LA T'ien Ch'i, Barbarian Kings

Lore

The celestial empire is crumbling. Constant invasions from the barbaric Khans have all but destroyed the Imperial Bureaucracy. The Imperial family have been replaced by the Barbarian Kings. The Imperial Guard is no more and the cavalry of old has been replaced by skilled barbarian horsemen. Ancestral worship is popular once more and priest-mages of barbarian heritage who lead the Ancestor Cult are replacing the priests of the Bureaucracy. With the displacement of the eunuchs from power, conscription has fallen out of use.

T'ien Ch'i is obviously influenced by China. I couldn't even resist the name Spring and Autumn, from the period of the same name in Chinese history. Chinese history is rich and there is plenty to draw upon. Daoism and its five elements, inner alchemy, and quest for longevity inspired the Masters of the Way as did the T'ien Shih—celestial master—of institutional Daoism convert into the Celestial Master of T'ien Ch'i. Heroes come in plenty in the Chinese tales and the Seven Immortals are all interesting figures. Sun Wukong and his friends are perhaps even more so. There is plenty of stuff to expand on should I or a merry modder find the time. Finally, T'ien Ch'i has been inspired movies from Hong Kong, China, and Korea. - Ilwinter

National Overview

Things kind of went back to the Early Age Style when the Huns overthrow the Bureaucracy. Destroying the highly organized infrastructure that supported elite soldiers with advanced equipment and Specialise administrators and mages. It was then replaced by a nation of Horsemaster Nomade and a return of the forgotten Ancestor worship with a vengeance.

This nation has access to a wide selection of magic paths, but (ignoring 10% randoms) can't recruit mages with any path higher than level 2. That means the nation will have to rely on communions or magic booster items to cast higher level spells.
Communions are a little tricky to do since only the capital only Celestial Master has guaranteed astral magic. All other mages have 1/4 chance of astral 1 1. This means that T'ien Ch'i can potentially put any of its six available magic paths into a communion, but finding enough communion slaves can be difficult. Since all the mages have different crosspaths, the communion slaves will often generate more fatigue.
Since the nation does have the earth/astral crosspath, it is possible to craft the Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrix for communions and extra boosters like Crystal Coin and Crystal Shield.

When it comes to troops, this nation has access to mostly the same infantry as early age and middle Age T'ien Ch'i. These are still functional, if not quite as impressive as in the previous ages, simple because most nations and independent forces have better troops in the late age. However, T'ien Ch'i in the late age has access to Barbarian Heavy Horsemen, a cheap heavy cavalry unit that can also be recruited outside of forts. This means that it is feasible to build fewer forts as this nation and still produce many units.

Another interesting feature of this nation is the access to the Call Ancestor and Wrath of the Ancestors spells. These are combat spells that summons Ancestral Spirits. These spirits have poor stats, with 0 protection and 1 hp. However, they are also ethereal, have an armor negating paralyze attack, and are sacred. So there is an option to go for a heavy bless, trying to make these spirits useful, although this is considered something of a meme in the community. Even without a bless, Wrath of the Ancestors can be useful as a Swarm alternative.

National Features

Special Race Attributes	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Humans Foreign troop recruitment Neutral Temperature	Heavy cavalry and Horse Archers Decent human infantry	2 (Rare 3) 2 (Rare 3) 2 (Rare 3) 2 2 2 Heroes 11232 222	1 Communions	Standard Forts(Citadel)

Capital Special Sites

The Celestial City	The Heavenly Gate
Enables recruitment of: Ancestor Vessel Generates 11 per turn.	Enables recruitment of: Celestial Master Generates 11 per turn.

Units

Commanders

Unit Name	SpecialAttributes	Comments
Mounted Scout 30 13 1	Stealthy (50) mounted	More expensive than independent scouts, with a slightly higher map move, offset by not having the usual Forest Survival and Mountain Survival that independent scouts have.
General 80 41 1	mounted	The General and the Khan are your main generals. Both can do formations, and they have the same map move, so they can fill the same roles. The Khan is more expensive but can lead more troops and gives his troops +2 morale instead of +1. The Khan requires 2 recruitment points to recruit, but this is offset by him being recruitable outside forts, so no fort turns need to be spent. Note that all your other commanders can only lead 10 troops, so these are your only national options for leading your armies.
Khan 135 41 2 + Foreign Rec	Pillager(5) mounted
Ceremonial Master 45 3 1	1 Sacred	A cheap 1. The nation doesn't have higher holy access, so these are useful to bless Ancestor Vessels in armies you field not with your Prophet or Pretender. Can be a great use of the last commander point in a Citadel if you can't afford to start a second mage.
Master of the Way 135 1 2 + Foreign Rec	111100% 9 Sacred Need-Not-Eat	The Master of the Way is the nation's cheapest mage but also its weakest, with only two Arcane paths. They can still be useful combat mages, especially if you go into Alteration (for Frozen Heart & point buffs like Mossbody, and Quickness). But your more expensive mages are far more impressive. They're not very efficient researchers, costing 15 per , but they're still slightly-more-gold-efficient than the Ancestors and slightly-more-fort-turn-efficient than the Celestial Masters.
Ancestor Smith 220 16 2	2111100% 13 Sacred Forge Bonus(1) Old Age(67/50)	The Ancestor Smith is a useful combat mage with 2111100%. He is notable for being the best Earth Mage in the nation, meaning he can cast the usual earth buffs: Summon Earthpower, Legions of Steel, and Strength of Giants. They also get a 1-gem discount when forging magic items; Paired with Dwarven Hammers which they can forge with Earth Boots, you can reduce the cost of items made by the Ancestor Smith by 3 gems! The Nature randoms can also serve as budget thugs with Ironskin, Temper Flesh, Personal Regeneration, and (if you have a fluffer) Body Ethereal or Mossbody. The Ancestors have good stats (for Humans), even with the old age penalties, and come pre-equipped with decent magic gear (but no helmet); this one comes with an Ancestor Sword, which has a Fear effect and decent attack/defense bonuses. Unlike other ancestor mages, the Ancestor Smith does not come with Spirit Sight.
Spirit Master 220 11 2	1211100% 13 Sacred supply Bonus(20) Old Age(127/100)	The Spirit Master is a useful combat mage with 1211100%, meaning he has access to the same paths as the Ancestor Smith, but distributed differently. Notable for being the best nature mage in the nation. The ??path>N2E1D1?? randoms are particularly valuable in combat, because they can cast Strength of Gaia for an extra nature path boost.
Ancestor Guide 220 11 2	1211100% 13 Sacred spirit sight Old Age(67/50)	The Ancestor Guide is a useful combat mage with 1211100%, meaning he has access to the same paths as the Ancestral Smith and the Spirit Master but distributed differently. He is notable for being the best death mage in the nation, enabling him to cast things like Horde of Skeletons and Shadow Blast. Every one of them can cast Wailing Winds with a Skull Staff! Unlike his peers, he does not start with a magic weapon, but his Quarterstaff provides him with decent defense.
Celestial Master 220 5 4 Capital Only	12111100% 10% 15 Sacred Need-Not-Eat	The Celestial Master is the nation's only capital-only commander. With 12111100% 10%, he has access to all of the nation's paths except death. He is slow to recruit, but notable for typically being the nation's best water or astral mage. He is important for summoning your Celestial Soldiers.

Units

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Footman with pikes 10 9 9		A lightly armored soldier with a length 5 pike. This soldier's only advantage over the Footmen with glaives is the length of his weapon, enabling him to repel even spearmen. Since his attack is low, this is rarely worth it. Part of your national province defense.
Footman with Glave 10 11 9		These Footmen come in three variants. The Glaive is a high damage two-handed weapon, making these troops fairly dangerous. With Strength of Giants, these Footmen will 27 damage per hit; you can buff this further with Army of Giants if needed. The main difference between the different armors is the resource cost. Still, it should also be noted that the light and medium Footmen have 12 map move, enabling them to move two plains provinces, whereas the heavy footman with only map move 8 will never move more than 1 province in a turn. The Heavy Footman also has higher encumbrance and slightly lower defense.
Medium Footman with Glave 10 14 9
Heavy Footman with Glave 10 20 9
Footman with Shield 10 11 9		These Footmen also come in three variants. These footmen are armed with a Tower shield and a one-handed spear. This makes them better at enduring arrow fire, and the parry value from the shield also gives them a higher defense. The tradeoff is significantly less damage compared to the glaive infantry. The main difference between the different armors is the resource cost. The light and medium Footmen have 12 map move, enabling them to move two plains provinces, whereas the heavy footman with only map move 8 will never move more than 1 province in a turn. The Heavy Footman also has higher encumbrance and slightly lower defense.
Medium Footman with Shield 10 14 9
Heavy Footman with Shield 10 20 9
Archer 10 12 9		The Archer is armed with a composite bow, useful versus lightly armored targets. You can cast Wind Guide with national mages, but not Flaming Arrows; so the Late Age's ubiquitous independent crossbowmen are usually better against heavily armored troops. Part of your national province defense.
Barbarian Horseman 20 12 24 + Foreign Rec	Pillager(2) mounted	The Barbarian Horseman is a lightly armed and armored mounted archer with a composite bow. Interestingly, he does have a buckler, helping slightly versus enemy archer fire. In most aspects, he is outshined by the Barbarian Heavy Horseman. Still, since both are recruitable outside of forts, there might be cases where the lower resource cost is important enough that you prefer to recruit these.
Barbarian Heavy Horseman 20 27 24 + Foreign Rec	Pillager(2) mounted	The Barbarian Heavy Horseman is perhaps the defining unit in the Late Age T'ien Ch'i army. At first glance, he might seem similar to the Barbarian Horseman, but this unit is an upgrade in many ways. Heavier armour, a heavy lance rather than the light lance, a shield rather than the buckler, and a hoof attack. Altogether, this unit is an extremely cheap heavy cavalry unit with a bow as a bonus. Like the Barbarian Horseman, the Heavy Horseman can be recruited outside of forts, meaning it is possible to mass these more easily than their resource and recruitment costs indicate.
Ancestor Vessel 50 32 46 Capital Only	Sacred Pillager(2) spirit sight Mounted	The Ancestor Vessel is the nation's capital's only sacred unit. In addition to being sacred, this unit is an upgraded version of the Barbarian Heavy Horseman, with better stats, better armour, spirit sight and the Howling bow, a composite bow doing magic damage and with an extra fear effect on damage.

Heroes

As T'ien ch'i, You get immortal Mages. They have human stats but still useful for Light thugging and Casting spells. Keep them way from Soul Slayers.

Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
Ho Hsien-Ku - Immortal	12 11 Sacred immortal Supply Bonus(20) Healer(1) Ethereal flying Female	Her primary ulity is being a medic. True Healer is useful for fixing up important injured commanders. Being Ethereal helps with survivablity but not much else new in combat.
Lu Tung-Pin - Immortal	11232 19 Sacred immortal ambidextrous(3)	He is A Celectial Master that randomed Astral 3, and practiced his leadership and Fighting skills. He can lead beig armys, be a light thug with his high att & def skill (held back by Human HP). If you don't have a proper pretender, you can use him to empower and climb higher into Astral. also gives fire to a communion.
Li T'ieh-Kuai - Master With The Iron Crutch	222 17 Sacred immortal Fear(7) Old-Age(865\500) Spirit-Sight plague carrier(5) Start Affliction(100)	The crouchy old man, don't let him be around your other troops. Can't Fly but can Cloud Trapeze to get places. He is a Ancestor Guide that got both a 2 in air and astral,

Magic

Magic Access

Late Age Tien Chi's specialty is being able to site search 6 paths at level 2 (or 9 if you can afford remote site searching) and then use those gems to put up a full suite of major battlefield spell in the game using just 25% randoms on recruitable mages, boosters, and crystal communions (immune to magic duel).

Be careful when using traditional communions in major battles in multiplayer games. Your astral mages are largely expensive 25% randoms with 1, and thus are highly vulnerable to Magic Duel. As detailed below, those astral randoms are valuable for forging, so don't be sad they exist, but keep in mind that many Late Age nations have cheap astral mages and might consider it a good trade to magic duel you.

An 21 Spirit Master with a Thistle Mace can cast Strength of Gaia and be 4 in battle. With enough nature gems, he can cast big nature magic, like Mass Protection, Relief, Serpent's Blessing, Mass Regeneration and Howl. You'll save a lot of gems per fight if you make a Moonvine Bracelet with an 21 Spirit Master, but it's not required.

An 11 Master of the Way with a Thistle Mace can cast Foul Vapors.

An 21 Ancestor Smith with a Starshine Skullcap and Crystal Coin can cast Golem Construction. Give your Golem that Starshire Skullcap and Crystal Coin and a lot of astral pearls, and he can cast (with immunity from magic duel) the big astral spells like Antimagic, Will of the Fates, and Doom. Casting Power of the Spheres will gems when casting all of these, but sometimes casting at least Antimagic on the first turn is better.

A 2 Master of the Way with a Water Bracelet can cast Grip of Winter, Quickening, Warriors of Niefelheim, and other major water magic buffs. A Robe of the Sea will save gems in the long run if you're casting this full script in many fights.

Your 21 Ancestor Smith are hard to use in battle because of magic Magic Duel, but are a key strength of the nation. Keep them safe in labs. With a Dwarven Hammer, they can make Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrix for E3S4. You can never have enough of these, because sometimes you want to make 4 Slave Matrix in a single turn.

Form a crystal matrix communion with 4 x Slave Matrix. A range of options works, but a good option can be to use a max of ??E2D1A1 Ancestor Smith and D2E1A1 Ancestor Guide??, which lets you cast Earth/Death/Air battlefield magic (Fog Warriors, Army of Gold, Weapons of Sharpness, Arrow Fend, Mass Flight or Storm, Darkness and Rigor Mortis etc.) in an on path communion. (You probably can't cast all of those spells in the same battle).

You can also make the Crystal Shield where useful. (Does it work with a Crystal communion to buff the paths of the slaves on the first turn? If so that is likely worth it, since it dramatically reduces fatigue costs).

If you plan to do crystal communions, keep in mind that the above costs a lot of Earth/Astral gems (especially if you count the investment in a supply of Dwarven Hammers).

Don't forget that your lab mages can cast Magic Duel in a pinch. If your opponent has only the exact number of communion slaves he needs to cast Fog Warriors or Will of the Fates, sacrificing a few Astral random ancestors to prevent your opponent from casting major buffs can change the outcome of a battle involving dozens of mages and hundreds of troops.

Major ritual magic is more of a weakness for the nation, due to the lack of paths above 2:

Pretender design largely determines which globals you'll be able to economically cast.

An 2 random Celestial Master can make your Starshine Skullcap, which lets an Ancestor Smith make a Crystal Coin, getting you up to 4 outside combat.

With a Naiad you can get 5 or 5 with boosters. Which also gets you Faerie Court for a higher 3, which is great for Summon Great Eagle and other ritual magic.

The nation can naturally forge a Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet, which lets a Spirit Master cast Awaken Ivy King. Your new Ivy King can use those boosters to forge a Treelord's Staff, with which a 22 Spirit Master randoms can summon a Lamia Queen to dip into blood magic for the late game.

All Spirit Masters can all cast Charm, and all Ancestor Guides can cast Control the Dead. You only need to charm or enslave one blood mage to start a small blood economy.

As nation with recruit anywhere 2, forging a few Blood Stone can be a good goal for a small blood economy, since that gets you 4 for rituals like Wizard's Tower (or even the big 5 rituals like Crumble and Iron Walls with a Staff of Elemental Mastery). An Ancestor Smith with a Blood Stone and Earth Boots is 5 in combat and thus can cast Weapons of Sharpness and Petrify without spending gems.

Any Ancestor Guide can make a Skull Staff bringing him to 3. He can summon a Mound Field, who with the Skull Staff is 4. If you want 5 for Lichcraft, options include a 4 pretender, a 4 pretender who can make a Ring of Sorcery with boosters you can natively forge, or empowering.

National Spells

Call Ancestor: Conj 1, 1. ( Ancestral Spiritx1). All of your ancestor mages can cast this; creates a weak Sacred ghost with poor stats and a paralyzing attack. Note that summoned sacreds are not automatically blessed unless your pretender is present in friendly Dominion.

Wrath of the Ancestors: Conj 7, 1 1. ( Ancestral Spiritx20+[2/lv]). Improved Call Ancestor, summons 20+ Ancestral Spirit for a death gem. Can be used like Swarm for distraction chaff. Summonable sacreds, even with weak stats, can be quite dangerous with various blesses (weapon blesses, death explosion, Charged Body, Fire Shield, Heat Aura, etc.).

Celestial Servant: Conj 1, 11 1. ( Celestial Servant x 1) is hard to find a strong use for given that it requires a Celestial Master or Ancestor Smith turn to summon a single unit with a lot of hp wielding a rake.

Herd of Buffaloes: 2 Conj 3 for 10 ( Buffalox5 + 1/2 [lv]). [Berserker|Berserking]] high hp animals with trample.

Celestial Hounds: Conj 4, 11 4. ( Celestial Houndx2). Flying sacred magic dogs with a high patrol bonus. Useful for patrolling thugs or to hit the rear of an enemy formation.

Call Celestial Soldiers: Conj 6, 21 15. ( Celestial Soldierx5) Your 21 Celestial Masters can cast this to summon several elite sacreds with excellent stats and the nation's signature hard-hitting glaive. Great as late-game linemen, especially if you took a strong bless.

Internal Alchemy: Alter 5, 21 10. Primarily a thematic spell. Reduces the caster's age by -15 years but has a chance to give the caster insanity. Your Celestial Masters are unlikely to get old unless hit with Decay, but could be useful if you luck into a strong indie with the given paths.

Celestial Chastisement: Evocation 5, 3. A less fatiguing version of Control that critically doesn't cost gems to cast. Inficts some damage and then attempts to enslave the target but only works against magic beings. Many powerful units and mages, including summoned elementals, are Magic beings and thus vulnerable to this spell.

Notable Generic Magic

Combat Magic

What is the best spell you can use in combat. What spells the best support your national lineup, Is there weakness that you need to fix? Any tricks you should be aware you have?

Earth, Death, Nature are your main combat paths, with Air, Water, and Astral as sides.

Your main butter is spamming old men with reliable magic paths. Only 1 in 4 will get astral magic, but you only need 5 mages and one booster to cast the fun late-game stuff, which also doesn't seem so bad as you should be spamming Ancestors from every fort.

Earth Grants useful protection and while destroying the enemy's armor, like Marble Warriors, Maws of the Earth, and Destruction.

if you can get rid of enemy hats, go Rain of Stones.

Nature can grant some other buffs, like increased size and recovery for your summoned army and mages.

With communions, it is possible to perform some higher-level Air magic like Storm & Fog Warriors, though T'ien Ch'i has a tougher time gathering potential Slaves than most Communion Nations (since only its capital Mages are guaranteed that astral 1 1).

All Ancestors know some death magic, so many can Shadow Blast and spam ghost or skeletons when they go off-script. Wailing Winds and Fields of the Dead are some late-game death. Soul Vortex with regenerating bodyguards around your communion mages will help with turbo communions.

If you recruit Masters of the Way, you can use them to spam Frozen Heart.

Ritual Magic

LA T'ien Ch'i is a nation with a normal Death endgame despite Blood being the Defining power of the late age.

As most mages are Death, finding every death gem with Dark Knowledge is important in this Gem scarce game mode.

Summoning Trolls or Lamia are can be used as additional communion batteries for your Ancestors with Soul Vortex.

It cost a lot of earth gems and requires holding a cave or Wasteland, hidden-in-terrain spells give you mages.

Your troops are behind in the trends of the age so transitioning to summoned troops is a good idea. Spirit Masters can Construct Manikins and Mandragoras.
Corpse Constructs are subjectively good chaff depending on who you talk to and how buffed they are given how many you can make with Storm Spool and Lightning Rod using only a single airgem .

Mound Fiends a good spamming undead with the limited magic sites. Ziz are also fun as siege units.
Call Celestial Soldiers Give Quality troops especially with all the earth and nature buffs you can give.

Magic Items

The Ancestor Smith mages are great forgers; with a Dwarven Hammer, they can forge cheap items for just 5 gems (it's the late age, so saving gems is particularly valuable). National mages have good thug paths and stats on an old, human chassis. They can make excellent counter thugs and can be used as light thugs with an Unaging bless, and could be strong after using Transformation or Twiceborn to get a stronger chassis.

National Items

Sword of the Five Elements: Const2, 11, 22. Grants the user Reinvigoration and a lot of Attack and Defence skill. Notable for being a weapon slot item that grants Reinvigoration. Unlike earlier eras of the nation, you don't have the paths required to forge this, but it's cheap to forge if you do find indies who can.
Armor of the Five Elements: Const2, 11, 22. Light but high prot armour that grants additional minor resistance to Fire, Shock, Cold, and Magic. Useful on thugs.

Strategy

do you have a game plan? Anything you should always be working toward? Any National weaknesses?

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.

See More

Youtuber Saquenay discussing and playing the nation (2020)
Youtuber GeneralConfusion discussing and playing the nation(2019)
Exercise in Masochism by TiredTaleTeller.

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