Dominions 6 - Rise of the Pantokrator Reviews

I would describe Dominions as a digital fantasy miniature war-game, better than all triple-A strategy games on Steam put together. Its literary, artistic and ludic merits are considerable. Yet there is a price to be paid for all that. The UI is tedious, repetitive, obscure, catering specifically to the needs of an obsessive-compulsive, controlling maniac and micromanagement addict like myself. I have only myself to blame for falling for this game. What a fool I have been. Let me ask the developers rhetorically, do you yourselves play your own game ? Certainly not. Yet you are happy to take advantage of a few juvenile-minded fans playing at digital toy-soldiers, wasting their life away. Dear customer you have been warned, save your time, save your life. Take care.

Dominions 6 is an exceptional game for me. Currently, my game time doesn't resemble this from some points of view. Some gamers would have a blast playing a game for 56 hours only and then setting it down. Others play for 100s or 1,000s of hours. Regardless, since the game's release in January of 2024 I have steeled myself for drawing nearer to the latter of these two examples. I played 32 hours or so in all of 2024. I am at 24 hours in 2025 after getting back into Dominions 6 these passed few weeks. I don't think I will be able to stop this time. Dominions reminds me of something, but I a'int sure of what exactly. What I am trying to say is that the art style and the game description on this steam page are what initially coaxed my wallet into purchasing what may potentially become an element of eternal bliss in my life. I grew up on late 90s and early 2000s video games as well as engaging table top games and mentally stimulating fantasy/sci-fi media. I also have had interests in history. I think of the Roman empire every few days. Really, was just an agoge for Dominions 6. I'm not meaning this in the literal sense of course since I have yet to try my hand at multiplayer. But beware! Soon I intend to show those multiplayer peeps how a professional gamer like me gets wiped off of the map, that is once I can become something the real pros find at least as formidable as a chew-toy. If you are a die-hard shooter fan and tried other genres and didn't like them, then this game may not be for you. Trying it would be alright, but then your KDR would slip and you'd miss the season pass loot boxes. If you are a casual gamer (i.e. less than an hour per day) I believe that you could still have lots of fun. Before you buy I would recomend searching the Illwinter game design website because there's a free pdf manual on there. You can also buy a physical copy which I have and love. But for a casual gamer who may or may not like a game yet a free pdf is perfect. Once the pdf is downloaded you could devote around 30 minutes every few days or so to reading parts that seem interesting in it: learn about some lore, a few game mechanics, read some spells (etc.). This reading session approach is what has created a monster inside of me that is unable to quit thinking about Dominions 6 for longer than a few hours at a time. Actually, don't do this. Your family needs you! If you like D and D or similarly engaging tabletop games then this game is likely something which will at the very least be fun to watch a Youtube video or two on. Invariably, 1 person/table top gaming group would love this game guaranteed. I'm refering to the real-life wizard types, you know, they know every rule and occasionally debate the dungeonmaster. I am that person. If you have been looking for a game to play for the passed few months and every other game seems similar to the next, then I believe that even just looking into what Dominions is would be interesting for you. It was for me last year. Last year the seed was planted. I am no longer human now, but merely a host to this craft of playing Dominions. Turn based strategy players and RTS players may like this game. The reason I'm not 100% certain whether these players would like it is because it isn't super similar to any strategy game I've played. The generalization of Dominions as similar to 'this' or 'that' game can barely be argued, and at best would just be a good reason to play Dominions sometimes. Or all of the time. Anyways, there is zero real-time strategy to this game, but each battle can be observed in pseudo-real-time fashion. The battles are calculated in rounds, but its super cinematic if you are engaged with what is happening. My reflections on Dominions regarding being engaged with its systems is that I find myself feeling/thinking, "That's my army, scripted to fight this battle that I'm watching in the way I figured was best. I scripted the rank and file troops on what to do, equipped and scripted the more prominent units (they're kind of like the troops with some more specificity in how their scripted), and before all of that I enagaged in all other kinds of planning." I guess Dominions is kind of like Chess or something. I don't know, maybe it's like an FPS game. NO! It is Dominions. Ultimately, the game is exceptional. The free pdf manual on Illwinter's website, the Dominions 5 mod inspector, and the Illwiki website are all great resources for diving in to the game before buying it. Youtube videos are also free and are also great resources and are also fun.

glorious turn-based strategy game. capable of either randomly generated maps or maps manually built from scratch. unbalanced unique factions over 3 different era sets. Every faction has unique strengths and weaknesses. There is no simple rock, paper, scissors matchup, More of a blend of hundreds of possible different factors. magic resistance, blunt slash pierce resistance, fatigue, light level, heat level, above/below water, above/below ground, morale, disease, leadership, dominion bless, dominion bonuses, dominion negatives, attack rating, defense rating, parry rating, base equipment bonuses, base equipment negatives, special item bonuses, special item negatives, province bonuses, province negatives, the list goes on and on. Hundreds of factions, items, spells, starting units, summonable units, leaders, gods, and events (both story driven and random) effect every play through. It can get into chess like levels of move strategies, counter move strategies, spell strategies, counter spell strategies, pretender build strategies, and unit composition. Being easily modible, just adds icing to very wonderful varied cake.

Fantastic game with unique and interesting mechanics A+++ Has a bit of a learning curve but a great community to learn from and play against

I have been playing this since dominions 3. I like many of the changes they have made included some COL changes including the ability to set your mages to auto search for magic sites. Good work Ilwinter

In comparison to Dominions 5 it adds a couple more factions, although I wish they added more WAY BETTER MUSIC, the music in 6 is in my opinion MUCH better than 5, a new line of magic called "Glamour", with the new line comes new spells and summoning rituals and some old spells now require "Glamour" in order to use them slightly better looking textures for the map and units a new UI (but I kinda like the Dominions 5 UI better) The "Diplomacy" option is just bad in this game, even when I selected the "Binding" option which stops the factions from attacking without warning, they still attacked even after the agreement just in smaller numbers. overall I give it an 8/10

This Game is Crack with a steep learning curve. Its difficult to learn and it does a bad job of explaining its mechanics. Even compared to other grand strategy games. Guides are mandatory. But its very creative, has amazing mechanics, a fun and insane magic system, great lore and every run feels super customizable. Its quite pricy but its worth it if u enjoy grand strategy. Compared to a paradox Game without DLC it has much more content.

This is a very complex game to master with a lot of strategic depth. Both tactics and strategy are important. There's a lot to learn, but it's well documented and available as a free PDF or as a hard copy book you can buy. There are also plenty of YouTube videos that help you learn to play. Once you get past the steep learning curve, there's a lot of replay-ability for the game. Lots of different nations (maybe 20) in each of three ages (x3), each with about fifty different leaders, each with a basic chassis but near infinite customization. There are a lot of spell paths you can choose and a lot of choices within each spell path for what you cast in what order. There are strategies for how you compose your armies. How you arrange your armies on the battlefield. What you order your squads to do. There are strategies for how you expand your provinces. What you build. How much you put into province defense. You also have a lot of different items you can craft. And you have minor random events to deal with. Some people comment that you can play this game a decade and still be learning new things. This is the sixth version, so they've updated and improved it each time and it's quite polished now. If you're willing to put in a few hours to learn the basics, you can have fun trying out different strategies to see what works for you. Something I find quite enjoyable. Recommended.

one of the greatest wargames ever made. one of those games where I've been playing for over a decade and am still terrible at it but really still love it.

Steam asks me "you've played this game for 308 hours, would you recommend this game to other players" and my first thought is "but how could I know, I'm just a newbie!"