Table of Contents
Guide to Communions
Author: Naaira
WIP
A preliminary thank you to all the mentors on Immersion with a special mention to hpmunchcraft. Also a big thank you to everyone who provided feedback on 7thPath's Guides server.
"Don't do communions!"
Any proper guide to communions should begin with this sentence:
"Don't do communions!"
But… huh? Wasn't this a guide to communions? as you may reasonably object.
"Alright then. Don't do communions!… Unless you really should!"
One of the mistakes that new players do is making huge impressive communions that explode like a supernova burning all your mages in the process. I have been guilty myself. I think my record was something like 24 communion slaves who did nothing apart from dying peacefully in their sleep.
You might have heard somewhere that you have picked a communion nation and should use communions as much as possible. Or you may have read somewhere that communions are super powerful in the late game so why should you not use such a powerful tool.
It's pretty elementary why you should consider carefully before joining all your mages in a communion:
- Mages are your most powerful pieces, capable of turning the tide of battles with their spells.
- Every communion slave is a mage not casting spells. If you bring two masters and four slaves you will be casting two spells per round on average, while your opponent, who brought six mages, will be casting six.
- You also lose one script slot per communion master. The five spells you can script are the most important spells - any spells beyond those first five spells are in the hands of the Illwinter spell AI.
- Thus communions decrease your ability to apply magic force to your opponent.
"But… this was supposed to be a guide on communions and now you're telling me not to use any? What is this madness?"
"Don't do communions!... unless you really should!"
With all the downsides of communions there are still situations where you should absolutely do communions. A properly set up communion can turn the tides of a battle by:
- Allowing your mages to cast powerful spells otherwise not available to them.
- Keep the masters in the communion casting for much longer.
- Outwit your opponent with pocket strategies.
So while communions are not something you automatically include in every army it is certainly a powerful tool that enables you to do things you would otherwise not be able to do in certain situations. This guide is meant to explore those situations and help you figure out when you have to do communions. We will explore how communions work as well as different types of communions. By the end of the guide I hope that you will be able to better judge when you have to do a communion.
Communions 101
Before reading any further I suggest you head to the communions page to read up on communions. There you will find the mechanics for:
- Forming a communion.
- How communions boost the paths of communion masters.
- How slaves receive buffs from all spells with "Range: caster".
- How fatigue is calculated.
- Exiting communions.
So head over there and familiarize yourself with the information. Here's fast overview:
Communions can be formed in a number of ways with spells, items and abilities:
Forming a Communion
Becoming a Master
Spells:
Communion Master
Sabbath Master
Chorus Master
Abilities:
Communion Master
Items:
Crystal Matrix
Crystal Heart
Oppressors Headband
Becoming a Slave
Spells:
Communion Slave
Sabbath Slave
Chorus Slave
Abilities:
Communion Slave
Items:
Slave Matrix
Communions boost all paths (including holy) of the masters in the communion.
Path Boost in Communions
Number of Slaves
2
4
8
16
32
64
Path Boost for Masters
1
2
3
4
5
6
When a spell is cast the fatigue cost is first calculated using as normal.
Spell Fatigue
Spell fatigue:
Spell fatigue cost / (1 + mage's path level - minimum path level required)
+/- 10% per scale in Drain or Magic
+ Base Encumbrance
+ 2 x Armor Encumbrance value
+ Cold / Heat penalties
+ Other fatigue modifiers
+ a random component
Fatigue is then distributed amongst masters and slaves equally. The fatigue that slaves receive depends on their path level
Communion Slave Fatigue Multiplier
The amount of fatigue each slave receives depends on their current path level relative to the master's current path level without the communion path boost.
If Master path / 2 is higher than Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost x 4
(quadruple fatigue cost)
If Master path is higher than Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost x 2
(double fatigue cost)
If Master path is equal to Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost
(same fatigue cost)
If Master path is lower than Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost / 2
(half fatigue cost)
Communion masters can use gems as normal and take their new path level into consideration. They do not however take in consideration that spell fatigue will be distributed in a communion upon spellcasting and will thus burn extra gems to reduce fatigue as normal.
Rules for Gem Use in Combat
Rule of Paths
A mage may never spend more gems or blood slaves in one turn than his current level in the relevant path.
Rule of One
A mage can use exactly one gem or blood slave to boost the corresponding path one level. 1)
Rule of Surplus
A mage can use gems to increase their paths for the purpose of calculating fatigue. The total gems used on one spell cannot exceed current path level (Rule of Paths)
Rule of Stash
A mage can only use gems from their own inventory.
Rule of Blood
A mage can use any friendly blood slave within 8 squares in any direction (so a 17x17 grid centered on caster).
Current level is the mage's basic path level + path boosts from items, path boosting spells and being in a communion
This calculator was originally made for Dominions 4 but is still useful for approximating fatigue generation in a communion.
Astral vs. Blood vs. Matrix Communions
Demonsthenes points out that it is worth taking a closer look at the three forms of communions that all nations can potentially gain access to. Each has their upsides and downsides so let us have a brief look at that.
Astral Communions
Advantages:
- Communion Master and Communion Slave cost only 20 fatigue.
- The presence of Astral mages means that the communion can easily be buffed with Power of the Spheres.
Disadvantages:
- Magic Duel can disrupt the communion. If enough slaves die before that big battle-winning spell is cast then the communion might not serve its purpose. If slaves disappear the communion might take more fatigue damage than anticipated.
Blood Sabbaths
Advantages:
- The presence of Blood mages means that slave fatigue can be reset with Rejuvenation
Disadvantages:
- Sabbath Master and Sabbath Slave cost 100 fatigue and have a cast time of 150%. This means that the Sabbath is slower to get going. It also means that a
1 will briefly fall asleep when casting in provinces with Drain scales. - Sabbath Master and Sabbath Slave require 1
to enter. You will have to make sure you have blood slaves available. This also means that Blood Sabbaths do not work underwater.
Matrix Communions
Matrix Communions equip Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrix to form communions.
Advantages:
- The communion is already formed at the beginning of combat so it is faster out of the gate.
- Masters gain an extra script slot.
- You can form communions with mages without Astral or Blood paths.
Disadvantages:
- It takes a lot of gems to form Matrix Communions. For nations without
1
1 you may need to spend valuable pretender turns forging matrices.
The seven communion types
Sometimes there are very valid reasons to form a communion though. hpmunchcraft proposes that four types of communions exist:
- Stable communions
- Access communions
- Burnout communions
- Turbo communions
- Special Communions (Linebacker, Blocker, Innate Autocommunions, Bailout communions)
"Wait a second, Naaira! You said four, but I count to five! Are you [insert preferred derogative here]?"
I can't really decide what you think of me, but one of the seven communions does not really exist. Let's have a look at them in turn:
Stable communions
There is a widespread idea in the community that stable communions are a thing and something to aspire towards. Let me quote hpmunchcraft who put it better than I could have (and a lot less diplomatically if I may say so):
"Stable communions is a lie perpetrated by charlatans."
If you read the communion page you will have found two major benefits with communions: They boost the magic paths of the masters; and fatigue gets spread out between several mages. As fatigue is distributed the slaves will eventually hit a fatigue level (200) where they start taking fatigue damage with every spell cast. If they take enough damage they die. Along the way they may get a lot of afflictions.
A stable communion is a communion that supposedly does not risk burning out. So either the slaves never accumulate so much fatigue that they take damage, or the masters fall asleep before they can do any serious harm to the slaves.
Let us consider why stable communions are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve:
- Your opponent can do stuff. Maybe they damage or kill communion slaves. Perhaps they cast fatigue spells that tire out your communion.
- The mightly Illwinter AI may decide to screw you over. Maybe your communion master decides that a close-ranged Evo spell that happens to take out several slaves is the best course of action. Or that a high-fatigue spell is worth casting.
- You accumulate more fatigue than anticipated. Maybe the random fatigue component spikes out of control.
- Mistakes happen. If you included masters that do not share paths with the slaves, the masters might decide to cast off-path spells which quadruples the fatigue cost for the slaves. Or perhaps you forgot one of the myriad of factors that affect fatigue.
There are so many ways a stable communion can be made unstable that it's better to just dismiss the whole idea from the very beginning. You can in theory make stable communions but that would probably give up on so much raw magic power that it wouldn't be worth it.
Making stablererer communions
Alright, so while the truly stable communion is not possible in a game of Dominions, there are still plenty of options to make your communions more stable. After all, even if you can't ensure that all of your communion slaves will survive getting their magic power sucked out of them by greedy vampiric masters… surely it would be nice if some of them did?
Here are a few things you can do to make your communions more stable:
Spells
- Cast spells that increase the fatigue recovery like Summon Earthpower and Relief.
- Boost the paths of your communion slaves with spells like Power of the Spheres, Summon Phoenix Power and similar.
- Script sabbath masters to cast Reinvigoration at different intervals to reset the fatigue of all slaves in the communion.
- Cast spells with masters before entering the communion to make the masters fall asleep before the communion slaves hit 200 fatigue.
Scales
- Cast spells in provinces with Magic scales
- Cast resistance spells in hot or cold provinces if your masters lack resistance.
Size
- Limit the number of masters. Once your slaves reach 200 fatigue they will begin to take damage with every spell cast no matter the fatigue cost. Fewer masters will result in fewer spells cast thus less fatigue damage taken.
Unit abilities
- Spell singer masters halve the fatigue of spells cast. This can delay the point at which your slaves start taking fatigue damage.
Path considerations
- Use masters that have the same paths as your slaves to avoid getting quadruple fatigue.
- Use slaves that have higher paths than their masters to halve fatigue.
Regarding the last point recall how fatigue is distributed in a communion:
Communion Slave Fatigue Multiplier
The amount of fatigue each slave receives depends on their current path level relative to the master's current path level without the communion path boost.
If Master path / 2 is higher than Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost x 4
(quadruple fatigue cost)
If Master path is higher than Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost x 2
(double fatigue cost)
If Master path is equal to Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost
(same fatigue cost)
If Master path is lower than Slave path ⇒
The slave receives fatigue cost / 2
(half fatigue cost)
See how it is the slave's path is compared to the master's path without the path boost from being in a communion? You can exploit that by buffing the path of your slaves but not buffing the path of all your masters.
E.g. four Iassacharite Sibyls form a communion of two masters and two slaves. One master casts Power of the Spheres while the other doesn't. From that point on all spells cast by the second master will give only half fatigue to the slaves in the communion.
For nations with mages with lots of randoms like Arcoscephale's Mystic you will probably need to shuffle around mages a lot to build stablerer communions. If you want your slaves to survive you will have to use either wide-pathed slaves or make sure your mages and slaves share paths.
Preventing off-script spells
One way of making your communions more stable is to simply prevent your masters from casting spells past the scripted slots.
Kalkyrie mentions equipping your masters with bows and simply scripting them to "Fire" at the end of their script.
Another trick that Timotej mentions is to script some of your communion masters to become communion slaves later on. In this way you can limit the number of masters taxing your communion later on.
Now that we have dismissed stable communions as a myth let us go on to the real communions.
Access communions
Access communions are simply communions that you form to access powerful spells that you would not otherwise be able to cast. As the game progresses you will get access to more and more powerful spells that are worth casting but have high path requirements. Some you will be able to cast with boosters. But sometimes the boosters are not enough, or you find yourself in situations with a surplus of mages and a lack of boosters. Or you may be casting spells in paths with expensive boosters. In those situations it is worth it to form a communion to gain access to a spell.
When you do an access communion you are mainly interested meeting a spell requirement. This means that you should not care if your slaves live or die. In most cases you should use the minimum slaves required to boost your masters to the appropriate level and burn them to the ground for the greater good (or evil, depending on your inclinations).
The minimum slaves needed depend on how high a path you need:
- Can you increase the appropriate path of the master with boosting spells along the way? E.g. Summon Phoenix Power,Strength of Gaia, Summon Earthpower, Power of the Spheres and Light of the Northern Star?
- Can you equip your master with boosting items like Earth Boots or Starshine Skullcap?
- Do you want to cast a series of high-fatigue spells with the same master?
Take these things into account and build your communion accordingly.
Burnout communions
Burnout communions is where you let the masters burn the slaves out to cast more powerful spells. It requires the least effort and is thus the second most useful. You use more masters than in an access communion and fire away. You can do stuff to postpone the point in time when your slaves burn out, but if the battle goes long the slaves will eventually die. As noted in the stablererer communions section you can do things to make your burnout communion last longer, but if the battle goes on for long enough your slaves… will… die. Hopefully you win the battle in the process.
If you know that you will burn out your slaves you might want to consider casting Life after Death if you can. That way your slaves will return from the dead to offer their services to you again once your masters have sucked all life energy out of them.
MA T'ien Ch'i Suicide Communions
Cerril mentions this example of a great burnout communion:
"MA T'ien Ch'i Gifts From Heaven has the benefit of being something the mages will actually do offscript with a minimum of 3 65g anylabfort Imperial Geomancers, and the masters will just keep casting it until the battle ends, they explode the heads of all the slaves, or they accidentally drop a rock on themselves."
Turbo communions
Turbo communions rely on hp regeneration to keep the slaves alive. The idea here is to use one or two slaves and a large number of masters. This means that you lose only a few potential mage casters and the mages you do can cast spells for longer.
Turbo communions are mainly useful when trying to turn timer your opponent. Thus you rely on the Illwinter Spell AI to pick spells for you as the battle goes on.
- For example, the classical turbo communion of Gygja masters with Jotun Werewolf slaves rely on the spell AI's love for Horde of Skeletons to overwhelm the opponent with chaff. For extra spiciness one Gygja casts Rigor Mortis while another casts Grip of Winter. You get the idea.
The number of masters to slaves depends on whether the slaves share paths. For Jotunheim the masters and slaves will rarely share paths. But for other nations like Vaettiheim, small turbo communions could be made using Enlarged Personal Regen Jotun Gygjas to support up to five Vaetti Gygjas with shared paths.
Myth: # hp regen will always sustain # masters
A common rule of thumb for turbo communions states that you can support one master for every point of hp regenerated by your slaves.
For example, one Jotun Werewolf regenerates 6 hp and can support six masters casting spells. With Personal Regeneration this climbs to 11 hp so 11 masters can be supported.
This is a myth. Here are some of the things that can go wrong:
- Opponents, Illwinter AI, fatigue and other mistakes may happen.
- As your turbo slaves take damage they may accumulate afflictions. If a slave gets feebleminded it instantly drops out of the communion. If a slave gets muted and lose magic paths it might start to accumulate fatigue at a much higher rate. A never healing wound may cut down the regeneration rate of a slave.
- If you use masters that do not share paths with the slaves the fatigue damage can quickly spiral out of control.
Loggy mentions an example of someone trying to make a turbo communion of two 1
2
1 Enaries with two Enlarged Personal Regenerationed 1 Soothsayers as slaves. According to the myth this communion should be stable. The Soothsayers regenerate 2 hp per round so can suppport two masters. In reality, once the Enaries began spamming Horde of Skeletons the quadruple fatigue made quick work of the slaves.
Don't get me wrong. Turbo communions are a powerful tool when built right. But it is a myth that # hp regen can support # masters.
How to provide more fuel for your turbo communion
For turbo communions you make them more stable by increasing the regeneration rate of the slaves. This can be done by:
- Increasing their regeneration amount with spells like Personal Regeneration or Mass Regeneration
- Increasing their hp pool with items like Coral Blade or spells like Enlarge.
If for some reason you want your communion to blow up as fast as possible, do use Innate Spellcasters as communion masters. They incur double fatigue on the communion slaves. Burn, baby, burn!
Soul Vortex Batteries
One variant on turbo communions is Soul Vortex Batteries. One master casts Soul Vortex while you surround your slaves with regenerating chaff like Sea Trolls or Lamias set to "Guard Commander". The slaves regenerate hp and fatigue from the surrounding slaves, thus preventing the slaves from dying from fatigue as long as the surrounding chaff stays alive.
While this is a powerful tool even Soul Vortex Batteries might fail. As Causk notes:
"The guard commander stuff generally is also prone to moral checks for the damage, so they will eventually run. The luxury option there is probably something like Dark Vines?, that are mindless, has a bunch of hp and thus will likely never run as long as mages remain and the cleanup battlephase hasn't triggered. Vine Ogres work too. Also Gelatinous Cubes!"
Fall Bear can share a similar role as can R'lyeh's Shambler Thralls. The key here is that the chaff needs to be mindless, have plenty of hp and cannot be inanimate.
Healing Communions
7thPath has experimented with a variant of the turbo communion using 1 mages outside the communion to heal the slaves. Here is what he writes:
"So I've been experimenting with turbos and discovered today you can support lots of masters with 2 human hp slaves if you have a few things. Coral blades for the slaves and two 1 mages outside the communion to cast Heal or Healing Touch. You need either a 1 with a Slave Matrix for Personal Regeneration or a 2 for Regeneration with a gem. I tried two slaves and 5 masters with both Augur Elders/Augurs and Mystics/Mystics.
The reason why it works is that 1 mages will reliably use Healing Touch and Heal offscript.
It seems pretty reliable although with some small but non-negligible frequency the 1's fail to heal the slaves in time. A girdle of might on the non-mastered N1 helps. Casting Enlarge on the slaves also helps.
In a similar way, 1 mages can empower a soul vortex battery using high hp chaff with no regeneration if you put them close to the battery slaves."
He provides these screenshots as an example:
Special communions
Special communions are communions you pull out of your toolbox to hopefully surprise your opponent. These forms of communions are more niche, as in there are less situations where they will be better than any other alternative, or they are harder to pull off.
Linebacker communions
Linebacker communions are also called reversed communions. The idea is to pick some very combat capable slaves, buff them up with all sorts of "range: caster" spells from masters who then retreat from the field. The slaves take 3d50 fatigue damage in the process but are no longer considered slaves. Once the slaves wake up they go to town.
The benefits of a linebacker communion are obvious: You can buff really sturdy chassis with spells that are otherwise not available to them. E.g. imagine an 2 Adon buffed with Ironskin, Soul Vortex, Phoenix Pyre, Personal Regeneration, Temper Flesh, Quicken Self etc. The potential is huge!
There is just one… major… flaw.
Illwinter, in its infinite wisdom, or maybe due to sloppiness in its coding, has decided that as long as any2) communion master remains on the field of battle all slaves will remain slaves indefinitely. This means that linebacker communions are hardcountered by one mage casting Communion Master or Sabbath Master.
So good luck using Linebacker communions. If you succeed I applaud you.
Blocker communions
Blocker communions are somewhat similar to Linebacker communions. The idea is that a few mages buff a great number of slaves to the point where the enemy cannot kill them any longer. Usually the slaves are also buffed with things like Fire Shield so they can passively kill chaff.
Blocker communions differ from Linebacker communions in that the masters remain on the field to wreak havoc from behind a sturdy wall of buffed up slaves.
Exploiting auto-masters
Barcaii shared this observation:
"An interesting thing is that what is a weakness for linebackers can be a strength for blocker communions. I did some testing with naba blocker communions a few weeks ago and one test was vs phlegra. The enemy having the own communion masters anchored my blockers so that even after my leadership ran the linebackers stayed and killed an insane amount of stuff through fireshield."
Innate Autocommunions
What is more powerful than a turn 1 Earthquake? A turn 0 of course. Innate Spellcasters are immensely powerful caster. They have no cast time, and their spells go off at the very beginning of the combat round. But sometimes they lack those all important paths necessary to cast Master Enslave turn 0. For that you can set up autocommunions. The requirements for a turn 0 autocommunion are steep:
- Enough slaves, each equipped with a Slave Matrix.
With this setup the master is ready to cast turn 0 which can be absolutely devastating since it allows for no counterplay whatsoever. No Mass Flight to protect against Earthquake. No Antimagic to counter Master Enslave. The possibilities are limited only by the paths of the innate master.
Just don't expect any slaves to survive the battle. Communion slaves take double fatigue from spells cast by an innate caster so this communion will be the brightest of flames.
If you didn't know before, at least now you know one reason why Nazca is considered powerful.
Bailout Communions
Causk mentions another special communion, the bailout communion. He writes:
"As we are already discussing edgecase stuff maybe add the bailout communion:
You tryhard script your communion to arrive at fatigue 200. Then on turn 5 on the slowest caster rescue the slaves via the Returning spell."
Nations with special communions
MA Pythium has access to the Theurg Communicant which is a 1/fort unit that acts as a communion slave. As the slaves take quadruple fatigue from any spell cast it is easy to lose a lot during a fight. The challenge then becomes making sure enough are around for the important battles.
MA Phlegra and LA Phlegra can both recruit the Shackled Mage, a 1 CP autocommunion slave. The can also recruit automasters. MA Phlegra can furthermore recruit Trophimos Oppressors , while LA Phlegra can recruit Phlegran Oppressors, Oppressor Generals and Oppressor Archons. Both nations can also make the Oppressor Headband. This means that Phlegra can easily cast communion magic turn 1. Whereas MA Phlegra can more easily when to use Shackled Mages, LA Phlegra has a more difficult time achieving that given how important Oppressor Generals are for leading their magic troops. Still it's an option to explore.
MA Man has access to what can be described as the only absolutely stable communions in Dominions. MA Man has access to a national spell that allows any spellsinging 1 mage to become Chorus Master or Chorus Slave. The reason why these communions are stable is that slaves exit the communion as soon as they hit 100 fatigue. This would be a bigger problem if all of Man's mages weren't spellsingers but it does mean that MA Man's communions are mostly Access Communions.
Nazca stands out for being the only nation with recruitable innate casters. In itself that gives Nazca incredible magical power. Coupled with communions the ability to cast huge impactful spells before counters come out is unrivaled.
Ubar and Na'Ba can summon Ghulah who have 50% regeneration for turbo communions. Na'Ba also has access to Jinn Blocks for matrixed autocommunions.
All iterations of Arcoscephale as well as Phaeacia and Erytheia can summon Keledone, an immobile autocommunion slave. The fact that they are immobile gives them limited utility though.
A number of nations can summon Hamadryads which are innate casters and can be matrixed for innate autocommunions. Unfortunately they are also immobile.
"Don't do communions... or do? I'm confused"
When deciding whether to form a communion you should alwas begin with asking yourself: Do I really have to?
- Are there any spells that are powerful enough to turn the tides on the battlefield and that you can only access via communions? Then you should probably do an access communion.
- Will my ability to inflict damage be higher with a fewer mages casting more powerful spells? Or will I be on a timer to finish the battle quickly (e.g. you expect your opponent to cast Rigor Mortis)? Then maybe a burnout communion is the answer.
- Are there any useful spells your mages could be casting outside a communion? If the answer is yes, you should probably not put those mages in a communion.
- If the answer is no, then maybe you should consider if you have been recruiting the right mages or if you should start recruiting something else.
- Can I outlast my opponent with a turbo communion or outsmart them with a blocker or linebacker communion? Then maybe it is time to surprise your opponent with such a communion.
Size matters
So… Now comes the question that is the most difficult to answer: How many communion masters and how many communion slaves should you use in your communion?
Well, it depends. On what type of communion you are using and on how bright you want it to burn. On what mages you have available. As a general rule though: "Less is more:"
- Does the mage really have to be in a communion to be useful? If not, then maybe don't include it in the communion.
- Don't try to calculate the optimal ratio of mages to slaves. Use less masters. Shit happens. All the time.
If you want some rules of thumb here are some conventional wisdom for you (completely untested though):
- Two masters and four slaves who share paths are generally going to survive most battles. The masters should fall asleep before the slaves die.
- Four masters with four slaves that have higher paths than the masters should similarly be stable.
Anything else and you have to consider different strategies to prevent slave burnout.
Conclusion
I hope you have learned something from this small guide to communions. If you have any feedback please leave it in the guide channel on the Dominions-guides-and-discussions Discord hosted by 7thPath (click the picture at the top of the guide to get there), or message me on Discord.