Looking to start learning how to play dominions

[pizzamanager846]

Im looking to finally learn about this game i want to start off at this game as i heard that this games ui is a bit more better to understand

[1337Dude]

It's as good as a time as any. I'm not sure if the UI will make it much, if any easier. Some things, such as saving and loading your Pretender, are now hidden behind hotkeys. From my experience, the UI is about the same but re-arranged. The only thing that slaps me in the face as being a distinct upgrade is the army formation screen.

It's probably worth mentioning that this sequel, like the other Dominions games, adds a bunch of new mechanics (with some being complex). Each game just mercilessly adds features and various "things", while streamlining nothing.

[Draken]

If you want to learn by doing, I would recommend the following:

1. One of the most important things is the '?' key. It lets you see all the shortcuts for the current screen.

2. Pretender creation will seem like a big hurdle that you have no idea what to do with. Just press 'r' until you get a random one that doesn't have any death (white skull) or misfortune (brown clover). Learning how to make a good one kind of requires a lot of in-game knowledge that you learn later. Or extensive reading/watching of guides and the manual.

3. Kind of the same thing with magic and research. You can kind of skip it for your first games and concentrate on getting a handle on troops and army management.

Otherwise the manual is a very good place to look things up. There are also a ton of information on the forum and on guides. Though some of the later are a bit more focused on mutliplayer and might not be that accurate for single player.

[DasaKamov]

Also, there are some Dominions 6 Basic Tutorials up on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNr3YCXsBZM

[SaD-82]

The basic advice would be: Learning by doing.
Which just means: Look at what is leading to you losing battles or games, at all, and start countering those things. One at a time. Look what works, look what works best, look what doesn't work - and just adapt to that.
Dominions is like rock-paper-scissor, just on a mad scale. And finding those counters to an opponent is half the appeal of this game.

As DF puts it nicely: Losing is fun.
And crushing your enemy after you've learned not to lose anymore, is even more fun.

[Rope Man]

Originally posted by Draken:

If you want to learn by doing, I would recommend the following:

1. One of the most important things is the '?' key. It lets you see all the shortcuts for the current screen.

2. Pretender creation will seem like a big hurdle that you have no idea what to do with. Just press 'r' until you get a random one that doesn't have any death (white skull) or misfortune (brown clover). Learning how to make a good one kind of requires a lot of in-game knowledge that you learn later. Or extensive reading/watching of guides and the manual.

3. Kind of the same thing with magic and research. You can kind of skip it for your first games and concentrate on getting a handle on troops and army management.

Otherwise the manual is a very good place to look things up. There are also a ton of information on the forum and on guides. Though some of the later are a bit more focused on mutliplayer and might not be that accurate for single player.

shift + ? is the short cuts button

[Dezzmont]

Lot of great advice in this thread.

My two cents is that a critical mechanic to understand is the DRN system is, and how big an effect small changes in unit stats have. Even if you want to fiddle around, I highly recommend at least keeping the DRN table from the manual open, as it influences a lot of unit evaluation and its not going to be readily apparent without it why certain things happen.

You don't need to read the entire manual, but knowing 'hey, if I have even a 3 point advantage in one domain on the enemy unit's counter to that (ex: Attack and defense, damage and protection, ect.), I probably win that test, and if I stack multiple things with that level of gap I will handily win it in a way that, so long as my unit is not overwhelmed in a specific moment, they will win an arbitrarily large number of fights.

[Fņŏŕď]

Try to make your games as easy as possible when you are learning.

[Draken]

Originally posted by Rope Man:

shift + ? is the short cuts button

?
What kind of keyboard layout are you using?
I mean yeah, if you use the english one you have to press shift. But that's because '?' requires shift to use.

Without shift it's not '?' but '/'.

[pizzamanager846]

Would anyone like to help me with a bit more complicated stuff i know how to kinda play the game been playing ulm but getting my ass kicked by a faction so does anyone know where i could find some people to help me learn how to play the game