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

 * Strong access to Air/Nature magic, good Water/earth, good Holy
 * Glamoured Commanders/Magi
 * Sacred troops and magi
 * Glamoured / High-MR troops
 * Glamoured Assassin-Magi
 * strong priest/magi
 * Spell songs

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.

Mundane 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 Alt-3, Wooden Warriors Alt-5, Legions of Steel), they can function as adequate inexpensive melee blockers. Alternatively, incapacitate the enemy 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 out in the open.


 * 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. Try improving their staying-power to medium-infantry grade using Legions of Steel and Weapons of Sharpness.


 * Fir Bolg Warrior (Axe): Gold 13, Resources 9
 * A good all-round light-infantry melee fighter with a decent weapon whose only real downside is their light armor. Once you research the magic to improve their armor (or debuff the enemy), they can be considered for proper medium troop roles.

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.

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 4; A3N2H2??(+AWEN 100/AWEN 10) Sacred, Stealthy, Glamour, Forestry, Supply +, Darkvision 50
 * Description

Research Costs
So the table demonstrates that under all 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.

Heroes
None (see Fir Bolg Champion above)

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.