LA Agartha, Ktonian Dead

Lore

"Agartha is inspired by fantasy TTRPG's in general, and an Earth Dawn setting of my brother's imagination, ripe with mummified ancestors entombed in ancient cavern halls, in particular. Old ideas of a race of pale, cave-dwelling humanoids from my ideas of the game “Shepherds of Creation” completed the conglomerate. Think of opulent halls adorned with riches of the deeper earth in which reside ancient bloated oracles with pallid skins ruling their kin with increasing desperation; desperation because their proud race is dying. Agartha is perhaps the most tragic of the nations in Dominions. Surviving oracles cling to memories of a glorious past unable to stop the unavoidable disappearance of their ancient race. I wanted a sense of loss to permeate the nation." –Illwinter, in 'The Origins of Nations' section of the Dominions 6 Manual

In dark caverns under the Roots of the Earth a strange kind of one-eyed humanoids once evolved. Untouched by the sun, they became known to humans as the Pale Ones. When humans first met these pale giants, it was in war. With the destruction of the false god of the Pale Ones, an ancient Seal was broken and vast powers of destruction were released. The Pale Ones were almost wiped out of existence and humans could move down into the caverns of Agartha. Here they found fabulous riches and ancient secrets. The humans replaced the Pale Ones and now all Agarthans are pale-skinned humans with large eyes. Everything left by the Ancients became subject to worship in Agartha. At first, statues of the Ancients were adored and animated by the Golem Crafters, but most of the statues were destroyed during the great war and new forms of worship have evolved. The mummified remains of the now-extinct Pale Ones are worshiped and reanimated by necromancer-priests. While the mummies of Pale Ones are sacred, the human dead are not treated with the same respect. Used for menial tasks and warfare, the dead of Agartha now walk side by side with the living. –National Description of LA Agartha in the nation selection screen, copy pasted from Dominions6.exe

National Features

Nationwide Effects:

Agartha has a Cave Start.
Extra gold and resources in cave forts? TODO
Additional Entrance Guard PD in Cave Provinces.

Scales & Blesses:

Productivity Limit +1
Death Limit +1

Capital Sites:

Tombs of the Oracles
- Produces 2 deathgem

per month.
- Enables recruitment of Ktonian Necromancer

Mines of the Pale Ones
- Produces 75 resources (mine)
- Produces 1 firegem

1

per month.

Infrastructure:

Standard Fortifications for LA (aka: can build Palisades and upgrade up to Citadels).

Starting Army

Starting Army:

Role	Unit Card	Amount
Scout	Agarthan Scout	1
Commander	Cave Captain	1
Troop 1	Agarthan Light Infantry	20
Troop 2	Agarthan Infantry	15

Province Defense

Province Defense:

*Non-Fort PD:*
Type/Function	Idle Sprite	Unit Card	Amount
Commander at PD 1+		Cave Captain	1
Troop at PD 1+	???	Depends on the province's poptype	+variable per point
Commander at PD 20+	???	Depends on the province's poptype	1
Troop at PD 20+		Agarthan Light Infantry	+1 per point
Troop at PD 20+		Agarthan Infantry	+1 per point

*Fort PD:*
Type/Function	Idle Sprite	Unit Card	Amount
Commander at PD 1+		Cave Captain	1
Troop at PD 1+		Agarthan Light Infantry	+1 per point
Troop at PD 1+		Agarthan Infantry	+1 per point
Commander at PD 20+		Gate Lord	1
Troop at PD 20+		Agarthan Heavy Infantry	+1 per point

Siege Defense

Siege Defense:

*Castle Guards:*
Type	Idle Sprite	Unit Card	Siege Defense	Amount
Commander		Cave Captain	0.6	1
Troop		Agarthan Light Crossbowman	0.5	+16 per level of the fortification's Base Defenders value

*Wall Defenders:*
Type	Idle Sprite	Unit Card	Siege Defense	Amount
Commander		Gate Lord	5.6	1
Troop		Entrance Guard	1.6	+10 per level of the fortification's Base Defenders value

National Units

Recruitable

Commanders:

Recruitable Commanders:

Overview

Agarthan Scout

Near identical to a indie scout, they have slight differences like 50% darkvision for flavor reasons. Scouts are very important to know what is coming and where, as well as being able to know which provinces are whose and who has captured but not claimed which thrones. Nonetheless, a player can usually recruit enough independent province scots that using fort turns for them is unnecessary.

Overview

Cave Captain

A leader with 100 normal leadership and "+1 squad morale for up to three squads", meaning it can also use line formations.

Overview

Gate Lord

Two commander points for a mild leadership bonus; 150 normal leadership with "+2 squad morale for up to four squads", and otherwise functionally the same as the much cheaper Cave Captain. Also has a siege defense of 5.6, though on a commander it is unlikely to make much of a difference in a siege.

Overview

Blindlord

Sacred, and therefore needs a Temple to be recruited. A leader with 100 normal leadership, 50 magic leadership, and "+1 squad morale for up to three squads", meaning it can also use line formations. This is the only LA Agartha commander that can lead Magic Beings like Blindfighters in line formation, at least without the use of items.

Overview

Cave Lord

Two commander points, and quite similar to a Gate Lord in that it has 150 normal leadership and "+2 squad morale for up to four squads". Has the lowest map movement of all Agarthan Commanders.

Detailed Analysis

Notably the Cave Drake mount which boasts ironskin-level natural prot can be equipped with a Barding item. While very amusing, this is incredibly expensive and does not boost survivability too much given the high encumbrance and very low kills per turn: enemies will survive and will roll enough high roll dice to kill both rider and mount.

Overview

Attendant of the Dead

TODO

Overview

Servant of the Oracles

TODO

Overview

Ktonian Reanimator

TODO

Overview

Ktonian Alchemist

TODO

Overview

Ktonian Necromancer

TODO

Troops:

Recruitable Troops

Overview

Agarthan Light Crossbowman

Wields an Agarthan Steel Crossbow, identical to a regular Crossbow but with a very notable two more base damage.

Overview

Agarthan Crossbowman

Largely redundant given it costs almost twice the resources compared to a Light Crossbowman for heavier armor and a much better head armor. Theoretically useful for some situations, but when resource capped having twice as many Light Crossbowmen is almost always better.

Overview

Agarthan Heavy Crossbowman

Even heavier armor and inflated resource cost to match, as compared to the other Agarthan Crossbowman types.

Overview

Agarthan Light Infantry

One of three very similar infantry units, Light Infantry do not have Kite Shields

Overview

Agarthan Infantry

Virtually identical to one of the lighter indie Heavy Infantries, but has 50% Darkvision and a Short Sword instead of a Broad Sword, as well as a Kite Shield.

Overview

Agarthan Heavy Infantry

Virtually identical to indie Heavy Infantry, but has 50% Darkvision and a Short Sword and Kite Shield instead of a Broad Sword and Shield.

Overview

Entrance Guard

Very expensive, Entrance Guards have 21 prot and Kite Shields, as well as 14 hp and 11/12 attack/defense skill. They also have a Castle Defense bonus. Overall by far the best non-sacred infantry Agartha has in terms of stats, and also likely among the worst for cost efficiency.

Overview

Blindfighter

Sacred, and available from any fort that has a temple. TODO

Overview

Agarthan Sapper

Very expensive, but has a very good siege bonus. Their Cave Fire Bottle weapons deal AoE AP magic and fire damage, but their price and very low damage for a single use are very hard to justify. Similarly, they also have the highest damage melee weapon that Agartha has access to, but 6 attack skill is astoundingly low, and very low prot makes even theoretical strategies with Earth Meld support very risky.

Overview

Cave Knight

A tough to kill unit that is very expensive, Cave Knights can be used to in small armies to great effect: The rlatively high defense rider and notoriously tough Cave Drake can be used in Sparse Line formation to take a quite a few attacks before dying.

Detailed Analysis

One of the slowest units on LA Agartha's roster, they have the same 7 combat speed that the unmounted Agarthan Heavy Infantry have.

Rider

Cave Knight

The rider is not particularly special, mostly relying the +3 defense bonus from being mounted plus a high parry value (with a 19 prot shield) plus 18 prot armor to survive damage, as well as having a mount to absorb some attacks. The Cave Knight is the only Agarthan unit to use a Broadsword, and so the rider always swings for 17 Slashing damage.

Mount

Cave Knight

The Cave Drake mount is remarkably tough, boasting 22 prot and 58 hp, making it quite difficult to kill. It suffers from having abysmal stats, both attack and defense, as well as being Cold Blooded and therefore having high encumbrance. Their 22 damage Bite has only 8 attack skill and while quite impressive only hits rarely.

Summoned

TODO

Heroes

Repeatable:
None.

*Unique:*
Idle Sprite	Unit Card	Magic Paths	Only Arrive After X Turns?	Notable Comments
	Eckhart von Kohlbrunn - Master of Alchemical Secrets	222111	No.	TODO

More details on hero arrival mechanics can be found on this page: Heroes

National Magic

Highest Unaided Magic Access

With Recruitables: TODO
With National Summons: TODO

Spells

TODO

Items

*Items:*
Sprite	Item Card	Construction Level	Paths Needed	Cost
	Mercury Barrel	7	11	55

Important Notes for Playing

Dusk Elder Access: Although MA Ermor starts with a D2 Spectator, to access their Dusk Elders (and thereby any magic paths outside of Death or independents), they need a D3 to cast Revive Dusk Elder. This can be achieved through building a pretender with at least D3, or by the use of path boosting items, notably the earliest Death Booster is the Construction 4 Skull Staff.

Strategy

Expansion Strategies

If you can know some example expansion strategies unique or uniquely affected by the nation here, please get access and add them or contact someone with access to explain the strategy and/or tip!

Cave Knights

Cave Knights can be used to make effective expansion parties, attritioning rarely and allowing LA Agartha to make many more expansion parties due to being relatively resource light.

As always, there are some more general expansion strategies available on this page: General Expansion Notes

Example Pretender Builds

If you want to add your own build here, get an account and it'll be more than welcome! Try to use a format to keep authorship clear and pretender design rationale visible.

Community Guides and Videos

None so far?

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