Man is a human kingdom modeled after the myths of King Arthur and the kingdoms of Andor and Tar Valon in the The Wheel of Time book series.

Summary: Man is the prototypical human nation, with high quality equipment on their troops, but vulnerable, frail human bodies with no special attributes. On the battlefield, the nation can field both heavily armored knights and long ranged longbowmen. Man has excellent access to nature and air magic and can use nature based communions. This allows easy access to powerful nature and air buffs, as well as strong air conjuration and evocation magic. Man has minor access to earth, water, and fire, and may need to address some holes in magic diversity during pretender creation.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Humans Neutral Temperature	Medium & Heavy Infantry Special Scouts Longbowmen Knights (Heavy Cavalry) Out-of-Fort alternatives for everything	4 (rare 5) 3 (rare 4) 2 1 (uncommon, rare 2) 1 (uncommon) Spell Singers Chorus Communions Heroes: 3, 232	Weak (1) Stealthy All can Research	Castles Temples cost 200

Capital Income: 3, 2

National Mechanics: Cheap (200g) temples. Some recruit out-of-fort units and mages.

Nature based communions: Spellsingers can use the N1 spells Chorus Master and Chorus Slave. Other mages may also enter the communion using astral or blood magic, or forged items. The communion functions as normal except that chorus slaves will leave the communion if they fall unconscious.

While some nations' troops gobble up Gold, others gobble up Resources, and still others gobble up Recruitment Points, Man has the misfortune of relying on all three. This makes choosing which Scales (Order for Rec Points, Productivity for Resources, etc.) to favor or dump somewhat tricky, though Man is one of those nations that doesn't need a Bless.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Logrian Slinger 9 8 6 Foreign Rec+		Your cheapest troop choice. They obviously lose out to Longbowman in terms of value, but they're still useful if you need to make an army of ranged attackers or Siege chaff on the fly. They come with an axe, so they can inflict some damage before they die in melee. They're also the first unit in the game's code, ID-wise.
	Longbowman 10 7 13		Archers gifted with the magical ability to actually have a chance of hitting something. Crossbowmen aren't widespread in MA, so press your advantage while you can.
	Spearman 10 9 9		This guy's only difference from Indie Heavy Infantry is that he wears green pants.
	Longspear 10 13 9		This guy's only difference from Indie Heavy Infantry is that he carries a longer spear. (Also the green pants, don't forget those.)
	Logrian Warrior 12 15 9 Foreign Rec+		Logrians have +2 HP & +1 STR over normal Men, and these guys also have +1 ATT. These guys are also better-equipped, and can perform decently during expansion.
	Tower Guard 12 18 14	Castle Defence Bonus(1)	More-spammable defense linemen, compared to your Landless Knights. They're also pretty-efficient for propping up your Castle walls, if you think you'll need Siege chaff.
	Forester 12 7 14 Forest Rec+	Stealthy(55) Ambidextrous(1) Patrol Bonus(1) Forest Survival	Bowmen with dual-wielding. They function as Ranged raiders, picking off weak PD with their bows, and then using their axe and dagger to finish off whatever charged at them. They're kind of screwed if their targets can get a hit in, but that shouldn't happen unless they also have bows.
	Landless Knight 13 24 16		Fill the role of very-heavy linemen, boasting the highest melee durability of Man's foot Roster.
	Logrian Cavalry 25 19 26 Foreign Rec+	Mounted	Swift Light Cavalry with a little extra bulk. They're probably better than anything else you can pick up in a freshly-conquered Indie province, though certainly not cheap without a Fort.
	Warden of Avalon 26 28 31 Capital Only	Sacred Stealthy(40) Bodyguard(3) Forest Survival	Fully-armored raiders and Witch-Bodyguards. They can be used to safely clear PD without a bless, but they can also be your solution to problematic enemy Sacreds. No one else that you have hits harder, aside from your Knights with their initial lance charges, and you could gain a bit from making them more accurate with their swings.
	Knight of Man 40 51 46	Mounted	Fairly-alright non-sacred Heavy Cavalry. All of that armor is quite Resource-intensive, and it slows them down significantly compared to Man's staple Light Cavalry and Unicorns. The aforementioned Unicorns are a better choice from the capital, at least if you're not penny-pinching.
	Knight of Avalon 60 56 48 Capital Only	Forest Survival Recuperation Mounted	Heavy Cavalry power with Light Cavalry speeds, featuring a three-hit combo that covers all Physical Resistances and Invulnerability/Etherealness. They're not sacred, despite their ludicrous price tags, so they're expensive both with the initial purchase and their upkeep afterwards. That being said, they're still great for expansion (though a tad slow if your Scales aren't great) and glorious at most other things.

You get seven of these things, and one of them is a multihero that you can get a theoretically-infinite amount of. All of your Mage heroes have wonderful paths for boosters, mainly the Moonvine Bracelet that boosts Nature.

Sprite	Unit Name	Magic	Special Attributes	Comments
	Knight of the Stone		Mounted Multihero	He's not a terrible Multihero; his stats are neat, and he can lead your armies. The Mages are nicer, though.
	Bernlad - Green Knight		Regeneration (10%) Stealthy (40) Forest Survival Recuperation Mounted	The best of your physical thugs! Try to guess why.
	Rhianne - Heroine		Patrol Bonus (25) Forest Survival Recuperation Mounted	Certainly isn't Bernlad. 21 Defense is neat, though.
	Brangwen - Blind One	2331 21	Sacred Resist Poison (5) Supply Bonus (30) Old Age Fortune Teller (10%) Spell Singer Blind	Hopefully you don't get him too early!
	Nog - Ettin King		Ambidextrous (6) Gluttony (3) Unsurroundable (1) Undisciplined Mountain Survival Forest Survival Stupid Eyes (4) Retinue: Tower Guard (2 - 12)	A big boy. His retinue is neat! In battle, keep him AWAY from your Mages. You can also berserk him to negate the effects of stupid.
	Myrddin - Cambion Hero turn arrival limit: 10	22323 19	Demon Resist Fire (15) Resist Poison (5) Stealthy (40) Inept Researcher (10) Supply Bonus (30) Fortune Teller (15) Shapechanger Forest Survival	Excellent site searcher due to good paths and sneakiness. Also more of a Forger than a Researcher. He can make the Crystal Coin!
	Morgaine - Fay Hero turn arrival limit: 10	3123 23	Resist Poison (5) Resist Shock (5) Darkvision (50) Stealthy (65) Supply Bonus (30) Shapechanger Glamour Spell Singer Female

• Summon Black Dogs, 2 Conj2 8, ( Black Dogx20). Requires outside assistance like a Troll Shaman to cast. 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.

• Summon Cu Sidhe: 2 Conj3 6, ( Cu Sidhex7). The Cu Sidhe is a size 3 sacred elvish dog. Their prot and MR are surprisingly high for animals, and their higher hp and decent damage attack can mitigate their low attack density. However, they remain a questionable use of N gems in most situations, lacking the glamour and high def skill which makes your other elf troops strong, and still possessing all the same weaknesses. If you're running a heavy bless, access to summonable sacreds from a fairly gem and mage-turn efficient spell can give them a role, but they are probably best avoided.

• Summon Barghests, 2 Conj2 7, ( Barghestx9). which is basically a stronger version of Black Dogs. It does come later but costs a single gem less. This spell summons improved Black Dogs and Cu Sidhe, which come with defense and protection inferior for the price. However, these hounds can curse enemy units, and do 18 damage + poisonous bites. These creatures can perform decent flanking maneuvers in the midgame but are also relatively easy to amass.

• Chorus Master|Chorus Slave: 1 Thaum 1 Spell Singers only. A exclusive spells of Man that lest nature Spellsingers create communions. as with Spellsingers casting, magic comes at half a turn longer but you have a communion that Astral and Blood mages can join like any other.

Man is a fairy-tale place, with the happy (or at least neutral) paths of Nature, Air, Earth, Water, and Fire.

Nature's the big one; your Crones of Avalon can get 4 without Boosters, and 6 with the ones you can easily craft. Having at least a pinch of Luck (or at least not maximum Misfortune) may allow you to get one of the national Heroes that can craft your missing Booster, bringing you up to 7. That's essentially all the Nature you need for casting whatever Nature spells you want, though it does require Construction Level 6.

Air is capped at 3. I cry every time. On the bright side, that's enough for quite a few spells, and your 3's have a lot of 1's and 2's to support them in Chorus Communions, giving you whatever big buffs you think you'll need (and/or a ginormous pile of Living Clouds). There's also Storm and Summon Storm Power, if you feel like spending your Air Gems on things other than Owl Quills.

Earth has a slightly-higher ceiling than Air, but it's expensive and a bit manly. Logrian Wise Men can have 2, or 3 with the Booster, and you can slap those shoes on a Troll King for 4 if you're swimming in Earth Gems (or your 22323 Hero if you're not). Honestly, Empowering the 2 is cheaper, but the Troll King is less likely to die. In battle, your ceiling is either 4 or 5, depending on how dearly you clung to your Gems, thanks to Summon Earthpower; this is basically all you need in battle, at least for the bare minimum, but you could use the Chorus Communion with your rare Earth Witches to top it.

Water is stuck at 1 on your recruits, and not very common at that, but it comes on 3's and can thus be used for the dreaded Foul Vapors. With Construction 6 and a drop of good fortune, you can reach your national ceiling of 2; if you got that 22323 Hero, however, you can climb to 3 or 4, or even to 5 if you have enough Water Gems for a Sea King. In battle, the good ol' Chorus Communion can boost your Water levels to whatever you need, potentially enough to cast Fire Fend for your Barkskin-wearing troops.

Fire is stuck at 1, found on your Logrian Wise Men sometimes. It's enough for some Site-Searching, some Fire Resistance, some Magma Bolts, and some crafting of Lightless Lanterns. Unlike with Earth, the Logrian Wise Man's primary specialty, it's not taken up by the Witches and is therefore ineligible for the Chorus Communion; unless you got that magical 22323 Hero, anyway, who can craft the Crystal Matrix and thereby allow one of your Logrian Wise Men to lead the choir.

You're left out of Astral (mostly), Death, and Blood, all of which are (mostly) icky paths; Astral outside of your three Astral-bearing Heroes can be somewhat ignored since you have Chorus Communions, however, while Death can be (meagerly) entered via the Troll Shamans and Blood can be bootstrapped into.

• Temples of Man are cheap and can produce Monks that are very multipurpose. Thus, it is good idea to have some extra temples outside forts producing monks. Against undead, monks can even deal good damage.
• You can prophet any of your sacred mages¹⁾ and then with communion they easily reach 5. This allows casting Divine Channeling which makes your Monks good damage dealers against undead.
• Logrian Wise Man are vital for Man. The 2 can cast great buffs and 11 are your only source of fire for site searching. Even the 11 and 11 can be used for crafting saving turns for daughters to do research. As they can be recruited only outside forts, you should have some labs pumping wise men out.
• Related to Logrian Wise Man and Monk recruitment. As monks can efficiently be recruited out of forts and wise men require it, it is good to keep in mind the fort placement relative to these foreign labs and temples. Enough of forts that are high enough level can suck all resources from neighbor provinces. This makes recruitment in these provinces impossible. This happens most easily with two forts and a castle²⁾ bordering a province. While temple still creates temple check and is easy to rebuild elsewhere, labs become basically useless without resources.
• Spell Singer is a double edged sword. While it saves on fatigue, thus making the mages last longer in battle³⁾, it also make them worse for point buffing. While normal mages can get 3-5 point buffs cast to the troops on hold command, Spell Singers can only get at most 3 in the same time. This is of course very situational, but is good to keep in mind when scripting.

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

Expansion: One easy way to expand is to use stacks of 6 Knight of Avalon on attack closest command. They are good enough to punch through most indie provinces, but a tad costly.

Potential research goals:

• Construction 2 for Owl Quills to get better research (needs site searching for more air gems)
• Conjuration 1 for Tangle Vines (might help against immediate rushing, good against cavalry and other high defence troops)
• Evocation 2 for Lightning Bolt and Web (good early game spells for Man, mainly defence against rush again. Leads to Thunder Strike)
• Thaumaturgy 1 for Chorus Master and Chorus Slave (with chorus communions u can use nature sisters as slaves for air casters to spam Lightning Bolt better)
• Alteration 3 for Protection. (Bad against heat auras, only slightly bad against fire magic. Leads to Wooden Warriors.)

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

Mid game you basically have 2 options for research (+ 1 extra):

• Alteration 5: Wooden Warriors and Mother Oak⁴⁾
• Evocation 4-5: Thunder Strike and Storm
• Enchantment 4: Flaming Arrows, (This requires either awake or dormant pretender with at least 3.)

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

Pretenders: