I absolutely love the editing and pacing of these videos, you do a good job of showing us your plans and strategy concisely and it makes these videos very digestible and coherent. I find that often dominions videos tend to drag on a bit with lots of repetition or unnecessary discussion *cough* lucid *cough* and these videos have conveyed the perfect amount of information.
Thank you, its a lot of work to stay focused. I do know there are definitely some that prefer the ramblings. Its easy to get sidetracked. Every topic is just so deep
I am really liking these videos. Even though they are 30 minutes, with the multiple turns and the really conscious choices in what to show/talk about and what not to, they still have your typical 'short and snappy' feel. I would say that it might be good to also have some short overviews of the entire game state sprinkled in, how are others players doing, what wars are happening, and so on. It helps to frame the action on screen and provide context for decisions.
Thank you! The only issue I may run into doing a short overview of the game, at least at the start, is that I tend to tunnel vision my first war. Personally I think not winning your first war makes you very weak in the midgame, unless you had a ridiculous expansion or something. So I don't tend to put a lot of diplomatic effort until that war gets resolved... All that said, I really wouldn't be able to provide an overview of these first 20 turns because I really didn't have one haha. For the stream announcement question below, in the future I plan on having a set date to stream and even upload videos. Right now I have some IRL things to resolve which makes even my video recording and uploading very sporadic.
@@ZanGames Fair enough - the game state overview becomes more important later anyways. Regarding the schedule, don't stress it. And good luck with the IRL stuff!
Great series. I tried out Mekone for the first time in a SP game today, smashing everyone with the giants is pretty fun! Currently running a version of your LA Pythium snake bless build in a MP game.
@@ZanGames Good so far! The snakes are pretty darn tough and watching enemy units attack and defence skill go down to 3 is real fun, so even hard hitting elite troops dont end up doing any damage. Just need to figure out a way to kill skellies...
I'm pretty shocked you haven't starting sitesearching Earth yet by turn 17. Theres a very large amount of easy gold in common earth sites, plus a couple forts - Earth is *the* priority early search path, unless you have an extremely tight research timing. Glad to see you back! Nice that you didn't let the annoying/entitled players ruin the game for you, I know you had complained about that.
I've been trying to site search later compared to some of my other games for the research timings. Some other players have mentioned I had that bad habit... You bring up a great point on earth, that should be searched early cause a free fort is massive tempo. Hadn't considered that. I'll try and do that in future games (Not the next two after this one...)
I'm in turn 40s as Mekone in MP right now. I had to fight an Ubar in early coalition war against me as 2nd war. My opponent went heavy on the unseen stuff and that was certainly annoying! Managed to win it, and I think I will win the game. It's the first time I crushed air gems just to cast lightning bolt in a real game...just to remove unseen from ifrit warriors and jinns. Still hits through SR 5 fine. Got some good mages out of expansion & that war it (including crystal sorc and S2 G2 mages on a throne - big for fighting Xib and Agartha later since they can let gigante see in the dark alongside the dragon teeth). Funny thing about Ubar matchup: their corrupting & seduction can fly stuff back to their cap...but gigante are too large for them to carry, so you can block them using magic phase to cut adjacent provinces. Magic weapons on gigante will put in work as long as you have SOMETHING to clear unseen. Their PD can curse so be careful using pretenders vs it. I think getting glamour magic on Mekone is huge; it makes things less likely to hit you with buffs unless they counter with true sight...which is also glamour and makes scales nations like handle caves + darkness casters so much more easily.
Oh, thats a great idea on dealing with Shaytan! Wish I would have been doing that...Oops. Glamour magic on many nations is huge I think! If only for luck! But obviously other things too. There is also darkvision in...nature I think? i can't remember. Spirit sight is the one thats not only hard to cast, but hard to paint because its only aoe1 IIRC.
@@ZanGames Fey-eyed warriors gives true sight at AoE 20+ (3 glamour, 1 gem). That's at ench 6. Granted, you probably have to summon gnomes to use that if you don't get really lucky with indies. Nature has cat-eyed warriors at alt 5 which gives darkvision 50%. Best I can tell neither of these have a battlefield version, but AoE 20 is still usable. Will take some getting used to, been spoiled by 100% of battlefield stuff for so long.
While that's helpful, the fact that mages won't cast incinerate vs 15 FR isn't. Not even with the item to cast it on a commander w/o paths, so it's the only spell available. They walk into melee and die instead. Hope that gets fixed. High fire resistance is more expensive now, so quite a few of the low-ish evo spells with phoenix power can push through 5 FR and do non-trivial damage vs the halved prot. In addition to large fire elementals being easier to buff with iron skin, fire mages also get a swarm-like option with those salamanders at conj 4 now. In heat those things are nice in some matchups; 25 AN heat/poison damage if their low damage AP bite beats prot will overwhelm a lot of stuff...vs FR 5 it's like AoE crossbow bolts hitting.
Hmm. Usually Gote cause he'd traditionally break me into blood. Outside of him, either the eternal knights or the celestial soldiers. Even without a bless those two merc companies are STRONG
I absolutely love the editing and pacing of these videos, you do a good job of showing us your plans and strategy concisely and it makes these videos very digestible and coherent. I find that often dominions videos tend to drag on a bit with lots of repetition or unnecessary discussion *cough* lucid *cough* and these videos have conveyed the perfect amount of information.
Thank you, its a lot of work to stay focused. I do know there are definitely some that prefer the ramblings. Its easy to get sidetracked. Every topic is just so deep
Two thrones in one turn was pretty sick. I would have definitely over prepared.
Ahem, as they say in ancient mekone...
*yolo*
ANOTHER episode no way, I really been getting into watching dominions since I watched your first episode of this series ! Thank you
I am really liking these videos. Even though they are 30 minutes, with the multiple turns and the really conscious choices in what to show/talk about and what not to, they still have your typical 'short and snappy' feel.
I would say that it might be good to also have some short overviews of the entire game state sprinkled in, how are others players doing, what wars are happening, and so on. It helps to frame the action on screen and provide context for decisions.
Oh, and do you announce your streams ahead of time? Would make it easier to catch them.
Thank you! The only issue I may run into doing a short overview of the game, at least at the start, is that I tend to tunnel vision my first war. Personally I think not winning your first war makes you very weak in the midgame, unless you had a ridiculous expansion or something. So I don't tend to put a lot of diplomatic effort until that war gets resolved...
All that said, I really wouldn't be able to provide an overview of these first 20 turns because I really didn't have one haha.
For the stream announcement question below, in the future I plan on having a set date to stream and even upload videos. Right now I have some IRL things to resolve which makes even my video recording and uploading very sporadic.
@@ZanGames Fair enough - the game state overview becomes more important later anyways.
Regarding the schedule, don't stress it.
And good luck with the IRL stuff!
Great another good one, cant wait till we get to those large grindy mid to late game battles! Thats gonna be fun! Thanks for the video.
My favorite parts of dominions!
Skipping two turns because nothing happened. The commander that died from his missing retreat orders is rolling over in his little human grave
I'm too in character, not concerned over the deaths of some helote.
@@ZanGames That was a strong and independent commander!
More please
Great series. I tried out Mekone for the first time in a SP game today, smashing everyone with the giants is pretty fun! Currently running a version of your LA Pythium snake bless build in a MP game.
Oh dude, how is that going? Is it as terrifying in a "real" game as it was in the blitz?
@@ZanGames Good so far! The snakes are pretty darn tough and watching enemy units attack and defence skill go down to 3 is real fun, so even hard hitting elite troops dont end up doing any damage. Just need to figure out a way to kill skellies...
Thanks for the content!
Thanks for watching! Hope you enjoy!
Hell yeah
I'm pretty shocked you haven't starting sitesearching Earth yet by turn 17. Theres a very large amount of easy gold in common earth sites, plus a couple forts - Earth is *the* priority early search path, unless you have an extremely tight research timing.
Glad to see you back! Nice that you didn't let the annoying/entitled players ruin the game for you, I know you had complained about that.
I've been trying to site search later compared to some of my other games for the research timings. Some other players have mentioned I had that bad habit...
You bring up a great point on earth, that should be searched early cause a free fort is massive tempo. Hadn't considered that. I'll try and do that in future games (Not the next two after this one...)
I'm in turn 40s as Mekone in MP right now. I had to fight an Ubar in early coalition war against me as 2nd war. My opponent went heavy on the unseen stuff and that was certainly annoying! Managed to win it, and I think I will win the game. It's the first time I crushed air gems just to cast lightning bolt in a real game...just to remove unseen from ifrit warriors and jinns. Still hits through SR 5 fine. Got some good mages out of expansion & that war it (including crystal sorc and S2 G2 mages on a throne - big for fighting Xib and Agartha later since they can let gigante see in the dark alongside the dragon teeth).
Funny thing about Ubar matchup: their corrupting & seduction can fly stuff back to their cap...but gigante are too large for them to carry, so you can block them using magic phase to cut adjacent provinces. Magic weapons on gigante will put in work as long as you have SOMETHING to clear unseen. Their PD can curse so be careful using pretenders vs it.
I think getting glamour magic on Mekone is huge; it makes things less likely to hit you with buffs unless they counter with true sight...which is also glamour and makes scales nations like handle caves + darkness casters so much more easily.
Oh, thats a great idea on dealing with Shaytan! Wish I would have been doing that...Oops.
Glamour magic on many nations is huge I think! If only for luck! But obviously other things too. There is also darkvision in...nature I think? i can't remember. Spirit sight is the one thats not only hard to cast, but hard to paint because its only aoe1 IIRC.
@@ZanGames Fey-eyed warriors gives true sight at AoE 20+ (3 glamour, 1 gem). That's at ench 6. Granted, you probably have to summon gnomes to use that if you don't get really lucky with indies.
Nature has cat-eyed warriors at alt 5 which gives darkvision 50%. Best I can tell neither of these have a battlefield version, but AoE 20 is still usable. Will take some getting used to, been spoiled by 100% of battlefield stuff for so long.
Who is your calligrapher they do great work
I am back looking for teachable moments. lol
Soon...
a not-brain-dead mages will not fireball an imp with fire res
While yes, i was hoping he'd skewer the thing or something. Was a big flex that he just ignored the critter.
While that's helpful, the fact that mages won't cast incinerate vs 15 FR isn't. Not even with the item to cast it on a commander w/o paths, so it's the only spell available. They walk into melee and die instead. Hope that gets fixed.
High fire resistance is more expensive now, so quite a few of the low-ish evo spells with phoenix power can push through 5 FR and do non-trivial damage vs the halved prot. In addition to large fire elementals being easier to buff with iron skin, fire mages also get a swarm-like option with those salamanders at conj 4 now. In heat those things are nice in some matchups; 25 AN heat/poison damage if their low damage AP bite beats prot will overwhelm a lot of stuff...vs FR 5 it's like AoE crossbow bolts hitting.
gib new video
Recording tonight if nothing goes wrong...
@@ZanGames Im happy to hear that!
Would have been nice to see the god fighting, and I'd rather not know about which players you beat later on. Spoilers tend to spoil the fun.
Will keep that in mind, sorry.
What's your favorite mercs zann? And don't say ship wreckers lol
Hmm. Usually Gote cause he'd traditionally break me into blood. Outside of him, either the eternal knights or the celestial soldiers. Even without a bless those two merc companies are STRONG
Old, nasty internet meme in title for the win. If you don't remember, you're better off!
It was the first thing that came to my mind... ha...