What do do with Kailasa post-clam?

[P3D]

Kailasa was one of the nations hit most by the gemgen nerf of CMB 1.6. Even compared to BL and Patala, it has problems with early expansion.
The sacreds are OK if you accept the vulnerability to arrows (a problem managable against indies with decoys). But they are just expensive to maintain. And I don't mean the gold price, but thanks to being magical beings, they need either a 320g cap-only commander, or a mage (for magical leadership) AND a priest (to bless them) for each expansion parties. Plus the indie commanders to replenish the decoy troops.
The flexibility of the out-of-capital sacreds is limited by the same.

So they need a stronger economy to balance the lack of clams, and this is where they run into a Jervellan Wall - no fast early game expansion. Bless strategy is not optimal (several other nations can do it with much better efficiency) for it when it is needed the most.
There are two alternatives. An SC pretender with marginal minor bless is kind of a waste with the sacred troops available. Second is an awake researcher, and Yaksha thugs with Stoneskin.

Summons won't help it. At Conj 4 (360RP) one can use the cap-only mages to summon more of their kind for 25N. The first H2 priest is at Conj 6, and cannot be summoned without an S3+ pretender or an astral skullcap (Const 6).

Should this lack of suitable commanders should be addressed by modding in a new unit? A priest with magical leadership, either non-cap-only or lvl 0/1 national summon?

Or they are just fine as is?

[Executor]

Seriously? You underestimate Kailasa very much. They are the best of the monkey race, well except blood monkeys.
They expand rather fast with their sacreds. They are not -ok-, they are awesome.
You can easily rush plenty of nations with Kailasa, that awe is hard to overcome early on, especially if you mix in some panic and stuff.
You only need a handfull of them to take any indie province, 5-7 of them suffice, and that's just a turns recruitment. You don't need expensive mages to lead them, you can use gurus and other crap mages that cost like 80 gold at the start. And as for priests, well heck just make some indie once. It's not like you need that many priest to bless them.

They kick ***, high HP, awe, good def, and multiple attacks.
Take an A bless if you dislike the arrow vulnerability, and they can make work a lot of bless combos.

Kailasa is the least affected by clam loss.

[Soyweiser]

Use indy priests with yogi's to ferry around the sacreds. So you don't need the cap only units everywhere. Yogi + priest can also lead some decoys.

I haven't had much problems with expansion yet. But I only tried some SP. And am going to play them in a game soon. (At the other forum).

Edit:
Ninja'ed.

[Soyweiser]

Also casting these two spells is a bad idea.

http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Contact_Yaksha
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Contact_Yakshini

You waste a lot of valuable nature gems, and get the same stuff as your cap only, and still have to pay upkeep costs. I would rather use the N gems to make vine shields.

You just need to get a additional castle up as fast as possible. So you can get both the yogi, and the cap only mages at the same time.

[thejeff]

Right. The tricky part with any nation with Magic Being sacreds is how to use them effectively until you get that second castle up. Kailasa complicates this by having their only mage-priests being so expensive. You need to use 2 cap recruiting turns to get a cost-effective mage and priest.

I'd probably throw a temple up for indy priests as soon as I found one and then worry about the second castle.
Still, I'd say most of expansion will be done before you've got the castle up, unless you're on a really big map. Getting one up before the end of the first year is one thing, having it contribute significantly before then is another. 1700 gold is hard to pull together in the first 6 months.