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.
Overview
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.
C'tissian Troops
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.
Units
- Unit
- Gold x, Resources y
- Description
Militia: 7, 2
Like all Militia, the C'tissian version is cheap, weak, and very vulnerable. Their use is as fodder.
Light Infantry: 10, 5
The C'tissian Light Infantry, like all javelin throwers, can be tricky to use. Javelins cannot be thrown far and are quite inaccurate. On the upside, javelins can be quite powerful when they connect with something. It is important to set them up correctly on the battlefield. With only a shield and their scales for protection, don’t place them at the very front of your forces. Put them slightly behind and at the sides of your frontline troops. Make sure that their formations are not too deep. Give them the orders to Fire Closest (if set near the center) or Fire Archers (if set on the far flanks) to have them get within range of their targets and release two volleys. Some people also feel that giving them no orders is best. Javelins can also be a good counter to troops with high defense skill, because, as with all missile weapons, defense skill doesn't come into play.
City Guard: 10, 10
A very useful unit, the City Guard fills roles both on and off the battlefield. On the battlefield, they can be used as a light version of your Heavy Infantry. Their biggest drawback though is the lack of a helmet. With only their natural protection of 5 protecting their head, they are vulnerable to the occasional head strike, thus reducing their efficiency as heavy infantry as they will take many hits on the frontlines. City Guards can also be used in a defense role for your forts. Each one will act as two soldiers defending a fortification when you are under siege. Remember that an enemy army that takes another turn to break down the gate of a fort, is an army that is doing nothing else. At 10 gold and 10 resources, a number a City Guards can be recruited each month even from low resource areas for little expense.
Heavy Infantry: 10, 15
Pretty self-explanatory, Heavy Infantry should be placed of the front of the battlefield. Their job is simple, absorb hits, and the C'tissian Heavy Infantry are very good at this. At a time when 10 is a protection value few units have, their head protection of 18 and body protection of 16 make them very resilient. What is particularly important is that their map movement speed is one. This will slow down any army they are a part of.
Falchioneer: 13, 15
The Falchioneer is the first of several offense oriented units at C'tis's disposal. They are armed with two falchions. While these swords do not increase defense skill like their cousin the broad sword, they do have a rather high damage of 7 each. Unfortunately, using two weapons reduces the attack skill of the wielder. This can be negated by ambidexterity, but Falchioneers only have an ambidexterity value of 2. What all this means is that their attack skill for each falchion is 8! Luckily, with two falchions, they dish out two swings each round, which helps to increase their chances of scoring a hit. Falchioneers are slightly faster than the other green C'tissians and braver to boot. Their head and body protection values are identical to the City Guards, which gives them some staying power, but they have no shield, which makes them more vulnerable to archers. In the end, Falchioneers are not the wisest of investments. With a low attack skill and short weapons, many of their attacks will miss or be repelled. Against large enemies who are bad at dodging attacks, Falchioneers are a good choice, but against the majority of forces that you will go against, there are better troops C'tis has.
Slave Warrior: 12, 3
The second offensive unit for C'tis, the Slave Warrior is the first of the tan lizardmen that have been enslaved by the other C'tissians. The Slave Warrior is good on the attack, very good. Like the Falchioneer, the Slave Warrior has two weapons (a trident and a bite), but unlike the Falchioneer, the Slave Warrior is actually capable of hitting things, quite reliably too. They have everything an offensive unit needs: high strength, good attack skill, multiple weapons, good morale, and good speed. These things all combine into a formidable unit. Slave Warriors have poor defense skill and little protection, a bad combination. Finally, while their resource cost is low at 3, Slave Warriors cost 12 gold, which isn’t cheap when you take into account how fragile they are. Great care must be taken when placing them on the battlefield.
Elite Warrior: 14, 9
Possibly my most favorite C'tissian unit, Elite Warriors may be expensive at 14 gold and 9 resources, but you get what you pay for. Elite Warriors are even braver than their lesser cousins and have better attack skill. The biggest upgrade though is the addition of a scale mail cuirass. This makes them more survivable in melee and reduces their vulnerability to archers.
Runner: 12, 2
The Runner should probably be renamed the Flanker as that is it's primary use. The Runner's stats are almost identical to the Slave Warrior's, making them good on the attack but bad on the defense. The two most notable differences between the Runner and the Slave Warrior are that Runners are armed with spears instead of tridents and Runners are faster, obviously. They are not as fast as cavalry, but as C'tis, you don't have access to cavalry. They are useful for flanking the enemy and attacking undefended archers. Since archers are rarely good in melee, the Runner's poor defense skill and low protection matter less, and they can reach archers quickly as well. On a special note, their map movement is three, allowing them to be brought along with light cavalry and Lizard Chariot armies.
Sacred Serpent: 30, 1
The first of two sacred units that EA C'tis has, the Sacred Serpent is very important for the armies of C'tis. As you know by now, many C'tissians have low morale. One of the ways of solving this problem is by using Sacred Serpents. They have a powerful Standard +10 ability that will greatly help with morale. Only a few Sacred Serpents can turn a group of cowards into very brave fighters. There are two basic ways to use the Sacred Serpent's standard effect. The first way is too simply place them in the desired squad. The second way is to place them in their own squad to have them avoid direct combat, since they are poor at absorbing hits, and design them to be near the squad whose morale they are supposed to boost when fighting starts. An example is this: Sacred Serpents are slightly faster than Heavy Infantry, so placing them in the same squad could result in the Serpents getting ahead of the Heavy Infantry and taking the initial round of hits. Instead, place the Sacred Serpents in their own squad slightly behind the Heavy Infantry. Not only will this keep the Serpents from being of the frontlines, but also protects them from enemy archers set to fire closest. Sacred Serpents are capable of being recruited from any fort with a temple, but they are NOT useful for an uber bless strategy. They are simply too expensive at 30 gold and not good enough in battle for a bless strategy. Good blesses for a Sacred Serpent are fire (to make it’s great attack skill even better), water (to help it‘s terrible defense skill), and air (to protect against archers).
Lizard Chariot: 50, 26
While Lizard Chariots are expensive, they can be well worth it. Of course their high cost makes it difficult to recruit large numbers of them quickly, but they are available in every fort so you have some flexibility with them. Lizard Chariots match the Runner’s map movement and battlefield movement. That speed allows them to be good flankers, but with a defense skill of 14, protection values of 16 body and 20 head, and good morale (as far as C'tissians are concerned) they can also be used as frontal attackers as well. There are two things to be aware of. Since Lizard Chariots are so expensive and tramplers usually accumulate fatigue faster than most units, it is inadvisable to use them in cold provinces. Usually, as C'tis, you try to avoid the cold already, but in a province with a cold scale of two, a Lizard Chariot will have a total fatigue value of 48 after attacking four times, which will typically take only two rounds of attacking! Avoid cold provinces with Lizard Chariots at all costs. Second, and much less important, unlike most C'tissians, Lizard Chariots do not have swamp survival. This means that they won’t be able to move through swamps at full speed. It also means that if they stop in a swamp and start starving, which could easily happen since they consume a lot of supplies, they have no chance of finding food on their own. As far as what Lizard Chariots are useful against, lightly armored troops are their specialty, but they are willing to run over anything smaller than themselves. With a severe lack of archers and cloud spells, they can help EA C'tis deal with glamoured units. If you are using Lizard Chariots in conjunction with smaller troops, it is important to leave their rear open, so if they retreat, no friendly units will get squished.
Serpent Dancer: 20, 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.
Commanders
- Unit
- Gold x, Resources y
- Description
Taskmaster: 30, 2
Commander of C'tis: 40, 15
Lizard Lord: 60, 21
High Priest of C'tis: 100, 1
Hierodule: 40, 1
Shaman: 110, 2
Reborn: 100, 1
Sauromancer: 200, 1
Lizard King: 280, 5
Lizard Heir: 120, 26
Heroes
Starting Sites
The Temple City:
Enables recruitment of Lizard King Enables recruitment of Lizard Heir Enables recruitment of Serpent Dancer Produces 4 Death Gems per turn Produces 2 Nature Gems per turn
National Spells
National Summons
- Unit
- Gems z
- Description