Pangaea is one of the few original nations, which have been present in Dominions series since the original Dominions: Priests, Prophets and Pretenders game (back then things would look like this). It has always been a very thematic and interesting nation to play. To the date, EA and MA Pangaea (which are the logical successors of the original one) have preserved the original nations flavor and are normally played in the similar way.

From the Dominions 5 Manual:
"Pangaea is a nation of wild half-men of Greek myth, as they could have developed if exposed to a vast and technologically superior humanity: Iron or skin. Adapt or die. As in most cultures exposed to so-called civilization, some inhabitants cling to traditions, or current perceptions of them; while others adapt to the circumstances, with loss or gain in influence. The loss of ancient magic and traditions over the ages is quite apparent in this nation, but in the late era the centaurs have found new paths of magic, giving hope to the nation." - Illwinter

Special Race Attributes	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Halfmen Superior MR Forest Survival Recuperation	Stealthy Fast movement Forest Recruits Excellent light cavalry Poor leaders Cheap and effective stealthy thugs Dryad seducers/assassins	4 (rare 5) 2 (rare 3) 2 (rare 3) 2 (rare 3) Heroes: 2, 2 Communions Reverse communions	Average (2) Blood Sacrifices	Normal forts are 50% more expensive and can't be upgraded Labs cost 250 in Forests. Temples cost 200 in Forests Instant Bramble Forts in Forests for 35

• Mercenaries are 50% more expensive.

Early Pangaea lives off forests as many important commanders and units can be recruited in forests without a fort. Also, their only way to obtain a fort with 2 commander points is summoning it using the national spell Grow Fortress

What magic path/mages define your nation, what can you level, e.g. thunderstriking, astral, elementals, earth buffs, blood, what is recruitable anywhere and good, what are some summons you are likely able to get and are useable

Pans are masters of Nature magics (being at least 5), and cast a good amount of earth buffs. They can also power up further if they form blood Sabbaths.

Dryad Mothers also plays a role by being a Foul Vapors and Bone Melter caster.

Pangaea might look relatively simple but in fact it is not. It is one of those "easy to play - hard to master" nations because to be really effective it requires you to fully understand your strengths and abuse them and to really understand your weaknesses and mitigate them. So, let's try to list most of these:

Strengths:

• Very strong Nature magic with good crosspaths
• Excellent sacreds
• Good troops
• Good thugs and good magic paths for forging thug items
• Recuperation on everyone
• Stealth on everyone relevant
• Seducers/assassins
• Freespawn chaff
• Blood access
• Excellent patrollers
• Good siege units
• Cheap labs and temples in forests
• Forest-recruitable mages
• Forest-recruitable 25 gold harpy commanders

Weaknesses:

• Awful forts
• Poor magic diversity
• Expensive mages and upkeep issues
• Expensive blood hunters
• Expensive mercenaries
• Expensive and inefficient researchers
• No native access to research boosters
• Poor leadership values on commanders - no formations

So, let's try to summarize that and try to plan ahead:

1. Forts are the biggest drawback and the main reason why this nation is not absolute top-notch. Your palisades cost 900 and you can not upgrade them, which means that outside of protecting a throne or otherwise important location, there's not much reason to build forts ever. This also means that should you find a decent site that lets you recruit decent mages, you'll be recruiting them at half the speed unless it's in the forest.
2. Instead, you may summon decent forts (2 commander points) in forests for 35 gems. With your 6 gem income this means that you may summon a fort every 6 turns and you need a Pan and a lab in that forest to do that. And what it really means that you have way less effective gem income than other nations because where they will use gold, you will have to use N gems. And all this finally means that you want to capture other players' forts instead of building your own.
   And thus, a very important thing to keep track of is Helmut's Sappers mercenary band. This is a group of MA Ulm sappers with Mason commander and they're available in EA. You should always keep track of the mercs and pay any (and I can't stress this enough!) money for this band because the commander will be able to upgrade your forts. If you are lucky enough to get them and have 60 D gems, immediately empower the merc in Death and cast Twiceborn as this will allow you to keep him forever.
   Another way to build better forts is Tome of the Forgotten Masons which is a Construction 8 item which you generally can and should make if the game goes this long
3. So, in absence of proper forts you have to live off forests. Every forest you control should eventually have at least a lab and a temple to recruit Hierophants because you will always be commander point constrained. You have good counter-raiding options so if you do it right, raiding should not be a major issue later on. Also, forests usually have appropriate population to be your blood hunting centers, so that's an additional layer of protection for them.
4. White Centaurs are very good troops even with a relatively minor bless and can be crazy when heavily blessed, so unless you decide to go with no bless at all, they should be your main troop of choice.
5. You probably want to go Magic 3 in any game that isn't a blitz because otherwise you'll be struggling to research much. Unlike other nations, you don't have Air, Fire or Death magic required for research boosters. You do have Blood for Imp Familiars but you will not have blood slaves early and you definitely have better uses for them. You'll normally be recruiting Hierophants in forests and Panii/Dryads in forts, so while you technically can research with Panii, they are very expensive, and your Hierophants will be of little use in the lab with Drain. So, in my opinion, Magic is a no-brainer.
6. You need to decide whether the freespawn Maenads are relevant to you and go Order/Turmoil depending on that. In my opinion, Maenads are decent with buffs (starting from Wooden Warriors) and absolute crap otherwise. Overall, the Pangaea Order vs Turmoil debate is as old as Dominions game itself and I feel it's a matter of preference. Just remember that if you go Order and ignore the freespawn, you're wasting some of the Pan's high cost. On the other hand, you won't want to go Turmoil 3 because otherwise you'll not be able recruit enough White Centaurs (Turmoil 2 allows recruiting 6 per turn).
   So this choice requires that you sacrifice something and you have to make it.
7. Sloth is a reasonable choice but again, if you go Sloth 3, you won't be able to recruit enough White Centaurs at the start of the game and maybe ever if you're unlucky with the starting location.
8. Temperature scales are a source of points but you have to realize that you'll always be money constrained while temperature scales significantly drain your income.
9. Luck/Misfortune is a matter of preference but with Worthy Heroes mod your national heroes are all very useful and if you plan to do Transformation plays later, you definitely need Luck.
10. No matter what direction you go, you're nearly guaranteed to always be money constrained. Your stuff is good but expensive and you'll want as much of it as you can handle.
11. If you're planning the game to go late you'll want at least some magic diversity on your pretender but preferably more than some. You'll want to find every site and any independent mage you can to give yourself more options late.

So, let's talk about pretender design now and what options we have.

• You don't need an awake expander since your troops expand very well.
• You might consider a dormant titan pretender for magic diversity and a supercombatant body
• If you're planning for a fast game, you may go with an awake hellbless like Quickness + Magic Weapons\Twist Fate on an Oracle. White centaurs will be murder machines but your scales will be dumped
• You might want a dormant\imprisoned rainbow for magic diversity and many minor blesses. This is normally my choice.

What blesses to consider?

• Attack, Defence and Reinvigoration are very good both for your White Centaurs and Centaur Hierophant thugs
• Resistance blesses are always good depending on the nations present in the game
• Poison resistance is very good if you're planning to do Foul Vapors plays which you can do naturally
• Strength is good because both attacks benefit from it
• Magic weapons are very important because it is one thing your nation really lacks and you need them to counter ethereal and Mistformed units early and Fog Warriors armies later
• Weapon blesses are fine on units with multiple attacks (however, don't pick Withering weapons because javelin-throwing units will often stop and throw javelins after they defeat a squad, often resulting in their squadmates getting decayed and dying)
• Many experienced players like Larger bless on White Centaurs because it gives them a length 4 Lance which allows to repel a lot of enemy spear attacks while also increasing their HP and boosting map movement even further. If you do this, also consider increasing their Attack skill so that they repel better. However, if you're planning to use Centaur Hierophant thugs, you need to remember that at size 3 two Centaurs fit in one square allowing you to point buff them together (and they're very good in pairs), while at size 4 each Centaur will be in his own square.

So, your options are numerous and I will not be the one to push you into one of them.

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

(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)

(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)

youtube of someone discussing the nation
guide page on steam??
forum thread or AAR

EA Pangaea: Olli!s Stiletto Usage Tips

	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