Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Mictlan, Reign of the Lawgiver

Mictlan temporarily abandons its Blood Cult in the Middle Age and embraces a variety of magic. The powerful Couatl offer their guidance.

Units

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

Commanders

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

National Summons

 * Unit: Gems z
 * Description

Jaguar Horde
I'm far from a hardened veteran in Dominions 3, but I like to think I've got one solid strategy that can hang with the best of them. Mictlan of any era fits this mold, but I like the Middle Age to avoid the mandatory blood sacrifice.

The long and short of this strategy is a powerful blessing. Mictlan are (one of?) the only nation who can build level 3 priests. That means a lot of flexibility in your armies. You don't need four or five priests spamming "Bless" to field a large army of holy units. You don't become overly reliant on your prophet and national heroes, either.

What else sets the Mictlan apart? Cheap, effective holy units. A powerful blessing works best in volume. The Vanheim's Van might run a Jaguar Warrior through, especially with an equivalent blessing, but good luck fielding them in mass early. And, for most nations in most eras, good luck fielding good holy units anywhere but your capital. Jaguar Warriors are cheap, particularly in resources. They're fast, effective, and are only found wanting in protection. I exhausted every nation in every era. NOTHING is on par with the Jaguar Warrior in terms of cost effectiveness and availability.

Those two ingredients set Mictlan apart. It is not better than the competition, there simply isn't any other nation which can compete.

Scale Design
Scales just aren't so important. Burn the countryside. Better a swamp in your hands than an utopia in their's. Gold is the bottleneck here, not resources. Don't lower your income to nothing.

What is important is your dominion rating. Early in the game this will determine the maximum number of holy units you can produce per turn. Three per turn isn't as bad as you might think. These guys will be juggernauts. Just don't neglect dominion, leaving it at one candle, your early expansion will suffer.

Pretender Design
Cheap and imprisoned, we want high levels in magic in at least two elements. Cyclops can work, Hag as well, but in my experience the mounted Arch-Mage delivers the most. Feel free to try different blessings but the old faithful is level 9 in Earth, Fire, and Water. You'll have Jaguar Warriors moving like bullets, throwing two AP attacks a round for obscene damage. Their attack and defense are among the best in the game. Their weakness, Protection, is mitigated. And, last but not least, they never get tired. These guys are monsters.

Expansion
Independents shouldn't pose much of a problem at all, even on higher strength settings. Heavy Cavalry and Knights might drop a few Jaguar Warriors, but most enemies won't even inflict a single casualty. Early on you will have mixed armies, otherwise you're wasting resources. Those non-holy boys will drop eventually, and the Jaguars will do most of the damage, but it's still good to have them to even the odds.

Expand intelligently, of course. Lightning fast, sure. Take a province or three a turn, but pay attention to geography. Fortify chokepoints. That's just general strategy, though.

Perhaps worthy of note: At the highest levels of province defense Jaguar warriors are added to the garrison, along with a priest commander(he comes fairly early). If you can afford the cost of getting it that high this makes up for your otherwise under whelming province defense and can certainly break enemy armies for you.

Research Order
I've yet to refine this. Nothing is vital for your expansion that you don't have from the start. The Mictlan are a lean running machine and too much reliance on magic would probably bog them down. Feel free to edit in suggestions, though. Handling gems is probably my weakest part of the game and so I tend to avoid it. This strategy is built to not need battlefield buffs, but I'm sure they would aid you further.

It is worth researching Conjuration until you get the Summon Jaguars ritual. They're effective holy troops. More cogs in the wheel, if you will. Use the ritual liberally once you get it to supplement your armies.

- Un Oso, Apr. 30 2008 11:00P.M.