Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Abysia, Children of Flame

Overview
In the Early Age, some of the primal Abysians - large magmatic humanoids - are still around and the Warlocks have yet to create the Humanbreds. Early Abysia does not have Demonbred mages, only assasins and the misshapen Misbreds.

National Features
In very short, Abysia Children of Flame has:
 * Extra nation points from the +3 heat scale.
 * A survival skill (they ignore the death scale).
 * Excellent mage/priests.
 * Excellent Heavy Infantry (but expensive).
 * The best assassins of the game.
 * Extra income source with alchemy (fire gems can be turned into 75 extra gold/turn, or more in an alchemist lab site).

But Abysia lacks:
 * Easy to build light troops.
 * Missile units.
 * A large spectrum of magic.

It is not a good nation for novice players (or the AI) as the harsh finances can stunt Abysia's growth unless monitored closely.

Dominion design:

Abysians prefer very warm weather: Heat +3 (what means 120 extra nation points). Their income and supply are not dependent on trading or farming: you have no economic benefits or penalties for the Growth/Death scale and your soldiers are not affected by the supply bonus/penalty. So you can take also Death +3 (what means 120 *more* extra nation points) and it also will make you a difficult target, as invaders will suffer supply and income penalties in your lands... And it hasn't the same effect diplomatically as if you were Ermor (population still dies, but so slowly it isn't a concern to your neighbours). However, if you pick a Death scale, you will slowly lose population like everyone else. Any nation that takes a +3 Death scale really has to keep expanding, as a nation that takes Growth +3 versus a Death +3 will have about 20% more population in just 20 turns (*and* will also make 10% more gold from the start). And if you need blood slaves, you’ll just be depopulating your provinces faster. So you better take a neutral growth to remain competitive for long and/or large games.

(Warning: there is a known bug in ver. 3.06, the death/growth scale DOES affect the gold production of Abysia !).

On the other hand, Abysia needs a strong economy (Order is not an option, obviously, to build expensive troops) and a strong dominion (at least 6 candles), knowing that its troops have bonuses inside very hot domains and will get penalized in income for every shift of the scale towards cold (thus if you take a province from Caelum with Cold +3 your income will be reduced by 30% there). Even newly conquered temperate provinces will bring reduced income for several months. Remember to push your dominion by blood sacrifice when necessary.

Production: you should consider a positive Production scale too, to be able to build a lot of heavy troops.

God:

Abysia is very specialized in Fire magic and has a limited access to Astral and Blood (and only 10% to get Earth 1). Even Blood is limited to level 3 and you need a level 4 mage to forge the +1 items! So if you really want a broader range of magic (or Blood 4+), you need it on your pretender.

Units:

Your Abysian Infantry is expensive but much better that other heavy infantry: they have more health, more strength, exude heat (which fatigues enemies) and are immune to fire damage (which happens to be what their mages use). With a tower shield they are almost invulnerable to arrows and some 15 of them can beat most independents (with some exceptions, don't attack a horde of barbarians without archers!).

Sacred Burning Ones are even better but cost much more, both in gold and resource. They're best used when flanked and backed by Abysian Infantry, to reach a mass effect. They attack twice, turn berserk when wounded and have elite morale. But they are larger (size 3) and so do not exactly count as 2 HI each in battle since you can only place two of them where you could place 3 HI. Of course they are an excellent base for a bless strategy. Like most expensive units however they lack efficiency when facing spells, since the loss of a single unit is a loss of greater value.

Salamanders are powerful but fragile and too expensive. You could maybe buy a couple of them. If the enemy is already engaged, they might be able to attack several times from the side before getting counterattacked, and their immolating attack is deadly against non-fire immune troops (damage = 20, armor piercing and area 1). With 20 encumbrance, they don’t last long however. Furthermore, you need a mage or a Beast Trainer to lead them in battle.

Misbred are fragile too but they fly and are stealthy. Build some when you need a fast and mobile reinforcement army (a Demonbred with a Sceptre of Authority can lead 25 of them).

The Slayer is an above-average assassin you can use against independents (if you kill independent commanders, they are not replaced like militia, and if a force has no commander, it routes automatically). With a Skull Amulet they are nearly unstoppable. And for 20 more gp, the Demonbred is even better. You could even make a Slayer or a Demonbred prophet, move him towards a choke point not too far away while spreading your dominion, slay the leaders (very few have bodyguards btw), and then take the province by himself while your main army takes the lands around your capital. Really, a couple of Demonbred is a great way to insure a fast start!

Last strategic information: it seems that when 2 or more nations attempt to invade the same province, Abysia always goes first. Expect to be the defender in meeting engagements.

Magic:

Abysia has powerful Fire mages and can sacrifice blood slaves to pump its dominion. Fire spells are harder to cast when it is raining, or under a Storm spell. To avoid the fatigue from rain, expand your dominion (it is normally not raining in deserts), give some gems to your spell casters (they’ll use them to reduce fatigue) or forge fire items (like Sceptres of Authority or Wands of Wild Fire).

This nation takes a lot of micro-management. Soon you will mix your fire troops with non-fire troops and you have to be very careful where everything starts and where they go. Blood slaves for instance will suffer if they stay close to their fiery master. Try to keep a non-fiery commander on the field that you can use to "store" blood slaves on (it doesn’t have to be a mage). You just have to replenish the supply between attacks.

Unfortunately, you don't have an easy access to your special Smoulderghosts: you need Fire/Death mages and death gems, something you don't have.

Anathemant Salamanders are expensive but useful as researcher and on the field: they can summon Lesser Fire Elementals or make Fireballs (Phoenix Power will give them one more level in fire magic), to which fortunately your own troops are immune.

Warlocks are effective blood mages but are old and die easily in a Death scale. Some have one random magic level but they have no priestly power. They are very useful as "etherealizer" (3 Warlocks can cast Body Ethereal on 20+ Abysian Infantry or 12+ Burning Ones or Salamanders). If you reach Alteration 3 for Body Ethereal, be very careful with Nature mages if you want them to cast Protection. This spell also gives *minus* 25 fire protection and will render your troops vulnerable to their own heat! It targets non fire-immune troops first, however.

Units

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

Commanders

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

Heroes
Early Era Abysia gets only one hero : Malphas the Warlock. Malphas is a strong mage with Fire-3, Astral-2 and Blood-4. With Bl-4 he is able to forge the +1 Blood items. Keep him safe, as he might be the only Bl-4 mage you'll see in a game (unless you take a Blood Pretender or you sacrifice tons of slaves for empowerment).

National Summons

 * Unit: Gems z
 * Description