EA Arcoscephale Golden Era

Lore

"Arcoscephale is together with Pythium the first nation conceived in the creation of Dominions. After having played GMT's Great Battles of Alexander and S.P.Q.R. I got fascinated by ancient warfare, and the hoplites were among the first units to appear in Dominions. At first the two nations were one, with a troop roster of ancient units, while Man and later on Ulm had troop rosters with a more medieval touch. Soon, however, it became clear that Pythium and Arcoscephale should be two distinct nations. Arcoscephale is heavily influenced by ancient Greek city-states and Hellas. The Golden Age is influenced by the mythical past and the archaic age." - Illwinter

The kingdom of Arcoscephale is yet to be founded and in its place is a loose collection of city states. Bronze is more common than iron and hoplites have yet to see the light of day. Instead, myrmidons and chariots compose the core of the armies. In this time, slaves are commonly used and most free men have plenty of time to spend on fine arts and good living. Philosophers gather in the cities to discuss esoteric truths and engineers manufacture clever contraptions for civil or military use. At the heart of Arcoscephale lies Mount Cephalos, abode of the Awakening God. At the foot of the mountain is a great temple where sacred Pegasus Riders are trained. Icarids, men with mechanical wings, are also used in warfare. The philosophers are better at magical research in a slothful Dominion.

General Overview

This is the beginning of the well-known Hoplite nation, with communions. EA Arcoscephale is more focused on chariots, flying raids, and masters of siege attacks and defenses rather than heavy armored formations of later ages.

The area they struggle with is that, like other humans, they're likely to die from unanticipated army wipe spells. They also lack the lineup and native magic to produce good thugs or counter thugs. The second anything goes wrong, Arcoscephale is prone to complete collapse, especially when handled by the AI in singleplayer.

National Features

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Average Humans	Heavy Infantry Chariots Flyers Engineers	4 (rare 5) 3 (rare 4) 2 (rare 3) 2 2 (uncommon) 2 (uncommon) Hero: 1113 Summons: requires 4 or 5 121 (requires 3) 11 (requires 2)	Weak (1) Great Healers Stealthy Heretics Scry: Dominion gives very accurate Scouting Reports. (Reports are also available to this nation's Disciples)	Standard Forts (Can be upgraded into Castles by Engineers) Labs cost 250

Capital Sites

Lykeion	Mount Cephalos	Akademeia
Recruit: Mage Engineer Produce 2 per turn	Recruit: Oreiad Wind Lord Wind Rider Produce 22 per turn	Recruit: Philosopher

Units

Commanders

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Scout 25 5 1	Stealthy (50) Mountain Survival Forest Survival	A standard fort-recruitable scout, which may be necessary to recruit as EA generally lacks indie scout access.
Engineer 40 3 1	Siege Bonus (25) Castle Defence Bonus (25) Old Age (60/50) Mason	At 40 gold and 1 commander point, a mobile source massable of siege strength or defense as needed, which can be very relevant in an era of small, sacred-centric armies and low-strength forts. Their Mason trait lets them upgrade fortresses to castles; this has limited utility for recruitment, but can combine with their siege defense to make key forts particularly unassailable.
Sceptic 50 1 1	Heretic (3) Old Age Stealthy (40)	At twice the cost of a regular scout, and with Old Age and a lower stealth value, these can be hard to justify, though the 60% chance to remove a candle of dominion allows for synergy with hellscale strategies (removing friendly dominion) or morale plays or hostile globals (removing enemy dominion).
Icarid Champion 50 21 1	Fire Vulnerability (5) Flying	Flying 60 leadership commander with surprisingly low map movement due to their heavy armor (they can still fly and no more -6 movement penalty if you replace it making it a good logistician if you have spare armors laying around). As a size 2 flyer, they have a useful role as a counterthug (gear with a Greatsword of Sharpness or Eyecatcher) who won't be blocked by a ring of Wind Riders like your Wind Lords will.
Philosopher 65 1 2 Capital Only	10 Old Age Philosopher (2)	An acceptable researcher with neutral productivity, outright horrible with productivity, and only actually good in sloth scales, the philosopher is help back by two main problems: It competes with cap-only mages on a nation that wishes to mass these, and provides no casting once research goals have been hit. As such, it fails to find a niche outside of extremely gold-starved early turns in non-productivity builds, particularly as the nation already has great anyfort researchers.
Myrmidon Champion 70 29 1	Formation Fighter (2)	An armored 80 leadership commander, useful for line formations and boosting the morale of your Cardaces.
Chariot Commander 70 29 1	Trample Mounted	A trampling commander with 20 map movement, useful for leading a squad of raiding chariots.
Mystic 135 1 2	13100% 50% 50% 50% 12	An extremely versatile mage that is one of the nation's main draws. These mages are cheap, have myriad in-battle uses, and provide the nation with great research. While all are astral mages and as such serve as potential communion slaves or masters (by which means the nation gains access to many battlefield spells later in the game) as well as granting the nation easy astral point-buffing alongside its great earth and nature access, a key strength lies in using their out-of-the-box capacities, depending on randoms: F2, W2 and E2 mages are all excellent elemental summoners and in concert with Oreiads allows Arcoscephale to leverage all elemental gem types extremely potently once they reach Conjuration 5. The S2 variant also provide things like easy Antimagic and early Mind Burn, should this prove necessary, as well as allowing massed Soul Slay with the use of Light of the Northern Star. Some crosspaths also add useful spells and forging options, while use of the all-randoms mystics as slaves allows for very stable communions. Mystics Randoms:
Mage Engineer 125 3 2 Capital Only	111100% 11 Siege Bonus (30) Castle Defence Bonus (30) Old Age (60/50) Mason	Mage engineers tend to be overshadowed by Oreiads with whom they compete for capital turns, as their low paths overlap with those of Mystics, are of limited direct utility, and communionable air can be obtained by the use of crystal matrices. The siege bonus can be handy in a pinch, but note that a researching or forging mage does not contribute to siege defense. These are your only recruitable access to some cross paths (F/A and A/S); giving potential access to some hard to cast ritual like Breath of the Desert, so it can be worth making a few instead of Mystics when you can't afford an Oreiad. Common good events requiring Luck 2 & Magic 2 exist which grant these path boosts in Air, Earth or Astral, or grant Stymphalian Wings, up to a maximum of twice per game per event. Because of how events are generated in random provinces, you're unlikely to roll these events if all of your mage engineers are in the capital.
Wind Lord 130 27 1 Capital Only	1 Sacred Combat Caster Flying Mounted	The nation's only flying priest, sometimes necessary to lead Wind Riders, but limited by the fact that it uses both a capital holy point and a capital turn.
Melissa 200 1 2 + rec Foreign	111100% 9 Sacred Supply Bonus (10) Healer (3)	As foreign-recruitable mages with a chance for N2 access, these grant Arcoscephale easy access to spammable nature magic such as Protection, Swarm, and Sleep Cloud. The air access is of lower utility, but can be used to great effect with Summon Storm Power against foes vulnerable to Lightning Bolt or high-volume Air Elemental spam. Their downside is their cost; while their upkeep is less than that of a Mystic, 200 gold is a large up-front cost, and as priests, they require an exposed temple in addition to the laboratory to recruit them. The Healer trait is a convenient upside, and means Arcoscephale should never struggle with afflictions.
Oreiad 395 1 4 Capital Only	2131100% 10% 19 Sacred Supply Bonus (30) Awe (6) Stealthy (60) Seduction (9) Mountain Survival Recuperation Female	A very potent mage, sadly in short supply due to being cap-only and slow to recruit. These grant easy casting of all big nature spells, such as Howl, Serpent's Blessing and Mass Regeneration — after a casting of Strength of Gaia if desired, to reduce fatigue — while also letting the nation cast potent nature rituals and globals like Mother Oak. Their air access is also powerful, though communions or Crystal Shields are still needed to access higher-level effects like Fog Warriors. A quarter of these have Foul Vapors access, another piece in the nation's toolkit. As seducers, they have the capacity to act as assassins, but due to their scarcity, this is often not a great use of their time.

Troops

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Slinger 7 2 3		An inexpensive ranged weapons platform. Sadly not very useful, as slings are low damage and limited range. Can be deployed in great numbers swiftly as either siege chaff or in combination with Flaming Arrows.
Peltast 10 5 9		Extremely light infantry with a javelin and next to no armor. Extremely massable, very solid for expansion, and useable against things vulnerable to javelins, but it will die to any real troop in melee.
Cardaces 10 8 9	Formation Fighter (2)	Formation fighter allows these light infantry to take buffs well, but their low damage and thoroughly mediocre stats makes them ill suited for anything but line-holding; in many cases they are an inferior alternative to the Peltast owing to the lack of javelin.
Icarid 14 21 18	Fire Vulnerability (5) Flying	Expensive, resource-intensive human fliers with low stats for their price, high encumbrance and low damage output, these struggle to find a niche outside of disrupting ill-protected mages and dying while doing so. Their one advantage is appearing in fort PD, necessitating anti-flier tech from opponents.
Myrmidon 15 29 21	Formation Fighter (2)	As a unit with 17 body prot and formation fighter, these are the most durable troops available to EA Arcoscephale. Unfortunately, they output very low damage for their price, and their high encumbrance means their above-average stats are worse than they at first appear.
Chariot 40 29 46	Trample Mounted	Is a decent trampler. You can use them for expansion by running over indies.
Chariot Archer 50 20 46	Trample Unsurroundable (1) Mounted Dying Shape: Archerless Chariot	Less Protection than the Chariot, but with slightly higher Defense, takes less harassment penalty, and has effectively double the HP before dying.
Wind Rider 55 27 46 Capital Only	Sacred Flying Mounted	An extremely mobile, extremely high-defense flying sacred, the Wind Rider is a key component of any Arcoscephale strat, and allows both excellent expansion and potent raiding. These take stat-blesses well, as they struggle to output damage after the initial charge. Of note is the fact that as fliers, these are immune to earth meld, making for a very potent combo with earth-random mystics in the early game. Blessing them can be difficult, owing to lack of national H3 combining with the size of the unit, but in larger battles, a communion can be used to boost a Melissa to the requisite level.

Heroes

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Pathos - Son of Titans	Awe (1) Inspirational (1) Invulnerability (20)	A useful national asset against morale plays, with the same 120 leadership and inspirational ability as a Sleeper. His awe and invulnerability make him hard to snipe with mundane troops. With the Worthy Heroes mod, he gains a Hero's Blade (triple damage vs. larger), which makes him a dangerous giant and supercombatant slayer.
Asterios - Monster in the Maze	Berserker (6) Invulnerability (20) Trample Blunt Resistant Slash Resistant	A trampler thug in an otherwise thug-less nation. With some armor, a long weapon so he can repel while berserk, and some buffs (Mossbody is especially nice, if you can swing it), and he can be quite dangerous. Notably has low magic resistance.
Daidalos - Maker of the Maze	1113 17 Siege Bonus (50) Castle Defence Bonus (50) Old Age (60/48) Mason Clockwork Lord (2)	An improved Mage Engineer with the highest national Earth access, and a spread of other paths. His clockwork lord ability summons 2 extra troops if you use him to summon clockwork troops, including Mechanical Men.

Magic

Magic Access

Mystics grant cross paths of Astral, Fire, Water, and Earth. Mage Engineers can add Air to the mix (can forge a Crystal Matrix to add them into communions if they don't random Astral) but can't random above air 2 2. Most of its higher-level mage power will come from adding them to communions.

Melissa is an expensive way to have nature 2 2.

Major Ritual power comes from Oreiads, 25% of which will random nature 4 4 (and very rarely nature 5 5), which can be boosted even higher with a Thistle Mace. Also provide strong access to Wind (can random air 3 3) and has Earth/Air/Water/Nature crosspaths.

National Magic & Summons

Combat

Enchantment 6, 2 for 1: Sow Dragon Teeth ( Spartae×10). A troop summon that can be decently useful in battle. Can provide the same amount of value as a full-sized earth elemental without going too deep into Conjuration.

Ritual

Conjuration 5 3 for 10: Monster Boar ( Monster Boar×1)
An expensive annoyance spell. Use to force the enemy to send forces to their money-making provinces to stop the unrest the boar is producing.
Conjuration 5 3 for 13: Procession of the Underworld , ( Lampad×12)
Can't be cast with native magic paths, but you get a lot of them for their price. A niche anti-thugging unit that inflicts decay. If Gift of Reasoned they add 121 to your communions.
Conjuration 5 21 for 4: Summon Hound of Twilight ( Hound of Twilight×1)
Can't be cast with native magic paths. Decent patroller and Spirit-sight can catch elves.
Conjuration 6 2 for 12: Bind Keres ( Ker×3)
Can't be cast with native magic paths. Summons hard-to-hit flyers that can paralyze undead. Can be effective in conjunction with your flying units late game as many nations will have undead mages. If Gift of Reasoned they gain 11. It might not seem like much, but it breaks you into blood, and these highly mobile flyers can cast Reinvigoration and Soul Vortex to help sustain your communions.

Construction 7 22 for 5: Craft Keledone ( Keledone×1)
Summon a hard-to-kill immobile communion slave in case a fort gets besieged. Situationally useful. Late game Humans are super susceptible to board wipes, spend more resources to protect the masters instead of also the slaves. may make you think they only exist for that last hara when a future siage will mean you the game, but can be sallied forth with Stygian Paths.
Construction 7 33 for 30: Forge Brass Bull ( Khalkotauros×1)
A high protection trampler.

Enchantment 5 4 for 25: Awaken Hamadryad ( Hamadryad×1)
An immobile 3 mage. Can be situationally useful as a defensive emplacement.

Notable Generic Magic

Mage power comes from Communions and Oreiads.

Communions can put out a large variety of buffs and evocations. (ex: Magma Eruption, Freezing Mist, Acid Rain, Gifts from Heaven, Mind Burn).

Oreiads are stealthy big casters, able to surprise the opponent.

Magic Items

National Dicount

Stymphalian Wings: 20 4. Grants Fly, Trample, and Fear but at a significant penalty to Defense and Attack. Efficient compared to other options as normally you would have to use 3 item slots to achieve the same effects. Can allow for effective province raiding if put on a proper Thug chassis with other items.

Strategy

Expansion Strategies

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

Example Pretender Builds

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

Tlagnoj's Trinity fun
You ever felt you had too few Soul Drain or Bone Grinding casters as EA Arco? You ever felt one titan is not enough? You like expanding 5, 6 or 7 provinces per turn? Then this build is for you. Combine the wonders of trinity titan expansion with an excellent bless for wind riders during expansion and later raiding. Make sure to grab some body armor for the titans early and research at least Personal Regeneration but if you are lucky Astral Shield as well before having a swing with them on unsuspecting indies.

Use cold scales if there are nations vulnerable to it in the game that you feel are a threat like Xibalba, Abysia, Ctis.

Mandarbmax Expansion Titans

Chassis: Awake Titan of Crossroads
Paths: astral 4 4 death 5 5 nature 7 7
Bless: MW/Arcane Finesse, Invuln 10, Regen.
Scales: Dominion strength 6 Turmoil 2 Productivity 0 Heat 3 Death 1 Misfortune 2 Magic 3

Demonsthenes' Far Caster rainbow
Full resistances, with just enough stats for your Wind Riders to expand easily and be powerful raiders. With this light stats bless, you'll need to use your mobility and siege mastery to avoid major fights against sacreds with a stronger stats bless.

Far Caster, combined with forging dozens of 3 astralpearl Shroud of the Battle Saint lets your Mystics enjoy those resistances while they blast Arcoscephale's mighty evocations from the safety of the backline. Add a Dragon Helmet and Ring of the Warrior (once you have a trickle of blood income) to keep casting through Wailing Winds. Enjoy interrupting enemy thugs and elementals summoners with turn 1 Incinerate or Frozen Heart; blasting Maws of the Earth at enemy sacreds who your flyers have surrounded, and eventually using penetration boosted Polymorph against anyone foolish enough to offend your priestesses.

Chassis: Imprisoned Great Enchantress
Paths: fire 3 3 air 3 3 water 4 4 earth 3 3 astral 5 5 death 3 3 nature 3 3 blood 4 4
Bless: Major fire resistance, major shock resistance, minor cold resistance, +2 Defense, +2 Strength, Spirit Sight, Far Caster, 2 x Undying, Resilient, major poison resistance, blood surge
Scales: Dominion strength 5 Turmoil 0 Productivity 0 Heat 3 Growth 2 Luck 3 Magic 1

See More

Dominions 5 Nation Analysis: EA Arcoscephale by Perun (2020)

Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos
Middle Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys
Late Ages	Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia