Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/C'tis, Lizard Kings: Difference between revisions

The land of C'tis is hot and fertile. The Early Era sees C'tis in the height of its ancient power. The ruling class of Lizard Men enslave the barbaric Carnivores. Necromantic Sauromancers practice ancient rituals of death and nature magic.

C'tis is a nation of lizardmen based on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Feel free to read up on these fascinating cultures, but I am not here to discuss them. C'tis's advantages and disadvantages are pretty obvious. While C'tis might not have the stealthy troops of Pangaea or the broad magic skills of T'ien Ch'i, they have many talents at their disposal.

While national troops by and large become obsolete by the late game, having a solid understanding of a nation's forces is necessary for a strong early game. A powerful early game position will often translate into a powerful late game position.

The C'tissian lizardmen are different in stats from humans in several areas. These are the basic changes that C'tissians have: slightly more hit points, some natural protection, lower morale, greater magic resistance, slightly higher encumbrance, and slower battlefield movement. Most C'tissians also have several special abilities to take note of: 50% resistance to poison, swamp survival, and cold-bloodedness.

;Militia: Gold 7, Resources 2

The Serpent Dancer is the second recruitable sacred unit of EA C'tis, and it's single capital-only unit. The majority of the Serpent Dancer's stats are nothing special with the exception of it's defense skill, which is 16. This makes them quite difficult to hit in combat. They are armed with snake staves, which are magical weapons. If you happen to get hit early in the game with ethereal units, Serpent Dancers should be an effective counter against them. The snake staff will also poison those it strikes, allowing Serpent Dancers to wear down enemies that can't hit them. On the downside, with their complete reliance on only their scales for protection, they are very vulnerable to archer fire, and anything that can hit them will usually do a reasonable amount of damage if not outright kill them. Serpent Dancers may be fragile, but they are also cheap at 20 gold and 2 resources. There are primarily two blesses that the Serpent Dancers benefit from. One is a water bless, which would make them nearly untouchable in combat. Second is an air bless, which would greatly reduce their vulnerability to archers. Another thing worth mentioning is that Serpent Dancers are 100% immune to poisons. This makes them useful in situations when you plan on employing poison strategies on the battlefield. Despite their cheapness, it is dangerous to use a high-end bless strategy with Serpent Dancers. Nations with access to water magic and nations with cold dominions can quickly wear down Serpent Dancers. Of course, it is best to experiment and come to your own conclusion.

;Taskmaster: Gold 30, Resources 2 (Leads 40 Troops)

The very last recruitable commander C'tis has is capital only, not that you are going to need a lot of these. They have about two uses. First, Lizard Heirs can lead map movement three units. Second, they make good thugs. If you have a water nine bless, they will mow down many units in one round. Of course fatigue is a problem in such instances.

The Temple City:

* Produces 2 Nature Gems per turn

;Sirrush: (Sacred Unit) Conjuration Level 5 Astral 1 Nature 1 Summon Requiring 10 Astral Pearls

The Devourer of Souls has mainly one objective, and that is to kill SCs. While it has a good attack skill, one must take into account that SCs take things to the extremes, and SCs will often have very high defense skill. Luckily, all it takes to kill a SC is just one hit. The attack is also not resistible by any means. Sending the Devourer solo against a SC is a quick way to lose the Devourer. Instead, send him in with backup in the form of mages. Spells like Tangle Vines and Bonds of Fire are good for making the SC a sitting duck for the Devourer. Once again, a water nine bless is an excellent choice, as is a fire bless. Know that the Devourer of Souls is a unique summon, just like the Elemental Royalty.

Skelly Spam: A tactic you can always fall back on for EA C'tis, having your Sauromancers or Reborn cast Raise Skeletons turn after turn will result in a swarm of Longdead on the battlefield. While Skelly Spamming will not result in lots of dead enemies, it will wear done most opponents' armies. Later on, possibly with a communioned Couatl, you can cast Relief to reduce the downtime for your mages when they get too fatigued.

C'tissian Special: This set of spells is difficult and expensive for EA C'tis to cast, but it still can be done. First off, you will need a level four nature mage (just give a Sauromancer with a nature random a Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet). Have him cast Serpent's Blessing. Then have a level three nature and level one water mage (give a Sauromancer with a water random a Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet) cast Foul Vapors. Finally, have a level four water mage (give a Sauromancer with a rare two water random a Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea, or use an independent or summoned mage with two water) cast Quagmire. Have mages spam Poison Cloud and make use of Monster Toads, Bog Beasts, and other poisonous creatures. The idea is to make the battlefield as unpleasant for the enemy as possible. The longer most armies remain on the battlefield, the weaker they will get. The C'tissian Special is best cast when you are defending an important fort. Feel free to use the various components of the Special when the opportunity presents itself. Alternatively, since EA C'tis's Sauromancers are 100% resistant to poison, you can skip Serpent's Blessing by just using undead and other poison immune summons.

Order/Turmoil: This one is simple. Take order, order three preferably. You need lots of gold for all those Sauromancers that you will recruit.

Magic/Drain: C'tis will recruit a lot of Sauromancers, so you can go about this two ways. You can go with magic and gain an edge in research (if you do, only go with magic one, magic two and three are too expensive), or you can go with drain and the Sauromancers will hopefully even things out since you will have a lot of them (never go with just drain one). If you plan on focusing heavily on Skelly Spamming, it is better to go with a magic scale so you can cast Raise Skeletons more often.

I am not going to go into specifics here. Overall a rainbow pretender, to help C'tis's lack of magic variety, or a SC pretender, to help with early game expansion, are the two best types to make.

EA C'tis is strong in death magic but is severely lacking in other paths. Couatls are castable by your Shamans and can cover nature and astral magic. A Sauromancer with the right equipment can summon a Faery Queen to cover air magic, though you will have to empower her or forge a Tome of High Power to forge air boosters. Spectres can cover earth magic, though they will be weak, and help with water magic (a Spectre that gets two water can use a Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea to cast Streams from Hades). Lamia Queens are expensive but can cover blood magic. By far the best way to expand your magical diversity is to summon Tartarians. By the time you can summon Tartarians, hopefully you will have a lucky level five death mage. Give him a Skull Staff and a Skullface so he can start summoning them up. Try to get the Chalice or cast Gift of Health, otherwise, only a small portion of them will be able to cast spells.