"Marignon is a late medieval nation of inquisitors and religious fanatics. Prudent – or perhaps paranoid –
priests search for vice and heresy throughout the land, putting men and women to the pyre with fiery
justice. Imagine the soldiers wearing fancy and colorful Renaissance clothing, while religious and
arcane officials wear red or black robes and severe miens." -Illwinter
Marignon rose out of the ashes of Ermor, just like Ulm, but under a different banner. All that it had for repelling the shadows of Death was faith & austerity. The peasants labored under feudal lords, who payed their tithes and diligently served the Inquisition, all in the name of survival. The Inquisition was assembled by the House of Fiery Justice, a powerful Priesthood that dedicated itself to purging heresy & eliminating witches that used their magic for selfish means. The start of the Middle Age rebuffed the faith & fanaticism of Marignon with the undeath of Ermor, and (if you so decide) rewarded it with the arrival of an awakening God.
Marignon is a nation of fire and faith with a sacred knightly order. Like other medieval human-only nations (pretty much just Ulm & Man), its magic diversity is not very good; unlike the other two, however, Marignon's two paths it focuses on are almost-purely offensive. One does not simply pick Marignon and avoid gunning for attack spells & elementals in their research. For what can't be dealt with by your old-&-frail mages, you have Knights of the Chalice, sacred heavy cavalry that can be recruited anywhere with a fort, a temple, and an ample pool of resources.
Race | Military | Magic Access | Priests | Buildings |
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Average Humans High Morale | Two-handed Weapons Expensive Heavy Armor Good Bodyguards Out-of-Fort Sacreds Sacred Heavy Cavalry | 4 (rare 5) 3 (rare 4) 1 (uncommon, rare 2) 1 (uncommon, rare 2) Summons: 3 (requires 4) | 3 in Capital 2 in Forts 1 Foreign Rec Stealthy Good Patrollers Inquisitors | Standard Forts (Castles) Masons |
Marignon is held together (more or less) by its Inquisition, the militant fist of the House of Fiery Justice's militant arm, the House of Just Fires. These guys repel hostile Dominion even if you haven't hired them, in provinces and forts that belong to you, having a 30% chance to remove an enemy candle from each of these places each turn (and a 60% chance if there's a Temple). They're less effective at spreading your own Dominion, able to do so only to a maximum of 1 candle (2 where there's a Temple).
A certain breed of Independents, specifically the type with Knights, is rife with heresy. The heretics claim to be fine vegetarians, and may be based off the Cathars of France, but in Dominions they are recast as warlocks. Its heretical movements will only appear in two provinces, however. Dealing with the heretics is better than not dealing with them, since they can further lower local Dominion and even attempt to revolt on their own, though they'll only act without provocation a few times.
Dealing with the heretics is done with any of your nationally-recruited Priests, with stronger responses having higher risks but higher rewards.
You cannot fully eliminate the heretics; they'll reemerge later, though it'll take (on average) as long as it took for them to emerge in the first place.
The House of Fiery Justice | The Royal Academy |
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Enables recruitment of: * High Inquisitors * Grand Masters Kills Demons & Undead (50% chance) Produces 41 per turn | Enable recruitment of Architects |
The House of Fiery Justice's holiness does 10 Armor-Negating Magical Damage to roughly half of the Undead & Demons in its province each turn (Magic Resistance negates).
You will love each and every Knight of the Chalice that you can produce. Most Independents won't have troops that can match them, and most nations don't have something to compare that's as easy to buff. Consider taking Productivity and Order scales to have more of these guys, or maybe just put off building forts around your capital for a while.
Your Paladins are pretty good, too (being Commander Knights), though pretty-much all of your Commanders are at least decent at leading armies.
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Scout 25 4 1 | Stealthy (50) Mountain Survival Forest Survival | A very ordinary scout. Use indie scouts if at all possible! | |
Assassin 60 4 1 | Stealthy (65) Assassin (1) Ambidextrous (2) | A mundane assassin with poison dagger. Made slightly less useful by MA Marignon's lack of retinue items to kit them with. | |
Troubadour 80 5 2 | Stealthy (70) Seduction Spy | A mundane spy. Can gather all mundane graphs and act as a seduction-assassin in a pinch, though MA Marignon lacks retinue items to make them more effective in this role. | |
Paladin 145 61 1 | 1 Sacred Combat Caster Mounted | Paladins are great leaders, and make decent raid leaders due to being a lot more durable than the average commander. Combat Caster is slightly trivial on him unless he is made a Prophet. Be sure to give him back up & stuff to further-enhance his survivability if you plan on using him in battle, as the cavalry charge is not a great strategy when soloing. |
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Friar 45 1 1 + Foreign Rec | 1 Sacred Stealthy (40) | Foreign recruit priests allow you to recruit temple-builders and preachers outside of forts, leaving those precious CPs for mages. Friars are also a great way to shuffle troops around due to their 40 leadership. Their stealth is a niche ability that can provide some interesting plays in terms of dominion control. | |
Inquisitor 135 1 2 | 12 7 Sacred Inquisitor Old Age (49/48) | Inquisitors have their priest level doubled for the purpose of preaching in provinces of hostile Dominion. | |
Initiate 45 1 2 | 1 7 | The only mage that will not be old upon recruitment. Far more gold-efficient for research compared to MA Marignon's other mages, though they demand greater gem expenditure than their peers to be made useful in battle. | |
Witch Hunter 185 2 2 | 211 11 Sacred Patrol Bonus (10) | Your most easily-massed battle mage. Fireball, Fire Elementals, Holy Pyre, & eventually Pillar of Fire will be the four cornerstones of his power, though you should certainly make use of his Astral path whenever you can. Don't be fooled by his initial lack of the Old Age trait, for he will gain that trait shortly. |
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Architect 45 52 1 Capital Only | Siege Bonus (15) Castle Defence Bonus (15) Mason | With this guy, you get to build citadels, which allow you to crank out significantly more mages & (if positioned well) sacred knights. Judging by his immense resource cost, it seems that you pay him off with the stuff he needs for building his own citadel. |
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High Inquisitor 190 1 4 Capital Only | 13 7 Sacred Inquisitor Old Age (66/48) | 190 gold is a pretty fair price for extra 3's. Whatever you have for your Banishment & Smite spells will be serviceable in battle, not to mention the full-army bless in addition to their ability to claim thrones. Marignon's other 4-point capital-only mage-priest is more attractive once you have recruited all the throne-claimers you need, however. |
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Grand Master 370 1 4 Capital Only | 3221100% 10% 17 Sacred Fire Resistance (5) Old Age (65/44) | Grand Masters are expensive, but provide the greatest magic diversity of MA Marignon's mages, which is admittedly not a high bar to clear. If no other option presents itself, they can wire themselves into a communion to cast earth and air buffs, in addition to natively being able to cast higher fire and astral spells than Witch Hunters are able to. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Flagellant 10 4 5 + Foreign Rec | Sacred Start Affliction (75) | Despite being crippled naked men, Flagellants are killy (if fragile) troops. They do lose out to other infantry as mainline expanders and line units as they die too quickly to be cost-effective prior to protection buffs like Marble Warriors. | |
Crossbowman 10 8 9 | Another important part of Marignon. Crossbows already ignore most enemy prot and mages can cast Flaming Arrows and Wind Guide. | ||
Pikeneer 10 20 9 | Marignon is able to recruit three kinds of cheap, two-hander infantry, each characterized by medium protection, solid damage output and mediocre combat skills. Pikeneers compare somewhat poorly to the others, lacking the damage output of the other two and having low defence skill. Swordsmen, on the other hand, have better attack and defence skill, while Halberdiers deal more overall damage and hold walls up slightly better. These troops are all rather vulnerable to arrow (especially crossbow) fire due to having only 14 protection and lacking shields. |
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Swordsman 10 23 9 | |||
Halberdier 10 22 9 | Castle Defence Bonus (1) | ||
Man at Arms 14 22 18 | Bodyguard (2) | Most expensive of your foot troops and deals significantly less damage, but has the best protection and a shield to shrug off arrow fire. |
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Royal Guard 40 59 46 | Bodyguard (3) Mounted | Royal Guards are a solid heavy cavalry type, but are generally going to be worse than the Knights of the Chalice due to not being sacred. Otherwise, they are quite solid for cavalry of their weight class with great protection and high-damage attacks for a reasonable cost. | |
Knight of the Chalice 50 56 46 | Sacred Mounted | The Knight of the Chalice is a strong sacred than can be recruited in all forts with a temple - a rarity among nations in Dominions 5. Cavalry in general are a privileged class of unit due to Mounted reducing harass penalty, and Knights have the protection, damage output and good combat skills to really take advantage of a strong bless. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Carmont - Cardinal | 114 9 Sacred Inquisitor | One of the rare few priests that can cast Fanaticism without a communion, and he can still join one to cast Divine Channeling. | |
Simeon ben Tabbai - Rephaite Scholar Hero turn arrival Limit 5 | 2232 27 Sacred Fire Resistance (5) Adept Researcher (+8) Supply Bonus (-1) Wasteland Survival | Explains where the Angel spells came from. Fast researcher, but also a pathway into forging Earth Boots, Dwarven Hammers, Crystal Coins and Crystal Shields without needing a pretender. | |
Tomaso del Monferrada - Witch Hunter General | 322 15 Sacred Fire Resistance(5) Combat Caster Patrol Bonus (15) Inquisitor Mounted | A one-off thug chassis. Can do some solo raiding with Evocation and proper thug gear. He can make good on the self protection spells in Astral and make use of Phoenix Pyre. | |
Angelique d'Armant - Heroine | Inspirational (1) Mounted Female | An excellent commander of armies, with 120 leadership and an inspirational morale bonus. |
MA Marignon's magic diversity is rather limited. It is renowned for its mastery in fire magic, has some skill in astral, and its most powerful mages dabble in air and earth magic. That's it!
In terms of rituals/forging, MA Marignon has access to the following paths:
Elements
Sorceries
Your standard priest's main methods of attack are raining fire, Astral and holy prayers.
Fire kills chaff and stops Air Elementals with Fire Elementals. Standard evocations like Fireball and eventually Pillar of Flame are decent gem-free options. Incinerate is a good anti-thug spell. Heat from Hell can fatigue out non-fire resistant enemies.
Astral magic has buffs and single model kill spells. Mind Burn, Soul Slay, Enslave Mind and Magic Dual. Luck manipulation of Battle Fortune and Doom. get MR Antimagic. Stellar Cascades is alterative to Falling Fires to bypass resistance.
In Witch Hunter communions, Phoenix Power, Power of the Spheres and Light of the Northern Star boost the slave's fire and astral paths to reduce fatigue.
Returning is available if you need a Grand Master to pop in cast some spell then leave.
If you take a Darkvision bless then Solar Eclipse is a castable Darkness that is half as effective.
Flaming Arrows makes crossbows more effective and Wind Guide improve precision for both mundane and magic ranged combat.
Earth magic is unreliable but communionable, providing some small access to the excellent roster of earth buffs.
Air also a big thing for Marignon. Sulfer Haze is unexpected poison damage. and Angles Thunder Strike
Harbingers can respond to attacks in the magic-phase using Cloud Trapeze, and Grand Masters can teleport armies with Gateway.
Breath of the Desert lets you spread heat scale to boost fire magic and diminish cold-related strategies before a battle start.
Eternal Pyre is something of a natural global for Marignon to cast due to its pathing and capital gem income, if it gets to Enchantment 6.
Mind Hunt pick people off.
Terracotta Army later game replaces your line troops with those heavily resistant to Fire and Poison attacks.
Fire in a Jar is a powerful economy option due to the ability of Marignon's workhorse mages to spam Fire Elementals.
make a number of thug items for angels and morale-boosting items(Helmet of Heroes and Herald Lance).
Got some casting improvers with Eye of Aiming so that Gift from Heavens hit its mark. Eye of the Void and Spell Focus penetrates enemy MR.
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.
List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.
List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.
YouTube videos:
Forum Discussions:
Reddit starter nation & pretender
Steam Strategies for multiplayer
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 |