Fomoria is a tragic nation, its history plagued with wars and curses. The Fomorians are giants who used to oversee the waters but eventually ditched their duties in favor of raiding coastal settlements. By breaking its oaths, the Fomorian race began to degenerate - every succeeding generation was smaller, weaker, and more deformed than the previous one. Children were born with the heads of goats, and the lucky ones "only" lost much of their magical prowess. Eventually, the giants were forced out of the sea, and came under attack by Tir na n'Og. The Fomorians managed to survive by casting terrible spells and causing mass famines. They also enslaved the Fir Bolg, a lesser race of elves.

Fomoria, alongside Tir na n'Og and Ys, is based on the "Invasions Cycle" of Irish folklore.

EA Fomoria is a very versatile nation. It can easily achieve high magic levels in native paths, kit out most of its commanders for thug/SC duty, and has an above-average troop lineup. It's a healthy mix of a giant and magic nation, with a reliable expansion phase, strong middle game, and relevant late game. In some ways, Fomoria is also a dual nation - it is split between the cursed giants, who make for excellent thugs, and their elf (ew) servants. With two unit sacreds and a super-combatant chassis, Fomoria is a force to be reckoned with.

Despite these advantages, Fomoria suffers in several key areas: Most of its strong units are resource-intensive, which is a glaring issue in the Early Age. Additionally, it suffers from poor magic diversity - it has only two guaranteed paths ( Air and Death) and three level 1 possible paths ( Nature, Water and Earth). Lastly, the nation has only two non-cap priests, who are gold intensive.

Fortunately, Fomoria's troop lineup remains relevant throughout the game. During expansion, groups of a dozen Nemedians can reliably expand into most provinces, while the above-average Fir Bolg cost as much as regular humans. Most units carry shields, but the only shooters of Fomoria have limited range. If the player manages to survive into the midgame, they can switch to recruiting Fomorian giants, who are heavily armored and can deal a lot of concentrated damage.

Fomoria is a nation that can try its hand in many strategies, always keeping its opponents on edge with strong paths and the ability to kit out multiple thugs every season. It is most certainly a good nation for new players and can be a good example for learning how to thug and use combat magic.

Fomoria players will be quick to learn that Fomoria can set up a strong magic-oriented economy by the midgame, under the protection of superior units. Once the nation is entrenched, it can pump out Super Combatant Kings, who have the capacity to cloud trapeze deep into enemy territory.

Special Race Attributes	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Giants, Sizes 4 and 6! One-Eyed (-3 Precision vs. standard Humans) Sometimes Disfigured Ocean-Sailing and Water-Breathing Fomorian Kings Fir Bolg Vassals: Like Humans, but a bit better Subjugated Nemedian Elves: Stealth (65) Glamour Iron Vulnerability (1) Darkvision (50) A bit better than the Fir Bolg	Bronze Gear Light & Medium Infantry Elves with Magic Weapons Slingers & Javelinists Expensive Giants and Elves Sacred Giants; Size 6's are Amphibious!	4 (rare 5) 3 (rare 4) 1 (UC, rare 2) 1 (UC, rare 2) 1 (UC) Heroes: 4 23	Average (2) Expensive One 3 Hero	Giant

UC is short for "uncommon", and applies more to the path itself; you're just as likely to have 4 as you are to have 1 on the nation's top Mage, but you'll always have some Air or Death regardless of Randoms, while you don't have any Mages that will always have Water or Nature or Earth. Rare is at most 1-in-90 for this nation, and 1-in-160 for that 2nd level in Nature.

Fomoria's military is made up of the skilled but poorly-armored Fir Bolgs, size 4 giants, and elite Nemedians. A good trick when recruiting is to alternate between a human-sized unit and a Fomorian to guarantee that the two will share the same square.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Fir Bolg Slinger 11 2 12		A ranged unit with a poor weapon.
	Fir Bolg Warrior 13 10 15		Expensive light infantry. Though they have decent melee skills, their poor protection renders them quite fragile.
	Fir Bolg Warrior 13 10 15
	Fomorian Militia 15 3 7	Start Affliction (60%)	Cheap, large, high strength. Horrible in a fight as they have a hard time hitting and die too easily. Best as cost-effective siege chaff.
	Fomorian Javelinist 20 15 11	Start Affliction (40%)	Practically living ballistae, dealing 22 damage with a thrown javelin. Wind Guide can help compensate for their relatively poor precision.
	Fomorian Spearman 20 17 11	Start Affliction (40%)	Blockers. Their lack of a helmet makes them somewhat more vulnerable to headshots, but this is mitigated by their large size. Being size 4 means they benefit from having a human-sized escort to fill the gaps in their formations. Will deal a lot of damage when it hits, but has mediocre attack skill.
	Fomorian Warrior 30 27 17	Start Affliction (20%)	More expensive than Spearmen, but more skilled and much better protected. HP is slightly higher, making them a more likely target for friendly buffs and enemy evocations alike. Higher resource and gold costs make them less desirable in certain circumstances.
	Nemedian Warrior 35 22 24 Capital Only	Stealthy (65) Glamour Darkvision (50%) Iron Vulnerability (1)	Nemedians are the elite size 2 fighters of Fomoria. Squads of these make efficient expanders in the early game. Once that is done, they may be sent to conduct stealth raids against your enemies, or paired with Unmarked to fill out the gaps in their formations. Regrettably, they do not benefit from a bless as they are not sacred.
	Unmarked 55 27 28 Capital Only	Sacred	Unmarked are relatively inexpensive for size 4 sacreds (see Gibborim, Thrymshirdings) and have good equipment for their resource cost, though their melee skills are nothing exceptional at base. They are naturally high-strength units which hit hard but only once per square, and lack the hitpoints of their larger sacred counterparts.
	Fomorian Giant 75 37 37 Capital Only	Sacred Amphibious Cold Resistance (5) Darkvision (50%) One-Eyed	Fomorian Giants are, similar to Unmarked, rather inexpensive sacreds for their size. This is reflected in their relatively tame abilities and their very mediocre melee skills (even worse than Unmarked). With their skills and only one unit per square, Fomorian Giants do not perform well early in the absence of buffs or a big bless, but can come into their own later on when strength score wins slap fights between well-buffed armies and hitpoints provide safety against ritual and battlefield magic. Notably, these units are a hard counter to trample, particularly against Air Elementals.

Fomoria has four heroes, all of which are very powerful mages. They can only begin arriving on turn 10 at the earliest, however.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Macha - Nemedian Queen Minimum hero arrival turn: 10	32332 27 Stealthy (65) Darkvision (50%) Glamour Spell Singer Iron Vulnerability (1) Poison Resistance (5) Shock Resistance (5) Female
	Tuan - Last Partholonian Minimum hero arrival turn: 10	214 29 Stealthy (65) Darkvision (50%) Glamour Spell Singer Iron Vulnerability(1) Immortal
	Bres - Uncursed Minimum hero arrival turn: 10	3122 17 Sacred Darkvision (50%) Cold Resistance (5) Shock Resistance (5) Gift of Water Breathing (50) Amphibious Sailing Max Size 6
	Balor - High King Minimum hero arrival turn: 25	343 17 Sacred Darkvision (50%) fear (9) Cold Resistance (5) Shock Resistance (5) Gift of Water Breathing (75) Amphibious Sailing Max Size 6 Spirit Sight One-Eyed

EA Fomoria has 4 national spells:

Summon Black Dogs, a minor 2 Conj 2 spell that summons 20 Black Dogs. These are stealthy animals, with very little survivability. However, if massed, these fey beasts can deal noticeable damage to lightly armored opponents. They Do their best work when Darkness is cast. Costs 8.

Summon Barghests, which is basically a stronger version of the above spell. It does come later at Conj 4 but costs a single gem less. This spell summons 9 Barghests, who, like Black Dogs , come with defense and protection inferior for the price. However, these hounds can curse enemy units, are sacred, and do 18 damage + poisonous bites. These creatures can perform decent flanking maneuvers in the midgame but are also relatively easy to amass.

Summon Morrigan conjures a vengeful spirit of death. Coming late at Conj 6 and requiring 21 to cast, alongside 5, the Morrigan is a fearsome opponent. Literally (+5 fear). Although undead, the Morrigan wields a life-draining spear and is difficult to hit thanks to glamour, flight, and natural defense skill of 20(!). Its 16 MR renders generic banishment spells near useless. Naturally, the spell is expensive for a single unit, which leads to the absolute meme spell of…

Dance of the Morrigans, Fomoria's ultimate battlefield-wipe spell. Conj 8, 52, and costing 4 (that's 400 fatigue!), this spell causes Morrigans to spawn at the edge of the battlefield. Continuously. What you end up having is a steady stream of light thugs for the entire length of the battle, slaying any unprepared army. Due to its awesomeness, the spell comes very late in the technology race. Cannot be cast natively without one of two heroes, empowering, Twiceborn boost, lucky double death random, or help from your pretender.

EA Fomoria can access the following paths on their recruitable mages, without counting 10% randoms;

Air 4

Death 3

Earth 1

Nature 1

Water 1

This leaves Fomoria heavily focused in two paths, if strong ones; they will have to work a little to branch out or advance in E/W/N. Thirty-gem empowerments in earth, water, or nature will open the way to boosters and troll mages, and rolling the dice with Summon Spectre may produce E2, W2, or astral mages. Fomoria's main paths otherwise do not lend themselves to summoning into diversity unless you plan on making a more expensive gamble with a Hidden in X spell or building up to Tartarian Gate.

With this in mind, you may wish to use a NE pretender. Not only do both paths allow for more diverse magic, but are the go-to bless for giant thugs (Regeneration and Reinvigoration). Alternatively, Fomoria can also go for a rainbow pretender, considering that it can rely on magic over bless, and badly needs more diversity.

How to expand, potential pitfalls and how to get around them, obvious weakness strength, how much do you have to focus on war/infrastructure

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

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

Basic Fomorian Gameplan by Shinuyama

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