Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/C'tis, Lizard Kings

The land of C'tis is hot and fertile. The Early Era sees C'tis in the height of its ancient power. The ruling class of Lizard Men enslave the barbaric Carnivores. Necromantic Sauromancers practice ancient rituals of death and nature magic.

Overview
C'tis is a nation of lizardmen based on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Feel free to read up on these fascinating cultures, but I am not here to discuss them. C'tis's advantages and disadvantages are pretty obvious. While C'tis might not have the stealthy troops of Pangaea or the broad magic skills of T'ien Ch'i, they have many talents at their disposal.

C'tissian Troops
While national troops by and large become obsolete by the late game, having a solid understanding of a nation's forces is necessary for a strong early game. A powerful early game position will often translate into a powerful late game position.

The C'tissian lizardmen are different in stats from humans in several areas. These are the basic changes that C'tissians have: slightly more hit points, some natural protection, lower morale, greater magic resistance, slightly higher encumbrance, and slower battlefield movement. Most C'tissians also have several special abilities to take note of: 50% resistance to poison, swamp survival, and cold-bloodedness.

Units
Like all Militia, the C'tissian version is cheap, weak, and very vulnerable. Their use is as fodder.
 * Militia: Gold 7, Resources 2
 * Description:

The C'tissian Light Infantry, like all javelin throwers, can be tricky to use. Javelins cannot be thrown far and are quite inaccurate. On the upside, javelins can be quite powerful when they connect with something. It is important to set them up correctly on the battlefield. With only a shield and their scales for protection, don’t place them at the very front of your forces. Put them slightly behind and at the sides of your frontline troops. Make sure that their formations are not too deep. Give them the orders to Fire Closest (if set near the center) or Fire Archers (if set on the far flanks) to have them get within range of their targets and release two volleys. Some people also feel that giving them no orders is best. Javelins can also be a good counter to troops with high defense skill, because, as with all missile weapons, defense skill doesn't come into play.
 * Light Infantry: Gold 10, Resources 5
 * Description:

A very useful unit, the City Guard fills roles both on and off the battlefield. On the battlefield, they can be used as a light version of your Heavy Infantry. Their biggest drawback though is the lack of a helmet. With only their natural protection of 5 protecting their head, they are vulnerable to the occasional head strike, thus reducing their efficiency as heavy infantry as they will take many hits on the frontlines. City Guards can also be used in a defense role for your forts. Each one will act as two soldiers defending a fortification when you are under siege. Remember that an enemy army that takes another turn to break down the gate of a fort, is an army that is doing nothing else. At 10 gold and 10 resources, a number a City Guards can be recruited each month even from low resource areas for little expense.
 * City Guard: Gold 10, Resources 10
 * Description:

Pretty self-explanatory, Heavy Infantry should be placed of the front of the battlefield. Their job is simple, absorb hits, and the C'tissian Heavy Infantry are very good at this. At a time when 10 is a protection value few units have, their head protection of 18 and body protection of 16 make them very resilient. What is particularly important is that their map movement speed is one. This will slow down any army they are a part of.
 * Heavy Infantry: Gold 10, Resources 15
 * Description:

The Falchioneer is the first of several offense oriented units at C'tis's disposal. They are armed with two falchions. While these swords do not increase defense skill like their cousin the broad sword, they do have a rather high damage of 7 each. Unfortunately, using two weapons reduces the attack skill of the wielder. This can be negated by ambidexterity, but Falchioneers only have an ambidexterity value of 2. What all this means is that their attack skill for each falchion is 8! Luckily, with two falchions, they dish out two swings each round, which helps to increase their chances of scoring a hit. Falchioneers are slightly faster than the other green C'tissians and braver to boot. Their head and body protection values are identical to the City Guards, which gives them some staying power, but they have no shield, which makes them more vulnerable to archers. In the end, Falchioneers are not the wisest of investments. With a low attack skill and short weapons, many of their attacks will miss or be repelled. Against large enemies who are bad at dodging attacks, Falchioneers are a good choice, but against the majority of forces that you will go against, there are better troops C'tis has.
 * Falchioneer: Gold 13, Resources 15
 * Description:

The second offensive unit for C'tis, the Slave Warrior is the first of the tan lizardmen that have been enslaved by the other C'tissians. The Slave Warrior is good on the attack, very good. Like the Falchioneer, the Slave Warrior has two weapons (a trident and a bite), but unlike the Falchioneer, the Slave Warrior is actually capable of hitting things, quite reliably too. They have everything an offensive unit needs: high strength, good attack skill, multiple weapons, good morale, and good speed. These things all combine into a formidable unit. Slave Warriors have poor defense skill and little protection, a bad combination. Finally, while their resource cost is low at 3, Slave Warriors cost 12 gold, which isn’t cheap when you take into account how fragile they are. Great care must be taken when placing them on the battlefield.
 * Slave Warrior: Gold 12, Resources 3
 * Description:

Possibly my most favorite C'tissian unit, Elite Warriors may be expensive at 14 gold and 9 resources, but you get what you pay for. Elite Warriors are even braver than their lesser cousins and have better attack skill. The biggest upgrade though is the addition of a scale mail cuirass. This makes them more survivable in melee and reduces their vulnerability to archers.
 * Elite Warrior: Gold 14, Resources 9
 * Description:

The Runner should probably be renamed the Flanker as that is it's primary use. The Runner's stats are almost identical to the Slave Warrior's, making them good on the attack but bad on the defense. The two most notable differences between the Runner and the Slave Warrior are that Runners are armed with spears instead of tridents and Runners are faster, obviously. They are not as fast as cavalry, but as C'tis, you don't have access to cavalry. They are useful for flanking the enemy and attacking undefended archers. Since archers are rarely good in melee, the Runner's poor defense skill and low protection matter less, and they can reach archers quickly as well. On a special note, their map movement is three, allowing them to be brought along with light cavalry and Lizard Chariot armies.
 * Runner: Gold 12, Resources 2
 * Description:

The first of two sacred units that EA C'tis has, the Sacred Serpent is very important for the armies of C'tis. As you know by now, many C'tissians have low morale. One of the ways of solving this problem is by using Sacred Serpents. They have a powerful Standard +10 ability that will greatly help with morale. Only a few Sacred Serpents can turn a group of cowards into very brave fighters. There are two basic ways to use the Sacred Serpent's standard effect. The first way is too simply place them in the desired squad. The second way is to place them in their own squad to have them avoid direct combat, since they are poor at absorbing hits, and design them to be near the squad whose morale they are supposed to boost when fighting starts. An example is this: Sacred Serpents are slightly faster than Heavy Infantry, so placing them in the same squad could result in the Serpents getting ahead of the Heavy Infantry and taking the initial round of hits. Instead, place the Sacred Serpents in their own squad slightly behind the Heavy Infantry. Not only will this keep the Serpents from being of the frontlines, but also protects them from enemy archers set to fire closest. Sacred Serpents are capable of being recruited from any fort with a temple, but they are NOT useful for an uber bless strategy. They are simply too expensive at 30 gold and not good enough in battle for a bless strategy. Good blesses for a Sacred Serpent are fire (to make it’s great attack skill even better), water (to help it‘s terrible defense skill), and air (to protect against archers).
 * Sacred Serpent: Gold 30, Resources 1
 * Description:

While Lizard Chariots are expensive, they can be well worth it. Of course their high cost makes it difficult to recruit large numbers of them quickly, but they are available in every fort so you have some flexibility with them. Lizard Chariots match the Runner’s map movement and battlefield movement. That speed allows them to be good flankers, but with a defense skill of 14, protection values of 16 body and 20 head, and good morale (as far as C'tissians are concerned) they can also be used as frontal attackers as well. There are two things to be aware of. Since Lizard Chariots are so expensive and tramplers usually accumulate fatigue faster than most units, it is inadvisable to use them in cold provinces. Usually, as C'tis, you try to avoid the cold already, but in a province with a cold scale of two, a Lizard Chariot will have a total fatigue value of 48 after attacking four times, which will typically take only two rounds of attacking! Avoid cold provinces with Lizard Chariots at all costs. Second, and much less important, unlike most C'tissians, Lizard Chariots do not have swamp survival. This means that they won’t be able to move through swamps at full speed. It also means that if they stop in a swamp and start starving, which could easily happen since they consume a lot of supplies, they have no chance of finding food on their own. As far as what Lizard Chariots are useful against, lightly armored troops are their specialty, but they are willing to run over anything smaller than themselves. With a severe lack of archers and cloud spells, they can help EA C'tis deal with glamoured units. If you are using Lizard Chariots in conjunction with smaller troops, it is important to leave their rear open, so if they retreat, no friendly units will get squished.
 * Lizard Chariot: Gold 50, Resources 26
 * Description:

The Serpent Dancer is the second recruitable sacred unit of EA C'tis, and it's single capital-only unit. The majority of the Serpent Dancer's stats are nothing special with the exception of it's defense skill, which is 16. This makes them quite difficult to hit in combat. They are armed with snake staves, which are magical weapons. If you happen to get hit early in the game with ethereal units, Serpent Dancers should be an effective counter against them. The snake staff will also poison those it strikes, allowing Serpent Dancers to wear down enemies that can't hit them. On the downside, with their complete reliance on only their scales for protection, they are very vulnerable to archer fire, and anything that can hit them will usually do a reasonable amount of damage if not outright kill them. Serpent Dancers may be fragile, but they are also cheap at 20 gold and 2 resources. There are primarily two blesses that the Serpent Dancers benefit from. One is a water bless, which would make them nearly untouchable in combat. Second is an air bless, which would greatly reduce their vulnerability to archers. Another thing worth mentioning is that Serpent Dancers are 100% immune to poisons. This makes them useful in situations when you plan on employing poison strategies on the battlefield. Despite their cheapness, it is dangerous to use a high-end bless strategy with Serpent Dancers. Nations with access to water magic and nations with cold dominions can quickly wear down Serpent Dancers. Of course, it is best to experiment and come to your own conclusion.
 * Serpent Dancer: Gold 20, Resources 2
 * Description:

Commanders
The most basic of army leaders that C'tis has, Taskmasters can lead up to 40 units. They are cheap in both gold and resources, making them a good choice when you are on a budget.
 * Taskmaster: Gold 30, Resources 2 (Leads 40 Troops)
 * Description:

The name pretty much says it all. Just like the Taskmaster, a Commander of C'tis can lead up to 40 units. The difference is in cost and quality. Commanders cost a little more in gold and a decent amount in resources. They are equipped exactly the same as C'tissian Heavy Infantry. This makes them substantially more difficult to kill than Taskmasters.
 * Commander of C'tis: Gold 40, Resources 15 (Leads 40 Troops)
 * Description:

If a durable army commander is what you are looking for, then the Lizard Lord is what you want. Costing twice as much as a Taskmaster and more resources than a Commander of C'tis, a Lizard Lord is not cheap. They are tough enough to take on most unequipped assassins (it is nice to be 50% resistant to poison), and arrows and a stray enemy unit or two will have a difficult time taking a Lizard Lord down. They are also capable of leading 80 units, twice as much as a Taskmaster or Commander.
 * Lizard Lord: Gold 60, Resources 21 (Leads 80 Troops)
 * Description:

Hierodules are weak, level one priests (or priestesses, to be more specific). Bringing them along with armies for bless purposes is not a bad idea when you have your sacred troops spread out on the battlefield and don't have a Lizard King to cast Divine Blessing. It is not too hard to have one Hierodule for each sacred squad. Their availability also makes them useful to spam Banishment spells when an opponent throws undead or demons at you. The other main use for Hierodules is to have them go around your empire and build temples. Hierodules are incapable of leading troops.
 * Hierodule: Gold 40, Resources 1 (Leads 0 Troops, Level 1 Priest)
 * Description:

A High Priest of C'tis is a level two priest, which allows him to cast Sermon of Courage. Remember that I said that there are a couple of ways to help some of the C'tisssians' poor morale? The Sacred Serpents is the first. The second way is using Sermon of Courage. It is a good idea to have at least one High Priest of C'tis or Lizard King with each army to cast Sermon of Courage on your forces. Fortunately it is not that hard of a thing to do. You are capable of recruiting a High Priest from any fort with a temple, just like the Hierodule. One of the nice things about them is that they can lead up to 40 units and, thus, can substitute for a Taskmaster or Commander of C'tis. Finally, if there is one commander that you have to deal with old age with, it is the High Priest. Still, they are only occasionally old, and the loss of a single High Priest is rarely something to complain about.
 * High Priest of C'tis: Gold 100, Resources 1 (Leads 40 Troops, Level 2 Priest)
 * Description:

Shamans are anything but power-casters. First off, they are cheap, as far as mages go, and they are recruitable everywhere. Interestingly, Shamans are sacred and yet are not priests. This is both good and bad. The good part is that their upkeep is halved, and they will benefit from any bless that you have (since they are spell casters, an earth bless is best for them). The bad part is that a fort will need a temple before you can recruit them. They have a number of uses off the battlefield. The fact that their initial cost is good and upkeep is low makes Shamans useful in the research department. Though they are not as powerful of researches compared to Sauromancers, their low cost allows you to recruit more of them. Shamans are also capable of casting several ritual spells. One is Arcane Probing. C'tis has a noticeable lack of astral pearls, despite having mages who have skill in astral magic, so get some astral pearls through trading or alchemization to start Probing. Haruspex is another site searching spell Shamans can cast, though not without a little help. Have a Sauromancer forge a Thistle Mace for a Shaman and viola, you can cast Haruspex. Since C'tis actually has a nature gem income to begin with (two gems to be specific), it is easier to cast Haruspex turn after turn than it is to cast Arcane Probing. The Shaman is also capable of summoning up two of C'tis's national summons, Sirrushes and Couatls, and with a little help, three. With a Thistle Mace, a Shaman is capable of summoning Monster Toads. Shamans' use on the battlefield is much more focused. Luck and Body Ethereal are both great spells to cast on Lizard Chariots or Behemoths. Magic Duel is a great way to eliminate enemy astral mages, though the spell requires an astral pearl. Protection is a nice buff spell for your troops. Where Shamans really shine is in Communion. While one or two Shamans can be the Communion Masters and the other Shamans are Communion Slaves, much more powerful spells can be accessed if a Couatl is used as the Master.
 * Shaman: Gold 110, Resources 2 (Leads 10 Troops, Level 1 Astral Level 1 Nature Mage)
 * Description:

Reborn cost 100 gold and 1 resource, which makes them cheaper than Shamans but more expensive in the long run, because Reborn are not sacred. They are recruitable everywhere, so that's always a plus. Off the battlefield, Reborn are excellent for forging Skull Staves. Try to get a hold of a Dwarven Hammer as soon as you can, so you can forge Skull Staves, and other items, for a reduced gem cost. Skull Mentors can also be forged for Reborn to use. This is especially a good idea if you decide to go with a drain scale. Skull Mentors free up your Sauromancers to do more important things too. Reborn are good for summoning up Black Servants, which are important because C'tis suffers from a complete lack of scouts. Until you can find a province where scouts are recruitable, you will have to rely on Black Servants, and in the Early Age, I either have rotten luck or scouts are hard to come by. The Reborn can give himself a Skull Staff to summon Spectres, to help diversify your magic, and Mound Fiends, who are primarily used to reanimate hordes of skeletons. A Reborn with a Skull Staff can also summon up Behemoths, which are powerful on the battlefield if you have a Shaman to cast Luck and Body Ethereal on it. They can cast Dark Knowledge, or you can just summon a Revenant to do it. Revenants and Reborn both can forge Black Bows of Botulf, which will put a damper on any SC. On the battlefield, Reborn have only a few uses. They can be skelly spammers by casting Raise Skeletons repeatedly in battle. Even only a few Reborn doing this can result in a swarm of Longdead on the battlefield. They are also great for throwing out Disintegrate constantly when taking on a SC late in the game. By and large though, with the exception of research efficiency, which Shamans are the best at anyways, there is nothing a Reborn can do that a Sauromancer can't do better. Normally money limits your high-end mage recruitment, but Sauromancers are fairly cheap. Use Reborn if you are pinching every penny.
 * Reborn: Gold 100, Resources 1 (Leads 10 Troops, Level 2 Death Mage)
 * Description:

In case you are curious about that Random 110% DNWS, that means that Sauromancers have a 100% chance for +1 to either death, nature, water, or astral magic as well as an extra 10% chance for yet another +1 to one of those paths. Sauromancers are the power behind C'tis. No nation in the Early Age can match C'tis's skill in death magic. Yes, Helheim can recruit level three death mages, but those cost twice as much as Sauromancers and are capital only. While Sauromancers are cheaper and available everywhere, most nations most powerful mages have three levels in one path, two in another, and have that 110% random thing going on. Sauromancers are not quite that powerful. Their focus is clearly on death magic. Two nice things about EA C'tis's Sauromancers is that they have 100% resistance to poison and have 10 protection. A common use for Sauromancers is to use them as skelly spammers on the battlefield, which is a good way to wear an army down. A Sauromancer who gets an astral random is vulnerable to Magic Duel, but when used in conjunction with Shamans as Communion Slaves, he can become a very powerful death mage on the battlefield. A level 4 death Sauromancer with a Skull Staff can summon up a large number of Ghosts each turn. A level 4 death Sauromancer, or level 5 if you get really lucky, with a Skull Staff can summon up 26 and 29 Longdead Horsemen each turn, respectively. About 25% of your Sauromancers can summon up Bane Lords, who, with the right equipment, make great thugs. A level 4 death Sauromancer with a Skull Staff can cast Manifestation, a fantastic remote assassination spell. C'tis can easily spam Manifestation. Ghost Riders will not take enemy provinces for you but has a good chance of knocking out whatever is located in the province. Ghost Riders is only castable by a rare level 5 Sauromancer with a Skull Staff unless you throw in a Skullface too. I can not overestimate how important Tartarian Gate is for C'tis. Tartarians are wonderful for magic diversification. It is wise to set up a strategy to either get the Chalice or cast Gift of Health. These two things will allow all the Tartarians you summon to be top notch. Know that you will need to cast Gift of Reason on most of them, but that is done easily enough by a Couatl with a Moonvine Bracelet. A Sauromancer given the right equipment can summon your national SC killer, the Devourer of Souls. Have your rare Sauromancers cast Twiceborn on themselves so you won’t lose them if they die in friendly dominion. Another important thing to do is to cast Well of Misery. C'tis's hunger for death gems is insatiable. Wither Bones will force any opponent to think twice about using undead against you.
 * Sauromancer: Gold 200, Resources 1 (Leads 10 Troops, Level 3 Death Level 1 Nature Mage, Random 110% DNWS)
 * Description:

The first of two capital only commanders for EA C'tis, the Lizard King is the most powerful priest at your disposal. If you are pursuing a bless strategy, Lizard Kings are invaluable. They can cast Divine Blessing, which will bless all of your sacred units on the battlefield. They can lead a whopping 120 units! Lizard Kings also have good stats for a priest, but at 280 gold and 5 resources, protect them well.
 * Lizard King: Gold 280, Resources 5 (Leads 120 Troops, Level 3 Priest, Capital Only)
 * Description:

The very last recruitable commander C'tis has is capital only, not that you are going to need a lot of these. They have about two uses. First, Lizard Heirs can lead map movement three units. Second, they make good thugs. If you have a water nine bless, they will mow down many units in one round. Of course fatigue is a problem in such instances.
 * Lizard Heir: Gold 120, Resources 26 (Leads 80 Troops, Level 1 Priest, Capital Only)
 * Description:

Starting Sites
The Temple City:


 * Enables recruitment of Lizard King
 * Enables recruitment of Lizard Heir
 * Enables recruitment of Serpent Dancer
 * Produces 4 Death Gems per turn
 * Produces 2 Nature Gems per turn

National Summons
Paying ten astral pearls for a nation that doesn't have an initial astral pearl income is not cheap. It is too bad too, because Sirrushes are quite nice. With high attack skill and strength and three weapons, these guys are great on the attack. They have crappy defense skill but having a lot of hit points and good protection helps to even things out. With a water nine bless, Sirrushes can be brutal. Most of the time you will have better things to do with your astral pearls, but if you have a good bless, consider making use of them.
 * Sirrush: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 5 Astral 1 Nature 1 Summon Requiring 10 Astral Pearls
 * Description

You will get three Monster Toads with each casting of this spell. Monster Toads should never be used against anything size five or larger. They are simply not good in melee. They are good at spreading poison however, and their horrible attack skill doesn't come into account when trampling. Monster Toads' two main problems are low protection and terrible defense skill. These two things result in Toads dying quickly. A water nine bless is great for them. Other blesses that are also good are nature and air. No matter how powerful an astral bless you take, Monster Toads will always be vulnerable to spells like Soul Slay. Unless you plan on using lots of poison on the battlefield, don't even bother with Monster Toads.
 * Monster Toads: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 5 Nature 2 Summon Requiring 8 Nature Gems
 * Description

Couatls will be your heavy lifters in nature and astral magic. They can fill a variety of roles, such as forging Moonvine Bracelets and casting Gift of Reason on Tartarians. Couatls can reach insane magic levels if in a Communion with Shamans. Couatls can also cast Acashic Record. It is an expensive spell, but it will give you the gems of other magic paths that C'tis has such a hard time getting.
 * Couatl: (Level 3 Nature Level 3 Astral Mage, Level 2 Priest) Conjuration Level 6 Nature 1 Astral 1 Summon Requiring 40 Nature Gems
 * Description

EA C'tis will have a heck of a time summoning up Scorpion Men, but if you have extra earth gems lying around and a mage to summon them, conjure some up. Scorpion Men are all around good units. They have a plague bow and a gaze of fear for ranged weapons, and in melee they have a pincer, a stinger, and an enchanted sword. None of their stats are bad, and Scorpion Men are resistant to both fire and poison. Astral, air, and death blessings are the least useful for them, but, honestly, any bless they have will simply be a boon on an already capable unit.
 * Scorpion Man: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 8 Earth 1 Fire 1 Summon Requiring 12 Earth Gems
 * Description

The Devourer of Souls has mainly one objective, and that is to kill SCs. While it has a good attack skill, one must take into account that SCs take things to the extremes, and SCs will often have very high defense skill. Luckily, all it takes to kill a SC is just one hit. The attack is also not resistible by any means. Sending the Devourer solo against a SC is a quick way to lose the Devourer. Instead, send him in with backup in the form of mages. Spells like Tangle Vines and Bonds of Fire are good for making the SC a sitting duck for the Devourer. Once again, a water nine bless is an excellent choice, as is a fire bless. Know that the Devourer of Souls is a unique summon, just like the Elemental Royalty.
 * Devourer of Souls: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 9 Death 6 Summon Requiring 30 Death Gems
 * Description

Pretender Design
I am not going to go into specifics here. Overall a rainbow pretender, to help C'tis's lack of magic variety, or a SC pretender, to help with early game expansion, are the two best types to make.