"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.

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.

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. )

Your troops would have been ok in the Early Age but the Late Age places higher expectations of using better armor and crossbows. the better stuff require high resources

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Voi Spearman 8 8 5	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Millie with javelin. Not good with all the armor going around.
	Voi Axeman 8 7 5	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Millie with an axe Not good.
	Voi Archer 8 5 5	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Bowmen in a crossbow age. OK later on with Wind Guide and Flaming Arrows.
	Khlyst 10 3 5	Sacred Stealthy(40) Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move Cause Unrest(+0.5 per 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. They are flimsy and can't hit to far above their weight class, unlike Flagellants. You need a hellbless to make them viable front liners, but scales are more essential to your survival. They are your only recruitable stealthy national troops.
	Peshtsi Spearman 10 15 9	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Better equipped, but still not good enough. Your best ground troop is the City guard, as he has an ok melee defense and provides extra siege chaff.
	Peshtsi Axeman 10 18 9	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move
	Peshtsi City Guard 11 20 12	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move Castle Defence Bonus(1)
	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	A heavy cavalry; is equivalent to the Man's Tower Knight. Your most viable expanders.
	Black Hood 18 16 20 Foreign Rec only	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 Foreign Rec only	Cold Resistance (3) Standard (1) Mounted	Mounted standard with a lance. Recruit only one to boost your Druzhina's moral.

What magic path/mages define your nation, what can you level, e.g., thunderstriking, astral, elementals, earth buffs, blood, what is recruitable anywhere and good, what are some summons you are likely able to get and are useable

If nothing else, Bogarus has quite-nice Magic access:

• 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 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 Simargl 1 Conjure 2, for 1, ( Simarglx1). Too slow if your trying to amass a flying force, but fine as patrol chaff.

• Summon Firebird 11 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 Bears 2 Conjure 3, for 8, ( Great Bearx10 + [lv]) Summons more bears for sieges, but they are not so good in combat.

• Contact Sirin 2 Conjure 3, for 8, ( Sirin) A way to steal male commanders. If that doesn't work, giving them Handful of Acorns and some other weapon that can be used in the misc slot, like The Pebble Pouch can dispatch a variety of problems

• Summon Likho 1 Conjure 4, for 10, ( Likho) Summon and let her sit in a enemy province to cause annoyances.

• Contact Alkonost 2 Conjure 4, for 15, ( Alkonost) Summable flying greater priest, leader, and throne claimer. Decent all-round utility.

• Summon Rusalka 11 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 Vodyanoy 2 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 Midday 11 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 Zmey 2 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 Gamayun 3 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 Bukavac 4 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 Beregina 31 Conjure 6, for 35, ( Beregina) An amphibious Water mage with Nature support spells that may to take a decently sized force underwater.

• Contact Cloud Vila 4 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 Vila 4 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 Leshiy 6 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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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