Bogarus Quick Guide

[Illuminated One]

Heck, the Bogarus thread actually gave me an idea.

Recruit two Occultists. Recruit a Fivefold Angel and some stealthy units.
Research Blood 1 and get some bloodslaves (doable with powerful sage god and not so bad scales or maybe fountain of blood).
Additionaly get an indie commander/scout to carry bloodslaves.
Fivefold Angel gets the stealthy units and sneaks into the indie province.
Occultists attack the province with (Call Lesser Horror)(Retreat).

Next turn: Take one of the stealthy units from the Fivefold Angel away and drop it into the province (empty province + your unit in it = your province). FA sneaks into next indie province with the rest of the troops, Occultists attack it. That way you are taking one province each turn with an "army" assembled in three turns for the cost of 2 bloodslaves. Only stop when you run out of blood slaves and let your mages bloodhunt.
That's beautiful you're expansion armies are bloodhunters, lab/temple builders and researchers once you stop expanding.

[chrispedersen]

Exactly... thats.. half the secret = )
I'm a little disappointed you figured it out = )

Tip: Avoid cavalry, and always bring 4 regular units (not archers), set towards the back with hold and attack.

[Redeyes]

It has been covered a couple of times as far as I can recall, it isn't unique to Bogarus.
In the LA Ulm, Abysia and Mictlan are just as good at it, with a couple other nations (Marignon, Utgård, Gath, etc) touching on the ability with randoms.

Oh, and it's only viable in CBM.
Without it Call Horror is much higher in level.

[chrispedersen]

It is unique to Bogarus, for a couple of reasons:

A). There's still half a secret = ).
B. No other nation than bogarus has the research to pull it off quickly. Those starets are looking at 14-15 rp.
C. Other nations have more profitable avenues to expand: Mictlan has great jaguar warriors that allows him to launch an expansion group every turn.

The best bogarus can do with occultists (hint) is one new expansion group every two turns.

Still, thats pretty good for bogarus, and *much* better than trying to use their crappy national troops.

D. You can use either an FoB B6-9E3S4 Dom 6, or a great sage. The great sage has a lot better upside, but has a lot more variability of results: A rapid unrest can hose you; The Fob does not have the upside, but the consistent blood income under CBM is exactly what you need.

E. There are several variations:
O3 Cold2, Growth3: If you go this route your income is roughly 600. Tax at 140%, and patrol the first turn, you will have the money to build your castle turn 2 or 3, whenever you take the province.

If you go this way, your income is great. I'm personally divided on where to put forts. I think you will be rushed, so you should probably look for swamps, forests or hills. But each of the cities in the clear will give you better income... (they just take 5 turns).

Figure it this way: Your entire expansion army costs 236 gp.

F: Regarding unique to CBM: I agree completely. Thats what I said in my original post, too = )
G: One little minor flavor touch. *If* you go with B9E3S4, your khysts have that *useless* blood curse...

Only it turns out that ... its actually not useless. Use the kysts to attack cavalry or enemy SCs. Sure, it isn't a big thing - but it does pretty much guarantee a rack of afflictions.....

G. A few.. other touches: Armor of souls, is only Con-2. And Longbows of accuracy are only Con-0. And .. what might you be able to do with a communion of three occultists, and hellpower......

[Illuminated One]

Ah, I think I can guess the other half of the secret.
You don't retreat from the battle, right?

I tried it and it worked quite well. The retreating cost me some precious turns of going into the same province I cleared to get to other provinces though. Was on the other hand on a very tight spot in the map, on a open map it might work quite well. And starting to pull in about 100 blood slaves per turn mid year 2 without having focused on building a blood economy is nice.

[chrispedersen]

*If* you get it exactly right, I'll tell.
You're almost right on the blood economy too = ).

Isn't it cool!!!

[P3D]

You don't need Khysts to get curse.
There's that lvl 0 summoned hag for 2 death gem which has a Curse special attack.

More anti-SC stuff
There's also an ethereal troop for a single air gem, which has Attack skill 21 with a Plague Scythe doing 19 damage. They are unfortunately fragile and you can only summon them one by one - and by D random starets only (A1D1).

The Zmey (fire dragon) summon is actually nice. Flying 45HP, 13prot, 3xbite+breath, for a mere 3 fire gems. Problem is being cold blooded comes with 10 Encumbrance in cold-3.

[chrispedersen]

The hag is more interesting for the misfortune she brings; but that doesn't make khysts uninteresting.

And I completely love the zhmeys. Con-6 is rough tho.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by P3D

You don't need Khysts to get curse.
There's that lvl 0 summoned hag for 2 death gem which has a Curse special attack.

More anti-SC stuff
There's also an ethereal troop for a single air gem, which has Attack skill 21 with a Plague Scythe doing 19 damage. They are unfortunately fragile and you can only summon them one by one - and by D random starets only (A1D1).

The Zmey (fire dragon) summon is actually nice. Flying 45HP, 13prot, 3xbite+breath, for a mere 3 fire gems. Problem is being cold blooded comes with 10 Encumbrance in cold-3.

p3 do I remember right that you were into modding?

If so, I'd like to see someone write a small mod to fix the weapons on the zmey.. as others have mentioned they *never* use them.