[VedalkenBear]

Well, I've been playing them again recently (as I said above), and this is under CBM 1.41.

Having said that, I've found that you _can_ do a rush to Conjuration 5 (and Bogarus has some of the best research in the late age) to gain access to the Gamayun. You can alternately do Conjuration-3 / Construction-4 (I _think_ Crown of Command is at that level? Maybe only 2).

See, CBM 1.4 apparently severely buffed Lady Midday and the Firebird. They now cost 1 Air/Fire gem respectively, and have other neat benefits. Lady Midday has Flying, Ethereal, Fear(+0), 20Att, and armed with a Plague Scythe that auto-diseases the target. Meanwhile, the Firebird has Awe(+0) and AoE1 Fire attack.

The reason you need Conjuration-5 is the Gamayun, an Air-2 Astral-2 Holy-2 Flying commander. This, to my knowledge, is the cheapest Magical Flying commander available to Bogarus, which you want for the mobility. (Note: All of the gems needed to summon these come from national income, if nothing else.)

Once I have this, I start summoning an equal number of Firebirds and Ladies Midday, constrained either by my Gems income or my Midday capacity (only your Death-random Starets can summon these). Once you have 30 (total) of these, summon a Gamayun to lead them and run amok.

I realize this is anecdotal, but I stopped a semi-competent computer Wyrm with one of these squads. (IIRC, the Wyrm was Earth/Water/Nature, and was trying to buff.) It took about 5 or 6 rounds, tops, with the Wyrm (by itself) retreating after the 4th or 5th round. Total losses: 3 units.

These guys aren't the new uberforce, but they are quite respectable for tier-3 Conjuration units. Clearly, one of their big issues is missile fire. Gamayuns should be able to Arrow Fend them.

Another nice unit is the Rusalka (Ravnica block flashback). Dunno about vanilla, but in CBM it's 6 water gems for a WD mage seductress. At least three nice uses for them. First, they can summon themselves. If you have a plethora of Water gems, they're 6 gems for 4 research plus scale, which isn't much worse than an Quill, and they're so much more versatile. Second, they're Assassins with Death magic. Basically, think Empoisoners that can also throw down Frozen Heart, and have a chance to steal the commander as well. Finally, they are Bogarus's route to Death magic, given a Pretender with W2. W1D1 + Construction-6 can go to W3D1, which is what is required for a Kokythiad, W3D3. From there the progression is obvious.

Anyway, that's what I've gotten so far. This current game, I haven't hired any national troops. I basically 'made do' with mercs (even my pretender is a rainbow) and my starting troops until the whirlwind squads came online.