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agartha-ma

MA Agartha, Golem Cult

Lore

Agartha is inspired by fantasy RPG's in general, and an Earth Dawn setting of my brother's imagination, ripe with mummified ancestors entombed in ancient cavern halls, in particular. Old ideas of a race of pale, cave-dwelling humanoids from my ideas of the game “Shepherds of Creation” completed the conglomerate. Think of opulent halls adorned with riches of the deeper earth in which reside ancient bloated oracles with pallid skins ruling their kin with increasing desperation; desperation because their proud race is dying. Agartha is perhaps the most tragic of the nations in Dominions. Surviving oracles cling to memories of a glorious past unable to stop the unavoidable disappearance of their ancient race. I wanted a sense of loss to permeate the nation. - Illwinter

In dark caverns under the Roots of the Earth a strange kind of one-eyed humanoids has evolved. Untouched by the sun, they have become known to humans as the Pale Ones. When humans first met these pale giants, it was in war. With the destruction of the false god of the Pale Ones, an ancient Seal was broken and vast powers of destruction were released. The Pale Ones were almost wiped out of existence and humans could move down into the caverns of Agartha. Here they found fabulous riches and ancient secrets. The humans replaced the Pale Ones and now most of Agartha’s inhabitants are pale-skinned humans with large eyes. Everything left by the Ancient Ones has become subject to worship by the humans. Ancient statues are enchanted and given life by Golem Crafters, priest-mages of the Agarthan Golem Cult. A few surviving Oracles lead the Cult and keep the memories of past ages alive. - Nation Description

MA Agartha is a nation of slowly dying pale ones and their worshipful human servants. As the epithet implies, the humans have a golem cult in which they make statues of their pale one masters and enchant them with life. This is reflected in game by the bonus health to golems and national statue spells.

General Overview

Agartha is a nation of cave-dwelling Pale Ones who live alongside humans. Pale Ones are cold-blooded amphibious humanoids adapted to life underground; all have high HP, strength, and magic resistance, and benefit from a siege bonus, but poor attack and defense skills.

Their mages emphasize Earth, with some access to Death, Water, and Fire; their cap-only Oracle of the Ancients is one of the strongest earth mages in the game. All are also priests.

Their troops are all infantry, both Pale One and human, with a variety of armor weights; most emphasize defense over offense. They have cap-only sacred Ancient Ones (giant Pale Ones) and Shard Guard, extremely slow but strong and durable half-olms.

MA Agartha also has a variety of national summons, and these form a core part of the nation's character; the nation often relies on them heavily. They can summon mindblasting Great Olms, cheap Magma Children, blobs of Living Mercury, and ethereal ghostly Umbrals and Penumbrals. Their most iconic and unique summons are the tough sacred statues in a variety of sizes, such as Sentinel and Granite Guardian.

National Features

MA Agartha's dominion empowers the constructs it creates. Constructs will have 10% increased hit points in this dominion for each candle present. This will help disciple players as well as enemies should they have any constructs. They also get +1 earth bless point as long as their pretender has other access to Earth blesses.

Special Race Attributes Military Magic Access Priests Buildings
Humans:
50% dark vision

Pale Ones:
Amphibious
Siege Bonuses
100% dark vision
Cold blooded
Medium and heavy infantry
Variety of efficient national summons
Siege bonuses
Earth bless points +1
Earth (max 4)
Fire (max 1)
Water (max 1, 2 with national summon)
Death (max 2)
Strong Priests (lvl3) Standard Forts
Can build Underwater Forts

National Units

FIXME

Commanders

Sprite Unit Name SpecialAttributes Comments
Agarthan Scout
25
4
1
Darkvision (50%)
Stealthy (50)
Mountain Survival
Forest Survival
Pretty much an indy scout.
Cave Captain
70
22
1
Darkvision (50%) 80 leadership human commander so he gives formations.
Troglodyte Trainer
45
15
1
Darkvision (50%)
Ambidextrous (2)
Beastmaster (2)
Taskmaster (2)
Specializes in commanding Troglodyte Slaves to improve their morale, but can't lead many. Rarely recruited (as with Troglodytes themselves)
Pale One Captain
45
20
1
+Rec Caves
Darkvision (100%)
Inspirational 1
Siege Bonus 1
Eyes 1
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
A generic Pale One commander. Tougher and cheaper than the Cave Captain, and can go underwater, but can't do formations.
Wet One Captain
35
7
1
Underwater Fort Only
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (2)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Like a pale one captain but more vulnerable to stray arrows and without an inspiring leader bonus. Cheap.
Attendant of the Oracles
45
1
1
holy 11
Sacred
Darkvision (50%)
Cheap priest if needed. Can be useful for moving around and blessing raiding parties of sacreds. Notably has an innate bonus to Magic Leadership for leading statues, as do the two mages below.
Earth Reader
80
1
2
earth 11holy 11
Sacred
Darkvision (50%)
Fortune Teller (5%)
Cheap research mage with a small fortune telling ability. Useful lab rats, but have enough leadership to move troops around and can bless sacreds if an Oracle isn't around.
Golem Crafter
210
2
2
fire 11water 11earth 22holy 11
Sacred
Darkvision (50%)
Powerful and versatile mages who will be the backbone of Agarthan battle magic and ritual casting. Notably can cast most of your national summons.
Ancient Lord
125
23
1
Capital Only
Sacred
Darkvision (100%)
Inspirational (1)
Siege Bonus (5)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Good leadership and a sacred light thug chassis. Is in competition for commander points with Oracles, and is thus rarely recruited, since Oracles are so powerful and can thug themselves in a pinch.
Oracle of the Ancients
375
1
4
Capital Only
earth 33death 11holy 33random1100%
10%

Sacred
Darkvision (100%)
Inspirational (1)
Siege Bonus (5)
Fortune Teller (15%)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Powerful Earth mages with great leadership, able to claim thrones and cast Divine Blessing, all without dying to stray arrows. While they can serve as thugs in a pinch, they are generally more valuable as battlemages.

Olm Sage
Summoned via Olm Conclave for 20watergem (also gives 10x Great Olm)
water 22earth 11
Sacred
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Darkvision (100%)
Cold Resistance (5)
Poison Resistance (15)
Olm Sages are a relatively inexpensive and accessible summoned utility mage that provides your highest national water access. They are slow, but more durable than your humans. They can lead small squads of troops or large numbers of magic beings.

Units

Sprite Unit Name SpecialAttributes Comments
Agarthan Light Infantry
Gold 10
10
9
Darkvision (50%) Generic human infantry, similar to independents but with partial darkvision. Good if you need mass to your armies or during expansion.
Agarthan Infantry
Gold 10
22
9
Darkvision (50%) Human infantry with heavier armor; unexceptional but durable and reliable.
Agarthan Heavy Infantry
Gold 10
27
9
Darkvision (50%) The best-armored of the three types of human infantry. Particularly vulnerable to fatigue plays but quite durable when given protection buffs.
Troglodyte Slave
Gold 50
1
40
Animal
Slave
Trample
Size-4 tramplers; they will often die quickly. Circumstantially useful.

Wet One
Gold 9
1
18
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (2)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Unarmored Pale Ones recruitable underwater, sometimes recruited as a source of HP and siege strength but vulnerable in combat.
Wet One
Gold 9
5
18
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (2)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Armored and slightly more skilled than the other Wet Ones for a slightly higher resource cost. Still vulnerable in combat.
Pale One Soldier
Gold 9
16
18
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (2)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Reasonably well-armored and gold cheap making them good chaff. Their acutely poor stats makes them unsuitable for actual killing. Worse stats than armored Wet Ones.
Defender of the Halls
Gold 13
26
26
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (2)
Castle Defence Bonus (1)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Poor Amphibian
Need not Eat
Elite Pale One troops, with human-level attack and defense stats but much higher HP and strength. Often used as line infantry alongside the humans.
Ancient One
Gold 40
27
32
Capital Only
Sacred
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (5)
Standard (1)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Capital-only giant sacred Pale Ones who follow the same pattern: good strength and HP, but low attack and defense skills, compared to most cap-only sacreds. Their thrown rocks are inaccurate but serve somewhat like javelins.
Ancient Stone Hurler
Gold 40
13
32
Capital Only
Sacred
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (10)
Standard (1)
Eyes (1)
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Sacred Ancient Ones using boulders rather than spears. Sometimes recruited to kill high-defense targets with their boulders from behind a line of infantry. Even more siege strength than ordinary Ancient Ones.
Shard Guard
Gold 45
31
30
Capital Only
Sacred
Poison Resistance (15)
Cold Resistance (5)
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (2)
Eyes (1)
Amphibious
Need not Eat
Shard Guard are half-Olm half-Pale Ones. They are sacred and capital only melee units much like Ancient Ones but have several advantages over them. Shard Guard hit harder than Ancient ones, have cold and poison resistance, have higher stats (except for HP notably), have magic weapons, and are able to fit 2 to a square. Shard Guard are widely considered to be the best of the three capital only sacred units available to MA Agartha. Their main disadvantage is their extreme slowness; they will need to march across the battlefield enduring all sorts of punishment before engaging.

Heroes

Sprite Unit Name SpecialAttributes Comments
Kin-Breaker - Onyx Oracle
Minimum hero arrival turn: 20
water 11earth 33holy 33
Sacred
Poison Resistance (25)
Fortune Teller (15%)
Eyes (1)
Poor Amphibian
Slash Resistance
Pierce Resistance
Magic Being
Need not Eat
Mindless
Does Not Heal Naturally
Stone Being
Spirit Sight
A Marble Oracle on steroids and with magic; a true SC except for two major flaws. Being a magic being leaves Kin-Breaker vulnerable to Moon Blade counter thugs. Being mindless and a magic being leaves Kin-Breaker vulnerable to exploding on the turn timer. Still, he is an extremely powerful mage and naturally tanky SC chassis.
Golog - Decrepit
Minimum hero arrival turn: 10
earth 33death 44holy 11
Sacred
Darkvision (100%)
Siege Bonus (4)
Fortune Teller (15%)
Eyes (1)
Old Age
Cold Blooded
Amphibious
Need not Eat
A powerful death mage who should be kept safe and used for summoning powerful death mages such as Liches and used in combat for major spells like Darkness only if he is first protected with Twiceborn. Death 4 is a breakpoint, allowing you to cast Liches and Wraith Lords, and he is your only access other than a god.
Klaus - Mason of the Underworld fire 11water 11earth 22death 33holy 11
Sacred
Darkvision (50%)
Stealthy (80)
Siege Bonus (20)
Castle Defence Bonus (20)
Forge Bonus (1)
Clockwork Lord (1)
Old Age
Spy
Mason
A powerful mage in his own right, Klaus is most notable for being a mason, able to upgrade forts as high as citadel tier! He also has a broad array of crosspaths making him useful as a ritual caster as well.

Since Agartha gets so many goodies from its capital, his ability to upgrade your capital to a Citadel to make more Oracles is extremely powerful.

Magic

Magic Access

Earth (max 4)
Fire (max 1)
Water (max 1, 2 with national summon)
Death (max 2)

National Spells & Summons

Conjuration

  • Summon Penumbrals death 11earth 11 Conj 3 for 6deathgem. (Penumbral×4)
  • Awaken Shard Wights death 11earth 11 Conj 3 for 15deathgem. (Shard Wight×5+[1/2 lvl])
  • Barathrus Pact earth 22 Conj 3 for 2earthgem, Cap only. (Earth Elemental×1)
  • Rhuax Pact fire 11earth 11 Conj 3 for 2firegem, Cap only. (Magma Child×5)
  • Olm Conclave water 11earth 11 Conj 4 for 20watergem, Caves only. (Olm Sage×1, Great Olm×10)
  • Summon Umbrals death 22earth 11 Conj 5 for 8deathgem. (Umbral×4)

Enchantment

  • Attentive Statues earth 22 Ench 1 for 4earthgem. (Attentive Statue×2)
  • Enliven Sentinel earth 22 Ench 3 for 3earthgem. (Sentinel×1)
  • Enliven Granite Guard earth 33 Ench 5 for 12earthgem. (Granite Guardian×1)
  • Living Mercury water 11earth 11 Ench 5 for 7watergem. (Living Mercury×1)
  • Enliven Marble Oracle earth 33death 11 Ench 6 for 35earthgem. (Marble Oracle×1)
  • Hall of Statues earth 55 Ench 8 for 30earthgem. (Sentinel×20 +[4/lvl])

MA Agartha is a nation partially defined by its national summons. Most players treat them as a core part of the roster, rather than an addition.

Statues: The most commonly-used of these are the Sentinels, who are sacred but relatively inexpensive (but cost lots of mage turns). Like all statues, they have 22 natural protection and slash/pierce resistance. Combined with their high HP from the Golem Cult dominion bonus, they are extremely durable melee combatants. They also have a patrol bonus: they can patrol out assassins, seducers, and scouts even in small numbers.

They are vulnerable to thugs with AP/AN weapons (particularly Smasher), along with shock damage unless they are blessed with shock resistance.

These statues have mapmove 20; this makes them faster than gold-recruit troops, so they can often outrun the rest of the Agarthan force with a fast commander (Attendant of the Oracles or an Oracle of the Ancients, particularly with Boots of the Messenger).

Umbrals and Penumbrals: These are the opposite of statues: no protection, but ethereal and with a powerful armor piercing lifedrain attack. Since they have no natural protection, players commonly buff them with protection buffs like Marble Warriors and further augment their damage with Strength of Giants.

They are stealthy, but Agartha doesn't have any stealthy leaders – although they can make one, by forging a Shademail Haubergeon, or use Camazotz indies who can lead undead because of their death path and are stealthy.

Umbrals can be summoned by death-random Oracles or any Oracle with a Skull Staff.

Shard Wights: These are undead Pale Ones with a cold aura. They are rarely used since Agartha generally doesn't have cold scales to help their aura, they fill a similar role to Shard Guard while not being sacred, and compete with other uses for valuable death gems.

Olms (Great Olms and Olm Sage from the Olm Conclave): The Great Olms are mindblasters, which are useful to break up formations, force opponents to cast Antimagic, stunlock solo thugs and SC's, and paralyze frontline troops so Pale One accuracy is not a problem.

The Olm Sage that comes along with them is the nation's highest national water access at Water 2. Since they are resistant to poison, they can closely escort Living Mercuries to buff them without risk.

Magma Children: These are incredibly cheap at 0.4 fire gems apiece; since Rhuax Pact summons them five at a time, many Agartha players make swarms of them. They are substantially better in heat scales thanks to their Heat Power ability. Since their attacks do armor-piercing defense-ignoring area-of-effect fire damage, anything without fire resistance will get shredded. Their fire shield and area attacks will eradicate swarmbugs and longdead.

These do 12 fire damage base, which increases to 15 in Heat 3 and 19 with Strength of Giants. They are efficient enough that many Agartha players take Heat 3 scales just for these. They are vulnerable to archery and evocations, however.

Note that their heat aura can pose a danger to anything deployed near them that is not fire resistant (and FR5 is not totally safe either).

Barathrus Pact: Paying 2 gems for a size 4 Earth Elemental compares poorly with Summon Earth Elemental or Living Earth, both of which are easy for Agartha to cast. However, they can't be gem baited and are disciplined (and thus can be readily point buffed with Iron Warriors), so there is a niche for disciplined elementals. However, they compete with Sentinels for earth gems, and thus see little use.

Living Mercury: While the poison cloud looks useful, it is generally more of a risk to friendly troops. The real value here is the three Strength 28 armor piercing attacks.

These absolutely love buffs – Iron Warriors and Quickness (from Olm Sages) turn them into absolute wrecking balls, and 28 AP damage is enough to pop Mistform and wreck protection thugs. Careful scripting can keep them away from poison-susceptible things – most of the time. They are safe around statues, olm sages, shard wights, and anything with PR10 or more once it is blessed; they are *not* safe around magma children since they'll get set on fire by the heat aura.

Their Protection 0 means that they will take attrition from mundane troops and PD unless prot-buffed. This makes them more suitable to fight elites (particularly those relying on protection) than chaff without buffs.

Notable Generic Magic

As an earth nation with good troops, most of Agartha's combat magic is generally dedicated to buffing those troops to make them even stronger. Rather than killing people with magic directly, Agartha tends to kill people with grumpy Shard Guard.

They are often able to paint Strength of Giants and Legions of Steel on everything, adding in Marble Warriors where appropriate once you get it. They are also one of the few nations that can cast Weapons of Sharpness without difficulty, which is an immense buff to troop damage. Obviously Army of Lead (or Gold) is excellent lategame.

They have ready access to Earth Meld and Maws of the Earth, which allow their less-skilled troops to hit things more readily and (for Maws) do area damage.

Their Oracles can cast and survive Earthquake, so they can set traps easily for nations that are vulnerable.

Quickness and Quickening are excellent buffs for Shard Guard and summons, and can be cast by Olm Sages or Golem Crafters with a booster. Also in Water, all Golem Crafters can cast Frozen Heart, which can punish thugs or elites without cold resistance.

Darkness is huge, since almost everything Agarthan can see in the dark. It is hard to cast, since it requires Death 4; this is either a Mound Fiend holding a Skull Staff, a pretender, a hero (Mason or Golog), or a high-level Death summon (Lich or Wraith).

Rigor Mortis generally hurts Agartha less than their enemies, since the statues don't care, the umbrals don't care, and the mages won't die quickly because of Summon Earthpower.

As a nation of impressively strong but slow infantry, Mass Flight is a gamechanger in some situations.

Since Agarthan troops and summons are core to the nation but slow, getting a Teleport caster can greatly enhance strategic mobility. This can be a pretender or an independent mage holding +leadership items such as Whip of Command.

Strategy

Expansion Strategies

MA Agartha's expansion is solid if unremarkable. Indies generally do low damage, so your high-protection human infantry with good shields (for archer protection) deal with them with low attrition.

Shard Guard with even a light bless expand very well.

Since Attentive Statues are only Enchantment 1, you might have them in time to help with expansion.

Example Pretender Builds

Owl's Rainbow
Agartha has strong but slow sacred infantry, sacred human mages, and excellent summons, but weak lategame magic diversity. This build doubles down on those, designing a bless to let your sacreds endure and kill, provide lots of extra gems from luck/magic/turmoil, and a rainbow pretender to get path access.

You benefit greatly from resist blesses (so your mages don't wipe to battlefield-wide spells and your sacreds can endure punishment while they close to melee) and stat blesses – particularly +attack. More Strength is useful, even on high-str things like Shard Guard and Sentinels, because it lets them hit through shields and slice through thugs/gods.

Shard Guard require surprisingly low resource/recpoints, so this build takes a high domscore to produce lots of them despite Turmoil. Magma Children like it warm, so take Heat 3. Magic 2 is a nice breakpoint since it gives opponents -1 MR, which your Olms appreciate.

Chassis: Imprisoned Frost Father
Paths: fire 55air 33water 44earth 33astral 33death 33nature 33blood 33
Bless: Attack +2, Minor Fire Resistance, Major Shock Resistance, Minor Cold Resistance, Defense +2, Strength +2 [Earth], Mountain Survival, Major Magic Resistance, Undying +4, Undead Leadership 20, Major Poison Resistance, HP +1, Strength +2 [Blood]
Scales: Dominion strength7Turmoil3Productivity0Heat3Growth3Luck3Magic2

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agartha-ma.txt · Last modified: 2023/04/01 03:47 by cactusowl