How has lemuria changed?

[Jaif]

I'm not a very experienced player, but I don't see any big differences from DOM4 when I started up a game as lemuria. Seems like the same freespawn, same leader choices.

It's probably subtle stuff I've missed.

Bonus question - do palisades get the same freespawn as the upgrade (fortresses)?

-Jeff

P.S. I liked the look and feel of lemuria a lot in the old days, but they felt very brittle.

[Foulsplay]

They get death gems per temple up to your dominions

[Miguel V-DF]

The immortality their commanders have is not dominion-only anymore. Didn't play them yet, so don't know more.

[Foulsplay]

Originally posted by Leugimimi:

The immortality their commanders have is not dominion-only anymore. Didn't play them yet, so don't know more.

Sweet going home I will play as them and ermor

[jojeck]

The can get freespawn acolytes now in any lab. Acolytes get double the magic bonus, so no need to use revenants now.

The big change is that Indy priests can reanimate the spirits and shadow soldiers and carry upto 15 undead, just like Sceleria can reanimate skellies. This makes for a faster expansion

[Miguel V-DF]

Huh, I had heard that as now the reanimation was a trait of the unit, the exploit of using indie priests to reanimate could not be used anymore, If I remember correctly it was a discussion on Lanka. This is not true with Lemuria?

[Foulsplay]

Originally posted by Leugimimi:

Huh, I had heard that as now the reanimation was a trait of the unit, the exploit of using indie priests to reanimate could not be used anymore, If I remember correctly it was a discussion on Lanka. This is not true with Lemuria?

For Sceleria it is, so maybe you can only do thay with nationals only

[TheGrandWombat]

I could be remembering incorrectly, but I believe that in Dominions 4 passing a MR check would negate the damage that most of Lemuria's weapons dealt. Now a successful check only halves the damage.

[Jaif]

wow...great help, and apparently a lot of people playing the game and checking the forum.

Thanks all. Now to re-tool my pretender after reading the spell lists. :-)

[jojeck]

In my test games with MA Ermor and Lemuria in Dom 5 indy priests have the ability to reanimate undead. Haven't played Sceleria yet but expect them to be able to as well. Only Lanka was fixed as I recall, but they were broken with that ability.

[Althaea]

Rather, only MA Ermor and Lemuria have that ability. For all other nations (including AFAIK other undead popkill nations such as Therodos and Asphodel) the ability is per-unit.

[jojeck]

You're right. If we read the national descriptions it all becomes clear. MA Ermor and Lemuria both have the phrase "all priests can reanimate the dead" so that is both living and undead priests. Sceleria and Lanka both have the phrase "national priests can reanimate the dead". Asphodel have "undead priests ... ".

Most other nations have no mention of reanimation and that implies they get the default ability that undead priests can reanimate but they can normally only obtain them by summoning Mound Fiend (Conj 7) or by twice born giving a Wraith mage.

[Althaea]

Undead priests cannot reanimate by default either. So e.g. you can't prophetize a Mound King to get a nearly free early reanimator.

So for most nations they'd have to use a Mound Fiend or Dust Priest (from Hidden in Sands) to accomplish it.

[jojeck]

Not really sure what you mean by prophetising a Mound King to use as a reanimator, never tried that except with a reanimating nation. As far as I can tell in Dom 4 all undead priests can reanimate some form of undead as a sort of compensation for them not being able to preach to spread dominion. The nation determines what sort of undead the undead priest reanimates, each nation has its own undead types, Asphodel gets manikins and carrion beasts, Lemuria gets spirits, shadows etc, Sceleria gets the standard skellies, souless and ghouls and H2 can raise the longdead horsemen. The default for nations like MA C'tis that don't normally reanimate is the standard skellies etc. I guess this carries over to Dom 5 but haven't tested it yet of course.

What is certainly true for Lemuria if you have a dormant pretender is that prophetising the starting Centurion is a good move giving a commander that can reanimate 2 Apparitions per turn until the capital pop dies off and adding these to expansion parties is very strong versus indies. Use your Acolyte to summon a replacement Centurion and then either an Acolyte or Centurion if you have enough freespawn troops. As soon as you conquer a province that can recruit indy priests send an Acolyte there and build a temple, then recruit as many indy priests as you can afford and use them to help build palisades and temples or reanimate shadows. Lemuria expansion is much faster in Dom 5 due to these indy priests being so useful for many things.

[Althaea]

What I'm saying is that undead priests can no longer reanimate just because they are undead priests. They need to have the appropriate ability, just like living priests, or belong to MA Ermor or Lemuria.

A lot of undead priests can reanimate, but that's a separate ability/trait. For Lemuria the Centurion idea would work because all Lemurian priests can reanimate. But if as Sceleria or C'tis you summon a Lich and prophetize it, it will not be able to reanimate.

[jojeck]

Thanks that's very clear. I'll look out for those changes.