EA Kailasa, Rise of the Ape Kings

Lore

Bandar Log, the nation of the monkey people, is inspired by Hindu myths, ancient India and Rudyard Kipling. The Vanara comes from the Ramayana, an epic in which the monkey people aid prince Rama in his struggle against the demon king Ravana. The hierarchical division of the different species of monkeys has parallels in the Hindu caste system. I wanted the Bandar to use the alleged colors of the Indo-Aryan castes: white for priests, red for nobles and black for commoners. Markatas are exempt from the hierarchy and society at large and might be seen as untouchables of earlier times, although I imagine them less vulnerable. Important to the development of the Bandar Log were the semi-divine beings of Hindu myth. With a slight breath of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Yavanas and Devatas became lords of the monkey people. When these beings left the world the monkey people found themselves in control, until the emergence of another divine race, the Nagas. As Kaa hypnotized the monkeys in Kipling's Jungle Book, the Nagas mesmerized the Bandar and Vanaras and claimed rulership over the nation. – Illwinter

On the sacred Mount Kailasa, beings from an earlier era still linger. They are blessed with mystical powers but are few in number. With the emergence of the New God they have mustered aid from a most unsuspected source. Deep in the forests below the Sacred Mountain, apes of uncanny brightness have evolved. The apes are uncivilized and have only recently mastered the mysteries of metalworking. – Nation Description

In real life, Kailasa is the Sanskrit name of Mt. Kailash, a Tibetan peak said to be Shiva's humble home in Hinduism. It means "crystal". Traces of a caste system in the faction allude to the origins of India's, with the resurgent Yakshas representing the Indo-Aryans who swept into the region long ago and brought Sanskrit with them. There's even a caste system of sorts among the Yakshas, with the lower-tier Guhyakas being generic spirits, the middle-tier Yavanas being named after the Sanskrit term for ancient Greeks (who invaded and asserted themselves later than other Indo-Aryans), and the proper Yakshas being the true masters of nature.

Summary

Kailasa is a fun little mess. Even without Lanka's blood summons (which are available to bootstrappers in both of this nation's successors), Kailasa is still playable due to the summon-tier units that it can recruit with gold. The sheer amount of national summons that you get is remarkable, especially since they allow a cheaper method to break into most of the paths you don't have if you climb into higher levels of Conjuration. Your cheap Communions can cast a very powerful troop buff, while your Cap-only mages are not slow-to-recruit and can accomplish major Magic feats on their own. Just figure out when your monkeys are usable – and when to use your expensive guys – and you'll have a fun time.

National Features

Special Race Attributes	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Prefer 2 Monkeys Bandar Yakshas	Stealthy Monkey Raiders Gorilla Infantry Sacred Naked Demigods	2 (Rare 3) 4 (Rare 5) 4 (Rare 5) 2 Summons: 3, 3, 3, 3.	1 in all Forts 3 and 4 Summons.	Standard Forts

Capital Special Sites

The Lotus Garden	Mount Kailasa
Recruit: Yaksha Yakshini Produce 22 per turn	Recruit: Yavana Yavana Archer Produce 2 per turn

National Units

Your main national weakness is arrows as you have almost no protection.

You unit lineup is mostly made up of animals with below average Magic Resistance and Morale. Your troops are very likely to succumb to fear spells or fail to resist Charm Animal.

The saving grace of the nation is the Sacred Yakshas, Also susceptible to arrows but very competent in melee and strong mages.

Commanders

Unit Name	Abilities	Comments
Markata Scout 20 1 1	Stealthy (60) Animal Mountain Survival Forest Survival	Scouts don't get much cheaper than the Markata Scout, and they certainly aren't both cheaper and stealthier than them. The discount on this little monkey comes from him being a little monkey; not that you'd be doing much raiding with generic scouts, either.
Atavi Chieftain 40 8 1 + Forest Rec	Stealthy (40) Animal Forest Survival	The Atavi Chieftain is a multi-tool – a scout, a cheap commander, and a raid-leader – all with the bonus of not needing a fort. His primary purpose is as a raid-leader; his 40 Leadership and mediocre Stealth make him more of a back-up option for the other two roles. His Stealth lets you choose softer targets deep within your enemy's lands.
Bandar Commander 75 20 1	Animal Forest Survival	The Bandar Commander is 80 Leadership on a stocky, tough-to-kill body. You start with one of these guys. 80 Leadership allows you to deploy troops in line formations, forestalling flanking attempts if you have enough men. (Line formations can be a bit inconvenient to buff, however; this is particularly true for spells with "blob" AOE's, such as Strength of Giants.)
Yogi 55 1 2	1 7 Sacred Reincarnation (50) Animal Forest Survival	Yogi are "Research Monkeys", cheap Mages that quickly fill up your Laboratories and get down to business with note-taking. They're about twice as cost-effective as the bigger mages for this purpose. Their cheapness may find more value in the early-game, especially after you've just spent 1500 gold on mage-recruiting infrastructure on a province (compared to the 1100 gold most other nations spend). Yogi are also surprisingly valuable for their 1; they can serve as Communion Slaves (and have a small chance to be reusable if you burn them out, which increases the longer you sit on them), run interference against Mind Hunt and Magic Duel, and even zerg-rush Astral Mages under 7 if you have enough Pearls. Yogi are very susceptible to Seduction, though; Dryads and Houri are quite likely to nab them.
Guru 160 1 2	21 11 Sacred reincarnation(50) Animal Forest Survival Supply Bonus(10)	You'll probably recruit a lot of Gurus, seeing how they're your best mages off-capital. Gurus are nice Communion Masters who can use both Astral and Nature, with the latter imparting Personal Regeneration to the Communion Slaves as well; provided that you take a turn for that, anyway, instead of spamming Soul Slay (with two Slaves) or Enslave Mind (with four) right out of the gate. If Communions annoy you, you can always use the Gurus for Mind Burn (which comes very early in research) and later Paralyze. For support, they can point-buff with Protection, Luck, and Body Ethereal, and those are just the cheap options. They can even spam Healing Light. Because they sit down, Gurus are slow to respond to trouble. If something goes wrong, it'll take them a while to get off the field. This low Combat Speed may also make them act after others in their round.
Guhyaka General 105 8 2	1 Sacred Awe(1) Magic Being	The Guhyaka General is a Priest with 80 Leadership, 40 Magic Leadership, and Awe. His nakedness is easily addressed with magic items. If you need a cheap leader for your sacred troops, this is your best bet. If you need a Temple-builder, though, your Yogi are just as capable. If you need a light thug, the Guhyaka General could certainly fill that role; just watch out for the inevitable counter-thugs with Moon Blades.
Yaksha 345 7 2 Capital Only	3111100% 10% 15 Sacred Supply Bonus(10) Awe(1) Magic Being	The top Yakshas are powerful Mage-Priests, who can be cranked out at a rate of one-per-turn if you have the gold. Their 31 is very nice for Kailasa, giving its naked troops whatever Protection-boosting spell you need, and giving them much-needed staying power in the late game. Every random path on a Yaksha brings an interesting option to the table. 4 allows Earthquake, on top of making the stuff he's already good at easier to cast. 1 allows for Mossbody. 1 lets him helm Communions and call down Gifts from Heaven. 2 is wonderful for thugs, made even better by Strength of Gaia, but also allows for the Yaksha to summon other Yakshas.
Yakshini 345 7 2 Capital Only	3111100% 10% 15 Sacred Supply Bonus(10) Awe(2) Magic Being resist cold(5) amphibious Female	Yakshini are female Yakshas, and boast Water instead of Earth. They're a bit weaker (physically), but they also have innate Amphibiousness and an extra point of Awe. 31 is a bit less prominent than what the Yakshas have, but it allows for surprise invasions of the ocean with Water Elementals and Friendly Currents. It also lets you climb Nature with Water Gems, through the Contact Naiad ritual, and supplement your walls of awe-inspiring forces with nonmagical Kydnides. Have you ever heard of physmoss? With Wave Warriors and Mossbody, a Yakshini can make that without the bless. If you want more Yakshini (possibly in the hope of those Communion-helming 1's) instead of just Naiads, but your capital is busy recruiting Yakshas, you can use your 2 Yakshini to summon other Yakshini.

Troops

Most of your national troops cost low resources. The monkeys are cheap chaff, costing less than average. Markatas are very cheap, so it's easy to mass a swarm of monkeys when needed. The Atavi make for good chaff troops and can be used for light raiding. Bandar still suffers animal penalties but has a decent amount of HP, Str, and Morale making them best suited to taking on large or higher protection enemies. Many of the ape troops have a ranged attack that becomes useful after applying Strength of Giants and useful for popping elf Glamour.

Your Sacreds are very good in melee but are very susceptible to most things that ignore awe when not heavily blessed, and they require Magic Leadership. They are still strong and you can produce Guhyaka from any Templed Fort, so massing them with a strong bless can carry you as a mainline troop with the cheaper ape troops in the frontlines taking the big hits from cavalry.

Things start to get better if you survive to the mid-game as mass protection buffs become widely available to make up for your troops' lack of protection.

Unit Name	Abilities	Comments
Markata 5 1 3 + Forest Rec	Undisciplined Animal Forest Survival	Highly massable ultra light undisciplined infantry. Can use sticks and stones attack vs very low armor units. Low MR and morale. Despite these deficiencies, their best job is lance catching and holding up enemies as 6 Def Skill 14 per square is hard to hit.
Markata Archer 5 2 3 + Forest Rec	Undisciplined Animal Forest Survival	One of the cheapest short bow units in the game, but has abysmal strength which affects short bow damage.
Atavi Archer 7 3 3 + Forest Rec	Stealthy (40) Animal Forest Survival	Stealthy. Very cheap short bow to mass, but low morale and MR.
Atavi Infantry 7 3 3 + Forest Rec	Stealthy (40) Animal Forest Survival	Can function as a stealthy raider or mass stone throwing if fighting a very low protection adversary. Has low morale and MR.
Light Bandar Archer 16 7 9	Animal Forest Survival	No armor but high HP and str. The high strength gives this unit a very damaging long bow attack. The light bandar archer will struggle if it is trading fire with other archers due to no armor.
Bandar Warrior 16 4 9	Animal Forest Survival	No armor except for a buckler but high HP and str. A glass cannon compared to the Atavi Infantry chaff, Hits very hard with its mace and their stone throwing is more likely to kill. They still die in one-to-two hits without prot buffs.
Bandar Swordsman 19 17 12	bodyguard(2) Animal Forest Survival	Medium infantry Bodyguard. Has a small buckler and modest body armor but not helmet. High HP and a high damage sword. Kailasa prefers to dump productivity scales for more bless points, so you are unlikely to mass them. They are still a bodyguard choice to protect your mages. Low MR and being a animal is still a liability in late game.
Guhyaka 27 2 18	sacred Awe(1) magic Being	They are magical beings with Awe and stats better than a Bandar Warrior with two attacks. Especially weak to ranged attacks. Would love a protection bless and Earth mages. Can have large stack of them as they are not cap restricted.
Yavana Archer 30 5 21 Capital Only	sacred Awe(1) magic Being	A ranged sacred unit. Dies in archer exchanges but are fairly powerful if you have a archer bless and get archer buffs. Have the stats to protect themselves from flyer distractions.
Yavana 35 8 24 Capital Only	sacred Awe(1) magic Being	Improved Guhyaka, trading the spear repel for a high damage and a more reliable buckler. More expensive and cap only, but more reliable early game.

Heroes

Img	Unit Name	Abilities	Comments
	Devasura - Fallen	3 11 Ambidextrous(5) magic Being spirit-Sight	It's interesting to note that with this guy's 3, Kailasa can reach level 3 in all eight Magic paths with just its national units. Blood spells have their own School of Research, however, and it's rather insular in that respect.

Magic

Research Priorities

Thaumaturgy 2+: Communion Master, Communion Slave, Mind Burn.
Conjuration 3+: National Summons, Summon Earthpower, Water Elementals if going underwater.
Construction 3+: Legions of Steel
Alteration 4+: Curse of Stones

National Spells

National Summons

Animal Summons
You can spend nature gems for animal chaff with big HP pools but low MR. Nature gems are desperately needed elsewhere, so use only when desperate for bodies.

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Elephant Conj 3 2 25 for 5+[1/2lv]	Troop Trample animal	Biggest HP pool. Summoned by Herd of Elephants
Tiger Conj 3 3 10 for 10+	Troop Darkvision(50%) undisciplined animal Forest Survival	Has multiple attacks. Summoned by Ambush of Tigers
Buffalo Conj 3 2 10 for 5+[1/2lv]	Troop Berserker(2) Trample animal	Tramplers that never retreat. Summoned by Herd of Buffaloes

Glorious Devas
A "Deva" is anything that is heavenly and sublime; in this case, it applies to Kailasa's ancient Celestial order. Each of its members have the following traits:

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Apsara Conj 3 2 2 for 3	Troop Awe (+4) Standard (1) Female	A naked cloud nymph, the Apsara encourages your other troops. She can also avoid melee hits fairly well, but that's about it. Summoned by Summon Apsaras
Yaksha Conj 4 21 25	3111100% 10% 15 Awe (+1) Supply Bonus (10)	In case you're rolling in and Commander Points are being a drag… Well… here you go. Summoned by Contact Yaksha (the EARTH) and Contact Yakshini (the WATER)
Yakshini Conj 4 21 25	3111100% 10% 15 Amphibious Cold Resistance (5) Awe (+2) Supply Bonus (10) Female
Gandharva Conj 5 2 18 for 6	Troop Awe (+2) Standard (1)	A wind nymph, the Gandharva is fully-armed-and-armored. Is he worth his cost? Well, he's certainly worth his summoning time. Summoned by Summon Gandharvas
Kinnara Conj 6 3 25	222 13 Flying Awe (+3) Inspiring (1)	Finally, a diversity summon. A Flying Thunder Striker, he should be kept away from harm, if possible. Summoned by Summon Kinnara
Siddha Conj 7 4 35	233 15 Spirit Sight Blinker Teleporter Awe (+3) Ambidextrous (4)	The Siddha has four hand slots, and a much-better substitute for flight. On the other hand, it has only one miscellaneous slot. Oof! Big-brained players use it to help with rushing Thrones. Summoned by Summon Siddha
Devata Conj 8 5 45	323 15 Spirit Sight Shock Resistance (5) Awe (+5) Ambidextrous (5)	Finally, the god tier. The Devata has everything you'd want on a light thug: good stats, armor, four attacks, and Air for Cloud Trapeze. Pick your foes wisely, though; Magic Duel exists. Summoned by Summon Devata
Devala Conj 9 5 55	34 11 Spirit Sight Awe (+4) Inspiring (1) Spreads Dominion (1) Spreads Magic (hidden) Female	The Devala has four arms, and none of them will attack. She's more of a cheerleader, anyway, even outside of battle. For some reason, her Magic-spreading is only referenced in her Ritual. Summoned by Summon Devala
Rudra Conj 9 5 55	3331 3 Flying Storm Immunity Spirit Sight Fire Resistance (20) Shock Resistance (20) Fear (8) Ambidextrous (5) Storm Power (2) Forge Bonus (-5)	Finally, another diversity summon. You could use this guy outside of battle, sure, but he's quite good in it. When Yomi fields a Dai Oni with Cloud Trapeze, they're imitating this guy. Supporting him with a Storm-caster is also good, if you can afford it. Summoned by Summon Rudra

Combat

Celestial Music Thaumaturgy 6, 3, 1. Grants Army-wide Quickness to all your Sacred Magical units. Four attacks Per Sacred.

Magic Access

Has astral 2 2 nature 1 1 and with your cap can produce water 4 4, earth 4 4 and nature 2 2.

If you get the right random, you can forge boosters to get to water 6 6, earth 5 5, and nature 4 4.

You do have a summon that give you access to Air access, and a astral 5 5 with boosters, with Conj 9 giving you a fire 3 3 air 3 3 death 3 3 that you can use for late-game lab and battle magic.

Combat Magic

Your monkeys would love it if you can find a fire mage to cast Flaming Arrows and Strength of Giants.

Yakshas with Earth Boots are your strongest combat mage, improving your troops' natural protection with Earth spells and making the enemies easy pickings with Curse of Stones.

Yakshini is your underwater expander by summoning full size Water Elementals and School of Sharks.

Guru communions are your massed mage, casting Swarm, Howl, Enslave Mind, and Mind Burn

Ritual Magic

Having a strong earth and Water Access makes Summoning the respective Elemental Royalty easy.

Forest Troll Tribe and Contact Naiad improves your magic, with Troll Shamans dipping you into Death and Naiads can get you into nature 5 5.

Could craft Golem as a hard to kill thugs.

Magic Items

National Items

Headdress of the Bull 5 naturegem nature 1 1. Grant the user +2 strength and a retinue of a Buffalo. Great on a mage as the Buffalos can buy time for the caster and run over any would-be assassin's retinue.

Vajra 10 astralpearl astral 2 2. Shock Damage weapon that can be made by an astral mage. Adds armor ignoring damage on a thug, and even if not a melee guy, a mage can benefit by the Resist Shock(10) and be able to cast Lightning Bolt.

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

Dominions 5 - EA Kailasa Guide by Panic - YouTube

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