Table Of Contents

    0. About Dominions KB (Knowledge Base)

    	0.1 Author

    	0.2 Description

    	0.3 Credits

    	0.4 Version

    1. My personal Best tricks and tips learned from MP games

    	1.1 Sneaky snipers

    	1.2 Wrathers

    	1.3 Rain of stones

    	1.4 Black servant sneakers

    	1.5 Get upkeep free undead commanders

    		1.5.1 details

    		1.5.2 Ankh

    	1.6 Beware the visiting heroes

    	1.7 Horror Harmonica and/or Carcator the pocket lich

    	1.8 Sieges

    		1.8.1 Defending

    		1.8.2 Seiging

    	1.9 Scouting, Intelligence

    		1.9.1 Stone sphere.

    	1.10

    2. Buffs in dominions III

    	2.1 (F)ire

    	2.2 (A)ir

    	2.3 (W)ater

    	2.4 (E)arth

    	2.5 A(S)tral

    	2.6 (D)eath

    	2.7 (N)ature,

    	2.8 (B)lood

    3. Lessons learned from MP games

    	3.1 Research

    	3.2 Raiding

    	3.3 Blood

    	3.4 Assassination.

    	3.5 Spies,

    4. Dominions Acronyms

    	4.1 Spells

    	4.2 Pretenders

    5. Dominions I Strategy Guides

    6. Dominions II Strategy Guides

    	6.1 ABYSIA

    	6.2 CAELUM

    	6.2.1 Caelum's blood guide

    	6.3 JOTUNHEIM

    	6.4 MAN

    	6.5 PANGAEA

    		6.5.1  Pangaea - the complete guide

    			6.5.1.1: Overview & Version History

    			6.5.1.2: Pretenders

    			6.5.1.2.1: The Blood Fountain

    			6.5.1.2.2: The Great Mother

    			6.5.1.2.3: The Prince of Death:

    			6.5.1.2.4: The Moloch:

    			6.5.1.2.5: Other Pretenders

    			6.5.1.3: Basic Troops and Commanders

    			6.5.1.3.1: Troops

    			6.5.1.3.1.1: Satyr

    			6.5.1.3.1.2: Satyr Hoplite

    			6.5.1.3.1.3: Centaur

    			6.5.1.3.1.4: Centaur Cataphract

    			6.5.1.3.1.5: (War) Minotaur

    			6.5.1.3.1.6: Harpy

    			6.5.1.3.1.7: Maenad

    			6.5.1.3.2: Commanders

    			6.5.1.3.2.1: Black Harpy

    			6.5.1.3.2.2: Centaur Commander

    			6.5.1.3.2.3: Minotaur Lord

    			6.5.1.3.2.4: White Centaur

    			6.5.1.3.2.5: Dryad

    			6.5.1.3.2.6: Pan

    			6.5.1.3.2.7: Pandemoniac

    			6.5.1.4: Magic

    			6.5.1.4.1: What To Research

    			6.5.1.4.1.1: Conjuration

    			6.5.1.4.1.2: Alteration

    			6.5.1.4.1.3: Evocation (I don't usually research this field all that early if at all)

    			6.5.1.4.1.4: Construction

    			6.5.1.4.1.5: Enchantment

    			6.5.1.4.1.6: Thaumaturgy (I rarely go for this field, either)

    			6.5.1.4.2: Blood Magic

    			6.5.1.4.3: Planning Your Research

    			6.5.1.5: Overall Strategy

    			6.5.1.5.1: Economy

    			6.5.1.5.1.1: Gold

    			6.5.1.5.1.2: Resources

    			6.5.1.5.1.3: Magic Gems/Slaves

    			6.5.1.5.1.4: Supplies

    			6.5.1.5.2: Combat

    			6.5.1.5.2.1: Mobility, Morale & Magic Support

    			6.5.1.5.2.2: Dominion & Supply

    			6.5.1.5.2.3: Guerilla Warfare

    			6.5.1.5.2.4: Commanders

    			6.5.1.5.2.5: Attacking

    			6.5.1.5.2.6: Defending

    			6.5.1.5.3: Tactics Against Each Nation

    			6.5.1.5.3.1: Abysia

    			6.5.1.6.3.2: Arcoscephale

    			6.5.1.6.3.3: Atlantis

    			6.5.1.5.3.4: Caelum

    			6.5.1.5.3.5: C'tis

    			6.5.1.5.3.6: Ermor

    			6.5.1.5.3.7: Jotunheim

    			6.5.1.5.3.8: Man

    			6.5.1.5.3.9: Marignon

    			6.5.1.5.3.10: Pangaea

    			6.5.1.5.3.11: Pythium

    			6.5.1.5.3.12: R'lyeh

    			6.5.1.5.3.13: Ulm

    			6.5.1.5.3.14: Vanheim

    			6.5.1.6: Closing Words & Credits

    	6.6 PYTHIUM

    	6.7 R'LYEH

    	6.8 ULM

    	6.9 VANHEIM

    	6.10 Undocumented effect for some items

    	6.11 FAQS

    		6.11.1 MAPS AND SITES

    		6.11.2 UNITS AND COMBATS

    		6.11.3 MAGIC IN GENERAL

    		6.11.4 FORTRESSES, RECRUITMENT AND SUPPLY

    		6.11.5 NATIONS AND DOMINIONS

    	6.12  The best questions seen on usenet (with long answers)

    		6.12.1  The Ten Whammies in Dominions

    		6.12.2 How to defend against masses of air elementals

    		6.12.3 WHAT A PATROL CAN DO

    		6.12.4 How much hunters do you need to find 50 slaves ?

    		6.12.4.1 Chance to find blood slaves

    		6.12.4.2 Unrest

    		6.12.4.3 Population or high unrest

    		6.12.4.4 Fountain of Blood

    	6.13 PILLAGE

    	6.14 Some comments about spells  THAT'S NOT IN THE SPELL MANUAL

    		6.14.1 CONJURATION

    		6.14.2 ALTERATION

    		6.14.3 EVOCATION

    		6.14.4 CONSTRUCTION

    		6.14.5 ENCHANTMENT

    		6.14.6 THAUMATURGY

    		6.14.7 BLOOD

    		6.14.8 Man war songs

    		6.14.9 Pangaea tunes

    7. Dominions III wiki

    	7.1 Pretender design

    		7.1.1 Types of Pretender God

    		7.1.2 Magic paths

    		7.1.3 Blessings

    		7.1.4 Dominion

    		7.1.5 Scales

    		7.1.6 Awakening

    	7.2 Magic

    		7.2.1 Magic Sites

    			7.2.1.1 List of Magic Sites

    		7.2.2 Magic Gems

    		7.2.3 The Paths of Magic

    		7.2.4  The Schools of Magic

    		7.2.5 Spells & Rituals

    			7.2.5.1 Global Enchantments

    		7.2.6 Magic Items & Forging

    		7.2.7 Magic Path Abbreviation Conventions

    		7.2.7 Alchemy

    	7.3 Treasury

    		7.3.1

    	7.4 Units

    	7.5 Buildings

    	7.6  Terrain

    	7.7 Logistics and Movement

    		7.7.1 Logistics

    		7.7.2 Movement

    		7.7.3 Stealth

    	7.8 Expansion Strategies

    	7.9 Tactical Battles

    	7.10 Special Tactics

    	7.11 Items

    8. Dominions III Strategy Guides

    	8.1 Communion Guide

    	8.2 The art of placement

    	8.3 Intercepting Armies, army movement order

    	8.4 Site Searching Strategy

    		8.4.1 Full site breakdown

    	8.5 Old Age

    	8.6 Alexander's Ever-Expanding Tome of Knowledge, pt 2

    		8.6.1 Original Dom-II tome

    			8.6.1.1 Classifications

    				8.6.1.1.1 THUG

    				8.6.1.1.2 SLAYER

    				8.6.1.1.3 SUPERCOMBATANT

    				8.6.1.1.4 "HIT N' RUN" GOLEM

    				8.6.1.1.5 SPIDERMAN SPIDERMAN DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER CAN

    				8.6.1.1.6 SUPERCHARGED ABYSIAN WARLOCKS

    				8.6.1.1.8 FLYING DWARVEN THUGS

    				8.6.1.1.8 POISON AND THE DEAD

    				8.6.1.1.9 GIRLFRIENDS FROM HELL

    				8.6.1.1.10 FOLLOWING THE LIGHT

    			8.6.1.2 Nice tricks

    				8.6.1.2.1 Feel the burn

    				8.6.1.2.2 CHILLING

    				8.6.1.2.3 THE ARCHERS BEST FRIEND

    				8.6.1.2.4 SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS

    				8.6.1.2.5 DEMONBREEDING

    				8.6.1.2.6 ATTACK OF THE CRONES

    				8.6.1.2.7 DEVILS O' RAMA

    				8.6.1.2.8 THE PERFECT STORM

    				8.6.1.2.9 LIZARDS GONE WILD!

    					8.6.1.2.9.1 Comments

    					8.6.1.2.9.2 Original suggestion

    				8.6.1.2.10 THE LEFT HAND OF AN EMPEROR HOLDS THE DAGGER UNSEEN

    				8.6.1.2.11 SUMMONED UNITS DON'T HAVE UNIONS

    				8.6.1.2.12 THIEVES?

    				8.6.1.2.13 EVERYONE LOVES DRAGONS

    					8.6.1.2.13.1 RED DRAGON

    					8.6.1.2.13.2 BLUE DRAGON

    					8.6.1.2.13.3 GREEN DRAGON

    				8.6.1.2.14  A SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT

    				8.6.1.2.15 TOO MUCH MAGIC DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF NO RETURN

    				8.6.1.2.16 DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY!

    				8.6.1.2.17 THE HOLY BOLTS OF MARIGNON

    				8.6.1.2.18 IN THE SHADOWS WE WALK:

    				8.6.1.2.19 DEADLY SWARM

    				8.6.1.2.20 AS YOUR LIFE GOES DOWN THE DRAIN.

    				8.6.1.2.21 FORWARD, MARCH:

    				8.6.1.2.22 FLAMING EXPLOITS

    				8.6.1.2.23 COMMUNICANTS FROM TARTAR.

    		8.6.2 Dom-III tome

    			8.6.2.1 To stop the world

    			8.6.2.2 Fearful Symmetry

    			8.6.2.3 Rain from Hell

    			8.6.2.4 Ancient Kraken

    			8.6.2.5 Van rush

    			8.6.2.6 quick and dirty guide to MA Man

    			8.6.2.7 maximize gold income

    			8.6.2.8 micro-managed Elephants

    			8.6.2.9 Death 9 bless synergy with evocation

    			8.6.2.10 Niefelheim *Jarl-Push* Primer

    	8.7 Help countering trampling monsters

    		8.7.1 General advice

    		8.7.2 Elephant counters

    			8.7.2.1 Thaumaturgy

    			8.7.2.2 Enchantment

    			8.7.2.3 Alteration

    			8.7.2.4 Evocation

    	8.8 Growth and Death by the Numbers

    	8.9 Guide to communions

    	    		8.9.1 Original post

    	8.10 Magic Path Booster Guide

    		8.10.1 Air

    		8.10.2 Astral

    		8.10.3 Blood

    		8.10.4 Death

    		8.10.5 Earth

    		8.10.6 Fire

    		8.10.7 Nature

    		8.10.8 Water

    		8.10.9 Rainbow Pretender

    	8.11 Abysia

        		8.11.1 EA Abysia

            		8.11.1.1  Thoughts on EA Abyssia (guide)

            		8.11.1.2 Assortment of tips

        		8.11.2 MA Abysia

    	    		8.11.2.1 Original post

        		    		8.11.2.1.1 Suggested Pretender Design

        		    		8.11.2.1.2 National Units

        		    		8.11.2.1.3 Commanders

        		    		8.11.2.1.4 Mages

        		    		8.11.2.1.5 General Tactical Strategy

        		    		8.11.2.1.6 Suggested Magic Schools

        		    		8.11.2.1.7 Useful Magic Items

        		    		8.11.2.1.8 Conclusion

    	    		8.11.2.2 MA Aby CBM Strategy

    				8.11.2.2.1 Presentation

    				8.11.2.2.2 SCALES

    				8.11.2.2.3 EXPANSION

    				8.11.2.2.4 RESEARCH

    				8.11.2.2.5 DOMINION

    				8.11.2.2.6 SITE SEARCHING

    				8.11.2.2.7 BLOOD HUNTING

    				8.11.2.2.8 FIGHTING

    				8.11.2.2.9 Comments

    	    		8.11.2.3

    		8.11.3 LA Abysia

        			8.11.3.1 Some tips

        			8.11.3.2 Best Researcher for LA Abysia

        			8.11.3.3 LA Abysia: Discussion and a Proto-Guide.

    	8.12 Agartha

    	    	8.12.1 EA Agartha

    	    	    	8.12.1.1 Some tips

    	    	    	8.12.1.2 EA Agartha: The Ancient Lord SC.

    	    	    	8.12.1.3 EA Agartha guide

    				8.12.1.3.1  Original thread

    				8.12.1.3.2 Comments

    	    	    	8.12.1.4

    	    	8.12.2 MA Agartha

    			8.12.2.1 LP's guide

    				8.12.2.1.1.0 Introduction

    				8.12.2.1.2.0 Troops of the Golem Cult

    				8.12.2.1.2.1 Overview

    				8.12.2.1.2.2 National Units

    				8.12.2.1.2.3 Military Commanders

    				8.12.2.1.2.4 Mage Priests

    				8.12.2.1.2.5 A review of your military

    				8.12.2.1.2.6 Odds and ends

    	    				8.12.2.1.2.6.1 What is the Golem Cult?

    	    				8.12.2.1.2.6.2 Conjuration (Undead - death gems)

    	    				8.12.2.1.2.6.3 Enchantment (Golems - earth gems)

    				8.12.2.1.2.7 Scales

    				8.12.2.1.2.8 Early game

    				8.12.2.1.2.9

    			8.12.2.2  go punch a mountain

    	    	8.12.3 LA Agartha

    	    	    	8.12.3.1

    	8.12 Arcoscephale

    	    	8.12.1 EA Arcoscephale

    	    		8.12.1.1 Early guide

    	    			8.12.1.1.1 Original thread

    	    			8.12.1.1.2 Assorted comments

    	    			8.12.1.1.3 Expansion strategy

    	    		8.12.1.2 Early Arcoscephale - Ephebophilia incarnate

    	    		8.12.1.3 EA Arco - uncle moneybags

    	    			8.12.1.3.1 Original Guide

    	    			8.12.1.3.2 Comments

    	    		8.12.1.4

    	    	8.12.2 MA Arcoscephale

    	    	    	8.12.2.1 A few thoughts on MA Arcoscephale

    				8.12.2.1.1 Some comments

    	    	    	8.12.2.2 ME Arcocephale Strategy Guide

    				8.12.2.2.1. The troops

    				8.12.2.2.2. The commanders

    				8.12.2.2.3. General View

    				8.12.2.2.4. Research Plan

    					8.12.2.2.4.1 Early Game Priorities

    					8.12.2.2.4.2 Entering Mid-game

    					8.12.2.2.4.3 Late Game

    					8.12.2.2.4.4 End Game

    				8.12.2.2.5. Tactics

    					8.12.2.2.5.1 Half-reverse communion

    					8.12.2.2.5.2 Total Exhaustion

    					8.12.2.2.5.3 Opening a second front

    					8.12.2.2.5.4 Army stealing

    					8.12.2.2.5.5 Fronteer labs and mobile research centers

    					8.12.2.2.5.6 Artillery Commanders

    				8.12.2.2.6. Pretenders and Scales

    					8.12.2.2.6.1 Magical Economy Pretenders

    					8.12.2.2.6.2 Scales Monster

    					8.12.2.2.6.3 Specialized Summoners

    	    	8.12.3 LA Arcoscephale

    	8.12 Atlantis

    	    	8.12.1 EA Atlantis

    	    	    	8.12.1.1 EA Atlantis a love/hate relationship

    	    	    	8.12.1.2 Atlantis, from under the works demo guide

    	    	8.12.2 MA Atlantis

    	    	    	8.12.2.1 Nation guide: MA Atlantis

    	    	8.12.3 LA Atlantis

    	    	    	8.12.3.1  LA Atlantis, another thread looking for tips

    	    	    	8.12.3.2 LA Atlantis - frozen death from all directions

    	8.13 Kalisa

    		8.13.1 Some comments

    		8.13.2 Kailasa guide

    			8.13.2.1 Original Article

    			8.13.2.2 Comments

    		8.13.3

    	8.14 Patala

    	    	8.14.1 Guide to playing Patala competitively

    			8.14.1.1 Comments on guide

    			8.14.1.2 Important comment

    			8.14.1.3 Another important comment

    			8.14.1.4 Yet another comment

    			8.14.1.5 Alternative suggestion

    			8.14.1.6 My (WL) comments:

    	    	8.14.2

    	8.15 Caelum

    	    	8.15.1 EA Caelum

    			8.15.1.1 Early Guide

    			8.15.1.2 EA Caelum  Ride the lightning

    				8.15.1.2.1 Guide

    				8.15.1.2.2 Comments

    			8.15.1.3

    	    	8.15.2 MA Caelum

    			8.15.2.1 MA Caelum - Fear of Flying

    				8.15.2.1.1 Guide

    				8.15.2.1.2 Comments

    			8.15.2.2

    	    	8.15.3 LA Caelum

    	    	    	8.15.3.1 RoRlum (Late Caelum)

    	    	    	8.15.3.2 LA Caelum vs. Ermor

    	    	8.15.4 Assortment of tips

    	8.16 Ctis

    	    	8.16.1 EA Ctis

    	    	    	8.16.1.1 Original guide

    	    	    	8.16.1.2 Comments

    	    	8.16.2 MA Ctis, Miasma

    			8.16.2.1 Dom-II guide

    			8.16.2.2 DOM-III discussion

    				8.16.2.2.1 Who gets diseased under Miasma dominion?

    				8.16.2.2.2 Tips

    			8.16.2.3 Miasma/Executor's guide

    				8.16.2.3.1 Troops

    				8.16.2.3.2 Commanders

    				8.16.2.3.3 Miasma

    				8.16.2.3.4 Pretender choices

    				8.16.2.3.5 National Summons

    				8.16.2.3.6 Scales

    				8.16.2.3.7 Thoughts

    					8.16.2.3.7.1 Diversifying your magic

    					8.16.2.3.7.2 Expanding

    					8.16.2.3.7.3 Anti SC tactic

    					8.16.2.3.7.4 Getting into water

    					8.16.2.3.7.5 Blood magic and blood hunting

    			8.16.2.4

    	    	8.16.3 LA Ctis, tomb kings

    	8.17 Ermor

    	    	8.17.1 EA Ermor

    	    	8.17.2 MA Ermor

    	    	8.17.3 LA Ermor

    	    	    	8.17.3.1 About Pretenders

    	    	    	8.17.3.2 Assortment of tips

    	    	    	8.17.3.3 Guide to LA Ermor  The Ashen Empire

    	8.18 Fomoria

    		8.18.1 Guide based on RAND MP game

    		8.18.2 Fomoria - Where is your God now? (AKA - The Other Giant Meat)

    			8.18.2.1 Overview

    			8.18.2.2 Pretender Design

    			8.18.2.3 recruitables

    			8.18.2.4 Commanders

    			8.18.2.5 Volume 3: The Early Game

    			8.18.2.6 Tertiary Research Goals

    			8.18.2.7 Magic Use

    		8.18.3

    	8.19 Niefelheim, Jotunheim, Utgard

    	    	8.19.1 Niefelheim Strategy for the Early Era

    	    	8.19.2 Jotunheim

    	    	8.19.3 LA Utgard

    	    	8.19.4 Counters to Niefelheim

    	    	8.19.5 Niefelheim - Who¿s afraid of the big bad wolf?

    	8.20 Vanheim, Midgard and Helheim

    	    	8.20.1 Vanheim

    	    	8.20.2 Midgard

    	    	    	8.20.2.1 OW's Guide to Midgard, Scales and Skinshifters

    	    	    	8.20.2.2 Assortment of tips

    	    	8.20.3 Helheim

    			8.20.3.1 Helheim guide

    			8.20.3.2 Helheim Guide (Baalz)

    			8.20.3.3 Driver's Ed: A Vanilla Quickstart Companion to Baalz's Helheim Guide

    				8.20.3.3.1 Article

    				8.20.3.3.2 Comments

    			8.20.3.4

    	8.21 Lanka

    	    	8.21.1 Lanka Guide(and Mini-Blood Guide) 3.10 Patch

    	    	8.21.2 Lanka: unit stats, comments and tips

    	    	    	8.21.2.1 Guide

    	    	    	8.21.2.2 Comments

    	    	8.21.3 Blood Kings: Lanka vs. Mictlan

    	    	8.21.4 Beginner's guide to Lanka

    	8.22 Machaka

    	    	8.22.1 An assortment of tips

    	    	8.22.2 Machaka screwed thread

    	    	8.22.3 Machaka  a sorcerer¿s fevered arachnophobia

    			8.22.3.1 Preface:

    			8.22.3.2 No Black Hunters

    			8.22.3.3 What should you recruit? - Spider riders

    			8.22.3.4 When to recruit spider knights?

    			8.22.3.5 Sorcerers

    			8.22.3.6 Start game strategy - The great sage pretender

    			8.22.3.7 Scales

    			8.22.3.8 Site searching

    			8.22.3.9 Forge fever fetishes yet avoid micromanagement

    			8.22.3.10 Build death income to summon Banelords

    			8.22.3.11 Dragon master and other summons

    			8.22.3.12 Combat magic

    			8.22.3.13 Late game use of fire income

    			8.22.3.14 endgame

    	8.23 Man

    		8.23.1 MA Man

    			8.23.1.1 Advice for MA Man

    			8.23.1.2 MA Man Advice Needed: Proper Use of Units

    	    	8.23.2 LA Man

    	    	    	8.23.2.1 LA Man - Death and Taxes

    				8.23.2.1.1 The First Strength of Man: Money

    				8.23.2.1.2 The Second Strength of Man: Forts

    				8.23.2.1.3 The First Weakness of Man: Province Defense

    				8.23.2.1.4 The Second Weakness of Man: The Research Curve

    				8.23.2.1.5 The Third Weakness of Man: Magic Skill

    				8.23.2.1.6 Pretender Design

    				8.23.2.1.7 Tips on Expansion

    				8.23.2.1.8 Tips on Stealth Raiding with Man

    				8.23.2.1.9 Conclusion

    				8.23.2.1.10 LA Man - Castle Warefare

    	    	    	8.23.2.2 LA Man Advice

    	8.24 Marignon

    	    	8.24.1 MA Marignon

    	    	    	8.24.1.1 Assortment of tips

    	    	    	8.24.1.2 Malleus Maleficarum an SP guide

    				8.24.1.2.1 Pretender

    				8.24.1.2.2 scales

    				8.24.1.2.3 Unit

    				8.24.1.2.4 Commander

    				8.24.1.2.5 magic path

    				8.24.1.2.6 summon

    				8.24.1.2.7 Comments

    	    	8.24.2 LA Marignon

    	    	    	8.24.2.1 The Royal guide to Marignon, Conquerors of the Sea

    				8.24.2.1.1 Comments on guide

    	    	    	8.24.2.2 LA marignon guide

    				8.24.2.2.1 Original guide

    				8.24.2.2.2 Comments

    	8.25 Marverni

    	8.26 Mictlan

    	    	8.26.1 EA Mictlan (Baalz)

    	    	8.26.2 MA Mictlan

    	    	    	8.26.2.1 Assortment of tips

    	    	    	8.26.2.2 Guide to Middle-Age Mictlan

    	    	8.26.3 LA Mictlan

    	    	    	8.26.3.1 Assortment of tips

    	8.27 Oceania

    	    	8.27.1 EA Oceania

    	    	    	8.27.1.1 Tips

    	    	8.27.2 MA Oceania, OMG, I think I've done it

    			8.27.2.1 Basic Guide

    			8.27.2.2 MA Oceana - OMG, I think I've done it

    				8.27.2.2.1 Original Guide

    				8.27.2.2.2 Comments

    			8.27.2.3

    	8.28 Pangaea

    	    	8.28.1 EA Pangaea

    	    	    	8.28.1.1 Dedas guide to EA Pangaea

    	    	8.28.2 MA Pangaea

    	    	    	8.28.2.1 MA Pangaea strategies

    	    	8.28.3 LA Pangaea

    	    	    	8.28.3.1 Hints:

    	    	    	8.28.3.2 Questions about LA Pangaea manikins

    	    	8.28.4 a difficult Pangaean strategy

    	    	8.28.5 Best Pangaea troops discussion

    	    	8.28.6 Pangaea Songs

    	8.29 Pythium

    	    	8.29.1 MA Pythium

    	    	    	8.29.1.1 Assortment of tips

    	    	    	8.29.1.2 MA Pythium thread

    	    	    	8.29.1.3 The pythian prescription  (A newb guide)

    	    	8.29.2 LA Pythium

    	    	    	8.29.2.1  A Poisoner's Guide to LA Pythium

    	8.30 R'lyeh

    	    	8.30.1 EA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.1.1 Guide to EA R'Lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.1.2 Fighting EA R'lyeh

    	    	8.30.2 MA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.2.1 MP guide to MA/LA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.2.2 Some hints on MA R'lyeh

    	    	8.30.3 LA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.3.1 R'lyeh Dreamlands and Void Summoning

    	    	    	8.30.3.2  Best way of fighting LA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.3.3

    	    	    	8.30.3.4 Questions regarding R'lyeh Dreamlands

    	8.31 Sarumatia

    	    	8.31.1 Sauromatia guide

    	    	8.31.2 Sauromatia: Lawful Evil

    			8.31.2.1 Units

    				8.31.2.1.1 ANDROPHAG ARCHERS

    				8.31.2.1.2 Amazons

    			8.31.2.2 Pretender, THE GORGON

    			8.31.2.3 COMMANDERS:

    			8.31.2.4 DIPLOMACY:

    			8.31.2.5 PROVINCE DEFENSE:

    			8.31.2.6 SCALES:

    			8.31.2.7 RESEARCH

    			8.31.2.8 EARLY ENDGAME AND OTHER STRATEGIES

    	8.32 Yomi, Shinuyama, Jomon

    	    	8.32.1 Yomi

    	    	    	8.32.1.1 Yomi - Oni Kings analysis

    	    	    	8.32.1.2 Yomi eats nothing!

    	    	    	8.32.1.3 Tips for Yomi, Oni Kings

    	    	    	8.32.1.4  Yomi 3.21

    				8.32.1.4.1  First off, let's talk about Yomi's troops.

    				8.32.1.4.2 commanders

    				8.32.1.4.3 Pretenders

    				8.32.1.4.4 Game plan

    				8.32.1.4.5 Comments

    	    	8.32.2 Shinuyama

    	    	    	8.32.2.2 Beginner's Guide to Shinuyama MA

    	    	8.32.3 Jomon

    			8.32.3.1 Guiding Jomon

    			8.32.3.2 Comments

    	8.33 T'ien Ch'i

    	    	8.33.1 EA TC

    		    	    	8.33.1.1 WIKI guide

    		    	    	8.33.1.2 Good Pretender for T'ien C'hi?

    		8.33.2 MA TC

    	    		8.33.2.1 Tien Chi and conscription

    		8.33.3 LA TC

    	    		8.33.3.1 Tips for LA T'ien Chi

    			8.33.3.2 LA Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings Strategy Guide 2.0

    				8.33.3.2.1 Summary:

    				8.33.3.2.2 The Troops

    					8.33.3.2.2.1 Footmen

    					8.33.3.2.2.2 Weapon Notes

    					8.33.3.2.2.3 Archer

    					8.33.3.2.2.4 Barbarian Horsemen

    					8.33.3.2.2.5 Ancestor Vessel

    				8.33.3.2.3 The Commanders

    					8.33.3.2.3.1 Scout

    					8.33.3.2.3.2 General

    					8.33.3.2.3.3 Khan

    					8.33.3.2.3.4 Ceremonial Master (50G / 3R) 1H

    					8.33.3.2.3.5 Master of the Way

    					8.33.3.2.3.6 Ancestor Smith

    					8.33.3.2.3.7 Spirit Master

    					8.33.3.2.3.8 Ancestor Guide

    					8.33.3.2.3.9 Celestial Master

    				8.33.3.2.4 The Heroes

    				8.33.3.2.5 The National Summons

    				8.33.3.2.6 National Spells

    				8.33.3.2.7 Pretender Design Thoughts

    				8.33.3.2.8 Tactics / Strategies

    				8.33.3.2.9 Research

    				8.33.3.2.10 PD

    				8.33.3.2.11 Bootstrapping

    				8.33.3.2.12 Remote Assassination

    				8.33.3.2.13 Some Common Threats and How to Deal

    			8.33.3.3

    	8.34 Ulm

    	    	8.34.1 EA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.1.1 EA Ulm advice

    	    	    	8.34.1.2 EA Ulm - Flying Conans of Doom

    	    	8.34.1 MA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.1.1 Guide

    	    	    	8.34.1.2 MA Ulm vs Elephants

    	    	    	8.34.1.3 Build me an MA Ulm thug

    	    	    	8.34.1.4 MA Ulm Blood guide

    	    	    	8.34.1.5 Tips with MA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.1.6 MA Ulm Pretender

    	    	    	8.34.1.7 MA Ulm - you called me a forge what?

    	    	8.34.2 LA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.2.1  Initial setup for LA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.2.2 Nation Guide (in progress): LA Ulm

    	8.35 Tuatha, Eriu

    	    	8.35.1 Eriu

    	    	    	8.35.1.1 Eriu Guide

    	8.36 Mod nations

    		8.36.1 Arga Dis, Blood and Bronze

    		8.36.2 Warhammer

    			8.36.2.1 Skaven

    			8.36.2.2

    		8.36.3 Warhammer Lizardmen - Join the Communion Commrade

    			8.36.3.1 Original Thread

    			8.36.3.2 Comments

    		8.36.4

    	8.37 Ashdod

    		8.37.1 Ashdod proto-guide

    			8.37.1.1 Original guide

    			8.37.1.2 Comments

    		8.37.2 A Few (Really) Good Men: Guide to Ashdod

    			8.37.2.1 Unit breakdown (troops):

    			8.37.2.2 Unit breakdown (commanders):

    			8.37.2.3 National summons:

    			8.37.2.4 Pretender design:

    			8.37.2.5 Initial expansion:

    			8.37.2.6 Initial magic goals:

    			8.37.2.7 Arty spells:

    			8.37.2.8 Misc spells:

    			8.37.2.9 Army buffs:

    			8.37.2.10 Army-killers:

    			8.37.2.11 Thug options:

    			8.37.2.12 Other tips and strats:

    			8.37.2.13 Magic Diversification:

    			8.37.2.14 Conclusion:

    		8.37.3

    	8.38 Hinnom

    	    	8.38.1 HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING

    	8.39 Bandar Log

    		8.39.1 Bandar Log - you whipped me with what?!?

    	8.40 Gath

    		8.40.1 Gath - The last of the Giants

    			8.40.1.1 Original Guide

    			8.40.1.2 Comments

    		8.40.2

    	8.41

    9. Hotkeys

        9.1 MISC SHORTCUTS

        9.2 STATISTICS SCREENS

        9.3 MAGIC

        9.4 MAP VIEW

        9.5 MAP FILTERS

        9.6 UNIT ORDERS (capital letters indicate Shift + key)

        9.7 UNIT SELECTION

        9.8 BATTLE VIEW

    10. Advanced dominions III discussions

    	10.1 Lies My Rulebook Told Me

    		10.1.1 Major issues

    		10.1.2 Moderate issues

    		10.1.3 Typos/Minor Issues/Clarifications

    	10.2 Countering Master Enslave

    	10.3 Cost efficient blood hunting

    	10.4 refuting common wisdom on scales everybody knows

    	10.5 Maths problem: fatigue vs critical hits

    	10.6 Equipment for Elemental Royalty

    	10.7 Minimum dominion?

    	10.8 Fortress to Province ratio

    	10.9 Keeping Helpful Enemy Dominion Alive...

    	10.10 Blood Magic as Combat Magic?

    	10.11 Wish

    		10.11.1 Wish list

    		10.11.2 Wish for a Demon Lord

    		10.11.3 Worthy artifacts to wish for

    	10.12 Eternal Knights & Gift of Reason

    	10.13 Basic Battle Tactics

    		10.13.1 Abbreviations:

    		10.13.2 Setup army

    		10.13.3 Battle Plans:

    		10.13.4 Closing Thoughts:

    		10.13.5 Comments

    	10.14 Beyond the script

    		10.14.1 Gem Usage

    		10.14.2 Resistance

    		10.14.3 After the script is done

    		10.14.4 Targetting

    		10.14.5 Paths

    	10.15 Vampires - you should be afraid of the night

    		10.15.1 original Article

    		10.15.2 Comments

    	10.16 Unrest as weapon of war

    	10.17 Minimum dominion?

    11. Troubleshoot

    	11.1 Command line

    		11.1.1 Why doesn't my command line parameters apply?

    12. Utilities

    	12.1 Battle Simulators

    		12.1.1 new Battle Simulator map

    	12.2

    13. Dominions III general, non-nations guides

    	13.1 Zen and the art of Thugging

    		13.1.1 Article

    			13.1.1.1 *crowd control*

    			13.1.1.2 Point blank combat spells

    			13.1.1.3 Desired attributes

    				13.1.1.3.1 Fear

    				13.1.1.3.2 Fatigue

    				13.1.1.3.3 Hitpoints

    				13.1.1.3.4 Reducing attacks

    				13.1.1.3.5 Mistform

    				13.1.1.3.6 Regeneration

    				13.1.1.3.7 Life drain

    				13.1.1.3.8 Flight

    				13.1.1.3.9 Stealth

    				13.1.1.3.10 Resistance

    				13.1.1.3.11 blood vengeance

    			13.1.1.4 Buffing

    			13.1.1.5 Examples

    			13.1.1.6 anti-thugs

    		13.1.2 Comments

    	13.2

    14. Reserved

END TOC

    0. About Dominions KB (Knowledge Base)

    	0.1 Author

    	Yosi Izaq, AKA Wraithlord

    I've been playing dominions since its first installment. I love the game.
    At first I thought to make order of all the information I have floating around in my absent minded head, then I thought why not add all that knowledge that excellent dominions players have shared in public into one place and  maybe one day when this work will be complete give it back to the community.
    The end result is this document.

    	0.2 Description

    	This is mostly a compilation of common knowledge from the excellent Dominions community.
    There are some personal observations here and there and a small amount of editing but mostly the entries of this knowledge base are based on excellent guides and posts made by outstanding individual dominions players.

    For any comments, or for latest version please check Shrapnel forums thread: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=618387&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1

    	0.3 Credits

    	It would not be possible to list all the contributers. I'll try and list some and apologize for those I fail to name.
    IW, developors.
    Shrapnel, Dom-II and Dom-III publishers
    All the posters at comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
    Philippe Sacre's, http://www.freewebz.com/sunraybe
    All the posters at Shrapnel dominions forums:
    Alex Poger
    Baalz, There are many great contributors but IMO Baalz stands out as a great strategy guides writer.
    	Here's a partial list of his guides:
    	Guide to EA Mictlan and blood hunting
    	Guide to MA Atlantis
    	Guide to communions
    	Guide to MA Eriu
    	Guide to Sauromatia
    	Guide to Marverni
    	HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING
    	LA Atlantis
    	Bandar Log
    Edi
    llamabeast
    Dedas
    Shovah32
    dirtywick
    Nerfix
    Patrik Nyberg.
    Mikko Heikkilä.
    Jeffrey Tang
    Francisco "Muñoz"
    Lazy_Perfectionist
    Valerius
    cleveland
    vfb
    Agrajag
    Ballbarian
    Saulot
    Ich
    Endoperez
    NTJedi
    Wick
    DrPraetorious
    Ironhawk
    Manuk
    Micah
    MaxWilson
    Foodstamp
    Psientist
    KissBlade
    Ygorl
    calmon
    Arralen
    FrankTrollman
    HoneyBadger
    PDF
    alexti
    Meglobob
    thejeff
    Teraswaerto
    Aezeal
    Sombre
    OmikronWarrior
    sector24
    Jazzepi
    Yrkoon
    Evilhomer
    atul
    Xietor
    PvK
    Wish
    Ewierl
    RamsHead
    tibbs
    GameExtremist
    Twan
    Reverend Zombie
    Boron
    Warhammer
    Folket
    st.patrik
    Wauthan
    BigDisAwesome
    Evilhomer
    johnarryn
    Cor
    Belcarl
    Ferrosol
    Amhazair
    AreaOfEffect
    CUnknown
    Daynarr
    Salamander8
    K
    Atreidi
    sum1lost
    SsSam
    Agema
    VedalkenBear
    Ming
    Psycho
    DonCorazon
    Seve82
    Kasnavada
    Carcaroth

    	0.4 Version

    1.00
    -> add 8.34.1.7 MA Ulm - you called me a forge what?
    -> add 8.34.1.2 Nation Guide (in progress): LA Ulm
    -> add 12.1.1 new Battle Simulator map
    -> add 8.16.2.3 Miasma/Executor's guide
    -> add 8.37.2 A Few (Really) Good Men: Guide to Ashdod
    -> add 8.22.3 Machaka  a sorcerer¿s fevered arachnophobia
    -> add 8.19.5 Niefelheim - Who¿s afraid of the big bad wolf?
    -> add 8.12.1.4 Early Arcoscephale - Ephebophilia incarnate
    -> add 8.20.3.2 Helheim Guide (Baalz)
    -> add 8.32.1.4  Yomi 3.21
    -> add 8.15.1.2 EA Caelum  Ride the lightning
    -> add 8.15.2.1 MA Caelum - Fear of Flying
    -> add 8.11.2.2 MA Aby CBM Strategy
    -> add 13.1 Zen and the art of Thugging
    -> add 10.13 Basic Battle Tactics
    -> add 8.18.2 Fomoria - Where is your God now? (AKA - The Other Giant Meat)
    -> add OMG, I think I've done it
    -> add 10.14 Beyond the script
    -> add 8.34.1.2 EA Ulm - Flying Conans of Doom
    -> add 10.15 Vampires - you should be afraid of the night
    -> add 8.13.2 Kailasa guide
    -> add 8.12.1.3 EA Arco - uncle moneybags
    -> add 8.40.1 Gath - The last of the Giants
    -> add 8.12.2.2  go punch a mountain
    -> add 8.36.3 Warhammer Lizardmen - Join the Communion Commrade
    -> add 8.12.1.3 EA Agartha guide
    -> add 10.16 Unrest as weapon of war
    -> add 10.11.3 Worthy artifacts to wish for

    0.9
    -> Update 8.10 Magic Path Booster Guide
    -> add 10.12 Eternal Knights & Gift of Reason
    -> add 8.32.3.1 Guiding Jomon
    -> add 1.7 Horror Harmonica and/or Carcator the pocket lich
    -> add 8.12.1.2 EA Agartha: The Ancient Lord SC.
    -> add 8.33.3.2 LA Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings Strategy Guide 2.0
    -> add 8.23.2.1 LA Man - Death and Taxes
    -> add 1.8 Sieges
    -> add 1.5.2 Ankh
    -> add 1.9 Scouting, Intelligence
    -> add "Article Author" entries for all the new articles.
    Note, if an article you wrote appears w/o this entry please notify me and I'll fix this.

    0.8
    -> add 10.10 Blood Magic as Combat Magic?
    -> add 10.11 Wish, 10.11.1 Wish list and 10.11.2 Wish for a Demon Lord
    -> add 8.39.1 Bandar Log - you whipped me with what?!?
    -> add 8.21.4 Beginner's guide to Lanka

    0.75
    -> 6.11.4 FORTRESSES, RECRUITMENT AND SUPPLY
    add comment WRT to black hawks
    -> add 8.19.4 Counters to Niefelheim
    -> add 8.37.1 Ashdod proto-guide
    -> add 8.21.3 Blood Kings: Lanka vs. Mictlan
    -> add 8.23.1.1 Advice for MA Man
    -> add 8.23.1.2 MA Man Advice Needed: Proper Use of Units
    -> add 8.24.2.2 LA marignon guide
    -> add 8.27.2 MA Oceania
    -> add 8.32.1.3 Tips for Yomi, Oni Kings
    -> add 8.34.1.5 Tips with MA Ulm
    -> add 8.34.1.6 MA Ulm Pretender

    0.65
    -> Add 1.6 Beware the visiting heroes

    0.60
    -> Add 1.5 Get upkeep free undead commanders
    -> Add 2 Buffs in dominions III
    -> Add 11 Troubleshoot
    -> Add 8.32.1.2 Yomi eats nothing!
    -> Add 8.12.3.2 LA Atlantis - frozen death from all directions

    0.55
    -> Add 8.11.3.3 LA Abysia: Discussion and a Proto-Guide.

    0.54
    -> Add 8.31.2 Sauromatia: Lawful Evil

    0.53
    -> Update 8.16.2 MA Ctis, Miasma

    0.52
    -> Add 8.38.1 HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING

    0.51
    -> Put dominions III wiki general guide before nations guide
    -> Add 10.1 Lies My Rulebook Told Me
    -> Add 10.2 Countering Master Enslave
    -> Add 8.11.3.2 Best Researcher for LA Abysia
    -> Add 8.37 Ashdod, no guide yet, just place holder
    -> Add 8.29.1.2 MA Pythium thread
    -> Add 10.3 Cost efficient blood hunting
    -> Add 10.4 refuting common wisdom on scales everybody knows
    -> Add 10.5 Maths problem: fatigue vs critical hits
    -> Add 10.6 Equipment for Elemental Royalty
    -> Add 10.7 Minimum dominion?
    -> Add 10.8 Fortress to Province ratio
    -> Add 10.9 Keeping Helpful Enemy Dominion Alive...
    -> Add 8.11.1.1  Thoughts on EA Abyssia (guide)
    -> Add 8.26.2.2 Guide to Middle-Age Mictlan
    -> Add 8.28.3.2 Questions about LA Pangaea manikins
    -> Add 8.29.1.3 The pythian prescription  (A newb guide)
    -> Add 8.29.2.1  A Poisoner's Guide to LA Pythium

    All the new guides in http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=590616&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1

    0.5 (draft version)

    1. My personal Best tricks and tips learned from MP games

    	1.1 Sneaky snipers

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    	One commander with a bow artifact (either bow of war, lightning Xbow etc) can take a small to large PD depending on its aim and possible buffs

    	1.2 Wrathers

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    	Example:
    	Two Fomorian kings:
    		-> Wrather, Tempest, boots of the messenger, 4 Air gems.
    		Script: Blessing, Wrathfull skies, retreat.
    		The retreat is important since it prevents the wrather from dieing, hence canceling the wrathfull skies

    		-> Thug/SC, position a bit to the from

    	1.3 Rain of stones

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    	Evoc. lvl 7. E3+A1
    	This spell handles enemy armies composed mainly of low hp, low prot units and commanders (for example, most human armies on EA).
    	The caster needs high prot, maybe ethereal, and high hp.
    	Can be cast multiple times for extra carnage
    	A squad of RoS casters that happen to have A2 can cloud trapeze and execute opposing armies unsuspected.

    	1.4 Black servant sneakers

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    	When your nation don't have natural sneaking units and has access to death. It can be a good idea to summon a few black servants and equip them either as thugs are as reanimators (with wraith crown or skelli talisman). Then sneak them in groups of twos and threes and use them for raiding enemy lightly defened provinces. The investment is small and the gains can be substantial.

    	I've presonally found this tactic better than say concentrate only on Bane lords thugs for raiding.

    	1.5 Get upkeep free undead commanders

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    		1.5.1 details

    A cheap trick to get undead soulless mages. Either use life after death or a commander with the Ankh (which gives dead friendly units a chance to rise as undead).
    Script them to attack in a controlled manner, meaning for example bunch all the mages you want turned undead in a group with some units/commanders that have cold/poison area effect (Bog beasts, breath of winter etc). The mages will die due to effect, rise as soulless (free of upkeep).

    As for attack targets, those could be indie provinces, your provinces that were attacked by barbarians and their ilk or lightly defended enemy provinces.

    		1.5.2 Ankh

    Unique item, 40D Miscellaneous slot. Its a priceless items, every live unit that dies in battle will ressurct as an undead. Works for commanders as well.

    Works well with chaff summon spells like swarm etc (since the little insects will convert to undead when killed).

    	1.6 Beware the visiting heroes

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    Sometimes you get an unlucky event and are being attacked by this group of heroes.
    I've experiences several times in latest patch (3.17) that one of those heroes seems to auto generate ghost wolves.
    This means that the battlefield is spammed with wolves. I've lost several good sized armies to this. Be carefull!

    	1.7 Horror Harmonica and/or Carcator the pocket lich

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    So Horror harmonica allows its wielder to summon horrors and also reduces moral (auto cast wailing winds).
    Carcator will work independently from its wielder and cast death spells. The AI will usually set him on summoning undeads.

    The horror harmonica can be given to an > S2 commander so that he can teleport on top of a small army or SC. Cast 4 rounds of summon horror and then returning. He should be accompanied by a 2nd > S2 commander scripted to horror mark so that horrors will pick enemy units.
    To that you can add Carcator so that he'll summon lots of undeads and between horrors, undead and four rounds of wailing winds the enemy army should die or route.
    To complete trick use Ghost Riders or other means to capture sorrounding enemy provinces so that routing army will completly die.

    Carcator can be used separately for skirmishes. Give it to commander that will attack an enemy province and then retreat. Carcator will continue the figth and if weak PD or enemy army he will probably win.

    	1.8 Sieges

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    		1.8.1 Defending

    Usually what works for defending a stormed castle is:
    ->  Summon lots of stuff, elementals, swarm, ants etc
    -> Prevent flight: storm
    -> Put bulk of force in middle right to block entrace
    -> Put two flanking squads to left and right and backup squad behind front right squad. Backup squad should be tougher than front.
    -> Buffing SCs put in the middle to back since in front they could be offed by spells such as paralyze, soul slay, drain life etc before they buff
    -> Some berezerking ability is good (in case of route)
    -> Defensive buffs such as fog warriors and army of gold, will of the fates etc are important

    		1.8.2 Seiging

    	1.9 Scouting, Intelligence

    	Article Author: Wraithlord

    Gathering intelligence is crucial. Use all means for that end. Recruit scouts, stealthy units. Cast the intelligence spells if needs (astral window etc).

    		1.9.1 Stone sphere.

    	Don't underestimate this 5E5S Miscellaneous item. Equip it on cheap commanders (not necessarily casters) to get the best intelligence on enemy provinces.

    	1.10

    2. Buffs in dominions III

    Thanks to DrPraetorious for his spell DB and to Snoddasmannen for putting it online - http://www2.onyx.nu/pb/dom3/spells.html

    	2.1 (F)ire

    Self:
    Phoenix Power, F+1, Conjuration3, F2
    Phoenix Pyre, re-incarnate upon death with fatigue penalty of 30 + d20. So 31 - 50 fat, Alteration7, F2
    Fire Shield, Attackers take 7AP+1 per lvl in F above 1 - attackers weapon length damage per attack attempt, Enchantment3, F1
    Fire Resistance, 100%FR, Alteration1, F1

    Units:
    Fire Fend, Gives units +50%FR, Enchantment5, F2

    Battlefield wide:
    Inner Furnace, Abysia only - +3 heat radius, must fail MR+4 roll to gain effect, all units with heat auras on battlefield, says Abysia units only but according to evidence effects all units so use carefully when not whole army is fire immune, Enchantment5, F3 1F gem
    Flaming Arrows, Missile weapons cause 8AP fire damage and considered magic, Enchantment4, F4 1F gem
    Warriors of Muspelheim, All units receive +50%FR, Enchantment8, F4 1F gems
    End of Culture, description +berserk all friendly demons on battlefield, Thaumaturgy6, F2 1F gems

    	2.2 (A)ir

    Self:
    Summon Storm Power, A+1 works only in storm, Conjuration2, A1
    Air Shield, 80% missile protection, Alteration0, A1
    Charge Body, both attacker and mage receives a strong electrical shock on first hit, Alteration1, A1
    Aim, Receive +5 bonus to precision, Alteration1, A1
    Mirror Image, Get mirror images that will make it harder to score a hit in melee, stronger air mages get more images, ends when hit, Alteration2, A1
    Mistform, mage receives small damage from hits, ends on very hard hit or magical weapon, Alteration3, A2
    Flight, give flying, Enchantment1, A1
    Resist Lightning, 100%SR, Alteration1, A1

    Units:
    Gift Of Flight, give flying, Enchantment2, A2
    Thunder Ward, (a lesser Storm Warriors) increases by 50% the SR of some units (Range 5, AoE 15), Enchantment 5, A2 1A gem

    Battlefield wide:
    Wind Guide, give +5 bonus to precision, Alteration4, A2
    Fog Warriors, give mistform, Alteration7, A5 3A gems
    Arrow Fend, give air shield, Enchantment6, A3 1A gem
    Mass Flight, give flying, Enchantment7, A4 2A gems
    Storm Warriors, give 50% shock resistance, Enchantment8, A4 1A gems

    	2.3 (W)ater

    Self:
    Quicken self, gain +3 Attack, +3 Def, Double AP, Alteration2, W1
    Breath of Winter, give cold aura and immunity, stronger in cold climate, Enchantment1, W1
    Water Shield, +5 def - only underwater, Enchantment2, W1
    Cold Resistance, 100%CR, Alteration1, W1
    Summon Water Power, caster,UW,+1W, Conjuration2, W1
    Resist Fire, 100% FR, Alteration 1, W1E1

    Units:
    Quickness, give units quicken self effect, Alteration4, W2
    Water Ward, give water shield, Enchantment6, W1
    Winter Ward, gives 100% cold protection, Enchantment5, W2 1W gems
    Quickening, give quickness, Alteration8, W2 1W gems
    Fire Ward, 100% FR, Alteration 4, W2E2, 1N gem

    Battlefield wide:
    Warriors of Niefelheim, gives 100% cold protection, Enchantment8, W4 1W gems
    Friendly currents: friendly units have Action Points +4 and Enc -2, enemy units Action Points -4 and Enc+2, underwater only, Enchantment 5, W2, 1W gem

    	2.4 (E)arth

    Self:
    Summon Earthpower, E+1 and reinvigoration +4, Conjuration3, E2
    Stoneskin, get 15 prot or +2 if already above 15 and CR malus of 50% , Alteration2, E1
    Ironskin, Ironskin is 20 protection or +3 if already greater, and 75% SR malus, Alteration3, E1
    Invulnerability, 25 protection and gives PR 100% malus, Alteration5, E3

    Units:
    Iron Will, +4 MR,	Thaumaturgy3, E1
    Iron Warriors, give iron skin, Alteration5, E2
    strength of giants, increase strength by +4 Enchantment3, E3
    Legions of Steel, give +3 prot (note - May give more than +3 protection as it is applied at every armor part),	Construction3, E3
    weapons of sharpness, Weapons are armor piercing, Construction7, E5
    Marble Warriors, give stoneskinn, Alteration7, E3
    Tempering the Will, MA Ulm only - +4 MR on all national units, Thaumaturgy5, E3
    Iron Marionettes, LA Agartha only - It gives Att+4 and Action Points + 4 to undeads, Alteration5, E3
    Earth Might, (Range 15 AoE 1) units get +4 strength, Alteration 1, E2

    Battlefield wide:
    End of Weakness, Yomi only - Gives Barkskin to all friendly Demons, Alteration6, E2 1E gem
    army of gold , Ironskin and fire resist 50%, Alteration9, E4
    army of led, Ironskin and +4 MR, Alteration9, E5

    	2.5 A(S)tral

    Self:
    Power of the Spheres, +1 to magic paths, Conjuration3, S1 1S gems
    Twist Fate, negate first received hit, Alteration0, S1
    Personal Luck, 50% chance to evade hits, Alteration1, S1
    Body Ethereal, give etherality - 75% to evade non magic weapons, Alteration 3, S1
    Resist Magic, increase MR by 4, Enchantment1, S1
    Astral Shield, Shield that may paralyze attackers if they fail MR check of ???, Enchantment3, S1

    Units:
    luck, give luck, Alteration4, S1
    Battle Fortune, like luck but more units benefit, Alteration6, S3 1S gem

    Battlefield wide:
    Antimagic, Increase MR+4, Enchantment4, S3 1S gem
    Will of the Fates, give luck, Alteration8, S4 4S gems
    Celestial Music, Bandar Log only - Gives quickness to all Apsaras, Gandharvas and Yakshas, Thaumaturgy6, S3 ???S gems
    Light of the Northern Star(!), All mages in the battlefield (even enemies) gain 1 point of Astral, Conjuration 4, S3 1S gem

    	2.6 (D)eath

    Self:
    Soul Vortex, drain life force from anyone close to necromancer - restore life force and reinvigorate, Alteration6, D3
    Twiceborn, protect a living necromancer - dying in friendly dominion will revive as wight mage, Enchantment4, D2 10D gems

    Units:

    Battlefield wide:
    Life after Death, all living beings will revive as soulless in case of death in battle, Enchantment7, D4 4 death gems

    	2.7 (N)ature,

    Self:
    Eagle Eyes, improve caster's precision by 5, Alteration1, N1
    Bark skin, raise protection to at least 10 or by 1 if already above 10 -25% fire resistance, Alteration1, N1
    Elemental Fortitude, +50% resistance to fire, lightning and cold, Alteration4, N1
    Personal Regeneration, living caster will regenerate, Enchantment2, N2
    Resist Poison, 100%PR, Alteration1, N1
    Strenght of Gaia (!), caster gains Personal Regeneration and Str+4 and Barkskin and +1 Nature Bonus, Conjuration 4, N3E1

    Units:
    Healing Mists, a 3 rounds lasting mist which heals all units inside the AoE to full HP, Evocation 5, N3A1
    Mossbody, units nearby have 75% chance of receiving from 10 to 20 points of Prot, if affected unit is damaged releases an AoE 4, 1AN poison damage, Alteration 3, N1W1
    Protection, like bark skin for a few units, Alteration3, N2
    Wooden warriors, give barkskin, Alteration5, N2
    Poison Ward, 50% poison resistence, Enchantment4, N2 1N gem
    Regeneration, give Regeneration, Enchantment3, N3
    Haste, double movement, Enchantment4, N3 1N gem
    Berserkers, make units go berserk - increase protection, decrease defence and never route, Thaumaturgy2, N2
    Touch of Madness, more units go berserk, Thaumaturgy4, N3 1N gem
    Song of Bravery, MA Man only, from +1 to +5 morale, Enchantment 0, N1

    Battlefield wide:
    Mass Protection, barksikn, Alteration7, N3 1N gem
    Serpent's Blessing, 50% poison resistance, Enchantment7, N4 1N gem
    Mass Regeneration, give regeneration, Enchantment8, N4 2N gems
    Growing Fury, all friendly units wounded or with berserker tag go berserker - enemy berserker tagged unit as 5% every round to go berserker too, Thaumaturgy 4, N4, 1N gem
    Relief, +1 reinvig to all friendly units, Enchantment 6, N5, 1N gem
    Gaia's Blessing (!), +50% FR, CR, SR, PR, Enchantment 9, N6E2, 3N gems

    	2.8 (B)lood

    Self:
    Pain Transfer, woods taken by mage will be transfered to his blood slaves, Blood3, B2 1B slave
    Hell Power, get +2 in all magic path and attracts horrors, Blood2, B3 3B slaves

    Units:
    Blood Lust, give deamons +4 strength, Blood4, B2 1B slave

    Battlefield wide:
    Rush of Strength, +4 strength, Blood8, B3 1B slave

    3. Lessons learned from MP games

    	3.1 Research

    	is important. Take at least research+1 unless playing a nation that negates drain (like Ulm). See loss in RAND, partially due to TC's research -1 scale.

    	3.2 Raiding

    	Always build raiding groups, either made of sneaking or flying armies.

    	3.3 Blood

    	Always invest some scouts/cheap commanders in blood hunting. Its a small effort (mainly to manage) that can bear good profit even for non blood nations.

    	3.4 Assassination.

    	If your nation has assassins don't hesitate to deply a few of them. They good for two purposes mainly: First, make the enemy wary and spend effort in countering them (patrolling, bodygourds) and Secondly for killing mages leading large armies (mages that can lay waste to your armies).

    	3.5 Spies,

    	probably mentioned here somewhere, but doesn't hurt to make sure I state this. So, spies, are good not only for scouting (like scouts) but also for incurring unrest. A few groups of 5-6 spies in key enemy castles can incure enough unrest to shotdown enemy unit production and hurt its economy. Then when the enemy will react by bringing in pattrollers he'll direct resources that otherwise would have gone into fighting you.

    4. Dominions Acronyms

    	4.1 Spells

    	Ros		Rain of Stones
    	FFtS		Flames From the Skies

    	4.2 Pretenders

    	Pod		Prince of Death

    	A - Air (Magic Path)
        	AN - Armor Negating - ignores defender's armor protection
        	AP - Armor Piercing - half of the defender's protection value used
        	AoE - Area of Effect
        	AQ - Air Queen (Unit)
        	B - Blood (Magic Path)
        	BoW - Breath of Winter (spell)
        	D - Death (Magic Path)
        	DM - Death Match
        	E - Earth (Magic Path)
        	EA - Early Age
        	F - Fire (Magic Path)
        	GK - Ghost King (Unit)
        	HI - Heavy Infantry
        	ID - Ice Devil (Unit)
        	LA - Late Age
        	LD - Life Drain (Spell/Effect)
        	LI - Light Infantry
        	MA - Middle Age
        	N - Nature (Magic Path)
        	PD - Province Defense
        	Rainbow mage - Skilled in most (if not all) paths of magic, used for searches
        	S - Astral (Magic Path)
        	SC - Super-Combatants
        	VO - Vine Ogre (Unit)
        	VQ - Vampire Queen (Unit)
        	VP -Victory Points
        	W - Water (Magic Path)

    5. Dominions I Strategy Guides

    6. Dominions II Strategy Guides

    http://www.freewebs.com/sunraybe/

    	6.1 ABYSIA

    In very short, Abysia has:
    # Extra nation points from the +3 heat scale.

    # A survival skill: they ignore the death scale.

    # Top notch mage/priests (but expensive).

    # Outstanding Infantry (but expensive).

    # Very good access to "summer lions", one of the best summoned creatures.

    # Extra income source with alchemy (fire gems can be turned into 75 extra gold/turn, or more in an alchemist lab site).

    # Automatic access to Flare, to which fortunately its own troops are immune.

    It is not a good nation for novice players (or the computer) as the harsh finances can stunt Abysia's growth unless monitored closely.

    Dominion design :

    Abysians prefer very warm weather: Heat +3 (what means 120 extra nation points).

    Abysia¿s income and supply are not dependent on trading or farming: you have no economic benefits or penalties for the Growth/Death scale, and your soldiers are not affected by the supply bonus/penalty. So you can take Death +3 (what means 120 more extra nation points) and it also will make you a difficult target, as invaders will suffer supply and income penalties in your lands... And it hasn't the same effect diplomatically as if you were Ermor (population still dies, but so slowly it isn't a concern to your neighbors).
    However, if you pick a Death scale, you will slowly lose population like everyone else. Any nation that takes a +3 Death scale really has to keep expanding quickly, as a nation that takes Growth +3 versus a Death +3 will be over 25% larger in just 20 turns, and will make 30% more gold from the start. And if you need blood slaves, you¿ll just be depopulating your provinces faster.
    So most Abysia players take a neutral or positive growth to remain competitive, especially for long and/or large games.

    To the other hand, Abysia needs a strong dominion (at least 7 candles), knowing that its troops have bonuses inside very hot domains, and will get penalized in income for every shift of the scale towards cold (thus if you take a province from Caelum with Cold +3 your income will be reduced by 60% there. Even newly conquered independent provinces will bring reduced income for several seasons). Remember they are only 2 heat nations (Abysia and C'tis), but 6 cold ones (Caelum, Jotun, Vanheim are designed that way, and Ermor, R'yleh and Atlantis often choose cold)  protect yourself.

    Magic drain: you should consider a negative Magic scale, especially when playing the demo. Anathament salamanders and Demonbreds are not too expensive (they are sacred, so upkeep is limited) and will research some spells before the first war.

    Predesigned Pretender : Solomon the Moloch
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Abysia.html

    Units :

    Your Abysian Infantry is expensive but better that other heavy infantry : they have more health, more strength, exude heat (which fatigues enemies) and are immune to fire damage (which happens to be what their mages use).

    Speaking of infantry, Abysia is one of the few nations that do not start with cheap patrol units. Try to grab a province with raptors or shortbowmen for that use.

    Lava Warriors are good too, but they're best used with other unit types. When flanked and backed by Humanbreds, or Humanbreds and Heavy Infantry, they do best than the same cost spent on LW alone. Notice that their encumbrance is high (14, or up to 16 in very cold provinces), so if the battle lasts more than 3 rounds they are likely to pass out and will get the armor penalty in just a couple of rounds.
    While they cost twice as much gold they have almost the same resource cost. Often Abysia can raise the same number of LW as they can raise Abysian Infantry. They are definitely better, so if Abysia wants the most punch in the quickest time, the LW are the way to go : they attack twice, turn berserk when wounded and have much better morale. But they are larger (size 3) and so do not exactly count as 2 HI each in battle since you can only place two of them where you could place 3 HI.
    Like most expensive units however, they lack efficiency when facing spells, since the loss of a single unit is a loss of greater value.

    Salamanders are potent threats, but fragile and too expensive. You could maybe buy a couple of them. If the enemy is already engaged, they might be able to attack several times from the side before getting counterattacked, and their immolating attack is deadly against non-fire immune troops (damage = 20). With 35 encumbrance, they don¿t last long however, and are often not worth the investment. Furthermore, you need a mage or a Beast Trainer to lead them in battle.

    The Slayer is an above-average assassin, you can use against independents (if you kill independent commanders, they are not replaced like militia, and if a force has no commanders, it routes automatically). With a Lifelong Protection or even a Skull Amulet they are nearly unstoppable.
    You could even make your Slayer a prophet, move him towards a choke point not too far away while spreading your dominion, slay the leaders (they have no bodyguards, btw), and then take the province by himself while your main army takes the lands around your capitol. Great way to insure a fast start.

    All Abysians are immune to fire: a screen of heavy infantry can bog down advancing enemies and allow your fire mages to decimate enemy ranks with no friendly fire losses.

    Last strategic information : it seems that when 2 or more nations attempt to invade the same province, Abysia always goes first.

    Magic :

    Abysia has powerful mages and priests (most spellcasters have both fire magic and holy power), but are expensive and fragile - they must be specially protected from enemy archers.
    But Abysia can also sacrifice blood slaves to pump their priests, something that most other nations cannot do.

    Abysia takes a lot of micro-management. Soon you will mix your fire troops with non-fire troops, and you have to be very careful where everything starts and where they go.
    Blood slaves for instance will suffer if they stay close to their fiery master. Try to keep a non-fiery commander on the field that you can use to "store" blood slaves on (it doesn¿t have to be a mage). You just have to replenish the supply between attacks.

    Anathemant Dragons can summon Summer Lions after you research Conjuration 4. Summer Lions are ethereal, have good hit points and attack values, and never rout. It may be worth hurrying your research just for this spell. On the way, Lesser Fire Elemental is a great spell for Abysia too as it will ignite nearby enemies and your Abysian troops are immune. Do not use them with foreign troops!

    Anathemant Salamanders are cheaper and can summon Fire Drakes and Lesser Fire Elemental too (Phoenix Power will give them one more level in fire magic).

    Warlocks are very effective blood mages (in fact, with 3 levels, they are the most powerful national blood mages in the game). They have one random magic level, but no priestly power.

    Demonbreds are your only flying unit, and they can lead 10 devils. By flying over territory you can push your borders out early and skip the hard provinces. Come back for them later.

    Fire spells are harder to cast when it is raining, or under a Storm spell. To avoid the fatigue from rain, expand your dominion (it is normally not raining in deserts) or give some gems to your spellcasters (they¿ll use them to reduce fatigue).

    Abysia is obviously weak in the sea early on (unless you got an amphibian pretender). As the game advances, your blood summons and in particular the amphibian types can change this.

    National Heroes:

        * Rago the Rage Lord, a super Lava Warrior, has a description that says that he is rarely seen without a bodyguard of his Lava Warriors. But in battle, he doesn't actually get any, and he doesn't make free ones or anything.
          "Rago is a young and very strong warlord. He has been trained as a Lava Warrior but has since fought his way to warlord status. He is a hero among the Lava Warriors and is rarely seen without a body guard of his former friends. Rago is called the Rage Lord, a title given to those rare Lava Warriors who survive long enough to become Warlords".

        * Ba¿al Chozron, the Anathemant Warlock, has the power of an Anathemant Dragon and the Blood Magic of a Warlock, but no Astral power (Fire 3, Blood 3, Holy 4).
          "Ba'al Chozron begun his career as a young initiate deep within Smouldercone. He soon rose to power and was entrusted with the training of the demonbreds. He left the warlocks after he was nearly assassinated, and joined the ruling caste of the Anathemants. As an Anathemant he was entrusted with training the demonbreds as priests and fire mages where he earlier had trained them in blood magic. As the master of demonbreds Ba'al Chozron is respected and feared by Warlocks and Anathemants alike".

    	6.2 CAELUM

    Caelum is crazy potent if developed properly. It has many advantages (flying units, stealth priests, terrific mages) and, to top it all, Caelum has 620 points for its Pretender (+3 cold).
    However Caelians are weak in comparison to the troops of other nations, plus they eat more. On top of that the better troops have very high production costs, so Caelum ends up with both fewer and weaker troops.

    Flyers can often trounce independent nations however, since they rarely guard their leaders sufficiently, and can catch the unwise or unaware human offguard and defeat a much greater force. If all enemy leaders are killed, the enemy army will rout regardless of any other factors. When you ready yourself for battle, remember to give "hold and attack commanders" orders to some flying warriors...

    Flyers can also "jump" deep into enemy territory, to take unguarded provinces, cut off reinforcements and cause routed troops to disappear instead of retreat. They also move much faster within your own territory, or can strike a border province without warning by not having clear troop buildup.

    However, Caelum presents probably one of the most logistical challenges out of all the other nations because trying to make sure the mages have gems when they need it for battle can be quite a juggling act. If Caelum is starving on gems it's very difficult to fight effctively.

    Pre-researched spell: Wind Guide.

    DOMINION DESIGN:

    The population of Caelum prefers icy climate (cold +3).
    You could tolerate some turmoil too, knowing that most troops are flying (they count as 2 foot patrollers each), and you have easy access the spell Call of the Wind (the summoned hawks can be used to patrol and quell unrest too and their maintenance costs are less than on ordinary troops). Sure you can't cast CoW as soon as you take your first turn, but researching Conjuration 3 isn't that difficult.

    A positive growth scale is advisable, to feed your troops (each Caelian needs 2 supply points).

    Caelum is very dependant on its dominion however and must spend a lot of those extra nation points on a high dominion value. Inside cold areas, Caelums troops with ice armor gain protection. Outside the cold they lose protection, and population make much less gold.

    What you research in the beginning is very important (balancing magic research with expansion is crucial). Caelum is one of the few nations where a super combatant pretender isn't necessarily all that helpful.

    PREDESIGNED PRETENDER: CLOSEST TO THE THRONE, the Arch Seraph
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Caelum.html

    UNITS

    Temple Guards are slow, but excellent (they can even be blessed).

    Tip of the day: Caelums ice weapons are considered magic for purposes of hitting ethreals or mistformed creatures.

    The Mammoths are pretty darn effective, especially if they are backed up by some priests with Sermon of Courage. They trample, and have better morale than elephants, but when they rout they can do heavy trample damage to the friendly rear forces on their way out!
    At size 6, they are able to trample almost anything, and trampling is armor-piercing so it is useful versus very heavy infantry like Ulm's which most of your other troops cannot hurt.
    Since crossbows seem an obvious defense against mammoths, Caelum often protects them with Storms.

    The key to initial expansion is the wingless / mammoth combo. Wingless has the best morale out of caelum's troops, is cheap and effective, but can only be built at the capital. Mix in the wingless w/ the mammoths and the mammoths rarely break and you run rampant over most enemy troops.
    Also remember that wingless are still susceptible to the cold and numbing effects of the cold, unlike other Caelians.

    Before you have access to storm (or should you still wish to use archers), actually you have an easier time dealing with enemy archers than some of the other nations.
    Use Caelum flyers to harrass the archers instead of jumping on your opponent's commanders/mages. The archers will have to resort to hand-to-hand combat and will not have their ranged attacks, and will give a chance for your beefier units (mammoths and wingless) to close the gap and deal some real damage.
    Normally you can clear most of the indies with 3 mammoths and 20 winglesses (with the usual exceptions, like knights). Since morale is a blended rate, this usually gives the mammoth/wingless squad a average morale btwn 13-14.
    Bring the archers with you and some air gems for 'wind guide'. Archers will either cut down enemy archers or mages, while the mammoth/wingless team are set for the commanders (on a flank).
    Most indies mass their infantry in the middle of the battlefield very close to the boardside. Try to set up your units so to get a "first strike" - meaning the indies run up to you and then you trample them (you don't want them to run up and actually strike your units first!).
    It's the transition of building other troops to use as you reach further from the capital that becomes a real challenge as the game progresses - there is a tricky transition between the caelum high seraphs being support units to being the primary offense units, and the other units playing a more supporting role.

    MAGIC

    Caelium mages are outstanding :
    - they fly
    - they have very low cost for the excellent skills (the high Seraph is even the cheapest 6-pick mage of the game),
    - they can go underwater.
    - high seraphs can lead 25 units.

    So Caelum often specializes in massive Air Elemental summoning, Orb Lightnings, Thunder Strike, etc...
    Quickness, available to all mages, makes those spells twice more deadly.
    But this strategy is countered if its opponents cast Thunder Ward, and to a lesser extent Winter Ward.
    Fire magic, on the other hand, is very weakened during the storms or rains that Caelians can cause easily.

    The Staff of Storm is a terrific weapon for Caelum. It makes its archers and most flyers useless but :
    - protects its mages (no need for anti-missile gear),
    - gives more punch to Air Elementals and Storm Guards (bonuses in attack, defense and AP),
    - gives its mage a +1 bonus in air magic (Summon Storm Power),
    - protects its heavy troops (Temple Guards and Mammoth) so they cannot be countered with crossbows
    - does not affect Storm guards, Storm Generals, Air elementals, Pazuzus, Spring hawks, Sylphs and Queens of the Air at all.

    Wolven Winter (Alteration 4) is a great asset to Caelum too, that make heavy use of ice armored troops. An iceclad has a nominal armor value of 18, that raises to 24 in cold+3 provinces. Quite a bit of a difference. The freezing will also cause a temperate province to lose 30% of its taxes (depending of the cold/heat preference). Either of these is quite huge if you use it on the big provinces, and it will take a couple of turns for it to reset even with strong dominion there.
    And the offensive possibilities are many. Besides the bonus for Caelian Ice armors and Winter Wolves, the cold will tire most normal units and is devasting to Abysia and C'tis soldiers. Using Wolven Winter followed immediately with a Murdering Winter (Evocation 7) will greatly increase the number of troops killed by the blizzard. Illwinter (Blood 6) is devastating also and has less affect on Caelum and its native troops (increased unrest still hurts Caelum, but everyone is treated equally so Caelum does not lose anything relatively to others. Less, actually, as Caelum can deal with unrest easier than most).

    PRIESTS

    Caelum is weaker on the religious field an can only train priests with 3 holy levels. Those priests are stealthy and flying however.

    NATIONAL HEROES

        * Zaelinys the Harab Seraphine has 2D and 3 Holy powers : "he is one of the few descendants of the Harab Seraphs remaining in Caelum. Her ancestors aided the High Seraphs against the raptor rebellion and have served the Seraphs with their dark magic. Zaelinys has learned the dark arts of her family, but is also trained in the temple as a Seraphine".

        * Caelos the Sacred One : "he is the Commander of the Temple Guard. He gave up his wings after losing his ice clads in a battle against infidels. The event ignited his religious fervor and he has since fought harder and braver than any of the storm generals against the enemies of the faith. He was recently promoted to the status of commander. His fanaticism has given him priestly training otherwise restricted to women".

    	6.2.1 Caelum's blood guide

    	by Patrik Nyberg.

    Why Caelum should use blood magic
    By Patrik Nyberg, bopatriknyberg@hotmail.com.

    Caelums is in my opinion the strongest nation on almost all maps and setups. However, opponents will be aware of Caelums powerful air magic, and since all players will have access to Storm, they will also be able to counter (at least partly) your air magic with Thunder Ward. Blood magic will provide Caelum with the fighting power their own troops lack.

    There are three great benefits in using blood magic for Caelum - Ice Devils (Blood 4), Illwinter (Blood 6) and Robe of the Magi (Cons 6, requires 4 in air and 4 in blood). Illwinter will cause worldwide temperature drops (excellent for you) and unrest, which you can easily counter with Call of the Winds or flying archers (if you are short on air gems). Robe of the Magi increases all magic paths with one, eventually giving your Arch Seraphs access to most high level spells. The most important goal however is the Ice Devils. They have awesome stats that are further boosted by your cold dominion (+3 in protection, strength, attack, and defense. Also they are unencumbered in cold +3). They can cast Quickness (Alt 2), and get one water gem for free each turn making them good support mages (Grip of Winter (Ench 6) and Winter Ward (Ench 4)). Surplus gems can be spent on Wolven Winters (Alt 4 - drops temperature 2 points in selected province), Winter Wolves (Conj 4 - +3 bonuses in cold provinces) and Murdering Winters (Evoc 7), With the right equipment Ice Devils are enormously powerful both against regular armies and other super combatants. I'd recommend not spending too much on equipment for each Ice Devil, but rather try to produce as many as possible. Try to give an antimagic amulet, some kind of armor (something cheap like black steel plate, fire plate or copper plate), winged shoes and a life draining weapon (preferably the wraith sword) to each Ice Devil. If you will have to take on other super combatants, go for high defense (shield, chain mail of displacement) and armor penetrating/negating weapons.

    So, how to pull this off when Caelum lacks 'natural' blood magic? Well, to get a jump start on the blood economy, pick the blood fountain as your pretender. The blood fountain will bring in about 14 slaves per turn with 5 in blood. To produce Sanguine rods, use Arch Seraphs. They are the cheapest mages with a random pick in the game (except for sages) and you will always want to buy at least one, preferably more, each round. As soon as you have one with blood, start producing Sanguine rods (and keep producing those!!) so that cheap commanders/priest can do the blood hunting. Hunt in low income 5000+ provinces with 4 hunters/province. Have your blood fountain produce Brazen Vessel (Cons 4) and Blood Thorn (Cons 6) to get one of your Arch Seraphs to blood 3, and use him to crank out IDs so that your blood fountain can keep capturing blood slaves.

    Possible Strategy for Caelum

    This is a coarse outline on how I would try to play with Caelum while investing in early blood magic as above. This strategy is probably less suitable for a small map (as in provinces per player), where Combat Pretenders can make a bigger impact and you have less 'safe' provinces in which to blood hunt.

    Nation design:

    Pretender - Blood fountain (blood 6, astral 3 (for mobility, and horrors))

    Scales - Always cold 3, growth 3, production 3. To maximize my early economy, I go with order 3 (helps when blood hunting too), luck -1 and neutral magic. However, there are definitely options here, many probably take negative order with Caelum since flyers come so easily. I go with order to ensure a good income from the start.

    Castle - Wizard Tower

    Dominion 6

    Early strategy:

    The possibility for early expansion for different nations depends in part on the number of available provinces per player. Caelum has two very powerful methods of beating independents; the first is the Mammoth/wingless combo mentioned in the guided tour, the second is massive lesser air elemental summoning. By the latter, each Arch Seraph can take out 15 infantry or 3 knights. If you combine the Arch Seraphs with ice clads on 'hold and attack enemy archers', the ice clads will take the arrows and you can take provinces almost without losses.

    These are my first moves:

        * Put all your initial troops on patrol, raise taxes to 200% (works most of the time with order 3)

        * Have your pretender research Conjuration

        * Buy one mammoth army (3 mammoths and 14 wingless), led by a Seraphine which is also your prophet (allowing fanaticism).

        * Thereafter, buy only Arch Seraphs, ice clads and independent commanders. Build a second Wizards Tower (with lab) as soon as possible.

        * As soon as you have Conj 3 (lesser air elementals), use your Arch Seraphs/ice clads to claim rich independent provinces that are away from your home province (assuming you have taken the neighboring provinces with your mammoth army). Start blood hunting with your pretender. Switch research to construction. Cast Call of the Wind on your capital to help with patrolling (blood hunting will increase unrest) and also on other rich provinces. If your feel rich in gold (you seldom do in Dominions) you might consider using flying archers to patrol instead.

        * I usually search captured provinces immediately, leaving one of the Arch Seraphs (preferably with death or astral as random) in the newly captured province. Using most of my Arch Seraphs for fighting/searching usually puts me back on research, but finding sites early can make a difference.

        * Research Cons 2 and start making Sanguine rods. If you feel safe from your opponents, continue to Cons 6 (Staff of Storms, and also Brazen Vessel, Blood Thorn and Water Bracelet, allowing your Arch Seraphs to summon Ice Devils. Also, you can forge the Robe of the Magi). If you expect to be attacked soon, go for Evoc 3 (Storm) first.

        * When you have secured and searched most available independent provinces, start probing your neighboring opponents. If you are lucky enough to have a neighbor without airmagic on native troops or pretender, and where the pretender is not a supercombatant, attack as soon as you have Storm (or better yet Staff of Storms). Otherwise wait for your Ice Devils.

        * Research Alt 2(Quickness), then start on Blood Magic. As you approach level 4, make sure you have two Arch Seraphs at Blood 3, Water 3. Have all equipment for the Ice Devils ready and crank our 4 Ice Devils in two turns (you should easily have enough blood slaves. Keep on producing at least one Ice Devil per turn while expanding your blood economy. Consider casting Illwinter. Go conquer the world.

    Raiding Warfare

    I am surprised that so few of the strategy articles and threads have addressed this topic. For a highly mobile nation like Caelum, raids with small forces are IMO the most efficient way to wage war. The goals are three; cripple the enemy's economy, cut supply lines to his main army(ies), and avoid major battles if possible. Each raiding force should consist of 3 Arch Seraphs and 10 ice clads (with the Staff of Storms if possible), or one Ice Devil (with winged shoes). One of these forces can take on virtually any local militia you can encounter. By using many small armies, you will avoid the supply problems normally facing an army composed of fliers (unless you are fighting Ermor). Flying troops can strike three provinces deep into enemy territory, making it next to impossible for your enemy to defend more than a few of his key provinces. Also, very few nations will be able to have enough Air mages to counter more than a few of your attacks.

    Aim first at relatively large, unpatrolled provinces, you should be able to take 8 - 10 of those in one turn. On most maps, his capitol will then be in reach for most, if not all of your forces. Thus you can converge your troops on his capitol, don't however bother to stay there, just raise the taxes to 200% and leave one troop so the siege is not automatically broken. Next, take all the provinces adjacent to his capitol (this will reduce production in his home province - when he regains it. Also these are the provinces most likely to have been searched for magic sites.). Then, strike against any other castles he has, again converging your forces. Over these turns, you are likely to lose a few of your raiding forces that happen to run into one of his main armies. However, you will be quite capable of producing at least two raiding forces per turn, easily replacing troops faster than you loose them. Preferably use Ice Devils as they are very hard to counter when used in this way. In just 4-5 turns, you should control 75% of his provinces and have crippled his gold and gem income. Now it is be time to bring up your reserve (Temple Guards and Winter Wolves), pave the way with Wolven Winters and smash the remains of his nation.

    Hints and tips

    Look at the stats of blessed Temple Guards in cold +3 (and don't forget their 'magical' weapons). They can't keep up with your flying troops and are thus less useful for raiding, but they are the best reserve you can have.

    Winter Wolves are not that impressive - in neutral temperature. In Caelum's dominion they get +3 to hitpoints, strength, attack, defense (very nice together with ethereal), and movement. Their cold aura is also much more efficient in cold. If you've got the gems, don't hesitate to use them.

    A Storm General can be used to suicide-attack mages (Medallion of Vengeance) - also in a storm :).

    Quickness and Life Drain is a very potent combination on a super combatant. They'll not only kill twice as fast, they'll also heal twice as fast!!

    As suggested above, consider searching for magic sites immediately after conquering an independent province. Thus, if you take a province with 3 Arch Seraphs and ice clads, leave one of the Arch Seraphs to search and have the rest take a new province. This will slow your expansion somewhat (it is important that you keep producing new Arch Seraphs every turn!) but your searching will be much more efficient and magic sites will be discovered earlier.

    Trade for dwarven hammers - it'll save you tons of gems!

    If your opponent has gateway and/or fairy trod, make sure you don't make an attractive target for him. Only have small forces in provinces without a castle. If he feels pressured enough to spend gems and efforts to attack one solitary Ice Devil or three Arch Seraphs, you are probably quite well of.

    Bring scouts to soak up assassination spells

    Bring mages with astral to counter Mind Hunt (and always have antimagic amulets on your Ice Devils!!)

    	6.3 JOTUNHEIM

    Dominion design:

    Giants prefer Cold +2. They are cold resisitant and therefore will gain an advantage over non-cold resistant units fighting in cold climes.
    A positive Growth scale is important too (to feed the giants), even if your mage have some basic Nature power.
    It is to be noted that a scale of Cold +3 does not affect giants much and that the economic loss (-10% tax) could be partially negated by Growth +3 (+5% tax but more population). To the other hand, the colder weather will cause even more trouble to temperate neighbors, and will strenghten the Son of Niefel and his winter wolves - not to speak of other "Chill" creatures like Banes, Ghosts or Ice Devils. Furthermore, if you do not or can not take a positive Luck scale, some random bad events could make temperature drop anyway...
    Most players prefer Cold +2 and Growth +3 however and spend 40 more design points here.

    Jotunheim needs a lot of ressources, thus high Production.

    You are not too dependent on your capital (producing Norna and Longdead Giants), and could build cheap forward fortresses to flood your opponents.

    Predesigned Pretender: Bure, the Son of Niefel
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Jotunheim.html

    The Bog Mummy seems a good choice too.

    Click  HERE to read a Jotun's After Action Report, by Pepe "Wendigo".

    Special Strategy

        * Jotunheim has powerful infantry and the resources to mass produce them. Giants are pretty solid and fast, and suffer thus few casualties after a rout. This makes an excellent local defence (province militia).

        * They are hungry however : each giant needs 3 supply points. Jotuns often have a penalised end game due to supply problems.

        * Good first spells : Curse and Luck.

    Jotun militia is probably the best in the game. For 15 GP, you get a Jotun Herse and 5 Jotun militia, and for each level of defence you get an additional 30 HP Jotun militia. After 20, however, you only get wolf riders, which are not worth it. 19 militia and a Herse is a fairly effective fighting force (for 190 GP), and only large armies will be able to defeat them.

    Units:

    In general, Jotuns are fast and *really* hard to kill. Even if they face a horde of smallish units and break, most of them will still survive, while the smaller units will take serious casualties even if they win.

    If you have the full version, you might want to try adding some vaettir or wolf riders to your order of battle, to help keep your Jotuns from being surrounded. Local troops could work for this too. I think it may just be that Jotuns are in a big rock-paper-scissors: their high HP and protection and good AP allows them to easily crush archers, but hordes of light infantry can surround and overwhelm Jotuns (surrounded troops have a defence penalty). To the other hand, the giants are so big they can't themselves overwhelm much of anything to get the defence reduction.

    Jotun Spearmen are probably the best flat-out infantry in the game. Their armor is quite high (18), and their HP are triple the average troops. Also, while their attack and defence are only average, their strength is so high that they usually kill even well armored troops with one blow. Their weapon length is 4 (behind only Pikeneers), so they are quite good at repelling anyone. Jotun Axemen do slightly more damage, but the negative to attack is painful, the negative to defence is bad too, and their reach is only 2.

    Jotun Hurlers are very potent second line fighters. With their strength of 20, the boulders do a total of 40 points of damage, which effectively kills any normal troop even with high protection. The short range is actually a bonus: this allows them to hit much more frequently. Some screens of Jotun spearmen, with a group of Hurlers directly behind, are excellent at taking out almost any force. This is even effective versus swarms of Knights as the Hurlers ignore their high defence values (range attacks ignore defence), and usually kill them in one shot. Remember that close combat giants can¿t benefit the surround bonus and so tend to have problems hitting high defence units.

    Woodsmen have a missile attack too. They even get one more missle attack versus the hurlers, plus they are much better hand to hand fighters (but less protected than axemen or spearmen). Hurlers are stronger versus super-high armor units. Woodsmen are better against medium or low armor, and will fare better in long fights where they are forced into hand to hand.
    However Woodsmen are one of the worst units in the game for a cost ratio - if their armor was better they might be worth it but as it is they die far too easily compared to Spearmen, and should be considered as special use troops.
    Keep in mind that you could use the Vaetti and Wolf Riders for stealth raids. It's not done often, but it's an option. Few players even consider the fact thet Jotunheim has a full complement of stealth troops.

    Your home province has a special site that will give you one free Longdead Giant if you have a death mage visit it. Get a Siethkona, select her on the main map, and then click on the province special. Longdead Giants are not overwhelmingly powerful, but is a decent bonus early on.
    When Jotunheim mages cast the spell reanimation about half the undead are giants too. So this is a much better spell for them than for other nations. When they cast raise skeletons/dead in combat about 10% of the summons will be giants. It's not amazing... but it's something extra.

    Seithkona and Norna are relatively cheap but very low HP mages. They are good for researching, and after evocation has been researched a bit, are incredibly effective support mages due to the spell Nether Darts. For only 90 GP, a Seithkona with a small infantry/undead screen can usually disperse dozens of troops with Nether Darts, and also is frustrating to enemies as they will likely be left feebleminded by this spell (even with the cheaper version, Nether Bolt). This is a great way to booby trap an arena deathmatch. Unfortunately, their low hit points make them vulnerable (they are not protected from cold BTW) so don't get too attached to them. If you have a very powerful Norna (good Hall of Fame bonus, lots of experience, etc), you can cast Transformation on her and probably will get a mage who will survive much longer. Note that any equipped items when you transform will disappear.
    Furthermore they can all help with communions, which can lead to some very impressive spell casting.

    Skrattis are expensive, but their skill in water magic is useful. Furthermore, blood magic can be very profitable: put a Skratti on find blood slaves, as soon as you get 5 slaves make a dousing rod, and then keep him finding slaves. With a decent growth rate, your population will increase anyway, and a single Skratti with a dousing rod in a populated area will generate 5-10 slaves per turn. Blood has some very effective summoning spells, particularly the summons that create monsters that can create monsters for free from then on: Bind Heliophagus, Bind ArchDevil, Bind Pazuzu, Curse of Blood. Many of the monsters these summons create are flying, which is of great use to Jotun.

    With Skrattis, Jotun can become a fairly large underwater threat. Create hordes of undead, particularly through Carrion Reanimation or the special Longdead Giants. In battle, having the Skratti cast Quickness, then repeatedly summon Lesser Water Elementals is a good general aquatic battle plan. Make sure he has bodyguards.

    Jotun Herses are the only sacred leaders who haven't priestly powers and so don't require a temple to be recruited. They can be blessed and their upkeep costs is less than the troops they're based on. Of course you can't replace all your Jotuns with Herses but you can often buy 1 Herse / 3 Spearmen in castles where you'd otherwise recruit 4 Spearmen and can't or don't recruit a magical leader. They are also expendable - a perfect choice for a early death arena : the almost guaranteed Hall of Fame bonus can be huge.

    Magic:

    Jotunheim's magic is quite unflexible, since Nornas have only random sorcery picks. So no Wards and no big air/earth/fire spells even with a Communion (the latter lets you cast Poison Ward and higher sorcery battelfield spells however, like Relief, Charm, Polymorph, Mass Regeneration, Battle Fortune, Doom, etc -- but you probably prefer to see your mages cast Nether Darts instead).
    However, Jotuns definitely have a big advantage when forging magic items to enhance commanders, since giants are much tougher combatants than most other leaders. Nornas can forge relatively cheap equipment that can turn Jotun Herses into fearsome warmachines: Wraith Swords, Lycanthropos Amulets or even Barkskin Amulets are very effective to keep them alive and healthy. And if you have access to earth mages, Boots of the Behemoth on a few size 4 leaders can wreak havoc in the enemy ranks.

    National Heroes:

    # Angerboda the great hag (3 astral, 3 death, 3 blood + 2 nature) : "Angerboda, the Great Hag of the Iron Wood, is the oldest and most wicked of all giants. Her evil has turned her home into a forest of iron and ice. Her children are monsters born in the dark of the night. Angerboda has performed blood magic and necromancy for centuries and has taught her evil ways to the skrattis of Jotunheim. The Norns are her servants and they help her divine the past, the present, and the future. Now she has seen the impending arrival of the Illwinter and has come to aid the Great Lord of Jotunheim".

    # Sporsnjall the Wolf Lord (Wolfrider with standard) : "Sporsnjall is a Vaetti. He is skilled and well-known in the halls of the wolfkin, but to the giants he is but another goblin. Sporsnjall has decided to show his allies that small allies are as useful as big ones. Sporsnjall rides a white wolf believed to be the offspring of Angerboda, Mother of Monsters."

    	6.4 MAN

    Man is very versatile and has some great advantages: stealth ability, strong units and cheap temples (half the cost of other nations, since they use sacred groves instead of buildings, like Pangaea). A perfect jack-of-all-trades.
    Man can expand early nicely thanks to the longbow, but later on it can't keep up so easily when things get magical and the Staff of Storms shows up.

    Dominion design :

    You can make temples for only 100 GP and monks for 30 GP. Therefore, you can increase your dominion fairly cheaply, and do not need a lot of candles to start with (3 seems a minimum however, especially on crowded maps).

    You also have a special patrol unit (the Forester counts as 5 soldiers when patrolling) and can support some turmoil.

    To the other hand, consider taking a fortress with a good administration % (like the fortified city), to drain that amount of resources from any neighboring province you own : you can only build your best troops in your home province !

    Predesigned Pretender : Nimue the Great Enchanteress (aka the "Lady of the Lake")
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Man.html

    Units :

    The Tower Guards are not that impressive, compared to most other special infantries. They have a good defense (13) but the same protection that cheaper axemen (and defense offers no bonus against ranged attacks).
    Consider recruiting heavier swordsmen (those with prot 15) in independent provinces instead.

    The Wardens are stealthy and blessable infantrymen with a good protection and high morale (and half maintenance cost). Hard to break, can stand up to most any other infantry, can be smuggled deep into enemy territory, and then can be blessed to higher stats! They have no shield (beware of armor-piercing crossbow bolts though) but a deadly two-handed sword.

    The Archers use longbows. They can hit a very long way out. They have a very good range advantage over other forms of missile weapons, and thus can be placed further back, or can hit commanders that are intentionally placed further back. Try setting them to hit magic-users or commanders, and watch your opponent cry. Fire and Flee works well, as they can be placed closer to the border, meaning they take less time to retreat.
    Against Ermor, longbowmen are good at removing slower moving undead, but longdead horseman advance too quickly to be stopped by just archers.
    Longbows really rock until your enemy gets a Staff of Storms (makes all missiles ineffective): 2 volleys of arrows before anyone but fliers are in close combat usually ends the battle quickly!

    Bards (with the patch) have spell songs, 1 nature magic, and most importantly, that moral boosting banner. And they can instill uprisings in enemy provinces. They can also be used as artillery spotter: the Crones get 2 air and 3 nature, and can use those gems you have rolling in to do Call of the Winds and/or Call of the Wild onto any province that a Bard finds which seems weak.

    The Knights of Avalon can heal battle afflictions! Very important for expensive troops that stick around for a while. Also note, they're some the fastest standard units of the game (with the unarmored Centaurs of Pangaea). With their exceptional morale, you have a very good heavy cavalry that can take a lot of punishment.

    Generally, have 1/4 archers shoot at enemy commanders, 1/4 at enemy archers, and the rest at the closest troops, with a screen of foot Knights or Tower Guards set to hold and attack. This can be tweaked per battle: if you know only heavy armored troops are going to be advancing or you are facing several magic users, put more archers on shooting other troops than the closest. Make sure the screens are slightly ahead of you archers, so they draw enemy fire. Wardens are not good matches with archers as their lack of shields mean that they will get chewed up by friendly fire.

    Combine the Wardens, a Lord Warden, a pair of Monks (they pump their own stats, and will pump Wardens) and maybe a Mother of Avalon and you have a all stealth force that can cripple any enemy who doesn't defend in depth (which is expensive, very expensive). Remember that surprise is a fundamental military advantage.

    A stealthy prophets is very strong too if used properly, giving you much more power in a stealth attack, and a greater ability to disrupt your enemies dominion.

    Magic :

    Man does not have access to good priests, but their mages get spell songs which cover from man's inability to cast morale raising priest spells, and to heal troops in battle. With 2 levels of Nature Magic, a Daughter of Avalon can fill this role very nicely, though she should be given some item to protect her from missile troops and she'll need bodyguards. She can also cast Howls and summon 3 wolves every turn behind the enemy lines.

    The Monk is a cheap, stealth level 2 priest however.

    There is also the Mother of Avalon, who's stealthy and comes with 1 air and 2 nature. Without pumping them up (and one more air level is cheap and worthwhile for the summon Lesser Air Elemental alone), they get False Horror, Orb Lightning (the bane of knights, especially knights of Ulm), Sleep Cloud (another Ulm killer), Swarm (good for keeping mages busy), Protection (10 protection, or +1, whichever is greater), Elemental Fortitude... None of which (except orb lightning) are exceptional, but very helpful. Combined with bards, who give a moral bonus when you're fighting outside your dominion, and monks who can stealth preach...

    Finally, there's the Crone of Avalon, who's not stealthy but comes with 2 air, 3 nature and a random pick. She is able to cast Storm (with one more air gem). Add two Crones (or a Crone and a Mother + Summon Storm Power) in your main army and you will be able to cast both Storm and Arrow Fend. The latter let you fire arrows in a storm - undocumented effect. Crones can also perform some interesting rituals : Call of the Winds, Call of the Wild, Awaken Vine Ogres, Faerie Trod, etc. If you are lucky with the random pick and get another air level, your crone could forge a Staff of Storms.

    Note that you will always have a shortage of magic-users (Daughters/Mothers/Crones of Avalons) as they can only be made in your capitol. Therefore, even a Daughter is not a disposable unit unless you find another place to summon powerful mages.
    Generally speaking, early expansion is not an option. Unless you find a sage site quickly, you will be behind in research and will run out of mages in a war. Expect to see your opponents sending assassins or "killer" spells like Earth Attack, Seeking Arrows, Mind Hunt, Vengence of the Dead, Flames from the Sky, Murdering Winter, etc

    National Heroes:

        * The Knights of the Stone : super heavy mounted knights with full plate mail (protection 23) and good leadership. They are 13, but they arrive one by one at your gate.
          "The Knights of the Stone are a knightly brotherhood of heroic champions. Only thirteen members are allowed and only when one of their number dies will another valiant champion replace him. The knights sometimes aid the witches of Avalon. The knights are exceptional leaders and unequaled in battle prowess".

        * Brangwen the Blind One : blind mage with Nature 3, Astral 2 and Air 2.
          "Grangwen the Blind One is the oldest and most revered of all the witches of Avalon. She has lived for more than a century and was one of the first witches to study the hidden lore of the Tuatha. Although she is blind, it is rumored that she can see all that will happen in the kingdom"

        * Bernlad the Green Knight, a regenerating knight with full chain armor (prot 20) riding on a unicorn (ap 30), but with a poor leadership (10) "is a reclusive knight of whom little is known. He first appeared at a tourney nearby an old forest astride a great unicorn. He wore a shimmering green armor and claimed to be Bernlad the Green Knight. No one had ever heard of him before the tourney. The Green Knight is not a great commander, but is skilled in combat and has spells woven into his armor. Bernlad regenerates wounds and may heal his battle afflictions".

        * Rhianne "was just a girl when she fell in love with a young knight. The young lord was obsessed with the ideals of the knightly brotherhood of the stone and ignored Rhiannes wooing. When he was mutilated by brigands she decided to take revenge. She declared war on the robbers and slew them one by one with the unexpected aid of a unicorn. Astride her companion she has become the bane of brigands and is a welcome sight in the villages of the kingdom. Rhianne gets a bonus when patrolling provinces". She rides the fastest unicorn (AP 36). Her patrol bonus is huge, about +25!

    	6.5 PANGAEA

    In general there are very few players who can make real use of the capabilities of Pangaea : she is even very confusing to anyone who prefers the direct Ulm methods.

    Pangaea has some big advantages: stealth, superior numbers and cheap temples (half the cost of other nations, since they use sacred groves instead of buildings).

    Dominion design :

    If you have a high Turmoil and high Luck you gain more gold than with high Order, and it costs a lot less design points. Sure it forces you to patrol heavily, but you'd do that at some point anyway. With Turmoil+3, 50 fliers is a good target for 200% taxes while keeping unrest at a bearable level (as long as you have positive Turmoil there'll always be a bit of unrest) but patrols will end up killing people, so you really need +3 growth too.

    The things to keep in mind are when designing a dominion for Pangea are:

        * turmoil is what attracts maenads

        * turmoil generates unrest, but using flying units like harpies in patrols is a good mean to keep unrest low

        * both bloodhunting and quelling unrest with patrols kill people, and you're not Ermor

        * Pandemoniacs seem to be tailored to cast Crossbreeding rituals (Blood magic, level 3), and these are greatly improved by a high Luck scale

        * High Luck also gives you a greater chance to recruit your national heroes, and Pangean heroes are just too useful

        * Pangea's mages are rather poor at research, when you factor in their cost. Depending on your pretender choice a drain scale may be too much of a drawback to overcome

        * Temples cost 50% less to build, and stealthy Dryads are useful to keep an adverse dominion at bay - therefore there are better choices than increasing dominion strength too high when designing the nation

    Predesigned Pretender: Stheno the Medusa
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Pangaea.html

    Special Strategy

    Pangaea has multiple stealth leaders that can take 50 troops right off the bat! They have multiple sneaking units, including a longbow archer and flyer (scout) support. You could make good use of Pangaeans as CIA operatives. Instead of spreading them equally like butter across the map, send out large sneaking armies that erupt in spots all over. Use some scouts to locate other players first and new targets. Sneak through the big independents and leave them as barriers. Appear and Disappear. Work out from all the little provinces you get a hold of and leave your enemies befuddled as to where your home castle is. They are a counter to anyone who uses the strategy of spreading in a circle and defending borders only.

    To makes things more difficult behind enemy lines however, routed sneaking armies will die if they can¿t retreat to a friendly province. Sneaking attackers have to be very expendable or very much assured of winning, as a single death can cause the entire force to route and die.

    Stealthy preaching is nice, too. And potentially you can force an opponent to spend a lot of time and units chasing you around or retaking provinces you just snuck up on. And don't forget that taking an opponent's province - even if he takes it right back - destroys his temple if he has one, in addition to denying him the tax revenues. Just keep moving to avoid patrols. Or even try to improve local unrest...

    Another point is that stealthy troops don't even show up in military intelligence reports if they're actually sneaking in home territory. If they just "move" however, an enemy can automatically get a fair estimate of the stealthy troops in a border province. Remember that you can store some units in neighboring independents so you don¿t have to feed them.

    Don't sneak with a large force (size does affect the chance of being discovered). Sneak with a force that's just large enough to overcome the local militia - all you really need to do (or can hope to do) is hit and run. By picking the weak provinces scattered all over the map they do fine. Quantity over quality.
    If several sneak commanders get caught in the same province, they attack separately! So don't take it lightly.

    Units:

    One of the greatest strengths of Pangean armies is their various units compliment each other well and can achieve a level of synergy many other nations would die for. While you're still learning try using each troop type in your armies and experiment with different battle plans or army compositions. Soon you'll find that Minotaurs are awesome versus ordinary infantry but vulnerable to cavalry - so try to counter these with your own cataphracts. Then you'll find Centaurs archers are good troops but at a disadvantage in long range shooting duels, as the enemy own bowmen usually cost 3 times less are therefore are 3 times more numerous. So avoid exchanging fire with your Centaurs, use them in small groups to dispatch the enemy leaders and use the speed of your hoplites (or minotaurs or cataphracts, although these usually can find better targets) to get rid of the enemy shooters ASAP.

    The Minotaurs are nice, but their low skill and size 3 causes them to get destroyed by mounted forces (both immune to the trample attack and hard to hit) or by size 3 and above units (human foot soldiers have size 2) due to their low attack rating, and for 50 gold a pop they're not all that impressive. But they are good and berserking can make up for low attack ratings (they don¿t route). It's only the resource cost that differs between armored and unarmored minotaurs, so unless you're in a hurry, there's no reason to use the unarmored ones. War minotaurs are great for storming castles : a couple of those guys forcing their way through the breach allowing more and more to trample their way in. Remember that a trample attack is armor-piercing (divides armor by 2).

    The Centaurs are great longbowmen, but they cost 30. The Cataphract is a good heavy cavalry but the high encumbrance leaves them with little staying power. They are comparable to knights however.

    The Harpies are actually one of the better Pangaea units, as they make great patrollers (every flying patroller counts as 2 ordinary units), and they are good scouts. If you find a province with weak militia, call some wolves in (Call of Nature spell) or send some sneakers to take it. They also destroy mages with terrible speed.

    Harpies can have many uses besides scouting. Eg, emergency deliveries of gems or miscellaneous items to campaigning armies. They can also escort these armies and feed them with supply items (Enormous Cauldrons of Broth or Endless Bags of Wine), and jump to another army 3 provinces away when their supplies aren't needed any longer.
    Also, both the harpies and the stealthy troops can be used to cut the retreat of an invading army by surprise, provided your opponent has neglected to invest in province defense.

    Want to get rid of an annoying pretender that keeps blasting your troops from afar with powerful magic? If you noticed the said pretender has an empty misc slot, maybe forging an amulet of Lycanthropy, giving it to a Harpy and having her charge the bugger head on will solve the problem - these cursed items are often picked up, and this one will prevent its bearer to use any battle magic any longer.

    Or if you get a fire mage, just equip Harpies with exploding amulets of vengeance, set them to "attack commanders" or mages and try a Kamikaze attack (that doesn't seem to work too well vs fire-immune commanders, like Abysia's demonbreds - they seem to be immune to the exploding damage).

    The Satyr Hoplites are quite good too. 14 prot only, but the ability to heal to make up for that. And they're fast - even the hoplites have 12 AP - so when they do run, most of them live to fight another day. Plus they can often run down enemy routed troops.

    But their 10 morale means they have a very good chance of routing during any significant battle. You should be using priests to bolster it anyway (Sermon of Courage or Fanaticism).

    Pans bring a lot of free Maenads : (each and every Pan summons between 1 to 16 Maenads/turn with turmoil scale of +3) they're useful as arrow fodder and harassing troops.
    They can do significant damage when they frenzy, and their high morale isn't to be underestimated. But satyr hoplites are better for the frontline : maenads die too quickly from arrows, so try 5-10 satyr hoplites or armored centaurs in the front with hold and attack orders, armored minotaurs up top with attack commanders, and hordes of maenads on the bottom with attack closest. The hoplites and centaurs will draw the arrow fire, and since they are on hold and attack, the maenads will probably not get too much fired their way.

    Magic:

    Pangaea takes a long time to come on line. Especially the killer spells you actually need to be worried about. But she has interesting summon spells -- think of the Awaken Vine Ogre, esp. with an Ivy Crown, then you can summon two 43 hp Ogres every turn for 1 gem, or Summon Kithaironic Lion / Horned Serpents (more expensive).

    And there's always the harpies to fall back on. They are a good counter-magic, remember !

    All of Pangea¿s mages have Nature, which is handy for helping with supply problems (they can feed 5 extra troops per level of Nature Magic). And they're tough - a Pan can shrug off damage that would kill most mages. They can even fight, with some decent items (armor helps a lot, since they have low prot, but they start with good hp and strength). Plus they have really high leadership for mages, and the free maenads...

    But Pangaea does not get any random magic on its mages (the only other nation like this is Ulm), so if you want any access to other paths you want it on your pretender! Astral is nice, since you can find a couple of astral sites that will give you mages with random magics.

    One of Pangaea's main weaknesses is the limited choice of ritual or battle spells. There are really only 2 schools available: nature and blood. Nature offers useful spells mainly in the Conjuration and Enchantment spell lists. The Blood path is trickier to use and require you to harvest blood slaves - but even if you don't want to practice blood rituals, you may want to hunt for slaves, as there are a few interesting items available to you that require some.

    On the religious field, you don't get any level 4 preachers, which is very useful (Fanaticism is a level 4 spell). So make sure to use a level 3 preacher as your prophet (he'll get a +1 level bonus).

    National Heroes:

    (There may be more powerful heroes available to other nations, but no other nation that needs its heroes more then Pangea!)

        * Arcopythera (the Harpy Queen): gives your 2 levels of air magic and free Harpies. Keep her safe, as she might be the only air mage you'll find in a game! If you're lucky enough for her to join, try trading for a Bag of Elemental Summoning or Winged Helmet with another player to boost her skill.
          "This ancient harpy has grown older and wiser than all other harpies. Reputed to be the oldest living being in all of Pangaea, she is the queen of all harpies, who serve her every whim. Arcopythera is skilled in magic and is a competent leader".

        * Menopathos (the White Minotaur): not absolutely needed, but if you get early enough to make him your prophet, the stats boost he'll get will make him more survivable than a Dryad - and he can defend himself if you equip him decently. Slight drawback: he may go berserk when hurt and forget to fanaticize your troops like he's supposed to - but then again a Dryad would probably be dead in the same situation.
          "Minotaur calves born with white hide are remarkably rare, making such births occasions of great celebration in Pangaea. These calves are given special care and are trained with the White Centaurs. The birth of Menopathos was seen as an omen of great importance. Since his birth Pangaea has begun the reconquest of the civilized world".

        * Taurotyrannnos (the Black Bull): not absolutely needed, unless you want to commit yourself to real Blood Magic. Taurotyrannos has the required skill to forge the items that will improve your summoning abilities, and other things as well. Eg, your Panii have only 1 level of earth magic and that might not be enough to get a reliable earth gem income. OTOH blood slaves can be harvested in numbers, and using 50 to empower a Pan isn't that big an expense. Now have TT forge a Brazen Vessel and a Blood Thorn, and give them to this Pan. Have this Pan forge a Blood Stone, equip it, then forge a pair of Earth Boots - your Pan now has 3 levels in earth magic, and with the earth gems you get from sites and the Blood Stone(s) you should be able to empower him soon to earth 4 (costs 30 gems). And now, summon a Father Illearth and see what you can do with him. TT himself can use the Brazen Vessel and Blood Thorn to summon Heliophagii, who themselves can summon Fiends of Darkness for free, or more Heliophagii - both are stealthy and more deadly than your lowly Satyrs.
          "Taurotyrannos the Black Bull is the offspring of a female Pandemoniac and a Minotaur bull. The rare hybrids who survive such a crossbreeding are seldom welcome and this was true in the case for Taurotyrannos as well. During his early years he was trained by his mother in hidden groves of Pangaea as a Pandemoniac. When he came of age he sacrificed his father and placed his skull upon his staff. Now Taurotyrannos has become a most powerful blood mage. His father's legacy makes him lapse into fits of berserker rage should he be angered".

    		6.5.1  Pangaea - the complete guide

    by Mikko Heikkilä.

    The Pangaea Strategy Guide (v1.2) by Mikko Heikkilä
    (Any comments and suggestions: mikko.heikkila@avainteema.inet.fi)

    Disclaimer

    This guide is written for the game "Dominions: Priests, Prophets & Pretenders" by
    Illwinter and is by no means an official strategy guide. All the information listed here was
    checked by the author but is not necessarily correct. The strategies presented here are
    based on the author's own experiences and opinions and should thus be taken with a grain of
    salt. I apologize for my bad spelling in advance. All the trademarks presented in this
    document belong to their respective owners. All the stuff written by me is (c) me
    (Mikko Heikkilä). This document may be copied and printed for personal use and published
    freely as long as the content stays unchanged and I'm credited for the work (I've got an
    ego, too).

    			6.5.1.1: Overview & Version History

    The land of Pangaea is a wild place populated by all kinds of forest creatures ranging
    from the humble Satyr to the massive Minotaur. This gives the armies of Pangaea lots of
    different troop types to choose from making their armies very versatile. The Panii are
    decent nature mages and have some skill in earth magic. Some Pangaean troops and commanders
    are stealthy. In addition, all Pangaean  basic troops and commanders can heal battle
    afflictions.

    v1.2: Pretty much everything was rewritten again. It should be simplier now.

    v1.1: ...and it wasn't quite complete. Pretty much everything is updated.

    v1.0: Well, the whole guide was written in one sweep...

    			6.5.1.2: Pretenders

    The choice of pretender is very dependent on the type of game you play, but here are some
    good alternatives. The choice of pretender should complement your style of play. The
    alternatives presented here are designed to complement specific styles of play. You're not
    required to use pretenders anywhere near these to succeed with Pangaea. Dominion scales are
    about as much up to you as the pretenders itself but here are some guidelines. You don't
    really need order higher than +0 as you got decent patrolling troops. Even full Turmoil is
    quite feasible. Maximum Productivity is advised as War Minotaurs cost quite a bunch of gold
    and resources. Full growth is also nice for the tax benefits. It also covers the pop loss
    from patrolling and bloodhunting. Fortune scales are useful, but 1 or 2 clicks will do if
    you're short on points. One scale of magic is also useful to boost your research since none
    of your mages are especially good at it.

    Legend:
    [melee weapon name] (damage, attack modifier, defence modifier, length, specials)
    [missile weapon name] (damage, precision, range, ammunition, specials)
    [armor name] (protection value, defence modifier, encumbrance, specials)

    			6.5.1.2.1: The Blood Fountain

    Cost: 50			Weapons:
    Hp: 10	Ap: 2 			-
    Prot: 22 Enc: 0
    Str: 12	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 5	Prec: 11		-
    Def: 0	Mrl: 30
    Mr: 18  Ldr: 50
    Special: Causes Fear (+15), Inanimate, Need Not Eat
    Magic: 3 Blood
    Dominion: 4 candles

    The Blood Fountain is an excellent pretender if you intend to use blood magic. It is cheap,
    has high dominion and gets a bonus when collecting blood slaves. 3 or 4 levels of blood will
    be sufficient in most cases. It would also be a good idea to select some supporting magic. I'd
    advice against picking more than one or two paths. I've had good experience with air recently
    (as air mages are generally hard to find as Pangaea). Fire is also a decent choice. This setup
    leaves you with enough points to pick some nice dominion effects as well Dominion of ~5 is
    recommended. Higher dominion doesn't hurt, but isn't necessary.

    My Blood Fountain:

    Magic: 4 Blood, 2 Fire, 2 Air

    Order/Turmoil: +0
    Productivity/Sloth: +3
    Heat/Cold: +0
    Growth/Death: +3
    Fortune/Ill Fortune: +1
    Magic/Drain: +1
    Dominion: 5 candles.

    50pt castle.

    			6.5.1.2.2: The Great Mother

    Cost: 75			Weapons:
    Hp: 135	Ap: 12 			Fist (-2,0,0,0)
    Prot: 5 Enc: 4
    Str: 20	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 8	Prec:10			-
    Def: 8	Mrl: 30
    Mr: 18  Ldr: 50
    Special: Regenerates, Trample
    Magic: 1 Earth, 1 Nature
    Dominion: 3 candles

    The Great Mother has got lots of hp and good str, but is lacking in the prot
    department to be effective right from the start. Size 6, trample and regeneration allow her
    to wreak some havoc as soon as you equip her with some armor or research a decent protection
    spell (Iron Skin or Invulnerability). Combat pretenders are always a big gamble, though. I'd
    thus advice against going for one (even though I often do due to the fact that they're cool).

    My Great Mother:

    Magic: 3 Earth, 1 Nature

    Order/Turmoil: +0
    Productivity/Sloth: +3
    Heat/Cold: +0
    Growth/Death: +3
    Fortune/Ill Fortune: +1
    Magic/Drain: +0
    Dominion: 7 candles.

    50pt castle.

    			6.5.1.2.3: The Prince of Death:

    Prince of Death is one of the nicer pretenders for Pangaea. He makes for a fantastic
    combatant as his fear aura can rout armies easily. He's physically quite strong but not
    invincible by any trade and lacks in strength compared to other supercombatants. 3 levels
    of earth is a good investment even though he can get 25+ prot with just some armor. He
    can provide you with early access to Death gems and also helps with your otherwise meager
    earth gem income. Empower him in blood and he can summon Father Illearth and Vampire lords
    for you.

    Cost: 50			Weapons:
    Hp: 45	Ap: 14 			Rod of Death (10an,2,0,1,str not added)
    Prot: 12 Enc: 1
    Str: 16	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 15	Prec: 12		-
    Def: 15	Mrl: 30
    Mr: 18  Ldr: 50
    Special: Causes Fear (+10), Undead, Need Not Eat, Flying
    Magic: 3 Death
    Dominion: 3 candles

    My Prince of Death:

    Magic: Death 4, Earth 3

    Order/Turmoil: +0
    Productivity/Sloth: +3
    Heat/Cold: +0
    Growth/Death: +3
    Fortune/Ill Fortune: +1
    Magic/Drain: +0
    Dominion: 5 candles.

    50pt castle.

    			6.5.1.2.4: The Moloch:

    Cost: 50			Weapons:
    Hp: 55	Ap: 14 			Claws (0,0,0,0,2 attacks)
    Prot: 15 Enc: 1
    Str: 18	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 20	Prec: 12		-
    Def: 15	Mrl: 30
    Mr: 18  Ldr: 190
    Special: Causes Fear (+0), Fire Resistant, Need Not Eat, Heat, Flying
    Magic: 2 Fire
    Dominion: 3 candles

    The Moloch is in many ways similar to Prince of Death. He is physically superior to him
    in every respect but lacks his fear aura. He makes up for it with his fire resistance. He
    also radiates heat which is a boon most of the time. He can also summon devils and provides
    Pangaea with fire magic which is hard to get otherwise. Empower him in blood for Arch Devils
    and Father Illearths. I'd say he is _the_ pretender for Pangaea at the moment as he can act
    as a supercombatant and a support mage at the same time at bearable cost.

    My Moloch:

    Magic: 3 Fire, 3 Earth

    Order/Turmoil: +0
    Productivity/Sloth: +3
    Heat/Cold: +0
    Growth/Death: +3
    Fortune/Ill Fortune: +1
    Magic/Drain: +0
    Dominion: 5 candles.

    50pt castle.

    			6.5.1.2.5: Other Pretenders

    The ones mentioned above are just examples what you could take. It might be a good idea to get
    a cheap Wyrm if you intend to get into water early. A sitesearcher might come in handy if you
    intend to rely heavily on magic. Manticore and Oracle are cheap but can still do you plenty of
    things. A Phoenix might also be used to get the wards early, but I find them overall weak,
    immortal or not. Medusa might also be a good choice, but she's pretty weak after all.
    But generally, don't take my advice for pretenders, make your own as they probably suit your
    style of play better.

    			6.5.1.3: Basic Troops and Commanders

    Pangaea has a wide variety of troops to choose from. Most of the stuff is very specialized,
    though. You thus need to choose the right troop type for the right job. For example when
    dealing with the legions of Ermor it is not wise to use War Minotaurs. Sure they will
    trample many enemy troops but as they don't break they'll get surrounded and die. Satyr
    Hoplites and Centaur Cataphracts would be better suited for this job with their high
    defence skill and good protection value. Their morale isn't the best but then again you
    got plenty of priests to boost it. I've listed each troop type and commander with full
    statline and a brief commentary.

    Legend:
    [melee weapon name] (damage, attack modifier, defence modifier, length, specials)
    [missile weapon name] (damage, precision, range, ammunition, specials)
    [armor name] (protection value, defence modifier, encumbrance, specials)

    			6.5.1.3.1: Troops

    			6.5.1.3.1.1: Satyr

    Cost: 10	Res: 2(3)	Weapons:
    Hp: 12	Ap: 14 			Spear (3,0,0,3)
    Prot: 0(2)	Enc: 3      	(Javelin) (3,-2,str/2,3)
    Str: 11	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 10	Prec: 10		(Buckler) (2,1,0)
    Def: 12(13)	Mrl: 8
    Mr: 13
    Special: Stealthy

    Satyrs are the troops you always start with. You'll soon learn to hate Illwinter games
    development for this decision, though. Light Satyrs are probably the weakest troops in
    the whole game (after Militia and Slingers) due to their low protection and morale.
    Missile fire will rape them and they don't do all that good against the enemy, either.
    Sure they're stealthy but their low morale is even worse in enemy dominion. I never
    build these as there are millions of better ways to spend your gold. Just leave them home,
    trust me.

    			6.5.1.3.1.2: Satyr Hoplite

    Cost: 13	Res: 19		Weapons:
    Hp: 14	Ap: 14(12) 		Spear (3,0,0,3)
    Prot: 0(14)	Enc: 3(5)
    Str: 11	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 11	Prec: 10		Plate Cuirass (11,-1,2)
    Def: 13	Mrl: 10     		Helmet (1,0,0)
    Mr: 13      			Buckler (2,1,0)
    Special: -

    Satyr Hoplites are your basic heavy infantry. They're superior to the light satyrs in
    every single respect. They actually got decent morale and protection and the other stats
    are above average. Their morale is still quite low, though. I'd use them mainly for
    bodyguard duties for which they are actually quite good due to their small size and
    overall good combat performance. I still wouldn't use them as line infantry. You should
    have enough morale 14+ light infantry to handle the job.

    			6.5.1.3.1.3: Centaur

    Cost: 30	Res: 2		Weapons:
    Hp: 20	Ap: 30 			Longbow (13,1,30,12)
    Prot:	3	Enc: 3      	Hoof (0,0,0,0)
    Str: 13	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 10	Prec: 12		-
    Def: 14	Mrl: 11
    Mr: 13
    Special: Stealthy

    Centaurs are great troops, but like Satyr Hoplites, not meant as line units. They are
    great archers individually with their high strength, precision and mobility. They're even
    armed with a Longbow on top of that. They're also physically powerful which allows them
    to survive some combat with light enemy troops (their high defence skill allows them to
    whack troops like Jotun Militia quite convincingly). They cost quite a bunch of money,
    though. 30 gold is pretty steep for a single archer. This means that they're better used
    in groups of ten to snipe at enemy commanders/magic users. They also have an important role
    as stealth troops. A squad of 10 with a Dryad is capable of beating normal province defence.

    			6.5.1.3.1.4: Centaur Cataphract

    Cost: 40	Res: 36	W	eapons:
    Hp: 20	Ap: 24(19) 		Spear (3,0,0,3)
    Prot:	0(18)	Enc: 3(8)  	Hoof (0,0,0,0)
    Str: 13	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 11	Prec:	12		Plate Hauberk (14,-2,4)
    Def: 14	Mrl: 11     		Helmet (1,0,0)
    Mr: 13      			Round Shield (3,2,1)
    Special: -

    Centaur Cataphracts are your standard heavy cavalry. They got superior Hp and strength
    compared to most enemy counterparts but lack in pure protection. If that'd be all they'd be
    very good troops. Too bad they got shockingly high encumbrance (8!) for cavalry. Their
    puny morale of 11 also leaves a lot to be wished for (especially as the squads are
    generally small). These factors combined with their slight lack of hitting power make them
    quite weak on the actual field of battle. Hey, at least they're cheap as cavalry goes.
    I'd forget Centaur Cataphracts and buy more War Minotaurs if I were you. Mixing Centaur
    Cataphracts with War Minotaurs might lessen the casualties to some extent but I doubt it
    will be worth the trouble.

    			6.5.1.3.1.5: (War) Minotaur

    Cost: 50	Res: 7(41)	Weapons:
    Hp: 25	Ap: 15(13) 		Battleaxe (9,0,0,2)
    Prot:	4(15)	Enc: 3(5)
    Str: 16	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 8	Prec: 8		(Plate Cuirass) (11,-1,2)
    Def: 8(7)	Mrl: 13		(Helmet) (1,0,0)
    Mr: 11
    Special: Trample

    Ahh, the pearl of Pangaean military. These babies seriously go places. Pretty much every
    size 2 infantry will bite it hard when faced with these things. Their high Hp and average
    protection will also see them through quite a bit of damage (massed crossbows will still do
    them in like any heavy infantry). Trampling is very powerful with these troops as you're
    often able to buy quite many of them (90% of the troops I buy are War Minotaurs). Trampling
    targets the whole target square (3x size 2 infantry for example) and is armor piercing.
    Nations like Ulm will hate these troops. Too bad they also got the crossbows to partially
    counter them. That's why you should protect these from missile fire with screening troops.
    Size 3 or larger troops with high defence values also cause them problems. At least would
    if they weren't capable of going berserk. While their normal attack skill is puny 8, it
    goes up to more manly 11 when wounded. Enemy cavalry and other such troops will suddenly find
    themselves at the receiving end of strength 19 battleaxes. Also, buy War minotaurs whenever
    possible as they're almost three times as effective as their unarmored counterparts and all
    this for the same gold cost. Select +3 production and a fort with high admin at Pretender
    creation in order to afford lots of these babies.

    			6.5.1.3.1.6: Harpy

    Cost: 7	Res: 1		Weapons:
    Hp: 7	Ap: 4 		Claw (0,0,0,0)
    Prot: 0 Enc: 3    	Claw (0,0,0,0)
    Str: 8	Fat: 0		Armor:
    Att: 8	Prec: 8	-
    Def: 10	Mrl: 8
    Mr: 11
    Special: Flying, Stealthy

    Harpies are probably one of the most overlooked troops in the whole game. While it's true
    that they're quite weak individually, they are more than capable of killing unprotected
    enemy commanders and mages (especially province defence as there is never a bodyguard).
    Their true role, however, is that of a very cheap patroller. My very first move is to buy
    50 of these (led by a White Centaur) to patrol my capital for 200% every single game.
    Every single province with decent income (say, 100+) should have a squad of Harpies
    patrolling.

    			6.5.1.3.1.7: Maenad

    Cost: -	Res: -		Weapons:
    Hp: 10	Ap: 12 		Claw (0,0,0,0)
    Prot: 0 Enc: 3
    Str: 10	Fat: 0		Armor:
    Att: 10	Prec: 0		-
    Def: 10	Mrl: 14
    Mr: 10
    Special: -

    Maenads are native Pangaean troops in the sense that your Panii attract them
    automatically. They're weak but their high morale of 14(!) allows them to stay around
    for quite a while. They're also capable of going berserk which increases their offensive
    potential and also prevents them from running. You should never count on your maenads
    doing a lot but they're still a useful middle screen that stops powerful enemy troops
    for quite a while. Mass Protection really adds to their survivability so when using
    lots of Maenads, you should also consider researching the spell.

    			6.5.1.3.2: Commanders

    			6.5.1.3.2.1: Black Harpy

    Cost: 20	Res: 1		Weapons:
    Hp: 8  Ap: 4 			Claw (0,0,0,0)
    Prot:	0	Enc: 3  	Claw (0,0,0,0)
    Str: 8	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 9	Prec:	8		-
    Def: 9	Mrl: 10
    Mr: 11      Ldr: 0
    Special: Flying, Stealthy

    Black Harpy will serve as your main scout. Their relatively small cost coupled with stealth
    and flying ability allow them to find out enemy positions quickly. They're fantastic
    commanders in many other ways, too. I often use them as delivery boys carrying items and
    gems to the front line and back. They're also the prime candidate for carrying food items
    around as your armies advance. They ensure that your food items and gems will be safe even
    if you lose every single commander you have. They also make for nice surprises when you
    "uncloack" one of your harpies to lead a previously leaderless army of yours. It has caused
    enemy plenty of surprises when they just tried to chase them away with a weak force. You
    can also use Black Harpies for conquering undefended enemy provinces (not that it happens
    all that much, they can still beat Ulm province defence a it is usually led only by a
    priest).

    			6.5.1.3.2.2: Centaur Commander

    Cost: 50	Res: 36		Weapons:
    Hp: 21	Ap: 24(19) 		Spear (3,0,0,3)
    Prot:	0(18)	Enc: 3(8)   	Hoof (0,0,0,0)
    Str: 13	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 11	Prec:	12		Plate Hauberk (14,-2,4)
    Def: 15	Mrl: 12     		Helmet (1,0,0)
    Mr: 13      Ldr: 25		Round Shield (3,2,1)
    Special: -

    Centaur Commanders aren't all that hot in my opinion. They're quite costly and have a
    leadership of only 25. I'd much rather buy a Minotaur Lord of a Dryad. Buy him if you need
    a cheap commander fast but otherwise you should leave him alone.

    			6.5.1.3.2.3: Minotaur Lord

    Cost: 90	Res: 57		Weapons:
    Hp: 27	Ap: 15(11) 		Battleaxe (9,0,0,2)
    Prot:	4(18)	Enc: 3(7)
    Str: 17	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 10	Prec:	9		(Plate Hauberk) (14,-2,4)
    Def: 9(7)	Mrl: 15     	(Helmet) (1,0,0)
    Mr: 11      Ldr: 25
    Special: Trample

    Minotaur Lords share all the strengths of War Minotaurs. They're even more powerful, though.
    I nowadays use quite a many of them to lead my War Minotaurs from the front as it makes
    enemy archers target them instead of my more vulnerable mages. Flyers on 'attack enemy
    commanders -mission are also often fooled by these brave individuals. They score kills
    easily and can rack up nice heroic abilities on the way. I rarely equip them no matter how
    powerful they get, though. Even though they're one of the most powerful standard commanders,
    they're still not durable enough to warrant possession of magic items. A Minotaur Lord with
    Heroic Toughness or Heroic Quickness might get a Hell Sword and Boots of the Messenger, but
    not much else.

    			6.5.1.3.2.4: White Centaur

    Cost: 80	Res: 2		Weapons:
    Hp: 23	Ap: 30 			Longbow (13,1,30,12)
    Prot:	3	Enc: 3      	Hoof (0,0,0,0)
    Str: 14	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 11	Prec:	13		-
    Def: 14	Mrl: 13
    Mr: 15      Ldr: 50
    Special: Sacred, Stealthy
    Magic: 2 Holy

    White Centaur is an unarmored Centaur Commander with superior physical attributes and some
    priestly skills. Two levels aren't just going to cut it. All it's good for is Blessing and
    really weak banishment. White Centaurs are also very expensive. I don't thus use them a lot
    even though they're stealthy and got nice leadership value of 50. Even though I don't use
    them a lot I still use them. He's the most economic way to command 50 patrolling harpies
    as his upkeep will be halved. He's also the guy who gets the odd magic bow I happen to use
    (Ethereal Crossbow and Bow of Botulf being the prime examples).

    			6.5.1.3.2.5: Dryad

    Cost: 110	Res: 1		Weapons:
    Hp: 11	Ap: 15 	H		oof (0,0,0,0)
    Prot:	0	Enc: 3
    Str: 10	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 10	Prec:	10		-
    Def: 12	Mrl: 10
    Mr: 14      Ldr: 25
    Special: Sacred, Awe (+2), Stealthy
    Magic: 1 Nature, 3 Holy

    Ahh, now we're in business again. I'd like you to meet the bread and butter commander of
    Pangaea. Whatever you're looking for (bar combat prowess, she can do some of it but not
    much) you got it here. She's stealthy, got decent priestly powers and has been blessed
    with 1 level of Nature magic on top of that. She also got a nice Awe aura that keeps her
    alive pretty well as long as she's not surrounded. The main thing you're using her for
    is research. She's about twice as effective researcher as a Pan for the same gold cost.
    This still isn't much, though, as you're paying for her priestly powers. She also makes
    for a nice stealth preacher and is better at the job than most of them. She got a job
    on the field of battle, too: She can quickly master the venerable Tangle Vines. This
    little spell helps can stop any unit dead in its tracks no matter how powerful. She can
    also use the spell Protection to give your stealthy Centaurs a fighting chance (prot 10
    vs prot 3). In any case, you should be building Dryads in your every castle unless you
    got a reason to do otherwise (ie. low on cash and want to get as many War Minotaurs as
    possible).

    			6.5.1.3.2.6: Pan

    Cost: 320	Res: 1	Weapons:
    Hp: 27	Ap: 13 	Quarterstaff (3,1,3,3)
    Prot:	4	Enc: 3
    Str: 16	Fat: 0	Armor:
    Att: 9	Prec:	9	-
    Def: 9(12)	Mrl: 16
    Mr: 16      Ldr: 50
    Special: Stealthy
    Magic: 3 Nature, 1 Earth

    Pan is the mage that is going to do most of the actual work for you. They're most useful
    summoning things but will have a role on the battlefield, too. Panii are physically
    powerful and quite durable compared to other mages. Their protection is a bit low but
    is easily boosted by the spell 'Ironskin'. Panii are skilled in Nature magic and got some
    knowledge in the path of Earth magic. That one level of Earth magic isn't going to do
    much for you bar enabling them cost cast couple of spells. Unless you get earth mages
    elsewhere, you will always be lacking earth gems. A Pan is an excellent battle mage since
    he's stealthy, durable and got a very high leadership. Too bad he doesn't have too many
    offensive spells. He can greatly help his troops with spells like Howl, Relief and
    Wild Growth, though. A Pan also attracts Maenads. The actual amount depends on the
    Turmoil scale of the province the Pan is in. I don't think it's worth going full Turmoil
    just for the Maenads, though.

    			6.5.1.3.2.7: Pandemoniac

    Cost: 320	Res: 1		Weapons:
    Hp: 27	Ap: 13 			Quarterstaff (3,1,3,3)
    Prot:	4	Enc: 3
    Str: 16	Fat: 0			Armor:
    Att: 9	Prec:	9		-
    Def: 9(12)	Mrl: 16
    Mr: 16      Ldr: 50
    Special: Stealthy
    Magic: 3 Nature, 2 Blood

    A Pandemoniac shares most of Pan's strengths but has got a little bit different selection
    of magic. Pandemoniacs substitute Earth magic for Blood. This makes them worse as battle
    mages but allow them to cast the extremely nice Blood magic ritual called 'Crossbreeding'.
    You shouldn't build many Pandemoniacs as even a couple are enough to cast the necessary
    rituals and forge blood items for you. Pandemoniacs shouldn't do the actual bloodhunting.
    That's what scouts/priests are for.

    			6.5.1.4: Magic

    The Panii are strong in nature magic so you should plan your research path in accordance
    with that. Nature magic has useful spells both in conjuration and enchantment, so these two
    should eat the majority of your research points. Also, one should never forget to research
    construction for all those useful items there. Take note, that a Pan is a horrible
    researcher for the cost and you should avoid using him in this role. Try to find provinces
    with sages or other cheap mages as soon as possible. Even Dryads are better researchers
    than your Panii. What you do with your research points is generally up to you, but I'll list
    some spells which are useful and should be researched ASAP.

    			6.5.1.4.1: What To Research

    There are hundreds of spells available to each pretender so testing them all and picking out
    the suitable ones can be quite stressful. Well, I'm more or less through that with nature
    magic and thus consider myself to have enough expertise in the area to sum up the best bits
    from each field of research. I'll concentrate on nature, earth and blood magic as these will
    be the ones most readily available.

    			6.5.1.4.1.1: Conjuration

    -Level 1:
     -Tangle Vines (a nice little spell to deal with powerful enemy troops)
    -Level 3:
     -Call of the Wild (CoW is usually used as a very effective strategic weapon later on)
    -Level 4:
     -Strength of Gaia (gives a nature magic bonus, prot, str and regen, keeps mages alive)
     -Fall Bears (I'd say this is the second strongest seasonal spirit after the Summer Lion)
    -Level 5:
     -Howl (an excellent battlefield summon that can catch unprotected commanders by surprise)
     -Awaken Sleeper (Firbolg is one of the best commanders available and can also fight well)
     -Level 6:
     -Contact Lamias (Lamias are amazing troops for the gem cost, work wonders against armor)
     -Contact Lamia Queen (she's a powerful death mage and also has random magic, a good buy)
    -Level 8:
     -Wild Growth (like Tangle Vines, but much more powerful - generally a nasty spell)
     -Faerie Court (your only way of getting air mages bar the hero and Pazuzus)
     -Earth Attack (nice assassination spell - not many commanders can fight off an earth ele)

    			6.5.1.4.1.2: Alteration

    -Level 1:
     -Barkskin (a weak protection spell, but might save a Dryad from an arrow or two)
    -Level 3:
     -Ironskin (a good protection spell for your Panii)
    -Level 4:
     -Destruction (destroys the armor of _many_ soldiers, Ulm guys hate this one)
    -Level 5:
     -Invulnerability (an excellent protection spell for your supercombatants)
     -Petrify (instant death with an area effect, nasty)
    -Level 6:
     -Mass Protection (good if(as) you happen to use lots of fodder)

    			6.5.1.4.1.3: Evocation (I don't usually research this field all that early if at all)

    -Level 3:
     -Sleep Cloud (a decent combat spell for your Panii - Howl is better, though)
    -Level 4:
     -Blade Wind (a very nice combat spell against lightly armored stuff)
    -Level 5:
     -Poison Cloud (a decent spell when combined with Poison Ward)

    			6.5.1.4.1.4: Construction

    -Level 2 (lesser magic items):
     -Lifelong Protection (summons two imps during every round of combat, nice for assassins)
     -Sanguine Dousing Rod (increases chances of finding blood slaves dramatically, essential)
     -Soul Armor (provides a blood magic bonus and nice magic resistance, nice for summoners)
    -Level 3:
     -Legions of Steel (a nice battlefield spell that provides an armor bonus to a squad)
    -Level 4 (greater magic items):
     -Blood Stone (provides an earth magic bonus and produces earth gems, nice)
     -Boots of the Messenger (an item providing reinvigoration at an otherwise empty slot)
     -Brazen Vessel (blood magic bonus at a solid price)
     -Dwarven Hammer (cuts gem costs by 25% and thus pays for itself quickly)
     -Earth Boots (earth magic bonus at a meager cost of 10 gems)
     -Endless Bag of Wine (provides 25 supply at a cost of 5 gems, absolutely a bargain)
     -Heartfinder Sword (single handed weapon providing instant death, probably _the_ weapon)
     -Ring of Regeneration (mandatory item for any supercombatant wanting to avoid afflictions)
     -Thistle Mace (nature magic bonus at 10 gems)
     -Vine Shield (nice shield for a supercombatant in case the Charcoal Shield isn't available)
    -Level 6 (very powerful magic items):
     -Blood Thorn (provides a blood magic bonus and is also nice in melee due to life steal)
     -Black Heart (essential to have assassins, give this to a Pandemoniac and watch him rip)
     -Stymphalian Wings (provides flying, fear and tramping, nasty for a Father Illearth)
    -Level 8 (unique magic artifacts):
     -Boots of Antaeus (earth magic bonus and reinvigoration at the same little package)
     -Fenris Pelt (provides nice protection and casts Howl each turn)
     -Soulstone of the Wolves (allows bearer to cast Call of the Wild once each turn)
     -The Boots of Calius the Druid (provides massive reinvigoration)
     -The Tome of Gaia (both earth and nature magic bonus, useful when casting big stuff)
    -Level 9:
     -Iron Dragon (flying trampler with immunity to all the elements, one of the nastiest)

    			6.5.1.4.1.5: Enchantment

    -Level 5:
     -Faery Trod (a spell capable of transporting entire armies anywhere inside your dominion)
     -Gift of Health (increases your troops' hp and heals affliction inside your dominion)
    -Level 6:
     -Relief (reduces fatigue of every friendly troop on the battlefield, very useful)
    -Level 7:
     -Forest Dome (weak dome protecting from province-damaging spells, better than nothing)
    -Level 8:
     -Mass Regeneration (gives regeneration to everyone on the battlefield, pretty nice)

    			6.5.1.4.1.6: Thaumaturgy (I rarely go for this field, either)

    -Level 3:
     -Panic (your mages start with this spell, but it is worth mentioning for its usefulness)
    -Level 4:
     -Gift of Reason (can make commander out of anyone, watch out for Iron Dragon commanders =)
    -Level 5:
     -Growing Fury (allows your whole army to go berserk meaning that they won't rout)
    -Level 7:
     -Charm (you can sometimes capture powerful enemy units using this spell)

    			6.5.1.4.2: Blood Magic

    Blood magic differs from all the other paths so much that I thought it deserved a chapter of
    its own. The thing that separates blood magic from the other paths is the fact that blood
    slaves are required for all the rituals and most of the spells, instead of magic gems, that
    is (there are some sites producing blood slaves, though - thanks peke!). You should under no
    circumstance use your expensive Pandemoniacs to hunt for slaves. Make them construct Sanguine
    Dousing Rods and give them to some cheap commanders like Black Harpies who can do the dirty
    work for you. Blood magic causes lots of unrest which you have to take into account. The Harpies
    come into aid again by providing you cheap flying patrollers. There are two ways to hunt blood
    slaves. First one is to have bunch of collectors in a populated province and patrol it heavily.
    The second one is the way I use the most: you distribute your bloodhunters to 6-10k provinces
    with low income and set taxes to 0%. When you have 1 blood hunter for each full 2k you don't cause
    too much unrest. The population level also stays about the same w/ +3 growth. When using stealthy
    commanders like scouts and harpies it also allows you to keep your bloodhunters safe while your
    enemy passes over them.

    -Level 3:
     -Cross Breeding (produces cannon fodder and some powerful monsters depending on luck)
    -Level 4:
     -Bind Demon Knight (Demon Knights are good melee fighters causing fear)
    -Level 5:
     -Father Illearth (makes for a good supercombatant with high hp, regen and fear)
    -Level 6:
     -Bind Heliophagus (summons Fiends of Darkness and is stealthy, scary stuff)
     -Bind Arch Devil (summons Devils and is a powerful fire mage [Fire Fend!])
     -Bind Pazuzu (summons Storm Demons and is adept at air magic [Thunder Ward!])

    			6.5.1.4.3: Planning Your Research

    You should always be aware of your goals when planning research. The Pangaea has it hard
    when it comes to researching and thus everything should be planned carefully. Your
    expensive Panii are better off summoning troops and finding magic sites than sitting in the
    labs - cheaper mages can do that. I always try to think what I need first before deciding
    on what to research. This is the research queue I use nowadays.

    Construction 4 (many very nice items including magic boosters)
    (Blood 6) (big blood summons, Crossbreeding)
    Alteration 6 (Invulnerability, Mass Protection etc.)
    Conjuration 6 (Lamias, Seasonal Spirits)
    Enchantment 6 (wards, Faery Trod, Relief)
    Construction 6 (for couple of necessary items including some magic boosters)
    Conjuration 8 (Faerie Court, Wild Growth, Earth Attack)
    Enchantment 8 (Forest dome, Mass Regeneration)
    Construction 9 (unique items and Iron Dragons)

    			6.5.1.5: Overall Strategy

    So far we've discussed the Pangaean armies, pretenders and mages. We know what they do, but
    now there's only learning how to use them. I'll go through basic economy before
    concentrating on combat.

    			6.5.1.5.1: Economy

    Dominions has 4 main types of resources you should be aware of. They are gold, resources
    (duh!), magic gems/slaves and supply. Usually the nation with most of these wins. It's
    all that simple, really. What I'm going through is how to maximize the production of
    each.

    			6.5.1.5.1.1: Gold

    Dominions (like many other games of this type) is all about gold. Sure magic has got a
    huge impact on things but without gold you get no mages and without mages there's no
    boom-boom. Gold is also used to buy all your troops, temples, labs, forts and to pay for
    their upkeep. Gold production is influenced not only by province population and richness
    but also by Productivity (+5% gold/click) and Growth (+5% gold/click) scales and the possible
    presence of a fort (increases gold income by %). If you're wise and got the design
    points you always pick +3 Production and +3 Growth just to maximize your gold production.
    Order scale is also useful as it allows you to set your taxes to 110-130% (+10%/click)
    without any unrest. Pangaea doesn't benefit all that much from order scale as Harpies are
    readily available. Any sizable (income 100+) province should be patrolled by harpies and
    the taxes should be set to 200%. The increase in income will easily pay for the expense
    of buying and upkeeping the patrollers. As told before, forts increase gold production in
    any given province. You should thus build forts in rich provinces to increase gold production.

    			6.5.1.5.1.2: Resources

    Resources are the other factor in deciding how many troops you can actually build. Heavier
    troops cost more resources than lighter ones. Availability of resources is determined by
    province population and richness, fort admin and Productivity scale (+15% resources/ click).
    Fort admin actually sucks resources from adjacent provinces. For example a castle with
    35 admin sucks 35% of neighboring provinces' resource production. Also take note that
    province's resource production is halved if there isn't a fort present. This also means that
    you shouldn't build castles in adjacent provinces unless they're both very large as they eat
    up each other's resources. Unrest not only decreases income but also reduces the amount of
    resources availability so you should try to keep it low.

    			6.5.1.5.1.3: Magic Gems/Slaves

    Magic gems are the resource used to summon powerful magical creatures and craft items. You
    start with only a meager gem income which you should strive to expand. You should quickly
    send a mage to search any given province for magical sites once you've captured it. Most
    nations specialize in maybe 1 or 2 fields of magic and can thus expect to have a
    reasonable gem income in only those two unless aided by 2+ levels of random magic or by
    pretender. Pangaea sucks in this respect as they get no random mages. You should thus
    choose your pretender magic paths that complement the existing ones. I'd say that you need
    someone with decent skill in earth (3 is enough) with Air, Astral and Fire coming right
    behind. You should not have astral magic with your pretender unless you're ready to go all
    the way to 9 due to magic duel. Acashic record is an excellent spell because of the fact
    that it reveals all the magic sites in the given province no matter how rare or what path
    they belong to. Nations with strong astral income might consider using it in midgame.
    Magic sites have certain level requirements for finding them. Level 1 mage can expect to
    find only the most basic sites (Mineral Cave and Earth Blood Seepage being good examples
    from Earth Magic) while level 3 mage can be expected to find nearly all. Four levels of
    power is needed to find the rarest of sites. Blood slaves also require a little work to
    obtain but the process has been explained earlier at the Blood magic chapter so I won't
    describe it again here.

    			6.5.1.5.1.4: Supplies

    Supplies are needed to feed your troops and thus play a part (not as big as it should,
    though) in warfare. Your average troop eats 1 supply point (with the exception of Jotunheim
    giants who eat triple amount of supplies). The amount of supplies is dependent on province
    population, fort admin and Growth scale. Big provinces can have supply ratings way over 500
    while the typical Ermorian province has a rating of maybe 5 at best. Forts provide armies
    with extra supplies equal of 4x admin for the same province, 2x admin 1 province away etc.
    Use food items, fortifications and Nature mages to prevent your troops from starving as it
    reduces their morale and can get then diseased. Supply issues will be discussed more
    thoroughly in the following chapters.

    			6.5.1.5.2: Combat

    Attacking with Pangaea is always a very risky prospect. Your basic heavy infantry and heavy
    cavalry are good, but they're not a match for the best enemy stuff (Pythium Emerald
    Guard, Man Wardens, Ulm Infantry, Knights of any type) one on one. You should have a slight
    advantage in numbers against these troops, but it never hurts to get some extra advantage
    when going into combat. We'll now go through some prospects that must be taken into account
    before engaging in combat with an enemy.

    			6.5.1.5.2.1: Mobility, Morale & Magic Support

    This might sound like a cliché, but this rule of three Ms is good to remember. Pangaea's
    strength lies in these. Every single Pangaean unit has high AP even when armored. This allows
    you to flank your enemy effectively and run down routing enemy troops. Your troops have only
    average morale with the exception of War Minotaurs and Maenads so you're the side likely to
    rout unless helped. All your mages automatically know the spell 'Panic' allowing you to rout
    your opponent faster. Your troops aren't very well protected so you should avoid prolonged
    battles and instead try to pick smaller conflicts where you have both the advantage of
    numbers and quality. In large battles the usually superior magical of your opponent might
    will start to show and you're likely to be in the receiving end of it. Your Panii have no
    offensive spells (bar the nearly useless Flying Shard) so they have to affect the battle
    in other ways. Spells like Relief and Mass Regeneration prolong the life span of your troops
    considerably. After all, fatigue can, and will, kill even the hardiest War Minotaur. The
    global enchantment 'Gift of Health' is also crucial as it provides your troops with increased
    hit points and again increasing their survivability. The enchantment works only inside your
    dominion but is still great to have even if it stays around only for a while.

    Your battle plans should vary according to the troops you're using (and the troops you're
    facing), but here's one generally working idea. Put some fodder troops with good morale in
    the middle (Maenads, Crossbreed stuff, Seasonal Spirits, Lamias) and put your more expensive
    troops like War minotaurs slightly behind in the flanks on 'Attack Commanders'-orders. Have
    your commanders spread out in the back (to prevent a single spell from killing them all) and
    have a strong bodyguard of Satyr Hoplites with your mages at all times (Dryads are expendable
    and Minotaur Lords are surrounded by their kind). Put your Harpies on 'Hold and Attack Enemy
    Magic Users'-orders and hide them in the back corner. Your missile troops should be aiming at
    enemy missile troops or commanders and should be situated slightly behind your middle screen
    or in the flanks. The flanking strategy won't always work since the enemy  usually also tries
    to flank you. War Minotaurs can walk through a size 2 flanking force though. The flanking
    force should generally be very fast and have enough armor to withstand fire from archers on
    'Fire at Closest'-orders. Also beware of having your flanking force mulched by the retreating
    enemy. Also, when you're certainly about to face some archery, put a squad of few heavily
    armored troops in front of your army to take the first salvo of enemy fire (this squad should
    be totally expendable). In case of crossbows this can save the life of countless troops as
    your troops will already be in melee by the time they're ready to fire again (thus causing
    some friendly casualties too).

    Pangaea isn't relying on mages to do any damage but they're very important nevertheless.
    I rarely use more than 1-2 Pans in my armies (they're durable so I rarely lose any). I often
    got the big blood summons but they usually cast the appropriate ward and lay the rest of the
    battle unconscious. Your Pans should be casting spells like Howl, Relief and Wild Growth
    (if available) to support your own troops and hamper your enemy so that your troops can do
    their job. Good starting spells for Pans are probably Strength of Gaia (nature magic bonus,
    strength bonus, protection 10, regen) and Ironskin (prot 20, bye bye missile fire). I also
    employ quite a hefty amount of Dryads. They're usually situated right behind the middle screen
    so that they can cast Tangle Vines at the enemy. Barkskin is a good starter spell for them
    before you research Mass Protection. Prot 10 isn't much but every bit counts. Their Awe
    aura also does a nice job keeping them alive when your opponent got a -5 morale penalty.

    			6.5.1.5.2.2: Dominion & Supply

    Armies don't fight (well) with empty stomachs. All your troops suffer a -4 penalty to morale
    when starving. Fighting in a negative dominion also affects your troops' morale. The penalty
    is only -1 in this case, but the net amount is +-2 as you would get a +1 bonus when fighting
    on your own dominion. As you can probably guess, this will often mean the difference between
    victory and defeat. Causing your enemies' troops to fight with empty stomachs and on your
    domain gives you a net advantage of 6 in morale. Needless to say, your opponent will most
    likely flee before you in these conditions. You should naturally ensure, that you will not
    be the one suffering the morale penalty.

    First you should understand how the supply system works. Your troops can be supplied in five
    different ways. Defending troops are generally easier to supply due to reasons discussed
    later. Forts provide lots of supply points and can even supply armies several provinces away.
    There must be a chain leading from the fort to the army. The amount of supplies sent decreases
    with distance, though. The province your troops happen to be in also provides a variable amount
    of supplies, generally ranging from 50 to 200. The more people in the province, the more
    supplies it produces. Provinces on Ermorian domain are usually almost dead thus causing trouble
    for advancing armies. Large armies can't generally be supplied by forts and provinces alone.
    This is where supply items come into aid. Nature mages can create supply items (Enormous
    Cauldron of Broth, Summer Sword and Endless Bag of Wine) which provide 25-50 supply points.
    By having couple of these items with your armies (preferably with stealthy troops so that you
    won't lose the items when some commanders die), you can travel even the barren lands of Ermor
    with little worry. You should also remember, that each level of nature magic provides 5 supply
    points. Some magical troops are excellent in this respect as they don't consume any supplies.

    Fighting in your dominion is a huge advantage - your troops are harder to rout and you can
    project some effects of your dominion against your opponent (like fighting Caelum or C'tis in
    a temperate province). You usually have to fight in hostile domain when attacking so your
    opponent has a certain advantage there. You should try to weaken your enemy's domain with
    stealthy priests, prophet and pretender before attacking. Also, if you've managed to trap all
    your enemies inside forts, you can try to finish them all off at once by reducing the hostile
    dominion to zero through building temples of your own and preaching actively. You can save
    yourself from many costly fortress battles this way. This strategy is hard to pull off, but
    can save you plenty of troops if successful.

    			6.5.1.5.2.3: Guerilla Warfare

    Pangaea is the only army with stealthy troops beside Man and Vanheim. You don't have anything
    matching Wardens or Vans, but you can bring in stealthy troops in numbers unlike them. You
    get stealthy Satyrs in the beginning, but as you can notice, aren't good for much. Your
    stealth armies should instead consist of Centaur Archers. They've got lots of hp, good morale,
    longbows and are better melee fighters than your Satyrs. Harpies are also excellent stealth
    troops. They are good at taking out enemy commanders and mages. If you got an access to blood
    magic you should use Fiends of Darkness instead of Harpies as they are more durable and more
    than a match for most commanders.

    Ten Centaur Archers with a Dryad can usually defeat a province defence of 10. Generally, as a
    rule of thumb, you should include one Centaur Archer for every point of defence you think you're
    going to encounter. When enemy militia has tough commanders (like Abysia), aim for the troops.
    When the actual troops are tough but the commander soft (Ulm), target the commanders.
    Try to have about enough troops for the job (squads of 10 Centaurs with a Dryad have been found
    as decent) - the chance of detection increases dramatically if you include too many troops.
    Besides, if you  happen to flee deep in enemy territory, your troops are gone anyway so better
    make sure you can afford the loss. If you're not sure whether you can take the province with your
    centaurs you can always cast a Call of the Wild or two to help them. Different nations have got
    different kinds of militia. Jotun generally has the hardest of the bunch, but it can be defeated
    with  concentrated fire. Some nations also employ unarmored commanders with their militia which
    makes  your centaurs' job quite easy. You should always sneak for one turn after the attack to
    increase the life span of your guerilla forces because the enemy will often try to take out your
    troops by moving his troops into adjacent provinces and patrolling them heavily. The best way to
    stay alive is to stay sneaky in the current province as there's no defence to detect you and your
    enemy can only start patrolling the province the following turn (he will sure as hell capture back
    the province as soon as possible). If he for some reason can't bring in troops to capture the
    province right away you should pillage the province for extra cash and set the taxes to 200% to
    make the province useless to your opponent for a while. Another nasty trick is to bring a solid
    regiment of mercenaries into your captured province (heavy infantry or knights are perfect for
    protecting your archers) which might cause some pain for your opponent.

    Taking provinces isn't the only thing you should use your stealthy troops for. They should
    generally deny your enemy escape routes, preach in enemy dominion and assassinate important enemy
    commanders. Battles are rarely so decisive that the whole losing army is destroyed. The losers
    just retreat into an adjacent friendly province and are ready to clash with the winning army in
    a couple of turns. On the other hand, if there's no friendly province to retreat into, the whole
    army is destroyed. Your stealthy troops can cause your opponent unimaginable losses by cutting
    off the only retreat path of a huge enemy army. You should also make sure that advancing enemy
    armies have no supply routes to their castles. This might cause some starving and every bit
    counts. Fiends led by Heliophagii/Pandemoniacs are good at cutting down enemy paths of retreat and
    supply as they're powerful, flying and stealthy. Harpies and Fiends, when used correctly, can be
    extremely  effective. You can really ruin your opponent's research by making a surgical strike to
    an important sage province (50 harpies in groups of 10 set to attack magic users should get you at l
    east five of  the bastards before your troops are forced to retreat). This is generally a suicide
    mission so it should be entrusted to your lowly harpies.

    			6.5.1.5.2.4: Commanders

    Your armies live and die by their commanders. Troops are unable to move without commanders and
    will automatically rout unless there's a commander present on the battlefield. Your enemy is
    equally dependent on commanders as you are. It would thus make sense to get rid of his and
    protect yours. Commanders aren't generally any more durable than basic troops. It also isn't
    very cost effective to protect all your commanders with magic items. The only way to have any
    commanders left in the end is to have bucketloads of them in first place. Most nations have
    commanders that mimic the equipment of the troops they lead. Pangaea isn't an exception here.
    Thus, when going to cheap and well-armored commanders you can choose between the Centaur
    Commander and Minotaur Lord. I'd personally go with Minotaur Lord every time.
    Your armies should have many Minotaur Lords as they're generally hard to get rid of as they
    got high hp, nice protection and are surrounded by probably the most powerful of heavy
    infantry at all times. I've had all my mages/priests killed off but still won the battle due
    to single Minotaur Lord surviving in the middle of his squad.

    Your commanders must live through the battles if you intend to win any. Missile fire and fliers
    (and Mammoths, don't even ask) will make short work of most commanders unless you do something
    about it. Your Panii are relatively safe from missile fire with their high hp, prot of 20 (Iron
    Skin) and regeneration (Strength of Gaia) but your other commanders bar the Firbolg will suffer
    badly from missile fire. If faced with heavy missile fire, you will lose scores of Dryads.
    If you can bear the losses, then fine. If not, you should take care of the missile troops. Harpies
    are good for distracting enemy missile troops (they lack the staying power, though) for couple of
    turns. Your own missile troops are too expensive for removing the threat altogether so the only sure
    choice is using the Staff of Storms. This will stop missile fire altogether and prevent most units
    from flying altogether. Sadly, this means you can't employ your own missile troops or Harpies when
    the Staff is present. You should always consider whether this tradeoff is worth it or not. This is
    where the Ethereal Crossbow really shines through. It can fire normally during storms (heck, it
    can even fire underwater) and only costs 5 astral gems. Couple of White Centaurs with these can
    get quite a many enemy commanders during a battle - and no amount of armor is going to save them.
    Add in an Eye of Aiming for double the fun (precision 20+ White Centaurs can be nasty!).

    Fliers are an entirely another ballgame though. They range from the humble Black Hawks and Harpies
    to the massive Iron Dragons. The former can be handled by even light infantry (or even by Satyrs
    for god sakes) while dealing with the latter requires unbelievably heavy artillery to be even
    worth trying. There are no foolproof ways of dealing with fliers (Storm Guard and Storm Daemons can fly during a storm) but your best bet would be surrounding your Panii with Satyr Hoplites and/or Maenads. The Maenads won't run, can deal with most fliers and will force Iron Dragons to land far away from your commanders (yup, they can't land on troops) which will get them Tangle Vined and eventually munched by spells like Petrification (or hordes of frenzied Maenads, it has happened).
    Your Harpies can't kill well protected enemy commanders (even a couple of bodyguards will prevent
    your Harpies from swarming their target) but you should be able to get some results by dividing your Harpies into smaller groups and telling them to attack enemy magic users. This will most likely result in some enemy priests and smaller mages getting killed but even if a group of ten harpies (at 70gp) gets only one low-level mage, they've more than paid for themselves. If you have access to earth magic, you'll also get your sticky hands on the dreaded Iron Dragons. They're pretty simple to use - point them at enemy commanders and fire away. No bodyguard (unless entirely composed of seasonal spirits and such) can prevent your Iron Dragons from reaching their destination.

    			6.5.1.5.2.5: Attacking

    As mentioned before, your troops aren't quite a match for the stuff your enemies have to offer
    (maybe with the exception of C'tis which seems to have gotten the shaft and doesn't have very good basic troops). This means that you must use tactics and surprise to your advantage - seize the initiative and keep it. Defending is generally harder than attacking (because you can't commit your whole force to one place at a time like the attacker) so you generally want to be the one attacking. Knowledge is power, guard it well (or at least so they say). Hunt down enemy scouts to prevent them from observing your armies' movement and have your own scouts patrol the enemy territory at all times. You should never attack unless you're aware of any enemy armies around.
    You should immediately commit your full force to the attack one you've decided to go that route.
    Cut off enemy armies' supply and retreat paths with your stealthy troops. You should also delay
    enemy reinforcements by capturing provinces next to them with your stealthy troops (as it means
    they can't move the usually two provinces in friendly territory and have to attack your province
    instead, costing them time). Assassinating important enemy commanders is also an excellent way
    of slowing down enemy movement. Never leave an assassin in the same place for more than one turn,
    though or the patrols will get them.

    The very first turns should tell you whether you can push your attack all the way. Even if you
    think you can't reach the set objectives with the troops you have at your disposal you shouldn't
    retreat under any circumstances. This would only give your enemy the initiative and result in
    your rapid downfall. Your armies should always keep moving to keep the enemy guessing.
    Instead of attacking against hopeless odds you should divide your army and attack where your
    enemy hasn't prepared any mentionable defence. It's true that you'll be attacking provinces of
    questionable value, but it will still keep your opponent on the defence as he'll have to second
    guess your movement which buys you enough time to send in reinforcements required to finish the
    job. Faery Trod can be used in this job but it's a hard spell to use offensively.

    You should avoid decisive battles unless the odds are heavily in your favor. Observe what the
    defending army does. If he divides his force to defend a wider front, keep your force together
    and punch through his line. If he keeps his army together and it's equal or superior to yours,
    split your forces and try to cause as much damage to his economy as possible. This should
    cause him to split his force. If he does this, combine your forces immediately and cause him
    more casualties. These tactics should eventually wear him out and result in your victory. While
    your troops might be expendable, your commanders often aren't. It might be wise to stealth some
    of your more valuable commanders away if you're facing hopeless odds. Remember to leave at least
    one expendable commander and try to cause as much damage as possible.

    Taking fortresses is probably the hardest part of attacking. By sieging a fortress you're
    leaving yourself open for a counterattack. Your enemy knows exactly where your troops are and
    can act accordingly. You shouldn't commit yourself fully to the siege, though. It's always
    better to save your troops even if it means your enemy can combine the relief force with the
    castle garrison. You should never attack a fortress with less than 2:1 odds unless you're
    absolutely sure you've got a solid advantage in quality over your opponent (like War Minotaurs
    against quickly raised militia who can't really defend a fort with any credibility).

    Call of the Wild should be mentioned here as it is a very powerful strategic weapon when
    attacking. With enough nature gems you can siege nearly every single enemy castle and capture
    provinces from his rear just as you're attacking. This will certainly give you the advantage
    as he can't ignore the wolves nor can he deal lightly with your main army. It is important
    to use the spell in great numbers, though, as single castings are rarely more than a minor
    nuisance and certainly isn't enough to defeat a province defence of medium (10+) size.

    			6.5.1.5.2.6: Defending

    Attacking is hard but defending is even harder. If you let your enemy attack you unprepared,
    the only thing you can do is to try to second guess his movement and watch the events unfold.
    Offense is your best defence, but if forced to defend there are some things that should be
    remembered.

    Defend in depth. Some nations like Caelum have incredible reach (even though their ground
    troops still have the most punch) and can catch you your pants down if you don't watch it.
    Keep at least 10 points of defence in each province (yes, Pangaean militia sucks, but 10
    points is generally enough to fend off weak attacks) to ward off some attempts. Never keep an
    army on your border since its position will be clear to your opponent and will aggravate him
    to attack. Try to keep your defensive troops one or two provinces from your front line so that
    they can intercept the attackers once they've made their move. Let the attacker come one or two
    provinces (depending on how much space you got) before striking him with full force. If you can
    get him away from his own forts you can cause his armies to starve thus lowering their morale.

    Cut off the enemies' retreat paths as you strike. The combination of starvation and hostile
    dominion should leave your enemies running (especially if you get their priests) to their doom.
    It's impossible to decisively defeat an attacking enemy force unless you cut off their supply
    and retreat routes. A wise enemy will probably try to keep them open with their reserves, but
    you can cut the reserves out of the main force and harass them with your stealth troops (fire
    and flee is a very useful order, whittle down their commanders as they approach). Most of the
    tactics concerning troop movements are the same as when attacking. On the other hand, you're
    supposed to stop the enemy instead of avoiding him so you'll have to commit yourself to some
    decisive battles. Never do so on your opponent's terms though - it's better to lose a province
    than an army.

    Assassins are easier to use when defending. Have your assassins sneak near your own borders
    on assassinate orders when you're expecting an attack. In the best case they get someone
    important and some of the enemy army won't move (assassination happens before movement).
    This wonderful tactic was presented to me by Mr. Jacques Vidal. If you're forced to defend your
    castles, remember to trod some troops in (troops moved by Faery Trod arrive before the enemy and
    thus get in the castle) so that your opponent has to choose between starving and leaving.

    			6.5.1.5.3: Tactics Against Each Nation

    All the tactics discussed earlier are generally good against each individual nation. They
    still have certain advantages and disadvantages that must be taken into account when dealing
    with them.

    			6.5.1.5.3.1: Abysia

    Abysia has very powerful heavy infantry backed up by powerful fire mages. Their natural fire
    resistance means that Abysian mages can fire at will. Abysian Lava Warriors are size 3 and thus
    a serious threat for your War Minotaurs. Fortunately the infantry is very expensive and thus
    often outnumbered by equal troops as they pay in premium for the fire resistance. Watch out for
    spells like Fire Storm later in the game. They are real game-winners and should be dealt with.
    Fire Ward and Fire Fend are extremely useful spells against Abysia. Too bad you'll have to use
    your pretender if you want to have access to any of them. Your best bet is to eliminate their
    mages with archery and fliers before they cause too much damage to your troops. Watch out for
    powerful fliers the blood magic offers though - Abysian Warlocks are even better blood mages
    than your Pandemoniacs.

    			6.5.1.6.3.2: Arcoscephale

    Arcoscephale has got very powerful heavy infantry in the form of Hoplites. The Hyapists are
    better in my opinion though (even though they're only medium infantry). They also have very
    powerful mages with lots of random paths so you can expect anything from them. Their priests
    can heal battle afflictions just like your basic troops. Arcoscephale employs Elephants as a
    part of their armies but they're much easier to break than their Caelum counterparts and thus
    more of a hazard to the friendly troops than the enemy. Watch out for flanking Elephants though.
    They can get you unless you watch out. Also watch out for troops attacking using the
    Gateway-spell. Your War Minotaurs can deal with the infantry. Missile fire and flyers should deal
    with their mages if possible. Dryads can Tangle Vine their Elephants and thus prevent them from
    causing too massive carnage.

    			6.5.1.6.3.3: Atlantis

    Atlantis is a water based nation but isn't all weak on land either. Their heavier infantry comes
    with coral armor and weapons which poison enemy troops. This is a reason enough to invest in
    poison ward as soon as possible. Atlantis has got good water mages and priests. Watch out for
    Mother guard and Shamblers though - they're absolutely brutal. What Atlantis lacks is decent
    missile troops and speed. The former disadvantage can be compensated for with archers bought
    from land provinces but the former one leaves them vulnerable to flank assaults. Archery works
    well against Atlantis as the Shamblers are lightly armored and the Coral Guard aren't too heavy
    in that respect, either. Atlantis troops got low morale. If you can get their priests you can
    pretty much count on routing them. Grip of Winter/Winter Ward -combo (especially with Wolven
    Winter is also naturally available to Atlantis but unless you can get water mages from somewhere,
    the only thing you can really do is trying to kill the casting mage.

    			6.5.1.5.3.4: Caelum

    Caelum is a very dangerous nation in my opinion. They've got good flying troops (Storm Guard and
    Iceclad), cheap mages and absolutely lethal shock troops (Mammoths). A huge army of Mammoths with
    the Staff of Storms is nigh on impossible to stop (missile fire and combat magic are about the only possible ways to prevent Mammoths from trampling over all your troops). Even worse, their Storm Guard can harass your commanders when the Staff is in effect. On the other hand, without the staff you'll be facing flying Mammoths so it's kind of a lose-lose situation here. This strategy can be countered by remembering couple of things: Thunder ward will pretty much nullify their magic. By summoning a Pazuzu you can cast Thunder Wards at will. Mammoths can be countered by Dryads casting Tangle Vines. Even if the Mammoths get to the Dryads, they will usually be unable to bring them down due to the Awe-ability (Mammoths should have mrl 5 due to starving and hostile dominion) leaving them open to spells like Sleep Touch, Poison Touch and Divine Armaments.

    			6.5.1.5.3.5: C'tis

    I'm not an expert C'tis player, but I think they've really gotten the shaft in the troop department.
    Their Falchioneers and Swamp Guard are good fighters, but their morale really lets them down.
    They've got the sacred serpents and awesome priests, but it's not always enough to keep up their
    morale. Their cold-bloodedness also lets them down when fighting in cold provinces. The Sauromancers are decent death mages but lack the expertise to be too useful in other fields. Expect to see some Behemoths and such when fighting C'tis.

    			6.5.1.5.3.6: Ermor

    I could write a whole chapter about how evil and nasty Ermor is but I'll try to explain everything in brief. Ermorian troops are weak individually, but there's lot of them, they don't use supplies, are immune to cold, are mindless (and thus don't break) and so on. Some of them even cause fear.
    Ermorian domain is also generally hostile to all living beings. Ermor should be tackled as soon
    as possible. Unless early measure is taken, Ermor cannot be stopped at all later in the game as
    their troop production capability is unmatched. Take lots of supply items and priests when fighting Ermor as you can't afford to have your troops starve (and thus suffer the morale penalty) as fleeing often means death under the hooves of Ermorian horsemen. Your Lamia Queens can learn the spell 'Wither Bones', which will absolutely devastate the Ermor legions. Ermor Dusk Elders have loads of hp and are ethereal. I wouldn't thus bother trying to kill them with the standard means (Etheral Crossbows can still nail them good when they hit). Ermor priests are another thing though. These are crucial to Ermor and should be eliminated with all possible means (whether it be Harpies, missile fire or magic, I don't care).

    			6.5.1.5.3.7: Jotunheim

    I don't have much experience fighting Jotunheim but I can tell you that their basic infantry is
    deadly. Expect to see Hurlers with a screen of Spearmen. This setup will devastate most heavily
    armored troops as the Hurlers usually kill them in one hit and there's nothing that can stop
    them. I'd engage the Jotun infantry with some cheap troops (Maenads are perfect) and flank them with my best troops going for commanders. Missile troops are helpful here, too. The Norna and Seithkorna bring lots of versatility to Jotunheim magic giving them a wide base of magical skills to begin with.

    			6.5.1.5.3.8: Man

    Man is similar to Pangaea in many respects. Both employ nature magic and have access to stealthy troops.
    Man has got at best average heavy infantry, but the Avalon troops will rock your socks one on one. Man has got access to cheap Longbowmen. These will cause you no end of grief especially when combined with the spell 'Fire Arrows'. The Staff of Storms will certainly be useful here. You shouldn't be too afraid of their magic though (as they can only recruit the better mages in their home province). When tackling them, take out their Longbowmen with your own Longbowmen or fliers. Most of your stuff can easily deal with their basic infantry. Avalon stuff isn't really available in numbers so they won't be too much of a factor in battles of any size. You should keep troops on regular patrol against Man since their Wardens are easily capable of overwhelming province defence of many times their size when blessed. You should be able to defeat Man with the sheer power of your basic troops. Defend in depth as you can expect several Calls of the Wild being cast as soon as fighting begins. Many mages summoning Lesser Air Elementals can also sometimes shift the battle in their favor so remember to take care of their few mages using the normal methods.

    			6.5.1.5.3.9: Marignon

    The armies of Marignon bear some resemblance to their Abysian counterparts. They consist mainly of medium infantry and are backed up by powerful fire mages and, unlike Abysia, Crossbows. Their infantry is powerful but lacks shields (Royal Guard got them but they're only average) which makes them vulnerable to missile fire. Marignon troops aren't immune to fire which means that Marignon mages can't be too liberal with their use of spells. Marignon has got powerful priests too, meaning that their troops aren't so likely to rout. You should target your opponent's mages and missile troops first when dealing with Marignon. Their infantry isn't all that dangerous and can be dealt with by your War Minotaurs. Knights of the Chalice are very dangerous though. Sacred knights are nothing to be laughed at. These will completely whoop your Minotaurs' ass if you let them to. Your Cataphracts aren't really a match for them either. Try to hit the with powerful summons and your own missile troops not forgetting the venerable Tangle Vines.

    			6.5.1.5.3.10: Pangaea

    Duh, this matchup shouldn't happen in any game, but in case it will somewhere in the future, you should know the strengths and weaknesses of Pangaea after reading this guide.

    			6.5.1.5.3.11: Pythium

    Like the majority of the nations, Pythium is also very dependent on heavy infantry. Their Emerald Guard are especially good troops with excellent skill and equipment. They're certainly more than a match for Pangaean heavy infantry and cavalry. You should deploy War Minotaurs against these troops. Their ordinary Legionnaires aren't bad troops either and can provide quite a punch. Their mages are skilled in astral magic and somewhat capable of using a few other paths. They are especially powerful when in communion with Communion Slaves. Luckily they don't have any missile troops or heavy cavalry to speak of.
    This can of course be corrected by buying missile troops or knights from independent provinces. A special mention goes to Gladiators which are to be feared when attacking  enemy castle provinces. Your opponent might suddenly raise 50 Gladiators in one turn. They aren't bad  fighters and who cares if they leave after one battle, they won't most likely even be alive. Mages are again the first priority when fighting Pythium as they'll happily Soul Slay your every commander if you let them to. Don't bring any astral mages against Pythium unless they're very powerful (Magic Duel can  be very detrimental to your mages' health). Watch out for troops attacking using the Gateway-spell.

    			6.5.1.5.3.12: R'lyeh

    R'lyeh is the other water based nation available. Illithids are kinda the only thing going for them as their infantry is generally weak and expensive in resources. All Illithids employ Mind Blast, which is a rather devastating attack. Two hits will knock any trooper unconscious leaving him an easy prey for the R'lyeh infantry's tridents. Missile fire is about the only way to take these things out with any chance of success. Starspawns are good astral mages but are otherwise only mediocre. It still never hurts to take them out since they can soul slay your commanders if you're careless. Always keep a solid bodyguard with important commanders when fighting R'lyeh - the Star Children are extremely effective assassin with their Mind Blast and magic ability. Watch out for troops attacking using the Gateway-spell.

    			6.5.1.5.3.13: Ulm

    Ulm is widely known for its excellent heavy infantry and knights. They're very expensive in resources, though. This means you won't face too many of them until they can build enough fortresses to produce troops in numbers. Your War Minotaurs can deal with their infantry (but will suffer heavy losses in the process) but certainly not with the Black Knights. Black knights should be tackled with Crossbowmen (if available) or superior numbers of Centaur Cataphracts or Seasonal Spirits/Kithaironic Lions. Ulm magic is generally very weak but their Smiths can cast several very effective combat spells. Magma Bolts can kill your heaviest troops while Blade Wind will slaughter masses of Maenads (unless protected with the 'Mass Protection'-spell). You should try to rout Ulm armies instead of destroying them as they have only average morale and don't have access to level 3 (or higher) priests. Ulm commanders are generally tough nuts to crack with their protection values of 20+ but your Harpies can deal with the Smiths easily.
    The spell 'Destruction' should be noted here as it certainly gives Ulm a run for his money. Infantry with 0 protection isn't all that impressive anymore. Besides, it won't hurt all that much to hit your own troops with it: Your fodder has no protection to speak off and besides you'll often have the base 10 from Mass Protection.

    			6.5.1.5.3.14: Vanheim

    Vanheim is a very dangerous nation when played right. They've got solid heavy infantry in the form of Hirdmen with some nice special troops like Einheres, Valkyries and the Vanir thrown in. Your War Minotaurs can deal with their infantry but it's the Valkyries and the Vanir that are a bit more tricky.
    The Valkyries are the most powerful normally recruitable fliers - and they're sacred on top of that. You should have a strong bodyguard (Maenads will do) with your commanders when fighting Vanheim as they have access to powerful fliers right off the bat. It's usually not worth it going after the Valkyries with your best troops. It's better to leave your Maenads and Panii to deal with them. Valkyries aren't so scary when Tangle Vined (defence drops to 1) and can be disposed of by your Maenads. The Vanir are basically light cavalry but with a little twist. They have only mediocre. armor but their defence value is whopping 18 due to the illusions (which are dispelled once they are wounded). They are also stealthy and invisible on the map. They're best dealt with missile fire and your own heavy cavalry/infantry. The Vanherses and Vanjarls are decent air mages with some blood magic and priestly powers thrown in. They're hard to hit and can hold their own against most fliers so your harpies shouldn't bother targeting them if they're guarded. Missile fire will paste them good though (unless they cast Air Shield or somesuch).
    Their real strength, however, is the ability to carry entire armies across seas. This can be extremely powerful in provinces with few large sea provinces (Cimmeria, for example). You should be prepared against strikes to your coastal provinces when facing Vanheim.

    			6.5.1.6: Closing Words & Credits

    Writing this guide has been a very strenuous and a very rewarding task at the same time. I really enjoyed doing this as it also allowed me to collect the strategies from the last few months to one single file.
    Heck, I'll be using this document myself for useful reference in the future. I also hope you've found at least some parts of this guide useful and fun to read (despite my spelling =). I'd like to thank everyone on the IRCnet channel #dominions for kicking my butt in many TCP/IP games (hey, you learn nothing if you win all the time) and for being generally nice chaps. I strongly recommend that you visit the channel if you haven't already done so (we're mostly Finnish, but speak bearable English if needed). We usually have couple of PBEM games going at once and play some one-nighters (TCP/IP) when we have the chance. It's also a great place to exchange ideas and strategy tips with your fellow players. I'd also like to thank Mr. Jacques Vidal for endless amounts of good ideas and advice (and also for the wonderful conversation sessions with him).
    _____________________________________________________________________

    	6.6 PYTHIUM

    You have :
    - a nice gem income right off the bat;
    - a fair spread of magic;
    - high-level priests;
    - very good infantry and even a battle-standard unit to avoid rout and a powerful but dangerous Hydra;
    - assassins which can be quite effective for taking independents early on if you learn how to use them;
    - different strategic bonus :
      1) armies move 3 provinces in friendly territory (what means that if you have two intervening provinces

      between castles, to maximize individual castles' resource harvesting, you can still make it in one turn),
      2) direct access to Gateway,

      3) most mages have water-1 and can enter the seas.

    - pre-researched communion spells.

    You lack :
    - decent archer support;
    - strong local defense : militia starts out pretty poorly - they get 2 plain militias (morale 8) and 1 slinger (morale 7).

    DOMINION DESIGN

    You don't have a huge reliance on resources so you don't have to take out all the independents near you. A "winding snake" plan might work well. A winding path thru the weak provinces leaving the really heavily armed ones as free boundary guards. That way you can use a large army to block the "path" to your home. Later when you are stonger you might clean up the locals. Take special interest in provinces near you which might give you archers or flyers.
    Also, you can count on lots of priests to increase your dominion easily, so you don't need a lot of candles to start with.

    Predesigned Pretender: Cumaean Sibyl the Oracle
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Pythium.html

    Easy access to Communion strongly influences Pythium's Pretender design. So much so that the Nagas may even be an interesting choice (they can take several new magic path for 30 design pts each, and improve them in battle with a Communion or a Crystal Matrix). Or a pretender with some blood magic, able to cast Sabbath Master to lead a Communion.

    A cheap Wyrm without magic could be a good choice too, especially on a small map.

    UNITS

    Pythium infantry is very good all around infantry.

    Emerald guards are above-average heavy infantry (18 prot, 14 attack, 15 defense) with excellent morale (14). But they are very expensive both in gold and resources and their high encumbrance leaves them with little staying power. In fact, they are so expensive that you should better buy other troops for the first few battles, or you'll have a very small army.

    The Legionaires are pretty cheap and if you have some standard bearers and set the legionaires on fire orders they are very effective in the start.

    Later (when economy takes off), Emerald guards make great multipurpose frontline troops, and can be backed up nicely with javelin-tossing Legionnaires with some standards mixed in.

    Hydras are powerful: they get 9 attacks per round on up to 3 different targets (all in the same square), poison nearby troops with their foul odors, have great HP, high MR and regenerate. However, your own troops will become poisoned when fighting around them so you have to be very careful and make sure to keep them separated. If you manage to get some undead units, however, mix them up with Hydras as they are immune to poison -- unfortunately no independent unit is immune to poison (except Jade Priestesses, but the amazons are not), so you'll rely on summoning if you want bodyguards, like Vine Men or seasonal spirits.

    Learn how to use hydras effectively or they will hurt you more than the enemy ! Wait for Poison Ward before using them with your legionaires (either have a Druid with Thistle Mace or extra gems cast it, or a nature Arch-Theurg or a Lizard Shaman leading a communion).

    You can use Hydras with Gladiators, since you'll lose these after the battle anyway. They have one of the best morale level of the game (15, like elite knights) and will often fight to the death. Gladiators will also give you an early and cheap economic boost if used as patrollers in your capital in the first turns of the game. However, don't forget to move them later on, or a nasty Call of the Wind could come and remove them all. They will often do great as firemen for an emergency gateway for example.

    The Velites are cheaper in resources, but the legionaires are better for the same price in gold. Velites would be the choice if you need numbers but you are resource poor. Also, with their high defense (14) these guys are good guards for mages.

    The Battle Vestals are too expensive to be used as usual field units. They are almost unarmored, and take terrible damage from archery fire. Being sacred, however, a small number can be blessed and get Divine Armaments to counter some ethereal units (like summer lions ou spring hawks) early in the game.

    Serpent Cataphracts combine high protection with high mobility. They are weaker than knights, but they have a good 2nd attack for the serpent's bite (15 hp), and the serpent keeps fighting alone after its rider is killed (for this battle only, then it disapears). Like hydras, they are cold-blooded and will be penalized in cold provinces. In small numbers they are perfect for flanking or chasing down fleeing enemies.

    Your Assassins are average, and they need some help to beat armored commanders. Give them a Skull Talisman and/or a Dragon Helmet to start with. Or a Longbow of Accuracy, since they have a good precision.

    Keep in mind that most Pythium commanders have a weak leadership (the Emerald Lords being the only exception), this could pose a problem at start.

    MAGES

    Arch Theurgs are powerful priests and mages, but are expensive. Generally, Theurgs are more efficient in battle than Archthreurgs: a Theurg with a pair of communion slaves is magically as strong as a single Archtheurg, and you can buy two Theurgs and two communicants for about as much gold as one Archtheurg (all the communion masters get +1 level in all magic schools for 2 slaves, +2 for 4 slaves, +3 for 8 slaves, etc... priest level is boosted too), plus they attack twice as often. Keep pumping out Communion slaves : each combat mage should have two slaves each.

    The Arch Theurg can only be recruited in your capital, and he is the only Pythium mage with a random magic area. He is very important to cast some rituals like Gateway, Call of the Wind or Acashic Record if necessary. And a prophet Arch Theurg reaches the level 5 as priest.

    Get a Communion going, cast Quickness and here we go! Fanaticicism, Astral and Air combat spells, elemental summoning, protective wards, and whatever you think your opponent isn't prepared for. Massed Stellar Cascades are particularily effective, as there's really no defense other than being undead (but Demons are affected) -- and then you can unleash Communion backed Banishments -- or being magic.

    If you get an Archtheurg with three air and give him some communicants he really rolls with thunder strikes and orb lightnings.

    Theurg Communicants have no magic skills but a built-in slave matrix (they start the battle with Communion Slave already cast). They are sacred but, curiously, you dont need a temple to build them.

    Communion slaves benefit from all the spells their masters cast on themselves. A Theurg who casts Communion Master and Air Shield or Astral Shield also affects all his communicants - just make sure that the fatigue doesn't overwhelm them (100=incapacitated, 200=additional fatigue goes to HP and could kill the communicant). But the protection spells do not affect the other masters, if any.

    Bear in mind that Communion is not just a fatigue distribution (suggestion : give the communion slaves reinvigoration items as well), but it also boosts the caster's spell levels. This could be very handy to cast spells that you couldn't otherwise cast.

    Relief (Nature spell, ench. 6) becomes a very nice spell, because Relief reduces fatigue of all friendlies, and communions distribute fatigue... Same for Summon Earth Power or Reinvigoration when cast by a Communion Master : all slaves get the reinvigoration.

    The Crystal Matrix is a very important magic item for Pythium : when, say, 8 communicants are present it instantly turns any mage +3 in their magic path on the battlefield... which is a very powerful tool and grants flexibility making all the spells available for the first round of battle.

    If you have some blood mages, like blood Sages or Garnet Amazons (or even your pretender), you can mix them with the astral communions, using the sabbath spells.

    NATIONAL HEROES

        * Batrolomeus the Patriarch, a sacred, level 5 priest with Air 2, Astral 3 and Water 2 : "is the highest ranking priest of the empire. Bartholomeus was trained as a Theurg in the Cathedral of the Spheres and after years of manipulating and assassinating his chief rivals, has he been elected by the Emerald Council to take the Holy Seat. Now he commands the vast powers of the theurg communion".

        * Marius Lorca "was born the son of a lowly peasant. He enlisted in the legions and gained the rank of centurion. When he single-handedly saved the Emperor from the daggers of a dozen assassins he was placed in the Emerald Guard. He became the first low-born Emerald Lord and served the emperor proudly until he was seduced by the empress. She had the emperor murdered and discarded Marius Lorca. As a result, he vowed to avoid the politics and machinations of the imperial court, and painted his armor black and joined the Pythian war machine. Marius is called the Black Emerald in the legion and has become a living legend".

        * Hierogallus "is an old Serpent Lord with gray temples and a balding head. He wears an ancient steel armor instead of a gilded one and prefers the company of his serpent to that of his fellow soldiers. Unsocial at best, he is still respected and commands great authority". Read : he still has a strong leadership (50).

        * The Master of the Games "is an old gladiator who has remained with the legion after freedom was granted him. He is almost unequaled in combat but is a rather poor leader". Gladiators under his direct command still resign after one battle.

    	6.7 R'LYEH

    R'lyeh was founded by strange, large aliens. They fell from the sky a long time ago and survived underwater. They enslaved a race of fishlike humanoids by sheer strength of mind.
    R'lyeh has two huge strategic advantages : it is an underwater nation (being able to strike anywhere against a foe who can't strike back) and is strong in Astral Magic (its best mages can Teleport and Gateway).

    Pre-researched spell: Mind Burn.

    DOMINION DESIGN:

    Income of sea provinces is not affected by cold or warm climates. If you do not intend to leave the oceans it might be a good idea to get yourself a hot or cold dominion, gaining up to 120 design points. Only 2 nations will accidentally benefit from a heat scale, and 4 nations from a cold scale (including Ermor, since most undeads are protected from cold but not from heat, some even radiate cold). So the decision depends on the game setup.
    Supply still depends on the heat/cold scale however, even underwater, so an extreme weather will limit your expansion if you rely on a horde of lobo guards.

    You could tolerate some turmoil too, knowing that tritons fly, and they are quite common underwater.

    All available fortifications can be built both on land and underwater. A Dark Citadel stays a Dark Citadel, but a Kelp Fortress is a Mausoleum on dry ground and a Kelp Citadel is a 35-admin castle. You can only train your national units under the sea (only local troops are available on dry ground) but you can build your militia either place, and your militia always features slave troopers and lobo guards.

    PREDESIGNED PRETENDER: CTHULU THE VOID LORD
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Ry%27leh.html

    R'lyeh also has the special "void lurker", a cheap, ethereal, immobile rainbow mage with astral magic.
    If you think of blood magic, remember that you can't hunt blood slaves underwater.

    UNITS

    Meteorite Guards are good but resource expensive and desperately slow. You will never be able to make enough of them. If you place the Meteorite Guards and Lobo Guards in the same stack, they have a better morale but should stay on the defense (if they attack, the lighter lobo guards will outrun the MG and they never see combat).

    Lobo guards are cheap (the cheapest unit of the game in fact), mindless (they never flee), and magic (you need mages to lead them in battle). Lobo and Slave troopers are lightweight troops, but you can make them in large numbers.

    When fighting Atlantis, make sure to have your screens of infantry be Crab Hybrids : they extra hit points will allow them to survive the poison attacks. Guards are more vulnerable to poison. But the crabs cannot leave the sea, however, so Atlantis has a definite early advantage on dry land. And War Lobsters are really hard to beat : they trample and are larger than any of Rlyeh's troops.

    The Illithids are much more expensive than archers but their mindblast always hit. They do fatigue, not real damage (so mindless units and all undeads are immune), unless the target already has 200 fatigue, then they directly do physical, armor negating damage). The attack is only medium ranged, therefore you want them fairly close to the front with a screen of well protected or cheap troops. The heavily armored Illithids are nice when you have extra resources, but usually the plain ones are fine since they should not be engaging in melee anyway. Mind Blast is stun damage, so you need to have several Illithids working together to be effective.
    Area "friendly" blast damage is still possible, so you better keep unaffected mindless units (Lobo Guards, Shambler Thralls or undeads) on the front line. This gives an "ideal" order of battle : Lobo Guards/Thralls on the front line, a second line of Illithids (fire closest), followed by a third line of infantry with trident (hold and attack) ready to finish your opponent off.
    With this special blast attack and some mages casting a barrage of Mind Burn and Star Fires (and later Enslave Mind), you can have near casualty free battles.

    Traitor princes and Illithid lords are very strong commanders, they deserve magic armor and weapons. Note that Illithids Lords are magic and can command Lobo Guards.

    Star Children are both mages (astral-1) and assassins. They can research your first spells but are physically too weak to engage a barbarian chief in duel without magic. In the first turns, they could still kill their victim with a Mind Burn if you spend some astral pearls, and with some luck (magic resistance negates the burn). Later, Body Ethereal and Astral Shield will help them to survive longer.

    MAGIC

    All R'lyeh mages have some astral power, so Communion is a must.
    The Starspawn mages are great army gaters (they can gate 95 lobo guards or shambler thralls + 10 non magic units), but R'lyeh astral income is limited, and it is not easy to find a water 2 Starspawn to forge Clams early to make up for it.
    If you fight the Atlantis War Lobsters, remember that etherealness works when trampled. Try using Starchilds "etherealizers" within your best troops on "hold and attack" orders. Add unbreakable fodder. A bunch of Starspawns in the rear also help with Soul Slay - a spell Rlyeh should get very early as a byproduct (Thaum. 5) of Gateway.

    PRIESTS
    R'lyeh can only train priests with 3 holy levels. They have one astral and one random pick however.
    Independent aquatic priests are uncommun (the Amber Clan tritons have some) and expensive.

    NATIONAL HEROES

        * Shadhul Ummush, the Traitor King (amphib mage with water 5) "is an ancient Atlantian King who foresaw the downfall of the Atlantian kingdom. R'lyeh would conquer and enslave the marine world regardless of his actions. Better to serve than die. Thus he chose to betray his brethren in exchange for a position of power in R'lyeh. Shadhul is now the most powerful water mage in R'lyeh".

        * Cthugul the Stargazer, a level 3 priest and a powerful mage (Astral 4, Water 1 and one random pick)"is one of the ancient Starspawns that survived the fall of the star. This horrible being led the construction of the incomprehensible city of R'lyeh. His knowledge of the stars let him foretell the conquest of Atlantis and he was the one who found out how weak-willed the Atlantians are. Cthugul is now in charge of the bonding of the Atlantians".

        * Auluudh, the Aboleth, "is an ancient member of an ancient race sprung from the depths of the ocean. Aboleths once ruled the deeps, but the falling star crushed their empire and allowed their slaves to free themselves and build kingdoms of their own. Now the aboleths are returning and Auluudh will lead the way. While waiting he has decided that the minds of the illithids are to his taste and they will be useful as food for the small aboleth population and as slavemasters over the weaker races. Auluudh is very powerful and he can enslave weaker beings by force of mind alone. He is also a powerful mage". He is a big (110 hp) aquatic monster, with Water 4 and Astral 4. He can lead or gate 135 magic beings.

    	6.8 ULM

    Dominion design :

    Ulm only needs to stabilise dominion inside its own territory and can use priests to help, so it can get away with a dominion level of 3-5.

    Heavy units take a lot of resources, so productivity +3 is a must. For the same reason, you could take a castle with high administration % (to drain that amount of resources from all neighbours).
    But you could also take the cheapest of fortresses instead, since your defense does not lie in castles anyway : the lack of admin might hurt army-making early in the game but being able to make a watchtower in every other province you enter can be a boost in order to make as many Ulm units as possible. Especially those excellent spys, and smiths. Only the Guardian troops and Lord Guardian leaders are left out when you make a new castle. Mid to late game the number of forward castles to make troops in might be a big asset. So this decision really depends on your general strategy.

    Finally, a magic drain has little effect, since Dwarven Smiths studies are unaffected. Since you suck at magic, make everyone else suck too and put drain to maximum (and possibly put dominion to maximum too if you have a chance, to affect a larger area).
    And the drain will increase the magic resistance of your troops - something important since your troops have the worst MR of all nations. Every drain level gives +1/2 MR point (and +10% fatigue when mages cast battle spells).

    Predesigned Pretender: Le Comte de Saint-Germain
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Ulm.html

    The alchimist gets a x2 bonus when he makes gold out of gems. This bonus is added in to the Alchemist Stone bonus as a lump (the Stone brings +50% on the base price only), for a total +150% bonus: each earth gem is then converted into 25 gold pieces, and each fire gems into 37 GP).

    Special Strategy

    Simple : play like a tank commander. Build heavy troops and hit people with it. Early conquest, that is. As the game lasts and new spells are researched, Ulm's edge at grabbing territory becomes less and less sharp. So go for them asap. That's one of Ulm's adavantage - steel vs. magic, you have to learn the second while the first comes built in your troops. Steel doesn't work too well vs summoned troops, though, many of them being ethereal. But on the whole it remains the best thing to invest in.
    To the other hand, spells that negate armor (electrical shocks and acid attacks, plus some earth spells) or pierce armor (most fire attacks) are the worst of your enemies. You badly need to get lucky with independents to do well, since you really need some more mages to protect your soldiers with different "wards".

    Units:

    Ulm features the heaviest units in the game. Generally speaking however, armor is good, but expensive and easily countered by magic (Ulm has lower magic defense then other nations).

    Ulm Heavy Infantry has great armor and more hit points than average HI, but also some weaknesses like high encumbrance, average morale and low magic resistance.

    Pikeneers are a good choice when you don't know what you'll fight. Not weak against anything. Once you know what troops you'll fight, produce counters.

    The Black Knights get an armor rating of 24, giving them the highest base armor of any normal troops. To make them, you need extremely high resources as with most of your troops, so make sure to take all of the lands surrounding your castle as soon as possible.

    A mix of Pikeneers and Heavy Infantrymen are nearly unstoppable by normal infantry, and are armored enough to ignore most missile fire. Put these troops as far forward as possible, potentially with some flanking Knights set for commander assassination to the sides. The Pikeneers excel at repelling (they have max weapon length), and the HI can usually even penetrate enemy knights.
    Technically, some weapons are better than others against particular opponent types. Also, depending of your playing style, you will want either to have a weapon which makes more damages but gives less defence, or the reverse. It is somehow a personal issue here. To keep it simple, you could also mix them all.
    Flail: two weak attacks and a defense penalty. Meant to dispatch hordes of light infantry.
    Morning star: bonus against shield. If your opponent has shielded infantry use this one.
    Hammer and Maul : the maul makes more damage but you get a def penalty and no shield, the hammer makes slightly less damage but you can keep a tower shield.
    Pike: will ask a moral check from the opponent, use against low moral troops (Ctis infantry, barbarians, etc). They slow the enemy attack, so use them if you plan to have a front line holding while your crossbows fire.

    Ulm's Crossbowmen use Arbalests, which are slow and less accurate but shoot further and for more damage than crossbows. Arbalests are so strong they are capable of killing their own troops if you don¿t pay attention. So you'll probably buy long- or shortbowmen in some independent provinces instead.

    Local defense : Ulm has militia (crossbowmen) that is actually worth buying to 10 or so if you have the money.

    Magic:

    Ulm has a weak and narrow magic.

    Use Smiths for research, since they have the ability to tolerate the drain : they get a +2 research bonus minimum (so even in a +3 drain, they have 5 research points each - in a neutral or positive magic dominion they get the same bonus as all other mages). Keep in mind that all other mages, including your pretender, do not benefit from this drain immunity, however.
    Also useful to get mages for searching sites if you don't have a mage pretender.
    They get a 25% gems discount on forging magic items, so if possible consider equipping them with many items to increase their skills (for exemple, with a Dwarven Hammer, a Master Smith can forge for half price). Try to use them over the pretender, so you save those gems.

    They are decent support mages and generally are unable to penetrate the armor of their own troops, so friendly fire is negligible until Magma Bolts, and even then is not very great. They have more armor than other mages, and have a good amount of command skill.
    With "Summon Earthpower" they have several nice level 3 spells available, like "Legions of Steel" (Ulm start spell), or "Blade Wind" which decimates light troops (or even seasonal spirits - those have all zero protection) but does not penetrate Ulm's super thick armors. And there is no "ward" against earth spells.
    On the battlefield smiths are affected by drain scale while casting spells however (greater fatigue).
    Given a pair of Earth boots (or extra gems) Smiths can cast level 3 rituals too, like Summon Fall Bears, Contact Troll/Troll King's Court or Crusher Construction.

    The priests are weak too, and this is a major problem for Ulm (no sacred troops and so no target for the available "Blessing"  and "Sermon of Courage" is only available to a priest prophet). Unfortunately for Ulm, native sites with better priests are uncommon.

    It could be a better idea to make a black knight your prophet anyway. A spy prophet could be a good idea too, to make effective use of stealth preaching

    NATIONAL HEROES

    # Barthulf, the best leadership of Ulm, "was dubbed a Black Knight at the age of thirteen. He appeared as a mystery knight at the great tourney of Black Keep and emerged victorious. After this deed he became known throughout the realm and soon men from near and far came to challenge him. Barthulf has never lost a challenge and is the pride of the Black Keep".

    # Hildegard "was the only child of the late Hochmeister of the Black Order. Her father taught her how to fight and wanted her to join the order, but she was a strong-willed young woman who didn't like the strict hierarchical organization of the order. She decided to become a freelance warrior, and as such she has become known and respected. During her more adventurous years Hildegard befriended a black unicorn that has followed her since".
    She is one of the fastest commander of the game, and her defense is so high that she is nearly intouchable in close combat.

    # Raterik, almost as fast as Hildegard but wearing a full plate armor, "is a strange and secretive knight. As a youth he befriended a black unicorn, and the magical steed has given the peasant boy the opportunity to join the Black Order. Several of the older members of the order complained about the peasant but so far he has not failed in his tasks. Raterik has proven himself a resourceful and able commander".

    	6.9 VANHEIM

    DOMINION DESIGN:

    The population of Vanheim prefers cold climate (cold +1).
    You could tolerate some turmoil too, thanks to the spell Call of the Wind (the summoned hawks fly and can effectively patrol). Sure you can't cast as soon as you take your first turn, but researching Conjuration 3 isn't that difficult.

    PREDESIGNED PRETENDER: WOTAN
    http://www.illwinter.com/gods/Vanheim.html

    The Allfather, like Vanirs, has the "illusion" ability (he is invisible on the strategic map even if he is not sneaking) and can sail.

    SPECIAL

        * All Vanir troops (ie. Vans, Valkyries, Vanherses and Vanjarl) have an innate "illusion" ability (works like a mirror image spell) and are very hard to hit. This illusion is dispelled if the unit is wounded, however.

        * All Vanir leaders have the ability to sail across one open sea zone (even when leading non-vanir units), which is tremendously useful on some maps. Sometimes it is the strategic move that wins the battle. Not as good as gateway but it costs nothing and they have it at game start. Depending on the map it can have much the same effect as amphib  you can hit your opponents, but they can't hit back at you except in the provinces you are currently invading. You can't retreat into a sea zone though, so all your landing army will be lost if they fail the assault.

        * All Vanir troops are sacred (they gain +3 strength, morale and attack when blessed, and their upkeep cost is halved).

        * All Vanir troops have the stealth ability; see Pangaea to read more about this ability. They can even sail across enemy sea zone and still stay hidden.

        * The Fay boars are immortal and can supply 20 troops each. Should they die in friendly dominion, they reappear in the home province (this "teleport" can cause some supply problems in your main army fighting far from its base, by the way).

        * Pre-researched spell: Phantasmal Warrior.

    UNITS

    Hirdmen are an excellent front line unit, that should be used like heavy infantry : they have a good armor (prot 15) and slightly above-average stats (11 morale, 11 or 12 attack and def).

    The Skinshifters regenerate but are expensive and fragile (prot 4). The werewolf form is better (+7 hp and morale, +2 for almost all other attributes).

    The Einheres turn berserk and have two close combat weapons. They can do serious damage, but often take more damage in return due to their lower defense (they have a chain mail but no shield). They are very useful vs. enemies that use large amount of weak units, or as flankers. Turning berserk gives them +3 strength, attack and protection (but -4 defense), which should make them capable of penetrating even heavy armor.

    The Vans are very expensive too but could be considered as good as Knights. They have a terrific defense (18  higher score in the game for ordinary units), and are very hard to hit in close combat, but defense is not applicable to ranged attack.

    The Valkyries are probably the most powerful normally recruitable flyer in the game. They are very nice for both strategic movement and attacking commanders, but too expensive to make good patrollers.

    Get some blessed Valkyries on commander attack duty, and some Einheres or Vans behind and flanking for heavily armored troops that the Hirdmen cannot hurt. Remember that Vans can hurl their javelins too.

    As for countering independent missile units, just make sure to have your troops that are closest to the right edge have good protection (15) and a shield, and your losses from normal bows is minimal. For AI or player missiles, make sure your expensive mages have Air Shield or similar - a lot of weapons will be aimed at your mages and commanders.

    Also note that Vanheim elite troops are very vulnerable to poison because of their low hit points.

    MAGIC

    Vanheims magic isn't top notch, but it's solid. It is only weak in the area of spells for strategic movement (but the sailing ability could make up for that).

    The Vanherse and Vanjarl are very flexible mage-priests. They can be used in battle both as support and summoners, to start your first bloodhunts, forge your fist rods, preach unnoticed if necessary, lead armies of sneaking elites in swift raids, sail through the oceans and be gone before retaliation...

    Vanjarls can Summon Lesser Air Elementals probably the most powerful elemental, since it is flying AND ethereal Storm, Thunder Ward, etc.

    But they have only a few low level paths, and although the Dwarven Smiths are good at Earth, they don't have a good secondary realm and only one random pick.

    The Dwarves are great battle wizards however: with Summon Earthpower and Summon Lesser Earth Elemental, every one of these guys can send forward 5 or 6 trampling big puppies in a battle before fatigue overcomes them. If you gain one Dwarf with +1 Earth level in his random pick this champion almost regenerates fatigue as fast as he suffers it.

    Dwarven Smiths can also cast Blade Wind with terrific effect again light troops or ethereal creatures (etherealness offers no protection against spells).

    For summons, Vanheim can make earth gems into Fall Bears and can make air gems into black hawks for patrols (Call of the Winds).

    Finally, Vanheim mages really shine when they use blood magic. That's particularly nasty when you play on maps with a low magic site frequency. And being able to summon hawks to quell unrest at your bloodhunting sites comes very handy.

    When you recruit an earth3/blood1 smith, give him a few cheap items (Brazen Vessel, Blood Thorn and Earth Boots - or even better that pendant that produces earth gems) and have him summon Fathers Illearth or Demon Knights.

    Give some of these items to a blood-empowered Vanjarl (or even better give him an Armor of Souls, costs the same if you use a Dwarven Hammer being Vanheim you should have at least one of these tools ASAP anyway), and have him summon Pazuzu or Storm Demons very valuable as counters as both are unaffected by storms (they even get bonuses when fighting during a storm).

    Vanjarls make top-notch assassins too. Give some a Black Hearth, and go hunting.

    NATIONAL HEROES

    # Vanlade -with 3 Air, 1 Death, 1 Blood and 3 Holy powers- can forge air enhancing items (and the famous Staff of Storms) : "Vanlade is an ancient Vanjarl who remembers the time when humans were few and the vanir were numerous. Vanlade has studied magic for centuries and commanded hundreds of battles. His reputation as a warrior is widespread. Vanlade is one of the few surviving disciples of the ancient god who gave the valkyries their role as messengers of death".

    # Farbaute the Einhere, a strong Einhere fighting with two weapons : "Farbaute is a fierce warrior. He is almost impervious to pain and is skilled in the two-weapon combat of the Einheres. Farbaute's drinking habits are legendary and it is reputed that he won a drinking contest in Jotunheim among the much larger and swill-swollen giants. His friendly ways with the giants of Jotun has made him several enemies among the vanir, but the Einheres and humans of Vanheim consider him a true hero".

    	6.10 Undocumented effect for some items

    MISCELLANEOUS

    Q : What effect does reinvigoration items have on commanders wearing them?
    A : Reinvigoration allows your commander to regain that number of fatigue point each turn. A good thing since high fatigue values will lead to unconsciousness and before that allows for more frequent armor penetration.

    Q : Do commanders suffer from fatigue when casting spells from magic items ?
    A : Yes, every time you cast a spell with an item (like Skull Talisman or Scepter of Authority) you suffer 5 points of fatigue. Armor, encumbrance, magic level etc have no influence, it¿s a lump sum.

    Q : what is the forge bonus ?
    A : It lowers the cost to create items by a percentage - rounded to your advantage. With a Dwarven Hammer (bonus 25), a magic user will make most trinkets for only 3 magic gems for example (5 -25%), and items with 5+5 in gem cost are reduced to 3+3 in gem cost.

    Q : If I give my commander two swords will he use them both in combat?
    A : Yes, with reduced attack values -5. This does not apply to leaders that start with two weapons as long as they are not given new ones.

    Q : If I give my commander two same magic rings, will the effect be cumulative?
    A : No, most duplicate items give no double effect (exception : production items like Lifelong Protections, Soul Contracts or Fever Fetish). Sometime it is not a good idea anyway (giving two magical eyes to the same commander will cause a permanent blindness for exemple).

    Q : My hero gets only +6 in protection when wearing a +12 fire plate. Is this a bug?
    A : No. Units with natural protection will receive decreased protection from armors worn (but a unit with natural protection will never be so penalized as to have lower protection than another unit carrying the same armor, but having lower natural protection). Your magic armor gives a protection of 12 ; it¿s not like a +12 bonus. And any magical armor, shield or helm actually takes the place of the armor, shield or helm already worn by the commander, if any.
    Click HERE to see the most common armor values.

    Q : Why is the attack bonus of magic weapons not shown on the leader statistics ? I can see the improved defense, but not the attack bonus.
    A : Attack values are per weapon  if the leader wields 2 different weapons, each of them has its own attack rating and is computed separately. Ergo, it makes no sense to display the attack value of weapons on the leader stats. All the defense bonuses apply however, so 2 Mains Gauches will give you +12 defense. Also remember there is a penalty to attack for wielding two weapons at once (except if the unit has two weapons to start off with).
    A unit with two weapons gets to potentially attack multiple creatures in the same square, so you could get several kills each turn. Natarja pretenders are good examples of that  they often can get 4 kills a round, and if you give them two Gauches their defense is so high they really need to be ganged up on to ever get hit.

    Q : Why are blood magic items so expensive ?
    A : Blood magic items and spells are generally twice as expensive as other items, as blood slaves are easier to come by.

    Q : Do elemental magics have any special effect vs. each other (exemple : does a fire sword have a bonus vs. water elementals)?
    A : No, besides things like temperature cancelling out each other (Wolven Winter will locally counter the Second Sun spell) or the fact that all fire magic spells have twice the normal fatigue value when it is raining.

    TRINKETS

        * Bear Claw Talisman : gives +5 strength

        * Berserker Pelt : makes the bearer berserk (no more spells, +3 strength, attack and protection, -3 defense, for a total protection of 7, not 4) even if not wounded in battle. Can be dropped.

        * Boots of Long Stride : do not change the action points, but the holder moves twice faster on the battlefield, even underwater. He does not fire or cast spell faster however (see Boots of Quickness for this effect).

        * Enchanted Sword/Spear/Pike : I see no effect on ¿accuracy and quickness¿.

        * Slave Collar : increases morale by 5.

    LESSER ITEMS

        * Armor of Souls : gives +5 MR even if the owner has no knowledge in blood magic.

        * Bane Blade : infects the opponent with a (non contagious) desease.

        * Barkskin amulet : gives the wearer a base protection of 10, partially added to armor, if any.

        * Black Bow of Botulf : causes ¿feeblemind¿ ; very nasty for mages, they lose all spellcasting ability. There is no MR saving throw if hit.

        * Boots of Giant Strength : gives +4 strength.

        * Boots of the Behemoth : give trample ability to the bearer (no other bonus).

        * Bracers of Protection : gives +2 defense, but +2 protection if the wearer has no other armor (only +1 if he wears some serious armor already).

        * Burning Pearl : gives +4 attack.

        * Crystal Shield : gives +1 in all magic paths, including holy/unholy power, but this empowerment is only available for battle (do not count on the additional level for forging or for a ritual).

        * Enormous Cauldron of Broth : provides food for 50 soldiers (keep in mind that you can not give two Cauldrons to the same commander to feed 100 men, duplicate items give no double effect).

        * Eye of Aiming : gives +5 precision but the holder loses one eye (permanent affliction). Can not be dropped

        * Fever Fetish : slowly kills the wearer. You need to remember when he is supposed to die so you can take away the Fetish and the gem the turn before (when a leader dies from disease all items and gems he has disappears, even if he's in a province with a lab). The Fetish can be used on undead commanders (immune to disease) however.

        * Halberd of Might : gives +4 strength.

        * Ivy Crown : lets the bearer summon one more Vinemen or Vineogre each turn, but does not work with Dark Vines though.

        * Knife of the Damned : also curses its owner, and it cant be removed.

        * Lead Shield : gives +4 MR.

        * Lifelong Protection : the beneficiary gets an horror mark. This item is cursed and can not be removed. It works with any commanders, not only blood mages. It also works underwater, curiously (where the imps can swim but don't fly).

        * Lighning Rod : lets the bearer summon two more Corpse Men each turn.

        * Pendant of Luck : does not cancel a curse. Luck makes it harder to damage a unit at all, but if it gets damaged it will still have a great chance of getting a battle affliction if it is cursed as well.

        * Piercer : also works during a storm.

        * Ring of the warrior : gives +5 in attack skill.

        * Robe of Missile protection : is not foolproof. Missiles do not disappear, they miss. They still land somewhere however and can kill whatever they land on, including their original target if he is very unlucky, or his bodyguards. Still, spreading out mages with robes of protection means that missed missiles have minimum chance to hit someone.

        * Rod of the Leper King : the wielder is able to lead 50 undeads, or 50 more undeads if previously able to do so. But a disease slowly kills him (see Fever Fetish, above), unless undead.

        * Sanguine Dousing Rod : counts as two levels in Blood Magic, thus increasing the chance to find blood slaves by 40 % (base chance is 20% + 20% per blood magic level + 40% if using the a Rod). When successful, the slave hunter also gets 2 more slaves.

        * Sceptre of Authority : increases leadership by 25.

        * Soul Contract : the beneficiary gets an horror mark. This item is cursed and can not be removed. It works with any commanders, not only blood mages.

        * Totem Shield : the shield itself casts the spell Curse every turn, on one of the closest, largest (most health), non-routing enemy. There is no defense versus curse, and it lasts forever.

    GREATER ITEMS

        * Armor of Twisting Thorns : can not be dropped.

        * Blood Stone : produces only 1 earth gem / turn.

        * Champion Skull : gives 3 additional experience points to its owner each turn (for a total of 4 xp/t, not counting the possible battles). A newly created leader will get his first ¿star¿ in 6 seasons (again, not counting the battles). Mindless creatures never gain experience however.

        * Crown of Command : gives +50 leadership.

        * Crystal Matrix : does only work on mages, not on regular commanders, not even on priests. But holy and unholy powers of mage+priest commanders, like theurgs or demonbreds, are raised too.

        * Dancing Trident : is not in his owner hands. So the strenght of its owner is not added to its blows, and it uses a miscellaneous item slot (not a weapon slot). It gives an extra attack, and has a 5 reach to keep mobs at bay.

        * Fire Brand : sometimes sets the target ablaze. This will do a point of damage every turn and lowers morale.

        * Flesh Eater : makes the bearer berserk (no more spells, cannot rout, +3 strength, +3 attack, +3 protection, but -3 defense) even if not wounded in battle.

        * Frost Brand : sometimes 'freezes' the target which will cause fatigue, and lowers morale.

        * Girdle of Might : gives +3 reinvigoration and +3 strength.

        * Heart of Life : the holder gets a chest wound (the affliction is permanent and stays if the heart is removed) - he loses 1 STR and gets +5 ENC for both spellcasting and melee. So the reinvigoration is +5 (not +10), unless he does not cast spell or fight (ie. if he does nothing, he still get the full 10 points of reinvigoration).

        * Implementor Axe : the owner counts as 25 normal soldiers when pillaging.

        * Lychantropos¿ Amulet : the holder is berserk (+3 prot, +3 str, +3 att, 99 morale, but -3 def) and gains +4 more str (for a total of +7). The amulet can not be dropped, but stays on the werewolf (who gets the same bonuses, but is not stealthy).

        * Medallion of Vengeance : protection vs. fire negates.

        * Rune Smasher : helps to crack enemy magic resistance to rituals, like Vengeance of the Dead (and not only battle spells).

        * Slave matrix : does only work on mages, not on regular commanders, not even on priests. And you need at least two 'slave' mages to effectively reduce fatigue on the 'master'.

        * Thunder Bow : can be used in a storm or underwater.

        * Winged Helmet : with this item, a flying commander can fly during a storm. It also gives +1 att/def in storm.

    VERY POWERFUL ITEMS

        * Banner of the Northern Star : the holder loses 2 points of MR.

        * Black Heart : the holder gets a chest wound (the affliction is permanent and stays if the heart is removed).

        * Boots of Quickness : gives twice as many attacks, and +3 attack and defense. It lets you fire a crossbow every turn.

        * Crystal Heart : the owner gets a chest wound (the affliction is permanent and stays if the heart is removed or used). If he dies, the crystal will immediately restore the owner to full health and zero fatigue. This effect takes place instantaneously in battle.

        * Ethereal Crossbow : works during a storm. There is a magic resistance roll for the soul slaying effect.

        * Flesh Ward : cant be dropped.

        * Robe of the Magi : also increases Holy/Unholy powers. The wearer gets an horror mark.

        * Robe of Invulnerability : gives Protection 30.

        * Ring of Sorcery : gives +1 level of Blood, Nature, Death and Astral Magic.

        * Ring of Wizardry : also increases Unholy powers (but not Holy powers, curiously).

        * Shield of Gleaming Gold : gives awe (0) or increases existing awe by +1.

        * Spell Focus : helps to crack enemy magic resistance to rituals, like Vengeance of the Dead (and not only battle spells). It does not affect other magic items used by the same mage, like Ethereal Crossbow.

        * Staff of Storm : cancels all ordinary missile fire, plus most flyers cannot fly (the exceptions being air elementals, spring hawks, storm guards, storm demons, sylphs, queens of air and horrors- very convenient, since the same mage can summon most of them...). The storm affects the battlefield right from the start and does not need casting (but the storm does stop if the holder of the Staff is killed). It also lets you summon five more Corpse Men each turn.

        * Standard of the Damned : casts Drain Life and add the points to the bearer. When his hp are full, the wearer sometime stops using it and engages in melee.

        *

          Treelord Staff : lets you summon one more Vine Men or Vine Ogre each turn.

    UNIQUE ARTEFACTS

        * Alchemist Stone : gives +50% (rounded up) gold when you make gold out of magical gems (a fire gem brings 23 gold and an earth gem gives 15 gold).

        * Amon Hotep : gives Protection 30, fire resistance, +4 awe and +5 magic resistance. Summoned mummies are good leaders (25-50-0). Can not be dropped.

        * Ankh : will revive any non-undead unit on the battlefield (with the possible exception of immortals and pretenders) as a Soulless. They keep all magic & experience, but they change into Soulless so they may loose resistances (Abysians would lose their fire resistance, for example) and gain the benefits of the undead.

        * Aseftik's Armor : can not be dropped, but good Protection and +3 Magic Resistance.

        * Ark : blinds non holy priests, like ermorian priests or prophets (unless priest from the start, they have priestly powers but they are not ¿sacred¿).

        * Boots of Antaeus : the wearer regenerates.

        * Boots of the Planes : give etherealness and allow a super combatant to teleport around without making a lab or spending gems. He gets an horror mark though.

        * Crown of Overmight : can not be dropped. Gives awe (0) or increases existing awe by +1.

        * Fenris Pelt : wearer turns berserk, but the Pelt casts Howl each turn.

        * Gate Stone : Allows you to gateway an army without an astral mage (and it does not require a lab to use). Hence no trouble from magic duels in response.

        * Gift of Kurgi : the mage gets feebleminded, but the item gives him +8 defense and extra armour negating astral claw, as well as other benefits, and allows him to cast freely Send Lesser Horror.

        * Green eye : the holder loses one eye (the affliction is permanent and stays if the eye is removed).

        * Harvest Blade : makes the bearer berserk (no more spells, cannot rout, +3 str, att and prot but -3 defense) even if not wounded in battle. It cripples anyone hit, so that he can't run away. It also allows the bearer to attack an entire square at once : 6 hobbits or 3 humans in one swoop... and never misses (the attack value is strictly for repel purposes). Can not be dropped however.

        * Mage Bane : the holder gets an MR bonus but also an horror mark. In addition to its normal damage it appears to do 100 fatigue per hit, regardless of target's MR. Plus, it has the chance to instantly kill if victim is magical.

        * Magic Lamp : the djinn will vanish in a puff of smoke if the lamp is rebuilt by any player. All items worn by the djinn are then lost even if you summon him again. He keeps his experience however.

        * Oath Rod of Kurgi : the holder gets an horror mark.

        * Robe of Calius the Druid : full elemental protection, +3 Magic Resistance, Water Breathing.

        * Ruby eye : also gives 2 water gems a turn. The holder loses one eye (the affliction is permanent and stays if the eye is removed).

        * Sickle whose Crop is Pain : also gives one death gem per kill in battle.

    	6.11 FAQS

    		6.11.1 MAPS AND SITES

    Q: How do you tell what is the terrain (tundra, plains etc.) of a given province ?
    A : Here's a key to the colors:
    Orange: Plains
    Blue: Water
    Dark Brown: Mountain
    Yellow: Farm
    Green: Forest
    Dark Blue: Swamp
    White: Tundra
    Light Brown: Waste
    As provinces grow (or shrink) you can see farms and forests spread (or wasteland spread).
    The game counts every pixel of each color in a province and calculates the its stats according to the pixel breakdown. It sees all provinces with 98% or more water as a sea province.

    Q: What is the % to find a Magic Site ?
    A : Each site is keyed to a certain type of magic and has a discovery rating from 0 - 4, where 0 means that a site is found automatically by anyone entering the province and a number greater then 0 indicates that you need to search with a commander of that rating for that Magic Path to unveil that particular site (then the discovery is automatic). There are only four level 4 sites (one Astral, one Fire and two Holy), so really there is no reason to send a site searcher out with more than 3 for the other spheres (and with only four exceptions, all underwater sites have a level of 2 or less).
    Each site corresponds to only one path, although the gems found in a site need not correlate with the path required to find it.
    The power of the site is not directly tied to difficulty of finding it, for example there is one level 2 site of each of the eight magic types that will give you 3 crystals (ghoul cave and firbolg fortress are two sites of this category). Sites also have a separate frequency value wich determines how often they occur. The most powerful sites such as sites giving acces to unique and powerful troops or sites that halves your summoning costs are usually difficult to find and rare/unique as well. Blood is the path with the least number of sites. Note that several sites also have an effect on at least one of the scales of the province they're in, or on local unrest, even if still undiscovered.
    Click HERE to download an zipped excel file made by G. McGinn and W. Knowles, with all the known magic sites of Dominions.
    Once a site is found it is found for everyone though. Discoveries made by enemy players are automatically unveiled when you capture the province

    Q: What is the % to find a Holy/Unholy Site ?
    A : Holy / Unholy sites can be discovered by corresponding priests, like magic sites (see previous question).
    Some holy sites damage undead units, but the ancient temple, marble temple, ancient temple of the deeps and forgotten crypt (probably the most common holy sites) do not.
    Only Ermor can access unholy sites, but the highest Unholy site is a level 1.

    Q : What does a "Summoning Bonus" do ? I found the nature site Cedar Pillars which has a summoning bonus of 30.
    A : The Summoning bonus is subtracted from the gem cost of summonings in that province (you still need the original number of gems but when the spell is cast you pay the % less - the fraction is rounded down, so a bonus of 30 % reduces a cost of 8 gems to a cost of 6). The best summoning site in the game is the summoning circle with a summoning bonus of 60.
    The bonus also works for blood slaves, even if the spells' name are "Bind" something, and not "Summon" something.

    Q: What is the % to find blood slaves ?
    A : Officially, the base chance is 10% (even without blood magic knowledge) + 20% per blood magic level + 40% if using a Sanguine Dousing Rod.
    The score in blood magic affects both the chance of finding and the number of slave found : the nr of slaves found = a dice roll (open ended) + (score in blood magic), if the hunt is successful. A Dowsing rod will add both to the chance to find slaves and to the number found.
    It¿s also much harder to find blood slaves in depopulated provinces and it¿s impossible above a certain unrest level.
    See HERE to see more figures about slave hunt.

    		6.11.2 UNITS AND COMBATS

    Q : What is the berserk bonus ?
    A : When wounded, some units can go berserk. They gain +3 attack, strenght and protection, but -3 defense. They cannot rout, but they attack the closest enemy and ignore all orders like cast spell, fire, hold, or attack commander. Some items like the Berserker Pelt and the Flesh Eater make their holder automatically berserk even if not wounded.
    Berserk units stay on the battlefield to the death, but could also win a battle without any commanders (they do not rout even when all leaders are gone).

    Q :What is the prize if you win a deathmatch ?
    A : The "Champion's Trident" is always the prize (except if your champion has no arms). It is a cursed (can not be dropped or given to another commander) two-handed item that grants quickness.
    Also, he who holds the Trident is forced to enter all future tourneys as long as he keeps winning!
    The main benefit from the tourney is the gain of 1000 points of experience, which catapult the winner into the Hall of Fame and thus grant a heroic ability (if this random ability is quickness, your commander will make 5 attacks/turn).

    Q : I have a immortal, that automatically revives if I'm in my dominion. Is the "deathmatch" area considered in dominion?
    A : No a deathmatch is not in your dominion, it is considered neutral for all such purposes. So you will only have basic strength, magic resistance, etc. Your hit points will still be higher if you started out in a friendly dominion though.

    Q : Are my scout's reports trustworthy ?
    A : Scouts and spies observing troops can be off by 50 - 200%. They sometime omit a troop type (often archers or crossbowmen in small number) but never add any by mistake.

    Q : Do my armies fight better in a province with high # white candles ?
    A : Yes. Though 1 or 10 candles don't make any difference, except on your pretender or your prophet, who get increased stats. The bonuses can be pretty substantial with a 7+ candle dominion if you have a combat pretender :
    Hitpoints: +(#candles*20)% or +(#candles*5)% in enemy dominion (red candles count negative)
    Strength: +#candles
    MR: +#candles/2 (rounded down)

    Q : What is the benefit of prophethood ?
    A : +3 strength, +2 attack/defense/precision, +1 MR, extra morale and HP in friendly dominion are a nice package. A prophet also increases his holy power by 1 level (or gains 3 levels if lower, or if he had no power at all). A scout prophet for exemple will be able to stealth preach with the same power as a high priest (3 candles).
    But the main use of the prophet is usually to gain access to the Fanaticism spell, which requires 4 levels of divine magic. Many nations (Vanheim, Arcoscephale, Jotunheim, R'lyeh, Pangaea, Caelum) can only train priests with 3 levels. Making that priest your prophet raises his power by one, and gives you Fanaticism. Higher priests still make good prophets, as their Banishments cause more damage to undeads.

    Q : Which commanders have the assassin ability ?
    A : Slayer (Abysia), Empoisoner (C'tis), Assassin (Marignon and Pythium), Star Child (R'lyeh), and any stealth commander equiped with a Black Heart. Also, you could recruit ethereal assassin Stalkers in an very rare astral hidden site, "The Hidden Kingdom of Elludia"

    Q : When two assassins attack a commander in the same turn and the first wounds him, will the target heal between the two assassination attempts ?
    A : No. Having an assassin attack in the same round as an army moves works well also. Even if the assassin dies his damage is in place when the army hits.

    Q : What happens when the assassin is a mage and does "take control" of his victim with a spell like Charm or Hellbind Heart ?
    A : The victim switches sides, followed by a "there was a battle" message showing him fighting his previous friends. Double damage. Plus if he was the last commander he gets to watch his previous troops go bye-bye (rout from the fight) and gives you the province and any items/gems he might have had (but even a milicia leader will prevent the rout).

    Q : Are there any upkeep costs for summoned units ?
    A : Generally speaking, summoned creatures that could be classified as "animals" (eg. Black Hawks) or "non-magical thinking earthly beings" (eg. Draconians) cost upkeep, while magical, mindless, undead, constructs, or unearthly beings do not - there may be exceptions.
    Exemples : the hidden cost of a black hawk is 10 gold (upkeep = 0.67), 60 gold for a troll (upkeep 4), 52 gold for a sea troll (upkeep 3.47), but zero gold for a wolf (no upkeep), zero gold for summer lions and other spirits, zero gold for a lamia.

    Q : What is the % to got a battle affliction when a unit is hurt, and to heal it later?
    A : The chance of getting a nasty wound depends on the hit points loss, compared to the total hp. So if a terrible blow takes 50% of the hp, this unit has 50% chance of getting a nasty wound. This probability is greatly increased for cursed units, and greatly decreased for regenerating units.
    Immortals (like the Phoenix or the Lich), Pangaea and Pangaea-like creatures (like the Medusa) heal battle afflictions automatically. Arcoscephale priestesses can heal afflictions, too (every turn, each priestess has about 20% chance to heal any affliction incured by every units in the same province - keep in mind that this healing takes place after movement and battle).
    When a god reincarnates, he has a chance of healing some or all of his wounds. The nastier ones are almost always healed, but the never healing wound is hard to get rid of.
    An artifact, the Chalice, will have a chance of curing one affliction per unit in the country. The Nature spell Gift of Health (Ench 5) also cures afflictions.
    Note that regeneration does not heal afflictions, it only reduces the risk of getting afflictions (so a Ring of Regeneration, for exemple, will not heal a lost eye).

    Q : What is the effect of fire on a unit when you see the unit icon burning on the battlefield?
    A : This will do an additional point of damage every turn and lowers morale.

    Q : What are the levels of experience (grey star shields) for units ?
    A : Every unit get a star at 20, 50, 100, 200, and 400 experience points. 5 stars is the max, and is almost impossible to get to other unit than combat pretender, champions or very destructive battlemage (Orion, a mercenary, has 1000 experience points).
    Every unit gets one experience point each turn (even when doing nothing special -- all armies always organize some drill and exercices behind the frontline), or for fighting in a battle (4 xp), and one point for delivering a blow (two swords and quickness is the way to go for experience). You only get experience from melee combat, kills are only useful if you want to advance on the hall of fame.
    A Champion Skull gives 3 additional points each turn. A commander (+ all his troops) who enters an Academy of War (zero-level blood site) get 4 additional points each turn.
    Mindless units never gain experience however.

    Q : If I know that my castle will be attacked, and I send a renforcing army, the army will move first and be put in 'Defend' orders, thus unable to help the milicia and standing army. Any idea to circumvent this problem?
    A : When moving towards a province with a castle you can 'move and patrol'. Unfortunately the UI for this is obfuscated. You have to issue 'move' orders first, and then 'move and patrol' will be available.

    Q : I see in the manual that all magic battles are resolved before movement and ordinary battles. Does that mean that an army could be pinned in a given province if I cast a Call of the Wind/Wild every turn (the hawks/wolves will always arrive before the army moves, but will this battle cancel the move orders) ?
    A : Move orders are not cancelled. The magical attack does happen before normal movement, but there is 2 battle phases each turn. So an army could fight in the magical battle phase, and then move into another province to fight in the normal battle phase of the same turn. A magical attack is often the only way to catch a marauding army (especially if they are flyers) : normally, they can jump around the map, and you have to guess where he is moving.
    You can synch up a Call of the Wind/Wild with some sneaking troops, btw. If you have sneakers who are already in a province and have attack orders, they will attack in the magic phase along with the hawks. Can be helpful if you know you want to trap someone before they move, but need more forces than just the hawks or wolves.

    Q :Where do retreating armies rout ?
    A : If the troops enter combat magically and rout/retreat - they will retreat into a neighboring province you hold prior to "normal" combat. If you hold no neighboring province prior to magic combat, the routing troops all die even if you take a neighboring province in normal combat.
    If you do own a neighboring province after "magic" combat but prior to "normal" combat - the routed troops will rout to the province with the lowest provincial number available. Then when "normal" combat occurs, the incoming troops will encounter the troops that routed during magic combat as well as any other standing army in the province.

    Q :Missile troops are inaccurate and can't damage heavy units. Are they worth the gold they cost ?
    # A : The missile units in Dominions have their place. Don't build them just because you can. Measure your situation and decide if they will satisfy your need: Shortbows are good for patrols. Low cost all around, and more effective than militia. In battle they are good for killing lightly armored troops such as light infantry, other archers, and perhaps most important : mages.
    # Longbows are good for killing light or medium armored troops, and very good for killing mages.
    # Crossbows are great for killing low numbers of heavy armored units that would otherwise give you trouble, such as armored pretenders or knights.

    Many independents (especially Barbarians) can be routed easily and with no casualties using a massed missile attack. This can sometimes speed up early expansion. Then split the missle units into your regular armies for mage plinking. If you encounter a storms-user, try to keep your missile troops in small raiding armies and stick to non missile troops for the main fights.
    Accuracy seems to be improved by keeping your missile troops in small groups of 5-10. They tend to pick a spot each then fire at it. 50 archers create an area hit by arrows with some spread to it. Dividing them into 5 smaller squads of 10 archers will give you 5 center points and a tighter spread on each.

    Q : What is the trampling formula?
    A : The damage is 8+(size of trampler*2) of armor piercing damage if the trampled unit misses his defence check (def 10 = about 50% chance). So a chariot will do about 16 points of armor piercing damage to about 50% of those it overran.
    Only the defence rating is checked, not the attack value from the attacker.
    However the trampled unit will always take at least 1 point of damage no matter what.

    Q : Is there any anti-human bias in how the AI picks its fights ?
    A : If you attack a computer province they will consider you an enemy. Once you are an enemy they never give up attacking you. Attacking a province at the same time as a computer player does not count as an offense.
    The computer tends to expand into independent provinces as long as it can. Then it starts looking for opportunities. At higher settings it sometimes looks for opportunities before it has finished expanding into independents.
    Beyond this the computer seems to expand into the path of least restistance. If you leave a weak border or no/low province defense, the computer will often decide that you are weak and will attack. The weak border is easy to gauge. Often the computer will spot a no/low defense province and will attack it will a scout or a Call of Wild/Wind. Once this happens you are an enemy.
    To slow down computer aggression keep troops on the borders and pump up province defense.

    		6.11.3 MAGIC IN GENERAL

    Q : I try to dispel a Global enchantment. You dont happen to have some guessed numbers about dispelling chances ?
    A : If both the global spell and the disjunction pay the base cost, there is about a 50% dispel chance. This is modified depending upon extra gems spent, with something like 20-30 extra in your favor giving close to 100% success/failure. The astral level of the caster also counts.
    If you can cast the enchantment too, it might be better to cast the spell yourself with more gems: if you cast it with more gems, the older enchantment gets dispelled and you get to keep the spell.

    Q : What is the interest, in the demo, to have more than 4 levels in a given magical sphere? Will my low-level (4 and less...) spells be more powerful if I have astral magic 8 ?
    A : For every 2 skill levels your ability to penetrate magical resistence increases (+1). Battle spells also cost less fatigue if you have more than the required skill.

    Q : What is the purpose of keeping gems with a mage? Battle spells dont seem to use gems anyway, so why transporting them?
    A : Some spells require them, and mages may opt to use one gem to increase their appropriate magic skill by one. It can't be increased more than that, but further gems may be used to decrease the fatigue for casting spells. You can't control their gem use, and they tend to be very liberal with their gems, so expect some to be "wasted".
    According to Illwinter, the maximum amount of gems you can spend on one spell (base amount + optional additional gems) is equal to your skill level in the approriate magic path.

    Q : How could I cast a spell with a fatigue value above 200 like Master Enslave (requires astral 8 and 8 astral gems but makes 800 fatigue points) ?
    A : you can do a Communion or a Sabbath to redirect the fatigue to the slaves, or spend additional gems (i.e. in addition to the spell cost and to the gem used to gain one level if necessary). Every additional gem decreases fatigue as if the mage had one more level in this school. A level 10 astral mage can cast Master Enslave if he has 10 astral pearls (he then temporary reaches level 12, thanks to the 2 additional gems he spent), so the fatigue is divided by 5 (the mage has now 4 levels beyond spell requirement), and will have 800/5 or 160 fatigue (+ encumbrance). He is stunned but stays alive.
    Remark : a level 9 mage cannot cast this spell even with 30 gems, because he cannot spend more that 9, and that is not enough to avoid death by exhaustion (fatigue > 200).
    Remark : in the same situation, a level 11 mage will spend 11 gems to even reduce his fatigue to 800/6 or 134 fatigue.
    Remark : the temporary higher level has also some effect on the spell (a Master Enslave is harder to resist, an Undead Horde brings more undeads, etc).

    Q : I vainly try to cast "Curse of Stones" (my pretender has gems, 6 levels in earth magic and no fatigue from armor), even when I selected this specific spell in his orders. Is there a known bug for this spell ?
    A : Sometimes the AI overrides what spell you want, especially when it thinks you don't need to spend gems to win the fight. Kind of annoying...

    Q : What effects does a drain dominion have other than lower research and higher magic resistance ?
    A : Increased fatigue when casting spells on the battlefield (+10 % fat for every drain level, or -10 % for every positive magic level in the province). Exemple : in a +2 magic province, Marignon Initiates can cast Will-o-Wisp for 84 fat. only (base 100, -20%, +4 enc.), in a -2 drain the same spell makes 124 fatigue points (base 100, +20%, +4 enc.).

    Q : How does temperature affect mages ?
    A : Increased enc. (added to fatigue) when casting spells on the battlefield (+1 enc. for every cold or heat level, if not immune, or +3 enc for every cold level if cold-blooded). Exemple : in a +3 cold province, a cold-blooded lamia queen has an enc. of 15 (base 4 + 9 for the extreme cold). In the same province, a Mystic has an enc. of 7 (base 4 + 3 for the cold).

    		6.11.4 FORTRESSES, RECRUITMENT AND SUPPLY

    Q : When are leaderless troops drawn into a battle ?
    A : If there is a fortress in the province, then the only defenders that participate in a battle outside the fort are leaders on patrol, plus their troops, plus local province defense. Leaderless troops, plus those belonging to leaders not patrolling, stay inside the fort.
    If there is no fortress and the province is attacked, then all defending forces join in, except for leaders on sneak and their troops. Ditto in a fortification storming battle, of course.

    Q : Does a fortress help gold income ?
    A : Yes. The administration % is added to the local income (ie. a 80 gold province with a fortified city will give you an income of 120).

    Q : Does a fortress help resource production ?
    A : Yes. Fortresses suck their administration % out of adjacent conquered provinces resource (not neutral or enemy provinces). Having many castles next door can suck a province dry. Furthermore, the resource value of a province is always halved if it does not contain a fortress (but the adjacent fortress sucks its admin % on the full amount - i.e. the double of what you see on the screen).

    Q : I'm unable to recruit any troop in a given province. What's wrong ?
    A : If you have the gold and the local resource, it could be the local unrest. Recruitment is impossible when the unrest reaches 100.

    Q : Is there a maximum unrest level in a given province ?
    A : Yes, maximum unrest = often 10 % of the population (if population is under 1,000 then unrest cannot reach 100 even after a pillage).

    Q :Where do mercenaries appear ?
    A : Mercs appear where they are hired. But you can re-hire mercs from a back province without the mercs moving. Drop the hire from the front-line province (if that province is lost then the mercs dissapear) and imediately set another one to pay their wages. They will stay on the job and not appear at the new hiring province. Better yet, hire a different group at the front line province. Using this tactic you can hire 2 or 3 groups at the same front-line position getting them all where you want them, then shift their wages to back provinces like the ones circling your home castle where its safer (and easier to remember where they are being paid from).
    Also, Mercs carry out their actions before they leave you. You can tell a merc band to attack the neighbor. In the same turn you can drop their pay and hire a new band. They still carry out the attack. This can be useful for quickly replacing a band that you know is going to be pretty well wiped out in an attack. Also in multiplayer games you can keep the mercs bouncing around so that nobody quite knows who is available for hire at any moment.

    Q : What is exactly the "defense" or "local militia" of a province ?
    A : each point spent in provincial defense brings some units (check the manual to see which) when the province is attacked. Buying 5+ defense is a cheap way to protect your land against a lone scout or a Call of the Wild/Wind. 10+ gets you a free patrol able to stop spies or stealth units (but not to quell unrest or kill brigands). 20+ gets you another unit type and a second commander.
    Those units are not available for other duties (ie. the player can not command them) but their maintenance is free - no supply, no upkeep. Combat losses are automatically replaced as long as you win the fight (if you lose, then the defense rating is zeroed).
    Militia will not pick up any items or gain any experience, or keep any afflictions. Each turn they are brand new replacements.

    Q : My large army is starving already in a province I just invaded. How could I know the supply level of an independant province before attacking ?
    A : The available supply of a province is calculated as follow : divide the population by a number between 100 (for smaler provinces) and 150 (for larger provinces). Add 20% per tick of growth, or remove 20% per tick of death, cold or heat. Add a multiple of the fortress administration %, if you have a fort up to 4 provinces away (only the best supplier is taken into account).
    0 = 4 x admin
    1 = 2 x admin
    2 = 4/3 x admin
    3 = 1 x admin
    4 = 4/5 x admin
    5+ = nothing

    Q : How are sieges resolved ?
    A : Each turn of siege decreases a fortress defense value by a number of points equal to a difference between the number of defenders and besiegers. When the fortress defense value is reduced to zero the besieger may storm the castle.
    Only the Strength is important (size does not matter) :
    A unit with STR 5 = 0,2 point
    STR 7 = 0,4 pt
    STR 9 (like human militia and wolves) = 0,8 pt
    STR 10 (most infantrymen and archers) = 1 pt
    STR 15 = 2,2 pts
    STR 20 (most giants) = 4 pts
    STR 22 (trolls) = 4,8

    - Flyers get +1 pt each. So, the weak black hawks (STR 5) are still average siege units (0,2 + 1 = 1,2).
    [Comment: I did read in the forum that hawks are animals and therefore suffer an animal penalty and thus do not get the a real flying bonus when seiging.]

    - Tower Guards, City Guard of C'tis and Halbardiers of Marignon count as two when defending. Guardians of Ulm count as three.
    - Mindless beings count only for 1/10th as defenders, but they have no penalty as besiegers.
    - The Wall Shaker adds 25 pts, and the Gate Cleaver adds 50 pts.

    		6.11.5 NATIONS AND DOMINIONS

    Q : I'm told that some nations have a "construction bonus". What is it ?
    A : Man and Pangaea use sacred groves as temple, instead of stone buildings (so they cost 100 instead of 200). Arcoscephale build labs at half cost (100 instead of 200).

    Q : Do Temples function like super priests or are they different?
    A : They are different and have different uses. Priest preaching increases the dominion upon a certain province, up to the preacher level. Temples however spread dominion in nearby provinces.
    So if you want to spread your dominion, build temples.
    If you want to strengthen your dominion in a certain province, preach (building a temple in addition helps too).

    Q : Every nation has a "pre-researched spells". Which one ?
    Abysia : Flare
    Arcoscephale : Astral Window
    Atlantis : Friendly Currents
    Caelum : Wind Guide
    Ctis : Terror
    Ermor : Raise Skeletons
    Jotunheim : Curse, Luck
    Man : Sleep
    Marignon : Holy Pyre
    Pangaea : Panic
    Pythium : Communion Master, Communion Slave
    R'lyeh : Mind Burn
    Ulm : Legions of Steel
    Vanheim : Phantasmal Warrior

    Q : Every nation has a "favourite temperature". What is it?
    A : Abysia likes +3 heat, Ctis +1 heat, Caelum +3 cold, Jotunheim +2 cold, Vanheim +1 cold.
    Jotuns and Caelians are also cold resistant, and therefore will gain an advantage over non cold resistant troops fighting in cold climes (extra fatigue, especially cold-blooded creatures), Abysians are heat resistant and gain similar advantage in warm dominions, the heat haze around abysians will also become more effective in warm dominions, same goes for the heat of summer lions and devils. It might also be a good idea for underwater nations to max out their dominion either for heat or cold since the income reduction from heat and cold does not apply underwater.

    Q : Are all dominion effects cumulative ?
    A : Yes, the bonuses are not added in as a lump, they are multiplied in one by one. This means that the previous bonus increases the potency of each additional bonus.
    For the gold revenue, if you take order +3, productivity +3, growth +3 and Fortified city (admin 50%), you got something like : 1.3 (tax 130 % for order) * 1.15 (for production) * 1.15 (for growth) * 1.5 (for 50% admin), giving total of 258% of the gold that it would make with no bonuses.

    	6.12  The best questions seen on usenet (with long answers)

    		6.12.1  The Ten Whammies in Dominions

    The Ten Whammies in Dominions

    * What is a Whammy?

    A Whammy is a technique that is so potent and unexpected that it can
    shift the balance of power all by itself. There are many strategies in
    the game of Dominions that are very potent, yet there are some basics
    that experienced players seem to cultivate on a routine basis.  As the
    player base gets more and more competent these situations are becoming
    more common. While I am not normally a big advocate of giving away
    secrets, I feel that it is getting hard on newer players who have no
    idea what they are facing. I am writing this essay in an attempt to
    educate the newer players so they have a competitive chance when
    entering games. This will level the playing field a little and will (I
    hope) help stimulate the production of even stronger strategies in the
    future.

    1> Super Combatants

    * What is a Super Combatant?

    A Super Combatant is a character that is so powerful that it can take
    on entire armies by itself!
    Super Combatants are usually pretender gods, but can sometimes be
    large summoned creatures.
    While no Super Combatant is invincible, they can be difficult to stop
    unless you have some method prepared before they begin to savage your
    resources.  New players rarely have counter techniques prepared and as
    such are extremely vulnerable to a well deigned Super Combatant.

    Super Combatants will have many of the following characteristics;
    Much health, incredible protection, untouchable defense,
    regeneration, trample, flying, immunity to fire/cold/lightning,
    immunity/resistance to missiles, increased resistance to magic, luck,
    etherealness,  heat or cold shield, and astral shield.

    A well crafted Super Combatant will have enough of these attributes to
    stand a reasonable chance of  surviving immense numbers of enemies
    while being able to lash out and kill/rout the opposing army.

    Super Combatants take a commitment in time and resources. Many players
    will not dedicate themselves this heavily to a strategy that places
    all their eggs in one basket. Still, there are many players that enjoy
    the risks and rewards of flinging about Super Combatants. If you
    intend to play Dominions competitively you will need to stay aware of
    this issue.

    In order to fully grasp the dangers involved, I offer these two
    examples:

    Example #1
    Sphinx pretender god (Astral 8, Water 3)
    Magic Items:  Amulet of Anti-Magic, Pendant of Luck
    Spells cast upon entering combat: Quickness-Body Ethereal-Astral
    Shield-Breath of Winter

    Example #2
    Great Mother pretender god (Earth 3, Nature 1)
    Magic Items: Main Gauche of Parrying, Charcoal Shield, Robe of
    Shadows, Horror Helmet, Boots of the Messenger, Pendant of Luck,
    Amulet of Resilience
    Spells Cast upon entering combat: Invulnerability

    There are many other combinations that can be created, but these are
    the two most common themes.
    The teleporting ‘rock‘, and the trampling menace.

    There are a variety of strategies that a player may use to counter a
    Super Combatant, however much depends on the capabilities of the
    nation in question and the vulnerabilities on the particular Super
    Combatant being attacked.

    Techniques to counter a Super Combatant:

    * Mass Crossbow attack
    This is probably the easiest counter to create since it involves
    troops that might be available to a player naturally or through
    acquired provinces.  Crossbows are ‘armor piercing’ and
    can sometimes overcome a Super Combatants high protection value. Then
    again, often they won’t, and some combatants will have missile
    countering mechanisms. This is unreliable but is often the only tactic
    available to a player under surprise attack.

    * Curse
    The spell curse requires one level of astral and one level of nature
    magic. Jotunheim starts with the spell and mages that can cast it.
    C’tis has the mage, but needs to do research. Most other nations
    will have to get lucky with a mage that gets a random magic or will
    have to pick up a mage from an independent province (usually a lizard
    shaman). You may also craft the magic item ‘Totem Shield”
    which casts curse in combat, but you still need astral/nature to make
    it. There is no defense versus curse, and it lasts forever. Once a
    Super Combatant is cursed it will have a greatly increased chance of
    acquiring battle afflictions.  A stack of afflictions can often
    debilitate a combatant, or even better might curtail or destroy its
    ability to cast spells. Many combatants are dangerous to touch, and as
    such the best way to get in those afflictions is to curse, then pepper
     the combatant with missile fire or summoned creatures.

    * Spell Failure Casualty
    There are a variety of spells that will debilitate or destroy a Super
    Combatant if it fails a single spell check.  Many combatants are not
    vulnerable to some of these spells, and many combatants will have high
    (and augmented) magic resistance.  Still you may get lucky, and you
    only need to get lucky once.
    Some spells you should keep in mind are: Soul slay, disintegrate,
    charm, polymorph, paralyze, bone melter, and control.

    * Ethereal Crossbow
    Similar to the category above, any being hit by and ethereal crossbow
    must make a magic check or die. This requires a successful crossbow
    hit on top of the magic check and isn’t easy to get, but
    sometimes you don’t have many options. The crossbow works
    underwater and during storms, plus can be fired by any commander. If
    you are lucky it can do the trick.

    * Bow of Botulf
    If you are lucky enough to hit the enemy with this weapon it may drive
    them ‘insane’, an affliction that will impede their magic
    abilities.

    * Seasonal Spirits (Summer Lions, Winter Wolves, Spring Hawks, and
    Fall Bears)
    As these ritually summoned creatures have 50 morale and do not fatigue
    they may be good for hammering on a Super Combatant. They will often
    fare much better than common troops. In particular if you can use
    winter wolves versus combatants using breath of winter or use summer
    lions versus combatants using a charcoal shield/fire shield you may be
    able to dodge one of the combatants more unpleasant properties. Still
    these spirits are expensive and are often considered a players elite
    troops. Putting them in against a Super Combatant is risky and may
    incur serious losses even if successful.

    * Elementals
    Elementals are similar in power to the seasonal spirits but have the
    benefit of being inconsequential to lose since they are summoned anew
    every battle. A group of mages can overwhelm a combatant with
    continuous summonings.  Even if overwhelmed combatants are not killed,
    they can often be routed. Better still, if the combatant becomes
    immobilized by the mob of elementals (more common with air elementals)
    then the combatant will eventually “auto-perish” after
    many rounds of unsuccessful rout. This is probably in the game to
    prevent infinite combats, but also can be twisted to help fight hard
    to kill combatants.

    If you do not have any of these counters handy, you are playing Super
    Combatant roulette.
    Perhaps you’ll get lucky… Perhaps not.

    2> Instant Magical Movement
    There are three spells that allow players to move characters and
    armies to a location of their choice. These are Cloud Trapeze,
    Teleport, and Gateway. Cloud Trapeze and Teleport allow the casting
    mage to move, while Gateway allows the entire army to transport. This
    magical movement is incredibly potent for two reasons. First, it
    allows you to go anywhere in one move/turn. I hope I don’t have
    to explain why this is powerful. Second, this movement occurs during
    the magic phase BEFORE ordinary movement. Hence by making a magical
    move you may land an attack on an ordinary force before they can move
    away, and thus you will have the advantage of choosing your fights.
    There is no real counter for instantaneous enemy movements beyond
    staying aware that it can happen and trying to anticipate it. Keep in
    mind that Pythium, Arcoscephale, and R’lyeh have native mages
    that can cast both teleport and gateway once they have done the spell
    research. Some Super Combatants (Sphinx and Monolith in particular)
    will use teleport to make their ‘move’ versus your armies.
    Many players take astral skill on their pretenders just so they have
    some access to gateway later in the game. No joke folks, expect it.

    3> Magic Duel
    Magic Duel is a third level battle evocation. Two mages with astral
    skill ’duel’ and one dies. The spell description states
    that the mage with higher skill is the likely winner. I have witnessed
    many duels, and have never seen the weaker mage kill the stronger
    mage.  At this time I consider the higher level mage to have a certain
    victory, although there is a chance that the low level mage can win
    and I just have never seen it happen. Magic Duel has two major
    influences on the game. First if you have mages with astral skill and
    you go into battle versus a nation that has mages using more astral
    skill, you will watch all your mages get blown away! This can be quite
    a shock if you didn’t know about Magic Duel. If you have astral
    skill you must have the most, or stay out of battle.  The other effect
    of Magic Duel is that it creates a default “Astral King”.
    The Astral King is the character in the world with the MOST astral
    skill. This mage trumps all other astral mages. Astral skill is also
    used for movement spells (see #2). As such once spells have been
    researched the Astral King tends to dominate battles since he can
    teleport/gateway into conflict with other astral mages and lay down
    the law. If you are playing with astral skills (and you do want to)
    then you also want to be the best at it, because with Magic Duel in
    play there is little room for second best.

    4> Ritual Summons
    There are a wide variety of magical creatures that mages can summon in
    this game via rituals.
    Most are very potent and are a great way to get efficiency from your
    gem supply. Elemental mages will summon  seasonal spirits (Summer
    Lions, Winter Wolves, Spring Hawks, and Fall Bears).
    They are extremely potent and will be the elite forces of most wise
    players armies. In straight up combat these spirits will do very heavy
    damage to ordinary troops. Spring Hawks are extra dangerous since they
    can fly, and often dive for commanders (routing the commanders
    troops). Seasonal spirits do not have morale issues, nor do they get
    fatigued.
    Death mages will summon a variety of undead from wimpy skeletons to
    mighty behemoths.
    Nature mages will tend to create Vine Ogres or Lamias. There are other
    fearsome summons to be sure, but these are the ones you will see most
    often.
    Most summoned magical creatures require magic command skill or they
    will rout/freeze in battle.
    The best way to counter summoned creatures is to kill the mage that is
    controlling them. The best way to catch enemy mages is with missile
    fire, flyers, or cavalry on the flanks. Sometimes your enemy will make
    things difficult for you by screening their mages, using missile
    counter measures, or using a pretender god. If you can’t kill
    off the enemies that provide magic control then you will have to duke
    it out with these toughies. Your own spirits, elementals, and knights,
    will fare best in these instances.

    5> Battlefield Summons
    Mages with elemental magics can summon elementals. Much like seasonal
    spirits they have no morale issues and do not fatigue. Many players
    cultivate large numbers of capable mages and use them to summon up a
    blizzard of elementals during combat. If you have never seen it
    happen, you will be shocked when you encounter a group of enemy mages
    who grind your army down with a relentless stream of summons.  The
    most powerful are the air elementals, since they fly into combat this
    allows the controlling mages to sit far back on the battlefield.
    Furthermore, air elementals are exceptional at running down routing
    troops.  Death mages will tend to summon masses of low level undead,
    and nature mages usually summon wolves (howl).
    Much like the ritual creatures, the best counter is to kill the
    controlling mages (see comments in #4).

    6> Battlefield Domination  Spells
    After much research is done, many nations and pretenders whip out
    combinations of battlefield spells that are simply devastating.  We
    are not talking about a fireball that blows away a few infantry. We
    are talking about spells that consume armies. More often than not this
    is a combination of a spell that affects a wide area (or entire
    battlefield) and an immunity (natural or created) for your own troops.

    Some combinations you will be surprised by eventually are:
       Poison Ward - Poison Cloud (weak, but available earlier than
    others)
       Thunder Ward - Shimmering Fields
       Fire Ward/Fend  - Fire Storm/Heat from Hell
       Winter Ward - Grip of Winter

    If your army is unprepared for this, there is a very good chance that
    you will be blown away.

    7> Storms
    Storms is a magical effect from a mage that casts it as a level 3
    evocation or by any character carrying a staff of storms. The staff is
    popular since it’s effect is on the battlefield right from the
    start and does not need casting.  Storms cancels all missile fire.
    Most flyers cannot fly during a storm, the exceptions being storm
    guards, air elementals, spring hawks and storm demons. Missile troops
    and flyers are rather popular and the ability to cancel out their
    abilities is a huge slam sometimes. Storms is often used to protect
    valuable mages who then no longer need to fear arrows or flyers.
    What can you do if your enemy is using storms? First stop relying on
    archers and flyers. Second use mages in battle. Why not, your enemy is
    screening for you. You might try the ethereal crossbow or piercer
    (another crossbow) both of which work in a storm. There isn’t
    much else you can do, which is why storms are extremely popular.
    The same mages that can cast storms also cast summon air elemental.
    Here they come now…

    8> Army Blasting
    There are a few spells that allow mages to hammer armies from the
    convenience of their own labs. The beauty of this magical artillery
    should be self-evident. The first time you get hit by one of these
    effects you are going to sit there and stare at the screen wondering
    ‘what the heck am I going to do now’? Now that your enemy
    has done the research (and it was a lot) he will probably blast an
    army of yours every turn. What will you do? Your response will be to
    write the offender a nasty letter and pretend like your aren’t
    hurting all that bad. Ask your girlfriend to hug you.  Tell other
    players in the game what’s happening. Perhaps you get an ally
    out of other players fear that they are next. Pray that your enemy
    only has one caster that can use this spell, and send in multiple
    armies. Take him out fast as you are on a slippery slope.

    What spells am I talking about?
    Murdering winter, Flames from the Sky, and Leprosy.
    Leprosy kills slowly but is available early and is the spell you are
    most likely to encounter.
    Arcoscephale has priests that heal afflictions and Pangaea’s
    troops heal naturally, so Leprosy is less problematic for these
    nations.
    Murdering winter and Flames from the Sky will kill a bunch of troops
    instantly, but these spells take a serious amount of research before
    becoming available.

    There are some “dome” spells that can protect a province
    from enemy spells, but since you can’t win by sitting your
    armies inside your own provinces, this isn’t really a good
    option.
    Your best bet is to win the game before this much research is done.

    9> Province Blasting
    There are a variety of spells that do harm to enemy provinces. There
    are two basic types. First we have spells that cause about 20 unrest
    and often have a secondary effect. This would be spells such as wolven
    winter, baleful star, hurricane, raging hearts, and blight. These
    spells are not very impressive with a single casting but can be potent
    if used to cripple key provinces. This depends a good deal on the map
    being played. Smaller maps with key provinces offer a strong target
    for these spells. Large maps offering dozens of rich provinces make
    these spells less valuable. If your enemy has a few key provinces then
    creating massive unrest can cripple his economy and possibly prevent
    production (unrest over 100 stops production). Beyond these spells are
    the province smashing spells. These take a dedicated research
    commitment but are appropriately devastating. Among these spells are
    Black Death, Tidal Wave and Volcanic Eruption. Striking an enemy
    province with these will kill very significant amounts of population.
    With repetitive castings a good deal of harm can be done to the
    targets economy. Once an opponent starts pounding you with these your
    only real hope is to win before they cripple you. If you get a chance
    you can try to put up some of the ‘Dome’ spells which
    prevent enemy castings into your provinces, however these will not
    stop all spells and it will be difficult to protect all your big
    provinces.

    10> Assassination
    There are two basic types of assassination. The basic method is to use
    an assassin character to strike at enemy characters in his own
    province. Assassins are not very dangerous without augmentation, but
    with a few magic items they can be potent.  Knocking out a key
    character at the proper time can be a major development. Sometimes
    assassins are frustratingly difficult to use well, and other times
    they can make a big difference. Some magic items that make assassins
    potent (without going overboard) are: Lifelong Protection Contract,
    Skull Talisman, Skullface, Wraith Crown, and the Bag of Wind. All of
    these involve bringing in extra flunkies to help in the fight. The
    beat way to protect versus assassination is to have troops
    ‘guard commander’.  Raising province defense above 20 will
    greatly increase the chance that the assassin will get caught while
    ‘passing through’. You might try giving a few guards to
    mages that cast battle summons spells and put these in the provinces
    that you feel are at risk. Often these guarded mages will act as
    assassin land mines.
    The second  method of assassination is by ritual spell. There are a
    variety of interesting spells that can be used to zap an enemy
    character. You might try, seeking arrow, mind hunt, vengeance of the
    dead, and wind ride. To protect yourself from such attacks you may
    hide in a province with a ‘Dome’ spell, or wear an amulet
    of anti-magic to increase your ability to resist  hostile forces.
    Ultimately you best recourse is to figure out who is shooting these
    spells at you, and remove that nation from the game.

    These are the techniques that I have encountered to date that change
    everything when they happen.
    I hope that you will find this information of use both on offense and
    defense.
    Please feel free to copy and/or distribute this essay, as there is
    little point if it remains unread.

    -Alex Poger

    		6.12.2 How to defend against masses of air elementals

    Lately, I have gotten many strategy requests from players who are
    having trouble countering masses of lesser air elementals. Countering
    air elementals is a major pain in Dominions, and it's something most
    players will encounter often.

    In the hope of helping newer players come to grips with this threat, I
    have written the following essay. Hope it helps someone.  ;)

    How to defend against masses of lesser air elemetals:

    1> Kill the enemey mages. Archery is particularly good for this.
    Longbows of Accuracy work well. Unfortunately if your enemy is using
    storms, then this will be countered.

    2> Put rings of tamed lightning on large troops like a Wyrm or
    Knights. Haveing a few strong lightning immune troops can help a lot.

    3> Lesser air elementals only can trample human sized targets. They
    can't trample cavalry. Using larger troops can slow the elemetals down
    a lot.

    4> Fire Elementals. They are much harder to get into the correct area,
    but in a stand-up fight they beat air elementals. Getting them into
    position without losing mages/troops is hard, but if you can do it,
    they will have the advantage.

    5> Mages casting direct damage spells can often kill off air
    elementals faster than they are made. This is tricky due to friendly
    fire and the need to place the mages forward on the battlefield, but
    it can be done.

    6> Thunder Ward (enchantment 4) is the best method of combating air
    elementals. Thunder Ward will give your entire army protection from
    electrical attacks. Getting a character with two levels of air skill
    and doing the research for thunder ward is always a very high priority
    for me in almost every game I play.

    Many nations can generate the extra air skill with a communion if they
    need it. For example Marignon or Abysia have mages that have astral
    skill and also have one random magic pick. They can get a mage with
    one air fairly quick. Have that mage cast communion master and have
    two others cast communion slave. This will get the master the second
    level of air, and then with two air gems you can cast thunder ward.

    If you don't want to use communion, you can also use Power of the
    Spheres (at an expense of astral gems). That also does the trick for
    an extra point of air skill if your mage has astral skill.

    Getting Thunder Ward:
    Abysia - One Warlock with air-1, power of spheres, or 2 extra astral
    mages & communion
    Atlantis - Kings of the Deep sometime come in with air-2
    Pythium - Arch-Theurgs have air-2.
    Man - Crones have air-2.
    Ulm - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.
    Ctis - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.
    Arco - Mystics sometimes come with air-2, or use power of spheres, or
    2 extra astral mages & communion
    Caelum - Seraphs have air-3.
    Ermor - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.
    Marignon - One Grand Master with air-1, power of spheres, or 2 extra
    astral mages & communion
    Pangaea - No natural method, must use pretender or find air mages.
    Vanheim - Vanjarls have air-2.
    Jotunheim - One Norna with air-1, power of spheres, or 2 extra astral
    mages & communion
    Rlyeh - Starspawn sometimes come with air-2, or use power of spheres,
    or 2 extra astral mages & communion

    Out of 14 nations only four have no natural path to thunder ward.
    These nations must either find an air mage at a new province, or must
    prepare in advance with a pretender that starts with air.

    When I have no thunder ward capable mages, I always try to serach for
    air sites aggressively. As soon as I get a mage with air-1 I send him
    out to search. The hope is that I might uncover a special location
    that produces air mages. These sites are rare, but worth the effort if
    it gets you your thunder ward. If nothing else I try to get a sage
    with air-1 to go out and do seraching. Sage sites are pretty common,
    and it gives everyone some hope.

    7> Howl. This spell summons three wolves onto the battlefield from a
    random direction. The reason why this is good is twofold. First even
    if your enemy is using storms, you might catch his mages from behind.
    Second the summoned elementals tend to leap at the closest enemy.
    Sometimes they will go after extraneous wolves, giving your main
    troops time to close the distance. It might not be the best way to
    deal with air elementals, but it is somewhat effective.

    8> Faery Queen. If you have reserached conjuration-8 and have a
    nature-5 mage you can summon a Faery Queen who has air-3. This is a
    long route to a thunder ward capable mage, but sometimes you have to
    do things the hard way.

    9> Crystal Sorceresses. Using a power of the spheres or communion
    these mages can toss a thunder ward. They are available in spaces
    occupied by the Crystal Amazon tribes. They are not common, but there
    are often a few of these locations on each map. You don't need to
    seach for any special sites to utilize them. These are always a good
    thing to find.

    All said, I think that the air elementals are a bit too strong.
    Illwinter claims to be changing the storms/archery/air elemental
    dynamic in the next version. I hope they do a good job of addressing
    this issue.

    -Alex Poger

    		6.12.3 WHAT A PATROL CAN DO

    First, you have two different kind of patrols : local militia (10+) and commanders with orders to patrol.

    Local militia/'defense' is cheaper, at least the first points, but has no effect on unrest. 10+ defense gets you a patrol able to catch spies or stealth units but not to quell unrest. Those units are not available for other duties (ie. the player can not command them) but their maintenance is free - no supply, no upkeep. Combat losses are automatically replaced as long as you win the fight (if you lose, then the defense rating is zeroed). Militia will not pick up any items or gain any experience, or keep any affliction. Each turn they are brand new replacements.

    OTOH commanders on patrol can both stop spies and quell unrest.

    The price of your patrollers should be considered of course : 50 shortbowmen + 2 commanders will cost you 34 gold/t to maintain, and 500 GP to get. Not counting the pop loss, this patrol will be worthwhile for 20 turns if the higher tax rate brings you at least 60 gold/t (500 + (20x34)) / 20 = 59)...

    2 - HOW DO TAXES AFFECT UNREST ?

    Taxes do affect unrest in a completely deterministic way : 3 new bandits will appear for every 10% above normal level (depending on local order). If you set taxes to 200% in a neutral (zero) order dominion, 33 new bandits will rise up there against you. Next turn, if nothing changes, you'll find 66 opponents, etc...

    Every bandit (if not killed by patrols) causes 1 unrest point at the end of the year.

    Tax and turmoil are not the only sources of unrest. Some sites can cause unrest, even if they stay hidden. So do slave hunters and enemy spies. Some creatures, like the Harvester of Sorrow, can cause unrest too.

    3 - HOW TO RAISE TAXES WHILE KEEPING UNREST BEARABLE ?

    Patrols quell unrest by 1 point for every bandit killed (and this really reduces population, figures are rounded as multiples of 10).

    Unlike unrest, patrol efficency is random (since patch 1.07) and heavy taxation can sometime cause bursts of unrest indeed, even with a lot of patrols. Splitting the patrols to avoid unlucky 'rolls' has no effect.

    Basically, every patroller will catch 1/2 bandit.
    But the graph is linear (with 30 soldiers you have the same chance to catch 0, 10, 20 or 30 bandits). So, its much more random than if each patroller has 50% chance to succeed. See my tests hereunder (vertical y-axis = nr of bandits found) :
    1 - I ordered a centaur and 40 harpies to patrol for 60 turns. The patrol caught 2,629 bandits, or 43.8/t on average. Minimum was 2, maximum was 81.
    2 - I ordered 2 wolfriders Chiefs and 40 goblins (vaettir) to patrol for 60 turns. They caught 1,288 bandits, or 21.4/t on average. Minimum was 0, maximum was 42.

    A centaur + 40 harpies :

    Two Chiefs + 40 goblins :

    Some units have a bonus or a penalty :
    - Forresters (Man) count as 5 units,
    - Flyers count as 2 units. The "Call of the Wind" spell will give you hawks. Finding sites which give flyers (like raptors) can help also.
    - Maenads and mindless units have a penalty I believe.

    There are no perfect formulas, so keep in mind empirical answers like "10 flyers are usually enough to kill 10 brigands and can sometimes kill 20".

        * With Order 0, you can relatively safely raise taxes to 130-140% with only 25 patrollers, but 100 patrollers is a good target for 200% taxes while keeping unrest low for a long time.

        * With Order -3, 150 patrollers is a good target for 200% taxes while keeping unrest under 10 (when you have negative order, there'll always be a bit of unrest, about 3 pts/turmoil level), most of the time. 80 patrollers could be enough if you feel very lucky, but you'll not hold long. 200 patrollers are much safer, but will also kill 40-50 people every turn (and I've seen unrest increasing by 40-50 pts in one turn, even with heavy patrols!).

        * With Order +3, you can raise taxes to 130% without the least unrest, and to 200% with 70 troops minimum.

    Note that "new mine" random events are affected by tax rates, but special sites that give extra gold (eg: Arena, Brigand Lair) aren't.

    		6.12.4 How much hunters do you need to find 50 slaves ?

    		http://www.freewebs.com/sunraybe/blood.html
    Johan Osterman wrote last year on the cdmag forum that "the score in blood magic affects both the chance of finding and the number found, the ratio is about 10%+(score in blood magic)*20% and a die (open ended) + (score in blood magic) will be the number found if search is successful. Dowsing rod will add both to the chance that you find slaves and to the number found. You will also have harder times finding blood slaves in depopulated provinces and it will be impossible in provinces above a certain unrest level. Most rolls in the Game are open ended (upwards)".

    This was not very clear, so I made 300 slave hunts with 3 different commanders (a priest without magic and no Sanguine Dousing Rod, a priest without magic but equipped with a rod, a Vanjarl with 1 level in blood magic and a rod), in a neutral order dominion (order = 0), in 18 provinces with large population (> 10,000) and bearable unrest (always under 50).

    This is not a perfect test, but it is interesting.

    		6.12.4.1 Chance to find blood slaves

    So we could probably say that the minimum chance to find slaves is 20 % (and not 10 % as seen on Usenet) + 20 % for each level of blood magic (a rod counts as 2 levels).

    The number of captured slaves could be a die roll (open ended) + score in blood magic, as expected, if the die has a side with zero.

    Conclusion: if you want 50 slaves / turn on a regular basis, you need 63 "amateur" hunters without magic or rod, 16 hunters without magic but equipped with a rod, or 11 hunters with each blood 1 and a rod.

    		6.12.4.2 Unrest

    Every attempt causes some unrest however, about 3 points on average (but the spread is huge, thanks to the die roll system). I¿ve seen unrest going down by 7 points, or up to 27 points !
    Fortunately, unrest moves between -2 and +10 about 90% of the times (other extreme changes are very rare).

    Finally, every captured slave increases unrest by 1 more point.

    This is a table for the unrest caused by the attempt (so not counting the captured slaves):

    Conclusion: if you place 3 priests, each equipped with a rod, hunting in the same province, expect about 18 more unrest points every turn. Reduce taxes (but this drains your income) or patrol heavily (but this kills population).
    An orderly dominion could make a difference too. Every order level automatically removes 3 unrest points / turn. So you could spread a horde of low-level mages and still see no unrest...

    		6.12.4.3 Population or high unrest

    Other elements are not taken into account. Unrest above 50 seems to make slave hunt harder but not impossible. Slaves are still found above 100, but business is hampered indeed (about 40% less than normal).
    It is hard to tell if population size has an important impact. In a province of 5,000 souls, hunters were slightly less successful too (about 20% less than normal). But my test was limited on this point.

    		6.12.4.4 Fountain of Blood

    This pretender has a strong bonus when hunting slaves, something like +4 levels in blood magic (twice the SDR bonus). In a large province without unrest, a Blood-6 Fountain with a Rod can find about 15 slaves on average (d6 +12), for every hunt.

    	6.13 PILLAGE

    (Thanks to Francisco Muñoz for finding the function used by the game to evaluate the pillage strengh).

    Pillage is based on units¿ size (each Hoburg Hobbit = 1 point, each Human footman = 2 points, each Cavalryman = 3 etc).
    Calvary units get a +1 bonus, flyers get +2.
    Barbarians count as two normal human infantrymen, ie. for 4 points each. Barbarian Chiefs and Lords count for 12 points each.
    Finally, with an Implementor Axe (greater magic item), a commander gets a 50 points bonus.

    Fear also increases the efficiency of the pillage as follow :

    Fear -4 + 0 point

    Fear -3 + 1

    Fear -2 + 1

    Fear -1 + 2

    Fear 0 + 2

    Fear +1 + 3

    Fear +2 + 3

    Fear +3 + 4

    Fear +4 + 4

    Fear +5 + 5

    ...  ...

    Fear +15 + 10 points

    Pillages always kill a certain % of the province population, about :

    200 pillage points kill +/- 34 % pop

    160 pillage points kill +/- 32 % pop

    100 pillage points kill +/- 30 % pop

    80 pillage points kill +/- 24 % pop

    60 pillage points kill +/- 18 % pop

    50 pillage points kill +/- 15 % pop

    40 pillage points kill +/- 12 % pop

    30 pillage points kill +/- 9 % pop

    Then you get 1 gold for every 20 people killed.

    Note that every "pillage" order is executed separately, even in the same province, and that you need at least 1 pillage point for 400 or 500 people to plunder some gold (or local population can revolt and stop the pillagers  not without civilian losses).

    Exemple : 3 barbarian chiefs with 10 barbarians each (= 52 pts for each troop) pillage a province of 6,580 pop. They operate separately, one after the other. The first chief kills 1,020 people (51 gold), the second then kills 860 people (43 gold) and the last kills 730 of the remaining people (36 gold). They killed about 15% of the pop each, or a total of 40%. Note that unrest has gone up from 6 to 284 points!

    	6.14 Some comments about spells  THAT'S NOT IN THE SPELL MANUAL

    		6.14.1 CONJURATION

        * Acashic Record : unveils all magic sites, even holy or unholy sites.

        * Awaken Sleeper : the Firbolg is a good fighter and an excellent archer (prec 15). He is a standard-bearer and can lead everything (75 normal, 25 undead and 50 magic units). He has an enchanted spear and all of the slots available for more magic items.

        * Call of the Wild : cannot target a water province. The wolves cost no upkeep.

        * Call of the Winds : cannot target a water province. The hawks cost 14 gold/turn (upkeep), so they are no 'free' patrollers.

        * Contact Harbiner : its horn also affect ordinary, non-undead troops. The blow is weak but affects a large area (up to 5 squares), and does not work underwater.

        * Contact Lamia : you get 1 more lamia for every nature level above 3. Lamia Queens contact 2 more lamias (ie. a level 3 Queen brings 5 lamias).

        * Contact Lamia Queen : the queen has 2 Death + 1 Nature + 2 different sorcery picks. Possibly the most gem/cost effective summoned mage, and one of a very few non-Ermorian summoned spellcasters with random magics.

        * Earth Attack : a huge 50hp earth elemental tries to assassinate an enemy commander in the target province. MR offers no protection. The elemental does not attack friendly commanders or sneaking units.

        * Guardians of the Deep : adds 5-15 "monsters" to any local militia undersea (a mixed bag of Sea Trolls, Sea Serpents, Lobsters and Krakens). Even ordinary units do not count, you need at least 1 point of defense. But the size of the local defense does not matter.

        * Power of the Spheres : also increases Holy/Unholy powers

        * Summon Ghosts : you get 1 more ghost for every death level above 2.

        * Summon Spectre : the Spectral Mage gets 1 Death + 2 different random picks (can be anything).

        * Voice of Tiamat : unveils sites of elemental power only (i.e. air, earth, fire and water).

        * Well of Misery : gives +21 death gems / turn, and increases tax revenue in all provinces in the world by 10 %.

        * Wind Ride : commanders with earth magic of 4 or more, size 6 or ethereal are not affected.

    		6.14.2 ALTERATION

        * Aim : gives + 5 precision.

        * Arouse Hunger : you get 3 more undeads for every death level above 3. Like CoW, the spell is not anonymous.

        * Baleful Star : makes about 30 unrest in the target province, and shifts local dominions 2 steps toward unluck (maxium seems +2 unluck). The spell is anonymous.

        * Blight : makes about 15 unrest in the target province, and kills about 5 % of the population. The spell is anonymous.

        * Drain Life : should target only enemy units. But evil mages sometimes drain the life of friendly commanders and kill them to regain some strength.

        * Eagle Eye : gives + 5 precision.

        * Earth Might : gives + 4 strength. It'll target the biggest friendly unit (more hp) within range (other weaker units in the same square are affected as well).

        * Hurricane : makes about 20-25 unrest in the target province.

        * Magic Duel : Before the 1.14 patch, the initiator of the duel was always the winner (bug).
          With ver 1.14, each side gets to add his astral skill to an open ended d6 (initiator wins ties, probably). A +3 differential gives you about 1 to 10 odds.
          There is no saving throw. Mages without astral magic are unaffected. Communions or Sabbaths do not improve the astral level of the duellists.

        * Marble Warriors : base prot is 15, like Stoneskin.

        * Mind Hunt : the caster is feebleminded if there is any astral mage in the target province (and the spell fails !). There is no saving throw.

        * Mother Oak : gives you 10 more nature gems each turn.

        * Transformation : the caster keeps his experience and magic/holy power (but not his holyness). Unusable items in the new form are lost.

        * Wind Guide : gives +5 precision to all friendly units, not only for shooting but also for the mages and priests (improving low precision spells, like Dust to Dust, Fireball or even Banishment).

        * Phantasmal Attack : you get 5 more warriors for every air level above 4. The spell is anonymous - drawback : you don't control the target province after the battle. This is a ritual, not a battle spell, so the caster has no fatigue (the manual is wrong on this point).

        * Wish : a few keywords are acceptable for the computer. Click HERE to see a (uncomplete) list.

        * Wolven Winter : makes the target province colder (temporary shift +3 toward cold), but does not make any unrest. Income is still affected by the cold if the 'natural' dominion is not cold +3. This spell is anonymous.

    		6.14.3 EVOCATION

        * Astral Projection : the caster is feebleminded if there is any astral mage in the target province. There is no saving throw.

        * Earthquake : there is some kind of saving throw, based on the defense skill.

        * Flames from the Sky : does not depend on temperature. About 50% of the troops in the province are always "safe" and unaffected even if several FFTS are cast on the same province.

        * Maestrom : gives +15 water gems / turn.

        * Murdering Winter : does not affect more units in colder climes, but makes more damage. About 50% of the troops in the province are always "safe" and unaffected even if several MW are cast on the same province.

        * Nether darts / bolts : MR negates even the physical damage.

        * Perpetual Storm : units that can fly in the battlefield storm are unable to fly for movement during a Perpetual Storm, all normal movement is based on ground movement (you'd think that those could fly during a storm in battle should be able to fly during a storm out of battle too). About 75% of all Seeking Arrows will be blown off course.
          The storms reduce the incomes between 20% (for very large provinces) and 50% (for small provinces).

        * Slime : attack, defense and AP of the victims are halved (rounded down).

        * Storm : cancels all ordinary missile fire, plus most flyers cannot fly (the exceptions being air elementals, spring hawks, storm guards, storm demons, sylphs, queens of air and horrors- very convenient, since the same mage can summon most of them...). With a Winged Helmet, a flying commander can still fly in a storm.

        * Tidal Wave : kills 40% of the population and makes about 40 unrest points. It is anonymous.

        * Volcanic Eruption : kills 30% of the population and makes about 30 unrest points. It is anonymous.

    		6.14.4 CONSTRUCTION

        * Construct Mandragora : you get 2 more mandragoras for every nature level above 2.

        * Forge of the Ancients : gives a 50% forge bonus and every mage gets one more magic level when forging items ... even if his level is zero (yes a Fire-1 Initiate can forge a Fever Fetish or a Rainbow Armor !).

        * Legion of steel : gives +3 prot.

    		6.14.5 ENCHANTMENT

        * Antimagic : gives +4 MR.

        * Arrow Fend : does not let your arrows fly in storms.

        * Awaken Treelord : possibly the worst gem/cost effective summoned mage. Treelords summon 2 extra Vine Men/Ogre. They have 250 hp but weak attacks and cant move at all (unless they cast Faery Trod).

        * Behemoth : doesn't hamper the summoner who casts the ritual. The behemoth package includes a revenant (driver) and yes, this one can't cast spells.

        * Carrion Reanimation : you get 3 more undeads (soulesses) for every death level above 1.

        * Cloud Trapeze : can target a water province if the caster has a water-breathing item.

        * Domes : prevent troops from teleporting in the province, even your own soldiers BTW (they can gate away safely). And this rule also applies to "Gateway", "Faery Trod", "Cloud Trapeze", etc. On the other hand, automatic return effects like the rebirth of an immortal creature or the "Returning" spell in the protected province are still possible.
          All domes are cumulative (you can place several domes in the same province). If the caster dies, they shatter, but they stay if the province is lost to another player and the caster survives. Once the dome is up, the caster can move away without cancelling it.
          Frost Dome, Dome of Arcane Warding and Dome of Flaming Death : each additional gem will make them last one more turn. Without additional gems, the dome stays one turn.

        * Flaming Arrows : protection vs fire does not negate the damage ! (possible bug).

        * Flight : will target the closest non-flying, friendly unit (if there are no non-flying units within spell range, the mage targets himself).

        * Friendly Current : gives +4 AP to all units. I have seen no effect on fatigue or encumbrance however.

        * Gift of Health : gives additional hp to all your units, depending of the strength of your local dominion (+10 % for each white candles), and a small chance to remove permanent afflictions.

        * Pale Riders : you get 3 more riders for every death level above 3.

        * Relief : reduces the fatigue of all friendly units on the battlefield by 20 to 50 points.

        * Riches from Beneath : gives +20% resources per white dominion candle in the province.

        * Rigor Mortis : affects about 1/3 of the units every round of battle. Those men get a random number of additionnal fatigue, usually between 1 and 10, but sometime up to 20.

        * Seeking Arrow : makes 5-15 damage and a chest wound. Anti-missile items or etherealness do protect the target (but not at 100 %). The spell is anonymous. You can not target an underwater province and you can not hit a sneaking leader.

        * Strength of Giants : gives +3 STR.

        * Thunder Ward : sometimes the battle AI would ignore the scripted order to cast Thunder Ward (but would obey the command to cast Wrathful Skies for example, with unpleasant consequences). The solution is to make Thunder Ward the first spell scripted in the chain of spells (instead of Quickness probably).

        * Undead Horde : you get a mixed bag of 24 longdeads and soullesses, +2 undeads for every death level above 4 (and not 12+ as written in the manual).

    		6.14.6 THAUMATURGY

        * Black Death : kills exactly 50% of the population, and makes about 9 unrest points. It is anonymous. Military units are not affected at all (the manual was not clear on this point).

        * Communion Master : all magic paths are improved, even holy and unholy. Only the spell cost is redirected to the slaves, not the fatigue from encumbrance. The blood Sabbath ritual is cross-compatible with the astral Communion.

        * Communion Slave : you need at least 2 slaves or both the slave and the master will get the fatigue. The power of the slaves does not matter in any way. The fatigue is equally divided among all slaves, but each slave also gets his own encumbrance for every spell of the Master. A commander without magic skills can not be used as a slave if given a slave matrix (not even a priest).

        * Control the Dead : also works on 'neutral' undeads, like horrors and lammashtas, but you cannot keep them in your army, they vanish after the battle.

        * Curse : often targets the biggest enemy unit (more hp). The caster never misses, and the curse cannot be removed.

        * Horror Mark : often targets the biggest enemy unit (more hp). The caster never misses, and the mark cannot be removed. The victim will attrack horrors and ashen angels (Manifestation).

        * Plague : poison resistance negates. If a diseased enemy enters close combat with your own troops, your soldiers could be diseased too and die right after the battle.

        * Raging Hearts : makes about 60 unrest in the target province, but no shift toward turmoil. It is anonymous.

        * Leprosy : does affect only 50% of the troops in the province. The remaining make magic resistance checks or get diseased. Those that make their checks get one random affliction anyway. The average result is 50% untouched, 25% diseased, 25% one random affliction. Spell penetration items make it harder for targets to make their spell checks. Extra Leprosy castings have diminishing returns because many targets are already diseased.

    		6.14.7 BLOOD

        * Astral Corruption : every mage has between 33 and 50% chance of having some kind of Horror. For multi-path rituals and items, each non-Blood path is checked independently and could lead to a separate attack. The attack occurs after the forged item is dropped in the inventory, so if it is a disposable mage, you may not care... but if it is a ritual, it may not stay up for very long. The number of gems used -including gems for boosting a ritual- appears to affect both the probability of attack and the size of the horror that appears.

        * Bind Heliophagus : they can create one Fiend of Darkness / turn.

        * Bind Arch Devil : they can create one Devil / turn.

        * Bind Pazuzu : they can create one Storm Demon / turn.

        * Blood Rite : you get 1 more vampire for every blood level above 2.

        * Cross Breeding : is not a summon spell, so you have no discount when the spell is cast in a site with a summoning bonus.

        * Hell Power : also increases Holy/Unholy powers.

        * Rain of Toads : makes about 40 unrest in the target province and shift the local dominion toward unluck.

        * Reinvigoration : can be used by a Communion/Sabbath Master to remove fatigue from the slaves.

        * Sabbath Master and Sabbath Slave : they are cross-compatible with the astral Communion ritual.

        * Send (lesser) Horror : the Horror fights like an independent unit and arrives separately, i.e. not with wolves or hawks summonned with a Call of the Wild/Wind in the same turn. If you send several horrors, they fight in the same battle however (and do not fight each other).

    		6.14.8 Man war songs

        * Song of Bravery (Nature 1, Area 5+, Fatigue 5-, cannot be cast under water). "This spell song increases the morale of nearby friends".

        * Soothing Song (Nature 1, Area 5+, Fatigue 5-, cannot be cast under water). "This spell song reinvigorates the caster and nearby friends" (reinvigoration is random, between 0 and 20).

        * Healing Song (Nature 1, Area 5+, Fatigue 5-, cannot be cast under water). "This spell song heals the caster and nearby friends".

    		6.14.9 Pangaea tunes

        * Tune of Growth (Nature 1, Area 10, Fatigue 5-, cannot be cast under water). "This tune makes roots and vines grow from the ground, entangling nearby enemies."

        * Tune of Fear (Nature 1, Area 5+, Fatigue 5-, cannot be cast under water). "This sinister tune frightens nearby enemies".

        * Tune of Dancing Death (Nature 1, Area 10, Fatigue 5-, damage 31+ stun, magic resistance negates, cannot be cast under water). "Nearby enemies starts to jerk and move in an uncontrolled manner. They will become exhausted and will eventually fall unconscious, unless the musician stops playing".

    7. Dominions III wiki

    http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dominions_3:_The_Awakening/

    	7.1 Pretender design

    		7.1.1 Types of Pretender God

    Combat Pretender
        As the name implies, this god can take whole independent provinces by himself, right from the start. Immortality, Regeneration or being undead is a big bonus. It is important to be able to cast spells that protect and empower you in combat such as Quickness, Stoneskin and Body Ethereal. Some of those functions can be gained by forging items, but that needs time and you want to use your combat pretender fast. Fatigue is one of the biggest threats for combat pretenders. Nataraja is a classic combat pretender.

    Arty platform
        This god need some troops to protect him. He is tailored to cast a special spells (like hurling lightning or raise clouds of poison) on the battlefield. The spells need some time to be researched. During this time, protective equipment can be forged, so physical might is not as important as for an Combat Pretender. Keep in mind that fatigue is the biggest foe of battlefield spellcasters. A Solar Disc with high innate fire magic could act as literal Fire support pretender from the start of the game.

    High Bless strategy
        This god has lot of skill points in one (or more) magic skills. Having more than 4 levels in a specific magic path when starting out gives your holy troops a buff when blessed. Later in the game, the god can sit in his fortress and annihilate whole armies with far-casting spells. Bless effect gods double as artillery platforms and combat pretenders. Virtue can easily be a combined combat/arty/bless pretender thanks to her affordable cost and starting Air magic.

    Rainbow, multi-bless strategy
        Instead of many points of one magic path, this god has fewer skills in more magic paths. He will constantly travel the land and do magic site-searching. There are many benefits to be a rainbow mage, such as magic versatility and high research. Rainbow mages are most of the time humanoid pretenders with cheap magic picks.

        However water magic doesn't allow going underwater any more. This is an important change for all mages (not just for rainbow mages).

    Bargain
        This god is chosen by having the lowest cost of design points. The free design points can be invested in good scales and/or magic skills. The immobile 0-point costing Oracle is a good example of Bargain pretender which can also pursue a Bless strategy.

    Special Skill
        This god is created around a specialized skill like forging magic items, blood hunting or assassination. Fountain of Blood is an example of a special pretender as it is a great blood hunter.

    		7.1.2 Magic paths

    		During the God Design phase you can, and must, set magic skills for your Pretender God. Picking new paths and putting more points into current ones costs Design points, and the cost to pick new paths is announced when you select a physical form for your pretender. When adding level in a path, each additional skill level costs 8 design points *more* than the preceding, so it is very expensive to reach the 9 levels necessary for the special "bless effects". Generally you have to select a pretender with a starting level of 3 in the chosen path.

    The amount, type and strength of magic you pick for your pretender also affects your Divine Titles and more importantly your bless effects.

    There are eight Paths of Magic you can choose from, and you can place at max ten points of each skill at start for your Pretender. Levels of these paths also appear on the numerous mages of the world, but there are practically no mages who go over 5 picks in some magic skill without empowering or items. Pretender Gods can, and if the player wants to use a bless strategy will go beyond five picks. On the other side some players like to use low-magic gods.

    All magic paths give you +5 to Magic Leadership per pick.
    Contents

        * 1 Air
        * 2 Astral
        * 3 Blood
        * 4 Death
        * 5 Earth
        * 6 Fire
        * 7 Nature
        * 8 Water

    Air

    The Path of Air deals with different manifestations of air such as wind, lightning or illusion. Air mages gain +1 Precision per level of Air magic.

    Air magic offers powerful and precise Evocations, useful protection spells, and good summons. Gems collected from Air Magic are called Air Gems.

    Astral

    Astral is the first source of magic and it is very versatile, useful and powerful. It can be used to alter the fate of the battle or used to empower or dispel other spells.

    Astral magic draws it's power from the celestial spheres and it has a number of utility spells such as Teleport and Dispel, protection spells like Body Ethereal and Twist Fate and mind or world-altering combat spells such as Astral Tempest, Control, Horror Mark and Mind Burn.

    Astral magic gems are called Astral Pearls. All other magic gems must be first alchemized into Astral Pearls if one wants to alchemize gems from one type to other.

    Blood

    Human Blood is the second source of magic and it is banned by most rulers. Its sacrificial rites and techniques are unlike any other magic Path. Mages of the Blood Path can command five undead units per level in Blood magic.

    Blood magic is quite different from other Paths of Magic as you must use the Blood Hunt command with your Blood mages to get Blood Slaves - sacrificial virgins used to fuel the Blood spells. These are the "gems" for Blood magic, but in battle Blood Slaves appear as units. In the strategic map they go into the commander's gem box like other gems.

    Note that you can not alchemize Blood Slaves into or from other magic gems.

    Blood spells are often powerful summons which call forth demons, fallen angels, crossbred abominations or Horrors. Blood magic also manifests as fatiguing combat spells that deal with burning, boiling, bleeding or draining blood from your enemies.

    Death

    The dark path of Death deals with necromancy, reanimation rituals and destruction of life. A strong knowledge in Path of Death is required to command great hordes of undead. A mage can lead 20 undead units per one level of Death magic.

    Death magic offers numerous summoning spells that call undead creatures ranging from lowly Soulless to terrifying Tartarian Titans. Death also provides good magic items for those who pursue Construction. Some powerful combat spells such as Disintegrate appear later on in the game.

    Death magic gems are called Death Gems.

    Earth

    The Path of Earth deals with the control of the different manifestations of earth such as metal, stone and the very ground. Earth magic is useful in alchemy and in forging magical weapons. Earth mages receive one point of Protection per one level of skill in Earth magic.

    Earth magic offer protection and enchanting spells such as Invulnerability and Weapons of Sharpness, good magic items, some potent battle spells like Blade Wind and summoning spells like Cave Drakes and Fall Bears.

    Earth magic gems are called Earth Gems and can be alchemized into 10 gold each.

    Fire

    Fire is the most violent and destructive of all Paths of Magic. Fire mages carry an aura of righteous authority that helps them lead great number of troops, and the mages tend to be violent and aggressive. They receive a bonus to Attack skill for every level in Fire magic.

    Fire magic spells mostly deal with shooting fire at enemies, encasing enemies in fire or setting enemies on fire and it has a great number of different spells in Evocation school.

    Fire magic gems are called Fire Gems and they can be alchemized for 15 gold each.

    Nature

    The Path of Nature deals over the control of different manifestations of nature. It includes control over plants and animals as well as higher states of mind and body. A mage of this path can feed 5 troops per skill in Nature and any regenerative powers of the mage are boosted.

    Nature magic has spells that summon various creatures of Nature from wolves to mighty Tarrasques, spells that drive people to sleep or berzerk fury or give them regenerative powers and spells that tangle people inside mass of vines or conjure forth clouds of poison or overpowering streams of life energy. Nature magic also has many useful magic items such as the Endless Cauldron of Broth which allows commander to feed 50 troops per turn with it alone.

    Nature magic gems are called Nature Gems.

    Water

    The Path of Water deals with the control of different manifestations of water such as rain, seas and snow. Water mages have an increased Defence skills.

    Water magic has a number of combat spells such as Cold Bolt, Sailor's Death and Niefel Flames and it has a variety of summoning spells such as Summon Naiads and Sea King's Court. Water magic has some strong magic items such as Boots of Quickness, Demon Bane and Sword of Swiftness and items that allow commanders to go under seas with their troops.

    Water magic gems are called Water Gems.

    		7.1.3 Blessings

    How bless works

    To use blessings you will need sacred units (indicated by an unlit white candlebra on the unit screen) and a priest. When the priest casts bless on the sacred unit it will get blessed and gain your Pretender's bless effects. This indicated by the white candlebra being lit. Right-clicking on this will show the exact bless effect.

    All priests can cast the basic blessing spell, which affects a small number of units. Priests with level-3 holy magic can cast the divine blessing spell, which affects all sacred units on the battlefield, a far more efficient strategy. If you don't have a level-3 priest, it may be wise to use 'hold and attack' to make sure your sacred units are fully blessed before engaging the enemy.

    Bless has no effect on non-sacred units.

    Your prophet is always blessed, even outside of combat. The Shroud of the Battle Saint blesses any commander which wears it, even if they are not normally sacred. Pretenders cannot be blessed at all.

    The Bless Effects

    The bless effects are tied to your Pretender's starting magic paths. Dying, empowering or wearing magic boosting items has no effect on them.

        * The default bless that everyone gets - Morale +2

        * Fire 4 - Attack Skill +2
        * Fire 6 - Attack Skill +3
        * Fire 8 - Attack Skill +4
        * Fire 9 - Flaming Weapons (+6 Armor Piercing fire damage) & Attack Skill +4
        * Fire 10 - Flaming Weapons (+6 Armor Piercing fire damage) & Attack Skill +5

        * Air 4 - Air Shield (20%)
        * Air 5 - Air Shield (30%)
        * Air 6 - Air Shield (40%)
        * Air 7 - Air Shield (50%)
        * Air 8 - Air Shield (60%)
        * Air 9 - Shock resistance (75%) & Air Shield (70%)
        * Air 10 - Shock resistance (75%) & Air Shield (80%)

        * Water 4 - Defense Skill +2
        * Water 6 - Defense Skill +3
        * Water 8 - Defense Skill +4
        * Water 9 - Quickness (50% more action points) & Defense Skill +4
        * Water 10 - Quickness (50% more action points) & Defense Skill +5

        * Earth 4 - Reinvigoration 2
        * Earth 6 - Reinvigoration 3
        * Earth 8 - Reinvigoration 4
        * Earth 9 - Armor value +4 & Reinvigoration 4
        * Earth 10 - Armor value +4 & Reinvigoration 5

        * Astral 4 - Magic Resistance +1 (Max 18)
        * Astral 6 - Magic Resistance +2
        * Astral 8 - Magic Resistance +3
        * Astral 9 - Twist Fate (protection from first hit) & Magic Resistance +3
        * Astral 10 - Twist Fate & Magic Resistance +4

        * Death 4 - Chance to cause more afflictions in battle +100%
        * Death 5 - Chance to cause more afflictions in battle +150%
        * Death 6 - Chance to cause more afflictions in battle +200%
        * Death 7 - Chance to cause more afflictions in battle +250%
        * Death 8 - Chance to cause more afflictions in battle +300%
        * Death 9 - Death weapons (+2 Armor Negating damage, MR negates) & Affliction chance +350%
        * Death 10 - Death weapons (+2 Armor Negating damage, MR negates) & Affliction chance +400%

        * Nature 4 - Regeneration +5%
        * Nature 6 - Regeneration +10%
        * Nature 8 - Regeneration +15%
        * Nature 9 - Regeneration +15% & Berserk +2
        * Nature 10 - Regeneration +20% & Berserk +2

        * Blood 4 - Strength +2
        * Blood 6 - Strength +3
        * Blood 8 - Strength +4
        * Blood 9 - Death Curse (Slain blessed units curse their killer) & Strength +4
        * Blood 10 - Death Curse (Slain blessed units curse their killer) & Strength +5

    Notes and Speculation

        * The Blood 9 bless, death curse, gives a chance to inflict a curse on the killer of the blessed unit. Magic resistance is believed to play a role in this. Some players have reported horror marks as well. The blood-9 bless is not a highly rated bless, since it only takes effect after death.

        * The lesser blood bless, increased strength, improves the distance and power of throwing weapons such as javelins.

        * The Earth 9 bless affects units wearing armor; units which only have natural protection are unaffected.

        * The regeneration effect of a nature bless is especially effective on sacred units with lots of hitpoints, such as giants and centaurs. Additionally, even a low level of regeneration will greatly reduce the chances of acquiring afflictions.

    Bless strategy

    Some nations benefit and perhaps even require a bless strategy to work. Bless effects tend to be very expensive in design points, often needing one or two paths at level 9, although lower levels can sometimes work. You will probably need a high dominion to recruit as many sacred units as possible. When thinking of bless strategy think of the following factors:

        * Does the nation have sacred units, and are they good?
        * Can the sacred units be produced in large numbers?
        * Does the nation need the sacred units to be successful?
        * Does the nation have access to powerful sacred commanders or summons?
        * Do you have access to Divine Bless priest spell with that nation?
        * Can the nation afford to take neutral or even negative scales?

    If the answer to majority of those questions is "yes" then a bless strategy can be successful. Next you need to think of the following:

        * Are the sacred units easy to get and cheap, or are they hard to get and powerful?
        * Which makes the units more powerful: a bless that plays into their strength, or a bless that reduces the unit's weaknesses?
        * What bless the unit needs to get to the goal you've set?
        * Is there a pretender that can offer the bless or blesses you need in affordable forms?
        * Can you use dormant or imprisoned options to get more points?

    This is a very important part as one could say that a bless strategy lives and dies by this point. A good example of a bless strategy is Marignon taking a Fire 9 pretender. This gives the flagellants flaming weapons and a boost to their attack skill. Blessed flagellants attack accurately (+4 to Attack) with their flails that now do 6 points of armor-piercing fire damage on a hit. And a flail does two attacks per round. Three fire blessed flagellants can do 36 points of AP damage at an optimal situation and this is before their base damage comes in. This strategy plays to the strength of the flagellants which are their large number of attacks and human wave attack potential. It does nothing to alleviate their weaknesses.

    A strategy that negates weaknesses is taking a pretender with Earth 9 as Arcoscephale. This gives you powerful reinvigoration which can also help your mages if you make them Battle Saint's Shrouds. But this bless also gives the heavily armored Heart Companions even better protection and reinvigoration to keep fatigue (from the heavy armor) at bay. While perhaps not such a killer strategy as the aforementioned flagellant strategy this one illustrates how to use bless effects to negate weaknesses. Another nation with sacred unit fatigue problems is Abysia, but their sacred units also greatly benefit from a Fire or even a Water bless.

    There are great many different bless strategies which range from moderate to extreme. Part of the fun is trying them out and finding a strategy that fits your style and needs.

    		7.1.4 Dominion

    Dominion represents the religious influence of a Pretender God. Each province in the world can be under the dominion of one Pretender God, or neutral. Dominion cannot overlap: you must drive out enemy Dominion in order to establish your own.

    Conquering a province does not automatically give you dominion over it, or vice versa. Military control of a province and dominion over that province can help reinforce each other, but they are not the same thing.

    Spreading Dominion

        * Pretender Gods and, for most nations, Prophets automatically spread dominion by their presence.
        * Temples automatically spread dominion for most nations.
        * Most nations' priests can preach to reduce enemy dominion or increase friendly dominion.
        * Priests of some nations can perform blood sacrifices in temples to spread the dominion of their Pretender God.
        * Some magic items or magically summoned or constructed units also have an effect on dominion (either positive or negative).
        * Some random events can affect dominion.

    Effects of Dominion

        * A Pretender God who has no dominion anywhere in the world is immediately eliminated from the game. This is sometimes called a Dominion Kill.
        * Pretender Gods and Prophets receive bonuses to hit points, strength, and magic resistance in friendly dominion, and penalties in enemy dominion.
        * All non-mindless troops receive a morale bonus in friendly dominion and a morale penalty in enemy dominion.
        * Each Pretender God's dominion can affect the Scales of Dominion, which can have many effects on the province, changing its climate, social conditions, random events and even the effectiveness of magic in the province.
        * Friendly dominion (that is, matching the province's current ruler) slightly decreases unrest. Enemy dominion slightly increases it.
        * Some global enchantments take effect only in the dominion of the caster's Pretender God. The strength of the effect is often tied to the strength of dominion in a given province.
        * Some nations' dominion also has other special effects such as scrying, causing disease or insanity, or even killing off the entire population and converting them into undead. These effects are tied to that particular nation and cannot be changed in god design.

    		7.1.5 Scales

    The Scales of Dominion

    Every province has a set of scales that measures how the land is influenced by divine might. In the beginning of the game all scales in all countries are randomly set. When your dominion spreads the scales of your newly conquered provinces will start to change. With stronger dominion the process goes faster. Eventually the scales in a province of your dominion will be exactly the same as the dominion of your pretender god.

    A pick in a Scale with positive effect (Order, Productivity, Growth, Luck, Magic) costs 40 points while picking scales with negative effects (Turmoil, Sloth, Death, Heat, Cold, Misfortune or Drain) gives you 40 design points.
    Order / Turmoil

    A land of order is a prosperous and peaceful land without much happening. Most people are friendly and tend to share the same views. Strangers are quickly incorporated in the society to reduce inconvenience. Beggars keep out of the streets and receive institutional alms. A land of order can be a very boring place. A land of turmoil is chaotic and uncivilized and filled with feuds and sudden murders. Even the weather is harsher and unfriendly. A land of turmoil can be an interesting but dangerous place to visit.

    Scale Effects (cumulative) :

        * each point of Order gives +7% Gold and -5% random events, but it does not affect unrest ;
        * each point of Turmoil gives - 7% Gold and +5% random events, but if does not affect unrest.

    Productivity / Sloth

    A land of productivity is characterized by industrious people working all days and trying to do their best at all things in life. A plenitude of goods are made and sold in the numerous markets littering the landscape. The peasants experiment with alternative crops and the smiths tries to increase productivity by inventing bigger and better bellows. A land of productivity is a good place to visit. A land of sloth on the other hand is a lazy and boring place. Donkeys block the streets and no one cares to remove them. The fires of the forges are cold and the city guards sleep on their posts. Even the dogs ignore the eventual visitor. Few visitors ever leave a land of sloth. Those who do rarely come back.

    Scale Effects (cumulative) :

        * each point of Productivity gives +2% Gold and +15% Resource production ;
        * each point of Sloth gives -2% Gold and -15% Resource production.

    (a patch has changed the resource differentiation to 15% for each click, hence the inaccuracy of the image at the top)

    Growth / Death

    A land of growth is a land of milk and honey. Food is plentiful. The deep forests are rich in game and the fields are fertile. Several harvests a year is not uncommon in the land of growth. The forests grow and it is possible to see the trees sprouting leafs. A land of growth is a wonderful place but the plenitude of insects and vermin can be annoying. A land of death is a desolate place. A few pale gray trees stand where forests previously covered the landscape. No birds sing and the crops are meager. Many a calf is stillborn and disease harries the populace. Deserts, or tundras in case of cold lands, grow and the poor people despair. No sane man will stay in a land of death for long.

    Scale Effects (cumulative) :

        * each point of Growth gives +2% Gold, +0.2% population and +15% supply ;
        * each point of Death gives -2% Gold, -0.2% population and -15% supply.

    Heat / Cold

    Hot lands tend to be dry and devoid of rains. However some hot land are covered in thick forests and swamps. Few hot lands are suited for farming. Cold lands tend to be desolate and snow covered tundras. However some cold lands are covered in thick pine forests or deep swamps. A scale of heat or cold is generally bad. Therefore you gain design points by shifting the scale in any direction. Note that some nations prefer somewhat hotter or colder lands than others. If you play such a nation, make sure to tip the scales so that you get no penaltys. You still get free design points for each scale away from "normal" temperature.

    Scale Effects (cumulative) :

        * each point of Heat or Cold (away from the favorite temperature of your nation) decreases gold revenues by 5% and supply by 10%.

    Luck / Misfortune

    A land of fortune is a good place to visit. Luck is thick in the air. If you trip and fall you might find a coin and when you open a door you might place it between yourself and the stone thrown by some nasty kid. Good events are common and no one seems to have any bad luck. A land of misfortune is not a good place to visit. Vases fall on your head through open windows and nails find their way through your soles. The fish let go of the bait and wheels break in the middle of the street. No matter how well a project is planned there will almost always be some trouble or another. Lands of misfortune are best avoided.

    Scale Effects (cumulative) :

        * each point of Fortune gives you 5% more random events and 13% greater chance to have a good event when an event occurs ;
        * each point of Misfortune gives you 5% more random events and 13% greater chance to have a bad event when an event occurs.

    Magic / Drain

    A land of magic is filled with mysteries and riddles to be answered. Magic is almost comprehensible and even stimulating. Ancient magic enigmas get solved by lonesome, fatherless peasant boys whose friends find themselves hunted by cowled riders. The moon is often full and the stars shine brighter. Legends seem real and magic rings can be pulled out of the water when you are fishing. Researching in a land of magic is an easy task. A land of drain is a gloomy place. Thinking is difficult and the sun seems bleak. The stars are seldom visible and the song of running water is muffled and dull. No one has heard of mages or heroes or their mighty deeds of old. The very nature seems to be starving. Casting magic or researching spells is difficult at best in a land of drain. Mages avoids these lands.

    Scale Effects (cumulative) :

        * each point of Magic gives you +0.5 research point/mage (rounded up), -0.5 Magic Resistance (rounded down) and -10% fatigue when spellcasting ;
        * each point of Drain gives you -0.5 research point/mage (rounded up), +0.5 Magic Resistance (rounded down) and +10% fatigue when spellcasting.

    National Preferences and Tolerances

    When picking your scales it is critically important that you keep the following things in mind:

        * Does the nation have a Heat or Cold preference stated in the nation description?
        * Does your nation have other state tolerances of bad scales, such as Ulm's Drain tolerance?
        * What benefits can you get from scales that are important for your strategy?

    For example, Caelum has Cold preference of Cold +3. This means you can get 120 free design points from taking three picks in Cold and the Caelian units will gain benefits from the Cold dominion. Since Caelum's troops require large amounts of resources and supplies, taking Productivity and Growth can be very beneficial. Taking picks in the Magic scale will help Caelum's inexpensive mages.

    This is but an example of scale design and some people take negative scales to free up design points. Underwater nations can take picks in the Cold or Heat scale because the climate scales don't affect sea income. A land of the dead has no need for Growth, Order, Production, or a pleasant climate. However, a nation whose troops use heavy armor might need the Production scale to have enough resources to field armies. Since Growth and Death scales decrease and increase respectively the chance of getting afflictions on beings with old age, you should consider the age of your mages when you choose Growth or Death. Understanding your own style of play and the nations' strengths, weaknesses, and needs is important when picking scales.

    Strength of Dominion

    The Strength of Dominion, symbolized by the candles, is another thing you must set. The Dominion is the strength of your presence. If your Dominion dies you also die, but if you die and you still have Dominion you can be called back. Dominion changes the land by your scales and some nations have special dominions such as later Ermor's death and reanimation dominion. Dominion is also used by some global spells. Strength of Dominion also affects the number of Sacred units you can make as you can make one Sacred unit per Dominion strength in a province. Increasing Dominion strength costs design points.

    Dominion Strength of 4 to 6 picks is general considered the norm, but depends on nation and map size/density. Any less will be insufficient and any more is generally reserved for special strategies. Note that each Dominions candle costs 7 design point *more* than the previous, so high dominion strength is costly, especially if starting from a low value (rainbow mages for example)

    Dominions Strength of 9 or 10 gives your pretender the Awe ability.

    		7.1.6 Awakening

    he Awakening is a mechanic that trades time for design points. You can gain more design points for your pretender by using either of the two Awakening options but this removes your pretender from play for some time. There are three different degress of Awakening. Notice that whether the pretender is awake or not has no effect on bless effects.

     Awake

    The pretender god is available right from the start. This option gives you no extra points at all. This is a common choice for combat pretenders who can take independent provinces almost immediately.

     Dormant

    The pretender god is in a dormant state and it will remain in such state for roughly a year (12 turns) in game time. This option gives you 150 extra design points and your pretender god will wake up roughly within a year. This is a good choice for pretenders who require some research or items before they can start bashing in skulls, for pretenders who simply are not needed right away but are wanted before year three, and for rainbow pretenders.

     Imprisoned

    Banished by the previous Pantokrator, the pretender god is Imprisoned and strugling to break free. The escape will last roughly three years (36 turns) and you will gain 250 design points by using this option. Since the time that your pretender spends away from the game is great you should use this option with great consideration. Bargain pretenders most often are made imprisoned, but high end bless pretenders occasionally use this as well if they can't afford to be just dormant.

    	7.2 Magic

    The world of Dominions is a magical world and magic will be of great importance to the Pretender's aspirations of godhood. The magic energies ultimately derives from the celestial bodies. The spheres predestine the fates and lives of priests and peasants.

    The power of the spheres, the Arcana, empowers the nature in all its forms. It makes fires burn with heat and blaze, plants to grow and lightning to strike during storms. The Arcana is shattered into a spectrum of powers upon entry into the atmosphere. The six forms of lesser arcana are the Four Elements, Nature and Death.

    But Arcana is not the sole source of magic power. The life-blood of the living is inherently magical. It is the magic in the blood that allows heroes to perform great feats, babies to be born and emotions to stir. Blood magic is the mastery of this power. Unfortunately the magic in the blood is diluted at best. Few mages can tap enough strength from their own blood to be able to perform magic feats. To do so the blood mage must spill the blood of other people.

    The spells range from simple combat spells that only drain the caster's fatigue to mighty rituals requiring great amounts of magic gems or great blood sacrifices. Strange and powerful magic creatures wait their summoner and mages can prepare powerful spells to turn the tide of a battle.

    		7.2.1 Magic Sites

    In the fantasy world of Dominions sites of great magic power exist. These sites are filled with power than can be turned into Magic Gems used to fuel rituals and the more powerful battlefield spells. However, the sites are often hidden and they must be found by skilled mages. Sometimes the sites have helpful or harmful side effects.

    The chance for finding magic sites can be set when starting a new game, and can have a big effect on strategy.

    Magic sites are found in the provinces, and there can be four magic sites at max per province. Magic sites can occasionally be found in great number in one province as every site increases the chance that the province contains another magic site. Magic sites are always aligned with one of the Paths of Magic or then with divine energies. This is important when it comes to finding the sites.

    Most magic sites have a monthly magic gem income. These gems will go to your gem pool even if you don't have commanders or a laboratory in the province.

    Some magic sites come with other effects. There are sites than can be entered by commanders to provide seer skills, combat training or monster summoning for the time they stay there. Some magic sites alter the Scales of Dominion in a province for better or worse and some magic sites have even more ominous side effects such as spreading deadly diseases to your troops or causing Horror Marks. Some magic sites allow you to recruit new units in the province and some provide you a building in the province like a laboratory and in some cases even a special fortress.

    Some magic sites are visible immediatedly when entering the province but often these sites are either minor or have unpleasant side effects. Instead magic sites must be found by a mage.

     Finding a Magic Site

    All mages and priests have a special commaned called "Search magic" which will make the commander to look for magic sites in the province for the round. Searching for sites always takes one round and it is always complete, so if a mage didn't find sites during his first search run he won't find new sites.

    However this doesn't mean that there wouldn't be sites in the province. All magic sites have a hidden Level along with their magic type which goes from 0 to 4. Level 0 sites are immediatedly visible, level 1 sites need a mage with 1 pick in aproriate skill in a Path of Magic to find it and so on. So for example a Death 1 mage would find a Death 1 site in a province while he would miss a Fire 1 site because he hasn't got any Fire magic.

    There are also ritual spells that search for a certain type of magic site or in the case of Acashic Record for all types of site. These rituals can be set to be repeated until all provinces are scanned or gems run out. The power of a sweep from such a spell equals a level 9 mage searching the province so the Fire search spell Augury will find all Fire magic sites.

     Effects of a Magic Site

    In many lands there are places of interest. These sites might be ancient towers, enchanted springs or great mines. There are hundreds of different places of varying rarity in the game. Most of these places are hidden but some are common knowledge. The known sites are immediately recognized when you conquer the land. Mages can search for magic sites.

    Special sites have many different powers. Most are sources for magic gems. Below follows a list of special powers that sites may possess.

        * Magic gem source - magic gem income.
        * Summoning site - reduces summoning cost.
        * Monster summoning - enter to summon a special type of monster.
        * Recruitment - additional units available for recruitment.
        * Scale effect - the site influences the scales of dominion in the province
        * Resources - increased resource value.
        * Income - increased income value.
        * Training - enables a commander to train all his units.
        * Unrest - increase or decrease unrest.
        * Holy - purifies the province from undead beings with holy fire.
        * Disease - diseases spread in the province.
        * Fort - a fortress is found unless there was one already.
        * Lab - a laboratory is found.
        * Temple - an old temple is found.
        * Marking - units get horror marks.

    			7.2.1.1 List of Magic Sites

        * The Smouldercone
        * The Coral Towers
        * Cathedral of the Spheres
        * Swamps of Pythia
        * Forest of Avalon
        * Tower of Avalon
        * The Keep of Ulm
        * The Forges of Ulm
        * The Temple City
        * Tower of a Thousand Stars
        * The Citadel of Frozen Crystal
        * Empoisoners Guild
        * The House of Fiery Justice
        * The Grove of Gaia
        * The Halls of Andvare
        * Iron Woods
        * The Sunken City
        * Ravens Vale
        * Hidden Grove
        * Surakid's Tower
        * Mine of the Cyclops
        * Bolivar's Tower of Reflections
        * The Unholy Sepulchre
        * The Unholy Sepulchre
        * The Unholy Sepulchre
        * Starke's Ice Cave
        * The Queen's Galley
        * Hoburg
        * The Ruined Keep
        * Temple of the Land
        * Temple of the Rain
        * Temple of the Moon
        * High Temple of the Sun
        * House of Fiery Justice
        * Vanhalla
        * Oleg's Alchemical Device
        * The Deepest Cave of the Province
        * Temple of the Everburning Pyre
        * The Smouldercone
        * The Citadel of Frozen Crystal
        * Ravens Vale
        * Black Forest
        * The Sacred Swamp
        * The Black Temple
        * The Void Gate
        * Niefelheim
        * Well of Urd
        * The Grove of Gaia
        * The Grove of Gaia
        * The Heavenly Gate
        * The Celestial City
        * The Celestial City
        * The Bamboo Grove
        * The Gate of Spring and Autumn
        * Temple of the Dead
        * Forest of Avalon
        * Avalon
        * Vanhalla
        * Helhalla
        * God Forest
        * God Mountain
        * The Temple Marsh
        * The City of Tombs
        * Temple of the Spheres
        * The Desert Eye
        * Gold Mine
        * Silver Mine
        * Copper Mine
        * Iron Mine
        * Naval Academy
        * House of Justice
        * Palace of Pearls
        * Mount Cephalos
        * Lykeion
        * Akademeia
        * Temple Sanguine
        * Temple of the Shroud
        * The Lotus Gardens
        * The Carrion Grove
        * The Carrion Grove
        * The Carrion Grove
        * The Wheel of Pain
        * Irminsul
        * The Great Cauldron
        * The Bitter Stream
        * Steppes of Sauromatia
        * High Temple of the Land
        * Temple of the Rain
        * Temple of the Moon
        * Temple of the Sun
        * Carnutes
        * Temple of the Pure War
        * Mountain of the Mystics
        * Palace of the Eagle Kings
        * Mountain of the Oni Kings
        * Patala
        * The Jewelled City
        * Mount Kailasa
        * The Lotus Garden
        * Augurs' Circle
        * The Grove of Kelp and Pearls
        * Temple of the Land
        * High Temple of the Rain
        * Temple of the Moon
        * Temple of the Sun
        * Mount Shinuyama
        * Tombs of the Oracles
        * Mines of the Pale Ones
        * Halls of the Oracles
        * Roots of the Earth
        * Halls of the Oracles
        * The Chamber of the Seal
        * Gnipah
        * Vanhalla
        * The Halls of Andvare
        * The Gorge of Ancient Cities
        * The Carrion Grove
        * The Grove of Gaia
        * The Smouldercone
        * Temple of the All-Consuming Flame
        * Temple of the All-Consuming Flame
        * The Sibylline Caves
        * The Cerulean Tower
        * Gymnasium
        * The Enchanted Isle
        * The Coast of Ice and Bones
        * The Forest of Avalon
        * The Basalt City
        * The Dark Crystal
        * The Heavenly Gate
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * The Empty Slot
        * Tar Pits
        * Sun Ridge
        * Gold Apple Tree
        * Bronze Pillar
        * Plain of Perpetual Drought
        * Magus Temple
        * Alchemists Guild
        * Smoke Forest
        * Rage Wind Heath
        * Bog of Strange Lights
        * Copper Cliff
        * Stargazers Cliff
        * Desert of Bones
        * Lantern Forest
        * Orichalum Mine
        * Volcano
        * Solar Lens
        * Tower of the Golden Order
        * Tower of the Golden Order
        * Tower of the Golden Order
        * Academy of High Magics
        * Ashen Fields
        * Fountain of Fire
        * The Steel Ovens
        * High Temple of the Magii
        * The Citadel of Pyriphlegeton
        * The Glowing Hill
        * The Fire Prison
        * The Temple of the Raging God
        * The Brass Door Hill
        * Prison of the Desert Sun
        * Thunder Oak
        * Canyon of Wild Winds
        * Blasted Heath
        * Cave of Clouds
        * Mist Covered Highlands
        * Desert of Sighs
        * Cypress Forest
        * Howling Gorge
        * Canyon of Playful Winds
        * Cracked Tower
        * Elusive Lights
        * Ice Mists
        * Singing Stones
        * Cloud Pillars
        * Mirrorlake
        * Dragon Cliff
        * Tower of the Silver Order
        * Tower of the Silver Order
        * Tower of the Silver Order
        * Academy of High Magics
        * Ivory Tower
        * Twin Spire Tower
        * Stone Spires
        * Forest of Joy
        * The Cloven Mountain
        * Stairway Mountain
        * Mirror Wall Palace
        * The Flailing Forest
        * The Whirlwind of Cyclon
        * The Doom Cloud
        * The Inverted Tower
        * The Rainbow Shroud
        * Palace of Dreams
        * Well of White Water
        * Mercury Pond
        * Singing Stream
        * Weeping Stone
        * Boiling Bog
        * Lake of Mists
        * Sinkmarsh
        * Lantern Fens
        * Geyser
        * Pearl Beach
        * Waterfall
        * Rockside Spring
        * Well of Yesterdays Waters
        * Corpse Candles' Marsh
        * Overgrown Lake
        * Lifeless Lake
        * River Fortress
        * Bottomless Lake
        * Mist Swamps
        * Academy of High Magics
        * Frost Vale
        * Azure Academy
        * Rustwater
        * The Ferry
        * Mount Frost
        * The Forest of the Lake
        * Stony Swamps
        * The Frozen Forest
        * The Sea of the Tears of Men
        * The Water Sphere
        * The Great Mirror of Maaki
        * The Sea Underneath
        * Mineral Cave
        * Earth Blood Seepage
        * Firbolg Fortress
        * Iron Cliff
        * Canyon of Sand
        * Mine of Superior Iron
        * Great Iron Mine
        * Great Gold Mine
        * Great Silver Mine
        * Hidden Gold Mine
        * Gem Deposits
        * Gorge
        * Magma Cave
        * Standing Stones
        * Water Filled Cave
        * Chasm of Strange Lights
        * Cave of the Pale Ones
        * Forest of Truffles
        * Entrance
        * Tower of the Iron Order
        * Tower of the Iron Order
        * Tower of the Iron Order
        * Academy of High Magics
        * Twice Walled Tower
        * Archaic Fortress
        * Lost Vale of the Elders
        * Troll Pit
        * Troglodyte Den
        * Runaway Pit
        * Steel Swamps
        * White Man Hill
        * The Forgotten Fortress
        * The Jervellan Wall
        * Ten Thousand Things
        * The Broken Maze
        * The Labyrinth
        * The Chasm of Black Roses
        * The Underworld
        * The Statues of the Overlords
        * The Cornerstone
        * The Factory
        * Library
        * Painted Cave
        * Maze
        * Monolith
        * Crystal Garden
        * Lake of Reflected Time
        * Strange Opening
        * Sages Guild
        * Abandoned Laboratory
        * Crystal Flames
        * Mirror Palace
        * Caves of Passing Time
        * Scrying Pool
        * Pyramid of Life
        * Totem Collection
        * Gateway
        * Distortion
        * Nexus
        * Village of Strange Men
        * The Ancient Master
        * The Crystal Citadel
        * Citadel of the Lore Masters
        * The Council of Sages
        * Moon Mages Circle
        * The Hidden Kingdom of Elludia
        * The Grey Tower of Nexus
        * The Ultimate Gateway
        * Library of Time
        * Battlefield
        * Burial Mound
        * Graveyard of the Damned
        * Cave of Ghouls
        * Well of Pestilence
        * Haunted Village
        * Gallows
        * Broken Tower
        * Forest of the Dead
        * Ashen Forest
        * Banefire Braziers
        * Windswept Catacombs
        * Crypt in the Sand
        * Witches Bog
        * Catacombs
        * Overgrown Graveyard
        * Marble Mausoleum
        * Raven Oak
        * Black Tower
        * Death Mound Downs
        * Statue of Death
        * Chillsick Swamp
        * Leper Fens
        * Grayshade Forest
        * Litter Skull
        * The Crypt Underneath
        * Flesh Garden of Mortal Remains
        * The Bowl of the Lost
        * The Shaded Lands
        * The City of a Thousand Wonders
        * The Mausoleum of the Great Sarlah
        * The Shadow Furnace
        * Glen of Verdant Greenery
        * Forest of Delights
        * Farm of Plenty
        * Garden of Weeping Roses
        * Grove of Evergreens
        * Wild Forest
        * Bile Marsh
        * Hidden Forest
        * Stone Circle
        * Animist's Hut
        * Fields of the Fire Flies
        * Whispering Woods
        * Hidden Valley
        * Forest of a Thousand Streams
        * Endless Forest
        * Dying Forest
        * Cottage in the Woods
        * Wormwood Marsh
        * Hall of Ancient Oaks
        * Flower Swamp
        * Mandrake Gallows
        * Jungle Temple
        * Maze of Thorn Hedges
        * Horses Vale
        * The Cedar Pillars
        * The Mammoth Forest
        * The Flowering Forest
        * The Cedar Forest
        * Moonvine Circle
        * The Crown Woods
        * Gateward Valley
        * The Motheroak
        * Forest of Avendron
        * Animist's Tower
        * Vale of the Silver Cattle
        * Forest of the Ape King
        * The Sacred Glen
        * The Shrouded Lands
        * The Gate of Deeper Slumber
        * The Land of Pleasures Unattained
        * Soul of the Wild
        * Arena
        * Brigand Lair
        * Academy of War
        * Damned Merchant
        * Fields of Blood
        * Blood Henge
        * Ebony Tower
        * Summoning Circle
        * Gore Swamps
        * Mount Chaining
        * The Vale of Infinite Horror
        * The Blood Keep
        * Devil's Den
        * The Ebony Circle
        * The Demon Gate
        * The Prison of Hearts
        * The Mountain of Power
        * Hall of Flayed Skins
        * Ancient Temple
        * Pool of Sanctity
        * Hidden Monastery
        * Monastery of Light
        * Temple of Time
        * The Marble Temple
        * The Empty Grave
        * The Forgotten Crypt
        * The Ward
        * Cave of Dark Rites
        * Temple of Darkness
        * Grove Unpleasant
        * Inkpot End
        * Flesh Eater's Isle
        * Tower of Seven Tombs
        * Seventh House on the Left
        * Gorge of Glowing Fish
        * Underwater Cave
        * Imprisoned Zephyr
        * Pocket of Air
        * Diamond Corals
        * Coral Reef
        * Clam Field
        * Coral Statue
        * Sunken Island
        * Man'o'War Breeding Ground
        * Sunken Tower
        * Troll Pit
        * Shrine of the Shark Lords
        * Tower of Pearls
        * Isle of Ice
        * Academy Underneath
        * Underwater Cliff
        * Moving Sand Banks
        * Basalt Statue
        * Isle of the Sea Fathers
        * Kelp Forest
        * Kelp Fortress
        * Amber Beach Island
        * Floating Forest
        * Kelp Grove
        * Coral Garden
        * Sea Oak
        * Sunken Galley
        * Reef of Sunken Ships
        * Dying Ground of the Whales
        * Isle of Death
        * Pearl Stairway
        * Arcane Gateway
        * The Water Solstice
        * Ancient Temple of the Deeps
        * Fire Rift
        * Magma River
        * Kraken Pit
        * Basalt Halls
        * City of Stones
        * Ghoul Fish Cave
        * The Wasted Sea
        * Basalt Pillars
        * Labyrinth of the Deeps
        * Gorge of Mystery
        * The Crater
        * The Last Void
        * Shambler Reef
        * Navigators Guild
        * Temple of the Turning Tide
        * Black Ice Valley
        * Castle Arcanum
        * Ancient Forge
        * Chamber of Changes
        * Standing Stones
        * Conjurer's Cave
        * Tempest Spire
        * Blizzard Valley
        * Halls of the Dead
        * Banefire Forge
        * Crown of Darkness
        * Wolven Gate
        * Twisting Woods
        * Ancient Forest
        * Silver Forest
        * Assassins Guild
        * Valley of the Roc
        * Bear Mountain
        * The Obsidian Sphere
        * Temple of the All-Seeing Eye
        * Haunted Torture Chamber
        * The Vale of Unicorns
        * Throne of Enlightenment
        * The Blood Rock
        * Forest of Pain
        * Forest of Splendour
        * Red Forest
        * Dragon Forest
        * Dragon Mountain
        * The Crystal Academy
        * The Draining Stone
        * The Snake Collector
        * The Cliff of Seven Directions
        * The Primal Forest
        * The Holy Crypt of Anre
        * The World Pillar
        * The Desert of Ptah
        * Fountain of Rubies
        * Tempest Hall
        * Frozen Fountain
        * Ctonian Gate
        * Moonlit Pond of Pearls
        * Well of Darkness
        * Shrine of the Wild
        * Forest of Golden Leaves
        * Frozen Lands
        * Skull Temple
        * Academy of the Crescent Moon
        * Oak of Ages
        * Well of All Waters
        * Dragon Jaws
        * Strange House in the Mist
        * The Vaults Beneath
        * The Valley of Shame
        * The Swamp of Dread
        * The Cave of Souls
        * Throne of the World
        * The Deepest Mine
        * The Mountain of the Past
        * Tomb of the Ancients
        * The Previous Forest
        * The Sun Below
        * The Sunless Sea
        * The Endless Field of Cubes
        * Endless Caverns
        * Glowing Caverns
        * The Mosaic Desert
        * Villa of Ever Changing Fresques
        * Thorn Wood Heights
        * Poison Glades
        * Lyfjaberg
        * Healing spring
        * The Hippocampoi Fields
        * The Amber Halls
        * The Forest beneath the Waves
        * Thermal Vent
        * Cold Currents
        * Depths Unnamed
        * Whispering Waters
        * Glowing Depths
        * Falling Depths
        * Dark Waters
        * Caves in the Deep
        * Mineral Fingers
        * Plateau of Shards
        * Long Lost Circle
        * The Sea of Dead Memories
        * The Iron Caverns
        * Rain Forest
        * Tundra
        * Desert
        * The Forgotten City
        * The City of the Damned
        * Merman Village

    		7.2.2 Magic Gems

    Magic gems are condensed magic energy and seven out of the eight paths of magic has gems while Blood magic has Blood Slaves. Magic gems are used to fuel rituals, powerful battle spells and in forging magic items. Mages can also used a great number of gems of aproriate type to gain a permanent level in magic (called Empowering)and they can use them in combat to quench fatigue caused by spellcasting. A mage in combat that has a gem that is of same type as one of his magic picks gets a +1 bonus to that magic pick in combat. For example, a Nature 1 mage with one Nature gem would count as a Nature 2 mage while making spells. Only the first such gem per cast counts so a Nature 1 mage with 2 nature gems still counts as Nature 2 mage.

    In addition, with battle spells the use of gems reduces fatigue; if N extra gems are consumed during casting, fatigue from the casting is reduced to 1/(N+1) of normal. Battlefield spells which cause at least 100 fatigue all require the use of one gem per 100 fatigue.

    		7.2.3 The Paths of Magic

    During the God Design phase you can, and must, set magic skills for your Pretender God. Picking new paths and putting more points into current ones costs Design points, and the cost to pick new paths is announced when you select a physical form for your pretender. When adding level in a path, each additional skill level costs 8 design points *more* than the preceding, so it is very expensive to reach the 9 levels necessary for the special "bless effects". Generally you have to select a pretender with a starting level of 3 in the chosen path.

    The amount, type and strength of magic you pick for your pretender also affects your Divine Titles and more importantly your bless effects.

    There are eight Paths of Magic you can choose from, and you can place at max ten points of each skill at start for your Pretender. Levels of these paths also appear on the numerous mages of the world, but there are practically no mages who go over 5 picks in some magic skill without empowering or items. Pretender Gods can, and if the player wants to use a bless strategy will go beyond five picks. On the other side some players like to use low-magic gods.

    All magic paths give you +5 to Magic Leadership per pick.
    Contents

        * 1 Air
        * 2 Astral
        * 3 Blood
        * 4 Death
        * 5 Earth
        * 6 Fire
        * 7 Nature
        * 8 Water

     Air

    The Path of Air deals with different manifestations of air such as wind, lightning or illusion. Air mages gain +1 Precision per level of Air magic.

    Air magic offers powerful and precise Evocations, useful protection spells, and good summons. Gems collected from Air Magic are called Air Gems.

     Astral

    Astral is the first source of magic and it is very versatile, useful and powerful. It can be used to alter the fate of the battle or used to empower or dispel other spells.

    Astral magic draws it's power from the celestial spheres and it has a number of utility spells such as Teleport and Dispel, protection spells like Body Ethereal and Twist Fate and mind or world-altering combat spells such as Astral Tempest, Control, Horror Mark and Mind Burn.

    Astral magic gems are called Astral Pearls. All other magic gems must be first alchemized into Astral Pearls if one wants to alchemize gems from one type to other.

     Blood

    Human Blood is the second source of magic and it is banned by most rulers. Its sacrificial rites and techniques are unlike any other magic Path. Mages of the Blood Path can command five undead units per level in Blood magic.

    Blood magic is quite different from other Paths of Magic as you must use the Blood Hunt command with your Blood mages to get Blood Slaves - sacrificial virgins used to fuel the Blood spells. These are the "gems" for Blood magic, but in battle Blood Slaves appear as units. In the strategic map they go into the commander's gem box like other gems.

    Note that you can not alchemize Blood Slaves into or from other magic gems.

    Blood spells are often powerful summons which call forth demons, fallen angels, crossbred abominations or Horrors. Blood magic also manifests as fatiguing combat spells that deal with burning, boiling, bleeding or draining blood from your enemies.

     Death

    The dark path of Death deals with necromancy, reanimation rituals and destruction of life. A strong knowledge in Path of Death is required to command great hordes of undead. A mage can lead 20 undead units per one level of Death magic.

    Death magic offers numerous summoning spells that call undead creatures ranging from lowly Soulless to terrifying Tartarian Titans. Death also provides good magic items for those who pursue Construction. Some powerful combat spells such as Disintegrate appear later on in the game.

    Death magic gems are called Death Gems.

     Earth

    The Path of Earth deals with the control of the different manifestations of earth such as metal, stone and the very ground. Earth magic is useful in alchemy and in forging magical weapons. Earth mages receive one point of Protection per one level of skill in Earth magic.

    Earth magic offer protection and enchanting spells such as Invulnerability and Weapons of Sharpness, good magic items, some potent battle spells like Blade Wind and summoning spells like Cave Drakes and Fall Bears.

    Earth magic gems are called Earth Gems and can be alchemized into 10 gold each.

     Fire

    Fire is the most violent and destructive of all Paths of Magic. Fire mages carry an aura of righteous authority that helps them lead great number of troops, and the mages tend to be violent and aggressive. They receive a bonus to Attack skill for every level in Fire magic.

    Fire magic spells mostly deal with shooting fire at enemies, encasing enemies in fire or setting enemies on fire and it has a great number of different spells in Evocation school.

    Fire magic gems are called Fire Gems and they can be alchemized for 15 gold each.

     Nature

    The Path of Nature deals over the control of different manifestations of nature. It includes control over plants and animals as well as higher states of mind and body. A mage of this path can feed 5 troops per skill in Nature and any regenerative powers of the mage are boosted.

    Nature magic has spells that summon various creatures of Nature from wolves to mighty Tarrasques, spells that drive people to sleep or berzerk fury or give them regenerative powers and spells that tangle people inside mass of vines or conjure forth clouds of poison or overpowering streams of life energy. Nature magic also has many useful magic items such as the Endless Cauldron of Broth which allows commander to feed 50 troops per turn with it alone.

    Nature magic gems are called Nature Gems.

     Water

    The Path of Water deals with the control of different manifestations of water such as rain, seas and snow. Water mages have an increased Defence skills.

    Water magic has a number of combat spells such as Cold Bolt, Sailor's Death and Niefel Flames and it has a variety of summoning spells such as Summon Naiads and Sea King's Court. Water magic has some strong magic items such as Boots of Quickness, Demon Bane and Sword of Swiftness and items that allow commanders to go under seas with their troops.

    Water magic gems are called Water Gems.

    		7.2.4  The Schools of Magic

        * 1 Alteration
        * 2 Blood Magic
        * 3 Conjuration
        * 4 Construction
        * 5 Enchantment
        * 6 Evocation
        * 7 Thaumaturgy

     Alteration

    Changes in the physical world. This School has many useful spells for Buffing but also interesting combat spells and rituals. The most famous spell in this shool is Wish and let you wish for anything (usually a Doom Horror.

     Blood Magic

    All spells that uses blood magic and blood slaves.
    Blood Magic

    Blood Magic is a slightly different take on the other, more typical schools of magic in Dom 3. Instead of using magic gems to cast spells, blood mages use blood slaves to power the enchantment. Blood magic has the advantage of being able to replicate (to a lesser extent) many of the spell effects of all the other magic schools in a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" situation. Blood also has some excellent summoning spells.

    The major benefit to blood magic however, is your ability to regulate the supply of magical fuel -- in this case, blood slaves. All other schools of magic are dependent on the gems being provided by the magic sites that you have discovered. Blood on the other hand simply requires that you hunt for blood slaves, which can be found in any province. Since your blood slave income is not fixed, you can theoretically control the flow of said slaves through your own actions.

     Blood Slaves

    Blood slaves are the virginal daughters (and perhaps sons) of the population of your nation. They show up in your strategic display just like other magic gems -- your mages can have them in their inventory, send them to the labs or trade them between themselves just like other gems.

    In the tactical (battle) screens however, blood slaves appear as units, standing meekly by the mage or leader that had them in his or her inventory. They will not attack, but they can most definitely be killed in all the regular, messy methods. As blood magic is cast on the battlefield, the blood slaves will be "used up" by the nearby mages casting the spells.

    As a general rule, it takes more blood slaves to accomplish a given effect than a comparable spell uses gems. For example, the Nature spell "awaken ivy king" requires 30 nature gems, whereas the Blood spell "bind arch devil" requires 99 blood slaves. Obviously the ivy king and the arch devil are not exactly equivalent, but they can be thought of as relatively on par with one another as they are both level-7 spells.

     Blood Hunting

    Since you are the beloved god-head of your nation and the rightful ruler of all creation, your worshipful people willingly provide their nubile, virginal children to be messily killed for your greater glory. All your representatives have to do is go door-to-door asking for children to be slaughtered, and the villagers smilingly give them up.

    Well, maybe it's not quite that easy.

    Blood slaves are obtained by setting a leader's orders to "Blood Hunt." In theory, any leader can blood hunt and obtain blood slaves; in practice, it should be done by leaders with levels in blood magic. The number of blood slaves that can be obtained each turn is a function of the leader's level in blood magic, the size of the population int he province and the amount of unrest in the province.

    Blood hunting causes unrest, which in turn causes fewer blood slaves (and less money) to be available from that province. Patrolling the province and setting taxes to a lower level will reduce the unrest.

    Note also that blood hunting also reduces the population of the province (fewer nubile virgins =fewer new babies= drop in population). This can be counteracted by a high growth scale, or limiting blood hunting to provinces with very high populations.

     Blood Sites

    There are a negligibly small number of sites that provide blood slaves on a turn-by-turn basis like other other magic gems. Typically, these sites are found in the capitals of the blood nations like Mictlan, but on rare occasions they can be uncovered by the normal site-searching methods.

     Blood Sacrifice

    Some nations have the option of using blood sacrifice to increase the strength of their dominions. Mictlan in particular must use blood sacrifice to spread dominion since Mictlan's dominion will not spread in the normal way. Blood sacrifice will increase the strength of your dominion in the province by causing a "temple check" for each blood slave sacrificed. A priest may sacrifice one blood slave per his priest level.

    Any (sane) priest may blood sacrifice. To do so they simply set their orders to "perform blood sacrifice". They must have blood slaves in their inventory, and they must be in a province with a friendly temple. The amount of blood slaves a priest can sacrifice can be improved by the use of magic items, notably the jade knife.

     Commentary

    It is generally considered inefficient to search for sites that provide blood slaves. They are so few that the return on investment is negligibly small.

     Conjuration

    Summon powers and beings from other worlds. Very useful if your need Thugs, Fodder or mages. Has also a few combat spells and buffs. Famous and feared is the ritual Ghost Raider that let you call an undead army into any province like paratroopers. The ritual Wild Hunt summons an army to slain enemy priest.

     Construction

    Make magic items and constructs. Also allow some mass-buff combat spells and the Construction of a few Magic Monsters like the feared, flying and trampling Iron Dragon.

     Enchantment

    Grant magical properties to creatures, items or land.

     Evocation

    Projections of arcane power.

     Thaumaturgy

    Manipulate the arcana, minds and magical processes.

    		7.2.5 Spells & Rituals

    		Combat spells

    There are a great number of different combat spells from different schools and paths of magic, and not all of them do direct damage to units. There are spells that summon additional creatures to the battle, spells that provide aid to allies or the caster (known as buffs) and spells that weaken the enemy.

    Combat spells cause fatigue, and the strongest spells require magic gems. If a mage reaches 100 fatigue points he will faint. If fatigue goes over 200 the mage will start taking damage and eventually die.

    Having more skill in a path of magic makes spells from that path significantly less burdensome to cast and in some cases it can also make the spell vastly more powerful and harder to resist. Good examples of spells that scale well with power are Blade Wind, Orb Lightning and Nether Darts.

    Magic gems can be used to reduce the amount of fatigue caused by a spell, since using a gem will count as +1 level to that path for all purposes. A mage cannot gain new paths by carrying gems of a different school, and only one gem will count.

     Ritual spells

    Ritual spells are cast during the strategic planning phase. Each ritual requires magic gems and a laboratory in the same province as the mage casting the ritual. Rituals range from summoning creatures to causing damage to enemy troops or provinces. All ritual spells take one turn to cast, be it a lowly ritual of Summon Cave Drake or the powerful global enchament of Astral Corruption. Keep this in mind when planning spells for your pretender or most powerful mages, as they may be wasting their time with spells easily cast by weaker cohorts. A ritual may be set to repeat by using the hotkey capital-M and selecting the monthly ritual.

    Carrying gems has no effect on rituals since the gems used are drawn directly from the gem pool. Occasionally the skill of a mage in a certain path has an effect of the ritual. A highly skilled Death mage can summon many more Ghosts with the aproriate spell than a mage who barely meets the requirements. Scalable spells are denoted by a "+" after the gem requirement.

    Utilizing rituals efficiently is one of the most important parts of strategy in the game.

    			7.2.5.1 Global Enchantments

    The most powerful rituals affect large portions of the world. These rituals are known as global enchantments. Once a global enchantment is cast it will continue to affect the world each game turn, until someone dispels it or the caster dies.

    Global enchantments are cast on the strategic portion of the game and they cost great amounts of gems and require strong skill in magic. For each global enchantment, there is a minimum gems requirement. If more gems is used, it's harder to dispel the global enchantment.

    As we can see in the following list, Mother Oak, Gift of Health or Burden of Time are probably the global enchantements in the beginning of the game. They are only level 5 spells.

    Alteration

        * 5: Mother Oak N5
        * 7: Sea of Ice W6
        * 8: Fata Morgana A7
        * 9: Utterdark D9

    Blood

        * 7: Astral Corruption B6S6
        * 8: The Looming Hell B7

    Conjuration

        * 8: Well of Misery D6
        * 8: Guardians of the Deep W6
        * 9: The Kindly Ones F6N4
        * 9: Wild Hunt N6
        * 9: Enchanted Forest N7

    Construction

        * 7: Forge of the Ancients E5
        * 9: Mechanical Militia E5

    Enchantment

        * 5: The Eyes of God S5
        * 5: Gift of Health N5
        * 6: Riches from Beneath E5
        * 6: Eternal Pyre F6
        * 7: Stellar Focus S5
        * 7: Earth Blood Deep Well E6
        * 7: Ghost Ship Armada W4D3
        * 8: Haunted Forest N5D1
        * 8: Wrath of the Sea W5
        * 9: Arcane Nexus S8
        * 9: Gift of Nature's Bounty N7
        * 9: Thetis Blessing W5

    Evocation

        * 6: Perpetual Storm A5
        * 6: The Wrath of God S5A3
        * 8: Second Sun F8
        * 8: Maelstrom W6
        * 9: Strands of Arcane Power S7

    Thaumaturgy

        * 5: Burden of Time D5
        * 6: Foul Air D5A1
        * 7: Dark Skies A5
        * 7: Purgatory F6
        * 7: Lure of the Deep W6
        * 8: Gale Gate A5

    		7.2.6 Magic Items & Forging

    In the mysterious and magical world of Dominions hundreds of different magic items exist. Mages with sufficient skill can produce marvelous items of the forge if they have researched the recipes or blueprints for thoese items with the Construction school of magic. These items can then be equipped by all Commander units be it mages, warriors, Pretender Gods or void summons as long as they have approriate item slots.

    More information about items can be found here.

     Construction, Paths of Magic & Forging

    The Construction school of magic is a special one as the even levels (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8) provide a new set of magic items for your mages to forge while the odd levels provide the usual ritual and combat spells. These levels correspond to the five tiers of magic items ranging from level 0 trinkets (no research needed) to level 8 unique artifacts (only one of these items can exist at once).

    These tiers do not affect the cost or skill needed to build an item, even if higher tiers offer more expensive items. For example, attaining Level 6 in Construction provides blueprints for some very expensive items but also for inexpensive items that do not require much magic skill.

    All items have one or two Path requirements. These Paths affect three things: The type and power of mage needed and the gem cost of the item. For example, a mage with two levels in the Death path can forge items that require 2 levels in the Death Path to be forged.

        * You need a mage of sufficient power to see what items you can forge. If you enter the construction menu with a Death 2 mage you can't see items requiring other Paths or of Death beyond level 2. Be sure to check with all your mages to ensure you can construct the most powerful item possible.
        * Some mages get a Forge Bonus that appears as a hammer icon. These mages get a gem discount when forging an item. There is also a Global Enchantment that provides a gem discount. These discounts also apply to forging involving blood slaves.
        * Forging an item always takes 1 turn of time, whether it is a Sword of Fire trinket or the artifact Forbidden Light. Keep this in mind when planning jobs for your mages; don't waste your Pretender's time making marginally useful trinkets.
        * All forged items count as magic items. This is important considering there are spells that destroy non-magic armor, and Ethereal creatures are hard to hit without magic items. Some troop equipment such as ice weapons and armor also counts as magic.
        * There are magic items which cannot be forged. These are typically unique items belonging to particular monsters. Sometimes, the random number generator assigns forces much more powerful than an ordinary set of knights and longbowmen as the defenders of a province...

     Spoils of war

    There is a chance, but not a certainty, of the victor recovering magic items from commanders of either side that fall in combat. If an item is not recovered, it is forever lost; if it was a unique artifact, it can now be constructed again.

     Equipping magic items

    Commanders with appropriate item slots can equip a magic item. For example, a void summon with no humanoid head cannot equip a helmet while an Ettin has two head slots and can equip two. Some commanders such as Devatas have four hand slots and can wield four single handed weapons or two two-handed weapons.

    Any commander can equip a magic item from the item pool as long as he, she or it is in a province with a laboratory. You can also switch items between commanders in the same province. Using fast, sneaky commanders as item "mules" can be good way to get items to commanders on the front. The items worn by a commander show up as small tokens in the strategic view.

    In addition, there are items that passively benefit an army merely by being carried by a friendly commander in the province. Supply-generating feed as many troops when carried by a scout as when by carried by your best battle commander, for instance.

    Be warned that some items, once equipped, can never be moved. In addition, some magic items may have dangerous side effects, such as attracting the notice of hostile, otherworldly beings...

    		7.2.7 Magic Path Abbreviation Conventions

    Throughout the Wiki, you may see arcane abbreviations such as "1E1N1?". Worse, you might see something like "1E1N1?(100 AEFW, 50 AEFW)". These are not attempts to shut you out of the game, but rather cunningly-wrought abbreviations intended to prevent someone from writing "one level in Earth, one level in Nature, plus an additional level of either Air, Earth, Fire or Water, plus a 50% chance of yet another level in either Air, Earth, Fire or Water."

    See the advantage? Here's how you read it:

        * A = Air
        * S = Astral
        * B = Blood
        * D = Death
        * E = Earth
        * F = Fire
        * N = Nature
        * W = Water

    A number in front of one of these indicates a magic level in that Path, so "2A3N" would indicate a mage with two levels in Air and three levels in Nature.

    It's pretty easy, except that Astral uses an "S" because "A" was already taken by Air.

    Less used, are the following:

        * H = Holy
        * U = Unholy
        * ? = Random

    Levels of holiness (or unholiness) are occasionally listed alongside the magic paths if the mage also happens to be a priest. These are often omitted, however.

    Finally, many magic-using leaders in Dominions 3 have a certain random factor thrown in, which is represented by a question mark. So when you see "2E1N1?", it means two levels in Earth, one level in Nature, and one level in some random path.

    The random magic path information can get a bit deeper, however. Each "?" tends to have more info behind it than can be easily conveyed, so you'll sometimes see an abbreviated explanation parenthesized after the "?", something like "(100 AEFW, 50 AEFW)".

    The number is the percentile chance that an additional magic path will be granted, and the letters are the possible paths. Thus for this example, the mage will get an additional path or either Air, Earth, Fire or Water, and there is a 50/50 chance that they will get yet another level in one of those paths.

     Examples

    2D3S

        Two levels of Death magic, three levels of Astral magic.

    1E1N1H

        One level in Earth, one level in Nature, one level in Holy.

    2D1?

        Two levels in Death, one level of a random path.

    2E1? (100 EFDN, 50 EFDN)

        Two levels in Earth and one random choice which will provide one level in Earth, Fire, Death, or Nature, along with an additional 50% of yet another level in Earth, Fire, Death, or Nature.

    2E1? (10 EFDN)

        Two levels in Earth and one random choice which has a small chance (10%) of providing one level in Earth, Fire, Death, or Nature.

     Statistics

    Just a little note on how to figure out the odds in a random path choice. Let's grab an example from above:

        2E1? (100 EFDN, 50 EFDN)

    So this mage has two levels in Earth and one random choice which will provide one level in Earth, Fire, Death, or Nature, along with an additional 50% of yet another level in Earth, Fire, Death, or Nature. What are the odds that we'll end up with a mage with 4 levels of Earth?

    Well, they are not good. You start off with two levels in Earth. Then you have a 100% chance of getting EFDN, so you are going to get one of those four, guaranteed. So you have a 25% chance of getting another level in Earth... meaning that one in every four of this type of mage you buy will be a 3E mage.

    Then, you've got a 50% chance of yet another level in EFDN. Meaning a 50% chance of another 25% chance of getting Earth.

    Multiplying out all your odds gives us:

    1/4 * 1/2 * 1/4 = 1/32, or about a 3% chance of getting a 4E mage. Not odds you'd want to plan a strategy around.

    		7.2.7 Alchemy

    The last of the magic activities is alchemy. With alchemy you can make gold out of magical gems but you can also transmute magic gems into other types of gems. There are a set of buttons that allows you to convert gems into other kinds of gems and gold. You can never convert blood slaves into anything else nor can you create blood slave from gems. Blood slaves are collected during long and hard expeditions in remote provinces.

    Alchemy, unlike most other actions on the strategic phase of the game doesn't take one turn in time. Instead it is instanteous. A mage can convert gems and then go and make a move or go and Research.

     Gems into other gems

    To convert gems into other gems you need to first convert them into Astral Pearls with a rate of 2 gems for 1 Astral Pearl. Astral Pearls can then be alchemized into gems of any other type (Blood Slaves excluded) at a rate of 2 Astral Pearls for 1 gem.

     Gems to Gold

    You can convert Fire and Earth gems into gold. Fire Gems can be turned into 15 gold per gem and Earth Gems can be turned into 10 gold per gem.

     When to use Alchemy

    Since Alchemy consumes precious magic gems at a high rate you must think of times when you truly need alchemy. Such situations include:

        * Converting gem type you don't need to other gems
        * Getting a gem type you need but don't have
        * Gaining emergency Gold from Fire and Earth gems

    	7.3 Treasury

    	Income

    The populations in the various provinces will pay taxes. The accumulated gold will be transferred to the treasury. Bad random events -sometimes created by enemy spellcasters- will cost you gold, while good random events will sometimes bring you gold.

     Upkeep

    Upkeep is the Gold required to keep a troop or commander in your employment. It is always the gold cost of the unit divided by 15. Holy units pay less upkeep (Gold cost divided by 30). Resources are not used for upkeep. A few Summonable Monsters like Trolls demand gold upkeep, but most summoned Monsters work for free.

    The ruler who cannot pay his troops can expect random desertions among the disgruntled.

    See also page 40 of the printed manual.

    		7.3.1

    	7.4 Units

    Units

    Units are the heart of Dominions 3: The Awakening. With units you wage ware, conquer provinces, fight battles, forge items, cast spells and win the game. Units can be classified:

        * Units can be either Commanders or Troops
        * Units can be either recruited or summoned
        * Units can be either stealth or non-stealth
        * Units can be either national or independent

     Commanders

    Commanders are different in some ways from other units:

        * Only commanders can wear Magic Items.
        * Only commanders can lead other troops (if the commander has the right leadership skill).
        * Only commanders can cast spells, build buildings or search for/ enter into Magic Sites.
        * Only commanders can increase unrest or perform Assassinations.
        * Only one recruitable commander can be recruited per province per turn.

    Armies can only move when they are led by a commander. Commanders have different leadership ratings, which determine how many units they can control. Commanders can be classified into priests, mages, or generals. Right-click on them to get all their vital details.

    Some commanders have the Stealth skill and serve in different roles such as scouts, spies, or assassins. A high value at the stealth skill means a better chance of infiltrating enemy provinces without becoming detected. Scouts provide basic information on enemy assets, while spies provide more detailed information and can raise unrest. Assassins provide the option of attacking one random commander per turn -- and his bodyguards. Scouts, spies, and assassins rarely have the skills necessary to lead other troops. All face the risk of detection and attack by enemy patrols.

    Commanders are often referred to by their main role, like Mage, Priest, Scout, Spy, Assassin, Prophet and Pretender. Common roles for Commanders are also Thug and Super Combatant (SC).

     Troops

    There are a vast amount of different kinds of troops, units and creatures in Dominions 3 but they all have something in common. Troops require a commander with appropriate type of Leadership to lead them -- standard, magical, or undead/demon. Troops cannot move around on their own. Recruitable troops can be recruited in great amounts per turn unlike commanders who can only be recruited at pace of one commander per province per turn. Troops also cannot wield magic weapons forged by mages.

    Troops have a money and resource cost. Money is permanently reduced from your treasure but resource act more as a limit to how many troops you can build in a province. Every province has it's own resource value. Resource value can change over time but it does not accumulate over turn. So a province with 22 resources in turn 1 won't have 44 resource in turn 2. Resources are replenished at the start of every turn. Troops also cost maintenance for as long as they live.

    Sacred units also use the "Holy" that is shown in the recruitment screen. "Holy" equals the level of your Dominion in the province and you can only recruit a number of sacred units equal to the level of "Holy" in the province. "Holy" acts like resources.

    Land nations cannot expect to be able to recruit their national units underwater; they will not even be able to construct castles there without the aid of magic. On land, underwater nations may build castles, but will have very limited national troop recruitment regardless.

     Unit types

    Most units can be categorized into different roles that those units play on the battlefield:

     Fodder

    Also called Damage Soaker, Meat shield, Arrow Catcher or Lance Fodder. Those units have often no armor, ridicule arms and generally very low combat value. That does not mean that those units have no value at all for the wise general: Their purpose is to take damage while letting your more valuable units unharmed. "Fodder" units are usually not hard to replace and a high mortally rate of those units is nothing to worry about. Also keep in mind that some of the typical "fodder" units like militiamen that you get from random events will cost you upkeep (gold) per turn, and most "fodder" units want to eat (supply).

    Examples:

    A squad of Militiamen, placed near the frontline and with orders to attack cavalry will soak up the first-strike damage of enemy lancers. A squad of crippled or diseased units placed near the frontline with orders to "hold and attack" will hopefully catch many enemy arrows.

     Arrow catcher

    While letting your worthless "fodder" units catch enemy arrows with their body is favorable over exposing your valuable elite units to enemy archers, the best way to catch enemy arrows is by units with a big shield. Thick armor is also a good idea on such a unit, but the shield (the bigger, the better) is most important. Depending on your tactical setup you will give your "Arrow Catchers" orders to "hold and attack closest", or simply "attack closest" or even "guard commander". In every case you will position your "Arrow Catchers" as close to the frontline as possible. Even the biggest shield will not completely protect from enemy arrows and being positioned at the frontline make contact with enemy melee fighters very probably. So recruit replacements every turn and refresh your army in time. Note that units like the jaguar tribe infantry combine shield with ranged weapons (sling), giving you two units for the price of just one.

    Examples:

    A squad of indy heavy infantry (shield & broadsword) placed near the frontline with orders to "guard commander". The (armored) commander is placed in the middle of the battlefield, but before the archers. This squad will retreat toward the commander and hopefully attract the most part of the enemy arrows while other units (like your own archers and cavalry) will do the fighting.

     Damage Dealer

    This unit has a good weapon with high damage. Having two weapons or weapons with multiple attacks is even better. The main problem with "Damage Dealers" is to get them to the enemy unharmed. As "Damage Dealers" have seldom shields it is a good idea to position them behind the frontline troops. After the first melee contact is made, the damage dealers join in.

    Example:

    A squad of barbarians with broadswords, placed away from the frontline with orders of "attack closest".

     Defenders

    This unit stand in the frontline in dense formations. It has ideally a combination of tolerable cost (you want lots of those units), medium/high defense and good armor. Having a shield increase the defense value and gives protection against arrows - Defenders have to deal with a lot of arrows, from friends and enemy alike. High hit-points, high morale, small size and special ability's like awe or regeneration are ideal for "Defenders". Having a weapon with a long weapon length like a spear give the unit a chance to repel enemy troops. The main purpose of this unit is to halt an enemy advance. It has not necessarily to deal a lot of damage; it has to keep the enemy hordes stopped long enough to let your own "Damage Dealers", archers and mages destroy them.

    Example: Human heavy infantry with spear and shield.

     Repellers

    The role of the repeller is very close to the role of the Defender. Repelling is defined by checking which units weapon length is longer. The bearer of the shorter weapon must make an morale check before attacking and risk getting wounded (loosing exactly one hit-point). The exact mechanics of repelling can be read in the manual; the practical wisdom is that repelling works best against low-morale units with short weapons (teeth, claws, dagger). Repelling is useless against undead units (morale 50). The main advantage of repelling is not the damage dealt by repelling, but the forced morale check: each time, the attacker got repelled and wounded, his squad must make an morale check or rout.

    Example:

    Longspear inf.

     Swarmer

    The swarm or horde type of troop does not win by quality, but by quantity. Main qualification is a low resource and gold cost (or cheap gem cost for summons) because you want huge numbers. Swarmer's use the fact that each attack to an enemy unit decrease his defense for that turn; This works very good against huge units. A combat square can hold just one size-6 unit but 6 size-1 units. That makes the Clockwork Horrors really fearsome !

    Example:

    A horde of flagellants with Fire-9 blessing.

     Archer

    Archers, Slingers or crossbowmen shoot arrows into enemy ranks. Use your crossbowmen to fire at enemy cavalry or huge monsters while letting your shortbowmen fire at closest enemy and your longbowmen fire at enemy archers. If your frontline troops suffer from friendly fire, let all your archers shoot at at enemy archers instead. To do so, position them in the middle of your battlefield or even closer to the frontline. Make sure to have arrow catchers or defenders in front of them. Some archers wear armor (and usually a better melee weapon like a sword too), so that you can position them closer to the frontline than others. Note that the spell "Flaming arrows" make every flying object (rocks, sticks, arrows) magical and armor-piercing.

    Example:

    A group of slingers in the rear with commands set to fire at closest enemies.

     Skirmisher

    Difficult to use in Dominions 3, those units wear typically mid-ranged weapons like javelins with limited ammo. Give them the fire & flee command if you are willing to pick them of in neighboring provinces after the battle. Else, give them fire at closest orders.

    Example: A squad of medium human infantry with javelins.

     Trampler

    This huge units can simply trample over smaller beings. If tramplers carry weapons those weapons are only used against equal or bigger sized foes. Tramplers like elephants are often very vulnerable to enemy arrows and spells. To avoid friendly troops trampled by your own tramplers, position your other troops at the flanks, leaving your tramplers a way to retreat. Also carefully placing your trampler near mages and scripting them to "hold and attack" gives your mage the chance to cast buffs on your tramplers. Most buff spells have a range of 1 and are really worth it, like Moss Body, Berserkers, Body Ethereal.

    Example: A group of Elephants.

     Flankers

    Flankers are defined by a lot of Action points, enabling them to run toward the rear of the enemy troops and wreck havoc. Example: Jade Amazons (mounted, light lance)

     Recruited units

    Regular troops refer to the national and independent troops that can be recruited from the provinces. Regular troops have a purchase cost of resources and money and an upkeep cost.

    Pros of regular troops

        * Do not require magic at all
        * Essential for the early portion of the game
        * Sometimes provide weapons that summons don't have

    Cons of regular troops

        * Lack many of the special abilities of summoned units
        * Significantly weaker than summons in later portion of the game
        * Regular troops eat supplies and require upkeep money

     Mercenaries

    Mercenaries are a special case of recruited troops. You have to bid for them in an auction. You choose a province (ideally near the frontlines) and click on the Mercenary Button. All current mercenaries are listed in box together with minimum price and term of contract. Each contract automatically ends after three months. If you win the bidding, the mercenary will appear in the province where you started the bidding next turn. Mercenaries consist are always out of one commander and sometimes a squad of troops. Note that you can give Magic Gems as well as Magic Items to an mercenary commander under your command. But he will never give anything back !

     Province defense

    See page 45 in the manual

     Stealth units

    Stealth units have a brown robe icon on their statistic screen. Right-click on this icon to see how stealthy the unit is. Stealth troops need a stealth commander to sneak into enemy provinces. If you want to rather move than sneak, you have to hold the Ctrl key pressed while giving the move command. Stealth armies can join attacks initiated by "paratroop" rituals like Call of the Wild, Call of the Wind or Imprint Souls. To make this coordination work, the stealth army must already be inside the attacked province and given an "Attack" Order (with no move order).

     Summoned units

    Summoned units play an important part in the wars of the pretender gods. Available to mages with enough skill and research behind them, the summons provide everything from expendable "chaff" to creatures of amazing power. A great number of summonable units are in the Conjuration, Blood and Construction research trees but Enchantment tree also has some summons. Most of summons are cast as rituals which require 1 month perform. However, some summoning spells, such as Elemental summoning, Call Horror, Swarm and Summon Lammashta, are cast in battle. These summons only last until the end of the fight. Broadly speaking the game tends to become more summon based as time passes on because at certain point the power of the summonable creatures exceeds the efficiency of recruitable troops.

    Pros of summons

        * Do not require supplies or money.
        * Provide a wide amount of abilities.
        * Often have skills normal troops don't have.

    Summons can fill some roles your troops can. Death and Nature magic have easy access to expendable "meat wall" summons such as Vinemen and Soulless, Elemental magics offer access to the unique Elemental Kings and Elemental Queens while Blood magic has strong and affordable summons. Often the summons have useful abilities and resistances.

    One caveat is that not all summons are friendly. Pay attention to the spell descriptions if you wish to know which ones might have their own agenda.

     National summons

    Just as there are national troops there are summons which can only be researched by certain nations. These summons show up with blue text in the research tree.

     National units

    National troops are units that are nation-specific and can only be recruited by that nation in their fortresses. If an enemy nation captures the fortress the enemy nation's build roster replaces the build roster of the nation that had the fort. National units given by starting magic sites cannot be recruited by nation that conquered the other nation.

     Independent units

    Independent, or indie, troops are troops that are recruited from independent provinces. The type of troops you can recruit is determined by the poptype of the province.

     Unit attributes

    Every individual unit has a set of attributes. The attributes are used in battle to decide if an enemy is hit, damaged, dead or routing.

     Hit points

    The amount of damage that a unit can withstand. If the number reaches zero in a battle, the unit will die. A 'standard' human soldier has 10 hit points.

    As each turn is a month, most units will fully recover at the end of every turn. Notable exceptions include unit types which never heal, such as certain brittle units; and diseased units, which instead lose hit points every month and in addition have a chance of gaining afflictions. Most units will not heal during battle, however; regenerating units will, as well as units healed by magic, or units healing themselves by draining life from others.

    Prophets and pretenders should beware enemy dominions, as this reduces their hit points as well as other statistics depending on the dominion strength. Conversely, they receive advantages within their own dominion.

     Protection

    The thickness of any armor worn by the unit. Natural armor such as scaly skin is also accounted for. The protection subtracts from the strength and weapon damage when calculating effective damage on a target.

    High levels of natural armor do not stack completely with additional armor; the resulting protection can be less than the sum.

    Protection is halved against armor-piercing damage, such as the flames of flaming weapons; protection is ignored by armor-negating damage. Lightning damage is perhaps the most common example of the latter.

     Morale

    The courage and valor of soldiers. Every time something demoralizing happens morale is checked. Every time a member of a squad dies all other members of the squad check morale and every time an individual is damaged he checks his morale. Failed morale checks result in squad morale reductions. The squad morale reduction relative the size of the squad generates a rout chance. In the beginning of a battle turn all squads with a squad morale reduction makes a rout check based on the average morale of the squad. Failure means the squad routs from the battle field.

    Some units are unbreakable -- in particular, units which have gone berserk, and units which are mindless. These correspond to morale values of 99 and 50, respectively.

     Magic resistance

    Some spells can be resisted and avoided by targets with an iron will. Powerful mages reduces the chances of resisting the spell they cast.

    A standard human soldier has a magic resistance of 10; few units will have magic resistances of 15 or greater.

     Encumbrance

    Fatigue increases with the encumbrance value by each attack in melee. Casting spells has its own, usual higher encumbrance value. Units get defense penalties with increasing Fatigue. At a Fatigue value above 100 the unit becomes unconscious and cannot do any action until Fatigue value is under 100 again. While unconscious the unit looses some Fatigue each combat round. Fatigue values over 200 result in lost hit-points. This is especially important for Dominion slaves.

    Items with high Reinvigoration values or certain spells like Relief help to counter Fatigue effects.

    Low Encumbrance is extreme important for spellcasters and Super-Combatants (SC).

     Strength

    The physical might of a unit. A high value indicates that the unit can damage even heavily protected troops. The strength is added to the weapon damage when calculating damage.

     Attack skill

    The combat skill of a unit. The weapon attack bonus is added to this value when attacking. If the value is above the defending units defense the strike is a hit.

     Defense skill

    The defensive combat skill of a unit. This value must be exceeded by the attack value of incoming attacks for the attack to take effect. Defense doesn¿t protect you from missile weapons or spells.

     Precision

    The targeting skill of the unit. Precision is only used when firing missile weapons or casting battle spells. With a higher value your arrows tend to hit near their intended target.

     Movement

    The movement limit each turn of a unit. It is separated into strategic map movement and into an tactical battlefield movement value. A value of 0/10 means that the unit is unable to leave her home province. However she can move 10 Fields each combat turn on the battlefield.

     Fatigue

    A unit normally starts battle ready to go with zero fatigue -- but this seldom lasts. Most living units fatigue when making melee attacks -- the more attacks, the more fatigue. Heat or cold beyond what the unit is used to increases this. Casting spells can also be extremely tiring.

    There are other causes of fatigue as well; for instance, there are units which are surrounded by such a chilling wind that they drain the energy of most non-cold-immune units around them.

    A tired unit is easier to hit; in addition, it is also easier to take advantages of any weaknesses in the unit's armor, reducing their effective protection for such a lucky strike. At 100 fatigue, a unit falls unconscious; at 200 fatigue, additional fatigue causes hit point damage.

    Fatigue is normally only removed at the end of the battle.

    There are two main classes of methods that remove fatigue. One, reinvigoration, provides a small but ongoing reduction in fatigue of the affected units. Reinvigoration can come from magical items; it can also be bestowed to sacred units as a particular blessing, if the pretender has certain powers. And some legendary heroes have seemingly profound reserves of energy... Reinvigoration helps even the unconscious.

    The other class is the one-time removal of fatigue through some event. Typically, this event is either the use of a restorative spell (there exists a battlefield spell which reduces the fatigue of -all- friendly units in the battle, for instance), or through the draining life and energy from an enemy through certain dark magic spells or items. There are even units which have the innate ability to drain the vitality of the living.

     Leadership

    The number of troops a commander may lead. This value is separated into normal, magic and undead leadership. Most "normal" commanders can only lead normal troops, while mages for example can lead magical beings. Undead Commanders and Mages with Death or Blood Skills have undead Leadership.

     Age

    The age of a unit is tracked in Dominions 3, viewable by right-clicking Fatigue in the unit info screen. The number in parentheses is the age that the unit acquires "old age". Once that happens, an icon appears on the unit screen and provides several pieces of information: the age at which the unit became old, the unit's current age, and the penalties they are currently suffering in their dotage..

    Units of old age accumulate afflictions. Eventually one of those afflictions will be "diseased", which means they will gain more afflictions and lose one hit point per turn until they push up daisies. Even undead may become old, but they are not affected by disease.

     How age works

    A nice discussion of old age can be found in this thread on the Dom3 discussion forum. From that thread, here are some interesting factoids:

        * Units "roll" on afflictions once a year, in late winter. It's a cruel season.
        * Different races turn "old" at different ages; thus tulatha get old much later than, say, mermen.
        * Fire mages turn "old" at a younger age.
        * Nature mages turn "old" at a later age.
        * Death mages have a lesser chance of gaining afflictions due to old age.
        * Even undead can get old; however since disease does not affect them they will not die due to old age, they will simply gain more and more afflictions.
        * The chance of gaining an affliction is relative to the age difference between the "old" age and the current age; so if a unit turns "old" at 40, they are unlikely to gain an affliction at 41, but very likely at 61.

     Combating Old Age

    There are a number of ways to fight the inevitable hand of old age and death in Dominions 3.

        * There are certain magic items that stop or hinder the aging process
        * There are spells that will make a unit younger.
        * There are spells and items that will heal afflictions.
        * There are items that will transform the wearer into another typ of unit, usually with younger age.
        * There are items that will eliminate the hit point drain from disease.

    	7.5 Buildings

    There are three different kinds of buildings you can build to provinces in Dominions 3. The Fortresses can be build by all commanders and they take a number of turn to be completed. Mages can build Laboratories where arcane research, rituals and forging takes place. Building one takes 1 turn of time. Priests can build Temples which spread your Dominion. This action takes 1 turn of time.

    Only one fortress, one laboratory, and one temple can be present in each province at any one time. If you dislike the existing fortress, you must tear it down before replacing it.
    Contents

     Fortress

    In the fortress or army camp you will find all units present in the province. Here you can transfer troops to your commanders and give them battle orders. Commanders can build new fortresses in distant provinces. The fortress has several uses:

        * Supply depot - Food is collected from the countryside and transported from the fortress to nearby armies.
        * Administration center - Resources and armorers are gathered in the fortress to produce weapons for the garrison. Resources of neighboring provinces under same pretender¿s control can be used for producing more troops in the province of the fortress. There is also an increase in commerce in a province with a fortress and tax collectors have an easier time collecting taxes when the threat of the armed might of the nation is near.
        * Production center of the nation and allows you to recruit troops types of your own culture in the province.
        * Fortress - Inside the safety of the walls the brave will defend the heart of the province. For an opponent to conquer the province, he must capture the fortress. To do this, he must besiege the fortress until the defenses are breached, and then storm it to kill all the defenders. In the meantime, the defenders may starve.

    You can only build your national troops in a province with a fortress.

     Laboratory

    lab and some can be found in special sites. Otherwise the lab must be built by a mage. The mage does not actually build the lab but supervises the construction. If a commander enters the lab he can perform magical activities there. All research, spell casting and forging requires an acting commander in the lab.

    A laboratory is required in order to recruit mages.

    Laboratories, being home to arcane experiments, are somewhat prone to destruction by fire.

     Temple

    The temples are the centers of your religious authority.In the temples masses and ceremonies are conducted. From the temples your dominion is spread and in the temples priests are trained. Priests and sacred troops can only be recruited in a province with a temple.

     Obtaining temples

    Each nation's capitol automatically starts with a temple. Temples can be built by priests using the Construct Building order. Temples cannot be captured - they are automatically destroyed when a province containing an enemy temple is conquered. Some random events can also destroy temples.

     Effects of temples

    Temples automatically spread dominion for most nations. They also increase the effectiveness of preaching. Blood sacrifice can only be performed in temples. Temples allow the recruitment of priests and sacred troops.

    	7.6  Terrain

    Terrain plays a major role in Dominions. The type of terrain in a province dictates the amount fo gold and resources that might be available there, it affects the (random) magic sites that may appear in the province as well as the likelihood and number of such sites, it affects the supplies that are available to passing armies, and it affects the performance of troops in battles that take place in the province.
    Contents

     Terrain Types

    There can be many different terrain types in a given province. For instance, there can be both Mountains and Waste in a province, or even Farmlands and Waste. Some terrain types are mutually exclusive however, like Swamp and Sea.

     Plains

    The "Plains" terrain type is not actually listed in Dominions 3 like it was in the previous Dominions games. If a provinces has no other terrain type, it is assumed to be "Plains". There is a chance to find a magic site, especially a Astral site, in such a province.

     Farmland

    Farmland provinces are usually well populated and give you much gold and population (tax base, blood slaves). The chance of finding a magic site is very low in Farmland provinces.

     Swamp

    Units without the "Swamp Survival" ability get penaltys for moving through swamp provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). Units with swamp survival fight better in swamps than other units (see table below). The chance to find a magic site in a swamp province is better than in a farmland province.

     Waste

    Units without the "Waste Survival" ability get penaltys for moving through waste provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). The chance to find a magic site, especially a death site, is good.

     Forest

    Units without the "Forest Survival" ability get penaltys for moving through forest provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). The chance to find a magic site, especially a nature site, is good. Some nature spells like Faery Trod or Beckoning work only in forest provinces.

     Mountain

    Mountain provinces are usually resource rich, but low populated. Making a castle in such a province is a good idea to produce high-resource units like knights. Units without the "Mountain Survival" ability get penalties for moving through mountain provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). The chance to find a magic site, especially a earth or fire site, is good.

     Border Mountain

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     Sea

    A Sea province is a underwater province. Sea provinces can only enterd by amphibious or aquatic units. A commander with the sailing ability can move over one sea province into another land province, but cannot enter the sea province. Sea provinces give usually much gold and have a good chance to contain magic sites. The special site-searching spell Voice of Tiamat finds all elemental sites (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) in a underwater province. Only some spells work underwater and only some nations build castles or raise province defense in underwater provinces.

     Deep Sea

    see Sea above.

     Coastal

    Any land province neighboring a underwater province is a costal province. Some rituals like Lure of the Deeps affect only costal provinces.

     Fresh Water

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     Economic Effects

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     Site Likelihood

    Magic sites are more likely to be found in some provinces and less likely to be found in others.

    In general, Mountain and Forest terrain will contain more magic sites while Farmland will contain fewer.

     Gem Types

    Beyond the overall chance of finding a site of any kind in a province, the type of terrain in a province affects the likelihood of certain magic sites over other sites. For instance, you are more likely to find a site that provides Nature gems in a forest province than a Waste province.
    Types of gem sites that are associated with a particular terrain type (P =Primary, s= Secondary) Terrain
    		Air 	Fire 	Water 	Earth 	Astral 	Nature 	Death 	Blood
    Plains						P
    Farmland
    Swamp
    Waste 							P
    Forest								P
    Mountain 		s 		P
    Border Mountain
    Sea				P 			s
    Deep Sea 			P 			s
    Fresh Water 			P 			s

     Combat Effects

    Certain terrain types will adversely affect units if they do not have a countering property. For instance, units without the Swamp Survival skill suffer from increased endurance penalties when fighting in Swampy terrain.
    Terrain Combat Effects Terrain 	Effect 	Counter
    Plains
    Farmland
    Swamp

    	* +2 encumbrance
        	* -1 Attack Skill
        	* -1 Defense Skill	Swamp Survival
    Waste
    Forest
    Mountain			Mountain Survival
    Border Mountain
    Sea				Aquatic, Amphibian
    Deep Sea			Aquatic, Amphibian
    Fresh Water

    	7.7 Logistics and Movement

    		7.7.1 Logistics

    Their exists a high-level supply model. While the ruler need not act as a quartermaster maintaining depots and allocating resources between baggage trains, he does need to pay attention to keeping his armies well-supplied.

    Most troops need to eat; some units (mostly certain magical ones) don't need to eat, but do so anyway. Larger units require more supplies than smaller ones.

    Supply is not accumulated or explicitly moved; instead, for each province the game determines the available supply levels. These are based upon such things as the population of the province and the terrain; a well-populated rolling plains provides more foraging possibilties than a sparsely populated mountain pass. In addition, any fortress that belongs to the owner may be able to contribute supplies, if there is a short and uninterrupted path of friendly provinces to the army in question. On the other hand, besieged garrisons must rely on the stores within the fortress, which will surely dwindle over time if the siege is not lifted.

    The consequence of providing insufficient supply is starvation. Starvation is not particularly good for armies, and among other things, has a large negative imapct on their morale. In addition, prolonged starvation increases troop mortality through diseases. It is therefore quite unwise for most large armies to penetrate too deeply and risk being surrounded without being able to trace a supply route to a nearby fortress.

    It is said that there are mystics who may know ways to alleviate supply shortages. A more mundane if rather short-term approach is to pillage; this can result in seizing food and gold, but quite naturally worsens the attitude of the locals.

    		7.7.2 Movement

    Movement on the strategic scale is measured in provinces. Armies, to remain as cohesive forces, must move at the speed of the slowest unit.

    Most infantry can move but one province a month; an army containing only cavalry can usually move two provinces a month, while an army that has only fliers may find itself flying over two provinces to reach a third. A few units may have much faster speeds. Flight is also applicable in battle; in favorable weather conditions, flying units can land behind enemy ranks to slaughter the vulnerable.

    Fliers have two other advantages. One is that difficult terrain such as forests and mountains does not slow them down, even if they lack familiarity with such regions; another is that, unlike other overland movement, they can over friendly provinces or even other enemy ones even if an enemy province is a destination.

    Few units can cross the seas at arbitrary points. A few nations have prowess at sailing, and have commanders who can lead fleets (abstracted) with enough supply to cross a small sea to immediately land a quantity of troops on the other side. Other nations have amphibious troops who can walk into the sea... or out of it. Underwater movement is slow -- only one province per turn is permitted.

    		7.7.3 Stealth

    Stealthy commanders leading either only stealthy troops or none at all can attempt to move to an enemy-controlled province without triggering a fight. It should be noted that the province militia and any patrollers have a chance of detecting such forces, and this chance is per commander; thus, stealthy forces may be destroyed piecemeal when detected, as their compatriots will not join in.

     Movement Order

    Dominions is not a IGO-UGO game; it is a WEGO game. Movement orders are executed in a not entirely predictable order.

    	7.8 Expansion Strategies

    Radial Expansion

    Radial expansion means focusing on capturing the provinces surrounding your home fortress. Since your home fortress drains a proportion of your surrounding provinces resources this strategy can work well for resource-heavy nations that have strong troops.

    For example it won't be too hard for Ulm to build up a force strong and diverse enough to deal with most independent types and Ulm will benefit from the resources you can gain from the surrounding provinces.

    However this strategy has it's drawbacks. First of all, the provinces you start next to won't always be profitable ones. You can start next to three plains and two swamp provinces which provide only small amounts of resources. Sometimes the independents you start next to are too hard to defeat for one to pursue this strategy well. You can start next to two provinces filled with Knights and Longbowmen, one province with Blood Vines and one lightly defended one.

    Perhaps the most optimal starting position for this strategy is starting next to several Mountain and Forest provinces.

    After the initial phase of capturing the provinces around your starting fort you should start to do long term planning. Will you go after lucrative provinces, or will you plan on find a spot for your next castle? If you plan to set up your next castle soon you should scan the map for a suitable nearby province and then head to capture it. Start building the fortress if you have the money and then carve it's surroundings. Repeat as many times as you want to or then switch your strategy if situation calls for it.

     Tunneling

    Tunneling means going after the most lightly defended provinces. Since the more provinces you have the more income you draw the better it will be.

    This is perhaps the easiest expansion strategy to pursue since pretty much everyone can mass forces and pick a weak enough target. Nations with fast strategic movement will however have the easiest time to supply reinforcements if something goes wrong.

    The downside of this strategy is that this can result in empires that are hard to defend against enemies. If the "tunnel" is too long it is possible that an enemy attack can sever it, and it is harder to defend a narrow territory in general. The easiest provinces are usually the more poorer and insignificant ones so your income might be lagging behind more focused empires.

    Tunneling can however result in fast territory expansion. You must however keep an eye on your empire to make sure you will not make it undefendable and too narrow. You should try to build up task forces to take stronger provinces for you, especially the ones that surround your home fortress.

     Shotgunning

    Shotgunning means using flying or sneaking units to pick poorly defended provinces, attacking and then moving on. This will result in "shotgunned", decentralized empires. This can work for your or against you.

    Pangaea and Caelum are perhaps the best ones in this strategy. Pnagaea has many different types of sneaking troops and Caelum has flying troops and more importantly flying scouts and sneaking priests in the middle era. Scouting is important for this strategy as you need to pick out provinces you can overpower.

    One good side is that this can allow you to find a spot for your second castle very soon. This can also allow you to pick valuable provinces in some cases. Picking the three Mountain provinces somewhat near to you as Caelum can give you fine acces to fortification spots and possibly even magic resources.

    The downside is the high decentralization. You will quite likely not have as many provinces as other empires and your empire might have less build capacity than other.

    However this decentralization can also work for you. It will be very confusing to go after an empire whose 10 provinces aren't in one "blob" but scattered around. In the best case you can launch harassing attacks against the enemy rear echelon while the enemy has to fight it's way through independent provinces while you plot a suitable battleground where you will attack from the shadows or from distance with overpowering force while you cut their escape with a smaller task force.

     Bursting Dam

    A somewhat risky strategy to counter enemy "tunnelers". The idea is that you do not start tunneling toward your opponents castle but instead wait for him. Conquer the provinces around your home fortress and maybe some more provinces. Maybe build more fortresses. Build up big armies of good troops (like Jotunheim giant's). Do not conquer thoug indy provinces (Knights, Longbowmen), instead wait behind those provinces. If your enemy moves toward your fortress he must first those thoug indy provinces. Now he is most likly weakened and you can overrun his army and move in his "tunnel" of conquered provinces direct to his fortress.

    	7.9 Tactical Battles

    Dominions is primarily a strategic game, not a tactical game. Furthermore, it is designed with an eye towards supporting a variety of multiplayer methods, including play-by-email (PBEM); and a large number of players, of which only two will be in any one battle. Therefore, the players' control of tactical battles is limited to preparation; it is up to the tactical AI to determine what individual units will do, and when.

    As such, your direct control stops when the battle starts. A recording of the battle will be sent to anybody with a presence in the contested platform -- including stealthy sides not involved in the battle. In addition, battles that are initiated via remote summons are shown to the caster, regardless of whether the summons are associated with the caster or merely 'unflagged' monsters.

    There is no hidden information in a battle recording. That is, all viewers get perfect information regarding unit ownership, items, spells cast, and so forth. You do not, however, get to see the actual scripts or squad assignments -- just their effects.

    All battles are single-attacker versus single-defender, although either or both sides may summon monsters. Most summoned monsters are loyal to their summoner, although some will attempt to slaughter everyone on the battlefield. Battle summons are ephemeral, and will disappear after the battle.

     Army setup

    Army setup is quite important. For instance, it would normally make little sense to have your frail magicians in the front and your slow-moving heavy infantry in the rear. You want your vulnerable-but-important units to be fairly safe, while you want others ready to enter the fray. If you have units which are always surrounded by flames, cold, or poison, you might want to keep them separated from units which are not immune. And so forth.

    Troops may be organized into squads, each of which can be placed somewhere within the army organization, and then given some basic order such as 'Hold and Attack'.

    Each commander can command a maximum of 4 different squads of units.

    Scripting a small squad of units (2-5) to guard a mage keeps them within a square or two of the mage, providing a meat shield that can greatly increase survivability against breakaway enemies because enemies tend to attack whoever is closest instead of picking out spellcasters specifically. Also worth doing if a warrior commander is going to charge into melee--it prevents him from getting totally surrounded. Since mages cost 200+ gold apiece it's worth a little investment in a couple of light infantry to keep him alive. Think of it as a virtual hit point boost.

     Scripting mages & commanders

    As with squads, you can give your commanders a particular place to stand when planning the disposition of your army.

    Commanders can command up to five squads, subject to their maximum leadership values. In addition, each may have up to five specific orders (such as "Cast Nether Darts" or "Hold"), followed by a general order (such as "Cast Spells" or "Attack").

     Killer combos

    If you want your magicians to use specific combinations, you should script them to ensure their use.

    	7.10 Special Tactics

    Assassins

    While assassins may be somewhat expensive and their success is not guaranteed, the abrupt elimination of enemy commanders can be highly disruptive to enemy forces. Because assassins strike before armies move, sending in a few assassins can kill all the leaders of an army, pinning it in place and denying it magical support. Even one or two assassins can sometimes result in only half of an army participating in an intended attack, leading to defeat in detail.

     Army annihilation spells

    Armies can be felled en masse. Sometimes this is done with battlefield magic that affect all foes present; there is also ritual magic that can target enemy armies in arbitrary provinces.

    Murdering Winter, Fires From Afar, Flames From the Sky, and to a lesser extent Leprosy are ritual spells that can disable whole armies. Make sure to follow up the spell with an attack by a conventional army, since the units not killed by the spell will be at reduced hit points--they'll be harder to finish off next turn after they've had a chance to heal.

    Good battlefield spells include Rigor Mortis, Rain of Stones, Astral Tempest, Fire Storm, and Poison Vapours.

     Raiding

    Not all battles are for conquering and holding territory; it can be worth it, especially for highly mobile or stealthy forces, to target individual provinces for some particular value and do damage before the province is retaken. Damage can take the form of, e.g. capturing a province, cranking the tax rate up to 200, optionally hanging around for a turn to pillage or blood-hunt (thus pushing up the unrest even more), and then leaving it with 1 PD, fully expecting the enemy to take it back. (And if not, oh well. You keep getting taxes.) This works particularly against enemy fortresses if you don't have time to take the walls down and thus can't build PD or expect to keep the province long-term.

     No Survivors

    Routed troops will flee into neighboring friendly provinces. Make sure that no such provinces exist for your enemy! Use the "magic" movement phase (together with stealth armies) which comes before the "normal" movement phase to conquer all the enemy provinces around the main "battlefield" province. If the enemy army in this main "battlefield" province is routed and has no province to flee into, all enemy units are lost and your foes will hopefully think twice before attacking you again. Check the army size graphic after such an battle. Take a screenshot from it and send it to your human opponents as a warning.

    [It actually doesn't seem to be necessary to use the "magic" phase. If an invading army A is cutting into B's lands, and A moves from newly-conquered land L to attack B's land M while B simultaneously attacks L with airborne forces or reinforcements from elsewhere--if B captures L successfully then when A loses at M, A has nowhere to retreat to and so routed units die. The lesson here is that having well-defended forward bases helps invading armies recover from unpleasant surprises, even if you don't need the provinces for income. In particular, it keeps mages alive, since commanders almost always survive a rout.]

     Paratroopers

    Some rituals like Fairy Trod allow you to move an army in the magic phase into any enemy province. Other spells like Cloud Trapeze allow an single Commander to teleport himself into an enemy province. Other (cheaper) spells like Imprint Souls or Call of the Wild summon a small armies into any enemy province. Such magic 'Paratroopers' armies attack together with stealth armies already hiding in the target province and having the order "attack province". Force your enemy to patrol his lands and invest his gold into province defense. Keep in mind that battles initated by magic come before normal troop movement.

     Super Combatants & Thugs

    Particularly formidable commanders, such as Niefel Jarls and a number of pretender types, can become extremely dangerous on the battlefield with appropriate magical gear, orders and perhaps a few spells. Some such commanders can conquer enemy provinces alone and are called Thug or Super Combatants (SC).

    	7.11 Items

    Basic items

    These are the default armor and weapons of units in the game. Their properties are analogous to those of forged items; for example, a suit of chain mail is similar to the forged Weightless Chain Mail except it causes more fatigue when worn. Basic items may not be traded, though they are removed when a commander is given a forged item for that slot. If you later remove the forged item, the original Basic Item reappears at the commander's slot. Note that some Basic Items are actually better than some of the (lesser) forged Items. Make sure to check the commander's stats before and after equipping him with an forged item.

     Forged items

    In the mysterious and magical world of Dominions hundred of different magic items exist. Mages with sufficient skill can produce marvellous items of the forge if they have researched the recipes or blueprints for these items with the Construction school of magic. These items can then be equipped by all Commander units be it mages, warriors, Pretender Gods or void summons as long as they have appropriate item slots.

    More information about forging can be found here.

    More information about items of air can be found here.

     Weapons

    Ranging from sticks and stones to swords and the eldricth Mind Blasts, Dominions 3 is filled with different kinds of weapons. Many of them are mundane while some are powerful magic attacks or magic items forged by mages.

     Melee weapon statistics

        * Weapon damage: This is the damage from weapon without added strength unless "No Strength" is stated
        * Attack: The attack bonus or malus of the weapon. The higher attack the more often the unit hits the enemy
        * Defense: Defense bonus or malus from the weapon. The more defense the more often your unit can dodge attacks
        * Length: The length of the weapon used to determine repeling and if the unit gets poisoned by some spiny units
        * One-handed or two-handed: Whether the weapon is wielded with one or two hands.
        * Special statistic: This contains the special statistics of the weapon such as Magical or Armor Piercing

     Other melee weapons

    This section contains a number of weapons that don't fit into the category of normal weapons:

        * Natural weapons: These include attacks like Bite, Claw, Talons, Tentacle and Hoof often found on animals or monsters. These attacks often have 0 length meaning that a monster attacking with a Bite would get poisoned from Atlantian Coral Armor. They often have little damage, relying on the creature's strength.
        * Sleep Vines: Found on Mandagoras and Manikins, the sleep vines do little damage but they also cause fatigue on their target and are potentially devastating.
        * Drain Life: Some units such as Illithids and Vampires attack by draining life from their targets at close range. This attack does damage on the target and transfers at max 5 HP per hit to the attacker.
        * Paralyze: Paralyze is found on some units, notably Disposed Spirits and void summons, this touch attack paralyzes the target if it fails to resist the attack. Additional paralyzis counts as damage so units with only Paralyze as attack can kill units.
        * Drain Strength: This is another attack found on void summons and unded. This attack damages the strength of the target for duration of the battle and eventually starts doing damage.
        * Touch of Leprosy: This is a rare attack found on some Foul Spawn. This attack causes Disease upon a successful strike.

     Ranged Weapons Statistics

        * Weapon damage: This is the damage from weapon without added strength unless "No Strength" is stated
        * Precision: The precision of the ranged attack. The higher precision the closer to intended target the shot lands
        * Range: How many grid-squares the object can fly. Press g on the battle view to see the grid.
        * Ammo: Number of ammunition in the weapon. If the weapon runs out of ammo in battle it cannot be used during that battle or other battle in same turn. Weapon ammo is replenished during turn processing.
        * One-handed or two-handed: Whether the weapon is wielded with one or two hands.
        * Special statistic: This contains the special statistics of the weapon such as Magical or Armor Pierrcing

        * Swords
        * Axes
        * Daggers
        * Missile Weapons
        * Hammers, Maces and Mauls
        * Flails
        * Morning Stars
        * Spears & Pikes
        * Halberds & Glaives
        * Staffs & Rods

     Armor

    Armor, ranging from leather cuirases to magic armor, contribute to the Protection value of the unit. The more protection the unit has the more harder it must be hit before it takes damage. Heavy armor encumbers and reduces the defence of the unit, and spellcasting causes a greater amount of fatigue when wearing armor. Armor is less effective on units with high natural protection. The Protection bonus from armor counts only half against Armor Piercing attacks and not at all against Armor Negating attacks. Commanders wear magic armor on the Body slot.

        * Body Armor
        * Shields
        * Helmets
        * Boots

     Misc. items

     Rings

    Rings are magic items forged by mages which go to the Accessory slots of the commander. There are great many different types of rings which effects range from increased Attack the increased magic powers.

     Talismans and necklaces

    Forged by mages, the various Talismans and Necklaces go to the Accessory slot of a commander. There is a vast number of different talismans and necklaces ranging from the Disease causing but Fire Gem generating Fever Fetish to the Crystal Coin that empowers Astral magic skill.

     Other accessories

    Dominions 3 has a huge number of magic items that go to the Accessory slot of a commander. They range from Magic Carpets to Barrels of Air and wall-shaking horns.

    8. Dominions III Strategy Guides

    	8.1 Communion Guide

    	Author, Baalz.
    URL: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=577320&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1

    Alright, seems like every couple months a new thread with questions about communions pops up so I figured I'd write a guide about communions, answer the common questions and go over the basics of how to use them effectively. Communions are potentially very powerful, potentially very dangerous, and definitely kinda confusing.

    The basics.

    Communions (and their interchangeable, less well known blood brother Sabbaths) are a way for mages to work together to become greater than the sum of their parts. The slaves both boost the magic power of the masters and soak up the fatigue of the spells cast resulting in masters who can cast big spells much longer than otherwise possible. Because of the fact that they keep soaking up fatigue after exhaustion - all the way up to 200 fatigue at which point they start taking damage and quickly die, it is often the case that a mismanaged communion causes catastrophic loss of mages even when you win. Many the player has sworn off communions after watching a dozen mages perish as Armageddon is opened up on the terrified and fleeing PD. In Dominions, bad luck can always render any carefully laid plans asunder, but understanding how to use communions will result in them being much more useful and much less dangerous (to you, hopefully they¿re quite dangerous to your opponent).

    First it¿s important to understand the basic mechanics of the communion. Slaves boost the power of both slaves and masters inside the communion by 1 per power of 2. This means +1 at 2 slaves, +2 at 4, +3 at 8, etc. The masters are boosted in all paths which they already have, while the slaves are boosted in all paths whether they have them or not. The slave power is important for calculating the fatigue they receive for spells cast by the master. The specific mechanics of how fatigue is parsed out is not entirely clear, but roughly slaves will receive fatigue as if they cast the spell themselves (which is why the power level is important), divided by how many slaves there are. Encumbrance is not added to this calculation and significant extra fatigue is accrued if the slaves could not cast the spell themselves after the communion boost  another reason the slave power is important. The communion bonus does not show up on the character sheet, but it is effected by buffs. This means that so long as there are at least two slaves, all slaves will benefit from such spells as phoenix power for the purpose of soaking up fatigue.

    Putting together a successful communion is a lot like baking. You've got several different basic components which need to be properly balanced, and a few optional extras which can be used to add an interesting twist if you want. Just like baking, you can't stray too far away from the correct ratios or the bread won't rise resulting in best case reduced effectiveness of the communion, worst case a bunch of dead slaves. The basic components of course, are the masters and slaves, and choosing the correct ones to use is not as easy as it first seems. First, you've got to decide what type of thing you're baking, is it bread, or cookies, or a cake? There are several different types of communions, here are a couple recipes. Once you become familiar with them you will be able to tweak them without unbalancing the important factors and come up with your own recipes.

    Classic communion  This communion is intended to rain down mid-line evocation spells in a never ending barrage. Masters should have an elemental path and you'll want to script something like falling fires, falling frost, magma eruption, thunderstrike, acid rain, blade wind or gifts from heaven. Slaves will either need one level in the same path or one of the masters will need to cast power of the spheres (or phoenix power, etc if all your masters are the same path). The really important thing to keep in mind with this communion is critical mass. You need to have *at least* 8 slaves, 10 is much safer to have a buffer against those stray arrows. Outside of that, as you add masters make sure you have more slaves than masters. 14 slaves, 12 masters is fine*, but if you're short on mages you'll want 10 slaves and 5 masters. The * is because you'll need to add a few extra slaves if you're spamming particularly fatiguing spells like Thunderstrike. Your masters will have +3 to all paths, which really helps those spells which scale with mage power. Your slaves will be at least level 4 after the boost, which means they should be taking only 1-3 fatigue or so per spell that is cast as the spells you're casting all have requirements of 3 or under and fatigue in the 30-50 range  this is important in order to keep your slaves from accumulating fatal fatigue. No worries as these are the spells the AI will choose once your scripting expires, and you should be able to go 15 or so turns before slaves start dying, making this quite a rare occurrence (not much stands up to 10 turns of such a barrage, you¿ll generally have won or lost by then).

    Reverse communion  2 or 3 masters then as many cheap slaves as you can muster. Your masters will cast power of the spheres then whatever other booster is appropriate (phoenix power, etc). For air spells you can use the third master to cast storm so that air power is an option. Now, all your slaves have been boosted 2 levels, so they can cast fun things like falling fire, thunderstrike, etc. Even lowly S1 mages are now capable of Soul Slaying. The fun thing about this one is it¿s a great way to use all those cheap researchers you¿ve got with no other preparation. Leading a fight with three rounds of 10X Falling Fires makes quite a difference considering how cheap the mages are. Note, this communion takes advantage of one of the quirks of the communion, the fact that slaves can cast spells so long as they act sequentially before all masters in the turn sequence. Commanders resolve their orders in the same order that they¿re listed in the strategic screen. If for whatever reason you¿re not comfortable trying to get this order right you can have the masters retreat after casting the buffs  the buffs remain in effect. Note, the communion bonus does not affect slaves casting by themselves, only the buffs the masters cast help. Apparently the slaves are acting by themselves outside the communion.

    Linebacker communion  3 or 4 masters with varying paths and at least 10 slaves. This communion takes advantage of the fact that self buffs which affect a master also affect all slaves. The masters will cast as many self buffs as possible before the slaves wade forward into melee. This tactic works best with slaves that have more hitpoints and a good attack (like starspawn or vampire counts), but even just passing out frostbrands to your average poindexter before he is buffed with invulnerability, mistform, regeneration, quickness, luck, fire shield, astral shield and breath of winter¿well, there are worse uses for a slew of S1 mages. Note, for this to work it¿s important that you have a sufficient number of slaves, otherwise the slaves will rack up too much fatigue during the buff cycle and be worthless for combat.
    [Wraithlord comment:  Great idea by JimMorrison
    Give the buffing masters a cheap bow and script them to fire when they finish buffing.
    This way they won't rush to melee and get killed.
    Consider that Piercer is a crossbow, so 2 rounds. Vision's Foe is an arbalest and fires every 3 rounds.

    So, with a regular crossbow, you are getting 24 rounds of missile fire before your buffing mage races into melee, but with an arbalest, you gain 36 rounds for your melee to win the fight, and avoid that fate. The extra 12 rounds is a huge buffer.
    ]

    Kamikaze communion  4 slaves as cheap as you can manage and 4-6 masters. This one is straightforward enough, the point is to boost the masters up two levels to give them access to the next tier of offensive spells (ie, giving A1 mages the ability to cast Thunderstrike). As the name implies, the slaves are not expected to survive. This can be a good way to pack a lot of firepower in a pinch.

    Superman communion  The numbers on this one vary depending on what you¿re trying to accomplish, but the idea is to have a whole bunch of slaves and only one or two masters casting those really devastating spells. The classic example of this is Master Enslave communions, though there are other good choices for more modest uses like flaming arrows, fog warriors, darkness, etc. The important factors are that there are enough slaves and that the handful of spells which are cast are devastating enough to make the opportunity cost worthwhile of all these mages doing nothing else.

    Alright, there¿s some basic recipes for your book, obviously you can start mix and matching them as you become more comfortable. Now for the optional twists previously mentioned.

    The blood spell Sabbath Master is equivalent (and mutually interchangeable  you can join a communion by casting Sabbath Master) but functionally there are two big differences. The first is that Sabbath Master costs 100 fatigue, so casting it with a B1 mage will result in a pass out once you account for encumbrance. What makes up for this in a big way though is that nice little blood spell reinvigoration. If a master casts reinvigoration not only does it remove all his fatigue, it removes all the fatigue of all the slaves. For this reason strategic use of a single blood mage can as much as double the effectiveness of your communion.

    Crystal/slave matrixes. These magic items allow non astral/blood mages to join a communion (note: they must still be mages of some type). The potential uses of this in combination with the linebacker or reverse communions should be obvious. One note of caution however, because of the fact that slaves rack up fatigue really fast if they don¿t have the paths for the spell the master is casting it¿s very important to have enough slaves to compensate for this if masters are casting spells which the slaves don¿t have paths in.

    Keep in mind penetration goes up with the mage¿s power and sometimes extra penetration can be worthwhile even if you¿re not enabling extra spells. Have that S9 pretender lead all those S1 researchers you have in a communion before spamming enslave mind. It beats whatever the heck S1 mages would otherwise be casting.

    Phoenix pyre can add an amusing twist to the linebacker communion as it can set off a devastating chain reaction. Expect this to be a fairly kamikaze move.

    Some magic items cause their effect by autocasting a spell at the very beginning of combat such as a charcoal shield or crystal shield. These spells, if they're self buffs will effect slaves who are part of the communion so long as the item is worn by a master who is in the communion. Since the timing on this is such that the buff is cast before anyone can cast master/slave communion, this generally only effects people wearing crystal/slave matrixes (though pythium's communicants are an exception, and there may be others).

    Hellpower is an interesting spell in combination with Sabbath, but rather difficult to use effectively. A master casting hellpower will result in every slave being effected by all the effects of hellpower, including being horror marked and having a chance of calling a horror. Obviously you seldom want a bunch of people calling horrors immediately after all your mages have been horror marked. This can be useful in two situation though. The first is if you are fighting a SC (or really anybody) who has already been seriously horror marked (if you're particularly baalzy, you might try to horror mark them the same fight before casting hell power) - horrors will attack the most horror marked units first. The second situation is a kamikaze linebacker move where you uber buff the slaves then don't care if they die. This is pretty wasteful though unless your slaves are tough enough to survive a couple AN hits from horrors. I have used this tactic successfully with LA Ulm's vampire counts (2b 2d), resulting in a dozen uber buffed, life draining, flying thugs...who happened to be immortal so no worries if they died. The nice thing about hell power is it not only increases magic power, it increases attack, defense, strength (hitpoints, I don't remember) so it's particularly useful in this case. Note, your slaves are going to rack up horror marks when you do this even if you win the fight, so use it sparingly even with immortals.

    	8.2 The art of placement

    http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=523202&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1
     When fighting against another player, your chief concerns in placing magi are:
    * You want to be able to hit the enemy with your zap spells (or your own units with buffs, whichever).
    * You want your enemy's zap spells and archery not to hit your magi.

    This is somewhat similar to the dillemma faced when placing regular units, who gain bonuses for outnumbering enemies, but are very vulnerable to spells like Falling Fires when deployed in tight formation.

    AFAICT, the following considerations are applied when the AI targets a damaging evocation. I'm prepared to be told that I'm wrong:
    * Potential damage dealt. Thus, a caster shooting blade wind will prefer low Prot targets, someone casting falling foo will avoid targets resistant or immune to the elemental damage, and so forth.
    * Number of anticipated hits. Thus, a low precision caster will tend towards closer/more tightly packed foes while a high precision caster will take other factors into consideration - and AoE attacks will tend to avoid small skirmishers and hit tightly packed enemy ranks (if they expect to hit at all.)
    * Quality. I've only really noticed this with a few single target spells, but hitting a better-quality target does seem to enter into the calculus. It might just be a function of damage dealt - don't know enough to say.

    Finallly, if everything else is a wash, the AI seems to prefer targets in the *middle* of the enemy ranks. These are often the targets of choice for archers set on "fire" with no specified target, as well - making this often a good choice.

    This means that leaving your magi in the default position is the worst thing you could possibly do!

    In addition to spreading your magi out - which is also a good idea in case enemies break through to melee or anything else untoward happens - place some actual skirmishers (low prot, no elemental resistances) in front of *each* individual mage, so that they'll be targeted instead, if it comes to that.

    Spreading out is a must, since that way, even if you mess up and place a mage in harms way, at least you won't lose all of them at once.

    Another point, which follows from your advice but was not explicitly stated is: Do not ever put two mages in the same square. Especially if one of those mages is an astral mage.

    One thing that I like to do when placing mages is give each mage two bodygaurds (assuming the mage is size 2). They will stay near him in the same square and drop the probability of an arrow striking him to 1/3.

    If you have a big nasty guy you may bring elephant bodyguards assigned to a closer-to-enemy commander.
    Elephants will be targeted by single unit attack spells that often choose biggest enemy (and closer I assume).

    Magic duel has an AE of 1 Max, so the loser's buddies get 'sploded too.

    	8.3 Intercepting Armies, army movement order

    	Question:
    Numerous times, I have instructed armies of various sizes to move / attack into neighboring provinces, but those armies were somehow preemptively attacked causing my army to then not move. Sometimes the enemy "intercepting" army consisted only of a single unit - a very irritating way to have stopped my army of hundreds.

    However, every time I try to duplicate this feat myself - by sending attacking armies against an enemy on the move - somehow my intercepting armies never seem to "catch" the enemy.

    Is this an AI bug? Has anyone observed any "rules" which constrict how such interceptions would work? It certainly would change my strategy.

    	Answers:
    	-> The order of events in a turn, as described in the manual, provides some hints; e.g., armies going to friendly territory always move before armies going to hostile territory.

    If both of you are trying to move into enemy terrain, I've been told the order of army movements is partly random, but is influenced by things like army size and terrain.

    	-> You've been unlucky. I have used this trick too, and it works just as well against the AI as it does against you. However, in order to "catch" the enemy army, you have to:

    1.) Originate in the same province that the enemy is moving to, and be headed toward the same province he's coming from.
    2.) Either have a largish army or get lucky. The chance of interception is somehow based on the size of the armies, and if both armies are small they can "pass through" each other.

    -Max

    P.S. BTW, if you really do have an unstoppable army of hundreds, this is a good reason to split them into two or more columns. It's a lot harder for the opponent to stop both columns, even if he knows exactly what province you'll be moving into--then the delayed column just catches up. On the other hand, if your army is NOT unstoppable this invites defeat in detail.

    P.P.S. One other possibility--it *might* depend upon which nation you're playing. I know that if two EA nations both attempt to move into an indy province on the same turn, and one of them is Abysia, Abysia will always attack the indies first and will therefore be the defender in the battle.

    Q: Say nations 1 and 2 have armies in provinces A and B respectively, and movement orders are: A1->B1 (1 moves from A to B) and B2->C2 (2 moves from B to C)?- Is it possible that 1's army will engage 2's in B?
    A: Not possible.

    	8.4 Site Searching Strategy

    Keep in mind that:
    # Fire: waste, mountains
    # Air: mountains, plains
    # Water: swamp, other non-waste
    # Earth: mountains
    # Astral: any, slight emphasis on plains
    # Death: any, slight emphasis on mountains
    # Nature: forest, sea
    # Blood: any

    Also, its considered a good Strategy to use the site searching spells as opposed to manual search.
    Acashic records is considered too expensive in general.

    Tip: I'm not sure, but I'd probably search with lvl 2 mages, until I got site searching spells going. There are very few lvl4 sites. A handful in total and there are several hundred sites. Some paths don't even have one IIRC.

    I don't think it is possible to do a meaningful odds breakdown.

    There are more forest restricted sites of nature., more waste restricted sites of fire and death. Earth and to some extent air sites tend to be more common in mountains.

    Wastelands are generally your friend. Mountains, forest and swamps a bit so, while farms have decreased chance of sites.

    I would guess that about 75% of all sites are lvl 0-2, 24% 3 and 1% lvl4. But of the lvl3 sites many are rare and thus less likely to be in tha game. Perhaps 80%-90% are sites findable by a lvl 2 mage. On the other hand, it is as Omikron says, the rarest ones you really want to find

    Some sites are unique and there can only be one on each map. Some of these are more common, meaning it is not unlikely that it exists on the map, while other uniques are very rare as well. Sites linked to terrains are more common in the sense that if there was forests all over the place they would be common, but since they are restricted they will not be that common. Since most maps have few swamps you could say that the swamp sites are rarer (many of them are water or nature).

    There might be a list of sites somewhere in the modding threads. I don't think it presents rarity, but might display path requirements.

    Tip:
    Dom3 DB. Has a full list of sites, including level requirements, rarity and what terrain they appear in.

    Out of the 709 sites, 149 are national start sites or sites that only appear by event, special script or in special scenarios, so they can be disregarded. That leaves 560 sites that can appear randomly.

    All paths have at least one lv 4 site. Astral has 4, Holy, Fire and Death have 2, Nature has 3. All told there are 17 lv 4 sites out of 560 possible random sites and all lv 4 sites are rare. Meaning that if they get rolled on the first try, the site is rolled again and if you also get it on the second try, only then will it be placed in the province. In actual games I've found 10 of them all told and that's including all of my Dominions 2 games.

    There are 66 lv 0 sites (meaning automatically visible), 16 rare (3 unique), 22 uncommon (8 unique) and 19 common (0 unique) and 16 of them are unique.

    There are 252 lv 1 sites, 65 rare (9 unique), 119 uncommon (35 unique) and 68 common (1 unique).

    There are 158 lv 2 sites, 70 rare (29 unique), 86 uncommon (25 unique) and 2 common (1 unique)

    There are 68 lv 3 sites, 42 rare (30 unique), 18 uncommon (17 unique) and 7 common (no unqiues). The remaining one is a special site with special defenders and appears very rarely if it gets selected for in the determination of special provinces.

    Another note about unique sites is that they can only appear once on the map, no matter their frequency, unless they are scripted in the map file, because map file scripting is run only after random site determination has been done.

    		8.4.1 Full site breakdown

    Okay, here's a breakdown of sites by path and level within each path. Startsites are excluded and so are The Desert Eye and Throne of the World because they only appear in that one scenario.

    574 sites, around 560 of which are truly randomly determined. There is no analysis of what sites appear in what terrain, that would require a separate crosschecking against the DB and is much more work than I care to do. Effective number means that special sites (frequency 5, appears from event or invalid locmask) are not included.

    FIRE, 56 sites (54 effective)

        * Level 0: 5 sites, 1 common, 2 uncommon (1 unique), 1 rare, 1 special scriptable (Desert)
        * Level 1: 29 sites, 7 common, 12 uncommon (1 unique), 9 rare, 1 special (36 Oleg's Alchemical Device)
        * Level 2: 17 sites, 0 common, 12 uncommon (4 unique), 5 rare (2 unique)
        * Level 3: 3 sites, 1 common, 1 uncommon (1 unique), 1 rare (1 unique)
        * Level 4: 2 sites, rare, unique (180 Prison of the Desert Sun, waste; 533 The Sun Below, waste, cave)

    AIR, 57 sites (56 effective)

        * Level 0: 4 sites, 1 common, 1 uncommon, 2 rare (2 unique)
        * Level 1: 31 sites, 7 common, 13 uncommon (4 unique), 11 rare
        * Level 2: 14 sites, 0 common, 11 uncommon (3 unique), 3 rare
        * Level 3: 7 sites, 1 common, 2 uncommon (2 unique), 3 rare (2 unique), 1 special (22 Bolivar's Tower of Reflections, no locmask)
        * Level 4: 1 site, rare, unique (213 Palace of Dreams, plains only)

    WATER, 89 sites (87 effective)

        * Level 0: 11 sites, 4 common, 2 uncommon, 4 rare, 1 special scriptable (561 Tundra)
        * Level 1: 45 sites, 13 common, 25 uncommon (8 unique), 6 rare, 1 special (26 Starke's Ice Cave)
        * Level 2: 25 sites, 0 common, 9 uncommon (1 unique), 16 rare (6 unique)
        * Level 3: 7 sites, 1 common, 1 uncommon (1 unique), 5 rare (4 unique)
        * Level 4: 1 site, rare, unique (245 The Sea Underneath, any land)

    EARTH, 111 sites (102 effective)

        * Level 0: 19 sites, 9 common, 4 uncommon (2 unique), 4 rare (3 unique), 4 special (28 Hoburg, 21 Mine of the Cyclops, no locmasks; 508 The Desert of Ptah, unique, waste; The World Pillar, unique, mountain), 4 event-based (68 Copper Mine, 69 Iron Mine, 67 Silver Mine, 66 Gold Mine)
        * Level 1: 36 sites, 16 common (1 unique), 9 uncommon (2 unique), 11 rare (1 unique)
        * Level 2: 29 sites, 1 common (1 unique), 15 uncommon (5 unique), 12 rare (4 unique), 1 special (37 The Deepest Cave of the Province, provided by event)
        * Level 3: 12 sites, 1 common, 2 uncommon (2 unique), 9 rare (4 unique)
        * Level 4: 1 site, rare, unique (The Factory, any land but cave)

    ASTRAL, 58 sites (57 effective)

        * Level 0: 3 sites, 0 uncommon, 3 uncommon
        * Level 1: 24 sites, 4 common, 11 uncommon (1 unique), 8 rare (2 unique), 1 special (20 Surakid's Tower, no locmask)
        * Level 2: 16 sites, 0 common, 10 uncommon (3 unique), 6 rare (3 unique)
        * Level 3: 11 sites, 1 common, 1 uncommon (1 unique), 9 rare (8 unique)
        * Level 4: 4 sites, rare, unique (314 Library of Time, any land but cave; 535 The Endless Field of Cubes, waste; 530 The Mountain of the Past, waste; 494 Throne of Enlightenment, mountain)

    DEATH, 73 sites (72 effective)

        * Level 0: 6 sites, 0 common, 4 uncommon (2 unique), 2 rare (2 unique)
        * Level 1: 33 sites, 8 common, 17 uncommon (6 unique), 6 rare (2 unique), 1 special (27 The Queen's Galley, no locmask)
        * Level 2: 20 sites, 0 common, 14 uncommon (4 unique), 6 rare (2 unique)
        * Level 3: 12 sites, 1 common, 3 uncommon (3 unique), 8 rare (6 unique)
        * Level 4: 2 sites, rare, unique (482 Crown of Darkness, mountain only; 346 The Shadow Furnace, any land)

    NATURE, 86 sites (83 effective)

        * Level 0: 13 sites, 3 common, 5 uncommon (3 unique), 2 rare (1 unique), 2 special (542 Lyfjaberg, unique, mountain; 505 The Primal Forest, unique, forest), 1 special scriptable (560 Rain Forest)
        * Level 1: 37 sites, 11 common, 18 uncommon (8 unique), 8 rare (2 unique)
        * Level 2: 24 sites, 1 common, 12 uncommon (3 unique), 11 rare (5 unique)
        * Level 3: 9 sites, 1 common, 3 uncommon (3 unique), 5 rare (4 unique)
        * Level 4: 3 sites, rare, unique (387 Soul of the Wild, any land but cave; 532 The Previous Forest, waste; 493 The Vale of Unicorns, forest)

    BLOOD, 39 sites (38 effective)

        * Level 0: 2 sites, 1 common (388 Arena), 1 uncommon (390 Academy of War)
        * Level 1: 20 sites, 1 common, 14 uncommon (5 unique), 5 rare (2 unique)
        * Level 2: 12 sites, 0 common, 1 uncommon (1 unique), 11 rare (7 unique) (one of the rare sites, 634 Bloodshade Glen, cannot be found because it has an invalid locmask)
        * Level 3: 4 sites, 0 common, 2 uncommon (2 unique), 2 rare (1 unique)
        * Level 4: 1 site, rare, unique (405 Hall of Flayed Skins, any land but cave)

    HOLY, 11 sites (10 effective)

        * Level 0: 2 sites, 1 rare, 1 special (506 Holy Crypt of Anre, any land but cave, unique)
        * Level 1: 2 sites, 2 common (1 any land, one only in sea)
        * Level 2: 2 sites, 2 uncommon (1 unique)
        * Level 3: 3 sites, 3 uncommon (2 unique)
        * Level 4: 2 sites, rare (410 Temple of Time, any land, non-unique; 414 The Ward, any land but cave, unique)

    	8.5 Old Age

    Because i had some bad expierences with old age in a mp game with growth 3 scale (see here) i decided to make some tests.

    For the test i used a mod/special map to give me 100 Arco Philosophers and enough gems to cast burden of time.

    First Test with Burden of Time
    All Scales set to the weak site, death 3, misfurtune 3, etc.
    I cast 'Burden of Time' which makes each turn like 12 Turns relating the age.

    1. Turn:
    100 Philosophers
    76 have 1 or more afflictions(!)
    24 non afflicted

    2. Turn:
    67 Philosophers (33 died from disease)
    61 have 1 or more afflictions
    6 non afflicted

    3. Turn:
    29 Philosophers
    27 afflicted
    2 non afflicted

    4. Turn:
    13 Philosophers
    12 afflicted
    1 non afflicted

    5. Turn:
    5 Philosophers
    4 afflicted
    1 non afflicted

    6. Turn:
    3 afflicted Philosophers

    7. Turn:
    All dead

    After the 2. Turn (24 Turns without Burden of Time) most of my philosophers have at least 1 affliction (only 6 from 100 non afflicted!)

    After 3 Turns 71% of my philosophers are dead. Without Burden of Time it would be after 36 Turns.

    It seems disease is a very popular old age affliction here.

    Second Test with Burden of Time
    All Scales set to the strong site, growth 3, luck 3, etc.
    I cast 'Burden of Time' which makes each turn like 12 Turns relating the age.

    1. Turn:
    100 Philosophers
    34 have 1 or more afflictions
    66 non afflicted

    2. Turn:
    95 Philosophers (5 died from disease)
    70 have 1 or more afflictions
    25 non afflicted

    3. Turn:
    77 Philosophers
    69 afflicted
    8 non afflicted

    4. Turn:
    54 Philosophers
    49 afflicted
    5 non afflicted

    5. Turn:
    44 Philosophers
    40 afflicted
    4 non afflicted

    6. Turn: 38 Philosophers, 3 non-afflicted
    7. Turn: 32 Philosophers, 3 non-afflicted
    8. Turn: 30 Philosophers, 3 non-afflicted
    9. Turn: 23 Philosophers, 1 non-afflicted
    10. Turn: 22 Philosophers, all afflicted
    11. Turn: 18 Philosophers
    12. Turn: 16 Philosophers
    13. Turn: 14 Philosophers
    14. Turn: 10 Philosophers
    Stop test

    After the 3. Turn (36 Turns without Burden of Time) most of my philosophers have at least 1 affliction

    After 4 Turns 46% of my philosophers are dead (48 Turns without Burden of Time).

    It seems disease is a less popular here (Because there are many afflicted but less dead philosophers/year)

    Even with Growth 3 nearly the half of the old age die after 4 Years.

    'Burden of Time', a Level 5 Thaumatorgy Spell is death to each nation with primary old age mages/researchers.

    I'll do some more test in time.

    Third Test with Burden of Time
    All Scales set to normal.
    I cast 'Burden of Time' which makes each turn like 12 Turns relating the age.

    1. Turn:
    100 Philosophers
    45 have 1 or more afflictions
    55 non afflicted

    2. Turn:
    92 Philosophers (8 died from disease)
    64 have 1 or more afflictions
    28 non afflicted

    3. Turn:
    66 Philosophers
    52 afflicted
    14 non afflicted

    4. Turn:
    43 Philosophers
    35 afflicted
    8 non afflicted

    5. Turn:
    28 Philosophers
    24 afflicted
    4 non afflicted

    6. Turn: 18 Philosophers, 1 non-afflicted
    7. Turn: 10 Philosophers, all afflicted
    8. Turn: 5 Philosophers
    9. Turn: 4 Philosophers
    10. Turn: 4 Philosophers
    11. Turn: 3 Philosophers
    12. Turn: 3 Philosophers
    13. Turn: 2 Philosophers
    14. Turn: 1 Philosopher
    Stop test

    After the 3. Turn (36 Turns without Burden of Time) most of my philosophers have at least 1 affliction (14 from 100 non aflicted)

    After 4 Turns 57% of my philosophers are dead (48 Turns without Burden of Time).

    4th December Edit
    Ok, i remade the Tests 1-3, now without 'burden of time' and the results are different!

    All Start in Turn 1 with 100 Philosophers, i checked after each full year (every 12 turns)

    Test 1
    All with bad scales, Death 3, etc.
    Turn 13: 100 Philosophers, 73 non-afflicted
    Turn 25: 88 Philosophers, 56 non-afflicted
    Turn 37: 75 Philosophers, 38 non-afflicted
    Turn 49: 61 Philosophers, 26 non-afflicted
    Turn 61: 48 Philosophers, 19 non-afflicted
    Turn 73: 44 Philosophers, 14 non-afflicted
    Turn 85: 38 Philosophers, 10 non-afflicted
    Turn 97: 29 Philosophers, 7 non-afflicted
    Turn 109: 22 Philosophers, 6 non-afflicted
    Turn 121: 21 Philosophers, 5 non-afflicted

    Test 2
    All with good scales, Growth 3, etc.
    Turn 13: 100 Philosophers, 89 non-afflicted
    Turn 25: 95 Philosophers, 72 non-afflicted
    Turn 37: 87 Philosophers, 60 non-afflicted
    Turn 49: 80 Philosophers, 53 non-afflicted
    Turn 61: 73 Philosophers, 43 non-afflicted
    Turn 73: 67 Philosophers, 37 non-afflicted
    Turn 85: 59 Philosophers, 23 non-afflicted
    Turn 97: 51 Philosophers, 17 non-afflicted
    Turn 109: 48 Philosophers, 12 non-afflicted
    Turn 121: 43 Philosophers, 12 non-afflicted

    Test 3
    All with neutral scales
    Turn 13: 100 Philosophers, 74 non-afflicted
    Turn 25: 82 Philosophers, 54 non-afflicted
    Turn 37: 74 Philosophers, 40 non-afflicted
    Turn 49: 64 Philosophers, 33 non-afflicted
    Turn 61: 56 Philosophers, 28 non-afflicted
    Turn 73: 50 Philosophers, 24 non-afflicted
    Turn 85: 42 Philosophers, 18 non-afflicted
    Turn 97: 37 Philosophers, 12 non-afflicted
    Turn 109: 31 Philosophers, 7 non-afflicted
    Turn 121: 25 Philosophers, 6 non-afflicted

    So after 60 Turns (5 years) i completly lost 52 Philosophers with all bad scales, 44 with neutral and just 27 with good Scales.

    So it seems 'Burden of Time' gives extra Afflictions in additional to the 1 turn=1 year feature.

    5th December Edit
    Ok, new tests. This one is very interesting!

    I use normal scales and the province has

    - 100 philosophers (i want to compare the result with my older tests, 9 HP)
    - 100 Anathement Dragon (Fire 3, 11 HP)
    - 100 Grand Thaumaturgs (Death 2, Astral 2, 1 Random, Holy 3, 8 HP)

    Here are the results:
    (number of living units every turn)

    Test 4
    Turn 13: 100 Philosophers, 100 Anathemant Dragon, 100 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 25: 83 Philosophers, 78 Anathemant Dragon, 100 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 37: 74 Philosophers, 64 Anathemant Dragon, 98 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 49: 67 Philosophers, 57 Anathemant Dragon, 91 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 61: 57 Philosophers, 41 Anathemant Dragon, 88 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 73: 51 Philosophers, 32 Anathemant Dragon, 86 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 85: 42 Philosophers, 27 Anathemant Dragon, 85 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 97: 36 Philosophers, 19 Anathemant Dragon, 84 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 109: 32 Philosophers, 18 Anathemant Dragon, 82 Grand Thaumaturgs
    Turn 121: 28 Philosophers, 14 Anathemant Dragon, 79 Grand Thaumaturgs

    Non-Afflicted at the end:
    4 Philosophers, 2 Anathemant Dragon and 22 Grand Thaumaturgs

    While philosophers get an equal result like my former test (25 on turn 121 there on normal scales) only 14 Anathemant Dragons survived. So either Fire 3 or the lower Old Age entry date 32 (compared to 50 Philosophers) has a negative effect here.

    Grand Thaumaturgs has like the Philosophers 50 as Old Age entry date. Only 21 out of 100 died within the 6 years testing time. So death 2 and/or holy 3 (maybe the astral 2) has a significant effect to get no disease affliction. Afflictions in general are fewer (22 non afflicted at the end).

    6th December Edit
    Another test to compare different old age characters:

    - Crone (Death 1, Old Age 500, 9 HP)
    - Arch Theurg (Air 1, Water 1, Astral 4, Some Random Magic (no death/nature), Old Age 50, 8 HP)
    - Warlock (Astral 2, Blood 3, Random Magic (No death/nature), Old Age 35, 13 HP)
    - Anathemant Salamander (Fire 2, Holy 2, Old Age 33, 13 HP)
    - Grand Master (Fire 3, Astral 2, Random Magic (No death/nature), Holy 2, Old Age 44, 8 HP)
    - Augur Elder (Fire 2, Death 2, Random Magic (no nature), Old Age 44, 9 HP)

    All scales set to normal, here are the results:

    Test 5
    Turn 13: 100 Crone, 100 Arch Theurg, 100 Warlock, 100 Anathemant Salamander, 100 Grand Master, 100 Augur Elder
    Turn 25: 91 Crone, 85 Arch Theurg, 86 Warlock, 87 Anathemant Salamander, 84 Grand Master, 97 Augur Elder
    Turn 37: 86 Crone, 71 Arch Theurg, 65 Warlock, 71 Anathemant Salamander, 73 Grand Master, 93 Augur Elder
    Turn 49: 80 Crone, 65 Arch Theurg, 48 Warlock, 55 Anathemant Salamander, 62 Grand Master, 90 Augur Elder
    Turn 61: 73 Crone, 53 Arch Theurg, 39 Warlock, 44 Anathemant Salamander, 50 Grand Master, 85 Augur Elder
    Turn 73: 67 Crone, 48 Arch Theurg, 32 Warlock, 33 Anathemant Salamander, 43 Grand Master, 83 Augur Elder
    Turn 85: 61 Crone, 44 Arch Theurg, 24 Warlock, 23 Anathemant Salamander, 37 Grand Master, 80 Augur Elder
    Turn 97: 57 Crone, 34 Arch Theurg, 21 Warlock, 21 Anathemant Salamander, 30 Grand Master, 77 Augur Elder
    Turn 109: 55 Crone, 28 Arch Theurg, 21 Warlock, 18 Anathemant Salamander, 25 Grand Master, 75 Augur Elder
    Turn 121: 47 Crone, 24 Arch Theurg, 19 Warlock, 13 Anathemant Salamander, 22 Grand Master, 70 Augur Elder

    Afflictions:
    Turn 13: 19 afflicted Crone, 29 afflicted Arch Theurg, 34 afflicted Warlock, 26 afflicted Anathemant Salamander, 25 afflicted Grand Master, 13 afflicted Augur Elder

    Turn 121: 13 non-afflicted Crone, 4 non-afflicted Arch Theurg, 1 non-afflicted Warlock, 1 non-afflicted Anathemant Salamander, 6 non-afflicted Grand Master, 20 non-afflicted Augur Elder

    The low Old Age Entry Date of the Warlock and Anathemant Salamander didn't let them survive for long. Equal results like the Anathemant dragons in the former test. Warlocks without any Fire Magic die the same way. So only the Old Age counts.

    The Arch Theurgs are like the Philosophers, no significant difference. Holy, etc. don't have any effect.

    The Grand Masters are between the Arch Teurs and the Warlocks/Anathemants.

    The Augur Elders have the same Death 2 like the Grand Thaumaturgs (+ random death). 70 survided compared with 79 Grand Thaumaturgs. Old Age 44 (instead 50) may be the difference.

    The old age of 500 didn't give the crones a visible bonus. The 47 survived Crones seems normal for a death 1 unit.
    So a crone with an age of 697 coming in the game has a very big chance of dieing on old age within 10 years gametime. How they went so old outsite the game?

    	8.6 Alexander's Ever-Expanding Tome of Knowledge, pt 2

    		8.6.1 Original Dom-II tome

    			8.6.1.1 Classifications

    New Classifications

    A while back I coined the term Supercombatant as a description of super high power units. Over time players have started to use this term in ways that are different than the initial meaning. This has caused some frustrating conversations, and subsequent confusion. Simply put, the Dominions community needs more naming conventions so players can communicate with more precision.

    Many players have started using the term Supercombatant for almost anything larger than heavy infantry. That isn't very useful since the scope of units that are more potent than heavy infantry is fairly large. As such I am now suggesting two new classifications, and redescribing the term Supercombatant.

    				8.6.1.1.1 THUG

    Simply put a thug goes out and beats things up and has a reasonable chance of surviving. Thugs don't beat up high power armies, and they aren't meant to be invincible. They are meant to be cheap and efficient ways of applying a beat down.

    Some examples of thugs would be:
    Neifelheim Giant
    Hydra
    Wyrm (no/little magic)
    Vanjarl - with magic weapon and casting mistform
    Jotun Herse - with a few choice magic items
    Troll
    Lava Warrior
    Knight

    As you can see there is a hefty power scale fluctuation even in the thug classification. However these guys are not Supercombatants and that is what I am trying to make clear.

    				8.6.1.1.2 SLAYER

    A Slayer is a unit that has been cultivated to be powerful enough to wreck conventional armies. This is really a specialized sub-class of supercombatant. The Slayer is built with cost cutting in mind, to make it as cheap as possible and still be able to disperse conventional forces. Slayers are not meant to deal with mages or magic creatures. They are used primarily as an early game expansion aid, and as attack/defense while player nations aren't fielding much magic. During the late game when potent magic is available, Slayers are usually relegated to raiding duty.

    Some examples of slayers would be:

    Manticore
    Astral magic - 6
    On entering battle it casts, Body Etheral, Personal Luck, Astral Shield, Astral Weapon, and then attacks.

    Heliophagus
    Wraith Sword, Robe of Shadows, Boots of Quickness, Pendent of Luck, Ring of Regeneration

    				8.6.1.1.3 SUPERCOMBATANT

    Supercombatants are built in an attempt to walk onto a battlefield alone and clean house versus any opposition. The potency/penetration of the spell Paralyze has made life a bit tough on Supercombatants and players of Dom2 are using more thugs and slayers than they did in Dom1. Still it's fun to use them, and they can still be effective. Just keep in mind that they are very powerful, but not invincible.

    An example of a supercombatant would be:

    Nataraja
    Earth magic - 4
    Air magic - 2
    Nature magic - 3
    Wraith Sword, Faithful, Charcoal Shield, Starshine Skullcap, Robe of Shadows, Boots of Quickness, Anti-Magic amulet.
    On entering battle it casts, Invulnerability, Mist Form, Personal Regeneration, Elemental Fortitude, and then attacks

    				8.6.1.1.4 "HIT N' RUN" GOLEM

    The Golem is mindless and has astral skill, making it a prime candidate for the spell Astral Tempest.

    The Golem will need +2 astral skill. I usually use a starshine skullcap and a crystal coin, but other items or empowerment will work fine.

    Cast Ritual of Returning so your Golem doesn't get hurt. [Smile]

    Place Golem at rear of battlefield.

    Teleport into an enemy army (living armies, obviously).

    Upon entering combat cast Astral Tempest - Body Ethereal - Personal Luck - Astral Shield - Twist Fate - then "cast spells". Make sure you have at least 4 pearls on the Golem for the castings.

    This should get you about 3-7 turns of bLasting versus the enemy army. The more troops in the army the more damage will get done!

    As soon as the Golem takes a hit, the Ritual of Returning will send it back to the capital.

    Rinse, lather, repeat.

    If the enemy has flying troops they may tag the Golem fast and send him home. Avoid that army.
    If the enemy has a strong astral mage ready to Magic Duel, it's possible to lose the Golem.
    Other than that this is a tactic that is hard to stop, and will make your enemies pull their hair out. [Smile]

    				8.6.1.1.5 SPIDERMAN SPIDERMAN DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER CAN

    The Machakan Black Sorcerer is one interesting mage!

    Enter combat, cast Summon Earth Power, Invulnerability and Fire Shield, then attack.

    As soon as the Black Sorcerer takes a hit, he turns into a hunter spider (pretty big!).
    What's even more impressive is that the spider keeps the extra protection and fire shield!

    This is more than enough to single handedly beat down weaker independents. Not bad in other circumstances as well.

    The Machakan Sorceress can pull a similar but slightly less impressive stunt, but at her lower cost is still well worth the expense.

    If your Black Sorcerer comes with a lucky level of astral, might as well add in Body Ethereal and Personal Luck. [Wink]

    				8.6.1.1.6 SUPERCHARGED ABYSIAN WARLOCKS

    For this trick you will need 8 astral mages to act as communion slaves. Warlock apprentices will do, but if you find cheaper ones go for it.

    You will also need 1+ Warlocks.

    Have the 8 slaves cast communion slave.

    Have your Warlocks cast; Communion Master, Power of the Spheres, have one cast Light of the Northern Star (or carry a Banner of the North Star).

    At this point the Warlocks will have Blood-7 Astral-7 Random-5
    If you are willing to cast Hellpower (it horror marks your mages and attracts horrors) you can bring the Warlocks up to Blood-9 Astral-9 Random-7

    This is all without magic items or empowerment.

    Is it worthwhile to go through the hefty effort to get this effect?
    That depends on you games circumstances. Just keep in mind that it's a potential tool in the toolbox.

    				8.6.1.1.8 FLYING DWARVEN THUGS

    One tactic that I use extensively in multiplayer is getting small raiding forces behind the front lines and harrassing my enemy.

    One of my favorite ways to do this is with "Flying Dwarven Thugs".
    There are numerous ways to raid, but I find the sheer absudity of this method to be entertaining.

    Play Ulm.

    Make Master Smiths.

    Arm them with Winged Shoes and a pair of Axes of Sharpness. If possible I also make them a Pendent of Luck. Yes the shoes and pendent take effort to develop. It's worth it.

    Fly them into enemy territory against lightly defended provinces.

    Upon arrival, have the dwarf cast Summon Earth Power, Invulnerability and Fire Shield. Then dive in for some two axe action! This should be enough to crack the low province defense that most players use.

    If you know that the province defense is pumped, add in more dwarves.

    For large battles have a squad of these guys in the back, power up, and attack the rear. Very few players anticipate a squad of dangerous flyers from Ulm.

    I don't know what it is, but the idea of a super-armored flaming dwarf dropping out of the sky and going to town on surprised defenders is enough to make me smile for hours. [Smile]

    				8.6.1.1.8 POISON AND THE DEAD

    Undead troops and poison generating effects go togeher like peanut butter and chocolate.
    After all, the undead are immune to the poison that would normally make life hard on your own living troops.

    The basic technique is to clog up the battlefield with the unliving and then expose the enemy to various poison effects.

    Most commonly death mages use reanimations and nature mages use vine men/ogres. For those with both skills try manikins/mandragoras.

    If playing C'tis place poison slingers behind the undead.

    If you have nature mages cast Breath of the Dragon or Poison Cloud.

    If you have creatures that exude clouds of poison (hydra/bog beast) then mix them in with the undead near the front.

    If you have nature/water mages (Jade Amazons. Sometimes Man, C'tis, Pangaea) then consider casting Foul Vapors. This spell will strike the whole battlefield with poison clousds. Make sure your mages are posion immune first!

    This is best used when applied too a large/living enemy army. Delay with the undead, kill with the poison. With a bit of skill/luck this sort of engagement can cause horrific losses to the opponent.

    				8.6.1.1.9 GIRLFRIENDS FROM HELL

    Sometimes I find myeslf in a dire situation and have a few death mages to spare. It is during those times that I consider the very risky tactic of using the spell Summon Lammashtas.

    Each casting gets you two Lammashtas. They are ethereal, hard to hit, and carry wraith swords. These are some scary women!

    The spell description says that they will probably not attack the caster at the start of the battle. This is a load of hooey. They will disembowel your mages first chance they get. Anytime you use this spell it's a suicide mission. Count on it.

    If you are just sending in mages, give them one death gem and cast. The girls will slay your mages and then go to work on the enemy. Each Lammashta seems tough enough to kill about 5-20 infantry. A lot depends on the quality of the opposition and if they have magic.

    The Lammashtas are not under your control and go back from whence they came at the battles end.

    If you can put your mages inside packs of junk troops, it's possible to get a second casting while hoping that the troops will delay the Lammashtas for the turn needed. Possible and hope being the key words here. If you attempt a second casting your death-3 mages will need another gem, and death-2 mages will need two more.

    I have tried sending in mages casting Lammashtas at the front of my army with real troops holding in the rear. The idea being that perhaps the girls will become involved with the advancing enemy and soften things up for my troops . I've had about as many disasters as I've had successes with this. Use it at your own risk.

    I always keep this tactic in mind when I find "raptor" provinces that produce Harab Seraphs. Since these are flying death-2 mages, I can use them as a fast reaction suicide squad. It's not the cheapest defense (by a longshot) but it's saved my bacon a few times.

    				8.6.1.1.10 FOLLOWING THE LIGHT

    Anytime I have many astral mages on the battlefield I always try to have a character holding a Banner of the Northern Star, or I have a mage cast Light of the Northern Star. Either way all my astral mages get an extra point of astral skill.

    Extra skill means that astral spells cause less fatigue, and that means more casting. Yummy.

    Also this is often important in order to get easy access to better quality spells.
    With the "light" in effect:
    Astral-1 mages can cast Paralyze
    Astral-2 mages can cast Soul Slay
    Astral-3 mages can cast Enslave Mind

    This also enables Marignons Grand Masters to cast Astral Fires.

    			8.6.1.2 Nice tricks

    				8.6.1.2.1 Feel the burn

    Fire magic in Dom2 is fairly weak. Many of the fun sounding spells just don't hit often, and it's very hard to use fire magic during rain or a storm (which many nations bring to battle). There are very few fire spells that I find worthwhile, however there is one worth writing about... Incinerate!

    Why do I like incinerate?
    1 - Precision 100
    2 - 18 damage
    3 - Armor Negating

    That's enough to blow away most conventional troops in a shot. It hits and it hurts! That's my kind of spell.

    As long as your enemies aren't fire immune, incinerate is a great way to guarantee that you mages hand out a beating.
    If your mages are fire-2, have them cast Phoenix Power first in order to bring them up to the skill level needed. In fact always use Phoenix Power as it will lower the fatigue for more skilled mages.
    Line up a bunch of fire mages and it's a vertible "Firing Squad".
    It's not as flashy as some other spells, but the fact that you're drilling in armor negating damage with precision is a wonderful thing.

    Note: Also check out the magic item Rod of the Phoenix. This item allows any commander to cast (you guessed it) incinerate! The 20 fire gem cost seems high, but I assure you that it's a great effect. Don't think of it as a rod, think of it as a sniper rifle. Give it to a low encumberance commander and flame away!

    				8.6.1.2.2 CHILLING

    Everything I said about incinerate pretty much goes for the spell Frozen Heart as well.

    This is the cold Version of incinerate. It does less damage, however it has less fatigue cost and requires much less skill.

    You only need water-1 for frozen heart!

    This is a great way to make any water-1 mage very useful.

    Playing Atlantis? Those Initiates of the Deep are Frozen Heart casters for a mere 60 gold!

    Playing Caelum and your enemy has lightning protection? Show them that you have another way to make them cry.

    Hey! Any mage that can cast Frozen Heart can also cast quickness. Why not spread the pain even faster?

    Yes getting to Alteration-6 is a pain... but it's worth it.

    				8.6.1.2.3 THE ARCHERS BEST FRIEND

    The only offensive fire spell besides incinerate that I really like is Flaming Arrows.

    It takes a gem, and researching Enchantment-4 might not be very synergistic with your other needs, however this is a fantastic way to crank up your damage potential.

    This makes any archers/crossbows you have into death dealing machines. They'll carve swaths straight through armored enemy ranks.

    Your enemies will stare dumbfounded as they mumble "I just got my ass kicked... by shortbow".

    If you are playing Abysia, Marignon, Machaka, or Mictlan I suggest that you consider making a research beeline for this spell. Yes, this spell also works on sling bullets and javelins.

    Be careful of enemies using storms, as this will ruin your day. [Frown]

    				8.6.1.2.4 SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS

    As always I'm on the lookout for techniques that allow me to raid behind enemy lines.
    One of my favorite tricks is to send in mages that cast summoning spells. I call these mages "Summons Raiders".

    The best Summons Raiders get deep into enemy territory. Usually this is done by spell or by flying. Once in a blue moon I use stealthers.

    Some of the classic Summons Raiders are:

    Harab Searpahs : Flying in and casting Raise Skeletons
    High Seraphs : Flying in (or Cloud Trapezing) and summoning Air Elementals
    Demonbred : Flying in and summoning Fire Elementals
    Arch Theurgs : Teleporting in (or Cloud Trapezing) and summoning Air Elementals
    Crones : Cloud Trapeze in and summoning Air Elementals and/or casting Howl

    This is hardly a comprehesive list. Many mages that have astral-2 can be given a Starshine Skull cap for teleporting, and any mage that can do summons can be given winged boots for flight.

    If you expect missile fire from the troops you are engaging, make sure your closest mage can take an arrow (or two) or you risk a rout.

    Most summonings are harder in Dom2 than in Dom1, but this method of fast land grabbing is still worthwhile even if it costs gems and endangers mages. Polish up this technique and you'll be deadly in multiplayer.

    				8.6.1.2.5 DEMONBREEDING

    Abysia has hard choices to make in choosing it's magic paths. One of the paths that I am fond of utilizes the Demonbred mages.

    First play Abysia in whatever way you find to be best for your style.
    Add in the Demonbred strategy as lightly or as heavily as you feel the game warrents.

    Make 5-10 Warlock Apprentices.
    Have them do your research. First do whatever needs to be researched to help your god. Then research any combat spells you intend to use, if any. Then research blood to level 3.

    Once you have done the research send the blood mages out to 7-12K population provinces. Lower the taxes to 0% and start hunting for blood slaves. Only place about 5 hunters per province. If unrest gets out of hand, either patrol the province with troops, or rotate the hunters to a fresh province (crop rotation). As long as unrest is low, the blood income should be pretty good.

    If you have the gold, make labs in the hunting provinces for easy slave pooling. If you can't afford labs, then make a scout (or three) and have them run around moving the slaves.

    Always consider making ordinary scouts and adding them to the blood hunt. They don't do very well, but they are dirt cheap and will provide a reasonable amount of slaves considering the cost.

    From this point on make Demonbred mages at the capital.

    The Demonbred have the correct skill to cast Bind Devil. They also have the command skill to lead devils, and can fly. This makes them perfect devil squad leaders.

    Have the Demonbred start binding devils. If you run dry on slaves have them aid in the hunt.

    Devil production should ramp up fairly fast. There is however a few turns where you have some mages, some demonbred, some devils, and you wonder why exactly are you doing this. After a while (about the time you are making 7-10 devils per turn) you will suddenly find that you have some serious devil power.

    At this point much will depend on the circumstances of the game. If nothing pressing is happening you can continue building up demonbred and devils. If it's time to fight, send out some demonbred leading packs of devils.

    If you have been reading these strategies you will have already seen that I am an advocate of raiding my enemies. Devil squads are awesome raiders. Once production gets going you will be able to send out a demonbred with 10+ devils every turn. Shotgun these squads all over your enemies territory. Then concentrate them for big fights and fort assaults. The mobility and strike power is very impressive.

    Many players out there will compare this with other blood strategies, and rightly so.
    The Devil Squad strategy is similar to the summoning of Hordes from Hell. I find the Hordes are a bit slower to get started and are a bit weaker. On the other hand the Hordes can be summoned anywhere. Plus they have greater numbers, which has benefits.

    This strategy can also be compared to pumping out devils via the creation of Soul Contracts (as I'll discuss shortly). The contract route is a better investment over the long haul, but is weak at the start. The Devil Squad strategy provides firepower early, but is not a growing investment. Even though both techniques involve pumping out devils, they are effectively different paths.

    One of the major distictions of the Devil Squad strategy is that the Demonbred act as a fast reaction force while the blood machine is ramping up. Remember the Demonbred fly, have slaves, and devils. If there is any trouble they can fly right out with whatever devils you have. The Demonbred can be very effective on the battlefield by casting Summon Imp. If you have done the research they may also be able to summon fire elementals or cast incinerate.

    The Demonbred are expensive mages, however they are very flexible and mobile. The Devil Squads become explosive in the mid game. It's not uncommon for me to lash out with 5-15 squads at once. [Smile]

    I not saying this is an ultimate strategy, but it is a strong one that can get good results. Try it.

    Frankly, I just love flying the devils around.

    				8.6.1.2.6 ATTACK OF THE CRONES

    This is an expansion of the "Perfect Storm" from the Last post.

    Play the nation of Man, and make Crone mages.

    Add Snake Rings to all mages.

    Wait for a Crone that comes with water skill.

    Reserach Enchantment-5.

    Do the attack just like "The Perfect Storm" from the Last post.

    On entering battle send the the water crone also, and have her cast Foul Vapors.

    Now the enemy will have to deal with a battlefield full of poison on top of the lightning.

    What do you think the odds are that your enemy will be immune to both?
    Probably pretty low.

    				8.6.1.2.7 DEVILS O' RAMA

    For everyone else that wants devils but who don't get Demonbred mages... there is my old friend the Soul Contract.

    [comment: You're writing Diabolists and Goetic Masters off too easily. Give them flying boots and you can use exactly the same tactic with Marignon/Diabolical Faith, except you can add some cheap Harlequins to the mix too.

    An incentive to pick a Pretender with some air magic on your pretender, besides finding air sites and forging boots of flying, is the dreaded xbows/Flaming Arrows/Wind Guide combo.
    ]

    [comment:
    I am not a fan of the Goetic Masters.

    Marignon [Diabolic Faith] requires Heat +1 and Turmoil +1, which is a mighty heavy economic hit.

    The Goetic Masters require those Winged Shoes to fly, and that means they aren't nearly as available as a fast response to whatever you may need responding to.

    Also the Goetic Masters can only command 10 Devils, while the Demonbred can command 35. This makes a huge difference.

    If I was playing Marignon [Diabolic Faith] I would probably stick with using Hordes from Hell and skip on devils.
    ]

    Do whatever blood hunting that works for your nation.

    You will need a blood-5 mage and Construction-2 to make Soul Contracts.
    It is a cursed item and it will horror mark the character you give it to.
    Your goal is to get at least one if not more contacts made per turn.

    The contracts produce one devil every turn.
    Each contract costs 80 blood slaves.
    Devils have a summoning cost of 7 slaves, so effectively it takes 11 turns for the contract to "pay off". After that it is effectively an income of 7 slaves per turn (in the form of a devil). It takes a while for the production to really take off. During this wait time you will have spent resource and won't have reaped benefits. This is the dangerous time for the Soul Contract strategy. It's a bit of a long term investment. If you can afford the time to ramp up for the payoff it is awesome. If you need power fast, convert your slaves into something that will get you power faster. Consider things with care when making long term plans.

    Also keep in mind that you must have blood or death mages to lead the devils. This can be difficult for some nations to cultivate.

    On the other hand, if you do manage to crank out a bunch of contracts and have the leadership... you will have a never ending stream of very potent troops. That can't be bad. [Smile]

    You might consider forging a Dwarven Hammer. This will allow you to make the contracts at a reduced cost. Don't ask me how a hammer helps make a blood soaked piece of parchment. It just does. Don't go crazy trying to get a hammer if it's hard for your nation. It's more important to expand your economy and work the blood magic. But if you can squeeze it in... get one.

    Strangely Ulm has a major advantage when working this strategy. The master smiths start with a forge bonus, and can increase it further with a dwarven hammer.

    Also consider that many players like using the Prince of Death pretender with Ulm. A POD with some Ulmish armor can be used as an early game Thug. The POD also is a flyer and can lead many devils. A shard of syngery for Ulm? You be the judge.

    				8.6.1.2.8 THE PERFECT STORM

    This is one of the most abusive combo's in the game. It takes a bit of effort but it's worth it for the brutal effect.

    Research Evocation-6 and Enchantment-4.

    Locate and enemy army that you want dead...

    Take two Air-3 mages.
    Give one 3 air gems and the other 2.
    Give both rings of Tamed Lightning.

    Cloud Trapeze the mages to the enemy army. They arrive in the magic phase before the army can move.

    Mage 1 casts Wrathful Skies.
    Mage 2 casts Storm.

    With no other nonsense this will often expose the enemy army to 3-4 turns of armor negating lightning strikes. The mages will eventually get smacked, but the damage done will be tremendous.

    Afraid of flyers getting to the mages before Storms goes off?
    Then get rid of mage 2. Research Construction-4 and make a Staff of Storms.
    Send in one mage with the SOS and 3 gems (you can get away with 2 sometimes, but don't risk it).
    Have that mage cast Wrathful Skies (then mistform and mirror image if you can).

    What's that you say? Don't want to lose mages at all? Ok, just send in more air mages and have them cast air elementals. The air elementals will clog the enemy advance and will expose them to further rounds of lightning strikes.

    Unless the enemy army can lightning proof itself, this technique will savage them.

    If you don't have air-3 mages you can take a Titan pretender with a bunch of air skill. Pile on some magic items to beef the Titan up into a serious combat threat. Trapeze, Storm, Wrath, [defensive spells], and then either fight or cast orb lightnings. The Titan starts lightning proof, and can easily be cultivated into a instant army buster.

    During the days of Dom1 I made quite a fuss about this combo being unfair, and I asked Illwinter to increase costs to fix it. Nothing has changed. I beg you guys to limit the distance on cloud trapeze, or make the SOS unique, and definitely raise the cost of wrathful skies! It's really not fun to be on the recieving end of this technique. Not at all...

    PS- How long did you think I could go without complaining about something? [Wink]

    				8.6.1.2.9 LIZARDS GONE WILD!

    					8.6.1.2.9.1 Comments

    [comment:
    I've found Falchioneers to be also effective with that kind of berserk strategies, and they're cheaper, do more damage (7+7 vs 8+3), and have better prot and defense. On the minus side, Falchioneers are supposed to be ambidextrous, but their attack rating is only 8x2 with falchions.
    ]
    [comment:
    The Falchioneers are good troops, but I have found the Elite Warriors to be better even at the higher gold cost.

    #1 The trident is a length 4 weapon, which will provide extra defense in the form of repels much more often than the length 2 falchion.

    #2 They have a 12 morale as opposed to the flachioneers 10. That's a huge difference, particularly for C'tis, who has no other troops with good morale.

    #3 The higher attack skill is absolutely critical. In practice I find that the Elite Warriors simply deal damage on a much more consistent basis.

    #4 The lower resource cost means that I can generate more troops. When playing C'tis I often find that numbers are the key to victory, and the production limitations are often a tighter constraint than the gold costs.

    #5 I have tried games using both troops, and while this is certainly nothing more than anecdotal evidence, I have found that the Elite Warriors appear to out perform the Falchioneers in practice.

    ]

    [Comment:
    I added Ctis's normal units and ran a little test. This is what I got:

    Deathmatch Power Ratings for 10000 rounds:

    CT Militia ------------------ Wins: 7.1% Power: 109 Overall: 223
    CT Light Inf ---------------- Wins: 35.7% Power: 636 Overall: 692
    CT City Guard --------------- Wins: 59.8% Power: 1341 Overall: 1243
    CT Heavy Inf ---------------- Wins: 67.3% Power: 1703 Overall: 1577
    CT Falchioneer -------------- Wins: 47.8% Power: 936 Overall: 913
    CT Slave Warrior ------------ Wins: 38.9% Power: 708 Overall: 732
    CT Elite Warrior ------------ Wins: 57.3% Power: 1243 Overall: 1116
    CT Runner ------------------- Wins: 27.8% Power: 471 Overall: 541
    CT Swamp Guard -------------- Wins: 81.5% Power: 3011 Overall: 2275
    CT Serpent Dancer ----------- Wins: 76.2% Power: 2359 Overall: 1657
    CT Sacred Serpent ----------- Wins: 50.6% Power: 1019 Overall: 1000

    Average --------------------- Wins: 49.9% Power: 1230 Overall: 1088
    Median ---------------------- Wins: 50.6% Power: 1019 Overall: 1000
    ...........

    Gauntlet Power Ratings for 10000 rounds:

    CT Militia ------------------ Wins: 21.8% Power: 358 Overall: 560
    CT Light Inf ---------------- Wins: 44.2% Power: 837 Overall: 913
    CT City Guard --------------- Wins: 56.2% Power: 1203 Overall: 1134
    CT Heavy Inf ---------------- Wins: 59.4% Power: 1326 Overall: 1201
    CT Falchioneer -------------- Wins: 49.2% Power: 977 Overall: 1000
    CT Slave Warrior ------------ Wins: 45.4% Power: 870 Overall: 933
    CT Elite Warrior ------------ Wins: 55.9% Power: 1193 Overall: 1133
    CT Runner ------------------- Wins: 38.0% Power: 687 Overall: 809
    CT Swamp Guard -------------- Wins: 66.0% Power: 1629 Overall: 1354
    CT Serpent Dancer ----------- Wins: 66.4% Power: 1653 Overall: 1378
    CT Sacred Serpent ----------- Wins: 47.4% Power: 925 Overall: 972

    Average --------------------- Wins: 50.0% Power: 1059 Overall: 1035
    Median ---------------------- Wins: 49.2% Power: 977 Overall: 1000

    As far as I can tell, Falchioneers are simply no darn good because their ambidextrity was set too low - I'd give them 3, minimum. They don't hit enough.

    I also added hit rate, evade rate, and repel rate statistics. For example:

    'CT Elite Warrior' versus 'CT Falchioneer' in 40000 bouts.

    ~ Attacker's Deathmatch Statistics ~

    Score: ---------------------- 576
    Wins: ----------------------- 57.68%
    Losses: --------------------- 42.33%
    Kills per battle: ----------- .58
    Kills per round: ------------ .32
    Deaths per battle: ---------- .43
    Life expectancy (rounds): --- 3.80
    Life expectancy (battles): -- 2.09
    Avg. Rounds Elapsed: -------- 1.82
    Avg. Rounds to Win: --------- 1.86
    Avg. Rounds to Lose: -------- 1.77
    Hit Rate: ------------------- 66.97%
    Evade Rate: ----------------- 41.75%
    Repel Rate: ----------------- 41.19%
    Damage done per swing: ------ 3.81
    Damage done per hit: -------- 5.69
    Damage taken per hit: ------- 8.26
    Hit damage taken per life: -- 22.38
    Total damage taken per life: 22.91

    The repel rate people had it right [Wink] 41% repels is pretty severe. In the reverse case (not shown), the Falchioneer gets a 7% repel rate because of his lousy attack, and because the Elite Warrior has much higher morale. Repels and long weapons are very important to Ctis because of their low morale.

    These stats are only for Ctis against Ctis, and thus a bit misleading. But I don't think Falchioneers hold up well to Swamp Guard / City Guard / Elites.

    Sacred Serpents, on the other hand, are bad, bad bad. Except for the standard - I'd only use them for morale. I think they should be given poison immunity... [Roll Eyes]

    Regarding the usefulness of 10 devils -

    They don't rout. The only time I had trouble with Devils in Doms I was when they got hit by Control Dead, and that doesn't affect Devils anymore. In Dom II I have not used them yet (harder to get into blood) but the sim indicates they are worth 7 heavy infantry... and that's without the heat effect. A squad of 10 devils should annihilate most standing armies... In Doms I, I even liked to use them against Ermor, since Banishment doesn't bother them much, so they were safe from friendly fire.

    ]

    [Note, Important comment
    >But still, City Guard beats Elite Warriors and Falchioneers, plus is more durable (prot=14) and arrow-resistant (shield). And cheaper in gold then either of them (midway in resources).

    This is why you must be careful with the combat program. The City Guard really isn't a very good unit in practice.

    #1 Their weapon doesn't do enough damage versus heavy armor, which many players will choose.

    #2 The 9 morale is a disaster until you have Growing Fury.

    Most players would be better off massing C'tis light infantry, which look horrible under the stats, but have javalins and have an easier time with morale do to large numbers (from low production costs).
    ]

    					8.6.1.2.9.2 Original suggestion

    Like C'tis? So do I.

    Make lots of Elite Warriors and beat down some enemies.

    As you expand research Alteration-6, Enchantment-6, and Thumaturgy-5.
    Yes that's mucho magic, but it really sets you up nice.

    Make 8+ Shaman (cheap, and make good researchers in a magic dominion).

    Upon starting a battle;
    Have 4 Shaman cast Communion Slave.
    Have 4+ Shaman cast Communion Master.
    Now the masters have Nature-3 and Astral-3 (not bad for cheapie lizards!).
    Have the masters cast Growing Fury (Lizards Go Wild!) and Mass Protection (Wild Lizards need extra protection).
    Have one master cast Relief x5.
    Any extra masters can cast Paralyze or Soul Slay.

    If you add in many extra masters, make sure you add in another slave (or two) and more Relief casters. Put on an extra Relief caster if fighting in the cold.

    The Communion/Relief combo will keep the mages casting and the troops fighting (even in the cold). The beserk/protected warriors will kick butt, and the astral spells can take care of bigger opponents.

    				8.6.1.2.10 THE LEFT HAND OF AN EMPEROR HOLDS THE DAGGER UNSEEN

    Most people seem to become blinded by the idea of fielding enormous armies. Rows upon rows of warriors in shining armour. Their swords held high in honor of their lord, gleaming in the sun like a bountiful harvest of steel. The strength of an empire made physical form. Impressive yes?

    It would be well worth keeping that nice sight intact would it not? Mountains of gold spent. Years of preparation. So why risk it when you do not have to?

    Cut of the head and the body dies, as the saying goes. Ten assassins can do more harm than army one thousand strong. Fifty assassins can change the course of the war entirely. One hundred assassins and your enemies will throw themselves at your feet, begging for mercy from your unseen might.

    Creating an assassin "guild" in a province that is out of the way and mostly worthless is always a good investment. Add a mage with no other buisness then the steady construction of cheap but dangerous tools like Dragon Helms, Skull Talismans or Snake Rings. Assassins are cheap when compared to most commanders and expendable. It's a lot of micromanagement at times but five Groups of ten assassins can create an endless migraine for your opponent and tie up a lot of resources that would otherwise be used against you.
    Don't like C'tis? You can do the same stunt with the Seithkona of Jotunhiem (Giants Gone wild! Goblins Gone Wild!). [Smile]

    				8.6.1.2.11 SUMMONED UNITS DON'T HAVE UNIONS

    What's better than a loyal soldier ready to give up his life for your empire? One that doesn't ask for a salary. Summoned units, save Trolls who are all members the Bridge Squatters Union, don't have a gold upkeep. The Monthly Ritual command is not to be ignored. Having a mobile provincial defence is quite worth it's cost in gems. And some summons even summon their own units! Remember that the next time you think about purchasing that new regiment of shiny knights.

    				8.6.1.2.12 THIEVES?

    Blood magic 2 allows for Hellbind Heart. Other spells along the same line are possible.

    Spells which summon commanders to you exist such as Wind Ride. Or giving the Black Heart to sneaky mages so they can become assassins.

    You steal an enemy commander, get commanders you wouldnt normally have access to, get equip that the other guy spent gems on, and you leave large chunks of his army leaderless. Leaderless armys will rout from things like Call of the Wild or Call of the Winds, or even just a lone scout (a really funny sight)

    If an assassin uses such a spell the newly converted commander will then attack his own troops in a fresh battle following the successful "assassination". Rinse-and-repeat until you snag the Last commander in a province and you will own that province no matter how large an army was there when the assassin walked in. Pick up some new blood slaves and sneak away to the next target.

    				8.6.1.2.13 EVERYONE LOVES DRAGONS

    In Dom1 Dragon pretenders were mediocre at best. It came a great (and welcome) surprise that they are dramatically better in Dom2. Part of this is becuase they now keep all but 2 levels of magic skill while in dragon form, and part is due to the new bless effects.

    Even without improvement the dragons are "Thugs". They can be sent into many independent provinces alone and can beat down the locals. This does risk afflictions, but it's great for getting a fast start on the game.

    As for my thoughts on the specific dragons;

    					8.6.1.2.13.1 RED DRAGON

    Adding fire skill adds attack strength to it's melee ability, making this dragin even more thuggy than the others.

    Fast research to Enchantment-1 provides the red dragon with Fire Shield, which further improves its early game ability.

    Fire-9 provides the excellent bless effects of +3 attack and flaming weapons. This is a very synergistic effect (hit more, and hit harder) and is my favorite blessing.

    For late game insanity have the red dragon with fire-9 (7 in dragon form) engage enemy armies and have it cast Heat from Hell and Fire Storm. You'll need a bunch of gems for the castings, but it's possible to incinerate whole armies this way.

    					8.6.1.2.13.2 BLUE DRAGON

    Early research provides Quickness and Breath of Winter, which make the dragon much more formidable.

    Water-9 provides the bless effect of +4 defense and "50% quickness". Not bad at all.

    In the midgame the spell Grip of Winter might help deal with large forces. This is not as dangerous as the red dragon, but the reserach will be done ages earlier.

    [comment:
    Water-9 caster also has a very nice spell that can deal massive damage versus both normal armies and big creatures and cannot be resisted. What is it? Falling Frost!

    It has area = 5+ AND damage 18+. When cast by a water-9 mage, it deals damage to an area of 11 and does enough damage to kill all normal troops and severely wound all better ones. And unlike most water/fire spells, it just cannot be resisted with anything but high protection.

    I mainly use it with the Jotunheim Son of Niefel, who can easily power himself up a level or two with robe of the sea and sea king's goblet. W-11 falling frost tested against heavies of ulm, nothing survived the first bLast and it has the area of 13.
    ]

    					8.6.1.2.13.3 GREEN DRAGON

    Reasonable research provides Personal Regeneration and Elemental Fortitude. Not bad, but not as thuggy as the other dragons.

    Nature-9 provides the bless effect of Beserk +3 and Regeneration. This is an awsome set of effects and is well worth considering.

    In fact if you are looking for a low cost pretender solution taking Nature-4 is a good way to go. This keeps the dragon cheap, and provides Beserk +1, which is a major boon for the sacred troops since it solves morale issues.

    There are many late game nature spells that are nice, but most involve boosting troops rather than allowing the dragon extra power. That's not a bad thing, but nature mages aren't hard to find and I expect more from the pretender.

    The only way to stretch the green dragon in the late game is to get it a level of water skill. That way it can cast Foul Vapors at the start of a battle.

    While the green dragon lacks some of the personal power of the other two, it's ability to augment troops should be kept in mind.

    				8.6.1.2.14  A SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT

    Vanjarls have godly defence and a builtin Mirror Image, and thus are rarely hit. You can use that feature to your advantage to use an effect similar to Wrathful Skies, except this one kills things much faster if you have half a dozen Vanjarls in the battle. And you only need to research Evocation 2 to use it - for Shock Wave, a close-range (therefore high precision) AoE armor-negating spell that can kill a fair number of troops each round.

    Script your Vanjarls like this:
    (Resist Lightning)(attack one turn)(Shock Wave)x3(cast spells)

    If you have researched Alteration 3 you can insert (Mistform) at the beginning of the list, and don't forget (Air Shield) if you see missilemen.

    If you have researched Construction 4, you can forge a Staff of Storms and use the cheaper Vanherses instead, just remember to start with (Summon Storm Power). Or you can have a Vanjarl to cast the Storm spell.

    Also, remember both Vanjarls and Vanherses are sacred, so always have one bless the others, it will at least boost their morale. If your god provides bless effects, then all the better - although nature blessing doesn't really fit in that strategy.

    A pack on Vanjarls/herses sneaking near your border can setup deadly ambushes for approaching enemy armies. All Vans have a strategic move of 3 and thus can react to unexpected threats in very short time.

    Even Vanjarls aren't invulnerable, so a pack of Vanjarls/herses operating deep in enemy territory may be lost if any of them is slain. So it's always a good idea to have an extra Vanjarl or 2 sneaking nearby to claim lightly defended provinces at the same moment your main group attacks, so if things go bad your Vanjarls/herses have a place to retreat to. Or use Cloud Trapeze once you learned it.

    Giving Main gauches to your Vanjarls/herses will improve their defense to stratospheric levels, and high defense is a key component for this strat to work. Vanjarls are expensive, and Main gauches are cheap, so build some.

    Once you learn Orb Lightning, you can have Vanjarls with MGoPs use the Shock Wave routine, while unequipped Vanherses fire Orb Lighnings from behind. Once you learn Wrathful Skies, use it for even more damage.

    A few Vanjarls/herses can wreak a lot of havoc with the low-level Shock Wave, so don't be afraid to hunt down big armies and don't lose time with the small fry.

    				8.6.1.2.15 TOO MUCH MAGIC DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF NO RETURN

    This is really an endgame trick as it relies on a high-level spell, and is best used if you have access to many other high-level spells. It is also extremely expensive to setup (both in gems and items, which also cost gems) but when you can make it work it can lead to really hilarious results. Plus it rarely works twice, so it's not very useful as a workable strategy - but as I said, it's lots of fun and you should try it at least once.

    The key spell is Vortex of Returning, you get it at Thaumaturgy 7. There are many ways to use VoR but I'll concentrate on (what I think is) the most deadly one.

    The second key spell is - actually there are 3 of them: Summon Lammashas, Call Lesser Horror, and Call Horror.

    Note this trick relies a lot on the fact that most of the mages accompanying enemy armies will spend their first round "powering up" with spells that don't directly threaten you - eg, Quickness, Communion Master/Slave, Power of the Spheres, Summon XXX Power, etc... But when you've used the trick once on them, they'll try to adapt to cope with the threat - so try to hit hard on the first attempt!

    What you need:

    - a fair number of teleporting/trapezing mages who can summon those "unfriendly" allies: Lammashtas and/or Horrors. Abysian Warlocks, Grand Thaumaturgs, Harab Elders, Hangadrotts, Moon Mages or Galdermen with a random in death and Skull Staves, are examples of this.

    - a few teleporting/trapezing mages who can cast damaging enchantments that cover the whole battlefield. Eg, powerful astral mages can cast Astral Tempest, or if you lack astral power you can have some of your mages cast Communion Slave and follow with Astral Tempest, but you'll have to give a Crystal Matrix to your mage. Trapezing mages can of course cast Wrathful Skies. If you find an Jade Amazon sorceress with a pick in astral or air, you can give her the stuff she needs to teleport or trapeze in and cast Foul Vapors. The possibilities are virtually endless.

    - finally, at the bottom of the mage list, there's your VoR caster. Make sure he casts Last, and give him every piece of equipment he needs to survive. If he dies, your other mages might be in serious trouble. You can script an extra mage with VoR to minimize the risks.

    The only real threat your mages will face is missile fire and fliers. But you can counter that with air shielding gear, a Staff of Storms, and a few Wraith Crowns (for the undead meatshields). The Wraith Crowns are expensive but are only needed if you notice fliers in your target - beware of spells like Howl, though.

    Still, this trick is best used if you add a Master Enslaver in your hunting pack. Imagine this scenario:

    0 - you teleport your mage pack on top of the main enemy army.

    round 1, enemy phase - the enemy mages power-up or cast battle enchantments that will take effect only 1 round later, the enemy infantry and cavalry charges, the enemy archers fire but fail to hit your air-shielded/lucky mages, the enemy fliers are engaging your undead bodyguards.

    round 1, your phase - most of your own mages summon Lammashtas and/or Horrors, some may cast Communion Slave to help the Crystal Matrix bearers, some cast Foul Vapors or Wrathful Skies or Astral Tempest or whatever, a couple mages can Curse and Horror Mark the enemy Titan pretender, your Master Enslaver converts half the enemy army, and the VoR caster sends everyone back to safety, including your new recruits.

    round 1, "ally" phase - the Lammashtas/Horrors engage the depleted enemy army, preferably the horror marked units. [Big Grin]

    round 2+ - well, do I need to say more? Enjoy the replay! [Wink]

    Final note: the Horror Harmonica (with boots of Quickness) is a great tool to use with Vortex of Returning.

    				8.6.1.2.16 DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY!

    This is for later games when you're massively outnumbered by undead and want a cheap and effective way of dealing with masses of them.

    Use this with any Astral/Fire mages

    Before Battle have your mages cast Inner Fire.

    First Spell in Battle, cast Phoenix Pyre (or Phoenix Power depending on where you place your mages).

    Send the mages in for close combat (or fly if you are T'ien Ch'i to the back row)

    FIREWORKS!

    The Phoenix Pyre will hit any type of creature, while the Inner Sun burst will fry all low hp undead (Up to Longdead Horsemen and sometimes banes) and possibly higher end, depending on their MR.

    The Pyre up and are ready to die for their country again, and take out a few boneys in the process.

    They can do this until they run out of fatigue then death will be final, but 2 or 3 of these guys can take out huge numbers of those pesky undead, even if they have Antimagic on them.

    Try it with Sacred Troops with a high Earth Blessing, some reinvigoration items, or Relief, for fun.

    Beauty of this is you can send them in close to cast up close and personal banishments (which cost 0 Fatigue) while they blow the britches off of those who come to kill them.

    				8.6.1.2.17 THE HOLY BOLTS OF MARIGNON

    A strategy so fiendish that its use has been Banned by Carmong the Cardinal of Marignon himself, under the pain of torturous death. It is still allowed to be used the holy wars against heretic faiths of course.

    Take virtue pretender. Take air magic 10. Build three*10 crossbowmen. One on fire archers and two on fire closest. Build a group of Knights of the Chalise and put them in the front on hold and attack closest. Get a Friar to bless them.

    The Knights are plenty tough so why waste such a high bless effect on them? Well since they are now nigh impervious to missile fire you can fire at will right into melee with your crossbows without fear of friendly casualities. They are also shock resistant so the Virtue pretender can idly toss chained lightning about.

    My opponent had his archers on rearmost, cavalery, archers and closest. Putting a single knight in the far back flank solved two of these problems and attrition on the crossbows was not very severe at all.

    I devastated the AI in this way using only five knights in the front, and five*10 crossbowmen. Almost looked like musketeer based wars are not so far off in Dominions 2. [Big Grin]

    This strategy can of course be used in different variations for the two other strong missile nations Man and T'ien Ch'i. Trouble is that their holy units don't have the staying power of Knights of the Chalice for the same investment in gold.

    				8.6.1.2.18 IN THE SHADOWS WE WALK:

    This is the standard operating procedure for nations which have an easy access to body etheral. The aim is to toughten quite a lot some choice units with BE. You dont need awesome units, good ones are sufficient.

    Have a mage on BE thrice.

    I) In front of him, put 3 Groups of 2 units on hold& attack (yes in the same square, the front one, see below). During battle, they will be placed by the dom2 tac engine with one unit in the square you requested, and one in the south-west square (below the mage, if you follow me). This give you a total of 6 units in 2 squares.

    II) In his square put 2 Groups of 1 unit.

    Overall you have 3 squares filled, each with 3 units (8 combatting, 1 mage). The hold&attack will make your combattants move on the third round. The mage will cast BE during the first three rounds, on each of the 3 squares. He will commences on his square, has the value is the highest (thus protecting him ASAP).

    This lead to 8 etheralized units attacking on round 3.
    This formation can be repeated for several mages,depending on mage availability and toughness of opposition. Against indep, you can generally win a battle at 1 against 3 w/o too much problem.

    A further interest is that your small Groups prevent you from a total rout. Groups will rout one by one, when some soldiers are wounded. On high end units, like paladins or knights they will rout if direly wounded, and this is what you want : each wounded retreat, thus preventing the loss of the unit.

    By the way, for cavalry, adapt the formation, as they are size 3. You can BE 5 cavalry for each mage, put one horseman in each square.

    Yes, it asks for some micromanaging [Smile]

    [comment:
    ]    +-------------------+
    ]
    ]     |       +---+       |
    ]
    ]     |       |   |       |
    ]
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    ]
    ]     |       +---+       |
    ]
    ]     |       |   |       |
    ]
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    ]
    ]     +-------------------+

    Big square = 24 Inf squad
    Small squares = 1 etherealizer each

    ]

    				8.6.1.2.19 DEADLY SWARM

    create GE Haunted forest first.
    most ppl(93%) will not go to dispel it(view here: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=74;t=000999#000001 )

    put a nature mage into combat. Nature 1 is enough,more levels more better.
    give she some emerald---you can only give one.
    have she cast "swarm" in the battle.
    yes, a nature 1 mage + 1 emerald..what will happen? [Wink]

    it's not a scheme of attacking,but a good tactics for defending(only effective in your dominions).

    				8.6.1.2.20 AS YOUR LIFE GOES DOWN THE DRAIN.

    THis is a strategy that is only really useful with the nations that have easy access to death 3 and death 4 mages. The nations that can reach death 3 fairly easily include:
    C'Tis: Sauromancers(Default/Tombs) and 1/8 Marshmasters(Miasma)
    Ermor: 1/8 Grand Thaumaturgs(Broken Empire), Dusk Elders(Ashen Empire/Soul Gate)
    Jotunheim: 1/16 Gygia(Iron Woods, Niefelheim), 1/4 Norna(Utgard)
    Vanheim: Hangadrott(Helheim)

    Any nation that can reach death 3 can also summon a mound fiend for 28 gems, which is a death 3 and unholy 3 mage. This is very expensive in gems however, and you may be better off using them otherwise.

    What this strategy involves is the alteration 5 spell "Drain Life". This is a range 25, precision 100, 14+ unresistable damage, armor negating spell requiring a death skill of 4 that both heals and removes fatigue from the caster when cast on a living target. Drain life will damage any creature, but will not provide healing or fatigue reduction against non-living creatures. To reach death 4 costs only ten gems for a skull staff for the above nations, so it is a very good investment.

    This synergizes very well with quickness, as the mage will get tired only if they face an army almost exclusively of undead. The mages are also usually smart enough to start raising skeletons (enchantment 3) to protecct themselves and overwhelm the enemy. The AI will then alter its spellcasting to use drain life when its fatigue reaches high levels, and go back to summoning more undead, or casting high level spells such as banefire or cloud of death.

    				8.6.1.2.21 FORWARD, MARCH:

    Not a combos per se, but something rather interesting to know:

    The common behavior for troops with melee and missile weapons (ex legionaries) are to use them as infantry, and order them to hold&attack or attack closest.
    It results often in the troop engaging the enemy, and firing a volley of pilum in a suboptimal manner (sometime they dont, sometime only the Last line fire, etc.)

    Now use them as archers. Order your legionaries, or javelin thrower to fire. Just that, fire.
    What will happen? If they have ammo and an enemy in range, they fire. Each time. Its a great improvement compared to the standard behavior.
    If they dont have enemy in range, or dont have any more javelins, they move to close and engage the enemy. For archers it is somehow problematic, for legionaries, its what you want.

    So try this order, you will see that you get far more pilums and javelins thrown, and they still act as infantry after.

    As I said, a very small trick...

    				8.6.1.2.22 FLAMING EXPLOITS

    Ingredients:

    Thaumaturgy 1 OR Blood 1 OR COnstruction 4(Or was it 6?), Alteration 7, Conjuration I forget how much and am too lazy to check

    1. One or more mages with (Astral OR Blood OR Communion Matrix) AND Fire

    2. A billion communicants. Scouts or thugs with matrices will do, but astral/blood mages will likely be feebleminded ere the battle is through.

    Optional ingredients include a relief-casting nature mage, Medallions of Vengeance and Inner Sun rituals, and a communion master capable of casting Breath of Winter, Soul Vortex, Invulnerability, Mistform, Mirror Image, and so on, and so forth. But especially BoW and Soul Vortex.
    Sandals of the Crane on the communion master would be a beautiful, if potentially catastrophic, addition.

    Instructions:

    Script mage/s to Communion/Sabbath Master(Or give 'em matrices, to save precious time and queue depth), Phoenix Pyre, Summon Earthpower(Reinvigoration 4!), Fire Shield(Or Phoenix Power, then Fire Shield), Blink, then either cast spells or attack, depending on lifespan and number of communicants, and on whether a nature mage casting relief/communion master casting Reinvigoration is present*.
    Spectate.
    Avoid confrontation with 0 encumbrance, cold-, fire-, and Soul Vortex-immune foes.**

    * Hold on, would this WORK? Would ALL communion slaves recover 100 fatigue?
    Also, are there any spells beside this and Summon Earthpower which reinvigorate the caster?

    ** This strategy has never been tested, and may well be bollocks.

    [comment:
    1) a great many of the critters most easily used for communion slaves are NOT immune to soul vortex, and so tend to die of fratricide from each other's vortices.
    2) Many of the critters most commonly used for communion slaves are cheap (and therefore have little health) and so die of fratricide when their copy of Pheonix Pyre goes off - killing attackers, sure, but also killing any other communion slaves that are nearby. With the ordering of the Pheonix Pyre's Explosion/Random Repop, it's actually possible to lose half your communion slaves from chain fratricide in a single combat round if you are unlucky.
    3) The effects of 1 and 2 can stack. If too many of your communion slaves gather too closely together, they ALL DIE.
    ]

    				8.6.1.2.23 COMMUNICANTS FROM TARTAR.

    This communion strategy is devised to eliminate traditional weakness of communion - fragile communicants. Only Tartarians are allowed into this elite communion.

    In Tartar communion, slaves are expected to both spellcast and fight while masters will quickly go into melee.

    Few Tartarians with interesting paths become communion masters or communion masters and slaves at the same time. Others become communion slaves. 2-3 slaves per master should be enough. Communion slaves are equipped with hydra skin armor and boots of messenger. Other items are intended to maximize battle their melee potential. One of masters should have crystal shield, they should be able to cast quickness, fire and lightning protection, hell power, earth power, mistform, invunerability, personal luck, astral shield, astral weapon, mirror image, soul vortex, breath of winter, fire shield and resist magic. Someone (preferrably slave) should be able to cast other useful spells: doom, darkness, wrathful skies and any other batlefield-wide destructive spells.

    Important points:
    - every slave is expected to get +3 in every magic path (crystal shield + hell power) and +4 in earth, therefore they should start their script on hold, so that they don't start casting until empowerment.
    - masters should be equipped to provide uncovered resistances.
    - every masters should be scripted to attack after casting buffs (they're the main danger for the slaves).
    - Tartarians should be placed so that the slaves are close together and in the front of masters and other troops (except, maybe, some fodder) This is necessary, because the slaves won't rush into the fight and they will only go to melee if the enemies comes into the range. Apparently, they will not advance to get within the spell range either.

    Expected slave stats:
    HP - 200 and growing...
    regeneration - 40 per turn
    Att/Def - in mid twenties
    MR - 30-35
    protection - 30.
    resistance to pretty much everything resistable

    Weapons:
    breath of winter, fire shield, soul vortex, astral shield + melee weapon.

    		8.6.2 Dom-III tome

    			8.6.2.1 To stop the world

    Spies. They are annoying little buggers that can hamper your enemy's economy. They can be much more, though! Imagine a group of 6 spies. They stealth through enemy lands, find his capital - and in one turn, cause over 100 points of unrest. No more sacred troops for you! No more capital-only mages for you! No more income for you! Even better, to catch the spies, the target of this strategy has to patrol, which reduces unrest, and as long as the unrest stays high, it's hard to catch any stealthy units, and he it will often take a turn or two to bring suitable patrollers. Once he has brought the patrollers in, you can move your spies out and wait until the capital is empty again.

    			8.6.2.2 Fearful Symmetry

    Fear directly lowers enemy morale, as is easily noticed if you click on enemy units surrounding your Prince of Death. Heavy Cavalry with morale 4 are rather absurd sight... But, besides making it easy to rout them, low morale is also very effective protection if you happen to have Awe. Dominion values of 9 and 10 gives Awe, and I'm sure you all see where I'm going... Fear and Awe alone won't keep a unit alive, but you'll be fine if you add in some protection. Prince of Death can wear Black Plate armor without being fatigued by its encumberance. There are many, many ways to build an effective early expander around this idea, from Gorgon (med-to-high Earth for extra protection) to more monstrous creatures like Wyrms.

    			8.6.2.3 Rain from Hell

    Works well with either a VQ pretender or a Tartarian Cyclops - both can get Earth & Air combination. Suit up the SC with reasonable protection gear/good shields/resistances and cloud trapeze into an enemy army.

    Immediately cast rain of stones, which does the equivalent of blade wind to all units on the field. Normally, this is a double edged sword causing as much damage to your own units as to your opponents. With a high protection SC, however, you're insulated from this effect. In cases of mass undead, the damage is staggering. Have some extra air gems to cloud trapeze out again when the opponent retreats.

    In my test case, the opponent had cast multiple pheonix pyre buffs on his mages in the midst of his troops - they all exploded for even more damage to his army.

    			8.6.2.4 Ancient Kraken

    The Ancient Kraken is a really fun Pretender to play if you're a water-loving nation, but he needs some help.
    One consideration is the fact that his poison cloud also poisons him. Accessorize your Ancient Kraken for less! Give him a snake ring and he'll not only be protected, he'll poison his enemies. That's 4-18 hp armor piercing attacks that now do poison damage as well. Doesn't suck. Cost: 5 nature gems, 1 level of nature magic, and 0 levels of Construction. Other good, and cheap, magic items for your Kraken-on-the-go are the ring of regeneration-I've had Ancient Kraken pretenders with 690 pre-Wish hp before (see below), and throwing regeneration onto that is a beautiful thing. It also helps avoid those nasty afflictions. Sure your kraken heals them eventually, but why suffer with a limp for any amount of time if you don't have to? Ok, it's not THAT cheap at 6 const and 10 nature gems, but it's dirt-cheap when you consider your Ancient Kraken will be regenerating 65 HP+ per round. That's one whole entire Niefel Giant,
    every
    single
    round.
    An Amulet of Antimagic is a real bargain for the Ancient Kraken, not only because it protects him from spells, but because the worst thing that can happen to him (besides death, and a well-played Kraken doesn't die very often) is Curse or Horror Mark. Even those aren't really that bad, but still, better to avoid. When you have an Ancient Kraken, Dom 10 is worth the cost. Not only will you get Awe +2 in addition to your Kraken's natural Fear +0, but your Kraken's stats will JUMP! Don't ask me why but I've had over 550 HP in mediochre Dom provinces with a 10 Dom Ancient Kraken. A 10 Dom province will give you 690 HP, around 28 str, MR of 25 with an amulet, and greatly improved attack and defense. It's hard to improve on immortality, but what if your Pretender...

    just...won't...die?!?!?

    Good magic paths for your Ancient Kraken include Water-just one level and your Kraken can cast quicken self-remember those 4 attacks at 18 points AP damage each? well now make that 8 attacks etc etc etc yadda yadda yadda. Earth-stoneskin and ironskin are fun, but the real beauty is Invulnerability. Cost is a little higher at 3 levels of Earth magic, but the payoff is 25 points protection, and if you're still wearing that snake ring, there's no downside! The real treat though is Astral magic. Just 1 point allows you to cast both Body Etherial and Personal Luck. Another truly beautiful spell for an Ancient Kraken is Mossbody. Finally, 3 Death will enable you to cast Soul-Vortex, and 4 Death will allow Darkness (and did I mention Ancient Krakens have 100% Darkvision?).
    Not too many armies-let alone SCs-have what it takes to tackle a 690 hp etherial, lucky, invulnerable, magic-resistant, quick, poisonous and poison immune soul-sucking Ancient Kracken of Fear and Awe, especially in the dark.

    'Nuff said.
    '

    			8.6.2.5 Van rush

    This strategy works with EA Helheim, MA Vanheim and LA Vanheim. It works for EA Vanheim with few changes.

    This strategy is based around sacred, mounted cavalry that has glamour and insane defense. Take an imprisoned pretender with Water 9, Fire 9 (Father of Winters is fine), full Order to have enough money for the expensive Vanir, and some Sloth and Cold scales to afford anything else you might want. Dominion 5-7 works well. Build groups of half-a-dozen or so sacred cavalry and use them to conquer independents. Avoid barbarians, heavy cavalry, Dark Vines and other tough provinces until you can bring a bigger force (10 to 15 Vanir) against them. If you meet another nation early on, you can probably kill it before it can come up with a way to deal with Vanir.

    			8.6.2.6 quick and dirty guide to MA Man

    Meglobob's quick & easy guide to slaughtering the opposition with MA Man:-

    MA Man is a strong nation, it has alot going for it and many possibilites. Here is one based on stealth...

    Bards, only 75gp, +30 stealth, can instill unrest, fantastic, recruit loads, get 4+ to every enemy castle, take unrest over 100. Your enemy can't recruit anymore. You have won.

    Mothers 130gp, 2N 1A, stealthy, cool, research upto storm of thorns, put into squads of 4, script 5xstorm of thorns, should defeat most PD upto 30+.

    Monks, 30gp, stealthy, can cast bless, can lead 10 stealthy blessed wardens into enemy lands. Can any PD defeat 10 wardens with a W9F9N4 bless? Or if you want decent scales try...E9N4.

    Put all those together, plus plenty of longbows (wind guided of course, flaming arrows if your lucky) mix with plenty of lightning/thunder strikes...cool.

    			8.6.2.7 maximize gold income

    Gold, you never have enough, especially in dominions, so here is a nice way to get more of it.

    Research watcher spell, cast 2 of those in your capital and any other high population province with a lab. Get 1 of your cheapo mages to patrol with them. Now slam taxes upto 200% and leave them there. You now have double your income permanently, with 0 unrest and a mounting stockpile of corpses. Watchers have +50 patrol bonus and are tough defenders who discharge lightning and never retreat, so a decent defense to support your PD.

    Also to get the most out of this, turn those corpses into free troops, research carrion reanimation, and when you reach 100 corpses get 100 souless undead for 10D gems, cool...

    			8.6.2.8 micro-managed Elephants

    not so cool like the Kraken, but maybe useful for new players (got this from dom2 thread):

    If you get Elephants or other big units, your main fear is that those beasts rout and trample over your own troops.
    Avoid that by placing an nature mage in the square over (north of) the Elephant and let him cast Beserk.
    Set the Elephant on "Hold and Attack". Note that the Elephant will attack as soon as become berserked. If possible, have an Astral mage in the same square as the Nature mage cast Body Etheral and/or Luck.
    Cast any buff spell that has short range and Area of Effect of 1 square.

    You can replace each Elephant with 2 cavalry units.
    Place mages in the combat squares north and south of each Elephants, casting buffs.
    Enjoy the sight of unbreakable, etheral (75% chance to avoid hit) Elephants trampling over your enemys.

    			8.6.2.9 Death 9 bless synergy with evocation

    Combine a D9 blessing with a Shroud of the Battle Saint and Evocation spells. Falling Fires and Cloud of Death are already great spells, but usually don't do enough damage to kill a unit on the first hit. If the casting mage has a high Death blessing, however, they inflict enough damage to afflict an enemy most of the time. Weakness seems to be especially common, with Cripple, Battle Fright, and Lost An Arm making a showing too.

    If you take an E4 blessing the mages in question also benefit from the slight boost to reinvigoration.

    			8.6.2.10 Niefelheim *Jarl-Push* Primer

    Niefelheim is a powerful nation with great troops.

    By far it's greatest troops are the Niefel Jarls themselves-and they're equally deadly against living and undead enemies.

    You can maximize this ability by choosing an Imprisoned Cyclops with totally negative scales (make sure temperature is set to cold, because that only helps you).

    You can then add those points to Earth (10), Water (10), and Nature (10) for a practically unstoppable bless. The extra 7 points go right into Dominion (3).
    Perfect efficiency!

    Don't bother with regular Niefel Giants-atleast at first.
    Build up your gold and buy Jarls only-you won't have much gold to begin with, anyway, but that should quickly change.

    Also, kill off your starting army by any means possible, because they're a really big money-pit in the early game, and if you keep them around they may get you killed before you get your first Jarl (the longer you go without a Jarl, the more chances you have to lose your Temple or Lab to bad luck, and that'll finish you in the first turns of a multi-player game).

    Your first Jarl should become your Prophet. Use him to expand your domain, and he can also help maintain your Dominion. If the Arena comes around early in the game (like within the first 10 turns), stick him in-he should be strong enough to beat anything else in the game at that point, except for a really tough SC Pretender, and if he wins, he'll get 3 stars of experience and a nifty trident for free. At that point, he should be able to tackle most neutral provinces by himself.

    Keep buying Jarls-you should soon have enough gold income to buy 1 every round, if you're lucky. At that point, start leaving some of the Jarls in your home-provinces to pray and to research construction so you can arm your Jarls and maintain your Dominion. Don't worry about expanding your Dominion very quickly-as long as it's strongly maintained in your core provinces, you should be fine, and your poor scales will really hurt you in the long run, so out run them with swift expansion until you can inflict them on your enemies' home provinces with your Jarls.

    You may want to avoid provinces with lizardmen at first, unless you need the province for strategic reasons, because their shamans are really efficient at cursing your Jarls. You can build a small force of non-Niefel jotuns for this purpose in the later stages of the game. Skin-shifters are ideal for this purpose.

    You should also start building scouts and creating a scout supply-train by equipping scouts with an endless bag of wine and endles cauldrons of broth, each, and then attaching them to your armies. This becomes easy once your Pretender shows up, and forging these should eventually become his main job-after he's searched your Core provinces for magic sites.

    Your Pretender also makes a handy defender SC in a pinch, if you equip him, but don't risk him without a very good reason, because he's your main earth/nature mage and he won't be much better than a well-equipped Jarl.

    Expect some of your Jarls to become Cursed eventually. It shouldn't hurt them that badly-they won't get hit that often, but it's something to be aware of. Counter with the Ritual Spell "Gift of Health" (Enchantment 5/Nature 5) which heals afflictions on your troops, en masse, and grants extra HP-infact, stockpile Nature Gems (you'll need atleast 50) and research this spell as soon as possible after your Pretender awakens. Horror-marks are somewhat more dangerous. It's a good idea by late-game to protect your Jarls from assassins with regular Niefel bodyguards and to equip your Pretender with a ring of warning.

    Look for neutrals that give you sacred troops-especially sacred calvalry-they'll help diversify your forces, which can make you stronger, overall.

    Eventually, you'll have more provinces than just Jarls can defend easily, at which time you can put expansion on the back-burner and start consolidating your forces/ strengthening your borders-you can use regular Niefels, in moderation, to suppliment your Jarl-and building up a couple of stronger attack-forces to hit neighboring human nations.

    Build labs and temples in your most strategically important provinces so that you can place multiple Jarls there, and then get the full benefits of their research and prayer. Fortresses will let you build boulder-throwers, javelineers, skinshifters and huscarls on the spot-expensive, but quick-it may end up saving your province from the longest and worst attacks.

    When you've got a surplus of cash, put one Jarl in each of your border-provinces to help out your PD, and keep expanding. Your Jarls are actually better defenders than they are expanders/attackers, since they can move over 3 owned provinces in a single turn, but only 1 province they don't already own-allowing you to quickly dispatch reinforcements to troubled areas-a very useful ability indeed. Build up squads of 3 or more Jarls-possibly with supplimental Niefel troops-in centralized locations within 3 provinces of your borders, so that you can ship them off to relieve defenders in case of attacks. Afflicted Jarls should go here too, and incase of a massive border collapse, these locations can also serve as rallying-points and magic equipment stockpiles for specialty items, like Gate-Cleavers.

    Don't buy non-sacred troops, unless you have a good reason! like buying mages who have paths you lack (fire, especially) and reacting to strong attacks. Otherwise, they're just cash-leeches, given your bless and the horribly bad scales you have.

    Good scripted level 1 combat-spells for Jarls are Breath of Winter, Holy Avenger, and (for some) Air Shield.

    Some good combat equipment for Jarls (off the top of my head) are: horror helmet, sword of swiftness, rhyme hauberk, hydra-skin armor, fire plate, dragon helmet, amulet of magic resistance, wraith sword, golden shield of awe, ring of regeneration, ring of fire resistance, pendant of luck, storm bow, midget masher, boots of the behemoth, lucky coin shield, amulet of rejuvenation, amulet of missle-protection, wraith crown, and hellsword.

    When you've conquered the land, amulets of water-breathing should be easy for your Jarls to mass-produce.

    Even if they don't have the very *best* equipment possible, it's a good idea to improve the quality of your Jarls on a quantity basis. If you can't make swords of swiftness fast enough, give them piercers or ice swords. You can save the better, more efficient equipment you can produce later on for your experienced Jarls with heroic abilities. Don't worry *too* much about saving gems for the end-game, while there are some higher end spells which will help you, the lower-end spells will help your Jarls a lot too, and the only one that's a real *need* is "Gift of Health".

    	8.7 Help countering trampling monsters

    		8.7.1 General advice

    Elephants and less commonly troglodytes can be used for early rushes of trampling monsters.
    They're at their strongest when in large enough numbers compared to enemy. For example a group of 20 elephants will easily dispatch 100 infantry.
    So how to counter them?
    Answer:
    -> Size 4 (and above) units on your side.
    -> Troglodytes don't have good protection, so you could try archers. Just recruit lots of indy archers and have them shoot at the Troglodytes. They have lots of hp, but they'll go down quite fast. Blade Wind would also work.
    -> Troglodytes' magic resistance is respectable 12, but you could still try False Fetters. Earth Meld can also be used to ground them for one turn, but unfortunately Troglodytes are strong enough to break out from that in one turn.
    -> Elephants MR is very low so MR check spells will kill them easily. mind burn, soul slay, charm, enslave mins and hellbind heart comes to mind.

    		8.7.2 Elephant counters

    Masses of elephants are a big threat even early on, so how to deal with them effectively? Let us begin by looking on the elephant's weak points.

    Weaknesses of the elephant:
    Low morale: 9
    Abysmal magic resistance: 6
    Low defense: 8
    Moderate protection: 11

    From this information I have assembled a list of more or less effective early game spells to counter the them:

    			8.7.2.1 Thaumaturgy

    Sleep N2 - low level (2), low fatigue (20), long range (30), good precision (+5).

    Pros
    Stops the elephants in their tracks instantly by giving them 110+ stun damage when they fail their MR check. The sleeping elephants will also block their brethren to great effect.

    Cons
    Not very good against hordes of elephants unless you yourself got lots of spell casters. It may also miss sometimes based on spell casters precision (combine with eagle eyes).

    Panic N2 - low level (3), low fatigue (20), long range (25), some precision (+1), great area effect (5+).

    Pros
    If the elephants had low morale before they now have none. Spam this spell and you won't have any trouble scaring them off into their own units with the first javelin/bolt/arrow/stone volley. You can even cast this spell when the elephants are entangled with your own units in close combat as it won't hit them. A great spell against all low magic resistance units overall.

    Cons
    It won't scare the elephants by itself, just lower their morale. Thus you have to combine it with (preferably missile) units of your own.

    Seven years fever N1 F1  low level (1), moderate fatigue (30), good range (20), some precision (+2), some area effect (1).

    Pros
    The elephants won't heal after combat. Combine with arrow fire, retreat or fight to the death to delay. If playing Machaka this may be the way to go as they have no problem casting this and have cheap and fast archers.

    Cons
    Mostly for Machaka and mostly for delaying action.

    Curse N1 S1 - low level (1), moderate fatigue (30), extreme range (50), extreme precision (+100), affects one person.

    Pros
    Will make the elephants useless if combined with arrow fire and/or javelin chaff. Then send in the real troops. Great spell for C'tis witch doctors. You can also find witch doctors easily.

    Cons
    This is a combination spell. Pretty hard to use if you don't play C'tis.

    Frighten D1 - low level (1), almost no fatigue (5), extreme range (50), some precision (+5), small area effect (1).

    Pros
    Fear +15 attack in the square where it hits. That gives the elephants 18% chance of passing it. So it is pretty good. You can spam this spell to great effect. The more death mages the better spamming it together. For even better chance of success combine it with panic to first lower their morale.

    Cons
    Not very good at scaring off big hordes apparently. Will also hit your own troops so try not to use it when your troops are in melee with the beasts. No problem with mindless though

    Terror D3 - moderate level (4), very low fatigue (10), long range (25), some precision (+1), great area effect (5+).

    Pros
    Just as Frighten but with lower fear attack (+10) and much greater area of effect. Excellent spell overall. A hordes of elephants are no problem if you have a couple of sauromancers spamming this. Just drive them before you!

    Cons
    Can be hard to cast for most nations not into death. Will hit your own troops. No problem with mindless though.

    Paralyze S2  moderate level (4), low fatigue (20), extreme range (100), extreme precision (+100), affects only one person.

    Pros
    This spells needs no explaining. It will both:
    Hurt the elephant  it may route.
    Stop the elephant  it will block others.

    Cons
    No real cons. Astral are not for everyone. A bit high level for early on rushes.

    Soul Slay S3  high level (5), low fatigue (20), extreme range (100), extreme precision (+100), affects only one person.

    Pros
    This is THE spell to instantly kill the pesky buggers also known as elephants. If you can use it you should.

    Cons
    Astral 3 means it isn't for everyone until later in the game. Level 5 says the same. If you are being rushed you probably won't have it yet. Thankfully there are other low level spells that you can use in the meantime.

    Bonds of Fire F1 - low level (2), low fatigue (20), moderate range (15), some precision (+3), small effect (5).

    Pros
    This is contrary to belief a good way to stop elephants when playing for instance MA Ulm or Abysia. Why? Because to escape the shackles you need high morale, something elephants do not have. When they are standing still they are easy targets for your arbalests (playing Ulm) and other fire spells (playing Abysia). If they eventually break free they will take some AN damage that will help them rout.

    Cons
    You have to be dangerously close to the beasts, so use screening. Also, the enemy may try to boost the elephants morale with banners. It won't be enough all the time though as the elephants need to take the test against 20.

    Prison of Fire F3 - moderate level (4), moderate fatigue (30), long range (25), some precision (+2), good area effect (3+).

    Pros
    Just as Bonds of Fire but with better range and greater area effect.

    Cons
    Harder to cast. I see this spell mostly as an Abysian counter to elephant horde. This spell will give them plenty of time to massacre the elephants will fireballs and the like.

    Rage F2 - low level (3), low fatigue (20), long range (25), extreme precision (+100), only hits one person.

    Pros
    Makes the elephant kill his mates and hopefully the juicy commander(s) with banners. Great in combination with Prison of Fire and Bonds of Fire.

    Cons
    This will usually hit the spot, although it is hard to cast for most nations.

    Confusion A3 - high level (5), very low fatigue (10), long range (25), some precision (+1), small area effect (1).

    Pros
    Similar to rage but with an area effect and more random result. A possible counter for air heavy nations.

    Cons
    Way too high level to stop an early rush.

    			8.7.2.2 Enchantment

    Flaming Arrows F4 - medium level (4), very high fatigue (100), gem cost 1, BF effect.

    Pros
    Flaming arrows will pierce the little (11) protection the elephants have and then hurt them bad.

    Cons
    None really. Hard to cast and not really low level.

    Nothing else in enchantment except rituals that I won't touch with this guide. You could perhaps use the various undead battlefield summoning spells to wear the elephants down.

    			8.7.2.3 Alteration

    False Fetters A2 - low level (1), very low fatigue (10), very short range (10), no precision (+0), moderate area effect (2+).

    Pros
    I can't see how the elephants would get free of this in a hurry. To get loose an elephant would need to roll a DRN (2d6 unlimited) of 15 (15 + 6 MR to exceed 20 that is needed to get free). This happening isn't very likely.
    Another good thing is the area effect of this spell, and its cheapness and low level. It is highly recommended that you use it if you can. Combine with hard hitting infantry.

    Cons
    Obviously the very short range. You have to get awfully close to the beast before casting but as the spell is so effective against them it isn't that dangerous.

    Body Ethereal S1 low level (3), moderate fatigue (30), very short range (1), area of effect 1.

    Pros
    Will make it much harder to hit the enchanted unit, and this will save them from being trampled most of the time (75%). Use this on the soldiers your are sending into the fray, but be sure to back them up with other spells to even the odds even more.
    Not very expensive on the fatigue in reality as you can usually buff your mages a level cutting it in half.

    Cons
    None really, this is a real lifesaver.

    			8.7.2.4 Evocation

    Flame Bolt F2 - low level (1), low fatigue (20), long range (40+), some precision (+2), only hits one person.

    Pros
    The earliest and probably the best (until pillar of fire) raw fire damage spell to kill elephants. Good precision (for a fire spell), really good damage (22+ ap) and low fatigue. And as elephants take are size 6 they take up one whole square so area damage of 1 is not needed.

    Other contenders:
    Flare: does area damage of 1 but cost 50 fatigue and has no precision boost, it is also higher level.
    Fireball: Higher level and less damage and precision, also area damage of 1.

    Cons
    You need something else to stop the beasts first, before you can really start pound them. So why not Prison of Fire?

    Slime W1  low level (1), low fatigue (20), long range (25+), some precision (+2), area effect 1.

    Pros
    Surprisingly good against elephants as they almost always get slimed due to their abysmal MR (6) and then start to move real slow. Trample becomes less effective and their defense is halved down to 4. Now you can actually kill the beasts in close combat. All this for a very low level spell.

    Cons
    Not very good when the elephants come in very large numbers. But then you have better spells and this can work as a complement before going into close combat. Combine Slime with cold bolt/blast and falling frost for very good results.

    Cold Bolt W2 - low level (1), low fatigue (20), very long range (45), some precision (+3), only hits one person, high damage (19+).

    Pros
    Very good at both stopping and damaging the large and easy to hit creatures. Actually much better than its fire equivalent above, Flame Bolt, except the lack AP. Combine with same Slime found at the same level and commence pummeling the sitting ducks.

    Cons
    As with Slime you have need better spells when the elephants come in very large numbers. That or a large group of spell casters.

    Falling Frost W3  high level (5), low fatigue (20), long range (25), low precision (+0), great area effect (5+), high damage (17+).

    Pros
    Same as cold bolt but area effect. Use this, slime, and archers when the ellies come in horde numbers.

    Cons
    None really. High level, difficult to cast for many nations.

    Magma Bolts E1 F1 - low level (3), low fatigue (20), long range (25+), some precision (+2), only hits one person, 3 effects, very high damage (25+).

    Pros
    This is a very nice spell against elephants. Just stop them with the also accessible Fire Bonds/Prison of Fire first. This is the counter I use when playing MA Ulm and meet elephants early on. The smiths can cast both with very little research. Later you use the big brother Magma Eruption of course.

    Cons
    Hard to cast for many nations.

    Nether Bolts S1 D1 - medium level (4), low fatigue (15), very long range (30+), some precision (+2), area effect 1, damage 20+ AP.

    Pros
    Pretty good against elephants in combination with frighten and terror.

    Cons
    Hard to cast for most nations.

    Stellar Cascades S2 high level (5), low fatigue (20), long range (30), extreme precision (+100), great area effect (5+), 25 stun damage.

    Pros
    This spell is ridiculously good against elephants as it is easily spammable by low level mages (guru for instance), it has crazy precision and great area effect. You only need 4 hits to stop a large number of elephants completely. Then you can rip them apart with in close combat (extremely easy to hit) or missiles (100+ fatigue means lots and lots of critical hits).

    Cons
    High level.

    Lightning Bolt A2 low level (2), very low fatigue (10), very long range (35+), good precision (+4), only hits one person, moderate damage (14+).

    Pros
    Easy to spam and quickly kill a small number of elephants.

    Cons
    Low damage.

    Thunder Strike A3 medium level (4), high fatigue (50), extreme range (100), some precision (+2), area effect 1, damage 26+ AN.

    Pros
    Can both kill and stun elephants quite quickly

    Cons
    It really costs too much fatigue. Too high level of air is needed to make it useful to many.

    Shadow Bolt D2 - low level (3), low fatigue (20), very long range (30+), some precision (+3), only hits one person, very good damage (20+ AN).

    Pros
    This is a good spell for both stopping (paralyze) and bombarding incoming elephants. Use it in combination with lots and lots of immune undead creatures.

    Cons
    None really. It is a pretty solid and easy to get spell. Hard to stop hordes of elephants with it though. But then you have:

    Shadow Blast D2 - high level (5), high fatigue (100), very long range (30+), no precision (+0), extremely good area of effect (7+), very good damage (20+ AN).

    Pros
    This is an extremely good spell against all low MR, big sized, high HP monsters. Use it extensively.

    Cons
    Costs much fatigue so you will either need higher than 2 death or gems to cast it twice with the same mage.

    Some of you might think that I should mention Vine Arrow. But it is not very effective against elephants as they have the strength to break through easily. Bonds of Fire is a much better ¿stop¿ spell on elephants as they have to make the test against morale and not strength. Same with Tangle Vines.

    	8.8 Growth and Death by the Numbers

    K, you know that the Growth Scale changes income by 2% for every tick, but what about that .2% population chance? Well, advanced spread sheet technology, I ran some equations and came up with concrete numbers.

    Methodology: I basically ran two seperate serieses of equations. The first was simply to track the population chanced caused by the Growth/Death Scale. The equation was simple, (growth multiplier)^(# of Turns). Therefore, Growth 2 after 10 turns would be 1.004^10 which is approximately 1.04, or you'll have 4% more people then what you started with. And since there is a direct correlation between population and gold income, you nab an extra 4% of gold as well. The second check was a bit more complicated. For a given # of turns, I took the average population change over all turns so far, and then multiplied that averaged by the scale's money multiplier. On the spreadsheet, this looked like Average(B4:B10)*1.02. B4 through B10 represent spread sheet cells with the population adjustments for turns 1 through 6. The 1.02 multiplier represents the 2% extra money you'll recieve for Growth 1.

    Caveats:

    1) Unless you spread your domain then your growth/death effects won't matter. So, though my chart says Growth 3 will give you a whopping extra 46% gold after 102 turns, more likely you'll recieve less then that as most of your territories won't have converted at the game's beginning.

    2) Dominions 3 has plenty of ways to kill population, and none of these are taken into account with my chart. For example, if you have a destructive domain (LE R'lyeh and Ermor), then these charts really don't apply to you.

    3) Dominions 3 rounds population to the 10's. In practice this means your capital will recive/loose 60 population per every tick of Growth/Death for the first several turns. My charts don't take this staggered growht into account.

    4) My numbers represent additional gold over the several turns. Not how much additional gold you recieve per turn at the end of X number of turns. Expect gold income to below my given percentage for most of the turns, and significantly higher by the later turns.

    5) I recently read a developer post claiming Neutral (growth and death at zero) provinces do experience small population growth. If that's the case, I never personally observed a neutral province gain population.

    With out further ado:

    Turns D 3 D 2 D 1 Neutral G 1 G 2 G 3
    6.. 92% 95% 97% 100% 103% 105% 108%
    12. 91% 94% 97% 100% 103% 107% 110%
    18. 89% 93% 96% 100% 104% 108% 112%
    24. 88% 92% 96% 100% 104% 109% 114%
    30. 86% 90% 95% 100% 105% 110% 116%
    36. 85% 89% 95% 100% 106% 112% 118%
    42. 83% 88% 94% 100% 106% 113% 121%
    48. 82% 87% 93% 100% 107% 115% 123%
    54. 80% 86% 93% 100% 108% 116% 125%
    60. 79% 85% 92% 100% 108% 118% 128%
    66. 78% 84% 92% 100% 109% 119% 130%
    72. 76% 83% 91% 100% 110% 120% 133%
    78. 75% 82% 91% 100% 110% 122% 135%
    84. 74% 82% 90% 100% 111% 124% 138%
    90. 73% 81% 90% 100% 112% 125% 140%
    96. 71% 80% 89% 100% 112% 127% 143%
    102 70% 79% 89% 100% 113% 128% 146%

    If anyone has any comments or concerns (It's quite possible I made mistakes), feel free to let me know. I'm working on the charts in Open Office right now, but am not quite ready to release them. When I am, I'll post them as an attachment.

    	8.9 Guide to communions

    	    		8.9.1 Original post

    			Article Author: Baalz

    The basics.

    Communions (and their interchangeable, less well known blood brother Sabbaths) are a way for mages to work together to become greater than the sum of their parts. The slaves both boost the magic power of the masters and soak up the fatigue of the spells cast resulting in masters who can cast big spells much longer than otherwise possible. Because of the fact that they keep soaking up fatigue after exhaustion - all the way up to 200 fatigue at which point they start taking damage and quickly die, it is often the case that a mismanaged communion causes catastrophic loss of mages even when you win. Many the player has sworn off communions after watching a dozen mages perish as Armageddon is opened up on the terrified and fleeing PD. In Dominions, bad luck can always render any carefully laid plans asunder, but understanding how to use communions will result in them being much more useful and much less dangerous (to you, hopefully they¿re quite dangerous to your opponent).

    First it¿s important to understand the basic mechanics of the communion. Slaves boost the power of both slaves and masters inside the communion by 1 per power of 2. This means +1 at 2 slaves, +2 at 4, +3 at 8, etc. The masters are boosted in all paths which they already have, while the slaves are boosted in all paths whether they have them or not. The slave power is important for calculating the fatigue they receive for spells cast by the master. The specific mechanics of how fatigue is parsed out is not entirely clear, but roughly slaves will receive fatigue as if they cast the spell themselves (which is why the power level is important), divided by how many slaves there are. Encumbrance is not added to this calculation and significant extra fatigue is accrued if the slaves could not cast the spell themselves after the communion boost  another reason the slave power is important. The communion bonus does not show up on the character sheet, but it is effected by buffs. This means that so long as there are at least two slaves, all slaves will benefit from such spells as phoenix power for the purpose of soaking up fatigue. All commanders resolve their orders in the same order that they¿re listed in the strategic screen from top to bottom. This is particularly important to note for communions as any slaves acting in a turn sequentially before any masters act will be able to cast spells (and indeed will do so by default). This can be a really good or really bad thing (see below), so make sure you anticipate it. Note, there is no known way to alter the order the commanders act in, just to anticipate it and change which ones will be slaves and masters (and which ones you bring to battle). Note, all spells are resolved before movement or archery, so the order the commanders is only relevant for resolving spells - slaves will not be able to take any action other than spells regardless of what order they come in if any master casts a spell.

    Putting together a successful communion is a lot like baking. You've got several different basic components which need to be properly balanced, and a few optional extras which can be used to add an interesting twist if you want. Just like baking, you can't stray too far away from the correct ratios or the bread won't rise resulting in best case reduced effectiveness of the communion, worst case a bunch of dead slaves. The basic components of course, are the masters and slaves, and choosing the correct ones to use is not as easy as it first seems. First, you've got to decide what type of thing you're baking, is it bread, or cookies, or a cake? There are several different types of communions, here are a couple recipes. Once you become familiar with them you will be able to tweak them without unbalancing the important factors and come up with your own recipes.

    Classic communion  This communion is intended to rain down mid-line evocation spells in a never ending barrage. Masters should have an elemental path and you'll want to script something like falling fires, falling frost, magma eruption, thunderstrike, acid rain, blade wind or gifts from heaven. Slaves will either need one level in the same path or one of the masters will need to cast power of the spheres (or phoenix power, etc if all your masters are the same path). The really important thing to keep in mind with this communion is critical mass. You need to have *at least* 8 slaves, 10 is much safer to have a buffer against those stray arrows. Outside of that, as you add masters make sure you have more slaves than masters. 14 slaves, 12 masters is fine*, but if you're short on mages you'll want 10 slaves and 5 masters. The * is because you'll need to add a few extra slaves if you're spamming particularly fatiguing spells like Thunderstrike. Your masters will have +3 to all paths, which really helps those spells which scale with mage power. Your slaves will be at least level 4 after the boost, which means they should be taking only 1-3 fatigue or so per spell that is cast as the spells you're casting all have requirements of 3 or under and fatigue in the 30-50 range  this is important in order to keep your slaves from accumulating fatal fatigue. No worries as these are the spells the AI will choose once your scripting expires, and you should be able to go 15 or so turns before slaves start dying, making this quite a rare occurrence (not much stands up to 10 turns of such a barrage, you¿ll generally have won or lost by then).

    Reverse communion  2 or 3 masters then as many cheap slaves as you can muster. Your masters will cast power of the spheres then whatever other booster is appropriate (phoenix power, etc). For air spells you can use the third master to cast storm so that air power is an option. Now, all your slaves have been boosted 2 levels, so they can cast fun things like falling fire, thunderstrike, etc. Even lowly S1 mages are now capable of Soul Slaying. The fun thing about this one is it¿s a great way to use all those cheap researchers you¿ve got with no other preparation. Leading a fight with three rounds of 10X Falling Fires makes quite a difference considering how cheap the mages are. Note, this communion takes advantage of one of the quirks of the communion, the fact that slaves can cast spells so long as they act sequentially before all masters in the turn sequence. Commanders resolve their orders in the same order that they¿re listed in the strategic screen. If for whatever reason you¿re not comfortable trying to get this order right you can have the masters retreat after casting the buffs  the buffs remain in effect. Note, the communion bonus does not affect slaves casting by themselves, only the buffs the masters cast help. Apparently the slaves are acting by themselves outside the communion.

    Linebacker communion  3 or 4 masters with varying paths and at least 10 slaves. This communion takes advantage of the fact that self buffs which affect a master also affect all slaves. The masters will cast as many self buffs as possible before the slaves wade forward into melee. This tactic works best with slaves that have more hitpoints and a good attack (like starspawn or vampire counts), but even just passing out frostbrands to your average poindexter before he is buffed with invulnerability, mistform, regeneration, quickness, luck, fire shield, astral shield and breath of winter¿well, there are worse uses for a slew of S1 mages. Note, for this to work it¿s important that you have a sufficient number of slaves, otherwise the slaves will rack up too much fatigue during the buff cycle and be worthless for combat. Also, the slaves will not move or fire if any masters cast spells that round, so you can either have the masters join in the melee attac, retreat from the battle, or equip them with bows and script them to fire after all the buffing is done.

    Kamikaze communion  4 slaves as cheap as you can manage and 4-6 masters. This one is straightforward enough, the point is to boost the masters up two levels to give them access to the next tier of offensive spells (ie, giving A1 mages the ability to cast Thunderstrike). As the name implies, the slaves are not expected to survive. This can be a good way to pack a lot of firepower in a pinch.

    Superman communion  The numbers on this one vary depending on what you¿re trying to accomplish, but the idea is to have a whole bunch of slaves and only one or two masters casting those really devastating spells. The classic example of this is Master Enslave communions, though there are other good choices for more modest uses like flaming arrows, fog warriors, darkness, etc. The important factors are that there are enough slaves and that the handful of spells which are cast are devastating enough to make the opportunity cost worthwhile of all these mages doing nothing else.

    Alright, there¿s some basic recipes for your book, obviously you can start mix and matching them as you become more comfortable. Now for the optional twists previously mentioned.

    The blood spell Sabbath Master is equivalent (and mutually interchangeable  you can join a communion by casting Sabbath Master) but functionally there are two big differences. The first is that Sabbath Master costs 100 fatigue, so casting it with a B1 mage will result in a pass out once you account for encumbrance. What makes up for this in a big way though is that nice little blood spell reinvigoration. If a master casts reinvigoration not only does it remove all his fatigue, it removes all the fatigue of all the slaves. For this reason strategic use of a single blood mage can as much as double the effectiveness of your communion.

    Crystal/slave matrixes. These magic items allow non astral/blood mages to join a communion (note: they must still be mages of some type). The potential uses of this in combination with the linebacker or reverse communions should be obvious. One note of caution however, because of the fact that slaves rack up fatigue really fast if they don¿t have the paths for the spell the master is casting it¿s very important to have enough slaves to compensate for this if masters are casting spells which the slaves don¿t have paths in.

    Keep in mind penetration goes up with the mage¿s power and sometimes extra penetration can be worthwhile even if you¿re not enabling extra spells. Have that S9 pretender lead all those S1 researchers you have in a communion before spamming enslave mind. It beats whatever the heck S1 mages would otherwise be casting.

    Phoenix pyre can add an amusing twist to the linebacker communion as it can set off a devastating chain reaction. Expect this to be a fairly kamikaze move.

    Some magic items cause their effect by autocasting a spell at the very beginning of combat such as a charcoal shield or crystal shield. These spells, if they're self buffs will effect slaves who are part of the communion so long as the item is worn by a master who is in the communion. Since the timing on this is such that the buff is cast before anyone can cast master/slave communion, this generally only effects people wearing crystal/slave matrixes (though pythium's communicants are an exception, and there may be others).

    Hellpower is an interesting spell in combination with Sabbath, but rather difficult to use effectively. A master casting hellpower will result in every slave being effected by all the effects of hellpower, including being horror marked and having a chance of calling a horror. Obviously you seldom want a bunch of people calling horrors immediately after all your mages have been horror marked. This can be useful in two situation though. The first is if you are fighting a SC (or really anybody) who has already been seriously horror marked (if you're particularly baalzy, you might try to horror mark them the same fight before casting hell power) - horrors will attack the most horror marked units first. The second situation is a kamikaze linebacker move where you uber buff the slaves then don't care if they die. This is pretty wasteful though unless your slaves are tough enough to survive a couple AN hits from horrors. I have used this tactic successfully with LA Ulm's vampire counts (2b 2d), resulting in a dozen uber buffed, life draining, flying thugs...who happened to be immortal so no worries if they died. The nice thing about hell power is it not only increases magic power, it increases attack, defense, strength (hitpoints, I don't remember) so it's particularly useful in this case. Note, your slaves are going to rack up horror marks when you do this even if you win the fight, so use it sparingly even with immortals.

        Quote:
        DrPraetorious said:

        Communion masters generally carry valuable gems, possibly penetration boosting items, and seldom have to worry much about fatigue, obviously. So it's generally a good idea to protect your investment (vs. stray arrows, for example) by putting them in some armor.

        This also goes to the question of how to protect a valuable communion if you are very communion dependent (for example, as Pythium or Ermor or Bogarus).

        * Rune Smashers, Eyes of the Void and Spell Foci are all great for masters casting Shadow Blast or groovy stuff like master enslave.
        * Masters spamming elemental attack spells want boosters, not for fatigue reduction, but for increased damage and/or area of effect. This is obviously true for most of them (note all the +s in the spell description) - what most people don't know is that the fatigue inflicted by the secondary wave (which is area 9!) from thunderstrike is also air-magic-dependant, so if you can push your air magic up higher it becomes much more devastating.
        * A communion matrix is often a good investment even for a communion master who has astral. +1 turn of spell casting is a huge advantage, and for a big-spell communion, it is not expensive.
        * 50% resistance to fire and cold more or less assure that you won't go down to a murdering winter or flames from the sky. Various combinations of armor and misc items grant this, but fire plate and a ring of ice is probably the cheapest way to go.

        In the late game, murdering winter/flames from the sky are a virtual surety. If you have the Forge, absolutely forge fire plate and a ring of frost for each and every slave.

        Quote:
        Meglobob said:
        I have been using communion slave, banishmentx4, stay behind troops on a big communion. It works very well vs undead armies and is no real danger to your slaves because banishment is 0 fatigue. So why not cast it?

        Works with any 1S 1H mage/priest.

    An often overlooked aspect of the communion is the fact that it also buffs holy levels (as does power of the spheres). The flip side of what Meglobob suggests can be good - H6 priests spamming banishment are hideously effective at clearing out low level undead due of the exponential increase in effectiveness the power boost brings. You can even use crystal matrixes if you don't have astral priests, though keep in mind that they do need to be some flavor of mage for the matrix to work. No reason you can't, say slap a crystal matrix on a High inquisitor (3H 1F) then have lowly astral slaves boost him up to an undead popping juggernaut. Since banishment is 0 fatigue this makes a lot of sense to combine with a reverse communion - your buffed masters can banish away without fatiguing the slaves.

    Sometimes it can be useful to pass out items which can "cast spells" to communion slaves so they can use them fatigue free (outside of encumberance), this can be a little dangerous though as you'll have to script your slaves to "cast spells" after your script runs out which means the AI might decide to cast something unexpected driving up your fatigue rather than the 0 cost item spell. Still, this works particularly well with standards of the damned because the life draining effect removes fatigue. Not cheap, but if you can manage to get one on each of your slaves you can have an effectively unlimited casting out of the communion on top of a slew of sniper slaves.

    	8.10 Magic Path Booster Guide

    This guide is designed to help new players understand what spells and items are available to boost their magic paths. Veterans will not find anything new and exciting here, but hopefully it will be a useful reference all the same.

    NOTE: Only relevant boosters and summons will be mentioned in the guide. For instance, the Wraith Lord is a D3 mage, but he requires D5 to be summoned so he does not boost your maximum magic path even after you give him boosters.

    NOTE: In general the easiest method to boost magic paths will be highlighted, although that does not mean there aren't other ways.

    		8.10.1 Air

    Relevant items:
    Bag of Winds (req Con4, A4, Misc. slot)
    Winged Helmet (req Con4, A4, Head slot)

    Relevant Summons:
    Faerie Court (req Conj8, N5) A3N3
    Tartarian Gate (req Conj9, D7) ?7
    Bind Demon Lord (req Blood9, B8)

    The game does not provide a lot of help in boosting your Air magic, with access to Air 1, 2, or 3, you really can't do anything. The only exception is if you have A2S2 and Construction 8, then you can forge the Tome of High Power (req A2S2, Misc. slot *Slight chance of Horror mark) which boosts both your Air and Astral magic by 1. However, you'd have to have A3S2 for the tome to boost you high enough to forge additional items.

    Alternatively, if you have Nature 5 and Conjuration 8 you can cast Faerie Court, but you still have to empower the queen up to 4 in order to forge boosters. See the section on Nature for how to get up to level 5.

    Finally, if you get all the way to Death 7 and Conjuration 9 you can summon Tartarians with a chance of up to A7, but if you don't have Air by the time you summon them, you probably don't need it. On the bright side, only one spell in the game requires you to go higher than Air 6. Fata Morgana requires Air 7 but it's not the greatest global enchantment. Air 6 gets you everything you want, which is probably Wrathful Skies, Mists of Deception, and a really big Mirror Image.

    Finally, Pazuzu the Demon Lord has Air 5, but it also spreads disease so it is not exactly the most versatile commander. Large quantities of Air magic can be great on the battlefield, but if you don't start with it naturally, don't try too hard to get it.

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    		8.10.2 Astral

    Relevant items:
    Crystal Coin (req Con4, S2E2, Misc. slot)
    Ring of Sorcery (req Con6, S5, Misc. slot)
    Ring of Wizardry (req Con6, S6, Misc. slot)
    Starshine Skullcap (req Con6, S2, Head slot)

    Relevant Summons:
    Bind Arch Devil (req B4F2) F4 (1 in 5 chance of S3)
    Bind Ice Devil (req B3W3) W3 (1 in 6 chance of S2)
    Ether Gate (req S4D1) S3D2?1 (100% chance of Air, Astral, Death, Blood)
    Summon Spectre (req D3) D1?2 (100% chances of Astral, Death, Earth, Water)
    Hidden in Sand (Ench. 6, req E3D1) E1D2H2 (50% chance at +1D, one 100% chance at +2F/E/S, and one 50% chance at +1F) Information provided by Cleveland

    You need at least Astral 2 to get started in this path, at which point you can forge a Starshine Skullcap to get to 3. If you're lucky and have earth magic as well, you can forge a Crystal Coin. At this point you're stuck unless you count the Dimensional Rod or Tome of High Power artifacts at Construction 8:

    Dimensional Rod (req A3, Hand slot, cursed *slight chance of horror
    mark and/or insanity)
    Tome of High Power (req A2S2, Misc. slot *Slight chance of horror mark)

    You will need to empower or rely on unique items to get to Astral 5. However, this is worth the effort because it allows you to forge a Ring of Sorcery. This ring gives a +1 boost to Astral, Blood, Death and Nature. Wearing the newly forged ring allows you to create a Ring of Wizardry which gives a +1 boost to all paths. Remember that these rings won't take you from 0 to 1, you have to already have the magic path to get the boost.

    Micah wrote:

    The RoW (Ring of Wizardry) is pivotal to getting access to other path boosters, and is always central to my magic diversification strategies. It and a Ro Sorcery make access to Death magic a breeze, and nature nearly as easy. It will also provide a critical boost that will allow you a much better shot of forging a staff of elemental mastery, which can help out with elemental paths as well. Any long term game virtually requires that you get one of these things in order to get to most high-level magic. Basically any time you mention "empower" in the guide you really ought to replace it with "have a RoW." This item virtually eliminates the need to empower your mages for booster access.

    Some nations have no natural access to Astral. Your best bet is Summon Spectre at Conjuration 6. He requires D3 and has 2 chances at an Astral pick. If this is not an option you can take a chance on blood magic. The spell Bind Ice Devil randomly summons 1 of 6 Ice Devils. One of those commanders has Astral 2. The spell Bind Arch Devil randomly summons 1 of 5 Arch Devils and one of those commanders has Astral 3. In single player you can eventually summmon them all until you get what you need, but in multiplayer this can be a bit of a gamble because the summons are unique. Failing that, you will have to empower a mage from scratch. If this is the case, pick a mage with Earth magic so you can forge the Crystal Coin.

    At best you will probably be stuck somewhere around Astral 7, so if you want Astral 9 you'll just have to empower your way up. Empowering Astral is generally more useful than empowering any other path (except Blood) because of the importance of the Ring of Wizardry. Also remember that at Astral 9 you can Wish for just about anything, so path diversification is no longer an issue at this point.

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    		8.10.3 Blood

    Relevant items:
    Armor of Souls (req Con2, B5, Chest slot)
    Armor of Twisting Thorns (req Con4, B3N2, Chest slot, cannot be removed)
    Blood Thorn (req Con6, B4, Hand slot)
    Brazen Vessel (req Con4, B4, Misc. slot)

    Relevant Summons:
    Awaken Treelord (Ench. 7, req N5) N4 (Chance of B1 or E1)
    Bind Arch Devil (Blood 7, req B4F2) F4 (1 in 5 chance of S3)
    Bind Heliophagus (Blood 8, req B5) Chance of B4, F4B3, D4B3, or D3B3
    Bind Ice Devil (Blood 6, req B3W3) W3 (1 in 6 chance of S2)
    Bind Demon Lord (Blood 9, req B8)
    Contact Lamia Queen (Conj. 6, req N5D2) D2N1?2 (100% chances of Blood, Death, Nature, Water)
    Ether Gate (Conj. 6, req S4D1) S3D2?1 (100% chance of Air, Astral, Death, Blood)

    Like Air, blood magic is hard to boost until you get to level 4 (or level 3 if you also have nature). However unlike Air, it is possible to create your own economy of blood slaves. Even a commander with no blood magic has a chance to be successful with the blood hunt command, so if you devote enough people to this endeavor you can eventually get enough slaves to empower someone to Blood 1. From there, get 5 more slaves and forge a Sanguine Dousing Rod, and then that commander blood will hunt as if he/she were a Blood 2 mage. From here, blood hunting is much more consistent, and you can continue to empower commanders to increase your blood slave income. Before long you'll be pulling in 100+ slaves per turn and empowering someone to Blood 4 is not a big deal.

    Alternatively, you can try the Awaken Treelord spell, Contact Lamia Queen or Ether Gate, sometimes the commander has a blood random, which takes all the pain and effort out of getting that first batch of slaves. In addition to the boosters listed above, you can also use Rings of Sorcery and Wizardry, and there are three artifacts (Construction 8) that boost blood:

    Flesh Ward (req B5, Chest slot)
    The Black Book of Secrets (req B2D2, Misc. slot)
    Tome of the Lower Planes (req B2S3, Misc. slot)

    Blood magic is great for diversifying your other paths if you're the first person to get to the unique summons. Bind Heliophagus gets you 1 of 4 unique commanders with either B4, F4B3, D4B3, or D3B3. The fire Heliophagus can also summon Arch Devils with F4, and 1 of the 5 has S3. If you use water boosters to cast Bind Ice Devil, you can then give those boosters to him to get to W5, plus summoning the Ice Devil doesn't cost any water gems which is helpful if you're just starting a water economy.

    If you research Blood 9, the Bind Demon Lord spell opens up the rest of the paths for you. However, by the time you get to Blood 9 it may be too late for diversification to have an effect on the game's outcome. Here are the Demon Lords and their paths:

    Belphegor
    F4E4B4 *Heretic 5 (lowers all dominion towards 0)
    Attracts blood slaves and milita

    Belial
    F4N4B4 *Causes unrest

    Buer
    F5D3B4

    Pazuzu
    A5D3B4 *Spreads disease

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    		8.10.4 Death

    Relevant Items:
    Scepter of Dark Regency (req Con8, D5, Hand slot)
    Skull Staff (req Con4, D2, 2 Hand slots)
    Skullface (req Con6, D4, Head slot)
    The Jade Mask (req Con6, D6N3, Head slot) +2 Death

    Relevant Summons:
    Bind Heliophagus (Blood 8, req B5) Chance of B4, F4B3, D4B3, or D3B3
    Bind Demon Lord (Blood 9, req B8)
    Contact Lamia Queen (Conj. 6, req N5D2) D2N1?2 (100% chances of Blood, Death, Nature, Water)
    Ether Gate (Conj. 6, req S4D1) S3D2?1 (100% chance of Air, Astral, Death, Blood)
    Hidden in Snow (Ench. 6, req W3D1) D1?4 (Small chance at Death, Earth, Water)
    Hidden in Sand (Ench. 6, req E3D1) E1D2H2 (50% chance at +1D, one 100% chance at +2F/E/S, and one 50% chance at +1F) Information provided by Cleveland
    Lichcraft (Ench. 8, req D5) D4
    Streams from Hades (Conj. 6, req W4D1) W3D3
    Summon Mound Fiend (Conj. 7, req D3) D3H2
    Summon Spectre (Conj. 6, req D3) D1?2 (100% chances of Astral, Death, Earth, Water)
    Tartarian Gate (Conj. 9, req D7) ?7

    Death is easy to get to a certain level, but there are some very powerful death spells above 6 and you may have empower (or use Astral rings) for a level or two if you want to get to them. You need at least D2 to begin, at which point you can forge a Skull Staff to get to 3. From here you can summon a Mound Fiend at Conjuration 7. Give the Skull Staff to the Mound Fiend to boost him to Death 4 and you can forge a Skullface. Now you can cast Lichcraft to get a Demilich and give him both items to get to level 6.

    If you're lucky, you can forge the Construction 8 artifact Scepter of Dark Regency which gives an astounding +3 death magic. This is a unique artifact, so if you're playing a death nation and you are planning to spam Tartarians, I consider getting it to be a high priority. Even if you have a mage summoning Tartarians through empowerment, this item will let you summon two a turn instead of just one.

    The Mound Fiend with the scepter and the Skullface has Death 7, the Demilich 8. You can also get the last level from The Black Book of Secrets (req B2D2, Misc. slot), but if you didn't manage to craft the sceptre, I doubt you'll have this either. In that case you'll just have to empower the missing levels or use Astral rings.

    Another option is the Jade Mask. It provides +2 death magic but requires the wearer to be cold blooded. Lamia Queens are cold blooded and she is D2N1 with 2 random picks of Blood, Death, Nature, or Water. If you get really lucky she can be D4 at which point you just need a Skull Staff and the Jade Mask to start summoning Tartarians. Throw in the Astral rings and she is D9. Information provided by K

    In rare cases that you only have Death 1 but you have some other magic, you can cast Streams from Hades (req W4D1) to boost yourself to Death 3 or Ether Gate to get to D2. Hidden in Snow is also an option, but it is not guaranteed to produce a commander. When it does, he is D1 with two 50% chances at +1D, three 50% chances at +1W, and three 50% chances at +1E. Information provided by cleveland.

    Death is a great path for getting into other areas of magic. Spectres have 2 chances of getting Astral, Death, Earth or Water magic, and at Conjuration 9 you can cast Tartarian Gate. This spell has a 20% chance of the summon being a commander, and that commander can have up to level 7 in a single magic path, or all manner of lesser combinations. The nature spell Gift of Reason can be very useful here, as can abilities that heal afflictions such as the global enchantment Gift of Health, or the artifact The Chalice.

    ----

    		8.10.5 Earth

    Relevant Items:
    Blood Stone (req E2B3, Misc. slot)
    Earth Boots (req E2, Feet slot)

    Relevant Summons:
    Awaken Treelord (req N5) N4 (Chance of B1 or E1)
    Hidden in Snow (req W3D1) D1?4 (Small chance at Death, Earth, Water)
    Summon Spectre (req D3) D1?2 (100% chances of Astral, Death, Earth, Water)
    Tartarian Gate (req D7) ?7
    Troll King's Court (req E3) E3
    Hidden in Sand (Ench. 6, req E3D1) E1D2H2 (50% chance at +1D, one 100% chance at +2F/E/S, and one 50% chance at +1F) Information provided by Cleveland

    Earth is one of the most important paths to have so that you can make Dwarven Hammers, which reduce the gem cost of all items that you forge. You'll need Earth 2, at which point you can forge Earth Boots. By wearing them you get to Earth 3 and can cast Troll King's Court. By giving your troll the boots you can get Earth 4.

    If you also have Blood magic you can make Blood Stones which are very nice because not only do they boost your earth magic but they generate one earth gem per turn. If you get to Construction 8 you can also make a Pebble Skin Suit (req E1B3, Chest slot). If you have Nature instead of Blood you could shoot for the The Tome of Gaia (req E2N2, Misc. slot) instead, also Construction 8.

    Without artifacts or blood magic it's difficult to get to that pivotal Earth 5, where you get Forge of the Ancients, King of Elemental Earth, etc. Your only real options are the Ring of Wizardry or Robe of the Magi mentioned earlier in the guide, or a Staff of Elemental Mastery (req E4A4 OR F4W4, 2 Hand slots). Ring of Wizardry is the obvious choice due to its usefulness in boosting other paths as well.

    If you have no Earth magic, I recommend you get Earth 2 on your pretender. If that's not an option, The spell Awaken Treelord has a chance of E1 (but no feet slot to wear the Earth Boots), or you can try Hidden in Snow, Spectres or Tartarians, all requiring death magic. Also, at Blood 9 you can cast Bind Demon Lord and sometimes get one with E4. Luckily, there's no reason to go above Earth 6, there are no higher level earth spells or items in the game right now.

    ----

    		8.10.6 Fire

    Relevant Items:
    Flame Helmet (req Con4, F4, Head slot)
    Skull of Fire (req Con6, F1D1, Misc. slot)

    Relevant Summons:
    Bind Arch Devil (Blood 7, req B4F2) F4 (1 in 5 chance of S3)
    Bind Heliophagus (Blood 8, req B5) Chance of B4, F4B3, D4B3, or D3B3
    Bind Demon Lord (Blood 9, req B8)
    Tartarian Gate (Conj. 9, req D7) ?7
    Hidden in Sand (Ench. 6, req E3D1) E1D2H2 (50% chance at +1D, one 100% chance at +2F/E/S, and one 50% chance at +1F) Information provided by Cleveland

    Fire is another path that is difficult to boost if you don't have natural access to it. It turns out that Blood magic is the easiest way into fire. Arch Devils require Blood 4 and Fire 2, but you get a summon with Fire 4 as a result. Even easier is the spell Bind Heliophagus which has a chance of summoning a commander with F4B3. However this is a unique summon so in multiplayer someone may beat you to him.

    Blood is much easier to empower than any other magic path, refer to that section of the guide for more details. In the late game you can research Blood 9 to Bind Demon Lords, many of which have Fire 4. At Conjuration 9, Tartarians can also have Fire magic.

    Two useful artifacts also boost fire, but you wouldn't necessarily forge them for that purpose:

    The Forbidden Light (req F4S4, Misc. slot) +2 Fire and +2 Astral
    The Ruby Eye (req F3, Misc. slot, cannot be removed)

    ----

    		8.10.7 Nature

    Relevant Items:
    Armor of Twisting Thorns (req Con4, B3N2, Chest slot, cannot be removed)
    Moonvine Bracelet (req Con6, N3S1, Misc. slot)
    Thistle Mace (req Con4, N2, Hand slot)
    Treelord's Staff (req Con6, N5, 2 Hand slots) +2 Nature

    Relevant Summons:
    Awaken Ivy King (Conj. 7, req N4) N3
    Awaken Treelord (Conj. 8, req N5) N4 (Chance of B1 or E1)
    Contact Lamia Queen (Conj. 6, req N5D2) D2N1?2 (100% chances of Blood, Death, Nature, Water)
    Contact Naiad (Conj. 5, req W3N1) W3N3
    Faerie Court (Conj. 8, req N5) A3N3
    Bind Demon Lord (Blood 9, req B8)

    Nature has several easy boosters, and additionally with nature magic you can get into other magical paths more easily. If you only have N1, you will also need W2 but you can start from there. Forge a Water Bracelet (refer to the Water magic section) and cast Contact Naiad, who has N3W3.

    Starting with N2 you can forge a Thistle Mace to get to N3. From here it depends on what other paths you have available. You can forge a Moonvine Bracelet (Astral) or Armor of Twisting Thorns (Blood) or you can cast Contact Naiad. The Naiad can then use the Thistle Mace to get to N4.

    Getting to that pivotal N5 requires you to have Astral, Blood, or Earth. Astral gets you a Moonvine Bracelet (or Ring of Sorcery/Wizardry). Blood gets you the Armor of Twisting Thorns, Earth and Construction 8 get you the artifact The Tome of Gaia (req E2N2, Misc. slot). From there you can summon into other magic paths with Contact Lamia Queen and Faerie Court, and Forge the Treelord's Staff to get to 6 and beyond. Unfortunately, there are very few high level nature spells so 5 is usually sufficient.

    ----

    		8.10.8 Water

    Relevant Items:
    Robe of the Sea (req Con4, W3, Chest slot)
    Water Bracelet (req Con6, W1, Misc. slot)

    Relevant Summons:
    Bind Ice Devil (req B3W3) W3 (1 in 6 chance of S2)
    Contact Lamia Queen (req N5D2) D2N1?2 (100% chances of Blood, Death, Nature, Water)
    Contact Naiad (req W3N1) W3N3
    Hidden in Snow (req W3D1) D1?4 (Small chance at Death, Earth, Water)
    Queen of Elemental Water (req W5) W4
    Sea King's Court (req W3) W3
    Streams from Hades (req W4D1) W3D3
    Summon Spectre (req D3) D1?2 (100% chances of Astral, Death, Earth, Water)

    Although you can forge the Water Bracelet at W1, you need at least one mage with W2 in order to wear it and forge the Robe of the Sea. From there you can cast Contact Naiad or Sea King's Court. Contact Naiad is less expensive and gets you into Nature magic, but Sea King's Court summons you some amphibious trolls and the commander generates a water gem every turn.

    If you're "bootstrapping" into water and you don't want to spend the 55 gems on Sea King's Court, you can give the water boosters to a blood mage and cast Bind Ice Devil. Ice Devils are W3 and using the two boosters gets you to W5.

    From Water 5, if you have an underwater province you can cast Queen of Elemental Water and give her the bracelet and robe to get to W6. There are also two artifacts that boost water:

    Orb of Atlantis (req W4E1, Misc. slot)
    Trident from Beyond (req W3S2, 2 Hand slots)

    Interestingly, you can wear all 4 boosters at the same time, unlike most other paths. Water magic is very easy to boost, but like Nature and Earth there's nothing past level 6 for you to cast except an enormous Falling Frost. Even if you can't get the Queen of Elemental Water or the artifacts, W5 is probably enough for all your needs.

    		8.10.9 Rainbow Pretender

    Early in your single player Dominions career you will want to try
    making a Rainbow Pretender with the minimum paths necessary to make
    all the boosters. Here are the paths:

    Air 3
    Astral 3
    Blood 2
    Death 1
    Earth 2
    Fire 2
    Nature 2
    Water 1

    Get your research up to construction 6 and forge items in the following order:

    Forge Earth Boots (+1 Earth)
    Forge Dwarven Hammer (no path increase but significant reduction in item costs)
    Starshine Skullcap (+1 Astral)
    Crystal Coin (+1 Astral)
    Ring of Sorcery (+1 Astral, Blood, Death, Nature)
    Ring of Wizardry (+1 to all paths)

    The Ring of Wizardry gives you Air 4 to make Air boosters.
    The Ring of Sorcery and Ring of Wizardry give you Blood 4 to make Blood boosters. DO NOT equip the Armor of Twisting Thorns on your pretender because you cannot take it off.
    The Ring of Sorcery and Ring of Wizardry allow you to forge Death boosters with a Dwarven Hammer. Without them you have to forge the Skull Staff and Skullface without a hammer because the Skull Staff requires both hands.
    The combination of Fire and Death allow you to forge a Skull of Fire, and the Ring of Wizardry gets you to Fire 4 to make the Flame Helmet.
    After the Thistle Mace, you can make the Moonvine Bracelet and/or the Armor of Twisting Thorns, plus the Ring of Sorcery which gets you to Nature 5.
    The Water Bracelet and Ring of Wizardry allow you to forge the Robe of the Sea.

    From here you can forge the Robe of the Magi by wearing the Winged Helmet, both rings, and a Blood Thorn. That gives you access to a huge list of spells and the ability to forge every artifact in the game as far as I know, since no artifacts have a path requirement higher than 6.

    If you're really feeling crazy take the Crone as your pretender because she has 4 Misc. slots. You can wear two Rings of Sorcery and two Rings of Wizardry, but she has no chest slot.

    	8.11 Abysia

        		8.11.1 EA Abysia

            		8.11.1.1  Thoughts on EA Abyssia (guide)

    I recently tried EA abyssia on a MP games and since there is next to no information about it in the strategy index, I thought I'd make a thread about it.

    Abyssia, Children of flames. It certainly deserve its name more than anything, since it's about fire and more fire and even more fire.

    MAKE THEM ALL BURN !

    Contents :
    1) General weaknesses and strengths.
    2) Pretenders and scales.
    3) Troops.
    4) Commanders.
    5) Generic magic advice and main goals.
    6) Some tactics.

    1) General weaknesses and strengths.

    Ok, let's start with the obvious weaknesses :
    - no archery.
    - no cavalry.
    - no light units.
    - slow units.
    - burns and generally hampers the effectiveness of every non-abyssian troops (most are not immune to fire).
    - troops cost a lot of ressources.
    - little sacred capabilities.
    - next to no magic diversity.
    - warlocks and warlock apprentices, demonbred and misbred, anointed of Rhuax and burning ones are capital only.
    - troops have next to no defense.
    - mages are old, and that's before the penalty for fire magic is taken into consideration.
    - huge encoumbrance.

    Ouch. That's a lot. To make matter short, you have two types of unit : the heavy infantry and one of the heaviest infantry there is in all ages, but it's EA. And you have two types of mages outside of the capital.

    Strengths :
    - starts with 120 "free" extra points due to heat preferences.
    - most of the mages you will recruit are sacred, good for offence and researching.
    - great fire magic and priest power. You do start with a unit with 4/3 fire/holy out of the box.
    - magic resistance is decent to good, around 12 for basic troops to 15 - 18 for most mages.
    - access to astral and blood magic in your capital.
    - flying assassins.
    - 6 fire gems per turn produced at your capital.
    - all of your units have darkvision 50 or more.

    That's it. You've got strong points but huge weaknesses. The main one is that there isn't a lot that you can do, the fighting capability of Abyssia are predictable, at least with the national units.

    2) Pretenders :
    The ones I find useful are :
    - fountain of blood if you use it for blood hunting (find a way move first though...) because it reliably give you about 18 slaves / turn for little cost,
    - wyrm because it's disposable and most of your commanders are priests, so you can send to die and it's going to be back,
    - cyclops and scorpion king for the SC capabilities, build-in fire immunity and earth access,
    - phoenix for the easy air access and immortality,
    - ghost king or great enchanteress for a rainbow pretender,
    - prince of death because it's the prince of death.

    After that it's your choice. Going for a strong bless is quite useless since Abyssia doesn't have a lot of sacred troops, but getting a minor nature bless could be useful.

    As far as scales are concerned, I find those more or less mandatory :
    - magic,
    - heat,
    - productivity.

    Order is also a pretty good choice since mages tend to cost a lot to buy but little upkeep : you will therefore be able to recruit a lot of them and possibly "outmage" your opponent this way. Don't forget that you have no useless mage, all of them can be used in combat and research the next turn !

    As far as dominion is concerned, going to 5 enables you to recruit enough burning ones at your capital to put ressources to zero after you start building some temples (it costs 40/unit). Going to ten might be useful for your pretender though, awe is always good for a SC.

    3) Troops.

    You have 4 different types of infantry. All have the exact same stats except they have a different weapon may have a shield. They are powerful against most ennemy units due to two factors : their high protection and fire aura just protects them from most damage, and they also have high strength and hp (15). Not much more to say, it's an heavy infantry in EA when most of your opponents do not have heavy infantry to block it.

    The Burning Ones are an upgraded sacred version of that infantry, with 18 str, 15 attack skill, 18 morale and 17 protection and a 6 AP fire shield. Just building about 15 of them is enough to take on most independants with no losses, and enough to take the other independants with a few losses. That is when they are not blessed. They also are berserkers +3 (remainder : berserk +3 adds +3 to str, attack skill and protection, -3 to defense and adds to fatigue). Those units just scream for a bless. But they are capital only.

    Abyssia's infantry weaknesses are poison arrows (since poison is a secondary damage and ignores protection and shield, it hits regarless), emcumbrance and slow speed. Most of the time the fight just lingers because your troops just don't catch your opponent (you are too slow for that). That makes most attack spell from mages effective against them too, because they take so long to catch their opponents.

    Salamander : I don't see the point of this unit. It has no protection, and dies too fast. It may have a few uses from time to time, but usually you'd prefer 1 mage to 2 salamanders. It does hit hard though, but only in melee (when it dies fast). If it could spit fire at mid range it would be a good unit. They are also magic beings, which makes their use difficult.

    Misbred : it flys, is stealthy, and old. That means you don't can't to use them for long, rather use for raiding. Sadly, its stats are much like the weak caelum infantry, except it's twice as expensive. It may have situational use, such as patrolling a castle to block assassins. You don't really have any other way to do it anyway.

    Special units :
    Abyssia has 2 special summons :
    - spectral infantry. It's about as strong as a regular infantry, except its ethereal instead of having defence, is undead, and immune to poison, and has mapmove 3. Sadly it's difficult to summon since it requires death / fire to cast and 5 death gems (there are better use for those). Death / fire isn't the easiest to find with independants and not native to abyssian mages either, which makes them rather situationnal in my opinion. If you find a death mage early and have loads of fire gems, I would consider empowering him to spam them, but that's about it. Their weapon, the spectral axe is magic though. Note that none of your fire-mages have any skill at leading undead, so you will either have to summon a undead leader or rely on your blood mages.

    - Scorpion man. A very good unit all around, with great stats : 42 hp, 21 protection, 14 str, attack and defense skill, 12 precision... it has 2 ranged attack (magic bow causing disease and range fear attack), cause fear, and has 3 melee attacks too, with 1 death poison and 1 magic weapon. It's also sacred and has mapmove three. Sadly, it costs 12 earth gem, and requires conjuration 8.

    4) Commanders.

    - Slayer.
    The abyssian "scout" is a slayer, an assassin with rather low goldcost. Mapmove two. It doesn't have heavy armor so it's pretty much pointless to use him since the demonbred is nearly as expensive but flys. But, it's available at any fortress, unlike the demonbred.

    - Warlord.
    Regular commander. This one has 17 protection though, maybe it's useful fitted as a thug. I'd rather recruit a mage at forts though.

    - Beast trainer.
    Same as warlord with less regular leadership, magic leadership (he can move the salamanders around, great...).
    EDIT : The animal awe 3 capacity it might be useful against elephant rushes (quoted from MaxWilson).

    - Anathemant salamander.
    Your basic mage, I call them fire-priest, 2 fire / 1 holy. He can spam anything from fireball to incinerate and will do so with great skill. 4 research for 130 gold and sacred. Too bad he's got bad precision (9). They can lead a decent amount of troops, but being abyssia you don't have large amount of troops. Phoenix power makes him as strong as the dragon for spellcasting.

    - Anathemant dragon.
    Second version of fire-priest, wth 3 fire and 2 holy. 10 precision. More or less the same as the first one except he can cast much more interesting spells out of the box : flare, fire from afar, fire cloud, falling fire... Phoenix power makes him a bit stronger, so he can cast living fire or heat from hell..

    That's it for non-capital mages.
    - Warlock apprentice.
    Weak version of the warlock, with 1 blood. It's useful and cheap for blood hunting, and not much else. He's not cost effective as a researcher since he's not sacred.

    - Warlock.
    It is your main astral mage, and a minor chance of having magic diversity. You have 10% chance of getting earth, blood, astral or fire on top of 1 astral and 2 blood. The 2 useful ones are blood or astral in my opinion, since you already have earth/fire with the annointed. But one chance out of 20 to get them is far too unreliable. One in astral enables them to look for astral sites though, so you can easily empower one and start your way in astral magic. It's also old, so don't build too many unless you can keep them alive with boots of youth (construction 4 and blood 2 to make).

    - Demonbred. A stronger version of an assassin compared to the slayer. It also flys and has decent str, attack and defence skill. Make a few of them strong thugs and assassinate, your opponent will have to choose between losing a few commanders or a lot of troops. Also remember that assassination happens before patrolling and moving.

    - Anointed of Rhuax.
    Your stronger firepriest, 4/3/1 fire holy earth. He can make useful stuff like fire brands out of the box. He can also make all fire boosters, gleaming shield and rods of the phoenix. He's also your main battle mage because he can cast firestorm with only one booster. He can also in earliest times cast magma bolt.

    Using one of them to look for holy sites might pay in the long run.

    5) Generic magic advice and main goals.

    Your main goals are : strong evocation magic, then diversity.

    The strength of Abyssia is mages and fire. You will fall if your opponent throws gets too many fire immune stuff at you, and will burn away the rest mostly effortlessly. Undeads and demons are the most vulnerable to you because nearly all of your mages are priests. That's good because demons are the biggest source of fire-immune creatures there is. The fact that your units are immune to fire enables your to cast any fire spell without regards for consequences.

    In my opinion, spells to look for are :
    - incinerate,
    - magic duel,
    - fireball,
    - falling fire,
    - flames from the sky,
    - flame storm,
    - pillar of fire...

    Basically, ensure that your non-capital mages are useful.
    EDIT : dirtywick proposes thaum 2 for Bonds of Fire. I find it an excellent advice. Furthermore you will probably go to thaum 2 for site searching spells anyway.

    Second : ensure that your diversify your magic.
    It's easy for you to get into astral. With a starshine skullcap, and the light of the northern star your warlocks can be a useful addition that will take care of your opponents that are immune to fire. Using annointed to smite can also be a solution.

    Don't ever forget that you have access to blood. You should use it. Battlefield blood magic isn't very useful to Abyssia because blood slaves burn, and you need to be very careful about placing them.

    Main items for abyssian are in my opinion
    - ring of fire resistance : all your thugs will probably have enough items to protect them but by equiping every non-abyssian mage like a thug is a waste of time.
    - antimagic amulet,
    - luck amulet,
    - fire brand,
    - phoenix rod (I love to use regular commanders as incinerate spammers), especially since they have a better precision... than your mages),
    - lifelong contracts,
    - boots of youth,
    - lightless lanterns (no idea why I forgot those... thanks guys ).

    6) Some tactics and tips.

    1) Troopless Abyssia
    The point is that your troops are slow and unusable for fast reaction. Let's not build them at all and rely on PD to defend your province ! They are also slow and unusable for fast reaction, but don't use upkeep and don't hold your important mages back home. Nor require micromanaging.

    For that to work though, you will need to have an army to attack, I would suggest using a minor bless on the burning ones and focussing building only burning ones and mages. Starting a blood economy early is a must, since lifelong contracts exist. It works the same as PD does (gives you fresh units every fight) and eventually gives you enough imps to matter. Abyssia main attacks rely on destroying anything that's not fire immune on the field and getting your mages to survive until then. That's a good solution for it ! Remember though when blood hunting that you don't have cheap native patrollers though, so either rely on the misbred anyway or use a low tax unrest strategy.

    The fountain of blood can be a nice addition to this strategy. Not only it can cast the most powerful spells easily, it also has a bonus to slave searching. Move it into a province having about 8000 population, build a lab and enjoy the 17+ slaves a turn coming you way. I would suggest at least B9A2 for this, so you can also cast infernal tempest. My best choice would be B9A2N4 : the reason I rely on burning ones is that they are sacred, and making them regenerate makes them immune to most poison. It also enables your to get "undying" mages due to disease if they fight enough (a lot of of your mages are old but since you regenerate during battle even if diseased they don't die from that if you fight enough).

    Another idea would be to use a rainbow pretender. That way you still don't rely on your troops but summon what you need.

    2) Site searching.
    Don't forget that holy sites exists !

    EDIT :
    3) Blood and earth.
    Another reason to focus on blood is because you will be able to cast Magma Eruption in battle. Definitely not one of the spells that your opponent expects from Abyssia. You do need 3 earth for that, that means earth boots and blood stone on annointed. creating a large amount of blood stones also boosts a lot your earth income, eventually enabling you to cast spells such as crumble (remember that you don't have many units), if you have a mage with enough magic (an annointed with earth boot and blood stone can call a trool king).

    Finally getting such a earth factory started is a prerequisite if you want to use the scorpion man mentionned a bit earlier.

    4) Fever fetish.
    You already have a lot of fire gems with abyssia. That's not a reason good enough so you don't make even more. Find a nature shaman and empower him, and you have made your fetish factory.

    5) The value of a death bless for EA Abyssia.
    (taken from the MA thread)
    The extra damage has no value (now that's out of the way) since your units deal enough damage by themselves. The point isn't, either, to use them with Burning ones : if your Burning Ones, which are hard to mass, die, you are probably in a pinch.

    The point is afflictions, and mages. Fire storm is a really, really good with a blessed caster (and you will have mages capable of blessing themselves). Basic affliction chance is, AFAIK, equal to the percentage of damage dealed over the hit points of the creature hit. With 300% chance of affliction, it means that anything that hits for 25% or more damage automatically gives an affliction to the person hit (outside of regenerating creatures). Which is exactly what fire storm does to the surviving units. But, the combo doesn't end here. "Map" spells such as flame of the sky also have this capability. However, you will need to either use your prophet (he's considered always blessed) or shroud of the battle saint, which has the same effect. It requires S1 to build, so you can have a lot of them ready for little cost. The prince of death is perfect for such a task since the fear effect is boosted by death magic on the pretender, making him into a even more capable SC.

    7) Comments on demonbreds from JimMorrison :
    "Also, Kasnavada, I think it's worth noting that Demonbred is in fact a superior assassin, especially due to flying. It can be very easy to get a couple in the HoF early in the game, and while it is a bit of a gamble, getting lucky on your heroics could make them a fearsome addition to your arsenal throughout the game.

    I played a game for fun once where the first thing I did was crank out a few Demonbreds while taking provinces as normal. Then I had them move from province to province in the other direction, assassinating the indie commanders, while a Warlock followed behind, routing the indie army and then site searching. It felt dirty, but oh it was fun."

    That's about it for my contribution. I'll add more if I think about it, and of course about you guys comments.

    But, remember :

    MAKE THEM ALL BURN !

            		8.11.1.2 Assortment of tips

    				-> Your slayers are fairly inexpensive, and your fire gem income high. You may consider sending Slayers out to assassinate independent commanders. On average you'll face two commanders. Once those are dead, just send in a small force. The entire enemy force will route. I'm not certain what I'd do with the fire gems, maybe fire pearls or drakes?

    The Slayers are very nice; but not only as assassins. With a scepter of authority they can lead misbreds on raiding missions, and their mobility makes them a nice chassis for lifelong protections. A prophet Slayer can reanimate undead.
    		-> You've got a 2 fire sacred mage for 130 gold. The research is a somewhat of an issue, but if I'm correctly remember +6 fire gem income, you can afford to spam some fire elementals to help with expansion.

    		-> So, one thing I would try in the beginning turns is recruiting the cheapest mages, and spending most of my gold on Salamanders (area attack 1, AP!) or Misbred. Assuming a 400 income base, 80 R...

    		-> I'd recruit two infantry, an Anathemant Salamander, and one Salamander taking up about 60 resources and 230 gold. I'd spend the rest on Misbred. They may be chaff without armor, but 6 prot isn't bad for EA, and it'll help prevent wastage of your infantry.

    		-> Consider taking high prod (2-3) since most units need lots of resources.
    		Note, that I've tried an opposite strategy of taking low prod (-2 to -3) and concentrating on recruiting mages, assassins fire drakes and misbreds.

    		-> Consider taking magic-3 for the research, opening up your fire magic options. Instead of just spamming fire evocations, you can pull off tricky stuff like Raging Hearts and Blindness.
    		Note, I'd usually settle for magic-1, its a nice bargain for getting +1 research.

    				-> scales:

    Order 3
    Production 3
    Heat 3
    Death 3 (Abysia troops are not effected from lack of food)
    Misfortune 2
    Magic 3

    I was able to get a nice sleeping rainbow mage pretender, and a dominion score of 6. It feels like Abysia is pretty weak in the early game, and then their power immediately spikes when they get access to falling fires about mid game. With the sleeping, a great sage, I felt like I'd have good access to research, and eventually higher level stuff.

    Also, there's really only one old guy I think you'd ever want to recruit, the dragon, but in retrospect you don't really need him. The only nice thing is his F3 gives him easy access to falling fires out of the box, but the lower level F2 guys can just cast Phoenix Power, and then start the spammage. Also, the pretender I cobbled together could make those skulls of fire, and the really expensive F4 guy can forge the -3 reinvigoration +1 fire skulls.

    		-> It's been a while since I've messed around with Abysia in SP (and never in MP), but I remember a few things. Bascially, Abysia has expensive troops that gold for gold probably won't stand up to the troops of other nations on their own. Also, their demons meaning additional weaknesses (though their MR seemed to be high enough that Banishment wasn't a great worry). Regardless, to make them work they need to be supported by mages, and what Abysia has in mages is powerful fire mages. And guess what? All your line troops are immune to fire in EA. The obvious strategy is going to be put troops in the middle to occupy the armies and use your mages to cast the hardest hitting fire evocations available to them. Plus, your line troops have very high protection meaning they can last a while in a fight. Also, if my memory serves, Abysia has a purchasable Fire-4 mage. One more thing, don't forget you can alchemize your fire gems for money.

    Let me boot up the game to see if I can recommend a Pretender strategy.

    Edit: OK, I found Order-3, Production-3, Growth-0, Misfortune-2, Heat-3 (this one is obvious and should always be done no matter what your pretender strategy), and Magic-1 with a Solar Disc Pretender with Fire-8 and Dominion-7 (to help spread the heat). Your best path for researcher will be Evocation with Second Sun as the ultimate goal. Early Enchantment gives you little, but starting with level 5 you get Inner Furnace and later on Eternal Pyre. Obviously you should get some Construction to build items that increase fire magic.

    Alternate strategy found in manual: Take an Imprisoned Scorpian with 9-fire and 9-earth and build as many of your sacred units as you can (which won't be that many). Bless, and use them along side fire mages. I'm leery about this strategy being viable in the long term (as the sacreds are capitol only and it involves taking some scale hits), but it may be worthwhile.

    				-> Important Points:
    		Umm, EA Abysia's normal troops are pretty fantastic in a standup fight, they have phenomenal protection for EA, and xbows aren't available. Their sacreds are also pretty crazy with an earth-9 bless, which synergizes nicely with your sacred mages as well for the reinvig. You can pull off an E9 imprisioned cyclops with 7 dominion and Order 3 prod 3, heat 3, growth 1, misfortune 2, magic 3 (or shuffle the magic and growth scales around if you want) This will make your sacreds nigh-invulnerable to most enemies, your mages get 4 points of reinvigoration and you have a pretty good SC chassis/earth forger for later. Play hard early game and hope to get enough of an advantage to live long enough to fix your horrid magic diversity, which is going to suck even if you take a rainbow pretender (just less so). Get a shaman recruitment center up as soon as possible and pump out a few N site searchers. Find an enchantress site and your game starts looking very promising.

    The other option would be to rainbow out to help their magic diversity if you're in a big game that'll last a while, but this option is pretty slow to develop into any sort of real options. If you go this route make sure to take decent levels of death and astral, I'd say to take take blood too and focus on getting the blood economy going so you can summon up a few devils ASAP to give you a counter to the fire-immune thugs/SCs that will inevitably show up. I'd say to work on blood even without a high-blood pretender, since it's the easiest path to empower, and you need as much diversity as you can get. Getting a B1 anointed or an F1 Warlock will make it pretty easy to path up for Arch Devil summons, and they're pretty sweet.

    And second sun sucks, don't cast it, especially since post-fire storm evocation isn't worthwhile. Pillar is janky, especially since any large single targets are going to have fire immunity at that point anyhow...Flame storm and Fires from the Sky can be useful, but aren't worth slogging through level 8 and 9 research for until much later on.

    To qualify about fire storm - it's an effective spell, but I don't think dropping another 2800 RP into Abysia's one trick pony right off the bat is usually going to be the way to go. Evocation is going to be one of their primary research paths, and I think you're generally going to be better served by branching out after you hit level 7 instead of keeping with the narrow focus. Fire storm is already doing a pretty good job incinerating the battlefield's lightly armored troops (especially the enemy mages way in the back) and falling fires does the same thing as flame storm does, just with a much smaller AoE, which will let you take out any heavily armored units that make it through the BE.

    The problem is that by the time you hit level 9 research (especially with Abysia's subpar researchers and having to slow down for blood) anything fighting you is likely going to be doing most of the heavy lifting with FR troops. I suppose a Anointed could be used quite effectively against a raiding force with Flame Storm and some PD, but that seems like a large investment of cap-only mage time and research to serve as a raiding counter.

        		8.11.2 MA Abysia

    	    		8.11.2.1 Original post

    Abysia is a nation of lava people, demons, and half-breeds that love heat. They only have heavy infantry and heavier infantry for their national troops, but no archers or cavalry. All of them are completely immune to fire damage and have wasteland survival keeping them well fed where most other nations would starve and get diseased. They radiate heat which can start enemies on fire, which greatly helps against effects that disappear when the unit is damaged, like glamour. They have strong priests, fire, astral, and blood mages and can perform blood sacrifices to help spread their hot dominion. On the negative side, they¿re all also very young and age young, so old age is a problem for them, and most of them are very slow on both the map and battlefield. At first they seem very bland and straightforward, but once you start to play around with the blood magic and other spells they have more depth than you imagined at first.

        		    		8.11.2.1.1 Suggested Pretender Design

    -> Blood Fountain, Imprisoned
    E6 D9 B5
    Dominion Strength: 6 Order: 2 Productivity: 2 Heat: 3 Misfortune: 2

    This pretender is probably best for small or medium maps, as it¿s designed specifically for the bless. It might work well on larger maps as you have access to Vampires Lords through it, but you¿d probably run into problems with the Misfortune scale and no Growth scale. It¿s a good bless for Abysia over others because anything you meet that¿s resistant to fire is going to give you problems, and they probably got that resistance through equipment so the D9 bless will tear them apart and leave them with afflictions if they live. Alternately, you could go with a W9 bless which also works well as it gives your sacreds 4 attacks and an improved defense skill (which will still be abysmal), or a F9 bless if fire immunity isn¿t an issue to you. I think this is a happy medium, though.

    -> Scorpion King, Dormant
    F4 E4 B4
    Dominion Strength: 7 Order: 3 Productivity: 3 Heat: 3 Growth: 1 Misfortune: 1

    The Scorpion King makes a good SC with a few pieces of gear, but is missing a couple of equipment slots. Depending on your research choices, you might need one and with this pretender you¿ll get a decent one early enough, although against most armies Abysia has little problems defeating them with just national troops. The bless here is decent, and he can cast most of the better blood rituals, like Father Illearth and Summon Arch Devil, and forge some choice equipment, like the Hell Sword.

    -> Divine Glyph, Imprisoned
    F4 E4 S4 B4
    Dominion Strength: 8 Order: 3 Productivity: 3 Heat: 3 Growth: 2 Misfortune: 1 Magic: 1

    The Divine Glyph, though immobile, is a good pretender for Abysia. Like I said, they really don¿t need any early game help, but they do need a research boost so the magic scale is good for that. With Forging/Empowering the Divine Glyph can cast most of the important blood spells, and forge a lot of good equipment. In addition, he can teleport to the front lines if needed to summon troops where you need them or hang back and cast some of the better ritual spells blood and astral has to offer. It¿s a decent choice and cheap enough to free up points for scales, high dominion, and a good bless at the same time.

    -> [WL] I highly suggest the option of dormant (or maybe even imprisoed) rainbow mage with 1-3 in all magic paths, dominions strength of 5-6 and decent scales.

        		    		8.11.2.1.2 National Units

    Humanbred (spear) 15G, 10R-The Humanbred is comparable to other light infantry of other nations, with the exception that it¿s fire immune and a little bit tougher. They have a pretty good defense skill and a spear for repelling. The spear isn¿t as strong as the axe, but I prefer this one because it¿s a little more survivable. The main advantage these guys have over other Abysian units is it¿s move is 2, so they make good bodyguards to mages and don¿t slow them down.

    Humanbred (axe) 15G, 10R-Nearly identical to the Humabred with the spear, except it has a lower defense skill and carries an axe that does more damage than a spear. Not a bad unit at all. Also has a movement of 2, and may make a better bodyguard than the one with the spear.

    Abysian Infantry (battleaxe) 20G, 26R-This Abysian Infantry is a powerful force. They don¿t carry a shield, but instead carry a heavy battleaxe. They¿re very similar to the Abysian Infantry with the flail, but have a higher defense skill and the weapon does more damage, and as such it¿s superior for the same price. I like to keep these guys out of arrow fire and put them on attack rear to flank the enemies front lines.

    Abysian Infantry (flail) 20G, 26R-These guys are nearly identical to the battle axe infantry, but are armed with a flail which gets two attacks at a reduced damage and a lower defense skill. I don¿t think they¿re worth it when you could recruit the battle axe users, but I have a feeling that there¿s a certain defense/protection point where one will do better than the other. Not worth splitting hairs over though, you could go either way and probably won¿t notice much of a difference.

    Abysian Infantry (shield and axe) 20G, 27R-This one carries a shield, which automatically earns it a place at the front of the army. They¿re high protection and hit points and moderate defense skill makes it an all around good heavy infantry. Additionally, it has a higher defense skill than it¿s counterpart with the morningstar and the axe is more powerful. It¿s a slightly better unit.

    Abysian Infantry (shield and morningstar) 20G, 28R-This unit is about the same as the one with the axe, except it has a higher attack skill. Generally, though, I don¿t choose this infantry to kill, but rather to hold the enemy in place and let units better at killing to handle that, so I almost always choose the one with the axe. But, again, we¿re splitting hairs as they¿re really similar and the difference is negligible.

    Salamander 60G, 1R-The Salamander is a magic creature, so ordinary commanders can¿t lead them, which is a negative. Their stats are also pretty bad overall, and they die easily to normal troops if you don¿t shield them with your heavy infantry. But, their attack effects a whole square and does 20 armor piercing damage, so they do take down tough enemies quickly. Also, with Abysia, you¿re bound to run into times when you have an odd number of resources left, and filling the rest out with these guys isn¿t a bad idea if you can afford it as their cost adds up quickly.

    Lava Warrior 55G, 41R-These are the best unit Abysia has. Their defense skill is abysmally low and their encumbrance is ridiculously high, but they¿re still worth it. First, they¿re sacred and they get two attacks with morningstars so any boosts to their attack, strength, or weapon damage counts twice. Their hit points are high and their protection is high so they can take a hit or two, or more, from most units. On top of that, they¿re berserkers. What happens in battle is they¿re sure to get hit by most attacks for little damage, and when they do they go berserk boosting their strength and attack to the point where they rarely miss and do high damage against even high protection units. There are very few units that can stand toe-to-toe with these guys and come out on top. One thing, though, if you plan on using them at all, make sure your pretender has at least Earth 4 and make sure they¿re blessed or they¿ll get fatigued really quickly.

        		    		8.11.2.1.3 Commanders

    Slayer 80G, 10R-The slayer is a pretty good assassin, not the best by any means though. They have poison daggers, so if they hit the target just once the target is done for even if he kills the Slayer. Later, I like to give them a Heart Finder Sword to make sure the job gets done right. They¿re not invincible and tend to be spotty. I¿ve seen them take out a Trog Chieftain one turn and lose to an indy commander the next, but they¿re effective enough for the price where you don¿t want to ignore them as useless.

    Warlord 60G, 38R-The Warlord is a standard commander. It has 2 map movement and a leadership of 80. They¿re tough enough to wade into battle on the front lines, and with a few minor magic items they fare well.

    Beast Trainer 75G, 41R-The Beast Trainer can lead up to 10 magical troops and 10 regular troops, meaning it can lead Salamanders or summons, but other than that there¿s no reason to recruit them. Avoid them if you can get afford a mage instead.

        		    		8.11.2.1.4 Mages

    Anathement Salamander 160G, 1R 2F 2H-I generally don¿t use these guys much except to lead Salamander groups, casting Augury, and to do blood sacrifices. They can cast a few useful combat spells, like Fireball, Rage, and Bonds of Fire. They¿re inferior in every way to the Anathement Dragon, but substantially cheaper. They start out with old age, though.

    Anathement Dragon 320G, 1R 3F 3H-This is a great unit, and makes a good prophet. They can cast Divine Blessing, which will bless everyone on the battlefield. They can also cast Flare, Falling Fires, Smite, Fire Cloud, and later Pillar of Fire which are excellent spells. If you make it a point to recruit a lot of cheap indy archers, you can cast Flame Arrows easily and the Abysian only spell Inner Furnace which increases the range of the radiant heat of all Abysians, and coming up with the fire gems to do that should be easy. They can also do blood sacrifices and preach to high levels of dominion. They also have a high leadership so they make good army commanders if you give them a few bodyguards. It¿s a good unit that you can recruit from any castle you own. Again, it¿s old age here.

    Warlock Apprentice 130G, 1R 1S 2B-I don¿t really find much use for these guys on the battlefield besides spamming Body Ethereal. They¿re capital only, so it¿s difficult to get them to where you need them quickly, so they don¿t find much use in my armies. However, they have a lot of uses on the map screen. They make good blood hunters and can forge a few useful items, like the Boots of Youth and Sanguine Dowsing Rod and a handful of astral items. You can even use them to set up Communions or Sabbaths which is beneficial as the more effective blood spells cost a lot of fatigue. It¿s also another old age mage.

    Warlock 270G, 1R 2S 3B 1? (FESB 10%, FESB 100%, FESB 10%)-This capital only mage is quite a bit more useful than the Apprentice, depending on the picks. A fire pick is probably the worst option as it doesn¿t add much. An astral pick is great as it allows you to cast Soul Slay and Teleport, both of which are great spells for these guys. An Earth pick is good as well as it lets you find some earth sites and eventually empower him at 30 gems to summon Demon Knights. A blood pick lets you use some good battlefield blood spells and a few summons. Other spells to note, no matter what the picks, are Mind Burn, Paralyze, and Agony. Following the pattern, this unit is also old age.

    Demobred 260G, 1R, 2F 2B 2H-This is probably the best pure battle mage Abysia has. They don¿t have old age and live for hundreds of years so you¿ll probably see them until they die in battle. They have the unholy ability to reanimate the dead, so they¿re not a bad choice for prophet. They¿re sacred, so they benefit from whatever bless you¿ve chosen. They fly as well, so they have fast movement on the map, which helps as they¿re capital only, and in the battlefield. Demonbreds can also lead magic beings and demons and have a high leadership overall. They can also summon Devils with no empowerment or items. If you gear them up fully they can make out as a makeshift thug that you probably shouldn¿t need, but works if you¿ve got nothing else. However, they¿re a bit fragile. If you want to use them as a thug, script them to cast powerful spells and buffs, cast Reinvigorate or Leech last which will set their fatigue to zero, and attack rear and, as long as they don¿t get swarmed and you¿ve geared them up properly, they should be OK.

        		    		8.11.2.1.5 General Tactical Strategy

    With Abysia, unless you¿re working on some kind of special tactic, I find that they¿re most effective placed as close to the enemy army as possible and not using hold and attack. Since you don¿t have any national archers there¿s no reason to try and avoid friendly fire and closing ground and getting your enemies infantry mixed in with yours exposes them to friendly fire and your radiant heat aura, so it only hurts them. I put my Humanbreds and Abysian Infantry with shields in the front to deal with arrow fire, and on the flanks the Lava Warriors and Abysian Infantry with no shields, putting some on attack rear to either flank the enemy and skip them outright and go for the archers in the back. After I start getting summons out there, or depending on who I¿m fighting, I might change it up a little bit, but in general this seems to work really well. Just remember that if you¿re using indy troops to keep them away from your Abysians as they¿ll burn from the radiant heat like anyone else. This is especially why I don¿t use much blood magic in battles, and when I do I don¿t bring more slaves than what I need and blood hunt for more when I run out.

    General Strategy

    No matter what pretender I¿m using, my beginning game starts the same because, I feel, Abysia needs the scales badly and will probably have to at least have a dormant pretender to be effective. Anyway, your starting army is very strong and capable of taking out the provinces surrounding your capital alone 9 times out of 10. So do that, and just beware of Knights or Elephants as you¿ll probably take heavy losses from them. In the meantime, I usually recruit Warlocks (hoping for an earth pick) and an Anathement Dragon whom I make a prophet. In the meantime, set them to research and exclusively Lava Warriors and fill the rest of my resources out with Humanbreds and Salamanders, and maybe building temples and once the Lava Warriors are sufficient in number I use my prophet Anathement Dragon to lead them and join my starting army. Don¿t be afraid to use alchemy to turn your fire gems into gold if you need it to pay for your expensive mages or to set up a PD (21 is sufficient to take most random barbarian hordes and small armies), you get plenty of fire gems, probably more than you¿ll use in the early game. You should be expanding very quickly and when you have all of the surrounding area, take a moment to survey the land and look for farmlands, which makes both a good place to get gold and a good province to set up blood hunting, and a place to build a second fortress, preferably on a province that can get a lot of resources and you can recruit cheap indy archers from, even the more expensive ones like Longbowmen are OK because of your scales.

    My usual research order is Evocation to 2 for Flare and Arcane Probing, and a handful of other fire spells to use. Then I move on to Thaumaturgy 2 for other site searching spells which are useful later, and Mind Burn and Bonds of Fire which are both decent spells for taking out indy provinces. Finally, I move on to Blood 4 to summon Devils and Demon Knights. The Devils are good fliers and can be ferried quickly by a Demonbred, as can the Demon Knights if the terrain type agrees with them. Demon Knights are too good to pass up though, and can be boosted in power by casting Blood Lust which also comes at 4, so I make massing them a high priority.

    After that, it depends on what pretender I¿m using. If it¿s the Scorpion King, I¿d pick Alteration to 3 to give him some self-buffs and get Body Ethereal. If not, I usually take a pit stop at Evocation to 4 for Fireball, Fire Cloud, and Fires from Afar or Thaumaturgy to 4 for Rage, Soul Slay, Teleport, and Paralyze, and for a few other spells and concentrate on Construction to 6 to forge Boots of Youth as I¿m sick of seeing my mages get diseased, and other good items along the way. Focusing on Enchantment wouldn¿t be a bad idea either, as you can cast Flame Arrows and Inner Furnace which helps you destroy enemy armies with ease, and Fire Shield is nice if you¿re using the Scorpion King or Demonbred thugs.

        		    		8.11.2.1.6 Suggested Magic Schools

    Conjuration: Normally this is a great school to at least put a few levels in, but in the case of Abysia who has easy access to blood magic summons I don¿t find it necessary unless you want to use your pretender to summon. The Summon X Power spells are good as always, so you might want to make a stop there to level 2 later in the game. At level 5 you can cast Acashic Record which is a great site search spell if not costly that some of your Warlocks will be able to cast. At level 8 there¿s the Summon Scorpion Man spell which is a national spell, but that means dredging through 6 levels and hundreds of research points for little gain. I don¿t recommend this school at all unless you have all of your major research goals covered.

    Alteration: You probably won¿t find much use for this school either, until you have some high level blood summons out. Body Ethereal at 3 and Luck at 4 are good for spamming on your Lava Warriors, and Combustion at 2 and later Incinerate at 5 and Conflagration at 8 are good single target damage spells for your Anathements, but probably outclassed by Mind Burn and Soul Slay from your Warlocks. Will of the Fates, at 8, is costly but interesting. I don¿t find much use for this school in general past a few levels for this nation, though.

    Evocation: Evocation is a great school for Abysia because of their fire immunity and the plentiful fire damage spells. Additionally, there are a few spells for dealing with magical and undead creatures here for your Astral Mages. I¿ve mentioned a few already, but I want to call special attention to Fire Cloud. It casts a decent sized cloud of fire on the battlefield that your troops can pass through harmlessly but is deadly to your enemies, this spell is great to spam all over the battlefield. Beyond that, there¿s Falling Fires and Astral Geyser at 5, both of which are interesting and effective. At 6 you get Flame Eruption which is cool and may be able to cast Astral Fires, which is an improved version of Fire Cloud. At level 7 you can cast Flame Storm if you empower/equip yourself, and it works well with Flame Immunity. At 8 you get Pillar of Fire which is also a great spell, and at 9 you get Flames from the Sky which is like Fires from Afar but better, and you get Flame Storm which, again, is very useful to your fire immune troops. You really can¿t go wrong with Evocation at any stage of the game.

    Construction: There are a lot of useful items in here for you as blood magic has some of the best weapons in the game, and other items are particularly interesting. The spellcasting value, however, is low. It¿s worth taking to 6 early though just for the Boots of Youth as those will save you a lot of time and hassle dealing with old age.

    Enchantment: There are a few spells of particular use in this school, nothing too essential, so it¿s a medium priority school. Resist Magic, at 2, can help your demon units from being banished. Flame Arrows and Inner Furnace have already been mentioned and they are very useful and easy for your mages to cast. Dispel which comes at 5 with Inner Furnace has it¿s uses sometimes. Dome of Flaming Death, at 7, is a great spell if you¿re under attack from rituals. That¿s about it from here, though.

    Thaumaturgy: There¿s not much here that hasn¿t already been mentioned. Prison of Fire, at 4, is a decent spell, especially against Barbarians who can tear through your units. Gateway at 5, which is currently bugged, will work well for getting your Lava Warriors to the front lines in large maps. Enslave Mind, at 6, can be a cool spell when it works. Hydrophobia, at level 8, is a good spell to open a battle with. Past Soul Slay at 5 there¿s little reason to put much into this school until your other goals are met in my opinion.

    Blood Magic: This is a great school for Abysia simply for the summons, who are often fire immune too. Unlike other schools you can mass blood slaves quickly, so it may seem like the spells cost a lot of ¿gems¿ but it¿s not uncommon to get dozens of them per turn depending on how many hunters you have. Additionally, instead of ferrying gems to far away commanders, they can use the blood hunt command to get their own slaves from whatever province they¿re in. I recommend this school highly if not to play around with it, because with most of the other nations it¿s difficult or impossible to use effectively. Anyway, the battle magic is usually powerful, but has drawbacks like needing a blood slave, high fatigue or effecting your own units as well, so it¿s not as easy to use as other schools. Additionally, the heat aura kills your slaves so it¿s a bit more difficult to use with Abysia, but in spite of all that often worth it. As mentioned, Devils and Demon Knights are both superb units, and Agony is a great battle spell and Reinvigoration helps your mages to keep casting. Sabbath Slave and Sabbath Master will help you later in the game when you want to cast high fatigue, high path battlefield spells. At level 6 Harm seems to work pretty well, Rejuvenate is a good spell if you haven¿t forged any Boots of Youth yet, and Infernal Disease is a great assassination spell that, if the Disease Demon doesn¿t kill the commander outright, time will. Level 7 is where the real fun comes in when you can summon Father Illearth who makes an excellent SC with some gear and Arch Devils which also make good SCs. Rush of Strength, at 8, is a good spell for battle. Summon Heliophagus brings a powerful bloodmage to your side, and The Looming Hell can be a lot of fun to play with and Life for a Life is a guaranteed kill for everything but the largest units. At level 9 you get Blood Vengeance which you really can¿t go wrong with casting and it makes your Demonbred thugs potent weapons. Infernal Prison is a cool spell that¿s also a guaranteed kill in most cases. All of the Infernal X spells summon large amounts of good units.

        		    		8.11.2.1.7 Useful Magic Items

    Abysia is going to have problems forging a wide variety of items with it¿s limited but powerful paths, and the pretenders I¿ve recommended really don¿t help with this, but I think the blood magic items make up for it and as the game progresses you may find some access to other paths through recruitment of indies.

    Lesser: The Scepter of Authority is a good item for commanders, as is the Just Man¿s Cross if you¿re fighting undead. You may be able to forge the Armor of Souls which gives Blood +1 and MR. The Dragon Helmet isn¿t bad for a Morale boost, and the Burning Pearl and Ring of the Warrior aren¿t bad for an attack skill boost, and the Pendant of Luck will be used throughout the game, and if you can forge it and find it useful, the Soul Contract is OK if you don¿t mind a horror mark.

    Greater: The Fire Bola and Wand of Wild Fire are upgrades for your commanders. The Heart Finder Sword is great for a lot of units, especially assassins. The Flambeau is a good weapon. The Charcoal Shield and Lucky Coin are both good for almost any unit. The Robe of Shadows is a good item for any unit as well. The Amulet of Antimagic and Spell Focus are both good for a lot of units. The Sanguine Dowsing Rod will assist your blood hunters, but gather more slaves increases unrest faster so I don¿t find it absolutely necessary. The Heart of Life gives huge reinvigoration too, and the Brazen Vessel and Blood Stone are good for Blood +1 with the latter producing an Earth gem every month.

    Very Powerful: The best item on this list is the Boots of Youth, which stop aging and stop you from getting afflictions. I recommend these to all of your important mages that get picks you want, and eventually everyone. I¿d start with the ones summoning the Demon Knights and go from there. Other items include the Blood Thorn, valuable for SCs as it gives lifedrain and the use of a shield and blood mages alike. The Hellsword also gives lifedrain at the expense of a shield. The Moon Blade is good against magic beings. The Shield of Gleaming gold gives awe and a big bonus to defense. Red Dragon Mail is decent armor for lack of anything better. The Starshine Skullcap is very important as it¿ll give any Warlock the ability to cast Teleport which will help get them out there on a big map, among other spells, and if you want you could teleport to a lab and take it off ready to give it to the next Warlock that needs it. The Black Heart is an interesting item that allows any commander to become an assassin, so Mind Dueling Apprentices can be effective if not costly.

        		    		8.11.2.1.8 Conclusion

    There¿s a lot of different ways to play Abysia and a lot of different viable pretender designs. I can¿t imagine playing them without at least an E4 bless and good scales so my selection is limited, but other ways can work if you make heavy use of blood magic and construction, but this will get you started successfully.

    	    		8.11.2.2 MA Aby CBM Strategy

    				8.11.2.2.1 Presentation

    Want to try something new with MA Abysia in CBM1.3? This strategy makes use of early Call Horror and Salamanders. Call Horror is a level-1 spell in CBM, but it's powerful enough to clear out an indy province. Salamanders have an AoE-1 20AP fire attack, and they can pull off five of these before they hit 100 fatigue.

    I am currently using this strategy in a small MP game and it is working nicely at around turn 50. There were six nations to start, and now there are three.

    This strategy guide uses these advantages of MA Abysia:
    - Call Lesser Horror at Blood 1 (only in CBM)
    - Cheap B2S1 mages
    - No income loss from death scales
    - Resource-cheap Salamanders
    - Lots of Fire Gems for Lanterns

    To expand using Call Lesser Horror, you need an awake researching pretender. I think only the Great Sage gives you at least 40RP on the first turn, but you might be able to find something else that works.

    				8.11.2.2.2 SCALES

    The scales this strategy employs are:
    Order 3: You need gold for your mages and salamanders
    Sloth 3: You won't be hiring many troops
    Heat 3: Yay, free scales
    Death 3: This lacks synergy with Order-3. But if you don't take Order-3, then you won't have enough gold at the start of the game.
    Luck 3: Once all your peasants are dead, you'll appreciate the free income, temples, and forts. Lacks synergy with Order-3, but you'll still get 2 or 3 events a month in the midgame if you have 45 provinces. Also it's a bad plan to take Misfortune with Death. And Aby has a Fire-Death hero, perfect for summoning spectral infantry, but I think you can only get him in SP. (Joke :P)
    Drain 2: Oh no! Drain with Aby? 160 gold for 3 RP? This works because your non-capitol mages are just vessels for Lanterns.

    				8.11.2.2.3 EXPANSION

    Your starting army is strong enough to take indies on its own. I like to make a warlord prophet just because they are cool.

    Hire just one Warlock to start, he will help your research and occasionally blood hunt. Don't be afraid to Blood Hunt in your capitol a couple of times, but try not to make it a habit. To get my initial slaves, the first province I hunted in was my capitol, with my Warlock.

    Besides your initial army, your expansion is fueled by Warlock Apprentices with 3 slaves. Place them at the back of the battlefield and script with:
    - Call Lesser Horror (he'll use 2 slaves)
    - Call Lesser Horror (he'll use the last slave)
    - Retreat

    The Lesser Horrors empty out the province, so it can be taken the next turn by a single indy commander or your starting assassin. The Apprentices can blood hunt in appropriate provinces, and you can send indy commanders with replacement slaves to the province you anticipate your Apprentices will retreat to.

    I usually throw my assassin at 1-commander or 2-commander indies without bodyguards, like Horse Tribes. And he usually dies. Unless it's SP, then he does just fine and gets some heroic attribute like Awesome Presence.

    The double Call Lesser Horror is weak to indy armies containing elephants, barbarians, undead, or dark vines. You can double up the Apprentices for barbarians. Your initial army can handle undead. For dark vines, hire a few indy archers. Elephants must wait until you've built a new castle, and hired some Beast Trainers. Beast Trainers have animal awe, so a few of them can hold the line against elephants while you lay down some damage with evocation. Add rat tails to rout elephants even faster.

    Hire some Humanbred units every turn since you don't have many resources and it's good to accumulate some shield chaff. Once you are about to hit Alt-3, hire a bunch of Salamanders. You can use Apprentices to cast Body Ethereal on the Salamanders, which prevents them from dying as quickly.

    I don't hire many Demonbred with this strategy in the expansion phase, because I need lots of Apprentices.

    You can pop up another castle at the end of the first year, or just build a lab and temple in an indy province that can give you nature mages. Your god can site search N, but he'll be at home researching for a while. It's nice if you can poke around in the forests with an N1, and later your indy mage is a cheap chassis for a lantern. Also, I like to empower an N1 in blood to make some jade knives and cast Cross Breeding.

    Wolf tribes or Jade amazons are the best, because you can get a random D mage. It's good to empower a D mage in fire so you can summon spectral infantry.

    				8.11.2.2.4 RESEARCH

    Blood-1 This must be your first research target, for Call Lesser Horror.
    Evo-2 Emergency army boost with Fire Blast, which is really effective when you've got a high-mobility Demonbred to cast it from just behind your fire-immune infantry line. Infantry being your PD or your starting army at this stage.
    Alt-3 Gives you Body Ethereal to cast on Salamanders.
    Const-4 Gives you shrouds to keep your diseased mages alive.
    Const-6 Don't delay this any more ... you need lanterns if you're not going to fall behind in research. Lots of lanterns. Make a few Boots of Youth for your Warlocks.
    Thau-1 For your God to script returning while site searching.
    Conj-2 Actually, if you get the Fire-Death hero, research this before Const-6, since he can cast Summon Spectral Infantry every month. Just 1D in CBM! Or if you got a lucky Death indy mage, empower him in Fire, so he can cast Summon Spectral Infantry.
    Conj-3 Summon Earthpower, Phoenix Power.
    Blood-2 Bowl of Blood to exhaustively search for blood discount sites.
    Ench-3 For a Revenant to cast Summon Spectral Infantry, if you didn't get an indy D mage or a DF hero.

    What you research next totally depends on your situation. If you're at war you might need more Evo for Falling Fires. The Chalice is really nice for healing your sick mages, so you could head to Const-8 to try to get it first. Otherwise Blood-6 gives you Five Gates and Ice Devils. Blood-7 gives you Leech to handle pesky enemy SCs, except Golems, which you can Magic Duel. Conj-3 for Banes to lead your demons. You could find lion tribes and decide to build a castle there and go to Ench-5 for flaming arrows. Enchant is also needed for your god to dome up your capitol.

    Watch your mages who are carrying lanterns. Every single turn I review all lantern mages using the F1 screen, and take the lanterns off mages with horror marks. Yucky micro, but they last a lot longer if you do this, and you don't lose the lantern.

    				8.11.2.2.5 DOMINION

    Every new temple in a fort you build should get an H3 to preach it up to max dominion (7). You can simultaneously sacrifice with another priest, and if you empowered an N indy mage in blood, wield a jade knife. You won't get a dom kill with this strategy because your starting dominion is too low, but you can spread a little influence onto your negihbors.

    				8.11.2.2.6 SITE SEARCHING

    Once you've researched Const-6, your god is free to wander about site searching. Script him for returning just in case something unlucky happens. I've only ever managed to spend about a year and a half manually site-searching, because there's so much else for your god to do, like summon (a Revenant to empower in fire if you never got a death mage) or forge (hammers, thorns armor, S rings, etc). So use rituals when you give up on having your god search.

    I alchemise fire into pearls and have a Apprentice casting Arcane Probing. It's important to get some pearl income so you can make shrouds to put on your diseased Warlocks. And there are some really great astral sites that can help you diversify more.

    Your power will increase immensely if you can get a blood discount site, so search everywhere (except water) up to B3. If you manually searched with a Demonbred, and you don't see 4 sites in the province, it needs a Bowl of Blood too. But you will only find a good blood discount site if you are playing SP.

    If you find a couple of Great Gold Mines or Gems in a province with low (2000) population, I find it useful to just kill everyone and tax at 200%.

    				8.11.2.2.7 BLOOD HUNTING

    See Baalz's blood hunting guide. I prefer 2 B2's, no rods, using indies to shuttle the slaves, tax at 20% or lower, no patrolling. Hunting at 5K pop provinces, but you'll still get results even at 3500 pop lands.

    				8.11.2.2.8 FIGHTING

    The Call Lesser Horror strategy also works against enemy armies/PD that does not include fliers (so no Caelum or Pan) or long-range archers (R'lyeh, Ashdod) or mindless/undead.

    Otherwise in the early game use a front line of Humanbreds, screening Salamaders buffed with Body Ethereal, teamed with a few Demonbred casting evocations. If you run into Ashdod or a Cyclops, you may need to try Magma Bolts (from a Warlock), Destruction (a Warlock with Earth Boots casting Summon Earthpower), or Stellar Cascades. Horrors can work here too, they have an AN attack. But you'll need about 6 Apprentices to summon a bunch of Lesser Horrors all at once.

    Shut down capitol production of Ashdod with Rains of Toads from your god and your NB (thorns & staff-wielding) indy mage. Your god should Dome your own capitol.

    Around the start of the third year I've switched from Apprentices to Demonbreds, and the occasional new Warlock. B4 Warlocks only need one booster for Five Gates.

    Later you'll bring in Smoulderghosts and creatures from Cross Breeding, and in the mid-game you'll start adding Frost Fiends, Storm Demons, and Demon Knights from the Five Gates, and an Ice Devil or two. Save your regualar Devils until you get a big mass of them because they don't have a ranged attack and are more fragile than Demon Knights. In the mid-game you'll also have Leech to handle enemy SCs.

    You can easily decimate many PDs with Send Lessor Horror, which most Warlocks can cast (you might need to give them a starshine cap).

    In the end stages of the mid-game, you've got a great chance at grabbing the Arch Devils and Helios. Arch Devils can be used as SCs, and the Helios can do more Five Gates work.

    For the late game, gear up your Devils, summon more Five Gates, have Pazuzu bring in the Storm Demons and Pedoseion embark on his Infernal Crusades. Apply Send Lesser Horror liberally. If it looks like the end of the world is nigh, then it's probably time to fire off AC with your god.

    				8.11.2.2.9 Comments

    	    		8.11.2.3

    		8.11.3 LA Abysia

        			8.11.3.1 Some tips

    			-> Flame storm is F5, any Anointed can cast it with a simple Phoenix Power casting, I don't see all the fuss with communions.

    They can also summon Scorpion Men with base paths, contrary to what the OP seems to imply.

    The demon lords have all of the paths except water and astral between them, but they're expensive and pretty late game. It is a last-resort option for diversification though. Astral magic is really good also, but the EA Warlocks are fairly weak in both.

    Nature is always an option via indies, at worst, and then you can start site searching for enchantresses, which open up much better nature and all the elements and seem to be fairly common.

    Playing the mid-era version of Aby in MP I found that establishing a good trade partner early on will greatly aid your attempts at diversifying. Hellbind heart mage-trades are especially good for you if you can get a trade arranged. Negotiating for an air mage is especially fun because you can trade with anyone on the map with cloud trapeze, so you can afford to shop around a bit in a large game. Try some of those ideas, see if it helps.

    			-> You can cast Fire Storm with a fire 5 mage, no communion needed, and the mage does not die. I have done so several times. The effect can be nice.

    			Note about incurred fatigue: A mage stops at 200 fatigue when he casts a spell (unless he is a communion slave, yadda yadda). Should he receive further fatigue (stun effects etc.) then those points over 200 are converted to damage.

    				Heat From Hell also turns out to be nicer than expected in large battles. It is not fast, nor is it a killer, but it adds up over time. Tied in with the heat effect of your units and a possible Inner Furnace, enemy troops start to evaporate pretty quickly as fatigue spikes up. It also seems to slows the enemy spell casting down, making them rest one turn earlier than normal. It is a bit subtle, but something worth looking at if you are playing with this nation.

    Fire Storm is as powerful as advertised. However, it does take some time, so make sure you have troops to slow down the enemy and build up the damage.

    				-> Um, yeah. Scorpion Men rock hard. They're late-game only, and quite a bit expensive, but they're very nice.

    Burning Ones are great units, but cap-only and very resource-heavy. And the strategic move of 1 will limit your options until you can get the Gateway thing going. Therefore, I wouldn't really play EA Abysia as a bless nation. Not that you said you were going to do so, but anyway....

    Here's a fun thing to do with Fire magic: Race up the Evocation tree to Fires from Afar. Start toasting enemy armies before they can engage with you. Continue researching to Flames from the Sky. Now your toaster is extra-toasty.

    Fire construction items aren't great, true, but they aren't useless. A Warlord with two Fire Bolas (one in each hand!) can be fun. Demonbred assassins with Rods of the Phoenix are a hoot. And ... um ... I'll think of something else really soon.

    			-> I  had some limited success with it in a non-CB game although it was mainly for newbies(and me, im just crap) but i was fighting multiple nations(one being EA Tien Chi played by frank trollman) and doing quite well. I had a good number of annoited in the hall of fame with 400+ kills each(who eventually got targetted by vengance of the dead... not pretty) and armies composed mostly of burning ones, flail infantry and axe/shield infantry supported by annointed blasting with falling fires and pillars of fire worked well.
    I also had some indy/non fire aura armies with large groups of archers with the flaming arrows buff(pretty viable even later on in the game if you can support it).
    For raiding/support i had demonbred slayers(moderately equipped incase an assasination target showed up) with rods of the leper king leading around groups of fiends of darkness which worked great, a group of stealthy flyers with good combot power lead by a powerful assasin makes for a very versatile tool(support armies, raid back provinces, harrass enemy armies, assasinate researchers ect).
    I also did a few suicidal charges with the F2 holy mages(generally with one of them blessing the others for reinvigoration) casting phoenix pyre and shielded by a few infantry(to reach the target) which nicely softened up some enemies.

    as a final note: Decently equipped fire kings with phoenix pyre and very high reinvigoration(i used vine kings summoned by the pretender to forge nature items) are VERY useful and difficult to remove as you have to kill them several times in quick succession to completely kill them.

    				-> Demonbred assassins are great, versatile units.

    Prophetised, they can reanimate undead and secretly push your dominion deep into enemy territory.

    Their mobility makes them great platforms for Lifelong Protection. They can be easily concentrated for large battles, whilst also being able to raid and assassinate at will.

    Give them a scepter of authority and they can lead misbreds on stealthy raiding missions. The misbreds are demons, but only require regular leadership.

        			8.11.3.2 Best Researcher for LA Abysia

    -> im wondering what is better for research purposes:

    Warlock
    270gold not sacred 8rp

    or

    Anathemant Dragon
    330gold sacred 6rp

    -> I believe anathemant dragons are more likely to suffer afflictions from old age, since fire magic reduces their maxage considerably. I could be wrong though.

    Both are cap only, correct?

    Anathemant dragon upkeep = 11
    Warlock upkeep = 18

    Pretty sure those figures are right. So if you consider that the anathemant has about 75% the research power of the Warlock for 60% of the upkeep cost, in the long run the anathemant is clearly better. After 9 turns the anathemant dragon has made up the cost difference between himself and the warlock in terms of upkeep, however being out of pocket early in the game often leads to reduced gold income from expansion.

    They're pretty even all things considered.

    -> I always use the Dragons as Abysia. When the going gets rough, the Anathement Dragons get going - spamming Fire Cloud and Falling Fires, that is. Abysia is one of those nations that I feel benefits greatly from rushing towards mass evocations as fast as possible. Apparently with your late game so weak, you need to push your early-mid game strengths as much as possible, so at least by late game you are HUGE, and thus somewhat powerful.

    -> I like magic 3 with Abyssia, and then I use the little blood 1 guys-they're cheap, easy to mass, not susceptible to immediate old age, and function well as researchers when I'm not using them all for bloodhunting-which I'm often not.

        			8.11.3.3 LA Abysia: Discussion and a Proto-Guide.

    I've always enjoyed abysia, because they can be relied on in any age to provide some sort of very solid play. Coming back to dominions after a while, I have to admit I love the changes brought to them, but I haven't seen any talk about them at all, I suppose because of the profusion of new and awesome nations.

    Troops:

    Abysia's funny in that their best troops are in the EA; when everyone else is lightly armored, they have purebreds everywhere and tough armor. Here, in the LA, you mostly have humanbreds, who are quite servicable, but not the same as the infantry of old.

    There's effectively four versions, before you hit the new unit and the sacred. Axe-throwers, who are the only abysian missle unit, light infantry, heavy infantry with and without shields. Light infantry comes in spear and axe forms, and I typically prefer the spear for the lack of attack malus and repel chance. Heavy shielded infantry comes in axe and morningstar forms, and again, I don't feel the extra damage is worth the loss of accuracy. Heavy unshielded infantry hit very hard, if you're facing ermor or someone else who's unlikely to have missle troops, coming in Battleax and Flail versions. I use the battleaxes on giants and, later in the game, swarms of summons, and flails on the chaffier troops, but the main force of my armies is always the morningstar and shield troops.

    The Warbred hits like the proverbial truck, with a high base strength boosted by berserking and a strong battleax as a weapon. Their 50% fire resistance means you can't quite use the fire-based battlefield enchantments and evocations as well, which somewhat restricts their use... but the berserking adds a lot of punch to armies that, for some reason, aren't based on the ancient Abysian principles of Shake and Bake. The lack of perfect fire resistance also means they will berserk if you "accidentally" tag them with fire flies or another weak evocation.

    The Sacred is, well, a slow tough Abysian. Darkvision, heat aura, the usual encumbrance and high protection pairing. They're too slow for a real bless strategy in a large game, IMO, and the gold cost seems a bit high... but I like them anyway. Best used with Earth and/or Nature blesses, with earth winning out thanks to the mages. I never put fire on my pretender since flaming skulls are accessible, so lesser likely options are astral (always worthwhile thanks to endgame magics) and... well, that's about it. Their shields negate any urge for air, they don't have much use for a death bless, water's unlikely, and Blood is possibly the worst bless in the game.

    Commanders:

    Clocking in with twelve commanders, 4 assassins, and nine different mages, there's a profusion of options here.

    The new mage-assassins are quite effective, with the fire or death assassin better in the beginning thanks to basic attack evocation or raise skeletons, and the Blood variant being more useful later, thanks to Hellbind Heart and Life for a Life.

    You've also got a profusion of battle magic, but you have to mix it carefully. Summoning skeletons that are going to get mixed in with your likely to get falling-flames troops isn't a great way to win battles. The three main setups I've had thus far have been skellyspam and Darkness with sacreds and sometimes Heat From Hell, pure evocation, and sabbaths suddenly dropping large battlefield enchants.

    Sabbaths are possibly the most interesting part of your blood economy, because you don't have any national blood magic to make an immediate target, and dropping utterly huge fire, astral and death magics on the battlefield never gets old. You've got a basic cheap blood hunter, holy to cut down on the upkeep, and a variety of fire, astral, and earth packing warlocks, apprentices, and sanguine anathematics. Just don't expect precision here, because all your mages are old and only getting older.

    National Magic:

    Smoulderghosts are interesting, in that they're sacred here, but there's an issue: You don't nationally produce death gems, just Fire. Still, they're reasonably priced, and can make excellent blockers for your battlemages, and hat's usually what I use them as, guards to prevent assassination and flier swarms.

    Scorpion Men suffer from the same problem of being a magic type you don't produce nationally, but by the time you have them researched, you should have a massive income in Earth anyway. They're worth every gem, and on top of that are just plain fun with their base weaponry.

    Awakened Fossils are novelty units. Cool novelty units, but not something to really worry about.

    Inner Furnace also isn't worth seriously considering, on any large map you'll never have enough sacreds to make it useful. Nice if you happen to be in the right situation, but not worth working towards as a research goal.

    Pretender Design:

    I tend to stick to nationals or simply rare ones, because I don't play much MP at all. Still, Abysia has a good set of those, with the Divine Glyph being a reasonable fire and astral source, the Scorpion Man being a good SC to come out dormant so there's equipment waiting, and the Moloch is rather fun for sheer destructive capability, from bless and his own powers.

    Despite that, I haven't found much use for either lion-headed titan at all. The usual suspects are of course an E9N4 cyclops, D-something Prince of Death with high awe, and a Great Enchantress to rainbow, and all of them add quite a bit of punch to the nation. You don't really NEED an SC, per se, but it definitely speeds your way to more castles and that critical mass of armies and mages you need. Similarly, an early rainbow mage, even in paths you already have, can help alleviate your unpleasant lack of astral, death, and earth income. If you go rainbow, remember that the blesses that affect your mages to any strong effect are Earth, Death, and Nature, and as TheMenacer pointed out, dealing afflictions with your damage is a strong bonus. You don't need to be able to automatically make a blood stone, but if you want to use your pretender to kickstart the factory because you don't envision buying seventy-odd thousand warlocks, skimp on the blood, not the earth. The bless is better, and it's easier to empower or come by a booster for blood with your national mage picks.

    One of the things you're going to be forced to do late game, if it gets that far, is diversify into Nature. This isn't hard, mind, since it's common on all three pretender archetypes. What you'll want to do is summon a faerie court eventually using your pretender, and use it for all your nature magic needs. You need GoR, healing isn't bad, and it gets you mobile air magic for Arrow Fend.

    Scales, of course, are still Heat 3, and production is nice, but honestly in the late game you're going to go to a blood economy anyway. I tend to Drain 2 and simply building massive piles of skull mentors and lightless lanterns with gems. Luck/turmoil and order/misfortune are up to you. Castles are expensive, but you need gems badly, and site searches take some income to start.

    Tricks of the Trade:

    Blood Stones should be everywhere. You can become possibly the strongest Earth power in the LA once you get going, but you have to get going. With the blood stone, even a 1E random warlock can become 2E, which can make boots to earth power and blade wind. And every warlock with any E can communion or sabbath, which makes for some very impressive blade winds. Or Earthquakes, Petrify, or the usual buffs.

    Heat From Hell and skellyspam combo very nicely, though earth items and bless may be required to keep it up, since your natural D is weak. 2D is the best you naturally get, so you'll want to climb the ladder once you get some gem income going to drop Darkness on top of that and really grind out some victories.

    Speaking of grinding out victories, this is the era with LA Ermor in it. This means, of course, that all those mage priests are going to be pulling double duty, and gain double-effectiveness from the sabbaths I'm frankly obsessed with for this nation. Sabbaths and communions buff Holy as well, and H5 priests raining down Banishment are nothing to sneeze at. You've got also got a really incredible toolkit against SCs, though the finesse of employing it is probably beyond me. Petrify, Disintegrate, Life for a Life, Infernal Prison, Soul Slay, and Hellbind Heart can all be spammed out of a sabbath, and with a massive earth income you can usually afford penetration boosting items.

    Similarly, Earth and Astral make for some nice thug and SC gear, though again, it's somewhat difficult to get the gem flow started. You've got flame and eventually shadow brands, reinvig gear, horror shields, and AMA everywhere Stymphalian wings are fun. I don't use proper SCs that much, since I enjoy big armies and battlefield magic too much, but its worth considering Linebacker Sabbaths (from Baalz wonderful communion guide). Being able to skimp on the Luck Pendants and mix armor with etherality can often be the edge you need, letting you mix your slow-moving large armies with quicker moving but no less effective thug groups.

    Good chassis for this are the obvious Elemental Royalty, Scorpion Men, Bane Lords, and if you get bored enough, this is a shockingly good use for Reawakened Fossils. Wraith Lords and Vampires deserve special mention here, because you don't want to gear them up in the standard fashion. Instead, give them a small handful of gems. Generally, I use soul vortex on the wraith lords and send them out to attack, which leaves a small sabbath to rain down death-based attack magic. Sometimes, the best bet is more bodies, in which case you summon a lot of lammashtas turn one, soul vortex turn two, and attack rear with everyone. They'll win or die or win AND die, but since you recycle them, you lose just the small handful of gems, rather than give your opponent free thug gear.

    If there's anything fun or tricky I missed, let me know, and I'll add it in... Or write a better guide! I may revisit this one myself when it's not late and fix up some formatting, or add MP-ready pretender builds if someone more experienced than me is willing to contribute.

    	8.12 Agartha

    	    	8.12.1 EA Agartha

    	    	    	8.12.1.1 Some tips

    			->
    1) You can make your commander cast the same ritual repeatedly every month by using M for Monthly ritual.
    2) Your troops don't deal enough damage? Agarthans have pretty high Strength, which means they deal quite high damage, especially the sacred giants.
    [Note about swarm effect:
    "
    Well, I mentioned size only because the bigger ones have 18 strength and the smaller ones have 13 strength.
    And if you look at the attack of the smaller Agarthans you'll see its pretty low (as well as their defence, which makes them pretty lousy)

    However size does affect the change to hit, though not directly, but IIRC for every attack against someone, he gets -1 defense against the next attack, so if you use (say) size-3 units against size-2 unit, you'll have 2 units per square while your enemy will have 3 units per square (each square is size-6 big), so you'll be attacked more often.
    "
    ]
    [2nd note about swarm effect:
    "
    I believe with Dom 2 it is a -2 defense for each attack (according to the manual). This makes swarming very effective vs high defense units.

    The spell that summons 5 magma children for 2 fire gems is pretty good with Argatha. 1 out of 4 earth readers can cast the spell... and of course you can get the flame oracle if you want a guarantee.

    I'm curious if it would even be worth taking a heat scale to make better use of these guys. Its a real shame they are not sacred or could get really interesting

    You can hit Conj3 on the 7th-9th turn if you get an awake pretender. Or much faster if you build a sage for this purpose (then the sage can site search and help bring in all the gems needed to mass produce the units).
    "
    ]
    My guess is your problem is low Attack, so your soldiers can't actually hit.
    3) Your high-priced mages all have 3E - optimal for Bladewind (evocation 4), which is a very effective spell in EA
    4) You should consider a bless strategy, you have the H3 to pull it off, and the Ancient One sacred could really use a Fire+Nature bless. (Fire so they can actually hit something, Nature because 40hp works well with regeneration.)

    			-> Bless
    I've only been battling against EA Agarthans, never played them myself, but they are pretty good with F9 (and possibly W4 or N4 as well) blessed Seal Guards, and Magma Children summons. The little warriors are not good though .
    Their mages are potent (they can have up to E5 !) and quite tough, my Abysians assassins never managed to kill one...

    			-> Tramplers
    I've dabbled with Agartha EA in single player and came up with a moderately useful strategy -- Troglodyte horde. A small group of stampeders has a tendency to get enveloped and consumed, but a squad of 20 stampeders can break apart any squad and squish them flat...

    ...you do have to beware of archers, though. But then any Agartha squad (no shields) has to beware of them. Maybe backing up the troggies with cheap slingers would work?

    Note that this strategy takes advantage of both Dom3's massive increase of gold and supply.

    			-> Basic strategy
    1) Use your National Summons. Umbrals, Magma Children, and Earth Elementals are all quite good.

    Reasons:

    a) Umbrals: Undead, Ethereal, Life Drain w/ High Str. Ridiculously cheap for their effectiveness. Guaranteed casters (even cheap ones).

    b) Magma Children: Magic Unit (problem), and, iirc, an 8-pt Armor Piercing AoE 1 Flame Strike. Just so you know, this means that they hit the entire square for 8+(random) Fire damage, and the opponent has halved protection against it. And this is each individual Magma Child. Try to keep away from your other units, though.
    [Note, Just remember the Magma Children only have the flame attack. They're completely harmless against anything fire-resistant. ]

    c) Earth Elementals: Magic Unit that has Trample. Trample is useful, and their high morale make them quite useful for running through the opponents.

    That's a basic synopsis of, imo, your best units, barring a particular bless. The game I played with EA Agartha, I played and E10 Cyclops. The bless gives all your mages Reinvigorate, and allows me to Forge useful equipment on the cheap (or VERY cheap with a few effects).

    Other questions: 1) Pretender design? 2) Opponents?

    My game was against Ulm and Helheim (at least), and neither one could really get past my defensive set up. Helheim, while usually tough (even AI against new players, honestly), just completely folds to the Flame Strike (btw, AoE (Area of Effect) attacks don't have to roll to hit... they just whack the whole square), and the tramplers are useful against them, too. Ulm just required a good deal of screen, Tramplers, and Magma Children.

    Definitely research Conj 3 and Evo 4 (Blade Wind's level, right?) quickly, then Cons 2-6, as desired. Thaumaturgy 2, early, if you want to be able to remote search (Gnome Lore, etc.) your provinces.
    [Note,
    	In the earth spells, check out Legions of Steel and (I think) Strength of Giants. These two boost protection and strength respectively, for entire squads. You have the earth mages to cast them and it will really help your forces. The giants, especially the pink ones, have low protection and really benefit from the boost. I have not found strength a problem, but boosting it will ensure that you really hurt what you hit.

    Blade wind is good, but boosting your units should not be overlooked. If you put all your troops against the back of the battle field, take a turn or three buffing them, then blade wind and infantry attack, it can work out well. It also gives you time to bless. Also, usually archers can not reach you in the first round and then fire at long range for the second. By then, your troops are protected.
    ]

    				-> Points about weapons
    				It's almost possible for the bigger Agarthans to punch through the shields of medium enemy infantry. Shields have protection 15, and bigger Agarthans have 18 str (and usually Spears, 3 dam), so they have about 50% chance of dealing 1 or more damage to someone with protection 6 before shield. It's not enough to balance the odds on its own, but with Legions of Steel and/or Nature 9 and/or low-level Blood bless they might be able to deal damage to medium infantry with shields even if the hit is parried.

    The smaller Agarthans aren't good at killing your enemies, but they ARE good in slowing them down. For the price of a human, you get twice the hitpoints on an amphibian that doesn't consume supplies and has a siege bonus.

    I just realized that Agarthans also suffer from poor choice of weapons. They use normal-sized Spears, but their attack is too low to Repel with it, and which has too low damage value to emphasize their own high strength.

    The Seal Guards have big magic Glaives rated at 10 dam or so, and they have 19 Str, so sure they can punch through shield and armor of medium inf.
    Their problem is Att10/Def8, without F4+/W4+ bless they've difficulty hitting anything and get hit often...

    The magic weapons are good, of course. They cost lots of resources on a capital-only unit, but they are good. 11 dam, +1 att, -1 def, length 4 and ability to bypass etherealness. 30 damage total is enough to deal some damage even to any human that comes against them (46% chance of hitting Ambibate Noble Warrior for 3 points of damage).

    Unfortunately, the recruitable-everywhere Ancient Ones have just spears or Boulders for armanent. Boulder-throwers don't have even spears, making them very hard to use. The Pale Ones also have just spears, except for Cavern Guards who have Glaives. Minus to attack? They would be better of with Great Clubs, with att 0 def 1...

    				-> Possible pretender
    A good Pretender strategy for Agartha (in my opinion) is an Imprisoned Forge Lord with turmoil3, productivity0, cold3, growth2, luck2, and drain 2. Forge Lord because if there's one thing Agartha does well, it's gems, lots and lots of earth gems. Might as well spend them wisely, and since your Oracles are going to be researching Conjuration and Evocation, you can use your Forge Lord just to crank out magic items for your sacred fighter captain, and you'll be doing alright, since you can practically make as many of those as you can your basic Seal Guard. Naturally, there are better uses for a Pretender, but it's a strategy to consider.
    Turmoil3/Heat3 are taken purely for points, although Heat is more likely to help out your Magma Children than Cold, right? Productivity 0 hopefully lets you make Seal Guards faster, since they're by far the best unit you've got, and you can build up to 3 in a row (Dom3). Luck 2 lets Turmoil 3 be atleast a little advantageous, and I hate losing my Temple in round 3. Drain isn't as bad as it could be since you're making less Oracles, but they're individually more powerful, so the -1 isn't affecting 30 mages, it's only affecting 10.

    	Fire 8, Earth 9, Nature 4. Some Nature is pretty much a given, since supposedly it helps keep your units from getting afflicted, and those big, slow to produce Seal Guards become pretty useless if they're blind or lose an arm or something, and regeneration's always nice. The +4 to attack is also a given, and the Earth 9 helps keep those units from getting hit, and helps your Oracles stay in the fight.

    Note, Post by Micah
    I just played a game as EA Agartha, so I've got a pretty good feel for them. I went with the forge lord initially myself. Your general idea is good, although I'd tweak it a bit. I think the growth scale is a poor choice, as you lose out on one of Agartha's main advantages: no supply use for most troops. Taking triple death makes invading your dominion a pain in the rear for most nations, and redistributing the 200 design points from that scale to order (which then allows the points in luck to go to productivity, if you wish) will easily offset the income from the population death unless you're playing a pretty long game. Plus you get the money up front, which still might make it worth it. Drain is a solid choice for exactly the reason you mentioned, and a bless strat is essential for Agartha. You contradict yourself on cold/heat, but heat is the way to go, since your units are cold blooded and it helps out the magma children, as you said. Heat/cold also hits supplies, synergizing nicely with 3 death.

    From my experience playing last time I'd probably try the following pretender for my next game:

    Frost father, imprisoned, dominion 5.
    Water 9, Fire 6, nature 4, astral and air 1.

    If I'm right, quickness will provide a -2 defense penalty on the 2nd attack, making it easily better than the extra few points in fire. It will also vastly up your chances against tramplers because of the defense. Mammoths were my bane in my last game, the only way I could deal with them was massed flame oracles casting magma eruption. Flaming weapons don't stack up to the water bless because the seal guards can already provide magical weapons, and the high str of agarthans makes the extra few damage much weaker than an extra attack. Nature provides regeneration, cutting down on deaths and afflictions. Air comes with the chassis, and astral is a good choice since it's only 10 points, and not available nationally.

    Order 3, Prod 3, Heat 3, Death 3, luck 0, Drain 2.

    I already discussed the reason for the scales above. A tweak down to order or production to up dominion might be prudent in a shorter game because of holy troop limits, but in a longer game building temples with the extra income is probably a better choice.

    As far as general strategy, I didn't play with the summons much, but magma eruption is a great spell, and all of your flame oracles can cast it, many at half fatigue. Crank out some earth boots for the losers with only a 3 earth skill and you shouldn't need the reinvigoration from earth bless, they'll get off a good 4-5 casts of it in a battle with the first 100 fatigue, which should put a nice dent in the opposition. You also have the advantage of half upkeep on all of your units save the trogs (which are great if you need troops right away, or for times when you can't get a blesser over to a province, or as a flanking force). All of your other non-sacred troops are useless. Your PD is good for absorbing damage, but that's about it, don't expect them to win battles on their own (ever). Anyhow, probably way too much info. Hope it helps.

    				-> Oracles
    One important consideration-as of now, Oracles can quickly become old. You may be better off using your cash on Earth Readers if you plan on researching with them. Also, if you can afford to equip them, they make a fine fighting force-they're all priests so undead will melt before them, and they all have atleast some magic. Add a heavy combat bless, armor and weapons, and you've got a superlative fighting force. I do think Agartha is a tiny bit weak, though. Two changes I plan to make are increasing Oracle max age, either increasing the size of Ancient-level Agarthans or adding/modifying in some size 6 Agarthans, allowing earth readers and oracles to have a small chance of preventing bad things from happening while increasing their price, and possibly adding Beholder units and maybe another type of "monstrous" unit-these changes are a little overpowering, but I plan on tweaking other nations as well.

    				-> Tips from a MP winner with Agarth :)
    Well, i've just won an EA MP game with Agartha, so i'll share my thoughts.

    Scales i used were turmoil 3, sloth 3, heat 3, luck 3, magic 3. You might want to use less extreme ones.
    (but stick to sloth 3 and magic 3).
    Pretender was awake dom 10 4E6D Risen Oracle (a good chassis choice even if you take lower dom strength).
    At the beginning, expand using your pretender (forge him any armor you can), for safety you can do that in provinces with your dominion (he's immortal), independentent archers and troglodytes (groups of 6+). Do not buy any of your other national troops until mid game (25+ provinces usually). If going against astral nations, skip troglodytes too (MR lowered a lot in recent patches).

    Buy an earth reader each round and research conjuration until you get to rhuax pact at least (or all the way to umbrals), then thau 2 for site searching spells, then go for blade wind and earthquake. Summon magma children/earth elementals/umbrals as neeed and your gem income allows (umbrals are always needed .

    When you get a little more gold income, get a 2nd castle and buy earth readers there, then switch to buying an oracle at capital each turn.

    Recruit wet ones/pale ones/stone hurlers only if you need to go underwater or siege castles. Your main research goal is army of gold/lead, use it on groups of massed umbrals and magma children.

    Your heat3 dominion will hurt all other nations a lot more than it hurts you - except for Abyssia, so beware of them.

    Be on lookout for air/nature/astral indies and mercs. You will need those to diversify your magic.

    Later on, you can try using Ancient Lords as army supporting thugs (with cheap equipment), but only do that if you can't get either Gift of Healts or Chalice - because if you can, Tartarians will clearly be superior.

    Try to secure Earth and Fire elementaly royalty, your head start in conjuration and sacred low upkeep researchers should help. If you go for const 6 relatively early, use excess fire gems to forge Lightless Lanterns. If occassion presents itself to cast Forge of the Ancients, go for it and forge like mad for the time you manage to keep it up.

    Pitfalls to avoid:
    - do not go for a bless strategy. Minor earth bless is nice to give all your mages some reinvigoration, but don't depend on your sacred troops to be useful offensively even with fire bless.
    - don't use all your oracles as battle mage (exception is Fire ones, which can and should be casting Magma Eruption). Each army needs just one or two (one casts divine blessing first turn, 2nd army of gold/lead). Use 2E earth readers for blade winding (with boots of earth and or summon earthpower). Better to have 4 2E earth readers than one oracle in the army. Fire readers can cast magma bolts. Water readers can cast frozen heart. Death readers should be busy casting dark knowledge and summon umbral, not being in armies

    			->

    	    	    	8.12.1.2 EA Agartha: The Ancient Lord SC.

    Article Author:  HoneyBadger

    A lot has been said about Agartha's poor troop availability. It's all true. They're miserable, with few exceptions. One extraordinarily good exception, though, is the Ancient Lord. I love this guy. I'm pretty sure he's recruitable anywhere, which makes him even better.

    First of all, the Bless for these guys is very important, if you're going to get the most out of them. An imprisoned Risen Oracle is probably your best bet, with Earth 9, Death 4, Nature 4. That's a pretty big bless, but the Risen Oracle gets new paths slightly cheaper than most other SC Pretenders.
    For scales, I'd suggest Heat 3/Death 3/Turmoil3, and Luck3. Use your own judgement on what Magic and Productivity to use, but I'd recommend Drain 2 or better, and Prod 0 or better. High Dominion isn't really necessary for Agartha.

    Don't bother recruiting any Agarthan unit, *ever*, except the bronze-cuirassed Stone Hurler. You'll mostly use these to boost your PD, and to support/bodyguard your Oracles.

    The exception that makes the rule is the Seal Guard-they're useful as a defensive force, for your Capital, and other fortresses, especially if you start having big problems with fast SCs or etherial units that your Ancient Lords can't catch up with, but they're very niche.

    I don't think you'll ever need more than a dozen in a single Province, though, even your Capital, but they *are* better than Stone Hurlers for some tasks, and since they're Capital only, unlike Stone Hurlers, you won't be building them quickly, anyway.

    You'll only be recruiting 2 Commanders for a while-and the first one you'll be recruiting will be the Ancient Lord. He doesn't seem like much, and he's not, at first, but Agartha offers a wonderous selection of low-level, cheap equipment that will turn him into a juggernaut that can easily contend with even a Niefel Jarl.

    Trust me-this guy is the ultimate clothes-horse.

    You can start building Ancient Lords right away, 1 per turn if you have the funds. Prophetize the first one, and build enough of these guys to take the Independents around your Capital. 3 should be enough to deal with most things you'll run into, with the help of your starting army. Build another fortress as soon as possible. From here you can start generating more of the low-powered Earth apprentices. Set them to researching Construction, while using your Capital to churn out Ancient Lords, and the occasional Oracle. Easy on the Oracles, they can begin elderly, and you don't have a good way to fix that. Extra funds go into armoured Stone Hurlers, independents, and PD.

    Build atleast 3 fortresses producing apprentice earth-readers, and as many as possible, producing Ancient Lords.

    Your PD is crap, by the way, but try to get it up to atleast 25 in the important provinces. Recruit independent archers, slingers, and stick-monkeys as needed, and try to find a fast commander. You can use him/her to move your Stone Hurlers to areas that need extra protection.

    You really, really want Nature mages, and Nature sites. And if you find a blood/air site, or blood/air mages, hold on to them at all costs!

    Sadly, there's not a good way to give Agartha blood with this setup, and Oracles really need Boots of Youth, so try to break into Blood, somehow or other.

    Use your apprentice Earth-Readers to research Construction up to level 2. That's all you really need to make your Ancient Lords dominate the Early game.
    With *just* Construction 2, you can equip them with the following items: Star of Heroes, Black Steel Plate (or better yet, if you have air gems and air mages, Copper Plate), Lead Shield, Horror Helmet, Burning Pearl, Bracers of Protection, and, with Nature, Birch Boots. That's enough to last you until well into mid-game. Maybe even Late Game.

    Advantages: Cheap as hell items (none cost more than 10 gems each, 8 with dwarven hammer) + Cheap as hell, recruitable everywhere commanders.
    Here's a breakdown of the bonuses to the base Ancient Lord chassis:
    Out of the box (no Copper Plate/Birch Boots) version:

    +8 Attack (burning pearl, star of heroes)
    Damage +12 + Armour Destruction + Magic Weapon (star of heroes)
    Afflictions +100
    Regeneration +5%
    Reinvigoration +4 (bless)
    Shield + 20% chance air shield (bless)
    +4 MR (lead shield)
    Basic Prot +25 (black steel plate + horror helmet + bless) plus Bracers effect.
    Fire Resistance +50% (burning pearl)
    Fear 0 (horror helmet)

    Missle weapons are laughable-any that somehow get through the air shield AND the shield, aren't going to get through the improbably high Prot. If by some dark miracle they do, you'll just regenerate the damage. Other units don't stand much chance against you, since you can hit etherial units, destroy armour, reduce morale, not to mention, kill most units with a single hit. With that fire bless, you've also got great synergy with your Magma Children summons, and have a fighting chance against Abyssia.

    If you *do* get into a war with Abyssia (or Hinnom, or Fomorial, or Niefelheim) right away, look no further than Brimstone Boots, which will grant you +5 Str (not that you need it, for much other than Hinnom, Fomoria, or Niefelheim, but it's enough to raise your damage to...I don't know...40? 45? Somewhere around there-enough to kill even a Niefel in 2 shots, especially since the first shot destroys his armour), and a total of 150% fire resistance, without giving up a single benefit.

    Against Niefelheim, Caelum, or any water/cold Nation, you've got immediate access to cold resistance rings, if you need them, which can replace Bracers.

    All that is plenty to get you through the early game-and it's all forgeable by your mages, and available from your capital's gem production. With dwarven hammers, it comes down to about 40 gems per Ancient Lord, most of them Earth. That's less than some high powered non-artifact items cost, by themselves, and a lot less than many summons.

    I'd suggest that one Ancient Lord thus equipped could *probably* take out a fairly weak Independent Province, if only he were self-blessing. Sadly, this is not the case, so you're going to want to bring along atleast 1 priest unit. Oracles are ofcourse preferred.

    Even unequipped, though, you'll still have an excellent leader (80) with better than average Protection (especially for the Early Era), who regenerates, lasts all day, and is likely to do an affliction per hit to whatever he can't kill outright.

    Adding Copper Plate and Birch Boots gives the following benefits:
    Reinvigoration +2,
    Shock resistance +%100
    Cold and Poison resistance +50% each
    Charge body.
    Your Ancient Lord is now resistant to every elemental path. You need Nature and Air to accomplish this, but they're both on your Pretender, and they're pretty common paths on independents.
    This will reduce your basic prot to +20, plus bracers effect, but I doubt you'll miss it much. The cost will be 4 each Air and Nature, if I recall correctly, which is pretty affordable by mid-game.

    You don't really need to add any high level items to this. For 48 gems, you're already immune, or atleast strongly resistant, to almost anything anyone's going to throw at you. Just make more of the low level junk that's winning you the war, while supporting your ever-increasing Ancient Lord SC legion with Oracles, Summons, and healers, and do your best to build a small blood economy, boots of youth is all you need, to keep your Oracles young. You will eventually want to research to Construction 3 for Legions of Steel (another +3 Prot), 5 for Watchers, and 6 for Shadow Brand, Evening Star, Gate Cleaver. That's ok though-there's plenty of exotic Construction 4 gear your Oracles can use. And you don't have to rush it.

    Thoughts:

    I'd suggest sending these guys out in armies of 2 Oracles-1 fire/earth, 1 earth/water, (so you can spam Magma Eruption, Quickness, Bladewind, and Earthquake), 4 Earth Lords, and maybe 12 armoured Stone Hurlers, for backup. National Summons just add to the fun.

    Early Rush isn't a big problem, since you'll have your Ancient Lords on hand. If it becomes one, add a few Stone Hurlers to your Capital. You might want to maintain a small unit of Seal Guards there too, incase of SC.

    Numbers are a problem for these guys, but they become less of a problem over time, since they're tough, and won't suffer as much attrition-in-ranks as most other Nations.

    There really isn't a lot anyone can do to phase you, once you're established and have access to healing, since you're not likely to lose units very often, and they only get better over time (except Oracles, until you have Boots of Youth).

    Stone Hurlers are also Sacred, so that's +4 Prot (which is why you should only ever buy the armoured versions), 20% Air Shield, +4 Regeneration, 5% Regeneration, and %100 Afflictions for them, too, making them very surviveable against enemy archers, and even melee units, and their boulders (28 damage) will cause Afflictions to whatever they hit. A wall of them makes an extremely effective honor-guard for your Oracles-and they also make exceptional personal bodyguards, since very few assassins can get through their rain of rocks before the Oracle kills the assassin.

    Oracles give you plenty of artillery spells, and are tough enough to survive assassins/horrors. They can also be equipped and turned into self-blessing, self-buffing SCs. Gifts from the Sky are still a problem, but they're a problem for everyone.

    You've got the priests to take care of any demonic or undead pests, plus bad events, plus dom death. Those little apprentice earth-readers are *also* sacred, by the way, and are self-blessing, self-buffing, too, so if you want to equip them, they can be turned into very marginal thugs.

    Global Darkness just means "make more Umbrals".

    Heat 3+Death 3 makes your lands hard to take, and the lands surrounding them hard to live in, especially for Niefel and Caelum (heat).

    Glamour troops don't fare so well against massed Stone Hurlers, who can kill most glamour units in a single shot.

    Hinnom and Caelum can't trample you very easily, because your Ancient Lords are quite large.

    And you've got ready access to amphibious troops and water mages, so noone's safe from you.

    You could summon Tartarians, but there's really no reason to do so-you'd be spending about as many gems just to get them and GoR them, as you would for a fully equipped, unafflicted, sane Ancient Lord.

    Build as many fortresses as you can put on the map, without shutting down your ability to produce an Ancient Lord or an apprentice earth-reader a turn.

    Oracles are ultimately going to be the key to Agartha's greatness, so convert your Capital to their production as soon as possible. The best thing about a kitted out Ancient Lord is that Bladewind and other artillery spells are going to hurt your enemy a *lot* more often than they do you. You'll very rarely suffer from friendly fire with these guys.

    	    	    	8.12.1.3 EA Agartha guide

    Article Author:  P3D

    				8.12.1.3.1  Original thread

    EA Agartha Guide

    The is a guide written some times ago (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=30686). I got some inspiration by the recent discussions on MA Agartha to play them, and write another guide (even with my lack of MP experience).

    Overall: you average troops sucks. They hit the broadside of the barn with difficulty, do not deal much damage, even a few stars won¿t help them much. You have giant sacreds (recruitable everywhere) suffering from the same problems, but they can be get pretty decent with the adequate bless. Your one decent national summon is Conj 7 in CBM. So I am advocating a bless to go with the troops and your recruitable thugs. Even if their weapons selection looks suboptimal in most cases.
    My pick is an Imprisoned Forge Lord for F4E9N4 with T2P0H3G3L3M1 (from Baalz¿ MA guide) with Dom4, or add S4/B4 and take like O1S0H3D1L1M1 Dominion 3 to pay for it. You would not have resources to buy more than 4-5 Ancient Ones in most castles, recruitable H3 priests help you to push/maintain dominion.
    Your mages can throw all the Earth buffs and evocations to help them. Magic access is limited to Earth, Fire, Water and Death, so choose Pretender accordingly, and make an effort to diversify.
    Your other problem is single eye, bad precision and coldblooded units.

    So look at the troops offered. All the troops are NNE, so you can mass them if you want with no regards to supply, but honestly, you won¿t unless in special circumstances. All your units have siege bonus, so you can use them on either side of a siege to a great extent. With their bucklers they are very vulnerable to archer fire, too. They are also amphibious, so you can venture into the seas, And have Darkvision.
    Pale One militia, 7g2r: not even good as chaff due to the morale of 8 and 7 attack/defense.
    Wet one, 9g2r: slightly better stats
    Wet one (sea castles only), 9g5r?: sharkskin armor for prot 9, makes a somewhat more useful underwater chaff
    Pale ones: They come in four flavors, they make up your starting army and PD. They are great for chaff, though, with 18HP and a MR of 12. With size 3 they are also less affected by Area attack spells/weapons.
    Pale One, 9g4r: No armor, spear+buckler, Attack of 8, good only for chaff and sieges. With spear they deal 16 damage.
    Pale One Warrior, 10g11r: you will recruit this one mostly, due to their mapmove of 2 Protection body 11, head 2. They can at least soak up damage from indies and get in a hit or two. The bucker IMO does not help much.
    Pale One Warrior, 10g19r: 15 body and 12 head protection, cost the same amount of resources as an Ancient One troop, but their main disadvantage is the 1 mapmove. The protection is at least effective against the slings and short bows of EA.
    Cavern Guard, 13g22r: 21HP, 15/12 protection, 12 morale, 23 damage. OTOH, they have the same attack of 8, and they cost IMO too much resources. Also Mapmove 1.
    Troglodyte, 50g1r: The main reason why EA Agartha can survive. Size 4 trample that can be massed if one has the gold for it. In moderate numbers they will take out most indie provinces. Very vulnerable to archers (Prot 7), and will take losses, so arrange for reinforcement. As a note, one must get over a critical mass (10 against indies) to avoid fatigue. Their main disadvantage is the MR of 8, 14 morale OTOH is great for tramplers.
    Ancient Stone Hurler, 35g, 1/11r: have 2 boulders to throw to a distance of 6, in CBM AFAIK it is is an AoE attack. Have no other weapons (damage 18 with fists) or adequate protection (3 or 11) so 35g is on the expensive side for what is Agartha¿s equivalent of a Javelin Light infantry. They are Sacred, but no bless can make them useful. Also have a higher Siege Bonus, but it won¿t matter much.
    Ancient One, 40g19r: Pretty weak for a giant sacred, cannot hit or deal enough damage without a bless, Strength 18 with spears deals only 21 damage, with an attack skill of 9.
    But. They are recruitable everywhere, and affordable, so you can mass them without much problem. Take the example of the bless mentioned above ( F4E9N4). Your protection is now 15 on the body and 20 on the head (was 11/16), effectively stopping all EA missiles save Poison Bows. 12 morale now 14, MR says 13. Their encumbrance of 5 (+2 in severe heat) is countered by a 4 reinvigoration. Defense of 10 is low, does not worth the bless. With F4 your attack is now an acceptable 11 without any stars, and they will survive to pick a few.
    I have to paraphrase Baalz here, ¿But wait, there¿s more!¿
    You have recruitable-everywhere E2 Earth readers can throw on you the following buffs with a mere Earth Boots (Or after summon Earthpower):
    Strength Of Giants (Ench 3, E3): Now you deal 25 damage (27 with Blood bless), enough to punch through the armor of any giant troops over what they would regenerate.
    Legions of Steel (Const 1, E3): With +4 protection you are now at 19/24, with a very small encumbrance.
    At this time your opponents are fatigued after a Curse of Stones (Alt 3, E3, 3E gems), their armor destroyed by Destruction (Alt 4, E3) or Rust Mist (Evoc 2, E2W1). This won¿t affect magical armor of most thugs and SCs, though, against them use Weapons of Sharpness (Const 7, E4) which can be cast by the E2 Earth readers with one booster and Earthpower.
    Now take this army and buffs below water. No one has stronger underwater army (well, you have, with the Seal Guards).
    Seal Guard, 55g37r: your capital-only sacred troop. IMHO one of the best underwater units. 1/12 move means they are slow strategically , but not on the battlefield. Your protection is one higher than the Ancient Lords. With the bless, your attack is 14 with an obsidian glaive that makes 30 damage, which is on the same level as the largest giant troops  and magical against ethereal units/thugs/SCs. With 0 Production scale, you would be able to recruit 4-6 of them in your capital depending on the surrounding provinces  you want as much as possible.

    Leaders:
    Pale One Scout, 20g7r: They are amphibious, while still better stealth than indie scouts (+20), so you might even recruit one.
    Pale One Commander, 30g19r: they are amphibious, but as you can ferry troops underwater with your mages if necessary, no reason to recruit them
    Troglodyte Lord: Would be a good trampling thug if not for the 8MR that takes a lot to improve. Their overall skills are better than Ancient Lords, so it might worth it if you can make cheap MR items. They have no heads, so no helmet (or the need for one).
    Ancient Lord, 60g21r: Sacred commander (Leadership 120). He needs a lot of cheap items to make a good thug, as on its own he is worse in melee than a Seal Guard. But recruitable everywhere, equip them with cheap items (Dwarven hammers): Gold/Charcoal shield, brand sword, Birch boots, fire helm/plate depending on your opponents.
    Earth reader, 120g1r: 1E+100%FWED, 4RP, sacred, affordable researcher. With 18HP they make a better self-buffing thug than human priests, just kit them out (brand, boots, elemental resistance items). Cast Summon Earthpower, Fire Shield, Quicken Self, Iron Skin, Invulnerability depending on random picks and boosters.
    E2: with boosters (Boots, Blood Stone) and/or Summon Earthpower they free up your oracles from boosting your armies. Blade Wind, Earthquake.
    FE: Magma Bolts, Magma Eruption (w. Boots, Stone, Earthpower)
    WE: Rust Mist, Fire Ward
    ED: Dust-to-Dust, Summon Umbral
    They also come with a 40 leadership, as they would buff troops anyways, less need for indie commanders.
    Oracles of Subterranean Waters, Fire, Dead, 400g,1r: XE3+110%XE (X is either F,W or D), H3. Expensive capital-only mage-priests. W ones have one higher base attack skill than the rest. Mainly Earth mages, 55% to get a guaranteed lvl2 caster in their chosen path. Also 55% for E4, 5% for X3 or E5. They also have low precision, so would benefit from air mages casting Aim/Wind guide.
    Use them mainly to throw Divine Blesses/higher level battle evocations and buffs, or for forging. Earth Readers are cheaper researchers and can do most of the buffs. They are better Thugs/SCs kitted out than the Ancient Lords due to their magic path.
    They are also on the old side, quite a few of them have Old Age, especially the Fire ones.

    National Summons:
    Rhuax Pact: Conj 3, F1E1: 5 Children of Magma for 2 gems, castable by FE Earth Readers. Cheap fire beings with AoE1 Fire Attack, but they are vulnerable to pretty much everything. Bit too late to use against indies. They¿d be cheap to be massed, but magical, so even your Oracles cannot command more than 25 of them. This is IMO their main weakness. Consider them chaff, summon them in besieged castles, or on the frontlines preparing for attack/defense.
    Barathus Pact, Conj 3 E2: size 4 Earth Elemental for 1 gem. A replacement trampler instead of your trogs that cost no upkeep. Will shrink from strong blows. Also Magical.
    Umbral, Conj 6 (7 in CBM) E1D1: Size 4 68HP giant ethereal undead with life-stealing attack. Very strong unit for the price and availability. They, are, however, completely useless against lifeless/undead beings, and needsa lot of research. Gift of Reason gives a great Ethereal thug for 20N gems  great for trampling PD.

    Heroes:
    Ogon the Earth Blooded: F2E5,H3: a Fire Oracle with an extra reinvigoration
    Deepthought the Great Olm: W3E3, with Life Drain and Mind Blast attacks, also blind, but have 12 precision nevertheless. Not really useful as a thug, as they have only 2 hand/2misc slots, no armor, but stealthy for raids. In CBM, it is a multihero.
    Olmspawn: multihero in CBM, E1+100%FWED, essentially a free Earth Reader. IIRC also stealthy.

    Pretender Design

    You have Giant troops, so you can use the standard E9N4 bless. To get use of the Ancient ones, you must take F4. This leaves you with not much point on an Imprisoned pretender, could squeeze in another minor blessing (S4 or B4) mainly for forging reasons.
    F9 does not worth it with a single attack and already having magic weapon troops. W9 is an option. Have at least E4 for your sacred mages, E9 improves the protection of your troops immensely. Put cheap armor on your mages so they¿d also benefit from it (e.g. Shambler skin Armor). N4 gives regen for the troops. One could afford stronger E/N blesses . Astral helps you, but pick it for other reasons. Death bless helps to inflict afflictions with your mages  but Earthquakes would inflict afflictions on you, too. B4 would help the damage outlay of the Ancient Ones.

    Chassis:
    Follow Jazzepi¿s suggestion of a Forge Lord for MA Agartha, but imprison him for E9.
    Benefits are cheap Robes of Invulnerability, Rings of Wizardry/Bloodstones with appropriate picks. S4 is a better option IMHO.
    If you dispense with the forge bonus, other options Great Mother (EN bless), Great Olm (WE), Cyclops (for E10). You can have the F4E9N4 bless with a few Rainbow mages, esp. the Druid and the Sorceress  this would also help with magic diversity.
    The Ancient Oracle is a great SC, but too expensive for a Bless strategy.

    Dominion: Your Sacred recruitment is resource-constrained, no need to go over 5, you have H3 priests to preach.

    Scales:
    Order: You can use money, but you can go with a turmoil-Luck strategy. In that case, I¿d prefer T1 or 2 instead of 3.
    Production: Neutral. S1 might be good for some picked starts, but do not go below, otherwise you could not recruit Seal Guards in any number. You¿d benefit from P1 (after building a few temples), but usually you need points from somewhere.
    Heat/Cold: H3 as you need the points, and you are cold blooded. Reinvig mitigates the Severe Heat encumbrance. Your troops do not eat, either.
    Growth/Death: You don¿t need Growth for supplies. You can afford D1, it won¿t affect you much, but I won¿t go below. Take it if you also have Order. If you take Turmoil, you need either Growth or Production to help with your income.
    Luck/Misfortune: If you took Death, you should pick Luck to balance against bad events. You don¿t have soothsayers, and your PD is, well, crap. Do not go with Misfortune unless with O3.
    Magic: Drain2 instead of M1 would give you points, but would reduce you research speed by 40%. You want to spend your Death gems on things different from Skull Mentors. Lightless Lanterns are Const 6, and you cannot afford to neglect the other magic schools.

    Strategy

    First, you need to get some troops for expansion. Set taxes to 130% and patrol the first turn. Recruit an Earth Reader, 3 Pale ones and 5 Trogs from the starting 400 golds. Or 8 Trogs and no mage. The 5 trogs would help taking indies (avoid strong ones).
    If you have bad scales, one might alchemize your fire and earth gem income for 55g/turn, to get the second expansion party and first Oracle sooner.
    I¿d prophetize the first Oracle to get H4, it offers +1 penetration bonus over H3, and larger AoE for Banishment. Death ones are the least affected by old age, the Fire ones are the most.
    Recruit Seal Guards as your resources allow, do not buy Trogs until you would be ready to send them out (they have 3.3gold maintenance).
    Recruit only Ancient Ones in your castles. Instead of buying a lot of Trogs, keep some gold (as in 1.5-2K) in reserve, so you could buy 30-40 of them in a turn if anyone attacks you.

    Castles: Cave Castles (in caves and mountains) are expensive and have low admin, but they autocast Darkness during sieges. Build cheap forts in forest and swamp, Fortified Cities (for the income) in Grassland.

    You can build castles underwater, but recruit only chaff and no priests/mages. Put them on Amber Clan provinces or in straits to stop other underwater nations  and provide troops from nearby land forts.

    Site search:
    Send out oracles manually, to get your Earth income flowing in. They¿d also search for Holy sites, giving some Astral income.
    You will need to diversify your magic with indies  Jade/Crystal/Garnet amazons, lizardmen, shamans, summons. Hidden in Sand for 75 E gems.

    Research:
    With M1 and standard research speed, you can get to Evoc-4 and thus Blade Wind in a year. Const-1 for Legions of Steel, Const 2 for Hammer. Then I¿d go for Conj-3(or 4) for the Rhuax/Barathus Pact, site search and Summon Earthpower. Thau-2 for site search spells. Alt-2 for Blindness, Alt-4 for buffs.

    Your troops with bless are adequate for expansion and early wars. Recruit some indie archers (Flame Arrow, Ench-4 if you have boosters), preferably ones with high precision (Crystal Amazons, Woodsmen, horse archers in CBM) to complement your line troops against lightly armored units. Use Earth buffs to reduce losses. You also benefit from Darkness.
    Use Earth Readers, GoR-ed Umbrals and Ancient Lord as thugs, with Oracles buffing them and cast evocations. Even Earth Readers with Crystal shield+booster can cast Soul Vortex.

    				8.12.1.3.2 Comments

    -> Trumanator:
    One point about the Rhuax pact is that it can be excellent when fighting either Niefel, because of their fire vulnerability, or the heims since the flame attack whacks the whole square, rendering glamour useless.

    	--> Jazzepi:
    Combustion is nice as well. It sets them on fire which does some decent damage over time while your statues tank the front lines.

    -> chrispedersen:

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by P3D View Post

    Research:
    With M1 and standard research speed, you can get to Evoc-4 and thus Blade Wind in a year. Const-1 for Legions of Steel, Const 2 for Hammer. Then I¿d go for Conj-3(or 4) for the Rhuax/Barathus Pact, site search and Summon Earthpower. Thau-2 for site search spells. Alt-2 for Blindness, Alt-4 for buffs.

    Your troops with bless are adequate for expansion and early wars. Recruit some indie archers (Flame Arrow, Ench-4 if you have boosters), preferably ones with high precision (Crystal Amazons, Woodsmen, horse archers in CBM) to complement your line troops against lightly armored units. Use Earth buffs to reduce losses. You also benefit from Darkness.
    Use Earth Readers, GoR-ed Umbrals and Ancient Lord as thugs, with Oracles buffing them and cast evocations. Even Earth Readers with Crystal shield+booster can cast Soul Vortex.

    You are missing a whole huge part of the EA agartha strategy.
    Fire oracles make fire boosters for fire readers. Water oracles water boosters for water readers.. etc.

    Research con4 for the boosters. Use the earth readers for the summon rhuax, or with the boosters, the site searching spells.

    N4 helps your claymen and your sacreds regen.
    (huh, interesting thought, F8N10 would give you +6 to hit ... and you could finally hit things...

    	--> P3D:
    Earth Boots are not needed for Gnome Lore, Skull Staff (ditto), and Water bracelet (which can be made by a WE Reader, but still necessary). For Flaming Skull you need to empower, for Flame Helmet either empower or RoW+Staff or the rare F3 Oracle+booster (those boosters made by the F4S4+ pretender). I could add a paragraph on forging, though.

    -> chrispedersen:
    I guess I would make the following points:

    1. Try a Magic +3. Your mages then go 120 gp for 4 research, to 120 gp for 6. Plus you are sacred.

    2. Your earth readers, with an appropriate forger, become fantastically useful.

    3. Your Oracles should be used for SC's, and for booster production when your pretender is not.

    Early in the game, choose the oracles with death (not the other ones). They have a lower chance of affliction. Use them to get bootstrapped in death and to build your earth boosters.

    -> Agema:
    You don't need trogs to expand with your F/E/N bless, basic ancient ones will fight all day and barely die, so will defeat indies comfortably. They just tend to take a little more time doing it than trampling trogs. Your giants will also gain XP quickly, so their weak Att will eventually become respectable (and don't forget the F bless helping out).

    You don't need to empower to make F boosters: your pretender can do that. You also don't really need magic scales. You have F and D magic, so can build lightless lanterns and skull mentors.

    	--> P3d:
    Dunno, initially, you don't have resources to buy enough Seal Guards, and Trogs are ideal to fill out the second and third expansion army. Granted, going for Const-1 first would make them immune to almost anything indies have.

    The pretender might have other things to do besides making fire boosters to cast Augury.

    My problem with no Magic scales is that Skull Mentors are expensive - they cost Death gems which you don't have much initially, and have dozens of better uses later. Shadow Brand, Horror Helmet, Skullface and Bone Armor besides Umbrals. You might not find enough Death sites either. Conj-6 might be a bit far to wait for Lanterns, of course you can rush it. At least that's my opinion.

    	--> chrispedersen:
    Agree - don't empower, let your pretender forge them.
    Agree also that death gems are better put in umbrals
    Also make sure to mention you should have an earth reader in the site every turn.

    As for Trogs - Use trogs when you are fightin in cold territories. I probably wouldn't bother in cold 1... but in cold3 hellya.

    And trogs become quite respectable when you get their protection up.

    Since your D Oracles are capital only - you *have* to do something to stay up in the magical research. You could try building castles - but I think slow expansion really precludes that.

    My choice of pretenders (CBM) would either be
    Phoenix (Awake) F4N4-5A4, F4E4A4, F4S5A4, F4D4A4

    Phoenix has a problem with no hands, so no hammers, which means you may wish to boost one higher than normal to make bootstrapping easierr. Exploding phoenixes give you good expansion, good minor blesses, good site searching and fills some gaps you can't otherwise cast A/N/S. FD is good for fireskulls, and are very useful for your Death DOs.

    Olm: My choice only if you know you will be starting in or near water. Take N/W to get the free castles. Asleep is probably ok if you are only starting *near*

    ForgeLord F4E4(N4|S4) You can increase the skills if you wish. If you are going to face undead (Ermor) Demons (lanka) the ability to crystal matrix, crystal slave, and crystal shields let your H7 communed DO's do insane banish damage might give you a chance.

    -> JimMorrison:
    On Sieges- there is a (Siege) bonus, AND a (Defense) bonus. Having a (Siege) bonus confers no benefit to protecting a castle, only in assaulting it.

    The Agarthans are great tunnelers, not great builders.

    	--> P3D:
    My note on their good siege defense is only due to no deed for supplies.

    I found that 6 Seal Guards can take out most indies with the F4E9N4 bless. But to get them built in two turns early one need Prod-1 and/or take high-resource provinces. Most lost fights come mainly from the death of the commander - they are anything but fast dealing the damage. So have a few bodyguards with the Reader/Oracle. Even indie infantry is OK for the purpose.

    Oracles are not particularly efficient at research, 7 base RP for 400g, vs. 4 for 120g of the readers. The only available cheap/fast castle is IIRC in Forests (maybe swamps too).

    Trogs need protection buffs to survive mid/late game, as they have no armor those buffs are high level. It was mentioned in another EA Agartha thread that 30 Trogs Hold/Attack Rear, Army of Lead+Mass Flight+Quickness can be devastating.

    Would Cold Resistance/Immunity decrease extra fatigue for Cold blood?

    	--> chrispedersen:
    ..Y
    ...
    ...
    .XX
    .XX

    If you set up in the back top left, against indies, this will minimize deaths due to stray arrows (hold hold attack). Commander set to bles bless.. and then *don't* have him cast spells. Fatigue makes it easier to hit him, and the silly earth balls they cast are pointless. You could tell him to cast earth grip in CBM - that does help your seal guards hit.

    Agree with almost every point P. OR you can play in a resource 125-150%, and forgo the P-1.

    Yes, cold immunity helps.

    Also, if you find the size 1 goblins, or have a chance to buy the mercenary - they are gold. I don't remember if they work with the seal guards.. but I know they work with trogs and maybe your other ancient.

    Inefficient research is why I believe you cry for a M1 at least or an M3 preferably scale.

    ->
    	    	    	8.12.1.4

    	    	8.12.2 MA Agartha

    			8.12.2.1 LP's guide

    Table of Contents
    7.12.2.1.0.0 Retractions and Revisions
    7.12.2.1.1.0 Introduction
    7.12.2.1.2.0 Troops of the Golem Cult
    7.12.2.1.2.1 Overview
    7.12.2.1.2.2 Units
    7.12.2.1.2.3 Military Commanders
    7.12.2.1.2.4 Mage-Priests
    7.12.2.1.2.5 Military Review

    7.12.2.1.3.1 National Summons & the Golem Cult

    7.12.2.1.0.0 Retractions & Revisions
    Jun.14.2007 Dwarven Hammer does not boost paths for purposes of forging. Passages removed.
    Jun.14.2007 Paragraph added on Oracles and Preaching
    Jun.14.2007 Various formating.
    Jun.14.2007 Added hard details on old age in MagePriest section.

    A Guide to MA Agartha, Golem Cult

    				8.12.2.1.1.0 Introduction

    Agartha is a nation of cave dwellers, a declining civilization. Think Avernum, Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis. Agartha is a rather straightforward and simple to use race, without the complexities of many other factions. However, despite this simplicity, they can be challenging to use effectively. With a starting income of 5 earth gems, but few summons until enchantment 3- and some research issues due to old age, they often start equipping commanders (thugs) immediately. All your units have some darkvision, and you have access to amphibious troops.

    				8.12.2.1.2.0 Troops of the Golem Cult

    				8.12.2.1.2.1 Overview

        Quote:

        While national troops by and large become obsolete by the late game, having a solid understanding of a nation¿s forces is necessary for a strong early game. A powerful early game position will often translate into a powerful late game position.

    He said it so well, I had to quote him. Its even more true with Agartha, Golem Cult.

    The strength of the Golem Cult lies in its national summons and mages. None of your mundane troops are outstanding.. Unfortunately, you need 200 research points (standard) before you access your first national summon. If you recruited only golem crafters, you would be pushing up against the end of your first year before they were available. Earth Drakes are available earlier, but they have even worse odds at landing a blow than your Ancient Ones.

    On top of that, you have little chaff, no archers, and fairly high resource costs. You need to use your available troops well, or your expansion will be stopped dead.

    Your options are rather limited, and unexceptional, but qutie solid. Your gold costs aren't that high (thanks to low skill), but your resource costs are very high. At least you're thoroughly equipped. No naked warriors or helmless headwounds here. And just about everybody has a shield.

    Your human infantry are pretty much the definition of average. Attack, defense, morale- everything about them is standard. No advantage to be gained by these troops, but no glaring vulnerabilities, either.

    All that said, they are pretty durable for their weight class. They don't scale up well, but throw them into the proper situation and they'll do quite well.

    Your human troops all have 50% darkvision, shields with good parry values (most basic missile fire isn't a concern, tends to boost protection further), and short swords (you're vulnerable to repels, but with a def of 13/14 its not a concern with most independents).

    Your non-human troops are less skilled than the humans, but they have a little more strength and magic resistance, a lot more hitpoints, and less encumbrance than many medium infantry. On top of that, they have 100% dark vision, are amphibious, have a siege bonus, and did I forget to mention they don't need to eat? And, they don't wield short swords, thank god (You're welcome). Unfortunately, they are coldblooded, and have trouble hitting a barn, use rather pathetic shields, and their large size makes them excellent targets for arrows/outnumbering.

    				8.12.2.1.2.2 National Units

    Note on Light, normal, and Heavy Infantry
    They are all equipped with a short sword. I've mentioned the repel, above, but also worth noting is that the weapon damage is 5. Plus strength, thats a base of 15 + DRN for the damage roll. Given that most heavy infantry has 15 prot or above, your units are somewhat impotent against heavy armor. On the other hand, your mages can resolve that problem very simply, with that +4 strength spell.

    Light Infantry (10,10)
    Entirely unexceptional, it will be the foundation of your expansion forces. Unlike most light infantry, they don't come with javelins. If you're facing high prot troops, leave them behind. They aren't cheap enough to be chaff. Due to a a parry value of 4, they only a 18% chance of being hit by arrows at the start of a battle. Not bad. It also helps absorb some blows as shield hits.

    Throw them up against heavy infantry and cavalary, and you'll hurt bad. But if you bring them up against militia, light infantry, and archers, they can usually fight their fair share with low casualties. The key thing is to keep them in their weight class. Whenever you don't, it'll turn into a bloody slaughter.

    Infantry (10,22)

    The immediate differences between these and the light infantry are obvious. However, the real thing you're paying for takes a little investigating to discover. The key component here is the Kite Shield. This is one of, if not the best, basic shields available, with a parry value of six. This helps in melee, sure, but before fatigue kicks in, these guys have only a 6% chance of being hit by missiles. That isn't counting all the other factors such as deviation. You may not have archers, but you have a unit that takes only a third the missile hits that most nations do.

    So, now you know what you're buying, what will you use these for? Early on, they'll be the core of your expansion force. My first team involves one Captain, 10 Infantry in the center, and a squad of 10 light infantry to each side, slightly behind. Since they don't do any more damage, they function to blunt the enemies fury, and hold the center while your more vulnerable, but plentiful light infantry attacks the flank. They let you take some meaner independents, but no giants or elephants yet. However, their great defense effectively boost their morale, too. Low morale independents might break before you take a single morale roll. It doesn't happen that often, but is rather nice when thirty units takes out 45 without any casualties.

    Unlike light infantry, regular infantry can fight against heavy infantry. They will likely come out the worst for wear, but it isn't the suicide it is for LI. You've got a variety of spells that can help tilt a battle in your favor, even with a measly Earth Reader and Alt2.

    Heavy Infantry (10,27)

    These are an excellent choice for close combat between most human armies.

    The difference between I and HI is much less significant than between LI and I. Still, without a productivity bonus, you won't be fielding many of these until later on. With, you may consider using these instead of your regular infantry in the core of your force. Heavy Infantry aren't that much better than medium, but than they don't cost much more, either. They don't gain any additional damage, lose a little speed, are a little easier to hit and tire a little earlier. What they do gain is 3 protection.

    They are an excellent choice for close combat... but with only ten hitpoints, do not bring them to bear against strong units like giants. Light and regular are better choices. But against your typical size two humanoids and skelly spam, they have a lot more staying power.

    Keep in mind, though, that these units don't have a lot of punch. Don't expect them to kill other high protection troops without a little assistance. They're your best bodyguards. If you can, you should put five on every Golem Crafter who is also leading various golems/statues.

    And last, they still only have 10 attack and a short sword. Keep that in mind when you're facing very nimble forces.

    Notes on your underground albino giants-
    Since they don't need to eat, they aren't a bad choice for defending fortresses. Though that is a bit of a waste. They can do a number while sieging fortresses. And, of course, they go underwater without any penalties. They also have rather puny shields, which combined with their large sizes makes them rather vulnerable targets.

    Pale One Soldiers (10,20)

    Size three. Size three. Size three. Big disadvantage. As atul said, "it means they get only 2 attacks against a block full of human-sized opponents who attack thrice. With their poor att and def, I think that equals a world of hurt. "

    Despite their large size, they only carry a buckler with a parry of two. Instead of 18% or 6%, they'll be hit 46% of the time. On top of all that, they have trouble hitting the broadside of a wounded barn.

    Only build these when you have a reason to.
    1). Going underwater
    2). Siege- one of these guys is equal to three infantry. 20 gold, 20 resource versus 30 gold, 30 resources (LI). And without eating, you aren't worrying about your supply lines. If you spend the same amount in LI and POS, you get 50% more reduction strength with POS. With medium and heavy infantry, it starts to look even better. Bring forty or eighty of these when taking down the weaker forts and you'll have it down before reinforcements can come.
    3). Darkness. It doesn't come around that often, without planning, but it reverses the equation. Arrows aren't a worry any more, and your defense and attack is much more attractive. It can win you battles. Beware other races with darkvision or bunches of undead and death magic.

    Ancient Ones (40,19)

    EDIT: I forgot to mention a strategic move of 2. Important.

    Now we're getting expensive. But we're also getting sacred, with all its blesses. While these benefit greatly from a variety of blesses, they are too rare to build a bless strat around. And they aren't THAT great, either. Don't go out of your way to get a good bless for them, but with all of your mages being priests, take advantage of it when you have it.

    Let's take sieging first. One guy has 18 strength. That's 3 siege damage done before you take into account siege bonus (5). Just five of these does 40 points of fortification damage. Five of these? 200 Gold. 40 light infantry? 400 gold. If you've been buying five a turn for eight turns, you can bring 40 to a siege. Bit of an investment? Yes. Scarce? Yes. But 320 points of reduction strength are hard to argue with.

    Second, they're size four. That makes them more vulnerable again to massed attacks and archery, but it also protects against size four tramplers. Which are unfortunately very rare in the middle age, excepting Arcosephale, Pangaea, R'lyeh, Vanheim, and elemental summons. On the plus side, with forty hitpoints, they have can survive a trample and have a chance of hitting and panicking an elephant. Though it'll hurt like a *bleep*. That said, don't use these as elephant counters unless you're REALLY desperate.

    Third, if you can actually get them in enough numbers, they can ravage water independents.

    Fourth, arrows hurt. Bad. If you have to bring them to an arrow heavy environment, put them behind some infantry, please. Certainly, they won't be able to attack from there, but they are hard to replace.

    Fifth, don't get high dominion to recruit more of these. Being capital only, even with 10 holy resources, you're not likely to able to recruit more than 5 due to the high resource cost.

    				8.12.2.1.2.3 Military Commanders

    All but one of your military (no magic) commanders can be built outside of your capital. They also have a strategic move of two, faster than most of your troops, and certainly faster than your mages. They can also be decked out rather easily and early, thanks to earth gem income, but the value of such a move is debatable.

    Format is name, gold, resources, leadership

    Scout (20,3,0)
    Its a scout. Yay! Good to have, but boring.

    Cave Captain (30,22,80)
    Basic equipment equal to an infantry, this guy isn't vulnerable to arrows. You'll use him primarily to lead light infantry brigades. He's also an excellent choice for a research nation because at 80 leadership, you can take him further before needing to hire another military leader.

    Pale One Captain (30,20,40)
    Inferior to your Cave Captain (at least without equipment), you'll only recruit one to lead your Pale One Soldiers in an amphibious assault or if you expect to see darkness conditions. He's fast enough to lead your Ancient Ones, but too vulnerable. On the plus side, he's fast enough to lead sea/amphibious independent recruits who are faster than your Pale Ones. You can easily kit him out with a black steel tower shield and eliminate his number one vulnerability. Other than that, he's not worth kitting when Ancient Lords are around.

    Ancient Lord (90,21,80)

    A sacred giant, basically. Capital only. Have to keep in mind the cold vulnerability, but compares favorably to a Jotun Jarl. The stats aren't all around better, but considering the fact that you have enough gem income to forge him an item every turn from middle spring onward, he's a force to be reckoned with. There are some glaring weaknesses with this guy, notably cold-blooded, and no shield, but these can be reckoned with.

    If you recruit one early, aiming for death match championship, your basic starter kit will be either
    [Stinger, Black Steel Tower Shield, Black Steel Plate]
    or, you'll disregard arrows entirely and go with a prot build of [Two-Handed Sword of Sharpness, Black Steel Full Plate, Black Steel Helmet.] Later on, as he gains experience and you get a more diverse gem income, all sorts of nifty options open up.

    You want these guys out fighting, though they're not great at handling crowds. Every att, def bonus these guys get is crucial. If you get one with heroic ability attack bonus (I've seen +5 in year three), treasure him and get him, in order of construction level, a 2h Sword of Sharpness (AP), Hammer of the Mountains (-2 attack, 25 damage), Midget Masher (2 at, 13 damage, double versus smaller), or Gate Cleaver for obscene damage rolls. We're talking damage rolls of 40 and above once we break out of trinkets. DRN+17+9 armor piercing, DRN 17+25, (DRN 17+13) x2, DRN 17+29 Armor negating.

    And that's only the tip of the stalagmite. Have fun.

    				8.12.2.1.2.4 Mage Priests

    Your mages, and your golems, are the strength of your nation. Almost every turn you'll be recruiting one.

    It's also worth noting that every mage requires a lab and temple to recruit. Add on the cost of a fort, and this gets pricy. If you're focusing on research and have taken strong magic scales, keep an eye out for rare magical indie commanders that require only a lab. If you happen to find a library, even better.

    All your mages are sacred, and priests, and the better are suffering old age. And since they're sacred, they're fairly cost efficient, too. And not a single one has precision over 8, though darkvision is a constant.

    When you expect the undead, they aren't much of a threat, or at least the lowly hordes (skelly spam), since everyone can cast Banishment. Unfortunately, quite a few undead are stealthy, and won't bother to announce their presence. But you're still better off than most.

    All the human mages have one considerable flaw. Ten hitpoints. Even with stoneskin cast, lucky missile fire can pop them like a balloon. Arrow catching infantry are a must, cafeful placement too. For a large crucial battle involving lots of missile fire (crossbows?), it may be worth the encumbrance penalty to equip them with any spare Black Steel Shields for a turn or two. Then move the equipment back to those who can use it better. It depends on your opponents, your luck, and your formation skills. I've won plenty of battles w/o mages w/shields. But I've gone through a few where my two mages die in one hit, after stoneskin.

    Leadership scores are (L mundane - undead - magical)
    Age is in format recruit age, old age.

    Attendant of the Oracle (50,1) (L 10-0-0) H
    Age: 33 out of 50
    When you read the description of these guys, they come off as bootlickers, attending to every need of the Ancients, even going as far to wipe their asses for them. So, in the rare cases I do recruit these guys, that's what for. Leading 10 Ancient Ones into battle with a bless. But they're in no way superior to your standard independent priest, or your Earth Reader. The only real reason to recruit these is if your lab burns down.

    Earth Reader (90,1) (L 40-0-5) EH
    Age: 33 out of 50
    It's not your best mage, by a longshot. But it is one you know won't die of natural causes. It also has an unusually high leadership. It makes a good, though fragile leader for your slow Infantry and Heavy Infantry. And it can lead a few golems. Given it can lead only five, I'd skip giving them Attentive Statues.

    While one earth seems boring, these can kick up the power scales quite quickly. One earth gem allows them to cast Earth Power, turn into E2 mages. They can spend some more gems to cast E3. Earth Boots are too expensive to equip on every one, but given a lab, you can move them around to where they're needed and enable your ERs to cast all the way up to E4.

    You'll recruit these when you're saving money. If you're pinching pennies for another fortress, or have several up already, you'll hire these. If your capital is surrounded by tough independents, with few spare resources, you'll hire these and spend the change on mercenaries. If, for some crazy reason, you're under a heavy death dominion (yours or the enemies'), you'll recruit these because they won't die in the winter.

    Golem Crafter (200,2) (L 40-0-15) FWEEH
    Age: 52 out of 48
    This guy starts old. Give him a few death scales and he'll die young. Give a few growth, and who knows how long he'll last. At 0 growth-death, you usually can get your money's worth. If your expansion is growing well, your national troops are sufficent, and your budget is okay, you'll be recruiting one of these nearly every turn.

    They can cast Rust Mist (WEE) and Magma Bolts (FE) without any assistance. They'll be doing that quite often. They'll be forging more than a few useful artifacts. They'll be summoning most of your golems. And leading them, too. They'll be doing most of your research. With some gem assist, they can boost into hire paths of fire and water magic (underwater only) during combat. And you'll probably be sending quite a few of them around searching sites for fire and water, unfortunately.

    Oracle of the Ancients (400, 1) (L 80-30-15) DEEEHHH? Random 10% pick in water, earth, fire, or death
    Age: 440 out of 400. But maximum lifespan is better, also.

    Sacred. Capital only. Meaty (38 HP). Amphibious. Slow (map move 1). Level 3 priest.

    At 400 gold, and no extra research, you'll buy only the ones you need. You'll use them to scry for death sites (until you find the right independent), summon and lead your undead nationals, forge dwarven hammers, and summon your best national golems. And Blighting your opponent's provinces for a mere 5 earth gems as early as Alteration four. You'll also bring them along with your armies to preach.

    Did I just say you'd have a 400 gold unit preach? Yes. Once you have your national golems up and about, this is perhaps the most important thing they can do, even with a strong pretender dominion. Your level one priest can only raise dominion to 2, 4 if you have a temple there. An Oracle of the Ancients can raise dominion as high as six, eight if there's a temple, and ten if there's a temple and he's a prophet. The base chance of success for a priest is 30%, for an Oracle 90%. Add in a temple and that goes to 120%. These guys make it much easier to take AND HOLD hostile territory, since every point of dominion gives your golems +10% hitpoints.

    Their random pick is too rare, but when it kicks in, it usually offers some nice benefits. Don't underestimate this. Since you can't depend upon it, I'll only offer a couple examples. Earth and Earth Boots opens up three global earth spells. Death allows you to Summon Spectre (Spectral Mage) and Mound Fiend, via a Skull Staff.

    				8.12.2.1.2.5 A review of your military

    Your human infantry are well protected, and fear few arrows. But they're quite lackluster when compared to other nations. They are severely limited by resources, and have a low damage potential. They do have a decent (13) defense score, and that helps.

    Light Infantry - These are your fast units. They can easily handle independents consisting of archers, militia, [animal] tribe warriors, light infantry. They will suffer a world of hurt against heavy infantry and barbarians. Choose your targets wisely.

    Infantry - These are worth the resources, but hard to recruit in quantity. You'll usually throw 10 or 20 in with a whole mess of LI when you need something with a little more staying power. They're outclassed by quite a few national troops, however. They're equivalent to most independent heavy infantries. Don't underestimate them because they don't have 'heavy' in front.

    Heavy Infantry - Your shocktroopers. They still have dinky damage, but they'll be your very best bodyguards. With some of your protection spells, they can form a good wall.

    Pale One Soldiers - Not worth recruiting for most expansion, they'll be used to take water provinces, and open another war front against other land nations. They'll also be used in siege warfare, or when you're expecting darkness conditions.

    Ancient Ones - maddeningly vulnerable to arrows, and coldblooded, they certainly have their drawbacks. Their attack is a little better than the POS, but their greater strength more than compensates for their decreased hit rate. Unless you have equalizers in place, count them out against units with a defense of 13 or more. They'll only hit 18%. Nice combinations include fire bless, Darkness, Arrow Fend, Legions of Steel, and Curse of Stones.

    Scouts - Get them when you need scouts, but you'll often have something better to buy. You'll usually be better off recruiting from independents.

    Cave Captains - Use them to lead large groups of light infantry and/or speedy independents, they're the closest thing to a rapid response team you have. There's not much reason to choose them over independent commanders, but

    Pale One Captains- Use them to lead amphibious assaults.

    Ancient Lord - Well worth thugging. They won't kill armies by their lonesome, but an solo Ancient Lord equipped with a 2h Sword of Sharpness, Black Steel Helmet, and Black Steel Full Plate (all trinkets) can take down 8 enemy humanoids before going down. All in one hit each. Properly supported, it is a worthwhile addition to your force. The problem is properly supporting them. They have a move speed of 13- aside from Ancient Ones, you have nothing else as fast. You can put them behind your infantry, but if you do it improperly, they'll just get stuck at the rear doing you no good. If you're deploying these with anything but Ancient Ones, experiment with your formations, watch the battles, and learn what works well before you get into a battle where they are needed.

    Acolytes of the Ancients - Near worthless, unless you have the no independents mods. In that case, they're actually worth using because they are the only blesser fast enough to keep pace with your Ancient Ones. If you need preaching in a distant province, they'll get there quicker than your mage-priests.

    Earth Reader - They make a decent leader for infantry and heavy infantry. They don't do much with their spells, but they can scale upwards when necessary. Just keep those spare gems on a commander who can't use them. And while their 5 magic leadership doesn't seem like much, five golems can add a surprising amount of oomph to a force. They're also the cheapest option if you expect to be constantly forging equipment. There's a lot of earth equipment available at only 1E. And even with Gnome Lore being available, it can be worth sending out a couple of these early on to search for sites. You'll recruit these for any permanent positions.

    Golem Crafters - Compared to other nations, a puny researcher. On the plus side, the cost is reasonable, and he's sacred. On the downside, plagued by old age, you'll be constantly screening the messages for their obituaries and hiring replacements. Early on, you'll be buying a lot of these, and dedicating them to research. They're hardly worthless in combat, but getting to Attentive Statues before year two is so important you won't want to spare them. Once you've got a solid research base, there is quite a bit they'll be doing for you in battle. But if you still have earth gems, keep em at home summoning instead.

    Oracle of the Ancients - Don't hire more than one your first year. They don't have the research to make it worthwhile. Later on, they'll become critical for their access to certain summons, ability to lead undead, and the importance of their preaching in taking and holding hostile territory. Their holy magic will be helpful on occasion, too. Early on, they'll take a few converted gems and scry for death sites, forge a dwarven hammer, and any other odd tasks.

    				8.12.2.1.2.6 Odds and ends

    	    				8.12.2.1.2.6.1 What is the Golem Cult?

    In short, the golem cult is +10% per level of friendly dominion, for your golems. This includes non-national golems such as Claymen and "Golem" golems. It does not cover undead. If I understand the system correctly, it remembers the highest province they stayed in, till getting damaged. It may pay to move new summons through a high dominion area on the way to the front. It WILL pay if you find any fast independents with magic leadership or twiceborn a oracle, since your map move is three, but all your default leaders are stuck at one.

    	    				8.12.2.1.2.6.2 Conjuration (Undead - death gems)

    Awaken Cavern Wight (3 gems, summons one)
    Consider it the poor man's Wight, it available at the same time as the regular Wight, but at DE, not DD. It also costs 40% less gems. It loses the Bane Blade, but it gains a higher damage Glaive. It gains more hitpoints, but loses a lot of protection. In general, it is inferior. Still, it is a fairly tough unit for the cost, and that chill affect can come in quite handy. Remember, chill stacks, and every 20/10 points reduces enemy attack/defense. Every 15 increases the chance for critical hits. You might freeze them, also.

    Summon Umbral (2 gems, summons one)
    A very impressive stealthy, ethereal, life draining unit. Like all ethereal units, it is vulnerable to magical weapons, but with a meaty 68 hitpoints, it isn't going to be threatened by any old banishment prayer. It is a lot harder to mass than shades, being only one to a spell, but you won't have much undead leadership capacity anyways. it's quite strong, has solid attack, morale, and defense, and a pretty good MR of 16.

    While they are worth including in a standard force, keep in mind the Rod of the Leper King (1D). This can give any of your units, even the scout, fifty undead leadership. The disease is a downside, but if you managed to summon a Black Servant (2D), you can avoid that problem and have yourself a stealthy raiding force. If you can't do that, they're still worth using. In short, I'd say ambushes.

    Sun Tzu's Art of War has some vague, but interesting things to say with regards to this. It's a pretty short read, I highly recommend it.

    	    				8.12.2.1.2.6.3 Enchantment (Golems - earth gems)

    Your golems are the centerpiece of your Agarthan strategy. You can mix things up quite a bit, but you'll use golems or lose. They are magical beings, lifeless, inanimate, mindless, and neverhealing - outside of labs, that is. They have 50 morale, 22 protection, and 0 encumbrance. All that grants certain immunities and advantages, but leads to a few weaknesses you'll have to learn about.

    They a nice map move of three, but unfortunately you're limited to map-move 1 magic leaders. If you find a fast independent mage or twiceborn an oracle, that will be a big help.

    Quite a few are sacred. I'll cover blesses in a later section. I will briefly mention that earth and nature blesses are just about moot w/regards to golems.

    They don't take much damage, but when they do, you'll need to retreat/ferry a few to the nearest lab. However, since they can only be led by a mage, you can build your own. They can carry the bonus hitpoints they get from a friendly dominion into a hostile dominion.

    While I've brought up the subject of their leadership, the one greatest threat to your golems is going without. If you have no mages present on the battlefield, your golems instagib. That is, they burst into a horrifying cloud of blood. The total amount of magic leadership doesn't matter, however, as long as there is some there. You'll need to protect your mages and factor in redundancy. Bodyguards will help deal with arrows and flyers, but aren't perfect. Stoneskin helps, but can't be depended on, since DRN is an open-ended roll, and fatigue increases the chances of criticals. Your mages won't die in every combat, they're not at risk, but you'll curse yourself when you forget bodyguards, and two lucky arrows deal ten points of damage to your two stoneskinned golem crafters and slay all your golems. It's almost always better to err on the side of caution when dealing with golem leaders. Failure isn't that common, but it is catastrophic when it occurs.

    To repeat, to prevent the catastrophic loss of all your golems, all you typically need is a little protection, a few (human) bodyguards, and a little redundancy. Even imperfect as it is, stoneskin is well worth casting. Oh, and don't bunch your mages up. There will be situations later on where you need to take extraordinary measures, but those will usually be self evident. It's rather convenient that water/earth offers both Resist Fire and Cold Resistance. And with a Dwarven Hammer, certain trinkets only cost 3 gems. Lightning Rod, Ring of Fire/Frost. And if you're desperate, the Lead Shield is always available, but a bit pricy.

    Most of your golems are sacred, opening some opportunites, wear no armor (all natural protection, important to know), and have a patrol bonus, helping you to raise money in a pinch.

    Attentive Statues (4 gems, summons two)

    It's easy to overlook these units with the much more attractive Enliven Sentinels just around the corner, but you're doing yourself a great disservice by doing so. By cutting off your research goal at t3, you allow yourself a lot more flexibility with your early commanders. Even with a dominion of 1, these are a force to be feared. I once had twelve of them take on a Mictlan army of 70, and win. One casualty. One. There were a few gaping chest wounds, but those were inconsequential and an inevitable result of being so grossly outnumbered and unsupported. I admit, it was against the AI, but I was still quite impressed.

    Unlike your later nationals, these guys lack sacred, come with Stone Shields (manual is incorrect), and have a defense value of 14. They will still benefit from your dominion, so that helps compensate for their relatively low health. I say relatively, because for humanoid infantry, they've got above average hitpoints, strength, attack, defense, mr. And obscene morale & protection. They'll tear through undead and heavy infantry. Crossbows will hardly bother them. Even with armor piercing, they've got 11 prot. left and a good shield with a high parry value. High strength units may cause problems, but by high strength, I mean giant level, not berserked barbarians.

    Enliven Sentinel (4 gems, summons one)
    Once you start encountering tougher resistance, you'll switch to these. These and all further units lack shields, or the excellent defense. But, the boost in hitpoints means they'll last longer without repairs, will get less wounds, and benefit more from your dominion. They're size three, so they're still capable of outnumbering a giant or pretender. In addition to the obvious boost from strength, they get an additional damage boost from their Granite Glaive. And they're the highest you can summon without boosters or oracles. That's quite important sometimes. Don't forget to now take advantage of any national blesses you might have, and take them to labs for occasional repair.

    Enliven Granite Guard (12 gems, summons one)
    These are expensive, requiring 12 earth gems and an 400 gold Oracle of the Ancients (or Earth Boots golem crafter) to summon. What you get is a MEAN UNIT, that you'll definetly want to deploy to any checkpoints or bring to your critical battles. If you have any dom10 provinces, you get a whopping 150 hitpoints, that even the King of Deeper Earth can't beat. Their only fundamental problem is overkill. They can be a waste of gems that way.

    Enliven Marble Oracle (45 gems, summons one)
    Unfortunately, this commander gets no leadership without artifacts. Fortunately, you can equip this marble nudist with a full range of artifacts. Holy two is on occasion nice, but for real fun, and over 300 hitpoints, prophetize him. As icing on the cake, you'll get the strength bonuses, MR dominion bonus, attack and defense bonus bonus, and a permanent bless.

    Special Golem Threats:
    Disrepair. Nations with common earth mages. Having all your mages die off and insta-gib your golems. Armor negating spells threaten everyone, but your golem's less so, thanks to bountiful hitpoints. Your greatest threat will probably be generated by other nations with earth magic. Shatter is harmful, but less so once you get 100+ hitpoint Granite Guardians. Earth forging gives nations access to Smasher (e2), which does extra damage to inanimates and undead. IT makes available plenty of armor piercing/negating weapons. Air nations have easy access to the Thunder Whip (A1), with Armor Negating. Etcetera. However, the only thing you really need worry about all the time is any tactics hitting your mages. They are your weakest link.

    Odds and ends:
    Various units such as Clay Men also get the dominion bonus. If you think any non-national golem deserves a mention, tell me and I'll edit it in here. Other comments, too.

    	-> juggernauts
    Along with 200 health the juggernaught has 20 protection and is a mindless trampler(quite hard to stop with the health, protection, trampling and immunity to mind affecting spells) but on the downside he has no elemental resistances(only poison), 4 defence, 5 attack, only weapon is a single fist(with its attack of 5 you better hope there are no size 6 enemies) but over-all its pretty nice(and sacred).
    With it spreading dominion like a prophet AND benefitting from your golem cult dominion its worth it to bring a few along with your army and, with a few juggernaughts its not too difficult to dominion kill an enemy who's down to their last few provinces.
    For a pretender you could try a dormant, 10 dominion, S6 wyrm. You could have luck and ethereal researched for when he comes out, he can die once and still summon juggernaughts, he has awe and of course the dominion 10 helps your golems. This build leaves 40 points over with all neutral scales so adjust them as you wish.

    Gift of health works on juggernouts (and claymen and supposedly all golem type summons) and it is multiplicative with the golem cult dominion, meaning you get 4 times the health.

    	-> Fortress
    I've heard that both Cave City and Cave Fort battles are fought under the effect of darkness. I've also seen it in the short list of bugs.

    Capital: Cave City
    Default: Fortified City
    Mountain: Cave Fort
    Swamp: Swamp Fort
    Forest: Forest Fortress
    Tower weapons: 6x sling

    Your capital is pretty well defended, but rather low on supplies. If you expect a siege, Pale One Soldiers are not a bad choice, as they don't consume supplies. Your admin is a measly 30, which means that it will usually be difficult to mass Ancient Ones.

    Your Default Fortress of a Fortified City is exceptional. It's defense isn't ideal, but it is well supplied in case of sieges, and most importantly, it has 50% admin. Which means, build one of these in a strategic position to pump out the majority of your national troops. On second thought, your nationals aren't that special- a good independent selection works as well. When you build one of these, consider leaving out a temple and lab to save money.

    In Mountain (NOT Border mountains) provinces the Cave Fort is available .It's admin and supply are measly, but its high defense means Pale One Soldiers can hold it for quite a long time against a larger force. Unfortunately, on random maps you will only see border provinces, at least at v. 3.08. It's on the expensive side though. I would NOT recommend making this your first fort. However... there are certain circumstances where its value jumps dramatically. A iron Mine, for instance. Or the Vaults Beneath (150 resources). Or some indies, or special site recruits. When that bug with auto darkness is fixed, if it isn't already, these will be extremely hard to take from you, barring a few nations.

    Your Swamp Fort is abysmal- but cheap at 800 gold and 3 turns. It has absolutely 0 admin value. However, its not a bad place to put a library and temple, pumping out mages. If you want to double up your research early this is an option, albeit one that hamstrings troop production and vulnerable to attack. On the plus side, you could put one up next to a better fort, such as your capital, and it will hardly affect production.

    Your Forest Fortress is not a bad choice. It's hardly ideal, but considering forests are high in resources and it goes up in four turns and 1000 gold, this is a decent production choice. If you haven't grabbed all the provinces in the area, its superior to a fortified city, but only by a small margin. I'd rank it above the Cave Fort, since it's somewhat less expensive, and goes up a turn earlier.

    				8.12.2.1.2.7 Scales

    Scale ratings:
    Order: It helps, but less than other civilizations. You don't have much chaff, your standard infantry all costs 10 gold and your mages sacred, so you won't be spending much on upkeep. You'll be relying on summons who don't need chaff, anyways. There aren't many situations where you'd want turmoil.

    Productivity: It's a heck of a lot more meaningful than order, but needn't be in every build. If you're going with a dormant pretender, or need to expand quickly in your strategy, this is a good choice. If you're not planning much expansion, and have a supercombatant, there's no problem taking a little sloth. I wouldn't take more than one, though.

    Heat: Heat's good for your coldblooded units, but bad for your cavern wights and mages. I'd take heat one, or neutral. Some people may take more. Cold is just bad.

    Growth: Never take more than death one. Higher death scales kill your Golem Crafters ridiculously fast. I'd only take Death if I had magic 3, since I could use indeps and Earth Readers for research. Growth, on the other hand, is nice. It does the obvious, but also makes it a little harder for your Golem Crafters to die off. However, I've never needed the extra supplies. It sometimes seems like a waste.

    Luck: You're going to take misfortune, often. In the vanilla game, MA Agartha has no heroes that I'm aware of. You have to download a mod to get any. And you've got all the gems you really _need_, if not want. So there's little benefit to luck. Even with misfortune one, you can get good events frequently. Though when you lose two provinces to earthquakes/troglodytes, you'll hate it. Misfortune three is dangerous.

    Magic: You can benefit from tilting this scale in both directions. Taking a high magic scale will allow you to cast lots of spells, research better (or younger), and make the enemy more vulnerable to spells from most paths of magic.

    Drain scale can be used to your advantage. First, only two earth spells target magic resistance, therefore, your spells remain effective while spells like Opposition fail more often. Second, earthpower grants +4 reinvig, and earth blesses anywhere from 2 to 5 on all your sacred mages. With A1N1 (random possible), you can forge Rainbow Armor (enc1, invig3), and n1- available anywhere- you can forge Birch Boots(invig2), Boots of the Messenger (invig4). There's also the Girdle of Might (+3)x2.

    Unfortunately, you don't have great researchers, so drain will cost you. You'll have to plan around that somehow.

    Dominion strength- higher is better, of course, but don't strain yourself too hard. You Golems start out tough.

    Blesses:

    Fire is again, one of the better all around blesses, helping everybody but your mages. Fire 4 is a big help.

    Air is of use only to mages and Ancient Ones, but considering how vulnerable they are to arrows, is another good choice. Shock resistance is irrelevant.

    Water benefits your your ancient ones, and your golems. While your golems have enough protection to not need defense, fewer open-ended die rolls are always a good thing. And quickness doesn't hurt, either.

    Earth is troublesome. Reinvigoration helps your mages and Sacred ones, but the problem with the high level protection bonus is that it is applied to armor, not natural protection. Golems receive no benefit whatsover from this bless.

    An astral bless is wonderful. Magic resistance is always handy, and Twist Fate won't win you battles, but will cut mage casulties. You know, that one lucky arrow that hits your stoneskinned mage in a clump of soldiers and does ten damage, gibbing all your golems if he was the last one?

    Death bless isn't really worht talking about, but can make enemies very cautious about attacking with their pretender. Your strong dominion + Ancient Lord w/Gate Cleaver + 100 bless equals wounds. That said, it seems the affliction rate affects spells too, not just melee. There are ways to take advantage of this.

    Believe it or not, I'm under the opinion that your pretender design and scales aren't that important to Agartha's early game. Though they will, of course have a long-term and short-term affect. And you can do very different things early on - a Wyrm Astral-3 is a SC.

    But for simplicity's sake the basic strategy I'll outline assumes you'll have a pretender like this - And I've deliberately left the cost low, so you can tweak, play around and experiment in a easy SP game. Not because this is a viable MP build, just a puny baseline to compare against.

    Dummy, my Baseline Pretender
    An Awake Crone (350/350),
    with 2 points Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Astral. Default 1 point death. Total RP 14 (costs 130, 220/350)
    Dominion 5 (costs 70, 150/350)
    Magic Scale 1 (costs 40, 110/350)
    Standard game settings, random events -> Rare

    gold is unpredicatable, as result of random event.

    turn 1, spring
    dummy, 14 -> research -> enchantment
    recruit golem crafter, 7 LI

    turn 2, 14 completed late spring
    recruit golem crafter, 7 LI (179 gold left)
    21->enchantment

    turn 3, 35 completed, early summer, start with 456 gold
    recruit golem crafter, 7LI, (186 gold left)
    28-> enchantment

    turn 4, 63 completed (ench1), summer, start with 483 gold, 54 upkeep
    recruit golem crafter, 7LI (213 gold left)
    35-> enchantment

    Turn 5, 98 completed (ench1), late summer, start with 476 gold, 65 upkeep
    42-> enchantment with crone, 28 without, only 102 rp until Attentive Statues

    Here, you can start searching with your crone, recruiting other commanders, and get attentive statues by Earl Winter
    early fall (74), fall (46), late fall(18), early winter (-10), winter (-38), late winter (-66), and still get 28 RP/a turn. This is what I'd do, recruiting two earth readers, and sending them & my current pretender out to research.

    Or, if you recruit another golem crafter, and keep with the research, you'll get attentive statues by Late Fall.

    early fall -42 (60), fall -49 (11), late fall -56 (-38), early winter -63 (-101), winter -70 (-171), and late winter, enchantment four. You'll start year two with up to 84 rp/turn (if crone's still researching).

    In this sample game, I didn't expand any, or overtax, but I regularly recruited troops, to show you what you can achieve. If this was a more chaff oriented, non-sacred nation, then you probably couldn't afford all this.

    In a real game, you'll have a totally different pretender, and likely, better scales.

    With a dormant pretender and 5 rp a turn (mag3, earth readers, drain1, golem crafters), you can achieve about
    (0+55)/2*11 = 302 by the end of the first year. That's enchant 3, 58 points away from enchant 4.

    In most games, your strategy will actually depend on a) your pretender, and b) your terrain. On a random map, you may be stuck with three crappy, low resource connecting provinces. It may be worth your while to pinch pennies and hire mercenaries, to compensate for a complete lack of recruitable troops. In other situations, you'll have independent or mercenary researchers to pitch in.

    With a high magic scale, seriously consider setting up a sacred-research indie as an early research station instead of throwing up another fort.

    Pretender Commentary- practical advice

    Risen Oracle: the most common choice, and for good reason. Unfortunately limited in magic paths, he comes with fear, so each point of death goes straight into a boost. Remember fear also gets stronger every +5, whether its natural or boosted. Doesn't add much to your golems, though will open up a poison golem. Opens up Skull Mentor, Skull Staff, and other nice artifacts that will help with darkness and drain strategies.

    Generally better than lichs, unless you find yourself needing very high death.

    Sacred Statue: Great potential lies in the astral path, but the difficulty of finding astral gems will hamper you. Alchemy can be used to help, and get rid of those unusable gems. For your very first Astral Pretender, you'd be better off with an Great Enchantress.

    Oracle: Four accessory slots, but 20 hitpoints. You won't be teleporting it around, but you probably won't have the gems to do so, anyways. Better choice than the Sacred Statue. Try this once you've practiced with a Great Enchantress.

    Wyrm: A classic. Everything to be said, already has. Combines well with nearly every path of magic. Has two heads - something to keep in mind. Want an easy supercombatant?

    Titan: Opens up watchers, bless is great for your mages and Ancient ones, not so hot for golems, though the golems don't need them nearly as much. Worth a second look, despite the poor thematic match. Also opens up those Owl Quills you'll need if you take any drain.

    Sample pretenders - perhaps not the best, but fun enough for single player or a relaxed multiplayer game.

    Forge Lord (dormant)
    Fire 5, Earth 5, Dominion 6, Productivity 3, Magic 1.
    Basic goal is to reach construction 2 and enchant 3 (total 300 RP) around the the time your Pretender awakens. Meanwhile, you'll be depending on infantry or heavy infantry to expand.

    First have have him forge a Dwarven Hammer, then start churning out artifacts, and kitting your Ancient Lords. Dedicate your mages to researching and casting battle magic. Eventually, you'll have access to Earth Attack, King of Elemental Earth, King of Elemental Fire, Melancholia, Volcanic Eruption, Raging Hearts, Purgatory (With a flame helmet), Forge of the Ancients, Mechanical Militia, Riches from Beneath, Earth Blood Deep Well (earth boots).

    If you're not interested in globals, you can take a point of heat (good for your Ancient Lords anyway), drop a point of productivity, take 7 dom, and take 4 earth, 4 fire, and either air or water. You now can forge the staff of Elemental Mastery, and boost your Golem Crafters even further. With staff, Helmet, Boots, and Robe of the Sea/Water Bracelet, you've got a FFFWWWEEEE mage. Not bad- still, quite expensive. Though way too many options for just one mage, who'll die of old age. Earth boots is all they need for Magma Eruption. And you can STILL get forge of the ancients and Hammer of the Forge Lord. This will get you Acid Rain, Acid Storm (with water gems, and golems have no armor to be destroyed), get Curse of the Desert, Grip of Winter, Curse of Stones, Heat from Hell, Prison of Fire. Is short, all sorts of ways of ways to mess with your opponents. On a mage one arrow will kill. Base costs: Dwarven Hammer (15), Earth Boots (10), Robe of the Sea (15), Flame Helmet (25), Staff of Elemental Mastery(25,25), Hammer of the Forge Lord (25, 15), Forge of the Ancients (80).

    However, if you get the Forge of Ancients up, the Hammer of the Forge Lord, The Staff of Elemental Mastery can be forged for only 3,3. If you find one of the forging sites... The mechanics of forge bonuses are discussed elsewhere in these forums, but there's a limit of 10%. With only a 50% bonus, and Forge of the Ancients, a Ember blade would cost 2,2. With the 75 bonus reachable by a Forge Lord and Forge of the Ancients, that comes down to 1,1. Your Golem Crafters with Dwarven Hammers and Forge of the Ancient comes to 3,3. So... Overkill? It's certainly a little easier to get up and running with the forge lord. And you can waste time forging 5 gem items for free. The problem is, this is all practically endgame. At least the bless isn't useless.

    Good diplo build, though arming your eventual enemies is always a questionable tactic. You'll come out on top of any item exchange. Though people will consider you stingy if you keep your best (Dwarven Hammer?) items to yourself, its worth considering in a MP game. It is possible to pull off by year four, though I didn't do a great job of orchestrating my test game, and went about it all wrong.

    Other people, please mention a build for people to try. And state whether its competitive or fun. I'm trying to put together a blood strat, myself, but it requires a bit of work and experimentation.

    			-> Pretender note 1
    How about this pretender for MA Agartha?

    A imprisioned fountain with S4 N9, which gives a blessing of regeneration+15%, berserk+2, +1 magic resistance, +2 morale.

    Dominion 9 with scales of Order-3, Prod-2, Heat-3, Growth-2, Misfortune-3 and Magic-1.

    Your ancient ones are pretty tough with reg+15% and berserk+2. The main thing about the berserk is it raises the attack of ancient ones to 11 and gives them a little extra protection. All your summoned sacreds should enjoy this bless too.

    Initially make your cave captain your prophet so he can divine bless and expand with him. Soon after you can make another army up of ancient ones with a earth reader leading them. Place upto 20 ancient ones on hold attack, script earth reader with blessx3, flying shardsx2, cast spells. This is capable of conquering most indies. Aim to produce 9 Ancient ones a turn ASAP, any left over resources build your heaviest infantry.

    Long term you should aim towards your unique national summons plus anything else that benefit from your 9 dominion golem cult. Lightless lanterns + skull mentors to speed your research up. Umbrals for raiding/assaulting other nations. Globals Earth Deep Blood Well, Forge of ancients and Gift of Health, Gift of Bounty (your pretender can cast). Gift of Health, gift of bounty, golem cult, a bless strategy on your ancient ones all go together so well with dominion 9. You even get awe on your fountain.

    Your magic paths are fairly diverse with Earth, Nature, Astral, Water, Fire, Death all accessable from your mages or pretender. You can use mercenaries or summons to fill in the rest if you wish.

    This would be fun to play in SP and may be competitive in MP if you are left alone long enough to get rolling. Your blessed ancients would be good enough early on to deter attack.

    				8.12.2.1.2.8 Early game

    As MA Agartha, research is very tempting, thanks to your earth income. But I must say, resist, at least for a short while.

    The very first thing I'm going to do in my next few games is recruit lowly scouts- at least two, depending on geography.

    This will do two things for you - save some gold for projects like additional castles or dealing with events, and let you make an informed research decision.

    If you're only three provinces from Jotunheim, for instance, Evocation 3 is crucial (for Magma Bolts), while lesser earth elementals, or Attentive Statues will be next to useless. Research into enchantment or conjuration or alteration will be next to useless, unless you've got some particular short-term strategy around that.

    On the other hand, if you expect to be rushed by a smaller race, Lesser Earth Elementals can come in handy thanks to trampling. And for 10 earth gems, you can spawn five off of a single lowly earth reader, saving you further gold compared to a golem crafter or Oracle of the Ancients.

    And if you've got a decent buffer of indies, you can just decide what chokepoints you need to seize first while you diligently toil away towards your strategic research goal- most likely Enlivened Sentinels or Attentive Statues.

    If you go straight for Attentive Statues, you'll regret it if you start hazardously close to a race with a natural counter. Trampling, perhaps? Jotunheim with ~22 strength certainly doesn't have to worry much about 22 protection opponents.

    Knowledge is power - you must know your opponent before you can know yourself - blah blah blah. Diplomacy is your best bet, but sometimes locations just don't allow for that, and it won't work at all in singleplayer.

    				8.12.2.1.2.9

    			8.12.2.2  go punch a mountain

    Article Author: Baalz

    Agartha is a challenging nation to play because of their stark contrasts. They have both obvious strong strengths and obvious crippling weaknesses, to successfully play them one must be able to effectively leverage the former while getting around the latter. Properly balanced though, MA Argatha has everything needed to be a dominating power. The way I like to think about it, fighting Argatha should feel like fighting with a mountain. All you accomplish is bloody knuckles and winding yourself. Now, just to head this off at the pass I¿ve got no interest in arguing who came up with what ideas as some of this has been discussed in a recent thread, this is my take on a comprehensive strategy for MA Argatha and there¿s probably not an idea in here that a dozen people haven¿t had before. This guide is geared towards CBM.

    The most obvious weakness is their national troops. They just plain suck, and by default will struggle against even indies. This is a bit of an exception for a nation with giants, but the ancient one¿s low attack and size 4 coupled with a dinky little spear (which results in them dealing no more damage than a good human with a high damage weapon) makes their offense atrocious. They lack any archers whatsoever, the smaller pale ones are even worse than the big ones (an 8 attack!), and their human infantry is on par with indie infantry. Clearly these guys are not going to be winning any wars for you.

    Now, the obvious choice in this situation is to take an awake pretender, and if you choose to go that route it¿s a very tough sell to go with anything other than the risen oracle. The charms of this unit are obvious and well known so I won¿t belabor them, but I also want to point out how terribly expensive that awesomeness is. 150 points, on first glance seems expensive but not that bad, thing is you have to consider the other costs. 1) Obviously you¿ll want to start out awake. 2) The magic paths you get do nothing for your magic diversity, and new paths cost you 60 points. 3) Not only do the paths do nothing for your diversity, they don¿t do much for your bless options. True, an earth bless could be nice, but specifically fire is a great blessing for Argatha, and a minor nature very nice. You can make it work with a risen oracle, but I think you can do better by focusing on Argatha¿s strengths.

    Consider a build like this: sleeping forge lord with F4 E4 S4 B4. Turmoil-3, Cold-3, Growth-3, Luck-3, Magic-1 with a 7 dominion. This is probably a bit counterintuitive and has some room for alteration to better align with whatever your playstyle is, but bear with me and I¿ll explain the odd choices. First off, as you look at those scales realize I don¿t plan on doing much with those crappy national troops. That blessing will turn the ancient ones into decent troops for assaulting enemy fortresses (out of your cold dominion, supported by other troops), but really the only concession I make to the troops is *not* taking sloth-3, and this is solely to give me at least some initial expansion.

    Your initial expansion is going to be using your human infantry, and I¿ll tell you right now it¿s gonna be slow  probably the slowest in the game if everyone¿s at the same skill level. This is the weakest part of Agartha¿s game and I didn¿t help it by gearing my design choices towards mid/late game power. Still, in sufficient numbers your infantry isn¿t *that* bad, and without having sloth scales you can build up critical mass. It works a lot better if you resign yourself to a slow initial expansion and don¿t try to send out expansion parties with less than critical mass. Those Agarthan light infantry actually do a pretty decent job against indies so long as they outnumber them.

    Now, I¿d like to talk about the first of my ¿controversial¿ design choices. Turmoil/luck. Plenty people feel like this is never a competitive choice, but I think this is the perfect situation to use it. Consider that you¿re expanding slowly and probably avoiding the highest income (and best defended) territories, the primary advantage of taking an order scale initially is the income from your capital. While this is not inconsiderable, the income bonus from luck isn¿t either. Additionally, Agartha has some very nice national heroes, a couple of which will greatly improve your initial expansion if you luck into them early, and will greatly compliment your magic diversity as they show up through the game. Finally, while gold is always very useful, this is a nation who can go a long way on a little gold, what you really want is gems. After your initial expansion you¿re not going to be recruiting many troops at all, and while more golem crafters are always welcome they¿re cheap and holy so you can field a respectable number of them on a modest gold income. This strategy is still viable if you decide to go with order/misfortune, but in this situation I prefer turmoil/luck.

    So, in that light, it¿s no surprise that I¿m also going to say to get out there site searching early. Golem crafters make surprisingly good manual site searchers with an emphasis on what you need the most urgently - earth gems. Have a couple out site searching some mountains while everybody else researches enchantment and by the end of year one you¿ll likely be sitting on a hundred E gems and closing in on ench-4. Now, as painful as it is you¿re probably also going to want to overlap that site searching with an oracle of the ancients. This is terribly expensive for a manual D1 site search, but it¿s the only way (unless you get that nice national hero early) to prime the pump for your remote site searching. After you land just one or two D sites pull him back and just research until dark knowledge is done. You¿ve got fairly light access to D magic, but it¿s enough to do your site searching and with the boosters you¿re forging later on (more on that in a bit) you should certainly consider yourself a death power.

    At this point you¿ve expanded very slowly and the indies are running out, but your pretender has just awoke and you¿ve got the first of your national summons available. At this point of the game a force of attentive statues (shields) and enlivened statues (heavy hitters) is very difficult for many nations to deal with. Avoid picking a fight with anybody fielding heavy air mages and there¿s not a lot of effective combat spells against them at this level and they¿re plenty tough enough to chew up most enemy troops when heavily outnumbered. You¿ve also conveniently researched strength of giants which stacks on your blood and fire minor blessing, their high strength and good weapon to bring your sentinels up to 29 damage and a 13 attack¿with a 22 protection and hitpoints pushing 50. Your attentive statues don¿t have the same offense or hitpoints, but they do have a big old shield and are half the price, so they work nicely together. Granite guardians give you 50% more hitpoints than the sentinel for the price (2 sentinels for 1 guardian), but sacrifice half your offense, so they each have their uses. Very broadly you¿ll want sentinels at first then switch to guardians as your golem crafters gain the research to be the damage dealers. Sentinels certainly have a role through the whole game though.

    I¿d like now to talk about another of my scale choices. Cold-3 seems a bit surprising at first given the cold blooded nature of some of your troops. But remember, we¿re not using those troops! What we¿re using is our summons who are encumbrance 0 and tough as hell. One of the angles we¿re going to leverage is fatiguing out our enemies, and in addition to the simple fact that our constructs don¿t care that they¿re fighting in cold-3 nor take supplies we¿re going to be using several things with cold auras. As far as your mages go, we¿re going to be using your oracle of the ancient¿s very sparingly, and it¿s extremely cheap to stick a frost brand on any of them going into combat. Your golem crafters are going to be casting breath of winter (sense a theme yet?) so they don¿t care. You can also go with cold resistance if you don¿t want the cold aura because of other friendlies around. I wouldn¿t take the cold-3 scale just for this angle, but it¿s got great synergy as we¿re scraping the bottom of the barrel for the design points we need to get those paths on a sleeping forge lord while really needing to take a growth scale because of all our old mages.

    One thing you want to pay special consideration with for MA Agartha is to avoid being a one trick pony, which is a tempting prospect at the point in the game that your opponent starts throwing kitchen sinks at those cheap juggernauts chewing tirelessly through their troops. The previous paragraph gives you a clue as to my first suggestion for a switchup, consider this cheap and early combo. One oracle of the ancients and a couple golem crafters with ten or so cavern wights. Golem crafters are equipped with frost brands, shields of beaten gold, and any cheap armor. Buff cycle includes support mages casting enough iron warriors to cover the wights (bonus: buffs the golem crafters to without needing the extra fatigue for a self buff), blessing, earthpower, invulnerability and breath of winter for the crafters while the oracle is buffing strength of giants, legions of steel, etc. The freezing effect stacks to nasty proportions as your enemy tries to chip away at these awesomely tough units. As your research/magic ability progresses you¿ll probably want to switch to regular wights who can be summoned by a revenant with a skull staff and are useful in small enough squads (especially buffed like this!) to make sense to summon one at a time. Umbrals also make wonderful additions to this strategy, though you¿ll have to be clever with your scripting to avoid them charging too far ahead of the slower infantry. Umbrals, with their hitpoints and life draining attack are quite fearsome buffed with iron warriors and the supporting cold auras are icing on the cake. You can also mix mechanical men in for further filling of these cold based squads.

    This brings us to another thing which might not be obvious, your national ability which buffs golem¿s hitpoints affects all constructs in the game, not just your national summons. This has several delicious implications, but probably my favorite is mechanical men. Why? Because while your sacred constructs are your big stone fist, mechanical men are your big metallic middle finger to foil most of the things your opponent scraped up to combat the other juggernauts you¿ve been fielding. Lighting? Middle finger. Frozen heart/incinerate? Middle finger. Dust to dust? Middle finger. There¿s precious few spells which do squat to these fabulous troopers, and they¿ll obviously be buffed with strength of giants and weapons of sharpness so who the heck wants to engage them in melee when their hitpoints are doubled? Use them as bodyguards (buffed, of course) for those golem crafter¿s wearing something like: frost brand, golden shield, fire helm/chestplate, ring of tamed lighting (haha, your frostbrand also benefits from that weapons of sharpness you cast for the mechanical men!). Solo golem crafter thugs are a bit dicey, but fortunately there¿s no reason at all to use them like that and with any of their several good choices for uber-tough bodyguards these guys are plenty nasty and immune to almost everything.

    Light thuggin¿ is actually a side note for these awesomely cost efficient golem crafter though. As you¿ve no doubt noticed from some of the things I¿ve mentioned so far, we¿re obviously going to focus on construction research fairly early. This is very important for your golem crafters, because without any boosters you¿re going to struggle to see them as much more than solid earth mages. Once you start leveraging the wonderful world of boosters though your golem crafters go from ¿nice¿ to ¿top of the line¿. Now, of course, is when I gush over my choice of a forge lord pretender and explain why I think he¿s an even better choice than the more flashy risen oracle.

    Your forge lord, obviously, is intended to crank out blood stones at first. With a dwarven hammer he can pop out a bloodstone for 2E + 3 slaves. This is fabulous, because not only do you obviously not have any national blood hunters, I think I mentioned how urgently you need to start cranking out earth summons early on. With your forge lord doing the forging though there¿s never a contention between blood stones and summons, the stones pay for themselves in two turns! Also, with such a low blood slave requirement it¿s perfectly possible to have the forge lord himself bloodhunt then forge several bloodstones from that one turn¿s bloodhunting. Obviously as you get established it¿s a better idea to have some scouts provide the bloodslaves as your pretender has so many other things you want him to do, but this can be a powerful jumpstart as you¿re hitting that critical beginning of the second year and everything starts happening at once. As the game goes on and you reach a more stable income in earth and slaves leverage your forgelord to forge super cheap blood boosters and pass off the bloodstone forging to another mage so we can put the forgelord to other uses. Initially though, just consider how much of a boost it is to go from a (purely theoretical) 10 E income to a 20 E income in the first year. Considering the leverage you get on E gems, that right there practically justifies the forge lord  you¿ve doubled the amount of troops you¿re fielding.

    I suggest using earth readers for your secondary bloodstone forgers  stick one of those blood stones on them, two blood boosters and a blood empower and you don¿t have to worry about sticking boots of youth on them to protect your empowering investment (they¿re not old). This is actually another point I wanted to briefly mention  earth readers are *fabulously* cost efficient support mages once you start swimming in bloodstones. Why use a 200 gold golem crafter for those staple buffs (blessing, legions of steel, strength of giants, iron warriors, etc.) when a 90 gold (holy!) earth reader will do? Your upkeep will thank you if you add these guys to your mix, and heck, you need somebody to hold your bloodstones anyway, right? Remember, one of the sacrifices I made in this build is a significantly below average income so you¿ll need to be very mindful of your upkeep costs. Thankfully, most of your troops are upkeep free summons and all your national mages are holy (and everything except the oracle is cheap) so you¿ve got a lot working in your favor.

    So, what other things are we going to use our forgelord for now that we¿ve got apprentices handling the bloodstones? One of the first obvious things is fire helms. These boosters are usually too expensive to make it to general line mage use, but your forge lord can pop them out for 5f with a hammer. That extra level of fire pops your golem crafters up to phoenix power, so it really opens up a lot of fire options. Also, I have to be honest, there¿s one item in particular which I had in mind for this forge lord  a crystal shield (for 2e + 2s!). You¿ve got several flame helms, lots of water bracelets, are swimming in blood stones and a rack full of crystal shields¿I think maybe you¿re starting to see the potential of the golem crafters? Now in addition to this realize that forge lord can pop out a ring of wizardry for 12 pearls. So, it¿s not really all that difficult to get several (flame helm + phoenix power + crystal shield + ring of wizardry) 5F (bracelet + robe + shield + ring) 5W guys¿.or ¿merely¿ level 4 without even splurging the 12 pearls on the ring. In actuality you¿re probably not going to put the fire and water boosters on the same guy most of the time, but the point is you¿ve got no problem whatsoever having a powerful fire and/or water mage for any battle you care to.

    One consequence of this is that grip of winter is an obvious goto spell. This spell works wonderfully with your sacred statues even though they¿re not cold resistant because they¿ve got that reinvig from your blessing and aren¿t accumulating fatigue from combat. They¿ll gain a little bit of fatigue, but the effect on your enemy will be much more drastic, and obviously this works like peas and carrots with your cold aura troops. This is particularly true when you add rigormortis to the mix. Skull staff + ring of sorcery + 2 D gems on a simple revenant. This should also be a standard goto spell, your mages have enough reinvig to be plenty resistant. What¿s this? Oh, we¿ve also got easy access to rune smashers, S1 indie mages are usually not too much of a problem to round up for void eyes and we¿ve got tons of powerful earth mages and earth boosters so let¿s spam curse of stones from a couple mages and see what happens. One word  amusing. Oh, well a couple more words I guess  the enemy can¿t even run away when they start routing so you¿re looking at probably close to 100% casualties. One thing to be mindful of - be careful not to get in a situation where you can¿t kill all the enemy before the turn limit expires or your mindless statues will all die. Not generally a problem though with the damage outlay you¿ve got. Now, just as your opponent thinks he¿s got a handle on this, switch this up to use heat from hell and summon some fire elementals to bolster your mechanical men to¿you guessed it, give the big middle finger to those cold immune troops/SCs who thought they were going to give you a problem. Don¿t try to cast both heat from hell and grip of winter though, they cancel each other out!

    Another spell you¿re going to add to the regular mix is quickness. You¿ll be cranking out the water bracelets, and having 2 or 3 crafters spamming quickness while others drop weapons of sharpness & strength of giants and there is absolutely *nothing* which is going to want to engage your 0 encumbrance guys in melee. Problem is, they probably don¿t have a choice. Quickening is an obvious upgrade for the end of the game, but certainly don¿t neglect the much earlier quickness, with the smaller size squads you¿ll be using, 3 golem crafters can cover a lot of ground. Plus, of course, they then switch to other nasty stuff to rain down for the rest of the fight after the buff cycle.

    With all the love I¿ve been giving to alteration, don¿t for a second forget that your golem crafters are top shelf direct damage dealers. Not really much reason to put any boosters other than a blood stone on them for this, from blade wind to magma eruption these guys are supercharged from your E bless and summon earthpower to keep going like the energizer bunny. In some situations though you might want to switch up to the fire and water evocations, particularly when you¿re leaning on your mechanical men (no friendly fire). Also don¿t neglect the obvious vector  earthquakes. High hitpoint, high protection units and ubiquitous strong earth mages, this spells is great for everything from snatching those enemy mages from the back row to exploding that undead hoard who thought to counter your uber-fatigue strategy with sheer numbers.

    Now, here¿s another bit of nastiness from your bag of tricks- clockwork horrors. These are some underappreciated units in my mind, and even better with double hitpoints. They¿re size 1 with two attacks apiece, which means each block of them attacks 12 times  but you can hit 6 of them with an aoe-1 spell, so quickness comes right to mind. Try this recipe on for size: Take a couple dozen clockwork horrors. Use your pretender to create a golem (who make even more excellent heavy raiders than usual because of your dominion). Nab one of the ubiquitous N1 indie mages who¿s got a ring of sorcery (8 pearls from your pretender) and a thistle mace. Finally mix in half a dozen golem crafters with water bracelets. Most golem crafters cast quickness, nature mage drops a haste, while one golem crafter casts strength of giants and the last one casts¿.iron bane. Each square of clockwork horrors will charge straight across the battlefield in one turn and attack 24 times dealing 16 damage each attack to the now naked opposition. If you¿re facing guys with magic armor (SC/thugs) swap out iron bane for weapons of sharpness. The golem, what¿s he for? Hold, hold, hold, hold, vortex of returning. Vortex of returning + clockwork horrors is a fabulous combo.

    Golems actually fill a number of important rolls for MA Argatha. Battle fortune is an easily accessible doubling of your already retardedly tough guys staying power (perfect for smaller squads), and with your reliance on mindless units why not stack an astral tempest to the rest of the nasty battlefield enchantments you¿re dropping? Antimagic is a great buff when your opponent gets annoyed at your immunity to everything else. Finally, with a cap, coin and ring you¿re up to a versatile S5 adding astral travel (use leadership boosters) to the threat vector your opponent must fear (consider those clockwork horrors dropping out of the clear blue sky¿.). Astral travel actually bears special consideration as it allows you to enter critical fights straight from your strongest dominion, and thus highest hitpoints. Gateway gives you much earlier flexibility to jump around and recharge your lifeless constructs into your strong dominion. Just because you don¿t have any national mages who can summon them, don¿t forget this is the *golem* cult!

    As I mentioned, you can leverage into nature pretty easily. N1 -> ring of sorcery -> haurespex (yeah luck-3 to prime the pump) -> ring of sorcery -> ring of wizardry -> ivy kings, fairy queens, etc. D1 -> dark knowledge -> ring of sorcery -> skull staff -> mound fiends, etc. So, you should have a good income and strong mages in water, fire, nature, death, astral and retarded strong earth power. Fairy queens can get you a touch of air, and you¿ll ignore blood other than pumping every slave you scrape up into bloodstones.

    Now, as you round into the late game you are going to have some good uses for your oracles. Ever had 10 earth attacks dropped on you ever turn indefinitely? This is arguably the best assassination spell in the game with not a whole lot you can do to counter it other than swarms of decoy commanders. Crumble and wizard¿s tower along with a very strong earth income will let you dictate castle control. Petrify is good. A whole lot of petrify is great.

    Marble oracles are good in an obvious way. You¿ll use them, I don¿t have anything particularly interesting to point out about them. Likewise, darkness is almost too obvious to mention, but don¿t forget about it.

    	    	8.12.3 LA Agartha

    	    	    	8.12.3.1

    			->
    There sacreds are recruitable at every castle.

    There sacreds are blind...could work well with Utterdark...possibly darkness.

    Summon as many Umbrals as possible and gift of reason them.

    Recruit hordes of crossbows then flaming arrows, although this never impressed me, when I tried it.

    You have fire/death magic,research construction straight away, get out as many skull mentors/lightless lanterns as possible. You really should win the research race you know.

    I remember having alot of golems teleporting around causing mayhem as well.

    			->
    Even though the recruitable-anywhere sacred Blindfighters are tempting, in practice they seem to have trouble doing damage against real armies with their shortswords, perhaps because of their high encumbrance. Strength of Giants and an E9 bless helps, but Magma Eruption and/or skelly spam are the decisive factors when I'm going up against huge armies of EA Ermorian legions. If you do take a nice bless, though, Sepulchrals are not to be overlooked.

    Ktonian necromancers are still somewhat frail and tend to die to incidental arrow hits and/or lucky cavalry charges. I ought to include Ironskin in my setups but it's hard to squeeze it into the 5 round limit. Could use Iron Warriors instead and stack multiple necromancers in the same square.

    Iron Bane + Cave Knights or Umbrals = nasty. Keep this one well away from Blindfighters.

    Umbrals + Iron Warriors are nice, too, but it's not easy to script effectively.

    Tomb Oracles are nice SCs, but the lack of immortality is annoying if you happen to get Muted or Feebleminded. Make sure to bring a good helmet.

    Overall, Agartha seems pretty strong in Evocation and Alteration, depending upon how your initial gem setup goes. A recent game against a few AIs went really sour when my first 15 provinces yielded only +1 death gems when searched with Dark Knowledge, since I took Death-3 and was really counting on transitioning to summoned troops. With a good gem income I'd probably rate Alteration a little higher because Marble Warriors and Darkness are powerful buffs to Umbrals, and that way you don't need to bring many mages into combat (so they can keep researching). Evocation lets you translate gold into battles won, but risks getting killed by a lucky arrow. Of course Conjuration-3 is a necessity.

    			->

    Get a rainbow pretender great sage, and research nothing but Conjuring-5. Defend yourself as yuo see fit until you get there. Then send you sage out to find sites and start summoning the crap out of Umbrals. Use them as your front line (with a few meat shields to take the first volley of arrows). Keep summoning them in bulk, if you can build up an army of about 30-40 of them in your front lines you are pretty much unbeatable because they have good MR as well as being ethereal. They also can take on water provinces well if you summon a wraith lord and give him an item for water breathing or something. Banes work well if you are low on gems.

    While you are holding your own and taking other people's home sectors, research up gift of reason and start GOR'ing umbrals up the wazoo. Equip them which charcoal shields, marble armor, amulet of MR and amulet of luck, and maybe some handy boots for either flying (nice for hit-n-run) or for quickness or rejuvination. They have a good drain life and generally double their HP to about 128 and stay there during most battles. I have seen a single GOR Umbral thus equipped take out hundreds of enemies, and easily anything but a main force. They'll die quick against a true enemy force with good magic users and so on though. As an aside, they'll take a TON of hits and get lots of crippling ailments pretty quickly. Be prepared to bring them home after 8-10 rounds of fighting and give all of their loot to a new fresh GOR umbral.

    	8.12 Arcoscephale

    	    	8.12.1 EA Arcoscephale

    	    		8.12.1.1 Early guide

    	    			8.12.1.1.1 Original thread

     Early Age Arcoscephale is an interesting nation with a lot of different options, and thankfully it's easier to play than to spell. It has access to high levels in most magic paths except death and blood through it¿s national mages and forging items, multiple stealthy commanders, healing afflictions, scrying (which gives you scout reports in friendly dominion), and the tools necessary to go for a dominion kill. But, with so many options, it can be difficult to decide which is important and end up failing at them all.

    Suggested Pretender Design

    Cyclops, Dormant
    F4 E5
    Dominion Strength: 7 Order: 2 Productivity:1 Growth:2 Drain:2

    This makes a decent pretender SC with high stats and all slots available. With Earth 5 his protection starts at 25 which is nothing to sneeze at, and gets an improved attack skill. The blessing on the sacred troops isn¿t too bad for a few reasons I¿ll get into when I mention them. All considered, it¿s a decent pretender.

    Ghost King, Awake
    D6
    Dominion Strength: 8 Order: 3 Sloth: 3 Growth: 2 Misfortune: 1 Drain: 2

    I use this pretender for a specialized purpose: the Dominion Kill. In high dominion, the Ghost King generates ghosts, both of which are stealthy and amphibious and being awake helps generate more ghosts earlier. Death magic also has a lot of stealthy and amphibious summons and having an abundance of magic gems to alchemize will help you search for death sites remotely. Alternatively you could lower order or your dominion strength or magic paths to raise growth. It¿s a specialized and difficult strategy though, but worth mentioning for diversities sake.

    National Units

    Slinger-The slinger is not a very good unit. They¿re the only real ranged unit available to Arco and are marginally effective against unarmored/light armor troops, however they are outclassed by most indy archers and thus should be completely replaced early in the game.

    Peltast-I like the Peltast. It doesn¿t have much armor to speak of which is pretty standard for light infantry, but can throw javelins before engaging in melee. They¿re cheap and pretty effective against light infantry.

    Cardaces-Cardaces aren¿t bad either. They are slightly more armored than the Peltast at the expense of being able to use ranged attacks. They last a little longer but get chewed up quickly by heavier armies.

    Myrmidon-The Myrmidon is probably the best infantry available to Arco. They¿re heavily armored at 17 protection and can hold off all but the most powerful troops, like giants, and can absorb arrow fire well. They¿re costly at 28 resources, so if you¿re going with the suggested Ghost King don¿t plan on making too many of these.

    Chariot Archer-I haven¿t found much, if any, use for Chariot Archers. They¿re very expensive in both gold and resources when compared to most other archers. You could maybe use them fire and flee and have a large chance of getting your army away intact, but at the cost of making an army to do that with these guys that¿s going to put a real hurt on an enemy, you could have raised an actual army that has a chance at conquering the province.

    Chariot-These are pretty good cavalry, another staple of my armies using Arco. They have good stats and trample, so they make short work of human sized and smaller enemies, especially when the army has routed and is fleeing. Just make sure to use hold and attack and put them a distance away or they¿re likely to charge the front lines and take heavy losses before they break and flee.

    Icarid-I don¿t like Icarids at all. They can fly, which is nice, but their stats are bad and frequently, even on hold and attack rear, they fly in and get slaughtered, even by archers, and rout and retreat. Plus their map movement is only 2 so that¿s even limiting their raiding ability. They¿re not worth the even moderate cost.

    Wind Rider-Wind Riders are excellent. For starters they fly and have a map movement of 3 so they¿re not hard to get to where you need them without using gems. They have great stats, including both 17 in protection and defense skill, so they¿re survivors. Plus, they¿re sacred so they can be blessed to even higher stats and effects. They¿re an excellent addition to the army, but very expensive and cost a point of holy each so hard to mass in high numbers early in the game.

    Commanders

    Scout-Total waste of money. You get a superior effect with slightly more expensive Skeptics and the unique Scry property makes any effect from scouts irrelevant.

    Myrmidon Champion-The Myrmidon Champion is a good commander. They¿re pretty tough and have a leadership value of 80 which lets them field large numbers of troops, and they have all the slots available for magic items if you choose to give them any.

    Chariot Commander-This unit isn¿t so good. It¿s more expensive than the Myrmidon Champion and has a lower leadership rating and fewer slots. However, their map movement is 3, so if you plan on fielding a more mobile army made up of quicker troops, this is an alternative, however you¿ll probably find a better, cheaper indy commander that can produce a similar effect.

    Wind Lord-This is a great unit and a good candidate for a prophet to increase it¿s hit points and give it a permanent bless, especially Earth to give it reinvigoration to keep it from getting fatigued too quickly. It has great starting protection and defense, and with a few magic items, like a kite shield and magic sword and pendant of luck, can be made into a great thug that can fly to the rear and take out the soft troops and commanders.

    Skeptic-This is the bread and butter of the dominion kill. They¿re stealthy and lower enemy dominion in the province they¿re in, and it appears that multiple skeptics lower dominion more quickly. You can even make them a prophet to both raise your dominion and lower enemy dominion even more quickly. I find it useful that when not in a hurry to attack, get as many of these in enemy territory as possible. Watch for old age though.

    Philosopher-They¿re basically cheap, capital only researchers. They¿re worth the cost; however the old age status on them can kill them quickly, so use with care and monitor them make sure that any research boosting items you have on them aren¿t lost if disease catches up with them.

    Engineer-Not worth the time I feel. They assist you in castle sieges, however there¿s a superior mage version of them that will actually help you on the battlefield as well as sieges. They also have old age.

    Mages

    Priestess N1 H1-First, this is the only unit with holy magic available as a national to Arco, so they¿re good for building temples at least. They have the ability to Heal on the strategic map, which is valuable for removing afflictions, and cast Sermon of Courage. I keep one of these with large armies at all times, they¿re valuable on the map and can cast a few useful spells, such as Tangle Vines, Protection, Elemental Fortitude, Swarm, and Heal.

    Mystic S1 ?2(FWES 100%, F 50%, W 50%, E 50%)-The mystic is a decent mage. They have a moderate chance at getting up to 4 different paths, but as low as 1, making them able site searchers, and the only unit available to Arco that guarantees a pick in Astral magic. They¿re not bad in battle and not bad for forging. They¿re good at spamming Body Ethereal for one, and have a few other useful combat spells depending on their picks.

    Mage Engineer A1 E1 ?1(FAWES 100%)-These are good units, but capital only. First, they help with sieges considerably, so you can keep them around for just that. They also have quite a few useful combat spells depending on their picks, so they aren¿t too bad on the battlefield if not just to launch low level evocation spells.

    Oreliad A2 E1 N3 ?1(AWEN 100%, AWEN 10%)-This is a great unit, probably one of the best Arco has to offer. Being capital only can be a problem, but there are ways around that, such as Mountain Survival for increasing their map movement and the ability for every one recruited to cast Cloud Trapeze. They¿re also stealthy and have the Seduce command, which doesn¿t seem to work very well. They can forge powerful items, cast powerful rituals and summons, and make good battle mages with access to spells like Lightning Bolt and Orb Lighting. They¿re costly at 400G, but worth it; they¿re great units all around.

    General Tactical Strategy

    In first few turns I like to split Cardaces into two groups, and have a group of Peltasts and Slingers. I put the Cardaces and Peltasts into a line on the far right of the screen, to account for my short range, with the Peltasts in the middle and slightly farther back, and the Slingers behind them. It works well for taking out weaker indy provinces.

    After I have a decent supply of Myrmidons, Chariots, and indy archers I change it a little bit. I put the Myrmidons in front, and groups of combined Peltasts and Cardaces on the flanks of the Myrmidons, slightly behind them to form what looks like an arrow so as to draw arrow fire on the Myrmidons. I put the archers behind them a ways. The chariots are scripted to hold and attack and are put behind everyone and off to a flank. The effect is good.

    General Strategy

    Using the Cyclops SC pretender, the first order of business is to research to Construction 2. The reason is simple: To overcome the Drain scale, forge owl quills, and lots of them. Oreliads can do this regardless of their picks. Arco naturally gains Air gems, so by the time you¿re ready you should have more than enough to forge a few. Use mystics for research until you reach Construction 2 and make sure you recruit at least one Oreliad when your coffers are big enough, with Order: 2 gold shouldn¿t be much of an issue.

    So, the first two turns are spent recruiting an army of slingers, cardaces, and peltasts. I like to wait two turns so any losses I take in the first battle won¿t require me to return to the starting province and restock my army, slowing you down more than waiting an extra turn, and to give me a chance to scry and plan my initial conquests. The first one I aim for is a province I think contains indy archers to replace the slingers or a high resource province, preferably one with both.

    When you¿ve conquered a mountain or forest province nearby, you probably have enough resources to start recruiting Myrmidons and Chariots en masse.

    When you¿re at Construction 2, it¿s time to switch to Evocation and research that to 2 to get access to Lighting Bolt, a great spell for your Oreliads. Begin to recruit Philosophers and giving them an Owl quill so your mages can move onto more useful prospects. If you get a chance you could recruit a Wing Lord and make him a prophet and gear him up a bit. Also begin branching out to site search manually with a Mystic and an Oreliad; between them you should have nearly all of the paths covered so you only have to search once.

    Your pretender should be awakening soon, so be prepared to give him a few magical items as well. Also, if you get a spare moment, forge bows for your army commanders. Recruit a Priestess or use your prophet to build temples. When you hit Evocation 2, it¿s time to switch to Construction to 4 to gear up your prophet thug and SC pretender with some respectable items and give him and others with lucky picks and a pair of Earth Boots access to Legions of Steel, a helpful spell in all respects.

    By now you should have a very good idea of where the enemies are if you haven¿t already begun to fight them. I suggest finding a place near one of them to build a castle. From this castle you can increase your army size and send out Skeptics to slow them down and keep the dominion friendly, maybe even score a dominion kill eventually.

    From here, it really depends on needs, playstyle, and the type of enemy you face. Below I¿ll outline which schools of magic have useful spells and useful items to help you to decide where to go from Construction 4.

    The more difficult strategy, using the Ghost King pretender is very similar up to the Owl Quills, however it¿s slightly different after that. For one, you should be turtling up instead of expanding quickly. Your resources are low so you¿re army is weaker and you don¿t want to face the enemy toe to toe, however getting a dominion kill doesn¿t even require you to fight a single battle. Using all that extra money to stock up on PD isn¿t a bad idea to discourage the enemy from attacking you directly.

    Next, Evocation 2 isn¿t as important as Conjuration 2. Dark Knowledge is important for finding death sites quickly, and you want a lot of death gems for summoning raiding parties to destroy enemy temples. Also moving onto Enchantment 3 instead of Construction 4 may be a good idea, as Seeking Arrow can destroy a preaching priest if you¿re having trouble pushing down enemy dominion.

    The next thing that¿s different is setting up the second castle is imperative. The more skeptics you have out there, the better off you are, especially a skeptic prophet.

    You should also make building temples a priority to help move your dominion outward. Use the preach command to build your dominion quickly whenever possible. It can be even more difficult to use this on a large map where your later enemies will be both powerful and their dominions well established.

    Suggested Magic Schools

    As mentioned, taking Construction to 2 is a must. Evocation to 2, Enchantment to 3, Construction to 4, and Conjuration to 2 have also been mentioned. But what to decide next depends on what you¿re trying to accomplish and if your original strategy is a possibility, so here are some other useful spells:

    Conjuration: The Summon X Power spells are pretty nice for bigger battle spell effects and available early. Summon Amphiptere isn¿t a bad spell available at 3, and at 5 there¿s Draconians and the Sirrush. The Firbolg from Awaken Sleeper, available at level 5 is worth mentioning. I also highly suggest taking it to 6 for all the useful death summons if you took the Ghost King. Your Oreliads can also easily cast Summon Tarrasque and Wild Hunt later in the game with a little help from some items or empowerment, and Wild Hunt may be worth taking it all the way to 9 if you¿re going for a dominion kill strategy, and level 9 will also give you access to the Ghost Riders spell, which is excellent for raiding especially if you can coordinate it with a stealth army attacking at the same time. I don¿t suggest this school over others unless it¿s a dominion kill you¿re after.

    Alteration: There are some good spells here for your national mages and a couple for the Cyclops pretender, and one useful spell for your Ghost King pretender if you¿re using it directly for raiding. Aim, at 1, is a great spell for all of your units because it increases their accuracy. Mirror Image at 2 is OK, but is outclassed by Mist Form at 3 for your Orelaids. Ironskin, also at 3, is good for most of your mages as they get Earth picks and temporarily for your Cyclops until Invunerability at 5. Body Ethereal at 3 can be spammed by every Mystic on your army. Swarm, at 4, is good for your Priestesses as it gives them something to do besides weak army buff spells and Sermon of Courage. Good higher level spells include False Horror at 6, and Mass Protection and Creeping Doom both available at 7 for your Orelaids, and Phoenix Pyre at 7 is great for any SC, including your Cyclops. Darkness at 6 is good if you¿re using the suggested undead army for raiding and the Ghost King can cast it making most PD nothing more than a nuisance. It¿s a good school to take to at least 3 or 4 quickly to eliminate the possibility of a lucky arrow killing an expensive mage.

    Evocation: This is actually a great school for Arco as there are many useful spells in it for your mages. I wouldn¿t rate it a high priority for the Ghost King strat, but for the Cyclops it¿s almost always my pick after Construction 4. There are many spells that directly damage the enemy in this school, too many to list because of all the random picks, but I can outline some of the more important and easily used ones. To start, Sleep Cloud at 3 is a cool spell to use against large armies. Blade Wind, at 4, is huge for your Cyclops pretender as he¿ll launch more blades than you can count, and some other mages can use it as lucky picks. Thunder Strike, also available at 4, is good for Oreliads even though it¿s really fatiguing. Orb Lightning, level 5, is a great spell that nearly all of your mages will be able to cast, and your Oreliads to great effect. Also available at 5 is Healing Mists which isn¿t too bad and can be helpful in big battles, and Falling Fires which your Cyclops can cast, but I wouldn¿t do it outside of using it against enemies weak to fire. The Ghost King doesn¿t gain much from this spell other than Shadow Blast at 5 and Cloud of Death at 6, both of which are good spells against PD, but I don¿t think it¿s worth the investment for that strategy.

    Construction: This is a good school for the Cyclops pretender. There¿s a lot of earth spells/summons available to it, plus very powerful and unique items past level 4. It¿s worth taking a look at after getting some of the more essential spells from other schools.

    Enchantment: This school is a bit of a low priority in the beginning, depending on map size. At level 3 Seeking Arrow is a great spell whether going for the dominion kill or not. At 4, Haste is a good spell, and Cloud Trapeze can help get your Oreliads to where you need them quickly. Gift of Health at 5 is good for Arco because of the old age that effects many of your commanders, but with a good growth scale I don¿t find it necessary. At 5 you could summon a Watcher, and Faery Trod can help move your armies around the map. At 6 Rigor Mortis can help your undead raiders if you choose. Overall though, it¿s not too impressive for either strategy.

    Thaumaturgy: This is a great school for the dominion kill strategy as it has many spells that slow down your enemy from afar. There are some good spells available to both strategies though, such as Horror Mark at 1, Panic at 3, Confusion at 5, and Beckoning at 6, all of which are castable by your national mages. My favorite, however, is Melancholia at level 6. It requires E5 to cast, however even for the Ghost King pretender it¿s worth doing your best to get someone able to cast it, because it cripples the resources of your enemy and lowers dominion. Although I wouldn¿t rate this school as a huge priority, if you¿re having trouble with a high dominion enemy Melancholia is where to turn.

    Useful Magic Items

    Lesser: Obviously Owl Quills are very important. Pendant of Luck is always a good item for any commander. A Longbow of Accuracy or Piercer is good for a regular commander who would otherwise be standing around. The Ice Sword is a good choice to give to a Wing Lord as it raises his defense skill, and a regular Black Steel Kite Shield will bump his protection up to amazing levels. The Ring of Water Breathing is great to give to a skeptic to get at those hard to reach water provinces and lower any extra dominion you can. Birch boots are good for reinvigoration.

    Greater: The Amulet of Antimagic is a cheap and effective way of extending the life of most commanders. The Spell Focus is great for just about anyone with any magic. The Vine Bow and Bow of Storms are great upgrades for your regular commanders, especially the Bow of Storms. The Sword of Quickness is also a good upgrade for your Wing Lord as it is more powerful and increases defense even more. A Shield of Valor is a good upgrade as well, but you¿re sacrificing protection for near missile immunity which can be good or bad. Chainmail of Displacement is good for your Wing Lord as well, and Rainbow Armor is a possible choice for the reinvigoration, but I don¿t really recommend it because you can give him an Amulet of Resilience instead. I also like to give my Cyclops two Lighting Spears as that¿s some pretty high damage to anyone who isn¿t immune to electricity and maybe a Horned Helmet for the extra attack with Boots of the Messenger for reinvigoration and a Ring of Regeneration in addition to other possibilities. The Robe of Missile Protection and Ethereal Robe are good choices for casters if you can spare the gems. Winged Shoes are good for turning mages into raiders, and a Flying Carpet is better if you want bodyguards to come along, and again Boots of the Messenger to help overcome the Drain scale. There are also Thistle Maces, Earth Boots, and Bags of Wind for boosting paths.

    Very Powerful: The only ones to note here are the Water Bracelet for increasing paths, the Bottle of Living Water for popping in a spare Misc slot, the Barrel of Air and Sea King¿s Goblet if you can get them to enter underwater provinces, and if you¿re going for a dominion kill the Stone Idol is excellent to give to a skeptic, but you may have to empower a mage to get access to it.

    Unique Artifacts speak for themselves as most of them are very powerful.

    Closing

    With the versatility of Arcoscephale comes a lot of decisions that need to be made. Outlined above are two viable strategies out of many as well as some general tips for the new players choosing this nation. With time you can develop your own strategies as this is only meant to give you a kick start and begin to experiment and understand the strengths and weakness of Arco.

    	    			8.12.1.1.2 Assorted comments

    				-> mystic communions
    				Ooooh, one glaring omission (IMHO) is the use of mystic communions for battlemages. The mystics are some of the absolute best mages in the game at forming a communion to dish out damage because they all have astral (for communion master/slave) and they have a variety of the best paths for evocation spells. They're not capital only, reasonably cost efficient researchers, and the ones who get bad/low random picks make great communion slaves while the lucky ones are pretty darned good for their price even before becoming a communion master. Plus, because of the variety you can change the focus of your army every turn by anticipating what you needing to cast in the next battle- you can switch an army from having heavy fire mages to sending out a load of blade winds by just changing who is the slave and who is the master. Or go with an astral focus (make sure to bring a banner of the northern star) and go recruiting with enslave mind when the enemy army is weaker than you. Or switch to water and send a ridiculous amount of cleansing water towards all those undead. I find the mystic is VERY versatile, and one of the best parts of Arco.

    				-> Not a bad guide, although I strongly disagree on a few points.

    Myrmidons are decent heavy infantry, but they fatigue very quickly with an encumberance of 10. While I use them, it's often as bodyguards or as flanker defense around the mages. I don't recruit them en masse, as I take sloth scales. Taking drain seems counter-productive with Arco. You have your choice of 4 different mages and 6 national paths at 2 or higher. You have the best recruitable researcher in the game, and early access to feathers. Taking drain effectively trades these advantages for 80 cretion points, and I cannot reccomend that strategy. Recruiting a Wind Lord on your first turn and making him into a prophet is almost a no-brainer. While boots of flying on a priestess (or Conceptual Balance Mod) will allow you to bless fliers, the prophetized Wind Lord is hands-down the best choice for EA Arco. Also worth mentioning is the indy Pegasus Rider, a blessable flying archer. At 50 gold, they aren't cheap, but for adding missile support to an air assault, they are about your only option.

    My reccomended pretender/scales?

    Lady Of Fortune, Dormant
    W9 N4
    Dominion 5
    Order 3, Sloth 3, Magic 1

    W9 bless is still imo the best bless in the game, and even with your healing priestesses, the regeneration from N4 is very helpful. Additionally, you get an Awe-4 mid-game SC chassis with high defense. Wind riders are resource-cheap when compared to the 125 cost, and the sloth is easily managable. I start recruiting wind riders exclusively on turn 3-4, with the odd myrmidon to use up extra resources. You can quickly amass groups of 20, which is more than enough to take any indy. While you will not hit 2-province expansion until at least turn 10, when your pretender awakes you should have a set of black plate and the usual construction 4 toys to kit her out. Oriads are outstanding with boots of flying, as are priestesses for secondary wind rider armies. The slower provincial expansion is somewhat medited by your rapid research speed. Early mystics while assembling your forging team can be followed by later philosophers. A single mage-engineer for forging quills until later in the game. With research kick-started, you should be in a dominant forging and casting potion before your neighbors can besiege you. The very strong wind rider bless protects you early, and your magical versitility, mobile flying sacreds, and unmatched research give you a good position in the mid and late games.

    [comment:
    The difference between W9 bless and F9 bless on your Windriders is really a tough choice. With quickness you are getting 3 attacks every two turns. So that is a big bonus to your offense. The W9 defense bonus is really significant, too, because those Windriders are not so tough and they do like to die.

    With F9 you are getting +4 attack and your lance, which already gets a huge boost to its first strike, become a flaming lance which does +6 extra damage. Not bad! That's going to do major damage on a first strike, possibly light them on fire, and continue to do +6 flaming magical weapon damage with a +4 Attack each round thereafter.

    I like the W9 bless better, by a hair. Those Windriders are hella expensive at 125 gold, and they are not so tough really. They die. They die purty fast in a toe to toe fight with another toughie regular troop. And that troop probably wasn't 125 gold each. W9 bless gives them a lot more staying power, and the extra attack every other round gives a decent offensive boost, too. They are so expensive, and I hate to see them die.

    On the other hand, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. And if you have enough of them swooping in with first-striking magical flaming lances, maybe that wins it. But if it's a long battle, your expensive Windriders are gonna get chopped up.
    ]
    				-> Philosophers
    				EA Arco is one of my favorite themes, but i really think minimizing Philosophers is the wrong way to go. Philosophers are one of the most potent human units in the game; there is no other way to get 10 research points so cheap, so quickly early on. Making 8 or 10 philosophers early in the game w/ 3 sloth 3 magic will give you a very large leg up on research that will be hard to match.

    I guess the idea is, while having lots of Mystics is good, what's the point of having them if you can't cast anything? Drain-2 is wrong for a lot of reasons, mainly because it goes counter to the magic heavy nature of Arco, and because it makes Mystics just that much worse at research, forcing you to depend even more heavily on your Philosophers, that at the same time, will be less than optimal.

    Arco's early troops are versatile but specialized. I like Icarids as raiders but they aren't front line troops, and like Myrmiddons, they are hard to mass.

    	    			8.12.1.1.3 Expansion strategy

    				 If you're really having trouble making EA Arco viable:

    Take an awake Prince of Death, domstr 9, with D4, 3 Order, 3 Sloth, 3 Fortune, 1 Death, 1 Magic. You can go 2 Growth with neither fortune nor death, if you wish instead - the death *will* kill off some of your philosophers. This works for practically any nation, but is particularly well suited to Arco.

    Set your tax rate to 200% on the first turn and patrol, while sending your PoD blind into an adjacent territory, with your scout sneaking in behind. Recruit a philosopher and some peltasts. You're going to be recruiting nothing but peltasts for a while; peltasts have javelins and shields and therefore they can expand in the early era.

    In this first province you grab, build a fortress starting on turn 2. Have your philosophers start heading up construction - as soon as you have Const 2, make a pendant of luck and some armor and things for your PoD.

    You'll be recruiting philosophers and building fortresses all over the place until you can't afford any more. Build temples and labs as well, recruit prietesses and things.

    Advanced considerations:
    * A wyrm or a dragon might be better than a PoD (it's a pity you don't get a Deva), b/c they're alive which means that your priestesses can heal them.
    - Example 1 - Awake Blue Dragon, Water 9, Domstr 9, Order 3, Sloth 3, Misfortune 3, Drain 2. It takes you a few turns to start recruiting pegasi, but the combination of a strong bless, a SC god *and* an edge in research (net bonus of +2 on the phillies) can be devastating. If your capital doesn't have high resource neighbors, though, you're screwed. Compromise builds like this are harder to use but I generally favor them myself.
    - Example 2- Awake Wyrm, no magic, Domstr 10, Order 3, Sloth 3, Fortune 1, Magic 1. This probably isn't as good as the PoD, but is less of a risk b/c the Wyrm is a little more powerful pre-equipment, and because you can heal him with your priestesses.
    * A dormant pretender saves you a *lot* of points, but as EA Arco with sloth you have trouble expanding early; almost certainly isn't worth it.

    	    		8.12.1.2 Early Arcoscephale - Ephebophilia incarnate

    				Article Author:  Juffos
    This was written for vanilla game, no CBM or other mods.

    Early Arcoscephale is one of the bit harder nations to play. They have no exceptional national troops, mages have to be communioned in order to become really useful (communions can be quite tricky for some people, check the guide by baalz) and they are rush bait. They also have some exceptional strengths, such as huge early research by philosophers, mages who are sharing the title of best communion mages with Pythium's theurgs (who suffer from old age and worse magic versatility), priestesses with healer 100, oreiads with seduce and sceptics who can be used for the underhanded dominion kill.

    Mediocre national troops force one to take an awake or dormant pretender for aiding in expansion and defending against rushes. I used a dormant Prince of Death, astral5 death5 dominion strength 9, scales were order3, sloth3, growth3, misfortune2 and magic1. Dormancy gives points for improved scales and also some time for philosophers to research necessary early selfbuffs, such as personal luck and body ethereal. Combined with awe+0 from dom9 which gets a huge boost from the innate fear aura of Prince, he is almost invulnerable against ordinary troops. Some early construction0 forgings such as blacksteel armor are also useful for him because of his undead form, which does not take any encumbrance from armor. Later in game he can buff himself with astral shield, resist magic and soul vortex which is the ultimate antichaff-spell. Note that priestesses cannot heal his afflictions because he is undead.

    Do not use wind riders for bless. They cost too much and suck.

    After all independents have been taken, he can fly from province to province to look for death sites, because you have no other access to death except your pretender, unless you are lucky and find some magic site or independent province which can supply you with death mages.

    Do not use him against astral nations, because he will get magic dueled or horror marked into oblivion. Death mages will dust to dust him.

    In the late game his paths give you access to high astral and high death, the winning magic paths of late game. With order and growth, you should have enough gold to build additional cheap castles in forests or mountains fast. Arcoscephale also has laboratories which cost only 250 gold, making castle spam even better. A factory for massing mystics costs only 1050 gold for you, making research extremely easy.

    Tartarian spam is perfectly applicable for this nation, with the Prince summoning the well of misery and some demilichs with lichcraft and an oreiad with nature random and thistle mace casts mother oak for nature gems to burn in gift of reasoning the tartarians and the gift of health for curing their afflictions. You have no death income in capital so trade for gems or be lucky in site searching with the Prince. Wishing and arcane nexus also are available because of astral5, just equip the Prince with starshine skullcap, crystal coin and ring of sorcery. You must be the first one to reach construction8 in order to wish with the Prince without empowering him in astral (dimensional rod, the ring of sorcery also can be replaced with the tome of higher power (mage engineer with astral random with ring of wizardry) in order to spare pearls). If you succeed to be the first one, do also snatch the death artifact which increases one's death magic by 3. It actually isn't hard to imagine Early Arcoscephale reach construction8 first due to their insane research machine.

    In midgame vine ogre spam can work with battlefield wide nature buffs such as mass protection and mass regeneration.

    Mystics are awesome. They can deter an elephant rush with conjuration3 and thaumaturgy4. Just put up a reverse communion in which a master casts the power of spheres which makes all your slaves +2 astral, perfect for paralyze spam. This can also be used against thugs and supercombatants. They can reach a huge variety of spells which to use in battle with communion, reverse or not, such as fireball, fire cloud, ice strike, falling frost, blade wind, magma eruption, acid spells, gifts from heaven, soul slay and astral fires. Oreiads with air random can support with thunder strike. All those spells are conveniently in the evocation tree. Your mystics with both water and earth random can also cast rust mist which is outright cruel against big men in strong armour. Myrmidons are perfect for keeping the enemy still while your mages do the damage.

    Dwarven hammers are forgeable by mystics with two earth randoms and earth boots.

    Oreiads with earth random can be used as cloud trapezing stonerainers, script them with summon earthpower and rain of stones, add ironskin if you care for your mages. This can be extremely devastating if you equip them with sacred shrouds, giving them +150% affliction chance because of your death5 Prince. They can also be thugged up if you need to cut a crucial retreat path during a combat. They have awe+5 so province defence is almost helpless against them. Cloud trapeze, buff with mistform, mirror image, air shield (awe doesn't help against missile attacks!), iron skin and strength of gaia and give them a brand and some cheap shield, maybe also a pendant of luck. Some reinvigoration equipment will help with the fatigue, such as boots of messenger and/or girdle of strength. After the strike they can go into hiding and sneak either back or for extra raiding.

    You have access to the remote site search spells of every path but death (which is covered by your pretender) and blood. This gives you a huge influx of gems that can be used for summoning elemental royalty or be alchemised for additional pearls. For air queens, equip an air random oreiad with ring of wizardry and forge an air booster (or equip her with the tome of high power if you managed to get it). For fire kings, empower a fire2 mystic once in fire and give him the ring of wizardry and then forge the burning helmet. You could also empower your pretender twice in fire and then with ring of wizardry and flame skull summon the king of banefires who then proceeds to summon the fire kings. For earth kings, earth2 mystic with tome of gaia (earth random oreiad with earth boots), earth boots and ring of wizardry.

    I also mentioned sceptics in the beginning. If you are the sneaky type, you can try to score a dominion kill with them. For additional power, forge stone idols with your e2s1 mystics with earth boots or e1s2 mystics with starshine skullcaps. However, recruiting sceptics can hurt your mage recruitment too much not to be affordable.

    The seduce ability of oreiads doensn't trigger often enough to be actually worth attempting, but it can be used for assassinating important mages or commanders. Apply standard thug equipment and buffs here.

    The point of this nation is to survive early game so they get their research and gem income going, so they can shine in the later phases of the game.

    Comments:
    Don't forget to try to seduce blood vine mages if you find any, there are 5 per province usually, so you should be able to get at least one.

    Also, if you've got a Ring of Wizardry then have an A3 Oreiad make a staff of storms. You can bring it along for both better thunderstriking and lightning, and also cast Fog Warriors with 4 gems, after summon storm power.

    	    		8.12.1.3 EA Arco - uncle moneybags

    Article Author: Baalz
    	    			8.12.1.3.1 Original Guide

    [This guide is based on CBM]

    EA Arco, the golden era. This isn¿t your Arco of later eras with regimented phalanxes and rows of communion mages, this is the time of Hercules. Think heroes and legendary monsters and mage-engineers forging wings that should not fly too close to the sun, the gods taking personal interest in the affairs of men - now you¿re getting into the right mindset for this nation.

    Now, this wasn¿t just a flavorful introduction, it¿s very important that you get into a different mindset for EA Arco than you would for it¿s later two eras as it plays strikingly different. EA Arco is a land of making mutually exclusive choices, you¿re going to have to decide which Arco you¿re going to play at the point you¿re making your pretender. This guide explores one particular angle, but there are few nations with so clearly marked different paths, you certainly could be effective going a different angle.

    That said, I¿ll go ahead and tell you that I¿m going to mostly ignore 3 reasonably effective units because they don¿t fit this angle. The Myrmidon, chariot, and Icarid can all be pretty good units if you treat them right, the problem being that they¿re fairly resource intensive. The philosopher unit has a unique attribute that it gets +1 research point for each level of sloth. That¿s great, research bonus for gaining design points! The catch is that the real cost of taking sloth scales is effectively deciding not to use these three units in a serious way. I¿ll be talking about them in more detail in a bit, realize how much more you could get out of them if you took production scales. I, however, am choosing the philosopher  he¿s just too tempting when packaged with the 240 design points for swinging from production-3 to sloth-3.

    With a magic-1, sloth-3 scale those 50 gold philosophers are spitting out a jaw dropping 9 research points. Now, the beginner might look at that and think the 9 was the important number. It¿s not, the important number is 50. That 50 means we can have extremely competitive research while spending almost no gold. Let¿s take this idea and run with it. Since we¿re taking sloth-3 scales lets see what we can accomplish recruiting almost nothing in the first year.

    The first leg of this plan is to have a pretender who can come out of the gate fearsomely on turn 1. This means with no research or items, somebody who can keep on clearing indies at a steady pace. Additionally, as we¿re going to be running light on troops we really want somebody whose power will scale up as the game goes on so he doesn¿t loose all usefulness once real armies start showing up. Now, there¿s a couple different pretender chassis that fit this bill, but most of them also require having a dominion score high enough to give them awe. Rather than trying to sacrifice my scales for a dominion score I don¿t really otherwise want, I¿m gonna pick the great white bull.

    Now, the bull doesn¿t need awe, but he does really need some earth magic. Taking the great white bull I can afford 4E 4N, a dominion of 5 and Order-3, Sloth-3, cold-1, death-1, luck-3, and magic-1. The earth component is critical for a couple of reasons. Right off the bat it gives him +4 protection, bringing his berserk protection up to 16. Against spear wielding humans the difference between a 12 protection and 16 is *huge* it¿s going to reduce the amount of damage you take by an order of magnitude. A 12 protection is kind of iffy for initial expansion, 16 you¿ve got no problem against most of the stuff you¿ll see in inides. Stay away from barbarians, lizards, wolf tribe & heavy cavalry and you¿ve really got nothing to worry about with all those hitpoints.

    Now, the initial troops you start out with are not great, but they¿re actually not completely worthless once you lay a sermon of courage on them. Turn one recruit as many slingers as your resources allow and prophetize your initial champion and between your javelins and slings you should be able to take out a couple of the low protection, shieldless indies. You¿ll take some casualties each fight, but that¿s ok you only need to take 2 provinces, if you can take 3 with these troops consider it a solid success. If your luck bums out and you lose to your first indie that¿s not great, but not the end of the world either because your raging bull is unstoppably stomping around (unstoppable referring only to light/medium indies at this point!).

    While these two squads spend the first few turn expanding you¿re making (practically free) philosophers and (not so free) Wind Riders. Wind Riders are pretty expensive, but you won¿t have any problem affording as many as your resources allow as this will only be 5-8 or so in the first 3 turns. That¿s ok, that¿s all you want. Whenever your initial (non-pretender) expansion party grinds down to a useless nub bring your prophet back to collect the wind riders. If you got unlucky and your prophet bought the farm, recruit a Wind Lord instead. This handful of wind riders with the modest blessing you¿ve got is *bad **** for clearing indies, other than exceptionally strong indies they can clear everything. Meanwhile those philosophers have made it to alt-2 and your bull god is now throwing down a stoneskin (and shortly ironskin) which bumps him up to the level that he can also take out almost any indies. B-line both these expansion squads over to the nearest farmlands, there¿s a very good chance you can grab the closest ones before your neighbors.

    After you¿ve sent out those wind riders you¿re going to only be recruiting philosophers. At 50 gold a pop, you¿re essentially not spending any money while your research blazes on at the head of the pack. Your 2 expansion parties are both plenty strong enough to snatch the high population indies, and your scales are retarded good  and being spread to everything you conquer by either your god or your prophet. You should have enough money to start construction on your second castle by turn 6 or so, and roughly enough to put a new one up every turn after that. Your income, in fact should be so good that very shortly you¿re able to continue putting a castle up per turn while you start doing other things.

    Now, I wanted to talk for a minute about castle site selection. Most of the time in dominions you want to take the cheapest castles you can so that you can get as many of them as possible so you can get as many mages as possible. True, that¿s an important part of why we¿re doing this, but it¿s not the only goal. These forts are an investment. Many people overlook the income bonus from forts, which can be quite significant over the long term. A fort increases the income of a province by the percentage of it¿s administration value divided by two. Let¿s say you put up a forest ramparts with an administration value of 10 in some woods with a population of 5000 and an income of 50. That fort would then generate 2.5 gold per turn. Lets say you put a fortified city with an administration of 50 on a nice farmland with a 20000 population and an income of 200, that fort would generate 50 gold per turn. So, not counting the time value of having a fort up sooner the fortified city (which cost 400 gold more) pays for itself in 8 turns at which point it¿s generating a profit for the rest of the game. This sort of investment can make a significant difference if you¿re putting a fort up early in year one, it¿s not unlikely that gold gain will be thousands per fort over the course of the game on the nice provinces. This gain is even greater with good scales. Most of the time you can¿t afford that extra 400 gold in year one, but the philosophers allow us to do it while maintaining our research pace. We¿ve got gold and no super urgent need to grow our research, so lets make some investments.

    Targeting the highest population provinces first (and gold/gem mines, arenas, etc!) your forts start sprouting like mushrooms. Since you¿re not recruiting troops and the upkeep for your philosophers is negligible you¿re going to fairly quickly get to the point that you can put up a castle per turn and still pile up the gold. At this point (should be inside of year one) you¿re done recruiting philosophers. Whenever you begin to lament the waste of not using your philosophers look at all those castles you have and the money you can¿t figure out how to spend fast enough and remember it¿s not a waste, that investment is paying fat dividends the rest of the game.

    Why do we start ignoring the philosophers who have treated us so well? Because the centerpiece of EA Arco is also cap only, you¿re going to only recruit Oreiads from now on. It¿s really a shame, EA Arco has several very nice units which are cap only, but they never see the light of day because they¿re totally eclipsed by the Oreiad. Your first couple Oreids are going to head out site searching. Oh, and did you notice yet that Arco¿s labs only cost 250 gold? Put labs in all those castles sprouting up and start cranking out the mystics. You will have a *lot* of mystics (this is where the majority of that fat income you generated is going to go all game), so you¿ll have plenty which are 2e, 2w, or 2f, and of course they¿re all at least 1S so you¿ve got a powerful battery of site searchers you¿ll be leveraging. Meanwhile, your Oreaids are doing solid job manually searching N and A with a trickle of W & E thrown in. You should have a very strong gem income to match your strong research and strong gold income.

    Those philosophers are going to make short work of the early research. Your Bull God was most of the way towards being invincible with just iron skin, but once you add in earthpower and personal regeneration he¿s going to have no problem splattering anything short of a real army or a SC counter. Your philosophers will have no trouble clearing this bar inside of year one and well ahead of any fighting with other players. For big fights you¿ll want to add in some support mages to buff him. I know what some of you were thinking ¿The Great Bull? Come on, he¿s useless after clearing the indies, he can¿t be effectively used against a real army like I would with a kitted out titan!¿. Well, to that I say bull. Summon earthpower gives him all the reinvig he needs, fatigue from trampling varies a lot but you¿ll be perpetually low fatigue. Throwing invulnerability down will bring him to a nice round 30 protection while berserking. In a solid dominon he¿ll have over 300 hitpoints, and having laid down personal regeneration will be essentially unkillable by the method of poking him with sharp things. Having self-buffed iron will and hanging an amulet of antimagic off one horn he¿s got an in-dominion MR close to 30. With support mages laying down luck, body ethereal, quickness, haste, gift of flight he turns into something I guarantee will cause nightmares in your enemies (note, you¿ve just quadrupled his movement which gives him a devastating attack but also causes him to get ahead of his reinvigoration. Skip that part for huge armies where you expect a long fight. Trust me though, not much will last long enough for it to matter). You¿ve still got a free misc slot so stick a ring of tamed lighting or whatever seems appropriate given your opposition on his tail and tell me again how he can¿t be effective against real armies.

    I also wanted to point out that a variation of this same trick is quite effective using chariots. Given your sloth scale chariots are your goto unit when you need to recruit something outside of your capital, and as long as you¿re using them make sure to double their effectiveness by dropping haste. As the game progresses tossing in mass flight and quickening is devastatingly effective as a side strategy (as in where your opponent is not dropping storm or fielding chariot counters like anything size 4 or higher). Because they¿re fairly easily countered you¿re not going to want to lean on them too heavily, but trotted out every now and then they can be a devastating surprise.

    As long as we¿re on the subject of flying troops lets look at the Icarids. These guys have the potential to be everything Caelum wishes its infantry was. They¿re size 2 along with a reasonable weapon and strength. The strength of flying units (aside from strategic movement flexibility) is the ability to swarm which is greatly improved by being size 2 vs size 3. Toss on a strength of giants (and later weapons of sharpness & quickening) along with mass protection and these guys start looking a lot like something your opponent would rather not have jumping into his flank. You¿ll probably be disappointed with them if you try and use them without mage support or against very stout opposition, but that¿s ok, this is another side strategy you¿ll just use when it seems like a good idea.

    Rounding out your air force are the wind riders. As your castle building frenzy levels off you¿ll want to steadily recruit these guys. You¿ll never have enough of them to be central to your strategy, but they are awesome heavy raiders and will contribute greatly to the threat vector your opponent has to worry about. Your first inclination is probably to recruit wind lords to lead them. That would be a good idea if it didn¿t mean you had to do without an Oreiad that turn. Instead, send them out in groups of 10 with a priestess with flying boots and a thistle mace. Not only can she bless them, she also can lay down wooden warriors then spam panic. Best of all, she makes sure you get an Oreiad every single turn.

    So, I keep going on and on about the Oreiad, I guess it¿s time for me to illustrate why she inspires me to poetry. She may be my favorite cap only mage. Why? Because she¿s great at *everything*, an amazingly good thug with no equipment and a full fledged SC with equipment you can probably find wedged in the crease of your couch.

    She¿s got awe, and a powerful one. Powerful enough that even high morale troops will shy off more often than not. She¿s stoneskin, which with any armor you stick on her, anything which does hit her will bounce off more often than not. She¿s got mistform so those few hits which do cause damage will only cause one point, and she¿s got powerful nature magic so her regeneration is about half her hitpoints. Add this all up and it means she needs to get hit more than 5 times per round over many rounds to bring her down. Not many units can do that. Now, if you get rushed into very early fighting (that for some reason your Bull God can¿t handle) you can use a priest to bless them to gain the regen and reinvig you need. In most circumstances though I¿d suggest just forging her a shroud of the battlesaint, your protection is plenty enough with your buffs and you get the regen without casting the very fatigue expensive personal regeneration. You¿ve got all those mystics arcane probing, you shouldn¿t have any trouble at all popping out a sacred shroud every turn to match the one Oreiad you get.

    But I haven¿t told you the best part yet  no need to forge a shield or weapon. Try this script on for size  mistform, stoneskin, resist lightning, cast spells. What spell is she going to cast? Shockwave of course. Now you¿ll do plenty enough damage to blast PD around with just this, but with a little more reinvig you become truly unstoppable. Fortunately, 25% of your Orieads can cast summon earthpower, and the rest just need an earth gem, or for just 3 gems you can forge boots of the messenger with a hammer. Oh, also no worries if she runs into somebody lighting immune, the spellcasting AI will automatically switch to something like freezing touch or fists of iron.

    But wait, there¿s more! Add ¿resist elements¿ there and it gives you 50% resistance to everything. This means 100% resistance is as easy as slapping on a dragon helm & frost brand (you¿re already scripting resist lighting). You can toss in resist poison if it seems like it¿ll help.

    So, once you¿ve forged 4 hammers, every turn you¿re using 3w 3f 3s 3n and have a chick who¿s immune to everything, and blasts a huge chunk out of the enemy front lines every other turn while never running up fatigue. You know what¿s even better than that? Using three of them together. Watching the enemy try to swarm around this one block of three invincible chicks to have 3 shockwaves blasting out is just an awesome site to behold. For not many more gems you can stick amulets of MR & luck on your lovely ladies so they¿re good for all weather. If you¿re facing tough astral spam, slap on rainbow armor and rotate in iron will to the buff mix (you¿ll also need some extra reinvig and to cast person regen), you¿ve no worries from that angle. They also get you into the water very early for the price of a ring of water breathing.

    That was just the opening act, my friend. All those Oreiads are stealthy and can cloud trapeze. That in and of itself is a strategy (check out my Eriu guide for details), but lets examine how this looks in light of the other things we¿ve got set up and in light of another of the Oreiad¿s abilities. Seduction. So, you¿ve got forts packed shoulder to shoulder in most of your provinces. You¿ve got dozens of cloud trapeze capable SCs. You can seduce from inside a sieged fort. Tell me again how you plan on ever losing a fort? Think about it, those Oreiads are army clearers, how many bodyguards does it take to stop them? They¿re immune to everything, so how many mages survive the assassination? Then again there¿s the successful seductions. It¿s got a low success rate, but it¿ll happen often enough to make you gleeful as you round our your national magic with death, blood, or whatever else seems tasty. Plus, you know, that near 100% success rate of killing the guys who don¿t join you, that¿s a plus to. Now, of course you¿ll need to use your head and adjust the equipment/scripting you use based on what your opponent is using, but from spamming endless false horrors to orb lighting to frozen heart to swarm there¿s not many opponents who don¿t have something deadly to fear. It¿s too bad there¿s no way you can get Mage Engineers, they would fit fabulously with this strategy.

    Now, the obvious counter to this sort of thing is anti-SCs equipped with magic items to pop the mistform. So, why not have some of your lovely ladies equipped with a rune smasher and void eye spamming charm at the same time? Who wants to run their thugs into that? As you start getting into the part of the game where anti-thugs are likely to be used you¿ll not want to use Oreiads unsupported except in hit and run operations using their stealth and mobility. Their hitpoints are low enough that there¿s not really any way to reliably target them when they¿ve got wyvern bodyguards - who make nice anti-anti-thugs with their paralyzing poison while ignoring the shockwaves. Not invincible, but darn hard to get to.

    These lovely ladies aren¿t done yet by a long stretch. Whenever I see an A/E combo I immediately think stone rain. Every single one of your Oreiads can cast it - 1 gem for summon earthpower, two for casting it. Even better, stick earth boots on an earth random Oreiad and drop it first turn (give her plenty of protection). You also, of course, can drop all those big nature spells from mass regeneration to mass protection and relief. Those Myrmidons start looking pretty darn vicious, particularly when you stack on all those earth buffs as well. Crystal shields are your friend, with one wrathful skies opens up, and any of your water random ones can drop foul vapors. Too bad we don¿t have any lighting and poison immune troops.

    Dragon master and you¿re summoning wyverns for 1 gem apiece. Unlike other drakes, wyverns have a fairly decent MR (12). True, they¿re not as physically tough as the better known drakes, but they¿re decent enough meat shields for the price, they fly, oh, and they¿re lighting and poison immune. They¿ll provide some nice bulk to your sloth-stunted armies and compare very favorably to the vine ogres you might otherwise be inclined to build up (who have a MR of 5, don¿t fly, and aren¿t lighting immune). The wyverns also lay down a paralyzing poison which is very useful against super giants common in EA as it attacks their fatigue rather than their strongly regenerating hitpoints (make sure you drop strength of giants to help that stinger punch through giant strength armor). All in all, EA Arco should be a pretty significant flying nation.

    A couple other summons bear special consideration. Sleepers make decent thugs when kitted out. Gargoyles make a solid addition to your air force. Sirrush benefit from your nature blessing and can be pretty impressive when buffed similarly to what I suggested for your pretender. They¿re also poison immune so work well with that angle. Kithaironic Lions are not only incredibly thematic, they¿re also work very well with some buffing from your ubiquitous astral mages (sense a pattern here?). Remember, you¿re going light on the troops so you¿ll need to have some summons to make up the difference and buffing them is often a great job for those mystics who were unfortunate in the randoms they got.

    Now, you don¿t have the same astral strength that the later Arcos do, but you¿d be leaving money on the table to ignore what you do have. Part of your strong gem income should be put to forging a steady stream of starshine caps and crystal coins, along with rune smashers and void eyes. Over time you should be able to build up quite a stash of these items (all forgable with mystics) which you¿ll stick on double astral mystics which you¿ll collect in one big stack in one of your forts. You¿ll also build up (over time) 20 or so priestesses in the same block. What¿s magic about that? You can now mind hunt with no fear of going feebleminded, that stack of priestesses will heal the feeblemind the same turn it happens. Heck, feel free to shoot at armies with S1-2 mages  you¿re only out a couple pearls for failed attempts. You¿ll have plenty of seeking arrow casters to, which is a nasty one-two punch taking out the astral mage cover while laying down a devastating barrage.

    Finally, all those castles spitting out all those mystics leads to truly really the best communion potential in the game. Read my guide to communions for suggestions, it really is a whole discussion unto itself.

    	    			8.12.1.3.2 Comments

    ->  chrispedersen
    A few things:

    I think having a *pile* of priestesses is a bit of a waste- 1-2 has always been sufficient for me.

    Additionally, under all flavors of CBM, seduction got a hefty boost; to the tune that it now *often* works.

    Under CBM cat charm is con-4; under vanilla and ChrisCBM its Con-2. Well worth the investment.

    Scout as fast as you can: Finding a blood druid site is gold for Arco - it comes with 5 fairly easily seducible blood druids.

    Don't neglect charm, as a weapon. Sooner or later one of your mystics will allow you to runesmash.

    Eye of aiming,shield of valor - minimal investment then considering storm/lightning spam.

    On the subject of the flying troops; flyers get fatigue from flying as well as combat.
    And their base encumbrance is like 10! So you will take appreciable fatigue just by flying up and whacking the opponents.

    So, while I like the units, you will have appreciable attrition, especially in the early game if you use them unbuffed. Strongly consider reinvigoration - just to cut down on the number of hits bypassing armor.

    ->  Redeyes

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Baalz
    Now, the obvious counter to this sort of thing is anti-SCs equipped with magic items to pop the mistform. So, why not have some of your lovely ladies
    Swarm Dragonflies mess Oreiads up if they can get in close, cutting through protection, awe & mistform, all the three common defenses of the Oreiad.

    Vine shields is essentially a perfect defense against dragonflies but is too expensive to include in the Oreiads' kit.

    ->  Baalz

    ....and back onto EA Arco. I fully concede that the white bull is not as versatile late game as some other chasises, but for this build you want three things:

    1) An awake expansion pretender
    2) Very good scales
    3) A minor E/N blessing

    Good luck affording all that with a pretender who is also top shelf for late game. If you've got a suggestion for one that would work better I'm listening. I also think you discount his combat utility a bit too much, having that invincible battering ram zooming about like superman set to attack rearmost not only makes me happy to think about, it certainly is the sort of thing that will wreck an opponents day in many situations. You won't be using him to singlehandedly take down armies, but used as part of your overall strategy you shouldn't have too hard a time putting him to good use.

    @Aezeal - he's got over 200 hitpoints with just one candle, so pushing a strong dominion is certainly not required. You don't want to send him into strong enemy dominion of course, but mildly friendly should be fine along with all those buffs. I didn't mention it, but you'll want to put up enough temples in those forts to make sure your nice dominion covers all your land. He's only got two misc slots, so I'd outfit him generally as I said with an amulet of MR and a ring of whatever resistance seemed best at the time (lighting by default as it's the biggest danger).

    @Redeyes - yeah, swarm will give all kinds of different SCs problems, Oreiads included. Haven't tested it, but size 4 wyvern bodyguards should be a fairly effective screen against swarm I'd think.

    @analytic_kernel - yeah, I agree. Maybe I didn't make it super clear, but I do mention chariots are your goto guys outside of your capital. There are lots of situations where chariots are next to useless though, anybody who sticks a couple crushers at the front of their army will pretty much ruin your day if all you've got is chariots. Myrmidons certainly have a niche in your army.

    @Dragar - The earth is an very important component of the blessing. It doubles the effective time your wind riders can fight which is important for units used in smaller numbers. It's also a non negligible benefit to your Oreiads, and as central as they are to your strategy it seems like a good idea to invest in them.

    ->
    	    		8.12.1.4

    	    	8.12.2 MA Arcoscephale

    	    	    	8.12.2.1 A few thoughts on MA Arcoscephale

    			Hi there,

    So I've been playing MA Arco almost to exclusion in about 4 MP and a few SP games here and there.

    *DISCLAIMER*

    This is a light heated guide and by no means have I explored all the strategies and possibilities with this race and I'm pretty much useless at crunching numbers etc.

    But I'll share a few things that have worked for me and what I think might be MA Arco's prime strengths and weaknesses.

    Pretender selection -

    Right now I'm favouring two distinct types of pretender -

    Dragons or even a wyrm simply because they allow for quick expansion in the early game, your neighbours who don't have early game SC pretenders tend to be quick to offer/accept NAP's but more importantly that quick expansion allows you to develop a strong economy for Arco's greatest unit...but we'll come to that soon. Your Dragon/Wyrm will probably gain quite a few afflictions the more fights they get into ...try to keep them away from Heavy Cavalry...pick and choose your indy fights, anything to tough bypass and hit with your ele*cough...mumble* legions later on.

    The Rainbow guy, yeah grab a sage or other low cost pretender....this guy does one thing...follow your early armies around and site search, try to give him at least one path preferably two paths in all magic discliplines except blood. Gives you those magical gems you'll need in the mid-late game, which you'll be in desperate need of if you want to remain competitive when Summoned SC's start appearing.

    Dominion selection

    Your going to need cash and resources.....So....how about -
    Order +3 Plenty of gold, Negates misfortune scale a little
    Prod +1 Extra resources and supply help with you ele*cough* legions.
    Heat 0
    Growth 0
    Misfortune -3 The odd curse and barbarian invasion, annoying but manageable
    Magic +1 Gives your Astrologers a bit more of a research lead....they'll need it Mid - Late game.

    Yeah the scales can be messed around with a bit..depends on choice of pretender I guess....mainly I like good income and resources with a little extra magic mojo.

    Bless Strategy?

    I love bless strategies as much as the next Vanheim vanboy, but I'd rather paint my scrotum with napalm then use a bless strategy with MA Arco...EA Arco yes....but not MA.

    Heart Companions are a good unit...good but not great. Nice Morale (14) Long spear reach (5) and great protection (17) but their movement? (1/7) urgh! Sure you could for a W9 bless..but why bother. Maybe if they were like Mictlans jaguar warriors where they could be mass produced in every city it might be worth having a huge phalanx of these incredibly slow but heavily armoured guys until then....no.

    MUAHAHA! ELEPHANTS THE SECRET REVEALED!!!

    Thats right...as soon as possible start producing elephants. Tough (64), big (6) and quick (3/18)...and they trample!!! Yes they there is nothing quite like the sight of 50+ elephants trampling an enemy army into dust. Early game 2 15+ mobs of elehpants roaming around will fix most indies.....if your neighbour gets cheeky just crush him under the weight of your elephants.

    Cost - 100 Gold 20 resources mean that you won't be pumping much more then 5 - 10 at the very most in your early game...don't worry though, as mentioned above they are pretty hardy and you don't need hundreds of them to get the job done (though it would be nice to have a few hundred )

    Morale...yeah elephant morale could be better...and if they break theres the added factor that they will turn tail and trample any units behind them....so leave the path of retreat clear in the event the trunked ones flee.

    Improving Morale - Strategos have banners for a reason...yes stick a strategos or three in the middle of your elephant wedge...it boosts their morale incredibly and very rarely will they flee unless you come up against something really worthy.

    Commanders

    I only bother with Strategos...120 Leadership and a morale boosting standard..good command unit...I don't normally kit them out, rather save the gems for mid-late game summons/globals etc.

    Casters

    Priestess....Great unit....you want at least 2 or 3 to heal all your mind hunters from feeblemind..its remarkable how quickly they do it too if they are scripted to heal every turn. Oh these are your only priest types too....so don't forget to build the odd temple here and there too. Nice to have following your elephant leigons around too....as the trunked ones tend to accumulate afflictions via combat but also starvation tends to rear its ugly head often too.

    Can be empowered to cast high end nature spells etc.

    Astrologers
    Powerful capital only astral mages....you really want to research soul slay and mind burn...then mind hunt ASAP. Probably 1/3 tp 1/2 your astrologers will be A4 right off the bat meaning you can be doing a lot of mind hunting in the right circumstances (ie. enemy doesn't also have astral mages) as mentioned above keep some priestesses handy to heal the feebleminded ones ASAP. I like to slowly upgrade one or even better two up to A8 or A9 so that spells like Arcane Nexus and Wish are able to cast....mmmm....Wish = SC of your choice. I like Seraphs with nice gear....others like Doom horrors (can backfire though....not nice)

    Another tactic that works is while your elephant legions are off conquering....or whatever and need some magical backup, teleport as many of these guys as you can spare...20 is nice....sit them at the edge of the battlefield and script them to soul slay. It whittles down the enemy nicely.

    In a big fight, casting Doom ( curse the entire enemy army) followed by Will of the fates (Luck for your whole army)...nice when you have a giant elephant legion with luck.

    Mystics
    Recruitable from any city, they also give more magical diversity if needed. I tend to use them where needed...I like Astrologers better.

    Other Units
    Well the other units are okay....they really are just fodder compared to the ELELPHANTS PHWAHAHER! ahem...anyway use them where needed to fill out your armies etc but they ain't that special. I've never used the chariots, I figure why bother with a size 4 trampler when I can have more ELEPHANTSS!!!!

    One parting thought...

    I've heard people say the sound of a 300 Maenads in battle can set your teeth on edge after a 50 turn SP session.....you ain't heard nothin yet....100 elephants is a sound for sore ears indeed.

    				8.12.2.1.1 Some comments

    				-> How do you deal with terror/frighten/panic spell spam? Elephants have poor morale and low magic resistance. Not a good combination...
    				Multiple Strategos seem to work wonders their Morale boosting banners are worth (10) though I've got no idea how much the mechanics of that figure work. Another thing you can do is add some Cardaces or hoplites to the unit to boost the avg morale value up. But I tend too avoid that as although the elephants are twice as quick if its a good stand up fight the cardaces and hoplites start to drop like flies causing more morale checks.

    But yes the morale and low MR is an inherent weakness. Though not everyone seems to take advantage of this for whatever reason e.g. nation choice, circumstance, experience etc.

    Another thought....say for example you know you are about to face a large enemy army that has a fair number of death mages....hopefully you can scout the army before it gets to you....I don't see why not as Arcoscephale gets the scry ability which allows for accurate intelligence reports inside your dominion. But anyway if the enemy army is free of astral mages you can pretty ,much go to town on them with your A4 mindhunting astrologers. Try and take them down before they hurtesses your precious elephantses.

    				-> FWIW, I find Mystics to be quite underrated. They're recruitable anywhere and communions of them can rain down falling frost/fire, gifts from heaven, magma eruption, blade wind, astral fires, enslave mind, and cleansing water depending on what the situation merits plus most any buff (legions of steel/strength of giants/weapons of sharpness turn their quite respectable heavy infantry into a major threat). You can also use them to forge slave matrixes for thugs, then buff them with every earth/fire/water/astral buff through a communion (invulnerability, fire shield & breath of winter turns most anybody into a thug, toss in quicken self, personal luck, and ). They make an awesome defensive force while you're building up your research base and a damn effective offensive force when you collect critical mass.

    	    	    	8.12.2.2 ME Arcocephale Strategy Guide

    				8.12.2.2.1. The troops

    Slingers... militia level slingers with mapmove 1 and low morale, you may eventually build some in cases of extreme emergency, if you have low ressources and need a good number of patrollers ; can be usefull in early game if you can't find indie archers to take barbarians provinces

    Peltast... shielded light infantry with javelins. As all other infantries have spears only, the javelins make the peltast the most offensive type. Their defence is rather good (13 with the shield) ; it's the best light infantry to recruit when you are low in ressources. They may be usefull both in very early game (when you are limited in both ressources and gold, and want some extra fire power) and in mid-late game (when you need to build a lot of meatshields and protection doesn't matter anymore as your ennemies use AP/AN dammages or thugs).

    Cardaces... Light infantry with a little better protection but costing 2 more ressources and without javelins. Body protection 7 rarely allows them to survive longer than peltasts (protection 6) even if they have a far better helmet (head 14). The two units having a shield and same defence, I prefer the ones with javelins.

    Hoplite... The main heavy soldier. 17+ protection, above average morale (12), a length 5 spear for repells. Their high encumbrance (9), and weak weapon (like for all Arco infantries only 3 dmg) make them unpopular for some players, but in fact they are just the kind of soldiers Arcocephale needs. They are not supposed to kill the ennemies themselves or fight long battles, they are here to protect the mages who are the main dammage dealers of the nation and should destroy anything in less than 10 rounds (or some communions slaves risk to be lost anyway). They cost 30 ressources but only 11 gold, so you'll never find reasons not to use all your forts ressources. Even if you don't plan to use them fast, hoplites always worth to be built. Many nations only heavy troops have higher upkeep cost, and are not really better considering magic and not weapons dammage decide the outcome of most battles.

    Hypaspist... These "light" hoplites have an insane morale for a non sacred human troop (14) you can build in any fort. They also have mapmove 2, a lower encumbrance and a good defence/protection combo (13/15+). But they cost far more gold (15) than protection 17 hoplites and so aren't really cost effective as main meatshields. They are better used as morale boosters : having some hyspaspists in each squad make your army less likely to rout. And it's particularly a good idea when you use elephants. In early game a squad of 3 or 4 elephants + 5 or 6 hyspapists is often sufficient to take indies who would repell a force of 5 or 6 elephants only. Later in the game, when elephants become obsolete, hyspapists are still usefull due to their mobility. They often are the best soldiers you can send to reinforce your armies some provinces away from your forts (the others arriving after the battle). Also, for a nation with no cavalry, they can be usefull as flankers. If they are not very fast, their high morale will often allow them march to the real ennemy rear instead of cancelling their "attack:rear" order when they pass the ennemy first squads.

    Heart Companion... They are just sacred hoplites with a better morale. Not a bad unit with a bless, but as they are capitol only and have mapmove 1 they don't really worth to use a strong one (especially as their encumbrance make earth a mandatory part of any good bless for them, so you can't use the overpowered combos like fire/water). Like hyspapists they are better used as morale boosters, with a benediction in addition of a sermon they reach 18 morale, so 3 heart companions in a squad may be sufficient to protect the same number of elephants from routing (also as heart companions are very slow and well protected, the chances to have some killed, and elephants failing their morale checks as a result are very low). Heart companions are also a good counter if you have to fight an awe/fear based SC in early game.

    Chariot... Size 4 tramplers with good defence and a far better MR than elephants, but human hp, so they are vulnerable against ranged/AoE dammage. They have mapmove 3 / ap 18 like the elephants, so if you want to send a squad of elephants 3 provinces away (you have a mounted commander for that) and have it ready to fight at destination (with a little better morale than 9, and a sufficient number of units to avoid to check morale for each hit), chariots are the unit to add. They can also find uses alone in early game, if you lack money for elephants (often the case if you use a luck/turmoil build) or plan to attack a province defended by good melee units only (their defense make them better than elephants against troops like barbarians able to deal high amounts of dammage if they hit). In mid/late game, against ennemies using MR spells to neutralize your elephants, they are also the only tramplers you may want to build (but except if you have a too small number of forts and an urgent need of offensive units, money is better used to recruit more mages).

    Elephants... They are tough and strong size 6 tramplers, out of this they are rather crappy (low morale and defence, very low MR, just average protection, high upkeep). You want a lot of them in early game ; later they are usually better dead than costing money and trampling your own troops (which will happen in any consequent battle against a good player once some magic is researched, elephants can easily be terrorized, enraged or enslaved). But keeping some elephants may have some utilities even after midgame : they force ennemy mages to adapt their script to their possible use (even if your elephants finally "forget" to follow your army for the big battle, the ennemy will have scripted spells like rage, panic, enslave or terror, probably not the best use of their mages against your other troops) , and on the battlefield their size 6 allow you to chose which squad will be targeted by ennemies using fire:large monster (one or two elephants in the middle of your biggest hoplite squad can save the lives of the twenty chariots doing the real trampling, or avoid you to see a valuable thug killed by a lucky ethearal crossbow shot).

    Sirrush... Only national summon of Arcocephale, they are tough and sacred, have an excellent MR, and are one of the very rare creatures you can summon with astral pearls. They may worth to be used if your astral income is high, but I won't say that their existence is sufficient to justify a bless strategy (or to rush conjuration 5, not the best school for Arco).

    Indie Archers... Arco has no national archer, but having only low dammage troops need to recruit a lot of them, especially in midgame, hoplite + archers offer an excellent synergy. A first rank (with about 2/3 of heavy hoplites 1/3 of hyspapist) and 3 or 4 times more indie archers behind is the standard Arco army once elephants start to become obsolete. Build a fort on a province with longbowmen or other good archers if you find one. One mystic/2 has a fire pick + astral and so may be able to cast flaming arrows after a communion, it would be sad to have nobody to exploit this very powerful spell.

    				8.12.2.2.2. The commanders

    Scout... A standard scout with no leadership.

    Mounted Commander... Not very interesting, but may have an use even in late game if you play on a big map with clear terrains : it's your only commander with mapmove 3, and Arco don't have air magic for flying boots. He may be the only way to exploit the mobility of elephants, chariots or summoned troops (with a crown of command to lead magical beings).

    Hoplite/Hyspapist Commander... In theory may be used to optimize your battle scripts (as leaders with bodyguards, they allow their squads to keep cohesion as they have the speed of their kind of troop). In practice they are rather useless as it's better to use hoplites and hyspapist in mixed squads for a better morale, and to use indie commanders when your forts produce mages.

    Strategos... If you have to build a national non mage commander, it's probably the best choice. Their standard bonus is good to have near elephants, or your main meatshield squad. To really exploit the bonus if your army advance a script like "attack one turn, hold, attack one turn, hold, attack one turn, stay behind troops" should be used (with the strategos starting about two squares behind your troop) instead of the classical "hold"x5, "stay behind troops".

    Priestess... One of the strengths of Arco, the cheap priestesses are the best recruitable healers of the dominion world and in addition to their holy powers give the nation a little access to nature magic (N1, also allowing to make them very cost effective researchers with magic 3). But don't overestimate them. Troops healing is generally usefull in early game to cure the often crippled elephants, then the interest is very situationnal : if you happen to have an afflicted pretender or living thug, or some mute or feebleminded mages, healing is unvaluable ; out of that, only heal your army when you have nothing else to do (searching nature and holy sites, or even preaching, are generally better uses of priestesses than healing your meatshields). And if their nature level may find some uses on the battlefield (especially if you can give them thistle maces), mystics remain far more usefull as non-capitol mages, as they can join communions without a matrix.

    Mystic... The mages Arco can build everywhere have the strength and weakness to be very diversified, both in their skills and their global power. Their picks (1S + 100% SFWE + 50% F + 50% W + 50% E) mean for the same price you can get a 1/1 or a 2/1/1/1 mage, and you will often have mage with levels 1 only in 3 or 4 schools. Without astral it would mean rather weak mages, but as all have it, mystics are terrific communiants, allowing you to use about any battle spell of their elemental schools in important battles. Also, if their levels are low, three of their paths are easy to boost. One mystic / 8 has earth 2 and so can make earth boots (and then dwarven hammer). One /4 has water 1 for bracelets (1/8 water 2 to forge a robe of the sea with one) etc... As rings of wizardry can be forged by astrologers (with some S boosters) it means a mystic can reach without empowerement level of 5 in water or 4 in earth. The only path they may have difficulties to developp is fire, as even with a ring of wizardry no booster can be made. It may be a good idea to take fire (or better fire/death for the cheap skulls of fire) on your pretender. Once you have a fire booster a mystic can forge a fire/water staff of elemental mastery*, adding one more to all potential levels.

    Astrologer... .Capitol only mages are less diversified, but far more powerful in astral magic. They always have S3, the most interesting having level 4 (1/4) or even 5 (1/40). If you have the money, recruiting astrologers is always the priority for the capitol, you want to have as many S4 as possible as most astral spells are MR negate and extra levels give penetration bonus (and if you are lucky and end with one natural S5, keep him preciously, he'll just need one empowerement to cast wishes), The other paths astrologers can have (F,W,E) are less important, as mystics already have them (and far more chances to be level 2 in an element). Astrologers with fire are powerful in evocation even without a communion (once you have researched astral fires) so are a good choice to support your secondary armies (or for small teams of teleported mages). Those with earth once equiped with boots can summon earthpower so you have teleportable mages able to use the many e3 buffs (or gifts from heaven). The ones with water are the less interesting (but in endgame allow to summon abominations). As a secondary power, astrologers have the fortune teller ability (5% to cancel a bad event on their province), but the way this ability work don't make it sufficiently reliable to base a strategy on this (like taking misfortune without order to fund a powerful pretender -always a bad choice) but it's a good idea to send some astrologers in an important provinces with high turmoil/misfortune (or with a luck scale but ennemy dominion).

    (* note : there is an error in the manual this staff requires levels 4 and not 3.)

    				8.12.2.2.3. General View

    With elephants Arcocephale is a very strong nation in early game, so having a combat pretender since the beginning isn't as important as with most others. But as sacred don't justify a strong bless the nation can afford one, or prefer to take excellent scales with a sleeping or imprisoned pretender.

    In mid-late game, powerful astral mages and communion masters able to use BE of many paths give Arco one of the best battle magic. The main weakness of the nation is the lack of good offensive troops once elephants become obsolete, and no easy access to powerful thugs/SC.

    It makes Arco one of the most mage-dependant nations : to win big battles after early game Arco absolutely need to engage huge numbers of mages, and to use more gems, boosters and penetration items on the field than others, with some powerful battle spells researched since mid game. It means to shine Arco needs four things : a good number of forts build early to recruit a sufficient number of mystics, a positive magic scale (to compensate the number of mages who will be with armies instead of researching, and to make astral spells harder to resist), a good research plan and a strong gem income.

    				8.12.2.2.4. Research Plan

    					8.12.2.2.4.1 Early Game Priorities

    In low level magic, to reduce losses against independants, body ethereal is the best spell available, and all Arco's mages are able to cast it, so alteration 3 looks like the logical first objective. On the other hand, as elephants make expansion easy even without, you may find better to developp site searching spells first (or construction for some strategies)

    Thaumaturgy 2 allow to cast fire and earth site searching spells (but you need to recruit some mystics to have level 2 in these paths and don't have a starting e/f income, it may be better to wait a little to start elemental searches).
    Developping thaumaturgy early is anyway a good choice, as if you have to fight an early war, Paralyze is the spell to have to counter usual rush strategies (using a small number of powerful sacreds or an awake SC).

    Evocation 2, for Arcane Probing allow you to search astral sites without moving your mages (but as you have S3+ mages, you may prefer manual searches with an astrologer for provinces around the capitol). Evocation also allow to start to use dammage spells (star fire at level 1 won't win you battles, but in level 3 there are good spells for fire/earth mystics (magma bolts, fireball).

    Conjuration 3 (Voice of Apsu) is the last possibility for site searching, but conjuration is clearly not a priority compared to thaumaturgy or evocation (in midgame you'll want to have summon earthpower/phoenix power and power of the sphere, but these spells are only usefull once you have some battle magic researched), it's better to developp it in midgame.

    Construction is mostly usefull as an early choice if your pretender is awake and able to forge magical economy construction 2 items(hammer, clam, fetish) as soon you have the gems (or is a combat god needing gear, but an awake humanoid SC is rarely a good choice). If you don't have earth 3 on your pretender, you'll need to forge earth boots before dwarven hammers (=construction 4 and a good number of earth gems, two good reasons to wait a little to developp this school)..

    					8.12.2.2.4.2 Entering Mid-game

    More than other nations, Arco profits of a large magic knowledge. Developping all schools (but blood) to level 3 or 4 before going further is a good idea.

    Construction 4 is my priority if not developped earlier. It will also be the first school I developp to level 6 (a good option may be to research construction 6 before the other schools, especially if you have a good fire income to forge a lot of lightless lanterns).

    Enchantment 4 is the second one, especially if I'm already at war, as it offers several very interesting battlefield spells (the overpowered flaming arrows you can easily cast with a communion, antimagic a must have if you fight another astral power, Astral Healing...) and allow to summon Claymen (one of the rare cost effective troops summon your mages may use -especially interesting once you have construction 6 for the second water booster).

    Then there are good spells in conjuration (water search and boost spells ; summon earthpower is particularly usefull for communions, as one cast with a master gives reinvigoration to all the slaves) and alteration (luck, mostly interesting once you fight ennemies using mages -against indies body ethearal is sufficient- ; quickness, and the BE Curse of Stones -see 5.2-).

    					8.12.2.2.4.3 Late Game

    Once basic battle magic is researched, it's time to go for construction 6, allowing to forge starshine skullcaps, lightless lanterns and the multi-paths boosters. But I don't think it's a good idea to continue directly to artefacts with Arco, as it would slow the discovery of endgame battle spells.

    Researching blood 1 is a very good idea if you have access to blood amazons or other indie casters. Equiped with a booster (you can use a ring of sorcery) or empowered to level 2 one of them can join your communions as master and cast reinvigoration (ideally in round 5) suppressing fatigue for all the slaves, and you just need to find 2 slaves per fight for this. Give him a ranged weapon and use a script like : sabbath master, fire x3, reinvigoration, fire so he won't use his slaves for other purposes.

    Then the schools to developp are thaumaturgy, evocation and alteration.

    Thaumaturgy 6 give you enslave mind, the spell to have if you fight a nation with low MR powerful units (Caelum mammoths, Machaka hunter spiders etc...).

    If it's not the case it looks better to developp evocation first, offering at level 5 a large choice of non resistable aoe spells to spam in your communions (falling frost/fire/gifts of heaven/stellar cascades), and at level 6 astral fire and mind hunt.

    Once you have both level 5 thaumaturgy and level 6 evocation, your S4 mages become terrible mind hunters (equip some of them with eye of the void, spell focus, a skullcap, a rune smasher, and kill as many ennemy commanders each turn). Of course you need to be sure your ennemy don't have astral mages where you cast the spell to avoid feeblemind (but as you have healers it's not an as big problem as with other nations). Mind hunt is especially good to catch spies spreading unrest in your realm.

    Alteration offer the best endgame defensive battlefield enchants (will of the fates, army of gold), and I find better to go straight them than to stay with the weaker versions at alteration 6 or 7 (Marble warriors, battle fortune). Being able to cast will of the fates in decisive battles far before endgame, when the ennemies don't have such a powerful battle magic, may even worth to rush for it (skipping level 6 thaumaturgy/evocation), especially if you have found some indie air mages (and forged a crystal matrix for one of them). Armies of lucky golden fog warriors are terrific, especially combined with chained earthquakes (or rain of stones if you have a way to cast them). And with alteration 9 you also get arcane domination and wish.

    Another option is to concentrate on thaumaturgy instead of alteration, and go straight to level 9, to have Master Enslave as soon as possible, when the ennemies still use big armies of national troops. The spell isn't hard to cast even with rather small teams of astrologers (see 5.4), but in attack lose a lot of it's value as your opponents may counter it with antimagic (and at this stage of the game any serious opponent will have some S mages to cast it). It's why I usually prefer to go for will of the fates first, it's the only battle-winning spell with no counter at all, and usefull against both big armies and teams of thugs/SCs or mages.

    Construction 7/Evocation 8 may be a good secondary objective, to make a team of golems and use astral tempest with them, but I'm not really convinced it's interesting to base a strategy on this. In endgame, valuable ennemies have too high MR or too many hp to fear this spell, and golems are not hard to kill with other thugs.

    					8.12.2.2.4.4 End Game

    If you are first in research at this point, construction 8 is a logical priority, there may be some artefacts remaining (but don't hope to have a lot with my plan).

    Astral offer very interesting endgame spells in both thaumaturgy (master enslave), enchantment (arcane nexus) and alteration (arcane domination, wish), and you don't need an astral pretender to cast them (communions allow to use any battle spell, and one empowerement on a S5 astrologer is all you may need for rituals, as you can forge ring of sorcery/wizardry and the two S boosters).

    Evocation offer new terrible weapons your mystics may use in a communion (the level 9 fire and water large AE spells). Conjuration allow you to summon abominations (with a S3/W1 astrologer and 2 boosters for each path), and probably tartarians (death magic is easy to developp even from scratch : empower someone to D1, give him a ring of sorcery, forge a skull staff, summon spectres, once you get a D3 one give him the skull staff, forge a skullface, add the 2 rings, and you have a D7 tartarian summoner).

    Finally, if you have a good pearls income, wish allow you to developp blood easily (wish for magic power or for one of the blood uniques to have a powerful caster, for blood slaves if you don't have indie blood hunters).

    				8.12.2.2.5. Tactics

    					8.12.2.2.5.1 Half-reverse communion

    Your astral mages are already powerful and can be boosted in round one with light of the northern star. It allows Arcocephale to use it's own style of communions, using the "reverse communion" tip (see the guide to communions) but with far more masters : slaves boosted by power of the spheres and light of the northern star spam low level astral spells, and masters the classic elemental ae.

    You need to be lucky with mages ID to use this with maximum efficiency : powerful astral mages should be in the beginning of the list and mages good in elemental paths in the end (astrologers are the best slaves and mystics the best masters). The first mage should be out of communion, just here to cast "light of the northern star" in round one, so all mages take less fatigue even for the communion spell. If possible two of the masters should have a crystal matrix one to cast "power of the spheres" and the second for "summon earthpower", so all slaves get reinvigoration and one more level since round one. Then all slaves cast low level 20 fatigue spells like "stellar cascades", "paralyze" (or even "soul slay" for the ones starting with S4 or more) and masters level 3 evocations like falling frost/fires. If you want to use high fatigue spells like will of the fates when you use this tactic, cast them out of communion, it's better to have one uncounscious astrologer than to tire and finally lose many slaves.

    Of course this kind of communion increase a little the risk of losing some slaves, and valuable astrologers instead of expandable mystics. The IA may go mad in round 6 and use any big spell the slaves can cast, so I can't say this tactic is 100% safe ; but usually, 12 slaves and 8 master survive about 15 rounds without problem. If you fear a longer fight, you can add some slaves after the masters, just here to divide more fatigue (but avoid to give pearls to the casting slaves to reduce fatigue, the IA loves to make them cast spells like Astral Healing or Doom in round 6).

    					8.12.2.2.5.2 Total Exhaustion

    What is the common point between astral, earth, water and nature ? All these schools have spells doing stun dammage, and Arco can easily cast all of them (with alteration 4; thaumaturgy 4, evocation 5).

    So an excellent battle plan is to combine them. Use many mages spaming stellar cascades (all the slaves in an half reverse communion), as communion master an earth mage with penetration items casting Curse of Stones (if possible with a matrix to have the spell active since round one), and three water mages (far from each other so they don't cast on the same targets) spaming Curse of the Desert. Add some priestesses with thistle maces or matrixes casting Sleep Cloud the first rounds (if the ennemies are living being).... Half of the opponents should be uncounscious before reaching your troops (of course ordered to "hold & attack") and the others so tired that most hits will be critical.

    In late game you can even add Heat from Hell or Grip of Winter to the sauce (once you have enchantment 8 to protect your own troops with a Warriors of Muspellheim/Niefelheim + Relief) and if you are cruel kill all ennemies with fatigue only (use all your troops as mages bodyguards and watch the opponents fall).

    					8.12.2.2.5.3 Opening a second front

    Teleport allow you surprise attack with teams of astrologers in the middle of an ennemy realm. Teleported teams of mages can be a nightmare for your opponents, especially on big maps.

    As you have water, your mages can be equiped with bottles of living water at construction 6. The mages with bottles will be scripted to cast body ethearal in first round, often affecting their elementals. Include in the team some S3/F1 to cast astral fires, and some S4 enslaving ennemies (so you'll end with some troops) ; if possible give a penetration item to all (as they don't need precision for their spells, don't fear to use an eye of the void) and some extra gems (especially fire or other elemental gems, so if the fight isn't won in 5 rounds the fire astrologers will summon will o the wisps or elementals). Use another astrologer, equiped with a bow and scripted to fire, to carry a gem provision (including the astral pearls you may need for a returning).

    					5 or 6 well geared astrologers (half having bottles) usually win against any kind or level of PD. And you can prepare them with a ritual of returning and a light armor to survive the first hit if you fear to encounter too much opposition.

    Once you have taken a province, two possibilities : there are numerous ennemies around or not. If opposition looks too strong for your mages, script returning in first round (or a vortex of returning if you can cast it) to be sure to save your team, and try another province the turn after. If you think the mages can survive one turn (eventually with the help of some PD) script them for combat, build a lab and start to recruit indie commanders. Use the enslaved troops as bodyguards for the astrologers without bottles if the ennemy can use assassination spells.

    The next turn you can gateway an army in the middle of ennemy territory (equip some S4 astrologers with leadership items so they can carry about 60 soldiers + many magical beings eventually) and really open a second front. Split the troops between the indie commanders and other mages, so you can use the leadership gear for a second wave. The only problem may be the lack of holy magic (as you can't teleport a priest). Summon telestic animates if you think you need it (then if you can keep the province some turns, build a temple and a fort and recruit priestesses).

    					8.12.2.2.5.4 Army stealing

    Master Enslave is a risky spell to cast with medium sized communions, especially if some slaves are weak ; the high level mean many will take extra fatigue, and if the fight is long, the master(s) continuing to cast will kill some.

    It's finally safer to use Master Enslave with small communions of good mages (in a magic 0 or more dominion you only need 6 astrologers : one to cast light of the northern star in the beginning of the fight, 4 slaves who must have S3 to survive, one S5 master with a matrix to cast master enslave in round one). In a magic 0 dominion, the master take exactly 200 fatigue and won't be wounded ; the 4 slaves take just a little more, losing 4 or 5 hp, but shouldn't be killed ; if you are in magic 2+ dominion or use one more slave, they won't even suffer a wound. As he is himself uncounscious the master won't continue to cast (except if the battle is incredibly long). But any stun dammage (or other dmg as any hit will probably be critical) may kill the communiants, and they will also be lost if the army is finally routed.

    Even better you can steal an army without risk, if it's not a problem to lose the province, using 7 astrologers (the 5 first with S3, one S5 and a last S3), 12 pearls and a matrix, the last astrologer being scripted to cast Vortex of Returning just after the Master Enslave. As astrologers can cast teleport/gateway, it's usually not a problem to have them and their troops returned to your capitol.

    As all this occur in round one there is no chance to fail if you are defending a province -and the ennemy, unable to use antimagic will lose far more troops-. And, even if you are the attacker, odds are small that the ennemy can counter this in one round.

    					8.12.2.2.5.5 Fronteer labs and mobile research centers

    One of the national advantages of Arcocephale is a 100gp discount on laboratories, and labs are especially usefull to an astral nation, as they allow to gateway troops to their province. So, when most other nations only build labs in their forts, it's a good idea for Arco to build them in a far bigger number of provinces, especially the fronteers and strategic chokepoints.

    Labs on fronteers allow to organize surprise offensive with gatewayed troops, but also to defend your realm far more efficiently if you use these provinces as research centers. There is no reason for researchers to stay in a fort, where they can be assassinated or targeted by spells exactly like in open ground. A lab without fort on a fronteer province make your mages usefull for research and defence at the same time. The only problem is : you can't at the same time protect your mages with a dome and have the lab open for gatewayed troops. So the best defensive architecture use 2 labs in adjacent provinces : one research center protected by a dome and one lab in a neighbour province to send troops. You can use the fronteer as the research center, so mages + local troops stop small armies alone, or retreat to the other province where troops are gatewayed if a bigger one approach. Or let the fronteer province with a lab empty, with the research center in the second one, to use an ambush tactic : when ennemies approach troops are gatewayed and mages move to the fronteer.

    Your main armies can as well be considered as mobile research centers : if you plan to stay somewhere 2 turns, always build a lab ; and if an interesting new spell is near to be found never hesitate to stop your armies and research it. If you want to keep your rank in the research race and use huge communions with 30+ mages on the field at the same time it's the way to go. Having your battle mages researching 1 turn / 3 (one turn they take an ennemy province, next they build a lab and search sites, the third they research) is an huge advantage when most ennemies waste the research capacity of all the mages they use with their armies. This kind of slow progression also allow you to fight more often in defense, where your mages cast first (so spending one round to launch a communion isn't a problem). And if you happen to lose a battle, the net of labs allow you to recover far more easily, you just have to gateway troops to the previous one (probably where the survivors have retreated). At worse you'll give some labs to your opponents, but if they don't destroy them and forget to cast a dome, it can be an advantage as they make easier to open a second front (as described in 5.3).

    					8.12.2.2.5.6 Artillery Commanders

    If Arco don't have a good access to thugs, fire + water allow at construction 6 to use any commander as an artillery unit, casting 2 times more often than mages, with Boots of Quickness and a Wand of Wild Fire. According to my tests such a commander kills about 50% more units per fight (against a big army of protection 14 human heavy infantry) compared to a Bane Lord with Quickness Boots (same gem cost if items are forged with a hammer). Of course the artillery commander need an escort and won't be as usefull against big monsters, ennemy thugs etc... (or fire immune creatures of course) but equiping as many commanders as possible is definitively a good investment as long your ennemies use normal armies (and against bigger or very high protection preys, a Rod of the Phoenix instead of the WoWF allow to kill one troll or jotun giant per round... or a bane lord in two).

    				8.12.2.2.6. Pretenders and Scales

    Like said above Arcocephale isn't as pretender dependant as most other nations. As you don't need a combat pretender or a bless (but may use them) there is a very large choice of viable builds, from magic-less monsters to rainbows or very-specialized mages. The national pretenders offer a large choice of titans chassis if you want a SC (including many with air or death, if you want to diversify), and you also have access to the classic undead or immortal pretenders, most immobiles types, etc...

    Anyway, I won't try to list all possibilities, just some interesting choices (my favorites for Arco being in one of these three categories : magical economy pretenders, scales monsters or specialized summoners).

    For the scales, the only requirement are for me a positive magic scale and no negative production. Sloth is a bad choice, as your best troops cost 24 or 30 ressources, but as initial expansion is done with elephants, gold and not ressources is the limiting factor in early game, so high positive production is not really needed (especially as gateways will allow you to build troops each turn far from the front and teleport them where you want). Mages are not old, so growth isn't a must have, priestesses able to heal troops may even be seen as a good reason to fund your other scales with a death dominion, increased affliction chances handicap others more than you (but on big maps some growth is always good to take for long term income). Order (+Misfortune) or Luck (+Turmoil) look as good. Luck is tempting for the extra gems it provides, and as mages are rather cheap an huge regular income isn't an absolute need, but Order boosts elephant based initial expansion, and later you want a lot of gold to build labs everywhere. The only interest of a very high dominion strength (considering sacred are ressource intensive and you have correct preachers) would be to give awe to an awake SC, and one isn't needed, so all my builds use medium dominion strength.

    					8.12.2.2.6.1 Magical Economy Pretenders

    National mages have no way to produce clams or other gem-producing items, and as a mage-dependant nation Arco needs a huge gem income to shine. Magical economy pretenders are IMO the best option for Arco (if you don't play on a small map or with special economy nerfs) if not the most exciting.

    * Mother Of Clams

    Awake Mother of Rivers, Water 3, Earth 3, Nature 2, Dominion 5, Order 3, Misfortune 2, Magic 1

    A Mother of Rivers with nature magic is the best choice to developp a clam based economy since early game as Arco starts with no mage able to make them and no water income. Giving her earth 3 allow to forge a hammer as soon you have the gems, so you just need construction 2 to start to make clams at reduced price ; and it also makes the Mother far better as a subercombattant (able to cast invulnerability she can be equiped with a robe of shadows instead of an armor). At conjuration 5 the Mother of Clams can summon naiads and stop to make clams herself (then the geared mother will be rather used on the field).

    Another advantage of this build is the capacity to forge thistle maces for the priestesses at construction 4, and the possibility to use the mother as a thug if someone try to rush you (but I won't say she can be used "as a supercombattant", as she don't have awe trying to take provinces with her alone is a bad idea in early game).

    As clams will provide all the gems you need, I've chosen order/turmoil for the income scales, but if you want to really swim in gems, this build can be used with Luck 3/Turmoil 2 instead (or Luck 3/Turmoil 3/Production 1). As "falling ice crystals" (water gems) look like the most common gem event it can boost even more clam hoarding.

    A mother of rivers can also be interesting without earth (you'll just have to wait construction 4 and to have an E2 mystic able to forge earth boots then hammer), and you can take magic 3 and a little bless (w4) with the points.

    * Rainbow Forge Lord

    Dormant Forge Lord, Fire 3, Water 2, Earth 3, Death 3, Nature 2, Dominion 5, Turmoil 3, Death 1, Luck 3, Magic 3

    This build is based on another kind of magical economy : being able to forge most non astral items at extremely reduced costs, when high luck provide extra gem income (and hopefully money).

    The paths allow the forge lord to make all the boosters your mystics may need (including f/w staves of elemental mastery once other boosters are forged), as well as clams or fetishes, most usefull SC items etc... all at half the cost with a hammer. The death level also allow the lord to summon spectres in midgame (or bane lord once a skull staff is forged), and skullface can be made at -25% cost, making easier to reach the tartarian level. Of course, with such a pretender, it's a good idea to race for construction 8 rather than developping endgame battle magic first.

    Offering more possibilities in late game, this build is weaker in early game than the Mother of River : -23% money can be a huge handicap if you don't get some income events fast and you don't have a pretender to use on the field in case of early emergency (but once cured by the priestesses, the forge lord is a slightly better combattant). Dominion is also low for a non-awake god, but it's rather an advantage in early game to have some provinces without your bad income scales.

    * Astral Rainbow Girl

    Awake Enchantress, Astral 6, Earth 2, Fire 1, Water 1, Death 1, Nature 2, Dominion 5, Heat 1, Death 1, Magic 3 (Luck 3/ Turmoil 3 or Order 3/ Misfortune 3 can be added)

    Here the idea is to have both an increased astral income and someone able to cast level 9 astral spells without empowerement, when magic 3 + an awake researcher allow you to reach endgame spells before anyone else. Out of astral, paths allow to forge usefull boosters like skull of fire, thistle mace then moonvine bracelet etc. (as well as fetishes, and some clams once 2W boosters are forged), but the enchantress will mostly be used as a researcher in the beginning (with construction 6 as a priority, so lightless lantern make the small early research advantage snowball into a big one). Then alteration 9 (wish) or enchantment 9 (arcane nexus) are the logical priorities.

    					8.12.2.2.6.2 Scales Monster

    Dormant Wyrm, no magic, Dominion 6, Luck 3 or Order 3 (but no Turmoil/Misfortune), Productivity 2, Growth 2, Magic 3 (or dormant Dragon with 1 less dominion and just his base magic ; dormant Manticore if you like to use the "call god" order a lot)

    A big magic less monster without awe looks strange, but with astral and water mages to buff him (body ethereal, luck, quickness) he can be very dangerous once some spells are researched (so better to take him dormant for great scales). Build more priestesses than usual with this kind of build (with magic 3 they can be the most part of your researchers) so if he is killed you can call back your pretender in one turn (and he has no magic skill to lose and can be cured if needed). So, you have excellent scales and a quasi-immortal beast as a bonus.

    					8.12.2.2.6.3 Specialized Summoners

    * Cyclop of the Shroud

    Dormant Cyclop, earth 9; Dominion 6, Order 3*, Misfortune 3, Magic 3
    (or Awake Cyclop, earth 9, Dominion 6, Order 3*, Heat 1, Death 1, Misfortune 3, Magic 1;
    or Imprisoned Cyclop, earth 9, air 2, Dominion 6, Order 3*, Growth 1, Misfortune 3, Magic 3)
    (* or same pretender with Luck/Turmoil scales, or less misfortune and more temperature)
    .
    An high level earth god able to create a lot of living statues per cast compensate a weakness of Arcocephale : the lack of good summons (of course you need to adapt your research plan, to developp enchantment 6 in midgame). In addition it provides a very usefull bless to both heart companions and... mages. What..? The mages are not holy ? With a shroud of the battle saint they are ! And Arco has no difficulty to forge a lot of them, giving all equiped mages protection 10 and reinvigoration 4 (if you add the boots of the messenger your priestesses can forge, it means you can use terrible classic communions, with all mages staying at 0 fatigue forever ; or half-reverse with all mages casting 10 rounds or more). Protection 10 is also often sufficient to have astrologers surviving the first hit, so it offers a good synergy with the use of ritual of returning. In battle the cyclop can be used as SC, or a terribly efficient caster of Curse of Stones (+3 penetration not counting items and boosters) or Blade Winds (if you use living statues or other troops with high natural protection as meatshields, Iron Bane + 4 x Blade Wind will humiliate any normal army).

    An option is to take the cyclops awake and use him as early game SC (as you priestess can cure him when he becomes blind, the main weakness of the chassis is not a problem). Another is to take him imprisoned to give him some air magic, so he is far more mobile (cloud trapeze), and in battle can use rain of stones, an excellent spell considering you have access to an infantry (living statues or blessed heart companion) with 20+ protection, and mages able to cast body ethereal (75% chance to avoid mundane dammage) ; and with a matrix to lead a communion he can also use fog warriors.

    * Mother of Lamias

    Dormant Mother of Monsters, nature 8, astral 1, death 2, Dominion 6, Order 3, Misfortune 2, Heat 1, Magic 1
    (or very bad scales and Nature 9 or 10, but I don't think such a high nature level worth its cost when you have no recruitable sacred giants)

    Lamias are another option to give a cost effective troop summon to Arcocephale (here you need to developp conjuration 6 asap). Without body or feet slots, and taking extra fatigue in cold provinces, the mother of monsters is a one trick poney : extremely vulnerable as a supercombattant she should always stay in a fort summoning troops (or forging), but her bonus of +3 lamias per cast, coupled with high level nature, is not negligible (with a ring of sorcery + the treelord staff and moonvine bracelet she can forge, she will summon 15 lamias each turn for only 4 nature gems). In addition the nature 8 bless, not bad for heart companions, is clearly excellent for sirrushes, and as conjuration is a logical priority there is no reason not to use them.

    In the "specialized summoners" category, the ghost king is also available, but offers no particular synergy with the nation (mages don't have undead leadership, very high dominion has no particular interest, you can cast body ethereal if you need ethereal beings, etc).

    	    	8.12.3 LA Arcoscephale

    	8.12 Atlantis

    	    	8.12.1 EA Atlantis

    	    	    	8.12.1.1 EA Atlantis a love/hate relationship

    I ended up playing EA Atlantis in a MP, my first water nation I have ever played in Dom3 (or dominions full stop come to that), sometimes I love it, other times I hate it...

    I like it because:-

    1) You have more time to develop and are less likely to get jumped on early.
    2) Land nations are reluctant to attack you.
    3) You can observe the land nations and strike at a time of your choosing.
    4) Voice of Tiamat makes site hunting a breeze.
    5) The physically HUGE underwater creatures are impressive.
    6) You can take cold 3 and it does not have a negative effect on you underwater.

    I hate it because:-

    1) No matter what map movement you have, you can only move 1 sea space a turn. It's soooo slooow.
    2) No underwater missile units, if you cannot get a indie land province that produces archers you are at a major disadvantage, having no missile troops.
    3) So many spells have NUW (Not Under Water) tag. So you have very few spells to use underwater, especially in combat.
    4) If a land nation see's you take a land province near them they view it as a virtual declaration of war, ie...water nations should stay in the sea!
    5) No independent underwater scouts, exactly the same as missile troops. If you do not capture a indie then your stuck.

    Can anyone suggestion ways to workaround the bad points? So I can completely love playing EA Atlantis?

    Do other water nations all have the same bad points?

    	-> Well:
    1)Water provinces are generally fewer and larger than land provinces, moving through 1 water province is generally the same as moving multiple land provinces.
    2)Strong battlemages, many common indy archers and the fact that only rlyeh has underwater missile units(if illithids can be counted as missile units) makes up for it. Most people dont have underwater missile units.
    3)Everyone else suffers from this, why shouldnt you?
    4)This is probably just the people your playing with, i havnt noticed any real problems with this.
    5)Or you could build more castles which is what you should be doing. Also most maps have few water provinces so this shouldnt really be an issue.

    So basically yes, apart from mind blasting rlyeh having missile troops(EA mind-blasters are aquatic, MA are quite expensive and LA are the same price but you have a death dominion) other nations have these weaknesses.

    	-> Atlantis EA is great. One of the things that really helps offset lack of archers are the basalt kings, which are able to cast bladewind and other powerful evocations once they do get on land. You are going to move slow though, which by itself is a disadvantage, however your living pillars get a bonus to defending castles, which means you can hold the territory you do grab. Also, just because you're underwater doesn't mean that spending points on a Pretender with high fire magic/flame blade bless is a waste. You can certainly conquer underwater areas better than any land-based nations, and with your living pillars equipped with flame blades, you can trash most land areas too, providing you can get enough living pillars (which isn't easy). It may not be the best bless strategy for Atlantis, but it's worth considering, and bless strategies should be considered for Living Pillars. You may not want to bother with extremely high blesses though, just make sure you can cast a lot of enhancing magic on them, like quicken, regeneration, berserk, luck, armor, etc. Anything that will help 1 living pillar take out about 12 of the enemy. Asp Turtles I believe are amphibious. If they are not, consider summoning them and then casting gift of reason on a bunch of them and equipping them with amulets of the fish. I hate to say it, but if used wrong, Atlantis can be a weak nation. They're the most similar of the three water nations to an "average" land-based nation, only they're slated towards small groups of tough soldiers. This can be a big disadvantage because it's very easy to get over-extended unless you use what resources you have wisely. Avoid attacking-or in general pissing off-land nations without a good reason, until you're firmly in control of the water and have many (atleast a dozen) castles up and running on the shore. You can grab a land-province if it's out of the way and has independent archers, but keep a strong force stationed there and buy troops on it every chance you get, especially archers. You won't have the luxury of province defence, but I think you can buy castles on land. If you can, do so, and keep a crack unit of living pillars and basalt queens on patrol.
    Buy archers on land provinces like you've never bought archers before. Research flame arrows. Combined with batteries of bladewind basalt kings, you'll be able to hurt the enemy pretty good, and the more you hurt them, the better the rest of your guys can hurt them, because pound for pound, you're going to kick explitive against the average land-based soldier. You can even hold your own against Niefels, Helheim, and Abyssians, although they're still going to maintain an edge. If possible, make sure your living pillars go berserk at the beginning of battle. Equip a small squadron of Basalt Queens. You can use them as heavy shock troops against land-nations and then when you push in to enemy territory, have them all start preaching and watch the enemy's dominion crumble. You want to armor them heavily, with shields, and again, if possible, make sure they're berserk when they enter battle, even before they get hit. Don't throw your shock troops away though, only put them in battles where they'll make a big difference, and where you'll win or atleast cripple the enemy. Your basic troops are going to be the little guys with the coral spears and the little guys with the basalt spears, and you want massive amounts of them. Basalt Kings make fantastic-but expensive-tramplers. They're size 5 so they do lots of damage, their morale is way better than an elephant, you can armor them up, and you can use them as artillery platforms in the beginning of the battle. 5 scripted spell slots plus massive trampling. Just make sure you don't put them in risky situations. I think that's enough for now, I'm trying to cut down on the size of my posts. Hope it helps!

    	-> I prefer to get a hold on land as soon as possible when playing waternations and I have never found that to be a problem. You can start expanding on land long before land nations go down into the waves. But if you have waited to go onto land I think you have put yourself at a dissadvantage unless there is alot of sea provinces.

    Underwater you have friendly currents which is a powerful spell.

    	-> E9n4 works very well on living pillars, making them a bit tougher and making them get very few afflictions. Ive also had lots of luck with an A3S3D3N3 kraken(sleeping, decent scales, can buff amazingly well) or awake archmage with decent spells(great research and forging). The strategy was to quickly research up to quicken self and ironskin(alt-3) and summon earthpower(conj-x) then a bit of conjuration, construction and evocation as requires. For expansion my starting army(commander prophetised) gets a few deep ones(spear+claw if i have resources, bite+claw if i have gold) and then goes off second turn, heading to land if there are no other sea nations(the army actually does better on land). If i get attacked fairly early, 2 basalt kings with quickness and ironskin equipped with enchanted swords, blacksteel kites and blacksteel plates(the cheaper plate) can take out conventional armies of 60 men and less(not including knights) fairly reliably. Add in a robe of shadows/ring of regen/lucky pendant/boots of the behemoth+summon earthpower and they become very nasty. Making them cast evocations in the time between buffing and attacking(providing they have reinvig) also greatly increases their power. Underwater coral guard possibly supported with living pillars is the way to go otherwise your poorly armoured troops will suffer major losses. Once i get researched up armies of sea trolls and coral guards with basalt kings casting bladewind/magma spells(with asp turtles/monster fish support underwater) are my main armies with smaller groups of basalt kings buffing with strongest prot boosting spell avaliable, quickness and summon earthpower(also fireshield/phoenix pyre if researched) with equipment: 2xswords of swiftness, horror helm, robe of shadows, flying shoes, ring of regen/amulet of resilience and lucky pendant/antimagic amulet/amulet of resilience are sent out to raid enemy provinces, generally buffing, flying in and sending off magma eruptions or immolations/buffing, blasting the enemy with artillery spells then flying in.

    	-> Yeah, I love the Ancient Kraken. Gotta be my favorite SC. If you want to expand onto land really quickly, take a Dom 10 Kraken with earth 3, nature 3, air 1, astral 1, and water 1. Research construction until you can get amulet of the fish and amulet of antimagic, then switch over to alteration until you hit invulnerability, then switch to enchantment and evocation. Forge the amulets and the poison touch/poison resistance ring for your Kraken-you'll want one because otherwise your kraken poisons himself, especially when Invulnerability is in effect. Script him to cast Body Etherial, Invulnerability, Personal Regeneration (never put this one first or second, there's a bug), Personal Luck, Quickness. You'll be able to take out most anything, on land or in the water (as much as 8 units at a time-18 ap damage plus poisonx8, plus area-effect poison cloud, and at Dom10, you'll have 690!!! hp. Regeneration is goooooood), and you'll hardly ever get hit (not that it's going to matter much). On land against archers, trade Personal Luck for Air Shield.

    [comment:
    The bug mentioned above is that fact that if you script Personal Regeneration as one of your first few spells, it will be skipped, for no reason whatsoever.
    ]
    	-> S3 or S1 on non-immortal SC pretender? It's just asking for opportunistic mage to teleport in and challenge him. It's not every day one gets a chance to slay 690hp SC so easy

    	-> I can't see the point in putting any magic on the Ancient Kraken, or going with any bless at all for EA Atlantis. Give the Kraken Dom 10, and let rip. He can take out any underwater indies by himself, and just about anything else he runs into underwater. Equip him later on for tougher opponents, or for going on land (3 misc. slots). You can have great scales this way.

    Almost all of their units, including the very tough ones, are amphibious. I've taken to the land very easily with them. And the Basalt Kings are extremely good mages. Of course, the living pillars become pretty useless under this strategy, so only build them for defending castles.

    [comment:
    Magic can make the kraken much more powerful, particularly earth for boosting protection(25 protection ancient krakens are fun) and nature for regeneration(with the ancient krakens health he heals alot).
    A bless can be useful on basalt kings; i once tried an E9 bless and ended up with groups of basalt kings with a few defensive items and huge reinvigoration casting summon earthpower and phoenix pyre. They just exploded all over the place and never got tired.
    A bless isnt the best idea with EA Atlantis but it can be fun.
    ]

    [comment 2:
    There is one reason to get a solid bless on EA Atlantis: ALL BASALT KINGS, ALL THE TIME. They make fantastic thugs; 16+ protection before armor, 50 HP, 17 MR, and fully equippable. They can cast quicken self, invulnerability, and fire shield. On top of that they're all sacred, and that's where your bless is going to give you truly brutal mileage.
    ]
    	-> You forgot phoenix pyre, possibly the best buff these guys can cast. With it cast(and sufficent reinvigoration) their battles should go like this.

    1)Buff
    2)Kick several kinds of ass
    3)Eventually get killed
    4)Explode upon death, killing many enemies
    5)Reappear on battlefield with full health and some fatigue
    6)Let reinvigoration remove fatigue
    7)Repeat steps 2-6 as required

    	->

    	    	    	8.12.1.2 Atlantis, from under the works demo guide

    			This one is still under construction. Comments and critique are welcome.

    Atlantis

    An underwater nation of monstrous human-frog-fish hybrids that has come from the great depths. They are vulnerable to missile weapons and some of
    their units have low Magic Resistance. They however have the most armored recruitable unit of Early Era, acces to some great battle magic and
    possibly very advantageous start underwater.

    Pros of Atlantis
    - Underwater start is beneficial, especially if Agartha, R'lyeh or Oceania aren't around
    - Good priestly power from inexpensive Holy 1 Coral Priests to Holy 3 Basalt Queens
    - Basalt Kings are wonderful battlemages who are Sacred and have acces to various Acid spells and Blade Wind
    - Deep One units are 50% Resistant to Fire and Cold and most of them have magic Basalt Spears which allow them to damage Ethereal and Mistformed units
    - You get units who have poisoned weapons and armors. Okay, they are weapons and armor made from poisonous coral
    - Living Pillars are the most armored unit Early Age offers
    - Basalt Kings have amazing ease in making powerful supercombatant boosting items
    - Reduced effects of taking Cold or Heat because of Fire/Cold resistant units and Heat/Cold doesn't affect money generation in the seas
    - Partial or full Darkvision on all units

    Cons of Atlantis
    - Vulnerable to missile weapons
    - No inexpensive research mages. Mages of the Deep cost 250 gold.
    - Low Magic Resistance on the Deep One units muddle their advantage against elemental magic and ethereal enemies
    - If all three underwater nations are present it will become very crowded and inevitably a war will break out and you might be at disadvantage
    - No easy way to Earth bless which would be a great boon to Atlantis
    - Your stronger units are costly in money and Living Pillars cost 56 Resources which is an obscene amount
    - Somewhat low precision of the units makes spell aiming harder

    Scale and Pretender Design

    This is a quite tricky part for Atlantis because you must make a choice if you want to aim for a bless. Be prepared to pay through your nose for
    any other bless than Water 9 which isn't so hugely useful for Atlantis (and it's an underwater nation!). If you want to use the Living Pillars
    you must also take high amounts of Productivity because they cost humongous amounts of resources.

    Many of your units cost around 30 Gold or more and your mages and more powerful priests are also quite expensive, so taking Order might be a good idea.
    Taking Growth could also work if you want to turtle in the seas. Not necessarily a good plan though, but Growth can be helpful. However it might be
    that you can't afford it.

    You can take Heat and Cold with reduced effects, but Cold/Heat still affects encumberance and supplies even under the seas. Gold generation isn't affected
    though. Taking Cold works against Agarthan attempts to invade the seas.

    Noteworthy pretenders for Atlantis are:
    - Dagon. He is a superb supercombatant and with some luck you can slap a Black Steel armor, an Ice Sword and a shield on him before turn three. Then
    he is free to rampage! He starts with only 2 Water picks.
    - Monolith. You could try a bless strategy with an Imprisoned monolith. Don't except to get much done with the pretender itself though.
    - Arch Mage. He is 0 points and Aquatic, but you can give him a pick of Air and he can forge Amulet of the Fish when you hit Construction 4. You can
    take some low-level mixed blessings him like 4 Earth 4 Air 4 Water or even more if you make him Dormant or Imprisoned.
    - Ancient Kraken. In my opinion one of the funniest pretenders around, he is quite customizable but he is also locked to the watery realms unless you
    give him some Air and make him forge Amulet of the Fish. You can try a low-level multi bless strategy with him such as 4 Water 4 Air 4 Earth and
    even more if you use some of the Awakening options. The longer he stays in sleepy lands the less supercombatant potential he has though. His only slots
    are three Misc. slots.
    - Wyrm. An undying favorite of Dominions players, the Wyrm starts with no magic but you can give him some magic at the cost of 50 points for every new
    pick. I'd focus on only one path. He regenerates and gets two attack per round with a highly venomous bite. He hasn't got much slots, but he can
    wear two helmets.

    Atlantian units:

    Reef Dweller:

    A pale green Atlantian toting a Coral Spear and wearing a Coral Cuirass and a Turtle Shell Shield. His stats are above those of a human, precision
    excluded. He is very cost effective for what he does and his Coral Spear poisons enemies! His Coral Cuirass will also enemies who use Lenght 0 attacks
    on him. A superb unit in the start. I like to buy them in batches of 10 when I hit 100+ resources in my capital. They can also be recruited in costal
    forts.

    Atlantian Spearman:

    The Reef Dweller's dark blue skinned colleague who totes around a regular Spear and wears a chic Sharkskin Armor. Very similiar to Reef Dwellers but
    they don't posion stuff. They do have marginaly higher protection. They also cost way less resources and you can get 2.5 Spearmen for the resource price
    of a Reef Dweller, so you might be better off building these to inflate your numbers in the first turns before you capture some surrounding provinces.
    I like to buy them in batches of 10 for the first two turns.

    Shambler:

    An older, larger Atlantian who is hardcore enough to go literaly buck naked to combat and demand 30 gold for it. He gets two attacks with his Claws
    and he has good stats. He has poor protection and is larger than a human and can get ganged on. They only cost 1 resource though. I don't myself
    use them much because they are so vulnerable.

    War Shambler:

    This Shambler is smart enough to shamble to the armory and pick up a Spear, a Turtle Shell Shield and a Sharkskin Armor before going to battle. Costing
    35 Gold and 7 resources and coming with good HP and decent other stats the War Shamblers make good units unless you are in dire need of money.

    Coral Guard:

    A Shambler wearing Coral armor which looks a bit silly, being pink and all. However their weapon of choice is the high-damage, one-handed (!) Coral
    Glaive which poisons enemies on the top. They have protection of 14 and good stats but their encumberance is somewhat high and they can pass out in
    prolonged battles. They cost 40 gold and 26 resources and you might have hard time wielding them in number.

    Deep One:

    Deep Ones are stronger, stupider and more monstrous forefathers of other Atlantians. They all have poor magic resistance but they get 50% Fire and Cold
    resistance which is VERY useful in some situations as natural resistances and resistances from spells stack! They also get 100% Darkvision.
    This particular Deep One unit uses only his natural weapons, claw and bite and no armor. He isn't a very useful unit if you ask me and I practicaly never
    buy them.

    Deep One Warrior:

    A Deep One armed with a magic Basalt Spear that can pierce some protection spells and a Bite from his gaping maw. They are inexpensive and could be used
    as emerengy troops against ethereal targets. Unfortunately ethereal units tend to have something that does nasty stuff that can be resisted by MR. And
    the Deep Ones have magic resistance of 8. Which isn't good. They can be useful against Seasonal Spirits and the like though.

    Shambler of the Deep:

    A Deep One variation of the Shambler with alarmingly low magic resistance. Don't send this guy against anyone using mind affecting magic! He comes with
    three attacks though, Claw, Claw and Bite so he could be used as a shock troop of sorts against low protection targets. Like those silly mermen without
    armor.

    Warrior of the Deep:

    A Shamber of the Deep armed with a magic Basalt Spear and his Bite and he totes around a Turtle Shell Shield for protection. He has all the advantages
    and drawback of the deep fishies I mentioned on the previous Deep One units. Use accordingly. Costs 40 gold and only 11 resources.

    Living Pillar:

    A Sacred Warrior of the Deep with a Castle Defence bonus and great protection...but he has an obscene encumberance and resource cost. 56 resources is a
    very large amount and these guys just cry out for an Earth bless which is hard to get. They are slow in combat and have use mostly as tanks. They do get
    protection value of 20 though, and that is nothing to sneer at. The cost at it comes is huge though and you should think if you even want to use these
    units at all. They also have poor magic resistance. He has the same magical 4 damage Basalt Spear and Bite.

    Living Pillars are Capital Only.

    National summons:

    Giant Fish (not avaitable in the demo)

    Atlantian Commanders:

    Scout:

    An Atlantian scout with all the advantages they posses. The only scouts recruitable underwater are your national ones, but you're better off buying others
    units in most of the cases.

    Coral Priest:

    A cheap Atlantian Holy 1 priest who can also be recruited in coastal forts.

    Shambler Chief:

    A Shambler that has some position of authority. He totes around a Coral Club and can lead 40 units. You are better off recruiting Coral Commanders even
    if they cost a bit more.

    Coral Commander:

    Somewhat expensive for a normal commander but they have the equipment of the Coral Guards and they get 80 leadership which is double what Shambler Chiefs
    get.

    Mother of the Deep:

    A Shambler priestess with 2 Holy and 40 Leadership. She costs 130 gold and unless you have some specific need for priests other than temply building
    I'd rather buy Coral Priests. Can be useful against undead hordes before you research Blade Wind though.

    Mage of the Deep:

    A Shambler mage with 2 Water, one random which is either Fire, Water, Earth or Astral and another random which is either Fire, Water or Earth.

    Mages of the Deep have somewhat varying use depending on what randoms they get. All Mages of the Deep can cast some simple Water spells and higher
    level will be more efficient at it.

    Fire/Earth ones can cast Magma Bolts and forge some very useful magic items that can be used on an early supercombatant pretender or your commanders.

    2 Earth ones who are rare could even forge Black Steel Full Plates and use Blade Wind after casting Summon Earthpower.

    2 Water 2 Fire ones can cast Acid Bolt once you research enough conjuration. 3 Water 1 Fire ones can cast Acid Rain.

    Those Mages of the Deep can be used to search for Astral sites and the rare ones who get 1 Astral 1 Earh can forge the Communion Matrix items which can
    be very useful as they have the effect of casting Communion Master or Communion Slave depending on the type of the Matrix item. If my memory serves right
    they can also forge Crystal Coins which increase their, or anyone else's Astral skill when worn.

    Basalt Queen:

    A somewhat disturbing sight, the Basalt Queen is a large Deep One priestess with Holy 3 and 160 Leadership, making her an exceptional commander.
    She costs 350 gold but has good stats Defence excluded, I've seen a Basalt Queen rout a Merman force of roughly 25 Mermen by casting Holy Avenger,
    Smite and whacking couple of the Mermen down with her Basalt Club. But I wouldn't use them as thugs because their Defence is low even if their HP is
    great. They are great priests and commanders and totally worth buying nevertheless. They are Capital Only.

    Basalt King:

    An old Deep One mage, the Basalt King is a Sacred mage with 1 Fire, 2 Water and 3 Earth picks with a 100% chance to get either a pick of Fire, Water or
    Earth magic and a slim 10% chance of getting another pick of Fire, Water or Earth.

    Since Basalt Kings start with 3 Earth they are quite obviously suited for Blade Wind casting, but this spell can also hurt your own troops. But since
    Basalt Kings are exceptionaly tough and can cast buff spells like Quicken Self, Fireshield and various protection spells from Earth they can make good
    mage-thugs as long as you don't slap a too heavy armor on them. Even if you don't use them as thugs they are exceptionaly tough battlemages.

    Basalt Kings can cast Acid spells and the ones who get 3 Water are especially good at it. They can also use Magma Bolts and Summon Earthpower to help
    them with fatigue. They also benefit from all bless effects and Earth bless is very good for them.

    They can also cast Claymen and Fire Ward which can be used to make the already resistant Deep One units immune to fire. Yes, immune. You can then use
    Fire path spells without worries with your Deep Ones!

    Basalt Kings can also forge some very useful items such as Fire Brands and Charcoal Shields.

    Basalt Kings cost 500 gold and are Capital Only.

    Bless Benefits:

    The tanky Living Pillars and the magey Basalt Kings benefit from the following blesses:

    Earth: Your Living Pillars will have huge fatigue problems in battles longer than 9 rounds and reinvigoration never harms mages, so Earth blessing will
    be very beneficial for you. Too bad there's no easy way to it for Atlantis.

    Nature: Your sacred units have 30-40 HP and Regeneration given by Nature bless can give them some more staying power.

    Water: Somewhat debatable because the Quickness given by 9 Water won't help Living Pillars that much...and it might even make them pass out even faster!
    Extra defence is always helpful though.

    Astral: Your Living Pillars have Magic Resistance of 8 which is low, too low. Astral bless gives you more Magic Resistance.

    	    	8.12.2 MA Atlantis

    	    	    	8.12.2.1 Nation guide: MA Atlantis

    			Article Author:  Baalz

    MA Atlantis  Kings of the Deep. An apt name as the Kings of the Deep are exactly where you need to be thinking with this nation.

    Ok, before I get into specifics I want to set you into the right mindset for playing this generally considered weak nation. There are two major driving forces which are going to dictate your game as MA Atlantis. The first is that you¿re underwater. The second is that the other two underwater races are a whole lot faster out of the gate than you are. This is critical to keep in mind, you will always be rushed as MA Atlantis - you have to start planning for it even before turn one. Assuming you can live long enough its equally important you also have to have a plan for taking the war onto land.

    Now, onto your troops.

    Atlantean infantry  Various flavors, not good for too much other than being rather blah meatshields. The one good thing is their weapons and (mostly) armor is weakly poisonous, so this can be effective in certain situations. That¿s what your PD is made of so it can be enough to convince high cost elite troops (Vans, etc) that there are less expensive targets to steamroll. They can also be an effective deterrent to a small subset of thugs which are not poison immune.

    Shamblers  nothing too special but the best you¿ve got for general purpose troops. The unarmored shamblers only cost one resource and are a reasonable choice for levying emergency troops on short notice. War shamblers aren¿t so much bad as they¿re definitely subpar for being the best thing you can recruit.

    War lobsters  Expensive, aquatic only, and disposable¿yet surprisingly effective. These guys have fragile riders who quickly die under most any attack leaving a high hit point, hi protection trampling critter of questionable loyalty (they¿ll randomly attack friendlies as well). Think of them kinda like a cross between elephants and gladiators  devastatingly effective when massed (unless a counter is present) but disposable (you don¿t keep the lobster after the fight if the rider dies). These guys are most useful for sticking in the front lines to soften up the bad guys after breaking their initial charge.

    Mother guards  again, these guys aren¿t so much bad as that they don¿t compare well to other nation¿s super elite holy units. They¿re too expensive to be worthwhile without a bless and not good enough to justify the points of getting a good bless, being capital only.

    Commanders  all are amphibious:

    Scout  He scouts.

    Shambler chief  General troop herder

    Consort  a reasonable good blessable early thug chasis except you¿re unlikely to have a good bless. High encumbrance is another pain, but he can be useful if you¿re clever.

    Coral queen  H3 priests are generally pretty useful and she¿s no exception. She¿s also got enough hit points to ignore a stray arrow or two (including the seeking kind) and has poison barbed armor. A tad on the expensive side for not being a mage, but she¿s recruitable everywhere and for priesting she¿s top shelf.

    Initiate of the Deep  Your cheap mage, capital only. You won¿t really want to get these guys, get the much better and only a little more expensive Seers of the Deep.

    Seers of the Deep  By the time you get your second castle up your capital should basically be making one of these guys every turn mostly because your capital is the only place you can get them. They¿re really good for the price, the only downside being that they¿re capital only and old. These guys give you reliable access to astral magic.

    Kings of the Deep  The centerpiece of the Atlantean nation, these guys just about have it all. Enough hitpoints to make them an effort to kill and astounding magic diversity. These are your ready made thugs, your powerful artillery, and your uber troop buffers all rolled into one¿and they¿re recruitable everyone. See section below for more details.

    The thing to keep in mind is your troops are just straight up subpar. They all have their niche uses, but they definitely are not going to win the game for you against the best stuff most any other nation can bring. Specifically, the two other water nations are going to beat the snot out of you at anything resembling an even fight. So, as I mentioned before you have to play MA Atlantis with the mindset of starting turn one as the underdog. Every gold R¿yleh or Oceana spends on recruiting troops you¿ll need to spend 1.5 or 2 if you try to fight them straight up.

    With that in mind you don¿t want to do that. You want to minimize how much of your gold you spend on subpar troops, and since that¿s all you¿ve got you want minimize how many national troops you get. You¿ve got a lot of options once your research starts ramping up, but (IMO) Atlantis absolutely needs an awake combat pretender to stand any chance at making it that far. There are a couple reasonable options, but keeping in mind that the primary role you need your pretender to fill is to be your backbone until your Kings of the Deep can take that role, my favorite by far is the Ancient Kraken. With a 10 dominion and the accompanying awe this guy will handily take out any independents, and recuperates those unlucky afflictions everybody gets. With such a high dominion he¿ll be useful defensively all the way through mid game as your national mages can buff him. To those saying he becomes useless pretty fast due to lack of slots I say try this : Ancient Kraken inside a 10 dominion outfitted with an antimagic amulet, ring of regen and a lycanthrop¿s amulet. Turn one you have a handful of mages cast (and then retreat) body ethereal, iron warriors, luck, quickness, iron will. That bad boy is now protection 20, with 690 hitpoints (regenerating 130 something per turn), lucky, ethereal, and a MR pushing 30 (depending on your magic scale) with 8 armor piercing attacks around 35 damage and an AOE poison attack¿.oh yeah and +3 awe. Change out your equipment depending on what you¿re actually fighting and I guarantee nobody is going to call you useless. Bonus, this requires no magic paths on your pretender, so even if he does manage to go down to a lucky soul slay leverage those H3 priests and he¿s quickly back for more at just the price of those cheap items you put on him.

    This touches on my next point, Atlantis needs gold like it¿s going out of style to get up a second and third castle as fast as possible and start cranking out the Kings of the Deep (who are not the cheapest things in the world). Again, there are certainly other viable strategies but with your great national magic diversity I see no need to put any magic on your pretender at all. If your pretender is ¿naked¿ then once you get several Coral Queens to call him you can use him exactly like an immortal  he¿s back in action a couple turns after dying. A pretty nice bonus for pumping all your design points into excellent scales. Scales  you¿ll want Order, Sloth and Cold (cold dominion doesn¿t negatively effect underwater income, though hot does). The other three you can put to whatever your personal preference is.

    Your Kraken can attack indies on turn one and should take one province every turn until you run out. At that point when he¿s not fighting move him to wherever you want your dominion pushed. You¿ll want to push your dominion as far as you can, not only is it a very beneficial dominion, it¿s also directly part of your defense so long as you¿re counting on your Kraken to defend you  dominion strength strongly effects how powerful he is. For this reason it¿s important to push your dominion early, investments in temples pay off in several different types of dividends. For this, as well as being able to call back your Kraken quickly it¿s a good idea to build up a couple Coral Queens even though they don¿t initially seem like they¿re helping much. Depending on what you¿re fighting a half dozen smite spammers can be a pretty good deal.

    Now, outside of indies your Kraken is mostly going to be a defensive tool because he¿ll be fairly puny inside enemy dominions. You¿re never gonna win fighting a purely defensive fight, so what to do? First off, as I said before you want to severely limit how much money you put into recruiting national troops. It¿s probably worthwhile to make a lobster expansion party or two to supercharge your initial expansion. Once you get critical mass they¿re not nearly so disposable against indies. Outside of that though, save your gold and focus on getting castles 2 and 3 up as soon as possible. When you do meet a hostile nation you¿re going to try to sucker them in to fighting in your dominion so your Kraken can molest them (trust me, it¿s not hard to make Atlantis look like a good target). In the early parts of the game if you can crush your opponent¿s primary army you secure a very big leg up. If you can get such a leg up, you follow up by leveraging your superior gold (because you haven¿t been pumping out troops and have an awesome dominion) to take advantage of another feature of the big blue ocean, lots of low resource indie troops. Specifically shamblers (same as your national troop) are all over the place and you can easily recruit 30 per turn out of several provinces right along your border assuming you have the gold. As I said before, these guys are not going to win you a fair fight, but if you¿re pressing an advantage gained by a decisive victory and superior economy you can compound the advantage rather rapidly by snatching several border provinces as your opponent most likely sticks to much more slowly recruiting his superior castle troops. You¿ll take losses, but you¿ll also compound your gold lead with every province you take. Drowning your opponent in flesh is a good way to counter mindblasters, while against Oceana you¿re going to want to use war lobsters against the heavier armies while using your shambler hoards to raid and avoid real confrontations. You have to always keep in mind that you¿re the underdog and you have to fight just like the scrawny guy set upon by a burly thug  hit him hard with everything you¿ve got and for the love of god don¿t try to straight up mach strength with him in a direct contest.

    Meanwhile you¿re cranking out mages as fast as you can with a laser beam focus on conjuration if possible. You may need to sidetrack to alteration if you¿re hard pressed (more on that in a second), but you¿ve got three critical goals under conjuration. The first is Voice of Tiamat at con-4, this spell gives the water nations a huge leg up in the gem income department. As all the water nations are going to be getting this fairly early it¿s not going to give you an advantage so much as make sure you¿re not at a severe disadvantage. The next two major goals are both at con-6. Shark attack is like having nuclear weapons for underwater fights¿if one guy has it and the other guy doesn¿t the fight is probably already decided. The other is the often overlooked Atlantis national summon the monster fish.

    This leads into my next topic, your next research target is alteration. Underwater fights differ from land fights in a couple important ways, but arguably the biggest difference is the lack of good evocation spells. This ties in with the lack of conventional archers to make the goto spells for underwater domination alteration spells (the lack of archers means your mages can and should be mixed right in with your troops for optimal buffing). I outlined a suggestion for a very nasty Ancient Kraken above, the same logic applies to any other reasonably tough chasis. If you¿re sorely pressed early on the con-3 summonable krakens are pretty darned tough for the cost with similar buffs (iron warriors, quickness, iron will, body ethereal, luck), but the crown jewel is the monster fish. This guy has 128 hit points, decent MR (especially when buffed) and most importantly has a rather unique attack. It does 25 damage (factoring its strength), but X2 vs smaller beings and is AOE 1. That means anything which is not size 6 or has a whole lot of hit points dies regardless of defense or protection and it can gobble up a bunch of smaller units in a bite. Cast quickness on him and each one of these guys is clearing two squares per turn regardless of how fancy the enemy troops are. Throw iron warriors and body ethereal on him and it takes a loooong time to do 128 damage to him. Throw iron will on him and he¿s got a respectable 17 MR so those typical animal counters aren¿t gonna help. Now figure he¿s only 10 gems so you should have several (he¿s not being swarmed by himself) and you begin to see why I like these guys so much. Support them with some reasonable chaff and a few war lobsters to break the enemy¿s initial charge (while you finish buffing) and this becomes a very tough nut to crack.

    Well, this is one example (my favorite), but obviously the logic can extend to whatever your summon of choice is. Many people disregard mages underwater because of the lack of good damage dealing spells, you don¿t have that luxury playing as Atlantis. Your mages (and summons) are going to be the backbone of your army, your troops just plain suck.

    So, you¿ve invested heavily in all this underwater only stuff and you¿ve managed to conquer every underwater province on the map. Now what? Now you¿ve got to shift gears because you¿re no longer the underdog, you¿re a submarine. Though this seems simply trite at first, I don¿t mean this in a symbolic sense, I mean it in a strategic one. Strategically, on the land you have to think of a land nation as a battleship while you¿re a submarine. If you surface and start trading blow for blow you¿re gonna come out the looser almost every time. That¿s not how submarines fight, and it¿s not how Atlantis (actually this is applicable to any underwater race trying to take to the land) can successfully fight on the land. A couple things to keep in mind. 1) You¿ve invested in some aquatic only heavy hitters and have several other significant advantages fighting under the water against land-lubbers. 2) Assuming you¿re in control of most of the water you¿ve got very long borders with several nations which are likely lightly defended.

    The first point is important because it¿s going to be extremely rare for a land nation to launch an offensive war that takes them under the water anytime before extreme late game, and if they do you¿re generally sitting pretty as you can inflict casualties much easier that way before bringing the war back to them. This means you very rarely want to have NAPs with land nations initially, they¿re much more limiting to you than they are useful. At the point you¿re in control of the water you should have several long relatively undefended borders to choose from and the freedom to choose your target.

    This is where it¿s important to remember the submarine analogy, you have to make sure that the fight is over before your opponent has a chance to react. Look for a target that 1) You have a long coastal border with 2) Is just a little smaller and weaker than you 3) Is involved in another war front 4) That you can make a war alliance against with somebody else. 5) That you can gain political advantage from taking out (use this as an opportunity to make an ally of his enemy)

    What you want to do is hit him with an overwhelmingly large barrage of torpedoes¿er¿raiders in a totally unannounced sneak attack. With a long border and teleporting thugs you should look at attacking 12+ provinces the turn he realizes there is a war on, and having 20 by the time he has a chance to react. Remember, you¿re looking to take out PD and capture territories, not kill big armies so hit him everywhere at once. If you choose your target well and time this right (as he¿s otherwise engaged and you have a wide vector of attack) it will be over before it starts. Remember, if you sneak attack a castle with no troops in it your opponent won¿t be able to recruit any troops there unless he can break the siege which can be a problem if the nearest army is not very close. Use the element of surprise to its full advantage and don¿t let that battleship bring its big guns to bear.

    At this point you should be sitting pretty with all the water provinces, a good chunk of land, a strong gem income, strong research and a strong ally or two. Your options are pretty open at this point and I¿ll leave them as an exercise for the student.

    Now, here¿s some suggestions on what to do with your mages.

    Initiate of the Deep  I told you not to get these guys, didn¿t I? You can use them for Frozen Heart if you disregarded me¿.

    Seer of the Deep  Astral & water buffs as outlined above  body ethereal, luck, quickness. Gatewaying troops around (cap + crystal coin). You can use them for communions as well for truly sick falling frost spam. In a pinch you can use them to mind duel those Starspawn who are trying to Soul Slay your Monster Fish (use the ones that are diseased because they¿re old. ). With a cap and coin these guys are also mind hunt capable and Atlantis can easily forge rune smashers, eyes of the void and spell foci. Speaking of Mind Hunt, not only does Oceana not have any astral mages, but also there are no (to my knowledge) underwater indie astral mages so mind hunts will be a shooting gallery.

    King of the Deep  As I said above, these guys are the centerpiece of your nation and I¿m going to have to break down each random pick to do them justice. Now, keep in mind that these are also your mainline researchers so don¿t be shy about pulling them to other uses as need dictates, one of your big advantages is that you¿ve got a large pool of them to pull from as needed. Also, I¿m only going to talk about the 4 100% random pics, you¿ll get several more flavors with the 10% pick which give you important diversity into things like crystal coins.

    Water (5W)  slap a water bracelet and a robe of the sea for a 7W mage. This is going to be your heavy artillery on land, most of the water evocation spells scale exponentially in effectiveness as the mage¿s power grows and having 5 or 6 7W guys casting (as appropriate) Falling Frost, Cleansing Water, Ice Strike, or Living Water is a pretty ridiculously effective given the cost of the mage and how many times they can cast it before passing out. Keep these guys as artillery in your army, they¿re the least useful as thugs and paradoxically not terribly useful for fighting underwater. For late game most anything not cold immune will have a hard time standing up to a couple Niefel Flames and being armor negating even cold resistant troops will go down to several castings if they¿re not totally immune.

    Fire (3W 2F)  As artillery look at Acid Rain in combination with the falling frost/ice strikes cast by your water Kings to destroy those tougher enemies. This scales with water power as well so these guys will benefit from water bracelets and robes as well. As thugs slap good reinvig on them and think fire shield, phonix pyre, fire resitance and breath of winter to take out pesky cold or heat radiating enemies.

    Earth (3W 2E)  These guys have several uses, but in case you didn¿t pick up on that yet I love using them to buff. Iron Warriors and Iron Will I¿ve mentioned, but also with earth boots and summon earth power these guys can lay down more potent Weapons of Sharpness or Army of Lead. As thugs think Summon Earth Power, Invulnerability, Quickness, Iron Will, Breath of Winter for situations where you need some uber protection.

    Astral (3W 2S)  These are your super mobile teleporting thugs. Slap an astral cap, frost brand, decent shield and armor, some reinvig items then script Body Ethereal, Personal Luck, Breath of Winter and they¿ll take out most PD (modify your equipment and scripting depending on what you¿re actually fighting). You'll want basically every one of these you get as a thug, use the Seers of the Deep for any other astral needs you have.

    	    	8.12.3 LA Atlantis

    	    	    	8.12.3.1  LA Atlantis, another thread looking for tips

    			-> I think the Assartut low resource cost mahes them interesting for beginning the game. I had a SP game where I was facing man and I had no problem punching through their lines (mostly used glaives). I almost never use chaff units when I can avoid it, I prefer to use my gold on powerfull units. I think chaff is mostly a weakness, specially the harpoon throwers, which will do almost no damage at range before getting killed rapidly in close combat, closing your army to the deadly 40 % loose.
    LA atlantis must rely on damage dealers (glaive people) 'cause you've got no archers at the beginning, and it's pretty hard finding cold immune indeps.

    			-> Assartuts and other cheaper sacred capital units are excellent for continuous early expansion. Many play up the ability of certain nations like Ermor or Pythium to expand from turn one, but at turn 4 a nation with cheap sacred and a good bless like Atlantis can expand continuously with hardly any reinforcement every turn after. (I think the Eagle Warrior and Shadow Vestal are the kings and queens (respectively) of cheap capital-only sacreds.)

    The Assartut's big weakness is it's relative lack of armor, but as above, this makes it easier to mass them in numbers. And being cheap they are easy to maintain.

    Harpoon throwers have only one selling point and that is they are the only unit that can be quickly massed by Atlantis: everything else is quite expensive in resources. Atlantis' high resource cost is a big weakness after a major defeat, they have a hard time coming back.

    Assartuts, combined with a death bless(i like a dom9 D9 Prince of Death with LA atlantis) can do some very nasty things to thugs and SCs, particularly those nasty early expansion pretenders. The prince himself on the other hand can nicely get those big globals up for you and makes a nice SC of his own when outfitted properly.

    			-> Here's my tip on fighting undead.

    You're likely to have a lot of Tungalik's on hand, but be uncertain how to use them. The answer depends somewhat on what undead nation you're facing.

    Ctis and Ermor both get MR boosting prayer. While Pangaea does get special prayers, but no MR boosts. And then there's nations like the Ktonian Necromancers, who get no special prayers.
    Among the last two, Banishment is effective, but against the Tomb Kings isn't likely to be enough on its own. That's where Dust to Dust comes into play. It's easy to overlook this level one spell, but it will continually prove useful throughout the game. It does 22 damage, with a range of 25, and is both armor negating AND ignores magic resistance. And did I mention that it attacks the entire square?

    It's main drawback is its low precision, but you'll likely have a bunch of death mages on hand, there's little friendly fire, and undead tend to travel in groups.

    I've used four Tungaliks (with support) to just ravage four Banes. Needless to say, I got the better part of the bargain. Because it's area affect, its not a total waste against MR boosted skeletons/skelly cavalry either.

    it's effective against LA Ulm's Ghoul Guardians, too, and several other late age units.

    If you've got Angakok, Cleansing Water looks similar to banishment, but with two key differences. First, it is not negated by magic resistance. Second, it has a fatigue cost, but that only comes to about 13 with 3 path water and 3 encumbrance. It's a handy method for clearing out lesser undead. That unfortunately takes until Evo 6, but don't underestimate the utility of Dust to Dust, available much earlier.

    	    	    	8.12.3.2 LA Atlantis - frozen death from all directions

    			Article Author:  Baalz

    LA Atlantis is another nation which people tend to avoid touching with a 10 foot pole. Their only real mages are capital only and they¿ve got trouble with magic diversity. Their units are resource intensive and struggle out of their own dominion due to the temperature. They got kicked out of the water by R'yleh who has only got meaner in the mean time. They¿ve just generally got a funky lineup with few obvious synergies.

    Well, those of you familiar with my guides know where I¿m going with this¿Atlantis can most definitely be a sleeper nation who clobbers the crap out of the popular ones if handled with a bit of finesse. Many of their strengths are not the standard ones, but they are wicked effective properly deployed and almost all of their stuff works so well together you¿d think it was designed to. Let¿s take a look at the cast.

    Seal hunter  Pretty average as far as chaff goes but they do have a rather unique harpoon ranged attack. Just a single shot, but it does entangle the target so this can be very useful in getting high defense troops/SCs to hold still for a round so that your heavy hitters can clobber them  and you¿ve got some nice heavy hitters.

    Snow warriors  what passes for light infantry in LA Atlantis, though of course that¿s a relative term. As with most of your infantry your armor scales with the cold scale so you¿re gonna be quite a bit weaker on offense most of the time. These guys also don¿t have any shields so watch out for crossbows. Still, you¿ve got magic weapons with a good repel, good protection in a cold environment, partial darkvision, partial cold resistance, true amphibiousness, above average strength and hitpoints. Overall, not bad units at all. You generally want to go with the glaive guys, those are magic weapons and they pack enough punch to even give giants a pause. Note, your heavy infantry has a mapmove of 2, so really the only reason you¿d want to go with Snow warriors is to get more feet on the ground for the resources you¿ve got. Keep in mind that¿s not a terrible strategy when fighting things like giants where the extra protection doesn¿t really help, go with more glaives!

    Ice warriors  Skip them, most roles are better filled with Snow warriors or Ice Guards

    Ice Guards  Very nice heavy infantry, particularly in a cold environment. Everything said about Snow Warriors is more true about Ice Guards. They¿ve got outstanding armor in the cold, good hitpoints, good stats in general, 75% cold resistance and a choice between a good shield or a clobbering ice glaive, with of course magic weapons. You¿re pretty much never going to have much excuse to have leftover resource points at the end of your turn, always spend anything leftover on these guys. Finally, these guys have an unprecedented 2 mapmove for such heavy infantry, combined with their amphibiousness this is a significant strategic mobility advantage.

    Mournful  These guys are pretty decent for the price, but the moral is a killer. Still, they¿re the best choice for several situations. They¿ve got relatively low resource costs compared to your other units, so if you need feet on the ground fast this is the way to go. They also don¿t melt in the sun, so consider them when you¿re pushing outside your dominion. Finally, with a star or two of experience and a sermon of courage the moral issue is greatly reduced, and you can also mix them into groups with your higher moral troops  Arssartuts are a good choice as they have the same movement speed so they¿ll stick together and of course have outstanding moral.

    Arssartut - Wow, these guys don¿t immediately jump out at you but once you start playing around with them you¿ll be amazed at how good they are. They¿re cheap as far as sacreds go, have good hitpoints, good protection, good attack skill, good encumberance, good strength, good movement, cheap resource requirements, and that glorious, glorious bone glaive. Out of that list (with the possible exception of the bone glaive) nothing jumps out at you, but adding them all together you end up with an amazingly solid unit. They¿ve got the toughness and encumbrance for staying power combined with a magic weapon which is extremely effective against everything from chaff to SCs. They also have great synergy with the Mournful in attacking outside your cold dominion, not dropping in power and moving at the same speed. I do want to make special note of their glaive, its magic, deals 22 damage with their strength, and has an addition weakness effect. The weakness effect means anybody tough enough to live through a couple hits of that 22 damage will have completely permanent damage done to their strength. This will of course pile up on any really tough guys to the point that they¿re useless in melee - you¿re guys are all cold resistant and your mages can cast Fire Ward, so you don¿t even need to worry about frost/firebrands.

    Now, before I move on to talking about the commanders I wanted to talk about the bless choices for your Arssartut. One of the big advantages in your corner is your truly amphibious nature  I mean you¿re Atlantis for crying out loud. You should be able to dominate any land nation underwater, and even the other amphibious nations are significantly weaker than you there. Unfortunately, there¿s a big old tentacled turd in that punchbowl. If they¿re in the game *everybody* needs to plan from the beginning about dealing with LA R¿yleh, but Atlantis more so than anybody else. Fortunately, you¿ve got the tools to do it. It¿s absolutely imperative that you carve out a solid chunk of water *and* land, several of your national strengths are tied to being the best amphibians around.

    I like an S/E bless, with a minor N component if you can afford it. The twist fate helps a whole lot in several situations - letting your Arssartuts close under archer fire, blunting the heavy cavalry charge, ignoring the SC¿s first strike so you can whack the crap out of him with your bone glaives. Contrary to most of the time people take an astral bless though, the more important component is the MR boost. With +3 MR you bring the Arssartuts up to a respectable 14, and with an astral pretender you can drop an anti-magic on top of that making you effectively immune to R¿yleh¿s strongest weapons for the early and mid parts of the game. (strong MR also adds shadow brands and many other heavy infantry counters to the list of things you don¿t need to worry about) The earth bless not only brings you up to a very nice 16 protection, it also gives you a net 0 encumbrance. Those two factors, along with your length 4 uber damage bone glaive and small regen make you *perfect* chaff killers, thus neutering the second prong of R¿yleh¿s dominance. Finally, this kind of goes without saying, but you don¿t need to worry about R¿yleh¿s final prong  being entrenched underwater.

    So, with such a blessing and a couple good buffs there¿s not much the Arssartuts can¿t handle in style  from chaff to SCs. You go right ahead and carve out a chunk of the water, the inexperienced R¿yleh player is going to take a little convincing, but never let anybody convince you you¿re not the other LA water power.

    For scales, cold-3 is obviously a no-brainer. Death -3 also is not only thematic, but offers a good synergy of making invading armies get the double supply whammie so there is a good chance they¿ll have trouble with starvation, while your own armies are going to be on the smaller side (due to resource constraints), you won¿t suffer from the cold, and you¿ll have castles to help supply you at home. You¿ve got no old age units, so that¿s a good place to pick up the points for an expensive bless. Your other scales are up to you, but Magic-1 is a very good deal considering how weak your non-cap mages are.

    Speaking of... Tungalik are your only non-captial mage, and they are admittedly a bit underwhelming at first glance. Thing is, they¿re quite cheap and holy, which is not the worst thing in the world combined with high resource troops. You should end up with an above average number of castles, and an above average number of mages  though admittedly weaker than most. Mostly you¿ll be recruiting them to be your research base, but there are some clever ways to use them effectively in combat particularly keeping in mind their strength - strength in numbers.

    Frozen heart spam. This is the obvious choice, and what your opponent will be expecting. Still, it¿s the obvious choice because it¿s often quite effective, several Tungalik spamming this will be devastating to the unprepared opponent.

    Ghost grip spam. A bit less common, but this is also an obvious choice, though a bit harder for your opponent to counter. It also works very well with some of the other fatigue strategies I¿ll be getting into in a minute. If your opponent has high encumbrance in the cold and needs to whack all day at your uber armored infantry, a couple guys casting ghost grip is all it takes to be terribly effective  with an earth bless your guys can cast this 10 fatigue spell all day long.

    Frighten spam. Don¿t underestimate this. Marching into a cold-3/death-3 dominion gives a good chance of catching invaders partially starving, and half a dozen frighten spammers is surprisingly effective if those starving guys started out with average moral and are also in your dominion. Make sure you cut off their retreat using your map move 2 amphibious infantry and sailing! Note, this tactic is much more effective in combination with some of the stuff listed below.

    Mini-thugs. Heh, seems kinda pointless to thug out, huh? Not so fast there. These guys are holy and you¿ve got a nice bless. You¿ve got a 21 protection with the cheap black steel plate, and of course other options are available depending on what you¿ve got available. You¿ve got reinvigoration, and can self buff with quickness and breath of winter, and hopefully even a little regeneration from your bless. Of course twist fate doesn¿t hurt either, nor your quickened high defense (add water shield if you¿re underwater). Mix them in with some ice guards or wights set to guard commander and dual wield frost brands¿.against the right type of opponent this is going to be devastating.

    Being able to self buff quickness has another large advantage - ranged weapons. If you get lucky and land an A2 Angakok, bows of war and thunder bows are great on a quickened commander. Other fun things you can easily forge are vision¿s foes, the black bows, and banefire xbows. Again, you¿ve got to think about using these guys in decent sized groups  6 quickened banefire xbows are pretty devastating to troops without long lifespans, 6 bows of war will have the effect of over 150 archers, and 12 black bow arrows per turn will give even the toughest SC with bodyguards pause. Not a bad switch when your opponent was expecting some frozen heart spam.

    A few other things to remember to pull out when the situation merits it  spirit curse (as if the SCs didn¿t already have enough disincentive to attack), dust to dust (very effective cast en-mass against that prince of death or tartarians giving you a hard time), slime (not the best spell in the world, but can be effective en mass combined with your heavy hitting infantry and cold auras). Also, once you get up to con-6, cheap water bracelets will pull these guys up into ice strike, cleansing water, numbness, and desiccation.

    Now, onto the main event. Angakoks are the heart of LA Atlantis. They don¿t have quite the versatility of the MA Atlantis Kings of the Deep, but what they do, they do well. You¿ll obviously want to recruit one every turn as soon as you can afford to.

    Thugin¿:

    They¿re holy and you have a nice earth bless with small regen. Buffs range from soul vortex to ironskin to mistform with quicken self and breath of winter on the side. Pretty standard thug layouts apply, but make sure to leverage your sailing ability. Depending on the map layout this can be even better than flying. With reinvig and soul vortex it often works well to leave the thug Angakok to cast spells  he¿ll throw out skellispam (great with his breath of winter, really adds to his staying power while soul vortex does its thing), cold blast, and many of the fun stuff listed in the next section. Hey, don¿t forget to cast twiceborn so you don¿t even risk that much, and now you¿ve got some mages who can more easily leverage rigor mortis.

    Combat Castin¿:

    You¿ll want to get some indie S1 mages for several reasons, one of which is to forge penetration boosters for you. Look for lizard shamen, mercenaries, sages, or if nothing else use your pretender to crank out some void eyes and spell foci  kinda drudge work for a pretender, but you really need them to round out your arsenal. You also shouldn¿t have too much trouble getting 50 fire for an empowering (more below), which gives you fire skulls and then rune smashers. Note, if nothing else turns up you can summon some specters to get you weak astral mages, but you¿ll want to save your death gems for other uses if you can.

    Well, falling frost is the obvious goto spell, but I don¿t like to depend on it because it¿s too easy to counter. Cold resistance, high defense or high protection will all seriously hamper this one, though it does scale in power with the water mage level so a Angakok with a water pick and a water bracelet with sea robe will throw down a pretty impressive barrage.

    Shadow blast Penetration boosted shadow blast is a great switchup to the water magic stuff you¿re mainlining. Haha, you thought frost resistance would be enough?!?!

    Sailor¿s death  With a penetration boost this spell is n*a*s*t*y. AN, AOE1 and a range of 30, 3 or 4 guys spamming this will blast the crap out of many different things which would otherwise give you difficulty. And it¿s only Thau-3!

    Numbness, desiccation, breath of winter, grip of winter, rigor mortis, ghost grip, curse of stones (penetration boosted!), curse of the desert (penetration boosted!). Combine this with great heavy infantry that take a lot of beating to go down. Mix in wights, winter wolves, ghosts, and anything else with a cold aura. Add in the encumbrance penalty for a cold climate, and friendly currents/quagmire. It¿s frightening how many things LA Atlantis can pile onto causing fatigue  in fact it¿s usually more important to remember not to pile too many things up that your own units are merely resistant rather than immune to.

    Terror  everything I said about frighten goes triple for terror. Combine with ghosts and leviathans and anybody even thinking about starving doesn¿t stand much chance. Oh, if you¿re feeling showy, you can throw Wailing Winds in as well.

    But wait, there¿s more! Freezing Mist  don¿t be misled by its small damage number, this is a serious offensive spell which works wonderfully with the rest of your arsenal if given even a little time to work. It¿s hard to tell for sure, but this spell seems to scale up in damage with the cold scale. Regardless, it will do amazing amounts of damage in a wide AOE to guys standing around inside it. It¿s AN and AOE, so nobody who is not completely cold immune is spared  this is your goto spell for the guys who are outfitted to scoff at your falling frost. Note: your infantry doesn¿t have 100% cold resistance by default, so make sure you buff them with winter ward, or use undead or other summons when using this spell, trust me that AN damage is nasty and you don¿t want even your 75% resistant guys inside it. Bonus  it¿ll freeze your victims, thus flowing perfectly into your fatigue strategy. This spells works awesomely with¿.

    Skellispam  you may not be able to field the same numbers of undead as the undead specialists, but that doesn¿t matter because they have such synergy with everything else you¿re using so you don¿t need an overwhelming mass. Think about it, you¿re laying down cold, fatigue, fear, and drowning  all things to which your skellispam is immune. You don¿t need overwhelming amounts because you don¿t have to tie your opponent up as long, you¿ve got too many things working against him.

    Quickening  you thought those Arssartut¿s were intimidating before? Try laying down a quickening on them. Oooooh I love those bone glaives!

    Now, with a cold, fatigue and fear based primary strategies, the obvious hole is swarms of undead, and LA has some of the nastiest. Fortunately, you¿ve got access to every one of the best anti-undead spells  dust to dust spam for the powerful undead, wither bones and cleansing waters for the large groups of chaff, and undead mastery (death random + skull staff + skull helm) or solar brilliance (pretender) for the really big masses. You¿ve not only got the perfect counter for R¿yleh, you¿ve got the perfect counter for Ermor to!

    Now, you¿ll also not want to neglect earth and air spells. You should have several pairs of earth boots, so with summon earthpower E3 spells are in easy reach. I mentioned curse of stones above, which works great with the rest of what you¿re doing, but don¿t be afraid to lay down some of the classic earth spells. Strength of giants and legions of steel work extremely well with your Arssartuts (don¿t forget to quicken them if you have it! Now *there's* some nasty crap.). Destruction is always a welcome addition, and blade wind plugs the hole that lack of archers leaves. Marble warriors is also great (be careful as it¿ll remove your cold resistance), and with an elemental staff you get up into weapons of sharpness and army of lead range. Rust Mist can work well in a pinch to, though it¿s a bit hard to leverage (think: tying your opponent up with a skellispam screen while the rust mist takes effect, then marching in with your real troops)

    For air, you¿re quite a bit more limited with no boosters or self buff spell, but don¿t neglect the options you do have. With an elemental staff and some creativity cloud trapeze, thunder ward, and arrow fend all become accessible and very nice to have in the right situation. Also, don¿t overlook having a mage dedicated to casting aim on your main artillery players, it can make quite a difference.

    For the higher powered fights you¿ll want to look into darkness, bone grinding, niefel flames, and living water (yeah ice elementals!)

    Lab Castin¿:

    Here¿s where your lack of magic diversity hurts the most, but the things you can easily cast are so frickin cool (if you¿ll pardon the pun) that every water and death gem is going to be put to a very good use, and even your air and earth will be quite precious though more for forgings. You¿ll have a powerful astral pretender and hopefully enough S1 casters to power arcane probing, and enough fire for what you need, leaving just blood and nature as your glaring holes. Hmmm, did I mention you should really try to put nature on your pretender? Ignore blood and between your pretender and the free nature sites common underwater you should be able to eventually scrape up 50 nature gems. With one empowering you can now summon niads using water gems, so this gets you into nature in a big way.

    Voice of Tiamat. Now that you¿ve got a good sized water section to your empire (you did read the first part of this guide right?) you definitely want to make good use of it. Voice of Tiamat is going to not only get you a good flow of water gems, it¿s also going to get you a modest income of earth and fire. You should forge some earth boots with you pretender, then more with the guy you give the first set to, E2 mages are where the fun¿s at. Fire gems will more than likely go into an empowering, as mentioned above, then in addition to rune smashers you can start making the elemental staffs I referenced above. Also, kinda goes without saying, but dark knowledge is in the same school so you¿ll want to hit that hard as well.

    Send Tupac¿er Tupilak. This guy is a rather weak assassin spell, but it¿s also cheap, easy to cast, and relatively low on the research tree. He¿s not going to take out any thugs or really even bodyguards, but with his hitpoints he is quite capable of killing most unguarded mages. This is not a mainline spell as it¿s easy to counter, but it is a very good kick below the belt whenever you see your opponent fielding mages he forgot to put bodyguards with. Particularly right before a big fight.

    Spirit mastery  let see, immune to all the stuff you¿re throwing down, ethereal, cheap, and pretty much tailor made to tie up the bad guys. Yep, these are a very good choice as blockers. These guys are perfect to pair with freezing mist.

    Ghosts  Like dispossessed spirits, only they add fear and cold of their own, how much better could it get?

    Leviathan  You know what the problem is with iron dragons? They¿re level 9 summons, and by that time everybody has good counters. How about a level 7 summon that¿s almost as good for almost half the price? A single Leviathan buffed with quickness and gift of flight (give one of your air Angakoks an air gem) will destroy any PD and a couple together will even do a number on real armies which are unprepared. They¿ve got great protection, massive hitpoints, are mindless (hint  another great thing to throw at R¿yleh), amphibious, cold & fear immune so you don¿t need to worry about friendly fire, and in fact even have a fairly significant fear aura themselves! Not to mention, quickened, they absolutely smear size 2 guys without racking up all that unseemly fatigue  it¿s frightening how much damage they cause each round. Heck, the gift of flight isn¿t really even necessary most of the time, but boy is it fun to watch. For big fights, make sure to leverage those S1 mages you¿ve been scouring the globe for to lay luck and body ethereal down on them before sending your flying doomcastles to attack rearmost. Trust me, your opponent won¿t have the luxury of worrying about all the fatigue you¿re laying down in the mean time.

    Monster fish  In case your opponents don¿t just cede the water to you, and you need something to supplement your leviathans, buffed monster fish are just awesome. I don¿t want to repeat what I laid out in my MA Atlantis guide, but definitely check it out that section if you haven¿t read it. Between monster fish, leviathans, shark attacks, true amphibious uber sacreds, underwater PD and top notch undead counters nobody but R¿yleh should be able to rival you under the water, and you should be able to give even them a run for their money. Plus, KO mentioned he was planning some new underwater goodies for LA Atlantis in the next patch¿.

    Catoblepas  Heck, who needs archers? Two words: death gaze. Oh wait, make that 3 words, quickened death gaze.

    Winter wolves  anything with a cold aura works great. Bonus points for etherealness.

    Hidden in the snow  a bit on the expensive side, but the troops work very well with your strategy and the mages can flesh out your earth magic a bit. Cold auras all around!

    Specters  as mentioned above will get you into astral if you don¿t have a better way. They¿re also stealthy, so really useful as mind hunt deterrents. Make sure you boost them up to S3 to give a 100% chance of catching the mind hunters!

    Wolven winter  you want to always be fighting in cold-3 if you can help it. With this spell you don¿t have much excuse to not help it.

    Murdering winter  in the unlikely event a non-cold immune army is successfully invading you, this spell is expensive but fearsome in cold-3.

    Leprosy (penetration boosted!)  did I mention that there are some disincentives to attacking LA Atlantis?

    Black death, tidal wave, wolven winter (again), blight  cut off the economy of the bad guys. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I pity the fool who attacks me.

    Lure of the deep  this is the type of insidious global which is both unlikely to be dispelled, and also cumulates to significant casualties over time. You pretty much need to be in control of any coast you don¿t want to be at war with, but it does add one more layer of disincentive in attacking you once you get entrenched around the coastline.

    Maelstrom  great spell to shoot for, castable with 2 boosters and a water random.

    Well of misery  likewise, two boosters and the right random.

    Speaking of two boosters and the right random, lots of nastiness is available at D7. Legion of wights (great blockers considering what you¿re throwing down), Ghost Riders, and a short jump to tartarians with the ring of sorcery your pretender forged.

    Ice pebble staffs turn out to be rather useful to, they¿d prove really, really nice with quickened Tungalik except they tend to spam skeletons and frighten once your script runs out, so instead leverage indie commanders and boots of quickness (once you have them). It¿s surprising how fast 3 quickened numbness spammers can cover the majority of a good sized army, and how effective it is. In addition to the fatigue and all its side effects, the freezing immediately drops attack and defense by 3, add a few more minuses on as the troops gain some fatigue closing for melee and trust me it¿s worthwhile even before the fatigue really mounts.

    Of course all the classic undead nastiness works as well  bane lords, wraith lords, liches, etc.

    Finally, I want to close with a mention about sailing. Atlantis has some rather unique strategic options related to their both having sailing and being amphibious. They can leave one water province, sail over the next one and land on a land province on the far side. Given the usual larger size of water provinces, this can lead to *huge* strategic freedom. It¿s not unlikely that massing troops in a single province can leave dozens of places you can drop them in a single turn. Combine this with excellent raiding potential, solid thugs, excellent defensive entrenchment and you have the ability to dance all over anybody who wants to attack you, or to deliver a devastating sneak attack to anyone with a coastline.

    	8.13 Kalisa

    Hello everyone,

    I've been playing Dominions 2 for a long time, and have ordered Dom 3 and it should be here in a couple of days. When I first ordered Dom 2 years ago it took me months to figure out what works and what doesn't, it was a complicated game. I read a lot of good advice to get me rolling on these boards, and I imagine a lot of new players did the same. So I decided to contribute back and help some new players with Kailasa in the demo while I wait for my full copy.

    Kailasa is an intersting nation, and can be somewhat versatile. Their main strengths seem to be cheap archers and an abundance of sacred troops. So I think the best and most obvious choice is to focus on that.

    Pretender Design

    I went with a F9 Red Dragon, awakened. The scales I chose were Order:2, Sloth:2, Heat:2, and Growth:2. Kailasa, for the most part, has gold expensive troops at low resources, so I find these scales work well. You could possibly substitute 1 point in growth with 1 point in magic for a research boost without effecting your income too much.

    Another possible route to take would be W9 Mother of Rivers awakened. I sometimes have trouble finding magic sites that give you water gems on land, so the immediate boost is worth it, and the bless isn't too bad either. It's also recommended if you plan on facing underwater nations. However the expense is you won't have access to fire gems as easily through searching and a few key fire spells won't be readily castable without some luck and forging.

    There are a lot of options possible, however extra income and low supply scales, I feel, are a must.

    Army design

    First thing you'll notice about Kailasa is they have cheap, cheap scouts. These guys are great as they give you valuable information about the army you're about to face and as you move them away where the enemy nations are located. With the icon to locate them added to Dom 3 I find myself using them much more often (in Dom 2 I'd lose track of them easily and became a bit of a hassle).

    After a little more examination, you'll see that every troop available except one has a movement rate of 2 on the world map, so the nation as a whole is pretty mobile.

    Next thing you'll see is your starting army and it pretty much stinks. It can take a weak indy province, but will take heavy losses, so I'd get that out of the way as soon as possible.

    Over the next few turns or less you can begin to design your own army. Here's a list of the better troops and how to use them:

    You've got three different types of archers available, Markata, Atavi, and Bandar. Markata archers are cheap so it's easy to amass them in large numbers, however their range is smaller and they're fast, so frequently what happens is they run out in front of your lines to fire and get slaughtered. Atavi archers have the range necessary to stay put, for the most part, and fire. Bandar archers are even more expensive than both, but have a lower precision and more hit points. I don't think they're worth the cost. Atavi archers are probably the best option, they have a chance of surviving an arrow or sling and don't run out to get cut down.

    Out of all the infantry, Markata, Atavi, and Bandar, I think the resource heavy Bandar Swordsmen is the best option. They can take a few hits and hold a line, and are pretty good at absorbing missle weapons. It's well worth the cost, and additionally they're the only troop that uses more than a single digit of resources and even at sloth:2 you'll have enough to get quite a few of them and still get plenty of archers.

    Unfortunately, there is no calvarly to speak of in Kailasa.

    There are three types of sacred troops in Kailasa, and two are capital only. Yavana with a spear, Yavana with a sword and buckler, and Yavana Archers. They're not too expensive at around 40 gold a piece, and with a good bless they can be massed quickly and become extremely dangerous if you can keep them safe from missile fire. Since they're sacred, you can only recruit a certain number of them depending on your dominion, so you have to make a decision on how to best use them. I prefer to take the Yavana with the swords over the archers and spearmen because there's a lack of hardy front line troops and I already have plenty of archer options, but the blessed archers aren't too bad either.

    The basic strategy is to put the Bandar swordsmen in front, behind them the Yavana, and behind them/on the flanks your archers. I set all melee troops to hold and attack to let your most likely superior firepower fire a few volleys, and then move in to finish them off. Thinning the enemy out with arrows should minimize your losses.

    Your basic commanders are either Bandar Commanders or Atavi Chieftains. I'd stick with the Bandar Commander whenever possible, theose Atavi have a tendancy to die easily.

    Mages

    Kailasa has 4 mages available, and 2 priests. The priests are very expensive and only H1, but that's as good as it gets here. These are good candidates for a prophet as you'll be hard pressed to find a higher indy priest.

    The Yogi isn't a bad deal at 80G for 1S. It makes a decent mage to sit and spam Body Ethereal and later Luck on your blessed troops to improve their lifespan, or to cast Magic Duel and hope to get lucky. There's also a few useful items they can forge.

    The Guru at 160G and 2S 1N is a good mage. They're the only national mage that is capable of summoning Asparas. In battle they can use decent spells like Healing Light and Protection and Panic, and more devestating spells like Mind Burn, Paralyze, Swarm, and Horror Mark which are capable of downing stronger enemies easily. Their big drawback, however, is their limited movement range at 1. They'll probably slow your army down, so use with caution.

    These two can use use Communion Master/Slave which, for the demo, I don't really find necessary, but the option is there.

    The Yaksha, coming in at a whopping 360G and 3E 1N 1H 1?(random) is probably the best mage for this nation. He can naturally cast Blade Wind and Legions of Steel, which are excellent spells in the early age. Curse of Stones is also nice for keeping the enemy at range to be pelted by arrows. Ironskin is a good spell for personal protection.

    The Yakshini, also expensive at 360G for 3W 1N 1H 1? is not bad, and the main reason why I didn't take the Mother of Rivers as she can find water sites. In Dom 2 a water mage of sufficient power could breathe underwater, however due to a bug or perhaps design at this time she cannot, however perhaps in a patch it will be possible and add another piece of utility to this mage. Anyway, some of the more useful spells available to her are Quickness, Barkskin, Eagle Eyes, and Protection for buffs, and Encase in Ice, Numbness, Sailor's Death, and Curse of the Desert for offense.

    Depending on the randoms also, there's a host of other spells available.

    Forging

    There are many useful items available to this nation. Ice Pebble Staff, Summer Sword, Vine Bow and the like are good for commanders without magic to give them something to do in safety. Thistle Mace and Ivy Crown are good for Vine Ogres if you want them. Shambler Skin Armor is good to get in the water. Pendant of Luck and Antimagic Amulet are good for a lot of your Magic Beings who are vunerable to low level spells that will kill them instantly, Spell Focus is great for anyone who uses magic. The Earth Boots are good for your Yakshas who are casting Blade Wind. Ring of Regen is great for your pretender especially.

    Magic

    What paths to pursue depend on what you want to do with your nation. Conjuration is a must if you want to get underwater, you can get a huge army using Summon Sea Dogs quickly. Conjuration is also good if you want calvary, as Ambush of Tigers can give you that, and Asparas are free sacred troops which you will always be limited in producing. This is the school I'd pursue first, at least to Asparas.

    Alteration is a good school to pursue, many of your buffs come from here early. Body Ethereal, Protection, and Swarm are great spells. Encase in Ice is nice as well as Ironskin.

    Evocation is not bad, Blade Wind is worth it. There's also a lot of other spells your mages can cast to do direct damage. Fires from Afar is a good spell too.

    Construction is a great school. In addition to the many items you'll want to equip on commands, Legions of Steel comes with this school which is a great spell to open combat with.

    Thaumaturgy has some really great astral spells in it, like Paralyze, Mind Burn, and Horror Mark. Panic and Curse are also good spells. If you plan on using Gurus much, this school is definately worth it.

    Enchantment can be put off for the most part, Strength of Giants is about it in there, unless you took the recommended F9 pretender. Flame Arrows and Fire Shield are excellent spells from this school, Flame Arrows alone will make your army of archers devestating, however basically useful only to your pretender in the demo.

    General Strategy

    Your army is mobile and generally takes few losses. Using that to your advantage means fielding large amounts of troops are replaces the losses quickly with your ability to traverse the map, so perhaps castling isn't as necessary and that money is better spent on troops. You also should have plenty of scouts out observing what your enemy is doing and what kinds of troops he/she is fielding. Taking time to plan routes and avoid rough terrain is essential if you want to take advantage of the fast troops you have available to you.

    Closing

    Kailasa is a staightforward nation, with a few options. I'd recommend this nation to a beginner in the demo as you get to use a variety of troop types and schools of magic. Playing them successfully doesn't require complete mastery of tactics or the game, but it give you a basic idea on practically everything and a good foundation to try some more complicated and difficult tactics.

    Any input/corrections are welcome. Thanks.

    		8.13.1 Some comments

    		-> This nation seems to be all about missiles. I have put together a pretender with fire and air and plan to research up to Flaming Arrows and Wind Guide. The national mages are not well set up for those spells, thus the pretender with those paths.

    You could get a lucky random, then a forged item and Phoenix Pyre and the Air equivalent, but that would come fairly late in the game. That is why I am counting on a pretender who can back up at least one army with the spells.

    What are people¿s thoughts on this idea, a powerful missile force made up of cheap archers that hit all the time with flaming missiles? Any other ideas for boosting their power?

    Also tied to this nation, let me ask for thoughts on a related issue. My immediate neighbor Helheim, who have troops with good defense and protection, as well as shields, if memory serves. They are very good at dealing with missile fire and deal with my infantry rather well, rapidly moving on to the archers. Until I get Flaming Arrows, how do I deal with the heavy amour nations?

    As a final note, I look forward to seeing the monkeys throw sticks and stones with Wind Guide and Flaming Arrows! Sure, it is not sensible, but it is such a cool idea!

    [comment:
    Helheim does actually have nice protection for EA. Prot 12 is good for EA, and they have both shields AND mirror image effect from Glamour. Someone'll probably tell you that Helheim is overpowered and scary and will kill you whatever you do, but actually that only happens if you play against one of the more skilled players.

    If you click on the random, you'll notice that neither Yakshas or Yakshinis can get Air or Fire random, only one of Water, Earth, Astral and Nature. Some of their national summons come with Air. Kinnara is the first one IIRC, a flying A2H2 or H3 mage or so. You'll have more troubles getting Fire.

    Phoenix Power is the Fire booster. Phoenix Pyre has altogether different use... Storm Power, the air booster, only works during Storms which hamper missiles, so going that rout won't actually give you anything.
    ]

    		-> W9 bless gives Yavana Archers 1.5 longbow attacks with their higher precision compared to 3.5 attacks of Atavi, or almost 2 bandar. It mightn't be cost-effective, but I used them for Hold&Attack. Awe and high defense worked well enough until my enemy recruited insane amounts of Archers, and then I lost.
    The lesser Death effect, increased amounts of afflictions, works with ranged weapons. That might work too, but Kailasa's access to various Astral spells and Petrification can deal with most SCs; they don't really need the minor boost Death would provide.

    Kailasa has access to very good sacred units in the Gandharva of Conjuration 5. They are expensive, but have wonderful protection, especially for EA.

    		-> Been playing around with Kailasa recently, and imo a w9 bless is great, the only weakness as mentioned previously, is massed archers, however that can be rectified with an accompanying air bless, arrow fend, storm. Or simply set up a screen and amass long bows to pelt the opposing archers.

    		[comment:
     would not get a water bless with kailasa, as you can cast celestial music and then get quickness for free. And the quickness from the W9 bless does not stack with the quickness from celestial music. so everything you will have left from w9 is a +4 to defence.

     I would use arrow fend, wit conj6 you can summon kinnaras, who are able to cast arrow fend. In the early game you can use markata decoys to eat the arrows while expanding, in the midgame ghandarvas are heavy enough armoured to witstand enemy archers.
    ]

    With regards to problems expanding without a combat pretender. Once you get 10+ Yavana's backed by missle troops (sticks n stones or bows) you'll roll over indy's (even hvy cav) without any problems. So ideally to compensate for the slow start you'll want to have a couple of these packs of Yavana's running about.

    [comment:
    Just use markata archers as decoys, and the yavanas can enter into meelee withoug taking too much damage from archers. For kailasa heavy cav is no problem anyway due to awe. But i would really watch out to the provinces that have much archers.
    ]

    Imo opinion the most important goals to strive for are to get a second fort up so that you can make sacreds from two places, and to research conj5 for gandharvas (great units) giving you access to 3 good melee sacreds.

    Note: To help with starting expansion I like to go markata archers and atavi infantry. The bandar commander becomes the prophet scripted sermon of co. x2 then holy avenger and smitex2. Have both the archers and inf on fire closest, and position them parallel to each other to avoid cross fire. Most importantly tho, started pumping out yavana's by turn 3, and get a yaksha on your second turn.

    Some interesting pretender choices.

    Awake Nataraja W9
    dom5
    ord2
    sloth3
    heat2
    misfortune1
    magic2

    It's very important to research construction 2, followed by alt2. You can either take your chances and have him help fight in the beginning (he can take Yavana's who will do most of the fighting to minimize the chance of him getting wounded) or have him sit and research construction 2 in ~5 turns. Once construction 2 is done fill up his equipment slots with cheap gear, and let him loose! He can easily have a defense skill over 30, a pendant of luck, a tower shield, and 4 attacks if he's given a horned helmet. Once alteration 2 is researched he can cast quicken self.

    Dormant Destroyer of Worlds A7W9D2

    dom6
    order2
    sloth3
    heat3
    misfortune1

    A great dual bless for kailasa's sacreds. Once he wakes up you'll have a solid spellcaster/ranged attacker, and ready access to air magic.

    *Mother of Rivers

    You can easily get a w9 a7 bless and good scales with her if she's dormant, or you can minimize the bless/scales and have her awake. She's a guaranteed source of water gems, which will allow you to better use yakshini's, and help you expand under the sea.

    Dormant Lady of Fortune S9W9

    dom6
    order2
    sloth3
    heat2
    misfortune1

    I don't know how well the twist of fate with go with the blessed troops, however she can lead armies underwater.

    		->

    		8.13.2 Kailasa guide

    			8.13.2.1 Original Article

    Article Author:  Alpine Joe

    Now i'm still pretty inexperienced at this game, so take all this with a grain of salt, but I think I have discovered a way to make Kailasa's opening work in CBM.

    Kailasa is a strange nation. You've got awesome earth magic, sacreds with no armor and awe, and weak non-sacred recruitables.
    Expanding is rough. Do you pay out the *** for a huge blessing on sacreds that arrows chew up? Do you go for an awake pretender and lost any kind of bless for all of your awesome summonable sacred troops and mages? Do you go good scales and try to use monkey troops, bad as they are? No. You have another option. let me explain.

    First off here is what you want for a pretender. Take an awake Great sage with 4F4A4W4E4S4N2D (or other mix of similarly rainbowed magic) you can afford this by taking O3S3H3D2L0M1

    Start out by having that poor starting army patrol. Turn up taxes as much as you feel comfortable. I usually go with 180, but I don't know a lot about patrolling, there may be a better choice. Set your pretender to research alteration. He will be doing that for a while. Recruit a Yaksha per turn and spend your resources on the armored Bandars. Don't expand yet. What! No expansion until turn 3? What is wrong with you? Don't worry you'll be fine.

    As soon as you hit alteration 2 its time to expand. The good thing is you can now use all of those Yakshas you have to do your expansion. With passive awe and good physical stats, all your yakshas need is protection. ironskin/stoneskin handily fills this role and you can cast it at low fatigue. With just a blessing and ironskin, each of your yakshas can solo weak indies. However a pair of them can take most medium strength indies (and elephant provinces). If you get some with astral, have them script a body ethereal, which will hit both members of the pair if you position them on the battlefield correctly (the back corner).
    Try this, it works. With the nature regen bless, affliction rates are low enough to be tolerable. You have a lot of extra buffs available, but measure their value against the extra fatigue they cause.

    These pairs of yakshas can expand against almost anything. Use several pairs, plus your starting army (augmented with Bandars) to grab 3 provinces per round for the next few turns. You should comfortably have about 12 provinces by the end of year 1, which I believe is a decent rate. Put up an additional fortress for gurus

    Meanwhile your pretender has kept researching alteration. All this comes together at the beginning of year 2, when you get invulnerability. Now each of your yakshas can take on almost all indies alone. Send your pretender out to site search, while remaining yakshas and gurus pick up the research slack. When you hit alteration six its time for your first war.

    Recruit some of the unarmored bandars and bring 6-8 yakshas and go kick the *** of the guy who thought kailasa was a good target early. Put your yakshas in the front in a clump and script invulnerability-attack. Have your prophet do a divine bless or just clump them together and have a yaksha do it. Meanwhile one remaining yaksha casts ironbane. Your yakshas move to the front, where their low fatigue and 25 protection make them very hard to take down. Meanwhile your Bandars throw sticks and stones all over them. Enemy armor shatters and suddenly all those sticks and stones are hitting really hard. This is a pretty effective army for your first war, but its only a stop-gap. At the end of year 2 you get alteration 7. Now you have fog warriors castable by your pretender, and marble warriors. These two spells+iron bane+hordes of sticks and stones chaff+ super tough yaksha thugs is a combo that is very good. And this is happening at the end of year two, where you are probably still fighting nationals.

    Anyway, you have effective expansion and the tools to fight your first war. Now switch and research construction and conjuration and do your standard clam spam+astral summons. You have a pretty good bless for those ghandarvas. Siddhas eventually take over fog warriors duty for big fights.

    some other things to remember:

    1) You have petrification and the mages to use it. It is one of the best anti-anything big and lonely spells in the game. Paralyzed thugs/scs will get swarmed and taken down by hordes of monkeys. And you get it really early.

    2)strength of the giants is pretty good with sticks+stones, so if you have the time to research it, it will pay off.

    3) a rainbow pretender means heavy and diversified gem production. Kailasa can get into every school (with rudras), so you should have plenty of use for your gems

    4) You will eventually get devasura and you can use him to hunt for slaves and eventually get bloodstones. This pays off late game as you can use earth gems to summon yakshas.

    Anyway thats all of my ideas for Kailasa. I'd love to hear some feedback from more experienced players/reasons why this strategy is bad.

    			8.13.2.2 Comments

    -> It's not bad at all AJ, thanks for posting it.

    But not expanding until Turn 6 is concerning. Sure this works just fine against the AI, but in multiplayer, you'll find that everyone is expanding as rapidly and as viciously as possible in all directions.

    Of course this depends on map size, but on a (rather standard) 15 province/player map, capitals are only separated by ~2 empty provinces, so by turn 6 you can expect someone to take a capital-adjacent-province. A BIG misstep.

    But I can see it working well on a larger map. Though I'd personally prophet-ize my monkey scout and have him Sermon of Courage spam my starting army that's tackling the weakest looking indies. I'd also immediately send out every Astral Yaksha scripted with (Barkskin)(Personal Luck)(hold)(hold)(hold)(Attack Rearmost), which should do equally well against archerless indies.

    [Well in response to cleveland:

    I don't think barkskin alone is enough protection, even against non-archer indies. You then run too big of a risk of losing Yakshas, which you really can't afford. You could potentially do it with stoneskin at alteration 2 though. I haven't tried it but 15 protection might be enough. That would let you start expanding with yakshas on turn 4, which would be a huge improvement.

    Also you can start expanding with the starting army earlier, I probably would if I found weak enough indies next to the capital. I probably over-stated the case in the guide for dramatic effect; I really wanted to emphasize that you can expand with only yakshas. Regardless of when you start expanding, the main point of the guide is that yakshas help augment expansion in the middle of year one in a significant way that kailasa has problems doing in other ways. My experience so far in multiplayer games is that I really don't start brushing up against other nations borders in a big way until turn 11-12, which i think gives you enough of a window to get away with slightly slower expansion in the first few turns, as long as it kicks in strong at 6-7.
    ]

    -> Your biggest flaw in the strategy guide is the slow turn 6 expansion as cleveland mentions. Also, I think most people overestimate Kailasa's sacreds. They're /ok/ but honestly I don't think they're all that great. They're workable with air shield and minor blesses but I'd probably just use their archers and a SC pretender for expansion help.

    -> Kailasa's archers are actually pretty good, and are pretty easy to mass. Their main problem is lack of any good melee units (that aren't resource intensive). Their sacred are decent, but the lack of armor or shields on any except their cap-only ones and summons makes it painful for them in the shortbow heavy Early Era.

    I think waiting 6 turns is a bit of a stretch. You can go with 4 turns, maybe. But 6 turns is kinda difficult to recover from. You're going to have do make some major expansion to make up the gap.

    -> How about a great sage instead of the enchantress? A great sage with Order 3 Sloth 3 Heat 3 Mis 2 Magic 1 and a bunch of magic can research alt-3 by turn 4. Then you send out your 4 yakshas who can buff up and have minor earth, nature, fire, air blesses. The first 5 turns are slow but after that your expansion ramps up quickly enough that you could be leading in provinces and research.

    I faced a similar pretender design for Eriu in a recent game and it turned out pretty well for him. It went so well that he eliminated me before year 2 ended, and I think he's currently one of the top contenders in the game.

    I think with a couple tweaks your strategy has some real promise

    [ Well I thought about the sage, and i think its a good debate. However the enchantress comes with pearl generation, which I like, and its cheaper to get enough air to cast fog warriors. I could certainly see an argument for the sage though. I will try out the build later tonight and see if it works as well. Also on the agenda: see if yakshas can expand with stoneskin.

    Edit: I tried it out with the sage and stoneskin. Stoneskin lets you unleash your first yaksha expansion party on turn 3. You can then expand as quickly as you build yakshas, switching to ironskin on turn 5 and invulnerability on turn 11-12. The sage dramatically improves research. You lose out on pearl generation, and casting fog warriors is a little harder, but I think it is well worth it.

    Good idea statttis, this is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Now Kailasa's expansion really is competitive.
    ]
    -> would not drop the sacreds, as they make up most of your attack power, also a strong bless will benefit your SCs in the endgame.

    With 10 Yavanas and a priest and some markata chaff you can take almost all provinces you like with only loosing the markata you uses as decoys.

    Also celestial music is your key to power, as it quickens your sacreds.

    Against Arrows you can use ghandarvas first and later arrow fend, so you should not have too much problems.

    If you get a strong bless for your sacreds, you will scale very good through the game, your build you propose looses all strengths of kailasa.

    -> You want a bless with Kailasa, don't need a rainbow mage since they have all paths on mages or summons.

    They also don't need a SC awake pretender since their sacreds are greats.
    Try a bless like S9W8A6. Twist fate for those initial attacks, 40% air shield is enough for everyone except Cealum, and +4 defense from water 8, don't need 9 since they have a national spell for quickness.
    Ocacle, imprisoned with order3, sloth3, magic1, miforutne2, heat3, high dominion.

    They have great summonable sacreds which are great with a bless.

    And Kailasa has great potential for clamming also.

    They can expand damn quickly also.
    Prophet first turn with 6-7 Yakashas can take any province, knights also, and that's a new expanding party every turn.

    Oh yeah, astral is for wish and those astral national summons, and MR +3 is good for sacreds since they are magic beings.

    		8.13.3

    	8.14 Patala

    	    	8.14.1 Guide to playing Patala competitively

    Just as a note first off, I don't usually play SP unless it's for testing reasons. You can get away with almost anything against the computer anyway because the AI is retarded. This guide is for Patala in MP, enjoy! ^.^

    Description
    Patala is a nation of Nagahs who uses a few primate minions to do their biddings. But they're mostly Nagahs =). You can read the manual for most of their descriptive stuff not to mention right click most of the units to see what they cost, etc. I'm assuming you know how to read when writing this guide so I'm not going to bother with menial details.

    Units:

    Markata: I have no idea why these are in the game. Those clubs aren't going to deal much damage (read: none) and they die like flies. Actually no, they die way easier than flies. Damn buggers. Never recruit this unit. Even if you need a archer decoy. VERY lame version of lobo guards.
    Markata archers: Oh god, I've never even SEEN small bows before. Oh jeebus these suck ass too. Because they suck so much and are cheap, great for sacrificial lambs though as archer decoys, lance soakers. Most good players will use "target archers" against you, so use these to mess up their script. I don't build much of these since your initial squad of them should last you awhile but reinforce with these every so and often to save your more valuable troops.
    Atavi archers: they can move pretty fast on the map and have stealth. They have bows too and aren't too expensive. Still they because they're pretty much like villains. And villains suck. Unless they're super villains. Which these certainly are not.

    Update: Alright they're not THAT bad in second thought. They have great raiding potential with a nagini leader (change shape for stealth) who can script quickening. Since raiding is pretty much the bread and butter of early to mid game wars, it's a good deterrent against trigger happy players. Of course, I'd probably just bluff that I have these during negotiation stage and avoid recruiting them altogether that way. =)
    Vanara Archer: Atavi archers without the stealth and more armor and more resource cost. Needless to say, they suck too.
    Vanara Infantry: Like Vanara archers except they get a buckler instead of the bow. Average cost. Pretty much a crappy version of heavy infantry indies. So ... you won't be buying much of them either.
    Vanara Swordsmen: Their stats aren't terrible. A bit better than Vanara Infantry. Their gold to resource ratio isn't bad if you have little gold. But generally if you have no gold you shouldn't be buying subpar troops anyway because heavy infantry from indies are still better. Not a terrible choice for the first few turns if for some unknown reason you took prod: 3 for this nation.
    Light Bandar Archers: Wow, the first serviceable unit of this line. Good hit points and an awesome range attack with above average morale. Expensive as hell but the longbow is a ridiculously good weapon. Oh yeah they have no protection whatsoever so be sure to get some archer decoy and screens for them. Try to get heavier bandar archers for archer decoying because smart players will script their archers to fire archers or large monsters if they see you massing these. You'll be spending most of your gold on these units a lot unless you have a lot of resources ...
    Bandar Archers: In which case, these are a better buy. Same as above but they won't pop to opposing fire so quickly.
    Light Bandar Warrior: Pretty meh. Think of them as bootlegged light infantry (the javelin variety). In other words, not too great.
    Bandar Warrior: Comes in two varieties, the cudgel isn't horrible, still subpar prot and prone to getting hit a lot but they have 18 hit points. Still too expensive and the mace one gets a buckler which is better. I use these for screens a lot early on or the vanara swordsmen. Actually, I take that back. I usually don't build any of these since early on I just build the bandar archers.
    Elephant: Not bad units especially if you bring along a yogi to ethereal them. Too bad their morale is so poor that you need to balance them out by grouping them with Bandars. And bandar troops suck. You can group them with nagahs too but those troops are even worse.
    Naga: Sacred but bad. Read above about nagah troops being even worse. If you're bored and no one's taken the seas yet late game, you can grab about fourty of them and maybe take on thirty tritons. Oh wait, they're poor amphibians. Ok ten tritons.
    Nagah Warriors: Eh I guess it's workable with an e9/n9 bless. But so does a lot of other sacreds that aren't overpriced in both gold and resources. Like fourty of these will be able to break underwater first. You can body ethereal them too with one of your naga mages to make things easier. Still not very recommended.
    Markata Scout: You start with one of these, and you'll never need to recruit another one since you should be buying indie scouts. Oh yeah buy a lot of indie scouts.
    Atavi Chieftain: If you ever feel the need to mass atavi and go for a stealth run, you should play vanheim or Pan. Not Bandars.
    Vanara Captain: Yeah these suck. Buy indie commanders.
    Bandar Commander: See above. You start with one of these too.
    Brahmin: I recruited one of these by accident. And that's the only time these should make it into your army.

    All your mages are sacred which leads to a possibility of e4 bless. Too bad your priests suck though. But there's always indies!
    Yogi: Uber cheap s1 researchers, communicants, and horror markers until they fix the spell.
    Guru: Not bad, s2 lets you start soul slaying en masse once you get a banner of the north star going or that light of the north whatever spell it's called. It's in the conjuration tree. I recommend spamming these later game in your fort/lab centers since your nagahs are capital only.
    Nagaraja: I recruited one of these by accident. If you REALLY need sermon of courage (which you shouldn't since your troops suck besides Bandar archers) you might want to give these a whirl. Otherwise they're decent but naginis are way better in comparisant. You can pseudo thug with these but I don't like to.
    Nagarishi: OWNAGE mage for late era. Really frigging amazing. Blade winder, falling frost, Rust Mist. Lots of nifty goodies. Watch out for astral duelers but you can fix those easy to spamming gurus out of your other forts. If you can afford these every turn, make sure to make them every turn.
    Naginis: Decent assassination thanks to seduction but you need a bit of spells to get them to that status. I buy these as researchers and site searchers earlier if I can't afford Nagarishi's but don't want to stinge on yogis. They are really good just nagarishis are awesome and alas all the naga mages are cap only.

    Pretender of choice: VAMPIRE QUEEN

    Yes she's been nerfed to oblivion but the VQ is really good for Patala. Why? as you have already probably deduced, Patala's troops suck. Which means they need an uber pretender to help shore up their weaknesses. Yes you can go the boring Ghost King uber chassis rout but the VQ is recyclable thanks to her immortality and you can get lots of free points from negative scales thanks to Patala's heat: 2 preference and the imbalance between order/misfortune and being able to come out ahead even if you take sloth x3, death x3. Whee free points! Also high dominion synergies with patala's heat preference. And it really messes with other nations later on. Haha take that!

    Build: Air: 2, Earth: 1, Astral: 3, Death: 3, Blood: 2
    Dormant, Dom: 9, Order: 3, Sloth: 3, Heat: 2, Death: 3, Misfortune: 2, Magic: 3. You can also take magic: 1 instead and spend the extra points elsewhere but I like magic: 3 since your troops are ... you know, sucky. And you can shore it up with faster magic.

    ALTERNATE BUILD (Not discussed in this section of guide):

    E8 Bless Cyclops
    Dom: 10
    Order: 3, Sloth: 3, Heat: 2, Death: 3, Misfortune: 2, Magic: 3
    Significantly more effective for early expansion at trade off for later magic versatility and early mid game tends to be rougher than the VQ start. This build works for current metagame for LE games at indie: 5 strength. Also you'll want to choose evocation earlier to take advantage of the reinvig mage blessings. This strategy is discussed on page FIVE of this thread.

    STRATEGY:

    The first few turns, prophetize your commander and send your scout on MOVE to a juicy farmland and script him on retreat. I tend to mass bandar light archers and do your typical expand in the circle around my capital routine. My initial few researchers are usually yogis to save up money for a Nagarishi. Place a HUGE priority on investing in mercenaries since they'll cover the holes of your nationals. As soon as I start a turn with a solid 450, I recruit a nagarishi (assuming there aren't any mercenaries to recruit that turn) to put on site searching. Initial priority of research is alteration: 3. You'll want to get it before your pretender wakes. Also you'll want to target mountains preferably early on since it'll cover up the points from sloth. Plus mountains tend to have easier indies than farmlands. But go after farmlands as second highest priority since gold is always good. Keep an eye out for indie troops that you can recruit aka 22 resourced heavy infantries, indie scouts, xbows. You'll want one or two indie commanders to just run around and collect these as you recruit them every turn. Eventually you'll be able to mass a decent army of these to use either as a secondary army or to pad up your main army.

    Speaking of your main army, the one you start out with sucks. In fact, you may even have to wait TWO turns instead of one to expand if your indies are particularly tough and may have to branch into the crappy vanaras on gold/resource needs. You may have to script a LOT of decoy squads if you don't have enough longbows or are facing like 60 xbows in a province. Yes these things can set you back but it's ok, keep in mind your VQ can take down the tough indies later on anyway. Still you should try to expand as much as you can. You will want to hire a second indie commander asap though to ferry the troops from your capital into your main army every turn as you travel. Your yogis can do this early on as well since you shouldn't be expanding too far from your capital. Think of your starting army as cannon/archer fodder while your bandar archers do all the work.

    Also you want to get a Nagarishi to start site searching ASAP. In fact, sometimes I even get two for this since gems are very very important for this strategy. If you want to slack a bit on gold or you're just really poor, you can do a nagini + yogi pair but I highly recommend the Nagarishis instead.

    After alteration 3, your pretender should awake. With Body ethereal, Personal Luck , Iron skin, mirror image, mistform attack rear as a script, she should be able to solo anything in her dominion. If there's a particularly tough indie province in your dominion that only has one candle in it, just attack a province close to it so your dominion spreads higher and then take it. With awe and the dominion bonus, you shouldn't have any trouble with this.

    I switch to thaum 2 after alteration for remote searching spells but you may have found a nature site earlier. If so, switch to construction 2 instead. Why? This is the core of the Patala strategy. Ask yourself this, what's a race that has access to water/earth/nature/astral path and one of the strongest late era mages to do? The answer: CLAM HORDE LIKE A BITCH! Yes, we're using two overnerfed things now but hey shows you how silly this nation is right?

    Anyway with a dwarven hammer you should be able to comfortably clam at least once a turn (maybe you'll need to alchemize at some points) and eventually move on to two ... then three ... etc. Make sure you build more hammers first for each additional clam forger.

    Once const:2 and thaum: 2 are resourced, I tend to get conjuration: 3 and then evocation: 2 just to get all the remote spells out of the way so you won't have to send around your nagarishis to search anyway. Remote searching is a lot more practical than manual searching even with an awesome searcher like the nagarishi.

    After all these are done, you'll want thaum: 3 for teleport on your Vampire queen to deter invasions. You'll also want a second castle and lab soon to spam gurus out of it. Most indie mages are not worth recruiting since your mages are so uber anyway but keep an eye out of any that offers you a chance to branch out your magic. Once you set up the castle/lab you'll want conjuration: 4 for light of the north star and thaum: 5 so you can first paralyze and then eventually soul slay with guru battle mages. Conjuration 4 is also interesting because it lets you cast the national summons: Contact Yaksha and Yakshini, both decent mages. Resist this temptation. They cost a LOT of nature gems and your nagarishis are better. As mentioned all your gems should be going towards forging hammers or clams.

    After conjuration: 4 and thaum: 5 are done, you're entering the mid game. Try not to start any wars at this time, you should be hording most of the time anyway and can ill afford to lose your clam base/production to summon troops and send battle mages. Your Vampire Queen should convince most people that war against you is too costly anyway. Convince them to attack someone else. Like Vanheim or Pan for example =).

    You have now a choice to either research construction to 6 (or higher) or more conjuration. Your end goal should be conjuration and construction both to 8 as your clam horde allows you to spam the world with devatas and golems. You can also choose to simply flood everyone with vine ogres backed up by guru soul slaying hordes as well.

    Well this be the end of the guide and hopefully it'll strength your Patala game. Thanks for reading and drop by our mIRC channel anytime for more dom III goodness!

    			8.14.1.1 Comments on guide

    			-> Beware, Markata archers don't have "short" bows, they have "SMALL" bows that do only *6* damage, worse than slings !
    Markatas really s*cks *ss big time ...

    Else lots of good advices , but it seems the nation is quite weak and has to rely on ubernerfed overused old gamey strategies... Yet I've found Patala better than the previous Bandar Log ages, that have even crappier troops and no nagas !
    [comment:
    For LA it has imho incredible mages.
    But their troops are rather poor, so i have severe problems with expanding fast enough in earlygame and defending vs. earlygame rushes.

    In LE missile weapons are not too useful. In EA their light bandar longbow apes for 20 gold and 7 resources rock, but in LA where shields + heavy armor are common even longbows are rather weak.

    The Bandars cost 20 gold but do performance only about as good as solid MI other nations have and which costs only half their gold.

    Thematically i like Patala though a lot .
    And good guide Kiss, i only disagree about your god choice, VQ is imho overkill and too expensive.

    I suggest the following god for starters:
    Awake Cyclops, Dom 6, Earth 6, Order 3, Heat 3, Prod 1, Growth 3, Magic 1, Misfortune 3.
    The Cyclops can help with indy expansion and with some trinklet items he should serve well enough as SC and F9W9 bless defense god.
    Your mages nicely profit from reinvigoration.

    If the map is larger you can set him to dormant and use the extra points to buy productivity 3 and earth 8 or to reduce your misfortune a bit.

    Your VQ has several weaknesses:
    1. Dormant, someone might have bless/SC rushed you already and kill you before she awakens.
    2. Earth 1. This makes buffing her problematic.
    Ironskin gives you -75% shock resistence, thus even if you cast resist lightning you have only 25%.
    Stoneskin gives her only 15 protection.
    3. No fire, thus vulnerable to fire magic too.
    So incinerate could easily kill her. Flaming weapons might be an issue too.
    ...

    In short, your VQ is imho rather a papertiger and shouldn't protect you long enough till your hoarding pays off.

    So you are not protected till she awakens from an early bless rush by e.g. Vanheim or Mictlan, and when she awakens she only protects you a short while but in the turn 20-40 range many nations should be able to deal with your vq rather easily and she will be your main defense in this timeframe.
    Any nation with astral magic can kill your VQ with solar rays.
    Some blesstroops might kill her too.
    Atlantis+Caelum have magic weapons, they should handle the VQ too, Caelum with an attack fliers script, Atlantis Ice Guards and Arsartuts should do enough damage to kill her with their magic weapons.

    Your Mages could forge a black steel full plate though, so you do not need earth magic on your VQ.
    It will give you lots of extra fatigue though during buffing.
    ]

    			-> Normal markatas (if they can reach melee) are probably more useful than Markata archers as having size 1 melee units is very good for reducing ennemy defence (-2 per attacker). As nagas are size 3, adding Markatas in a squad should make it more efficient against human sized opponents, and as Markatas cost only 5 gold there is no reason not to use them even if lots die in each fight.

    			-> Arssartuts are suprisingly brutal. Those bone glaives with the weakness are the penultimate strong unit killer.

    			8.14.1.2 Important comment

    		Patala is probably the nation I played most so far, even more then Kailasa.

    I disagree with original poster on some points though. First off, god choice is completely off the mark. I mean, you can take VQ or even Ghost King but you are missing on Patala's main strength - sacred troops. Patala has amphibious buyable troops, all of their mages and priests are sacred and all of their summons (except tigers) are sacred. With so many sacred troops it's almost a sin not to take some bless strategy for them. What bless to take? Well they can try following:
    - Nature 10: I'm using this in my current game to great effect. This bless allows you to take good scales with it as well. Makes naga warriors really hard to kill and route and they take much less afflictions in combat too. N10 pretender is also excellent to get Gift of Health global spell up. Won¿t help mages directly though.
    - Earth 9: Covers needs for both troops (increased protection and no fatigue problem) and mages (reinvigoration). However, with this bless alone your sacred troops won¿t be that good in killing enemies so you will need to rely on mages to help them.
    - Water 9: This one is almost universal for any bless strategy. It will make your nagas more deadly, harder to hit and faster on the battlefield. You can try to take earth 4 or nature 4(6) with it (or both) to increase their survivability. It¿s not that good for mages though.
    - Astral 9: Yes, this one gives them twist fate and you would be surprised how much this helps them in battle. It also allows your pretender to cast Wish easy. Nagas have 13 MR so +4 bonus to MR they will make them very hard to overcome with MR dependant spells. It helps mages too as it increases their MR against enemy spells and helps them survive some stray arrow or spell that would otherwise hit them.
    - Fire 9: Purpose of this one is apparent - it turns nagas into killing machines. Downside of this is that mages will have little benefit of this blessing. Either this or Water blessing is suggested for people who are not familiar with nation.

    Of course, you can take a combination of blessings but note that scales will suffer and Patala actually needs good scales. That is why both my pretender suggestions are imprisoned  only way to get blessing and good scales.

    Ok, some of my remarks about Patala units:

    Nagaraja is actually good commander (80 leadership) that can also lead magical units so if you plan to make combo army with archers, support troops (chaff if you will ) and sacred units, this is your commander. It's also sacred and has high protection and low skills in earth, water and nature magic. Nagaraja¿s main problem is that its capitol only unit and you will always want to buy Nagarishis if you can afford.

    Nagarishi¿s are probably best mages in late era. Very strong water and earth magic with additional astral and nature magic and they are also holy 1 priests. They can shape shift into form that can wear boots but loses 1 point in water magic. Usually if you go land you make earth boots, shape shift them and script them to cast 'Summon Earthpower' first. This way they always have 5-6 in earth magic which means they can cast easily blade winds, petrify (ultimate anti-SC spell) and support spells for troops like 'Legions of Steel'.
    Another important fact about them is that their magic skills allow them to forge clams (as mentioned later but it doesn't make them silly). With Nagarishi¿s you can setup clam economy easy. Even in combat they aren¿t bad with high hp's (for normal mages), good attack/defense values and ability to easily cast invulnerability and quicken self.

    Naga Warriors are well protected sacred troops with good attack/defense values (for heavy infantry) and good morale/hp and MR. You can go on either fire, nature, earth, water and astral blessings for them and you won't go wrong. They are not overpriced either. With high protection they should cost more resources and as being sacred/amphibious GOOD troops they cost as much as they should. Maybe you have problem that original poster had with them was because he took sloth instead production scale and no bless strategy? Most sacred troops are overpriced if you don't have proper bless to give them and sloth is always bad idea for nation whose troops cost lots of resources.

    Gurus are very useful mages even at the start of the game as they can cast Mind Burn which allows you to easily setup arillery group with them as support for your main forces to take out heavy indies (like knights and heavy cavalry) or for defences. Later on you can use communion or spells to increase their astral power and use soulslay. With items you can even use them to enslave mind. They are also nations most economical researchers.

    Bandar warriors and archers are not bad at all. They have higher strength (which means they kill well protected troops more easily), higher morale then most human troops and more hp that makes them harder to kill then normal HI. If supported by mages that cast legions of steel on them they get protection 17 which is quite nice. They are good and reliable troops to protect your longbows.

    Some mention about scales for Patala.

    Order 3 and Production 3 is a MUST for them or you won't be able to recruit enough sacred troops and mages to make it really work. You simply need resource and gold bonus from Production scale. Take heat 3 scale as it will rarely stay at 3 and usually drops 1 or 2 points down (Patala prefers heat 2) so very often heat will be just right for them and you get 40 additional design points. Growth scale for them depends on what your preference is but since Patala has no problem with age and can produce summer swords/bags of wine they can take death scale. You can also take growth scale to get more income. For small maps I suggest taking Death scale and better blessings, though. You can take Luck/Misfortune scale to your personal preference with note that I wouldn't take more then Misfortune 1 for Patala. Size of barbarian hordes or knights that attack you from random events depends directly on misfortune scale. Since Patala has rather weak PD, you don't want to be attacked by too large forces from indies that even PD 20 or more can¿t handle. Patala have easy access for cheap researchers so you can go drain 2 with them. Saves a lot of design points.

    Suggested pretenders:

    1.Mother of Rivers - imprisoned

    Magic - Water 9, Nature 6
    Scales - Order 3, Productivity 3, Heat 3, Growth 1, Misfortune 1, Drain 2.
    Dominion strength - 6 9 points left.

    With this setup you get both good blessing with good scales that will allow you to setup sacred armies fast and expand with no problems (tested with indy strength 9). It's good setup for people who are just starting to learn this nation. Your goal is to expand using your sacred troops so buy as many naga warriors as your gold allows you.

    2. Cyclops - imprisoned

    Magic - Earth 9
    Scales - Order 3, Productivity 3, Heat 3, Growth 1, Misfortune 1, Drain 2.
    Dominion strength - 10 15 points left.

    This setup helps both mages and troops while still having great scales. However, with this setup you want to focus on mages so make sure you buy as many mages (Nagarishi's primarily) as your finances allow. Always have at least a couple of them escort your troops.

    One last important thing about Patala - they have all national summons that Kailasa has. That means they can summon Siddhas and Devatas which are excellent mages/priests and Devata is good thug as well. They can also have armies of Gandharvas, excellent sacred infantry that guru's can summon with no problems. All this adds to their strength and all this should be used properly in game to fully utilize Patala's power.

    			8.14.1.3 Another important comment

    			    Quote:
        Quote:
        Markata: I have no idea why these are in the game. Those clubs aren't going to deal much damage (read: none) and they die like flies. Actually no, they die way easier than flies. Damn buggers. Never recruit this unit. Even if you need a archer decoy. VERY lame version of lobo guards.

    I like to mash them with across the front line. Since the targeting AI has fits with more target squads. They don't get enough time to rout anyway, so they are good for confusion and the right price. But as a unit that are any sort of real cost effective, they are not. If the Targeting AI was smarter, they would have no use.

        Quote:
        Markata archers: Oh god, I've never even SEEN small bows before. Oh jeebus these suck ass too.

    Use just like normal markata, but for people who like to "Fire Archers". I like to put them right in front of a weak flank, but make sure they are in front of your real archer block so they will get priority targeting. You can usually get away with 3 or 4 in a small squad and then do them in small clusters across your front line slightly behind your other markata decoys.

    It's mostly the range on these. If they had shortbows, I'd buy them by the bucketloads initially then switch to Atavi Turn 10+

        Quote:
        Atavi archers: they can move pretty fast on the map and have stealth. They have bows too and aren't too expensive. Still they because they're pretty much like villains. And villains suck. Unless they're super villains. Which these certainly are not.

    I have to say they are pretty good across all three eras. They are in fact the most useful and ease to mass unit that this nation line has, suited to Sloth, suited to support, and you can save them from arty's until you are ready to lose them.

        Quote:
        Vanara Archer: Atavi archers without the stealth and more armor and more resource cost. Needless to say, they suck too.

    As an archer, this unit is not a top pick. Archers are defined by maximizing resources. Especially considering most of your resources are taken by either Sacreds or more cost-effective troops.

        Quote:
        Vanara Infantry: Like Vanara archers except they get a buckler instead of the bow. Average cost. Pretty much a crappy version of heavy infantry indies. So ... you won't be buying much of them either.

    I don't see any reason to buy these.

        Quote:
        Vanara Swordsmen: Their stats aren't terrible. A bit better than Vanara Infantry. Their gold to resource ratio isn't bad if you have little gold. But generally if you have no gold you shouldn't be buying subpar troops anyway because heavy infantry from indies are still better. Not a terrible choice for the first few turns if for some unknown reason you took prod: 3 for this nation.

    I see no reason to buy these.

        Quote:
        Light Bandar Archers: Wow, the first serviceable unit of this line. Good hit points and an awesome range attack with above average morale. Expensive as hell but the longbow is a ridiculously good weapon. Oh yeah they have no protection whatsoever so be sure to get some archer decoy and screens for them. Try to get heavier bandar archers for archer decoying because smart players will script their archers to fire archers or large monsters if they see you massing these. You'll be spending most of your gold on these units a lot unless you have a lot of resources ...

    This is probably my personal preference but: The Longbow is not worth 2 Shortbows at current IMO. Even moreso with mid-lategame use of bows (I.E. Flaming Arrows and Wind Guide). Stealth makes your units more survivable, so I stay away from these and buy Atavi 2 for 1.

        Quote:
        Light Bandar Warrior: Pretty meh. Think of them as bootlegged light infantry (the javelin variety). In other words, not too great.
        Bandar Warrior: Comes in two varieties, the cudgel isn't horrible, still subpar prot and prone to getting hit a lot but they have 18 hit points. Still too expensive and the mace one gets a buckler which is better. I use these for screens a lot early on or the vanara swordsmen. Actually, I take that back. I usually don't build any of these since early on I just build the bandar archers.

    I only build any of these units to go with Elephants. It's mostly morale/resource dependant. Not on their own merits.

        Quote:
        Elephant: Not bad units especially if you bring along a yogi to ethereal them. Too bad their morale is so poor that you need to balance them out by grouping them with Bandars. And bandar troops suck. You can group them with nagahs too but those troops are even worse.

    Standard Trample tactics. You would be a fool in the current way combat works to not take advantage of this for heavy armored troops in the early game... if you happen to run into any. You will want to watch out if your opponent has a F9 blessing though, they drop damn so fast it's not worth the gold. Plus mid-game they get owned by spells first, I use them as decoys for Size 6 units I want to try to save (Pretenders without a full regiment of resistances).

        Quote:
        Naga: Sacred but bad. Read above about nagah troops being even worse. If you're bored and no one's taken the seas yet late game, you can grab about fourty of them and maybe take on thirty tritons. Oh wait, they're poor amphibians. Ok ten tritons.
        Nagah Warriors: Eh I guess it's workable with an e9/n9 bless. But so does a lot of other sacreds that aren't overpriced in both gold and resources. Like fourty of these will be able to break underwater first. You can body ethereal them too with one of your naga mages to make things easier. Still not very recommended.

    Naga Troops are subpar, this is only an issue if the nation does not have enough other strengths to overcome this. Sufficed to say, if you are playing a bless strategy, this is not the nation to choose.

        Quote:
        Markata Scout: You start with one of these, and you'll never need to recruit another one since you should be buying indie scouts. Oh yeah buy a lot of indie scouts.

    This is true for all nations, all ages minus probably the giant*heim's, I don't know why you made this a point for Naga's in particular

    My 3.5 cents.

    			8.14.1.4 Yet another comment

    			    Quote:
        Twan said:I've not played Patala sufficiently to have a definitive opinion, and Kissblade probably has far more experience and knowledge of the subject than me, but I find strange not to have a strategy allowing to give their full efficiency to national summons and mages, at least on big maps (if the nagas are not short terms good sacred, having a bless strat or semi bless strat for long term looks better than nothing, on paper at least, when you have access to many kinds of sacred summons including ones with 4 attack in end game). It's why I've presumed the first strategy was only the best for small games.

    Sacred troops' strengths are entirely determined by their early game efficiency. Simply put once evocation spells are researched, a majority of sacreds tends to die the same. There are exceptions to this but Nagahs are not one of them. Hence a semi bless or a bless for long term strategy isn't effective unless you're talking about earth bless for your mages, which even then isn't really required since your best mages get summon earthpower and you don't want to waste scripting slots (which are very important) on everyone self blessing themselves. Theoretically you can also bring in priests to bless your gurus but that's a micromanagement nightmare and you can sidestep this issue largely by simply just communioning with them to a summon earthpowered nagarishi. Your most effective sacred troops comes in at conjuration 5. And they're not even that good since you have better uses for astral gems. Also your sacreds are magical beings so ferrying them is a very big hassle and takes away from your mage time. Efficient mage time is one of the most important things in a competitive setting. Worse yet, Nagah's capital only so you won't be getting them to the frontlines too quickly anyway. AND did I mention they were cold blooded so they're dominion reliant ESPECIALLY with their HUGE encumberance. Their stats are also very subpar given their huge resource costs. As said, they're among the least cost effective sacreds in the late era. (troops are typically determined by resources as their limiting factor, not gold) I'm not even going to bother pointing out the flaws of regular nagas who don't wear armor since their crappiness speaks for itself.

    Also if we're on the topic of early game, your best long term strategy is to have a strong early game. Which spending your resources recruiting Nagahs instead of your more effective archers won't get you. A Vampire Queen however can cover a somewhat laggy early game however (if you get a tough start aka next to xbows/heavy cavs, etc) because she can take on the tough indies without a problem. She's a little excessive actually I mentioned this when I said that you can take a Ghost King instead but you'll have more fun with a VQ most likely. =)

    Nagahs are not short term good sacreds. They are not long term good sacreds. In short, they're not good sacreds. In fact if anyone actually really bothered reading my description about Nagah sacreds I've even specifically said,theoeritcally you can make them /decent/ (not good) with a e9/n9 bless but if you're going that route why not use an actual bless nation??

        Quote:
        Twan said:

        So my only question is (and it's a question not an arguement one more time I'm not pretending to know very well this nation) why do you find a bless strategy for Patala so bad (outside of blitzes / no diplo games) ? The way you have answered Daynarr's posts doesn't make your reasons very clear.

    If it's already past 20 turns, chances are you are safe with Patala, by then you should have the evoation spells to handle any "rushes". Also a VQ still be significantly more problematic for a nation like Van to handle since not only is the hotter + higher dominion from a pretender that's awake more effective against Vans, you'll have a reusable raider / defender. Also I have no idea why some people still think Patala has very good troops, as I've mentioned, Nagahs are among the worst sacreds and your level 5 conjuration is barely at adequate level. Heck I think equal heavy infantry indies even beats out Nagah dual blessed in cost. Also you'll rare see a dual bless strategy from most MP players simply because it's not a diplomatic strategy. It relies on constant wars and as mentioned, mid game battlemagic murders sacreds. In short to answer your question, a bless strategy for Patala is bad because their sacreds are awful. The awaken pretender option is feasible but IMO has it's faults because it tends to putter out of strength around early mid which is when your toughest time with Patala is going to be.

    			8.14.1.5 Alternative suggestion

    			Personnally I have great fun with a mix of the two strategies.

    I use a dormant cyclop E9. I've used sloth 3, the bless is mostly for mages and summons (exact scales : order 3, sloth 3, heat 3, misf 1, magic 3, dom 7 and growth 3 ; dom 6, death 1 or more misfortune + a second school at 6 is also possible, or dom 6, death 1, air 3, astral 4 for teleport, better buffes and precision for the cyclop ; or any combo with earth 8 as the protection bonus won't be used for a long time). I expand without mercenaries (I dislike mercenaries, against computer it's too easy, against players it's too random). I use a screen of any infantry with shields I can recruit (mostly indeps) + a second line with some bandars or other good infantry I've found + a squad of light longbowmen + a squad with elephants and some good morale troops in attack rear. Except my first commander/prophet I only use indie commanders and priests. I research only evocation in the first turns, and thanks to magic 3 have blade wind when the cyclop appears. At this point I normally have two armies and then take 3 provinces/turn without having to wait for my dominion (but I had to make only one nagarishi in the 10 first turns, as elephants cost a lot, and would be distanced in site searching by other players in a mp game, I only had arcane probing and one nagarishi doing manual searches before turn 15 or so).

    Anyway once blade wind is found I stop to use elephants and just use a screen, eventually some archers, and the nagarishi I start to recruit each turn, blessed by indie priests (I never use nagarishi/rini for research, they start the lab work only when I have construction 4+). I've also made an army with a big heavy bandars squad I use for knights or heavy troops provinces, and add markatas to reduce defense if a castle is close (and rust mist against knights). Finally once site detection spells and alteration 3 are researched, I start to focus on construction/conjuration only. Once I have construction 6 (for the water bracelets) I start to build more naginis, more cost effective for clam hoarding than nagarishis.

    I've also finally made a little army with nagah warriors leaded by a nagaraja to start expanding underwater (with +4 protection and their hp, nagahs can take a medium tritons or shamblers province without too many losses, but I agree they are not very usefull out of taking the firsts underwater provinces, and with sloth 3 I had to produce nothing else during 5 turns).

    KB strategy is probably better, but this one is fun to play and relatively efficient (to have blade wind when many provinces with light troops are still independant rocks, and your mages are really unfatiguable with the fatigue reduction of magic 3 + reinvigoration 4 from the bless + eventually items). The +4 protection makes gandharvas very hard to kill, especially as their 25 hp are sufficient to endure one or two spells (and I think 21 prot devatas with reinvigoration to fight longer with 4 weapons, some resistance items, and buffing themselves with mistform, etc... would rock in the end game - I'm just at conjuration 6 in my test-). Another option with a cyclop would have been a classic focus on enchantment then using him to summon lots of living statues at a good cost, but I wanted to have the national summons as fast as possible (I'm probably not min/maxing here).

    edit : "reinvigoration" not "recuperation"

    			8.14.1.6 My (WL) comments:

    -> Initial expansion. Use elepahnt groups. When you can mix with Bandar infantry for morale.
    -> recommended scales, magic+1 or +3 for research bonus. Sloth 3 (no need for prod.). Income +3, Growth (+3) for blood hunt
    -> Take a complementing pretnder to nations magic (W,E,S,N), so either a rainbow mage, or an SC with  B,D,F,A,N for example.
    -> Blood hunt. Many great spells for Patala in blood school!
    -> Expand early on using groups of elephants, they're awesome early game and terrible mid to late game (since their low MR means they're toast to competent players using MR spells like soul slay)
    -> In mid game switch to Bandar based armies with some Atavis for stealth if needed.
    -> Important magic schools are, Conj. (great summons), Blood (same), Evoc (For Nagarishis)
    -> For access to air summon kinnara.
    -> Get a clam factory up and running with your Nagarishis.

    	    	8.14.2

    	8.15 Caelum

    	    	8.15.1 EA Caelum

    			8.15.1.1 Early Guide

    			Article Author:  Warhammer
    		I have been looking to expand my nation knowledge of Dominions nations. Next on my list is EA Caelum.

    EA Caelum has some great things going for is, easy access to high level air magic. Flying units which can hit at the rear of the enemy both on the tactical battlefield and on the strategic level. Finally, they have cheap, high precision archers which can wreak havoc on opposing armies in the EA.

    However, EA Caelum does have some weaknesses. First, they have very poor line troops. You cannot hope to stand toe to toe against other nation's line troops. The big problem is that your troop size is 3, so you wind up outnumbered when going against human sized opponents. This is your big disadvantage in melee combat since your stats are on par with human nations in attack and defense. You have level 1 access to death, water, and earth magic, but unless you get lucky with randoms you'll only have a handful of mages with 2 levels of magic in these paths. That makes it difficult to really make a magic plan using any of these paths. However, you do have access to low level boosters in each of these paths if you get the randoms so it isn't a total loss. One more interesting tidbit, your national spells are both astral spells, something which none of your mages can get without empowerment.

    What then do we need to do with EA Caelum to unlock the potential of the nation? We will look at pretender design, troop strategies, and magic.

    Pretenders: The decision to make here is which type of pretender do you want. Do you want an awake pretender for quick expansion, or do you want to go with an imprisoned or dormant pretender for better bless or magic?

    The first thing to look at are the scales that you will need. EA Caelum needs cold hard gold pieces to really get going. That means you will need Order and lots of it. With mammoths at 120 gp a pop and Eagle Kings at 400 gp a pop, Order 3 is the way to go. So that means that we need to dump at least 3 scales to stay even. Caelum wants Cold 2, but I suggest Cold 3. My reasoning for this is twofold, first your dominion rarely matches up exactly with your scales and you are more likely to have most of your provinces at Cold 2, if you go for Cold 3. Also, at cold 3, it hurts you less than it hurts your enemies. The other item with this is that I believe I read somewhere (although I can't find it now) that your armor is better in colder climes. Still, even if this isn't true, the first reason is enough to justify Cold 3. This also makes your scales cost 0 at this point.

    From here, you can go a couple of different ways. You can go with fortune to help gather gems and gold. For many nations I like to pick up some points by taking misfortune. I don't like to do this with Caelum due to the nature of their troops. They are too expensive and fragile Production I leave as is, with Caelum's troops and their resource cost, I have found little reason to increase this scale at all, but others may prefer to take one scale here. That said, I have little desire to lower it because you want to be able to spam archers. Magic/Drain is another place where you can go either way, the MR of Caelum's troops aren't great which drain can help, but Caelum is also very dependent upon magic for battlefield magic. Magic will help research as well as make spells easier to cast. Growth and death scales you can leave as is. While growth isn't required, it is preferable to death as you will need plenty of supplies for your size 3 troops.

    So we are looking at either even or 40 points down on the scales. That leaves 310 points for an awake pretender or 460 or 560 for a dormant/imprisoned pretender.

    Caelum is a little slow to get started. The reason for this is the lack of melee troops. They have great archers, but the lack of quality melee troops means that you need to constantly replenish these guys. An awake dragon can really help your expansion in the early game. Alternatively, you can take a Cyclops as well who will have the strong earth magic to still be relevant later in the game. A Virtue or Arch Seraph with additional paths in air magic can be a boon early in the game and be a beast magically late in the game.

    The problem with an awake pretender is that the magic path cost to increase your magic versatility is so high that you don't really add much to the nation in the late game. My preferance for Caelum is to go with a dormant pretender. You get additional points for scales as well as magic paths. If you go this route, I suggest a rainbow mage with F4A4W2E2S4N2D2. This does not give you a great bless, but what it does is give you a powerful mage who can search for magic sites and locate most of them relatively early in the game and get some gem income flowing in. The fire gives you the ability to create some fire boosters for any Eagle King that gets a Fire random. With W2E2D2N2 you can make all the low level magic boosters. Astral 4 allows you to go down the path of skullshine cap -> ring of sorcery -> ring of wizardry to help your pretender really get his magic going. Once you have the ring of wizardry and either earth boots or a water bracelet you can start making Staffs of Elemental Mastery for your Eagle Kings (A5E2W2 sounds so much better than A4EW). Imprisoned pretenders can take even better magic paths or scales, but at a cost of time. I'm not sure that is something EA Caelum can afford.

    Forging items: Since I started talking about it, let's talk about forging. What really makes Caelum shine is their air magic. Any air boosters you can get are very welcome. I especially love the Bag of Winds because you get the boost as well as another unit on the battlefield. With Caelum's troops this is doubly important. With other nations the Air Elemental is a nice addition, with Caelum it becomes a no brainer. Plus, an Eagle King with the Bag of Winds can cast Storm, or cast other spells like lightning bolt, thunder strike, etc., for low fatigue. Spells like Orb Lighting become deadly with 4 bolts of lighting from it.

    The Staff of Storms merits its own paragraph here. The Staff of Storms automatically creates a storm on the battlefield. The problem is that in a storm your archers are useless and you can't fly (without tempest warriors). But storms allow you to cast a very effective wrathful skies. With shock resistance on many of your troops this is a very good spell for Caelum. Summon storm power can only be cast when a storm is in effect so this is necessary to boost your Eagle Kings during battle. The good news about losing your archers effectiveness is that your mages are much more powerful and more effective against troops that your archers will have a tough time hitting anyway.

    Depending on pretender design some other magic items become important. As I mentioned before, with S4, the skullshine cap -> ring of sorcery -> ring of wizardry helps your pretender out quite a bit. Rings of Wizardry are nice on your Eagle Kings as it boosts their magic up quite a bit. I would go so far as to say that every Eagle King with a random should have a Ring of Wizardry as well as a Staff of Elemental Mastery. Earth boots, water bracelets, and death rods help your mages of the appropriate paths. Additionally, death rods can enable death mage to start producing skull mentors which will greatly boost magic as well as use any death gems you have little use for.

    Picking this up:
    Troops: Your national troops are pretty weak. Its not so much the stats, which are average, but your size.

    Archers: The choice here is simple. The difference between Blizzard Warriors and Spire Horn Archers is 2 protection, 1 encumberance, 1 defense, and 4 resources (which is an 80% increase). My choice here is take the Spire Horn Archers. With gold cost not a factor, you can nearly get 2 Spire Horns for every Blizzard Warrior. Since I don't like my archers mixing it up anyway, protection is a very small factor in this equation.

    Grunts: This is a little different. Again, your size 3 units hurt you here. The big question is what do you plan on doing with your magic, and how essential is melee to your combat skills?

    The two primary competitors here are the Iron Crows and your Iceclads. Iceclads are more expensive costing nearly 60% more resources than the Iron Crows. However, if fighting in a cold region, their protection is far higher than the Iron Crows. If fighting in a warm dominion, I would opt in favor of the Iron Crows. One other item to keep in mind is that the Iceclads are considered to have magic weapons with their ice blades.

    The other ground unit worth mentioning is the Temple Guard. They are the same resource cost as Iceclads and cost 5 more gold. The issue with them is that they only move one province at a time on the strategic map. However, they do fight better than either the Iceclads or the Iron Crows due to their size factor. This allows more of them to bring weapons to bear than their larger breathren. It also keeps your guys from getting ganged up upon. The fact that they are sacred makes them cheaper to maintain as well.

    The final grunt to consider is the Tempest Warrior. These guys are slightly worse than the Iceclads when it comes to defense, but they make up for this in three ways. They are significantly cheaper, 15 gold and 12 resources, they are 75% shock resistant and they can fly in storms.

    So, if you are fighting in your own dominion, which you better have made cold, your grunt of choice should be the iceclad. If you are fighting in someone else's domain and do not have a lot of mages, or just have low level mages, than Iron Crows are the grunts of choice. I would always build a few Temple Guards, but keep them out of the battles where you cast a lot of indiscriminate lightning. If you are going the storm/wrathful skies combo, then you need a lot of Tempest Warriors. These guys will resist the lightning well and can fly and attack the rearmost guys if you would like.

    Mammoths: That leaves the big dog for last, or rather the big wooly elephant for last! Every non-storm AND wrathful skies army should have at least 3 mammoths in the army. This is the minimum safe level for expansion early in the game. Forego buying and Eagle Kings early so you can get plenty of Mammoths to expand with. As the game goes on, your Mammoth force will need to get larger to stay competitive, but once you reach the Storm/Wrathful Skies combo, their utility decreases quite a bit. At that point, your armies will be more dependant upon mages and meat shields.

    I will try and post mages and gems, etc. later.

    -> I've been playing an EA Caelum SP game for a few days now, and I really enjoy them. I went up against only Saroumatia at the start of the game, 8 Impossible AI on random medium map. Here's some thoughts.

    The problem with Eagle Kings being good thugs is that they have very high encumbrance with their Fire Plate. After they're done buffing themselves, their fatigue is really starting to get up there. You'd need either priests and an earth bless or a good magic item economy to counter that, so it seems that your best bet here is to leave the Kings as casters unless and until your opponents start using lightning counters.

    Your PD is atrocious... you might not even bother past 10 points to try to catch scouts.

    Archers are useful against chaff, but mammoths, Wrathful Skies, or Thunder Strike are just as useful, and can be used against high protection units as well.

    I just... don't like Caelum's army very much at all. Mammoths are pretty nice for early expansion, and that's about it. I simply pick up more Iceclads every turn as archer bait for my Eagle Kings. Unfortunately, that means you limit yourself to strategic movement 2, hm.

    Probably Tempest Warriors are the way to go, set to hold and attack archers, with limited amounts of Iceclads as the aforementioned arrow soakers.

    Important: once you research Thunder Strike, there's pretty much no reason to keep your Eagle Kings around the nest anymore. SEND THEM OUT. You need very little magic research to be a very powerful magic nation with Thunder Strike spam. This is what will make EA Caelum an absolute terror from turn 10 onwards.

    -> For Eagle King thugs you really want to have an E9 bless, this is paramount. For equipment my standard setting is frostbrand, weightless kite shield, weightless scale mail and girdle of strenght. If I have a fire random EK I add brimstone boots.
    [comment:
    If you are casting Ironskin you might as well replace wightless scale mail with shroud of battle saint, and cast Mirror Image instead of blessing.

    Answer:
    Assuming you find astral enabled indy mages (your pretender likely has more important things to do than forging armor for thugs, if he/she has astral) and get decent astral gem income that isn't bad alternative at all. Personally though, I might still be inclined to save any astral gems I manage to scrape up for those Amesha Spentas.

    Answer 2 Answer:
    True, astral may be a problem for Caelum, since they don't have astral mages. But astral 1 indep mages are relatively easy to find (for example lizard shamans are arguably the most common type of indep mages), and you will want to get astral mages anyway for national summons, luck items, et cetera.

    As for Amesha Spentas (which are indeed good units) - Battles Shroud only costs 5 astral gems, so 2-4 shrouds for your EK SCs are unlikely to make much difference. On the other hand Mirror Image on Air4 EK can make a big difference, especially if your opponent is using mages against your EK or using troops with magic weapons, as you have pointed out earlier.
    ]

    Script them with blessing-stoneskin/ironskin (depending on opposition)-personal quickness-mistform-attack. They should be able to take out almost any amount of conventional troops with this setup. Indeed, a well made EK is more like a SC than thug imo.

    The above example has prot around 25, def over 20, high damage, encumberance 3, quickness, lots of resistances etc. Try it, you will be pleased by its performance.

    [Comment:
    If you're going to buff, you might as well throw in Mirror Image; it's great with A4.

    Answer:
    Mirror Image is a great spell but I left it out because you rarely have 5 rounds of buff-time and it isn't really needed on top of all those other buffs.

    The one instance where I would use MI is when fighting against opponents armed with magic weapons. In this case Mirror Image would replace Mistform. ]

    			8.15.1.2 EA Caelum  Ride the lightning

    			Article Author:  Baalz

    				8.15.1.2.1 Guide

    Helheim has valkyrie recruits, but it¿s the eagle kings who drop from the sky while Ride of the Valkyries plays in my mind. These are the guys who define air power, they strike with the speed and power of the lightning which is their defining attribute. Niefelheim are the sons of winter and Caelum doesn¿t aspire to be the cold kings, let¿s put the cold out of our mind and prepare to ride the lighting.

    The strategy outlined here is for CBM, though while it certainly won¿t work verbatim in vanilla most of the concepts carry over and can be applied with a bit of creativity. This is also a bit of a trick build out the gate but I think really takes the essence of Caelum and runs with it.

    Few nations more perfectly embody their subtitle, Caelum is all about the eagle kings. They¿re capital only so we¿re going to be making use of other tools at our disposal, but there is almost nothing you need done that an eagle king can¿t do better. We¿ll be recruiting an eagle king every single turn from turn one, outside of true emergencies nothing else takes precedent  not castles, not troops, not mercenaries, nothing. They¿re your gunships, your artillery and the heart of every army you¿re ever going to field and you only get one per turn so make sure you take it. I know, they¿re expensive but I¿ll show you how to do it starting on turn one.

    What we¿re going to do is take advantage of one specific change CBM makes, Summon Yazatas is pushed down to conj-1. This is a great change, as the Yazatas fit with the eagle kings like peanut butter fits jelly. They¿re tough, they¿re holy, and they have awe. They also are fairly expensive, hard for Caelum to summon and lack an offensive punch, but let¿s charge them with 50,000 volts and see how they look.

    As we¿re unabashedly focusing on eagle kings lets go ahead and invest in a blessing for them. Let¿s look at an awake enchantress with something like A2 E9 S4 D3 N4, sloth-3, cold-3, death-3, luck-3, magic-1 and a dominion of 4. A bit odd? Well, part of this is to give us what we need for a jaw dropping initial start and part to carry that through to late game. Without further delay, here¿s my trick start (reliant on CBM and normal research).

    Turn 1: Enchantress researches conjuration, scout becomes prophet, starting army patrols, taxes set to 170%, recruit an eagle king.

    Turn 2: Scout goes out, everything else stays the same. Note: we¿re not attacking anything. Scout is looking around, make note of any exceptionally tough indies. Finish up conj-1 then switch the rest of your points into evocation.

    Turn 3: Everything the same, all research pushed towards evocation.

    Turn 4: Same thing, no attack.

    WTH? I thought we were talking about a very fast opening and here you¿ve got the first 4 turns without attacking a damn thing! Well, I didn¿t quite list everything you do on turn 4, you also alchemize enough gems (along with the 3 pearls your enchantress has generated and anything from your luck-3 scales) for your pretender to cast summon Yazatas. Meanwhile your 3 eagle kings finish up research on evocation-2.

    Turn 5: You¿re feeling sick as you haven¿t conquered a single province yet. The other players are sending you messages wondering if you¿re really playing, it¿s time to show them what it means to be a sky lord. You¿ve got 4 eagle kings and 6 Yazata  and here¿s the thing. Each eagle king with a single yazata bodyguard is capable of taking out most indies in the game. The reason is  they have awe, with the blessing they have very high protection and some regen, and¿.they have lightning immunity. Script the yazata to guard commander and the eagle king to blessing, air shield, hold, hold, attack one turn, cast spells. The Yazata bodyguard will stay in the same square as the eagle king (halving the attacks he takes), and their awe + protection + regen will give them significant staying power, while the eagle king starts dropping that seldom used spell  shockwave.

    Now, this sort of thing wouldn¿t work super well against a real army as you¿d run into larger groups, higher hitpoint guys, clever battlefield placement, etc which would often make you pass out before they route. Against indies/PD though who charge forward in one or two big blocks you¿ll win 95% of the time as you¿re only accruing 10 fatigue each round and shockwave carves a big chunk out of the melee units surrounding you, while lightning bolts steadily chew up any remaining archers (who you¿re effectively immune to  so take your time).

    So, each eagle king is an indie clearing bulldozer who also happens to fly at a strategic move of 3. Now is where you start hearing Ride of the Valkyries as each of your kings should have no trouble attacking a different indie each turn with no overlap or terrain bottlenecks. This means you¿ll be at 5 provinces on turn 6, 10 by turn 7 and have 6 expansion parties ready with extreme mobility. That¿s blistering by any measure and should easily put you at the head of the pack before the indies are all grabbed on any but very small maps.

    Then, of course you¿re not weak once you run into neighbors, those two man hit squads work just as well against PD and there¿s not many nations who can at this point of the game handle your mobility or losing 6-8 provinces in the opening round of a war  early year two that is. This isn¿t, of course, going to carry us through to victory and defeat a real army, so let¿s see where phase two takes us.

    In full disclosure, you are going to occasionally get an unlucky roll and lose an eagle king at this point with somebody ignoring your bodyguard, overcoming your awe, avoiding your defense, getting a critical hit from your fatigue and rolling high damage. High offense swarms of guys like barbarians give you the biggest risk, though you¿ll do surprisingly well against heavy cavalry due to their size. Steer clear of barbarians & lizard men (with your kings that is, these two make excellent targets for your high precision archers) as well as skeletons or anything which ignores your awe though and you should win the vast majority of the time. That¿s just not good enough though, I want to win *all* the time. It¿s very literally the case that for most of the game you don¿t have a real force  army or raiders, without an eagle king and they¿re cap only. That means they¿re not expendable and outside of your first expansion (of necessity a little bit risky) you¿re not going to deploy them without a high degree of confidence of success. To be a power later on you really need to have critical mass of eagle kings and you¿re only ever going to get one per turn so you just can¿t afford to lose them. That¿s ok though, as tough as they start out it¿s nothing compared to what they become.

    Once you hit alt-3 you¿re now looking at mistform & stoneskin (if you go with iron skin make sure you add resist lighting!) which brings you up into the realm that you don¿t need that bodyguard anymore, well, once you deal with that encumbrance that is. With their default equipment I¿d still suggest using Yazata bodyguards (they¿re great all the way through the whole game in this role), but you¿ll also want the flexibility to deploy your gunships with cloud trapeze and that can easily be done with most any gems your nice rainbow pretender scraped up. The critical thing is the encumbrance, so you¿ll want any of the 2 encumbrance armors, or better yet  if you¿ve got the gems the robe of shadows works fabulously by giving you a zero encumbrance armor and etherealness (use iron skin/resist lightning with this one). For reasons I¿ll get into in a minute you generally don¿t want to spend your air gems on equipment, but if that¿s all you¿ve got lightweight scale mail isn¿t a terrible choice  your earth buff will bring you the rest of the way on protection. Bracers of defense also stack wonderfully with your earth bless. Now, just stick earth boots on and summon earthpower - now you can also lay down invulnerability. Lucky pendants are always welcome, but the point is to put every eagle kings to deadly use and you can use them in this capacity very cheaply (because you really want earth boots, have your pretender out site searching then use your first pair of earth boots to set an eagle king up to gnome loring mountains, you should build up a decent income pretty quick). They also, of course, do fine with a more conventional frost brand and standard equipment rather than spamming shockwave. Finally, with that blessing and summoning earthpower it¿s pretty easy to get them to double digit reinvigoration, dropping their armor encumbrance leaves a juiced up caster who won¿t quit.

    While your expansion eagle kings are trying to decide between original recipe or extra crispy, what used to be a very expensive 400 gold eagle king every turn starts being a drop in the bucket as your income surges wildly. Leverage that into some more castles and start cranking out some research mages (eagle kings have better things to do). Harab Seraphs are very cost effective researchers, but you¿ll also want to build up a corps of Caelian Seraphs because we¿ll be putting them good use shortly. Pump all the death gems your pretender manages to scrape up into dark knowledge, we¿re not going to be spending any death gems early on with the assumption that we¿re building up to a very respectable death income which we¿ll just leave to mature until later. Meanwhile your rainbow pretender is doing a solid job site searching, you¿ll probably end up with a couple big water income events from your luck by the time you want to start casting voice of aspu (after constr-6 unfortunately, for water bracelets).

    You¿ll also want to slowly build up some Temple Guards. I¿d never dream of justifying a bless based on these guys, but as long as you¿ve already sprung for a blessing which so well fits them we might as well go ahead and use them. In a cold-3 dominion with a blessing these guys have a 19 protection, throw a legions of steel on them and they¿re all the way up to 23 with an effective encumbrance of 2 and some regen. Very nice for tying up bad guys, and to give them some teeth they¿re 100% cold immune and it is ridiculously worthwhile to give your recruit anywhere Caelian Seraphs a water gem to cast the very accessible (evo-3) freezing mist. AN damage  nothing which isn¿t cold immune will stand a chance at chipping away at the temple guards. Of course this gets *much* more accessible and nasty once you can pass out tons of water bracelets, but certainly keep it in mind for the early part of the game as all you¿ll need is evo-3 and it really is a devastating spell.

    You¿ll employ the same tactic with the iceclad who are not nearly as tough, but do fly so they give you much better mobility than the map move 1 temple guards. They¿ll build up slowly with their resource cost and your sloth scale, but that¿s ok because you¿re not going to need a ton, you just have to hold a couple turns for the cold to set in. Note, 19 protection (with legions of steel) is significantly tougher than the 15 protection they¿re at in cold-3 so I¿m going to say something you¿ll probably be tired of hearing by the end of the guide  you¿ll struggle to do this without eagle kings. With earth boots and summon earth power you¿re suddenly a flying earth-buff machine who can toss in a couple blade winds or destructions once you¿re done buffing. You¿ll also want to line up some indie N1 mages, give them a thistle mace and a pair of flying boots as wooden warriors stacks beautifully on this strategy. The freezing mist will numb and fatigue your enemies who are also hopefully fighting at an encumbrance penalty from the cold¿ghost grip is a wonderful thing to spam in largish numbers from all those mages who only cost you 80 gold. This is, assuming you can find something tough enough that it doesn¿t just freeze solid and shatter into a thousand pieces from the freezing mist alone¿ Freezing mist is your crowd control, frozen heart is your sniper rifle, and it¿ll quickly drop anybody not immune. Once you do pass out those water bracelets mass cleansing water will blast away low level undead faster than anybody could dream of skellispaming.

    Now, the one-two switchup you¿ll employ against cold immune (remember, it works fabulously even against cold resistant troops) enemies is leveraging tempest warrior¿s 75% shock resistance. Out the box it¿s certainly respectable enough to use as is, but there¿s no reason not to toss a thunder ward down before the (come on, you knew it was coming) wrathful skies. Here¿s the thing about wrathful skies, unlike every other nation in the game you¿ve got a strong air income and a literal swarm of A4 guys any one of which can fly in, cast storm then wrathful skies. You don¿t use wrathful skies just for a few big battles, it should be absolutely ubiquitous from a very early point. Even your PD is 50% resistant, so a pair of eagle kings can buff them to immunity while the storm keeps them from flying in and dying quickly and the bad guys get fried fighting, then chasing down the stragglers of your PD. Too sweet!

    I don¿t want to dwell too much on the really obvious stuff, but I¿d be remiss in not at least pointing out that an eagle king casting storm lets every one of your research mages summon storm power, which leads to that iconic wall of thunderstrike spam. For anyone who hasn¿t experience this know that 30+ thunderstrike casters will drop anything, from a group of tartarians to thousands of longdead if they¿re not completely lightning immune. They all fly *and* cloud trapeze, so critical mass for critical fights isn¿t difficult. For more modest engagements half a dozen eagle kings can lay a ridiculous hurt down before retreating from behind PD  that¿s how you ¿fire and flee¿! Nobody should ever begin to think about attacking you with anything non-lighting immune (remember, it works fabulous even if they¿re resistant) troops. Doesn¿t matter what their protection or defenses is, and barely matters what their hps  only their lighting resistance. Don¿t forget, wind guide is not just for archers! Any mass evocation fest benefits greatly from it, and thuderstrike is no exception.

    You¿re going to want to develop a very strong air income. To extend the analogy, Caelum is a big capacitor and you want to store up your energy (air gems) into a deadly force and unleash it explosively in periodic bursts which drain you at a vastly unsustainable rate. You¿ve not got the staying power to stand toe to toe with giants or Vans, you need to blast them and fall back before they hit back. Keeping that in mind, you don¿t want to spend your air gems on run of the mill stuff, you want to charge that capacitor. Things to do explosively  Cloud trapeze (20 eagle kings will straight up ruin somebody¿s day whether you spread them out and attack every one of his provinces or clump them together and bring the sky down on his big army before it can move). Seeking arrow (the AN damage can fell even SCs if you cast enough, each one does 8 with a die roll and anybody who lives will carry the damage they took to their fights this turn). Wind ride (charm them if you can, or just target anybody with items you might like to have. ¿oh, you thought you were going to cast storm warriors next fight? I¿ll just go ahead and help myself to that winged helm and bag of winds¿¿). The one run of the mill thing you will spend your air gems on¿is auspex. Other than that, you¿ll forge a few bags of wind and staffs of storms and stockpile the rest of your air gems for the turns when you¿re ready to bring the thunder. I¿d love to recommend Gale Gate, but generally it¿s too far out of your research path to make sense to get until all the global slots are good and taken. If you¿ve gotten some nice indie enchantresses you plan on spamming charm with though you might consider making Thaum an early-ish target and be prepared to put up the gate if one of the globals goes down for some reason.

    **Advanced Tactics**

    So, what I¿ve laid out here sounds pretty nasty, but it¿s also kind of predictable. Never thought I¿d say focus on cold and lightning with Caelum, huh? Well smart guy, what do you do when your opponent sticks lighting rings on undead and marches a bunch of mechanical men at you? Not looking so smug now, are you? Well, lets see what types of kitchen sinks EA Caelum has to fling over the wall at tough lighting and cold immune (remember¿yeah, yeah, they¿re 100% immune).

    Mammoths, I¿m not a huge fan of, they¿re expensive, and too easy to counter. As a surprise though, against an opponent who clearly doesn¿t have the right counters because you¿ve never yet fielded one of the beasts¿ (mass) flight and (mass) quickening are great force multipliers, and throw haste down with the guy who was casting wooden warriors for something that looks like a *lot* of big shaggy gifts from heaven. This fits great into our hit hard and fast theme, but I wouldn¿t field them as standard troops. They¿re not only easy to counter, but they sacrifice one of your biggest strategic advantages  flying. What I prefer, once your research matures is a big upgrade to your trampling options.

    Eagle King #1: Summon Air elemental. Eagle King #2: Iron warriors. Caelian Seraph: Quickness. Repeat. Works great in combination with almost anything you were gonna do anyway. For larger scale destruction, all those Caelian Seraphs who just stormpowered up cast summon air elemental and an eagle king drops marble warriors. 20 flying, protection-15 ethereal size 6 enc-0 tramplers will cause way more than 20 gems worth of damage against the right opponent. Explosive use of air gems! I don¿t really like the living clouds option as it summons smaller air elementals who don¿t trample nearly as well. Of course haste stacks well with all those options.

    I briefly touched on sticking earth boots on the eagle kings, but I didn¿t fully explore this avenue which you¿ll ride hard if your two primary vectors of attack are neutered. Each pair of 7 gem boots (with a hammer) gives you a guy who can cast stone rain first turn and walk (er¿fly) away from it. You don¿t need to forge anything else, give him 2 earth gems, stone rain and retreat. If it¿s not critical to drop round one it¿s a healthy idea to cast mistform first. This is another thing which should be ubiquitous, add groups of unarmored mages to the list of enemy things never seen long in Caelum territory.

    As I mentioned already, don¿t overlook the option of spamming destruction; 3-4 casters can make a dramatic difference along with the high precision (wind guided) Caelum archers. Weapons of sharpness also opens up some nice offensive options I¿ll leave as an exercise for the student in combination with staples like fog warriors and mass flight (you don¿t really want to stick with Caelum infantry if you¿re counting on melee to carry the day).

    I don¿t like to use eagle kings as anti-SCs because it goes against my policy of not deploying them where there¿s a decent chance they¿ll die. You do have a better option though, and it¿s not obvious. Caelian Seraphs have the perfect paths to be SC seeking tomahawk missiles. Mistform, quicken self, attack large enemy monsters. Weaponry varies depending on what you¿re trying to kill, but can be anything from dual wielding dusk daggers to a demon bane or holy scourge (for the two most likely big things which are frost and lighting immune). The mistform makes them ignore the first hit no matter who is swinging, and a half dozen of these guys flying in halfway through his buff cycle will drop the toughest SC. Expect a high attrition rate, but it can still be a cost effective way to counter fully decked out SCs and with very modest research they¿re realistic to field against more modest troops  10 quickened guys dual wielding frost brands will cause some serious damage in the time it takes to pop their mistform, particularly if you drop wooden warriors or something like it on them and send in a bunch of false horrors ahead of them. You¿ve been recruiting very few troops, and other than one eagle king per turn your mages are pretty cheap. That mean you should have a whole lot of them, so don¿t be shy about using them as troops in situations where they merit it.

    In the MA Caelum guide AreaOfEffect lays out some great synergies with storms, false horrors, and fear which translates very well to EA, check his guide out for details. False horrors in generally should be one of your staple spells once it¿s researched, cast in large numbers they are wonderful diversions from the guys doing the damage and their overlapping fear stacks up quickly.

    Pulling into late game your pretender is going to be in a good position to use that solid death income you¿ve been building up. D3 goes to 4 with a staff, to 5 with a cap, and behold you¿re popping out liches and therein whatever death stuff you like from tartarians to ghost riders. Of particular interest is specters, a handful of stealthy astral mages will do absolute wonders for discouraging mind hunt blasts which would otherwise be tempting due to your apparent lack of astral support. Stick a cap and coin on any S1 specter and place them ahead of time where you plan on dropping in an eagle king raider and watch your opponent scream, do this a couple times and watch how fast those mind hunts dry up. Your respectable 4 astral allows you to summon ameshas with whatever astral pearls you¿ve got  which honestly is probably gonna use most of your astral all game before you run out of guys to summon(along with the occasional amulet of luck or antimagic). Your pretender also can do any nature heavy lifting you want, lamia queens make a great way to lay the nature buffs I¿ve been talking about and can quite possibly shoehorn you into blood (bloodstones bring your earth support up to a whole other level). Earth your pretender obviously has covered, you¿ll probably be using all your earth gems on earth boots, but earthblood deep well you¿ll pick up when you go for mass flight and can be a great investment if your pretender has uncovered some nice sites and a solid earth income  cranking out earth boots is never gonna get old. This leaves fire, blood and amusingly water as the only things you¿ve not got heavy muscle in, but fire and blood can safely be ignored (unless you get the chance for bloodstones) and you¿ve got enough water to do site searching (after a water bracelet) so you should be fine there as the stuff you really want can be forged by W1 mages (water bracelets, frost brands & demon banes). The Spentas will add nicely to your diversity as well, though obviously it¿s best not to bank on getting a particular one so they¿re more bonuses than strategies. AreaOfEffect lists the different Spentas in the MA Caelum guide if you want to see what your possibilities are.

    Finally, what does our opening strategy look like if you replace that old diesel engine with a nuclear power plant? How ¿bout dropping shimmering fields rather than shockwave? Bag of winds and an extra air gem and each eagle king can drop that from point blank range. Now that¿s riding the lightning.

    				8.15.1.2.2 Comments

    			8.15.1.3

    	    	8.15.2 MA Caelum

    			8.15.2.1 MA Caelum - Fear of Flying

    			Article Author: AreaOfEffect

    				8.15.2.1.1 Guide

    Middle-Age Caelum. A nation of trampling mammoths, high precision flying archers, powerful make-anywhere flying mages, and speed bumps? The speed bumps I refer to are their less then optimal infantry. Notorious for their failure as an effective fighting force, I've heard all too many times why that is. Its clearly because they are size three. Yet, I've found that is not entirely true. Though that is the first conclusion that I myself came to, a closer investigation reveals even deeper deficiencies. Aside from the Caelian Infantry, Caelum's units generally fall into one of two categories. They either have a massive resource cost, or they don't have a helmet. Not having a helmet means that every once in a while your low hit point units will have no protection at all. That's not all. A national disadvantage is that all of Caelum's units have a base encumbrance of 4. Not so bad until you also observe that they take additional fatigue from flying. You know, that thing they do. This fatigue seems to ramp up with the encumbrance from armor. A storm guard will generally take 7 fatigue to get to an opponent and then another 8 to thrust his spear. A total of 15 fatigue in the first round is abysmal. By the third or forth round your high resource units might as well not wear armor at all thanks to critical hits. Now factor in the size three and the lower then average defense. Your best units can't hold a line because they get hit more often, have terrible defense from round one, and when they do get hit their armor will likely do nothing for them. Thus is the problem with these ill-fated soldiers. Throughout this guide I'll put forth a couple of infantry squads that do work for Caelum and that don't sacrifice Caelum's largest advantage, the ability to fly.

    For our pretender design, I'll start by addressing the issue of a bless. Forget it!!! Choosing a bless as the focus of a Caelum strategy is virtually suicide. There sacred units aren't just sub-optimal, they are tragically the worse you could hope for. The temple guard have the two worse quality that a human-like capitol-only sacred can have, a massive resource cost and map-move 1. This not only makes it difficult to amass the large number of them to the right location, but it also runs counter to our goals during pretender design. Ideally we want our units to be low in resource so we can splurge on a high dominion and a strong bless, not on production. The alternative is for them to be strong enough to take out large armies in very small groups, which is just not going to happen. Caelum also doesn't have any commanders who really benefit from a bless. They do have summoned units that would dearly love to be blessed, but the weakest of these are far off in conjuration 6 land. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't keep a small bless in mind. I'm just saying that Caelum is a magic and scales nation and so we should address such issues first.

    Caelum needs money for expansion, castles, and mages. Order 3. Cealum has cold resistant units and gets normal cash flow with cold 3. Cold 3. Caelum's life blood is research. Magic 1. Things I believe that can suffer are production, growth, and luck. Having any of these would be nice, but that could be said of any nation. I think you could get away with some sloth and misfortune for the purpose of this strategy. There are three magic paths that are the most important for us to obtain. Astral, Earth, and Nature. Put 4 ranks of each on any mobile awake pretender and you have the bare minimum of what this strategy requires. I personally like an awake Mother of Rivers with W4E4A4N4, Order 3, Sloth 3, Cold 3, Misfortune 2, Magic 1, Dominion 6. I find that the extra starting water gem income goes a long way with this nation. Obviously, if I've added three magic paths to a titan pretender there is plenty of points for anyone to work with. I also can't deny that many advantages are to be found by obtaining some death and/or fire. Still, this is what I prefer at this point in time.

    Mammoths will still be your best mode of expansion. Back your mammoths up with wingless to improve their moral and keep them from being swamped on all sides. Recruit indy commanders from all around so that you can move these armies without sacrificing your research. The horn spire seraph is the most cost effective for research, yet the ice crafters are more useful later on. Conserve your money so you can afford your first castle as soon as possible. Have your god go out and scrounge up as many gems as possible while spreading your good dominion. Create a high seraph or two and look for those elusive air gems. You'll want at least two more castles before your first war starts. The real bottle neck for making Caelum as effective as possible is going to be your access to flying commanders. Fewer castles will equal fewer commanders. Your third castle will want as many resources as possible and won't need a lab or temple. Have it shell out storm generals and bodyguards every round till the end of the game.

    As standard, evocation is one of our first research goals. Evocation 2 starts us off with Lightning Bolt, Colt Bolt, Arcane Probing, Slime, Rain, and a few others. Later on we'll want to get to evocation 5 for Storm, Thunder Strike, Falling Frost, and few other goodies. However, after evocation 2 I think it better to skip to construction 4. The reason being that we have these flying units and these forge bonuses and its about time we combined them into something viable. At construction 4 and W1 there isn't much our crafters can actually make. However, we only need one thing, Ice brands. If we've managed to scrounge together enough earth gems for Dwarven Hammers, we can make an Ice Brand for only 2 gems a piece. If not, we can still make them for only 3. Now take all of those storm generals from our extra castle and give each an Ice Brand and about five or more bodyguards each. Group several of the generals together and we now have a respectable raiding force. This force works because it has a lot more offensive power then our regular melee squads had before. Those AoE cold damage strikes will win you battles well before the fatigue sets in. The bodyguards are just there to absorb blows. Since most human sized units will vanish in front of the generals, their offensive power combined with their ~14 protection and 17 defense keeps them from dying first. Against a real army they are just a component of all the things you can use against the opposition. On their own they do quite well against indies and modest PD. That said, a reliable flying raiding force for very few gems, very little gold, and very little research makes Caelum more dangerous then they have ever been. Finally, don't be too concerned about losing a few brands. They are easily replaced and are not much of a threat to your cold resistant armies.

    Lets talk about bodyguards. For straight up protection and defense, we want the iceclad. One problem though, they are hard to accumulate, especially if we took any sloth. They also have a map move of 2, which hinders the flexibility of our forces. Next on the list is the storm guard. They can fly in storms! This quality is important as you can use them to guard our Ice Brand wielding storm generals while giving them mage support. They are also resource intensive, though not as much as the iceclad. They also have a map move of 2. If mobility is what were after, we are going to want to use the caelian infantry. They are the only move 3 unit with a helmet. They're not that heavy on resources and is likely what you should use in the early part of the game. Don't overdo it on bodyguards. Too many and your generals won't get to their targets.

    After construction 4 our research can deviate in several directions. Going to construction 6 yields us practically immortal size 6 tramplers within our own cold 3 dominion. The Bottles of Living Water can be forged for 5 gems each and the unit they yield can fly over enemy provinces along with our flying commanders. Hello raiding force Mark II! Getting an ice crafter to W2 is easy since each crafter can make their own water bracelet for 2 gems. The elementals have amazing moral and magic resistance, have a chill aura, keep your commanders safe from mundane assassinations, can be used under water, are immune to darkness, and don't take away from your gold income at all. Another research option is to go back to evocation for obvious reasons. A third consideration is the alteration tree for another use of our water gem income. A lot of the spells here can add survivability to our mages, improve their aim and the aim of our archers, and allow for lucky ethereal mammoths. All this for just alteration 4. At alteration 4 you also get Wolven Winter. This spell is a very important spell for the survivability of our raiders since their armor is dependent on the cold. If we want those Bottle of Living Water to produce tramplers while raiding, Wolven Winter will be needed for that as well.

    Once you've accumulated 50 spare air gems you'll want to empower an ice crafter. Use a hammer to forge a Winged Helmet and Bag of Winds. Now you can boost the crafter to A3 and still have the slots to hold a hammer. Now you'll want to forge several things using this guy. Winged Shoes for your non-flying summoned SCs is nice. Perhaps a Spirit Helmet or Copper Plate or Chainmail of Displacement. If your research is suffering you can forge Owl Quills for 2 gems a piece. The real winner for me though is the Wall Shaker. For reasons I'll explain later, this will be a valuable part of our strategy. Now you might immediately argue that if I'm after a siege bonus, the Gate Cleaver is twice as effective for the same number of gems. I'll reply by saying that we are getting Wall Shakers at half cost. I would also argue that, since earth has to be boot-strapped to Caelum, you will likely not have the earth gems to splurge on such things as Gate Cleavers. If you do, great, don't let me stop you. You're still going to want Wall Shakers.

    As soon as you can scrounge together 50 nature gems you'll likely want to empower an ice crafter. Hitting construction 6 allows us to turn the crafter into a W3N1 mage using boosters. It should be easy to figure out where I'm going with this. With a hammer you should now be able to produce clams for only 9 gems a piece. Only 2 of those gems are nature. The sooner you can accomplish this, the better. These astral pearls will power our late game and afford us most of our summons. After needing water gems for the Ice Brands, the Living Bottles, Wolven Winter, and now the Clams of Pearls, you can see why the awake mother of rivers looks more and more appealing as a pretender chassis.

    Now that you have a healthy supply of astral gems, you'll want to look to Caelum's first national summon, Summon Yazatas. The yazatas are Caelum's flying sacred troops. For three astral gems a piece, they aren't that cheap for what they are. However, you shouldn't overlook them, yet not because they are sacred. The part that interests us is their awe +1. This quality makes them viable front-liners in my opinion. In order to truly take advantage of it, we are going to need alteration 6 and construction 4. For the fun of it I'll paint the entire picture with evocation 5 included. First, you light up a Storm and Storm Power a bunch of caelian seraphs. Have the yazatas hold and then attack. Cast Mists so we can worry less about arrow fire and enemy evocations. Have several ice crafter cast Quicken Self. For round two your caelian seraphs will now cast False Horror of all things. Now have your ice crafters cast Panic twice each. How you say? With those Wall Shakers you made earlier. If you brought some extra ice crafters you can have them spam Frozen Heart. It has 100 precision and will ignore all those precision penalties we just stacked. The yazatas should still be holding. Interesting, false horrors can fly in storms! Round three gives us more False Horror and more Panic spam. Now the Yazatas go in. Oh look, they can fly in a storm as well! Now you see how the false horrors help us. Aside from absorbing blows meant for our real solders they also produce fear. Their damage output means nothing and isn't really the point. Between the horrors and the panic, your yazatas are now untouchable by any regular unit, and we haven't even scripted a bless yet. Continue casting False Horrors, Panic, and Frozen Heart until you can't script no more. Since the yazatas are immune to shock damage, and since you should be able to produce Copper Plate or Rings of Tamed Lightning for 2 gems each, throwing in Wrathful Skies and Wind Guided Thunder Strikes is synergistic with this strategy.

    The combination of False Horror and 2x Panic a round from Wall Shakers makes air magic a rival in the fear department. You could even cast Dark Skies using a high seraph if you think it won't get dispelled or if it will achieve victory in a crucially important round. As an added bonus, Caelum also has D1 randoms. That should be enough to get you thinking about all the other fear effects you can throw out there, provided you can get a little boost of course. Fear is one of Caelum's handiest weapons considering they have both summons with awe and the ability to fly armies behind enemy provinces. Use those raiding forces we talked about. If you can't win in a straight fight, cheat and force an enemy to run away to provinces they no longer control.

    Now lets talk about Call Amesha Spenta, your other national summon. You can summon up to six commanders with this spell. Each one is unique in the same way the elemental royalty are unique. Physically the strongest of them is comparable to the weaker royalty. What they lack in strength they make up for with several unique advantages. First, they all fly, have full body slots, are sacred, have full shock resistance, and have awe +4. On top of that they each have differences from each other. Let's start with the three strongest. Spenta of animals has animal awe +7 on top of the regular awe and is N5H3. Spenta of sky and metals has A4E3H4. Spenta of Fire has full fire resist and is F5H3. Now for the three weaker ones. (Note that they are only weaker due to fewer hit points and one point of strength.) Spenta of waters has recuperation, is a full healer, and is W4H3. Spenta of the earth is simply E4N2H4. Finally, the spenta of plants is E2N3H3 and immortal. Barring any conjuration bonus, it would take you 360 astral pearls to gather all of them. That said, you will likely find a use for all of them, though all of them you may not get. I appreciate them as additional magical diversity for my flying armies. Though they have all the makings of a super combatant.

    Once you start combining everything it starts to become rather nasty. Replenishable ice elementals thumping forward, storms and mists lowing precision, flying squads of awe units backed by false horrors taking the lead while ice brand squads rip apart the rear ranks. What doesn't die from an AoE weapon strike or a random lightning bolt from Wrathful Skies runs away in utter terror. If they go to hide in their precious castles your forces can easily break down their walls thanks to Wall Shakers and the natural bonus that all fliers have. Caelum is fast a furious. I haven't even mentioned the huge number of battlefield spells available in just the air department alone. Fog Warriors, Arrow Fend, and Mists of Deception are just a few. Use your god to snag ivy kings and golems who can start battles with N5 and S4 (higher with crystal shields) thanks to the boosters you can now make. Or just focus on the spenta, which are also brought to you by your handy awake pretender. Last thing I would say is to never forget the basics of what Caelum has. There will be times where high precision short bows and standard evocations are going to be the most effecient. There will also be instances where a momoth or two will save your better units by being natural targets for spells or supply the extra trampling you might need against hordes of undead. All-in-all, I think Middle-Age Caelum might be the best Caelum of all.

    That's all for now. Good luck.

    				8.15.2.1.2 Comments

    -> I too have found bottles of living water a great investment.
    Here's a trick how you can use them on the defensive.
    Get two flying commanders, one of them a cheap mage (or an expensive mage depending on what you're expecting/wanting to do).
    Give two Bottles of Living Water to the one commander, and fly/cloud trapeze him and the mage into a province that is going to be attacked.
    Put the guy with the Bottles at the very front and script him to retreat.
    The mage should stay and cast whatever spells he can.
    The commander with the bottles gets to retreat before the enemy can do anything about it - so he is virtually immortal in battle. But the elementals or going to stay as long as the mage is in.

    > That's a good point. Aside from gaining access to Call Spenta, the astral on your god, combined with a little earth magic and clam income, can go a long way to solve this problem. Lucky for Caelum, they have astral randoms on their make-anywhere high seraphs. You can improve their astral with Starstine Skullcaps, Crystal Coins, Crystal Shields, and Banners of the Norther Star. You can probably gather up more astral magic from lizard shamans. Paralyze, Soul Slay, and Enslave Mind work great for those instances where MR has been neglected. Horror Mark and Stellar Cascades for tougher targets.

    A death random is all you need to cast Dust to Dust for those troublesome undead SCs. Mix in the high presicion from aim, a race bonus, and air magic and every casting is a guarenteed hit.

    Water magic also isn't all cold damage. Ice strike is a great spell when you get around to it. Not so great against an SC though since they will likely have more then enough protection.

    -> Hmm, a bunch of interesting strategies here, but I think a lot of them somewhat miss the point. Caelum can do the raiding thing pretty well without burning gems into it, so I'm not sure that spamming bottles and frost brands is the best use of gems. The frost-brand-wielding storm general could just as easily be a high seraph spamming thunderstrike for the amount of damage it'll do, and has a much lower chance of getting killed or taking attrition damage to his guards. It's more gold, but less gems, which is usually a deal I'm alright taking.

    As Natpy points out CR/SR thugs and SCs are a nightmare for Caelum to deal with, and I'm not convinced about the astral strat. Piling boosters on base S1 mages that also cost 270g a pop is a horrible idea against any nation that can get astral mages, and I'm including stuff you would normally never put into combat like sages and lizard shammies. The pretender chassis you have laid out can at least cloud trapeze and lay some smackdown if need be though once it gets geared.

    The False Horror spam idea is also probably pretty good for anything without perfect morale.

    Back to the idea of using TS-casting seraphs over storm general thugs: One of the huge perks of MA caelum is that they have excellent battle mages that are non-cap-only and non-sacred. Yes, I just used non-sacred as a positive thing. The reason that this is a "good" thing is that they have normal upkeep costs, and thus 15 turns after one dies you've saved enough money to buy a new one. Now 15 turns isn't exactly short, and you shouldn't go around throwing them away on ill-considered attacks, but it does mean that if a raiding force dies it's hardly the end of the world. Especially if the one raiding force that died was only 1 of 4 raiding forces...if the other 3 of them got 100g worth of provinces between them you'll have your money back in no time, and since your general upkeep costs should pretty rapidly mean you have extra commander slots at your forts it's pretty easy to "recycle" your mages. Gems, on the other hand, once gone, are gone forever.

    I would also head straight up Evo til I hit thunderstrike, pretty much without exception. Lightning bolt just doesn't measure up, especially since the absurd encumbrance on high seraphs means that the fatigue costs even out startlingly well...3 lightning bolts from an A3 is 21 encumbrance + 15 spell fatigue, for a total of 36, vs a thunder strike costing 57, which means you get front-loaded damage with AoE. An A4 caster has 32 fatigue TS casts vs 3 lightning bolts at 30. The numbers for TS get even better with magic scales.

    -> I've seen people suggest decking out a single mage from head to toe with no comment. Yet 2 gems a piece on five guys costing 35 gold each, that's crazy. I like the storm general squads for two essential reasons. First, their is a much smaller chance of epic failure. A failed raid from a high seraph generally means the seraph is dead. You will likely never lose all of your generals in a single fight. Gold is just as much a limited resource as gems. At least water gems are amoung the more accessable kind for Caelum. The second reason is that generals round out your forces much better.

    Thunderstrike always wants to deal the most damage and for that reason you can't direct it at any particular thing. In fact, because the spell can strike anywhere on the field, your opponent has more control over your spell then you do. However, you can direct generals to attack specific unit types, or direct them to attack the rear. I'm not saying that one is actually better, I'm just saying that having only one of these tools is less effective then having both. Also, I suggest you just try out the squads. Five generals plus guards have a lot more sustainability against indies and PD then you might think.

    I will agree that cold and shock resist units are harder for Caelum to deal with. I don't seriously suggest you place all that gear on just one unit with a random. I was just cataloging what you have at your disposal. I personally find that lizard shamans and Light of the Norther Star is the more efficient way to cast most of those astral spells. You start with a rather good scout, so you should be able to identify a lizard province and gun for it early with mammoths. If your dying for a broader solution, then you've been told what the bare minimum for the strategy is. There are plenty of points available for devising that solution.

    -> AoE, you seem to be playing the same nations as I do. I have just recently finished a game with LA Man and I am playing another one with MA Caelum now. If you make a guide for Kailasa next, that will be creepy.
    Anyway I wanted to give some praise, some critique and some of my thoughts. Not too much though, as my opponents could be reading this.

    I disagree with taking a titan pretender. I believe that the rainbow pretender is the way to go with this nation. You lack magic diversity and are not vulnerable early on with the mammoths. The mammoths are also great for early expansion. If you fear early rush, you can always go for evoc4 and thunderstrikes as your first research goal. If you take the titan pretender just for the extra water gems, I think that's faulty. You'd be better off taking some fire and death. With all the archers you'll be recruiting (since the infantry is terrible), why not have the opportunity to cast flaming arrows. And death is death, you always need it. Also, I don't see the reason for water on pretender, your mages cover that.

    No sacred mages is a problem with research, as you will pay big upkeep for your mages and thus have less of them researching. Also, since all your troops except mammoths are total crap, as soon as your opponent finds a solution for mammoths, you will have to start fielding your mages a lot, which translates to falling back in research.
    Generally I wouldn't recommend owl quills as I don't find them effective for their cost, but this is one nation where I would make an exception. Compared to skull mentors you get the same amount of research for 2 gems more and you need three times more mages to spend their time forging. With Caelum you will have plenty of air gems for all your needs, so no need to worry about the first thing. Caelum also has cheap A1 mages for making quills, so you won't lose too much research by their forging. Those A1 mages are also MA Cealums most cost effective researchers, so you will want to recruit some of them. Not too many though, as there is not much else they can do.

    Empowering with 50 nature gems with a nation that has no nature income and no nature mages can be problematic. Yes, it will pay off in the long run, but it will be very hard to scrape the initial investment. I guess you could summon naiads for more clamming, after the first empowerment, but that will use up lots of water gems.

    I liked the idea about fear and yazatas. That's new for me. I always compared yazatas to gandvharas, they cost the same but are much weaker, so I decided I won't be summoning any of them. But this synergy you presented sounds nice. Spentas give you magic diversity, but IMO are too expensive at 60 astral pearls. It will cost you 360 astral pearls to get them all, not 300, at least in vanilla. Also, I never noticed about storm flying abilities of storm generals and storm guards, although their name suggests it. That's nice to know.

    Wingless are nice to mix in with mammoths to boost their moral, but even better are longdead. You can use a high seraph with a death pick to summon a mound king and make him your prophet.
    All spire horn warriors have 50% shock resistance. The storm warriors battlefield spell gives them 100% shock resistance, so you can safely use them with air evocations - thunderstrikes, wrathful skies, etc.
    Flying mammoths can be nasty into the later game as well. Imagine mass flight + fog warriors + quickening + will of the fates combo.

    In the end, although I think this is a nice guide, my mind hasn't changed. I still think that MA Caelum is the weakest of all three.

    -> Thanks Psycho for address that typo. Fixed it.

    I can understand that the titan pretender with water magic seems wasteful, and really it is. Though its only one of my silly ideas about getting more water gems. I also figure that since your god starts out site searching, having that water 4 could really make the difference for executing the strategy to its fullest. In short its the extreme. I know that if I really wanted the most effective Caelum, I would pick death and/or fire as well. Maybe go with the great enchantress. Why use water gems to get pearls when you can go straight to the source. It still sounded fun though...

    I didn't mention flying mammoths because there are several other Caelum guides and all of them mention it. Besides, this guide is thematically focused on what you can use with fliers. Mammoths don't fly on the map without a lot of construction.

    			8.15.2.2

    	    	8.15.3 LA Caelum

    	    	    	8.15.3.1 RoRlum (Late Caelum)

    -> I don't usually play Caelum.

    But usually, sending in anything but Mamoths of their standard troops in melee is trouble. Since their infantry is quite fragile compared to their cost.

    So use archers, and a _lot_ of Caelian seraphs. With evocation level 2 you should be able to spamm lightning all over the enemy turf.

    Later on, add one or two Harab elders with Thunderstrike (lvl 4 evo) to this.

    I haven't tried this yet, but placing a storm general a bit ahead of your serapths with a couple of earthbounds set on guard commander should give you 2-3 more combat turns for your archers and mages to take down any even sized enemy. Their protection is high enough, 19, that they should be able to withstand enemy archer fire.

    -> an idea I had with ranged heavy armies ... you can make them hold/attack for up to 5 turns instead of 2, if you assign the army to guard a commander and have the commander attack after 5 turns... this lets you fight the battle much closer to your archers. anyway this is also complimentary with just loosing up to 5 rounds of arrows and retreating. I cant say it would solve all your problems, but it does give you a much finer control over the units.

    -> you have also a bonus with Corpse Man Construction with a lightning rode, a staff of storm, and another with an unique book (5A 5D I think)

    Corpse Man are a good cannon fodder, immune to poison lightning and good morale : they are pretty useful mixed with mammouths

    	    	    	8.15.3.2 LA Caelum vs. Ermor

    -> If/when you're not under pressure from Pangaea, I would recommend multiple Strike Forces with Elders + bodyguards. Strike behind his lines and pump up taxes, jump out again. In the mean time let him throw whatever he has at your chokepoint (pump up your PD and make sure you keep some Elders there). When you have amassed enough troops attack in strength, while simultaneously casting multiple Seeking Arrow attacks.

    In short, the way to win is by attacking with overwhelming force; you are in a great position to defend yourself easily while harrassing him, which should help you build up that overwhelming force.

    -> I am playing LA Caelum and ending up fighting LA Ermor. Massed blade wind works real good. Get one of your forgers with dwarven hammer/dwarven boots, mass produce dwarven boots for 5E gems. Then put them on a cheap forger (they are only 75gps or so to recruit), you can then script summon earthpower, blade wind, hold, hold, blade wind, spells. I ended up with 20 or so such blade winders very, very quickly. They took undead armies out very effectively behind a infantry shield. Equipping them with eye of aiming helps as well.

    Also dust to dust is very effective. You can also spam undead yourself and most of your mages have 1 or 2 priest levels, so good old fashioned massed banishment works well. Use all this in comination.

    	    	8.15.4 Assortment of tips

    		-> Well for hold and attack more than 2 turns, get a cheap flying commander, set all your melee troops to guard him and let him hold, hold, hold, hold attack rearmost for example. Fire and flee generally isnt a good idea, just raid enemy provinces with reasonably sized forces(including thunder striking mages if possible) and then fly away next turn(since movement to friendly provinces happens before movement to enemy provinces)
    		-> A screen of archers and infantry. In the back mammoths and seraphs(2 mammoths per seraph). The seraphs get scripted to flight, flight, then cast what you want(lightning bolt ect). The mammoths get hold and attack rear/archers. Flying mammoths in the back of the enemies army are fun
    		-> Caelum is my favorite nation. An effective early expansion strategy is to only buy archers (production scale helps) and use your initial infantry for guard duty. Then spread 4 archers across the front to act as decoys for arrow fire and infantry. This will almost ensure that enemy archers are not a problem and will give you another 2 rounds of shooting (and smiting) on most ground troops.

    This will usually allow you to take barbarians, tribes, archer cavalry and light troops (basically anything with low protection). If you combine your profit you can even take on a little heaver stuff (in small numbers) with smiting. 40+ archers are very effective and lets your mages stay in the lab early on. With your mobility and some scouting you can pick out the missile vulnerable provinces.

    This works good with getting an awake sage pretender and researching to evo4 (thunder strike) . You can reach this fairly easily on turn 8 or 9. Then with a few eagle kings and archer cover any indy province is yours for the taking. And with your mobility you will rapidly be able to take advantage of this.

    So imagine spreading out sucking up weaker province and rapidly ¿claiming¿ territory. Then once you have thunder strike you rapidly consume all of the tougher provinces sprinkled in your territory (or leave a couple for defense if the income is not high).

    		-> and what's about pretendant design ?

    What do you think of a master Lich 3 slots = 2 wing of wizardry (+1 in all) and 1 ring of sorcery (+1 NDBS)

    F3 (astral fire, bane fire and fire arrow)
    E2 (Hammer & earth boots)
    S5 (He is immortal, so no real pb with magic duel)
    D5 (good evocation, conjuration, etc.)
    N4 (gift of health, Relief, supply, vine ogre)

    Dom 8 (frost !)
    Order 3 (max money),
    Solth 3 (not need, unless in the first turn for the firsts mammouths),
    Cold 3 (no comment),
    Growth 3 (supply, money and old mages),
    misfortune 2 (to get some points),
    Magic 1 (for research and more thunder strike / falling frost)

    	8.16 Ctis

    	    	8.16.1 EA Ctis

    	    	    	8.16.1.1 Original guide

    			A Guide to EA C¿tis

    C¿tis is a nation of lizardmen based on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Feel free to read up on these fascinating cultures, but I am not here to discuss them. C¿tis¿s advantages and disadvantages are pretty obvious. While C¿tis might not have the stealthy troops of Pangaea or the broad magic skills of T¿ien Ch¿i, they have many talents at their disposal.

    C¿tissian Troops

    While national troops by and large become obsolete by the late game, having a solid understanding of a nation¿s forces is necessary for a strong early game. A powerful early game position will often translate into a powerful late game position.

    The C¿tissian lizardmen are different in stats from humans in several areas. These are the basic changes that C¿tissians have: slightly more hit points, some natural protection, lower morale, greater magic resistance, slightly higher encumbrance, and slower battlefield movement. Most C¿tissians also have several special abilities to take note of: 50% resistance to poison, swamp survival, and cold-bloodedness.

    Units

    Militia: Like all Militia, the C¿tissian version is cheap, weak, and very vulnerable. Their use is as fodder.

    Light Infantry: The C¿tissian Light Infantry, like all javelin throwers, can be tricky to use. Javelins cannot be thrown far and are quite inaccurate. On the upside, javelins can be quite powerful when they connect with something. It is important to set them up correctly on the battlefield. With only a shield and their scales for protection, don¿t place them at the very front of your forces. Put them slightly behind and at the sides of your frontline troops. Make sure that their formations are not too deep. Give them the orders to Fire Closest (if set near the center) or Fire Archers (if set on the far flanks) to have them get within range of their targets and release two volleys. Some people also feel that giving them no orders is best. Javelins can also be a good counter to troops with high defense skill, because, as with all missile weapons, defense skill doesn¿t come into play.

    City Guard: A very useful unit, the City Guard fills roles both on and off the battlefield. On the battlefield, they can be used as a light version of your Heavy Infantry. Their biggest drawback though is the lack of a helmet. With only their natural protection of 5 protecting their head, they are vulnerable to the occasional head strike, thus reducing their efficiency as heavy infantry as they will take many hits on the frontlines. City Guards can also be used in a defense role for your forts. Each one will act as two soldiers defending a fortification when you are under siege. Remember that an enemy army that takes another turn to break down the gate of a fort, is an army that is doing nothing else. At 10 gold and 10 resources, a number a City Guards can be recruited each month even from low resource areas for little expense.

    Heavy Infantry: Pretty self-explanatory, Heavy Infantry should be placed of the front of the battlefield. Their job is simple, absorb hits, and the C¿tissian Heavy Infantry are very good at this. At a time when 10 is a protection value few units have, their head protection of 18 and body protection of 16 make them very resilient. What is particularly important is that their map movement speed is one. This will slow down any army they are a part of.

    Falchioneer: The Falchioneer is the first of several offense oriented units at C¿tis¿s disposal. They are armed with two falchions. While these swords do not increase defense skill like their cousin the broad sword, they do have a rather high damage of 7 each. Unfortunately, using two weapons reduces the attack skill of the wielder. This can be negated by ambidexterity, but Falchioneers only have an ambidexterity value of 2. What all this means is that their attack skill for each falchion is 8! Luckily, with two falchions, they dish out two swings each round, which helps to increase their chances of scoring a hit. Falchioneers are slightly faster than the other green C¿tissians and braver to boot. Their head and body protection values are identical to the City Guards, which gives them some staying power, but they have no shield, which makes them more vulnerable to archers. In the end, Falchioneers are not the wisest of investments. With a low attack skill and short weapons, many of their attacks will miss or be repelled. Against large enemies who are bad at dodging attacks, Falchioneers are a good choice, but against the majority of forces that you will go against, there are better troops C¿tis has.

    Slave Warrior: The second offensive unit for C¿tis, the Slave Warrior is the first of the tan lizardmen that have been enslaved by the other C¿tissians. The Slave Warrior is good on the attack, very good. Like the Falchioneer, the Slave Warrior has two weapons (a trident and a bite), but unlike the Falchioneer, the Slave Warrior is actually capable of hitting things, quite reliably too. They have everything an offensive unit needs: high strength, good attack skill, multiple weapons, good morale, and good speed. These things all combine into a formidable unit. Slave Warriors are have poor defense skill and little protection, a bad combination. Finally, while their resource cost is low at 3, Slave Warriors cost 12 gold, which isn¿t cheap when you take into account how fragile they are. Great care must be taken when placing them on the battlefield.

    Elite Warrior: Possibly my most favorite C¿tissian unit, Elite Warriors may be expensive at 14 gold and 9 resources, but you get what you pay for. Elite Warriors are even braver than their lesser cousins and have better attack skill. The biggest upgrade though is the addition of a scale mail cuirass. This makes them more survivable in melee and reduces their vulnerability to archers.

    Runner: The Runner should probably be renamed the Flanker as that is it¿s primary use. The Runner¿s stats are almost identical to the Slave Warrior¿s, making them good on the attack but bad on the defense. The two most notable differences between the Runner and the Slave Warrior are that Runners are armed with spears instead of tridents and Runners are faster, obviously. They are not as fast as cavalry, but as C¿tis, you don¿t have access to cavalry. They are useful for flanking the enemy and attacking undefended archers. Since archers are rarely good in melee, the Runner¿s poor defense skill and low protection matter less, and they can reach archers quickly as well. On a special note, their map movement is three, allowing them to be brought along with light cavalry and Lizard Chariot armies.

    Sacred Serpent: (Sacred Unit)
    The first of two sacred units that EA C¿tis has, the Sacred Serpent is very important for the armies of C¿tis. As you know by now, many C¿tissians have low morale. One of the ways of solving this problem is by using Sacred Serpents. They have a powerful Standard +10 ability that will greatly help with morale. Only a few Sacred Serpents can turn a group of cowards into very brave fighters. There are two basic ways to use the Sacred Serpent¿s standard effect. The first way is too simply place them in the desired squad. The second way is to place them in their own squad to have them avoid direct combat, since they are poor at absorbing hits, and design them to be near the squad whose morale they are supposed to boost when fighting starts. An example is this: Sacred Serpents are slightly faster than Heavy Infantry, so placing them in the same squad could result in the Serpents getting ahead of the Heavy Infantry and taking the initial round of hits. Instead, place the Sacred Serpents in their own squad slightly behind the Heavy Infantry. Not only will this keep the Serpents from being of the frontlines, but also protects them from enemy archers set to fire closest. Sacred Serpents are capable of being recruited from any fort with a temple, but they are NOT useful for an uber bless strategy. They are simply too expensive at 30 gold and not good enough in battle for a bless strategy. Good blesses for a Sacred Serpent are fire (to make it¿s great attack skill even better), water (to help it¿s terrible defense skill), and air (to protect against archers).

    Lizard Chariot: While Lizard Chariots are expensive, they can be well worth it. Of course their high cost makes it difficult to recruit large numbers of them quickly, but they are available in every fort so you have some flexibility with them. Lizard Chariots match the Runner¿s map movement and battlefield movement. That speed allows them to be good flankers, but with a defense skill of 14, protection values of 16 body and 20 head, and good morale (as far as C¿tissians are concerned) they can also be used as frontal attackers as well. There are two things to be aware of. Since Lizard Chariots are so expensive and tramplers usually accumulate fatigue faster than most units, it is inadvisable to use them in cold provinces. Usually, as C¿tis, you try to avoid the cold already, but in a province with a cold scale of two, a Lizard Chariot will have a total fatigue value of 48 after attacking four times, which will typically take only two rounds of attacking! Avoid cold provinces with Lizard Chariots at all costs. Second, and much less important, unlike most C¿tissians, Lizard Chariots do not have swamp survival. This means that they won¿t be able to move through swamps at full speed. It also means that if they stop in a swamp and start starving, which could easily happen since they consume a lot of supplies, they have no chance of finding food on their own. As far as what Lizard Chariots are useful against, lightly armored troops are their specialty, but they are willing to run over anything smaller than themselves. With a severe lack of archers and cloud spells, they can help EA C¿tis deal with glamoured units. If you are using Lizard Chariots in conjunction with smaller troops, it is important to leave their rear open, so if they retreat, no friendly units will get squished.

    Serpent Dancer: (Sacred Unit, Capital Only)
    The Serpent Dancer is the second recruitable sacred unit of EA C¿tis, and it¿s single capital-only unit. The majority of the Serpent Dancer¿s stats are nothing special with the exception of it¿s defense skill, which is 16. This makes them quite difficult to hit in combat. They are armed with snake staves, which are magical weapons. If you happen to get hit early in the game with ethereal units, Serpent Dancers should be an effective counter against them. The snake staff will also poison those it strikes, allowing Serpent Dancers to wear down enemies that can¿t hit them. On the downside, with their complete reliance on only their scales for protection, they are very vulnerable to archer fire, and anything that can hit them will usually do a reasonable amount of damage if not outright kill them. Serpent Dancers may be fragile, but they are also cheap at 20 gold and 2 resources. There are primarily two blesses that the Serpent Dancers benefit from. One is a water bless, which would make them nearly untouchable in combat. Second is an air bless, which would greatly reduce their vulnerability to archers. Another thing worth mentioning is that Serpent Dancers are 100% immune to poisons. This makes them useful in situations when you plan on employing poison strategies on the battlefield. Despite their cheapness, it is dangerous to use a bless strategy with Serpent Dancers. Nations with access to water magic and nations with cold dominions can quickly wear down Serpent Dancers. Of course, it is best to experiment and come to your own conclusion.

    Commanders

    Taskmaster: (Leads 40 Troops)
    The most basic of army leaders that C¿tis has, Taskmasters can lead up to 40 units. They are cheap in both gold and resources, making them a good choice when you are on a budget.

    Commander of C¿tis: (Leads 40 Troops)
    The name pretty much says it all. Just like the Taskmaster, a Commander of C¿tis can lead up to 40 units. The difference is in cost and quality. Commanders cost a little more in gold and a decent amount in resources. They are equipped exactly the same as C¿tissian Heavy Infantry. This makes them substantially more difficult to kill than Taskmasters.

    Lizard Lord: (Leads 80 Troops)
    If a durable army commander is what you are looking for, then the Lizard Lord is what you want. Costing twice as much as a Taskmaster and more resources than a Commander of C¿tis, a Lizard Lord is not cheap. They are tough enough to take on most unequipped assassins (it is nice to be 50% resistant to poison), and arrows and a stray enemy unit or two will have a difficult time taking a Lizard Lord down. They are also capable of leading 80 units, twice as much as a Taskmaster or Commander.

    Hierodule: (Leads 0 Troops, Level 1 Priest)
    Hierodules are weak, level one priests (or priestesses, to be more specific). Bringing them along with armies for bless purposes is not a bad idea when you have your sacred troops spread out on the battlefield, and don¿t have a Lizard King to cast Divine Blessing. It is not too hard to have one Hierodule for each sacred squad. Their availability also makes them useful to spam Banishment spells when an opponent throws undead or demons at you. The other main use for Hierodules is to have them go around your empire and build temples. Hierodules are incapable of leading troops.

    High Priest of C¿tis: (Leads 40 Troops, Level 2 Priest)
    A High Priest of C¿tis is a level two priest, which allows him to cast Sermon of Courage. Remember that I said that there are a couple of ways to help some of the C¿tisssians¿ poor morale? The Sacred Serpents is the first. The second way is using Sermon of Courage. It is a good idea to have at least one High Priest of C¿tis or Lizard King with each army to cast Sermon of Courage on your forces. Fortunately it is not that hard of a thing to do. You are capable of recruiting a High Priest from any fort with a temple, just like the Hierodule. One of the nice things about them is that they can lead up to 40 units and, thus, can substitute for a Taskmaster or Commander of C¿tis. Finally, if there is one commander that you have to deal with old age with, it is the High Priest. Still, they are only occasionally old, and the loss of a single High Priest is rarely something to complain about.

    Shaman: (Leads 10 Troops, Level 1 Astral Level 1 Nature Mage)
    Shamans are anything but power-casters. First off, they are cheap, as far as mages go, and they are recruitable everywhere. Interestingly, Shamans are sacred and yet are not priests. This is both good and bad. The good part is that their upkeep is halved, and they will benefit from any bless that you have (since they are spell casters, an earth bless is best for them). The bad part is that a fort will need a temple before you can recruit them. They have a number of uses off the battlefield. The fact that their initial cost is good and upkeep is low makes Shamans useful in the research department. Though they are not as powerful of researches compared to Sauromancers, their low cost allows you to recruit more of them. Shamans are also capable of casting several ritual spells. One is Arcane Probing. C¿tis has a noticeable lack of astral pearls, despite having mages who have skill in astral magic, so get some astral pearls through trading or alchemization to start Probing. Haruspex is another site searching spell Shamans can cast, though not without a little help. Have a Sauromancer forge a Thistle Mace for a Shaman and viola, you can cast Haruspex. Since C¿tis actually has a nature gem income to begin with (two gems to be specific), it is easier to cast Haruspex turn after turn than it is to cast Arcane Probing. The Shaman is also capable of summoning up two of C¿tis¿s national summons, Sirrushes and Couatls, and with a little help, three. With a Thistle Mace, a Shaman is capable of summoning Monster Toads. Shamans¿ use on the battlefield is much more focused. Luck and Body Ethereal are both great spells to cast on Lizard Chariots or Behemoths. Magic Duel is a great way to eliminate enemy astral mages, though the spell requires an astral pearl. Protection is a nice buff spell for your troops. Where Shamans really shine is in Communion. While one or two Shamans can be the Communion Masters and the other Shamans are Communion Slaves, much more powerful spells can be accessed if a Couatl is used as the Master.

    Reborn: (Leads 10 Troops, Level 2 Death Mage)
    Reborn cost 100 gold and 1 resource, which makes them cheaper than Shamans but more expensive in the long run, because Reborn are not sacred. They are recruitable everywhere, so that¿s always a plus. Off the battlefield, Reborn are excellent for forging Skull Staves. Try to get a hold of a Dwarven Hammer as soon as you can, so you can forge Skull Staves, and other items, for a reduced gem cost. Skull Mentors can also be forged for Reborn to use. This is especially a good idea if you decide to go with a drain scale. Skull Mentors free up your Sauromancers to do more important things too. Reborn are good for summoning up Black Servants, which are important because C¿tis suffers from a complete lack of scouts. Until you can find a province where scouts are recruitable, you will have to rely on Black Servants, and in the Early Age, I either have rotten luck or scouts are hard to come by. The Reborn can give himself a Skull Staff to summon Spectres, to help diversify your magic, and Mound Fiends, who are used primarily used to reanimate hordes of skeletons. A Reborn with a Skull Staff can also summon up Behemoths, which are powerful on the battlefield if you have a Shaman to cast Luck and Body Ethereal on it. They can cast Dark Knowledge, or you can just summon a Revenant to do it. Revenants and Reborn both can forge Black Bows of Botulf, which will put a damper on any SC. On the battlefield, Reborn have only a few uses. They can be skelly spammers by casting Raise Skeletons repeatedly in battle. Even only a few Reborn doing this can result in a swarm of Longdead on the battlefield. They are also great for throwing out Disintegrate constantly when taking on a SC late in the game. By and large though, with the exception of research efficiency, which Shamans are the best at anyways, there is nothing a Reborn can do that a Sauromancer can¿t do better. Normally money limits your high-end mage recruitment, but Sauromancers are fairly cheap. Use Reborn if you are pinching every penny.

    Sauromancer: (Leads 10 Troops, Level 3 Death Level 1 Nature Mage, Random 110% DNWS)
    In case you are curious about that Random 110% DNWS, that means that Sauromancers have a 100% chance for +1 to either death, nature, water, or astral magic as well as an extra 10% chance for yet another +1 to one of those paths. Sauromancers are the power behind C¿tis. No nation in the Early Age can match C¿tis¿s skill in death magic. Yes, Helheim can recruit level three death mages, but those cost twice as much as Sauromancers and are capital only. While Sauromancers are cheaper and available everywhere, most nations most powerful mages have three levels in one path, two in another, and have that 110% random thing going on. Sauromancers are not quite that powerful. Their focus is clearly on death magic. Two nice things about EA C¿tis¿s Sauromancers is that they have 100% resistance to poison and have 10 protection. A common use for Sauromancers is to use them as skelly spammers on the battlefield, which is a good way to wear an army down. A Sauromancer who gets an astral random is vulnerable to Magic Duel, but when used in conjunction with Shamans as Communion Slaves, he can become a very powerful death mage on the battlefield. A level 4 death Sauromancer with a Skull Staff can summon up a large number of Ghosts each turn. A level 4 death Sauromancer, or level 5 if you get really lucky, with a Skull Staff can summon up 26 and 29 Longdead Horsemen each turn, respectively. About 25% of your Sauromancers can summon up Bane Lords, who, with the right equipment, make great thugs. A level 4 death Sauromancer with a Skull Staff can cast Manifestation, a fantastic remote assassination spell. C¿tis can easily spam Manifestation. Ghost Riders will not take enemy provinces for you but has a good chance of knocking out whatever is located in the province. Ghost Riders is only castable by a rare level 5 Sauromancer with a Skull Staff unless you throw in a Skullface too. I can not overestimate how important Tartarian Gate is for C¿tis. Tartarians are wonderful for magic diversification. It is wise to set up a strategy to either get the Chalice or cast Gift of Health. These two things will allow all the Tartarians you summon to be top notch. Know that you will need to cast Gift of Reason on most of them, but that is done easily enough by a Couatl with a Moonvine Bracelet. A Sauromancer given the right equipment can summon your national SC killer, the Devourer of Souls. Have your rare Sauromancers cast Twiceborn on themselves so you won¿t lose them if they die in friendly dominion. Another important thing to do is to cast Well of Misery. C¿tis¿s hunger for death gems is insatiable. Wither Bones will force any opponent to think twice about using undead against you.

    Lizard King: (Leads 120 troops, Level 3 Priest, Capital Only)
    The first of two capital only commanders for EA C¿tis, the Lizard King is the most powerful priest at your disposal. If you are pursuing a bless strategy, Lizard Kings are invaluable. They can cast Divine Blessing, which will bless all of your sacred units on the battlefield. They can lead a whopping 120 units! Lizard Kings also have good stats for a priest, but at 280 gold and 5 resources, protect them well.

    Lizard Heir: (Leads 80 Troops, Level 1 Priest, Capital Only)
    The very last recruitable commander C¿tis has is capital only, not that you are going to need a lot of these. They have about two uses. First, Lizard Heirs can lead map movement three units. Second, they make good thugs. If you have a water nine bless, they will mow down many units in one round. Of course fatigue is a problem in such instances.

    National Summons

    Sirrush: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 5 Astral 1 Nature 1 Summon Requiring 10 Astral Pearls
    Paying ten astral pearls for a nation that doesn¿t have an initial astral pearl income is not cheap. It is too bad too, because Sirrushes are quite nice. With high attack skill and strength and three weapons, these guys are great on the attack. They have crappy defense skill but having a lot of hit points and good protection helps to even things out. With a water nine bless, Sirrushes can be brutal. Most of the time you will have better things to do with your astral pearls, but if you have a good bless, consider making use of them.

    Monster Toads: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 5 Nature 2 Summon Requiring 8 Nature Gems
    You will get three Monster Toads with each casting of this spell. Monster Toads should never be used against anything size five or larger. They are simply not good in melee. They are good at spreading poison however, and their horrible attack skill doesn¿t come into account when trampling. Monster Toads¿ two main problems are low protection and terrible defense skill. These two things result in Toads dying quickly. A water nine bless is great for them. Other blesses that are also good are nature and air. No matter how powerful an astral bless you take, Monster Toads will always be vulnerable to spells like Soul Slay. Unless you plan on using lots of poison on the battlefield, don¿t even bother with Monster Toads.

    Couatl: (Level 3 Nature Level 3 Astral Mage, Level 2 Priest) Conjuration Level 6 Nature 1 Astral 1 Summon Requiring 40 Nature Gems
    Couatls will be your heavy lifters in nature and astral magic. They can fill a variety of roles, such as forging Moonvine Bracelets and casting Gift of Reason on Tartarians. Couatls can reach insane magic levels if in a Communion with Shamans. Couatls can also cast Acashic Record. It is an expensive spell, but it will give you the gems of other magic paths that C¿tis has such a hard time getting.

    Scorpion Man: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 8 Earth 1 Fire 1 Summon Requiring 12 Earth Gems
    EA C¿tis will have a heck of a time summoning up Scorpion Men, but if you have extra earth gems lying around and a mage to summon them, conjure some up. Scorpion Men are all around good units. They have a plague bow and a gaze of fear for ranged weapons, and in melee they have a pincer, a stinger, and an enchanted sword. None of their stats are bad, and Scorpion Men are resistant to both fire and poison. Astral, air, and death blessings are the least useful for them, but, honestly, any bless they have will simply be a boon on an already capable unit.

    Devourer of Souls: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 9 Death 6 Summon Requiring 30 Death Gems
    The Devourer of Souls has mainly one objective, and that is to kill SCs. While it has a good attack skill, one must take into account that SCs take things to the extremes, and SCs will often have very high defense skill. Luckily, all it takes to kill a SC is just one hit. The attack is also not resistible by any means. Sending the Devourer solo against a SC is a quick way to lose the Devourer. Instead, send him in with backup in the form of mages. Spells like Tangle Vines and Bonds of Fire are good for making the SC a sitting duck for the Devourer. Once again, a water nine bless is an excellent choice, as is a fire bless. Know that the Devourer of Souls is a unique summon, just like the Elemental Royalty.

    General Tactics
    Skelly Spam: A tactic you can always fall back on for EA C¿tis, having your Sauromancers or Reborn cast Raise Skeletons turn after turn will result in a swarm of Longdead on the battlefield. While Skelly Spamming will not result in lots of dead enemies, it will wear done most opponents¿ armies. Later on, possibly with a Communioned Couatl, you can cast Relief to reduce the downtime for your mages when they get too fatigued.

    Debilitating Darkness: Although not a cheap combo to use, casting Darkness and Rigor Mortis on the battlefield will wear down some of the toughest opponents out there. Make sure your army is primarily composed of undead, and you will have to have a scout travel with the army carrying death gems if you want to cast these several times before returning to a lab.

    Summoned Army: Casting spells like Raise Skeletons, Undead Horde, and Summon Lammashtas will result in an entire undead army being summoned on the battlefield in a short amount of time. It is expensive if you use it time and time again, but it is great for tricking the enemy into thinking you are much weaker than you really are.

    Life Draining: Have a bunch of level four Sauromancers cast Drain Life on enemy SCs and thugs. Later on, consider spamming Disintegrate against particularly powerful SCs.

    Terrorize: All of your Sauromancers can cast Terror, and it¿s little brother, Frighten. Even brave armies will quickly rout.

    C¿tissian Special: This set of spells is difficult and expensive for EA C¿tis to cast, but it still can be done. First off, you will need a level four nature mage (just give a Sauromancer with a nature random a Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet). Have him cast Serpent¿s Blessing. Then have a level three nature and level one water mage (give a Sauromancer with a water random a Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet) cast Foul Vapors. Finally, have a level four water mage (give a Sauromancer with a rare two water random a Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea, or use an independent or summoned mage with two water) cast Quagmire. Have mages spam Poison Cloud and make use of Monster Toads, Bog Beasts, and other poisonous creatures. The idea is to make the battlefield as unpleasant for the enemy as possible. The longer most armies remain on the battlefield, the weaker they will get. The C¿tissian Special is best cast when you are defending an important fort. Feel free to use the various components of the Special when the opportunity presents itself. Alternatively, since EA C¿tis¿s Sauromancers are 100% resistant to poison, you can skip Serpent¿s Blessing by just using undead and other poison immune summons.

    Expanding Your Magic
    EA C¿tis is strong in death magic but is severely lacking in other paths. Couatls are castable by your Shamans and can cover nature and astral magic. A Sauromancer with the right equipment can summon a Faery Queen to cover air magic, though you will have to empower her or forge a Tome of High Power to forge air boosters. Spectres can cover earth magic, though they will be weak, and help with water magic (a Spectre that get two water can use a Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea to cast Streams from Hades). Lamia Queens are expensive but can cover blood magic. By far the best way to expand your magical diversity is to summon Tartarians. By the time you can summon Tartarians, hopefully you will have a lucky level five death mage. Give him a Skull Staff and a Skullface so he can start summoning them up. Try to get the Chalice or cast Gift of Health, otherwise, only a small portion on them will be able to cast spells.

    Scales

    Order/Turmoil: This one is simple. Take order, order three preferably. You need lots of gold for all those Sauromancers that you will recruit.

    Productivity/Sloth: This one is not so simple. Going with productivity will allow you to make use of C¿tissian Heavy Infantry and Lizard Chariots more easily and will make early game expansion easier. Productivity is less useful as the game goes on though. Sloth will force you to rely more on City Guards for your frontline duties and will make expanding early on more difficult. On the upside, going with sloth gives you points. Choose the scale that best fits your play style.

    Heat/Cold: Go with a minimum of heat two, because that is your default. You should consider going with heat three. One reason is that temperature scales vary even in good conditions. Secondly, with C¿tis you really don¿t want to fight in cold provinces. This acts as an extra bit of protection against that. Plus, if you have to fight in heat three, that will affect both sides most of the time.

    Growth/Death: Very few commanders in C¿tis will suffer from old age, and C¿tissians don¿t eat lots of food. This means you should take a death scale. How much really depends on how many extra points you need. There is absolutely no reason to take growth with EA C¿tis.

    Fortune/Misfortune: C¿tis has two good heroes and two unimportant heroes, which means you should go with misfortune. It will help pay for your order.

    Magic/Drain: C¿tis will recruit a lot of Sauromancers, so you can go about this two ways. You can go with magic and gain an edge in research (if you do, only go with magic one, magic two and three are too expensive), or you can go with drain and the Sauromancers will hopefully even things out since you will have a lot of them (never go with just drain one). If you plan on focusing heavily on Skelly Spamming, it is better to go with a magic scale so you can cast Raise Skeletons more often.

    Pretenders

    I am not going to go into specifics here. Overall a rainbow pretender, to help C¿tis¿s lack of magic variety, or a SC pretender, to help with early game expansion, are the two best types to make.

    Well, with any luck, you have learned something about EA C¿tis by reading this.

    	    	    	8.16.1.2 Comments

    			-> Pretender commentary, from experiences: (limited, but will get better as my survival times increase)

    Saurolich: Immortal, undead, and not cold-blooded. Worth noting you're only immortal in your dominion, undead is a vulnerability, and if you make it far enough, you won't be able to use the Jade Mask on your pretender, only your necromancers. You can't depend on that for a late game death boost. Still, you can equip enough, certainly.

    Prince of Death: Though a death pretender is somewhat redundant with C'tis, this, barring the lack of immortality, is in many ways superior to the Saurolich. There's the obvious flying, but in addition to that, you get fear +13 base. Add in the death magic bonus, and you can get some truly ridiculous fear. If you go all the way to 10 death magic, for instance, you get a fear of 20. So, considering pg. 57, your fear would affect 26 squares (longer than some bows), and require a morale check against 14 instead of the base 10 and 6. Also, you save about 35 points, and get an extra dominion candle to boot.

    Mother of Monsters: I wanted to use her, I really did. She seemed fairly tough on paper, but she ends up dying earlier than any of the other combatants when used offensively. The problem is her poison cloud - my first thought was enemy only crowd control, but it can easily deal you more damage than the enemy, even with the 50% resistance. (The Serpent's Blessing spell is later, but definitely worth getting.) You'll often find her exposed or hurting her own troops. You'll need to think very carefully about placing her so she doesn't get swarmed, or she'll go down quicker than you'd expect. Consider giving her all your nature/death summons (most of which are conveniently PR100%), giving your commanders poison rings, placing non-critical mundane troops in close support, or dancers. Even if the dinky skeletons or vine men aren't much from a damage perspective they're much superior from a morale perspective than your regular troops, and conveniently poison resistant.

    It's much easier to use the Mother of Serpents (just be sure to give her the attack order so she doesn't waste her time hiding behind your troops). You can equip her with more and she is much more friendly to mixing with your troops. So not only does she make better use of your normal support, she also comes with her own renewable bodyguard team in the form of several horned serpents. While these guys will go down pretty quickly on their own, they combine nicely with a rushing strategy. Put her slightly in the front, they get the first arrows, when and if they're down, your troops are there to take more blows. A few less troops to replace and a lot more momentum. She won't win battles by herself, or make you win the unwinnable, but you'll go through 'fair' fights with a lot less casulties. Against some independents, you can go fairly far with just 30 light infantry and 10 city guards and one Mother of Serpents.

    The healing is almost a nonfactor, but it is nice icing on the cake. The mother of serpents is definetly my favorite pretender so far, and easy to use, though not as overpowering as say, a Wyrm. Oh, and unlike the Mother of Monsters, she'll dramatically benefit from barkskin.

    I haven't tried the Cyclops, though I am interested if anyone else has. He's the only Ctis pretender with a three base in earth. That might enable some C'tis strats that no other C'tis pretender would allow, or it may just be a minor event.

    My early research often goes in a drive for black servent, followed by shades. I was thinking ethereal would combine with the heat scales and encumbrance and low mr of ulm, nicely. But it turns out that EA Ulm has a surprisingly low encumbrance. So, I'm thinking instead I might try for Black Servants followed by a beeline to raise skeletons/undead, then finally Dark Knowledge, than finally the nature scrying spell, since luck without order often gets me that nice shaman.

    Now, I'm seriously considering bowing to pressure and trying an order scale or two... What would you suggest as an early game spell build for that?

    If I find that lack of luck too painful, I'll experiment with growth, constant over-taxation, and militia patrols. I don't expect it to go very far, but I'll hit the math and give it a try-out. After all, I already made the mistake of getting confused about how much income a Tel City/Fort brings in. It's only somewhere around 25% extra, right? Hardly reason enough to save up for a city/fort when forests and hills are available.

    When you take death scales, does that influence your starting position any? I've only played a few games, all on randomly generated maps, and while it may be coincidence, all my death scale games have surrounded me in wastelands.

    Come tomorrow, I'll have a day off to hammer out these ideas of mine with some practice. Thanks again for the original posts and later responses.

    P.S. Don't Lammashtas attack your own mage? I heard somewhere that you can place them at the edge of the battlefield with a summon, retreat order and they'll likely survive.

    [response:
    Lammashstas--yes, they do attack your own forces, particularly if you have some ahead of your mage, like an archer decoy. I think they must do an "attack closest" order.

    Prince of Death: while fear +20 does have an AOE of 26, that's not the same thing as a *radius* of 26. It's 26 squares around the POD, arranged in a semi-random fashion that will generally be circle-ish, with a radius of 4-5. So, don't try to rout archers from across the battlefield with this.
    ]

    [comment:
    OK, first off, I have never had as much trouble with Lammashtas as most people on this board apparently have had. There is a chance they will backfire and attack your own forces, but, in my experience, they seem to attack the enemy much more often.

    Saurolich: I like him. Giving him some earth, fire, and air makes him a hard hitting SC early on, and later on he can make use of those summons, items, etc. that you have a difficult time getting access to. The fact that he is immortal also makes it so you can use him a bit more liberally than you would others. Putting all that magic on him can be quite expensive though.

    Prince of Death: The PoD is rarely a bad choice. If you are not sure what to go with, a PoD is a safe bet.

    Mother of Monsters: I have never used her, but after checking her out, I would say that her real advantage is being a titan-like pretender with rainbow mage-like easy access to other paths of magic. Mind you, she doesn't do either as good as the actual titans and rainbow mages. She is awfully expensive though with such weak starting magic, low dominion, and the obvious difficulty of using her in battle. I would say that there are better choices out there, but don't take what I say as the final word.

    Mother of Serpents: I have only used her once and briefly at that. To me, her healing powers are primarily useful for healing herself if she gets hurt in combat. She is not as tough as other titans, but her stats are not bad. Those snakes she wields in combat are limited in power. They might be useful against the normal riffraff, but you should give her an item to take advantage of her great strength (which you probably already do). I have two main complaints about her. One, she is expensive. She has better dominion than MoM and better magic too, but it is more difficult to get access to other magic, which leads me to my second problem. She doesn't really offer EA C'tis anything that they don't already have. Death and nature are the two paths that your national mages best cover. With such difficultly in diversifying magic, a pretender with at least one path in another magic is preferred. You can put other magic on her, it is just going to be a bit expensive. If you want a pretender with multiple paths and be a powerful SC, the Saurolich is a better choice in my opinion.

    Cyclops: Once again, we have an expensive titan. C'tis is not really in need of lots of earth magic. Some is good no doubt, but you can get that with other pretenders. Also, he has a penchant for losing that one eye of his.

    Going with an order scale: I am not sure why you would need to change your magic strategy because of an order scale.

    I am also not sure why you are constantly over taxing your provinces and patrolling them. I can only guess that it has to do with having little income without order, or maybe you are not expanding fast enough.

    I don't believe taking a death scale affects where you start.
    ]

    [2nd response:
    I'm not generally over-taxing my provinces, but I was considering that because of my negative income modifier. I may have to go with order after all.

    About changing my magic strategy? Well, to be honest, it wasn't really about going to an order scale, except on not spending as much on commander. It had more to do with being uncertain about my magic strategy.

    So, you'd recommend diversifying magic away from my nation's strengths?

    Now, oddly enough, I've built twenty militia and a taskmaster, and my income hasn't gone down one bit. In fact, 40 produces the same result. Does this mean that the 'cost / 15' is rounded down, or truncated? So, 10 and a taskmaster is oh, 100 gold down, no monthly payments. And why don't I see any upkeep for my taskmaster? Anyways, if I had a farmland i was willing to exploit, it could pay for itself fairly quickly.

    I agree. The mother of monsters is far from a good choice, but she interests me - I may play her simply to see if I can use her without killing my own troops. Later, though, and only in singleplayer when I'm able to avoid dying regularly.

    Other than giving myself one easy opponent whose always the same race, do you have any advice on any particular map settings that it will make it easier for me?

    I certainly will refocus my fort building efforts and I'll take order three in my next game. Though I will miss seeing the random events. I am avoiding rainbow mages, though, simply because too much magic variety is a bad thing at this stage- simple data overload.

    I think, since I'm living in Florida, and my state's recently been on fire, I should consider switching to Abyssia. I may not be serious, but its the ultimate roleplaying extreme! Yeah... I hear I can scan in a map of the state, if I just throw in some heat scales and fire magic, its true to life! No water mages allowed. We're conserving water, ya hear. Heh.
    ]

    [3rd response:
    Your income doesn't go down when you recruit troops, but your upkeep does increase. Every turn your treasury accumulates (income - upkeep).

    I think it's been mentioned that stronger indies make for an easier game. IMHO this also applies to larger maps--crowded maps always result in AIs ganging up on me (because I'm weak in the beginning, having no bonuses to production like Impossible AIs get) before I'm ready. I like Glory of the Gods (multiplayer) with 6 or 7 AIs, tops.

    I always take Order-3 Misfortune-3, mostly because I don't care about heroes and expand quickly enough not to notice the bad events (chance of events doesn't scale linearly with empire size). Sloth is often a good pick, depending on your race. The only times I've ever taken Death scales I've regretted it, although this may have something to do with my playstyle. Expensive blesses are a lot of fun but not generally as effective for me as good scales and terrific mages (I usually only play races with good recruitable-anywhere mages, like EA C'tis, LA Agartha, pre-3.08 Helheim, Arcoscephale, EA Ermor).
    ]

    -> Armor and natural protection
    Say... When my pretender or commanders have natural protection and I give them armor... Does natural protection supplement armor, or is it replaced? If I give a test Cyclops (basic prot. 20, earth +3 prot) black steel plate and helmet, I get a protection of 32. How exactly does it combine?

    Answer:
    Natural protection and armor protection will combine but will not equal the total. IE you give a Lizard Lord (natural protection 5) a full scale mail (protection 14) and the total will be 17, not 19. The more natural protection a unit has the less he will gain from armor. I don't know what the actual equation is to figure this out though.

    IIRC the Dom2 formula for combining natural and armor protection was something like:

    (Armor + Natural) - (Armor*Natural/40)

    	    	8.16.2 MA Ctis, Miasma

    			8.16.2.1 Dom-II guide

    		(Guide based on dom-II shrapnel forums for Ctis miasma theme)

    	-> Don't build troops at all, just buy hordes of marshmasters.
    Most important spells to rush at are quickness, relief and animate skeletons.

    In midgame just drain the world in skeletons. In lategame you can then set up tartarian factories or stuff like that.

    As pretender i would say father of serpents with n4d4 and good scales.

    [note, quickness in dom-III doesn't make mages cast double per turn so not really important in dom-III.
    Also, high dominion is really important (because of income bonus) so dom-9 or 10 are recommended.
    Two example builds:
    Awake Wyrm, No paths, order+3, production -3, heat +3, magic 1, luck 1, Dom-10
    Dormant PoD, Death 5, Air 4, order+3, production -3, heat +3, magic 1, luck 1, Dom-10
    ]

    	-> Miasma is a good nation with which to try out the Astral Wyrm I wrote about in the guide to buffing thread. He has Swamp Survival, so he's immune to the nasty effects of your dominion, and he benefits from the research paths Boron suggested.

    Take a Wyrm, Astral 3, dominion strength 6, and a castle. That leaves enough points for 6 positive scales. Distribute those as you like. I'd probably go with magic 3 and luck 3, but then I'm a bit weird, and enjoy playing with luck - perhaps more than its worth On turn 1, recruit a Lizard King, and on turn 2 make him your prophet. Its always fun to have a prophet who can Smite Meanwhile, have your Wyrm research Alteration 1. Once you've got that, your Wyrm is ready to go out and conquer, since he can cast Personal Luck. Then start researching Enchantment. That will eventually get you a few things. At ench 2, you can add Astral Weapon to the Wyrm's script, and at 3, Astral Shield. The big serpent is now a force to be reckoned with! The great thing is that your Marshmasters can now cast Animate Skeletons - one of the most annoyingly effective tactics in the game. I'd then reseach Alteration 2, so you can cast quickness before beginning the Skeleton spam. After that, you're on your own as far as research goes, althought getting Ivy Crowns and Vine Ogres is a solid strat - and don't forget that Miasma starts with Summon Bog Beast as its national spell - and that Vine Ogres are immune to poison.

    As far as troops go, the combination of City Guard and Light Infanty you start with works pretty well. Put the City Guard out front to do the fighting, and the Light Inf. slightly behind and to one side set to fire closest, so they'll use their javelins. I myself can never resist buying a force of runners to be used as flankers set to attack rear

    If you do it this way, you give up the magical diversity of a rainbow pretender, but you gain a pretender who can conquer on his own, and much better scales. Later in the game, you can even use you Wyrm as a Comminion Master, and a bunch of Shamen as Communion Slaves for some heavy-duty Astral casting. Note that the Shamen are very cost-effective researchers, since they're sacred, and you'll likely have a bunch of them around.

    Hope this helps.

    [Note, Low astral on pretender is asking for mind duel and quick death by astral mages. So I'd suggest a Wyrm with no paths.
    Also, I'd recommend for this build to build a strong blood economy (with Hierodules and task masters) and empower a few marsh masters in order to compensate for luck of diversity by adding the all powerfull blood school)
    ]

    	-> You need Swamp Survival, Cold Blood, Poison Immunity, Lifelessness, or Undead status on your god. Dominion is always good, but in this case acts as a money multiplier, and an outright attack on nearby units. So very high dominions are a must. A Dominion of 6 is completely insufficient. You should be looking at 8 or 9.

    Don't even consider pretenders that have even a small chance of getting diseased, so bypass any and all thoughts of Master Druids or Lords of the Gates.

    The list of possible gods is quite large, you could have a Golden Naga or a Master of Serpents, for example. But you aren't going to, because buying Dominion is so good and so expensive. It costs 105 points to buy an Oracle up to Dominion 9, it costs 147 points to buy a Prince of Death up to Dominion 9, it costs 196 points to buy a Scorpion King up to Dominion 9, and it costs a hefty 252 points to get a stupid Naga up to speed.

    So you are looking at a money multiplier, so you definately want a +$$$ scale setup, because a large Dominion multiplies that bonus. Nevertheless, as noted your troops are kind of a waste a of time, so Sloth is looking pretty good as a way to get points. So Order 3/Sloth3 is a given. Growth is also very good, since you get to multiply both ends of that gold bonus. And of course, you are taking Order to the max, so Misfortune writes itself into the equation. You get small sacred researchers automatically, so Magic is a must. And Heat 2 is a requirement of the theme.

    So your Scales and special theme together cost: 50 points. Order 3/Sloth 3/ Heat 2/ Growth 2/Misfortune 2/Magic 2 is not unreasonable, which are theoretically balanced scales even though they are grossly tilted in favor of the Miasma way of life.

    Marshmasters can be built anywhere, and you have a money bonus, so expect to mad castle like, well, mad. Maximize the benefits of that by taking a Wizard's Tower. Total cost: 170.

    So now you have 330 points to buy a god, a set of magic, and a Dominion of 9. That can be done. Remember that looks are somewhat deceiving on cost. A Manticore says that it is free. But in practice you are paying 42 points for it over a Dominion 3 God because it starts at dominion 2.

    Decent choices include an Oracle with Astral 9 and Water 2; or a Prince of Death with Death 5 and Earth 3. You can't afford a Vampire Queen at all.

    [Comment:
    Frank: What would one do with either of the pretenders you've suggested? Miasma has no sacred troops to speak of, since they lose the Serpent Dancers, so the point of that Oracle you've suggested can't be the Astral 9 bless. I also can't figure putting water on it, unless you intend to have it teleport about spamming Stellar Cascades or some such. I've never found that Earth 3 alone is enough to turn a pretender like the PoD into a SC - I'd want to have Air for Mistform/Mirror Image.

    I can buy parts of your argument for scales, although I must say that in an MP game Miasma without a combat pretender, with full Sloth and with a Dominion strength of 9 would appear to be saying "ally against me first".
    ]

    [2nd comment:
    Wow, your expansion strategy revolves around Empoisoners with Skull Staves? Or is that the secondary expansion force, behind your Marshmaster force.

    I'm guessing you don't plan on being any sort of early threat since your taking an Immobile and planning on expanding (quickly?) at Construction 4 after you can start expanding as soon as you hit Enchantment 3 and can expand about twice as fast when you hit Alteration 2.

    At the very least I disagree that the Oracle is a 'good' pretender for Ctis Miasma. It has it's merits (easy high dominion) your probably better off with a PoD, Ghost King or a very thin possibility of a Phoenix (if you like/need Fire) with a point less of Dominion (especially since in the unmodded game) Sloth gives C'tis a big edge and 'free' points.
    ]

    	-> mpoisoners equipped Skull Talisman are excellent against independents -- probably greater than 95% success rate at assassinations, and you can start churning them out with no research whatsoever.

    Later, when you have higher levels of spells available, you can power them up with empowering items to make them a good threat against other nations.

    Here's my idea (but keep in mind that I don't play the normal "Free For All" multi-player style -- I play only multiplayer, but I play only styles in which there is Proper Incentive For War, such as 1 team vs. 1 team or Pentagram).

    Oracle, 10 Dominion (oh yes, 10)
    +3 Order, +3 Sloth, +2 Heat, +3 Growth, standard luck/misfortune, +3 Magic
    Mountain Fortress (oh yes, the Mountain Fortress)
    spend the rest of the points on whatever magic you will use to forge items for your Empoisoners

    Start with several Empoisoners, making the first one your Prophet. Each one forges a Skull Talisman for himself and then sets about assassinating. (Keep notes about how many leaders you've assassinated from each province.)

    Then hire the best researcher you can each turn, and research Construction and Enchantment, so that your Empoisoners, equipped with Death-boosting items, can cast bigger "summon undead" spells during assassinations.

    Don't spend any money on troops. Don't spend money on temples unless you've started building a Mountain Fortress in that province. You need a second Mountain Fortress as soon as possible.

    Improvise. Have fun.

    [comment:
    Actually an Empoisoner with Enchantment 1, is as good as one with a Skull Talisman, I have found. Usually indeps are killed just as you fatigue out.

    Although this could be because I tend to try to horde Death gems and don't like equipping units with Skull Talismans unless they are non-caster assassins.
    [[response:
    In my experience Empoisoners casting Summon Skeleton only win about 80% of the time. That's not a high enough win ration to make it doable as an expansion strategy. The Skull Talisman really makes a noticeable difference, and I think part of it might be the free skeleton at the beginning, so that the assassination victim has more than one opponent at a time for most of the battle...

    I admit that this is a highly questionable expansion strategy anyway. Even if your assassins win 100% of their battles, it still takes four or five Empoisoner-turns to take a province (3 or 4 to assassinate all leaders and one to attack). So at best, you can't gain more than one province per turn from turn 8 through 16 or so, and two provinces per turn after that, and so on.

    I'm toying with the idea that one way to optimize this is to sneak right through the low-income provinces and head straight for the high income provinces first...

    And then the poster changes his mind...
    Hm... I wonder if my experience was due to heavy drain scale tiring my Empoisoners out faster or something. I've just done a bit of playtesting, and Empoisoners casting Summon Skeleton/Summon Dead have done fine, except for when the faced a mounted commander. In that case the two Skull Talismans being worn by the prophet Empoisoner saved the day.

    Well, if after all they are effective without Skull Talismans, then this strategy is just a little bit more doable...
    ]]
    ]

    	-> You should probably use a scout or a regular commander to do the actual conquering - no sense to waste an expensive assassin turn! Also, it's a good idea to make a fake attack with the selfsame scout even before bringing the assassinators to the province to see just how many and what type the commanders are, again to save the time of the lizards.

    In my experience an empoisoner wins most anything but knight commanders with the animate skeleton. Sometimes a priest has heavy infantry guards and they get lucky, or a mounted commander might avoid a limping skeleton and attack the lizard instead, but generally it's a risk worth taking, in my opinion.

    	-> A note about early Assassin Expansion:

    You do much better with a Skull Earring than without. Assassins should all make their own earring before leaving home.

    You probably can't Assassinate an Amazon, Lizardmen, or Woodsmen province because they have a tendency to have bodyguards. If you eventually get Bottles of Living Water on these guys, you can start killing Lizard Shamans and such.

    Nothing will bring your victory chance to 100%. But a Bottle of Living Water and a Skullstaff comes really close.

    Mounted Comanders are the death of you. They can personally kill skeletons at more than 1/round.

    	-> Also, if one of your assassins has been ordered to assassinate but there was no assassination attempt, you know that there aren't any commanders left.
    So, if you have two assassins assassinating in a single province, and one of them assassinates a commander and the other doesn't, you know for a fact that all commanders are dead.
    You should notice though that assassinating commanders only works well against indies, because a normal player (or AI) can use his PD to make your assassinations useless.
    [Note, that's only true if you were trying to capture provinces using assassinations. However at mid to end game there's a much better usage for assassins - First, kill enemy commanders (the vulnerable ones, mages, mundane commanders etc.) and causing unrest in enemy production and/or income centers
    ]

    	->  got 8 emposoners with skull staffs and talismans casting the spell that gives like 5 skeletons, the talisman is mainly to help vrs archers/flyers. my empoisoners did a huge amount of damage. also, u can assasinate while u r besieged.
    	sweet 5 - 10 empoisoners casting raise dead ( skull staffs ) assasinating all his comanders would b fun. especially if he had high dominion, it could also prevent him from storming, i just tried it in single player and i killed a golden naga

    	-> unless u want big expensive items for ur empoisoners then i suggest giving your god powers he can use ! your marsh masters/skull staff empoisoners can forge their own stuff 5-10 with skull staffs at the back of the battle on their own can conquer indys. thats 25 - 50 skeletons a turn, the only trouble i have is crossbow, flyers and cavalry. all of which are countered by skull talisman(the skeleton infront takes arrows and stalls fast units. if playing on a map with lots of water water/against a water nation then its worth giving your empoisoners something so they can breathe. also on a random note i had a god with 2 rune smashers and 2 spell focus's casting master enslave on armies that might endanger my empoisoners )

    	->

    			8.16.2.2 DOM-III discussion

    				8.16.2.2.1 Who gets diseased under Miasma dominion?

    Critter				Miasma		Notes
    Vine man/ogres and Ivy king     BAD		don't really care since they have lots of HP and take ages to die
    Tree lords                      BAD		don't really care since they have lots of HP and take ages to die
    Elemental royalty               BAD		Don't use them or use only with regeneration items (to slow down death)
    Abominations                    BAD		don't really care since they have lots of HP and take ages to die
    Trolls                          BAD		regenerating so not much of an issue
    Farie court                     BAD		don't really care since they have lots of HP and take ages to die
    Tarrasque                       BAD		high HP regenerating, don't really care

    Immune are cold blooded, undead and inanimates.

    				8.16.2.2.2 Tips

    -> First off, skellie spam is quite good, although you do need to attain enough critical mass for it to be effective. One or two mages casting fireballs will make something of a difference in a medium sized battle, two skelliespammers won't. But make it 10 on each side, and the skellespam starts to look a whole lot better. I do agree they're less good at this as their EA or LA brother though. More importantly: Foul Vapors at Ench 5 is the spell to shoot for as MA C'tis. It does work a bit slower as the other battlefield destruction spells, so towards end game it looses its relevance, but it does make for a very powerful mid game. Your lizards are poison resistant, so with the appropiate spells (conveniently in enchantment too) you can immunize them. And those skeletons you were spamming before are now the ideal delaying tactic for the poison to take effect. (And, guess what? They're in enchantment too. ) And as we're talking about enchantment anyway: That gift of health I mentioned before? Yeap, that's here too.

    They can also cast the various other useful death and nature spells, (I especially like cloud of death for them, again with the reasoning that your enemy will be busy embroiled in melee with all those skeletons, and poison cloud/breath of the dragon) and 1/4 can communion master if necessary. And to top it of they're one of the very few MA races who can recruit their main mage everywhere.

    At the same time they have the lizard shaman who are not only efficient researchers, but, headed by couatls, also make for powerful communion potential.

    [comment:
        Lets see. Frost brand is not armor piercing and its AOE doesnt affect undead. Sometimes its a really big downside. Hydra skin armor and boots of quickness means death from encumberance unless chassis is undead. So your options are REALLY limited.
    	[[ response:
    Well, yes. Obviously on a chassis that has encumberance problems you'd pick other items (boots of the messanger for example). But yes, you're limited (if you don't manage to find a way to diversify ). You do have a good base setup, but can't adapt to many things your opponent might throw at you. Another big issue you didn't mention is that you can't really get fire/lighting immunity.
    	]]
    ]

    -> Beware rain of stones and its ilk. Don't give in to the temptation of creating armies headed by many mages, unless properly equiped (high prot. armor) or scripted (moss form, body ethereal, bark skin) they may all die in one strike

    -> Good battlefield spells are:
    Serpent blessing, the one that gives 50% poison protection
    Faul vapors, constantly release poison in battlefiled
    rigor mortis, will kill live units so to protect your units also cast:
    life after death, your live units would return as undead in case they die (and mages will become undead upkeep free mages)
    relief, for your mages on units to keep the fight w/o giving in to fatigue

    -> SC department,
    mid game, bane lords
    late game, tartarians

    -> Go for blood economy (with task masters and Hierodules)

    -> Almost always recruit assassins in capital. They're good for raiding and assassinations.

    -> Use shamans for research and communion slaves. Also for curse and horror mark enemy SCs (to horror mark you'll need three shamans, two slaves and one master)

    			8.16.2.3 Miasma/Executor's guide

    Article Author:  Executor

    				8.16.2.3.1 Troops

    I will not go on about troops much, the main point is because C¿tissian troops become obsolete by mid-late game and you can find all this in RamsHead guide also.

    The C¿tissian are different in stats from humans. slightly more hit points, some natural protection, lower morale, greater magic resistance, slightly higher encumbrance, and slower battlefield movement, 50% resistance to poison, swamp survival, and cold-bloodedness.

    Militia
        Bad like all militia.

    Light Infantry
        Never used them efficiently. Low moral, bad protection, die too fast. Have javelins, if your national mages had air, fire and earth they¿d be worth considering with strength of giants, wind guide and flaming arrows.

    City Guard
        No helmet, also slightly lower moral (9), but fairly good protection, 12, can mass them easily enough with only 10 gold 10 resources per head. Also have castle defense bonus 1.

    Heavy Infantry
        Weaker version of swamp guard. Very good protection for absorbing arrows and such. Hold the line fairly good, but also have 9 moral and only 1 map movement, so if your going for heavy infantry better to go for swamp guards.

    Falchioneer
        They have two falchions, but using two weapons reduces the units attack skill. This can be negated by ambidexterity, but Falchioneers only have an ambidexterity value of 2. This means that their attack skill for each falchion is only 8, but with two strikes each this increases the odds to strike a bit. No shield so watch out for archers. It¿s good to have some but not too many Falchoneers.

    Slave Warrior
        Good stats, bad protection, watch where you put them. Higher moral than average (11) and two attacks with the value of 11, very good. I never use them, prefer elite warriors.

    Elite Warrior
        Probably the best C¿tis unit to buy. Even better attack than slave warrior, 12, also two attacks, bust most importantly they have armor, so this makes them rather hard to kill. Also very vulnerable to archers.

    Runner
        Pretty much same stats like slave warrior but faster. Only good for archers.

    Sacred Serpent, Sacred
        Not worth using a bless for, main use is to boots the low C¿tis moral with a standard of 10. Bad defense, get killed easily, a little higher MR than other C¿tis troops, 14.

    Swamp Guard
        Excellent heavy infantry, the only unit worth buying beside elite warrior. Put a couple of sacred serpents to boots morale and they can last very long, but watch out for encumbrance, 8, that¿s even higher in heat 3! Good for keeping the line while your mages cast poison cloud, skelly spam¿

    Poison slinger
        Bad stats but can be used efficiently with the C¿tissina special. Watch where you put them so you don¿t poison your troops or them. They would work best if there were an order fire and hold.

    				8.16.2.3.2 Commanders

    Taskmaster
        Leads 40 troops. Never once bought them, never will.

    Commander of C¿tis
        Leads 40 Troops. Stats of heavy infantry. More difficult to kill than Taskmasters.

    Lizard Lord
        Leads 80 Troops. Even better than Commander and taskmaster, better stats also, but you just want his for his 80 troops leadership.

    Hierodule
        Level 1 Priest. Never found a use for them.

    High Priest of C¿tis
        Leads 40 Troops, Level 2 Priest. Leads troops, casts sermon of courage, very important for C¿tis. Good against undead and demons, can be recruited everywhere. Sometimes I cast life after death and auto-kill them with rime hauberk so they can reanimate.

    Shaman
        Leads 10 Troops, Level 1 Astral Level 1 Nature Mage. Cheap, recruitable everywhere, sacred. Can cast arcane probing and summon national units like Sirrush and Couatl. Good for research, good for battle. Best used in reversed communion with power of the spheres, light of the northern star and soul slay. Summon a Couatl for master enslave and some heavy astral, or nature spells. They can cast magic duel to eliminate some SC and dangerous astral mages. Can cast great buffs like luck, body ethereal, protection, which works best on Behemoths. Also curse for giants and SC and communion for panic or sleep cloud. There are just so many uses for them.

    Marshmaster
        1W2D2N 110% WSDN, leads 10 troops. Marshmasters are what make C¿tis so dangerous. With them recruitable anywhere, no other MA nation can match them in death magic, no not even Ermor because Arch Theurgs are Cap.only. You will have many marshmasters with 3 death and some with even 4. They are mainly used for darkness+skelly spam. If you get a random astral pick you can cast nether darts, excellent spell, can also communion with shamans for large battlefield spells like soul drain. But the most dreadful thing you can do is:

           1. Have your N3W1 marshmaster cast foul vapors, give another marshmaster a thistle mace to cast serpents blessing for 100 PR ( marshmaster are not 100 PR like sauromancers ) equip a W2 marshmaster with a robe of the sea and a water bracelet to cast quagmire and make the battlefield a swamp to slow down the enemy and to lower the stats a little, no effect on you since all your troops have swamp survival , and start casting poison cloud to make the battlefield as unpleasant as possible for your enemy, and also cast storm of thorns, raise skeleton, nether darts, shadow blast to slow them down as much as possible. End result, devastating.
           2. Cast Lichcraft and empower them so they can summon tartarians, give marshmasters Skull Staff and Skullface to cast ghost rider and manifestation. Summon Bane Lords and Wrath Lords, legion of wights.
           3. Marshmaster are also good against thugs/SC with frozen hearth and tangle vines if used properly. One of the best mages in the games in my opinion.

    Lizard King
        Holy 3, capital only, can lead 120 troops. Can cast divine blessing and smite. It¿s very interesting the damage 4-5 can do with smite, but your really want them to defend against undead, demons and dominion kill. Very strong priests, buy a couple of them when you build a second fort, if nothing use them to site search for holy sites.

    Empoisoner
        Assassin, capital only, D1 N1. Can raise skeleton during assassination. Not bad to have a couple of them laying around. They would be incredible good if not capital only, another slight problem with C¿tis is that they have no national spies.

    				8.16.2.3.3 Miasma

    The main problem with MA C¿tis is their disease dominion. While it does hurt your enemy when he invades, and reduces his income by 5% for every dominion point, it hurt you the most. This means it is very hard to use indie mages and to summon Elemental Royalty and such and almost impossible to use indie troops. That¿s the reason you don¿t want a strong dominion, other players feel threatened by it and will attack you, you also don¿t want too week dominion either so you don¿t get dominion killed. C¿tis requires careful-dominion-planning, you need to relay on both your and enemy dominion. Dominion 6 or 7 would be best probably. Another thing to keep in mind, Stone Idols can selectively reduce your dominion in provinces with useful indies, that's astral and earth again.

    				8.16.2.3.4 Pretender choices

    Although MA C¿tis has a variety of pretender to choose, half of them are useless. They can only use lifeless, cold blooded and swamp survival pretenders.

    My suggestion would be to take a strong astral pretender, one that can cast wish, and the reason is this. MA C¿tis has a capacity to clam forge like crazy. You only need to give a W2 marshmaster a water bracelet. By mid-late game you should be the absolute magic powerhouse casting several wishes and summoning several tartarians per turn. But you need to be careful, clamming will leave you with little nature gems and that means no GOR for tarts. So don¿t waste gems on Monster Toads and other useless stuff.

    Besides astral take earth for crystal coin ( a step closer to mind hunt ) and summon golem, a very rare SC that isn¿t affected by your disease dominion, also cutting on heat/sloth should give you enough points to diversify your magic, so air, fire, earth and astral are the paths you want. The only rainbow pretender to chose is the serpent king, can go with that useful for site searching , but I prefer the Oracle, my favorite pretender. You can also afford a SC pretender to help you expand quickly.

    Also another reason to go heavy on astral is to be able to wish for The Chalice if you don¿t forge it first. You need the Chalice for tartarians, and to forge Ring of Sorcery and Ring of Wizardry, you¿ll need those for summoning tartarians.

    As for the paths you don¿t have, astral you need, earth you need, air is useful, fire not so much. You can get a small blood economy going with tartarians also, small.

    				8.16.2.3.5 National Summons

    Sirrush
        Sacred, Conjuration level 5 astral 1 nature 1, 10 astral pearls. I wouldn¿t waste astral gems on them, for EA C¿tis they are worth considering but you most likely will not have a bless strategy with MA C¿tis, and besides that you don¿t have any astral income to begin with. But water bless would be the best probably with their 3 attacks.

    Monster Toads
        Sacred unit conjuration level 5 nature 2, 8 nature gems for 3 toads. Again, work better with EA C¿tis and a water 9 bless. Save your nature gems don¿t waste them on monster toads, you will need them for items and GOR. Monster Toads can trample, work good with the C¿tis special ( mentioned above with the marshmasters ), have poison cloud so watch where you place them, while your troops have poison resistance it is not 100 so you are vulnerable to that also. They have terrible defense protection and magic resistance so watch out for disintegrate soul slay, paralyze¿ My opinion, not worth it.

    Couatl
        Level 3 nature level 3 astral mage, level 2 priest, conjuration level 6 nature 1 astral 1 Summon needs 40 Nature Gems!!! But worth it. Their main use if for heavy lifting via communion and the most important thing, to forge the Chalice, give them a moonvine bracelet for that.

    Scorpion Man
        Sacred unit conjuration level 8 earth 1 fire 1 summon, 12 earth gems. Fairly good units, a little hard to summon with C¿tis, but you have your pretender to do it if needed. They have a plague bow and a gaze of fear for ranged weapons, and in melee they have a pincer, a stinger, and an enchanted sword. EA C¿tis is better with them again. I think they are actually better than the scorpion king pretender.

    Devourer of Souls
        Sacred unit conjuration level 9 death 6 summon, 30 death gems. Main use, to kill SC. All it takes is one strike and the unlucky enemy is dead, so a burning pearl would be a good thing to give, also don¿t send him alone against anyone, that¿s a quick way to lose 30 death gems, send some shamans to cast tangle wines luck and body ethereal. Devourer is a unique summon, once he dies you can summon him again. Again a bless works good, nature, or water or even fire bless.

    				8.16.2.3.6 Scales

    Order/Turmoil
        C'tis income is increased by 1% per level of dominion, and your main mage force, marshmasters, will need a lot of gold for upkeep, so it it's a good choice to go order 3, but I personally like turmoil more. It's useful because if brings you a lot of gems that help diversify your magic

    Productivity/Sloth
        Not good to go heavy on productivity, is becomes less useful as the game goes on, but sloth 3 can make it very dificult to expand quickly. This really depends on the map size in my opinion, on a big map I recommend sloth 2-3, on a smaller map productivity 1.

    Heat/Cold
        Go with a minimum of heat two, because that is your default, but best to go 3 heat because of two reasons, scales are rarely exactly the same everywhere so you will have many provinces with 2 or 3 heat either way, and more points for other scales and pretender, and it affect you less than your enemy.

    Growth/Death
        C'tis doesn¿t really need growth, they have no problems with old age and don't need the supplies, so you should probably take a little death. This scale also depends somewhat on your order/turmoil-luck/misfortune scale. Taking death with misfortune is very bad, and death is very damaging in the long run, so take death but not too much. I personally never go over death 2 and I prefer growth for long games.

    Luck/Misfortune
        This depends on your order/turmoil scales. But do not take death 3 misfortune 3 under any circumstances, this opens some devastating events.

    Magic/Drain
        You can go either way here. C'tis is very good with research and a very strong death nation, thus able to forge a lot of skull mentors, taking drain 2 won't slow you down much and it really gives a lot of extra points, but taking magic 1 will make you the best research nation in the game, no need for magic 3, people rarely take that. I recommend drain 2.

    				8.16.2.3.7 Thoughts

    					8.16.2.3.7.1 Diversifying your magic

    A hard thing to do with MA C¿tis. That¿s why you need to plan ahead with your dominion, all the indie mages will get diseased in your dominion so keep them elsewhere. Using a rainbow pretender is another way to go. You can summon spectres also, maybe lamia queens for blood magic but they are expensive.

    					8.16.2.3.7.2 Expanding

    Somewhat harder to do with C¿tis. You should use elite warriors for early expansion and back them up with swamp gurads. Can also use the empoisoner to take out indie commander and take a province. Research to enc. 3 fast, both for protection and expanding. Your priorities should be Evocation, thaumaturgy and conjuration 2 for site searching and after that enchantment3 for skeletons and alteration 6 for drain life, soul vortex, frozen hearth, mother oak, luck, body ethereal.

    Later on when darkness, rigor mortis, and life after death are researched, use them for hard battles with a combination of C¿tis special and soul drain, nether darts and such. Don¿t forget to keep a scout packed up with death, nature, water and astral gems. Terrorize is a great spell also ( careful affects you also so use it with raise skeleton ), but be sure to cut off any provinces the enemy might retreat to.

    Use cheap battlefield summons like swarm to tie up cavalry for the couple rounds you need. Your main strategy should be tartarian oriented. You will have a somewhat hard middle game, but once you get to tartarians you¿ll be a force to be reckoned with.

    Well of misery, mother oak and gift of health are the global spells you want, not all of them of course, you wouldn¿t last much.

    Use stygian paths and feary trod to surprise your enemy. Leprosy for large armies. Arcane Nexus is the end game spell if you take my advice on astral magic, maybe even cast Utterdark since it doesn¿t hurt you as much as other. Your main force will be tartarians and potentially soulless marshmasters and shamans with life after death and thus 100 darkvision.

    Having golems besides tartarians is good, they are mindless, not undead and not shattered soul 25. Not to mention unaffected by your dominion. But it¿s somewhat an investment to make a SC from a golem. Use them for destroying temples and trampling armies with boots of Behemoth, and when you¿re done just cast returning, don¿t forget to keep those two extra astral gems for the spell. 3E2A Tartarians are the once you want and the once with the enchanted sickle since they have 3 2 2 random paths. If your lucky a 5 water or fire for artillery spells, or maybe even 5 or 7 astral!!! That¿s a master enslave in the first turn if you have a crystal coin and a astral cap.

    					8.16.2.3.7.3 Anti SC tactic

    Drain life is a great spell for SC, so is frozen hearth, and disintegrate also. All these spells can be cast by marshmaster. Don¿t forget the Devourer of Souls. Charm is only nature 3, you will have many N3 mages. A lucky marshmaster can cast vengeance of the dead with a starshine cap ( +1 astral ) or with a Crystal Coin.

    					8.16.2.3.7.4 Getting into water

    You shouldn¿t be considering this until late game when you summon your amphibious tartarians, but in case you are caught in a premature war with a sea nation you should have little trouble getting into water. You have a good water income with C¿tis, so you can cast Naiad warrior ( good unit, has awe+3, recuperating and has heavy protection ), sea King¿s court, he grant his troops water breathing, once you get a water province, you can summon Asp turtles, kraken and Queen of elemental water ( very strong in water has a 30% regeneration I think ) As for items, sea king¿s goblet let¿s you bring 50 units under water, ring of water breathing for thugs/SC, and robe of the sea for water mages.

    You won¿t even need all that, you can cast life after death to get soulless mages and priests that can enter water, and reanimate undead for support.

    C¿tissian troops have a somewhat higher MG than regular troops, 12. And can communion or give boosters for anti-magic which will give you 16 MR. That can be enough even for R¿lyehs mind blast. As for underwater spells you can cast all your enemy can, shark attack, living water and all other spells.

    					8.16.2.3.7.5 Blood magic and blood hunting

    No point in giving your pretender blood magic since you don't really need it. You don¿t need blood magic much or at all, but you can get there if you want. You can summon Lamia queens ( I don¿t recommend, like I said expensive and they don¿t always have blood magic ), and tartarians. Problem with them is shattered soul 25 which makes it difficult to blood hunt with all that pillaging and lab destroying. But you can use them for initial blood hunting and empower regular mages to continue the work.

    Since C¿tis is good with research you should get tartarians by turn 50. Another way to go is to have all your commanders that aren¿t doing nothing blood hunt. Yes they can blood hunt. They just have a very small success rate, something like 5% if I remember correctly, read it in some other thread. But having 20 commander blood hunting gets you there faster. However people rarely do this.

    As for using blood magic, you don¿t need it for summoning Devil and other demonic troops and SC. You will have a heck of a time defending your tartarians from Flambeau and 3x damage against undead/demon items as it is. But having blood to forge all those wonderful unique items is great! The Gift of Kurgi, Sceptre of Corruption, Procas's Axe of Rulership in combination with the other one to get arm chop effect. Another great combination is Twin Spear for call lesser horror and The Oath Rod of Kurgi for horror mark. Do you see where I¿m going with this? Also don¿t forget to put boots of quickness. Heart Finder Sword is also good, the name says it all. Infernal Sword ( One of the best items in the game ), struck by it will get you banished to Inferno, so no more SC. Harvest Blade, has a AOE attack, and leg chop effect!!!

    And having blood magic is good for SC, with Claws of Kokytos and Infernal prison, don¿t forget life for a life either. Being able to send horrors is also a greats tactic, both for taking provinces and taking out SC¿s. You can also cast blood vengeance on some tartarians that have blood magic when you attack.

    Also maybe something worth mentioning. C¿tis PD is terrible, it consists of militia (mostly) and city guards. You get a couple of slave warriors after PD 20 I think, but that¿s just terrible you don¿t even get a shaman! So no point wasting gold on PD. The highest I ever go is 5, just so I don¿t lose a province to call of the winds.

    			8.16.2.4

    	    	8.16.3 LA Ctis, tomb kings

    	8.17 Ermor

    	    	8.17.1 EA Ermor

    		-> EA Ermor has access to excellent magical diversity. Your augurs are very strong in death, fire and astral. Some of your other mages provide you with nature, earth and (if I recall) water, meaning you lack access only to air. Your pretender can fill in this gap.

    Use your magical diversity early on to aid in site searching - have multipath mages running around searching early on and you will find that by midgame you will have access to many gems and independent mages - I recall in a recent game having Crystal Mages, Wizards, Enchantresses, Gnomes and Adepts of the Silver Order. In the late game, your magical diversity will provide you the muscle and adaptability to win.

    In the early game, rely on your excellent national troops. Your Equites of the Sacred Shroud are quite good, particularly with a water blessing (I would not, however, play Ermor as a bless nation). Lizard Auxiliaries are cheap and tough, with low morale being the only setback.

    Almost all your troops have very good defense and tower shields, giving them alot of staying power against both bows and melee attacks.

    To sum up: In the early game, rely on strong national troops to expand. Midgame your augurs are powerful battle mages who can supplement your nationals. Late game your magical diversity (which you should be developing throughout the game) and access to powerful Astral magic will give you an edge.

    	-> one word: communion. Ah yeah.
    Make a pretender that has Astral, you will not be sorry late game.

    	-> And like Arco they got priest which heal afflictions. So you can send your lovely pretender to battle without being afraid to catch one.

    	-> EA Ermor is fairly effective but i think they are not the invincible legions that the Roman-themed nations of Ermor/Pythium possess in the Middle Era. EA Ermor has a few oddball things about it; Death mages, old age, no Death gem income, Priests that heal (albiet quite ineffectively, only about 1/3 to 1/4 as well as a Arco Priestess), medium Cavalry, Gladiators.

    Gladiators are so effective it's almost always worth throwing a few in any battle where you know some casualties are inevitable (against Cavalry/Elephants, or Blood Vines). It's a bit of a micro headache to keep the "Gladiator reserves" stocked and up with the main army, though.

    	-> A Ermor is pretty interesting to me. You have great mages, but the Augur Lords are not really battlemages, they are more summoning/RP guys. Your battlemages are the Augurs and Flamens. Your summoning strength is in fire and death, but you have no death gem income. You have great astral gem income, but not a ton of quality astral mages.

    Your military is pretty good. You have good infantry, but I find myself making primarily Principes. Gladiators have niche uses, but they survivability is so low, they have little use far from forts. Your Equiites are good, but not great. What is fascinating are the sacreds, the only sacreds are the Shroud Cav which seems a bit weak.

    What I have been doing is using Leves in front set to fire and flee, so they get off a shot before the battle lines collide. The main battle line of principes sprinkled with gladiators is set to hold and attack. So far, my casualties have been light, unless I run up against enemy cav. I have yet to put this up against anyone with a mage so I don't know how we will fare against any magic heavy nation.

    Something I was wondering was whether or not to take an Air bless, don't you get a precision bless with air, or is it just air shield with air bless? What I was thinking was with all the mages, if I could increase their precision, their fire magic could be pretty devastating in combat.

    Does anyone else have any other bless strategy for EA Ermor? Not saying it is the best way to go, but the most puzzling for me.

    Otherwise, I think my long term strategy is to summon some undead and focus on upgrading some of my astral paths for some late game magic. Battlemages are going to be augurs and flamen. I just don't know what to do with the sacreds.

    	-> Augur Elders not battlemages? I beg to disagree.

    Even without any death gems you can raise dead all day long. Get one of those astral banners and you can go about castin some wicked death armor-negating spells.

    There is not much of a reason to make a strong bless with EA Ermor although of course 9F/9W pretty much works with any and every sacred in the game.

    Ermor lacks a bit in the magic diversity, though. I don't think it can get above a 2S caster naturally, only 1N/1A/1E.

    With natural healing, i think EA Ermor pretty much begs from some kind of early/sleeping SC strategy. You can get away with a sleeping SC pretender because Ermors' starting forces are decent enough to expand on their own a bit until he awake

    	    	8.17.2 MA Ermor

    		-> The basics in a no particular order:

    Any commander, even independent ones, with atleast one level of Holy can reanimate undeads. So take advtantage of this and recruit lots of priests outside your capitol to make expendable chaff troops.
    [Note, that statement sounds dubious]

    Your best low level thugs would be Banes, Conjuration lvl 3. A good chasis with enough MR to resist banish from low level priests. A lucky pendant (5 astral gems) and whatever 10+ damage weapon you can afford will make a good thug against anything that doesn't have trample. Doom Glaive being a favourite of mine. This works until lvl 7+ summons shows up on the scene anyway.

    Conjuration lvl 2 also gives you Dark knowledge which should help in improving your death gem income.

    Enchantment lvl 1 will give your mages the ability to spamm undeads on the battlefield. lvl 4(?) gives you Behemots.

    A well known battlefield tactic for Ermor and Pythium is to make a large block of Principes and place an astral mage or two in the middle. Then cast the Alteration 3 spell Body Etheral. This gives you etheral troops with armor and good stats! Give the principes the order to Fire closest, they will throw their javelins at their closest target and then engage.

    You need to make a decision what your Middle/Late game is going to be though. Either you invest in astral magic with Thaumaturgy at lvl 5+ for Soulslay and Enslave mind spells. Or you try to get Conjuration lvl 9 and bring out some Tartarians. There are some nice Death evocation spells, but I have yet to train evocation beyond lvl 3 with ermor until turn 60+, thinking that Conjuration or Enchantment is more important for them.

    Death and Astral spells are your strengths. Ethereal principes with some decked out banes as a vanguard, a horde of low undead chaff to wear the enemy down and all of them backed up by 3-4 unholy priests is a pretty standard Ermor tactic.

    Magic item production can be in other paths with some creative pretender construction.

    Your "artillery" will be lacking until quite well into the game. But cheap commanders with decent precision score can be decked with scepters of command (F2, construction lvl 4) for some decent long range firepower. You will need either your pretender or an indy mage to make these though.

    	-> Also, you can use the Black Servants from Conjuration 1 for some early game action if you can get them some armors. They are ethereal, and that helps a lot. You'll probably won't have enough gems or mages to make armor, but e.g. Earth would be wonderful. As with most undead, they have Encumbrance 0, and thus won't suffer from heavy armors' fatigue.
    [Comment:
    If you go with Black servants, you really need to put an anti magic amulet on them. Otherwise even independents will banish them pretty darn quick.
    A Black servant with a Doom glaive, Fire plate, anti magic amulet makes a good thug. Thats quite a bit of gem investment in one lvl 1 summon though.
    Or maybe Im just paranoid, after having lost 3 of these to an independent lvl 1 priest in my last game on turn 12... :p
    ]
    	-> Death Magic has a good number of spells for stealth raiding squads. I use them mainly to pick on provinces with temples in them where you only have to deal with PD. A Spectre commander with Shades, Shade Beasts, Dispossed Spirits, and Ghosts are all available at D3 and Conj 6. They're all stealthy and ethereal and Chill 3 I believe, and Spectre's are pretty good mages.

    	-> A few notions for Broken Empire:

    * Don't generally want Death scales.

    * Learn to use your priests to reanimate. Follow your armies to reanimate armed soulless before the bodies go stale or the peasants bury them.

    * Use national priest spells to improve the performance of the undead, especially the soulless, from totally incompetant to semi-decent fodder.

    * IIRC, note that a holy-4 prophet can be had, giving access to better reanimation and battlefield spells.

    * Also, the astral magic can be used to increase the holy power of high priests during combat, giving them access to higher undead-enhancing priest spells.

    * Develop combined arms tactics with a mix of different types of undead and living troops.

    	-> You can also use Antimagic, the Astral 3 spell to further protect your undead units.

    	-> Don't forget the sacred troop : vestales (undead and ethereal) and lictors (living ones), there are pretty cheap and quick to gather in your capital at the beginning.
    Vestales need Unholy blessing and lictors blessing.

    	-> I haven't had the opportunity to try BE Ermor in Dom3 yet, but I was a big fan in Dom2. I second most of these suggestions (I'm a little unimpressed with the Vestals, though) but would add that Ghouls (from the reanimate spell) make great fodder/arrow catchers while your javelin troops clean up. Your cheaper mages can command the ghouls while they cast Nether Darts or various Astral battlefield magic. This tactic might be a little less useful now that temples are so expensive, though. I liked depopulating unproductive provinces with a half-dozen cheap priests and using the ghouls to take down the easier indie provinces. I'll check back here in this thread to see how this works in Dom3...

    	-> Vestals make great Death bless units. 9d4s makes them powerful, and they are quite resistant to banishing. Censors are interesting melee units but somewhat less versatile, best used against priest heavy nations like Pythium.

    THE MOST ESSENTIAL thing you do as Broken Empire is make a Grand Thaumaturg a prophet. On turn 2. This lets you make 6 longdead horsmen for free every turn hence, something that is essential as BE as you lack any sort of recruitable national cavalry.

    Vestals really are very good, with high defense as well as etherial. They make great flanking units, and will generally survive in melee.

    	-> About the creative pretender approach.

    Take a good look at the manual where the booster items are mentioned. Nature, Earth and death paths can be boosted with items at D2 or (N2, E2). The other paths need either a combination with another path, or rank 3 or 4 before you can make boost items.

    So, a pretender with primary Death magic could with and investment of F2 and N2 easily reach F3 and N3. You could even start with N1 and use the cheapest empowerment lvl1 to 2 for 30 gems if you are short on design points.

    That said.

    F2+ gives you a few weapons, F3 enables the Flambue.
    F combined with earth gives the charcoal shield.
    N2 gives the regen ring
    A2 gives acess to the thunderbow
    W2: Bottle of living water (could be w3, but think its w2) and a few good swords.
    D2: Mentor skulls, horror helms
    B2: the boots that stops aging
    B6F2: Soul contract for the Dom2 Devil factory tactic.
    F2N2: Fever Fetish, for Fire gem production.
    E2S2: the +1 Astral booster coin.

    	-> Nether Darts, Nether Darts, Nether Darts. Evocation 7 makes those Thaumaturges a main ingredient of your army. Protect them at all costs - meat/undead shield, troops on guard-order. Add a Spell Focus and an Eye of Aiming (if enough Air gems) and watch them roll. Oh, and those Darts are armor negating and cause feeblemindness so even SCs need to think twice before taking on your armies. Victims get a resistance roll, but high precision causes more darts to land so...

    I say Dart 'em to death and let your priests sort 'em out!

    	-> Communions. With them even your lowly mages can cast some great spells. A horde of longdead backed by darkness and the power of the unholy sepulchre spell(+4 attack and increased movement) should almost never miss regular troops, will rarely get him, and can generally do well.
    Communions are pretty essential since the best you can get out of your capitol is D1S1, and while that is nice, it just gets so much better later on.

    I keep most of my Grand Thaumaturgs for ritual casting, teleporting(they can take out SCs that aren't expecting them) and leading large armies. My regular thaumaturgs do most of the heavy lifting by reanimating, casting most of my battlefield spells and leading smaller armies/raiding forces which can replenish their numbers via reanimation.

    For the early game, blessed Shadow Vestals(even with the price increase they got a while back) are nice. W9S9 seems to be very popular, but my personal preferance is F9S9(on an imprisoned oracle). I find F9 gives more magical diversity(you already have water) even if it isn't a great path, and the F9 really ups their killing power - but either bless is nice.
    Even without a bless(if you don't take one, you must take earth magic on your pretender, because its great) you can do well. Reanimated and buffed undead, dether bolts and of course those very tough Legionaires(back with archers. You wont suffer from friendly fire) can easily carry you through the early game against many threats.

    Try to expand into earth magic as soon as you can(Ferrus the Iron wizard/Indy Earth Mages+Troll Kings Court was the easiest way I could get to E4 and above without rings or tartarians). Its a very powerful path, particularly for your nation(army of lead on a large army of chaff undead makes them insanely tough, particularly with darkness up) and waiting until you GoR tartarians to get it isn't much fun.

    Some battle spells to use with communions:
    Darkness: A hugely important 'buff' for your undead only/mostly undead armies. By reducing the enemies attack and precision your greatly improve your troops survivability(and with longdead horsemens naturally high defense they become incredibly powerful in melee) and by reducing the enemies defense you make them much more vunerable.

    Power of the Unholy Sepulchre(strong version): Gives all your undead units +4 attack and action points. Combined with darkness they should almost never miss(even units like W9 vans become fairly easy to hit).

    Rigor Mortis: Just to make the battle a little easier for your undead troops. Wears out the enemy quite quickly.

    Antimagic/Protection of the Unholy Sepulchre: Both boost MR but don't(to my knowledge) stack. Protection of the Unholy Sepulchre is easily resisted, so several castings are usually needed for complete coverage - but it is lower fatigue and costs no gems.

    Will of the Fates: A great buff. Gives all of your units luck, making them last must longer in battle.

    Soul Drain: Very nice. A great help if you can't rely on your slaves to stick around as it sorts out the casters fatigue problems.

    Soul Vortex: A buff for the caster and his slaves. Surround them with some living chaff and they will continually have their fatigue lowered, allowing you to cast high fatigue spells.

    Master Enslave: Pretty much requiring a Grand Thaumaturg, preferably loading with items including penetration boosters, this spell is worth it. You can steal enemy armies with this spell - what more do you need to know?

    Nether Darts: A great battle spell. Castable by all your mages even without a communion, but much better with one. When the mages (astral)magic level is boosted, the number of darts(base 15), the damage each dart does(base 15), and the penetration bonus all get increased. This should be a staple spell for you, and can even feeblemind unlucky SCs. Unfortunately, it can be blocked by shields in the same way as arrows and is MR negates, and that means you have to resort to its little brother.

    Nether Bolt: A lesser version of Nether Narts. Better precision, range and base damage(20) and it can't be stopped by shields, but its only AoE 1 and MR negates. A very handy early game spell for your thaumaturg-led raiding forces.

    Shadow Blast: Sort of like Nether Bolt on steroids. This requires a death gem, atleast D2 magic and is high fatigue. For that the spell gives you an AoE of 7+ and a damage of 20+(MR negates). Communion a few thaumaturgs up to D4-5(or grand thaumaturgs up to D6-7) and watch the carnage - add penetration boosters for added effect. Hitting and killing huge portions of the enemy army with enough damage per hit to take out giants, this spell is a monster.

    Terror: A very handy spell against regular troops, this spell works best with darkness. Regular longdead and soulless lack killing power, so this spell helps to win battles. The morale penalty from darkness, the morale check from being hit(reduced defense from darkness means enemy will get hit) and the hugely reduced morale from a high level casting of terror(or several, depending on the number of masters) will rout most enemies quickly.

    Drain Life: The monster killer. 100 Precision and 14+ base damage(D4 mage) that is completely unresistable by the majority of units make this a great SC killer(remember the teleporting grand thaumaturgs I mentioned earlier? Get a few up to D4 and let them take out an enemy SC while he's still buffing). For the few SCs that are immune to this spell, you can resort to spamming either Nether Darts or Desintigrate(100 precision, death on a failed MR check, only needs D2).

    	    	8.17.3 LA Ermor

    	    	    	8.17.3.1 About Pretenders

    			-> There should be more Pretenders to choose from. SC for Ermor is not really all that useful as for other nations.(or at all in dom3) The army is so big that a SC is pointless or lets at least say not as effective. So Lichqueen and sometimes masterlich/ghost king seems always be a no brainer choice. I also tried to take Lord of the Gates for a bit diversity and making him SC and spellcaster.

    Example1 SC:
    Scales: turmoil3, sloth3, cold3, death3, luck3, drain2
    Dormant Lord of the Gates, starting with dominion3, 1death magic path
    paths: 4 fire, 3 air, 10 death, 4 nature

    design points left: zero

    Example2 immortal Spellcaster:

    Scales: turmoil3, sloth3, cold3, death3, luck3, drain2
    Dormant Lichqueen, starting with dominion4, 3death magic paths
    paths: 4 fire, 3 air, 10 death, 4 nature

    design points left: 155! o_O

    I really like Roleplaying, but this is too harsh. Making the Lichqueen and similar immortals so much a no brainer choice is not really about diversity. The other problem is while EA Ermor and partly MA Ermor have more pretender choices, LA Ermor has it kinda reduced to nothing, but different liches, where a normal Lich really serves no purpose.

    I would like here some additonal pretenders added. Tartarian Titans could be added for example. And a good SC chassis with fire and death paths to start with, maybe some demon lords of the undead realm in hell.

    Ermor gets so many design points late age and cannot use them well cause of almost no choices resulting in always having the same gods, others do simply not work well enough in comparission. You can take a prince of death/ghost king and scare some indies, but what for? You have more than enough undead legions to throw on them. And later summons that can fit into a SC role quite easily.

    So a wider selection of pyhsical pretender appearances would be very appreciated for the RPG aspect of this game. I can't think of a balance reason that LE Ermor has just a few useful gods. In Ashen Empire history i read about a dark hungry god, i hope Lichqueen was not meaned by that.

    A Tartarian Titan or Demonlord commanding the undead would fit here better, imho. Doom Horor as Gandalf once suggest for its AI too, but i can see that would be a mod thing then.

    	    	    	8.17.3.2 Assortment of tips

    			-> 	The master lich is a strictly inferior choice to the Lich Queen. His base cost is 10 less than the Lich Queen, he has only 5 hitpoints compared to her 18, her attack and defense stats are superior, and his base dominion is 3 compared to her 4. It costs 296 points to bring him to Dominion 10, while the Lich Queen only costs 257 points to bring to dominion 10. (You want dominion 10 with LA Ermor since everybody is going to ally against you no matter what dominion you take, and because of the bug that caps temple effectiveness at the level of your initial dominion no matter how many you have built.) I cannot think of any comparison where the master lich comes out ahead of the lich queen.

    			[Couter comment:
    			lich queen is not as good as you guys think, that was in dom2 age. master lich is vastly improved in dom3. look his magic path cost, he makes for a perfect immortal rainbow mages. if you use him as rainbow mage with high death and good astral magic he is cheaper as the lich queen. i do not care about his attack or defense stats he is immortal and can be protected by his troops when in battle casting spells. using lichqueen as rainbow mage costs much more than master lich even if both are raised to dominion10. just try it. if you want no additional non-undead summons its your choice, but all that lichqueen empahsis won't help when it comes to wither bones and dust to dust. and ermor really needs an rainbow mages as spectators and dusk elders are more needed to cast rituals and for research.i playe thousand of ermor games. lol your only hope is a good gem income!

    			The master liche also has an additional misc magic item slot. It's a modest bonus, to be sure, but can save you a lot of points on the right build - if nothing else, it's notably cheaper to buy the earth levels needed for a crystal coin than it is to buy astral 6 up from 5 (since rings, skullcap give +3) and then you have earth magic to boot.
    			]

    			-> Your biggest problem with LA Ermor in MP will be that absolutely everyone will be out to kill you the second they encounter you since your dominion will kill their population. That frequently means that anyone and everyone on your borders will gang up on you just to get rid of you and divide up the spoils before they are ruined. There is really no good way for you to use diplomacy to full effect because of that handicap and your hordes of chaff are there basically just to absorb hits before your real troops (most of them summoned) get targeted.

    			On the other hand your lands can be a pretty nasty place to try an invade - anyone looking to lay into you is going to have to accept little in the way of gains. If you point that out you can play diplomacy a little more.

    			-> i like ashen empire a lot its one of the reasion that makes this game so fantastic and innovative, the other is R'yleh, now if there would be new functions for the interface to controll all these free spawn chaff better it would be gold. can be really annyoing on big maps.

    Ashen Empire in dom3 is weak at the beginning of a game or on smaller maps. ON big maps its possible to pillage vast amounts of porovinces ruining everyones economy and force everyone to use food supply items or units that do not need to eat. ermor LA, however starts out really weak, not in single though but in MP its easy to exploit their low magic res chaff with banishments and priests. dust to dust is an ubber cheap spell anti undead spell availible with just 1 death mage pic. and this is much worser than banishment it ignores magic resistence. take an undead prince and see him killing dozens of priests and he never gets a scratch due to high magic resistence, additonally i use him with either magic res item or cast magic res as a astral spell. all my pretenders for ashen empire do start with high astral and death magic.

    so you need a good SC to survive early part of the game, taking something else is a risk in non SP games that ia m very sure of but inever got banished back to the underworld to hell must be fun too

    later soulgate is really fantastaic, i casted it in many games now with high dominion you get ethereal undead(also ethereal ermor legions) with good stats and no "never heals" ablity, so they do regenerate hp too. problem with it is conj8 and cost a ton too.

    for scales all -3(taking cold here, and magic drain just 2) and +3 luck. 3misfortune may give more design points but i am sure its not worth it on bigger maps. maybe smaller maps. on bigger maps with high luck they get extra gold, gem income and so on. the zealots and millitia are very annyoing...so i usually send them to death quickly to get rid of the annoying upkeep.

    my overall strategy with them so far is to summon a lot of dusk elders to get the most needed research up and scout the enemy if he is random to know his nation, its midgard or similar glamour abuse i go for enchant4 - Behemoth to trample them. alteriation is pretty much a no brainer with SC to have on at least lvl3 if he does not start with ethereal. rest goes into constr.4 to get skull mentor for quick research, its needed for magic drain scale anyways. rest goes into conjuration. additonal i make asap 2 groups of dusk elders with allt he 4 elements in magic paths + astral and rarely blood to search magic sites more quickly as it takes too long with just pretender on medium-large maps.

    my pretender had 4 nature, 6 astral, death9. with this you can try to go for the lictor summons and cast htem with black laurels still gives 2 additional lictors. they are all heavy armored and sacred and astral gives them most needed +2 magic res, with drain scale its +3magic res.

    usually its good enough on big maps to just conquer your nearest lands and pillage whats far away and slowly go backwards to your capitol using a scorched earth method, it gives gold for more temples, labs and castles and ruin everyones world except for yourself. with soulgate up soonish and high dominion the game will be in your favour quickly.

    except you get obliterated with dust to dust or wither bones....really unfair spells

    btw, i think dusk elders and arch bishops can be a bit cheaper...this hurts a lot early on. i am not sure to survive a rush with that? maybe pillage home province and surroundings take sphinx and using a lot of ghouls to defend with?

    anyways to summarize, i feel AE is a lot weaker now in the early phase of the game. and yeah, R'yleh and MA ermor is maybe a lesser risk than taking AE.

    also want to make a suggestion, namely. i would like to see more pretender choices here for LA Ermor. Since they are really focused on a powerful pretender more choices are logical. i think Ashen Empire could have a more powerful and special Prince of Death and i wonder why jortundheim/niefelheim always got the draco lich and bog mummy but not ermor where it suits much more. its nice to have the lich queen but more choices would be more fun here. i think we have her since dom1. i know lich, ghost king or lich queen is the most obvious choice, but PoD with immortaly ablity added and a better special ability(just gives like 1-3 longdead/turn) would have been more fun, just for ashen empire.....or else is just taking some lich and casting tatarian gate and make someone with a lot hp your prophet.

    	-> Prophet:
    If you want a fun, skilled, immortal prophet -- wait for Etimmu the Wraith Lord and prophetize him. He's one of the better national heroes in the game, considering he comes with d3/h2, immortality, etherealness, equipment, nice stats, and all but the foot slots (being mounted).

    If you don't want to wait or wish to maximize holy, consider an Archbishop.

    Lictors:
    Might be nice if you've built the laurels to make summoning more efficient. It's possible to reanimate them with an H4 (ex Archbishop prophet), if memory serves.

    Can't go underwater, 'tho.

    Eventually, wights -- a step up from lictors -- can be summoned in decent numbers at a time via Legion of Wights.

    Reanimation:
    Priest skill affects both number and type. You need a certain level to reanimate longdead horse, for instance. Death magic is irrelevant to reanimation. Helps for summons, 'tho.

    	    	    	8.17.3.3 Guide to LA Ermor  The Ashen Empire

    			The Ashen Empire is one of the most unique nations in the Dom3 universe and, IMHO, one of the most powerful. This guide is to help those who are interested in trying out this nation in a multiplayer environment. When deciding to play LA Ermor for the first time there are a few things you have to realize about their ¿play-style¿:

     LA Ermor requires LOTS of micromanagement in mid-late sections of the game. In a large game it can take you hours to plan your turn, whereas a normal nation might take 30 minutes. Also if you are anal and want to organize all your troops by unit type you will likely be extremely frustrated with LA Ermor. That the price you pay for fielding multiple 5k undead strong armies¿
     LA Ermor forces you to play a certain way in order to be effective. You can tweak and try minor changes to this strategy  but it isn¿t for the type of player who wants lots of options available to him  especially in the early to mid game. That said it can be fun to try something outside of the norm just for fun (e.g. growth 3)
     It¿s hard to make friends with this nation  expect to be on the short end of the diplomacy stick more often than not. Even with that fact it is vitally necessary to be extremely active on the diplomatic front. On the other hand it can be fun to have everyone fear you¿

    Pretender Design:

    First let me add in a word about gold. Many players are under the mistaken impression that LA Ermor doesn¿t need any gold to be successful. You¿ll sometimes encounter a player who thinks he can extort lots of money from you because all your troops autospawn. The fact is that LA Ermor needs money, just like every other nation. Now¿ you can make do with less than most others¿ and you certainly don¿t need tons to be successful  but to really play LA Ermor correctly you need lots of temples/fortresses and indy mages. All that isn¿t free, so don¿t totally disregard the gold aspect when dealing with other players and when designing your pretender.
    It¿s pretty much a given that you should take an awake pretender. You could try to take Luck 3 and attempt to get a hero with death magic  but that isn¿t a serious strategy and is ridiculously risky. You need an awake pretender to summon a death mage for the first turn.

    Scales:

     Order/Turmoil: Turmoil is a good option. The only thing you should be actually spending money on is temples, cheap forts and indy mages. Order is a bit of overkill. Typically I always pick Turmoil -3, though anywhere between 0 and -3 would work.
     Sloth/Prod: Sloth -3 is a no brainier. You won¿t need resources and the income hit is trivial.
     Heat/Cold: Usually you want to either pick Heat +3 or Cold -3. LA Ermor cares nothing about supply and the income isn¿t that big of a deal. Cold -3 is a bit more thematic however if you know you are going up against lots of cold nations you might want to go heat.
     Growth/Death: Usually you want Death -3. Again Supply is worthless and since your domain will be killing off your population wickedly fast a few more deaths are just drops in the bucket.
     Luck/Misfortune: Here is a scale you might want to boost to Luck +2 or +3. You probably defiantly want to do it of you have -3 Turmoil to maximize your lucky events. If you don¿t have Turmoil it¿s really up to your personal preference. As I usually pick Turmoil -3 I¿ll almost always take Luck +2 or +3.
     Magic/Drain: This is a tough scale to judge. On the one hand if you go drain you get more pretender points and your undead are harder to magically dispel/banish while in your own domain. This is especially useful against priests with their banish spamming. On the other hand without higher level magic in the later game LA Ermor is at a big disadvantage (the more players, the bigger the disadvantage) and it¿s tough for LA Ermor to get good initial research going as it must invest in lots of early summons. Also the drain only matters if you are getting attacked in your own Domain  ideally you should be pushing into other players most of the time. It really is a toss-up though. In larger games I would seriously consider Magic +1, in smaller games I think it might be safe to do Drain -2, or -3.

    Dominion:
    I would always go with 9 or 10 dominion. The amount of freespawns you get is directly related to your dominion in a province  so you would be crazy to consider anything less than 7. Of course the higher the dominion the harder diplomacy will become but that is something you will just have to deal with.

    Chassis:
    You chassis will depend on the magic paths you want to learn and whether or not you want a combat pretender. Luckily with your crappy scales you should have lots of points to spend on a chassis and magic paths. What to pick is highly debatable (very, very debatable), but I¿ll list a few of my own observations:

     Prince of Death: This is probably the best pretender for expanding early and fast. That fear works wonders against indy troops. Only downside is the expensive magic paths.
     Lich Queen: Pluses: High starting dominion and Immortal. Downsides: High magic path costs and initially too weak to seriously take on indy provinces. This is a great chassis for defensive pretender and you can get 2/3 magic paths very high. The Immortality is a great safety net to have and in the later game she can be a powerful SC in your own domain.
     Master Lich: Like the Lich Queen except trades battle functionality and a little domain for cheaper magic paths and slightly cheaper base cost. This guy will never be an SC but he can support in battle as he is immortal. He would make a good rainbow mage site searcher or initial researcher (which isn¿t bad if you took drain -3).
     Ghost King: My personal favorite. Usually this chassis is too expensive to make work  but with all the bad scales LA Ermor usually takes you have plenty of points to blow. His biggest issues are his low dominion and that he doesn¿t have immortality. If used carefully however, he can certainly take weak provinces (especially if unholy powered/protected by a priest) by himself. He can afford lots of magic paths  and can be made a rainbow mage for site searching. Add a few high defense items on him, a horror helm and make sure he can cast some alteration spells and you have a viable SC/thug for the early game. His awe and fear will scare the crap out of troops and with a really high defense + ethereal + luck he shouldn¿t be damaged by normal troops. Just be very careful with him  he doesn¿t have immortality so if he bites the dust you are hosed.
     Cyclops: Old faithful  a good earth centered + another high path SC unit. A bit un-thematic. I highly suggest you give him at least 5 death magic.
     Great Enchantress: This is the cheapest rainbow pretender chassis you¿re going to find. Not a bad choice if you are somehow limited on your pretender points  downside is that you will be paying a lot for dominion and she can¿t be used as thug/SC. If you really want just a pure rainbow mage (with limited combat potential) this is the best chassis.
     Dragons: All of these will help you expand early  they suck with magic though  a big downside.

    All of the rest suck and I can¿t recommend for LA Ermor. They are simply not as efficient.

    Magic:
    Here is where you will spend all of those points saved in the scales. It¿s up to you and the chassis you picked. You can either go for the rainbow/site searching route or the SC high magic in a few areas route. One thing to keep in mind is that if you don't take a highish death (at least 5) you'll have trouble being able to cast the higher death rituals. This can be overcome by empowering/boosting, but it's a bit of challenge.

    Personally I prefer to spread out amongst a number of paths because one of LA Ermor¿s primary problems is lack of magic versatility  so hence I usually go with the Master Lich or the Ghost King. But other builds are viable provided you have an overall game plan for your research.

    Bless:
    LA Ermor is not really made for a bless build. Their only sacred spawns are brittle undead knights. Banshees and Lictors are sacred but extremely gem expensive. A good bless for your cavalry charges can be very helpful and would be great on a large group of Banshees but the impact on your early/middle game will be very minimal. Typically you won't have enough sacred troops for blesses to be effective until the late game.

    So you can keep the bless in mind when you build the pretender  but realize it should probably not be a very big part of your initial strategy. I mostly ignore it.

    Units

    You can¿t buy any initial units, so everything needs to be summoned or spawned. Here is a quick overview with the cost in death gems in () and all of them are prefaced with their location in the Conjuration Track (C#) if you need to manually summon them. I¿ve intermingled some of the default death summons to compare them with your unique summons. Keep in mind that things like Lictors and Wailing Ladies get cheaper with higher level spells.

     Soulless/Longdead (Free): You get this these for freespawn without any requirements. This is your chaff.
     Ghouls (Free): You get this these for freespawn without any requirements. These are mostly chaff. They are not mindless so they can rebuild fortresses 10x as fast as normal units and can help defray the damage of combat mind attack spells (ala mind burn). This is your only freespawn that is not some sort of amphibian. Typically I don't treat them any different than soulless however.
     Longdead Velite/Legionarries/Principe/Triarius (Free): You get this free spawn from provinces with fortresses. These will make up the bulk of your armies.
     Longdead Horsemen (Free) These will spawn in provinces without any requirements. They are brittle but very useful en mass against archers/rear positioned mages and for front line storming of fortresses. These can be raised by level three priests.
     Knight of the Holy Sepulchre (Free): These sacred units will freespawn in provinces with fortresses. They are basically stronger Longdead Horsemen. If you have a good bless you¿ll want to protect them and use them carefully as they will be one of your more powerful units.
     Shades, Ghosts, Spirits (Free): You will get these ethereal forces as freespawn in all areas (regardless of dominion) if you have the Global Ritual ¿Soul Gate¿ up.
     Spectral Velite/Legionarries/Pricipe/Triarius (Free): You get these ethereal forces as freespawn from provinces with fortresses if you have the Global Ritual ¿Soul Gate¿ up.
     C0 Lictor (3): A decent sacred unit. You might consider summoning them if you have a good bless but they are usually never worth the gems. If you really want lictors make sure and use the lictor summoning helm and/or use the higher level spells (Lictorian Legion) so you get more bang for your buck. These also freespawn, but are extremely rare. These can be summoned by H3 priests but aren't usually worth the trade-off (go for longdead horsemen instead).
     C0 Censor (4): Decent sacred leader.These freespawn from citadels so are never worth summoning.
     C0 Acolyte (10): An undead H1 priest. Summon these to build your initial temples and start reanimating. They also make decent leaders for your undead troops. This summon should be completely replaced with Revive Shadow Tribune once researched.
     C0 Bishop (16): An undead H2 priest. Usually not worth summoning as H3 priests are much more useful.
     C0 Arch Bishop (23): An undead H3 priest. A good leader for large armies and they can cast ¿Protection of the Sepulture¿ which is a mass +4 MR to all undead on battlefield. If you prophetize him to H4 you can cast ¿Power of the Sepulture¿ which gives a +4 attack to all undead on the battlefield. When they aren¿t busy they can reanimate longdead horsemen. You will want one of these in every sizable army.
     C0 Spectator (12): Your base 2D mage. If you have a magic bonus these should make up the bulk of your researchers. They can site search for death in a pinch. They can also be used to skelispam, shadow blast and disintegrate.
     C0 Dusk Elder (20): Your premier mage. You¿ll want a variety of these to get into the various spell paths. If you have drain, you¿ll also use these as your primary researchers. They will need to be empowered later unless you find good indy mages. You'll use these to cast the high level combat enchantments (Rigor Mortis, Darkness, etc...)
     C1 Shadow Tribune (10): An Ethereal 1H Priest. Basically completely replaces the Acolyte summon.
     C1 Black Servant (5): An Ethereal Scout. Should only be bought to make a cheap thug. Use indy scouts to actually scout.
     C2 Wailing Lady (15): A very good sacred unit. They have an AOE 1 Soul Slay and even it fails they get hit by an unresistable fear, which stacks with an existing fear aura! However they are extraordinarily expensive and with 0 prot and no shield they will take lots of losses. Only summon these if you have a great bless, are flush with death gems and are casting the higher level summoning spell ¿Great Lamentation¿. These also freespawn but are extremely rare.
     C3 Bane: Usable as a decent thug. Better than a Black Servant, weaker than a Wraith Centurion.
     C5 Bane Lord (12): A good unit to outfit as a thug, however usually you will want to use a Wraith Centurion instead.
     C5 Wraith Centurion (15). Basically a Banelord with worse melee stats but with Immortality, Fear and Etherealness. Can be made into a good thug and you¿ll usually want to use these instead of Bane Lords.
     C6 Wraith Senator (25): Basically a higher costing H2 Bishop with fear, etherealness and immortality. Not usually worth the gems  keep recruiting Arch Bishops instead.
     C6 Spectre (20): A sub-par Dusk Elder. Its only possible use is to try and get the 2 %100 WESD picks which could give you 2W, 2E or 2A¿ impossible to get with a Dusk Elder.
     C7 Wraith Consul (35): Basically a higher costing H3 Arch Bishop with fear, etherealness and immortality. These can replace your Arch-Bishops if you are flush with gems. However, as they shouldn¿t be entering melee there isn¿t a huge need for them (unless you need to go underwater  then they are pretty handy).
     C7 Mound Fiend (28): 3D 2H Ethereal Mage-Priest. Not generally ever needed.
     C7 Wraith Lord (40): Ethereal and immortal these can actually be super-thugs or even SCs. Their D3 allows them to cast Soul Vortex which is an extremely useful SC spell. Only summon these for their SC/thug possibilities.
     C9 Tartarian Gates(10): End-game SC/thug. Very cost effective use of your gems. You have about a 1/5 shot of getting a Tartarian leader with every casting. If you go high in Conjuration you¿ll want to use this spell a lot in the late game. You'll really want to cast "Gift of Reason" on the non-leader, non-feeble minded ones. They will then have +5 random magic paths - very handy for branching into other paths.
     E8 Lichcraft (30): This is the rare summon spell that actually isn¿t in the Conjuration track. A 4D Immortal Lich is great for the late game as you are looking for high death mages in order to summon tartarians. Though you should get some dusk elders with 4D through random paths Lichcraft is a ¿sure thing¿ and the fact that it is immortal can be extremely handy if you need a high death caster in your own domain.

    General Strategy

    Here are some general strategy tips:

     Key Point: To maximize your growth in the long run build temples and fortresses as fast as possible. The only other thing you should spend money on is indy mages, priests and in a rare case - mercs. The amount of domain in the province determines the amount of troops while the forts increase the quality of the troops. Think of temples as troop generators and fortresses as troop enhancers. Ideally you will want a fortress and temple in EVERY province  crowd them in  it doesn¿t matter!

     Independent Mages: Unlike normal nations you will probably be forced to use lots of indy mages. Use them to supplement your research and to get into magic paths you normally can¿t reach easily.

     Independent Priests: Indy Priests can be useful. They can preach down to reach a domain kill (your undead priests can't preach!). You'll need them to bring back a pretender that died. They can build temples. Most importantly however they can reanimate chaff! (soulless or ghouls). How much you want to reanimate is up to you, however it seems a shame to let all those corpses you produce naturally to go completely to waste. I will usually have 10-15 recruited by mid game spread out throughout my high dominion provinces just to raise the dead. Usually they are the last thing I will buy after Forts/Temples/Mages.

     Independent Scouts: Independent scouts can be used to build your forts and to scout.

     Independent Troops: Generally you never want to recruit indy troops. You will have problems in supplying them and they will funnel money away from your forts/temples. The only exception might be good aquatic based troops if you are planning an underwater campaign but keep in mind they need to be GOOD aquatic troops - most indy aquatic troops suck or are too expensive.

     Gems: You'll have a vast hunger for death gems in the early game so you can summon your mages/priests. Try trading away your non-death gems for death with other players if possible. However LA Ermor is one of the few nations where you will probably have to empower some mages (unless you find some really nice indy ones) to be viable in the late game. It¿s very hard to get into any magic path except death without empowering. Eventually you'll have a great hunger for non-death gems. Expect to waste (err invest) lost of these non-death non-death gems on magic boosting items and empowerments. This is one of your biggest weaknesses and limitations.

     Blood Magic: LA Ermor is one of the few nations than can start a blood economy relatively early. Realize the money you lose from these provinces is going to directly impact your temple/citadel production which will impede your undead spawn. However if you find a recruitable blood indy mage (e.g. Garnet Sorceress) it is much easier to kick start the blood economy early and you should seriously think about doing it. Without an indy blood mage the prospect becomes a lot more intimidating but possible. Check out the forums for guides on Blood Economies (I recommend Baalz¿s) if you are interested.

    I've heard comments that LA Ermor has the hardest time trying to get a blood economy going. Personally - I don't think this is the case since LA Ermor isn't as reliant on gold as some other nations. The key is finding a populated safe province or two to blood hunt that doesn't have your -3 death domain. Usually there are always a few next to friendly neighbors. If you don't have any friendly neighbors then you have bigger problems than blood magic...

     Water Provinces: Being a poor amphibian means you can go into the water  but that doesn¿t mean you should. You can¿t really stand up against a real established aquatic nation without totally devoting all your forces to the endeavor  which will be costly. It is very handy to ally with another water-nation to take down another though. Fighting in the water does have one very nice advantage  the opponent cannot cast Solar Brilliance  which is an extremely powerful anti-undead battlefield spell.

    Research Strategy

    Like any nation you will need an overall research strategy to be successful and most of the time they will revolve around you putting up a global spell. Here are the more powerful/useful death spells you can aim for. I recommend building your initial strategy around some of these spells in the same magic tree.

     Conj 2: Dark Knowledge  Site searching spell. If you don¿t have site searchers this spell is essential for early death gem generation.
     Conj 8: Soulgate: There is some confusion as to what this spell does. See the separate section on Soul Gate later.
     Conj 8: Well of Misery: This global gives you death gems and is probably one of the more likely not to be dispelled. On the downside it increases income around the world¿
     Conj 9: Tartarian Gate  Excellent summons for a cheap cost. GoR for lots of magic powers. See unit section. Very powerful spell.
     Conj 9: Ghost Riders  A very cheap way to bring lots of pain to your enemies. They can take out almost any PD. I recommend casting it on a poorly defended enemy province and then attacking it with a Scout the same turn.
     Alt 6: Soul Vortex - An extremely good spell for Thugs/SCs (i.e. Wraith Lords) facing chaff.
     Alt 6: Darkness - A great battlefield spell against non-darkvision troops. As long as you can mitigate the fatigue this can dominate the mid-game until Solar Brilliance comes out.
     Alt 7: Bone Grinding  A very hard spell to use properly but can be wickedly effective in battle.
     Alt 8: Disintegrate  A cheap death version of Soul Slay with more limited range. Good when spammed. Massive spamming with penetration gear can often take down an SC unless he has very high MR. Great at taking out low MR costly units (Iron Dragons, Abominations, etc...)
     Alt 9: Utterdark: The death spell to end all death spells. When you cast it everyone will go after you and try to take it down with a vengeance. If you can hold out and keep it up you¿ve won! Risky but powerful¿
     Evo 5: Shadow Blast - A great AoE combat spell. Spam it on armies and watch them go down. Works underwater!
     Const 4: Skull Mentor  This is an item to forge, not a spell. Very, very useful for research bonuses as your Spectators can all forge these. I¿ll sometimes go for Construction 4 immediately so I can start using these ASAP.
     Ench 3: Raise Skeletons - The ¿skelespam¿ spell. Useful for your spectators to cast en masse in open field battles (not fortress storming) - also a good spell to script to body-guard your powerful casters.
     Ench 6: Rigor Mortis: Extremely useful combat spell. Works very well against forces with lots of enemy mages. I love this spell. It is semi-countered by the Nature spell Relief.
     Ench 6: Arrow Fend: Not a death spell (A3) but a very useful defensive spell against archer heavy armies. I usually empower a Dusk Elder up to be able to cast this quickly.
     Thau 5: Burden of Time: A lesser Utterdark  usually hurts everyone but you but not enough to be crippling. Be prepared for the same diplomatic results as if you had cast Utterdark (to a lesser extent). Realize this will hurt your indy mages  though you might not need them anymore by the time you cast this. Boots of Youth do not protect against this.
     Thau 5: Foul Air: Another lesser Utterdark like Burden of Time.

    Some of the other death spells I didn¿t mention are very useful in specific circumstances (e.g. Undead Mastery against C¿tis) but the spells above are useful almost all of the time.

    Soul Gate
    LA Ermor has this very unique global that can be very useful.

     You will start to recruit new ethereal undead troops instead of some of your normal troops. These troops will always be ethereal and will sometimes have non-standard attacks (steal strength, drain life, plague). Against normal troops they will dominate because they are ethereal  against thugs and special troops they are chaff.
     These troops are spawned differently than normal troops  while the amount of dominion in a province does seem to affect the amount/quality what is even more important is if you have a temple or castle in the province. Hence, you will recruit weak ethereal troops (spirits) in a province with a temple even if it has enemy dominion. If you have a castle and temple there you will get stronger ethereal troops (spectral infantry). In a province with a castle, temple and a high dominion you will get the best and most ethereal troops. This will decrease the amount of normal corporal troops you get slightly  and the spawning of those corporal troops is still tied to dominion. Overall you will spawn more troops  but not vast amounts more.
     You still start to spawn ethereal H1 Priests as leaders. You mostly want to use these priests to reanimate more undead  however they are also good leaders if need be. Having these extra priests can be VERY handy because as they reanimate more and more your hordes will be huge.
     I¿ve found Soul Gate to be very powerful in the mid game. The longer the game goes the less effect it has as most large armies\thugs will be outfitted to take out ethereal troops.

    Diplomacy Strategy

    This is where the game is really won or lost. Because diplomacy is so important to LA Ermor this section is probably longer than it would be for a normal nation. Many of these tips can apply to any nation in a MP game however!

     Initial Start: Play nice, suck-up, placate, amuse, flatter, befriend, do whatever you have to do to make peace early on. It¿s in the first 20 turns that you will be most vulnerable. Contact each person as you meet/scout them out immediately and offer a non-aggression pact (NAP) that will last at least three turns. Offer to not build temples on his border to help him with your nasty domain. Turn on your charm! Most players know you are a big threat but also don¿t want to be the one to put you in check. You must play aggressive diplomacy initially to secure your future!

     Beware alliances! After the first 15 or so turns your biggest threat will be multiple attackers at once. Try to maintain relations with every neighbor and check in with them regularly to build a relationship.

     Try to make peace with everyone you can. Usually there will always be someone who wants to rid the world of your existence¿ there is usually no need to pick a fight. If you must (because you need to expand) pick players that you don't completely trust or try to form a group to take down a larger nation.

     Take advantage of the fact that many new players might not understand how powerful you can get in the mid game and that experienced players know how hard it is to attack you.

     Beware the experienced player playing one of the few nations that has national counters for the undead like Marignon. The longer the game goes on the more deadly they become to you.

     Make sure and mention/point out all the negative aspects to attacking you (low population provinces, endless raiding, supply issues, etc¿). Besides your high gem income capital, it is usually not nearly as profitable for nations to attack you in the middle-late game as is another nation. Exploit this.

    Combat Strategy (Early-Mid game)

     I've found that if you make your army big enough, you can overpower even the most killer opposing armies. The key is to have a battlefield casting trump card. I suggest either Darkness, Rigor Mortis, Shadow Blast (many!), or a combination of the three. These spells are your combat bread and butter. Of course if you find the right indy mages, anything that directly supports chaff like Army of Gold, Will of the Fates is great.

     Your strongest ability it to raid. Use your many freespawn leaders and troops to attack everywhere he is vulnerable simultaneously and move out of the way of his larger armies. You¿ll take lots of losses via the raids and many will fail, but don¿t worry too much about it. Go as far behind enemy lines as possible so he feels he must hurry back to save his homeland. Never let up the pressure.

     If a province is threatened raise it¿s taxes to 200 and (if you have nowhere else to attack) pillage it down. Don¿t be afraid to tear down castles of his that you can¿t keep  but don¿t tear down your own as they are almost useless to the other player.

     Use your undead cavalry when you need to attack mass archers or mages  they are the only fast moving units you have. I usually put them to flank and "hold then attack". Make sure you leave enough room for them to access to the battle field to flank - it is very easy to crowd them out with chaff so they never meet the enemy until it is too late.

     Always try to make sure a H3 or higher priest accompanies your larger armies. They can cast battlefield wide spells to Bless and increase your undead¿s MR and Attack. If you don¿t have a H3 a H1 can do this on a limited scale but they must be placed near the front lines. The MR bonus provided by these priests is essential to counter the banishment spam that will be generated by enemy priests.

     Your death mages should only be committed to battles if they can cast spells that will really make a big difference (i.e. Rigor Mortis, Darkness, or Shadow Blast). Otherwise let them focus on researching, forging or casting rituals.

     Sieges can be a bitch. I can't count the thousands of troops I've lost trying to storm a weakly defended fortress. What happens is that the chaff get up to the front gate but can never get through the defenders - all the while banishments/arrows/etc.. are constantly raining down on your primary forces. To break this either put some battle field mages up front that can clear the way (shadow blast, netherdarts, etc...) or put your cavalry up front and center so they can carve a way in. A cadre of Wailing Ladies would also work, in place of cavalry. Worse comes to worse just camp out and let the people inside starve and cut down the leaders with remote killing spells as you have time. Don't attack a moderately defended fortress with just chaff (no matter how many you have).

     Anti-Magery: Eventually you'll run into the anti-ermor spell like Solar Brilliance and Undead Mastery. These spells are devastating to Ermor's undead horde - which is why you need to be more than just undead. You need to start early in thinking of a way to counter these types of attacks and be able to kill those powerful mages casting them. First, avoid them with your undead hordes, then kill them. Remote killing leader spells like Manifestation, Earth Attack, Seeking Arrow, Mind Hunt, etc... are all going to be vital to killing the pesky mage buggers. High MR thugs might work. Carefully crafted anti-mage units that can cast rigor mortis are great against enemy super casters. You'll notice that lots of these solutions require you to have casters proficient in another non-death magic. Diversify ASAP! For more details on the specific anti-LA Ermor spells check out the Late Game Strategies below.

     Beware the mighty arrows! Archers that you can't get to (because you don't have troops fast enough to reach them quickly) can be devastating. Flaming arrows will cut through your troops like a sledgehammer through butter. I always give my troops orders to "Attack Rear" on the off chance they break through the melee they will hopefully keep going for the archers. Use your cavalry wisely and always attack rear. And finally... invest in an air mage with Arrow Fend!

     Key Point: Don¿t worry if your enemy gets deep into your territory provided you are deep in his. You should be able to tear him down faster than he can tear you down. After all  he has to worry about an economy and supply.

    Late Game Strategy

    LA Ermor, IMHO, is strongest in the mid game  having a successful endgame requires planning.

     Your biggest hurdle to overcome in the late game is your lack of access to a variety of magical paths. In order to overcome this hurdle you MUST begin to plan how you will deal with this issue in the middle/early game. Without some amount of forethought you will be attempting to bootstrap your mages into other magic paths too little too late.

     If you are in a decent position it's likely you will be constantly fighting multiple wars on different fronts. This comes with the LA Ermor territory! If it is a large game you should get ready for those 3-4 hour turns! Wheeeee!

     With normal victory conditions in a medium sized game often LA Ermor will focus on hording death gems setting up a strong defense and then casting a ¿screw you world¿ spell like Utterdark, Burden of Time or Foul Air. Then you try to hold off the onslaught and mop up for the win.

     With normal victory conditions in a large game the above strategy is much harder as the global slots will fill up and there are more astral gems out in the world to use to bring down your uber-global. In this case you might want to consider going for a standard military victory supplemented by something like Soul Gate if possible.

     Solar Brilliance  The first of three main anti-ermor spells out there, Solar Brilliance will devastate your largest army easily and will dispel (and prevent) Darkness. You deal with this spell by avoiding it and attempting to kill the casters via indirect means (assassination spells). Sending multiple high MR SCs against the offending army might work as well. Standard anti-mage effects like Bone Grinding and Earthquake might also be able to kill the offending mage. As a last resort put all your heavy hitters up front and attempt to blitz them. With enough shadow blasts / firestorms / etc¿ you might be able to reach the caster before your horde completely falls apart.

     Undead Mastery  This is another LA Ermor game breaking spell  not only will it destroy your army it will increase the size of the enemy player¿s forces! Luckily this is difficult to pull off¿ it often requires communions. Communion Slave mages are usually easy to kill. Basically avoid these opponents with your large armies if possible and use the same tactics against them as you would solar brilliance. I don¿t recommend the kamikaze attack though¿

     Purgatory  This is THE global spell you need to plan for. Usually it goes up once there are a few players left in the game and they know you will be their next target  but it could happen anytime in the mid-late game. Every undead in enemy dominion has a chance of being the subject of an 18 armor piercing fire attack. The chance of getting hit is 10% per level of enemy dominion. This means that in a 9-10 enemy domain province virtually all of your normal units will be annihilated. Image you have shuffled most of your troops deep into enemy territory when this goes off? You¿re ****ed! Luckily SCs/Thugs/leader should be able to shrug this off but normal units will be obliterated. The best way to defend against this is to overcast it yourself with such a massive investment of fire gems that no one can steal it away. It would only kill enemy undead  yours would be safe. I realize this is an extremely expensive defensive move  but trust me¿ it¿s worth it. I can¿t stress enough how you need to plan for this spell!

    Combat Strategy (Late Game)

     It¿s all about the SC in the late game. In a mid-large sized game it will be hard to get to the unique uber-summons and artifacts before the other players. This is another intrinsic weakness of LA Ermor. Tartarian Gate will be a very handy spell to have to churn out non-unique thugs/SCs. SCs equipped with decent MR are also one of the few universal weapons that are immune to the anti-LA Ermor spells Solar Brilliance, Undead Mastery and Purgatory. If need be they can be ¿massed¿ to take out the armies protecting these casters.

     You¿ll need to have some sort of anti-SC strategy as you will probably face more SCs initially than you will field (unless you go straight for Tartarian Gates). I¿ve found that even the most bad-ass SC can be stopped by a horde of 3k undead from time to time! Disintegrate spammed by 10+ death mages on a single SC will usually eventually work on all but the highest MR SCs (provided there is enough chaff to keep them busy for awhile). Another suggestion (untried by me) is to use a mass of Wailing Ladies (a potent offensive sacred unit). Worse comes to worse you can fight fire with fire and deploy SCs designed specifically to kill opponent SCs (Armor Negating Weapons/High Attack/Gate Cleavers/etc¿)

    	8.18 Fomoria

    		8.18.1 Guide based on RAND MP game

    (Author note: I had the dobious honor of playing TC in this game and losing to Fomoria led by Micah :) )

    		caveat: I am new to dominions, and I've never played multiplayer
    (MP), only singleplayer (SP). Most of my strategies are based on
    reading other peoples' guides. Pashadawg generously gave me some
    of the saved game files from the recent RAND game
    which was won by Micah playing Fomoria, so a great deal of this
    guide comes from examining his moves.

    The RAND game is here:
    http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=562845&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1

    1. troops

    Fomorian Warrior: This is your best soldier, and generally the
    only non-capital troop that you'll recruit.

    Unmarked: This is the cheaper of your two sacreds. Most of your armies
    will be made from these. Try to recruit as many as you can.

    Fomorian Giant: The more expensive sacred. These guys are super powerful,
    especially with your bless (more or than later), but at 110gp each,
    you're not going to be able to afford many. As cash flow allows, try to
    buy a few of these instead of unmarked.

    Nemedian Warrior: capital only, stealthy glamour heavy infantry
    with 16 defense. Clearly has raiding potential. Spare resources at
    the capitol (after building a king, and all your sacreds) should
    go to these, when you can afford them.

    [TODO: more on the other units]

    2. commanders

    Fomorian Druid: your only non-capital mage, and the main commander
    you'll be recruiting in your non-capitol forts. A cost effective
    researcher at 150gp,sacred, with 3 research. The druid also has
    10 leadership, which is enough to lead ten Fomorian Warriors.
    Surprisingly (to me anyways), one Druid and ten Formorian Warriors
    can take out most indy provinces / mild province defense, so that
    gives you access to lots of small raiding parties.

    All Formorian Druids can cast aim, and one in four can cast eagle eye too,
    so they make great combat spellcasters. They also make excellent
    combat artillery (more on this later). The Formorian Druid
    comes in 4 variations:

    A2 can forge thunder bows, can summon storm power/thunderstrike, can cloud trapeze
    A1W1 can forge ring of water for W2, then forges frost brand, sword of swiftness, boots of quickness, water bottle, etc
    Or arm with a bow, cast aim, quickness, fire closest
    You'll also want one (at W2) to cast voice of apsu.
    A1D1 raise skeletons, cheap blesser if you need it.
    A1G1 with a bow and boots of quickness, script aim, eagle eye, fire closest
    One of these should walk around site searching.
    As soon as you can, You'll want to empower one to 2G, which unlocks thistle
    maces and haruspex.

    Fomorian King: this is the centerpiece of Fomoria. Properly
    outfitted, the Fomorian King isn't just a thug, it really qualifies
    as a supercombantant (SC). They are also excellent combat spell
    casters. You should aim to recruit one every turn, after the first
    few turns.

    There are three common variants of Fomorian Kings:

    A4D2 thunderspam, can cast storm with 2 gems or an air booster,
    can forge air boosters, or staff of storms
    A3D3 as a thug: bless, mistform, soul vortex, attack.
    Or, traveling with an A4, summon storm power, aim, thunderstrike
    x3 In the late game, with air boosters & travelling with blesser
    and staff of storms, consider thunderstike x5
    A3W1D2 as a thug, cast quickness, mistform, attack. Or with a
    water ring and gems, can cast quickening to haste your warriors.

    Nemedian Sorceress: if you recruit a Sorceress, you aren't recruiting a King.
    Don't build these; instead, save up for a King.

    3. general overview

    With a decent bless (e.g., E9/N4), you have incredible rush power.
    At alt-3, a king with 6-8 Unmarked and 1-2 Giants can kill most anything that's
    around in year one.

    You lack magical diversity, especially astral, which is critical.
    Astral indy mages are a high priority for you, and you should
    probably splash astral on your pretender as well (and possibly
    fire, too). If your pretender has S3E2 you can construct golems, which have at least S2 (S3 with cap, S4
    with crystal coin, which your pretender can forge). This
    will unlock astral forging (amulets of antimagic and caps
    for all your kings), althought it takes construction-7,
    which is pretty late.
    You have a possible end-game in Death magic - well
    of misery, tartarians.

    Don't forget mercenaries! Even an S1 mercenary can cast arcane probing
    for three rounds, which is three chances at sage, crystal mage,
    etc.

    4. research plan

    Alteration: Your first research goal is Alteration-3. This unlocks
    mistform, which helps your Kings immensely (along with
    Quicken Self on the W1 kings).
    Alt-3 also provides Protection, which your A1G1 druids can cast.
    Along the way you'll pick up Resist Lightning, Cold Resistance,
    Barkskin, Aim, Eagle Eyes, Quicken Self.
    Enchantment: take ench-1 for skellispam.
    Evocation: Your next goal is Evo-5, for storm. Along the way
    you get summon storm power, thunderstrike, and a handful
    of other good combat spells.
    On your way to Evo-5, break for the site searching spells at
    Thaum-2, Conj-2.
    Enchantment: Ench-4 has the critial cloud trapeze. Along the
    way you'll pick up skellispam (ench-1 and ench-3). Also at
    Ench-4 is twiceborn which all your Kings can cast. I'm not
    sure if this is a good use of 10 death gems or not, but it's
    an option. Probably worth it on the rare 1 in 10 kings with
    an extra magic path.

    Evo-5 probably marks the transition into mid-game for you, as
    you change from small stacks of thugs to massive thunderstriking
    power. At this point, you probably want to take
    construction to 4 or even 6.

    Late game options: construction 8 for forge of the ancients and artifacts;
    or ench-6 and conj-9 for lichcraft-tag-tartarians.

    5. tactics
    5.1 Thugs
    Without any equipment but a good bless and alt-3, kings are already
    pretty excellent thugs. Splash in frost brand or sword of swiftness,
    shields (vine shield is in reach at N2), boots of quickness,
    etc, and they're vicious.

    All your kings can cloud trapeze as well, so large
    air-raids are easy for you (read Baalz' Eriu guide for details).

    You desperately want S1 for amulet of antimagic and starshine skullcap
    to boost your King's magic resistance.

    5.2 storms, thunderstrikes, and you

    All your kings and druids work great with storm, summon storm power,
    and lightning evocations. With a screen of your incredibly tough
    of Unmarked, Fomorian Giants, and Fomorian Warriors, your mages
    can pile on evocations with impunity.

    5.3 artillery druids

    All your Druids can cast aim, and some of them can cast eagle
    eyes or quicken self, too. Armed with a bow and quickness
    (either boots or self-cast), they make great artillery commanders.
    Some decent bows are available at construction-2, which is
    sooner than evo-5 for storm. A few standout bows are Black Bow
    of Botulf (cheap at 5 death gems), Thunder Bow (10 air gems,
    deals *strength* armor negating damage, and your druids have
    21 strength), Vision's Foe (5 air, 5 death, arbalest with +10
    precision). Add in Eyes of Aiming (all your druids can forge
    them) for even more precision.

    I really like the synergy with Thunder Bow and the high strength
    druids. However, your opponents are probably expecting lightning
    damage and may prepare with lightning resistance, so use with
    caution.

    6. pretenders and scales

    6.1 chassis

    Because you have Formorian Kings, you don't need an SC pretender,
    and you don't need an awake pretender. All your mages are
    sacred, and you have fantastic sacred units, so a bless is in
    order. You lack magical diversity, so splashing a few magic
    paths your pretender is probably also good idea. So for chassis,
    your best bet is the cheap rainbow mages. The enchantress is
    probably the best among them, but tinker and see which fits
    best for you.

    6.2 Magic paths

    The key bless for you is E9, which helps all your spellcasters
    with invigoration (thunderstrike is tiring!), as well as a handy
    +4 prot for your troops. Regeneration from the Nature bless
    works well for you too, since all your units have high hit
    points. But avoid N9 -- when your mages catch an arrow (and
    with 32hp, your druids will survive a few), they'll berserk,
    rush forward and attack, and you'll be very unhappy.

    If you go with the E9 bless, your have a good shot at
    the forge of the ancients; also, your pretender can make
    golems which will help you crank out all those amulets of
    antimagic and starshine skullcaps that your Kings need.

    You need Astral. S4 gives a little boost
    to your MR-weak Kings, and unlocks ring of sorcery/ring of
    wizardry.

    6.3 scales

    Order: Kings are expensive, you need cash. Order-3 is a no-brainer.
    Productivity: You need at least enough productivity to recruit
    a King and 5-6 Unmarked or Giants at your capitol, so I wouldn't
    take Sloth. But Production isn't really necessary either.
    Heat/Cold: You will not have large numbers of troops, so the
    supply reduction from heat/cold doesn't bother you. A point
    of heat or cold is a cheap way to get a few more design points.
    Growth: Not sure about this either. Perhaps 0?
    Luck: This is another place to get some design points. Misfortune-2
    is probably safe.
    Magic: Since you will be using your Kings right from the start, and
    relying on research-3 druids and indy mages for research, a
    few scales in Magic are very helpful for you.

    An example pretender:
    Imprisoned Great Enchantress, E9/N4/S4/F1, dominion 5.
    Order-3, Cold 1, Misfortune 2, Magic 1
    or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 2, Magic 2
    or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 3, Magic 3

    		8.18.2 Fomoria - Where is your God now? (AKA - The Other Giant Meat)

    Article Author:  JimMorrison

    	Fomoria - The Other Giant Meat

    			8.18.2.1 Overview

    			These guys destroyed the greatest ancient civilization that we know about, the Partholonians. This about sums up how bad these guys are, they're really bad. At least, they were, until the ancient gods got pissed at them, and cursed them with goat heads, limps, and all kinds of hideous deformations. This is fine, if they hadn't been hit so hard by the nerf bat, they'd make Niefelheim look like Arcoscephale, and we want to keep the game sporting, don't we? Now in current terms, Fomorian giants lack the Chill aura of Niefel Giants, and they lack the de facto magical gear and over-the-top stats of the Hinnom Giants. To top it off, all but their elite come riddled with various Afflictions, much like Flagellants. So what makes them so good, you might ask? Magic, my good man, magic is what makes them so good. Fomoria has some of the strongest Death Magic access in the EA, and they are a contender in Microwave Oven race (a la Air Magic), due to how robust their mages are, compared to how fragile most other nations' Air mages are. But wait, there's so much more to know! And now we will break this enigmatic race down point by point, otherwise I will just ramble all day (you know you love it, squeal for me!).

    			8.18.2.2 Pretender Design

    			First, the basics. Obviously, this is one nation that has no need for an awake SC. In fact, more on that later, but as this nation has decent Bless options (also more on that later), we should not even entertain an Awake pretender at all, and in fact I strongly suggest that you only look at Imprisoned pretenders. Unlike Niefel and Hinnom, these giants prefer neutral temp scales, and again, it's because these guys don't need the 120 design point training wheels that those other nations get. Some might argue that a Rainbow can be useful for Fomoria. I will not deny that the nation can be plenty powerful with just a couple minor blesses, though I found in SP tests that the AI gets too frisky before your late game develops, if you do not have a strong bless to smash them to bits. Also to note, before I get into any specifics - I almost exclusively play with CBM now - so remember that points may not match up exactly. That's more or less fine, as the build is a general guideline, and everyone has a different playstyle - cater to your own by tweaking this build, and you will do much better than if you try to force yourself to play exactly like me (I'm weird, so always bear that in mind! ).

    	In my eyes, there really is no one for Fomoria but the Lady of Springs. Why? Because with a major Water bless, we are going to sail towards victory. This bless certainly has limitations, but understanding of those limitations can lead your foes to their ruination. Let me list 3 viable variants of this build, each will play a bit differently. #1 is the pretender that I won with as Fomoria, #2 is the CBM version of her, and #3 is a powerful variant I have played around with as well:

    	(Vanilla) Imprisoned Lady of Springs - W9/N4, Dom6, O3/S1/L1/M1

    	(CBM) Imprisoned Lady of Springs - W10/N4, Dom7, O3/S1/M1 (Dropping to W9 and Dom6 gains you 2 scales, but wastes 22 points - though those 102 points could be played with as you desire)

    	(CBM) Imprisoned Lady of Springs - W9/E4/N4, Dom7, T2/S1/L3/M1 (adding E4 offsets the major limitation of Water bless, and these scales have proved quite viable in SP tests, due to the strategies best employed)

    	Let's break it down. Order: As you can see, depending on your bless and how you use it, I don't think Order is an absolute necessity for Fomoria. However, a large portion of my primary strategy will be pretty gold reliant, so bear this in mind. Productivity: You will not make many troops under my strategy in auxilliary castles, but I value Unmarked very highly. I feel the best compromise is exactly S1, S2 can probably be viable, I do not think S3 is competitive, unless in a rare case where those points go directly into Growth to offset income loss. Heat: Gold, gold, gold, I do not recommend ever sacrificing temp scales for points - but to each his own. Growth: If you aren't going for a major Bless, you need to maximize income. Thus if you can find the points, Growth can be good. 1D could potentially be tolerable in the right build, but I don't recommend it. Luck: I like luck. If you feel lucky, Fomoria can function under a Turmoil/Luck strat. Otherwise, I do like a point in Luck at least, as all of your heroes (at least, with Worthy Heroes mod, you have 3 possible) are quite worth having. Again, I suppose I could see saccing Luck and going Misf 2 -only- if those points are rolled into income gaining scales, but it's a hard choice. Magic: This is how you win the game. M1 seems a no-brainer to me. Drain is a bad idea, as your mid-late game will be -highly- dependant on Air and Death gems, and your mages do not qualify for making M3 cost effective enough.

    	Bottom line - you are seeking a certain balance between gold income, and bless viability. For me, major Water bless feels right to achieve this end. The alternative should still involve a couple of minors, probably E4/N4 to give you an edge in Evocation power, rather than melee brute force - however taking a weaker bless means you absolutely need to put those points into high scales. I honestly think in most cases, you are hamstringing yourself if your pretender is not Imprisoned, so build accordingly (as I said, the other giant nations get +120 points on you, even going Dormant pushes that to +220, can you really afford that large a disparity?).

    			8.18.2.3 recruitables

    	Okay, Volume 1 of the epic "Everything you need to know, everything you want to know, and a lot of things you didn't care to know about Fomoria" is complete. Stretch your legs, grab some lemonade, and let's talk about the recruitables!

    	Firbolg Slingers: Well..... they're better than human Slingers? I guess? Also, significantly more expensive. If you are being rushed by heavily blessed Jaguar Warriors, Hydras, or -a lot- of archers without shields, these guys can come in handy. If not, they won't.

    	Firbolg Warrior (with Axe): Seriously, I would buy Slingers before I buy these guys. A Length 1 weapon with a malus to Attack AND a Malus to Defense? You're kidding me, right? Buy indie Light Infantry before these guys, really.

    	Firbolg Warrior (With Spear and Javelin): I used to think the same of these guys as the axe guys. An early game wrestling match with Eriu set me straight, and made me look at their stats with new eyes. Specifically note 3 things - 13hp, 12 Precision, 15 Defense. These guys are so cost effective, it's not even funny (to have to fight them!). You can chew through indies with these guys alone (average attrition = 2 per fight), as their high Defense even can protect them from Heavy Cav charges often enough, if they aren't caught straggling. I tried a test run expanding almost exclusively with these guys, under a "light bless/high scales" strat. They're good. They'll be your best "damage mitigation per gold" chaff for most of the game.

    	Fomorian Militia: No seriously, go home. These guys are riddled with Afflictions - and their BASE stats are 5Prot, 8Def - no shield. Go hobble around in the fields and make me some money, I'd have to be a fool to pay for the privelige to let you die in combat. These guys are the reason your PD will never amount to anything. Honestly? Worst unit in the game, Markata are more cost effective and versatile, by far.

      Fomorian Javelinist: These were tauted as awesome, long ago. Why? I honestly can't comprehend. 8 Precision, 9 Defense, no shield, and random Afflictions. These guys can't hit an Elephant at 20 yards with their Javelins, so will probably cause friendly fire casualties, and then they're useless in melee. Do yourself a favor and buy Slingers before these guys, or really, anything else.

      Fomorian Spearman: Really pretty weak. Think human light infantry, with no Javelins, random Afflictions, and 1 per square. 30hp can't even begin to make up for all of that. Again, train human light infantry before these guys, but better yet, just pump out your Firbolgs, they will actually do something useful.

      Fomorian Warrior: Your first giant that actually can somewhat compare to other giant units. But at 27 resources, and still with random Afflictions, 3 Firbolgs will be superior in most situations. Of course, there -may- be situations that these guys are useful in, let me know if you figure out what those are.

      Unmarked: So named because they do not start with Afflictions. These guys are pure gold, especially with a Water bless. Let's look at these numbers - 60g (Sacred! so only 2 upkeep), 27 resources. 35HP, 21Str, 16Prot, 12Att, 14Def, 14Morale, 13MR, Enc6 (their only Achilles Heel). Now, with W9 they are 18Def before they gain exp (and they'll get 1 star almost immediately), or 19Def out of the box with the W10 variant. They do have low-ish MR, but there's a funny thing about that - single target MR check spells, will almost exclusively fall on your Kings, so they're the only ones you have to worry about. I've seen comments that these guys are "vanity items". Call me vain then, because as long as I have Holy and Resources left, I am buying these guys before -anything- else gets money. With the W9/E4/N4 variant, you get a lot of staying power as well, but once you hit critical mass, you don't need it so much. In large battles you can often get a "leapfrog" effect, where the front rank makes kills, and the next rank moves ahead, allowing the first rank a turn to rest. But I'll show you shortly why "stamina" isn't the strength of Fomoria. We are sprinters. We jump in your face, we tear it off, and we feed it to you, and we do it faster than you can cry "OMG HAX".

      Fomorian Giant: Okay, for most purposes, these guys ARE vanity items. Honestly, there are only 2 compelling reasons to ever train these guys at all - Poor Amphibian (hey, it's better than nothing!), and 50%CR. The CR is really only useful in certain situations, like fighting Niefelheim, but the PAmph can leverage you into the water, which is usually a good thing. On the other hand, their base Prot and Def are both 2 lower than the Unmarked. Combine this with the significantly higher costs, and you see that really the Giants should only be trained for specific missions, while the Unmarked serve in general operations.

      Nemedian Warrior: These guys are pretty sweet. 16Def with Glamour and a magic weapon, what's not to like? Well, I don't like that they compete with Unmarked, that's what. Perspective is mighty funny. Personally, I see these guys as the vanity items. You are not Vanheim. The mighty Fomorian Nation does not skulk around like brigands. See above about face-ripping. When we raid, we still tear off faces, but why Stealth when you can Fly? Still, I can't say never train these guys, but I don't see any special reason to recommend them, other than they are "so cool".

    			8.18.2.4 Commanders

    Firbolg Scout: You would train him over an indie Scout for why, Javelins? Never train one. Ever. I will come to your house and be mean to you. Really mean, like as mean as if you buy Fomorian Militia. Grrr.

    Fir Bolg Champion: See above - replace "indie scout" with "indie commander".

    Fomorian Scout: Stealthy +0. Seriously. NEVER. It's just a Fomorian Javelinist who can't actually Sneak anywhere effectively. I'm tired of threatening you, I may come to your house and be mean anyways, just to make sure you understand.

    Fomorian Champion: There really is little reason. Maybe once a game you take a castle from someone, and this is the best commander you can train to carry some Firbolgs to reinforce an army in a pinch. Otherwise these guys are better off in the fields, yet again.

    Unmarked Champion: Okay, repeat after me, "the Unmarked will carry our great nation to victory". For just 10g more, and 2 more Resources, you get a commander Unmarked. He is Sacred, Holy1, full slots, 15Def unblessed, and basically is like a miniature Chuck Norris clone. It is utterly hilarious what these guys are capable of with the suggested Bless and a little creativity, but that's for the strat section. Here I will just say - you want lots of these guys, they are the Butter, and the regular Unmarked are the Bread.

    Fomorian Druid: One of the weak points of this nation. This is your -only- recruitable anywhere Mage. With 1A and 1AWND pick for 150g, you are thanking the fates that they are Sacred, or you'd really be screwed. These bad boys get 5RP apiece with Magic1, and this is hardly impressive. Luckily, they all become quite useful. Even the 1A/1N variant, since most of them can just be dedicated as your Research backbone, as the others start to gain more responsibilities. On the bright side, they all come with 1A at least, so even in the darkest of times, Phantasmal Warrior spam, or Orb Lightning spam, or a Storm + A2 spells can make you glad that you have dozens of these guys coming out your ears (seriously, dozens, you will need a LOT of gold).

    Fomorian King: It's good to be the King! 500g and well worth it. These guys get 3A/2D out of the box with 110%AWD pick. 9RP with Magic1, you will want to hold as many of these back Researching in the early-mid game as possible. These are the weakest SC chassis of the 3 major giant nations, out of the box - damn that one eye, it offsets the Prec bonus from Air magic, slightly impacting their casting abilities as well. So, it sounds like I'm talking these guys down. Shhh. Yes, you will always want them supported, either being guarded by Unmarked, or operating in teams - but teamwork is something to be proud of. Look at it this way, you have 3 major variants (ignoring possible 10% picks, which are just incredible). You have 4A/2D, these guys are your Air booster forgers, your heavy Evocationists, and your Air Battlefield Enchant casters. They are indispensible, so you are going to smile every time you get one. You have 3A/3D, these guys will ultimately be your most powerful SC chassis, with Mistform and Soul Vortex. Bear in mind, they must be used solo (can support with non-mistformed units, mostly and especially if they regenerate), as Soul Vortex will kill Mistform in adjacent Kings - MR can mitigate this, but unless we are pushing past 25MR, it's best to avoid this scenario. The 3A/1W/2D Variant is interesting in combat. With a base Def of 13 on the King, +4 from Bless, and +3 from Personal Quickness, we're at 20, throw on a Frost Brand and it hits 24, and add a Weightless Kite, and we hit 27 Def. These guys are your anti-SC patrol. Try to get them a couple stars, and then keep them parked so you can Cloud Trapeze them on anyone silly enough to raid into your lands unsupported.

    Nemedian Champion: Again - trophy commander. "I destroyed the Nemedian civilization, and all I got was this Nemedian Champion, and one eye". Okay, base Def18 and self Blessable, they can technically be thugged. They are capital only. You should probably buy a few of these guys at the start of the game, before you can afford Kings. Check this out, they are A1/D1/H1, and Glamoured. Right, you're saying, "I thought I don't build Nemedian Warriors?". Forget those pansies. Think Flying Shoes, and 30 Undead Leadership. Chew on that for a bit, and I'll talk to you later.

    Nemedian Sorceress: A2/D2 1AWND pick. The game that I won, I had 7 of these, from the first year when I couldn't reliably buy Kings. I've since determined that since their upkeep (non-sacred!) is actually higher than for a King, that there is actually little to no reason to hire one of these nice ladies. Maybe if you dabble into Blood, and you want a chassis for a Black Heart, I can technically see that. Otherwise you have 2 other capital only options that are more cost effective, and more useful.

    			8.18.2.5 Volume 3: The Early Game

    			Yes, you made it, we're finally on turn 1. Savor this moment.

    Turn 1: You want to purchase 2 Unmarked, and a Nemedian Champion. You should have a little Resources left, buy Firbolgs. I suggest Prohetizing your initial commander, it just moves things along. Here you have a choice, first research goal can be either Alt3 for Mistform, or Evo2 for Lightning Bolt. Whichever one you pick, I sternly recommend you take the other as your second goal.
    Turn 2: Attach your Unmarked to the Firbolg squad, set your Prophet to Divine Bless + Smitex4 + Spells. Avoid the hard indies with this force, and be amazed. Your Unmarked always rush ahead of the Firbolgs, screwing up incoming archer fire. Between how bad *** Unmarked are, and your Smites, it is entirely likely that this force will be able to proceed through weak-moderate indies until initial expansion is over. I'm serious. Relish it.
    Turn 3+: Priority 1 will always be Unmarked. Do not overflow them, use any remainder of Resources for a few Firbolgs to toss in with them. If you can afford a King, do the Dance of Joy, if you cannot, smile because you still get a Nemedian Champion.

    When you get 10 Unmarked together, package them with a Champion, set them in the far back field with orders to Hold and Attack Closest. Set Champion to BlessX3, and either Spells, or Fire Closest depending on your confidence level and research. Repeat deployment of these squads until all indies are conquered. 10 Unmarked will devastate 99% of indie spawns without any real chance of a casualty. You can technically launch with 8 but it slightly increases risk factor in favor of expedience.

    Now, once your expansion gets nicely underway, you will likely find that you are comfortably maxing your queue with Unmarked + Kings, and generating a healthy surplus. Here is where Fomoria starts to get funny - as much as disposable cash will allow, start dropping castles wherever they look good. Insure a Temple in each, but you should only need Labs in 2-3 of them for the time being. As long as you can avoid even making Firbolg chaff, your cash flow should allow you to easily put out Unmarked, a King, a few Druids, and a large handful of Unmarked Champions every turn. Set the Champions on Preach duty for now, and/or throw them in with your other forces to gain stars - these guys are an investment.

    Your initial Research thrust will eventually get you to Alt3+Evo5, this gives you access to Mistform, Orb Lightning, Thunder Strike, Storm, and Personal Quickness. These spells can carry you quite a long way. At this point, you want to grab Thaum2, and Conj3, and have your A2 Druids cast Auspex, and your A1/D1 Druids cast Dark Knowledge until the cows come home. Additionally, depending on potential random Gem events, or N0 sites yielding gems, you may either want to just Empower a Druid to N2 and get him spamming Haruspex, or send an A1/N1 Druid out manually searching. Bear in mind you will have to manually target Auspex on those provinces if you manually search at A1, which can be a hassle. Also, sooner or later you must also decide (partially based on serendipitous supply of free early Water gems) whether to just Empower an A1/W1 Druid to start casting Voice of Apsu, or to wait until you get to Cons6 and build a few Water Bracelets first.

    Here I want to pause, and point out one specific thing about this strategy that clashes with something that I complain to people about. The simple fact is, you are looking at a start with absolutely *zero* access to Astral, and I will not kid you, S1 and S2 forgings will be very valuable to you by late game - indispensible in fact. However, unlike any other path in the game (except Blood, but though Blood access is undeniable, it's also undeniably a pain), you are almost guaranteed to at least get Lizard Shaman, or Crystal Amazons in your initial expansion. I've run hundreds of SP tests through at least the first year (not just with Fomoria, eesh ), and honestly, while it's minorly inconvenient, just keep your eyes peeled, and the first access you get to Astral, jump on it. Also bear in mind, if nothing else, between Gem events, cross-path gem sites, potential S0 gem sites, and the relative efficiency of Alchemy to get starting Pearls, you should be able to put something together by some time in the third year, in time to develop it enough for what you really need out of it. Also it bears mentioning, that even with that, you still also lack any native access to Fire, or to Earth. The Earth hurts, I will admit, and it's one of the benefits of the 9W/4E/4N variant, as you can at least compensate slightly as soon as your pretender is out. But bear in mind also, how relatively common Earth is especially, in conjunction with Nature in magic sites. Not just gems, but recruitables like Gnomes and Witches, not to mention the fairly common Enchantresses, which will give you access to all elements, plus many useful cross-path forging options. Again, you can't count on any of that, and it's entirely possible that you make it to end game with little to no Earth access (most likely, "little", as you should eventually be able to Empower someone and get the boulder rolling).

    			8.18.2.6 Tertiary Research Goals

    Conj: 4=Barghests (these guys are pretty effective with the W/N Bless), 6=Morrigans, 8=Dance of the Morrigans, Queens of Air (not entirely necessary, but keep them away from more fragile Air powers) - Manifestation - Well of Misery (as you can see, Conj8 is BIG for Fomoria, getting the Well up is crucial to push from competitive, to dominating), 9=Ghost Riders, Tartarian Gate (A note here, some may argue it's not needed, but you can compete with EA C'tis as premier Tartarian summmoner, and they may not even be in the game, leaving you on top - Tarts may not be necessary, but they add numbers and diversity well worth the expense)
    Alt: 6=Soul Vortex - Darkness, 7+Fog Warriors, 8=Disintegrate
    Evo: 6=Wrathful Skies - Wind of Death (both, used sparingly, are potent - your HP will allow you to outlast most enemies against Wrathful Skies, and you have 100+ years to spare on Unmarked, 200+ on Kings and Nemedians), 7=Shimmering Fields (not my cup of tea mostly, but has its uses) - Cloud of Death
    Cons: Cons4 opens up most of the doors you need for most applications - but beware, getting Cons8 early (I did in the game I won) is a huge boon, even if you don't "need" it, per se, the Scepter of Dark Regency is like a "free Tart a turn" card for you, and there are numerous other goodies that are very nice to monopolize, even before accounting for any magic path diversification.
    Ench: 3=Raise Skeletons (come on, sometimes it's the tool for the job, Niefel got you down?), 4=Cloud Trapeze (better sooner than later, I say), 5=Thunder Ward - Foul Vapors (again, you have the HP to suck up a bit of it, do they?), 6=Rigor Mortis (not for use with Quickened melee troops but can be useful in extreme late game), 7=Mass Flight (mixed bag, as most late game encounters you will want a Storm up, we'll find out why shortly), 8=Storm Warriors = Mists of Deception
    Thaum: 3=Leeching Darkness, 4=Terror, 6=Wither Bones - Leprosy

    			8.18.2.7 Magic Use

    I have 1 word for you, 1 word to describe the crux of your superiority in late game, over all other elements - Death Gems. No wait, that's 2 words..... oh I've got it - Morrigans. That's what the Death Gems are for. In time, you will want to churn out several Skull Staves, and you will give these to A1/D1 Druids, and set them to (M)onthly cast Summon Morrigan. Beyond that, you need Dance of the Morrigans. It is seriously, undoubtedly, the most powerful Battlefield Enchant in the entire game. The way it operates, is similar to Mists of Deception, in that you get Morrigan spawns at the edges of the battlefield, and they continuously spawn throughout the combat. Well, that's neat, right? Well yes, except Morrigans are like Valkyries on PCP. And they come with Life Draining weapons. Oh, and they can fly in Storms.

    Let me explain how you can devastate army after army in the late game, with little likelihood of defeat except by the most contrived of circumstances - For this, you probably want 4 Kings, 2 of them need a Bag of Winds, and a Winged Helmet - the other 2 need Skull Staves and Skull Helms, and don't leave home without your Staff of Storms. Also, if one of your Air casters can carry one of the Holy boosting artifacts, all the better, or bring your Prophet along, as this army is both Hammer and Anvil as one. Another nice trick to throw in, if you can gain access to Crystal/Slave Matrices, is to bring along 4 Druids with Slave Matrices, and your Kings with Crystals, but this is doable without either (and without Divine Bless, it is just the au jous for your sandwich). Your combat will look much like this - Turn 1 - everyone casts Summon Storm Power, except for your 5D casters, who cast Dance of the Morrigans, and Darkness (oh did I forget to mention, since they're Undead, they also have 100% DV). Second round of combat, you cast Fog Warriors, Wrathful Skies, and Storm Warriors. By the time you are in the third round of combat, you really don't have to do anything - though now casting your Divine Bless will leave you with an awful lot of Quickened Morrigans. If you brought some extra Morrigans with you (it's a good idea), say 30-40 of them, have them set to Hold and Attack Closest. Let your Kings rain down whatever they want, it literally doesn't matter at this point. By the end of combat, the last few enemies will be literally engulfed in a sea of Glamoured, Quickened, Life Draining, super high Defense Morrigans. Your opponent will probably set to AI.

    Now, aside from this, I promised to talk about your Unmarked Champions a bit. Here's the thing, in the early game, especially with a handful of Unmarked set to Guard Commander, to bulk up numbers a bit, squads of these guys can tear up almost anything. Adding in a few Druids to throw down Phantasmal Warriors (Phantasm = size 2, Unmarked = size 4, you do the math), and some supporting Lightning, make these very effective auxilliary forces. Also, as mentioned, throwing in 10-20 Firbolgs will also dramatically enhance staying power in many circumstances. As your research and gem income increase, you will want to look towards giving these guys a Frost Brand, and a Pendant of Luck. If you managed to secure a source of Hammers, that is 6 gems for a very potent thug. Due to potential Fatigue issues, they are not meant for solo use, but they are so cheap to purchase, maintain, and gear, that squads of 6-10 of these become trivial to deploy into multiple weak points, defensively or offensively. Eventually you can mix and match other low cost items to tailor them to specific enemies - 4 of these guys with Dusk Daggers make quick work of any less mobile thugs the enemy employs, to free up Kings for the more high tech challenges. Also with enough Unmarked Champions at your disposal, you can very effectively use them to discourage enemy raiding forces - your PD may suck, but who knows where your thug patrols will be this turn?

    Remember those Nemedian Champions? I bet you know what they do, now. 1xFlying Shoes + 10 or more Morrigans + 1 Nemedian Champion = very potent, highly mobile, fully Glamoured raiding force. The Champions can even Bless the Morrigans in combat, it's like a dream come true.

    Just remember, with Fomoria, Speed = Brutality. Lightning is great and all, but you can resist Lightning, you cannot resist the Blitzkrieg.

    		8.18.3

    	8.19 Niefelheim, Jotunheim, Utgard

    	    	8.19.1 Niefelheim Strategy for the Early Era

    		I am currently happily playing a game on the large 480 land province map
    (over 100 sea provinces) that comes with the game, and I may have found my
    first nearly unbeatable race strategy.

    Play the Giant Niefelheim race in the early era. For your pretender choose
    the monolith and put him in jail. Then give him +3 cold +1 Order and +3
    growth. For magic picks give him 10 nature, 4 astral and 4 fire, and you
    should end up with no points left to spend.

    The Astral pick lets you cast archaic record later in the game so you can
    find all the gem sits and the fire pick allows you to forge fire armors for
    your giants to negate their inherent weakness to fire. Taking picks of 4
    instead of 2 or 3 lets your blessed troops gain a bonus from the picks. +1
    Magic resist for 4 astral and +2 attack skill for the 4 fire.

    The 10 in nature gives your blessed troops 20% regeneration and +2 berserk
    which will make you Niefel Giants almost invulnerable in combat. They will
    have a regeneration of 14 hit points a turn once blessed with the above
    nature mod and it takes a real special enemy troop type or overwhelming
    numbers to cause any kind of real damage at all to them once blessed.

    I then do absolutely nothing for the first 10-20 turns and save up my gold
    until I have at least 4,000 on hand. Then I queue up 20 Niefel Giants and 1
    Niefel Jarl leader. I then build three more Niefel Jarl leaders over the
    next few turns while my giant troops are being built and I end up with an
    army of 4 Jarl¿s and 20 sacred Giants (later in the game I upped it to 5 Jarl¿s and 25 giants).
    The Jarl¿s themselves are also sacred, so my entire army is sacred and all troops will benefit
    from the 20% regeneration buff along with the other buffs.

    Give your Jarl¿s (bless, bless, bless, attack closest) orders and you should get
    all of you giants blessed in about 95% of your fights. The giants should
    have (hold and attack) orders and be set up at the back of the battlefield
    to keep enemy missile fire inaccurate while your busy blessing your troops.

    Place 5 giants in a squad under the command of each commander and evenly space them
    across the battlefield from top to bottom. Then place the commander into the middle of the
    squad and then move him 1 pixel forward from the center.
    This will create a line of 2 giants deep across the battlefield, thus maximizing your combat potential.

    Bunched up giants are susceptible to fear spells and other area affect spells, so better to spread
    them out. Also bunched up giants only see about 1/3rd of their number reach the melee while the
    rest mill around behind. With this formation if you give the two end squads hold and attack rear
    orders, you should see most of your giants engaged in the melee. This maximizes your damage
    potential and also spreads damage you take out over as many giants as possible.

    Once in a blue moon one or two will fail to get blessed and you¿ll take a
    loss. But in my current game with neutrals set to level 9 (the max), I¿ve
    only lost 3 giants and 1 Jarl while capturing in excess of 40 neutral
    provinces.

    These armies are almost unstoppable, I¿ve seen them defeat regular armies
    with more then 200 normal troops in them without taking a single loss. The
    above army can capture 1 province a turn and once you have 2 or 3 armies
    going you can dominate the province rush part of the game.

    By not doing anything for the first 10-15 turns of the game, it seems to
    make the AI players less aggressive towards you. I¿ve gone without being
    attacked for almost 50 turns. But once I started to close in on the leader
    (the player with the most provinces) I was then attacked (they declared war
    but not all invaded) by about 1/3rd of the AI players. But by then I had
    three of the above armies in operation and easily pushed back any incursions
    into my territory.

    I¿m not saying this is the best race or anything, it¿s just a very winning
    strategy with this particular race. I tried a nature bonus of 10%
    regeneration, but ended up losing quite a few giants (too expensive to make
    it a winning strategy). There is a big difference between 6 hit points
    regenerated a turn and 14 in tactical combats.

    I¿m sure I¿ll experiment with lots of other races in the future, but this is
    my first at bat strategy and it¿s been very fun to play. The AI has two
    nations still ahead of me on provinces, but I feel confident I¿ll be able to
    hold my own whenever I finally come in contact with them.

    Comments:
    -> A smaller force of those giants is enough to advance in the early game. In single-player, this is good enough. In multi-player, you'd be devastated. High Nature bless with Niefelheim is good, of course.

    Remember that you can make one of your starting giants a prophet and thus don't have to recruit an expensive Jarl or Gode for your first army.

    -> Might be problems in the case of Death Weapons or curse. Fight long enough, and you will accumulate crippling afflictions, even with regen.

    Niefels are nasty, 'tho... and can be quite long-lived, which is good for the HoF. I've got a Jotun Scout with heroic obesity.

    -> Wow ... your strategy can use some tweaking ...

    Mainly due to your not very optimal scales, lack of earth bless for the giants, lack of early expansion, extreme weakness to f9, no real mention of their battle mages, niefel thugs, etc ...

    -> I would make some skinshifters, give them a cheap commander and sendthem after the weaker (militia ect) provinces to give you a gold boost. I agree that some earth fitted into the bless somehow would be a great help but your bless is fine as it is. As said you could easily expand with far less than that and, you do start up too slow. Send out armies of 1 jarl and 4 giants and that should be enough for most provinces, before that use your skinshifters, they are very powerful for their cost (and great at soaking up attacks)

    -> That's strategy looks like a real overkill. I've tried Niefels with one of the human pretenders, imprisoned N6E4S3 or something like that. Dominion 5 or 6, Order+3,Cold+3,Sloth+1,Growth+1,Luck-2,Magic+1. Those Niefel Jarls is a real power from early on. With nature (regeneration is more to prevent afflictions than anything else) and earth (reinvigoration) blessing and with quicken oneself (alt-2) they can handle most of indies (and early AI army) alone. So I bought few Gigjas and Skrattis, went for Alt-2 while my starting army went to conquer indies from turn 2 (with scout who became prophet). In a 5-6 turns I had enough income to recruit Niefel Jarl per turn, Alt-2 was researched by that time, so they just went conquering everything around. Further research targets are Con-4 and Alt-6 - Niefel Jarls don't need any extras to deal with low-end armies, but when facing more advanced (and larger) armies they need soul vortex and few cheap items. Nothing AI can do against that. It will probably work as initial expansion plan in MP, might be a decent plan in blitz as well. If you attack your neighbour with 5 jarls (one per province) many nations will have problems defeating more than one jarl per turn so early in the game, which means they'll quickly lose their territory.

    -> IMO having a bless other than nature is not really needed, as well as the berserking ability (are niefels with 14 morale + bless + sermon + very rare losses, really routing often ?).

    So this kind of strategy would work well with an awake green dragon, order 3, production 1, cold 3, misfortune 2, nature 8, dom 6, and this kind of pretender allow you to take 10-20 provinces instead of staling the first turns (and spread more your dominion since the beginning, so the dom 6 is not as weak as on an imprisoned one). Of course, it's at a price : no fire magic and no akashic record but the first isn't really hard to find on indie mages (and you just need fire 1 for some rings) and the second is not especially needed for a strategy based on brute force.

    Also you can make big economies by using some Jotun Godes instead of Niefel Jarls (say for a 5 squads army 3 godes casting blessx2 and sermon and 2 well equiped jarls casting blessx2 then attacking).

    -> My Niefels are merrily frolicking the fields w/ F4E4S4N6, courtesy of the Monolith. Order-3 is a must, as is at least Growth-1. No drain. You are already behind in research.

    My thoughts on the blessing:
    - Most things that a Niefel (or even a Jotun) hit, die so why not make them hit a little better; I'll also be fielding fewer troops than my opponents -> F4 for +2 att.
    - Since I'm fielding fewer troops, my troops must make more hits to get rid of enemy troops; also my Jarls need to buff and NOT get hit while too much fatigued -> E4 for reinvigoration +2.
    - Magic Resistance: Goooood for Jarls -> S4
    - To drive the affliction chance down and 10% regeneration -> N6

    This means that sacred leaders other than Jarls under this bless are very effective and early expansion NOT using Jarls is (read: should be) very effective. After a few indies, many your leaders should be in HoF. Jarls, after Quicken Self and Blessing, are able to singlehandedly take on indies (watch out for heavy cavalry). Keep recruiting the sacred leaders and use them as mini-thugs. Hand out Amulets of Luck, if pearls can be spared.

    Start bloodhunting now - Skrattis. Your research will suffer for it but bloodsummons are easy way to fill the giants' ranks with size-2 chaff - Jotuns are size-4, that means a human-sized thing can occupy same grid with a Jotun. Recruit infantry from indies for this purpose also. Blood also gives you access to Boots of Youth for your Gygjas (and Sages), although a well-placed Thistle Mace should accomplish same thing.

    Prophetize your first scout and use her to spread your dominion, which also spreads cold scale.

    And your pretender can forge a plethora of VERY useful things.

    I haven't yet tried skratti's second form for thug chassis, so anyone want to chip in on that? Quicken self, Breath of Winter at least, maybe a Shroud of Battle Saint? They have been too precious for me as my bloodhunters.

    ->  neat idea there, Felgar. I normally go around with smaller armies like some of the others here have mentioned, but I bet that is fun as heck wielding a large army of that many Niefels.

    The only thing that struck me when looking at your battle formation is that with your leaders being forward a bit, most AI armies will target those first and especially with their archers, it seems. Even if other troops move out in front during the battle, archers seem to continue to target the troops that were at the front at the start of the battle, even if they fall back later. This may help you avoid some lucky hits on your more expensive and more valuable commander units.

    Another thing that works well at times is to put your Jarls on the flanks with personal Quickness casted and let them try to flank and do some damage that way. Even if they push ahead later in the battle, the other giants still take the brunt of the armies attacks if they were positioned a little forward at the start. This is from a single-player perspective anyway. I have yet to play around with MP yet. The quickness will make them tire out faster, though, so now you have a new problem in trying to keep them invigorated. That is where the Earth blessing can help and some of the nice easier to create reinvigorate boots which seem to be easier to get than in Dom 2.

    -> To all,

    Thanks for your thoughts. Instead of answering 1 poster at a time I thought I¿d address everything I can in a single post.

    As to my scale picks, I agree they are probably less than optimum. I chose growth +3 because giants need to eat and the Niefels cost a fortune to build. Nothing increases income over time as well as growth +3 in my opinion.

    Its spring in the year 11 in my game and my starting province has a population of 63,000 (I have no idea if bad events have killed any pop there). I think I started with about 25,000-30,000, so I¿ve already doubled my population in about 10 years. Of course double pop means twice the gold and supplies as well, so this is far better than 21% gold for order +3 or 30% extra recourses for prod +3 since its gold cost that prevents me from building more Niefels, not recourses.

    Sure order or Prod gives you gold right away, but over time you¿ll make far more money with growth than either of those two. Growth is also giving me +6% gold, so order would only be +15% more gold without the growth. Also the extra 45% supplies (the manuals stated 60% is wrong) make life a lot easier until you can start making some broth pots.

    I don¿t like to take negative scales if possible, but I guess it¿s possible to come up with a good negative scale strategy tailored to the race. I¿m simply not familiar enough with the game to feel comfortable taking a negative scale.

    The fire and astral picks were basically forced upon me as I wanted 10 nature picks no matter what. There just weren¿t enough points left to get two other magic paths both to level 4, so I went with the magic path he already starts with some skill in (astral) and then chose fire since the giants have no fire mages.

    After reading everyone¿s posts here, perhaps earth would have been better, but my question is why? I haven¿t seen a single giant fall over from fatigue yet, so is earth really that essential?

    I tested this strategy with lower level nature picks with 10% or 15% regeneration, but lost far too many Niefel giants to make it a cost effective choice. If you¿re going to go with lower level nature picks then don¿t bother using Niefels as you¿ll lose too many to make it cost effective.

    You¿d be better off using Skin Shifters instead for your main force. Their ability to shape change into werewolves when killed is pretty awesome in itself. A large pack of 40 Skin Shifters would do almost as well as 15 or 20 giants without the huge gold cost associated with the Neifels.

    With 20% regeneration, your opponent has to do more than 14 damage to a unit every single turn if he hopes to eventually kill it. And with 50+ hit points, even then chances are the giant will kill you before you can whittle down his hit points enough to kill him.

    The only time I lose giants right now is when they are massively outnumbered. If enough units swarm around them their total damage adds up (8 little guys doing 2 damage each is 16 a turn), that¿s why I upped my army to 25 giants and 5 leaders, it guarantees I have a solid line across the entire field which prevents their opponents from swarming around to the sides and rear.

    The +2 berserk guarantees units will not retreat since they inevitably go berserk long before their hit points are low enough to threaten death.

    I¿ve never seen my giant troops fall over from fatigue, so I can¿t see Reinvigoration +2 being that big of a deal. By the time powerful magic rolls around, I can equip all my jarls with reinvigoration items so they won¿t fall out due to hostile spells. I also doubt +2 reinvigoration will help the troops much against powerful mages later in the game.

    I don¿t know the magic system all that well yet so I could well be wrong, but the difference between 14 hit points a turn and less than 10 is too good to pass up. I was losing about 1 or 2 giants per province at the lower levels, but 20% seems to be the sweet spot. I now only lose a giant if my bless fails and I¿ve seen these armies defeat huge enemy armies filled with powerful troops.

    The only time I ever lost with this strategy so far was to some kind of fear spell. I had initially bunched up my commanders in the center of a large squad, but the spell forced all my commanders to flee and my army fled after them (no one died, they just ran away). That¿s why I split my squads into small groups and spread them out. If one or two Jarl¿s flee due to a nasty spell, you still have a chance at winning.

    I should also stress I play with level 9 neutrals and the hardest possible research, so if you play with default settings large armies like this won¿t be needed. But with level 9 neutrals I¿ve seen over 30 knights plus heavy infantry and longbowmen both with squads of about 50 each, so a small force of giants at that level won¿t work for tougher provinces.

    Against militia or other low damage troops you can probably start an earlier expansion than I did, but be warned Barbarians are your nemesis if you don¿t have large numbers of giants. They do enough damage that they can wipe out 5-10 giants easily even if they are 100% all blessed. Those blasted great swords and mauls do lots of damage and can chew up giants better than most other neutral troop types if they can gang up on them.

    As to the Skrattis I too use them for bloodhunting and research. Their werewolf form allows them to command more troops and gives them regeneration abilities, but what good is the wolf form? Does anyone have a use for the wolf form? I thought perhaps wolves come to their aid in battle or something, but I¿ve never used them in wolf form yet so I don¿t know.

    That¿s a good trick with the scout. I prophetized the starting general so he could go around with my magic site search party and search for holy. But I like your scout idea better. He can head into neutral territory and get the cold scale up for the early attacks, so perhaps only 10 or 15 giants would be good for a starting army. I¿ll test it the next time I play a game as the Niefels.

    About the leaders in the front row. I tried putting them 1 pixel behind or in the center, but it scrambles the setup and I had trouble getting everyone blessed. The above formation is the only way I could get everyone densely packed enough that 95% of the time 100% of them get blessed with 5 casters casting. If there is even 1 more rank of giants (3 rows instead of just 2), it screws up the casts.

    This is also the reason why I set them up all the way in the backfield. The enemy archers that can reach that far generally miss and I haven¿t suffered any afflictions by archer fire yet.

    All my Jarl¿s afflictions came from melee combat, that is why I have now switched their orders to bless, bless, bless, cast spells. Early on they don¿t really have many spells to cast, but now that all my research is up to level 6 they are better off as spell casters now than melee guys. In future games I may just nix using Jarl¿s in melee period. I have 5 heroic Jarls with afflictions now, and they do nothing but research until I can heal them. Not a game breaker, but a nuisance for sure.

    -> If you're not going to use Neifel Jarls for melee, I probably wouldn't even buy them.

    Honestly I wouldn't even buy them to use as melee army commanders. With the right bless and a few items, they make SCs. Short of that I wouldn't use them.
    Regular Godes should be able to handle the leading and blessing job and are much cheaper.

    -> The shapeshifting Skrattis are a new addition to Dom3. They didn't change forms earlier. Any way, I think the Wolf form is stealthy, unlike the other forms.

    As others have said, they make good Super-Combatants (SCs). That is, if you give them magical items and script them to cast spells that enchance their battle prowess, the afflictions become much more rare, and if you stack the oddss high enough, they can eventually wipe out whole armies. As an example, forge them an Ice Sword, or Sword of Quickness, and perhaps better armor. Look out for the armor's encumberance value, though. Quickness it also very good; Personal Quickness is Alteration 3.

    Earth bless gives reinvigoration, which lowers fatique. Fatique hurts even before your giants fall unconscious. See page 76 of the manual. The example is nice.

    -> The Order scale is really nice early though.

    I didn't see it mentioned so if it was my bad, but if you make a Niefel Jarl a prophet he can use Divine Blessing to bless the entire battlefield instead of using many of them, that way you can use other mages to buff your troops or use the Jarls themselves to use other spells.

    I just quickly looked at Niefelheim EA and don't know how it would work out, but another possible pretender design is to use the Son of Fennerer for a W9 N7 or something. W9 give you quickness, which is great especially for these guys, and defence skill. Both of which will help you not get hit because you're killing faster and getting hit less, might be worth it not to stock up on nature so high.

    The Drain scale might not be too bad, you'll be behind in research even farther but you get increased MR on all troops in exchange and more points to use for other scales or magic for blessing.

    Anyway, just a few things to think about.

    -> you're losing Niefel Jarls because you don't have earth bless. After casting quickness and blessing you get around 30 fatigue which gives you -3 defense and as jarls attack it quickly gets worse. Even though they don't fall unconcious they're getting hit so often that you need high regeneration just to survive (and of course, it causes you moral difficulties). With Earth bless you manage your fatigue on somewhat acceptable level which means you maintain good defense and don't get hit often.

    So essentially, that's lack of earth bless that causes you to go in massive armies instead of being able to send your jarls alone.

    fatigue is a killer for SCs, particularly when quickened.

    The worst part is not the penalty to defense, but the fact that it allows for armour piercing hits (IIRC from Dom:PPP & Dom2).
    30 fatigue means opponents hitting through your defense have a 30% chance of scoring an armour piercing hit...thus why the Earth bless is even more important for Niefels than the Nature one: better not suffering any damage from mundane troops than trusting your regen to make up for it.

    Besides, Niefels cannot trust any longer Breath of Winter to do the killing for them, so battles take longer, and that means still more fatigue

    Manual, page 76 lists fatique effects, and gives an example with 30 fatigue. Defence would be lowered by 3 (-1 /10 fatique), attack would be lowered by 1 (-1 /20 fatique) and if 2d6oe roll -2 (fatique/15) is lower than 2, a critical hit would be scored. 2d6oe means a simulated roll of 2 six-sided dice, with 6s added to the sum and rolled again. I won't bother to calculate how often the critical hits happen, but it's far less than 30%.

    -> You can start expanding fast with imprisoned N10 W9 Son of Fenrir (that Big wolf pretender) and still decent scales. Basically you can start expanding as soon as you buy 3-4 Niefel giants and starting troops on indie strength 9 with almost no losses. There is absolutely no need to wait who knows how many turns to get money and buy all at once. Other giant's are useful as well but cheaper so use them in combination with Niefel forces as support. This also works in MP.
    DON'T make a prophet out of Niefel Jarl. You won't be buying him in first few turns and he¿s already H2 so you only get additional 1 holy with him. You want to make a prophet of a unit that would usually sit back in battle and do nothing like scouts or army commanders. Don't make prophets of units that have 'so much to do so little time' syndrome in battle. Niefel Jarls are both SC's and casters so you definitely don't want to waste time with them on casting prophet spells someone else can do.

    -> The beauty of Niefel Jarls is that with abundance of gold in Dom3 you can buy one SC per turn which already comes equipped (default shield is pretty good). They may not be good enough to stand real challenges, but they dispatch regular armies just fine as long as they don't get tired

    -> I think an Earth/Nature bless would be better than a Water/Nature bless. I also like to do drain 3 and s4 for the extra +3 to magic resist if possible. It hurts your research and combat spellcasting but you won't rely on spellcasting as much as other nations, and you can forge the death research item at construction 4 so as not to far too far behind.

    Give them enough nature to at least get berzerk and enough earth to get them reinvig 6 if possible. I've found that it is hard to get nature and earth gems so it is hard to rely on forging reinvig items for the commanders.I like to equip the Neifel Jarls with a wavebreaker and horror helm. Then you have them cast quicken self and maybe a mirror image if they have air, at the beginning of battle. That gives them 6 attacks. They can really mow through the enemies.

    Another problem for these guys can be supply issues. Since the nature gem supply may be low you probably won't want to spend your limited supply of gems making supply items. I use the Skodas?(old ladies) in my armies. They ususally start with +10 or +20 supply due to their nature magic. Putting some of them in your army can help. You can then use the onces that get astral picks to cast luck and body ethereal on some of your giants. Of course if you can find nature indies it's much more cost effective.

    Research order - I think I'd start researching Alteration? until Wolven Winter is researched and then move to construction4, then enchantment 2 for raise dead and then evocation until falling frost is reached. From there, maybe blood. It would be nice to be able to summon some fliers for help in storming castles.

    ->  Here's my quick advice. I tend to do rather well with Niefelheim.

    The best bless is E9N9.
    * W9 (with all respect to HB) only stacks for Defense stat, not for AP or blows. This is less than totally sexy.
    * S9 is pointless - one hit (even a fire hit) seldom does much, and your Jarls are already MR 18 and can't benefit from that.
    * F9 is nice, but not as good as E9 or W9.
    * A9, likewise.
    * D9 is only good on massed sacreds, which you do not have.
    * B9 is silly, frankly - and the strength boost from any blood at all is essentially redundant on a niefel giant of any kind.

    The best chassis for this blessing is probably an imprisoned Cyclops, who is also pretty useful and scary in his own right when he wakes up.

    *One* niefel giant, with an E9W9 blessing and no equipment, can often knock over an independent province all by himself. This is an undesirable risk, however - ideally an early province conquest squad should be one niefel jarl and 3 niefel giants. Your initial army (with a prophet) plus a single niefel giant can take almost any province on turn 2, and should do so. After that expand as fast as you can get groups of 3 giants together.

    As soon as you can afford it, start buying a Niefel Jarl out of your capital every turn and never stop. If you can only afford Jarls and nothing else, that's fine, as 2 of them make a perfectly respectable conquest squad.

    When you meet your first neighbor - whoever he is - kill him. You might make an exception for Abysia, since fighting in that heat dominion is a real killer.

    Research priorities include:
    - Construction. Your research sucks so you will *need* skull mentors at const 4. Also, you'll really want to kit out your niefel jarls.
    - the various searching spells (thats Thaum 2, Conj 3, Evoc 2, Blood 2.) One of the big strengths of this position is that you can find all sites but fire, earth and air remotely. Do not, however, wait until you have this to do site searching. You'll need the gem income.
    - Alteration. This gives you access to Wolven Winter and Soul Vortex. You should probably cast wolven winter in every province where you might have a battle. Soul Vortex greatly increases the survivability of your Jarl-thugs.
    - Enchantment. Here's the deal - have a gygja cast white mage (give her a skull staff if needed). Get her killed in your dominion. Voila, she can now *see in the dark*, which will enable her to hurl mighty and destructive magics even in darkness. Do this with a couple of skratti as well. Your enemies *will* try to use darkness against you in their desperation, so this is a must-have for late-mid-game battles. A typical darkness casting foe is not well-suited to defend against wight mages casting..
    - Evocation. Your niefel giants are absolutely outstanding meat-shields, but even with soul vortex up the jarls just don't kill people that fast. You'll need mighty battle magics (and sooner than you think). Since you only need evocation in some battles, Shadow Blast is even better for you than it is for everyone else. Cast it a lot and love it. Falling Frost and Cleansing Water are also useful in a lot of situations.

    	    	8.19.2 Jotunheim

    Article Author:  Sector24
    		Overview

    Jotunheim is arguably the weakest race of giants, however, that doesn't make them powerless by any stretch. In general, giants have low offensive power due to their large size and small numbers, and they are easily swarmed. Jotunheim's PD is quite weak for this reason. Unlike Niefelheim, the Jotunheim giants do not have a chill aura, so you cannot rely on area effects to do the killing for you.

    Jotunheim has good magic diversity, but no natural access to Air, Earth, or Fire. There are some old age issues, but access to nature and blood magic so this can be mitigated. The strength of this nation is in the power of its commanders rather than its national troops. Vaetti Hags make excellent cheap researchers and Jotun Jarls and Skrattis make very good thugs. In order to secure a strong early game, players need access to multiple forts and need to start their blood economy as soon as possible.

    National Features

    Units

    Vaetti Goblin - Good
    These units are very good for the price, and can share a square with your giants increasing the offensive power of your front line. In the long run they are just chaff, but they are also stealthy so when magic starts to rule the battlefield you can use them as raiders.

    Wolf Rider - Mediocre
    These units are a bit too expensive to be useful at 20 gold each. They are stealthy and make good flankers, but they are too fragile to spend lots of money on.

    Moose Riders - Bad
    When you look at the Moose Rider, its stats are impressive. High HP, two 16 damage melee attacks, 2 short bows, and stealthy. However, their stats do not reflect their usefulness. The melee attacks have a very high miss rate, and Moose Riders cost the equivalent of 4.5 independent archers. These units are just too costly to use as standard ranged troops or as raiders. It's a great idea, but it just doesn't turn out to be all that practical.

    Jotun Militia - Bad
    They are big and can take a good deal of punishment, but that's about it.

    Jotun Javelinist - Good
    Giants make good javelineers due to their high strength, and Javelinists have similar stats to other giants but are less expensive in terms of gold and resources.

    Jotun Hurler - Mediocre
    These units have a niche role in a siege, but they are not very good on the battlefield due to their awful defense value.

    Jotun Spearman - Mediocre
    They are big and can take a good deal of punishment, but they're not that powerful offensively. They have higher protection and lower defense than Huskarls.

    Jotun Axeman - Mediocre
    They are big and can take a good deal of punishment, but they're not that powerful offensively. They have higher protection and lower defense than Huskarls.

    Jotun Huskarl - Mediocre
    You get your choice of axe or spear. The axe does quite a bit more damage but the spear is longer. These guys are not bad, they will hold the line but they aren't that powerful offensively.

    Jotun Hirdman - Good
    These are your best national troops, which isn't saying a whole lot. They will hold the line, but they aren't that powerful offensively.

    Jotun Woodsman - Mediocre
    They're very useful for early expansion due to their 9 resource cost, but the lack of a shield really hurts these units. They are not really suitable for a strong bless strategy and since they are capital only you don't want to rely on them beyond the first 10-15 turns.

    Commanders

    Chief - Mediocre
    Stealthy commander for leading goblins, wolves, and moose into enemy territory. However, Vaetti Hags are also stealthy, so you may go the whole game never recruiting one of these.

    Jotun Scout - Good
    Jotun Scouts come with javelins, but you'll probably rely on independent scouts since recruiting other commanders in your forts is more important.

    Jotun Herse - Good
    This sacred unit makes a good thug if you have someone to bless him. However, the Jarl is generally considered more useful because he can bless himself. If you do not have any bless, then the Herse is significantly cheaper to recruit in numbers.

    Jotun Jarl - Great
    The Jarl has all the makings of a thug right out of the barracks and is a level 1 priest so he can bless himself. Once you research the necessary spells Skratti generally make better thugs, but Jarls can still lead more troops (Leadership 80).

    Jotun Gode - Good
    Similar to the Jarl, but massively more expensive for an extra level of holy. Jarls are generally better unless gold is not an issue.

    Vaetti Hag - Great
    These units have 1 random pick of Astral, Blood, Death, or Nature. They are also stealthy, so you can lead small raiding parties with them. One of the interesting things about Vaetti Hags is that you don't need a lab to build them because technically they don't have a magic path until after they are recruited. This allows you to build a fort, recruit a Hag, and then use that Hag to build the lab. However, more important than any of that, Vaetti Hags are very efficient researchers for their cost and you want to build as many as possible for that purpose.
    Astral - Site Search with Arcane Probing. Excellent combat support with Body Ethereal, Luck, Star Fires
    Blood - Can forge Dousing Rods and blood hunt
    Death - Site Search with Dark Knowledge. Command 30 undead, and use Animate Dead or Frighten

    Nature - Can cast protection in combat, with a Thistle Mace can site search with Haruspex and make useful equipment such as Rings of Regeneration, Eye Shields, etc.

    Jotun Skratti - Great
    The Skratti is a very interesting and complicated unit. They are Blood 2, Water 2 and get 1 random pick of Blood, Death, Nature, Water. In general, Skrattis are good offensive mages with Cold Bolt and Frozen Heart, and make decent thugs with Breath of Winter, Quicken Self and the ability to shapeshift into a Jotun Werewolf. This shape changing ability makes them extremely versatile, but can be difficult to use correctly.
    Blood Pick - The Blood 3 Skrattis are good for starting up your blood economy due to their 90% chance of finding slaves. Once you forge some dousing rods you can turn the blood hunting over to the Vaetti Hags while you summon Frost Fiends or forge equipment. A blood 3 Skratti with boosters can cast the global enchantment Illwinter without having to empower.
    Death Pick - I can't think of anything particularly unique about Skrattis with death magic. Generally the least useful of the 4 possible combinations.
    Nature Pick - Nature Skrattis with a water booster can make clams.
    Water Pick - The Water 3 Skrattis can cast Wolven Winter to lower the temperature of provinces you intend to invade. They can also cast Falling Frost in combat.

    Shapeshifting:

    Jotun Werewolf - Jotun Werewolves are the "thug" form of the Skratti. They have about 50 hit points, retain all their equipment slots, lose 1 in all their magic paths, regenerate 6 hit points per round, have forest survival, and leadership 40. Water 1 is enough to cast Breath of Winter and Quicken Self and do some decent damage on the battlefield, and the ability to boost leadership from 10 to 40 can be very helpful at times. If you change shape from a Skratti to a Werewolf in combat, you will exit combat as a Jotun Wolf and lose all your equipment except your 2 miscellaneous slots. Make sure if you plan to fight that you shapeshift ahead of time. In werewolf form you want to script Quicken Self->Breath of Winter->Attack Rear.

    Jotun Wolf:
    Jotun Wolves are the "travel" form of the Skratti. They have a mapmove of 3 with forest survival, and stealth. However they have no magic, and have about half the hit points of the werewolf form. Their leadership stays at 40, but they lose all their equipment slots except 2 miscellaneous slots. If you shapeshaft into a wolf in combat, you exit combat the next turn as a werewolf.

    Example Skratti setups:

    The order in which a Skratti shape shifts is Skratti->Werewolf->Wolf->Skratti, so if you are in werewolf form and you want to get back to Skratti form, you have to shift through wolf form first. This means you will lose all your non-misc equipment. It may take awhile to get used to this, so when you're first using Skratti as thugs your only "safe" slots are the 2 misc slots, so just stick with a Ring of Regeneration and a Pendant of Luck. As you learn to use Skratti, you can begin outfitting them fully. The werewolf form has particularly low protection and defense, so boosting those is a priority. To increase the survivability of your Skratti, team him up with an Astral Vaetti Hag. The Hag can buff the Skratti with Body Ethereal and Luck before he attacks, making him into a very formidable thug. Vaettis can also hold the combat gear while he shifts through wolf form to get back to a Skratti.

    Gygja - Good
    These units have random picks in Astral, Blood, Death, and Nature. Statistically it is possible to get level 4 magic on a Gygja but it is not likely. You will have to recruit many of them to get the paths you want, and you should forge Boots of Youth for the ones you want to keep around due to the risk of afflictions from old age. Gygjas are versatile battle mages with early spells like Mind Burn, Raise Dead, etc. or they can sit in your capital and increase unrest with spells like Rain of Toads, Baleful Star, etc. In the late game, Gygjas with an astral pick can be very dangerous due to Nether Bolt and Nether Darts. Gygjas have good prospects for boosting their paths through items due to the synergy of the magic; you can make Moonvine Bracelets and Armor of Twisted Thorns in addition to the traditional path boosters. Gygjas are capital only, so as soon as possible you want to dedicate your capital to Gygja production so that you increase your chances of getting the paths you need for the mid and late game.

    Scale Design

    Dominion - 6+
    Jotunheim needs good scales, so high dominion is necessary to spread them. It's somewhat important to spread your cold scale into enemy territory, however the alteration spell Wolven Winter can also do that for you. At least Dominion 6 is recommended.

    Order - 3
    Jotunheim pretty much requires order 3 because your units are expensive, and you need a lot of extra gold to build fortifications for Vaetti Hags.

    Sloth - 3
    You can afford to take a hit here for the points. Money is generally in shorter supply than resources even with sloth 3.

    Cold - 3
    Even though Jotunheim prefers cold 2, you should take cold 3 for the extra points

    Growth - 1
    Growth scale is a matter of personal preference, although your Gygjas and Hags are susceptible to old age and you are a blood nation so I wouldn't take death. Growth 1 is usually sufficient.

    Luck - 0
    Jotunheim can benefit greatly from luck. They have excellent heroes (Angerboda is 3S 3D 2N 3B), and Jotunheim has trouble with air, earth, and fire sites so the extra gem income is very helpful. Take as much as you can afford, but don't make it a priority.

    Magic - 1
    The +1 research from magic 1 comes in very handy for Jotunheim. Your Vaetti Hags are very efficient researchers for the price, and since you will have so many of them, the research bonus is to your advantage.

    Pretender Design

    Things to consider:
    Jotunheim has no access to Air, Earth, or Fire magic, so you may want to take a pretender that can fill this gap. At least Earth 2 so you can forge Earth Boots and then Dwarven Hammers.
    Jotunheim has a little trouble site searching so you may want an awake rainbow pretender to get an early start. Finding water and earth sites are of particular importance.
    Jotunheim's sacred troops are underwhelming, but the sacred commanders make excellent thugs. It may be useful to have multiple weak blesses such as Nature 4, Fire 4, Water 4, or Earth 4. As you learn to rely on Skrattis over Jarls, this will become less important.
    Jotunheim needs good scales to be effective, and high dominion to spread them.

    Considering all these points, a cheap rainbow pretender such as the Crone is a good choice for learning how to play Jotunheim the first time. Try something like:

    Crone (Awake)
    Dominion 6
    Order 3
    Sloth 3
    Cold 3
    Growth 1
    Luck 3
    Magic 1

    Earth 4
    Death 1 (Crone starts with this)
    Nature 4

    Expansion

    For early expansion, you should recruit the Jotun Woodsmen because their low resource cost allows you recruit about 5 per turn. Your starting army plus ~10 Jotun Woodsmen should be able to wipe out most strength 5 independents without taking any losses. You want to quickly build a 2nd army consisting of a Jotun Jarl, about 5 Jotun Woodsmen, some Vaetti Goblins, and 10-20 independent archers (based on what is available). Depending on your bless, this army should be able to take out most of the weak and moderate independent provinces without any losses. As you get farther from your capital you want to ditch the Jotun Woodsmen for Jotun Hirdmen which are available everywhere. However, your national troops are not that impressive, so supplement them with independent archers, summons, or some magical support. As a nation of giants, you have access to giant soulless and longdead. One way to leverage this is to summon a Mound King and make him your prophet. As an undead priest he can reanimate for you relatively early in the game. A Vaetti Hag can lead 30 undead and 10 normal units and makes for a very cheap expansion army.

    You should be recruiting Vaetti Hags in your capital until you have at least 1 Death Hag and 1 Astral Hag for site searching. Money permitting, you should then switch to Gygjas because you'll have to recruit a lot of them before getting ones with strong magic in a single path. Get a 2nd fort up as soon as possible so that you can recruit both Gygjas and Hags. As soon as your gold income starts to stabilize, recruit a blood 3 Skratti (or you might already have a blood 3 Gygja) and start blood hunting. Once you have some slaves, forge dousing rods and let your Vaetti Hags take over.

    Jotunheim has access to excellent province unrest spells such as Rain of Toads, Baleful Star, etc. They also have decent raiding capability in the form of stealthy wolf riders and goblins. A mix of economic warfare with plentiful thugs should keep you going until you get to the powerful blood summons. You should be able to transition from a gold economy to a blood economy more quickly than most other nations, and from there you have a good chance at victory.

    Research Order

    Useful Spells:
    Alteration - Body Ethereal (3), Protection (3), Luck (4), Wolven Winter (4), Frozen Heart (6)
    Evocation - Cold Bolt (1), Nether Bolt (4), Falling Frost (5), Ice Strike (7), Nether Darts (7)
    Enchantment - Breath of Winter (1), Animate Dead (1), Raise Dead (3)
    Thaumaturgy - Frighten (1), Mind Burn (2), Paralyze (4)

    Enchantment 1 and Alteration 4 is enough to get your Skratti Thugs up and running
    Conjuration 2 and Evocation 2 gets your site searching started

    Once your basic needs are met you need to start researching Construction to outfit your Jarls and Skrattis and make Dousing Rods. Once you get construction 6, you may want to switch to blood or evocation depending on what you want to focus on. An example research order could be:

    Enchantment 1
    Alteration 4
    Evocation 2
    Construction 4 or Conjuration 2
    Then focus on Construction, Evocation, or Blood as needed. You can also get Mother Oak at Alteration 5 if it hasn't already been cast.

    	    	8.19.3 LA Utgard

    1. The troops

    Huskarl... Your human light infantry is a good addition to giants, and should be used mixed with them. Mixed squads will have one huskarl + one giant in each square, reducing by half the main disavantadge of size 4 troops. Huskarls are available in two varieties, with axe or with spear (all having javelins in addition). Those with axe do more dammage if they hit, but have a real attack skill of 9 only (10 -1 for the axe), 1 less point in defense and a too short weapon for repells. As giants are the national dammage dealers, I'd rather use huskarls with spears.

    Jotun Militia... Low cost giants are interesting if you lack money and want high hps chaff (mostly usefull against elemental nations using evocation spells ; against troops their low att/def skills make them less interesting than a smaller number of better giants). With an adjusted attack skill of 7 don't expect them to hit often, but when they do their axe + strength 18 can dammage even heavy troops.

    Jotun Javelinist... An interesting unit, giants strength make them able to launch their 2 missiles at range 20, and doing 23 dammage ; then they fight with axes. They lack precision for a ranged unit, but as your giants usually survive the occasionnal friendly fire (and your humans are expandable) it's not a big problem. Their protection is medium, so they don't worth the professionnal jotun axemen in melee, but they only cost half ressources and have 1 more defense than them.

    Hurler... A niche unit you can use to speed sieges. Their awfull defense, medium protection and the small range of their boulders make them an extremely crappy unit on the battlefield.

    Jotun Spearman... Your best defensive heavy infantry, due to the length (5) of their weapon making them repell often, a shield and protection 17. Of course they do less dammage per hit than the axemen, but having one more in adjusted attack skill they are probably more dangerous over time, especially when you fight not extremely heavy humans a strength 20 giant can one shot even with a spear.

    Jotun Axeman... Mostly usefull against big ennemies or heavy troops with low defense. Having 9 in adjusted attack skill is a serious handicap when the size of your troops don't allow you to reduce ennemy defense a lot.

    Jotun Huskarls... Same choice of axe or spear for the lighter huskarls. They are interesting units if you lack ressources but have plenty of gold. With better defense and morale than heavy troops, reasonable protection and a shield, they worth their 15% higher gold cost. Huskarl axemen still have an adjusted attack of 9 so I usually prefer spearmen.

    Jotun Hirdman... Finally, an heavy giant with good attack, protection and dammage at the same time, but expensive in both ressources and gold. Build them if you have to fight ennemies with both good protection and defense, like heavy cavalry.

    Jotun Woodsman... Capitol only and without shield but costing only 9 ressources and less upkeep than regular giants, and using a terrible axe (9 dammage, length 4, no attack reduction) woodsmen are for me a good enough sacred unit to envision a strong bless (especially when it will also help your thugs). Like the hirdman they have both good attack skill and high dammage potential, and their protection (11) is largely sufficient once they have regeneration and/or other defensive bless.

    2. The leaders

    Scout/herse... Standard human leaders. Only usefull if you absolutely need a cheap commander/scout and can't recruit indie ones.

    Seithkona... A cheap human sorceress, with interesting paths : astral allow her to boost your troops or thugs with body ethearal/luck, death to use the powerful evocations of the nether line (bolt/darts), and nature to forge many usefull items, use healing light or buff herself with eagle eyes before chain casting nether darts. Also cost effective researcher (only 90gp, if not sacred), good site searcher (astral and death site spells being level 1) and cheap communion slave with good reverse communions potential, seithkonas are really a great unit, for me the best one the jotuns got for late age. But there is something to keep in mind : each time you recruit one you are not recruiting a skratti or other thug.

    Jotun Scout... A stealthy thug = good raiding potential. He is holy, but it's mostly usefull if you can find druids or other stealthy priests to bless him (or have an earth 9 bless so a shroud of the battle saint become a good enough armor). It's also your cheapest giant commander ; if you just want a thug (no interest in leadership or holy spells) and plan to forge full gear for him (don't need a good built-in armor), the scout is the most cost effective (and better than the herse in strength and MR, and throwing javelins as a bonus).

    Jotun Herse... An heavy thug (protection 17, shielded) able to lead troops and holy, armed with the powerful jotun longsword (dammage 9). The interest of this one is you can make him an effective killer for a very small number of gems (ie : just give him an amulet of antimagic and a ring of the warrior or other + att item, add your uber bless and the buffs your mages can cast like quickness, body ethearal, luck....he's ready). He starts to be less interesting if you fight ethearal beings or need resists (meaning you'll have to replace the weapon or armor).

    Jotun Jarl... Essentially a herse with holy 1, so able to bless himself (or your sacreds) before going to melee. He also has better leadership (80), 3 more hp (35) and one more MR and strength than the herse.

    Jotun Gode... Your best priests, also thugable (having one more MR they are less vulnerable to spells than other giant thugs, but you need to spend a little more gems to equip them, they don't have the Jarl heavy armor). Unlike the jarls, they have forest survival, an interesting skill considering your sacred woodsmen have it too.

    Jotun Skratti... Blood/Water giant mages (with possible pick in death or nature) able to take werewolf and wolf form (which is stealthy but has only miscellanous slots, be aware to remove other gear before using it ; as well always start a combat in werewolf form if you want to use it, if a skratti shapeshift in combat he will be in wolf form the next turn). Note that skrattis staying in one of the (were)wolf form cost no upkeep. Skratti are excellent thugs in werewolf form (but in need of gear), due to their natural regeneration and ability to quicken themselves when they already have a bonus bite attack (so they end with 4-6 attack per round = huge defense reduction for the ennemy). They are also your best blood mage and only water ones. Those with water 3 in giant shape are the best thugs, as they keep water 2 when they become werewolves, allowing them to cast quicken self and breath of winter without reaching a dangerous fatigue level (if you use water 1 werewolves as thugs and want to use the two buffs, it's better to send them with a blood slave, and use reinvigoration after, so they start the melee with 0 fatigue*). Those with blood 3 are excellent (if not cost effective) blood hunters, and allow you to forge blood boosters without empowerement, once one of your norna has forged a ring of sorcery. Those with nature make Utgard one of the rare astral nations with clam hoarding potential (you just need one water booster), and also allow the forge of armors of twisting thorns once you have a ring of sorcery (or another blood booster + thistle mace). Skratti with death are less usefull but have access to some interesting summons (with one water booster : hidden in snow and catoblepas, with 2 death boosters : leviathan). All skratti can also find uses as battlefield mages, with blood allowing them to join your communions with the sabbath spells, and water to spam frost evocations.

    * unfortunatly this use of reinvigoration actually only work if your werewolf is with a big army, and not too close from ennemies ; the stupid spell AI will overwrite reinvigoration to cast summon imp if your forces are outnumbered (or spells like cold blast if ennemies are at range)

    Norna... Your capitol only human witches are your best death, astral and nature mages (also sometimes having blood) but they have many weaknesses like being slow (mapmove 1, but all nornas have astral 2, and so can use teleport once you give them a booster), having only 8 hp (be aware of ennemies able to use foul vapors, astral tempest, earthquake etc..), and being old (but as you have blood you can make boots of youth for the nornas with good picks). Anyway, the powerful astral and death magic they provide make them so unvaluable that once you have other forts it would be silly to build any other mage in the capitol. If you are lucky you may find a rare astral norna (1/160) with s4 able (with a skullcap) to forge rings of sorcery, a key item for a nation mastering all sorcery paths (then the forge of wizardry rings, blood boosters and treelord staff is possible without empowerement) if you don't have one when you reach construction 6, it's a good idea to trade for a crystal coin or empower an s3 norna. As a secondary skill, norna have the fortune teller ability at a really meaningfull level (15% to cancel bad events when most fortune tellers have 5), so except if you are unlucky in the very first turns, you can consider your capitol (and other key provinces where several nornas will be sent) safe from bad events, let's use misfortune 3.

    3. Making a pretender

    Your main strengths are holy thugs (=strong bless recommanded) but also astral/death mages (whose good spells are rather high level -7 for nether darts- and MR negate). As you will often recruit thugs in your forts or use your seithkonas on the battlefield you will have a smaller number of researchers than other nations, so better to take a positive magic scale (+1 because it's hard to have both +3 and a strong bless)

    If you have a strong bless, 9 ressources sacred will be your main troops for initial expansion, so dominion and gold will be the only limiting factors in early game, sloth 3 order 3 and as much dominion you can have with a strong bless look logical.

    Your nation prefer cold 1 but with all your giants troops/thugs immune to cold (no additionnal fatigue), and your werewolfs going to use breath of winter a lot, taking cold 3 mean less money but a defensive advantage for you.

    You have the best recruitable fortune tellers, so you can take misfortune 3 without too much risk (but note that the nation has some very powerful heroes, so a build with luck can be an interesting option).

    Your capitol mages are old, but blood / death magic offer ways to save good mages from old age, so growth isn't really needed (death 1 is a good idea, 40 pts for a negligible effect).

    3.1 Double Bless

    As your sacred / thugs are giants, with a good number of hit points nature is the magic providing the best bless, and as your mages are not holy you can take nature 9 or 10 without risk to see them berserking.

    Then for a second bless there are several options : fire (more attack and dammage), water (more defense and quickness) or earth (reinvigoration and protection), astral is less interesting (your sacred have reasonable MR, your thugs can be geared, twist fate offer no synergy with regeneration), death as well (when your sacreds/thugs one shot most foes increased affliction chance is not the best bless).

    Fire... In addition to the bless, fire/nature allow your pretender to forge some fever fetish to get a better fire income (considering you have 30hp scouts to carry them, it's not too much microgestion), and fire also offer some good anti undead items/rituals (good to take as LA Ermor may be around), but it's not a really powerful magic, and it offer no synergy with your cold based nation. Also if it's a very good bless for the troops (allowing the woodsmen to hit ethearal beings) it's not as usefull for the thugs (who can have gear to boost their attack, and magical weapons).

    Water... is probably the most powerful bless (was the answer of a poll about them), as with quickness it's both a defensive and offensive boost. But very high level water magic isn't really usefull (except perhaps to cast maelstrom once you control some seas).

    Earth... look weaker, but has many advantages. Reinvigoration helps your berserkers (units going berserk having an encumbrance penalty), and the protection bonus is good for your sacreds who just have protection 11 and no shield. But the main interest is to make shrouds of the battle saint first choice armors for your werewolves (no encumbrance, effective protection 16 and with a nature 10 bless + their natural regen + a regeneration ring they can reach... 40% regeneration !! = 23hp/55 per round). You may also use the shrouds as cheap reinvigoration items for your mages, with the risk to see a wounded one going berserk. If you plan to use a lot the shrouds on your nornas (and a strategy more based on magic instead of berserk thugs) an earth 9/nature 8 bless avoid the problem (and get you better scales).

    With two levels 9 you can have any double bless with high dominion, an humanoid imprisoned pretender, and scales like order 3, sloth 3, cold 3, death 1, misfortune 3, magic 1, using an imprisoned pretender. You need a little more sacrifice for nature 10 / something 9 :

    Fire 9 / Nature 10 would force you to use an human pretender and have a dominion around 6 (with an imprisoned druid).

    Water 9 / Nature 10 can be developped with an imprisoned son of fenrir (dominion 7 for the same scales) but you'll get a chassis with only 2 slots.

    Earth 9 / Nature 10 with an imprisoned earth mother reach dominion 8 with these scales, and you get a real SC chassis (with built in trample) and earth magic is far more usefull in endgame.

    3.2 Really extreme multi-bless for thugs

    Being a thugs nation, Utgard can also base its whole strategy on them, just slowing a little its initial expansion to have a more powerful bless. As you can always recruit one leader per fort, and only them matter, you can go with a dominion of 4 or so for a stronger bless (but a very low dominion is a big risk in MP), also funded by a drain 2 instead of magic 1 scale.

    The best pretenders for that are the human ones, especially the great enchantress and frost father starting with 2 paths.

    A triple 9 bless would need extremely bad scales like death 3, or turmoil but no order. But a triple 9/9/8, quintuple bless 9/9/4/4/4, or quadruple 9/9/6/4 allow reasonable scales.

    For a secondary bless for thugs, astral (4-6) is IMO the best choice, as the main problem of your champions in late game will be magic resistance. And taking astral 4 or more on your pretender, also remove the need of a very rare norna to start to forge rings of sorcery, and if you go with 6+ on an human god, your pretender will be able to cast wishes without empowerement.

    A great enchantress starting with earth and astral, you can have E9N9S6 for a reasonable number of points, and so a correct dominion *or* magic scale (ie : order 3, sloth 3, cold 3, death 2, misfortune 3, magic 1, dominion 4 ; or order 3, sloth 3, death 1, misfortune 3, drain 2, dominion 6).

    You can also take both a bad dominion (4) and drain 2 for nature 10 (+e9s6) or one more bless at level 4 (fire, water or even air can be interesting), or target magic diversification with a build making boosters for all paths forgeable once you have a ring of wizardry (e9n9s6, ...+ air 3, fire 2, death 1), or allowing your enchantress to forge bloodstones (...+ blood 3, something 2).

    A quintuple bless with 3 level 4 and 2x9 is also possible with the same scales.

    4. Research Priorities

    With a good bless to help woodsmen based forces you will have no difficulty to take one or more indie province / turn since turn 2, and can concentrate your first researchs on site searching spells. Try to get both evocation and conjuration 2, so your seithkonas can search death and astral sites (you can wait a little for nature searches as only 1/4 of your nornas have the required level ; and conjuration 3 for the water search spell is not a priority either, because it's better to recruit sethkonas for research and jarls to be your first thugs than the expensive skrattis in early game, even once a second fort is built -also your one or two first skrattis will be busy hunting blood slaves- ; finally the blood search is not as usefull as others as blood sites are rare and often bad, I'd only use it on a high site frequency province where all other searches have been done without result).

    Then alteration 3 or 4 is the magic to get, allowing to make your valuable sacreds or thugs ethearal (and lucky at level 4, you can of course give pendants of luck to your thugs but it's wasting gems when you can recruit in every forts sethkonas to buff them ; alteration 4 also give the non-personnal quickness to your skrattis, but the too long range make this spell not really reliable to buff thugs). As soon you have body ethearal to protect them you can start to script your giant leaders to (hold and) attack against independants. If, without gear, they are not better than giant troopers, getting some kills early may allow them to enter the hall of fame and get interesting heroic abilities.

    Construction is of course one of the most valuable school for a thug nation. You must have construction 4 to start to use thugs against other nations, starting with 13 to 15 MR they absolutely need an amulet of antimagic (even if your opponent don't have astral for the best MR based spells, a simple sleep/sleep cloud can be very dangerous for them). This level also offer you a large choice of gear, and the skull mentors to boost your research. You can for the moment stop construction research there (construction 6 of course is great, as it allow the forge of skullcaps for your astral mages, water bracelets for the skrattis, and better thug weaponry, but if you have to fight before late game like it's probable with a rush nation, battle magic is more a priority -- but if you think you can stay at peace, with a good gem income and in the firsts in research, it's a good idea to try to race for artefacts with this nation, your death magic allow you to forge the best ones).

    Thaumaturgy 4 (paralyze), enchantment 3 (raise spells) and evocation 4 (nether bolt) are your first tier objectives in battle magic (after alteration 4). You may research them all or concentrate research on one school to get second tier spells faster (if it's the case, going for evocation 7 for the terrible nether darts all your human mages can use, seem the best choice, only equaled by alteration 8 -will of the fates, quickening-, level 6-7 enchantment has some interesting spells but isn't very powerful, and thaumaturgy 6-7 is only a good idea if you fight particular nations - like Arcocephale/Caelum -giving you low MR valuable units to enslave- or Ermor/Ct'is -wither bones cast by the master of a large communion is better than anything against undead hordes-).

    Another strategy is to base your research choices on interesting globals your pretender can cast. Assuming you use a N8+ / E9 earth mother you have many good ones to cast, which will be very hard to dispell due to her level. Mother Oak (alteration 5) is a good first objective, then you'll have plenty of N gems to cast an undispellable Gift of Health (enchant 6), making your thugs with regeneration real SCs in your dominion (and as you probably started with high dom strength to recruit many woodsmen, a dominion-push based strategy is not hard to developp). With this level in enchantment, earth may allow you to compensate your probable high sloth, with the underestimated Riches from Beneath, or at level 7 to cast Earth blood deep well, one of the best gem-income spells. Then your pretender has of course access to the Forge of the Ancients (construction 7), the best earth global (but without an excellent magical economy, to cast it with 200+ bonus gems, you will have difficulties to keep it up in MP). Finally, you have also have an interesting national global in blood magic, Illwinter, to cast with one of your skrattis, but increasing unrest and cold everywhere usually mean war against the entire world, so it's probably clever to use it only if it's already the case (or if you think you can win one).

    As you have seen I've skipped blood. Not because it's not a powerful school, but because I can't see blood above level 1 as a priority for Utgard. Blood is mostly interesting for uniques thugs/SCs/mages, and there are more specialized blood nations which will beat you for them -except if you make huge sacrifices in schools far more usefull for a nation already having national thugs and good mages-. If you are the only water-blood nation you will probably have the ice devils even if you research blood in late game only ; if LA Mictlan is in the game, it will focus research on blood and you won't have them. In all cases there is no reason to rush blood research like with a true blood nation. Once the other blood powers are destroyed, blood will allow you to re-summon their uniques, and it's never too late for that. Out of that, in all blood magic the only spells you'll use a lot are level 1, reinvigoration and the sabbath spells ; and your blood slaves income is better used to make gear than to summon units not far better than the giants you can recruit everywhere.

    As well conjuration offer the best death summons, but with all your thugs and good mages you can wait to develoopp this school.

    5. Equiping Thugs

    5.1 Low level gear for Herse and Jarls

    Your herse and jarls come with protection 17 armor and a dmg 9 weapon, but need some more gear to start to be callable "thugs" instead of "just one more giant".

    If you don't have a fire bless, all your giant leaders have only 12 in attack (11 for the gode), meaning they only hit common (def 10) infantry 62% of the time, and have about 62% to miss most (def 13) mounted units (this even considering giant strength allow to go through an eventual shield) ; and of course would have negligible chances to hit ennemy equiped thugs.

    You may/will of course try to use quickness on your jarls, boosting both attack and defense, but the spell is not really reliable (the long range mean your skratti will often target troops if placement isn't perfect), and the boots are construction 6.

    So one of the first priorities for early thugs is an item boosting their attack skill. The Ring of the Warrior (blood 1) is the best one, giving +5 to attack, and you can forge it even for early thugs (construction 2), giving your jarls a reasonable attack skill of 17 with their built-in longsword (and as a side effect a +2 morale, mostly usefull if you don't have the N9 bless to give them the berserking ability). If you have access to fire 1, the burning pearl may be more interesting (+4 att, but 50% FR as a bonus).

    Another evident (cumulative) option is to replace the jotun longsword by a more offensive weapon (also allowing him to hit ethearals), but the best your national mages can forge at construction 2 only give +2 to attack. Then, at cons 4, you have several options :
    - for 5 water gems the cheap and very efective frost brand (one handed, +4 attack and 2 def, 16 dmg and cold area effect)
    - or for the same price, the demon bane (two handed and not doing far more dammage, but giving +6 att, x3 dmg against demons, and fire immunity).
    - or for 5 slaves the flesh eater, a little inferior (+3 att, 0 def, 14 dmg) but only costing blood (and causing chest wounds as a secondary effect, interesting against other thugs nations)

    Defense is far less usefull than protection (especially with a nature bless) and jarls have a sufficient one (especially with an earth bless, and as you'll have body ethearal and luck cast on them) so keeping your natural 13 def / 17 prot (with built-in standard shield and armor) is not a problem.

    Your nature magic allow to forge great shields with other interest than defense, the vine and eye ones, but as they cost 10 gems they are more for your elite thugs, the werewolves.

    The armor of jarls is not extremely heavy (encumbrance 6, when many heavy humans have 9 for this protection), so if you have an earth bless (or won't use quickness) they don't really need reinvigoration items. If you have no reinvigoration in your bless and plan to use quickened jarls, boots of the messenger can be a good idea.

    The final piece of gear all your thugs should have is a no-brainer, as soon you fight other nations : an amulet of antimagic. But against indies (or if you fight nations not having access to good MR spells) you can skip it.

    Finally for 15 gems/slaves (9 with a hammer) you get a jarl with frostbrand, aamulet and ring of the warrior, able to hit about anything with attack 21, and resisting as often as a good mage. It's all your need for an early war, as long your ennemy don't use his own thugs, or casters with penetration items.

    5.2 Armors for the light thugs

    Scouts and godes need about the same gear as jarls, except they also want a better armor.

    If you have an E9 bless, the shroud of the battle saint is the best one for the scouts, as it allow your stealthy thug to be blessed, when you have no stealthy priest for raiding. Without an earth bless, the shroud protection is weak but can be exploitable if you have another good one (ie : a water bless + a magic shield, can make your scouts good defense based thugs).

    Out of this, without air and earth, your national mages don't have access to good armors before construction 6.

    At cons 6, your choice suddenly become large, with rime hauberk, hydra skin, blue and green dragon mail, and (with death boosters) bone armor. Rime hauberk is the best for defensive thugs (if you fight in your cold dominion where its protection is better) and if your ennemies are not cold immune (breath of winter is not really usefull if you fight Ermor). As your giants are already cold immune, blue dragon mail may only have an interest if you plan fight in hot dominion and have only water gems to make an armor (in heat 1+ provinces protection is better than with a rime hauberk). Green dragon mail or hydra skin are preferable if you have nature gems (and if your ennemies risk to use poison). Offering +10% regeneration (at the price of some protection) and 100% instead of 75% PR, this last one is usually the best choice, but the dragon armors can have an interest for your scouts : the +4 morale they give can save them from routing when they fight without a bless/sermon. The bone armor, finally, may worth its cost for this kind of thugs, only if your ennemy use zerg of weak units + fatigue spells to kill them. Its low protection and defense make it less an armor than a reinvigoration/regeneration item, and only working if a lot of low MR living units are around (it's finally a better item for mages reinvigoration, via the drained life of big bodyguards like jotun militia -note that if you use communion matrixes a communion master with it will give soul vortex to all slaves ; with bodyguards for all it mean an huge global reinvigoration-).

    5.3 Gearing the Elite (werewolves)

    Skrattis in werewolf form are by far your best thugs (with 20 more hp than your giants, natural regeneration, bonus bite attack, 13 base attack and defense -16 with the quicken self they can cast-) and desserve the most powerful gear you can forge.

    They have the same armor concerns as the light thugs described above. As they will cast one or two spells and then be quickened, attacking 4 or more times per round, the main weakness of werewolves would be fatigue if you give them an heavy armor, so even if you have earth mages avoid all the black steel/elemental plates. If your bless include E9, it's one more reason to use the encumbrance 0 shrouds of the battle saint (with a possible exception if you have to face mages with full penetration gear, with their 14 base MR werewolves would need both an antimagic amulet and an armour of souls to be quiet). If you can forge them, the rainbow armors, giving both magic resistance and reinvigoration, are also a good (and more cost effective) choice in this case.

    Out of the classic antimagic amulet, the other pieces of gear mostly depend of who you expect to fight.

    Against human armies, you can go with the classic frost brand (or other AE weapons, the fire or shadow brand being better if you can forge them) and a vine shield (you don't want all the small humans around attacking your thug at the same time). Eventually you can add an horror helmet to make your opponents check morale more often, or an horned one to kill one more weak guy per round (or reduce defense of stronger ennemies) and boots of the messenger if you fear a big battle don't have reinvigoration on your armor (not really needed with a shroud + E9 bless as long you are not dual wielding).

    If you expect to fight bigger creatures you won't kill even in 2-3 shots, especially beasts with low MR like elephants or mammoths, rather equip your thug with the heart finder sword (MR check or die -for non-lifeless being only iirc-, 3b, construction 4).

    This sword is also a good anti-thug weapon, if the ennemy use bad MR chassis or forget amulets, with your werewolf attacking with it 2 times per round, you can expect some success even against MR 15-18 ennemies (or it will at least force your opponents to invest in MR gear). But against thugs or other creatures having both correct hp and MR, it shouldn't be your unique gun. A team of two werewolves, one with this sword and one with good non MR based weapons, is a better idea, as it's rare to have an ennemy with both good MR and resists.

    In general, due to armors defense penalty and items sharing the same slots, thugs are very high defense OR protection based, and/or very high MR OR very high regeneration OR resists based ; or they try to be all at a time and are finally killable by anything.

    Your werewolf himself will usually be regeneration based, as maxing this capacity (shroud with a good N bless or hydra skin + regeneration ring -but avoid the lycanthropos amulet, it may transform your werewolf to a smaller one losing his magic power-) + natural regeneration give him an insane survavibility against anything but slay/control spells (and even, if you add an antimagic amulet and a lead shield you can get a thug with excellent MR too).

    Life draining weapons can also be considered a good way to play with this strength, assuming your thug hit two times with a wraith sword it adds 10 to the number of hp he will recover per round (if you can empower one of your B mage to fire, a hell sword is even better, as it boosts berserking too). But these two weapons have the disavantadge to be two-handed.

    Werewolf are generally great against defense based ennemies, due to their multiple attacks, each one after the first reducing defense by 2. You can maximize this if needed, giving a thug 2 swords of quickness and an horned helmet, so your quickened werewolf will have 12 attacks per round (you may even add more if you have air for chi shoes, stone bird or dancing trident). Of course it will also mean huge fatigue for the wolf, so it's better to give him boots of the messenger and a resilience amulet even if he has an E9 shroud. Such a thug will hit often, but won't be a killer alone if the ennemy has reasonable protection, and will be himself very vulnerable. But in a team he will ease a lot the killing of very high defense ennemies.

    Against protection based thugs, astral-death give you access to the armor-negating duskdagger. It's a good idea to couple this 2 dmg weapon with a strength item if you can forge some, and a ring of the warrior as its attack bonus is mediocre. Then your werewolf is able to kill any high protection midgame thug in one round (assuming he hits two times). As it's a length 1 weapon, you can even dual wield duskdaggers without too much penalty, to have a damage potential of more than 100hp per round no matter ennemy protection (but sending a werewolf with two daggers giving no defense is risky business).

    Usually it's better to use shields, especially the ones with cool secondary effects your opponent risk to trigger no matter his defense or protection (if he don't have an huge attack skill). Your magic offer a large choice of secondary effects with the eye shield, vine shield, totem and accursed... The vine shield has only an immediate effect, but offers an excellent synergy with high regeneration (if one round / 2 your ennemies are busy with the vines, your werewolf has high chances to win). But note it doesn't work against fliers. The eye shield has both an immediate and permanent effect, and is of course especially good against one eyed ennemies (like agarthans). Finally once some research have been done in blood, a shield of the accursed become one of the most terrible weapons, as your nornas with blood pick can call horrors.

    	    	8.19.4 Counters to Niefelheim

    -> Soul Slay. Enslave Mind. Paralyze. Petrify. Use penetration boosters and/or communion to boost your chances.
    Don't fight them in cold dominion if you can afford it.
    Fire spells do extra damage. Flame Storm?
    Mind Hunt his commanders!

    -> Niefelheim has above average magic resistance... But at that age and game stage it may be worth mind hunting them. It's pretty inexpensive at 2 pearls, and they aren't likely to have many ways to boost their magic resistance, while you're likely able to forge eyes of the void for a penetration bonus, maybe something else. Though I can't remember the requirements for mind hunts...
    In general, counters depend on the bless. If its just nature, I'd focus on damage and numbers.
    If they have a heavy water bless, ranged may be your best option.
    As Agartha, I'd focus on armor of Achilles and other armor destruction spells.

    -> The strength of Niefelheim's troops is really their cold aura. What you want roughly (specifics will vary depending on what you have available) is a couple of cold immune guys (undead, or give them relevant items) with high defense (25+). Because the giants are so large, only a few can attack at once, so for relatively cheap you can get a couple of linebackers that'll hold them back for a good amount of time so your mages have a chance to work. The typical bless for Niefelhiem is N/E, so I'm assuming its something like that. With Arcoscephale what'd work well is a communion of 8 or so mages casting..say...orb lightning. 4 masters + 4 slaves makes orb lightning practically free (you can cast it all day long) and if your masters start at 3a (seems like that's what EA Arco has available) you're throwing down 20 or so AN attacks per round. Fried giant in no time!

    -> Try Charm as well. It's nature but short range. If you can make it work, they'll fight for you.
    Air Magic? Thunderstrikes are good if you can get a lot of them. Fog Warriors might help, but not if he's got a F9 bless.
    Against Neifel giants, single target one shot kill spells are what you want. They regenerate too fast to try to whittle them down.
    Fires from Afar will damage a few troops. It'll kill normal humans, but the giants are too tough.
    Breath of the Dragon does poison damage. It's nice, but does damage overtime and it probably canceled out by their regen.
    Tougher/higher protection human units will still die in one hit so they aren't much use. Go for numbers but only as a meat shield. The mages do the killing. Massed summons can work too. Vine Ogres can make a decent wall. Living Statues or Mechanical Men if you've got the Earth magic.

    -> Some spells to consider:
    Conjuration: Phoenix Power (F2), Summon Earth Power (E2), Power of the Spheres (S1), Light of the Northern Star (S3), and Will o' the Wisp (F1)
    Alteration: Curse of Stones (E3) and Destruction (E3), Swarm (N1)
    Evocation: Magma Bolts (E1, F1), Falling Fires (F3), Magma Eruption (E3, F1), and Thunder Strike (A3)
    Thaumaturgy: Rage (F2), Prison of Fire (F3), Paralyze (S2), Confusion (A1), Soul Slay (S3), Enslave Mind (S4), and Hydrophobia (F1)
    A couple of cold resistant thugs would be very helpful, especially if equipped with Fire Brands.
    Fire Snakes also work pretty well vs. Niefels.

    -> Flaming arrows and indy archers will crushinate the sacred giant troops. With communion available or just a simple F2 + phoenix power + extra gem in casting it shouldn't even take much mage power. Just get some chaff to soak up the giants attacks halfway down the battlefield and watch the pain.

    -> I would say that Charm, Thaumaturgi 7 is your best bet.
    A N3 oreiad have 18% chance to charm a Niefel giant. With eye of the void (5 astral pearls) it is increased to 30%.
    For the cost of fielding 30 niefel giants and a niefel jarl you should be able to field 10 oreiads with eyes of the void.
    Just put the mages close to the enemy with chaff with hold and attack orders in front, so that they are within your 20 range.
    With three giants deserting every turn you should be able to win the battle.
    Your average Oreiad should be able to cast charm 5 times before passing out. Those with nature random should be able to cast it 9 times.
    You can also forge rune smashers and spell focus with your mystics. With spell focus, rune smasher and eye of the void your Oreiads will charm 54% of the time.

    I think your second best shot is living clouds and lightning.
    With storm and storm power your Oreaiads with air random should be able to cast living clouds twice. On average it will take the niefel giant 13 attacks to kill an air elemental. Slightly less if the elemtal is attack several time a round. So if you manage to summon 30 air elemental, the giants will be stuck for a while. The air elementals will do AN damage and will not be hurt by lightning spells you cast. Air elementals will also work well as chaff if you are casting charm.

    You can give a crystal matrix to an Oreiad with air random. Use her with 8 mystics casting communion slave. After storm power each casting of living clouds will give you 7 air elementals. Theoretically you should be able to cast living clouds 8 times before your communion is to tired. But the AI will probably burn to many gems for that to happen. On the other hand if the AI burn more gems then needed you will get 8 elementals.

    -> Given that Niefel's sacreds should have a 19 MR after Antimagic goes off I really can't get behind an MR-spell based counter to them.

    It might work in this case since the Niefel player is new, but it's not a good general strategy.

    -> Strange, no one seems to have listed my favorites. Mages with two earths are common randoms in Arco. So mages with one fire and one astral.

    (With a Oreiad casting Wind guide and one mage casting Light of the Northern Star)
    Two earth mages: Summon Earthpower, Gifts from the Sky
    Fire/Star mages: Astral Fires
    Oreiads: Lightning bolt/Thunder strike

    Dead, dead giants.

    Forgot to say: All above are armour negating, or don't matter (150 damage kills giants, or anything)

    -> For Niefelheim to cast anti magic you would need a rare S2 Gygja or a Gygja casting power of the spheres and then sleeping a turn before casting anti magic. Arco should be able to kill the Gygja with magic duel.

    I would like to compare lightning spells to fire spells against Niefel giants.

    Niefels with E9 blessing have 18 in protection. Could be more in cold provinces.

    Fire darts, evocation lvl 1. 3 x 15 damage against niefel giants. That is 18 damage after armour.
    20 fatigue. F1

    range 25+
    precision 4

    lightning bolt, evocation lvl 2. 14 damage
    10 fatigue, A2

    range 35+
    precision 4

    Two out of three mystics will be able to cast fire darts. I do not see why I would like to recruit an oreiad for 400 gold to get some more range over a mystic for 150 gold.

    Seems to me that most things will be cost effective against niefel giants this late into to the game. Earlier in the game it would have been hard to mass the mages needed.

    -> One does recruit Oreiads rathers than Astrologers in capital because one can recruit Astrologers everywhere else. It's nice to have many Oreiads. Once you got, and giants are stomping your troops, you just use them. When giants come, and you have research, you send a castle of mages to the fight, and each script for whatever is best.

    (EE) -> summon earthpower, gifts from the sky
    (FS) -> astral fires (with Light of the northers star)
    (FF) -> phoenix power, falling fires
    (F) -> fire darts
    (AAA) -> thunderstrike
    (AA) -> lightning bolt
    (NN) -> thorn storm (won't hurt much, but will waste a move)
    (S) -> soul slay
    (-) -> mind burn

    Last ones suck, but hey, you fight with what you got. If you have bow and flaming arrows, you are better with them on the field than with them a province apart.

    -> I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket, when it comes to air counters. Roughly a fourth of all Niefel Jarls will have access to air magic, and that's roughly enough to ruin your day if all you're trying is lightning bolts and shock spells.

    The biggest weakness Niefel has is it's provinces. Province defense sucks bigtime, you need a huge amount of gold and supplies to purchase and field your troops, and it's very hard to defend that huge area with those few, expensive troops. So, the best advice is to attack the infrastructure-hit them in their income and their bellies.

    Spellwise, curse works really well. They can also be Feared out of existence, so consider horror helmets. They have really good morale, but not ironclad, and less ways to boost it-no morale, low numbers-than other nations.

    Etheriality is great: 1 because if they don't have fire bless, then it makes your troops a lot harder to hit, and 2, if they DO have it, then you don't even need to research it, it's already done it's part since Fire bless is not the best bless out there for Niefels. It's not bad, but it's definitely not 1st choice.

    Barbarians are terrific, and fairly cheap, against small parties of giants, or individual Niefel Jarls-even really tough, boosted, SC Niefels. Get enough barbarians together, supported by heavy calvaly, and you can pick Niefels off. Wolf Tribe warriors are even better, in numbers.

    Provinces being hard for nIEFELHEIM to defend over a large area, also leaves them somewhat vulnerable to dom-killing. The cheapest Niefel priest is 200 gold a pop, so consider a praying war, especially since every unit they use to counter you is another few pounds of gold you've just committed to *not* building an unstoppable army. It's worked against me, and it should work against your opponent.

    Finally, consider mass-producing the shields that inflict curse and blindness every time they're struck. These are great to pepper in with your chaff. So are medallions of vengeance and any cursed items you have lying around that a Niefel Jarl might pick up.

    -> The advice previously given that you attack Nief's provinces is probably the easiest to implement. You should be able to take 2 or 3 provinces for every one that you lose. It is a permutation of Russian strategy where you retreat to win, but it is effective. No one likes to lose 2 provinces for one, so that should reverse the advance. Then you will have the time to acquire the manpower and research to use the spells that were suggested. A good variant of this is to attack a province just behind the unstoppable force. Set the tax rate to 200. If they turn to attack you, you just keep your army moving through his provinces avoiding battle and he wastes his good army taking back his provinces unopposed.

    Another stategy that might work is to put up a castle in a wasteland or marsh if it has good blocking capability. Fill the castle with enough troops and engineers to offset the besiegers, give cauldrens and wines sacks to every commander and hope your opponent is foolish enough to starve himself into serious affliction issues. If this works it also buys you time to acquire effective head-on counters.

    -> A very effective tactic against Niefelhiem is ritual spells which cause unrest. Get unrest to over 100 in their capital and keep it there. Boom, no more Frost Giants. Rain of Toads, Raging Hearts, Plague of Locusts, Baleful Star, Blight and Hurricane are the spells you want.

    -> I had a 50 or so giant army of sacreds with a N8, E9 bless destroyed very easily by EA Ctis casting darkness and spamming raise skeletons.

    Up till then the army had been virtually invincible.

    EA Niefelheim is powerful but has many exploitable weaknesses. Many of which have been listed already.

    EA Nielfelheim can recruit specific troops for sieging, the rock hurlers. They get a decent siege bonus.

    -> Comparatively, although Niefelheim seems strong because you get big huge tough giants etc. they're actually the weakest of the Heims.

    The Niefels themselves are far too specialized to taking on individual, tough foes with their axes, one at a time, but they're so expensive that you're pretty much going to be throwing them against masses of troops.

    It's like outfitting someone with an elephant gun and having him go shoot rats.

    To expand upon this: the fact is, giants-especially Niefels, do NOT need to be specialized. They're big, tough, powerful, etc.

    They're basically tanks.

    To maximize their abilities and strengths, they should be equipped much differently than they are, with metal armor-preferrably scale, blunt impact weapons with spread effect-appropriately designed maces, flails, hammers, etc., and mounts, to increase their speed and protect their biggest weakness-their knees.

    It's doubtful they'd even see a real need to invent a combat axe or a sword, let alone use them exclusively in combat. Axes and swords are far too precise of weapons, not to mention fragile and expensive, and they do different kinds of damage-axes increase damage from impact, swords are versatile-than what such large beings would want to do in combat.

    Smaller giants might use those kinds of weapons for some combat purposes, but for Niefels, it's really inappropriate and wasteful. Swords and axes of that size would become stuck in bodies, especially armored bodies and mounts, which would leave the Niefel vulnerable and off balance in the middle of a combat.

    -> I disagree that Niefel is the weakest heim, especially now that glamour is nerfed.

    Firstly, the cold aura actually does kill people. It takes a while, but once it kills it kills a lot of people at once.

    Secondly, who kills large numbers of enemy troops with *swords*? This is a magic game with armies - you kill the enemy army with Falling Frost, or Soul Vortex or the like.

    That said, I agree that Niefel Giants are not that hot in the late game. They cost 150 gold for which you could buy an independent mage who could cast useful and destructive offensive spells.

    However, the Niefel Jarl, at only 500 gold, is still a bargain! You can get way more of them than any equivalent thug chassis, and five of them at once, equipped with items, will devastate equivalent late game armies. And with minimal effort you can outfit them with winged shoes, and they switch to utterly unstoppable raiders with ease.

    I should be clear that I am in-no-way calling for Niefelheim to be nerfed even a little bit. However, the other EA nations should get, I dunno, national summons or combat spells and things that make every one of them an equally fearsome proposition.

    -> Depends on how you equip the Jarls.

    Anticipating combat with astrals, my Jarls are MR 29, and could be higher. That means with a meager penetration basis of 15, you need to beat my DRN by 14 points. Odds of success are lt. 1%.

    Jarls have the same weaknesses as any other thug chassis and if you don't diversify you will lose, it's true. For example, in the above combat obviously I'd want to bring counters of my own: astral tempest maybe, undead mastery.

    So, yeah, Jarls are not *unbeatable*. They remain, well into the late game, a force significant enough to force your enemies to contort their strategy as-described. You can take advantage of this in turn, which is the strength of LG Niefelheim. That and the raiding, once they fly.

    And this is a 4X game, so the provinces you conquered earlier on give you more money and gems than your opponents, an advantage which propogates into the late game.

    So I don't think late game Niefelheim is weak. I'll agree that it is not as devastating as early game Niefelheim.

    A somewhat more successful counter I found was -
    F2 mystics spamming pillar of fire,
    Oreiads spamming Charm backed up by the penetration suite, and a *huge* communion (boosted the penetration bonus all the way to +8). I got a couple of his Jarls, and since he was MR-focused rather than fire focused, I even managed to keep them as I killed the rest (pity my bless sucked.)

    I still lost that game, though, as Ermor then proceeded to eat me alive with darkness + life after death (all of his magicians turned into soulless - who can then see in the dark! Ouch).

    ->

    	    	8.19.5 Niefelheim - Who¿s afraid of the big bad wolf?

    		Article Author:  Baalz

    It¿s really a shame that the Niefel giants are so good, if they were just a tad less awe inspiring Niefelheim would be more feared than it is. Come again? Yep, that¿s exactly what I meant, the Niefel giants as they are tend to hinder Niefelheim. Anybody who¿s had to fend off a triple blessed Niefel rush is probably thinking I¿ve lost it, but stop a minute and consider how often Niefelheim is a scary late game power. Those Niefel giants start being a whole lot less scary as research ramps up, and the mandatory dual (and often triple) blessing that you have to take for this nation really hits the opportunity costs not to mention the immense costs of each of those jolly blue giants. Bad scales, crappy PD, focusing on capital only troops, struggling outside of your dominion and lackluster research all conspire to make the giant usually fall hard before the race is over. I mean really, what the heck do you *do* with Niefelheim once construction is done being researched?

    Let me introduce you to the other Niefelheim, the one geared to win the game rather than scare the crap out of everyone for only the first couple years. Niefelheim has some amazing tools in its chest which are usually completely overlooked in the all consuming quest to field the most optimized Niefels. First, consider that regardless of your bless Niefel giants are not what you want to use for indie expansion.

    Blasphemy, I know. Now I admit, Niefel giants make great indie stompers, but my goodness don¿t you realize you¿re paying retail!?!?. You¿ve got another all star player on your roster who would be a defining characteristic for this nation if only those big blue spotlight hoggers weren¿t around. I¿m speaking of course of the Jotun Skinshifters.

    Now, on first glance it¿s maybe not apparent how incredibly awesome this guy is, but consider the following. He¿s got 35 hitponts, then he changes into A GIANT FRICKING WEREWOLF. This second form has 48 more points, raising the total to bring this guy down to 83 points (compared to a Neifel¿s 66¿but of course you¿re fielding two skinshifters per Neifel so it¿s more like 166 to 66). Further consider that they regenerate quite nicely in both forms without requiring a bless, and that 11 body protection (human sized troops have trouble hitting giants in the head I think) starts looking pretty nice when you realize how many times they have to be hit round after round by spear wielding humans (the overwhelming bulk of indie troops) further compounded by that length 5 Jotun spear and 12 attack skill (which quickly builds up with stars) doing a good job of repelling. Of course they¿re nowhere near as tough as the Neifels in a cold-3 fight, but how much of your initial expansion does that describe? I¿m not exaggerating when I say just 3 of these guys can reliably conquer weaker indies, and 6 of them will take any but the toughest. They don¿t need a blessing so can be herded by cheap indie commanders and require barely any resources so there¿s no reason at all you can¿t rapidly be fielding 3 expansion parties per turn from your capital. Try that with Niefels! Now, I would like to point out that they have no shields and can struggle against heavy archer concentrations, but just use one or two Jotun Militia set slightly ahead of them set to hold and attack as arrow catchers  your werewolves will run forward and do the killing while your otherwise useless militia does an outstanding job of completely ignoring any arrows.

    Now, you don¿t have to think too hard to come up with some very, very nasty ways to use these werewolves as your research progresses using Gygja buffers. Protection/Wooden warriors brings these guys up to a 15 protection in human form  which given their regeneration essentially means they can¿t be stopped by normal troops in any reasonable numbers. You¿re using them in smaller numbers, so body ethereal & luck likewise tip the scale in their regeneration¿s favor, bringing them well up into the ¿absurdly hard to stop¿ range using fairly modest research. They¿ve even got a 14 MR, so are relatively resistant to typical big unit counters. Now note, you can do all that with Gygja buffers, but it¿s usually not too hard to line up some indie n1 and s1 mages to do all that buffing which is a good bit more economical  that is until you start getting into will of the fates/mass protection/mass regeneration (yes, it stacks nicely) range¿.but then I¿m guessing you¿re not gonna balk at splurging on a Gygja or two there. These guys hit like a ton of bricks from turn one and only get better as research progresses, and you¿re basically only constrained by gold to recruit them so as your nation grows you can rapidly recruit a fearsome force in one turn if an unexpected threat materializes. They¿re capital only, but costing 5 resources and not being holy even with sloth-3 you can pretty much have as many as your heart desires.

    So, now freed from having to cater to those big blue prima donnas lets see how this versatile nation unfolds. Another great strength to Niefelheim is that the cold from their dominion pushes out past their dominion. This lends itself fabulously to having a strong dominion push, even if your neighbors manage to push back to a dominion stalemate they¿re gonna be bleeding gold from the temperature drop all along their border. If (in the much more likely case with you actively pushing your strong dominion) you manage to push your dominion into their territory it doesn¿t take much to cover half their nation in a wintery blanket with devastating impact to their economy. Note, using skinshifters instead of Niefels also means that while fighting in your dominion is nice, it¿s not crippling to bring the fight outside of it so pop those temples he¿s trying to put up outside his castles!

    Now, since we¿re intending to actively push our dominion to the unbelievers anyway, let¿s consider the impact of the scales. Ideally, we want a dominion that is great for us and terrible for anybody else. Cold-3 is obviously mandatory. Luck-3 I think fits wonderfully here, as the way the game mechanics work a hostile dominion with luck functions as misfortune (my good luck is my opponent¿s bad luck). So pushing our lucky dominion is pushing misfortune-3 to them! Death -3 I think also fits perfectly in that it doesn¿t really hurt us too much but death-3/cold-3 scales make plenty of armies get reeeeeal hungry, and makes old mages real irritating. Sloth-3 probably won¿t hurt your neighbors too much, but it¿s basically free points and it¿s not gonna help them any. Finally, we¿ll want fairly standard magic-1 and order-3 scales so we¿re very happy to have our dominion all over our own territory (they won¿t benefit our neighbors). So, we¿re pushing cold deep into enemy territory, and death-3/misfortune-3/sloth-3 following on its heels accompanied by all those really nifty random events those scales unlock. Meanwhile we¿re sitting pretty in an order-3/luck-3/magic-1 dominion not really noticing the death/sloth scales. Huff and puff and blow that icy wind straight to the bone. BTW gold income events from luck will hopefully supercharge your initial skinshifter expansion  you¿re only constrained by gold.

    So, without having to bend over backwards to afford a ridiculous blessing lets see what doors our pretender can open. Niefelheim has some pretty decent magic diversity, landing level 3s in Death, Nature, Blood & Water, with a few level 2 astral Gygjas and a Niefel Jarl or two with level one air. The glaring deficiency there is earth, which also of course fits nicely with our sacred troops (which we will eventually be using). Still, instead of going for the very expensive E9 bless, lets say the primary point is magic diversity and go with a much more modest E4 which will give your Niefels plenty of staying power in cold-3, we¿re planning on having gygja¿s buff regeneration when it matters anyway. This covers the most urgent thing your pretender needs to do, but to really get diversified into earth you¿re gonna want to start out awake so you can site search in the turns before you really need your pretender to be doing other things. This fits well with an early dominion push, an awake pretender pushes your dominion early in a way that¿s hard to match.

    Looking at using a high dominion score and an awake pretender, I originally really wanted to use the bog mummy  few things are as nice as a high hitpoint immortal SC on turn one. Thing is, I can¿t think of a nation that needs extra SC chasises less than Niefelheim and there are other things your pretender can contribute which add much more.

    Taking an awake master lich with a dominion score of 9 and magic paths of E4 D5 S4 buys us a lot of things. First, as mentioned you start right out the gate pushing your dominion and site searching. Having a W random Skratti and a 3N gygja accompany you on site searching and you¿ve got a very impressive spread of E/D/S/W/B/N. Next, your immortality and astral magic folds right in with your intent to push your dominion far and wide  you¿ll be teleporting in to lay the smack down wherever needed with no fear of death. Speaking of which, the smack you can lay down is impressive  imagine something like soul drain, undead hoard (yep, those are Jotun skeletons), marble warriors, weapons of sharpness, darkness. Or invulnerability, earthquake X4. Or power of the spheres, soul vortex, bone grinding X3. Or use him to drop in and buff those skinshifters for important fights  you thought they were tough with barkskin? Or¿well, just use your imagination, there¿s loads of fun stuff to do in battle and he¿s like the energizer bunny  he¿just¿keeps¿going.

    Now, this pretender is going to give us several very nice things outside of combat as well. Obviously earth magic gives us dwarven hammers which is a massive benefit to cranking out large swarms of SCs. Combining with the astral gives us a very important access to crystal coins  low and behold with a coin and cap each of those very common astral-1 gygja¿s is up to that critical S-3 level suddenly becoming a very capable air drop thugs and able to spam vengeance of the dead. The less common S2 random Gygjas are now gatewaying troops around (there goes the last objection to tying yourself to cap only skinshifters) and laying down will of the fates which is kinda nice for highly regenerating troops. Crystal coins are huge for Niefelheim, you¿ll be spending several turns forging them with your pretender. Crystal shields also work great for the widely diverse Gygjas, not only allowing the lowly S1 gygja to lay down will of the fates, but also making it easy (along with a thistle mace and moonvine bracelet) to lay down all those really big nature buffs.

    Another thing you¿ll be doing with your pretender which is not typical pretender work is summoning ghosts. With a skull staff and cap plus ring of sorcery (which you¿re gonna want anyway) your pretender gets up to an impressive D8 and can spit out ghosts very economically. Ghosts are generally not the most cost effective thing that you can spend D gems on, but they are a marriage made in heaven for skinshifters. If you position your troops right your size 2 ghosts will filter in among your size 4 skinshifters. The skinshifters, being larger will take more of the hits, while the ghost¿s etherealness, high hitpoints and life drain will give them incredible stamina for the amount of attacks each is taking. What you¿ve essentially just done is not only add another damage sink to make your skinshifters last longer, you¿ve added a cold and fear aura to your skinshifters¿! Throw in that wooden warriors you were gonna cast anyway and the ghosts are every bit as tough to bring down as the skinshifters. Half a dozen skin shifters plus a like number of ghosts and a buffing mage is *terribly* effective for the cost. You can of course summon ghosts with mages other than your pretender, but it¿s tough to scoff at getting ghosts for about one gem apiece. Used like this ghosts make great counters to any SCs which don¿t have morale-30, they¿ll whack a few skinshifters then quickly get surrounded by ghosts and run off with a negative 20 something morale.

    Now this brings me to the next prong of Niefelheim¿s strength  fear. Ghosts adding a fear aura is good. Ghosts adding a fear aura while fighting troops starving in cold-3/death-3 hostile dominion territory is very good. Ghosts doing that while supported by both terror and panic is very, very good. Ghosts doing all that under blood rain¿well, you practically don¿t get to kill anybody. If you do this while cutting off their retreat though¿. (did I mention ubiquitous teleporting Gygja thugs? But wait, there¿s plenty more to come). Wailing winds stack this to ridiculous proportions if you¿ve got an air random Jarl.

    At this point you¿re probably thinking Gygjas are the centerpiece of this Niefelheim strategy. Far from it, you¿ll have to appreciate this especially in light of the immensely useful purposes I¿ve suggested so far they¿re the second best mage you¿ve got, and the other isn¿t blue. You thought those skin shifters were badasses, let¿s look at the real big bad wolf.

    Before I start waxing poetic about my love for the Skratti, let me set the stage so you can really appreciate the scale. 250 gold a pop is mid range for a mage, but they don¿t need a temple and you¿re not going to really be recruiting many troops so you should be aiming to crank out a hell of a lot of Skratti, they¿re the bulk of what you¿ll be recruiting. For everything I¿m about to lay out, remember you¿re gonna have a bunch of them.

    I wanted to point out a potentially game breaking exploitable bug. It¿s listed on Edi¿s short list, but I think it¿s not been apparent how game breaking it can be. Normally I¿m all for playing the game as it is, but I can¿t in good conscious suggest that anybody really exploits what I¿m about to point out. Skratti in werewolf form have no upkeep. They go from 8 research to 6, but if you really ride this and switch all your skratti to werewolves while recruiting nothing else you quickly overcome this and the consequences are nauseating. I¿ll leave it as an exercise for the student the implications of doing this in conjunction with the next few paragraphs I lay out.

    Alright, so in general what¿s the bottleneck to Neifelheim¿s power? 1) You can only recruit one Jarl per turn 2) You¿ve got only so many gems to equip SCs. Let¿s design this from the ground to get rid of those two factors and see where it takes us. Fairly obviously by this point I¿m going with giant werewolves to get around #1. To get around #2 what I¿m gonna do is to see how few gems I need to get a real workable SC out of a skratti.

    First off I wanted to illustrate how awesome Skratti are at blood hunting. The ones with a blood random are B3, which means with no need to forge a sanguine rod they can optimally blood hunt in a province using just 2 of them (rather than the 3 blood -1 guys with rods which is typical). The fact that you can recruit them out of every castle and only need to recruit 2 per blood hunting province with no need for rods I think really puts Niefelheim up into the real blood powerhouse category. With a little effort you can rival Mictlan and Lanka for blood slave generation  rapidly having the optimal blood hunters in every province you want to blood hunt.

    As you¿re closing in on constr-4 (your first research target) you¿ll start gearing up your blood hunting  no reason to wait for sanguine rods. Once you get to constr-4, why you¿ve got a practically never ending supply of dirt cheap flesheater axes. Flesheater axes give you +3 berserk, which not only nicely helps your protection, but also raises your attack (with the axe) to an awesome 19, it raises your strength to 28, adding in the 14 damage from the axe and your 42 damage is cutting most humans in half even if they make a shield block. Dual wielding two of these, plus your natural bite (doing a ¿measly¿ 30 damage), then throw in a quicken self buff and you pretty much disintegrate two tiles of units per turn. You¿ve got a protection of 12 and a regeneration of 6 so this is not a SC, you¿re not going to be able to solo against real troops. Used in conjuction with troops though, where you¿re not being singled out and swarmed you¿ve got plenty of staying power and an immense amount of damage outlay. Not bad for not using any ¿real¿ gems. You should be able to crank out plenty of lucky pendants to, your pretender has been out site searching at astral 4 and has supplied hammers so they¿re only 3S. Just imagine what 5 or 6 of these playing support would do in a big fight  trust me nothing is gonna last long enough that their lack of reinvig makes any difference at all. Use those big blue jocks as the big bull¿s-eyes while the wolfmen take out the trash.

    As awe inspiring as thinking about those guys is, realize this is just a stopgap if you get pinched before you can make it to constr-6. Once there, oh my are you sitting pretty. Empower a blood random skratti up to B4, who then starts cranking out blood thorns. Pass the first blood thorn to another blood random skratti, repeat until you¿re spitting out as many blood thorns as your heart desires. Now, your standard werewolf is going to have a flesheater, a bloodthorn, a lucky pendant, and one of the following  rime haubrick, hydra skin, armor of souls, black steel plate, copper plate, fire plate. Other than the lucky pendant (which is nice, but optional) your only gem outlay is for the armor so you¿re getting darn near perfect efficiency for whatever gems you¿ve scraped up, or just going with the armor of souls if all you¿ve got is your very solid blood income. The hydra skin works particularly well as it stacks with their regeneration, making it the best choice if you¿ve got the N to burn.

    Now, these are real SCs. Their berserk protection is around 20, they¿ve got solid regeneration which their life drain stacks on as well as reinvigging them. They¿re doing absurd amounts of damage and are immensely hard to stop, each can easily solo up to moderate strength armies and chew up SCs. Realize this  you¿ve only researched to constr-6, alt-2 and can basically field one from every castle you own every turn.

    The one real weakness is swarms of lifeless troops. Still, they¿re not quite the silver bullet because the damage outlay of these beasts is so immense they can easily overwhelm moderate skellispam before it can build up steam. You¿ll be fielding so many of them that you¿ll be using several together for any significant resistance, good luck trying to withstand that fury. Note, if you are having trouble with fatigue, consider foregoing the quicken self and use boots of the messenger and a lycanthrop¿s amulet for really sick regeneration and an auto berserk rather than waiting to be hit.

    This guide is getting on the long side, but I¿ve got so much more I want to say, the next few things I¿ll try to say briefly, realize there¿s several implications to each of them.

    Illwinter folds perfectly into your strategy. So does dark skies, if you manage to luck into a mage and gems to cast it.

     2 Gygja steadily casting curse of blood will very rapidly build up an immortal flock. What¿s that? You already pushed your dominion all over the place? Hoard from hell is a great spell you should use liberally with your solid blood income. Use the devil leaders to fly vampires around. With wooden warriors & rush of strength these guys are fabulous flankers for the bigger fights.

    Blood vengeance. Yeah, this is a bit more micro than you¿re gonna want to do for all your raiders, but just thinking about using this with a bunch of Skratti in a big fight makes me drool. Use reinvigoration to get rid of the fatigue incurred.

    Sabbath  you¿ve got no excuse for not having mass protection/regeneragion/will of the fates for big fights once they¿re researched. You can also do some *wicked* skellispam with Jotun skeletons, darkness, and reinvigoration. Don¿t forget, darkness works great with demons to, mild mannered ¿summon imps¿ turns rather viscous when your opponent can¿t see the little size one 14 defense buggers to hit and you¿ve charged them with blood lust.

    A few of your mages will be old, use boots of youth or rejuvenate to take even that little sting out of your death-3 scales.

    There are worse uses for death gems than skull mentors using hammers when constr-4 is your first target.

    In wolf form + black heart skratti make wicked assassins. Options include hellbind heart, leech, life for a life, frozen heart, falling frost, summon water elemental, or just shifting a second time into a giant werewolf and eating everybody.

    Water breathing items + skratti = water expansion before all the indies are taken. Strong water mages and income means some teeth in real fights. Ice elementals make nice mindless answers to R¿yleh and buffed krakens work great against Atlantis/Oceana. Check out my MA Atlantis guide for tips on underwater combat.

    You should be pretty competitive at landing the blood unique summons. When you¿re pulling in 100+ blood slaves per turn don¿t balk at empowering. Your pretender can easily summon father illearth and crank out the infernal crusades (more fear aura) as well as a few blood stones.

    You¿re forging astral boosters for your Gygja anyway, it¿s a shame not to gear up for some horror spam as well. Works very well with your fear strategy.

    Dome of corruption isn¿t too bad an idea when all your mages can eat horrors.

    Gift of health is of course fabulous with giants, it¿s double fabulous with the regeneration slant you¿re focusing on.

    There¿s worse uses for the earth gems your pretender shakes up than summoning a troll king to add earth buffs to your werewolves (both skinshifter and skratii. Try tossing iron warriors on that skratti for some fun). Hidden in the snow is expensive, but can also land you some earth mages which will add a lot to your strength.

    Don¿t forget all the obvious stuff like grip of winter, falling frost, shadow blast, etc. Also foul vapors works well with your high hitpoint regenerating troops even without poison resistance.

    Rain of toads spam is wicked awesome in the right circumstances. Cut off your opponents cap only troops, neuter his best income sites¿heck, lock down all his castles if he¿s only got a few. This is a single handed game winner spell under the right circumstances.

    Skratti with a blood thorn and armor of souls gets +2 to a potential base 3. No point in not leading that fight with a couple bloodlettings before rampaging into melee.

    	8.20 Vanheim, Midgard and Helheim

    	    	8.20.1 Vanheim

    	    	8.20.2 Midgard

    	    	    	8.20.2.1 OW's Guide to Midgard, Scales and Skinshifters

    Article Author: OmikronWarrior

    			Broad Strategic Outline:

    The experts will tell you that Vanheim is an exceptionally powerful EA and maybe MA nation due to its glamor sacred units, though they have recently been made capitol only and given a cost increase. Give them a Water-9 bless, possibly add another bless with Fire-9 being particularly fearsome, and let them do your expansion stuff. Midgard does still have mounted, glamor sacred units, so in theory there is no reason why this bless strategy would not still work. Except, you do not need it. Bless strategies of this type come with incredibly high costs, usually paid for by reducing scales which means fewer mages in the long run. With Midgard comes a better way, Skinshifters. In a nutshell, 20 of these guys can take on almost all independent provinces with few losses. Thats 400 gold, 140 resources, plus a commander. The gold you should earn from your capitol alone in one turn, with resource limitations you can make that number in two turns and buy a mage to research in between commanders. Hence, you achieve the benefits of a bless strategy with out the gold deflating costs.

    Then, Midgard has a powerful mid-game tactic that encourages you to have a lot of gold to buy mages. The Galderman comes with Air-2 guaranteed, with Air-3 on 1 in 4. The Air-3 Galdermans can cast Storm, letting all the Air-2 mages cast Summon Storm Power to get Air-3 themselves, than everyone casts Thunderstrike to decimate opposing armies. Plus, Galderman have some interesting randoms that require a lot of them to be made to get the most advantageous combinations (Earth-2, Blood-2, and Death-2).

    By endgame, using Nature and Earth site searching, hopefully you will have found some independent mages to provide the necessary magic diversity for a strong end game. Fog Warriors is a very powerful spell which Midgard can easily cast and has great synergy with Skinshifters, giving Midgard an obvious end game. Also consider trying to summon the Air Queens to serve as Super Combatants and Troll Kings to plague enemy armies with Earthquake. Also, a couple of empowered blood mages casting disease demons. The usual end game strategies regarding Wish and Tartarians still apply.

    The Units (currently only including units of note):

    Einhere (20g, 20r): Despite my praise of Skinshifters earlier, you can actually debate which unit is better. Certainly, this unit has higher protection (14 vs 5) and is therefore less vulnerable to archer fire. It can also berserk (+5), which some players value highly. However, they cost three times the resources as Skinshifters, which makes them that much less desirable. Also, their default attacks are 10 and 9, making them vulnerable to higher defense and harder hitting units, such as barbarians. Obviously triggering that huge berserk bonus improves their attack and protection, but you have to be thinking of the limited utility of a unit which needs to be harmed to be most useful. In general, stick with Skinshifters as the core of your army, but keep these guys in mind for niche uses.

    Skinshifter (20g, 7r): The engine that lets Midgard get away with out having a Super Combatant Pretender or a bless. First off, realize that this unit has two forms, the second of which only reveals itself when the first runs out of HP. In effect, you have a 25 HP unit for the cost of 20 gold. The first form packs a high damage punch using its high strength and greatsword. The second form gets three attacks per round (a bite and two claw attacks) which erodes high defense units while still doing considerable damage thanks to having 14 Strength. Both forms regeneration 2 HP per round. This also lets them somewhat ignore the effects of disease and starvation and gives them just a bit more survivability. The major weakness of Skinshifters is their low protection. They wear furs, which only provide 7 protection, and nothing on their heads. The most obvious way to exploit this weakness is archers. Fortunately, Midgard has access to the spells Mists (halves base precision), Storm (removes half of all projectiles and halves base precision again), and Arrow Fend (the ultimate defense against arrows, but is tougher to research at Enchant-6). Try to set up decoys with Einheres or lesser shielded troops. Other attempts to take advantage of the low protection means facing Skinshifters in melee, in which Midgard almost always comes out ahead. Remember, its 25 HP with regeneration while facing heavy damage to kill a Skinshifter which Midgard can produce in mass quantities.

    Vans (90g, 16r): The Midgard sacred unit. It has a high defense (19 including parry), respectable protection (12), and glamor. However, it is capitol only and costs a lot. Basically, the cost assumes Vans will be recruited with a bless and with this in mind are not overpowering. If you did get a powerful bless, you would want to recruit these things right from the get go. If you're following my strategy and went with positive scales instead, they are a luxury best suited to be bought once you've established your territory, have multiple fortresses, and a solid gold income. Use them as raiders, powerful shock cavalry, and battlefield flankers.

    Mages and Commanders (Also not complete):

    Volva (120g, 1r): An Astral-2 mage with no randoms. This unit gives Midgard a solid Astral base. Send one out early to site search. In addition, each Volva has a 5% chance to stop an unlucky event from occurring in her current province. Not a bonus to build a strategy around, but one nonetheless. With the exception of Drain-3, these will be Midgard's most cost effective researchers. However, they are much harder to use on the battlefield. Low HP, a strategic move of 1, zero leadership, and no forest survival means they'll slow your army down while being vulnerable to Seeking Arrow and other remote spells. On the battlefield stray arrows and battlefield wide spells like Earthquake will easily kill them. Instead, rely more on Galdermen for your battlefield magic needs and try to keep Volva safely researching and adverting bad events. Obviously, when you need Astral magic bring them out. As with all Astral mages, they work wonders against low Magic Resistant units such as mammoths and elephants. Also, be sure to threaten horror marking on any SC that invades your dominion. Obviously, they can communion, and with a Starshine Skullcap can cast Dispel. For example, when against Ermor, create a communion of 5 Volva to cast Solar Brilliance. It would help to have a thug or SC to keep the hordes busy so the spell can do its work.

    Galderman (210g, 1r): Your most powerful and versatile mage, and in general you will want to build more of these than Volva to take advantage of rarer path combination. Comes with Air-2, and two random paths (Air, Earth, Blood, Death and Earth, Blood, Death, Nature). Both randoms appear 100% of the time. Scripting Aim, Summon Storm Power, and Thunder Strike three times is always an option when combined with a Storm, but I'll discuss some of the more interesting combination below. First, however, notice the descriptions HP and the ¿skinshifter¿ mark in the description. Does this mean Galdermen can change shape as well? Yes, into a slightly different werewolf build, one with 6 base protection and 20 base HP, though this only occurs when wounded in battle. Galdermen also have 2 HP of regeneration per round. What this translates into is a hard to kill unit, for a mage. Spells like Seeking Arrow will be ineffective against them. Thats just not to say they are invincible compared to other units, just compared to your typical mage. They also have strategic move 2 and forest survival, making sure they do not slow your armies down.

    -Air-3: 1 in 4 odds. These casters will serve as important catalysts on the battlefield and important ritualists on the home front. Notably you need one of these units to cast Storm, and the remaining Air-3 (soon to be Air-4) Galdermen will be able to cast Thunder Strike at half the fatigue, meaning more Thunder strikes. An Air-3 Galdermen is also capable of casting Seeking Arrow and Hurricane, and with boosters Dome of Solid Air. Once at Air-4, the Galderman can cast Fog Warriors. Air-5 (achieved by an item booster and Summon Storm Power) lets the Galdermen cast Wrathful Skies and Mists of Deception.

    -Death-2: A rare Galderman with 1 in 16 odds, so try to keep it out of harms way. This unit can build Skull Staffs letting you climb the Death magic ladder with summons. You only need Death-1 to site search, but with out a natural death income you'll need to either do some initial site searching or trade for gems.

    -Blood-2: Also rare at 1 in 16. A good candidate for empowering to let you build the typical blood boosters. In the interim, they can blood hunt, summon Storm Demons, and forge. Though it would be difficult to pull off, these units might be able to forge Robes of the Magi (requires Blood-5 and Air-5).

    -Earth-2: The final 1 in 16 rare Galderman. This one is probably the most useful as well, so really protect them. The most obvious use is Gnome Lore for some site searching. They can also forge Earth Boots letting any Earth-1 Galderman site search as well. Using the boots themselves lets the Galderman reach Earth-3, where the magic happens. He can now forge Dwarven Hammers, which gives a 25% forging cost reduction, considering the high cost of Air boosters this is well worth it. Also, Earth-3 allows the summoning of Troll Kings, and very tough Earth-3 mage who excels at casting Earthquake, Bladewind, and various other battlefield wide enchantments.

    -Blood-1 and Nature-1: Still 1 in 16 chance. Capable of building Jade Knives out the gate, which is useful as Midgard is a Blood Sacrifice nation. With boosters and perhaps empowerment these guys can make Armor of Twisting Thorns (Requires Blood-3, Nature-2 and boosts both paths by one). Finally, with Blood-3 these Galdermen can cast the Rain of Toads.

    -Death-1 and Earth-1: Reasonable odds of appearing, 1 in 8 in fact. Throw some Earth Boots on and this guy can cast Blight.

    -Blood-1 and Earth-1: 1 in 8 odds. Add boosters to build Bloodstones (require Blood-3 and Earth-2).

    Vanjarls (280g, 16r): Your best commander and priest, but capitol only. Its very useful to try to buy one of these per turn by the midgame. Their main benefit is sailing, letting you attack opponents from unexpected directions and quickly move across the map. Meanwhile, all Vanjarls are Air-2, Blood-1, and Holy-2 mages with no randoms. The Air-2 lets them participate in Thunder Strike spamming. Or, if operating independent of Galdermen, which can easily happen due to sailing movement, add Air boosters and a Staff of Storms to cast spells that way. Their glamor makes them hard to catch scouts (especially useful for transferring gems or boosters to a main army which may involve crossing enemy provinces). Be sure to use them to site search when not otherwise occupied, mainly for the blood and holy paths. Holy sites tend to be a good source of Astral Pearls. Since they are guaranteed Blood mages, adding a Sanguine Dousing rod mades them effective Blood hunters. Finally, they can be made thugs, or even assassins with a Black Heart. The thug works best with some minor blesses helping the unit out.

    Pretender Design:

    With the above strategy of focusing on positive scales, Midgard has some leeway in Pretender design. It does not need a Pretender to expand, nor does Midgard need to figure out the cheapest way to get W9N4 or W9S9 (and there is no totally free way). There are two things to consider with your Pretender: do you want an SC chasis and what magic does your Pretender give you. First, however, a discussion of scales are in order.

    Order/Turmoil: Since Midgard likes money (Skinshifter and Galdermen), Order-3 is easy to recommend. It will be a good, constant money maker through out the game.

    Hot/Cold: Midgard has a natural affinity for Cold-1, so thats an obvious decision. The choice to proceed to Cold-2 is less obvious. Since the game starts in summer, there is a very good chance that there will be a seasonal shift of 1 tick towards hot. This means you might actually maximize income for the first 6 to 8 turns by taking an unfavorable scale. However, in the long run this will work against you. Cold-2 turns into Cold-3 in the winter turns, resulting in a devastating -10% income penalty and slaps a +2 encumbrance penalty on all units. If you absolutely have to have points, maybe, but I'd recommend sticking with Cold-1.

    Growth/Death: Midgard does not have any mages at risk for old age, except for recruitable independents such as sages. Hence, the usual motivation for Growth (avoiding crippling or killing afflictions on old mages) does not apply. However, Growth is a very good money maker, noticeable in the short term and as good as Order in the long term. Remember, Midgard likes gold. Combining Order-3 and Growth-3 is a great strategy for Midgard. Less than Growth-3, however, is a little more questionable. Exponential population growth means Growth-3 is disproportionally better than Growth-1 considering the same cost per tick. If not Growth-3, than consider putting points into Production instead. Stay away from Death, however, as that will allow devastating plague events to cripple your income.

    Production/Sloth: This scale determines two things: how long you can go before needing to build a second fortress to produce Skinshifters and how quickly you can amass Skinshifters should you go to war. Positive production on resource rich maps lets you 'bank' your money during peace time, and rapidly mobilize during war time. It also lets you consider building Einheres more freely and helps maximize income. However, Sloth is hardly crippling, as with enough fortresses gold is almost always going to be the limiting factor in unit production. Still, going below Sloth-1 requires more forts and starts to hurt your income.

    Luck/Misforune: Midgard's heroes are forgettable, the PD does alright in repelling barbarians, its armies are mobile, Volva reduce the likelihood of bad events, and you already have Growth and Order removing some of the most dangerous excesses of random events. In short, Midgard is an excellent candidate for Misfortune. Misfortune-3 might be a little too much, but Misfortune-2 works fine. Make no mistake, Misfortune precludes a lot of very favorable random events, such as free gems, massive income hikes, and more. Yet, if you need points this is probably the least painful place to acquire them.

    Magic/Drain: The effects of this scale are well known and understood. Basically, you need to balance research needs with other Pretender expectations. Midgard comes alive with Evocation-5, and hitting that milestone earlier is a huge help and hitting it to late can doom your nation. In the long run, your gold scales and hopefully decent early expansion will let you build enough mages to keep up with the Jones in you pick Drain-2, especially if you start with an awake Pretender to research. If not, keeping this scale even is a good idea, and Magic-1 a useful way to go, once again emphasizing long term advantages.

    Dominion: Since you should have positive scales (if you do not go read some other guide as you clearly have not been reading this one), it makes sense to want a high dominion to help spread your good scales around. Dominion-9 or 10 is too much, though, and go spend those points on some scales you skimped. Dominion-7 is a nice compromise. If you need points, though, you can strip Dominion as low as 5 and plan to aggressively push it using Blood Sacrifice.

    Choosing a Chasis:

    The earlier questions remain, do you want an SC chasis and regardless of the answer to the first question you want to pick magic paths that add utility to your nation.

    Air: Two separate Air boosters come available at Air-4, but Midgard does not have any chance at acquiring an Air-4 mage. Hence, it makes sense to put Air-4 on your Pretender. If not, expect to empower an Galderman very early on. Also, do not bother getting anything less than Air-4.

    Astral: Astral-4 means Rings of Sorcery and Wizardry can be forged by your Pretender (assuming he or she has a head) and puts Wish within reach though still requiring some empowerment . Astral-2 and Earth-2 (possibly achieved through boosters) let the Pretender build Crystal Coins (Astral +1) and Slave and Master Matrices. However, these low levels of Astral Magic make the Pretender vulnerable to Mind Duel and thus unsuited for SC duty. Higher levels, a minimum of 6, help alleviate these concerns, though they are still there, and make Wish more easily accessed.

    Blood: Dominion bylaws state Blood Slaves are cheap and empowering with them is always an option. Depending on how much and how soon Blood magic becomes part of Midgard's strategy, there is little reason to include blood magic on a Pretender. However, if a nation wants to start casting blood spells right away, having a Blood-4 pretender to build Blood boosters is acceptable. Also, Blood-3 combines with Nature-2 and Earth-2, separately, to make Armor of Twisting Thorn and Blood Stones, respectively.

    Death: Death-1 is redundant. Death-2 is useful as getting a Death-2 Galderman requires luck or patience. And Death-2 enables the forging of Skull Staffs, not unimportant. Death-3 is very useful, as it gives Midgard easy access to Skullfaces, an important Death-Booster giving your Pretender Death-5, where Wraith Helms can be forged. Throw Rings of Sorcery and Wizardry on the Pretender to start summoning Tartarians. There is little reason for Death-4 or above.

    Earth: The capitol Earth income of 1 and the high likelihood of recruiting Galderman with at least Earth-1 make Earth-1 absolutely redundant on a Pretender for utility. If a player wants to be assured a remote site searcher, Earth-2 enables Earth Boots. Still, Earth magic lets players climb a ladder using Troll Kings (requires Earth-3, comes with Earth-3), assuming the player eventually recruits an Earth-2 Galderman. However, Earth magic is great for SC chaises, and Earth-4 helps manage fatigue on Vanjarls should they be used as thugs.

    Fire: This path offers little help to Midgard. Combined with Earth it allows the forging of firebrands, a great weapon for thugs, but your Pretender's turn is probably better spent doing something else. By site searching other paths, independent mages can hopefully be found to break into fire later on.

    Nature: Midgard has access to Nature-1 mages at most, and no capitol nature income. Hence, giving your Pretender Nature-2 at least to site search and build Thistle maces is key to having a strong Nature income. Nature-3, when combined with a Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet (Nature-3, Astral-1) yields Nature-5 where Treelord Staffs (+2 Nature) can be forged and Mother Oak and Gift of Health can be cast. It also allows players to summon Fairy Courts and the important Fairy Queen (Nature-3, Air-3 and heals). The bless benefits of Nature-4 are negligible, but there.

    Water: Unlike fire, water can be part of a long term strategy for Midgard, though it has no immediate synergy with its mages. Items like Boots of Quickness are tremendously helpful for thugs. More importantly, Clams can be forged with Water-3 and Nature-1 give Midgard a substantial Astral income boost. So, using a pretender to site search early is one way to go, and hope to get either independent mages capable of forging Clams with some boosters/empowerment, or summon a Naiad with combined Nature and Water magic. Finally, Water-4 gives a +2 defense bonus to some already incredibly high defense sacred units. Worth considering for the bless alone if the player plans on making Vanjarls thugs.

    Physical Forms:

    Thanks to Skinshifters, you don't need a Super Combatant to expand. However, some players just like the comfort of knowing they have an 80+ HP unit that can be equipped to take on entire armies at some point in the game. This section is for you. In general, such builds are best set to be asleep while your nation builds up research and items to equip and buff the Pretender when he awakes.

    Wyrm (50p) Build 1: Like King Pawn's opening, its hard to go wrong with this build. High HP, Regeneration, and fear when combined with Dominion-10 for Awe+2 creates a great early expansion Pretender in the absence of equipment and magic. The simple utility of this build makes it difficult to disparage it, though it goes against what has been suggested elsewhere. It will help Midgard expand very early on, though its own utility plummets once magic arrives and everyone else allies against you and your enormous early expansion. In addition, the Wyrm is amphibious allowing Midgard to expand into water provinces with out forging.

    Wyrm (50p) Build 2: Forgo early expansion, spend less on Dominion to put some Magic Paths on the Wyrm. Certainly doable, but the absence of chest and hand slots suggest another chasis for this strategy.

    Titan (125p): Expensive, but probably worth it. He comes with Air and Earth Magic, Size-6, and a phenomenal shield. 50 more points to add a new path, which is not recommended.

    Asynja(75p): Cheaper and slightly smaller than the Titan, the most important difference is the lack of base Earth magic. This Chasis also has the highest defense and attack skills. If you choose to forgo Earth magic on your SC Pretender (certainly a viable decision), then chances are this is your chasis.

    Keeper of the Bridge (75p): Comes with Air and Earth magic and a giant Patrol bonus. Most useful if Midgard's scales do not include Growth to help income as he can Patrol while taxes are set high. Obviously, keeping him awake is vital to this practice. Other than that, very similar to the Asynja.

    Father of Winter (75p): A Size-6 Pretender for cheap and has synergy with cold environments. The base Water magic, however, is less useful than Air or Earth for Super Combatants. Nature magic is recommended as an additional path.

    Allfather(150p): The most expensive form available (the VQ might as well not be available). However, new paths are 20p cheaper than other SC's, and the Allfather has a ton of comparative advantages. Air and Death magic are present as bases, which are two paths useful to Midgard. Other advantages of the Allfather include, flying, glamor, Size-6, and sailing.

    Rainbow(0-60p): The large variety of rainbow pretender chasis and the lack diversity among them allows them to be described together. Basically, choosing a rainbow lets Midgard invest in 2 to 4 additional paths than what a super combantant would allow. This advantage is compounded by the presence of path synergies, like Astral and Earth. The Sage, the Enchantress and the Crone are probably the best choices for this purpose. The Sage provides an enormous research bonus, the Enchantress comes with two paths and generates an Astral Pearl every turn, and the Crone does not cost any points and has four miscellaneous slots. However, depending on what paths you want almost any of the chasises can be used.
    	    	    	8.20.2.2 Assortment of tips

    -> Firstly: Vans are great. They are expensive and capitol only(for LA) but are considered one of the most powerful and cost effective sacred units in the game. Generally used with W9, often with F9 added and occasionally with E9 or N4-9.

    I often play midgard without a bless and it works very well. Your general plan should be having high gold scales(order firstly. Then growth and production) and mass producing skinshifters at every fort you build. Your research would be quite fruitful if you focused on getting battlefield enchantments like storm, fog warriors and will of the fates(aswell as protection boosting spells such as army of lead/gold and marble warriors) to boost your very powerful troops - first skinshifter form tears through most units with its greatsword, particularly expensive high protection units due to its single powerful attack. The second form can kill most things: Its multiple attacks handle chaff, its high strength lets it go against high protection troops and the multiple attacks and high strength mean elite units such as cavalry cant hide behind their high defence.

    -> I would recommend this. I've had good luck with it. Make researching Mist and Storm high priority.

    To begin with, you have good randoms as LA Midgard, getting into high level death and nature should be easy, and you can random up the occasional A3. Storm can be cast off the A3s, and mist can be cast off of any A2 both with help of gems. Storm and Mist together cut precision to 1/4 of its original value. This is great if you are spamming werewolves as you have no archers, and it also messes up enemy mages's precision.

    Pretender - Any good dormant/imprisoned rainbow mage works. I would avoid paths that you can already item boost/summon yourself up through. This includes nature, and death. Focus on ones you wouldn't otherwise have access to like fire, water, earth, and astral. I find earth is difficult to get to level 5 for forge of the ancients. Astral also has a lot of boosters, but it's much easier to forge rings of wizardy if you don't have to cobble a ton of boosters together to get there.

    I would recommend a mage with at least level 3 in any path that you wish to search with. If you search a province for level 3 in any given path, you've go a 90% chance of getting all sites of that type.

    Scales
    Dom 5
    Order 3
    Prod 3
    Cold 1-2
    Misfortune 2
    Magic 1

    This should give you plenty of points to play with. You may want to pickup growth 1 just to have that slow growing factor, and to help counter blood hunting if you plan to expand into blood magic later on.

    Other than that, just build tons, and tons, and tons of skinshifters. You can stick with one castle for much longer into the game then other people. If you can, try to rush someone who has an awake pretender who is weak to swarming (dragon). Or someone who does not have a pretender currently awake. If you run into an undead pretender try either lightning bolt, or dust to dust. Unfortunately, your D2 guys have crappy precision, so you will have trouble killing undead pretenders in very high dominion with dust to dust.

    Again, research to storm + mist for the 1-2 punch against archers. That's pretty much all there is to it I've tried this strategy twice, and been successful with it each time.

    	    	8.20.3 Helheim

    			8.20.3.1 Helheim guide

    		As soon as I got the full game I started a game as Helheim just to see what everyone was so excited about with the sacreds. I keep starting other games but then fun tricks occur to me that wouldn't work without Helheim's combination of paths (the only path I wish it had and doesn't is Astral) so even without dual-blesses I keep coming back to it. Here's one I haven't tried yet but which seems quite dirty.

    For a long time I didn't know what to do with the Air-1 Svartalfs beyond using them as inferior earth or death mages. Then someone pointed out that the +350% affliction chance from death-9 applies to spells as well as weapons, and suddenly possibilities... emerged. The E3A1 Evoc-7 spell Rain of Stones claims to be pretty much equivalent to Blade Wind except that it covers the whole battlefield. It's not. Unlike Blade Wind, shield-equipped units still take heavy damage. It's usually not enough to kill them, but most units in the army will take 3-7 points of damage even with Prot 12. Combine that with a D9-blessed Svartalf (which requires astral mages to forge Shrouds of the Battle Saint for 5 pearls, available at Const-4) and pretty much the WHOLE BATTLEFIELD is going to be afflicted. Of course that includes your own forces. I can therefore see two scenarios:

    1.) Soften up enemy armies the turn before attack with a blessed air Svartalf placed on the back of the battlefield, scripted to . If you want to save the Svartalf, add Ironskin in there first and give him three Earth gems instead of one to reduce his fatigue enough to still be able to retreat. Or write him off and save the gems. Cost: 5S, 1-3E, in exchange for annihilating an enemy army of arbitrary size as a useful force.

    2.) Research Enchantment-4 and use a Winged Helmet or Bag of Winds to boost him to A2. Then cast Cloud Trapeze to drop said Svartalf onto an enemy army in the magic phase before normal movement takes place. Follow up if possible with a normal army attack on the same turn to wipe out the pathetic remnants--they'll still be low on hitpoints and probably morale. This tactic would work even without the D9 blessing, but the synergy is that even if the enemy out-foxes you in the movement phase (causing your regular army to miss), your Svartalf will have done more than just killing off 20% of the force with Rain of Stones. He'll have crippled the whole army. Cost: 28A, 5S, 1-3E. Hopefully you get to reuse the helm and shroud so the marginal cost is 3A, 3E, for a cruise missile that can cripple armies of arbitrary size.

    I'm dying to test this out, but I understand the #startspell map command is broken so I can't use Gandalf's test map and I haven't had a chance to do it in a game vs. myself. It occurs to me that the cruise missile variant wouldn't work vs. armies with lots of Paralyze, etc., in which case you'd probably add a couple of castings of Call of the Wind to provide extra targets, and give him Earth Boots to eliminate one round of delay.

    -Max

    Edit: Of course, in practice you've got Dwarven Hammers so the cruise missile variant only costs 20A, 3S, 3E, and the regular is 3S, 1E. Plus 180 gold for the Svartalf. : )

    Okay, so I tested this and it looks like I overestimated the damage Rain of Stones does against armored troops. Out of an army of 100 Ambibate nobles I tried this on, fully 38 survived with no afflictions, and some weren't even wounded. But 24 were killed and 46 were afflicted. Even Flames From the Sky won't get you that affliction rate.

    12 chest prot vs 14 damage...I'd think it would be biased to head hits, which would be 15 prot instead, but it's hard to tell without a mod or a lot of living pillars.

    The chance of getting a 0 damage body hit is 38% though, according to the table, which is pretty close to what you got.

    No idea how 24 of them died though, that seems like a really really high number.

    38% had no afflictions, but when I watched the battle replay a lot of those were from little 1-2 point hits, and the occasional unscratched guy. I did run it a couple of times and 25% dying is about par for the course; maybe it's not really 14 damage. Or maybe it's armor-piercing; one Ironskinned Svartalf with Prot 20 took 11 points of damage and died, which is a lot more plausible with AP than normal attacks. The thing I was most surprised about, though, is that shields don't help. Blade Wind does almost nothing to Ambibate Nobles, but Rain of Stones stomped all over them and I presume it will do the same to any medium infantry (or EA heavies).

    [Comment:
    it comes from above, maybe it hits the head (thus taking into account mostly their helmet)
    ]

    [Response:
    the Ambibate Nobles' protection is actually *better* on the head (15 vs. 12), so 14 damage should be negligible. And the Ironskinned Svartalf's Protection was 20 on both head and body.
    ]

    -> Note, unfatigued units can't be criticale hit.

    -> 1.) If a Svartalf has A2 for Cloud Trapeze he also has A2 for Mistform, right? Much better choice than Invulnerability because now Rain of Stones will *never* kill you, you'll simply take 1 point of damage.

    2.) Helheim has good access to Bloodstones because it starts out with B1 mages. Blood is an unusual path in that because it's fairly trivial for 4 B1 mages with Sanguine Rods or whatever they're called to be collecting 20 mages per turn, it's really not infeasible to empower up to B3. Thus, you can forge Bloodstones (Empower a Svartalf up to B3E2). Now you don't even need to forge Bags of Wind to play the Cloud Trapeze/Mistform/Rain of Stones game. Since 1 Hangadrott in 4 in has E1, with a Bloodstone that's E2, which lets him cast Summon Earthpower to get E3, which lets him cast Rain of Stones since he already has A2. Voila! And since your Bloodstone produces 1 earth gem per turn, you can go raiding without any micromanagement hassle. 1 Hangadrott for Rain of Stones plus 2 more for Raise Dead (or else scouts with Skullfaces if it's cheaper for you) makes a fun raiding party. Cloud Trapeze deep into enemy territory and have fun romping and stomping all over his PD.

    Obviously there are counters, but it's a fun tactic that most other nations couldn't pull off.;

    			8.20.3.2 Helheim Guide (Baalz)

    Article Author:  Baalz

    [Edit: I wanted to make it clear that the specifics build I use here is with the CBM mod, though it shouldn't be too difficult to do something similar in vanilla]
    Once upon a time, Helheim was one of the real EA powerhouses. Then the double nerfbat came across their shoulders and they were humbled. The Helhirdlings were drastically reduced in power with the nerfing of glamour, glamour no longer protects against ranged effects or spells. The once terrifying sacred cavalry now often struggles against mere javelin PD in sufficient numbers and archers  both of which are common in PD and indies. The more grievous of the nerfs though was the plague which wiped out most of Helheim¿s dwarves. The Svartalf became capital only and Helheim lost its only cost effective non-capital researcher. Leaning on sacred units for early expansion means sending priest/mages out rather than researching, leaving a research gap that is impossible to close with their very expensive and ineffective Helkarl/Vanheres researchers who add insult to injury by requiring temples as well as labs to recruit. Finally, your opponent pretty much knows what to expect so they can start working on counters the second they realize they¿re your neighbor.

    Since the double nerf Helheim¿s dominance has drastically waned, their usual pattern is an aggressive dual bless rush which quickly fades as their research struggles and their glamour fails to protect them from a variety of counters. I haven¿t seen Helheim do impressively well into late game since this massive double nerf, so I figured they needed a guide.

    To properly play Helheim, you need to get into the right mind set. Whereas Ulm is the model of German efficiency, Helheim is a V-12 American muscle car. You¿re lacking the AC, and you¿re not paying attention to your abysmal gas mileage because you¿re all about raw, concentrated, glorious *power*. Some of the suggestions I put forth in this guide might make you wince a bit because they perhaps feel wasteful, perhaps they feel like a bit of a loose cannon, but you have to play a nation with the grain, and injecting nitro is not about efficiency. It¿s about leaving the poor schmuck sucking your exhaust at the light.

    So, I¿m gonna go ahead and lead with your pretender, and you¿ll have to bear with me a bit as to why I make some of these uncommon choices. As with all my guides, this build has some room to be tweaked once you understand the song we¿re trying to sing and you want to try some harmonies of your own. Lets take an awake master druid 2F 4W 9E 2S 4N, with Order-3, sloth-3, cold-2, death -3, luck-3 and drain-2 with a dominion score of 3.

    Eeeek! Not only high death with a blood hunting nation but drain! Didn¿t you just get through lamenting their difficulty with research? The thing to keep in mind is you¿ve got to embrace your strengths and play the way the nation naturally flows. Some people look at a weakness and try to directly compensate for it. They see a nation vulnerable to a rush and thus want a SC pretender. They see a nation with weak research and think that means you have to take a magic scale, maybe even look at the terribly expensive magic-3 scale. Me, I¿d rather set the tempo so the dance never hurts my lame foot. If all I¿ve got is terribly inefficient researchers, then I¿m not going to use them.

    Now, I¿m betting some of you are confused at this point. The blessing I suggest is not something that lends itself to a standard bless rush, particularly with a dominion score of 3. But I¿m not using my non-capital researchers. So, no rush and extremely weak research¿.what the hell do I have in mind? Raw, concentrated, power my friend, listen to the growl of that beautiful engine.

    With this blessing you¿re going to be able to expand against moderate to weak indies using just a single Helkarl with a single Helhirding and a half dozen huskarls. Set the Helhirding to guard commander and he¿ll be permanently wedged into the same square as the commander, thus halving the number of attacks he¿s fending off and the blessing is giving you extra defense, and a high enough armor that your one point of regeneration will cover the odd hit that does land while the reinvig makes sure you keep on kicking. The huskarls are there to take the attention of the indies, catching the arrows, javelins, etc on their shields and tying up the infantry with their high defense and glamour, while your two mounted guys attacks the rear. You¿re gonna take a casualty here or there but your expansion will be reliable enough and a bargain for the price.

    You¿re fielding a cheap expansion party every round for the first couple. Avoiding the tougher indies shouldn¿t too much of a problem because your primary goal is not the high income, well defended territories, it¿s the much more modestly defended mountains and wastelands. That raw power at this point is concentrated in just a handful of guys in each squad, and with those nice order/luck scales you won¿t have any problem with cashflow despite sticking to the lower income indies. Don¿t hesitate to use your stealth to sneak on by anybody that looks like they¿ll give you too much of a fight  you¿ll be having a very brisk expansion even if you¿re picky about where you attack.

    This isn¿t just to make your initial expansion run smoothly, it¿s also exactly what you want the most. After the first two turns you¿re going to switch to fielding an expansion party every other turn, alternating with recruiting a dwarf. The dwarves are going to go our site searching in those mountains and wastelands, forests and swamps. What you need the most is earth and death gems, and conveniently every dwarf will hit both of those with at least level 2. Meanwhile your very modest gold outlay and very nice income scales will let you pop up a second castle pretty quickly, along with a lab and temple. If you¿re doing well you¿ll likely get castle three up pretty quick as well, but really it¿s only the second one which is urgent. Out of every non-capital castle you ever put up you will do exactly the same thing every turn, recruit a Vanjarl and nothing else (if you¿re pinched you can recruit some troops, but that¿s just an emergency measure). Unmodified, the Vanjarls have 4 research points in drain-2 at a staggering 280 gold. Ignore that, just assume they can¿t research and mentally put them at 0 research points. These guys aren¿t meant to research, at this point every one you recruit should be set to blood hunt. This is also immensely expensive for a blood hunter, but just ignore that little voice because we¿re interested in power, not efficiency. You shouldn¿t have any probably affording two Vanjarls and a dwarf every round which is really all you should care about. Meanwhile, your pretender solidly researches construction. Your pretender has 29 research points and doesn¿t really care about the one point he loses from drain.

    So, how does this all come together around the end of year one? You¿ve done an above average expansion against the indies, respectable but not flashy enough that your neighbors are talking about ganging up on you. Your income, likewise is modest with your good scales being more than compensated by your focus on lower population indies. Your research, carried almost completely by your pretender is solid, among the leaders but likely not first place. Your gem income is probably at an impressive lead, heavily weighted to earth and death gems. With your very nice capital income of 4 death gems and having spent none, you should be looking at 60-80 death gems unless you¿ve just had abysmal luck searching, and you¿ve turned your earth gems into a couple hammers - if luck is with you, you might have as many as four by now, don¿t hesitate to alchemize anything other than death to get those initial hammers.

    Right around the end of year one is when you¿ll finish research on construction-4. Now it¿s time to feel the rumble of that engine, let¿s get to concentrating that power. You¿re gonna start cranking out skull mentors like there¿s no tomorrow. You¿ll almost certainly have a death gem income in the double digits by now, with your capital income just two nice magic sites practically get you there. Given the death gems you¿ve stockpiled at this point you should be able to easily crank out 3-4 skull mentors per turn for a good while. Make sure you¿re only doing this with hammers, because of the way the rounding works out you¿re getting three of them for 21 gems instead of 2 of them for 20, so it¿s essentially a 50% increase in mentor production for a given amount of gems.

    Burn that nitro baby. Plenty of people are reluctant to forge skull mentors, of the mindset that this uses very valuable death gems to do something you can get done other ways. Stop thinking like Ulm! Gun that engine and, well, lets do some math. With a skull mentor those dwarves are spitting out 15 research points and once you run out of dwarves to stick them on the Vanjarls are clearing 13 (hey, the skull mentor is doing the research, so I maintain I¿m not using *Vanjarls* to research). Impressive! Another way to look at this is you¿re forging 9X3 = 27 research generators plus the mages you¿re recruiting (2 Vanjarls + a dwarf = 14 points), so 41 research points per turn out of three castles. That¿s the research generation of *ten* castles for some nations in magic-1 scales. Simple arithmetic means that if you can keep that up you¿re pulling in over 500 research points per turn *by the end of year two*! That¿s more research than some people pull in by the end of the game! 40+60+100+160+260+420+680+1100+1780 = 4600, so to put this in perspective you can research all the way from 0 to level 9 of a school in 9 turns. Damn the efficiency, I¿m winning the race.

    Research alone isn¿t gonna win for you, and that wicked hockey stick turn in your research graph will most definitely start giving you problems from your neighbors. That¿s ok, because as of this second you are ready to go on the offensive just as your research is starting to gear up.

    You¿ve hit construction 4, and hopefully have managed to scrape together a couple of fire gems with your site searching from fire random dwarves. You¿ll want to send your pretender out to site search now and let the skull mentors take over in the lab. This will give you a very nice spread of magic diversity for your income, which is the reason you¿ve got F2 on him. A few fire gems are going to go a long way because with a golden shield and almost any weapon you want to stick on him every one of those Vanjarls you¿ve been cranking out is a thug. Your rapidly exploding research will get you to alt-3 in no time, and blessing (reinvig + regen), air shield, plus mistform along with the awe from the golden shield will leave the Vanjarls essentially immune to anything short of anti-thug tactics. A short hop (for your rapidly increasing research) up to ench-4 means each and every one of them is able to cloud trapeze. Check out my guide to Eriu for some detailed suggestions (I use a very similar setup in it), but suffice it to say that this is a whole solid strategy by itself. This is why we took that expensive E9 blessing, that reinvig plus regen means you practically don¿t need to put any items on them at all, and in fact they can be used ¿naked¿ in a pinch, just field more than one together. You should be fielding dozens of thugs in year two, each with the utmost mobility and stealth. You¿ll also want to start recruiting Hangadrotts, they make even better thugs than Vanjarls  once soul vortex is researched you don¿t even need to give them a magic weapon.

    This is just the opening act though. You will find that you¿ve got no problem setting up 3 provinces each with Vanjarls bloodhunting (all with sanguine rods now). This will pull you in around 50 or so blood slaves per turn, which means it won¿t take long to empower up 3 dwarves to crank out bloodstones. Three bloodstones per turn is gonna start adding up really fast, you should be looking at most of your people with skull mentors and bloodstones before you know it. Once you¿ve got those dwarves empowered you¿ll probably find that you¿re pulling in more blood slaves than you¿re using, that¿s good, just let your bloodslaves pile up for now  we¿re gonna use them later. Any Vanjarls who don¿t have a skull mentor or a golden shield should be blood hunting so depending on how stuff plays out you may find yourself with quite an impressive stockpile of blood slaves. One thing to remember, you can easily blood sacrifice out of each of your castles (who all have temples of course) so there¿s no reason to fear a dominion push even with your dominion score of 3. There¿s also no reason not to make sure that order-3/luck-3 combination is pushed to all your provinces.

    Now that ever growing pile of earth gems is going to solve several problem for you. Crank out several gate cleavers and you¿ll have no problem with people hiding in castles when you raid  just cloud trapeze in a half dozen gate cleavers who can sneak wherever you want them. Crumble is also easy to do once you¿ve got it researched (your pretender casts it gloriously). It¿s also going to fill in some mass for you when your thugs aren¿t the right tool for the job. Your E9 pretender (plus boots, bloodstone of course) can very efficiently pop out a bunch of enliven¿ed statues (who fit a lot better in this context than for Ulm because they fill a niche so far vacant) and hidden in the sand also makes sense when the earth gems start flowing. Gargoyles of course as well round out some nice choices all in one path, so that¿s where you¿ll want to bend your research if that¿s what you¿re wanting. Earth gems, boots & stones also of course turn your dwarves into earth monsters with all the yummy straight earth stuff from earthquake to petrify. As MaxWilson points out in the Helheim Dirty Tactic thread rain of stones is in easy reach and can be devastating using a Hangadrott with an earth random and a blood stone, but in general your combat mages are going to be your dwarves and summons while the Vanir are your thugs. In a pinch all those Vanjarls you¿ve been massing can spam thunderstrike if you can lay down a storm for them to power up, and don¿t neglect fun blood combat options like leech and hellbind heart.

    What I¿d do if you can get away with it though is focus on that concentrated raw power rather than diluting it by spreading out. Lean on your thugs for a bit and drive straight up to const-8 where your pretender forges the chalice. You shouldn¿t really have any problem snagging it with your blazing research and early focus on construction. Then straight into conjuration research while of course snagging any other artifacts that appeal to you (snag the unique death boosters). Your nitro powered research will let you blaze up the tree faster than you thought possible. As you gain momentum, stop forging more skull mentors and stockpile some death gems. You shouldn¿t have too much trouble hitting conj-8 with the 80 gems necessary to cast the Well of Misery (Hangadrott with a death random, staff and skull cap can cast it).

    That same Hangadrott with one of the death booster artifacts (or a ring of sorcery your pretender forged) can then start dropping tartarians. You¿ve now nitro boosted your way up into a very early tartarian factory as your Hangadrott¿s start cranking out a couple per turn, while you use the water income your pretender scraped up while site searching to summon a couple niads to cast haurespex with the gems your pretender lined up, then gift of reason. You¿re gonna be constrained on the nature gems, but between casting gift of reason every few turns and the lucky natural tartarian commander you¿re gonna build up a fleet of SCs before anybody can believe you¿ve got them. You¿ll also have an easy time summoning all the elemental royalty other than fire, as many as you can afford.

    This also is a solid strategy in its own right, but why stop now? As soon as you start raining tartarians at an absurdly early time, anyone who¿s so inclined will be mobilizing against you. You¿ll want to strongly consider leveraging all those death gems into burden of time, all your guys are practically immortal but it¿ll royally screw with plenty of your rivals. Burden of time is one of those very situational things, there are some nations it really hurts, some it doesn¿t hurt at all, and some who it¿s more an annoyance. It¿s not hard to line up other people who would like to see it up, so don¿t think you necessarily need to declare war on everybody to put it up. Plus, what¿s more thematic than Helheim breaking down the gates of Tartarus and releasing death to stalk the land? Continuing in the same vein you could throw in foul air, you do have the chalice after all for your own owies.

    Rounding out this brutal research blitz is all those blood slaves burning a hole in your pocket. You¿ve slammed down on the gas pedal and never let up, so that death dominion probably hasn¿t been hampering you much but when provinces do start burning out it¿s time to conquer some new lands! If you¿ve done everything right you¿re probably sitting on several hundred blood slaves at this point, and with that nasty research engine blood-9 is not that far away. A couple boosters and cheap empowerings and you¿re going to be adding infernal crusade and infernal tempest to your monthly ritual list. Skip the blood SC¿s, you¿ll be competing with the other blood nations for them and tartarians will cover that role.
    A blazing blood economy, game leading research, obscene amounts of earth and death gems, the ability to simultaneously raid every single province in an enemy nation simultaneously, and a tartarian factory before anybody else can even think about it. Lets see you manage that efficiently.

    So, I hope I¿ve illustrated how driving Helheim like the muscle car it is can be immensely satisfying though you¿re gonna be disappointed if you¿re trying to drive her like a commuter car, watching her gas mileage. Don¿t worry about using 280 gold bloodhunters, it¿s far worse to ignore your blood roots. Don¿t worry about taking drain and death scales, it¿s far worse to try and nurse along what will never be good. Don¿t worry about efficiency (well, at least all the time), worry about power and let that nitro burn!

    			8.20.3.3 Driver's Ed: A Vanilla Quickstart Companion to Baalz's Helheim Guide

    	Article Author:  Cleveland

    			Follow up on on Helheim Guide (Baalz)

    				8.20.3.3.1 Article

    If you haven't read Baalz's excellent guide to Helheim, do it. It's really fantastic.

    But along with a few other folks, I had trouble making the expansion portion of this awesome strat work. Even with careful target selection, scripting, and placement, I was losing expansion parties at least 1/2 the time. Not to suggest that Baalz's expansion parties are bad, just that a mere mortal like myself couldn't get them to work with any consistency.

    Anywho, after some experimenting, I found a way to more reliably expand that's actually cheaper then what's recommended(!) Further, it works equally well for the Vanilla version of the game as it does for CBM, hence the "Vanilla Quickstart Companion." So first, a few words on the Vanilla pretender selection, then a discussion of expansion parties, then onto the Quickstart.

    If CBM Helheim is a '69 Pontiac GTO, then Vanilla Helheim is a Mack Truck pulling a trailer full of iron ore. Your strength isn't necessarily your power, it's your inertia. You're gonna struggle to get up to speed, belching thick black smoke while your engine strains and the residents of Helheim revolt. But once you hit 5th gear...let's just say, I certainly wouldn't want to be standing in the road with you barreling toward me.

    Vanilla requires a completely different pretender, as you won't be able to scratch Baalz's (rimshot!) suggestion. An awake Great Sage with E9N4S2, Dom3, Order3, Sloth3, Cold2, Death3, Luck3, Drain2 gets you that critical major Earth/minor Nature bless while still putting up a respectable 24 research/turn, just keep him away from Magic Duelers. At 24 research/turn, you're exactly 15 turns from the 360 research points needed to open the critical Construction-4.

    Your expansion party is also going to look different (but again, this works equally well with CBM). Instead of 1 Helkarl + 1 Helhirding + some Huskarls, as Baalz suggests, use 1 Dis + 1 Valkyrie (and maybe 1 Serf Warrior when possible).

    Since Dis and Valkyries are both fliers, it's MUCH easier to pick your targets, and to survive when the battle starts going south.

    Dis also have 2 higher defense than Helkarls, which isn't insignificant when you're relying on defense to keep you alive, rather then protection.

    Most importantly, Dis have A1, and can therefore cast Air Shield, neutering the #1 cause of Helkarl loss.

    As an added bonus, since the Valkyrie bodyguard (who will stay glued to the Dis's square, just like the Helhirding would with a Helkarl) is only size 2, any arrows/javelins that land in the square will be more likely to target the size 3 Air Shielded Dis.

    Placement & Scripting: Plant the Dis and the Valkyrie in the back corner. Set the Valkyrie to Guard Commander, script the Dis with (Blessing)(Air Shield)(hold)(hold)(hold)Attack Rear. If you're bringing a Serf Warrior, put him slightly forward on the other flank on Hold and Attack. He'll draw the enemy out of the way, increasing the chance that the Dis will make it to the leaders.

    If the Valkyrie bodyguard dies, which isn't uncommon, resist the urge to send your Dis solo. It's only a 1-turn delay to fly back home for a new bodyguard, then fly back on the offensive.

    A note on Dis & encumbrance: Since you'll be flying and casting more spells then before, fatigue will be an issue if you're not careful. Do not attack swamps, which add +2 encumbrance. Do not attack provinces effected by extreme heat/cold dominion (like if you boarder Caelum). A Chest Wound affliction means instant retirement, as does the dreaded Unequaled Obesity heroic trait.

    As with most small expansion parties, bypass Barbarians and Heavy Cav. Also avoid Wolf Tribes, as they wield dual daggers, negating your defense advantage. If you can help it, don't attack anything defended by more than 40 troops, as you want to minimize the number of defense DRNs your Dis need to pass. You'll still lose probably 1/3 of the time, but your Dis will usually (50%?) survive to fight another day.

    OK, without further ado, the Quickstart Guide.

    Turn 1, recruit 1 Dis, 1 Valkyrie, and queue up a bunch of Serf Warriors. Scout --> Prophet. Helkarl --> Patrol. Ram the taxes up as high as you're comfortable. I'm comfortable at 200%

    Turn 2, recruit a Svartalf & a mass of Serf Warriors. Script your Dis/Valkyrie team supported by a Serf Warrior decoy as suggested, and your prophet to (Sermon of Courage)(cast)(cast)(cast)(cast)Cast Spells [this is critical, otherwise he'll rush forward]. Make sure your prophet is far enough from the Dis to avoid any stray arrows. Send this group at the weakest looking indy that'll allow you to immediately recruit a commander.

    Turn 3: Same capital recruitment as Turn 1. Same attack strategy as Turn 2, but target a land where you want a fortress. Send your Svartalf to your newly conquered province, where you recruit a commander (and militia, if possible). Give the new Serf Warriors to your Helkarl, who's probably having trouble keeping the rowdy citizens of Helheim under control.

    Turn 4: Same capital recruitment as Turn 1. Prophet builds a fortress (or a temple if cash is tight), both Dis parties expand as recommended. New commander goes to capital to take over patrolling duties. Svartalf searches for magic sites.

    Turns 5-10: Get that fortress/temple/lab up and running as soon as possible...your newly idle Helkarl will come in handy here. Keep churning our Dis/Valkyrie teams until it's up, then ease back on the capital taxes such that you're clearing 550g per turn; this will go to 1 Svartalf (180g), 1 Helhirding (90g) and 1 Vanjarl (280g). Each Vanjarl is paired with the Helhirding (and a Serf Warrior! I love those guys), who can then operate identically to the Dis/Valkrie team (with decreased mobility). All Svartalfs are dedicated to site searching, though after you amass 15E gems your first E3 makes a Dwarven Hammer.

    Turns 10-15: When choice indies are gone, redirect your Vanjarls to blood hunting, as Baalz instructs. Cash flow should be sufficient that you can cut your capital taxes to a reasonable 120% or lower, with any surplus going toward amassing an archer army (i.e. an anti-barbarian army) and scouts. If any elephants start marching your way, make a quick diversion to Alteration-1 for False Fetters and deploy those Vanjarls en mass. If Hinnom starts eating you, head over to Evo-2 for lighting bolt. Palankashas got you down? Blood-2 for Reinvigorated-Sabbath-backed Banish Demon (or Your Favorite Exploit, if you're so inclined).

    Turns 15-25: Const-4 is now open...commence Operation Skull Mentor. Alt-3 for Mistform is still your next target, but without CBM, the Shield of Gleaming Gold isn't an option, and your E gems are too valuable to use on Charcoal Shields. But a regenerating Vanjarl with a Flesh Eater scripted for (Blessing)(Air Shield)(Mistform)(hold)(hold)Attack Rear makes a fine thug by himself. If you're really aching for a pseudo-SC, add a Chain Mail of Displacement and Pendant of Luck. When blessed, those Vanjarls are now 25 defense & 21 protection, dealing 27 points of Chest-Wound-Inflicting damage at 17 attack. At zero encumbrance. While mistformed. And regenerating. And lucky.

    Turn 25 and beyond: Baalz's guide takes over. Get Cloud Trapeze, land on your most unsuspecting neighbor like a ton of bricks. But stay away from extreme temperatures! Eriu's downfall in Kingmaker is that he didn't account for the fact that both Utgard & Jotunheim are Cold-3 nations. Keep cranking out archers, as they'll be your wall-breaker-downers. NAPs are your worst enemy, avoid them like the plague. Keep your eye on your dominion, and don't hesitate to blood-sacrifice. Write humorous AARs in the game thread.

    A final note on Air Svartalfs: In addition to being your Rain-of-Stoners, these guys are going to open up Water and high-level Fire for you, believe it or not.

    Consider this: At some point, you're going to empower a Hangdrott to open up those Air boosters. But why stop there? For a scant 30 more Air gems, empower an Air Svartalf, give him a Bag of Winds, Winged Helmet, Earth Boots, and a Blood Stone, for the all-important A4E4...let the Staffs of Elemental Mastery flow.

    A SoEM & a Water Bracelet on a Jade Sorceress gives you Robes of the Sea and Naiads. Naiads then give you Water Queens.

    A SoEM, a Flaming Skull, and 30F gems gets you a F4 Svartalf, which gets you an Flame Helmets. Flame Helmets then get you Fire Kings and the King of Banefires. Volcanic Eruption spam!

    And don't forget: The Air/Earth SoEM comes with an automatic Stoneskin...quite convenient for a Cloud Trapeezing Rain-of-Stoner. Tack on Earth Boots and a Blood Stone, and you've got a teleporting, first-round-petrify-spamming SC killer.

    				8.20.3.3.2 Comments

    			8.20.3.4

    	8.21 Lanka

    	    	8.21.1 Lanka Guide(and Mini-Blood Guide) 3.10 Patch

    Author: K

    So, you've decided to play with Lanka. Most likely you've heard that they are a powerful race, and this is true in that like most races that are easy to play then even newbies can play well. They do have weaknesses, and a wise player will keep these in mind.

    1. Strengths and Weaknesses
    2. Unit Overview
    3. Province Defense
    4. Magic Overview
    5. Best Strategies
    6. More Strategies
    7. Mini-Blood Guide

    STENGTHS:
    Powerful units: Lanka has high HP Sacred Demons with powerful attacks. They cost a small fortune to mass, but Blessed properly they cut through indies and other poor units like a hurricane.
    Powerful blood summons: Lanka gets blood summons that mass a decent number of units, and they are all Sacred so you can incorporate them into your Bless Strategy.
    Archers: You get a variety of archers like longbowman on an expensive high HP Bandar chassis to super crap and cheap markata small bow users.
    Great Reanimating Priests: Not only does every priest you recruit or summon have the ability to reanimate undead, but you also sometimes get undead monkeys like powerful Bandar, weak chaff-like markata, and strong bandar ghouls called pisacha.

    WEAKNESSES:
    Everyone's A Demon!: You best mages and combat units are demons, so even the weakest indie priest can throw down a savage beating on you.
    Average priests: For a Bless nation, you get really poor priests. H3 brings you Divine Blessing, and any essential Bless strategy requires it, and until you get Blood 8 researched (or find a way to make Crystal Shields) you don't have access to it.
    Low unit numbers: While your units are made of liquid awesome, they are extremely expensive and are Gluttonous large units which means you are fielding small numbers of them. This means that you are wickedly vulnerable to volleys of arrows and battle magic. This also means that a few battles with heavy losses can mean that you are out of units altogether and can be steamrolled.
    Sacred Mages: Normally a good thing, this is a weakness on a Nature 9+ Bless. Berserking mages is all bad.
    Best Mages are Summons or Capital-only: Nuff said.

    UNIT OVERVIEW:
    Commanders:
    Raksharaja (270 gold, 22 resources, capital-only, base H2/A2/D1/B2/ADB/10%ADBN): This is the heavy lifter of your mages. Your D2 mages make Skull Mentors, the A3's throw down battlefield Air magics, and your B3s are you best blood mages for summoning and blood battlefield magic, and at base 8 Research they tend to make really good researchers(and you get turn advantage by recruiting them rather than other guys). They even make decent thugs with enough Alteration (more on this later in Strategies).
    Rakshasi (350 gold, 2 resources, capital-only, base H1/A1/D1/B1/N1/ADBN/ADBN/10%ADBN): Expensive Seducers, this mage makes a decent site search and is your best source of D3. With wildly unpredictable picks, I tend to not use them as battle mages, Succubus are better Seducers, Raksharaja are cheaper researchers and better Blessers, and I prefer to site search via rituals.
    Kala-mukha (160 gold, 5 resources, H2/B1/BDN)-This unit pulls double duty as your prime Longdead reanimator and Commander for throwing down Blesses. Good candidate for Prophet.
    Yogini(110 gold, 1 resource, B1/N2/D1): With N2, they add Supply for your hungry troops, and make decent researchers with 6 research points. Toss on a Thistle Mace and you can toss down Poison Clouds and Sleep Clouds. They are also perfect for Wooden Warriors. In the short term, they are the best priced researcher, but I like the Raksharaja for raw unity and Research turn advantage.
    Raktapata (90 gold, 4 resources, H1/B1): These guys are your classic blood hunters, and they also make cheap thugs since they can self-bless. Avoid trying to use them to bless Sacred troops since their Bless effect if quite small.
    Bandaraja(75 gold, 22 resources): Expensive with high leadership(120). Considering that castle commander units are at a premium, these don't get made much.
    Bandar Commander(50 gold, 20 resources): Good price for the leadership (80). If you have to make a commander to lead troops out of your castle, these tend to be the ones.
    Atavi Chiefton (40 gold, 8 resources): Weak commander(40) with stealth. Not bad if you want a stealth strategy.
    Markata Scout (20 gold, 1 resource): Cheap super weak scout. Low HPs make it an ideal Fever Fetish victim.

    Units:
    Palankasha (55 gold, 17 resources, capital-only): The Tiger-heads are the work horse of the Lankan army. With a good Bless, a group of five can roll over an indie province with no losses.
    Anusara (35 gold, 4 resources, capital-only ): While almost as strong as a Palankasha and much cheaper, these are a joke unit. Add them to your army only if you intend to use Wooden Warriors to boost their pathetic armor, are desperate for units, or need a little demon chaff to distract priests casting Banishment. They don't eat Supply, so if you made the mistake of choosing Death scales you might be stuck with these.
    Asara (35 gold, 4 resources, capital-only): Almost as badly statted as the Anusara, but they carry javelins. They are interesting if you throw down Wooden Warriors to protect them, Wind Guide to improve their Precision, and maybe Blood Lust or Rush or Strength. With their high Strength, they hit hard with their javelins, but with only two shots these don't really do a lot of damage.
    Kala-mukha Warrior (65 gold, 20 resources): The two most important things about these units is that they are not demons and they can be built at any castle. They are quite expensive and a little worse than a Palankasha in terms of stats, as well as more expensive in gold. In general they get made only when facing heavy priest opposition. They have helmets, which means a lot to some people.
    Bandar Warrior (20 gold, 13 resources): These guys throw rocks that hit harder than shortbow arrows, but weaker than longbows. With terrible precision and range, you put them on the front and let them go to town. With good stats, high Strength and armor they survive reasonably well on the front.
    Light Bandar Archer (20 gold, 7 resources): Weak armor and low precision combined with high cost. If they didn't have longbows you'd never use them.
    Atavi Infantry (9 gold, 3 resources): Stealth infantry with rocks. Cheap guys with low morale and a next to useless rock attack.
    Atavi Archer (9 gold, 3 resources): Stealth archers. The basic shortbow unit in your army.
    Markata Archer (5 gold, 1 resources): Terrible unarmed archers perfect as chaff with their high Defense. Ideal for Flaming Arrows with their damage 6 Small Bow attack.
    Markata (5 gold, 1 resources): Terrible and cheap chaff with a useless rock attack. High Defense makes them perfect to slow elephants down to be killed by other units.

    National Summonable Commanders:
    Mandaha (H3/A3/D3/B2; B8, 1 for 133 Blood slaves): These are the supreme unit in the Lanka arsenal. They auto-cast Darkness when they enter battle, and so turn demon and undead armies into unstoppable killers against non-demon/undead armies. With their Holy 3 they let you cast Divine Blessing and keep your Sacred units fully Blessed. Essentially, every army needs one.
    Dakini (H2/A3/D1/B3; B2A1 at B6; 1 for 50 blood slaves): Essentially, they are the best summoned mage on the block. With powerful Air and Blood magic they do the things that Lanka does best and does it well. With natural Blood Vengeance they resist single-target battle magic quite well, and flight and Fear make them ideal thugs with Mirror Image and Mist Form, though they are also fine researchers.
    Samanishada (B3/D1 at B7; 1 for 35 blood slaves): Demon assassins with base Moonblades and Dusk Daggers, they are fine killers. Also, one of the cheapest Blood commanders.

    National Summonable Units:
    Davanas (B5 at B8; 3 for 75 bloood slaves): Powerful giants that have magic weapons that Halt Sacred, they seem to be custom-built to kill other sacred giants. With high HPs, they Regenerate quite well if Nature Blessed. They are H2/A1 if made commanders with Gift of Reason, and seems ideal for boosted Air for Mistform and Mirror Image.
    Sandhayabalas (B2/D1 at B5; 3 for 30 blood slaves): Powerful Sacred demons with moonblades and Buckers, they get even better stats in Darkness. While expensive and tough to mass, they are very deadly. Basically, my dream army is full of these guys.
    Rakshasa Warriors (B4; 5 for 25 blood slaves): The best summons you get with a good cost per unit and enough unit per casting. They hit a little harder than Tiger heads, have longer reach, and have no shields but are otherwise should form the backbone of your summoned army.
    Asrapas (B2 at B3; 5 for 11 blood slaves): Beserking, so if they are sprinkled in with other units they will keep them from routing. They also have magic weapons that do partial lifedrain, so they make good ethereal killers but need Wooden Warriors or Mass Protection to make them effective. Note that they are the cheapest Sacred Bless you have. They have a B1 if made commanders with Gift of Reason.
    Praghasa (B1/N1 at B2; 15 for 50 blood slaves): Feast of Flesh nets you a posse of these guys. They have little armor and giant Supply demands, so they work best when you need a pile of units quickly for battle and expect heavy losses, have a ton of blood slaves in the lab, and have access to Wooden Warriors.
    Rakshasa (B1 at B1, 3 for 10 blood slaves): With two Claw attacks, low armor, and low units per casting this is a niche unit. F9 Bless would be my guess.
    Vetalas (D2 at C5; 9 for 10 death gems): Basically, these guys are powerful ghosts that can be massed cheaply and quickly. A fine use of death gems, despite death gems being the best gems in the game.
    Ganas (D1 at C2; 20 at 12 death gems): Ethereal undead with no Protection. While they do have magic weapons, they are negated by MR. Ideal as holding and blocking units, especially if you toss down Poison Clouds into their midst. They have minds, so can make good castle defenders if you need to mass them quickly.

    PROVINCE DEFENCE:
    Overview: Low morale and weak units. Chaff.
    1-19: You get a Bandar Commander and a pile of Markata. On the plus side, they slow down real attackers like Elephants and Calvary, and can even fight off Black Hawk attacks. On the down side, don't expect them to stop any real opposition.
    20+: You get Bandar Warriors which are decent, but not enough to matter.

    MAGIC OVERVIEW
    Death: You don't get enough Death to really be called a Death power, as you usually only get D1s and D2s, which means that Death rituals are doable but death battle magic is generally out without a lot of work and only generally worth it for battlefield enchantments.

    Nature: Nature 2 comes on the Yogini and Thistle Maces are easy to make, so you can use Nature battle magic like Wooden Warriors and Poison Cloud pretty easily. Panic and Storm of Thorns are also nice. With some work, Mass Regeneration, Relief, Mass Protection, and Foul Vapors(with W1) are possible.

    Air: While you get up to Air 3 easily enough, this is barely enough to cast the high fatigue Thunderstrike, though cheap Lightning Bolts/Orb Lightning are perfect for killing Horrors and other assassins. Basically, you cast Wind Guide and Thugs cast Mistform and Mirror Image. With big enough Communions/Sabbaths and/or booster items, you can cast the truly epic Mists of Deception and Fog Warriors. With moderate boosting you can get Storm/Arrow Fend to foil missile fire and Wrathful Skies to destroy entire battlefields.

    Blood: Sabbaths are the ideal use of this path in the field, but the National summons are why you research this Path. With Fire or Water Empowerment, the spells that send units to Hell are possible and perfect SC/thug killers,as is the pure Blood spell Life for a Life. Rush of Strength/Blood Lust and Blood Rain are fun, but the difficulties of using Blood magic in the field generally make this a difficult tactic.

    BEST STRATEGIES
    EARLY GAME
    Bless strategy: In my opinion, this is the most important strategy choice you'll make all game and there are many different competing philosophies. Here is the breakdown:
    Nature 8/9/10: With high HPs, all of your Sacred units benefit from Regeneration far more than anyone in the game, and can make a few units into killers. I also prefer the Beserking you get from N9-10, because one one unit in a squad Berserks, the rest of the squad is essentially unroutable as long as that unit lives and commanders are on the field(only Berserk units will keep fighting after a Rout). The down side is that your best mages are Holy, so having your mages lose it when they get damaged and running towards the front is pretty bad. I prefer N9, which gets you 5 HPs of Regen each turn on Tiger Heads and Berserking. N10 is a unnoticable amount of extra Berserking and 1 more HPs of Regen, so in my opinion is not worth it. For people concerned that Berserking
    Water: After much testing, this is the ideal second 9 Bless. The speed gain means that retreating troops seldom escape, and troops like giants can get hit enough time in one combat round to die and with their aaverage Attack will miss several time due to the increased Defense of this Bless (which also means that Calvary will often miss their first hit and then get killed before the charge bonus gets used).
    Earth: Lanka's troops biggest problem is that in long battles they fatigue out and get fatigue-smacked. The upshot is that Lanka is naturally designed to cast Relief. That being said
    Fire: Your Sacreds attack quite well and hard, so the extra Attack and Fire damage and is not really needed. The fire attack on melee weapons is great for eating Ethereal units, but in general its not worth the high cost for this one circumstance.
    Death: Like the Fire bless, the extra damage is not really needed. The extra afflictions also aren't needed since you kill things quite well and there tend to be few survivers.
    Air: The Air Shield effect is useful in avoiding early losses due to arrows, and the Shock Resistance is only useful in the late game when lightning is falling all around. Considering how much lightning that Lanka can really toss down (which is not that much, in fact), this bless seems unreasonably expensive.
    Astral: More MR will prevent Banishments from taking their toll, but in general the best killers of your Demons will not be checking MR or will be used by powerful mages with Penetration. While the computer is often foolish enough to not give Penetration item out to priests, humans will not.
    Blood: Your demons do enough damage, so more Strength is not very useful.
    Conclusion: N9/W9 and maybe E4 tend to give the best all-around surviverablity.

    Race to Construction 4:
    If you've been building Raksharajas, you will have a few D2 guys who can turn your Death gems straight into Skull Mentors, boosting your research through the roof. At this level you can also equip Thugs and SCs with Vine Shields, Reinvig equipment and one the Brand swords(assuming you got lucky with Amazons or sites). Thistle Maces, Skull Staffs, Soul Contracts, and Sanguine Rods are also key equipment for you.

    Race to Blood 4:
    At this level you can summon Rakshasa Warriors, which are as good as Tiger-heads and cost only blood slaves to summon. Storm Demons are also as good as a Lightning tossing battle mage, and they ignore the effects of Storms.

    Site searching:
    Due to the heavy demand you have for your mages, sending individuals to site search is not cost effective in terms of turn advantage. For that reason, you'll want to search via spells and just eat the gem hit. For reference, these are Conj2 for Death, Thaum 2 for Nature and Air, and Blood 2 for Blood.

    Early battle magic:
    Sadly, Lanka has poor early game battle magic. The winners are Thaum3 for Panic, Evocation 2 for Lightning Bolt, Evocation 3 for Sleep Cloud, Evocation 4 for Breath of the Dragon(weak, but better than nothing) and Thunderstrike(high fatigue, but nice), Evocation 5 for Poison Cloud and Shadow Blast, Alteration 5 for Wooden Warriors, Alteration 4 for Wind Guide, and Enchantment 3 for Raise Dead/Raise Skeletons. Blood 4 also has Storm Demons, which are essentially mobile Lightning Bolt platforms.

    Reanimation:
    Your H2 mages can summon Longdead and some of those will be the strong and good Att Bandar, and even H1s can summon Ghouls and get the decent attack Pisasha. Once of your early goals should be to build a temple on an inddie priest province and pump out a Priest a turn, and then eat a low income swamp, mountain, or wasteland by turning it into ghouls (since these provinces produce around 5-15 gold a turn, losing them for a pile of non-mindless undead is not a bad deal). You can also send them behind armies to clean up corpses Soulless. This tactic is especially important because the only way Lanka can bring enough troops to crack castles is to bring a pile of undead.

    Mage overspending:
    You need Blood mages to blood hunt, Holy mages to reanimate, and expensive mages to research. As a priority, you'll want a second castle up and running to pump out more mages.

    Race to Alteration 5:
    Not only does Alt5 have Wooden Warriors, but it also has Mother Oak which is cheap and easy to cast.

    MIDGAME
    Thugs/SCs:
    Raksharajas make fine SCs if you get them to cast Mistform and Mirror Image and Bless themselves. With a Brand Sword, some Reinvig and +MR equipment, and a Vine Shield, a Raksharaja is essentially unbeatable. Toss in a Soul Vortex at Alteration 6, and you've got a cheap and powerful killer of troops comparable to a Banelord but with a better kill ratio. Dakini are even better for this purpose with their flight and built-in Blood Vengeance.

    Enchantment 5-6
    Its a long way up a path thats not giving you much, so its a mid-game strategy. When you get to Ench5, you get Gift of Health and Foul Vapors. FV is the perfect battlefield destroying spell because your units Regen, but it requires that you've empowered a Nature mage in Water. Gift of Health has not only the effect of increasing your troops HPs up to double base and healing afflictions, but it can also potentially double Regen, which makes your powerful Sacreds dramatically more powerful. Enchantment 6 has the supremely useful Arrow Fend and useful Relief.

    Storm + Wrath of God:
    Whether you are using Storm from a Staff of Storms or are casting it each time, you are basically making missile attacks fail, which is a big benefit to the small number of Lankan troops you are fielding. Toss in a Wrath of God with lightning immune casters and you will destroy all the troops on the battlefield, which is a win if you gamble small numbers of troops and your enemy gambles large numbers. This is especially effective if you can keep enemy troops occupied with Lifelong Protection contracts, Skull Helmet Raise Deads, or other battle summons.

    Alteration 6-7
    A few useful spells pop up here. Fog Warriors is the big winner at Alt7, but Mass Regeneration at Alt7 is also nice if you are fielding your non-Sacreds though its stacks with Sacreds Regen. Soul Vortex is also a nice little winner; combine SV with crap units on Guard Commander and you get cheap fatigue reduction for your mages.

    Lankan Air Corp
    Lanka has a powerful flying demon commander, the Dakini (and the commander Devil from ). Toss in Storm Demons, Devils, and other troops brought by Flying Carpets, they can have flying armies quite easily.

    Bogus's Ancient Orders
    Using Hellbind Heart and undead screens, its quite easy to capture Bogus and his companions and gain their Attack Commander and Fire Magic User commands. Some players consider this ¿cheating¿, so be aware. I personally consider it an ability of any race clever enough to do it.

    LATE GAME
    The Big Air Magics
    Air magic is extremely powerful in the late game, but for Lanka to get it a lot of work must be done. Sabbaths and Communions are the only practical way, simply because Air Boosting items like Wind Helmets and Air Bags cost 25 Air gems each, and the other Lanka possibility is the Robe of the Magi for another 40 Air gems(and 40 blood slaves). The key spells you really want are Fog Warriors (Alt7) and Mists of Deception(Ench8). Other notable Air spells are Storm Warriors(Ench8), Mass Flight(Ench7), and Shimmering Fields(Evo7).

    The Big Death Magics
    Utterdark is a WIN magic for Lanka. Considering that they can blood hunt for troops, they can survive an Utterdark better than the vast majority of other nations, so casting this spell should be one of your goals. You can easily climb the death summons ladder and get Liches for D4, then toss in enough boosters to cast it. If thats possible, aiming for Tartarians and Well of Misery is just unnecessary. The big death battle magics are Wailing Winds(Evo6), Winds of Death(Evo7), Rigor Mortis(E6), Bone Grinding (Alt7). Due to your difficulty in gaining powerful Death magic and their only decent effectiveness, these tend to be luxuries.

    The Big Blood Magics
    Astral Corruption is one of the WIN spells. You can toss it with 999 blood slaves and it'll never be brought down, and you'll be able to summon troops and most people won't (it also makes any Horror spells you cast even bigger and nastier). Combined with Utterdark, you can paralyze any nation that doesn't do Blood in a serious way (Mictlan, Abysia and Sauromatia in the EA). Also summoning Mandahas at Blood 8 with their built-in Darkness makes them real winners in battles.

    MORE STRATEGIES
    Earth Economy:
    Lanka can produce a lot of blood slaves, and if they can get enough Earth together they can start building Blood Stones at an amazing rate. Once they have a good Earth income going, they can start building Marble Warriors for raw combat and Mechanical Men for Lighning armies. Mixing Death and Earth also allows for Shadow Brands, a nice thug weapon.

    Fire Economy:
    If you can get even one Nature mage empowered in Fire, you can make Fever Fetishes and start a Fire economy going. Fire and Blood intersect nicely since you can then create Soul Contracts, and cast Blood Boil, Bind Archdevils, and Infernal Prison. Access to Fire magic also opens of the possibility of Flaming Arrows, a powerful spell for an archer nation like Lanka.

    Astral and Earth:
    If you can get Crystal Mages or some other Earth and Astral Mages, you can build a number of key items. Crystal Shields are the best, since they can turn a H2 mage into an H3 so that you can cast Divine Blessing. Crystal Matrixes and Slave Matrixees also let you reliably put up Communions/Sabbaths.

    Astral and Blood:
    Blood is defined by the Blood and Astral spells. Even massive armies can be destroyed by three castings of Call Horror, so it is in your best interest to find Astral mages and Empower them in Blood or Empower Blood mages in Astral.

    Mini-Blood Guide
    Blood hunting is a tricky process that requires finesse and timing, and there are several competing and conflicting philosophies. Here they are:

    Set It On Fire: If you are playing a short 20-30 turn game, the common advice is to go Death scales and Patrol provinces you are Blood hunting. Population losses in those provinces will be massive, but the blood slaves will pile up. Sure, your empire will be a tomb by turn 30 and by turn 40 it'll be destroyed, but hopefully you'll have taken new lands to blood hunt.

    Gardening: Go Growth 3 and lower taxes to 0. Set a few blood hunters on a spot and just draw a slow income from the spot. This strategy means that you'll have a long term and consistent income. Also, substandard 3,000 person provinces will grow into good bloodhunting provinces, providing gold income the whole time. For a 60+ turn game this is ideal.

    General advice and facts:
    -Blood hunting checks blood level of hunter(higher is better), then size of population (5,000+ is ideal) and then unrest of province(lower is better).
    -Blood hunting creates unrest and reduced population , and unrest makes it harder to Blood Hunt.
    -The following things reduce unrest: Reducing taxes(max -34 unrest for zero taxes), good events, patrolling(amount reduced by sized of army and kills 10 population for each unrest reduced), Fata Morgana, and the Lady of Love pretender.
    -B1 is needed to get anything near a steady income of blood slaves, but B3 and 5,000 population and zero unrest guarantees that the unit will get slaves. A unit with no Blood magic and zero unrest and 5,000 population will generally find slaves 5% of the time.
    -Unrest failure chance seems to be checked simultaneously, so a huge pile of blood hunters hunting on one turn can net more slaves than a few over a few turns.
    -Sanguine Rods increase blood hunting as if you were +1 Blood. Vampires and some other national units also get a bonus.
    -Building labs in every blood hunting province is not as cost effective as building two stealthy Scouts(20 gold each) to ferry blood slaves to and from a province and a lab (even after accounting for upkeep). Labs also can be used by attacking nations who might fly in. Keep hunters in back and on Retreat, and toss in province defense to deter raiders (flying or Ritual created).

    A Few Blood Magic Facts
    -Blood magic has great summons, most of which are demons, but the battle magic requires a great deal of blood slaves and generally is only used in dire need because of the blood slave cost and high fatigue for even the simplest spells.
    -Belphegor The Lord of Hell (a demon lord) is the only unit in the game that gets blood slaves each turn for free, making him the best battle caster for Blood in the game
    -Communions and Sabbaths are the same spell(just different costs and magic type) and can be mixed and matched
    -Flyers carrying blood slaves are the best way to bring blood slaves into battles. Just make sure your flyers appear next to your blood mages.

    	    	8.21.2 Lanka: unit stats, comments and tips

    	    	    	8.21.2.1 Guide

    		Unit stats in excel format: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/download.php?Number=483859

    		Lanka is a great nation, and it had been a long time I had not played a Blood nation; I am really enjoying it at the moment.

    Below are some comments and humble tips to those who would like to give it a try.

    Broad lines

        * Lanka is an Early Age (EA) nation, based on Bandar Log¿s EA Kailasa, so you¿ll get most of the regular Markata, Atavi and Bandar units and commanders; but instead of being ruled by Yakshas and Yakshinis, they¿re ruled by Rasksharajas and Rakshasis (rulers of the Rakshasas, who are demon ogres mastering Air, Death, Blood and Holy magic);
        * Lanka is definitely a Blood nation: cheap blood-hunting troops (Raktapata: 90 gold, sacred, BH, which compares to Abysia¿s Sanguine Acolyte) and 9 (yes, nine!) national Blood summons;
        * Lanka is a demon nation: best recruitable troops and commanders, as well as all Blood-summoned troops and commanders, are demons;
        * All demon troops (recruitable and summoned) are sacred, so you will want to carefully plan a suitable bless strategy;

    Advantages

        * Powerful demon troops (recruitable and summonable);
        * All priests can reanimate Undead;
        * National archers with strategic move 2 and forest survival; Bandar archers have long bows (20 gold, 7 res), Atavi archers are stealthy (9 gold, 3 res), and Markata archers are really cheap (5 gold, 1 res);
        * Great national Blood summons (troops and commanders);
        * Lanka prefers Heat+2, so you get 80 free design points (or 120 if you go for Heat+3);
        * Access to Air, Death, Nature and Blood magic;

    Other nice features

        * Summoned commander with blood vengeance! (Dakini, Blood-6)
        * Summoned assassin (Samanishada, Blood-7)

    Weaknesses

        * You demons eat lots of supplies: they¿re all size 3, and most of them have gluttony (eg, all Rakshasa units have gluttony -4!), so you¿ll either need to take growth scales, or forge many Endless Bags of Wine (Cons 4, N) / Enormous Cauldron of Broth (Cons 2, N3) with your Yoginis (DN2B), or set up NNE-only (Need Not Eat) armies (most of these gluttonous demons also happen to need not eat, which means they won¿t starve if supplies are missing, but other troops will starve because the demons will eat all available food!);
        * All your best troops are demons, so watch out enemy priests; you might consider going for an Astral bless to bestow them a bonus to their MR;
        * Poor Province Defence (Markatas and Markata archers);
        * No Fire, Water, Earth or Astral national mages.

    Recruitable troops  quick walkthrough

        * Markatas and Markata archers: small potatoes (5 gold, 1 res, HP 5, Prot 0, morale 7); they form the core of your PD (province defence  or maybe province defenceless?); they are not powerful, they are not courageous, they die like lemmings¿ but they can nevertheless (theoretically) swarm big enemies thanks to their small size, and are definitely good arrow fodder for the price;
        * Atavi infantry and Atavi archers: they are cheap stealthy units (9 gold); and are a better bargain than the more expensive Bandars in time of dire need;
        * Bandar warriors (20 gold, 13 res) and Bandar archers (20 gold, 7 res): just as Man¿s longbowmen, the Bandar archers are invaluable in taking enemy archers;
        * Kala-Mukha warriors, Asaras, Anusaras, and Palankashas: these four are Lanka¿s elite troops; they¿re all sacred, have 24-30 HP, and Att 12+; the latter three are demons and are capital-only; in the game I¿m currently running, I have not used the less expensive Asaras and Anusaras because I felt they had a too low Protection (3 and 4 respectively) for the price (35 gold), and I had no bless effect to help it; the Kala-Mukha warriors (50 gold, 24 HP, Prot 13, Att 13, Def 12) and the Palankashas (45 gold, 30 HP, Prot 14, Att 13, Def 12) are powerhouses, and a bunch of them with the proper blessing can take most armies; Palankashas are a better bargain for the price than Kala-Mukha warriors, but they are capital-only.

    Recruitable commanders  quick walkthrough

        * Markata scout  just a basic scout;
        * Atavi Chieftain, Bandar Commander and Bandaraja are the usual troop leaders (40, 80 and 120 regular troops respectively); note the Atavi Chieftain is stealthy and can lead stealthy Atavi infantry and archers into enemy provinces;
        * Raktapata (90 gold, sacred, BH) is your basic blood hunter; he¿s a big boy and can forge his own SDR;
        * Kala-Mukha (160 gold, sacred, B?HH, ?=100%(ADNB)) can get you B2 mages which you can use to start blood hunting before you have access to SDR, or to cast Bowl of Blood when you have reached Blood-2; the other ones (ABH2, DBH2 and NBH2), I used mainly for H2 (Sermon of Courage), preaching, and occasional item forging;
        * Yoginis (110 gold, DN2B): you will need a few of them to develop your Nature and Death magic, forge item, search for sites, etc
        * Rakshasis (350 gold, sacred, ADNBHH??*, ?=100%, *=10%(ADNB)) and Raksharajas (270 gold, sacred, AADBBHH$*, $=100%(ADB), *=10%(ADNB)) are your demon army leaders; most of them can cast A3+ and/or B3+ spells/rituals; with a little luck (or empowerment), you can get A4 or B4 commanders and bootstrap the Air and Blood boosting items sequence; the Rakshasi is much more expensive than the Rakshasa because she has a hidden skill: she can change shape to a Manushya Rakshasi (bless you!), without loosing magic paths, and in that form, she can seduce enemy commanders [usage tip: as she cannot fly back with seduced commander like a Succubus, you must try and seduce an enemy commander in a province neighbouring one of your provinces, so she can walk back with him]

    National summons  troops  quick walkthrough

        * Gana (x20, Conj 2, 12D, needs D1): inexpensive ethereal undead troops with spectral weapons (don¿t hit if target rolls MR), nice for swarming the battlefield with fodder;
        * Rakshasas (x5, Blood 1, 10 slaves, needs B2  Sacred, demon, 28 HP, Prot 5, Att 14, Def 11) and Phragasas (x15, Blood 2, 50 slaves, needs B1N1  Sacred, demon, 35 HP, Prot 4, Att 13, Def 10) I have not used much because of their low Protection and no bless effect to help it;
        * Asrapas (x5, Blood 3, 11 slaves, needs B2  Sacred, demon, 19 HP, Prot 1, Att 12, Def 13) are berserk(+3) and wield Athames (magical partial life-draining weapons), but again, I have not used them much because of their very low Prot;
        * Rakshasa Warriors (x5, Blood 4, 25 slaves, needs B2  Sacred, demon, 30 HP, Prot 14, Att 13, Def 10) are the units you want to summon en masse in mid game to replace the capital-only Palankashas;
        * Sandhyabalas (x3, Blood 5, 30 slaves, needs B2D1  Sacred, demon, 30 HP, Prot 14, Att 14, Def 13) are even better and more expensive warriors who are stealthy and wield Moon Blades;
        * And finally, the Davanas (x3, Blood 8, 75 slaves, needs B5  Sacred, demon, 92 HP, Prot 12, Att 12, Def 11) are four-armed huge (size-6) demons who wield three unholy weapons (with the ¿Halt Sacred¿ effect); though I have not tried it yet, they look like a very nice target for the Gift of Reason ritual.

    National summons  commanders  quick walkthrough

        * The Dakinis (Blood 6, 50 slaves, needs BBA  Sacred, demon, fly, blood vengeance(+0), A3D1B3H3) are more powerful than your capital-only Raksharajas and Rakshasis; they are powerful Blood mages, and can make good thugs or SC with a few Air buffs, Athame (partial life-draining weapon), innate blood vengeance, and a few buff items (like a ring of Regeneration forged by your Yoginis); plus they can Divine Bless (H3) your demons; definitely a multi-purpose commander;
        * The Samanishada (Blood 7, 35 slaves, needs B3D1) is an assassin; I love assassins;
        * And finally, the Mandaha (Blood 8, 133 slaves, needs B5D2) is Lanka¿s best commander: this huge Rakshasa (size 6) is a mighty warrior (65 HP, Prot 15, Att 14, Def 10) wielding a Flesh Eater, as well as a very powerful magic user (A3D3B2) and priest (H3); moreover, he is constantly surrounding by a large Sleep Cloud, and, in combat, the battlefield is plunged into Darkness! So with this buddy, you get the perfect demon army leader: with H3, he can cast Divine Blessing on all your demons at the beginning of a battle, and with the permanent Darkness (which doesn¿t affect your demons), your demons get a huge advantage on your opponent; this summon is definitely the best for investment for Lanka.

    Tips

        * Start early expansion using Palankashas; they¿re expensive (45 gold), but for the price, you get powerful killing machines (HP 30, Prot 12, Att 13, Def 12) which will suffer very few casualties, if any, and will have grown to 4-star experience by the beginning of end-game; sprinkle with national archers (either Atavi archers, short bows, precision 10, set on fire closest, or Bandar archers, long bows, precision 9, set on fire enemy archers);
        * Go for Blood! This school will give you your most powerful troops that you can summon anywhere on the map (remember, your gorgeous Palankashas are capital-only, and have the holy unit recruit limit) and some beautiful and unique commanders; I believe your main milestones are Blood-4 (Summon Rakshasa Warriors) and Blood-8 (Summon Mandaha);
        * As far as research goes, I would advise you to first run to Cons-4 to get the SDR (Sanguine Dousing Rod), and then switch to Blood as you start up the Blood economy with your SDR-equipped Raktapatas (90 gold, sacred, BH); it¿s no use starting right away researching Blood as you won¿t have enough good blood-hunters (B2 or B+SDR) and not enough blood slaves flowing in; once you have reached Blood-4 and your research is running fine, you might consider spending a few points in other schools from time to time to unlock some spells: Air buffs and evocations for your mage commanders (Raksharajas and Rakshasis), site-searching spells for your DN2B Yoginis; but try and stick to Blood, it¿s really worth it!
        * Getting to Cons-4 first also gives you access to Skull Mentors (D2, RP+9) which you happen to have plenty of Death gems to forge with (+3/turn from initial sites + all death sites that you can find with your Yoginis);
        * You might consider going for a Drain scale, as your researchers will be using Skull Mentors, so RP-1 (Drain -1 or -2) instead of the usual RP+1 (Magic +1) won¿t have much impact on your research, and most of your magic (Blood) will be based on rituals, not battlefield spells, so the extra fatigue from the Drain scale won¿t affect you much (less than your enemies hopefully);
        * Have a couple Raksharajas cast monthly Bind Storm Demon; a dozen of them makes a deadly flying artillery (lightnings);
        * Almost all your troops are sacred, so a bless strategy definitely is a must; I have tried an Astral-9 bless (MR+3 and Twist Fate): MR+3 is nice to protect your demons from Banishment, and Twist Fate is really great for short and violent battles (eg, against cavalry); but since your demons have lots of HP, going for Nature and Regeneration might be a better idea, especially if you intend to use the low-Prot demons; or then maybe Air (for Air shield), but the same effect can be achieved (in late game, though) with Arrow Fend (Ench-6, A3) or with Darkness-casting Mandahas (Blood-8); I don¿t think Earth-9 (for Prot+4) is worth it (not enough for low-Prot demons, and not much a difference for high-Prot and high-HP demons); I think that Fire (increased Attack) and Blood (increased Strength) are not necessary as the demons already have great Strength and enough Attack (which increases a lot with experience, which they are going to accumulate a lot since they are very durable); Water surely would be a good bless, especially Water-9, for Quickness; if I was to start a new game with Lanka, I think I¿d try a dual Water-9/Nature-4 or Water-9/Nature-6 bless.

    	    	    	8.21.2.2 Comments

    -> Just a thing you seems to have missed about the demon troops : they don't have any helmet, meaning that they're vulnerable to low strenght attacks that hit the head , were only the natural protection apply for them.

    The only sacred troop that does have a helmet are the Kala-Mukha, and they're not capitol-only, and are not marked as demons (an advantage : they cannot be banished)

    They have only two minor flaws : they don't get the "need not eat" ability and are gluttonous, and they cost more in gold and ressource that the others units (but as theyr are more useful ...)

    The advantages of the capitol-only demons, are being cheaper, and a better mouvement value (Palankashas have 15 AP versus 8 for the Kala-Mukha, so they can be good flanking units)

    Because of the lack of helmet on the demons units, I find that they're less survivable than the Kala-Mukha. It would have been a good idea i think if in exchange for this weakness they had something else really useful (a bite secondary attack would have been perfect for the tiger-headed demons, even if it means increasing their cost)

    Another thing : i think that the "do not need to eat" ability doesn't work exactly as you seems to think when the unit is gluttonous.

    From what I understand, any normal unit need its size in supply to prevent starving, and "do not need to eat" reduce this number to 0.

    The gluttonous ability works like a negative supply bonus (in fact, it *is* a negative supply bonus, a unit with a supply bonus (for exemple your nature mages) that are gluttonous only show the supply bonus icon, with a lesser value that expected)

    What does it means ?

    If you have a size 3 demon with the "do not need to eat" ability and gluttonous -4, he will never starve and will reduce the supply available by 4 only, so he will only be the same as a size 4 unit (such as a jotun giant).

    At least, it's what *I* think is how it works.

    -> Note: The Dakinis are H2, not H3.

    ->      And finally, the Mandaha (Blood 8, 133 slaves, needs B5D2) is Lanka’s best commander:

    This guy makes for a fun SC, but perhaps that's a bad idea against humans. 100% weakness to fire....

        only sacred troop that does have a helmet are the Kala-Mukha, and they're not capitol-only, and are not marked as demons (an advantage : they cannot be banished)

    The helmet also gives them a better boost from E9 bless if you use it. E9 + nature bless may be good since they'll kill slower than other sacreds with only one weapon.

    -> Don't think of seduction as a way to capture units, but as a better assassination ability.

    With it, your Rhakshasis are de facto assassin mages that can, with the correct spells/items, kill most commanders.
    I once used one that to capture a indep province near my capitol while my main army was elsewhere (indeps str 9) : it took 3-4 turns to kill all the commanders, and one more to capture the province, it was a lone commander, and not an army.

    And of course sometimes you get lucky and get a free commander. Usually just a normal commander (always useful for carrying troops to the front), but sometimes you can be very lucky and get a mage with useful magic paths or a good ability.

    -> Yeah, I've tested out the Rhakshasis myself, and they just seem too expensive to risk in an assassin's role, at least in an MP game. Are there any ways to increase the chance of a seduction? Items that increase penetration perhaps?

    If not, sounds like they're only worth buying for a chance at D3 or N3 (at 350 a pop though, that's an expensive bet).

    Well, we'll see if anyone comes up with another idea for them.

    Until then, I'll toss out a few Lanka tips for others to try:

    1. Find a crap province next to the capitol (swamp or something is good), and start re-animating ghouls. Even a lowly indie priest can do it! About 2/3 of your ghouls should be big monkey-ghouls (how cool is that!) who are about double the power of regular ghouls. Not bad for a province that might otherwise go to waste. The unit description (I forgot their name unfortunately) says the odds for killer ghoul-monkeys declines markedly the further away from the capitol, but I haven't tested out by how much.

    2. 15 death gems and a little research can easily get you into the water! 3 gems and Ench 2 get you a Mound King commander, I think, and 12 gems and Conj 2 get you 20 Ganas. They are poor amphibians still, but their ethereal ability should keep them in the fight long enough to rout armies consisting only of your average Joe-merman or triton. If you want a little more insurance, you can fill out your force with some re-animated soulless or longdead (or use 12 more gems for another batch of ganas to be extra sure).

    On another note, in an SP game once, I GoRed some of those 4-armed Davanas, with very nice results, as they tended to get some random levels of air/death/priest magic to go with their giant size and multiple limbs...

    -> Note, cat charm increases chance of seduction on women, bear charm on men, I think.

    I dunno about GoRing blood summons, but the mandaha is hands down the best non-unique SC chassis in EA.

    -> Demons are immune to disease. I've put fever fetishes on them and they don't lose hp.

    -> mandahas flying is pretty okay because they make great SCs (so can be off on their own)

    also many of the demon armies that one can summon up with this nation (storm demons, etc) are flying.

    I like to give them a wraith crown, armor of invulnerability (or stone, or if i don't have earth I give them the chain mail of displacement) amulet of antimagic, pendant of luck, boots of quickness, charcoal shield and shadow brand.

    Cast soul vortex, mirror image, maybe mistform or holy avenger, and lay on in.

    -> Just an aside: Mandaha's are not even close to free. They have a gold cost of 600 which translates to 20 upkeep per turn when you account for sacredness.

    Doesn't Mandaha also autocast darkness at the beginning of combat? The description implies something like that so I added it to the DB under special abilities, but I could be wrong.

    	    	8.21.3 Blood Kings: Lanka vs. Mictlan

    -> Mictlans troops summons(and possibly commander summons, especially the one who generates free beast bats) are far superior to lankas imo, with jaguar fiends being flying, 3 attack, good stat sacreds with a reasonable cost. Mictlan is far better for a bless strategy due to its cheap and effective sacred troops and, while lanka is good(i personally like it) i dont think it can knock the blood crown off mictlans head.

    -> Hmmm, I'm coming at it from the other angle having played Mictlan extensively and just picking up Lanka. Just starting out with Lanka, but here are a couple things that I seem to be missing coming from Miclan.
    1) Bloodhunters are 50% more expensive
    2) Everybody complains, but I like dominion pushes through blood sacrifices with level 3 priests and easily forgable jade daggers.
    3) No easy way to spam "rain of toads". Priest king + armor of twisted thorns = very scalable ability to shut down enemy fortresses.
    4) Mictlan national summons ROCK. Haven't got the Lanka ones yet so can't really comment, but the Mictlan ones are hard to beat.
    5) No recruitable blood-3 mage (without hoping for lucky randoms). This is important because you need blood-4 to forge brazen vessles, and one empowerment is much more palletable than two. Plus, once you've got a brazen vessel with Mictlan, you can give it to a priest king, who forges an armor of twisted thorns, who gives that to another priest king, who forges an armor of twisted thorns, now the original forger gets an armor of twisted thorns in addition to the brazen vessel and can forge brazen vessels, etc. etc., so it is relatively cheap to get as many blood-5 mages as you care to (priest of the sun + 2 path boosters), and there are several very good blood-5 spells which are very suitable to spam casting (ritual of the five gates and infernal disease come to mind). Plus, your blood-5 mages can rejuvinate themselves so the old age issue isn't that bad.
    6) Flying sacreds. Eagle warriors have saved my bacon on numerous occasions.
    7) No easy way to summon Ice Devils (priest of rain + water braclet + brazen vessel)
    8) No easy way to send horrors (priest of moon + astral cap + brazen vessel)
    9) Less reliance on random pics. With Mictlan, I can adjust my strategy to what my opponent is doing. With Lanka, I'm more stuck using whatever happen to have with my random magic paths.

    -> Response:
    I'm definitely not extensively experienced in Mictlan, but I like them as much as I like any nation in the game (most enjoyment thus far - Yomi, EA/LA Mictlan, MA/LA Ermor, LA Rl'yeh).

    1. I tried to cover this above in the "bloodhunters of mictlan are cheaper but mictlan needs to spend blood in dominion maintenance" point. Not saying that mictlan spends 1/3 of its blood in dominion maintenance, but I've often spent 30+ slaves in sacrifice a round in 150 province games.
    2. Lanka can easily forge knives, and if they want to sacrifice then level 2 priests with jade knives in temples that do spread dominion are pretty much the same as level 3 priests in non-functional temples.
    3. See point 5.
    4. Mictlan national summons do rock - I love the Tlahuelpuchi and Civeteto as assassins and leader/reanimators respective, and the Onaqui is great. So do Lanka's summons, however, albeit benefitting more from defensive than offensive blesses. And Lankan high end summons are remarkably good SCs, able to cast Mistform and Mirror Image, being sacred, and one possessing Blood Vengeance while the other automatically shrouds the battlefield in Darkness while possessing a fatiguing aura. I've taken out 100+ unit armies with a single Dakini with a snake ring, snake bladder stick, horned helm, and vine shield (funded by an early game mother oak, in turn funded by an early game push to skull mentors - an option that Mictlan generally lacks unless they get lucky with their national hero, since your pretender will likely be imprisoned for the best bless).
    5. I made a similar point above re: Mictlan's magic being in general more predictable, but this particular example doesn't hold water. Armor of Thorns requires a little more luck, but it's definitely doable. All it takes is a bramble mace (forged by a Yogini, guaranteed nature 2) and either a lucky BBB Rakshasi or an empowered BB Rakshasi (not particularly rare, roughly 50% of all Rakshasi are at least BB), which is the same thing you do with Priest Kings. Then your assembly line is up and rolling, and the random picks which were annoying in fact now potentially give you anywhere from N4 to B4 with Armor of Thorns alone, without empowering or further items.
    6-8. Lanka's national rank and file summons are pretty heavy brawlers and can do quite well all the way up, and their B6 national is a flying AAABBBDHH with Blood Vengeance for 50 blood. I'm not saying that Ice Devils wouldn't be nice on top of that, but I didn't really miss them and wouldn't use many of them in preference to the Dakini.
    9. I think you're overestimating the difficulty this causes - it has pros and cons, like everything. But since they can get past the Armor of Thorns/Brazen Vessel/Blood Thorn horizon without any real difficulty, it's not a stumbling block on their road to blood dominance.

    I want Mictlan to be the best at blood, and I'm certainly not super experienced in either nation. Initially, however, Lanka seems like it has too much blood power for the other things it has.

    -> Yeah, I played Lanka a bunch yesterday (studying up for a new MP game), and I¿ve got a much better handle on them now.

    1) At least the way I play them, Mictlan will always have significantly more blood slaves for two reasons. First, as previously mentioned the blood hunters are 50% less expensive, this makes a big difference when you¿re focusing on blood and plan to be paying upkeep on lots of blood hunters and maximizing the amount of provinces you can use for blood hunting (as in don't have much income). Secondly all the other units are much less expensive. Obviously this is a trade off as you¿re getting pretty good units for your gold, but every game I¿m playing Lanka I¿m strapped for gold as I always want more brawlers, more of the very expensive (non-sacred, high upkeep) random path mages to increase my path coverage, more of the expensive demon kings to lead my demons, etc (you didn¿t want to reanimate corpses did you?). Not only are you balancing the spending of new gold, but also the upkeep cost for Lanka I find is much higher. This cuts not only into how many/how fast you deploy blood hunters, but also how many provinces you can devote to blood hunting. Again, this is more the way I play it than anything else, but I find Lanka is harder to really focus on blood hunting because of the opportunity cost. At the end of the day though, even if everything else was equal you¿ll have 50% more blood hunters with Mictlan.

    2) I don¿t think Lanka can blood sacrifice, can they? If they can I must have totally missed that.

    3) Lanka¿s national summons are indeed pretty good, probably about par with Mictlan¿s. I might give an edge to Mictlan on the low end summons as flying sacreds is a nice complement to their forces and solidly help against Jaguar warrior counters, while Lanka¿s low end summons don¿t really add a lot to their versatility (wohoo, more brawlers!). High end summons are probably comparable in power¿gotta love that blood vengeance!

    4) I maintain my point about Mictlan having an advantage due to not having to rely on random pics for the simple reason of economics. Again, this may change with my play style, but I found I had no problem having the paths I needed with Lanka but the tradeoff was that I spent a decent amount of money on expensive, high upkeep mages. With Mictlan, you recruit exactly what you need, no waste, and everybody is sacred so your upkeep stays low. When you¿re really focusing on maximizing your blood economy it¿s vital that you pinch every penny you can. With Mictlan I regularly end up with probably 80-100% of the territories between 5k-10k set to blood hunting, with Lanka I can¿t come anywhere near that much blood hunting before the rest of my economy stalls from upkeep and a few necessary purchases per turn.

    5) One other thing not directly related to blood magic, but very useful nonetheless for guarding your blood hunters is that Mictlan gets Jaguar warriors for PD over 20. If you¿ve got a good bless (which you better with Mictlan) this can be an amazingly effective surprise landmine. 30-40 PD aint cheap, but I¿ve wiped out some surprisingly large invading armies with it when they weren¿t expecting any resistance (and had no jaguar counters). And you guessed it¿no upkeep. Makes it easy to defend high risk blood hunting sites when somebody tries to take out your blood slave flow.

    Again, I¿m really enjoying Lanka and they¿ve got some significant advantages, but in my mind from a pure blood point of view Mictlan is hands down a better nation because of the economics. When focusing on blood, it all comes down to economics since you¿re essentially trading gold for blood slaves so Mictlan¿s much lower overhead maintains their title as undisputed best blood nation.

    -> Response:
    1. Granted about the 50% more expensive Lankan bloodhunters - it is a fact. My point is that you're not getting 50% more usable bloodslaves for magical uses since a significant portion of them will go to dominion upkeep / expansion, which is an ongoing cost (10-15% sound like a good conservative estimate?) for Mictlan while temples are a one time cost for Lanka. So, while gross bloodslave production in Mictlan should be roughly 50% higher, net bloodslaves gained is somewhat less than that (assuming 10% sacrificial use, Mictlan would be left roughly with 35% more bloodslaves).

    Furthermore, with Skull Mentors (and an inherent Death income, and mages to search for death sites, which even a heroed-up Mictlan lacks prior to Blood 6) Lanka can do more research with fewer mages much earlier than Mictlan, leaving more of your mage pool free to blood hunt. The percentage bonus this gives is entirely up to the user, and should even out after the Mictlan death enabled pretender wakes up or your empower your first Tlahuelpuchi to make Skull Staves and Skull Mentors, but it's a much longer road to Blood 6 then Construction 4 than it is Construction 4, adding Skull Mentors, and then reaching Blood 6.

    I should point out that Lanka has no non-sacred random path mages - an oversight above.

    Finally, not having your mages worry about aging means both no gold replacement costs and/or no blood expenditures on boots of youth/reinvigoration. Replacing a single Moon Priest will pay for the initial cost difference between the nations' bloodhunters 5 times over and have enough left over to pay the difference in upkeep for those 5 Lankan hunters for 2 months. Later, Boots of Youth are a more cost efficient solution - but at the cost of 10 blood and a wasted mage turn. Crippling? By no means. But still a Lankan edge to narrow the early-mid game gap.

    It's the Tlahuelpuchi, though, I think reifies Mictlan's mid-late economic bloodhunting advantage. Once you can summon them in bulk, and no longer need them to run your Skull Mentor machine, they become exceptionally efficient bloodhunters. My thanks to the guy who praised the bloodhunting skills of Vampire Counts in LA Ulm in my Marignon / Abyssia post (Frank Tollman? I forget) for making me realize that about Tlahuelpuchi.

    2. Nope, you're right... my bad, I thought Lanka could blood sacrifice. I never did it, but I thought it was listed. I am blatantly wrong on that one.

    3. I like Lanka's low end summons, particularly the Rakshasa Warriors (available at level 4, the same time Mictlan gets its Jaguar Fiends). They, like the higher resource cost sacreds of the Lankan nation, benefit very well from an E9/N9 bless approach, and allow you to shift your resource limited troops away from brawlers and into longbowmen, who are just brutal in general and the more so in a nation with this much air magic flying around. Granted, you'll have to carry some wine bags/etc to feed large mixed armies, but you have the paths to pull that off no problem.

    Even given my lack of experience in the game, I would confidently state that Lanka's high end summons are notably more powerful tactically than Mictlan's, which tend to have one or more strategic advantages. Lanka's national summons are the only true non-pretender SCs I've seen besides Gift of Reasoned Vastnesses and Niefel/Yomi capital only commanders, and certainly 50 blood for such a creature is too light. Onaqui are nowhere near as dangerous in combat, although their freespawns once more underline the excellent strategic advantages Mictlan's national summons.

    In the end, though, I think you've helped me reach a conclusion I am more comfortable with. Mictlan remain the kings of the mid-late pure blood economy with regards to bulk output and the big picture. Lanka, however, may still be too close to Mictlan's blood potency given their non-blood synergies (better recruitable troops in the form of bulk longbowmen and superheavy sacred infantry, better non-blood capital only summons, additional 40 points at creation for Heat 2 preference instead of Heat 1... yeah I know it's not an unmitigated advantage, but it's an advantage nonetheless) and easier startup (the superheavy E9/N9 blessed infantry slices through indeps like butter, while you need FWS9 to replicate that with Jaguars).

    -> The position of Lanka vs Mictlan as 'blood king' is I think really close, and all things being equal they couple probably ramp up similar level blood economies.

    Which is more powerful on a whole though, is a more interesting question. In this, I think it's pretty clear Lanka has the edge. Mictlan's sacreds are cheaper, but with the scales they take, they really have to be to afford them. Lanka sacreds tend to have a much lower casualty rate in the early game, and can threaten high prot SCs much better (Mictlan's work better vs high defense, but that tends to be less important). But what really blows Mictlan out of the water is Lanka's wildly powerful reanimation as opposed to capturing slaves with tribal kings.

    Both methods provide about all the patrol fodder you could want, but with reanimation you have something that 1. costs no upkeep 2. will not route in battle 3. does not use population 4. has better armor and damage potential in battle. Even ignoring sacreds, reanimated swarms backed with decent battle magic is a scary force by itself.

    Lanka also has somewhat better access to magical diversity, including the very handy air path.

    Lastly, if for some reason they ever need to buy anything besides sacreds, reanimating priest, and mages, the bandar longbows certainly put Mictlan's non-sacred troops to shame.

    On the issue of Mictlan with bad scales being a liability, I really have to disagree. With high base dom (for sacred production) it is very hard to dom die if you are paying attention.

    To sum it up, both nations are extremely powerful (could easily be classed as overpowered, infact) but Mictlan's power is in some ways limited when compared with Lanka's across-the-board insanity.
    Reply With Quote

    -> Response:
    Points against you:

    1. Mictlan has five paths (astral nature blood fire water) to Lanka's four (blood air death nature), so I think the magical diversity award has to go to Mictlan, the moreso because the national summons of Lanka have the same paths while Mictlan adds Death through its nationals.

    2. I do like reanimation of random undead monkeys with the Lankan priests (forget the name, picks are BHH?), although at 160 gold a pop I recognize that Mictlan can get equally good reanimators maintenance free in the form of the Civateteo. That is, I grant you, available quite a bit later on in the game, but Mictlan still has it.

    Neutral Observations

    1. I'm not morally opposed to Lanka being stronger than Mictlan, however, while I am opposed to Lanka being better at blood magic.

    2. I also prefer for the clarity of the argument that you not bring in "the scales they take" for Mictlan - I'm not an authority, but some people with experience have come into other posts I've had and argued for mixed blesses (Smoking Mirror F9W4B4D4, for example) which leave room for a decent economy. Scales/blesses are choices, not racial attributes; while some work better than others for particular nations, I hope we haven't come to believe that there's one best way to play a particular nation (at least, that would make me sad, since the wide open range of options is what I like so much about the game).

    Points for You:
    1. On the power front, I can't really get my head around how Lanka deserves Longbowmen on top of everything else it gets. I'd never played with a nation with Longbowmen before Lanka, and their ability to shatter opposing archers was a pleasant surprise to me (not to mention the way the computer often positions commanders near enough to archer units to be wiped out in the deviation fire).

    2. I find the durability of properly blessed Lankan heavy infantry absolutely shocking. They never get tired, never retreat, and never seem to die.
    Reply With Quote

    -> Response to response:

    Quote:
    Aleph said:

    1. Mictlan has five paths (astral nature blood fire water) to Lanka's four (blood air death nature), so I think the magical diversity award has to go to Mictlan, the moreso because the national summons of Lanka have the same paths while Mictlan adds Death through its nationals.

    Magical diversity is in some sense better for Mictlan, but Lanka has better access to cross-path spells, and has a critical bit of diversity Mictlan lacks: Death and Air. One of Mictlan's biggest handicaps is the difficulty of getting undead/demonic leadership, particularly on a flying commander. Lanka has no problem with this, national demon or undead commanders with boots of flying let you lead all the demon raid forces you could want. So, perhaps a better way of stating it would have been to say they have a better magical selection. Air and Death certainly allow more useful things, particularly for a blood nation, than Water and Fire- in addition bless pretenders tend to bring Water, Fire and often Astral access anyway.
    Quote:

    2. I do like reanimation of random undead monkeys with the Lankan priests (forget the name, picks are BHH?), although at 160 gold a pop I recognize that Mictlan can get equally good reanimators maintenance free in the form of the Civateteo. That is, I grant you, available quite a bit later on in the game, but Mictlan still has it.

    An expensive summoned commander that can reainimate doesn't even begin to hold candle to Lanka's skeleton hordes. The same commanders that work great for research and blood hunting can, at flip of a switch, start producing 100s of skeletons per turn as early as turn 25. Combined with incredible sacreds, even something as crazily powerful as Helhiem would be biting off a lot to try to fight them early. And by late game, gold recruitable reanimators can surpass even LE Ermor's undead armies.
    Quote:

    1. I'm not morally opposed to Lanka being stronger than Mictlan, however, while I am opposed to Lanka being better at blood magic.

    Quite the opposite for me, I don't care at all whoever has a slight edge in blood magic, it's the balance of the game on a whole that concerns me.
    Quote:

    2. I also prefer for the clarity of the argument that you not bring in "the scales they take" for Mictlan - I'm not an authority, but some people with experience have come into other posts I've had and argued for mixed blesses (Smoking Mirror F9W4B4D4, for example) which leave room for a decent economy. Scales/blesses are choices, not racial attributes; while some work better than others for particular nations, I hope we haven't come to believe that there's one best way to play a particular nation (at least, that would make me sad, since the wide open range of options is what I like so much about the game).

    One of my favorite ways to play, even in MP, is to take unusual blesses just to see if I can make them work. It's a lot of fun, but the vast majority of bless setups just aren't very optimal. The one you mentioned does seem better than most, but in the case of Mictlan a bless almost as extreme as possible is very hard to top for optimization. Regardless, it is certianly safe to say Lanka is not forced down the bless path as rigidly as Mictlan, having many other powerful areas to focus on (and lacking the special dominions spread that further optimizes extreme blesses for Mictlan).
    Quote:

    1. On the power front, I can't really get my head around how Lanka deserves Longbowmen on top of everything else it gets. I'd never played with a nation with Longbowmen before Lanka, and their ability to shatter opposing archers was a pleasant surprise to me (not to mention the way the computer often positions commanders near enough to archer units to be wiped out in the deviation fire).

    As Huzzur points out, this is really the least of their advantages, given they have so many other greatly powerful things to pour gold into.

    -> I didn't find the Tlahuelpuchi all that expensive (25 blood is a notable expense, maybe 3 provinces, but not a heavy one for a blood economy, and it has no maintenance, while 160 gold might be 2 provinces with maintenance), but I can see some of your point - that gold recruitable reanimators are pretty potent as an early game weapon, and might be what tips Lanka from powerful to most dominant.

    Let's leave LA Ermor out of this - the majority of your Lankan bloodhunters /researchers are going to be the 90 gold H1 priests, since the research differences with the H2 160 gold models are negligible when both are carrying skull mentors whereas the price is notably different, and the 90 gold is still more efficient at research on a cash-per-point basis. LA Ermor has all the H1 gold recruitable priests it wants to summon soulless in the wake of battle/domain kill, and it cares less about the downsides of ghouling your population as well (since it's not triple dipping for ghouls/blood/gold). While in the extreme late game (once a good gold/research conversion is no longer important) Lanka could readily have more people capable of summoning Longdead infantry than LA Ermor (although overcoming the domain summons as well is a high bar), Ermor's national priests can summon Longdead Horsemen, and their temples/forts summon Ermorian uniques, who are a vastly different level of useful.

    I'm not playing MP, so the balance issues aren't so bothersome to me, and while Lanka is rock-hard it seems that EA already has a lot of radical power fluctuations (most of the Heims, for example). But one of the things I love about Dominions is how thoroughly it realizes certain concepts, such as "the undead nation" or "the Cthulhu nation" to an extent unseen in other games. Lanka intruding on Mictlan's brand identity of "blood nation", or Ermor's identity as "undead nation", threatens that aspect of the game's appeal. Therefore the framing of the original post, and therefore the defense of ermor.

    Aside - Longbowmen, likely not such a big deal in MP. When you take out badly placed spellcasters in your deviation fire from archers in SP, pretty valuable.

    	    	8.21.4 Beginner's guide to Lanka

    Lanka: Demon monkeys for the masses

    Overview:

    Lanka is a nation of monkeys, like Patala etc., but instead of silly Gandharvas and stuff they get bushels of demons. Kewl.

    Troops:

    First off, Lanka get three sizes of monkeys. Each size comes in two flavours: archer or infantry. They all count as animals, making them useless at sieging enemy forts.

    Marketa: These guys are usable against large units with little or no armour, but that's about it. They're too weak to get through even medium armour, even though their good defence means they're survivable in melee and their small size means they'll get hits in. They'll crumble against archery of any quality.

    Atavi: Think of Atavi infantry as a slight improvement on militia and the archers as slightly cheaper indy archers. They have stealth, which could make them raiders, but they're less effective than many nations' PD.

    Bandar: Great big apes with some strong points - the archers get longbows, which is pretty darn good for EA even with 9 precision. The infantry are heavy infantry with no helmets and bucklers. They have Str 15 and 18 HP, which may make up for their vulnerability to archers. Problem is, Bandar cost a hefty 20 gold each.

    All monkey infantry get an interesting secondary weapon: Sticks and Stones. These have a damage and precision penalty, but... they also have 2 attacks and 30 ammunition! In the hands of the Bandar infantry, they're probably better than shortbows and I'd rate them well above javelins.

    Next up are the sacreds.

    Kala-Mukha Warriors are elite sacred heavy infantry. High strength and a Falchion mean they'll punch through any armour and frequently kill the armour's occupant. They have good EA armour and a helmet, which helps when arrows get past their measly buckler. 50% darkvision means you won't mind using them in the late game, and they're not demons - this is actually rather useful in Lanka sacreds. And they're recruitable anywhere, to boot. 65 gold and 20 resources are a heavy price to pay for these guys, but you may well end up biting the bullet.

    You also get 3 capital-only sacred demon recruitables:

    Asara are unarmoured demons with a apear and javelins. With 20 range and 8 precision, the javelins have pretty negligible effect unless you mass silly numbers of Asara together. Don't bother to do this. The spear they use isn't exactly the world's best weapon either, by the way.

    Anusara (heh-heh, you said 'anus', dude ) are also unarmoured, but have a nice chunky mace to complement their high strength. These are safer than you might think against archers, because they have 20 AP (melee range is reached quickly) and a buckler that will take the edge off arrow salvoes.

    Palankasha, the third capital sacred, are very nice. Strong, heavy armour, falchion... shame about the buckler and no helmet, but these guys are still very survivable. They can one-hit kill humans through most EA armour, and take a good deal of punishment on the way. With a couple of stars under their belt, you'd be hard-pushed to find a better sacred troop in the EA.

    Leaders:

    Marketa scouts are pretty funky, with a massive +40 stealth to help them along.

    Atavi chieftains have stealth +0, which is their only benefit over indy commanders.

    You're unlikely to recruit the other two pure commanders, to be honest.

    Raktapata are a nice B1H1 priest, making them your blood hunter of choice. That's about the limit of their abilities, though.

    Yogini should be your primary researchers. They're about as efficient as anything else you can recruit, and they have good paths too. The D1 lets you spam Dark Knowledge to find Death sites and N2 lets you do the same with Nature. This may be important, as you don't have reliable access to D2+ or N3+ for manual site searching. A booster or two lets these guys do the grunt work of Blood summoning instead of a Raksharaja or Rakshasi, too. And the final reason you should hire lots of these is that once you're done researching every single Yogini you've ever hired can be put to work spamming Storm of Thorns on the battlefield.

    Kala-Mukha are a workhorse priest. H2 lets them summon Longdead, and 1 in 4 get B2 and can cast Bowl of Blood. They can blood hunt in a pinch, and of course they'll spread your Dominion as and when you need it.

    You get two capital-only sacred commanders, too:

    Rakshasi have nice magical diversity, but in-depth access to any path is unlikely. They have a second shape which can use the Seduce command, letting them act as assassins if you need that function. Sadly, being a jack of all trades means they aren't very good at any of these functions. And they cost 350 gold, too. You'll end up buying these if you want N3 or D3, because they're the only way you'll see that on a national unit.

    Rakharaja are likely to be your preferred capital purchase. A2D1B2?1(ADB) means they'll all have a useful spell or two to cast. Their 10% chance of an ANDB random means you might get an A4 or B4 mage in time to be useful, too.

    Summons:

    Lanka get a host of national Blood summons. Most of them are pretty useful, too.

    Rakshasa are like slow Anusara, and there are normally better uses of Blood Slaves.

    Praghasa (Feast of Flesh) are only a little superior to the likes of the Anusara. However, you get to summon them in groups of 15. If you need numbers in a hurry, these can be very handy.

    Asrapas are only a bit better than humans, stat-wise, and don't seem to gel well with your other sacred units. Their partial life drain athame helps a little, but probably not enough to make them look worthwhile. However, they are berserkers. Put a few in a squad of other troops, and you won't have nearly so many morale problems.

    Rakshasa warriors are likely to be a staple. Good stats, body armour and a great big maul make them a force to be reckoned with in combat. By the time you have these, their vulnerability to arrows (no shield or helmet) may not be much of a problem anyway.

    Sandhyabala are lovely. Armour, buckler, great in a fight, and Dark Power to boot. Dark Power is a big deal, by the way, for reasons you'll see later.

    Davanas. Giants with 4 arms and 92 hp. I need hardly say more. These guys are the business, really. They are a bit costly though, at 75 slaves for 3. It's a price worth paying, as they GoR up to make a nice SC chassis.

    Most Lanka summons have fire vulnerability, which can upset you against some nations. It's worth planning ahead to deal with this, so that Abysia and the other fire powers don't give you a reaming.

    National Summon Commanders:

    Dakini are going to be a staple. At A3D1B3, they've got better magic than Raksharajahs - they can all cast Thunder Strike and the like. They're also zero upkeep, which will be a benefit.

    Samanishada are nicely equipped assassins, but that's all they are. You have other options for thuggery, so there's not much reason to summon them.

    Mandaha on the other hand are going to be popular. They auto-cast Darkness, which is pretty nifty to start with. Any of your undead and demonic hordes with one of these guys in the area is going to have a huge advantage over mundane troops. They are at least a thug quality chassis (flight, nearby enemies get fatigued), and have A3D3B2 for casting buffs on themselves. Soul Vortex is a nice starter, for example. They have 100% fire vulnerability, so you will want several booster items. NB: Mandaha have an upkeep of 20. Summon a lot and you'll want to make sure you have a decent income.

    NB: It appears that Solar Brilliance doesn't work near Mandaha, which is just icing on the cake if it's true. It certainly fits with the flavour text.

    Pretender Design:

    You're likely to want a bless for Lanka. Earth, Nature and Water are the usual candidates, and splashing Astral might be worthwhile to protect against Banish. Your sacreds are good enough to warrant a strong bless, and most choices will be pretty effective. I like to go with E9W9, for a variety of reasons. N9 is risky in the late game, when a Rain of Stones could send all your lovely sacred battle mages haring off into the teeth of the enemy. N9W9 is IMHO bad news, with berserk hasted demons hitting 50 fatigue after 6 rounds of combat. E9N9 is okay (barring unexpectedly berserk mages), but I think you get better combat power with E9W9. Also, it diversifies you into two useful magic paths you wouldn't have otherwise.

    W9E6N6(and maybe even S6) might be an option, too. It can be done with a rainbow pretender, but isn't eactly cheap.

    As for scales, something like Order, Sloth, Heat, Growth, Misfortune, Drain. Order is a definite benefit in the early and mid game, possibly even late game because you need slightly less provinces to keep your income up (and can therefore blood hunt more). Heat is a requirement, and Growth is a big boost for sustainable long-term blood hunting. The other negative scales are survivable - even Drain, since you don't need as much research as other nations in the early game. You have a bless instead...

    You'll want a minimum of 6 dominion, and a maximum of whatever you think you can afford.

    Magic:

    Lanka has access to only one elemental path: Air. Fortunately, that's the path any nation who's largest shield is a buckler really wants. You will generally have mages who can cast Arrow Fend available where you want them - after all, you can Cloud Trapeze. Buffs are limited in Air, but the ones you get are stonking - Arrow Fend I've already mentioned, Wind Guide is great for your archers, and Fog Warriors is just wonderful. Mass Flight has it's place, as does Storm.

    In sorcery, you get great access to Blood and good access to Nature, with enough access to Death to get you ramping up to cast Lichcraft. Nature can get you nice things like Mass Regeneration - don't go relying on Wooden Warriors etc., because you don't really want to give your troops an extra 25% fire vulnerability on top of what they have already. It's just asking for trouble.

    Research goals are always going to depend on circumstance, but...

    Blood 4 gets you Rakshasa Warriors and therefore a big supply of quality sacreds.

    Blood 8 gets you Mandaahas and Davanas.

    Con 4 gets you Skull Mentors, Skull Staffs, and Air and Blood boosters. Importantly, it gets you Sanguins Dowsing Rods.

    Con 6 gets you Robes of the Magi, which are powerful trade fodder and important boosters. Also, if you have any fire income at this point it can turn into Lightless Lanterns and boost your research.

    Evo 4 gives you Thunder Strike.

    Ench 6 provides Arrow Fend.

    Alt 4 supplies Wind Guide.

    Goals:

    You'll have goals and strategies in the short and long-term. Here are some suggested ones.

    Early Game:
    Buy squads of Anusara with Kala-Mukha leaders - script the Anusara to Hold and Attack and the Kala-Mukha to (bless)(bless)Cast Spells. You can put out one of these every turn or two initially, and they should take most regular indie forces. Your starting forces can be put on patrol orders to get you more taxes if you want - they won't do you much good if you send them to attack indies.

    Get a second castle ASAP. If you're taxing and patrolling, that'll be easier. Otherwise, sacrifice a turn or two's troop production.

    Once you can afford it, shift to making Palankasha as you may need them against a neighbour. Be careful about all-out wars though, as taking enemy forts can be tricky.

    Mid-game:

    Once you're established, you'll want to diversify your magic paths. This isn't too difficult, as what you'll need is Earth, Water, Fire and Astral. The elemental paths can all be found on Enchantresses, who live in Nature sites. Therefore, make sure to do thorough site searching in Nature early on. Use Yogini and Haruspex, and you'll find all the level 3 and 4 sites as you go.
    Getting Astral is as easy as finding a Crystal Amazon or Lizard province. Hire a couple of S1 mages, start site searching and then once you have an Astral income start with the Arcane Probings to find all the interesting stuff.

    When possible, do a complete search for Blood sites. The sites that give you a 40% or 60% discount off Blood spells will repay your investment within a couple of turn's use even if you've spent over 100 slaves on Bowl of Blood castings.

    If you have an E9 pretender, get into searching for Earth sites ASAP. You might not find a use for the gems... until you cast a great big global, that is. If you can get a Forge up with a few hundred gems in it because you couldn't do much else with them, so much the better.

    Assuming you've found Enchantresses, start clamming. You'll find a use for the pearls sooner or later.

    You can blood hunt with 3 Raktapata (each with a Dowsing Rod) in a province at 0% taxation indefinitely, without running out of population. It may even grow.

    Late Game:

    Start slaughtering Blood Slaves in their hundreds. You'll want lots of demons. Try to be the first to Heliophagii - you can't summon Arch Demons and Ice Demons easily. One of the Heliophagii will get you a chance at Arch Devils if no-one else took them, which is nice.
    You can cast Infernal Tempest with only a couple of boosters. Storm Demons are among the best archers in the game, and can fire straight through storms, Air Shields and other obstacles. Get lots of them.

    In fact, get lots of all the demons. Eventually, swamp the world with your demonic hordes. Then you've won.

    Maybe I should have called this guide 'Monkeys? What monkeys?'

    	8.22 Machaka

    	    	8.22.1 An assortment of tips

    -> One thing to go for with Machaka is Flaming Arrows, Enchantment 4, a potentially devastating spell that makes missile weapons cause fire damage. Machaka has both cheap national archers that are easy to mass, and mages that can cast the spell.

    -> Regular sorcerers are your best researchers, I think. I select those with 2 fire to be my combat mages. You can research Evocation3 for Fireball, then Fire Cloud and Falling Fires. You're going to need Phoenix Power for the last 2 spells (Conjuration... 3?). Both spells are great against swarms.

    I research early Alteration spells for access to Barskin and Eagle Eye.
    Once I'm starting to use Black Sorcerers, I research Stoneskin and Ironskin. If enemy uses lightly armored units,black sorcerors can cast Summon Earthpower and Blade Wind.

    -> I found a combo of massed archers plus machakan hoplites pretty useful.

    	    	8.22.2 Machaka screwed thread

    		-> Original message:

    It's fairly obvious that Machaka was implemented as an afterthought. I mean, it has curiously high number of units with one sentence description. Machaka is where all worst Dominions design decisions were dumped.
    I think it actually got worse in Dominions3.

    I played Machaka yesterday a bit, and soon learned to respect Atavi Infantry. Bandar Log's stone/stick throwers cause much pain to light machakan infantry, which has only shields. I dare not to think what would Blade Wind do to them.
    Hoplites are nice, but mostly nice compared to other Machaka units, and you still need Productivity to use them. But their shields are rather unimpressive, and they're slow.
    Light infantry is really sad (except for massable shortbows), which wouldn't be that bad... but that's all you start with, and almost all you get for Province Defence.
    Spider riders and knights - would be nice, except for gold cost of 50. Spider Riders are esentially 50 gold light infantry... with curious ability to fire shortbows at 10 precision. It doesn't matter with price this high. Spider Knights are perhaps worse: I don't like units which need to die to reach their full potential. Spider Knights are neither cannon fodder nor cost-effective cavalry. Additionally, all spiders are big and easy to gang on. Web spit would be quite useful tactically, but not on 50 big, 50 gold units; you can put many archers in small room, but not spiders.
    Black Hunters... 120 gold sacred unit ? Nature seems a must just to stop aflictions. Air to stop crossbows. Perhaps astral to keep mages from ganging up too easily. And then I certainly need Fire, because their attacks have quite low Attack for something so few in numbers.
    I have to admit mages are mostly nice, especially their magic variety. But one thing that bothers me is that Black Sorcerers and Sorceresses (ones that transform into spiders) got old age ! Sorcerer is 60/40, and sorceress around 46/48. What's the special ability of God Mountain spellcasters ? Ah yes, spider transformation when seriously wounded. Which is a survival ability. It doesn't make them any more powerful, just grants them a chance to survive stray arrows or harpies. Something they sorely need without Air magic or Sacred status. Now, designers of Dominions3 basically took that survival power away, because you're soon to die from old age anyway. Why should I pay for Growth just to benefit from marginally useful survival ability ? What's worse, old age on Sorcerers results in -1 hp. With just 9 hp, it's even harder to survive long enough to count as 'seriously wounded'
    God Mountain mages aren't even best researchers. Black Sorcerer is 8 research for 250 money and not sacred, but with 60/40 age (currentage/maxage). Regular Sorcerer is 7 research for 190 momey. Not too bad for Machaka.
    ------

    To summariz my rant:

    - light infantry of sub-Mictlan quality. Terrible province defence. If you complained about Markatas, machakan infantry is something they can easily kill. With so bad province defence you'd be expected to press attack, I guess, but with what ? Certainly not your starting army. Is Machaka 'insert SC to continue' nation ? Satyrs kick their asses.

    - hoplites and cheap archers are usable, but nothing to get excited over. Hoplites are sloow, and their forest survival adds insult to the injury, because they only get 'food bonus' in forests, not better mobility. Too slow to get anywhere.

    -Following units are full of self-contradictions:
    all spiders: high damage physical attack with added poison is bad. No synergy at all.

    spider riders: much too expensive to use as archers for their exraodinary (for l.cav) 10 precision. Much too big, too short-ranged and too expensive to slow advancing enemies with web.

    spider knights: just like blood9, it assumes you want your units to die. Otherwise, it's just too big and much too expensive heavy cavalry.

    black hunter: everything that is true for spider knights is also true for black hunters, but worse.

    mages from God Mountain: Kristoffer(?) made them more survivable with spider transformation, but realized it's too poweful ability for capitol-only non-sacred mages so they need a serious debuff. They're battle-survivable and fragile at the same time.

    spidar warriors:
    7 encumbrance 5(!!!) defence stealthy heavy infantry for 30g/36r.

    I realize I should make use of their excellent priests (+10 stealth Ear, +15 patrol Eye) and varied mages, but everything else just sucks. Well, maybe Bane Spiders don't, but not for such price.
    It would seem I need order3 productivity3 Growth3 + SC to play Machaka...And milk my provinces to death with 15 patrol priests. And lots of Air magic battle pretender to stop arrows from obliterating my army&mages.

    -> Comments:
    A.
    Black Sorcerers are 60/46.
    Sorceresses are 45/48.

    AFAIK, the ages of the Machakan mages are automatically calculated. Human, lots of magic, etc probably equals 60 years. Human, Fire magic, etc probably equals to 46. Black Sorcerers have a 1/4 chance of getting Nature 1, which increases their maxage enough to make them not-old. They also have a 1/4 chance of a Death pick, which makes them more resistant to old age. What you SHOULD complain with their old age is the fact that it bestows them +2 encumberance... but then, they only start with 2, which is better than all humans and most other nations.

    Sorceresses don't usually start old. Startage of commanders is a bit random, but while some may start old, just as many should start with 6 instead of 3 years until the start of their old age. They also have Death magic, again, making them more resistant to the effects of the old age.

    Great Hide Shields are much worse than most shields for protecting the wielder... but with a parry of 6, they are very good at deflecting arrows. Only parry affects that. Tower Shields have parry 7, Great Hide Shields of the Hoplites have 6, and lower encumberance and defence penalty too.

    And about those cheap archers, and uselessness of Black Sorcerers... Flaming Arrows. Machaka is a Fire nation with cheap archers. Unlike Marignon, they can forge cheap Fire boosters (Skull of Fire). And Marignon's (and Abysia's, who doesn't even get native archers) mages are old, too, but suffer from it more than Machaka's, because they won't get any Nature or Death. And again, unlike Marignon, Machaka's infantry has shields, and good shields at that.

    B.
    1. their mages have excellent battlefield magic
    2. growth 3 and you won't have too many affliction problems because of old age
    3. their mages can cast flaming arrows
    4. their sacreds might cost a lot [again with good scales this is not a big problem], but if the rider dies you will still have the spider. So basically its 2 units in 1.
    They should work very well with bless combo / good scales, especially in raids.

    C.
    Also many of the Black Sorcerers can cast Twiceborn, all with a Skull Staff. That helps mitigate the age problem.
    As said, excellent battle magic: Blade wind, Magma Eruption, Flaming Arrows.
    Black Sorcerers with Fire Shield & Invulnerability make good thugs. That's what their spider form is for. If they had a change shape command they'd be brutal.
    As for units, Spider Knights are pretty robust and once you've got a bunch of them, the web becomes surprisingly effective.
    Dual bless Black Hunters are also impressive. Fire/Earth works well for the Hunters, Fire/Nature once the rider dies.
    I wouldn't worry about arrows, they've got either good protection or lots of hp. The low MR of the spider form is their biggest problem. They weren't affordable in Dom2, but with the extra money in Dom3...
    Blessed Hunter Lords make good thugs as well. The spider form of the Black Sorcerers is sacred too, but I've never been able to get them blessed reliably.

    D.
    Imho Machaka is weaker than in Dom2.
    Some major changes disadvantage them a lot. Some of them were mentioned already, but i will list all changes that imho hurt them in a summary.
    -Fever Fetish nerf
    In Dom2 Machaka was really good at hoarding fever fetishes.
    You used those gems mainly for flaming arrows and for FftS.
    -Flames from the Sky price increase
    The combo of fever fetish hoarding and spamming of flames from the sky was quite useful for Machaka in the lategame in Dom2.
    -Minor nerfs for fire battlemagic
    Fire battlemagic was slightly nerfed, at least the midgame spells like falling fires.
    In lategame you get pillar of fire though.
    In Dom2 Machaka was an average nation, imho fine. In Dom3 i would still rate them average, but they are slightly weaker than in Dom2.

    E.
    in strict game terms the fever fetish nerf isn't so bad. Recruit an indy commander and stick a fetish on him 9 turns. You'll pay about 50 gold all told for the 9 gems, which is less than 6 gold/gem - a great price.
    The real world micromanagement of a big pile of fetishes is of course utterly grotesque. From the micromanagement point of view, they should incapacitate a commander somehow rather than kill him. At the very least if a fetish kills somebody in a lab the fetish should go back to the lab. Actually, that would be a good rule for any noncombat death in a lab. If I forget to take a booster off a commander aging to death can't the undertakers take the magic items off the corpse?

    But, if I understand the fever fetish correctly, it doesn't even produce a gem every turn. Which leaves it even more nerfed. By far the worst of the gem producing items.

    I've run some short tests, and on commanders that get disease afflictions, it produces a gem nearly every turn. There does seem to be a start-up period where the commander is sick, but he isn't coughing up gems yet.

    Actually, I think its a very, very good gem producing item. I have been sticking them on great hawks (15hps), I get 10'ish fire gems out of it. Then I just repeat the process, over and over again.
    Nothing wrong with Machaka, its a powerful, fun nation to play

    F.
    Personnally the only problem I have with Machaka is the lack of death gems, which seem to be a site distribution problem (or just bad luck for me). I've noted playing Ermor and C'tis that I find many little death income sites with astral or water searches and the very good death gem sites only with d3 mages ; the d1 sites seem to be mostly battlefields giving just 1 gem. With Machaka you'll have lots of d1 mages, a small number of d2, only 1/40 black sorcerer d3, and you have no astral or water mages to find lifeless lakes etc..., what, coupled with no death gem capitol income makes death gems very rare (I've never found a death income site with a fire or earth search, don't know if some exist, I've found one or two dying forests with nature but they seem rare). So you have to hope having luck with Dark Knowledge, and DK cost 1 more gem than all other site detection spells, without a starting death income you won't be able to cast it a lot without alchemizing your other gems (and if you are unlucky you lose your rare death gems in the process without finding good sites). Don't know if I am cursed but in the 3 games I've played with Machaka I had less than 10 death gems income after 30 or so turns, each time with more than 30 provinces all explored d1 at least and some with dark knowledge, and you need a lot those gems for boosters as d2 is the minimum to make this path useful on the battlefield.

    Machaka has also the general "no air" weakness, a problem worse for nations with very light (weak against arrows) or very heavy (not cost effective against lightning) troops, the two kinds of troops Machaka have, but it's something that affect any non air nation. When there are anti-fire spells with water/earth, and when water magic is the easiest to develop, allowing all nations to use anti-cold spells/items, the only anti-shock / anti-arrows spells/items are in air magic, and air magic is ridiculously hard to develop with the boosters only forgeable at A4. The air nations are boosted by the new randoms system giving no way to all non air nations to have protective spells/items to counter wind guide or lightnings without an enchantress or crystal amazons province, or incredible amounts of gems for the empowerements (80 to have a mage able to cast thunder ward, 120 for arrow fend, 170 to start to forge air boosters... hum). I think it would be a good idea to add anti-arrows items/spells out of air magic, in example in fire ("arrow combustion"), an anti-shock version of "fire ward" accessible with two non-air path, or an air booster needing just a level 1 like the water one.

    Machaka has good access to Legions of Steel, which is a very effective anti-arrow spell. Lightning is a weakness, but I think it's good that most nations have weaknesses, and with Machaka able to field almost unlimited amounts of LoS'ed chaff (cheap warriors plus supply items), it's a pretty mild weakness. Lightning Machaka often means frying 1 or 2 10/3 warriors - big whoop.
    I agree Machaka would be far stronger with death gems. However, 27.5% of sorcerers, and all Dark Sorcerers, have D2, so D2 is easy to come by.

    The only units Machaka have that may benefit from LoS are hoplites and heavy spider riders, who are already good against arrows. Units with only natural protection like spiders without riders are not affected, as well as the machaka archers and the light infantries without armor.
    Also only 1/4 BS has D2, they have F2E2D1 + 1?.

    H.
    About fire vs air, fire is of course more destructive, and may kill the ennemies faster if they just cast offensive air spells (air lack a big ae medium level spell as efficient as falling fires). But most air nation have also access to water 2 mages to cast rain, some may have earth+water for fire ward, and fire indie mages also seem more common than air mages. At high construction levels, any nation having a fire 1 mage can empower him death 1 and forge fire boosters, when a non air nation will need a level 4 mage to start to forge them. Air can finally strike at a very longer range before high levels (once the fire nation has access to spells like pillar of fire this advantage of course disappear ). Finally the kind of national troops Machaka has will suffer against air in mid game (Machaka hasn't medium troops able to survive well against arrows, and the heavy hoplites cost too much ressources if they are to be killed by lightnings, lots of indie infantry with shields will have to be recruited).

    At really high levels there are counters to counters, like the use of shock immune summons, earth-fire, death-fire or nature offensive spells, mass protection earth spells etc... But Machaka will have big difficulties if targeted before by an air nation.

    Air nations:

    EA/MA/LA Caelum all have Water
    EA Lanka: no Water
    MA/LA Man: no Water
    EA Vanheim/Helheim, MA/LA Vanheim: none have Water
    Pythium: yes, it has Water too
    EA Arcos: Water via Mystics' randoms, good chance of Water/Earth
    Tien Chi of all ages: stronger Water than Air
    LA Marignon: some Air and some Water
    Shinuyama/Jomon: Water, Air via randoms

    I don't think Air/Water is a common combination. However, as Rain only takes Water 1 caster, even a single random is enough.

    Hum yes, not all have water mages, but Man at least has water in the crone randoms (up to a very rare level 2), and Vanheim can have fire on dwarven smiths (and may even have fire 1 + death 1 on an exceptionnal one).

    	    	8.22.3 Machaka  a sorcerer¿s fevered arachnophobia

    		Article Author: Baalz

    			8.22.3.1 Preface:

    			This guide is written for the Conceptual Balance Mod, it seems like most games I¿m in lately are using it. You can use a lot of these ideas for vanilla games but the strategy verbatim won¿t work without CBM¿s changes. I also wanted to say this is a fairly advanced strategy I wouldn¿t really recommend for beginners, it requires a good amount of finesse and coordination of skills.

    Machaka is one of those nations you really want to like. Giant freaking spiders, I mean what¿s more fun that that theme? Unfortunately, they really struggle to be competitive for a number of reasons. For those bold enough to play a bit unconventionally though, the power of the sorcerers will have your enemies trundled up in a nice web awaiting you to get around to dinner.

    			8.22.3.2 No Black Hunters

    First, I need to dissuade you from the very flashy bait on your roster. Repeat after me  ¿I will not buy Black Hunters¿. Keep saying that until you think you can stick to it. These guys are just so cool you can¿t help but want to tank your entire strategy to field them, dumping massive points into a good bless and ruinous amounts of gold into recruiting them. This unit is, I think the prime culprit as to why Machaka is so seldom competitive. Cool as they are, they just don¿t work as the centerpiece of your strategy. When you start thinking about recruiting them, remind yourself for that price and being cap only they¿re competing roughly with neifel giants, much more expensive than Vans or Knights of the Chalice, and the comparison isn¿t even close. Their hitpoints are too low, they¿re size 6 so they get swarmed and this drastically reduces their damage output, their second form (riderless spider) doesn¿t benefit from the same bless as their first form and has a terrible MR and damage output, etc. etc. They are very cool, and there are some niches where they¿re useful (they *LOVE* elephant snacks), but I don¿t think it¿s possible to be very competitive with them as the centerpiece of your strategy.

    This leaves you with quite a problem though. The Black Hunters look like badasses, while everything else on your roster looks anemic. If we¿re not gonna use the hunters, what are we going to do? Well, my subtitle gives my angle away, you¿ve got to play this nation thematically. Your strength is in your sorcerers and your spiders.

    			8.22.3.3 What should you recruit? - Spider riders

    Since I just went on at length about not recruiting the hunters, you¿ve by now correctly guessed I¿m looking at the smaller giant brown spiders. Don¿t get confused, I¿m not talking about the spider riders, those are merely the chauffeurs who get your spiders to the fight. If you look at the 125 gold Black Hunter and compare it to the 30 gold spider rider you will correctly conclude that he¿s easily worth the 4 times cost he¿s priced at. What that fails to consider is the spider that you keep when the rider dies. 5 Black Hunters (a reasonable raiding squad) cost what 20 spider riders do and can likely do a better job than they can, but are they worth 20 giant spiders? Generally no, and the brown spiders don¿t require a blessing nor many resources and thus are even more drastically cheaper. 20 giant spiders is certainly a reasonable raiding squad.

    The spider riders have short bows, but for archery they¿re generally way too expensive to be useful in using them. There are some situations where you¿ll want to remember they have bows (attacking barbarian indies, casing flaming arrows) but by and large you¿ll want to script them to attack in melee. They¿ve got 0 protection and 10 hitpoints and are going to die in droves, which is exactly what you want. The great spider which you then get has 26 hitpoints and 14 protection  drastically more durable. And here¿s the sneaky part  spiders don¿t draw a salary. Once you¿ve got rid of that pesky rider you don¿t have to pay any upkeep for your swarms of spiders, and over time this will prove to be a dramatic advantage if you compose the bulk of your army from spiders.

    Now, here is the first thing we come to that requires finesse. These spiders are decent, but you have to know how to use them. Their fangs have death poison, but you have to be able to hit and do 1 point of damage for the poison to be delivered. The hitting isn¿t generally a problem even for high defense units because of the webbing, but high protection can be a problem. The fangs are doing only 13 damage and the spiders are size 5 so only one per tile, so things like knights (protection 17) generally take several rounds to poison, then a few more to die while dealing enough damage to kill a lot of spiders. It is a small comfort that even loosing battles often result in many more of the enemy dying as the poison keeps working, but obviously that¿s not what you¿re aiming for. If you stick to the weaker indies though and use appropriate battlefield strategies you can expand very briskly and reliably. Use your shortbows against indies with no shields, and separate your spider riders from your riderless spiders. Riderless spiders generally should be scripted to fire closest, they¿ll close to a short range and spray the enemy front lines with webs, breaking them up and letting them straggle through piecemeal for the spider front line to eat rather than being swarmed by the small mammals. The spiders who still have riders will (rarely) be using their bows or (often) scripted to attack closest. The 14 protection and high hitpoints of the brown spiders is sufficient that an occasional friendly fire shot from a shortbow won¿t hurt much, so use the cheap Machaka archers with your spiders to help overcome the reduction of damage output which comes from being size 5.

    			8.22.3.4 When to recruit spider knights?

    Now, generally you¿re gonna be recruiting spider riders, but on the turns where you are tight on gold (putting up a new castle or whatever) go ahead and recruit some spider knights. You won¿t be able to build too many because of the resource cost, but they¿ll nicely round out your options for dealing with the tougher indies and still end up as spiders when they do go down. If you¿re *real* short on gold, the same logic applies to hoplites, though of course no spiders, no free upkeep, and sad Baalz.

    			8.22.3.5 Sorcerers

    Now, onto the next drastic divergence from how Machaka is usually played¿well, to be fair how every nation is usually played. Your sorcerers are going to be used as workhorses. There¿s a lot of stuff you¿re gonna need them to be doing from a very early point. You also need some critical research done very early. This proves to be a problem as you can¿t get done what you need done and have a bunch of people hitting the research early. So, you need to do what you always should be trying to do and use your pretender to plug the hole you need filled.

    			8.22.3.6 Start game strategy - The great sage pretender

    You¿ve got some room to tweak this of course, but look at something like an awake great sage, 2 in most paths but a 3 in earth and 0 in blood. Now, let¿s do a little math to see why I suggest the most urgent thing your pretender can do is just research. With magic-1 scale witch doctors have 4 research points, sorcerers have 8. For year one with tight finances, lets assume you use mostly witch doctors for your research and for simplicities sake lets just say each researcher contributes 5 research points. Let¿s say in an ideal scenario you don¿t do anything but recruit research mages who all only research  no site searching, no forging, no leading armies, nothing but research. So, on turn two you have 5 research points, turn three 10, etc. By the end of year 1 you¿ve researched 5+10+15+20+25+30+35+40+45+50+55 = 330 points worth. The great sage I suggest above has 33 research points in magic-1, so by himself he generates 33 X 12 = 396 rp in the first year. My pretender is not ¿just¿ researching, what he¿s doing is contributing all the work I can get out of every mage I recruit from my capital in the first year *and still* leaving me ahead in research. When you put it that way you can see why this makes a lot of sense for a nation focused on sorcerers.

    			8.22.3.7 Scales

    So, spiders are going to be your initial focus. This means we don¿t need resources and can take sloth-3. We also pick up nice points from taking heat-3 since our preference is heat-2. We¿ll want to take order-3 (to crank out swarms of spiders), and magic-1 (you¿re playing sorcerers man!). As I mentioned, you can tweak your pretender¿s paths significantly, but at that minimum I already suggested this leaves you enough points to take a dominion of 4 with luck-3 and growth-2. These are *excellent* scales and luck-3 actually does a *whole* lot for Machaka in the first year. The tiny resource cost of the spiders means any large gold income event translates into an immediate extra expansion party, and thus an exponential increase in gold. Gem income events (common in a positive magic environment) are also extremely good for reasons I¿ll get into in a minute. The other various good things are of course good, but any one of several gold or gem income events happening in the first year can have a dramatic impact on Machaka. Plus, you¿ve got a couple very nice national heroes. Combine with this the fact that your sorcerers already have a very impressive magic diversity, and there¿s not a heck of a lot your pretender needs to bring to the table in that regard, and most of it is covered by just having a 2 in the path.

    			8.22.3.8 Site searching

    Alright, so your scourge of spiders is spreading out in all directions, now lets examine the use to which we¿re gonna put our sorcerers. Now, on first blush it seems ridiculous to have such a widely rainbow pretender, but leave him home researching while you manually site search with other mages. The thing is, what you really, really want is earth, fire, death, and nature gems. Your pretender isn¿t gonna do any better a job at looking for those than a pair of sorcerers, but is going to contribute drastically more to research. In your first turns what you want is to have 2 black sorcerers and 2 regular sorcerers out site searching. This will give you a level 2-3 search in fire, earth & nature, and 1-2 in death. Because of the path overlap in an ideal situation have none of them overlap where they¿re site searching, but when you inevitably do need to overlap try to have the sorcerers overlap black sorcerers so at least you¿re covering a new path. Make sure you focus on the terrain that yields more gems: wastelands and swamps, then mountains and forests.

    			8.22.3.9 Forge fever fetishes yet avoid micromanagement

    With just a little bit of luck your initial gem income will grow quite rapidly. Just one or two magic sites makes a very large difference at this point. Why? Because your pretender has meanwhile been hitting the books labeled ¿construction¿, and very quickly hits level 2. Level 2 means dwarven hammers, which is why you took level 3 earth for your pretender, hoping you get the right random on a black sorcerer isn¿t gonna cut it because timing matters a lot which is why you really want some initial earth sites. The second you¿ve scraped together 15 earth gems (worst case scenario your capital income will get you there on turn 8) you¿re gonna make a dwarven hammer. The dwarven hammer goes to the witch doctor you simultaneously recruited who then forges a fever fetish every turn forever.

    Now, the reason you want initial fire sites is because your capital only fire income is only 1 and thus it¿s a sputtering start to start forging fever fetishes using only it. With anything other than horrible luck though your 4 site searching mages will net you at least one extra fire gem income which is all you need, the fetishes will quickly start producing the fire gems you need. Now note, you only want to forge these using a dwarven hammer, the difference in rate of return is immense. 6 gems vs 10 gems, you¿re practically doubling your return percentage. Your capital only nature income is 2, so as long as your roving site searchers turn up at least one nature site you can comfortably crank out fever fetishes forever. Hopefully you will have an easy time getting a bit more nature income and can scale up your production each time you can afford a new dwarven hammer.

    Gah, this sounds like a micromanagement nightmare. Can you imagine trying to juggle a hundred fever fetishes around? Rest assured, I most certainly could not and would never (again) set myself up to do so. That¿s ok though, once again the spider¿s have you covered. While you¿ve been prepping this fever fetish factory you¿ve also put up your second castle, preferably an 800 gold hillfort in the mountains. From this castle you recruit a neverending stream of spider lords at 50 gold a pop. These guys have 13 hitpoints, which in and of itself is nice for a guy holding a fever fetish, but (you probably know where I¿m going with this my now) once he dies you get a giant spider commander with 26 more hitpoints! This means that with no juggling or micro at all this guy will hold a fetish for 39 turns. Double bonus  no upkeep while he¿s a spider and that¿s not inconsiderable when you¿re talking about the scale you¿re gonna be farming at.

    Now, option one is to just consider the transformation of 6 gems into ~35 a worthwhile job and don¿t worry about it another second. Just milk the rubies every turn from your ¿pool gem¿ option and let the spiders die with the fever fetishes and it will have all been well worthwhile. The more anal of you are not gonna be able to do that so I¿d like to offer a suggestion Meglobob gave me on how to manage this when you get to the end game and your spiders finally start dying. Rename your spiders with the turn number you gave them the fetish, each turn you just need to go through your nation overview and scan for one number which is at 1 hp.

    			8.22.3.10 Build death income to summon Banelords

    Meanwhile, you¿ve hopefully been able to scrape together a small death income with those 4 guys out site searching. Whatever death gems you¿ve got will be funneled into dark knowledge which your pretender switched to research after construction-2. With any luck this will rapidly build up into a respectable death income as you¿ve no shortage of death mages to cast it and your brisk expansion gives you plenty of juicy targets.

    While your death income builds up, back to construction research. You¿ll hopefully have a moderate death income and construction 4 researched before the end of year one, which is good because that¿s about when you need to start worrying about opponents attacking you. You¿ve probably stabilized to building 2-3 fever fetishes at this point, bottlenecked by forts to recruit spider lords (you really want to start cranking out sorcerers from some of your forts!). You¿ve got earth gems and fire gems to spend on other stuff, so crank out a couple more dwarven hammers and set some sorcerers to crank out a stream of bane lords which is a quick step up from where you researched dark knowledge.

    Bane lords cost 4D and require a level 2 death mage. With luck you could be fielding 2 per turn along with the 6E & 6F for a fire brand and golden shield. Your most likely bottleneck is earth gems, you can swap in different equipment according to what you¿ve got available. Don¿t use any gems wastefully though, because you¿re far from through with uses for your sorcerers. If you¿re struggling to equip what you can afford to summon, use some of your death gems to summon wights, they¿re only 2 gems and are very cost effective if you¿ve got the mages to steadily summon them.

    The bane lords thus equipped are not quite tough enough to solo reliably, but used in small groups they¿re hideously tough. They¿ve got cold auras so for big fights where you¿ve got several clumped together it can work very well to have your spiders hose the whole front line of both sides down in webbing to let everybody freeze while they struggle free. Note, these guys are not intended to be SCs, they¿re frontline troops for armies supported by mages. They¿re what you¿re using once your spiders aren¿t cutting it anymore by themselves. They are why you don¿t have to worry about the rest of your anemic recruitable roster.

    			8.22.3.11 Dragon master and other summons

    Ah, but that¿s not it by a long shot. Construction  4 has unlocked thistle maces for you. Forge one of those while researching enchantment, and now start enchanting your sorcerers who got a fire random with dragon master. Your sorcerous fever dream is now firing on all cylinders. You¿ve got a steadily increasing flow of fire gems, 5 of which produce 3 fire drakes. Your bane lords are heavily armored and fire resistant from the fire brands, so this is wonderful synergy with a solid frontline and numerous deadly artillery who can eat most flankers which might try for the back. This synergy also works with the flaming arrows you¿ll be wanting to shortly get.

    Haha, lets see what else your black sorceries produce. Hammer out a couple cheap vine crowns and your nature random sorcerers can start building up a nice corps of vine ogres. You can also awaken some sleepers if your opponent starts laying down strong anti-undead measures  with some cheap equipment you don¿t need many to hold your front line.

    Now, these summons may not at first glance seem too intimidating, but I¿d like to reiterate the time frame here. This is what you¿re intending to fight your first war with, this is your year two troops. You¿ve researched one school to level 4 and 2 more to level 3 and have a gem income from site searching with 4 multipathed mages while summoning very cheap things. Banelords backed by firedrakes sounds a lot more impressive when you remember they¿re gonna be matched up against the national recruits of your opponent. Scoff mightily at your weak infantry, *this* is what the battlefield should look like for a nation subtitled ¿Reign of the Sorcerers¿! Now note, you¿ve built your nation up with very good scales and almost no upkeep from troops. You should be swimming in castles cranking out sorcerers and because your spiders cost next to no resources you can rapidly produce a staggering amount in short order if necessary.

    			8.22.3.12 Combat magic

    Let¿s not imagine that we¿re sending our troops into combat without the very sorcerers our nation is built on, sorcerers and black sorcerers should be used liberally in combat. Machaka has some absolutely devastating combat mage options at every level. The magic path spread is such that you can easily do something drastically different each and every fight as your hapless opponent tries to counter you. Thistle maces, skull staffs, earth boots and flaming skulls are all easily forgable, pass them out freely. With boosters plus earthpower and phoenix power you have quite a bit of versatility. Consider some of these possibilities as your research progresses:

    Falling fires/Magma eruption
    Poison cloud/breath of dragon (spiders, bane lords & vine ogres are all poison immune and webbing drags battles out)
    Panic/terror (webbing and poison are both great when your opponent routes)
    Flaming arrows + cheap, low resource archers
    Shadow blast
    Bane fire
    Charm
    Strength of giants (works surprisingly well with spiders, makes it much easier to punch through armor and poison units)
    Legions of steel (just what you wanted for your banes/wights!)
    Marble warriors (perfect spell for vine ogres)
    Incinerate

    And many more of course¿

    			8.22.3.13 Late game use of fire income

    As you round the bend into late game you should have a staggering fire gem income, you¿ve been cranking 2-3 fever fetishes out every turn since very early so it¿s not hard to imagine pulling in over a hundred fire gems per turn well before things get to the crazy stages of end game. I can hear the yawns from the audience, don¿t you usually struggle to put fire gems to use late game? It¿s not like they¿re pearls. Allow me to paint you the picture that results from not having to worry about being wasteful with fire gems.

    You already had a very solid research lead with loads of sorcerers each with a good research. Most of them also now have lightless lanterns, you should be one of the research leaders.

    Second sun cast with a whole lot of gems  you¿ve already got heat 3 scales.

    Your spies have mapped out every population center and anonymous volcanoes erupt from every one. Raging hearts (anonymously) is spammed dozens of times at every enemy castle. Your opponent¿s income will very rapidly be cut drastically and very likely go under his upkeep cost while any fort he doesn¿t put a dome over will stop being able to recruit anything even if he does have gold. Unlike Utterdark or other options, this is not damage he can dispel or recover from even if he pops up domes everywhere at this point, population has been killed and unrest raised to the point it¿ll probably take the rest of the game to come down unless he patrols and kills most of the rest of his population himself. Your spies let you know any place that needs the pressure kept up.

    Flames from the sky cast multiple times per turn - *every turn* at any significant grouping of non fire immune troops.

    Flaming domes all over your own territories.

    And, of course a ridiculous swarm of fire drakes, who make pretty decent meat shields even into late game. Who cares if the get soul slayed? You¿ve got the fire income to summon 60+ of them per turn (assuming you have that many dragon masters) and you¿d probably rather have them targeted than the SC you¿ve got leading them.

    Fire helms & flaming skulls for every black sorcerer + phoenix power = 5-6 level fire mages, just one lower for regular sorcerers if your capital is the bottleneck. No reason to fight any battle without several people flinging flame storm¿.

    Mass produced rods of the phoenix

    Plus, of course you can always alchemize. 100+ fire gem income = 50+ pearl income so you can still empower up and cast a wish every other turn if that¿s your cup of tea.

    			8.22.3.14 endgame

    You don¿t have astral or blood and your death magic is weak, so there¿s no getting around the fact that you¿re gonna struggle in the very late game. This is a recipe for a very aggressive sorcerous nation, and needs to be played as such. What you can¿t really do is let the game grind on into the uber late game where flocks of tartarians are built up everywhere and angels are teleporting around casting master enslave. Played right you get a good headstart, but like any good sorcerer the deal you made with the devil will eventually catch up with you, so you have to get into a winning position before that tortoise can catch up with your hare.

    	8.23 Man

    		8.23.1 MA Man

    			8.23.1.1 Advice for MA Man

    -> Longbowmen are exceptional. You can make your longbowmen even better by casting Wind Guide, or protect your front row by casting Arrow Fend.

    You have stealthy spies (Bards), priests (Monks) and mages (Mothers of Avalon), as well as stealthy sacreds in the Wardens. If you find a druid province or a Brigands' Lair site, which are quite common, you can also recruit stealthy shortbowmen. You can also cast Call of the Wild and Call of the Winds, although a single casting won't do much against even mediocre PD. The werewolves from the first one can summon more wolves, so that's one way of getting stealthy meat-shields to keep your Wardens alive; just pay attention to the routing rules so that your stealthy force doesn't retreat.
    Even if you don't want to bother with stealthy armies, Bards are exceptional in many ways. They can tell what sites your enemy has, increase unrest in his rich provinces, and when you siege an enemy castle a Bard can tell you who he has inside the castle waiting for your forces.

    -> I think that MA Man desperately needs magic diversity and has a hard time getting it. They also need a pretender with A4. You can not count on other people to give you air boosters.

    Considering that A4 seems like a necessity so that you can craft boosters and ultimately summon air queens, cast fog warriors, craft staffs of storm, and turn your crones into thunder striking machines, a rainbow pretender seems like the best choice.

    I would probably take a build like this.

    Great Enchantress
    Dormant
    Dom 5
    O 3
    P 0
    H 0
    G 1
    Misfortune 2
    Magic 1

    MAGIC PICKS
    F1
    A4
    W3
    E3
    S3
    D3
    F1

    Growth is important because your crones will get diseased very quickly without. Especially if you have death scales. By taking growth you're saving yourself a lot of headaches later on when your capital only mages start to die of disease.

    Production is nice, but IMO unnecessary as in the early game you're going to spam longbowmen and cheap infantry to finish off what stragglers make it past. Later on you can build knights at multiple castles, and rally them together.

    On the magic picks you need A4. For the other paths, since she's mainly a site searcher, and later on used to diversify your magic pool, level 3 of a given magic type will find 95% of those sites when you search. Having the 1 in N/F allows you to use rings of wizardy, which are easy to build since you can go Starshine skullcap, astral coin, ring of sorcery, ring of wizardy. Once you have those built you'll have access to every spell/item in the game off your pretender. Summon up some magic diversity and go from there.

    I like recruiting lots of bards. They make great researchers, and in battle they can spam Protection. I've actually found that Protection, if you cast it on the heavy infantry, gives them something like 21 protection total. This makes them *hugely* effective when backed up by longbow men. 5-6 bards spamming protection can hit 15-18 units per round. By the time that the enemy closes the gap on your hold-attack units they'll be fully buffed. They can also cast Swarm, which is highly effective against early game SCs as they do 1 point of AN damage. 5-6 units casting swam for 2 turns creates a huge amount of the suckers, who will happily soak up enemy's flankers, and their units, delaying their advance and giving your archers more time to work.

    The daughters are not so hot in the early game, but they can be an okay SC counter if the SC has no lightning protection. Once you have a staff of the storms you can have them cast storm power, then spam lightning bolts.

    Never forget that your bards are absolutely ridiculous spies. When you want to invade someone, send them out first. Begin to sow confusion or unrest. If you have 10 or so on an enemy capital, the unrest will be so high the person will be unable to find the spies. If they don't move a large army back to patrol, then you will deny them tons of income, and all their production for the early game. Use this tactic so that you can fight a war of attrition, taking as many territories as possible, and avoiding a straight confrontation for as long as possible. Each turn that they can't produce from their capital is another turn that /you can/.

    Also, if you can invade a territory nearby the enemy's main castle, and keep it open ,you can set your spies to retreat. When they're discovered by patrollers they will be able to easily run away. If there are no open provinces they will die.

    For the long game, make sure you use auspex instead of relying completely on your pretender. You will want lots, and lots of air gems to pump out expensive boosters. Use your earth income to summon a earth troll with E3 to sit around and forge dwarven hammers all game. Use your research to get to fog warriors when you can, it's a house if your opponent has no counters. Air queens make great SCs. You can summon naidas to use up the water gems you get forging a clam economy, which can help you compete with more astral heavy nations.

    -> You have lots of different troop types and access to stealth armys.

    Longbowmen are good against barbarians and other indys, but can't handle units with shields on their own.
    You can produce knights in every castle and sacred elite knights (with magic weapons) in your capital.
    Knights cost gold and resources, so take good scales (order, and no sloth).

    You have no national access to fire magic (for flaming arrows) so if you want to use this spell, make sure your pretender has fire magic skill.

    You have no access to death magic. If you want to use your national summons (stealthy, sacred dogs) make sure your pretender has death magic skill.

    Your magic is very limited, only Bards (N1, stealth 30, spy, prec 11, banner) and the Mother of Avalon (A1N2, stealth 0, prec 12, sacred) is recruitable in every castle.
    Study the possible spells those units can cast (like the infantry buffs in the previous posting) and make battle plans.

    Heavy patrolling will detect even bards, so produce masses of bards and send them toward your foes before the war.

    use creative tactics like cloud-trapezing crones with rings of the serpent and cast foul vapor.

    -> Well, I don't think that A4 is as important as you describe. Definitely it is but I find building the whole strategy around it a bit lacking.
    MA Man can expand rather quickly using longbowmen so they don't really need an awake sc. I would suggest the following build:
    Earth mother N4E4, dormant, Dom 6
    Order 3
    Prod 1
    Growth 2
    Misfortune 2
    Magic 3
    Earth mother may not be very great as it is, but it can be a very potent fighter when you give her winged shoes and enough reinvigoration and casting invulnerability at alt5 (which is your first main goal due to wind guide and mother oak). Your second goal will be gift of health and foul vapors at Ench5. Both these goals (including thau2 and const4) can easily be reached with magic 3, rich dominion and rather fast castle building or researching with tribal shamans. Bless effects are perfect to keep you sacred old mages alive (when a crone becomes diseased, just use her as a battlemage) and for extra reinvigoration in battle (in addition to soothing songs for which tribal shamans are perfect).
    Wardens, IMO, are not worth using heavily due to strategic movement 1. They may be completely useless if you start in the corner - bringing them to front will take ages (you may use faery trod, but I'm not sure it is worth doing). You have perfect archers and very good cavalry. If you expand quickly and keep that advantage, I'm sure, you'll be able to find the way into air boosters (either being lucky to have A4 crone or using trade). Btw, with such build and being lucky to find some nature sites, it is definitely possible to have mother oak and gift of health active at the end of year 2.

    -> I played a 4-player game as MA Man once, and won with Fog Warriors being my super-weapon. It takes some serious researching, but once you have it your knights are ridiculously tough (almost unkillable by mundane things, and have at least two lives even against spells). So I think keeping that in mind as a target is a good idea. Also on Alteration you get Mother Oak, which is always handy. Actually I've just remembered the other main part of my strategy, which came in before Fog Warriors, was mass-producing Vine Ogres. Man can do that very well, and they're good value (with the vine circlet thing).

    -> Their temples cost 200g & they have stealthy preachers.

    An alternate, albeit difficult strategy (I tried unsuccessfully to pull this off in MP, but I was a total newb then) is to fight a Dominion war.

    Offense: Take a domstrength10 pretender, spam temples & cheap forts, crank out monks to stealth-preach in enemy lands.

    Defense: Crank out max longbows each turn. Garrison them @ high concentration on the boarders, supported by substantial PD (i.e. 20+). When attacked, the protection/berserker-buffed PD form the offensive line, while the longbows chew up the defenders (defense gets first shot, afterall).

    Rely on wind guided longbows through the midgame, then fog-warrior-ed kinghts.

    -> Arrow Fend really negates all your longbowmen. I have tested it in that game

    Long distance run with Man should be Gift of Health [to have mages alive], Charm [the only really useful spell your crones can cast] and Dark Skies. Dark Skies could work great with that dominion spreading. Btu remember - we played on higher gold than normal, so it was easy to spam temples. I guess the one that took Man over you didn't make enough knights and his mages were well... dead due to old age, so he couldn't field many of them.

    -> I thought I was right about my general impression of crones almost never getting A4, so I went ahead and checked.

    Crones have these starting paths (A2N3)
    They random once for (AWEN +1 100%) and (AWEN +1 10%)

    I believe you can do 1/4th times 1/10th times 1/4th to get the amount of crones that will have A4.

    %0.625

    That percentage means that if you build 200 crones, 1.25 of them will have A4.

    So, yes, you really, really need A4 on your pretender. You can't rely on such a small percentage of you crones having A4.

    -> Yes, it is hard to get. That's why I said about being lucky. I don't rely on this, certainly. However, I think that air booster can be got when you really need it. Either from trade (Vanheim, Eriu and Caelum have A4 quite often) or from that rare crone, or at least you may empower for 60 gems. I consider this being quite real in the long run. Anyway, I think that having fast expansion, good combat pretender and very useful bless is more important than being sure you have A4 for air boosters, staff of storms and whatever else you need.

    -> I like the idea of taking a cyclops, however you will be able to take neither growth or prod, nor magic. Your mages will get diseased too often, you won't be able to expand really fast due to lack of units and you will never win the research race. Yes, each of these can be thought of as "minor disadvantage", but put together they form a major one, I think. What do you get in return? A very good combat pretender, maybe an SC and access to air boosters. Not a good trade, as for me.
    However, teleportable combat mage casting Rain of Stones can be really fine if not aiming for E9 bless for sacreds (which could be very good sacreds if they had faster feet. Actually it seems strange to me that they are so slow).
    Titan E4A4 seems a better choice to me.

    Titan (Body 602, 90 hits)
    Magic: Air 4 Earth 4
    Dominion 6
    Scales: Order 3 Productivity 2 Growth 2 Misfortune 2 Magic 1
    Dormant

    ->

    			8.23.1.2 MA Man Advice Needed: Proper Use of Units

    -> More longbowmen. Try armies that consist mostly of Longbowmen, with just enough infantry/cavalry to keep the archers safe and to counter your enemy's archers. To help your archers, cast Arrow Fend and Wind Guide. Nature has little in the way of battlefield spells, but Panic, Vine Arrow or later Storm of Thorns, and if you're short on units Swarm. Swarm is also good to tie up enemy forces while you warm up, because those insect fly straight up to the enemy.

    As for your Enchantress: do you have Astral/Earth income? You should, if you haven't known what to do with her, because searching for sites (manually or via spells) is always worth it.
    If you've researched Construction, Forge Dwarven Hammer (E3, constr 4), and with it Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Earth Boots (for total +2 Astral, +1 Earth), then Rings of Wizardry and/or Sorcery for your mages. The latter two are quite expensive, being Astral 5 and 6 items IIRC, so if you can cast Forge of the Ancients. It might let your other mages to forge new stuff as well, so check them out as well.
    EDIT: Oh, and she must be the Great Enchantress, who also GENERATES gems. One of the best rainbow mages there. Now, if you had used a bit more points into getting her, say, F1D2 you could make Flaming Skull and Skull Staff for +1F+1D, add in Ring of Wizardry for total of F3D4, which allows for Skullface, for further +1 to either... And there's Flame Helmet waiting you at Fire 4, if you get Forge of the Ancients up... /EDIT

    If you've research Conjuration but not Construction, summon Troll King's Court. You get regenerating infantry, few Moose Knights and other nice specialty units, and an E3 mage. He can cast Blade Wind, which devastates light infantry. Blade Wind scales with level and the fatigue drop also helps a lot, so cast Summon Earth Power and/or equip the Troll King with Earth boosters, such as Earth Boots or Ring of Wizardry. Your pretender can do the same things in battle, but she shouldn't have to, and she's much too valuable. Even one death-and-recall will mean she needs both Astral boosters to forge Ring of Sorcery, and that to forge Ring of Wizardry, instead of just forging RoW.

    -> There's no need to put your archers farther from the enemy if you use infantry screens, as you can do because you have already recruited lots of infantry and knights.

    Nature gems could be used on some expensive spells, like Gift of Health and such, but in this case I suggest summoning. Summon several Ivy Kings and make them monthly cast Awaken Vine Ogre or Vine Men. Earth can be used up for Trolls and items; multiple Dwarven Hammers are very nice. Your Astral storage will probably dry up just from the forging lots of Rings for your other mages. If you don't have any Air 4 Crones yet, empower one comparatively youthful A3 Crone to A4, give her Dwarven Hammer and start churning out Air boosters. Winged Helmets and Bags of Wind stack, so you can get +2 Air on any of your military mages.
    Water is a bit hard to use. I guess you could summon Sea Kings, conquer the seas and start spamming Falling Frost. It scales very nicely with levels in Water, so forge them both Water boosters if you can afford it (Water Bracelet, W1, Constr 6; Robe of Sea, Constr 2, W3). As for fire... perhaps just Elixirs of Life? That'd let you try all kinds of crazy stuff with your pretender without losing magic on her, and as it stops aging it can also help your Nornas.

    -> The easiest AND most powerful tactic is to get a Fire mage and cast Flaming Arrows. Combined with your Longbowman, this is a devastating combo.

    Make Fever Fetishes and pass them around scouts so that your forward armies always have fire gems to cast the spell.

    If you haven't gotten Fire mages, you'll need to make one. Empower a young guy(since Fire magic ages casters) and make items like Flaming Skulls. Make sure to script Phoenix Power, and don't forget that with an extra gem you can cast a spell one level higher.

    -> You can trade for fire gems in MP. Luck and Magic scales will help you get random fire gems too.

    I'd say empower a indy-magic-site Witch if you've got one, or an Enchantress. You should be able to find those sites if they exist by the time you get 53F.

    You want at least N1, that's the most critical. E1 is also nice because then you can make Fire Brands and Charcoal Shields later. W is nice to make Rune Smashers.

    53F lets you make a N1F1 mage, who then can just make as many fever fetishes as possible. Man has problems with Astral too, and if you take astral on your god, a Shroud will keep your fever fetish units alive forever (and your old crones too).

    Don't bother site searching F initially, just concentrate on the fever fetishes.

    ->
    	    	8.23.2 LA Man

    	    	    	8.23.2.1 LA Man - Death and Taxes

    Article Author: AreaOfEffect

    Forward:
    ---
    While reading your Dominions handbook, you might come across the description of Man, Towers of Chelms. Under the strengths and weaknesses section you'll note that they have no weaknesses. This is untrue. Do they have weakness? Yes. Yet that is true of any nation. The question is what is Man's strength and how can it be used to compensate for their weakness. Let's address the strengths of Man first.

    				8.23.2.1.1 The First Strength of Man: Money

    ---
    Man is good at making gold. Almost any faction can take great scales and have a respectable and reliable flow of money, but Man does it better then any other late-age faction I know of. This is a good thing as they will need lots of money to exploit their next strength.

    How can Man make lots of money? Well, for starters, you need the right scales. Order 3 is the no brainer. Growth 3 is also required and anything less will be below optimal. Production, believe it or not, is an option left up to you. While we are on the subject of scales, tolerance to drain is a national advantage of Man's mages and can be used to help pay for the 240 point investment. Taking some misfortune is also not out of the realm of reason. We'll talk more about pretenders later, all you really need to know now is Order 3 and Growth 3 is optimal.

    Yet, as I said, it is more then just a matter of scales. The missing piece is the judge. It may not seem like a particularly stellar commander, but it is the most cost efficient patrolling unit in the late age. It's only rivals in my opinion is the Eunuch and Eye of the Lord, both units of the middle age only. At the low cost of 50 gold the unit can single handedly patrol as if it were 21 units. This is enough to tax all of your provinces at 120% while quelling all unrest with only one commander in each province. Only really high populations, like your capitol, might need some additional assistance.

    Now, both overtaxing and patrolling kill population, that doesn't mean that doing so lacks sustainability. It just so happens that overtaxing to 120% while maintaining 0 unrest kills off almost exactly the same percentage of population gained from growth 3. For all provinces above roughly 7,000 population, the loss will be around 10 people. That is the least amount of population you could ever lose. Even your capitol, with over 30,000 should only lose 10 pop per turn. Population in the 7,000 and below range should lose nothing at all. The loses are virtually negligible when all told. The gain is that you just converted the population growth from growth scales, which is only part of the scales benefit, into three additional ranks of order scales. Further more, the benefit from taxing like so is compounded by the benefits of order. Unless my math is wrong, you will make roughly 151% income from order 3, growth 3, and 120% taxes. In addition you still have increased supplies and you've mitigated some of the disease chance on your old age commanders.

    There will be a small amount of management as you need to hirer judges, deploy them to provinces, and manually control the tax rates. However, the management is no where near as bad as blood hunting or managing fever fetishes in my opinion. Learning to use the nation overview by pressing F1 will make the task even less bothersome. Provinces recently conquered are best to set to 100% immediately. They will have unrest, but there should be a judge on the way to punish the unruly subjects. If it is any consolation, 100% taxes will still allow unrest to drop 1 point per turn and won't kill population. Finally, an investment in a lot of judges in the early game will keep your upkeep down and your treasury stocked.

    Now, this isn't without a draw back. The largest hit will be to your early game research. Deploying judges away from your capitol will mean that your not making researchers who stay home and study spell books. The first year will see little in the way of magical advancement, unless you use your god to compensate for this. Now, some judges will have magic paths, but even still I prefer to deploy them as the benefit of doing so will eventually pay off.

    Money in-of-itself is useful but, as the AI proves over an over again, it will not win you the game. You still need to use that money in a way that benefits Man most, which leads me to the second strength of Man.

    				8.23.2.1.2 The Second Strength of Man: Forts

    ---
    If you want to play Man, you have to get use to the idea that you're playing a faction who lives and breaths the stink of castle walls. Building forts for Man is not like building forts for any other nation. Other nations build forts to build more units, protect choke points, and to secure important magic sites. For Man, building forts is a matter of terraforming the landscape in order to give them a strategic advantage. While other factions are given forest survival and wasteland survive, Man was given the supreme advantage over provinces with a castle. While other factions must choose which castles to save and which ones to sacrifice to invading armies, Man can choose to save them all while pressing an assault into enemy territory.

    This ability of Man is almost exclusively the responsibility of one versatile commander. The magister. For 70 gold you get a stealthy unit who, for the purposes of sieging and being sieged, counts as 16 units. To top it off, the unit can also be a caster with skill in air, earth, and astral. Being Man's most cost effective researcher, there is virtually no struggle between choosing research or maintaining your castle superiority. Oh, and I here they double as spies too. Trust me, being a spy is their least useful ability, which should say a lot. Their ability to sneak is basic at best, yet a basic ability to sneak still allows the unit to travel in and out of castles that are under siege.

    One of the big concerns of Man is that they have few measures to counter a sacred rush. Even a well planned armored elephant rush can succeed against them, spite their ranged fire power. The normal answer to this is to use an awake SC god. Yet, why are early rushes so effective? They are effective because once the enemy has your capitol and has crushed your main forces, their is virtually nothing you can recruit that will help you dislodge them. This is most true in the late age given the quality of the indies. Building additional forts as early as possible will slow these rushes and give you options. Slowing the pace of a rush is always to your advantage as it allows you to continue to buy national units, progress your research, and gain time to change the diplomatic landscape.

    Yet, how fast can Man build castles? Both in test games and in real multi-player games, I have averaged 3 new castles in the first year with 3 new castles on the way. That's around 6,000 gold in castles, all while recruiting expansion armies, PD, and several indy commanders. My first castle is always started on turn 4. That includes games where I didn't expand on the first turn and didn't use an awake SC pretender. As long as you know how to expand with Man's troops, their is no need for an awake god. If you do use an awake god, then you can expect to see even better growth by spreading your good dominion faster and by taking more provinces in initial expansion. Tips about expansion can be found further in the reading.

    An additional bonus to creating forts in mass is that it feeds back into Man's first Strength, money. Provinces gain a percentage of additional income based on the administration of the fort that occupies the territory. The increase in percentage is exactly half the administration. Administration also increases the amount of resources you can pull in from neighboring provinces. However, you cannot pull in resources from a neighboring province which you don't own or provinces with their own fort. Clearly it becomes helpful to know which provinces give you optimal administration. For Man, the highest administration comes from Fortified Cities (50 admin), which can only be made on farmland provinces. Though the 1200 gold cost of a fortified city, plus the 5 turn building time deters me from choosing farmlands some of the time. Instead I prefer Citadels (40 admin, 1000 gold, 4 turn build time) to fortified cities, which Man can build as their 'default'. As long as it isn't a forest, mountain, swamp, or farmland, Man will build a citadel. This includes border mountains and wastelands. The citadel also has a higher defense then a city. It's only weakness in is food supply, which Man doesn't need a lot of if they plan to defend their walls with magisters. Avoid forests if you can as they net only 20 admin for the same price, time, and defense as a citadel. Mountains are really good for holding a province indefiniately as the fort it produces has an amazing 700 defense but an even poorer admin of 15. Swamps are the only place where you can build a 800 gold and 3 turn build time fort and aren't bad places to stack an adjacent castle as they steal no resources away from surrounding areas and are likely not to have many resources of their own. It's just a fast way to produce more commanders and hold a line.

    Money and Forts, those are the strengths of Man. Now let's see how this can help them overcome their weakness.

    				8.23.2.1.3 The First Weakness of Man: Province Defense

    ---
    Man has very poor province defense. Reading the book you'll see that you get 1xSpearmen and 2xMillitia for the first 20 points. This isn't entirely accurate. Man actually gets 1xSpearmen, 1xMillitia, and 1xSlinger. That's still bad, even worse if your enemy uses any sort of fear effects. The first 20 PD of any nation establishes the basics of whether their PD is good or not. Though in some cases the PD above that might make up for the loss. Mictlan, for example, gets sacred jaguar warriors at 20 and above. This is not the case with Man. Man's PD at 20 and beyond is longbowmen and tower guards. Now Man's PD is likely bugged as the tower guards are leftovers from the middle age era. They don't have crossbows and use regular shields as opposed to kite shields. Some factions, like Abysia, get mages to back up their PD. In Man's case, they might get a mage, though more often then not they just get a frail unarmored commander. This PD doesn't impress me at all.

    The one thing about the strengths of Man is that you don't need your PD as much when you have a fort defending the province. By the end of the game, PD gets rolled over so easily that it doesn't matter anyhow. Forts on the other hand forces the enemy to always fight for the province in a way that forces them to take time. This is true at any stage of the game. Also, if you don't like enemy scouts in your lands, 10 PD and a patrolling judge is much better then 20 PD at finding scouts. If you want to support your PD with more reliable magic, you can choose to send a judge with magic levels rather then a plain judge. It may not improve your chances in normal situations, but scripting Dust to Dust (Thuamaturgy 1) on a judge with death magic will stop black servants from being cheap raiders and might even put some real hurt on an enemy's PoD/Bane Lord.

    				8.23.2.1.4 The Second Weakness of Man: The Research Curve

    ---
    As mentioned before, the only real problem with deploying judges early in the game is that your early game research doesn't go anywhere. At the same time, I would argue that if Man doesn't take the hit early in the game, they will be far behind the research curve by the mid and late game. The magister is a quality buy with just the castle bonus and stealth alone, yet, as an added benefit they are also your most cost effective researchers. The problem is that the level of research they grant may not be enough to keep up with other nations. It is not a matter of money. Clearly Man should be swimming in money. It is a matter of keeping pace.

    The problem is that the magister averages below 3 research points a turn. Your chances are 1:16 for 5 research, 5:16 for 4, 7:16 for 3, and 3:16 for no research at all. That places the average research at 2.875 points per magister. Now most other factions have their own cost effective researchers. Atlantis, C'tis, Argatha, and Caelum, just to name a few, all have sacred commanders with 4 points of research. If those factions build two additional forts, they can average 12 points of research a round. If Man wants to beat that curve, they need to be making five magisters a round. The only way to do that is to build twice as many forts as the enemy, or to use precious gems to construct research items.

    Man's drain tolerance makes drain seem like free points. Knowing your research will be roughly the same whether you have drain 3 or neutral magic scales makes taking magic 1 seem like it costs 160 design points rather then the usual 40. Most other factions will get magic scales and pay for them with heat or cold scales. If Cealum gets magic 1, then their cost effective researchers go from 4 to 5. With only 40 design points, Caelum now forces Man to buy yet another castle in order to match their research. That's 5 castles to their 2.

    Personally I think this is okay. Man should build more castles and be making more magisters anyhow. Even those magisters without any magic skills are a great resource. Besides, Man's best researchers only require a castle. No lab and no temple. Simply build a castle in walking distance to the nearest laboratory and start the research machine. If done right, the slow beginning that Man suffers, and the national research disadvantage they have, should be countered by their massive commander output.

    				8.23.2.1.5 The Third Weakness of Man: Magic Skill

    ---
    When it comes to Magic, you must get use to the idea of doing a lot with very little. You will have a lot of judges and magisters and likely a handful of magister arcanas. It would be nice to have a lot of mages like the magister arcana, but they are in many cases a huge liability. They are old, frail, slow, and have a large upkeep for very average research. To top it all off they are easily killed off with Magic Duel (Evocation 3). 7 out of 8 magisters will have just enough astral to engage in a duel with the least possible chance of winning. For me, every time I make a magister arcana it becomes a big deal as I just sunk 250 gold into a unit that might get instantly killed in battle or who might just up and die on his own. Magisters and judges on the other hand are cheap and should be in abundance. The problem is none of these plentiful mages will have more then one skill level in any magic path. Aside from forming a massive communion (Thuamaturgy 1), your spell options will be very limited. Finding mages for a communion is also problematic as only 1 in 4 magisters can actually participate.

    What about boosting? Well the paths on the magisters and judges are so low that battlefield boosting is extremely limited. Judges can't cast Phoenix Power (Conjuration 3) and there is no magic spell for boosting death. As for the magister, they can't use Summon Earth Power (Conjuration 3), they can only boost air during a Storm (Evocation 5) with Storm Power (Conjuration 3), which runs counter to longbow and crossbow effectiveness, and though they can use Power of the Spheres (Conjuration 3) to boost all their paths, the wasted round, gems, and fatigue does make it very unappealing. If your casting Power of the Spheres, you are likely to be unable to cast anything else. You could scrape together a communion and then apply the boosting spells. In truth though I don't think that Man can afford to field several dozen communion mages with every army.

    The real problem is that Man's strength doesn't really offer an easy solution to this problem. Instead I would say that this problem falls on your god and your research more then it does on anything else. As Man you have to choose your research path carefully and go immediately for army killing spells. Spells like Earthquake, Wrathful Skies, and Rain of Stones (Evocation 5, 6, and 7 respectively) can be cast with just one magister arcana and a handful of magisters in a communion. The trick is that you'll need to guard these mages from their own spells either with items or with buffing spells. Buffs cost rounds and items cost gems, but both cost additional research. 1 in 8 magister arcanas can cast Seeking Arrow (Enchantment 3). Yet, as far as assassination goes, seeking arrow might be the weakest ritual one could cast. Enhanced with a Crystal Coin and Starshine Skullcap (Construction 4 and 6 respectively) 1 in 8 magisters can Mindhunt (Evocation 6 and Thaumaturgy 2/5). Against a handful of thugs you can cast Aim (Alteration 1) and Gifts from Heaven (Evocation 5). If you need a lot of artilary you can improve everyones aim with the classic Man spell, Wind Guide (Alteration 4).

    In truth the magister arcana in a communion can cast a great number of spells, but, as I said, large communions are difficult with this nation and so it is best to stick to spells that you only need to cast once or twice so you can keep the communions as small as possible. The one agreement I have with the book is that the magister arcanas are versatile. Yet, as I' have explained, they are more often then not a liability. They also aren't nearly as good on their own. This starts to show when you face up against nations like Vanheim. You've got archers and knights and they generally have skinshifters. You cast Aim and they cast both Mist (Evocation 3) and Storm. Try to match them Thunder Strike for Thunder Strike (Evocation 4) and you will lose. If their units close with yours, you will generally lose. This is just a fact of Man. In my opinion it is better to have your main force side-step nations like Vanheim, have a small communion meet them on the defense,and cast rain of stones several times and retreat.

    In my opinion Man needs to play dirty. They need to avoid confrontation and deal with problems using battlefield damage spells and army killing ritual spells. Man's primary forces, after side-stepping, should strike at unprotected provinces and use sneaking magisters to help capture forts quickly. The one helpful thing about the strength of Man is that you can afford to let the enemy stomp around in your own lands more then he can allow you to stomp around in his. This allows you more time to devise a solution to the problem. Even Ermor is limited in what they can do. Though they can still create ghouls, raise taxes, patrol, and preach their dominion in a province with your castle, what they can't do is pillage, which is the fastest way to ruin your province's population with an army.

    There is some other good news, magisters and judges are not completely useless. In my opinion, magisters with air or astral, and judges with death are your best support mages. Magisters with air can cast lightning orb (Evocation 5) for short range AN damage support. The astral mages can buff mounted knights with Body Etheral (Alteration 3) and Luck (Alteration 4). The judges with death magic can spam Frighten (Thuamaturgy 1) against regular units and Dust to Dust against the undead. They can also stop most anything else with enough castings of Ghost Grip (Conjuration 5). The magisters with earth can also lend support with short ranged debuffs like Earth Grip and Armor of Achilles (Alteration 1 and 2 respectively). Though I prefer to have them remain as researchers. The judges with fire magic can eventually be real useful once Blindness (Alteration 6) has been researched. If you manage a judge with both fire and death, then you can use a Skull of Fire (Construction 6) to boost a judge to fire 2. After casting Phoenix Power (Conjuration 3) and using 2 fire gems, Man can naturally cast Flamming Arrows (Enchantment 4). If you manage a magister arcana with fire magic, then you can do the same or communion to cast the powerful archery buff spell.

    The remaining options that Man has in order to deal with invading armies is mostly left up to their god.

    				8.23.2.1.6 Pretender Design

    ---
    I'm not one for telling people what they should use as their god. At the same time I understand that some people just want to be told what works. The book has suggested that Man can use a stationary god if given good scales. I personally think that Man benefits best from a god that is mobile. The more mobility the better. The reason is that Man's god should add battlefield options that don't come naturally to the nation. Spells that your magisters can cast won't always do the job or the enemy might have powerful astral mages and can pick apart your communioned magister arcanas. Now a stationary god can support by casting some of the nasty army killing spells from afar, but, more often then not, it becomes more cost effective on your gem income to show up and cast spells in battle. I will continue to insist on taking Order 3 and Growth 3, yet that's because I prefer to take the money aspect of the strategy to it's extreme, thus taking the castle aspect as far as it can go.

    A rainbow god, or simply a god with a few strong magic skills, is what Man really needs in my opinion. This means avoiding gods like the Wyrm and Manticore. I generally avoid designing a bless around Man's sacred units. The wardens are great at stealth raiding, but they are also slow and capitol only. You could amass a lot of the sacred hounds, but I'm not a fan of the bless options for these units and I think the gems could be spent elsewhere more effectively. Death and nature gems are always in short supply and could be used to make powerful magic items and powerfully diverse mages to supplement your national ones. Yet, while I'm talking about nature and death, I will say that I am in favor of a small bless that aids your magister arcanas via Shrouds of the Battle Saint (Construction 4). A nature and death bless, even at it's lowest levels, are both a great boon to the magister arcana. The nature bless can help them avoid getting diseased and thus extend their usefulness. The death bless is the only bless capable of adding effectiveness to damage spells by having them cause greater affliction. A death bless can make Rain of Stones horribly effective against unarmored opponents and even a ritual like Seeking Arrow can be transformed from a lame assassination spell into a reliable long range affliction spell usable on any SC.

    It would likely be wise to place some nature magic on your god anyhow as independent nature mages can sometimes be hard to find and most aren't capable of much. Man is probably the only nation that gets gem income that doesn't correspond to the magic skills that have available. Nature is also a good magic paths all around. An once of air magic combined with death magic could also provide greater mobility via Cloud Trapeze (Enchantment 4) and increase the number of effective battlefield spells your god can have at his/her disposal. If your desire is to bolster the magister arcana and keep them from being Magic Dueled to death, you could also take a powerful, yet mobile, astral god. Every magic skill has something to offer, but I think it best to focus on ways your god can cripple invading armies and bolster your national mages.

    				8.23.2.1.7 Tips on Expansion

    ---
    Now I've said that production, as a scale, was an option. By the mid-game you will have an abundance of castles and, therefore, little need for high levels of production. As you fight off other factions you will want to exercise the full spectrum of your units, and so you shouldn't always be buying the highest resource units anyhow. That said, their is no doubt in my mind that some level of production will speed up early game expansion and remain helpful later on. An expansion army of a dozen or more defenders, backed by just a few longbowmen will defeat almost any indy province. The late age variety of indies is bland. Barbarians are easy to deal with and the defender can hold a line against heavy cavalry and win. Just remember to place your defenders in the middle, place your longbowmen behind them and your commander out of harms way.

    Your starting army will not have any defenders in it to start with. I find that for this army it is best to hold a turn, declare the Castellan your prophet, and hire as many longbowmen as you can. For the first few rounds you should target lightly armored provinces. Place the longbowmen a bit back and have the spearmen hold and then attack from midfield. Finally I just script the prophet to smite every round. This army should only need to be supported once during expansion. Just have a judge deliver several defenders in a round or two and have the remaining spearmen take the flank.

    Expansion should flow smoothly barring any disaster. You can always average 12 provinces before the first year is through. MP games have proven to me that 12 provinces by turn 9 is not all that difficult with only 2 levels of production. In my opinion, that's good for any human faction who doesn't expand on the first turn and who doesn't use an awake god.

    				8.23.2.1.8 Tips on Stealth Raiding with Man

    ---
    I have argued that the wardens aren't ideal for a strong bless because they are slow and national only, that of course doesn't make them useless. In fact, they might become your most useful secret weapon when done right. You still need your normal forces in order to defend yourself, but I prefer to use them as rouse. Your big army is a distraction from what they should really fear in my opinion. A small number of wardens, lead by lord warden make great PD killers. This is true even without a bless. Once I have researched some construction I find it helpful to forge Bows of War (Construction 6), and other cheap magical ranged weapons in order to increase their effectiveness. They can also be supported by magisters and thus gain magical support. Magisters with astral magic can help the stealth army avoid Mind Hunts as well

    If you need more power behind your stealth army, you can have them attack the current province while you Cloud Trapeze in mages. Normally a stealth army will attack the current province in normal attack rounds, but if a unit of yours starts a battle in the post ritual round, they will participate and you will have a fight before the unit can normally move. This is especially helpful when you need to support your magisters long enough for them to cast Gifts of Heavens against an SC.

    There is no doubt that Man has great options for surprise assaults and for exercising 'dirty tactics'. With enough judges casting frighten you can make a more powerful army run away while your wardens capture the surrounding provinces. The warden and the lord warden are your only national units, so you shouldn't be conflicted about purchasing them almost every round. Use them and abuse them is what I say. I would not place Man as the best stealth nation in the late age, but they are certainly not the weakest.

    				8.23.2.1.9 Conclusion

    ---
    Given the proper investment in judges, magisters, and national troops, Man can grow, expand, and build like no other nation. They can hold any province indefinitely and tear down the enemies infrastructure in a matter of turns. Invited into the cold arms of Man, every army that enters never leaves. If someone survives, they retreat only into lands no longer theirs. Lands thought to be safe from the enemy are instead assaulted by crossbows and great swords. Bit-by-bit the world is consumed by the agents of Man. Each province is processed to maximize profits. For Man, there is no excuse for an unprotected temple to their god. The dominion of their god pushes wide and far. In the end, Man pulls the world into their reality. A reality where nothing is certain, except for death and taxes.

    				8.23.2.1.10 LA Man - Castle Warefare

    This is a little add-on to the guide I wrote for Man previously called Death and Taxes. That guide primarily covered where to start with LA Man. In my humble opinion, that has always been the hardest part to figure out with this nation. This guide takes you the rest of the way by pointing out tactics, spells, and units you'll want to employ.

    If you don't want to read the other guide, the basic idea is that Man has a superior advantage in accumulating castles and in defending them with minimal resources. This is thanks primarily to the Judge and the basic Magister. The whole of the guide covers a lot of the machanics and details. That said, a lot of the tactics below revolve around using your castles as a part of your fighting force.

    If we are going to talk tactics then I'm going to suggest a build for our god. The most appealing to me is the dormant master lich with S4D5N4. This leaves us with enough for dominion 7, order 3, growth 3, misfortune 2, and drain 2. There are actually 42 points left after all that which can go anywhere. Production 1 is a good choice for jump starting our expansion. You can also go for a stronger dominion or for more magic. In truth, there are many more viable builds, but this one works for me and my play style.

    This build gets us all the money we need in a very reliable flow. Our dominion should also be enough to help keep nations like Ry'leh and Ermor from ruining our population. We will also have a powerful caster who is both reusable and can get around with teleportation. The Death and Taxes guide covers expansion and will easily get you through the first year. If things are going well, you should have about four castles by now and 3 on the way. You've likely started researching for real and your magister output should allow you to overcome the difference in no time. Now your god comes out. The best thing your god can do at this point is site-searching. Your goal is to be a late-game power and thats not going to happen if you don't have the most important gems for that purpose.

    The advantage here is that you have everything you need to obtain tartarians, the chalice, cast Gift of Health, build S4 mages, and so much more with minimal resources. Concentrate on your research, especially during war time. Your advantage is that you can choose to ignore most threats. Place a castle on every magic site because you can. Between your god, magisters, magister arcanas, judges, and a Skull of Fire, you can site-search everything to its fullest with exception to water magic. Even then, 42 points is enough to obtain water 2 on your god, though I don't think its going to be all that useful.

    For warfare my go-to guy tends to be defenders and/or tower guards. These units have good protection, good defense, kite shields, broad swords, and crossbows. In large numbers these units can output a lot of damage and hold a line. These units make you a viable threat to many of the human nations. Longbowmen are ideal against soft targets without shields and are also easy to make on demand. That said, until you have a target for them, I suggest you hold off on them and stick to the crossbowmen. Spearman also work as a fast reacting unit, though they are less then ideal for holding any sort of line. I save tower knights for when I need a strong offensive push on the battlefield. Otherwise the tactic of Man tends to let the enemy cross the field of battle.

    LA Man is an archery machine. This is so true that they have access to all but one of the magic bows. It does seem appealing to want to use some of these items in combat. My suggestion is to look no further then the forester. Aside from an A3 magister arcana, he the only unit you have with 12 precision or better. Honestly, being magic archers is the only real use I've found for them. Indy scouts scout for cheaper, magisters scout better, and judges patrol better. Yet they are ideal for using a banefire crossbow, bow of war, piercer, or (my favorite) black bow of botulf. Their stealth and mobility is just a nice bonus.

    Against the undead you should have a number of death mages to start with. Indy priests are a nice addition, but you should have lots of castles, meaning you could instead recruit bishops. They provide more damage to more undead per every casting. The bishop is a cheap H2 priest and is useful as a moral booster as well. The magister of theology is nice, but with the bishop being as cheap as he is, and with the small protection that growth 3 provides against old age, I say he's not worth your time.

    If you've established a strong defensive wall and you know there is little your opponent can take from you by charging into your lands, I suggest you let them. Try your best to get your main force to sidestep their main force. Use that army of yours as a purely offensive tool. Use your magisters to hold up the walls and use wardens to take back lands without a castle. Dodge your opponent and make them frustrated. You don't need to fight battles you can't win, so don't.

    There will come a point where your opponent will try to take down one of your castles by moving all their units to just one of them. This can work to your advantage and is a sign that your opponent is getting desperate. Have a magister and company role in and cast Rain of Stones or perhaps your god can show up to cast Bone Grinding or Soul Drain. For the early game you can create a bane venom charm and stock it in your lab for such an occasion. Though usually used offensively, it works just as well as a defensive weapon when your willing to sacrifice a little population to see an army die of disease. Later on leprosy can easily fill its shoes. There is a little friendly fire in both cases, but you stand to lose less in my opinion. I think of it as an opportunity to clear house and rid myself of magisters without magic paths. One thing I like about the bane venom charm is that the common reaction from your opponent is to move away or disperse. It also makes them wary about ever consolidating like that again.

    Your going to want to dip your hands in blood magic either by using a mass of scouts or by trading with a blood nation. What you really want out of blood are boots of youth and black hearts. The boots of youth I'm sure makes sense. The black hearts might confuse you. Wardens aren't that good and neither are magisters. What you need to remember is that we are conducting castle warfare. Stealth is only good for getting you in and out of a province controlled by the enemy. Assassination doesn't actually care how you get there though. When an opponent sits outside your castle, the enemy controls the province yet your units are inside it as well. Any commander with assassination, regardless of being stealthy or not, can conduct assassinations against the commanders outside. Now you can teleport in a real mage and thunderstrike the opposing commander. Though personally I find orb lightning works better at close range. If that isn't appealing enough, you can use any unit you desire. How about your common bane or bane lord? How about your immortal god? For the purpose of defending a castle, the options become endless.

    There is no reason not to invest in winged shoes. Keep them stocked in your lab. You might need to air drop magisters in order to defend a castle. The added mobility will allow you to call in support from far away. That said its also important to know how many magisters it will take to reverse damage done to your walls. Just in case it wasn't obvious, I double checked and each magister will reverse 16 points of damage. Also keep in mind that it takes a turn to sneak into a castle and another to set the unit to defend. The shoes will also help you transport all sorts of magical support to.

    Eventually your going to want to swarm your enemy and go for the kill. Force multipliers like wind guide, flaming arrows, fog warriors, twist of fate, arrow fend, and antimagic are all at your disposal with a boost coming from either spells or items. Your god can lay out mass protection, mass regeneration, and relief to name a few extras. If you can't bring a lot of numbers for one reason or another, your going to want to stick with evocation instead. Learn to utilize gems in combat. My favorite thing to do is have a lowly magister or judge cast level three earth and fire spells after casting summon earthpower and phoenix power respectively. Bladewind, Falling Fires followed by Fireballs, Gifts from Heaven, or even Destruction and Prison of Fire when a situation calls for it. Have a problem with giants? A fire and death judge with a skull staff and gems equals banefire. That plus your other tricks will generally solve the problem. Just use what you have.

    Keep spells like Send Horror, Phantasmal Atack, and Ghost Riders in mind when defending a castle. They always attack the owner of the province and ignore the people inside. Avoid Manifestation as that should be allowed to attack either side.

    I can't think of anything else to add that isn't already standard. The strength of Man is having the flexibility of choosing when and where to fight in my opinion. Good luck.

    	    	    	8.23.2.2 LA Man Advice

    ->  Shockwave is not so hot.

    Note that Wind Guide is actually "mass aim", so it helps people who cast damaging spells such as thunderstrike hit more often. This is a big deal.

    To summarise, this is my recommended research order:
    Const 6 (if you can get this far without fighting another player), Alter 4, Ench 6, Conj 3, Thau 1, Evoc 6

    The basic (AAES) guys aren't much use in combat - unless an opponent is trying super-combatants, in which case by all means cast lightning bolt until you're blue in the face. They aren't even good communion slaves (since they have a high enc from being old.) Nonetheless, that's probably the best use for them in combat - otherwise, leave them at home to make science. If you cast storm, they can all cast Storm Power and then follow up with some useful spells (see AAAES below.)

    AAAES can cast Arrow Fend (ench 6), Thunderstrike and the various ghost spells are probably your best bet for spells to spam.
    AAEES can cast Summon Earthpower to get to E3, and then cast blade wind (evoc, against Mictlan) or Destruction (alter, against armored opponents,) or Gifts from Heaven (evoc, against giants).
    AAEFS can cast Power of the Spheres (Conj) and then Phoenix Power (Conj) to cast real fire magic, particularly flaming arrows (Ench) which is very nice for your all archer army. Otherwise, you can make them communion masters, and then have them follow the flaming arrows with magma eruption (evoc). Astral fires is also a great spell but I think magma eruption is better.
    AAESS can cast several utility spells (anti-magic, ench), or if you give them a 4-man communion they can cast enslave mind (thau) and other sexy astral stuff.

    As Man, you probably want to spend most of your gems on combat magic and research items. Your military is pretty competent all around - you can make trolls and things if you have a gem glut but it's seldom really worth the trouble. A few boosting items can be useful - if you make a Communion Matrix, for example, and put it on a mage on the bottom of the batting order, you can get spells like Arrow Fend off on the first turn, which can make a big difference, actually.
    Anyway, the spells you want are:
    Forge Quills (Const 2)
    Legions of Steel (Const 3)
    Forge Lightless Lanterns (Const 6)
    The various power-boosting spells (Conj 3)
    Communion (Thau 1)
    Flaming Arrows (Ench 4)
    Arrow Fend (Ench 6)
    Ghost Wolves (Alter 3)
    Destruction (Alter 4)
    Curse of Stones (Alter 4)
    Wind Guide (Alter 4)
    Phantasmal Army (Alter 5)
    Phantasmal Army (Alter 6)
    Thunder Strike (Evoc 4)
    Blade Wind (Evoc 4)
    Gifts from Heaven (Evoc 5)
    Magma Eruption (Evoc 6)

    For the late game, the following spells are really nuts:
    Mists of Deception (Ench 8)
    Fog Warriors (Alter 7)
    Will of the Fates (Alter 8)
    Army of Gold (Alter 9)
    Master Enslave (Thau 9)

    All of this should be cast while driven by a communion. Mater enslave requires a 32 member communion to be practical at all - but it really is a terrific spell.

    [comment:
    Couldn't you do it with 16 and an S2 Magister Arcane?

    S2
    Communion Master(16 slaves, +4S) = S6
    Power of the Spheres (1 pearl, +1S) = S7
    Light of the Northern Star (1 pearl, +1S, cast by someone else) = S8
    Master Enslave (requires S8)

    Throw in a couple of item boosters and it should be quite practical with 4-8 communion slaves. Unless, I mean, you've got oodles of communion slaves hanging around anyway.
    ]

    [response:
     The issue is - do you want the slaves to live? Also, do you want to cast any other spells out of your communion? (answer: yes, you absolutely do, master enslave is great but not THAT great.)

    8 Slaves -> Slaves are S4, Fatigue = 800 * 5 / 8 = 500, so instead death.
    16 Slaves -> Slaves are S5, Fatigue = 800 * 4 / 16 = 200, so inatant death.
    Okay, the actual fatigue the units can survive is:
    200 + 9 (hit points) - 25 (for communion slave) - 20 (encumberance * 4 personal cost for master enslave) = 166.
    20 Slaves -> 800 * 4 / 20 = 160.

    So you can get one off if you have 20 slaves. BUT you can't cast anything else through the communion! This is very bad.

    32 Slaves -> Slaves are S6, Fatigue = 800 * 2 / 32 = 50.

    So, if you have 32 slaves, you can have two communion masters casting it AT THE SAME TIME. Now we're cooking with gas.
    ]

    -> On another front for LA Man, don't forget the regular Magisters and the Judges.

    Spies are always good, and some of them wind up with useful magic.

    The Judges can get both Fire and Death, for Flaming skulls, and the fire ones can then, with Phoenix Power, cast Flaming Arrows.

    Both can be built without labs, which is a nice feature.

    -> If you have more skill than the required path the fatigue cost is lowered. so with skill 9 you only pay half.
    32 is too much but it's ok to add penetration wich is BADLY needed.

    that's true, and if your skill is 1 *less* than what is required, you pay double.
    The communion slaves pay their share of the fatigue

    You cannot cast the spell if your skill is less

    Yes you can, if you are a communion slave.
     There is a hidden mechanism which I described above.
    Say I'm an S4 caster with two S2 communion slaves, and I cast "Will of the Fates" (S4, 400 fatigue.)
    I'm boosted to S5, so I pay (400 / 2) / 3 ~= 66 fatigue.
    My slaves are boosted to S3, so they each pay (400 * 2) / 3 ~= 266 fatigue, and drop dead.
    I'm not sure how spending extra gems works into this - it may or may not reduce the fatigue spent by the slaves.

    Important point:
     Each communion member takes encumberance individually. The relationship between encumberance and skill level is still not entirely clear.

    This is a big deal if you're pythium, because it puts an absolute limit on the number of Enslave Mind spells that your communion masters can spam. No matter how many communion slaves you may field, each slave will take a minimum of X fatigue per spell, where X is their encumberance (4 for a communicant.) Thus, after 50 Enslave Mind spells go off, your communicants start popping, no matter what you do.

    -> LA Man? Make alot of use of longbows and defenders and try to research buffs for defenders quickly(they rock ).

    I like heavy scales with an awake/dormant SC pretender(usually a prince of death or cyclops) for expansion. My favourite summon for LA Man are by far gargoyles, decent offensive strength and very tough, and they fly!

    	8.24 Marignon

    	    	8.24.1 MA Marignon

    	    	    	8.24.1.1 Assortment of tips

    -> Marignon is a prety straightfoward nation;

    Flaming Arrow crossbows as your basic army,
    Royal Guard as front line tanks,
    Flagellents as flankers, secondary support,
    lots of fire mages,
    some assorted infantry to taste.

    Flagellants are easily a top-5 sacred (imo). They have two attacks, low resources/cost (almost free), can be recruited in any castle. You can easily make armies that contain hundreds of F9 flagellants, that will be decent against virtually every target. It's hard to think of another sacred unit per cost that has the Flagellant's sheer offensive potential.

    The only thing about Flagellants is that they can't be on the front line; you have to have a screen of cavalry/infantry to soak up spells and arrow fire to allow them to close.

    -> Don't forget the stealth--Marignon has spies, assassins, and stealthy preachers.

    Also, if you're going to use a flagellant bless strategy, you have recruitable H3's with high leadership, which makes it a lot easier.

    -> I'm playing Marignon at the moment (turn 70 odd) and took an Air-4 Earth-3 Water-3 Nature-3 dormant frost father. For magical diversity it's been amazing. He can make a Winged Helmet and Earth boots, which you can give to your mages with randoms (which you end up with loads of) to get all your territory earth and air searched. You can make a thistle mace or two and give them to some indy shamen. And eventually you can summon a Naiad or a Sea Troll for more water access (I was lucky enough to find a magic site that allowed me to recruit water mages). The only magic I didn't have was death, for thematic reasons. Although recently I've found a Necromancer site and have ditched my morals.

    So I went for a low-army high-magic strategy. In the early game I concentrated on Evo, and built hordes of mages (about 3 a turn quite early on). Fireball and Falling Fires are devastating, all you need to do with your army is distract them for long enough that your mages can incinerate them.

    On the other hand I think I haven't played brilliant, and making better use of the troops would probably be an excellent idea.

    Later on in the game the angels are amazing. I had one angel that almost single handedly captured about ten enemy provinces and killed army after army.

    Marignon probably isn't as strong as Pythium - but then almost no-one is. Pythium's very strong indeed I think (good troops, very good magic, hydras, angels). But I don't know why anyone would think Marignon's mages are no good. I reckon they're fantastic.

    -> I'm playing a MP game with MA Marignon and have done some tests prior to starting it. I have come to consolidate the following opinions about this nation (in no particular order or importance):
    1. Its not really a bless nation. The knights of the chalice are nice but capitol only. The falgelants are crap.
    2. Mundane armies are xbows, infantry screens ( pick and choose depending on the opposition there's an answer for opposing cavs, archers and infantry). Those should be backed up by mages and inquisitors. Mages mostly spam evoc. fire spells and priests boost moral and possibly banish/smite.
    3. Magical diversity is bad (S+F almost exclusively). Rainbow mage is almost a must on this nation. Its possible to use a hybrid SC/Rainbow chassis or a full SC but I dislike those options as both have negative impact on end game.
    4. Astral. Surprisingly Marignon is not the king (at least not when nations such as Pythium, Bandar, R'lyeh, MA Ermor are involved). So special care needs to be taken when facing a strong astral nation.
    5. Dominion kill is a viable strategy. It takes some managing investment but sneaking preachers and inquisitors may pull this off.
    6. Angels are one of this nations prominent powers. Plan to use them often and well. All the angel types have their uses as SCs/ anti SCs/ Raiders.
    	 1. Harbringer. Awe is good vs. low moral units. A2 gives him air shield for archers, mistform and mirror image. Equip it with vine/charcoal shield, fire/frost brand, cheap armor, boots of stone/quicknes, lucky pendant/amulet antimagic, cat charm/ring of regen. It can and should bless self or an angel of fury partner. It can also cloud trapez, giving it invaluable strategic movement (teleport to front lines or on top of an annoying army).

    	 It can be used to blast undead with heavenly horn/banishment as well. This chasis can get down with any mundane army easy enough. I have seen it chow down armies many a times both in SP and MP. For mere 25S I consider it a bargain.

    	 2. Angel of fury. Heavy duty flying killing machine. Good SC/Anti SC chasis. His base stats are generally better than those of the harbinger and he has fear and blood vengeance.
    	 As an SC you could equip him as the harbringer but remember that it is relatively vulnerable to ranged fire (xbows come to mind) so either pair him with an air shielded harbringer decoy or give him robe/amulet of missile protection. He is blessable so if you have a nice bless pair him with another angel that can bless him.
    	 More HP (around 50 IIRC) on him means he benefits from regen.
    	 The blood vengeance is good for both crowd control (pair with charcoal shield and rime hauberk), retaliate vs. mages and inflict additional damage on opposing SCs.

    	 3. Angelic host. very good vs. undead SCs (banelords, wraithlords and tartarians) due to flambaeu. put the host on guard commander and the angel on phoenix pyre, fire shield, attack rear. BTW, flambaeu costs 20F and the summons 50s, so in situations where its used the summons become quite cost effective.

    	 4. Heavenly choir, I have yet to summon one not in SP nor MP. The above three were always enough to secure victory (or defeat). But the stats do seem to suggest the seraph to be one of the supreme critters in the dominions universe.

    	 5. All angels fly which makes them good at raiding. The host can be summoned to an enemy province (though I usually wouldn't recommend it - the AI will make bad use of it). The harbringer and seraph teleport.

    7. Blessable mages benefit from earth bless.
    8. The above makes research order clear. Evoc. 4 (holy pyre, fireball). Summon. 7 (angels). Alt. 3 (SC buffs). Const 4 (SC basic items). Thaum 3 (elemental search, mind burn, teleport).
    9. The above makes optimal pretender clear. Cheap rainbow mage (don't worry about high dominion due to good preachers). E4-6, N2-4, A2-4, W2-4, D2-4, the rest are optional. Dominion 5-7.
    10. Use communion circles (the ones with slaves casting due to hidden mechanism). Example:
    Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells
    Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells
    Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells
    Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells
    ...
    Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells
    Master, Power of the Spheres, Body Ethereal, ...
    Master, Phoenix Power, Personal Luck, ...

    	    	    	8.24.1.2 Malleus Maleficarum an SP guide

    Article Author: Swan
    This is my summary for Marignon,fiery justice, and will be mainly a sp guide.
    I made this guide because marignon is a funny nations but there aren't guides for Middle age.
    but don't watse time and let's burn some heretics.

    				8.24.1.2.1 Pretender

    Thematically the virtue or the baphomet are the way to go.
    you will not need a sc, because marignon has plenty of angelic summon and crossbow can take care of rush.
    Rainbow arent very useful too, because the gem you will need are mostly astral that u can search easily with your mages
    I suggest
    1)a phoenix with f9/Ax awakened or dormant in order to cast buff to your archer(wind guide,flaming arrows).

    2)a baphomet f9/s9 for bless(this will double the life of a flagellant and flaming attacks+improved attack skill means they can hurt).

    				8.24.1.2.2 scales

    Ord/turm:i'll choose order to reduce the possibily of bad events on your first turns.
    turmoil could be good if you need design points(it makes good sinergy with luck)

    Death/growth: your best mage and your best priets are old so i'll chose growth.on small map you can choose death but then you will have to protect old mages with anti-aging products.

    prod/sloth:if you choose to take the flagellants path, you should take sloth,otherwise take production1 or 2

    hot/cold: take hot 1 or 2 because they are design point and this will stop water mages and empower fire mages because some spell are related to temperature scale(fire=hot,water=cold)

    magic/drain:you need your crossbow buffed, so i'll take magic 1.

    luck/unluck: i never choose unluck because a bad event in the begin can gimp you forever.

    				8.24.1.2.3 Unit

    All your units have good morale(11+) with the expection of the crossbowman, normal health(10) and good armor (not excelent)

    Crossbowman:You will have to recruit legions of them and then you can begin to laugh evily; buffed with wind guide and flaming arrows, castable by your pretender of a grandmaster with an A pick enmpowered, they can clean the screen from the bad heretics

    Infantry: 3 flavor(sword,pike,halberd) but no shield.ouch.
    they cost 20+resources,too much for killing them with your arrows.skip

    Man at arms: here we go.15 prot,13 def. your best defensive infantry. it doesn't worth a buff.

    Royal guard: cavalry with good def and good attack. they attack twice a turn so they are your best offensive weapons for meele if you dont recruit paladins.

    Paladins:3 attack for the first turn,2 for the rest. good prot(17) and offensive ability.
    a little bit expensive(80g,37res) but who dont like a legion of holy knight with flaming weapons? an heretic that must be burnt,i'll tell you.sacred.
    on that (if your lucy) you can use enrage from an indie druid empowered without much problem.

    flagellant: two attck but low att value(9 and they literally die like flies).
    You can recruit them in any fort,so, with a good dominion you shuld be able to recruit a lot of them. a S9/F9 bless really helps them, and is better than W9(S9 gives them 2 lifes and f9 increse att and dmg.)i dont recruit them.sacred

    				8.24.1.2.4 Commander

    scout:"look comment on every other national scout"

    spy:with them you can spy. nothing special

    assasin: useful to assasinate the enemy of the god.doesn't worth nice magic item(an armor negating weapon could be useful anyway)

    paladin: a g.o.r.ed Knight of the chalice. maybe useful as thug.sacred

    friar: a stealth preacher, useful to lower heretics faiths from the shadows.sacred

    inquisitor: very good to clean your lands from the false god due to inquisitor.sacred

    high inquisitor: an improved inquisitor. he have H3 so he can cast divine blessing and can reach H4 when propheted.I always use him as priest for my army because he can be recruited everywhere.sacred

    initiate:useful only for comunion.

    witch hunter:2f/1s/1h, useful as battle mage for fire spells.sacred

    grandmaster:f3/s2/h2, very good and cheap (270g). may have air pick(wind guide and prec booster) or eath pick(astral coin ect).cap only;can be used as researcher or caster.sacred.

    				8.24.1.2.5 magic path

    alt4(wind guide)-->cons4-->ench5(flaming arrows)-->evocation5(falling fire)-->conj9
    atleast this is the path i take in order to destroy the heretics.
    or you can choose to go alteration 6and take iron warriors then construction 7 for sharpned weapons and then buff your horde of flagellant(you will have to use alot of empowered mages,so is not a good strategy)
    in thaum4 you can take vengeance of the dead and use your flagellant just to let them die vs your opponents'god/prophet(this strategy works best with a d/b bless,but is more funny than useful)

    				8.24.1.2.6 summon

    marignon got plenty of nice angelic soldiers so let's use the in our crusade versus the blasphemy created by the mere existence of the enemy.

    harbringer[conj6;S4]: A3 so can use some buff, very good vs undead due to the horn,good hp.good choice

    Heavenly wrath[conj7,s3f1] blood vengeance, better than the harbringer, but it lack horn.

    angelic host[conj7,s5]:6 angels for 50 gem.i prefer harbringer or angel of fury.can be used to conquer far province with weak defense.

    heavenly choir[conj9,s7f2]:a seraph.with 3 harbringer.and some angel of the host.summon him.now.

    For the last summon you can use the s9/f9 baphomet pretender or an empowered grand master(astral cap+astral coin+ring of wizardy+some empoweremnt)

    				8.24.1.2.7 Comments

    -> I'm probably going to get yelled at for actually going and *posting* this... and I'll be the first to admit it's not the nicest of posts, but sometimes there's just nothing nice to be said - and who knows? I might inspire future improvement!

    To begin with, if you're in such a hurry that you can't spare the time to type up your guide using words rather than chatspeak, you probably didn't have time to think up any worthwhile content, either.
    Actually reading the "guide" seems to confirm my suspicion - a rushed job with no substance whatsoever.

    Your scales section seem to be nothing but butchered descriptions of what effects the scales have, something that's much easier to read in the manual or in-game - there's nothing about which ones are useful for the nation in question, which might have given it some redeeming value.
    The pretenders section is roughly twice as useful, mostly because you actually mention something resembling strategy.

    Units? Crossbowmen with buffs and either heavy infantry or paladins, with no reasons given. Okay, that's nice, I guess.

    Commanders... well, I'll be darned! You can spy with spies! And assassinate with assassins! What will they think of next? Mages casting spells?!

    Magic... well, it looks like we're back to the crossbow buffs. Is that the key strategy, I wonder? Then angels?

    Here's a summary of the "guide", for those who'd rather not navigate that jungle of Weblish:

    Marignon in five easy steps
    1. Build crossbows.
    2. Buff crossbows with your pretender.
    3. Summon angels.
    4. ???
    5. Victory!

    -> Swan, you should also mention the main battlemagic routes (Evocation and Thaumaturgy with the conjuration battlemagic-boosters), and little about forging. At least Ring of Wizardry (allows Earth Boots and Crystal Coins on Earth-random Grandmaster), Light/Banner of the Northern Star and such.
    Also, using Smite in expansion and early fights, mapmove 2 armies (everyone except normal infantry and Grandmasters, even them if you get winged boots), using spies to shut off enemy economy etc, what to do if you are at war against Abysia, etc.

    Initiates are F1, so they can't be used in communion, but if you've got Fire gems to burn a bunch of initiates can summon a respectable amount of Lesser Fire Elementals. Later you can use Will'O'the'Wisps instead, and you get two for every gem you spend, and there's also Combustion and Blindness and Bonds of Fire if you don't care about losing them any more.

    ->

    	    	8.24.2 LA Marignon

    	    	    	8.24.2.1 The Royal guide to Marignon, Conquerors of the Sea

    Marignon, The conquerors of The Sea.

    So you started a LA game, but Ermor and Ryleh are already chosen. Well, wait for another game then. If you chose not to do so, or you play in a game without Ermor and Ryleh, a few other options arise, one of them is Marignon. Marignon is a very powerful nation with a few incredibly good perks and strong varied magic. In middle game, Marignon will have access to ALL spheres of magic, except nature, which is increadibly easy to get from indys.

    This guide will count with:
    1- Nation Overview and Pretender choice.
    2- Units overview
    3- Early Expansion and Defense
    4- Magic paths
    5- Mini-blood guide

    Nation overview

    Strengths.

    Cost effective mages: Marignon has very good (for late age) mages, both in power and research, for the low cost of 150 and 190 gold. The best ones of them are sacred as well, so half the unkeep. It has as well a varied rounded up magic. Assuming you can get one of the dozen of independent mages with nature 1, you have ALL spheres of magic by turn 30 or so.

    High level priests. You can buy level 3 priests (which mean you can afford lvl 4 profet) and they are inquisitors as a bonus. Very powerful. Sadly you dont have sacreds worth their name, but still a very good morale boost

    Very decent PD: marignon gets 1 pikemen and 1 crossbowmen per PD point, plus 1 halbardier beyond 20. That¿s a bunch of gold and, specially, resources to buff your defense.

    Very decent base missile troops: Marignon gets a great missile unit, the crossbowmen, which have great cost efficiency, and can be naturally buffed with wind guide and flaming arrows, which make them powerful

    Blood magic: With Mictlan, the only real blood power in Late Age. That means a lot of things.

    No reliance on Capital: Only thing you can¿t buy in a normal castle is the Admiral, which you wont buy at all ever.

    Weakness:

    Lack troop variety: marignon have bassically crossbowmen and royal guards. Everything else, even if they have good stats, have 2 mayor weakness, movement of 1, and lack of shield (which mean YOU will kill them with bolts)

    Lack of Sacreds: Marignon do not have a sacred unit worth his name. The flagellants die in droves, and you need too much effort in scales to make a bless and dominion make them somewhat useful. If you want to try, use a Baphamot with S9F9.

    Old Age: Marignon has old age in their main mages, which mean you ¿need¿ growth scale

    Lack of Early Punch: Marignon is a very good nation in middle and late game, but it is not very well suited to rush, so might not be the best nation for blitz games. It can defend properly from other players rushes, though.

    Pretender and Nation Design.

    Marignon needs to expand early, create a reasonable empire, and defend properly until your middle game machine is ready to rumble. The best things to do that is getting a awake cheap SC so you can expand fast, defend if needed, and have enough points saved for good scales.

    Pretenders
    You get different possibilities, but less than most nations, as you wont follow Undead Pretenders (which bassically left behind the ghost king and the prince of death)

    Cyclop, which has the bonus of giving some of your mages a mild reinvigoration bonus for relatively low cost.

    Wyrm, which is always a cheap dispossable SC for early expansion at a very very low cost

    Dragon, which also can give possibly a decent bless for your late game angels (specially blue dragon or green dragon)

    Moloch, which is my favourite one, not only becouse thematic reasons, but becouse it is cheap, decent combatant, fly, and have gear options to use as marignon you will go fast to construction becouse of the SDR- Cyclop does not fly, the other 2 do not have enough slots.

    About magic diversity, you dont need a lot of it in your pretender becouse you already have a bunch of good and diverse mages. But you can think about getting a earth 2 pretender to build you your first earth boots to enter in bloodstone economy. If you dont do so, you are highly encouraged to trade for one. A pretender with S2 and E2 allways is good, becouse of the astral +1 coin.

    Scales:
    As marignon, you ideally want to build a lot of castles soon, to abuse your cheap as hell non capital researchers. That means money. The scales:

    Order/turmoil: this is a must. Order 3 means castles and laboratories, which means mages and troops
    Production/sloth: your only resource intensive troops are the ones you wont normally buy. I would get sloth, but 3 is maybe too much, as you need to mass Xbows to be efficent, and becouse knights still cost a bunch of resources.
    Heat/cold. This depends on your point needs. If you have to use one of them, get heat, it will help greatly your later Devils heat aura. I often get heat becouse i need points for the other good scales.
    Growth/death: Growth 3 is heavily advised. Your bulk of researchers are old people with fire magic. Also growth means lot of money, which is great.
    Luck/misfortune. Luck is allways a good scale, but your national heroes are nothing to talk about (they have same spheres than your regular mages), and having high order makes misfortune 1 or 2 a good option to get points from
    Magic/drain. Get magic 1. No explanation provided, just get it.

    Although there are different options, i would rather stick to an Awake Moloch with Dominion 9 (for awe), F3B2, and order 3 sloth 1 heat 3 growth 3 misfortune 1 magic 1 or get 1 extra scale in sloth and misfortune to give him earth 2, which makes him both a much better SC (with ironskin) and makes you your first earth booster, with a slight cost in scales.

    Units overview:

    Crossbowmen. With a cost of 10/8, wielding a crossbow, and having a half decent melee ability (for a missile troop, that is), and playing in nation with national mages with air 2 and fire 3, this are a no-brainer option agaisnt anything but a Arrow-fended army.

    Swordsmen. Good stats for the cost, good protection, and a very good weapon. They lack shield (bad combo with your crossbowmen) and they move 1, which is sometimes a hindrance. Resource intensive as well. I like to buy a few to give them to some key mages as bodyguards versus assasins and horrors (you will have items that horrormark you)

    Halbardiers. Pretty much the same than swordsmen. Worse stats with slightly better damage and reach 4. Normally Swordsmen are a better option

    Pikemen. Like the two above, but change damage for a good Repel weapon (length 6 pikes). Still not worth it most the time

    Men-at-arms: A good tanking unit with nice shield and decent stats, also have the movement 1 problem. Sometimes worth it (your fire mages move 1 as well), but most of the time you can use indy heavy infantries for almost the same effect and less cost.

    Royal Guards: The other jewel of the crown. A lanceless knight with awesome defense, very good stats, and a kite shield that protect them from the flaming bolts of their crossbowmen mates. You need a good group of them to avoid being swarmed, but otherwise very good unit. Bassically your main ¿infantry¿.

    Flagellants: a total waste. With S9F9, and placing them properly behind some shield wearers and arrow-decoys, they can dish out a lot of damage before dying. And they are cheap as hell. S9F9 is also a good bless for your late game summoned angels. I wont sacrifice the scales, though (even if you have the perfect Chasis for this bless, the baphamot), but ymmv

    Commanders

    Scout. You have scouts. So what. Indi provinces also have. (As a hint for newer MP people, BUY a lot of scouts in an indi province. Information about your enemies is key in MP)

    Assasins: It¿s allways nice to have an assasin chasis, but this is a weak one. It¿s not worth it to put him magic items, and you dont have death in early game to give him skull talismans, which is the cheap assasin secret weapon. Still, having a possible tool is better than not having it

    Spies: That is a different story. Spies are great. If you time it well, you can put 3-5 spies in a castle, cast a unrest-rising ritual, and efficiently lock-down a capital for a good bunch of key turns. If you do it soon (without waiting the rituals), and you time it with an efficent knight rush, you can take down a close neighbour (at the cost of the research, you wont buy mages). It might be worth it, specially if you know that your closest enemy is planning to rush you (like most dual bless nations will do)

    Missionary. A priest with sailor. Not worth it imho.

    Inquissitor. A H2 priest with F1 (which means he can research), and 110 gold cost. It is nice to give the troops sermon of courage, although if you can afford the money you would buy great inquisitors instead. Nice to preach and try dominion kills as well

    Great inquisitors: The holders of the faith. With Natural H3, this guys make great prophets (so you get the hard to get Fanatism). They are VERY potent preachers, AND they can blood sacrifice. So dominion kill is a very very viable tactic for Marignon against Dominion weak but strong armed oponents (such as dom 5 double-blessed nations)

    Diabolists: Those guys cost 80g and have blood 1. Give them a Sanguine douse rod and send them to hunt slaves. They can also add to big communions if needed. They are not sacred, which means higher unkeep than Mictlan or Lanka hunters, but even then, they are nice hunters for the cost

    Goetic Masters: Oh yeah. Research 7 pre-scales, with 190g cost, and can have up to f3 or b3 easy, with picks in astral and earth. They can cast Flaming arrows with no problems, later they can do heavy damage with hellfire, bloodrush, fire clouds.... VERY good mages for their cost. And they are not Capital only.

    Captain: A regular 40 unit commander, but very expensive and armorless. They have the bonus of sailing, which might be usefull sometimes. Often, i would rather buy a Sailor Mage and give him a +leadership item. I hate wasting Castle commanders buy in a non-mage

    Chartmaker: A weak lvl 1 mage with random pick and not so cheap (he is sailor). However, they have a major bonus: you can buy them without a laboratory. So you can start a castle somewhere with an indy comander, then buy one of those, then build the laboratory with them. If they get air as pick you have your owl quill creator, if he gets astral, you have a new remote-searcher. A total bargain imho.

    Royal navigators: they cost 150 and they can have air 2 and astral 1 (wich mean communion-thunderstrike material), or air 1 astral 2 (wich mean astral battlemagic if you make comunions, like will of Fate or Antimagic), or A1S1W1 (wich opens you a new path, water, being able to craft frostbands and other water goodies, plus a very easy buff to W2 thanks to water bracelets). They also can sail.

    Admirals: Like captains, but move 80 troops for more cost. Not worth it.

    National Summonables:

    Harlequin. Cost 1 slave, need B1 and research blood 1. They are not bad for the cost, but the problem is they are very intensive order-wise. Would be better if they were 5 harlequins for 5 or even 7 slaves.

    Fallen Angel. You need Blood 7 path, and B4S1 to summon. It cost 88 slaves, and is a decent thug with 47 hp, fly and an in-built 2handed ¿brand¿ weapon. If you equip him with a good armor, specially if you cast Soul Vortex and fire Shield, he can do serious damage. The best part of it is it completelly opens you death magic (he has F3D3B3), so completelly worth the cost

    Harbinger. Need S4 at Conjuration 6. It is a decent thug for the cost (fly, sacred, SR50, FR50, A3 which means mirror image and mistform, and 35 hp). It has a nice heavenly horn weapon as well.

    Angel of Fury: A more than decent thug, and maybe even SC quality depending on your bless and how much items you put him. He has 49 hp, fly, fear and bloodvengeance. It cost 35 pearls, is summoned with S3F1 at conjuration 7. Very nice guy.

    Angels of the host. You get 6 of them for 50 astral pearls. They are not worth it as troops imho (you can get 2 harbingers for that cost), but if you have the gems, it is a potent ritual to kill a province remotely.

    Seraph. It is very expensive and very late game, but it is THE chasis for SC. It has 3 full inmunities, fly, is sacred, have F4S4A4H4, a powerful Awe +6(!) and inbuilt fire shield. It also comes with a group of 3 harbringers and a bunch of angels of the host. Incredible chasis.

    Early Defense and Expansion.

    Bassically you are able to take 2 provinces a turn from turn 2, one of them with your SC (specially if it is a flyer), and another one with your intial army + reinforcements. If you chose a moloch, Just place him slightly behind the middle of the battle map, with orders of hold hold attack archers. His imps decoys will swallow any cavalry charge, and he will charge whatever crossbowmen there are. Ideally however, you wont need to fight cavalry and crossbows before you equip him properly, as it is a flying commander and can choose weaker indies without losing expansion speed. Your regular army will be composed of Pikemen and crossbowmen. There are several ways to expand with missile troops with close to cero loses. For example, place a single troop (even better if it is a royal guard) in the front, with the order of ¿guard commander¿. Place your commander in the leftmost bottom corner, with 5 orders of ¿hold¿ and then¿stay behind troops, and your crossbowmen in the leftmost upper corner. That will make your decoy(s) to run back to your commander, then your commander to run to hide behind the crossbowmen. Most indies will follow the decoy while being massacred by the Xbows, only to face the Pikemen/knights that guard your commander when (IF) they arrive to the combat position.

    Once you start to conquer provinces and you have resources to buy knights, those can expand easily with no loses also. You should be doing 3 provinces per turn very fast.

    Buy a second castle as soon as you can. Sadly, Marignon builds very good castles. Which mean expensive castles that last 4 turns = ( . Get a 2nd castle pumping out mages and knights as soon as humanly possible.

    Against an very early rush, you should be ready to defend with your Moloch, Xbows, few knights and PD. As soon as you get to Construction 2, your Moloch can equip with a decent armor (copper plate if you face an air nation), a enchanted or weighless shield, a fire sword, ice sword or enchanted sword and pendant of luck, more than enough to crunch most rushes singlehandlely or with the help of his crossbowmen. Remember he is inmune to Fire , so f9 bless rushes wont get very far against him. Other SC will have same effect if you build them the fire breastplate or a ring of flame protection. With your high variety of magic, you should be able to tailor-made your Sc versus whatever your oponent is using. That is very dissuasory to say the least.

    Against a stronger turn 10-12 rush, you should focus and swift fast to Enchantment 4 and flaming arrows. That makes your army AND your PD very deadly.

    Magic paths:

    Normally you should rush to Construction 4. That would make you a happy sanguine douse producer, as well as giving your SC god a few key tools, such as brand weapon, maybe etherealness, magic resist, etc. In the way, you will get early defense items for your expanding god at construction 2, as well as the always-nice-to-have Owl quills.

    However, as soon as you feel yourself in danger, switch to Enchantment 4. That will give your god Fire shield (or astral shield, breath of winter, etc, if you chose a SC different than the Moloch), and will give you Flaming Arrows, which is nice to have early. Depending how effective this defense is, you should focus on evocation to make use of your air and fire mages, or keep a long term goal.

    If you defeat your closest neighbour, or can manage the defense without sacrificing too much research, then you should go to Thaumaturgy 2 (remote searchs) and evocation 2 (astral remote search and some combat spells) and then you have 2 options. First one is going to Construction 6, so you get the Lightless Lanterns as well as some nice boosters for Water and Blood, or you can start to rumble into Blood, which is probably the best option.
    Once into Blood, you have several possiblities. One of them is building yourself a couple of bloodstones, which mean you will have several B2E2 mages able to summon the often overlooked Demon knights, which are really a Beast. You can pump armies of flyers with your devils (a tipical trick is using the Devil commander from Horde of Hell as ¿cheap¿ or not so cheap- flying commander for your regular devils). Key spells for you in the blood path are:

    Devils
    Archdevils
    Demon knights
    Ritual of Five gates(this one rocks specially)
    Infernal disease
    Hellfire
    Reascendence

    With boosters and or comunions, the Horror spells (send and call horror and lesser horror) are great spells as well.

    One of the archdevils come with F3S3. This one is a key one for you, becouse it starts with decent astral level. He will be the one that will summon your Seraphs later on, and will be the one that you will use to craft rings of sorcery and rings of wizardry (either empowering him, or trading for a crystal coin). Once empowered in blood (much cheaper), he will be your main caster of Send Horror items.

    I suggest you to buy a lab and temple on the first indy province you can get with nature magic. Specially good are the lizar shaman, but Wolf, bear, deer shamans, jaguar priests, witch doctors, amazons, druids, halfling mages or any other of the several nature independent mages will work. Just buy half a dozen of them, start searching for sites, and empower one of them when you can. With blood and nature you can build a nice +1 blood and +1 nature armor, which makes your bloodempowered shamans to cast rain of toads, another key spell.

    Once you have blood 7, you probably will start to switch to other paths to round up. Construction 7 is good (forge of ancients is a very good global enchantment for everyone, but specially for marignon, which have every path of magic and need a lot of booster items)

    Conjuration is also a good path, since you have several nationals there. It will probably be your first path at 9th level.

    As a side note, related to mages. Build as soon as possible a team of 2 mages, one of them a A1S1W1 royal navigator and the other one a F2E1B2H2 goetic master. Join them a Shaman or druid ASAP. With those 2-3 mages you will cover every path of magic but death (or death and nature until you get a druid-shaman). With that team, start moving every turn and searching every other turn. You will start later to remote search as well, but keep this team of 2-3 mages searching for sites as much as possible.

    Mini-Blood guide.

    There are several very good guides in the forum already, most of which cover the point much better than i able to dream of.

    Just to point it out from the Marignon point of view:

    Marignon works better with a ¿gardening¿ kind of blood. Setting the reign in fire as Mictlan and lanka does, with Death scales, patrolling provinces, and lots of hunters to find lots of slaves and rushing the war wont work. First, marignon do not have incredibly good non-capital sacreds as Mictlan or EA Lanka have. Second, his mages would die in a Death Scale reign. So take your time, put a few of your diabolist with SDR (or goetic masters with B2-3) in a couple of low income provinces (with 5000 pop), and start to colect blood. Your switch from gold to slave economy is slower, but you have better scales to back it up.

    As other guides pointed up, you need cheap mages with B1 and Sanguine douse rods, in population 5000+ provinces, with the lowest possible income (Swamps and wastes are best ones), and low taxes to keep the unrest low. Instead of buying a lab in each of those forest, use indy comanders or scouts to move the slaves to your castles. It is more micro-intensive, but it is much cheaper. 6 provinces where you hunt means 2 castles with labs somewhere else. I often hunt in my normal non-capital castles though. I try to build them in 5000 pop provinces for that reason, specially the ones that are not supposed to build a lot of troops, but mages instead.

    				8.24.2.1.1 Comments on guide

    -> Good work triqui! LA Marignon really needed a proper guide because it's such a great nation. I have thought about writing one myself but now I don't need to.

    I'm currently playing LA Marignon in MP, the game is well into late game(turn 52 iirc) and my position is very strong. So I think this is the proper place to share my observations so far.

        Quote:
        Lack troop variety: marignon have basically crossbow men and royal guards.

    Actually it is crossbows and men at arms. Men at arms is really good heavy infantry and it is ideal for guarding your flaming arrows powered x-bows. Royal guards are good but way too expensive , both gold and resource wise, to be used as mainstay unit. Definitely buy some but don't buy many.

    Pretender and Nation Design
    This section is where I actually disagree with this guide but different strokes for different folks as the saying goes.
    Pretenders: Marignon wants an awake SC god but choice is simple and there is no competition really, take Cyclops. In my opinion cyclops is the strongest SC chassis of the available choices. In addition he can naturally make some critical earth equipment like earth boots & dwarven hammers(these save a metric ton of gems) and most importantly he can actually cast Forge of the Ancients, which is THE global you want as LA Mari for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

    Scales: I say growth isn't needed at all. Growth simply doesn't function fast enough to be worth 120 design points. It doesn't raise any provinces with population below 5000 to reasonable levels in reasonable time frame to allow good blood hunting and provinces with population 6000 will hardly ever go below 5000 during the game. Provinces with population over 7000 certainly won't. Old age is taken care of with Boots of Youth and for cash order is better choice.
    Heat is a good way to get points but I wouldn't take heat 3 because it starts to hurt ice devils quite a bit (hey nobody said you couldn't have the whole bunch of demonic forces ). Magic 1 is a must, I definitely agree.

    For reference my pretender of choice was awake E6 cyclops with dom strength 10. My scales were sloth2/heat1/magic1. Never had any second guesses about it.

    National Summonables:
    Fallen Angel indeed makes fine thug with a little equipment or good SC with more equipment and proper self buffs, namely soul vortex, fire shield and possibly blood vengeance. She also happens to be a very good utility & battle mage and she has great undead leadership. In short, she rocks your world.

    Harbinger makes a grade A thug because of the air magic buffs and extreme deployment range(cloud trapeze). Harbinger is also your fastest access to higher level air magic so empowering one to A4 is a good idea.

    Angel of Fury is a beast in combat like you said.

    Seraph owns hard but LA Marignon certainly doesn't lack SC chassises so getting these isn't an urgent thing.

    Early game & expansion:
    Equipping your SC with cheap trinkets is a wise move. I had my cyclops to return to the capitol for turn five just to receive his newly forged enchanted sword & enchanted shield, after that he started to totally crush everything.

    Magic:
    I tried using summon devil/demon knight but found soon that binding one mage for one demon/turn just isn't worth it timewise. It is vastly better idea just research to B6 and start using Ritual of Five Gates, which indeed rocks. For single demon summoning make soul contracts, after construction 6 even lowliest B3 goetic master can make them with booster items. Indeed make a LOT of blood boosters.

    Summon Ice Devil is a top notch blood spell. IDs make excellent SCs and give you powerful water access. For summoning one empower a royal navigator with W random in blood and add in the boosters(brazen vessel, blood thorn, water bracelet and robe of the sea). For getting the robe use empowering, trade for one or hire master Gibur to forge it. Similarly empowering a harbinger gets you robe of the archmagi. Empowering a S random navigator gives good access to horror related stuff.

    Magoth, the arch devil with F3S3, is indeed great for lots of things and one neat trick among others is demon gateway. Works exactly like normal gatewaying, for both defense & offense, but army of demon knights & devils is quite likely more dangerous than your normal bunch of troops. Fallen Angels can also use similar technique with stygian paths.

    For battle magic darkness(alteration 6) needs its own sentence because it is the I-win-this-battle-now button against any mortal troops. Use it.

    So there you have some comments/ideas, I'll add more when I'm not tired. All in all, I think players who haven't given LA Marignon a try will find your guide useful. Here's some cake and a medal for job well done.

    -> I would have to disagree about the value of the Men-At-Arms. They are very good troops, cost is not that high, and they have a very high morale. Just some extremely good infantry to lead your charges, in my opinion.

    -> The cyclops is a solid SC chasis for sure, and give you access to the very much needed earth 2 without needing to trade. Howeever, i like the flexibility of flying SC chasis. It's a great raiding tool and a great defensive anti-raiding tool, plus makes it much much easier to go back to labs to upgrade gear or to change it to tailor-made your resistances versus a certain oponent.

    I happen to like Growth 3 with every nation that has old age, specially those with fire magic. I hate when a mage dies, even if Marignon ones are cheap enough to be replaced without problem. You can afford it with Heat 3, which is a tough hit, but a perfectly possible one. Sometimes it is even a possitive scale, like when you face Uttgarde or Caelum :p

    Darkness clearly is a I-win-Button. Even if you can only cast it with summonable commanders, it is worth naming it.

    I guess i will try a few more the Men-at-arms then, since you both have given possitive feedback about them. I dont like slow moving armies for some reason, and i tend to discard every unit with strat move 1 for that reason. Even very good units as the Hoplite Driads from LA pangaea are out of my tactic book for that reason. Will try this one a bit more though.

    	    	    	8.24.2.2 LA marignon guide

    				8.24.2.2.1 Original guide

    I cannot find any good guide on LA marignon so I figured I would write one myself. Hopefully people will add enough feedback to make it decent. I'm no veteran on this specific nation, just played them a couple of mp games, but I will try my best. Note that it will be a work in progress and I will add more when time permits.

    Units:
    crossbowman(10g/8r): Best unit available for recruiting. Good damage, and they can perform fair even in melee. These should be the unit you recruit most frequently.

    swordsman/Halbardier/Pikeneer/Man at arms: All decent variations, with similar stats. I prefer the man at arms, since it has a shield, they perform well as meat shields for your crossbowmens.

    Flagellants(10g/4r): Some people swear by flagellants with something like a f9s9 bless. I personally don't like that idea. To invest that heavily into sacred unit that dies like flies seems pointless. They will be massacred by your crossbowmen and they all have afflictions. No thanks.

    Royal guard (50g/49r): Decent cavalry for those special needs (flanking/taking out commanders etc). Don't build many however, crossbowmen should be your core unit.

    Commanders
    Scout/spy/assassin - Basic scout/spy/assassin, not much to add, you know what these do.

    Missionary(60g/1r) - A basic national priest, with one key difference. It has sailing, so it can be brought overseas.

    Inqusitor/High Inqusitor - High level priest, especially good at preaching against enemy faiths. The high inquisitor also has H3, so it's good to use if you are going for a bless build (divine bless).

    Diabolist(80g/1r) - A cheap blood hunter . Key unit you will be mass producing later on.

    Goetic master(190g/1r)- Sacred mage, 2f+ (fire arrows etc), and strong in blood (you will get a bunch with 3+ in blood). Overall a very good mage.

    Captain(75g/6r) - Commander with sailing.

    Chartmaker(70g/2r)- You can build this guy without a laboratory. If you have a lab you have better commanders available.

    Royal Navigator(150g/2r) - Good for site searching in astral and air. Later on I tend to empower a few in blood to spam Infernal tempest. A nice mage to have but I seldom have more than a few.

    Admiral(100g/6r) - Similar to the captain, a bit more expensive, but can command 2x the troops.

    Specific summons
    Conjuration tree - Will cover these later. They are all really good if you have the astral gems to summon them up. Usually I prefer to go up the blood tree instead so I tend to neglect these for a while.

    Bind Harlequin(1 blood) - Jebus these are a waste of mage time to summon. Get them if you are really desperate.

    Reascendance(88 blood) - Excellent SCs or backup mages. If I remember correctly they have 3D3F3B. They are actually more cost efficient than the standard ice devils/arch devils (in the role as SC fighters). A script like phoenix pyre/soul vortex/etc works best. There are no limit to how many you can summon either.

    Design:
    Build 1: Baphomet, dom 9 -F9S9
    order: 3 - I like order, gold is always nice
    Sloth: 3 - Well flaggies don't take much production
    Heat: 3 - Would ideally like to avoid it, but we need the points.
    Growth: 3 - I really like to have growth 3 since it offsets the damage done by blood hunting.
    Misfortune: 2 - My usual setting for this scale.
    Magic: 1 - Should allow for a rapid research

    Comment:I would not recommend this build, but it deserves to be mentioned for a couple of reasons. It will allow you to build decent flagies early on that can dish out damage. It will also allow all conj summons later on. Also a pretender with S9 in late game is very nice to have. I would still not recommend it since it's alot of design points, and in my opinion flaggies are not that great.

    Build 2: Awake cyclops, dom 10 -earth 4
    Order: 3
    Productivity: 3 - massing alot of crossbow men for a maximum expansion rate
    Heat: 3
    Growth: 0
    Misfortune: 2
    Drain: 2

    Comment: Excellent early game, the cyclops should be able to expand on turn 1, if you send it into a forest province. The powerful early game should be turnable into a strong late game with heavy blood dependency. Also you should be able to start a blood stone economy and with your pretender setting up the forge can be a viable plan. You will have a harder time accessing high level astral spells however.

    				8.24.2.2.2 Comments

    -> i think you dismiss the flagellants too easily... many good strats can be based on them. sure, they die like flies, but are cheap enough - their big weakness is massed archers.

    As to Build 1 - why would you take the oracle, and not the flaming head? redo the numbers... flaming head should give you a couple scales - increase the dominion, since a bless strat w/ flags is all about spamming them.

    nice start at a guide

    one comment, perhaps it is a bug, but you can recruit the chartmaker at a castle w/out a lab...

    -> Flaggies, Pros and Cons:

    Pros,

    Very Cheap for Sacred,
    Buildable at any fort with temple,
    Flails provide two attacks per round,
    Good Synergy with H3 inquisitors,
    High Morale (which gets even higher with Bless and Sermon).

    Cons,

    Low Protection,
    Come with Afflictions,
    Little Synergy with Crossbowmen.

    I'm much more familiar with Flaggies from MA Mary, but they are largely the same late era, I think. Remember, they get two attacks with their Flails, making F9 an incredibly appealing bless for them. However, as has been said before, they don't have much in the way of survivability. The best way to give them this is either W or A (in particular W9 combines with F9 and flails to devastating effect). However, neither of these paths has much in the way of synergy for Marignon (I think). This is where S comes in. S9 gives them a bit more surviability, and when combined with fire summons Mary's angels. Furthermore, Mary gets the Baphomat Chasis, which makes getting F9S9 cheaper than any other Chasis I can think of. So, its a trad off.

    Alternatively, you can buy fodder elsewhere to use as a screen so flaggies can get into melee range where they tend to win out right, especially for their cost.

    ->

    	8.25 Marverni

    Article Author: Baalz

    I've heard several people describe Marverni as the weakest EA nation of all. As with many of the perceived weak races though, they've got some serious strengths which, with proper cleverness, can transform this unsupposing nation into a juggernaut which will leave your confused opponents sorry they underestimated you.

    Marverni's got a broad variety of decent troops to pick from, but nothing first class. This is a bit worrisome in the dual-bless heavy EA, and is compounded by the general impression that Marverni is easy pickings. Going with an awake combat pretender is the classical move in this situation, and indeed this will work as well for Marverni as anyone else, but I feel that this overlooks the strengths of Marverni and merely sets you up to lose more slowly as your opponent will likely have an awake pretender *AND* superior troops. If you're willing to use a bit of finesse though Marverni's got the tools to fight back most rushes without a pretender, and this frees you up to design Marverni to be a truly dominating mid-game player with an easy transition to a late game beast. Marverni really needs good scales to shine: needs production to crank out swarms of cheap troops, solid research is its lifeblood, and they need every piece of gold they can beg, borrow, or steal for it's awesome but ruinously expensive druids¿who incidentally are often old so don¿t overlook growth. My preference is to lean towards excellent scales over a tough pretender.

    So, lets take a look at the tools in your arsenal and what you're gonna do when the wolves gather at your gate.

    Barechests  several flavors, all of them cheap, and all of them fairly good for the price¿except the lack of armor. This lack of armor coupled with the cheap price tag means these guys fit nicely into the disposable troops bucket and work very well against some kinds of enemies because of the numbers you'll be able to field them in. Against anybody who hits hard  dual blessed Lanka, Mictlan, Niefel  it doesn't really matter what your protection is so a press of cheap flesh is best, and the barechests have a pretty decent offense. Against high defense/glamoured troops or jaguar warriors javelins are quite effective in large numbers and even slings can do impressively en masse in the lower protection EA. Remember, the name of the game is critical mass. 20 barechests = why bother. 200 javelins & sling bolts focused on 15 glamoured raiders = why did they tell me Marverni was a pushover? Make sure you leverage your PD to get a lot of bodies on the ground when fighting defensively, a PD of 20 will get you 60 bodies so a supplemental army of merely 40 will get you the previously mentioned 200 shots over two rounds. More is better!

    But what about the tougher sacreds and SC pretenders? They're gonna stomp right through mere spear chuckers! Enter the Carnute axe wielder. These guys are pretty much made for chopping up big trees. Decent strength? Check. High damage axe? Check. These guys would be decent at this job if it stopped there, but they've got a very respectable berserk bonus stacked on top of that. This means that when berserk they ignore awe & fear auras (important against any SC pretenders), have a pretty good attack and deal enough damage to punch through any armor you'll see in the early part of the game. And remember the Marverni mantra strength in numbers. You should outnumber any super-elites drastically and can afford to take losses bringing them down while still winning on a gold for gold basis. If you're fighting the type of enemies that your berserk bonus makes a big difference, research up to berserkers and leverage those cheap nature mages to make sure you take advantage of it without needing to be hit first. Also, don¿t overlook tangling vines, you¿ll have lots of N1 mages in the beginning, your axe wielders should make short work of most anything that holds still for a second and from elephants to dual blessed guys you¿re not going to see huge numbers of them in an early rush so 3 tangle vine spammers can make quite a difference (bonus: you¿ll likely have a growth scale so it¿s more effective).

    Against archers and more conventional armies Marverni's got some pretty respectable medium infantry in various flavors. Slingers are often overlooked, but Marverni slingers have shields which make them ideal counters to other archers given their price and the fact that the enemy archers will not have shields or heavy armor. Given the number of lightly armored guys you¿ll likely have running around, having a cheap and easy archer counter is a very nice thing indeed. For important fights use clumps of slingers in the front row set to fire (at enemy archers) and flee to really break up enemy formations. The Carnute noble is a very respectable all around guy, and what you'll probably want to use for the bulk of general purpose indy expansion. Note: Carnute nobles are tougher, but they're also more expensive gold wise as well as resource wise than the Carnute bare chests. Be aware that against super-elites it's often better to have extra bodies on the ground than extra protection and make your choice appropriately. If you¿re going into a fight expecting to take some losses, consider mixing a few horn blowers into your troops. They¿re relatively expensive and die pretty quick, but their standard will significantly improve your troop¿s staying power for important fights.

    The cavalry I find a bit lackluster without a lance, but they¿re not that expensive as cavalry goes and can be useful as flanking archer killers. Boar warriors are pretty decent, and might even be worth designing a bless strategy around if they weren't capital only. As it is, consider taking advantage of them if you end up with an incidental decent bless, just mix them in with your Carnute nobles. Even without a bless they might be worthwhile to use if you think those extra couple points of berserk will make a difference for whatever you¿re fighting. Some people like the Boar Warriors, and you can make a pretty impressive initial expansion if you take a dual bless, but I dislike pursuing a strategy that other nations pull off better, and lets face it in the sacred units category EA is brutally competitive. Plus, the blessings which most help the Boar Warrior do absolutely noting for your magic diversity. Besides, even without Boar Warriors your initial expansion should be relatively quick as your Carnute nobles fare pretty well against most indies, and slingers fare surprisingly well against the almost non-existent protection of many indies in EA (while your nobles ignore the friendly fire).

    Aim to get a second (and third) castle up fairly fast, Marverni has a whole lot of options for 800 gold forts  this is a national advantage you should be mindful of as this can be translated into a leading position in research. Forego druids at first as 2 druids = a fort costwise! With a positive magic scales though, your cheaper mages are decent researchers so use your good scales and quick expansion to set up a couple recruitment centers ASAP, with the added benefit that this will put you in a much stronger position if a rush does materialize. I¿d recommend starting with the Gutuaters as they¿ll give you several good low research things to throw at a rush: tangling vines (vs high defense guys like Vans), berserkers (vs awe, fear, high protection), curse (vs SC enemy pretenders, giants), sleep (vs elephants). Remember, if you¿re being pressed by an aggressive rush don¿t hesitate for a second to pass out gems to, for instance, cast sleep if you don¿t happen to have the guy with the right randoms available (or enough of them). As you start building up in research though it¿s good to switch to Stargazers and begin building up a base of communion slaves while stockpiling gold for more fortresses and eventually druids.

    Now I want to digress for a second here to mention one aspect of pretender choice. You've got a couple reasonable choices, but I really feel adding air to this nation greatly enhances their effectiveness for a couple reasons. I'll discuss more in the following sections, but I wanted to point out how having a reasonably strong (level 4+) air mage could be immensely useful for the tactics outlined above. Wind guide  multiplies the effectiveness of all those javelins/slings by a considerable amount. If you throw in fire to round out your magic diversity adding flaming arrows to the mix will turn your PD into a very formidable force which your air/fire pretender can cloud trapeze in to buff in the path of any invader. Arrow Fend & Storm  neuters the obvious counter to swarms of lightly armored guys. Fog Warriors & Mass Flight are just made for swarms of cheap dudes with good weapons  oh lets go ahead and toss in strength of giants and weapons of sharpness for a force that'll kill almost anything while costing pennies. I like a Phoenix because of the ability to leverage your immortality with a scary dominion push (discussed below), but obviously there are a couple reasonable choices.

    Ok, so you've employed the above tactics to fend off the hungry dual blessed wolves, but this doesn't sound like the type of strategy that leads to world domination. I promised a juggernaut! Enter the druid. This guy seems good at first, but it's not obvious *how* good until you really think about it. One of your early research targets should be ench-3 for Strength of Giants, this greatly enhances the damage output of not only your swords & axes, but also your javelins. With Strength of Giants those hundreds of javelins are dealing 17 damage apiece and start hitting the range of dealing enough damage to punch through shield blocks. As your guys generally have axes or broad swords and above average strength, stacking strength of giants puts them up into the fairly heavy damage dealer territory for melee if the javelins alone weren¿t enough  berserk Carnute nobles are hitting for 25 damage which will fell some might big Niefel trees.

    Your next research target is going to depend on what you think you'll be facing, and how urgently you think you'll need it. If you're not sorely pressed it's a good idea to pick up conj-3 for summon earth power, but if you are in a pinch you can skip it and make up the difference by passing out earth gems. It's also always nice to pick up the schools for site searching spells, but the next real crown jewels are in the evocation tree. Blade wind is hideously effective in the lightly armored EA, and just one step above that you gain access to Gifts from Heaven and with Earthpower (or gems) every one of your recruit everywhere druids can cast both. Ah, Gifts from Heaven, that spell that seems kind cool, but also seems kinda a crap shoot because of its precision coupled with long range. Ah, but what's this? Druids have a fairly decent chance of getting a nature random and can thus self buff eagle eyes. What's this again? You've got access to air magic through your pretender (and hopefully some indie mages he's been able to site search) and start cranking out eyes of aiming as fast as you can. With the consequent 22+ precession those cute flaming balls of unresistable death will be falling with deadly regularity just where you want them to and those clouds of blades will fall in devastatingly tight groupings from across the field. A single druid can lay down enough hurt to rout a medium sized army, and most PD¿oh, and did I mention they all (some with the help of a booster) can teleport?

    Try something like this: druid + black steel tower shield + robe of missile protection + boots of the messenger + eye of aiming (+ starshine skull cap if necessary for teleporting). Set in the back row and script summon earth power ( + eagle eyes if he has a nature pick), gifts from heaven/blade wind X4. Singlehandedly this guy can take out everything from some types of PD to tartarian raiders so long as he steers clear of flyers or cavalry (which he can mostly handle if he's defending supported by light PD). He's essentially immune to arrow fire, has the paths, strength, and reinvigoration to cast for many rounds (if you're raiding PD) or to take 3 shots and then cast returning if you're dropping in to ruin a SC or elite army's day. Use them in pairs (or more) for heavier opposition and there's not much immune to their raiding.

    Once your enemy starts deploying flyers or other counters to the nightmare of druids dropping out of the sky all over the place its time to leverage a heavier tank. From most flyers to most spells a properly outfitted golem will be immune to the things your opponent will be bringing to counter the druid terror. Golems have their own counters, to be sure, but in general these are diametrically different than the counters for Gift of Heaven spamming druids and with the luxury of your teleporting you get to pick who fights in each fight. For example, a fire and lightning immune, mindless, lifeless golem can drop in and happily stomp over the flyers and mages set to counter your druids. The next turn your opponent teleports/moves a response to the golem in only to find your golem casts returning and the three gift of heaven spamming druids who teleported in get to act first as defenders from behind the swarm of PD you've purchased, skipping the summon earth power (using earth boots/gems) to drop precision boosted meteors/blade wind on them first turn (blade wind is important to consider as a standard counter to golems is to teleport in some guys to cast magic duel  this will really ruin their day). Ah, but the fun's not over yet, after squishing his response you now gateway in a whole slew of troops to the lab that the golem built and buffed with strength of giants and weapons of sharpness (conveniently unlocked when you researched golems) they make a very discouraging wall of linebackers who chop up whatever cleverness your opponent thought was going to counter both druids and golems (that 25 Carnute damage is now AP...youch!).

    But wait, there's more! Each of those teleporting druids is also a level 2 priest¿and can blood sacrifice¿.and Marverni's temples are only 200 gold. Just think about that for a second and you should see the awesome potential for dominion killing an opponent with a weak dominion if you can scrape together a tiny blood economy to fuel your blood sacrificing. Teleport in a half dozen druids to take out PD in the territories surrounding your opponent's capital, each one plops down a temple and recruits their own PD blockers, then proceeds to blood sacrifice. Equipped with a jade dagger each temple + druid sacrificing will function as 5 temples and each druid himself will provide a very capable deterrent to your opponent counter-raiding your temples, stuck behind some PD blockers as he is. So, for 1200 gold worth of temples plus whatever you spend on the PD you get the effect of 30 temples concentrated in a small area, each of them defended by a formidable force (who conveniently won't use your blood slaves fighting off attackers). Throw this out of the clear blue sky at somebody with a weak dominion and there will be no way that he'll be able to recover in time. Oh, did I mention this is a completely feasible to do to somebody clear across the map since you're teleporting everything in? Scan that score graph for the guy who thought design points in dominion were a waste.

    Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking  enough about the druids. But¿but...but wait, there's more! These guys may just be my all time favorite mage. You'll get plenty of S3 and S4 druids, as they're recruitable everywhere you've got the potential to mind hunt or enslave mind as readily as R'yleh as you can easily forge crystal coins as well as starshine caps. All those great earth and astral alterations, from Army of Lead to Will of the Fates are at your fingertips easier than perhaps any other nation because of the ease of forging boosters and the slew of S1 communion slave fodder available. As you'll be cranking out druids from several castles you won't have much trouble netting a N2 and W2 one, with easy to forge boosters these guys will be level 4, and with power of the spheres/crystal shield (easily forgable) that bumps them to level 5  before you even consider a communion there aren't many spells that one of your druids can't cast from the paths of Earth, Astral, Water, and Nature. Assuming you've picked a pretender as I suggested with good Fire and Air paths this leaves just Death and Blood as the only thing you don't have *strong* (level 5+ in combat) access to without tapping your communions  all of it teleport/cloud trapeze capable. Death is perhaps the easiest path to bootstrap into, and blood should probably be ignored (aside from blood sacrificing).

    On to late game.

    Much of the mid game strategies above will work verbatim into late game as well. Precision boosted Gifts from Heaven are one of the best SC killers, and you'll upgrade from wooden warriors and strength of giants to army of lead and mass regeneration but you'll maintain those keys to late game success  mobility and flexibility. Use that air pretender to forge a couple staffs of storms and drop in groups of druids for hit and run fun against large enemy armies. Use cheap battlefield summons like swarm to tie up cavalry for the couple rounds you need, then either go with the good old gifts from heaven or: summon earth power, invulnerability, earthquake, earthquake, vortex of returning (imagine that with 3+ mages). Mix in Doom if you feel like being particularly mean. If you can manage to get the Forge of the Ancients up (easily castable by a national mages), I'm sure you can think of some nasty, nasty implications combined with the recruit anywhere nature of druids and each one's effectiveness when kitted. Those S4 druids are S6 with cap and coin, S7 with light of the northern star, S8 with a crystal shield. Hmmm, to me that sounds like a first round Master Enslave pulled off with a non-empowered national mage and fairly cheap items, with slots for a rune smasher and eye of the void (have a supporting mage holding a banner of the northern star cast vortex of returning for an army snatch that your opponent gets no chance at all to respond to if you're defending). Think having 4 or 5 of these pairs teleporting around might pose a problem for your opponents? There are almost no army effecting buffs you can't easily cast, and you've got ideal units to cast them on (cheap, good offense).

    Is that juggernaut enough for you?

    	8.26 Mictlan

    	    	8.26.1 EA Mictlan (Baalz)

    Article Author: Baalz

    		This is a guide to early era Mictlan, though much of it is also applicable to late era. Middle era Mictlan is a nation best reserved for sado-masochists as they loose all the best things about being Mictlan. (edit: MA Mictlan has since been overhauled and now has their own charm)

    The philosophy needed to successfully play Mictlan is different from most of the other nations. First and foremost Mictlan is the most powerful blood nation in the game, but to properly leverage this strength takes a well managed strategy of balance and planning. Mictlan¿s blood economy will drive a lot of power in the mid and late game and fortunately cheap and effective holy units carry them through the early game. First, let take a look at the national units available to recruit.

    Warrior  The warriors come with either slings or javelins and are either lightly or not armored. They are not very effective in combat, though they are the only nationally recruitable archers. Clearly Mictlan will not win any archery contests, and generally these units will only be used as chaff. The unarmored warriors are, however, easily massable and can be effective against opponents who have a weakness to archery (slow infantry with no shields and light armor). They can also be an effective vehicle for the flaming arrows spell, though their range is not great.

    Feathered warrior  Expensive and not very useful. He does carry a standard though, so I guess you could use him if you¿re having moral problems. Generally you won¿t be though, as the bulk of your army will be blessed sacred troops.

    Jaguar Warrior  The Jaguar Warrior is the backbone of the Mictlan recruitable army. On first glance he may not strike you as anything special, but he has a couple of traits which make him shine. First and foremost is the fact that he is holy, and this is the reason a good bless is critical for Mictlan. His sword is pretty good, dealing 18 damage once you factor in his strength, and this damage output can be increased with a good bless. He also will transform into a were-jaguar when critically wounded. This is really effective at giving the jaguar warriors some staying power because it effectively gives them a lot more hit points than most humans and makes it impossible to kill them with a single hit regardless of how much damage is done. When in were-jaguar form they have three attacks, which is a very nice thing to have with a good blessing. Finally, they not only are practically free from a resource point of view, they are also recruitable from any castle, not just your capital. Their effectiveness, price, and ease to mass make the Jaguar warrior the mainstay of Mictlan¿s early game army. What they lack in durability of some of the other nations high caliber sacred troops, they make up for it in numbers. One bonus not a lot of people know about is that when shape shifting involuntarily (as the Jaguar Warriors do when critically wounded, and at the end of combat when the shift back to human) there is a pretty good chance to heal afflictions.

    Eagle Warrior  An excellent supplement to the jaguar warrior core of your army, Eagle Warriors give Mictlan a good answer to the Jaguar Warrior¿s main weaknesses, archers and mages. Unfortunately the Eagle Warriors are only recruitable in your capital, and are holy, so you will have a limited amount of them. Also, they clearly illustrate by contrast the survivability advantage that the Jaguar Warriors shape change gives them. Eagle Warriors are effective, but they have a high attrition rate which compounds the difficulty in recruiting and relegates the Eagle Warriors to a supporting role to be rolled out mostly just for decisive battles.

    Sun Warrior  another capital only holy warrior that is eclipsed by the jaguar warrior in almost every way. They are much more resource intensive than the jaguar warriors, and their extra armor doesn¿t really give them any more survivability because of the jaguar warrior¿s extra hit points. To top it off, they¿re much slower than the Jaguar warriors.

    Now, the commanders:

    Scout- nothing special, he scouts

    Tribal King  the only non-mage commander, useful for shuttling troops around, though you¿ll usually need a priest to bless your holy troops so your priest kings will do most of the leading of real troops. Can also levy slaves, though the slaves are mostly useless in combat other than as arrow catchers.

    Mictlan Priest  this inauspicious guy is actually in my opinion the best unit it Miclan¿s arsenal. Why do I make such a claim about such a small mage? I¿ll explain in detail below, but this is the engine to Mictlan¿s blood economy, and a darn good one. They are very cost effective researchers (particularly with a magic scale). They only cost 60 gold and are holy so are cheap to maintain, and are recruitable everywhere. You¿ll want to amass as many of these guys as you can, you can never have enough. On top of blood hunting and researching, they are useful in a several situations because you¿ll have so many of them. Calling back a god is a sinch. Hoards of undead, no problem. Lots of archers giving your jaguar warriors grief? Send in a dozen Mictlan Priests scripted to cast summon imp a couple times. Use them as Sabbath slaves for your bigger mages. I just love these little guys.

    Nahaulli  A versatile supplement to Mictlan¿s early game, when they shape change into a turkey they have a mesmerize attack which (if they fail a mage resistance check) causes an enemy to attack the closest person, friend or foe. This can be a surprisingly effective supplement to early expansion, and the fact that they can fly means you can easily shift them around to whatever army needs the most help. Really their biggest drawback is if you¿re recruiting a Nahaulli you¿re not recruiting a Mictlan Priest. You¿ll want to script them to ¿stay behind troops¿, if you give them the ¿fire¿ order they¿ll advance into melee when their ammo of 5 is expended! These guys are a lot more useful if you research alteration a bit so they can buff your units¿ protection, but this comes as an unfavorable tradeoff to some other critical research that needs to be done early.

    Priest King  High leadership and able to bless your sacred troops, this will be the general for most of your human troops. He¿s the only real mage you¿ve got that isn¿t old. Same as the Nahaulli, alteration lets him give your lightly armored troops a good bit more staying power.

    Rain Priest  This is your water mage you¿ll use to do water mage thingies.

    Moon Priest  This is your astral mage, use him to do astral thingies.

    Sun Priest  kinda expensive and prone to disease because he¿s old, but he does several important things for you. He¿s a level three priest, so he can throw down a divine blessing which is nice when you start having larger armies of holy units. He¿s also a level three blood mage, so just one empowering will allow him to forge brazen vessels, which unlocks all the blood you need (give the brazen vessel to a priest king to forge armor of twisted thorns, or to another sun priest if this one gets diseased and dies, or to a rain priest to summon ice devils, or a moon priest to send horrors, or give it to this one to get a level 5 blood mage which lets you cast ritual of the five gates and infernal disease).

    Briefly, some of the more important summons:

    Beast Bats  summonable by all those Mictlan Priests so you can get a bunch of them in a hurry if you need to. Holy so they can take advantage of your nice blessing.

    Jaguar Fiends  What¿s not to like? Flying, sacred, fairly cheap and pretty wicked when properly blessed. Only downside is your only option to summon them is the expensive sun priest or one of the rare Mictlan Priests who get a random pick in fire so you¿ll probably have trouble getting too many.

    Tzitzzimitl  kinda hard to mass, but very effective artillery versus high protection troops.

    Tlahuelpuchi  AWESOME assassin, any of your big priests can summon, and not too expensive so you can crap out a bunch real quick if you see somebody who doesn¿t yet appreciate the benefits of bodyguards. They fly, assassinate, and are blood mages, so give them a couple blood slaves and script (depending on research and situation) summon imp, hellbind heart, or leech.

    Onaqui  very good support summon. Let your Ice/Arch devils be the front line damage dealers, this guy should sit at home doing magely things and auto-summoning beast bats.

    Hoard from Hell  some nations have real difficulty dealing with the imps and you can summon them remotely wherever there isn¿t much defense.

    For your pretender design, here are the things you want to keep in mind. Taking sloth is as close to a no-brainer as you get in Dominions as Mictlan really doesn¿t have much use for resources. Once you start blood hunting you¿ll be setting the tax rate in many of your provinces to 0% to keep the unrest in check, so taking turmoil scales will affect you less than other nations. Taking a single scale in magic is a pretty effective way to make use of those Mictlan Priests. Luck is usually a nice thing to take when you¿re taking turmoil because of the synergy, and it also gives you a better chance of getting Mictlan¿s national heroes which unlock magic paths you otherwise might have trouble getting. You¿ll want a fairly high dominion so that you can recruit lots of holy units, and of course you¿ll want to carefully consider what blessing you want. Depending on what tradeoffs you want to make you can even have a triple blessing, and don¿t fail to consider the fourth level blessings (particularly fire, blood and water). Most of the blessings work well with Mictlan¿s troops, though the earth blessing doesn¿t do much for you because the troops are so lightly armored. Outside of blessing considerations, taking high levels of astral and blood allow some powerful blood spells, and earth is something Mictlan has a hard time getting if it¿s not on their pretender.

    Ok, now that we¿ve examined the starting lineup, let¿s discuss what you¿re going to do with it. With a decent bless, your holy warriors are good but their strength lies in numbers. This, combined with the fact that you¿re going to want as many Mictlan Priests/ Nahaulli you can get means that you¿re going to want to get additional castles as fast as possible. The philosophy you need when playing Mictlan is one of elegant minimalism, you need to consider every piece of gold you spend. Instead of recruiting units, you¿ll often want to save that gold for another castle or (later) blood hunting, and this requires planning ahead. When I say that Mictlan¿s holy troops rely on numbers I mean that on the scale of holy units- your army size will be a small elite army compared to more conventional armies. Always keep in mind that they are just the first stage rocket meant to get you to the real jewels, so don¿t invest an inappropriate amount into them. What you really want to do is get to the blood magic as fast as possible without sacrificing the early growth of your nation.

    ***Blood hunting***

    The thing to keep in mind when going blood hunting is that there is an opportunity cost to it the gold you could have had if you weren¿t doing it. This is quite different than other gems which are more of a bonus  there is no trade off. What this means as far as your strategy is that whenever you ¿convert¿ a province from giving you gold to giving you blood slaves you need to adjust how your economy functions. Every time you crank up your blood slave flow, you need to adjust the rest of your strategy to the lower gold flow to keep from grinding to a halt.

    In a practical sense, that means the more you blood hunt, the less you can recruit troops for gold. Done properly you can switch recruiting nationals for summoning demons (a pretty good trade off), but done haphazardly your economy will crash leaving you unable to support enough of an army to defend yourself.

    You¿ll generally want to do minimal blood hunting initially, use your gold for troops and your mages for researching. Always keep in mind when you start blood hunting you¿re giving something up, so don¿t do it until you can get a payback greater than the cost. What this point is depends on what your strategy is, but will generally be a certain level of research in construction or blood. Also keep in mind that there is going to be a lag from when you start blood hunting to when you get that payback, so switching to blood hunting when in an intense war is a decision that takes quite a bit of thought.

    Another thing to keep a close eye on when you start giving your gold economy the axe is upkeep. If your upkeep is running 40% of your income you¿re fine, but if you cut your gold income in half when you start blood hunting suddenly you don¿t have enough gold to replace that lab that just burned down because your upkeep is 80%. Mages in particular, but don¿t recruit any troops just because you¿ve got the resources for it. Once you switch to blood let the demons be the workhorses. This is something you have to start managing BEFORE you start blood hunting, even if you have the gold laying around think about it before you buy every unit. This is why you want to keep most of your troops sacred, and your army size relatively small. Of course, this isn¿t an either-or question, you can crank your blood up just a bit and keep some gold flowing in, but you¿ve always got to keep in mind that balance.

    As far as where to blood hunt, basically how it boils down is that there is no difference in the blood slaves you get for any population over 5000, so blood hunting in a 10k population province will get you the same blood slaves as the 5k province, but (all other things being equal) will cost you twice as much gold. The other thing to keep in mind to is depending on your scales, and if you're patrolling to reduce unrest your population may be dropping, so if you start hunting in provinces real close to 5k you could drop under that before long and you start getting diminishing returns.

    Where to blood hunt depends on a couple things. Always start with the provinces closest to 5k (with no mines or other gold boosting sites) as these will be the "cheapest" blood slaves. As you start wanting more and more blood slaves, start moving up the chain to higher and higher population provinces but keep in mind each one will have a higher cost in gold than the one before it. How high you go really depends on the strategy you¿re following, you¿re almost always going to need some gold so this is where you need to focus on balance. If you're going for a very tight blood focus (a good strategy with Mictlan), I find that in very general terms by the time I end up putting blood hunters in the territories close to 10k population my gold income has dropped to the point that I enter more of my ¿blood mode¿ and stop really recruiting troops (including blood hunters) and instead save the little gold I get for buying mages for specific needs and building labs and temples. By that time you¿ve got enough blood slaves coming in that you can get a good amount of summoning done every round to compensate.

    On blood hunting the provinces under 5k it¿s more a question of the upkeep cost of the blood hunters because the gold income hit isn¿t as much. This is where the Mictlan Priests really shine. They¿re so damn cheap, I find it¿s also worthwhile to put them in the 4k-5k population provinces as well, and even occasionally the sub 4k ones. You won¿t get quite as many blood slaves (4/5 the blood slaves for a 4k population), but when your blood hunters cost 60 gold and are holy you¿re not paying much for the blood slaves either. And again, it all depends on what your other options are, how valuable the blood slaves are to you, how easy it is to defend those blood hunters, what other territories you have, etc.

    The thing to keep in mind is that you¿re always ¿paying¿ gold for blood slaves, you just need to decide what price you¿re willing to pay. The more blood slaves you want, the more expensive they are¿but getting to the point that you¿re sucking in 100+ blood slaves a turn is a pretty sweet spot if you can do it while remaining stable.

    You¿ll also need to keep in mind the protection of your blood hunters. Mictlan is very vulnerable to raiding by stealthy troops because your blood hunters are going to be spread out and not terribly effective at defending themselves unsupported. Place castles where you can, and pull your blood hunters inside them whenever you think you should to protect them. Ideally you¿d like a castle on each province you¿re blood hunting, but in practice that¿s usually not feasible because of your restricted gold income. The 8th level blood spell Three Red Seconds is an expensive way to place castles using blood slaves instead of gold, so that may be an option in the later stages of the game. Scripting all your blood hunters to retreat from the back row will save you a lot of grief if you start getting raided.

    Here¿s an example strategy to get your blood economy going:

    It¿s usually a good idea to research up to construction-4 before researching blood with Mictlan. The main reason is because up until around that point your mages are more useful researching than blood hunting. You don't need any blood summons immediately because your holy troops are tough enough to deal with whatever they need to initially, and you're capitol's natural income is enough to keep you blood sacrificing at first. The nice thing about using all those Mictlan priests to research is that the very turn that you finish researching construction-4 they can all forge themselves sanguine rods (which doubles their blood hunting effectiveness). Obviously you don't have many blood slaves at that point since you haven't been blood hunting, but you can easily have at least 15 ready by that time time by limiting how much you blood sacrifice and stockpiling the blood slave income from your capitol. From that point more or less send three new blood hunters with sanguine rods out each turn (aim to have three castles at this point as well), each "squad" setting up in a new province. Drop the tax rate to 0%, and place a lab there.

    So, how this works out is that just as you start having blood slaves flowing in you've still got a decent chunk of mages researching (blood now), so you start hitting those good blood spells relatively soon and with blood slaves in the bank. Also, since you've hit con-4 you can forge skull mentors and/or owl quills if you've gotten one of the national heroes (quite likely if you¿ve taken high luck scales).

    Compare this with researching straight for blood. If you do that, you've got to split your mages between research and blood hunting (no point in having spells you can't cast!) - and the blood hunters are half as effective without the sanguine rods. No owl quils or skull mentors to help you out, and you're taking an immediate hit to your gold while you're sill relying on your national troops to take out the indies. I guess you could make this work, but it seems much more of an uphill battle to me.

    **** Blood sacrificing ****

    One interesting way that Mictlan is different than any other nation is that their dominion does not spread the same way. Other nations have their dominion (mostly) spread in four ways  from their god, from their prophet, from their temples, and from their preaching priests. Of these, only domain spread from the god works for Mictlan, and obviously this only kicks in once your god is awake. This can be a bit of a disadvantage, but if you¿re aware of it and manage it you can turn it into an advantage under certain circumstances.

    What Mictlan does have (along with a few other nations) is the ability to blood sacrifice. In order to blood sacrifice you need a priest (the more priestly the better), a temple, and some blood slaves. Your capital will give you a small blood slave income initially, it is vitally important that you immediately (turn 2) set a priest to blood sacrificing in your capital (you¿ll need to give them some blood slaves initially, but they¿ll restock themselves). The reason is because certain random events will decrease your dominion, and if it drops to 0 you lose! That means you definitely don¿t want to sit around with the 1 dominion you start with. Also, as you start meeting other nations a very weak domain is just begging for stealth preachers/prophets/pretenders to come in and remove you from the game without spilling a drop of blood.

    Now, that¿s the downside. The upside is Mictlan can control the flow of their dominion spread like nobody else in the game. Dominion does not spread by itself, and you should think of blood sacrificers as concentrated temples that can be turned on or off(the higher their priestly level, the more concentrated). A priest of the sun wielding a jade dagger has the effect of 5 temples¿you get a lot of flexibility. See ¿Mictlan tactics¿ below for an idea on how to use this offensively.

    Mictlan often has crappy to very crappy scales in an effort to get a good blessing. Being able to control your dominion spread allows you (if it makes sense) to leave a portion of your empire outside your dominion. This can be a bit dangerous if you¿re not careful as it usually means that someone else¿s dominion will pile up in your territories, which will give you potentially several disadvantages fighting there and also make you more susceptible to someone trying to dominion kill you. If you¿re careful though, you can do things like take death -3, drain -3 and move all your mages outside your dominion so they don¿t suffer from it  or better yet benefit from your neighbor¿s growth/magic scales.

    ****Mictlan tactics****

    Here¿s a grab bag of useful stuff Mictlan can pull. Of course there are lots of other things you can do, but here¿s some of my favorites.

    Either take a pretender with appropriate paths, or empower a sun priest and start cranking out the soul contracts. You¿ll eventually have an unstoppable flow of free spawn devils every turn.

    Either take a pretender with appropriate paths or empower an indie earth mage (or hellbind heart, or seduce with a succubus to get one), forge a dwarven hammer and start cranking out blood stones. It¿s hard for Mictlan to get into the earth game, but they can easily become an earth powerhouse once they do by creating a huge earth gem income which doesn¿t show up on the score graph (neither does blood slave income).

    There are several blood magic sites which give you a significant (40-60%) reduction in cost to rituals. I think a lot of people neglect searching for blood sites because they are a lot less common but just think about the impact of having a 60% discount while pulling in 100+ blood slaves per turn. It's worth some effort to look for.

    Summon an Onaqui, give him a brazen vessel and armor of twisted thorns. Set him to a monthly casting of ritual of the five gates. Do this 3 or 4 times depending on your blood slave flow. You¿ve now got a steady flow of several different kinds of demons along with freespawning beast bats.

    Ice/Arch Devil SCs, you can have a whole bunch. Give an ice devil a ring of tamed lightning (and all the usual gear) and let him lead those lightning and ice fiends you¿re getting from the ritual of five gates. He can run forward to whack on stuff while frost and lightning rains all around him. Reverse that with the arch devils, let the swarm of heat immune devils and demon knights go forward as he rains flaming doom down around them. Alternatively give him mad reinvigoration with items, and have him phoenix pyre his way around the battlefield virtually indestructible.

    Spam Rain of toads on enemy castles. Each casting raises the unrest by 40, so if you hit three at once that castle will be unable to recruit anything and take a big hit to income (perfect for the enemy capital). If you set one priest king (two if you think your enemy may try to patrol the province) to cast it every month at that point it¿ll keep the castle locked down. This is very potent early on when your opponent may only have one or two castles. Follow the locking down of his castles with some hoards from hell on his high income farmlands. The combined effect from this will be a double whammy of a drastic reduction in his income, and an inability to recruit troops in his castles. The bonus is if he can¿t deal with the imps they hang around and can keep taking provinces compounding the problem.

    Give jade daggers to 3 or 4 of your priests (the more priestly the better). Bring them to your border and have them all build temples and start blood sacrificing. As your dominion score will probably be high for recruiting sacred units the effect will be drastic, sudden and (hopefully) unexpected by your opponent. Use this to get a quick dominion kill if you see a neighbor with a weak dominion. For example, 4 priests of the sun blood sacrificing with jade daggers will have an effect similar to 20 temples, with the bonus that those 20 temples are concentrated right on your border rather than spread out. It can sure push your dominion in a hurry if you¿ve got a 10 dominion score!

    Astral corruption, look into it. You¿ll probably need your pretender to have the paths to cast it, but it¿s one of those game-winner spells with the bonus that you should have enough blood slaves to make it practically un-dispellable.

    Make sure you forge some boots of youth for all those old dudes you¿ve got running your kingdom.

    Mictlan province defense is mostly worthless up until 20 (though they are slingers, so they can inflict some damage on certain kinds of enemies), but every point above 20 gives you a Jaguar warrior, which will (hopefully) benefit from your righteous bless. 30-40 province defense isn¿t cheap, but it does produce a credible threat with a good bless. This is certainly not going to stop a real army, but you can use it as a nasty surprise when an opponent is trying to attack your blood hunters or an apparently weaker army of yours. Plus, province defense doesn¿t take any upkeep which really helps once you start blood hunting.

    	    	8.26.2 MA Mictlan

    	    	    	8.26.2.1 Assortment of tips

    -> One advantage of ME Mictlan is that the dominion spread without blood sacrifice.
    Another is that the mages aren't old aged and the units still good for blessing.
    Sure i miss blood magic, but i wouldn't say its a weak nation now just different.

    -> Well, to play devil's advocate I'll argue the points raised.

    a) Dominion spread without blood sacrifice is only an advantage compared to Mictlan of other eras, not an advantage compared to other nations. If this is what they gain at all those other losses from other erras, I'll have to go ahead and say they're very underpowered in this comparisson

    (the rest of these I'll take as Mictlan's strengths relative to other ME nations, as that's who they're actually going up against)

    b) Mages don't have old age. That's because they're not very powerful. I think age is auto calculated based on how many paths of magic a mage has. This is not an advantage, its just a result of the fact that their mages are now sucky.

    c) They have good, cheap, sacred troops. True, as I mention I think this is the only thing they have going for them and I think it's too one dimensional to be the sole strategy in multiplayer. The AI won't adjust, but just try riding that one trick pony against a group of humans...

    d) Ease of site searching. I guess you could say this is a mild advantage vs some nations, but because their mages are all single path and only recruitable from the capital it takes a big hit in production time to get a group searching...at which point you've got a big group of wandering mages NOT researching. Between trying to recruit mages to search sites, mages to research, and leaders for your armies of expendable lightly armored troops, you've got quite a bit of production competition in the early game. You could use site searching spells I guess, those single path mages ARE perfect for that, but that's hardly a huge advantage to have access to 4 paths of magic gems with no good mages to use them.

    e) Take a blood magic pretender and get access to national spells. Sure, except you've got no blood slave economy to cast those nice blood summons...

    So, I still don't see how they're not far below average. The only thing they really have in the plus column is good, cheap sacred troops, but with the crappy mages, crappy non-sacred troops, and nothing special about their dominion (miasma, heat/cold spread, auto spawn troops, etc), they're basically stuck with only one stragegy. Plus, the sacred troops though good, are lightly armored and more expendable than plenty of the other good sacreds, so you're gonna be quite limmited if you're trying to use solely sacreds to carry your conquest as you can only recruit a handful per turn from each temple-upgraded castle.

    I dunno, I've still got quite a few more to try in Dom 3, but I can't think of a single other nation in any era which is worse off then ME Mictlan. I always felt Mictlan was nerfed in other ways because they were so powerful in blood magic. ME Mictlan loses that strength, and just keeps the nerfs...

    ->  ME Mictlan is a communion power. You have better astral than other eras. You buy a lot of nahuali and they power a communion for your coatls, who cast enslave mind and junk. You're utterly inferior to Pythium (or Bandar Log) at this trick - but you also have powerful sacred troops, including Jaguar Warriors which grow everywhere. So, there is a point to ME mictlan.

    That said, I think this is one of the few game balance complaints that is really legitimate. Here are a couple of proposals:

    a) Give all of their mages an order dependent bonus on research. Lawgiver, right? Ought to encourage order somehow. Right now, the stuff is so cheap you're probably a turmoil/fortune player.

    b) Better magic. Compare ME mictlan to mictlan in other eras. The only thing ME gets for -2 blood on all their mages is -30 gold cost - except the Priest King, who *pays* 25 gold to trade 2 blood for 1 holy. If all these guys got a 100% FSWN (and boot the nahuali entirely) that'd help a lot.

    c) Mages everywhere. Just make those mages not-capital-only. All of a sudden you have an entire army of perfectly sized, inexpensive zot mages for when your sacred start to lose their sparkle.

    -> t's interesting this point is raised, because MA Mictlan was my favorite nation by far when this game released. When the Nahualli were nerfed, then they weren't my favorite any more (although I admit they were far too powerful).

    The reason MA Mictlan was my favorite is because Mictlan has the best bless setup in terms of troops, which you can do one of two ways:

    Take high dominion and benefit from having automatic dominion spread (other Mictlans don't have) and be able to recruit many varied national sacred from the capital.

    OR

    Take a medium dominion and simply rely on the Jaguars from forts and/or or summoned sacreds, leaving you more points for blessings.

    Either way, having the automatic dominion means you don't have to spend cash on labs and spare mages who are doing nothing but blood hunting and sacrificing. This cash can be spent solely on sacred troops. I'm not going to defend the Couatl, because I don't think I even saw any reason to use it when I played before. However, the Nahualli is still a very good addition to Mictlan and is easier to afford and field with MA Mictlan simply because the gold economy is not distracted by supporting blood and religion.

    Finally, the appeal of playing Mictlan without micro-management is more or less important depending on who you are. It's important to me, but someone who plays a very disciplined and focused game may be willing to accept the micro-management to acquire a small gain in advantage. Yes, I said "gain in advantage" because I can see how EA Mictlan has an advantage, but I think it's fairly small when you consider all things.

    Also note something important which befuddled me for a long time. I used to think that the manual blood spreading of Mictlan was supposed to be their national advantage. I looked at the numbers in Dom II and saw that they could potentially be a powerhouse in Dominion. In Doms 3, their effectivity was greatly reduced, and I spied a comment in the game manual which implied that the correct notion is that Mictlan faces a disadvantage by having to spread their dominion manually.

    So, this is traditional Mictlan in a nutshell: Superior Bless and Blood with the handicap of manual dominion spread. MA Mictlan would then be: Superior Bless without Blood, and non-handicapped Dominion spread.

    -> "When the Nahualli were nerfed, then they weren't my favorite any more (although I admit they were far too powerful)."

    Ah, see that's why I love this game so much. I had no doubt that someone would have a diametrically opposite opinion to mine. I still disagree with you though, Big J. Jaguar warriors are good but they¿re far from the best sacreds in the game, and they¿re not enough to carry you all the way through the game by themselves (thank goodness!). What do you do (for example) against a good sized mass of archers? What about when SCs and good combat mages start showing up? Eagle warriors can help with the archers, but you can¿t defend a whole nation with capital only (low protection/hp) sacreds.

    Also, I¿m not familiar with what numbers you¿re looking at for the blood sacrifice, but anecdotally I can tell you that with a high dominion 3 or 4 high priests with jade daggers can push a dominion kill like nothing else and they can do it as a surprise before your opponent can react. That¿s an advantage, in my book.

    Can you explain why you think the Nahualli is so good? I never use them myself, I think they¿re SNN non-sacred, right? What can they do that your priests can¿t do better? You mentioned communion slave, but I¿d rate them as fairly mediocre in that capacity.

    I don¿t follow your logic that removing the blood affinity is a good thing because now you don¿t have to blood hunt so you can have more money for sacreds. You can certainly choose to forego blood hunting in either of the other ages, the amount of blood slaves you need solely to keep up a medium-ish dominion is trivial. In most cases you can do it with just the blood slaves you get automatically from your capital if you¿ve got a high dominion score.

    But, be that as it may, the real question is not how ME compares to Mictlan of the other eras, but rather how they compare to other ME nations. I¿m just not buying that they¿re powerful just because of the jaguar warriors. Lots of other nations have sacreds as good or better plus other advantages. Can you give me an example of any other ME nation which is not stronger (or from any era for that matter)? I guess that¿s a pointless question since you seem to feel that ME Mictlan is more powerful than most, but I just still can¿t see that.

    	    	    	8.26.2.2 Guide to Middle-Age Mictlan

    Introduction: Middle-age Mictlan is very different from early and late. Many aspects will appear the same. All three ages have level three priests and cheap recruitable sacred units everywhere. All ages have the same national spells. The non-sacred recruitable uints are also the same with exception to a lack of moon warriors in late-age. You can even recruit the Nahualli (mages who shape-change into turkeys) in all three ages. This aside, their are some fundamental differences.

    The other two ages have an overwhelming amount of blood magic compared to middle's rare random on a single mage. The two also have a dominion that only spreads with blood sacrifice. There are a multitude of other differences, such as pretender selection, but these two differences are ultimately what matter most. The 'dying dominion' allows the player more precise control over the spread of Mictlan's dominion. This allows Mictlan to take horrible scales and yet control it's spread to a limited number of provinces. This also allows them to surprise attack opponents with a sudden dominion kill by placing the equivalent of multiple temples in a concentrated area. The easy access to blood magic allows Mictlan to leverage their horrifyingly effective zero-upkeep sacred demons, and also eat up the other unique demons before anyone else can. These two reasons alone are why many will claim that middle-age Mictlan is weaker then the other two. Some will even go so far as to say that they are actually weak as a middle-age nation.

    Mind-set: The first hint I can give you is to not compare middle-age to the others. (Granted, I just did that.) It is much better to simply look at what they do have. Second, middle-age will need neutral to positive scales. They don't need to be great, but you don't want to be killing your population. (More about scales is covered in pretender design below.) I've determined that there is two ways one could play Mictlan. The first is to, of course, leverage your sacred power. The second is to actually play the nation like it were any other. Most people, I feel, underestimate Mictlan's regular troops and their access to free non-mindless chaff. Making the sacred aspect of your strategy a second to good scales and a thought out pretender allows a more solid late-game position in my opinion. I'll do my best to cover strategies for both.

    Pretender Design: As mentioned above, you'll want to avoid a damaging set of scales. Your dominion spreads on it's own like any other nation and taking things like drain and death will hurt your chances of winning.

    If your looking for design points for a bless strategy, sloth 3 is the place to start as your recruit-anywhere sacred is only 3 resources each. Heat 1 is absolutely free and helps the cold-blooded couatl. Imprisoning your god after all that should leave you enough points for a dual bless and a high dominion with points left over in some cases. Taking more heat for order also won't be a bad trade as you won't need the food supply (nature mages and small elite armies) and it will net you more gold overall. It's really up to you after that. Personally, I favor taking at least magic 1. As for which bless combination to take, I suggest giving your eagle warriors increased attack and damage, which a fire bless can do on it's own. My preference after that is an astral bless as it provides a level of protection that is enough to get them to at least round two.

    Example Pretender for Dual-Bless: Imprisoned Oracle, Fire 9, Astral 9, Dominion 8, Sloth 3, Heat 1, and 130 points left. 95 with dominion 9 and 53 with dominion 10. Great for eagle warrior effectiveness with well-rounded attack and defense, mildly weak against missile damage.

    If your going for a good scales strategy then I'd suggest trading out sloth for some production. Your armored warriors are cheap enough and good enough that you'll want to spam a lot of them. I'm confident that Mictlan, even without a dual-bless, doesn't need an awakened god in order to survive. I say you should keep the god imprisoned and reap the design points. Really, this approach is all about the long-term strategy in the first place. Focusing on a little earth, death, or blood magic will expand their options. Mictlan really benefits from a rainbow god and magic scales in my opinion.

    Example Pretender for Good Scales: Imprisoned Master Lich, Earth 4, Astral 4, Death 5, Dominion 6, Heat 1 and 290 points left, enough for 7 positive increases to your scales. Production is highly suggested. This will open up the world of death magic and be a reliable source of astral five mages for 21 gems using the dwarven hammers and crystal coins you can now craft.

    Units: Most nations have a racial advantage which is templated to just about all their units. Examples would be Machaka's unusually low base encumbrance and Marignon's above average moral. Mictlan's racial advantage seems to be their forest survival and below average gold cost, a solidly average unit will cost 9 gold rather then 10.

    Warrior (Spear and Sling): Mictlan has slingers in two varieties. They all have spears, slings, hide shields, and a map move of 2. Though slings are less effective in the middle-age then in early-age, they still have their uses. They also double as regular troops as they have average stats across the board, including morale. The unarmored version is easy to spam in high numbers, which is ideal for Fire Arrows, which Mictlan can naturally cast with little effort.

    Warrior (Spear and Javelin): This warrior along with the heavy slinger is the heaviest regular available to you that still has a move of 2. It's a solid spear chucker for a cheap cost, not much else to say. The shield could be better, but it's better then nothing at all.

    Warrior (Mace and Javelin): This unit gives up a little battlefield movement and a point of map movement for additional protection and a shorter weapon that does only a bit more damage. The real advantage of this unit is that it is roughly the same as the feathered warrior, meaning a group of warriors mixed in with the feathered warriors will move along the field as one, maximizing the effect of the standards.

    Feathered Warrior: This unit has the same armor and weapons as the mace and javelin warrior. However, it is more experienced with a higher attack, defense, and moral score. It also has a standard of 4 which is a real boon to your non-sacred warriors. They cost twice as much as a regular warrior, but are worth every penny in my opinion when going for a good scales strategy.

    Moon Warrior: This is an amazing cost-effective regular. For 3 gold more then a warrior you get a better attack, defense, hit point maximum, moral, and magic resistance. On top of all that you also get 50 dark vision. Its heavy obsidian sword packs the punch needed to get past heavy armored soldiers. This unit helps supplement a few of the draw backs to avoiding a bless strategy. Unlike other warriors it lacks even a hide shield. Leveraging your limited access to air magic can solve this minor problem.

    Eagle Warriors: The first of the sacred warriors and the only one middle-age can make everywhere they set up shop. The eagle warrior is an ambidextrous spear and dagger warrior that flies when blessed. They've got a good moral score and map move. They are lightly armored and have no shield, however this also translates into a absurdly low resource cost of 3. With two attacks and the ability to fly the eagle warrior is designed to strike first and hopefully not get struck back. As the game progresses into late-game the eagle warrior will begin to outshine the other sacred units. Their ability to fly allows them to hide in the corners of the battlefield and close with the enemy before they are wiped out by mages.

    Sun Warrior: These are the heaviest sacred warriors available and you can only make them at your capitol. They are practically the same as the feathered warrior stat-wise except there Hatchet does a bit more damage then a mace and the Mictlan copper scale they wear has a higher encumbrance. I do find it strange that armor special to Mictlan's sacred units are slightly worse then the armor they give to their run-of-the-mill warriors. Anyhow, these sacreds are best for when the enemy starts to throw lots of mundane damage at you, such a mass of archers or rain of stones. However, since they are hard to amass and since the faster hit point machine known as the Jaguar warrior is available instead, you'll find these warriors rarely employed.

    Jaguar Warriors: The most expensive warrior Mictlan has to offer, and some would argue as equally being the most effective. The rather hardy sacred unit is, like the eagle warrior, lightly armored and has no shield. Unlike the eagle warrior, it can't fly. Instead it has an extra life as a sacred Were Jaguar. Once killed it is replaced by a stronger and faster unit with a lot of hit points and three attacks. This feature makes the unit impossible to destroy with a single evocation spell. In normal form the unit carries an obsidian sword which deals barbarian style damage. This unit can only be recruited in your capitol.

    (Personally, I favor the eagle warrior over the jaguar warrior. Though not as hardy, the eagle warrior can end battles faster and are cheaper to maintain. The eagle warrior also seems to need less of a bless in order to be as effective in the early game, which sort of fits with what middle-age needs. For this reason I like that middle age can make them everywhere they go. Now to examine the commanders.)

    Scout: It is indeed a scout.

    Tribal King: 80 leadership, sacred, forest survival, and the ability to gather slaves for 40 gold. Furthermore the king isn't too bad of a warrior himself. I wouldn't send him to the front lines as he's not much more effective then any other sacred unit, but it might matter to your other commanders when the enemy breaks past your lines.

    Mictlan Priest: Unlike the priests of other ages, this version's magic level is completely random. The priests of other ages supplied a reliable blood income while this one supplies you with a mage-priest you can make without a laboratory. There random path in my opinion isn't all that helpful in combat. Their role is best limited to cheap research.

    Nahualli: This sorcerer is the only caster Mictlan has that isn't sacred. However, the Nahualli make up for it in a number of ways. The first is by being reliable communion slaves. Each one is guaranteed one level of astral. They also have two levels of nature, which for me becomes the breaking point where nature magic become worth it. Nature 2 allows for sleep, sleep cloud, panic, berserkers, storm of thorns, wooden warriors, and more. It also is what you need to make the cheapest nature booster, the thistle mace. Let's not forget that astral + nature also grants curse, the irresistible spell that makes all super combatants sad. Furthermore, astral 1 and nature 2 is exactly all you need to site search both paths. I could go on, but we haven't even got to the randoms. Two of the randoms, death and blood, aren't normally available to middle-age Mictlan. If you get either then you can start down the path of both with some steady investment, a ring of sorcery might help. The Nahualli also have the ability to turn into a turkey, which doesn't seem great until you notice that they don't lose any magic paths and that they now can fly. This allows your communion slaves to keep up with your communion masters, the couatl and your high priests of the sky, who also fly. In regards to cost, 110 gold for a mage with 5 base research is good for any nation. Surely I agree that a Mictlan priest of more cost efficient, but there isn't much to do with them after researching. My suggestion is to hire these mages whenever you can. When your army needs a push they can respond almost instantly because of their ability to fly. On top of that their ability to communion allows them to cast nasty spells and overcome MR checks, which most of the good nature and astral spells require. Their practically built to communion spam charm and sleep while wearing a thistle mace, spell focus, and arcane eye.

    Sky Priest: The alternative to the Mictlan priest. For 10 more gold you get a consistent path in air, a patrol bonus, and slim chance at a random magic level.

    The following commanders can only be recruited in your capitol.

    Moon Priest: I can see a number of uses for this commander. Though they have a higher initial cost, the upkeep is cheaper then that of a nahualli. The real unfortunate thing is that their are just too many capitol only commanders that I think are worth more to Mictlan. Still if your looking for an effective caster to spam solar rays against a Prince of Death, this is your guy.

    Sun Priest: Effectively the same caster as the moon priest with fire instead of astral. If your planning on a good scales strategy, I would look to recruiting a few of these. With phoenix power this commander can cast falling fires, or with phoenix power and 2 fire gems, this commander can cast flaming arrows. That would be a costly way of casting flaming arrows, yet still it is better to at least have the option available. Also, good site searcher for fire.

    Rain Priest: Probably not as effective as the sun priest in battle. It does give you a reliable water mage and water 2 can always craft it's own boosters all the way to water 4. They are also all you need to cast your national water spells. Water site search to boot.

    Sky Priest: Your most reliable source of air magic and one of two holy 3 priests available. The sky priest comes with an innate ability to fly, lead a regular sized army, and has a nifty patrol bonus. One out of four will be able to communion. One out of four will not be old. This is also the caster you look to site search air sites. My favorite aspect of these casters are their ability to cast cloud trapeze.

    Priest King: This is my personal favorite among the priests. The priest king can lead a massive number of troops, is a holy 3 and nature 2 caster, and can summon free chaff. Many times I've used this commander to drop a divine blessing while another casts wooden warriors on a batch of eagle warriors, all while the cheap chaff take the initial arrow fire. I probably only like them more then the Sky Priest because I've been playing Mictlan before the sky priest was even around. Still a good buy in my opinion, but limit your investment.

    Couatl: This is the most powerful caster Mictlan has. It's a lizard that flies, has only a head slot and two miscellaneous slots. It has Astral 3 and nature 1 as a given and can potentially get to astral 4. I think people dislike them because they lack the slots to make them effective super combatants. I've tried never to see them as combatants and that's probably why I'm okay with them. The truth is that as an astral mage, it has all the slots it really needs. Sure I can think of a dozen uses for the missing slots, but if your goal is to boost an astral mage in the cheapest way possible, then you only need a head slot for a starshine skullcap, and miscellaneous slots for penetration items or the other astral boosters. The only astral boosters that don't fall under head or miscellaneous slots are unique and belong on something better, like your heroes or pretender. Still 400 gold for this unit is a lot, even if you factor in that it's holy. Still, it's worth the investment, and they have considerable access to nature and air magic as well. A couple of coualt's and a team of turkey mages can fly into any province and dominate a battle field when done right.

    Magic: Mictlan has the advantage of having access to a lot of magic paths. They have reliable access to fire, water, air, nature, and astral magic. They can site search for all these paths and have the starting gem income to support such searching. In regards to death and blood, thenahualli have a slight chance at either and they have an undead hero with 3 death, 3 blood, and 3 holy. Also, water magic will lead to blood magic if you summon the Tlaloque, a Mictlan national demon summon (Conjuration 7). Each of the four has strong magic paths, including 3 blood and 4 water each. Earth is really the only magic completely unavailable to them.

    Strategies: Here is a small list of tactics you can employ as MA Mictlan.

    Teleportation: One advantage Mictlan has is that, with a little luck or preparation, you can instantly send your best priest, your best mage, and whole armies to locations far away and before the enemy can move. The high priest of the sky can naturally use Cloud Trapeze (Enchantment 4). Thecouatl can naturally use Teleport (Thaumaturgy 3). If you get a Priest King or a Nahualli with nature 3, or if you manage to get a couatl with nature 4 then using non-unique nature boosters, the Thistle Mace (Construction 4) and the Moonvine Bracelet (Construction 6), will allow you to use Faery Trod (Enchantment 5). If you equip a couatl with a Starshine Skullcap (Construction 6) then you can use Gateway (Thaumaturgy 5). Also, if you manage a couatl with astral 4 then you can equip him with a Starshine Skullcap and cast Astral Travel (Thaumaturgy 9). If you have an astral five mage , ether with luck or with a pretender, then you can exclude further reliance on luck and forge Rings of Sorcery, however, I'm opposed to this as it isn't an economical use of gems, even with a forge bonus. If you would rather prepare then rely on luck (or drop an additional 30-40 astral gems on a commander before you even move) then I would suggest putting astral and earth on a pretender to forge Crystal Coins and/or nature and blood to forge Armors of Twisting Thorns (both Construction 4). Using non-unique boosters allows you to, theoretically, make an endless supply of teleporting armies. I'm also particular to the earth and astral solution as that allows your to make Dwarven Hammers (Construction 2), which will economize your gem usage even further.

    Flaming Arrows (Enchantment 5): Sun Priest + 2 fire gems + Phyinox Power (Conjuration 3) + cheap national slingers and lion tribe independents = barbecue. You can boost the effectiveness of this strategy by casting Wind Guide as well (Alteration 4). This is a strategy is better employed by a non-bless Mictlan, as it works better with larger armies. Acquiring a more powerful fire mage or finding a way to make Fever Fetishes (read below) makes this a more viable tactic.

    Using Negative Precision Spells: Mictlan can benefit from the use of spells that decrease the effectiveness of precision or of projectiles. The Moon Warriors and Jaguar Warriors deal a good amount of damage at the cost of not wielding a shield. (Their shields aren't that great anyhow.) The moon warriors are also your most elite non-sacred unit, and most would argue that the jaguar warrior is their best unit period. By using spells like Mist (Evocation 3), Storm (Evocation 5), and Arrow Fend (Enchantment 6) you can eliminate their greatest weakness. Eagle warriors also benefit greatly from these spells, with exception to storm as that prohibits their ability to fly. The storm spell is more difficult to cast, but isn't out of Mictlan's reach. A High Priest of the Sky with Astral can commune or you can be lucky enough to get a high priest of the sky or a couatl with air 3. The best approach in my opinion is to create a Staff of Storms (Construction 6). However, you can't do so without an air 4mage, which Mictlan doesn't naturally have access to. Air 4 is also the requirement for the the two common air boosters, the Winged Helmet and the Bag of Winds(both Construction 4). Having a pretender or some other caster with air 4 will open up the world of air magic to Mictlan.

    Alternating Recruitment: If you decide to take advantage of Mictlan's spear chucking units and in doing so use the standard bearers, then I find it most effective to alternate your recruitment. So buying 2 mace and javelin warriors followed by a feathered warrior will keep a standard bearer in each square. This is more important with Mictlan then it is with Ermor or Pythium as their standard is weaker. Buying one feathered warrior for every 2 warriors isn't all that bad as the feathered warrior is also an experienced soldier. The cheap cost of Mictlan's troops also helps. The real drawback is that this can become a tedious recruitment process.

    Things to look for: Here is a list of things you don't want to miss as Mictlan. Most of these include a curtain combination of random magic levels or independent provinces to look out for.

    A High Priest of the Sky with Fire and Nature or a Priest King with Fire: If you manage one of these two then keep them by your side and use them to forge Fever Fetishes (Construction 2).

    A Priest King with Water: Water is the easiest thing to boost. Once boosted to 3 with a Water Bracelet (Construction 6) and a Robe of the Sea (Construction 4) this priest can start making Clams of Pearls (Construction 2). I would also argue that middle-age Mictlan needs astral gems a little more then it needs nature or water.

    Independents with flying units: Middle-age Mictlan has a wide variety of flying commanders but doesn't have any flying units that it can recruit to back them up. (The eagle warriors fly, but only in battle, which isn't helpful on the map.) I tend to see middle-age as the Mictlan with more finesse. Combining instantaneous travel via teleportation spells and flying armies will keep Mictlan competitive. The most useful flying units are of course those from amazon independents, the griffin and pegasus riders, as they are also sacred.

    A Priest King or Nahualli with Nature 3, a Couatl with Nature 4, or a Couatl with Astral 4. Read Teleportation in the above strategies for details.

    	    	8.26.3 LA Mictlan

    	    	    	8.26.3.1 Assortment of tips

    -> Mictlan is all about the blessing. Their national conjurations and blood summonings are all sacred, so your bless is still valuable even in the late game when your national troops are only useful in a support role. Jaguar Warriors are really good. I play EA Mictlan more then LA, but my standard bless is w9n6b6 this coupled with a high base dominion allows for cheap effective expansion armies. Jags get good mileage out of regeneration because of their thirty hit points over two forms, but the nature bless is largely to benefit my later, high hit point, super combatant, demonic sacreds. Transformed Jaguar Warriors, Jaguars, and Ozelotls all have three attacks so a fire bless is very strong for them.

    It is very hard to find a use for the nonsacred Mictlan national troops. For patroling, garisoning, and sieging Slave levys are your best choice. Slaves are also perfect for absorbing initial lance charges and decoying arrow fire. The map move 2 Warriors (the 9g, 2 resource, naked slingers) are marginally useful with a fire priest and Flaming Arrows, but indy archers with precision greater then 10 aren't that uncommon.

    -> An imprisoned Fountain of Blood with scales of order 3, sloth 3, heat 2, death 2, misfortune 2, and magic 1 can afford those paths and dominion 10 with 13 points left over. Many people will argue that dominion 10 is far to high, particularly for a pretender that will never use awe in battle. Buying a base dominion of ten allows sizable armies to be produced each round (a Priest King and ten Jaguar Warriors can take most any indy 5 province without losses; you would need to accept middling losses against indy 9 or send those armies in pairs) and it ensures that your blood sacrifices actually yield a temple check. Finally more temples, which will be needed for expansion castles if nothing else, do increase your holy budget beyond ten. Lastly dominion ten, jade knives, and ample blood slaves can make for very strong dominion pushes.

    ->

    	8.27 Oceania

    	    	8.27.1 EA Oceania

    	    	    	8.27.1.1 Tips

    -> You have no midgame because you can't use your mages on land, just accept it and skip straight from early game (getting the seas) to late game (clams and huge summons). You need astral magic late game, so if you don't have astral mages your first 50 clammed pearls get to go the empowerment.

    And yes, they take a while to pay themselves back, but outside of the queens most of the stuff you can get with water gems isn't that impressive, and it's only 3 nature gems per clam with a hammer.

    Or, you could burn a few hundred of them on sea king's courts, those little naid warrior things and winter wolves, take a few provinces on the land, and then get smacked back into the ocean once whoever you're attacking actually bothers to get together a force to take out your army of chaff. That's an investment that will never pay off. Be smart, build clams.

    Oh, one more bit of advice: grab a few nice-looking land provinces from indies if you can at the beginning of the game...while your land troops aren't much threat it's a safe bet that your land-neighbors will leave you a few provinces to ensure that they don't have to deal with being raided. Just a good way to leverage a bit more territory. Don't go crazy topside though, the more land you have the more worthwhile it becomes to attack you, since the reward goes up while the threat of retaliation remains relatively flat.

    -> Sea trolls are excellent, no fire weakness like normal trolls, higher HPs, just as good on land as well as sea, 1 sea troll for 1W gem is excellent value. Also sea trolls court is good, did you know the sea troll king produces 1W gem per month? So eventually he repays the 55W gem cost, also what else are you going to use those water gems for?

    -> Yes, I second that EA Oceania is not at all weak, in SP as well as apparently MP. Hippocampi sacred calvalry are atleast as good as Helheim sacred calvalry, possibly better, since you can compare rejuvenation to glamour, and glamour may come out a little ahead, but then add on that you get the hippocampus back if your sacred rider gets killed-plus in the water you're not competing nearly as much sacred-to-sacred. I had half a dozen medium-blessed hippocampi calvalry annhilate atleast 12 independent provinces without any of them ever taking an affliction, let alone losing a rider. Even if one of them had, the affliction would quickly be healed, which enabled me to build them up to 3 stars with 0 afflictions very quickly. If Hippocampi-riders were amphibious, EA Oceanea would dominate the entire game since you'd have more time to build up a powerful sacred force and the enemy would have a lot harder time destroying your economy or raiding you.

    Even so, you can equip your triton kings with air-breathing which gives you a minimum 4 water caster with lots of land-based spells, and you'll have lots and lots of them, because you've destroyed all independents everywhere, including the sea-trolls and the amber-clan guards and the krackens and the leviathons and the dragon-turtles, and everything else you might or might not encounter, independent-wise, and R'lyeh and Atlantis won't even look at you funny, they're too busy outfitting the cave-fortresses they have to live in now because you're out there and only getting closer. And your triton kings are going to be hella-tough when they get on land because you've got a bless strategy going for them as well. And that's when you start making amulets of air-breathing for your hippocampi-rider CAPTAINS.

    -> Step 1: Dominate the seas. Unless the map is cradle or full of sea squares there are likely to be at most one other sea nation. I believe Oceania has an edge vs either of the other two sea nations. So dominating the seas should not be too challenging.

    Step 2: Cast Maelstrom. You should be ahead in both gems and gold even before the spell as the land nations busy themself fighting each other.

    Step 3: cast Sea King's Court. With Maelstrom and the Troll Kings' gem production it takes relatively little time to gather a large Sea Troll army.

    Step 4: Land. In MA the sacred troops are quite tough on land too.

    -> Kydnides are great. Also my Oceania has managed to get (I think more or less as an eventual result of native casters and forging boost items): Naiads, death Naiads, Vine Men & Ogres & Kings, Ether Warriors, Firbolg, Spectres, Faerie Queens, Water & Air (& Earth via pretender) elemental royalty, Djinn... and even without the unique summons I could have several other types but I'm doing fine with these. Wave Warriors and Kydnides make a good army center at least against general foes who don't have too much artillery - human opponents could hurt them easier than the AI. I think it's a bit challenging because one needs to get more creative and mix/match with indies, expensive summons, etc.

    -> 1. Call Wraith Lord, which in turn generates ghosts. They compliment the Sea Trolls very well.
    2. If in war raid coastal provinces with temples to destroy them.
    3. Take coastal provinces with longbowmen or xbowmen and fortify them against all but large invading armies. Use the likes of murdering winter against large invading armies. Use these as your base for land conquest.

    -> Just go for standard late-game SCs...Tartarians, aboms, and the water queens. Conjuration 8 and 9, essentially. You should have a clam factory up and running to supply gems for summons. Use indies or mermen for gate-bashing. You'll lack mage support on the land which sucks, but those SCs are pretty tough without any help.

    	    	8.27.2 MA Oceania, OMG, I think I've done it

    			8.27.2.1 Basic Guide

    I have only played one multiplayer game with MA oceania (slow 10 Player) so my experience is a bit limited. I did however end up winning that game, defeating Amhazair in a spectacular end game with seraphs and other nastiness =).

    As to pretender I went with an immortal master lich with some magic in all the paths the nation lacked for a stronger end game. This is not a must, but I do strongly recommend you to have high astral access on your pretender (Reason: strong clam nation with no astral mages).

    MA oceania measures up very well against the other 2 water nations. I never had the opportunity to fight atlantis in game I played, I did get to fight R'lyeh however. The key to winning that fight is to get access on the spell antimagic (my teleporting immortal pretender helped with that). As always various underwater buff spells like shark attack, friendly currents etc are important as well.

    Your first research goal should without a doubt be thaum 2 (haruspex). The reason is that the ocean floor has a lot of kelp fortresses that you want to get for free. In my game I found about 6-8 early fortresses as well as securing a healthy nature income by turn 15-20. Not having to shelf out the gold to build these forts are obviously one great early advantage (resulting in more early mages and high resource troops). After this I would go conjuration for shark attack and voice of tiamat (you want lots of water income).

    One thing that is something to keep in mind from the start is the fact that MA oceania mages sucks when they go ashore (getting penalties in their magic paths). In fact I cannot think of any nation that has worse mages above water. Any good dominion player is going to tell you that magic is vital in winning the end game. So in the late game "land" fighting you are going to need a good gem income so you can summon mages to help your national armies.

    The path to victory if you are playing for one is in my opinion easiest achieved by these four guide line steps:

    1. Secure the water (eliminate Rlyeh/atlantis)
    2. Establish a strong clam economy
    3. Put up the nexus
    4. Summon a lot of mages to help you (including seraphs through wish) as well as tartarians and other good summons.

    (of course you need to do alot else, these are just the rough frame of your strategy)

    Tip for pretender design/scales:
    Go with enough astral so that with booster items you can cast wish/nexus. You can expand fast without an early SC so make it sleepy or imprissoned.
    scales: dom 5+
    high order
    productivity, good if you can afford it, not vital by all means.
    pick a heat or cold scale since income is not affected.
    growth: I like growth, guess it's not vital however
    misfortune: usually my pick with most nations
    magic: I recommend getting +1 on research.

    -> For what it's worth, putting up the nexus in an MP game, especially if its a large one, is usually an invitation to suicide-by-mass-murder. It tends to be something of a "look at me - I'm powerful" sign that usually attracts alot of attention, mostly form things like teleporting SCs. If you do put it up, use minimum gems, then recast it a few turns later, using all of your pearls, to give it a bit of dispel resistance. Of course, the reason its so hated is its crazy awesome ownage, and you can ussually do some pretty crazy stuff with all the gems. If you can, try gem wishing alot, to build up magic diversity.

    -> If I was the only underwater nation left, I don't think I'd be too afraid to cast arcane nexus. You could always cast sea of ice before or afterwards while you build up and collect gems.

    Also, doesn't MA Oceania have the best underwater units for MA? I seem to recall they have some sacred cavalry that would be pretty good for a bless.

    -> They have sacred trident knights. They are pretty nice - good all round stats, nice health, recuperation and they are amphibious. However they are 100 gold and capitol only aswell as not being cheap resource-wise.

    			8.27.2.2 MA Oceana - OMG, I think I've done it

    				8.27.2.2.1 Original Guide

    Article Author: Baalz

    [This is a CBM guide]

    MA Oceana has a lot of stuff working against it. By any measure it is one of the weakest nations in the game, but for those wanting a challenge (or perhaps playing against opponents significantly less experienced) this does provide an opportunity to play a handicap match. Let¿s see what kind of clever nastiness we can pull with both hands tied behind our back. And no, I¿m not forging a single clam.

    On first glance the Trident Knight looks like a halfway decent sacred unit. He¿s not, he¿s bait and a big money sink. He¿s got two big problems, his encumbrance and his cost. He¿s got a whopping 8 encumbrance which means even with a strong earth bless this is not a long haul fighter. He¿s got a single moderately good trident attack (with no first strike bonus), so he is not a big damage output. Though he¿s tough enough you can¿t kill stuff fast enough to stay ahead of encumbrance unless you field him in numbers which aren¿t feasible at 100 gold a pop. Totally not worth investing in a blessing.

    Fortunately, his cheaper cousin the ichtycentaur is actually pretty darn good, arguably the best thing about MA Oceana. Good defense, hitpoints, speed, a shield and first strike lance, this guy gives you the first part of your ability for a blistering initial expansion. He¿s got a low resource cost and can be pumped out basically limited only by gold as long as you don¿t go crazy with the sloth scales. Now, his one weakness is that light lance doesn¿t deal very high damage after the first strike which is compounded by his size so you¿re gonna struggle against very tough opponents or when heavily outnumbered. This is actually MA Oceana¿s Achilles heel, the lack of serious damage output is something you¿re going to struggle with all game (not to worry, I¿m an evil bastard and have you covered). Against indies though you can almost universally run them over by just sending in enough ichtycentaurs  they do hit hard on their first strike and have enough defense to outlast mediocre opposition. Using a pair of sirens works well for large, juicy farmlands with hoards of heavy cavalry along the coast as well. The siren song is actually a pretty descent deterrent you¿ll want to sprinkle in the path of anybody fighting on your coast, it¿s basically like casing mind hunt which can be extremely effective in the beginning of the game when MR isn¿t buffed much. Astral mages don¿t provide cover and unlike most assassins bodyguards don¿t help so there¿s not much that can be done to counter during the early parts of the game other than staying away from the coast. Domes also don¿t help, you can pretty effectively harass capitals or research centers along the coast. If there¿s friendly water adjacent just set the sirens to retreat and there¿s really no risk even if they¿re patrolling for you.

    Two other units bear mentioning though they¿re not going to play central roles in your indy expansion. You¿ve got several flavors of heavy infantry, but I look at it this way  the thing you¿re struggling with is damage output. This means you really only want to recruit the trident infantry which come in two flavors. You pay a steep premium for the mermidon over the wave warrior, but I think he¿s well worth it with 40% more hitpoints, 18 vs 14 protection, a shield, and 2 more strength (this is a big deal for damage output). Basically, whenever you don¿t have enough money to spit out ichtycentaurs or are in peacetime and not clearing indies, recruit as many mermidons as resources allow. They do decent damage and will carry you through most things not requiring a serous punch, and with the high resource cost you¿ll want to slowly build them up. Once you start slapping wooden warriors on them they get up into the ¿requiring a serous punch¿ range themselves. One thing to keep in mind if you do find yourself in an early war with some heavy guys (Abysia, Ulm, etc) with an earth gem one of the earth random mermages can drop rust mist which can be the best gem you ever spent in some circumstances and is an easy research detour if you need it. You can also, in a pinch, use a gem to summon earthpower, and another gem to lay down giant strength. Expensive and annoying micro, but it can sometimes be the extra punch you need to put you over the top.

    Finally rounding out your starting lineup is a unit that will probably slip under your radar on first glance, and probably your second glance as well. It¿s the cheapest chaff on your roster, the Oceanian Triton. Before your eyes glass over realize this is not the same unit as the indy tritons you can recruit. This guy has 50% more hitpoints, 20% more strength and 1 more MR plus higher attack and morale. That¿s a pretty steep increase for a chaff unit at the same price. Now one of our first goto spells with MA Oceana is barkskin/wooden warriors/mass protection, and with that buff these guys start looking like real good chaff. This is the unit which is going to be your goto for fighting R¿yleh  with your buffs your chaff is much stronger than theirs and fielded in large numbers with a 12 MR.

    Now, the second prong of your initial expansion is probably the second best thing about MA Oceana  underwater nature mages. The reason is because the N1 magic site ¿Kelp Fortress¿ is very common. How this should play out is Ichtycentaurs are expanding in every direction while your first several mermages follow behind site searching. Unless you¿re unlucky you¿ll never have to build a castle, just plop a lab in the kelp fortresses you get, which should be a few in the first year. This gives you a circular feedback, money savings from not building forts get pumped into the low resource ichtycentaurs you¿re now pumping out of your free fort giving you an even faster expansion. Even better, you¿re fully amphibious so you really can expand in every direction land or sea. Played right this can easily be one of the best openings in the game.

    Now, at this point you might be wondering why in the world I led by claiming this is a very weak nation then proceed to lay out a first class opening. Here¿s the problem  there¿s no obvious place to go from here. Those ictycentaurs which performed so well against indies are going to be absolutely dominated by the elite units from most nations. Sure, you can outchaff people so long as you stay wet, but you just don¿t have the damage outlay to punch through even serious heavy infantry much less dual blessed sacreds or mid level summons. Your mermidons have ok damage output, but the real kicker is that you¿ve got no effective combat mages to start with, and this is compounded by the absolutely drastic neutering your mages are hit with if they leave the water.

    Your capricorns lose one from every path when they leave the water (mermages lose just a level of water magic). This means even the handful of semi useful things you come up with to use your mages for can¿t really be done out of the water. You can¿t even self-buff magic paths with the exception of the almost completely useless summon water power, meaning all that very nice amphibious initial expansion you just did is pretty much dependent on none of your land neighbors deciding they can easily kick you back into the waves. Adding insult to injury several of the most obvious things you want to cast (falling frost, mother oak, etc) can¿t be cast underwater and your mages aren¿t strong enough to cast them out of the water! You¿ve got a good gold income (from a good expansion), and good nature and water income from aggressively site searching for those kelp fortresses, but nothing obviously useful to spend it on.

    Now is time to consider your pretender. My initial thought was to kit out a badass combat pretender to lend some muscle to the fights that you need it. Problem is, I really think this is a bad long term strategy as you¿re always just one bad fight from being neutered. A SC pretender can be an important stopgap if you just need a little time to get something else, but you can¿t really keep leaning on them once good research is coming online. So, let¿s go forward with the assumption that your pretender will help out in a few critical battles, but isn¿t going to be central to our battle plans.

    This is very good because as much as MA Oceana wants a good SC, what it really needs is a good lab mage. Not a rainbow mind you, a mage to summon and forge specifically what¿s needed to plug the holes in your lineup. Now one of the more frustrating things is that you¿re really going to need to take N5 on your pretender. This is a painful expense on a nation with such powerful national nature mages, but the reason you need it is to project your nature power onto land (which your national mages suck at). Just bear with me on it, and I¿ll show you why it¿s justified.

    Now, speaking of projecting your power onto land, what do we do since all our national mages are crippled on land? Well, yes we hope for good indie mages, but we're not going to hang our whole strategy on getting lucky. This leaves summoning mages to do the lifting. You¿ve got a good water and nature income, so let¿s look at what your options are using those gems. Lets look at what something like an awake ghost king with 5A 3S 3D 5N buys us. He¿s awake with the intention of doing some initial site searching, so I¿m assuming you¿ve got at least a small income in all these paths later on.

    Llamia queens  Excellent value, for only 15 gems you get into death and blood using nature gems. This is the first thing that justifies you taking N5 on your pretender, there¿s no way you¿ll be summoning these ladies without it. Once you luck into a double N random one slap a moonvine bracelet and thistle mace on her and she¿ll relieve your pretender from summoning more llamia queens, until then this will probably be his default action every turn. There¿s several interesting things you can do with the Llamia queens, - mandragoras for instance make a great partner to ictycentaurs, bringing the offense compliment to their defense, dark vines make excellent decoys (more on that in a moment), and there are several demonic options to give you a good damage output but the really important thing they do (aside from eventually getting you bloodstones) is opening up death to you in a big way. As you start building up a good amount of llamia queens hit that death site searching aggressively. Alteration is your first research goal, so these ladies will add some nice sniping potential with drain life, while also bringing darkness to the party for your blossoming undead component. You should eventually land a 2W Llamia queen (or if not, suck it up and empower a 1W one for 30 gems), and with 2 boosters this gets you into¿

    Streams from Hades  Gives you a W3 D3 mage for 30 gems. This is a decent choice to get a good death caster using your strong water income. With a staff he can lay down drain life and darkness, and with another booster can start summoning lots of fun stuff. A couple particularly nice options are leviathans (great complement for your amphibious troops who struggle outputting damage) and catoblepas (now we¿re getting some more good damage outlay!) as well as the more standard undead. You should at this point be a pretty respectable death power.

    Hidden in the snow - You really should end up with quite a strong water income, and in CBM this spell is only 50 gems. This will hopefully get your toe into earth and astral as well as giving you good combat casters to heard the undead and demons you¿re summoning. This is an expensive spell, but it does give you 1-2 desperately needed land mages and some pretty decent meatshields in the bargain, there¿s worse things to spend your water gems on midgame.

    Summon Specter  This is probably where a lot of your initial D gems will end up. They¿re not the cheapest things in the world, but like the Unfrozen they will get you dabbling into astral and earth, and build up some more land mages for you.

    Faerie Court  The fairy queen often sits around in labs by the time she¿s summoned, but she¿s going to prove an immensely valuable combat mage for MA Oceana. Slapping an air booster on her and¿.did I mention Alteration was your primary research goal? Granted, you¿ve got to get to conj-8 before you get fairy queens but from the moment you get alt-7 your pretender can drop fog warriors (complemented by mass protection). Down the road you¿ll be stacking mass flight on which does absolute wonders for things like dark vines and mandragoras (quickened, of course). You¿ll also eventually be looking at nice combos with your other mages like gaia¿s blessing + wrathful skies + foul vapors + mass regeneration. Ignore their nature paths, these are your air mages and they are immense force multipliers.

    Wind ride  Another spell in the conjuration tree to get you more land mages. Once you¿ve researched charm and hellbind heart that is. Now your pretender has a different default action every month.

    Transformation  Yes, despite the indubitable double take I do classify this as a mage summon. Why? Because with a thistle mace each of your Capricorns can cast it (25% can without a thistle mace) out of the water and¿it removes the magic path penalty from leaving the water. Perhaps this is an exploit, but it¿d be a cold dude to complain about it given the handicaps Ocean struggles with. Now, this gives you several important things, but it also has some drawbacks. You¿ll probably transform into an animal of some kind which has an abysmal MR and very few slots for path boosters. Still, it gives another much needed option for getting viable mages onto land. And here¿s the best part  it removes the upkeep cost! This is a *huge* boon on the very expensive 350 gold, non-holy mage for the rock bottom price of 3N gems. This is the holy grail, you¿ll want to transform every single one of your mages (pass around thistle maces and moonvine bracelets and even your mermages can cast it), letting you build up pretty sick amounts of mages over time. Note: the thing you transform into is based on the province you¿re in, so underwater you¿re likely to turn into an aquatic animal like a shark. You¿ll want to have some of your mages cast it in the water as well as the land, it¿s very likely they won¿t be amphibious anymore after you cast it and you¿ll want some mages down there to.

    Now, I mentioned previously that dark vines make good decoys. Decoys are going to be critical to you for much of the game as you¿ve just simultaneously raised your mages hitpoints and decimated their MR for the purpose of fielding them in combat on land. They are going to be prime pickings for astral sniping, so what you¿re going to need is to always have plenty of even higher hitpoint low MR decoys around. Dark vines are great for this. Another great option is ice drakes, who you get 3 per pop once your capricorns have access to dragon master. Both these options are cheap enough that you don¿t mind several getting popped each fight while still bringing some useful combat skills to the mix. You'll also want to regularly cast howl and/or summon sharks to give those rear astral mages something else to think about.

    Also, mind hunt is going to be a particularly viscous landmine if you don¿t prepare for it. Fortunately, it takes relatively few stealthy astral specters lurking around to convince most opponents that they're never sure where you¿re covered, particularly if you¿re clever in baiting some traps to introduce him to the fact you have them. Make sure you invest in some before it becomes a problem, and remember your pretender is a stealthy astral 3 mage out of the box as well.

    Alright, now here¿s the second reason you got N5 on your pretender  Mother Oak. As you¿ve no doubt picked up on by now, alteration is your initial research goal and you¿re also going to need a lot of N gems. You¿ll very likely be in a position to put up Mother Oak around the beginning of year 2 and it¿d be criminal not to do so. You get it up that early along with your aggressive site searching and you should have a couple hundred N gems by the time you want to start mass transforming everybody and then start dropping llamia and fairy queens. Obviously you can¿t count on getting and keeping a global and you¿re not totally screwed if you don¿t get it, but its low hanging fruit in the direction you¿re already researching so you¿d be a fool not to try.

    A couple more things to consider. Your early fighting is going to be helped quite a bit by a quick detour to constr-2 so you can forge ice pebble staffs. Your ichtycentaur have a good defense but fade on the offence after the first strike. Numbness is the perfect complement to this allowing them to wear down the tougher foes as fatigue lets them land numerous critical hits while their ailing adversaries quickly have no chance of overcoming their nice defense score. Just one ice pebble staff is enough to make a significant difference in indie-clearing size squads, while 4-5 can make a drastic difference in early big fights. Make sure to bring along some mermages to cast numbness as well for the really important fights  having 10 guys spamming numbness will cover an amazing number of enemies in the first few rounds of fighting and unless they¿re cold immune they better hope they can kill you quite quickly.

    Speaking of which, not much *can* kill you terribly quickly. Those ictycentaurs have a defense of 17 (unless you hit them with quickness¿which does wonders for their first strike) and once you start dropping wooden warriors (pretty early) they¿ve got 15 protection covering their 20 hitpoints¿.staying power isn¿t really an issue for Oceana. When fighting on land stack curse of the desert on as well to make the most of your staying power.

    Your pretender brings the following to the table  nature magic gives you mother oak, fairy and lamia queens and by extension Kokythiads and Unfrozen. All of a sudden you¿ve got some strength on land! His air magic gives you early access to fog warriors, then air boosters for your fairy queens. His death magic gives you some initial death income to prime the pump for aggressive site searching when the llamias hit the table, leading into being a solid death power. His astral magic gives you moonvine bracelets (so everyone can transform!) and eyes of the void. The void eyes are quite useful because your capricorns will be casting: bone melter, curse of the desert, charm, polymoph (make sure to cast eagle eyes first) while your llamias, kokythiads, and unfrozen and hit the disintegration. Ah god I love the synergy of most of your best stuff snuggling neatly into alteration, you¿ll be dropping this stuff pretty early.

    Now, rounding the corner into late game you¿re going to start feeling that pinch from lacking much astral, but the good news is you should have a pretty decent blood economy and be a very respectable death power, while having enough astral to forge those nice trinkets. Much of the advantage of late game astral lies in its mobility, don¿t neglect the tools you have in your arsenal. Faery trod is not always the answer to your dreams, but it is in play a heck of a lot sooner than astral travel and you¿re swimming in nature gems. Make the most out of those cloud trapezing fairy queens, and many of your transformed capricorns will be flying and/or stealthy.

    It¿s hard to overemphasize how important alteration is to Oceana. Every single one of these spells is immensely useful : eagle eyes, numbness, quickness, encase in ice, swarm, bone melter, drain life, wooden warriors, mother oak, frozen heart, darkness, fog warriors, prison of sedna, transformation, mass protection, polymorph, disintegration, quickening. Once you've used your llamia queens to leverage into blood stones, those earth random mermages are now summoning earthpower up to E4 which add lots more nice things under alt, but more importantly the second holy grail for MA Oceana - weapons of sharpness. Once you've got a few guys who can cast that spell (along with strength of giants, and of course all your other buffs) you're now permanently out of the struggling to output damage stage. You can also, of course, add destruction/iron bane in as appropriate.

    So let¿s recap. Fast initial expansion with ichtycentaur. Fast castling up with free kelp fortresses. Fast research from fast castles. Good water & gem income leveraged into good death and blood income. Solid buffs on solid units supplemented by summons with teeth. Lots of upkeep free mages!

    Not a path for the faint of heart, but with a bit of balls this nation¿s got some teeth.

    				8.27.2.2.2 Comments

    -> Baalz,

    	I generally think you do a good job with guides - but I think you've missed the heart of Oceania. I haven't put all the attention to detail into this that you do - but let me give you my thoughts on Oceania - and perhaps you can develop them.

    	Death. Death, Death, Death, Death, Death. Can I say Death some more?

    	Being under water means that you are sheltered from many of the options that people use to remove a global: killing the caster. Many of the spells wont work under water, and most nations will have difficulty entering into water.

    	So, while I agree that entry to land is difficult for you - make maximum advantage of that by planning to cast spells to take advantage of the corellary - that it is equally difficult for opponents to hit *you*.

    	Many of your units recuperate. Can you say Burden of Time?
    	In the same breath, you should be thinking "Death Scales".

    	In general I completely agree that you need to site search quickly in order to get castles - huge advantage for Oceania.
    	Plus you need to accomplish the site searching prior to building castles - nothing worse than finding a castle on a square where you've already put one.

    	You are correct about the lack of damage output. However, nets are an incredibly potent and underappreciated. When you recruit units, alternate nets and non net units - so that when grouped you get even dispersal of both kinds of units.

    	Nets set defense to zero - allowing that humonguous first strike to hit.

    	Also as an aside - you have overlooked the benefits of quickness, haste, and friendly currents - which increase the AP of the units and *hence the damage* of lance equipped units.
    	(I may be wrong on the haste, its not in front of me), yet even so haste at the least give your units better range - and so is still very valuable).

    	Also consider that you *will* find shamblers - shamblers innately have two attacks so things that increase their strength and or rate of attack scale better for them.

    	So, where do you go after your initial expansion? Think fortress oceania. Mass undead or mannikens - or X - mass low or no upkeep troops as filler to leverage your troops that *don't* have underwater penalties.

    	Breakout when you can - and head towards a tartar sauce factory. Which of course dovetails with the nature portion of your plan - Goh! Personally I think you should consider a DxSx pretender (S depending if R. is in the game).

    	Again its a question of leverage. Your ability to mind hunt underwater makes it more difficult for your opponents to screen with astral mages - and more expensive as they now need underwater equipment.

    	Plus if you do mindhunt - and they don't have a screening mage - the troops that were reliant on that commander to breath.. die.

    	So give those ideas a whirl.... and see if you can give them the normal Baalz magic...

    -> A few things I do not agree about,

    	First of all nature pick on your pretender. You will be getting some n4 mages, and with a quick stop at construction 4 you will have nature5 access without having nature on your pretender(thistle mace). This might delay that mother oak strategy you were going for but you also get access to certain items that are valuable to your strategy like clams, wave breakers (gives friendly current - an enchantment lvl 5 spell that is nice for your heavy encumb troops).

    	While I agree with your basic point that Oceania needs a lab mage to be able to cast spells/forge, I found in my game with them that the most critical paths are astral and death. My personal choice was an immortal lich with S6, death at 5 and low level magic in a few other paths. The basic idea was for him to serve as a site searcher early and a summoner/forger later. Also he serves as protection in your own dominion against rlyeh (immortal +S6 mind duels). Late game his high astral and my clam forging makes him ideal to cast wish ("gems" mostly). Not that this is an optimal strategy by any means, but astral and death will be good to have.

    	My personal suggestion for research priorities are
    	- Thaum2 (haruspex, as you mentioned free forts are very nice)
    	- Conj for voice of tiamat, school of sharks (you want that gem income asap)
    	- Const 4 for wave breakers, thistle maces, other items of importance.

    	After that it really depends on your strategy/situation

    -> Hmmm, you'll get N4 capricorns often enough, but to cast mother oak you have to have N5 - on land. Since you lose a level going on land that means N5 in the water plus a thistle mace. You've got less than a 1% chance on each capricorn to get N5, so essentially you're scrapping the mother oak early strategy. You're also scrapping the llamia queen farm, and by extension much of your death magic and all your blood magic. You can still squeeze into death using your pretender, but it's an immensely steeper slope to climb than using your nature gems (fueled by the mother oak) to summon mages, while you use your limited death gems to site search. If you're using your limited death gems to summon mages with your pretender this drastically slows how fast you can site search.

    As I mention, N5 is an expensive thing to do, but I think what you get justifies the cost. You very likely get hundreds of nature gems from putting the mother oak probably before anyone else can cast it and well before anyone is likely to try and dispel it. You get very solid entry into death, and a respectable one into blood. The alternative suggestion is to go with astral, I just don't see it bringing nearly as much to the table.

    As to going for constr-4 first I think this is an expensive thing to do. I look at it this way, for your first engagement you're unlikely to have two mid level things researched, so would you rather have constr-4 or alt-5? Alt-5 brings numbness, quickness, wooden warriors, bone melter, encase in ice (perfect if your opponent has a SC god underwater) and swarm (perfect if your opponent has a SC god on land). Constr-4 certainly does give you a couple nice things, I just think it's better to focus on what gives you the most bang for the buck.

    -> To ChrisP:

    You seem to want to play the nation like LA ermor, this is not the best of ideas. First of all you dont have a starting income of death so you cannot cast dark knowledge. To add to this problem your only mage with death is your pretender (and if he is a rainbow with death - you move his fat *** out and site search manually). No forget about dark knowledge your pretender has better things to do, go for voice of tiamat, it will drastically increase your gem income.

    Also pissing everyone off with BoT is not a good idea if you wish to make friends, the 3 steps of victory with this nation really is:

    1. Secure the water (using those extra fort produce ichty soldiers (half the cost of mermidons and not 10 encumb!), and ichtycentaurs - expensive but good / Combine this with various battle spells like friendely current + school of sharks and do your best at taking the water. Easily said than done, but you should have a small edge against rlyeh or atlantis. Are they both in the game dont try to fight them both at once.

    		2. Build your strenght. Get gem income going with tiamat, haruspex and start clam production (earth on your pretender for hammers is good to consider). Make pacts and alliances and hope that MA oceania is not seen as a threat, and nibble up some provinces from dying nations.

    		3. Bust out with superior gem income and summon what you need to complement your armies for victory. Try to get the elemental summons like water queens if you are able. Use your high astral to wish for "gems" and if you feel like it you can get a few seraphs or something just for the fun of it.

    		I really feal your death, death, death! strategy will just turn everyone against you and violate "point 2". To add to this your heavy death dominion will kill off your pop and destroy your income. In my opinion Oceania really is a very late bloomer, and you need to make time your friend not your enemy in order to get the summons and gem income that can secure a win with this nation.

    		Also I dont think you need to mod oceania in any way, they are fully capable at winning even against good players (I have done so before) if you play them smart and are willing to slow play them a bit and build your strenght before getting into the action.

    -> To Baalz:

    When fighting underwater I do feel the battlewide effects are so much potent than the aoe1 offensive spells that you suggest. Since the 5th level is so very expensive I can almost have const 4 + conj 4 by the time you reach alt5, basically giving me friendly current (really needed if you want to use encumb10 myrms) and school of scharks and to top that off I do get alot of gems to play with from tiamat.

    If you are engaging big battles on land early I really feel you are doing something wrong. A competent player will win against your armies since you are basically fighting without decent battle magic so getting swarm is not a top priority for me.

    You are right that nature-5 pretender is needed if you for some reason need the mother oak, but then you need to go for ench5 aswell. personally I would get low nature on my pretender in order to get the moonvine bracelets (sp?) at some point (also various items/summons that need nature in combo with other paths). Sure then I would not get the mother oak as soon but its not so criticall anyway, since you usually get 20 nature or so per turn anyway after all your haruspex casts.

    Personally I invested heavily into conjuration when I played them last, you get spells that is just awesome in the water like shark attack, various good summons and later water queens and maelstorm global, and I find this path more needed than alt to be honest.

    -> Nitpick: Kokythiads are 'she' not 'he'. If you are going to cast Leviathan with them, see if you can do it at the Water Solstice, for 50% off. It's supposedly a rare site, but I've seen it pop up every time I've been in the water.

    Transformation: IMO this spell is still teh suck. Every time I've tried it my mage has just died. Not that I tried it very much after the first few times. If there was just a chance of affliction, I could handle that, but instadeath? That just bites.

    Merman Priest: Don't forget to site search with these, Ancient Temple of the Deep are frequent and H1 and give S1W1.

    Bishop Fish: Can be used to smite MR5 Krakens and MR8 Sea Serpents.

    -> Mother oak is alt-5, there's no need to go for ench early. I think merms are not a good way to go initially because of a number of factors regardless of if you get friendly currents. Even with production scales you're going to be horribly resource constrained as to how many you can recruit and their encumbrance makes them not terribly viable until you've got something that can lay out damage faster than their staggering fatigue mounts up.

    To be sure there's different ways to play most nations and I wouldn't begin to try and convince you that what you're suggesting could not also be effective, but I think we've got two different philosophies. You're looking to play a slow methodical turtling strategy involving clamming and long term investments. This is rather a classical way to play MA Oceana and relies on having complete water domination to comfortably fortify. My outline is a much more hybrid-amphibious approach which plays on different strengths and sets you up to be a solid land power from the beginning as well as a water power.

    I disagree that you can't be competitive on land very early using the strategies I outline here, particularly if you're smart about how you expand. Are you really going to declare war on me (Oceana) in order to snatch 3 provinces before you get to the coast and our defacto new border while setting yourself up for constant siren harassment and coastal raids by troops that have no problem at all wiping out your PD? It's also a bit of a strawman to attack my suggestion of swarm, that's obviously not what my priority was, it's a bonus you pick up when you get wooden warriors and mother oak which is very useful in some situations you'll run into early game. I understand you played an effective game focusing on conjuration, but there's more than one way to play effectively. Also, though I didn't spell it out it's obvious from the rest of what I wrote that conjuration is a close second after alteration.

    I also don't think you're really seeing the big picture with the mother oak/llamia queen plan. Yes, you have a solid nature income without the mother oak, but I'm suggesting spending a massive ammount of nature gems to transform scores of mages, summon dozens of llamia queens, not to mention the fact that every fairy queen you can scrape up is pure gold. If you can't find a good use for every nature gem then I think you're doing something wrong.

    -> But Baalz,

    	Have you actually cast transformation much? Even with a Luck-3, I seem to end up dead about 10% of the time, and feebleminded about 20%. And there are even more circumstances in which you end up with rather useless forms. Thats a pretty high opportunity cost - plus the mage action, plus the gems - and frankly I don't think you can really afford a +3luck +3magic design.

    -> Well, the thing about transformation is it completely removes upkeep cost. The upkeep cost of a unit is 1/15th it's cost, so if you transform 15 mages your upkeep savings will give you gold for a "free" replacement every turn. I don't know what the failure rate is, but if it's 10% (and you ignore the gem cost of transformation) then it pays for itself in less than two turns. That is to say if you have to pay for a replacement mage 10% of the time you can do it with the upkeep savings after a turn and a half. This also discounts the fact that the mages after the transformation are significantly more powerful if you plan to use them on land. The failure rate is further dropped if you just stash those upkeep free feebleminded dudes somewhere until you've got a bunch of fairy queens sitting around to heal them.

    As to the A5, that's a bit of a judgement call but I was thinking about wind ride when I did it. Also, until you get all the way up to conj-8 your pretender is your only air support and it's useful to be able to cast fog warriors and not pass out (A5 with 5 gems) so you can then cast returning the next turn to keep your pretender relatively risk free. You could put the points elsewhere if you want, but it seemed a decent investment.

    -> So here's my prospective build for MA-Oceania:

    Pretender: F4W4E4A4D4N4, Dom 4
    Scales O3 D3 C3

    First turn: Prophetize a siren. You could wait for for a bishop
    in order have a H4 site searcher - but I find the utility of the siren much higher. Flying move 3. You are going to find a lot of kelp fortresses - the prophetized siren gives you quick options to lab/temple them.

    Plus, the sirens can help you quickly find land sacred sites. The first couple of turns Research with your pretender. You don't want to fail a conquest and end up with your pretender twiddling.

    With this build, I'd start on Construction immediately, to get the pearl factory going.

    -> I don't think you appreciate the implications of what I said Chris. If the failure rate is 3 times what I outlined then it take 3 times that amount to "pay for itself". I don't know what the failure rate is (I don't think luck scales affect it), but something that pays for itself in 2-5 turns is a pretty good investment. Assuming your numbers are accurate, if you plan on eventually recovering most of those feebleminded guys with fairy queens then the transformation is paying for itself in under two turns even if you don't think the new mages are any better at all. Even if you never recover a single feebleminded guy it's still massively worthwhile to start investing in this early on.

    -> Awesome stuff, as usual.

    I just finished subbing for an MA Oceania position which shared the water with R'lyeh. I completely agree with everything you've said - if R'lyeh doesn't exist. But since it happens, here are a few comments to complement your extraordinary guide:

    If R'lyeh is in the game, buckle up. After turn 25, they will dominate you, so kill them immediately.

    Picture this: your Grand Army is swimming to meet the Alien Army. But just before the confrontation, 6 of your 10 commanders get zapfried by mindhunts, including the stealty S1 Spectre that was protecting them. So you arrive at the battlefield at half strength, across from a huge hoard of mindless chaff...

    Turn 1: a half dozen ichtycentaurs get their minds enslaved, 2 dozen first strikes are spent killing them, as are a few errant numbness-es. Turn 2: repeat, only now the chaff have engaged you.........Eventually your exhausted ichtycentaurs break and retreat into enemy territory, since Imprint Souls can target underwater provinces.

    I recommend:
    (A) Surge out the the water looking with the singular goal of finding indy astral mage provinces. Forge swim trunks and institute the buddy system.
    (B) Beg/Borrow/Steal all the Starshine Skullcaps you can. Put them on A and start every party with Antimagic.
    (C) Beg/Borrow/Steal all the Amulets of Antimagic you can. Use 16+4=20MR Bishop Fish to lead your underwater armies, lest you arrive at the field without any troops. Make Lead Shields if necessary.
    (D) Get Foul Vapors immediately...I know Alteration is awesome for Oceania, but you MUST get this spell before R'lyeh gets Enslave Mind. Unintuitively, Foul Vapors is castable underwater, and you can cast Poison Ward to mitigate the damage to your troops, he can't. Splurge those Earth gems on some un-mind-burnable, regenerating, poison-immune, zero-encumberance claymen to bolster your frontline.
    (E) You need Bloodstones badly, as your Mermages can't wear Earth Boots underwater. Make it a priority, as you can then use Summon Earthpower and get Strength of Giants/Legions of Steel/Weapons of Sharpness underwater. Plus you can then summon Troll Kings.
    (F) 20 PD in each retreat route.
    (G) Don't cast Shark Attack in round 1. Script your Sirens for (Summon Water Power)(hold)(hold)(hold)(Shark Attack) so that the Enslave Minders are too exhausted for sustained enslavment of your sharks.

    One last thought: Sailor's Death (W3, AOE=1, 14+ AN damage) works underwater against troops that are there by unnatural means (i.e. Sea King's Goblet, Wave Breaker, etc)...Summon Waterpower makes every mage you have W3, and most get Eagle Eyes...exploit this.

    Again, great stuff.

    -> A couple good points there Cleveland, particularly about Shark attack and Sailor's death which I didn't know. I will say though that I don't think R'yleh will quite dominate you if you play this right and make the appropriate preparations for a mid/late game fight with the squids. To be sure, R'yleh is one of the more powerful nations in the game and will seldom be a pushover for any nation to fight, but you do have some powerful tools at your disposal using this setup I outlined.

    1) Fighting R'yleh you don't want to use ichtycentaurs, use the Oceanian Triton supported by mindless/high MR summons (yeah leviathans!). Those enslave minds/soul slay/mind blasts are now targeting your 12 MR, 10 gold troops who are *very* tough chaff when buffed with mass protection and possibly fog warriors. Using ice pebble staffs and support mages (frozen heart, bone melter, drain life, etc.) you should be able to easily handle the small numbers of elite units R'yleh fields (meteor guards, void summons). Enslave mind is a lot less scary when instead of 100 centaurs you're fielding 400 tritons who have a nice unbuffed 12 MR (ok, probably 11 in a magic-1 environment), flanked by swarms of bone fiends, and remember you're countering with powerful spells of your own. If he's dropping mind hunt and enslave mind (evocation & thuaum), you should be matching with polymorphs & shark attack (alteration & conj)

    2) You've got a stealthy astral pretender from turn 1 and if you've got a S1 specter you damn sure better slap two boosters on him. The thing about having *stealthy* astral mages is they work as a wonderful mind hunt deterrent far above the actual number of territories they're in. Think about it, if you're playing R'yleh and you know I've got some unknown number of astral mages hiding in my territory (because you've been feebleminded a couple times targeting apparently "safe" targets) are you likely to drop 10 mind hunts on the high value army that I'm very interested in protecting? Even if I *don't* have a mage there you're likely to assume I do. Remember, your opponent has *no idea* how many stealthy astral mages you've got covering you or where they are, only that that number is greater than 0 and he's got no way to recover from feeblemind. And of course you're not just bluffing, you should stick a specter/your pretender sneaking around with the grand army you really don't want mind hunted.

    3) Indie astral mages are certainly a boon, but one of the tenants of this guide is that astral mages are too vital to count on finding indies. Your pretender gives you astral from turn 1. Specters are an early focus for your death economy, and you're also optionally funneling water gems into Unfrozen - you should have a handful of astral mages to work with even if you can't find any indie ones. I certainly don't disagree that you should keep your eyes peeled for indies, but they're not critical. You should be able to forge as many amulets of antimagic as you want, drop anti-magic, and stop mind hunts dead without counting on luck. If you don't have enough astral mages for what you need, well you now know what the top priority is for all your death and water gems.

    Yes, I do believe I described blood stones as unlocking the second holy grail for MA Oceana. Couldn't agree more. If you need the extra level of earth that you lose from not being able to wear earth boots underwater use one of your E/S specters to forge a crystal shield.

    Foul vapors I don't know if I agree with. Certainly it can be made to be effective, but I don't see it as being a top priority target. It works too slow, requires combos to work well, and still probably will result in friendly casualties until you start getting the real powerful combos (large numbers of poison immune troops, mass regeneration, etc). Certainly it's something you'll want to pick up at some point, but I wouldn't personally drop some of the other stuff I suggest to get it.

    -> Yeah it makes a lot of sense at 3N per casting, though the vast majority of the forms, I still feel are wholly unsuited to combat use.

    Out of 25 mages (2 died the last turn to Mind Burns, can't remember what they were, but I think they can safely be classified as "MR too low to survive combat" -

    		3 Foulspawn = 8MR
    		2 Dragonflies = 3MR
    		12 various animals = 5MR
    		1 Winged Monkey (so cool!) = 7MR
    		1 Bog Beast = 7MR
    		2 Ice Drakes = 9MR
    		1 "Hydra Hatchling" (looks like a mature Hydra missing some heads, only 1 form) = 12MR
    		1 Wyvern = 12MR
    		1 Chimera = 13MR
    		1 Amphiptere = 16MR

    		So if I count the 2 that just died, I had 20% Feebleminded (the Foulspawn and Dragonflies, who are actually at 3MR and -2MR atm from Affliction), and 16% who have >10MR before items. Of those 4, none of them have anything but misc slots, so besides the kind of awesome Amphiptere, none will surpass an unbuffed Capricorn, even with an Antimagic Ammy. (on the bright side, 25 ex-Capricorns with 1 star, and in 1Magic dominion will net you 250RP for free, and cut upkeep by ~583g)

    		As far as Mermages as support mages..... they are almost identical to a Capricorn out of the water. Without going into length, I'll just say that I didn't think I was the only one that felt that it wasn't just that Capricorns were too expensive once removed from the water, but that their paths just sucked in combat by that point anyways. Not to say that some Mermages wouldn't come in handy, but there is little good they can do that won't have them passed out by round 5, and not much they can do before that.

    		So, trying to look for an angle that allows land to be conquered early on, and Conj to be researched early enough to not only get a good stable of summoned mages up very early, but to make them visible to your neighbors, so they understand the risks involved in trying to marginalize your holdings. All this is a very tough task to accomplish, when it's well known that you won't get better than N2 or W2 for combat magic without your pretender, or summons (or booster items, but Water is way out of early reach, and Nature seems a very poor use for your gems, considering your other goals).

    ->

    			8.27.2.3

    	8.28 Pangaea

    	    	8.28.1 EA Pangaea

    	    	    	8.28.1.1 Dedas guide to EA Pangaea

    A SMALL GUIDE TO EARLY AGE PANGAEA

    The main reason why I've begun writing this guide on Pangaea EA, is because after getting inspired by the recent MA Pangaea strategy thread, I decided to do some testing and experimenting on EA Pangaea. Now I want to share and discuss the results with you. And the reason it is in a new thread is because EA Pangaea may be similar to MA, but they are not the same  armor being one of the main differences.

    Attached is a savegame meant as a demonstration of early game with this strategy.

    THE SETUP

    Pretender
    As I'm trying to use EA Pan's every potential, I also tried to find a good pretender to use with spell songs. What I found was the ¿The lady of love¿. Now, this woman is ideal for the job of singing in front line battle. And the reason for this is that she has both high awe (+4) and the ability to craft herself a hide shield on the first turn. That shield and her pretty high HP will help her and her troops to deal with arrows to a less extent when expanding. Arrows that of course are deadly to any EA Pan unit. Other things she is even better at are sucking up cavalry chargers and staying alive singing. Her awe helps her with these tasks.
    Also not to be forgotten is her nature and water magic that will strengthen her and her minions defensive capabilities later on when research really kicks in. But for start game she doesn't need any of that.

    Scales
    Turmoil 3, Sloth 3, Heat 1, Growth 3, Luck 3, Magic 3.

    Heavy on growth as you are going to patrol your provinces heavily to afford all those castles and pans.

    Heavy on magic will help with spell songs (negating MR and less fatigue for the caster) and research.

    The battle in the savegame:
    It show effective use of the spell song as the small and lightly damaged starting army takes out a relatively big group of heavy cavalry.

    STEP BY STEP

    Early game general goals

    Build a strong economy that will fuel a strong research base with pans as core. The cheap in upkeep dryads will soon become abundant and can be used as support troops in many various roles.

    Early game  the first crucial turns

    TURN 1
    Recruit:
    A dryad
    40xharpies

    Forge a hide shield with your pretender.
    Make your black harpy prophet.
    Put the minotaur with accompanying troops to patrol.
    Set taxes to 200%.

    Turn 2
    Recruit:
    A dryad
    (no nothing else, save your gold)

    Equip your pretender with hide shield.
    Give all harpies to the dryad, set her to patrol (taxes still at 200%.)
    With your pretender, prophet and minotaur:
    Attack any province that is not a farm (too expensive fortress) but still produces a good amount of gold. For battle placement see savegame.

    TURN 3
    Recruit:
    A dryad.
    As many harpies as you can afford (not over 40).
    If you don't have the money, try to alchemise a small amount of nature gems.

    Build with your harpy:
    A fortress in the newly taken province.

    Attack another province with your pretender and minotaur.

    TURN 4
    Recruit:
    A dryad
    40xharpies

    Put all free harpies on the newly recruited dryad. Move her to the fortress construction site.

    Move your pretender and the minotaur to the fortress construction site.

    TURN 5
    Recruit:
    A dryad
    40xharpies

    Build at the fortress construction site:
    A temple with you prophet.
    A lab with your pretender.
    Continue construction with your minotaur.

    Put all free harpies on the newly recruited dryad. Move her to one of the newly taken provinces that produces the most gold.

    Set taxes to 200% at the fortress construction site. Set the dryad there to patrol.

    TURN 6 AND BEYOND  Roughly

    You should now have a new fortress to continue the dryad production in.

    *Note*
    The reason you are recruiting dryads is because they later can be set to various tasks including research, spying, defense and offense (singing and blessing), patrol, lab and temple building. Other commanders are either too expensive in both upkeep and price, or they have less uses.

    Your old fortress should be set to spamming pans.
    When you very soon have yet another fortress, much to the help of your income boosting patrol dryads, you should set the old one to pans as well.

    *Note*
    Pans are good but need a strong economy. The dryads can manage this. The pans will later help with free patrollers as maenads become abundant. A growth scale is needed to battle low supplies from patrolling.

    Your pans should of course be set to research.

    Middle game

    Coming soon...

    Late game

    Coming soon...

    Comments:
    -> s you explore Pangaea, keep in mind that its a LA Ermor-type nation: both get lots-and-lots of free, crappy units.

    Then remember that LA Ermor armies are (a) huge, (b) mostly chaff, and (c) heavily buffed...at least the successful ones.

    So a successful Pan strat CAN focus on the same, with a few subtle differences.

    First, Pan doesn't get the numbers of freespawn that Ermor does. Pan armies, therefore, need to be supplemented with a larger fraction of front-line thugs & thuggish troops than Ermor armies. A 10:1 maenad:minotaur ratio seems to be the sweet-spot, supported by your singing dryads. This means more $ spent on troops, but that's OK, because...

    Second, Pan's freespawn is inherently superior to Ermor's. They're unbanishable, fast (makes archers unhappy), and can reliably hit opponents. Additionally, they aren't mindless, so they make GREAT fort defenders, and laugh at mind-burn/soul-slay spamming. They aren't poison-resistant, but feel free to Breath of Dragon all over them regardless, because...

    Third, Pan is ready-made for the Whole-Battlefield Nature & Earth buffs. Mass protection early on, Army of Lead/Gold later. Serpent's Blessing opens poison evocations. Later, Mass Regeneration & Gaia's Blessing. And repeat after me: "Darkness is to Ermor what Growing Fury is to Pangaea;" throw it down, and your maenads & minotaurs become an unroutable offensive tidal wave.

    Like Ermor, archers will be a problem. Unlike Ermor, you can readily cast Faerie Court, and voila, Air Fend.

    Similarly, like Ermor, raid the crap out of everyone, take terrible scales to make your lands undesirable (+3 heat/cold especially, as your troops wear no armor), and spam (cheap) temples. Splash some Blood in there for good measure, spam blood stones, & think Forge of the Ancients (instead of Utterdark).

    Like Ermor, be ready for a tough endgame, though you don't have to fear Purgatory.

    ->

    	    	8.28.2 MA Pangaea

    	    	    	8.28.2.1 MA Pangaea strategies

    -> I've just chosen to play Pangaea in a MP game, pretty much at random, so I thought I'd look for strategies in the forum. So far I've seen evidence of three, and I thought I'd outline what I understood of each in the hope of being corrected where I've gone wrong and getting some in-depth explanation of bits I don't understand. Or of course be told of new strategies I've missed.

    Pretenders: Most options for Pangaea strategy are covered by three pretenders - Lord of the Wild, Carrion Dragon and Gorgon.

    The Gorgon is a highly capable SC due to its Petrify ability - every unit attacking it in melee will have to make a MR check or be turned to stone, generally causing instant death. The flip side to this is that the Gorgon has relatively few HP for an SC, making it fragile (especially against archers). Workarounds for the fragility can include adding Awe by taking 10 dominion, having a dormant pretender who can be equipped with good armour as soon as she awakens, and simply taking Earth 9.

    The Gorgon has E and N innately, and extra paths cost 80. Taking more than one extra path is probably ill-advised. Air can be a good path to take, allowing the Gorgon to forge armour like the shining chainmail for Air Shield.

    The Carrion Dragon is a slight oddity - a dragon that isn't a great SC. It lacks a breath weapon and 8 Prot instead of 18, and lacks in Defence also. Having 200 hp instead of 125 doesn't make up for it. In compensation it has a huge +10 Fear and extra magic paths cost only 50 points instead of 80. Despite this, it probably won't survive solo against indy provinces with more than average strength.

    Carrion Dragons have D1N1 innately, which makes it relatively cheap for you to make them capable of casting Carrion Woods (N4D4 is enough, if you use boosters).

    If you're determined to use one in combat, Dominion 10 for Awe +2 is probably advisable.

    The Lord of the Wild can be thought of as a Titan with a domsummon of many Maenads. It's okay in combat but not exceptional. Its paths are Nature and Blood, so if you're going to do a lot of blood hunting, it'll let you get the bigger Blood summons more easily. Taken awake, it can help with early conquest due to its Maenad generation.

    Paths:

    Pangaea has access to Earth, Nature and Blood in reasonable degree. It also has a tiny scraping of Death, but not enough to do much with beyond carrion summons - hardly even enough for site searching with. You can get a national hero with Air (the harpy queen), so the lacking areas are Fire, Water and Astral.

    White Centaurs, Pangaea's sacreds, are very competent and will benefit from any combat bless. They aren't quite top rank sacreds and they're capital only, so there's not much motivation to go for a big bless at the expense of other areas. If you're doing a Rainbow strategy it might be worth the points to go for F4W4 rather than F3W3, say.

    Going for B4+ could help you make good use of your potential blood slave income to summon the more powerful demons, and if you want to be able to cast Carrion Woods in the late game then it may be worth getting N4D4.

    Scales:

    Turmoil is thematic for Pangaea and provides a nice boost to Maenad production. Since you probably don't want to be putting up heavy PD everywhere or keep reaction forces around against berbarians, Turmoil/Luck is a good idea.

    You'll probably want either some Productivity or a lot of Sloth, depending on what units you plan on using (see below).

    Growth benefits Blood hunting (in the long term) and Carrion Woods, so if you want to focus on one of those it's a priority. Otherwise, you could gain points here from taking Death.

    Magic - Either Magic 1 or Magic 3 is a very good idea. Dryads should be your primary researchers, and they really benefit from the RP boost.

    Units:

    As an overview, MA Pan has faster units for their class then most land nations. They also have higher defence than most, and there's a lot of stealth available. You're not an Ulm, TC or Ermor, but you're pretty good.

    Satyrs first. The 3 resource satyr is fairly pointless, as you get rather better ones for 4 resources. The 4 resource satyrs have a spear and either javelins or a buckler, and are competent in melee. They don't have much armour, and even the buckler satyr is pretty vulnerable to arrow fire.

    Centaurs: The Centaur archer is very nice indeed - a high precision longbowman with the hits to survive an archer duel or even beat a light force on attack rear orders. However, they're size 3 and cost 30 gp each. Centaur warriors are good medium cavalry with great hits.

    Minotaurs are size-3 tramplers, which is probably the best use for them. They don't have much by way of attack or defence scores to help them out in a melee, although they're pretty quick. Their battleaxes and strength would make them nice against Wooden Constructs, I suppose.

    Also, Pangaea gets armoured troops. I've put these separately because if you're making serious use of them you're likely to be using a strategy focussed on their use. The armoured troops are pretty much elite heavy units.
    Satyr Hoplites are heavy infantry, but faster and with high defence.
    Centaur cataphracts have the armour of heavy cavalry and more speed. Importantly, they have 20 hit points. This and their massive armour makes up for having lower defence than kite shielded heavy cavalry.
    War Minotaurs have a high protection to let them trample more humans before dying. Their defence is pitiful, but if they berzerk they get 13 attack and 21 protection, which is quite bearable for attacking creatures of size 3+.

    Leaders:
    The Black Harpy has 10 leadership, +20 stealth and flies. Now that's a good scout.
    Other leaders are, well, leaders. Normally your forts will be recruiting Dryads or Pans, and you'll recruit the odd indy commander instead.

    Spellcasters:
    Pangaea don't have many casters, but it's easy to know what to do with them.
    Pans are good battle mages, with access to some great troop buffs and Blade Wind (albeit with Earth Boots). They also have leadership 80 out of the box, which is rather nice. The ones that get D1 can be used to create Manikins and Carrion, and I guess the ones with B1 could make Sabbaths and use Reinvigoration. They also have a massive upkeep cost of 24, leading to:

    Dryads. These should be your principal researchers - they have an upkeep of 3.6 rather than 24, and are a far more efficient research spend. You'll need several castles making them to keep your research rate reasonable, but it's cheaper long term than using Pans. They also do blesses for your sacred troops.

    Finally, Pandemoniacs. They're sort of optional, as you may decide not to go into Blood. If you do want to go this way they're good blood hunters, but like Pans they're very expensive in upkeep. You aren't going to get a full-on blood economy out of Pangaea with these guys. What they can do is ramp up their blood level easily. Empower one to B3, make Armour of Twisting Thorns and wear it, then make the other Blood boosters and laugh nastily. With Blood you can get Cross Breeding and Dark Vines easily, and dropping a Blood booster onto a B1 Pan gives you Demon Knights. Woo.

    Broad Strategies:

    There are a variety of ways Pangaea can focus its national efort over the game, and I'll try to cover a few of them. You may end up using bits of each of these - they're not mutually exclusive.

    1. Maenad hordes
    You'll always have Maenads floating around when playing Pangaea, but with this strategy you focus on making and using them.

    Maenads are generally chaff, but when you have 500 of them and a set of the mass buffs that Earth and Nature do so well they can be an effective fighting force. Early on Mass Protection is a big boost, and Strength of Giants helps too. If you can branch into air, Arrow Fend is a given. Worried about armoured troops? Pans can spam Destruction, bringing things rapidly down to the Maenad's level.

    Back the Maenads up with archers and a couple of squads of Centaurs or Satyrs to crack tough nuts. You'll need anti-thug/SC power in some instances too - buffed Maenads will get through mose defence scores thanks to weight of numbers, but high prot can cause problems.

    Turmoil 3 is a requirement here, and you're likely to be buying quite a few Pans as well. Luck 3 will probably help with the costs. Research focus should be for Alteration, Enchantment and maybe Construction to get the buffs you'll be wanting to use.

    2. Carrion Hordes

    Pangaea gets a trio of Carrion summons, which among other things are undead priests. They don't get the regular reanimation ability though, but instead get to create Manikins. You might look at the stats on a Manikin and think it's like a poor Soulless, but closer examination shows the big difference - Sleep Vines. These guys start off their attack routine with 3 attacks doing 33 stun damage. First off, this makes it pretty likely that their follow-up claw attack will get through. Secondly, your opponent's front line are going to be heavily fatigued very quickly wherever they hit a squad of Manikin types.

    Carrion animators also get random non-standard manikin types when they reanimate. These are generally better than ones you get by casting the spell, but won't show up in great numbers. Some are pretty horrifying though - great big things with 50+ hits and and 3 sets of vines, and so on. You can even find carrion centaur sacreds who can fire vine arrows.

    Carrion Woods generates lots of these carrion creatures across your domain, with better ones coming up in forests and near temples.

    Reanimation is a slow way of generating Carrion, but you will have the Nature income to set up a factory if you want. The higher level summons (Carrion Lady and Carrion Lord are better efficiency reanimators. Carrion Centaurs make good leaders.

    As well as this, Pangaea gets to add to the corpse-y goodness with a set of national buffs for undead, giving regeneration and haste to help your shambling masses of roots slaughter the opposition.

    Research focus for this strategy would be Enchantment (for summons and buffs) and Construction (for Create Mandrake and Mandragora, in order to boost troop numbers).

    3. Armoured Troops.

    These guys get their own heading here, as you want a different approach to play if you're going to use them extensively. Take Productivity 2 instead of Sloth, maybe even less Turmoil or some Order, and start cranking out Satyr Hoplites, Centaur Cataphracts and War Minotaurs. Research for good troop buffs (Alteration, Enchantment), and let your armies roll over the opposition. You'll want Pans for battle mages and leaders, of course. Best of all, your troops aren't going to be hopelessly crippled by the time they have *** experience thanks to recuperation.

    Early turns:

    How these are spent is partly up to your long-term strategy, of course. However, here are a few thoughts.
    1. You don't necessarily need an early prophet, as you don't really need blesses or smites early on. That said, the starting scout is a flier with +stealth. Nice for early anti-dominion work.
    2. Satyrs are fast and perceptive, making them good patrollers. Your starting force can easily patrol away 180% tax on the first turn.
    3. To minimise troop losses in the first couple of turn's conquests, there are a couple of options. You could buy a Pan on turn 1, then use him as a leader to produce a constant stream of Maenad chaff who will absorb the brunt of the enemy charge. Or use most of your starting money on Centaur Archers, placing your entire force near the back of the grid on fire or hold and attack orders as appropriate. You'll lose Satyrs doing this, but not very many. Either way, expect to be running extra troops out to your army after a couple of turns.
    4. Spellcasters. You can go for Dryads as cost-effective researchers and afford lots of troops. You can buy Pans and very few other troops, getting strong but costly research (if you have a dormant SC, this will help get them on the road quickly) and some good site searchers. Going for Pans may negatively affect early expansion.

    Gameplay tactics:

    A collation of ideas from this thread and maybe even elsewhere.

    1. Fever Fetishes.

    Pangaea, once it has made the initial breakthrough into Fire, has a certain edge in F gem generation. Fever Fetishes disease their wearers in order to produce gems. Normally a good way to run yourself out of leaders, but if you're using Pangaea's national troops you get a bit of an edge. Once the fetish bearer is down to their last few HP, transfer the fetish to a new bearer and let recuperation do its job. Hey presto, the previously diseased and dying leader is ready to hold a new fetish! As the holders aren't going to die, you could even do this with your Dryad researchers.

    2. Stealth armies.
    There aren't that many stealth units available to most nations, and generally they're not that capable in combat (barring the glamour nations, that is). Not so Pangaea. All but their most heavily armoured soldiers have stealth +0 (minotaurs aren't stealthy either, come to think of it). This means you can build stealth armies of medium cavalry and longbow archers - a bit better than Villains, really, and better balanced than the forces the glamour nations can produce. This means Pangaea can really go to town with stealth.

    A potted explanation of the stealth mechanism may be in order. It's basically an opposed die roll between patrolling forces and stealthy commanders. Hiding units get an innate bonus on their roll (and add their +stealth value to this), and patrollers get a bonus based on how many units are patrolling and how fast and perceptive they are. It's important for stealthy commanders to note that if they're leading units with less than stealth +10, they'll get penalised for every troop they are leading beyond the first 10. This is why, if you sneak in with a Centaur Heirophant and 80 Satyrs, your army is detected by the first light patrolling force it comes across.

    Things aren't hopeless, though. They'll just require resources that could be used elsewhere. What you need is a commander with +stealth, and luckily enough Pangaea has one. It's called a Dryad. Dryads have stealth +25, can stealth preach, and even cast small buffs if you need them to. They're also likely to be your primary researchers, so you'll have plenty around. Yes, you want to research with them, but think of things this way: you'll need to build a stealth leader for your army anyway. That means using a fortress, and making one less Dryad. This way, you still make the dryad but don't research with it.

    Basic stealth doctrine for Pan is this: One dryad leader can lead 20-25 troops and still be almost undetectable by most patrolling forces. So that's what you do. Send out Dryads with squads of 20-25 of whatever units you're using. 25 centaur archers and 25 centaur warriors (white centaurs if you have a good bless) can take out most provinces that don't actually have a campaign army in them. Even 50 Satyrs will take out an awful lot of defences. 25 Satyrs will beat light to medium PD in many nations.

    If you don't want to attack the enemy directly, then Dryads can go out as stealth preachers. To really annoy them, have them leading groups of Revelers and cause unrest as you go.

    You could in theory domkill someone with enough dryads preaching in their territory, but it'd take an awful lot of dryads who could be researching instead.

    3. Dryad Thugs.
    This may not seem like an obvious choice, but Dryads are actually quite competent as thugs. They have innate Awe, which is a great piece of protection. Kitted out with some decent equipment (vine shield/eye shield, good armour/cloak of shadows, luck/regen/other buffs from misc slots, and of course a good hitty stick), they can solo most indys and upset enemy PD no end. They can be scripted with those nice spellsongs, too. Arrows can be a weakness though, as they don't have very many hits.

    Comments:
    -> It's best not to have your MP strategy rely on a Global, by the time you're able to cast it someone else will be able to dispel it.

    Also I highly suggest taking Gorgon with any nation that can, you can still go Maenad swarm strategy, but she'll boost your early expansion through the roof.

    A Gorgon with Dom 10 can beat weaker indeps handily from turn 2 on, especially with a smiting prophet and some distraction chaff.

    ->  play MA Pangaea almost the same as EA Pangaea, except you get those unbelievably awesome Centaur Cataphracts. I think your best bet is a dominion 10 awake Gorgon. In single player I take Turmoil 1, Sloth 1, Growth 1, Luck 1, Magic 1 and that leaves you with 8 points. I'm sure there's a more ideal setting for MP.

    I actually don't bother too much with Hoplites and Minotaurs, Cataphracts and Maenads should take you through all the indys no problem. I don't think the undead angle is strong enough either.

    I'm not sure what you do with ALL your nature gems, but since you don't have astral you'll probably Faery Trod a lot. You can also forge Vine Shields, Eye Shields, and Rings of Regeneration en masse. Lamia Queens help you diversify your extremely limited magic paths. Alchemy?

    ->  I like the money from order, so i do not take turmoil. I also like growth for the blood magic.

    Gorgon is a must, but she is somewhat fragile with the low hps. So id take a dormant gorgon with 2 air, 4e and 5n. When she gets some alt buffs, she will be tougher than nails.

    Expansion is easy with castle bought troops. Alt 5 is a good goal so you can cast mother oak. Since you have no real thugs, unless you can branch into death magic, i would do blood.

    id blood hunt early and research blood 1 early and crank out some spine devils. they are tough and cheap.

    -> Its highly unorthodox but i have won a game (by proxy) where I took good scales Order 3 Production 3 and an imprisioned Monolith and just cranked out the war minotuars.

    War minotuar rush was so effective I took out two of my neighbors and controled 1/3 of the map before I had to switch tactics. Do not underestimate them, even against Hydras and Elephants and Giants they won.

    I got bored and really busy and had to sub the rest of the game out, but Pangea ended up winning under the leadership of Baalz (who is a much better player than I).

    -> I've only played EA Pangaea in MP, but I think that much of the same stategies apply. And I agree with the consensus.. Gorgon is a must.

    Recruit a lot of Pans. They are expensive, but they are good researchers, and they summon a lot of Maenads. You cannot discount the power of freespawn Maenads. They don't hold up well against archers, but they have a very good attack, and they hardly ever rout.

    Your easy Nature gem income can be applied rather quickly, if you take a Gorgon with E9, N5, sleeping, by casting Mother Oak and then Gift of Health. These are not usually dispelled by the other players, since they are not seen as very powerful Globals, and don't cause any harm to the other players.

    Late game is tough. Hopefully you have found some indy mages that can round out your forces. Otherwise, you will fall to Tartarians and Astral summons.

    ->
    Pan also works very well with a Rainbow with F4W4S4 and wathever else you want, as magic diverity wont hurt, especially later on.

    Then i would use white cenataurs and CWs, cataphracts just get fatigued and get killed easily, also cataphracts thend to tire out while storming fortresses, when you use CWs with relieve your fatigue will stay down at 0, and you can go sloth 3.

    And after you have army of gold, the protection does no longer matter anyway.

    And i would do my research with dryads, if you use magic 1, you pay 1 gold upkeep per RP with dryads, as opposed to 2,6 per RP with pans, and with pangaea you will have high upkeep anyway (pan costs 24 gold per turn.)

    -> Fever fetishes might also be an option. You've got plenty of nature income and the fetishes supply the fire gems. You also have rejuvenating researchers to juggle the fetishes around on. Remove fever fetish when a casters health becomes too low and switch it to another, allowing the first to heal.

    A couple of harpy scouts juggling a bane venom charm can also be used to damage opponents. I did some tests a while back and bane venom charms seem to disease 5% of an enemy army of normal troops each turn.

    -> As an addition, keep in mind the viability of dominion victories: you have stacks of high-stealth H2 priests. to use I won a MP game once with a N4E4A4 Dom9 gorgon; I believe my scales were Turmoil 3 Sloth 2 Growth 3 Luck 2 Drain 2. I got into a pair of protracted mid-game wars with two nations (Ermor, Caelum) in far more magically-powerful positions, and they both went like this:

    Fight holding actions with Maenads and various Centaurs to slow down their armies. Use Cloud Trapeze to drop the gorgon on really powerful armies, slaughtering them mercilessly. Meanwhile, sneak 2 dryads into every single enemy province and start preaching like mad. Eventually, they will throw in the towel in frustration with the gorgon, or get dom-killed.

    Most of the time, I think my gorgon was kitted out with Rainbow Armor, Weightless Tower Shield or Shield of Valor, Frost Brand, Birch Boots, Amulent of Antimagic, and Amulet of Revig or Pendant of Luck. High dominion and sporadic control of Gift of Health gave her enough HP, and her MR was ~32 in dominion (don't forget Iron Will!), so my only real fears were Drain Life/L4L spam and Gifts from Heaven.

    I like to give 2 shields to my Gorgon : a Charcoal and MR or Luck one.

    -> rmored units are quite easily dealt with the nice tune of dancing death and tune of growth that your dryads can sing. Now, now, I know you will all say it's too risky having mages up front but stay with me.

    First let's look at "Tune of Dancing Death":

    Area effect 15, stun damage 31+, fatigue 5, armor negating, magic resistance negates.

    "Tune of Growth"
    AoE 15, entangles enemies, depends on growth scale

    The clever thing is that these tunes comes in harmony with comman pangean scales and strategies.
    Growth adds to ToG
    Magic +3 helps ToDD negate MR on enemies
    200gp temples makes it very cheap to spread dominion
    The dryad is cheap in initial cost (110), cheap in large numbers due to holiness, and is also a priest able to build temples.
    Dryad has Awe +2 and no encumbering armor + able to cast barkskin with her N1 + able to forge a hide shield with the same to protect her from arrows.

    The plan
    Take three or four dryads (no less for best effect).
    Forge a barkskin shield for each one (easy with 6N gem income from start)
    Research alteration 1
    Attack where dominion and scale is on your side to help with awe and magic negation.
    In battle, place some chaff first (satyrs or maenads) and behind them the dryads mixed with satyrs (almost same movement). Script: 1 barkskin 2 attack one, ToDD, ToDD, Tune of Fear.

    That is it. It really does work and the dryads thanks to awe, chaff, barkskin and shield. I always use this strategy when expanding and the results are more than often great. Of course you will rarely lose a dryad now and then but it is worth considering how many troops you would lose otherwise.

    Try it. Experiment with placement as that is key.

    Oh, tune of growth is just ridiculously effective on barbarians because of low MR (against growth) and low morale (against awe). Also, they have no bows to shoot the dryads with. That is one reason I always buy a dryad on the first turn so that I can claim any province defended by barbarians much easier.

    I just want to add that the trick is really to use multiple dryads to sing the tunes as the three songs scale nicely.

    response: While I greatly admire the creativity of this tactic, I just can't see it being much use in competitive MP.

    First of all, Pan is ironically one of the nations least suited for growth scale, with no old mages and very optional blood hunting. As I recall the growth effect on the vines is pretty minor in any case.

    The biggest problems though are simply how long it takes to get this rolling, and the lost research by not having those dryads researching. On average indy settings, you can more or less recruit an expanding army every turn just from revelers, without losing the research or spending the gems. Not to mention being more all purposely useful when you run into another player.

    On an unrelated note, one very important Pan tactic I have not seen mentioned here is the turn 1 harpy buy. If you buy a full pack of harpies the first turn, you can usaully set them to patrolling with taxes at 200%, even while your starting army goes off to conquer. This can lead to a huge leg up in the early game, with all of Pangeaea's effective but gold intensive troop options. It also helps with affording those early Pans and pretty much everything else, the catch of course is lower income late game from your capital. With the additional gold, though, you have good chance of capturing additional capitals anyway.

    counter: Growth is not needed of course, as the tunes work very well even without it (perhaps death is too much though).

    Yes you are losing some research, but as dryads are also pretty good commanders (40) they can lead small armies. With tunes they can cut down on troop amount directing money to fortresses leading to faster research.

    I can agree on that dryads are not the best unit to use initially, though later on you will have loads of them as you hire them as researchers as well. Some of them could be used behind enemy lines accompanied with revelers and cause some damage. You might have noticed that they now have +25 stealth making them ideal stealth preachers whom are also capable of defending themselves.

    Harpies are good for scouting and patrolling, that is for sure. Thanks for the tip.

    Well, putting all your money into research in the early game is one viable strategy.
    Another is to put it in military units (if you have good ones as Pan does) to expand your economy by grabbing as many provinces as possible and still be able to defend them from early rushers.
    Yet another, and a more common one, is to try doing everything at once. This will of course make your error marginal smaller, as one unlucky event (like losing your pretender) can cost you the game.

    Which way you choose depends of course on the situation at hand, like your own nation, the psyche of your opponents, the map size and so forth.

    The point I'm making is that there isn't just one "best way" to begin the game. There are a lot of difficult questions to answer and decide upon. Yes research is important, but so is expanding, not to forget defense or offense against other players. Should you balance all these or will one lead to the other in a more stable and powerful way if you maximize it? Indeed difficult questions, not easily answered.

    -> I think any effective Pan strat must utilize their amazing ability for stealth and cavalry raids. They simply have the best troops for such a strategy.

    However, this nation is always been vexing for me to play. I try and get a grasp on the options they have available; but the requirements for pursuing any given strategy are often very contradictory to each other (high turmoil for Maened, but gold intensive troops, for example). Pan is the essence of chaos, and it is always hard for me to get a handle on this unusual nation.

    Also, I think their nation specific pretenders are next to useless (with the exception of the Gorgon). LotW? Why would I want to spend actual design points on a glorified Pan? The Carrion Drag seems like a reasonable choice, but if you are serious about a carrion strat, you can pursue one as LA Pan without the dragon; thus in relation making this pretender in any other age a questionable investment.

    ->  am away from Dominions computer but one of my favorite pretenders is an carrion dragon with awe (Dom 10).

    I distinctly remember a breath weapon AoE that drops morale... So the combination of Fear +5, Awe +2 and the breath weapon

    EASILY takes all indies.

    Additionally, it dovetails nicely with other Pan strategy.
    Use stealthy embedded in enemy territories - or harpies.. to cut off retreat.

    March your Pretender - armed with Pan standards, horror helmets and the like.

    -> It's always good to get a carrion factory going... those things are just plain menacing when set to Guard Commander with Pan support. Enemies charge across the screen and just sort of pile up like, well, a compost heap. Sleep Vines is a super effective attack.

    This means that you're going to have to beg, borrow, and steal for death magic... get a death economy going as soon as inhumanly possible. This pretty much means that you need at least Death 1 on your pretender... more helps, but really isn't necessary.

    Minotaur Warriors during MA are fantastic. There's not a whole lot that can face them when buffed. Satyr infantry in general is extremely worthy. With high MR, high movement, stealth, forest survival, high hps, low resource cost, spears, REALLY good morale from the ubiquitous druids casting Sermon of Courage... heck, they even have armor so you don't have to Protect and give them fire vulnerability, just slap on some Legions of Steel and they're good to go. And don't get me started on Revelers.

    Harpies are very good for patrolling, which works really well with a thematic Growth scale.

    And centaurs... centaurs are peerless archers with 12 base precision on top of longbows. Huge hps, especially with Gift of Health which is quite simple to manage in any era with Pangaea.

    Afflictions, pish. Old age? Here, let me cast Burden of Time myself and watch enemy skeleton hordes crumble into dust over the aeons... ok I think I just got carried away there.

    Right, I always use Ladies as they only require D1N1 to summon, same as the Centaurs. The Lords require N3D2 I think, which is awfully hard to pull off, and as you say, not as efficient for 25 gems/3 carrion/turn as the Ladies are for 16 gems/2 carrion/turn.

    As far as what to use to summon the Ladies, it's certainly not a bad thing to allocate that job to a Pan who is useful by his mere existence, partying and debouching Maenads into existence. I'd rather have 2 extra carrion per turn than 10 RP for THAT turn only. In 10 turns you can create 10 Carrion Ladies who will produce 20 carrion monsters per turn for the low price of 160 nature gems.

    The Carrion Ladies themselves are probably your best bet for leading your carrion into battle, as they can buff them and control 120 each at 0 experience.

    At first glance, carrion doesn't seem too impressive at all. However, they can make a solid wall of defense for your battlemages. They don't rout, they use Sleep Vines which puts the front lines of your enemy to sleep, preventing them from attacking or even retreating so the next wave of enemies can attack you. They're immune to poison and they can be buffed to quite tough proportions by your national priest spells. Quickened, protected, regenerating Elephant carrion, or any others for that matter, are not to be sneezed at by any troop. And they just keep piling up like a compost heap, not taking any upkeep or supplies.
    ->

    	    	8.28.3 LA Pangaea

    	    	    	8.28.3.1 Hints:

    -> - Get a Fire 9 bless, or then Fire 9/Water 9
    - Build Black Centaurs

    -> Alternative approach could be Dryad Hoplites and various Fear effects. Thaumaturgy 3 and 4 give you Panic and Terror. You have mages capable of casting both. Both lower enemy morale. With low morale, they can't get past your Dryads' Awe.

    Of course, you could always go for Enchantment and summon few Carrion commanders. They can reanimate manikins and other weird creatures for free.

    -> Personally I think the manikins serve only one purpose; fatigue SCs to death. For a relatively large investment you get an army based alternative to the normal La Pangea Charm spam. Since the sleep vines don't care about protection, and any SC can have their defense reduced by swarming, they're quite powerful.

    They are MR negates though. So while I can definitely see them swarming and fatiguing MR ~20 guys, I fear they'll fail to harm SC with heavy MR equipment except in the longest of battles. (Or is the sheer number of attacks enough to overwhelm even massive MR?) Of course, a SC with heavy investment in MR might be more vulnerable to physical or elemental damage.

    mr does not matter in the end. I have tested powerful scs against manikens, and though it takes a bit longer the result is inevitable-dead sc. Too many attacks, and some always get through. but you do need to have literally hundreds of them.

    I just ran a few tests to see if scales and presence of temple had an influence. In each scenario I reanimated 200 manikins.

    With growth 3 luck 3 magic 3 and a temple: 20 'stronger' types (6 sagittarii, 6 minotaurs, 3 mandragoras, 1 elephant, 4 bears) The rest was regular chaffy stuff.

    With the above scales but no temple: 14 'stronger' ones (1 sagittarii, 1 minotaur, 2 mandragoras, 7 elephants, 3 bears)

    With death 3 misfortune 3 drain 3 and a temple: 13 stronger ones (3 sagittarii, 3 minos, 1 mandragora, 3 elephants, 3 bears)

    And with those scales but no temple 24 strong ones (2 Sagitarii, 6 minotaurs, 4 mandragoras, 4 elephants, 8 bears)

    So I'm guessing it's pretty random. The highest number of specials actually came from the 'bad scales no temple' test, but the 'good scales with temple' scenario had almost as many, and the two 'in betweens' had the least.

    -> 'm currently playing LA Pan in MP, though it's a CBM game, so LA Pan is really a completely different nation: in CBM, Carrion Woods is level zero, so I put it up as soon as I could and relied on the manikin/undead animal freespawn to expand.

    But, that makes me uniquely qualified to comment on a Pangaean undead strategy, which I've been using now for ~40 turns. I don't want to tip my hand (DonCorazon stop reading now!) but I can give you some thoughts.

    First, to answer a few of your questions:
    "Are there any other kinds of 'better' manikins available through reanimation that I didn't get so far?"
    Sounds like you've seen them all, though it's worth mentioning you'll occasionally get Mangradoras, which have 2 sleep vines + claw, 25hp, respectable att & def (9), and 13MR.

    I seem to remember people mentioning using an ogre manikin or something like it as a SC chassis?
    LA Pan has an undead "Ettin Mandragora" hero, so you'll only get it through the "Suddenly this guy appeared at your gates...!" event. It's an excellent chassis, with 3 hand slots, 2 head slots, and an L1 priest (self bless). Vine Shield + Boots of Behemoth + Regrowth and you've got an early game quasi-SC.

    Did I miss any other means of acquiring manikins?
    You can cast the Const3 spell Construct Manikin, though I don't recommend it.

    Now the big question:
    How useful do you rate them?
    They frankly aren't very useful on their own, BUT are very useful to LA Pangaea.

    Why? (implied)
    1) Manikins (and here I'm referring to all the undead stuff Pan gets) are completely different from everything else in Pan's arsenal. To counter them effectively, your opponent will need to field banish-spam priests, which diverts funds/attention from more cost-effective counters to your Minotaurs, Centaur Warriors, Dryad Hoplites, and Harpies. If he decides your manikins aren't a threat...

    2) Massed manikins are surprisingly effective. The sleep vines attack, when it hits, is devastating to fatigue; it only takes ~3 hits to knock an opponent unconscious, after which death is certain. This is an excellent counter to small groups of elite troops, and to lone SCs.

    3) Manikins have surprisingly high magic resistance. They're still vulnerable to banish-spam, obviously, but L1 priests will only connect ~30% of the time against the standard manikin (MR=12); some of the undead animals are lower, while some are higher.

    4) Pan gets several undead-only national spells. Most notably Regrowth, which gives undead the ability to regenerate. Not terribly useful for a manikin, but very nice on an undead Elephant, very very nice on a Wraith Lord, and very very very nice on a Tartarian. Puppet Mastery is also good, particularly when faced by those pesky archers or when storming a castle.

    5) They're 100% poison resistant. Pan is notably lacking in battlefield damage spells for the LA. Blade wind is an option against, say, Mictlan, but most troops will be wearing too much armor for BW to be of use without Destruction. But every one of your Pans can cast Poison Cloud.

    6) Pan is the Buff Master. What it lacks in direct damage spells, it more than makes up for in troop buffs. First Wooden Warriors, then Mass Protection (or Marble Warriors), then Army of Lead (or Gold). Throw on some Weapons of Sharpness & Strength of Giants, and all of a sudden the mighty Tartarians of Tien Chi are crying out to the rest of the world for help.against your shambling horde of rotting orange peels. Maybe even summon a Lamia Queen or 2 with a Panic Apostate and drop some Darkness for good measure.

    7) As Pan, you'll be awash with nature gems. You'll be trying to think of ways to use them, least you feel like a total dope for having 1000 N just sitting there. Carrion Ladies are your best reanimaters/cost (2 manikins/turn @ 16N gem cost). It may not seem like much, but you can easily have 10 by turn 30...by turn 100, those 10 will have generated over 1400 free, need-not-eat, upkeep-free troops.

    Your 2 best reanimations are are the undead elephants & centaurs. The elephants are just like normal elephants, except they don't rout (with morale 50) & can't be soul-slayed (mindless). The centaurs are armed with a vine bow that entangles enemies, which can be surprisingly effective against small groups of elite troops.

    	    	    	8.28.3.2 Questions about LA Pangaea manikins

    -> I'll be playing LA Pangaea in a MP game soon, and I have a few questions about the Manikins and how to use them.

    First off, what (if anything) influences the type (& number) of Manikins you get when reanimating? corpses? temples? luck scales? growth? magic? I've run a quick test, and apparently you seem to get 1 manikin of some kind per priest level of the reanimator, regardless of other factors. Unless I missed something at least. In my test the vast majority were 'regular' chaffy humanoid or small animal types, with a few rare more useful bear, elephant, and centaur archers. I did not notice any influence from the presence of temples or corpses, though the sample size was really too small to prove anything. I only ran it with one set of scales so far. (growth 1 misfortune 2 magic 1)

    Apart from those I mentioned, are there any other kinds of 'better' manikins available through reanimation that I didn't get so far? I seem to remember people mentioning using an ogre manikin or something like it as a SC chassis? I might misrember though, I definitely never saw anything like it myself.

    You can get reanimators by using Pan's national spells in the enchantment tree, there are H1, H2 and H3 versions. Any prophetised undead can reanimate them, and any exotic trick you use to produce undead priests will presumably also allow manikin reanimation. The Carrion Woods global will produce manikins, and there are manikin and mandragora summoning spells in the construction tree. Did I miss any other means of acquiring manikins?

    And then, finally - but most importantly - how useful do you rate them? Their sleep vines attacks definitely are nice, and lifts them above regular undead, but their stats are absolutely crapastic and they are of course vulnerable to all the usual undead counters. The national holy spells aren't bad, but it's not like Pangaea is swimming in holy magic, so basically it'll be the same national summons you want to use for reanimation who'll have to do the buffing. Meaning they'll no longer be reanimating. Bottom line: I have my doubts about paying 25 gems for a summon who will then be able to reanimate the grand total of three chaff units per turn. Not to mention the research necessary. So what's the opinion of people who have used them already? Am I missing something? How have you made use of the Manikin spell line with Pangaea?

    -> I'm trying to think, I tested this myself. I think the H2-H3 can randomly summon some undead units that are above and beyond the norm like elephants and such. I figured it out before, and I can't quite remember.

    In terms of raw troop numbers, the H1 priests give you the best bang for your death gem bucks.

    Personally I think the manikins serve only one purpose; fatigue SCs to death. For a relatively large investment you get an army based alternative to the normal La Pangea Charm spam. Since the sleep vines don't care about protection, and any SC can have their defense reduced by swarming, they're quite powerful.

    [Response:
    They are MR negates though. So while I can definitely see them swarming and fatiguing MR ~20 guys, I fear they'll fail to harm SC with heavy MR equipment except in the longest of battles. (Or is the sheer number of attacks enough to overwhelm even massive MR?) Of course, a SC with heavy investment in MR might be more vulnerable to physical or elemental damage.

    	[[Response:
    	mr does not matter in the end. I have tested powerful scs against manikens, and though it takes a bit longer the result is inevitable-dead sc. Too many attacks, and some always get through. but you do need to have literally hundreds of them.
    	]]
    ]

    ->   just ran a few tests to see if scales and presence of temple had an influence. In each scenario I reanimated 200 manikins.

    With growth 3 luck 3 magic 3 and a temple: 20 'stronger' types (6 sagittarii, 6 minotaurs, 3 mandragoras, 1 elephant, 4 bears) The rest was regular chaffy stuff.

    With the above scales but no temple: 14 'stronger' ones (1 sagittarii, 1 minotaur, 2 mandragoras, 7 elephants, 3 bears)

    With death 3 misfortune 3 drain 3 and a temple: 13 stronger ones (3 sagittarii, 3 minos, 1 mandragora, 3 elephants, 3 bears)

    And with those scales but no temple 24 strong ones (2 Sagitarii, 6 minotaurs, 4 mandragoras, 4 elephants, 8 bears)

    So I'm guessing it's pretty random. The highest number of specials actually came from the 'bad scales no temple' test, but the 'good scales with temple' scenario had almost as many, and the two 'in betweens' had the least.

    -> I'm currently playing LA Pan in MP, though it's a CBM game, so LA Pan is really a completely different nation: in CBM, Carrion Woods is level zero, so I put it up as soon as I could and relied on the manikin/undead animal freespawn to expand.

    But, that makes me uniquely qualified to comment on a Pangaean undead strategy, which I've been using now for ~40 turns. I don't want to tip my hand (DonCorazon stop reading now!) but I can give you some thoughts.

    First, to answer a few of your questions:
    "Are there any other kinds of 'better' manikins available through reanimation that I didn't get so far?"
    Sounds like you've seen them all, though it's worth mentioning you'll occasionally get Mangradoras, which have 2 sleep vines + claw, 25hp, respectable att & def (9), and 13MR.

    I seem to remember people mentioning using an ogre manikin or something like it as a SC chassis?
    LA Pan has an undead "Ettin Mandragora" hero, so you'll only get it through the "Suddenly this guy appeared at your gates...!" event. It's an excellent chassis, with 3 hand slots, 2 head slots, and an L1 priest (self bless). Vine Shield + Boots of Behemoth + Regrowth and you've got an early game quasi-SC.

    Did I miss any other means of acquiring manikins?
    You can cast the Const3 spell Construct Manikin, though I don't recommend it.

    Now the big question:
    How useful do you rate them?
    They frankly aren't very useful on their own, BUT are very useful to LA Pangaea.

    Why? (implied)
    1) Manikins (and here I'm referring to all the undead stuff Pan gets) are completely different from everything else in Pan's arsenal. To counter them effectively, your opponent will need to field banish-spam priests, which diverts funds/attention from more cost-effective counters to your Minotaurs, Centaur Warriors, Dryad Hoplites, and Harpies. If he decides your manikins aren't a threat...

    2) Massed manikins are surprisingly effective. The sleep vines attack, when it hits, is devastating to fatigue; it only takes ~3 hits to knock an opponent unconscious, after which death is certain. This is an excellent counter to small groups of elite troops, and to lone SCs.

    3) Manikins have surprisingly high magic resistance. They're still vulnerable to banish-spam, obviously, but L1 priests will only connect ~30% of the time against the standard manikin (MR=12); some of the undead animals are lower, while some are higher.

    4) Pan gets several undead-only national spells. Most notably Regrowth, which gives undead the ability to regenerate. Not terribly useful for a manikin, but very nice on an undead Elephant, very very nice on a Wraith Lord, and very very very nice on a Tartarian. Puppet Mastery is also good, particularly when faced by those pesky archers or when storming a castle.

    5) They're 100% poison resistant. Pan is notably lacking in battlefield damage spells for the LA. Blade wind is an option against, say, Mictlan, but most troops will be wearing too much armor for BW to be of use without Destruction. But every one of your Pans can cast Poison Cloud.

    6) Pan is the Buff Master. What it lacks in direct damage spells, it more than makes up for in troop buffs. First Wooden Warriors, then Mass Protection (or Marble Warriors), then Army of Lead (or Gold). Throw on some Weapons of Sharpness & Strength of Giants, and all of a sudden the mighty Tartarians of Tien Chi are crying out to the rest of the world for help.against your shambling horde of rotting orange peels. Maybe even summon a Lamia Queen or 2 with a Panic Apostate and drop some Darkness for good measure.

    7) As Pan, you'll be awash with nature gems. You'll be trying to think of ways to use them, least you feel like a total dope for having 1000 N just sitting there. Carrion Ladies are your best reanimaters/cost (2 manikins/turn @ 16N gem cost). It may not seem like much, but you can easily have 10 by turn 30...by turn 100, those 10 will have generated over 1400 free, need-not-eat, upkeep-free troops.

    Your 2 best reanimations are are the undead elephants & centaurs. The elephants are just like normal elephants, except they don't rout (with morale 50) & can't be soul-slayed (mindless). The centaurs are armed with a vine bow that entangles enemies, which can be surprisingly effective against small groups of elite troops.

    	    	8.28.4 a difficult Pangaean strategy

    One of the biggest parts of the Pangaean theme is natural units relying on stealth over the use of standard armored armies. Probably seeking to use more guerrila warfare and avoiding conventional head-to-head conflicts. Hit and Run tactics, strikes of opportunity, spreading their strikes to make it difficult to pinpoint their center or operations (at least early in the game). Any effort to try and use Pangaea as a head-to-head army doesnt seem to work very well except possibly for late era.

    Lord of the Wild

    Death 3
    Nature 4
    Blood 3
    These allow for casting some important national spells. Also for forging some level boosting items for later on.

    Turmoil 3
    Same as Order -3. This raises the number of events, and increases the the number of maenads which will appear. A hit on money but thats a trade-off.

    Sloth 1
    Mostly these are purchase points since I dont tend to purchase heavily armored units.

    Heat/Cold 0
    For now I have it unchanged but it can be purchase points since Pangaea can easily take hits on income and supplies. Usually when I do I take heat since personally I hate cold. But its a topic of consideration of whether Pangaea can best stand up to cold or heat nations, and you should take the opposite scale.

    Growth 0
    No change but thats up to individuals.

    Luck 3
    Another way to cash in on the high turmoil. Increase the number of events even further (up to +30% now) and the chance of them being good (+39%). It can help offset the loss of money from Turmoil.

    Magic 3
    Pushing the research since there are spells that I really need to make heavy use of.

    Dominion Strength of 3. Strong enough to make sure that I get the scale effects at home but not so strong that it spreads ahead of me. I want to be able to purchase troops outside of the dominion so I can get money and resource benefits.

    For the first turn I put everyone who isnt a mage on patrol and I turn taxes to 200%. Be sure to turn it back down on the turn that you move your armies out. Getting Mercs is of course very useful. Later using local units can be your front line for moving outward.

    It might be possible to use a bit of Dormancy. The large armies of maenads are more needed later on.

    Initially I research Evocation, then Enchantment, then Alteration, then Evocation. This gives basic combat spells which work for the levels that most mages will operate on. The Enchantment level 1 gives access to Carrion Centaur which can create free units.

    Then I pursue Conjuration, Conjuration, Conjuration. Vine men, Vine Ogres, Revive bane, and Call of the Wild.

    Then Construction, Construction. By now I will need some food cauldrons and wine skins to move my large maenad armies out of my home province.

    Two types of armies are being built. Non-stealth armies just for taking and holding the local provinces. And stealth armies for deeper expansion. The maenads will help create the first one. So recruiting can concentrate on the second one. Usually its a choice between creating another Pan, or an army. The army usually consists of a Centaur Hierophant, as many Centaur archers as I can get and then I remove one to allow for, as many Harpy as I have space for. I send out scouts to find the other nations. Then I move my stealth armies in that direction.

    I put my Hierophont on Bless, then fire at rearmost. I put my archers on fire at archers, and my harpys off to the right flank (low on the positioning image) with orders to Hold and Attack rearward. I find that archers tend to be assigned high on the battlefield (their right) which allows better access to the commanders from the low flanking unit (my right).

    The stealth army is moving quickly to find targets of opportunity. Nations who do not put up Province Defense. Or battlegrounds between two nations where the winner might be damaged enough for you to take a province before PD goes up.

    There are two choices for what to do with a province once taken.
    A) Raze
    B) Beachhead

    With Raze you expect it to be taken back. You set the taxes to 200%, purchase minimal PD, any units which can help hold it or at least make it a problem to take back.

    With Beachhead you turn taxes to 0%, put lots of money into PD, purchase as many local units as possible.

    Either way, your stealth army should disappear into the wilderness. If you noticed enemy armies nearby you might want to move to the opposite side of your opponents area and attack the other side. If you are approaching that nation with your non-stealth armies then definetly attack the provinces on the far side from there in order to draw their armies that direction to handle your attacks and retake the provinces you have grabbed.

    Try not to connect your provinces to theirs until you are sure that you can withstand their armies. Maintain the ability to do "free damage" for as long as possible. Hit them, ignore them for awhile, hit them again. They cant reach you without expensive battles thru indept nations until later in the game when there are no more indepts or the use of magic allows for far strikes.

    You also might save your stealth army some wear and tear when you can use Call of the Wild. The stealth army or scouts can find likely weak points. Drop wolves on it to take it. Then do the recommended actions and sneak off the wolves as another stealth army in that area.

    Obviously these tactics would work on a human player only as a surprise action. Their ability to change tactics to respond to it varies from person to person. It also has great benefits when used in alliance with someone who has more standard armies. They also work better vs AI's. And larger maps help it. All in all its a difficult strategy to use unless you just really like playing stealth surprise tactics.

    Comments:
    -> In blitzes dual blessed white centaurs are very popular.
    They usually stealthraid in a similiar way you described above in your strategies and eventually they unite and defeat the enemy main army.

    Centaurs and white centaurs are imho very formidable als normal armies too, they are only expensive.

    In dom2 Turin and Jeffr very often played Pan in longterm games too, usually with a dualbless.

    Because of the higher gold income and some other changes like summonable carrion wood units i think Pan is even a bit better in dom3 than it was in dom2.

    I find Pan to be a very interesting nation because they are flexible, but need to be played very differently to other nations because of their rather unique national troops + commanders.

    Some vague thoughts for a bless strat, many parts are old Dom2 strats that should work as well or even better in Dom3:

    Mother Oak is only Alteration 5, so if you research it asap you can usually keep it a while before it gets dispelled.

    Destruction, Iron Warriors, Invulnerability and Wooden Warriors are also Alteration 1-5 spells.

    Turmoil 3 is a bit more attractive because of Maenads.

    I personally would invest most of my nature gems then in Carrion Reanimators.

    A combination of Carrion Beasts with Maenads and centaurs/centaur warriors, all enchanced with some spells like Iron Warriors/Weapons of Sharpness/Regneration etc. etc. casted by Pans sounds imho scary in Midgame.

    But the main problem i have with Pan is money. Centaurs cost a lot, Pans cost a lot, White Centaurs long for a strong bless, Maenads make Turmoil 3 somewhat attractive ... .

    So i have always severe Research- and Moneyproblems as Pan compared to a nation like late era Argatha or Pythium .

    -> A Pan Strategy i have been fantasized about, but never used successfully so far in MP (iirc i have never played Pan in a Longterm MP at all because always when i wanted to try them i was already in too many games and when a new MP started i rather tried another nation then with another strat ...):

    Pan: Carrion Doom

    Keyspells: Haunted forest and creeping doom/swarm

    Dominion is very important for this spell too.
    If you buy lots of PD in your provinces, because of the manikins you get your provinces are much harder to raid.

    IF you manage to spread your dominion into enemy territory too, and with the help of dryads stealth preaching this should be somehow possible, you could then use Pans and Dryads offensively who cast creeping doom and swarm.

    Those manikin hordes are then a big problem for many enemy strats. The sleepvines can be even dangerous for SCs.

    And because most of your stuff is stealthy you can combine this with your usual stealth strats too.

    You could also try to massproduce Harpies.

    Main Problem: DISPEL

    Astral gems are unfortunately easier to get than nature gems. And there are other promising globals, mainly GoH and Gift of Nature's Bounty, and the ants+dragonflies need lots of nature gems too.

    But hoarding is harder in Dom3, and you could get lots of extra nature gems via trading and via rushing to mother oak.

    So my casting idea for haunted forest would be to cast the first haunted forest with a really high, but weird number of gems, like 583 extra nature gems.
    Such an unorthodox number makes your opponents likely waste lots of pearls i think.
    How would you try to dispel such a haunted forest?
    Eventually it will get dispelled nontheless probably, but you can try to fool your opponents then by recasting haunted forest, sometimes with no extra gems, sometimes with like 2xx extra gems. This way they likely waste many more pearls for dispelling than usually.

    If you only use nature gems for searching but save up all of them otherwise i think we can assume that we would get about 15 nature gems per turn from turn 20 on at least usually.
    Till turn 20 you can at least save 100 nature gems too i think.
    So at turn 60 you would then theoretically have at least 100+40x15=700 nature gems.

    The 3 main questions are then:
    1. How much did this slow down your progress till turn 60 if you would have used the nature gems for short-term gain investments like Ivy King Vine Ogre factories, Lamia Queens, Faery Queens, Firbolgs, Carrions etc. etc.?
    2. Would you probably profit even more if you decided to save up your nature gems by casting GoH instead?
    3. How many astral gems will your opponents have around turn 60? And how soon will they be able to dispel?

    They might have used their astral income for short term investments, and thus have to save up for dispelling. But there might also have been someone who hoarded or has arcane nexus running.

    	    	8.28.5 Best Pangaea troops discussion

    ->  I play Pangaea a good bit. Typically I raise an army of hoplites and centaur longbow men to take provinces near my castle. The war minotaurs seem a bit pricey at 50 gold each.
    The revelers have low protection, and cause unrest, which i try to keep down to avoid getting hordes of free troops that i do not want to pay upkeep costs for.

    After i build up some income, i tend to use more centaur cataphracts since they cost 40 gold, have good armor, defense, and movement. I do not usually use the blessed white centaurs,
    as their low protection and need to be blessed is a pain.

    Also, I use the gorgon, but only take 5 e 4n 3 air, so my bless is not a strong one. I really like air with the gorgon for silver hauberk chest piece. Light and stops arrows. Air is nice for mistform, mirror image as well. Plus early in game, air shield is nice for gorgon with only 30 hp.

    I also like having arrow stopping item on my pretender to keep calaum and others from killing with that magical arrow spell(seeking heart).

    Typically i also take 3 order 2 prod, 1 growth so that prevents giving the gorgon a ton of magic. I sleep the gorgon, but do not imprison(also take 2 heat or cold for some extra points).

    -> Centaur warriors are very good. Lowish protection is their only real weakness, but berserking and high hitpoints make up for that most of the time. Their resource cost is so low they can produced in great numbers even with Sloth scale. I'd never take Production with MA Pangaea.

    -> Maenads don't cost upkeep at all. Gold cost 0. Even a gold cost of 1 would utterly bankrupt EA Pangaea. They'll eat all of your supplies and then some, though.

    ->  Pangaea starting castle only has 30 admin. and if you like using the hoplites and centaur cathaphracts you need a prod bonus. Hoplites at 13 gold 16 prot form the backbone of my army, with longbow centaurs sitting behind them shotting down stuff.

    I guess not taking 2 prod would give me 80 more points, but low protection troops tend to die fast to ulm ranged troops, the eineire for vanaheim, giants etc. For 40 gold i like troops with 19 armor, even though they do not berserk, with a blessing of courage they do not rout often. And they live longer.

    Comment: 'm with Teraswaerto here. Forget Hoplites and Cataphracts, take sloth 3 and spend the points elsewhere. Centaurs are great units - somewhat expensive in gold (and upkeep), especially if you go the turmoil route for the Maenads, but definitely worth it. The archers are great and will win most arrow duels. The warriors are also great - put them at fire closest so they throw their javelins. They have > 20 hps, can berserk and have recup (= staying power). And they are stealthy Some people even go a heavy bless route with the White Centaurs, but they are expensive (70g) and capital-only so I prefer to just hand them a few minor blesses. Once you get your magic rolling, boost them with Mass Protection, Legions of Steel, Weapons of Sharpness, Strength of Giants, etc.
    '
    -> Yes, if you plan to use Hoplites and Cataphracts then Production is needed. However, I think Centaur Warriors are better, and when using them you'll also get design points from being able to take Sloth.

    -> For the first turn I get all centaur longbows (unless the longbow mercs are available). I tend to put some maenads in the frontline to boost the morale, and a couple of minotaurs for extra punch. Once I take the nearby provinces then I concentrate more on anything with stealth so I can quickly get my stealth armies over to my nearest enemies. It works much better to pick one to harrass during their growth period when they cant march a retributing army back at you.

    There is also two very strong strategy lines that can impact Pangaea, the maenads route or the vine-creature route. Both of those can affect pretender choice, and scales quite abit. But since he said he uses Gorgon most of my usual suggesitons dont apply as much. The only thing I could think of there is maybe giving up one of the earth points for another air point so he can get arrow defence on bless.

    -> One interesting thing i read in the manual last night was that the effectiveness of Tangle Vines increaes in Growth dominions...

    ->  here are some thoughts:

    1. if you play Pangaea and like having a super contender, there is none better in the entire game then the Gorgon, properly equipped. My gorgon starts 5e 4n 3 a, sleeping.
    By the time she awakes, I will have 4 construction and 4 alteration. if i have no air gems, i search for them(typically i will hire mercenary mages to hunt for astral and air games early on. Gorgon wears silver hauberk chest, regeneration ring, eye shield, some revig items, and 5 earth helm.

    Now properly protected from arrows, and with a 25 armor class unbuffed, she goes into battle. she casts mistform, mirror image, and elemental fortitude, then attacks closest enemy. I try toi keep her at my end battlefield to avoid smites, and some other caster spells. She is devasting.

    later in the game with haunted forest, she is unbeatable in her own dominion.

    2. Production is good to take.

    I always take 2 production 3 order, 1 growth. I take 2 heat to get extra points, as well as sleeping the gorgon. Having 2 production makes the armored pangaea troops a viable option. Hoplites are dirt cheap 13 gold infantry. 16 prot, 14 hp, 14 defense, 11 str 11 attack, heal afflictions. best infantry in the game for the cost.

    Centaur cataphact is a bargain calvary unit at 40 gold. 19 prot plus high defense, plus heals afflictions! No comparison between these and the 9 protection centaur warrior. If you want berserk troops get the minotaur warrior with 17 protection and plus 4 berserk and trample for just 10 gold more.

    Plus with 350 gold a pop mages, taking 3 sloth cuts into your income(: I find 3 order, 2 prod, 1 growth gives me income and ability to purchase well armored troops(i can still get centaur warrior, i just have more options with 2 prod v 3 sloth).

    In short, i cannot imagine playing pangaea without the gorgon or with sloth. If you have not tried the gorgon with 5e 4n 3 air, give it a try. research 4 construction right off the bat so she can get silver hauberk, which is a key for her. If dagan can find 5 astral gems, have him make a luck charm to go with her ring of regeneration. she is very tough with no luck, but with it she will not die in her own dominion, and typically not even in -5 enemy dominion, but that is risky. She is virtually immune to melee and ranged damage, though if unlucky she can be smited etc.
     Some other Pangaea musings:

    1. 6 slings as a castle defense when their ranged troops have longbow? What is up with that?

    2. Summoned troops: I like going conj 4 and have 2 mages summon kithaironic lions the whole game after i get mother oak up. A popular choice seems be vine ogres, but since they require magical leadership, and they basically suck with 5 protection, I think it is not worth the effort. sure you can say legion steel, protection blah blah blah, but id rather buff up tougher troops like the regular great lions that have great speed and a good attack. Plus the regular lions do not require magical leadership and you can have a ton of them in an army. I do think the nature summons at 4 is not as good as fire, earth and water summons. you get 5 ethereal with those summons, though the cost is higher in gems.

    3. casting mother oak/gift of health: i use a bought mage to cast these. rarely 1 will come with 5 nature, but 4 nature is common. With 4 nature and 4 construction(thistle mace)
    the mage can cast these with small effort. Since I use the Gorgon as a battle sc, there is no reason to risk a double loss of your pretender and 2 globals as well. I usually have my gorgon make a robe of missile protection for the mage so he cannot die to a seeking arrow.

    4. another pet peeve, Pangaea's starting castle has only 30 admin. So it is doubly nice to snag another pretender's home castle early so you can have a 50 or 60 admin castle to crank out huge numbers of hoplites, war minotaurs, and armored centaurs. Especially if you took 2 prod!

    5. my ultimate "i win" spell with the gorgon is the haunted forest. Flying around in friendly dominion and fighting with this spell up is a blast. petrify and you have 5-10 allies fighting with you each turn.

    ->  Best MA pan troops = White Centaurs
    Followed by harpies for mass patrolling tricks.

    ->  I have to disagree on the war minotaur. They have 18 protection and a lot hps, so they do not go quietly. Also, you claim they get exhausted and sit there.

    I usually use war minotaurs in packs of at least 10. So they cannot be picked on. Trampling causes enemy to flee in many cases, and my army is not made up mainly of war minotaurs, but hoplites and longbows. So the enemy has plenty to worry about besides the war minotaurs.

    The minotaurs do not have a low attack because they have berserk 5, which allows for a good attack and it hurts a lot. They are particularly useful against elephants, as their size allows them to survive longer, they do not retreat, and a couple hits of low defense elephants will kill them. A group of war minotaurs is also my troop of choice to charge a castle. They trample through the logjam at the gate and do not retreat.

    Centaur warriors are vulnerable to ranged troops with their low protection. While they certainly have their uses, you can see a pack of them vanish after a volley from ulm crossbowmen. So in most cases, i like the 19 armor centaurs for the same price. While they do not have berserk, they have high defense and good morale.

    I am certainly not an expert on Pangaea, and there are many ways to play them. But I prefer the gorgon + armored troops path. Going the armored route, they are Ulm, but have, trampling units, flying scouts, better infantry because of more hps, defense, recuperation, morale, magic resistance.

    response:
    There are surely many ways to play Pangaea, and if this strategy works out for you, great. I will just add the following points.

    1. The Gorgon is a great SC pretenter, surely one of the best available. But just getting Air 1 on him is 80 points extra, the price of 2 positive scales.

    2. You are playing Pangaea like it was Ulm. Sure, the hoplites and cataphracts have higher protection and that can be nice. But neither are stealthy and hoplites have strat move 1 (2 for the cataphracts) so, for higher protection, you lose stealth, berserkng (= they rout) and mobility and the design points for paying production scales. Is this worth it? Protection eventually loses importance when magic starts ruling the battlefield, stealth, berserking, mobility, etc. *never* go obsolete.

    3. Centaur warrior have low prot, sure. Having >20 they can take the occasional arrow hit (and having recup will eventually heal afflictions) besides they go berserk (never rout and higher prot). And there are ways to boost their protection. And why would a volley of crossbowman be especially deadly? XBows half the protection, but CW have little protection to begin with!! so what's the worry? If anything, their low rate of fire is better for Pangaea. And remember, defence means nothing against missile fire, while having a shield does (and CW do have a shield).

    4. Kithaironic lions instead of Vine ogres? For *6N* you get *1* lion instead of 2 vine ogres for 2N (with ivy crowns - better ratios with treelord staff and/or ivy kings). And what have kithaironic lions better than Vine Ogres? protection and higher mr. Everything else is more or less the same, and they can rout. And Vine Ogres are poison resistant so you can pull some deadly poison combos. Plus you need a pan to summon them, while for vine ogres a boosted nature mage or an ivy king does the job. Oh according to the manual a Kithaironic Lion is also a magic being.

    As Aleph mentioned another very good pretender for Pangaea is, IMHO, the mother of monsters. Not only you get lamias galore from mid-game onwards, but since it is 20 extra points for extra magic path she can add a much needed magical versatility to Pangaea. Being naturally an ND mage, she can also cast the national summons, etc.

    2nd response:
     Good points all. The lions offer a good troops to use as calvary, they do require magic leadership, but you get 1 per summon so getting more than a pan can lead happens seldom.

    What do you spend your extra points on exactly? I have max order 2 prod 1 growth even with the 3 air and 6 dominion. And I sleep the gorgon, do not imprison her as she is often needed by me early on, but i do not need her right off because i like to get 4 construction researched before sending her into battle solo.

    I have excellent research and production with my scales. I do take 2 heat, but with 3 order 2 prod 1 growth my income is still very good. When I take another pretender's castle early in the game, with the 2 production i can crank out huge armies of hoplites, cataphracts, and war minos.

    I still have the option the use other units, when i do want to use a stealth army. But if stealth was my theme, id likely use the ghost king, give him a bit fire magic so he could lead bigger armies.

    Holpites do break, but if they do, i am likely going to lose the battle anyway. My army usually has about 50 hoplites up front. 40 centaur long bows focusing on enemy archers. 10-20 cataphracts going for enemy archers, and 10-20 war minotaurs starting behind the hoplites, so they break the enemies initial charge and then move in.

    Hoplites hold their own even against acrosaphale's hoplites.
    they do not have that high morale, but they have good protection coupled with good hps and defense. Most infantry with 16 protection do not have that 14 defense the Pangaea hoplites have.

    Of course i have a pan or 2 buffing the armies and dryads doing sermon courage.

    By mid game, i will have some bane lords and sleepers in the army. Sleepers help prevent routing, and with a couple nature artifacts, can do well in melee battle. The bane lords can be devastating with artifacts, and they of course do not rout. A bargain for the cheap cost!

    ->  I have tried the e94n gorgon. I like the air set up better. Her survival skills are markedly better with earth/air forged items. I do not like sending her naked into fights, even with 18 prot. Mistform is really nice buff as well.

    And while the white centaur is great with e9n4 bless, they are capital only, can be a pain to bless without divine blessing, and cost 70 gold. Even blessed i am not sure they are better than 2 19 protection centaur cathaphracts, which you do not have to bless and can buy at any fort for 40 gold.

    On pure survivorbility of the gorgon, there is no comparison. the 3 air goes a long way, and also adds 3 precision for her spells in the event she is actually casting. 99 percent of the time she scripts "summon earthpower, mistform, mirror image, elemental fortitude,
    personal regeneration, attack closest enemy."

    She wears silver hauberk chest, black steel helmet, snake bladder stick, eye shield, boots of the messenger, amulet of resilience, ring of regeneration.

    Obviously later in the game she upgrades equipment.

    Equipped in this manner, in a friendly dominion, she is pretty much unbeatable. Though, like all sc's she is vulnerable to smites, and certain instant kill spells.

    ->

    	    	8.28.6 Pangaea Songs

    -> The songs have range of "0" squares, but 15 areas of effect.

    This means the effect hits 15 areas around the caster - what is very unlikely to include one 15 squares away.
    How the distribution is calculated is not fully known AFAIK, but I would guess it works similar to a 15-area fear or cold aura effect, but only temporary. There's some information about the working of (fear) auras by one of the devs which sheds some light on the distribution of effects, but I wasn't able to dig it up again.

    However, you can safely assume the songs have a 'effective' range of 1-3 squares.

    -> AFAIK 15 AOE means a circle with a territory of 15.
    That gives us 15=Pi*r^2 => r=sqrt(15/Pi)~=2.185
    Assuming the circle is centered on the caster, that would make the spell affect anything withing a range of 2, or just a space of 1 between the caster and the affected enemy.

    I'm not sure about wether it affects friends and foes or only the latter, since I haven't checked or tested those things, but atleast I can give you an approximation fo range

    Comment: The problem is, apparently nobody (maybe not even the devs) knows exactly how the affected squares are chosen - I don't think it's "the 15 closest to the caster, breaking ties randomly in a uniform way".

    	8.29 Pythium

    	    	8.29.1 MA Pythium

    	    	    	8.29.1.1 Assortment of tips

    -> Paralyze, Enslave Mind, Soul Slay, Stellar Cascades and Thunderstrike come to mind. Then there's spells such as Fog Warriors, Battle Fortune and the like.

    -> Early: put 2-3 Theurgs in the middle of a squad - set on hold & attack, Theurgs cast 3x Body Ethereal.

    Can they still cast Falling Frost? That was another battlefield staple in dom2.

    -> Astral Fires is a biggie. That spell is normally a bit sad against anything but low-MR chaff because of its MR check, but communion and items can easily raise an Arch Theurge's penetration totals way way higher

    True, only 1/4 arch theurges can cast it... but you only need one per army!

    Fog Warriors is also beautiful for Pythium, especially in combo with hydras.

    Also, when playing with large-scale communions, there are a few tricks to help protect your mages. All buff spells are shared throughout the communion, so have two Masters, one casting your attack spells and the other dropping stuff like Air Shield and Personal Luck. Give a Crystal Shield to one too. If you have an S/E pretender, forge a few Crystal Matrices to save precious time in combat. And finally, don't just use communicants as communion slaves, if you're going to use high-path Astral spells. Fatigue is divided between people before it's divided by path levels, and those poor communicants aren't getting any path-boosting buffs since they have no paths. The little S1 guys, however, will benefit from a Banner of the Northern Star and Crystal Shield, so they take 1/3 the fatigue from astral spells.

    Finally, never forget their national summons. I was lately playing pythium in SP, and used a sleeping Oracle with S6F4E4N4, with S/F so I can eventually summon the seraphim (Arch Theurges never get enough F to do it alone), E for the piles of sacred mages, and N for the sacred angels.

    -> Arch-thuergs are there for heavy-lifting, not day to day battlefield spells. They should be casting things like Will of the Fates, Doom, Solar Brilliance, Storm, Light of the Northern Star, etc. Stuff that your mages-of-the-line just arent able to cast. In addition, your arch-theurgs should be doing all your summoning and ritual work as well. Getting those Angels in play and Mind Hunting your enemy to death.

    The regular battlefield spells should be left to your Theurgs. Commune them up and just let loose with Falling Frosts (for normal troops), Lightning Bolts/Orb Lightning (for heavy armored troops), and Soul Slays (for SCs). If you really insist on using an arch theurg for battle spells, they are great for Falling Frost of course but if you get a strong Air mage, they can just repeat cast Thunderstrike till the end of time which is really great.

    Dont forget enslave mind ironhawk, its useful vrs all but the chaff-iest units.
    ->     does anyone make any use out of the Battle Vestals? Seems that if they could be massed, with a decent light bless, they could do some damage (they're plenty cheap). But is it worth it going that route, with pretender design and all?

    Even if you could, I wouldn't recommend it; get a bless that fits your angels, not one that fits your vestals. Vestals make good front-liners against low-archer empires; beyond that, they're just a way to round off your resources.

    -> When you want to deal damage you have two spells: Thunderstrike ( which is great ), and Falling Frost ( decent ) and that is about it.

    Enslave mind is decent aginst SC's but not usually worth it when you are facing larger armies.

    OTOH you can buff your army with quite a few spells: Anti-magic, Astral Healing ( which your theurges will cast by themselves, and quite often in some battles. Leading to some comical communicants ), Arrow Fend, Mass Flight, Doom, Will of the Fates, Fog Warriors.

    -> And of course dont forget the suicidal F2 mage with crystal matrix casting phoenix power with multiple communicants attacking closest  If its a F2 arch theurg you could cast flight second turn too(and feel free to add in a screen for protection while buffing)

    -> Thunderstrikes are not exhausting if you power them via a communion. Take your 3A arch-theurgs and give them just two communion slaves. This boosts them to 4A which cuts the fatigue for the spell to 25. Then, since you are communed, each member gets only 1/3rd of the fatigue so we are talking 8.333 fatigue per casting. Not exhausting at all. But I would like to re-iterate that in anything but the smallest maps, your Theurgs are really what should be your default combat mage.

    Harbingers make excellent thugs. If you have a decent bless you can have them bless themselves before buffing Mistform/Mirror Image. An easy equipment loadout (for base Pythium paths) for them is a standard set of "living" sc gear: Sword of Swiftness, Lucky Coin, Starshine Skullcap, Chainmail of Displacement, Boots of Quickness, AMA, RoR. Angels of Wrath are awesome anti-personel thugs, but unlike the Harbingers they cannot cloud trapezee which makes them a touch harder to deploy.

    -> With pythium i always try to take good scales including good growth since pythiums real strength comes into play i mainly plan for then(+good scales means large, well supplied expansion armies) but i also try to get 4 nature on my pretender. The nature magic on the pretender not only helps with magic versatility but it also gives a minor regeneration bless that stops units taking damage from disease if you give them a shroud of the battlesaint(5 pearls and fairly low construction iirc). It also means you dont HAVE to give your angel thugs/SCs regeneration if your just using it to avoid the occasional affliction(if you expect them to take a fair amount of damage they need either more regeneration or a new build).

    -> Just wanted to note that spell fatigue gets split *before* adjusting for path costs. So that's 17 points to the theurg and both communion slaves. The theurg still takes 17/2 = 8 + encumbrance fatigue because he's A4, and the slaves take 17*3 + fatigue because they're A1 (IIRC). However, if you use communicants, which have no paths, the slaves will just take the base 17.

    Generally communicants are better than mages as communion slaves.

    	    	    	8.29.1.2 MA Pythium thread

    -> Principes are absurdly good infantry, though they are more expensive than hastiti, who are plenty good for most jobs when mixed with standard bearers. Still, I prefer principe too.

    Thau is good, but evocation and conjuration also have their strengths. Thunderstrike Spam can't be beat. It slaughters anything not outright immune. And they have very good angelic summons.

    Stick with theurgs until you have gold ramped up, and then start on arch theurgs. There isn't much they can do at first that theurgs can't, and later on there still isn't much that can't be done with a communion.

    Hydras are your trampler stoppers while your mages kill kill kill.

    -> Principes and standards in your regular armies. Hydra's are certainly valuable for expansion and to counter rushes.

    As pythium you probably want to get Paralyze quickly then race to Harbingers and up construction to outfit the Harbingers. A well outfitted Angel or three can really dominate in the mid game.

    Paralyze, Soul Slay, Enslave mind are very effective thrown from a communion with a banner of the northern star and power of the spheres.

    Oh, yeah, Communion also affects the holy paths so a decent communion will really help if you happen to run into Ermer. Using FAM is certainly an option too.

    -> Slingers are rubbish. Just buy independent archers if you want missile troops. However, as an air nation you'll probably want to look at casting storm and storm power, which makes any archers a bit of a waste of time.

    Principes should be the backbone of your army. They are good quality troops, quite capable of taking on good quality infantry of other human-sized nations, and should smash weaker, basic infantry.

    All your three 'basic' (stats of about 10) units are pretty effective, and have javelins for a bit more punch. Velites are your best "chaff" units, but because of their okay armour and huge shield can still hold up reasonably well in melee. Alae legionaries and hastati are better armoured so more durable, but basically the same, and the res cost means if you need a lot of troops quickly, go for velites. When facing better armoured opponents, favour hastati over alae as their short swords do more damage than spears. They have better morale as well, but not by much.

    Emerald Guard and Serpent Cataphracts are shock troops. Emerald Guard have magnificent stats, but their slowness (stratmove 1) means they're best suited to defensive actions where you want some great troops to hold up as long as possible and soak up plenty of punishment. If you want to take an army somewhere, you'll want the cataphracts in order to be able to move at a decent speed. On the battlefield, for the extra cost of cataphracts, compared to emerald guard you have similar stats, get two attacks, half the encumbrance, and the lizard carries on fighting after the rider dies. They're not great cavalry in terms of them not being particularly fast, but they're still decent for putting on the flanks with attack rear orders.

    Gladiators and battle vestals are a waste of space. Gladiators are powerful but as they disappear after one fight, they're a bad waste of money unless the situation is really urgent. Battle Vestals I guess could fulfill the role of "chaff", except that as sacreds you can't possibly build them fast enough.

    * * *

    Magic. Pythium is basically an air/water/astral communion race. Only your arch-theurgs can fire good mid-level spells out of the box. Even then, it's only in astral they're really useful unless with communions (They'll generally be A2W1S4, A3W1S3, or A2W2S3.) Astral has useful BF uses like paralyze, but it's not good at wholesale army devastation until late on. Theurgs are also handy BF mages with enough slaves. Bear in mind most mid-level communion spells require A/W/S 3: if you're using theurg acolytes you want 8 for the +3 (otherwise they take additional fatigue from stuff like thunderstrike), or otherwise cast power of the spheres for the extra +1.

    Pythium is a very good research race. Your magic users are sacred so have half upkeep costs, and theurgs and theurg acolytes are deliciously cheap. You want Arch-theurgs mostly for battles and casting rituals, not researching. Start your hiring with theurgs to get research ticking quickly.

    There's one big problem: theurgs are old, arch-theurgs severely old, so they die, regularly. Later on as the midgame approaches and you have multiple castles, you probably want to think about hiring theurg acolytes (3 research). This is purely because they don't die of old age, they're still cheap, and they're the main slaves for your communions. Make sure you always have theurgs and arch-theurgs around, though, as the acolytes will be not much use without the better mages to cast better spells.

    -> Battle vestals can be pretty powerful I think with e.g. a W9S9 bless.

    -> Something to definitely consider is taking Nature on your Pretender, especially high enough to cast Gift of Health. That definitely tones down the old age issues on your mages. Also highly consider Earth on your Pretender to take advantage of Reinvigoration for your mages.

    -> early game, castBody Ethereal on your Principes

    	    	    	8.29.1.3 The pythian prescription  (A newb guide)

    The Pythia prescription.
    Dominions can be a bear to learn. Browsing the forum and reading the tales of veteran players can make you wonder¿¿How do they do that?¿ I¿m hoping that this guide can help new player bridge SOME of the gap between the tutorial in the manual and the experience of a multiplayer veteran. It¿s designed to show you some of the holes in the CPs (computer players) game and some of the things you are likely to run into when you play in a multiplayer game.
    This prescription is for a specific nation in a specific age. It isn¿t going to work with every nation and every age. I chose Pythia because they have broad access to many magic paths as well as some very nice early expansion and late game thugs. Please be aware that it is certainly possible that this prescription can fail. That¿s the nature of the game.

    Game Creation and Pretender Creation

    Use the Cradle of Dominions Map. Select the Middle age. Set the first empire to be Pythia under human control. Use four CP¿s Ulm, Arcoscephale, Tien Chi and Marignon. The cradle map is big enough that you have a playground. I think it¿s the standard that all other dominion maps are measured against. It provides terrain that focuses and channels attacks without forcing everything along the same lines. You can use any nations as the CP¿s. I think for this map and this illustration you probably want to stay away from water nations and probably Ermor. The CP doesn¿t play Ermor well. If you are feeling brave crank the difficulty. You¿ll survive.
    To create your pretender, use a dormant Crone. For magic use 1-Fire 1-Water 4-Earth 1-Astral 3-Death and 4-Nature. Use a dominion (the candles) of four and scales of 3-Order 1-Productivity 1-Heat 3-Growth.
    This pretender is a rainbow mage meant to supplement magic paths that your nation usually has trouble getting into. That¿s exactly what¿s been built here. Broadly there are three types of pretenders. The first are pretenders meant to act as tanks in the early expansion part of the game. Middle age Pythia already has some units that fill that role quite well. The second type of pretender is the Bless pretender whose magic paths bestow special bless powers on sacred troops that have received a blessing in combat. The sacred units that pythia starts with are light unarmored troops that cannot take much damage. Going with a Bless pretender and Pythia is a stretch. The rainbow pretender is the third type of pretender, (although there is slight bless here for later in the game). Very heavy scales allows for tremendous income. A side advantage to the extreme Growth scale is that it should help reduce the old age afflictions that Pythium¿s best mages suffer from. The slight negative from the heat scale isn¿t going to hurt you.
    Set the Special Site Frequency to 75. Set the supply multiple to 300. The special site frequency controls the number of gem producing sites. Setting it to an artificially high number does cater to this strategy, but this is meant as a play game. The same strategy will work with fewer magic sites. When playing the CP¿s, setting the supply multiple to 300 gives them a slight boost.

    Early Game. Expanding your second castle - Hydra¿s the secret to early expansion

    Hopefully now you are looking at your map. I always like to go to Map Filters and turn on Neighbors. That helps me to understand where on the map you can move to from each province. Look around the map.
    Most dominion games are decided by two things, who expands the fastest at the beginning of the game and who has the best troops at the end of the game. For multiplayer games with other humans you can add in diplomacy as the third deciding factor, but since you¿re playing against the computer, you don¿t need to worry about that. Right now, let¿s focus on who expands the fastest (you) and how you are going to expand the fastest.
    For Pythia (and many other nations) building a second castle allowing you to build two mages a turn (or a mage and something else) is the first goal of early expansion. So where should you build it?
    Look at the provinces that are two moves away from your home. Look for a land province that is two moves away from your home province and connects to a lot of other provinces. You want the target province to connect to a lot of other provinces so it will gather a good number of resources. If the target province is a forest or swamp province, that¿s even better because that means the fort constructed there will be cheap to build. Remember the purpose behind this second castle isn¿t about dominating the landscape, it¿s about being able to recruit more national mages/scouts/commanders faster.
    Perhaps you have more than one province that looks like a decent target. That¿s OK. That means you now have the location for your third(and perhaps fourth) castle. What you want to do is build an interlocking supporting network of 4-5 castles as quickly as you can.
    Now that you know where you want to go, you need to decide how to get there. There are a couple ways to fuel early expansion. There¿s a pretender SC or blessed sacred units with a bless that will overpower independents. You spend money to recruit expendable mercenaries. You could try throwing your initial army and hope that works out. You could build an army of Princepes.
    Or you can go the easy way. See those big units at the end of the list? Those expensive Hydras? That¿s your boy. They emit a poison cloud that kills most indies and better yet, they regenerate, so most damage will heal and they will be ready to go next turn. They don¿t cost anything in the way of resources, but the down side is that they are expensive to recruit and expensive to support. With your initial allotment of money, you can only recruit one Hydra! You¿ll need five in order to get going, but by the time you wait five turns to recruit what you need, you won¿t be leaping out to an early expansion lead. What to do? Set your starting army on patrol and crank your tax income to 200%. Send your initial scout out towards your target province. Add together your expected income from next turn and what you have right now. To construct your hydra army you will need 1290 gold pieces. If you will have enough gold to buy your hydra army on turn two and buy a second scout now, go ahead and do it. If you can¿t, don¿t. Press next turn.
    Send your first scout to your target province. Recruit your Hydra army of five hydra¿s and a hydra tamer. If you have a second scout. Send him out exploring. Press next turn.
    Go to army setup. Form the five hydra¿s in a squad under the hydra tamer at the front of the battle field and set them to attack closest. Put your hydra tamer at the back of the battle field and set him on hold/hold/hold/hold/hold stay behind troops. Send them on a line towards your target second province. AVOID provinces with heavy cavalry or elephants (truly strong indies), provinces with flyers (they may kill your commander which will route the hydras), provinces with shamans (curses), but this force will take out pretty much anything else AND be ready to do it again next turn without reinforcing.
    Buy an arch-theurg. (You can make either this guy or your second scout your prophet) Buy a few standards and a couple princepes to bulk up your initial army.
    When your hydra force conquers your target province, you should have the cash available to start building your second castle. Your hydra tamer doesn¿t stick around to build the castle, that¿s the scout¿s job. The hydras are out clearing indy provinces around your home castle making a path for castle 3. At this point you can probably lower your tax income to lower levels which will release your patrolling army (which you¿ve added a couple units to in turn 3 and 4) to take on other weak indies nearby. This second army will require a bit more care, but you¿ll get the hang of it.
    Each turn you should be recruiting an arch-theurg and princepes. On turn 8 or so, build a theurg to move to your target province and build a lab and a temple in your second castle.
    Things to think about¿maybe building a second force of Hydra¿s to double your expansion rate. Build a 4-5 castle supporting network. You will want a legatus legionus or an emerald lord, but for the most part you can usually scrounge commanders from indy provinces, building scouts and mages at your castles.
    Your mages want Evocation-2 (Arcane Probing), Thaum-2 (communion master/slave, Auspex) Conj-3 (Voice of Apsu) Alteration level 3 (mistform/Body Ethereal) and depending on threat levelThaum-4 (Paralyze).
    If you encounter CP¿s, don¿t provoke them. If they decide to declare war. Have them meet your Hydra¿s.

    Mid Game- Site searching - Forging

    If you played your cards right in the early game, you should be %50 or so larger than anybody else. Consolidate your gains without losing momentum. Remember that most dominion games are decided by two things, who expands the fastest at the beginning of the game and who has the best troops at the end of the game. By know you have a prescription for expansion, continue following it without provoking the computer players. We¿re going to focus on also having the best troops at the end of the game.
    Around turn 12 your pretender comes on line. Attach a couple of troops as bodyguards. Set her to retreat and send her out searching for magic sites. As soon as you get Arcane Probing, Auspex and Voice of Apsu, find a mage that can cast them and use shift m to have them autocast them. Gems are the key to having the best troops at the end of the game. Gems turn into spells cast, units summoned and items forged. You want to research Alteration 3, Construction 6 and Conjuration 6. At that point, you have effectively won the game. The computer players just don¿t know it yet.

    The End fun things to do.
    if you have been recruiting an arch-theurg every turn, several of them are probably suffer afflictions and a couple are diseased, wasting away a hp each turn. If you happen to like the magic paths on those arch-theurgs, after construction 4 have one of them build a Shroud of the Battle Saint and put it on the diseased arch-theurg. This halts the disease and your arch theurg isn¿t going to die. This is a nice side effect of your pretender¿s weak regenerating bless from her N4 path.
    At Conjuration 6 Pythia has a national spell to contact a harbinger. You¿ll need to find an astral 4 mage to cast it, but if you have been recruiting an arch-theurg every turn that won¿t be a problem. Also forge the following items a Frost Brand, a Lucky Coin, A Dragon Helmet, ChainMail of Displacement, Birch Boots or Brimstone Boots, An Amulet of antimagic, and an Amulet of missle protection.
    Set these items on your Harbinger. Script him to start near the back. Cast Mistform, Mirror Image, Blessing, and attack rear. You can also use Boots of quickness, Spirit Helm, Cat Charm, Rings of protection, Ring of water breathing and several other items and combinations. There are few Computer Player armies that will be able to stand against him. Script and kit him a bit different and human players will not much care for him either. Fly him around solo and watch him beat up on stuff. Play around have fun.
    You should have plenty of air/water and astral gems by now. Hopefully your pretender has found fire/earth/death and nature sites to really set you lose. If you have the ability to recruit a nature-1mage and an income of 2 nature gems a turn, you can forge a thistle mace and to give to the nature-1 mage and have them cast haruspex. Likewise if you can recruit a death 1 mage (or have your pretender summon a spectre) and have an income of 3 death gems, they can cast dark knowledge. Earth 1 mages are a bit harder to find, but your pretender can forge earth boots and the Troll King¿s court is within reach. Fire will require some luck with indy mages, empowerment or a flaming skull from higher up the construction path and an Arch-theurg with a fire path.
    Pythia is rich in astral mages. Astral and Blood mages have access to the powerful Communion spells. Get a communion going and watch what these guys can do. Experiment around. You can run communions to enhance a couple of masters to cast insanely high level spells OR you can run a communion to buff a bunch of slaves who become impossible to hit on the battlefield because of all of the buffs they¿ve received. Either way, when you¿re in Pythia, you¿ll want to experiment with this technique on the battlefield.
    Non-pythian things to try.
    FAM  F*in Air Magic. Pythia has nice access to air magic. Put some air mages with an army. Script them to cast Lightning, Orb Lightning and Thunder Strike. Air 3 mages are just deadly.
    Skelly Spaming. Get a trio or more of death 2 mages. Set them to cast Raise Dead and Raise Skeleton. Enough Death 2 mages and your opponent won¿t stand a chance.

    	    	8.29.2 LA Pythium

    	    	    	8.29.2.1  A Poisoner's Guide to LA Pythium

    The Serpent Cult - a bizarre mish mash of mages, snakes, heretics, and all manner of magic paths. Who would think that a nation this scattered and with such internal oppositions could be a powerhouse? But yet it is!! Throw off your preconceptions and jump in like a Reveler as I detail how to turn LA Pythium into a monster as tough as the Hydras that symbolize it...

    UNITS:
    First, a couple of notes about the units I passed over: It bears saying that all the "elite" versions of each of the Pythium troops are overpriced for the improvements they supposedly give. Dont bother producing them. The Limitane is an ok troop to produce when you are at peace and have resources to spare. Otherwise the Militie masses faster and fights about as well. The Limitane Solaris is useful if you are fighting a fire nation but too expensive for general use. Gladiators are a trick unit - dont try and use them vs any experienced player. They can occassionally be handy against indys and for repairing walls during a defensive seige. The Serpent Cataphract is an ok cav unit but performs poorly for its cost compared to other sacreds and especially poorly when compared to the Hydra (the other way to spend your holy points). Lastly the Hydra Hatchling unit is quite cute, but basically worthless on the battlefield. You might use some as bodyguards for key Serpent Priests, but thats it. Now, onto the core units of LA Pythium...

    Milite: Believe it or not, these little guys are the workhorse of your army! At first glance you might balk at thier low morale, but thier cheap gold and resource costs allows you to produce them en masse right where you need them - which you should do extensively. The trusty pyhtium Tower Shields and Javelins are really what make this unit great. Thier prot is low but thier defense and resistance to missle attacks is quite high due to the shield. In addition, they fire off one or two Javelin attacks before closing with the enemy allowing them to inflict damage without having to worry about thier morale in close combat. In order to counter thier low morale, just mix in a couple of Standards (say 2-3) into each block of Milite. The slower speed of the Standards even ensures that they will always end up protected at the rear of the squad.

    Comitatense: Here we have the backbone of the LA Pythium army, the Comitatense - the Principe of this Pythium era. While somewhat expensive at 15gp, the Comitatense makes up for it with good stats, good survivability, and perhaps most importantly: map move 2! With all other Pythium troops of this era being hobbled with map move 1, you will find that the Comitatense are the only troops you are able to move at will from one crisis to another. As they are cap-only, you must build these troops religiously at your capital every turn. The only reason to not produce them is to make your other cap-only unit, Hydras.

    Hydra: The signature unit of La Pythium - and what a unit it is, I mean... look at all those heads!! Weighing in with a grand total of 64 hit points (40 base + 6 per head) and great regeneration the Hydra is truly a force to be reckoned with. On top of its good stats, the strong attacks from its 5 heads will tear enemy troops to pieces. And if that wasnt enough, the damage from thier poison clouds compounds the ability of thier Fear aura to make any troops numerous or tough enough to survive initial contact with them to turn and run in short order. When given a good bless, the Hydra becomes a dominating force on the battlefield, well worth its very steep price tag. The only weakness of the Hydra is thier low protection and large size which makes them vulnerable to missle fire.

    MAGES:
    Moving on to the mages, you will note the impressive diversity of magic paths that is availabe to LA Pythium. In point of fact, this nation has access to every single magic path in the game! Not only that but it can get at least 2+ picks in all but three (Air, Earth, Blood). Its truly an impressive display of magical versatility, which can be leveraged both on the battlefield and via it's unparalleled site search coverage.

    Again some notes about the less valuable Serpent Cult mages: The Serpent Acolyte is not a bad researcher in its own right but it pales in comparison to the Renatus. Plus he looks like a dork and you definitely dont want that! Another LA Pythium flavor unit, the Leo is not worth its high price tag. The Mystes is a good research mage which doesnt require a temple, but again it has to take a back seat to the Renatus. The Renata is a decent water mage but you can get access to Water magic much more reliably via your Serpent Priests so there is no reason to produce them.

    Heliodromus: While slightly expensive for its power, this mage can fairly reliably get you 2F. You don't want to deploy them everywhere, because thier Heretic abilities will destroy your dominion. But you should keep a stable of the stronger ones with your main armies so that they can deploy some fire evocation spells (Fireball, Falling Fires, Incinerate) through the mid and late game.

    Epotes: Your only reliable access to an Earth magic pick. Build only enough to get the Earth magic and then move on to other mages. Once your earth site searching is complete you can have your Epotes form up with your armies in order to heal your Comitantense or Hydras between wars. Sadly the heal ability of the Epotes does not effect Tartarians.

    Renatus: Ah, the Renatus, workhorse of the LA Pyth mage force! Unlike the Heliodromus, the Renatus is not a Heretic and you are free to produce it anywhere in your empire without fear of ruining your dominion. It's a very good researcher and you should mass produce these mages as much as you can for that purpose. On top of that, it has a pair of path combinations (DD and DS) which will make 50% of them quite valuable on the battlefield. In particular 2D gives you quick access to Raise Dead which is a key point in LA Pythium's early strategy. Later, 2D can be leveraged into a variety of vicious spells (Disintegrate, for one!) while DS can give you Nether Darts and, when boosted, Vengeance of the Dead. Also not to be overlooked is thier impressive and stylish jackal masks - fancy!

    Reveler: These guys like to get it on! Hehehe - seriously tho, this mage is your only access to Blood magic. They dont get blood reliably enough to build up a real blood economy, so thier only real use is to cast Orgy, LA Pyth's national spell to summon satyr assassins. Only build as many of these as you need to get a single Reveler with 1B. Hunt for a turn, cast Orgy until you are out of slaves, and repeat for an endless supply of assassins you dont need a fort to produce!

    Theurg: The Theurg is your only access to 2S and 1A. Unfortunately, it is a cap-only unit and you must trade off thier production against your highest level mage, the Serpent Priest. Unless you are facing off against a nation which is weak against Astral magic (Paralyze and whatnot) only produce a couple of these mages for site searching early on. Later in the game when you have a large population of Serpent Priests you can devote more capital time to making some Theurgs.

    Serpent Priest: Finally we come to the best mage the Serpent Cult has to offer, the aptly named Serpent Priest. These well priced mages will give your nation very strong access to Nature magic and occassionally produce a good Water mage. One of thier most important features is thier 100% poison resistance. This ability makes them the only unit LA Pyth can recruit which can safely fight alongside Hydras. Use them to command, bless, and support your Hydra forces. Beyond that, thier Nature magic makes them very useful for ritual spells in the early game and powerful battlefield enchantments as the game goes on.

    NATION DESIGN
    On the subject of blessings, you might think that the Hydra needs a strong bless, right? Surprisingly not! The power of the Hydra does not come from its ability to inflict damage (tho it certainly can), but rather its ability to absorb it and project fear in an extended battle. As a result, its far more efficient to employ a cheaper light bless than to go for the level nines. An Earth blessing of some level is a no-brainer since LA Pyth is rife with sacred mages and you also dont want your Hydras to fatigue out. I'd also recommend a light W4 blessing for the slight defense boost - even at size 6 it improves thier survivability significantly. Beyond that its up to you: a light air bless can be helpful early on for the air shield and later to summon AQs.

    Since LA Pythium has such a strong early-game unit, the Hydra, it is not really needed to have a strong awake pretender to help them defend. Instead they need something that will carry them through thier spot of weakness in the mid-game and allow them to access greater depths in the elemental paths where they will have trouble boosting. To this end I'd recommend a Sleeping Titan of some variety, the Titan, Cyclops, Mother of Rivers, and the Forge Lord are all possible choices. They all have good slots, are competent on the battlefield, and have paths which are conducive to the above blesses.

    For scales you will absolutely want Order 3. The Serpent Cult, especially early in the game when you are funding the Hydra expansion machine, is a gold hog! You'll need as much of it as you can get. Balance the order by taking Misfortune 3 - there is a nominal chance it will cripple you in the early game but after that its free points. Worth the risk because it allows you to invest in Production, say 1 or 2 points. Normally I wouldnt suggest using the Prod scale but you need big money and the extra resources will come in very handy producing all your heavy inf. Lastly, spend whatever remaining points your have on Magic. The more the better, although if you are strapped for points you can settle for Magic 1 since you have such fine researchers.

    As for dominion - you wont need more than 4 points specifically for Hydra production (thats 1000gp a round max!). You can take another point if you are worried about having neighbors with strong dom. But overall you will be building many temples to produce your Renatus so its not that big of a deal.

    STRATEGY:
    LA Pythium has been claimed as a weak nation by many players and there is some justificiation for this. However, if you accept the inconsistencies of the nation and focus on its strengths a solid strategy can be devised. First and foremost is the extensive magical research and site searching ability of this nation. Its a top contender in research surely, and probably the #1 race in the game for site searching. Consistent application of these two things will net the Serpent Cult a strong research lead and access to more gems and site-based mages than any other nation throughout the entire game. Secondly, there is the Hydra. Don't turn your back on this unit, just because it has no synergy with the regular troops. Instead, make it the centerpiece of your forces by investing your resources in a deadly poison-immune army.

    Early-Game:
    In the early part of the game there is only one strategy: Hydras! So many heads, so many indys to eat!! Used correctly, Hydras are devastatingly powerful expanders. Set your starting army to patrol and set your taxes to maximum - you're going to need that money to buy Hydras. Initial expansion is done by teams of a single Serpent Priest leading 4 Hydras. Set the Hydras towards the back of the battlefield and the priest a little further so he doesnt get shot by stray arrows. Script him to cast Bless and the Hydras to Hold and Attack (to string out the indy formations). Once they go into the attack you will see that Hydras totally slaughter almost any indy type. Make high-income provinces a priority so that you can build more Hydra teams.

    Don't be afraid of the traditional "tough" indys like Heavy Cav: the Hydra's heads will absorb one lance attack each and their counterattack will eat the horses for breakfast - literally! What you do need to watch out for are particularly large masses of non-xbow missle units. Hydras will be ok vs. a moderate amount of fire but not against large volumes (slingers are particularly dangerous due to thier numbers). Once you have enough gold, immediately build your second team to leverage another advantage of the Hydras - they have no resource requirement. You can literally scale up your expansion rate as fast as you get gold income!

    On the magic side of things, your early game goals should be to immediatley build your second fort and begin producing more mages. LA Pytiums forts are expensive on every terrain type except swamp so if you have one available you should build there, as crappy as they are. You wont be able to produce troops but Pyth's strength lies in its excellent research and site searching so the more mages you can build a turn the better.

    The first research target is Conj 3 (Summon Vine Ogre) and Const 2 (Ivy Crown). The goal being rapid production of poison-immune troops to accompany your Hydras as soon as possible. Since you will be recruiting Serpent Priests in your capital every turn and they often get 3N, we can leverage that by turning them into an early VO factory since they wont need the traditional Thistle Mace. Once you complete this research goal, the next target is Ench 3 (Raise Dead). Once you have this spell, you can give poison rings to your 2D Renatus and send them into battle with the poison immune army to produce undead chaff to fill out your ranks.

    Mid-Game:
    Your research priority now is leveraging the power of the poison-immune army that you have been building up. The first and foremost spell to research is Foul Vapors. While not the most powerful battlefield damage spell it is available at a comparatively low level (Ench 5) and synergizes perfectly with your Hydra force. Next you should research Arrow Fend and find a mage who can cast it in order to protect said Hydras. If you havent found one from a site, research Const 4 and build a booster for one of your air Theurgs. Const 4 doesnt hurt anyway since it gives you access to the Thistle Mace for more VO summoning.

    Beyond that, you have some freedom in what to research next. If war is imminent, its a simple matter of researching up to Evoc 5 to get spells for your regular battle mages. Fireball and Falling Fires for the Heliodromus, Nether Bolt and Shadow Blast for your Renatus. These will give your regular armies the extra punch they need to compete. If war is less pressing then you might consider boosting your Conj and Construction up in order to begin thug production.

    As you build more forts to expand your mage production, it is useful to set one fort up exclusively for the production of Heretics. Even tho they have a tendency to rant and blaspheme, they do have thier uses! You dont want to produce them across your empire because it will wreck havoc with your dominion. Concentrating them at one point that you choose sacrifices the dominion there to save it everywhere else. At this fort, you should build Revelers (if you want an assassin factory) or Heliodromus (for battlefield artillery). Dont forget to continue site-searching! Excellent path coverage is a key strength of LA Pyth and you must get as much gems and sites as you can out of it.

    At this point you should have the foundation of your poison-immune army assembled: Hydras, VOs, and skelly spamming Renatus. Command the army with a Serpent Priest scripted to cast Foul Vapors and you are ready to go! Put your troops way in the back, set them to Hold and Attack, cast entanglement spells, etc. Anything you can do to drag the battle out as long as possible. Eventually your enemies men and mages will succumb to the poison and fear. Additionally, once you get Arrow Fend you no longer need to be wary of masses of archers and can attack any enemy army at will.

    When you go to war, make sure to bring both poison armies and non-poison armies. While the two cannot work together on the same battlefield, they will cause your opponent no end of trouble trying to defend. If they try to deploy thier key mages to defeat your normal forces, withdraw them and move in the poison army to wipe them out. If they develop a poison-resistant strategy, switch your poison forces to raiding and attack with your normal men when they least expect it.

    Late-game:
    As a strong Nature / Death nation, it is unsurprising that the primary late game goal of LA Pyth should be Tartarians. The tradition path to mass producing Tarts is via Demi-Liches, which synergizes with the work already done in Enchantment (you should be at 5-6 already) so continue on to Ench 8 for Lichcraft. Along the way you will acquire some very handy spells: Rigor Mortis, Relief, Life after Death, Carrion Reanimation, Mass Regeneration, but more on those later. The next step on the path to Tarts is to secure either the Gift of Health or the Chalice. As a strong nature nation, Gift of Health should be doable, however a Serpent Priest with an astral pick can be boosted up to forge the Chalice if needed. After that, it is the long march up to Conj 9 to open the Tartarian Gate.

    In the meantime, all this Enchantment work will also be going to the advantage of your regular armies. First off, you get Relief: a very powerful spell in its own right, not only for your troops but also your mages. They can really rain down the hurt with the reinvig it grants them on top of any from your bless. Another trick that becomes available earlier on is Relief + Rigor Mortis. The spells wont cancel each other out evenly, but they will hurt your enemy more than you in the end. Mass Regeneration is also quite handy, tho somewhat harder to cast, and will be particuarly effective if you have the Gift of Health. When you finally have time to research Alteration, you will also gain access to Will of the Fates via boosted 2S Theurgs - always a plus!

    For your poison forces, Ench will give you access to undead chaff which you can use to fill out your ranks and drag out those battles to maximize your poison damage. A lowly Renatus with a Skull Staff can cast Carrion Reanimation to generate 100 soulless in the field - expensive at 10D but if used well very much worth the cost. For a more long term solution, it is useful to employ the Life after Death trick to mass-produce undead priests. To do this, recruit a bunch of indy priests, then give them a Hydra bodyguard, bring them to battle and cast Life after Death. The hydra will poison and then kill all the priests who will return as undead priests. Following this they will gain access to the Reanimate command which you can use to produce unlimited longdead chaff.

    At this point in the game, no doubt the superior site-searching of the Serpent Cult has revealed sites which can produce some powerful indy mages. Since there is no way to know what you will get I cant give any specific advice othter than to say: always be open to the possibilities that these new mages represent. Dont be afraid to change the course of your research if you discover a powerful mage and see a way to employ them against your enemey.

    So, there you have it. A guide from start to finish on our old, quirky friend, the Serpent Cult. And last but not least, don't forget... Adopt a Hydra Hatchling: They need love too.

    	8.30 R'lyeh

    	    	8.30.1 EA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.1.1 Guide to EA R'Lyeh

    Overview:EA R'Lyeh is very different from it's later cousins. It is often considered weak or difficult to use well, but the concept and style of the nation are quite interesting and can be very fun to play. It can frustrate newer players as it is not the most straight-forward nation and is hampered with getting good, solid forces on land. EA R'Lyeh is quite strong underwater, and it's mages are very effective. In many respects, EA R'Lyeh is the opposite of many land nations. Instead of having a hard time massing forces underwater, it has a hard time doing so on land.

    Strengths:
    -Unbreakable amphibious chaff (Lobo Guards)
    -Excellent mages (Aboleths and Mind Lords), that have very long lifespans
    -Decent mind blasters (Giboleths and Gibodais)
    -Aboleths and Mind Lords are large and have high hit points
    -One Pretender Chassis (Polypal Queen) and the Polypal Mother priest units can make freespawn in friendly dominion
    -Many units have darkvision of 50 or 100, and some units/pretenders are blind

    Weaknesses:
    -Best mages are aquatic (slave mages lose some water magic on land) and expensive
    -Mind Lords and Gibodai are capital only
    -Mind blast units (Gibodai and Giboleths) are aquatic only
    -Does not work with a bless strategy very well
    -Best priests are immobile (Polypal Mothers)
    -Large size of the best mages cause them to be large targets and use extra supplies
    -Extremely limited on magic items for the Aboleths and Mind Lords, only 2 misc slots
    -Unlike MA and LA R'Lyeh, they have no Void gate and do not get freespawn amphibious hybrids in coastal forts with friendly dominion

    National Units:

    Slave Troopers and Slave Guardians:
    These each come in 3 flavors. All have lackluster morale (8).

    Tritons Are aquatic only, but have overall slightly better statistics than the others. They are slightly slower than the Merman, but faster than the Atlantians. Being aquatic, they have a nominal strategic speed of 1.

    Merman Are amphibious, but become poor amphibians on land. They are much faster tactically in the water than on land, but gain a strategic move of 2 on land. The Merman Slave Troopers come with nets.

    Atlantians Are amphibious and have the highest protection of the 3 types of slave troopers/guardians. They have the lowest magic resistance however. Their speed stays constant and they have a strategic speed of 2. Atlantians have darkvision 50 as well.

    I normally build the Triton versions for early underwater expansion. They are not as cheap as the Lobo Guards but are far better at actually killing enemies. I do not build many of the Merman usually as The Atlantians do not get the poor amphibian attribute when they fight on land. Even then, I do not build many of these troops once I have sufficient numbers of summons/special troops. For fodder, I use Lobo Guards (see below). For more solid non-aquatic melee forces, I use summons and/or the more useful indy troops (ex:Jade Amazons).

    Lobo Guards:
    Ah, lovely little Lobo Guards. Mindless and unbreakable, these little cheapies make excellent chaff and screens for your more important units in the battle. Don't get too attached to these poor guys, they tend to die like mad. But at 5 gold and 1 resource, you can make tons of them. Unlike Militia, they don't panic and run away, which makes them so good at being living shields.

    Shambler Thralls:
    Overall, I agree with Evilhomer on these guys. They are only size 3, which is not too hot for tramplers. They are not very well protected, so arrows eat them alive. And they cost a fair chunk for what you get (35 gold/1 resource). They can have some use, but watch who you are fighting. They are amphibious and unbreakable and can steamroll human-sized forces, which can come in handy, but if you are fighting, say, Niefelheim, they are not going to do much for you. I do use them on occasion, but the days of me building groups of 100 of these guys are over.

    Giboleths and Gibodai:
    These are your mind blasters. If you've used Ilithids/Ilithid Soldiers as MA or LA R'Lyeh you know basically what to expect. Their main drawback is that they are aquatic, and thusly lose a lot of utility compared to the Ilithids. I'm a big fan of mind blast as it doesn't rain death on your own troops like arrows do, and large 'artillery parks' of mind blasters can totally ruin an enemy's cohesion as some of them get paralyzed and others do not.

    The main differences between these 2 is that the Gibodai cost more (60/1 compared to Giboleths' 40/1), are sacred, have a life drain melee attack instead of the Giboleth's tentacles, and have a mind blast damage value of 10 compared to the Giboleth's 12. Gibodai are in fact your only national sacred other than the Polypal Mothers, and Slave Priests, which is why EA R'Lyeh cannot use a blessing strategy very well.

    I usually build quite a few of these guys for underwater expansion, but not too many. I recommend that you try to balance how many you need with the fact that they are only effective under the waves. I build far more Ilithids as MA/LA R'Lyeh than these guys for EA R'Lyeh, simply because they cannot be used in land battles. Having 200 Giboleth's looks cool, and makes a lot of noise in battles, but once you are prosecuting a long land campaign, that is a lot of cash tied up underwater.

    Scouts:
    Pretty standard scout type. He's amphibious and has darkvision 50, which help, but he has no special capabilities other than those. If sent out just for recon, I stick them on retreat orders so they take off if discovered and survive for more scouting if they can get away.

    Slave Princes:
    These guys aren't too bad as thugs or to bring larger amounts of standard troops to battle as the Aboleth leaders have high magical leadership, but poor normal leadership. A default magic resistance of 12 begs for +MR items and buffs, but they are reasonably strong and fairly well-equipped out of the box, and have 50 darkvision and are amphibious. I keep a couple of these guys around, but I usually don't build many.

    Slave Priests:
    Amphibious and sacred, but not much else to crow about. Holy 1 is all they come with. I use them mostly to build temples behind my armies. For those accompanying my forces, they are they to do a bit of holy casting, and to carry gems for my real mages and items like cauldrons of broth.

    Slave Mages:
    These guys are not too bad overall. They come with 2 Water and 1 Astral as well as 1 random pick of Earth, Water, Nature, or Astral. While vulnerable to mind duels, they can bring some diversity to your magic as the Aboleths and Mind Lords do not get a chance of Nature magic. They lose a water magic level when they venture onto land, and get the standard Merman poor amphibian penalty when on land.

    I rarely use these for battle casters. They make acceptable stopgap researchers, and the chance of some nature magic can be a boon, but I prefer Aboleths and Mind Lords for most of my magic needs.

    Polypal Mothers:
    These are quite odd. They are sacred, blind, have 100% poison resistance, create free Polypal Spawns in friendly dominions, and have Holy 2 magic, but they can't move. I like having a couple here and there to bulk up my aquatic forces with freespawns (I'll go into the Polypal Spawn more later), but I don't advise building too many of these girls. They really are not that bad at helping defend your provinces if you are getting attacked underwater, but their immobility is a major limitation. You normally do not want that many Polypal spawns either.

    Aboleths:
    They come with 2 water and 2 astral as well as +1 to either death, earth, water, or astral. These are decent mages and have good stats overall (100 darkvision, 54 hit points, 18 MR, 150 magical leadership, mind blast attack, etc). Being size 4 makes them fairly large. The main problems with these otherwise excellent units are the aquatic only limitation and only having 2 misc magic item slots. They are still quite decent and I tend to build quite a few in my non-capital underwater forts.

    Mind Lords:
    I admit it. I love these guys. 3 water and 3 astral magic +1 to either water, earth, astral, or death and a 10% chance of another +1 to either of earth, astral, water, or death, makes them excellent mages. They are not cheap at 420/1, but that's a lot of magic power, they have good stats (such as 84 hit points, 100 darkvision, 165 magical leadership, and 20 MR) and their ranged attack is enslave mind! These guys are huge at size 6, which is bad for supplies and being a target, but you get a small recompense at the fact that they are hard to trample. The main problems with these guys is that they are, like is too often the case for EA R'Lyeh, aquatic and only 2 misc magic item slots, and on top of that, they are capital only. I still find these very good leaders.

    Both the Aboleths and Mind Lords do get a strategic move of 2 when you give them their amulets of the fish, which gives you surprising strategic speed for a nominally aquatic nation.

    Polypal Spawns:
    You can't build these little things, but the Polypal Mothers and the Queen can spawn them for free in any water province where you have positive dominion. Another aquatic-only unit, they are not very strong and their low hit points hamper them, but they have decent combat skills, are size 1 which helps with the supply issue when you have many of them, they have decent protection, and their MR is slightly above average. Having some can be very useful for fighting in the waves, but I do not feel you would be best served by having too many. You really do not want to go overboard with the Polypal Mothers.

    This is going to be huge looking at how far I have gotten already. I'll start a new post for the next section to make it easier to read.

    Available Pretenders:
    EA R'Lyeh is very limited in it's choices for pretender chasses but they can use the following:

    Monolith:
    I have to be honest, I've never really used this one. I've had a lot of success with immobile pretenders, but have not tried Monolith.

    Wyrm:
    A popular SC pretender. The Wyrm is an excellent choice for an active combat pretender. No starting magic is a drawback, but it has some nice advantages with it's regeneration, 100% poison resistance and basic fear.

    Son of the Sea:
    More magically inclined (water 3 default) than the Wyrm but not as good at straight up combat, the Son of the Sea can also bring land-dwellers below the sea safely.

    Lich and Master Lich:
    These are standard broad spectrum magic pretenders. Both start with death magic, but the Master Lich has cheaper access to other magical paths, while the Lich is more robust in battle.

    Void Lurker:
    One of my personal favorites for MA R'Lyeh, but less so for EA R'Lyeh. The Void Lurker has cheap access to magic paths beyond it's starting astral 3, is ethereal and has a mind blast attack. It is immobile. It is also surrounded by a poison cloud, so watch where you place him in battle. It also does not eat.

    Ancient Kraken:
    Another good SC Pretender. He starts with no magic but is slightly cheaper to pick magic up than the Wyrm (40 as opposed to 50). He has 100 Darkvision, 50 poison resistance, and has recuperation.

    Polypal Queen:
    This is my personal favorite EA R'Lyeh pretender, although much of this is from her whole concept as the mother of the entire aboleth race, I feel she is still a solid if immobile pretender chassis. With some nice abilities such as: Blind , poison resistance of 100, and she creates freespawns of Polypal Spawns when in a friendly aquatic dominion. Her magic starts at astral 1 and water 1, with new paths costing 25. She has 3 mind blasts when pressed in battle, and does not eat.

    Ghost King:
    A classical favorite, the Ghost King is expensive, but his high fear, combined with being ethereal and sneaky can help with reduced casualty conquest of neutrals. Extra magic path cost of 20 is a nice feature as well.

    Arch Mage
    He rides a trampling lobster (payback for all that seafood!) and while he starts with only water 1, buying him additional paths cost only 10 points.

    Scales:
    These can be (and usually are) hotly debated and everyone has certain scales they love/hate, but I will give a basic rundown.

    Order/Turmoil:
    I am not a fan of Turmoil as losing money and having more random events is not my cup of tea. However, if you take high Luck, turmoil can certainly give you a lot of good events. Order gives some money back and can reduce the effect of misfortune. I normally leave this neutral, or slide it to order.

    Productivity/Sloth:
    I again found Evilhomer's advice to be spot on and highly recommend Sloth 3 as EA R'Lyeh. In fact, I recommend it more for EA than MA or LA R'Lyeh as we don't even get the Meteorite guards that MA and LA have (decent slave troops with extra MR). Most of the units we will be using cost just 1 resource. The gold loss is only 6% at Sloth 3 and other scales can make up this loss if you wish.

    Heat/Cold:
    Cold does not effect the income (although it still does effect the supplies) of underwater provinces so you can take it fairly easily. I used to always hold this neutral as R'Lyeh, but taking some cold is not too terrible for your land campaign later, and has only minor effects on your water campaign.

    Growth/Death:
    Growth is a good scale for almost anyone. The extra income can help balance your Sloth3, the extra supplies can help with Cold/Heat, and extra growth means even more money and supplies! While our main mages are not really in any danger of old age (barring spells like Decay anyway), I cannot recommend Death as EA R'Lyeh. Growth is even more attractive and Death less attractive in a longer game. Growth of any level is good, but if you can wring out Growth 3, it is highly recommneded.

    Luck/Misfortune:
    I strongly advise against taking Misfortune if you also take Death, which I recommend against taking Death in the first place, if you do, do not take Death 3 and Misfortune 3 as this opens up some downright devastating events. Luck+Turmoil is interesting. I usually leave this neutral or give myself some luck.

    Magic/Drain:
    R'Lyeh is infused with magic so Drain is not only not thematic, it is counter-productive. Your main forces will be based on Mind Lords and Aboleths which are very heavy magic-users. A little magic can help quite a bit. It makes all your researchers more efficient, you already have many units with high MR (Aboleths and Mind Lords have 18 and 20!) so Magic's reduction of MR is not as bad for you as many others, and makes all that magic you will be throwing less exhausting. I have done well with a straight zero, but taking some is certainly not a bad idea.

    Magic Paths:
    Picking the paths your pretender will have is always an important step in your pretender creation process. One thing you must shoot for as EA R'Lyeh is so important I'll bold it below:

    You need to be able to make Amulets of the Fish!

    Without these items, your Mind Lords and Aboleths cannot leave the seas. Air 1/ Water 1 is the minimum needed for these. This is a critical aspect of your pretender design. None of our national mages can make these, so that leaves summons, luck on sites, or your pretender. I always take at least air 1 on my pretender, and always take water (and astral as well) as default as any R'Lyeh.

    EA R'Lyeh does not lend itself to a bless strategy. We only have the prophet and 3 national sacred units total. 1 of these nationals is aquatic and immobile (Polypal Mothers), 1 is aquatic and capital only (Gibodai), and the last is the Slave Priest. I do not build my pretender around any sort of bless capabilities, although I tend to go fairly deep into water and astral and get a small bless by default. But do not build your pretender based on any sort of bless strategy.

    Air:
    As previously stated, you want at least 1 air on your pretender. Amulets of the fish are just too critical to not do so. Most of the pretenders we can choose from come with water, so it's not hard to be able to at least make these items. Taking more air levels will let you make other nice toys like amulets of missile protection. I try for 2-4 depending on the type of pretender I am making.

    Astral:
    R'Lyeh is heavy with astral magic in all ages. Our national mages are heavy with it, and some of our pretenders start with it, or can get it cheap. The SC pretenders may skip astral as they need water 1 and air 1 to make the amulets, but for a more magic-orientated pretender, astral is a good fit. I try for at least 4 astral on my heavy magic pretenders. If you get Astral 6 or more, you can make the expensive but powerful Rings of Wizardry.

    Blood:
    An important aspect of blood magic is that you cannot blood hunt underwater. I do not normally take blood magic on my pretender, although in some longer games, I did empower them with it and had a small blood economy running. But that was more to test it out for EA R'Lyeh than anything else. You probably could take some on your pretender and try for some decently sized population land provinces to get a blood magic economy rolling, but it's difficult for EA R'Lyeh to use as our main strength is below the waves where we cannot get blood slaves. I do not recommend you get too much blood magic on your pretender, but a little bit can give you access to some of the astral+blood spells and items.

    For an excellent article on Blood Hunting (and Mictlan of course!) See Baalz's guide here:

    Post#http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=503458&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

    Death:
    Aboleths can have death 1 and Mind Lords can get up to death 2 (but that is quite rare as it requires the 100% pick to pick death and then get the 10% pick to give death as well). A little death on a pretender with many paths can certainly work well. I usually get some death, but not too deep into it. Death+water gives access to Streams from Hades which is a nice mixed magic summons, and also gives Hidden in Snow which is a rather good summons for us as they enhance our land forces. Death+astral gives the Ether Gate which is expensive, but I use them from time to time. All 3 of these spells only require 1 death magic, so even a a little death can give you some nice bonuses.

    Earth:
    Our various mages have some access to earth magic, and our home site makes 1 earth gem per turn. Earth magic gives the forge of the ancients and the dwarven hammers for cheaper magic items. Earth magic also gives some solid defensive and reinvigoration items with construction research. On a rainbow pretender, I try to get some earth.

    Fire:
    None of our national mages can get fire magic. Most fire spells don't even work underwater. If you are going for a rainbow pretender, fire magic can give you more items to choose from and some powerful spells for dealing with the surface dwellers, but it's not a priority for us normally.

    Nature:
    Only our Slave Mages can get nature from our national mages, and it's a random pick so not really common. I do tend to grab nature magic on my pretender along with water for the fact that I need nature magic (on top of water magic) to make Clam of Pearls. These items can really bolster your astral pearl economy and come highly recommended. Nature gives access to some nice reinvigoration and regeneration items and supply items as well. I try to take some on my pretenders whenever I can.

    Water:
    We live in the water, so taking some is an easy decision normally. Water works well with astral and you need water 1 (with air 1) to make amulets of the fish which we need badly. Water 3+ Nature 1 gives the pretender the ability to make clam of pearls too. Water 4 is my normal minimum as EA R'Lyeh, and I often take more.

    Magic, Dominion, Wakefulness, Pretenders, and you:
    A limited path SC pretender should shoot for air+water normally. You don't want to burn too many points on too many magic branches when the paths are costing you 40-50 each, but air and water access is critical. EA R'Lyeh needs a pretender with at least these 2 paths unless you want to gamble on finding air sites to empower or those rare indy mage sites, which I cannot recommend. Gambling can be fun, but if you don't get access to amulets of the fish, you can cripple yourself.

    Awake SC pretenders have the advantage of aiding our expansion early, when we are somewhat weak. EA R'Lyeh is more of a late bloomer nation, but taking a low magic SC pretender hurts our magic item construction and magical capability as well.

    On the other hand, magic-heavy pretenders (whether rainbow or simply deep into only a couple of paths), are not as effective early as the SC ones, but long-term they give us a lot of magical power in return.

    Evilhomer recommends an SC for MA and LA R'Lyeh and this applies to EA R'Lyeh to a point as well, but I tend to take a Polypal Mother with heavy magic instead. If you get rushed in an MP game, you will want an SC, but if through geography or diplomacy you have some breathing room, a heavy magic pretender can work wonders in the longterm. The worst part of all this is that you won't really know which situation you will be in until you have already started the game!

    The choice of an SC or a magic guru is largely personal choice. I tend to use my pretenders more for their ability to cast high path requirement spells than for expansion. I have tried both and an Ancient Kraken or Wyrm can really put some hurt on enemies. Which you prefer is up to your playstyle and the people you are playing against. SP games allow a lot more flexibility in pretender construction as the AI is not very 'threat aware' compared to other human players.

    Awake, Dormant, or Imprisoned?
    This is a very hard decision and I have to say that while I do not like waiting so long for my pretender to be usable, you get a ton of points with imprisoned, and a fair chunk if they are sleeping. If you take an SC, I would take awake for sure as early expansion is the main reason to have an SC. An immobile heavy magic type gives a nice amount of research early if awake, but you can eke out a lot of points if they are dormant or in jail.

    As mentioned above, your decision here should be heavily influenced by the game you are playing and the personality of the other players. An awake SC may just be enough to keep that aggressive guy off you to let you build your strength, while having neighbors that are not so interested you lets you be a little more relaxed about this.

    Dominion:
    A very important part of god construction. Most of our choices here start fairly low, but it's a simple matter to bump it up. If you have really nasty scales, having a low dominion can let you sponge off other peoples better scales, but this makes you more vulnerable to being prayed out of existence. Taking a very high dominion can keep your scales in control and helps in the breeding of free Polypal Spawns. I try to get at least 5, and preferably more as I am pretty conservative on my scales so don't have too much damage from my own dominion. Getting 9 or 10 here can give an SC that extra edge with the Awe ability.

    Pretender Summary:
    EA R'Lyeh has very limited choices for our chasses, but we don't have any real problem ones like the Lord of Fertility either. Getting air 1+ water 1 is critical for us, but beyond that it's really up to your preferences. I always take water, astral, air, and nature on my heavy magic users. And dabble in the other paths most of the time.

    Many of our pretenders can benefit from amulets of the fish to enter land based labs to cast land-only spells. A few of our pretenders do not need them to do so, and this increases their appeal. Pretender construction is an extremely interesting, critical, and fun part of the game.

    I freely admit to a strong bias to the Polypal Queen. She just fits as the nation's goddess so well, and I like strong magic pretenders. The freespawns are a little extra. If they get out of control, I can always have her grab an amulet of the fish from the lab and port to a friendly land lab. This lets me halt freespawn production if it's getting too large and I can cast some of those land-only spells to boot.

    Magic:
    EA R'Lyeh is a very heavy user of water and astral magic, less so in death and earth, and a rare small amount of nature.

    We start with the Gorge of Ancient Cities, which produces the following gems:

    3 astral
    2 water
    1 earth

    Getting more sites quickly is always important. Starting research for us is usually Conjuration 4 for Voice of Tiamat. This was another of Evilhomer's recommendations that I fully endorse for EA R'Lyeh. It reveals all elemental sites in an underwater province that we control. This can give your gem economy a boost quickly. Conjuration 5 gives acashic Record, which some people love and others hate. If you like the spell, getting it right after Voice of Tiamat is not too hard of a decision. If you don't like acashic record, you can move to other branches after getting voice of tiamat. Conjuration gives some excellent summons, and we don't even mind the aquatic ones. Asp Turtles are downright nasty for example. And if you have enough death, you can get the ubiquitous Bane Lords or even tartarians if you squeeze out that much death.

    As Belcarl pointed out, our Mind Lords normal ranged attack is enslave mind, so we don't need to push thaumaturgy right away, but it is a very important line of magic for us. All the Astral relocation spells (Teleport, Gateway, and Astral Travel) are from the thaumaturgy line. And the strategic mobility of these spells cannot be stressed enough. The threat of having 12 Mind Lords and their armies suddenly port almost anywhere can keep your neighbors honest.

    Construction gives the essential amulet of the fish at construction 4, and no matter what paths you take, magic items are always things to hand out to important commanders (and not so important commanders if you have the time/gems available).

    I normally leave blood for last. No blood hunting underwater is a major hindrance for fully exploiting this path. And we have no national mages that have access to it.

    Spells I try to push for as EA R'Lyeh, depending on magic paths available:

    Antimagic (Lobo Guards have lousy MR, and our other slave troops are below average as well)
    Voice of Tiamat
    Bane Lord
    Gift of Health
    Maelstrom
    Arcane Nexus (Although I would be wary casting this in an MP game)
    Teleport
    Gateway
    Astral Travel (Very deep in thaumaturgy, so hard to actually 'push')
    Arrow Fend or Storm (depending on air available and what casters I have in the field that can cast these)
    Communion Slave/Master
    Returning
    Personal Luck
    Luck
    Battle Fortune

    We start with Twist Fate, and there are other spells I love to get, but take very heavy paths so I do not 'push' them so much (i.e. Call Abomination).

    Amulets of the Fish are your land force bottleneck normally. Getting indy mages with air and water or empowering mages with one or the other can help cut this bottle neck down some. Normally only the pretender can make these and only if you have them available to do so. A lot of our pretenders and our 2 more powerful national mages lack hands so cannot benefit from dwarven hammers. Forge of the Ancients can mitigate that somewhat.

    Nethgul is a ton of fun to give to a Slave Prince. He often gives his bearer etherealness though spells and does a large amount of horror marking, soul slaying, and mind enslaving at the enemy. I can't even remember the number of times I'll notice that I now have horror-marked troops that used to be enemies. If only he would mind enslave before horror-marking.

    Mind Lords and Aboleths can only carry 2 misc items, and this will have you gnashing your teeth as they cannot not even don a simple astral cap! Being handless means they cannot use some of the excellent path boosting weapons. The first item to enable them to go landward is of course the amulet of the fish, but the second item is less cut and dried. Ring of wizardry is very nice, but extremely expensive. Amulets of missle protection aren't bad if you don't have any field commanders to cast arrow fend, or have a commander with hands (I know it sounds odd, doesn't it?) to hold a staff of storms. I'm loathe to hand them supply items if I need them as the 1 slot is just to valuable for such an item. I hand the +supply items to less important sub-commanders, like slave priests.

    Clam of Pearls should be high on your magic item list for researchers. Getting a lot of these can really boost your astral income. It takes them awhile to pay for themselves, although less time is needed to 'break even' if you have access to dwarven hammers (Accursed hands! How you elude us!), access to sites that cut the construction cost of items down, and/or forge of the ancients. Even without all these, the clams are welcome.

    Slave Princes are ok thugs but their MR is only 12 to start, making them less effective as SCs. A magic resistance amulet goes well here. I like to give 1 of them the Trident from Beyond and Nethgul. Then I empower him to water 1 (for the trident's water bonus) and customize his other items as I see fit. He can lead a fair chunk of non-magic troops by default and is amphibious (and he has hands!) so can lead raiding forces out of the water if you so desire. Shields are always highly recommended for any thugs/SCs, but wavebreakers are decent weapons and are very thematic. The aforementioned Trident from Beyond is another such weapon.

    Once your conjuration is high enough, the ever-popular Bane Lords make for excellent SCs. You really can't go wrong with these guys. Just make sure to outfit them well from your item treasury.

    Tartarians can be really nasty, and if you have Gift of Health up, they can slowly heal their afflictions and be real powerhouses.

    Call Abomination is costly, but these monsters are well worth it. Being amphibious, regenerating, huge, and nasty. I have to try giving one Gift of Reason to see how that works out.

    	    	    	8.30.1.2 Fighting EA R'lyeh

    -> Moving this out from Salamander8's post.
    Question. How do you fight a well-played EA R'lyeh nation underwater with, say, Atlantis? My opponent has a vast invading army of mind blasters. I have good troops, but they cannot even get into the battle. They are all paralyzed and blasted to smithereens before either side can even engage.

    We're talking about a few hundred mind blasters... Aboleths, Mind Lords, gibodai, giboleths, with a fronting army of several hundred chaff. Atlantis has some very good evokers, but that does me little good underwater. I tried using Anti-Magic on my whole army, but they were still slaughtered.

    -> Start equipping your kings with Starshine cap, shield of anti magic, faithful, amulet of anti magic, rainbow armor, ring of regeneration, boots of the messenger or the trample boots. put a few of these out front of your army and let them soak up the mind blasts.

    -> Shark Attack is king underwater.

    -> Shark attack+hordes of regenerating sea trolls does provide huge amounts of chaff. If they reach melee with the mind blasters some-how they should take care of them and even if they dont they could still take some hits.

    ->

    	    	8.30.2 MA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.2.1 MP guide to MA/LA R'lyeh

    Introduction

    I have played R'lyeh in several mp games (currently playing them in discordia and perpetuality games) and after reading several guides by other players on other nations as well as seeing many posts asking for help when it comes to R'lyeh i decided to add this guide. I'm sure there are around older versions for dom2 since R'lyeh is pretty similar but what the hell this is my take on them.

    Generally speaking for any nation when it comes to strategy and the build you pick the early game expansion must be considered. I would say that if your build cannot support an expansion rate of 10 provinces at turn 10, you have to start over. For R'lyeh this is even more crucial since they are heavily gold dependent.

    In this guide i will not spend so much time going over the units instead trying to focus on the build as well as the in game strategies. I have mostly targeted a approach that will allow people to play and win multiplayer games. It will work in single player games as well of course, but you might want to experiment and go a bit more wild for the fun of it there.

    Units

    slave troopers/guardians - I seldom build these, in a few rare cases you need fast flankers to attempt to take out commanders, or if you have excess resources (less than 30) you can build a few.

    lobo guards - actually good units. They cannot kill anything decent but they have a very low recruiting cost and a high morale. These should form a large part of your army for early and mid game, especially as MA R'lyeh. The basic idea in using them is preventing your good units from being outnumbered as well as buying mage time in fights. Their main weakness is area damage and arrows, see later section on advice how to deal with this. As LA R'lyeh the basic "chaff" need that these units fill are not needed since you will receive a lot of freespawns.

    meteorite guards - Excess resources are put here simply.

    shambler trall - I seldom build these, at 25 gold pieces and with their low protection and a size 3 trampling (trampling gets better with size) they are a pretty bad unit, except for a few rare cases.

    crab hybrid - 2 attacks, good armor and hp, simply a good unit for underwater fighting. Early on these are very efficient at expanding, and they last for alot more fights than an equivalent lobo army. Don't get carried away with hiring these if you are the only water nation (LA) or if you expect peace with your neighboors since they cannot be moved onto land.

    illithid - Good at freezing tough opponents. They basically pay off over time, but at the same time they cost alot so do not go overboard hiring these guys. Especially early I would spend my money on other units.

    illitid soldiers - worse ranged attack than the illithids, basically do not build these (better buy an illithid + meteorite guard instead). Also they have a strategic move of 1, which can be annoying when moving on land.

    Independent troops when you get your feets/tentacles up on dry land you will probably want to add ind troops into your armies. You are mainly looking to add archers/crossbows for the ranged damage and armored troops (however you look at it most of your troops are weak and to have something to draw fire and be able to stand some beating is very decent).

    Commanders

    scout - I tend to have more important commanders than these to build.

    traitor prince - basically commanders that can serve as good thugs with slightly high encumberance, they can be useful but I seldom build these.

    slave priest - basically a priest, nothing special about them.

    slave mage - there are only one reason to build these basically, and thats the 25% chance to get N on them. They will unlock nature access and serve as clam forgers if needed. Using the other picks in battle: S - mainly cast stellar cascade or paralyse. E - Since slavemages grows feet when they come ashore, you can slap on a pair of earth boots, cast earth power and cast gifts from heaven with them. W - A w3 mage can cast a number of water spells, don't forget however that they get -1 water when they go onto dry land.

    illithid lords - another commander that can serve as a thug (better encumberance even). It has a good ranged attack as well.

    star childs - Build these if you cannot afford starspawns(mage). With good magic scales they are priceworthy researchers, and they can serve as assasins. Their main use in combat however are as communion slaves. If you decide to use them as assasins script body ethereal/astral shield before firing away.

    starspawn(priest) - At some point you hire one and put it to "enter the void". For rare cases where you battle large armies of undead you might hire a few more, other than that they have few uses. Notice that they have a 5% chance per turn to get lost in space and time, while the national hero cthulgul has only 2% chance. I tend to wait until turn 10 before hiring one for the void (yes you can get nice things from the void but I simply need the gold for expansion instead). Early on give it 5 body guards and pray for luck, later on you want to give it some pearls (astral gems) and script it to cast "returning" (this might only work for the ones that has s2, someone knows for sure ?)

    starspawn(mage) - Awesome mages simply. With a base magic of w1s3 and 2.1 random picks in WEDS they give rlyeh a large variety of spells, and combined with communion master/slave their late game potential is amazing. As LA R'lyeh im even more biased towards building these since all other commanders becomes insane pretty easily.

    A high gold/low resource nation

    A normal turn in peace times (after all indies are conquered that is) i tend to hire 1 starspawn and 2 or so meteorite guards at each fortress, and thats it. The thing about a nation like R'lyeh (that has many decent 1 resource units) is that they can very quickly produce large armies if gold is available. For this reason there is simply no point in peace times to have large standing armies (especially costly units like illithids) eating up your money in the form of upkeep. When war becomes an issue, each fortress can easily produce 100+ units per turn without much problem. So instead of hiring alot of illithids and chaff like loboes in peace-time consider just saving the money, and keep it as a "switch to war time" reserve (if the saved money becomes to large consider adding more fortress/labs/temples however).

    My usual scales

    order 3 - R'lyeh is very gold dependent, this is a very easy pick really.

    sloth 3 - Another easy choice, all decent troops costs almost no resources.

    cold 3 - The income of underwater provinces are not dependent by the temperature scale, and since the majority of your early expansion is going to be underwater the extra design points are worth this pick. The reason you want to go cold instead of heat is that many of rlyehs spells are cold based.

    Growth 3 - This depends on the map size and other factors really. MA can afford to go both way while LA really needs the extra food to feed the huge freespawn armies - also the growth offsets some of the death from your dominion. I tend to stick with growth 3 either way since i usually go with misfortune (mixing misfortune and death unlocks some really nasty events).

    Misfortune 2 - The number of bad events is capped, so later on the misfortune won't really matter, and since order decrease the number of events this is a good pick in average. You will be giving up on some decent heroes, but the extra 80 design points are simply worth it. I tend to not go with mis 3, but that might just be my own preference/paranoia. Also you still have a slight chance to get some of the heroes of R'lyeh (all great except the visitor in my opinion - yes he is decent as well, but he is clearly worst).

    magic 1 - R'lyeh will be able to tech fast even with drain, but I tend to like magic. It decreases the magic encumberance as well as allowing for fast tech to unique summons/forgings.

    Pretender design - basic example

    wyrm - dom 10 / earth 4, awake.
    Rlyeh is best served with an awake pretender that allows for fast expansion as well as acting as a deterent for other nations. The wyrm is not the only choice, but with its fear, regen and amphibious nature it will be a good choice. Earth is my pick for many reasons. It will give extra protection from turn 1 to your wyrm (as well as protection spell like iron skin etc later). It will give rlyeh earth access above 2 (something that the starspawn has troubles with due to no feets), combined with the large earth income present in the water this is nice. It will allow the forgings of earth hammers as well as other good earth items. You could go with e3 and increase mis to only 1 in the design instead- then you will have a better chance of seeing some of the heroes as well as having fewer bad events.

    My second and third favourite choices is the kraken - A good pick in large water masses where you expect to fight alot underwater - and the void lord - A powerful mid/late game SC with all slots as well as inbuilt life leach.

    Tips for the first few turns.

    I have found that the majority of players hires 1 mage and a bunch of units for the first couple of turns. This is an error in my view and it results in a less than optimal expansion rate. Therefore I will give an suggestion on how to play early on.

    turn 1 - Put taxes at 150, patrol with your illithid lord. Make your scout into a prophet, and research with your wyrm. This is the only way you can get a prophet (smite caster, his low hp wont matter much since there are no archers in the water), the extra gold from patrolling and research in the first turn. You could attack with the wyrm, it should win but I usually never want to risk it. Hire 20 lobo guards and put the rest of the money into crab hyrids and a few slave guards (the same version you start with). Yes this means no wasting of money on mages, your priority the first turns should not be to start researching, it should be aggresive expansion.

    turn 2- Send the lord and the prophet out to take one province. Put everything at the back and to hold, use the prophet to smite and the lord to blast - have the crab hybrid placed so they will engage the brunt of the attack they are tough and wont go down easy. Have the rest of the troops placed so they will flank and support the crab hybrids and prevent them from being outnumbered. Sent he pretender out to take another province. In your fortress hire 15+ crab hybrids and put extra resources into slave guards. You might want to hire another scout, but dont blow money on mages.

    turn 3 and later on - Continue expanding with your forces. Hire a lord and some additional troops at turn 3. At turn 4 you should have 3 forces capturing indies, continue adding more troops and an occasional lord - you might want to cut down on the crab hybrids depending on the map and the number of water provinces around you. Your basic goal for the first 5-8 turns is simply to get as many forces out there as possible capturing provinces. A rapid expansion and a large gold income is key in securing a good mid/late game position. When income allows start adding fortresses/labs and temples in positon of high income and/or strategic value. Also start hiring starspawns at all your fortresses in order to get research going.

    So won't I get seriously behind on research ? Initially yes, but maximizing your gold income will lead to more fortresses, more labs and eventually more starspawns. This will mean you will actually win the research race in a longer perspective. To be behind on research can be a bit dangerous (in fact it is seldom so since underwater wars early is all about the number and quality of troops), but I would say that this approach pays off in 9/10 cases. I cannot stress enough how important it is for R'lyeh to secure a good gold income! (well this is true with many nations, but R'lyeh cannot fall back on low gold/high resource units basically, they need the gold to buy a constant supply of mages later on, since these tend to do all the killing).

    Turning a good start into a good mid game

    So i have managed to survive the initial phase, I have alot of fortresses/labs and im adding several starspawns per turn, now what research should I aim for ?. Well initial two priorities needs to be considered, they are defense and gem income in that order. This is an example of how i usually research early on (if im using the suggested pretender design). Point 1 and 2 might be skipped all together if you feel confident about the defense issue.

    1. Alteration 3. Notworthy spells for your awake pretender are stone skin at 2, and iron skin at 3. Another spell worth noticing is body ethereal with area 1. Simply put a starspawn/child close to your pretender and have him cast the spell on your wurm, it will add greatly to his performance.

    2. Construction 4. Equip your wurm with a pendant of luck and a girdle of might (one alternative might be amu of antimagic if you fear mr attacks). Also give him helmets (horror helm if you lucked out and got a d2 starspawn). Other than that you might want to pick up a wavebreaker trident - gives the battlefield effect of 'friendly current', a level 5 enchantment spell at construction 4 is pretty nice and can be very useful in large underwater fights.

    3. Conjuration 4. Spells worth mentioning are voice of tiamat ("the" site search spell for underwater nations), school of sharks (numbers do matter and they will distract the enemy), voice of apsu and dark knowledge. If you are desperate for added defense early on sea serpents are a good bet.

    4. Evocation 2. Mainly for arcane probing. If you end up fighting a fire dependent nation like abyssia in mid/late game don't neglect the easily overlooked spell rain.

    After this point the situation and your own playing style should determine what spells to research. If im at peace i tend to aim for conjuration 8 and construction 8 to snatch the elemental royals (that is the fire/earth kings and the air/water queens) and the unique items. Other reserach goals should be thaumaturgy (communion slave/master, teleport spells and paralyse/soul slay as well as LA unique spell dreams of R'lyeh), evoc 7 (netherdart) and alteration 6 (darkness).

    Branching into other magic paths

    Oki, so I followed your guide and I ended up with alot of gems from voice of tiamat my pretender and mages cannot use, what now ? Well at some point you want to branch of and get access to other magic schools, therefore i have added a short section on how this can be done.

    fire: really tricky for R'lyeh, better hope to find some indies. You will most likely have to empower 1 of your starspawns in fire twice. You will be wanting to forge rune breakers at one point, the rest of the fire gems from income can be spent on lightless lanterns.

    air: fairy court and if you get lucky and need it you might get an air queen later on (just put a ring of wiz on the fairy queen and forge an air booster). See nature on how to get the fairy queen.

    water: you will have access to w3 on many mages, forge the robe of the sea the water bracelet at lvl 6 and with a ring of wiz you will have water 6. If you need more you can summon up a water queen.

    earth: You will most likely have e2 starspawns, with an ring of wiz you can get a troll court and then equip it with earth boots and possibly earth kings later on.

    astral: you will likely get starspawns with s5 as base, enough said.

    death: high death can be achieved for example through streams of hades and various death boosters (skull staff and skull face for example).

    nature: slave mage to cast summon naiad. From there build various nature boosters (thistle mace then a treelords brance, and moonvine bracelet together with ring of sorc/wiz gives you very high nature)

    blood: This should not be a priority.

    With the exception of fire and blood R'lyeh has a very good chance of getting a large variety of magic at high levels and that is another reason why they are alot better of with an awake sc for expansion that a sleeping/imprisoned rainbow variation.

    Specific spells for LA rlyeh

    Contact void spectre: (conjuration 6, needs s3 to cast cost is 25s. See manual for specific stats.) I can add that he spreads insanity fast in the enemy provinces he is visiting. This in combination with stealth(+25) enables some fun strats where you sneak him into enemy armies/mage centres. Also, he has the summon +5 at start for the void gate. He can also be used as a raider with some decent gear and scripted to cast luck + twist fate + attack.

    Dreams of R'lyeh: (Thaum 6, needs s4 to cast cost is 4s.) Haven't been able to play around with this much, but it seems to give an mr check, after which an assasination atempt occurs (with attack/defense/mr halfed for the target).

    Clams

    Early on all water gems should be saved to be used for voice of tiamat plus the occasional voice of apsu (unless you are about to fight someone underwater then you want too summon with them). Later on if there are no immidiate threat to your position investing your water gems in clams is a nice idea. use slave mages with the nature pick and equip them with forge hammers.

    Ritual attack spells and other benefits of high astral

    R'lyehs high astral combined with their easy access to astral gems makes spells like mind hunt, vengence of the dead as well as their own LA spell - Dream of R'lyeh excellent spells to target pesky enemy commanders. Note that the success of these spells are greatly improved by penetration items such as spell focus, rune smasher and the eye of the void.

    Other benefits of high astral is the fast mobility. Lone mages can be quiclkly teleported to the front lines (perhaps carrying valuable gems to help in the war effort), also forts under siege can quickly be boostered by gating in armies. It is worth it to read Baalz excellent post later on where he suggest an rather unorthodox warfare technique that involves heavy use of these spells.

    Fighting on land

    How to deal with pesky archers : Basically MA/LA r'lyeh will field huge armies of low protection units, i.e they die fast to massed archers. There are several good answer to this. The first answer before magic can take care of the situation is to use screens. This means that small sized group are put ahead of the larger armies, the point being that archers put to "fire closest" will only fire at them and miss the majority of the arrows.

    Later on you might want to get your hand on a staff of storms (through trade) that will also shut down fliers or get access to air magic of your own (fairy queen, with equipment it can also do storm, arrow fend, fog warriors - very potent spell for your masses!). In the late game communions casting army of lead/gold will also take care of archers (and also make your lobos pretty great actually). Another answer is darkness;

    Darkness: Many players new to r'lyeh doesn't realise the potential of having 100% DV on all their units (this is not true for some of the LA freespawns but darkness is great for LA anyway) and combining this with darkness. Darkness cuts your opponents attack and defence values in half and precision by 75% (both archers and opposing mages will be greatly hampered by this spell).

    Other buff spells for the endgame Through communion a lot of spells are available to cast. Do not feel limited to experiment on your own but some of my favourites include army of lead/gold, antimagic, darkness and will of fates. Not only will they greatly improve your fighting, they will make fights look pretty

    http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2310/bild1gn0.jpg
    http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5774/bild2iq5.jpg

    Spells to kill with This really depends on what you are up against. For the standard armies, I tend to use the starspawn that has death on them to do the fighting (should be around 50% that has death). I script them to cast nether darths, a spell they can cast almost endlessly. For tougher foes, paralyse/soul slay/enslave mind or against groups of heavy foes i tend to use starspawns with some earth and cast communion + summon earth power + gifts from heaven. What spells to use really depends on what you are up against and what spells you can cast at that point.

    Underwater fighting

    Underwater fighting is not so much about offensive spells, instead the outcome tend to be heavily influenced by the quality and quantitity of troops. Specific underwater spells to aim for if you fear an attack by atlantis/oceania are school of sharks, shark attack, friendly current and water ward as well as any other buff spell you can get your hands on. Equiping your mages with water gems and spamming out some water elementals can make a difference in how well the fight ends up as well.

    More info if you are playing MA/LA rlyeh

    http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/rlyeh.html

    -> Comments:

    	--> I've been doing a bunch of R'yleh lately and was planning on putting something like this together so here are a couple of my thoughts  I won¿t repeat what Homer¿s already covered (great job!), but there are a couple of my favorite things that didn¿t get mentioned.

    A guide to R'yleh needs a discussion of one of the central aspects of being R'yleh  being aquatic. This may seem too obvious to even mention, but there are a couple of implications with are not as obvious and lend themselves to some powerful strategies, and also some underwater strategies which R¿yleh is much better suited for than other underwater nations. Other water nations are going to generally default to war with you, and indeed you¿ll generally have a good motive to take out the other water nations as fast as possible, but if there are large bodies of water allying with another underwater province can prove to be a powerful move. The big thing is almost none of the land nations are going to be eager to pick a fight in the water any time before late game. Consequently, you have a powerful negotiation tool which often means you don¿t need to sign NAPs with any of your land neighbors which will be important in a bit.

    What you should do is focus on establishing your underwater territories as rapidly as possible, but avoid taking many land provinces early on. The key to remember is the land nations will often see any move to land to be very aggressive on your part even if you¿re just attacking indies. You also give up your best defense, your water. In general, only take island provinces, or perhaps isolated land masses which you can defend from land attack by holding only a single province. Of course this is just a rule of thumb, so use your own judgment.

    Fighting between the water nations is much like playing many other nations, and Homer has covered the basics (though I personally value the national troops a bit differently). As he mentions, having an awake SC pretender helps greatly (I¿m a fan of the ancient kraken), and having a good gold flow is essential. When I find it gets interesting is once you¿ve secured your watery kingdom, either through conquest or alliance and start eyeing your first major land campaign. At this point you should have a long shore border, a good gold and gem income (thanks to voice of tiamat) and several neighbors which you have no NAP with.

    Now is when the true beauty of R¿yleh begins to shine  freedom. Watch for your opportunity  which of your neighbors is on the losing side of a war? Watch the score graphs (if enabled), use astral windows (or it¿s not a bad idea to forge a couple stone spheres), watch the forums and bide your time. Remember, half your opportunity is going to be swooping in to aid somebody already in a war, so make sure you leverage this into the groundwork for future alliances and trading partners.

    Now, another great thing about R¿yleh is the abundance of fairly stout astral mages (even more so with EA R¿yleh¿but that would be another thread). This expands upon the freedom theme  pairs of your starspawn can teleport anywhere and take out most PD with the right equipment and script (one idea is to give them bottles of water elementals, script body ethereal then falling frost X4, you get the idea). This can easily be followed up by the construction of a laboratory and the gatewaying in of your real armies. So, as you¿re looking for opportunities use your scrying and negotiation and don¿t confine yourself to nations bordering the water  there is a lot of joy in attacking somebody who has no way to attack you back and the best they can hope for is to repulse your attack. Use intel from your newly found allies (who will be overjoyed to have you join them in a fight they¿re already bogged down in), and teleport into the rear, lightly held territories. Heck, you can likely even get some bribes to join the winning side of a war, or just rent out your Mind Hunter¿s services to the right bidder.
    [response:
    Why you want to pick a fight with someone that doesn't border you im unsure about. Basically rlyeh depends on a large number of mages and troops to be involved in a campaign, else the campaign will just fail - and you will have wasted alot of money and gems (meanwhile other nation elsewhere has grown stronger). If you wish to win such a campaign you usually need to involve a lot of starspawns (30+ maybe) and troops in the thousands (well at least as LA rlyeh), to gate and teleport that in will cost you alot of astral gems. And even if that succeds you have now efficiently separted your kingdom into 2 parts that cannot support each other, seldom a good idea. The only reason why you want to do this is if you are bribed (and then you are going in there to hurt the guy not really to keep any lands) or if someone is about to win the game and your hands are forced. In my opinion you should expand taking down weak opponents or those that are a threat to you (and then you might want an allie or two to help you), and you should try to expand in a manner that gives you as few fronts to guard as possible (this means setting up NAP with nations you aren't intending to expand into).
    ]

    Speaking of which, R¿yleh is the poster child for some of the offensive rituals, namely Mind Hunt and Vengence of the Dead. You¿ll have many mages capable of casting each, and both benefit from penetration boosting. Eyes of the Void and Spell Foci are no brainers, but you¿ll also want to secure rune smashers if possible. Trade if you can, but if not you¿ll likely have a modest fire gem income from voice of Tiamat with absolutely no fire mages, so don¿t be afraid to empower one of your starspawn twice and set him to forging them  it¿s not a terrible investment for 80 gems. Because of the danger of going feebleminded while casting mind hunt you¿ll want to get some way to cure afflictions, the two easiest being the fairy queens or the chalice, both of which are attainable through a slave mage with a nature random. Once you get your artillery brigade set up, it¿s a truly awesome apparatus against anyone without a lot of astral mages. SCs will be unable to go anywhere unescorted, hit and run raiders will not be a problem, spies have no chance of sowing unrest, and even larger armies can be split up as you take out some of the commanders leading troops, leaving others to follow their orders. Again, use your scrying to find juicy targets away from the front line once your opponents start expecting it.

    So, for me, playing R¿yleh is defined by two things 1) leveraging your underwater defensive advantage and 2) a handful of spells: voice of Tiamat, teleport, mind hunt/vengeance of the dead. It¿s all about freedom, mobility, and surprise because against an evenly skilled opponent you¿re likely not going to be able to hold your own on the ground in a straight fight. R¿yleh is a submarine, keep your opponents guessing as to where you¿re going to surface next. You should have a great gem income, very good research and a lot of magic versatility.
    [response:
    There are obviously different ways to play and enjoy rlyeh. You seem to employ a bit of hit and run tactics (nothing wrong in that) but I really would say that rlyeh can stand their ground against most land nations (when they get access to some nice magic). The key is communions and buff spells like darkness for your chaff backed up with large numbers of starspawns spamming magic in the form of for example nether darts. (on my handfull of spells i would put: voice of tiamat, nether darts, communion master/slave and darkness).
    ]

    	--> I am a prototypical explorer type player and I recently decided to try my hand at LA R'lyeh since it seems like a very interesting nation. Due to an extreme aversion to the long term commitment of Dominion MP games however, my experience is restricted entirely to SP play, but some of it may be helpful in MP nonetheless. If I may chip in, using the format of the OP...

    Units

    Illithid Soldiers - Despite the high resource cost, I found that these units made good decoys for enemies set to attack/fire largest/archers, which is an otherwise difficult role to fill. I would consider recruiting these instead of Meteroite Guards in LA due to the abundance of freespawn chaff.

    Commanders

    Star Child - I think these are the only commanders worth recruiting on land, unless one needs Hybrid Lords to transport regular units. Although they could be used for research and communion, I think they can be better deployed as cheap battle mages. Stick them in the frontline within groups of chaff with orders to spam Body Ethereal or Luck can significantly delay the progress of enemy ground troops. They can also be paired up with SCs, thugs, or void spawns to provide these two very valuable buffs. Light of the Northern Star will allow these to spam Stellar Cascades too.

    Starspawn Priest - These are the most efficient researchers available for R'lyeh at 1.25 upkeep/RP versus 1.89 for Star Children and 2.33 for Starspawn mages. They are my default underwater recruit unless I have other urgent needs, and they will never become obsolete since they are the best communion thugs in game.

    Scales

    Dominion 10 - This will give abundant free spawns and drive enemy commanders insane. One important benefit of this is that your territory will be almost impossible to infiltrate with scouts, spies, or stealth troops. Having a full dominion of 10 is necessary since the chance of a temple check succeeding is still determined by the base dominion level of your pretender.

    Order 3

    Sloth 3

    Heat/Cold 0 - I am not familiar with the quality of underwater provinces in MP maps, but I found most of my SP maps to have rather poor underwater provinces, and that land provinces have always constituted the majority of my income. A play-to-win strategy in MP should recognize that most provinces of the eventual winner are likely to be on land rather than underwater too. The suppply penalty for Heat/Cold scales is also brutal in LA due to all the freespawns and should be avoided.

    Growth 3

    Luck 3 - I have been convinced that the luck scale has a very large impact on R'lyeh. It definitely helps the Void Gate by improving the quality and frequency of void summons, reducing the number of attacks, and preventing your Starspawn priest from getting feebleminded or lost in time and space so often. Most importantly though, I found that Luck 3 dramatically increased the frequency and quality of LA free spawns to the point that one could keep pace with LA Ermor in terms of quantity.

    Magic 1

    Pretender

    In my comparison of the expansion rate for R'lyeh with or without an awake SC pretender, I have found the bottleneck to always be the number of Illithids I could hire, and once I did have enough Illithids (20 to 30 is sufficient to form one expansion army), it didn't really matter if the SC was present or not. As such, I generally go with an imprisoned and immobile pretender. The Monolith with a base dominion of 4 has served me well, since it will still have 133 points left over even after taking the scales above. I think these extra points are most useful in air magic, since that will give access to the Staff of Storms, which is a very important equalizer in land battles and difficult for R'lyeh to obtain early. Wrath of God and Dark Skies are nice globals that can take advantage of high dominion too. I prefer to avoid Earth magic since it is available on Starspawn mages, and the abundance of earth gems underwater allows me to easily empower one up to level 3, often times before I even need a Dwarven Hammer.

    Expansion

    Turn 1 - Raise taxes, patrol, make scout prophet, and hire lobo guards seem like the standard. I would start hiring Starspawn priests and continue to do so for the first year or two at the capital however. Spare gold would go to Illithids as well.

    Turn 2 - Put first Starspawn priest on research and send the Illithid Lord and prophet scout to take the first province. Hire more Starspawn priests, lobo guards, and Illithids.

    Turn 3 - Send a Starspawn priest from the capital with troops to meet the Illithid Lord and prophet in another adjacent independent province. Once that province is conquered, that Starspawn priest can search the new province and then return to the capital for research. Try to use a Starspawn priest with a pick in Earth or Water for these transportation and search assignments. Repeat this process for all provinces adjacent to the capital. You should be able to assemble your first Illithid squad when all adjacent provinces are conquered and be ready to send out a second one in two turns.

    Building up Illithid squads for expansion and hiring Starspawn priests will slow down your expansion for the first few turns, but Illithid squads can survive indefinitely in the field. That means you can continue to expand past the first year instead of having to stall a few turns and wait for resupplies. My opinion is that the long term benefit of this will outweigh the short term costs, though actual circumstances in game will probably be the deciding factor.

    Research Targets

    Thaumaturgy 1 - The Returning spell gives safety to your 2S Starspawn priests in the Void Gate.

    Alteration 3 - Body Ethereal

    Conjuration 4 - Voice of Tiamat will boost gem income. Light of the Northern Star will allow Starspawn priests and Star Children to spam more spells.

    Construction 4 - Endless Bag of Wine, Girdle of Might, and Frost Brand are what I usually forge at this level.

    Alteration 4 - Luck

    Alteration 5 - Invulnerability for communion thugs

    Enchantment 3 - Astral Shield for communion thugs

    Conjuration 5 - Contact Naiads gives access to nature magic. Slave Mages will need construction 6 for boosters, or construction 4 with empowerment to cast this though. Acashic Records is at this level too.

    Evocation 5 - Stellar Cascades can be cast by all your Starspawn priests and Star Children with Light of the Northern Stars. Even without Illithid mind blasts you can often disable the entire enemy army before they enter melee range. Make sure to spread out your casters since they have a tendency to spam Stellar Cascades on the same units even when the target's fatigue has exceeded 100. Astral Geyser is useful for hit and run attacks on SCs or tough immobile pretenders.

    Communion Thugs

    Communion thugs are units that can take advantage of personal buffs being shared between the communion master and his communion slaves. Based on previous posts on this topic, this tactic seems to be most popular with Pythium's Theurg Communicants combined with Phoenix Pyre. While Theurg Communicants are cheap to recruit, they are very frail and tend to have a hard time dealing damage consistently, and this weakness has relegated communion thugs to the fun but not practical category of tactics.

    After some further experimentation however, I have found Starspawn priests to be extremely powerful communion thugs that can easily rival many late game SCs. This is due to the fact that they have a relatively high HP and strength, combined with their availability, moderate cost, and even lower upkeep. R'lyeh's diveristy of magic and abundance of Star Children also signficantly reduce the gem cost of items necessary to make this tactic work on the battlefield.

    Below is an example of a cheap and accessible communion thug setup using the most common underwater gems (~40% of common underwater sites are earth or water):

    Starspawn Priest
    Weapon: Frost Brand (5 water gems)
    Shield: Black Steel Tower Shield (5 earth gems)
    Misc: Girdle of Might (5 earth gems)

    Depending on what unit(s) leads the communion, you can pick and choose from these self buffs to put on the Starspawn priest thugs. The magic bonus from communion means your communion master will not need any boosters either. Path requirements in parenthesis:

    Astral Shield (S)
    Breath of Winter (W)
    Cold Resistance (W)
    Elemental Fortitude (N)
    Holy Avenger (HH)
    Invulnerability (EEE)
    Personal Luck (S)
    Personal Regeneration (NN)
    Quicken Self (W)
    Resist Fire (WE)
    Resist Magic (S)
    Resist Poison (N)
    Soul Vortex (DDD)
    Summon Earthpower (EE)
    Twist Fate (S)

    My preference is to use a Starspawn priest with an earth pick to lead the communion and script him with Communion Master, Summon Earthopwer, Invulnerability, Personal Luck, Astral Shield, Fire Rear. The reason for this choice is because communion slaves with an earth pick will receive extra fatigue when the master casts Invulnerability, so you might as well have the earth picked priests lead the communion instead. This is also why I try to avoid Soul Vortex; Invulnerability is generally more useful, and a death spell will make it more difficult for another quarter of my Starspawn priests to act as communion thugs.

    In addition to the personal buffs received from communion, each size 4 Starspawn priest thug can be placed in the same square as a size 2 Star Child, who can then cast Body Ethereal on it. Get some free spawn priests to spread blesses around, and this communion thug will end up as:

    HP 30
    Protection 25
    Damage 35 melee attack with AoE cold effect
    Attack 15
    Defense 16
    Morale 11 (this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you can fix it with morale boosters or berserk spell/items if you are so inclined)
    MR 18
    Parry 9 (better than Air Shield)
    Melee Encumberance 4
    Reinvigoration +7
    Ethereal
    Lucky
    Astral Shield

    I forgot what fatigue level the communion thugs will end up with at the end of the buff sequence, but it will be low enough that they can spring into action immediately due to the +7 reinvigoration. Given the low cost (150 gold, 5 upkeep, 15 gems), high power level, and flexibility of this setup, I think it compares very favorably to popular SCs like Bane Lords. You can easily have dozens of these communion thugs running around before good summons are available to your opponents, and this gives the R'lyeh player another useful option in game.

    	    	    	8.30.2.2 Some hints on MA R'lyeh

    -> I prefer LA, myself - all the same units, but now it's crazy time. If you think it's hard trying to break into a water nation from land, now try doing it when you're insane. So a lot of this is derived from LA strats, and they may not work as well.

    1. Basic underwater expansion strategy is a large mass of lobo guards (50-100, set to hold and attack) backed up with maybe 10-20 Illithids. You're the only party with ranged weapons under water, so you paralyze a good chunk of the enemy before your cheap disposable meatshields swarm all over it. You can vary the mix of Illithids/Lobos - a single Illithid costs the same as 10 Lobos, so fiddle with it and see how comfortable you are with Lobo losses vs. high commitment of gold.

    2. Voice of Tiamat is a good early research priority, along with Haruspex and dark knowledge (water/earth/nature/death seem to be the most common underwater sites). You can use a Slave Mage with a couple boosters to cast Contact Naiad, and she can kick off a clam based economy for you. This is of vital importance for LA, when you need to fund the switch from Starspawn to Void Spectres as your people die off. However, I'm sure you can think of some good things to do with your pearls (late game, communion -> mass enslave is a nice gamewinner, but there's a lot of time to kill before you can do that).

    3. Pretender design - I'm pretty bad at pretender design, and most of my experience with Rl'yeh comes in the late age where it's much more important to go Turmoil/Luck/Growth due to your dwindling population. It might also help to know what nations your opponents are playing, to know if you need massive Astral power just to be safe. I often just take massive Order/Growth/magic scales to be safe with most non-blood non-lethal domain nations.

    That said, a sleeping Void Lord with strong Astral (comes with the package, take at least 5-6 to be safe), Death (5), and Water (4) skills and dominion 9 makes a pretty tough contender due to his combo of life drain, fear (bonus from death gives him +10), awe, chill of winter, soul vortex, and astral shield. Hook him up with a Robe of Shadows, Luck Pendant, and a mix of resistance/regeneration/reinvigoration items (can never have too much) and he's a bad dude.

    You can pay for him with a variety of options. If there is a lot of water (and you'd best hope there will be) then Cold 3 is a nice pick, since it has no effect under water besides making your Chill of Winter more effective. Sloth 3 is also a good option, assuming you're going to go for lobo guards / shamblers with Illithid backup rather than Meteorite Guards.

    4. Raid, raid, raid. The single most important advantage any underwater nation has is the ability to raid from relative safety. You'll have to vary land tactics, since you are not longer the only ranged unit out there, and you may want to invest in some moderately armored troops just for that purpose (or you could grab another big chunk of Illithids to blast enemy archers - again, LA strat, since LA has so many freespawn needing to die that I never buy any soliders save for Illithids). Where possible, make a special priority of raiding lands that allow for Shambler purchases - but then again, it's nice to have a predictable raiding pattern so you can break it.

    -> Some old threads shows some excellent R'lyeh tactics, but some good points for them are.

    Main R'lyeh tactics is Meatwall + artillery. As long as your meatwall is expendable you will grasp the general idea for them. You got access to cheap fodder and nasty artillery. Shamblers to trample small stuff, Lobos to swarm big units. Only use Meteorit guards to guard your mages, they are to expensive to use as fodder.

    Normal ilthids are usually more cost effective then their warrior counterpart.

    Illthid mages are strong in astral, so spells like soulslay and enslave mind are great. But some evocation and alteration spells will work good depending on your random magic paths.

    Traitor princes are a decent chasi for thugs with one or two forged items on him. 27 hp and a good armor before magic items is great. He is size 2 (or 3 can't remember) so can be trampled by elephants, but still swarmed by size 1 units. So don't send him off alone, somewhere along the line with your fodder should work most of the time.

    For large important battles make sure flyers and flankers can't reach your artillery.

    -> Aside from the cost, I seem to recall illithid soldiers having only mapmove 1 instead of the 2 that normal illithids have -- a fair disadvantage on landmasses with good terrain -- and have a slightly worse mindblast weapon.

    With the Void Gate... use priestly starspawn, or perhaps Cthgul once he arrives -- he's supposed to have bonuses there (in D2, he had a reduced chance of going mad, for instance). As soon as you can, give pearls and a 'Returning' script to your summoner. Be aware that once a summoner's skill gets to be fairly high (15?), the chance to get a Vastness (consider GoR...) is actually cut; you'll get more Othernesses et al.

    Oh, and get a source of Storms or Darkness. Storms and darkness don't inhibit your mindblasters at all; it's still precision-100.

    ->
    Order3/Mis 1 (or 2 depending on how you need the points) is standard for all builds in base except for very few exceptions. Sloth3/Cold3 is also fairly standard practice for Ryleh. Growth 3 should also be considered for the vast lobo/illithid armies you'll probably be using. Try to splash earth/air onto your pretender since you won't generally have access to those. Some good picks are dormant Ghost Kings/Void Lord or awakened Wyrm/Kraken. (note if you're using kraken you must take air + water) You also want a decently high dom as Ryleh tends to have dom problems.

    Lastly, your army should consist of meteorite guards/lobos/non armored illithids + starspawn mages. Be sure to make a bunch of underwater fort + labs as your uber mages are not cap only.

    ->

    	    	8.30.3 LA R'lyeh

    	    	    	8.30.3.1 R'lyeh Dreamlands and Void Summoning

    -> 1) Summoning skill. Basically the higher, the better (and more likely) summons. But you no longer get Vastnesses from Gate once your summoning skills gets too high. Quantity (and quality of Otherness) will improve, though.

    2) Luck scale. Higher the better.

    	    	    	8.30.3.2  Best way of fighting LA R'lyeh

    -> Problems to attacker, insanity domain and strong astral and mind burn/soul slay/enslave mind.

    -> Extremely high MR, unroutable thugs and SCs(golem with magebane, lead shield, skullcap and amulet of anti magic for example) are the way to go. Get a good mix of anti chaff and regular SCs/thugs.

    -> You might want to try out a bunch of Abominations and Tartarians, back them up with an Army of Lead to bump them up to 20+ prot and 22+ MR and maybe a mass regeneration. That will spread out the mind blasting and soul slaying among a lot more high MR targets than trying a lone SC, which tend to blow up on a bad roll, and are a much bigger investment. (And are susceptible to Vengeance of the Dead every turn if they do live through a significant battle, cast by all of the high-penetration mages in the capital). Have the leader avoid killing anything for just that reason, and have a stealthy astral mage follow the army around to stop mind hunts. Empower something stealthy if needed, since getting him in combat will get him magic duelled to death. I think giving him MR items will help keep him sane so you can keep everyone together. Tossing in an SC with magebane/lead shield/amon hotep/armor of souls (or rainbow armor if no blood)/amulet of antimagic will give you a 41 MR, buffed to 45 in combat, which might be a good idea as a lightning rod, since the chance of beating that even with 10 points of penetration is vanishingly small.

    Also try to take out his temples via raiding, he's likely going to have a hard time replacing them between freespawn upkeep, pop death, and his actual mages and mind blasters if you can keep him from taking new provinces over. You'll want to keep his dominion out of your lands and if possible to push his back. Blood sac if you can.

    	    	    	8.30.3.3

    ->
    1. I've just made a shocking discovery while playing R'lyeh in SP. (well shocking for me at least )

    It turns out that R'leyh free spawns actually cost money to maintain! Not much, but it can pile up over time, and R'leh have serious money problem with his death dominion as it is. I always thought they are free, like Ermor's free spawn.

    Does anybody know how much money these free spawns mad ones, mad dreamer, triton dreamer, etc. cost? Do they all cost the same, or certain types of troops are more expensive to maintain than others?

    And what about void beings - do they also cost money to maintain?

    How about your free spawned commanders?

    I am thinking now of drowning 9/10 of my army as soon as I can. Too bad I can't do the same with water only troops, and I am out of indep water provinces. (( I guess I am stuck with these suckers, am I ?

    2. Does anybody knows if chances of success are the same for MindHunt (astral 4, cost 2 astrals) and Dreams of R'leh (astral 4, cost 4 astrals), assuming you know Soul Slay spell of course.

    If so, then as long as you are 100% sure that the target province has no enemy astral mages, it doesn't make any sense to cast Dreams of R'leh, right? I mean, they both will result in the death of the enemy commander, but MindHunt is twice as cheap.

    3. Do I understand correctly that when you are casting either MindHunt or Soulslay, each +1 penetration item on your commander increases the chances of success for your commander by the same amount as +2 astral items would?

    4. Not R'leh related, but do I understand correctly than when casting dispel or global enchantment, +penetration items on the caster do not matter, and only magic level of the caster counts (each level +5 spell)?

    5. In previous example, it includes magic levels that are result of the items worn by commander, correct? So Astral 3 mage with +3 astral items would count as +15 gems, same as "natural" astral 6 mage.

    6. When casting Magic Duel, bonus from being communion master counts, right? So as long as you have enough communion slaves a single astral mage can whipe out the all enemy astral mages with little risk, unless they would use communion as well of course.

    ->
    3: It takes two extra levels of magic skill to get +1 penetration, yes. I'm not sure if it's +1 for every two levels, or +1 for every two levels above the required level for the spell.

    4: There's no MR roll with global enchantments. I think only gems and magic skill have an effect.

    5: Astral 3 + 3 path boosters should count the same as a natural astral 6 mage. Again, I'm not sure if the +5 is per level or per level above the spell requirement.

    ->
    1) I was horrified to discover recently that summons also cost money. Trolls cost a fortune! I guess freespawn is even more annoying though, since you didn't even choose to summon them.

    You could drown your water troops by bringing them on land somehow perhaps? I don't know how easy that is, I've never played a water nation.

    3) Yep, that's right.

    4) Yep.

    5) I think so.

    6) I think in another thread, the conclusion was that communion doesn't help, and neither do items. You can't make a crazily good magic dueller (outside of a high astral pretender, or a mad amount of empowerment).

    ->
    Void summons are free. Freespawn hybrids cost 9 or 11 gold per unit, hybrid troopers 14 and hybrid soldiers are more expensive. Mad priests, madmen otehr similar are 1 gold per unit, so every 15 cost 1 upkeep.

    As an aside, Mictlan slaves cost 1, most crossbreeding foul spawns cost 1 and BF Ulm thralls cost 2.

    Trolls cost 60, sea trolls 50, war trolls 80 and troll moose knights ~80. I don't have the unit DB (or Open Office, so it's a moot point) at work or I could check most of those numbers for accuracy. You'll get to see them once I get done, which won't be all that long anymore since #1-1475 are already done as are a good chunk of the remaining ones. Couple of weeks tops and the Unit DB should be ready.

    The only demon that costs upkeep is Buer the Goat Sun. He has a cost of 100 which translates to an upkeep of ~6-7.

    I have not seen ANY void summon that costs gold. Of the foul spawns/crossbred creatures, Ettin sosts 20 and the four-clawed big humanoid spawn is 15. Trolls, as mentioned above of course. Almost everything else is 0 goldcost.

    What might be throwing people off is that lots of national heroes have a gold cost and therefore also cost upkeep money. E.g. Shadul Ummush the Traitor King has a gold cost of 290 like the normal Atlantean Deep Kings, so he hits the pocket book for about 19 and change per turn. All of these are going into the bug list once I'm done.

    ->
    2. Dreams of Rl'yeh has special uses against an enemy pretender, for when killing him just isn't enough (again, especially against immortal pretenders who aren't all that impressed by getting killed). You can use spells that age, curse, horror mark, or disease your opponent. Granted, you'll want your script to be something like "Horror Mark, Soul Slay" so that if you get a non-pretender you'll off them relatively quickly, but you can inflict severe nastiness on a pretender through Dreams. Remember too, that although Dreams allows an MR check to resist, once you're in it your MR is halved, so that horror mark is pretty much guaranteed to stick.
    As you mention, it's also a much safer spell if they have astral mages. And, hey, if you know they don't have astral mages, then you also know they won't be casting Returning or Soul Slay on you while in Dreams, so you've got yourself a captive audience.

    [response:
    I disagree with this strategy. I did about 100 experiments on Astal assasination spells few days ago as a R'leyh in a test game, gathering statistic when it makes sense to use it and wehn it doesn't. That included casting spells on pretenders.

    The thing is, once you lured pretender god into your dream, killing him with soul slay is a piece of cake, since his MR is halved. Why would you want to horrormark or curse him or whatever, when you can just kill him quickly?

    With even basic +4 penetration items R'lyeh's Astral 5 or astral 6 StarSpawn mage can kill anything with one, or very rarely 2 soul slay casted, once thier MR is halved. With bottle of water to distract opponent or to distract his summons, it is a pretty much bullet proof strategy, even aginst pretenders who carry gems to do battle summons.

    Now luring pretender into the dream is a very difficult task. Most of pretenders have 20-ish, sometimes high 20-ish MR, which makes it extremely hard to beat even with +penetration items. If, on top of it, they add a single MR amulet on his pretender, it would make casting astral assasin spells on him a complete waste of gems.

    [[resonse:
    Why use it instead of Soul Slay? Because I specifically stipulated using the strategy against immortals. If they are horror marked enough, their life will become 1. Take 1 step away from capital 2. Get killed by horror, increase horror marking. 3. Wake up in capital. 4. Repeat with larger horror.

    I'll admit, it's hard to do. But the OP was asking about when Dreams is better than Mind Hunt IF you know your opponent doesn't have astral mages (quick aside - if you know your opponent doesn't have astral mages, you can also be pretty such he doesn't have an antimagic amulet). This is one such situation.
    ]]
    ]

    	    	    	8.30.3.4 Questions regarding R'lyeh Dreamlands

    ->
    I am trying LE R'lyeh (Dreamlands) in SP. I haven't played much R'leh before, so I have several questions. I hope people well familiar with R'leh will be able to answer them.

    1. What affects free R'leh spam? Is number of units spamed per turn in any given province in a direct correlation to the R'leh dominion strength in that province? So in province with dom 10 there are 10 times more spams than in dom 1? Or is it not such a direct correlation? (or perhaps no correlation at all?)

    2. What affects types of unit spamed? Is it affected by the presence of the temple or a fort in the province? (as in case with Ermor) Is it affected by the geography of the province? (for example either coastal or landlocked province far from ocean)

    3. Does the chance of the commander going insane depend on the strength of dominion? Does the (+insane) change to the "insanity icon" depend of the strength of dominion? Is the number "insane(N)" on unit's info is a percentage chance of unit acting on its own in any given turn?

    4. Are units with high MR less likely to go insane?

    5. Once unit is insane, it can start acting on its own. When it happens the unit's icon is "grayed out" and you can't change orders for the commander for this turn.

    But as long as insane unit is *not* grayed out during your planning phase, will it always perform what you ask him to do during that turn? Or can it still disregard your orders after you give it to him and act on its own?

    6. In Dom2 IIRC when you have too high summoning skill you can't summon Vastness anymore. Is it still the case with Dom3? If so, what is the "threshold"? Should you replace you summoner once it gets too high summoning skill?

    7. How does summoning skill affects the type and number of the creatures you summon?

    8. IIRC sometimes various void beings are spammed outside of your capital and its void gate. Is it true? If so, what affects the chance of them being spammed?

    9. After you give your insane commander orders to build Lab or to forge an item or to cast a ritual spell, can they disregard their orders and do some insane thing instead? (naturally it assumes that you are able to give them orders, meaning they are not ¿grayed out¿. Assuming for a moment that they can still disregard their orders and would do something different during the current turn, will you lose money and gems, or will it be reimbursed to you?

    ->
    1-2. I believe it's dominion strength, + possibly temples give better spawn. Or maybe I just have better spawns on temples because the dominion is higher. Certainly for LA Ermor temples and forts give better freespawns. It is certainly not a direct geometric progression like 1 dom = 1 spawn, 10 dom = 10 spawns.

    3. I believe the answer to all of these is yes.

    4. I don't think so, but I don't know. Starspawn are immune, pretty much everyone else ends up insane sooner or later.

    5. Nope. A commander is either insane for that round or not. If not, they'll do what you say.

    6. Someone else posted 15-20 as the likely point of no return. In the same post, they said this was the kind of information that the designers like to not tell you, so that was just their experience. I would say yes, bring in someone new, since I like Vastness + Gift of Reason far more than I like bunches of othernesses. Plus once you get your clam machine rolling, you'll be summoning Void Spectres like mad to be Dreams of Rl'yeh assassins and to hold your clams (guaranteed S4, ethereal, no need to eat, no gold upkeep - sounds like a good solution for a dying nation with dwindling gold), and they have the summoning skill and are quite a bit tougher than normal Starspawn, so just swap them in as needed with a handful of freespawn bodyguards (I mostly use 3 immobile mind blasters and a couple greater othernesses or things that should not be).

    7. I don't think anyone has the exact data you are looking for. Higher is better, although with the caveat of +6.

    8. Absolutely - they come with your freespawns. You get lots of othernesses (mostly small ones), and a mix of the little psychic immobile mushroom guys, and the mobile and immobile green swirlies. You're never going to pick up a Vastness or Visitor.

    9. That's pretty much what you asked for #5 if I'm getting you right.

    Special Bonus info - the strength of your dominion definitely affects the number of people killed per round by the dreamlands. I believe you can usually come out a little bit ahead with growth 3 and dominions of 5 or less. Once you start throwing down temples, though, your dominion will rise and your numbers will start to fall. You can hold it off for quite a while if you use your freespawn commanders for preaching (especially if you end up with loads of prophets), but eventually I always want to start pushing more actively into enemy domain.

    	8.31 Sarumatia

    	    	8.31.1 Sauromatia guide

    		Article Author: Baalz

    Sauromatia is often overlooked when people consider the powerhouse nations, but when you really stop to consider what they've got going for them they are most definitely a contender for the spot of heavyweight champion of EA.
    Baalz, you've lost your mind. Have you ever seen triple blessed jaguar warriors? What the heck do you do when Eath/Nature blessed Niefels come knocking on your gate? What about Vans¿Vans!?! Ever heard of that little Lanka nation? That's just rushes, for the long haul you've got some serious magic powerhouses like Arcoscephale and T'ien Ch'i!

    Well, sit back my friend, and let me tell you about the Amazon Queens.

    First, let me lead with the obvious  Sauromatia has absolutely the best archers in the game. There's not even a close second place  gold & resource per pound, androphag archers are so ridiculously good I have a hard time convincing myself to spend gold on anything else until I've maxed out that recruit queue. To set this even farther over the top, they've got these archers in EA where armors are considerably lighter and archery is consequently more effective in general. If you put a couple infantry in front to catch the return fire, you'll handily be able to capture most indie province with very few losses and make an impressive initial expansion  completely irrespective of what the rest of your strategy is. These guys will also single handedly neuter many, many of the rushes you'll face. From jaguar warriors and vans to elephants nobody is going to fare well fighting through your PD while dozens of androphags pelt them from the back row. There are a couple things which will require to do something different (Lanka and Niefelheim come to mind), but in general these guys will let you pursue whatever other strategy you want, comfortably handling your initial expansion and defense.

    Androphag archers are the exception to everything else though, in the fact that you'll basically always use them. Sauromatia suffers from the same "problem" that Lanka does  there are so many really good options to choose from you run a very real risk of not focusing enough on one and dropping the ball. Before I start talking about overall strategy, let me discuss the different tools you've got at your disposal (I'll leave off mentioning the options I don't consider top shelf though its certainly possible you can play around with them and come up with some new clever ideas).

    Infantry. Contrary to pretty much every other nation you've only got one kind, but that's ok because they're good for the price. Real good. This is one of your weakest units and it would practically qualify for elite troops for some nations. Anyone who's tried to take an indie province from amazons should realize that though they lack the offense to punch through thick armor a couple extra points in defense and attack go a long way. These are going to be your best choice for blockers for your archers.

    Sauromatian Lancer - Sauromatia hands down has the best archers. For non-sacred cavalry they have to tie for having the best. These guys are often overlooked, but they're every bit as good as LA T'ien Ch'i's better known cavalry. Fighting their way across the battlefield into withering composite bow fire, what does your enemy win if they make it? Yeah! A first strike lance charge! Switch these guys forward for an immediate flanking charge when you need that sort of thing  they're very capable switch hitters with a map move of 3.

    Cataphract  These are basically the heaviest cavalry of EA and give you a very solid fist when you need a good heavy cavalry charge. The Sauromatian Lancers are more versatile, but if you know you definitely want the specialists these guys will give you a bigger hit when they connect.

    Sacred cavalry  you've got two flavors and they're both pretty good. I prefer the Oiorpata for the extra defense, protection, and speed (which helps the first strike charge), but I won't think less of you if you go with the Androphag for the extra hitpoints and bonus lizard you get when they die. Either way, if you look at their stats, they're pretty close to Vans minus the glamour. They're not quite as versatile as the vans due to the lack of stealth, but with a good dual bless they're very close to as effective on the battlefield. A F/W bless is the standard choice for vans, and it'll work equally well for these sacred cavalry, but if you decide to go the dual bless route I prefer a less standard W/E bless for reasons I'll get into in a moment.

    Last but not least, hydras round out your strategic choices for troops. They make you essentially immune to any tramplers (it¿s comical if you haven¿t seen a huge force of elephants try to run over a small group of hydras), and make great kamikaze squads to lead the charge (well ahead!) for major battles. After fighting past hydras and getting good and well poisoned your enemy now must get through your PD (who conveniently sit around shooting bows rather than running into the hydra poison) before they can hit your skellispam to FINALY contemplate those Androphag archers raining death down on them from the back row. Not many things have the endurance and hitpoints to make it that far even in large numbers.

    Enarie - These are very respectable mid line mages and nice, cost effective researchers who can forge their own skull mentors. There are a few nations with better research, but not many. On the combat front there's the obvious skellispam which is quite effective en masse, and the not quite as obvious communion potential. Saruomatia doesn't have the raw firepower that comes from earth, air and fire schools, and their astral really isn't strong enough to frontline. What they do get though, lends itself very well indeed to small, easily managed and fielded communions. Picture this  4 slaves, 1 master. Master is equipped with a rune smasher (if you can get one, skull staff if not), eye of the void, and spell focus. Master is scripted to communion master, power of the spheres then shadow blast X3. With +7 penetration and the number of effects scaling with mage power this is every bit as devastating as the level 9 firestorm evocation  except you cast it at level 5 and you managed it with a handful of research mages. You can pass out skull staffs and use a reverse communion (see my guide to communions) to get a swarm of D4 guys spamming anything from drain life or disintegrate to a combination of darkness and skellispam. And heck, remember I haven't even gotten to your good mages yet.

    Witch King - This guy is an amazingly powerful death mage. You'll get plenty of D4 ones which means cheap access to the really nice high end death magic like ghost riders and tartarians. If you've got them available where you need them (they're cap only) these guys are an easier choice for the death spam (drain life, disintegrate, etc) than communions of eraynes, but there's also no reason you can't combine them via Sabbath spells (again, see my communion guide for the benefits of a little blood in your communion). Finally, this guy has the right stuff to be a thug if properly equipped, casting soul vortex, barkskin, resist elements, personal regeneration, blood vengeance and (depending on randoms), quicken self/breath of winter. He can't self bless, but he is sacred so make sure you have somebody else bless him if you've got a nice one.

    Warrior sorceresses  these guys are very cost effective recruitable thug chasises and are the reason I like the E/W bless. With just that bless and a frost brand (self buffing with barkskin) you've got an immensely cost effective thug. Set 4 Oiorpata to guard commander and now for 360 gold + 5 water gems you've got a force capable of tearing through almost any PD, or providing very capable flank support to a real army. You're not going to be able to solo them like this (without the Oiorpatas), but they are cheap and recruit everywhere so use them in pairs (or more) and as your gem supply grows throw a few extra items on them. With an amulet of resilience you can comfortably self buff regeneration, quickness, and breath of winter, and with a good shield (I like the shield of the accursed) and chainmail of displacement your defense will soar well into the mid thirties while your protection hits the high twenties  definitely solo-able. Really though, you'll be amazed how far they can go with just a frost brand, this is the reason I always keep several in my laboratory and mix several WSes into my researches despite the fact they're not as cost effective for that  you've got a very effective defense force in each castle. There are 4 possible random picks for WSes, with different best ways to use each:

    W  These guys make the best thugs once you start having some extra gems to equip them. Quicken self is generally best reserved for the point you can equip them with more reinvig than their blessing gives them, but it's worth the gems to see this little buzzsaw tearing through the enemy ranks. Against particularly strong opponents (Neifel giants or Lanka's baddies or any thugs) forego the frost brands and dual wield serpent kryss or dusk daggers  so long as you work in small groups your defense should be plenty high enough to give you time to work so long as no one is just surrounded. Against real SCs consider axes of hate  there's not really anything that can stand up to several double quickened, dual wielded axes of hate attacking them from all sides.

    N  These guys make casting the nature self buffs much more palatable. I seldom think personal regeneration is worth the fatigue hit for N1 mages, but with these guys it's even worthwhile to equip heavier armor and a thistle mace (dual wield something else as well, like a snake bladder stick) for fighting swarms of small guys where protection + regen is much better than higher defense. These guys are also the easiest way to get those N2 goodies like haurespex, thistle maces, vine shields, rings of regen, etc.

    B  By and large these are all going straight to bloodhunting. Your capital gives you a small blood income, and con-4 is going to be a high priority for other obvious reasons, so by the time you're ready to start blood hunting these guys should all just forge themselves sanguine rods and have at it. Sauromatia is not going to be a top tier blood nation like Lanka or Mictlan, but it is fairly strong in blood, about on par with Abyssia in my opinion. More on this later. If you're unfamiliar with blood hunting strategies, make sure you check out my blood hunting guide included as a subsection of my Mictlan guide.

    D  Well, I haven't found a real good use for these chicks because of the prevalence of larger death mages you'll have running around. These are generally who I leave to research and defend my heartlands. Don't get me wrong, they're still hellaciously scary chicks, just not quite as much so as their sisters.

    Alright, so now that we've got the notes what kind of song do we want to sing? The thing about Sauromatia is they can really pull off almost any type of strategy very competitively. Dual bless rush? Check. Scary SC pretender? Ever seen a dom 10 gorgon? Good scales? They've got the chops to fight off a rush with no SC or big bless. Turtling? With strong death and blood magic and a fairly easy way into astral (eraynes can cast arcane probing) they can have a very scary power curve. Recruitable anywhere thug swarming? I just covered that. Scary dominion push? Temple dom spread + blood sacrifices.

    **************

    Alright, time to talk about overall strategy. Some of this I briefly touched on in the first section, but I'd like to weave this into a more cohesive tapestry.
    Scales  Most nations have one or two scales which they really should always take, Sauromatia can do most anything so long as you play your strategy to match.

    Order/Turmoil  Gold is always good and Sauromatia has no lack of great stuff to spend it on and lots of players will take Order-3 all the time for any nation. However, depending on what your other choices are it may make sense to go with Luck/Turmoil

    Luck/Misfortune  Obviously this is tied to your order scales for synergistic reasons. Again, plenty people stick with misfortune for all their games, but Sauromatia benefits more than average from luck. For one their national heroes are very nice and help with magic diversity. For another, despite their many astral mages they have no native astral income so bootstrapping into astral site searching can be expensive if your only option is to alchemize those death gems you were hoping to use for skull mentors/staffs. Random gem types are either useful explicitly (if you've got a E/W pretender you've got a pretty good spread) or at the very least to power your initial arcane probing. On the other hand your main research mages have a chance of preventing bad events, so you can mitigate misfortune scales by having your research centers on your best provinces.

    Productivity/Sloth  Again, two ways to play this. You've got very good national troops and you can obviously crank out more of them with points in productivity. This is a very reasonable choice. You've also got very good low resource troops (archers) and powerful thugs/sacreds who you can use without resources. This is also a reasonable choice. Going with sloth scales gains you a lot of design points but it removes some of your flexibility  sometimes what you really want is an overwhelming heavy cavalry charge. On the other hand, without sacrificing productivity you're gonna have a hard time landing a nice bless. Choices, choices¿.

    Death/Growth  General wisdom is it's bad to have death scales if you want to blood hunt. It's (relatively) ok to have death scales if none of the guys you're using are old. Well, both are true, take your pick.
    Magic  no special considerations here, consider mostly how important research is to your strategy
    Heat/cold  Sauromatia likes it neutral

    Pretender choice

    If you want a SC pretender it's hard to argue for anything other than the gorgon. Only a few nations have access to her, and Sauromatia may be the only one that does who also benefits from her magic paths. A E/N bless works pretty well even if it's not a major bless, and it adds a strong earth element in which complements Sauromatia nicely.

    If you're thinking more along the lines of the E/W bless I'd suggest a Father of Winters. He ends up being a pretty bad dude himself by the time you can equip him (you were planning on heading straight to cons-4 anyway, right?), and on top of the optimized bless that gives you strong access to two completely new paths.

    Lady of Springs is a decent choice if you want to go for a W/N bless, and she¿ll give you some water gems to help crank out those frost brands.

    There are a couple other reasonable choices, and given Sauromatia's flexibility you can make a lot of stuff work.

    Strategy
    It's a bit hard to talk about your overall strategy given the variety of ways you can play this nation. As I mentioned earlier one big risk is that you do a little bit of everything and not do anything well. There is a delicate balancing act you must perform between focusing and specializing, and being flexible and adjusting to what your opponent is doing. So, rather than trying to discuss strategy in a point A to point Z way I'm going to discuss little mini strategies to give you an idea of some effective things you can do and leave it as an exercise for the student to weave these into an overall tapestry.

    I don't really want to rehash what I've already discussed above, but there are a few more points to consider as far as how your units interact and overall strategy.

    Androphag archers They work very well as support for Warrior Sorceress - so long as the WS script resist poison and have a shield the WS are immune to the very effective arrows raining down around them. If you're short on water gems for frost brands, you can send WSes out with just their default gear and some backup Androphags  it's surely enough to kill most PD. Also, if you do have a nature bless your sacred cavalry will be almost immune to the arrows and can be effectively used in close combat. As I touched on before these guys work stunningly well in combination with your PD  set them in the back row and they'll provide just as much PD backbone as having a mage back there. Have their leader retreat and they'll flee when your PD breaks having rained poison and death onto the advancing army. Very effective hit and run.

    One more dirty little trick you shouldn't forget is the linebacker communion in combination with Sabbath and reinvigoration (see my communion guide). All those WSes you've got sitting around blood hunting can be pressed into service, blessed, and buffed with luck, astral shield, resist magic, soul vortex, barkskin, resist elements, blood vengeance, regeneration, quickness, breath of winter (maybe more depending on what non-national mages you've managed to get)¿and then charge forward with 0 fatigue, a dual bless and a frostbrand. Ouch.

    So, what to do with those blood slaves you've got flowing in? Lots of options obviously, but Sauromatia is rather uniquely in a position to easily summon something I think is very underrated - the vampire count. Invest in 4 or 5 of them and you've got a ridiculously effective in-dominion defense force. Leave them making vampires when not otherwise occupied and you'll build up a little posse of stealthy, flying immortals who will make anyone trying to move into your dominion rue the day they did. But Baalz, vampires are teh suck! You will never make me fear them! Ah, my friend, you haven't had the joy of fighting a cleverly crafted vampire resistance.

    Scenario 1: Large enemy army invades. 4 vampire counts and a couple dozen vampires stealthily fly into the path of the army so they will be the defenders and get the first move. Meanwhile vampire count 5 (or anybody really) outfitted as a thug flies into the province the enemy army is moving from.
    Opening turn  the 4 counts cast - rush of strength, blood rain, shadow blast, shadow blast, all the vampires stand around and take an archer volley.

    Turn 2  (you¿ve empowered one of your counts in blood) bloodletting + your choice of harm or shadow blast. Enemy army, -4 moral from blood rain, -1 from hostile dominion, (dare we hope you timed this as they moved from a wasteland and some of them are starving?) has just taken significant AN/AP damage across most of their ranks and now your vamps fall on them for 17 armor piercing damage all over them. If they break, they all die. If they kill you¿.you're back the very next turn with more experienced vampires.

    Scenario 2: Enemy army invades, but it's an elite small army with a bunch of thugs/tough guys and the above strategy seems unlikely to work. Stick black hearts on your counts and have them fly into army's path. Assassinate enemy leaders and cast raise skeletons (to keep them busy), hellbind heart X4  or leech/life for a life if they've got too high MR. This should be very effective even with most bodyguards, and again, if you fail you're out just a couple blood slaves and an easily replacable black heart.

    Scenario 3: Enemy is raiding with stealthy/teleporting thugs/SCs. Sprinkle your counts around into likely raiding targets and leave them creating more vampires  don't even need a lab so they're being productive while hanging around. They're stealthy so your opponent won't know where they are. Turn 1  bad guy appears and vampires surround him before he can cast any buffs, while the count, positioned all the way forward, depending on your mood casts hellbind heart, leech, life for a life, or disintegrate. If you get some bad rolls, well you just deploy your now more experience vamps someplace new next turn. *note: this will work even if the raiders are stealthy/flying groups rather than thugs, you just need to tweak your scripting a bit depending on what you're facing.

    All in all, there are worse ways to invest a few hundred blood slaves while the rest of your troops quite capably carry on without needing them. Several stealthy life for a life casters can really make your opponent reconsider the wisdom of dropping tartarians all over you, particularly when he¿can't¿kill¿them!!!!!

    Foul vapors can be a great support spell to cast after your WS frontline casts resist poison on itself. It can also be great to have Enaries cast resist poison before starting the skellispam factory¿a page right out of C'tis' book. Laugh as your opponent tries to claw his way past your undead chaff getting progressively more poisoned with each step.

    Warrior Sorceress with a nature pick + a thistle mace makes a tough and cheap enough charm spammer to place near the front lines, perfect for it's short range. Stick an eye of the void and spell focus on her if you're feeling generous.

    	    	8.31.2 Sauromatia: Lawful Evil

    [ Note:
    First, I just gotta gush that I enjoyed Baalz's guide a whole bunch. Therefore I'm skipping over some of the more obvious things that he brought to light, and concentrating a bit more on some subtleties, niceties, and details that may not be apparent from your first glance at Sauromatia. Somewhere in between I end up challenging some of his tenets. Oh, the humanity!

    My credentials:

    I have played Sauromatia twice, in Ascendant and Peccary, 15 and 8 players respectively, and imo I would have handily won Ascendant had the server not gone down at turn 45. It was my first game, a noob game, but I really dominated it, even with some what seemed to be well-skilled players - in part to a good starting position, in part to a trustworthy co-non-belligerent I met in the game, and in part to Sauromatia's strengths. I was fighting 5 and 6 nations at a time by the time Gandalf's server died.

    I am leading going into turn 41 in Peccary in provinces, income, gem income, forts, research, and dominion, but by a lesser margin, because this was after getting attacked by 3 nations from turns 15 to 26... three nations that did not have any other enemies to worry about during that whole time except me, myself, and Gazebo.
    ]

    			8.31.2.1 Units

    				8.31.2.1.1 ANDROPHAG ARCHERS

    The Androphag Archers are a fantastic unit for expansion and really hit their stride in early game defense. You can even make them a main strategy and recruit 40+ per turn for a long, long time, foregoing a Sloth scale just for them. They can also stop most of what other nations can throw at you in the dangerous early game, which means you don't have to have an awake pretender, something I will get into later. The usefulness of this strategy can be hampered by an unlucky random starting location with few resources.

    Still, even with how nice they are, I usually don't find myself hiring many beyond turn 25 or so even with Order 3 and Sloth 3. Mostly this is because I spend a lot to improve my infrastructure and mage corps, but also because Oriopatias are strong units, and are sacred, saving you a lot of upkeep. You will always find a use for them, and they are very durable, especially if you have a good bless, whereas the archers can be easily countered by giants, flyers, poison-immunes, undead, enemy archers, or regenerating troops of any kind (sigh). Use your head as to which of these units you might want to use at any time, because you must bear in mind that they do not work well together at all.

    				8.31.2.1.2 Amazons

    You should be recruiting mostly Amazon infantry from your alternate forts, if you have any gold that just needs spending.

    Amazons are not a powerful unit by any means, and I find little use for them except as meat shields, but they have a good Attack with a spear (lending a good Repel capability) worthy Morale, reliable survivability, and generally Get The Job Done.

    Cavalry: Most of your cavalry is just plain inferior to Androphags and Amazons... your foot archers are better at attacking and your infantry is better at defending on a gold for gold basis, and most of the time on a 1:1 basis. Unless you really NEED to deal Lance damage (once :/), and the need may definitely arise but doesn't seem to all that reliably, I would counsel to just stay away from these.

    Hydras I do not use at all, except in the most niche of roles, being highly overpriced as well as slow and terribly unsynergistic with your excellent Androphags.

    			8.31.2.2 Pretender, THE GORGON

    You MUST have a Gorgon pretender in my opinion, for SC value, for a very needed Earth bless, for Earth variety, and for pure goddamn terror factor. I use her sleeping, because the design points are highly valuable, because you just can't afford to lose her early, with Sauromatia's very weak priests, and because you are not vulnerable in early game. In the interim you can start ramping up to Construction-4 which definitely has got the goods she craves.

    The highest Earth bless you can manage is vital for your high-encumbrance mage commanders but also adds nicely to their survivability and the strength of your Oriopatias. You are also going to want Nature 4, to keep your middling mage thugs out of affliction danger. Nature 4 is also necessary for Nature globals like Gift of Health and Mother Oak. A couple of points of Air rounds her out very nicely... a path that Sauromatia lacks completely, barring Delgnat the Sorceress hero (W2 A3 D4) and gives her access to the highly effective Mistform, as well as the devastating spells Cloud Trapeze and Rain of Stones. Resist Lightning is nothing to sneeze at either, with her high Protection, covering her main elemental vulnerability. Use Air Shield when you have the slightest doubt.

    Use her aggressively, but use her wisely, because she's likely going to be your main deterrent as well as a very versatile and powerful aggressor. It is necessary to remember that she is awfully fragile in hostile dominion, which you will often be operating in.

    Her gear should be an assortment of Construction 4 items. Pendant of Luck and Amulet of Antimagic are a mainstay of the SC profession and should never leave her possession. Hydra Armor saves her from having to cast Personal Regeneration, but use Rainbow Armor if you can possibly get it; the MR will save her against Astral nations. Boots of the Messenger is a wonderful piece of cheap gear to help her get her buffing in without crippling or at least disadvantageous Fatigue. A Vine Shield will save her life, and give her time to work against tougher opponents with her...

    Snake Bladder Stick! Yes, this always-overlooked piece of crap will turn your Gorgon into a veritable titan of terror. Imagine the looks of complete non-horror on your opponents' faces as they scan this ghettofabulous accessory. Really, it's extremely synergistic with Fear, has a very large AOE for maximum damage, is the easiest thing in the world for you to craft, is thematic as anything, and is just plain ubergeek cool. A Horror Helment rounds out the head slot and your color scheme with a little electric purple. It also gives her a very respectable +10 Fear, which is just absolutely perfect for use with the Snake Bladder Stick.

    At 50 design points, it pretty much goes without saying that she is bargain-basement dirt cheap. If you are fighting multiple nations at once, and you will likely have to after everyone reads this guide - ha! - you will live or die by your Gorgon.

    			8.31.2.3 COMMANDERS:

    I've found that one weakness of Sauromatia is that contrary to popular opinion, their commanders actually make quite poor thugs until well into midgame and closer to late. The reason for this is that they are mounted. High Casting Encumbrance + no feet slot = high Fatigue, even with a good Earth bless, which you will have. Their Casting Encumbrance is 10. 10!! TEN!!11one!eleven

    Some commander errata:
    -Assassins have a very hard time against you.
    -Your MR is sturdy.
    -HPs are low to middling.
    -High Defense with mediocre Protection.
    -Extremely high Casting Encumbrance.
    -Excellent buff paths with Nature and Water.
    -All potentially poison-immune.
    -Sabbath-capable.

    Warrior Sorceresses: They are not quite as powerful as Baalz might have led you to believe because of their immese Casting Encumbrance, not allowing them to buff without prohibitive Fatigue, but they are still gorgeous units. Also it's a lot of fun to say Sorceresses. Every one of your Death random WSes will be going into research, and every one of your Blood-random WSes will be going into Blood Hunting.

    The Nature-random and Water-random Warrior Sorceresses will be your ubuiquitous thugs; tough, hard to hit, and highly resistant to elemental damage. They can all cast Resist Poison, and should always do so when used in conjunction with Androphag Archers. This also opens up the Snake Bladder Stick for use with your rank-and-file. Any enemy army that is not poison IMMUNE is in for a horrifying, emasculating fight. Water randoms can also bust out Foul Vapors, which is the weakest of the damaging battlefield enchantments, but is easy to research and highly useful when used in conjunction with skellyspam.

    Witch Kings: Use these bad boys for demoralizing forum stories as they perform all kinds of naughtiness and depraved acts on your defeated foe, and also for picking up chicks.

    But really, they are more or less pure skellyspammers until just before late game when you are facing other Thugs and SCs, and have the gear and magic to turn them into soul-sucking monstrosities through a combination of equipment, Sabbaths, and Independent mage Communions. Their early to midgame tactic is simple: vomit out as many skeletons as you can with them until they start to remind you of Nicole Richie at a Big Boy buffet.

    Guard the B2 randoms with your everlasting eternal soul, because they are the key to your devastating Ritual Blood magic.

    Enaries: should be recruited for about the first five or six turns in your capital, and again only when you have need of artillery close to the front lines. Being slow and vulnerable, they are best used as site searchers at first, afterwards switching to remote site searchers (they can all cast Death, Nature, and Astral finders) and item forgers.

    For your Communions, you are going to want Map Move 2 Independent mages with a buff path apart from Astral. This means that you should make finding Amazon Sorceresses or Tribal Priests a priority. Blood allows you some leeway with Sabbaths, and you can rock out to Ozzy while you script your army and have a nice chuckle to yourself.

    			8.31.2.4 DIPLOMACY:

    The thing about Sauromatia is that your expansion is going to be top notch with the archers, even with Sloth 3... and that causes people to gang up on you early. So it is not necessary to take your Gorgon awake, and that may even be a detriment in the long run.

    You are not a Mictlan, or Neifelheim, or Helheim, or even Abysia or Vanheim, and people will correctly not see you as a threat early on, unless you have an explosive early expansion. Use this to make a friend... or to skelly your way to the front door of your nearest neighbor.

    			8.31.2.5 PROVINCE DEFENSE:

    You have a very powerful province defense. Every one of the units you get up to 20 PD has a composite bow. And after 20, you get LANCES. Your 1-20 PD horsebowmen in front have 15 defense and will stymie a wide range of melee attackers, while the rest lay down the composite law. You should buy a very good amount of Province Defense wherever applicable. It's also very prudent to do with the Misfortune-2 scale that you'll be taking... Sauromatia PD utterly annihilates Barbarians.

    			8.31.2.6 SCALES:

    You don't need high Dominion, because you can Blood Sacrifice, and you are not making use of an immortal pretender. Nor are your units particularly vulnerable to having bad morale. Nor will you be using a (non-commander) bless strategy. Oriopatias are good, but they are far from the best, and are capital-only.

    Order.

    Sloth is easy to take, because you will have skellyspam armies, because your archers and sacreds don't take many resources, and because you need the points. The gold hit hurts a lot, but if you have any extra points, (you probably won't) spend them on --

    Growth helps significantly with your blood hunting, and it lends itself to more strategies than Death. You can be defensive with Growth, and outlast brightly-burning bless nations. It's also a huge boon for your income elegantly combined with Order, and keeps you much safer from some deadly random events that you might otherwise be pummeled with with your Misfortune scales.

    Heat is good with Blood, because most demons like it. It's also good because Neifelheim can give you a ton of trouble. Abysia will give you trouble regardless. The income hit is brutal, but you really have to get the points from somewhere, and this is usually it. You can safely go with Cold, as well, because your skeletons can usually keep Neifel giants at bay, and have much more trouble with Abysians. It's pretty much a preference. All other things being equal, balance this according to whether C'tis, Neifelheim, or Abysia is in the game... because C'tis can usually out-skellyspam you due to their lower Encumbrance.

    Misfortune is synergistic with Order AND the Enaries' Fortune Telling, so I always take 2. In Ascendant I took Luck-1 which was very nice and all, getting some good boosts in gold, but more importantly, not getting any bad events in my capital or random attacks. If you're not unlucky early on with Misfortune though, you can power through it handily. And 120 points is a hell of a lot.

    Magic is a toss-up. You can safely take Drain-2 if you find yourself needing the points, because Sauromatia has what is quite possibly the best Death magic in the game, allowing you to forge Skull Mentors. With the help of some Dwarven Hammers (yay for Gorgon Earth diversity), you should be making 2 per turn, blowing all your death gems. This is important and drastically powerful because it gives you the equivalent of 3 mage/forts worth of research, with no upkeep. If you take Magic-1, however, you will probably be ahead of any other nation in EA in research. But 120 points is a hell of a lot.

    			8.31.2.7 RESEARCH

    I always research Enchantment 3 first off with Sauromatia. Raise Skeletons will allow you to defend against basically anything in early game that your archers cannot. The sheer stopping and overwhelming power of 5 longdead skeletons per caster per turn is the true definition of relentless. With that safely in hand, you can be free to get Thaumaturgy-1 for Communions, and then Construction 4 for items.

    Evocation is an important school for Sauromatia; Shadow Blast is devastating when used properly. Enaries are terrifying and accurate Shadow Blasters with Eagle Eyes, Communion, Eye of the Void, and a Spell Focus, all of which you will have very quickly and easily. Nether Darts can be powerful using this forumla as well. Storm of Thorns is a real pain to fight against; imagine how nice it would be in your arsenal instead!

    Alteration is another mainstay of Sauromatia. Between the immensely useful and cheap Alteration 1 school, and the Soul Vortex and Darkness ride of the Witch Kings, there lies... SWARM.

    Swarm will hold your opponents down for your Androphag archers. Swarm will kill poorly-placed enemy commanders. Swarm will harry and kill 95% of assassins. Swarm will hold enemies back from their fortification's bottleneck during fort storming. Swarm will terrify and confuse your enemies, make them waste valuable rounds of archery, and in general make them a very miserable and frustrated enemy. You can easily mass 10 N1 casters, all of your mages have it, for a vast metaswarm that the opposing army just - can't - get - past.

    When using Swarm, it's best to have your archers set to fire against anything except Closest, because otherwise they will die in droves, and their little screams will haunt your dreams for weeks.

    Conjuration-3 is worth it simply for Summon Earthpower on your Gorgon, and Thaumaturgy-2 is necessary for remote site searching. You are going to be using a LOT of gems.

    You can successfully compete for artifacts with a Magic scale, and Sauromatia should be spending almost all their free gold on independent mages for magic diversity, which Construction-6 boosts tremendously.

    Without magic diversity, Sauromatia is much, much weaker. Air alone will get you Wind Guide and Arrow Fend. I took A4 on my Gorgon in Peccary, and have not regretted it, because it is the key to Air boosters.

    A single Fire-2 caster with your archers makes them into a magical missile juggernaut. It will also allow you access to Fire Resistance items if your thugs are going to face Abysia.

    Earth is essential, if only for Dwarven Hammers, which you NEED to allay your ravenous gem expenditure. Earth has some of the most useful and powerful battlefield spells in my opinion.

    Finally, a W2 mage gives you access to W4 with Robes of the Sea; otherwise you are stuck at W2 with Water Bracelets.

    			8.31.2.8 EARLY ENDGAME AND OTHER STRATEGIES

    Blood and Death, oh my. Hit the enemy capitals hard with Blood and Death. Rain of Toads can completely shut down enemy capitals by turn 40. It takes that long because you have to empower a Witch King to get to B3 in order to build Armor of Thorns for the rest of your Blood-random Witch Kings.

    The more Blood you use to summon, the better your upkeep and the more powerful your armies. Imps are actually nice, solid units, and dropping them on top of enemy PD is one of the best remote summons in the game for the research needed, though it is expensive in Blood Slaves and booster items. But honestly, what else are you going to do with near-mindless virgins?

    One efficient tactic you can use very early is to summon Dark Servants and equip them with a Bane Venom Charm, then send them to enemy capitals. They can also be used to damage large armies if you sneak into their path.

    There are so many and varied tactics you can use with a great degree of success with Sauromatia, that unless you make up your mind like Baalz once iterated, you can be overwhelmed and spill your seed uselessly on the field of battle. This is a VERY REAL danger and disadvantage. Concentrate on a bright pinpoint of tactical options and you will be much the better for it.

    In conclusion, this incaration of Sauromatia is the most powerful and fun nation setup I have ever used in Dominions 3.

    Sauromatia

    Dominion 5

    Order 3
    Sloth 3
    Heat/Cold 2
    Growth 1
    Misfortune 2
    Magic 1

    Gazebo the Gorgon: E10, N4, A4

    It may be worth noting that this pretender build has exactly 0 points left over.

    	8.32 Yomi, Shinuyama, Jomon

    	    	8.32.1 Yomi

    	    	    	8.32.1.1 Yomi - Oni Kings analysis

    ->
     List of Oni Kings weaknesses:

    1. Very low protection on ALL (!) demonic regular units. We are talking about protection 3, 4 and 6, with prot 6 for the best and most expensive 50gp and 65 gp troops. Combined with average defense, and low hps (9) for cheaper troops, and only 24hp for their best 50-65gp troops means that demons (in their normal form) are extremely fragile to both melee and archer attacks. (Which was clearly design and balancing decision, which I have no problem with for the most part)

    2. (This is a huge deal breaker) Both spiritual and regular forms of demons can be banished relatively easily by cheap lvl 1 priests. >;( And unlike Ermor with its free or cheap undead hordes, demons are quite expensive to buy, so their loss really hurts. What makes things even worse, 12 gp demons (the only relatively cheap demons available to Oni player) are size 1! That means lvl 1 priest with the single cast of banishment can affect 5x6 = 30 demons in any of their two forms! Each unit has only 9hp or 5hp for ghost form, in addition to only slightly above average MR. (13MR). That makes attacking armies with more than few priests to be VERY cost ineffective for Oni, and if its more than several priests, its almost suicidal using demonic troops (which are main Oni troop type). Larger demons fare slightly better due to larger size, slightly higher MR and more hitpoints, but still suffer a lot from banishment, since their both primarily and secondary forms can be banished relatively easy by lvl 1 indep priests. I am not even talking about priests with level higher than 1, which many nations have, which makes banishment both larger in AoE and makes it even harderer to resist . Also demons have no easy way to make their demonic armies less banishable.

    3. No sacred regular troops at all. Only two sacred commanders, with only one of them being cost effective option - the most expensive capital only 500gp Oni King. Few summoned sacred low level demons, but nothing to write home about. Therefore bless strategy - not very powerful, at least in the early/medium game before Oni Kings units have buffs they need to make them worth producing in significant numbers.

    4. No heavy infantry at all and very mediocre human medium infantry. No cavalry, no units with any type of shields to withstand missile fire. basically Oni armies are extremely weak against any type of archers.

    5. Quite average archers, worse than some of the common indep archers for the same price. Their only advantage is low resource cost, but as I said common indep tribe archers have better stats for the same cost in money and resources.

    6. Below average researchers .

    7. Relatively limited magic path selection Only 3 schools of magic. (Death, Fire and Earth only, nothing else other than sometimes air one, which is not very useful).

    8. Small selection of pretenders, no unique *and* interesting pretenders.

    9. No priest other than movement 1 lvl 1 priest, which is actually inferior to indep priest. (Most useless of Oni unit IMHO, in most situations -10 gp on its price is not worth having 1mp unit where almost all other Oni units are 2 mps)

    10. Most of national summons are not very interesting, considering their price and also the amount of units they bring. Many summons, including the best ones, are impossible to cast not only by national mages, but even by mages summoned by national mages). So unless you design your pretender specifically to be able to cast these spells, you can pretty much forget about many of them, including those actually worth casting.

    ***************************************************************************************

    Now after reading this whole list you may come to conclusion that Oni Kings is a totally hopeless and weak nation. That would not be true. So to be totally fair, let me list their strengths as well, based upon my observations so far.

    ***************************************************************************************

    List of Oni Kings strengths:

    1. The Oni King unit (of course!). It's a good commander, no doubts about that. That's IMO the main strength of this nation in MP.

    Basically its strategic role is quite similar to Niefel Jarls. It costs the same 500gp. It has about 30% less HPs than Niefel Jarl (Oni King only has 50hps). It makes it significantly less powerful in the early game, especially considering the fact that high bless strategy is *much* more beneficial to Niefelheim than to Oni Kings, therefore Oni King player is much less likely to go with the high bless strategy then Niefel player, which indirectly makes Jarls even better comparable to Oni Kings.

    However in the late game (assuming Oni player have managed to survive to see it), and with good research Oni King can be more powerful than Niefel Jarl. Invulnerability plus Soul Vortex is a powerful combo. Fire magic and (rarely) air magic also add diversity. So basically in the late game Oni King can be a very powerful unit.

    At the same time late game nations have a lot of different means to deal with SCs, and SCs overall are significantly less powerful in Dom3 than in Dom2 due to multiply balancing changes. Which, together with the fact that Oni Kings are capital only units, significantly reduces the value of Oni Kings in MP games during its later stages of the game, where Oni Kings finally have buffs they need to be really effective.

    This being said, Oni Kings units are still the major strength of the Oni Kings nation. In fact they are their main strength, because frankly it doesn't have that many others.

    2. Many demon units are only res 1. That allows to produce a lot of them quickly, which can be quite useful if your castle is in danger of being assaulted by enemy. Mortal archers cost only 4 res as well. All this allows Oni player to raise army quickly and to experiment with sloth scale, if he chooses to. Demons are non sacred and cost a lot though, other than wimpy 12 gps ones.

    3. Demons troops need to be killed twice, after death they revert to very weak but ethereal form. If this form is not destroyed by the time the battle ends AND the battle is won, the demon will reform in its normal form.

    It may sounds great on paper, and it works well enough against AI because AI rarely brings enough priests to battle. In MP is not that big of a bonus, since lvl 1 priests can banish BOTH demon primary form and its spiritual form, making them doubly effective against Oni. Also it makes recruiting the only inexpensive demons (12 gp one) almost meaningless against any human player due to their size 1 and low MR. Finally all demon secondary forms only have phantasmal weapons, which require MR checks on each successful hit, and they all have low hps and prot 0.

    Overall, being able to survive immediate death even for a little while is still an advantage of the nation, not to mention it adds unique flavor to the nation.

    4. Battle mages are decent. Only level 1 and 2 mages, except Oni King themselves, which are rare and much better to be used in their SC role most of the time. However Earth, Death and Fire are good magic schools for battlefield, and so Oni Kings do have relatively good battle mages.

    5. Oni have 2 good battlefield-wide spells. Both require level 6 research in two different schools. One gives demon troops prot 10 (which demon units desperately need, because most of them have crappy prot 3 and 4. The side effect is additional damage from fire, but most of the time its worth it). The other spell grants demons berserk ability. Both spells are must have for any serious battles). Although these spells do nothing to alienate the main Oni critical weakness - banishment by lvl 1 priests, they do help to balance odds somewhat when battling other nations national armies.

    6. Few low level human troops and human commander have stealth attribute.

    ***************************************************************************************

    ->
        Quote:
        BigJMoney said:
        I haven't looked as in-depth into them as you have, but I have played against them a couple of times, now. I would say that increasing the MR of their corporeal form is a good idea, as long as they don't increase the MR of their ghost form. They certainly should not be banished quite as easily as undead, as long as there is still some kind of balance between the two forms. Ie. the corporeal form is best destroyed by missile fire and melee and the ghost form is best destroyed by magic. It means the player fighting Oni Kings has to be more flexible. "

        =$= Big J Money =$=

    Well currently ghost form is twice as easily to kill by banishment as a normal form, which is quite easy to kill in the first place. That is due to the fact that banishment is AN attack, and corporate form having the same MR as the normal form but two times less hitpoints, which were low to begin with. So its 7 hitpoints for ghost form of for 30gp demon, and 12 hp form for 65 gp demon. And 5hp for 12 gp one.

    So increasing MR by four for normal demonic forms while making ghost form hp equal to normal form would be acceptable solution. Although I think ghost form would still need some MR increase, maybe not by 4 but by 2. I like your suggestion about these two forms having different MR and requiring different means to kill though.

    One of the main idea behind these double forms theme of On nation is to give demon troops the chance to survive the battle in ghost form. "Almost immortality", as their description tells us. However currently despite their "immortality" demon armies often suffer high casaulties in any battle when it comes to melee, much more so when few enemy lvl 1 priests are involved. And if dozen of indep lvl 1 priests are involved? Which you can bet your ass will be in MP with ANY nation vs Oni player?

    You can forget about medium or large demon armies than, unless you have huge numerical advantage over enemy, because you would fare much better with indep early era troops for the same price.

        Quote:
        BigJMoney said:

        As for having no heavy infantry, that's not a huge deal. You can always buy indies for the missile screen if you really want it. From what I can see, there isn't an easy way for an enemy player to figure out how to specifically target your most vulnerable with missile fire.

        =$= Big J Money =$=

    Two points.
    1. After few turns of battle, during which you can and should try to distract enemy fire to decoy troops or high armored troops, as you rightfully mentioned, it usually comes to the melee, since all of your demon troops are clearly melee oriented units, even those who have some form of limited ranged weapon. And enemy archers are quite happy to shoot into melle. They hit their own units on regularly, but they hit you more often. However enemy units normally have much higher protection than 3 or 4, so they suffer much less from missile fire.

    2. However where low prot reeeaaaly bites you in the ass is not missile fire but melee itself. Becuase, BigJmMoney, you are right, you can use some tricks and decoys to avoid the worst of incoming missile fire, at least for the first few rounds. However at some point you have to engage the enemy with your melee demonic troops, who are all melee types. (otherwise what was the point of having them around? )

    And at that point, how long your do you think prot 3 and 4 troops with 9 and 14 hitpoints AND low defense would last? One round? Two rounds?

    What about your elite 65 gp units (the best national unit you can buy as Oni) with "great" protection of 6 and mighty 24 hitpoints? What's the point of having 65 gp melee unit which can not normally last longer than few rounds in melee with very average enemy troops, before being reduced to the "I-can-not-hurt-you-because-you-do-not-believe-in-ghosts!!! " form, which in turn is promptly banished by nearby lowly drunk village priest??? That's some mighty demon, all right... >;)

    ->
        Quote:
        Corvin said:

        List of Oni Kings weaknesses:

        1. Very low protection on ALL (!) demonic regular units. We are talking about protection 3, 4 and 6, with prot 6 for the best and most expensive 50gp and 65 gp troops. Combined with average defense, and low hps (9) for cheaper troops, and only 24hp for their best 50-65gp troops means that demons (in their normal form) are extremely fragile to both melee and archer attacks. (Which was clearly design and balancing decision, which I have no problem with for the most part)

    Actually, this isn't low protection: It's Early Age, where armor is generally less strong - and quite some troops have to go without, even.

    Note - there are no crossbows or longbows as well, therefore vulnerability to archers is limited.

        Quote:

        2. (This is a huge deal breaker) Both spiritual and regular forms of demons can be banished relatively easily by cheap lvl 1 priests. .. Each unit has only 9hp or 5hp for ghost form, in addition to only slightly above average MR. (13MR). That makes attacking armies with more than few priests to be VERY cost ineffective for Oni, and if its more than several priests, its almost suicidal using demonic troops (which are main Oni troop type). Larger demons fare slightly better due to larger size, slightly higher MR and more hitpoints,... Also demons have no easy way to make their demonic armies less banishable.

    You may have a point here, but lets compare that to the blood summons:
    lowly Imps have MR13
    Demon Knights have MR15
    Devils, Frost Finds have MR17

        Quote:

        3. No sacred regular troops at all. Only two sacred commanders, with only one of them being cost effective option - the most expensive capital only 500gp Oni King. Few summoned sacred low level demons, but nothing to write home about.

    Not all nations are created equal.
    Not every nation must have sacred troops to make a (plain) bless strategy viable. On the other hand, a simple N4 bless is tremendous useful with the Dai-Oni. Maybe add E4 to help with their encumbrance problem.

        Quote:

        ..before Oni Kings units have buffs they need to make them worth producing in significant numbers.

    What are the buffs you think they need? A N4E4 bless and a fire shield will make them quite useful even in the early game IMHO, and isn't hard to get at all. And what do you mean by "producing in significant numbers" .. being captiol-only and costing 500g per units, you're not going to hire dozends of them anyway during the first 30 turns anyway.

        Quote:
        4. No heavy infantry at all and very mediocre human medium infantry. No cavalry, no units with any type of shields to withstand missile fire. basically Oni armies are extremely weak against any type of archers.

    There's no heavy infantry in the Early Age. At least, it shouldn't. I'm pretty sure the prot-15 indies do show up sometimes, but that's a bug I guess. According to the manual, EA 'heavy inf' is the prot-10 spearwielding type. Most troops are in the prot6-9 range. Considering this, the bandits and even the prot-6 Oni don't look that bad.

        Quote:
        5. Quite average archers, worse than some of the common indep archers for the same price.

    The indie tribe archers are just too good (better than any national archers) and hopefully will get nerfed or made more expensive in a future patch.
    And Yomi has 2 types of archers: The bandits are quite ressource-intensive, but among the best archers in the EA.

        Quote:
        9. No priest other than movement 1 lvl 1 priest, which is actually inferior to indep priest. (Most useless of Oni unit IMHO, in most situations -10 gp on its price is not worth having 1mp unit where almost all other Oni units are 2 mps)

    Yomi starts in mountainious area anyway. No use for a move-2 human priest, at least without mountain survival. Then the Demon Priests are only 80% as expensive, have 1 lower enc and 1 more MR than indie priests. And they have a 10% chance to get 1 magic level and become ultra-cheap researchers/forgers. And if that's not enough incentive to buy them - buy indie priests.

        Quote:
        10. Most of national summons are not very interesting, considering their price and also the amount of units they bring. Many summons, including the best ones, are impossible to cast not only by national mages, but even by mages summoned by national mages).

    Kappa - castable (only by Nushi, but useless anyway)
    Karasu T. - NOT castable (to mage-time intensive for pretender)
    Konoha Ts. - castable (sorcerer)
    Dai Tengu - castable (seldomly, 1:10 Dai-Oni, pretty expensive)

    .. all tengu can fly during storms, AFAIK, .. so much for the archer problem ..

    Ghost General - castable (Dai-Oni, surely worth it)
    A.o.Tigers - castable (Nushi, animals...)
    Nushi - .. needs pretender, but is worth it as it opens up 'nature' and 'water'.

    And concerning the 'general summons' .. I think Yomi is not meant to have all those available, unless you spend the design points to make them available via your pretender. Which ones are you missing in particular - Air, Nature, Death, Earth and Water ARE accessible to Yomi (slim chance on Air, I must admit). If you want Fire, you'll have to use your pretender.

        Quote:
        Now after reading this whole list you may come to conclusion that Oni Kings is a totally hopeless and weak nation. That would not be true. So to be totally fair, let me list their strengths as well, based upon my observations so far.

    Mainly, I have come to the conclusion that you're looking at Yomi from a skewed MP perspective:
    You seem to be looking through Yomis units list and comparing it to the list of 'basic strategies' - to find that a good part of them will not work (easily) with Yomi.
    Be more creative - not all nations are created equal. Not every nation must have the full range of pretender-build options. Not every nation must work with the F9W9-nobrainer-bless.

    But lemme see what you've found for your:

        Quote:
        List of Oni Kings strengths:

        1. The Oni King unit (of course!). It's a good commander, no doubts about that. That's IMO the main strength of this nation in MP. Basically its strategic role is quite similar to Niefel Jarls. It costs the same 500gp. It has about 30% less HPs than Niefel Jarl (Oni King only has 50hps).

    Actually, most stats are slightly inferior to the Niefel, apart from Prot (at the price of higher enc) and Att (mostly from fire magic). Especially 'Prec 9' and the high encumbrance make Dai-Oni unsuitable as spellcasters unless you slap a lighter armor on them. Again, a 'possible' strength that is not easy to use - other than buying a Niefel Jarl and set him to 'attack nearest'. Maybe a price reduction would be in order?

        Quote:
        It makes it significantly less powerful in the early game, especially considering the fact that high bless strategy is *much* more beneficial to Niefelheim than to Oni Kings, therefore Oni King player is much less likely to go with the high bless strategy then Niefel player, which indirectly makes Jarls even better comparable to Oni Kings.

    As I said - is everyone obliged to go with a high bless strategy? Several low level blesses work way better on the Dai-Oni and have the added advantage to open up more magical possiblities for/with the pretender.

        Quote:
        .. significantly reduces the value of Oni Kings in MP games during its later stages of the game, where Oni Kings finally have buffs they need to be really effective.

    Again - how many buffs do you think they would need? Fire shield and some low-level blesses can do the trick quite nicely, later then add Soul Vortex and some (cheap) items and everything seems ok to me.

        Quote:
        As you of course realize by now, I think Oni Kings really need some boost to make them stand up to other nations in MP.

    And I think they perhaps simply need to be played slightly different to be competitive. Maybe by someone who's a stronger player than me, btw.

        Quote:
        Suggestions:

        1. Add 4 MR to all demon troops. Or if it's too much - consider Oni national demons as having +4MR when it comes to checks against banishment. After all, demons are supposed to be significantly more difficult to banish than undeads. But as it turns out, their current 13 MR, 14 MR and 15 MR is absolutely not enough.

    Bloods summons have 13,15,17. Why not use that for that Oni as well? Or why not use 17 or 18 for all Oni, at least in ghost form? Why should a small demons ghost be easier to banish than a big ones?
    On the other hand, +4 is way to much - Dai Oni only have 18, and some pretenders do not have more to start with.

        Quote:
        2. Make the cheapest 12 gp demon troops (Ko-Oni) size 2 instead of their current size 1.

    Big is beautiful? I would rather say: make them harder to banish, and give them higher Def, and maybe lower their price... .

        Quote:
        3. Make ghost forms of oni have the same HPs as a normal form, instead of having 50% of HPs .

    Agreed. Where's the fun in having a 2nd form, if you won't even see it because its gone on the next hit as well?

        Quote:
        4. Raise protection on best oni troops (50gp and 65gp "Oni" and "Koni Oni") from prot 6 to prot 11-12 by giving them at least *some* armor. 65 gp mostly melee-oriented units should be able to last longer than 1-2 rounds in melee, or not to be killed by few arrows.

    They don't use armors, says the 'background story', and they don't use shields as well.
    But they have powerful, if short-ranged missile weapons as well - don't underestimate those. Sadly, they (as all Oni) have poor precision - I wonder why.
    Considerung that they are 350 year old demons who do not much more than come to blows with each other, I would like to see their Att/Def/Prec stats rised significantly, and their resistances upped to full 100%.

        Quote:
        Protection 11-12 and size 3 would still leave them very vulnerable to both missile fire and melee attacks, but it would make to survive slightly longer.

    As shortbows have only DAM 10, Prot 11-12 would make them pretty much impervious to missile damage ..
    Even with Prot-6 only, they do not take that much damage from shortbows anyway. And once they're ethereal, 75% of the arrows miss ...
    I'm more concerned with the low melee stats, which make the get hit way to often ...

        Quote:
        Make them more resource intensive to compensate for their better armor. Currently Sloth 3 is almost no brainer for Oni Kings player.

    No need to do that - the game does that on its own if you slap armor on them. Armor would mean more encumbrance and less Def as well, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want that.

        Quote:
        5. Make low level Oni national summons to summon multiply demons with appropriately increased costs, instead of summoning them one by one.

    "Yomi, Oni Kings" does not summon any "Oni national summons", therefore I do not really know what you're talking about ... . If it's the different Tengu (no plural "s") - that spell already does summon 5 of them, the Dai Tengu even comes with 25 warriors. And Kappa and Karasu are useless or non-castable respectivly, anyway.

        Quote:
        6. Make "End of Culture" and "End of Weakness" Oni's spells Thaumaturgy 4 and Alteration 4

    Agreed. To research both pathes to level 6 takes to long, especially as you'll want Conjuration, Construction and Evocation, too ... .

        Quote:
        7. Give Oni demon troops with ranged attack prec 11 instead of their terrible prec 9 .

    Agreed.
    I've modded all the less-than-10 prec weapons and troops to have at least 10 prec test-wise, and 'friendly fire incidences' dropped by 1 order of magnitude... .

    All in all - I think some of your claims, remarks and suggestions are quite valid.
    Other seem to stem from a tendency to 'use' Yomi like any other, more 'standard' nation, which clearly can't and IMHO isn't intended to work.

    I think, Yomi like e.g. Early Pangaea needs some creative and out-of-beaten-pathes thinking to be played successfully in either SP or MP. What IMHO isn't a bad thing - there must be something in the game to keep the Gandalfs and QMs occupied

    -> The Dai Oni kings are perfect raiders in earlygame if you do a e9 bless.
    With the e9 bless + summon ep they get 8 reinvigoration. So you can use them unequipped and they still make terrific thugs.
    With equipment they are SCs.

    Imho they are fine, you just have to rely on your mages. Your troops are not important, but the archers for 8 gold are useful.
    Hanyas can cast flaming arrows for them.

    Yomo is imho a good nation, but hard to play. But they have extremely interesting options available with the dai oni, which are imho more flexible than niefel jarls.

    You said dai oni have less hp then the niefels, that is only half true, you have to count their ghost form hp as hp too. And their ghost form is an extremely useful feature:
    A niefel jarl dies from 1 sucessful GfH hit, whereas for a dai oni you need 2 such hits.

    And they have the most flexible buffs i think, both atlantis and niefelheim are a bit more limited there.

    Summon EP, Invulnerability, Soul vortex, Fire shield, Phönix Pyre, every 4th mirror image.

    They also can do terrific battle magic: Earthquake and RoS.

    Their troops are a weakness, but at least the archers are useful enough. The Dai Oni are their main strength.
    Imho they are balanced and one of the better early era nations. The only problem is that you are almost forced to play them with an e9 strat imho.

    -> The bandit archers are among the better archers since EA is all about battle of the archers and their better armor allows better durability. Also my strat with Yomi just tends to be using tons of indies and splurging most of my gold on mercs. I find Yomi's actual recruitables largely useless =). (I actually tend to bulk on bakemono archers in beginning simply to spam my opponent with them) Though they do have very nice magic IMO.

    ->
    * In the SP vs. AI games I've played as Yomi, I tended to do quite well. I don't remember ever actually losing an Oni King.

    * I tended to use Oni Kings as thugs without really needing to cast spells, and seeming very effective with only a magic trinket or two, and/or casting a spell or two to help them out. I didn't try to use them as SC's, but instead would but one or two together and support them with some non-demon fodder. I felt nearly undefeatable against the AI.

    * Another advantage of the ghost form is that it makes afflictions vanish! So not only was I never losing my Oni Kings, but they were never getting permanently crippled either.

    * Using combined arms rather than all-demon armies seemed effective. I didn't try to make a huge army of smaller demons, but would have a few specialized squads of them.

    * The Oni King seems to me like an extremely powerful unit to have recruitable from turn 1, even if it is capitol-only. Having them seems like it goes a long way to needing to have weaknesses in other areas.

    -> Hey Corwin, lemme throw a couple ideas your way.

    #1) About the Demons being reliant upon humans for success. I don't think this is as bad as it initially seems. For one thing, demons making deals with humans is thematic, so it shouldn't be a thematic concern. For another thing, you don't have to be too discriminant as to what indies you have on your team, so long as they are human and un-banishable (although heavy inf. is a suggestion). For a third reason, it's not unfair because, as has been said before, each nation plays differently. If it falls that Oni-Kings needs to be a Nation that hires indies to be successful, then that's just part of that Nation's style. If you think about Ashen Empire and how they really, REALLY benefit from hiring a few indie slave armies to protect/fight against priest armies, then it's a similar situation. Demons simply have a weakness, and it needs to be worked around. Saying that one should be able to play without any humans in the army is like saying an undead theme (Ashen Empire) should be able to play with 100% undead in the army -- they technically can, but it's not wise. Haha, you end up being like a prejudice demon lord who refuses to work with mortals and then gets trounced by more cunning enemies.

    #2) About the whole retreating when turned into ghosts. I think this could go either way, gameplay-wise. You've listed the major downside already. You lose the battle. However, that's not really that bad considering your losing the battle when all the other nations would have as well! Think about the benefit, though. The survivability of the Onis goes up substatially, and a whole new game dynamic becomes apparent for Oni-Kings: they are very difficult to wipe out. I would say to make this work well though, Yomi would have to all flee to the same province and regroup; you might call them "masters of retreating" or something. Imagine losing a battle, but getting 66%-75% of your demonic army back at the end of the fight, one province back. That would frustrate the heck out of MP opponents. So, what we're really looking at is a trade-off. The ability to hold out longer during a battle versus decreasing casualties. In a strategy game, I would opt for the latter. In the end, most strategy games boil down to numbers of troops. Also consider that the ability to hold out longer during a losing battle is not desirable anyway. I can see Yomi being very a desirable nation if they have the ability to trade losses with other nations and always end out on top. Of course, for this to work, the fleeing ghosts would have to be able to survive their flight, but I think that's very realistic considering they'd be fleeing as individuals, while their former squad would remain to hold the line. Heck, it would also just look freakin cool in the battle simulator!

    Anyway, those were just little considerations. Hopefully I just presented a different way to look at it.

    	    	    	8.32.1.2 Yomi eats nothing!

    This is my guide for the Yomi nation. Like the other 'weak' nations, they can be a lot of fun.

    Their strengths are:

    - Cheap archers, with Flaming Arrows
    - Good magic
    - Cheap forts
    - Decent forging for your thugs, and Fever Fetishes
    - Dai Oni
    - Demons

    Yomi has no sacred recruitable troops, just summons and commanders. The Dai Oni can self-buff, so doesn't really need a strong bless. Later, it will be too busy with its other buffs to self-bless. Yomi priests are weak and few and far between. But, a minor Earth bless is nice for the Dai Oni for reinvigoration, before they get Soul Vortex.

    Pretender

    With no sacreds, Yomi needs an awake pretender for expansion. The Prince of Death is unavailable, so that pretty much leaves the Cyclops, Wyrm, and Dragons. Yomi has no astral mages, which is a big problem later on, so it's nice to get some astral on the pretender. That pretty much takes out the Dragons. An awake E5S5 Cyclops is strong enough to expand, can wear equipment, and later on in the game can summon Golems. S5 is not too terribly vulnerable to Magic Duel. If you're fighting Kailasa you might want to hide in a castle until the war is over, though. A Lord of Plenty would be really nice, but with initial gem income it takes a while to make enough armor for it to survive, and the whole point is to expand early.

    Scales

    Dom: 6 - Pretty scary because of weak priests, but the points just aren't available
    Order: 3 - You need money for more troops
    Sloth 3 - Low troop resource cost
    Heat 3 - Hannya is cold-blooded, and many units and god have fire resist
    Growth 1 - Sorcerers have old age
    Magic 1 (Depend on magic)
    Luck 0 (Nice heroes)

    Prophet

    Yay, a good point for Yomi! Recruit an Oni General the first turn, and make it your prophet. Demon priests can both preach or raise dead. Very useful! It's too bad Yomi H3 priests can't make longdead horse, they are limited to the usual ghouls, soulless, or longdead.

    Strategy

    If you hire demon armies in the early game, you can't use indy commanders to pull them out of your capitol. They need undead leadership. So you won't be able to recruit mages for research, but you really need to leverage your magic. Stick with the bakemono archers. At 8GP each, they are a good deal. Hire whatever indy forces you can with shields to protect your archers.

    Early expansion relies on the Cyclops soloing, with the prophet and archers as another expansion force. The prophet should stop to raise soulless. Make a fire sword and a tower shield for the Cyclops. Recruit a Hannya early and have it search forest sites for nature income. You really need some N income to empower a Hannya to N2, for Dai Oni gear. Later, empower this Hannya in W too, unless you find a Jade Amazon indy province.

    Any extra income can be used to hire a Dai Oni, who can also site search. But make sure to build another castle and lab in year 1, to hire more bakemono archers and Sorcerers. Take advantage of Yomi's cheap forts.

    Mid game you can use flaming arrows behind skelly spam. Bakemono archers are cheap and have short bows. Make some golems for Mind Hunt defense and Antimagic. You should have two sick humans with Fever Fetishes with every army group.

    Late game you can finally hire some Kuro-Oni troops, when you've got the buffs to help them survive. It's unlikely you'll be able to get the Chalice or Gift of Health up, making Tartarians a challenge. The best bet to get the Chalice is to Wish for it with your god. But Poison Golems are probably a better choice in any case.

    Defending an early rush

    If you see a rush coming, try to stop it with your god. Enchant-3 will give you skelly spam, and Enchant-4 gives you behemoths to defend against tramplers, so switch research goals immediately.

    Research

    Alt-1: Luck for your god
    Const-2: Hammers, Fever Fetish, Horror Helm
    Conj-3: Summon Earthpower, Summon Phoenix Power
    Enchant-3: Skelly Spam, Fire Shield
    Enchant-4: Flaming Arrows, Behemoth

    You really need a second castle up in the first year, to get your research going. You can build an 800GP, 3 turn fort anywhere except farm and mountains.

    With Summon Phoenix Power and 2 gems, a Hannya can cast Flaming Arrows for your archers. Behemoths are only needed if you're worried about tramplers.

    Const-4: Skull Staff, Earth Boots, Dai Oni gear

    The Skull Staff boosts your skelly spam, and you've got lots of D gems to spend. All Hannya can skelly spam, and so can Generals and Sorcerers with D2. If you are falling behind in the research race, skulls will of course help, but try to save death gems for summons later.

    A Dai Oni with a Fire Sword, Vine Shield, some armor, Horror Helm, Luck Pendant, and a girdle is a great thug at this point. It should Summon Earthpower, Fire Shield, and maybe get blessed.

    You should empower an A1 Dai Oni to A2, to make Winged Shoes, and later hire a Dai Tengu. This A2 Dai Oni should script Mistform in addition to the usual combat buffs.

    More good stuff to research by the end of year 4:

    Alt-3 (Body Ethereal)
    Alt-4 (Destruction, Blight)
    Evo-2
    Alt-6 (Soul Vortex)
    Thau-2 (Site Search)
    Evo-5 (Shadow Blast - use Eagle eyes first)
    Evo-6 (Bane fire)
    Const-6 (Fire Skull, Lanterns, Standard of the Damned, Boots of Quickness)
    Conj-4 (Ghost General)
    Thau-5 (Raging Hearts)
    Conj-5 (Nushi,Dai Tengu)

    Make Const-7 a priority instead if you think you'll have trouble with Astral neighbors, so you can make Golems. Thau-3 for teleport is important too, and will also give Iron Will for you Dai Oni.

    With Soul Vortex your Dai Onis can handle almost anything, except they do have a problem with lances. You can counter lances with Skelly spam, or mix 50/50 Yari Bakemono with Ko-Onis. Cast Destruction with a Sorceror and fire away with your flaming arrows.

    Enchant-6 (Arrow Fend, Heat from Hell, Reanimate Archers)

    Summons

    Naked Banes and Shura are good for blocking a castle gate, while you lay down some Destruction plus Flaming Arrows. A single group of Kohonas is good for messing with attackers or defenders in a siege. Since Dai Onis are using all the gear you are making, full-kit Bane Lords don't work too well with Yomi.

    Summon a Dai Tengu and a Nushi, for diversification. The Tengu troops are best used on Guard Commander in seiges, they are too fragile for fighting.

    A Dai Oni can cast Weapons of Sharpness later for your Kuro-Oni too.

    Spectres will free up your God from Astral duties, and immortal Wraith Lords are great for defending the home country.

    You've got a decent shot at the King of Banefires. Poison Golems are your best SC in the late game, and can be easily summoned by Dai Onis.

    Where are the Oni troops????

    Once you get Alt-6, for End of Weakness, you could hire some Oni troops. Be sure to have an Antimagic caster too, to protect against banishments. Bring along your Dai Tengu if you need Arrow Fend, and pop up a Heat from Hell. Darkness would help too.

    Usually Flaming arrows are just way cheaper than Oni fire, and they've got better range. So Onis really need to come late in the game, when their HP and resists will help. Kuro-Onis are really the best bet.

    Troop analysis

    Bakemono-sho: At least the Yari have half-decent repel. Mix these with some Ko-oni if you need to eat some lances.
    Bakemono archer: The best Yomi unit! 8GP, cheapest move-2 short bows in the game. You've got Fever Fetishes and a great F2 caster to buff them with.
    Yari Bandit: Grab some indies with shields instead
    Short Bow Bandit: If you're short on gold, you might as well hire some of these instead of Bakemono archers. They do more damage than a Yari Bandit in melee, and have good armor but no shield.
    Ko-oni: Useful for eating lance charges.
    Ao-oni: Maybe if you need cold-resistant troops and aren't facing archers or priests. But Skelly spam is cold-resistant so maybe not.
    Aka-oni: One Aka-oni or 3 Bakemono archers ... you're better off with the archers.
    Oni: For 10 gold more, get a Kuro-Oni
    Kuro-Oni: Somewhat useful in the later game, with enough buffs.

    Commander analysis

    Bandit Leader: Hire if you're too short on gold to grab a mage, and haven't found any indy scouts.
    Demon General: For 1/2 the upkeep, get an Oni General instead. The only good reason to hire one of these is if you're pumping out 100 Bakemono archers in a castle and desperately need mundane leadership. Which is a situation that's actually not to hard to get into if all your other commanders die of Fever Fetish!
    Sorcerer: Great mage! Decent cost. Good forging paths. E2s are good for Destruction, D2s for Skelly spam, EDA can make some useful items like anti-missile robes for your mages, EDF with some earth boots or a fire skull are great battle mages.
    Demon Priest: Hire if you're too short on gold to grab a mage and you built a temple, you might get lucky
    Oni General: Dai Oni are better thugs and will eat up all your gear, and you've got better mages. They aren't bad, but the other choices are generally better.
    Hannya: Another great mage! Site search with these to find N sites, then start making fever fetishes. Watch out for the additional encumbrance in cold provinces. Skelly spam, or Eagle eyes and cast Shadow blast or Bane Fire.
    Dai Oni: Diverse paths, so hire one early to site search. Give them any armor to get rid of the horrible encumbrance. You can forge almost anything early, so use this to provide the situational resists you need. Bless them and cast Summon Earthpower if you don't have Soul Vortex yet. Later you can script (Summon Earthpower, Invulnerability, Soul Vortex, Fire Shield). They are vulnerable to lances and priests, and when they turn into ghosts they lose nearly all their gear, making it quite unlikely they'll survive the battle.

    Don't hire too many Dai Oni in the early going. They are most useful as raiders. Concentrate on more castles, more mages.

    Later in the game use some of your Dai Oni as battle mages, rare ones can have (unboosted) 4F, 5D, or 4E.

    If you're lucky enough to get Kurofumi as your hero, dedicate him to Blood Stone production.

    One last note: End of Culture will instantly berserk all your demons. That includes your Hannya, Dai Oni, and probably your prophet. It's like Touch of Madness, except on a larger scale. Watch out!

    	    	    	8.32.1.3 Tips for Yomi, Oni Kings

    -> Tip #1: The Dai-Oni enters every battle with three wolves. They don't do much, but they do draw arrows and are nice to have in arena deathmatches. It seems like the Oni General gets the same benefit.

    Tip #2: Blessing may be precision 100, but can miss even if you're soloing a province (thanks to the wolves, I suppose). Consider scripting redundant blesses if you happen to have a nice one. A low level regeneration bless can reduce the number of afflictions you get in addition to the hitpoint bonuses.

    Tip #3: Oni generals and Dai-Onis show 20 protection, but wear no helmet. A right click reveals a basic protection of 7 and 10, respectively. Not horrible, but if you want to make the best of an Oni thug, don't forget the headgear. Or, if you have a random earth magic on your general, cast iron skin.

    Tip #4: If your Oni does get a head wound, don't despair. Muted, they're still a decent thug. Battle Fright may bring their morale back down to 13, but a basic bless (no magic paths) will boost it back to 15.

    Now to the real truth of the matter... Got any advice for me? I'm just starting out with them.

    ->  Alteration is your best friend ever, as far as paths. For Dai Oni especially.

    -> Consider an A9 bless. It will couteract Iron skin buff. And if you get into war with a major air user (caelum) it will help. Your pretender will be able to actually do something with those air gems you get. And the air shield is nice vs bows of botulf and allows you to use 2handed weapons without fear of flaming arrows.
    The nature 4 bless is also very nice.

    [comment:
    I really don't recommend the A9 bless in any case, but for Yomi it seems a particularly poor choice. I have yet to ever have a Dai Oni die or be crippled from an arrow, and if lighting is a big issue for your SCs, you are much better off trading for lightning res items or switching tactics than paying the ungodly amount of points for A9. Actually, about the only Yomi blesses I think I'd consider very seriously are earth and perhaps nature 4.

    Tips that come to mind:

    *Don't underestimate Hannyas, they are extremely potent and versatile mages for 200 gold. Early on on use skelly spam or eagle eyes + fireball, later add phionix power, falling fires and shadow blast to your options.

    *Be sure to abuse your stealthy 8 gold shortbows to the max, including of course flaming arrows. Don't even think about the other bakemono in 99% of cases.

    *Careful buying demon troops, in general error on the side of buying better mages, fewer demons.
    ]
    order3/sloth 3 seems to be a no-brainer with the low production cost of the Oni's.

    -> Tip #5: Dai Oni can reanimate dead. Specifically, Ghouls and Soulless. If you've got a crippled Dai Oni, he can spend time bringing you some spare troops to flush out the ranks of your undead leadership - especially since it's difficult to afford many of the oni.

    Your Demon Priests cannot reanimate, but your Oni Generals and Hannya can if you make them your prophets. If you make them (or Dai Onis) prophets (H3), you can reanimate more of the above and longdead warriors.

    Soulless require corpses, Ghouls consume population, and longdead neither.

    Tip #6: Twice born will not work on Hannya or Oni, since they're demonic. As of 3.08, it is not worth casting Twice Born on a diseased Sorcerer as they will be reborn with one hitpoint. But, if you want to save a particular demon general or sorcerer... just be aware that twice born keeps magic and experience, but loses all abilities other than heroic ones, in favor of the wight mage's chassis. Generally not worth casting with yomi, though there are specific applications for undead mages, you'll just be vulnerable to banishment.

    Tip #7:
    Ritual of Rebirth does not work on lifeless or undead, but does work on demons (just tested). Use this on a former prophet to get multiple level three/four priests for reanimation purposes.
    http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/dom3spells.html
    Edit: Also, a reborn oni loses the research penalty, and their sacred status, though they retain their priest magics.

    -> Note that Yomi's paths cover forging lots of the elemental resistance items for your Dai Onis: copper plate replaces your too-heavy samurai armor and gives you 100% SR. Hannya's can forge Brimstone Boots to boost your PR to 100% and give you 50% CR (plus fatigue recovery). Charcoal shield or fire helmet or burning pearl boost you to 100% FR.

    ->

    "

    	    	    	8.32.1.4  Yomi 3.21

    Article Author: KissBlade

    So you like nations with a cool theme. Giants are boring. Onis sound cool! You open up the nation, start the game and what'd you see? A whole line of crap. But never fear! You can actually do something with these bags of crap so let's check out what we got.

    				8.32.1.4.1  First off, let's talk about Yomi's troops.

    Bakemono's. They come in melee variety and archers. The melees are useless so use them as arrow soakers or something. Or you can just use the archer varieties as arrow soakers so yeah, the melee varieties are useless.

    The short bow versions are very nice though. They're cheap and easily massable. Dark vision, mountain/forest srvival, double map moves means they're actually somewhat nifty. Especially once you get flaming arrows. Anyway mass these up.

    Bandits come in melee or bows. The bow versions are ok because they got helmets. I prefer the bakemonos for their various survivals and darkvision but I'd use these too if I got a lot of resources.

    Both bandits and bakemonos are stealthy so make sure your armies are moving when attacking =) Not sneaking!!! The stealth abilities do let you make some ok raids but overall not something you'd care about.

    Alright that does it for your mortal troops, let's discuss the actual oni's of an oni themed nation. =)

    All of them are gluttonous but consume no actual supply so it's generally not something I notice. They also cost very little resources allowing them to be easily massable. They have a second ethereal form when "killed" which is nice but hardly worth factoring for. Their biggest weakness are priests but some of their higher end onis have the MR to stand against banishments. They are overpriced in base and still a bit expensive in cbm.

    The Ko-Oni's blow. They are completely unredeemable.

    The Ao-Oni's and Aka-Oni's are basically fire and ice throwers. They're both resistant to the elements that they throw. I prefer the fire ones. I will discuss these later.

    The regular Oni's are hard hitters with javelins that get tossed nicely with their high strength. If you get something to soak the hits, they do some damage to even giants. However, they fall short compared to their bigger brothers.

    That being the Kuro-Oni's. These guys are actually pretty decent. Two elemental range attacks that don't worry too much about armor and a big no dachi lets these guys really do some damage. They are also resistant to fire and poison. I'll discuss these a little bit later too.

    				8.32.1.4.2 commanders

    Alright so there's your set of national troops. Nothing spectacular and pretty much what shapes up to be an archer nation. Your demon commanders can reanimate with priest levels. So prophetizing an oni general or hannaya for that duty isn't a bad idea. Let's look at the commanders.

    Bandits: Both stealthy and able to command troops, starting with two of these aren't shabby. They are very flexible as scouts and being able to shuffle troops to your front lines. You probably won't build more of them except when your lab isn't built in your castles but overall not bad.

    Demon Generals: you will not build these. They're able to command /everything from undeads to demons/ which is good but there are just better buys.

    Sorcerers: Cheap old guys with earth and death. You can build some of these but I prefer hannayas.

    Demon Priest: They suck.

    Oni Generals: Decent thug chassis. All types of them are pretty nice, the fire gives fire shield, earth gives ironskin (allowing you to replace their armor easily), and death 2 lets you toss on a skeleton staff for soul vortex. I still use hannayas but I use these guys to hold the line occasionally.

    Hannayas: For 200 gold and only five magic path, these girls don't look too impressive. Don't let the gold per research fool you, these gals are casters PAR EXCELLENCE. f2/d2 opens up nice boosters AND great summons/evo's and more! The random nature pick there? How about eagles eye so they're precise bringers of death? That's not all, all of them possess above average hp, decent leadership (2picks of fire), supply bonus (nature) and map movement of 2 with swamp/mountain survival. ON top of that, they are 100% IMMUNE to fire and poison allowing you to toss those battlefield fire evos to your liking. Lastly they are demons. Which is a note I'll get to in a bit. Their only downside is they're cold blooded so you need to be careful against the heavy hitter Niefel. They radiate heat so be careful with their placements. I can't say enough good stuff about these gals, they really are the centerpiece of Yomi. Dai Oni's are great but these gals are the only hope for competitive Yomi.

    Dai Oni: You know these bad boys. Crappy armor leads to huge encumberance on an otherwise great chassis able to self bless, summon earthpower, soulvortex, invulnerability. Replace the armor and you got something. Crap researchers and cap only. If you get an a2 HOLD ON TO IT LIKE IT's DIAMOND. They will be your air boots maker + auspex summoner. If you're stuck with a1 for awhile and can't trade for an air booster (which I advise you do in a MP) then empower one. 30 air gems is nothing to scoff at but it's worth it.

    Yomi's national summonables are ignorable. Nushi's & Kappas are out of your reach for the most part. The Dai Tengu is worth mentioning because if you traded for an air booster to summon one, you can slap that same booster on the dai tengu to forge your own air boosters and get you to the Air Queens. Worth looking into but don't stress yourself over it.

    				8.32.1.4.3 Pretenders

    That's the wrap up on the troops. Let's talk pretenders.

    If you're playing CBM: an awake Lord of Plenty will stand out to you. It comes with a free gem generation including the much needed astral gem. An n4/e4/s4 awake dom 6 Lord of plenty is easily acheivable. Splash on order 3, sloth 1, heat 3, growth 2, misfortune 1, magic 1. Or vary the scales to your liking, the only essentials are order 3 an d magic 1 anyway. You get a nice bless to your onis and splash into path that you want (nature/astral and astral/earth forms some great crafting combos)

    If you're using base game, the choices are not as great. I'd recommend an awake enchantress with s4/e4/n4/w1 dom 6 order 3, heat 3, misfortune 1, magic 1. You can replace heat with death or sloth if you wish. I prefer not to take sloth because the opening for Yomi can get resource intensive. A dormant one is ok too but honestly the extra 12 astral gems mixed with the jump in searching helps.

    There are other options but IMO those two are among the most feasible. If you're blitzing, I'd just go with an awake n4 dragon =) and scales with dom 4.

    				8.32.1.4.4 Game plan

    At the start of your game, you'd want to prophetize one of your bandit leaders and move/scout/retreat the other one to get him to the hall of fame as well as check out the local indies. He will also be a nice army commander once you find a scout province =). Recruit an Oni General and 3 kuro oni's and with base prod scales, you can get 2 bake archers and an aka oni. Pass on the aka if you wish. Your Oni general will be your "arrow catcher". With your prophet divine blessing him, he will be very very durable on the front lines. He will stand at the very front to "fire closest". Your kuro oni's will be behind him also on same orders. Set your bandit melees a few steps behind him so they can support him to prevent your oni's from being swarmed. Move your archers close as well to take advantage of precision being boosted at close range. This sort of formation should take VERY little casualties (if any) against most sets of indies. On indie 5, it'll handle everything save the toughest ones. Start recruiting hannayas and gunning for evocation 3. Without some spells, you might as well just tuck in your knees and take it if overpowered giants come knocking. With some evo's, your onis and hannayas can at least make a good stand. As long as you can DETER people from early wars, you are golden. Also fireballing hannayas will /greatly/ help against stray indie pockets inside your sphere of influence on the map that you were saving for later.

    As soon as you can afford a dai oni (turn 4-5 ish), recruit one and have him lead a modest army of kuro onis and whatever amount of bakemono's he can lead. Set the same formation as the first set of your army except your dai oni blesses himself. Your 2nd bandit leader can run around picking up 22 resourced heavy infantries if you find a nice resource province with them. Try to use him to lead a bake archer/heavy infantry army if he gets a nice heroic ability.

    After evocation 3, I send my pretender out to sitesearch. You needed it earlier for the extra research boost but you should be solid now and hopefully looking for a nice province to set up a second mage castle. Go for alteration 1 for eagle eyes and then construction 4. A dai oni can forge earth boots and then a dwarven hammer if he's not e3, if you get an e3 one just nab a hammer when you can. You should be collecting dai oni's only when you feel you need the army power (aka a giant nation is bullying you around or you want to ramp up your expansion.) Otherwise recruit hannayas. If you get an a1 dai oni, use it to site search with your pretender, otherwise use a hannaya. You'll cover most of your bases in gem production this way. Try to keep an eye out for Obscuro to aid your air. BID HEAVY on him. AFter const 4, you'll want to dwarven hammer some skull mentors to bump your research a bit. Don't go overboard with them, death gems are really useful and if you're not getting pressured heavily, you don't really need them. Go into conjuration for dark knowledge and possibly further for summon phoenix/earth powers. Then flesh out your site searching spells so you don't have to run around manually doing them.

    You have a few options after you're done with that and effectively early mid. Enchantment opens up raise skeletons for hannaya spammers and also allows flame arrows for your f3 dai oni's to cast when they summon phoenix power. Fire shield is also in it. However, I tend to skip enchantment for now. If you're lucky and get a moment of reprieve, try to get construction 6, it opens up lines of boosters.

    But you already know how to play at peacetime, you want WAR right? Well let's talk about what makes oni's actually scary. First off, you're able to tool up your dai oni's with various fire brands/ethereal cape/luck pendant to rampage around with a bless + iron skin. So you'd want to jump into alteration. It gives you lots of fun toys. If Hinnom or Niefel is bothering you, spam the crap out of them with shadow bolts/fireballs (depending on which) while Blinding them and swarming them with skellie spamming, small bakemonos. Getting to alteration 5 gives your dai oni's invulnerability. Getting to alteration 6 gives you the BIG NASTY SOUL VORTEX. D4 Dai Oni's suddenly become treasure troves of goodnesses.

    But remember how I kept mentioning I'd talk about your other oni's earlier? Well let's look at two other spells at alterationo 6. End of weakness buffs all your demons protection which is ok but iron bane is serious fun because none of your oni's wear armor anyway so who cares if armor rusts! =D Let's look at one other fun spell for your d4 dai oni's. Darkness. Demons ignore the darkness penalty. Suddenly your dark visioned archers, onis and oh yes, Hannayas look a LOT MORE imbalanced. Let me repeat. Demons IGNORE darkness penalties. Makes sense doesn't it? After all, Onis are scarier in the dark! Who will be casting these beauties? Well your dai oni's can cast the iron bane/darknesses, just give them a lighter armor so they have a chance of coming back from fatigue afterwards. (or not, it doesn't matter too much). Remember, just because your dai oni's are great thug/SC chassis doesn't mean they can't play a support role too. A darkness here and there for keybattles led by evo spamming hannayas (who have access to banefires if you skullstaff/give them some death gems) of falling fires /shadow blasts will really tear things up while your demons chomp through half stat troops. Giants suddenly become A LOT LESS scarier. If your opponent tries to counter with undeads, thaum yields many anti undead counters which do NOT work against your demons.

    Suddenly you've got more tools than just the typical SC Dai Oni's your opponents are expecting. Every hannaya with two death boosters becomes a HUGE threat with an army. (hence why I recommend going const 6 while saving death gems) Where to go from there? Well conjuration have a healthy spell of well of misery and king of banefire which you can easily summon. I'd recommend continuing alteration for it's final bags of goodies when you find the time, once you find phoenix pyre for your dai onis, disintegrate for your hannayas and the all mighty Utterdark, who the heck still needs artifacts?? Your Dai Oni's can run around laughing at half attack/defense jarls when Tartarian factories haven't hit the field yet. Meanwhile your Hannayas are the ONLY battle mages of EA able to fling around evo with any sort of precision while leading likeminded armies of oni's and bakemono archers around. Burden of Time and Foul Vapors doesn't even phase your demon troops. Suddenly you've became LA Ermor without being open to any of the counters. And your opponents are still blindsided because he was expecting just SC Oni's.

    				8.32.1.4.5 Comments

    -> Yeah, this covers the primary parts I was thinking. Darkness is your goto spell, Hannyas are serious artillery, and Dai Oni should be used for support as well as SCs. Here's a couple more angles you should consider as well:

    Air magic really, really, helps Yomi. You're focusing on swarms of cheap flaming arrows, wind guide is an immense force multiplier - and it can add a round of evocations from the Hannyas who can skip eagle eyes. None of your troops have shields, arrow fend, fog & storm are all life savers in many situations. Fog warriors & mass flight were made for low resource swarms of heavy hitting guys - all your Onis fit this bill. If you take a pretender with air and earth he can not only lay down all these spells for important battles, he can site search for air gems to summon Dai Tengus. Really, having a couple of these plus an air pretender immensely adds to your power and flexibility.

    Ao-onis are I think the hidden gem on the roster. Their ice ability is not a ranged attack, it's a melee one which does 20 armor piercing stun damage. Their great club clobbers for 20 damage with their strength (24 if you lay a strength of giants on them) so you've got a good amount of damage packaged in a defense dropping double attack with further defense drops and critical hits caused by the fatigue from the cold. Obviously this isn't your goto guy against niefels, but the cold stun damage should be pretty damn effective against anything big and not cold resistant (Hinnom, Formoria) bonus it's magic so pops mistform and ignores etherealness! The clubs will do a good job smushing plenty of smaller things. These guys only cost 15 gold CBM (20 base), so you can get about 3 of them for the cost of the flashier Kuro-oni which gives you much more damage outlay and survivability. Swarms of these guys are what I dream of when you start laying down mass flight. They're also my goto guys for clearing indies, I like them much better than the expensive Kuro-Oni.

    Lots of flaming arrows are good, but lots of flaming arrows against somebody who wasn't expecting them are 10 times better. Definitely don't forget your archers are stealthy, sneaking in a couple hundred unexpected archers for a big fight can be absolutely devastating. It can be well worthwhile to hold all your stealthy archers sneaking around in reserve until a pivotal battle...that way your hapless opponent hasn't built up heavy archer counters.

    If you should be able to break into blood through a lucky indie find blood lust is low enough into blood that it's worthwhile to swing over and pick up once your research ramps up. If not, don't forget strength of giants might be the best thing your Dai Oni can do if you're fielding swarms of flying Ao-onis. Stack weapons of sharpness on while you're at it and there's not really too much than can stand against them.

    Oni generals make pretty respectable thugs for the cost with nothing but a E9/N4 bless. Use them in pairs and they'll clear most indies easily - their autospawn wolves even soak up lance charges so they can handle moderate amounts of heavy cavalry. This blessing is also quite beneficial to your Dai Oni. Also don't neglect the benefit of passing out cheap battle saint shrouds to your Hannya artillery - that reinvig goes a long way towards increasing how much damage they can lay out while the armor and regen brings them all the way up to relatively stout vs stray arrows/spells.

    As an alternative suggestion to KissBlades very reasonable strategy I'll go ahead and swipe a page from his book WRT my Niefelheim guide. Consider the following CBM build. Awake Master druid, E9/A4/N4. Order-3, Sloth-3, Heat-1, Death-3, Magic-1. You've now added the very beneficial entry into air as well as a very solid blessing. The down side vs what KissBlade suggests is you're gonna struggle for astral pearls, but I think the benefits of the blessing & air buffs outweigh this. With this blessing you can use cheap pairs of oni generals for some of your initial expansion, stockpiling gold for very rapid castling up. Your awake pretender will help you get that needed early research KB suggests, offsetting to a large extent the hit you'll take in initial research from recruiting non-researchers. Your second and third castle have no need for a temple, just crank Hannya out and make up the gap pretty quickly, and those groups of Oni generals start getting real scary once you look at stacking iron skin/soul vortex/fire shield and some cheap items. You can also use Ao-Oni for a very respectable supplement to this initial expansion.

    ->

    	    	8.32.2 Shinuyama

    	    	    	8.32.2.2 Beginner's Guide to Shinuyama MA

     Shinuyama is a goblin nation that¿s modeled after Feudal Japan. At a glance, it appears weak, and it¿s certainly not the easiest nation to play, especially for a beginner to start with. However, it does have a few distinct advantages over other nations, and some considerable drawbacks. For starters, all of its light and medium infantry and archers, one basic commander, and one priest, are stealthy. It also has stealthy assassins. It also has a naturally amphibious commander and some pretty decent amphibious troops, and most of it¿s other troops have either forest or mountain walk, or both. It has a dozen or so unique summons. Finally, none of its national troops are capital only. However, these cool quirks come at a price, such as labs cost twice as much, your starting army is absolute garbage, no recruit able sacred troops, and sacred troops can only be summoned by your pretender as none of the mages have the paths necessary without empowerment. Shinuyama can be difficult to start out playing, simply because there are so many options available.

    Suggested Pretender Design

    Great Sage, Awake
    F3 A2 S6 N3
    Scales: Dominion Strength: 7 Turmoil: 3 Luck: 3 Drain: 2

    This is actually a really good pretender design for this nation, although you may want to tune down Turmoil to 2 at the expense of something else. For starters, Shinuyama requires a lot of gems to get their national summons in any noticeable amount, and Luck 3 tends to give handfuls of various types of gems every turn. Money may become an issue at times if you¿re not getting enough random events to give bonus gold or permanently increase tax collections, but there are ways around that found below. Since Shinuyama can have a makeshift capital anywhere there¿s a castle because of the no cap only troops, this pretender isn¿t meant to ever leave a lab and is best used researching, forging, or casting spells, but if you need him to for unique summons or spells later, several spells which he has access to will later make sure that if you want to move him, he doesn¿t have to be vulnerable in the open. You really don¿t want your pretender to die, as it¿ll take a very long time for your low level priests to call him back and he¿ll lose a lot of his usefulness. Make sure you¿re putting down temples, though, as you don¿t want an enemy Misfortune dominion in your lands because it will cripple your coffers. It works pretty well, give it a shot.

    Celestial General, Awake
    A5E9
    Scales: Dominion Strength: 6 Order: 2 Sloth: 2 Misfortune: 2 Drain: 2

    This build works well. The Celestial General makes a good SC as air and earth are both good paths for self-buff spells, and the bless is useful for your sacred troops (although a bless strategy with Shinuyama is doom because your sacreds can be difficult to field early), which the high level ones are much better than most nations. The drain scale adds a bit of MR which your Oni summons need to keep from being banished. Additionally, since Shinuyama starts out with such an awful army, he¿ll help a lot with early expansion. The only drawbacks here are research you won¿t be able to crank out many Dai Bakemonos, but the tough, gold expensive, resource light troops like Kappas and O-bakemonos can hold their own with a few buffs and Rust Mist, or none at all against weaker armies.

    National Units

    Bandit-The Bandit is a medium infantry with a spear that is stealthy. It¿s not a bad unit overall, probably the best choice for infantry for stealthy squads, and would maybe find a place in your regular army.

    Bandit (archer)-The Bandit with the bow isn¿t worth the cost. It costs a whopping 17 resources. If you need a more armored archer, feel free to indulge yourself. However, the Bakemono-sho archer is also stealthy, and while it has slightly worse stats, it¿s not nearly as expensive.

    Bakemono-sho-This is a pointless unit, chaff only. They are cheap and easy to mass, but die quickly and frequently. They¿re also stealthy.

    Bakemono-sho (spear)-This is another pointless unit, although this one at least has a spear and a chance to repel attackers, probably the superior choice at an additional cost of 1 resource. Stealthy too.

    Bakemono Archer-These are a good unit. They¿re cheap to mass and shoot arrows, so their low hit points, size, and armor aren¿t much of an issue as they don¿t get hit as much. Arrow exchange with other types of archers, though, is likely to have you on the losing side. They¿re stealthy as well.

    Bakemono-sho (medium)-This is a good medium infantry unit. It¿s stats are nearly identical to that of the Bandit with small changes here and there, but the can hold their own and with spears have a chance at repelling attackers. They¿re cheaper than the Bandit, too.

    Bakemono Archer (medium)-This is a good alternate choice to the ligher Bakemono archer if you have resources to spare as they can take a hit a bit better. I usually go for quality over quantity with archers though as it doesn¿t seem to make much of a difference in this case.

    Bakemono Warrior-Standard medium infantry, however since they don¿t carry shields I find that the Bakemono-sho with the spear is superior because it can repel better. They¿re also slightly more expensive, so they rarely find a place in my armies.

    Kappa-This is a great unit overall, especially for early expansion. First, they¿re fully amphibious so getting into those hard to reach underwater provinces is easy for Shinuyama and compared to most underwater units they¿re really tough. They also have recuperation which helps them shed afflictions. Finally, they¿re stats are great for their cost. At only 25 gold and 1 resource you¿re getting a 15 hit point 15 prot unit with two attacks, one of which is armor piercing. They¿re not invincible, but they can hold their own.

    O-bakemono-The O-bakemono is a pretty good unit for some select purposes. First, they make good arrow catchers at 28 hit points. Their strength is high, so high protections units are still getting hurt when they hit them, and low protection units with a lot of hit points like elephants fall quickly. If you cast Legions of Steel on these guys you can sit back and watch them destroy armies with ease. Their low MR is a problem, so that might need a buff if you plan on using a lot of these guys. I do if have the cash to spare, they cost 40 gold each but only 2 resources so they¿re a good investment if you¿ve spent most of resources elsewhere.

    Dai Bakemono-First off, these guys cost 30 gold and 34 resources, so it¿s not a cheap unit by any means. But, they¿re worth it. They¿re stats are good in every category, even their move is 2 and they have mountainwalk, which is rare for a heavy infantry, and they¿re hard to kill. Really just a good unit overall if you can afford them.

    Dai Bakemono (archer)-I¿m not sure what the use is for these guys. They¿re really heavily armored archers with a lot of hit points. They¿re the only unit Shinuyama has with a long bow, but at 38 resources it¿s hard to find a place for them when, for nearly the same cost, you can recruit 9 Bakemono-sho archers.

    Commanders

    Bandit Leader-The Bandit Leader is a basic stealthy commander. They¿re cheap with a movement rate of 2, so if nothing they¿re good for ferrying troops to your front lines. There¿s another stealthy commander with magic and the same leadership, so these guys are outclassed in every way. Can¿t go wrong for the price, though.

    Bakemono General-This unit is great for a leader. They¿re expensive in both gold and resources, but have 80 leadership and good stats, so they¿re hard to kill. Give them a bow and keep them safe and there¿s not much to worry about.

    Kappa Chief-This is a good choice for heading underwater if you can¿t give a mage the means to get there. They¿re pretty tough and can recuperate afflictions. What I like to do though is to give them a Fever Fetish. They have 23 hit points so they last a long time and generate a lot more gems than an undead unit, and they only cost 70 gold.

    Mujina-An assassin unit. They have somewhat low stats, especially protection which is 0, but have fear and a routing commander in a assassination is as good as a dead one. I like to give them a bane blade and try and target old mages which will die almost instantly. Watch out though, because even a blood slave can kill this unit.

    Shuten-doji-Here¿s a cool unit. It weighs in with good stats and high leadership, 100, so it¿s a bargain at 100 gold. Even with no armor it has 8 protection which isn¿t shabby. The coolest part about these guys is they have a aura which activates every turn that¿s supposed to entice units not to attack it. I¿m not sure how that works, but even without it it¿s a good deal for a commander.

    Mages

    Uba W1 D1 N1 ?1 (WEDN 100%)-She¿s a pretty basic mage. There¿s a handful of useful spells for her, like Ghost Grip, Decay, or a few evocation spells depending on picks, but she¿s not best used in battle. She can summon the early national summons, and some of the late ones for Shinuyama without help, and make decent researchers.

    Bakemono Shaman ?1 H1 (FWED 100%)-The Bakemono Shaman is a good unit to lead stealthy troops with a leadership of 40 and can cast a small variety of low level spells depending on picks. It has both mountain and forest walk, so it can get around quickly so if you don¿t want to tie up a different unit, building temples is a good job for him. However, at Holy 1 stealthy preaching doesn¿t have much of an effect. But then again, H1 is the highest priest level you can recruit. Their main strength is that they can all cast Rust Mist regardless of their paths, which makes even strong units like Knights fall quickly, but be careful not to get your own troops with it.

    Bakemono Sorcerer F2 W1 E2 D2 H1 (FWED 100%, FWED 10%)-This is your combat mage and general purpose summoner. He gets quite a bit of magic for 300 G and is holy, so you¿re sure to find a lot of uses for this guy, from summoning to forging, to attack spells.

    National Summons

    Summon Ko-Oni, D1 10 Death Gems-These guys are awful on all levels. There¿s more a more efficient use of Death Gems than this, they¿re not much more than bad light infantry. They get a second life if they die when they come ethereal and lower hit points.

    Summon Ao-Oni, W1 D1 10 Water Gems-Summons 4 Ao-Onis. A running theme for the Oni summons with Shinuyama is that they have low protection. This one is no exception, however they have slightly higher hit points than your average Shinuyama unit and they have an excellent special attack called Cold that does 20 points of armor piercing, stunning damage. They¿re effective in large numbers and away from arrow fire. They too get a second, ethereal life.

    Summon Karasa Tengu, N1 A1 1 Nature Gem-The Karasa Tengu isn¿t a bad unit persay, they have low protection and no second life, but they¿re flying and sacred and get a few lighting bolts for ranged attacks which work well. Only thing is, you need a pretender to summon them, or empower another unit with air magic which is expensive. They¿re a great unit for a single nature gem, but hopefully you can find something more valuable to do with your pretender or gems than summon these one at a time. A bad choice overall not because of the unit itself.

    Summon Aka-Oni, F1 D1 10 Fire Gems-Summons 3 Aka-Onis. Like all Oni, this one gets a second life. This is a good Oni to use at range like an archer because it¿s capable of hurling high damage fireballs.

    Summon Kohona Tengus, A1 E1 5 Air Gems-This spell summons the Karasa Tengus in packs of five. Again, you could probably find something more useful for the gems or your pretender, but it¿s certainly a better deal.

    Ambush of Tigers, N2 10 Nature Gems-This spell summons seven tigers. Since you have no calvarly to speak of, it¿s not a bad investment. It¿s pretty similar to Pride of Lions in efficiency, so they¿re almost interchangeable. Nothing special here.

    Summon Oni, E1 D1 10 Earth Gems-Summons 3 Onis. These guys are actuall pretty good. Their stats are good, except for protection, and they have exceptionally high hit points. They can also hurl a javelin pretty far, which does good damage. It¿s not a bad investment overall with the right buffs.

    Ghost General, D3 10 Death Gems-Summons a single Shura. These guys are really good commanders and make great thugs for the price, like a cheaper and better Bane Lord (lower hit points, but ethereal and fear). Just stick them with a few magic items, like a Wavebreaker, Horror Helmet, Chainmail of Displacement, Winged Shoes, Anti-Magic Amulet, and Luck Pendant, and watch them go.

    Dai Tengu, A2 E1 55 Air Gems-This spell is again more Karasa Tengus, but there¿s a few bonuses to it. It comes with a Dai Tengu commander, A3E1N1H2, which is a higher priest level than you can recruit, and Tengu Warriors who are upgraded Karasa Tengus. They¿re all sacred as well. It¿s not a bad spell for what you get, a good raiding squad that can hold it¿s own.

    Contact Nushi W2 N1 25 Water Gems-You get one standard W3D1N2 mage here that can change shape into a snake. The best part about her is she can forge a Clam of Pearls, so I¿d make use of this spell just for that.

    Summon Kuro-Oni, D2 F1 10 Death Gems-For this spell you get 4 units that are nearly identical to an Oni, except they can throw flames like an Ako-Oni and Spit Poison, so they have more dangerous ranged attacks. Not a bad unit for the price, certainly more efficient than an Oni in any case if you can spare the death gems which often have better uses.

    Summon Oni General, E1 D1 20 Death Gems-This is an optional upgrade to the Ghost General. The stats are universally better and it¿s sacred and gets two lives, in addition to having a few missile weapons and minor magic and three wolf guardians, however it isn¿t ethereal at the start and has encumbrance so fatigue is an issue, so it¿s a toss up in that regard, but they work well. I personally prefer the Ghost General because they¿re cheaper though.

    Contact Kitsune, N2 30 Nature Gems-The Kitsune is a N3?1 mage that¿s stealthy, which means it¿s a perfect upgrade to lead your stealthy raiding parties if you use them.

    Summon Dai Oni, D4 F1 45 Death Gems-The Dai Oni is definitely strong thug, but doesn¿t quite have the stats for an SC alone without at least Construction 6. First, it¿s sacred and also has the wolf guardians, and magic paths of F2D3E3H1, so some good buffs and attack spells, like Bane Fire or Soul Vortex are an option. They have massive undead leadership, 210, and only improve from there. They also start with Fear +3, and with a horror helm it gets as high as +8! It¿s really a pretty good unit for it¿s price.

    General Tactical Strategy

    Your early armies will probably include a lot of Kappas and O-bakemonos, which can free up resources for other troops. I usually put them in the front because they can take an arrow from most archers. Put your archers behind them, and on the flanks put your Bakemono-shos set to attack rear to swarm the enemy. This works well for a while, but your army is going to take losses.

    As you capture provinces around your capital you can start to enlist the help of Dai Bakemonos and start summoning the various types of Onis. I put the Onis in the center and forward and set them to either fire or attack depending on the type, because most of them have the hit points to take a hit or two, and when they ¿die¿ they turn ethereal which makes them even harder to hit, so they¿ll keep the enemy archers and front lines pretty busy despite their low protection. On their flanks I put the Dai Bakemonos and O-bakemonos and Bakemono-shos, with archers to the rear. As mentioned, one of the best points Shinuyama has is casting Rust Mist so everyone has low protection, but your troops will have better hit points and strength on their side. Battle spells are very important to Shinuyama compared to other nations.

    You may need to adapt differently to situations, for instance some troops cut through Onis like butter, but would have more trouble with Dai Bakemonos. An elephant, for instance, drops quickly to a small group of O-bakemonos, so there¿s no need to get your better troops trampled, or if you are using Behemoth summons yourself you¿d change your formations drastically.

    General Strategy

    If you chose the Great Sage, the first thing you should begin to research is Evocation to level 3. There¿s a lot of great spells in that school that will help with early expansion. Rust Mist is a great spell throughout the whole game. Fireball is good for killing barbarians, as is Acid Bolt. That¿s going to be your first thing to set.

    Early expansion isn¿t critical to be quick, but rather efficient and careful. Your starting army is weak, so it may take a turn or two to build up a respectable force depending on the game settings. Target provinces you know you can take with small losses, and make it a point to target forest/mountain provinces near your capital first as you need the resources more than the gold in the beginning. You¿ll be poor, but hopefully lucky events will start to go your way; your income isn¿t determined by the land type as it would be with an Order scale, you¿ll be getting most of your gold from random events that will either increase income permanently with a free magic site, or just give you extra gold outright. The other benefit that Shinuyama needs from a Luck scale is the handful of gems events you¿ll be getting every turn, this will help you keep summoning Onis which don¿t cost upkeep and other summons. It¿s also not unusual to get a free mage or two as well as a lucky event. It¿s very important to keep enemy dominions with Misfortune out of your provinces or it¿ll cripple your income.

    As you get to Evocation 3, you¿ll want to switch to Thaumaturgy 2. First, it gives a few useful spells to your Ubas, like Decay and Frighten. Secondly it gives you the ability to remote site search with your mages or pretender (for Air sites), you¿ll want to get as many gems as you can early, especially fire gems.

    At this point, it¿s time to switch to Construction 2. In addition to being a good site searcher and researcher, your pretender is built especially for forging Fever Fetishes. Give these to Kappa Chieftains, they have the hit points to last a long time and will give you plenty of gems before they go, which can be used to summon Aka-Onis which are good archer types, or to alchemize into gold if you need it. Alternatively, you can wait to give them to a Black Servant (which can Hide) or Revenant (which can boost research a little) if you don¿t like to micromanage (a dead commander won¿t return it¿s items to the lab so you need to watch them), but you¿ll get far fewer gems.

    Then, switch to Conjuration 3 to begin summoning Onis and to get the path boosting Summon X Power spells which really open up your Bakemono Sorcerers. By now you should have some spare gems and your armies should be strong enough to fight against other nations. It may seem like a lot of turns to get this far into research, but with the Great Sage it doesn¿t take long at all. Before you hit Conjuration 3 try to avoid conflicts with other nations unless you¿re confident you¿re much stronger than they are. It may be unavoidable, but hopefully you can stay alive until this point.

    At this point the research path is dependant upon your needs. For instance, if I¿m facing Jotunheim I¿ll often go for Evocation 5 for Falling Fires. If I think I need some thugs I¿ll research Construction 4 and Conjuration 4 for Ghost Generals and you also get Legions of Steel. Thaumaturgy to 3 isn¿t bad just for Panic if your Ubas are left without much to do. Enchantment to 4 isn¿t bad for Behemoth and Flaming Arrows. In the long run though I suggest Conjuration and Evocation to be the main focus of your research as there are so many good spells to use with Shinuyama in those schools.

    Using the other Celestial General pretender, the strategy is a bit different. The first thing I tend to research is Alteration 2 for Stoneskin and Mirror Image if you¿re in a hurry, or 3 for Ironskin and Mistform, which makes your pretender quite powerful without any items and helps early expansion. You¿ll also be targeting Farmlands as a priority because gold is much more valuable here.

    After that, it¿s on to Evocation 3 for Rust Mist. Since you¿ll be using many more low resource troops, bringing the enemies protection down really allows your O-bakemonos to stomp them quickly with high damage attacks.

    Then, at this point I almost always go with Construction to 4 to both gear up my pretender and get access to Legions of Steel which will greatly improve the survivability of your troops. During this time, it may be wise to empower a sorcerer and invest in some Fever Fetishes as well if you have the Nature Gems lying around. Depending on my picks, I might move to Conjuration to 3 for the Summon X Power spells, or I¿d move onto Enchantment to 4 for Strength of Giants, Flaming Arrows if you use a lot of cheap archers, and Behemoth. After that, it¿s based on your needs.

    This pretender strategy is a lot better in the early game when Shinuyama needs the most help. Finding Air sites can be good too, as this bless greatly improves the Tengus and the troops from the Dai Tengu spell to where they¿re pretty tough, and in the late game when your good thug/SC summons are sacred.

    Suggested Magic Schools

    Conjuration: As mentioned earlier, all the unique nation only summons are fairly useful from levels 2 to 8. Tangle Vines at 1 isn¿t bad for your Ubas early on, and Ghost Grip at 5 is a good spell that nearly everyone you recruit/summon can cast. Dark Knowledge at 2 is a must if you¿re site searching, and Harvester of Sorrows at 7 is a cool unit that¿ll really tick your neighbors off. There¿s a lot of other useful spells here as well, it¿s a great school for this nation if you¿re using the Luck scales as you¿ll have plenty of gems lying around.

    Alteration: There are some great spells for the Celestial General in this school, but not so much for the Great Sage until you¿re getting your high level summons out (it¿s an OK school, but there are better for that strategy). I¿ve already mentioned a few, but early there¿s Protection at 2 and Swarm at 4 for your Ubas to spam. At level 5 you can have your Sorcerers use Incinerate which is useful if you¿re going underwater I suppose, and Iron Warriors which can substitute for Legions of Steel. Invulnerability at 5 is also useful for the Celestial General and Dai Onis. At 6 Iron Bane is great for the Celestial General strategy as Kappas and many of the Onis don¿t wear armor, and Soul Vortex is great for Dai Onis too. Level 7 brings Marble Warriors which is great if you¿re fielding the Celestial Generals armies. At 8 Conflagration can be cast by your Sorcerors. And finally, at 9, Army of Gold and Army of Lead are great spells, and Wish can be cast by your Great Sage pretender eventually, and Utterdark is an option because your national troops all have 50% ultravision. There¿s a lot to be had here, but it¿s not a high priority past a few levels for either build until later in the game when SCs start to become important.

    Evocation: Evocation is probably my favorite school for Shinuyama, next to Conjuration. It¿s been mentioned a few times, but Rust Mist at 3 is a great spell. Not that many mages in the game can cast it, but all of your Sorcerers are able to regardless of picks. I use this spell throughout the game, it¿s that good. At 4, depending on picks, Acid Rain and Blade Wind, especially for the C.G. are solid spells, and Water Strike is great for going underwater and all of your mages can cast it. Earthquake at 5 can be hard to cast for most mages, but it¿s not a bad spell, and Orb Lightning can be good for the Dai Tengu if you summoned it and the C.G. Shadow Blast is a good spell that requires a gem, but nearly all of your mages should be able to cast it. At level 6 Banefire and Magma Eruption are both good spells that are easy to cast. Of course, Wrath of God is a cool spell for your Great Sage to cast. At level 7 there¿s some really good spells that most of your Sorcerers can cast, including Ice Strike and Cloud of Death, and some of your Ubas with the right picks or a Thistle Mace can cast Storm of Thorns. At level 8 Pillar of Fire should be an easy pick that¿s a good spell. Finally at 9 the Great Sage can cast Strands of Arcane power which may not be necessary to go that far, but it¿s a cool spell nevertheless.

    Construction: You really can¿t go wrong with Construction with any nation for forging alone. Legions of Steel at 3 is a great spell for this nation and buffing up all of your troops, especially the Onis who really need the protection. The higher level spells are not bad, with the Juggernaut if you took the Great Sage, and the Siege Golem and Poison Golem shouldn¿t be much of a problem to cast. Mostly though, you come to this school for the items.

    Enchantment: This is a mid priority school, it has a lot of uses but none of them are too essential to survival initially. I¿ve mentioned a few spells already, but more are Animate Dead and Animate Skeleton at 1 are good uses for your Ubas early. Fire Shield, at 3, is a good spell for your Oni thugs. Pale Riders at 5 give you a lot of Cavalry, and Gift of Health is good for all nations with the new Old Age system, and the Great Sage can cast Dispel to get rid of any annoying globals. Later in the game there are a few globals that will give you lots of gems which is nice, particularly for Shinuyama, but getting paths that high takes some work. Ghost Ship Armada, at level 7, is a cool spell that¿ll help you come out of the water if you¿re having trouble doing it with just Kappas and other summons.

    Thaumaturgy: This school is great for site searching, which can be essential if you want to take advantage of your summons and forging quickly. Other good spells include Decay and Frighten, and Dust to Dust for undead killing, at level 1. Rage is a neat little spell at level 3, try casting it on an elephant and watch it wreak havoc on the enemy army. Iron Will also comes at 3 which raises MR, so if your Oni are getting banished you can turn to that spell. There¿s a few other cool spells, but most of the spells in this school are for dealing with the undead, so against Ermor this school is a priority but, past level 2 research is better spent.

    Useful Magic Items

    Lesser: With either pretender design you¿re going to have access to a lot of items, so I¿ll just highlight some of the more important ones. Fever Fetish, obviously, works well with this nation, and if you can Clam of Pearls. I also like items that can give melee commanders something to do in safety, like the Scepter of Authority, Black Bow of Botuf, or Ice Pebble Staff. Bane Blades are good for assassins, and the Horror Helmet is good for a lot of purposes.

    Greater: Here¿s where most of the better equipment for thugs lies. The Endless Bag of Wine becomes important because your Onis are very supply intensive even though they are NNE, and a wasteland will probably starve out your regular troops in even moderately sized armies. A couple of other items to note are the Bane Venom Charm which is great for sticking it on a Black Servant and letting him sit in the enemies provinces. A couple of upgrades to your regular commanders include the Wand of Wild Fire, Staff of Corrosion, and Skull Standard. The Skull Staff is good for getting to D3 or 4. The Charcoal Shield is a good item for a thug. Elemental Armor, Robe of the Sea, and Robe of Etherealness aren¿t bad choices for commanders. Boots of the Messenger are great for casters and thugs, and there¿s a lot of path boosters around too. I¿m partial to the Wavebreak or Sword of Quickness to Ghost Generals.

    Very Powerful: More upgrades here for commanders include Rod of the Phoenix and Banefire Crossbow. There¿s also a couple of path boosters, like the Staff of Elemental Mastery or Water Bracelet. Of course the Wraith Sword is great and the Lantern Shield has it¿s uses. Bone Armor is great if you can get your hands on it, as is the Robe of Invulnerability and Wraith Crown. The Boots of Stone are good in a pinch.

    Closing

    Shinuyama isn¿t really pick up and play, so it takes a bit of practice to figure out what works and what doesn¿t and the first few turns can be very difficult. Once you get it down pat though, it¿s a bit easier. I do think the nation could use some minor tweaks in future patches, such as giving some sacred summons to your national mages to at least make a bless strategy viable as there¿s really no way to summon enough units to keep up with another nation with a couple of castles, but the strength of the later sacred units kind of makes up for it. Anyway, you can still have some fun with it.

    Comments
    -> Another suggestion for pretender.

    Ghost King:

    Scales - Order 3, Sloth 3, Heat 2, Growth 1, Misfortune 1, Drain 2.
    Dominion strength 10.
    Magic: All paths except blood at level 3.
    Only 4 design point left.

    What you have here is SC/Rainbow mage pretender with good scales that will allow you to buy enough troops until he gets free. When he arrives, you have a powerfull SC with fear/awe combo (enhance both with items) that can cast many buffs on himself, make most magic items to equip and really rock in battle.
    When needed he can also look for magic sites although this shouldn't be his primary task.
    This one is good for both MP and SP games.
    Edited to avoid confusion.

    -> 've played a bit with Bakemonos myself, somewhat differently...I agree that this nation can't use any Bless strategy effectlively, but I find them very powerful in "late early" and midgame.

    As pretender I'd get something with high Astral and Nature (Gr Dragon, Lady of Fortune...), to complement the wonderful Sorcerers, boost Ubas'Nature skill and have access to Nature and Astral rituals. Or else a big Death lich or something like that.

    As scales I take Prod2 to have "Dai-Bakemonos factories" rather early in the game -where they can bash anything that may your opponents field at that time. Order2 is a must also, and Growth1 can be cool (for long games). Misf1 and drain2 are ok (with drain2 you'll have to use Ubas for research, but there's also a case for taking Magic1 and use cheap shamans...).

    After expansion with Bandits and archers, recruiting will switch to Dai Bakemono, they rock ! Bandits will still be useful later as stealth troops.
    The Dai-B archers *are really great* : for 4 res more than a sword-wielding one those guys scripted with "Hold & Attack" send 3 good-prec longbows volleys to advancing enemies - with Fire arrows it's deadly !- then they finish the work with no-dashis
    They have somewhat lower stats (-1 morale, strength, MR and def) that the swordsman so I usually mix both types in groups.
    The small Bakemono archers can be recruited en masse, again Flaming arrows makes them deadly. Having no capitol-only troops is really great in midgame, as you can recruit your best troops anywhere.
    O Bakemonos are pretty useful for earmy expansion, as they cost no resource and can bash small indies. Later they need LoS to survive, I usually spread some O-Bakemonos along my Dai-Bakemono armies.
    Note that the Bakemono General is so good it can make a small thug...The Mujina assassin is very weak and useless though IMHO.
    Kappas are pretty limited : they can not face more than light inf on the ground, but gives you access to water.

    Magic : I really like the sorcerors...1 out of 4 will have E2F2W2D2 and be a perfect early site searcher, going along with a N2 uba. They will also make great forgers.
    The other makes excellent support mages : the sorcs with E3 (soon E4 with boots) will shine with LoS and BW, then Earthquake , those with F3 will use Flaming Arrows and cast various fireworks, D3 sorcs will skellspam and later summon death and national creatures (Ghost General is great, think of an Ethereal Bane ! ).
    The others sorcs still have Rust Mist and Acid stuff, Magma bolts and some more... And all can summon sizeable Oni armies at a relatively good price.

    Death magic plus growth scale will result in few "old age" sorc losses (plus their 23 hp make them survive diseases longer), and for those you really don't want to lose you have Twiceborn.
    I've not yet played real MP endgames with this nation so will be less sure, but I suppose that specializing in Death would give the best results. A Earth/Forge/Artifacts strategy seems also usable.

    What is really cool with MA Shinuyama is also its versatility, as you can adapt to numerous threats due to your wide array of magic.

    -> I think fire arrows and darkness really work great with the nation. All those cheap bakemono archers and almost all the units have darkvision.

    -> I don't think I've seen this mentioned yet. The Shaman isn't the only stealthy mage Shinuyama has easy access to. The Uba can change form outside of battle, and that cat is stealthy. So you can bring a bit more firepower to battle by scripting her to change back from the panther..

    -> Here's an expansion strategy I've had some success with on neutral scales. I haven't finetuned it, but its a lot better than my earlier Bakemono dying by the hundreds strategy.

    I recruit two O-Bakemono and two Dai Bakemonos (sword only) each turn. At first, remaining gold and resources efforts go to unarmored Bakemono-sho/Archers, with a priority on melee. And an Uba, or Mujina, of course. Later, I may throw in a little armor, or recruit more archers.

    The O-Bakemono and Dai Bakemono get mixed in with the melee chaff into one mixed squad. These two units are last to die, and have a nice upward effect on morale. So I end up routing from a lot, lot less battles. They'll also provide some nice killing punch.

    Depending on how it goes, I start forming a second squad when I have 10 each of O-Bakemono and Dai Bakemono. I had some success splitting that in half to 5/5 but that depends on your indies.

    	    	8.32.3 Jomon

    			8.32.3.1 Guiding Jomon

    Article Author:  st.patrik

    I noticed on JimMorrison¿s list that Jomon is rated pretty low in almost every category. This got me wondering if Jomon was as bad as everyone says. So I started trying to figure out how to make Jomon shine. Maybe they won¿t blow everyone away, but here are some ideas to help Jomon¿s strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.

    Without a doubt, Jomon has some serious weaknesses:
    No Shields!
    None of your troops have shields. This means they get torn up by missile fire. Furthermore they are not particularly fast, so they will have to take several rounds of withering missile fire before they reach melee.
    Resource-intensive Troops
    All your troops cost a lot of resources, so in order to keep up with other nations you¿ll have to invest in productivity scale, otherwise your troops will be outnumbered.
    Weak, Old Priests
    Your Kannushi is your only priest. They aren¿t very powerful priests, and they die like flies due to old age.
    Weak Mages
    The Master Shugenja comes with 1E1N + 2?, which practically speaking means you¿ll get a lot of mages with 1 pick in 4 different paths. Sometimes you¿ll get 2W, 2A, or 2F, but this is pretty rare. What is more common is 2E or 2N, and occasionally you¿ll get a 3E or 3N. The Onmyo-ji isn¿t much better: 2S + 2?, but astral isn¿t an option for the randoms, so you¿ll get the same odds as the Master Shugenja for double paths.
    Inaccessible Summons
    All the troops from earlier ages that you can summon can¿t be summoned by your national mages. There are some other summons which you can summon, but the whole branch of Oni summons will require pretender magic.

    However, Jomon does have some strengths also:
    Cheap, Dangerous Troops
    So none of your troops have shields, and they cost a lot of resources, but they are not very expensive in gold. This means if you can solve the resource problem you can field a lot of them, while saving a portion of your money for other things. Furthermore, once your troops get into melee they can hold their own pretty well. Here is a summary:
    Ashigaru - Chaff. Never recruit them. With the right scales you'll get a bunch volunteering anyway.
    Samurai Archer - Your only archer. Useful in early game, but too expensive in resources to be effective against other archers as the game progresses. Use selectively to augment your armies.
    Samurai (Naginata) - Cheapest in resources of the Samurai types at 21, but you lose defense and attack. Not worth it, even though the Naginata does a lot of damage. Hire Go-Hatamotos instead.
    Samurai (Katana) - Ok but you can get much better troops (Aka-Oni Samurai) for not that much more.
    O-Ban - These cost the most resources of any of the footsoldiers, but have a lot going for them too: better attack and defence than regular Samurai, and heavier armour. Mapmove 1 is a pain, however.
    Go-Hatamoto - Slow and expensive in resources like the O-Ban, they carry a heavier sword (No-Dashi) and so can do a lot of damage. Good for opponents with thick armour.
    Aka-Oni Samurai - These guys have a the best attack and defense of the bunch, and have mapmove 2. They are a little more expensive, but still fairly cheap. They don't have the heavy armour though. These are the guys I recruit the most.
    Samurai Cavalry - Decent, but not overwhelmingly great cavalry. Use in small numbers to surprise your opponent or outflank.
    Sohei - Your first sacred Samurai type. They are not as good in attack or defence as the Aka-Oni, but are able to be blessed. Not really worth it.
    Yamabushi - Second sacred Samurai type. They have a Naginata, so have a lower attack and defence score than the Sohei. However they are also correspondingly lower in resources. Sometimes I recruit them early, but in general not worth it.
    Cheap, Diverse Mages Recruitable Anywhere
    So your mages are weak, but they are also cheap: 160 gold is the most you¿ll spend on a mage, and they are recruitable anywhere. Finally they are diverse, which means that (with a little planning) you can do a lot with them.
    Ninjas
    Ninjas are far from being the best assassin out there, but at least you have an assassin, and one that is pretty cheap for all that.
    Good Summons
    Even without counting the death summons you¿ll have a hard time summoning without crafting your pretender to do so, you have some good summons at your disposal:
    Kappa - The Kappa is an easy way into the sea. Yes it takes awhile to amass them, and you¿ll have to find a source of water gems before you can start summoning, but the fact remains: you have an easy summon which can get you into the water. If you pick up Ryutaro the Son of the Dragon King you¿ll have a commander to lead them into the deeps (otherwise you¿ll have to rely on rings of water-breathing etc.).
    Tengu - The Tengu comes in various flavours, and most of them are great at offense, but pretty fragile. This means you have to be pretty careful how you use them. However, you have deadly flyers who can ¿attack rear¿ to take out enemy mages, or get past that blockaded siege gate, or jump around the map into whichever combat they¿re needed in. Furthermore, they can fly during a storm, so if someone is trying to protect themselves from flyers that way it won¿t work. Alternately you can throw up your own storm, if the enemy has flyers, which means you can fly and he can¿t (with a few exceptions).
    Dai Tengu - There¿s a lot to like about this guy: 3A, so he can cast various helpful spells normally more difficult to cast; he¿s a priest in a land where the only other priests are old guys; he brings a retinue of Tengus with him, some armoured. He can hop around the map causing all kinds of trouble. Unfortunately there¿s a big price tag: 55 Air gems. Ouch!
    Kitsune - The Kitsune is a fun summon, though probably overpriced. She is the only spy at your disposal, and is very stealthy (+30). She also has 3N + ?. I can¿t figure out exactly how many randoms she gets - I¿ve seen ones with one random, and ones with 3 randoms. If only she was an assassin also, so that she could try to charm commanders, but no. With some gems she could make a nuisance of herself by casting Howl, etc. when your enemy least expects it.
    Nushi - The Nushi is Jomon¿s version of the Naiad. The difference is that she¿s a little easier to summon (2W 1N vs. 3W) and has slightly different picks (one nature is replaced with one death). The importance for you is that she is a step up the water ladder to higher summons, etc.

    There are some strategies that just won¿t work with Jomon:
    Archers
    Everyone seems to love the Samurai Archers, and I¿ll admit they have their strong points. However, they have horrible synergy with your other troops, and they are incredibly expensive in resources. So expensive that there¿s no way you can win a face-off against another nation with good archers. Think about Longbows - your average Longbow costs 12 gold 6 resources, compared to 11 gold 27 resources for the Samurai Archer. At that rate the longbows will outshoot your samurai almost 5 to 1. You will lose.
    Bless Strategy
    The main problem here is unexceptional troops, combined with weak priests. Besides, you need some good scales to produce your troops, so you can¿t support a really powerful blessing without shooting yourself in the foot.
    The Ulm Approach
    What I mean by this is fielding as many Samurai as you can and running towards your opponent. Unless you¿re fighting an opponent who doesn¿t have access to missiles, your troops will die in droves.

    So how do you make a strong showing with Jomon?
    Well, your biggest problem, at least in the early and middle game, is your vulnerability to missile fire. You need a solution as fast as you can get one. Early game you can abuse decoying to minimize losses, but once you start fighting a real enemy it will become more of a problem. At this point you may be tempted to stack up an Air bless, but don¿t do it. It won¿t work.
    The best solution is going to be Arrow Fend, but this is not an easy spell to get or cast (since you have no 3A mages). Storm will do you some good, but is not as effective as Arrow Fend, though easier to use (through the Staff of Storms). To get a solution you will need fast research and plenty of gems.
    Thus the early game is particularly crucial: you need to expand fast, and you need to build additional fortresses fast, so you can get your research kicked into high gear early.
    This will also help you produce large numbers of cheap but resource-intensive troops. I find that an army of 10 Archers, 10-15 Samurai, and an Ashigaru or two to decoy can take out most indies pretty easily. For the tough indies, like Knights, you can throw some Ninjas their way (once you have a second castle, and so can afford to not recruit a mage for a couple of turns) and hopefully avoid the fight with the army altogether.
    Once you have two or three castles you should be able to kick your research up fairly quickly, and produce lots of troops.
    You are also going to need a strong gem economy, and you are well placed to get it, with mages capable of getting two picks in Air, Water, Fire, Nature, Earth and Astral. You don¿t have a water or Astral income at first however, so you¿ll have to get lucky in order to get much going in those areas. Accordingly, you¿ll want to get Thaumaturgy 2 fairly early on.
    The easiest/cheapest route to reproducible missile protection is a 2A Master Shugenja/Onmyo-Ji improved with a Bag of Winds, and a stack of gems, casting Arrow Fend. This will require Construction 4 and Enchantment 6, which is a lot. You can get Storm (through the Staff of Storms) sooner: Construction 6, but it isn¿t going to be as effective. Eventually your Dai Tengus can cast Arrow Fend without boosters, but this will cost Conjuration 6 and Enchantment 6, and 55 Air gems for the summon. The period of time it takes you to get missile protection is your period of greatest vulnerability.
    Once you have achieve missile protection you can go on the offensive, and start developing heavy weapons support, in the form of Evocations. Your weak mages can throw around a surprisingly diverse range of dangerous artillery, such as Magma Eruption (with Summon Earth Power), Falling Fires (with Pheonix Power), Astral Fires (with an Astral booster), Blade Wind, etc. Later on they can cast Pillar of Fire and Ice Strike, and your 2A mages can cast Thunder Strike during a Storm. The best thing about most of your mages is that they have 1N, so they can all also cast Eagle Eye, to give you precisely targetted spells.
    As you develop these attacks you can field an army which is large, deadly, almost immune to missiles, and is backed by powerful elemental attacks. In other words, able to hold its own.
    Developing Conjuration is a must for the late game. Your best shot for SCs is Elemental Royalty. With the right pretender design you will be able to summon just about all of them. Your best shot for a strong late game is a strong early and middle game, so that you have a strong gem economy and strong research.

    Don¿t forget...
    Jomon is multi-talented. It doesn¿t just do one thing. Switch up your tactics by sometimes having a Storm up, and sometimes not, and having a squad of archers to make your enemy regret it. Don¿t forget your Ninjas - give them a deadly missile weapon and leave them in your enemies¿ path, then cut down his commanders. Summon Kitsunes and start causing unrest in his troop production facilities. Summon Kappas and get a foothold in the water. Have an assault team of Tengus ready to jump into a combat situation and change the variables, or make short work of taking that fortress (flying units get a bonus during sieges). Part of your strength is the ability to throw something at your opponent they don¿t expect. If you play it in a predictable way you won¿t be able to stand.

    So with all this in mind, what about pretender design?
    There are three things you need in a pretender: first, you need enough paths to help your mages become more powerful by forging boosters, etc. especially for the late game. Secondly, you need good scales, so that you can produce a lot of troops, and so that you can give your magic a boost. Thirdly, and perhaps less importantly, it would be nice to have a combat chassis to help with expansion, etc.
    Magic
    The minimum you can get away with is 4 Air 3 Earth. This will enable you to forge Air boosters, and Earth Boots. It will also enable you to forge a Staff of Elemental Mastery, which will be a very useful item.
    Scales
    You can afford to take Turmoil, since you don¿t need a lot of money. I always take Luck, so that I get lots of extra gems and windfalls of money. Often having Luck 3 and Turmoil 3 will give you just as much money, just a little more unpredictably, than Order 3. In addition you need to take Production, and at least a point of Magic. Unfortunately after this there isn¿t much left over.
    Chassis
    Take a Celestial General. He isn¿t an SC right out of the box, but he can be outfitted to hold his own. You can just afford to take him awake, with a Dominion of 4, which is kinda low. However, I don¿t like to use him in expansion before making sure he is kitted out effectively - it¿s too easy to lose him. If you make Construction a research priority you can give him a Frost/Fire brand, Vine Shield, Ring of Regeneration, Pendant of Luck, etc. early in the second year. I usually use Boots of the Messenger instead of Earth Boots, because you need reinvigoration. Later on he can do a lot of damage to conventional armies by casting Rain of Stones repeatedly, until everyone is dead.
    Of course, by early in the second year dormant pretenders are awake anyway, so maybe you should give yourself 150 design points and get Magic 3 rather than 1 (although that¿s a lot for a single point more research) and more Dominion. But I tend to prefer him awake - that way I can get more research early, or site-search manually (you really need those gems).

    Finally, some thoughts about Research Priorities:
    Construction 4
    Pretender Equipment
    Air boosters
    Equipment for your Ninjas
    Thaumaturgy 2
    Site Searching Spells
    Alteration 3
    Mistform
    Mirror Image
    Stoneskin/Ironskin
    Enchantment 6
    Arrow Fend
    Construction 6
    Staff of Elemental Mastery
    Staff of Storms
    Starshine Skullcap
    Banner of the Northern Star
    Evocation
    Arcane Probing
    Battlefield Magic
    Conjuration
    Summon Earthpower
    Voice of Apsu
    Summons

    Of course, all this is fluid, depending on the specific situation. If my expansion is rapid enough early I will skip Alteration until needed; if I am in combat early against a missile-heavy foe I will forego Enchantment until I have the Staff of Storms; if things are especially peaceful (i.e. everyone is killing each other) I may put less into Evocation and more into Conjuration. You don¿t want to put off Conjuration too long, lest your opponents get all the Elemental Royalty before you get there

    			8.32.3.2 Comments

    -> Seems to me that arrow fodder with shields are available to everyone from independents. Just put them in front of the Samurai, and the "big" problem of enemy archers gets reduced pretty quickly.

    I also find the sacred samurai pretty good with a light bless. I usually end up with enough gold that they seem worth recruiting as much as resources allow. They are not to base one's whole strategy on unless playing against the AI or a very small map, but still, I think they're worth it if you think Aka-Oni samurai are worth it, which I do.

    Mage power players won't think so, of course.

    -> My personal experience suggests you should just be building armies of longbow samurai and ignoring all the rest 90% of the time.

    -> my personal experience with dominions in general is that guides that say you don't need much money are wrong.. always ways to spend it... if only to build more castles to build more troops and mages.

    saying others can field more (5 on 1) archers than you cus yours are 21 resource is just wrong.. that is why you take production (while others might have sloth) and when you have your 3th castle (which you need with any nation to pump mages more races usually can't use all that combined production anyway... then you can just pump all those archers from 3 castle (or more)

    While I can't say that this guide is wrong in which troops you should use (I never played Jomon, never appealed to me) the reasoning/logic behind choices is at least flawed somewhat. (and I just believe Sombre in he says archers are what one should use.. but that is one of my weak points )

    PS I wonder what general idea about kitting assasins is too. I haven't played much nations which have them as recruitables but I use the merc sometime. I don't the assasins I've used effective so I dont'kit them out (loosing stuff) then again.. they PROBABLY aren't effective because I haven't kitted them.

    The tip to use bows seems very good (I was thinking melee weapons and armor most of the time) might try that. A strong bow should help against most mages.

    PS I like your clear research priorities, can all those spells be cast out of the box by mages or are boosters needed?

    -> Good guide. You may want to mention that Jomon's Master mage has a 42% chance of being able to make fetish. If you can find 2 water boosters, they can make clams 42% of the time too.

    I haven't played Jomon yet but this guide certainly stirred my interest.

    Not sure if A4 is absolutely essential since indie inf can shield your shieldless inf.

    Not sure about samurai longbow vs. other troops but suspect you'll need both rather than either extreme.

    -> Hmmm, let me clear up a few misconceptions...

    PvK - Decoying using small groups of independant shield-wielding infantry is fine up to a point. Especially early in the game this works fine. However, once your 100+ strong army is facing down another one, and it comes to protracted melee, your small shield squad is probably going to be either overrun or right next to your unshielded samurai, at which point you will start taking heavy losses. So decoying will work in the early game, and with smaller fights, but for larger battles as the game progresses it will (in my experience) be insufficient on its own.

    Tifone - I wouldn't want to spend much on kit for assassins: you have other priorities for your gems. However, an ethereal crossbow or a bow of war can be pretty deadly with a prec. of 14, and both of them are only 5 gems (3 with a dwarven hammer). Of course both of these are Construction 6. Before that your best bet is probably Longbow of Accuracy.

    Sombre - I think the 'hordes of longbow samurai' strategy is why this nation is rated as low as it is by most people. I think it can do better.

    Aezeal - I didn't say you didn't need money. Everyone needs money. In fact (as I think I said) you can get almost as much money from good events as from an Order scale. What I said is that your troops and mages aren't that expensive, which is true. Compare, for example, to Pangaea: most expensive mage 330 gold, 35-75 gold for elite troops; or Abysia: 330 gold again for most expensive mage, 30 and 55 for top elite troops; or Patala: 450 for most expensive mage and 20 - 45 gold for your better troops.
    Compared to these (which are just a sampling) you are paying a lot less with Jomon to buy as many of your best troops as you can, plus your best mage. Using the build I describe I rarely run out of cash, even with aggressive castle-building.

    Aezeal - no offense, but I think your logic is flawed wrong re. archers. So they can take sloth while you have to take production - you don't think that's a disadvantage for you? that's 240 design points difference! If you have 3 castles pumping out archers what's to stop them from having 3 castles also? then you are still outgunned 5 to 1. The point is that your Samurai's melee skills and good melee weapon are largely irrelevant if you're in a shooting war, and you are paying 27 resources for that equipment.

    Ming - good point about fetishes and clams. The only problem with clams is you don't start with a water income - but the hope is you'll find one quickly enough. Two water boosters should be easy enough. I agree that longbows have their place - but I'm going against the prevailing wisdom, which is that all you need is longbows.

    -> Hmm,

    While the guide is interesting and has given me a few ideas (I am in a mp game as Jomon) I think it misses two crucial points (especially for mp). Namely you need an awake SC and you want to exploit the power of the Commune.

    The Jomon start army is very weak (10 Ashigari and 10 samurai LBs) and can't really take on even Indie 5s without taking big losses. And with resource intensive troops it is difficult to build up a critical mass quickly to take indies without much losses.

    This means you can't expand fast. Unless you take an awake SC. And due to Jomon having no access to death and really wanting some magic diversity for summons on his pretender this is an issue.

    I just can't see how you can afford to get even single useful minor bless and stay competitive early. Nor the paths to be able to build air or fire boosters. I think you need an SC or the Thug/Rainbow Ghost King.

    Secondly Jomons big advantage is the plentiful Communable mages. They are cheap (but not sacred so their upkeep mounts quickly) and recruitable everywhere. From fairly early on you can boost all those 1A, 1F etc. mage paths up with the communes for Flaming arrows & wind guide (if you've gone archers) or mist etc if you haven't. Or simply mind burn/soul slay spam with them etc. There are few battle spells they can't cast. Just the death & blood ones.

    As most sites are 1 or 2 simply site searching with a number of your mages should net a lot of gem income. I usually prefer to use the spells but with Jomon I do quite a lot of manual site searching due to their mages having so many paths, being fairly cheap and not having so high a research that the opportunity cost is too great.

    The mages also allow good forging flexibility but as you struggle to get any Thugs/SCs early (no death or blood income) this is not that useful initially. But they can build things like Fetishes, Crystal Coins, Communion crystals etc. which many other powers don't find so easy to make due to the blend of paths. So there should be trade options.

    Quantum mentioned that the best infantry is too slow. But the mages are move one also. So the army (if backed by a commune) is slow anyhow and you will need to send a steady stream of new mages with your new troops to the front lines anyhow. Having said that it is hard to justify buying troops that are not Samurai LBs IMHO.

    So while one move armies is just another bad point to Jomon I don't see how you can be very competitive without mages backing your armies early. The fun (and hope) of Jomon is their flexible and somewhat disposable (cheap mages built everywhere) communions. So you may as well build your armies around them and their one move nature.

    -> Having just won an MP game as Jomon with an A4E4 imprisoned Celestial General (very similar to the recommended build), I thought I'd bump this and add two things that were vital for me:

     1: Rain of Stones. This is huge. The OP mentioned its use by the pretender - but this is where Jomon's magical diversity comes in useful. It's only E3A1. Slightly more than one in every four master shugenja will have E1A1. A pair of earth boots takes that to E2A1. Summon Earthpower then gives E3A1 - and if you have gems to burn, the shugenja can boost himself to E4A1 for repeat casts. With this, one in four of your cheap, buildable-anywhere mages can slaughter dozens of enemy mages and rout an entire army by himself. An A2 shugenja can mistform himself or Cloud Trapeze, and if by some chance you can cast Fog Warriors, you can now use this in conjunction with armies.

     2: Indy crossbowmen. In the LA, indy crossbow provinces are abundant. If you went with good Order/Production scales, or place your other fortresses carefully, you can recruit huge forces of crossbowmen to supplement or replace samurai archers. If you have a F2 mage cast flaming arrows, you can now rival Marignon in a shoot-out.

    	8.33 T'ien Ch'i

    	    	8.33.1 EA TC

    		    	    	8.33.1.1 WIKI guide

    From dom-III wiki, http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dominions_3:_The_Awakening/Nations/T%27ien_Ch%27i%2C_Spring_and_Autumn
    The Middle Kingdom is at the Center of all things. Barbarian chiefs far and wide look upon our civilization with greed in their hearts for we have magic, stability, and perfection.

    T'ien Ch'i is a human nation of the ancient era. This is a time where many nations have powerful magical beings, giants, and demons as recruitable units. That's a bad place for a human nation to be, because fundamentally your people are small and squishy. They aren't protected by illusions or clouds of fire, and in the Early Era, that is a weakness. Flavor wise, Early Era T'ien Ch'i is based largely on China's Eastern Zhou Dynasty and takes its name from Confucius' famous book The Spring and Autumn Annals. If you don't have time to read ancient Chinese literature, I suggest watching a bunch of China's equivalent of the sword & sandals epic: the wandering monk genre. If you get Asian television in our area you can watch some episodes of Return of the Condor Heroes, or if not you can get the basic idea by watching Curse of the Golden Flower or any of the other "sad Chinese girls" movies by Yimou Zhang that are available at your local video store.

    T'ien Ch'i has access to every kind of magic other than Blood in pretty much every combination you can imagine. And they have it all in a conveniently small number of different magicians  making their site searching second to none. That's good, because for a variety of reasons the T'ien Ch'i appetite for gems of every type is insatiable. Expect to take in and spend more gems than empires slightly larger than yourself. Expect to comb through your available spells almost evry turn and to gain a greater understanding of the spell list in doing so. T'ien Ch'i has a steep learning curve, but playing it will make you a better Dominions player.
    Contents

        * 1 Understanding the T'ien Ch'i Army
              o 1.1 Footmen
              o 1.2 Archers
              o 1.3 Nobles
              o 1.4 Horsemen
              o 1.5 Warrior of the Five Elements
        * 2 Commanders and Magic of T'ien Ch'i
              o 2.1 Scout
              o 2.2 Noble Commander
              o 2.3 Master of the Dead
              o 2.4 Master of the Way
              o 2.5 Master of the Five Elements
              o 2.6 Celestial Masters
        * 3 Holy Options in T'ien Ch'i
        * 4 Casting Big Spells
              o 4.1 Astral
              o 4.2 Air
              o 4.3 Death
              o 4.4 Earth
              o 4.5 Fire
              o 4.6 Nature
              o 4.7 Water
        * 5 Reasonable God Choices:
              o 5.1 Celestial General
              o 5.2 Jade Emperor
              o 5.3 Lady of Fortune
              o 5.4 Lord of Plenty
              o 5.5 Great Sage
              o 5.6 Master Lich
              o 5.7 Statue
        * 6 See also

    The army of T'ien Ch'i, like its people and its emperor, is a well-rounded whole. Each part is balanced against the center and capable of acting on its own or together as part of the whole.

    Before we delve deeply into T'ien Ch'i's Pretender Choices and Magical Powers of its mages, we should talk about the armed forces of T'ien Ch'i. Like most national troops they are substantially superior to neutral barbarians (though not as game defining as the magma men of Abyssia or the vanir of Helheim).

    There are two major choices when recruiting Footmen; weapons, and armor. Your footmen can be equipped with a Glaive (for a total of 20 damage at an attack skill of 9) or a Spear and a Tower Shield (for a total of only 13 damage with a skill of 10). Against heavily armored opponents or highly resilient opponents such as Giants, the Glaive's damage output is necessary. Against archers, the Tower Shield's protection is necessary. Most likely, you will want a mixture of the two armaments, and try to get the shield bearers to take the brunt of attacks as often as possible. The footmen can also be given Full Scale Mail (Protection 14) or Full Leather (Protection 8). While the Leather Armor leaves your footmen with more Defense Skill, the actual tradeoff is that Footmen in Leather have an overland movement of 2 instead of 1 and cost 11 resources instead of 20. The heavily armored footmen are much more survivable, and will be used when you don't need them to move through plains in your own territory and you can afford the 20 resources per unit. Practically speaking, a thin line of Heavy armored Footmen with Tower Shields are going to be on the front of every battle you can arrange this for, with the other Footmen taking up central positions and being used as reinforcements.

    You also have Footmen armed with Pikes (Damage 15, Attack Skill 11) and armored in Full Leather (Armor 8). Like other Footmen they have very nice helmets, and they have a longer weapon with a higher attack skill than the other Footmen. Nevertheless, they are pretty weak against most enemies when compared to the other Footmen. They only cost 9 Resources, however, so you'll end up using them a lot if you take Sloth or have spare resources leftover from recruiting other units.

    The T'ien Ch'i Archer is one of the best archers in the game, and will form the mainstay of your army straight through to the end of the game. 12 Resources is not an inconsiderable amount to spend on an archer, but coming as it does with a Composite Bow for only 10 gold is the best deal on an archer that is available in the Early Era except for Sauromatia (sorry, the Androphag Archer is much better than the T'ien Ch'i Archer). And you have access to Wind Guide and Flaming Arrows to a much greater degree than Sauromatia does. Other contenders for best archer for the price are the Bakemono Archer (Shortbow, 8 Gold, 4 Resources), and the Bandar Archers (Longbows for 20 gold)  putting the T'ien Ch'i Composite Bowman in extremely exclusive company.

    Extremely expensive (50 gold, 45 Resources), the Noble is a trampling unit with a substantial protection (17 on the body, 20 on the face). A decent defense, a high protection, and a size 4 trample make this unit your answer to weak units and glamour units alike. High Morale (13), and a decent combat speed (16) make this unit good enough even in normal battles (especially for "hold and attack archers" or rear attack missions), but it really shines when faced with Vanir or Bakemono. Also of note is the fact that it has an overland movement of 3, making it extremely good for reinforcements if you can get a Move 3 leader (which you can as both the Noble Commander and the Celestial Master have a Move of 3)

    Most light cavalry in Dominions is weak sauce, good primarily for putting in units of 1 at the front of major armies to draw fire and confuse enemies. T'ien Ch'i Horsemen is a whole different deal. At a cost of only 20 gold, they are cheaper than most light cavalry in the game, and as they are armed with Light Lances and Composite Bows they are also substantially better. The Horseman can be used as a lancer or as an archer, and its overland Move of 3 allows it to rapidly reinforce forward armies in either capacity. Standard strategies include placing them in front of the other archers on "Fire" orders in order to give a nasty lance surprise to the first enemy that breaks through to the archers; placing them on "Hold and Attack Rear" which will cause them to fire their bows at rear targets, and placing them on "Attack" orders to get their devastating charge attack early in the battle. A versatile unit that is relatively inexpensive in Resources, expect to use these guys a lot. Their gold cost of 20 and Precision of 8 prevent them from replacing the Archer outright, but they make a great supplement in any of a number of combat roles.

    Cheap for a sacred unit and reasonably effective at their job, the Warrior of the Five Elements is a damned joke compared to a real blessed rush unit like a Jaguar Warrior or Helhirding. Frankly, Warriors of the Five Elements are not worth getting yourself a super bless for an early rush. You can do it, it's just that Mictlan will make fun of you for trying. What they are, is a pretty decent unit for the cost who is resistant to most forms of late game attack. Indeed, since they already have 50% resistance to every element, it is trivial for a late game T'ien Ch'i to increase their resistance to 100% as part of a plan to confront a group that uses one or another element exclusively, or as part of your own strategy to burn/poison/whatever the battlefield. Despite their capitol only status, the Warriors of the Five Elements are powerful units mostly in the late game. Against most early opposition, you'd rather have heavy footmen with tower shields.

    The Magic of most nations comes from its commanders, and while T'ien Ch'i sidesteps that provision in the late game, early in life this is spot on.

    T'ien Ch'i can make scouts. They will even do so occasionally. There's nothing much to say here.

    He's a leader of troops who costs 80 gold. That sounds like a lot, but he actually leads twice as many troops as an ordinary commander (30 gold), so you're really only spending 20 gold for the fact that he's fast (overland move of 3, combat move of 16), well armored (protection 17), trampling, and high morale (14). Of limited use as a trampling thug, the Noble Commander is primarily there to move troops around and he's really good at it. He can lead large numbers of footmen around, and if his army is exclusively Horsemen and Nobles he can travel up to three provinces through your empire.

    With Death 1, Holy 1, and no randoms, the Master of the Dead is not impressive. He is however the only unit in your empire which is guaranteed to have 1 Death, and he is big enough to cast Dark Knowledge. He will do that. Every single turn. Later in the game you will use these guys to move your undead around (30 at a time), and to use Wrath of the Ancestors in combat. These guys can be produced in any castle, and will be found in battle quite frequently. Like all T'ien Ch'i Magicians, he is sacred.

    Masters of the Way don't have to eat. This doesn't mean anything, as the rest of the army does. Every Master of the Way has W1 and H1, and they have exactly one random chosen from NWSA. For 100 gold, that's pretty sad. Mostly these men will stand around and research (since they are sacred, they cost half upkeep  it's not as bad a deal as it looks). There isn't a heck of a lot that you can do with AWH, so a good chunk of your MotW are going to be pretty weak. However, these guys do have a number of talents that can be put to good use:

    WS: Not only can these guys be made into Communion Slaves, they can also cast Celestial Rivers  a national spell that makes big sacred magic beings for T'ien Ch'i.

    WW: With 2 picks of Water, you can actually throw deadly evocations like Ice Strike.

    AW: A single pick of air is enough to make Phantasmal Warriors or Orb Lightning on the battlefield.

    WN: With enough equipment (Construction 6), this guy can make Clams of Pearls. Also with different equipment he can cast Foul Vapors. As a nature caster he can make simple conjurations like Sea Dogs and Vine Men and cast weak early attack spells like Vine Arrow. Don't forget that he makes supply.

    That's all your non-capitol-only magic, and it's weak (even if it is versatile). Fortunately, you've got the capitol-only guys as well:

    Every one of them has a two picks of either AEFNW and one pick in all four other paths. Like all T'ien Ch'i Magicians, he is a weak priest as well. He searches for six kinds of magic site, skipping only Astral, Death, and Blood. And Death is going to be found by Dark Knowledge and Astral by Arcane Probing, so you should get these guys out and searching all of your provinces extremely early. On the battlefield, every Master of the Five Elements has access to powerful evocations and useful enchantments. They also research well enough and are gifted forgers.

    These are the premier battle-mages in T'ien Ch'i. Each one has a pile of Water with a splash of Fire  that's enough to Acid Bolt yourself to some serious carnage early in the game. The base stats are WWFASHH, but they have 2.1 random picks off a weird list. 1.1 pick is off a WAS list, and the other pick is off a FEDN list, so they don't normally get 2 bonus picks in the same spell category. Still, W3, A2, and S2 are pretty common (with W4 being a distant possibility). There's some ritual potential here, and the Celestial Masters can cast just about all of the national celestial summonings (only one in four can make the Celestial Servants, but those are the worst ones).

    We learn by reflection, and in this way we are noble and wise.

    You don't have any Holy 3 characters in T'ien Ch'i. Therefore, you don't get anything for making one of your many sacred magicians into a Prophet. For that reason, you should probably Prophetize a Noble. He's tough, he's fast, and he doesn't have a bunch of magic that you want him to be using instead of casting Smite over and over again.

    Your bless is an interesting choice, as you have a lot of sacreds in T'ien Ch'i. Every single magician is blessable, as are the Warriors of the Five Elements. You also get access to no less than 5 national summons that are all blessable (the ancestral spirits are sacred, but a bug in the program makes them unblessable because they are undead). If you pick up any national heroes, those are sacred as well. While they are great in number, they don't really respond well to the classic W9/F9 treatment because most of them are little old men and/or come out later in the game when flame weapons isn't impressive.

    Late game blesses that will continue to impress you are Astral, Earth, and Nature blesses. Magic Resistance becomes more and more important as the game goes on, reinvigoration is about the only thing that sacred mages care about, and regeneration prevents battle afflictions (if you have a nature bless, you can halt diseases with a Shroud of the Battle Saint).

    Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

    The world is in many ways defined by the powerful enchantments that cover the globe in the later parts of the game. As T'ien Ch'i, the gems you will find in your pocket are unknowable before the game begins, so it is important to stay flexible. Flexibility allows you to turn any large pile of gems and research into an advantage. So it behooves you to have a strategy for using Conjurations and Constructions to produce powerful casters of very flavor so that these possibilities can be reality. You don't want to empower, because that's inefficient and not transferable (T'ien Ch'i uses its mages in battle a lot, so it loses them frequently).

    You need Astral magic on your God. I'm not even kidding. You search for every Astral site there is, but you just don't make better than an Astral 2 on anybody. You need the later astral stuff. At the very minimum you'll want Astral 4 so that you can wear a Starshine skullcap and make a Ring of Sorcery and then a Ring of Wizardry. You could theoretically get an Astral 3 on a Celestial Master, which combined with a Crystal Coin could get you where you want to be  but only 1.1% of Celestial Masters have that, so you want the Astral on your god.

    You normally only get 2 Air, which is harsh. What you're going to want to do is make a Ring of Wizardry and a Staff of Elemental Power and give it to either a Celestial Master (35%) or Master of the Five Elements (20%) who has Air 2. That's enough to make a Winged Helmet and a Bag of Winds, which gets you to Air 6, which is more than enough t make an Air Queen, hand her all hat equipment and make Fata Morgana if that's what you want to do.

    You find yourself with only 1 Death on a Master of the Dead, but that's OK. Hand him a Ring of Sorcery and he can make a Skull Staff. With the Skull Staff he can summon a Mound Fiend. A Mound Fiend with a Ring of Sorcery can make a Skull Face and that's also more than enough to make a Lich. A Lich with a Skull Face, a Skull Staff, and a Ring of Sorcery can make Tartarians. Alternately, you can give a Ring of Wizardry to a Celestial Master with Death and have him cast Streams from Hades and have all the magic cast by her.

    2 Earth comes fairly frequently on a Master of the Five Elements (20%). That's enough for Boots which will power him up to Eartth 3. That'll get you a Troll Court, and a Troll King with a pair of boots and a Staff of Elemental Mastery can make the Forge of the Ancients.

    You get a lot of Fire 2s out of Celestial Masters (25%) and Masters of the Five Elements (20%). But most importantly, 1 in 4 Celestial Masters has DF, which allows them to make Flaming Skulls. A Fire 2 with a Ring of Wizardry and a Flaming Skull can make a Flame Helmet. Thereafter, any Celestial Master who holds the Ring of Wizardry, the Flame Helmet, the Flaming Skull and a Water Cloak can make a Staff of Elemental Mastery. That's important, because you want a lot of those. Also of course, anyone who holds all that stuff can cast the Eternal Pyre if you have a lot of Fire Gems.

    Two Nature comes on Masters of the Five Elements with some frequency (20%), and makes a Thistle Mace cold. That and a Ring of Sorcery is enough to make an Ivy King, and if he holds that stuff he can make a Treelord Staff. Hand him the staff andd your rings and you can cast Enchanted Forest or Gift of Nature's Bounty.

    You build kind of a lot of Water 3 Casters. They can make their own Robes of the Sea and eventually Water Bracelets. That's a simple Water 5 you've got there, which is plenty and more than plenty to cast Thetis' Blessing.

    Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.

    A number of scales make sense as T'ien Ch'i. Their late-game diversity makes Growth a very valid option. Their efficient and gold-cheap high resource army makes Productivity a very valid option. Order is unnecessary, but justifies itself. T'ien Ch'i has some of the best Heroes in the game and Luck looks pretty reasonable as well. And of course, if there was ever a nation who justified Magic scales it is T'ien Ch'i. So any direction you wanted to go with T'ien Ch'i's scales is something that I understand. There really isn't a "must have" set of scales for T'ien Ch'i. Turmoil, Sloth, and Misfortune are all potential sources of points if you need them.

    But honestly, you don't really have to scavenge many points, because you don't need to worry yourself over much over a giant early-game bless. You are not a bless rush nation, and setting your dominion on fire is entirely unnecessary. Unlike many nations, the T'ien Ch'i special gods seem to be actually designed to fill holes in T'ien Ch'i's life.

    He does Air and Earth for a reasonable price. You can have a Dominion of 7, an Awake God, and Air and Earth 4  with enough points left over for positive 2 scales. That'll leave you hurting on the Astral, but the fact that you can just hiccup your Air Boosters and Staff of Elemental Power as soon as the appropriate tech comes online is a good tradeoff.

    The Jade Emperor almost demands a modest Misfortune or Turmoil domain, as he personally stops 33% of all bad events. Furthermore, since he begins play with Air and Astral he is very cheap to purchase an Air and Astral of 4, which neatly takes care of several schools of magic that are otherwise difficult to get into.

    With an Astral of 6 and a Water of 4, a Lady of Fortune can begin in play with a Dominion of 6 and a net +2 positive scales. She generates positive events and covers most of your bases, and can take armies under water. A good mix of early game and late game powers, the Lady of Fortune fills in nicely. Shame about the lack of air, but you can cover for that anyway.

    A titan for only 75 base points, and he comes with Astral and Earth, the big Buddha is a strong pretender contender. A modest Earth/Astral Blessing can come with a decent dominion and a good research start-up.

    But it's not just the nation specific gods that are good for a T'ien Ch'i position, many old favorites still shine in this environment:

    Sure, you set your dominion on fire a bit. But when your god is generating over 20 research points a turn, you'll have some Evocation when you attack your first province on Turn 2. That's not bad.

    Cheaper than any Titan if you want at least 3 schools of magic, this god is weak enough that you probably want to start him out of play and keep him around to speed up your late game gem expenditure. One of the cheapest chassis available for a strong dominion with several different paths of magic, the Master Lich is worth considering for every nation. And T'ien Ch'i is no exception. His mere existence means that you won't have to muck about with intermediary summoning to get your Death Economy going  and his Pathcost of 20 means that he can do the same for your Astral and Nature economy if need be.

    You can afford a Dormant Astral 6 Statue with a Dominion 8, Order 3,Growth 3, and Magic 3. Just a head's up.

    		    	    	8.33.1.2 Good Pretender for T'ien C'hi?

    ->  I've been studying pretender design for MA T'ien Ch'i, and this is my advice:
    - You have healers. This means you want a living, awake, out-of-the-box, supercombatant pretender, non-undead. There are merits to either the Cyclops or the Wyrm - the Wyrm is much cheaper.
    - Order is great. You get national bonuses for Order on top of that, so take Order.
    - You also get bonuses for Fortune - specifically, you get very efficient bad-event prevention out of the minister of rituals, and you get a number of really cool unit-triggered events. So take Fortune.
    - Your army is effective without being too resource intensive, and your mages (with the exception of the geomancer, who is kinda useless anyway, at least as far as I can tell) are not old, so you take Sloth and Death.
    - You have every magic path except death and blood covered, so you don't really need magic on your pretender.

    So, you can afford:
    A domstr 10 Awake Wyrm, with 3 Order, 3 Sloth, 2 Death, 3 Luck and 1 Magic. For long games, consider 2 Drain and 1 Growth, instead.
    A domstr 10 Awake Cyclops, with a 4th point of earth magic, 3 Order, 3 Sloth, 2 Death, 3 Luck and 2 Drain. Note that this guy gives your communion mages a bit of recuperation, which is not entirely shabby.

    Attack blind with these units, when they get afflictions, send them home to be healed! Build up a massive force of archers, you can cast flaming arrows and wind guide as a mid game strategy.

    ->

    		8.33.2 MA TC

    	    		8.33.2.1 Tien Chi and conscription

    Hmm. No hard numbers on conscription--but MA Tien-Chi is one of my favourite nations, even though it seems to be considered sub-par here on the forums. And I recruit other leaders all the time. Here are some examples as to why you would:

    Scout: Never. Ever. Recruit this. Period. Forget they exist. (I have.) If you absolutely have to have scouts, find an indie one or build Spies instead.

    General: Limited utility. Good leader, not great. You start with one, and Generals will probably lead most/all of your armies created from non-capital castles. For your capital, the Prince General is almost always better.

    Eunuch: Solid niche unit. Great, cheap patroller (+25!!! bonus), and a 40-man leader as well. I often build three of these at game start, set them to Patrol the Capital, and ratchet up the taxes to 200 for massive initial income for, oh, as long as I need it--without having to worry about keeping an army in the home province. Ever. They also make good, cheap ferriers of armies later on--although indie leaders would work just as well for that.

    Imperial Consort: Wonderful unit. I use these in groups of 5 to shut down enemy castles (particularly underwater--just give them Rings of Waterbreathing). Or--rarely--use them as spies; you get more information than you do from scouts.

    Ceremonial Master: Never, ever build this unit. Minister of Rituals is superior in every way.

    Minister of Rituals: Good unit, not great. I sometimes build these in groups of 3-5 to preach if my Dominion is hurting, and I usually have 1-3 running around at any one time building temples and stuff.

    Master of the Way: Your default research unit. These units actually have a better ratio of cost/research than Celestial Masters. They also do not suffer from old age. Build these everywhere until you reach the level of research you want.

    Celestial Master: Capital-only. I usually build these early game (after getting my Eunuchs patrolling) until I've got a nice mix of paths that don't suffer from old age, and I have enough to join armies later. (Which usually means up through mid-to-late game.) Other than paths and combat, however, the Masters of the Way are better units.

    Prince General: Capital-only. My default army-leader, with a 120 unit base. I usually build these whenever I need to lead an army, give them a crafted bow, and send them off. I also often build these instead of Celestial Masters on those turns when I'm hurting for gold.

    		8.33.3 LA TC

    	    		8.33.3.1 Tips for LA T'ien Chi

    -> I really enjoyed my Imprisoned Lady of the river with W8 for a light bless. I had 6-7 dominion and great scales. The most important thing about the sacred horse guys, to me, is their high protection and defense. All you really need besides that is quickness, and the different between 21-22 defense is probably negligible because at that point a standard unit swinging at your scared units with a sword is already going to have to hit 6 on their opened ended DRN before they get a chance to hit you.

    LA T'ien Ch'i has some great battle mages too. The E2 guys can forge themselves some boots of earth, and cast summon earth power, so that they can spam blade wind. The D2 guys can spam the raise skeletons out the door without any equipment. I usually build a ton of them to begin with.

     The key to getting a bless cheaply is to find a pretender that has 3 levels of the type of bless you already want and a dominion score of 2-3. It's important to remember that increasing the magic skill of a pretender is exponentially more expensive based on where you started from.

    Increasing your W skill from 1-2 is not as expensive as from 8-9. So a pretender that starts with W3 and goes to W9 pays a lot less than a pretender that starts with W1 or no water magic at all. A lot of times you can makeup for the extra points that pretenders with higher levels of magic because they end up being cheaper to get a single or a dual bless.

    ->
    Call me a heretic, but I don't think that LA TC is really a bless nation. Yes, the sacred cavalry are cool, but they're also cap-only and quite expensive. More importantly, the Barbarian Kings don't have any decent priests, so applying your blessing is a bit tricky.

    I'd go for a minor bless and concentrate on good scales. LA TC's real strengths are its magical diversity (outstanding for a LA nation!), composite archers, and amazing cavalry that you can recruit anywhere. Minor blesses to consider are: E4 to reinvigorate your sacred mages and/or N4 to help protect your sacred units from battle afflictions.

    I could go with a dormant GH, lvl 4 magic in everything but earth/blood, moderate scales. So, +2 atk, +2 def, 20 AS, +100 afflic, +5% regen...nothing amazing but keep ok scales and get SOME bonuses. I think the scales would be order 0, prod 0, heat/cold 3, death 3, luck 2, drain 2. Obviously rather not take death 3 or drain 2 but its a bit resource intensive. thoughts?

    -> LA TC is the nation for a Death bless. Unlike F9 the extra afflictions part of the Death bless works with arrows, and with battle magic.
    I've used W9D8.
    A few rounds of fear and affliction causing arrows, then they reach your lines and hit the nasty quickened heavy cavalry.

    They can get off 2 volleys of arrows with the water bless too.

    -> Try an awake D9 Prince of death with Dominion 9. Expanding is a piece of cake and you get decent scales and a nasty bless. Dont use the prince early vs knights, lizards (curse) and crossbows. Once you equip it with a lucky pendant, blacksteel armor and shield any inde is possible. Early on put the prince in a back corner and script hold hold attack archers.

    One other options if you want a better bless with better scales is a Dormant D9,N4 PoD with a dom of 6.

    -> Death and Water are both good blesses for LA T'ien Ch'i, but I have to agree that you're gonna be better off going with good scales than a dual bless. The non-sacred heavy horseman is plenty good enough to carry you through the phase of the game that a good blessing really helps with, and T'ien Ch'i really benefits from good gold, resources, and research.

    Also, LA T'ien Ch'i has some of the best PD in the game.

    -> I really like the idea of using blade wind with a self-blessed W9D8 priest battle mage as a retreating affliction crippling anti-invasion technique.

    Here's what I'd do to script some PD backed up mages.

    Summon Earth Power, Bless, Blade Wind, Blade Wind, Retreat

    -> Just keep in mind that afflictions are more psychological warfare than an invasion-stopper. In practice, Leprosy will probably create more afflictions than the D9 battle mage. However, the battle mage doesn't cost gems.

    ->

    			8.33.3.2 LA Tien Chi: Barbarian Kings Strategy Guide 2.0

    Article Author:  DonCorazon

    				8.33.3.2.1 Summary:

    Here is where I start off saying how LA TC is totally underrated and picking it will allow you to open a twelve pack of whoop-*** on the world. Now that you are fired up to try them out, lets get to the facts. LA TC is a versatile & powerful nation, with mobile ground troops, excellent cavalry and archers, and a diverse set of magi that come geared for battle. While many focus on TC¿s fearsome barbarian horsemen, what makes LA TC a formidable nation is the diversity of its sacred mages, who have level 2 access to every school but Fire and Blood. Most of its mages have higher than normal HP and are armored, with a high encumbrance that makes them perfect for an Earth blessing. In addition, LA TC is highly mobile for a non-flyer nation, a consideration that is sometimes ignored but very useful in MP when you will at some point be facing off on multiple fronts. With map move 3 cavalry, move 2 mages (most of them), and with easy access through gear to teleporters and cloud trapezers, LA TC is a stick and move nation ¿ pick them when you see a map with relatively clear terrain. It is also a great nation to learn Dom 3 because it will expose you to a broad set of concepts: spells from most schools of magic, how to use items and summons to boot strap to higher magic levels, communions, military tactics involving tower shields, archers, pole arms, mounted archers / lances, and oh so much more. Finally, they just look so innocent ¿ nothing really stands out ¿ no giants, no hydras, no demons ¿ so just play the quiet sleepy neighbor and fly under the radar in MP. But TC has an answer to almost every problem and with the right combination of luck and diplomacy, LA TC should be a contender in any MP game. Now lets delve into the Battle Mage Nation.

    				8.33.3.2.2 The Troops

    					8.33.3.2.2.1 Footmen

    TC is all about having a tool kit of answers to various problems and your troops are an excellent example of this. Lets start with the lowly Footmen. Your Footmen come in several flavors allowing you to choose the one that fits your taste. You have light armor (the Regulars) vs. medium and heavy armor (the Heavies) and tower shield / spear (the Blockers) vs. no shield / glaive (the Tacklers). For the detail-oriented among you, here are the stats:

    * Regular Footmen w/Pike (10G / 9R) ¿ Att 10 / Def 8 / Pro 9 / Move 2
    * Regular Footmen w/Glaive (10G / 11R) - Att 10 / Def 8 / Pro 9 /Move 2
    * Regular Footmen w/Shield (10G / 9R) ¿ Att 10 / Def 14 / Pro 9 / Move 2
    * Medium Footmen w/Glaive (10G / 14R) ¿ Att 10 / Def 8 / Pro 11 / Move 1
    * Medium Footmen w/Shield (10G / 14R) ¿ Att 10 / Def 14 / Pro 11 / Move 1
    * Heavy Footmen w/Glaive (10G / 20R) ¿ Att 10 / Def 7 / Pro 14 / Move 1
    * Heavy Footmen w/Shield (10G / 20R) ¿ Att 10 / Def 13 / Pro 14 / Move 1

    					8.33.3.2.2.2 Weapon Notes

    Spear Dam 3 / Len 4
    Glaive Dam 10 / Len 4
    Pike Dam 5 / Len 6

    Like buying clothes, the key is deciding who you will be meeting and what you can afford. Should you have an appointment with some unfriendly archers, showing up with lots of Blockers is a no brainer. Against large monsters or highly armored foes, forget the tower shields and go with your Tacklers. You can of course experiment with combinations of these: sprinkle in some Blockers up front and Tacklers in between or just behind to give you a screen as they advance and punch.

    In terms of the Heavies vs. the Regulars, that will depend on your resources and whether you plan to move troops around or keep them on as defenders. In my resource rich forts I like to keep some Heavies on hand for impending sieges. But since the Heavies are your only troops with a map move of 1, these tanks will limit one of your key advantages, which is mobility (unless you are surrounded by nasty terrain in which case it doesn¿t matter so much). Since I am not a big fan of production scales and prefer mobility, I¿d recommend using the Regulars in most cases. In terms of other Footmen features, there is not much else to add. They are all Morale and MR 10 so will eventually need to be replaced with better summoned troops as your game evolves.

    					8.33.3.2.2.3 Archer

    LA TC has one of the best archers around and are great to match with some Blockers to get your early game off the ground.

    * Archer (10G / 12R) ¿ Prec 10 / Move 2
    - Comp Bow (Dam 12 / Pre 1 / Range 35)

    With composite bows and decent morale for archers, who are usually complete pansies, TC¿s archers make respectable foes. You will get the most use out of them in the early game and will have A2 mages that can boost their efficiency with Wind Guide (Alt 4 ¿ A2). Sadly, LA TC completely lacks Fire magic so you will not easily be able to torch your enemies from afar with the Flaming Arrow spell. You will eventually find your Archers less useful later as your foes develop counters like Arrow Fend and Darkness. So don¿t get bonded too tightly with them but just love them while you can.

    					8.33.3.2.2.4 Barbarian Horsemen

    Welcome to the upper echelons of LA TC¿s military ranks. These guys are mean, fast, and can accumulate into fearsome hordes. They come in two flavors ¿ Regular¿s and Heavies.

    * Reg Barb Horsemen (20G / 12R) ¿ Att 11 / Def 15 / Pro 9 / Move 3 / Prec 8 / Morale 11
    - Comp Bow (Dam 12 / Pre 1 / Range 35)
    - Light Lance (Dam 3 ¿ Charge bonus first strike / Len 4)

    * Heavy Barb Horsemen (25G / 27R) ¿ Att 11 / Def 15 / Pro 14 / Move 3 / Prec 8 / Morale 12
    - Hoof (Dam 10 ¿ Str not added)
    - Lance (Dam 16 ¿ Str not added ¿ Charge bonus first strike / Len 4 / only used once per battle)
    - Falchion (Dam 7 / Len 2)
    - Comp Bow (Dam 12 / Pre 1 / Range 35)

    As you can see from the above, Heavies require twice as many resources but their multiple weapons offer much more flexibility and the higher protection and higher morale make them more effective warriors. As a result, they are my troop of choice once you get to the point where you can afford them and assuming you have the resources.

    While the precision of both isn¿t great (Precision 8 normally but its 10 if you¿re using CBM) if you get enough of them just blot out the sun with arrows and your enemy will feel the pain. And the same comments on your archers hold for your BH¿s ¿ use Wind Guide as much as possible. Also, be sure to mess with your enemies heads ¿ your Barb¿s aren¿t just dainty mounted archers, they like to lay down some hand to hand smack down every now and then. So mix up your scripts ¿ one fight they may be posted in the center rear to fire closest and the next battle they are up on your front corner flank to charge into your enemies back ranks.

    These guys are great units for the cost and make excellent body guards for your mages. No Disease Demon will punch through 5 BHs before getting zapped by any mage with respectable skills. Map movement of 3 means these guys can practically fly across the land, ensuring maximum butt kicking coverage. Consider this as you expand: being able to get forces from a fort to a front in one turn rather than 3 can make a huge difference in whether you write the history book or just get a footnote. I always play thinking in terms of economics and paying troops for 3 turns of ponderous map movement vs 1 turn adds up over time so think of speed as saving money and money as power.

    					8.33.3.2.2.5 Ancestor Vessel

    I love these guys and will build as many as I can throughout the game as they remain viable up right up until your inevitable ascension.

    * Ancestor Vessel (60G / 31R) ¿ Att 13 / Def 15 / Pro 16 / Move 3 / Prec 11 / Morale 15 / MR 14
    - Hoof (Dam 10 ¿ Str not added)
    - Lance (Dam 16 ¿ Str not added ¿ Charge bonus first strike / Len 4 / only used once per battle)
    - Falchion (Dam 7 / Len 2)
    - Howling Bow (Dam 12 / Pre 2 / Range 35 ¿ Magic ¿ causes ¿lesser fear¿)

    With their high magic resistance, high morale, extreme mobility, ranged magic weapons (Howling Bow ¿ causes Lesser Fear) with nice precision for a mounted archer, and sacred status, any AV¿s will be valuable additions to every fighting force. They are capital only and somewhat expensive, so your ability to produce a ton of them will take time and patience. Nevertheless, I recommend buying as many as you can throughout your game. They are perfect body guards for your magi and can stomp indies early on, especially with the benefits of a nice blessing. Most of the points on BH¿s apply to AV¿s ¿ they are versatile and you should mix up your tactics so the enemy never knows exactly what to expect. Fun, fun fun!

    				8.33.3.2.3 The Commanders

    					8.33.3.2.3.1 Scout

    Never recruit these from your forts ¿ look for indie provinces for scouts ¿ you should always have something better to produce.

    					8.33.3.2.3.2 General

    Never recruit these from your forts ¿ look for indie provinces for commanders ¿ you should always have something better to produce.

    					8.33.3.2.3.3 Khan

    Khans make great commanders (120 Leadership) and the only reason not to use them is that you have generally have something more valuable to produce. That said, for those times when you have yet to install a lab/temple for mage production, it is not a bad use of money to buy a Khan to help lead the troops or to outfit with a ranged weapon for some additional battlefield support.

    * Khan (100G / 41R) ¿ Att 13 / Def 17 / Pro 14 / Move 3 / Prec 8 / Morale 13
    - Hoof (Dam 10 ¿ Str not added)
    - Lance (Dam 16 ¿ Str not added ¿ Charge bonus first strike / Len 4 / only used once per battle)
    - Falchion (Dam 7 / Len 2)
    - Comp Bow (Dam 12 / Pre 1 / Range 35)

    They are expensive for a commander but provide the mobility and leadership to make use of your troops. They also have the morale boosting power of a standard (10), which, since you will often being used ranged troops away from the front lines, is actually quite useful since the commander does not have to risk life and limb to get the standard close to the combat zone in order to benefit troops. Morale is king and any boosts can make or break a battle so take advantage of it. For those of you who like to live dangerously, kitting out a Khan for the thug role can be amusing and in character, though they are not particularly durable so use at your own caution. They can fare well against indies given their high defense and (in CBM) fear effect but watch out for astral nations who will abuse their MR 10.

    					8.33.3.2.3.4 Ceremonial Master (50G / 3R) 1H

    This TC priest would be a decent one to recruit if you did not have the so-much more versatile Master of the Way. While I cannot say I have never recruited a Ceremonial Master, the only time it really would make sense is if you are fighting undead hordes and need the cheapest Banish spammer possible. Otherwise, a Master of the Way is a much better choice because, for the reasons explained below, they will be much more useful once any undead hordes are put back in the ground where they belong. Minor note: in CBM these guys have a Fortune Teller (3) ability to avoid bad mojo.

    					8.33.3.2.3.5 Master of the Way

    					(100G / 1R) 1H 1W and 1W or 1N or 1S or 1A Research 4
    MoWs kick *** from turn 1 until the end of the game. These little buggers can be WW, WN, WS, and WA. They only cost 100gp ¿ to put that in perspective a lizard shaman can get you WS but costs 180 gp. They are map move 2 so can get around fairly quickly in clean terrain. In the early game your MoWs will provide all the routine priestly duties like blessing and banishing undead. Once your research catches up to your dreams of godhood, these guys are one of the most cost effective deliverers of pain in the game. All of them can spam Frozen Heart (Alt 6 - W1) which will force enemies to develop cold resistance for those SCs that don¿t already have it. Your A1W1s can light up the battlefield with Orb Lightning (Evo 5 - A1) and your Astrals make excellent communion slaves. W2s can cast Quickness (Alt 4 ¿ W2) making your ranged threat even more devestating or make good demon fighters with Cleansing Water (Evo 6 ¿ W2). They also can forge Boots of Quickness, which along with Nike, are one of my favorite sets of footwear for thugs.

    The Battle Mages
    The next 3 guys are the heart and soul of TC and what I call the Battle Mages. They are available anywhere, sacred, Research 6, H1, well-armored, above average HP for a mage, map move 2 and with useful magic paths that will get you access to A2, E2, N2, and D2 along with a smattering of astral. Their weakness is encumbrance, exacerbated by Old Age, which is why an Earth bless is almost a pre-requisite for playing LA TC. Diverse level 2 magic is nothing to laugh at in the late age and the armor and higher HP helps them survive those improbable, horrible battlefield incidents that has caused many a Dom 3 player to cry out in disbelief.

    					8.33.3.2.3.6 Ancestor Smith

    					(200G/16R) E2D1 + A or D or S or N
    Guaranteed E2, these guys are the foundation for your boot strapping up the Earth path. In the lab, they will produce your Earth Boots and Dwarven Hammers and eventually bootstrap you to summon Earth Kings. For remote economic assault, Blight (Alt 4 ¿E2D1) is an excellent spell ¿ a few Smiths spamming it can completely halt your enemies capital production. In combat, Summon Earthpower (Conj 2 ¿ E2) combined with your Earth Blessing will keep you going long after your opponent¿s wimpy, less armored mages are battered and gasping for breath.

    All the usual Earth combat spells are useful here: Bladewind (Evo 4 ¿ E3), Legions of Steel (Const 3 - E3), and Strength of Giants (Ench 3 ¿ E3). As Baalz points out, Destruction (Alt 4 ¿ E3) is particularly effective as it not only removes armor but also destroys shields, turning those well-armored late age troops into pin cushions for your composite bow wielding ranged troops. Combine this with some of the troop slowing spells like Earth Meld (Alt 2 ¿ E2) and now those naked fools must endure even more pain before they even get to your barbarian horsemen. And what will the few arrow-riddled attackers find when they finally make it to your back line¿

    Oh sheet! Its a bunch of Ghengis Khan looking guys with lances and falcions glimmering with Weapons of Sharpness (Const 7 ¿ E5) (usable by your Smiths with Summon Earthpower + Earth Boots + 1 earth gem. Imagine how that Lance is going to feel slicing through your armor like it was a tub of I Can't Believe Its Not Butter. Ouch! The key here is not to start to feel sorry for your enemy and try to heal him.

    Army of Gold (Alt 9 ¿ E4) in the end game will get you the fire resistance that you probably cannot find anywhere else given your complete disdain for Fire magic (so uncouth). Finally, your E2D1A1 Smiths can easily case Rain of Stones (Evo 7 ¿ E3A1) and their armor helps protect them from it. E2D1S1 Smiths should think about popping in an Eye of Aiming and dishing out some Gifts from Heavens (Evo 5 ¿ E3S1). Dang, does life get any better?

    Note: Smiths carry magic Ancestor Swords that cause Lesser Fear. Dedas points out that old Age will disappear on your E2D1N1 Smiths returning them to a youthful attack and defense of15 (18 with the Ancestor Sword), 15 in MR and 15 in morale. This can make them badder then Gogo Yubari. Buff with Fists of Iron (Alt 1 ¿ E1) and scream ¿Hiaaa!!!¿ to ensure absolute victory.

    					8.33.3.2.3.7 Spirit Master

    					(200G / 11R) N2D1 + D or S or E or A Research 6
    Your hippy mages with guaranteed N2, these guys will boot strap you up the Nature path. In the lab, they will make your Thistle Maces, Rings of Regeneration, and Vine Shields, among other herbal things. I am less of a fan of low level Nature on the battlefield, so prefer to use these guys to start Vine Ogre factories that can be buffed with your Smiths. Should you find them on the battlefield some spells to consider are Swarm (Alt 4 ¿ N1 ¿ requires an N gem), Vine Arrows (Evo 2 ¿ N1) or Storm of Thorns (Evo 7 ¿ N2). Equipped with a Thistle Mace and an Eye of the Void, these guys can make nice Charm (Thaum 7 ¿ N3) spammers. Always funny to check your turn and find your enemies SCs in your garrison. Like most hippies, these guys carry a magic weapon called the Spirit Club, helpful if they face ethereal assassins or other drug-induced hallucination.

    					8.33.3.2.3.8 Ancestor Guide

    					(200G /11R) D2A1 + A or S or N or D
    Guaranteed D2, these guys will lead you on the long road to Tartarians. They are my favorite Battle Mage with so many uses its hard to know where to start. Early on, I like to use them to site search and get my death gem economy humming. They also can forge Skull Mentors ¿ TC can reap huge benefits by hitting Con 8 first and with its cheap sacred mages and access to Skull Mentors, they have a great shot at it. On the battlefield, they can spam Disintegrate (Alt 8 ¿ D2) and will be your insurance against any major undead incursions with Dust to Dust (Thaum 1 ¿ D1) and (with boosters) Wither Bones (Thaum 6 ¿ D3). Those with an Astral path can cast Nether Darts (Evo 7 ¿ D1S1), and Shadow Blast (Evo 5 ¿ D2) is fun and effective against Demons.

    In conjunction with your Ancestor Vessels and their fear causing Howling Bows, you can wreak havoc on your enemies morale with Frighten (Thaum 1- D1) and Terror (Thaum 4 ¿ D3). This can be even more effective with a Death Blessing which will imbue your arrows and spells with affliction causing capability, likely many will be Battle Fright (-5 Morale). Furthermore, summoning fear-causing troops, using Horror Helms, fighting in your own domain, and fighting in wasteland (where your Spirit Masters supply bonus will help keep your troops fed) where your enemies might starve themselves (and just having them read this guide) will all work toward ruining enemy morale.

    					8.33.3.2.3.9 Celestial Master

    W2A1S1 + A or S or E or N + 10% (W or N or A or S)
    These guys are just plain cool. Early on they make awesome researchers, then later they will provide the foundation for a strong astral late game. They have a wide range of paths and can get up to W3 and S2. Your CMs are cap only ¿ I would try to recruit one every turn if you can. They are map move 1 and you don¿t want to waste a lot of time on the road, so best to keep them at home til you need them and then teleport them with some astral boosters (Starshine Cap / Crystal Coins). With a booster or lucky W3 can cast Falling Frost (Evo 5 ¿ W3) while your high level astrals with boosters / communions can use all the great astral battle magic like Paralyze (Thaum 4 ¿ S2), Soul Slay (Thaum 5 ¿ S3), and Enslave (Thaum 6 ¿ S4). In addition you have the great national spell Celestial Chastisement (Evo 5 ¿ S3). Some important battlefield enchantments you will need in your late game battles include Will of the Fates (Alt 8 ¿ S4) and Antimagic (Ench 4 ¿ S3). Save your N1s for forging Clam of Pearls ¿ you¿ll want as much astral income as you can for a strong end game. Your E1s with boosters are valuable to forge Crystal Coins and Slave / Master Matrices.

    				8.33.3.2.4 The Heroes

    Ho Hsien-Ku
    A2N3, Sacred, Immortal, Flying, Ethereal, Healer, 3 Misc slots, Produces 1N per turn

    Li T'ieh-Kuai
    A2D2S2N2 Sacred, Immortal, Fear, Plague Carrier, 3 Misc slots

    Lu-Tung Pin
    F2A2W2S3 H2 Sacred, Flying, Immortal, 3 Misc Slots
    - HP 15, Pro 0, Morale 14, MR 18, Str 11, Att 16, Def 16, Prec 15, Move 3, Leader 130
    Note he comes with the Demon-Slayer sword and a magic Fly Wisk (stun damage)

    				8.33.3.2.5 The National Summons

    Celestial Servant (Conj 1 ¿ S1E1)
    For one earth gem you get a big fat guy with low attack and defense. The cool thing about him is with your easy access to Water magic, you can cast Quickness (Alt 3 ¿ W2) on the Servant and you have a decent and durable warrior pretty early on. He could also benefit from a Bless.
    - HP 48, Pro 4, Morale 16, MR 14, Str 24, Att 9, Def 8, Move 2 Sacred, SR100%, Glutton 3

    Celestial Hound (Conj 4 ¿ S1A1)
    This spell is usable by all your Celestial Masters and gets you 2 hounds for 3 air gems
    - HP 25, Pro 7, Morale 17, MR 14, Str 17, Att 14, Def 10, Move 3 Sacred, SR100%, Flying, Patrol +10
    I think these guys can fly during storms. Start summoning early to build a large force and combine with Fog Warriors for a nice late game force in conjunction with an Air Queen or one of your flying immortal commanders.

    Ambush of Tigers (Conj 3 ¿ N2)
    7 nature gems for 7 tigers, meh, these things aren¿t too durable and an MR of 5 means they are toast if you are fighting anyone with a jot of astral magic.

    - HP 21, Pro 4, Morale 15, MR 5, Str 15, Att 13, Def 10, Move 3 FS
    I¿d find something better to do with your nature gems.

    Celestial Soldier (Conj 6 ¿ S1A2)
    These guys are excellent late-game soldiers with all-around solid combat stats. They cost 8 air gems for 5 of them and require an A2S1 caster, so only a certain percentage of your Celestial Masters will be able to summon these tanks.
    - HP 38, Pro 17, Morale 17, MR 15, Str 18, Att 15, Def 12, Move 2 Sacred
    They do not have magic weapons and are large (size 4) so small and ethereal foes can bog them down. Still, I try to have a Celestial Master who can summon these on my active war fronts to give my forces some tough meat to survive any mass damage battlefield spells. Celestial Soldiers are sacred as well so can be quite effective depending on your bless.

    Ancestor Spirits
    These little buggers can only be summoned on the battlefield but can be quite effective at slowing down your enemies efforts to get across the battlefield.
    - HP 1, Pro 0, Morale 30, MR 11, Str 1, Att 8, Def 8, Move 2, Sacred, Ethereal
    The low level version of this spell is not particularly useful as you only get 1, but the higher level one can be an thug killer. Think Swarm but with 20+ ethereal, paralyzing gnats that do 5 Armor Negating damage. You can grind your enemy to halt spamming this spell though it does take some micro management as a result of the 1D gem cost.

    				8.33.3.2.6 National Spells

    Celestial Chastisement (Evo 1 ¿ S2)
    This nasty little spell is yet another trick in Tien Chin¿s robe of many sleeves. It is 100 Precision and causes a nice 7AN damage that is irresistible and has a chance of enslaving your enemy (MR does resist). I think is gives a +4 MR save so you may need some penetration boosters to help boost its effectiveness. The one trick is its only range 15 so you will probably want to script it a bit later in the combat sequence and have some decent bodyguards around the mages that you plan to cast with.

    Internal Alchemy (Alt 3 ¿ W2S1)
    This weird spell that costs 2 water gems reduces the caster age by 15 years. It also will give them insanity (5) and 2 experience stars. Since the only guys you have who can cast it are the Celestial Masters, who are not Old, it does not appear too useful. However, the experience bonus will increase your leadership from 10 to 25 which could be useful.

    				8.33.3.2.7 Pretender Design Thoughts

    I am not one for scripting an entire game so will leave out specific Pretender builds for the good reader but here are some thoughts. Obviously you cannot have everything so need to make tradeoffs here. The one thing I would not skimp on is an Earth Blessing.

    Blessings
    Your only sacred, recruitable troops are the Ancestor Vessels. While they are excellent units, they are capital only and they are not the real strength of LA TC so I would not recommend building a bless strategy based solely on them. That said, with their ranged attacks, a Death Blessing can make them extremely nasty / a joy to play and your opponents will come to loathe your hit and run tactics. But given LA TCs real strength is in their mages, all of whom are sacred, an Earth Bless is almost a requirement.

    Magic Paths
    Fire and Blood are absent from TC. You won¿t miss much ignoring them. High level Astral is very useful for TC. First, it can help you bridge many paths to boosters by allowing you to forge a Ring of Wizardry. Second, it makes a late game tactic, Master Enslave, possible / more effective, along with Wish. Finally Earth is a must to give your magi a reinvigoration bless. High level Death can be fun for the Death blessing that synergizes well with TC¿s sacred ranged troops and its effective combat magi. It also helps ensure you can summon Tartarians, another important late-game strategy.

    Scales
    * Order / Turmoil: Order 3 is a must. Period. Your troops and mages are not the most expensive, but nor are they cheap and you will want to buy as many as you can.

    * Production / Sloth: can be useful, and I actually took a Production 1 scale in my big LA TC game, but I have come to question the value of Production. It certainly can help drive early game expansion, but I question its usefulness in the long-run as your end game battles will depend more on your magi and summoned troops, and you will find that gold will most often be your bottleneck ¿ not resources. So I¿d suggest thinking about some serious Sloth. Besides, LA TC is still a bureaucracy and sloth is quite in line.

    * Growth / Death: I typically don¿t mess around too much with Death or Growth. Your Battle-Mages are all old but as long as you are neutral here, you won¿t have too many geezers kicking the bucket. I am no expert on these particular scales but I¿d suggest neutral.

    * Luck / Misfortune: Most people say take Misfortune 2 if you have Order 3. I have to say though that I love Luck, even if it doesn¿t synergize with Order. Anything that can get you more Gold, more Gems, more Magic Items, more Heroes, and less Lab accidents is worth its weight in gold, especially if you hit a lucky event early on in the game - it can literally give you a huge advantage. I will usually try to squeeze in at least Luck 1. Not to beat a dead horse on Luck but the TC heroes are nice to get early as they can make excellent mobile leaders and help you bootstrap up the magic levels.

    * Magic / Drain: As for Magic, there is no way you should even think about taking Drain. I would go for Magic 3 and race up the research ladder. It will also help reduce your fatigue, which can be the Achilles heel of TC¿s Battle-magi if left untreated.

    				8.33.3.2.8 Tactics / Strategies

    Many ideas are covered throughout with respect to the particular units but here is a summary of some things to be thinking about as LA TC:

    Communions
    Read up on Baalz¿s awesome guide on communions here. You should eventually have a large amount of astral casters with all sorts of additional paths. Communions boost holy levels too so will help shore up your lack of powerful priests. You will want a way to cast divine blessing, and communions are one of the easiest ways. Learn to set up reverse communions as well and use Banishment per Meglobob¿s suggestion in Baalz¿ guide if you need to deal with Ermor or Pan undead chaff.

    Vine Ogre / Smiths
    Your N2 mages with a Thistle Mace and Ivory Crown can churn out Vine Ogres. Send them forth to conquer with your Smiths, who can boost their protection. This can make for tough squads of high morale / high HP beings useful in the late game

    Enslave / Master Enslave
    Your S2 Celestial Masters with Starshine Skullcap and Crystal Coin make effective enslavers. Communion boosting for Master Enslave is risky as it will take a huge Fatigue blast on your communion slaves ¿ see MaxWilson¿s note on fatigue cost. But if you have a high level Astral Pretender or the Master of the Iron Crutch with 3 miscellaneous slots you can use him to Master Enslave your foes and watch them cry as their troops are assimilated into the TC collective.

    				8.33.3.2.9 Research

    If you can stay out of war, I would go for Construction, at level 4 you can forge Skull Mentors and research will really take off. TC really shines with high level of research where powerful combat spells with low path requirements become available. Rather than script a path, I have tried to cite spell levels so you can see which are some of the more important schools, like Alteration and Evocation. If facing undead or low MR powerful races, then Thaumaturgy. I think getting to Construction 8 can be a nice possibility for TC. Since they are somewhat of a jack-of-all trades, master of none magically, a lot of the Level 8 boosters will be a huge benefit to them. For example, they can bootstrap into A4 with a Fairy Queen and Tome of High Power, or A2 Ancestor Guide, Tome of High Power, Ring of Wizardry. A4 is critical to get the Bag of Wind and Winged Helmet that boost your Air. These can then be given to your Ancestor Guides (or Fairy Queens) at your key battle fronts to help you cast Fog Warriors or Storm Warriors, important defensive spells for the late game. Of course there are a number of other great reasons to hit Con 8 first, like the Chalice and the Sceptre of Dark Regency, which will make your life much, much easier. The Sword of Injustice plus a Mound Fiend gets you another H3 caster in addition to your prophet ¿ useful if you are fighting a 2 front war and need another Divine Bless caster. Given LA TC has cheap sacred magi recruitable everywhere, and early access to Skull Mentors and Owl Quills, you have a great shot to win the Con 8 race. Thaum is a good school to work on for remote site searching early on, but I generally will switch to physical searching to save on gems and get more sites at once since many of your mages will have 3 schools.

    				8.33.3.2.10 PD

    TC has pretty strong PD with 1 footmen and 2 archers for each point . At level 20, you get a Spirit Master and PD points over 20 give you Barbarian Heavy Horsemen. Pretty cost effective but I usually leave it at 1 until I border the AI or a foe or have some extra gold, at which point I will raise it to 10 to try and catch enemy scouts. Against stealthy foes it is probably worth it to pay up higher.

    				8.33.3.2.11 Bootstrapping

    TC is well-suited to boot strap its way up the ladder in Nature, Death, Air, and Earth magic. Once you get going be sure to read sector24s awesome guide on how to do this here

    				8.33.3.2.12 Remote Assassination

    You will eventually have access to at least 3 forms of remote assassination and mixing them up can keep your enemy off balance. It is especially pleasant to hold off on remote assassinations until a key moment and then launch as many as you can at once ¿ hopefully causing your foe an unintended bowel release when he checks his turn.
    - Earth Attack (Conj 8 ¿ E5)
    - Manifestation (Conj 8 ¿ D5)
    - Mind Hunt (Evo 6 ¿ S4)

    				8.33.3.2.13 Some Common Threats and How to Deal

    Darkness
    The ruin of many a non-undead nation, Darkness can make your life tough. Assuming you are fighting undead who are the most likely to use it, you can set up communions to cast Antimagic ( do this first), then Solar Brilliance (Ench 7 ¿ S5). Beware the blindness caused by Solar Brilliance is tough to get rid of via healing including the Chalice. Other ways to deal with Darkness are summoning your own undead troops to fight and using 100 precision spells.

    Demons
    Their high MR makes them tough foes. Focus on disrupting your enemies Blood economy with remote attack spells like Ghost Riders. You can also screw their Blood magic with spells like Rain of Stones, that can wipe out their Blood slave - whoops, where did Greta go? In addition, you will eventually have a W3 Celestial Master, who when equipped with a Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea can cast Demon Cleansing. Also take a look at some of the Astral items you can forge, like Herald Lances.

    Giants
    Usually have low MR so you can spam Disintegrate, Charm, and Enslave. For those low protection Utsgard Woodsmen use lots of archers. Even better, give any high defense commander an Eye Shield, and watch their nation crumble (thanks to Cleveland for that lesson).

    Anything not Cold Resistant
    Frozen Heart, repeat.

    Wife or Significant Other
    "We need to spend some time together - why do you think that game is so fun" Your on your own on this one buddy - this would take a whole book of strategies....

    			8.33.3.3

    	8.34 Ulm

    	    	8.34.1 EA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.1.1 EA Ulm advice

    -> Pray, pray very hard you do not start next to Kailasa.

    There's been a recent 'fun' tactic of trample Ulm to death with massed elephants before turn 15, going on.

    This as happened with Bander Log vs Ulm and Patala vs Ulm.

    Ulm does'nt stand a chance against this tactic, because his largest unit is size 3 and elephants are size 6. Also 120 crossbows/archers all set to target large monsters does not work either...

    Might be a good idea to take a awake, tough pretender, just to make sure your not rushed and crushed early on.

    -> Thaumaturgy;

    Sleep and Panic.
    Bonds of Fire (morale-dependent, so it should REALLY slow those elephants down!).

    Alteration:
    Earth Grip/Earth Meld might work. False Fetters has a much better chance of working, but Air 2 is rare.

    Perhaps Great Bears from Conjuration. They are size 4.

    -> Saw MA Ulm use Bonds of Fire, he had 6-12 dwarven smiths (this was his final stand vs Bander Log in his capital fortress), while they did effect the elephants, they only seemed to slow them 1 or 2 rounds, so not really effective.

    Others may be useful, not seen them used or tried them to stop a elephant stampede.

    The tactic seems to be to amass 10-20+ elephants in one large mass, mix in some higher morale apes/other units. Very simple, more deadly than a multi-blessed nation to any nation with size 3 or smaller units.

    Also its usually backed up with 20 - 40+ longbows just for added pain.

    -> I just started a large game with EA Ulm and chose a Dragon awake pretender with a high Domain to try and avoid that. With the Awe + Fear and my breath weapon I hope to make people pause before rushing me. The breath will help alot with the Van/Hel (though probably not enough). I get to expand very fast which is a big plus as well.

    -> Elephants can squash anything smaller than themselves almost no matter what it is... until they get hurt and panic and trample their own men.

    Bunches of archers are one counter that can work...

    -> EA Ulm can be very powerful, especially early on before they have to worry about nasty magic.

    Of their national troops, I prefer the female warriors with shields (skilled, shielded, good value for gold and resources), and archers. Armored archers in front of unarmored archers.

    Blessable two-handed sword guys can be good too, especially depending on the blessing.

    The axe throwers can be ok - a blizzard of axes can be deadly, but they are vulnerable.

    Warrior Smiths are of course nice. Sometimes they can make nice combat participants in various unexpected ways.

    -> A low level nature bless on the steel warriors makes them a lot more durable since regen reduces the chance of afflictions by a large margin. It's especially good since they don't have shields.

    I also used primarily warrior maidens and archers in absolute masses. First unarmored but later armored archers, and hordes of warrior smiths. The best kind of battle mage warrior smiths are the E3, E2F1 and F2E1 types, because when you give them earth boots and a girdle, they will be brutal at casting blade wind, magma eruption and fireball respectively. Magma eruption is easily my favorite of those, it REALLY gets rid of the annoying enemies in quantity even if they have shields.

    Shamans and antlered shamans are good for casting panic and those should be the best against big low morale things like elephants.

    -> Troglodytes are size 5 tramplers and have far better morale than elephants, but not as many hit points. 47 is still tough, though.

    Flaming arrows is good, but you need a fire booster to get it going. Fortunately the shamans have FEDN randoms so it's just a matter of time before you land one who gets both F and D from those, allowing you to make a skull of fire for one of your F2E1 warrior smiths. If you put a F9N4 bless on your steel warriors, they can and will hurt anything that comes up against them rather brutally. An air bless would not be bad either, because the steel warriors WILL be taking fire from archers, both enemy and your own.

    Massed warrior smiths and strong evocation is the way to go. Something like trogs and elephants are really NOT going to like magma bolts, fireballs, and magma eruption and blade wind is a staple.

    One of the strengths of EA Ulm is that even though its mages are not very powerful, they are very versatile. Also, except for your mountain, iron and steel warriors and warrior smiths, all of your units are stealthy and every single one of them has both mountain and forest survival. So you have excellent raiding potential. Lots and lots of scouts should give you eyes to see and warrior chiefs with lots of archers and warrior maidens should make for good raiding groups that can take care of most PD garrisons easily since the otehr players will be using their money for mages and troops.

    You will probably want to take at least some production scale since EA Ulm needs lots of troops quickly and that requires comparatively more resources than money.

    -> if you want to keep your sacreds alive, a single lvl 9 astral bless is good. It gives twist fate. Working very well on my Marverni sacreds. Also its a very, very cheap bless, so you can have good scales. It also means you have a pretender with lvl 9 astral magic which gives you access to alot of nasty late game spells.

    It won't help much against tramplers, but hopefully you will not start any where near Agartha.

    -> Ulm has fairly strong archers, but these are one of the easiest types of units to negate. They also have axemen with throwing axes--which do a suprisingly heavy amount of damage.

    Mixing unit types leads to stronger armies, but the real question is, what do you mix with what? To my knowledge, it seems like the Axemen are the most lethal, since they can throw axes on approach and then use these high-damage weapons to hack up troops when they get into melee, striking twice a turn.

    But there's no real reason to use the advanced soldiers, is there? A little bit of armor for half again as much cost?

    Also, much was said of the warrior smiths. Besides the smithing bonus, what help are they? They have a little bit of command skill, but the shamans also get priest spells, and stealth. They also cost fewer resources, which is Ulm's main limitation.

    I think EA Ulm's sacreds are pretty worthless in any major strategic sense. Being that they're Capitol Only and rather basic (and without shields), there's not much worth to the added cost. The chance to drop a high bless on them is tempting, but I think it's more tempting to heavily tip the scales and produce more units. What do you guys think?

    -> Most of the Ulmish warrior units are useless. The ones with throwing axes may do some good but the rest are rubbish. The reason why they are rubbish is because they have a basic attack of 10 or 11 that gets cut down to 8 or 9 due to ambidexterity penalties, meaning that the first time they go up against any high defense medium armor units like almost everything EA Ermor, Vanheim or Helheim and possibly other have, they will accomplish precisely nothing.

    If you want to use double attack melee units, use the Steel Maidens. Twin short swords mean only a penalty of 1 to a base attack higher than that of the various warriors and mixing them in with the Shield Maidens will give them some more durability. The Steel Maidens have fairly high defense for line units and are tougher than most other national infantries anyway.

    The Steel Warriors (sacred) do suffer from one pretty severe limitation and that is slow movement with mapmove 1. So they will become more or less obsolete as soon as you expand more than five provinces outward (assuming you get that far, of course). Takes too long to get them to the front and you don't have any astral mages (or means to get them unless you get Athalwolf the Maker of Heroes) to gate them to a friendly lab in the frontlines. So instead of a ?9 bless, you can go the route of several minor blesses, which would also give you magical versatility. The main problem there is that the most useful minor blesses would be E4F4W4N4 and you get rather the abundance of those magics already. D4 doesn't do much but gives you death magic and S4 likewise for astral. A4+ gives them some survivability against arrows and you and you need that much to produce the air boosters. A4E4 will give a couple of minor blesses and allow you to construct the more useful type of elemental staff later on. B4 will also help your sacreds, but it's a waste of points since you're not a blood nation. Astral and death is where you really hurt nationally. You can get a fairly cheap N4W4 bless with a dormant Lady of Springs if you're so inclined and have good scales left over.

    Several minor blesses or rainbow picks to patch up your magical deficiencies and good scales, especially production, is the way to go.

    -> If you want blesses, I think the best for Ulm would be S9A4, more Air if you can afford it. This gives +3 MR, Twist fate and some arrow defense. If you go with a Dormant Oracle, you could easily go S9A6 and still have plenty left over for scales. Astral/Air bless covers your sacred's greatest weakness, no shield, and terrible MR (all of EA Ulm's units have 8), having twist fate also allow them to live longer, which is always a plus.

    If you don't want blesses, the best path is to go for scales and/or an SC. My choice would be an awake D4 Prince of Death with 9 dominion. For scales, I'd go with a 2 Drain (to help your low MR troops), 3 production (to make lots of troops), 1 cold (your preference), the rest into order/growth (depends on how you like to play).

    -> The thing about the Ulmish warriors is that they have an attack of 10 for warrior and axe warrior and 11 for forest and mountain warrior. Axe and forest warriors have 2 axes and a throwing axe while warriors and mountain warriors have axe and broad sword.

    Penalties, 2 axes:
    -1 attack on axe, axe+axe = ambidex penalty of 2, making for a total penalty of 3. Subtract ambidex rating of 1 and final penalty is 2, for 2 attacks at 8. This means that the second attack can be treated as if it were attack 10 against the target's normal defense.

    Penalties axe + broadsword
    lengths 1+2=3, axe -1 and broadsword 0 and ambidex reduces penalty by 1, Final result is attack ratings axe 7, broadsword 8 for a unit with base attack 10. Meaning attack 7 + attack 10 against normal defense of target. Not exactly something that fills you with confidence.

    Then take a look at Steel Maiden: Attack 12, 2x shortsword and ambidex 1. Length 1+1=2, reduced to 1 by ambidex, gives you two attacks at base 11. The steel maiden is more heavily armored than the basic warrior and has only 2 points less body prot than the forest and mountain warriors, much better attack and defense, has a strat move of 2 plus stealth, whereas neither forest nor mountain warrior is stealthy and both have strat move of 1.

    Shield maidens swap one short sword for a shield, giving them one attack at 12 and a def of 15, 11 without shield. Shield maidens, steel maidens and warrior maidens (the armored archer) all cost 13 resources to the warrior/axe warrior's 10 or forest/mountain warrior's 16.

    Can ANYONE please tell me why anyone could possibly want to buy anything but shield, steel and warrior maidens as EA Ulm unless they really intend to use the axe warriors for shock effect with the throwing axes and then to soak up damage from the enemy while the women do the actual fighting and killing. Mixing half steel and half shield maidens will give some punch and improve overall squad survivability and lessen the morale effects of a rain of arrows.

    E.g. Ermorian units eat Ulmish warriors for breakfast, but the maidens are a different story.

    -> One thing to keep in mind is that successive attacks in a round reduce the victim's defense value by 2 for each attack, so the second Axe Warrior attack will effectively 2 points higher. The extra defense penalties stack very nicely if your warriors outnumber high defense enemies, allowing them to hit their foes easily.

    -> Why bother with the axe warriors when the steel maidens can do the same thing for melee more effectively? And last longer because they substantially higher defense and better protection to boot. You might want them for the throwing axes, but then they will be reaching melee later because they pause to throw the axes first, and you can't make EA Ulm work solely with axe/forest warriors because their low defense gets them killed too quickly.

    The difference of defense between steel maiden and the warriors is between 2 and 5 and shield maiden and warriors is between 5 and 8. You do the math.

    -> The sword warriors are pretty worthless. The axe guys are only minorly use it as cheap 10/10 axe-chuckers, but even then you gott ask yourself if a short-range axe chucker is worth the cost of an archer. Their accuracy is bad too.

    Against most basic infantry the Steel Maidens are much more useful. Their weapons do more than enough damage to mangle troops, and they consistantly double-hit. If you divide them up into small groups instead of large lumps they can swarm over troops and really cut them up badly. Sending in a small pile of axemen is possible... but why?

    It'd be better to use the Shield Maidens. Same cost, better use. So shield blockers with steel maidens on the sides.

    Also, something that's rarely mentioned are the Iron Warriors. Attack of 12 with a Maul, they have excellent to-hit characteristics with high damage output. As always they lack shields and aren't exactly stealthy, but if you need to attack targets that are too durable for Steel Maidens, sending in Iron Warriors is a good alternative. They have heavy armor and can fend off attacks, and do serious damage to things. They're basically as good as the Steel Warrior sacreds, and your best mass-produced alternative to high-durability units outside of summons. They're also relatively cheap. But the Steel Maidens are still superior against most units due to their efficent 2-strike combos.

    -> EA nation is a very strong nation, in my opinion. Steel Maidens are very strong with good defense, protection and attack.

    Warrior Maidens are powerful archers...

    In midgame, you should focus on diversifying your magic through constant site-searching to find powerful independent mages. Your steel maidens, shield maidens and warriors maidens can take most other nationals on a troop-for-troop basis... spells like flaming arrows, blade wind, strength of giants and others can help even the odds against tougher nations. Use your stealth to your advantage, raiding if you must... hiding in your own territory to confuse the enemy about your numbers is also helpful.

    -> With a high astral pretender(possibly with other, booster forging paths you may not have access to) EA Ulm can have some insane magic diversity(their mages+summoned mages+path booster+rings of wizardry/sorcery)

    	    	    	8.34.1.2 EA Ulm - Flying Conans of Doom

    			Article Author: Baalz

    Baalz, what is best in life? Playing a nation that keeps making you exclaim ¿cool!¿ every time you look at a new facet. I hadn¿t really taken a close look at EA Ulm, but once I had I wonder why this is not a nation who is more universally feared. They¿ve got so many solid things going for them, this is a nation you should be watching closely the whole game.

    Steel Warriors. These guys are smaller/cheaper sacreds and cap only so you can¿t really base your whole strategy on them, but they are totally awesome and you should use as many as you can get. Let me paint a picture for those of you thinking Ulm is a nation where the women call the shots. You¿re going to want to take a major earth bless (bear with me) which turns these guys into near unstoppable juggernauts (well, by the human scale at least). They start out with a 12 protection. Add an earth bless. Add legions of steel. Add wooden warriors. Now let¿s add in a minor nature component to the bless so that your mid 20¿s protection can really go the mile. Add in a 13 defense on a size 2 guy, plus a length 3 weapon with a 13 attack skill (which works as a poor man¿s awe against most guys wielding weapons who have a chance to get through your protection) and realize you¿ve got a net 1 encumbrance. But wait, that¿s just half the bundle of joy. Let¿s look at what we¿re laying out on the offense. That 13 attack skill (which is going to rack up stars before you know it) is delivering a 13 strength plus 9 damage weapon plus strength of giants comes to 26. That¿ll spit some shields and kneecap some giants! These guys are worthy of the name Conan and half the justification for springing for such a nice blessing. To prove the gods love Conan they also gave these guys 75% frost resistance ensuring that there¿s no giants they can¿t slay. Drop a winter ward on them then use freezing mist for a nasty combo. Of course, they¿re also plenty nasty enough with nothing but that blessing for indie clearing, particularly with their backup singers.

    Now, there is some truth to the fact that the women of Ulm carry much of the weight. The men give you important power concentration, but the women are going to provide the bulk of your armies. Why? Because they kick ***! There¿s not much reason at all to recruit any male troops other than steel warriors, these vicious vixens have you covered. The shield maiden and steel maiden are both excellent infantry units, you¿ll use depending on what you¿re facing. Shield vs double sword, I¿ll leave that choice as an exercise for the student, but also realize that these ladies are stealthy.

    This is one of the things that you should not loose sight of. Much like Vanheim or Pangea, EA Ulm is a stealth nation with fearsome raiding potential. You¿ve got very solid stealthy units, and stealthy archers to back them up  no PD is safe. Did I mention you¿ve also got stealthy combat mages? Speaking of your archers, the warrior maidens can also only be described as incredible. Its medium infantry plus an archer all wrapped up in a stealthy package for a reasonable price. What¿s not to love? Unless you¿re fighting someone practically immune to archers (Abysia, etc.) you¿ll probably want to recruit mostly these lovely lasses by default because they¿re very effective switch hitters. You should end up with some double air warrior smiths (wind guide) and some double fire ones (flaming arrows) fairly early so massive amounts of archers should be something that elicits a wicked grin.

    Alright, now let¿s take a look at your mages. You might, at this point be thinking that I spent too much on the blessing for a nation with cap only sacreds. But you don¿t have cap only sacreds. You¿ve got sacreds you can recruit from every single fort. I¿m speaking, of course, of the shaman. Again, let me paint a picture for you. Earth bless. Summon earth power. Boots of the messenger. On a unit cheap enough to be spilling out of every fort you put up, who can cast¿.magma eruption, destruction, blade wind, falling fires, raise skeletons, bane fire (don¿t be afraid to pass out a couple gems to get the guys who are close to casting the spells you really wanted to cast). Oh, and with some boosters - relief because your reinvig wasn¿t enough already. The potential magic output is staggering¿.near unending skellispam blocking for a rain of evocations that never quits (with none of the risks of communions), all on mages who bless up to a 13 protection with regen even if you¿re too lazy to self buff them, take the time to apply ironskin and the enemy can¿t even hurt them if they make it to the back. Oh, did I mention they also potentially self buff eagle eyes? Go with wind guide for the bigger battles, your evocation slingers will thank you. Oh yeah, and eyes of aiming are only 2 gems, look into that. But wait, there¿s more.

    Those paying attention will probably already know where I¿m going with this after reading my MA Ulm guide. Sacred earth mages. Well now, we¿ve got potential thugs coming out of our ears and a nice forge bonus. Blessing, earthpower, ironskin, plus some nice options not available to MA Ulm like elemental fortitude. Toss in some good armor (along with some bracers of defense to double up on that earth blessing), a fire brand and a shield of beaten gold and start carving away with your almost 30 protection, high defense and regen. By good armor I mean elemental armor. Stick that on top of your elemental fortitude and stick an evil grin on top of that.

    In fact, it¿s amazing how much better the warrior smiths of EA are compared to MA. The stuff you can apply that forge bonus to without empowering now runs the range from bottles of living water to winged boots to rune smashers and you can even get up to staffs of elemental mastery with a little work. What¿s even better is you¿ve got the mages to site search fire, water, earth, air, death and nature so if you do this right you¿ll have plenty of gems to leverage in the gem rich EA.

    You have a good spread of magic, but you¿ll potentially have a hard time casting the larger spells so let¿s plan for that. Your bad *** infantry would really like some nice fog warriors and mass flight, and it¿d be nice to be able to lay down a grip of winter when the situation merited it for your 1 encumbrance 75% CR Conans. Staffs of elemental mastery are pretty expensive and hard to get, much easier is adding a touch of astral to your pretender so that he can forge crystal shields. A2 smiths with a crystal shield can cast mass flight (think that might work well with a swarm of buffed Conans and dual weapon steel maidens?). 2 A2s working together can storm -> storm power -> fog warriors. A F2 with a crystal shield and fire skull can drop a firestorm (hmmm, mechanical men anyone?). A W2 with a shield, robe and bracelet can drop demon cleansing (haha, just try it Lanka/Yomi). A F/W one can drop acid storm - awesome late game as there¿s no way to get a resistance and it does AP damage. Use this in combo with, say, high reinvig skelispamers (buffed with ironskin and regenerating from their blessing), swarm, elementals, etc to tie up the bad guys. Nature has it¿s own booster which does a better job than the shield, but don¿t neglect the nice stuff you can get up to in that path from mass protection to gai¿s blessing (did I mention you can drop almost every battlefield wide elemental damage spell?). It could probably go without saying that earth buffs should also be ubiquitous, Conan with weapons of sharpness, quickening and mass flight will chop up anything from demon lords to tartarians and look stylish doing it. Steel maidens aren¿t that much less scary and you¿ll have a couple orders of magnitude more of them. What your opponent can possibly do once you're regularly dropping all this stuff together I'm not sure. Leverage fairy trod and cloud trapeze for some nasty surprises nobody would expect out of Ulm, even your PD is pretty damn nasty with these buffs. Don't forget the really nice stuff you can drop with no particular effort to, this is a nation just begging for half an excuse to drop a rain of stones or thank you for your thoughtfulness in bringing thugs into their battery of charm spam. I did mention rune smashers were cheap, and your mages tough enough to sit on the front line right?

    Now, you¿ve got almost no astral, no blood (other than hopefully boostrapping up to blood stones), and fairly weak death magic. On first glance you might think this means you¿re going to struggle late game. Hell no you're not. Why? Because you don¿t need most of the things you get from these paths late game. Sure they¿d be nice, but they¿re not necessary and you can be very competitive without them. If flying Conans of Doom aren¿t mobile enough for your needs and even your stealthy Fox Force Five ninja chicks are having trouble just remember that you¿re crapping out a steady stream of very configurable thugs every turn. Your neighbor set up an early tartarian factory? Conveniently enough you¿ve now got two dozen guys equipped with flying boots and holy scourges. Or demon banes. Or serpent kryss. Or whatever the hell it is your opponent really wishes you weren¿t forging quite so cheaply and sticking on the reasonably priced guys streaming out of all your forts. Who needs SCs when you¿re swimming in anti-SCs and some of the best combat mages in the game who are immune to everything while dropping the really nasty stuff from under double digit reinvig? Your recruitable units and mages scale up to the degree they¿re competitive with the stuff everybody else wanted death and blood for and with a bit of cleverness all that stealth, flying boots and cloud trapeze goes a long way towards mitigating the lack of astral flexibility. True, you¿re not going to be wishing for what you want or spamming ghost riders, but if you can¿t be hella scary with the tools in your chest then you¿re just not trying very hard. You probably don¿t even want to spend many gems on summonings/rituals, with that fat forge bonus and all the hammers you¿ve built up by now forging stuff to stick on your mages/thugs is probably the most efficient thing you can do.

    Alright, now we¿re cooking with butter. Here¿s how I maintain my title of evil bastard. You¿ll want to shoehorn into bloodstones just as much as MA Ulm, it¿s a tough call weather the extra boosters for your combat mages are more useful or the extra gems but the good news is you don¿t have to decide, you get both (meaning all those shamans can use boots of the messenger and summon earthpower). You should slide into late game with a respectable earth income. Save up your gems over a couple turns and use your pretender to drop forge of the ancients. With forge of the ancients up your smiths forge items normally costing 5 gems for 1 gem apiece without using a hammer. Shields of beaten gold and fire brands for 2 gems apiece. The implications of crapping out 50 items a turn without exhausting your gem income combined with a virtually unlimited supply of self buffing thug chasises is mind boggling. Even if the forge is dispelled the very next turn you got so much of a return on investment it¿s not even funny. If the fools you¿re playing with *don¿t* dispel it¿.I have a hard time imagining how you¿d manage to lose.

    Now I haven¿t really talked too much about your pretender or scales, just some magic paths you¿ll probably want. Strong earth, weak nature and astral. There¿s a couple different ways to go from an awake SC to an imprisoned amazing scales guy, or you could stack some more stuff on that Conan bless. Adding minor water and/or blood blessings would be welcome additions and get you pretty easily into clams and blood stones, while air will let you forge those boosters which can be significant boon. Lots of different reasonable ways to spend your points.

    So, what else can I say? You can easily be immune to whatever your opponent likes to do while dropping whatever he really wishes you wouldn¿t and at the end of the day Conan and all his friends have your back. What more could you want?

    	    	8.34.1 MA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.1.1 Guide

    Guide to MA Ulm

    MA Ulm is a nation with large advantages and large disadvantages. It¿s possible that their disadvantages outweigh their advantages, making them one of the weaker nations in most people¿s opinion. Regardless, in a situation like this, it¿s even more important than usual to make the most of the advantages you do have.

    Major Strengths: Item Forging. Cheap, heavy-duty national troops.
    Major Weaknesses: Slow, resource-expensive troops. Poor magic diversity. No sacreds. Poor magic resistance.

    My thoughts on Pretender design:

    Given the overall concept of maximizing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses, it makes sense that your pretender for MA Ulm should be able to expand your magic diversity while having a dominion that provides enough resources to crank out your resource-expensive units. Some things that are important to other nations are not important to Ulm, namely Dominion strength and Blesses (Ulm has no sacreds).
    Additionally, Ulm generally has an easy time dispatching average-strength independents due to its powerful infantry, so an awake SC pretender isn¿t a must. This combination of factors seems to lead to the selection of a Rainbow Pretender, although an SC god could be equipped with items from the very beginning of the game and be quite potent, if you choose to go that route. Ulm gets a special Rainbow Pretender called the Alchemist, and I imagine he is very good for certain Ulm strategies. However, his major advantage is the conversion of earth or fire gems to gold, and Ulm typically does not need a lot of money to operate, but they do need a lot of earth and fire gems, so this Pretender is not my first choice. I typically select the Great Enchantress.
    The Great Enchantress is an ideal choice in my opinion for one reason: her focus on astral magic. Not only does she get 1S to start (making it not too expensive to bump her up to 4 or 5S), she also gets 1 astral pearl per turn. These can be saved for a Ring of Wizardry to boost Ulm¿s magic diversity, an absolutely key item. I typically take at least 2 of every path, except for Blood and Astral. Blood I generally take just 1, and Astral I take 4-5. I favor an awake pretender to immediately begin site searching, but a dormant one would work fine as well.

    I generally take the following Dominion:

    Order 1, 2, or 3
    Production 3 (for Ulm¿s resource-intensive troops)
    Misfortune 1, 2, or 3 (to pay for the Order)
    Drain 3 (Ulm¿s smiths are immune to Drain)
    Dominion strength 3-5 (enough to avoid getting dominion killed and spread your scales)

    National Troops:

    Arbelest
    A top-notch missile unit nearly on par with the longbowman. Arbelests are cheaper than longbowmen and have a good protection. They have a long range and do absolutely devastating amounts of damage, especially to heavily-armored units. However, they have poor map move, magic resistance, and are resource-intensive like most of Ulm¿s units.

    Infantry of Ulm
    Available with a variety of armaments specialized for different foes, the Infantries of Ulm are in the top tier of non-sacred heavy infantry units in the game, considering their cost.

    Black Plates
    Also available with a variety of armaments, Black Plate Infantry are without a doubt the best 10 gold unit available in the game if you ignore their resource cost (which is huge). Their protection is high enough so that they even take very little damage from crossbow bolts  the only missile weapon that can do significant damage to them is Ulm¿s own Arbelest (typically make sure your arbelests are doing something besides ¿firing closest¿). However, their defense is low and their encumbrance high, so they are not invulnerable in melee, just very tough.

    Black Knights
    One of the best non-sacred calvary in the game. They can crush enemy infantry and take very little damage in the process due to their high protection.

    Sappers
    An expensive crossbowman. Sappers are nitch units  their main use is to break down stubborn enemy castle gates, not so much to actually fight. However, they do have a map move of 2, something rare for Ulm, so they can also be used as missile support for Black Knights.

    Guardians
    A strong heavy infantry unit. They have much better morale than the standard Infantry of Ulm, but they are twice as expensive. They gain a bonus when defending castles, so they are useful in that respect. If you have money to burn, these might be a good option as meatshields in the mid-late game.

    Commanders:

    Spies
    Very effective at..um.. spying.. and also causing unrest in enemy provinces. A great unit!

    Commander of Ulm
    Available with different weapon choices and protection values just like the other Ulm infantry. These Commanders are superior to the standard indy commander for the same price.

    Lord Guardian
    A Guardian unit turned into a commander. They seem to offer very little for the increased price tag over the standard Commander of Ulm.

    Black Lord
    Just slightly more expensive than the Lord Guardian, these commanders are mobile, well protected, and pack a nice punch. When equipped with magic weapons, they are often used in the early-mid game as thugs.

    Siege Engineer
    These commanders have low protection and leadership ability, so they are rarely used for anything other than their prime function: breaking down enemy castle gates. In this limited function they are quite good for the price.

    Master Smith
    The only Ulm mage, the Master Smith is researcher, item-forger, and battlemage of Ulm. They are focused on earth and fire, without much diversity (although they do have a 10% random chance in A, E, F, or S). They are pretty cheap to purchase, and they are effective at all three of their functions.

    Battlemagic:
    Master Smiths are quite effective mages on the battlefield. Their paths allow for army buffing spells like Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants, Iron Warriors, Marble Warriors, and Weapons of Sharpness. They can also cast evocation spells such as Blade Wind, Magma Bolts, and Magma Eruption.

    Summoning Spells:
    Summons like the Cave Drake and the Crusher can be effective enough meatshields, but I typically save my gems for Mechanical Men. Smiths who gain an Astral random can summon Golems (with adders).

    Ritual Spells:
    Master Smiths can¿t cast many ritual spells, but one worth mentioning is Earth Attack, a potent assassination spell (although they will need earth adders to do so).

    Research Goals:

    Ulm¿s research goals should maximize their benefits as a nation, therefore I find it difficult to bring myself to research anything other than Construction, at least until Construction-6. Often, I will continue on to artifacts before researching anything in any other sphere. This requires that you are not under heavy attack, although not necessarily not at war.
    If you are under heavy attack from a powerful foe, research priorities change. Construction-4 is still the number one priority, however, because along the way you will gain a battle spell (legions of steel), and the items you can forge will also be useful. After this, switch to Conjuration-3 for Summon Earthpower (so you can cast Legions of Steel) or Evocation to cast Magma Bolts. You can continue with Evocation for Blade Wind, or switch to Enchantment for Strength of Giants. After the war, switch back to Construction as soon as possible.

    General Strategy:

    As mentioned before, Ulm typically has an excess of money because of its gold-cheap, resource-expensive troops, and cheap mages. With this money, you can build castles early, buy all the mercenaries available, and buy hoards of independent troops. These last two can help very much in fighting early wars, especially if you are keeping all your mages to research towards Construction-6 (something I recommend).
    Once you get Construction-4, build a set of Earth Boots. With these boots, you can start item forging in earnest  begin by mass producing Dwarven Hammers (you can do this earlier if you get an Earth random on your smiths). Build maybe 5 of them. Then let the fun begin! You can make Owl Quills if you get an Air random, Swords of Sharpness, Fire Brands, Charcoal Shields, and Burning Pearls for your Black Lord thugs, and most importantly, Sceptres of Authority for your indy commanders, priests, and commanders of Ulm. You will need the extra leadership to ferry around your hoards of troops, and they turn an otherwise useless commander into long-range artillery on the battlefield. Plus, at a mere 2 fire gems a pop, you can easily afford to give them to every single one of your commanders. In fact, build as many commanders as you can and give one of these Sceptres to them, if you have a significant fire gem income.
    When you reach Construction-6, you have many more options available. However, the first order of business is to mass produce Lightless Lanterns to get a huge increase in your research. Give one to each of your researchers as soon as possible. Then use your Pretender to make as many magic adders as you can (the first goal is a Ring of Wizardry) and give them to your smiths to increase the variety of items they can forge. With these adders, you should be able to cheaply forge many interesting and powerful items, such as: Robes of Invulnerability, a large variety of combat items for your Thugs and SCs, Stone Idols to give to spies, Stone Spheres for scrying, etc.
    You may wish at this point to empower your smiths in certain paths for which they do not normally gain randoms. I highly recommend doing this for blood for the sole reason of producing Blood Stones. Additionally, Black Hearts are useful on spies or black servants. Nature is another good choice, for producing Fever Fetishes.
    At this point, you should decide whether you want to continue on to artifacts for the Hammer of the Forge Lord (for a 75% total reduction in item cost..!) or whether you want to start getting more powerful thugs and SCs. This will determine if your next research goal is Construction-8 or Conjuration. However, with the added research of your Lightless Lanterns, getting both is not unreasonable. If you are able to acquire both your choice of artifacts and some of the unique summons (Earth and Fire Kings, for example), victory should be nearly within your grasp.

    Comments:

    -> It's also good to remember that the Arbalests are actually pretty decent infantry. Good hp and protection for archers, and shortsword is a good weapon. They lack shields, of course, but their arbalests work quite well against enemy archers... As such, they have less need for meat shield.

    -> AFAIK morningstars ignore shields, yes. You might want to use Flails against weakly protected foes for their two attacks, and mauls or battleaxes against high prot or high HP enemies like the Jotun giants - they're going to hit them harder, and when a Jotun hits them then it's game over anyway. Pikes with their extremely long length are perfect for fighting low morale troops with their repel effect.

    -> Besides having long weapons, pikeneers also have higher morale. 11 still isn't good, but it's a bit of a bonus. Their weapon also deals a bit more damage than flails or morningstars, while still having attack 1 instead of attack 0.

    Morningstars used to ignore shields, but with the different shield system in Dom3 their bonus changed to +2 attack against units with shields. In effect, they'll be able to strike past the parry value more often than other troops of the same skill. Both morningstars and flails have this bonus, and an attack rating of 1 to boot. And as multiple attacks lower defence, flails are even better against units with extreme defense or very good shields.

    You WILL get Smiths with randoms, so be sure you can use them for the best possible effect. Earth 2 Fire 2 isn't any better for Magma spells, but together with Phoenix Power you get access to many nice Fire spells. Not many items, though. With access to boosters, spamming Rods of the Phoenix could quickly become nasty... Wands of Wild Fire aren't bad, either.

    Astral 1 is a bit harder to use: it's mainly Arcane Probing until you can empower one to Astral 2. After that you can start mass-producing Crystal Coins and Starshine Skullcaps and Crystal Shields. Crystal Shields are good for your other randoms as well. There are other good and/or interesting items as well: Crystal Heart, Stone Idol, Stone Sphere, Eye of the Void, and the thug items Faithful/Lucky Coin/Pendant of Luck, Amulet of Antimagic, Elf Bane...

    Earth 2 Fire 1 Air 1 is hardest to boost. Sure, you can forge Owl Quills, but you can't remote-search unless you empower, and the first booster is from Air 4. There are some nice low-level items, though - Shield of Valor, Piercer (armor-negating Attack Rear, but still worse than Vision's Foe), Silver Hauberk, Chain Mail of Displacement... It might be worth it to take Air 4 with your pretender just for Air boosters. There's also the Earth/Air Staff of Elemental Mastery to consider...

    Earth 3 Fire 1 is the simplest. Combine with Earth Boots and Earth Power, and blast away.

    Of the paths you can't get even with randoms, Death is perhaps the most beneficial. Death gives Black Bows of Botulf (good against all SCs without Air Shield, or to force the enemy SCs to use Air Shield instead of something more offensive) and Flaming Skulls (for Fire oomph! Phoenix Power and thus Fire 3 for all your Smiths!) and Bane weapons, as well as site-searching spell. If you manage to get Death 2, you can summon revenants to do the sitesearching, and do Skull Staves and Shadow Brands and Skull Mentors, perhaps even those annoying Vision's Foes and Lantern Shields. And if you're good with spies, as you should be, you might consider Bane Venom Charms...

    Nature gets you nice items, but you need Nature 2 to really benefit from it. You'd get Nature 3 for the same price then, thanks to Thistle Maces, but supplies aren't enough, and it'll be hard to get something tougher that'd really benefit from Rings of Regeneration, and Charcoal Shield is better than Vine Shield in most cases. There's little Earth/Nature synergy in items, and Fire/Nature doesn't have much besides Fever Fetishes.
    Water gets you a booster at first level and has some nice items (Quickness from boots or jade armor, demon bane, bottle of living water, and breather items and Wave Breaker for getting underwater), but not much otherwise. Voice of Tiamat and Voice of Apsu aren't bad, either, but Death is still better.
    Even one Blood mage can potentially kickstart a blood economy, and you'll eventually be able to get lots of nice items (lifedrain, contracts, boots of youth, armor of souls which also doubles as a blood booster...), but as far as summons go it'd probably be too little, too late, and it'd be tedious to collect all those slaves.

    -> Even more than the site-searching use of a Rainbow Pretender, I go for being able to forge the boosters.

    Ring of wizardry is nice, but expensive and overkill on your Smiths. What I'm looking for are the cheaper boosters so I can cast more site-searching spells. Fire and Death for Flaming Skulls. Death 2 for Skull Staffs, and Revenants to use them. Nature 2 for Thistle maces for indy witch doctors. Astral for skull caps. And usually 4 air for bags/winged helmets. No need for earth on the pretender. Bloods easy to empower if you find blood hunters.

    Once I start sending Smiths out to battle, I try to make sure they've all got Earth boots. At 2 gems each, why not. If I've got the gems, I'll replace their armor with robes of missile protection partly to reduce encumbrance. With 3(or 4) base + Earthpower (and it's reinvig) they can get off quite a few Blade Winds. More Magma Eruptions, but that hurts your own troops.

    Troll Kings make good (if expensive) thugs.

    -> Try to build more castles than usual when playing Ulm. Remember that they get 25% more resources from every castle and that almost all their troops only cost 10 gold each. That gives you a lot of gold to build those castles with. Try order 3 and production 3. Build your second castle on turn 3. It really, really helps.

    -> If you have a mountain province adjacent to your capitol and your capitol has more than 2 adjacent other provinces, build a castle there. The peg-fortresses Ulm has are great with their 700 defense and admin 20, and they do not drain the capitol's provinces, only the province their built on. Read it up in the manual. There is "hidden" 50% resource pool in every province that is used for admin first. Building a castle on a province unlocks all the resources in that province of course.

    A small walkthrough:
    Let's say that the mountain province you have adjacent to your capitol is a mountain with 65 visible resources (if you capture it this number will of course go down at first due to the unrest). This figure (65) isn't too far fetched and is pretty standard for a mountain region.
    After you've captured it you start building your castle here, paying the 1000 gold that you will have on turn 3 if you did everything right; if you have difficulties with this use an Alchemist pretender, or use one so you also can build troops in your capitol on that turn. The castle will take 4 turns to complete, so use your scout pretender to build it the first turn, recruiting a commander or scout to continue it on the next. Attack another province adjacent to your capitol (with good resources) with your unoccupied army.

    This is what the new castle will get in resources:
    65 base
    *2 - for fortress built
    30% bonus - your dominion
    25% bonus - Ulm production bonus
    = 201,5 resources
    + 20% from adjacent provinces without a castle.
    Say 4 provinces with 45 resources each after your dominion Remember now that it draws from the hidden pool so this won't affect your capitol.
    Total = 237,5 resources

    Not too bad is it.
    Your capitol will still have way over 200 resources as it begins with 130 (if you play production 3) and draws 50% from adjacent provinces.

    Another good thing with this is that your new fortress is only one move away eliminating the dangerous travel later for your troops, who almost everyone has mapmove 1.

    You could of course build a citadel (admin 40) if you only have standard provinces around you, but this would lead to draining problems later when trying to maximize outcome.

    The strategy is to build a long chain of castles as fast as possible. Your capitol will form the center.

    After you've built around 4-5 castles in the first year and a half and labs here and there, start mass producing troops and smiths.

    You will find that this castle chain is not something your enemies wants to siege as you can ship reinforcements between your castles fast and safely. In your capitol you should build lord guardians for defense of the chain. In the other try to build one troop of each type useful for the campaign you are planning. The smiths should of course forge like earth boots with their earlier forged dwarven hammers (a final 50% forge bonus) and later good equipment for you commanders. Also build some siege engineers and siege troops (they have crossbows) with any spare resources. They will come in handy, I promise.

    -> Yes "real" mountains are very helpful if you want to build that strong chain of Castles (Peg-Castles, 700 defense 20 admin) without any draining from adjacent provinces; provinces where you in the future might want to build additional fortresses.
    Forests are also good but not nearly as good as mountains because you only get to build Forest Fortresses (300 defense, 15 admin) and they cost the same amount of gold (1000).

    The main strategy is that you want to cram in as may fortresses as possible, as resource effective as possible, within a small area so that they can help each other in with defense. You also want them to have maximum defense for Ulm, thus Peg-Castles.

    If you later want more gold you should build a fortress on a high population farmland (they tend to have high pop), so that you get the 25% income bonus. But this is a much later worry, so don't spend those 1200 gold on that Fortified City in the beginning. Mainly because it won't give you much resources if it hasn't mountains and forests around it (that you have to clear out of course, taking time and resources in form of losses).

    Building a Fortified City or Citadel (the latter is the standard type, meaning it gets built on border mountains) makes those provinces around them quite useless for further fortress building. Because if you do build additional fortresses there you cut of the (main) resource income to the Fortified City or Citadel. You still have some of the money though, but in the beginning it isn't worth it.

    Another thing, as you get the 25% resource bonus in every Ulmish castle it is wise to try to have as MANY castles as possible instead of focusing on a small amount of high admin ones. With some races you should do the opposite but not with Ulm.

    To summarize: Mountains, and to some extent forests, are the thing you want to look for when playing Ulm; or any resource heavy nation for that matter.

    -> Yes I stated that above. This is no problem though as one more castle (another commander slot) is much better than the few resources you lose in your capitol. And remember: you do not lose resources per se, as they now are inside your new castle on top of that extra 50% that your capitol couldn't draw.
    This does not mean that you should surround your capitol with fortresses. Just build one or two to begin the chain.
    Also, this is the only good way to get competitive in research (yes you need to... especially with Ulm) as you can crank out hordes of the cheap and useful smiths eventually.

    ->

    	    	    	8.34.1.2 MA Ulm vs Elephants

    -> -lots and lots of archers scripted to fire largest.
    -Spells that hurt single targets badly, mind burn, frozen heart etc.
    -dont waste money on elite troops since they will just get trampled anyway.
    -flanking and killing leaders is always good
    -spells that hurt moral are GREAT
    -if you have acess to large troops like Trogs, buy/summon them.

    -> Magma bolt and blade wind are going to probably be your best bets for your smiths. General evocation spells.

    Ideally you'll pull an F2 smith random or a pretender with fire magic so you can cast flaming arrows (on indies, not your arbalests). Research this over evo if you can pull it off. You'll need conj 3 for power summoning regardless.

    Dropping a few Curse of stones will help as well in a big battle, but it won't help much til your troops start getting trampled to death, and you want to keep them away with ranged attacks if at all possible.

     For flaming arrows: Phoenix Power to F3 and then an extra gem to bump your level to 4 since it only takes 1 to cast. I referenced needing conjuration 3 in my post. (You need it for blade wind even if you go the evocation route, which is a large upgrade over magma bolts)

    -> Arbalests with orders to Fire at Large Monsters. Avoid directly engaging with heavily armored troops.
    Although in a last ditch effort(and with good timing) some flail troops can finish off the elephants.

    	    	    	8.34.1.3 Build me an MA Ulm thug

    -> Black Lord with Fire Brand and Charcoal Shield forged by a Master Smith with a Dwarven Hammer. Put 2-5 Black Knights in a squad with him on Guard Commander, and him on 0-5 Hold orders followed by Attack Rear or Attack Archers or something, and place them on the flank of an army. Maybe also some other Black Knights in a squad on Hold & Attack Rear, and/or other thug squads.

    If he's a good one or you want to invest more gems, Marble Armor and Bracers of Steel. Without research you can also forge a Sword of Sharpness which is a good worthwhile boost to both offence and defence. If your enemy is using MR-resisted spells, add an Amulet of Antimagic.

    -> Hmmm, don't know about the Iron Angel obviously but I've had some luck using Black Lords as thugs. Before I get into them specifically let me address your broader question about how to build thugs.

    To build a thug you need as many of the following as possible (after any magic buffing you can do):
    Good hitpoints or mistform
    Very good protection (25+)
    Very good defense (25+)
    As many ways as possible to negate some percentage of attacks (ethereal, lucky, awe, vine shield, fire immunity, etc.)
    An area of effect weapon (fire/frost brands are obvious choices)
    Regeneration and/or a lifedraining attack
    Good reinvigoration and/or a lifedraining attack
    Low encumberance
    A cheap price tag - thugs should be relatively disposable

    Now, usually you can't get all that in one package and some nations have better choices available than others. Ulm's Black Knight has more than one achillies heel, but he does have a couple things going for him. First and foremost, he's one of the cheapest thug chasises you'll find and with Ulm's forge bonus he's also gonna be one of the cheapest to equip as well. With a dwarven hammer Ulm's smiths only pay 2 gems for a 5 gem item, and that's were you want to aim for your disposable thugs. Since they're so cheap, you also want to use more than one at a time together(a bit different than most thugs), 2 or 3 riding together is more along the lines cost wise of other thugs - what else can you field for just over 100 gold and around 10 gems? You've also got to keep in mind their weaknesses and only deploy them where they're effective - generally raiding PD and avoiding any mages. Most any player with any experience will drop them like flies when they run into any real magic opposition so stay away if possible. Obviously you'll want to configure them differently depending on what they're actually fighting, but here are some things I found to be very effective:

    Barkskin amulet - get an indie mage to forge. You don't get a forge bonus but this still only costs 3 gems and ups their protection over 30.

    Fire brand - 2f 2e, AOE and armor piercing

    Shield of gleaming gold - awe +0 can go a long way against chaff

    Pendant of Luck - 2 pearls? Hell yeah

    Girdle of strength - 2 earth reinvig goodness and the extra strength makes that AP firebrand that much better against larger foes.

    Amulet of MR /Lead Shield - still not great MR, but better than nothing.

    Charcoal shield - killer against some PDs

    Resistance items - fire/lightning rings with smiths, frost/poison however you can will counteract the focus of many nations.

    They're not unstoppable killing machines, but properly deployed they can be well worth their cost.

    ->

    	    	    	8.34.1.4 MA Ulm Blood guide

    Foward
    The next time you go to play a MA game, please consider Ulm. Don't consider it for any of the changes made to it recently. Honestly, I'm not big on the new stuff. Nothing I'm about to say includes the use of anything new to Ulm. In my opinion, mages with earth 2 and a forge bonus, 5 earth gems a turn from your capital, and an awakened blood god is everything you need to make a powerful late game MA Ulm.

    Before We Begin
    I'm not about to advocate using blood spells without national blood mages. That is not what the blood god is for. Don't try to make devil commanders, or spawn swarms of vile creatures. MA Ulm doesn't have it's own blood economy outside of a pretender. Personally, I advise you to not research blood magic with MA Ulm... ever. Instead I advise you to research Construction.

    The Gist of Things
    Specifically, I advise you to research construction 4. The center-piece of Ulm with blood magic is the production of blood stones. Blood stones do two things for Ulm, the first is that it increases the effectiveness of their mages by granting a bonus to earth magic. The second thing it does is it grants an earth gem a turn. Surprisingly this amounts to a huge advantage for Ulm by widening it's selection of battle spells and in allowing them to amass a huge army of constructs. Construction 4 is also enough to get you earth boots and dwarven hammers, both are essential to boosting your magic levels and earth gem supply.

    The Plan
    The plan is to create a blood stone factory as soon as possible. The steps are listed below:
    Step 1) Start with an awakened blood god. Ulm has the advantage of being able to choose the blood fountain, the most economical pretender aside from the oracle. The blood fountain can be substituted for another god with decent blood, but it will start to get expensive. I say blood 4 is a minimum.
    Step 2) Begin your research. Even without the aid of your god and full drain you can reach construction 4 by the early part of the first year. If you feel another path is needed to be researched so that you can survive then by all means do so, but construction 4 should be a priority.
    Step 3) Construct a couple of dwarven hammers. You can do this when you reach construction 2 if you have an earth 3 pretender or if you get a random earth 3 master smith. Otherwise you'll need to forge a set of earth boots after you reach construction 4.
    Step 4) Begin to collect slaves so that when you get to construction 4 you have collected 112 slaves. Use the slaves to empower a young master smith to blood 2. Use the remaining 25 blood slaves to forge a brazen vessel. The remaining 7 is to forge your first blood stone. From now on your god should collect slaves as needed.
    Step 5) Give the empowered Master Smith the brazen vessel and a dwarven hammer. What you created is a blood stone factory that uses only 5 earth gems a turn. With a decent blood god, you will never run out of blood slaves to feed the machine and still have turns to use your god for other tasks.

    The problem of this strategy is that it requires a huge starting investment of blood slaves. I've tried the variant of the strategy that uses the pretender god to make the stones. The problem is that you constantly have to stop making blood stones in order to scrounge up slaves. Your god ends up being so busy that it can't do anything else. Also, if you choose to save on points and go with a blood fountain you can't even equip a dwarven hammer, which means you use more gems and you get less out of the strategy. However, by only needing 7 slaves a turn via an empowered master smith, your god can go on to do other things and only needs to collect slaves once in a while. You could also go all out and work on a second blood stone factory or a companion slave hunter.

    The Conclusion
    The inclusion of blood into Ulm isn't to diversify the Ulm strategy, but rather to intensify it. The blood slaves are magically transformed into earth gems. The earth gems allows Ulm to recreate their army. With 10 gems and 140 gold, you can produce a fire 1 earth 4 mage who can use Earth Power in order to reach earth 5 in battle. The gem output of the blood stones allows your battle mages to never run out of gems to power the best earth spells in the game. The randoms the master smiths get can grant you a mage capable of casting Rain of Stones. Every battle mage can fall back on Petrify when the gems are gone, a spell that immobilizes super-combatants even when they make the save versus death. Take earth magic to the max and run with it I say. You could of course ignore my plan and do whatever you like. Either way, good luck.

    Comments:

    -> just blood hunt with indy scouts (or commanders), no need to base an entire pretender for a side-strategy.

    -> First, I don't really consider it a side strategy. Second, I find blood searching with non-blood mages to be highly unreliable. I've had dozens upon dozens of commanders searching before and turned up nothing. In my experience, using non-blood mages as a source of reliable blood slaves is like using luck 2 as a reliable source of water gems.

    With a blood god you can reliably shell out a magic site a turn around turn 16. That means that by the fifth year you are outputting 50 gems a year from your capital and blood stones alone. That's 1525 Earth gems generated by turn 60 minus the cost of construction, which is only about 261 gems (including the cost of one pair of earth boots and 2 dwarven hammers). 1200+ gems is not a side strategy, it's a winning one, particularly with dozens of earth 4 mages running around and increased gem income from site searching .

    -> Yes, I did exactly this strategy to good effect using, as suggested, indie scouts. This is almost as effective as a side strategy and then you can use your pretender for whatever else you want (best if you've got a little blood magic on your pretender, but for boosters, not blood hunting).

    1) Start very early and aim for 2-3 provinces with 8-10 scouts/commanders blood hunting.
    2) Won't take too long to get 50 slaves, empower smith #1.
    3) Smith #1 forges a sanguine rod and starts blood hunting
    4) You pretty quickly are able to empower smith #2 who blood hunts (with a sanguine rod) until he can empower 3 more times (1-2 times if your pretender can forge a blood booster for him)
    5) smith #2 cranks out blood stones
    6) As your nation expands, set up another province or two for scout blood hunting
    7) New blood stone forgers are now cheaper because you only need to empower them once, smith #2 can forge cheap boosters for the rest of the way
    8)Site search everything for earth using gnome lore.
    9) By year three you've had 2-3 guys churning out blood stones every turn for awhile and an absurd earth income
    9) Stop forging blood stones for a few turns, stockpile all your earth and blood income - have your forgers bloodhunt
    10) Use your big pile of earth gems to put up the forge of the ancients while the same turn you empower as many smiths to level one blood as you can
    11) Distribute the blood boosters that your original blood stone forgers were using to your new blood guys, you only need B2 to forge blood stones and now you've got 5-6 guys cranking out blood stones.

    Now, if you planned ahead and have the right path boosters ready, and one of the smiths you empowered in blood had an air random, turn one of having the forge up you can forge:
    a robe of the magi
    rings of sorcery (several, depending on how many boosters/astral random smiths you've got)
    5-6 blood stones
    one lightless lantern for each fire gem you have (each smith can forge them for 1 gem without a dwarven hammer)
    All the other junk you want to forge that requires level 2 in paths smiths get randoms in - starshine caps, chainmail of displacement, crystal coin, etc.

    The beauty of this is that your forge has paid for itself even if it's dispelled after one turn...and you can easily put it back up in 5 or 6 turns after you've saved up enough gems/slaves for another mass forging.

    ->  Petrify - E5 - 0 gems One of my favorite spells. It's an AoE 1 death effect that paralyzes those that make the save. I can't stress how devastating this spell is. The only way around it is to be one of the few creatures that are immune by virtue of being stone already. This spell doesn't need gems.

    Army of Gold - E4 - 3 gems This is a nice spell for your army in general. However, I generally don't script it unless I'm facing off with someone using a lot of fire magic, like Abysia.

    Army of Lead - E5 - 3 gems A much better spell for Ulm then army of gold. It's an earth spell that grants MR and more protection. A good spell to script.

    Earthquake - E4 - 3 gems Here is a good spell to cast and retreat with in my opinion. It's a defense check to avoid the AP damage so your regular troops will be at a disadvantage.

    Tempering the Will - E3 - 0 gems I know this isn't a 4+ Earth spell but it's worth noting that a smith with boots + stone + earth gem can cast this at the start of battle and get an additional point of penetration before you even cast Summon Earthpower. Stack on a Spell Focus and the spell really becomes worth it as a first round spell.

    	    	    	8.34.1.5 Tips with MA Ulm

    -> You want Petrification, from Alteration 7. It's an Earth 5 spell. Most of your Master Smiths are Earth 2, can forge Earth Boots to get up to Earth 3 and cast Summon Earthpower to get up to Earth 4. You could spend an extra gem for every Petrify you cast, but that would become very expensive very quickly.

    So, how can you get that last level of Earth?
    All-magic boosters: Ring of Wizardry (S6) or Robe of the Archmagi (A5B5)
    Elemental boosters: Staff of Elemental Mastery (E4A4 or F4W4) or an artifact
    an additional Earth booster: Blood Stone (B3E2) or an artifact

    Keeping in mind that Blood is easier to get into that other paths and that Blood Stone actually generates Earth gems, and you can see why Blood Stone is clearly the best choice for Ulm. To learn more, go to the stickied strategy guide, search for MA Ulm and find the Blood Stone thread.

    Other than that... A group of about 15 non-Black Plate infantries of Ulm can take surprising number of independents. If you're lucky, you can conquer four or five provinces in three turns' worth of battles and started building your first fortress. I'm not yet sure whether Order or Luck is better. Taking even Turmoil 1 means that you don't get enough gold to recruit fully and build a fort in turn 3 or 4, but on the other hand, Luck gives you bucketloads of gems and your Master Smiths absolutely need them.

    I think the key to successful Ulm has to be empowering Master Smiths. A Water-empowered Smith can forge himself a Water Bracelet, making him F1W2E2 and letting him forge Staves of Corrosion (fires Acid Bolts), Boots of Quickness, Jade Armors and other fun stuff. A Death-empowered Smith can forge Flaming Skulls for so cheap basically all your smiths are F2, and then they can cast Phoenix Power and they are Fire 3. A Nature-empowered Smith can make Fever Fetishes and then start generating the Fire gems. And Blood-empowered Smiths, of course, are essential to both boost your Smiths and to generate more Earth gems.

    Your pretender is important. My pretender design project is still underway, but I suggest taking at least Blood for getting the economy rolling. After that, you have several choices. Astral - for Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Rings of Sorcery and Wizardry? Fire/Death/Nature, for fever fetishes and flaming skulls? Water/Nature, for summoning W3N3 Naiads and forging Clams? Fire/Water or Air/Earth for Staff of Elemental Mastery? I'm trying to build a rainbow that can fill multiple roles, but specializing might be more efficient.

    -> Blacksteel infantry are more effective than chainmail infantry in general, particularly as of a couple of patches ago, though there are a few circumstances where not so.

    However chainmail infantry is probably best to begin with at first because you can recruit them more quickly and numbers matter - if you have too few men in an army against independents, they will get worn down and may break and run, but if you have enough, they will tend to overpower conventional independents easily, and having more men makes more of a difference than having some men have blacksteel plate. Infantry without shields though is somewhat vulnerable to missiles - start them behind infantry with shields. It's valuable to include some of them because of their varied weapons.

    ->

    	    	    	8.34.1.6 MA Ulm Pretender

    -> Quote: Baalz said:
    Admittedly I haven't been on the receiving end of an elephant rush orchestrated by you, that might be fun to try as I have beat back other rushes playing Ulm. Ignoring castle-recruitment constraints for a second, for the price of 3 elephants you get 2 smiths plus change. Obviously this isn't scalable because you can only recruit one smith per castle, but still given Ulm's typical early gold advantage and urgent castle building it's not unreasonable to expect to be able to field 10-12 smiths by the time you're looking at a 20 strong elephant force threatening you - and without permanently crippling your research curve. Assuming you marched a force as you describe into my territory at the end of year one I'd counter by trying to catch you as you attacked (shouldn't be hard) so you're running into about 40 PD backed by the dozen or so smiths leading whatever of the halberd wielding infantry I could scrape up over a couple turns from my multiple castles and prod-3 edge (likely in the 100-120 man range). Your initial elephant charge will be broken by 7 or 8 smiths spamming Bonds of Fire. It won't stop them all but they'll trickle in several at a time rather than in one overwhelming mass as even the ones not hit will have to run around those that are. While causing some damage, they'll quickly be surrounded and hacked to pieces by halberds. Meanwhile my remaining smiths begin raining magma bolts down into the elephants strung out by the fire bonds while my black plate keeps friendly fire from being too much of an issue. All the while your astrologers are popping 4-5 of my infantry per turn out of probably close to 200. By the end of the battle you've killed mostly my PD (which were in the front) and are out close to 2000 gold of elephants.
    I tried this out to see how it worked.

    Team Arco:

    25 elephants : 2500 gold

    20 hypaspists : 300 gold

    5 mystics : 900 gold

    total : 3700 gold

    Elephants and hypaspists in one large group, all the way forward. Mystics scripted to mind burn X5

    Team Ulm:
    12 Master smiths: 1680 gold

    90 chainmail + battleaxe infantry = 900 gold

    16 arbalests (had them sitting around from initial expansion) = 160 gold

    40 PD = 820 gold

    total : 3560

    Infantry set just back and flanking PD on each side.
    All smiths set to magma bolt X2, bonds of fire X3

    Round 1: Magma bolts & arbalests kill 4 elephants and severely damage many more as they charge across the open ground. A couple Ulmish infantry popped by mind burn.

    Round 2: Several more elephants dropped by magma bolts and over half of them are at least down to 2/3rds HP, elephants hit PD and cause minor damage having used most of their movement to close so only a little trampling.

    Round 3: About a third of the remaining elephants are trapped by bonds of fire and another third killed by the infantry (many of the elephants were quite low on HP from the magma bolts). Arco breaks, but most of the elephants are trapped by bonds of fire and killed by the advancing infantry.

    Final tally (excluding PD deaths):
    20 elephants killed (the 5 that got away were badly afflicted)

    6 hypaspists killed

    0 astrologers killed

    14 Ulmish infantry killed

    So, there's a fairly concrete response to those who claim Ulm has no chance against elephants. This is a simple case and I'd expect the Arco player to pull a trick or two, but it's clearly not impossible for Ulm to win.

    -> If you take, as suggested, an awake rainbow pretender and spend the first several turns researching you hit bonds of fire and magma bolts very quickly, and soul slay isn't really much better than mind burn against Ulmish infantry - I don't think that would have made any difference at all. I actually did use astrologers in the test, just mistyped.

    As to the dragon, that's really kind of a different question, we were talking about elephants. A dragon sitting on your cap on turn 4 is quite a different ball of wax and is a challenge for many nations outside of whatever is following it up. Lets give this a try though...you've got an awake rainbow mage and in a total surprise a dom-10 dragon plops down and takes out all the PD in your capital on turn 4. I'll go ahead and make some assumptions: you've got a 4 strength dominion on your cap (you've had a pretender sitting there plus a temple plus the capital spread for 4 turns), you've got 3 master smiths, and you've got one expansion army with an arbalest squad outside your capital as well as a handful of infantry, you've also been researching thaumaturgy to pick up bonds of fire.

    Depending on what the research actually is on your pretender, stall for a turn or two until you hit thaum-2. In the mean time your expansion army grabs a few more provinces (make sure you cut off all retreat routes for the dragon) and you try to find barbarians, or lizards, or any low resource/high damage indies to recruit (bonus, you'll probably take them easily with your arbalests) or mercenaries. A couple turns after the dragon appeared you attack with whatever you've been able to scrape up - which obviously will vary quite a bit, but you open the fight with your pretender cursing the dragon then casting berserkers a couple times on your biggest weapon carrying dudes, while your three smiths spam bonds of fire. Your prophet casts a bunch of sermons of courage and your expansion forces probably have a star or two so they've got fairly good moral and can hopefully take a swing or two despite the awe even without the berserk. The dragon is in significant enemy dominion with the accompanying penalties, is held for awhile with no real defense or chance to cause damage or make fear rolls, is cursed, and is being hacked at by berserk battleaxes (dare I hope you had a couple black knights?) who ignore his awe as well as being focussed on by arbalests at presumably short range. After the berserkers you can have your pretender cast frighten X 2. Dragon, taking some damage, is in enemy dominion, hit with 2 15 fear attacks and facing the extra moral check of lone combatants will route and die. Depending on how many arbalests and your actual mix of troops you might do better to skip the berserkers and just do frighten X4.

    Now, this set you back a couple turns, but your enemy lost his pretender and you're hardly crippled.

    Heck though, seems like the dragon would potentially have trouble just taking out the capital PD. Facing 25 arbalests in enemy dominion...14 AP damage focussed on a single guy with no shield or buffs and ignoring awe...seems like he'd need to win before they reloaded and fired at close range to have a chance.

    -> I think you script the dragon to hold 4 times then attack archers. Your mages would be casting spells that tire themselves out, but the dragon is oor of bonds fire etc.

    Meanwhile arcos teleports in 5 astologers to support the dragon and they are casting mind burn the entire time. Assuming also arcos capital is 3 provinces from ulm's as seems to be the case in most mp games with spacing, then the reinfocement elephants should be getting close as well.

    Baalz you have excellent ideas, and are a very good player. But the fact remains Ulm in my experience always dies early.
    Not every person playing ulm is going to be a hall of fame player.

    While it is certainly possible you could put up a good defense against a rush, I have seen proof with my own eyes that most players cannot. And that is why my suggestion to take an awake sc pretender is a good idea for the average player.

    And I am using gameextremeists's arcos rush tactics as an example, but he was better than the typical player at rushing with arcos. But he did use an awake dragon to bolster his early rush. And teleporting astrologers in to bolster his forces was another of his common tactics.

    ->

    "

    	    	    	8.34.1.7 MA Ulm - you called me a forge what?

    Article Author:  Baalz
    CUnknown¿s guide to Ulm is solid, and a bit similar to what I write here, but I have several other angles I want to explore particularly since Ulm¿s face lift. Ulm fits right into my usual guide MO, an under appreciated nation who can be a real gem once you polish them up and present the right angles. Many people consider Ulm a very weak nation without much flexibility. Line up a bunch of slow, tough guys and march around casting the same 2 or 3 spells until somebody exploits your weakness and squishes you. Or you could just be a forge ***** the whole game, that¿s always fun. And that¿s exactly what¿s gonna happen if you don¿t anticipate your weaknesses and have a plan.

    As I¿ve said elsewhere I think the strongest choice for Ulm is an awake rainbow pretender. Many fear a rush when playing Ulm and think a combat pretender is necessary, but with Ulm¿s new units and a little planning there¿s no rush you need fear (more on this in a moment), and lets look at what a rainbow pretender gets you.

    1) The most obvious is magic diversity. Ulm doesn¿t have terrible magic diversity as far as the spread goes  you¿ll get F/E/S/A and N indies are easy to come by. The problem is most of those are level one and insufficient to site search. With a booster though things rapidly start opening up, and for the paths which you can¿t easily forge a booster (generally air) a modest income will pretty quickly build up to 30 gems for a cheap empowering. Which leads us to¿

    2) Gem income. Everyone knows Ulm is the forge champion, and this is a critical national advantage you can¿t afford to neglect for lack of gems. You need a constant stream of gems from an early point through the whole game and manually site searching with level one mages is *not* going to cut it. Having your pretender prime the pump by site searching is pretty much the difference between having access to that path or not (other than earth).

    3) Initial research. This is the thing that requires you have an awake rather than sleeping pretender. You could probably scrape by with no site searching until the second year. What you can¿t do is fight off certain kinds of rushes with no research. An awake rainbow pretender is going to give you a powerful jumpstart on research in the first couple turns, easily clearing a level three school before even the fastest rush could possibly materialize, and into level 4 if you push before much can materialize. At this point your mages are better support than a poorly equipped and buffed SC pretender would be.

    As with any good strategy, design points get very tight at this point. You need an awake pretender. You need production 3. You want order 3. You want on your pretender A4 & F4 (for boosters), S4 (rings of wizardry, golems, end game astral), W3 & D3 (for site searching to prime the pump), N4 & E4 (for reasons I¿ll explain in a minute). Good news is of course you¿re taking drain 3 and death is a good option, and you don¿t need a high dominion. Still, you can¿t afford all the things you want so you¿ll have to decide what¿s most important to you. With a rainbow chasis though, there¿s really no reason to not take at least 1 in every path (with the exception of blood) since you¿ll be site searching anyway and 10 design points buys you a modest income in that path.

    For initial expansion against the indies, you can¿t go too wrong with any of Ulm¿s troops. Still, your troops take so many resources (and thus time to mass) it¿s good to steadily build up the army you¿ll want when you start fighting another player. This is going to vary depending on what you¿re anticipating facing in the near to mid term.
    You¿ve got good, cheap units, but they¿re not holy and you¿re gonna be cranking out a lot of them. Be mindful of the upkeep, I generally only recruit 10 gold units unless there is a specific need I¿m addressing. After the first couple turns I always recruit the black plate infantry rather than the chainmail guys  resources don¿t have upkeep.

    Pikes are probably the best general use weapon, with a good attack, damage, and a repel that does a surprising amount against rank and file troops (particularly combined with the armor). Flails are good against high defense guys as they give you a second attack (try to land a strength of giants to compensate for the lower damage). Battleaxes are made for giants (strength of giants¿.well that basically goes for everything). Tower shields are of course where you¿re gonna want to go vs heavy ranged attacks (keep in mind shields can block some mage spells to), but they do give up a good amount of offense so it¿s often best to try to use the shields as archer screens while the two handed weapon guys do most of the damage (bonus, the shields make them move slower so its not hard to accomplish this). Arbalests are *devastating* to anything without a shield. Unfortunately, most things you¿ll be worried about will have shields, so I don¿t tend to recruit these guys for general use. Start cranking them out though when an enemy dragon or wyrm pretender tries to bully you, or somebody actually believes the elephant vs Ulm propaganda. Heck, even with a shield 50 guys firing at point blank range will land enough AP damage to cause considerable pain. If you do use arbalests consider trying to scrape up an air mage for wind guide  it¿ll help considerably, and flaming arrows should be a no brainer if it¿s researched.

    The knights can be very good, but they¿re too easy to counter. The only solution I¿ve really come up with is to use them sparingly enough that your opponent doesn¿t invest in a counter to them  just a few on the flanks or supporting a black lord. If your opponent has counters anyway, just shelve them and consider their job done in tying up your opponents resources in their counters.

    I wanted to make special note of the black halberd guardians. They¿re capital only and pretty expensive relative to your other troops, but with good reason. This weapon will handily dispatch any sacred unit in the game, including fully decked out SCs. It does AOE 1 fatigue damage to holy units¿which means there¿s no way to dodge, block, or resist it. Against cheaper masses of units like eagle warriors it¿s merely very good, but
    against high end sacred units like Vans, Knights of the Chalice, or Black Spiders it is retarded good. I pity Pythium¿s angels, or Bandar Log¿s celestials should they decide Ulm looks like easy pickings. A surprising amount of SC/thugs are holy, all of them are neutered against a prepared Ulm. Note, the guardians are not sacred so you can crank them out at whatever your production limit is, which means you¿ll want to wait until you¿ve got a good use for them before building them (and paying their upkeep). Use your much cheaper general issue infantry for most tasks.

    But what about non-sacred bad guys? Baalz, didn¿t you know Ulm is the poster boy for elephant bait! I¿d like to go ahead and lay this myth to bed for once and all. Yes, Ulm will get slaughtered if you just line up all your troops and march towards a bunch of tramplers. Why in the world would you do that? With the early research push by your pretender you need never face anybody without Evo-3 researched, and really you¿ll have evo-4. This gives you magma bolts, iron darts, and then blade wind. Elephants do not have a remote chance of overrunning ten smiths spamming these spells with a couple score arbalests playing backup. The smiths are awesome battle mages once your research matures, with reinvig from earthpower, blade wind, magma eruption, destruction and earth elementals. They are the answer to most things which would otherwise give Ulm problems. They¿re cheap for mages, so make sure you use them, send a couple with any moderately sized force. If you¿re pressed into an early fight you¿ll probably want to research evocation with a laser beam focus until you get magma eruption  with it every one of your cheap smiths (well, with earthpower which you¿ll want to pick up immediately after) is a top of the line carnage machine. The other option depending on what you¿re facing (ie abyssia) is to switch over to alteration and pick up destruction. Also, don¿t forget about iron blizzard, it¿s easier to spam than blade wind, is AP, and slaughters magic beings, but its only castable by your cap only holy smiths and has a shorter range so it¿s a niche spell.

    So, focusing on recruiting 10 gold high resource troops, with order and production scales you¿ll be putting castles 2 and 3 up pretty quick, which is good because that¿s urgent. Once you¿ve got 3 castles though, you¿re sitting pretty with a steady flow of infantry and mages, your urgent research done, and gold piling up  pretty much before any real rush can materialize.

    Now, unless you¿re fighting off somebody who thought you¿d be easy pickings you¿ll want to shift into second gear and you¿ve got a couple options on where to go. You¿ll very likely have a research lead at this point, possibly a production lead, have been focusing on combat spells and have good combat mages. It¿s certainly possible to rush someone yourself, particularly if they¿re reliant on sacred troops (honestly I don¿t see how ie Vanheim has a chance against a good Ulm rush with the addition of black halberds).

    Equally effective is to go the opposite direction and turtle up. Solid scales and modest upkeep will let you put up castles at a good rate (with a research surge to match), and your pretender out site searching will give you a very respectable gem income. You¿ll be hitting the construction research now, which is an investment which pays dividends.

    You¿ll want to aim for a couple things at this point. Dwarven hammers, lots of them. Unless it¿s an emergency you never ever want to forge anything without using a dwarven hammer. The strength of Ulm is efficiency, don¿t squander that. It¿ll take a little bit to build up your hammers, but that¿s alright because it gives your gem flow time to establish itself. A single 30 gem empowering in Air for a smith with that random should be affordable fairly early, which is a bargain because you¿ll probably want to crank out a steady flow of flying boots.

    As I mentioned above smiths need nothing but a few PD blockers to lay a ridiculous hurt on people. If you¿ve got a dozen winged boots in your lab, and several castles spread around you¿ve got the capability for a very rapid response force anywhere in your nation. This is critical as your nation grows, your infantry just moves too slowly to counter a nimble opponent and none of your mages are inheritably able to teleport.

    Ulm¿s forge bonus lends itself to many things, but perhaps the most obvious is a fire brand and golden shield combo, for the hammer forged price of 8 gems. Black Lords scream to be used as mini thugs with this, and they do work very well with nothing else provided they don¿t need to make MR checks and you use more than one together (I also generally include some black knights set to guard commander). Using your pretender to create a revenant, and then black servants is also a good choice which yields a stealthy thug. What I prefer though is what nobody expects from Ulm  a highly mobile flying swarm of thugs.

    Take one smith with the aforementioned firebrand and golden shield. Add in a pair of winged boots you¿ve been stockpiling. Mix in black plate and a girdle of strength. Garnish with a lucky pendant and fire helm. Price: 21 gems. Summon earth power, invulnerability, hold then attack. That will get you a very respectable raiding thug, but you¿ll still get unlucky with the fatigue you built up causing you to take critical hits, and a point here and there will slowly add up to bring you down. What you really want is just a touch more reinvig and a bit of regen, which is why I suggested E4 and N4 were very nice things to have on your pretender. Substitute in a holy smith and add a blessing in for a dish that¿s best served hot  just that little bit extra goes a long way. I mean honestly, who expects Ulm to air drop a dozen thugs on them in year two? Raid aggressively while your behemoth mage supported infantry army grinds its way up to deal with the real resistance.

    Now on top of the air, you¿ll want to seriously consider empowering smiths in death (can immediately start dark knowledging, crank out fire skulls), water (water braclet, then voice of tiamat, boots of quickness, rune smashers), and nature (half price fever fetishs which will eventually let you crank out a steady stream of phoenix rods and flambeaus).

    Now, Ulm¿s got a couple strengths which are often ignored because you¿re always recruiting a smith from every castle. For that reason I like to dedicate one castle to not having a lab so I recruit a steady stream of spies, black lords & siege engineers. Black lords are used as outlined above, and siege engineers are great to support your attacks  outfitted with cheaply forged range weapons they can contribute to the fighting (piercers, banefire bows, vision¿s foe, bows of war, ethereal xbows, etc.) and make sure enemy forts fall instantly (use them with flying boots in combination with your smiths to take enemy forts without using any troops!). Spies people seem to underestimate, thinking that a scout does the same job unless you¿re trying to cause massive unrest. It seems ridiculous to underestimate the benefit of accurate information! You can see exactly the PD you¿ll be facing to drop your relatively fragile thugs into, if your opponent has 1 PD all over you can hit him with call of the winds, arouse hunger, etc. You can see where their gold income centers are to focus on raiding those, with spies adding unrest  and even better popping out with implementor axes to pillage when a response is not coming in that turn. And of course you can use them to incite unrest, which is nothing but an annoyance at peace time but can quickly become game changing if they can¿t respond to it because it just started on the same turn a war did (an evil person would goad an opponent into patrolling for spies then teleport a golem in to squish the patrollers who are probably without magic support).

    Blood is a very good thing to bootstrap into for Ulm. Set 10 scouts to bloodhunt and they¿ll eventually scrape up 50 blood slaves to empower a smith. Forge a sanguine rod and you¿re quickly up to popping out a blood stone every couple turns at half price (also slap boots of youth on any of your smiths who are old and have a good random). If things are going well set up another scout bloodhunting province and you¿ll get to the point you¿re cranking out multiple blood stones per turn. Blood stones are very, very good for Ulm, giving you the earth income to forge everything you want and boosting your mages (earth random + boots + blood stone = E5 = earth attack, petrify, weapons of sharpness, etc.). Tip: you can often trade a blood nation for your initial 50 blood slaves  Ulm should be a fantastic trader. Your pretender was E4, so with a solid earth income you should look at earthblood deepwell, it¿ll turn your strong earth income into a torrent.

    Now, what to do with all those earth gems? Mechanical men, buffed with weapons of sharpness & strength of giants are pretty difficult to stop once they hit critical mass. Add in almost any elemental battlefield enchantment (heat from hell, firestorm, wrathful skies, foul vapors etc. etc.) for heavy lifting.

    Earth attack is probably the best assassination spell, set yourself up to spam this incessantly and it¿s pretty crippling against most opponents.

    And enter the iron angel. The perfect complement to a surging earth income and forging focus is a SC chassis for a reasonable earth gem price. It¿s not unreasonably you might be summoning and equipping two of these guys per turn by the early end game. While they¿re not top shelf SCs, they¿re definitely solidly in the SC category and can¿t be beat for the price. Their lack of magic and thus lack of need to buff, with their strength, flying and toughness makes them excellent anti-SCs who fly in round one to whack the guy trying to buff himself. A couple of these guys with flambeaus set to attack large monsters is exactly what everybody wants  a very effective budget tartarian counter, and their heretic abilities will make them quite effective against sacred SCs like most of the various high end national summons (and they¿re *much* more mobile than the guardians). Heck, with that ubiquitous fire brand & golden shield (throw in a girdle of might) these guys will whacking anything large for 37 AP damage before chewing up the chaff with the flame blast and will chew up most anything without counter-SC tactics. Not bad for under 35 gems apiece. For real anti-SC though use boots of quickness and go with either the aforementioned flambeaus against undead/demons (for double 114 point AP attacks) or a gate cleaver (for double 54 AN damage attacks) which will explode pretty much anybody even if they manage to make a shield block.

    Let¿s see, other fun stuff to do with Ulm. Your focus on construction will give you early access to golems which is one more thing to add to your mobility. Gargoyles are good to, either have your pretender gift of reason a couple or just lead a flock by ye old fly booted smiths if you're short on N gems. Earthquake  each cheap smith with a 5 gem pair of earth boots is like an IED in the path of any big army. If you get prissy you can slap some armor and iron skin him and he¿ll probably even survive unscratched. Don¿t be shy, use several of them! Similarly rain of stones is open to your air random smiths, and it works very well with your heavily armored troops (enemy mages are likely not so lucky). You¿ll certainly want to crank out a steady stream of 2 gem lightless lanterns. Crystal/slave matrixes can be forged cheaply and open up a whole lot of options I won¿t explore here but keep them in mind if what you¿d really like is something Ulm can¿t otherwise do easily like foul vapors for your mechanical men to play in. If your blood economy ramps up well look into robes of the magi, they¿re actually affordable at half price (and can often be traded for a huge profit).

    Finally, I wanted to point out that putting up the forge of the ancients can generally pay for itself even if it is dispelled after one round. With smiths, any item costing 5 gems only costs 1 under the forge  without even using a hammer! Fire brands and golden shields for 2 gems apiece. Plan on forging 50 items the turn the forge goes up, and you¿ll easily save more than you paid for it, not even counting the benefit of being able to forge items you weren¿t able to before. Careful though, the forge has been known to start wars!

    The Ulm caricature is a big lumbering beast, unable to move or respond to its nimble opponents. Keep that picture in your mind, and don¿t play like that! Your heavy infantry will take care of itself, focus on mobility and flexibility to transform Ulm into a very competitive nation.

    	    	8.34.2 LA Ulm

    	    	    	8.34.2.1  Initial setup for LA Ulm

    ->
    At the _very_ first, just to get started, recruit many of the reasource-cheapest units for earliest expansion (maybe mainly just for the provinces adjacent the capital). IIRC it is the Ranger Crossbowmen who can be recruited so quickly it doesn't matter if they die. Then start to work up to the higher-resource units with longer life expectancy. Secure the provinces adjacent the home province ASAP to get the resources for the better-equipped troops.

    -> For your army mass rangers, use a few indies for meatshield and when you get a good flow of resources into your capitol make a mix of rangers and the guys with greatswords(dont make me spell their name )

    -> I recently played LA Ulm in a MP and I agree that this nation is excellent, it is potentially very, very powerful. Sadly I started on a island with Patala, who rushed and crushed me with elephants by turn 13, so I will probably never find out.

    I am of the opinion, that its too hard to have a high bless strategy with this nation. The black templars are just too damn expensive and the other sacred is undead and therefore too easily destroyed. So forget a bless strategy.

    I think your design points should be concentrated in good scales and your pretender.

    What really got me excited was the astral magic wielding spy who has +20 stealth. This one unit, recruitable from any castle can virtually single handly win you the end game if used correctly and you have the economy to churn loads out.

    The other excellent unit, sadly capital only, is the wolf trainer, who only costs 50 gp and can summon 2 free wolves a turn. Unlimited free chaff, excellent for patrolling your provinces well you blood hunt, add bulk to your armies and later on you can buff them up to make them more dangerous in battle.

    Then the whole vampire, limitless blood magic going on as well, with immortal vampire SC's to give you one of the best late game defense ever...well wow...really WOW, this is the most powerful Ulm ever...

    -> My blood economy works like this:

    Before turn 12:Members of the second tier hunt for blood slaves until i have atleast 44

    Turn 12-whenever i get boosters so a count can summon more counts: My counts and possibly members of the second tier hunt for slaves to make yet more counts and dousing rods

    Once i get a D3B3 count: Only regular counts with dousing rods searching, count production really steps up

    Rather than use wolves to patrol i use thralls, they are auto-summoned by the counts so an indie commander in the province with the counts can just take command of them and patrol.

    For my pretender, rather than maxing out scales and taking enough magic to summon a count i like a versatile(often 4-5 paths ranging from level 2-4), sleeping master lich with average scales(order3, growth1, misfortune2, magic1) though im definitely no LA Ulm expert so this could be a complete mess(a big bonus is being able to get nicely equipped counts)

    -> With LA Ulm its really all about getting time to develop, get your vampire/wolf/thralls/blood economy going and it just multiplies into a awesome totally unstoppable juggernaut from turn 30'ish onwards.

    Your troops are really there just there to forge a reasonable sized empire out and defend it until this happens. LA Ulm benefits considerably from peace and diplomacy early in the game. Try to sign NAP's with everyone of your neighbours.

    -> For any blood nation, you can't go wrong with a pretender that can forge Soul Contracts without boosters. They are only Construction 2, but require high paths to make, so your pretender is perfect for the job.

    -> Well personally, I think blood can stand on its own against the other spheres of magic.

    But, I also like to do the following with any astral nation.

    Get arcane probing, hit every province you own. Get the highest priest level you can out site searching. You are trying to get as many astral pearls as possible. Research to Arcashic record when possible. Hit every province you own with this spell. You will need to empower a lvl 2S mage to cast it for LA Ulm or get lucky like I did and find the 2S2E crystal forgers site with astral probing. They can make the crystal coin naturally.

    Yes, I know its expensive and long term. But its worth doing as a dual strategy alongside blood, blood is always no.1 priority however. Only try this when sites are high like 45+, most MP have 50.

    -> We must have different research priorities. I personally go straight for construction so i dont need any empowerment, just a second tier mage forging himself a skullcap(const 6, s2). I guess that massed acashic record could get you various indy mages but i dont see you getting many, atleast not many that will help your magic as much as needed.

    Instead of taking a master lich(although i do like him) how about a fountain of blood? You can get a sleeping F2W3E4D3B6 Fountain of Blood with Dom8, order3, sloth2, cold2, growth3, misfortune2, magic1. The dom9 makes your vampire counts alot more flexible in what they can do(More dominion spread means more places to use them), the scales are pretty good for your playstyle(growth helps in lategame and with bloodhunting, sloth dosnt bother your undead armies) and the magic on the pretender can do a variety of useful things such as: Summon vampire counts, summon all unique blood summons other than demon lords, forge soul contracts, cast infernal forces/forces of ice/infernal crusade and, of course, forge a variety of useful items, boosters and artifacts.

    edit: ive found another nice use for the vampire counts with a very simple script: summon lammashtas, attack closest. In friendly dominion you have nothing to use but a single death gem per caster, 5 counts produce 10 lammashtas(fear causing, flying, wraitsword wielding undead angels for those who dont know) at the cost of 5 death gems. Even if your counts rout for some reason the lammashtas keep fighting and if they dont and they end up dying, no big loss, you'll have them back at your capitol ready to re-use.

    -> I think Death magic can get him Spectral Mages (who have some random magic skills) which can (eventually with luck and forged boosters, maybe via Streams from Hades?) get him Unfrozen mages and maybe an Ether Lord.

    Zweihanders vs. heavy shield infantry - the shield infantry are the sturdier block, but Zweihanders can do higher damage to penetrate with. I tend to use a few Zweihanders starting behind the main body of shielded troops.

    Pikemen are faster to recruit and good for staving off lower-morale troops, so yes they might be a reasonable choice against giants. Better than the shielded heavy infantry, anyway.

    Villains? Faster to recruit than the crossbowmen, and usable for light stealthy raiders. Their low morale and protection are major weaknesses though.

    -> Villians are inferior to rangers against almost every late era unit(due to shortbows sucking vrs armour). They are also less survivable and worse in close combat.

    [ True, but against light independents and weak PD, they can still sneak in and pick and choose their fights, taking provinces for cheap.

    [[ Feel free meglo. Other options are summon lammashtas, retreat(since the lammashtas keep fighting) which is useful in enemy dominion and summon lammashtas(this would probably need 2 gems to keep fatigue down/only some counts summoning lammashtas) followed by skele spam.

    If your short on gems a regular flying, stealthy, immortal skelespam defensive raiding tactic is nice and flying in to cast things such as mass dust to dust vrs undead armies or decay+desintigrate vrs SCs can be helpful.
    ]]
    ]

    -> One of the big reasons i suggested the fountain as an option was the high start dominion and blood magic(high dom really helps counts) and for your starting problems do NOT use LA ulms high resource troops atleast at the start. Use your starting army as a meatshield set to hold and attack with rangers on fire closest/archers/cavalry and keep churning out rangers at your capitol. If your starting army takes too many losses use indies for your meatshield instead. The rangers(firing basically with precision 18 due to all above 10 being doubled) with their crossbows do serious damage and arent too bad in melee against medium or low defence troops(armour isnt too dangerous to them in melee due to high strength and axes)

    -> I totally forgot about blood stones in my last posting, but in game they work exceptionally well. Your earth priests + boots + blood stone -> Troll King + boots + blood stone -> Forge, and empowering with blood to get a few priests capable of forging blood stones isn't so bad given the ease of picking up blood slaves. It's certainly far easier than getting someone else capable of fever fetish spamming.

    -> Also, even with your cheap counts summoning a few vampire lords(77 slaves iirc) can be worth it. Instead of auto-summoning thralls they can use summon allies to get vampires. They also have +1 to a few stats and +1 on both types of magic(cant summon more counts without boosters and can cast soul vortex in battle)

    -> I definitely use a mix of Vampire Lords and Mound Fiends for my D3 needs. It's 77 blood for the Lord, vs 65 blood and 10 death for an item boosted Count to reach the same levels, the Lords obviously have the free item slots, and in addition blood is always easier to come by. Still, I use mostly Counts for light raiding (and thanks to your Lammashta trick, army smashing), bloodhunting, and their freespawn.

    I now kind of enjoy LA Ulm's slow build to magical dominance via death/blood/earth - it makes their starting crappy picks almost enjoyable. I suspect I would get annihilated before I ever got out of the gate in MP, but I haven't played a nation yet that changes so much from beginning to end. It's particularly sweet to boost a mage of the second tier (+1 astral and blood empowerment, + items galore) to cast Astral Corruption and shut down everyone else's magic while your endless Vampire Counts just keep growing and growing.

    -> I tend to stick with counts too as they work just as well in most cases but, if im going to completely equip some-one(and dont have any unique blood summons) it will probably be a vampire lord due to the slightly raised stats and the ability to cast soul vortex.

    Im glad you liked the fountain, at the start i was set on using a master lich but when i realised i was taking blood higher than death and that a high dominion score made the vampire strategy more flexible/offensive i switched to the fountain.

    Also, aswell as your counts, lords, uniques and items dont be afraid to splash out some gems for a bunch of regular vampires-if you can get a good amount of them and only use them within friendly dominion they can be a very nasty suprise(and can provide some extra punch/meatshield for the raise skeleton/summon lammashta tactic.

    -> Followup - I find that the vampire troop types invariably tangle with the Lammashtas, diluting the punch of either approach. On the other hand, troopless Vampire Counts invariably run away after casting Lammashtas regardless of what orders I give if there are two or less of them (you'd think immortal troops would get an extra morale bonus in friendly dominion). I don't mind, though - there's still a lot of killing going on, and I'm not the one who is dying...

    -> Sometimes my counts flee too, not always though. The vampire troops can get in the way of lammashtas but they will go in, do some damage and then either die or rout and either way, provided you stayed in friendly dominion, all you lose is the death gems for the lammashtas.

    -> I'm really liking LA Ulm. Just to be different I went with this pretender:

    Great Sage (Body 251, 10 hits)
    Magic: Fire 1 Earth 2 Astral 4 Death 4 Blood 4
    Dominion 6
    Scales: Turmoil 3 Growth 1 Fortune 3 Drain 2
    Awake

    The Sage researches Thaum 2, Enchant 1, Const 4, Enchant 3, and would also kick off blood hunting except with Luck 3 I always get a hero early enough to do that with the hero instead. S4 is dangerous, actually overall the god is weak, but he's a scholar, not a fighter. S4D4B4 is a pretty meh bless for the ghouls, but they're just a little bonus with higher MR, the real focus is on getting xbows, a few more shields if I need them, and Counts Counts Counts! And more Counts!

    I grab fortune tellers to start, totally cancels the few bad events I might get from turmoil. Plus the rangers are cheap enough in both gold and resources, and pack enough punch that I can still take a province a turn at the start.

    Thaum 2 is for the S2s to Mind Burn anything spectacularly nasty I might run into early.

    Drain 2 is nice for the points and for MR. My death gems go into skulls to make up for the low research on my fortune tellers.

    I don't recruit a whole lot of 2nd tier dudes, mostly I stick with the fortune tellers. And I find I'm hiring a lot of the H2 priests after the first year to ensure I've got positive dominion everywhere. I haven't managed to find a good use for the massive stealth on the mages yet. Any ideas there?

    I could probably drop the F1 since I never end up making Soul Contracts when I could be making another Count. But I've got 10 free points in the build, so ... there it goes.

    I've tried a Dom7, Drain3 variation of this too, and it's not bad either.

    Yep, the great sage is awake and generating 24 points of research a turn. Recruiting one fortune teller a turn, that's a total of 522 research after 12 months. Const 4 is only 360 points, but I am getting Thaum 2 and Enchant 1 first, for a total of 500 points needed.

    Once I've got Const 4, it's 1 turn for the sage to forge a skull staff and hand it to a S1D1 fortune teller to make skulls every 4 or 5 turns. The staff gets borrowed by the first Count out the gate when he needs to make more Counts.

    ->

    	    	    	8.34.2.2 Nation Guide (in progress): LA Ulm

    Article Author:  Horst F. Jens

    Nation overview

    You have stealth crossbowmen Ranger_of_Ulm and archers, various heavy infantry and units that summon free chaff Wolfherd -> Wolves and Vampire_Count -> Thralls.

    Your mage-priest have an weak forge bonus, you have cheap S1 Communion Slaves and Blood-Astral Mages, both of them very stealthy.

    You have the already researched national spell Sanguine Heritage (B3D3) that summons immortal Vampire_Counts.

    Your sacred cavalry is captial-only and expensive.

    25% of your H2 priests have an Astral random, making it possible to reach H3 with 2 communion slaves or even H4 with 4 communion slaves (Illuminated_One)

    In your captial you can recruit undead heavy infantry that is special effective against enemy sacred troops.

    Your province defense is at least competent (Shortbows and Pikes / Halberds).

    You have good magic diversity (all paths except water) but you lack mages with several picks of one path. You will get:

    * 100% chance of S2
    * 25% chance of E2
    * 2.5% chance of S3
    * 2.5% chance of B2

    Units

    Villain 10 gold, 5res, morale 8, prot 6, Short_Bow, Mace, stealthy, forest survival, map movement 2.

    Your only recruit-everywhere unit with normal magic resistance of 10 instead of 9. In late age, short bows are ineffective versus most units. Villain's have the same good map movement as your Rangers and are your only troop with mountain survival. Also this is your cheapest troop resource-wise. Use them to fire at closest enemies - your heavy frontline infantry should suffer less from friendly shortbow fire than from your Rangers crossbows. For 120 gold, you will get 10 Rangers or 12 Villain's. In most cases, you will recruit Rangers instead.

    Pikeneer 10 gold, 20 res, prot 14 magic resistance 9, map move 1, Pike

    buy this unit to repel low-morale troops like lizards.

    Halberdier 10 gold, 22 res, prot 14, magic resistance 9, map move 1, Halberd, castle defense bonus (1)

    a good troop to buy if you don't know exactly what you need. The defense bonus will help you against unexespected castle sieges and the halberd, together with the above-average strength of 11 packs a punch. Use this unit behind a screen of Tower shield infantry with orders to attack closest or attack largest.

    Infantry_of_Ulm 10 gold, 23 res, prot 14, magic resistance 9, mam move 1, Morningstar, Tower_Shield

    your basic arrow sucker. The morning star ignore shields defence but does less damage than a halberd or a great sword. Put those troops near the front as shield wall and script them to hold and attack or guard commander. A part from your cap-only cavalry, this unit has your best defence value (12).

    Ranger_of_Ulm 12 gold, 8 res, prot 6, stealthy, magic resistance 9, map move 2, forest survival, Crossbow, Axe

    There is nothing not to love about this über-cool unit. Buy as much Rangers as you can. If kept save from enemy arrow fire the Rangers can even engange in melee with their high-damage axes. Also note that Rangers have base precision of 12, making the armor-piercing crossbow fire even more deadly.

    Zweihander 14 gold, 36 res, prot 20, magic resistance 9, map move 1, Great Sword

    The next cool unit of LA Ulm, and the main reason to take a positive production scale. If you manage to mass enough of this troops you can tear into your enemies like a knife into butter. Do not use this unit as missle or lance fodder, use chaff or tower shields instead.

    Ghoul_Guardian 20 gold, 28 res, cap-only, prot 19, castle defense bonus 2, undead, Black Halberd

    A recruitable undead heavy infantry. The Black Halberd fatigues enemy sacred units. Being undead means poison resistent , and no need to eat. The biggest problem -a part from massing them- is the slow map move, so you will need Gateway or other means to send them into action. In contrast to the Black Templars, this unit is not sacred so resource in your captial is the only limiting factor.

    Black Templar 80 gold, 68 res, cap-only, 15 hp, prot 20, sacred, mounted, Lance, Morningstar, Hoof, Kite_Shield

    Too bad this unit is cap-only and so exensive. For the price, you get a good heavy cavalry (prot 20!). With the right bless this unit can be even more impressive. Note that Black Templars have magic resistance of 10 instead of your nation's usual 9.

    Commanders

    Commander_of_Ulm 40 gold, 24 res, 12 hp. 14 prot, leadership 80, map movement 2, Broad_Sword, Tower_Shield

    Your standard troop ferry. A good commander and your only unit with a broad sword. The low magic resistance of 9 make him not very well suited as a Thug, despite all the forging bonus of Ulm.

    Ranger_Captain 45 gold, 8 res, 12 hp, prec 12, stealthy (0), forest survival, map movement 2, Leadership 10. Crossbow, Axe

    Expensive for an scout, but dirt cheap for an sniper. A stealthy sniper. Forge him an Sceptre_of_Authority if you want to make him an useful stealthy leader (and Flame_Bolt caster). If not leading troops or scouting, the Ranger Captain will snipe with any of the cheap forged Bow's and Crossbows at your enemies.

    Black_Acolyte 45 gold, 1 res, H1 10%E, inquesitor

    A cheap H1 Inquisitor with a little chance of an earth magic skill. This would make him an ultra cheap Iron_Darts / Iron_Blizzard caster.

    Black_Priest 170 Gold, 1 res, H2E1 100%FAES 15% forging bonus, inquesitor.

    The workhorse of LA_Ulm and a very versatile priest/combat_mage/forger. Depending on the random skill you can:

    * Air gems: cast Aim to enhance precision and cast Iron_Darts, Iron_Blizzard or Orb_Lightning. Later, he can cast Rain_of_Stones if equipped with Earth Boots and after casting Summon Earth Power. In the lab, with two Earth boosters he can cast Enliven_Gargoyle.
    * Fire gems: can cast combat magic like Fire_Darts, Combustion, Blindness and Magma_Bolts. Can forge some interesting items.
    * Earth gems: can site-search for Earth sites with Gnome_Lore, and forge Earth boots and dwarfen hammers. Also can forge useful armor for your Thugs. In combat cast Summon_Earthpower followed by Tempering_the_Will to give all friendly units better magic resistance. Can also cast Blade_Wind or several Iron_Blizzards with less fatigue. Equipped with Earth boots he can cast Troll King's Court to get an E3 mage and some regenerating trolls.
    * Astral pearls: lots of intersting items to forge, Golem_Construction possible with boosters and on the battlefield he can lead a communion as Communion_Master, becoming an H3 priest. When equipped with earth boots he can summon earth-power and cast Gifts_from_Heaven.

    If getting an Fire Pick Old age is possible. Also look closely at the age before empowering a Black Priest.

    Illuminated_One 80 gold, 1 res, S1, stealthy (25), RP 3, prec 10, spy

    Your research and communion slave. cheap and dependable. Sneak this little fellow into enemy lands together with your Vampire Counts and Thugs. Spoil any Mind Hunter's day. In Combat if not acting as Dominion Slave, cast Star_Fires or Luck and Body_Ethereal to help your Thugs. Better yet, forge some Starshine_Skullcaps to make S2 mages and start some real combat magic. In the lab, site-search for Astral Sites with Arcane_Probing or forge some Ethereal_Crossbows for your Ranger Captains.

    Member_of_the_Second_Tier 160 gold, 1 res, stealthy (35) S2B1 10%SBDF

    Your main Blood Hunter. And your main communion Master. And a good combat mage even alone. Try to lead a communion and/or equip your MotsT with items such as Spell_Focus, Eye_of_the_Void, Starshine_Skullcaps and Crystal_Coin's. Anything to overcome your opponent's magic resistance, so that you can cast Mind_Burn, Paralyze or (with boosters/communion) Enslave_Mind. Against undead or massed troops the spell Solar_Rays is like an Fireball with less damage but 100% precision. In the lab you can (with boosters) Send_Lesser_Horrors. Every tenth mage will have an additional random skill, giving you either (2.5% chance for each):

    * SSSB
    * SSBD
    * SSBB
    * SSBF

    If you are lucky enough to find an mage with random Fire pick that also is not too old, consider empowering him in blood magic. This will (with boosters) open the path to Soul_Contract (B6F1, constr2) and give you a free devil each turn.

    Wolfherd 50 gold, 2 res, stealthy, Mountain & Forest survival, map-movement 2, cap-only

    This unit can summon Wolfes.

    Fortune_Teller 90 gold, 1 res, cap-only, 1S 100%SNDB, cancel bad event (10)

    Depending on the random skill you can:

    Nature gems: empower/ with boosters forge a Thistle_Mace to get N2. with N2 you can site-search for Nature sites with the spell Haruspex or summon Bears or Wolves (national spells). Together with a ring of wizardry it is possible to snatch enemy commanders via the Winged_Monkeys spell. Without boosters, only the Eagle_Eyes / Vine_Arrow combination or Curse springs to mind.
    Death gems: Forge Banefire_Crossbow and Doom_Glaive. In Combat, cast Nether_Darts. With 2 Astral Boosters, cast Vengeance_of_the_Dead against enemy SC's.

    Hochmeister 130 gold, 68 res, cap-only, mounted, prot 20, 17 hp, H1, inquisitor Lance, Morningstar, Hoof, Kite_Shield

    A good chassis for an Thug or Prophet. Can self-bless and is quite durable.

    summoned Unit

    Thrall 10 hp, 0 prot, morale 17 Pitchfork

    This chaff unit is auto-summoned by your Vampire Counts. Good for morale boosting and thanks to the pitchfork has a chance of repelling.

    Wolf 8 hp, 2 prot, map-movement 3, stealty (0), Forest and Mountain Survival.

    Summoned for free by your Wolfherds with the command Summon Allies. The wolves can outrun knights and make ideal lance fodder. The high map-movement is only matched by very few troops such as Lion_Tribe_Archers and Lion_Tribe_Warriors, who both lack the mountain survival. You still have to equip/find a commander with such an high map-movement. Use your wolves as patrollers and script them to attack cavalry

    summoned Commander

    Vampire_Count 44 Blood slaves, summoned by national spell Sanguine_Heritage Blood slavesBlood slavesBlood slavesDeath gemsDeath gemsDeath gems

    immortal, regen (3), 25 hp, prot 0, BBDD, flying, undead, pois-resist, cold-resist, stealthy (0), enc 0, Life_Drain

    Note that immortality only works in friendly dominion. If the Vampire_Count dies in friendly Dominion, he is revived in the capital the next turn. His items, however, are lost. If he got battle afflictions those will slowly heal.

    With 2 boosters, Vampire Counts can summon more Vamprire counts. Use them to blood hunt, site-search for Blood sites (Bowl_of_Blood) and to defend your homelands. If fighting outside your dominion, equip them with good magic items, like an Black_Steel_Full_Plate.

    Scales

    Basically you are a blood forging nation. Growth and Order is good for you.

    Your cap-only Fortune_Teller will help you taking a misfortune scale (good synergy with order), but your very cool heroes and your difficulty to search for elemental magic sites will be helped by neutral or positive Luck scale.

    You have already production bonus in your castles. Your heavy infantry and cap-only cavalry will profit from a production scale. Nearly all your troops demand more resources than gold.

    Magic: Your can recruit S2 mages everywhere and lot of the astral combat spells are negated by magic resistance. Positive magic scale will help you fighting in your own dominion with spells like Mind Burn and Soul Slay.

    Most of your troops have Magic resistance of only 9, a drain scale will protect them somewhat.

    Pretender Design

    Design your pretender with Death and Blood to make use of the national spell Sanguine_Heritage B3D3, as you have no national blood-death mages. You can gamble and wait for an hero with the right skills to appear at your castle's gate.

    You are a forging nation and need a ring of wizardry to boost paths. Give your pretender 4 Astral picks or more if possible.

    Your vampire counts are only immortal in friendly dominion. Having a high dominion will help you. Taking dominoin 9 will also give your pretender the awe effect, good for an combat pretender.

    High dominions will also help pretenders that auto-summon troops, like the Vampire_Queen, the Ghost_King and the Prince_of_Death.

    You need some time to collect enough blood slaves to summon your first Vampire_Count so taking an sleeping Pretender will not hurt you.

    Example:

    sleeping Master Lich with D4B4S4 and good scales and dom6.

    Tactic

    Ranger_of_Ulm hordes are your first way to dominate the battlefield. Rangers are very mobile and easy to produce in masses. There only weakness is a lack of shield and armor, so put tower shield infantry in front of your rangers to suck arrows. Use Halberdier or Zweihander to deal damage. Do not tell your Rangers to fire at closest because that will hurt your own troops. Use troops with shields to catch arrows. Use wolves to soak up lance damage.

    Your mages are capable of some impressive battle magic and you can recruit your mages in every fort and also seldom suffer from old age. Enhance your mages by building a communion or forging Slave_Matrix and Crystal_Matrix.

    Forge Bows, Crossbows and other Magic Items for your high-precision Ranger Captains

    Try hit and run tactics: A Vampire count with an Death gem can fly into battle, cast Summon_Lammashtas (D2, conj4, 1D gem) and retreat or help fighting. Being immortal means it does not matter if he dies in battle or not, as long as he stay in friendly dominion.

    Send Horrors to rout enemy Province Defense before combat.

    Have stealth troops like Wolves, Rangers and Villains hide inside enemy lands and attack in the magic phase together with teleporting Astral mages.

    Equip an Vampire Count with an black heart to have an immortal Assassin. Use his Blood skill to cast Hellbind_Heart and steal the commander.

    Use the overland-assassination spell Infernal_Disease to kill enemy commanders before the move into your lands.

    Before sieges, sneak one of your high-stealth mages with an stone-idol into enemy lands. Together with your very efficient inquisitor priests, you can lower or even push out the enemy dominion before storming the castle.

    Have Astral on your immortal pretender or empowering your vampire count with astral let allow you to use Mind_Hunt without penalty, while you can protect your SC with stealthy Illuminated_Ones to feeblemind hostile Mind Hunters.

    Use some Blood Slave to empower an E2 Black Priest with Blood magic. Give him 2 blood boosters and an dwarven hammer, and he can forge Blood Stones cheaper than everyone else (25% dwarven hammer bonus and 15% forging bonus = 40% bonus). The Blood Stones give one earth gem each turn.

    Research Goals

    Forging is what your nation can better than others, so race toward construction 2 for Dwarven_Hammer, construction 4 for Sanguine_Dousing_Rod Later, resarch construction 6 for Ring_of_Wizardry among others.

    Hunt for blood slaves as soon as possible. Later, move your blood hunters to medium populated provinces (around 6000 pop) to not hurt your tax base in high-pop provinces.

    Research the Socery Site-search spells like Arcane_Probing (Evoc 2) and Dark_Knowledge (Conj 2) soon. Research Bowl_of_Blood (Blood 2) at the same time as you have your first Vampire_Count ready.

    It will take a while until you have your first E2 mage and it will need indy mages, Empowerment or an Ring_of_Sorcery to get a Fortune_Teller with N2 so you can wait a bit before researching Thau 2 (Haruspex and Gnome_Lore).

    Evoc 2 will give you your first battlefield-spell Solar_Rays for your Member_of_the_Second_Tiers, followed by Evoc3 Iron_Darts for your Black_Priest. Later, research Evoc 6 for some Iron_Blizzard action.

    Conj 3 will give your Earth mages the fatigue-reducing and Earth-boosting spell Summon_Earthpower and Conj4 will give your Vampire_Counts the very userful spell Summon_Lammashtas.

    Thaum will give your Astral Mages good combat spells like Paralyze. Thaum 5 gives you Tempering_the_Will to help overcome your troops low magic resistance.

    Alteration will give you some useful earth spells like Ironskin.

    Blood 5 gives you the very useful Send_Lesser_Horror spell but you need at least one astral and one blood booster for this spell. Later Blood spells are even more interesting, like Send_Horror among others and Blood Combat spells like Leech and Blood_Vengeance.

    Conj 5 will give you the a good Thug Chassis with the Bane_Lord, but you can of course try to equip an Black_Servant with an Black_Steel_Full_Plate to have an cheaper Thug.

    Conj 6 will give you Summon_Spectre, one of the few ways to get missing magic skills like Water.

    Long-Term Strategy

    Your national troops are top quality, you enjoy an production bonus in castles and have archers, crossbow, stealth and Thugs availably right from the start.

    Your main weakness is low magic resistance, so try to kill Astral/magic nations fast. At least, survive until you can protect your troops.

    You can make max use of your blood economy and terrorize your enemies with Astral/Blood Spells like Horror_Seed

    You can make most of your foging bonus by aiming at constr 8 Forge_of_the_Ancients and Golem_Construction.
    	8.35 Tuatha, Eriu

    	    	8.35.1 Eriu

    	    	    	8.35.1.1 Eriu Guide

    Article Author: Baalz

    Eiru is a nation that upon first glance doesn't seem to have too much going for it. The infantry ranges from mediocre to mildly good  reasonable for indie expansion but nothing to hang a core strategy on once you start slugging it out with other nation's elite troops. They've got no cavalry (other than commanders), and no archers other than slingers. Their cap-only mages giving you weak access to earth and water and strong access to air and nature, while your non-cap mages are a fairly weak 2a, 1n or an even weaker (and still expensive) 1a 1n - neither of which is a cost efficient researcher.

    So, what do they have going for them?

    Firbolg infantry. As previously mentioned, is reasonable infantry. Their armor and weapons aren't anything special, but they have above average strength, attack, and defense. This isn't enough to put them up into the realm of the real elite troops, but it does give them enough of an edge against indie troops that you can use them for fairly reliable initial expansion. You've got two flavors, one with spears and javelins (and slightly better defense) and one with axes for tougher opponents. Against the indies it's a good idea to use a mix, when you start fighting players use your head as to what is more appropriate.

    Tuatha. This is your top shelf mage, and although expensive is pretty good. Between his glamour, defense, armor and slightly above average hitpoints he's got some survivability. With his glamoured stealth, map move 3, forest survival and ability to cloud trapeze he's got a lot of strategic maneuverability. Every one of them can cast thuderstrike, and it's fairly common to have them get 4a which will give you a pretty decent ability to lay down some lightning damage early on. As your research progresses you can, with no boosters at all cast fun things like wrathful skies and fog warriors and you've got plenty of N3s and an occasional N4 to cast mass protection, mass regeneration, etc. These guys are expensive, but you'll want to start recruiting one every turn as soon as you can afford to¿10 thunderstrike spammers can do a whole lot to even the playing field against an early push by superior enemy troops  particularly since they're spending their time chopping up your PD while your Tuatha retreat after blowing their load.

    Sidhe Lord. This little guy, upon first glance, seems a rather malformed chap. He's too expensive to be a good researcher, his magic is not strong enough to really do too much damage on the battlefield, and he can't join in a communion. So, how is it that he's going to be the centerpiece of Eriu?

    The Sidhe Lord could hardly be designed to be a better PD raiding chasis  just exactly what he needs and no more. His magic isn't strong, but it does give him access to the following spells which you can mix and match as appropriate:

    Mistform
    Barkskin
    Air Shield
    Resist Elements
    Resist Lighting
    Resist Poison
    Blessing

    He's got a high natural defense and glamour, and if you throw an earth blessing down on top of barkskin his protection soars over 20 with his stock equipment as well as having a functionally 0 encumbrance. The rare lucky shots which do land will be caught by the mistform and reduced to a single point of damage, if your blessing also includes a level 6 nature component he'll have 3 hitpoints regen to take care of those. Your national mages can easily forge frost brands and vine shields which is all this guy needs to take out just about any PD in the game. As available mix in fire plate, girdle of might, ring of water breathing and amulet of antimagic to make this guy immune to just about anything other than strong astral magic or other SC killers depending on which resistances you script. Frost brand + fire plate + resist elements = 100% frost and fire immunity. Resist lighting/poison if you're fighting anybody who likes that. Amulet of MR will send your MR north of 20 and will let you mostly ignore anything but concentrated astral spam. Note, Tuatha can do everything a Sidhe Lord can and more and can be substituted in a pinch, they're just not nearly as cost effective and the opportunity cost of other things they can do for you is high.

    Now, realize this guy is relatively cheap (compared to other recruitable thugs), recruitable everywhere, deadly effective with just 15 gems of equipment (not even assuming a dwarven hammer)¿and is stealthy and cloud trapeze capable. Now you're starting to see¿opening turn of a war is 7 or 8 of them having snuck inside the enemy territories each attacking a different territory while another 7 or 8 cloud trapeze into the back side of your enemy's lands. This isn't a late game strategy, this is fully doable in year 2  and fully doable against an opponent who doesn't even share a border with you. This is a surprise rush and the war will be over at the same time your opponent realizes there is one  no time to react.

    So, while your Sidhe Lord raiders are conquering everything without a mage supported army and leveraging their stealth against anything that can kill them, your research is ramping up. Those Firbolgs who were just mildly nice before are now quite easily buffable by your choice of fog warriors, mass protection, mass flight, mass regeneration, arrow fend, and quickening  and your buffers are not only stealthy, they're all cloud trapeze capable so your opponent never knows where the heavy buffers are. Heck, for the cost of a handful of gems 2 Tuatha can drop in and turn moderately high PD into a near impenetrable defensive force before retreating so if something goes wrong you're just out the gems and PD. Now, since your pretender has high earth magic you can mix in armies of lead and weapons of sharpness for the really important fights (for fun all around, make sure fog warriors goes off first then drop 4 or 5 earthquakes). Flying, quickened, armor piecing axe wielders will chew up most anything, and regenerating fog warriors are pretty much invincible outside of very strong combat magic.

    So, to recap:

    1) Take an Earth/Nature blessing. Nature only really needs to be at 6, earth should be at least 9.
    2) Use Firbolgs for initial expansion
    3) If possible find sites to recruit indie mages for research
    4) Start site searching early on for water sites, you've got no natural water income and you'll need them for early frost brands. In a pinch you can use snake bladder sticks, but they're a bit riskier and eat into your ability to make vine shields.
    5) Get a couple extra castles up, then start cranking out Sidhe Lords and Tuatha  if at all possible do this exclusively for awhile and don't recruit any troops.
    6) Once you've got the critical research done quickly forge some items and fall like a ton of bricks on your most likely neighbor. Hey, now you've picked up all those sites your neighbor was nice enough to site search for you while you researched other things!
    7) Follow that up leveraging the highly mobile Tuatha battle mages to support your Firbolg troops first with lighting evocations, then with powerful alteration and enchantment spells.
    8) You've got no astral or death magic, so time is *not* on your side. If the game gets to the wishing/tartarian stage and you're not already in a very strong position you're fairly screwed.

    Comments:

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    	8.36 Mod nations

    		8.36.1 Arga Dis, Blood and Bronze

    		Arga Dis is a mod nation created by Sombre, intended to fit into the Middle Age. The mod (as well as discussion about it) can be found here: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=518590&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

    Arga used to be a warrior like city state, akin to old Sparta, but in their hour of need, they turned to an ancient blood-using giant race, the Gilgans, for help. As a result Arga has become a grim(mer) place. To know more about the history, feel free to download the mod and read the various descriptions. It¿s well worth the effort in my opinion. Or, in the words of the creator:

        Quote:
        A society which venerates war and bloodshed. Their city nation watched over the imprisoned Gilgan blood giants. Following a terrible war it seemed Arga would be razed and forgotten, a terrible fate for a once glorious nation. In their darkest hour the Argans turned to the blood giants and swore an oath in exchange for power that would allow them to save their city and slay their foes. The Gilgan's were freed and not only fought the enemies of Arga but gave a 'gift' to those who swore loyalty to them. This gift was a glimpse of the afterlife, of Dis, a terrible place of brutal conflict where the strong reigned. The newly sworn Argans turned to their foes as changed men and fought like devils, finally defeating them and saving their city. Now Arga is a changed city, more brutal and violent than ever, more focused on slaughter and glory. It is effectively ruled by the Gilgans and with the coming of God they have turned their attentions to the surrounding lands.

    I¿ve decided to write up this guide for two reasons. One is to encourage people to try out this excellent mod, and to help them get started if they want to give it a shot. Second is that it is now starting to appear in MP games, and people facing it for the first time might find it useful to have an idea what to expect. (My current opponents in the Uakari game should not feel under any kind of obligation to read this, by the way ) I will admit I¿m currently playing my first MP game with them (close to turn 50 by now) so I won¿t claim ultimate knowledge, but then again there¿s only 2 nations in the game I have played more than once, MP and SP combined, so I guess I know Arga Dis about as well as I know any other nation. Anyway, without further ado:

    1. Units:

    The Argan infantry is, in one word, excellent. Arguably the best non-sacred human infantry around, with several solid options to choose from. Their two mounted units are conceived as niche units, and as such aren¿t quite up to the same all-round standard of excellence.

    Helgrot (8g, 6r) This is your basic chaff unit. However, they do come equipped with a javelin, shield (giving them 13 def) and minimal armour, and are really cheap, so they do fill the chaff role admirably.

    Argan Hoplite (15g, 11r) Your basic infantry unit, and the cornerstone of Argan glory, they are the proud representatives of Arga¿s warrior tradition. With elite stats, amazing morale, and two attacks they can hold their own against almost any opposition. Rare for units of this quality they actually are quite lightly armoured (prot 8) but their high defence and high-parry shields definitely make up for it. Their only downside is the lack of that little bit of extra punch to smash through really heavy armour.

    Argan Myrmidon (15g, 24r) The only unit in your arsenal wearing heavy armour, (though not the one with the highest protection) and as such also the one requiring the most resources. They have the same basic stats as the hoplites, but use regular shields instead of the amazing hoplite shield, and thus lack the shield bash attack, but wielding a short sword for a total damage of 17 they do stand a slightly better chance to punch through heavy armour. They also come with mountain survival. Another very solid unit, and if you have enough resources the choice between hoplites and myrmidons depends mostly on the opposition you face.

    Orphan (13g, 3r) The Argan youths lacking the discipline to become hoplites are turned into these fanatic, berserking killing machines. Wearing no armour and dual-wielding bronze claws  and lacking the slightest instinct of self-preservation - their life-expectancy rivals that of beautiful virgin girls insisting on taking naked midnight walks through graveyards. During the full moon. In Transylvania. Still, once they go berserk they deliver two att15, dmg16 attacks a round, making this the most powerful offensive unit at your disposal. And at 3 resources they are easily massed in a hurry. Used on the flanks and with proper decoys they can cause quite some damage before dying.

    Sworn Brother (26g, 12r) The regular Argan troops rival other nations elites. These are the Argan elites. They use the same equipment as the hoplites, but their stats are universally 1 or 2 points higher. Added to that, they also have a penchant for refusing to die as long as there are enemies left standing. Once killed they revert to their second shape, in which they have higher strength and attack skill, and are unbreakable, though their defence takes a hit, and have to be killed again before they finally accept their time has come. In fact, come to think of it, this second form packs significantly more punch than even berserking orphans. After battle their wounds catch up with them, and they finally lay down and die. Actually they were just expensive enough to prevent me from using them much during my game, but looking at them again now, I think I should give them another shot when facing tough opposition.

    Red Achillean (30g, 14r) Your second elite unit also springs from the hoplite mould, but they bath in blood from sacred Gilgan wells to make their skin impervious to harm. And if you take your traditional hoplite and then give him 18 protection you have a very frightening unit indeed. Oh, and most of their stats are also 1 higher than those of regular hoplites. This should probably be the unit you recruit in the very first turns, for as long as resources (as opposed to gold) are the bottleneck for your recruitment, and they will continue to be useful throughout early game. They do have an abysmal MR of 7 though, (a side effect from their blood baths) so once you start facing MR negate spells  or start buffing the natural protection of your other units - they become obsolete. Having to drag around big kettles to bath in the sacred blood slows them down to mapmove one.

    Oathsworn (22g, 12r, sacred) Your sacred unit is recruitable everywhere, but that¿s about as far as the good news goes. This is basically a normal hoplite with poor morale. (Read the description to know why, I think it¿s a nice touch) Don¿t get me wrong, this isn¿t a bad unit, (we¿re still talking about the same Argan hoplites I was so enthousiastic about before) and just about everything will kick ass if you use a dual bless. It¿s just that other nations play this game better. Still, they¿re not too expensive (upkeep for the regular hoplites is higher) and they will benefit from any (possibly minor) bless you might have for other reasons. They will definitely be happy with a minor fire/water bless if you can squeeze it into your pretender design. Just don¿t forget to use sermon of courage¿

    Sworn Companions (120g, 22r, capital only) A sworn brother mounted on a horse. (and wielding a light lance) The mares of Dis however, are about as elite as the men riding them. They have a bite attack in addition to the traditional hoof and cause fear to boot. Supposedly massed fear causing units will send just about everything running in short order. Unfortunately, at 120g, I¿ve never massed them, and probably never will. Even with their second shape, they¿re just too fragile for 120g units in my opinion, and Arga Dis has easy access to the excellent demon knights, who are better in most ways. However, if I can spare the cash I can imagine myself recruiting a couple of these to mix in with the demon knights, to add a few more fear-causing units to the squad, and at the same time reduce the demon knights¿ exposure to banishment.

    Blackwing Rider (70g, 24r, capital only) An Argan warrior armed with a glaive and mounted on a black Pegasus. While they do pack quite some punch, and flying is of course incredibly useful, they are horribly, horribly fragile. Like most Argan units they have light armour, and rely on their defence to keep them alive. Unlike most Argan units they are size 4, and thus will suffer from the defence hit of successive attacks. Even plain dagger-armed archers will take them out with relative ease. Never, ever use them in squads of their own. They can possibly be useful mixed into one squad with size 1 imps, to add that bit of punch to flying raiding parties.

    Harpy of Dis (Blood3, 1B1D, 7 slaves) National summon of Arga Dis, one cast nets you 7 harpies. Harpies have poor stats and no armour, but they do have 2 (low damage) attacks, so they¿re quite good at taking out opposing archers. They¿re well worth the low cost of one slave/harpy to send flocks of them diving down upon archer-heavy enemies. They will also curse anyone they damage with their wing attacks, though with their poor stats they¿re unlikely to curse anything important.

    2. Commanders

    Helgrot scout (20g, 6r) A scout. Nothing special to see here. Move along.

    Argan captains and sworn captains come in 4 different flavours. Each one is a commander version of their respective unit types. Each one has good leadership abilities and a standard effect. The sworn captains have a second shape like the units do. The mounted sworn captain is somewhat thuggable.

    Haimgrot (70g, 1r) [1B] The blood hunter that will keep the cogs of your blood economy spinning, and help make Arga Dis one of the most powerful blood nations around. Not quite as efficient as the Mictlan or Lankan blood hunters (not being sacred) they certainly are the next best thing. They come with a built-in dousing bonus, meaning they hunt as B2 hunters. (Or B3 with sanguine dousing rods)

    Misbred (130g, 1r, sacred) [220% FEDB] Your basic mage, they will not make Arga Dis into a magical powerhouse, but they do have their uses. At 130g (sacred) for 4 research, they¿re perfectly average researchers, but they do have the ability to forge both skull mentors and lightless lanterns, so you have little excuse for lagging behind in your research. They can remote search for FEDB (though all but death requires a 1/16 random pick. In my game I managed to recruit about 40 mages without getting a single 2E one, meaning no site searching, and, maybe worse, no earth boots -> dwarven hammers. I ended up having to empower one mage to 2E. Still with somewhat average luck you should be fine. ) They are able to forge a lot of basic SC/thug gear, and several other nice items. They can access most of the low-level blood summons, although they will need boosters for some of them. Some of them will have access to some powerful evocations and earth buffs, though the reliance on very random picks, and the fact that you¿ll want the first few 2F and 2E ones at home for site searching and forging means that you shouldn¿t count on having too many of them available fast. Remember that the blood ones can join sabbaths as either master or slave, though always with the hassle of using blood slaves. Half of them can also blood hunt if you need those extra slaves now. In the long run the Haimgrots are more efficient, so you¿ll want to use them, but the misbreds can fill in the gaps without trouble.

    Gilgan (420g, 17r, sacred, capital only) [3B2H 210% FEDB] Real powerhouses of the nation, these demonic giants fulfil a dual role. First off they¿re the most powerful blood mages around, bar none. They have a decent chance at 5B, and minor access to several useful minor paths, to allow relatively easy summoning (in some cases with easily forgeable boosters) of anything from Succubi, over Arch Devils and Heliophagi, to Demon lords, infernal crusades, and imp-built castles. The only thing lacking is astral magic, denying them access to the powerful blood/astral spell line. (horrors, astral corruption) Second, they make for a good SC chassis. Not quite as strong out of the box as Niefel Jarls (what is?) and with lower paths (except blood obviously) and other research priorities and thus not as good at self-buffing as Dai Oni or Basalt Kings, they certainly are the next best thing. (and significantly cheaper) Give them good gear, and their high hp, massive strength, decent attack skill and very high berserk (+6) will allow them to tear through most opponents. Depending on random picks they will be able to buff themselves with stone/ironskin, iron will, flame shield, and if you¿re lucky summon earth power and invulnerability or phoenix pyre, as well as holy avenger and blessing (if you have a useful one) Keep in mind though that with their low paths the F/E buffs will be quite fatiguing, so use discretion in using them, and don¿t forget your reinvigoration items. Though it is something of a micromanagement nightmare, especially for solo raiders, blood also hold some really nice self buffs, from the lowly reinvigoration to the powerful blood vengeance, and the amazing battlefield-wide bloodletting. They do have a lowish MR of 16 for units of this power, and their defence skill will plummet to unseen depths once they go berserk, so keep these weaknesses in mind when equipping them. While blood generally isn¿t considered the strongest battlefield-magic path (and rightly so) it does have a number of useful spells your Gilgans can cast. Their berserk however means that they¿ll go charging towards the enemy at the slightest scratch, so don¿t send them out without minimal protection, and keep in mind the possibility that they won¿t be casting the spells you were counting on, so don¿t rely on them getting cast.

    Augurs (Blood5, B4, 25 slaves, sacred) [55%S 55%FS 55%FS 55%DN 55%DN 55%FSDN 55%FSDN] As you can see the Augurs have very random paths. Additionally they are old and come with a random affliction, so occasionally you will be cursing your luck and wondering why you threw away those slaves for a 1F1D cripple or even a feebleminded maniac. Additionally they have a gold cost of 120 for upkeep purposes, so you¿ll even have to feed the feebleminded maniac until you manage to find him a nice bit of enemy PD to kill him on. However, even with all the drawbacks these guys are well worth the price, and are the key to your magical diversity. (For more details see the later section) They can start off your nature/astral searches and forge a great many useful items (boosters, regeneration, reinvigoration, luck, MR,¿) They have a 15% chance to negate negative events, and some of those you don¿t need to stay at home for forging and rituals can actually become useful battle mages, depending on their picks. (nature buffs, antimagic!, nether darts, to name but a few.)

    3. Research Priorities

    Construction and blood. That¿s it. Next chapter.

    Okay, okay. I¿ll expand a bit. (Okay, a lot, actually. My main flaw when writing this kind of thing is that I can¿t seem to stop writing. There¿s always an extra interesting point to add)

    Construction: A big priority. Lvl 2 will give dwarven hammers and various miscellaneous items. Unfortunately you¿ll probably need lvl 4 and dwarven boots to be able to forge dwarven hammers. Lvl 4 will also give you a sanguine dousing rod, greatly enhancing the effectiveness of your blood hunters, quite some boosters, and skull mentors. Lvls 2 and 4 together will give you quite some effective items with which to equip your Gilgans or possibly a pretender to help deter early rushes. At lvl6 you get more boosters, everything you need to turn Gilgans or blood summons into combat monsters and lightless lanterns. Given the fact that construction up to level 6 is a priority you could try to push on to lvl 8 to snatch some early artefacts, though depending on the immediate threats you might want to get your blood summons going first. Even if you don¿t rush for lvl8 it¿s still well worth going there in some not-too-distant future, as you¿re the MA nation most likely to be able to forge some of the nice blood artefacts. Along the way you will have picked up legions of steel. Somewhat less useful on your generally lightly armoured troops, but any boost still is a boost. (And it¿s really nice on the Myrmidons) And at lvl 7 there is the great spell weapons of sharpness, though it does take a little effort to get a suitable caster. Also take a moment to reflect on blood contracts. (lvl2) At 65 blood slaves, (and 5 fire gems) not reducable by hammer discount, this is not an early game item despite its low level, but your Gilgans can easily forge one with some boosters, and from that point on you¿ll get a free devil every turn. Pays off in about 10 turns, and everything after that is bonus.

    Blood: Aaah, blood¿ What¿s not to like about blood. Lvl 1 allows you to battle summon imps. Surprisingly useful units with high defence and 2 attacks. At low levels you get several nice demon summons. Devils and Demon knights at lvl3 and 4 are especially good. Lvl 2 gives bowl of blood. While blood sites are very rare, and it might occasionally be frustrating to keep on casting this spell with no result, it¿s still well worth it, because there are quite a few really excellent reduction sites in the game. There are a few damage spells in the lower levels you can use if you are under pressure early, though nothing really extraordinary. (And always requiring the use of blood slaves) Lvl 5 is a benchmark. It allows you to summon Augurs, remote summon a horde of imps (quite expensive in early game at 44 slaves, but otherwise a very good spell throughout the game), and in combat to capture enemy units with hellbind heart, and to deal damage to the entire battlefield with Bloodletting. Lvl 6 gives you a decent and cheap remote assassin, and at lvl 7 you get Arch Devils and leech. (an amazing little spell when spammed. Attacking any position defended by a bunch of B1 mages with enough slaves will hurt. A lot. ) At this moment you should also finish Const 6 if you haven¿t before. At blood7/const6 you have overcome the slight weakness you have in early mid game. You can then return to finish off the last two levels of blood at your leisure when you have the time to do so. Plenty of goodies remain to be had here. (Heliophagi, demon lords, the different mass demon summons, life for a life, infernal prison, rush of strength, blood vengeance,¿) To make things even better, most MA nations are quite weak in blood and have other research priorities, so you¿re quite likely to net yourself many of the uniques.

    Conjuration: Less of a priority than for most races, since your Gilgans make for a capable SC chassis, and you¿ll (probably) also get most of the various unique blood summons to fill this role. You do want to research to lvl 2 quite early on for Dark knowledge, and lvl 3 (phoenix power/summon earthpower) as soon as you start using your misbreds in combat. After that it¿s more of a luxury than a necessity. If you are in a comfortable and safe position after having done (most of) your construction/blood research you can start researching conjuration to improve your magical diversity (Read more about magic diversity in the next chapter. Troll king court at lvl 6 and faerie court at 8 are some of the most universally useful spells) The elemental battle-summons (lvl 5 and 7 are really nice in the right circumstances too. ) At lvl 9 you obviously can get tartarians, but you¿ll need liches (Ench 8), with rings of sorcery to cast them, as well as gift of reason (Thau 4) to get the most out of them.

    If you are involved in heavy fighting you probably want to research alteration and/or evocation for their immediate combat uses before delving into conjuration.

    Thaumaturgy: At some point quite early on you¿ll want to research to lvl 2 for the site searching spells, though you might want to wait until you actually have a mage capable of casting them, given the random nature of your misbred paths. At the same time you pick up bonds of fire which might help a bit against trampler rushes (which you are vulnerable against) Iron will at lvl 3 is nice for your Gilgans to have when facing MR or die spells. After that thaumaturgy is low priority, though wither bones at lvl6 is really nice if you¿re facing masses of undead.

    After you have reached Blood7/Const6 (and Conj2/Thau2 for site searching) you are faced with a choice. If you are at peace, or things are going well on the battlefield, with your SC¿s, conventional troops, and flying raiding squads up to the task of defeating your opponents, you can choose to to go for long-term development. Const8, Conj9, and any level of Conjuration will enhance your prospects in the long run. If you are hard pressed though, you¿ll probably want to research spells that will help you out immediately. In that case Alteration and Evocation will provide you with some options. If you¿re facing a very early rush you might be forced to research to a certain lvl in these paths even sooner. (Lvl 4 alteration is nice if you have a couple of 2E mages. If you don¿t you can just as well keep going in blood/const)

    Alteration: My personal inclination is to go for alteration before evocation. First, because due to all the reasons mentioned elsewhere you¿re unlikely to have many mages of a decent level, and a single mage is more likely to make a difference by casting one powerful buff than with the couple of evocations he can cast before passing out. And second, because a few of the early buffs can help out your melee-Gilgans. At lvl 2 you get stoneskin for your Gilgans. Armour of Achilles and earth meld can help you out in a tight spot early on, especially against small numbers of elite opponents. Lvl 3 gives ironskin, and if you have a N mage to spare you could start casting protection on your hoplites. These levels will also give any combat pretender you might have chosen access to several self-buffs, depending on his magic paths. At lvl 4 you¿ll get swarm, destruction, and curse of stones. All of them useful spells depending on the opposition. After that wooden warriors, (lvl5) marble warriors or mass protection (lvl7) and of course army of gold/lead (lvl9) are of great benefit to your hoplites, adding protection to all the qualities they already have. If you get your air magic going fog warriors (at lvl7) is awesome. Invulnerability (lvl5) and phoenix pyre (6) are useful for your SC¿s, (if you can manage the fatigue) And incinerate, drain life and frozen heart are useful SC counters. (Though blood doesn¿t lack for SC counters of it¿s own) If you¿re passing through anyway, and no one beat you to it, mother oak (at lvl 5) is a nice and relatively accessible gem booster.

    Evocation: After the low lvl stuff you can cast if you¿re in a tight spot, fireball and magma bolts at lvl 3 are the first spells worth mentioning. Magma bolt has the extra bonus that you¿ll have more FE mages available to go to the front than you have 2E or 2F. Lvl 4 gives blade wind, lvl 5 falling fires, shadow blast, and earthquake, though neither your misbreds (too fragile) nor Gilgans (too likely to go berserk) are the ideal casters for this last spell. Both are also quite low lvl in earth. Once you get some trolls earthquake gets more interesting, but then we¿ve moved away from early/mid game defence into the realm of endgame. (In the context of this nation obviously. Others can cast it more easily early on) Lvl 6 gets the awesome magma eruption, castable to good effect even by 1F1E misbreds with earth boots/blood stone/summon earth power. At the same level you get flame eruption, which can be truly devastating if you manage to get all the elements in place correctly. (Gilgan or Arch devil with a bodyguard of fire-immune demons, some fire boosters, and defensive and reinvigoration equipment should do the trick. Is it worth the effort? Maybe. At best it¿s a gamble, and things can go spectacularly wrong. But if everything works out you get a really awesome fireworks display. ) Lvls 7-9 gives you the truly devastating battlefield enchantments and large-area spells of the different elements as well as flames from the sky. A special mention for arch devils who are easily capable of casting fire storm/heat from hell(ench6), (as well as living fire from conjuration if you want) and it isn¿t hard either to get yourself a bodyguard of fire immune demons. Flying ones if you want to.

    Enchantment: Finally, we get enchantment. There¿s nothing horribly urgent here, but you can find several useful spells along the way. Research when you feel like it. At lvl3 you get strength of giants (as you might remember punching through heavy armour is your hoplites main weakness, so this spell helps you out) Skellespam is here too, though unless you find an interesting site, you¿re unlikely to find enough 2D mages to achieve critical mass. At lvl 4 antimagic is vital against astral nations. Further down the line you find the various domes and elemental resistances, mass regeneration and relief for end game nature goodness, and various attainable gem globals. Heat from hell (lvl6) works great with demon armies, and at lvl 8 lichcraft opens the way for high level death magic.

    4. Magical diversity

    Somewhat oddly for an otherwise magically weak nation, Arga Dis is quite capable of achieving a good magical diversity, and with some efforts is able to reach high levels in all paths but water, even without pretender help. This obviously doesn¿t mean you¿ll have a cadre of high level mages chain casting all high-level spells in all battles, but if you do need to be able to cast one specific spell, chances are you can achieve it with some time & investment. Of course, pretender design might be able to help you out, and in some cases trading for boosters will ease your task, but this can¿t always be achieved. In this analysis I will discount 10% randoms, since they¿re just too unreliable to count on. For the same reason I will not take into account uniques, (items or summons) except those you¿re likely to get, namely the blood ones. So, how do we achieve all this?

    Astral: Not the easiest, but not unimportant to your magical diversity due to the rings, so I¿ll look at this one first. Getting an S2 Augur isn¿t hard, and he can forge you an astral skullcap. About 1/8 of your augurs will have S3. If you¿re unlucky and don¿t get one of those, at least one of the Arch Devils also has S3. Equip him with a starshine skullcap and a crystal coin and you have S5 [Okay, I admit it. This is where I cheat. You don¿t have a native way to forge crystal coins. Trading for one shouldn¿t be too hard though. Alternatively you might put at least one point of astral and earth on your pretender. If you don¿t put astral & earth on your pretender, and for some reason you don¿t manage to trade for one, there are a number of independent mages (most of them from astral sites I believe) with the ES combo. Failing all of the above spectres (Conj6) have a 1/8 chance of having ES. They are really expensive though if all you need them for is crystal coins. Better to trade for one. If nothing works out, well, that¿s it then, you¿re stuck at S4 (short of empowerment) Forget rings of sorcery and wizardry then, and everything that follows requiring one of those. You can still get some decent magical diversity without those two items, mind you, but if it¿s at all possible, try to reach them. They¿re so worth it.] With S5 you can forge a ring of sorcery, and equipping that one you get the ring of wizardry. S6 is as far as you get without artefacts (well, in the very late game you can develop a robe of the Magi for S7, but that will definitely take a while. )

    Blood: Well, this is easy obviously. Your Gilgans have an easy B4, and occasional B5. Forge a blood thorn, brazen vessel, and armour of souls (and ring of sorcery or the black book of secrets artefact if you don¿t manage to recruit a B5 Gilgan) and you¿ve got B8 without pushing too hard. Enough for all your needs.

    Fire: With 2F from your misbreds and the easily forgeable skull face (const6) you get a relatively early 3F (4 in battle with phoenix power) For higher levels you¿ll have to wait for Arch Devils (Blood 7) (unless you get very lucky with a F3 Augur. Don¿t count on that though) Arch devils will give you F4 and thus F6 with flame helmet and skull of fire. (or F7 in combat)

    Earth: 2E from your misbreds. Earth boots and blood stones will give you 4E (5 in combat) At Conj 6 you can summon troll king¿s court to give you 3E mages. (5 with boosters) Adding a ring of wizardry or (cheaper) the artefact pebble skin suit (which you¿re quite likely to get, given the magic paths of the other MA nations.) boosts your troll up to 6E. Enough to cast all spells and forge all items in the game.

    Death: Death is an easy path to reach ever higher levels in for any nation, so the same goes for Arga Dis. D2 from your misbreds gives you a skull staff. Depending on your research and available gems from there you have three easy ways to reach the D5 needed to summon liches. (Ench8) At least one of the Heliophagi (Blood8) has D3 Give him a skull staff to forge a skull face, equip it, et voilà, D5. The same can be achieved by summoning a mound fiend (Conj7) Alternatively, you can skip out the middle summon by giving your D2 misborn a ring of sorcery, which together with the skull staff allows you to forge a skull face, bringing you to D5. Liches are D4. Equip them with skull staff, skull face and ring of sorcery for D7 (and Tartarians.) D8 with ring of wizardry.

    Nature: About ¼ of your augurs will have N2. Forge a thistle mace for N3. Over half of your N2 mages should also have S. Give them a thistle mace and forge a moonvine bracelet. (If you don¿t get any N2S1 augurs you¿ll have to wait until you manage to forge a ring of sorcery, then forge the moonvine bracelet with an S1N1 augur) That will take you to N4. With a ring of sorcery you reach N5 and faerie court/tree lord¿s staff/tree lords, and from there any level of nature you need. If you lack astral pearls and can¿t manage to forge a ring of sorcery you can reach N5 with the help of an ivy king. (conj7)

    Air: This will take a while to develop. You need N5 and Conj8 to summon a faerie court, giving you A3. Give the faerie queen a ring of wizardry and she can forge winged helmet and bag of the winds, giving you A5, and the ability to cast most of the best air spells in combat (A6 if you keep the ring of wizardry) Unless you find indy air mages you won¿t have any serious air income by this time though, and the air boosters are expensive, so don¿t expect to have many of these flying around. Keep your eyes open for the illusionist mercenary mage, he can help you out with site searching and/or forge a few key items early on.

    Water: Your best bet for some basic water magic is to find enchantresses. (who can then forge a water bracelet, and from there can site search and forge most of the basic useful items. If you don¿t luck out with enchantresses water gets harder. While spectres and Lamia queens (both conj6) do have potential W randoms, developing water from scratch if you don¿t find any enchantresses really takes a lot of time, effort and resources. If you do decide to go for it, both have 7/16 chance of at least W1 and 1/16 of W2. I wouldn¿t try too hard to get water really going though. W2 is plenty for your needs. (Site searching, boots of quickness)

    Blood empowerment: Of course, empowerment is always an option to improve your magic diversity. It is however very expensive, and very often not worth it. Empowerment in blood is an exception though, simply because you¿ll have so much more blood slaves than you have other gems. There are useful cross-path spells in all paths, though some more so than others. Nature/blood will give you jade daggers, blood vines and cross breeding. Water/blood gives you ice devils (and frost fiends) Air/blood will allow for storm demons and robe of the magi (boosting all your paths one higher) Astral/blood will allow the horror spells and empowering an S3 mage twice will (with full boosters) even allow you to cast the dreaded arcane corruption. None of these is a must-have tactic, but they¿re all options at your disposal.

    5. Blood hunting

    Blood is the major strength of Arga Dis, so you¿ll want to start collecting blood slaves as soon as possible. Recruit heimgrots, have them forge themselves their own sanguine dousing rods, and park 2 of them in each province between 4700¿ish and 6500 population. (except those with gold-producing sites) Set taxes on 0 (or on 20 if you can stand the micro of checking the unrest levels. A tax rate of 20 will work fine most of the time, but occasionally unrest will get really high, and you¿ll have to drop it back to 0 until the population calmed down) and watch the slaves flow in. Alternatively you can reduce unrest through heavy patrolling, but this will eat through your population at a horrible rate, and is most suited for aggressive play (bless-rush?) on small maps. Use scouts (or indy commanders if you can¿t find enough scouts) to transfer the slaves from the blood hunting province to the nearest lab. Later on you will want more and more blood hunters, and will start using ever more highly populated provinces for blood hunting. You will be able to bring in just about as much blood slaves as you want, the only problem is that the more you hunt for blood, the lower your income will be. (due to lowered taxes) Worse, since you¿ll start using ever bigger provinces to blood hunt, and thus loose more and more tax income, each slave will be a bit more expensive than the last one. On the bright side, most of your blood summons do not require upkeep (The Augurs do though), so the more you blood hunt, the bigger the portion of your armies will consist of demons, the less upkeep you¿ll pay, the more you can afford to blood hunt. Etcetera.

    With 3 growth your population will grow about as fast as it is depleted by blood hunting. (Not if you patrol though) If you take less growth, or even death scales, your population will decline, and you¿ll have to occasionally move your blood hunters to a new province, when population levels become too low to sustain efficient blood hunting in their current province.

    For more information on blood hunting in general, and on the transition from a gold economy to a blood economy, read Baalz excellent guide on Blood hunting (and Mictlan) You can find this guide linked in the strategy index at the top of this page.

    6. Odds and Ends

    I¿ve grouped some miscellaneous info pertinent to the nation into this chapter. Don¿t expect anything too coherent. (The incoherence might be worsened by the fact that it is now 4 o¿clock in the morning, but I¿ll reread it with a fresh head before posting. )

    * My assessment is that while Arga Dis is strong enough early on to achieve strong expansion and to make them an unappetizing early target, they¿re still vulnerable to early trample rushers, and possibly some aggressive bless rushers too. There¿s also a small window after the moment your opponents are likely to attain their first really useful battle spells (say skellyspam for C¿tis for example, or thunderstrike for Caelum) in which you¿re likely to suffer in a war against an opponent of roughly your own size, as you lack the ability to spam spells of the same efficiency) As said before though, research in construction and blood will make you potentially very powerful in mid game, and the powerful blood spells can easily carry you all the way through end game. You also have the ability to achieve good magical diversity with a certain amount of effort, so there really aren¿t many late game strategies you can¿t employ, though time and gem restraints will of course prevent you from doing everything at once.

    * As with other blood nations, you¿ll loose a substantial part of your income to blood hunting. This means that you should always pay special attention to the upkeep costs of everything you do. Try to refrain from hiring bigger garrisons than you absolutely need, and use blood summons to supplement regular recruitment if you¿re suddenly threatened on a new front. Try to resist the temptation to use up all the money from large lucky gold events immediately, and carefully consider what you want to accomplish with it in the next several turns. Shave every penny twice before spending it, because the less gold you spend, the more blood slaves you¿ll be able to rake in. Of course, Arga Dis has some really high-quality units, and the Gilgans aren¿t exactly cheap either, so you¿ll have to find your balance.

    * Like most nations consisting of elite infantry, Arga Dis is very vulnerable to tramplers (rushers or otherwise) Even size 3 minotaurs hurt badly. Too worsen matters you¿re not very powerful magically speaking, so several counters are hard to attain. I have yet to face massed elephants myself, with any nation, (though I did face Minotaurs in my current Arga Dis game) so I will refrain from giving specific advice on how to counter them here. You can find a thread on how to deal with tramplers linked in the strategy index. They¿ll have the first-hand experience I lack.

    * General wisdom is that it¿s quite useless to recruit heavy armour units when fighting really high damage units such as giants, as they¿ll just smash through the armour without noticing it anyway. While this is good advice, it doesn¿t apply to Arga Dis. Since their hoplites have so low armour giants will actually smash through the armour and the shield in the case of a shield hit. (25 protection combined) Recruit Myrmidons (or Achilleans) instead. They have the same defence (actually one more without counting the parry) and a combined armour + shield protection of 30 has a better chance of stopping at least most of the blow.

    * Horde from hell is not only an excellent remote summon capable of taking out all but the strongest PD (I¿m afraid of using it against Pythium in my current game, but then they have arguably the strongest PD in the game) but you also retain the units to cause further mayhem. 25 imps and a flying commander might not be enough to conquer the world; it¿s not something to sneeze at either. Combine the surviving imps with devils, harpies and possibly some blackwing riders for extra punch for some serious raiding ability. Both Arch Devils and Heliophagi can also fly if you want a heavy hitter along. (Or you can use them on their own of course)

    * Your PD is on the low side of average, consisting of one hoplite and one helgrot per point. Above 20 you also get an extra myrmidon/point of PD. It does bring some fresh bodies into the field, but don¿t expect it to accomplish anything extraordinary.

    * Blood stones are great. They are a path booster and a gem-producing item at the same time. Build them whenever you can.

    * None of your priests will be able to preach. Preaching is for sissies. If Gilgans want to expand the faith of the true god, they sacrifice a couple of virgin girls. The ability to push dominion through blood sacrifice is always useful, though you lack the predilection for horrible scales of Mictlan, or the weird temperature preferences of Abysia and the Heims to make a dominion push into enemy territory extra harmful.

    * The Gilgans are your only national priests. You can probably find some indy priests to fill your basic blood sacrifice and blessing needs, but H2 priests are harder to come by. Unfortunately, Gilgans are quite expensive at 420g, and it¿s a waste to use them for Sermons of courage. This kinda makes it hard to follow my advice to keep Sermon of courage active on your oathsworn sacreds, if you use them. Which is a pity, because at their price they would be well worth taking a minor bless for, and to be used extensively, if you would be able to keep them all sermon of couraged.

    7. Pretender Design

    7a. Scale preferences

    Order/misfortune vs Turmoil/luck: I am a firm believer of taking turmoil/luck scales for heavy blood hunting nations, since eventually a large portion of your lands will have their tax scale set on 0 anyway. All those blood hunting provinces will not earn you one dime more with order as they do with turmoil, while they do keep generating lucky (money) events. As a bonus you¿ll get shitloads of free gems, which will help you start out site searching, if nothing else. (And the executioner hero is awesome, both thematically and in stats.) I have seen other people disagree with this point of view though, and it is true that order/misfortune will make for a bigger income, or at least a bigger reliable income during the crucial early expansion phase of the game. The augurs come with a big (15%) chance to negate negative events, so a misfortune scale can be mitigated somewhat.

    Productivity/Sloth: Most of your units will be quite lightly armoured, and thus don¿t require too much resources. One or even two points of sloth are definitely an option if you want more points, especially if you use an awake pretender to help out with early expansion. If you don¿t use an expansion pretender, and instead rely on your regular troops to expand, taking sloth might slow down initial expansion too much. In this situation you might be better off with neutral scales or even production 1.

    Heat/cold: No special considerations here. Arga Dis has a neutral temperature preference, and as such you obviously prefer neutral scales here. Think twice before using a pick here to fund something else, and think thrice before tilting the scale two ticks either way.

    Growth/Death: I like growth for bloodhunting nations myself, as it compensates for the population loss from bloodhunting. It also slightly helps compensate for the income loss of your turmoil picks, if you took those. On the other hand the same thing that¿s true for order is also true for growth: a large part of your lands won¿t benefit from the income boost. You also have no real supply issues, and your only old mages are the Augurs, some of which have N and D picks mitigating their old age problems, and if you have one with important randoms you can easily forge him boots of youth to keep him young. So you have some arguments for taking death too. I suppose this depends on the size of the map and personal preference.

    Magic/Drain: With relatively cheap, low power research mages I seriously recommend taking one magic. It gives a large benefit for little cost. Three magic is an option if you have points to spare, but due to lack of magic you don¿t benefit from the -1MR penalty this brings with it, so I would reserve this option for scale monster builds. Neutral scales are acceptable, but any amount of drain hurts a lot. Don¿t take drain unless you have a very good plan to deal with it. And then think once more.

    7b. Blessings

    While Arga Dis doesn¿t categorize as a strong bless nation, they do have several sacred units which can benefit from some more or less modest amount of blessing. The oathsworn, misbreds, Gilgans, and Augurs are all sacred.

    Earth: The most universally useful bless. Minor earth reinvigorates all your sacred mages and helps them cast longer. While encumberance isn¿t the greatest weakness of the oathsworn, and an earth bless isn¿t their first choice, a little reinvigoration doesn¿t hurt them either. Major Earth is very useful for SC Gilgans. It also raises oathsworn protection from 8 to 12, which still is very mediocre. Major earth is more useful for units which already have high protection, but if you take the bless for the Gilgans anyway, the oathsworn get some benefit from it. Taking even one major bless certainly isn¿t a given with Arga Dis, but if you do take one, earth seems the way to go.

    Nature: Another one for the Gilgans. N4 will provide them with 3pts of regeneration/turn, and seriously cut down on afflictions. N8 will take this to 9pts, and (prohibitively expensive) N10 even to 12. The oathsworn will also benefit from the affliction reduction from this bless, and gain a little bit of survivability. The very fragile misbreds and augurs don¿t gain any real benefit from this bless. The N9 berserk is quite useful for the Gilgans, adding to their already impressive Berserking ability. It¿s a mixed blessing for the oathsworn, counteracting their big weakness of low morale, and increasing their offensive power, but at the same time reducing their main survival attribute, their defence. It is suicidal for augurs and misbreds though, who have no chance at all of surviving the headlong charge towards the enemy provoked by any pinprick they might be subjected too.

    Astral: Not too bad. S4 or 6 will raise the lowish Gilgan MR to a more respectable 17 or 18 (S8 does not improve on this though, MR can not be raised above 18 through a bless) and more MR for anyone else is always useful. Misbreds and augurs both benefit quite a lot from twist fate at S9, but this is definitely not worth taking the bless for imo. Gilgans nor oathsworn are the type of units who benefit that much from it.

    Fire: F4 will raise Oathsworn attack to a very respectable 14. With two attacks each they will stand a decent chance at hitting anything but the very highest defence units. (W9 Vans start to get tricky) F9 will raise their attack to 16 and give them flaming attacks. Not bad at all. The Gilgans don¿t especially need extra attack that badly, but an extra point of attack is an extra point of attack. It can help make the difference against high-defence SC¿s.

    Water: Again a bless the oathsworn will benefit from the most. Raising their already decent defence skill increases their survivability. W4 will give them a respectable 16 defence. W9 means defence 18 and 50% quickness. Not that horrible, but if you insist on taking a major bless specifically for your oathsworn I¿d go for the F9. Once they go berserk Gilgan defence is so abysmal they will get hit anyway, W bless or no, so the minor bless doesn¿t do that much for them. Quickness is as useful for them as it is for any other SC though. (And maybe more so for Arga Dis than for other nations, since they have no easy access to water magic for quickness items)

    Death: The affliction chance increase is actually quite nice for your Gilgans casting blood battle spells. There are quite a few blood spells that target large areas, doing little damage in that area. Bloodletting being the best of the lot. Increasing the affliction chance of these spells can help leave your opposition a useless mess, even if you don¿t kill them The other sacred mages can obviously benefit from this as well. I see no incentive to go for a major bless here.

    Blood: Meh. Minor blood will increase the strength of your oathsworn, which is nice, given the lack of punch mentioned earlier. A nice bonus if you¿ll be getting blood anyway for another reason. But why would you ¿take blood anyway¿ on your pretenders if you have Gilgans?

    Air: Bleh. Air shield might help increase misbred and augur survivability on arrow-strewn battlefields, but to actually take an air bless for that reason? I don¿t think so.

    7c. Dominion

    Having a high dominion will help you push dominion through blood sacrifice if you¿re so inclined. On the other hand, the ability to blood sacrifice can also help you get away with lower dominion. You can¿t preach though, so it might be best to avoid the really low dominion you might get away with with other sacrificing nations. Dominion 9 or 10 will obviously help out SC builds through awe.

    7d. Putting it all together:

    Pretender Types:

    * Rainbow pretender: Though I generally like this kind of pretender I don¿t feel Arga Dis needs a rainbow, as they are capable of developing a very decent magical diversity on their own. If you still do take a rainbow, make sure you have the ES you need to forge crystal coins. Consider taking 2E to make sure you can forge earth boots, and then dwarven hammers, or maybe even 3E to forge your first hammer before reaching const4 and thus save quite a few gems along the way. Air and Water are your weakest paths, and thus a minimum of two each will help out site-searching. Consider 3+ S to facilitate ring forging (or possibly even 5S to allow arcane nexus with boosters) Also consider minor blessings. Oathsworn benefit most from 4F4W, Gilgans from 4E4N, though 4S ain¿t bad either. Your other mages like 4E. You obviously can¿t fit all of the above into the same build without sacrificing something else.

    Example 1: F2A2W2E2S3N2B1 awake lore master with turmoil 3, production 1, death 1, luck 3, magic 1, dom 6. (Or prod 0, death 0) 2 Picks in almost all paths to allow early site searching. S3 to ease up the forging of rings of sorcery/wizardry. No death magic to save a few points, because you have easy access to death, and death offers little extra in synergy with the other paths. Basic dominion of 6. (Dominion 5 can give you an extra scale, or death magic, if you feel like it) Blood because you have 10 points left over with nowhere else to go, and with the boosters your Gilgans can forge this will get you started on all the cross-path spells your Gilgans don¿t have access to. You reach your first blood SC chassis (ice devils) one level sooner this way, and they¿re cheaper than arch devils too. Production 1 to insure early expansion goes well. (I¿d say this is a well-balanced rainbow. I still don¿t like rainbow pretenders for Arga Dis though)

    Example 2: F4W4E2S5N2B1 dormant great enchantress with turmoil3, production1, death 1, luck 3, magic 1, dom 6. Designed less for site searching (though she can still do that of course) and more to give your oathsworn some minor blessings, to allow easy forging of rings of wizardry/sorcery and staffs of the elements, and eventually the ability to cast arcane nexus. With this build go out of your way to find H2 casters for sermon of courage, and use oathsworn mixed in with the hoplites as the mainstay of your armies. Enchantment (for arcane nexus) normally isn¿t a priority school, but it does hold a number of nice spells for you. (See earlier) Do not rush straight for the nexus without assuring you have an otherwise strong position though, since casting it paints a freakishly big target on your forehead. With the help of a couple of suicidal Sabbath slaves you can also cast master enslave, though thaumaturgy usually is your last research priority. Blood is there for the same reasons as in the previous build. Since you want to use oathsworn, and your pretender isn¿t around for the first year, you don¿t want to skimp on your dominion any more than this. Also provides one astral pearl per month, to help power your astral needs.

    * SC pretender: While your expansion rate using just your regular troops is okay, speeding it up a bit with an awake expansion pretender certainly doesn¿t hurt. Additionally having an awake or dormant SC pretender will help deter early rushes, and diminish your vulnerability to enemy attack in the early mid-game window I talked about before.

    Example 1: D4 awake prince of death with turmoil 2, sloth 1, growth 2, luck 3, magic 1, dom9 (or Turmoil 3 sloth 0, or sloth 0 heat/cold 1) With awe from dom9 and high fear the prince of death eats most indies naked, and he gets a lot better with equipment. Skimping on the magic allows quite good scales, (net +3) The growth is there to counteract population loss from blood hunting. Incidentally he also provides a minor death bless.

    Example 2: A3B1 awake blood wind with turmoil 2, sloth 1, heat 1, growth 2, luck 3, magic 1, dom 10 (or turmoil 3 heat 0) Showcasing the unique Arga Dis pretender, a giant bloody whirlwind. (Shaped like the air elementals, but with a delicious bloody haze to it. What? Bloodthirsty? Me? Where did you get that idea?) A size 6, ethereal, fear causing, 30AP, encumberance 0, flying trampler. With 0 protection this choice is somewhat more of a gamble than the tried and trusted PoD, since any hit that does get in through the awe and etherealness is likely to do a lot of damage. (likely to resulting in afflictions or routing) For this reason I felt dom 10 was a must. With dom 9 he just gets hit too often. If he does avoid getting hit though, he¿ll blaze over any opposition in no time at all, leaving broken corpses and bits of debris strewn along his path. Quickly research a few levels in alteration for mirror image & mist form, to increase his chance of avoiding hits. At size 6 (and with awe, fear, and etherealness) he¿ll stop any elephants cold, though his own kill ratio will be very slow too, without being able to trample them himself. Unfortunately he only has 2 miscellaneous slots, limiting his ability towards later game, though you can alleviate that somewhat by buffing him with other mages. (Iron warriors is perfect) If you can manage to keep him alive, as a 30AP trampler he¿ll still devour opposing units at an alarming rate.

    * Bless pretender. As I said before, I see little reason to go for a pure bless strategy with Arga Dis, but it is quite possible to combine a rather serious bless with other considerations. If you have a decent bless for your oathsworn try to find independent 2H mages and spam sermon of courage. Make sure to keep them blessed, (+2 morale apart from the bless effect) and consider mixing them into the same squad with regular hoplites for some more morale boostage. Remember that until you find indy priests you¿ll only be able to bless them with your prophet or the expensive Gilgans, so build a temple in the first indy priest province you conquer. A bless for your Gilgans is easier to manage, only requiring them to self-bless at the start of the battle.

    Example 1: 9F3B dormant Moloch with turmoil 1, death 1, luck3, magic 1, dom 7 (Or turmoil 0, death2; death 2 dom 8, or turmoil 0, magic 0, or possibly even death 2, blood 4 for extra sacred punch) Expand aggressively with your blessed oathsworn. They should waltz over any conventional opposition with this bless, and even stand a decent chance against some sacreds  as long as they don¿t break early. Make sure to have at least a decent armour, and preferably some more equipment ready by the time the Moloch awakes. Lacking awe you can¿t send him out naked, but with proper equipment he¿s a serious SC. 3B because you can¿t do anything else with the leftover points, but it also means that if you equip your moloch with armour of souls (and why wouldn¿t you? It¿s a great armour. ) you can supercharge your hp and wipe away your fatigue by using bloodletting. 9F also makes him an awesome battlefield mage, able to toss out massive spells left, right, and centre. And you can still use the bloodletting trick to wipe away accumulated fatigue, and speed up the opponent¿s death. Less (or no) turmoil than with previous builds allows you to build more units in early game, but taking death means you have to put them to good use, immediately, while the PoD build has some more staying power.

    Example 2: 9E4N imprisoned Cyclops with turmoil 2, luck 3, magic 1, dominion 7 This bless mostly benefits your Gilgans, with the oathsworn getting a rather minor, if noticeable, benefit from it. Even with this bless the Gilgans risk death, or at least accumulation of afflictions when trying to take provinces naked, so try to target the weaker indies, and be careful all around. Don¿t use the Gilgans to replace your ordinary expansion with achilleans/hoplites/oathsworn, but to supplement it. Make construction research even more of a priority as with other builds, and equip some Gilgans with the best stuff you can forge them. Supplemented by their bless they¿ll be even better than they usually are. Once the Cyclops breaks free you have another powerful SC in him, with full slots, high hit points, incredible armour, and the ability to cast nature and earth buffs.

    * Scales monster. Needing neither a rainbow pretender, nor awake SC, nor major blesses (though they can use them, as shown above) making a scale monster pretender is a viable option. Use great scales to speed up recruitment, expand faster, build more forts, and recruit more mages and troops in them, speeding up your expansion and research even more. If you use the oracle for this you can easily get a frightening astral caster at the same time.

    Example 1: 4S imprisoned oracle with order 2, production 2, growth3, luck 3, magic 1, dominion 10 (Or order 1, production 1, magic 3. Or dominion 9 and one more pick somewhere) The ultimate scales, and the dominion strength to push them too. Incidentally you also get a +1MR bless. You can have a Baphomet with one less scales pick and one less dominion and 4F2S if you prefer.

    Example 2: 8S imprisoned oracle with order 0, production 2, growth 3, luck 3, Magic 1 (Or order 1, production 1, or production 1, 9S) High production for strong recruitment from turn 1. Neutral or slightly positive order, coupled with production, growth, and luck events should give you a strong income. And a high dominion strength will allow you to push your good scales everywhere. S8 (or 9) allows for arcane nexus, wish, and master enslave. (though without easy access to clams your astral income might be on the low side to use wish a lot, at least until you cast the nexus, and these paths, especially thaumaturgy, aren¿t your usual research priorities) S8 gives your Gilgans and oathsworn a useful late game bless, and twist fate if you go up to S9 is somewhat nice for the other sacred mages too.

    		8.36.2 Warhammer

    			8.36.2.1 Skaven

    			The Skaven mod is yet another mod created by Sombre (don¿t you ever sleep?) the mod can be found here at http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=525736&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1

    The Skaven are a race of malevolent rat-men that inhabit the underground of the Warhammer world. The tunnels of their vast under-empire reach from the steaming jungles of the Southlands to the snow-covered steppes of Kislev, from the western borders of Estalia and Bretonnia to the lost realms of the Far East. Their capital is the mysterious city of Skavenblight, hidden in the centre of the foul marshes lying on the western borders of Tilea. There, the mighty Lords of Decay, ruthless rulers of all Skaven, sit on the Council of Thirteen, scheming and preparing for the time when their armies will emerge from the subterranean realm to raze the entire surface of the world. Such is the ultimate ambition of the Skaven race, a destiny preached by the Grey Seers, who are powerful Wizards and prophets of the Horned Rat, the malevolent Skaven deity.

    I decided to write this guide for a couple of reasons. One was that I had been kicking around the idea of writing a Skaven guide for a couple of months now and another is that I was inspired by Amahzair¿s excellent guide to Arga Dis to turn my own hand to writing a guide to my own favourite mod nation.

    A. Units

    Skaven¿s units have several things in common they all get at least:

    Darkvision 50%
    Mountain Survival
    Poison Res 35%
    Stealth 0
    Siegebonus 1

    To balance this however they have much weaker stats than humans and really low morale (their highest morale units get a whopping 12 and most don¿t even get over 9)

    1.Skavenslaves (10g 5r): these are your very cheap and nasty chaff that have abysmal morale and very poor stats. However they have one big advantage over their fellow rat men in that they are Size 3 units compared to the others size 2 making them slightly more useful against tramplers
    2.Clanrats (7g 9r) & (8g 14r): These are your basic infantry with the falchion armed version being slightly more expensive than the spear carriers nothing particularly special but they make a good all-round unit to use as the core of your army.
    3.Stormvermin (11g 17r): This unit is a slightly more expensive version of the clanrat armed with a glaive and better stats I don¿t find myself using them much due to almost always taking a sloth scale.
    4.Pestilens Plague Monk (8g 3r): these are your other cheap chaff unit which has better stats than the Skavenslaves and is armed with a short sword and a bite attack that causes disease they also have fairly good poison resistance and are a good unit to use with your Censer bearers as they can better survive their poisonous emissions these units can also berserk making them less likely to rout. All this comes at a cost in that they lack armour completely.
    5.Pestilens Censer Bearer(25g 6r) Though they share the plague monks lack of armour these censer bearers make up for it by being little furry brutal killing machines these sacred berserkers are armed with Plague Censers which do an AOE poison attack on hit causing them to go through non-poison immune infantry like a hot knife through butter and best of all are recruitable at any fort with a temple .Get as many of these as you can and you will not regret it
    6.Eshin Gutter Runners (9g 5r): another cheap chaff unit this time armed with a short sword and a net making them perfect to break up incoming charges they are very fragile however so don¿t expect them to survive very long.
    7.Eshin Gutter Runners (20g 7r):these are armed with two poisoned blades as well as being armed with a poison shrunken making them your only recruitable with a missile weapon (albeit one with only 2 shots and short range) I personally have never really used this unit much as most of my gold seems to go into either clan rats or the censer bearers so I cant really comment on them
    8.Council Guard (20g 17r): has excellent stats (for a Skaven) which almost equal those of a human elite unit and is your other sacred unit (capital only). These are actually pretty good units if not the powerhouses the censer bearers are I like to mix a few of these in with a normal squad of clan rats where there superior morale can help prevent routs and they can also do some real damage when blessed with their glaives,

    A.Commanders

    1. Skaven scout (20g7r): your bog standard scout nothing to see here
    2.Chieftain (45g 17r): your basic leader who can lead 40 troops pretty useless compared to your next commander. Its only use is that it can autosummon up to three Skavenslaves a turn.
    3.Warlord (90 32r): although nearly double the price of a chieftain the warlord can lead a whopping 120 troops and is much better armoured and has much better stats it can also auto summon up to 1 stormvermin each turn. If you must recruit a non mage commander these are the men (rats?) to go for
    4. Moulder Packmaster (50g 5r): can only lead 10 troops and is even more useless than the chieftain although these do come with animal awe and can summon 3 giant rats a turn.
    5. Moulder Mutator (130g 8r) (E1 B1): your basic blood hunter and your only mage with a guaranteed blood pick if you decide to go down the blood path. Also with a pair of earth boots (and possibly a dwarven hammer) is very handy for forging bloodstone's Edit.Also has dowsing 1 making them blood hunt as a B2 mage actually making them your best blood hunter
    6..Pestilens Plague Chantor (65g 5r) (H1 100%BD): A sacred and fairly cheap mage the B1 version make excellent cheap bloodhunters while the D1 version can be a handy researcher if you take a magic scale. Its one major flaw is that it comes with the ability to berserk always a hindrance on a mage.
    7.Pestilens Plague Priest (160g 9r) (H2 D1 50%D 50%B 20%BD): An upgraded version of the Plague Chantor with a greater chance of magic diversity these will be the backbone of your military as the Skaven units biggest weakness is their low morale which can be countered by sermon of courage spam from these commanders who can also lead 40 troops.
    8.Eshin Assassin (80g 4r): An assassin/Spy who can lead 40 troops a pretty good unit but if you are recruiting one of these you are not recruiting a mage or plague priest.
    9.Skyre Warlock (110g 8r) (100%EF 80%EFD): A fairly good mage with the potential to get a cheap F2 or E2 mage. Can also lead 40 troops. Also due to a quirk of the game engine can be recruited in a fort without a lab.
    10.Skrye Warlock-Engineer (230g 24r) (F1E1D1 85%EF 30%EDF): Your main mage with good access to battlefield magic. Also they come with a small(10%) forge bonus which should make them your mage of choice for forging. They are also the mage of choice for summoning your best national summons.
    11.Grey Seer (330g 1r) (H3 D2S2 110%DS) (capital only): not only does this commander give you your only H3 leader but also gives you excellent access to both astral and death two paths that are valuable throughout the game and can lead 80 normal units. To add to its power it also negates one in five of all bad events and can act as a spy as well! By the mid game you will want to be recruiting one of these a turn.

    Pretenders

    A. Scales

    Order/Turmoil: I Like an Order 3 scale to take advantage of the gold expensive troops and to get forts up ASAP to turn out the mages and priests you most definitely need to back up your armies.

    Productivity/Sloth: Most of your better units are fairly resource cheap so I would recommend taking at least some sloth scale here.

    Heat/Cold: Nothing particularly special here as the Skaven prefer a neutral temperature scale although you may want to think about going one notch either way to pay for a bless if you go down that route.

    Growth/Death: I would recommend at least Growth 1 if you are planning to go blood hunting. I would not recommend taking any death scale though as your large armies will tend to eat lots of supplies and while none of your mages start with old age none of them are particularly long lived either.

    Magic/Drain: I would go with a magic 1 here if your pretender build can support it as it provides a cheap boost to your Mages particularly your plague chantors and priests who being sacred make cheap researchers.

    B. Blesses

    Skaven has some fairly strong blessable units, So the question you need to ask is do I go for a bless to boost my mage priests or my sacred troops?

    Earth: A minor earth bless will help keep your mages spamming spells longer and while none of your sacred units particularly need a major earth bless a bit of extra protection never hurts.

    Fire: Skaven's units are one of the few sacreds that don't really benefit from a fire bless as they neither need the extra damage or attack as their AOE weapons do significant damage anyway.

    Air: While an air bless has the benefit of providing you some protection against arrows which your armies could really use but it is not worth taking an air bless just for that.

    Water: A bless both your sacred units can benefit from. A minor water bless can boost their fairly low defence however once your units berserk this goes out of the window. Still a major bless that gives quickness is always nice for any sacred unit particularly as you don't have any access to water magic as a skaven.

    Nature: A minor Nature bless is great for your sacred units who otherwise rack up a lot of afflictions due to their close contact with their poison weapons. I wouldn't recommend going with a major bless however as you do not want your mages going berserk I would recommend no more than a mid range nature bless.

    Death: A death bless is very handy as your poison attacks do come with the additional affliction chance meaning that even if your sacreds are wiped out by the enemy you can still count on them to really annoy your enemies.

    Astral: A minor astral bless is not bad as it boosts your fairly average Magic Resistance however I would recommend instead that if you must take an Astral bless go the whole hog and get a full S9 as it makes your sacreds a lot more survivable and high astral magic is always valuable in the late game for wishes and the like.

    Blood: A blood bless is fairly useless as the extra strength does little for you I would not recommend taking any blood at all

    			8.36.2.2

    		8.36.3 Warhammer Lizardmen - Join the Communion Commrade

    			8.36.3.1 Original Thread

    Article Author: Fate

    *DISCLAIMER* - I play mostly SP. I have only played Lizardmen in SP (so none of these strategies have been tested in MP). Just a grain of salt.

    I love Sombre's Warhammer mods, and the Lizards (linky) in particular. I am making this guide in part to raise awareness, in part because it is my first guide and I kinda wanted to try writing one, and in part because I want Sombre to finish the nation ().

    The Lizards are easily one of the most powerful nations. They are oozing sacred units, they have undeniably the most powerful mages (which also get an auto-communion), and access to every path except death. In capable hands they should be unstoppable.

    Units:

    Skinks - The little ones are the worthless dribble you get in PD. Never recruit the Mor 7 ones, get fewer, higher Mor alternatives. The elite and mounted Skink are interesting, but you would do better to buy Saurus for have the GCost. Even the Terradon Riders are too weak to be useful as fliers.

    The Skink archers can be massed for Flaming Arrows + Wind Guide, but I would probably never buy these for anything else. Paired Skink must be killed twice. This gives them double resilience against tramplers. Also note all the skink have stealth. They can be useful as guards for sneaking priests in preparation for an ambush.

    Saurus - The Saurus are great. The most gold effective unit I have seen. They even have magic weapons! I have very little to say about most of them - recruit whichever suits your needs. The mounted ones are good if you have gold to spend (not likely). I haven't noticed a large difference between the two warriors.

    Kroxigor - don't bother, unless you have a specific need (regeneration/very high prot enemies). Even the second reason isn't great because all the Saurus have above average damage anyway.

    Salamander - Fun to play with. Useful if you want to get underwater (but your Water Summons are even better for this). Expensive, so unless you really want them, don't bother.

    Temple Guard - Go into your mod file and change these to 32 gold. At 24/25 (I can't remember because I changed mine) they are overpowered. Even at 32 gold I consider them THE unit to recruit. They are a solid sacred for a nation that loves a bless. Best of all, they work fine with a simple E9 (They pretty much like any bless you give them, except maybe N).

    Commanders:

    Skink Scout: A scout. I have tried gearing them to take advantage of the glamour, but the 5 hp is too little.
    Skink Warchief: don't ever bother.
    Saurus Vet: Can lead. Might be useful as a thug (but you have many better options).

    Skink Shaman: Pretty much a Priest minus the holy and the auto-communion. There are some uses, but in general I would just get a Priest.
    Skink Priest: Such an awesome unit, I dedicate this guide to them. More on that below.
    Priest of Sotek: Will get you into blood (as if you need it). Just watch their herecy. Be prepared to lose all dominion in the province you have them blood hunting (keep them away from your research centers if you took magic).*

    Slann - Fifth and Fourth: Very similar. I try to get Fourth where I can (note they are cap only) because they are just better than Fifth in every way (except, oddly, enc, but that is only by 1 point). Bear in mind they can go dormant - healing themselves and taking no upkeep. Very useful.

    Oldblood: Cream on the cream pie. A great thug chassis (though lacking a little in hp, and no foot slot). When they die, the lizard they ride keeps fighting (and, miraculously, has the same slots) for the rest of the battle! Plus, they have a built-in Luck Ammy (as if they needed it). All the more reason to take a good bless.

    *You could try using them to control bad scales, but that would require a bad scales. Lizards probably want at least mediocre scales.

    Magic Duels:
    rdonj and thejeff have pointed out issues with Magic Duel. Such problems should be mostly limited to the enemy pretender (I can't think of any nation with higher than S4 recruitables/summonables). For those battles you need to be prepared to lose any mages you commit. Note you can put your Slann to sleep, removing all their magic (and making them immune to duels), and command all your astral priests to hide/sneak. I would suggest trying for thugs over mages if you can (old bloods if it is early game, GoR summon of your choice, or sleepers, or whatever else you can get in later game).

    Expansion:

    Though you will find the Saurus perfectly serviceable, I suggest temple guard for expanding (you can prophetize your starting commander or send a priest for bless). We should probably take a sturdy bless, and the temple guard are better anyway. Even unblessed, 10 Temple Guard can take many provinces at Indy 6 without significant casualties.

    An alternative (depending on your build) is the Oldbloods. They are excellent thugs. Two with frostbrands can take pretty much any Indy. If you took a strong bless (especially an E9) strongly consider giving them a shroud (it is cheap!).

    Now, a quick look at Pretender:

    Scales:
    You need a lot of gold. Order 3 is a must. Your forts cost an outrageous amount, plus your (good) mages cost as much as most forts.

    You also need magic (though you could easily take drain and focus on thugs/bless). But for now, I would suggest Magic 1.

    I like to take Sloth 3. By the mid game you should have plenty of summonable units, so resources matter very little. If you focus on small, sacred armies you won't need any resources.

    Your nation likes Heat 2, so Heat 3 seems like a good option (it also helps your coldblooded units).

    That just leaves Growth and Luck to play with. I would suggest Death, because your have no Old Age to worry about. I like Luck for the gems (nice to get your site searching started), but it is not necessary. Do not take more than Misf 2, your PD is junk. It cannot take too many Barbarians/Knights (I would even be wary of Misf 1).

    Dom strength - probably 5 to 7. There is no reason to take a high dominion, though you will want a moderate dominion for building sacreds and general satisfaction.

    Magic:
    You want a bless. All your mages and units are sacred. Some unit benefits from pretty much every bless, so here is a brief overview:

    Fire: only useful to the units. The units have magic weapons already, so really it is just the Att and 6 AP dmg. Decent, but not my favorite.
    Water: Great for the thugs and the units, useless for the mages. If you are pursuing a thug/sacred strat, take this one.
    Air: Consider a minor in Air. Your shieldess summons and your communioned priests could use the air shield.
    Earth: My personal favorite. Helps your communions and your thugs, and definitely adds to all your sacreds (though some like this more than others).
    Astral: Meh. Nice, but by no means necessary (though it is excellent for your thugs).
    Nature: Only has a noticeable effect on the Slann. Don't bother. And DEFINITELY don't get N9+, b/c your best mages are sacred.
    Death: Good bless. Als the only real way to get into Death. However, I think you do not need the bless or the death access, viable as it is.
    Blood: Pushes your high damage units into the very high damage realm. Also, Farstrike on your Slann for early SC/thug killing.

    Definitely mess around to find a Bless that fits you. As I have said, I prefer earth. You don't really need your god for expansion, I would suggest an Imprisoned God. That and your scales should give you ~600-800 points to play with.

    Also, decide now if you want to go deep into blood. If you do, you should probably take some on your pretender (otherwise, you need to empower to get anywhere). Sadly, I have no experience with a heavy blood Lizardmen, so you will be on your own.

    Your strategic goals:

    Awash in Gems

    You have access to almost every path of magic. You also have a respectable starting income of gems, and you can forge (guaranteed) fever fetish and (with just the smallest touch of luck) clams.

    Keep in mind Slann cannot wield hammers (though they can forge them). If you really want to get into fetishes/clams, you will want a priest with the right paths (check each priest for FN/WN combos). For clams, you need Constr 6, robe of the sea, and a water bracelet. Also keep in mind whatever gems you put into these projects are not going into summons, BE enchants, globals, or other items. Wait until you have a steady foothold before starting this.

    For remote site searching, definitely start asap with Astral, Nature, and Water. For Earth, Air, and Fire you need to do a little manual searching with a Slann first. If you get enough Astral and you have the research, I would even consider Acashic record (as Slann time is very precious, and you actually can use every gem you get).

    Why are the Cities all so Great???

    You need to build a lot of forts. The money is nice, the control is nice, but the real reason is for Skink Priests. By the endgame you want to be swimming in priests - piles and piles of them. You want to be recruiting a Skink Priest in every province (which means you need a fort/lab/temple in every province). Your default action in every fort is to buy a priest. This takes priority over EVERYTHING else. Those extra ticks on PD? put it into a priest. Those 2 or 3 extra units? put it into a priest. I would support doing almost anything short of alchemy (and in some cases, even that) to get more priests.

    So, this is your handicap. How much do your forts cost? In reality, 2300 gold and 6 turns. 1400 for the Great City (ouch) plus 400 for the temple, plus 500 for the lab, so you can recruit your priests. Don't bother trying to find a province with a different fort, they are all Great Cities (thats how the lizards roll).

    On the plus side, your forts have admin 60. This is not for resources (remember, you have forts in every province), this is for gold. That is 160% gold in a province with a fort! So try to build your forts on farmland where possible. But most importantly, keep them away from the front. You do not want to lose your 1400 (or 2300) gold investment.

    The Slann may be your big hitters, but correct management of your priests is what is going to win you games.

    Slann VS Castle

    This is the most difficult balance you must keep. I like to put my first 650 into a Slann. From there on, react to your needs. If you are fighting a lot or you are feeling the pinch for Slanns, buy some. But remember that every Slann you buy slows you entire economy because you are delaying that castle and therefore, those priests. Also, remember that the castles are practically useless without temples and labs because your ultimate goal is to build priests.

    SKINK PRIESTS:

    In case you don't know, Skink priests auto-cast communion slave. Slann auto-cast communion master. This is the most powerful advantage your nation has. And thoug the Slann are flashy, the priests are the ones that make the machine work.

    Be very careful with these guys. Even though you have a lot, it is very easy to lose them all. Take a lot of steps to protect them:

    1) Keep the Priests in a 3:1 or greater ratio with the Slann (2:1 if you really need the extra firepower). If you must have more in a given province/battle, put some Slann to sleep or remove the priests from battle (they can hide/sneak instead). Otherwise your Slann WILL pop your priests like candy.

    2) Set the priests to Holdx5. You can do reverse Communions (I touch briefly below), but normally you won't (your Slann are normally much more powerful). The extra 20-60 fatigue the Priests will get casting their own spells of questionable value is a significant hazard, and makes them pop easily.

    3) Reinvig. By mid (or at least by late) game you should have Summon Earth Power or Relief (and an Earth bless if you took it). Always cast these. The 4-18 reinvig can make a huge difference (especially 18!).

    4) Scales. Your priests are cold blooded, so be very careful in cold dominion. Try a higher priest/Slann ratio, have your Slann cast fewer/lower level spells.

    5) Communion Bonuses. Your Slann get +1 path for every power of two number of priests (+1 for 2, +2 for 4, +3 for 8, etc...). Keep note of this and be careful about which spells your Slann have access to. They like to cast the big stuff, even when it isn't necessary. NOTE: you get a Skink Priest at PD 20, remember this in your calculations.

    Research:

    So many options. A quick overview:

    Conj: Not very useful in early & mid game, except for summoning the powers (especially summon earth power). Also, there is Power of the Spheres (great for reverse Communions).

    Your water summons are in here, for attacking under water. Keep in mind you still need an underwater commander to lead them (construction-4 for rings of water breathing work well). Alternatively, you could just go for Constr-6 and the Sea-King's Goblet.

    Alt: So many uses. Great for early astral/nature buff spam on your thugs/sacreds. Your Slann can use Eagle Eyes and Aim (in general they only seem to need one). Phantasmal Army is great for following up an ambush. At higher levels, there is Mother Oak, Frozen Heart, Iron Bane, great astral spells, and more...

    Also, the earth summons have great protection. Try iron bane/acid rain with them, because they have no armour.

    Evoc: You can cast everything here (except for those pesky death spells). Most of them probably aren't actually worth your Slann's time until you hit Evo 4 (acid rain, thunderstrike, bladewind). At Evo 6 Notice one of my favorite spells, Astral Fires. 100 Prec (haha darkness, storms, mists, &c...), 10 AN damage, 35+ range and 3+ AoE. On your fourth Gen slann that translates into 4 squares +your communion bonus. Spam it on any foolhardy opponent without fire resist (even underwater!).

    The fire summon is 100% fire resistant and has strong stats otherwise. A solid summon if you can land the fire gems.

    Constr: Great for gearing your recruitable thugs and mages. Also, the Astral summon has 30 morale! Worth the gems if you can spare them. Oh, and you can get Golems easily. And crystal shields. The possibilities are too numerous to list. A great research tree at any time.

    Ench: Not your best tree. Lots of useful stuff that you will want eventually. Mostly go here if you need the domes. Or if you want to try out Flaming Arrows + Skink Archers. The nature sacreds are stealthy (useful for ambushes) but otherwise not terribly good.

    Thaum: You will want Teleport to get around your mage's terrible 1 Map Move (all your mages can cast it). It also has the well known Astral anti-sc spells (though there are some other choices you can use if you want to surprise people). If you aren't playing CBM, watch out for Berserkers. Your Slann probably won't cast it (they prefer damaging spells), but you never know...

    Also, the air summons have 19 (!) MR. Use them if anyone is giving you grief with MR spells.

    Blood: Useful, but you aren't the strongest blood nation. The blood summons are ok (they have berserk, but you don't want a N9 bless for reasons I already stated), but nothing to get excitied about. No point in researching more than 2 (4 if you want the sacreds) unless you have blood on your pretender and you have a plan for going deep.

    Tricks:

    Just some ideas for communions, because that is what this nation thrives on:

    1) Firestorm. Have 1 Slann + some priests + Summons of Chotek if you can. Cast Fire Res -> Fire Storm and enjoy the show.

    2) Astral Tempest. Does MR negate this one? If so, cast your MR boosting spell(s) of choice followed by Astral Tempest.

    3) Earthquake/Falling Rocks -> Cast Invulnerability first.
    You get the idea of these...

    4) Using Priests of Sotek, have them cast Sabbath Master followed by some Reinvigorations to help with fatigue on your communions.

    Note, The Slann can go Dormant (change shape) mid-battle, making some of the best reverse communions. -Fantomen

    REMEMBER: Your skink priests are stealthy. You can easily infiltrate a large communion of priests and teleport a couple Slann on top of them (great for attacking someone's capitol).

    Aaaand thats as awake as I am tonight. If anyone ideas they think would go well here, I would be happy to add them to this post. Also, some of these ideas come from other people, but I can't remember who. If you want credit, just ask (here or PM) and I will add you.

    			8.36.3.2 Comments

    -> rdonj:
    Hey this has to be the first mod nation with two guides I see that I fail at paying attention as you found a reasonably attractive way to get into clams, which would be very useful for the lizardmen. We appear to have a few differences of opinion on them but that hardly surprises me, if people can say baalz is wrong, just about anything in this game is up for argument.

    I'm pretty sure fantomen was the first person to realize (publically at least) that slann being able to go dormant has excellent reverse communion potential, which again was really quite brilliant. The lizardmen have amazing reverse communion potential given that and coupled with a solid earth bless.

    One of my biggest disagreements though is to your assertion that they're easily one of the most powerful nations. They have a good deal holding them back and while I would definitely agree that they're above average their deficiencies are too large to ignore. One of the big ones is that while their slann are amazingly powerful in battle, on the strategic map they're not nearly so great. They don't have hand slots so they can't forge, and it can be hard to pull together the levels for the more powerful ritual spells and globals since they are restricted to miscellaneous slots for boosters. Slann are also unfortunately vulnerable to mind duel. So in my mind they have plenty of weaknesses to make up for their strengths to keep them from being too powerful.

    -> Fate:
    First, thank You rdonj for reminding me of your excellent guide (here). I read it when I first got the mod, but had since forgotten. Maybe I should try to cover some of the other, less guide-covered Warhammer Nations.

    As for being the most powerful. Hmm... Maybe my only fighting the AI has colored my opinion of them. It is true they will have trouble with many rituals, but it is a short walk up the astral tree (crystal coins to the rings on your Fourth Gen Slanns gives you S6) enough for all but the really high level astral rituals. E2s can even summon Golems. Also, W2 + bracelet (or a lucky W3) gives Naiads for Water and nature magic.

    You are in contention for the water queen (though you aren't concentrating on conjuration early, so don't get too hopeful). A lucky A3 + bag of winds + RoW gives Queens of Air. If you get a very lucky 4 in an elemental (can only be done on a Fourth Gen) you can get fire/earth elemental w/ a ring of Wizardry. Of course, all these worries would be easier if you could summon Third Gen Slann (*hint hint*).

    I think the most painful part is not being able to wield Hammers. I would suggest forging with something else (that can hold a hammer) wherever possible. If you took earth on your pretender you could try forge of the ancients, but I'm not sure it is worth it.

    As for Dueling, I don't know. They are rather high level, on top of normally operating in a communion, so your opponent needs S4+ to even have a decent chance. If they have an S9 Pretender, well... I will have to think about that (I don't think it is an extreme worry until at least year 2, because who will take an awake S9 pretender?) On that note, you have a lot of Astral gems and your Fourth Gen are guaranteed to cast Dispel. Do NOT let some one else get Strands of Arcane Power.

    In my opinion the lizards can take cover under their strong sacreds through the early game (though you will have to be careful about your losses). You shine in mid-game (all those BEs).

    Maybe I will look at mage summons and try to get an examination of them written soon. Also, all your Fourth Gen Slann can cast Transformation. This removes their amazing combat potential but also removes their hefty upkeep (unfortunately, most of them have the same slots). You could try for Master Enslave +Pen items to get more mages (especially against Baalz's MA Oceania...).

    -> thejeff
    Communion levels, or any other booster levels, are not considered for Dueling. Only the base (or empowered) level counts.

    -> Humakty
    I must disagree on the skinks part. Red crested are more than able warriors, chameleon are deadly and quite survivable in melee, and I had very good results using terradons to storm castles, as they can dominate any non-infantry unit. Plus they are all stealthy, which is most usefull to fight on your terms.
    Sure they won't make you forget your sacreds, as those are your line troops, but it would be a mistake ignoring them.

    		8.36.4

    	8.37 Ashdod

    		8.37.1 Ashdod proto-guide

    			8.37.1.1 Original guide

    Hinnom/Ashdod/Gath center around the concept of a "few mighty men," that is, small armies that are much tougher than mere numbers would indicate. I haven't played much with Hinnom or Gath because I dislike blood nations, but Ashdod has a nice smattering of Earth/Death/Astral/Fire, with a touch of blood and nature in the summoning tree, and quite a lot of overall versatility. Here are some thoughts from my few days of playing around with Ashod.

    In order to take the concept of a "few mighty men" to its logical extreme, i.e. one Adon soloing indy provinces on his own at the beginning, it is absolutely essential to have an E10 bless and some level of regen, preferably 10% (N6). This gives you functionally zero encumbrance. You might think that E9 is enough, but fatigue mounts quickly when your lone Adon is trying to solo 60 indies and with an E9 several Ahiman Anakite guards will be necessary. With E10N6 you can expand as quickly as you can accumulate Adonim. Be sure to take Heat-3 scales because the extra +2 encumbrance in Heat-3 provinces will not affect your Rephaite troops (which is everyone except humans and Edomites) as they are all 50% heat resistant.

    Your units are pretty decent. The top-line recruitable-anywhere troop is the Bashanite, with 40 HP to the Gileadite's 35 and 26 damage to the Gileadite's 21 (but worse repel). The Bashanite is superior against most foes because of the additional chance of one-shot-kill, but the Gileadite is quite decent and has excellent morale. (Note that the Gileadite shows up in PD, 1 Gileadite and 1 Edomite per 2 PD, and 1/2 Gileadite Archer per 2 PD over 20.) Mix in human slave warriors to improve force density (Size 4 Bashanite + Size 2 human = full square) and reduce enemy defense. I haven't thought of a use for the Edomites or poison spear warriors yet--generally it's better to kill things outright than to poison them slowly, and the Edomites have fairly bad stats and poor morale. The Gileadite Archers have a bow that does 17 damage, but because of their high resource cost and gold cost, against all but the heaviest troops you're better off using Edomite javelineers and/or human slingers. (The fluff text notes that the Gileadite archers showed their worth against the Abysians by picking off their mages at long range. I can buy that, but it's a niche use.) Overall, Ashdod troops are fairly expensive and easily swarmed, and you'll outright lose any pure slugging match against a conventional-arms power like EA Ulm. However...

    Ashdod troops have high HP and decent (13) Prot. They make excellent blockers for Ashdod's nifty battlemages, the Zamzummites and Rephaite Sages and Talmai Elders. Ashod can forge the Skull of Fire and Flame Helmet to get up to F5 reliably. They can forge Earth Boots to get E4, and in the late game can bootstrap to Bloodstones and E5 via Banquet for the Dead. They can forge Skull Staffs and Skullfaces to get up to D6, and forge Starskine Skullcaps and Crystal Coins for up to S5. Any of these limits can actually be exceeded because Ashdod can also forge Rings of Sorcery and Wizardry. (S3 Talmai Elder forges Starshine Skullcap, gives it to an S1E2 Zamzummite, which is 1 in 8, who forges a Crystal Coin and gives it back to the Talmai Elder who is now S5, and forges a Ring of Sorcery, which is used with the above to forge a Ring of Wizardry.) 1 Zamzummite in 4 will have Astral magic so he can participate in communions with 1/3 Rephaite Sages and 1/3 Talmai Elders, but it's more likely that large communions will happen by way of Zamzummite-forged Crystal Matrices. Fire magic is especially interesting to Ashdod because almost all troops are resistant to fire and have good armor. Evocation magic in general is pretty solid for Ashdod, because Zamzummites are sacred (I mentioned an E10 bless?) and all mages have decent precision (10 except for Talmai Elder's 9), and there won't be much damage to Ashdod's large (i.e. widely-spaced), high-HP troops.

    Here's a breakdown of Zamzummite randoms and what they can be used for. Zamzummite base is 1E2D + 100% (E/D) + 100% (E/D/S/F).

    1/8, +FD: Banefire.
    1/8, +FE: Magma Eruption.
    1/8, +SD: Nether Darts, or thugging, or communions. (See below.)
    1/8, +SE: Gift of the Heavens, or communions.
    1/4, +ED: Terror, Leeching Darkness, skelly spamming, or thugging.
    1/8, +DD: Cloud of Death.

    Thugging is also an option. For starters, as mentioned, an Adon with the right bless can solo indy provinces naked. Talmai Elders have forge bonus (15), and Adonim and Talmai Elders have full slots + 1 extra misc slot. Zamzummites can do Summon Earthpower/Invulnerability/Soul Vortex, or Body Ethereal/Ironskin/Soul Vortex, depending on randoms.

    One particularly interesting possibility is a linebacker communion (kudos to Baalz's Guide for the term). Give four or five Slave Matrices (5 earth, 5 pearls) to various Adonim and/or Zamzummites. Have the communion masters cast some or all of the following: Personal Luck, Summon Earthpower, Invulnerability, Ironskin, Fire Shield, Phoenix Pyre, Soul Vortex. With high HP and a good bless they will be much more durable than most linebacker communion thugs. Zamzummites have fairly poor attack ratings, so either give them good weapons or else... Boots of the Behemoth (5 gems). Size 4 tramples size 2 twice per turn, but fortunately between E10 bless and Summon Earthpower you'll have reinvig 9, which is more than enough to overcome the 6 fatigue you'll pick up per turn of trampling (Zamzummite has enc 3 naked).

    Supply is one weak point of Ashdod troops. Most troops have at least Gluttony-1, and Ahiman Anakites have Gluttony-5 and take 9 supply to feed. I'm not sure what wasteland survival does because I definitely had troops starving in wastelands. Perhaps it reduces the requirements slightly but it's still painful.

    And of course there are a lot of great national summons, like the Arel with Healer (50) and the Ophanim and Chayot (Call Merkavah). But I haven't gotten to an endgame with Ashdod so I'll just note the possibilities for now.

    			8.37.1.2 Comments

    -> Imprisoned cyclops. YMMV of course, but I am enjoying an E10N6 Cyclops with Order-3 Misfortune-3 Growth-3 Magic-2 Heat-3 Sloth-3. Ashdod is very production-heavy but Prod wasn't all that useful in my tests. In my current game I have ~120 Prod in my capital--I buy one Ahiman Anakite per turn plus enough slingers to use up the rest of my resources--and moving from Sloth-3 to Prod-0 would have cost 120 points and let me buy ~3 Ahiman Anakites per turn, or else buy 5 or 6 Sheshai Anakites. For the other troops you would just build more forts, so Prod is basically about producing more troops in your capital. Since I like battlemages more than armies of sacreds that didn't seem like a fun-optimal tradeoff to make, but if it had I could have traded Magic and some Growth to get Prod-0. (Growth is another dubious choice that happens to be fun for me, but has kind of a bad rep in MP.)

    -> Thug build for Zamzummim. Requires Alt 6, Const 6. Begin with 4D1E Zamzummim.

    Shadow Brand
    Luck Shield
    Bracers of Protection
    Girdle of Might

    Cost: 6 pearls, 9 earth gems, 7 death gems (w/ dwarven hammer and Talmai forge bonus where applicable).

    Yields Enc 3, att 13, defense 16, Prot 7. Then script . With the suggested E10N6 this will give you Prot 24/26 on head/body and leave you at ~25 fatigue after the Soul Vortex. It's possible that you'll get swarmed before you manage to get off your Soul Vortex, in which case you'll cast it later on (spells cancelled due to melee stay in the queue). You'll have a 35+ HP (up to 60 occasionally), regenerating, zero-encumbrance thug with luck and 26 Prot (most size 2 units can't reach the head), Soul Vortex and Leeching Darkness for chaff killing, a 34 AP melee attack at attack 13, defense 16, with several slots left open for resistances and other toys as needed. Substitute Flame Brand for Shadow Brand to save on research and/or death gems.

    For a unit with stats of Prot 4 Attack 9 Def 12, the Zamzummite makes a pretty neat thug. Astral Adonim are probably better, but the Zamzummite is recruitable anywhere and you'll have tons of them lying around doing research and battlemagey stuff anyway--this way you can convert one into a thug just by visting a laboratory. Flexibility + mobility = strength.

    		8.37.2 A Few (Really) Good Men: Guide to Ashdod

    Article Author: MaxWilson

    			8.37.2.1 Unit breakdown (troops):

    Human slinger: 7 gold, 2 res. Pretty much what you'd expect a slinger to be. Easily killed, not very accurate, low stats. Still, it's nice that this particular giant nation actually has the option to field human troops if it wants to, and slingers have their uses.

    Human slave: 7 gold, 3 res. As above. You may consider mixing these in with Bashanites to improve troop density and help overwhelm defenses, especially if there's some Strength of Giants going on to make the human slaves do some damage. You might ask yourself why you'd ever want to use the human slaves, since the slingers cost less resources and have a higher effective attack (9 vs. 8). The answer is that dagger troops are almost always subject to repel and spear troops usually are not, and of course the spear troops do marginally more damage. The best thing about these troops is that they're cheap and low-encumbrance with mapmove 2. The worst thing about them is that they're cheap.

    Edomite: 25 gold, 17 res. Light infantry with javelins and spears. It's hard for me to imagine actually buying any of these, but they do get better troop density than Rephaites do (because they are size 3) and after getting a couple of stars I imagine that they might actually start to hit things. Still, if you're going for quantity over quality you'll probably pick the humans. Wasteland survival.

    Amorite: 45 gold, 27 res. Of the recruitable-anywhere troops, Amorites tie with Bashanites for the best defense (14) although their Prot is lower, and their spears repel more weapons than broadswords do. The "strong poison" on the spear tips does 10 points of damage, I think. Amorites seem to be better than Bashanites at killing SCs, and they're pretty much equivalently good as blockers while being somewhat less expensive and having lower encumbrance. Fire resistant, wasteland survival, gluttony.

    Gileadite: 45 gold, 29 res. The opposite of Amorites. Slightly heavier armor (13 on the body vs. 11) and more encumbrance, with only 13 defense. You get these guys in PD. They have no poison on their spears, but have better Morale than Amorites (13 vs. 11), which is useful in PD. Still, if I were buying offensive troops and couldn't have Bashanites, I would buy Amorites and not Gileadites. Fire resistant, wasteland survival, gluttony.

    Gileadite Archer: 45 gold, 49 res. Heavily-armored archer that can do melee in a pinch. I have been generally under-impressed with the Gileadite Bow. 17 damage sounds nice, but in practice they're hard to mass and don't seem to do much damage at range. When I need ranged support I either reach for the human slingers or (more usually) mages. The fact that Gileadite Archers have mapmove 1 means that even if I do mass them I usually regret it; they just can't keep up with the rest of the army. On the plus side, their bows really do have incredible range (50), and they really can stand up in melee under the right circumstances: frequently with PD 30 (15 Gileadites, 15 Edomites, and 5 Gileadite Archers) or more I find that it is the archers who engage and finish off the exhausted, high-fatigue enemy after the Gileadites finally die or run away. (Remember that every 10 fatigue is effectively -1 to defense, so the rather sad attack skill of the Gileadite Archers doesn't matter much in this case.) Again, fire resistant, wasteland survival, gluttony. In fact that applies to all the Rephaite troops and commanders and I won't mention it again.

    Bashanite: 55 gold, 33 res. More HP than Gileadites or Amorites and a significantly higher base damage (26 vs. 21) which can often mean a one-shot kill on a human. Ashdod's troops are inferior to other giant nations on a cost basis (compare Bashanites to Jotun Hirdmen), but the Bashanite is pretty much the best of the lot, especially after he's been buffed by the mages. You still shouldn't expect to win an infantry war on a cost basis, but that's not how Ashdod should be played anyway, and the Bashanite does his job well enough: surviving area-effect spells, and killing off "leakers" that somehow make it through the hail of magma, flame, and death magic that Ashdod's mages rain down on their enemies. Bashanites (and other Ashdod troops) do have unusually good Morale and MR, and the across-the-board fire resistance is tactically useful as well at times.

    Sheshai Anakite (cap-only): 125 gold, 48 res, sacred, 50 HP, berserker +2, 75% fire resistant (not the normal 50%), extra gluttony, magic sword + gore attack. Pretty good Prot, especially after berserking. The best thing about Sheshai Anakites is that they're only 48 resources.

    Ahiman Anakite (cap-only): 150 gold, 88 res (!), sacred, 53 HP, extra gluttony, magic sword + gore attack, unusually large shield, better armor. Sheshai Anakites have slightly worse attack/damage values than Ahimans before berserking and slightly better values after. Ahimans, however, have more staying power.

    			8.37.2.2 Unit breakdown (commanders):

    Edomite Scout: 35 gold, 19 res. Not as expensive or as tough as a full-sized giant scout, not as cheap as an indy scout. Nothing to see here, move along. In practice you will almost always recruit indy scouts.

    Rephaite Commander: 75 gold, 35 res. Unless you are playing with the BI mod, you will usually recruit indy commanders instead, unless for some reason you need your commander to be fire resistant. Nevertheless, he is slightly tougher than a Bashanite, and the 1 Rephaite Commander you get with 1 PD will sometimes kill an enemy or three before finally going down. Also, he is more thematic than an indy commander.

    Kohen: 70 gold, 3 res. H1, 10% D1. Comes with a quarterstaff and is surprisingly capable in melee, which means sometimes he can handle one or even two enemies sneaking up to melee range without falling over dead. Note that the Robes he's wearing benefit from an Earth blessing by going up to Prot 6 instead of Prot 2. Still, mostly you'll recruit indy priests, because they don't tie up a fort.

    Rephaite Sage: 175 gold, 3 res. 100% F2/E2/S2 random. 6 RP, which is 29 gold per RP initially and 1.94 gold per RP ongoing. Can be recruited without a lab. Not quite as good as Zamzummite mages for researching, but the lower initial cost makes Rephaite Sages a good solid research choice when gold is tight, such as when you're saving up for a new fort. They also make solid battlemages.

    Emite: 140 gold, 3 res. D1 + 100% (EFSD), fortune-teller 5. 4 RP, which is 35 gold per RP initially and 2.33 gold per RP ongoing. Cheaper than Zamzummites for casting Dark Knowledge or Arcane Probing, and the fortune-telling may be good insurance in your capital, but inferior as a researcher or a battlemage, although if you just need someone to lead longdead or Mazzikim an Emite might do the job.

    Zamzummite: 310 gold, 3 res, sacred. E1D2H1 +100% (ED) + 100% (EFSD). 7 RP, which is 44 gold per RP initially, 1.47 gold per RP ongoing. Your main research mage, not particularly cost-effective as a researcher but not horrible--you may want to take Magic-1. Excellent battlemages, and thuggable too with minimal equipment.

    Adon (cap-only): 400 gold, 84 res, sacred. H2 +100% F2/E2/S2. 2 RP. Terrible researcher (200 gold and 6.7 ongoing per RP), but the only recruitable H2 priest you have, and eminently thuggable. Extra gluttony, 120 leadership, mapmove 3, 1 extra misc slot.

    Talmai Elder (cap-only): 400 gold, 3 res, sacred. 100% F3/E3/S3 +10% (FESD). 9 RP, which is 44 gold initially and 1.48 ongoing per RP. Forge bonus (15), which doesn't matter at all on 5-gem items (unless you don't have a hammer) but saves 1 gem on 10-gem items and goes up from there. Not noticeably better than Zamzummites at research, but if you can afford to you may want to recruit these in your capital instead of Zamzummites because the cross-path 10% randoms can be useful. Also excellent battlemages. Unlike Adonim, Talmai Elders can't self-bless and have only mapmove 2. Like Adonim, they are accustomed to jewelry and have 3 misc slots. Leadership 80.

    			8.37.2.3 National summons:

    Se'ir: Not worth it. More a Hinnom thing than Ashdod. They are sacred, but inferior to your recruitable troops in terms of cost-effectiveness (since blood slaves are so hard to get).

    Shed: Ditto, plus the paths are almost impossible to get (B3A1).

    Mazzik: Easily-summoned if you've got nature income (use indy shamans). Like imps, they are flying and hard to kill. Unlike imps, they are neither fire-immune nor vulnerable to cold. They're also stealthy +0. I haven't ever really used them but I could imagine tossing them on a Black Servant (w/ a Rod of the Leper King to give leadership) if you wanted a stealthy raiding force. I could also imagine using a few dozen of them set to Guard Commander as a cheap castle sieging force (they are Strength 9 and flying so each is almost as good as two men, and they are Need Not Eat) while Ahimans or SCs do the actual fighting. You get 8 Mazzikim for 3 gems.

    Malakh: Stealthy +0 and Flying, H1, full slots but low (13) HP for Ashdod. On the plus side, it has fire and shock resistance, built-in Awe+3, natural Prot 5, and can self-bless. It is also summonable at Conj-4 with S2 mages, for only 9 pearls. This is another unit I haven't used much yet, but I could imagine it as a minor thug, perhaps with a fire brand, luck shield, robe of shadows, and bracers of defense. I have used it some as a flying scout (it's sometimes nice to figure out which nations are lurking where on the map) but Astral Window cast from a Stone Sphere is superior in most respects.

    Lilot: I have not used this unit at all. You need a 4N caster and 25 nature gems to summon it. It's a flying seducer with Stealth +15. Demonic, reasonable stats and 22 HP, Morale 30. I don't know how strong its seduction ability is, but since the rest of its stats are somewhat inferior to a succubus maybe its seduction ability is too. Available at Conj-5.

    Hashmal: Ethereal and Awe +4, hand and misc slots. Flying, H2, Inquisitor. Requires S3F1, 21 pearls, Conj-6. Quite a good thug if you can manage to summon them (see below).

    Ditanu: Ethereal undead giants with D1B1H1 and 100% (Earth/Fire/Astral), Fear +1, Morale 30, fire resist, cold/poison immunity. Requires D3H1 and 25 death gems, Conj-6. Could be a decent thug if you haven't got Conj-8 yet. Has Shattered Soul (5).

    Arel: Flying, N3H3, Awe +5, fire/shock res, poison immune. 33 HP, natural Prot 7, Morale 9, poor attack skill. Healer (50). Conceivably you could use an Arel as a thug--she has more slots than a Hashmal--but you're probably interested in her mainly for access to Nature and healing ability. Requires S4N1 and 39 pearls, Conj-7.

    Ophan: Flying, H3, Awe +5, fire/shock/poison immune, 55 HP, Morale 30, natural Prot 21, ethereal, fire shield (9 AP), lifeless, trample (Size 5), patrol bonus +50, mapmove 50. Only has misc slots, however. Requires S5F2 and 49 pearls, Conj-8.

    Malik: Ethereal undead giants with D2B2 and 100% (E2/F2/S2), Fear +7, Morale 30, fire resist, cold/poison immunity. Requires D4H1 and 55 death gems, and kills the caster. (Prophetized demiliches make amusing casters for Banquet For the Dead--just imagine the Malik devouring a dusty old reconstituted corpse.) Has Shattered Soul (15), which normally only is associated with Tartarians, meaning 15% of the time he will be insane and refuse to take orders on that turn. Insane Malkim will pillage or preach or site-search or research or tear down temples, etc., but will not tear down forts or labs.

    Chayot: Flying, H4 plus F4/A4/E4/S4 (depending on form), Awe +6, fire/shock/poison immune, 55 to 88 HP (depending on form), natural Prot 9 to 15 (depending on form), good stats, Morale 30, fire shield (10 AP), full slots, mapmove 6. Inferior to the Seraph in that they don't cause blindness to attackers and that (without boosters) they can only cast from one path at a time. Superior to the seraph in that they can survive a Soul Slay! An opponent may have to kill them up to four times in the same combat to get them to stay dead (depending on which form it started out in). Requires S7F3 and 222 pearls, plus Conj-9. But for that price you get 1 unit of Chayot and 4 non-commander Ophanim.

    Note: "Chayot" is plural, since there are four creatures actually involved, even if they're acting as one. E.g. "These Chayot are wearing the Boots of Calius the Druid," not "This Chayot is wearing..." We never speak of the individual, singular Chaya, only of the Chayot. There is probably a theological significance to that--ask your Pretender.

    			8.37.2.4 Pretender design:

    I will assume that you took an E10N6 bless. There are many ways to get there, although a Cyclops is the cheapest, and of course you could spend some extra points on getting to N8, but E10N6 is useful on so many levels for this nation that IMHO it should be considered mandatory. The reinvig for zero-enc, up-armoring options on thugs, enhanced missile protection for battlemages, regeneration for staying power on line troops and communion slaves and to reduce the importance of disease from starvation (gluttony), and reduced affliction chances all synergize terribly well, and in fact there isn't really any other bless that Ashdod really feels the need of.

    More attack and defense is always nice of course, but Ahiman Anakites already have attack/defense stats in the range you would take a bless to get up to, and they do gain stars quickly.

    You could try a lighter E10N4 if you were tight on points, or even E9N4.

    Set heat scales to Heat-3 (anyone fighting in your dominion will suffer extra encumbrance, but you won't because you're fire-resistant). Other scales and dominion are up to you. I suggest imprisoning your pretender because he's not a rainbow and you have plenty of SC material lying around. A imprisoned E10N6 Cyclops with Heat-3 will have 161 points left to spend. I happen to like Growth and Magic. Don't go too heavy on Sloth, but remember that you're not equipped to win an infantry war, so I would stay away from Production too. Sloth-1 is fine in my experience, and even Sloth-2 is workable if you need it to get Magic-1. Ashdod has pretty good PD so don't be afraid of Misfortune if you want to go the Order/Misfortune route.

    			8.37.2.5 Initial expansion:

    Ahimans are great for expansion.

    Sheshai Anakites work for expansion too if you're squeezed for resources. The tradeoff is twice as many Sheshaites for the same resources, but worse protection, worse defense (-4? after berserk), slightly better attack (+1 after berserk), and more encumbrance. Blessed Ahimans have zero encumbrance except in cold-3 or swamps, so they can kill basically unlimited amounts of indies. Blessed Sheshaites pick up 2 fatigue per turn (it's not exactly Enc because it happens regardless of whether they go into melee or not, and it doesn't double with Quickness) after they go berserk and shouldn't fight longer than 20 turns or so if you want them to stay alive (40 fatigue is getting up into the danger zone for critical hits). In most cases you'll want to stick with Ahimans, but you may mix in a Sheshaite occasionally to use up extra resources. Sheshaites also have more heat resistance, so you may want to use them if you get in an early war with someone with a heat aura (EA Abysia, if you're playing mixed-age).

    Until you research some buffs, Adonim are actually not any better than Ahimans for expansion (in fact, they have weaker head armor). Adonim are nice for leading expansion parties because they're H2 (i.e. seldom miss blessing an Ahiman as long as you have the Ahimans on Hold and Attack) and tougher than indy priests or your national priests (Kohenim), particularly when since those priests have a tendency to get done blessing and revert to "Stay Behind Troops," which often brings them into melee and gets them killed. Here's a trick, though: buy a human slinger. One priest, one slinger, and three or four Ahimans (cost: 657 gold, about 360 resources) makes a great expansion party. The priest will get done blessing and will then run back to hide behind the slinger (who was naturally set towards the very back of the field on Fire Closest). As long as the province defenders are not so tough that they take more than 15 turns to defeat (thus using up the slinger's ammo), this party of six can take almost any indy province (including knights, especially if the Ahimans have one or two stars, but excluding elephants). Really big or tough provinces might call for an Adon instead or your Prophet--as noted above, E10N6 Ahimans can fight forever as long as their leader doesn't get himself killed running into melee (stupid priests). Do keep an eye out for druid provinces and other specials who can cast Sleep Cloud, though.

    A fringe benefit of using priests instead of Adonim to lead expansion parties is of course that you can recruit buy mages instead at your capital and recruit the priests at a temple built by your prophet.

    Try to get a second fort up relatively quickly. Build in mountains or forests so it only costs 800 gold and 3 months. If the second fort is close enough to your capital, you may not even choose to build a lab there, instead building Rephaite Sages and sending them straight to your capital to do their research there, thus saving 500 gold.

    			8.37.2.6 Initial magic goals:

    Alteration-3 should be your first target, because ethereal Ahimans are terrific. Ironskinned Adonim aren't too shabby either, although you'll want to Hold for a couple of turns after that to get back fatigue back down. Other than that, your research goals are pretty much up to you, depending upon your situation and likely opponents.

    Conjuration-3 yields Dark Knowledge (useful for making Shadow Brands) and Summon Earthpower/Phoenix Power. (Of course Summon Earthpower is particularly good for an E2 Adon planning to Ironskin and then mix it up in melee.) Don't plan on getting your national summons, though, until you scrape up 50 fire gems to empower an Astral Talmai Elder to S3F1. That means Conj-6 is not an early research target.

    Construction-4 is also high priority for dwarven hammers and thugging out your Adonim and/or Zamzummites a bit. Also yields Legions of steel.

    Thaumaturgy-3 yields site-searching spells and Teleport, which lets thugged-out Adonim respond quickly to knights attacks or enemy invasions.

    Enchantment-3 gives skelly spam, and Enchantment-4 brings Flaming Arrows if you're into that kind of thing. (Use human slingers, not Gileadites.) Bear in mind that Ashdod's troops are almost all fire-resistant.

    Evocation-2 gives Arcane Probing, but Evocation is mostly unnecessary early on. Close to your capital you should have plenty of cap-only sacreds to do your fighting, and you can't spare mages from research duty anyway. Later on, Ashdod's durable PD synergizes well with the potent battlemagic Zamzummites and Rephaite Sages/Talmai Elders can throw around, and Ahimans excel as meat shields.

    			8.37.2.7 Arty spells:

    Banefire.
    Gifts from Heaven.
    Nether Darts.
    Cloud of Death.
    Blade Wind.
    Magma Eruption.
    Falling Fires.
    Flame Eruption.
    Drain Life.
    Paralyze/Mind Burn/Soul Slay.

    I don't think I really need to explain how to use all these, but it's worth pointing out that every single Zamzummite and Rephaite Sage you recruit can do at least one of these. It's also worth pointing out that friendly fire casualties will be minimal for many of these spells (e.g. Banefire's decay effect doesn't hurt Ashdod troops much because of their high MR and long lifespans), although Gifts From Heaven is obviously an exception.

    			8.37.2.8 Misc spells:

    Summon Earthpower: always useful for sustained skelly spamming, magma eruptions, etc.

    Communion Slave: You can forge Crystal Matrixes easily. Either set up a linebacker communion with a whole bunch of slaves all buffed with Summon Earthpower/Invulnerability/Phoenix Pyre/Fire Shield/Soul Vortex/Personal Luck/Astral Shield/Resist Magic/etc.--the slaves can also self-bless and cast Body Ethereal if desired--or else use them to cast higher-level spells like Master Enslave, or to rain down destruction with never-ending Magma Eruptions/Gifts From Heaven/etc. Unlike most communion slaves, blessed Zamzummites have lots of hit points, reinvig 5, and regenerate, so you're in very little danger of accidentally killing off your slaves with too much spell-casting. Unless you're using Rephaite Sages as slaves too, which you probably shouldn't be because they will take much more fatigue unless you're casting pure Astral spells.

    Body Ethereal: For tough fights, consider taking along a Rephaite Sage to cast Body Ethereal on several of the Ahimans or Adonim involved. High-defense units benefit from Etherealness because the 75% of attacks which "just miss" don't count for purposes of the -2 per attack penalty to defense.

    			8.37.2.9 Army buffs:

    Flaming Arrows (Enchantment-4): remember that you can recruit human slingers for 2 resources out of any fort. Note that Flaming Arrows does not benefit Gileadite Archers (there's no Fire variant of the Gileadite Bow).

    Strength of Giants: You may think this is unnecessary for Ahimans, but an extra four points of damage is an extra four points of damage. May be the difference between a gore attack killing a human in one shot vs. leaving him alive for a sword blow to finish off next turn, i.e. can double your kill rate. Can also power Bashanites up enough to smash through shields, and likewise increases the chances of a one-shot kill. Can also be quite nice for turning chaffy human slaves and slingers into something more deadly.

    Legions of Steel: Likewise can't hurt, reduces lucky hits and thus the chances of Ahimans getting afflicted, significantly improves survivability of Bashanites or Amorites, and makes chaff slightly less chaffy.

    Army of Gold/Lead: Ditto but moreso.

    Weapons of Sharpness: see Strength of giants. When the two are combined, even chaffy humans can sometimes cut through shields, although really you still shouldn't expect them to do too much damage until the opponent starts building up fatigue.

    			8.37.2.10 Army-killers:

    Fire Storm (Evoc-7): Your troops are all pretty much immune to this spell, even including the PD. Unfortunately it's not that great at killing even puny man-sized troops, but it's decent at killing mages and archers.

    Astral Tempest (Evoc-8): Great spell for Ashdod. Cheap, reasonably low path cost, and good at killing armies which are too large to practically kill with troops or direct arty spells (like when you're invading R'lyeh and trying to kill thousands of troops with three commanders and a handful of Ditanu). Your troops are all high-HP, and your sacreds all regenerate. A Talmai Elder can cast this spell with no fear of killing himself. See also Rigor Mortis.

    Rigor Mortis (Ench-6): Another great spell for wiping out armies. I'm not sure, but I think the fatigue damage inflicted scales with your Death paths. In any case, it's not at all unusual to see units with between 100 and 200 fatigue, and if the fatigue doesn't kill them Astral Tempest should. It's cheap, too, at 1 death gem.

    Plague (Thau-6?): Tricky to bring off, but much like Fire Storm or Astral Tempest the risk to your regenerating troops is pretty minimal, and it's great for finishing off huge armies because once one target is infected it spreads like wildfire. (Sadly, Woundflame is tough to use as Ashdod because if you give it to a Malik, anyone he infects is already dead from the damage.) Obviously you don't want to use Rephaite sages in the same army as this spell, though, unless you give them a Shroud of the Battle Saint.

    			8.37.2.11 Thug options:

    Flying thugs: If you don't have Winged Boots, or maybe even if you do, you could go with Hashmalim as thugs. A brand sword (Shadow or Fire), a Vine Shield, a Pendant of Luck, and Bracers of Defense make a pretty resilient thug protected by layers of defenses: ethereality, luck, Awe +4, Vines, high defense (22 before experience), and reasonable protection (12). Note that the vine shield grapples even opponents who are deterred by Awe. Thus, most opponents will be entangled most of the time, making the Hashmalim hard to swarm, so the high defense really will stop most attacks. Note that he's also got a built-in fire shield (8 AP) to punish successful attackers and a regeneration rate of 3 HP/round to recover. (He can also cast Holy Avenger, for whatever that's worth.) Net encumbrance is -4. Total cost w/ hammers: 24 pearls, 6 earth gems, 7 nature gems, and either 3 fire gems or 7 death gems depending upon which brand sword you picked. The downside? Hashmalim are hard to summon without empowering an Astral Talmai Elder in Fire (you can get lucky on the randoms but don't count on it). On the plus side, they are pretty tough. One of these guys with a couple of stars can consistently take down 80 knights, 80 mounted hirdmen, 80 steel maidens--pretty much any non-sacred national troops except guardians. (Sacreds may give more trouble, especially Niefel Giants. But you already knew that.) Did I mention that Hashmalim are fire-immune and shock-resistant?

    Poison Golem: SotD, Pendant of Luck, a Shroud and Bracers of Defense. Season to taste, depending upon your indy mage finds (Rainbow Armor is good if you find Enchantresses, a Wraith Crown is also good if you have Forge of the Ancients up and/or have nothing better to do with your death gems).

    Wraith Lord: Standard thug option, not much to say here. Soul Vortex, recuperation (from immortality), good stats and built-in ethereal.

    Zamzummite: Surprisingly good thug for a mage, especially when blessed. Can self-bless. Negative encumbrance, regenerates, can cast Ironskin/Invulnerability/Body Ethereal/Personal Luck/Fire Shield/Soul Vortex. Try a brand sword, Shield of Gleaming Gold, and Bracers of Defense. If he picks up an affliction just pass the equipment to someone new. Cheap enough that you can use them in pairs.

    Adon: He's pretty tough even naked, but try to get at least Bracers of Defense and Boots of the Messenger on him so he can self-buff without fatigue problems and also cover the weak head armor. (If you can't find any N1 indy mages and/or have no nature income you can also use Girdle of Strength.) E2 Adonim don't necessarily need either of those items if you have Summon Earthpower and Ironskin researched. Once you've got some gem income and some research, consider a Fire Brand and a Shield of Gleaming Gold. There's really not much else to say. The Astral ones are particularly nice because they can go ethereal and lucky, and with a starshine skullcap they can teleport to hotspots. The Fire Adonim are good in melee (higher attack rating), but not quite as good as either the Earth or Astral Adonim partly because there's no Fire buff that helps magic resistance. Therefore you may opt to use them as arty mages instead, with a screen of Ahimans: bless, bless, Phoenix Power, Flame Eruption, Flame Eruption, cast spells for example. Adonim are more durable than most mages so can be set close to the front lines where Flame Eruption is likely to do a lot of damage.

    Ophan: Ridiculously good for the price. Give him a Pendant of Luck and let him go. His one weakness is his lack of slots, which means his MR won't go above 22 (w/ Amulet of Antimagic) when soloing provinces. Well, his other weakness is that he's Lifeless and thus doesn't regenerate, but honestly that's rarely a problem because he rarely takes damage from normal troops. He's not immune to cold, though, so watch out for Frozen Heart. And also watch out for swamp ground or extremely cold dominion, because that pushes his encumbrance up to 3 per trample, which is more than reinvig 5 from the E10 bless can handle (he tramples 3 or 4 squares per turn). Other than that, he's an extremely nice and effective thug for 39 pearls and change, and he also makes a nice addition to any army of Ahimans (since the Ophan is going to Divine Bless himself anyway, you don't have to spend time blessing your troops and/or mages). Note: if you're not worried about MR you can give him a little bit of extra Prot from Bracers of Defense (which will raise his Prot from 21 to 24 after the blessing).

    Ditanu: Skip Dirge For the Dead and go straight to Banquet For the Dead. See "Malik."

    Malik: Excellent SC. Just like an Adon, except with better MR, built-in Ethereal and better resistances,Morale 30 and Fear +7, zero encumbrance (works great with Stymphalian Wings or Boots of Quickness), the ability to cast Soul Vortex (and/or Blood Vengeance if you're into that sort of thing) if you use a booster or a death gem, and an escort of Ditanu, who are like undead Ahiman Anakites with Fear +0, better stats and MR and built-in ethereal. (Slightly worse Protection though.) For 50 death gems and a dead Zamzummite, this is a treat. On the other hand, I have to admit that there's not an extremely compelling case for using Malkim over Adonim, since most things that will take out an Adon will also take out a Malik (lightning, Petrify, Disintegrate, etc.). Malkim are, however, undead and thus immune to Frozen Heart and poison, friendly fire from Shadow Brands/Sunslayer, and they and their Ditanu are also less vulnerable to fatigue damage (from lightning, Sleep Cloud, etc.) because of their negative encumbrance. (Nor do you have to worry about Chest Wounds, which are the bane of Adon and Ahiman alike, or about fighting in swamps or extreme cold.) Morale 30 is nice, though (e.g. it gives immunity to Fear), and the cumulative Fear of the Malik and his Ditanu can sometimes be useful. (It synergizes well with Awe, and it can end some battles early.) Moreover, there are sometimes logistical benefits to summons over cap-only national troops/commanders. The upshot: in most respects, consider the Malik a significant quantitative but not a qualitative improvement over the Adon.

    Chayot: Insanely good either as a thug or as a mage. Master Enslave? Astral Tempest? Flame Storm? Will of the Fates? Antimagic? Army of Lead? Fog Warriors? Petrify? They can do all of this and more. (For Master Enslave you'll want a Crystal Shield, a Starshine Skullcap, and a RoW + RoS, bringing them up to S8. That leaves one hand conveniently free for a Rune Smasher.) One caution: don't cast Phoenix Pyre unless you're planning to spend time in Earth form. Chayot already have a #secondshape on death, and Phoenix Pyre overrides it--if you die with more than 100 fatigue you don't go to your next form, you just die. Of course if you're planning to be in the E4 form then you might as well Phoenix Pyre to your heart's content. You can cast cross-path spells if you use a booster (RoW works fine) to boost your levels back up from zero, since Chayot's "natural" levels are at 4 in all paths with a negative #magicboost for all paths but one. E.g. the E4 form becomes E4F1 if you give it a skull of fire, thus conveniently allowing it to cast Magma Eruption. Honestly, though, Chayot are so awesome that using them as an arty mage is a waste. It's your call whether you want to use the Ophanim that come with them as their bodyguards or split some or all off into another army. Even with no slots and thus no luck or antimagic pendant, Ophanim are still ridiculously good, and you get FOUR of them along with your Chayot when you cast Call Merkavah. (Of course, it also costs a ridiculous amount of gems.)

    			8.37.2.12 Other tips and strats:

    Bloodstones: If you can bootstrap into a blood economy (usually takes 2-3 provinces full of indy scouts blood hunting), you can empower an Earth Talmai Elder to Blood-2. Using a ring of sorcery and a ring of wizardry, he can then forge himself a Blood Thorn and a Brazen Vessel (15 slaves each w/ hammer because of the 15% Talmai Elder forge bonus). He can start forging Bloodstones for 6 earth gems and 9 slaves apiece. 80 blood slaves brings another forger online (50 to empower to Blood-1, then 30 to forge the Brazen Vessel and Blood Thorn). It's up to you whether it's more useful to hoard the bloodstones in the lab or use them on battlemages (or scouts on gem-carrying duty). Note also that you can also get to Bloodstones via Malkim, although you will probably have better things to do with Malkim than having them hunt for slaves or forge Bloodstones in the lab.

    Fever Fetishing: Ashdod has no particular advantages in fever fetishing. Indy scouts are more cost-efficient receptacles for fetishes than any of your national troops (although Kohanim or Edomite Scouts come within 20% or so and take less micromanagement), and you are reliant on luck to find forgers. If, however, you are lucky enough to find one of the sites that allows Enchantress recruitment (some of them are N1 sites), consider putting Fever Fetishes on your blood hunting indy scouts. Ashdod can always use more Fire gem income to empower Astral Talmai Elders for summoning national summons, for Fire Arrows or Fire Storm in combat, for forging brands and shields, and for Flames From the Sky.

    			8.37.2.13 Magic Diversification:

    Your pretender can summon a Fairy Queen via Fairy Court to get you into Air and Nature, if you still haven't gotten any through site searching w/ N1 mages and/or sites captured from other nations. Arelot (plural of Arel) would also be useful for bootstrapping into Nature, if you were able to find a lizard shaman to summon one for you (w/ Crystal Coin + Starshine Skullcap + Ring of Sorcery).

    You can bootstrap into low Water by summoning a spectral mage (Summon Spectre) and leveraging the easy water boosters + Ring of Wizardry from your national mages.

    You can bootstrap into Blood via indy scouts + empowerment as mentioned above, via Malkim, or by summoning Tartarians (Tartarian Monstras have the best chance of Blood randoms), and from there to vampires. I don't have much experience with Blood, though, so there might be a better way, and anyway I'm not sure it's worth doing without recruitable B1 blood hunters.

    			8.37.2.14 Conclusion:

    Ashdod early game is gold-hungry and resource-hungry, but your strong sacreds help you to expand ferociously and put you in a good position in mid-game to begin utilizing your excellent battlemages and thugs. Ashdod's strong death and astral magic remain useful into the endgame. This nation has everything it needs to compete with any other nation in any era. Good luck!
    		8.37.3

    	8.38 Hinnom

    	    	8.38.1 HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING

    		Article Author: Baalz

    Well, those of you familiar with my other guides know I tend to fall a bit in love with a nation as I write a guide for it. That said, I¿m just astounded at the strength that Hinnom can bring to bear. They are absolutely first class early, middle, and late game and have so many really good options that the biggest problem is remembering not to try and spread yourself too thin across strategies. With no chink in their armor that a pretender must fill, I¿d suggest going with an imprisoned blood fountain with just enough blood to summon the Lords of Civilization and max out all your scales. Order for income, production for awesome troops, luck for awesome (and plentiful) national heroes, heat because it¿s free, magic because you can, and growth because HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING and your population will be dropping wherever your big giants are. You¿ll want a decently high dominion score to help spread that glorious dominion, and don¿t forget you can blood sacrifice to push it even faster.

    Expansion. I can¿t think of another nation with expansion potential this good. The troops you *start* with are capable of taking out the vast majority of indies, from heavy cavalry to barbarians. With good scales, by the time you¿ve captured a couple provinces around your capital you¿re able to field 2 (!) expansion parties a turn from your capital. The chariots in groups of 4 will take out pretty much any non-barbarian human infantry, supplement this with groups of a dozen Dawn Guard to take out almost anything else. Under ideal province neighboring conditions you should be able to land 30+ provinces by the end of year one without even burning through an obscene amount of gold as each expansion party is relatively cheap.

    Castles. Most terrain yields a terrible 1400 gold Tel City, but forests give you an 800 gold forest fortress. With your insane expansion you shouldn¿t have a problem capturing several forests  this is pretty much the only place you want to build castes. Fortunately with your nitro-charged expansion and frugal spending you should be able to start putting up an 800 gold castle per turn roughly turns 6-12. You should have about 5 castles by the end of year one.

    If you¿re feeling frisky, feel free to roll over an opponent or two at this point. Between your chariot (size 6, high protection tramplers) and dawn guard (high hp, 16 defense, high strength, magic weapon wielding), 5 castles with production-3 scales should leave you able to steamroll most opponents. If you¿re fighting somebody using a fire bless, look at using Rephaite Warrior as their fire resistance pretty much negates the flaming weapons. If you¿re opponent refuses to acknowledge his death at the hands of your troops, your Ammi with a tiny bit of research and a few gems can lay down everything from fireballs and thunder strikes to paralyze and destruction. Just research whatever you need to put the hurt down on your opponent. Don¿t feel remorse as you scrape your neighbor off the bottom of your boots, just remember HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING.

    Research. All those castles going up have a tremendous advantage. Due to the fact that they lack any hard-coded magic paths, you can recruit Ammi without needing either a lab or a temple! That¿s right, while other nations are spending anywhere from 1200-2000 gold for the cheapest mage factory they have available, yours cost 800. This is on top of your ridiculous gold income from your ridiculous expansion and ridiculous scales. Recruit them out of your new castles and move them back to your capital (or any lab).

    Gems. With national mages and no boosters Hinnom can remote site search Every. Single. Path¿.except water. They also have pretty good manual site searchers in the Horite Shaman to prime the pump. Use shamans to lead your first few initial expansion parties, then as soon as you can, replace them with indie commanders and have them site search. This will give you earth, death and nature gems along with your capitol¿s earth, fire, astral and blood income to start some heavy site searching. You can also do a little bit of manual site searching with the Ammis who get air randoms until you¿ve got a few gems for auspex.

    So, before hitting mid game you will likely have more provinces, income, gems, and research than any other nation. Potentially a lot more. Hit the construction research and start recruiting a Ba¿al every turn from your capital and Kohen/Ammi from the castles you¿re now putting labs and temples in (hey, spread that glorious dominion around!). Note, HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING, so you¿ll want to designate a sacrificial province to keep your main mages at. As they start piling up the population will all be eaten, it¿s a good idea to do this outside of your capital. It¿s also a good idea to do this in a castle so that your enemies cannot force a fight on their own terms.

    Once you hit construction-4 is when the real fun starts. All your Kohen will crank out sanguine rods and start blood hunting. Remember, keep just three per province because HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING. Your growth scales will help, but if possible you¿re gonna want to target slightly higher population provinces for blood hunting than otherwise. Check out my guide to blood hunting as a section of my Mictlan guide, but remember to adjust your spending as you suddenly start massive blood hunting, you¿re gonna go from having more gold than you know what to do with to a very frugal budget (and having more blood slaves than you know what to do with)

    Do a bit of real quick alteration and enchantment research, and swing up for thau-3 and now those Ba¿al are supertroopers indeed. You almost can¿t go wrong with equipment, the extra gore attack means you don¿t even really need the standard AOE weapons  a sword of sharpness and horned helm (second gore attack!) will often clear a whole tile as well as any frost brand. You¿ll want some reinvig, and regen always helps, but in a pinch these guys can be sent out with just a few very cheap items. Earth Ba¿als summon earth power, iron will, iron skin (invulnerability) and smash away. Fire Ba¿als (the weakest) fire shield and eventually phoenix pyre (you¿ve got national healers to fix the inevitable owies). Astral Ba¿als can teleport with no boosters and drop luck & body ethereal. Any of these will easily solo anything short of a real army. Put some good equipment on them and they¿re top shelf SCs. Heck, in a pinch, con-2 and thau-3 are enough to give you a teleporting thug who can take out plenty of PD! Just equip an astral Ba¿al with an amulet of breathing to jump right in and start swiping some water provinces in that lake across the map that doesn¿t have a water nation in it before anybody else can get there! Control a huge chunk of land *and* grab a big chunk of water because HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING.

    Far from being one trick ponies though, Ba¿als are also extremely powerful at home in a lab. Earth Ba¿als will leverage your solid earth income and crank out first dwarven hammers, then blood stones. That¿s right, as if Hinnom wasn¿t already over the top they have probably the best synergy for gem producing items of any nation. Blood slaves are cheap and they¿ve already have a strong earth income¿doesn¿t take much to see where that¿s going. Additionally, take those blood stones you¿re minting and stick them on Kohen who get an earth random. Now do a very cheap blood empowering (30 slaves) and set him to month casting of summon demon knight. Demon knights are very effective in groups of about 10 (particularly buffed with bloodlust, legions of steel, and weapons of sharpness), so once you get 4-5 of these summoners set up you¿ll have a significant supply, and the earth gems will start rolling in.

    On the topic of low level demon summons Hinnom also has a very effective national summon in the Shedim. What makes it so effective is the fact that unlike other low level blood summons, you summon 3 per casting so you don¿t need too many dedicated casters. A single mage can mass 30 of these lightning throwing uber-archers in under a year, which is enough to absolutely decimate most armies, particularly buffed with wind guide and arrow fend (your opponent will likely be trying to ¿fire archers¿ with their own archers). It¿s good you don¿t need too many mages because getting them can be difficult, but a couple of your national heroes can cast the spell and there are worse investments with your auspex fueled gem income than a single empowering (with a little bit of work you can leverage this into robes of the magi as well). Unless you need flying commanders you can skip the Arch Devils¿.they¿re inferior to the Ba¿al you¿re recruiting every turn. Instead, extra blood slaves can also be poured into ritual of the five gates, which is in easy reach for your Ba¿al. But the real joy of all those blood slaves is....

    Oh the Horror. Hinnom has some really nasty horror spam potential. Everyone knows (I guess) that horrors are scary, but I¿m continually surprised at how many people scoff when I claim that lesser horrors are even better in most situations for the cost. Every astral Ba¿al can send a lesser horror with no boosters, and they only cost 9 slaves (you¿ll have plenty). A single lesser horror will, with good regularity (something like 70-90% of the time) take out medium to heavy PD  so long as you target the right PD. Any PD composed of troops dealing 13 or less damage (by and large humans wielding spears, which are hugely represented among PD) will have trouble stopping the lesser horrors. Ethereal + high defense + 15 protection + a life draining attack means they¿re usually healing faster than spear infantry can damage them, and the fear aura (against PD¿s generally bleh moral) means they don¿t have to kill all that many. Use scouts to conquer the freshly cleared province, and I¿ll let you in on a little secret. If you have a scout hidden in an enemy province, and you give him orders to attack a different enemy province, then horrors take out the PD in both¿magic phase -> you¿re the only one left in province A so you gain control, movement phase -> you walk into empty province B and claim it. Note: horrors stack extremely well, so if you need to take out something stronger, just send more lesser horrors.

    But wait, there¿s more! Lesser horrors are also very, very effective at taking out SCs. Go ahead and scoff, I¿m used to it¿.until I start brining down kitted out angels and tartarians. How this works is like this  use horrors (or anything really) to take all the provinces surrounding the SC in the magic phase, this is usually very easy when the SC is on offense. Now, send 6+ lesser horrors in at the SC. The horrors have an AN attack so who cares about the SCs protection? They¿re size 3 with 2 attacks, and are apparently scripted to attack large enemy monsters, so if you sent 16 of them the SC would be surrounded and attacked 32 times before he can buff  good luck with defense. Here¿s the dirty little secret though  you don¿t need to send 16 lesser horrors, 6 will do regardless of how tough the SC is because of the fear aura. Surrounded by 6 lesser horrors the SC will end up with a negative 10 moral or so and flee, with no place to flee to. Anything not berserking, mindless, or immortal won¿t have a chance (and those that are will at most require a few more lesser horrors).

    Ah, but the joy of horrors isn¿t over yet. Every astral Ba¿al can also cast call (greater) horror, blood rain, and teleport, and is tough enough to live through some archer fire. So, your opponent¿s large army is marching into a heat 3 strong dominion (starvation, enemy dominion), you can pretty easily cut off escape routes (lesser horrors, teleporting SCs), and you can at will teleport in, reduce their moral by another 4, summon a couple very high fear aura guys (cast a couple horror marks first to make sure that *they* get attacked!), then either cast returning, or if the enemy army is particularly high moral maybe cast a couple bloodlettings before you go. If they retreat, they all die. If you¿re particularly evil (like me) you¿ll consider casting dark skies to make it practically impossible to invade you with non-mindless troops. SCs get eaten alive by lesser horrors and armies flee every time you fart. Blood sacrifice out of your copious temples and with your strong dominion your opponents will be worried about a dominion loss on top of everything else.

    But wait, there¿s more! Ba¿als are uniquely suited to cast a spell that otherwise is very hard to use effectively  hell power. With enough hps to survive a couple AN hits from a horror, and readily available horror killing body guards (dawn guards  good attack skill, high damage, magic weapons), and enough blood magic to cast it without passing out, they can cast it with a fair amount of imperviousness. Hellpower + phoenix power + 2 boosters = 8F. Or 8E, or 8S. If you want to show off, toss in a crystal shield, robe of the magi, and ring of wizardry and scoff at your opponent pretender¿s puny magic paths. Without being showy though, you¿re talking aout 6f/e/s with no boosters. I¿ll leave the effective use of this as an exercise to the student.

    Honestly, I don¿t even know how you can get to your best stuff without having already EATEN EVERYTHING, but if you¿re just goofing around I guess you can get up to the Lords of Civilization. I think these guys are pretty self explanatory and have gotten enough attention already so I won¿t expound on the obvious advantage these guys bring. On top of that, you¿ll also now be casting infernal crusade and infernal forces, have the mages to single handedly cast master enslave, army of lead, and firestorm, have a very good gem income (in everything other than possibly water) and are running out of commanders to stick blood stones on. Oh, and you¿ve got national healers if anybody gets an owie.

    Comments:

    [WL], I think mild or single path bless with good scales is also worth it. Melqarts can be made into thugs/SCs quite easily so they have their uses.

    	8.39 Bandar Log

    		8.39.1 Bandar Log - you whipped me with what?!?

    		Article Author: Baalz

    Bandar Log is a nation sorely in need of a guide. They have a truly awesome arsenal at their disposal, but unlike other superpowers it is not obvious how bad-*** their stuff is. I¿d say Bandar Log is one of the most powerful nations for a good player, but one of the worst for a new or inexperienced player because of the finesse required to make this precision machine hum. Note, almost everything I lay out here is applicable to Kalaisia and Patala, though they add a few twists I won¿t explore here.

    Bandar¿s recruitable troops are a variety of special forces. Generally they¿re gonna struggle holding the line in a pitched fight, but applied correctly in the right applications they show a devastating range of abilities. Used as a blunt instrument they¿ll be cut to pieces though, so¿don¿t do that. Fortunately their large variety of summons will fill the ranks if staying power is what you need. Bandar is a nation of summons, conjuration is going to be of critical research priority.

    Markatas - these guys get no respect, but with a little bit of creativity they are top notch units. Size 1 with a good defense they require nothing but enough numbers to overwhelm elite units with medium or high encumbrance. Markatas are surprisingly good unsupported against even things like heavy cavalry. If your opponent has a water bless with no earth bless, heck, you generally don¿t even really need much more than to throw monkeys at him. As with most of the monkey forces though you¿re gonna have trouble with morale. H2 priests are hard to come by for Bandar, you¿ll find its often a good idea to use they¿re nice summonable mage/priests to spam some sermons of courage rather than the typical magery their paths would suggest. Note, a great way to significantly help your morale issues is to sprinkle in the (cheap) Apsara or (expensive) Gandharva who have a standard effect. A small number will do amazing things for your morale when you can¿t come up with a h2 priest. Their awe will also do great things in some situations such as stopping tramplers from squishing all your monkeys.

    But wait there¿s more! By now I hope you¿re starting to see how in certain situations Markatas can be greatly effective. Lets see how these monkeys look with some real support. Lets paint a picture: On one side super elite dual blessed sacreds, high armor, good defense and huge attack damage, flaming weapons and all the usualness. On the other: a whole bunch of markata PD¿.and a Yakshana who casts iron bane, then several strength of giants. The size one markatas overwhelm the defense with sheer numbers, the first hit completely destroys the armor and shield of the sacreds, the next markata hits the armorless sacred with a club for 12 damage, while the markatas not in the front row fling sticks and stones with two attacks dealing 6 damage and ignoring all defense - and the shield has just been destroyed! Every time those super flaming weapons kill a whole monkey (assuming they can hit the 14 defense little guys), while the very expensive knights of the chalice, or vans or whatever get steadily chewed up.

    Remember, special forces. This sort of maneuver is not going to be a silver bullet, but in the right situation your opponent will be screaming ¿he beat the snot out of me with¿.MONKEY PD?!?¿ Other great things that you¿ll want to consider to use with markatas in various situations are: curse of stones, numbness (ice pebble staff can be great if you invest in 3-4), poison/sleep cloud, etc. Basically anything which takes advantage of the fact that those expensive super soldiers are gonna have to take awhile to hack through endless waves of monkeys - remember, even if you die 5:1 you probably still come out ahead! Supplement your PD with extra Markatas, at these prices buy them by the dozen.

    Next on the menu of undervalued primates, the Atavis. Again, no respect, but these guys have won me several wars. Lets start with the short bow variety. They¿re cheaper than most short bow archers I can think of at 9 gold and 3 resources. For short bows generally the most important thing is to get as many bows as possible, so obviously the cheapest archers win. Next, they are stealthy! Holy crap that¿s awesome. What¿s the worst thing about archers? The fact that any reasonably good opponent is going to deploy effective archer counters as soon as you start showing masses of archers. Adding my previous few sentences together, just think about how many fights you¿ve been in where an extra 100 archers which your opponent completely didn¿t anticipate would have made a drastic difference. That¿s under 1000 gold. How about when your opponent goes to break the siege on his capital expecting to engage (whatever the hell you¿re doing) which just killed all his PD and instead meets (whatever the hell you¿re doing) plus 100+ archers buffed with flaming arrows and wind guide?

    Now, let me sidebar for a moment to mention that I really like a rainbow pretender for Bandar Log for reasons which will be fleshed out as this guide continues, but flaming arrows is one of those spells that it can be worthwhile to take special consideration of when designing your pretender. Fire plus either air (cloud trapeze) or astral (teleport) is a huge leg up for several different nations for those few pivotal fights.

    Now, lets look at the mace Atavis. Nothing super special as far as infantry goes, but they do have the rather unique Sticks and Stones attack combined with stealth. As I briefly mentioned with the Markatas, the sticks and stones are buffed by strength of giants, and the Atavis have more base strength. With two attacks per turn, 30 ammo, and 11 damage each (with strength of giants), *plus* a shield (invaluable for engaging other archers) these guys are certainly worth considering over the shortbows against some enemies if you¿ve got an earth mage but no fire (flaming arrows doesn¿t effect sticks and stones). Remember, the best thing you¿ve got going for you is the element of surprise, use your stealth!

    Vanara - A bit of a bastard middle child, these are your medium infantry. Generally you¿ll skip them, but they¿re not terrible if you need that niche filled.

    Bandar archers - longbows are nice, but keep in mind these guys are 20 gold and have a precision of 9. The scale mail guys back up their good armor and solid hitpoints with a mace, so they can make those flankers sorry they got to the archers. If you decide to invest in these expensive archers, consider trying to use an air mage (Kinnara are the obvious choice) with a wind guide to offset the low precision.

    Bandar light warriors - oh yeah, these guys are great. If you¿ve been following along at home you¿ll note I like the sticks and stones. These guys follow that up with a great strength. Buffed with strength of giants these guys are flinging two rocks per turn dealing 16 damage with a range of 19 (short bows have a range of 25). With two attacks for 20 gold these guys are comparable to 10 gold archers, only they¿re dealing 16 damage, and have a shield, 10 protection, and a mace.

    So, what¿s better than attacking twice per turn for 16 damage? How about using that earth mage who just buffed them to spam some destruction. Now you¿re dealing 16 X 2 damage against guys with 0 protection, no shield, and ignoring their defense. Can you think of any situations that this might be effective? Goodbye almost any super elite units! The damage and amount of projectiles is so high that even high hitpoints and moderate natural armor won¿t save you. E/N blessed Neifels or Palashankas will evaporate just as fast as W/F blessed Vans - faster than they can say ¿Oh SH¿!¿

    Advanced tip: if you¿re having trouble landing destruction due to clever battlefield placement tactics of your opponent, consider trying to leverage iron bane. This can require some maneuvering though as ranged weapons will not trigger the armor loss. Any melee hit will though, so look to combine it with things which are otherwise often of limited usefulness. A great one-two punch is to combine the iron bane with swarm or black hawks (who can be scripted to attack large creatures, or whatever). Your Rishi can teleport and cast swarm (or howl if it makes more sense), and even creeping doom works well (never thought you¿d hear that, did you?)

    Bandar warrior - Expensive heavy infantry. Generally not cost effective, but what¿s cooler than pounding guys over the head with pissed off gorillas?

    White ones - These guys are pretty solid holy units who are cheap. I¿ve seen them used very effectively, but I generally find it hard to get a good bless for them given the other things Bandar needs. Still, with even a minor bless they¿re cost effective troops, so go ahead an mix them in as a supplement to whatever else you¿re fielding.

    Elephants - they¿re elephants, they give you a great way to get a solid early expansion without using your pretender. This frees you up to look at a rainbow.

    Tiger riders - these guys are awesome with the right bless, but they¿re *so* expensive, and again I¿d rather have a rainbow than an expensive bless. Your early game you¿ll be using elephants so won¿t miss them, by the time the elephants become obsolete you¿ll have better options.

    Your commanders are fairly standard, you¿ve got a stealthy commander and only an H1 priest. Your mages, you¿ve got a small S1 (research, communion slave), medium S2, N1 (good SC/thug slayer), and a grande S3 N2 1W/E/S/N + 10% another like that. Being heavy on the astral component your recruit able mages are great for the end game but you¿ll be leaning heavily on your summonable mages to carry you in the mid game. Fortunately, you¿ve got some *great* ones. Rishis are very nice though, being cap only and reasonably priced you¿ll want to start recruiting one every turn once you¿re able.

    Before I get into the summonable commanders I wanted to review your non-commander summons.

    Ganas - cheap, ethereal undead which any death mage can summon. They¿re quite cost effective blockers for your low morale and fairly fragile ape troops flinging rocks. If you¿ve taken a rainbow pretender it¿s easy to create a revenant and a skull staff and leave your pretender free for other things, D2 is all you¿ll really need for most of your death needs. You¿ll want to look to mound kings to heard your undead.

    Vetelas - These often overlooked guys are surprisingly resilient with their protection, hitpoints, and second ethereal life. They go down pretty fast to real undead counters or massed archery, but the nice thing is they¿re sideline enough that they¿ll seldom prompt your opponent to invest in counters which are ineffective against the rest of your troops.

    Nagas - Your first real frontline heavy infantry. You¿ll have a hard time summoning them at the point you¿ve first researched them, but in a pinch your nice rainbow pretender can spend a couple turns giving you a solid core for your early forces. They¿re amphibious, so you can move into the water early enough that some water indies are still available for pilfering. They¿re also holy, so I¿ll go ahead and talk about the bless you¿ll be wanting.

    Just because you¿ve taken a rainbow pretender is no reason to neglect considering what impact your blessing will have. As previously mentioned you¿ll want fire magic for flaming arrows, but so long as you¿re headed there F4 will give your troops a welcome +2 attack. The minor regen from N4 and reinvig from E4 will both help greatly with many of the units you¿ll be using. B4 gives a noticeable bump up in the damage output of your troops who often add a kick to their attack and gives you a way to easily drop some of the great blood summons you inherit from Lanka if you luck into some indie blood mages (or trade for blood slaves). Outside of that you¿ll want a minimum of D2 to get you in to that path (more if you can afford it would be useful), water and astral paths are most useful just because you¿ll be site searching and need those gems, leaving air as not particularly necessary, but a pretty cheap bonus since you¿ll be site searching anyway. Make sure you¿ve got either enough astral for teleport or enough air for cloud trapeze. You¿ll be taking heat scales, and there¿s no reason not to take sloth so it¿s not too hard to get the points necessary to be awake and start site searching immediately - getting an early gem flow to power your summon machine is a huge advantage for Bandar.

    So, considering the bless discussed here nagas are very nice units for the price and research level. Also, keep in mind they¿ve got darkvision, so if you should happen to find yourself fighting in the dark against somebody who¿s using strong undead counters that can be very valuable.

    Apsaras - These guys are armorless and thus very vulnerable to many things, but they are cheap, have a good awe value plus defense and a standard effect, so there are definitely good places to use them.

    Advanced tip - awe has a great synergy with fear. Apsaras main defense is their awe, so assuming you can field them against troops with no ranged weapons consider trying to lower the bad guy¿s morale. You¿ve got good options to spam panic, and it wouldn¿t be the worst use of gems to equip a couple cheap thugs with fear helmets to lead the charge. If appropriate, consider using your B4 rainbow pretender to cast blood rain, the effectiveness of your awe will skyrocket while your standard effect will counteract the effect on your own troops.

    Gandharva - Apsaras big, mean, older brother. These guys are certainly on the expensive side, but they are definitely one of my favorite infantries in the game. High hitpoints, high awe, high protection, multiple attacks, good magic resistance, small regen and reinvig (with the blessing discussed), high damage output, a shield and helm while being imminently buffable. With a little support there aren¿t many troops these guys can¿t chew through while taking few casualties. As long as you¿re investing in these guys make sure not to leave the house underdressed, strength of giants, legions of steel and wooden warriors are a must, as your research ramps up look to celestial music (national quickness buff), weapons of sharpness, will of the fates, marble warriors/army of lead/gold, and mass regeneration to make these some damn scary guys.

    Advance tip: Gandharvas are your go-to guys for troops. Part of the thesis for going with a rainbow pretender is that you can easily alchemize anything you¿ve got into astral which is what you¿ll be using to summon your best stuff. If chance should happen to cause your rainbow pretender to rack up a large fire income (or whatever), don¿t be shy about changing those straight into pearls. Even at double price your astral summons are often going to be better than anything else you could spend those gems on.

    I won¿t go into much detail as there are so many of them and you¿re unlikely to afford more than a handful, but as previously mentioned you¿ve inherited some very nice blood summons from Lanka. Be vigilant for a lucky break into blood, or the opportunity to trade for some cheap slaves. It¿s probably not worthwhile to try and bootstrap into blood with all your other good options, but there¿s no reason you couldn¿t if you wanted to put in the effort. Check out the good Lanka guides for a detailed discussion of your options here if you¿re interested.

    Now, on to your summonable mages. You¿ve probably noticed that many of my tips revolve around strong earth magic, fortunately Bandar has a very powerful earth mage in the Yaksha. You¿ll want a couple Yakshini (the female, water version) for water magery, forging clams and if you¿re lucky with the randoms summoning nagas, but other than that you¿ll want to spend every nature gem you can get your grubby little monkey paws on to summon Yaksha. Aside from laying down all the previously discussed earth battle magic these guys make awesome thugs. With awe, good hitpoints, a secondary attack and E/N/(sometimes W) magic they¿ll clean up any unsupported PD easily with very little gear. Summoning earthpower and using their bless they¿ll have enough reinvig generally to save you on those gems, the awe generally takes care of crowd control, the second attack is usually enough to get them through the killing they need done, and the minor regen plus iron skin is often enough to keep them ahead of the few hits that do land. Slap some winged boots on them (one of the better things you can spend your air gems on) and switch hit between soloing PD / small armies, and dropping in to surprise they guys expecting to face unsupported monkeys. Of course, a bit of extra gear certainly won¿t hurt as well. The great thing about these guys is you use nature gems to summon them, and you don¿t really have much else competing for your nature gems.

    You¿ve got three different flavors of naga mages, but in general you¿ll want to use your water gems for other things. Naga troops in a pinch, frost brands for your Yaksha, or even better crank out clams as much as you can so you can get as many of your awesome astral summons as possible. Bandar Log is arguably the best clam spammer in the game, with good earth for hammers, good clam forgers and top notch astral summons to spend the pearls on.

    First up for your astral commander summons is the Kinnara. He gives a welcome diversity into air magic and can site search and forge the winged boots for your Yaksha. He also makes a good thug himself and already flies. With his awe and mistform and minor regen (from the bless) he¿ll also handily clean up most PD. A little air goes a long way for wind guides and arrow fends - both greatly beneficial to your monkey/ape troops. With a staff of elemental mastery (courtesy of your pretender) you can also look at mass flight which is very, very nice to combine with iron bane and markatas, or as a surprise with haste buffed elephants. The other option is to go up to Devatas for A3.

    Next up, Siddha. These guys occupy an awkward niche. They¿ve got 4 arms and the magic paths to buff themselves into real SCs, but have the crippling low astral magic which will bring magic duels out of the woodwork when you stick some good gear on them. Still, with a strategic mapmove of 10 on top of the ability to both cloud trapeze *and* teleport these guys are great to keep in reserve for special purpose surprises. With 4 arms and those paths its not hard at all to kit them out to kill a specific SC/thug (think 30+ defense, awe, mirror image, luck, body ethereal with whatever weapons seem appropriate) then drop them in, set to cast returning the turn after. They can also be used as more general purpose killing machines if you¿re matched up against somebody with weak/no astral as you can leverage that mapmove of 10 and plenty of your own cheap and powerful astral mages to make it very difficult to catch him with a small handful of S1 mages.

    Devata- Generally skip them for SC¿ing, anything you want to do a Siddha can do cheaper and better. They do get you into A3, or A4 with a staff which opens up fun things like fog warrior¿ed markatas.

    Rudra - I¿m not going to talk about any other summons at this level, because once you can get these guys you don¿t want to spend your gems on anything else. Ever. These guys are my absolute favorite SC chasis of all time. 4 arms, mistform, soul vortex, phoenix pyre, mirror image, these guys eat tartarians for lunch (think wielding two flambeauxs with boots of quickness). They fly in a storm so you can¿t even stop them from eating whatever they want while you can screw up whatever your opponent was going to do (they can even wield a staff of storms *plus* a sword and shield if you¿re so inclined). Or, consider equipping 4 shields scripting attack, cast hand of death X4, or perhaps attack and flame eruption X4, maybe use a crystal shield, bag of winds and winged helmet and drop some shimmering fields, they¿re naturally shock and fire immune so follow that storm up with wrathful skies and/or firestorm, or pile rigormortis on top of heat from hell and let your soul vortex keep you powered, drop a couple Rudras in to squish even big armies... I¿ve wished for Rudras before rather than Seraphs because they¿re straight up better in several situations. They¿re non-unique so you can get as many as you can afford, they cost pearls so you can alchemize whatever is handy, and they¿re a bargain at 55 pearls (compare to other angel type summons!). If by this point you¿ve stockpiled a decent number of clams you¿re gonna be very, very hard to stop.

    Now, much has been made of the monkey PD, and indeed it won¿t be able to stop much designed against it, but its actually not that terrible. All the missile weapons do a good job chasing off barbarians, and as I mentioned before markatas do just fine against knights/heavy cavalry. The biggest problem is your morale, so definitely push your dominion (that makes a huge difference), and consider some cheap support sprinkled around if you¿re raided (Apsaras are cheap enough to be sprinkled around if you can¿t line any H2 priests up, and of course mage support does wonders to any PD).

    Of course the best monkey PD is research. With mindhunts, teleporting thugs and mages, earth attacks, stealthy flaming arrows, and ubiquitous astral mages (one guy spamming paralyze from the back row will discourage plenty of thugs intent on monkey squishing, and teleporting in a Rishi with penetration boosters to spam charm will make most anybody think twice about raiding wantonly) you¿ve got no excuse for complaining that your PD alone won¿t stop the bad guys.

    	8.40 Gath

    		8.40.1 Gath - The last of the Giants

    			8.40.1.1 Original Guide

    I played Gath recently a lot in SP, and I decided to get a guide for it. Part of it appeared in another thread, but I made some omissions there (like missing the better part of the national summons ).

    What stands for these giants? 1200 and 1400gold fortresses outside forest (1000) and swamp (800) - partially compensated by the higher administrative ratings and great defensiveness. Expensive 800gp temples, this would require good scales.
    Luckily, troops and starting army is good, so one can take a dormant preteder to offset this disadvantage. Besides having everywhere recruitable sacred, that is. H3 casters in the capital, Sabbath-capable H2 priests recruitable anywhere. Combined with death mages and penetration aids you can deal with the undead hordes of Ermor and C'tis with ease. You also have recruitable remote site searchers for everything save Air and Water.
    Your starting army is fine, would take out medium-strength provinces with some minor reinforcements.

    PROVINCE DEFENSE
    Does not have giant troops, but still surprisingly effective against small attacks.
    Gittite commander
    Napthtali Spearman and Zebulunite Spearman, 1 each/PD points
    20+:

    Levite Zealot - 1/PD over 20
    Levite Priest - to bless Levite Zealots

    TROOPS
    Most of them has wasteland survival, some have fire resistance.

    Reubenite archer - standard shortbow archer, needs 7 resources so difficult to mass. But has a mapmove of 2. I'd recruit him instead of the slingers.
    Benjaminite Slinger - with a precision of 12 roughly archer-equivalent. Has two shortswords but this units should not get into melee. Same protection as the archer, but more expensive. Would be great unit if sacred, but not in current form.
    Naphtali spearman - Light infantry (prot 9, def 13) with javelins and shields. Your PD.
    Zebulunite Soldier: Light-medium infantry with spears only, good (13) morale, attack (11) defense (14). Honestly, no reason to recruit them, but in the PD they are decent.
    Hornblower - buy a few of them if you have a lot of non-sacred infantry - or your Levites face awe/fearful troops.
    Gadite - Heavy infantry (prot 16) with shortsword and Javelin. Mapmove 2, fire resistance, wasteland survival, 11 morale, 11 strength. You'd recruit them if they were not 27 resource or you'd not have Levites. Still, if you picked up a production scale, good way to burn available resources.
    Asherite - Broadsword heavies but with the same damage as the Gadite, for longer sword and one higher attack. Javelin traded for a Tower Shield, but no reason to buy them, especially as they are your only troops with a mapmove of 1.
    Levite - A mediocre medium infantry, but being sacred it is not a bad unit. Great morale (14 without bless). The main reason to recruit them is the reduced upkeep cost, and with your H3 priests they are almost always blessed in combat. Your main priority to buy in secondary castles - decent sized army without crippling maintenance costs. But need other units to do the slaughter itself unless one choose a minor blood/fire bless to help them out. As a bonus, good patroller.
    Gittite - 30g/25r giant medium infantry with Javelins and spear, 15 strength for 18 damage, and attack of 11 and 13 protection. If you have gold, better than than the other javelineers but about three times as expensive to maintain. With their higher strength they are better against heavily protected troops, and their higher HP means that they would survive to gain experience. They also have more action points. Fire resistance.
    Gibbor - 75g/39r sacred giant. 38HP size 4, so you should try mix them with size 2 troops, especially if they are on 'Hold/attack'. Magic sword to damage enemy SCs who thought etherealness had been a good idea - attack of 13 and 27 damage is good to finish heavy infantry with one blow. And has 2.5gold maintenace vs. 2 of a Gittite. Their price seems high, but actually they can be recruited in numbers if you did not take sloth scales. Their main disadvantage is mediocre protection (13). I recruit them in the capital until I have resources are out, then switch to levites. Will accumulate 2 stars in no time. Has Gluttony so prepare to buy Bags of Wine, Cauldrons and Summer Swords if you have a lot of them.

    COMMANDERS
    Iassacharite scout -Has a shortbow. The only such unit of yours would be the one you start with.
    Iassacharite sage - One of the main strength of Gath if played correctly. 50GP for 3RP (plus 10% FES) would not be bad if the unit would not be sacred to top it. Granted, you need an overpriced 800GP temple to recruit them, but the reduced army maintenance from your sacred army leaves you some gold. Can be recruited without a lab if you are content to walk them 2-3 provinces to start researching. With Magic-1 you get 2.4RP for 1 gold maintenance. Perfect option to spend your leftover money at the end of turn. 10%FES. They are also of old age.
    Sybil - S1N1 with some fortune telling (5) for 80gold, not sacred. 2 mapmove as all of your units (save one). Buy them if you need a guaranteed S1 caster in the next turn for arcane probing or to throw curses. You have other S1N2 mages available so most probably you won't buy much.
    Gittite Commander - 27hp, 12MR, 12 precision and 40 leadership - the most you could get outside of your capital on a national recruit. Buy them if you haven't built a lab/temple yet in the castle.
    Abba - A giant N2+100%FES mage for 120gp. Decent stealth (10), heretic - the latter is a small annoyance if you keep them in your own domain to remove afflictions (heal 30) from your sacred troops. Unfortunately has no leadership to lead stealthy troops without items, might want to kit them up and send deep into the enemy provinces to raid weak PD. Recruit some early for manual site-searching and Haruspex, and to heal the afflictions accumulated by your Gibbors. S1N2 can make moonvine bracelets and provide access to higher level nature spells.
    Yeddeoni - 1D1E+100%FESD in four flavors, your general battle mage. Your main commander to lead your undeads and demons into combat (undead leadership 30 or 60). With Twiceborn you could make them undead. All can cast Dark Knowledge.
    E1D2: skullstaff, skull mentor, Dust-to-Dust, Shadow Bolt, Soul Vortex (with booster), Summon Earthpower with boots), skellispam, so could make a decent thug and great undead counter. Besides starting point on the Death Magic ladder.
    E2D1: the usual earth battlefield (esp. with boots and bloodstone) boosts and evocations, plus Dust-to-Dust, Gnome Lore. Blade Wind and Earthquake against chaff.
    FED: Dust-to-Dust, Magma bolts, Magma Eruption (boots, bloodstone, Earthpower)
    ESD: Dust-to-Dust, Nether Bolt, communion with their kind or Kohen Gadols
    Kohen - B1H2+100%FES for 150g. Better researchers than the sage, less upkeep than your other cheap mages, and later you can use them for several purposes. They benefit from bless, the F randoms are blood hunters, the E and S ones have limited self-bluffing capacity (Stone/Iron Skin or Body ethereal/luck/twist fate). In CBM, the SB ones can call lesser horror. Also sabbath slaves to Kohen Gadols.
    Seren - 200gp equipped sacred thug (100gp in CBM), 42HP, 18 defence and 17 protection with magic sword, unfortunately 73resources. However, you are better buying Gibbors for expansion, and you need to recruit mages early to start research as your pretender is dormant. You might buy them if you have no money left for a Kohen Gadol to get a ready-to-use thug.
    Kohen Gadols - B2H3+210%FES for 400g and 31r. You only commander with decent leadership, they will lead your armies and cast Divine Blessing on your sacreds. Cross-path randoms allow to forge some crucial items without expensive empowering. Three misc slots which comes handy for boosters.
    S2B2 ones can Call Lesser Horror to clean up indies and weak PD on their own, and make skullcaps to Send Lesser Horror.
    E2B2 would make blood stones after B empowerment/boost. Might want to empower one to Astral if you did not get a cross-path random for Crystal Coins. Earth battlespells with sabbath/communion.
    F2B2 ones can build up your devil armies. Two blood empowerment for 105 slaves to forge Brazen Vessel/Armor of Souls/Soul contract for freespawn devils. Also, a recruitable thug/SC chassis if you have a lot of gems/items.

    Your Kohen Gadols and Serens eat population, but it is unnoticable with some growth scales, and they don't cause unrest unlike their EA ancestors.

    NATIONAL SUMMONS
    Some national summons have the great disadvantage of being castable only in wastelands. So counting them on before game start might not work well.
    Se'irim - 28HP sacred demons with 3 natural attacks for 16 damage each, 8 for 33 slaves, Blood 3. All your Gadols can cast it. They definitely deserve bless and boosts to unleash havoc on the unsuspecting. No wonder Baalz loves them. Wasteland summon so might not want to build your strategy on them.
    Shedim - lighting-trwoing flying non-sacred demons, 3 for 24. Needs B3A1, thus empowerment if you find enough air gems or air indies/illusionists, or a pretender built such. Wasteland summon.
    Fossil Warriors - Memories of Stone, E2D1 Ench-5 so any Yeddeoni can cast it with Boots. Wasteland summon, 5+ for 10 gems. 17HP giant longdeads with MR 15, attack 12, and damage 26.

    Plus some of the Ashdod national summons (check that guide), with the following notes:
    Mazzikim
    Malik
    Lilot
    Hashmal - Needs either a lucky Gadol or empowerment (+booster) for S3F1, Conj-6, 25 gem. Flying H2 inquisitor, ethereal, awe +4 thug
    Arel - needs 3 Astral boosters on a S1N2 Abba (or nature empowerment on a S2 Kohen Gadol) 39 astral gem.N3H3 caster, thug, healer, awe.
    Ophan - 5S2F, so your F1S2B2 Kohen Gadol can cast it with rings of Wizardry, skullcap and a crystal coin.
    Chayot - 7S3F, so if you do not have an Astral-Fire pretender you need further empowerments to cast it.

    HEROES
    Sybil - S3N4 mage
    Nabi - H2 human priest, superfluous with all your Kohen masses

    PRETENDER DESIGN
    You have anti-SC giants, curse-spamming sibyls for deterrence, H3 priests and sacred troops. You do not need much help in research either. So the obvious choice is an imprisoned pretender with some bless and good scales.
    Scales
    Order: obvious for the gold. T1 is a possibility, though, if you take H1-L3.
    Sloth - S1, neutral or P1. If you take more than one slot, you will have difficulties recruiting both a Kohen Gadol (31r) and more that two Gibbors each turn. If you take neutral scale or even P1, however, you could mass Gibbors from turn-4 onward. With your generally high scales you should be able to afford it. Also, you would be able to recruit 5-6 of them AND a Kohen Gadol later.
    Heat: H1 is preferable, you should take H3 for points . Save the levites, the troops you'd be recruiting have fire resistance, so do the Seren and Kohen Gadols
    Growth: G3 is good for gold later (even if only comes with O1 or O2), and it is needed to balance the supply loss from heat scale - Gibbors are gluttons. Also good for your old-age Sages.
    Luck: I'd prefer L1, combined with M1 for the random gems.
    Magic: with cheap sacred researchers it is either M1 or M3 (you can afford both).

    Dominion
    You can blood sacrifice and have H3 priests so a low-to-medium-strength dominion (5-7) should be fine, you won't have resources for more Gibbors anyways.

    Magic Paths and Blesses
    Now depending on the mods and whatever chassis you choose, you have several bless options. I'd pick N4 for regen and reduced affliction chance, E4 for small reinvig (although with E2 casters one might drop it) the rest is IMHO optional - whatever you want or the pretender chassis has for cheap. A rainbow would allow four or five minor blesses.
    Optional minor blesses: F4 for the Levites and She'ir, A4 for boosters and air access, W4 for water access and defense, S4 for MR (as you have magic scales) and late-game summons, B4 for extra damage.
    With rainbow pick A and W 1-2 to get some limited water access.
    Possible Major blesses with moderate scales:
    E9N4 with the cyclops, will give your recruitable sacreds a protection of 17, but the She'irim won't benefit from the protection bonus of the Earth bless.
    F9 is great for the She'irim to hit ethereal, but IMHO a minor blood/fire bless is better - your Gibbors can hit Ethereals anyways. With the single attack of your recruitables it is not optimal.
    W9 is IMHO too expensive due to the lack of suitable pretender chassis - only the Rainbow Frost Father has it.
    A9 if you are facing several archers/air nations
    S9 for MR and twist fate, less than optimal for your giant troops, but good for endgame summons, and the extra Magic Resistance benefits everyone

    Pretender Examples:
    Sphynx F3E4S9N4, 5 dominion, O1P0H3G3L1M1, that could cast the high-end national summons without empowerment. In CBM the same chassis allows F4E4S9N4 and 6 dominion.
    Imprisoned Lord of Rebirth with E4D3N4, one additional minor bless and great scales. In CBM comes with 2N2D gem income to balance the lack of gems in Late Age.

    			8.40.1.2 Comments

    		8.40.2

    	8.41

    9. Hotkeys

        9.1 MISC SHORTCUTS

    a select/deselect all commanders
    b bid for mercenaries
    d recruit province defense
    e end turn
    f fortress info
    h hide/show right-side menu
    l enter arcane laboratory
    m read messages
    n next commander without orders
    o temple and dominion stats
    r recruit units
    s send messages
    t army setup
    v view battles in current province
    x change tax rate
    y shows army setup screen for commanders
    moving to the selected province. Good for
    planning attacks.
    +,- scroll commanders
    Enter deselect all commanders
    >,< grow or shrink commander icons
    Esc Options menu or return to previous menu

        9.2 STATISTICS SCREENS

    F1 nation overview
    F2 score graphs
    F3 Hall of Fame
    F4 pretenders of the world

        9.3 MAGIC

    l enter arcane laboratory
    F5 research
    F6 global enchantments
    F7 magic resource treasury
    F8 magic item treasury

        9.4 MAP VIEW

    Right-click select province
    Arrows scroll map
    Home goto capital
    End zoom x ½ scale
    Insert zoom to cover the whole screen
    Delete zoom to view entire map
    Page Up zoom in
    Page Down zoom out
    # goto province number
    Note, date can be found from the main UI in the upper-right.

        9.5 MAP FILTERS

    1 flags and forts

    2 armies

    3 dominion

    4 income and resources

    5 temples and misc symbols

    8 neighbors

    9 province names

        9.6 UNIT ORDERS (capital letters indicate Shift + key)

    Space choose order from menu
    A reanimate, call spirits
    B blood hunt
    C cast ritual spell
    D defend
    E break siege
    F forge magic item
    G call god
    H heal
    M monthly ritual
    P preach the Word of God
    R research
    S search for magic sites
    T storm castle
    W capture slaves
    X patrol
    Z pool all blood slaves to laboratory

        9.7 UNIT SELECTION

    Double-click select all units of same type
    Shift-click select multiple units
    (click and) w select all units with afflictions
    (click and) e select all units with 2+ experience stars
    Enter deselect all currently selected units

        9.8 BATTLE VIEW

    q quit out of battle view
    Space pause
    w toggle map grid
    f fast-forward the battle movie
    n advance battle movie to next round

    10. Advanced dominions III discussions

    	10.1 Lies My Rulebook Told Me

    Lies My Rulebook Told Me, or The Unofficial Rulebook Errata Thread

    		10.1.1 Major issues

    -> Call god is a 50 priest-turn process, not 40. p52

    -> If forces from different nations attack the same province on the same turn the order that the battles resolve in is deterministic based on nation number. It is NOT random as described in the rulebook. p66

    -> Blood hunt income is affected by the master site setting of the game. This is not reflected in the formula given for slave income. p69

    -> Units retreating from a fort or break siege attempt flee as usual as opposed to dying. p69

    -> Global enchantments take effect when cast, not as described in the turn order. p72

    -> Critical hits hurt a heck of a lot more (and may be more frequent) than the formula given would indicate. p76

    -> The stated attack penalty for multiple repel attempts in the same turn is not actually applied. p76

    -> The formula for missiles landing against shielded units overstates the protection that shields provide. p77

    -> The description of how morale checks works does not seem to be accurate. High morale units don't seem to be hit by unlucky rolls as often as they should be with the formula as stated. p80

    -> Similarly, fear does not seem to function exactly as described, since units never seem to run away on the first turn they engage, which should be possible. p56

    -> A mindless leader that is given retreat orders or is autorouted on turn 50 of a battle will dissolve, even though it should be able to command itself. p81

    -> Path boosting spells are compared to gem expenditure, this is not accurate, as path boost spells in combat function like having the path innately, increasing max gem use and allowing gems to further boost the path. p89

    		10.1.2 Moderate issues

    -> Mercs don't mention that they vanish when they flee. p45

    -> Immobile pretenders can only teleport, not cloud Trapeze or Gate, as the book says. p47

    -> Chill and heat effects are variable, not a flat 5. p57

    -> Research does not grant experience (beyond the base 1 that everyone gets). p58

    -> No mention of needing a lab to equip items to commanders. p63

    -> Move and patrol doesn't patrol for hidden units or unrest, it just defends outside the fort. p69

    -> The attack current province command on a hidden unit will join any magical attack made on the province as opposed to moving during normal unit movement. p71

    -> Animals have a siege penalty which is not stated. p81

    -> Extra paths due to boosters are not included as extra gems for a global, though they don't count as negative levels if the caster is under the minimum. (Not tested by me) p88

    -> Effective dominion score for temple (and possibly other forms of) spread does not increase with temples built, it is set by starting dom. p93

    		10.1.3 Typos/Minor Issues/Clarifications

    -> The scale chart on p39 is just wrong. Look at p51 for more correct values.

    -> The scale chart on 51 has incorrect values listed for random event frequency modifiers for the order and luck scales, and the resource values given for the production scale. (Inclusive of negative versions of each scale.) p51

    -> SR from A9 bless is 75, not 70. p49

    -> Magic resistance should be compare to defense value, not protection. p55

    -> Glamour does not always come with stealth. p56

    -> Diseased units only have a chance of gaining additional afflictions, it's not for sure. p58

    -> The stealth formula and example don't use the same values. p67

    -> Clams can't make pearls when unequipped, example is incorrect. p72

    -> Morningstars and flails get bonuses against shields instead of ignoring them (slight uncertainty on this one). p75

    -> The numbers given in the poison example are mathematically incorrect. p78

    -> Prophetizing a high-level priest is not actually a good idea. p95

    -> Death magic grants 30 undead leadership, not 20 as the manual says.

    	10.2 Countering Master Enslave

    -> When someone is casting Master Enslave, they use either a Pretender or a communion.

    If they use a Pretender, your best best is to kill that unit before it casts. The AI likes targeting high HP and large units, so it's not hard for a defender to kill that guy dead before he can cast on round one if you use the good attacking spells.

    If they are using a communion, killing off the communion members with area spells works.

    Otherwise, sending thugs and SCs with high MR is a fine way to kill a Master Enslave Army. The spell is MR+, so some Banelords with a few MR boosting items basically means they can't be affected.

    -> Antimagic is an obvious, if not 100% effective, response.
    Army of Lead as well.
    Master enslave back if you can (meaning let him master enslave and then cast master ensalve last)

    -> Master Enslave does not have the penetration to affect all of the opposing army.
    In my last game, I was casting it (among others) with an Astral 12 (native) Seraph,
    with an effective astral of 18 (boosters, banner, and shield) and penetration + 4.
    Most of the enemy's heavy hitters would resist it, and we would have our little
    battle afterwards... make sure that the enslave casts before your army-wide buffs,
    so that your new converts do not die from the battlefield-wide enchantments.

    Of course, against one of my opponents, who was relying on troops to breach my
    castles, Master Enslave + Vortex of Returning by patrolling mages did wonders.
    He never stormed a single castle.

    -> "When someone is casting Master Enslave, they use either a Pretender or a communion."
    That's actually not true. Several nations get access to S4 mages (Marverni, Arcoscephale, R'yleh off the top of my head)

    S4 + cap + coin + crystal shield + ring of sorcery = S8

    Heck, even cheaper is to drop the ring and have a second mage carrying the light of the northern star - bonus he can cast vortex of returning after the master enslave if you want. Slap an eye of the void and rune smasher onto your main caster for +4 penetration. Drop those two where you expect an enemy army to move and they'll act first so no anti-magic and no retaliation at all. Yoink!

    Counters: One seeking arrow (or possibly a couple) will sink a lot of your enemies gems. Most assassin spells will work well if you can outguess where he'll be dropping in. If they're dropping in on you a dome of flaming death will also ruin his day. If he's not using vortex of returning using SCs/combat summoning spells (elementals, etc) should work pretty good.

    -> Cast a couple Ghost riders on the army. That will trigger the mages to use gems.

    ->  master enslave is nothing special, it's just one of the spells of this problematic category. Rain of stones and bone grinding (combined with fog warriors or high hp mages) are worse for me, as some nations can easily cast them 3 or 4 times in round one (if you can cast it 4 times bone grinding is the nastier spell against human nations, as it kills even the mages who had an armor to survive rains of stones). Undead mastery and arcane domination are more niche, but being lower level can be cast with better penetration bonus (and considering late game troops often include some feebleminded tartarians, undead mastery may give excellent returns for its price).

    	10.3 Cost efficient blood hunting

    -> When you don't have recruitable cheap blood hunters you can always use scouts or indy commanders.
    Don't give them SDRs since they only work on blood mages!
    That makes even B1 mages with the rod 90% chance of catching slaves compared to the 10% chance of scouts.

    -> Note, using The Hinom priests (Kohens) as blood hunters you need to take into account that they eat population, meaning in short time they will depopulate your blood provinces. Not adviced!

    -> Two candidates for most efficient blood hunters (both Mictlan):
    The Mictlan Priest.  The most efficient independent Blood Hunter is the Garnet Priestess.

    Mictlan also has the most effective summoned blood hunter in the Tlehpuchi. 25 blood slaves to summon, a B2 (flying, stealthy, assassin) who can summon themselves and don't even need a sanguine rod. They can be used to get MA Mictlan into blood in a huge way.

    	10.4 refuting common wisdom on scales everybody knows

    -> I thought I¿d take a moment to refute some of the conventional wisdom that everybody knows. Let me preface this by making it clear that I¿m in no way saying that the conventional wisdom is always wrong, just that it¿s not always right.

    Gold is king. You¿re foolish if you don¿t take order-3 with almost any nation, and turmoil is practically unplayable competitively. This is not true. Gold is a means, not an end. It is often the case that making other choices will allow you to spend less gold on expanding at the same rate. Production allows you to use more heavily armored troops, so you can use less of them. Taking an awake pretender allows you to use less troops for expansion. Taking a better bless allows you to split your sacreds into smaller armies for more rapid expansion. All of these can very well end you with a stronger position than if you took in more gold but also spent more gold. Order/turmoil scale is a balancing act which must be planned for in the context of your nation and your strategy for optimal return.

    Expansion is queen to gold¿s king. In order to have a competitive build you must be able to expand very rapidly. If you can¿t grab about 20 provinces by the end of the first year you need to go back to the drawing board. False. Provinces are a means, not an end. Namely, provinces are a way to get more gold and gems. Of course, all other things being equal the more provinces you can get the better, but you must consider the opportunity cost. The first obvious one is that scales are often sacrificed to optimize expansion. A swing from order-3, prod-3, growth -3 (+ 39% income) to turmoil-3, sloth-3, death -3 (-39% income) means you have to expand more than twice as fast merely to break even. This is an extreme example to illustrate the point, but the concept holds on any smaller variation  every tick down in your scales is more you have to work just to break even for gold. In addition, extra provinces have a downside - you¿ve got more area to defend, more money dumped into PD, more upkeep in troops to defend it, and of course more troops and casualties to conquer it in the first place.

    This is another consideration that most people don¿t consider, the opportunity cost of dumping gold into troops as fast as you can to fuel a fast expansion. If you stop and think about it, it is often a stronger position to have 12 provinces with 3 castles than 24 provinces with just your capital castle at the end of year one. With extra labs, mages & research, triple the troop production (even without accounting for production scale differences) and superior defensive options you stand a very good chance of clobbering the guy who¿s grabbing provinces as fast as he can (and probably making enemies along the way). At some point, obviously, it¿s a good idea to devote resources to things other than expansion. This point can be quite a bit earlier than many people realize.

    Sloth is almost always great dumping grounds to get design points. False. As I illustrate above production can often lead to more economic power than order whether from more efficient use of your troops or faster expansion. Doesn¿t take a rocket scientist to figure out that triple the troops (-45% to +45% resources) can often translate into double the gold income which trounces the 30% swing in income from order-3/sloth-3 to turmoil-3/production-3. Again, the same is true in smaller increments.

    Misfortune is almost always a good dumping grounds to get design points. False. Luck offers a number of advantages which many overlook in paying homage to the ¿gold is King¿ myth. True, order will give you more gold over time than luck even accounting for rebuilding burned down labs & temples (though of course your missing lab also cost you research points and possibly strategic spell casting). I believe that it¿s a mistake to measure the benefit of luck in terms of gold. One big advantage of luck is greater magic diversity through random gems, indie mages joining you, and national heroes. How do you put a gold value on getting a mage plus gems to start site searching in a new path? Also, the fact that order will give you more gold in the long run does not capture the advantage of gaining 1000 gold in the first couple turns when every coin counts the most. Finally, I think the detriment of random indie attacks are not really factored in by most people. If you¿re on the ball and have some spare capacity they are no more than a gold-costing nuisance. In a tight fight though they are often the tipping point, effectively acting with your enemy to attack you and fortify what you lost. Misfortune scales are very common, and I¿ve lost track of how many times I¿ve seen people screwed over by indie attacks while another player is attacking them and they have no way to retake the lost provinces in any reasonable amount of time.

    Drain is for suckers, never take it competitively. Well heck, just look at the numbers, what percentage change in research will the mage you plan to do most of your researching with have? If you plan on researching with Sauromancers (10 rp), drain 2 only subtracts 10% of your research¿so you could put those design points into 2 levels of order to gain 14% more income and theoretically 14% more mages. Again, it all depends on how everything fits together.

    Comments:

    -> Interesting thought experiment Baalz, but the problem comes from QM's basic assertion that order scales are pretty much always worth taking. If you take this as a base assumption then a lot of your following analysis doesn't hold up.

    For example, taking drain, even with 10RP mages, means you lose 10% research, as opposed to gaining 10% with magic 1 (your analysis also didn't include taking the obvious magic-1 pick, which is a bit disingenuous) So, a 20% swing in RP for 3 scales. If order isn't assumed to be maxed out then sure, you could get 21% more gold...seems even, aside from having to build a ton more forts and labs to pump out mages, but since you can't have order-6 you end up being forced to take growth or production instead. 6% more gold doesn't look nearly so hot all of a sudden. Nations with weaker researchers obviously have an even easier call to make there.

    Similarly O-3 blunts the effects of luck and misfortune, so taking some misfortune seems to be a good choice. That being said, you'll then want to avoid death, since that's when the really nasty events come in.

    Yes, I realize this is kind of a ridiculous chain of effects, but it's actually how things work out, for the most part, and why the common wisdom is the way it is.

    This leaves temp scales and production...sacrificing production to have an awake SC is pretty much always a good idea in terms of efficiency, and temperature scales aren't as important as they seem due to seasonal fluctuations, so I usually plunder them for points as well. The other problem with relying on production scales is that you could get a start with crappy neighbors...3 provinces, 2 plains and a woods isn't uncommon. Pulling in under 200 resources to your cap with high production is a pretty big hit. Perhaps a minor concern, but still, it's there.

    Anyhow, I will admit everything is situational, but there's a chain reaction from the order scale being so good, which is why a lot of the other scale choices get set how they are so often.

    -> I think you may always try to refute common wisdom with theory, but as long it isn't refuted by results of dozen of MP games it just isn't refuted.

    I think the base of said common wisdom is games don't finish in turn 20. And if they take good scales people want something still usefull by turn 50 or 80.

    Order is good in early and late game, production is not. Growth is as good for income as production in early game, 10 times better in late.

    There may be an exception for the few nations having recruitables using magical weapons and with sufficient hp and mr to survive against late game magic (I don't see a lot... LE Atlantis perhaps ?) so heavy national troops can remain usefull, but it's extremely niche.

    Drain is bad from early to late game for the 90% not drain immune nations, sloth is only really bad for early expansion with a limited number of ressource intensive nations and if they don't take an awake god. Magic lose power in endgame once research is maxed, but maxing interesting schools / reaching uniques first is such a big advantage a nation who used drain will probably be still weaker than a magic nation 20 or 30 turns after all finished researchs.

    But magic has some side effects that may make it more or less interesting, and may even justify in rare cases to take drain (out of researchers quality, some other things may be considered : do your nation usually use many mages and fight long battles (= profits a lot from fatigue reduction) or has the kind of troops making battles short / has better ways to destroy ennemies than mages spaming spells ? do your mages use MR spells ? do your nation use thugs or undeads whose main weakness is against MR spell ?).

    Luck is not as good as order in early game (when your empire is small) and not as good as order in late game on big maps (if your empire is big and expanding, you run into the artificial limit on number of events, and the bad ones in recently conquered provinces often replace the good from your luck 3 lands). Luck is anyway better than order for some situations in midgame (if you have about 20 provinces, *all in your dominion and maxed in scales*, so you reliably get 2-3 good events a turn, luck clearly beats order) and is never a bad choice as it's the only gems scale.

    	10.5 Maths problem: fatigue vs critical hits

    -> A DNR (Dominions random number) works like this:

    Take a random number between 1 and 6. If the result is 6, take a random number between 0 and 5 and add it to the sum. If the result is a 5, repeat until the result isn't a 5.

    What is the probability of getting a number of X or higher with 2 DRNs?

    The manual lists comparisons, or chances of 2d6oe producing a value greater than 2d6 oe by a spesific amount. There comparisons are used for almost everything from attack to damage. There's only a single mechanic that I know of that uses 2d6oe value that ISN'T compared into another 2d6oe value, and that's the chance of a critical hit. Page 76 of the manual states the a critical hit happens if 2d6oe minus (fatigue/15) is less than 2.

    For a single DRN, chance of results between 1-5 is 5/6. Chance of results larger than 5 is 1/6, result larger than 10 is 1/36, chance of result larger than 15 is 1/216 etc etc.

    Any math students/professors/hobbyists want to try their hand at solving this?

    -> X.......Chance that 2d6oe > X
    2.......0.972
    3.......0.917
    4.......0.833
    5.......0.722
    6.......0.583
    7.......0.463
    8.......0.361
    9.......0.278
    10......0.213
    11......0.167
    12......0.127
    13......0.095
    14......0.069
    15......0.051
    16......0.039
    17......0.030
    18......0.022

    Unit Fatigue...... %Critical Hits
    0 - 14 ................ 0.0%
    15 - 29 .............. 2.8%
    30 - 44 .............. 8.3%
    45 - 59 .............. 16.7%
    60 - 74 .............. 27.8%
    75 - 89 .............. 41.7%
    90 - 104 ............ 53.7%
    105 - 119 .......... 63.9%
    120 - 134 .......... 72.2%
    135 - 149 .......... 78.7%
    150 - 164 .......... 83.3%
    165 - 179 .......... 87.3%
    180 - 194 .......... 90.5%
    195 - 200 .......... 93.1%

    ->  I just tested this with a troll king with a robe of invulnerability vs 12 and 13 damage chaff (25 body prot, somewhat more on the head since the chassis has a helmet). Under 15 fatigue he gets damaged twice over 8 rounds of combat in melee. As soon as he crests 15 fatigue he starts taking about 2 damaging hits EVERY ROUND. The chances for a crit at 15-30 fatigue should be 1 in 36, since it requires a one on both dice (open ended rolling doesn't kick in til way later). He's only taking 21 swings per round. In addition, even if a crit lands it only has about a 50% chance of doing damage (half his prot value still is equal to the damage of the attacks).

    The crit system as described in the rulebook does not mesh with reality. I've observed this phenomenon time and again while playing with SCs, but now I actually sat down and counted swings.

    [Response:
    It's just random variation. Str 10 + spear 3 units can deal damage against a non-fatigue Colossal Fetisch with 32 body protection twice in the same turn, and then be unable to harm him for several turns while he has 30 fatigue (from Flaming Helmet). The amount of hits he takes varies a lot, but jumps in damage occur much more after the fatigue goes over 14, and then over 30 points. It's mostly 1 or 2 points of damage before critical hits, then they start dealing 4-7 points.

    Because spearman can score hits even before the fetish is fatigued (no helmet, so it stays at 0 fatigue all the time), actual data and statistics would be necessary to figure out if there's something wrong with the formula. The thing that surprised me in my tests was that high protection protected you from most hits, but the hits that got through could deal 5 or 7 or 13 points of damage. I guess that's why size 2 units make so poor thugs - whatever you do with them, a single stroke of bad luck will finish them off.
    ]

    	10.6 Equipment for Elemental Royalty

    -> For all: Luck and resists (elemental and magic) as appropriate to what you're fighting.

    Air: Marble armor or something else that will bump their prot value above 20, just in case. They can get away with less if you need the body slot or can't lose the CR, but it's a great choice. Regen if you can spare the slot. A damage shield for chaff killing helps a lot here.

    Earth: Stymphalian wings (or flying carpet). These guys are pretty good to go out of the box with regen and invulnerability and summon earth power, so give them a flight item to help their mobility and go to town. The wings will also up their kill rate against small troops since you get 0-enc trample.

    Fire: Depends which, Pyri really wants some marble armor due to his 0 base prot, whereas rhuax gets a great boost out of a blood stone for all the good earth magic...both could use some reinvig to combo with phoenix pyre, though rhuax can get that from summon earth power...give pyri a resil amulet if you can. Both get a kick out of flight items as well, although make sure to provide them with escape routes in case they take an unexpected beating, since phoenix pyre probably means they'll get off the field (especially if you give rhuax flight with the wings)

    Water: a shield to pimp their defense...the 2 water-only queens are kind of a crappy investment for above-water fighting, as they have no base prot, no regen, and limited buffing magic...they can survive on their high defense against limited opposition, but I'd seriously prefer a golem for most purposes (alchemize for 25 of the 30 pearls, or make some clams instead) Underwater just stack a char shield or stymph wings with resist gear and their high defense and ridiculous regen should be plenty to keep them up...you just want a way to do a lot of damage with them (hence the shield/trample)

    -> I must say that I didn't find Earth Knigs with Stymphalian Wings a good combo even in SP. Maybe area-effect swords and/or char shield could be more useful? Or just making them shoot away with, say, Earthquake - but here Rainbow Armor would be better...
    Considering Air Queens I have found them quite useful with Rime Hauberk (chill aura) & Storm Staff. The latter could probably be replaced with some sword & char shield, but they already have additional attacks, & Storm increases their power. Armor could be relaced with Bone breastplate, of course.
    Agree about Fire Kings.

    -> Earth Kings also like Bone Armor. Built-in Soul Vortex but low Prot, so you need someone with high base Prot or the ability to cast Ironskin or Invulnerability.

    -> Earth kings with hydra armour and ring of regen. having their innate regen. are ridiculously hard to kill
    [Response:
    In melee, yes. Watch out for mages spamming MR-resisted spells like Disintegrate, Charm, and Petrify. Also watch out for creatures with Fear--I don't believe Earth Kings are immune to Fear, and if he's raiding deep in enemy territory routing could get him killed.
    ]

    -> For MR boost note that AMA is cumulative with antimagic or iron will, but the two spells aren't cumulative.

    -> I use vine shield, hydra armour, pendant of luck, and MR boosting item (can't remember name) plus an area damage weapon for Earth King (scrip to cast earthpower, iron will, invul before attacking) with good results - at least in SP. Should do quite well in MP too but may need adjustment in the misc slots to tailor against specific nations/threats.

    -> I'd advise that if you're facing a strong astral nation, you want at least two items with +MR. Mind Hunt is extremely cheap and fairly effective. 22MR will be decent protection from a basic S4 mage, but not an S4 mage with +3 penetration, which is easy to acquire. I'd suggest you should be looking at 25 or more MR for really important SCs.

    If Earth Kings don't suffer encumbrance (I've never got round to using one) a lead shield would be cheap and do: with enough protec and regeneration a vine shield to trap attackers just isn't important.

    -> Hmmm, what's the best penetration you can get? Eye of the Void + Rune Smasher + Green Eye + Ring of Sorcery = penetration +6. Of course he's blind but that doesn't matter for Mind Hunt.  And of course most nations don't have three slots on their S4 casters, but Ashdod does on its Talmai Elders.

    [response:
    Actually Eye of the Void + Rune Smasher + Green Eye + Ring of Sorcery = penetration +7.
    Rishis also have 3 mics slots.
    ]

    	10.7 Minimum dominion?

    It is generally agreed that minimud dominion in a MP game is 5.

    Some opinions from thread:
    -> I took 5 with an imprisoned bless chassis in RAND, it was pretty tight and took a lot of priest MM (I built a fortless temple to buy indie priests from to preach for scales) but it worked out. A nice benefit from the priest building was being able to dom-kill mictlan when his last army of nasty double blessed jags was running amok around my provinces, since I had a lot of targeted dominion spread. I'd probably try to find some points elsewhere to have a bit more if I did it again, and wouldn't go under it, but I'd say it proves that 5 isn't under a minimum.

    -> I think the size / start positions of the map decides it.

    On big maps or maps with spaced fixed positions I'd use even dom 3 or 4.

    On typical random 15 or less prov/player maps where capitols may be only 3 provinces away I'd rather take 5 minimum, and usually 6-8 if my pretender isn't awake.

    Also scales are a thing to consider. Taking good scales is a waste when your dominion is too low.

    -> Depends on many things.

    The era. In the middle era, 5-6 is usually fine as there are not many good nations that can push dominion on you with blood sacrifice.

    If I am playing a race like Pangaea with cheap temples, 5 is plenty.

    But if I am playing MA Ctis where dominion is gold and also lethal to my enemies, foolish to start with less than 8 or 9.

    If I am playing a race where i need lots of cheap sacreds, i may need a high dominion so i can recruit the sacreds(jag warriors etc).

    If my pretender is immortal, and also an sc, I like at least 6 so he can be used safely in a decent amount of provinces around my capital.

    	10.8 Fortress to Province ratio

    -> goal in the early game is usually to get enough forts up that I can spend 50% of my gold or more on mages. I'm not happy until I can buy 3 to 5 mages per turn.

    -> Prior to capturing new territories from other nations, my fort ratio is determined by the amount of free money I have. If, after recruiting all my best mages, and then all troops available I still have a significant amount left over, i will build another fort.

    -> I usually build 1-2 additional forts myself in early game. Other forts I take over from other players. If I reach the "late game, too much money and nothing to spend it on" phase of the game, then I tend to put it into forts+temples, too

    -> In mp puting fort on all vp provinces is quite important to prevent quick wins by some teleport/sneak/flying thugs/armies.

    -> Basically, a pretender that can take one province/turn from turn 3 or 4 forwards, preferably without any troops support. That will basically double your expansion rate.

    Very high-power bless is another option, but it depends on a nation. Strategically fast (mapmove at least 2), resource-cheap sacred units are more useful than slow, resource-intensive sacreds, and having multiple attacks will double Water 9 or Fire 9 bless effectiveness, and quadruple Water 9/Fire 9 bless effectiveness. MA/LA Vanheim's mounted Vanir with F9W9 bless are perhaps the most common example.

    Learning to expand well with national units is also important. Most expensive unit isn't necessarily the best, because numbers matter, and "missile units scale better than melee units". The latter means that even though X number of melee and missile units are both unable to conquer a spesific province, 2*X missile units can conquer it, but 2*X melee units can't. This works especially well with nations like MA Marignon, who can boost their crossbows with Flaming Arrows in middle-game.

    	10.9 Keeping Helpful Enemy Dominion Alive...

    Do you ever hold off on wiping out an enemy player's last province if his dominion is helping you. eg Magic scales? Does enemy dominion vanish once the last province falls or does it linger?

    -> Yes, when there is such a situation. Though the positive side of their scales won't help you unless your own scales are negative. Their dominion vanishes instantly when their god is destroyed, but their scales remain.

    -> Yeah its not possible to ever benefit from positivie enemy scales - tho you can be harmed by negative enemy scales. So the best situation you can hope for is to have terrible scales of your own and have enemy dominion bring you to nuetral.

    -> Interestingly enough, enemy Luck is considered Misfortune.
    Hostile Luck: it should work as Misfortune. It only enables bad events in the province in question, doesn't affect the ratio of good and bad events in the empire.
    Hostile Magic: It should have no effect on research. I tested it, it doesn't help enemy research.
    Hostile Growth: I didn't properly test it, but two of my three inquisitors got old age afflictions in hostile Growth 3 dominion.

    Preaching province with Order, Production and Growth from hostile to positive dominion: no effect on income, resources or supplies. Population grew even under hostile growth.

    I think this means that Order and Production give full benefits even in hostile dominion, Growth gives full supply and income benefits even in hostile dominion but not old age affliction resistance. Hostile magic goesn't give research bonus and lowers everyone's magic resistance.

    This leaves only hostile Luck and hostile negative scales as untested. I presume they are all handled as negative scales.

    -> Hostile scales work if the province is under your dominion.

    So if you can preach a province to dom 1 without removing ennemy scales you may benefit from his magic research bonus or full effects of other positive scales.

    Luck seem to be a different thing as, according to JK, only capitol luck scale determines if events are good or not.

    	10.10 Blood Magic as Combat Magic?

    -> wounded (or even afflicted) blood slaves are usable, in my experience.

    Now, blood magic... it IS extremely cumbersome... mostly because of the high fatigue rates, but also because it´s combat spells are expensive and not too good. The fatigue can be offset with a highly empowered spellcaster, or a communion (which I think is more practical to use with Astral mages as slaves, as otherwise you´ll be spending many slaves just to set it up).

    If you do commune up your casters, make sure that you have the exact number of slaves you are going to use in your first five turns, and/or extra communion slaves. I had one communion with four slaves set to be reinvirgorated by a sabbath master while the other casted agony at the enemy (I sort of hope it to perform well with a death bless), which resulted in a wipeout of all the slaves when my caster decided to use his increased-due-to-communion blood level to cast the level 5 battle-wide life leeching spell, which has horribly high fatigue. My mages survived that, but in the following moments he casted mind burn four times, each one resulting in a dead turkey...

    -> Blood magic can be very effective in combat. As Jazzepi points out though there is a higher bar to use it as you'll only do so in the fights where it makes sense to burn gems. With that in mind, here's some suggestions:

    Summon imps + bloodlust is a very nice little combo to pull off with a bunch of cheap research mages and modest research. It's surprisingly effective in many situations. They're flying so they'll tangle up archers and mages, they're size 1 with 2 attacks so they'll overwhelm high defense, they do decent damage buffed, they have a good defense so they've got a bit of staying power in numbers, and they're fire immune so they're a perfect screen to drop fire evocations on or to tie up that fire brand wielding SC.

    Bloodlust & Rush of Strength can be worth the price of admission all alone depending on what you're fielding.

    Bloodletting is one of the easier battlefield wide spells to cast and you can keep casting it because it reinvigs you. One casting of this spell is a bit underwhelming, having 2 guys cast it several times though...20 blood slaves is a cheap price for killing a large army.

    Blood rain - fabulous for use in combination with other fear effects. Panic, terror, starvation, horrors....even super-elite forces have a breaking point. I think this is an underrated spell, you know how easy it is to break those 8 morale militia? Well in my dominion your 13 moral elites now break that easily and horrors have a *huge* fear aura.

    Call horror - a bit of a niche spell, but it's not too hard to find situations where 2-3 horrors will really ruin somebody's day even without counting on their fear. With horror marks it's not too difficult to point them in the right direction either.

    Reinvigoration - people keep this one in mind for communions, which it's great for, but it's also very worthwhile to have SCs/Thugs at 0 fatigue before going into melee, and it can allow you to cast those big spells several more times.

    Hellbind heart is like charm with a much larger range and easier path requirements.

    Leech is one of my favorite spells. Easy requirements, AOE1, no way to get resistance (unless you're already lifeless), AN. Not only is it perfect to counter most SCs, you'll be amazed at how fast 20 triple blessed whatevers evaporate before they can even close on your PD if you get 4-5 (cheap!) casters to spam this.

    Life for a life + go to hell - The best anti-SC spells in the game.

    PS wounded blood slaves are definitely usable. You can easily witness this by casting bloodletting several times as it effects your slaves.

    -> and don't forge Agony and Harm : there are very potent with High level mages

    -> Storm Demons are less of a combat unit and more of a battle magic. Each tosses str-based AN lightning bolts(10 per battle) fired with Storm-immune Precision 14, so when you are rolling in with 20-30 of them you can have a devastating magical assault before you engage in melee.

    Summon Imps is a great way to win assassination/failed seduction/deathmatch battles.

    Agony is also a fear effect, so it has value beyond just weak attack.

    Send Lesser Horror/Horror is a great way to add in killers with low amounts of resistance against high numbers of attackers. I've had more than a little success with casting a few of these and only having a few mages and no troops on defense to cast battlefield spells or other large area magics. Sheer probability means that the Horrors will attack the vastly larger force(barring Horror Marks).

    Hell Power has a number of niche uses, so don't discount it despite it's great cost.

    Infernal Prison/Claws of Cocytus are the best way to defeat Doom Horrors.

    -> Yes, bloodletting takes out your blood slaves, but (assuming human level MR) it takes out the bad guys at the same rate. You don't have to kill 100% of the enemy troops for the army to be 'destroyed', killing 60% and routing the rest with heavy afflictions is, at least to me, destroying the army. This is very doable with 4 castings, which is more or less what your blood slaves will handle if you bring a few extra.

    -> Blood magic, is all about SCs. And that carries over into its battle magic too. While it does have a handful BE and AoE spells, the real power of blood magic on the field is for killing SCs. Life for a Life, and the go to hell spells are the best anti-SC spells in the game.

    -> Early on, I wouldn't underestimate summon imp. They have okay HP, they're hard to hit, and fly, which means they cross the battlefield and can stop the enemy army immediately for some time, which you can leverage for considerable advantage with the right units.

    -> Can someone please explain what is the "go to hell" spell?
    Infernal Prison and Claws of Kokytos.

    	10.11 Wish

    		10.11.1 Wish list

    * "Armageddon" : earthquakes and meteors kill 20% of the population and of the units in most provinces of the world.
    * "Army" : gives you 300 militiamen.
    * "Artifact" gives you a random unique artifact. This is pretty funny if that artifact exists, whoever has it gets a message that it disappears into a poof of smoke and your mage suddenly has it! If the item is cursed, the mage cannot remove it.
    * "(Artifact)" : gives you the said artifact... including those which aren't listed in the magical item manual or in the forge lists : Vial of Frozen Tears (+1 D,W), Sun Sword/Shield/Armor/Helmet (of Solaris - mostly awe, berserk, and magic resistance), Hammer of the Cyclops (50% forge, 37 damage), Precious (attack and strength bonus), Greenstone Armor (prot 17), Robe of the Sorceress (+1 S,D,N,B and prot 15), Crown of Karafagus (+1D and 1 mummy/t), Admiral's Sword (curses those it touches).
    * "Blood slaves" : you get 250.
    * "Broth" : same as "food"
    * "(Creature Name)" : you get the said creature. Like "hero", they lose all magic. However, if you can cast Gift of Reason, they still have secondary powers, so Arco Priestesses have heal, etc.
    * "Death" : guess what happens to the mage...
    * "Death Match" : a Death Match is scheduled next turn.
    * "Defence" : same as "power"
    * "Dominion" : your dominion increases slightly.
    * "Experience" : the caster gets 1000 experience.
    * "Fame" : same as "experience".
    * "Food" : you get 2 Cauldrons of Broth and 5 Endless Bags of Wine.
    * "Gems" : gives 25 of each gem type, including astral (that's 175 gems for the price of 100 astral), but no slaves.
    * "Gold" : gives you 3000 gold pieces.
    * "Hero" you get a random hero from any race. The hero shows up as a normal unit, but loses his magic skills since he is not a commander (if you cast gift of reason on him, he still has no spells available). You cannot ask for a specific hero however.
    * "Magic power" : the caster gets +1 to all magic levels, up to 10.
    * "No starve" : same as "food"
    * "Population" : brings more pop (+20%) in a random province you control.
    * "Power" : the caster gets +20 strength, +10 attack, +10 defence, +10 precision, and +50 hitpoints.
    * "(Pretender name)" : you get that pretender, with default magic and abilities (Daughter of the Land gets gems, Moloch gets imp, Ghost King gets ghosts, etc).
    * "Provinces" : a couple of provinces just convert to be yours.
    * "Strength" : same as "power"
    * "Supply" : same as "food"
    * "Troops" : same as "army"
    * "Weapons" : get a random weapon artifact.

    nothing
    to die

    death match
    arena match
    arena game
    death game

    dominion
    divine power
    divine authority

    strength
    physic
    hitpoint
    hit point

    power
    magical power
    magic power
    magic skill
    magic master
    magic might

    ultimate power
    armageddon
    genocide
    world
    everyone
    everything

    slaves
    blood
    gems

    troops
    military
    army
    militia

    provinces
    lands
    large
    huge
    nation

    food
    supply
    supplies
    broth
    wine
    stop
    starv

    people
    populace
    enemies
    friends

    peasants
    commoners

    kill

    leader

    fame
    experience
    combat skill
    fighting skill

    artefact
    artifact
    something
    anything
    sword
    staff
    weapon

    gold
    money
    wealth
    riches
    silver
    copper
    dough

    		10.11.2 Wish for a Demon Lord

    You should wish for Lord of Corruption (Belial), Lord of Hell (Belphegor), Goat Sun (Buer), Lord of the Plague Wind (Pazuzu). They will all appear as non-commanders and you need to GoR them.

    Once you wish for the first one, it's better to wish for blood slaves and summon the others. You will summon them as commanders and wishing for blood slaves gives you 250 girls.

    -> Are the demon lords worth wishing for? A good use of a Wish?
    If you want a SC then not. If you want them for their magic paths, stealth, or some other ability (automatic heat from hell, seducing commanders) they might be.

    -> Belphegor also generates blood slaves automatically, so I would wish for him first.
    He's the premier Blood caster in the game since he can follow an army and cast blood magic without having to stop to hunt or transfer blood slaves.

    		10.11.3 Worthy artifacts to wish for

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    "Gate Stone" - For teleporting an army. Note, build an army good for cracking open castles and use the artifact to quickly take over enemy castles.
    "The Chalice" - Heals afflictions. Even on undead. Good for the tartarians.
    "Soulstone of the Wolves" - Free cast. Summon pack of stealthy wolves. The werewolf leader has a number of uses - among them auto summon wolves.
    "Hammer of the Forge Lord" - 50% discount on forging items. Try to give it to a four armed critter (like the Kailasa and Patala pretenders) together with dwarven hammer for 75% discount!
    "The Ankh" - In combat your (live) casualties will return as undead. Good usage includes:
    	--> Protect your brittle human troops and mages in big battles
    	--> Summon some bog beasts and compose an army with a bunch of priests.
    	Set the priest to sermon of courage.
    	Setup a controlled battle. Should be 5-10 rounds. You should win at the end. For example, summon ghost riders on the province that army is at.
    	The result, your priests would reanimate. Now they are upkeep free and can summon longdead warriors.
    	--> Do same for expensive mages. Now they are upkeep free.

    	10.12 Eternal Knights & Gift of Reason

    -> GOR the troops
    -> They are 0 upkeep
    -> They have 1000 exp. meaning they go to HoF and get heroic abilites
    -> Have flambeauxs -> eat undeads
    -> Caution, any item you give them you can't take back again

    -> Side note, other alternatives for GOR:
    Gargoyle. Tartarianns.
    Tarrasques. Iron Dragons
    Abominations
    Vastnesses
    angels
    Troll Guard (unit#1425):

    	Comes with Regeneration
    	All Slots available for items
    	No Penalty for entering the water
    	Lots of Hitpoints
    	Good default MR = 14
    	Only Size_4 allowing larger stupid decoys to be the target of kill spells.

    	10.13 Basic Battle Tactics

    	Article Author: Raiel

    Basic Battle Tactics

    This post is intended to be a compilation of strategies and ideas that new players will find helpful when setting up armies. The focus is on matching up mundane forces against independents, as is common in the first few turns (or more) of most games.

    Very few, if any, of these ideas are "original". Most have been gleaned from posts by the very generous and insightful veterans of this forum. I am NOT taking credit for these ideas, merely trying to string them all together and put them in one place for new players to reference. To the vets that have contributed the strategies: Thank you and please accept my apologies for not naming each of you!

    ..............

    		10.13.1 Abbreviations:

    HaA-C = Hold and Attack Closest
    HaA-R = Hold and Attack Rear
    HaA-A = Hold and Attack Archers
    A-C = Attack Closest
    A-R = Attack Rear
    A-A = Attack Archers
    F-C = Fire Closest
    GC = Gaurd Commander

    SBT = Stay Behind Troops

    ..............

    		10.13.2 Setup army

    Setting up a basic Army consists of four major decisions:

    * Group Composition
    "What type of unit will fill this group?"
    Consider carefully the points made by OmikronWarrior in post #7 of this thread when choosing which units to recruit.

    * Group Size
    Not just "How many units are in a group?", but also "How many squares, or portions of a single square, does this group fill?"

    * Group Placement
    "Where will this group start in relation to the rest of my army?"

    * Group Orders
    "What do I want this group to do?"

    Different combinations will yield groups designed for different roles:

    Line Holders are generally large groups (five squares or more) of good protection and/or good defense units. The higher the hit points and morale of the units in this group, the longer they will hold against the enemy. They will normally be placed "Front and Center" or behind Decoys. HaA-C, F-C, and A-C may all be legitimate orders for Line Holders. (But note that any Fire order will risk group cohesion; each unit will choose its own unit target in the target group.)

    Attack Squads are small groups (five squares or less) of melee-damage dealers. Attack squads should be placed in a line that will allow them to envelope the main force of the enemy with orders to: HaA-C, F-C, or A-C. Because of their small size, these groups will not "bunch up" against the enemy if they are properly deployed.

    Flankers are either small or medium groups of units placed off-center of the main forces with orders to A-R, A-A, HaA-R or HaA-A.

    Decoys are small groups meant to hold the attention of enemy groups in an effort to minimize damage received or maximize damage dealt to the enemy by controlling their movement on the battlefield. Place these groups so they will be closer to all of the enemy forces than the rest of your army. Orders should be HaA-C for stationary Decoys. Non-stationary Decoy groups should be given orders of GC and be capable of moving at least as fast as the enemies chasing them.

    Archer Decoys should have shields, if possible, and have 5 or more units in the group. If they do not have shields, consider using a single (size 2) unit and moving your whole force further back; at long range it's square will be missed by most archers and the few accurate shots will still have a 66% chance of missing (since only 2 out of 6 'spaces' in the square are occupied). Give this group orders to HaA-C or GC if the commander has adequate defense against incoming arrows (armor/shield or Air Shield). Place them so they will be closer to all of the enemy forces than the rest of your army. Archer decoys should be given a wide berth by the rest of your forces, both in initial placement and on the path to Guard their Commander, so stray shots don't inflict damage to other groups. Finally, morale may be more important than a shield, as an Archer Decoy that routes becomes a major liability.

    Pin Cushions are groups of cheap, easily replaced units with the sole purpose of taking damage that would otherwise be dealt to (much) more valuable units. Size and placement may vary greatly in response to the anticipated enemy forces.

    Archers shoot. Really. Just throwin' that out there.

    ..............

    		10.13.3 Battle Plans:

    Archer Pull

    Place your commander in the middle and very back of the field with orders: Holdx5-SBT. Place an Archer Decoy with GC orders in the middle of the field, just a little forward of center. Place Line Holders or Attack Squads on one side and to the rear of the Archer Decoy. Place Flankers far to the other side and to the rear of the Archer Decoy; give one flank orders to A-C or HaA-C while giving the other flank orders to A-A or HaA-A.

    Bait-And-Switch (Against Light Infantry)

    Mimic the Archer Pull in every way but one: Rather than Flankers, use javelin-equipped Attack Squads or Line Holders, and set every group but the decoy to F-C. Enemy javelins will never be thrown, but yours will...

    Left (Or Right) Draw

    Pick a side you want to draw the enemy toward. Place your commander on the chosen "draw" side at the very back with orders: Holdx5-SBT. Place a (fast) Decoy toward the front-middle with GC orders. Place a Line Holder in the center with HaA-C or in the middle back area with F-C. Place Flankers or Attack Squads opposite of the chosen "draw" side, about half-way forward from the middle. Note that this plan usually breaks up the enemy's formation and spreads them out in a bit of a line, leaving them less vulnerable to missile fire. Thus, orders of F-C to any non-archer units are often less than optimal.

    Gauntlet

    Place your commander in the middle and very back of the field with orders: Holdx5-SBT. Place a Decoy with GC orders in the middle of the field, very close to (or at) the front. Place Line Holders with HaA-C orders behind and on both sides of the Decoy, leaving enough room for the entire enemy force to (hopefully) pass between them. Archers may be used instead of Line Holders, but if the Decoy breaks or somehow loses the attention of the enemy the results will be... unpleasant.

    Wait-For-It

    The purpose of this plan is to give your units the first melee attack; it can take much practice to use successfully on different independent enemy types. Estimate how far the defenders will have advanced in 3 turns (a little more than half-way across your side of the field for Heavy Calvary), and place your line holders just out of reach with orders to HaA-C. Place Attack Squads with HaA-C to the left and right of your Line Holders to help envelope the enemy. If the enemy has Archers, place Flankers with orders to HaA-A on the far side(s) of the field.

    Sacrifice

    A plan based on the concept that a pyrrhic victory is better than no victory at all. Use a Wait-For-It or Draw setup with the addition of a Pin Cushion group in the path of the enemy. Especially useful against any units using a variety of lance, as lances get a one-time bonus to their first attack that can often kill even the most expensive unit. Don't forget to take into account the auto-route (75% HP loss) rule.

    ..............

    		10.13.4 Closing Thoughts:

    The plans above, if applied against the correct unit types and deployed carefully, will usually win with minimal casualties against similar numbers and quality of independent units. But something should be mentioned about the DRN (Dominions Random Number)... it is the Great Demon Murphy dice-incarnate. When (not if) your high-morale Archer Decoy routes it will probably leave you in a nasty situation. I warned you.

    Archers have their place in any of the above plans. Just be sure to keep them out of the path of your decoys and they make excellent force multipliers (unless your own units lack shields).

    These strategies need serious tweaking when used on the defensive; you take the first turn, which may change placement and what units get selected as targets by the enemy forces.

    Finally, the lack of plans to use against Elephants is glaring, but I've never found a mundane, available-to-all plan that reliably countered them with less than 20% losses. They make me angry.

    		10.13.5 Comments

    -> ano: You don't always need scripting your decoy to GC. HaA-C will work perfectly if you want your weak commander alive and just need to draw enemy to one side. Flankers set to A-A or A-R will crush archers and commanders once infantry goes to kill your decoy.
    As for elephants, tactics you called "Wait-For-It" is very important here. Independent elephants may be predicted while against good human opponent you usually need something more than good lineup. With elephants (as well as hydras) tactics of killing commander with flankers often works well.

    -> lingchin: I hardly ever have a problem with my elephants (though I do have problems sometimes with others elephants). I put them off to the flank, surrounding my H2 caster. Set them on hold and attack, while the H2 casts sermons of courage on them. Then, they attack rear. A holding force keeps the enemy busy in the center while this is done. Most of the time, the elephants actually get all the way to the rear commanders, or at least the archers, and wreak havoc.

    The sermon of courage gets their morale up to 12 (or higher, if they are experienced). That is usually good enough.

    -> OmikronWarrior: I've considered writing a 3,000 word article (meaning big, the exact number is unimportant) just on how to fight battles before mages are factored in. But I tend not to have the time and ultimately I doubt people would get a lot out of it as mages and SC's are so ubiquitous.

    I might as well give out some of the pointers.

    When choosing which troops to recruit:

    1) Margins matter. The difference of +2 defense might not matter for a thug, but it can make a noticeable difference when the guys upfront are exchanging blows. Now, if there exists an across the board advantage (attack, strength, hp, etc.), then you are cooking with gas.

    2) Zero Protection units die way to easily to be useful, no matter what the hp and defense stats. A protection of at least 10 is highly recommended unless the unit has correspondingly better HP. E.G. 20 HP for a protection of 7 and rising exponentially from there.

    3) Attack values less than 10 are trouble, as a successful defense check completely nullifies damage. Be sure to actually click the attack skill as the figure shown does not take into account weapon modifiers or dual weilding penalties.

    4) Units with two attacks are twice as nice, provided the attacks do not violate point 3.

    5) Strategic movement of 2 is very important, except on some custom maps with a lot of forests and mountains where the extra movement is lost anyways.

    6) Paying extra for the better unit is usually worth the investment as Dom3 combat tends to favor quality over quantity. The obvious exception is if the unit is expected to die quickly to enemy evocations. Then, by all means place some cheap decoys.

    7) Size, for meelee smaller is better. When up against AoE spells or other types of attacks, bigger is better.

    Other Advice:

    1) The engine has trouble handling archer/melee combo units such as LA Man's troops or javelin throwers. Set the unit to attack, and none will use their range weapon even if they are not in a position to meelee attack. Hold and Attack is similar, only they might use range weapons while holding if the enemy is in range. If you want a squad to do both, you really need to give it no orders. Alternatively, set them to just shoot closest. When a squad moves close enough, those on the front will move forward to engage in meelee.

    2) Typical archers are near useless against high parry and high protection troops.

    PS, these aren't corrections Raiel, just my own observations piggy backing on your thread.

    -> Twaqus: I'll also note that ultra-cheap low-prot units like militia or R'lyeh's freespawn cultists can be useful as lance absorbers; the heavy cavalry's initial charge can be quite threatening to even well-protected (and generally more expensive) troops.

    Other things to pay attention to --

    - If you have in mind particular spells, check their ranges...
    - Damaging auras. Friendly fire isn't.
    - Flyers essentially teleport, unless there's a storm going on, and some can even fly during storms.

    ->
    	10.14 Beyond the script

    	Article Author: IlluminatedOne

    Well, I flagged this as a guide but it really isn't one ... yet.

    I hope that I becomes a guide about the general usage of mages with the help of players more experienced than me.
    It is mostly aimed away from setting up good scripts towards understanding the other mechanics that influence spell casting and strategic setup.
    I think when you have your mages ready and know what you are facing it is pretty obvious what to script, also the AI will retain some level of control, even controlling everything after round 5, so generally it's more important to understand how to allocate your resources.
    I've added some things that I think I know and asked the questions I deem important.
    If you have an answer or addition to this or want to correct me, please do so.

    		10.14.1 Gem Usage

    Gem usage is controlled by the AI - if the AI does not deem the enemy army a threat it won't use gems. But now it gets complicated - how does the AI determine if the enemy is a threat (hp on the field, number of guys, or is there some real estimation of the enemies strength considering things like attack/defense/magical factor - a short sidenote: the coolest thing would be if the battle was played without gem usage first. If that is lost or casualties are high the battle is redone but now with gems. )?

    Also I think there are other factors taken into consideration. For example I'd like to use pairs of mages to get nice spell combinations going. However this doesn't work always, the first mages uses his gems, the second does not completely screwing the strategy. Maybe these are just my mistakes but it has happened to me several times and I've been double checking that all requirements are met. I'm really at a loss here.
    Friendly fire? Or is the enemy no longer considered dangerous after the first spell? Does the AI prevent the last mage from going unconsicious?

    Lastly what should the gems be used for?
    I think as there are only three types of battlefield spells (summons, buffs, large area) requiring gems the answers are easily given.
    Summons should mostly be used when facing thugs. Large area spells obviously waste their potential. Nature and death seem to be best to tie the thugs up while your mages deal the damage with cheap spells (or make them sleep). Elementals are best used when you can expect them to deal damage. If you can't it probably means your mages can't as well unless they have other paths.
    Against armies it's the other way round, 4 fire elementals will be cut down before they deal the same damage as a Flame Storm. If you need to tie the enemy up nature summons are good, though.
    Buffs are used when you have a large army present.
    What you use is mostly situational.

    		10.14.2 Resistance

    Another thing is that the AI will check for is resistance (if I'm not mistaken). If you are facing an army consisting of poison resistant units only your mages won't cast poison spells.
    However this seems to be more or less an all or none thing - in my tests just adding a single unresistant unit to a 100%cr army made the mages cast the scripted niefel flames.

    This should be kept in mind when surprising an enemy with resistant troops. Don't go all imune against your enemy's attacks because then the AI will just take over and use something that can hurt you. Sprinkle some units that are not immune into your army and laugh as the 30 AOE 200 fatigue spell kills only the bait.

    		10.14.3 After the script is done

    It's easy to test how a given spell works but it's nigh impossible to simulate any long realistic battles if you don't have the devotion to play against yourself.
    So here I, and maybe other newbies as well, are at a loss how to plan battles that go into the twentieth round or longer.
    It all comes down to this - how will the AI select spells?
    Is fatigue taken into consideration?
    Which is the preference for buffs, summons, self-buffs and damage spells?

    		10.14.4 Targetting

    How does the AI select suitable targets?
    I've seen the AI act quite weird here sometimes.
    Mages buffing themselves with weapons of sharpness is one example. Wtf, why? How to avoid this?
    Other things are:
    Are low damage big area spell directed at troops with high hp or with low hp given the same troop density?
    Are cloud spells directed at slow troops?
    What about 100 precision spells?
    I'd want my "snipers" to target enemy commanders, but this seems often not to happen. From what I've seen I think they target closer units first?
    Also is there a chance that they are aiming at a guy but hit someone else in the same square like missile weapons?

    		10.14.5 Paths

    The important question here is which loopholes do the paths have on the battlefield and how can they be closed in the lab if possible.

    	10.15 Vampires - you should be afraid of the night

    		10.15.1 original Article

    Article Author: Baalz

    I¿ve seen so many posts, even from several very experienced people about how much vampires suck. QM seems to drop their cost with every version of CBM and I honestly have yet to see anyone but me field them in a single game outside of Ulm¿s national summon which doesn¿t really count. People don¿t think about them correctly, I¿d like to explain how awesome vampires are once you realize how to use them.

    The thing you have to realize about vampires is they¿re very much like bees. You should not be thinking of them as an individual, you should be thinking of them as a colony. Each individual is almost pointless, you need a queen, and the queen is mostly pointless without a colony, and there is definitely a point of critical mass below which there¿s not much point in flying a bee at a bull. Once you line everything up though you¿ve got a terribly effective swarm that your opponent can¿t seem to swat or get his arms around which stings to death the biggest blundering bear to stumble into their hive.

    Your bee queen, usually, is the vampire lord. You can effectively use another unit as the queen, but it is stunning how well suited the vampire lord is and the effectiveness of your queen is generally a factor of how similar they are to a vampire lord. Now, the vampire lord can create free vampires, but even better he can cast blood rite which will build up your colony 10x faster. Unless blood slaves are very tight you¿ll want to spend the slaves to build up your colony to critical mass quickly. What critical mass is varies depending on what stage of the game you¿re in, what you¿re expecting to fight, etc. but very roughly about 50 vampires plus a queen bee is where you¿re going to look at as an entry level colony. Waiting around 50 turns for your vampire lord to build a free colony is *never* an option, realize that a vampire colony costs a couple hundred blood slaves before you start. That¿s ok though because all you need is one vampire lord with a skull staff and a good blood economy to summon everything else you need, so any blood nation with a helpful pretender can do this easily enough.

    Now, once you start thinking about this as a collective colony rather than an individual you start to get an inclining as to why I think they¿re so powerful. If I were to tell you that you had a blood summon who cost 200 blood slaves, but had a thousand hitpoints, 50+ armor piercing life drain attacks per round, regenerated, flew, was stealthy, immortal¿.oh, and was immune to single target spells like soul slay or petrify you¿d be b-lining to him like there was no tomorrow. That¿s the way you need to think about this colony, its one collective creature and just like most things in dominions your hitpoints heal after each turn, it¿s just easy to lose track of that because your hitpoints are spread among many discrete bodies. I almost skipped saying this because I think it¿s so obvious, but the vampire colony is a defensive weapon and you¿re *never* going to fight out of dominion so all your ¿killed¿ vampires show back up at your capital, reporting for duty at a cost of no more than the micro of shuttling them back to where the fighting is.

    Now, the reason people think vampires suck is essentially because they¿ve got no protection which means they¿re easy to swat. Well, so is a bee but it¿s got a vicious sting well out of proportion to its size. Vamps have a 13 strength and an armor piercing attack, and they fly - thus swarming around and surround smaller elite groups of units. How good this is scales up with how good the armor they¿re facing is  it¿s very good against good armor, it¿s phenomenally good against great armor. Against that buffed SC with a 30 protection they¿re applying their 13 strength against a 15 protection roll  assuming they don¿t get a critical hit because they¿re flying and swarmed over the poor guy in mid buff cycle who hasn¿t had time to deal with his fatigue. Their swarming nature also transforms their good attack skill into an overwhelming one. What, 11 is now a good attack skill? Again, you have to think of them differently than other units. Because they¿re immortal these guys perpetually build up stars. They won¿t be at an 11 attack (or defense) for long, I tend to think of them as having a 13-14+ attack/defense which is very nice, very nice indeed in a swarming unit who usually expects to have friends to the left and right.

    Sounds pretty good, right? But you¿re far from convinced, I haven¿t said word one to mitigate the reason people think vamps are sucky  that 0 protection and consequent quick death. Doesn¿t matter if they in theory can lay the hurt down if half of them die and the other half run away the first round of combat. Well, remember what I said just a little bit ago a swarm is nothing without their queen.

    When you¿re using this kind of swarm configuration realize that the queen is generally pretty safe. If the battle goes badly, 9 out of 10 times your flying vampire lord will successfully retreat and being stealthy and flying have no trouble making it back quickly to a friendly lab (particularly if you give him a couple vampire bodyguards). This is important because just like any great SC chasis you¿re going to want to equip the colony and you won¿t feel like your chucking magic items down the drain. Entry level here is a very modest skull staff, but you shouldn¿t be too scared to stick more equipment on him as it¿s usually pretty safe even if you¿re using the colony aggressively.

    Let me go back and reiterate before I go to the next section. The smallest vampire colony is about 50 vamps, one vampire lord and you need to give him a skull staff. This is not a *huge* investment (and indeed I¿ll show you how to effectively invest more), but this is where you hit critical mass  don¿t try this if you can¿t clear that bar. Critical mass is¿well, critical. You¿re also going to need a bit of extra research.

    The two base spells which your vampire colony should never have to fight without are rush of strength and darkness. Vampires are frickin¿ stalkers of the night, it¿s no wonder you¿re unimpressed if you make a habit of just flying them around at noon. Vampires fight in the dark  always! Now, just think about how your colony looks when we assume any significant fight occurs under these two spells.

    That 14 attack/defense starts looking immensely good when your opponents are halving their values and you¿re always swarming. Precision values are quartered so enemy archers and mages are now sporadically raining stuff down all over the place rather than concentrating, and your vamps have enough hitpoints to easily ignore a stray shot or two despite having no protection. The other side of that coin is that when using a lifedraining attack offense = hitpoints. You¿re swarming guys with halved defense scores using buffed armor piercing attacks  think you¿re gonna restore your hitpoints fast? Haha, you even raise your hitpoints above your normal maximum with lifedrain so unless you¿re getting whacked for 30+ damage per hit one lucky hit won¿t phase you (and it¿s only gonna be a lucky hit to land on your 14 defense when you¿re surrounded by other vamps and your opponent is using half his attack value). Oh, and remember when I said even the SC with the uber armor would be having lots of 13 damage rolls made against a 15 protection roll? I lied, it¿s actually always going to be 17 vs 15 (rush of strength). When you¿re talking about a swarm who easily clears the chaff then completely surrounds the SC this will certainly drop most tartarians, and I pity the non-darkvision angels or celestial SCs that ventures into vampire territory. Those are magic attacks boys and girls, so don¿t think your etherealness or mistform is gonna help, and your base morale of 15 gets + 1 for being in friendly dominion plus one for each star, so I wouldn¿t count on awe doing much.

    Did I mention this was the entry level vampire colony? An no, I¿m not talking about using other mages to drop army of lead or anything like that (though of course if you¿ve got it, by all means use it!). Let¿s take a look at how absolutely ridiculously nasty a good vampire colony can be with no external support at all.

    Now, there¿s not really too many things without darkvision that you¿ll ever have to do anything else to completely dominate from SCs to uber elites to batteries of artillery mages (who blast their own units as often as not in the darkness - you flew into immediate close combat and they can¿t find the end of their nose in the darkness. Guess who wins if everyone ¿dies¿?). Thing is there are so many more tools in your tool chest you¿ll never run out of things to toss in there as your opponent¿s deployments evolve.

    [As I start talking about specifics here I wanted to point out that these specifics are based on CBM. Everything is fully doable vanilla as well, though you¿ll have to work a little harder at some of it]

    So your opponent says ¿screw this¿ after you chewed up another of his big expensive armies and he hasn¿t permanently caused you a single casualty. He comes at you this time with undead of his own. Swarms of longdead. Legions of wights. ¿Go ahead,¿ he implies, ¿Drop darkness again. See if I care!¿. Meanwhile, you¿ve forged a ring of sorcery for your bee queen and a void eye.

    Now, there are some really fun combinations that open up in mixing blood and death, one of which is that soul vortex turns blood slaves into fabulous fatigue batteries. One of the nice implications of this is that by casting soul vortex and holding some blood slaves you can drop several spells which put you at 200 fatigue with just a turn or two between to suck the juice from your batteries who conveniently cluster around your passed out body. Your D3 vampire lord is now D5 with a staff and ring of sorcery with +3 penetration. Bring a bunch of d gems and blood slaves - soul vortex, undead mastery X 4. Once your vampire lord comes out the other side of that, assuming you haven¿t won yet the spellcasting AI is going to drop a steady stream of wither bones on any undead who were stout enough to still have troop blocks of any significance. Yep, that¿s wide area 18 AN damage with no MR check, so no worries about all those wights who scoffed at your undead mastery.

    Now at this point I also wanted to emphasize that a vampire colony works best as a steady investment. With a good blood economy it¿s not hard to summon 30+ vampires per turn so it¿s not much of a stretch to plan on having several hundred along with several queen bees at a reasonably early point in the game. This allows you to have several defensive squads under ¿normal¿ conditions meeting all your opponents forays with the massive strategic flexibility of flying combined with stealth, spreading all out and hamstringing him every time he turns around. As nasty as what I just laid out in the previous paragraph is, realize that in actuality if you¿re talking about a huge army of powerful undead your opponent invested heavily in you¿re going to have all your swarms working together for the big fight. One queen bee spamming undead mastery and several others spamming wither bones while hundreds of vampires swarm around tying up the opposition  it doesn¿t matter if they brought 10,000 longdead or 200 wights they¿re getting good and exploded. A vampire colony has nothing to fear from undead.

    ¿Alright,¿ your opponent concedes ¿that wasn¿t a very good idea. You kill the hell out of anything without darkvision, and you just stole my whole undead army from me. But I¿ve got it this time. SUCK DEMON!¿.

    Let¿s look at some more advanced tactics to handle one of the worst case scenarios  a huge swarm of mixed demons. Let¿s say your opponent has had mages spamming ritual of the five gates for years and you¿re looking at a huge mass of every demon imaginable. Or Lanka is knocking at your door with Palashankas stretching over the horizon. Has the vampire colony finally met its match? Now, it¿s true, demons are going to be one of the tougher things for a vampire colony to deal with, though the same can be said for most things facing those beasts. No worries, we¿ve got some more tools down here in this chest we haven¿t used yet.

    Now, if you¿re looking at fighting large numbers of some of the toughest units in the game, you really are talking late game so I¿m going to go ahead and assume we¿ve also built up a pretty respectable vampire colony. If you¿re talking about smaller numbers of demons you¿ll typically be facing midgame, just swarms of vampires with no particular support will typically do all you need as you should handily outnumber them and really concentrated blocks of units don¿t fare any better than SCs¿100+ vampires with rush of strength will chew up almost any smallish block of troops even if they take a lot of ¿casualties¿ doing so. So, what do you do about that really big army of demons though?

    Let¿s say your well developed vampire colony is actually pretty modest. 200 vamps and 3 bee queens (though it¿s not hard to imagine building up 500+ vampires over a couple game-years). I think you¿d agree that¿s a pretty low bar for battling all the fury that hell can dig up. Those 3 queen bees will be configured thusly: 2 of them have a skull staff and several D gems. One, a crystal matrix, a bunch of blood slaves and an evil grin. Again, about as modest as you can imagine, if everything goes tits up you¿re scarcely noting the gems you¿re out at this stage of the game while your troops reform for another try next turn.

    Deploy your troops thusly: all bee queens in one square, 10 vampires set to guard each commander (30 total). The rest of your vampires spread out in archer screen type formations to minimize hits from a presumed large block of lighting demons and enemy mages while you ignore the *hell* out of frost fiends. Set your guys to hold and attack large enemies. Your queen bees cast this:
    Turn 1: Sabaath slave X2, the master casts: summon hell power
    Turn 2: rush of strength, bloodletting, the master casts: bloodletting
    Turn 3: bloodletting, bone grinding, the master casts: reinvigoration
    Turn 4: bone grinding X3 (you don¿t have any slaves left at this point)

    How this should work out is like this. Your vampire bodyguards completely surround you keeping the horrors that pop up from having any chance of getting to you, while they handily dispatch said horrors (magic, AP attacks with a good attack score  also why you don¿t care about horror marking your bee queens. They¿re horror immune.). Before any bone grindings are cast each of your bee queens has cast bloodletting which is more or less a push as far as damage to each side goes, but supercharges your queen¿s hitpoints. Plus, your vamps are regenerating while the demons aren¿t so the advantage tips towards you. Then, the bone grinding starts. You¿ve only got one bone grinding going off before your vamps enter melee. You¿ll be doing equal amounts of damage to both sides (haha, stupid demons thought their high protection would help) but the important difference is that your vamps are laying down life drain damage and regenerating while the demons are not. Your vampire lords have supercharged their own hitpoints into the upper 40s so are unlikely to be brought down by the 4 separate 3 point AN attacks, but how many of the demons are that lucky? If you should happen to lose, plenty of demons will have been killed, plenty of the survivors will be crippled, and all of your vampires are reborn fresh. Worst case scenario is you¿re out the fairly cheap items you had on your bee queens, more likely they¿ll retreat leaving a decimated demon army.

    Now, as nasty as that sounds, it also sounds kinda iffy. I¿ll go ahead and fess up, I left a part out for dramatic effect. You¿re going to want to empower your vampire lords. Empowerments are very expensive, but they¿re also a very solid investment in an immortal unit, particularly one who is doing such heavy lifting. Now, as we¿re not talking about one particular nation here I wanted to be clear that there are huge benefits from empowering just once in most any path you¿ve got the gems to spare in.

    Consider how the above scenario vs the demon hoard would look if the master queen bee who gets + 2 from the hellpower, + 1 from the sabaath, plus one or two extra boosters (depending) had added just one of the following to the mix:

    Fog warriors
    Demon cleansing
    Will of the fates
    Army of lead (you¿ll want to skip the bone grinding¿s in this case and instead lay down rigor mortis)

    Heck, with the health gain you get from that life drain attack mass protection or quickening add an amazing amount of survivability, while things like firestorm can¿t damage you fast enough to matter. Add in further combos like grip of winter + rigor mortis or blood rain + winds of death + wailing winds (hint: routing + mass decaying = no need to cut off their escape route).

    Point is, one little empowering will go a very long way, and so long as you¿re not reckless in deploying your colony you¿re assured that investment will be paying dividends for the rest of the game.

    I also wanted to make it clear how fabulously flexible the strategic deployment is. Have you ever contemplated raiding Helheim? Looking at all those apparently empty territories that your scouts send word back about is nerve wracking, are you teleporting right on top of the anti-raiding squad? This is like that only more so  these guys FLY!. Where the hell are they? Not only do you not know, you can be sure they¿ll be zipping right over to the least convenient place before you know it. As if that wasn¿t enough, I¿d like to refer you to a seldom used spell  Stygian paths. It¿s seldom used because how often do you want to jump a big army into combat using a spell that¿s gonna kill an unknown number of them and damage many of the rest? Vampires are *perfect* for this spell though. Being stealthy they avoid much of the damage. Having high hitpoints and regen they¿re fine to fight after taking some light damage, and the few that die¿well, the damage occurs in the province you target, so as long as you¿re jumping into friendly dominion the two or three who die just show back up at your cap. Your vampire lords can cast this using just two boosters, so your strategic deployment options really are limitless. One note though, the movement for this spell triggers in the movement phase, not the magic phase, so unlike teleporting you can¿t use it to catch enemies before they move. Still immensely useful though.

    I wanted to finish up by emphasizing something which is so intrinsic to the vampire colony that it might be easy to lose the significance of. They¿re all immortal. As nasty as the stuff I just laid out is, realize that your opponent has to fight that fight every couple of turns even if he manages to win. Swatting at the bee stings is pointless, there is a literally never ending stream of these guys swarming from your capital perpetually. That is the true strength of the vampire colony, as tough as they are they can easily take down anything even tougher by doing what vampires do  bleeding them.

    		10.15.2 Comments

    -> Vampire lord is also a best prophet possible  after prophetizing he turns from just a thug/support mage into a great SC.

    There are easy ways to counter vampires though. Evo and anti-undead mages surrounded by chaff have great chances to destroy the entire pack in one turn even in darkness, not to mention that getting a dv mage is not harder, than getting a VL. VL has low MR and could be easily mindhunted, and without gear he can't survive a single earth attack  so sending a "queen" without decent backup means a certain decapitation of your pack. As for SCs  any SC with the vine shield and enough hp/def/prot/luck to survive the first round of swarm attack, easily sends them all to torpor.

    Vampires are handy of course, but the best application of them  defensive anti-sc VLs with flambergs/demon banes/etc and immortal chaff to protect your mages from flyers.

    -> Excellent guide, though assuming you'll be hanging onto flying in any major battle is somewhat optimistic. You also mention undead mastery without any reference to its value as probably the best possible counter against your vamps, and thus something to watch out for in a major way. 15 MR on the normal vamps isn't nearly enough to reliably resist the exact tactic you advise using (vortex/mastery spam) and this strikes me as a major oversight in an otherwise excellent guide.

    Oh, and to quickly touch on why they are so often overlooked: Defense is < offense. If you've got enough spare resources to blow on a pure defensive force you're generally better off using it for something you can go hit things with instead. I think some sort of dom-pushing ability is pretty key to really leveraging your vamps to maximum value. (And if you're just building up it might be advantageous to opt for making more lords over more chaff, as they can help blood hunt, research or summon allies during peacetime...the chaff is vital, as mentioned, but all you can really do with it if no one is in your dominion is patrol)

    -> That's just not true unless your opponent is just outmaneuvering you all over the place. If you're using them defensively then you should have a good idea what you're dealing with, and even if not you're only out a little time to redeploy much more effectively for round two. If you know what your opponent has and you still let a little old vine shield stop you I don't have a whole lot of sympathy. Lets see...

    Life for a life - anything which is not lifeless or having ridiculous hitpoints will be splattered before you know it.

    Drain life - oh, there are lots of people with vine shields? That's ok, you take your time chewing through the swarm I'll keep-a-sniping until you're all gone.

    Disintegrate - Oh, you are lifeless? Well, lets just see how many MR rolls this takes.

    And to answer your next objection...Oh, I'm sorry, you brought a fire brand with the idea that you're going to chew through my swarm quickly....did I forget to mention that I threw some lifelong protections on my vampire lords (a great addition to the swarm). How many times do I get to cast disintegrate/drain life now? I do believe the answer is "until you are dead".

    Earth attack - after the very first time you kill my vampire lord (as in use a powerful earth mage and some gems to send my guy back home for a turn) I'll start attack, then sneak, attack, then sneak meaning you're unable to target me with the earth attacks. As to the mind hunts, the vampire lord's MR is 17 (under the dreadfully bad assumption that I don't throw a armor of souls and amulet of MR on him) so how many pearls are you spending exactly to check the (several) vampire lords I have running around without ever actually killing any of them?

    Yes, good points. As with anything in dominions there are certainly good counter and I can't think of a better one. 15 MR is a non-trivial resistance to undead mastery though, even assuming your antagonist has the indubitable +5 penetration or so it's "MR easily resists" so you've got a +4 to resist it, meaning that he'll not be snatching "all" the honey, particularly as you can get into a nice little tug of war over them. Certainly not the ideal situation, but nothing should be immune to everything!  Plus, there are plenty of times you're fighting a nation quite unlikely to be able to cast undead mastery.

    As to the offense vs defense, anybody familiar with my playstyle knows I agree with you, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good idea to deploy your resources on purely defensive measures so long as you're getting a good enough effectiveness for the price to overcome the natural benefit of the best defense being a good offense. That is to say, if a gem spent on defense counters 10 that are spent attacking it then that's the way to go with some of your resources. So, I guess my point is its not always a bad idea to invest in defense if you get really good ones for pretty cheap.

    PS, yep, dom pushing is great. Particularly because many of the nations who would be looking at using vampires can also blood sacrifice.

    -> I'd actually batted around the idea of vamp hordes from MA Marignon for awhile based largely on what's in this thread.

    It seems like an odd choice, but you've actually got a few key things going for you. First and maybe foremost, you've got some of the best dominion control around. Stealthy preachers and inquisitors, stone idols forged for your high stealth spies while they cause their own havoc are a few of the cool tricks available. This gives you a good chance to push your dominion on offense and anything you take with non-vamp troops can be flipped almost immediately by the ensuing inquisition. Getting started in blood isn't too hard for you since you can take a fountain of blood to pop out SDRs for your dirt cheap friars. It'll take several of them per province, but once you get started you can free them up to go stealth preach and facilitate your offense. Astral and blood also have very nice synergy in communions and Marignon's got some of the biggest astral chops around. It's a minor side benefit, but getting into blood with Marignon means boots of youth for your old fogey casters. Marignon's mages also do well under darkness, with astral fires for 100 prec AoE and incinerate for single target obliteration. If you play around with hell power, it should also be noted that you can toss out horror marks and then incinerate any horrors left standing at the end.

    Finally, you're provided with wonderful counters to the biggest things plaguing vampires: astral lets you whip out antimagic for undead mastery and any undead/demon horde wanting to play under the cover of darkness with you? Well, you're freaking Marignon. Those demons can, quite literally, take their ball and go the hell home.

    -> Once you prophetize your vamp, give him a amr and lead shield astral cap - mr is 28 or so. Its not beyond the realm of possibility either that he will be returning the undead mastery favor.

    Vamps have so many great tools.

    Lamashtas, retreat.
    Summon Hell power.

    Give him a Black Heart.

    However Baalz you are a bit off on one thing:

    Vampire lords thrall freespawn will always give away position. So while the opponent may not be able to hit you while you are sneaking - he knows where you are.

    -> Nope, only Ulm's national summon make thralls

    -> No, you won't lose all your vamps to a mastery casting, but you're gonna lose about 20% of your horde per casting to someone with decent penetration. These traitor vamps will last for all of 1 spellcasting phase before being slaughtered by their former buddies since they're completely surrounded, so there's not going to be much of a tug of war even if you're firing off your own UM casts, just pure losses.

    This isn't to say vamps are worthless, they're actually quite good at specific roles, but this is a gaping hole in the strat that needs to be plugged by AoL or antimagic in any serious engagement, and I think that leaving it out of the guide was a significant oversight that I wanted to address.

    On the offense/defense debate it really depends on your position. In most cases when you're in a good position in the game you're able to dictate where major battles are fought (your victim's homeland), and thus have little need for defense, regardless of the value you can get for it. When you're overwhelming an opponent (and remember, fair wars are for suckers) the most you'll have to worry about is a few raiders which are generally better countered by spells than troops. On the other side of the coin, once you're being beat on by a larger opponent you're generally hard pressed to keep your blood flowing, and it's a bit late to invest in the vamp factory. So outside a scenario when you can dom-push well they're best in situations when you'll be fighting an even battle, or when you're expecting to get beat up by a larger opponent but have time to prepare. Neither of these comes up all that often, but when they do vamps are one of the perfect units to do some damage with.

    -> Tolkien is spot on! Bite and hold is the melody of LA Ulm, and you have everything you need to do it:

    *Strong castles with production bonus

    *Strong and sturdy, gold cheap infantry (meaning less upkeep allowing garrisons) with castle defence bonus.

    *Inquisitors

    *Vampires

    *Freespawns patrollers, keeping enemy spies out and your own people in check whilst you bloodhunt or tax them hard.

    *Stealthy astral infiltrators for that unsuspected surgical strike when the enemy is tied up with the above.

    *Stealthy rangers and villains to harass the enemy borders or retake land behind his advancing army.

    -> Claws of _____ hurts this strategy badly, as immortality doesn't seem to protect against imprisonment, and claws of _____ tends to target higher-HP units (such as the vampire lords)

    I'm also curious to see how well this does against other strategies that specialize in attrition- such as massive, cheap buffed swarms (undead are especially nice against vampires as far as combat goes...)

    -> Very fine material. Thank you Baalz for another great guide.

    Your guides are far more than a dried up articles about how to this or that. They actually capture the imagination and make you want to try the shiny new toys you describe

    Couple of comments:
    1. I 2nd Micah's comment regarding undead mastery and wanted to add that there are a bunch of spells that will mess badly with your strat.i.e. DtD/wither bones spam, solar brilliance, master enslave, Purgatory. Worst are the enslave spells that will just steal your vamps.

    2. Storm will kill the vamps flight. No more swarming the buffing SCs. An example: Imagine 3-4 colonies getting cloud trappezed by a mage squad. One carries the SoS, first turn the vamps start crawling towards them and the lords cast their B/D spells. Then the mages go and cast undead mastery/master enslaveX(# of mages -1), last mage casts VoR. Voila, I just stole (some/most of) your precious vamp

    Personally when I see an opponent in MP that has tons of Vamps running around I start to think hey, here's someone who won't stray away from his dominion and then I start making builds for undead mastery.

    	10.16 Unrest as weapon of war

    Article Author: Wraithlord

    I consider the tactic of raising unrest in enemy castles and mainly in capital to be a good opening move to a war.
    The advantage of this is that you can lay all the groundworks secretly.
    You place your spies using stealth and prepare your research, gems and mages for casting multiple times any of the spells below:
    Raging hearts (produces 60 unrest - it is the most effective remote unrest spell and one of the most cost-effective fire rituals).
    Rain of Toads (- by 40)
    Baleful star (- by 30)
    Hurricane (- by 25)
    Locust swarms (- by 20)
    Blight (increases unrest by 15)

    Now on first turn of war or one turn earlier tell all your spies in enemy castles to raise unrest.
    Cast the remotes (they are annonymous).
    Now enemy castle production and income is sht down. If he is capital centric he will be badly hurt!
    Next turn, get your spies to new targets as he's sure to come patrolling. Heavily. Which is good b/c any troops or mages he uses for that could have been used against you.

    	10.17 Minimum dominion?

    11. Troubleshoot

    	11.1 Command line

    		11.1.1 Why doesn't my command line parameters apply?

    		It happens b/c dominions stores previous CLI configuration in a file, dom3config
    		rename or delete that file and your parameters will appy.
    12. Utilities

    	12.1 Battle Simulators

    		12.1.1 new Battle Simulator map

    Article Author: Gandalf Parker

    http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=662197#post662197

    I was testing something (castle ownership) and realized that I had not made the new version of my BattleSim public.
    So from the MAPs link on www.Dom3Minions.com ....

    This is a better version of my Battle Simulator map. BattleSim_v3.zip
    Its a very tiny 10 province map providing the variety of terrains. Editing the ascii text file of BattleSim_v3.map makes it easy to set two nations next to each other with specific armies so that you can test tactics or how the game does things. And then you can either quickly easily start another game with the same settings to see if the results are the same, or edit the .map file to some small change to see if that makes a difference.

    Here is a link to a quicky-reference list of map commands.
    http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/map_qref.txt

    There is a very complete file in the dominions3/doc directory on your machine
    (thank-you Edi for the great work on that)

    Question:
    "
    Can you please give a quick and dirty tutorial of how to use your map for say simulating MA ULM vs. Abysia and set like two huge armies one for each side?
    Is it possible to control research levels for allowing mages to cast until certain level in certain schools?
    Is it possible to assign items to mages?

    TIA,
    	WL
    "

    Answer:
    "
    Sure. I wont do like others and tell you its simple and read the manual.
    Id rather show you that its simple.
    Insert this into the BattleSim .map file:
    (stuff after - is just comments and can be left out)

    #specstart 31 4 - start Ulm in mountains
    #specstart 37 10 - start Abysia in nearby mountains
    #land 8 - wipe out the nearby swamp

    #setland 4 - say where the next lines are for
    #owner 31
    #commander 114 - additional Commander of Ulm
    #units 20 67 - 20 infantry of Ulm to him
    #units 20 79 - 20 Pikeneers to him
    #units 20 67 - 20 infantry of Ulm to him
    #units 20 79 - 20 Pikeneers to him
    #commander 113- Lord Guardian
    #additem "Pendant of Luck"
    #units 20 66 - 10 Guardians assigned to him

    #setland 10 - say where the next lines are for
    #owner 37
    #commander 119 - additional Warlord
    #units 20 81 - 20 infantry of type 81 to him
    #units 20 82 - 20 infantry of type 82 to him
    #units 20 81 - 20 infantry of type 81 to him
    #units 20 82 - 20 infantry of type 82 to him
    #commander 214 - Beast Trainer
    #additem "Pendant of Luck"
    #units 10 213 - 10 Salamanders assigned to him

    	Now start a game with that map, join as Ulm and Abysia.
    	Set the formations and scripts. Then have both armies meet in the nearby swamp
    	(I cleared out the local defense so you can see just those two battle).

    	Now start a new game with the same map, change formations, do it again.

    	Or edit the .map for new items or new troops, start a game and do it again.

    ->
    I got the nation numbers off this list...
    http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/nations.txt

    I got the unit IDs by starting a game. Examine a unit then hit Shift-I to see the ID numbers screen.

    Or you can use Edi's great database. or Ballbarians online Dom3Reference

    "

    "
    	12.2

    13. Dominions III general, non-nations guides

    	13.1 Zen and the art of Thugging

    	Article Author: Baalz

    		13.1.1 Article

    Taking a break from my usual M.O. of writing nation guides I decided to delve into some more general overall strategy applicable to all nations. Much like my communion guide this is intended to give you the theory and some tools with which you¿ll hopefully be able to do interesting things far beyond what¿s specifically spelled out here. This isn¿t anything revolutionary, but hopefully this will be helpful to some people and I do think even the more experience players tend to get set in their ways and miss some opportunities to field different things.

    Alright, everybody knows about the super combatants. Stick a couple artifacts on a tartarian and presto you¿re carving up the countryside. This is true, but not terribly interesting from a design point of view. What I¿m more concerned about is using tanks at a much earlier point, and in particular with a minimum of cost. It¿s almost always better to field 2 guys which are each 90% as effective as the one guy for the same price and fielding them in year two is not even in the same ballpark as fielding them after you¿ve got multiple level nine spells researched (and your opponent has equivalent counters). You could probably argue all day about what the difference is between a thug and a SC and I¿ve got no interest in doing that. Suffice to say I¿m focused on economical killing machines with things we can cludge together early rather than the top of the line jet fighters with all the bells and whistles.

    Before we start talking about specifics I wanted to clearly define the target we¿re shooting for. The ideal thug is one that¿s about 98% effective and doesn¿t cost one gem or gold more than it needs to. Cost is almost the most important factor in thugs, the whole point is to field something which gives you the most bang for the buck possible and that¿s a whole lot easier if you spend less bucks. Now, cost is a terribly relative thing and I wouldn¿t imagine to give cost targets. Is a Niefel jarl equipped with a frost brand more expensive than an Ulmish black lord fully loaded with lots of equipment forged at half price? It¿s a pointless question because Niefelheim can¿t get black lords and Ulm can¿t get giants. The question you should be asking is ¿what¿s the most cost effective thing I can field, given this nation, this gem supply, this research, and that expected opposition?¿ It¿s not always a single answer, you might field one thug with your fire gems and a totally different one using mostly pearls. Designing a good and efficient thug is one of the best aspects of dominions, let me share how I generally go about it.

    			13.1.1.1 *crowd control*

    Thugs come in many different flavors. The primary characteristic of a crowd control thug is that ¿normal¿ troops (whatever that means for your particular situation) can¿t damage him fast enough to kill him, and his secondary characteristic is that he lays out enough damage that he can carve through at least moderate amounts of troops before the turn limit runs out. Generally they¿re used for raiding or indie clearing, though they certainly can be valuable additions to a larger army. Let¿s look at the damage outlay first.

    Many people consider a frost or firebrand a necessity for a thug, and might condescend to look at a snake bladder stick or demon whip if they must. Well, these are all generally effective and there is a reason they¿re staples, but there¿s no reason to limit yourself to them. Does your thug chasis have a second attack (a hoof, a bite, etc.)? A high strength? A 0 encumbrance? How about a high magic path? All of this can often be translated into an offensive punch sufficient to go through the medium resistance these guys are intended to confront.

    As a general rule of thumb being reasonably sure to kill 30-40 humans over 50 turns is often enough to accomplish this task (depending, of course, on what you¿re attacking). Remember, you don¿t need to kill them all, just enough to start those morale checks, which they¿ll eventually fail. Once you realize how low this bar is you start realizing that as nice as the brands are they¿re often a bit overkill for what you need. Why spend 10 gems on a fire brand when your guy has a nice bane blade and high strength at default? Would an axe of sharpness or a serpent kryss accomplish the same thing for half the price and be more easily forgable? How about slapping on a horned helm or dancing trident? Don¿t limit yourself to the staples and tons of options start opening up for whatever gems you happen to have in surplus. Trampling is great, so long as you¿ve got a zero encumbrance. More than that and it¿s practically impossible kit yourself economically to handle the fatigue you¿ll rack up.

    			13.1.1.2 Point blank combat spells

    Another thing people tend to overlook is the very effective and very low fatigue point blank combat spells. If your intended thug has a 3 or 4 in one magic path without crippling spell casting encumbrance chances are he has a very effective point blank spell the AI will be kind enough to cast 50% of the time in melee if you just leave him scripted to ¿cast spells¿. Shock wave and immolation are the flagships, but don¿t overlook fists of iron, hand of death, cold blast, acid spray, & leeching touch. Really only astral and nature lack enough punch to lay some serious damage down as long as you¿re gonna be at short range anyway. The fatigue on these spells is so low and damage output so high that you can often count on simply routing your opponents before fatigue is an issue. Of course cheap reinvig is even better, so consider this angle for your earth bless, anybody who can summon earthpower and also consider investing 5 gems in boots of the messenger or a battle saint shroud rather than a weapon. Note, if you¿re using this sort of tactic it¿s important to be aware what the AI is going to try to cast by testing it out. If not having ie raise skeletons researched leaves open a useful thug for you it might be worthwhile to focus your research elsewhere for awhile.

    			13.1.1.3 Desired attributes

    				13.1.1.3.1 Fear

    Special consideration goes to a fear aura. As your whole goal is likely to route PD you don¿t care how many you kill, you just want the buggers to run. Fear auras cause morale checks, and it doesn¿t have to be a big fear aura. Fear-0 is often the only weapon you need to route PD¿you¿re gonna cause close to 50 morale checks and PD doesn¿t have great morale so they¿re gonna miss one of them. Feel free to terrorize them with that useless kick.

    Finally, consider that it¿s often a better idea to double up your thugs rather than equipping them better. If your damage output is too low and your opponent is pumping up his PD, but another thug is cheaper than a fire brand¿well just make sure you weigh your options before going with the default.

    By now you¿ll probably see my point that damage output can be almost inconsequential for this type of thug. The tricky part is being pretty sure that after 50 rounds of a whole lot of guys whacking at you you¿re still standing. There¿s several ways to accomplish this, and ideally you¿ll combine more than one, but never forget our goal is to pay for only exactly as much as we need.

    				13.1.1.3.2 Fatigue

    Before I get into hitpoint preservation I wanted to discuss fatigue. Fatigue is the downfall of many a newbie thug swinging their quickened self into a coma. After their initial blunders many people consider getting their reinvig to equal encumbrance the whole issue and don¿t give fatigue another thought. This misses several subtleties which should be considered for optimal thugging.

    The first thing you need to consider is that merely keeping yourself from climbing to 100 fatigue and passing out isn¿t enough. The chance of critical hits rises with your fatigue, as your defense drops. This nasty one-two punch means that a thug who would easily wade through the chaff consistently dies with a fatigue of 50. This is a very important consideration for thugs who self buff as this lands them in the first round of combat with a heaping of fatigue even if their encumbrance is low and can often mean it¿s just a matter of time until somebody gets a good roll and chops their head off. Fatigue is so important it¿s often a better idea to skip one or two of the self buffs you thought you wanted and instead meet those pitchfork waving peasants refreshed and ready for mayhem. It¿s also not a bad idea to consider giving reinvig to zero encumbrance guys who plan to self-buff for this reason.

    Another thing to consider on fatigue is external things which cause fatigue. Heat/cold auras, stellar cascades, grip of winter, etc. Having a strong reinvigoration is not going to make you immune to this by a long shot, but it can make you considerably resistant if you¿re working with an army and not being focused on. Having several thugs resistant to everything (but immune to nothing) laying in the bodyblows while your mainline troops take the licks is a great tactic.

    Finally, consider the opposite angle, it¿s not always necessary to mitigate your encumbrance at all. If you¿ve got a 3 encumbrance and hit like a ton of bricks without self buffing, you can often just count on squishing everybody before you need to worry about tiring out. Adding quickness in this situation can make a lot of sense as well, which is something that is often the bane of thugs with non-zero encumbrance.

    				13.1.1.3.3 Hitpoints

    So, finally we get to the most obvious way people are going to try to kill your thugs, hitpoints, and I¿ll start with the most straightforward way to protect them  protection. Protection is your last line of defense and a factor that you¿ll want to carefully consider for most thugs. Even if you¿re focusing primarily on other methods of hitpoint preservation, protection is important because it¿s going to change that one lucky hit from a catastrophe to a scratch. The amount of protection you¿re gonna need is obviously going to vary quite a bit, but most of the time you¿ll want to aim for at least 20 (don¿t forget your helmet!). This will put you in the range that a hit from most ¿normal¿ troops will have to be pretty lucky to damage you. Note: protection alone is almost never enough to keep you alive by itself no matter how high it is. This is because you¿ll obviously be taking a *lot* of hits, and even with 0 fatigue you have a small chance of taking a critical hit which will halve your proctection. An awesome 30 protection is then just a nice 15 and not all that hard to puncture by a human wielding a spear. Trust me, it¿ll happen with more regularity than you want to replace your thugs.

    				13.1.1.3.4 Reducing attacks

    This leads to the next concept: successful thug preservation is all about reducing the number of attacks you take. Dominions uses open ended dice rolls, and that means no matter how good your defenses are, if you get attacked enough times you¿re gonna take it in a place you¿d rather not. Increasing your protection is a diminishing return prospect, at some point it¿s a much better idea to focus on stopping those attacks from ever occurring. This is really the very heart of what makes a thug more so than anything else. The primary ways this is accomplished are awe, etherealness, luck, and a vine shield, though there are some more exotic avenues like blood vengeance. Each of these options shines in different situations but generally it¿s not possible to make a crowd control thug without one of them. Certainly their effects stack beautifully together and having two or more is generally enough to guarantee successful thugging (assuming you satisfy the other requirements).

    Reducing attacks is critical to your second line of defense, um, defense. Defense is great, it¿s not hard to get a hero with a high one who can parry an incoming attack with easy. Problem is each attack drops his defense for the next attack in the same round by 2. Doing a little math, surrounded by man sized guys on 5 sides means the last guy is stabbing at you with a +30 to his attack. How high was your defense again? Fortunately, attack reducers come to our aid. If awe prevents half the guys from attacking, and our high defense blocks most of the rest then there¿s not many who get to try for a lucky roll to punch through our armor. Because awe and vines prevent attacks from happening and thus dropping your defense (unlike etherealness or luck), vine shields and shields of beaten gold are staples that are much harder to replace than brand weapons. Still, give special consideration to anybody who has natural awe, there¿s a good chance you can leverage that into extra economical thugging.

    Hitpoint preservation is a big give and take. The more defense you have, the less protection you need. The more attack nullifiers you have, the less defense you need. There¿s another couple factors that go into the same pile: the more hitpoints you have the less of everything you need, and the more regen you have the less hitpoints you need.

    				13.1.1.3.5 Mistform

    Before going on I wanted to touch on a wonderful little spell that opens the doors to thugging to many guys who would otherwise be too fragile - mistform. Every thug (unless you¿re spending way too much on them) is going to take an occasional hit, and without mistform it¿s a pretty good bet that human hitpoint guys are going to at least take an affliction if they don¿t straight buy the farm. Mistform though allows those low hitpoint humans to slug it out as if they had tons more hitpoints than they do, it¿s the first way to synthetically gain hitpoints for a unit. In light of what I just said in the previous paragraph this is usually the difference between being able to make a cost effective thug or not -. without sufficient hitpoints the bar (and cost) is a lot higher on avoiding hits.

    				13.1.1.3.6 Regeneration

    The second way to synthetically gain hitpoints is regeneration. Look at it this way, if you were to consistently take 1 point of damage every round, while having one point of regen, well then your regen effectively gave you an extra 50 hitpoints over a 50 round battle. That¿s a drastic gain for a 15 hitpoint Vanjarl or Sidhe. This has an amazing synergy with mistform which conveniently enough makes your hits all cost a consistent 1 hitpoint so as long as you can keep from getting hit more than once per turn on average you¿re golden. I¿ve had many people question the efficiency of investing in a minor nature bless on lower hitpoint units, but examined in this light you can see why this is so powerful.

    Of course the same logic applies to units without mistform¿s synthetic hitpoints but more real ones. A Skratti werewolf regenerating 6 hitpoints per turn will potentially gain a whopping 300 hitpoints in a long fight, you can imagine how this starts looking when you stack more regen up. High regen is one of the seldom appreciated and used facets of thug preservation. Most know how hard it is to bring down that water queen regenerating 50+ hitpionts per turn, but few apply that elsewhere  a more modest 10 hitpoint regeneration is still incredibly hard to get on top of by ¿normal¿ units combined on an already tough thug. One of my favorite SCs was an elemental earth king with hydra skin armor and a ring of regen. When I watched him wade through anti-SCs shrugging off the 30 or so damage which penetrated his protection every turn I fell in love with this strategy. There¿s several ways to get regeneration, and I believe every one of the stacks. Natural regeneration, a blessing, hydra skin armor, ring of regen, lycanthrop¿s amulet, and a spell buff (self or other).

    				13.1.1.3.7 Life drain

    The final way to synthesize hitpoints is life draining attacks. These are fabulous as they not only gain you hitpoints they also drop your fatigue. This two for one special is one of the best things for thugs  except it¿s rare and often too expensive to be economical. Still, if you¿ve got blood slaves to burn on blood thorns, or a national summon with a natural life drain attack (say a civateteo or umbral) give it special consideration for thugging. Wraith blades and hellblades are, unfortunately, seldom cost effective. When using life draining attacks you mostly don¿t need to worry about fatigue at all, so stack that quickness on. Do be aware that you won¿t be able to drain the life from lifeless units, so be careful about running into skellispam if you¿re reliant on this to keep your fatigue down.

    				13.1.1.3.8 Flight

    Don¿t neglect the advantages of flying in a crowd control thug. Not only does this allow drastically better strategic deployment, it also allows them a much greater chance of fleeing if things go bad. Often, the equipment is the most expensive thing about a thug, so even if he gets greatly afflicted it¿s often much better if he can run off to pass the equipment onto a fresh chasis and retire to research or something.

    				13.1.1.3.9 Stealth

    Stealth is another attribute that bears special consideration. Because of the way the turn sequence resolves, stealth units go under cover before ritual spells go off. Combined with the fact that most spells won¿t hit stealthed units this means used cautiously (attack, then sneak, attack, then sneak) stealth thugs can be extremely hard to counter. Seeking arrow, earth attack, disease demon, teleporting responses, etc. just can¿t catch them. The one exception is mind hunt which does catch stealthed units, mind hunt is really pretty much the best anti-thug spell in the game.

    				13.1.1.3.10 Resistance

    Another consideration you want to make for your thugs is resistances. Resistances can make a solid thug almost invincible against the right opponent. Being frost and lighting immune is a serous pain to Caelum. Being fire immune cuts way down on the things abbysia can drop on you. Consider what counters your opponent is likely to use and it is often worthwhile to put an extra item or two on your thug. In general I don¿t like to invest in MR buffing items for thugs, preferring instead to invest in more thugs and trying to avoid putting them in situations where they have to make that roll. This goes right to the heart of what it means to be a thug, they should be fairly expendable and trying to bump up their MR can often double or triple their cost. Of course, there¿s nothing for it in some situations except to suck that up, but it¿s not where I aim by default.

    				13.1.1.3.11 blood vengeance

    I also wanted to talk about blood vengeance. This is a rare ability (or buff) that causes a bit of confusion. The way it seems to work is that once you¿ve been hit the blood vengeance is checked to see if damage is rolled against you or your attacker. This means that blood vengeance has a poor synergy with high defense and attack nullifiers like awe or etherealness because they negate the hit before it gets to the blood vengeance. BV has a great synergy with high protection and high regeneration and things like fire shields or eye shields you take just a little damage you regenerate while everyone around you keeps hitting themselves in the face.

    			13.1.1.4 Buffing

    Finally, I wanted to talk about buffing. Many spells are standards for thugs from earthpower to gain reinvig to invulnerability or mistform to that yummy soul vortex. As I mentioned in the fatigue section you really need to balance the benefit of any buff against the drag of the fatigue it bestows in light of the reinvigoration you have. It¿s seldom a good idea to lay down 5 buffs then attack, you¿ll often want to lay down a couple then rest a couple turns before attacking. Also don¿t forget that most buffs can be bestowed by a mage onto another. This can often open up doors to thugging which are not obvious, a cheap tower shield is often all it takes to make a mage archer-proof enough to lay a couple buffs down and retreat while the beefy guy runs forward with 0 fatigue. Note: you¿re mage is going to have to be tough enough to fend for himself against flankers if he intends to hang around which often of defeats the point of having a separate thug, but some mages can handle it. Also don¿t forget that berzerking units will fight on after their leader leaves. Have a guy guard commander and the last buff the mage lays is berserkers and presto that iron warrior¿ed, ethereal non-leader is now chewing threw everything there without the need of any equipment or a gift of reason.

    			13.1.1.5 Examples

    So, as a practical exercise let me list out a couple concrete examples using the theory laid out here. All costs assume one dwarven hammer was used and everything created on the same turn¿for no particular reason other than to tilt the tables towards good budgeting. Yes, everybody knows a bane lord with a fire brand and vine shield, lucky pendant and horror helm works. Let¿s see what else we can do with a little bit of creativity and a lot less resources. To head off all the ¿but¿but¿but¿s I¿ll preface this by saying obviously everything would need to be tweaked in light of what you expected to face, these are just some general ideas.

    Good example of an extreme budget thug:
    A Jomon ghost general equipped with a shield of beaten gold. Cost: 11 gems. The ghost general immediately catches your eye in light of what we¿ve been discussing. He¿s ethereal and has a fear aura, has good armor and hitpoints and like all undead he¿s cold immune with a 0 encumbrance. He is undead which opens up several counters, but still an outstanding value. His strength is 16 so the punch he¿s throwing isn¿t completely worthless, but the real charm is the fear aura will usually be all he needs to run off PD.

    Good example of a great thug:
    A Mictlan civateteo equipped with a vine shield & any decent armor & helmet. Cost: 25 slaves and about 17 gems. Like the ghost general she¿s ethereal with a fear aura. Unlike him she¿s got a life draining attack and self blesses and is stealthy. It¿s not like Mictlan is likely to have a good bless or anything¿. Adding a lucky pendant and flying boots are nice options if you¿ve got the gems and she¿ll be sneaking around terrorizing everybody, and very hard to counter.

    A good example of a buff-other thugs: Argathan oracle of the dead leading 2 umbrals wielding a couple fire bolas. Cost: 400 gold and 12 gems. Umbrals are ethereal and have high hitpoints and a life draining attack. Stack iron warriors on them and they¿re incredibly hard to take down. The oracle meanwhile gains reinvigoration from earthpower and possibly a blessing, and protection from ironskin/invulnerability and should be down to very low fatigue and able to handle a couple flankers (assuming they don¿t just get pelted down by his high strength bola attacks firing at closest)

    Good example of a caster thug (other than the eagle kings I just showcased). EA Abyssian Anointed of Rhuax sporting a fashionable blood stone, boots of the messenger, double enchanted shields and hydra skin armor cost: 32 gems, 12 slaves & 440 gold. With an earth/nature blessing and earthpower you¿ve got a powerful reinvigoration, buffing invulnerability brings your protection soaring up to the point your powerful regeneration is generally enough to ignore the hits which get through your high defense and burn the crap out of your attackers with your powerful fire shield. You¿re vomiting emolation every other turn in a wide area  the potency of this thug matches his high cost. If you¿re lucky enough to land any of the 10% randoms other than fire even more buffing options become available.

    Good example of a high offense thug: Same thing as the one above, only using Anathemat dragons, substitute in something like marble armor & a shield of beaten gold and add a lucky pendant and bracers of defense and you should have the staying power it takes to crisp enough PD guys to carry the day. You¿re not nearly as tough as the Annointed, but you should be tough enough given your damage outlay.

    			13.1.1.6 anti-thugs

    Anti-thugs are intended to carve up much bigger targets. Generally they¿ll be targeting other thugs and SCs, but they can also be a good option for dealing with particularly tough troops like Niefel giants or Palashankas. The big difference between an anti-thug and a crowd control thug is the anti-thug is much more concerned about damage outlay than damage avoidance  the idea is to kill them quickly before they can hit you back much. Anti-thugs are seldom going to have shields, preferring to dual wield or go for the big two handed weapons. Foregoing their own buffs and flying in to smack the bad guys before they lay they can get their own buffs up is how they like to roll, but this is often complicated by wily opponents placing chaff around so some cleverness is often called for. Weaponry obviously varies a lot, but a couple weapons bear special consideration:

    Demon bane, flambeau, moon blade  many of the things you¿ll be targeting anti-thugs at are undead, demon or magic beings. These items lay out a lot of damage themselves, which stacks with your strength then multiplies. Its not uncommon for thugs to have strengths in the twenties (particularly if you kit them for it), it¿s not hard to figure how what happens when you add a big number to that then multiply.

    Duskdagger & gate cleaver  AN damage is great for taking down notoriously tough guys as not only does it ignore their armor, it also ignores their shield  punches right through it. Duskdaggers can be dual wielded, gate cleavers add a ton of their own damage, both are great in the right situations.

    Axe of hate  causes an aoe fatigue effect which is a great way to bypass the rest of a SC¿s strong defenses, particularly dual wielded by quickened guys.

    Flesheater axe  This dirt cheap item not only delivers a large amount of damage, the chestwound it inflicts can be a death sentence for non-zero encumbrance SCs even if they kill your anti-sc. They start racking up the fatigue, and¿well I already covered what happens then.

    Sword of swiftness/wave breaker/stone bird  anything which gives you multiple attacks is invaluable for breaking through high defenses. Make sure you stack this with quickness and attack boosters like the ring of the warrior.

    Serpent Kryss/astral serpent  often overlooked, death poison can be a great way to take down guys who aren¿t poison immune if you expect your anti-thug to be on a kamikaze mission anyway. Particularly consider this if they¿re using invulnerability.

    		13.1.2 Comments

    ->  Originally Posted by Baalz
    "
    Axe of hate  causes an aoe fatigue effect which is a great way to bypass the rest of a SC¿s strong defenses, particularly dual wielded by quickened guys.
    "
    Actually the stun affect isn't aoe and have to hit in order to take effect. I've had SCs survive small groups of anti-thugs armed with Axes of hate by being able to doge enough attacks to have time to kill most of the attackers. It's still a great anti SC item but make sure you have high attack skill and enough attacks to get through.

    -> On the anti-thug topic:

    There's also the bows, which are good anti-thugs especially if the thug is the largest unit on the other side. Set phasers on "fire large enemy monsters"

    Botolf to feeblemind caster thugs.

    Thunder Bow is AN for non-lightning resistant thugs.

    High precision, a bow of war, and Flaming Arrows works pretty well.

    Ethereal Xbows for when MR has been neglected.

    Vision's Foe against high-defense thugs will being their defense and attack down to zero after 2 hits (or just one hit for one-eyed thugs).

    In the non-bows category, the Standard of the Damned is also good in combo with Quickness, against any thug that's not lifeless.

    -> About doubling up on thugs: this is also true strategically. Having two thugs (or pairs of thugs) attack adjacent provinces helps guard against surprises which are tough enough to force you to retreat but not necessarily tough enough to kill you straight out. Like, say, Send Horror spam, or 11 mages popping out of a fort, or an indy province which turns out to be inhabited by Spring Hawks and Sylphs. If you were flying in, or if you have an opponent who is savvy enough to attack your escape routes, you may get afflicted and have to buy a new thug but at least you won't lose the equipment.

    Plus, it's a lot easier to do things like cut off enemy armies or avoid "bouncing" off armies when you have attack-capable units in multiple provinces.

    On a tactical level, using multiple thugs can sometimes help save equipment even if you DO die. You still win the battle (denying gear to the enemy) and if someone has slots free he may pick up 30% or so of the gear. That someone could be another thug or even a mage--Niefelheim/Ashdod/Caelum/Agartha/Abysia/etc. certainly have the option of converting an arty mage to a thug if he picks up the right equipment.

    One final thought: peacetime armies (like the United States Air Force currently) sometimes focus on performance, spending lots of money to eke out every last bit of superiority and minimize casualties. In Dom3, though, you're an evil pretender who doesn't HAVE to care about casualties or PR, so you can go for the Russian approach, "quantity has a quality all of its own." A decked-out Seraph with four artifacts is STILL going to die to PD 20 + five indy priests with SotD, whereas an equivalent gem-weight of cheap thugs will take some losses but still kill all the priests.

    -> In addition to awe/etherealness/luck/vine shield, Astral Shield (attacks MR) is another dimension of protection you can add. It's usually not all that effective because I think attackers get weapon length as a bonus to MR, but sometimes it's better than some of the other options (awe vs. berserk/mindless units).

    ->  Originally Posted by KissBlade
    "
    I should mention though, the argathan oracle's probably not a chassis you want fire bolas on. They're umm... less than precise with the things and might end up hitting your own umbrals. -.-
    "
    My thought on the fire bolas is that the oracle is not there to lay out damage, the oracle is there to buff the umbrals who lay out the damage. The oracle's job is to handle any flankers who get around the umbrals, and to do that he needs to have his fatigue low. If flankers get around the umbrals they'll get pelted by the fire bolas for a couple turns, precision is a lot better from very short range and if there's more than one flanker they stand a very good chance of being further broken up due to the entangling - from short range and multiple targets even the one eyed guy is gonna toss it in the right general direction. When they close on the invulnerability buffed oracle who has 0 fatigue from firing ranged weapons with reinvigoration, he's got a good chance of living long enough to accidentally drop his club in the right place to squish them, particularly since his strength and weapon will often crush PD type guys even if they make a shield block. Meanwhile, the fire bolas aren't going to do too much to the 20 protection umbrals, they're not relying on their defense at all to survive so being entangled for a turn isn't the end of the world.

    -> Baalz, I cannot understand how you ever expect to win another MP game if you keep telling people how you think! Awesome stuff, keep up the good work.

    In the spirit of tipping your hand, I'd like to give away my number-one favorite anti-thug item. It's a bit niche, failing against high defense/luck/vine shields...but for those fear/awe/protection/selfbuff guys, it's so devastating, and so deliciously unforseen, and so evil, I can't help but give it away...you guessed it, the Vine Whip!

    [crickets]

    Oh, you haven't seen a Vine Whip in action? Well, the next time some flying, regenerating, Dom10 Cyclops with 33MR, dual firebrands, and full resistances comes headed your way, calmly (but coolly) forge a Vine Whip, some Winged Shoes, and a Berserker Pelt (17gems+a reinvg item if necessary), and put em on your guy with the highest Attack rating. IED him right in that Cyclop's path.

    Practice menacing cackle.

    Open new turn file.

    Cackle menacingly as the Cyclops spends all 75 turns breaking free from vines, and is annihilated when the hard turn-limit is hit.

    Total physical damage dealt: 0 points
    Total psychological damage dealt: 15 points
    Total style points awarded: 1 million, possibly more

    -> It doesn't have to be paired with anything. If any battle lasts 50 turns, the attacker's side routes. After some time, the defender's side routes. If there are still units in the battlefield at a spesific turn count (I presume it's 75), they are all killed.

    The mechanics is there to prevent two feeble-minded Sphinxes from staring at each other for an eternity, but since the berserking vine whip-wielder is berserk and won't rout, and the Cyclops is entangled every turn and can't rout...

    Since they will both die if all goes well, you don't want to spend any extra gems.

    -> Doesnt the vine whip trick fail if the SC you are attack has Quickness? It uses one action to break out of the vines - and does due to its probably high strength. And then the second action to bash your guy's skull in... ?

    -> He did say it fails against high defense SCs and to give it to your highest attack thug. Attack boosting items would help too.

    Using 2 of these would almost guarantee the target would always be entangled.

    You'd have to be immune to any damage shields or other attack items as well.

    It's a neat counter to some SCs. Cheap, easy and tailorable to what you see coming at you.

    -> I enjoy Baalz guides which always introduce some off the beaten path ideas. That said, for raiding PD it is hard to beat the humble Frost Brand with an AoE effect, CR50 which will solve your fatigue issues in Cold 3 provinces (indeed I will sometime give surplus Frost Brands to mages, just for this), and nice combat stats, all for 3(w/hammer) W gems - one of the least useful types of gems IMHO so nothing to feel guilty about spending given they have less late game use then say S, D or E gems. AOE is hard to beat - not only does it wipe out squares of units but can help with high defense guys that would otherwise be unhittable. Speaking from experience, brands are one way to make use of blind units and Frost brands are cheap.

    For shields, its hard to beat the Vine Shield. Awe is fun, but often needs Fear to be effective, and there are lots of high morale troops that can make an Awe unit a paper tiger - vine ogres, undead, skinshifters, anyone with a berserk bless, minotaurs, centaurs, etc. The Vine Shield can entangle most PD and basic units and has a decent parry value as well.

    Thinking of anti-thug gear, I find SR is often the most overlooked resistance. CR/PR often comes with the typical undead chassis, and FR comes with commonly used Fire Brands, Charcoal Shields, and Dragon Helms, but SR is trickier to get. Most thugs will overlook it unless they are fighting a strong air nation. So as I think vfb alluded to, just giving a few Thunder Bows to some indie commanders, or to some high str/high precision unit if you have access to them, can be an effective and cheap deterrent. Pretty funny to watch 3 cheap indies with a 9 air gem investment trash a 100 gem investment while it sits their buffing itself up. I have been on both sides of that btw.

    -> It's not hard to beat a frost brand if you've got no water mages. Or if you're aggressively clam forging. Or spamming wolven winter every turn. Or you're trying to save for the Maelstorm. Or you want to crank out boots of quickness or bottles of living water or rings of water breathing. Or you're just simply trying to crank out 3 thugs per turn and have had bad luck finding water sites (a common occurrence, say, following my Eriu guide).

    One of the concepts that I've touched on in several of my guides which I think I haven't done a good job expressing is how relative costs are. Sometimes water gems are cheap, sometimes they're expensive. Sometimes every other province seems to have an S1 indie mage, sometimes you'd sell your soul for somebody, anybody to make those mind hunts stop. Two different thugs, outfitted exactly the same can have drastically different "real costs" to two different players because the "real cost" is the opportunity cost. You using your pretender to forge those frost brands? They're not nearly that cheap if you are. In a very real sense 10E can be cheaper than 5W, and 10W on turn 30 can be cheaper than 5W on turn 10.

    I give several good, concrete suggestions for things costing the same (or less!) gems than a frost brand which are often "good enough" and quite possibly using resources which have a "real cost" to you which is quite a bit cheaper. Certainly a frost brand is an above average weapon and there are plenty of times it's the right tool for the job, but from what I've observed in games I've played is that about 95% of "crowd control" thugs/SCs have a frost or firebrand. This is a significant misallocation of resources lots of times. You're raiding PD? My claim is you don't need a brand weapon to accomplish that goal most of the time and you can often get a whole lot more effeciency from your resources by putting to better use gems who have a small opportunity cost for the situation you're currently in. I'd much rather have 3 guys "good enough" to run PD off than one who kills the hell out of them - assuming I'm using them for raiding.

    Also, it's absolutely not the case that you generally need fear to make awe work. I'm not sure what the exact mechanics of the vine shield are but I find the shield of beaten gold to be roughly comparable against "normal troops", and neither one is sufficient without considering the other factors of hitpoint preservation. Again, it comes down to "real costs", sometimes a N2 mage is not easy to come by.

    The point of this guide is that if you limit yourself (as many people seem to) to thinking a thug has to have a frost brand and a vine shield and a bunch of hitpoints, you're missing a whole aspect of the game.

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    	13.2

    14. Reserved