Mekone and its successors are inspired by giants of Greek myth. Described either as strong and proud hoplites, or in later times, as monstrous beings with serpent legs, the idea of a nation of giants that doesn’t follow the development of most other giant nations, with smaller and smaller giants in the later ages, started to take form. The serpent legged monstrosities of the late age was at first glance the most intriguing one, but I wanted to make the nation one era at a time, so I started with Mekone. Some research into ancient Athens and Sparta transformed my first ideas into a nation heavily inspired by Sparta. Since Arcoscephale is more influenced by Athens in the early age and Hellenic Greece in later ages, a Spartan society would not overlap with previous Greek influences. I also wanted to incorporate the hubris of the giants and the Gigantomachia—the war against the gods—into the nation, which in turn created the backstory for the middle and late age versions of the nation. -Illwinter

Mekone is a city of gold and marble inhabited by Gigantes, a race of exalted giants descended from an ancient god. Proud and endowed with mythical strength the Gigantes of Mekone have enslaved their neighbors and made themselves rulers over men. For ages the Gigantes have watched the lesser races and seen their kingdoms rise and fall. They witnessed the fall of Telkhinis and the injustices done to the races of old. With the aid of the Elder Cyclopes the Gigantes of Mekone have taken it upon themselves to rid the world of the gods of men. Most of Mekone’s population consists of human slaves, helotes. The population of human slaves is discontent and unrest will increase in all forts.

In Greek myth, Mekone was where Zeus and Prometheus settled on what part of the animal would be sacrificed to the gods, with the latter tricking the former into choosing the scraps.

Mekone is a nation of Hoplite giants on a personal crusade against traditional godhood that uses its despised human population as slave chaff. The best of anything that Mekone can muster is expensive, and money can be hard to come by. In comparison to other giant nations like Niefelheim and Hinnom, they can struggle to obtain enough gold for their assets, owing to their unique fort unrest mechanic and expensive forts. Unlike other giant nations, their elite troops are also capped in recruitment. They have a fair spread of elemental magic at their disposal and skilled crafters, although they have few native options for diversifying their capabilities.

Mekone does NOT have any available Dominion 1 Pretender chassis, by the way. All of your Pretender options are relatively expensive, limiting the scales and the Magic paths that you can take. While expansion isn't too much of a problem for Mekone, you should still pick your Pretender carefully.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Giants Humans Cyclops Smiths	Hoplite Infantry Slave Humans Giants with Magic Gear NO SACRED TROOPS	3 (Rare 4) 3 (Rare 4) 2 (Rare 3) 2 (Rare 3)	Weak (2 Max) Dominion Conflict Bonus (+1) Sacred Thugs (Commanders)	Advanced Fortified Cities Forts Cause Unrest (happens after Patrols)

As a nation in the "Greek" region, Mekone can use Sorcery (2 & 3) to summon creatures that secretly have more Sorcery (11 & 121); uncovering these hidden paths requires decent investment into Thaumaturgy and either 4 or 5, however.

add the site pics

City of Gold and Marble	Forge of the Cyclopes
Enables recruitment of: Polemarch Basileus Generates 11 per turn.	Enables recruitment of Elder Cyclops Generate 25 per turn. Generates 22 per turn.

General description of the units in the nations rooster, any standouts, shared qualities aka temperature, any foreign rec, what makes a good basis for planning around

Your Gigante troops are powerful units with their stats and Magic gear. The main downside is that they cost a lot of gold and resources, they can only be lead by Size 4 commanders, and you can only recruit 5 of each kind of giant from your capital and 2 from other forts. This is somewhat offset by having cheap human slaves to fill out your numbers.

Img	Unit Name	—-SpecialAttributes—-	Comments
	Helote Peltast 8 5 4	slave Experienced Shape(50): Neodamode Peltast	Your best unit from the fact that they are easy to spam, low on upkeep, and have javelins that your mages can buff. Bad morale and low protection can always be offset by buffs and large numbers.
	Helote Ekdromos 8 15 4	slave Formation Fighter(2) Experienced Shape(50): Neodamode Ekdromos	Supposedly a less resource intensive version of the Hoplites with less encumbrance and slightly better defence skill and combat speed. Ekdromos are very situational as they are more likely to die with their low protection. Can be situationally better against enemies that try to fatigue your Hoplites out.
	Helote Hoplite 8 29 10	slave Formation Fighter(2) Experienced Shape(50): Neodamode Hoplite	Your secondary infantry, recruit them and in resorce-rich provinces when you reach your fort cap for Gigante. They are formation fighters, so they contribute to harrassment bonus whether it is four humans in a square or two humans and a Gigante.
	Perioeci Peltast 10 5 9		Very situational as the only benefit they have over Helote Peltast is that they have better moral and do not need taskmasters to function. For what they are, you would rather recruit indies with better stats than paying the full wage of a Light Infantry.
	Discobolus 30 7 19 Recruitment Limit: 2 Capital Recruitment Limit: 5	Minimum leader size(4)	Naked strong men with two fists and a hard-hitting thrown discus. They are the easiest to recruit of the Gigante troops, but very situational because of their lack of protection. Could knock out enemy giants if you pointbuffed their Frisbees.
	Gigante Ekdromos 40 51 25 Recruitment Limit: 2 Capital Recruitment Limit: 5	Minimum leader size(4) Formation Fighter(2) Skirmisher(1)	When you do not have the resources to make a Gigante Hoplite, you make these. When compared to their Helote counterpart, they have better Combat and map move, but a weaker breastplate. They tend to die to indies.
	Gigante Hoplite 40 75 25 Recruitment Limit: 2 Capital Recruitment Limit: 5	Formation Fighter(2) Minimum leader size(4)	The second strongest giant troops behind Niefel Giants. Clad in Magic gear that will resist armor destroying spells, and fitting 2 into a square, a unit of 6 to 16 can solo the majority of indies. The main downside is that they are resource intensive and you do not have the best gold economy. They are also limited recruitment even if you were able to afford more. This leaves you having to spam human slaves to fill up your numbers.

Priorities: conj 5, Construction 4, Enchantment 4, Alteration 2, Evocation 6, thaum 7,

Procession of the Underworld Conjure 5, 3 13, (summon 12x Lampad) Can be cast lategame with a pretender or by empowering a mage. There is a way to Lampads into mages with 121, through Gift of Reason or Divine Name but Mekone does not have the resources to fully benefit from this. Lampads are humanoids with only Invulnerability for protection. Despite this, they can ruin thugs they hit with Decay when buffed.

Summon Hound of Twilight Conjure 5, 21 4, (summon a Hound of Twilight) A big monster with a Fear aura and a Patrol bonus of 20. Cheap for an Empowered 2 in death to spam and remove your fort's unrest. How good are monsters like this is in Combat?

Bind Keres Conjure 6, 2 12, (summon 3x Ker) Similar to Lampads, they can be used to break into Death. They are 11 mages when made commanders. Hard to do without magic from a pretender. Keres are Ethereal Invisible Two attack Fear flyers. Tears up Weak back units, especially when they Paralyze enemy undead mages.

Forge Brass Bull Construction 7, 33 30, (summon a Khalkotauros) A big, hard to kill Trample monster that breathes fire.

Blessing of the God-slayer Enchantment 0, 11 5, Gives a Large boost to a Polemarch and makes it a few gear forges and research goals away from being a super combatant. You can only have one and need to remember it only lasts a year (Or until the current slayer dies).

Sow Dragon Teeth Enchantment 6, 2 1, (summon 10x Spartae during Combat) Likely to replace as Lines by late game as Helotes die to quick and can't replace Gigante fast enough. Only cost 1 Earth Gem for 10 not-undead-not-living Hoplites with magic weapons and armor.

Gigantomachia Thaumaturgy 7, 44 60. An expensive late-game Global enchantment that boosts your Giant hoplite production and makes it easier to Dom-Kill. More importantly, You can be saving about 1000 a turn on Giant production.

• God-Slayer Spear A spear that inflicts area of effect Fatigue Damage to Sacreds. Comes standard on Polemarchs. Too situational to be good.

• Elemental Armor 84 Provide better body armor and resistance to 3 elemental damage sources.
• Golden Hoplon 8 Better shield with a high Parry value and 15 Fire Resistance.
• Shield of Gleaming Gold 44 Similar to the Golden Hoplon but give Awe(1) instead of Fire Resistance

Scutata Volturnus

Piercer/Golden Arbalest

Frost Brand

Staff of Elemental Mastery

Owl Quill/Lightless Lantern

The Copper Arm

Rune Smasher

Helmet of Heroes

Boots of Quickness

Mekone has decent access to Fire, Earth with 2s and occasional 3s in Air, and some 1s in water. The elemental path is decent but won't be as helpful to win the Late game.

This will talk about how to climbed paths as Mekone. This is to give advice assumes that you don't have a pretender(you can skip steps if you do), getting the unique, one-offs Construction 8 Boosters (imagine what I say but 2-3 levels higher in a path) and power spells (don't have to be stated).

:: Warning, some Ways to get High-end magic will be time and Gem intensive (especially nonnative paths). Unlikely to work unless getting lucky with Gem income and/or planed to break into at the game's start.

Earth 3 on Archons and the rare Basileus or Cyclopes gets 4. Can make a 3 mage to 5 with Earth Boots and Staff of Elemental Mastery. So can summon King of Elemental Earth, ending with a and 7 with boosters.

Fire is similar to earth, except you have another booster if you empower into death. Having a 6, and can summon a King of Elemental Fire (8 with boosters).

Cyclopes can be 1, Balileus can be Water 2 and rarely 3. With Staff of Elemental Mastery, Water Bracelet, and Robe of the Sea, you become 5. 3 is enough to cast Sea King's Court, for a base 3 which can then boost to 6, he can then cast Queen of Elemental Water for 8. by impowering a 3 in Nature, you can cast Contact Naiad break into 33.

Archons and Cyclopes can be Air 2, and rarely Cyclopes are 3. Air is the hardest path to climbed as you need a lucky Cyclopes, get a Staff of Elemental Mastery, or empower so you can forge Winged Helmets and then Bag of Winds. The Average Mekone Air mage goes up to 5, which is enough to leap into Queen of Elemental Air for 8

Despite Nature not a part of your mage line up, the EA is littered with Indies shamans. Most are 1, but Some times get 2, summon a Naiads or empower a Cyclops to craft Thistle Maces, Then empower to into to make Moonvine Bracelets, then finally can make Treelord's Staffs, likely making a shaman 4. As you climb, you can get cast Forest Troll Tribe(3 for higher base Nature or breaking into death), Awaken Ivy King (4, boosted to 5) which then gets you the immobile Awaken Teelord (5, boosted to for lab work).

climbing death requires climbing other paths. A drop of Death on a 3 or 3 to cast Hidden in Terrain spells is the easiest. Can also use a empowered Neriad to get 33 Kokythiads. Forging the Skull Staff booster is easy, but Skullface is harder. Your normal Cap without pretenders or empowering is 3.

Astral is another hard path to climb. Empowering is easier with a good income, but need Death for the chance to get Higher Astrol mages (Hidden in Sand, Hidden Underneath, Summon Spectre). If you can summon those mages, you can forge Crystal Coin and Starshine Skullcap. With 41 you can get a Eather Lord go obtain a boosted 5, or 6

blood is not easy to get. Often you will get one ore two by constantly recruiting the right indie nature mage. That is usually enough for collecting some blood slaves, empower an Elder to create Thug gear.

Generally, the goal of your magic in combat should be to…

Buff your Troops: Thunder Ward/Lighting Resistance/Ground Army, Fire Fend/Flame Ward/Fire Resistance, Cold Resistance/Winter Ward, Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants, Gift of Flight, Army of Lead/Army of Gold/Marble Warriors/Iron Warriors, Wind Guide, Weapons of Sharpness, Flaming Arrows, Quickness

Summon Chaff: Summon Air Elemental, Ghost Wolves, Sow Dragon Teeth, Summon Earth Elemental, Will o' the Wisp, Summon Fire Elemental, Summon Lesser Water Elemental

Screw up the Battlefield: Mist, Rain, Curse of Stones, Iron Bane, Storm, Rain of Stones, Earthquake, Fire Storm, Heat from Hell

Impede Enemies: Curse of Stones, Sulphur Haze, False Fetters, Earth Meld, Maws of the Earth, Prison of Fire, Slime, Slow

Eliminate Rival Thugs: Lighting Bolt, Steal Breath

Buff your own Thugs: Mistform, Mirror Image, Flight, Resist Lighting, Ironskin, Temper Flesh, Iron Will, Summon Earthpower, Earth Might, Resist Cold, Fire Shield, Phoenix Power, Phoenix Pyre, Phoenix Power, Quicken Self,

• Transmute Fire & Alchemical Transmutation give you Money! You need Money. Everything you want is expensive.
• Eternal Pyre & Earth Blood Deep Well give you extra Gems that you can convert into money!
• Cloud Trapeze lets you slingshot your Giants all over the place!
• Riches from Beneath gives you both Money and Resources!
• Gigantomachia makes your Giants both cheaper and more plentiful!
• Forge of the Ancients makes equipping your Giants cheaper, which is really important since Gems also provide Money!

Summons: Manifest Vitriol, Sea King's Court, King of Elemental Fire, King of Elemental Earth, Queen of Elemental Water, Queen of Elemental Air

Mekone Prioritizes and scales. second with and for money.

Could go and As you are going to gain constant boons to offset your yearly pop kills.

Expanders can be nice to get a head start on the economy. (It's not like you're allowed to take the omnipresent imprisoned rainbow chassis.)

For Blesses, Only giant Mages and thugs are sacred, so think of them when making a pretender.

Early game is about Producing Giganti and filling the rest of your expansion party with Peltasts. Though they have bad moral, throwing a lot of Slaves at a province will let you take it (mixing in some Giganti to do the heavy lifting after the slaves catch the lances).

Would recommend having an Ephor in each of your forts before Autumn or else be stuck with a lot of Unrest and miss out on an Assassin Spawn.

When deciding were to build a fort, it is best to place it near provinces with high income but build it nearby in one with High Resources. The reason is that your Fort unrest will reduce your overall income from the area, so better …

Money is feeling tight as you need it for troops and building your expensive Labed/Temple/Forts (1600 ) ontop of Giganti Upkeed and lost money from unavoidable unrest.

At this point, the enemy will have Spells to Destroy or circumvent your Golden armour, (Lightning Ignores and magic armour only shrugs off the first few cast of Destruction)

At this point, Buffing Peltasts as line-holders grow in importance as they outnumber the opponent, But Giganti still holds relevance as they can still one-hit-kill most things.

Archons become more valuable as you likely hit most of your Researched goals (Army buffs, Battle AOE evocations, THug Spell).

This is also when you start thugging Archons for raiding.

If You are not going to win during the Mid Game, Should also be Gunning for Means to diversify your endgame magic. (see Magic Access)

Late game, magic deletes both slave and gigantic, and your Income problems will likely be the most exacerbated as raids peaks.

Mekone game plan was never meant to be prolonged to the late game, and you will not win unless you do something unconventional.

Without a pretender designed to break you into Higher and new paths, There is not too much magic-wise to do late game other than, like other nations, Army-buffing your slaves and a few Gigante and hope to they can stand up to an equally buffed but better-equipped army.

A side hope is to go all the way into Construction 8 to get the unique gear for thugs. Most Nations Prioritizes High-level spells then items, so your often free to grab powerful boosters and thug weapons. Moving to a super combatant raider strategy.

Your real hope is not to be a Mekone, and use a pretender, find an indie super mage, and/or spend a lot of gems to climb into Death, Nature, or Blood for powerful battlefield magic and thugs like Vampire Lords.

Dominions 5 - EA Mekone (overview & multiplayer playthrough) by LucidTactics (2019)

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
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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