Combat

There are hundreds of different units to recruit within the game, including archers, infantry, cavalry and mages. Troops can be recruited in all provinces and which types are often influenced by the terrain. For example, woodsmen and druids can be found in forest provinces, while aquatic fish-men can be found on coasts. In order to recruit nation-specific troops, the player has to construct a fortress in most cases, some units are restricted to the player capital province and powerful commanders and units take two turns to recruit. Mages require a laboratory to recruit, whilst priests need a temple.

The battle results are calculated by the computer and can be viewed by the players at the beginning of the next turn, like a film, or the battle may be instantly calculated and a summary displayed to the player bearing the relevant numbers. The battles cannot be influenced once the calculations begin for the new turn, but players can set simple orders for their troops before the battle is calculated, assign formations to different squads, influence the units starting positions in the battlefield, allowing for very diverse tactics.^[3]

Magic

There are eight paths of magic in the game; fire, water, air, earth, astral, death, nature and blood. Mages in Dominions 4 have one or more paths, with nations having distinct mages and therefore a different magical emphasis. Many spells or items require two paths to cast or forge, respectively, but none require more than two.

Nations

The nations in the game are based upon world history and mythology, rather than standard high fantasy races such as elves and orcs. Amongst others, the mythologies of ancient Greece (Arcoscephale), the Roman Republic (Ermor), Byzantium (Pythium), Sarmatians (Sauromatia), Egypt (C'tis), Medieval France & Spain (Marignon), Medieval England (Man), Ireland (Fomoria, Eriu, Tir na n'Og), Scandinavia (Vanheim, Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Utgard, Nieflheim), Germany (Ulm), China (Tien Chi), Zimbabwe (Machaka), Japan (Jomon), Aztecs (Mictlan), Rus' (Bogarus), and India (Kailasa, Lanka, Bandar Log, Patala) are represented. Other nations are based on the work of recent writers, particularly H. P. Lovecraft (R'lyeh and Atlantis), or Abysia, that looks loosely based on Yezidi faith, as it contains Melek Taus in its list of random general names and is mostly associated with holy flames, beings of flame, fire worship and magma, or Hinnom, which is based on Semitic mythology, featuring Nephilim. Some of the new nations included in Dominions 4 are Nazca, a nations of bird humanoids and mummies based on the Nazca civilization mixed with other cultures from ancient Peru, Ur, a nation of beastlike humanoids based on the civilization of Uruk and the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ys, a sunken city inspired by the eponymous Breton myth and led by Morgen, among others.