Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension is a fantasy turn-based strategy game created and published by Illwinter. It is the fourth game in the Dominions series, preceded by Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders, Dominions II: The Ascension Wars and Dominions III: The Awakening. Dominions 4 was initially released in Desura and later at GamersGate. Dominions 4 went through the Greenlight process and was released on Steam in September 2013, which became the most popular platform for looking for multiplayer games and discussions after Desura shut down. Some active communities can also be found on Discord and 4chan.

The game, like its predecessor, combines a simple presentation with an extremely wide array of strategic options, including over 75 nations, 2000 units, 600 spells and 300 magic items.^[1] Turns are resolved simultaneously, with players planning battles rather than directly controlling them.

The game includes scenarios and randomized play, but does not include a campaign. Dominions 4 is mainly designed for multiplayer, including PBEM, hotseat and TCP/IP. AI opponents are available for single-player. The game is very suitable for roleplay, both in singleplayer and multiplayer.

Compared to the previous game several additions and changes have been made, the most prominent being the addition of the epynomouns Thrones of Ascension which is a new game mode where victory is achieved by capturing Thrones of Ascension. Furthermore a new team-based mode has been added. Other changes and additions include several new playable nations, changes to some of the sprites, maps and interface, several balance changes, new units, spells and items, improved AI, random events, an improved map generator, as well as increased moddability.

Overview

Dominions 4 is a turn-based strategy game in which nations and armies are pawns in the service of pretenders, avatars on the verge of godhood, who clash with one another as they strive to be the last deity standing and become the all-powerful Pantokrator.^[2]

The first step to play is to choose an age (Early, Medium and Late), different ages have different nations to choose from and also the world has more advanced technology in later ages, which grants the units better stats and tools to use, while in the earlier ages the game has more magic, mythical creatures and simpler technology. Immediately after choosing your nation you'll be prompted to design your Pretender God who will influence your nations stats or scales, like it's referred in game, the spells you will be able to cast with him, his in-game model, attributes and other features which will come into play after you start the game. Gods are highly customizable; some are immobile statues or totems, others are powerful titans or monstrous creatures from the dawn of times, and some are just human wizards that gathered enough power and ambition to start being worshipped.

At the start of the game, each player begins with a predetermined number of provinces, typically one. This starting province is the nation's capital, with a fortress, temple, and magic laboratory. From here, the player can recruit soldiers, commanders, mages and priests to wage war upon their enemies. Mages cast spells, forge items, summon units, conduct research and search for magical sites. Priests can preach against enemy dominions in addition to using holy spells.

Provinces that believe in the player's god are considered part of that god's dominion and enjoy several advantages: the player's troops fight better, enemy forces are penalized, and the global scales (things like temperature, magic resistance, luck, and supplies) are slowly changed to the controlling god's liking. Friendly dominion is indicated with white candles, whilst enemy dominion is shown with black candles. In the main game mode, which is new to this fourth edition of the game, in order to win, you will have to gain a number ascension points; those points are gained by claiming Thrones of Ascension that are scattered through the map, each one worth a certain amount of points as well as providing other benefits. In order to claim one you will have to take some special units with the power to claim thrones, generally either your Pretender God himself or his prophet.

While the game does not permit the alteration of all core rules, it does support substantial modding capabilities; one could conceivably replace or substantially modify every unit, spell, item and event, for instance, as well as create new ones from scratch. Mods have changed nations, duplicated nations, and added new ones. Even some of the core rules of the game can also be changed through modding, such as the way economy and climate work and some of the AI's behaviors.

Combat

The combat system is very detailed; each unit amongst hundreds in an army has several values like morale, hit-points, strength, precision, encumbrance, health problems due to previous battle wounds, protection separately for torso, head and legs, and ever-growing experience. Most units will rout if their squad takes too many casualties, rather than fighting to the death. Logistics is important, with starving troops very likely to rout, and mindless creatures like controlled undead or magically summoned beings do not rout at all, they simply dissolve if their commanding unit dies or routs.

There are hundreds of different units to recruit within the game, including archers, infantry, cavalry and mages. Troops can be recruited in all provinces and which types are often influenced by the terrain. For example, woodsmen and druids can be found in forest provinces, while aquatic fish-men can be found on coasts. In order to recruit nation-specific troops, the player has to construct a fortress in most cases, some units are restricted to the player capital province and powerful commanders and units take two turns to recruit. Mages require a laboratory to recruit, whilst priests need a temple.

The battle results are calculated by the computer and can be viewed by the players at the beginning of the next turn, like a film, or the battle may be instantly calculated and a summary displayed to the player bearing the relevant numbers. The battles cannot be influenced once the computer calculates the new turn, but players can set simple orders for their troops before the battle is calculated, assign formations to differents squads, influence the units starting positions in the battlefield, allowing for very diverse tactics.^[3] This system allows for fast multiplayer games, with very diverse set of stategies and playstyles. It also mimics well the reality of war, in which the leader rarely has a direct influence in the chaos of battle, and must instead prepare a strategy and give orders before the fight begins.

Magic

There are eight paths of magic in the game; fire, water, air, earth, astral, death, nature and blood. Mages in Dominions 4 have one or more paths, with nations having distinct mages and therefore a different magical emphasis. Many spells or items require two paths to cast or forge, respectively, but none require more than two.

All mages can use magic on the battlefield, but to cast powerful spells or summon strong creatures, magic gems are required. These are mostly found in magical sites hidden around the world. Every nation starts with a basic gem income, but to get more, provinces need to be searched by a mage. There are seven types of magical gems, corresponding with the paths of magic. Blood magic does not use gems, requiring the sacrifice of captured slaves instead. Mages can also use gems to create magic items and artifacts, which can be equipped by commanders to increase their abilities or convey special effects, usually in combat.

Magic research is conducted in the seven schools of magic, distinct from the paths. These are conjuration, alteration, evocation, construction, enchantment and thaumaturgy (several of these names being probably inspired by the eight schools of magic from Dungeons & Dragons). Again, blood magic is distinct, being its own school as well as its own path.

Priests also have a 'holy' path, but in the unmodded game that path is normally associated with a far smaller set of spells, none of which need to be researched and all of which are battle spells. Prophets, who have a holy path of at least 3 and can be made from any commander (although the player may only have one at a time) are able to claim thrones, these along with the pretender god are the only units that can claim the thrones in order to win the game.

Nations

The nations in the game are based upon world history and mythology, rather than standard high fantasy races such as elves and orcs. Amongst others, the mythologies of ancient Greece (Arcoscephale), the Roman Republic (Ermor), Byzantium (Pythium), Sarmatians (Sauromatia), Egypt (C'tis), Medieval France & Spain (Marignon), Medieval England (Man), Ireland (Fomoria, Eriu, Tir na n'Og), Scandinavia (Vanheim, Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Utgard, Nieflheim), Germany (Ulm), China (Tien Chi), Zimbabwe (Machaka), Japan (Jomon), Aztecs (Mictlan), Rus' (Bogarus), and India (Kailasa, Lanka, Bandar Log, Patala) are represented. Other nations are based on the work of recent writers, particularly H. P. Lovecraft (R'lyeh and Atlantis), or Abysia, that looks loosely based on Yezidi faith, as it contains Melek Taus in its list of random general names and is mostly associated with holy flames, beings of flame, fire worship and magma, or Hinnom, which is based on Semitic mythology, featuring Nephilim. Some of the new nations included in Dominions 4 are Nazca, a nations of bird humanoids and mummies based on the Nazca civilization mixed with other cultures from ancient Peru, Ur, a nation of beastlike humanoids based on the civilization of Uruk and the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ys, a sunken city inspired by the eponymous Breton myth and led by Morgen, among others.

Patches

Several patches have been released by the developers since the initial release of the game. The patches provide among bugfixes usually game improvements like new commands for modders and map-makers as well as complete new nations (including unique nation-specific summons and spells) and balance changes to spells, units and nations overall. The game doesn't have any DLC and all additional content to the game up to this date has been available for free to all players.

References

External links

• Illwinter, developer of Dominions 4
  • Illwinter's Dominions 4 specific page, containing manuals, info, changes, links to the online stores
• Steam, Steam store page
• Dominions 4 dedicated wiki