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Your first step will likely be to decide if you want to play alone, in single player (SP), or with other human beings, multiplayer (MP). A common idea is try playing the game on basic difficulty in single player with a nation you like to get a feel for the core ideas of the game. There are many long time, even expert players, who only play SP. Preferably, our community does not disparage that choice as it's fully valid and includes players who helped in the beta test of Dominions 4 and 5.
Let's get started with single player.
Your first step is start Dominions 5 and choose "Create World."
That leads to choosing a map. A few maps are included with the bare install of the game but not many. You may want more maps. There are two ways to add maps to your game.
The common choice for size of map is 15 provinces per player for multiplayer games. In single player you can clearly choose smaller or larger although the game has trouble with the start location finder algorithm with less than 10 provinces per player.
For more information on the details of map choice try this section Map Selection Details
The choice of era determines which version of each nation group you will play although there are a few single age nations. The choice has the following general effects:
This is mostly your taste or something that grabs your interest.
This is largely a matter of choice although it's possible to sum up a few basic recommendations. Some types of nations and magic are significantly more difficult and beginners may want to leave them for a while. It is a large topic to list nations by ease of play and popularity and is a issue with a lot of subjectivity that generates many long discussion in the community.
Some simple suggestions may help for beginners. A list of nation categories (archtypes) has been prepared which will help to choose.
In a proper Order we'd have to talk about the pretender design part but as it is a tough morcel, you'll find more below, and let's get going with the game settings.
Here I'll fastly cover the settings that really matter for a new player. But more details about this can be found on the following page : https://illwiki.com/dom5/beginner-s-guide_game_settings
Events are affected by many factor and it can prove Fatal under certain circumstances. Let's agree that to begin you might want to focus on the game itself and not lose by turn 4( or two with Early age Mictlan) because you played with fire in the settings :)
The most common being victory by thrones of ascension. Although there is other settings, going with the classic victory setting of the game can never go wrong :)
I'd recommend to set the thrones to level 2 or 1 being as many as the total nation count for the game and divide the total value of those throne +1 as the required number of ascension point required. It'll ensure a fairly doable game condition for you, and a defeat that won't come too fast either otherwise.
Your first priority will be [expansion] – capturing land from independents (indies) – and setting up basic infrastructure.
Almost all nations start with a scout plus a commander with a small army. If you've chosen an awake pretender, you will start with it, too. On your first turn, you will generally want to recruit more troops and designate one of your starting two commanders as your prophet.
On your second turn, once you see what the indies around your capital are, you can start expanding.
There are essentially three ways to expand; you should pursue all of them that your nation is capable of:
Pretender expansion: Many pretenders, such as dragons, are capable of taking many indie provinces solo. If you have chosen one of these and it is awake, it can clear provinces on its own. Beware of barbarians and heavy cavalry; these things do enough damage to threaten even pretenders.
Sacred expansion: If your nation has powerful sacred troops, and you have chosen a strong bless, they can often clear indies even if they are heavily outnumbered. Since the limiting factor for sacred troops is often holy points, rather than resources (which are in short supply very early), heavily-blessed sacreds can be excellent early expanders. In particular, sacred cavalry and centaurs are excellent at this.
Troop expansion: If your nation has strong troops in general, especially those that do not cost too many resources, you can use those to expand. This is easier with good scales, in particular production. If you are expanding with troops and are at all limited by resources, it is a good idea to clear the provinces adjacent to your capital quickly to get more resources.
As you begin expanding, you will generally want to begin producing mages from your capital as soon as possible and setting them to research and/or search for magic sites. If you are new to Dominions, the magic system may seem intimidating. The best way to learn is to experiment with it!