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Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Marverni (edit)
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{{Header Nav|game=Dominions 3: The Awakening}} | {{Header Nav|game=Dominions 3: The Awakening}} | ||
[[ | [[File:Dom3 Marverni BoarWarrior.png|right]] | ||
The Marverni are a tribal nation of chiefdoms guided by Druids and religious magistrates. The tribes have a long history of war and infighting, but recent developments have joined the tribes in pursuit of a single goal. The most prominent tribes are the Marverni, the Ambibates, the Eponi and the Carnutes. The Sequani, though a small tribe, are influential due to the large number of Druids among them. The smiths of the Marverni tribe are reputedly the inventors of chainmail and most nobles of the tribe use it. Low born warriors fight bare-chested. The Ambibates are known for their martial skills. The Eponi nobles fight on horseback and are the only cavalry available to the nation. The Carnute tribe guards the sacred Forest of Carnutes where the Druids gather every year. The Carnute warriors are able to go berserk when wounded. Boars are a sacred symbol to the Marverni nation. | The Marverni are a tribal nation of chiefdoms guided by Druids and religious magistrates. The tribes have a long history of war and infighting, but recent developments have joined the tribes in pursuit of a single goal. The most prominent tribes are the Marverni, the Ambibates, the Eponi and the Carnutes. The Sequani, though a small tribe, are influential due to the large number of Druids among them. The smiths of the Marverni tribe are reputedly the inventors of chainmail and most nobles of the tribe use it. Low born warriors fight bare-chested. The Ambibates are known for their martial skills. The Eponi nobles fight on horseback and are the only cavalry available to the nation. The Carnute tribe guards the sacred Forest of Carnutes where the Druids gather every year. The Carnute warriors are able to go berserk when wounded. Boars are a sacred symbol to the Marverni nation. | ||
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See the manual on page 121: Marnervi is inspired by the celtic gauls as described by Julius Caesar in his report [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War The gallic war] and by other Roman historians. See also the comic [http://www.asterix.com/ Asterix] for visual inspiration. | See the manual on page 121: Marnervi is inspired by the celtic gauls as described by Julius Caesar in his report [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War The gallic war] and by other Roman historians. See also the comic [http://www.asterix.com/ Asterix] for visual inspiration. | ||
{{-}} | {{-}} | ||
The historic Arverni (Marverni), Ambiliates (Ambibates), Carnutes, and Sequani were tribes of Gallic Celts. Epona is the Gallo-Roman goddess of horses. The elongated bronze trumpets of the Celts are called Carnyx, often formed to resemble animals. | |||
==National Features== | ==National Features== | ||
Your national troops are composed of several light and heavy infantry types, supported by javelin throwers and slingers. Most infantry types exist as a low-resource variant without armor (bare-chested warriors) and a better | Your national troops are composed of several light and heavy infantry types, supported by javelin throwers and slingers. Most infantry types exist as a low-resource variant without armor (bare-chested warriors) and a better resource-demanding armored variant (noble warriors). Your cavalry is expensive but decent for Early Era, even without a charge bonus. | ||
EA-Marverni's most powerful magi, the Druids, are recruitable anywhere! Druids have powerful Earth & Astral magic plus some skill in Nature & Water, and can enhance their battlefield magic with powerful Communion combinations. She also has recruit-anywhere S1 mage chaff, the Stargazers. Marverni has no national access to Blood, Death, Fire or Air magic, but can sacrifice Blood Slaves at temples to push Dominion. | |||
EA-Marverni's recruitable sacred-troops can go berserk and are capital-only. But you also gain access to free sacred auto-spawn (''minorsummon'') tramplers through the Conjuration school. Marverni's sacred summons also possess the ''fortune teller'' trait, allowing them to suppress bad events from happening in their province. | |||
Your province defense | ===Provincial Defense=== | ||
Your province defense consists of 1 Slinger and 2 bare-chest Javelin Throwers per point of PD; at Province Defense 20 you gain an additional Marverni Noble Warrior per point. This PD mix gives you a lot of ranged attacks for your gold and can be effective against raiders. | |||
===Starting Sites=== | ===Starting Sites=== | ||
'''Carnutes''' Gives 3 Astral, 2 Earth and 1 Nature Gem each turn and | '''Carnutes''' Gives 3 Astral, 2 Earth and 1 Nature Gem each turn and allows recruitment of sacred ''Boar Warriors'' and ''Boar Lords''. | ||
===National Spells=== | ===National Spells=== | ||
;Sounder of Boars | ;Sounder of Boars | ||
:''Conj-3 N2'' Summons 20 sacred | :''Conj-3 N2'' Summons 20 sacred ''Great Boars'' (sacred, animal, size-3 trampler, 22 hp, map-move 3/16, forest survival, prot-6). Great boars have no upkeep cost, and are also auto-summoned for free by Great Boars of Carnutes (see next entry). They benefit well from a W/E/N bless after being turned ethereal by your Sequani magi. | ||
;Contact Boar of Carnutes | ;Contact Boar of Carnutes | ||
:''Conj-5 N1E1'' Summons a sacred | :''Conj-5 N1E1'' Summons a sacred ''Great Boar of Carnutes'' commander (command 40, sacred, animal, size-5 trampler, 81 hp, map-move 3/20, forest survival, prot-10) that in turn occasionally auto-summons sacred ''Great Boars'' (~ 1/20 chance per candle per turn; thus 10 candles bestows a 10/20 = 50% chance per turn) and can prevent bad random events from happening in the province in which it is currently located. Great boars of Carnutes have no upkeep cost, and with the right W/E/N bless can make effective thugs. | ||
*It would seem each additional ''Boar of Carnutes'' in a province decreases the local chance of a bad event happening by 15% (ie. other provinces remain unaffected). It is unknown whether enough boars can actually negate bad events in a province altogether. | |||
;Monster Boar | ;Monster Boar | ||
:''Conj-5 N3'' The caster summons a | :''Conj-5 N3'' The caster summons a non-sacred AI-controlled ''Monster Boar'' (stealth 20, animal, size-5 trampler, 51 hp, map-move 3/20, forest survival, prot-9, Str 20, Att 12, Def 9, MR 5) and sends it to a distant province to ravage the land. This is effectively a remote attack that increases unrest in the target province, but if you spam it on rich enemy castles, it can stunt or even shut down enemy taxes/production. | ||
==Units== | ==Units== | ||
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;Marverni Slinger: Gold 9, Resources 3, Dagger, Sling, Shield | ;Marverni Slinger: Gold 9, Resources 3, Dagger, Sling, Shield | ||
:Your default missile troops, the Marverni Slinger is mass-recruitable in times of need and wields a dagger and shield (but no armor). In practice, the shield does little to increase their survivability and their morale is low (Morale: 8) without a Hornblower nearby. They work well when deployed behind armored melee blockers (bare chested troops remain vulnerable to friendly fire). While they certainly meet expectations, you will probably find | :Your default missile troops, the Marverni Slinger is mass-recruitable in times of need and wields a dagger and shield (but no armor). Unlike slower indy slingers and archers, these can keep up with your MM-2 armies. In practice, the shield does little to increase their survivability and their morale is low (Morale: 8) without a Hornblower nearby. They work well when deployed behind armored melee blockers (bare chested troops remain vulnerable to friendly fire). While they certainly meet expectations, you will probably find Jaguar Tribe slingers or Wolf/Deer Tribe archers offer superior value for the money. | ||
;Marverni Javelineer: Gold 9, Resources 5, Spear, Javelin, Shield | ;Marverni Javelineer: Gold 9, Resources 5, Spear, Javelin, Shield | ||
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====Unit Comparison==== | ====Unit Comparison==== | ||
{|{{prettytable| | {| {{prettytable|class=sortable|style=text-align:center}} | ||
|+Marverni, Time of Druids | |+Marverni, Time of Druids | ||
!Name!!Gold!!Resources!!HP!!Pro!!Mor!!Res!!Enc!!Str!!Atk!!Def!!Prc!!Mv | !Name!!Gold!!Resources!!HP!!Pro!!Mor!!Res!!Enc!!Str!!Atk!!Def!!Prc!!Mv | ||
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;Sequani Stargazer: Gold 80, Resources 1, Magic: 1S | ;Sequani Stargazer: Gold 80, Resources 1, Magic: 1S | ||
:With high Magic scales, this mage is a dirt-cheap researcher and a useful communion slave for battlefield magic. Recruit lots of these, as Astral magic offers a good way to make early-game thugs out of virtually any available unit (Alt-3 ''Body Ethereal''). Their major downside is Map-Move 1, which completely gimps your otherwise mobile MM-2 armies. But for defending/expanding home turf close to their labs, they excel. In an emergency, research to (Thaum-2) for ''Communions'' so the masters can cast ''Mindburn''. To get the most out of your Stargazers' communion potential, research ''Power of the Spheres'' (Conj-4) and ''Light of the Norther Star'' (Conj-5), and use reversed-communions, then spells like ''Paralyze'' (Thaum-4), ''Enslave Mind'' (Thaum-6), ''Solar Rays'' (Evoc-2) and ''Stellar Cascades'' (Evoc-5). Even better is when you can forge ''Eyes of the Void'' and ''Spell Focus'' (Const-4) to leverage the effectiveness of your mind attacks, and ''Banner of the Northern Star'' (Const-6 S4) to further boost all your astral magi in battle. | :With high Magic scales, this mage is a dirt-cheap researcher and a useful communion slave for battlefield magic. Recruit lots of these, as Astral magic offers a good way to make early-game thugs out of virtually any available unit (Alt-3 ''Body Ethereal''). Their major downside is Map-Move 1, which completely gimps your otherwise mobile MM-2 armies. But for defending/expanding home turf close to their labs, they excel. In an emergency, research to (Thaum-2) for ''Communions'' so the masters can cast ''Mindburn''. To get the most out of your Stargazers' communion potential, research ''Power of the Spheres'' (Conj-4) and ''Light of the Norther Star'' (Conj-5), and use reversed-communions, then spells like ''Paralyze'' (Thaum-4), ''Enslave Mind'' (Thaum-6), ''Solar Rays'' (Evoc-2) and ''Stellar Cascades'' (Evoc-5). Even better is when you can forge ''Eyes of the Void'' and ''Spell Focus'' (Const-4) to leverage the effectiveness of your mind attacks, and ''Banner of the Northern Star'' (Const-6 S4) to further boost all your astral magi in battle. | ||
:When spammed by many Stargazers backed up by a mass of naked troops, ''Stellar Cascade'' is a battle-winner, as each 100-precision cast debuffs 25 unresistable fatigue onto 5 squares of enemies. Also works vs SCs. | |||
;Gutuater: Gold 120, Resources 1, Magic: 1H1N 100%(WESN), sacred | ;Gutuater: Gold 120, Resources 1, Magic: 1H1N 100%(WESN), sacred | ||
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;Druid: Gold 380, Resources 3, Magic: 2E2S2H 100%(WESN) 100%(WESN), 10%(WESN), sacred | ;Druid: Gold 380, Resources 3, Magic: 2E2S2H 100%(WESN) 100%(WESN), 10%(WESN), sacred | ||
:The Druid is a powerful sacred priest mage. The druid suffer from old age but has excellent precision (12). If he is lucky to have a nature pick old age is less of a problem and he can also cast the spell ''eagle Eyes'' on his self to further increase his precision. If your Druid has no nature pick you should take care of his [[Dominions 3: The Awakening/Units#Age|old age]] problems if you want to use him as a battlefield mage. He can also perform blood sacrifices. Druids can | :The Druid is a powerful sacred priest mage. The druid suffer from old age but has excellent precision (12). If he is lucky to have a nature pick old age is less of a problem and he can also cast the spell ''eagle Eyes'' on his self to further increase his precision. If your Druid has no nature pick you should take care of his [[Dominions 3: The Awakening/Units#Age|old age]] problems if you want to use him as a battlefield mage. He can also perform blood sacrifices. Druids can cast Communion Master and use the cheap Stargazers as Communion Slaves (though they lack the paths, so tend to pass out). | ||
:Interesting '''Spells''' for your Druids: | :Interesting '''Spells''' for your Druids: | ||
:*''Summon Earthpower'' (Conjuration 3) E2, Fatigue 20, Earth Magic +1, Reinvigoration 4 (also to Communion Slaves). | :*''Summon Earthpower'' (Conjuration 3) E2, Fatigue 20, Earth Magic +1, Reinvigoration 4 (also to Communion Slaves). | ||
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;Boar Lord: Gold 100, Resources 15, sacred | ;Boar Lord: Gold 100, Resources 15, sacred | ||
:The Boar Lord bears no standard and is recruitable only in your capitol. He is sacred an can be blessed to higher stats. He is also capable of going berserk. | :The Boar Lord bears no standard and is recruitable only in your capitol. He is sacred an can be blessed to higher stats. He is also capable of going berserk. | ||
;Great Boar of Carnutes: 7 N-gems, sacred | |||
:''See National Summons''. Though a summoned commander, the sacred Great Boar of Carnutes are an important part of EA-Marverni's threat projection. They can lead lead armies, reduce the chance of bad events, and auto-summon free sacred animal troops when in strong dominion. | |||
===Heroes=== | ===Heroes=== | ||
The Wanderer is | Marverni's national heroes ensure EA-Marverni gets high S/N magic, though eventually her druids can also attain those paths through random picks/forging. The Wanderer is fairly likely to show up at your gate under ''Order'' and ''Luck'' scales. Carnon and Coriax OTOH only appear quite rarely if at all. | ||
;The Wanderer | ;The Wanderer | ||
:''In the depths of Carnutes lives an ancient man of unknown origin. He is simply known as the 'One in the Woods' or the 'Wanderer'. No Druid has trained him, but he appears to be a master of the Druidic Arts. He is often accompanied by wild beasts and seems to prefer their company to that of men. Animals in turn avoid attacking him unless severely stressed. With the awakening of the God, he has reluctantly left his forest to aid the Druids of Canutes.'' | :''In the depths of Carnutes lives an ancient man of unknown origin. He is simply known as the 'One in the Woods' or the 'Wanderer'. No Druid has trained him, but he appears to be a master of the Druidic Arts. He is often accompanied by wild beasts and seems to prefer their company to that of men. Animals in turn avoid attacking him unless severely stressed. With the awakening of the God, he has reluctantly left his forest to aid the Druids of Canutes.'' | ||
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;Blinded (Coriax) | ;Blinded (Coriax) | ||
:''Coriax is one of the oldest and most respected members of the Gathering. His position made him chief negotiator when the Ermorian legions arrived. Under white flag he approached an Ermorian Centurion who, upon hearing that Corix was a Druid, demanded to know what the future held for him. Corix regarded the Centurion and with sad voice prophesied his untimely death. In furious anger the Centurion incarcerated the Druid and blinded him. When his Legatus Legionis found out, he was promptly executed and Corix was released and returned home with a treaty of peace. Despite his lack of eyesight, Corix travels far and wide to give his advice to Vergobrets and Chieftains alike. Corix covers his eyes with a red cloth to spare onlookers his grisly appearance.'' | :''Coriax is one of the oldest and most respected members of the Gathering. His position made him chief negotiator when the Ermorian legions arrived. Under white flag he approached an Ermorian Centurion who, upon hearing that Corix was a Druid, demanded to know what the future held for him. Corix regarded the Centurion and with sad voice prophesied his untimely death. In furious anger the Centurion incarcerated the Druid and blinded him. When his Legatus Legionis found out, he was promptly executed and Corix was released and returned home with a treaty of peace. Despite his lack of eyesight, Corix travels far and wide to give his advice to Vergobrets and Chieftains alike. Corix covers his eyes with a red cloth to spare onlookers his grisly appearance.'' | ||
*A sacred E2S4N2H2 mapmove 1 druid with a blind affliction. Being blind doesn't hamper his ability to cast globals, forge boosters, remote mind-hunt or search for magic sites, though battlefield casting usefulness is more limited. | *A sacred E2S4N2H2 mapmove 1 druid with a blind affliction. Being blind doesn't hamper his ability to cast globals, forge boosters, remote mind-hunt or search for magic sites, though battlefield casting usefulness is more limited. Coriax suffers from ''old-age'', so his blindness can only be cured by ''The Chalice'' artifact or ''Gift of Health'' global. | ||
==Strategies== | ==Strategies== | ||
====Expansion==== | |||
If you have an awake pretender, you generally won't need him to help expanding (don't send him out alone), rather use him for site searching. Later, let him forge equipment or cast rituals. | |||
Using javelineers and bare-chests, capture the hills/forests around your capital to raise production, then build expansion armies formed around your 3 noble warrior types. Bare-chests vs enemy archers = heavy casualties, so avoid those battles if you can till you have a proper cadre of armored warriors. Small groups of indy light-infantry mooks can also help draw enemy fire. Against lightly armored enemies such as barbs or lizardmen, your slingers/javelineers work well. | |||
Once you research Alteration-3, your Stargazers can start accompanying your armies to cast ''Body Ethereal'' on bare-chests and noble warriors to leverage their survivability in more dangerous battles. | |||
Build large armies, you have the commanders to lead them. Build Enough Stargazers and use the Druids with Nature Skill (no old Age problems), as deadly accurate Combat Mages (cast Communion Master, Eagle Eye, Combat Spells). Try to field at least 4 Stargazers for each Druid. Forge useful items for your Eponi Knights. Build lots of castles, your castles are cheaper than the castles of other nations and your troops are recruitable everywhere. | |||
====Sub-Strategies==== | |||
*Bless. Race toward Construction 2 to forge ''Dwarven Hammers'' (gives 25% forging bonus) and ''Crystal Shields'' for your prophet and druids (+1 to all magic levels in combat, including holy). With an crystal shield, every Druid can cast ''Divine Bless'' (blessing for all sacred units). Next, researh to Conjugation 5 to spam ''Sacred Boar of Carnutes'' summons. Each giant sacred boar commander also auto-summons lesser sacred boars each turn in high dominion. | |||
*Golems. Research deep into the construction school for ''Golems/Weapons of Sharpness'' (Const-7). Only stop researching Construction to pick up site-searching spells. Use your druids to forge ''Dwarven Hammers'' to forge the pricier magic items for your druids, gutuaters and golems. At Construction 2, 4 and 6 you gain access to research boosters, so forge yourself ''Owl Quills (A1) Skull Mentors (D2)'' and ''Lightless Lanterns (F1)'' if you have the gems to do so. | |||
*Thugs. You have easy access to dwarven hammers, so thugs with decent armor and weapons is definitely on the table. | |||
*Death. Later in the game we can summon Spectres and to get mages with random magic skills. | |||
*Enslave Mind. Take magic scale +3 (bestows +2 Research points & harder to resist your spells). Your druids have great astral magic skill. Sit at home, research or cast "Akashic Record" to find every gem site. Concentrate on researching Astral spells in the Thaumaturgy school. Your Magic+3 dominion make it harder to resist such spells. Research the "Enslave Mind" spells and let your army grow as it moves! | |||
===Useful Spells=== | ===Useful Spells=== | ||
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====Mid Game==== | ====Mid Game==== | ||
Conjuration and Enchantment gives you good undead Mages / Thugs, while Evocation and Thaumarturgy gives you good battlefield spells. | |||
Construction 4 is a must (Wine Bags) to avoid supply problems and form simple items like Vine Bows and Ethereal Crossbows for your Eponi Chieftains. | Construction 4 is a must (Wine Bags) to avoid supply problems and form simple items like Vine Bows and Ethereal Crossbows for your Eponi Chieftains. | ||
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Marverni's power rests on large armies backed by magic, so we need good scales for both money and research. Take Order and use Sloth to pay for it: spread recruitment of noble warriors between your many cheap forts always built in mountains/forests, so can can get away with some Sloth. Magic should always be set at 3; this is not debatable, since Marverni needs as much research ASAP to be able to bring out the heavy combat magic, and your high magic scales also reduces enemy MR when fighting in friendly Dom. Growth is also important, so that our economy grows into the mid-game, and some of our old-age Druids won't catch afflictions in winter as easily. Misfortune 2 to pay for Growth is quite tolerable; you still can get gems and occasional boons, generally the worst events involve losing some gold or barbarian invasions, which our PD set to 20 in key provinces can easily handle. Order tones down the frequency of random events, plus later on, our ''Great Boars of Carnutes'' national summons can help prevent unlucky events by spreading them around your kingdom to blood hunt. Misfortune 3 by comparison can be brutal and is not recommended. | Marverni's power rests on large armies backed by magic, so we need good scales for both money and research. Take Order and use Sloth to pay for it: spread recruitment of noble warriors between your many cheap forts always built in mountains/forests, so can can get away with some Sloth. Magic should always be set at 3; this is not debatable, since Marverni needs as much research ASAP to be able to bring out the heavy combat magic, and your high magic scales also reduces enemy MR when fighting in friendly Dom. Growth is also important, so that our economy grows into the mid-game, and some of our old-age Druids won't catch afflictions in winter as easily. Misfortune 2 to pay for Growth is quite tolerable; you still can get gems and occasional boons, generally the worst events involve losing some gold or barbarian invasions, which our PD set to 20 in key provinces can easily handle. Order tones down the frequency of random events, plus later on, our ''Great Boars of Carnutes'' national summons can help prevent unlucky events by spreading them around your kingdom to blood hunt. Misfortune 3 by comparison can be brutal and is not recommended. | ||
So that gives us suggested scales of '''Order 2, Sloth | So that gives us suggested scales of '''Order 2, Sloth 3, Growth 2, Misfortune 2, Magic 3'''; to furnish good money and growth plus max-out our research, for an overall cost of 80 design points, which still leaves us plenty for a decent Pretender. The downside is you will likely not see any of your national heroes. Or you can gamble and take '''Turmoil 3''' as well as '''Luck 3''' instead to have less fixed income, but more positive random events (some of them will give you gold) and better chances for heroes. Either choice costs a net 80 points. | ||
==Pretender Design== | |||
Marverni has a huge selection of pretenders and thus pretender strategies to choose from. All the standard generic mainstay pretenders can certainly work; such as pathless Wyrm, E9 Cyclops, Forge Lord, Ghost King, etc. But let's have a look at more thematic builds. | |||
*Marverni can certainly benefit from an awake early SC expander, but designing such a build that doesn't stunt late-game magical development is tricky. | |||
*Marverni CAN become a blood nation (sorta) and expand dominion by sacrificing slaves, but you will have to make a concerted effort to break into it, likely earliest by the mid-game. Blood on your pretender really helps speed this up. | |||
*Marverni's Ambibates can become fearsome warriors once they hit veteran status. So curing afflictions on wounded warriors is a good long-term strategy (Mother of Serpents, Gift of Health, Faerie Court, The Chalice). | |||
*Marverni is naturally strong in Astral, Earth and (sometimes) Nature (The Wanderer national hero), and at Const-6 can boost itself into strong Water. So try to look for synergies on your pretender that your Druids cannot reach, using Blood, Death, Fire and Air. A rainbow pretender could potentially cover all bases. | |||
*For end-game Astral, A4 random Druids are possible (6.3% chance to gain Sx2 random picks, or 0.63% chance to gain Sx3). Such a druid can self-forge boosters to get to S7 (''Crystal Coin, Starshine skullcap, Ring of Sorcery''). To empower 2 further steps in Astral for casting ''Wish'' would require 165 astral pearls! Alternatively, you could forge a ''Robe of the Magi'' (A5B5) and either the ''Dimensional Rod'' (S3, Artifact) or ''The Forbidden Light'' (F4S4, Artifact). It might just be easier to make a dedicated pretender. Food for thought. | |||
===Infernal Blood=== | |||
Make the most use of your good national troops and allow a little blood / devil factory for raiding. Late-game Blood summons for magic diversity and nasty globals. | |||
=== | |||
Take an awake '''Fountain of Blood''' ''F2 S2 B6; Order 1 Sloth 3 Growth 3 Misfortune 2 Magic 3 Dom-9''. This gives you a minor bless effect (+3 Strength, useful for your ''Boar Warriors'' and any ''sacred'' indys). Start hunting blood slaves as soon as possible. As soon as Construction 2 is researched, forge a ''Soul Contract'' (auto-recruits 1 devil each turn) every time you have enough slaves to do so. It is important to make these ASAP because each soul contract pays off more the longer it remains in the game. | |||
This | |||
Now split your research as needed between the various schools. Later on, with a ''Crystal Coin'' you can ''Teleport'' (Thaum-3) your fountain to new locations for fresh blood hunting. But your ultimate research goal is ''Blood 7'' (Arch Devil to diversify into F magic) and even better, Blood 8 (Bind Heliophagus, for flying SCs and one of them also has D magic). | |||
=== | ===Stealth Rainbow=== | ||
Marverni's Druids and Gutuaters are sacred... your best and most expensive magi... so give them a bless to empower them even further! But you want to buy good scales too, so you will need to take a dormant (or imprisoned) pretender to achieve both. You can use blood sacrifice to help spread your dominion, so you can get away with a somewhat weaker dominion. | |||
Take a dormant '''Arch Druid''' ''F2 A2 W2 E4 D4 N4 B2; Sloth 3 Growth 3 Misfortune 2 Magic 3 Dom-6''. You get a very mobile stealthy rainbow pretender with recuperation - he should prove to be very tough for your enemies to locate and kill, and recuperation eliminates early-game risk from random afflictions. This bestows a nice multi-bless for your sacred spell-casters and troops that will remain useful throughout the game, and he auto-generates N-gems every turn! Your pretender is extremely useful for site-searching, casting summons & globals and can be boosted to summon ''Lamia Queens'' or ''Specters'' for D/B magic diversity and endgame Tarts. | |||
;Alternative: dormant '''Crone''' ''F2 A3 W2 E4 S2 D4 N4 B1; same scales''. What the Crone lacks in stealth, she makes up for in having 4 misc slots for booster items: with clever forging, she can boost any path to cast any spell in the game. | |||
=== | ===Sacred Warriors=== | ||
Turn your ''Boar Warriors, Sacred Boar of Carnutes'' and ''Sacred Boars'' into deadly battlefield thugs. | |||
Take an imprisoned '''Lady of Springs''' ''W9 E4 N4; Sloth 3 Growth 2 Misfortune 2 Magic 1 Dom-9''. Regenerating reinvigorated Boar Warrior berserkers with boosted multi-attack melee skills backed up by giant auto-spawning regenerating trampler boars! Don't forget you can still turn them ethereal too in an emergency using Stargazers! A group of 20 can take out pretty much anything the indies can throw at you, and larger groups make a fearsome army. Collect them into operational groups of 40 lead by Carnute Chieftains backed up by Gutuater magic. This bless also is quite useful for your many sacred magi as well. | |||
Take an | |||
This strategy is best for quick games on small maps, as many useful magic paths will be difficult to expand into. Your best-bet late-game strategy is probably going for high-level Astral battle-magic and rituals using empowered/boosted druids. | |||
;Alternative: imprisoned '''Mother of Serpents''' ''E4 D9 N4; same scales''. While your blessed Boar Warriors lose their multi-attack with this bless, they gain magic AP death weapons instead (good vs glamored/ethereal troops)! Also, any damage inflicted by blessed casters will have 350% chance of causing afflictions (makes poison and other weak AoE spells much more debilitating). Adds easy access to magic diversity through ''Lamia Queens'' (Conj-6) and end-game ''Tartarians'' (Conj-9). Your pretender can heal afflictions, useful till you manage to cast ''Gift of Health'' (Alt-5), forge ''The Chalice'' (Const-8) or summon ''Faery Queens'' (Conj-8). | |||
=== | {{Footer Nav|game=Dominions 3: The Awakening|prevpage=Nations/Lanka|nextpage=Nations/Mictlan}} | ||