I love fantasy strategy games. I’ve played piles of them. That includes most of the Age of Wonders series, Master of Magic (the original and the new version), Warlock, Fallen Enchantress, Heroes of Might and Magic 1 through 5, and more. But Dominions outshines those games in multiple ways.

If you’re already someone who plays the Dominions games, you’ll have heard about Dominions 6 and you’ll (probably) already have it—or you’re waiting for the right moment to buy it. I’m more interested in those of you who haven’t played Dominions.

The last time I wrote at length about a Dominions game was a decade ago (damn), for Dominions 3. I said around then that I feared falling into the game, feared losing myself in its intricacies. That fear was appropriate. But I also wrote about the lure of a game that offered such stories—can my demon monkey kingdom raise enough hordes of undead and bleed the land dry fast enough to destroy the other would-be godly tyrants?—and I was right about that too. Dominions 6 isn’t accessible in the same way that I’d want if I were introducing novices to strategy games, but if you’re willing to dig into this game it will scratch itches that other games could never satisfy.

Check out a game that will let you turn your warriors’ skin to tree bark, throw fireballs, hunt the minds of enemy mages, accelerate time so that the whole world withers and dies, and steal the sun.

No other game I’ve played even tries to imagine the weighty transformative power of massed magic, or the might of would-be gods, while encompassing such a broad scope of capabilities—everything from local spear militia to wizards to man-eating divine beasts or giant magical sentient rocks. That broad scope means that a game of Dominions changes strategic and tactical paradigms several times through its course. Players first advance on the strength of their basic soldiers, then on the power of their battle mages, and finally on both of those plus their increasing ability to warp the world against their foes and in their own favor.

Games like Age of Wonders or Master of Magic limit the scope and capacity of their magic. Generally, it’s possible to cast one spell per battle-turn, and another per spell-casting hero in your army. Battle spells in AoW and MoM usually affect a few units at most—they can absolutely sway a fight, and it hurts to be magically outclassed, but the spells mostly feel like a thumb on the scales. Dominions allows tens, even hundreds of spells to be cast every turn, doing everything from buffing your troops, to debuffing the opposition, to summoning horrors from beyond time and space to eat everything on the battlefield. If battle magic in AoW and MoM feels like skewing the scales, battle magic in Dominions can feel like sweeping the scales off the table with a wild backhand. Dominions is one of the few game series I’ve played where I feel like I really can hit my opponent with one thousand years of effort unleashed in the blink of an eye.

And, having now played Dominions for over a decade, I can confidently say that Dominions 6 is the best point of entry to the series.

There are a number of changes to the game, things that seem small but which reverberate outwards.

I could talk about how Dominions 6 has changed the game’s size system, and the ways in which that influences army composition, unit formations, the ability of intermixed variably-sized units to work together, the difficulty of landing those vital head wounds on very tall opponents when your own soldiers are too short or lack long enough weapons… etc.

I could talk about the new magic path of Glamour, and how that has reshaped nations’ access to illusion magic.

I could talk about how battlefield magic has changed to emphasize smaller scale combat spells and make your soldiers more valuable. I could talk about how research has changed to make the incredible late game magic both slightly easier to reach and significantly more difficult to possess all of—a possible solution to the late-game homogeneity I mentioned last year when talking about unbalanced games.

But the critical change, for me, has been the changes to server creation and match-making. Making a multiplayer game used to require at least three steps, as well as familiarity with systems outside of the game (including but not limited to running multiple instances of the game simultaneously, port forwarding, finding and emailing turn files back and forth, and using third party server setups). Now, it’s simple. There’s an in-game server browser, and you can create a game which will be visible in that server browser. My friend and I were able to set up and start a quick game in minutes.

If you haven’t played Dominions before, that might sound unimpressive. Trust me. This is a stunning advance for the series and hugely improves the game’s accessibility. Playing with other humans, even if you’re playing on a team against the AI, is where this game really shines. Making that easier is wonderful.

Dominions 6 also finally improves the accessibility of game-relevant information. Tooltips for abilities were introduced in Dom4 or Dom5, but now you can easily see your gold and gem income per turn, and see what you’re spending your gold upkeep on. Dom6 also shares vital information like an army’s siege strength, patrol strength, and its consumed supplies without you hunting through any screens or relying on guesswork. Hell, you can tell commanders to automatically move from province to province searching for magical sites! Anything that streamlines processes in this game is a huge win.

I’m not saying the game is any simpler. The cognitive load of mid- and late-game is still significant, and there’re still a lot of decisions that go into taking a turn if you’re lucky enough to expand and prosper. But this is unquestionably the most user-friendly the game has ever been. 

Dominions 6 won’t win any awards for stunning graphics. It isn’t easy. And it’s one of those games where I strongly recommend actually reading the manual or playing alongside a more experienced friend, at least until you know enough to screw around and learn things on your own before returning to read more. But if you ever wanted to play a game that really feels like it’s about entire magical nations going to war over who or what will become the next All-Powerful God, this is the only game I’ve seen that will really satisfy you.

Also, if you want to learn more about what’s in the game, whether that’s units or spells or magical locations, try this inspector. And if you want someone else’s perspective on the game, read this from PCGamer.