Dominions II: The Ascension Wars
Dominions II: The Ascension Wars is a 4X turn-based, computer strategy game. It was developed by Illwinter Game Design and published by Shrapnel Games. The game was released on November 14, 2003 in North America for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. "Dominions II: The Ascension Wars" was the sequel to "". It was followed by "" in 2006. Gameplay. "Dominions II: The Ascension Wars" is a 4X turn-based, computer strategy game. The players play the role of the god of one out of 17 different nations and battle each other for the dominance  of a fantasy world. At the most basic level, "Dominions II" is similar to "Risk". It is also similar to "Civilization". The world is divided into many provinces that change hands after a tactical battle. The players use armies of men and monsters to fight these battles. Game planning and startup. The players and game host (who may also play) find each other through out-of-game channels and decide on game setup. These decisions include: Each player then designs their god. Each god-type costs design points which can be spent on the god's dominion properties, his/her  magical abilities, or on the national castle type. The god's initial magic levels also determine the effect of the god's blessing, a special ability which enhances certain types of sacred troops. A god who wields powerful fire magic will enhance the attack skill of such troops and even set their weapons ablaze, whereas a god who focuses on nature magic will instead allow them to go berserk. It is possible to make a god who excels at magic and magical research but is physically weak, as well as a near-unkillable warrior-god with barely any magical powers  at all. Dominion effects are adjusted by using design points to 'tilt' 6 scales (graphically 6 balance scales), which represent the nature of the god which becomes manifest in territory under his dominion. The 6 scales are Order/Turmoil, Productivity/Sloth, Heat/Cold, Growth/Death, Luck/Misfortune, and Magic/Drain. Players each send the file with their pretender design to the host, who starts the game. Game phases. Each turn of the game is split into two phases: The planning phase. Each player's turn is a process of assessing the apparent opportunities and risks, and acting to advance their  plans for world domination. Recruiting new units, sending messages to other players, reviewing the provinces' tax and unrest levels, and directing magic research are all ways of directing the nation overall. Players also give specific orders to each of their commanders at the strategic level, such as attacking enemy territory (with any troops under their command); casting a ritual magic spell; forging a magical object; assassinating an enemy commander while hiding in enemy domain; or constructing a building (temple, laboratory, or castle). Planning for combat involves organizing troops under commanders and issuing up to five tactical battle instructions (such as  magic spells to cast) to the commanders, and simpler orders to troop squads. Each commander can control up to 5 squads and his leadership skills limit the total and kinds of troops he can command. Leading magical, undead, or demonic troops requires appropriate magical skills. Troops and commanders are organized and a simple overhead-view grid can be used to place them in specific starting locations for combat. Once all orders are set, the player sends his turn-file by email or by TCP/IP-connection to the host-computer. The execution phase. The host-computer calculates the results of  all battles and random events simultaneously and sends the result-files back to the players. The players can now view the results of last turn's orders and events, watch the replays of the battles and proceed with the planning phase of the next turn. Features. "Dominions II" also includes AI for single player games. Supply and morale are modeled in the game world and play an important role. Dominion (how much a province believes in player's god versus another player's) affects not only combat morale but also the local settings of the province such as climate, richness , luck/bad events or available supply. Strategic preaching can not only shift the outcome of future battles; it can allow an "theological" bloodless victory: if a player loses his dominion in all his provinces, he also loses the game, but mighty his armies may be. Each nation and theme also have a set of national heroes, which may appear and volunteer to serve as leaders as the game progresses, unless that nation is unlucky. Different maps are available as well as (player-made) mods. Much of the game is customizable with the help of a simple text editor and paint  program. Tactics. "Dominions II" allows the player to make some tactical decisions for your units in battle, by setting the combat behaviour of each of their combat units ahead of time. When battle is processed, the player's troops will follow the orders they have been given. The kinds of tactical commands include whether to attack, delay an attack, retreat, fire missile weapons, use melee weapons or which kind of enemy to target. For commanders, more control is possible. Players can tell them exactly what spells to cast, or exactly how long to wait before performing another kind of action . Setting. There are seventeen playable nations, each of which has its own selection of troops, commanders, priests and mages. Many nations also have access to unique spells or choices of Pretender, as well as various abilities such as a bonus to castle defense, dominion which spreads death and decay, and more. Many nations may be found in several variants, known as themes, each of which represents a different historical era or alternate timeline. For example, the default form of Ermor is a human empire on the brink of perdition. Ermor's two alternate themes (which may be interpreted as the  future of default Ermor), Ashen Empire and Soul Gate, are both wholly undead nations with radically different units and abilities. Abysia Atlantis Pythium Man Ulm Having the same name as a German city, this nation could be loosely based on medieval Germany, which is also famous for armor along with other forge knowledge. Caelum C'tis Arcoscephale Ermor Marignon Pangaea Vanheim Jotunheim R'lyeh T'ien Ch'i Mictlan Machaka Reception. "Dominions II" was praised for its flexibility in allowing the player to command and customise his armies in a large number of ways. The game's immersiveness and gameplay detail was also appreciated , noting particular appeal to strong fans of the strategy game genre. The long lifespan of "Dominions II" was also commented on, with the way gameplay concepts are introduced in stages being particularly impressive. It was also noted that because of the large number of options, it is unlikely that a game will be repeated in the same way more than once. The way that "Dominions II" introduces new gameplay concepts was found to present a steep learning curve to the player, requiring constant reference to a manual. This also lead to reviewers describing the game as being over-complicated. The  user interface, despite being streamlined from the original, was still described as cumbersome and unintuitive in areas, requiring the player to forcibly exit the game in order to correct errors in turn phases. The graphical representation of the player's armies and battles was also described as being "1998-era", offering little feedback on the progress of encounters with opposing troops. "Computer Games Magazine" named "Dominions II" the third-best computer game of 2003, and presented it with an award for "Best Independent Game". The editors wrote that "there's no fantasy game more epic, varied and vivid" than "Dominions  II". The editors of "Computer Gaming World" nominated "Dominions II" for their 2003 "Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to "". They called it the year's best 4X title, and wrote that they "found it impossible to ignore the [game's] almost overwhelming depth of strategy".