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| Kailassa Guide; Starts tested vs AI | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 3 2015, 10:41 AM (3,690 Views) | |
| GlointheDark | May 3 2015, 10:41 AM Post #1 |
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*Spicy* Crew
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Dominions 4: Kailasa Guide Draft 2. Kailasa was a weak nation with terrible PD in Dom 3. Much has changed in Dom 4, with the advent of PD that changes according to the starting residents. Nonetheless, Kailasa has a number of challenges: • Weak Priests. Your best priest, until you hit national summons, is a StR H1. • Animals. Your normal units are all animals, with low mr. (Bear with me, we’re going to take advantage of that later). • Low Protection. • Low Magical diversity. Everywhere recruitable mages are only S1 or S2N1. Your capitol only mages provide access for W3N1 110%[WESN] or E3N1 110%[WESN] • Poor Diversity of Pretender platforms. Most Kailassa guides are going to suggest a scales approach, relying on huge hordes of monkey troops to expand and then shoe horning the nation into a somewhat standard Dominions expansion strategy. You’re welcome to try it – however, I think this kind of approach doesn’t really explore the intricacies and nuances of the nation. Most of the rest of the guides are going to suggest a platform that will allow for rapid first year expansion. They capitalize on the strength of the pretender platform. Examples of this include foremost the earth snake, but also viable are the Wyrm, etc. Using the Earthsnake, you can translate rapid expansion into a dominant game state.. Such a build will then go the destruction/blade wind/gift of Heavens route. This isn’t that guide, either. Examining your starting troops, Kailasa is blessed with an abundance of low protection sacred units. However, these units are magical AND sacred, and fairly expensive so how to use them? Additionally, Dominions endgames have historically revolved around death, blood, or astral. Dom 4 may have a nature endgame, and an Astral endgame dovetails nicely with Kailasa’s national summons. However, Kailassa has the ability to bootstrap itself into a competent Astral position, without Pretender assistance. Kailasa’s sacreds are all low prot – so low that an earth bless merely returns them to mediocre for 6!+ picks. And earth isn’t really an endgame powerhouse. The sacred’s awe ability plus good defense handles melee well enough – but you need something to handle missile fire. So we are going to use the pretender to fill the following ‘holes’: • Magical leadership – in order to be able to expand with our magical sacreds. • High dominion score o An awake high Dominion Pretender will cover our StR weak priests year one. o Allow us to produce high quantities of our sacreds and which will leverage our strategy of early/fast fort production. o Allow us to project crappy scales, which we are equipped to handle and which many of our opponents will not be. • Fast setup into death – which will compliment our already strong abilities in astral and nature. There are only three pretenders that really work – the Destroyer of Worlds, the Great White Bull, and the Divine Cow (Khamadhenu). The latter two play similarly. My discussion of the DOW needs more justification and explanation so it will be expanded in the next version. Pretender Divine Cow: (Khamadhenu) #1: O3S3H2D3L-2M3. Dom 9 S1 N9. Awake. Advantages: Tramples. Flies. Very useful for cherry picking provinces, as well as moving to cast range limited rituals. Supplies (dovetails with death scales). Can join a communion against a non astral opponent. Disadvantages: S1. Susceptible to Magic Duel. Does not recuperate – so calculated risk in using her to expand. Poor Slots #2: Same scales. Dom 8, S4 N9. Advantages: S4 makes the chassis more survivable. Cuts time and gems required to summon national summons. Easier access to ROS, ROW. Preferred Pretender: #3 Great White Bull O3S3H2D3L-2M3 Dom 8 E4 N9. Advantages: Strong initial expansion. 16 Prot, jumping to 21 when berserk. N9 caster scales well with many useful spells. Great caster for Mother Oak. Massive nature globals. Disadvantages: Need a crystal matrix to join to a communion. Berserking to an errant arrow can blow scripting. Worse slots. An awake pretender cannot provide enough dominion in itself to the dominion other pretenders, temples and priests. With our only priests being StR we have to find another way. The standard solution is temple spam. But it all comes together when we use a high dominion score to project a hostile dominion. We use more forts than usual – which give us platforms to spam commander recruiting – but also to provide supplies (to ourselves) within our kingdom. This use of the death scale serves two purposes – it allows us to have more cash than other scale possibilities, and long term in combination with an extreme heat score, makes invading our lands an exercise in death and starvation, to which we have natural advantages. 1. A network of forts that will provide supplies to the intervening provinces. 2. All our non-research mages have nature, which provides us with supplies. 3. Sacred troops expansion require fewer troops and thus less supply. 4. Ability to forge all endless cauldrons and wine bags. Here the supply value of the fort is often more important than the defense value. Minor note, nonsacred monkey troops have great movement through forest areas – but you can use forts/roads to increase the mobility of your sacreds. Forts are routinely used to protect high value assets. That’s no so much the case with Kailassa where your cheap low rp mages, Str clerics, and death scales place a premium on the fort as income and recruitment centers . The fort of choice is the palisade. For something you really want to protect, look to provide adjacent palisades – not better forts. Having many forts allows you to churn out your bread and butter researcher a yomi S1 mage. At the low low price of 70gp, under M3 it cranks out 10RP. Being sacred, maintenance comes in at .23 gp/rp. They are animals and they reincarnate. This, low cost makes them one of the best communion mages and Magic Dueler’s in the game. Ready access to crystal shields and matrixes, dwarf hammers and clams, cements this. Devasura leverages your communions via Reinvigorate and Blood Agony as a Sabbath Master. Initial Expansion: Kailassa does not need resources and so “circling” the capital is not srequired. To the contrary, due to the StR, you send your God out turn 2 alone or with national troops. You will then send out your Ghuk general out turns 3 and 5. Your sacred troops require around 7-8 troops to take most indies. Since you will be equipping them with roughly 15, you have strength to do deep penetrations. Your objectives are cities and choke points. You want to bypass territories and in-fill later. Toward this you avoid strong territories, including thrones. (Side note: Taking death and misfortune has the minor benefit of allowing you to benefit from thrones that others would find unpalatable, such as the throne of autumn). Forts serve three purposes: places to muster more sacreds; places to build more temples to boost your dom score; and places to stage rapid reaction forces – because with all that turmoil you are going to get unrest and/or have multiplayer opponents attempt to capitalize. Finally the forts will increase and protect your income. Your first few expansion party will be your awake pretender. Your second and third will predominantly be Guhyaki’s. As your economy develops, use more Yavanas, as the attrition rate will decrease quite substantially. Your blessed sacreds will be regenerating 4 hp per turn, pack a good punch with two attacks (and side note – can survive multiple scripted earthquakes). Beware of high morale creatures – jade sorcerors, undead, net wielders, and large numbers of archers. Conversely, you have many expansion opportunities that are quite uniquely attractive for Kailasa. • Cavalry: Average morale fails to awe aura. • Elephants: Usually occur in small numbers. Beware the slingers however. Oddly, it’s the slingers you have to worry about. (unless DOW). • Multiple types of defenders: Planting your sacreds far back, allows them to deal with each different type of defender sequentially, instead of all at once. So for example a group of 8 ghuks will defeat 40 defenders, if not overwelmed by troops that arrive simultaneously. • With care, but especially after researching alt 2 (Stone skin) your bulls can generally handle reasonable numbers of barbarians. Gift of the hare benefits the divine bull generally more than the divine cow. When going from a high dominion to a high enemy dominion, personal regeneration (or gaiea) will not kick in until after you have lost the surplus hp (ie, generally too late to matter). So avoid high enemy dominion provinces with your pretender. Markatas: Awesome niche unit. 1. Bait – whether lance or archer. 2. Cheap fill in behind Guks. Your Guk generals impart +1 morale on your yak* units – which means that they can take a sparse line formation with good morale. Drop a TON of markatas behind your Yak awe wall. Even with crappy precision, at range 3 or so they will hit. Plus your (DOW) air shields or Divine Bovine Regen will do double duty here – protecting you from monkey as well as enemy archery. Awe Wall’s are also useful to bunch up your opponents so they are more densely packed, making spells more effective. Finally, there is in all of dominions no effect more comical than taking dozens of cheap apes and then Rage of the Cornered rat with your N9 pretender, followed by .. Army of Giants. Giant.. rampaging.. markatas. Thau-4, Alt 6. Atavi’s: Stealthy, archers that cheaper than the indy standard 10/4 at 9/3. So if you need to mass archers , or introduce a surprise stealth force to cut off your opponents lines of retreats – atavis are worthy their weight in gold. Yavana Archers. With a DOW, prec 16 archers (boosted to 21 ish with experience wind guide etc) are among the best if not the best archers in the game. Ghuk General. Mid to late game, with a DOW bless, and buffs such as wind guide, they become potent with bows of war, bows of botulf, long bows of accuracy etc. As a thug, leverage your awe with horror helms, rat tail whips and vine shields. Rat tails inflict greater fear on a hit. They are length 6, and so repel most weapons and often multiple times per round. With DOW, you have four hands available… In the first year, you want to maximize your opponent’s exposure to your domain – so given the choice you will want to expand toward enemy dominion candles. You have Dom 8+, good sacreds, an awake pretender, and highly effective easy research targets (Alt 2). Regardless of whether you NAP or attack, you force your opponent to deal with the effects of your domain which will slow their development. It is important to remember that due to your sacred recruitment limit you are much like a glass cannon, you don’t have the ability to bounce back from a defeat as fast as “normal” based nations. Your expansion plan: Turn 1: Build 7-8 ghuks and a ghuk general. Prophetize commander. Send out Scout. Research Alteration with pretender. Turn 2: Preach with commander. Expand with pretender. Purchase 7-8 ghuks. Expand with pretender beelining for either chokepoint or city. Turn 3: Send out 2nd expansion party. Send out with Ghuk General and prophet. Troops up front, prophet slightly behind. Divine blessing, smite x4. Turn 4. Repeat. Turn 5. Send out 3rd Expansion party. Set the ghuks to the far rear set for hold and attack closest. General to blessx 5, stay behind. Somewhere around turn 6-8 you will have the funds for your first palisade. Forging & National Magic Goals. Your yak*’s can natively forge dwarven hammers. You’ll want to forge a couple early. Your item needs are predictable and once your gem supply is sufficient you’ll want to keep a couple of hammers busy forging routine requirements. Skull caps, Crystal coins. These items provide mobile defense, allowing you to keep small forces on garrison duty. Whatever fort is attacked, equip the yogi’s with crystal coins and caps. These will allow you to summon Gandharvas (conj 5). You have a similar summons available for nature. Following are notable. Conj: Con2: Ogres, Killer Mantis, Horned Serpents Con3: Dark Knowledge(DOW), Summon earth Power, Call of the wild. POTS Summon Apsara Con4: Awaken Vine Ogres, Strength of Gaia, Light of Northern Star, Voice of Apsu Con5: Contact Forest Trolls, Summon Gandharvas Con6: Summon Sprites Con7*: Summon Siddhe Con8*: Devata Con9*: Devala, Rudra Alt: Alt1: Eagle Eyes Alt 2: Mirror Image,* StoneSkin, Earth Meld Alt 3: Ironskin, Mossbody, Mistform*, Enlarge, Iron Skin Alt4: Temper Flesh, WindGuide*, Destruction, Curse of Stones, Swarm Body Ethereal Alt 5: Iron Warriors, Maws of the Earth, Wooden Warriors, Mother Oak Alt 6: Skeletal Legion, Iron Bane, Crumble, Army of Giants, Frozen Heart Con Con2: Crystal Shield, Dwarven Hammer, Rat Tail*. Black Bow of Botulf, Enormous Cauldron, Thistle mace Con 4: Crystal Coin, Crystal Matrix, Ring of Regen, Crown of Cmd, Shroud of the Battle Saint, Vine Shield, Earth Boots, Skull Staff, Endless Wine Con 6: Ros, RoW, Skull cap, Treelord’s Staff, Gate Cleaver, Moon vine Evo Evo3:Magic Duel, Blade Wind, Sleep Cloud Evo4: Gifts from Heaven, Earthquake Evo5: Stellar Cascades Evo6: Wrathful Skies * Evo7: Storm of Thorns Ench: Ench1: Flight (preearthquake, post communion). Ench2: Personal Regen Ench3: Strength of Giants Ench5: Ritual of Returning Ench6: Relief Ench7: Gift of Health, Stellar focus Thau: Thau1:Curse, Communion Slave, Communion Master Thau2: Mind Burn, Haruspex Thau3: Teleport Thau4: Gnome Lore, Rage of the Cornered Rat Thau6: Celestial Music * DOW build. Research Priorities: Alt 5, Con 4, Conj 5. Midgame: Playing Kailassa is much like riding a tiger. If you make a mistake you get eaten. In this case, due to the allocation of your early turns to generals and forts, and the success of your sacreds in expanding, you will have a later transition than most into research. If you misjudge when to transition– you get eaten. It works so well, that you may well continue to ride that tiger past where you need to transition to alternate strategies. If graphs are on, people will tend to make you a target due to a lack of respect for kailassa; your high number of territories, and your ultra low (and flat) research. So it is very important to know your neighbors and know your counters for them. Spy. The upside of that is that once you do transition you can translate an advantage in forts with very cheap mages into startling and rapid research. As your expansion parties get larger until you natonal summons come online set up “choo choo” blesses. XXX YYY ZZZ XXX YYY AAZ XXX YYY ZZZ Direction of progress --→ Priests / Generals at AA can be setup to blessx5, cast spells. As the units move forward, they move toward the priests allowing you to get more effective blesses out of few priests. In the first year, the power of your sacred bless is dominant. They retain usefulness into the endgame due to their good hit points, (23/31), good MR (13). Additionally, they have good movement (2/14) and in combination with their nature bless reducing afflictions, one usually has low attrition allowing the accumulation of many experienced units. Your endgame revolves around great national summons (Rudra, devalas, siddhe’s), and solid positions in nature, astral and death, wielded around communions. And your middle game is based on bladewind, destruction, iron bane, gifts of heaven and other spells documented under research targets. Diversifying your magic paths Kailassa has a beautiful way to break out of N/E/S/W via forest troll tribes. Summoned shaman will be either n2d, d2n or den. N2D and a thistle mace summon more trolls. D2N forges a skull staff, then summons a mound fiend. Empower for Skulhelm access. EDN buys you blight, assassins via shademail and devasura, shadow brands, and eye pendants. Not really useful, but in a game with an e/d, blights are likely to be perceived as coming from them, such as EA – Agartha. Fairy queen, as well as your national Siddhes get you access to Air. |
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| joansam | Jul 18 2015, 02:18 AM Post #2 |
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*Spicy* Crew
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I read most of it: nice guide. However, you might want to move your post out of General to the Academy of War, where guides are generally displayed. |
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Dom5 mod: WARHAMMER COMPLETE Dom4 guide: EA Lanka: Boy Eats World | |
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| Admiral_Aorta | Jul 18 2015, 03:17 AM Post #3 |
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Suddenly a troll appeared in the laboratory!
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it's moved now |
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