsareevil101]

Lady midday is mostly for the MA and LA versions of the nation, but I have seen that scythe doom pretenders and thugs plenty of times, and normal injuries are far from uncommon with it to boot. Not an every day trick to be sure but in the right situation it can wreck more then a few strategies very fast.

[@PerunAU]

That makes sense to me.

[@pavlezoranovic1859]

> be me > see a fantasy strategy game > like it, download it > see there is a Slavic nation > profit It does miss a Baš Čelik inspired unit or hero though. Could be a nice flyer too.

[@belgarat101]

Vod gives S2 for Sirin.She can take Necromancer from a throne or something for D2. And he´s nice as early Army support Thug early. Not much but hey, he´s free

[@jimmykarlsson4126]

Put a squat for the emperor

[@Chikanuk]

Like Rus quite a lot myself. Nation of medium power for sure, but not like arco "i have regular dudes and regular mages", but in a sense that it have some pretty big strenghs and weaknesses. For example if you play a pre-made map - you can have only 1 forest out of your 15 provs or no forests at all. Which is very bad. About mages, as usual i think having at least 1E is already big. Boost one, craft boots and BAM! - you in a earth buffs game. Also i think it very userful to have E+S on a god. Matrixes can improve you communions quite a lot. I like Sirins with some cheap pokemon items. Pretty good and cheap stuff. And if you lost em - its not a big deal. Bukovac with K at the end ans Zmey with Z at the start! >:d Lady Midday is ok but EA Rus dont have paths and gems for her. And honestly i better summon sirin and give her pokemons for just a little more gems, but save A gems for elementals and stuff. Zmeys are cool, but they are cold blooded. Remove this and they are good to go. About god - i personally prefer more rainbow+economy side, and Rus is not an exception. And skinshifters take rainbow bless very well. About titans... I dont think Rus need it that much, skinshifters can repel many early threats just fine. About birbs - its just "IMHO" but i find them very good in big numbers. I think if you can spare fire gems they worth to summon.

[@jhoxha]

Blyatiful!

[@EgorIvlev]

Slav power!

[@raffelon9508]

31:40 if I play, then ONLY vanilla singleplayer (at least for now), but most of the time I just build pretenders

[@chickenmonger123]

Of course you play Dominions. I saw you streaming the other day, and instead clicked on LucidTactics video on Dominions 6. Perhaps you’ll do a video one day. I don’t know if you currently live in Kiwitopia, live Downunder, or some other place. But I know a couple in that timezone play here on YT. Maybe you might put your name down for a match.

[@lilithwollstonecraft5763]

I would love to tell some of those stories you heard growing up

[@PerunAU]

Maybe I'll touch on this when I get to Vanarus or Bogarus. Disclaimer though, I do not think Baka is a reliable source of original Slavic myth...I don't think the original tales featured quite so many Nazis getting eaten/pranked/punished/struck by lightning etc.

[@АлександрПавлов-м3с]

I think that natural protection bless is much more beneficial here then regeneration bless.

[@morvachknight]

Good morning!

[@Ragatokk]

Just wondering why you have a black line at the bottom and top? I think the aspect ratio may be the reason why the text gets compressed and hard to read on the dom inspector.

[@PerunAU]

May be an artefact of how the recording software is keyed to only capture part of the screen. I'll look into it next time i look at the mod inspector.

[@malibelizec2543]

Dobro jutro svima

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Хотел написать что-нибудь смешное про долбославов-едрипоклонников, но передумал - всё равно никто не оценит. Perun, you do realise that you are, in fact, a god?

[@TheShamefurDispray]

The thing where they have S1 on a slow-to-recruit cap only with no primarily astral basic mage is just brutal. Having the perkunu so easily instantly killed round 1 by indie mages / generic 45 gold s1 research monkey is just awful. EA T'ien Ch'i has this problem even worse on top of blood being overnerfed for non-native nations so they're stuck relying on literally just a water 1 mage off-cap. Such a shame how poorly a lot of these nations compare to pan, fomorio, heims.

[@blaf55]

YES

[@thesmilyguyguy9799]

:) more lore

[@gregorstamejcic2355]

Jutro!