Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Agartha, Ktonian Dead

Overview
In the Late Age, the Agarthans have died off and the humans have turned towards necromancy. The humans revere the mummified corpses of the Pale Ones and the Ktonian Necromancers know how to give them false life.

Units
Sapper: Gold 20, Resource 18. Worth 8 normal men when attacking a castle.

Blindfighter: Gold 30, Resource 37, sacred. Very heavy infantry with some encumbrance problems. Pretty good chassis for an E9 bless, which also benefits your mages with extra reinvigoration. Most of the actual damage will still have to be dealt by crossbowmen and/or mages but Blindfighters make good blockers. The tactical potential of Blindfighters + Darkness is just gravy on top. Note: Blindfighters are magical and need magical leadership. This is both good and bad; good because a Ktonian Necromancer can lead a good-sized army of Blindlords and Crossbowmen/Cave Knights even with a regular leadership of 10, and bad because you basically need a Necromancer or a Blindlord to shuttle Blindfighters around. It also makes them potentially vulnerable to some high-end spells and magical items.

Agarthan Light Crossbowman

 * Traits
 * Darkvision(50)


 * Armor
 * Ring Mail Cuirass, Leather Cap


 * Weapons
 * Short Sword, Agarthan Steel Crossbow


 * Description
 * "In the dark caverns of Agartha, missile weapons were never very useful, but with the impending conquest of the surface world, this has changed. As wood and its substitutes are rare in the caverns, iron and steel are used as much as possible. Agarthan crossbows are made of steel instead of wood. Crossbows are much preferred to bows, as they are more accurate and the Agarthans have poor eyesight."


 * Comments
 * Steel crossbows do 11 points of damage instead of the normal 10. Slow ROF but otherwise pretty decent.

Agarthan Crossbowman

 * Traits
 * Darkvision(50)


 * Armor
 * Chain Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap


 * Weapons
 * Short Sword, Agarthan Steel Crossbow


 * Description
 * "In the dark caverns of Agartha, missile weapons were never very useful, but with the impending conquest of the surface world, this has changed. As wood and its substitutes are rare in the caverns, iron and steel are used as much as possible. Agarthan crossbows are made of steel instead of wood. Crossbows are much preferred to bows, as they are more accurate and the Agarthans have poor eyesight."


 * Comments
 * Steel crossbows do 11 points of damage instead of the normal 10. Slow ROF but otherwise pretty decent.

Commanders

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

Ktonian Necromancer, Gold 200, Resource 1?, sacred An excellent, excellent battle mage. F1E2D2 (FESD random) means everything from Nether Darts to Magma Eruption to Cloud of Death. Good researcher, and cheap to maintain. Main weaknesses are a map move of 1 and poor precision.

Starting Sites
2 death, 1 earth, 1 fire

National Spells
Don't overlook Summon Umbral (2 death gems, summons a rather tough life-draining undead, use in groups of 8-10), Summon Sepulchral (sacred giant undead with 68 hp, but don't forget to install DrPraetorious' hotfix or blessings won't work on undead), or Call Tomb Oracle (E3D3H3 mage/priest with lots of hit points).

National Summons

 * Unit: Gems z
 * Description

Strategies
You have access to cheap sacred mages, skull mentors, and lightless lanterns, so research should be easy. Magic-1 is probably an unnecessary scale because necromancers are so cheap that you might as well recruit them instead of the lesser mages (200 gold for 8 research instead of 100 for 4), and IMHO a 12% boost to research isn't worth 40 points for Agartha. I like E9 and D9 blesses because they boost mages, although D9 might be unnecessarily high.

I see several possible paths for Agartha which are not mutually exclusive:

Focus on sacred troops like blindfighters and/or Sepulchrals. Take a heavy bless and rely on buffer spells like Strength of Giants to do damage. Research Conjuration-3 and Construction-7 for Weapons of Sharpness, Legions of Steel, and Enchantment-3 for Strength of Giants. Alteration-6 gives Darkness, which is an awesome buff for Blindfighters even if it slightly hurts battlemages. One advantage: your armies will be really light on maintenance costs for the punch they pack, much like Helheim.

Battlemages. Try to find air mages somewhere (Crystal Amazons) to cast Aim on your Necromancers. Evocation gives Magma Eruption, Shadow Blast, Nether Darts, Fireball, Falling Fires, Pillar of Fire, Cloud of Death, etc. With Phoenix Power, a Skull of Fire and a Flame Helmet you should be able to manage Flame Storm for some huge AOE damage. (If your pretender can forge Rings of Wizardry you can cast Flames From the Sky, too, which combined with a D9 blessing and a Shroud of the Battle Saint should kill or cripple about half of the largest enemy army.) Friendly fire could potentially be a problem for your blockers/chaff, so you may stick to non-fire spells like Magma Eruption (where your armor can protect you) or take a light Astral bless for extra MR (vs. Cloud of Death, Nether Darts, etc.) or just replenish your chaff frequently. E9 blessing would be nice but is not essential.

Conventional troops. Maybe take an E9 blessing, but buy just enough Cave Knights and/or Blindfighters for the front lines of your armies while crossbowmen shower death. Blindfighters are slow enough that enemies will be intercepted closer to your lines than not, which is both bad (because enemies may kill your crossbowmen/mages) and good (Agarthan precision problems matter less). Cave Knights may seem expensive, but if the Cave Knight dies you have a Cave Drake--58 HP unit with 22 Prot that costs zero upkeep. (Low MR though.) You may want to take Production scales.

Undead summons. Plan on shifting over to Umbrals, Sepulchrals, Tomb Oracles, Iron Ancestors, Wraith Lords, Tartarians, etc. in the late game. They are pretty tough, and this lets you take heavy Death scales for extra points (because gem income is not population-dependent). If you need extra gold for battlemages you can convert gems with alchemy or hunt for Earth sites (Gold Mine, etc.). Combine with Cold scales to enhance the effectiveness of undead Chill. Agarthan Sepulchrals will never be as frightening as Niefel Jarls, but with Agarthan battlemage backup they don't have to be. You'll want N4 on your pretender for the regeneration and the ability to Gift-of-Reason your Tartarians.

N4 also lets you break into A3 with a Faerie Queen, who can forge Boots of Flying, etc., to help alleviate your problems with mapmove.

Necromancers with an Astral pick can also teleport, given a Crystal Coin and a Starshine Skullcap.