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"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 your 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, however 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.
"Dominions" 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.
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
"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.
"Dominions II" was followed by a sequel, "", in 2006.
"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".
Gandalf (disambiguation)
Gandalf is a fictional wizard in J. R. R. Tolkien's book "The Lord of the Rings".
Gandalf may also refer to:
In Norse mythology and legend:
In modern popular culture
In business and technology:
In music:
Other:
Wilton Abbey
Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury on the site now occupied by Wilton House.
It was active from 802 until 1539.
It was one of the most powerful nunneries in Medieval England, and one of only four nunneries to hold a barony alongside Shaftesbury, Barking, and St Mary's Abbey, Winchester.
A first foundation was made as a college of secular priests by Wulfstan, Ealdorman of Wiltshire, about 773, but after his death (802) was changed into a convent for twelve nuns by his widow, Saint Alburga, sister of Egbert of Wessex.
Owing to the consent given by this king he is counted as the first founder of this monastery.
Saint Alburga herself joined the community, and died at Wilton.
King Alfred, after his temporary success against the Danes at Wilton in 871, founded a new convent on the site of the royal palace and united to it the older foundation.
The community was to number 26 nuns.
It was attached to St Mary's Church.
Two daughters of king Edward the Elder and Ælfflæd, Eadflæd and Æthelhild, probably joined the community, Eadflæd as a nun and Æthelhild as a lay sister.
They were buried at Wilton with their mother.
Their half-brother, king Æthelstan, made two grants of land to a congregation at Wilton in the 930s, including one in 937 for the remission of his sins and those of Eadflæd.
In 955 King Eadwig granted the nuns of Wilton Abbey an estate called "Chelke" ("Chalke", Saxon "aet Ceolcum") which included land in Broad Chalke and Bowerchalke.
Wulfthryth of Wilton, the wife (or concubine) of Edgar, King of the English (959-75), was abbess of Wilton between the early 960s and about 1000.
According to Stenton, she was a nun when Edgar (who could not have been more than sixteen at the time, and she a bit older) abducted her from the abbey and carried her off to his palace at Kemsing, near Sevenoaks.
Abduction of a bride was not uncommon in pre-Christian and early Christian Anglo-Saxon society, and it is unknown how much of her abduction was with her consent.
Nevertheless, she was held at Kemsing for two years, during which time she bore Edgar a daughter Saint Edith, whom he acknowledged and supported for the rest of his life.
St. Dunstan, an advisor to Edgar, later talked the king into doing penance for the abduction: reportedly, Edgar refrained from wearing his crown for seven years.
By the early 960's, Wulfthryth was installed as abbess back at Wilton (where she raised her daughter), and Edgar had bestowed the abbey with treasure and land.
In 964 Edgar married Ælfthryth, in a Christian ceremony which would have nullified any pagan arrangement with Wulfthryth; because of this, modern historians sometimes refer to her as a "concubine" but the word is inaccurate, given the custom of the time.
Having been given wealth by the king, and being of a noble background herself, Wulfthryth used her wealth to build up Wilton's relic collection.
She was also able to use her royal connections to protect Wilton in other ways, such as securing the release of two Wilton priests who had been imprisoned by the reeve of Wilton.
Her daughter died between 984 and 987 at the age of 23, and her mother and various royalty, as well as enormous local popular support, promoted her cult as a saint.
In 1003 Sweyn, King of Denmark, destroyed the town of Wilton but we do not know whether the abbey shared its fate.
Edith of Wessex, the wife of Edward the Confessor, who had been educated at Wilton, rebuilt the abbey in stone; it had formerly been of wood.
The Abbess of Wilton held an entire barony from the king, a privilege shared by only three other English nunneries, Shaftesbury, Barking, and St Mary's Abbey, Winchester.
As the head of a barony, the abbess had the obligation to provide the royal army with knights when summoned.
The abbess had the privilege to appoint offices in her realm, which made her an important patron; her most prestigious cause of patronage was her right to appoint deacon to the conventual church, which had a great deal of clergymen in office at any given time.
Wilton Abbey was favored by the royal family and given many rich donations from members of the royal family, such as from Henry I and queen Maud.
The king, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Salisbury, and sometimes the queen, had the right to nominate nuns to Wilton, and the king exercised this right on his coronation and on the creation of a new abbess, and the queen on her coronation.
In 1143 King Stephen made it his headquarters, but was put to flight by Matilda's forces under Robert, Earl of Gloucester.
During the 13th-century, Wilton Abbey experienced a period of financial crisis, and between 1246 and 1276, several gifts were made from the crown and the church for the repair of the buildings, which where at this point described as having fallen into a serious state of disrepair.
Several scandals are known to have occurred in Wilton Abbey.
In 1284 and 1302 nuns of Wilton were found guilty of misconduct, and again in 1379.
In 1528, the crown interfered in the election of a new abbess after Cecily Willoughby (d. 1528).
The abbey nominated the election of the prioress, Isabel Jordayne, described as 'ancient, wise and discreet', while Anne Boleyn favored her brother-in-law Philip Carey's sister
Eleanor Carey.
Henry VIII preferred Isabel Jordayne when Eleanor Carey's candidacy was destroyed by serious moral charges against her.
In 1535, the abbess complained about Thomas Leigh's too strictly enforced enclosure, as it would not be possible for her to conduct the abbey's business properly if she was not allowed to leave the convent on business, as the abbey was in debt.
Cecily Bodenham, the last abbess, surrendered the convent to the commissioners of King Henry VIII on 25 March 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
The site was granted to Sir William Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke, who commenced the building of Wilton House, still the abode of his descendants.
There are no remains of the ancient buildings.
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