Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Nice! At first I thought "not another guide that just tells me what the units do ..." but this one I can almost completely agree with! (Except for the dismission of Dancers as a suitable bless chassis but to each his own =) ).

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Good guide. You might say a few words on how to expand.

IMO, Elite Warriors are the only unit you should use against indies, except some archers and occasional militia to absorb lances. Good morale, good damage and low resource cost makes them ideal for the job.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Thanks guys. After reading the Mictlan guide I had Baalz look over this one just to make sure I didn't miss any big holes, so he deserves a little credit too.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

If you have the time and the experience, could you extrapolate this into LA C'tis? There's definitely some big differences (you lose a good bit of protection in comparison to other LA races, you have more undead options), but also a lot of similarities.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I might do a guide on all three ages, and, if I do, I will go in order. For now I will say that I am not nearly as big of a fan of LA C'tis as I am of the other two. This is mainly do to the loss of Warriors and Shamans.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I want to thank you for this guide, since I'm a newbie dedicated right now to EA C'tis. My last five games have been singleplayer medium map C'tis vs Ulm. And I've been losing each time. Regardless, I am lasting a bit longer now.

I've found your guide handy, though I've been experimenting and not perfectly following. If there are no objections to me resurrecting this topic, I'd like to go over some of my games and offer my (admittedly flawed, n00bish) perceptions, and ask for some advise, while trying to contribute something myself. Certainly, my advice might not be as high quality, but giving it will help me see what I'm doing wrong, and maybe right, especially if it gets criticism.

One problem I've had trouble dealing with, especially since I'm not a fan of Order scales, is affording those Tel Cities at 1400 gold apiece. Roughly speaking, what kind of early game expansion strategy would you suggest, and how should I decide when and where to build my first very expensive fortress?

If I build them in a high resource province (typical bottleneck), I get enough production, sure, but I'm still drastically short on cash. If I build it in, say, farmlands, I can imagine it paying for itself in maybe 14 ~ 28 turns.

Is it possible, and profitable, to use those light militia in your outlying provinces simply to raise taxes? When I get back this evening, I'll try and do the math on my questions, and experiment, but I'd love to hear what others have to say.

Thanks.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Very nice, could you put this info into the StrategyWiki?
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dominio...C_Lizard_Kings

In case you don't want to register I think there are some others like Sandman which transfer the guides from here to there, but it would be best if you yourself "owned" the article there.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

C'tis has access to cheap fortresses if you build on mountain (Hillfort), forest (Forest Ramparts), or swamp (Swamp Fort). The city type doesn't really matter since mostly you're just interested in having another location to pump out troops, so there's no real reason to go for Fortified Cities unless you're in the middle of a bunch of resource-rich provinces or you think the extra cash over time is worth the extra 600 gold up front. In all likelihood the cash bonus from forts will be a very tiny percentage of your late-game income, so generally I would build hillforts instead of Tel Cities. The high-resource provinces you refer to will probably be mountains and thus cheap (800 gp) hillforts, so I don't think your dilemma generally exists.

I find that C'tis expands easily with a mix of 20 elite warriors and 10-15 heavy infantry, or else 10-12 chariots, per army. And of course good expansion means an easier midgame. Since you have no national scouts, either summon black servants or get indie scouts.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Lazy_Perfectionist: Specifically against Ulm you may want to consider making greater use of Lizard Chariots. Ulm often has trouble with tramplers. The javelins that your Light Infantry use could also be useful.

Like MaxWilson said, stick to Hillforts and Forest Ramparts in the beginning and build them in either high-resource provinces or in strategically important positions. Tel Cities are good forts, but they cost an arm, a leg, a kidney, and several ribs to build and take half a year to construct! You should also consider going with an order scale.

Ich: I never put anything in a wiki before, but I will see if I can't get it up sometime.

MaxWilson: Nothing I can disagree with there, with the exception of the Swamp Fort. C'tis builds Swamp Cities instead of Swamp Forts. They are like Fortified Cities, only better.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

You shouldnt notice a big drop in random events once your empire is mid-sized or larger due to the 3 per turn limit.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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).

Have fun!

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Well, see, Max, I did a test game on the demo map, with my own Pretender and C'tis. No matter how many militia (7 gold, 2 resources) I recruited, my income didn't go down, even if they just stood around doing nothing. It makes a certain amount of sense that the militia would be free (7/15 < 1), but not the taskmaster (30 gp). Maybe it was a little glitch? It seems to reacting more or less as expected now - 50 militia increase my upkeep by 24 gold or so a turn, but they didn't before.

Edit- so farmlands still could be profitably overtaxed with militia support.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

If you have growth then with overtaxing and patrolling you can still keep a stable population at 0 unrest.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

RamsHead, I'm editing some basic information into that wiki page. Do I have your permission to copy your guide in? Or do you think you'll get around to it?

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

If you are on a smaller or even medium sized map, you can go with a death scale. C'tissian mages don't suffer from old age and with nature magic, you should not have any major problems with supply. Though if you do go with a death scale, you should avoid over taxing and patrolling.

Yes, you should put magic on your pretender that your nation doesn't have access to. If you were playing Arcoscephale or T'ien Ch'i, then it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but EA C'tis is quite magically focused.

As far as your magic strategy goes, I don't see any glaring flaws with it. You might want to consider going for Raise Skeletons first. Black Servants are nice, but you should be able to expand fast enough to come across an indie province that allows you to recruit scouts. Most of the time you shouldn't bother with Shades. They are fairly weak, so it is better to save up for more powerful beings.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

You can copy it in Lazy_Perfectionist.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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?

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

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.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

IIRC the Dom2 formula for combining natural and armor protection was something like:

(Armor + Natural) - (Armor*Natural/40)

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Also.. EA C'tis does not have mountain forts. The manual is incorrect. Unless mountains are different from border mountains... Are they? Am I looking at the wrong terrain? I may be able to still provide a screenshot to back this up...

Also, when I took heat scales and fire magic and high dominion in my next game, I ended up starting right next to two volcanoes? Coincidence? Probably. But I'll have another go at my burny pretender.

Edit: and while its interesting fooling around with different godlings, and worth doing just because it's fun, I don't recommend the "Solar Disc" as a learning godling, or at least getting him a helmet ASAP. It's not fun using a fragile high-magic godling, and getting him muted, and his spellcasting cut in half. It's not quite enough to leave him in the back. He hasn't died in my lost battles, but with mute, he might as well have.

I'm still not winning, but I'm good enough now to play around a little. Thanks for the advice.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

F9E3 Solar Disk is amazing. Can buff with reinvig, protection(very important for him), fire shield(15ap) and the amazing phoenix pyre.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I agree that the Solar Disk is a good choice, but it requires research in conjuration, alteration, and enchantment to get him up to snuff.

EA C'tis does have Hillforts, but border mountains don't count as mountains for fort building.

I am curious as to how fast you are expanding Lazy_Perfectionist. You should have conquered a minimum of ten provinces by the end of the first year.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

By the end of the first year? Even on easy? Well... in my current game, I started in an isolated corner, with the AI in a preferential position for 2/3s of the map. However, for the first time, I managed to out expand them. This with zero scales but for the two heat, and a Pretender i've barely used. I've got about 12 by year three, but that is the result of heavy conflict between our two nations, with nobody able to head for the southern half of the map. Until I ran into the enemy (very soon, I might add), I'd been averaging a province a turn. My biggest problem is I have no real expansion strategy after I encounter the enemy nation and its a wide open map with only one checkpoint, which I have taken.

The Solar Disc, though, I find that hard to use early on. What strategy allows a solar disc to start being useful ASAP on a large, 2 player map? I'm not very familiar with the fire magic.

This one game I'm going to abandon- I wanted to see exactly how my empire performed with no scales other than two heat. I hadn't expected it to go well as long as it did. Shovah, would you advise using the Solar Disk on a small or large two player map? And what sort of strategy for his use? What scales, and awake or asleep or other?

I hadn't started it out seriously, since I was doing a test with a new pretender and no scales... But I ran straight for Raise Skeletons, and used my Sauromancers more agressively than before. It turned out quite helpful.

I'll keep a little log on my desktop of my next game, maybe report on it later. I'll also turn down the randoms quite a bit in the game setup. I started the first turn of this test game with 200% tax and patrol, but got hit the second turn with an unrest random in addition, and that took longer to wipe out than I expected. So my income was lacking in that game for several turns.

Oh, and I found out Behemoths are quite fun. Three may die quick enough, but squa****y death is fun and quick.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Yes, you should have 10 or more provinces by the end of the first year, not counting your capital. Unless you have independents set higher.

The Solar Disc is a good pretender, but you need research in several schools of magic to allow him to take provinces on his own. He will not be useful right away.

Have your Shamans cast Body Ethereal on the Behemoths to make them much more survivable.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

An odd question for you. If none of your units can leave your starting province due to an odd map bug, is there any way to expand outside through C'tis options of summoning?

Edit: Nevermind, I'll just start a new game.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I have now uploaded my guide to the Strategy Wiki.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Not really, so good choice.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Actually, now that I think of it, that reminds me of Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares. In a way, a starting province with no exits is an ideal defensive position. C'tis can do decent research off of its starting death income and using sacred shamans; I suppose you *could* play the game out from your unassailable home base until you had Astral Travel researched, and then start dropping Gateways everywhere. In the short-term you could be dropping occasional Calls of the Wild ("Antarans attack!") or Arouse Hungers, just to pick up some cash before the provinces get retaken. A very strange but possibly fun way to play, if you have the patience--and a fast enough computer that you don't mind processing 80 turns of doing nothing before you get Astral Travel. (Buy one shaman, hit "Next turn.")

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Yes, I have many fond memories of that game too, though now Sword of the Stars has replaced that game, for me. There may be no Antarans, but I do get visits by the System Killer, Slavers, and Von Newmann machines who eat all my ships and spawn new ones right there.

I've found the Slave Warriors surprisingly effective, at least against certain independents. Still, 10 deaths is 120 gold... I took down three or four provinces with 40 of them. Not quite certain how they didn't all die on me, but I suspect it had to do with their extra 'bite'. If you're facing mostly light infantry, militia, and archers, 40 Slave Warriors can take down several provinces before they need to reinforce. If some farmlands in the area, it'll pay for itself. I just put them at the back of the field, and hold-attack. Gives the enemy forces time to spread out, and most indie archers too long to fire accurately. They're less likely to run, and are faster than the rest of your early forces.

My starting strat still needs work. My most recent game - which I may still win - I only had eight provinces by around the end of the first year. Advice is welcome. I set my pretender to a Scorpion King, fire and earth approx 5 or six, dominion around the same, and 2 order, 1 productivity, 2 heat, 1 luck, 1 death, 1 magic. Medium random map, one ulm standard easy opponent, rare random events. Going pretty well against the low-level AI, and I'm getting familiar enough with the basics to start seeing more and more of the big picture and better cost analysis of the situation. Realizing that such and such move costs me more than I gain, etc. etc.

Any advice for avoiding curses on my big bad pretender? It seems like it has 100 precision, 50 range, and no MR resist roll.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I like Elite Warriors even more than Slave Warriors. They generally have better stats where it counts, and with a scale cuirass, they are more durable. To minimize loses when using either Slave or Elite Warriors bring along some City Guards or Heavy Infantry. Place the Guards/Infantry at the front of the battlefield and put the Warriors to the far side and back a bit of your center force. If you set it up correctly, your heavier troops will absorb the arrows and initial blows of combat, while the Warriors come in from the side to cut the enemy forces down. I have gotten lucky a few times while doing this and lost none of my units, though most of the time you will lose a couple.

If your pretender doesn't usually take much damage during battles, a Curse shouldn't be much of a problem. To avoid Curses you probably could bring along Elephants (if you found an independent province where you can recruit them) and place them on the front lines. They should be targeted instead of your pretender, unless your pretender has more hp. It is best to simply not bring your pretender into a battle where you think he will be Cursed though. If your Scorpion King does get a bad affliction, you can heal him with a summoned Fairy Queen, but you won't get access to her until far into the game.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Slave Warriors are nice, but Elite Warriors are even better. With high attack and a long weapon, they can often repel attacks, and combined with their generally good Protection for early age they work even better for expansion than Slave Warriors. They do cost a little bit more in terms of resources, though. Personally I expand with a mix of Heavy Infantry and Elite Warriors, but I don't know if that's optimal.

I haven't found any real reason to take Production on C'tis, since even their top-line troops are resource-cheap. (10g/15r looks expensive for the Heavy Infantry until you compare it to LA Agartha's 30g/37r Blindfighter.) But hey, if you've got it, flaunt it--your main limitations in expanding will then be producing enough commanders to lead your armies. Fortunately C'tis starts out with two army commanders (because it has no scouts). Eight provinces by the end of the first year is still kind of slow; what's happening?

I did a quick run on a random map with the settings you describe (F5E5 awake Scorpion King, Dom 5, scales as described). I avoided hiring mercenaries even though that speeds up expansion because I get the idea you don't do that (and it's kind of a cheap tactic vs. the AI).

Turn 1: Build a shaman, whole bunch of elite warriors. Set taxes to 130% in home province, patrol with one army, lizard lord becomes a Prophet, Scorpion King researches Evocation. End with 150 gold in the bank.

Turn 2: Set taxes back to 100% in home province; send starting army w/ EWs to conquer a small nearby province. Buy another shaman and 10 Elite Warriors. (I'll probably build 30 and then set out conquering.) Keep researching with the SK and shaman. (I really have no idea what to do with an awake pretender, since he doesn't have magic yet and I don't think he can solo indies.) End w/ 403 in the treasury.

Turn 3: Buy 1 PD in newly-conquered province. New resources from conquered province allow me to build 13 EWs this time. Send 1st army out to conquer another province (swamp, so few resources expected), w/ support from Scorpion King. (Need 9 more RP to reach Evoc-1, and the shamans can supply 10. Leave SK unscripted so he will probably cast Fire Darts, which will be researched by the time battle starts.) End w/ 478 in the bank.

Turn 4: Newly-conquered province had gold and silver mines (+160 gold), plus 67 resources. Very strange for a swamp, but lucky. We took that province with 4 losses (out of army of 28), so I'll have my prophet meet us with reinforcements in the next province (23 EWs, all that's been produced so far) while I build another 19 in the home province. (By the time the prophet gets back there will be 38 EWs waiting, my second expansion army). Build a shaman, too, of course. (Build a lizard lord/commander when necessary to lead an army, but otherwise a shaman.)

Turn 5: Lost 3 units in most recent battle, so with reinforcements army #1 is in good shape. Build 24 or so EWs in the home province, and a shaman. Avoiding a province of barbarians, I'll send army #1 to attack a bunch of deer tribe warriors while my prophet heads home. End treasury 628. Four turns have passed so far and I've conquered 3 provinces.

Turn 6: Conquered another province with army #1, minimal losses. Prophet collects army #2 (44 EWs), sets out to conquer the couple of remaining provinces next to my capital. At the capital, I switch to building chariots instead of EWs. Gold in bank 515.

Turn 7: Army #2 took moderate casualties (9/44) taking an archer province. I probably should be playing more carefully--I didn't use any archer decoys. Income is 701, treasury is 613 after buying another 8 or 9 chariots to go with the 7 already produced. It's fall and I own 7 provinces, and should be conquering 1 or 2 per turn from here on out.

Turn 8: Archer decoys did reduce my losses in conquering a jaguar tribe warrior province and archer/militia province, although maybe I should have used two because my decoy for army #2 got a limp from an arrow and got outrun by the rest of the army (7 losses total). Army #1 is doing fine, no losses this turn, and the SK has started casting Flare (reached Evoc-2) but has a minimal impact on battle. I've got a lizard heir sitting in the capital with 17 chariots, ready to start expanding in a third direction (only I'm on a map edge so I really don't have another direction, may have to waste some turns moving to a frontier instead of attacking) and have 1252 in the bank before purchasing anything, and 762 income from 9 provinces (including my capital). Since I don't really have any need for research just yet, I might detail some of my shamans to site search while another begins a fort at a choice location.

Curses on the pretender: avoid lizard man provinces. They can, and like to, cast Curse. Most other provinces don't seem to cast Curse, even ones that have access to Death magic for Spirit Curse.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Oh, I certainly agree Elite Warriors are nice, and better in combinations.

But when I had a little save snafu, I didn't recruit till turn 2, or expand to turn 3. With over 1200 in the bank and few resources available, even if I had conquered, Slave Warriors are excellent. A few more resources? 2 or 9? Thats an 4 fold difference. So, that one team led by a common indie commander w 40 slave warriors took out around 2 or 3 provinces on its own. The last two were brought in with the assistance of a half-strength elite warrior squad, but when I picked the targets carefully, the slave warriors were quite effective in a pinch, and didn't suffer anywhere near my expected casulties.

So, yeah, a team of slave warriors doesn't match up to elites, even counting the resource difference. But given the opportunity (extra gold, around 480), the need (behind a bit), and the targets (farmlands expect some fiscal return and no cavalary or heavy infantry- i waited until the elites were ready for those), they make an excellent indie fighting force with a minimal expenditure of time. Given how, of course, they are somewhat pricy, they're not a strategy to factor in at before you start a game. They are, however, highly useful as something other than cannon fodder under specific circumstances. Better yet, their strategic speed of booth slave and elite allows for coordination of reinforcements than is available with heavies.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

When playing single player, or against secondary armies of human players early in the game, consider adding a company of Runners to your arsenal.

I used to look at every stat except speed, and wrote off Runners as cost-inefficient. But by the time the enemy army breaks, the Runners are there to chase and kill many of them before they manage to escape.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Good point about the resources; I was thinking in terms of gold as the major limiting factor. I like Ramshead's point about using heavier forces as a decoy; these could be either Heavy Infantry or City Guards (for mapmove 2).

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Oh... Good point, SelfishGene. Heh. Show no quarter. I'm not used to thinking mercilessly enough, but the enemy troops are loyal enough its now or later.

So, do you do anything in particular to keep them from rushing into battle too soon, or do you give them no special treatment, just flanking or whatnot?

That's an interesting read, MaxWilson. It'll probably be quite enlightening when its not a work break or 3:30 in the morning. I'll definetly read that 8 turn report again. Oh, and yep. It was a lizardmen independent that cursed me right away.

Do you have any particular strategy for getting astral gems (If I'm completely opposed to an astral/rainbow pretender?) It seems almost entirely useless to send shamans around searching. It's gone much easier on my attention span to convert five to ten nature/death gems into astral, than cast the ritual monthly. But if its best simply to reallocate all my shamans and have em search a good portion all at once, I'll give that a try too.

Oh... this might go without saying for more advanced players (but I'm a n00b), but despite being strictly land-dwellers, the C'tis nation does surprisingly well at expanding into the sea. Certainly, many nations can do better, and not just the sea-dwelling ones... But you have ready access to swarms of undead. And while zombies make poor fishies, they don't need to breathe, either. The enchantment path will let you ritually summon skeletons and undead mages pretty soon.

So don't discount sea expansion just because you don't have amphibious troops, water magic, and haven't found a province that offers them. You can get fifty undead in the water by turn ten (does that add up properly? I can get the gems, but the research?), and you'll probably be able to find some entry point that doesn't need fifty undead. However, you can get a lab underwater, and just imagine swarms of undead and shamblers attacking the enemy from their rear flanks. Probably won't be that glorious, but the AI can overlook a small group of water provinces, and when the enemy's pretendder and capital are right at a convenient checkpoint blocking off a section of the map... go around? Or at least, just don't stall for time when your borders meet, expand to new frontiers. So... is this a good tactic?

I've only gone as far as using undead to attck an underwater province- successfully. But I haven't gone on to capitilizing it yet. I'll do that tomorrow. And report on whether I'm full of it, onto something, or stating something completely obvious to anyone but a n00b like me.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

You usually get astral gems from astral and nature sites, both of which can be found by shamans. Not all, true, but it's worth sending them out. Still, it depends on luck, and you may end up getting most of your astral gems in some games by finding a good supply of water gems (with your Sauromancers or mercenaries or indy mages) and banging out clams of pearls.

You know, I've never been all that good at expanding into the sea, in spite of the fact that sea provinces tend to be fairly rich. I'll do water as LA Agartha because umbrals rock, but as C'tis I would miss my Cloud of Death underwater. In the past I've typically waited to expand into the sea until I find a province of ickies or kappas. Report on whether your zombie strategy works well; I suppose C'tis is also well-suited to skelly spamming underwater. My problem with underwater zombies is that they've got an attack of 3 and a defense of 1 or something.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Shamans can cast Arcane probing and it only takes 4 non-astral gems to cast. I'd do that until I found some astral income and then it's self-sustaining.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

True, but shamans are also cheap, so manual searching doesn't hurt much. As always, manual searching vs. spells depends on tradeoffs between gold (mage-time) and gems.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

"I avoided hiring mercenaries even though that speeds up expansion because I get the idea you don't do that (and it's kind of a cheap tactic vs. the AI)."

Actually, I do tend to hire mercs (not at the start, unless they're an unexpensive mage) but because I'm curious whats available. I don't hire most until my second year.

"Set taxes to 130% in home province," Why 130%? Why not 200%?

"I really have no idea what to do with an awake pretender, since he doesn't have magic yet and I don't think he can solo indies.)" I go with 10 city guards, 30 light infantry, and my SK. Until he got lizard shaman cursed, he wasn't in much danger (I am careful around cavalry and archers, though). He's not too impressive in combat yet (though his protection and attack is nice). But what's really a big help is his fear. Even at +0, it cuts down on friendly casualties quite a bit, in a fair fight.

"Turn 3: Buy 1 PD in newly-conquered province." Only one? So, is it just for the pd commander then?

"Turn 4: Newly-conquered province had gold and silver mines (+160 gold), plus 67 resources. Very strange for a swamp, but lucky."

Nice. More comments later.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I find mercs are most useful at the start. 150 gp Brave Breakers can take 3-4 indy provinces before they fall apart, for instance, although you might get more or less depending on luck. Combine them with 30 gp Victor's Villains to extend their lifespan. Usually at the very beginning I'm production-limited more than gold-limited, and a merc company can make the difference between taking 4 turns to conquer all the provinces adjacent to my capital and doing it in 2 turns.

130% instead of 200% because I couldn't remember how good C'tis was at patrolling. My goal is to increase income for a turn without building up any residual unrest that will tie up the patrolling army for the next turn, when I'll need it for expansion. That is, either I'd have to accept the income hit from higher unrest, keep my army on patrolling, or else lower taxes. None of those is desirable, but if I set taxes at 130% or 140% (more for some nations, e.g. Caelum) I can get a turn of "free" income and still have my army usable for expansion on turn 2. Technically I *could* expand on turn 1, but I'd be doing it blindly, so I want my army to be doing something useful while it's hanging out waiting for the initial scouting reports.

I'm surprised the fear helps, since you have to be fairly close for it to work. I guess you're sending him into melee, which I tend to avoid because I hate getting afflictions on a non-recuperating/non-immortal pretender. Just a quirk of mine.

Yeah, 1 PD for the commander. Basically, if someone/something conquers a province I just want to be able to watch the battle. It's generally not worth it to me to buy a bunch of PD early on just in case a random barbarian horde drops on me; just take it back with an army. It does, however, help to know exactly how big the horde is and that's what the 1 PD gets me.

One thing that I didn't do in that test game that I should have done, is to built a High Priest instead of a Lizard Heir to lead my third army (IIRC on turn 7). C'tis has relatively low morale, and so having an extra caster for Sermon of Courage never hurts. Especially with chariots, because even though they don't usually break, when they do they trample your own forces. If I had extra gold I might buy a Lizard King instead of a High Priest, because Smiting can make a surprising amount of difference in combat vs. indies.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I find I disagree on a few points.

Scales

Prod/Sloth.....There is a swing of 12% inc and 60% Resources from one end to the other. This strongly affects buy numbers.

Growth/Death.....There is a swing of 12% inc, 90% supply and 1.2% pop swing. The pop does add up after awhile.

Heat 3....A must but you start down -5% inc and -10% supply

So S1/D1/H3 starts you at -9% inc, -10% resources, -25% supply and -0.2 pop and it only gets worse.

Does the bless really offset the loss in troops? I am sure there is a undead strat I don't see, but why bother?

A P3/G3/H3 starts you at +7% inc, +30% resource, +35% supply, and +0.6 pop. A 16% swing in income.

Thats a 24% swing in inc from S3/D3/H3 toP3/G3/H3.

EA C'tis has the kind of troops that you can insta army a very mean fighting force. Your losses are the flanking lizards so your core infantry just keeps getting bigger.

Yes, you have to go Mis1/Drain2 to have anything to spend on your Pretender and he is still weak. However a +28% inc buys alot of troops and you need the Resources/supplies to carry this off. In a long game the pop growth will pay off.

I guess it is a question of style and game length.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Forrest... I'm missing the context of you post somewhat.

Anyways, I won my first game on easy. I've finally managed to avoid defeating myself, so the next task is to up the difficulty level. Give myself an opponent who may defeat me.

So fear (0) isn't much, but it does have a range of six squares, I believe. I may adjust my earliest exp. strat, but currently, it consists of 10 city guards, and two squads of 15 light infantry on the flank. Given three to a square, the fear effect can reach to the other side of the squad even before it squashes itself in melee. If a hole opens in the line, my scorpion king is there to plug it, possibly breaking the attackers.

I haven't tried it yet, since I just won that game, but it may be worth giving him two thorny spears. With his high attack, ambidextrous, and low defense, he strikes me as the perfect opportunity to try repelling opponents.

I will try it soon though, since my next game is a couple of hours away, and I can easily afford a thorny spear from the start.

Skelies were handy in taking the four water provinces. They aren't great, mind you, but by choosing your target carefully after letting your dominion scout for you for several turns, you can gain entry even without a coastal province and amphibious units. I made entry with fifty skeletons and a Revenant leader(25+9=34 death gems, ench 3). I had about 30 left afterwards. The next raid, they all died. However, while I can't build forts or temples underwater, I can build labs w/ my Revenant. Is there any way I can access undead priests as EA C'tis?

Because C'tis starts with four or five death gems a turn, they can easily afford a skeleton army, and while puny, the undead skeletons are still useful in underwater combat. Specifically, it helps you get around the huge recruitment issues you'll have in your underwater provinces, and give you underwater death mages to help in battle.

Certainly, there are other routes to the sea, but you're likely to have trouble digging up the water gems for most of them.

And, while I wasn't able to threaten Ulm from the water, the mermen were a help, even with the only one province that could produce amphibious units. It gave me a place to raid from, originally, and prevent Ulm from concentrating their forces at the two crucial chokepoints. And, once I began my main assault up north, it also allowed me to mount more aggressive and successful assaults against their rear provinces. If the AI had ever gotten around to building another fortress, I could have used them to cut off some additional reinforcements.

Even if indie mermen don't bring much to land-based combat, even two sea-based provinces near an enemy coast can give you a lot of targets to threaten. If there's also a way to make sure its your dominion so they can't see the disposition of your forces, that would be great.

Any ideas on how C'tis can boost dominion underwater? Is the mound fiend an undead preist who can preach? Are there any earlier options available to me?

Also, slave warriors are an excellent option for ending a prolonged siege. Certainly, they aren't particularly durable in a melee. But sieging isn't such a situation. Instead, all that counts is strength. And since most C'tis troops are the same strength, body count is more important. If you can't summon undead to help you, you can easily recruit fifty slave warriors in a turn in most provinces. You might be able to get enough to force hiring a Lizard Lord instead of a taskmaster. And, they're not entirely useless in the fight either. Given their strategic map speed, you can bring them there before taking down the PD, during the siege, and when storming the castle. They can help you protect your less replacable soldiers.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Isnt fear +0 6 squares around the fear causing unit rather than a 6 square radius?

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

C'tis gets water randoms on their Sauromancers, so you could forge rings of water breathing for their priests.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

You're probably right, Shovah.

"The base area of effect (Fear +0) is 6 squares).

Doh. Thanks for pointing that out, Sandman.

It turns out, I really should have been using more elite warriors early on. I've taken 13 provinces by the end of my first year.