New features to Dominions 5. Feel free to add your own. Special thanks to Turin_Tur.

[Tanaka]

NATIONS

MA Man has spellsinger mechanics. Spells take 50% longer to cast but half the fatigue
They also have cheaper cavalry.

TNN, Eriu, Fomoria’s Nemedians also have spellsinging.

Marverni
Magical tatoos with themes: Regular Marverni have Bear tattoos (+strength), Ambibate wolf (+attack), Eponi horse (+combat move, defence), apart from giving invulnerability 10-15. Activated by the same spell as Sauromatia.

Sauramatia
Magical ‘horse’ and ‘serpent’ tattoos. Activated by the same spell as Marverni.
Hydras have recuperation. AI apparently uses them better, avoiding poisoning their own units.

Abyssia
New crossbreeding national units. Better magic, new national spells.
They also get HALF the effects of Growth & Death scales (both good and bad) except supply (no effect at all)
Abysian crossbreeding is research 3 B2 25 slaves for 11+ effects and Warlocks have a +2 bonus. Also it summons them in batches, it doesn’t roll randomly for each summoned unit, so you get X of the same with each cast.
New ritual: Hellscape. Alt 6 F4 10 gems. +3 Heat, +1 Death, popkill, unrest generator (could have some randomness, that’s an example).
New battle spell: Liquid Flames of Rhuax. An improved Magma Eruption.
Burning Ones more expensive, made ‘formation fighter -1’, it means they fight as if they were a size bigger than they are (so less per square).

Lemuria
Like MA Ermor, they start with Death 3 (120 less Pretender points).
It has double Magic/Drain scaling effect (so double RP at M3). Lemuria is even more Magic-dependant now.
Spectral weapons now do half damage if you pass the MR check (also helps Therodos).
Thaumaturges and Acolytes are cheaper. However, Thaumaturges are no longer immortal. Grand Lemur buffed because immortality mechanics changes benefit them.
Increased strategic mobility because floating mechanics.
They have rare mage freespawns.

New nations: Uruk, Rus, Erythea

Rus
They have: Air, Nature, Fire, Astral. Sacred werebears, far better than Vanarus. Many elite-ish troops with low armor & resource costs but undisciplined
If you like EA Ulm, you will like Rus.
Also sacred bear summons, forest-recruitable Thunder Priests, and an A3 + Nature + Astral + randoms capital werebear mage

Erythea
They are Ptoleamic LA Pelagia. cap income is F2W1S1.
Mages can marry between themselves. They can start with afflictions. They are potentially very good mages but kill each other (by Various events, including poison and assassins.)
Erythea also has weaker and with less range but UW-usable crossbow.
Prince: F1S1?3H2, insane 5. 150 gold. Lots of random paths.
if you recruit a prince and don’t have a King, he transforms and turns H3 (and you get -unrest). When you have no king (or queen) you get +unrest every turn. Queen behaves similarly. Queen & King will marry each other (-unrest, I think). Siblings kill each other, and I think they also try to kill the ruler of their gender
Mage: Daduchos , 165 gold. (coastal & UW, F1S1 100% FAWES, 50% W 50% E 50% A), research bonus 2
Human mystics are available inland too and 90 gold for S1 + 100% FWES
H2 administrator guy with tax collector and patrol bonus 15 (but poor leadership, he actually has 40/-1)
Triton Knights UW, complete with alicorns and recup for 45 gold

Uruk
Non-fort only bodyguards (2). Royal guards. And another units with berserker (1) in Forts.
Non-cap, non-StR S2W1H2
Naditu (S1H1) 70g
Nin. 75 gold for H1 100% WESN
Gala N1H1 Elegist Spellsinger. 75g
Ashipu, S1N1 disease healer 1
Ishib is W1H2 100%AWEN
Enkidu shamans. 2 rec points, alas but E1N2 beastmaster
S3N1 100% AWES 10% AWEN. Fortuneteller 15%
Const4 N1 National item that summons a buffalo (size 4 trampler, berserk2, lowish prot though)

Yomi
Income is 75% normal, but temples cost 200 and temperature penalties are halved.
Recruitable commanders are the same (currently), recruitable troops no longer include oni
Oni troops freespawn in temple provinces, domstrength doesn’t matter as long as it’s 1, but Turmoil scales matter and so do temp scales for hot/cold oni. More powerful onis show up in mountains & highlands.
Oni generals & Dai oni spawn some weak oni based on unrest & turmoil. Starts with an Oni General
Hannyas not cold blooded anymore. Summonable Hannyas.
Human commanders have the potential for transformation to demons.

C’tis
Sacred serpents can’t be recruited, but recruited 1/month by priests in temples.
Most units gain swimming ability (they can cross unfrozen rivers).

Vanheim
-20% cost to Dwarven hammers.

EA Ermor
Units have better MM (they are accustomed to marching)

MA Ermor
Starts at 3 Death (so they lose 120 Pretender Points). Freespawn more dependent on forts.

MA Agartha
Statues can’t get regeneration with bless.

Pangea
National spells that summons Fort with research 0 in EA, 4-5 (don’t remember) in MA/LA
NationalPangea summon, forest only. Ench 5 N4 25 gems. Tree mage with N3, Innate spellcaster. 3d6 harpies battlesummon.
250gold labs.
La gets Centauridae Crossobw.

MA Ulm
They have magical armor on troops. And magical shields with higher protection that are harder to break/damage.

Xibalba
There is no hard cap of 100 units/turn. But the new recruitment system means they usually recruit much less.

Ur
Galas also have spellsinging. Shirrush are 40 gold cheaper.

Tien Ch’i
National magic items (sword, armor) that cost only 4 gems.

Bandar
Reincarnation works - for troops too.
Max reincarnation chance is 50 for commanders, 5 for white ones, 10 for tiger riders.

Kailasa
Guhyaka generals are not StR anymore (just 2 rec points).

Sidhe nations get a national item: Shillelaigh (Const 0, luck and retinue 1 sprite)

Ulm
National items like Black Halberd (with extra AoE damage to sacreds)
Discount to blacksteel shield and copper arms

MA Marignon
Discounts on the Flambeau

Jomon
Ryujin 20% cheaper, it has a dragon pearl (1 water gem for battle)

Vanarus
Chud Hirdman more expensive (35g).
It has a new human berserkers (+2). 15g, 13prot, two attacks (18-19 dmg).

MA Ermor and Lemuria
Capital gem income reduced to 9D, but temples generate +1 each up to +10 and they have starting mages (Spectator, Thaumaturg).
Ermor’s dominion can detect corpses.

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BATTLE MECHANICS

Repel is nerfed, now it works more like in Dom3, instead of Dom4.

Length-1 weapons are a bit better. Weapon lengths now go from 0-5, rather than 0-6. All length 2-6 weapons have dropped a category. So previously length-1 weapons benefit from this, since they aren’t repelled by previously length-2 weapons anymore.

Critical hits are -25% instead of -50% to protection. And critical hits become more likely at fatigue >= 50

Shields (even magical) can be damaged or broken. They are auto repaired after battle. And yes, magical shields can be lost permanently this way (they only can get damaged, if broken they dissappear). Magic shields get a bonus to resist this.
The formula is attack damage vs shield prot (+5 if magical) * 2, with slashing/blunt/pierce getting + 75% / +25% / +0%

Reinvigoration 1 for everyone (as in, every turn awake units recover 1 fatigue). This means slightly less criticals.

2-hand weapons get +25% dmg bonus.

Ranged weapons have a +33% STR bonus to damage (before it was 0, unlike normal melee weapons), but a bit less base damage, and extra range. Stronger than average archers (like giants) will benefit.

Short swords were rebalanced: from +2 def to +1 att & +1 def.

New order: Hold & Fire. They hold ‘2 turns’ and then move until firing range.

Line formation needs a good leader, but it doesn’t slow units anymore.

Fort defense works like PD. They have infinite ammo.

The harassment penalty (every attack received after the first one) is -1 def per attack on infantry, -0.5 penalty per attack on cavalry.

Flying in battle needs one ‘turn’ to move from one point to another. If a flier want to move to a close position, they can walk.

All resists stack, but resist work differently now, you still roll if resist >= base damage
Post-resist damage now rounds down, instead of up.

Some AoE attacks have the ‘lingering’ tag. The effect stay for 3-4 turns.

Some units (usually with multiple head, ie. Hydra) have a bonus against the ‘receiving multiple attacks’ effect.

New retreat system, good leaders can prevent units from dispersing in all directions.
If instead you have a bad leader, if a province have 5 connection, and only one connected to an ally progince, you can easily lose 80% of the retreaters.
Leader get 75% odds of going to friendly provinces, 87.5% with terrain survival (speaking about retreating)

Formation fighter is changed: now increase unit density, effectively “decreasing size”, so you can have more size 3 units on square than 2.

AI archers more likely to ignore smaller squads.

Squads with guard commander order will always appear guarding the commander (no cheese).

Undisciplined gives reduced siege defence and is an extra penalty for retreating/following your commander.

Piercing damage -20% prot effect seems to apply to shields now too

AI is also better with communions.

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MECHANICS

Immortality now has a ‘turns to reform’ value and two types: full (works everywhere except outer planes), dominion (works in friendly dom only).
Also units resurrect in their home province, not always the capital and some units like vampires require extra turns if they died far from it. Being Soul-slain doubles resurrection time, and Soul devouring circumvents immortality.
Immortality only gives a recuperation check at resurrection.

Assassins work slightly better thanks to casting time of mages in real time combat and being more readily available, guard commanders is limited to 5 units.

New ability: sun awe, different to normal awe. It doesn’t work in caves, in darkness or in rain.

Gladiators only disappear if they were wounded or if they killed someone.

Uruk still does not lose pretender paths at death. HOWEVER, that mechanic is now much kinder to everyone
Pretender death & recalling loses AT MOST one path, and can even gain you Blood or Death (rarely)
Nature is the most likely path to be lost; you can also lose 1 point of domstrength IIRC.

Some new heroic abilities: Soul Butchering, Troll Blood and Fast Casting

Invisibility: cannot be discovered except by spirit sight units, attackers in melee have -10 attack (not sure about ranged effect).
Spirit sight counter it, and it isn’t THAT rare, there’s a bless and many undead, demons & spirits have it.

Worm mages have their unique Reform ability:
When the mage dies on the battlefield, they explode in multiple bugs. One however is a ‘soul bug’, and in X turns the worm mage reforms UNLESS the soul bug is killed first. This triggers 100% of the time (before it was 75%)

Pillaging gives more gold.

Fortunetelling has higher values, on average.

Gem events are harsher now (they take gems from commanders).

Quickness gives double aging, on the world map presumably too

Animals & undisciplined have lower siege defence.

New sleep effect: similar to CoE4, unit doesn’t act, wakes up if damaged, X% chance to awake each turn (10?). Shinuyama vamps sleep aura also uses this new effect; Elf shot does not however.

You no longer get redundant scale events. (Events that only give + to a maxed scale)

Stun is a new effect caused by lightning damage/fatigue and Mesmerize; unit doesn’t act and has -75% defence, usually recovers in 1 round.

Being limp or crippled will reduce a commander’s map move. Troops with these afflictions will not slow the army down but may die if forced long distances or march at all, respectively.
Limp = 25% death chance moving more than 1 province. Crippled = 50% at all, 75% more than one.

Hypnotize is now melee, doesn’t work on blind, Stun instead of Confusion, infinite ammo

Woundfend is now a divisor rather than a percentage. So the odds of getting afflictions drops greatly with even a small woundfend value but you can’t make yourself completely immune.

Siege formula is different, the total values are divided by 200 and not by 100, so even if some of the new forts have high wall integrity, you should break siege a bit faster than in Dom4, on average.
Similar changes mean that fliers with below average strength have less siege attack score than before (nerf to Caelum and Xibalba).

Scouts can see forts under construction.

Hoburg soulless units!

Fear is capped at -5 morale.

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UI

Conservative casting is now saved with orders and there is an * to remember a mage has it.

Army setup screen: it shows province defense value, total supplies, total siege strength. Commanders show more clearly the number of squads and number of units at their care, and the supplies taken by every group, and the current and total leadership consumed (normal / magical / undead).

Monthly casting and monthly forging are now options in the UI.

You can see unit list (main ones and foreign rec too) and national spells in the Nation description.

Warning Popup saying you can’t group up mindless with normal units.

MP messages can be edited.

Hall of Fame shows the heroic ability of every hero.

Item info boxes are now much more informative.

Battle summary log track kills, show icons of units and flags of nations. Province defense appears in a separate category (like another nation).

Battle log is more detailed (includes penetration rolls).

A dotted colored line indicates province connections. Color indicate :
Road between province, green
Normal connection, orangey yellow
Mountain is red (fades to indicate passability)
River is blue inside yellow (again fades)
Blue is underwater/to water province.

Spell lists show gem cost and type (ritual or not) more clearly.

Magic sites show up as square icons in the map.

Events show thumbnail image of the location of where it happened.

Reorganized battle orders screens so ‘choose target’ is integrated in the same window.

You see magic paths while placing a mage in the battlefield (editing the position in army setup).

You can move squads in the Position Army Box by right clicking them without having to go to previous screen. And Commanders are rounded squares unlike normal squads (squares as always).

Insane commanders revert to previous orders when they go sane again.

New UI screen: Battle Overview, pressing F1 in a battle. Shows a list of every unit participating. It can filter by unit type, nation, HP, FP, XP. There’s also a “status” column, but not filterable. (“Status” shows things like “dead” or “stunned.”)

Box Army setup: you can see the all the troops contained in a selected squad, and the map has lines indicating 25%, 50%, 75% distance (in the X axis).

If you have both stealthy and non-stealthy commanders selected, both will automatically move without stealth.

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GAME OPTIONS

You can have 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 global spell slots.
You can set the default AI level for multiplayer games.
Hall of Fame size more configurable.
Story event settings options are off, minimal, full.
Special site frequency customizable, from 0 to 75.

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[Tanaka]

MAGIC

Province enchantments were changed a bit too. Most now disappear when the province is conquered.
Gods and disciples get their own bless while in Friendly dominion.
Communions are nerfed (fatigue converted to damage ratio doubled.)
Stellar Cascades is MR halves effect.
Several summoning spells are relatively slow (more than the average, which is 100% casting time). Ie: Summon Elemental is 125% time. Living X 175% IIRC.
Item range boosters now boost BOTH rituals and battle range. Each +1 ritual range is +25% battle range.

Demon Knights nerfed. Serpent Fiends buffed (2 slaves only).

Empowering Blood can horrormark you. Low-ish chance, though.

RoS is very nerfed. Capped 1 damage? Though RoS and Stone Bird are much more likely to hit in head.

New F spell to eliminate diseases (but triggers a 20 dmg Fire attack).

New spell: Chain lightning. It works exactly like you think: it jumps from unit to unit. 3 effects, each can chain 5 units.
Orb Lightning uses the same mechanic now.

Casting spells works this way: if a spell needs one round (100% casting time), 0.5 rounds is used preparing the spell (mage could be interrupted here), then it’s casted, then the following 0.5 rounds is time recovering (mage does nothing).

Blood spells are slower than normal (125%-150% ). Hell Power is 200%. Blood Rain at 275%.

Battlefield spells are slow. Examples:
Light of the Northern Star 225%, Power of the Spheres is 125%, Will of the Fates 225%. Antimagic is 150%.
Nature BEs also tend to have long castime times. Howl is 250%. Relief is 200%

Spell Conj3 N2 10gems sumons 5+ buffalos, for Middle East Nations

You need X3 in magical path to gain the related passive resist

Some of the new variations of Smite/Banish:

Smite
Death - You MR check for 10 damage THEN if that worked you MR check for death (and then for exhaustion)
Nature - low damage (5), if damage you get entangled/bleeding
Water - Watery Deah - 10AN + Drowning (10AN, don’t affect UW units/undead/inanimate)
Fire - Heavenly fire: 10 AN MR negates (NOT fire), plus 10 fire AN if damaged.
Air - Range 50 (most are 20-30)., standard 10 damage, if damaged also 5 AN lightning
Earth - Word of Stone. Range 20, but secondary effect is petrification (you need to fail another MR check though)
Astral - Range 100, does paralyzation (MR check again here too)
Blood - Range 25, damage 20 base but doesn’t work vs undead or lifeless, secondary effect is chest wound. (no new MR check)

Banish
Nature - Instakill, but MR negates easily. AoE is 2+1/level
Fire - AoE 4+2/level
Astral - AoE 8+4/level (low damage, but halt/stun)
Air - AoE +4/level
Water - Purifying Water - AoE 6 . 2AN damage + burning (1AP)
Earth - It does Earth grip secondary (MR check).
Blood - No special variation for Blood magic.

Priest spell: Holy word. H2, Range 25, fatigue cost 0, sacred only stun.
Thaum 6, N5 Syllabe of Sleep. AoE 24 Sleep, 20 Fatigue, 25 Range . Uses new sleep effect.
Web spell. N1, range 20+, AoE 2, strong or large can resist.
Gifts from Heaven was also nerfed - it now has a new ‘inaccurate’ tag. Meaning even with very high precision, it can still miss its intended target.
Meteor Shower. Evo 9, E5S4, 3 gems, casting time 250%. It’s a GfH variation, a Battlefield Enchantment (slowish rate of fire, of course).
Slow. Alt 4, W2. Range 25 AoE 1 prec 100, mr negates. Unit has -2 att & def, half movement & attack speed.
‘Awaken Algae Men’ (summon kelp men UW).

Mages can hurt and even kill themselves through casting fatigue. S8 human casting Master Enslave with no extra gems, communion slaves…will easily kill themselves. Damage is about 1 HP per 25 fatigue above 200.
Before fatigue over 200 was ignored when casting a spell.

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ITEMS

New W item to self-bless.
Duskdaggers cause bleeding now.
Slave collars give +1 assassin patience.
Boosters have been shuffled around.
Ring of Sorcery and Wizandry are now S6 and S7. Robe of the Magi and Treelord’s staff are also a bit easier to get.

Costs of items can be different to magic level requirement (not 5 gems for each path).

Blood items has been shuffled a lot. Blood Thorn is B3. Lifelong and Infernal contract are more expensive but easier to forge.

Amulet of the Doppelganger now gives seduction.
A new pair of boots, gives all survivals including winter move and ‘Unhindered’ (immunity to tangle vines, earth grip, web…)
Crown slot, that differs from normal helmet slot.

Thunder Whip now has less base damage but ‘chain shock’ effect (3 AN chaining 3)
Ring of Returning. Const 6 S3. Returning on damage. It’s the ‘safe’ returning.
The heart of Quickness. Const6 B3. Reinv2, Quickness, map Move +12, cursed.

Frost Brand: Const 4, base damage 8, AoE damage 12.
Fire Brand: Const 6, base damage 8 AP, AoE damage 14.

New items with some kind of AoE:
Mace of Eruption (Const 2 F2, base damage 11, AoE 8)
Ice Mist Scimitar (Const 2 W1A1, +10 cold resist, base damage 8, AoE 10 FATIGUE) (might request adding lingering since it’s mist)
Rime Hammer (Const 6 W2A1, 2handed, base damage 21, AoE 1 AN AoE3 lingering 2)

Shrouds are cursed & unlootable.

Some changes to existing Dom4 weapons:
Snake Bladder Stick also creates clouds now (AoE lingering: 2).
Gloves of the Gladiator +3 strength & +1 MR
Wraith Sword D4->D2 2h
Sword of Sharpness -> Greatsword of …, damage 12->15, attack/def +2/+3 -> +4/4
Holy scourge damage 4->6, attack +3 -> +5
Hammer of the Mountains attack/def -2/-4 -> -1/-3, gained AoE stun (can be resisted by strong or large)
Midget masher damage 13->20, attack +2 -> +3
Demon bane damage 17->15 and attack +6 -> +5, but also gives +5 HP
Hell Sword B3F2->B2F2 (10 slaves 10 gems),damage 9->14, attack/defence +3/+0 -> +5/+1
Bottles of Living Water got a nerf - elemental is now size 5
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BLESSES

Bless quickness is full quickness (x2), not 1.5 more attacks.

Blesses need 4 in a magic path as before, with the exception of having 3 in every elemental path (A3F3W3E3) or having 3 in every sorcery path (B3S3D3N3).

Blesses don’t normally stack. Weapon blesses are the exception.

Three type of blesses: passive blesses that are always active for holy units, normal blesses, blesses that also need your Pretender to be on the map.

I’d say as a very general rule that blesses are overall slightly weaker. But they can be tailored to your specific needs, of course.

WEAPON BLESSES (can be stacked with each other)
Flaming Weapons (F7, incarnate): 6 fire AP on hit
Thunder Weapons (A7, incarnate): 1 AN lightning capped on hit + 3 AN lightning stun. Lightning damage can ‘stun’ making units not act for about 1 turn and giving -75% defence
Frost Weapons (W5 Cold 1, incarnate): 8 cold on hit
Solar Weapons (S3F1): 3 fire AP on hit, extra damage vs undead & demons
Withering Weapons (D4): causes decay on damage if MR check is failed
Death Weapons (D8, incarnate): 2 AN damage on hit if MR check is failed, disease if another MR check is failed too
Poison Weapons (N4 Death scale 1): Adds +5 poison on damage
Unholy Weapons (B6 , Incarnate): extra 10 AP damage that only affects enemy sacreds. Affects all except natural ranged weapons like mind blasts/fire breaths. Does affect bows.

Enlarge Bless: +1 size +30% HP+3 strength -1 defence +2 mapmove. Does nothing for size 6, also size 4+ units now get an automatic +1 weapon length.

Attack Skill: +2 to attack
Minor Shock Resistance: 5 lightning resist
Wind Walker: can march further, +6 mapmove for all sacreds (even when not blessed). 5 Air points. Can’t be stacked, incarnate only.
Thunder Weapons: lightning added to weapon attacks, 1 AN capped damage + 3 AN stun. Affects all except natural ranged weapons like mind blasts/fire breaths. Does affects bows.
Water breathing: sacreds can cross rivers, enter the sea (even when not blessed)
Far caster: +50% to combat spell range
Arcane Finesse: +1 to spell penetration
Fateweaving: anyone striking blessed unit gets cursed and has bad luck for the next few rounds of combat (I’m not sure how this works in detail).
Stygian Flesh: blessed units get Invulnerability (10)
Blood Surge: after killing someone (except inanimates), gain +3 attack, +3 strength, +1 def, +1 reinvig for a few rounds
Blood Bond: half of incoming damage goes to other blessed troops nearby (range 5)

survivals: Waste F1D1, swamp W1N1, mountain E1, forest N2.
water walking: W2, can cross rivers
water breathing: W7, incarnate only

Low-light is +50% darkvision
Reconstruction makes inanimate sacred ignore 'does not heal’
Fortitude grants all weapon resists (and post-resist damage now rounds DOWN)
Death explosion: it’s AoE 5, 10AP damage.
Swiftness: It’s +30% movement in combat, stackable.
Charged Bodies : 10 AN lightning damage when struck, applies to BOTH attacker and blessed unit. Think it’s once/battle.
Frost Weapons: 8 cold damage.
Unbreakable: -75% afflictions
Spirit Sight: DV 100% + the ability to see invisible units (currently just one, the Titan of the Underworld with the helmet of invisibility) attacking them at no penalty in melee and finding them while patrolling.
Solar Weapons: 3 AP fire damage, doubled or tripled vs undead & demons
Half Dead: Disease immunity 100%, needs not eat.
Resilient & Strong Vitae: +1 HP

Stackable blesses: morale, attack, strength, HP, undying, strength,+precision, reinvigoration, non-spell projectile range (=Farshot), battle movement (=Swiftness).
The resistance blesses stack (and heat/cold auras give a bonus 5 fire/cold resist), and if you want 15 you have to pick both.
Minor (+1) and Major (+2) MR work the same. If you want +3 pick both, there is no 18 cap anymore.

Recuperation : N4-> N5
Astral Finesse: Works with Hypnotize, possibly more melee attacks N
Strength of the Earth (E3, +2 strength, stackable)
Winter’s Gift (W1, winter move, requires Cold 1+).

[Tanaka]

PRETENDER DESIGN

Some nations gain extra magic path for the Pretender (ie. +2 Earth for Agartha). This two extra points don’t count for the minimum points to obtain a bless (if you invest to E2, you gain E4, but it won’t unlock E blesses).

There is a random starting research option. Based on Magic/Drain. HOWEVER there is also an option to turn it off

New archmage pretenders (all dom1, most pathcost 10):
Grand Hierophant (S1, fortuneteller 20, +20 research, 100 base points Greek nations)
Grand Hydromancer (W1, 1 gem/turn, amphibian, most water nations and some land ones)
Master (S1 flying ambdiextrous 1, T’ien C’hi)
Aphroi Sage (N1, nothing else)
God-king of the Deep (W1S1 pathcost 20, only MA Atlantis)
Magister Supreme (A1, siege bonuses, mason, LA Man only)

Dom2 disciples no longer pay for dominion. So they’re about 40 points cheaper.

Western Dragons have ‘dragon master’ ability (like the spell).

Asian Dragons have a ‘dragon pearl’ giving +1 astral or water and a temporary gem of that path. Pearl is cursed and lost at death (I presume), but they don’t pay any points for it.

Forge Lord has a 20% discount in forging.

SCALE EFFECTS PER TICK
Order/Turmoil: +/- 2% income, 1 unrest reduction, 10% recruitment points, 2% resources, -2% events
Production/Sloth: +/- 3% income, 15% resources
Growth/Death: +/- 4% income, 0.2% growth, 10% supplies
Luck/Misfortune: +/- 5% events, 10% good events (was 15%)
Magic/Drain: +/- 1 RP, 1 MR at 2+ (unchanged)

Unaging slow down aging to 1/4. Old people are still old.

Some Pretenders have gained disease resist 100% (like Raven, or Dog),

For dragons: Dragon gas does more damage, lingering effect.

Dominion 9 no longer gives Awe (you can take Fire 8 for that bless).

Trinity type of Pretenders. They are 3 units (naked titan chassis), expensive, but if they are separate they are weaker and don’t produce dominion checks. They have a ‘unify’ command that teleports the other units to the same province.

New Pretender: The Morrigna . Her shapes have slightly different abilities based on main path: Death has higher base fear, Astral has fortuneteller 15, Air has berserk +4
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STRATEGIC MAP

Roads are built-in in the map, and now cannot be built. They are directional (only works from province A to B).

Some provinces can be naturally heat or cold 1.

Now priests can know the dominion owners.

Units now see the owners of every province they can move to.

Mapmakers can select the dominion overlay color & saturation

New ability: snow move. Niefelheim, Rus, EA Ulm, Bogarus have it. Snow’s effect on movement isn’t THAT big though.
Also levitation officially works like forest survival & snow move.

Map move: province type is a fixed value (normal and farmland is 6, Forest and Waste is 10, Cave 12, Mountains 16, Snow +2, Enemy Controlled Territory +8 (or 6 for stealthy units), Roads -4. UW is 10.
Minimum for movement for a province is 4 MM, so plains with a road is 4, not 2. Armies can always move minimum 1 province, even if they don’t have enough MM (if for example is an enemy mountain).

With the new move system some units can move two UW provinces in one go, like in land provinces. If your troops have a ridiculous enough movement, you can actually just attack a non-adjacent province even without flying.

You can raid with light cav. They’re not quite as good at it as fliers, but you sometimes get setups where you can attack a bit behind enemy lines, or at least launch completely unannounced attacks on their front.
(It depends on the terrain, whether there are any roads, whether the cavalry is stealthy, what survival skills they have, and how many movement points they have, so of course it’s a bit variable.)

Fliers also require a bit less movement points to move through most provinces, but they don’t just negate terrain like they used to. Mountains can hinder them pretty significantly.

Recruitment points are based primarily of the gold cost and base cost ratio. Tags like slave and undisciplined lowers it. Rec. point requirements increase with age…

Some foreign-rec mages that were StR are now only 2 commander points (instead of 4, which would be the equivalent).

Some nations gets ice forts, which can be melted with Heat, turning them in a ‘degraded’ version.

Default magic site has gone up (60/50/40).

Everyone starts with Palisades, and from there you upgrade the forts. Capital Palisades are different from normal Palisades.

Each 200/300 gold sunk into upgrading your fort also provides more defense, administration etc. than it would in the previous system. You can’t build specific fort upgrades, only upgrade the fort itself.

Palisades need two turns to recruit a normal mage.

Giants in particular have slightly more expensive fort upgrades but also get tougher fortresses in return for it.

Assassins, scouts, cheap commanders only consume 1 cmdr. recruit point. That means you can hire 2/3 per turn in a Fort/Citadel.

Stats for magic forts:
Wizard’s Tower (admin 40, +1 commander, +125% rec points)
Citadel of Power (from 3 red seconds, admin 60 +2 commander +200% recpoints)
Kelp Fort (admin 40-something, +1 commander, +150% recpoints)

Some info on forts, using LA Man as an example.

Basic fort costing 600 gold & 4 turns:
Palisades
admin 15, no commander point bonus, +50% recruitment points.
Supply storage 100, walls are defended by a Magister + 8 tower guards
Wall integrity 100.
Note wall defenders also provide siege defence, for tower guards it’s 1 point each.

300 gold & 2 months
Fortress
admin 30, +1 commander point, +100% recruitment points,
Supply storage 500, Magister + 16 tower guards on the walls, wall integrity 250.

300 gold & 2 months
Castle
admin 45, still +1 commander point, +150% recruitment points
Supply storage 1500, Magister + 24 tower guards, wall integrity 500

+450 gold 3 months
Citadel
admin 60, still +2 commander points, +200% recruitment points
Supply storage 5000, Magister + 32 tower guards, wall integrity 750

Finally a Magister can through their Mason ability spend 600 gold and 4 months to upgrade to the
Grand Citadel
admin 70, still +2 commander points, still +200% recruitment points
Supply storage 7500, Magister + 40 guards, wall integrity 1000.

Currently recpoints is more of a question of “who suffers least from this”, a question won mainly by popkill nation, but giants and Abysians also benefit, since they have a very high recpoint:power ratio.
(Abysians actually cost less recpoints than humans do, while Jotuns and Rephaites only cost a bit more.)

Glamour armies now take a penalties to stealth based on size.

Cavalry is in general slightly cheaper (by 5 gold).

Flying is slower in caves.

Average map move for humans and including armor penalties: heavy infantry 8 light infantry/heavy cavalry 14, light cavalry 20. Fliers can be fast or slow.

Two new underwater provinces types: Kelp Forest (higher income) and Deep gorges (like deep ocean, even less income, but more magic sites).

[Tanaka]

-Real time combat
-Custom blesses (77 individual effects)
-New and unique banishment and smite spells for every magic path.
-History playback after game over.
-Better random maps.
-New recruitment system for commanders and normal units.
-New build/upgrade forts system.
-New, more granular movement system in strategic map.
-Winter shown on map and affects movement
-Dominion overlay.
-New retreat rules (units can disperse after battle, good leaders prevent this).
-Improvements in AI.
-Better 3d performance, better looking terrain.
-Three new nations (Uruk, Rus, Erythea).
-Some old nations have been reworked and updated (Marverni, Sauromatia, Yomi, Abysia, Lemuria, Ur and others).
-More spells, magic items, special abilities, events, monsters, titles, thrones, …

-Improvements in UI.
*Conservative casting is now saved with script and is shown in UI.
*More info related to province defese, supplies, attack and defense siege scores, commander max squads and type shown.
*Monthly casting and monthly forging are now options in the UI.
*Nation description show more info like unit roster.
*More info for items.
*More info in Battle summary log.
*More info conveyed in province connections.
*Spell lists show gem cost and type (ritual or not).
*Magic sites show up as icons in the map.
*Events show thumbnail image of the location.
*Much better army setup, with less micro.
*New UI screen: Battle Overview.
*Holding TAB in army setup will show hearts for afflicted units.
*Multi turn order movement for armies (saved for the next turn)
*Provinces flags are highlighted indicating where you can move to.

-Updated battle system:
*Repel weapon changed
*Critical hits bypass less protection
*Shields can be damaged
*Units recover 1 fatigue/turn
*2-hand weapons do more damage
*Str contributes to bow damage
*New orders: hold & fire and advance & cast.
*Harassment penalty halved
*Better cavalry
*Flying needs one turn to move from one point to another
*Formation fighter increase unit density
*Pierce damage affects shields
*New stun and new sleep effects

-Changed mechanics:
*Sieges are faster now, and need time to repair damage
*Limp or cripple affects strategic movement
*Fear effect is capped, so overlapping fear auras aren't as strong
*Stronger gem income on every age
*Pillaging made more effective
*Pretender gods get their own bless
*New UW province types.

-New setup game options:
*Max turn limit/game mode on games (Cataclysm: Horrors attack!)
*Selectable AI level for mp games.
*Customizable global spell slots.
*Customizable story event settings.
*More customizable site frequency.
*Random starting research option.

[waTTe]

Great! Thank you.
Should be stickied for a while?!

[Neborya]

Any changes to Burden of Time? :)

[guardianru]

Yup, stick please!

[Strategiusz]

Epic post. Thank you.

[Mormacil]

Thanks for this.

[Althaea]

The title is a bit too cluttery for it to be pinned. Good thing the title was changed to credit Turin since last I looked at it, though. First time I saw it I thought I recognized the list itself though I didn't have time to investigate and compare.

Turin's original list is linked in the FAQ but it's alright to have a post for it here as well now that credit is given where it's due. It won't be stickied, though. The pins are already getting a bit too cluttered.

[Mormacil]

Originally posted by ryancup:

So they balanced some things, added some new features and boom; sell it as a full priced $40 sequel. Definitely not buying this.

You're funny, it also has 3-4 years of patches with new content. Luckily this is a free world and you're not forced to buy it :)

[Swirler]

Woah, yeah this should be stickied this is an excellent run down of changes.

[jojeck]

Lemuria
Like MA Ermor, they start with Death 3 (120 less Pretender points).
It has double Magic/Drain scaling effect (so double RP at M3). Lemuria is even more Magic-dependant now.
Spectral weapons now do half damage if you pass the MR check (also helps Therodos).
Thaumaturges and Acolytes are cheaper. However, Thaumaturges are no longer immortal. Grand Lemur buffed because immortality mechanics changes benefit them.
Increased strategic mobility because floating mechanics.
They have rare mage freespawns.

Here are a few extra things I noted in my first Lemuria game.

The mage freespawns are Acolytes in forts with labs. Temples freespawn Shadow Tribunes in forts and with no fort (same as Dom 4)

The basic death gem income is now 9 (instead of 15) but temples can now give 1 death gem upto the max dominion. So the starting temple gives 1 D gem and each temple built gives another until you reach your max dominion, then you have to build 5 temples to get 1D up to the max of 19 D gems with 10 dominion and at least 10 temples.

The really big change is that indy priests can now reanimate Shadow soldiers and Spirits and also carry 15 undead troops the same as they worked for Sceleria in Dom 4. This makes them a cheap way to expand, build temples and then a palisade later. Temple and palisade is enough to generate the fort freespawn so expansion seems a lot faster than it was.

[Vir027]

Wow! You wrote way more than I read. Thanks and, I presume, thanks a lot more!

[Turin Turambar]

I recognize this...

Surely the person who wrote it is a very handsome and smart fellow. And surely you can't trust 100% of the text as that person just copied everything from beta testers, and there were changes or stuff that was unchecked.

[olli]

Well, thanks this person for doing that: now we can observe compact changes.