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[Jharp]

Platforms: Windows, Linux, OSX
Relase: November, 2017

This is as good an opportunity as ever to share one of the greatest grand strategy games ever made that no one ever talks about with GAF!

I recently discovered Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension just last year along with some friends of mine. A year on, and we're on our third epic campaign to squash one another's empires. Over the last six or seventh months there's been intrigue, plotting, backstabbing, and friendships both gloriously birthed and mercilessly trounced.

This series of extremely deep, lo-fi, turn-based grand strategy games has been around since 2002 from the same tiny indie developer that also puts out the similarly obtuse, but also similarly deep and rewarding roguelike RPG series Conquests of Elysium.

The series is known for its use of 2d sprite art, simple interface and graphics, and incredibly in-depth empire, unit, and spell systems, with a combat resolution mechanic that takes direct control over units away from the player, instead only allowing you to "program" your armies by setting units, battle orders, and formations. Set your archers towards the back in a line formation with orders to fire on enemies in the rear, guarded by a phalanx of spearmen ordered to attack the nearest opponent, flanked by mages and priests blessing your sacred units, which are units unique to each nation that can be given special benefits by being "blessed" by priest units with buffs that are based on your nation's chosen magical paths and god. You also create your nation's central deity (referred to in the game as a "Pretender God") which can be anything from a bleeding tree to a massive dragon to an inanimate pile of bones.

Additionally, the spell system is completely bonkers. There are eight paths: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Astral, Nature, Death, and Blood, and each path has dozens of spells divided into seven schools: Conjuration, Alteration, Evocation, Construction, Enchantment, Thaumaturgy, and Blood Magic. Dominions 4 has over 800 spells, and they range from summoning beasts, demons, and elementals, to the infamous Burden of Time, which increases the speed of time in the game. Typically, one turn in Dom is a month, and twelve turns is a year, with seasons that affect both the terrain movement (rivers freeze in winter and can be crossed on foot but melt the rest of the year, for instance, and summers melt mountain snows, making them easier to cross) and battles (certain nations do naturally better in hot or cold weather, such as the ice giants of Vanheim, or the fire nation of Abyssia). Burden of Time severely increases the time acceleration, so most units, mages, and commanders being to grow old and quickly die. This has the potential to absolutely devastate entire armies. Why would anyone cast it? Well, certain nations enjoy very long life, such as the underwater nation (yes, there are nations that are entirely underwater, but various ways for them to get on land, and for land nations to get underwater) of Atlantis, but more specifically, undead nations such as Middle Age Ermor, have armies consisting entirely of undead units unaffected by time.

There's so much more I could go on and on about- dominion and scales, thugs, research, the different ages (early, middle, and late), the insane number of kingdoms and empires, etc. The game's are also home to an incredibly interesting set of lore and myths that take a huge hint from real world history and mythology, and man, like, holy shit, the game's are just a fucking blast.

Seriously, GAF, go pick up Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension. That way you can get hyped for Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith, coming this November.

Info on Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith: http://www.illwinter.com/dom5/index.html
New features in Dom5:
Real time combat
Per unit combat logs
Design your pretender's bless effect
Priest's banishment and smite spells will depend on what type of god he follows
History playback when game is over, see how dominion spread and provinces changed owners
New random maps with bridges and better looking terrains
New resource system with recruitment points that encourages recruiting in highly populated areas
Fortifications built by starting at the basic type, then upgrading it later
New research queue, researching is now one school at a time
New movement system
Winter shown on map and affects movement
Dominion overlay on map to clearly show its boundaries
New retreat system, good leaders can prevent units from dispersing in all directions
Updated user interface with information more clearly presented than before
New 3d-engine with better looking terrain, huge performance increase for good graphics cards
More reliable network, now works on less than perfect connections too
New nations
Some old nations have been reworked and updated
More spells, magic items, special abilities, events, monsters, titles, thrones

More info on Dominions 4: http://www.illwinter.com/dom4/index.html
Dominions 4 on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/259060/Dominions_4_Thrones_of_Ascension/
More info on Conquest of Elysium 4: http://www.illwinter.com/coe4/index.html
Conquest of Elysium 4 on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/403950/Conquest_of_Elysium_4/

 

[ElectricThunder]

Steam must've made a tremendous difference for Illwinter as many thought this would never happen, not in such a substantive way at the least, back when it was relegated to the shadows where few seldom tread.

This is going to be quite a shot in the arm for it, and I have to believe there'll be a positive knock on effect for Conquest of Elysium's next incarnation down the line unless something goes inscrutably weird.

 

[Jharp]

Steam must've made a tremendous difference for Illwinter as many thought this would never happen, not in such a substantive way at the least, back when it was relegated to the shadows where few seldom tread.

This is going to be quite a shot in the arm for it, and I have to believe there'll be a positive knock on effect for Conquest of Elysium's next incarnation down the line unless something goes inscrutably weird.

I certainly would have never heard of it had it not been for Steam. I'm excited for Dom5 to come out and hopefully nail a good release window so it shows up in the new releases for some time and gets some attention.

If the multiplayer scene for the game really took off, that'd just be the bee's knees. As it stands, finding pickup games on llamaserver isn't too difficult, especially if you stick to communities like reddit and 4chan, but all the same, the more the merrier.

 

[Turin Turambar]

My very first impression was that it's just an incremental step in the Dominions series, but after thinking about it, they are making big changes in the game.

Playing Dominions is essentially about four things

-Recruiting pixelmens
-Moving pixelmens armies
-Fighting battles with them
-Doing magic stuff (site search, research, forging, casting rituals, etc)

And they are changing how to recruit armies (recruitment points, fort system affecting commander recruitment), how the movement in the map works (more granular, more factors taken in account, attacking a far away province possible if you have the points), and how the battle works (real time). So three of the four 'pillars' of the game with big changes. Not bad.

And reading on discord channel, there are a hundred smaller changes, too.

 

[deadfolk]

Awesome! I never played 3 or 4, so it'll be great to not pay this either!

In all seriousness, though, Dominions is probably the game I'm most intrigued by but have never spent the time to actually learn. It just seems so intimidating, but probably very rewarding.

I guess it's because I'm really only an SP kind of dude. I think these games would be amazing with a group of friends and a huge amount of spare time.

 

[michaelius]

Ehh I thought it's about heroes of might&magic competitor Dominion which had some slight name change but it looks like low budget rts.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Ehh I thought it's about heroes of might&magic competitor Dominion which had some slight name change but it looks like low budget rts.

It's a TBS game


Edit: I made a thread with information in GAF time ago. It was totally unsuccessful
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1035808

 

[Nikodemos]

I made similar threads regarding Conquest of Elysium, with about as much success as yours.

I think there's about 4 people on the entire forum who have played these games.

 

[ElectricThunder]

Each entry is a new chance to grow the numbers. Especially this one aimed squarely at steam and such from the start.

What we really need is a small miracle in the form of this somehow delaying the YT retirement of Marcus Aurelius as his vids probably did the most to grow the playerbase with Dom 4~

 

[More_Badass]

This is fantastic news! And it's releasing so soon

 

[Nikodemos]

Dominions runs much worse than Conquest of Elysium on my laptop, probably due to the huge amount of calculations it has to do compared to the latter.

Still, I heartily recommend both to people who like games with a large amount of under-the-hood mechanics.

They truly are infinitely replayable. No two games are alike. True, there's no story, but, as you can see from the Steam reviews, you don't really need one. Write your own.

 

[Jharp]

Ehh I thought it's about heroes of might&magic competitor Dominion which had some slight name change but it looks like low budget rts.

I would compare it to sitting down to a really in-depth Pathfinder campaign with a DM who knows how to show a group of players a really good time, versus a super nice chess set with hand carved marble pieces.

Yeah, one looks much nicer and higher quality, but the other, for all it's DIY-ness, is way deeper, insanely fun, and significantly more rewarding.

Also, if you like Heroes of Might and Magic at all, Dominions will definitely be up your alley. Give it a shot!

 

[Magitex]

I don't see anything about the AI improving.. sigh.

 

[One Foul Note]

This is going to be quite a shot in the arm for it, and I have to believe there'll be a positive knock on effect for Conquest of Elysium's next incarnation down the line unless something goes inscrutably weird.

Oh, I do hope so. I like Dominions but I love CoE. Very much looking forward to seeing what they do with this game.

 

[Jharp]

Awesome! I never played 3 or 4, so it'll be great to not pay this either!

In all seriousness, though, Dominions is probably the game I'm most intrigued by but have never spent the time to actually learn. It just seems so intimidating, but probably very rewarding.

I guess it's because I'm really only an SP kind of dude. I think these games would be amazing with a group of friends and a huge amount of spare time.

I don't see anything about the AI improving.. sigh.

I am very sincerely hoping that we get some info about AI and single player. Dominions definitely has the potential to be as fun a single player game as Civ, if they could just program decent AI. I believe there are Dom4 mods that make it so the AI doesn't just recruit base units and indies, but they still need to figure out a way for the AI to utilize magic, formations, units, sacreds, and even a rudimentary diplomacy system like Civ has would do fucking WONDERS.

I'm not remaining hopeful though. The best we can hope for is that mod support will be as good for Dom5 as it was in Dom4, and that increased popularity, if it indeed achieves such, will foster a community that designs a good single player mod.

Dom4 CAN be fun in singleplayer, but only for about a year's worth of turns, and even then, it's better for running test games than actually having fun.

 

[Jharp]

Oh, I do hope so. I like Dominions but I love CoE. Very much looking forward to seeing what they do with this game.

I really need to sit down and learn Conquest of Elysium. I know that if I just gave it the shot that I finally gave Dominions, I would probably find it just as rewarding and fun as Dominions.

I just have no fucking clue how to play it. Any good tutorials/let's plays that explain the mechanics?

 

[One Foul Note]

I really need to sit down and learn Conquest of Elysium. I know that if I just gave it the shot that I finally gave Dominions, I would probably find it just as rewarding and fun as Dominions.

I just have no fucking clue how to play it. Any good tutorials/let's plays that explain the mechanics?

It's been a while so I can't remember the tutorial I used I'm afraid. I am sure it was a video series on YouTube though. Although i do know that the Troll King race is fairly good for beginners because you get a big tanky hero who can solo fairly well in the early game and give you the chance to get into the swing of things (but it is still an Illwinter game so it is worth saving regularly just in case you run into a monster that just shanks you).

 

[ElectricThunder]

With the latest of CoE, if nothing else, you want to keep an eye on this and/or avail of it for some serious Quality of Life improvements and flavor:

https://github.com/tollymain/AwfulCoE4Mods

 

[Jharp]

It's been a while so I can't remember the tutorial I used I'm afraid. I am sure it was a video series on YouTube though. Although i do know that the Troll King race is fairly good for beginners because you get a big tanky hero who can solo fairly well in the early game and give you the chance to get into the swing of things (but it is still an Illwinter game so it is worth saving regularly just in case you run into a monster that just shanks you).

Good to know. I did pick the game up during the Summer sale, so I'll have to give it a shot and just try to make heads or tales of it. I remember how intimidating Dom was at first, and the magic systems sometimes still are, but for the most part, the mechanics are pretty easy. It's just figuring out how to best my fellow pretenders that needs practicing.

With the latest of CoE, if nothing else, you want to keep an eye on this and/or avail of it for some serious Quality of Life improvements and flavor:

https://github.com/tollymain/AwfulCoE4Mods

Awesome, thanks, Should I just load the mods from the outset or try to learn the game vanilla prior to modding it?

 

[ElectricThunder]

Pick and choose after messing about a bit I'd say---you won't get the full gravity of one in particular without the....character....building experience that you will discover from Deer/Moose and such normally.

 

[Turin Turambar]

I made a long list of changes and additions of this sequel
https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/dominions-5-warriors-of-the-faith/131532/55

 

[Jharp]

Pick and choose after messing about a bit I'd say---you won't get the full gravity of one in particular without the....character....building experience that you will discover from Deer/Moose and such normally.

Good deal. I want to tear into it soon. I do fear that it might consume my life, though. CoE strikes me as being similar to Dom in that 400 hours in, your'e still a beginner. Serious players have 1000+ hours in.

YIKES.

 

[Nikodemos]

Pick and choose after messing about a bit I'd say---you won't get the full gravity of one in particular without the....character....building experience that you will discover from Deer/Moose and such normally.

You mean when your starting citadel (which you had to leave undefended due to lack of funds) is randomly ransacked by a marauding pack of goats, causing you to lose the game?

 

[ElectricThunder]

The world itself is so full of danger and splendor beyond just the various factions~

 

[Jharp]

You mean when your starting citadel (which you had to leave undefended due to lack of funds) is randomly ransacked by a marauding pack of goats, causing you to lose the game?

Reminds me of Dom stories where a God gets hit by a single arrow and gets fucking demolished.

 

[Nikodemos]

That modpack for Conquest of Elysium 4 posted above is pretty good.

Though I'd advise installing the Pale One mod as well (which has been removed from the fixpack and is now a separate file in the repository). Pale Ones rack up afflictions very quickly without it, rendering them mostly useless.

Also, for people who want to grab CoE4 and Dom4 on the cheap, go to GamersGate and set up a reminder for price drops. GamersGate often runs sales, and Illwinter games are Steam redeemable.

EDIT:

For people new to these games, I'd definitely recommend grabbing CoE4 first. It's nowhere near as convoluted and minmax/powergaming-prone as Dominions (although some factions definitely require it in order to have a good chance at winning).
For your first playthrough (after installing the abovementioned packs) I'd recommend a Large map set in the Dark Ages and choose Troll as your first faction. Real easy to use, just remember to save often (and keep several saves). And remember to pick unique random factions if you leave the PC on random, so you won't encounter another Troll King.