For time untold, the Pantokrator ruled over the known worlds as a god and was the most powerful force known. He slew other creatures who strived to make themselves gods, denounced as pretenders, and asserted his will over all. Those that survived the Pantokrator’s hunt either hid themselves among the worlds, or vanished into a deep sleep, to rise once more when safe. Finally, after hundreds of years the Pantokrator has fallen and a power vacuum is left in his wake. The world has fallen into chaos and kingdom clashes against kingdom as spheres of power expand. The pretenders reawaken into the world. Allying themselves and being worshipped by specific civilizations and races, they know that they must fight one another… for obstacles must be defeated in order to obtain godhood.
Dominions 3: The Awakening is a 4X turn-based strategy game that’s primarily played on a world map. Starting from a randomly generated or assembled map, players choose from among 20 civilizations and an avatar creature with which to conquer all others. From this new kingdom, players manage resources in their provinces and assemble armies (a commander, and any additional units) who are able to move between the provinces, conquer new lands and perform other tasks. Each province produces it’s own amount of taxes (gold), resources, supplies and special bonuses, which are used to construct fortifications, churches, hire mercenaries, buy new units and manage the empire.
As Dominions 3 is a fantasy game, commanders may also be proficient in one of six different kinds of magic spells. Players must assign commanders to research in order to discover and learn new spells before they can be used in battle. There also exists “field spells” which can be cast outside of battle, but which consume magical gems as their cost. Magical Gems can be found from magical events or by discovering the magical sites that may or may not exist in any given province.
Game rules can be customized to make any game easier or harder. Multiplayer functions allow players to compete against one another in empire building online. A variety of victory conditions can be set to determine the winner.
