Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Eriu

Eriu was founded when humans defeated the Tuatha in ages past. Now the Tuatha and their Sidhe descendants re-emerge from their hiding places to lead the humans. The Sidhe and Tuatha are able to weave illusions to hide their true appearance. They are skilled Air and Nature mages.

When men came to the land of the Tuatha and the Fir Bolg, there was a drawn out battle which ended with the defeat and total withdrawal of the Tuatha. The Land of the Ever Young was forever lost to this world and Avalon was taken by the witches of Man. The Sidhe, descendants of the Tuatha, retreated into strange twilight realms with entrances hidden in ancient mounds. The land of the Fir Bolg was split by the invading forces: Man and their witches, and the Milesians. The Milesians named their land Eriu. Most of the Eriu population is composed of humans of Milesian ancestry, but a few Fir Bolg still survive in remote villages. With the coming of the new God, the Daoine Sidhe have re-emerged from their magical mounds to lead the Milesians. Eriu is now a nation of humans and Fir Bolg led by the awakening Sidhe.

This nation was added in the Dominions 3.06 patch.

National Features
Eriu exists as a nation of Sidhe, Fir Bolg, Milesians, and a few Tuatha.

Units
Eriu has a somewhat bewildering array of troop types.

Milesians
The Milesians conquered the land of the Tuatha together with the men of Man. They became rulers of the Tuathan heartland and renamed it Eriu, allowing the remaining Fir Bolg warriors to live and intermarried with them. Now most Milesians have some Fir Bolg blood in their veins, thus Milesians live slightly longer than ordinary humans and are somewhat resistant to magic. With the awakening of the God, the Milesians have found themselves replaced as rulers by mighty Sidhe Lords emerging from magical mounds.

Let's face it, back-story aside, the Milesians are none other than generic Indies. That's right, a large selection of your national troops are INDIES! And not even the semi-useful tribal kind! Without spell support, these guys are toast. The only reason Eriu should get excited about having indies in their troop lineup is because after building fortified cities everywhere (see below) which soak up all the available resources from surrounding provinces, there will be no more recruitable indies outside of your forts.

So now that we are done bitching about it, let's try and figure out how to integrate them into our national strategy. Across the board, the major thing the Milesians have going for them is that some wear iron armor that grants a 3-4 point boost in protection over their Fir Bolg counterparts. This does not make them heavy troops by any means, just better armored medium/light troops. That and they are cheaper. So if you need quantity over quality, these are your men.
 * Milesian Slinger: Gold 7, Resources 2
 * Your least expensive unit. You can hire and maintain almost 60% more Milesian slingers for the same cash as Fir Bolg slingers. But Milesians have less accuracy and less hp. Still, concentrated massed missile fire proves quite effective, so these guys might just have what it takes to be useful. However, they have MM-1, which means you need to recruit and mass them right under your enemy's nose to keep them relevant. They work well pushing steadily into enemy-held territory and boost your numbers for quick sieges.


 * Milesian Spearman: Gold 10, Resources 9
 * You can hire and maintain 30% more Milesian spearmen than you can Fir Bolg axemen/javelineers (but it will also require 30% more resources to do so)! A big upside is MM-2, so they share the same mobility as your Fir Bolg. Both their armor and defense are standard for medium infantry, making them acceptable if expendable meatshield blockers, since their spears hardly penetrate some of the enemy's heavy armors encountered in this Age.


 * Milesian Longspears: Gold 10, Resources 13
 * Even within the Milesian lineup, these guys are niche troops, useful mostly vs low-morale enemies to get them to rout by repelling them with long spears (length-5). Their MM-1 is a deal-breaker in most cases, unless you can keep them right up in the thick of the war. Although 30% cheaper than Fir Bolg warriors, they require 30% more resources per soldier to train, hence a total of 70% more production needed for a like-cost gold expenditure of longspears vs Fir Bolgs (ex: ~100 gold spent on longspears will get you 10 soldiers for 130 production, or 7 Fir Bolg for 70 production).


 * Milesian Swordsman: Gold 10, Resources 18
 * Your best armored medium-unit (Eriu has no proper heavy-troops in the MA), also the most production-intense. Their defense is almost twice that of their Fir Bolg brethren, and the sword is a good weapon (somewhat equalized in comparison by the fact that Fir Bolg are stronger). The real deal breaker is MM-1, making them hard to concentrate quickly. Perhaps most useful in the early game for back-to-back conquests before evocations and AN/AP weapons widely come into play.

Fir Bolg
The warrior race known as Fir Bolg once inhabited the realms now known as Eriu and Man. With the coming of man, the Tuatha withdrew from the world and most of the Fir Bolg were slain. Fir Bolg use ancient armaments made from bronze and leather.

These are the identical Fir Bolg troops as EA's Tir na n'Og. All Fir Bolg are MM-2 light infantry. In most respects the question of recruiting Fir Bolg vs Milesian toops is a quality vs quantity judgement call. Though skilled warriors, in the MA, Fir Bolg are now most definitely under-armored and without magic support struggle against other nation's heaviest troops.
 * Fir Bolg Slinger: Gold 11, Resources 2
 * Man-for-man superior to Indie slingers, you can nonetheless hire and maintain more Milesians than you can Fir Bolgs for the same gold. For a mobile offense/defense Fir Bolg are however clearly the better choice.


 * Fir Bolg (Axeman): Gold 13, Resources 9
 * It is their excellent combat stats and MR that keep these guys relevant in the MA. Still, you are going to want to bump up their armor using magic and once you have the earth-boosters research spells like Strength of Giants and Destruction so they get the upper hand vs heavy troops.


 * Fir Bolg (Javelineer): Gold 13, Resources 10
 * Ditto

Daoine Sidhe
The Daoine Sidhe are descendants of the Tuatha. With the defeat of the Tuatha, the Sidhe retreated into strange and magical lands. The entrances into these faery realms were often hidden in the mounds of ancient kings. With the coming of the new God, the Sidhe have returned from their seclusion to rule the human population. Daoine Sidhe despise iron and instead fight with ancient armaments of bronze and leather. They are masters of glamour and illusion and can hide their true appearance.
 * Daoine Sidhe: Gold 35, Resources 12
 * These are your only stealthy sacred national troops in this Age. Although cap-only, your capital has high administration, so if it borders on forests or mountains, you should be able to recruit as many of these as your Dominion strength allows. Though slightly better armored than are Fir Bolg, even with glamour the Daoine Sidhe beg for a bless to justify their higher recruit cost. Try an E9 bless to both improve their armor to medium-troop quality and give them effectively 0-net fatigue.

Possible stealth tactics:
 * Enemy never knows where your main army is located.
 * Clandestinely reinforce or evacuate besieged fortresses.
 * Attack non-bordering nations by sneaking through neutral lands.
 * Behind-the-lines raiding to cut off enemy retreat routes and pillage for economic gain.

Commanders
The Tuatha are the ancient masters of Tir na n'Og and Avalon. When men came to their lands, they retreated to the Land of the Ever Young and were lost to the world. A few of them lingered on and aided the retreat of their Sidhe descendants into strange and magical twilight lands hidden under ancient mounds. With the coming of the new God, a few of them have returned from their seclusion together with their Sidhe descendants. The Tuatha are powerful Air mages and can use glamour and illusions to hide their true appearance.
 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

National Summons

 * Unit: Gems z
 * Description

Pretender Design

 * Imprisoned Great Mother, E9 N6; Order-3 Sloth-3 Cold-1 Growth-3 Misfortune-2 Magic-3, Dom-5.