Ur came to be as a result of Trade & Taint, an earlier unfinished Illwinter project. I made the first Enkidus and Sobeks for that game. Shame, bone readers and reavers were some of the possible career paths for the Enkidu race. In Dominions 5 the Enkidus were given a nation influenced by Mesopotamian history. They had it in Trade & Taint as well, but in Dominions 4 it became more pronounced. After Dominions 4 was released we took up work on Trade & Taint again and ideas on the enkidus were developed. Last summer I found myself reading more on Sumerian cities and culture. The transfer of religious and temporal importance from Eridu to other cities during Sumerian times is an interesting process. Thus Uruk became the first new nation added in Dominions 5.

Hinnom is to some extent Sumerian, but I wanted the backstory of Ur to have a more Sumerian feel. I like the concept of a single center of civilization surrounded by lands inhabited by wild men roaming around tending goats and hunting game. This led to the development of the mechanic where some of a nation's units are recruitable, not in their home or fortresses, but in their surrounding lands. It gave the nation a troop rooster that accentuated the backstory of the nation. And of course, they had to have sirrushes, the wingless dragons of the Ishtar Gate.

The nations' shamans and bone readers are also influenced by some shamanistic concepts, Caananite ideas on veneration of the dead and probably a dose of some old RPGs. Ur develops into Uruk in the middle age and get access to armaments of iron. The Ensi priest king of Eridu will see his power diminished as civilization spreads and Ensis of other cities claim temporal and religious authority. In this new era the Entu of the Moon, inspired by En Hedu'anna, the daughter of Sargon the Great, becomes the unifying power of the kingdom and Uruk turns into a theocracy. - Illwinter

Uruk is a warm plain inhabited by Enkidus, large, hairy wild men with horns and unkempt hair. Since the founding of Eridu, the First City, civilization has spread and the kingdom expanded. Other cities were founded in the image of Eridu, each with its own character. Administrators from the City of Scribes aided local rulers, while traders and merchants from the City of Trade improved the economic infrastructure of the kingdom. But the Ensi of Eridu lost power and petty kings of the new cities rose to power and claimed the Ensi title. Strife and turmoil tore the kingdom apart. One of the new cities, the City of Gods was blessed by the Awakening God and saw the first Entu of the Moon erect a great temple in the city. It soon replaced the First City as religious center and the Entu priestesses of the First City moved to the City of Gods, no longer bound in marriage to the ruling Ensi. With the coming of the Awakening God, the city states have set their differences aside and joined a common cause. In the plains of Uruk the First City still stands as a symbol of civilization, although its temporal and religious power has diminished. Now each city has its own Ensi ruler. The wild men are no longer wild, and the shamans and Bone Readers of old have been replaced by the priests and mages of the cities.

Uruk is Ur transition to the MA, shoring up many of the troop weaknesses of the past. They trade their raw paths to be a communion nation of half-giants which is actually a boon for combat magic. They also fixed their arrow problem by making helmets to accommodate for their horns.

Although mages, troops, and infrastructure demanded a large increase in cost, they are powerful in numbers when back by Communions.

Uruk's god does not lose or gain magic paths when recalled from the dead (Does not work for disciples), and dominion score also cannot decrease. This is the same ability as Ur's, but is not (as of 5.51b) listed in their national summary.

Uruk likely have more mages than any other nation, which can be a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, they have many traits in common. All of them are half giants with high strength and hp (generally 24 hp for male Enkidu, 19 hp for female), average stats, and generally low but wide magic paths. Aside from the foreign recruit only Enkidu Shaman and the underwater Kulullu Sage, Uruk's mages are all sacreds with priests levels. A key weakness is that Uruk's mage-priests all have terrible morale (9 or even 8 on the Gala), with the exception of the Ensi and underwater Kulullu King, who are also the nation's only good commanders.

The fact that Uruk's city mages are all priests means they all benefit from a bless and have low sacred upkeep, making it a nation whose mage corps scales well as the game progresses. However, Uruk can't recruit any of its national mages in a land fort without an expensive (600 gold) temple. As a result, you need 1850 gold of infrastructure to start recruiting 70 gold Naditu. The foreign recruit Enkidu Shaman provide a critical way to recruit mages without making that investment.

Img	Unit Name	Abilities	Comments
	Enkidu Scout 30 6 1 +Rec Foreign	Stealthy(40) Mountain Survival Forest Survival	Giant scout. Crazy Ideas for gear it into a light raider.
	Enkidu Commander 45 23 1		cheap national commander, but never seen as you have a superior mages commander.
	Gala 75 1 2	11 7 sacred elegist(2) Spell Singer Supply Bonus(10) Female	Get if you plan on being back your pretender multiple times during the game. Spell Singer reduces their casting fatigue in exchange for longer casting times, but as only a 1 path mage, casting as many evocations as possible before the battle ends or the enemy is on you is more important. Use on your own judgment.
	Naditu 70 1 2	11 7 sacred Female	Cheap giant Communion Slave, with 19 hit points. These can be used for turbo communions with Personal Regeneration and a regeneration or hp bless, though note the Ashipu regenerate faster and won't get take extreme fatigue from any nature spells cast by your communions (but cost much more). Naditu are unique among your mages in having 0 leadership, and so can't be given bodyguards or used to ferry troops.
	Nin 75 1 2	11100% 7 sacred Female	a 1 path mage if the other girls don't look appealing. 25% are Gala without Spellsinger so faster with getting off their spells. 25% are more expensive Naditu. 25% can Spam Earth Gip and Fluff by Summon Earthpower with an Earth Gem. also cost-effective Kusarikkus Summoners. Water randoms spam Frozen Hearts.
	Gudu 80 2 2	11100% 7 sacred	Very situation as other mages now cover for the weaken Gudu. Could use as a Cheap light thug as its a giant with a single thug path of Air or Earth. if you don't like the 25% earth random on Nin, he has a 50% to be a Kusarikkus Summoner.
	Ashipu 130 1 2	111 9 sacred Disease Healer(1) Supply Bonus(10)	A disease healer and also a good nature/astral mage for your communions. Because these have more hit points than Naditu (and thus 10% regeneration is 3/turn, not 2/turn), have a nature path, and can be given bodyguards, they can be your best communion slaves, especially when you're more limited by fort recruitment than gold.
	Ishib 155 2 2	121100% 9 sacred	Exspensive for what they do but this is the guy you get a few to fish above water 2 for early water boosters. Non-water 2s can be used to Sermon of Courage and have more thug spells then Gudu.
	Ereshdingir 190 1 2	122 11 sacred Fortune Teller (5%) female	Stop bad events and a massable leader of Astral magic. Aready have enough paths to forge good Astral gear, and can cast Mind Burn and Paralyze without boosting.
	Ensi 215 19 2	1121100% 11 sacred Supply Bonus(10)	80 Commander and mage, He will be leading many of your armies. He will sit in the back and cast spells and prayers, or even thugs. You should replace his armor with something less fatiguing though.
	Entu 275 1 4 Capital Only	1231100%+10% 13 sacred inspirational (2) Fortune Teller (10%) Old Age(51/50) Female	High Priestess, Activating the blessing on all sacreds on the battle field to free up scripting space in important battles. Your not going to see a lot of her when she is not needed since she is old.
	Mashmashu 280 1 4 Capital Only	311100%+10% 15 sacred Supply Bonus(10) Fortune Teller (15%)	The cap only master of astral. With Booster, his gets to 5 for Call Apkallu and other important spell like Gateway, Stellar Focus, and Enslave Mind
	Enkidu Shaman 125 2 2 +Rec Foreign Only	12 7 Beastmaster(2) Supply Bonus(10)	You'll recruit a lot of these, as they are very infrastructure efficient. These will be your primary early game combat casters until you get a critical mass of communion mages. You can also use them as thugs after they forge themselves a Kithaironic Lion Pelt. With a Thistle Mace, and Earth Boots, they can cast Strength of Gaia and Summon Earthpower to be an impressive 43 in combat. They can also cast both path boosting buffs without gear if you give them 11. Enkidu Shaman have notably higher morale (12) and magic resistance (17) than most city Enkidu.
	Kulullu Commander 45 9 1 +Rec Underwater Only	Aquatic	Cheap under water Commander with more HP than most Indies. Don't need a Lab and Temple.
	Kulullu King 145 9 2 +Rec Underwater Only	12 7 sacred Aquatic	Better 80Ld and provides additional battle field support with its water and Holy spells.
	Kulullu Sage 190 1 2 +Rec Underwater Only	21100% 15 Aquatic	Fast Researchers and Astral randoms can make Low-level Astral Items
	Kuliltu Queen 195 1 2 +Rec Underwater Only	111100% 11 sacred Aquatic Female	Has underwater Nature and other situational Low-Level Crosspaths.

• Herd of Buffaloes: 2 Conj 3 for 10 (summon 5+ Buffaloes). Animal tramplers, not the best thing to spend your nature gems on, but sometimes you need more bodies when being rushed. Also evocation magnets

• Summon Kusarikkus: 1 Conj 4 for 6 (summon 2 Kusarikkus). Powerful Sacreds summon, High HP, and two Attack with one being an anti-demon weapon, They become one of your strongest units when they have a Giants bless and the fact you have many of the buffing spells using communions.

• Summon Ugallu: 3 Conj 5 for 24 (summon Ugallu). Need a God or spend a lot of air gems for empowerment to get. Gives you A flying 3, for all that important Air utility, will also get Geared to be a Storm caster for that 5 combat magic.

• Call Anzu: 4 Conj 7 for 4 (summon Anzu). Needs to climb higher into Air for a Great Eagle with two breath attacks. Comes too late in research but can be used in Flying Raider forces.

• Call Apkallu: 5 Conj 8 for 60 (summon Umu-apkallu). A powerful Late game mage. An embodiment of all of Uruk's magic paths. Just summoning one Greatly improves your chances of reaching your other research goals. Grants greater verity in Combat, rituals, and Forging with all his Cross paths. Also a good commander of 120, so can bring a big force with Astral Travel

Uruks strongest and most plentiful path is Astral, able to Go up to 5 with boosters or 6 if you reach Conj 8. Enkidu Shamans give 2 and with available boosters can be a resting 4. Uruk may not have immediate access to high-level rituals but Uruks main combat power during wars is powering up with communions

Water, Air, and Earth are low level but have a place in spamming magic to stop rushes or being ramped up by communions.

If you can get a 3 you can then create more 3 Ugallus.

Boosting Water needs particular randoms on some above land commanders. Some may get 2 which is the first step towards for Sea King and Naiads. Can later turn into Water Queens if you can secure a lake.

Earth is at 1 unless you luck into a rare double Earth random so he can make Earth Boots to make himself 3, then climbed with Troll Kings for a boosted 4.

Troll Shamans can give you Death, and some with Skull Staffs are 3.

Can cast Stellar Focus

Have the paths to make thug items for your mages with Half-giant bodies. Kithaironic Lion Pelt is an efficient thug armor. give a Crystal Matrix to an indie mage you find so they can Communion.

It's Expensive but can make a Ring of Sorcery to make a Ring of Wizardry. Lots of boosting and likely only going to make the two.

Headdress of the Bull 5 1. Grant the user +2 strength and a retinue of a Buffalo. Great on a mage thug as it's a cheap item that boosts their damage, and gives them a trampling animal to buy him time for buffing. Also, Buffalos are able to run over any would-be assassin.

Uruk's troops are relatively cheap in recruitment points, so resources will determine how much you can recruit in the early game. Uruk archers are too resource-intensive to be useful for expansion. Uruk better infantry have high HP, decent protection, and shields, and thus are not threatened by independent archer fire (though note that the cheaper Enkidu spearman and Enkidu warrior don't have helmets and thus are vulnerable to archers!). Their weaknesses are low attack/defense stats and attack density; as a result, your easiest provinces in expansion will be those with a lot of archers and you will have trouble expanding into 50 mixed indie infantry and of course barbarians.

That said, Uruk infantry are tough enough that in decent numbers (~15; you can split into too squads or have an Ensi leader for line formation) they can expand with essentially no losses. Smaller groups tend to get surrounded and die.

Mushussu Chariot can be used to expand against many independent types when supported by 5-10 infantry. This requires some practice, but can be quite reliable and can be your best option if not taking scales. A few details are worth understanding about monster chariot expansion:

• Putting the Mushussu Chariot in its own squad seems like a good idea since it can help them hit the enemy at the same time as your infantry, but it's not: The chariot will rout whenever the rider survives losing most of her 19 hp.

• A single chariot in the same squad as 5-10 infantry, placed in the back on Hold and Attack Closest can kill most independent types. Like with War elephant expansion, the Mushussu Chariot can be in an archer squad on Hold and Fire instead

• It's important that the Mushussu chariot be supported by infantry; it's fairly common for the rider to die, and the riderless Mushussu cannot survive while surrounded for long (this seems surprising given the Mushussu has 3.5x the hit points, but tramplers stay alive by constantly moving as they squish things, which prevents a lot of attacks). Fortunately, if your entire squad is engaged, the Fear aura generally leads to a quick rout.

• Even with poor scales ( 3, neutral ), one can field two expansion parties on turn 3 by recruiting a chariot and 2 Enkidu Spearman on turns 1 and 2, and leaving behind 4 Enkidu Soldier when your starting army moves out on turn 2. If you're doing this, avoid heavy cavalry, barbarians, and independent groups without archers. If you're doing this, don't recruit only Naditu mages; they can't lead troops.

• When using larger squads with ~20 Enkidu infantry, be careful to avoid the chariot getting stuck behind a wall of troops. Since the chariot does all the killing, his being stuck can result in a lot more casualties for your Enkidu.

• This is not a cheap way to expand, since each chariot costs 200 gold, and the chariot will likely get unlucky and die eventually. A subtle but common mechanism is that the chariot rider gets a Crippled affliction. If it doesn't die during movement between provinces, it's useless in combat unless you can somehow get the rider killed and replaced (without losing the Mushussu itself) while it has a combat speed of 2. For this reason, it's better for the rider to die and be replaced in battles, since that always results in an unafflicted chariot for the next fight.

• Since every province can foreign recruit Enkidu Warrior, you can strengthen expansion parties whenever you move through a province a second time.

Infrastructure. Uruk has some interesting options for how to do early game infrastructure. Its forts take 750 gold and 5 turns, but come with 30 admin (same as a Fortress!) and 2 commander points. They have two downsides: only 100 siege defense, and you can't recruit national mages without also buying a 600 gold temple (Enkidu Shaman don't like cities). You can upgrade Uruk forts twice, at an expensive 450 gold for 100 siege defense and 10 administrative each time.

Because Enkidu Shaman are an affordable battle mage who just require a lab to recruit, it's an option to just build labs in year 1 and start scaling mage recruitment without building new forts. The investment is just 500 gold, vs. 750+600+500 (and 5 turns of delay) to make battle mages. So there's a valid strategy of taking scales (which often gets you some free labs), building 2-3 early labs, and doing a mage recruitment rush. If you're going with this strategy, you may want your first research target to be Evocation 3 so your shamans can cast Sleep Cloud, possibly even before Alteration 3.

The main downside of not building forts is that it's hard to mass an army capable of conquering land and forts in an early war. Options for Uruk include foreign recruiting Enkidu Warrior and building forts whose job is to just make troops for their first several turns (and build your labs elsewhere).

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

Link here to guides for the nation, on and off(?) the wiki. This should likely include things like suggested pretender designs as well as strategy guides.

	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