Table of Contents
LA Bogarus, Age of Heroes
Lore
"Imagine cold winters, princes in sable-rimmed cloaks, opulent halls where sinister old men practice vile magics or seduce their masters' wives. Think of Rasputin. Think of orthodox patriarchs and bizarre sectlike movements of religious fanatics living in hiding. Imagine the monsters, heroes and bogatyrs of Russian fairy tales.
When Bogarus was added to Dominions 3, I already had some ideas about the predecessors. My
imagination was influenced by Kievan Rus' when the nation was given Vanir ancestors. I wanted priests
and an institutionalized religion that brings the Russian Orthodox Church to mind and some sectarian
movements on top of that. I did some research and I was quite happy when I found the skoptsy, the
"castrated ones," and other strange religious movements." –Illwinter
By the Late Age, there were no Vanir left in Vanarus, and the Chudes had disappeared into myth. The Kingdom has survived the loss of its founding race, but it is a very decentralized realm. Like with Vanarus before it, the Kingdom title seems to simply imply that there can be no King, and that the best anyone can be in the realm is a “Prince”; the Princes each control a few cities and the bitter lands around them, and most of them serve under “Grand Princes” that answer to no one but themselves. The Grand Princes focus outward rather than inward, letting the Princes decide what is allowed in their cities, who in-turn have allowed and even financed some pretty-whacky traditions and practices. The only truly-unifying force in Bogarus is religion (though some worship a bit differently from others); if the Eparchs hadn’t reformed from their aloof ways and pulled the ears of their Grand Princes to alert them of the Awakening God (you), then they probably would’ve still been butting heads for dominance by the time you arrived. With the Ascension Wars beginning, the fragmented realm looks to carve out an Empire in your name, and many great Heroes may arise from your inspiration.
General Overview
Bogarus is a nation of competent mages who hate being in battle, incompetent troops who hate being in battle, and Sacred troops that are hated by everyone else. In other words, it's beautiful.
They have powerful and diverse human mages (possibly the best in the game), sad troops (with the best being the expensive Malaia Druzhina heavy cavalry), and a deep roster of national summons.
National Features
| Race | Military | Magic Access | Priests | Buildings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Prefers Cold 2 Humans  Cold Resistant (3) Snow Move (only on least useful units) | Cheap Peasants Med.-Hvy. Infantry Horse Archers Knights & Nomads Flagellants Bogatyrs |  3 (rare 4)  2 (rare 3)  2 (rare 3)  2 (rare 3)  1  1 National Summons 22 (Require 3)21 3 (Require 4 )2 124 (Require 6)312 (Require 4) 11 (Require 11 )31 (Require 2 )312 (Require 31) |  3 Cap-only2 in Forts Stealthy Summonable 3 (Require 2) |  Standard Forts (Citadels) Nomadic Cavalry off-forts |
Capital Special Sites
| Grand Cathedral | Hall of Elders |
|---|---|
* Enables recruitment of Eparchs  * Produces 1  per month | * Enable recruitment of Starets  * Produces 1 1 1 per month |
Notable Units
Your nation is made up of common human Rus, having 
Cold Resistance (3) which grants them immunity to Chill Auras combined with most foot troops having 
Snow Move, lets them skirt by most downsides of being a cold nation. (Your mounted units and mages don't get snow move, and, since cavalry have naturally high movement, the most important power of the nation is the slowest factor in your army. )
Commanders
| Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bogarusian Scout 25 4  1 | Stealthy (50) Cold Resistance (5)  Mountain Survival Forest Survival Snow Move | Scout that can move unimpeded through the cold. Indie scouts are plentiful in the Late Ages, however. |
 | Voivode 30 14 1 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move | 60 leadership doesn't generally come this cheap, 1 CP aside. Voivodes have 14 Map Movement, and they also ignore snow. This lets them cross two friendly forest/waste provinces at once in the cold, while leading piles of your more-unusual troops; your standard picks have only 12 Map Movement in Snow, unfortunately, though that's still enough to travel across two friendly-and-mundane provinces at once. |
 | Knyaz 90 14 1 | Cold Resistance (3)  Inspirational (1) Mounted | The Knyaz is a mounted commander with 80 leadership and a point of Inspiration, giving those beneath him a +2 morale bonus. This at least keeps your poorly-equipped national units in the fight for slightly longer, by delaying a rout. If you're feeling adventurous, you could try using their superhuman stats for thugging. |
 | Veliki Knyaz 130 21 2 | Cold Resistance (3) Inspirational (1) Mounted | The Veliky Knyaz is the leader of last resort, giving you 120 leadership and a point of Inspiration for the price of an Alchemist. Those beneath him have a +3 morale bonus, and that's without Sermon of Courage (bringing the bonus up to +4). The "Grand Prince" is also the strongest unit Bogarusian gold can hire, at least physically. Just remember that every GP you hire is a minimum of 11 RP per turn that you're saying "no" to. |
 | Skopets 70 2 1 | 1 020%  Sacred Stealthy (40) Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move Cause Unrest (+2/month)Start with Affliction (20%) | The Skopets, a self-castrated man, is a Stealthy 1 Priest. His Khlysty followers are also Stealthy, so you could theoretically attempt to "elf" (stealth-raid) your foes; it might take a bunch of Khlysty, though, unless you've committed to the meme with a mighty Bless. Alternatively, since Skoptsy and Khlysty generate Unrest with their tenuous grip on orthodoxy, you can park your raiding force in semi-important enemy provinces and watch their income (and Dominion) spiral into irrelevancy. Results may vary. One-in-five Skoptsy have 1, in case you like building temples before labs; that averages 350 gold and 5 CP per lab-less Blood Hunter, so that's a somewhat-reasonable option if you're far-more-lacking in gold than time. |
 | Exarch 70 2 2 | 2 Sacred Cold Resistance (3) | The Exarch is about as cheap and plentiful as 2 Priests can get. Their lousy 10 leadership probably has something to do with that. Even with no bless worth mentioning, an 2 is nothing to sneeze at; it can cast Sermon of Courage and Smite Demon, its Banishment will be decent (a neat feature when facing the Late Ages' spammy Death nations), and it will push Dominion nicely. |
| | Eparch 145 2 2  Capital Only | 3 Sacred Cold Resistance (3)  Old Age (60/50) | For a nation with such a divided faith and such unliked Sacreds, Bogarus sure gets a lot of Priestly power. The Eparchs are 3 Priests that require only 2 CP. Most others require 4! Granted, most others have something else fastened to them, such as enormous Leadership scores or true Healing or even a level of arcane magic; the Eparchs have only their 3. Having relatively-spammable 3's offers a bunch of Dominion-pushing power and plenty of Smite users. Kalendologists are cheaper "magic snipers" (having Mind Burn), but Eparchs are more effective if your Pretender supports any of the nonstandard Smites. You might not want to lean on the Eparchs too much, though; every Eparch you recruit is a Master of Names you're passing up on, and Research is quite important for putting your Mages to work. |
 | Occultist 100 2 2 | 111  11 Cold Resistance (3) Old Age (50/50) | The Occultist, for all his petty misdeeds, is an excellent mage to stock up on. He's your cheapest Blood Hunter (not counting one-time infrastructure costs), your cheapest Communion Slave, and your best shot at finding  Death Gems in a reasonable span of time. While building Communions, be aware of mismatched paths. Occultists are cheap, but they don't fare super well if their Masters are casting anything other than Astral, Death, or Blood. Likewise, being your only reliable Death mages, they can be a bit of a pain to your non-Occultist Slaves if they go off-script and start spamming Horde of Skeletons. |
 | Kalendologist 105 2 2 | 2 9 Cold Resistance (3)  Fortune Teller (10%) | The Kalendologist may seem a bit overpriced, at least if you're looking just at his Research Ability. He's an out-of-the-box spammer of Mind Burn and Paralyze, with no Communion required. Plug him into two Slaves, and he'll cast Soul Slay. Plug him into four, and he'll cast Enslave Mind. There's also the Kalendologist's Fortune Teller ability, which will suppress bad random events. This could be used to take  Misfortune Scales and avoid the hits to your treasury and Gems stockpile that come with them; random events are distributed across all of your provinces, however, so you'll have to spread your Fortune Tellers out if you intend to lean into this strategy. On top of that, taking Misfortune results in getting fewer Bogatyrs, meaning you might have to pay for a Veliky Knyaz. |
 | Astrapelagist 125 2 2 | 21 11 Cold Resistance (3) Fortune Teller (5%) | The Astrapelagist harkens back to the Thunder Priests and Perkunus of Old Rus, albeit without the Nature magic. With his paths, he can cast Lightning Bolt right out of the box. With two Slaves, he can cast Thunder Strike (or Summon Air Elemental for 1 , if your foe has Shock Resistance). With four Slaves, he can cast Storm and upgrade the other Astrapelagists, letting them get out Thunder Strike (if they're not plugged in) or the infamous Fog Warriors (if they are plugged in).Note that the Astrapelagist's 2 makes him twice as hard as your 1 Mages on Air-less Slaves. |
 | Alchemist 135 2 2 | 111 11 Cold Resistance (3)  Alchemist (50) Old Age (50/48) | Bogarus's Alchemists have two, technically three avenues for enriching their nation. The actual Alchemy route converts your guaranteed  Fire Gem income (and your potential  Earth Gem income) into a supplemental trickle of cash. If you have no care at all for gem-hoarding, you can alchemize just your capital income into 9 every four turns, netting you 45 extra gold per turn at base. Then there's the Firebird route; every turn, an Alchemist can spend 2 to summon one of these things, and each one has a 2% chance to bring a random good event to the province they're in. This is more of a "long-term" investment. Lastly, there's the option of using the Alchemist to take new provinces. His paths all interact nicely for the purpose of blowing craters into enemy armies, though Communions will be needed to make this apparent. Alternatively, if you're keen on summoning stuff with the Occultists, three Alchemists and 2 (or one Alchemist, two Occultists, and 2) can back them up with a Solar Eclipse. |
 | Master of Names 155 2 2 | 21100%  17 Cold Resistance (3)  Adept Researcher (6) | The Master of Names is a high-quality Research monkey. Forget Occultists for a moment; if you need to catch up or get ahead on your Research, these guys can do it. If you suddenly feel like dragging them out of the library, consider doing so with the 1's (for Astral Fires and Gem-hunting for your Alchemists) or the 1's (for additional Blood-hunting and the odd Horror job). The 1's could make Owl Quills, if you want more Research. |
 | Fivefold Angel 225 1 2 | 22 9 Sacred Cold Resistance (3) Stealthy (50) Snow Move Cause Unrest (+5/month) Start with Affliction (30%)  Spy  Damage Reversal (0) | The real-life Skoptsy had two "seals" that suppressed whatever made them unholy; castration, and emasculation. (Don't look these up.) Bogarus's Fivefold Angels add three more seals; a flaying of their back, a removal of their left arm, and a removal of their right hand. This makes them the "ideal" Skoptsy gameplay-wise: useful (and reliable) Blood Mages, superb information-gatherers, stealthy as a scout, and annoying as heck to deal with. Aside from their magic paths, the Fivefold Angel's only manner of dealing damage is through reflecting the damage others try to inflict upon them. The Magic Resistance check for hitting through this power is against a 10; not a high bar to hurdle, but still capable of snagging people (especially those nefarious Ulmish). There's probably someone out there who's managed to counter-thug with these guys. Last-but-not-least, the Fivefold Angel can use Sabbath Master to boost their Priest level in battle. Only four slaves (not counting the Blood Slave) are necessary for getting a Fanaticism out, followed by Smites and (if you're facing one of those nations) high-grade Banishments. |
| | Starets 255 2 4 Capital Only | 21211100%  10% 25 Cold Resistance (3) Adept Researcher (6) Old Age (68/46) | The Starets is a Level 7 mage, in an era where most nations cap out at Level 5. He is old but skilled, a national master of Fire and whichever path his primary random level favors, and the only Bogarusian path he can't helm in Communion is Earth. He's also between the Masters of Names and all of Bogarus's other mages in terms of Research efficiency. Watch out for Pangaea, by the way; the Starets is resentful of being mandated by the church to accept your money, and his Morale (a mere 8) makes him quite susceptible to Seduction. Bodyguards can hold off assassins, but nothing can hold off the fantasy of serving anyone but you. |
Troops
Your troops would have been okay in the Early Age but the Late Age places higher expectations of using better armor and crossbows.
| Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Voi Spearman 8 8 5 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move | Bogarus gets to choose between two militia-type troops with medium to low-damage weapons. |
 | Voi Axeman 8 7 5 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move |
|
 | Voi Archer 8 5 5 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move | Cheap archers that can do work with Flaming Arrows, but are otherwise difficult to make use of. |
 | Khlyst 10 3 5 | Sacred Stealthy (40) Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move Cause Unrest(+0.5/month) Start with Affliction (10%) | Masochistic fanatics. Are one of the cheapest recruitable sacreds in game, and they show it by having horrible stats and a chance to have an affliction. Unlike their closest comparison, Marignon's Flagellants, Khylsty do not do much damage to make up for this weakness. They do at least provide a stealthy, unrest-causing option to Bogarus. |
 | Peshtsi Axeman 10 18 9 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move | Peshtsi are up to 11 protection from the Voi's 8, which is not much of an improvement. They retain the medium to low-damage weapons of the Voi. |
 | Peshtsi Spearman 10 15 9 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move |
|
 | Peshtsi City Guard 11 20 12 | Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move Castle Defence Bonus (1) | At 14 protection, the Peshtsi City Guard are sadly the most durable of Bogarus' foot troops. The broad sword does not overcome the low-damage weakness of Bogarus' other troops. |
 | Grid Druzhina 25 28 36 | Cold Resistance (3) Mounted | Light archer cavalry with sword and hoof attack. Is your best "cheap" flanker. |
 | Malaia Druzhina 40 42 46 | Cold Resistance (3)  Bodyguard (3) Mounted | Roughly equivalent to Man's Tower Knight, Malaia Druzhina are expensive but reliable heavy cavalry among the mostly chaffy Bogarus lineup. Your most viable expanders. |
The following units can only be recruited outside of forts.
| Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Black Hood 18 16 20 | Cold Resistance (3) Mounted | Bowman on a horse that can only be recruited outside forts. You may take them instead of Voi Archers if you want your unbuffed arrows to have a better chance to land accurately and deal damage. Don't have them fight crossbows. |
 | Styag 30 23 36 | Cold Resistance (3)  Standard (1) Mounted | Mounted standard with a lance. Recruit only one to boost your Druzhina's moral. |
Heroes
| Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bogatyr Multi-hero | 1 Sacred Cold Resistance (3) Inspirational (1) Mounted | Veliki Knyaz that is a sacred knight. Saves on army leaders and can be light thugged. |
 | Koschei - Deathless Turn Arrival Limit: 10 | 223 19 Cold Resistance (25) Poison Resistance (15)  Cold Aura (5)  Fear (8)  Immortality Old Age (440/50) | The living Lich, if not the originator of the Lich trope. Crosspaths of Air, Water and Death, with Stygian Rain, Wailing Winds, Freezing Mist. |
 | Alexej - Patriarch | 124 11 Sacred Cold Resistance (3) Dominion Attracts: Khlyst | Grants access to Fanaticsm and give you an influx of disposable flagellants. |
 | Baba Yaga - Hag Turn Arrival Limit: 20 | 3132 23 Cold Resistance (15) Poison Resistance (15)  Shock Resistance (5) Fear (8)  Flying Forest Survival  Supply Bonus (20) | Grants Bogarus nature access. |
Magic
Magic Access
If nothing else, Bogarus' magic access is quite nice:
Level 3 Astral on a quarter of your Starets, and plentiful 2's
Level 2 Fire on your Starets
Level 2 Air on your Astrapelagists & a quarter of your Starets
Level 2 Blood on a quarter of your Starets
Level 1 Earth on your Alchemists
Level 1 Death on your Occultists & a quarter of your Starets
All of your mages have at least 1, allowing you to boost any of the above in battle via communions. You don't even need the Starets for your communions, since they don't have any paths that are unique to them; on the other hand, your potential communion slaves are so varied that you can avoid burnout with relative ease.
Unfortunately, your magical depth isn't super conducive for ladder-climbing, just missing many key boosters. Empowerment isn't a great option either, since your mages are all so old. The age issue can be compensated for with some of your national summons, but your actual access to those isn't great.
National Spells
national spell or summon cost and usecase, judgment if it's good. fix from Rus
One of Rus's selling points is its sheer amount of exclusive summons.
- Summon Simargl1 Conjure 2, for 1, (
Simarglx1). Too slow if your trying to amass a flying force, but fine as patrol chaff.
- Summon Firebird11 Conjure 3, for 2, (
Firebirdx1) Alchemist should be spamming them for the influx of lucky events in your fort, especially since they also something besiegers will have to mess with. Given how 
works, they can pay themselves back in gems and gold.
- Sloth of Bears2 Conjure 3, for 8
, (
Great Bearx10 + [lv]) Summons more bears for sieges, but they are not so good in combat.
- Contact Sirin2 Conjure 3, for 8, (
Sirin) A way to steal male commanders. If that doesn't work, giving them Handful of Acorns and a weapon that can be used in the misc slot, can dispatch a variety of problems
- Summon Likho1 Conjure 4, for 10
, (
Likho) Summon and let her sit in a enemy province to cause annoyances.
- Contact Alkonost2 Conjure 4, for 15, (
Alkonost) Summable flying greater priest, leader, and throne claimer. Decent all-round utility.
- Summon Rusalka11 Conjure 4, for 16
, (
Rusalka) Hard for LA to use. Create more low-level Death mages and a way to expand underwater. Can kill most things with a Water Lens: summon a Water Elemental and then spam skeletons until the assassination target is dead.
- Send Vodyanoy2 Conjure 4, for 20, (
Vodyanoy) only targets Sea provinces. Conjure a Stealthy Water mage underwater. He won't be establishing a foothold underwater by himself and without gems, but he can raid if you have already created a foothold down there. Is a means of fighting a water war, if the ocean nations have failed to conquer most of the independents. They will also climb water magic for you, getting you into Queen of Elemental Water and Naiads
- Send Lady Midday11 Conjure 5, for 10, (
Lady Midday) Basically summons a weak Disease Demon. Is very fragile. Not a high priority for a Starets to cast.
- Summon Zmey2 Conjure 5, for 5, (
Zmeyx1) Cool 3-headed dragon, but held back by the fact its a reptile and all of Rus's line are cold nations. May be OK if taking a Hellbless. In LA, it's another point against summoning them as Firebirds are the easiest to spam in this age.
- Contact Gamayun3 Conjure 5, for 25, (
Gamayun) Get a flying Air and Astral mage. Very mobile with Flying and Cloud Trapeze, supports your army with Paralyze and Mind Burn.
- Send Bukavac4 Conjure 5, for 5, (
Bukavac) Only targets Sea provinces. They are very hard to deal with, especially if you are having a bunch of Vodyanoy send several against a single providence. These are giant Tramplers that will clear out fish-man settlements and many of their armies.
- Contact Beregina31 Conjure 6, for 35, (
Beregina) An amphibious Water mage with Nature support spells that may take a decently sized force underwater.
- Contact Cloud Vila4 Conjure 7, for 40, (
Cloud Vila) Mountains and borders only. Take a strong Air mage Seducer, that's a flying True Healer. Also, a means to go into nature magic by forging the boosters needed to summon a Mountain Vila.
- Contact Mountain Vila4 Conjure 7, for 40, (
Mountain Vila) Mountain and borders only. Nature and Air communions, True Healer 2 mage that comes prepackaged with a Vine Bow for going off-script. Mix of Faery Queen and Ivy King, and too expensive to be used recklessly. If you just need a generally strong nature mage, an Ivy King is far more resilient and cheaper.
- Contact Leshiy6 Conjure 8, for 60, (
Leshiy Leshiy) Forest only. Takes a lot of climbing to get a nature mage that can be potentially 7 while in forests. Only get so someone, not your pretender, can hold up Gift of Health or Enchanted Forests.
Notable Generic Magic
Combat Magic
What is the best spell you can use in combat. What spells the best support your national lineup, Is there weakness that you need to fix? Any tricks you should be aware you have?
Lots of astral communions, with Blood, death, fire, Earth, and Air cross paths. being all astral allows blood mages to enter communions without using the more fatiguing Sabbath version.
Being all astral allows your Starets to be Magic Dueled, but having so many mages that can also Magic Duel will protect them.
Ritual Magic
What is the best ritual you could cast. Are there any globals you want up, any units you should be summoning? Are there any Generic rituals few nations can cast?
Magic Items
Do you have any National items(Construction Level, Price, and required Paths). Any unique generic items few other nations can forge? What item would be useful on your unit lineup (non-standard recommend thug gear)?
Is recommended to find a way to get Earth Boots so you can get more 2.
Your do have fast researchers, boosted by Owl Quills, Skull Mentor and Lightless Lantern
Strategy
Power Curve
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.
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.
Father of Winters
Bogarus is infamous for its rough early game unless extremely good scales are taken but an expansion titan can alleviate that weakness without shredding your scales! In addition to the usual power of physmoss, regen, and mistform the Father of Winters also has great stats (particularly in cold 3) and a length 3 greatsword for repels and an absolutely massive cold aura which you should not underestimate! The luck and magic scales are great for firebird memes and research too!
Chassis: Awake Father of Winters
Paths: 222
Bless: None
Scales: 
4
3
2
3
3
3
3
See The Virtues of Expansion Titans
Blood Fountain (Imprisoned): S4N8B9 Dom5Tur3Slo1Hea1Gro1Luc3Mag3. Bless: Far Caster, Unaging, Recuperation, Strong Vitae, Blood Vengeance. Makes Eparchs into formidable combat mages, prevents them and other commanders from getting old or injured/feebleminded. Blood Vengeance allows Khlysts to be relevant as evocation deterrent. End game is Astral Corruption - Eparchs still provide combat magic and demon banishment, and Luck scales with Firebirds provide magic items, while enemies have demons at best.
Links
National Overview - LA Bogarus by Lucid (2019)
| 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 |