All right, who here is playing this? Probably none of you. For shame. This game is my new best friend. It's Stars! meets Warlords with all the focus and design integrity of Starships Unlimited.

Go here...

http://www.illwinter.com/dominions.html

Don't bother looking at the screenshots, which look kinda chintzy. Just download the demo, have a look at Alex Poger's PDF tutorial...

http://www.illwinter.com/start_guide.pdf

...and poke around at the game.

I've been won over. I have to say this has been a *superlative* year for strategy games if you know where to look: Corporate Machine, Europa Universalis, Starships Unlimited, Rails Across America, and now Dominions.

-Tom

Bah...gaming sucks. Haven't you played all these big budget stinkers? That's what gaming is all about after all... :P

I saw you talking about it on USENET. I'll check it out. If you're putting it in the same group as CM, EU, SU and RAA, there must be something to crow about.

--Dave

Is it just me, or do I detect a touch of MoM in this thing?

Well, you could say there's a touch of MoM in any fantasy strategy game. The way you research different schools of magic resembles MoM, but it doesn't have MoM's Civvy empire-building flavor. Domininions is much more army-centered a la Stars! and Warlords.

-Tom

I played a demo of this a few weeks ago.. didnt really get into it. it DOES remind me of Warlords meets MoM. I was thinking of buying it, but im really not in a pure strategy gaming mood these days.

etc

I've been trying to play the demo for a while now, Tom. This game is rough, especially if you don't have all the time in the world to read the manual. ;) Personally, even though I repeatedly get slaughtered, I think this is one fantastic game.

"This game is rough, especially if you don't have all the time in the world to read the manual."

Yeah, it's got a steep learning curve, but it's really worth it. I printed out the manual, the spell book, and the list of magic items. I put them all in a binder and I'm constantly referring to it during combat ("What does Decay do?"), research ("Should I go for Alterations or Evocations?"), and item construction ("Let's see what I can build if I get my Construction up a few levels...").

I don't pretend to know the mechanics very well and I've never won. But if you want to try a game with me, drop me an email at [email protected] (linked above) and we can choose a small map and maybe team up against a computer opponent or two.

-Tom

Yeah, Dominions ruled my life for a good three weeks solid, and it'll stay on my drive because I know I'll go back to it soon. One of the most impressive things to me is how much color and richness the designers put into each of the nations, considering the dearth if that sort of originality and attention to detail in mainstream games.

It does strike me as the sort of game you'd like, Jason. So I wasn't surprised to find your Realm War map. :)

One of the cool things about Dominions is that the detail in each nation isn't easy to see until you're actually using them. Each of the fourteen nations is almost like its own game.

-Tom

Is this only available by ordering directly from the company? I'm kinda a "stare at the box" guy.

I'll download the demo tonight and check it out though. MoM meets Warlords sounds too interesting for me to ignore.