Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

UI is like total nonsense ... I cannot imagine that so many ppl liked that game...

Just way too complicated for me - this game has gathered dust in my library for years because every time I've tried to play it I've just landed up scratching my head trying to understand what is going on - even a tutorial video on YouTube took like an hour just to get past some of the starting options, before even really getting into any game play.

Not helped by the fact that there doesn't seem to be a proper inbuilt tutorial (well there is in theory, but it directs me towards reading the manual and there is no on-screen help or tips that I can see). I like inbuilt tutorials because surely the people who developed the game should be best placed to tell us about all the mechanics and what is important, and if they don't see making the game comprehensible as being important then I'm kinda wondering why.

Within the game I just feel like there is too much stuff - do you want your pretender to be a dragon or a tree, what types of unit (of the many many types on offer) do you want to build, keeping in mind that they all have quite complicated stats and features, and it's not clear to me at all where I get things like research from etc - like I just don't understand at all the decisions I'm supposed to be making and I assume the only way to properly understand is to spend many many hours on Youtube tutorials and playing the game through repeatedly. I think that one thing which I feel makes it harder as a beginner is that many of these decisions feel quite drastic - i.e. having a large potential impact - it's not like choosing a civ which will be slightly better at tech, or slightly better with military, some of these feel like very fundamental and major choices and I don't really understand them or their potential impact later in the game at all.

I appreciate some people will read this and think I'm just lazy for not putting in more time to understand it properly but the simple reality is that I don't have the time or energy to understand something this complicated where the developers haven't really (in my view) made a bit more effort to ease me into it, with a proper tutorial and maybe a more user-friendly interface / hints, and some efforts to help me understand what the realistic impact of different decisions might be. I've played plenty of strategy games with various levels of complexity but for me this is complicated past the point where I feel like I will enjoy overall spending the time required to understand it. I have lot of other games in my library which I've played more (many of them cheaper than this one) because they are fairly easy to get into and have a good tutorial to get started, and I have a job where I'm expected to explain what I've done to customers rather than just sending them something overcomplicated and expecting them to work for hours to figure it out. So I just don't really see a good argument as to why this game couldn't be a bit more user friendly.

p.s. I am not whingeing about the graphics here, I would still pick up Civ 2 and play it very happily if I had a copy right now I just think this game is too complicated for me to get into and the interface / lack of a proper tutorial doesn't help.

Go play Dominions 6 if you can afford it.

I simply don't get it. You'll be doing fine keeping up constantly against a computer opponent then BAM, they drop 860 troops. I finally had one going fine and had half the board secure and steadily advancing then BAM, I stormed a castle after 6 rounds of siege and my entire board was wiped out. My God was secure and all the way in the back portion of the map so not in anyway vulnerable. Just YOU LOSE! The enemy didn't have even 100 troops near my location I was attacking and I had close to 1000. Makes no sense but won't ever involve any time in this game again.

It's an interesting game but just as soon as you are getting ahead the computer opponents

Lucky I got this game for around $5 but I would not suggest even paying that whenever they run a special.

Thought about it and wish I could recommend this game but it's literally micro-management hell. Was thinking about how many campaigns I started and realized I never really completed any of them. The gameplay loop isn't fun, it's more tedious than anything. Playing around with all the units and all the different pretender gods is really fun but doesn't make up for the gameplay.

Comprehensive and challenging strategy game. Very much fun for long time.

Oh wow, I never reviewed this game? Is it good? Well, do you want to make elaborate fantasy creatures and figures with highly detailed back stories to rule over fictional nations with origins in mythologies from all over the world and ultimately guide them on a path to supreme godhood over a randomly generated fantasy world full of unique cultures and other mythological figures vying for power?

Alternatively, do you want to make your avatar a "Freak Lord," name him "Rick James," and use him to continuously sacrifice virgins to create armies of freaks in the pursuit of the ultimate super freaks that will help lead Rick James to godhood (all literal things you can do, though not actually the most competetive strategy)?

Then you may want to play this game.

Dominions 4 is a one of a kind Turn Based Strategy game. It requires users to get past a UI and graphics interface that can be counter-intuitive to modern gaming standards, but once you do players will find a rare gem of a game that has more variety, thematics, and the capacity to create stories than any other 4X on the market.

The game is fun as a single player experience, which is honestly where most of my time in game has come from, but it really shines if you can find others to play with. That said, the game is more interested in incorporating the great variety of factions, spells, equipment, and units that make each play through unique than it is on strict balancing, so it is worth noting that you want to be sure to find the right folks that fit your play style. From my experience, the community is usually a fairly positive one and I have generally had good experiences.

The price point throws a lot of folks off, which I respect, but I still say this is one that is worth the full price of admission. I would love to see some of the unique mechanics here, especially how battle resolution and preparation is handled, be incorporated in more games in the turn based strategy genre.

This is simultaneously the best Grand Strategy, best Fantasy-Based Grand Strategy, and best Turn-Based Grand Strategy game that I have ever played.

The graphics are antiquated but the scope, scale, complexity, and enjoyment of play are second to none.

I highly recommend this game for any fans of the genres listed above.

I haven't put very much time into it, but I thought I'd leave a quick review:

The game is fun for the first 300 or so hours, then it starts to get even more fun when you finally begin to understand how to play the game. 10/10 the 320 hour tutorial was really well made.

When it comes to developing a game franchise, the most common approach is to improve every aspect of the game, with a strong attention given to UI and graphics. For Dominions however, Illwinter Games took a different turn. They piled up content and added extra features over a very old engine. They have done so for many years now.

So yes, this game is an ugly mess if you compare it to, say, the latest Civ. The barrier of entry is immense : Even if you've gotten your hands on some of the most complex 4X games of old such as Imperialism 2, or for a more recent exemple, Distant Worlds, you are not ready. I have played many of these games in my time, and boy I was not ready.

The amount of micro management and planning required to make you a "decent" Dominions 4 player is insane. Recruiting the right troops, managing a good income, and agressive expansion won't get you very far. You will need a sound understanding of the Magic Paths (hundreds of spells), your God design will determine if you're an early game nation with a Dragon rampaging through hordes of unprepared half-naked barbarians, or a late game nation with an old but powerful Crone biding his time in his cell, carefully planning research and assembling around you some of the most powerful magic users in the land.

I must warn you : If you come aboard, there's no turning back. Civ now feels shallow, when I boot up Total War I get flashbacks of the toy soldiers of my youth. Even my first 4X crush Master of Orion 2 has left me for good.

I used to be a nostalgic of the old 4X games, but that was before Dominions 4. I regret nothing.

I love strategy games. LOVE THEM. My favourites from the last twenty years include (in order) Age of Wonders III, Zeus: Master of Olympus, Crusader Kings II, Seven Kingdoms II, and Warlords III. Strategy fans will know that that's a fairly ecclectic mix of strategy sub-genres. Well, three days after purchasing Dominions 4 I can safely say that it has a place somewhere near the top of my list. I can't stop playing this game.

I'd heard whispers about the Dominions series down through the years. Legend had it that it was the most hardcore of the hardcore. In all honesty its reputation was rather intimidating. The ancient sages were right: I was baffled for my first three games. However, don't think that it's a project to merely get into Dominions 4. It really isn't. The appropriate phrase is, "easy to learn, difficult to master." That's Dominions 4.

The supreme god who brought order to the universe has disappeared, leaving it to a bunch of pretender gods to fight it out for His former position. You are one of those pretenders. Your first decisions will include what faction you want to control, which age of time you wish to play in, what physical form you'll take in the world, and how your influence will impact the lands under your dominion. The depth behind these choices alone is awesome.

Once you've chosen one of the many pre-made maps (or generated a random one) and have customised the scenario settings to your liking, it's time to conquer the world one province at a time until you've claimed the required number of Thrones of Ascension. Though even the victory condition is customisable.

In the process of doing this you'll command mighty armies, raise glorious heroes, spread the truth of your holy word, cast powerful spells, quell uprisings, contend with the fickle hand of fate in the form of random events, forge magic items, manage the economics of your realm, and a whole load more. This truly is one of those games that makes it impossible for you to keep track of time while you're playing. You may think that the graphics are simplistic (and they are), but trust me, after five minutes I don't see pixels anymore. All I see are my Atlanteans (or "Atlantians" as these developers have it) emerging from the ocean to crush all before them. I can't remember the last game I played that was so immersive. Your expectations would be better adjusted by considering Dominions 4 a board game with animated battles.

One thing that made me hesitate to buy the game were the number of reviews (positive ones) that cast a negative light on the single-player. This concerned me since I never have any interest in multiplayer whatsoever and only buy games for solo play. I'm very glad I decided to take a risk because the AI is a worthy opponent even on "Normal" difficulty. Looking through the updates I can see that a lot of work has been done on the AI since the time of release which probably accounts for the earliest reviews complaining about it and my experience towards the end of 2015 being totally different.

By this point in my review you'll probably already know whether or not this is the game for you, but let me share some of the cool elements in Dominions 4. You can rename not only your pretender god, but also any of your commanders. The factions in the game (there's loads of them) are all totally unique and change depending on the age you choose to play in. Those factions are all based on mythology from around our world, meaning you can live out your Arthurian or Atlantean fantasies (you have them too, right?) Your heroes can get wounded, which may involve losing one or more limbs. Characters will age and can weaken as they get older before finally dying, however some species live longer than others. The combat is detailed to the point that each unit not only has specified methods of attack, but does particular types of damage too. You can fight on the ocean floor, and some factions are aquatic. The music is wonderful.

In conclusion, Dominions 4 is one of those games that you come away from with a thousand hilarious and tragic tales to tell. It's perfect for emergent storytelling. In terms of being a strategy game, yes it's highly complicated and very deep, but it doesn't put a brick wall in front of you. With each game you play you'll utilise the latest thing you've learned until at last you understand the dynamics in play. This discovery process doesn't make you groan at the prospect of facing it; it excites you and makes you want to learn more. You'll be thinking about potential strategies as you lie in bed at night. The fact that the entire Dominions series is created by just two guys (under the company name "Illwinter Game Design") makes all the great aspects of the game even more amazing.

On a final note: I've ordered the physical manual available from the game's website. Doing such a thing is unheard of for me, but Dominions 4 is so good it's worth it.

About twenty hours in now and I truly love this game. It's complex. It's frustrating as hell. The learning curve makes me want to claw my eyes out in frustration as I figure more and more of the game out.

Today I was trying to take out a line of enemy fortresses. Somehow they have enough troops to throw hundreds and hundreds of soldiers at my army who mercilessly slaughter them over and over again. Two, three, four times until finally after a fifth or sixth time my massive siege army of apes falls to an army of men. I scream in frustration at the monitor. My girlfriend is beside me and looks over saying "Honey, why don't you play something else for a bit? This game is obviously driving you nuts." But she doesn't understand. Nobody truly understands the perfect homeland I am trying to create for my race of mega-apes. What a lack of vision.

10/10

Young Prince Gawain was marching to a war. He had assembled an army of 80 men clad in the finest black steel, his own black armor was forged by the master smiths of Ulm, the two handed black halberd heavy enough to chop through even a knight and his horse. He strode forward with the weapon in hand, alone except for his thoughts when movement through his narrow eyeholes in his helmet drew his attention. A man clothed all in black stared at him, nodded and ran forward a longsword appearing in his hands.

Gawain parried the first blow with a sweep of his halberd and launched a furious blow diagonally downward catching the man across the legs as he attempted to dodge the blow. The man stumbled but still stood, blood poured from the massive gashes across his legs, crippled and limping the man could barely move and Gawain laughed as he stepped in close to deliver the final blow. The man, just barely staying on his feet slashed desperately at the young prince....and blade met flesh and tore through into open air only to bite into flesh and rip through again.

Gawain stared at the spurting bloody stumps where his hands and part of his forearms had been. The huge black halberd lay on the ground next to him his hands still clutched tightly around the handle. The young prince screamed as the pain assailed him and he tried to stumble backwards, away from the man with the blade but his eyes locked onto the blade the man was swinging and he could not bring himself to turn his back and die without seeing. No, the young prince would not die at all. Still screaming in pain but feeling anger flair in his chest Gawain hurled himself at the man with the sword and without a fist to swing found himself kicking with all his strength into the mans chin.

With a loud crack the man fell backwards and lay still. Gawain stared at the motionless body for a few seconds and stumbled away. His blood dripped onto the ground and he found himself feeling rather tired. In the distance he could hear the shouts of his men. Dully he thought they might've been drawn by the sounds of battle or his screams. Either way, they would find him soon. Sighing he sat down against a tree, and waited nothing in the world but exhaustion and pain.

TLDR: New commander had an assassination attempt on him, gave the attacker cripple and limp afflictions with first blow, and then got both his arms cut off, then he kicked the assassin to death. Still leads troops armless.

This is the Dwarf Fortess of 4x strategy games.

You wont know what's going on at first, but when you do..
It's a world of fun.

It honestly feels like you're creating your own Mythology story. Instead of thor, I have my Minotuar in full magic platemail becoming the hero of the lands.

EDIT: I used a Random Faction generator and am currently playing a game as necromancer hobbits with clockwork armor suits.

People have said a lot of things about Dom4, with the top ones being statements like "I'm sending my race of lavamen led by a sun with arms and bird wings against giant Jewish cannibal wizards led by a sentient blood fountain." They've also probably said things like "if you love spreadsheets, you'll love this game." Both of these statements hold truth. Here's what you'll find in the game

Pros:
- The largest variety of choices I've seen in any video game.
- Over twenty races, each radically different in a way that still tends to balance itself out.
- Three eras of play, each radically affecting said twenty races. Changes range from shifting their focus to turning them into different nations entirely.
- Weird and wonderful lore everywhere.
- A robust and well-crafted magic system.
-Most of the actual micromanagement is under the hood, and a lot of things can be automated, allowing you to spend your time on the more important stuff.
- It'll run on a potato.

Cons:
- Said choices are shoved in your face up front, and even with the handy tooltips, it's hard to get what they all mean.
- Unless you read the doorstopper of a manual, you will be confused. And even then, it takes experimentation to actually know what every number means.
- The wrong mistake at the wrong time can send your entire civilization kicking and screaming into the abyss.
- Multiplayer is plagued by a meta nearly as bad as DOTA 2.
- All that important stuff you micromanage? It's still a lot.
- It has the kind of graphics you'd expect from a potato.

Don't be scared by its price tag, either. It's 35 dollars, but it's already given me more replay value than nearly any game I've spent 60 bucks on, and it's definitely given me more content. But if you're really adamant about saving money, wait till a sale. You won't regret it.

Here are two lines from a recent update:

*Max number of commanders increased 9990 -> 20000
*Max number of units increased 160000 -> 250000

The graphics may be less than appealing, but this game has serious heart and heritage. Quality updates continue to trickle in, and I'm more than glad some of my money went to help the devs, and the future of Dominions.

For a "real" review, I'll talk about how the game plays. For each turn, you: 1. create new units or commanders and assign troops to those commanders 2. decide if you want to build any structures (temple, science-research, and castle/fortress/fortifications, basically) 3. assign new magic-school research, if needed 4. issue move orders, if any 5. End Turn. I mention this because I know, at first glance, Dominions 4 seems like it might be one of those "Cool concept, but too complicated to play!" kind of games, when it is not..

The game is nowhere near shallow, despite the above statement. Each faction (spanning through three different eras of time) has many tricks and strategies, some obvious and some downright devious, and "learning" a faction is quite challenging.. Adapting to your opponents strategy is also serious business..

There is no "diplomacy" here.. If Pangaea has a massive army of elite Shark Tribe warriors supported with massive underwater behemoths, well.. There is no "playing nice" :) Your goal is to conquer, one way or another..

Anyway, I'm sure there are far better reviews than mine, so I'll quit rambling. Just wanted to show my support and toss another vertically-inclined thumb into the mix ;)

If you know Dominions3:

Dominions 4 is an attempt to turn Dominions 3 wall-like learning "curve" into a slightly less steep one. Let’s say a "Pisa tower wall" curve!
A bit more seriously this game is just the a simple update of Dominions 3. However this one is the must have. Some new races, much more community support (no1 is playing Dom3), here you will be able to find people to play with. If you loved Dom3 do yourself a favour...

If you don't:

This is a map-top-view war strategy game with races deeply founded on global mythological history.

It is like playing a mythological version of Risk (the table top game) in which each and every unit of yours has individual characteristics (stats, afflictions, abilities etc.) which are persistent through the entire match.

This will be delightful for people that love finding the most "efficient" routes to play, because you have so many variables to consider you will probably never be able to do so, but you will still love the challenge.
It will also be delightful for people that read lore. Each and everything you control (or don't) in this game has their characteristics explained in one or two paragraphs entwined with lore which in the end is mythology.

TL;DR: If you really usually jump for TLDRs don't bother getting the game.... there will be long necessary reading in the game and honestly you will need lots of patience to learn it! Otherwise... if you read the thing with a smile, buy it already.

Possibly the only turn-based strategy game in existence in which you can appoint mages as mind slaves to a giant flying undead octopus whose primary combat strategy involves sacrificing dozens of virgins to power spells that explode entire opposing armies into clouds of gore.

While certainly lacking in the presentation department with it's very dated graphics, Dom4 more than makes up for it in it's charm. The game lets you take mythological lore from around the world and pit it in wars for ultimate domination. You will see Titans warring against undead legionares, yomi fighting against valkeries, and lich kings unleashing death on the men of Avalon.

To me, Dom4 feels like a Ck2/Total War-esque type of strategy game, where you fight to expand your territory, spread your dominion (religion), and develop your nation. Where it really shines is its deep magical paths and unit diversity. I play the game with my second monitor open to the Dom4 mod inspector (http://larzm42.github.io/dom4inspector/) where I can compare and contrast every item, spell, unit, and magic site in the game. With 25 nations in each time period, combined with the numerous magic paths one can decide to branch into, their are many many combinations of strategies and development. In other words, no two players may play the same nation the same way, they may play off different strengths depending on how they designed their pretender (leading god of their nation).

This game to me is an easy to play, tough to master - which opens up for hours and hours of gameplay. You can play against the AI who offer a fair challenge (albeit becoming predicatble as you play more - such is expected with strategy AI), and when you seek a higher challenge it offers both real time and play by email multiplayer. I didn't think I would enjoy the play by email system but it's really relaxing to have a few games going at once and getting to do a turn or two per day before and after work/school. I always look forward to downloading my turns and seeing how my wars turned out, what kind of events popped out, and coming up with a plan for the next turn. All the while trying to formulate long term magic goals that will keep me relevant into the late game.

In short, if you enjoy strategy, fantasy, mythology, or games such as Total war, Paradox strategy titles, or even the Civ series, do yourself a favour and give Dominions 4 a try.

I was on the fence about whether to get this game for awhile, partly because of the price and partly because of quality concerns, since obviously a lot of time wasn't spent on making the game graphically pretty. I purchased the game on sale, but after having played it I would recommend it even for full price to anyone who's looking for a deep, complex strategy game.

Dominions 4 plays like a highly advanced fantasy version of Civilization or similar turn-based games. That's not to say that it's super difficult to play - the basic mechanics are pretty simple once you get the hang of the somewhat odd control scheme where LMB is used for most things where you'd normally expect to use RMB (RMB is always used to get more info on something, instead of giving orders). I was able to feel somewhat competent without any tutorials, having only watched some brief gameplay on YouTube. However the game reveals layer after layer of complexity once you really start getting into it, and it definitely follows the "easy to play, hard to master" philosophy. There will be a learning curve once you get beyond the basics - the manual is almost 400 pages long.

So, what can you do in this game that makes it worth the time instead of just playing a Civilization?
* Choose a faction and a pretender god as its leader from just about any mythology and creature you can think of. Dragons, wizards, lizard men, frost giants, weird fungus monsters, sea serpents, cthulu, you name it.
* Recruit a general for every one of your armies, with his own name (given by you), stats, equipment, and experience.
* Separate your armies into formations and give them orders to follow in battle (you still don't need to micromanage the battles themselves; they play out between turns)
* Sacrifice virgins to your blood god and use the power to summon demons or forge magical artifacts.
* Spread your icy dominion to freeze over rivers so your armies can cross it.
* Call forth an army of undead and march it into the sea to surprise your enemy or control undersea territory.
* Cast a spell to plunge the entire world into utter darkness.
* March huge armies over all the land, then suddenly lose the game because no one believes in your god anymore (yeah, that happened to me).

So if you can get past the graphics (yeah, I know, it takes a lot to get past the graphics), you'll be rewarded with a rich, cerebral, highly replayable game in Dominions 4.

This is the best strategy game on the market.

It looks like shit and has a terrible ui and a learning curve like a brick wall but it has so much depth that doesn't matter.

Buy it!

Graphics and sound would have been good 20 years ago. Strategic gameplay is maybe the deepest of any non-abstract computer game ever made, but/and also entirely unbalanced, unforgiving and uncompromisingly hard. This is to say, you need to know exactly what you're doing at every point in the game or you'll just suddenly die (no matter how well you seem to be doing) and have to start over (or find another game if doing multiplayer). There is no save (Although you can backup the game-files manually to effectively make one). While this caters to the target audience perfectly (this game is 10/10 if spending about a year full-time, studying its every little nuance, appeals to you), but makes it a less than good game objectively.

The fantasy themes are very well presented, and the best part of the game is how it lets you create The Lion or The Witch of Narnia, or Gandalf or Sauron, or a DnD Lich-King, or a Titan of the Greek Mythologies or just about any classic powerful being as a pretender to godhood. No other game on any media have been able to mix a fraction of the themes or come close to portraying them as well as Illwinter. They also deserve kudos for being Indie before the concept was concieved.

Dominions 4 is a clear improvement to Dom 3, affording better graphics and implementing some important re-balancing.

Have you ever tried board games such as Warhammer or Confrontation ?

Now forget everything and take characters inspired of mythology/legends and stories from the whole world, a huge variety of units (with 3 new factions, the game has more than 1000 different units!!!!) and a deep turn based strategy... and you have Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension.

Behind its aspect rought around the edges, Dominion is an extraordinary game capable to be a true competitor against table games such as Warhammer and others.

You start by choosing a culture and a pretender god. This character will lead your faction through the game and keeping him alive is extremely important even if you can bring him back after a while. You can customize his appearance (around 20 skins per faction) and his skills to suit your gameplay: Will you be a terrible fighter relying on massiv armies, a talented spell caster focused on searching and summoning powerfull spells or maybe the both and wait few turns until he awakes from his dormant state ?

Dominion is a turn based strategy game where you, the pretender god, have to exterminate every other factions or sit on one of the Thrones of Ascension to reach a new plane of existence and became the god above all other pretender gods.

You start with a main fortress with different bonus and buildings depending on what kind of faction you have choosen.
As an example my favourite faction is R'yleh: Fallen star, inspired of Lovecraft's Cthulhu, this faction has a portal named the "Void gate" where you can try to summon new creatures by using a competent summoner.
Even if you can get some of the most dangerous units of the game, the void gate can bring hostile monsters capable to kill your wizards.

Like for every factions, everything has its price, thinking and planning carefully are keys for victory.
All factions are different and quite a lot of them forces you to learn an other way to play the game.

As an example R'yleh is mainly based on brainwashed magical units and when you need to use humans or humanoid troops, you will be forced to get new commanders and divide your army because magic beeings can only be lead by a magical commander.
Add to that the moral and the supplies your army needs wich can affect their health or worst, to be more encline to fail against the enemy dominion and run away.

Dominion is an other great aspect of the game. It represents the spread of the culture and the religion of your faction.
Each pretender god can boost its dominion to give malus to the enemy or bonus to his land.
And it's where the game is clever because quite early you will have to choose if you rush into the battle with spells or try to stay back and research in new magical disciplines to summon many things or affect enemy dominion, ect....

The game is quite open and give you the ability to enjoy quite a lot of strategies. The A.I is really powerfull and has always, ALWAYS, a way to get the upper hand.

The screenshots you see on the store page are the recordings of some battles.
As a turn-based strategy game, you have to plan everything, from the spell your wizards will cast in the battle, to the actions/ movements your squads will do.
You can even choose a formation with bonus and malus. Will you trample the infantry and rush to these coward archers ? Or let you wizards/ range units rain hell upon enemy heroes ?
There are plenty ways to manage fights even if you can't act during them.
But be ware ! You can enable events wich can affect you on every tiles of the map or everybody and sometimes things turns really bad...

The most important aspect in Dominion is magic wich is related to an enormous tree of research.
You can summon creatures, structures, cast world wide spells, teleport your units, bless and give tons of abilities to your troops such as invisibility, the gift of underwater breathing or flying, ect...
You can even forge magical items to give to your commanders !
Every spells must but prepared and choosed before each fights or you can let your commander decide but you won't get all the subtleties of magic.

Each school of magic is related to a mana gem that you can gather on the map or with special events. Some kind of currency between your units, you have to manage and give them to you commanders before they go to war. The more you have the better, some schools of magic need slaves for sacrifices and of course give powerfull spells but reduces the stability and the population of your regions. Some factions are even unable to recruit units with gold, so you will have to spare mana gems for the invocation of new troops or commanders !

But i will stop here for the gameplay because nobody can deal about every aspects in a review.
This game is unforgivable and has a slow paced learning curve as many said the game manual has 400 pages...

400 PAGES ! (Thanks to Niky 45 because I was wrong about the number of pages)

So you understand why it can be so hard to talk about everything this game has to offer ^^



As an example my last game session: after few hours (22 hours !!) of fail attempts to master Ry'leth and the map i've choosed (the game has quite a ot of maps with different strategies, to master one is allready a prowess...), I was beaten by and army from a corner of the map (hate thoses war elephants !!!) capable to trample my best commanders and units and with spells I've never seen before !
I had an army of arround 2000 or 3000 units and Ry'leth has covered about 2 tiers of the world after having slain 6 pretender gods.
My pretender god, Kraahaul the Void Lord, died in a miserable fight against this suddent powerfull new enemy...

And you know what ? I want more !

Even if you can't build much structures ( only labs, temples and 3 types of castles with their upgrades) and affect your population ( a research tree about the dominion itselft would have been great), or use diplomatic skills between factions (you are at war with everybody) this game is really good.


In fact the perfect strategy game would be a mixt of Dominion, Total War and Warhammer.
I hope to see the day when this kind of game will come !

If you are not scared about a very hard/deep strategy game and simple graphics try Dominion 4: Throne of Ascension.
You won't be disapointed...

And i put you to the test to master R'yleh: Fallen star and spread the void and the tentacles of the Starspawns on all over the world !

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH !

This is why i love this game ^^

N.B: i've forgot, this game has a multiplayer. Yeah i know i'm a coward... because i haven't tried it !
Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension is a game for men, be ware !

If i had to describe Dominions 4 to someone who has never played before, i would for sure use dangerous words as Risk, Civilization and Heroes of Might & Magic. Among the turn-based heroic fantasy strategy games (sorry), Dominions is the ugly guy that no one is talking to. If you dare to speak to him he'll give you access to an amazing world. But not before 3 quests:

- Overcome ugliness: Dominions 4 is ugly, the screenshots dont lie! Units are 2D sprites, poorly animated and there's a good reason for that: content. I dont wanna go into numbers but with so many units, spells, magic items.. you can't expect a shadered 3D model reflecting the sun through tree leafs. Try to imagine the map as a a real map someone just scrolled in front of you asking: how are we going to make those guys believe in you? About the battles: it's somehow poorly animated (but everything is visible i.e units/spells/damage) but i can't find the words to express how i felt in front of my first 300vs300 battle, spells going on from both side, oh man that was awesome.

- Provide a proof of imagination. What is going on in Dominions 4 is the rise&fall of your God in a world where Gods are in competition with each other. This is your story and it's even more funny if you can put yourself into it. There is a large background (descriptions for each races, heroes, units...) to help you with this.

- Get ready for complexity. This game is deep, really deep. The learning curve is slow & long but not frustrating. You'll be amazed how detailed things are. Last game my god got killed cause one of my sorcerer casted an armor spells which explode on death, guess who took the blast? Not mentioning my 1 armed/1eyed Heroic centurion commanding the largest part of the empire's army. The interface is strange, but i can't say it's bad cause i got used to it after a couple of hours, and you can play with the mouse only. There's also a huge 400 page manual (27 pages for tutorial) to explain everything.

Heavily recommended

I've read a couple of negative reviews and comments presenting objections to them before writing this. I think people criticizing this game are not to blame. The problem is that game is horribly NOT for general audience, who "fans of Civilization and HOMM series" and don't intrested in wargames as a genre. It's not a casual game, it's developed by very small team for very specific type of player, to those who value very complex game mechanics more than anything else. Those people don't care about graphics so much. These are the same people who play SS13, Dwarf Fortress, Steel Panthers and the like in 2014 and don't understand why those games appear "outdated" to someone - they still have unrivalled mechanics as of today. And that's the only thing that matters.

Criticism of PBEM MP in this game is baseless. Actually, it is THE MP format best suited for such type of games. After game session progresses beyond initial expanding and settling stage, some turns can take literally HOURS of thinking and trying different solutions. In bigger sessions with bigger maps it's uncommon to have turnlimit time set to several DAYS, so no one would feel pressed by it. Do somebody intend to wait hours while his opponent tries to figure out his best plan for this turn, like, at the keyboard? I don't think so. We actually played it like this in Dom3, and after first 10-20 turns it becomes just too painfull to endure all the waiting. It's much better to play this in PBEM. That is, it's so for any turnbased wargame.

The criticism of lack of tutorials and not so convinient UI is at least acceptable. The problem with first is that the game is so complex behind the curtains, that to write some good and all-embracing HOWTO is nearly impossible. One can go to fan forums and check for himself that for every of several dozens of ingame races (I'm takin in account three different Ages existing in the game, so one race, if present in all three, can feel substantionally different depending on Age) there are several - sometimes totally different - aproaches, which many times will depend on whom you are facing in this particular game session as an enemy and a friend. The problem with second is that development team is quite restricted in terms of resources and try to focus on more important (for the audience of such games) things, related to game mechanics.

The combat's design stems out of those peculiarities layed out above. They tried to do it the way somehow predictable and transparent, as you won't be able to correct it in real time. Still I'll give it to haters that it's a little oversimplistic, but hopefully will be expanded in years to come (in Dom4 they added formations, for example).

Basically, those reviewers didn't even have a chance to peek behind the curtains of simplistic looking UI to discover the indisputable variety which comes with magic system and different Pretender's/dominion's types strategies, which really make this game shine.

My impressions of Dominions 4 (~15 hours) is that Illwinter has come up with another winner. Be warned though, this is a game for folks who really enjoy turn-based strategy games (TBS), especially multi-player TBS (Disclaimer: I have not tried Dominions 4 MP yet, but Dominions 3 MP was tremendous). But if you are looking for high-end graphics, a gentle learning curve, hand-holding tutorials or a casual strategy gaming experience, you may want to look elsewhere.

However, if you are a fan of TBS games, Dominions 4 has tremendous depth, content and attention to detail. From the ability to customize your god to each race with unique abilities, there are many variables to make each game unique. Gameplay can be a bit daunting initially, but rewards players who carefully plan and execute those strategies.

My only negative at this time regarding Dominions 4 is it appears to be a bit too similar to Dominions 3 which I played heavily in the pre-Steam days. I’ll update this review after additional playtime with other factions and MP to highlight some of the changes from Dominions 3.