Domination - how does it work?

Hydna

Grepolis Team
Following the suggestion that we discuss topics in the forum I think ‘how Dom works’ is a good place to start so this is a few points to think about for the pre dom era. Please feel free to discuss and ask questions on anything said here.

We receive a lot of tickets just after each Dom era starts in a world because players do not understand why some cities are not included. You have the
wiki which does explain what happens but let’s discuss this in a bit more detail.

In Pseira you are now in the pre Dom era. This is a regular speed world so your era will begin 180 days after the world start on 26th October.

When the Dom era begins the system will sweep the world from the centre outwards marking valid islands and when it reaches a pre-determined % it will stop. The exact predetermined % is not published but you can look at previous worlds for an idea. I will tell you now that this is not 100% nor even close to it. That means that you must plan your expansion now to give you the best chance. The reason for this is that the Dom concept is fight to win so the aim is to encourage expansion towards the centre.

In Dom city numbers are king. It does not matter where your cities are as long as they are on valid islands. It does not matter what the city size is. If the island is valid all cities count. That includes ghosts and new colonisations even after the era start. Some will no doubt say that this benefits golders but in the last Dom world I played I knew a guy in the top 10 who never used gold at all. He was an inexperienced player, he did fight but the main reason was high and productive activity. City builds should be specifically geared to Dom. In WW you want max resources, max markets and either a statue or a merchant shop at the end so what so you want here? BP and city takes are the priority.

What should you be doing now? The wiki says ‘The pre-domination time should be enough for you and your alliance to solidify but not long enough that you will feel safe.’ The cap here is 30 players. Only one alliance can win so think carefully. You need a team who will maximise all opportunities for slots, who will fight aggressively to fill them and a has a retention strategy that will allow you to hold these cities. City losses in isolation mean nothing. I would even say a city loss that generates an extra slot is potentially beneficial.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that you think of a circle expanding from the centre and plan your expansion accordingly.

This is a fight to win but it’s unlikely that fighting alone will achieve it. You need slots and to maximise these that means also regularly farming resources and running festivals. Just like in WW this is an overall game. Of course you need to fight, inactivity and simming cannot achieve a win here.

This is the beginning. Everyone has a chance. As with every world a stable and supportive alliance is a good start. More alliances fail because of internal issues than for any other reason. This is a strategy game – the end goal is that YOUR alliance gains 40% of the valid cities before anyone else. There is no right or wrong way to play this (as long as you play within the rules). What will you do next?

Pacts. Do you need them? Are they temporary or permanent? You can’t share your win.

Finally – this is a game make sure that whatever happens you remember this is a game and have fun!
 

Moon Breathing

Chiliarch
I have a suggestion.
How about consider all the islands(not rock islands)?
This system would give more "points" to cities located closer to the center and less "points" to rim cities, like target shooting. We all agree that rim islands aren't so valuable as central islands, but...
Everybody would have a role, even rim players. Experienced players are going to be in the middle protecting their valuable cities and conquering, and newbies in the borders. Slots and gold won't be so important anymore, but activity. And ghosts would be less frequent.
Thanks,
Moon.
 

Hydna

Grepolis Team
I have a suggestion.
How about consider all the islands(not rock islands)?
This system would give more "points" to cities located closer to the center and less "points" to rim cities, like target shooting. We all agree that rim islands aren't so valuable as central islands, but...
Everybody would have a role, even rim players. Experienced players are going to be in the middle protecting their valuable cities and conquering, and newbies in the borders. Slots and gold won't be so important anymore, but activity. And ghosts would be less frequent.
Thanks,
Moon.

The whole concept was to create a situation where players had to fight each other. Moving to the rim creates a situation where most players will never go near you. This is not about excluding rim players but encouraging them to interact more with everyone else. If you spawn further out then you expand inwards.
 

DeletedUser57118

Guest
Hey Hydna, on a different note, we all really appreciate you doing the interviews for the other worlds, is there a possibility of doing some interviews for this world, perhaps after beginners protection is up?
 

kingpg28

Phrourach
Following the suggestion that we discuss topics in the forum I think ‘how Dom works’ is a good place to start so this is a few points to think about for the pre dom era. Please feel free to discuss and ask questions on anything said here.

We receive a lot of tickets just after each Dom era starts in a world because players do not understand why some cities are not included. You have the
wiki which does explain what happens but let’s discuss this in a bit more detail.

In Pseira you are now in the pre Dom era. This is a regular speed world so your era will begin 180 days after the world start on 26th October.

When the Dom era begins the system will sweep the world from the centre outwards marking valid islands and when it reaches a pre-determined % it will stop. The exact predetermined % is not published but you can look at previous worlds for an idea. I will tell you now that this is not 100% nor even close to it. That means that you must plan your expansion now to give you the best chance. The reason for this is that the Dom concept is fight to win so the aim is to encourage expansion towards the centre.

In Dom city numbers are king. It does not matter where your cities are as long as they are on valid islands. It does not matter what the city size is. If the island is valid all cities count. That includes ghosts and new colonisations even after the era start. Some will no doubt say that this benefits golders but in the last Dom world I played I knew a guy in the top 10 who never used gold at all. He was an inexperienced player, he did fight but the main reason was high and productive activity. City builds should be specifically geared to Dom. In WW you want max resources, max markets and either a statue or a merchant shop at the end so what so you want here? BP and city takes are the priority.

What should you be doing now? The wiki says ‘The pre-domination time should be enough for you and your alliance to solidify but not long enough that you will feel safe.’ The cap here is 30 players. Only one alliance can win so think carefully. You need a team who will maximise all opportunities for slots, who will fight aggressively to fill them and a has a retention strategy that will allow you to hold these cities. City losses in isolation mean nothing. I would even say a city loss that generates an extra slot is potentially beneficial.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that you think of a circle expanding from the centre and plan your expansion accordingly.

This is a fight to win but it’s unlikely that fighting alone will achieve it. You need slots and to maximise these that means also regularly farming resources and running festivals. Just like in WW this is an overall game. Of course you need to fight, inactivity and simming cannot achieve a win here.

This is the beginning. Everyone has a chance. As with every world a stable and supportive alliance is a good start. More alliances fail because of internal issues than for any other reason. This is a strategy game – the end goal is that YOUR alliance gains 40% of the valid cities before anyone else. There is no right or wrong way to play this (as long as you play within the rules). What will you do next?

Pacts. Do you need them? Are they temporary or permanent? You can’t share your win.

Finally – this is a game make sure that whatever happens you remember this is a game and have fun!

already my favorite mod... this is her nice way of saying STOP THE HUGGING... honestly you all suck holding hands to win... be a man and fight thats the point of a WAR game

from now on any issues with her i will address.. hit me in discord so i can cuss you out for being a bum
 

Hydna

Grepolis Team
Well no not quite - i wouldn't tell anyone how to play. But this is my point you cant hold hands to win this so pacts need to be strategic. They do work for example 2 alliances can pact to take out a third but take care not to help an alliance that can beat you to 40%. There is a long way to go here though.

Clearly all my worries are over if PG is now my personal guard!
 
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