This is an old revision of the document!
C’tis is a river valley surrounded by sandy deserts. Once the valley was fertile and great swamps surrounded the great river. Now the deserts spread and the swamps grow fewer and smaller each passing year. The valley is the home of an ancient sacral kingdom of lizard-like humanoids. In ancient times, the High Priests of C’tis mastered the craft of embalming to preserve the remains of their kings. Since the dawn of the kingdom, tombs have been constructed in the desert to contain the mummified kings and priests. With the Awakening of the God, the Sauromancers, great mages of death and rebirth, have re-emerged and taken the place of the Marshmasters. Through studies of ancient lore they have perfected dark rituals that awaken the kings of old to lead the stirring dead as the Lizard Kings lead the kingdom of the living. At the top of the C’tissian society is the Lizard King. The King is the highest priest of C’tis. Under the King are the High Priests and the enigmatic Sauromancers. After a great rebellion most of the carnivorous lizardmen were slain or fled to distant lands. There is a widespread fear that the predators and their Sobek masters will return as foreseen in their Seventh Book. The C’tissians are somewhat slow in movement, but have thick hides that protect them from cuts and bruises. Both lizardmen are cold-blooded and become exhausted very quickly when fighting in cold provinces. They have partial resistance to poison. The inhabitants of C’tis prefer to live in warm provinces. The Tomb Kings and Tomb Priests are able to reanimate the dead.
LA C'tis is very unlike its predecessors. In addition to losing the majority of the unique features of MA — Disease-causing and income-increasing dominion, as well as the Sobeks, but keeping the empoisoners — the nation also parts ways with some of the common features of both earlier eras, losing access to all predator lizards, including Elite Warriors and Shamans, and giving up all their water access and the majority of their nature.
What remains is a nation with an extremely narrow focus: Though the nation has gained a slight proficiency with fire magic, and picked up a medium-heavy infantry unit, almost everything the nation can be said to excel at is death-related. Sauromancers remain recruitable 3 mages with some randoms of 4, and the nation gains a line of no-research reanimator-priest summons which, at the cost of a hefty sum of death gems for the late age, turns LA C'tis into something of a freespawn nation, providing them with an unending supply of size 4 tramplers in the form of the Tomb Chariot.
With Sauromancers as the only workhorse mage, however — supplemented by Empoisoners for assassins and minimal nature access — and the nation's recruitable units being extremely sub-par for the era, LA C'tis typically struggles; this is exacerbated by it being hard to find the gems in LA to finance its one main strength, and the nation's narrow focus leaves it very vulnerable to being hard-countered.
Race | Military | Magic Access | Priests | Buildings |
---|---|---|---|---|
Prefers +2 Lizards: High MR (11-14) Low Morale cold-blooded swimming swamp survival poison resistance(5-10) | Medium infantry Dual-wielding falchioneers Poison slingers Reanimated chariots Reanimated Tomb Wyrms | 4 (Rare 5) 2 (Rare 3) 1 (Rare 2) 1 (Rare 2) 1 Summable 3*, 3* *Can't be summoned natively | Recruitable 3 Summonable Undead Reanimator-Priests | Standard forts (Citadel) |
add the site pics
The Temple Marsh | Empoisoners Guild |
---|---|
Enables recruitment of: Keeper of the Tombs, Tomb Guard. Generates 13 per turn. | Enables recruitment of: Poison Slinger Empoisoner. |
All national commanders and units have at least MR 12, cold-blooded, swimming, swamp survival and poison resistance(5-10).
Beware - Despite having some poison resistance, they are still susceptible and may die from too much accumulated poison. This is not usually a problem, as your enemies will typically die from it faster than you, but do not mistake your resistance for immunity.
Img | Unit Name | —-SpecialAttributes—- | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Hierodule 30 1 1 | 1 Sacred Poison resistance(7) Female | Cheaper than indie priests, but with zero leadership the hierodules generally do not have a niche. | |
Commander of C'tis 40 15 1 | Poison resistance(7) | Not a meaningful improvement over independent commanders, between shoddy morale, no morale bonus to squads, no formation access and only 60 leadership. | |
Lizard Lord 70 21 1 | Poison resistance(7) | 80 leadership for only 1 commander point, and as such the most straightforward access to morale bonuses and formations available to LA C'tis. | |
High Priest of C'tis 80 1 2 | 2 Sacred Poison resistance(7) Temple trainer: Sacred Serpent Prophet Shape: Lizard King | A 2 priest with 40 leadership and the ability to temple summon Sacred Serpents, these will sometimes merit recruitment, but are not by any means a core part of C'tis toolkit unless large quantities of banishment are called for. | |
Keeper of the Tombs 100 1 2 Capital Only | 111 9 Sacred Poison resistance(6) | Serviceable researchers in the early game, these mages are held back both by the poor quality of the Fire/Death crosspath and by competing for capital recruitment turns with empoisoners. They can in a pinch be used, as any fire mage, for fire elementals, but lack combat utility aside from this. | |
Reborn 125 1 2 | 11100% 9 Sacred Poison resistance(6) | Compared to their EA Reborn counterpart, these mages are a disappointment. The fire random results in a mostly-useless crosspath, and though the death random results in a cheap 2 mage, the infrastructure requirement means it struggles to justify its recruitment over additional Sauromancers. The Reborn does have a greater research-per-recruitment-turn than the Sauromancer, but is in every other way an inferior mage. | |
Empoisoner 90 6 2 Capital Only | 11 9 Poison resistance(15) Stealthy(55) Assassin(2) | The nation's only access to nature, as well as being phenomenal assassins both with and without gems, on account of the chassis' access to both Swarm and Animate Skeleton. The built-in weapon is also useful, as the poison sling will generally make easy work of any non-resistant victim distracted by swarm bugs or longdead. These will generally be recruited every turn in the capital, starting quite early in the game. | |
Lizard King 230 5 4 | 3 Sacred Old Age(60/50) Poison resistance(7) Prophet Shape: Lizard King | With leadership 120, Lizard Kings are excellent, albeit expensive, army leaders. They can also claim thrones, and are strong preachers where your dominion falters. Appointing a Lizard King as your prophet brings it to 4, which can be useful for both banishing and Fanaticism. There is also a special Lizard King prophet shape with a scepter and a fancy blue gown. The fact that they aren't capital only is wonderful. |
|
Sauromancer 285 1 4 | 1311100% 10% 15 Sacred Poison resistance(8) wasteland survival | With the swamp gone, they return to being a recruitable Death 4, but trade Nature and Water for Fire and Earth. Being sacred requires more infrastructure but reduces the upkeep cost long-term. As your only recruitable unit with a chance of Astral, Your communions will be small. Fire randoms are good at raining evocations, and Earth can buff your army but both require boosters. |
The recruitable units of LA C'tis have above-average protection for their resources cost due to natural protection, but still generally very low protection for the era, combined with all-around low stats. If possible, it is generally recommendable to purchase quality indies, such as crossbows, particularly if faced with an enemy with cold scales.
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Militia 7 2 5 | Poison resistance(7) | Indie militia with worse morale, somewhat resistant to your own poison, but with no armor other than their own scales. Useful only if cheap, massed, non-mindless bodies are needed; if obtainable, indie militia with shields are generally superior. |
|
Light Infantry 10 5 11 | Poison resistance(7) | As light infantry without armor but with javelins, these have a slight niche in some expansion parties, but are generally useless against player-recruited units in LA. | |
Heavy Infantry 10 15 11 | Poison resistance(7) | With only 10 strength and a 3-damage spear, these hit for an unimpressive 13 piercing, and are thus not capable of damaging most units in LA. At 16 body prot, they are the nation's sturdiest non-sacred, but still fail to survive for any length of time against most opposition. | |
City Guard 10 10 11 | Poison resistance(7) castle defence bonus(1) | With abysmal damage, no helmets and only 14 body prot, these units generally fail to find a niche, unless additional siege defense is desperately needed. | |
Falchioneer 13 17 18 | Ambidextrous(2) Poison resistance(7) | As a recruitable dual-wielding size 2 unit, these units have a small niche, but are held back by above-average gold cost, middling damage in an era of high-prot units, low protection (particularly because their natural protection ceases to be an advantage once protection spells are applied) and no shields. They may be the nation's strongest massable unit, but they are particularly susceptible to crossbows, which are omnipresent in the era. | |
Desert Ranger 13 16 18 Wasteland Rec Only | patrol bonus(2) Poison resistance(6) wasteland survival | With passable damage, a javelin, reasonable protection, a shield and not outlandish encumbrance, the Desert Ranger is one of the nation's most dependable rostered units. Unfortunately, as a wasteland-recruitable unit, the nation will often struggle to find the recruitment points to mass these. | |
Tomb Guard 23 29 28 Capital Only | Sacred Poison resistance(6) wasteland survival | Genuinely heavy infantry with passable stats, Tomb Guard have the potential to be reasonable units if blessed. Unfortunately, the rest of the nation struggles to benefit from a Tomb Guard bless, and without one such, the unit struggles to justify its high cost. All the same, these may be worth recruiting simply as a durable frontline when one such is needed. | |
Poison Slinger 25 6 32 Capital Only | Poison resistance(8) | ||
Sacred Serpent | Sacred Poison resistance(5) Standard(1) Animal | A source of badly-needed morale for the squad they are placed in, but with no real ability to fight. It might be worth securing a few to help keep any falchioneers from routing, but they are not to be confused with combatants, as they will melt in the face of the enemy, between their lacking protection, their middling hitpoints, their large size and their abysmal defense score. | |
Tomb Wyrm | Sacred Poison resistance(25) Cold resistance(15) undead Inanimate need-not-eat spirit-sight | ||
Tomb Chariot | Poison resistance(25) Cold resistance(15) undead need-not-eat spirit-sight unsurroundable(1) Pierce-resistant mindless Inanimate Never Heals trample mounted | As a massable size 4 trampler, the Tomb Chariot can kill most things it outsizes, in large enough quantities, and it retains reasonably damaging attacks for sufficiently large opponents. The unit is extremely fragile, but has some repel capabilities owing to its length 2 bite, combined with a relatively high attack skill after priestly buffing. Casualties are to be expected, but can remain quite small when critical mass is achieved, as the unit kills quite swiftly. |
any breakout hits that might sway someone towards luck or away from it ?
Img | Unit Name | —-SpecialAttributes—- | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Uru'gallu - Lizard Hero | Poison resistance(5) | Def | |
Udum'ukinna - Reassembled Prince | 2 Sacred inspirational(1) immortal unsurroundable (1) Trample undead inanimate Need-not-eat spirit-sight reanimator-priest Poison resistance(25) Cold resistance(15) pierce-resistant mounted | ||
Ekishnugal - First King | 34 11 Sacred inspirational(2) undead inanimate Need-not-eat spirit-sight reanimator-priest Poison resistance(25) Cold resistance(15) pierce-resistant |
Enchant: +5 - Flaming Arrow, Hord of Skeletons
Construction:+3 -
Conjuration:+3 -
Evocation:+3 -
Pride of Lions: 2 Conj 3 10 (summon 10+ Great Lion). An unimpressive spell for turning N gems into chaff.
Sacred Crocodile: 22 Conj 4 3 (summon 1 Sacred Crocodile). LA-Ctis lacks water mages, so can't natively cast it. Big, slow and sacred attack animals. A lot of their attributes make them fantastic Soul Slay magnets to take the pressure off your mages. Not amazing in combat but still sacred slabs of HP so not too bad either.
Contact Couatl: 11 Conj 7 40 (summon 1 Couatl). Cost a lot of gems but any pretender with a dip in two paths can summon this strong Flying Astral and Nature mage. Even at 40 they are a good deal. With the loss of lizard Shamans, you need a pretender or an indy (probably empowered) to cast it. Bringing powerful nature magic to fights is extremely valuable as a nation without native access to nature.
Contact Scorpion Man:11 Conj 8 12 (summon 1 Scorpion Man). Comes too late to be useful. A really good unit, but is not cheap in the gem starved late age and neither are earth random sauromancer turns to do the casting.
Revive Grave Consort: Enchantment 0, 1 10 (1 Grave Consort). Like Tomb Priests and Tomb Kings, Grave Consorts are reanimator priests; able to produce skeletons for free with their turns. A Grave Consort can be summoned early and prophetized for an early infusion of Tomb Wyrms or Tomb Chariots
Revive Tomb Priest: Enchantment 0, 2 16 (1 Tomb Priest). Reanimator Priests. The more efficient way to mass Tomb Wyrms.
Revive Tomb King: Enchantment 0, 3 23 (1 Tomb King). The best way to convert death gems into permanent skeletons and are able to produce higher quality undead such as Tomb Wyrms and Tomb Chariots. Holy 3 to boot.
Protection of the Grave:1 Grant additional MR to one Square of Undead. As an undead horde nation, the ability to shrug off the plentiful undead mulching spell is helpful.
Protection of the Grave:2 Grant additional MR for 10 squares.
Royal Protection:3 Grant additional MR to all undead currently on the battlefield. Must be cast again if you wish to protect skeletons summoned after the initial cast.
Power of the Grave:1 Grant additional Speed and Atk Skill to one Square of Undead.
Royal Power:3 Grant additional Speed and Atk Skill to Five Squares of Undead.
Power of the Reborn King:4 Grant additional Speed and Atk Skill to all undead currently on the battlefield.
Can spam 4 mages from any province with full infrastructure. Can Forging a Skull Staff and Skullface for 6, or even a 7 with a lucky 10%.
Late age Ctis has poor cross-path access overall, but the easiest is Fire. A Sauromancer can easily make the booster as a Fire/Death caster, Summoning Flame Spirit for the two boosters. Getting 5 (6 in combat) and Fire Kings. Fire is pure damage to unleash on armies not prepared for it.
You only have 1s in Earth, Nature, Astral. Needing a pretender or empowerment to forge and summon units to increase and diversify your access. For example, You can't natively summon Coutatl but they only need 11 and 40 to get back that old C'tis Astral and Nature powerhouse.
An investment but Summon Spectre can break you into Water and forge Earth, Water, and Astral boosters if you get lucky on paths.
C'tis's magic strategy had taken a major reworking from earlier eras. They are still a skeli-spam nation, but now with a focus on evocation instead of poison. C'tis has Fire so it can now spam Fire Elementals and put Flaming Arrows on its javelins. you also have cold resistance spells to counter enemies that try to sleep you out, in addition to the Fire Resistance/Heat From Hell combo.
It also has prolific access to bane fire, inflicting Decay during an age were the majority of units have human lifespans.
If you mass forge Earth Boots, you have good earth access for army buffs and destroying heavy armour of the late age(you have nat prot from scales while enemy becomes naked). (ex: Magma Eruption, Iron Bane, Marble Warriors) Also, cast the spell Fields of the Dead.
Sauromancer magic randoms:
Troop Buffs: Wooden Warriors, Army of Giants, Mass Protection, Flaming Arrows, Strength of Giants, Iron Warriors
Chaff Summoning: Horde of Skeletons, Swarm, Creeping Doom, Summon Fire Elemental
AOE: Enfeeble, Vortex of Unlife, Astral Fires, Falling Fires, Fire Cloud, Cloud of Death, Magma Eruption, Gifts from Heaven
Battlefield Globals: Foul Vapors, Howl, Darkness, Rigor Mortis, Relief, Plague, Life after Death, Undead Mastery, Fields of the Dead, Curse of Stones.
Area Fatigue or Immobilization: Shadow Blast, Stellar Cascades, Maws of the Earth
Area Morale Reduction: Panic, Terror
Single Target Elimination: Curse of the Frog Prince, Charm, Disintegrate, Nether Bolt, Nether Darts, Astral Geyser, Bane Fire
Thug/SC Self Buffs: Soul Vortex, Invulnerability, Temper Flesh, Skeletal Body
C'tis are masters of High-level Death magic (C'tis will get Well of Misery, and surprise attack with Stygian Paths), Twiceborning their mages, and having immortal Wraith Lord and Lich thugs. LA Replaced Nature with limited Fire Rituals and has some things for earth and astral.
LA Can spend their Death gems on undead reanimator-priests that are more efficient at creating a skelli-stacks than spending gems on the Reanimation spell. Can also produce Longdead Archers, giving an army a range threat, especially with decay killing a portion of the enemy even if they win (especially if they are targetable like giants or calvary).
Fire-Earth Cosspaths grants a way to turn gems into gold (Transmute Fire), or mass-produce Terracotta Soldiers, alternative addition to you skeletons
Blight / Black Death - set back to your enemy money.
Summons Infantry- Revive Wights/Legion of Wights, Construct Manikin, Pale Riders, Reanimate Archers, Terracotta Army
Immortal Summons - Call Wraith Lord, Lichcraft, Curse of Blood(with Blood Empowerment)
Summons Other- Tartarian Gate, Summon Spectre, King of Banefires,
Amulet of the Dead Makes your Reanimator Priest more efficient.
Mage items: Clam of Pearls, Black Bow of Botulf, Amulet of Resilience, Coral Blade, Ethereal Crossbow, Ring of Regeneration, Skull Mentor/Lightless Lantern, Slave Matrix/Crystal Matrix
Thug Items: Vine Shield, Coral Blade/Duskdagger, Axe of Hate, Doom Glaive, Boots of Quickness, Robe of Invulnerability, Shadow Brand, Evening Star, Carmine Cleaver
Fear Thug Items: Horror Helmet, Spirit Mask, Skull Standard, Implementor Axe,
Assassin Items: Handful of Acorns
Interesting Items: Effigy of War, Shademail Haubergeon, Helmet of Heroes
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.
</WRAP></WRAP>
By Zan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gUuPNONws
guide page on steam??
forum thread or AAR
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 |