Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Tir na n'Og, Land of the Ever Young

The Early Age "Land of the Ever-Young" exists as a nation ruled by a magical race known as Tuatha and their Sidhe descendants. The Fir Bolg, lesser descendants of the Nemedians, compose much of the population. The Sidhe and Tuatha are able to weave illusions to hide their true appearance.

Tir na n'Og is a blessed isle surrounded by whispering mists. It is the home of the Tuatha, a highly magical race descended from the Nemedians who once warred with the Fomorians. The Tuatha have made themselves lords and masters over the Fir Bolg, a lesser race descended from the same Nemedian ancestors. With the aid of the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha attacked the Fomorian giants and almost succeeded where the Nemedians failed, but eventually the Fomorians proved too powerful and the Tuatha were driven back to their blessed isle. The Tuatha and their Sidhe descendants have turned to crafts, poetry and magical arts, but some have chosen the path of war and have become warriors and generals of great renown. The Fir Bolg, inferior to the Tuatha but still far superior to ordinary men, compose much of the population and serve as farmers and lowly warriors.

This nation was added in the Dominions 3.06 patch.

Overview
Though Vanheim or Helheim steal most of the attention, Tir na n'Og constitutes the 'other' EA glamoured-nation; one of stealthy glamoured mage-priests, assassins and high-quality light troops. Combining Holy magic with an elemental Air/Nature combo figures prominently in it's diverse commander lineup. Tir na n'Og's national spell songs lend it's magi and troops staying-power in battle.

Strengths: Weaknesses:
 * Glamoured commanders/magi: including mage-priests and assassins.
 * Good chaff commanders.
 * Strong early access to Air/Nature magic and good Holy; possibly strong Fire (through random hero event)
 * Can eventually break into good Water and forge your way into Earth.
 * Tutha and many Sidhe commanders come armed with magic weapons.
 * Recruit-everywhere glamoured troops and excellent chaff.
 * Mobility through forests.
 * High-MR
 * Spell songs
 * Mages are pricey (though upkeep is reasonable).
 * Sacred troops are expensive and cap-only.
 * Mostly light-armed and -armored troops.
 * No national access to Astral, Blood or Death (no clear end-game magic).

Units
Tir Na n'Og has two fundamentally different operational troop types: a 'mundane' variety comprised of Fir Bolg warriors, and 'stealthy' glamoured troops comprised of Sidhe and Tuatha. There are no national cavalry units.

Fir Bolg Troops
Fir Bolg are essentially long-lived heroic humans. This effectively translates to +2/+3 extra points in each of the basic stats as compared to like human troop types (HP/Attack/Defence/Morale/MR) and a lifespan of 150 years. None of the Fir Bolg wear helmets, which makes them all somewhat under-armored even for Early Age.
 * Fir Bolg Militia: Gold 10, Resources 5
 * Your cheapest unit. Their improved stats almost allow Fir Bolg militia to be used as you would human light-infantry. The biggest downside is lack of protective headgear drops their armor to that of being practically butt-naked. They comprise a main part of your PD, so best look for ways to augment their use. If you can improve their morale and armor through magic (Protection, Iron/Wooden Warriors, Legions of Steel), they can function as adequate inexpensive melee blockers. Alternatively, incapacitate the enemy (False Fetters, Tangle Vines, Sleep Cloud, etc) while your militia mob them.


 * Fir Bolg Slinger: Gold 11, Resources 2
 * An excellent MM-2 slinger with good precision. Clearly superior to their indy counterparts. While you'll still want to find some forestry-savvy tribal archers (wolf-tribe, deer-tribe, etc) to keep up with your glamoured troops on forest maps, these guys do just fine in massed numbers vs light- and medium troops.


 * Friendly-fire is a real problem for Tir na n'Og, especially when slingers are scripted to 'fire closest' (ie. your PD). Their bullets frequently pop friendly glamours and kill your lightly-armored melee blockers. Even your high-end Tuatha are not immune to this, and frequently suffer as many casualties through FF as through enemy hits.


 * Fir Bolg Warrior (Javelin/Spear): Gold 13, Resources 10
 * A solid MM-2 light-infantry javelinist with high defense-skill, if a bit under-armored for their oft used front-line blocker role. Well-aimed mass javelins volleys can devastate unarmored indy/barbarian troopers and pop enemy glamours. Spears prove underwhelming weapons vs heavy armors, so employ others to do any heavy hitting. Try improving their staying-power to medium-infantry grade using Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants and Weapons of Sharpness.


 * Fir Bolg Warrior (Axe): Gold 13, Resources 9
 * Spears & slings don't reliably pierce the heavy armors of the Age (ie. Abysian infantry, Mictlan sun warriors, Ermor Triarii, T'ien C'hi nobles, etc), thus your axe-wielders are the grunts who take on the heavies. A good all-round melee fighter with a decent weapon whose only real downside is their light armor - all too often they are called upon to go toe-to-toe vs iron-clad enemies. Once you research the magic to improve their armor (or debuff the enemy), they can be considered proper medium troops.

Glamoured Troops
The Sidhe are a mix between the Fir Bolg and an even longer-lived woodland fey-warrior race known as Tuatha. Both races are Size-2 glamoured, stealthy, know forestry survival and have partial darkvision. In addition all Tuatha are sacred. Wearing bronze helmets upgrades their armor to 'meh' medium quality.
 * Sidhe Warrior: Gold 25, Resources 12
 * Recruitable in any fortress; the mainstay trooper of your early-game threat-projection. As a non-sacred front-line medium-infantry unit, their biggest downside is cost/upkeep and a rather underwhelming spear. Glamoured Sidhe warriors make great missile magnets and/or melee blockers, and even vs spellcasters they effectively have 2 lives. But beware... they are by no means invulnerable! Massed missile-troops popping the glamour from afar is their bane, and once it is dispelled, they are merely an expensive Fir Bolg Javelineer wearing a helmet! Which begs the question: Is it better to buy 2 Fir Bolgs or 1 Sidhe Warrior?


 * Tuatha Warrior: Gold 50, Resources 22
 * Your only national sacred troops are also capital-only. But with MM-2 and forestry survival, they can still generally get to where they are needed in an acceptable timely manner. They are EXPENSIVE for Size-2 foot troops, but wield magic spears (handy vs other nations' glamoured troopers and ethereal summons). Even so, they need a decent bless to justify the high price tag. Like their Sidhe counterparts, their Bane is massed archers popping their glamour from afar.

Provincial Defense
Tir na n'Og PD is excellent vs light- and medium-infantry, but really struggles vs heavily-armored enemies (unassisted by magic, spears and slings don't reliably pierce 15+ protection).
 *  1+ Fir Bolg Champion commander + gain 1 Fir Bolg slinger and 1 Fir Bolg Militia per point of PD.
 * 20+ Sidhe Champion mage-priest + gain 1 Sidhe Warrior per point of PD.

As an unscripted mage, the AI-run Sidhe Champion will cast whatever spells you have researched, or national spell songs. The AI prefers ranged attacks over buffs, so spell song use drops off dramatically as you learn higher spells.

Commanders
Like your troops, Tir na n'Og commanders are divided between the Fir Bolg grunts and stealthy Sidhe/Tuatha elites. Interestingly however, most Sidhe commanders are also sacred mage-priests, blurring the prior distinction between Sidhe and Tuatha.
 * Fir Bolg Scout: Gold 25, Resources 10, Upkeep 1.7; Stealthy
 * While certainly deployable as you would any scout, like all Fir Bolg this guy's improved stats actually bump him up to a combat-worthy thugable commander. As such he potentially makes for a dirt-cheap stealthy magic-item-wielding battle chassis and/or anti-(weak)PD raider!


 * Fir Bolg Champion: Gold 45, Resources 12, Upkeep 3
 * Another potential thug chassis with impressive stats for the money, the poor guy unfortunately suffers through association for not being stealthy. As such he is often mistakenly relegated to mere fetch-and-carry jobs in the Tir na n'Og army. The javelins are a nice touch as they can be thrown before being scripted to Stay Behind Troops, yet even Fir Bolg commanders seem to have an aversion for helmets. Give him a brand and/or a vine shield and let him show those Sidhe basterds what he can do! There's always plenty more where he came from to pick up the item and wield it in turn when he falls!


 * Sidhe Champion: Gold 140, Resources 19, Upkeep 4.7, Research 4; A1N1H1 Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Supply +, Darkvision 50
 * The key to the Sidhe Champion is that he is both sacred and a mage and recruitable everywhere. Hence, though evoking sticker-shock, as far as upkeep goes he is dirt cheap, the equivalent of a 70-gold non-sacred mage. With Magic 3 scales, this translates to a pretty cheaply maintained researcher at 6 research/turn (e.g. similar to Ulm's smith-priests or Caelum's seraphs). In battle, he can self buff, cast spell songs and throw some shock-based magic. If you can get him into the front line, you may even be able to deploy the rarely seen shocking grasp.


 * Sidhe Lord: Gold 280, Resources 16, Upkeep 9.3, Research 5; A2N1H2 Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Supply +, Darkvision 50
 * Description


 * Bean Sidhe: Gold 220, Resources 1, Upkeep 7.3, Research 6; A1W1N1?1(+AWEN 100) Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Supply +, Darkvision 50
 * Description


 * Baobhan Sidhe:	Gold 225, Resources 1, Upkeep 15, Research 4; A2 Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Darkvision 50, Assassin
 * Description


 * Ri: Gold 330, Resources 22, Upkeep 11, Research 7; A2N2H2??(+AWEN 100/AWEN 10) Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Supply +, Darkvision 50
 * Description


 * Tuatha Sorceress: Gold 360, Resources 1, Upkeep 12, Research 8; A3N2H2??(+AWEN 100/AWEN 10) Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Supply +, Darkvision 50
 * Description

Research Costs
So the table demonstrates that under Magic scales, the Sidhe Champion is the most economic researcher of Tir na n'Og's lineup, with respect to upkeep costs. That and Magic-3 scales represents a 50% increase in research per unit cost using them, which is pretty huge.

Under Drain scales, the Bean Sidhe is the most cost-effective researcher, though you are paying anywhere from 50-100% more gold per unit of research as opposed to Magic scales. Still, Drain boosts our MR even higher, and we can make up for higher research costs by taking Order to increase gold income (ie. the Sidhe Champion under Magic-1 and the Bean Sidhe under Drain-2 each bring in 5 research/mage, though at a difference of 120 design points and 50% more gold/research).

It should also be noted that, unlike your other magi, Bean Sidhe and Baobhan Sidhe don't need temples to recruit. So there might be some short-term savings there.

Heroes
Tir na n'Og's heroes only appear under Order + Luck scales.
 * Lugh the Long Handed
 * F3A3N2H3 Leadership(175) - Gae Assail, Rainbow, bronze scale cuirass. Sacred, awe(+4), fire resistant(100), glamour, fire shield(9), siege bonus(25), sailing, supply bonus(20), forge bonus(10), darkvision(100).


 * With all his perks, Lugh is a useful hero indeed! He brings new powerful magic to the nation and comes armed with 2 unique weapons; a length-6 magic spear called Gae Assail (16 dmg, no str bonus & small area fire) and a Rainbow sling (12 AN dmg, no str bonus & causes eyeloss; 10 ammo).


 * Lugh the Long Handed is a hero among the Tuatha. He is a grandson of Balor, High King of the Fomorians, but his father and foster father are of Tuathan stock. He appears as a young, handsome boy ablaze in solar glory. When he first arrived in the misty halls of the Druid Kings of Tir na n'Og, he was denied entrance if he did not show himself useful. But as there already were swordsmen, mages, harpists, poets, shipwrights, smiths and craftsmen, there was no place for Lugh until he asked if there was one who was able in all these arts. There was not and Lugh was accepted as a champion under the name Lugh of Many Skills. As champion of the Tuatha kings, he was dismayed at the acceptance of Fomorian oppression, led by his grandfather Balor. He now leads his people in war against the fell giants of Fomoria, armed with his enchanted spear. The spear is awakened and bursts into flames when battle is near. Such is the rage of the spear that only Lugh can hold it back. This spear has given Lugh his name Long Handed. Lugh also wields the sling Rainbow, which will always strike the eye of the target.

Starting Sites

 * Tir na n'Og:
 * Enables recruitment of Tuatha Warrior, Ri, Tuatha Sorceress
 * Produces 3 Air gems/turn
 * Mag Mor:
 * Produces 2 Nature + 1 Earth gems/turn

National Spells

 * Song of Bravery: (Ench-0 N1)
 * Soothing Song:	(Ench-0 N1)
 * Healing Song: (Ench-0 N1)

Fortification Build Types
Tir na n'Og builds the following fortification types for the listed terrain: Economically speaking, Tir na n'Og can best improve it's gold income by building on farmland terrain. The high Admin of fortified cities both increases gold revenue in the province as well as brings in production from surrounding lands. This extra gold income will generally pay for itself within 2 years under positive scales.

National Summons

 * Contact Cu Sidhe: (Conj-3 N2, 10N gems) Summons a pack of 7 huge green sacred fey hounds from the Land of the Everyoung.

Strategies
Kinda like the other two glamour nations, Tir na n'Og would certainly benefit from an F9W9 bless. But your sacred troops might be too few to justify that, and both sacred troops and sacred 'combat' commanders already have magic weapons even without a bless.

Scales
Order and Luck scales are a must, to unlock your game-changing national heroes. Magic scales is also recommended for the research bonus, as it makes your otherwise pricey magi more cost-effective researchers.

An alternative strategy would be to use a Drain scale to boost our excellent MR even further, though it would slow research severely.