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ind-ma

MA Ind, Magnificent Kingdom of Exalted Virtue

Lore

Ind is based on the medieval myth of Prester John. John was supposedly the king of a huge, wealthy and powerful Christian kingdom somewhere beyond the known world, possibly India. The nation draws heavily from this myth, with many of its units and abilities lifted directly from a letter supposedly written by Prester John himself.

Ind is a magnificent kingdom with pious citizens and wondrous creatures. Its people live long lives as they drink from the Fountain of Youth. The religious, long-lived people of the capital are relatively few in number, so they make use of various vassal states to help fight in war. Ind sends out Bishop Vicomtes to the barbaric lands that surround it to rule over the unruly cannibals and heathens that live there. These heathens are used in war, and comprise the majority of Ind's military.

Other vassals are also expected to fight: the Cynocephalian (dog-headed) people of Gog and Magog; the lady-knights of the great Feminie; the forest-dwelling Orionde who enslave woodland creatures (such as Centaurs); the little men of Piconye and the Giants of the Lost Tribe who are bound by divine decree to remain in their own land.

General Overview

Ind is a very complex nation. They play very differently compared to other nations. This along side being a blood/communion nation means Ind is not recommended for beginners.

There is no other nation quite like Ind in the whole of Dominions 5. They introduce several new gameplay mechanics that are unique to Ind and Ind only. Auto-blessed troops, terrain dependent forts, +1 Holy recruitment per temple, along with a host of new units are some of the things Ind can bring to the table.

Strengths:

  • Best Blood nation in MA by far
  • Majority of units are sacreds which autobless allows for customizable strategies
  • Great summons

Weaknesses:

  • Terrain dependence for specific unit types is a limitation to higher paths of magic
  • Access to certain paths of magic are locked behind a slow to recruit, cap only, expensive mage randoming into it

FIXME How the nation plays and what it is good at should go here, aka why would it be cool to play, whats good about it (in general terms) and where they falter possibily there could be a standard for nation classification (sacred heavy, elves, communion nation, blood nation, research, economical, forging, stealth, thug based etc) National Features

National Features

Race Military Magic Access Priests Buildings
Prefers 1
Cyphocephalians
Humans
Half-men
Piconye
Giants
Self-blessing sacred infantry
Cyphocephalian raiders
Heavy cavalry
Half-men slaves
Size 1 halflings
Homesick giants
astral 33 (rare 4)
blood 33*
fire 22 (rare 3)
earth 22 (rare 3)
death 22*
nature 22*
water 11 (uncommon)
holy 33 Priests
holy 33 Foreign Recruits
holy 44 Summons
Castles
Starts with a Fortified City

*Cave/highlands dependent

  • +1 astral bless points
  • +1 sacred recruitment for every temple built
  • Only commanders with holy 33 or more can become the prophet. Primate King or Viceroy Primate prophets transform into an inspirational Prester King with 160 leadership; other eligible units will not transform. Note that the Viceroy Primate will not gain paths upon transforming into a Prester King, despite the Prester King's listed paths.
  • All national sacred units are blessed at the start of the battle (includes Province Defence)
  • -2 Dominion Conflict bonus
  • Dominion hides province ownership (provinces are displayed as independent-owned)
  • Fort recruits depend on terrain.

Capital Sites

Sublime Palace Fountain of Youth The Great Mirror The Onyx Court

Enables recruitment of :
Primate Kings
Baculites
- Capital always has Max Order Order scales scales

Produce 1firegem1astralpearl per turn

- Slow down aging 50%
- Reduce unrest: -5

Produce 1watergem per turn
Enables recruitment of :
Abbot Magus Supremes
Abbot Maguses
Mirror Guards
Astral mage may enter to scry (range 3)

Produce 1 per turn

Enables recruitment of :
Archbishop Marshals
Bishop Generals
Soldier Priests
Archer Priests
- Commander May enter: all models in army gain 4 Experience

Produce 1earthgem per turn

National Units

Ind is highly unusual in that the vast majority of the units in its roster are capital-only - it has separate rosters for non-capital forts built in different terrain. See The Vassals of Magnificent Ind for more details.

Note: because of the Fountain of Youth site in Ind's capital, all capital units will be younger than their displayed age when recruited. Most will be recruited at around 33 of age, so the Old Age tag is largely irrelevant.

Commanders

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Description
Abbot Sage
110
11
2
astral 11holy 22 9
Sacred
Fortune Teller (5)
Adept Researcher (+2)
Not a particularly gold-efficient researcher, but has reduced upkeep due to being sacred. Can form smite communions to accompany Ind's native holy 33s.
Unlike the rest of the roster, the Abbot Sage can be recruited in any fort with a lab and a temple.
Bishop General
115
15
2
Capital Only
holy 22
Sacred
80 leadership priest.
Archbishop Marshal
165
15
2
Capital Only
holy 22
Sacred
Old Age
120 leadership priest. Will not be old when recruited due to the Fountain of Youth.
Primate King
200
20
4
Capital Only
astral 11holy 33random1100% 9
Sacred
120 leadership greater priest. Can join communions to add water and nature magic, as well as cast higher-level divine magic.

Can be made Teleport-capable with two astral boosters to quickly get in position for throne-claiming.
Abbot Magus
240
18
2
Capital Only
fire 11earth 11astral 22holy 22 15
Sacred
Old Age
Fortune Teller (10)
Adept Researcher (+2)
Cap-only communion masters.
A fast, if expensive, researcher that provides fire, earth, astral, and divine magic in battle.
Abbot Magus Supreme
335
18
4
Capital Only
fire 11earth 11astral 33holy 22random1100%
10%
21
Sacred
Fortune Teller (15)
Adept Researcher (+4)
A bigger Abbot Magus that can add water and nature magic to communions with the right randoms (which may take some time to show up, since the Abbot Magus Supreme is both cap-only and slow-to-recruit).

The following commanders can be recruited anywhere outside of forts (provided you have temples/labs where appropriate).

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Description
Cannibal Warlord
30
8
1
Berserker (+2)
Pillager (+2)
Cause Unrest (+2/month)
Wasteland Survival
Mountain Survival
A very cheap commander for performing odd jobs. Raises unrest.
Cannibal Shaman Chief
90
5
2
blood 11random1100% 5
Inept researcher (-4)
Pillager (+2)
Cause Unrest (+2/month)
Heretic (1)
Wasteland Survival
Mountain Survival
Forest Survival
A recruit-anywhere 40 leadership blood hunter, unique among all blood nations in Dominions 5. Requires additional patrol strength to control his natural unrest generation. Singlehandedly makes Ind the most bloody nation of the Middle Ages.
Bishop Vicomte
115
3
2
holy 22
Sacred
Reduces Unrest (1)
Lord Over Heathen Tribes (4)
Tax Collector
80 leadership priest that reduces unrest and can Mobilize Heathens.

Can also be recruited from Cynocephalian forts.
Viceroy Primate
160
8
4
holy 33
Sacred
Reduces Unrest (3)
Lord Over Heathen Tribes (6)
Tax Collector
40 leadership greater priest that can be massed from any province, but very slow to recruit. Can Mobilize Heathens, claim thrones and cast Smite, which is particularly useful with the death and blood smites.

Can also be recruited from Cynocephalian forts.

Lord Over Heathen Tribes

The Lord Over Heathen Tribes ability allows a commander to use the Mobilize Heathens order. There are five types of heathens that can be gathered with this order:

  • Azenach Archer, double dagger archers, from everywhere
  • Cannibal Warriors, the 12att spear/javelin ones, from everywhere
  • Fommepori Warrior, hatchet/short sword berserkers, from forests
  • Agrimandri Warrior, high attack sword/javelin/shield troops, from mountains and highlands
  • Vintefolei Horseman, light lance/bow cavalry. 18 damage first strike without buffs. With a +4 strength buff, that's up to 24. Mountain and plains only; they won't be found in any other hybrid terrain.

Only one type of heathen will be mobilized per use of this ability, chosen randomly. All valid tribes have the same chance of appearing, but the Fommepori, Agrimandri, and Vintefolei are more elite, and on average only half as many of their warriors will answer the call compared to the more numerous Azenach and Cannibals.

Swamps, wastes, caves, and farms all only spawn Azenach and Cannibal warriors. If you have Thetis' Blessing up, you can gather heathens underwater as well - Seas and Deep Seas are considered plains, and Kelp Forests act the same as Forests, while Gorges count as Highlands.

This ability isn't without downsides: every time you use it, 8 people will be removed from the province. Every heathen you conscript will remove an additional 2 people, as well as immediately increase the unrest of the province by 1.2 points (and 0.2 for every turn they stick around). Like other gather slave commands, you can no longer Mobilize Heathens at 100 unrest. If you gather heathens in a fortified province, your haul will be reduced by the fort's admin percentage.

Troops

Ind's cap-only troops auto bless themselves at the start of combat. Ind's +1 holy recruitment/temple feature is extremely significant for these troops, allowing Ind to mass cap-only sacreds like no other nation.

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Description
Archer Priest
13
4
9
Capital Only
Sacred One of the few sacred archers in MA, but otherwise unremarkable.
Soldier Priest
15
18
14
Capital Only
Sacred Sacred medium infantry. They are very cheap for a sacred with decent overall stats and super massable due to Ind's ability to get +1 sacred recruitment for every temple and the maximized order in their capital.

With a good statbless, Soldier Priests have the potential to be one of the most cost-effective units in the game by just being better humans in every way.
Baculite
19
14
31
Limited Recruitment (2)
Capital Only
Sacred
Standard (1)
Baculites have worse stats (particularly protection) compared to Ind's other infantry, but come with unique length 3 magic weapons that do AOE fatigue damage to other sacreds.

Too fast to be safely used as a morale booster for most of Ind's troops who are often high morale anyway. Can still do so for Gog Reavers, Satyr Slaves and the different lions summoned by Great Huntresses without running ahead of them.
Mirror Guard
19
21
21
Limited Recruitment (2)
Capital Only
Sacred Mirror Guards are simply upgraded Soldier Priests, but their recruitment is limited to 2/turn.

Heroes

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Description
Thomas - Arch Pope fire 11water 11earth 11astral 33nature 11holy 44 24
Sacred
Fortune Teller (25)
supply Bonus (10)
Adept Researcher (+5)
Coradin - Protopope holy 44
Sacred
reduces unrest (5)
Lord Over Heathen Tribes (7)
disease Immunity(100)
resist Poison(15)

The Vassals of Magnificent Ind

Most of the units that can be recruited from Ind's capital are cap-only. The units that can be recruited from non-capital forts are dependent on terrain; these represent the various vassals that the Magnificent Kingdom of Ind has brought under its glorious rule, organized into more formal vassal states than the hordes of cannibals that can be recruited outside of forts. Note that, in addition to terrain-specific recruits, all Ind forts can also recruit the Abbot Sage.

If a fort is built on terrain for which multiple recruit types are possible, then only one will be selected. The function used to determine which recruits you get can be found in Loggy's Misc Reverse Engineering Notes under "Ind's poptypes".

Ind gets no fort recruits whatsoever from forts built in swamps.

Paths:
blood 33death 22nature 22

The Cynocephalians can be recruited from forts in caves, highlands, and some mountains.

The Cynocephalians provide the most magic diversity of Ind's vassals, as well as the deadliest (if undisciplined) troops. They have multiple attacks, increase unrest, and go berserk. Highlights include the Magog Bitch-Mother, their primary mage, and Gog Reavers/Magog Flesh-Hunters, the elite troops of the two Cynocephalian tribes respectively.

The Men of Great Orionde and their half-man slaves can be recruited from forts in forests.

The Men of Great Orionde do not provide any magic to Magnificent Ind, but their roster includes interesting options for siege/patrol chaff in the Satyr Slave and Great Huntress's lion freespawn, as well as a national crossbow unit and chariot trampler.

The Lady Knights of Great Feminie can be recruited from forts in plains, farms and some mountains.

The Lady Knights have a utilitarian evocation mage in the form of their Feminie Sorceress. Their knights and warriors are also a straightforward upgrade on the equivalents from Orionde, though neither vassal's troops are especially well-armored.

Like the Lady Knights, the Little Horned Men of Piconye can be recruited from forts in plains, farms and some mountains.

The Little Men are national Hoburgs - they have high attack density and their infantry have unusually high defense, but they are rather fragile and their damage output is low. The Piconye Scholar is a fairly gold-efficient researcher, but lacks combat utility. The Little Men are attacked by Strange Birds every summer, incidentally.

The Giants of the Lost Tribe can only be recruited from forts built in wastes.

The Giants would be a reasonable investment as thugs and elite troops if not for their homesickness, which causes them to lose 30% of their maximum hitpoints every turn they spend away from their home province. They may be worth considering as a defensive force that guards nearby provinces against raiding, but their ability to operate away from home is limited.

Magic

Magic Access

Ind has huge magic diversity, assuming terrain-specific recruits can be obtained. Caves/highlands are particularly important in this regard, making them a high priority for early game expansion. Notably, Ind has relatively straightforward access to the Ring of Sorcery and Ring of Wizardry universal boosters, meaning most path boost methods mentioned below can have steps skipped, or can be boosted one level higher than indicated.

Elemental

  • fire 22 on Abbot Magus Supremes
  • No air magic at all! Can eventually summon air 33 via Faerie Court
  • water 22 on Abbot Magus Supremes, water 77 via a Water Bracelet, Robe of the Sea, Sea King's Court, and Queen of Elemental Water
  • earth 22 on Kings of the Lost Tribe, earth 66 via Earth Boots, a Blood Stone, Troll King's Court and Kings of Elemental Earth

Sorceries

  • astral 44 on Abbot Magus Supremes, astral 77 via a Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Ring of Sorcery
  • death 22 on Magog Bitch-Mothers, death 33 via a Skull Staff
  • nature 22 on Magog Bitch-Mothers, nature 55 via a Thistle Mace, Moonvine Bracelet, Armor of Twisting Thorns
  • blood 33 on Magog Bitch-Mothers, realistically as much blood as required via empowering and boosters.

Notable Crosspaths:

  • FIXME

National Spells & Summons

Combat

  • MA Ind does not have any national combat spells.

Ritual

  • Conjuration 3 nature 22 for 10naturegem: Pride of Lions ( Great Lion×10 + 1/2 [lv])
    Turn nature gems into low-tier killing power. Ok if your getting rushed in the early game but they don't do much after that.
  • Conjuration 3 nature 22 for 10naturegem: Ambush of Tigers: ( Tiger×10 + 1/2 [lv])
    Better Lions with +1 more HP.
  • Conjuration 3 nature 22 for 10naturegem: Herd of Buffaloes ( Buffalo×5 + 1/2 [lv])
    Decent units being like Berserking Nobles. Will die quickly when faced with big numbers but more proficient then nobles at killing Size 4 and bigger enemies that they can't trample.
  • Conjuration 3 nature 22 for 25naturegem: Herd of Elephants ( Elephant×5 + 1/2 [lv])
    Expensive tramplers.

Ind-specific

  • Conjuration 3 earth 22 for 12earthgem: Call Cyclops Tribe ( Cyclops×5 + 1/2 [lv])
    Pay 0.5 gems more per unit for Ogres with more strength and HP. They are more gem-efficient siege strength then Ogres. Cave Grubs remain the king of earth-based siege strength (and Ind is incentivized to build infrastructure in caves anyway), but caves are not always readily available.
  • Conjuration 6 fire 22nature 11 for 9firegem: Call the Birds of Splendour ( Yllerion×1 + Yllerion×1)
    Summons two unique bird commanders (a male and a female) which have a moderate siege/patrol bonus and summon 3d6 assorted birds in combat. If one dies, the other will also die the following turn of a special event, after which they can be summoned once more.

Abrahamic Angels
These summons are shared mostly with MA Ashdod and LA Gath except for Release Lord of Civilization, which only EA Hinnom shares the ability to cast.

  • Conjuration 4 astral 22 for 9astralpearl: Call Malakh ( Malakh×1)
    Flying, stealthy, awesome holy 11 commander with full slots and some invulnerability. Potential light repel thug or Lifelong Protection-bearer.
  • Conjuration 6 astral 33fire 11 for 21astralpearl: Call Hashmal ( Hashmal×1)
    A holy 22 angel with ethereal and fire shield. Similar to a Malakh but tougher and not stealthy. Only has hand and misc slots.
  • Conjuration 7 astral 44nature 11 for 39astralpearl: Call Arel ( Arel×1)
    A nature 33holy 33 angel with the ability to heal afflictions. Provides big nature magic on demand without the need for a communion.
  • Conjuration 8 astral 55fire 22 for 49astralpearl: Call Ophan ( Ophan×1)
    A bigger Hashmal with trample and holy 33, allowing it to be a highly mobile throne-claimer (perhaps not so useful for Ind given its abundance of holy 33s). Replaces invulnerability with natural protection. Also only has misc slots.
  • Conjuration 9 astral 77fire 33 for 222astralpearl: Call Merkavah ( Chayot×1 + Ophan(units)×4)
    The Chayot is an extremely powerful holy 44 mage-angel that alternates between four forms: astral 44, air 44, fire 44 and earth 44. It is also incredibly, astoundingly expensive, costing more pearls than two Wishes, and comes at a high research level.
  • Blood 9 blood 88 for 177bloodslave: Release Lord of Civilization
    Summons one of the six Grigori who, apart from being powerful mages and holy 33 priests, have the corrupter (universal seduction) ability and occasionally sire Nephil offspring as lucky events.

Notable Generic Magic

Ind's magic diversity makes a lot of magic tactics possible, but several options stand out for early combat power. At a cool Blood 1 and Enchantment 3, Summon Imps and Strength of Giants combined with Ind's efficient sacred infantry go a long way towards discouraging an early rush (or fueling one of your own).

At Conjuration 5, Howl forces enemies to guard their backlines and distracts enemies from attacking actual units. If your bless includes Spirit Sight, Darkness at Alteration 6 hits enemies with an enormous -6/-6 debuff to attack and defence which your sacreds completely ignore; Cynocephalians will partially ignore it due to their 50% darkvision. High Alteration also provides access to many components of the healthy buff sandwich described in Not-Lola's Basic Magic Use Guide.

Magic Items

National Items

  • Construction 4 fire 11 for 5firegem: Salamander Silk Garments
    A cheap resistance item for mages, providing Awe, Magic Resistance and Fire Resistance.

Generic Items

  • Ind can have some problems with research due to being one of the only Middle Age nations that has a major gold sink in blood hunting. Imp Familiars and even Skull Mentors may be worth considering to help overcome this weakness.

Strategy

Power Curve

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.

Expansion Strategies

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

Example Pretender Builds

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

See More

ind-ma.txt · Last modified: 2024/07/09 04:51 by johnnydown