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ctis-ma

MA C'tis, Miasma

Lore

C'tis is a swampy river valley surrounded by sandy deserts. In the fertile valley a sacral kingdom of lizard-like humanoids has formed. The kingdom is ancient by human standards and its wisdom and magical knowledge are great. At the top of the society is the Lizard King. The King is the highest priest of C'tis. Under the king are the High Priests with their sacred serpents. The lizards are herbivores, but have enslaved a race of arnivorous lizardmen who serve as soldiers and workers. The C'tissians are somewhat slow in movement, but have thick hides that protect them from cuts and bruises. Both lizard races are cold-blooded and become exhausted very quickly when fighting in cold provinces. They have partial resistance to poisons. The inhabitants of C'tis prefer to live in warm provinces.

With the coming of the New God, the swamps of C'tis have begun to spread. Dense rain and oppressive heat turn the lands into unhealthy marshlands, thick with the stench of rotting vegetation. Marshmasters have taken the place of the Sauromancers of old and the Swamp Guard has replaced the chariots as elite troops. In this land, the lizards prosper. Within provinces influenced by this Dominion, income is increased by 1 percent per level of Dominion, and the income of enemy provinces is reduced by 5 percent per level of Dominion. Unless cold-blooded, soldiers inside the Dominion will suffer from disease. The New God and all their sacred units are immune to this effect.

C'tis is a nation of lizardmen under Egyptian and to some extent Mesopotamian influence. Sacred priest kings, pyramids, swamps, and flooding rivers surrounded by deserts are all elements of these cultures. Sacred priest kings celebrating hieros-gamos with hierodules atop temple ziggurats, with high priests chanting and swaying in procession under the glare of sacred serpents depicted on murals on the great walls have to me a more Mesopotamian feel than Egyptian. On the other hand, the Desert Tombs of the late age is influenced by Egyptian concepts of the dead and modern fiction on Egypt, and the lizard king might as well be a Pharaoh as a Lugal. The connection between C'tis and Ermor suggests that C'tis is more Egyptian than Mesopotamian. The sauromancers' initiation rituals are inspired by Oriental cults of the late Roman Empire, such as that of Isis and Sarapis/Osiris.

General Overview

C'tis is a very fun and interesting nation to play. If you like lizards who raise hordes of undead, then C'tis is for you. They have plenty of death access and high-level priests for smiting beings of death as well. Most of C'tis's units and commanders can swim, so those pesky rivers are no problem (although they lack the ability to enter sea provinces). C'tis's mages are pretty versatile, cost-efficient for their power, and can fill the gaps in your lines with skeletons' hordes. They pack some strong basic troops such as the falchioneer and the slave runner, slave warrior, and elite warrior in terms of troops. They all have devastating multi attacks that chew through indies making expansion easier they also have natural protection and poison resist. This paired with your natural access to nature, water, and death access can be a quite brutal combination.

A lot of C'tis's problems from the Early Age had been Fixed. Not only does it now has decent sacreds, but It has also shifted its focus a little from Death to become the masters of biological warfare. It has become Foul Vapors: the nation. The Premiere Marshmasters have the easiest time casting it, and the new slingers can throw poison clouds for your early game. Even the Dominion has become weaponized, Inflicting disease on invaders and ruining their economy as it pushes into their territory.

Although MA C'tis is not considered The Top Tier, it is now a threat to be considered Early game and late.

National Features

FIXME

Race Military Magic Access Priests Buildings
Prefers Heat scales+2
Lizards:
MR(11-14)
cold-blooded
swimming
swamp survival
poison resistance(5-10)
Near Poison Immune troops
Heavy Infantry
Slave Warriors
Sacred Animals
Powerful Death Mages
Undead Hords and Thugs
Death (3, Rare 4)
Nature (3, Rare 4)
Astral (1, Rare 2)
Water (2, Rare 3)

Summable (3), (3)
Powerful(Lv3) Standard Forts

Within provinces influenced by this Dominion, Your income is increased by 1 percent per level of Dominion, and the income of enemy provinces is reduced by 5 percent per level of Dominion. Unless cold-blooded or have the swamp survival special ability, units inside the Dominion will suffer from disease. Your God and all your sacred units are immune to this effect. Underwater provinces and units in them are not affected by the Dominion's Effect.

Per Loggy's testing the chance of disease per unit is (candles/75)

Capital Special Sites

FIXME add the site pics

The Temple Marsh Empoisoners Guild
Enables recruitment of:
Swamp Guard, Sobek General, Sobek Warrior and Sobek Sacred Guard.
Generates 2deathgem2naturegem1watergem per turn.
Enables recruitment of:

Poison Slinger


Empoisoner.

Units

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 will die much slower then the enemy if they accumulate too much poisons without increased resistance.

Commanders

FIXME intro

Img Unit Name —-SpecialAttributes—- Comments
Taskmaster
Gold 30
2
1
Poison resistance(7)
Taskmaster(2)
Best leader for your lizard slaves in terms of morale but lacks the ability to set formations, only have 40 leadership, and dies to stray arrows.
Hierodule
Gold 30
1
1
holy 11
Sacred
Poison resistance(7)
Female
A fairly cheap priest that is resistant to your poison and miasma dominion.
Commander of C'tis
Gold 40
15
1
Poison resistance(7) Cheap 60Ld Comand that is resistant to your poison and miasma. Overshadowed by Lizard lords in many situations.
Lizard Lord
Gold 70
21
1
Poison resistance(7) Your better, more expensive, 80Ld Leader who offers formations and only takes 1 commander point to recruit.
High Priest of C'tis
Gold 80
1
2
holy 22
Sacred
Poison resistance(7)
Temple trainer: Sacred Serpent
Prophet Shape: Lizard King
A lvl2 Priest that can lead a some troops.
Can spend a turn in a temple to train a sacred serpent for free. This is probably a good use of their time even without a big bless for the snakes.
Shaman
Gold 90
2
2
astral 11nature 11 9
Sacred
Poison resistance(5)
Prophet Shape: Shaman
C'tis' second battle mage. Shamans are cheap and can cast astral buffs such as Luck and Body Ethereal and
set up communions for big astral spells or Soul Slays and Charms. If you are fighting astral nations, keeping Shamans in your armies can save your astral Marshmasters from magic duels.

Very efficient researchers in magic dominion too thanks to their low cost, sacred status for half upkeep, and utility in combat in an emergency.

Has a prophet shape with slightly higher leadership, but otherwise no boost other than the usual holy magic.
Marshmaster
Gold 235
1
2
water 11death 22nature 22random1100%
10%
17
Poison resistance(10)
With the coming of the swamp, the sauromancer traded a point Death to be spammable at only 2 commander points and be better Water and Nature Mages.
Still definitely the workhorse mage, for Labs and battles. They can put down many important spells, including Foul Vapors, Horde of Skeletons and Shadow Blast, and battle enchantments. They'​re also prime candidates to Twiceborn if you want to preserve a lucky random or just want some insurance on your mages.
Empoisoner
Gold 90
6
2
Capital Only
death 11nature 11 9
Poison resistance(15)
Stealthy 55
Assassin 2
Assassin-mages that can make short work of many commanders, with just a gem to cast Horde of Skeletons or Swarm. Useful both to defend your forts while researching, and to lay traps. After expansion there's not much competition in the capital to recruit other mages.
Lizard King
Gold 230
5
4
holy 33
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 holy 44, which can be useful for both banishing and Fanaticism. There is also a special Lizard King prophet shape with a sceptre and a fancy blue gown. The fact that they aren't capital only is wonderful.
Sobek General
Gold 140
28
1
Capital Only
Sacred
taskmaster(1)
Poison resistance 8
A light thug and anti-thug chassis sadly limited by being cap only. Gives an equally good morale bonus to the slave lizards as the Lizard King.

Start of with high Prot, HP, Str, MR, and two attacks makes the Sobek General a pretty solid chassis even though they lack magic for self buffing.
Give him less cumbersome armour and a magic weapon like a Thorn Staff and fluff him up with Blessing and Body Ethereal or even Enlarge, Mossbody, Quickness, and/or Regeneration and you can have a really good time.

Troops

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Comments
Militia
Gold 7
2
5
Poison resistance(7) Indie Militia with better MR, resistant to your own poison and miasma but with no armor other than their own scales.
Useful as cheap chaff, particularly for cracking forts but will die in drove during battles so keep them out of harm's way if you can.
Light Infantry
Gold 10
5
11
Poison resistance(7) Indie Light Infantry with better MR, resistant to your own poison and miasma. No armor except for a shield means that they die in droves but the javelins are nice at least.
Heavy Infantry
Gold 10
15
11
Poison resistance(7) Heavy Infantry and well-armored with 16 prot even before being buffed with bark skin. The trade-off for this is that they have some heavy encumbrance but they are still the best blockers around for MA C'tis and still only cost 10g.
City Guard
Gold 10
10
11
Poison resistance(7)
castle defence bonus(1)
Fairly standard medium infantry with better prot, better MR, resistant to your own poison and miasma. Easier to mass then Heavy Infantry thanks to their lower resource cost and can hold lines almost as well. They have a castle defense bonus but that is a pretty minor boon because C'tis has plenty of magical ways to make taking forts hell for the attackers. Still nice to have a way to turn Gold into even more Siege Defense.
Slave Warrior
Gold 13
3
8
slave
Poison resistance(5)
Barbarians but in lizard flavor and generally better. Slave warriors are glass cannons with low defenses and morale but have two strong attacks. Useful if killing power is needed quickly and cheaply.
Runner
Gold 13
2
8
slave
Poison resistance(5)
Slave Warriors but trade High damage for Speed. Useful in place of cavalry for flanking to hit mages and archers or to rush in and interrupt long buff cycles on enemy thugs.
Falchioneer
Gold 13
17
18
Ambidextrous2
Poison resistance(7)
Armored like city guard but with helmets and with a pair of falchions instead of a shield and spear. Great damage output and attack density. A great blend of killing power and durability without breaking the bank. Be aware that they tire out quickly.
Elite Warrior
Gold 15
9
9
slave
Poison resistance(5)
Better Slave Warriors with armor and improved stats. Their lack of a helmet is a bummer on a unit costing 15g but their low resource and recruitment point cost makes them easy to spam in an emergency if high quality troops are needed quickly.
Swamp Guard
Gold 19
21
22
Capital Only
Sacred
Poison resistance(8)
Heavy Infantry with more armour, better stats, higher damage weapon and sacred status to boot all at a very reasonable cost. Only held back by being capital only but are probably worth the 19g even with only a small bless.
Poison Slinger
Gold 25
6
32
Capital Only
Poison resistance(8) Expensive and recpoint intensive but they more than make up for their cost by producing poison clouds with each shot! Worth making lots of them. They can damage your own troops on occasion but to a much lesser degree than they hurt enemies.
Sobek Warrior
Gold 30
31
13
Capital Only
Poison resistance(8) Extremely high quality troops combining high damage, stats, and good armor. Spamming these is a great strategy for expansion and beyond. Only held back by being cap only, otherwise they would largely eclipse most of your other troops.
Sobek Sacred Guard
Gold 55
37
33
Limited Recrutment: 1
Capital Only
Sacred
Poison resistance(8)
Huge, expensive, and severely limited in availability but able to hit like absolute trucks. Being size 4 they mix well in with size 2 units who can fit in the square with them so don't try to mix them in with other Sobeks, instead try to mix them in with either swamp guard for sacred blobbing or falchioneers so you don't have to worry about the sobek sacred guards' high combat speed pulling the formation apart.
Sacred Serpent Sacred
Poison resistance(5)
Standard(1)
Animal
Produced for free in each temple by having a High Priest train them. They boost the morale of the squads they are attached to and can serve as decent troops in their own right with high attack skill and powerful poison if not much prot so their HP gets cut through quickly. They move quickly so they tend to run ahead of their squadmates and get killed so it is best to mix them in with slightly faster troops such as falchioneers or slave warriors.
By late game, you should be able to crank out a pretty decent number of these each turn to leverage any bless you have.

Heroes

any breakout hits that might sway someone towards luck or away from it ?

Img Unit Name —-SpecialAttributes—- Comments
Niklatu - Lizard Hero Poison resistance(5)
inspirational(1)
Murmur - Guild Master
Hero Turn arrival Limit(5)
death 33nature 33 17
stealthy (65)
assassin(3)
Poison resistance (20)
supply bonus (30)
taskmaster (3)
Kabti'ili - Ancient Shaman astral 22nature 22holy 11 13
Sacred
Poison resistance (5)
supply bonus (20)
taskmaster (3)
Nakhtun Eshash - Sobek High Priest holy 33
Sacred
Poison resistance (8)
inspirational (1)
Atun Shar - Sobek Sauromancer
Hero Turn arrival Limit(5)
water 22death 33nature 22 19
Sacred
Poison resistance (8)
supply bonus (20)

Magic

National Magic & Summons

Pride of Lions: nature 22 Conj 3 10naturegem (summon 10+ Great Lion). An unimpressive spell for turning N gems into chaff.

Sacred Crocodile: nature 22water 22 Conj 4 3naturegem (summon 1 Sacred Crocodile). 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.

Summon Monster Toads: nature 22 Conj 5 8naturegem (summon 3 Monster Toad). Sacred Tramplers that spread poison with their poison cloud and Poison Skin. Likely to Die, but will kill formation as the toads will suicidally trample to the middle of it to spread the poison cloud.

Contact Couatl: nature 11astral 11 Conj 7 40naturegem (summon 1 Couatl). Cost a lot of gems but any Shaman can summon this strong Flying Astral and Nature mage. Even at 40naturegem they are a good deal.

Contact Scorpion Man:earth 11fire 11 Conj 8 12earthgem (summon 1 Scorpion Man). Comes too late to be useful. A really good unit, even at a costly 12earthgem each but being so difficult to summon severely limits their use.

Magic Access

MA C'tis has easy native access to astral 11water 22death 33nature 33 without boosters, summons, or 10% randoms, and what's more that access is available in any and every fort with a temple and lab. From there, C'tis can easily forge a Thistle Mace, a Moonvine Bracelet, and with them a Treelord's Staff to get them to nature 66 without artifacts, heroes, summons, or unlikely randoms. By casting Contact Couatl to summon a Couatl Commander with astral 33nature 33 and then giving it a Starshine Skullcap astral 44 is easily available at the cost of 40 gems. Water can be boosted to very high levels by casting Contact Naiad to summon a Naiad with water 33nature 33 who can then be given a Water Bracelet and a Robe of the Sea to hit water 55. MA C'tis can easily forge a Skull Staff for extra death magic to hit death 44 but need either empowerment or a lucky random to be able to forge a Skullface to get higher. None of MA C'tis' heroes add meaningfully to magic diversity for the nation. C'tis' final magic diversity without lucky randoms or artifacts is astral 44water 55death 44nature 66, giving them high power in all 4 of their available paths.

Combat Magic

MA C'tis is a nation that loves combat magic even more than most thanks to strong mages and clear synergies in spells. The entire nation is poison resistant and has swamp survival making Foul Vapors and Quagmire great spells to cast in any and every fight. Horde of Skeletons is a great spell to spam too, providing plentiful chaff that doesn't mind Foul Vapors and doesn't suffer from Quagmire any more than enemy troops do. Skeletons are great for casting evocations such as Shadowblast, Sleep Cloud, Falling Frost, and Poison Cloud into because it will not harm them.

With cheap astral 11nature 11 mages C'tis can form some first rate communions to spam Soul Slay, Charm, or Enslave Mind with impunity. Thanks to Lizard Shamans' above average HP and ability to cast Personal Regeneration they can take some abuse. With a Coral Blade to get them up to 21hp they can take quite a bit of abuse. If an astral random Marshmaster casts Soul Vortex then Shaman slaves can be given tough/regenerating bodyguards like Forest Trolls, Vine Ogres, or Lamias to leech fatigue and health off of for a formidable turbo communion.

Late game MA C'tis' armies can drop some truly nasty battlefield wide spells to tilt the balance in their favor such as Mass Regeneration, Darkness, Relief, Rigor Mortis, and even Master Enslave.

MA C'tis' is a nation with extremely powerful combat magic that lets them dominate in the mid game and is not easily countered in the late game.

Ritual Magic

Twiceborn and Transformation - Ways to reduce upkeep on Marshmaster, and possibly gain additional magic paths.

Stygian Paths- army teleporter.

Black Death - Significant income setback (will start wars).

Haunted Forest

Gem production- Mother Oak, Well of Misery

Summons Infantry- Revive Wights/Legion of Wights, Construct Manikin, Construct Mandragora, Reanimation, Pale Riders, Contact Lamias, Awaken Vine Men, Awaken Vine Ogres

Immortal Summons - Call the Worm That Walks, Call Wraith Lord, Lichcraft, Curse of Blood

Summons Other- Tartarian Gate, Summon Spectre, Summon Mount Fiend, Contact Lamia Queen

Magic Items

National Items

  • The Jade Mask: a Unique end game Helmet. need death 66nature 33 and were must be cold-blooded (No Undead or most pretender chassis). Grants a lot of large array of good mage buffs. Is Notable being a better Skullface with Regeneration and Auto cast Rigor Mortis

gear

Amulet of the Dead Makes your reanimation casting more gem efficient.

Mage items: Clam of Pearls, Black Bow of Botulf, Amulet of Resilience, Coral Blade, Ethereal Crossbow, Ring of Regeneration, Skull Mentor

Thug Items: Vine Shield, Astral Serpent, Coral Blade/Duskdagger, Axe of Hate, Doom Glaive, Boots of Quickness, Robe of Invulnerability

Fear Thug Items: Horror Helmet, Spirit Mask, Skull Standard

Assassin Items: Handful of Acorns, Bottle of Living Water

Interesting Items: Effigy of War,

Strategy

Early Game

MA C'tis has all-around good troops so expansion is pretty easy to do well with scales but a bless focused expansion can work well too. Spamming Sobek Warriors is the go-to way to get it done with scales but almost all of C'tis' troops can do well in expansion and detailed analysis would be a welcome addition to the wiki.

Things can be a bit tough during the winter due to the extra fatigue of fighting in the cold outside of your dominion but it isn't a crippling problem and can be pushed through.

Mid Game

FIXME what is the first big research rush, what is the first big powerspike, where do you shift recruitment to? what are the big magic diversity issues, are there particular globals you should gun for

Late Game

FIXME How do you close out the game if you are in it, is the high level research stuff you can do uniquely well, does your nation fall off, aka do you have to force things to conclude swiftly

ctis-ma.txt · Last modified: 2023/03/20 23:07 by sesleri