What Dominions 6 is about
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 old dragons or an enormous enormous tree. When you start the game you decide what kind of god you are and how your Dominion affects your lands, followers and sacred soldiers. Your dominion 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 it.
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. The game is a deep 4x turn based strategy game with a very large variety of spells and units, plus magic items and different nations to play. The fantasy world draws inspiration from historical nations, cultures and myths. You might lead a nation of vanir from old norse myth, and other sources include Aztecs, romans, israelites, greeks, kievian rus and lovecraftian horrors. You will not encounter the elves of conventional fantasy in this game.
Playing together
Dominions 6 is suitable for play vs AI or player vs player, and team play against AI or players works as well. Everyone can do their turns at once, so a group can move through a session without waiting on a single queue. Online co-op and online PvP are available, along with Remote Play Together. The game also supports asynchronous multiplayer, so a campaign can keep going between sessions.
What to know before starting
Dominions 6 is scaled up compared to Dominions 5 and armies are larger. Incomes and resources are increased, while mages are more expensive. Battlefield-wide spells are more difficult to cast and there are instead more mid-tier spells. A new magic path called Glamour has been added: illusions, phantasms, dreams and the stuff of forgotten legends are manipulated by it, which has brought many new spells, items and sites. Mounts and riders are now separated, with each having their own stats and targetable individually, which affects cavalry and nations using mounted units. The game also features a number of new nations, and the addition of the Glamour path has affected several of the old ones. The first Dominions game was released in 2002, and the series has been refined since then.