[13lackGu4rd]

Warning: major thread necro.

now, with that out of the way, I really feel that this guide needs some love. LA Agartha is considered as the "good" Agartha, but it still has gaping weaknesses and is not seeing play too often, not to mention success. I think that EDM really helped the nation by providing non undead thug/SC options, especially the Granite Cyclops which all F random Ktonian Necromancers can summon.

I'm pretty sure that you've already changed your mind about SC pretenders by now, so I'll just add that an awake SC pretender won't help LA Agartha at all. as you said, expansion is easy enough with groups of 5 Cave Knights, and that a naked SC pretender won't stop a good bless rush(which LA has plenty of). also the Risen Oracle is overrated, sure it's immortal, but naked it can't kill a fly with its quarterstaff. the other SCs are not that much better, like the Cyclops and his fist, which is even worst than the quarterstaff. also, none of the const0-2 weapons will make these SCs kill fast enough, and even if rushing const4, by the time you'll get there the rush will have materialized already and you'll be screwed. not to mention that most SCs beg for some alt research first.

instead, due to all your mages having at least D1, enchantment seems like the obvious go to path early on. animate skeletons/dead is only enchantment 1, which you should be easily able to complete before any rush materializes against you. if the rush takes a bit longer than you'll likely have a handful of Ktonian Necromancers and enchantment 3, which makes for heavier skelli spam. this early no bless rush should be able to handle dedicated skelli spam, so you should be safe with that.

so, now that we don't need an awake SC to expand, and it won't help us anyway against a rush, there are 3 options. the first is a rainbow, which will fulfill all the magic diversity issues we got. it can also jump start our research if we take it awake. the second is an S9 Oracle or something and max scales, not ideal for Agartha but still very doable, and if your cap is surrounded by 4-5 provinces your expansion will be supercharged with production scales and Cave Knights. than you can follow them up with crossbowmen to handle bless rushes like jags, woodsmen, etc. the third option is to utilize your various SCs and go for the Forge Lord. super cheap items, pretty cheap and very plentiful SCs, maximizing your strength all the way.

scales obviously depend on which pretender choice you go for, but assuming an awake rainbow/dormant Forge Lord with a lot of magic, you won't have too many points to play with. I really like O1L3 on nations like LA Agartha. on the 1 hand you need money for forts, as you don't have cap only mages or troops at all, so the more forts the better. on the other hand your troops are pretty abysmal so you need summons and battlefield magic, which means a lot of gems from very early on. S3 is pretty obvious unless going for a heavy scales build. the other scales are not as straight forward. your mages are old so taking death is always a risk, death magic on your old mages helps, but you will still lose some to old age. growth is always nice if you can afford it, but in a tight build you probably won't. your troops(especially Cave Knights) are cold blooded, on the other hand your go-to troops are undeads, some of which have a chill aura. cold1 is pretty safe even for the Cave Knight expansion, not sure if cold3 hurts them too much to destroy your early expansion or whether it's still playable. my main worries are the tougher indies, barbs and heavy cavs, as the Cave Knights don't kill as fast, they generally outlast the indies until they inevitably route, so adding too much extra fatigue might mean your Cave Drakes will be dead before the indies route. magic vs drain is also not as straight forward. you can easily afford drain 2 as you said in your original guide, but if going for L3 and some death than M1, or is it only M3, opens up those nice death gem events, which are your most important gems. if you really need the points than maybe O3Misf1/2D2, but I'd generally ease your pretender a bit before going there, as I feel that Agartha really needs all the gems it can get its hands on, and unless the map is huge O3 won't pay that big a role seeing that your expansion armies are small and not too upkeep intensive(due to their small size), almost like bless nations just without the sacred discount. still, Turmoil is probably not good, as you still want to start buying Ktonian Necromancers pretty fast, rather than stay too long with the apprentices.

I'd also not really dismiss your national undead summons(both in ench and conj), sure they aren't that great and usually come with some afflictions(no biggie as they're expendable), especially those that cost E gems instead of D. in CBM 1.6 you can still get a huge amount of hammers with all those E gems of yours, in 1.7 that's gone so you need alternative sink holes, these undeads might very well be it. think of it as poor man's MA Ermor/LA C'tis mass reanimations. enough numbers of these weak undeads make for terrific chaff, especially if you took C3, and mix in perfectly with your undead strategy(Rigor+Darkness, Umbrals, TOs, etc).

overall, LA Agartha, while being the "good Agartha" is still pretty much a 1 trick undead pony, which EDM helps fix somewhat. knowing your enemies, planning ahead of time and maintaining tempo seem like the most crucial elements for success with such nations.