Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- rovsea-jomon-guide [2022/05/25 18:45]
rovsea Step 1 Part 2 complete
+++ rovsea-jomon-guide [2022/12/13 00:14] (current)
charmide link
@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 ===== Basic Mage Strategy, Research Goals, and Scaling =====
+<WRAP box round half right>
+**Early research goals:** \\ \\
+//Conjuration// \\
+**3** Small Fire/Air/Earth/Water Elementals • ??Summon Earthpower?? • ??Phoenix Power?? \\ \\
+//Alteration// \\
+**2** ??Earth Meld?? • ??Mirror Image?? • ??Stoneskin?? • ??Enlarge?? • ??Quicken Self?? \\
+**3** ??Protection?? • ??Mistform?? • ??Mossbody?? • ??Luck?? • ??Ironskin?? \\
+**4** ??Quickness?? • ??Body Ethereal?? • ??Liquid Body?? • ??Temper Flesh?? • ??Swarm?? • ??Wind Guide?? \\ \\
+//Construction// \\
+**2** Magic Items forging \\
+**3** ??Legions of Steel?? \\ \\
+//Enchantment// \\
+**2** ??Personal Regeneration?? • ??Breath of Winter??\\
+**3** ??Strength of Giants?? • ??Regeneration?? • ??Fire Shield??  \\
+**4** ??Poison Ward?? • ??Antimagic?? • ??Flaming Arrows??
+</WRAP>
+Jomon’s basic mage strategy is fairly reliable in the early game, but it will diversify rapidly based on what’s necessary into particular matchups. Early game, your research will be driven by the most reliable Master Shugenja paths, Nature and Earth. As such, early-game focus is on paths such as
+  * Conjuration 3
+  * Alteration 3-4
+  * Construction 3
+  * Enchantment 3-4
+Jomon has a lot of utility in a lot of the different Magic Schools (basically everything besides Blood), so it’s important to judge which opponents you think you’ll fight, what random paths you’ve gotten on your mages, and continuously revise your Research to fit your needs.
+To be clear, Jomon has excellent overall magic availability. They have {{path>W3}} reliably, {{path>E3}} and {{path>N3}} semi-reliably with {{path>E2}} and {{path>N2}} reliably, as well as {{path>A2}} and {{path>F2}} once they’ve made it uw. In addition, they have reliable {{path>S2}} with the ability to boost all of their other paths as high as necessary in combat (easily up to X5 with a small communion, ??Power of the Spheres??, and whichever other boosting spell is necessary). By the mid-game, Jomon can easily cast strong spells in Conjuration, Alteration, Evocation, Construction, Enchantment, and Thaumaturgy. This wide range is extended even more by their national summons (which we’ll discuss later) and excellent forging options, which make Conjuration and Construction more attractive than perhaps they would be on other nations.
 <tabbox Overview>
@@ Line 111: / Line 136: @@
 </tabbox>
+Jomon has one serious problem when it comes to their magic access and magi, however: scaling. Because 2 of their 3 primary mages (??Ryujin?? and ??Onmyo-ji??) are slow to recruit, and Ryujin are only available underwater, Jomon has serious issues in expanding their roster of Magi quickly, and largely have to invest more into infrastructure than many other nations in LA. This is only exacerbated by the difficulty in getting underwater in the first place, which often requires pretender intervention and sinking valuable design points into a pretender option capable of getting underwater.
 <tabbox Overview>
@@ Line 118: / Line 143: @@
   * This {{path>S2R13,100%FAWEN,100%FAWEN,10%FAWEN}} mage can be recruited in all forts.
   * The {{path>S2}} gives Onmyo-ji a lot of flexibility with ??Power of the Spheres??
-  * TTheir ownly drawback is the 4 CP cost which makes it inefficient to recruit in the early game compared to ??Master Shugenja??.
+  * Their ownly drawback is the 4 CP cost which makes it inefficient to recruit in the early game compared to ??Master Shugenja??.
 <tabbox Detailed Analysis>
@@ Line 126: / Line 151: @@
 </tabbox>
+All of this can be more or less sorted by the mid-game, and ??Master Shugenja?? have enough versatility and use to carry the nation through the very early stages of the game, but you run into another issue as the game goes longer, again in terms of scaling. In short, Master Shugenja and Onmyo-ji fall off, largely due to increasing ease of targeting them in battle as the game goes on. While Jomon is not the only nation with vulnerable human mages in LA, they still have some of the worst, especially with their low morale, and this is compounded by the fact that Jomon’s mages are gem hungry. In an age with generally low gem availability and numerous nations that scale through blood hunting, Jomon tends to rely on Ryujin as a potent raiding and casting tool in the late-game.
-==== Mage Weaknesses ====
-Jomon’s land mages all share a few characteristics that make them weaker than a lot of other mages in Dominions. They’re all poor in melee, they all have sub-par hit points, all lack any armor whatsoever, and they all have low morale (technically, Monks have ok morale, but this is still generally true). Taken altogether, these characteristics mean that Jomon’s mage corps, at least the human portion, are quite vulnerable to everything from flankers to archers to combat spells like ??Earthquake?? and morale spells like ??Wailing Winds??.
-Protecting and positioning your mages well enough to get maximum value out of them is important, although it can also mean that their use is more limited than you’d like. Remote spells like ??Flames from the Sky?? (a powerful late-game fire spell that deals fire damage to half the enemies in a province) are devastating to Jomon’s mages, so it’s important to keep this weakness in mind whenever you plan an engagement.
-==== Temp UW Stuff====
-Outside of the land recruits, all of whom are available from the start of the game, Jomon also has the ability to recruit out of underwater forts. Unfortunately, it isn’t very easy for Jomon to get underwater, at least compared to many of the other amphibious-capable Late Age nations, so access to these troops and mages will rely largely on build and diplomacy.
 <tabbox Overview>
@@ Line 157: / Line 173: @@
 Ryujin are important as well for forging and casting. With their insane map move they can often switch from research to front-line combat or raiding instantly, meaning that they can surprise an enemy force by jumping 3 or 4 provinces to drop, for example, ??Foul Vapors??. As well, Ryujin can easily solo province defense or, with support buffs, become difficult-to-dislodge army thugs seeded in with your other troops. In terms of combat casting Ryujin are by far your most durable option, and they can spam out all the Elementals, big nature magic like ??Howl??, ??Foul Vapors??, or ??Mass Protection??, important buffs like ??Arrow Fend??, ??Quickening??/??Quickness??, or just cast strong damage spells like ??Liquify??, ??Bone Melter??, ??Acid Storm??, or ??Freezing Mists??. They’re very versatile, very mobile, and in general just incredibly strong.
-Ryujin do come with 2 major downsides, however. First is the Dragon Pearl itself, which while useful to aid in Water magic, also blocks one of your miscellaneous slots (the item is cursed), and can be picked up by friendly commanders in the case of a Ryujin dying, in theory blocking the slots of other mages. Second is their classification as [[magic beings]], because of which Ryujin are particularly vulnerable to counter-thugs wielding ??Moon Blade??s.
+Ryujin do come with 2 major downsides, however. First is the Dragon Pearl itself, which while useful to aid in Water magic, also blocks one of your miscellaneous slots (the item is cursed), and can be picked up by friendly commanders in the case of a Ryujin dying, in theory blocking the slots of other mages. Second is their classification as [[magic being]], because of which Ryujin are particularly vulnerable to counter-thugs wielding ??Moon Blade??s.
 It’s difficult to describe in detail just how impactful Ryujin are to Jomon. At practically every stage of the game after gaining access to them, you’ll be able to find a good use to put them to, although here’s the general thought-process behind how to use each variation:
@@ Line 174: / Line 190: @@
 </tabbox>
+==== Mage Weaknesses ====
+Jomon’s land mages all share a few characteristics that make them weaker than a lot of other mages in Dominions. They’re all poor in melee, they all have sub-par hit points, all lack any armor whatsoever, and they all have low morale (technically, Monks have ok morale, but this is still generally true). Taken altogether, these characteristics mean that Jomon’s mage corps, at least the human portion, are quite vulnerable to everything from flankers to archers to combat spells like ??Earthquake?? and morale spells like ??Wailing Winds??.
-<WRAP box round half right>
+Protecting and positioning your mages well enough to get maximum value out of them is important, although it can also mean that their use is more limited than you’d like. Remote spells like ??Flames from the Sky?? (a powerful late-game fire spell that deals fire damage to half the enemies in a province) are devastating to Jomon’s mages, so it’s important to keep this weakness in mind whenever you plan an engagement.
-**Early research goals:** \\ \\
-//Conjuration// \\
-**3** Small Fire/Air/Earth/Water Elementals • ??Summon Earthpower?? • ??Phoenix Power?? \\ \\
-//Alteration// \\
-**2** ??Earth Meld?? • ??Mirror Image?? • ??Stoneskin?? • ??Enlarge?? • ??Quicken Self?? \\
-**3** ??Protection?? • ??Mistform?? • ??Mossbody?? • ??Luck?? • ??Ironskin?? \\
-**4** ??Quickness?? • ??Body Ethereal?? • ??Liquid Body?? • ??Temper Flesh?? • ??Swarm?? • ??Wind Guide?? \\ \\
-//Construction// \\
-**2** Magic Items forging \\
-**3** ??Legions of Steel?? \\ \\
-//Enchantment// \\
-**2** ??Personal Regeneration?? • ??Breath of Winter??\\
-**3** ??Strength of Giants?? • ??Regeneration?? • ??Fire Shield??  \\
-**4** ??Poison Ward?? • ??Antimagic?? • ??Flaming Arrows??
-</WRAP>
-Jomon’s basic mage strategy is fairly reliable in the early game, but it will diversify rapidly based on what’s necessary into particular matchups. Early game, your research will be driven by the most reliable Master Shugenja paths, Nature and Earth. As such, early-game focus is on paths such as
-  * Conjuration 3
-  * Alteration 3-4
-  * Construction 3
-  * Enchantment 3-4
-Jomon has a lot of utility in a lot of the different Magic Schools (basically everything besides Blood), so it’s important to judge which opponents you think you’ll fight, what random paths you’ve gotten on your mages, and continuously revise your Research to fit your needs.
-To be clear, Jomon has excellent overall magic availability. They have {{path>W3}} reliably, {{path>E3}} and {{path>N3}} semi-reliably with {{path>E2}} and {{path>N2}} reliably, as well as {{path>A2}} and {{path>F2}} once they’ve made it uw. In addition, they have reliable {{path>S2}} with the ability to boost all of their other paths as high as necessary in combat (easily up to X5 with a small communion, ??Power of the Spheres??, and whichever other boosting spell is necessary). By the mid-game, Jomon can easily cast strong spells in Conjuration, Alteration, Evocation, Construction, Enchantment, and Thaumaturgy. This wide range is extended even more by their national summons (which we’ll discuss later) and excellent forging options, which make Conjuration and Construction more attractive than perhaps they would be on other nations.
-Jomon has one serious problem when it comes to their magic access and magi, however: scaling. Because 2 of their 3 primary mages (??Ryujin?? and ??Onmyo-ji??) are slow to recruit, and Ryujin are only available underwater, Jomon has serious issues in expanding their roster of Magi quickly, and largely have to invest more into infrastructure than many other nations in LA. This is only exacerbated by the difficulty in getting underwater in the first place, which often requires pretender intervention and sinking valuable design points into a pretender option capable of getting underwater.
-All of this can be more or less sorted by the mid-game, and ??Master Shugenja?? have enough versatility and use to carry the nation through the very early stages of the game, but you run into another issue as the game goes longer, again in terms of scaling. In short, Master Shugenja and Onmyo-ji fall off, largely due to increasing ease of targeting them in battle as the game goes on. While Jomon is not the only nation with vulnerable human mages in LA, they still have some of the worst, especially with their low morale, and this is compounded by the fact that Jomon’s mages are gem hungry. In an age with generally low gem availability and numerous nations that scale through blood hunting, Jomon tends to rely on Ryujin as a potent raiding and casting tool in the late-game.
 ==== Jomon's Holy crosspath spells ====
@@ Line 495: / Line 487: @@
     * //**Alteration 5:**// Protection buffs like ??Wooden Warriors??, ??Mossbody??, and ??Iron Warriors??. Chaff generation through ??Swarm??, and a wide variety of disabling spells for Water, Earth, and Air mages. Plenty of self-buffs for thugs as well. Resistance buffs at Level 5, ??Wind Guide?? to make all your mages more accurate, and ??Maws of the Earth?? to significantly increase Earth mage combat capability.
-    * //**Evocation 5:**// Battlefield effects like ??Mist??, ??Rain??, ??Storm??, and (more rarely) ??Earthquake??. Ryujin can also contribute with spells like ??Freezing Mists?? or ??Acid Rain??. Disabling spells like ??Web??, ??Slime??, or ??Sleep Cloud??. In conjunction with Conjuration 3-5 Evocation is particularly powerful. ??Sulphur Haze?, ??Poison Cloud??, ?/Lightning Bolt?? (in conjunction with ??Storm??), ??Healing Mist??, ??Falling Fires?? (or ??Fireball??) become available much more readily with the path-boosting spells in Conjuration, or through help from summons in that same school. This can also be true of spells in other schools, but given that many Evocation spells need a sufficient mass of casts to be effective, it’s particularly true here.
+    * //**Evocation 5:**// Battlefield effects like ??Mist??, ??Rain??, ??Storm??, and (more rarely) ??Earthquake??. Ryujin can also contribute with spells like ??Freezing Mists?? or ??Acid Rain??. Disabling spells like ??Web??, ??Slime??, or ??Sleep Cloud??. In conjunction with Conjuration 3-5 Evocation is particularly powerful. ??Sulphur Haze??, ??Poison Cloud??, ??Lightning Bolt?? (in conjunction with ??Storm??), ??Healing Mist??, ??Falling Fires?? (or ??Fireball??) become available much more readily with the path-boosting spells in Conjuration, or through help from summons in that same school. This can also be true of spells in other schools, but given that many Evocation spells need a sufficient mass of casts to be effective, it’s particularly true here.
     * //**Enchantment 5:**// ??Haste??, ??Flaming Arrows??, ??Strength of Giants??, ??Antimagic??, and ??Foul Vapors?? are all strong options here. Also includes strong thug spells like ??Personal Regeneration??, ??Breath of Winter??, and ??Fire Shield??. Another source of Resistance buffs aside from Alteration. Foul Vapors is one of the strongest spells in the game against armies without Poison Resistance, so this is a particularly useful school in that scenario.
@@ Line 512: / Line 504: @@
 ==== Mid-Game Offensive Strategy====
-By the time the Mid Game period enters its more serious phase, roughly around turns 30-40, you should hopefully be in a strong position. By this point, you should have multiple schools at Level 5, and be working towards–or at–your first Level 7 school. Almost always, the first Level 7 school should be Alteration, although Construction 7 is also fairly potent. Important Level 6 goals include Alteration 6, Construction 6, and Enchantment 6, with Conjuration 6 and Evocation 6 being useful for Wailing Winds if you can summon Oni. At this point, Jomon has access to such a wide variety of spells that what you actually need for any given fight will be the primary determinant of what gets cast, although there are some spells that don’t really come with downsides.
+By the time the Mid Game period enters its more serious phase, roughly around turns 30-40, you should hopefully be in a strong position. By this point, you should have multiple schools at Level 5, and be working towards–or at–your first Level 7 school. Almost always, the first Level 7 school should be Alteration, although Construction 7 is also fairly potent. Important Level 6 goals include Alteration 6, Construction 6, and Enchantment 6, with Conjuration 6 and Evocation 6 being useful for ??Wailing Winds?? if you can summon Oni. At this point, Jomon has access to such a wide variety of spells that what you actually need for any given fight will be the primary determinant of what gets cast, although there are some spells that don’t really come with downsides.
-As an example, the reason one should head straight for Alteration 7 is because of the incredibly strong combination of access to Fog Warriors and either Marble Warriors or Mass Protection (or both) depending on if someone has a way to punish Fire or Cold vulnerability. Construction 7, on the other hand, would mostly be taken to maximize damage output using Weapons of Sharpness. Both Schools have quite useful pickups at their Level 6 as well, with Lightless Lanterns, Starshine Skullcaps, and Armor of Knights forgeable, as well as Frozen Heart, Wave Warriors, and Battle Fortune available in Alteration.
+As an example, the reason one should head straight for Alteration 7 is because of the incredibly strong combination of access to ??Fog Warriors?? and either ??Marble Warriors?? or ??Mass Protection?? (or both) depending on if someone has a way to punish Fire or Cold vulnerability. Construction 7, on the other hand, would mostly be taken to maximize damage output using Weapons of Sharpness. Both Schools have quite useful pickups at their Level 6 as well, with ??Lightless Lantern??s, ??Starshine Skullcap??s, and ??Armor of Knights?? in Construction, as well as ??Frozen Heart??, ??Wave Warriors??, and ??Battle Fortune?? available in Alteration.
 It is at this stage of the game, before it becomes easy to mass remotes, summons, and thugs to deal with Ryujin or Jomon’s weak mages efficiently, that Jomon truly shines as a nation. Given the initiative, Jomon is capable of rapidly locking a nation down, sniping out its commanders, while moving unstoppable armies onto forts and winning any fights necessary to conquer the opponent.

Dominions 5 Wiki

User Tools

Site Tools

Differences

Page Tools