A wonderful combination of roleplay and strategy. Buying into this game is buying into 20 years of iteration on a fantastic franchise. The amount of customisation and replayability is staggering. Battles are something to behold, as hundreds of individual units ranging from giants to imps collide. Every single unit is tracked in battle down to their limbs. Injuries and experience persist between battles.

The depth of the magic system is also incredible. From ritual spells to communions and sabbaths, there is a high skill ceiling. Dominions 6 rewards roleplay and strategy, and scratches that Age of Mythology/Deus itch like no other game. There is also an incredibly passionate community that plays long form multiplayer games. I would place Dominions squarely in the genre of competitive 4x games with a central focus on warfare. Depending on how large the map is, games generally don't last too long.

There are however downsides that you should consider before buying. Price is one factor. Second, the game is butt ugly. (With the notable exception of unit sprites. Units and battles look awesome, and there is such an insane variety of units.) The UI is terrible, like really bad. Most of the quality of life features are hidden behind hotkeys. Learn them well. Also, there is no tutorial, just a poorly organised manual. Finally, the micro for large empires combined with the atrocious UI can really get tiring.

I would say the barrier to entry isn't actually that high, once you understand the fundamental mechanics of the game it becomes straightforward. But, there is a considerable lack of tutorials or even community guides. You can rely on Dominions 5 guides to some extent since the games are similar. Also, Microsoft's Copilot AI has been instrumental accurately answering all of my questions about the game.

Nevertheless, all of these disadvantages are outweighed by the unparalleled depth of magic, strategic features, passionate community, awesome battles, and near infinite replayability. If you can overcome the downsides and are itching for a god-sim game, don't sleep on Dominions. You might just get obsessed.

A wonderful combination of roleplay and strategy. Buying into this game is buying into 20 years of iteration on a fantastic franchise. The amount of customisation and replayability is staggering. Battles are something to behold, as hundreds of individual units ranging from giants to imps collide. Every single unit is tracked in battle down to their limbs. Injuries and experience persist between battles. The depth of the magic system is also incredible. From ritual spells to communions and sabbaths, there is a high skill ceiling. Dominions 6 rewards roleplay and strategy, and scratches that Age of Mythology/Deus itch like no other game. There is also an incredibly passionate community that plays long form multiplayer games. I would place Dominions squarely in the genre of competitive 4x games with a central focus on warfare. Depending on how large the map is, games generally don't last too long. There are however downsides that you should consider before buying. Price is one factor. Second, the game is butt ugly. (With the notable exception of unit sprites. Units and battles look awesome, and there is such an insane variety of units.) The UI is terrible, like really bad. Most of the quality of life features are hidden behind hotkeys. Learn them well. Also, there is no tutorial, just a poorly organised manual. Finally, the micro for large empires combined with the atrocious UI can really get tiring. I would say the barrier to entry isn't actually that high, once you understand the fundamental mechanics of the game it becomes straightforward. But, there is a considerable lack of tutorials or even community guides. You can rely on Dominions 5 guides to some extent since the games are similar. Also, Microsoft's Copilot AI has been instrumental accurately answering all of my questions about the game. Nevertheless, all of these disadvantages are outweighed by the unparalleled depth of magic, strategic features, passionate community, awesome battles, and near infinite replayability. If you can overcome the downsides and are itching for a god-sim game, don't sleep on Dominions. You might just get obsessed.