Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith

Battles in Dominions 5 are auto-resolved, with armies executing simple scripts prepared in advance by the players;[2] these battles are resolved between turns and can be watched as replays.[3] Initially focused on combat between units, battles increasingly become influenced by magic as the game progresses and more advanced spells are researched. These combat spells can range from buffs or debuffs to units on the battlefield, to summoning new units to fight for the battle's duration, to directly causing damage to units on the field through such effects as thunderbolts and fireballs.[5][2]

Dominions 5 has relatively light economic management compared to other 4X games, instead focusing on military strategy, army recruitment, commander management and magic research.[2] Armies move in a Risk-like fashion between provinces and are recruited using resources drawn from controlled territories.[6] Late game "ritual spells", which are spells cast from the campaign map, can drastically alter the world and its strategic situation.[1]

The game's nations mostly eschew traditional fantasy tropes and are instead mainly inspired from mythology - though one faction in particular is drawn in part from the Cthulhu mythos.[2][3] Nations are varied, ranging from human kingdoms to factions ruled by giants, the descendants of angels, demons, and other fantastical creatures; some begin the game underwater, and others have entirely undead rosters of units, resulting in meaningfully different experiences in terms of map navigation, recruitment and army performance.[2]

Dominions 5 is mainly meant to be played online with other human players, either in rapid "blitz" games or through a play-by-email system. When playing with other people, diplomacy becomes a key layer of the game, as relatively long periods between turns (most play-by-email games average one turn per day) allow complex negotiations and deal-making between players.[1]