MA Marignon, Fiery Justice

Lore

"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.

General Overview

Marignon is a nation of Fire, Faith, and ~~Flagellants~~ Effing Awesome Knights of the Chalice. 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. You also have Crossbowmen & melee infantry, but they don't mesh well with your other options, and they're not as long-lasting as a good group of horsies with a firm Bless.

National Features

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
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)	Powerful (3) Stealthy Good Patrollers Inquisitors	Standard Forts (Castles) Masons

Hecking Heretics

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 reality they're hecking 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.

Friars are the safest option, but they don't even fully undo the Dominion loss.
Inquisitors and High Inquisitors raise Unrest and give no benefits up-front, but can get more severe outcomes if they have twenty troops in the province afterwards; the outcomes are either a conversion of some of the heretics into 200 Gold (80% chance) or a little massacre that leads to a revolt (20% chance).
Witch Hunters and Grand Masters immediately either convert some of the heretics into two Magic Items or start a massacre that leads to a revolt. One of these items will always be an Imp Familiar, but the other can be anything crafted with Construction 4 or lower. This option is most-likely to start a revolt, since it exposes the heretics as Blood Mages, but sending the Grand Master is the safer option (probably because he's so good at magic).

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.

Capital Special Sites

The House of Fiery Justice	The Royal Academy
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).

Notable Units

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.

Commanders

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Scout 25 4 1	Stealthy (50) Mountain Survival Forest Survival	You don't really NEED any of these guys, but it's better to have three options than to have none. Scouts are the cheapest, Assassins have a nice niche in the form of killing people, and Troubadours give the most-useful information. Seduction isn't as easy as it used to be, and there aren't a lot of girls that'll be in a good position for you to yoink them, but again, it's a nice trick to have in your back pocket.
Assassin 60 4 1	Stealthy (65) Assassin (1) Ambidextrous (2)
Troubadour 80 5 2	Stealthy (70) Seduction Spy
Paladin 145 61 1	1 Sacred Combat Caster Mounted	Your premier thug. Combat Caster is slightly trivial on him unless he's 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.
Friar 45 1 1 + Foreign Rec	1 Sacred Stealthy (40)	Yeah, he's more expensive than your generic Scouts, but he has more utility as a Stealthy Preacher & a shuffler of troops, and you don't have to waste a Fort turn on him. He's the closest thing you have to an expendable Commander.
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. I can't tell you if this ability is good enough to enable you to go without Candles in your Pretender design, however.
Initiate 45 1 2	1 7	For all of his faults, this kid is your only mage that isn't a geriatric. Ironically, due to his lack of experience & Priest levels, he is your most cost-effective Research monkey.
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.
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) Knights. Judging by his immense resource cost, it seems that you pay him off with the stuff he needs for building his own Citadel.
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 are pretty-serviceable in battle, not to mention the full-army Bless. Marignon's other 4-point capital-only Mage-Priest is a lot more attractive, however.
Grand Master 370 1 4 Capital Only	3221100% 10% 17 Sacred Fire Resistance (5) Old Age (65/44)	He is your Fire Elemental summoner, your Falling Fires spammer, your Soul Slayer, your Communion Master, your liaison with Harbingers, and (with 1) your source of Matrices of fine Crystal. He is the most interesting Mage in the nation. It's a shame that he's so goshdarn slow to recruit.

Troops

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Flagellant 10 4 5 + Foreign Rec	Sacred Start Affliction(75)	Despite being crippled naked men, They are excellent chaff. with a temple and their flails, they make very spamable glass cannons. They do lose out to other infantry as mainline expanders and line units as Flagelnts die too quickly to keep the commanders safe. Whey works better as axillary with linemen taking the blunt while they come latter to reinforce with flails.
Crossbowman 10 8 9		Anouther important part of Marignon, Alreasdy ignor most enemy prot and mages can cast Flaming Arrows and Wind Guide.
Pikeneer 10 20 9		Guy with long pointy stick. Not good compared to other troop choices since dominions 5 nerfed repelling.
Swordsman 10 23 9		Your go to troops. Swordsman are well balanced with good Defence and attack skill while Halberdier deal more overal damage with 50% being piercing damage for greater armour pentrating. Bware they die quickly to ranged attacks.
Halberdier 10 22 9	Castle Defence Bonus (1)
Man at Arms 14 22 18	bodyguard(2)	Most expensive of your foot troops and deals signigenly less damage but has a shield to make it through the raining projectiles during a war.
Royal Guard 40 59 46	bodyguard(3) Mounted	Denfely can't compete with Chalice Knight, but makes for some of the best bodyguards for your most important mages.
Knight of the Chalice 50 56 46	Sacred Mounted	A all star Expanders and troops. Unlike most other nations, you can spam one of your strongest troops from any templed Fort.

Heroes

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
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. Luck into a Throne claimer and Preacher without spending 2 cap turns.
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 how you Forge 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 the importaltiy of Phoenix Pyre.
Angelique d'Armant - Heroine	inspirational(1) Mounted Female	Massive Army leader.

Magic

Reserch Priortiy

Conj 3-6+: Phinix Power, Power of the Spheres, Light of the Northern Star, Summon Fire Elemental, Contact Harbinger

thum 1-3+: Communions, Mind Burn, Returning, Teleport, Soul Slay, Gateway Enslave Mind, Purgatory

Evocation: 5+: Sulfer Haze, Falling Fires, Fireball, Magic Duel, Gift from Heaven, Holy Pyre, Breath of the Desert, Thunderstrike, Storm, Stellar Cascade, Flame Eruption, Astral Fires, Mind Hunt

Construct: 2+ research, magic piercing, and path booster items. late-game Golem thugs

ench 4: Flaming Arrows, Terracotta Warriors, Eternal Pyre, Antimagic, Eyes of God, Heat from Hell, Arrow Fend, Staellar Focus, Cloud Trapeze

Alt 4: Wind Guide, communion protection spells, Solar Eclipse, Fog Warriors

National Spells

Holy Pyre: Evocation 4 2. A situational side-grade to Falling Fires that lets your weaker mages (anyone you aren't recruiting in the capital) deal a lot of damage to undead and Demons. It's also a decent alternative to Fireball in that it isn't a missile spell and thus has a much higher likelihood of hitting the enemy.

Contact Harbinger: Conj 6 25 4 (summon Harbingerx1). The summon you should be using the most. As a 3 Angel, the Harbinger is a strong thing. It gives you a mobile Air Elemental Summoner, a Thunder Striker, plus access to other Air thug spells. Harbingers can either join armies for support magic, fly around raiding with thug gear and their high mobility, or stay in reserve as magic-phase thugs with Cloud Trapeze.

Heavenly Wrath: Conj 7 35 31 (summon Angel of Furyx1). A thug chassis that's easier for Marignon to summon than the Harbinger but often outclassed by the Harbinger's utility.

Angelic Host: Conj 7 50 5 (summon Arch Angelx1 Angel of the Hostx6). It's not cheap (this isn't the Early Age, Magic Gems of all kinds are a hot commodity now), but it's a doable summon that gets you a slightly-better chassis than the Harbinger. Marignon doesn't really need its Magical services, however, although the flying and the youth are much appreciated. Note that this is a remote summon, and the Angels of the Host are pretty strong; the most efficient use of this spell is to drop it on a raiding thug or force that it can kill, take a province, and then keep the units.

Heavenly Choir: Conj 9 144 72 (summon Seraphx1 Angel of the Heavenly Choirx9 Harbingerx3): Casting this is theoretically possible for Marignon without specially-designed Pretenders or Empowerment, but it generally requires Const 6, an extremely-rare natural 4 Grand Master, an equally-rare natural 2 Grand Master for the Crystal Coin, a Starshine Skullcap, and significant Astral Pearl investment for the Ring of Sorcery. In exchange for twelve years' worth of Marignon's Astral Power (four years if you convert your Fire Gems), you get a very neat thug, and an entourage including some technically-discounted Harbingers.

Magic Access

Your Magic variety is limited. Your bread and butter are Fire, astral, and Fire/astral/air/earth communion with strong summable air mages.

Fire can go to with Flame Helmet, fire 5 5, then fire 6 6 with fire kings.

Astral goes up to astral 4 4 on a Grand Master with Starshine Skullcap. only Grand Masters can get earth but only at earth 1 1 rarely earth 2 2 but if you can get earth boots, you now make Crystal Coins and go up to astral 5 5.

Harbingers gives you air 3 3, with a single empowerment, you break through the barrier and build your self up to air 7 7.

Combat Magic

Your standard priest's main methods of attack are raining fire, Astral and holy prayers.

Fire is a hord clear, Summoning Lesser and regular Fire ElementalS help with expansion. Fireball, Fire Storm and Flame Eruption take out squares. Holy Pyre great alterative especaly make being the threat of being overwhelmed by Undead and demons nonexistent.

Incinerate is a good anti-thug spell.

with some fire resident, Tire out the enemies with Heat From Hell.

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 a opiontal spell if you only 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 turn crossbows into lasers and Wind Guide improve your guy's position.

you have some earth to use in communions to use the normal troops buff. Gifts from Heaven can wip if you buff acracy with ??.

Air also a big thing for Marignon. Sulfer Haze is unexpected poison damage. and Angles Thunder Strike

Ritual Magic

Got some good movement with Cloud Trapeze for Habenger pouncing, and Gateway to move large armies.

Breath of the Desert lets you spread heat scale to boost fire magic and diminish cold-related strategies before a battle start.

you like gems Stellar Focus gives you lots of astral pearls as you need a lot. can grab Eternal Pyre as no one would stop you for an influx of fire gems.

Mind Hunt pick people off.

Terracotta Army later game replaces your line troops with those heavily resistant to Fire and Poison attacks.

Magic Items

Fire in a Jar is recommended on all mages, you be spending lots of gems.

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.

National Items

Mercybrand: Constr2 10 2. an inquisitor's weapon that inflicts additional heat damage, along with giving the user fear, a patrol bonus, and inquisitor. Generally, a good tool to help your priest suppress encroaching enemy influences. can be viable on a durable thug chassis to rout enemies way by stacking more fear checks.

Cockerel Scepter: Constr4 10 2. A strange staff that inflicts blindness and a lot of damage to demons and undead, common late-game thugs chassis.

National Dicount Items

Holy Scourge: Constr2 8 2. Flail that gives a lot of attack skill and devastating damage to the unholy.
Just Man's Cross: Constr2 4 1. unholy killing crossbow. the cheapest way to give an off scriped wizard something to do.
Flambeau: Constr4 4 1. another anti-unholy weapon, this time it's a greatsword with extra fire damage and gives user some fire resistence.

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.

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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