[Warhammer]

This is actually paralleling my latest idea on a pretender. My problem is figuring out whether I go for a dormant or imprisoned pretender.

I am of the belief that maybe they don't need to go with the Knights of the Chalice and can instead rely upon the Royal Guard which will free up quite a bit of resources. The side benefit of this is you might be able to get away with a lower dominion which can be used to pay for the scales.

I was thinking about an Air-4/5, Earth-4, Water-4, Nature-4, and Fire-4 or Astral-4/5 pretender. Scales will be Order-3, Production-3, Drain-2, and Misfortune-3. Dominion will be dependant upon a variety of factors, pretender form, whether I take growth scales, etc.

Why the low dominion? A big bonus that Marignon gets is their inquisitors. They operate very well in "negative" dominion. So why focus on having high dominion? I can save those points and put those towards the pretender. Now, if I prefer, I can take higher dominion and go with an imprisoned pretender.

I think order is important for Marignon for the money. The good troops and leaders all require a good chunk of change. You are looking at 270 gold for your best mages and 210 for your best priest. The rest of the troops are a 2.5 resource to gold cost ratio. Therefore, if you want a large army, you need good production values. So production is a must. To pay for this, I go with drain and misfortune.

Now, this setup gives me the ability to cast The Wrath of God, Gift of Health, Purgatory, Arcane Nexus, etc. Purgatory and Wrath of God are very thematic for the nation. Plus, they eradicate undead and enemy armies nicely. The only problem with this is that I would need an imprisoned pretender to make it work with dominion costs. Or, I could skimp on the Nature and Water paths.

Early game research targets are Ench 4, for the Flaming arrows, and then Evo up to about lvl 4. Then const to lvl 4, evo to lvl 6, and then check to see what we need from there.