Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Pangaea, Age of Bronze

The civilized Centaurs of the Middle Age have developed weapons and armor to suit them, but still can operate quietly behind enemy lines.

Overview
Pangaea, Age of Bronze let you play a nation of strong, stealthy forest creatures that have begun to use armor as well. Your mages are strong in Nature and Earth with minor picks in Blood and Death. The capital only Pandemoniac has also good Blood magic. Your priests are mediocre, but stealthy as well. All your national units can heal their own afflictions, some of your units are stealthy and the others heavy armored, some units are berserkers. Nearly all off your troops have good strategic movement as well as the forest survival skill. Your Pan mages attract free Manaeds, depending on the turmoil scale. Your national spells let you summon undead forest creatures that can reanimate manikins. Your Sacred Units, the White Centaur is capital only.

Units

 * Harpy: Gold 7, Resources 1
 * A flying, stealthy patroller with no protection, few hitpoints and bad attack. They die very easily, and their only real use is to patrol your own provinces.


 * Satyr Sneak: Gold 10, Resources 3
 * Cowardly Satyrs without shield and bad protection (6). They increase unrest in the province they occupy.
 * I would not use them, as they are the weakest form of the Satyr.


 * Satyr: Gold 10, Resources 4, Spear, Javelin
 * Javelin throwers with bad morale and no shield. They are better than Satyr Sneaks, but still not very efficient.


 * Satyr: Gold 10, Resources 4, Spear, Buckler
 * Your cheapest unit with a shield has at least normal morale (10).


 * Satyr Hoplite: Gold 13, Resources 23
 * Only Satyr version with decent protection (16) but also the only variant with no stealth and a map move of 1.


 * Reveler: Gold 14, Resources 3
 * Stealth units should win a fight because there is often nowhere to flee after loosing a battle. Revelers can help you winning with a battle with a stealth force. No Shields means you place them best behind a squad of Satyr Warriors or other Shield troops. But once those Revelers join the Melee fighting, they will fight with 2 Weapons (spears and hoofs) and go berserk. They are the strongest of the Satyrs, but as for all Satyrs, there are better troops around.


 * Minotaur: Gold 40, Resources 7
 * Trampling heavy infantry (size 3). Defense and Attack values are bad, but those guys trample over normal troops (size 2) and go berserk. Berserk lowers defense even more, but increase Attack, Strength and Protection. Unfortunately, Minotaurs tend to get swarmed after the first round of trampling and with their bad armor, they die very fast. If you want to trample things, use the War Minotaurs.


 * War Minotaur: Gold 50, Resources 29
 * The best trampler that is in your inventory. With a protection of 17 and berserk +4 they have some actual survivability, they still get swarmed and die, but the attrition rate is much better that with the basic Minotaurs.


 * Centaur: Gold 30, Resources 4
 * Centaurs are among the best archers in the Game. Those lovely units survive incoming fire (20 hitpoints) can defend themselves (defense 14), hit something with the deadly longbows (Precision 12) and are not so bad fighters (hoof, dagger, strength 13) if running out of ammo. But they are just too expensive (other nations get longbows for 12 gold) so i would not use them too often.


 * Centaur Warrior: Gold 40, Resources 12
 * Big value for a big price. Those horse-men wear shields and have almost normal protection (9). Berserk means the protection increase after being wounded, and the extreme good defense value (17) means that even after going Berserk enemy's have trouble scoring a hit. Often you will find that an enemy arrow enrage one of your Centaur Warrior into Berserk mode. He will break the formation and charge solo against the enemy hordes... and survive ! At least some time. Centaur Warriors use Javelins, so before they engage the enemy Army, they fire one or two volleys on them, i would always set them to fire and not to attack (the only exception might be archer heavy armies). Their best use is in stealthy squads, if you pair 20 Centaur Warriors and a Dryad you have a force that can take out every sane Province Defense without the loss of more than 1-3 Centaurs.


 * Centaur Cataphract: Gold 40, Resources 32
 * Centaur Cataphracts are heavy armored Centaur cavalry. Their high protection of 19 makes them almost immune to archery and they are also able to go head to head with enemy Elite Troops so they will be an important part of any Pangean army. (Unless you go for Sloth 3 and White Centaurs). The only thing that hampers them is their high encumbrance, so they fatigue very fast and after ca. 5 Turns they begin to take damage due to critical hits, so it is really important to cast Relieve on armies that are using Centaur Cataphracts.


 * White Centaur: Gold 70, Resources 12
 * Your only blessable unit is capital-only an has nearly the same stats as the centaur Warrior. They are very strong used with a E9N9 Bless, but as they are capital-only using them is only advicable in short games.


 * Maenad: 0 Gold, 0 Resources
 * Maenads are human females seduced by the wild lure of a Pan's flute. They enter a state of revelrous rage in which they shed all clothing and join the armies of Pangaea to fight with claws and teeth (Quote of the in-game description). Each Pan attracts Maenads, especially if he is in a province with high turmoil. You can expect 8 Maenads per Pan with turmoil 3. Transporting the Maenads from your research center to the front lines need some micro management and a lot of commanders. Despite the description, Maenads fight just with a claw and have no secondary bite attack. Having no clothes on (protection 0) and bad weapons (all stats: 10) make the Maenads look like poor fighters. This is so, but as you have them in very high numbers (you will field the biggest armies of the Middle Era) they will be able to do some damage, and more important to act as meatshield for important troops and mages.
 * She is the only unit of Pangaea with no recuperation ability.

Commanders

 * Black Harpy: 20 Gold, 1 Resources
 * The Black Harpy is not much of a fighter, but she is one of the most useful commanders in the whole game. Providing military intelligence (scouting) like no one else, this bird-lady can fly deep into enemy lands and remain stealthy (strategic move 3). If not scouting for Amazon provinces or observing enemy troop movements, she can pick up strugglers (Leadership 10). Also delivering magic items to your battle-mages is a job where the Black Harpy excels.
 * If you have access to an fire mage let him forge a Medallion of Vengeance (Fire 1, Construction 4) each turn. Equip an harpy with the amulet and script her to (hold), attack largest / rearmost / archers. You don't get more "bang" for just 20 bucks.
 * If you have access to death magic, you can use Black Harpys to deliver Disease very fast: Forge a Bane Venom Charm (Death 2, Construction 4) and sent two or more Black Harpies over enemy armies. The Bane Venom Charm will spread deadly Disease wherever the wearer is and will also disease the wearer. Control the hit-points of the Black Harpy each turn. Make sure to change the Bane Venom Charm to the next Black Harpy before the hit-points reach zero. Switching items between commanders works without the need of lab, even deep in enemy lands. Ideally, equip the Black Harpies also with a Medallion of Vengeance and send her to a final suicidal mission after passing the Bane Venom Charm to her flying comrade. Show those Valkyries what "winged messenger of God" really means !


 * Centaur Commander: 60 Gold, 32 Resources
 * Average Commander with 40 leadership. They are not stealthy, so not able to lead sneaking raiding parties, and for just 30 gold more you get a Centaur Hierophant that can lead 80 troops.


 * Minotaur Lord: 65 Gold, 35 Resources
 * Minotaur commander that has only average leadership (40) and you will in most cases recruit an Centaur Hierophant instead. The Minotaur Lord has amazing strength (17), protection (18) and berserk (+4) values while being able to hit opponents he cannot trample (Attack 11). But as he tramples deep into the enemy lines, he will usually get swarmed and killed anyway.


 * Centaur Hierophant: 90 Gold, 4 Resources
 * Magic: H1
 * Pangaea's standard commander is sacred, stealthy, an excellent archer as well as an low priest (level 1). But most important, he is a good general (leadership 80). He is better at sniping than at priest spells, so equip him with a bow. Any bow will do, and he can still fight with dagger and hoof if needed. Like all Centaurs, he has twice the hit-points of a normal human (20 instead of 10) and can survive one arrow.


 * Dryad: 110 Gold, 1 Resource
 * Magic: N1H2
 * Pangaea's best priest (level 2) is not only aphrodisiac beautiful (Awe +2), she is also very stealthy (20) and a nature mage (N1). She has leadership like a normal human commander (Leadership 40).
 * Dryads will be the Commander you recruit most, as they are the only cost effective researcher you can muster, Pans have higher magic values, but their upkeep is to high to use them for research. Dryads are also the leaders of your standard raiding parties, you take one Dryad and 20 Centaur Warriors or White Centaurs move them deep behind enemy lines, and begin to strike them in their back. If the enemy attacks a castle where 10 Dryads are researching, let them Cast Swarm and look how the enemy has now 10 funny turns of killing dragonflies.


 * Pan: 350 Gold, 1 Resource
 * Magic: E2N3 +110% Random (EDNB)
 * Pangaea's battle mage is stealthy, expensive and so male that he attract Maenads. A strong turmoil scale will attract more Maenads.
 * Pans are your main Mages, you use them in Battle as well for Rituals and Forging but they cost 23 Gold Upkeep, so don’t get too much of them as they might cripple your economy. Early they can support armies by casting Blade Wind and some low level Nature spells like Swarm and Sleep Cloud. Later on they are able to cast a big variety of army buffs, your main armies should always have some Pans accompany them and cast Relieve, Mass Protection, Mass Regeneration, Army of Gold and Army of Lead. Also every Unit that is not a Maenad should also receive Weapons of Sharpness and Strength of Gigants cast on it.
 * The Pans with an Nature Random, are when equipped with a thistle mace able to summon Faery Queens that can use Air Magic (with the Faerie Court spell) and various other nice spells like (Mother Oak, Gift of Health and Faerie Trod).
 * The Pans with the Earth Random can when equipped with Earth Boots and a Blood Stone cast Earth Attack which is a very good assination spell, and with the Earth income MA Pangea gets, you are able to cast lots of Earth Attacks and disable entire Armies.
 * The Pans With the Death Random are able to summon your Carrion Leaders that are able to reanimate Manikins. They can become and important part of your army, as with their sleep vines, they can bring down enemy Thugs and SCs in a very cheap way.
 * The Pans that get a Blood Random can when you either give them enough Blood Boosters or just empower them up to blood 3 begin to forge Blood Stones. (And yes, you want to forge Blood Stones as an Earth income of 100 around turn 60 that does not show up on the graphs is nice)


 * Pandemoniac: 320 Gold, 1 Resource
 * Magic: N3B2
 * Pandemoniacs are your Blood hunters, and best used in groups of 3 per provinces. Equip them with a Sanguine Dowsing Rod and the bloodhunting can start. I would reccomend that you bloodhunt in every 5000+ province that does not generate much income, in normal games there are lots of the 6000 population 60 income provinces they shout "bloodhunt here!". You might also want to use the Pandemoniacs to Cast Crossbreed, Rain of Toads and to Forge Lifelong Protections.

Heroes

 * Rams Head the White Satyr
 * Nice leader, he can command 120 Troops, and has a standard of 15. But he is just a better variant of satyr, so his potential for thugging is at best minor. He is also stealthy, has awe (+2) and berserk (+3).


 * Menophatos the White Minotaur
 * Magic: H2
 * Sacred Minotaur, with the ability to bless himself, he makes a nice Thug if you equip him with some additional items, like a shield, Pendant of Luck. He has the ability to go berserk (+5).


 * Arcopythera the Harpy Queen
 * Magic: A2N2
 * The most important hero of Pangea, as she is the only mage you will get that can use Air Magic offcourse you will later get faerie queens, but they work better when you used Arcopythere before to cast Auspex on every province. The Harpy Queen is also autosummonig about 5 Harpys per turn. She is also a stealthy leader, but she is to important to be wasted in battle.


 * Taurotyrannos the Black Bull
 * Magic: N3B3
 * Another nice hero that you get, he is more or less a Pandemoniac with better blood magic and the ability to go berserk (+7). Taurotyrannos might be the unit with the highest berserk value in the whole game, so you might try to use him as stealthy thug.

National Summons

 * Unit: Gems z
 * Description