You are a God! You are master and ruler of a loyal nation. You have unimaginable powers at your disposal. You have claimed this world as yours. But there are others who stand in your way. You must defeat and destroy these pretenders. Only then can you ascend to godhood and become the new Pantokrator.
In Dominions you take control of a powerful being that rules a nation and aspires to godhood. The type of Pretender Gods can vary from magically powerful arch mages to huge titans or large monuments. The pretender gods have different strengths dependent on what kind of god you choose and what nation you play.
When you start the game you decide what kind of god you are and how your Dominion affects your lands and followers. It is an expression of your divine might and the faith of your followers. If your dominion dies, so do you. Your dominion also inspires your sacred warriors and gives them powers derived from your dominion.
In order to win and become the one true god you have to defeat your enemies one of three different ways: conquer their lands, extinguish their dominion or claim the Thrones of Ascension.
In Dominions 4 you can also play team games where one of the players take the role of supreme god, and the other members of the team are his servants and loyal subjects. The lesser gods rule their nations, but you all share the dominion of the supreme god.
Dominions is set in a fantasy world that draws inspiration from historical nations, cultures and myths. You will not encounter the elves of conventional fantasy in this game. Instead you might lead a nation of vanir from old norse myth. Aztecs, romans, israelites, greeks, shona and kievian rus are just a few of the inspirational sources of the game.
The first Dominions game was released in 2002 and was well received by strategy gamers. Since then Dominions has been much refined and Dominions series is still actively played making it one of the longest running 4x turn based strategy games.
Dominions 4 is also a highly moddable game. You can create your own monsters, spells and entire nations. Since Dominions 3 there has been a vivid modding community and Dominions 4 will enhance this capability even further.
Screenshots
Reviews and Articles about Dominions 4
PC Gamer's Dominions 4 diary, part one: one monolith's struggle to become top deity.PC Gamer's Dominions 4 diary, part two: war elephants, hurricanes and fallen gods.
PC Gamer's Dominions 4 diary, part three: wizards, lizards and eternal darkness.
On Quarter to Three, Bruce Geryk's Confessions of a Dominions manual writer.
On Gizorama: Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension Review
Jesse Galen: Late to the Party: Dominions 4, Thrones of Ascension/
Buying and Forum
Dominions 4 can be bought from Steam.There is a forum on steam, please use that if you have questions or if you have bugs to report. There is also a FAQ for technical problems.
Feature List
- Many monsters (2000+) and many many special abilities.
- About 75 different nations to choose from, varying from Marignon with paladins, witch hunters and inquisitors to under water nations like the Lovecraft inspired R'lyeh.
- Three Eras to play in, Early era is most magic and the late era is more technologically advanced with good steel weapons and armors.
- Design your pretender god and how his dominion influences provinces and his sacred units.
- Multiplayer with simultaneous turns (up to 28 players).
- Teamplay with one Pretender player and a bunch of Disciple players per team.
- Network or Play by E-Mail for multiplayer.
- AI opponents for single- or multiplayer game.
- Random maps with cave, mountain passes and rivers (rivers can only be passed when frozen).
- An extensive magic system with over 800 spells.
- Blood magic, power your rituals with human sacrifices.
- Global rituals that affect the entire world.
- More than 300 magic items.
- Unique magic artifacts that all players compete for, once forged no one else can make it.
- Mercenaries are bought on a global market.
- Scouts, Assassins, Spies, Seducers, Corruptors, Werewolves, Illusionists and more can be sneaking in your provinces.
- Claim the thrones of Ascension to gain special powers and eventually win the game.
- Permanent battle afflictions.
- Easy to Mod (2d graphics)
- Playable on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.
Manuals
The main manual contains the tutorial, explains how the game works and also has lists of recruitable units, spells and magic items. There are also two separate manuals for those who want to create their own maps or mods, you won't need them if you are new to Dominions.Main Manual (4.24c)
Modding Manual (4.21)
Event Modding Manual (4.14)
Mapmaking Manual (4.06)
Quick Reference Guide (list of keyboard shortcuts)
Command line switches (for script creators)
If you want a printed manual which is highly recommended, then you can order one here for the black & white print or here for the full color manual.. The printed manual is about 450 pages and comes with a good index and a nice shiny cover. The black & white manual costs $8.41 and the fancy color manual costs $26.32.
Updates
The game is updated frequently and you get the new updates by using the Steam client, or by redownloading the game from where you bought it. Read the version history to find out what has changed. You can also check out the progress page to see what is happening to the development version (updated daily).System Requirements
The game can be played on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX and does not require a very new computer. A 5 year old computer should be able to run this game just fine. About 500 MB hard drive space is needed and your computer needs at least 1 GB ram.Windows:
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8 and 10.
Linux:
32 and 64 bit builds of Dominions 4 are provided as well as an armv6l version.
LibSDL1.2 and an OpenGL capable graphics card required
Any distro should work, new or old.
Mac OSX:
OSX 10.3 or later
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