Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Caelum, Eagle Kings

Overview
The closest descendants of the Yazatas are still around and rule Caelum as the Eagle Kings. Seraphs haven't yet become the dominating clan and Raptors haven't been banished yet.

Almost all EA Caelum's units are partially cold resistant and partially shock resistant. The vast majority of Caelian units come with special Ice equipment. Ice weapons are considered magic, letting them strike Ethereal targets with ease. Ice armor gets bonuses for being in cold territory. Caelum's archers have above-average precision. Similarly, Caelian units (almost) all fly and (almost) all have a mapmove of 3 or 2, making the typical Caelian army very mobile. Sadly, they pay for this mobility with fragility: the size-3 Caelian trooper is in danger of being swarmed by smaller heavy infantry.

Caelum has access to very powerful Air magic in the form of cap-only sacred Eagle Kings (Air 4, E1, W1, H2) and a large natural air gem income of 5, but Eagle Kings are old, so they can accumulate afflictions quite soon. Caelum also has trampling mammoths, cap-only sacred non-flying infantry and 2 National Summons spells (Yazatas and some quasi-elemental royalty).

Magic: Powerful Air; weak Earth, Water, Death also with 10% random chance in each; 10% weak Fire randoms. Medium (H2) priests.

Overview
The vast majority of Caelian units come with special Ice equipment. Ice weapons are all magic, letting them strike Ethereal targets with ease. Ice armor gets bonuses for being in cold territory. Similarly, Caelian units (almost) all fly and (almost) all have a mapmove of 3, making the typical Caelian army very mobile. Sadly, they pay for this mobility with fragility: it is a rare Caelian trooper that can stand toe-to-toe with the groundpounders.

Unit Comparison

 * Spire Horn Warrior: Gold 10, Resources 6
 * Ye basic infantryman. Easily overlooked in favor of his brother with a shield.


 * Spire Horn Warrior (+shield): Gold 10, Resources 8
 * Adds a shield. A crucial upgrade for these all-too-fragile troops.


 * Spire Horn Archer: Gold 10, Resources 5
 * Short Bows on the cheap.


 * Tempest Warrior: Gold 15, Resources 12
 * Same Ice Lance as the Spire Horn Warrior, but backed by significantly stronger armor.


 * Blizzard Warrior: Gold 10, Resources 9
 * Short Bows with Ice Studded Armor, if for some reason your archer corps is getting shot at.


 * Caelian Light Infantry: Gold 10, Resources 11
 * Icy!


 * Caelian Infantry: Gold 10, Resources 16
 * Gets an Ice Cap helmet and an Ice Blade sword. Still not impressive on the staying-power front, though.


 * Iceclad: Gold 15, Resources 26
 * Now we're starting to get somewhere. Icicle Mail instead of Ice Studded Armor.


 * Raptor: Gold 10, Resources 4
 * Conventional weapons instead of the ice stuff.


 * Raptorian Warrior: Gold 10, Resources 12
 * Short Swords don't get all that far.


 * Iron Crow: Gold 15, Resources 16
 * Decent.


 * Mammoth: Gold 120, Resources 20
 * 'Cuz conventional Elephants aren't cold-resistant.


 * Temple Guard: Gold 20, Resources 26
 * Caelum's only sacred troop, these are also the only Caelum troops with mapmove 1. Capital-only.

Commanders

 * Caelian Scout: Gold 20, Resources 13
 * Ye basic scout-commander, although the Caelian 3 mapmove is a benefit.


 * Tempest Lord: Gold 35, Resources 14
 * Ice Blade + conventional armor.


 * Spire Horn Seraph: Gold 60, Resources 1
 * Magic: A1
 * Ye budget magic-slinger.


 * Seraphine: Gold 90, Resources 1
 * Magic: H1
 * A solid, if not particularly impressive, priest with stealth.


 * Caelian Seraph: Gold 140, Resources 1
 * Magic: A2W1
 * Middle-of-the-line spellslinger.


 * Harab Seraph: Gold 80, Resources 6
 * Magic: A1D1 +10% random (D)
 * Death magic for diversity, plus a surprisingly strong equipment set for a mage.


 * Eagle King: Gold 400, Resources 25
 * Magic: A4W1E1H2 + 10% random (FAWE)
 * Sacred, awe+2, powerful Air magic, and a strong basic equipment set... but oh gods the cost. And it's capital-only.

Isvat the Unwinged
''Isvat the Unwinged is a Yazad warrior who stayed behind when his kin left this world. While the Eagle Kings hid in the mountains, Isvat cut his wings to remind himself that he was a being of this world. He then and traveled far and wide as a lesser being and learned much of the world. After centuries, he returned to Caelum and found the descendants of the Yazatas under attack and their temples destroyed by lesser beings of the empire of Spring and Autumn. Isvat rallied the Caelians and fought to defend the temples and led them to victory. Those who followed him cut their wings in his image and formed the sacred Temple Guard.''

HP:17 Prot:13 Mor:16 MR:14 Enc:5 Str:13 Att:14 Def:15 Prec:13 Mov:2/12 LDR:120 Sacred, Awe+1, Standard 15, Shock Resist +100%, Cold Resist +50%, Magic Being

An odd admixture of Eagle King and Temple Guard, Isvat loses the spellcasting abilities of the former in exchange for the combat capabilities of the latter. Unfortunately, melee combat is decidedly not a Caelian specialty, and Isvat doesn't buck the trend. His leadership is quite high, and he does manage to have a mapmove of 2, so he can play commander instead of swordsman with some effectiveness.

Starting Sites

 * Palace of the Eagle Kings
 * Produces 5 Air gems and 1 Water gem per turn, and allows the recruitment of Eagle Kings and Temple Guards.

National Summons

 * Summon Yazatas
 * 18 Astral pearls, Conjuration 5, S2
 * Summons six sacred Yazatas. These "Yazad" troops are sacred, Awe +1, Shock Resistant 100, Cold Resistant 50, Magic Beings, and can fly.  Their stats and equipment are unimpressive, given the high non-native Astral cost of the spell, but nonetheless can be used to bolster Caelian melee combat.


 * Call Amesha Spenta
 * 60 Astral pearls, Conjuration 8, S5
 * Summons one of the six Amesha Spentas. All pack high statistics, are sacred, Awe +4, Shock Resistant 100, a Magic Being, do not eat, and fly.  While they have the usual set of equipment slots, by default they only come equipped with a Magic Staff.  Each one represents a different aspect of their lord:
 * Fire: Asha Vahishta has F5H3 and Fire Resistant 100.
 * Sky and Metals: Khshathra Vairya has A4E3H4.
 * Water: Haurvatat has W4H3, regenerates, and can Heal (100).
 * Earth: Spenta Armaiti has E4N2H4, and a supply bonus (100 before the Nature magic bonus).
 * Plants: Ameretat has E2N3H3 and is Immortal.
 * Animals: Vohu Manah has N5H3 and Animal Awe +7.

Strategy A
Take and hold a solid swath of territory in the early game to establish the financial means to hire large quantities of our diverse mage-types. Locate and hold useful indie sites (especially mages with S picks) and establish a healthy gem income. Go for the long-term oriented goal of maintaining a strong economy while boosting the magic power of all our flying armies to the max through Communions. But we will need an aptly designed pretender to help enable this.

Scale Design
Caelum needs money to pay for expensive Eagle Kings, a breakout Mammoth expansion army and starting construction on extra castles and laboratories asap (500 gold each!). Caelum's size-3 melee troops are generally out-classed and swarmed by other nations, but our flying archers can be quite useful. Thus taking high Sloth is acceptable. Growth will be nice to give the Eagle Kings a bit more longevity before old age kicks in, as well as the long-term benefits on gold income (for even more Eagle kings). Magic makes all our mages more effective in battle, as well as bestows them with a useful research bonus. While not as extreme as Niefelheim, Caelum still gets to take advantage of bonus points from preferring Cold+2. We want to establish a strong dominion in our own territory so as to benefit from our excellent scales.

Dominion 6: Order 3, Sloth 3, Cold 2, Growth 2, Magic 1

Pretender Design
Because we have Mammoths, Caelum doesn't need an awake SC pretender. Once our research kicks in, our Eagle Kings supported by the lesser non-cap magi can take the brunt of the fighting. This allows us to take a less combat oriented pretender and instead concentrate on access to useful magic paths, a bless, site-searching and forging. Until we find some indie-mages, our pretender offers our only access to Astral and Nature magic. We want to be able to use Communions to boost our mages on steroids, but this is only possible through forging Crystal/Slave Matrices (E1 + S1 required) and Crystal Shields (E2 + S3), thus we need a strong gem income in both those areas. Our National Summons require tons of astral pearls, so we need to get into clams (W3 + N1) if we plan on using them widely. We need an established blood economy in about the third year so as to forge Boots of Youth for all our Eagle Kings (B2).

Dormant Master Druid: F2, W2, E4, A4, D2, N4, B2

ie. stealthy site-searching and/or dominion-push, minor bless useful for mages, excellent forger.

Expansion
Year 1: Expansion army centered around 4-8 Mammoths and your Prophet grabbing gold-rich indie provinces till our mages have completed enough research to fight on their own. Use Eagle Kings to get our research going, only switching to the cheaper Spire Horn Seraphs when you need to save on gold for a new castle. Strive to get 3 castles all within mutually supporting distance of one another (ie. within flight-distance) up within the first year and have an income of 1000+ gold/turn.

Year 2: Try and train 1 Eagle King, 1 Scout and 2 Spire Horn Seraphs in your castles per turn, plus as many Spire Horn Archers and/or Blizzard Warriors as you can afford. Send the scouts to blood hunt in a friendly 5000-6000 pop province with taxes set to 0. Start site-searching with your now-awakened-pretender and an Eagle King. Save your Air gems for battle casting, other gems for forging. Empower an Eagle King to B1. You should now be able to field an aggressive offense or powerful defense using mages and archers vectored in from anywhere within flying distance of your castles. Use Air gems with an Eagle King to cast Storm in battle and have swarms of Spire Horn Seraphs then scripted to Summon Storm Power then Cast Spells.

Year 3: Research to Construction 6. Begin forging using your pretender, starting with Dwarven Hammers, then produce a steady stream of Staff of Storms, Crystal Matrices and Slave Matrices (4 Slave / 1 Crystal), Clam of Pearls, Crystal Shields and Blood Stones. Your magi can forge Water Bracelets, Girdles of Might, Wall Shakers, Bags of Wind, Eyes of Aiming and Owl Quills. Empower your B1 Eagle King to B2 and start producing Boots of Youth. Field armies based around 8 Spire Horn Seraphs lead by 2 Eagle Kings in a reversed communion, with the masters casting Storm and buffing the slaves before casting Evocation spells.