Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Sauromatia

Sauromatia, a group of nomadic tribes ruled by amazon queens, is a predecessor of Pythium and exists only in the Early Age. The cannibalistic tribe of Androphags ride beasts taken from the swamps of Pythia and wave banners of human skin.

Overview
You have:
 * good archers (good morale, good precision, composite bows, and even poison arrows)
 * good medium infantry (amazons with above average morale)
 * good and cheap medium cavalry (sauromatian lancer with above average stats)
 * very good sacred cavalry, if you try a bless strategy
 * powerful but dangerous Hydras
 * free slaves right off the bat, and all priests can perform sacrifices.

You lack:
 * base heavy infantry
 * a fair spread of magic
 * high-level priests
 * a scout in your starting army

Pretender
Most units are good but quite expensive: Order is not an option for Sauromatia. Order makes Luck less attractive but the available heroes are really interesting and I suggest to keep a neutral Luck scale to try to get them. You don't have a huge reliance on resources so you don't need high Production, but I suggest to keep a neutral scale too, to be able to produce medium units in good numbers.

The lack of heavy units initially seems to suggest a SC pretender approach. Even a Wyrm or a Manticore without magic could be a good choice, especially on a small map (and they can lead poisonous hydras without problems). An immortal pretender is interesting too, since even independent priests can sacrifice the free slaves to improve your dominion where and when necessary.

Units
The Amazons are good and you can build a lot of them, but they are vulnerable to missiles. Ask your composite archers to target the enemy archers as "counter-artillery" to protect the amazons when you have a chance.

Raiders are not that useful, Lancer are better as a cavalry choice. Foot archers are cheaper if you need archery.

Cataphracts are only marginally better than Lancers but much more expensive, both in gold and resources.

Androphag Archers are really good, especially in a counter-artillery role and against troops with a weak morale (poison arrows kill slowly but their effect stacks and they are disastrous for morale). Unfortunately, they are limited to your capital for recruitment.

Oioropata and Androphags are very similar but Oioropata are slightly cheaper. Very interesting units for a bless strategy (Fire 9 and Astral 9 come to mind).

Hydras are powerful: they get 9 attacks per round on up to 3 different targets (all in the same square), poison nearby troops with their foul odors, have great HP, high MR and regenerate. However, your own troops will become poisoned when fighting around them so learn how to use them effectively or they will hurt you more than the enemy. Mix hydras with undead units or Vine Men as they are immune to poison, or use them in defense, as local militia is expendable.

Magic
The Soothsayer and the Spirit Guides are cheap and can be used both on the battlefield (to cast Body Ethereal and Call Ancestor, respectively) and in labs to do research (especially in a Magic dominion).

Body Ethereal is very nice and Enaries can even cast it on hydras (but should cast resist Poison first, of course). Enaries can cast Protection too, to make your lancers almost invulnerable (prot 20) against ordinary troops, and later Nether Darts. Raise Dead is important to get early, too.

With the Soothsayer you have a good Communion slave. Bear in mind that with four soothsayers (for instance) instantly give any Enarie (with Communion) or Witch King (with Sabbath) +2 in all their magic paths on the battlefield (and the spell Power of the Sphere gives one more level)... which enables Mass Protection, Antimagic, Doom, Battle Fortune, Relief, Rigor Mortis, Undead Horde, Darkness, Foul Vapors (for a Witch King with water magic) etc...

One Enarie leading a Communion with two Soothsayers can cast 10x Raise Dead before the Soothsayers collapse.

With the Witch King you can reach Death 3 or 4. They are useful to get an undead army (Behemoth, Arouse Hunger, Pale Riders, Carrion Reanimation, Manikins etc). Behemoth is specially good with Body Ethereal!

The Witch Kings are your only blood mage but are so expensive that I don't think that a blood strategy is possible for Sauromatia. Your few slaves are probably better invested to improve your dominion or to forge some rare items, like the Black Heart or the Twin Spear.

Units

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

Commanders

 * Unit: Gold x, Resources y
 * Description

National Summons

 * Unit: Gems z
 * Description