Vanarus is a nation with no clearly defined strengths or weaknesses. They have Vans, but Vanheim's are superior yet more expensive. They have Skinshifters, but Vanheim's are superior and cheaper. They have Chud Hirdmen, but Vanheim's Einheres are superior and cheaper. They can do blood sacrifice, but Abysia can do it better. They have good researchers (third-best in their era after C'tis and Ermor), but not exceptional, and Ermor can potentially surpass Vanarus in research without much trouble. They can rush opponents thanks to stealthy sacreds, but Vanheim or Ashdod can rush better. However, Vanarus has a wide magic access, which makes this nation strategically unpredictable and less susceptible to falling to any one strong strategy (such as hellblessed giants rush or Foul Vapors rush) thanks to fast research. This variety is further enhanced with many national and regional summons available for the nation, which can fill many roles, and oftentimes exist as cheaper, easier to research and cast, more powerful versions of other generic summons. Also of note is the relative lack of magic leadership among Vanarusian commanders, which makes some seemingly obvious options for their magic paths and gem income (such as Corpse Constructs, Fire Ants or Claymen) unfeasible. If allowed to survive until the late game, this nation can snowball into a juggernaut thanks to having not one, not two, but three snowballing tools in Blood, Death and Firebirds.

Notable units are underscored.

Commanders
Scout - just scouts with snow move. The information they provide is vital for choosing the right research path and build order.

Vanarusian Herse - low quality commanders with snow move. Somewhat slow because of their armor, so using Godes for bringing reinforcements is sometimes more efficient.

Vanarusian Jarl - middle quality commanders, useful for setting up formations and generally for strategies which don't involve sacreds and blessing. Jarls themselves are sacred, but there is no reason to use them as combatants when you have Vanabogs. Even if you want to have sacred werewolves via Lychantropos' Amulet, Godes are still a better choice.

Vanarusian Gode - very cheap and spammable priests who can lead 10 troops and have good map movement. They are also best suited commanders for building forts and temples. Once they get some experience, they become able to transport more troops, making Herses even less useful. Due to having a low buying price and costing less in upkeep than a scout, you may recruit a large amount of these early without too big of a hit to your economy, which can help with calling back combatant pretenders or fighting undead-focused enemies, or deterring harmful enemy dominion effects.

Chud Jarl - a better version of human Jarls with the added ability to bless themselves. There is little reason to ever use them. They do have significantly higher morale and magic resistance than their human counterparts, so hypothetically they could be used to fight against morale strategies or hold out a little bit longer against Astral attacks.

Vanarusian Sage - some of the best researchers in the Middle Age. National magic path access and gem income for Fire, Air and Death makes it easy to equip all of your sages with Owl Quills, Skull Mentors or even Lightless Lanterns, allowing them to surpass MA C'tis in research and to potentially match MA Ermor. Random Nature and Death paths may provide with the opportunity to Transform or Twiceborn some of them at some point, while Blood randoms can help Vanabogs with blood hunting, eventually replacing them once Blood Thorns and Sanguine Dowsing Rods become available. Air2 and Air3 ones can be used as combat mages for casting evocations and summoning elementals.

Vanabog - top of the line commanders, sacred combatants, mages, forgers, blood hunters, etc. Their sole downside is their scarcity and buying price, although their upkeep is almost the same as that of your sages. Chudes hate Vans, so do not put Vanabogs in command of Chud Hirdmen if you do not want your province to explode with unrest due to a random national event.

Vyedma - forest-only illiterate stealthy mages who you can recruit with just a lab. They are twice as expensive as independent mages, so you should initially only recruit them for specific tasks such as forging from specific crosspaths or buffing against specific challenges. Later on, they can serve as all-purpose buffers for Mass Protection, Legions of Steel, etc. Vyedmas, compared to Vyeduns, are also better suited for site searching due to having a random Fire path.

Vyedun - same as Vyedmas, but more expensive, and with more Fire and Air instead of additional Water.

Troops
Vanarusian Archer - just archers with snow move. They are not really useful until you can buff them with Flaming Arrows, which isn't going to be easy, since your highest Fire mage is a 25% chance Fire 2 Vyedun, and your closest easily available Fire booster is at Construction 6.

Vanarusian Huskarls (spear or axe) - cheap and weak, you will not see them anywhere but in your starting army and in province defense. If you need someone to die to a lance charge instead of a Chud Hirdman, these are your guys, but even then a summoned animal is almost always a better option. They trade blows with independent Tribes, Militias and Light Infantries at a roughly 1 to 1 kill/death rate, having the biggest edge against ranged attackers. This means you need roughly twice as many Huskarls as there are enemies in order to come out of the fight with minimal losses.

Vanarusian Hirdmen (spear, axe, sword) - slightly more expensive and slightly stronger, you will not see them anywhere but in province defense for forts. They trade blows with independent Tribes, Militias and Light Infantries at a roughly 2 to 1 rate, having the biggest edge against ranged attackers. This means you need roughly as many Vanarusian Hirdmen as there are enemies in order to come out of the fight with minimal losses.

Vanarusian Berserker - a weaker version of the Chud Hirdman. If you are using Chud Hirdmen, you can recruit one or two of these guys every once in a while in situations when you can't afford to recruit one more Chud Hirdman, but can afford a Vanarusian Berserker. They trade blows with independent Tribes, Militias and Light Infantries at a roughly 2.5 to 1 rate, having the biggest edge against unarmored Tribes and a disadvantage against ranged attackers. This means you need roughly 75% as many Vanarusian Berserkers as there are enemies in order to come out of the fight with minimal losses.

Oath-Bound - sacred defensive troops with a balanced cost. Unless you are using a heavy bless, there is no reason to recruit them as anything but bodyguards against nations with recruitable assassins. If you do use them as troops, be aware of their low combat speed and short weapons. The low combat speed makes them likely to take a hit first before they can attack and also makes them especially vulnerable to tramplers, such as Minotaurs or Elephants, while short weapons make them extremely vulnerable to a Fire Shield bless. Even without a bless, they trade blows with independents extremely well due to their high survivability, but tend to do a lot worse if their Mirror Image is disrupted by ranged attacks.

Chud Hirdmen - strong troops with two attacks which require more resources than other normal troops. Well-suited for dealing with hordes of weak troops or with tough giants due to their good armor, berserking ability and dual-wielded slashing weapons. They trade blows with independent Tribes, Militias and Light Infantries at a roughly 3.5 to 1 rate, having the biggest edge against Wolf Tribe and ranged attackers, who can do almost no damage through their armor. This means you need roughly 35% as many Chud Hirdmen as there are enemies in order to come out of the fight with minimal losses. Chud Hirdmen are worse at dealing with Heavy Cavalry than Chud Skinshifters and often die to a lance charge before they can instantly kill the enemy with their own attacks. You can use Huskarls and archers from your starting army, summoned animals, Chud Skinshifters and other means to absorb lance charges in order to not pointlessly lose troops. Another danger for Chud Hirdmen are Barbarians, who present a similar problem to Heavy Cavalries - getting killed in one hit before you are able to kill the enemy in one hit - with a similar solution.

Chud Skinshifters - strong and gold-expensive troops which require a lot of recruitment points, but almost no resources. These are your elite shock troops, best suited for running into enemy's rear like cavalry. They can tank heavy cavalry charges too, due to their overall 58 HP and recuperation ability. Their length 3 greataxes with 26 slashing damage also can seriously hurt giants and immobile Pretenders, if the need arises. They are somewhat vulnerable to arrows due to only having furs for protection, but they usually can survive long enough under fire unless extremely outnumbered. They trade blows with independent Tribes, Militias and Light Infantries at a roughly 3.75 to 1 rate, having a significant edge against pretty much anything as long as they don't get surrounded, and a disadvantage against Wolf Tribe due to having low protection stat. This means you need roughly 30% as many Chud Skinshifters as there are enemies in order to come out of the fight with minimal losses. In addition to having no fear of Heavy Cavalry, they also have a significant advantage against Barbarians due to the fact that Chud Skinshifters have higher combat speed, allowing them to kill the first line of enemies without receiving retaliation. Sometimes this alone is enough to rout the Barbarians, but if it isn't, the first round of enemy attacks is not guaranteed to reduce their overall 58 HP to zero, allowing them to attack twice in bear form in second round of contact, which routs the enemy in most cases. A 35%-40% rate is enough in this case. On top of all this, Chud Skinshifters are also your only troops with the marching range of 2 on the strategic map, but all of your commanders except Vanabogs need a movement-boosting item to match this speed. Minimal resource cost means that you can use Chud Skinshifters to set up aggressive borders instead of clearing provinces around your capital during first turns of the game.

National heroes

Old Bear Thunder the Last Perkunu - too frail and too valuable to be used as a combat mage. Pray that he doesn't die from a disease before you have a way to cure him. With one more level in Nature from boosters he becomes young again and stops getting sick. Can forge and cast powerful stuff like boosters and global enchantments. He is also your only source of Astral magic. Do not use him for Mind Hunt or Astral Projection, because if he gets Feebleminded, he loses the ability to recuperate from his afflictions even with Nature boosters. You can Empower him in Astral for 30 pearls to give him the ability to summon Alkonosts.

Yngvar the Varyag - his main purpose is to bring a host of Oath-Bound into your capital a turn after his arrival. It is hard to think of any particular use for him aside from maybe carrying a Crystal Shield into battles, which is something Vanabogs can't do. Another possible use is making him into a super-stealthy Oath-Bound leading raider by equipping him with stealth boots and other stealth-boosting items, since Vanabogs cannot equip boots. Everything else, they can do better.

Baba Yaga the Hag - same idea as the Last Perkunu, but with different paths and without being plugged into life support on arrival. She is also an extremely fast flier with built-in resistances, great undead leadership and magic paths suitable for different army-wiping battlefield enchantments, which might make her useful for some surprise attacks, but in most cases it is better to not risk losing her, unless you are going to Twiceborn and Transform her. She is the only one who gives you access to Rusalka summons in this era, but you might never use them, because Vanarus has no natural Water gem income and no access to the Volla of the Bountiful Forest titan, which is available for EA Rus and LA Bogarus. You do have recruitable Vyedmas who can search for Water, unlike other eras, but with the ability to Blood Sacrifice, your Water gems might be better used for Vengeful Water.

Notable spells are underscored.

Summon Simargl - weak non-magic flyers which you can summon one at a time. Their main purpose is patrolling, which they are very good at, second only to Nazca's Condors. This makes them situationally useful against nations with recruitable assassins and seducers. Just make sure to set them as bodyguards for the patrolling commanders, or else they will die and you will have to summon them all over again. To save turns, you may only summon them with your spread-out blood hunters while you wait for the unrest in their province to go down.

Summon Firebird - almost useless in combat, but extremely powerful economic boosters if produced in great numbers. There is one problem: you do not have a Fire/Astral crosspath in this era. Your chances at being able to summon them are the following: a) Pick an awake Deives of the Sun Pretender to empower some lizard shamans or independent Sages in Fire; b) pick Turmoil3/Luck3 scales and secure multiple coastal provinces to get some shipwrecked Alchemists or Adepts of the Golden Order in random events; c) find an Alchemists Guild, Magus Temple or the High Temple of the Magi. Neither of these are easy or cheap, or reliable. Still, if you do get lucky, you should absolutely invest into these summons, unless you are playing a short game where such an investment is not going to pay off.

Sloth of Bears - not sacred = not needed. Hypothetically you could use these regional summons for siege strength, but Cave Grubs or Black Hawks can do a better job, either because of strength or mobility. They also can serve as bait for enemy evocations thanks to their high HP, in situations when you need to go against an enemy who researched Evocation early, while you have a long way to go before you get Mist/Storm/Darkness.

Contact Sirin - an okay dream seducer, slightly worse than a Succubus (14 vs 15), but with better stealth. However, you do not have Astral income in Middle Age. In fact, you hardly have anyone who can search for Astral sites. As such, you will be unlikely to use these summons as Vanarus, especially since you have a much better use for Astral pearls because of Dispel, The Wrath of God and Alkonosts. The only way to use them regularly in this era is to pick an awake Great Enchantress Pretender.

Summon Likho - the opposite of Firebirds. These stealthy trouble-makers are very well suited for mass-casting as MA Vanarus due to requiring Death income, which only the Middle Age version of this nation has. Have a bunch of them walking around enemy provinces, never staying in one place and avoiding forts (because the enemy can order his troops to "move and patrol" onto a fort, intercepting you). They can create all kinds of bad events, from destroying labs and temples, to having Troglodytes conquer enemy province. If nothing like this happens, they will at least hurt enemy gold income with unrest. Usually they should be deployed against nations whose Pretender has high Turmoil or any Misfortune scales. Blood-focused nations also may suffer an additional hit to their Blood economy from increased unrest. Sometimes it might be useful to have one Likho in an army which is about to fight a Pretender or other powerful combatants, because Likhos have a range 50 precision 100 Curse natural attack.

Awaken Draugar - fairly expensive and too few to be immediately useful, these regional undead summons can be a slightly better alternative to summoning generic Wights, especially underwater, thanks to having Amphibious trait, as opposed to Poor Amphibian for Wights.

Contact Alkonost - fast, flying and upkeep-free Holy 3 priests, who come two research levels earlier than the generic and hard to summon Bishop Fish. Normally only good for Divine Blessing and throne claiming, these ladies truly shine in the hands of MA Vanarus because of the nation's blood sacrifice ability. Vanarus has a very hard time getting Astral Pearls, but if you are planning to use globals like The Wrath of God and Vengeful Water (and you should), they are worth it. Even without globals, the dominion pressure they can create is extremely dangerous in Middle Age where it can only be matched by Abysia.

Summon Rusalka - more assassins than seducers, these creatures can only be reliably summoned by Baba Yaga, if you ever get her, and cost a whopping 16 Water gems, for a nation with no guaranteed Water income. This makes them more expensive for Vanarus than Alkonosts, because it takes Vanarus 2 gems to get an Astral pearl, but 4 gems to get a Water gem. On a more positive note, they can become extremely powerful assassins with Frozen Heart once Alteration 6 is researched.

Send Vodyanoy - powerful Water mages that become available earlier than generic Naiads. However, they suffer from the same price issues for Vanarus as Rusalkas, and also have to be sent into a water province, which they can't get out of on their own, unless it's a province you already own and have a lab in. You will be unlikely to own a single water province, unless it's a tiny lake near your capital.

Send Lady Midday - another specialty spell for Vanarus. This time it's an ethereal flying assassin with a diseasing weapon. Unfortunately, they only have two miscellaneous slots for equipment, which will probably be filled by a Stone Bird and a Dancing Trident. They need that harassment penalty and repels due to their weak attack and defense stats. Alternatively, you can give them a Burning Pearl and/or Ring of the Warrior if you really need them to land a hit and disease the target, even if it costs them their life. Using Luck/Twist Fate/Fool's Luck is another option which plays into their etherealness, low HP and Fear Aura. It's not the best idea to send them against nations with built-in magic weapons and Berserk. They can be summoned by Vanabogs while they wait for the unrest from blood hunting to go down. Placing a number of them on your fort while it is besieged (or just having them in your forts in advance) is the most beneficial. You also may use them to hunt for enemy Pretenders who do not have recuperation and who have little to no Nature or Healer access in their nation which would allow them to cure the disease.

Summon Zmey - decent non-magical summons. They have flight, good morale, three attacks plus range 8 fire spit, decent protection and health, and don't lose their heads when damaged unlike Hydras. Not expensive (especially if you use Deives of the Sun as your Pretender) and can be summoned by uncommon Vyeduns or rare Vanabogs. If all of your Fire gems did not go into Firebirds for some reason, you can summon a bunch of these - mages hate them. Being a cold-blooded summon for a Cold 2 nation is still a bit of a problem. Also, they are not affected by the Dragon Master summoning bonus.

Contact Gamayun - forbiddingly expensive and not very useful for MA Vanarus. Hypothetically you could use them in a communion to cast Holy 10 Banishment spells against undead armies, but even this niche tactic is better done by Vanabogs with a Blood communion. They are better as fortune-tellers (if you took heavy Misfortune scales), researchers (if you took Death scales and Half-Dead bless) and astral cord cutters. You also may consider using them as a hit squad of Soul Slay casters against Pretenders and supercombatants, but you will probably need to pick an awake Great Enchantress for this tactic to work.

Send Bukavac - neutral underwater tramplers to terrorize underwater provinces. Effective only when mass-cast by multiple mages at the same province. These mages are either uncommon Water2 Vyedmas with two boosters each, or hard to get Vodyanoys with one booster each. Either way, it's an extremely niche summon even for Vanarus, which seems to be best suited for using them.

Contact Beregina - good amphibious mages who can take a larger amount of troops with them underwater compared to Rusalkas. They still suffer from the same problem as the rest of Water summons for this nation.

Contact Vila (Cloud and Mountain) - more versatile versions of the generic Fairy Queens. Available at Conjuration 7 instead of 8 for Faerie Court. They also require a lower level mage to cast and come in two variants to diversify your gem usage. They are better healers (Healer instead of Disease Healer), capable of forming communions and are mediocre seducers (but great assassins). With the exception of not having Spirit Sight, they can fill the same roles as the Fairy Queen, but better. However, a lot of their possible roles can be done better by cheaper alternatives. Even their relatively unique ability for Vanarus, which is their Nature communions, still could probably be done easier with Vyedmas equipped with Crystal Matrixes.

Contact Leshiy - extremely powerful stealthy warrior-mages to fight for forest provinces in large games. They aren't unique, unlike elemental royalty, which makes this spell even stronger. Can only be cast in forests.

"Vanarusian Oath-Bound have come to plunder!" - creates 2d6 Oath-Bound led by an Oath-Bound commander to attack enemy territory. If they survive, you get a province, a stealthy raiding party and an angry enemy. The province must be coast or freshwater, the latter needs at least 300 population. This event is considered bad and takes current province scales into account, yours or enemy's. You still can increase the chance with Likhos or by spreading Turmoil+Luck scales into enemy lands, since enemies do not benefit from your Luck scales being positive, but still suffer the increased chance for events from having any Luck scale. Using Misfortune scales can increase the chance even further, but bears risks. If the event happens in your territory, you simply get the described party in that province, without being attacked.

"A group of Oath-Bound have returned from distant lands. They bring treasures and tales of adventure." - gives you 100 Gold, 2d6 Oath-Bound in capital and a random magic item from Construction 0-4. Can happen quite often, and even a couple times per turn, if you have lots of Firebirds in your capital.

"Some of the Chud Hirdmen are grumbling. They resent being led by Vanir." - a bad event which increases unrest by 10 in a province where a Vanabog commands Chud Hirdmen. Can happen multiple times at once, if you have multiple Vanabogs doing the same in one place.

"Winter is harsh in the lands of Vanarus." - a bad event which can only happen in or next to your original capital during winter. Increases Cold by 3 and kills 2% of the population. If you needed another reason not to pick Misfortune scales or not to store Likhos in your capital, here it is. But wait, there's more!

"Nomad tribes have attacked!" - a bad event which spawns a group of Horse Tribe Cavalry to attack a province in or next to your original capital.

"Nomad tribes have come, plundered and left!" - a bad event which reduces your treasury by 100 gold, increases unrest by 10 and kills 3% of population in a province in or next to your original capital.

"Nomad tribes have frightened the peasants. Many have left their homes". - a bad event which increases unrest by 15, kills 2% of population and forces 10% of population to emigrate from a province in or next to your original capital.

"A monster has emerged from its pit to wreak havoc!" - a bad event which spawns a neutral Bukavac to attack your sea province next to your original capital.

"One of your commanders has been lured to the river by a woman of the water". - a bad event which creates an assassination battle against a Rusalka. Requires a Magic scale of 1 and a commander in a freshwater province.

"The temple has been pillaged and burnt by nomad raiders!" - a bad event which destroys your temple, takes away 50 gold, generates 5 unrest and kills 1% of population in a land province. Cannot happen in the capital, but does not require proximity to capitals. Considering all of the above, maybe don't take Misfortune scales as Vanarus.

"A leader has stepped forward among the skinshifters." - a good event which can only happen if there is a Chud Skinshifter in your capital. Gives you a Chud Skinshifter commander, but does not consume a Chud Skinshifter soldier. The commander has low leadership values, no morale bonuses for troops and no ability to set formations. Still, they have fast map movement speed, allowing them to transport Chud Skinshifters across several provinces, including forests and mountains. You also may try to make them into combatants due to their high HP and recuperation ability, but Vanabogs are better suited for this role.

"One of the skinshifters has inherited a talisman." - a good event which gives you a Bear Claw Talisman if a Chud Skinshifter is present in a province with Luck scales. Hardly useful unless you want your seducers to go after female commanders.

"While traveling the mountains your skinshifters were followed by a large bear. The beast now shares their camp." - a good event which can only happen in mountain provinces with Chud Skinshifter troops. Gives you one normal (non-sacred) Great Bear. Hardly useful.

"While traveling the woods your skinshifters were followed by a pack of wolves. The beasts now share their camp." - a good event which can only happen in forest provinces with Chud Skinshifter troops. Gives you 5d6 wolves. Hardly useful.

"The local lord has struck a deal with the leshiy." - a good event which can only happen in forests. It reduces Sloth by 1, Death by 2, but increases Misfortune by 3. You won't need it unless you pick a hellbless strategy. Considering the other two generic fairy court events for hellblessed dominions which happen during spring and summer, Vanarus can survive under Death scales a little bit longer than other living nations.

"A mysterious plowman is working the fields at night. In the morning, farmers find acres of well-plown earth. Harvest will be good this year!" - a good event which only happens at spring and requires a farmland province with Magic scale 2 to be next to your capital. Reduces Death by 3 and gives +5 to province resource and income. Helps Vanarus to survive a hellbless longer.

"A troubadour at court has spun a magical tale. It is spreading like fire among the people, influencing the realm with its wonders." - a good event which will reduce Drain scale in your capital by 2 and unrest by 10.

A wide magic path access combined with fast research and above average troops allows Vanarus to be prepared for any kind of threat as long as they gather intelligence on their opponents. Moreover, this nation can threaten enemies in all kinds of ways, too, leaving the opposition confused as to what the elven nation is going to do. In fact, the possibilities for Vanarus are so vast that it is counterproductive to try and realise all of them. Instead, the player is supposed to use careful adjustment and information gathering throughout the game in order to find the best solution to their current problem in each game. Enemy unit choice, bless, scales, pretender type, national magic and other factors play an important role in deciding which tools from the nation's arsenal are best suited for the current task. Note that most of the spells listed here require overcasting and at least one magic booster.

Notable spells and items are underscored.

Items
Construction 6 is the most important research priority for Vanarus for forging magic boosters. Otherwise, most mages do not have deep enough magic paths to cast powerful spells and rituals. Fire Vanabogs can forge Skull of Fire, which can be used on an Empowered Fire2 Vyedun to forge Flame Helmet (or he can summon a Flame Spirit for the job). Old Bear Thunder can forge Winged Helmet and put it on to forge Bag of Winds. Vyedmas can forge Water Bracelets and Water2 ones can put them on to forge Robe of the Sea. An Earth/Blood Vanarusian Sage can Empower in Earth (1→2) to forge Earth Boots, then equip Blood Thorn, Empower in Blood and forge Blood Stone. Old Bear Thunder can Empower in Astral to forge Starshine Skullcap. Baba Yaga can forge Skull Staff and equip it to forge Skullface. Old Bear Thunder, Baba Yaga and uncommon forest mages can forge Thistle Mace, while Old Bear Thunder in particular can also forge Moonvine Bracelet and put both of these on to forge Treelord's Staff. A rare Blood3 Vanabog or an Empowered Blood2 one can forge Blood Thorn, and it should not be too expensive to Empower in Blood again to forge Armor of Souls and Brazen Vessel if you need. Sanguine Dowsing Rods should be forged by any Blood mage to improve your blood hunting. With a Sanguine Dowsing Rod and a Blood Thorn equipped, a Blood1 Vanarusian Sage can replace a Vanabog, so the elf can make himself useful elsewhere. Owl Quills, Skull Mentors and Lightless Lanterns are all available and are key for securing a research lead.

As for items for combat, the possibilities are almost limitless. From Vine Shield and Frost Brand for combatants, to Flying Carpet and Ring of Returning for Vanabog Wind of Death casters, to Soul Contracts and Lifelong protections for summoning infernal forces, to Skull Talisman/Handful of Acorns/Water Bottle for guaranteed retinue, and so on.

Buffs
Vanarus has access to the entire range of protective spells, except Antimagic, which still can be reached after some time by Gamayuns if needed. Army of Lead and Army of Gold also require some climbing, but are not forbiddingly expensive for the point in the game when they are available thanks to the wide access to path-boosting items. Offensive buffs are also all within reach, with Flaming Arrows, Light of the Northern Star and Will of the Fates arriving later than the rest, unless you get lucky with Astral independent mages. If your strategy revolves around fielding large armies, or an enemy focuses on the power of his few sacreds or a combatant pretender, you can overwhelm the opposition with fast and hard-hitting Chud Skinshifters and Chud Hirdmen under Quickening + Legions of Steel + Weapons of Sharpness + Army of Lead + Mass Regeneration + Army of Giants + Strength of Giants + Fog Warriors + Relief + Mass Flight + Haste + Arrow Fend + Wave Warriors + Serpent's Blessing + Growing Fury + elemental protections. This is an extreme case, of course, but it gives you an idea of the potential that this nation can reach relatively cheaply thanks to fast research and their unusually wide magic path access. And this does not mention the offensive magic which they can use together with buffs to kill enemies even faster. Even with a more modest approximation, Fog Warriors + Marble Warriors + Wave Warriors + Army of Giants + Legions of Steel is still formidable, and Vanarus just keeps getting stronger after that.

As for warrior-mages, their potential is even greater due to national access to various items, Transformation (for combatant communions and size 5-6 mages) and personal buffs. If all of the above spells are not enough, these select units can be further enhanced with Ironskin, Mossbody, Temper Flesh, Summon Earthpower, Flying Shield, Fire Shield, Breath of Winter, Soul Vortex, Hell Power, Phoenix Pyre, stackable elemental protections, Mistform, Mirror Image, powers, and later on with Body Ethereal, Twist Fate, Astral Shield (unless you get lucky with Astral independent mages).

Debuffs
Maws of the Earth for dealing with high defense enemies such as Vans. Prison of Sedna and Prison of Fire to deal with elites (the latter is available sooner in most cases, but the former can be greatly enhanced with Blood Rain, Wailing Winds and Dark Skies). Both Mist and Storm are available and will put you on equal footing with other nations, since you basically don't have archers, so neither should they, but more importantly, Storm can prevent most enemy flyers from attacking your mages, while it will also enhance any lightning spells you might be using, and will also strengthen Storm Demons and Air Elementals, which you can summon. Grip of Winter is a good spell for Vanarus, thanks to native cold resistance on all units and Water paths on Vyedmas, it can be enhanced with Storm as well as with Wolven Winter ritual. It works well against Heat scale nations, and should be avoided against nations with Cold Power and Ice Protection abilities. Wind Guide is here, but is only worth casting against nations which do not need a Precision stat or have perfect darkvision. Otherwise, it is better to stack Storm + Mist + Darkness (the latter can be easily cast by Baba Yaga or by a rare Death3 Vanabog, or by a Vampire Lord summoned by said type of Vanabog) to severely impair aim on evocations and fire arrows. Steal Breath and False Fetters works well against combatant commanders, and the latter also benefits from morale lowering spells just like Prison of Sedna and Prison of Fire. Sleep Cloud can be used in combination with Foul Vapors and/or Poison Cloud to take out enemies without poison resistance. Rigor Mortis can be easily cast by Baba Yaga or by a rare Death3 Vanabog, or by a Vampire Lord summoned by said type of Vanabog in later stages of the game to help undead armies you can create thanks to native Death income and Death paths on Vanabogs, or even just in combination with skeleton spamming on the battlefield. If you are going against Cold nations, Heat From Hell can be overcast to enhance your Zmeys or Devils while fatiguing and igniting your enemies, and is especially powerful if Breath of the Desert was cast beforehand (just don't forget to give your commanders a Ring of Fire).

Battle magic
Your workhorse evocation spells are the combination of Storm and Wrathful Skies, as well as Lightning Bolt and Thunder Strike. But most evocations are available to Vanarus, except some high end ones and most of Earth. Pick and choose whichever suit your current opposition best. Cloud spells might not be the best for you generally speaking, but increase in value during fort defense. For example, Falling Frost, Poison Cloud and Foul Vapors combine well with skeleton spamming and fighting cold-averse enemies. Fire Cloud, Falling Fires, Flame Eruption are the Fire version, and combine well with Zmeys or Devils which you can summon via rituals or items, and can be used against fire-averse enemies. Even Fire Storm comes within reach after some time, and can complement Zmeys and Devils nicely. Magma Eruption can be overcast by Vyeduns or rare Fire Vyedmas against enemies with low protection stat, while fielding Chud Hirdmen or protection-buffed Devils. Shimmering Fields is a rare but strong late game option, which requires expensive boosters or a rare Air4 Vanabog, and can be used to launch attacks with Storm Demons and Air Elementals, especially when they are enhanced with Storm. Acid Rain or Acid Storm can be used by rare Fire Vyedmas underwater, if you ever need it. Wind of Death can be overcast by common Death 2 Vanabogs with a Skull Staff while raiding living armies with low magic resistance, while Cloud of Death can be used to support undead screens while defending forts. Wailing Winds + Blood Rain can be used to rout enemy armies, which is especially useful when you are storming a fort or pillaging, and becomes especially devastating under the Dark Skies global. Bane Fire can be used by uncommon Fire Vanabogs to kill enemy combatants, including Pretenders, as long as they are held in place with spells or with disposable troops such as skeletons. Storm of Thorns can be mass-cast in late game against nations with no Air access for Arrow Fend. Charm Animal, Charm, Control the Dead and Hellbind Heart are all available and can be used in late game when needed. Control or Opposition are not too far from reach if you need to destroy a Golem or some other strong magical unit, although Shatter is easier to cast against Golems in particular.

There are also numerous options for dealing with undead and demons. Cheap Godes can repel early undead invasions, while every Vanabog can cast Smite Demon. Vanabogs also can join Blood communions to cast very powerful Banishment against undead. Later, all Vyedmas can overcast Cleansing Water and some can overcast Demon Cleansing or Ravenous Swarm. Vanabogs also later gain the ability to cast Dust to Dust to deal with elite undead, or Wither Bones to destroy groups of strong undead. Alkonosts can cast Holy3 Banishment, but a better and much more expensive option which arrives later is a communion of Gamayuns for Banishment, Solar Rays, Solar Brilliance and Divine Channeling (the latter also can be cast by a Blood communion of Vanabogs and will turn your numerous Godes into Smite Demon casters and better Banishers).

All four types of elemental summoning spells are available, with Living Fire and Living Earth arriving later than the rest. Air Elementals can be mass-cast by Vanabogs to rout enemy armies and are especially useful for their ability to fly during Storm. Other elementals can be used to diversify your gem usage, and Water ones in particular can help Rusalkas during assassinations or raids, especially underwater. Howl also becomes available at the same time as size 6 elementals and is especially useful during sieges. Coincidentally, this spell is stronger in forests and mountains, and you are likely to have forts in forests for recruiting Vyedmas and Vyeduns. Swarm and Creeping Doom are also a frequent tool in the arsenal of scales Vanarus, due to the fact that these two spells are located in the Alteration school. They can be cast by your forest-only mages, who have stealth and therefore can be used as occasional raiders, although they are much more valuable as buffers and forgers. And finally, each Vanabog has Death magic of at least 1, sometimes going up to 3, and Blood magic of at least 1, sometimes going up to 3, which allows them to act as skeleton or imp spammers in combat.

Remote attacks
For killing units, Seeking Arrow is accessible early and can be spammed thanks to national Air access and income. With boosters, other spells become available, such as Fires from Afar, which also can be spammed. In the late game, these spells can be combined with Murdering Winter, which in turn can be enhanced with Wolven Winter. An empowered Vyedun or a Flame Spirit can be given boosters to also cast Flames From the Sky on top of all that, if the game goes on long enough for you to reach Evocation 9. Most importantly, a wide magic access allows Vanarus to stack effects from army-killing spells. On the same turn as you cast remote attacks, you can send a Wind of Death raider in the same province via Cloud Trapeze to do damage during magic phase, and also send another Wind of Death attack via normal movement phase. If you don't have this many Death2 Vanabogs, same damage-stacking tactic can be done with Wolven Winter + Murdering Winter + Flames from The Sky + Fires from Afar, although it could be quicker and cheaper to Empower a few Death1 Vanabogs to 2. With Turmoil3 + Luck3 + Magic3 scales and/or a sizeable collection of Firebirds you can do all of the above. Baba Yaga can cast Leprosy and later Foul Air, which opens an opportunity to bombard an enemy army or a strong raider over the course of several turns, due to disease preventing HP recovery at the end of the turn. Conjuration 8, on the other hand, not only unlocks Leshiys, but also allows Baba Yaga to cast Manifestation for almost guaranteed remote assassinations.

For destroying provinces, either Wolven Winter or Breath of the Desert + Hurricane are the soonest available, and all three can be cast at the same time if the intent is to harm the province. But this is just the beginning. Vanarus has the potential to completely devastate provinces, driving them to nearly zero population and creating unmanageable amounts of unrest within one turn. This is especially useful against nations which rely on capital-only units or a massive army of recruitable troops. For example, Wrath of Pazuzu can be mass-cast by every Air3 Vanabog at the same province for great effect. To diversify your gem usage, other spells can also be mass-cast and stacked, such as Raging Hearts and Locust Swarms (although the latter only raises unrest and does not kill population). A Vanarusian Sage with Earth+Death random paths can put on Earth Boots to cast Blight. In long games, you can research Thaumaturgy 8 and Evocation 9 to have Baba Yaga cast Black Death on top of all of the aforementioned spells, while forest mages or summons cast Volcanic Eruption and Tidal Wave. Just these three late game spells are usually enough to reduce any province to almost nothing, and whoever is left alive might be killed by their own nation's patrollers.

Do not overlook casting Raven Feast after bombarding a province or a big army. With enough corpses, the cost of remote attacks and raids can be greatly reduced.

Global Enchantments
Old Bear Thunder can cast Mother Oak with some cheap boosters for extra Nature income. The same goes for Dark Skies, which helps with morale tactics such as Wailing Winds. With some path climbing, he also can cast The Wrath of God, an all-around strong damage-dealing global which benefits builds with weak economic scales. Additionally, he is capable of casting Fata Morgana without much trouble, although the usefulness of such spell is unclear, unless you are also planning on casting Foul Air and possibly Burden of Time with Baba Yaga, so the combination of these spells would increase unrest everywhere in the world except in your lands. Foul Air also can be used as a way to enhance your The Wrath of God, remote attacks and Wind of Death raids by preventing HP recovery worldwide (if you have a Recuperation bless). Vengeful Water is hard to get as Vanarus, but is extremely powerful thanks to the national ability to perform blood sacrifices, turning this global from a powerful defensive spell into a powerful offensive one, which is complemented nicely by The Wrath of God. Your best bet for casting Vengeful Water is an Empowered Vodyanoy or Naiad with boosters, or a Pretender specifically designed to cast the spell. A Leshiy with some boosters can cast Enchanted Forests to help with a dominion pushing strategy. The Looming Hell can be used to turn morale tactics into a morale strategy and works great in combination with Dark Skies. If you went Evocation 9 for remote attacks, you also can cast Celestial Rainbow with an Empowered Naiad to safeguard your provinces from mirror responses. Purgatory can be cast by an Empowered Flame Spirit with boosters in cases when an undead nation has grown strong on the map.

Summons
Call of the Winds can be easily cast by any Vanabog for instant siege strength/defense. Later, Spring Hawks, Summer Lions and Winter Wolves are available in limited numbers as extra bodies on the battlefield, as well as all types of Drakes except cave ones. Contact Draconians can be cast by Old Bear Thunder if you need self-replicating flying summons. Devils can be summoned by rare Fire Vanabogs, but a more reliable way to get them as Vanarus might be Soul Contracts. Storm Demons can be summoned by any Blood2 Vanabog, or by any Vanabog with a Blood Thorn and work nicely with the nation's predilection for casting Storm. Fiends of Darkness can be summoned by any Blood2 Vanabog, or by any Vanabog or Blood sage with a Blood Thorn and work best with the use of Dark Skies, Darkness and undead. Black Servants are available early and can be equipped with blacksteel items to attack underwater provinces. You might consider keeping your veteran Black Servants until you get a Vila or a random adventurer to heal them, since Black Servants do not have the "does not heal" tag unlike other undead. So do Banes and Bane Lords, who can be used as powerful combatants and demon leaders thanks to various items available for forging, while Draugs are a better alternative to generic Wights, and are available a bit earlier, while also benefitting from Cold 2 scales with their chill aura, although they too should probably be later replaced by Ghosts. Juggernaut Construction is a good spell if you want to win with a dominion push. Vanabogs also have good paths for creating immortal Vampire Lords with Curse of Blood, which should not be overlooked, while Baba Yaga can create immortal Wraith Lords and Liches with Call Wraith Lord and Lichcraft respectively. All of the elemental royalty, including Father Illearth, come within reach by late game, with Earth ones being the most expensive.

Province enchantments
Trade Wind can be cast by Old Bear Thunder to improve income in coastal provinces, which you want to have as many as possible due to the possibility of getting an Alchemist or an Adept of the Golden order. All dome spells except Dome of Corruption are within reach and can be stacked to protect provinces with Alkonosts, or even if you just want to keep your researchers safe.

Mobility spells
Cloud Trapeze can be used by any Vanabog to attack enemies during magic phase of the turn. Baba Yaga with one booster or a rare Death3 Vanabog with two can use Stygian Paths to transport entire armies, preferably stealthy ones. Old Bear Thunder with one booster or a Nature2 forest mage with two can cast Faery Trod to transport armies between forests. Gateway is also within reach, but requires some Empowering or luck with getting the Crystal Coin booster.

Example Strategies
To make all of the above text a little clearer, here are the basic "paths" which Vanarus can take in terms of research priorities (after they get the obligatory Construction 6, of course):

1) Turmoil3 and Heat1 and Drain3 scales + Contact Alkonost + Vengeful Water + The Wrath of God + Devils + Fog Warriors.

2) Dark Skies + Wailing Winds + Blood Rain + Darkness + Fiends of Darkness + undead + The Looming Hell + Melancholia.

3) Contact Alkonost + Enchanted Forests + Juggernaut Construction.

4) Full scales economy + Fog Warriors + Marble Warriors + Wave Warriors + Army of Giants + Legions of Steel + elemental protections + Storm + Mist + Wrathful Skies + warrior-mages and combatants + Storm Demons.

5) Magic3 scales + (Seeking Arrow + Fires from Afar + Wind of Death + Murdering Winter + Flames from the Sky + Leprosy) + (Hurricane + Breath of the Desert + Wolven Winter + Blight + Raging Hearts + Locust Swarms + Wrath of Pazuzu + Black Death + Volcanic Eruption + Tidal Wave) + Raven Feast.

Note that these strategies represent an ideal game plan, and elements of these strategies can be mixed and matched as needed during actual games.

• Vanarus benefits greatly from Turmoil 3 + Luck 3 + Magic 3 scales due to requiring several 1→2 Empowerments, production of magic boosters and early arrival of national heroes in order to realise its magic potential.
  
• In most cases, Vanarus needs to have a Growth scale of at least 1 in order to offset their blood hunting, unless in a small game. Misfortune scales are a huge risk due to the abundance of national bad events.
  
• Production scales have little effect on national unit generation for Vanarus due to their lack of heavy cavalry and heavily armored troops. The difference between Sloth 3 and Production 3 is a difference between producing 9 Chud Hirdmen per turn and 13 Chud Hirdmen per turn. Moreover, your non-capital forts are going to produce 7 Chud Hirdmen per turn under Sloth 3 or Production 3. This gives you an opportunity to gain design points by lowering Production scale during Pretender creation. High Order and high Growth scales give much better benefits, because they increase resources and recruitment points at the same time.
  
• Due to having a very wide magic access, Vanarus can find most sites early in the game, which boosts their gem income compared to most other nations and makes Empowerment a more viable option. The ability to search for most sites with a Vanabog, Vyedma and Vyedun also means that a "rainbow mage" type of Pretender is less attractive than usual.
  
• Minimal resource cost of Chud Skinshifters means that you can use them to set up aggressive borders instead of clearing provinces around your capital during first turns of the game.
  
• If a Skinshifter becomes crippled, leave him in a province garrison for a few turns to recuperate, then bring him back into the army.
  
• The more coastal provinces you have, the more chance there is of getting an Adept of the Golden Order in an event, if you have Turmoil+Luck3 scales. These guys can cast Summon Firebird, Contact Alkonost, Arcane Probing and later can cast The Wrath of God, if Old Bear Thunder dies from a disease soon after arriving, which can happen more often than you would like. You also can cast same rituals if you find High Temple of the Magi or an Alchemists Guild. An Alchemist is also another possible variant for a shipwreck event. If everything else fails, recruit a lizardman priest to at least cast Arcane Probing and some other spells.
  
• If you happen to have a surplus of Death gems due to random sites, consider investing into Likhos. If you send around 20-30 of them into an enemy province at the same time, they become hard to detect by conventional means due to high unrest and will also cause various bad events in enemy territory, which might result in them losing the province to independents or to you (due to the Oath-Bound attack random event). If you have Vengeful Water or The Wrath of God or The Looming Hell up, or use remote attacks, Likhos will be very difficult to patrol out while they devastate structures and population with events, as long as they sneak within enemy provinces with your dominion or in border provinces where they can safely retreat.
  
• If your opponent is using a combatant Pretender, but doesn't have recuperation in their bless, has little to no Nature national paths and has no recruitable healers, you can kill their god with a Lady Midday. All she needs is land one hit to make her target diseased, and the enemy is doomed.
  
• The spells you research, and their order, depends heavily on what happens during the game. Vengeful Water + The Wrath of God is powerful, but contradicts other strategies. The combination of Dark Skies and The Looming Hell is also powerful and is the only thing that makes your Rusalkas any useful as seducers, but it will likely contradict the strategy of using Vengeful Water due to the high cost of upholding globals and due to the fact that Summon Rusalka has a steep cost of 16 Water gems. Overcharging your armies with buffs is also a strong strategy, but it is incompatible with other options such as casting globals due to the high cost of boosters, overcasting and Empowerment on which the buffing relies. Mother Oak is a useful and conveniently placed gem-generating spell which you should try to secure for yourself in most cases, but you probably should not waste gems or research on it if there is a Nature nation such as Pangea on the map.
  
• If you get a Madman in an event, give him a Soul Contract. Since they are mindless, horrors will never come for them.
  
• Do not overlook Holy site searching. First with a Vanabog, and later with an Alkonost, you can always hope to find a couple Holy sites with Astral income, which you need badly.
  
• Blood slaves won't drown in underwater provinces with Pills of Water Breathing equipped on your Alkonosts.
  
• If you are using Soul Contracts, keep in mind that new Devils won't appear if the commander with the contract is using Stealth.

Dragon (Green) W4E6N5 Dom5Tur3Slo3Hea1Gro1Luc3Dra3 Awake

Bless
Minor Cold Resistance, Major Cold Resistance, Hard Skin, Recuperation

Gameplan
Rapid expansion, throne rush, defensive playstyle, global enchantments and dominion push.

Pros
Easy and rapid expansion, Pretender is hard to beat in early stages, can win small games quickly with throne rush, national magic access and national ability to blood sacrifice opens late game opportunities.
Cons
Very vulnerable to curses, stolen strength, Mind Burn, Soul Slay, mind blasts, Pretender still can't beat elite troops alone, weak gold income and small recruitable army.

Reasoning
Dragon Pretender can fly across many provinces on the map, is immune to lance charges and Earthquakes, covers the nation's weak start and lack of strong sacreds, can still forge strong items and cast global enchantments thanks to the ability to shapeshift into a human. Hard Skin and Recuperation are mostly there for your Pretender. Cold resistances give protection against Frozen Heart, but for the most part this build just needed Water4 to be able to cast Mossbody and Quicken Self and therefore had bless points to spare. Having Nature5 also has the benefit of almost guaranteeing that the penalty for dying will be loss of a Nature level, instead of something actually important like a level of Water of Dominion. Your only recruitable sacred troops are Oath-Bound, who are not very good on the offensive, so you won't use them as anything but occasional bodyguards. Chud Skinshifters, on the other hand, are basically human-sized cavalry with around 58 HP total, powerful attacks and built-in recuperation, so you will use them a lot. Dominion 5 is there to save on design points, but it should not be too big of a problem, because Vanarus can do blood sacrifice. For this reason, you might even consider setting Dominion strength to 3 and getting Growth 2 instead. Turmoil 3 and Luck 3 will give a lot of random events, most of them good. Free gold, free laboratories and free Astral mages (in coastal provinces) are what you are looking for. High likelihood of good events also increases your chance to get your national heroes sooner, of whom Baba Yaga and Old Bear Thunder are very useful for forging and ritual casting. Turmoil 3 will also improve the effect of The Wrath of God, which is part of this build. Sloth 3 because you don't really need resources for Chud Skinshifters, but you do need design points. Keep in mind that Sloth 3 also means you will be able to recruit very few Oath-Bound and virtually no Chud Hirdmen. Heat 1 because your province income is already bad, so why not get more design points. Additionally, rivers in your dominion will almost never freeze, which helps with stalling or outright preventing early enemy invasions. Heat 1 will also make your Devils stronger than they would be in Cold 2. Growth 1 because you will be blood hunting a lot, and to give you half-decent income in the long run. Drain 3 because Vanarusian Sages are good researchers already, and you also have native access to forging Owl Quills, Skull Mentors and Lightless Lanterns, so why not get more design points. Moreover, having a powerful Pretender helps with saving gold, which can lead to situations when a Drain 3 awake Dragon has better research than an imprisoned Magic 3 full scales pretender due to the Dragon recruiting lots of mages while other players amass their armies. Protection from army-wiping spells from enemies is not too big of a concern thanks to Vanarus's magic path access and research speed. Drain 3 and Luck 3 will also reduce the chance of horror attacks on your Soul Contract holders. Being able to push bad scales into enemy provinces also has the benefit of worsening their economy and creating bad events, while allowing to use your powerful pretender somewhat offensively rather than only defensively.

Expansion
Expand with the Dragon. Don't attack heavy cavalry and heavy infantry (sword) unless they are within your dominion. Even though the flying Dragon is immune to lance charges, it still might bleed out from lucky attacks from strong independent units. Don't attack barbarian provinces until you have Alteration 2/Enchantment 2 or a lot of support. Starting army plus a turn's worth of Skinshifters can expand into weak provinces. Around 20-30 Skinshifters can clear most provinces even with strength of independents set to 9, except barbarians and some unique ones. Mercenaries are generally too pricy for this build, unless you get extra gold from an event.

Build order:
1) On the first turn, blindly expand with the Dragon into a province with your dominion, but be wary of wastelands (possible barbarians) and forests (possible Dark Vines). Make starting scout your prophet and preach in capital until you can do blood sacrifice. As for commanders, buy a Vanarusian Sage and recruit every Skinshifter you can get. Before you research Alteration 1, set the Dragon to stand in the back and to hold for 3 turns and attack rear. If you are attacking a province with heavy cavalry, make it 2 turns. Alternatively, you can set the dragon to Fire Closest, which will force it to walk forward and use its breath from a distance. This method is preferable when dealing with Wolf Tribe, Bear Tribe, Light Cavalry and Barbarians.
2) On the next few turns, expand into stronger provinces with the Dragon (if your dominion is present), while attacking weaker provinces with troops. Keep in mind that troops can freely attack provinces which don't have your dominion. The Dragon can secure the capital circle to maximize troop production while Skinshifters can attack further away from the capital to establish advantageous borders and size. Set regular troops in the front to distract enemy infantry while Skinshifters sprint to attack their rear. Recruit commanders: two Godes (to help expand your dominion and build structures), intermixed three scouts and three more Godes (scouts for scouting, Godes to check army compositions and to bring reinforcements), Vanabog (to start site-searching), another Vanabog (to start blood-hunting), four more sages (to get your Alteration 3 and Enchantment 2). Godes are much cheaper than Herses in gold per turn, and you won't be able to recruit more than 7 Skinshifters per turn even in the late game anyway, so you can save some gold by not hiring Herses. Moreover, Godes have better map move than Herses, allowing them to cross two provinces in some situations where a Herse would only move across one. Keep recruiting Skinshifters until you have around 20-30 of them in the expansion army. Be wary of Jaguar Tribe independent provinces. If their priest has Astral magic random, he may Curse your Pretender. Before attacking these provinces, check them with a Gode set to retreat and, if you see an Astral priest, conquer them with troops. Watch your gold balance - keep in mind that even though Chud Skinshifters cost slightly more than sacred Oath-Bound to recruit, they are much more expensive to maintain.
3) When you see a Throne, scout it with a Gode to see what kind of commanders they have. If there are no spellcasters, conquer and claim them with the Dragon as soon as your Dominion reaches the province (or once you have Alteration 2-3). If they have Wizards, forge and equip rings to protect from fire and lightning, then attack with the Dragon. Attack with troops if there are commanders who can cast Mind Burn, Curse or Spirit Curse. Also don't send Dragon to attack thrones guarded by Shades, to avoid Stolen Strength condition on your Pretender.
4) With your first Vanabog, build a lab in a forest province, preferably not next to your capital. Recruit a Vyedma in the lab. Vyedmas have a chance to get a Fire path, which means that you won't need to buy and maintain a Vyedun if you get lucky. If one of your two initial Vanabogs has a Fire path, then that's just as well. If any one of your two initial Vanabogs gets Blood 2, then use him for blood hunting instead of site searching. While the Vyedma and the Vyedun are being recruited for 2-4 turns, the first Vanabog can blood hunt in the same province. The two (three) of them can do light site-searching in all paths except Astral.
5) Use one of your two initial Godes to build a fortress in the labbed forest province. Move your sages there and start hiring new ones. About 30 sages in total is enough for the whole game, but usually you can't afford to maintain them all until later stages of the game, so pay close attention to your gold. Once Owl Quills become available, use all your sages to forge a quill for each in one turn, then dedicate one sage to forge quills every turn. Have a random Vanabog with Death 2 forge Skull Mentors once they become available. Depending on the situation, you might want to summon Simargls to counter stealthy attacks and assassinations on your mage base.
6) At the same time, get about 20 more Godes in your capital or elsewhere. This will help you in case your Pretender dies, and also will make you more or less immune to early attacks from undead nations, as well as safeguard you from strong population-killing dominions. Later on, increase the number to around 55 Godes in total for instantaneous effect of Call God. If you find yourself short on gold, consider transmuting gems via rituals.
7) Once you have the production of sages set up, start mass-producing Skinshifters and Vanabogs. Skinshifters are needed to siege forts and to fight armies which your Pretender can't handle (alone). Vanabogs are your most reliable blood hunters, item forgers, communion mages and magic knights. You can use sages for blood hunting when you get a Blood random, and will eventually be able to relegate bloodhunting to Sages after Blood Thorns and Sanguine Dowsing Rods become available, if you get lucky with random path rolls on your Sages. Blood hunt a lot, but don't destroy your province income.
8) Start remote site-searching as soon as you can. Try to find independent Astral mages to find Astral Pearl sites. You need all the gems you can find. You will never have an unstoppable army with this bless and scales, so entrenching yourself in forts and casting globals is your highest damage potential.
9) When you have gold to spare, build temples to strengthen your dominion. Invest into province defense, if independent unit type is strong. These can beat a few unsuspecting armies, but cost no upkeep and recover to full strength for free after every battle. Later on, you might consider boosting strong province defense with casters for Growing Fury and other buffs, as well as some light combatants, such as kitted-out Black Servants.
10) With your Godes, build forts in every province, starting from your borders. This will increase your gold income and also will impede the progress of any invading army, forcing them to fight your powerful Pretender. Don't worry about losing resources in your capital – you barely have any in the first place, and Skinshifters can be recruited regardless.
11) For first wars, pick a target which doesn't have Mind Blast, Mind Burn, Curse, Spirit Curse or Enfeeble. Most other opponents can be defeated with the right equipment. Even hellblessed giants don't fare well against a horde of Skinshifters supported by the Dragon. In most cases, the Dragon should have a Ring of Regeneration and a Mistletoe Garland equipped (later replaced by a Wraith Crown). Set it to stand in the back and attack rear, with a script to cast Iron Skin, Temper Flesh, Mossbody, Personal Regeneration, Quickness, in that order. Later, some of these spells can be cast by assisting mages, freeing up scripting space for Earthquake and/or Foul Vapors. If the Dragon is fighting alongside an army, try not to destroy your troops with spells, especially Foul Vapors. Use the Dragon's mobility to pick off unforted provinces which are away from the main enemy force. Later on, avoid those who can cast Soul Slay, Stream of Life or Shrink. As game progresses, the Dragon will be increasingly useless on the battlefield (Earthquake and Foul Vapors notwithstanding) while becoming increasingly useful in the lab. Skinshifters under Fog Warriors and Mass Protection can replace it. Your three initial Godes and the starting Herse can get flying carpets to transport 7 Skinshifters per turn across great distances. You will normally only be able to recruit 7 per turn, and 7 is the exact amount of human-sized troops that the Flying Carpet can carry.
12) Cast Revive King 10 times or more to get cheap commanders who cost no upkeep and equip them all with Soul Contracts as soon as you are able. This will give you 10 Devils per turn, forever (until horrors come). Devils under Fog Warriors will become your main force later on. Incidentally, they are also immune to Earthquake and break down forts with lightning speed, making them into better companions for the Dragon to fight alongside with. Use Banes to command Devils, later Bane Lords. You can equip them with Winged Shoes, Ring of Fire, Rod of the Leper King, Crown of Bones. Fog Warriors caster should be an Air 3 or 4 Vanabog with Winged Helmet, Flying Carpet, Ring of Fire.
13) Once you have at least 10 Soul Contracts, start casting Contact Alkonost. These creatures are largely useless in other eras, but Vanarus can blood sacrifice, so you get an upkeep-free flying Holy 3 priest who can blood sacrifice… at Conjuration 4 (as opposed to water-only Conjuration 6 Bishop Fish for other nations). Put them to work in every province you have, even underwater ones.
14) If you have Astral-Fire mages, cast Summon Firebird in capital forever, at a rate of 5 casts per turn. This will eventually give you virtually infinite gold and gem income which is not reflected on scoregraphs, and may even drastically improve resources and supplies in your capital.
15) Cast Globals like Vengeful Water and The Wrath of God. Vengeful Water can be cast by your Pretender with path-boosting items, but if you expect the Dragon to fight and die, this global requires some Empowerment and can be cast by a Vodyanoy, if you are able to bring him to land, or by a Naiad if you are not. The Wrath of God can be cast by Old Bear Thunder with some gear and very cheap Empowering, or by an Adept of the Golden Order, if you get lucky. Mother Oak can be easily cast by Old Bear Thunder and is needed to offset possible Nature path losses from Pretender deaths, as well as to mass-cast Transformation later on. For Transformation, buy Vyedmas, because they have a higher chance to have Nature2, so they can cast the spell without boosting items. The desirable results for Transformation are Yettins and powerful monsters (for supercombatant communions) and small mindless creatures (for Soul Contracts). The latter might need a Pendant of Luck/Rabbit Foot Charm/Amulet of Missile Protection/elemental rings to avoid death from remote attacks.
16) You may try to close the game instantaneously by casting Wizard's Tower at all remaining thrones and sending Alkonosts there on the same turn. With a water-breathing item and Heart of Quickness, Alkonosts should be able to reach any province in most games without teleportation. Your Pretender already has enough levels in Earth path, and it can forge Earth Boots for other mages, but the rest of Earth magic levels might need Empowering. This option might or might not be mutually exclusive with casting globals, depending on how lucky you get with path-boosting items from random events.
17) Otherwise, conquer enough provinces to have dominion strength 10 or higher from temples and use Alkonosts with globals to eliminate opponents. If you have enough Firebirds, you should be able to re-cast and maintain your global enchantments against your opponents' dispelling attempts through sheer gem income.

Research order
Alteration 3 (Barkskin, Stoneskin, Ironskin, Quicken Self, Mossbody) → Enchantment 2 (Personal Regeneration) → Alteration 4 (Temper Flesh) → Construction 6 (resistance rings, Soul Contract, Rod of the Leper King, Mistletoe Garland, Ring of Regeneration, Winged Helmet, Winged Shoes, Flying Carpet, Crown of Bones, Storm Spool, Sanguine Dowsing Rod, Wraith Crown, Bag of Winds) → Evocation 5 (Lightning Bolt, Arcane Probing, Thunder Strike, Earthquake) → Enchantment 5 (Foul Vapors) → Conjuration 4 (Summon Simargl, Summon Firebird, lesser elemental summoning spells, Revive Bane, Dark Knowledge, Voice of Aspu, Contact Alkonost, Send Vodyanoy, elemental summoning spells) → Blood 2 (Bowl of Blood) → Thaumaturgy 4 (Haruspex, Augury, Auspex, Gnome Lore) → Alteration 5 (Mother Oak) → Conjuration 5 (Revive Bane Lord, Contact Naiad) → Thaumaturgy 7 (Dark Skies, Vengeful Water) → Evocation 6 (The Wrath of God) → Alteration 8 (Transformation, Fog Warriors, Mass Protection, Wizard's Tower) → Conjuration 9 (Contact Cloud Vila, Contact Mountain Vila, Enchanted Forests) → Construction 9 (Juggernaut Construction) → Enchantment 7 (domes, Riches from Beneath, Earth Blood Deep Well, Gift of Health) → Evocation 9 (Celestial Rainbow) → Enchantment 9 (Gift of Nature's Bounty) → Blood 9 (The Looming Hell)

Situational Tactics:

• You might consider hiring around 10 Scouts or Chud Jarls and equipping them with Winged Boots, Gate Cleavers, Wall Shakers and filling the rest of their slots with morale-boosting items. This stealthy and mobile fort-busting force can help the Dragon bring down forts when other armies are not available. Set them to retreat in combat, so they will avoid confrontation with armies trying to attack the Dragon. High morale and flight should ensure that they do not get lost when retreating, even in hostile dominion.
  
• Depending on your opposing nations, you might need to protect your Pretender from Vengeance of the Dead as their kill count rises. Drain 3 of your dominion and magic resistance gear should provide sufficient protection. This will also help against Soul Slay.
  
• There is an uncommon bad event which has your Dragon eat several blood slaves in a labbed province. This is yet another reason to avoid Misfortune scales or stacking Likhos in your lands as Vanarus. But on the other hand, there is an uncommon good event which has your Dragon's scales harvested for some magic gems and a magic item, also in a labbed province. With many firebirds stacked in the same province as a Dragon who retired from combat, a lot of gems of specific type can be harvested, which is a possible consideration for picking a Blue Dragon for Water gems. The Green Dragon recommended in this guide would produce Nature gems and Green Dragon Scale Mails.
  

Deives of the Sun F4N1B3 Dom10Ord3Slo2Hea1Gro3Luc0Dra3 Awake

Bless: Superior Morale, Major Fire Resistance

(Domkill rush, Soul Contract spam and Chud Skinshifters)

Ghost King E1S6D5 Dom10Tur3Pro0Hea1Gro1Luc0Dra3 Awake

Bless: Twist Fate, Stygian Flesh

(stealthy domkill rush, sacreds)

Great Enchantress F1A1W2E2S2B3 Dom4Tur3Pro3Hea1Gro1Luc3Mag3 Awake

Bless: none

(Astral access and income, conjurations, booster forging)

Father of Winters A4W3E2N5 Dom5Ord3Slo3Col3Gro3Luc2Dra3 Dormant

Bless: Minor Shock Resistance, Major Shock Resistance, Recuperation

(Chud Skinshifter start, mass Chud Hirdmen, titan can forge Earth armor, self-buff and later casts Storm, Grip of Winter, Wrathful Skies, Foul Vapors)

Frost Father A9W9S6N1B4 Dom5Tur3Slo1Hea1Gro1Luc3Dra3 Imprisoned

Bless: 3 x Swiftness, 3 x Defense Skill, Twist Fate, Blood Surge

(heavy bless, capital rush, Astral and Water access, instant globals)

Irminsul N4 Dom7Ord3Pro3Col3Gro3Luc3Mag3 Imprisoned

Bless: Low Light Vision, Minor Poison Resistance, Major Poison Resistance

(heavy scales army, fast research and flexibility)