DomiNations Update 12.18 - Combat Rebalance pt.1

Greetings Leaders,

DomiNations Update 12.18 shapes up to be a massive release with the first wave of our Combat Rebalance initiative highlighted in our Road Ahead 2025 Post. We’re also implementing a second set of updates in our Replay rework! Both of these quality of life updates have a special write-up from the folks working directly on these projects to give insight into the process!
In that same vein of ‘Quality of Life’, we’re adding a faster way to utilize Speed Ups to complete your upgrades. Update 12.18 also introduces the next Councilor, and the Manufactory now allows you to purchase Materials. Then, finally, minor UI and Graphical fixes.

Replay Reliability pt. 2
If you missed our write-up on the current status of the Replay work that went into this update, catch up on the full details ‘here’. To highlight, Replays have been undergoing a massive overhaul to correct and implement the many changes that have arrived in DomiNations. While the current state of Replays with update 12.18 offers markedly improved results, there is still more to be done before we’re ready to say we’re 100% complete. Be sure to check out the post to see what improvements were made, how replays got to where they were, and what we’ll be doing for the future!

Combat Rebalance Initiative - Fighters & Defenders
In our Road Ahead 2025 post, we discussed our plans to introduce incremental steps for rebalancing combat within DomiNations. 12.18 releases some changes to Fighters and Defenders, and to share some insight on this process, we have our Game Designer, RAH-66, to talk about the upcoming changes!

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Hello Leaders!

Today, we’re going to talk about the new series of updates we are working on called the Combat Rebalance Initiative. We want the DomiNations battle experience to be what YOU make it. Do you love setting up a Museum loadout for several different army compositions? We want you to feel empowered to try multiple strategies and remove any gates that prohibit you from doing so. Do you love watching attackers fall to your horde of defenders and insatiable Air Defense? We want to see you thrive and be an asset to your Alliance in World War. Do you just think Assault Vehicles are neat? We want you to have an avenue to succeed with them.

Here are our goals for the Combat Rebalance Initiative as a whole:

1. Ensure there is a wide array of viable strategies that can be used to win battles.
2. Ensure defensive play is just as viable as offensive play.
3. Ensure that every unit, tactic, and building has a distinct reason to be invested in and brought to battle.

So, without further ado, let's talk about the problem areas tackled in the first wave of Combat Rebalances.

Fighters are the first Airstrip Troop players unlock. Their presence on the battlefield is felt the instant a player unlocks them. In earlier ages, the Fighter performed its role as a Defender Destroyer quite well. It is a moderately strong unit, with the best Population to Hitpoint ratio in the entire Airstrip and, with a bit of library research, even provides suppression on Defensive Buildings it strikes. It isn’t until later ages in the game that Fighters become a problem. Its role as a Defender Destroyer loosens as it gains levels and players unlock a second Airstrip. The Fighter becomes nigh unbeatable at very high levels of play, and can easily destroy Buildings and Defenders alike, leaving little room for defensive players to actually interact with the attacking strategy, especially when the attacker concentrates all of their Fighters on destroying the building that is meant to counter it - the Air Defense.

Defenders themselves also perform more desirably in earlier ages than later ages, but to a lesser degree. In later ages, they often clump together, resulting in one of two situations: either the entire defending Army gets destroyed immediately, or they form a completely impenetrable wall with no way to press forward as an attacker. There isn’t currently enough difference between the types of Defenders to force attackers to prioritize where they send their Defender Destroyers.

The following changes are being implemented to address these problems and better align the units with their intended roles.

1. Fighter
   • Changed “DPS vs Defenders” bonus text to say “DPS vs Cavalry and Heavy Tanks”
     • Fighters have always functioned this way in-game; we simply updated the text here to be more accurate.
   • Marginally increased Movement Speed
   • Slightly increased Turn Speed
   • Reduced base damage by 50%
   • Increased Damage vs Cavalry and Heavy Tanks by 100%
     • This neutralizes the 50% base damage reduction when damaging Cavalry and Heavy Tanks
   • Increased Damage vs Infantry by 100%
     • This neutralizes the 50% base damage reduction when damaging Infantry
   • Reduced Damage to Air Defense, Town Center, and Drone Command by 40%
2. Heavy Infantry Defender
   • Dramatically increased Movement Speed
3. Ranged Infantry Defender
   • Dramatically increased Movement Speed to match Heavy Infantry Defender
4. Bazooka Defender
   • Marginally increased Movement Speed
5. Machinegun Defender
   • Very slightly decreased Movement Speed to match Bazooka Defender
6. Heavy Tank Defender
   • Slightly decreased Movement Speed
7. Garrison and Tank Depot
   • All upgrades now require 4 Citizens instead of some requiring 6 Citizens
     

To highlight a few things, these changes accomplish:

• Allows the Fighter to flourish as the on-demand Defender Destroyer, evading more S.A.M. Batteries and G.C.I. Radars with tighter turns and reach their target and redeployment zone faster.
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• Increases the viability of defensive strategies against Fighter-only army compositions.
• Allows defenders to spread out on the battlefield, resulting in a more complex defensive strategy.
• Increases the lethality of Heavy and Ranged Infantry Defenders, resulting in both more useful foot-troop defenders as well as more opportunities for attackers to exploit less-defended areas of the map.

You’ll also notice the Garrison and Tank Depot upgrades will no longer increase their Citizen requirement after a certain level. While not directly combat-related, we believe this change ungates defender-focused strategies and resolves a frustrating inconsistency in the game. Please note that this change only affects upgrades that start after downloading the latest update.

We will be carefully monitoring the results of these changes, and if need be, tweaking things in the future to ensure these units land in the right place. These are just the first steps to tackling our goals in making combat in DomiNations the best it can be, with more updates to come in future releases!

What would you like to see in future combat-based updates? We value your feedback. Thank you for reading, Leaders!

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Speed Up Auto Fill
We’re adding a new button for players to easily use their stores of Speed Ups. In Update 12.18, when speeding up an upgrade, you’ll now see the ‘Autofill Speed Ups’ option. Tapping this will use the Speed Ups you own to complete the Upgrade. The Speed Ups used will start with your highest (ex. 5d Speed Up) and use the minimum amount of Speed Ups possible to finish the upgrade or get as close to finishing it with the amount of Speed Ups available.

New Councilor - Charlemagne (Leader)

Charlemagne’s vision as the exclusive ruler of the Franks was to unite all Germanic people under Christianity. He pursued this goal by waging a three-decade long war against the Saxtons, eventually winning the conflict and putting in place extreme laws against all non-Christian people. At the same time as his conquest against the Saxtons, he conquered the kingdom of Lombards in northern Italy, as well as the Moors in northern Spain, instilling Christianity and supporting the Church anywhere he and his army went. Later, he would be crowned the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Leo III, thus creating a new empire that would remain in power for over 800 years. While Charlemagne did not gain any additional authority from this title, it did formalize his rule over his conquered territory, and allowed him to lay the foundations for the newly established Holy Roman Empire.

Charlemagne’s legacy lives on in many forms, not the least of which is through his sword he wielded in battle. His Joyeuse Sword has been on display in the Louvre Museum, and has also been used in numerous coronation ceremonies of French Kings since his death in 814 AD. His arm has also been preserved in a reliquary upon his canonization long after his death in 1481, however the modern catholic church does not formally recognize Charlemagne as a saint.

In DomiNations, his stats will increase the damage output of your Paratroopers and increase the HP of your Heavy Cavalry in both Primary and War Hall versions. You can start recruiting Charlemagne on 6/9!

Common	Uncommon	Rare	Epic	Legendary
Heavy Cavalry HP +6%	Heavy Cavalry HP +8%	Heavy Cavalry HP +11%	Heavy Cavalry HP +14%	Heavy Cavalry HP +18%
	Paratrooper DMG +6%	Paratrooper DMG +8%	Paratrooper DMG +10%	Paratrooper DMG +12%
		Enemy Tower DMG -15%	Enemy Tower DMG -18%	Enemy Tower DMG -24%
			Heavy Cavalry HP +14%	Heavy Cavalry HP +18%
				Paratrooper DMG +12%

Manufactory - Rush Materials
You’ll now be able to speed up your Manufactory Material production by spending Crowns. In the Manufactory Production screen, you’ll now see a button that will allow you to purchase 10 of a Material.

Material	Cost (Crowns)
Carbon	15
Titanium	30
Iron	40
Thermic Brass	75
Plastic	25
Glass	45
Polycarbonate	20
Fiber Mesh	80
Siliconite	50
Biofoil	70
Platinum	250

Additional Updates

• Multiple Localization updates
• Minor UI Graphical tweaks
• Changed Library Tech level based Troop names to generic Troop Names
  • EX. Spearhead Machine Gun II DMG should now read as Machine Gun Infantry DMG
    • Plans are underway to also do the same to University. We’re hoping to create consistency with descriptions throughout the game.
• Fixed a crash caused by upgrading the Alliance Gate with reduced citizen requirements researched.
• Updated Tournament of Glory Encyclopedia entry for better understanding with the Glory Decay system.

 

The main issue is that the way the game is set up does not allow for diversification of troops. In theory, it is a good idea to have fighters focused on defenders, while other air troops focus on towers, defender spawning buildings, or generals etc.. But this is useless if you don’t have enough air troops capacity to use more than one type of air troops.

We ended up here because the way the game is set up makes it hard to use diverse troops. So, you have to go all the way in with certain types of troops (e.g. fighters were not really effective unless you had to use 8 of them etc…)

I think this would be a good change if the developers made it so that one can use a combination of air troops where for example, 4 fighters are enough to ward off defenders while having enough troop capacity to use a recon and two bombers OR two transports. Note that the air troops capacity must increase as well as the hp and damage of these air troops. Additionally, the battle time will probably need to increase if players will have to juggle between different troops and not rely on a single type.

In summary, fighters will remain useful if the air troop capacity increased to allow fighters and recon planes to assume their original role of supporting the main air troops (bombers and transports). If the air troop capacity remained the same, fighters will become useless.

 

Not at all, they get a 100% increase against defenders, and in high level attacks the defenders are quite possibly the bigger headache. We will have to see it in action but without trying it I don't understand all the commotion.

This is not acccurate, they are lowering damage across the whole base by half (including defenders) and then increasing by double on defenders to cancel out the defender decrease so it remains the same, it does not double. They are also reducing damage a further 40% on key buildings, so they will now be useless for attacking those buildings. They are good at killing defenders and will remain so, but they are vulnerable so they die easily.

You would need a focused museum just to keep them alive for the purpose of killing defenders, but you now need some other way of destroying building. You will need to use bombers or paras, or ground attack. Any of which will need artefacts, so you cannot focus your museum just on fighters purely for killing defenders or you will lack the power to clear bases. So fighters are now useless.

The game is now going to be just about paras, bombers, or ground attacks. They have reduced options which makes it less interesting and unfair on the people that spent years perfecting the viable fighter strategy which is now redundant. It’s stupid and it will cause some experienced players to give up completely which is already a problem for alliances and will get worse. Game fatigue and boredom are a real problem and this is going to make that problem worse, some on the verge of retiring will now do so, leaving well balanced teams short of key players.

 

I think this would be a good change if the developers made it so that one can use a combination of air troops where for example, 4 fighters are enough to ward off defenders while having enough troop capacity to use a recon and two bombers OR two transports. Note that the air troops capacity must increase as well as the hp and damage of these air troops. Additionally, the battle time will probably need to increase if players will have to juggle between different troops and not rely on a single type.

Are you serious? Bomber/recon or para/recon combos are already OP - and you want to add spaces that allow planes with these combos - and you want to boost their HP/DPS?
You're just advocating for an even stronger air troop capability than the current meta.

 

Are you serious? Bomber/recon or para/recon combos are already OP - and you want to add spaces that allow planes with these combos - and you want to boost their HP/DPS?
You're just advocating for an even stronger air troop capability than the current meta.

You’re right, I meant to say decrease hp and damage not increase. So, increasing air troop capacity while decreasing their hp and damage. This might give people a chance to use different types of air troops (e.g. defender-focused fighters, a recon, & defensive buildings-focused transport or bombers). Or they may still double down on the same troop they’re used to I guess lol!

 

so they will now be useless for attacking those buildings. They are good at killing defenders and will remain so, but they are vulnerable so they die easily.

You will need to use bombers or paras, or ground attack. Any of which will need artefacts, so you cannot focus your museum just on fighters purely for killing defenders or you will lack the power to clear bases. So fighters are now useless.

Exactly why you're attacking with a WHOLE army. Put them to use. Your ground troops should be taking care of buildings. If you don't use your army according to their strengths then too bad for your planes.

The game is now going to be just about paras, bombers, or ground attacks. They have reduced options which makes it less interesting and unfair on the people that spent years perfecting the viable fighter strategy which is now redundant. It’s stupid and it will cause some experienced players to give up completely which is already a problem for alliances and will get worse. Game fatigue and boredom are a real problem and this is going to make that problem worse, some on the verge of retiring will now do so, leaving well balanced teams short of key players.

I agree it's a bit of a kick in the pants for people who spent years perfecting a fighter strategy but instead of making people leave it may just encourage them to think about other combos, rather than simply give up.
I'm sure I'm going to dislike these changes as much as the next person but I'll try to find a working solution. I've had enough practice with the screwed heli range they won't fix.

 

You’re right, I meant to say decrease hp and damage not increase. So, increasing air troop capacity while decreasing their hp and damage. This might give people a chance to use different types of air troops (e.g. defender-focused fighters, a recon, & defensive buildings-focused transport or bombers). Or they may still double down on the same troop they’re used to I guess lol!

Increased capacity with lesser HP/DPS - this would actually be a more realistic battle composition. (planes, bombers and paras)
According to @Seek , bomber nerfs will be coming - let's hope he's wrong but if so, lets campaign for more air capacity as well.

 

players will have to juggle between different troops and not rely on a single type.

I've always said we should have a limit on the number of each troop deployed, so lazy people don't spam any one strong type.
Their should be an emphasis on combos that compliment each other. Which I guess brings us back to the conversation of balancing ALL the troops ....

 

I'm hoping for an alternative for our fighter focused players sooner rather than later. I've expressed as much that the play around fighters are highly invested, and that this doesn't feel great. But rest assured that this is an incremental update with more to come. I'm encouraging that we share our future plans for rebalance changes, not necessarily concrete numbers right away, but at the very least units we're looking to target for changes.

Alternative? hope it’s a free alternative. Why invest in an alternative that has the possibility to be chopped somewhere down the line. This rebalance is a money making scheme ! Your Hoping everyone pay for some new alternatives when the ones they have no longer work. Bad business model.

 

Players using fighters should stop struggling because BHG dominates this game. Even if you use dollars to buy legendary artifacts, buy legendary parliament speakers, or use crowns to screen out beautiful museums, they will all become garbage in the future, because your warriors can't even defeat a heavy tank with a shield.

But don't be discouraged, continue to spend money on other surviving units, such as bombers or Lego, this will maintain your current attack power and maintain a good game experience.

But I chose to leave this game.

 

Maybe it would be a better idea to have the whole rebalance plan laid open to us, thus avoid assumptions and false judgement.
Now, with every step of the rebalance coming every month or so, it will be a game of wild guess...

 

You should FIRE this incompetent game designer who I believe never ever played ww in top ages and come up with this “genius” plan to nerf fighters.
How pathetic it is to claim nerfing fighters will add more troop options to war. Even an average player knows the reason why choices of attacking troops is limited not because fighters/bombers/paras/mortars are too strong but because other troops are too WEAK!!!!!! Nerfing fighters will NOT make players to use those unpopular troops but limit their choice on even fewer available troops.
Also you are basically scam players who invest a lot on fighter museum. Do you really think they will pay more to switch museum set ups? NO! most of them will stop spending money because they don’t know what will come to be nerfed next or even just quit this game. Is this all you wanted BHG???
You know what people fear the most about money spending in game? Uncertainty. If you just randomly nerf unit without test or even notify ahead of time, people will just stop spending money because they don’t know whether the money they spent will be tossed into toilets within one update.

 

Please dismiss the planner of this game immediately. He will only destroy this game. I don't understand what he is using to think about weakening fighter jets? Should we consider weakening a certain unit and just think about it with our butts

 

The developers simply missed the most important point. That Fighters and Bombers became very powerful after they added Olds. And Tactical Helicopters now have a landing radius of half the game map. And then they made it even worse by introducing ABC squads. There are two simple solutions: reduce the landing radius of Tactical Helicopters or prohibit them from landing Saboteurs if Helicopters are added to ABC squads. And then don't touch Fighters, because without this, very few players will be able to kill a strong defensive base with them.

 

Horror.

 

Fighter are over powered period. Face reality right now fighter and bomber combos are walking thru top bases with no way to stop them.

So they are making fighter work the way they are supposed to.

I hope they keep the nerf as mention and nerf heck out of bombers.

The game should not be called dominations if air power is only thing folks use. It should be call Air to Ground strike were there is no proper counter for fighter and bombers.

Without a true way to defend what is the point of game for defenders? What is point of having ground troops when you can just focus on fighters and bombers to clear top level bases.

So cry all ya want fighter players you will get the nerf removed I am sure BHG always caves to O players. But when nothing is done to nerf air power and defenders start questioning why they even play. Game will suck for everyone then.

Defending over powered fighter and bombers is basically saying ya want to continue to walk into bases that can’t defend. What point of game at that point.

A nerf of air power must happen and should have happened long ago

 

Fighter are over powered period. Face reality right now fighter and bomber combos are walking thru top bases with no way to stop them.

So they are making fighter work the way they are supposed to.

I hope they keep the nerf as mention and nerf heck out of bombers.

The game should not be called dominations if air power is only thing folks use. It should be call Air to Ground strike were there is no proper counter for fighter and bombers.

Without a true way to defend what is the point of game for defenders? What is point of having ground troops when you can just focus on fighters and bombers to clear top level bases.

So cry all ya want fighter players you will get the nerf removed I am sure BHG always caves to O players. But when nothing is done to nerf air power and defenders start questioning why they even play. Game will suck for everyone then.

Defending over powered fighter and bombers is basically saying ya want to continue to walk into bases that can’t defend. What point of game at that point.

A nerf of air power must happen and should have happened long ago

Can't tell if this is ragebait or whatever, but ya D players must be celebrating while you disregard O players. I'm an O player but don't use fighters so really have no opinion. But it seems like you don't know and don't care about how others feel. Wait till they start nerfing defenses and we'll see how you feel! Enjoy the game buddy

 

Wait till they start nerfing defenses

 

Maybe it would be a better idea to have the whole rebalance plan laid open to us, thus avoid assumptions and false judgement.
Now, with every step of the rebalance coming every month or so, it will be a game of wild guess...

Agreed. I remember a few players asking for this over the years - along the lines of "This is what we've got coming up in the next few months...". All I hear is crickets ....
The Road Ahead posts are the perfect vehicle for this but they just provide 'headlines'.

 

That Fighters and Bombers became very powerful after they added Olds.

Really - how?

 

And this is not implemented!?!?!
Increased Damage vs Cavalry and Heavy Tanks by 100%

As you can see from the photos attached, DPS for cavarly and tanks is the same as previously DPS against defenders. What is happening!?

I don’t see any increased units…just decreased, just like my love for this game as yall mesing with it too much.