C'tis miasma and water magic

[Twan]

As I like Ct'is Miasma a lot, I've started to think about the new use this nation may make of water magic, compared to the use of water magic in dom2.

Synergies no longer usable with C'tis :
- quickness with raise spells (of course) -> this big synergy between water and death spells no longer exist with the new quickness ; quickness is still one of the most useful water spell for C'tis as slave warriors have 2 attacks, but no longer the asset of Ct'is miasma, and you need alt 4 to start to use it ; using skeleton spamers alone is also nerfed by the new morale system
- acid spells and expandable undeads as melee troops --> dom III C'tis has no access to random picks of fire magic
(anyway if your melee troops are undeads cold spells and poison can be used without friendly fire problems, but C'tis has lost a good weapon against cold resistant and heavy troops) ; as well there is no way to use earth-water combos except with empowerement (or indie mages, but not a good idea in the miasma dominion)

Water battle spells :

Evocation spells... I'm not sure if cold spells used nearby add fatigue to cold blooded creatures, the cold blooded description only say they get more fatigue in cold provinces and it's possible that only the scale affect them. Anyway using lots of cold attacks with Ct'is looks strange (and evocation is usually not your priority), and cold effects are usually reduced by the heat of your dominion, so most water (cold) evocation spells won't be used a lot. A good evocation spell to have for your encounters with other nations, is rain, as you are not going to use fire mages nor a lot of flying creatures.
The reasons for Ct'is to research evocation >2 are more in the nature and death trees : you may want to reach Shadow Blast and Poison Cloud (level 5) or even Death Cloud (level 7), or perhaps death-astral spells to use with the lucky marshmasters having an astral pick, and will have access to cold spells as a side effect. Anyway I think that all other schools are globally better for Ct'is.

Alteration, in addition to the quickness line, offers interesting water spells with precision 100 : Numbness, Frozen Heart, but nothing exceptionnal (finally ). Death and nature alteration spells are good too.

Water thaumaturgy has also a little number of good low level battle spells, with two precision 100 spells to add fatigue (desiccation and its increased aoe version curse of the desert) and eventually sailor's death (precision 1 but doing no damage to undeads), and thaumaturgy give access to very good death and nature spells like terror or charm.

There is finally a water enchantment that looks like specially made for C'tis : Quagmire, giving maluses to all creatures without swamp survival. With all your lizards having it no reason not to use quagmire as often you can (but you need a water 4 mage and a gem to cast it). Enchantment is also the school you want to have if you try an underwater expansion.

Cross-path water battle spells :
I've counted (may have missed some) 14 cross-path battle spells with water. Of these 0 are water-death, 3 water-nature, all others water-a path C'tis mages don't have even as a random pick. Two of the water-nature spells, mossbody and foul vapors are poison related so may have good uses for C'tis (half or the troops you will use being PR 50 lizards and the other half going to be PR 100 undeads or monsters). The last one bone melter is a save or death aoe 1 spell that has only very little chances to affect ethearal being, so has some synergies with the use of BE by your shamen or ethearal undeads.

Cross-path water summons :
-4 very good death-water summoning spells have been added (catoblepas, Kokythiad, Hidden in snow and leviathan) and may be seen as the new strength of the death-water combo, but all need a level 6+ in enchant or conjuration
- many water-nature summons are available too, and before in the conjuration or enchantment trees, so there is a good synergy, you'll use water-nature then water-death units

Finally my first impression was that Ct'is had lost a lot of its power with the dom3 quickness nerf and national spells change (C'tis started with terror), but the new spells offer a good number of new synergies, and they are more thematic. With the new summons, the nation may even be better for endgame.

The lizards will now summon more troops out of battles (even if skeleton spaming will still be used a lot) including more living nature creatures, and use more their national units too (with quagmire).

Enchantment probably remain the best school for early game (level 3 for the raise spells and eventually some weak summons), after the choice become harder... conjuration (2 for death sites detection, 3 for water sites, lots of summons at all levels), thaumaturgy (2 for nature sites detection, 4 for terror), alteration (4 for quickness), construction (4 for skull staves)...