20:00 Your dragon was casting Quicken Self, because he was outside your dominion, where your god doesn’t get the bless effects. 31:00 Auto-bless from your god is also only applied in your own dominion.
You don't need to wait until construction 5, to start summoning arch bishops dusk elders. Have your pretender summon one dusk elder, they start with D3, that's it. As quickly as turn 2 and you can have it.
Strong expander is obviosly the most important thing in this scenario. I went with a Drakon, since he is pretty tanky, his breath attack doesn't do anything to undead and he can cast regen on himself which really helps to keep him alive. Gone for 8 dominion E6D3N5, natural protection, berserker to rise his prot as far as it will go. Tanked everything except luck and dominion. RNG decided Nidgavangr is my enemy. Not too good, they are pretty good against expanders. First turn reaserch, next summon Dusk elder, then expand. My reaserch goals were: ench 2 for personal regen, alt 3 for ironskin, const 3 for black laurel (early plan go destroy them using only freespawn, if that doesn't work summon as many lictors as I can and try again). My expander went right next to Nidg capital, crushed 2 of their armies on the way. Also gained 2 afflictions, chest wound and limp, nothing too bad. In the meantime my censor build few temples to get those sweet sweet death gems, then gathered all the undead he could take and went for their capitol. Turn 10 my pretender dies. Nid smashed 20 bear clan warriors into him and without a bless (as he was right next to their capitol) he died. Well, now my bless isn't so I need to change my strategy. I decided to try besige and take all Nid's fortless lands using only undead and then during fort battle use Evo 5 Shadow Blast, which is very powerful. So I immidetly redirected my reaserch for that. I already was using all my death gems to summon more dusk elders but now I doubled down on it. I want lots of shadow blasts raining down in that final battle. I kept sending all the troops I got to the front, turn 13 I besiged Nid's capital, and discovered that they have built a fort in the next province. Sad, I hoped to besige Nid and starve him out of gold, but that will be much harder now. I noticed that Nid had only 2 candles on his capitol, and started to hope I could just domkill the AI. As such I recruited few prists and started preaching on his cap. I breached the walls of enemy cap, but new problem appeared: Nid had fire shield as his bless. That combined with tight pass into his fort nearly guaranteed that my undead would be massacred without any gain. I decided not to assault but wait until my Shadow blast is online for that. In the meantime I besiged the second fort. Ai tried braking out of the castle but failed as I had too much stuff. I was few turns from reaching evo 5 when my preachers got rid of last of enemies dominion. Turn 22 domkill win. Kinda anticlimatic.
Rushing enemy capital implies the biggest battle will be outside our Dominion so Bless isn't something we want to invest int ..but then it comes for free when you buy paths so I suppose you might as well pick good things. EDIT: actually maybe the answer is to move your Prophet up with your Pretender (or just behind) to spread Dominion as close to the front as possible -potentially giving you the Dom-kill anyway
Second try, now with a Titan of the Underworld. Took a stealth bless and parked my god and prophet on the enemy capital. Dom-kill on Turn 12, not a single battle fought. 🥷🏼
@@DasTactic it gets hell once ferrying freespawn around takes up mos of your turns but till then its smooth since you dont care about most troops anyways
Just an intermediate/beginner player here, but managed to pull it off in 16 turns i think! Hope you continue post challenges like this for us to attempt, there was a lot of good learning in doing that challenge, and Dominions is definitely a game where you need some encouragement to get through the initial learning curve, cause it is steeeep!
Didn't manage it on my first time. Ah well, got unlucky with Vanarus spawning really far away. Gave them time to build up like 8 priests. Totally wiped my army. Gonna give it another go though, it was fun!. Never actually used a Dracolich before. Getting the Blur bless was pretty useful. A cold vs hot dominion cage match could be fun.
I managed to have my victory on turn 9 (vs a water nation! Ys!) Started with a dracolich, and level 10 dominion scales. found his capitol, flew dracolich (conviniently amphibious) over there. Stood on his cap for a few turns, managed to dom-wipe him on turn 9. :)
Prince of Death. 10D. Fear, Undying. Dom7 T2 S2 C2 D4 L1 M2. Awake. MA Ermor vs Jotunheim. Victory: 20 turns. Pretender survived. Made some mistakes which made it take much too long, mostly played it a bit too safe.
Dear Das, i am still a dominions noob but i can read, you cast sepulchor or what the spell is named three times, but i think once is enough because its description says that its a battlefield wide spell enchanting most undead on the battlefield (i think meaning all except maybe some special ones like inanimate or something).
Second try, killed by knights/longbowmen outside of my domain (knights were the last item mentioned, but there were still 22 of them....MOST longbow shots were for 0 damage, but the killing blow was 6 points from a longbow). Even if I had avoided the knights, probably would not have beaten your record because the enemy capital (Agartha) was probably somewhere underground, and most of the underground entryways were in the sea (although I think one was in the "sea" part of a land province).
Feels like you should have started with two buff spells on the dragon to give the enemy more time to separate from their leaders. Does give them an extra turn to buff with but I'd think that's likely to be wasted. (I haven't played this so could be wildly wrong) 12:25 I think it checks if you have enough gems to cast the monthly ritual again before you get the gem income. Don't know what would happen if you had two on monthly with enough gems left over for either one but not both.
I did the same build but got unlucky on the castle storm. The dragon got a chest wound and fatigued out. The other nation was Man and they expanded so fast. They had to be doing multiple expansions . Fun challenge!
This is a pretty fun way to expose newbies to various aspects of the game. Dracolich, 8 death, 7 blood, Reanimators and Unholy Weapons Dom 7 T2 S2 C2 D4 M1 M0 Random nation was Ind, victory screen on turn 14. I believe our siege was pushed back, but I killed his awake bile dragon pretender and overran their dominion. Forgot to bring up supporting troops which slowed me down a bit. Thanks!
Turn 11. Myrmecoleon with f2e3n2g6 with obfuscate, forest survival, and mountain survival, sneaking up to the enemy cap and attacking it. Speactators researched enchantment 2 for him. Won by dom kill after taking the cap
Took the 3 Titans of the Crossroads (S8D5N5, Ethereal, Twist Fate) and sent them in naked. One made it to the enemy capital, two perished taking the province. Had a undead-killing magic site at the halfway point which complicated things. Successfully stormed the capital on Turn 14. 🏰
instead of doing all that research the other option would be to spend 45 deaths gems for empowering your lvl 2 mage. That is a possibility because Ermor produces lots of death gems
After 4 games, I finally beat the challenge. Awake Fire Dragon F6E7 DOM10 T2 S3 H3 D4 M2 M1 Victory message on turn 10 against Arcoscephale. Started the game beelining the dragon towards Arco's cap and conquered his cap circle, then hired mercenaries in the circle. I used the mercs to clear the PD on the cap, then shut the lid on Arco's faith by moving my pretender on the fort. Dom 10 did the rest of the work to smother Arco's dominion, no siege required.
20:00 Your dragon was casting Quicken Self, because he was outside your dominion, where your god doesn’t get the bless effects.
31:00 Auto-bless from your god is also only applied in your own dominion.
Ahhhh! Of course. Thanks for pointing that out. :) Pinning this comment.
@@DasTactichad no idea you could stack blessings till i saw this
That was pretty neat, thanks Das! Will give it a shot. This really is the best game to play as an undead overlord.
You don't need to wait until construction 5, to start summoning arch bishops dusk elders.
Have your pretender summon one dusk elder, they start with D3, that's it. As quickly as turn 2 and you can have it.
this will be a fun way to try new nations!
You don't learn a lot about the nation in
Strong expander is obviosly the most important thing in this scenario.
I went with a Drakon, since he is pretty tanky, his breath attack doesn't do anything to undead and he can cast regen on himself which really helps to keep him alive.
Gone for 8 dominion E6D3N5, natural protection, berserker to rise his prot as far as it will go. Tanked everything except luck and dominion.
RNG decided Nidgavangr is my enemy. Not too good, they are pretty good against expanders.
First turn reaserch, next summon Dusk elder, then expand.
My reaserch goals were: ench 2 for personal regen, alt 3 for ironskin, const 3 for black laurel (early plan go destroy them using only freespawn, if that doesn't work summon as many lictors as I can and try again).
My expander went right next to Nidg capital, crushed 2 of their armies on the way. Also gained 2 afflictions, chest wound and limp, nothing too bad.
In the meantime my censor build few temples to get those sweet sweet death gems, then gathered all the undead he could take and went for their capitol.
Turn 10 my pretender dies. Nid smashed 20 bear clan warriors into him and without a bless (as he was right next to their capitol) he died.
Well, now my bless isn't so I need to change my strategy.
I decided to try besige and take all Nid's fortless lands using only undead and then during fort battle use Evo 5 Shadow Blast, which is very powerful. So I immidetly redirected my reaserch for that. I already was using all my death gems to summon more dusk elders but now I doubled down on it. I want lots of shadow blasts raining down in that final battle.
I kept sending all the troops I got to the front, turn 13 I besiged Nid's capital, and discovered that they have built a fort in the next province. Sad, I hoped to besige Nid and starve him out of gold, but that will be much harder now.
I noticed that Nid had only 2 candles on his capitol, and started to hope I could just domkill the AI. As such I recruited few prists and started preaching on his cap.
I breached the walls of enemy cap, but new problem appeared: Nid had fire shield as his bless. That combined with tight pass into his fort nearly guaranteed that my undead would be massacred without any gain. I decided not to assault but wait until my Shadow blast is online for that. In the meantime I besiged the second fort.
Ai tried braking out of the castle but failed as I had too much stuff.
I was few turns from reaching evo 5 when my preachers got rid of last of enemies dominion. Turn 22 domkill win.
Kinda anticlimatic.
Rushing enemy capital implies the biggest battle will be outside our Dominion so Bless isn't something we want to invest int ..but then it comes for free when you buy paths so I suppose you might as well pick good things.
EDIT: actually maybe the answer is to move your Prophet up with your Pretender (or just behind) to spread Dominion as close to the front as possible -potentially giving you the Dom-kill anyway
Second try, now with a Titan of the Underworld. Took a stealth bless and parked my god and prophet on the enemy capital. Dom-kill on Turn 12, not a single battle fought. 🥷🏼
Ah dominions as it was meant to be, drowning the world with undead 😂
Ermor is fun.
@@DasTactic it gets hell once ferrying freespawn around takes up mos of your turns but till then its smooth since you dont care about most troops anyways
Just an intermediate/beginner player here, but managed to pull it off in 16 turns i think! Hope you continue post challenges like this for us to attempt, there was a lot of good learning in doing that challenge, and Dominions is definitely a game where you need some encouragement to get through the initial learning curve, cause it is steeeep!
Didn't manage it on my first time. Ah well, got unlucky with Vanarus spawning really far away. Gave them time to build up like 8 priests. Totally wiped my army. Gonna give it another go though, it was fun!. Never actually used a Dracolich before. Getting the Blur bless was pretty useful. A cold vs hot dominion cage match could be fun.
Dracolichs are great. I was 50/50 on using one or the Frost Dragon.
I managed to have my victory on turn 9 (vs a water nation! Ys!) Started with a dracolich, and level 10 dominion scales. found his capitol, flew dracolich (conviniently amphibious) over there. Stood on his cap for a few turns, managed to dom-wipe him on turn 9. :)
Prince of Death. 10D. Fear, Undying. Dom7 T2 S2 C2 D4 L1 M2. Awake.
MA Ermor vs Jotunheim. Victory: 20 turns. Pretender survived. Made some mistakes which made it take much too long, mostly played it a bit too safe.
Good stuff. :)
Dear Das, i am still a dominions noob but i can read, you cast sepulchor or what the spell is named three times, but i think once is enough because its description says that its a battlefield wide spell enchanting most undead on the battlefield (i think meaning all except maybe some special ones like inanimate or something).
First attempt, pretty much same strategy as yours.
Dragon killed on turn 11, failing to retreat. Will try again!
Note that I was up against Pangaea, and they do a little better than T'ien C'hi I think.
Second try, killed by knights/longbowmen outside of my domain (knights were the last item mentioned, but there were still 22 of them....MOST longbow shots were for 0 damage, but the killing blow was 6 points from a longbow).
Even if I had avoided the knights, probably would not have beaten your record because the enemy capital (Agartha) was probably somewhere underground, and most of the underground entryways were in the sea (although I think one was in the "sea" part of a land province).
Turn 19. Not exactly glorious. Should have stacked more siegers.
Feels like you should have started with two buff spells on the dragon to give the enemy more time to separate from their leaders. Does give them an extra turn to buff with but I'd think that's likely to be wasted. (I haven't played this so could be wildly wrong)
12:25 I think it checks if you have enough gems to cast the monthly ritual again before you get the gem income. Don't know what would happen if you had two on monthly with enough gems left over for either one but not both.
Ah, but sitting around, waiting for your scales to kill everything is so much more fun! And thematic. :P
MA Ermor looks even more disgustingly good than EA Yomi when it comes to freespawn. Will have to give this format a go.
I did the same build but got unlucky on the castle storm. The dragon got a chest wound and fatigued out. The other nation was Man and they expanded so fast. They had to be doing multiple expansions . Fun challenge!
Very nice build, Frosty is a better name for the pretender tho :P
10:22 paking a sacred 3 wait instead of doing free summons?
This is a pretty fun way to expose newbies to various aspects of the game.
Dracolich, 8 death, 7 blood, Reanimators and Unholy Weapons
Dom 7 T2 S2 C2 D4 M1 M0
Random nation was Ind, victory screen on turn 14. I believe our siege was pushed back, but I killed his awake bile dragon pretender and overran their dominion. Forgot to bring up supporting troops which slowed me down a bit. Thanks!
I tried the same a week ago or so, without a super combatant. But i failed miserably against priests behind walls :
Turn 11. Myrmecoleon with f2e3n2g6 with obfuscate, forest survival, and mountain survival, sneaking up to the enemy cap and attacking it. Speactators researched enchantment 2 for him. Won by dom kill after taking the cap
i just took the prince of death with death 10, just ran at him, besiged his cap and just sat their till i had enough troops to take the walls. then gg
Cool. Did you see your time?
turn 15 i forgot i had to clean the map or i would of done it in 13.@@DasTactic
Took the 3 Titans of the Crossroads (S8D5N5, Ethereal, Twist Fate) and sent them in naked. One made it to the enemy capital, two perished taking the province. Had a undead-killing magic site at the halfway point which complicated things. Successfully stormed the capital on Turn 14. 🏰
instead of doing all that research the other option would be to spend 45 deaths gems for empowering your lvl 2 mage. That is a possibility because Ermor produces lots of death gems
That's true. I didn't have time to really do anything anyway with the research. :) Old habits.
Your dragon does quicken self because you don't get automatic bless outside of friendly dominion
After 4 games, I finally beat the challenge.
Awake Fire Dragon F6E7 DOM10 T2 S3 H3 D4 M2 M1
Victory message on turn 10 against Arcoscephale.
Started the game beelining the dragon towards Arco's cap and conquered his cap circle, then hired mercenaries in the circle. I used the mercs to clear the PD on the cap, then shut the lid on Arco's faith by moving my pretender on the fort. Dom 10 did the rest of the work to smother Arco's dominion, no siege required.
16:15 "they actually killed a lot"
No those are their death-numbers. They killed 6.
I can tell you why he never cast fists of iron, that spell requires a target within reach, and there's never anyone in range at turn 1.
You couldn't have gone more magic drain, because you need +1 for quickness
i died at year 5 :x [ i used dracolich]
I can't even win against easy AI. 😅
turn 8 Dracolich E4 D7 N6