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"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.
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.
Race | Military | Magic Access | Priests | Buildings |
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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 |
Lykeion | Mount Cephalos | Akademeia |
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Recruit: Mage Engineer Produce 2 per turn | Recruit: Oreiad Wind Lord Wind Rider Produce 22 per turn | Recruit: Philosopher |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Scout 25 5 1 | Stealthy (50) Mountain Survival Forest Survival | A standard scout. Funny how all default scouts have Greek names. | |
Engineer 40 3 1 | Siege Bonus (25) Castle Defence Bonus (25) Old Age (60/50) Mason | For 40 gold each, you can produce a ludicrous amount of siege power that won't eat up supplies. Breaking into forts should never be a problem, and you can use spare engineers to build your own forts. | |
Sceptic 50 1 1 | Heretic (3) Old Age Stealthy (40) | Not just a scout, but also a heretic. Bunch a couple of them together to remove enemy Dominion from provinces. They can cause big setbacks for nations that rely on their scales or their Pretender, and you can push your Dominion and Pretender into the vacant spots. |
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Icarid Champion 50 21 1 | Fire Vulnerability (5) Flying | Flying 60 leadership commander. The cheapest thing you have that could serve as a counter-thug chassis. |
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Philosopher 65 1 2 Capital Only | 10 Old Age Philosopher (2) | Most Arcoscephale pretenders would prefer for troops, making this Cap-only researcher a rare pick. If you do go with (and ), these guys will blitz through most of your research goals with ease. | |
Myrmidon Champion 70 29 1 | Formation Fighter (2) | Commander with 80 leadership. | |
Chariot Commander 70 29 1 | Trample Mounted | A trampling commander. Is very situational, could be used in a thugging tactic that requires trampling over size 3 or smaller enemies. |
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Mystic 135 1 2 | 13100% 50% 50% 50% 12 | A primary Researcher and secondary mage. Can be lab rats, Communion Slaves and Communion Masters. Mystics Randoms: |
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Mage Engineer 125 3 2 Capital Only | 111100% 11 Siege Bonus (30) Castle Defence Bonus (30) Old Age (60/50) Mason | A leader that combines the traits of engineers and wizards. If you're lucky you might get an Astral random so you can easily add Air to your communions, which Mystics can't do. If you're even luckier with 2, they have a pool of events that can increase their magic paths in Air, Earth and Astral, or provide you with Stymphalian Wings. |
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Wind Lord 130 27 1 Capital Only | 1 Sacred Combat Caster Flying Mounted | Leader of the Wind Riders. Pegasi cavalry can fly to a distant province, get blessed, and then attack rear. |
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Melissa 200 1 2 + rec Foreign | 111100% 9 Sacred Supply Bonus (10) Healer (3) | Cheap Nature & Air Magic outside of the capital. Their most important role, however, is being a true healer, able to remove any affliction from units. This is particularly helpful since most your commanders are old men. |
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Oreiad 395 1 4 Capital Only | 2131100% 10% 19 Sacred Supply Bonus (30) Awe (6) Stealthy (60) Seduction (9) Mountain Survival Recuperation Female | Your big super-mage that grants high nature, some air and earth, and occasional water. Can cast big spells like Foul Vapors, Gaia's Blessing and Rain of Stones and stealthy lets them do it when the enemy isn't expecting it. Although expensive for the job, they can also steal enemy commanders if an opportune moment arises. Do note that the Awe(6) is for emergencies, it doesn't make them survivable in protracted melee. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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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 | Light infantry with a javelin. A flexible chaff unit. |
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Cardaces 10 8 9 | Formation Fighter (2) | A cheap line unit that can fit 4 to a square. Takes point buffs well but will suffer heavy casualties from evocations. |
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Icarid 14 21 18 | Fire Vulnerability (5) Flying | Outclassed by Wind Riders but they are still flying infantry that can deal a decent amount of damage which can be recruited from any fort. | |
Myrmidon 15 29 21 | Formation Fighter (2) | Nearly a super-heavy infantry for EA with good stats, damage, and can fit 4 to a square. Their weaknesses are their low speed (on and off the battlefield), high fatigue generation, and high cost of resources (especially in EA) and Rec points. |
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Chariot 40 29 46 | Trample Mounted | Is a decent trampler. You can use them for expansion by running over indies. |
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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 | A definite national strong suit. Wind riders are like elf cavalry, but with flying instead of glamour. Decent stats, high Protection and Defense (including the benefits of being Mounted), good Mobility, and able to deliver a powerful lance charge. Cost a lot but will quickly expand your territory. During war they are very good rear attackers and raiders. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Pathos - Son of Titans | Awe (1) Inspirational (1) Invulnerability (20) | 120 leadership, hard to kill commander. | |
Asterios - Monster in the Maze | Berserker (6) Invulnerability (20) Trample Blunt Resistant Slash Resistant | A much-appreciated thug in an otherwise thug-less nation. | |
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. He is especially efficient at summoning Clockwork troop. Specifics?. Useful as a stay-at-home mage casting rituals. |
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 2. Most of its higher-level mage power will come from adding them to communions.
Melissa is an expensive way to have 2.
Major Ritual power comes from Oreiads, 25% of which will random 4 (and very rarely 5), which can be boosted even higher with a Thistle Mace. Also provide strong access to Wind (can random 3) and has Earth/Air/Water/Nature crosspaths.
Combat
Ritual
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.
This is probably the most difficult section to get consensus for. Describe how strong the nation is during expansion, the early, mid and late game, and what makes it strong/weak at each of those points. This should give readers an idea of where the weaknesses of a nation lie (if they have not been shown already) and when to take advantage of a nation's strengths.
List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.
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 atleast 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.
Chassis: Awake Titan of Crossroads
Paths: 457
Bless: MW/Arcane Finesse, Invuln 10, Regen.
Scales: 6203123
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 |