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 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, such as when playing 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. Notably can only move one province per turn, making them into questionable stealthy units.\\  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, such as when playing 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. Notably can only move one province per turn, making them into questionable stealthy units.\\ 
  
-__Chud Hirdmen__ - strong troops with two attacks which require more resources than other normal units. 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 also have a low Map Move stat. 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 Hirdmen__ - strong troops with two attacks which require more resources than other normal units. 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. However, they also have a low Map Move stat. 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. Minimal resource cost means that you can use them to set up aggressive borders instead of clearing provinces around your capital during first turns of the game. Chud Skinshifters 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 2 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 units capable of marching over one friendly province and into enemy lands on the strategic map, but all of your commanders except Godes and Vanabogs need a movement-boosting item to match this speed.\\ +__Chud Skinshifters__ - strong and gold-expensive troops which require a lot of recruitment points, but almost no resources. Minimal resource cost means that you can use them to set up aggressive borders instead of clearing provinces around your capital during first turns of the game. Chud Skinshifters 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 63 HP and recuperation ability. Their length 2 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 63 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 units capable of marching over one friendly province and into enemy lands on the strategic map, but all of your commanders except Godes and Vanabogs need a movement-boosting item to match this speed.\\ 
  
 **National heroes**\\  **National heroes**\\ 
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 //"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.\\  //"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!\\ +//"Winter is harsh in the lands of Vanarus."// - a bad event which can only happen in or next to your 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 attacked!"// - a bad event which spawns a group of Horse Tribe Cavalry to attack a province in or next to your 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 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 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.\\ +//"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 next to your 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.\\ +//"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 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.\\  //"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.\\ 
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 **Summons**\\ **Summons**\\
-__Black Servants__ are available early and can be equipped with blacksteel and repel items to attack and raid provinces, including underwater ones. Call of the Winds can be easily cast by any Vanabog for instant siege strength/defense. Normally, you shouldn't bother with magical summons, since your mages have pitiful magic leadership. You still can summon Zmeys and various Drakes though. __Wyverns__ and Ice Drakes are especially useful. However, all these dragon-like summons are cold-blooded and will suffer penalties if you have the default cold temperature scale for the nation. Ice Drakes are the only ones with no 'cold-blooded' trait, and synergize with your national units' cold resistance. __Contact Draconians__ can be cast by Old Bear Thunder if you need self-replicating flying summons. More importantly, a Draconian Chief leading a full host of __Great Eagles__ works great in combination with Vanabog warrior-mages Cloud Trapezing onto enemy fortifications, allowing them to storm a fort on the very next turn after suddenly attacking, while the Eagles are ordered to retreat and move to your province. 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. __Banes__ and __Bane Lords__, 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, 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, although you already have the national spell __Summon Leshy__ if you want a top tier warrior-mage.\\ +__Black Servants__ are available early and can be equipped with blacksteel and repel items to attack and raid provinces, including underwater ones. Call of the Winds can be easily cast by any Vanabog for instant siege strength/defense. Normally, you shouldn't bother with magical summons, since your mages have pitiful magic leadership. You still can summon Zmeys and various Drakes though. __Wyverns__ and Ice Drakes are especially useful. However, all these dragon-like summons are cold-blooded and will suffer penalties if you have the default cold temperature scale for the nation. Ice Drakes are the only ones with no 'cold-blooded' trait, and synergize with your national units' cold resistance. __Contact Draconians__ can be cast by Old Bear Thunder if you need self-replicating flying summons. More importantly, a flying commander leading a full host of __Great Eagles__ works great in combination with Vanabog warrior-mages Cloud Trapezing onto enemy fortifications, allowing them to storm a fort on the very next turn after suddenly attacking, while the Eagles are ordered to retreat and move to your province. 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. __Banes__ and __Bane Lords__, 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, 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, although you already have the national spell __Summon Leshy__ if you want a top tier warrior-mage.\\ 
  
 **Province enchantments**\\  **Province enchantments**\\ 
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 **Mobility spells**\\ **Mobility spells**\\
-__Cloud Trapeze__ can be used by any Vanabog to attack enemies during magic phase of the turn. This is extremely useful for raiding unprotected provinces, wiping out small armies, storming forts with normal-moving Great Eagles or any kind of siege chaff like Corpse Constructs, and for wiping out large armies with Wind of Death spell + Ring of Returning item. 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.+__Cloud Trapeze__ can be used by any Vanabog to attack enemies during the magic phase of a turn. This is extremely useful for raiding unprotected provinces, wiping out small armies, storming forts with normal-moving Great Eagles or any kind of siege chaff like Corpse Constructs, and for wiping out large armies with Wind of Death spell + Ring of Returning item. 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**\\  **Example Strategies**\\ 
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   * 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. However, taking these scales almost completely removes their ability to field regular troops, making them rely on magic items and summons. A more balanced  approach would be Order 3 + Luck 3 + Magic 3.\\    * 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. However, taking these scales almost completely removes their ability to field regular troops, making them rely on magic items and summons. A more balanced  approach would be Order 3 + Luck 3 + Magic 3.\\ 
   * 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.\\    * 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.\\ 
-  * Production scales have little effect on national unit generation for Vanarus due to their lack of heavy cavalry or 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 due to recruitment points. 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, which is what you need, because Chud Hirdmen have a balanced cost.\\ +  * Productivity scales have little effect on national unit generation for Vanarus due to their lack of heavy cavalry or heavily armored troops. The difference between Sloth 3 and Productivity 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// Productivity 3 due to recruitment points. This gives you an opportunity to gain design points by lowering Productivity 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, which is what you need, because Chud Hirdmen have a balanced cost.\\ 
   * 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, a Vyedma and a Vyedun also means that a "rainbow mage" type of Pretender is less attractive than usual.\\    * 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, a Vyedma and a 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.\\    * 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.\\ 
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   * If you happen to have a surplus of Death gems due to random sites, consider investing into Likhos. If you send several of them into an enemy province at the same time and also cast unrest-causing spells such as Wrath of Pazuzu, 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 or assassins, 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 you happen to have a surplus of Death gems due to random sites, consider investing into Likhos. If you send several of them into an enemy province at the same time and also cast unrest-causing spells such as Wrath of Pazuzu, 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 or assassins, 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.\\    * 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 + Blood Sacrificing Alkonosts 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. Similarly, if you have a lot of death gems, you might consider focusing on researching Conjuration for undead armies and heavily-geared Tartarians, but if you do not, then your Death gems will be better spent for casting Wind of Death and Soul Vortex. If you have Drain+Luck scales, then you should create 10 initial Mound Kings to carry Soul Contracts (overall, you might want to have up to 20 Soul Contracts, depending on the size of the game), but the way to maintain Devil production differs depending on the gem income you happen to have. If you mostly have Nature gems, then you should recruit Vyedmas (hopefully with Nature2, but a booster item can help if not) and have them cast Transformation. This will give you mindless insects which can carry Soul Contracts without attracting Horrors, and also some powerful size 6 warrior-mages as an added bonus (luckily, your nation is pretty versatile in terms of making good equipment). If you instead happen to have a lot of Astral gems, then  Wooden Construction followed by Divine Name (conveniently located in the same school and tier as Vengeful Water) is a better option than Transformation. If you have neither Astral nor Nature as your main income, you should try to make your Mound Kings last as long as possible by giving them a Ring of Warning (for 10 Oath-Bound bodyguards), a Spirit Helmet (for precise ranged attacks against ethereal) and a Sceptre of Authority (for keeping Mound Kings in place instead of rushing forward, as well as for damage that cannot be reflected with Float Cats' Damage Reversal).\\ +  * The spells you research, and their order, depends heavily on what happens during the game. Vengeful Water + The Wrath of God + Blood Sacrificing Alkonosts 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. Similarly, if you have a lot of death gems, you might consider focusing on researching Conjuration for undead armies and heavily-geared Tartarians, but if you do not, then your Death gems will be better spent for casting Wind of Death and Soul Vortex. If you have Drain+Luck scales, then you should create 10 initial Mound Kings to carry Soul Contracts (overall, you might want to have up to 20 Soul Contracts, depending on the size of the game), but the way to maintain Devil production differs depending on the gem income you happen to have. If you mostly have Nature gems, then you should recruit Vyedmas (hopefully with Nature2, but a booster item can help if not) and have them cast Transformation. This will give you mindless insects which can carry Soul Contracts without attracting Horrors, and also some powerful size 6 warrior-mages as an added bonus (luckily, your nation is pretty versatile in terms of making good equipment). If you instead happen to have a lot of Astral gems, then  Wooden Construction followed by Divine Name (conveniently located in the same school and tier as Vengeful Water) is a better option than Transformation. If you have neither Astral nor Nature as your main income, you should try to make your Mound Kings last as long as possible by giving them a Ring of Warning (for 10 Oath-Bound bodyguards, or Fiends of Darkness, or Gelatinous Cubes for mages), a Spirit Helmet (for precise ranged attacks against ethereal) and a Sceptre of Authority (for keeping Mound Kings in place instead of rushing forward, as well as for damage that cannot be reflected with Float Cats' Damage Reversal), also Mirror Armor and a Lead Shield to resist magical attacks and Damage Reversal.\\ 
   * If you get a Madman in an event, give him a Soul Contract. Since they are mindless, horrors will never come for them.\\    * 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. With your first Vanabog, and later with just a Gode, you can always hope to find a couple Holy sites with Astral income, which you need badly.\\    * Do not overlook Holy site searching. With your first Vanabog, and later with just a Gode, 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.\\    * 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.+  * If you are using Soul Contracts, keep in mind that new Devils won't appear if the commander with the contract is using Stealth.\\  
 +  * If you find a Knightly Order site, you may try to start producing Knight Commanders and giving them inexpensive items like the Barkskin Amulet to attack enemy provinces. It's a cheap way to hit your opponent's economy and force them to divert resources from something important.\\ 
  
 ==== Awake Dragon (WIP) ==== ==== Awake Dragon (WIP) ====
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 //Reasoning//\\  //Reasoning//\\ 
-The Dragon can fly across many provinces on the map, is immune to lance charges and Earthquakes, covers the nation's lack of strong sacreds, and 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, although Vanabogs will benefit, too. Cold resistances give protection against Frozen Heart and Frost Brand, but for the most part this build just needed Water4 to be able to cast Mossbody and Quicken Self in dragon form and therefore had bless points to spare. Water4 also becomes useful for casting Vengeful Water with booster items later on. Having Nature5 gives poison resistance, opens up Foul Vapors and has the added benefit of almost guaranteeing that the penalty for dying will be the loss of a Nature level, instead of something actually important like a level of Water or Dominion. Having Earth6 also gives extra natural protection, which stacks with the protection from Hard Skin. 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, especially since your provinces will have low resources. 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. Turmoil 3 and Luck 3 will cause a lot of random events, mostly good ones. 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, among which 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 the usual 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 with blood sarcifice also has the benefit of worsening their economy and creating bad events, while allowing you to use your powerful pretender somewhat offensively rather than only defensively.\\ +The Dragon can fly across many provinces on the map, is immune to lance charges and Earthquakes, covers the nation's lack of strong sacreds, and 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, although Vanabogs will benefit, too. Cold resistances give protection against Frozen Heart and Frost Brand, but for the most part this build just needed Water4 to be able to cast Mossbody and Quicken Self in dragon form and therefore had bless points to spare. Water4 also becomes useful for casting Vengeful Water with booster items later on. Having Nature5 gives poison resistance, opens up Foul Vapors and has the added benefit of almost guaranteeing that the penalty for dying will be the loss of a Nature level, instead of something actually important like a level of Water or Dominion. Having Earth6 also gives extra natural protection, which stacks with the protection from Hard Skin. 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 63 HP total, powerful attacks and built-in recuperation, so you will use them a lot, especially since your provinces will have low resources. 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. Turmoil 3 and Luck 3 will cause a lot of random events, mostly good ones. 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, among which 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 the usual 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 with blood sarcifice also has the benefit of worsening their economy and creating bad events, while allowing you to use your powerful pretender somewhat offensively rather than only defensively.\\ 
  
 //Expansion//\\  //Expansion//\\ 
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 13) 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 Banes with Winged Shoes, Ring of Fire, Rod of the Leper King, Crown of Bones. A Fog Warriors caster should be an Air 3 or 4 Vanabog with Winged Helmet, Bag of Winds, Flying Carpet, Golden Hoplon.\\  13) 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 Banes with Winged Shoes, Ring of Fire, Rod of the Leper King, Crown of Bones. A Fog Warriors caster should be an Air 3 or 4 Vanabog with Winged Helmet, Bag of Winds, Flying Carpet, Golden Hoplon.\\ 
 14) 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) 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.\\ 
-15) If you get Astral-Fire mages, cast Summon Firebird in capital forever, at a rate of 5 casts per turn or more depending on your Fire income. 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) If you get Astral-Fire mages, cast Summon Firebird in capital forever, at a rate of 5 casts per turn or more depending on your Fire income. This will eventually give you virtually infinite gold and gem income which is not reflected on score graphs, and may even drastically improve resources and supplies in your capital.\\ 
 16) 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/Silver 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) 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/Silver 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.\\ 
 17) 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.\\  17) 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//\\  //Research order//\\ 
-Alteration 3 (Barkskin, Stoneskin, Quicken Self, Ironskin, Mossbody) -> Enchantment 2 (Personal Regeneration) -> Alteration 4 (Temper Flesh) -> Construction 6 (resistance rings, Soul Contract, Rod of the Leper King, Mistletoe Garland, Wooden Construstion spell, Vine Shield, Frost Brand, Ring of Regeneration, Winged Helmet, Winged Shoes, Flying Carpet, Crown of Bones, Storm Spool, Sanguine Dowsing Rod, Blood Thorn, Wraith Crown, Bag of Winds, Dragon Sceptre) -> 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 Apsu, Contact Alkonost, Send Vodyanoy, elemental summoning spells, Summon Vywerns) -> 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, Divine Name) -> Evocation 6 (The Wrath of God) -> Alteration 8 (Transformation, Fog Warriors, Mass Protection, Wizard's Tower) -> Thaumathurgy 8 (Black Death) -> Conjuration 9 (Contact Cloud Vila, Contact Mountain Vila, Contact Leshiy, Enchanted Forests, Tartarian Gate) -> Construction 9 (Juggernaut Construction) -> Enchantment 8 (domes, Riches from Beneath, Earth Blood Deep Well, Gift of Health, Dragon Master) -> Evocation 9 (Celestial Rainbow) -> Enchantment 9 (Gift of Nature's Bounty) -> Blood 9 (Three Red Seconds, The Looming Hell)+Alteration 3 (Barkskin, Stoneskin, Quicken Self, Ironskin, Mossbody) -> Enchantment 2 (Personal Regeneration) -> Alteration 4 (Temper Flesh) -> Construction 6 (resistance rings, Soul Contract, Rod of the Leper King, Mistletoe Garland, Wooden Construstion spell, Vine Shield, Frost Brand, Ring of Regeneration, Winged Helmet, Winged Shoes, Flying Carpet, Crown of Bones, Storm Spool, Sanguine Dowsing Rod, Blood Thorn, Wraith Crown, Bag of Winds, Dragon Sceptre) -> 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 Apsu, Contact Alkonost, Send Vodyanoy, elemental summoning spells, Summon Wyverns) -> 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, Divine Name) -> Evocation 6 (The Wrath of God) -> Alteration 8 (Transformation, Fog Warriors, Mass Protection, Wizard's Tower) -> Thaumaturgy 8 (Black Death) -> Conjuration 9 (Contact Cloud Vila, Contact Mountain Vila, Contact Leshiy, Enchanted Forests, Tartarian Gate) -> Construction 9 (Juggernaut Construction) -> Enchantment 8 (domes, Riches from Beneath, Earth Blood Deep Well, Gift of Health, Dragon Master) -> Evocation 9 (Celestial Rainbow) -> Enchantment 9 (Gift of Nature's Bounty) -> Blood 9 (Three Red Seconds, The Looming Hell)
  
 //Situational Tactics://\\  //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 and Vanabog magic knights to 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. This is a more expensive, yet more reliable version of the Draconian Chief + Great Eagles sieging force and is easier to recover if your siege assistants happen to get scattered or killed by an enemy army.\\ +  * 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 and Vanabog magic knights to 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. This is a more expensive, yet more reliable version of the flying commander + Great Eagles sieging force and is easier to recover if your siege assistants happen to get scattered or killed by an enemy army.\\ 
   * 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 and will often help when someone tries to Mind Hunt your mages and priests, which otherwise is hard to deal with as a nation with almost no Astral magic.\\    * 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 and will often help when someone tries to Mind Hunt your mages and priests, which otherwise is hard to deal with as a nation with almost no Astral magic.\\ 
   * 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 highly coveted Water gems. The Green Dragon recommended in this guide would produce Nature gems and Green Dragon Scale Mails, which can be useful for forging Vine Shields and casting Transformation.\\    * 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 highly coveted Water gems. The Green Dragon recommended in this guide would produce Nature gems and Green Dragon Scale Mails, which can be useful for forging Vine Shields and casting Transformation.\\ 
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 ==== Awake Deives of the Sun (WIP) ==== ==== Awake Deives of the Sun (WIP) ====
-**Deives of the Sun F4N1B3 Dom10Ord3Slo3Hea1Gro1Luc3Dra3 Awake** 
  
-Bless: Superior Morale, Major Fire Resistance +**Deives of the Sun**\\  
 +Magic: Fire 4, Nature 1, Blood 3\\  
 +Scales: Dominion 10, Order 3, Sloth 3, Heat 1, Growth 1, Luck 3, Drain 3\\  
 +Awake\\
  
-(Domkill rush, Soul Contract spam and Chud Skinshifters)+//Bless//\\  
 +Superior Morale, Major Fire Resistance\\  
 + 
 +//Gameplan//\\  
 +Chud Skinshifter start, followed by Chud Hirdmen, early blood hunting and domkill rush, Soul Contracts.\\  
 + 
 +//Pros//\\  
 +The Pretender's unrest reduction ability and high Dominion greatly reduce population loss from patrolling during blood hunting. High Dominion pressure, Blood and Fire income from the start of the game. Potential for good gold income thanks to high Luck scales and powerful casts of Fire gem transmutation spells. National ability to blood sacrifice allows using the pretender offensively and opens late game opportunities.\\  
 +//Cons//\\  
 +Pretender is weak in combat until powerful items and Phoenix Pyre become available. At that point, she is very vulnerable to Curse, Stolen Strength, Mind Burn, Soul Slay, mind blasts. First turns of expansion are difficult unless you research rush for early Fire Evocation spells, which would be hard to do with Drain 3. High Order scales reduce the chance of getting much needed national heroes and frequently cause your provinces to rebel.\\  
 + 
 +//Reasoning//\\  
 +Deives of the Sun is smaller and weaker than combatant pretenders such as Father of Winters, and does not have any weapons, armor or combat-oriented abilities. What she does have is two passive abilities which improve your economy, by giving you two Fire gems per turn and by reducing unrest in her current province by 10 per turn at no population cost, which in turn translates into extra Blood Slave income. So, she gives you more Fire gems and Blood slaves, and saves a bit of gold. With Blood 3, she can blood hunt effectively even without items. With her Fire income and Fire4 path, she can cast Distill Gold to offset economic effects of having Heat 1 and Sloth 3 scales. With her Fire and Blood crosspath, she can easily forge Soul Contracts. The main feature of this build is not the bless but the synergy between the scales, the pretender and the nation. The bless on this build is just there to spend remaining design points on something, and Fire4 is not intended to do anything other than allowing you to cast more powerful Distill Gold with Fire4 early in the game. You still can lead your Pretender and Vanabogs into battle if you need, since you will be capable of healing injuries with Blood Feast, so the lack of Recuperation in the bless is not a deal-breaker. Dominion 10 coupled with an awake blood-hunter Pretender and national blood sacrifice ability allows for domkill rush strategies, especially on small maps. Order 3 coupled with Dominion 10 greatly reduces unrest from blood hunting, at no population cost. Sloth 3 gives a lot of design points at little cost for Vanarus, because they don't have resource-hungry units and Chud Skinshifters can be recruited at almost no resource cost. Heat 1 is not economically beneficial either, but gives a lot of design points and may keep rivers around your lands unfrozen, stalling or outright preventing enemy invasions, which is good because your military strength won't be great until you start mass-producing Devils with Soul Contracts. Growth 1 is all you can afford, which is why this scale is not higher, but the Pretender's passive ability, Dominion 10 and Order 3 should ensure that the population loss from blood hunting is not so great as to make Growth 1 not matter. Luck 3 will give you some good events, mostly gold, and, coupled with Drain 3, will reduce the probability of horror attacks. Drain 3 gives a lot of design points, and isn't much of a problem, since Vanarus' researchers are good and can be easily boosted. Drain 3 also gives all your commanders a bit more protection against Astral attacks, which is sorely needed on this nation. Protection from army-wiping spells is not too big of a concern thanks to Vanarus' magic path access and research speed.\\  
 + 
 +//Expansion//\\  
 +Expand with Chud Skinshifters at first and take provinces around the capital, gradually add Chud Hirdmen as your capital gets more resources. Prioritize research and site searching (blood hunting on small maps) over fortifications at the start of the game, until you reach Enchantment 2 and Conjuration 2 at least. On small maps, your goal is to surprise the enemy with extreme dominion pressure and domkill them before they can destroy you. At the very least your dominion pressure can paralyze enemy economy by forcing them to spend everything on building priests and temples. On large maps, your goal is... to survive until you have enough dominion pressure and Soul Contracts to wipe out anyone with Devil armies and globals. To survive, use everything you have, even Blood Slaves if necessary, to recruit mages, summon creatures, hire province defences and recruit elite troops in order to hold out against the more aggressive builds. Gold income spikes from good events and Distill Gold castings allow using mercenaries regularly, although recruiting Chud Hirdmen and building temples and forts is a higher priority, unless the mercenaries are something extremely valuable like Ship Wreckers.\\  
 + 
 +//Build order//\\  
 +1) On the first turn, make your Scout into a Prophet. This will add some ranged damage to your expansion party at no price, making the first few turns a little less difficult, while also making any potential Throne claims quicker. The first commanders you hire should be a Vanarusian Gode and a Scout if you can afford one. Recruit as many Chud Skinshifters as you are able, even if this means not recruiting a Scout. The Pretender should blood hunt.\\ 
 +2) On the second turn, you may use the Pretender to assist in the first battle if you feel the need for her Fire Flies castings and a morale boost for troops under her command. Careful consideration is required to determine whether or not her assistance will actually change the outcome of the battle. Sometimes you just need to wait for one more turn to build up your Chud Skinshifters. Since you don't have a powerful monster or a titan as a Pretender, and your weak economic scales do not allow you to quickly rebuild an army, it is always better to err on the side of caution instead of risking losing your troops, which are your only source of military strength at this point. Set your Skinshifters to flank enemies, hold and attack rear. Your starting troops need to be sufficiently forward positioned to distract enemy troops, allowing Chud Skinshifters to run to the back unimpeded. The prophet should be set to Cast Spells at a distance that's close enough to hit enemy melee fighters, but not close enough to be hit by enemy arrows (one step closer to the enemy from the middle of the field is enough). If Deives of the Sun is on the battlefield, place her behind the prophet, so that the Scout dies in her stead while she runs away in case the battle is lost.\\  
 +3) On the next few turns, secure a full circle of provinces around your capital (unless there is a strong defense somewhere), followed by a forest province, if it is not too far away. As your capital gains resources, you should start prioritizing Chud Hirdman recruitment. Eventually, you will be able to recruit 4-5 Chud Hirdmen and 4-5 Chud Skinshifters every turn. This is because your scales give you a lot of recruitment points, but not as many resources, so you should try to expend both your recruitment points and your resources by balancing between Hirdmen and Skinshifters. For example, you can recruit Hirdmen until you have around 20 resources left, and then recruit 4 Skinshifters with the remaining resources and recruitment points. By doing so, you will be able to recruit 8-10 elite fighters instead of just 5 Chud Hirdmen every turn. A party of around 35 Chuds can take most neutral provinces even with strength of independents set to 9. Just keep in mind that Chud Skinshifters are fairly expensive in upkeep and just because you can recruit so many, does not mean you should. Recruit commanders: four Godes, multiple Vanarusian Sages, a Vanabog. Scouts are not particularly necessary, since your strong dominion will provide information about nearby provinces and enemy players. Enemy army composition can still be checked with a retreating Gode. After a few battles, you should bring your prophet scout back to capital to preach and then to do blood sacrifice. Use Godes for bringing reinforcements and building structures. The Vanabog will become a site searcher.\\  
 +4) Identify neighboring nations. Even though Chud Hirdmen and Chud Skinshifters are strong, you won't have many of them with the scales you are using. Use rivers, summoned Longdead, Crocodiles, Horned Serpents and even Fiery Imps if you are desperate to secure borders. An undead nation such as MA Ermor would require producing many more Godes than you would usually make at the start, and little to no Chud Skinshifters, because Godes need to preach and cast banishing spells, while Skinshifters will likely die to Ermorian javelins, and the Ermorian cavalry is not particularly numerous. Chud Hirdmen, on the other hand, have good armor and two attacks, which is perfect for destroying hordes of undead. Undead enemies also would require summoning Killer Mantises or at least Crocodiles instead of Horned Seprents. Similarly, if you fight someone like MA Shinuyama, their katanas and no-dachis will slice Skinshifters to pieces in no time, and they do not have cavalry that would justify recruiting Sknishifters in the first place. On the other hand, if you are dealing with someone who relies on elites, such as cavalry, giants, mind blasters, mages, then most of your troop production should be Skinshifters. Mind blasters and astral mages also warrant recruiting Chud Jarl commanders instead of Vanarusian Jarls. Against hellblessed giants, rush research for Evocation 2 to have your Vanarusian Sages and Vanabogs cast Lightning Bolt. Ideally, the amount of Lightning Bolt casters should be approximately 2 for each sacred giant in enemy army. Troops need to be Chud Skinshifters set to hold and attack (hold and attack rear when your army is big enough). It is very unlikely that you will meet someone who can immediately negate both the physical damage of Chud Skinshifters and the lightning damage of your mages. Even if you do, there are still options like casting Holy Word, Steal Breath to get critical hits or forging Snake Rings for your Vanarusian Herses, as well as Horned Serpents. Finding yourself next to a hellblessed giant player is tough, especially with this build which lacks firepower in the early game. You may try to simply domkill such an opponent even on a large map, since helblesses usually have low Dominion. Stealthy nations also can be a big problem, because they make early blood hunting and domkill rush more risky to attempt. They can attack your blood hunters, and even your Pretender, denying you your main advantage. When playing against these types of nations, Deives of the Sun should sit in the capital, blood hunt, research, transmute her fire gems and summon creatures, such as Fire Ants and Fiery Imps. Summon as many creatures as you can in order to quickly create defensive/patrolling forces in key locations in order to defend against and discourage sneak attacks.\\  
 +5) 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 the Vanabog has a Fire path, then that's just as well. While the Vyedma and the Vyedun are being recruited for 2-4 turns, the first Vanabog can site search and then blood hunt in the same province. The two (three) of them can do light site-searching in all paths except Astral.\\  
 +6) Once you eventually have gold to spare thanks to random events and Distill Gold, use one of your Godes to build a fortress in the labbed forest. Start hiring sages there. Try to get at least 30 researching sages in total throughout the whole game, but watch your gold balance. Once Owl Quills become available, use all your sages to forge a quill for each in one turn, then dedicate one Vyedun or sage to forging quills every turn. Have a random Vanabog with Death 2 forge Skull Mentors once they become available (or you can have him forge a Skull Staff and give it to a sage to forge the skulls, while the Vanabog does something more important). Depending on the situation, you might want to summon Simargls to counter stealthy attacks and assassinations on your mage base. Either way, Simargls can be useful if you intend to keep multiple blood hunters in one province, so you can have a Vyedun or Yngvar summon around 15 of them initially. Although this build has Order 3 + Dominion 10 and can afford to spread its blood hunting.\\  
 +7) Do not attack anyone if you can before you have hordes of Devils from Soul Contracts, or at least large summoned armies. Do not look for fights, and avoid pitched battles with a possibility for big losses. Your path to victory lies in the late game, so you are already winning as long as you continue to develop undisturbed. This doesn't mean that you should avoid picking off provinces from someone who is already losing in a war with someone. This also doesn't mean that you should avoid attacking someone who is using the same late game strategy as you, but does not have troops that can compare to Chud Hirdmen and Chud Skinshifters, as well as the variety of summons you can conjure. A few Vyeduns and Vyedmas should be forging and remote site searching together with Vanabogs (naturally, forgers and site-searchers should be different units). A few more Vyedmas and Vyeduns, alongside Vanarusian Sages and maybe Vanabogs are needed for your summons, both in terms of creating them and in terms of controlling them in battle. Mound Kings should be used to lead undead such as Longdeads and Corpse Constructs. Even though your commanders' magic leadership values are weak and rare, you still can deploy hordes of magic beings such as Killer Mantises, Fire Ants and Claymen defensively - as long as there is one commander with magic leadership in a province, the magic beings in a garrison will not disappear during battle, even though you won't be able to command them. You will not be able to use magic beings offensively until you gain access to Awaken Sleeper at Conjuration 5, which is nowhere near the top of your list of priorities.\\  
 +8) Do not recruit a lot of Godes unless you need to defeat undead armies. However, you still should gradually increase the amount of Godes you have for several reasons, the earliest being as a form of defense against strong population-killing dominions. Later on, if you decide to use the Pretender as a combatant, increase the number of Godes to around 55 in total for instantaneous effect of Call God. Do not keep your Godes stored in a castle doing nothing and instead use them to transport troops to your frontlines. Another very important use for them is... just standing in your provinces. That is because your Order 3 scale will oftentimes give you a bad event which says: "People have tired of your oppresive rule!" and hands over your province to neutrals, regardless of how much Province Defense you've paid for. The only way to avoid this event is either to have forts in every province (which this build cannot do, because it wants to have resources for Chud Hirdmen) or to have a non-hiding commander in every province. So, place your Godes everywhere and order them to preach, patrol or just wait.\\  
 +9) As you mass-produce your Vanarusian Sages, look for the ones with a random path in Blood. Separate them from the rest and make them into your blood hunters. With a Blood Thorn and a Sanguine Dowsing Rod equipped, they can be quite effective. Your Pretender can make Blood Thorns without items, and she can give a Blood Thorn to a Blood2 Vanabog to do the same. Try to get 20 blood hunters or more, depending on your needs and the size of the game. Dominion 10 and Order 3 scales allow fairly intense hunting. However, if you see a sage with an Earth+Blood crosspath, keep him safe in your fort. You may need him for Earth forging. After Empowering in Earth and Blood, this rare sage will be able to forge Earth Boots in order to then forge a Blood Stone, and then put both on to forge Iron Face for your titan and Vanabogs.\\  
 +10) Start remote site-searching as soon as you can. Be on the lookout for independent Astral mages such as lizard Shamans. They can be used to find Astral Pearl sites by manually site searching. Also use a priest to manually site search for Ancient Temple, a common Holy site with Astral income.\\  
 +11) Use your blood income and Alkonosts to start eliminating enemy dominion from the map. But at first, a higher priority is probably demon production to ensure survival. You may choose what to do: forge Soul Contracts to auto-summon fiery Devils, cast Bind Storm Demon repeatedly or cast Bind Fiend repeatedly. Bind Storm Demon can be cast by some Vanabogs naturally, but a better idea is to find Vanarusian Sages with Air2+Blood1 crosspath and give them a Blood Thorn. Same thing with Fiends of Darkness. While Fiends can do well in caves, underwater or in darkness together with undead, and also make good bodyguards, and Storm Demons can stand under Wrathful Skies without any problem, and can be a backup plan in case someone casts Perpetual Storm, rendering your Devils much weaker, Devils are the most attractive because of your Drain3+Luck3 scales. Just the auto-summoning element of Soul Contracts is enough to consider them. 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). Do not start mass-producing Alkonosts for blood sacrificing until you have a comfortable amount of Soul Contract holders for your map size. Devils under Fog Warriors will become your main force later on and eclipse the Chud Hirdmen. 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. A Fog Warriors caster should be an Air 3 or 4 Vanabog with Winged Helmet, Bag of Winds, Flying Carpet, Golden Hoplon. Afterwards, start applying intense dominion pressure through blood sacrifice with Alkonosts to domkill enemies and to enhance your casting of Vengeful Water.\\  
 +12) If you have Astral-Fire mages, cast Summon Firebird in the capital forever, at a rate of 5 casts per turn or more, depending on your Fire income. This will eventually give you virtually infinite gold and gem income which is not reflected on score graphs. Even if you do not have such mages, you can make them by empowering an Astral mage in Fire or a Fire mage in Astral, depending on your situation and gem income. Given time, even one such mage will pay for itself many times over.\\  
 +13) Once you have access to Awaken Sleeper, you may start using your magic being armies offensively. Terracotta Soldiers or Fire Snakes from Fire gems, Wyverns and Draconians from Air gems, stealthy Gelatinous Cubes or numerous Kydnids from Water gems, resistent Mechanical Men or tough Living Statues or mighty Trolls from Earth gems, stealthy Ghosts or powerful Wights or storm-flying Zizes from Death gems, regenerating Lamias or mighty Forest Trolls from Nature gems, Devils or Storm demons from blood slaves, as well as all of the Corpse Constructs, Claymen, Longdead, Horned Serpents, stealthy Fire Ants and stealthy Killer Mantises that you amassed up to this point can now pour onto enemy lands. With Faery Trod and Stygian Paths becoming available later, you will become able to transport your summoned hordes to the front line instantaneously. When choosing a target to attack early, try to pick a someone who doesn't have Iron Bane and non-iron weapons, since this spell will make your Chud Hirdmen very weak. Later on, a Perpetual Storm global enchantment might also make you reconsider storming forts, even if you have a horde of Devils (Storm Demons and Spring Hawks, on the other hand, will do just fine). Deives of the Sun does not really need to go into battle, as she is better suited for forging Soul Contracts, casting Fires from Afar, Rain of Toads and later Flames from the Sky, as well as for reducing unrest from blood hunting. In a hypothetical battle, Deives of the Sun should have a Ring of Regeneration, an Amulet of Resilience, an Armor of Knights, an Iron Face, a Charcoal Shield and a Blood Thorn equipped, as well as Boots of the Messenger. Set her to stand in the back and advance and cast, with a script to cast Phoenix Power, Phoenix Pyre, Enlarge, Heat from Hell, Fire Storm, in that order. You may even bring some assisting mages to cast more buffs on her, as well as cast Hell Power first, while removing Enlarge from the casting script, if you really need to. Use your Devil army's mobility to pick off unforted provinces which are away from the main enemy force, while pushing your dominion into enemy lands with Blood sacrifice and hidden Vanabog preachers. You may consider transmuting your Fire gems into gold if the game does not give you enough gold through events.\\  
 +14) Mass produce Alkonosts to blood sacrifice in every province and cast Vengeful Water to eliminate all opposition.\\  
 + 
 +//Research Order//\\ 
 + 
 +Alteration 1 (Distill Gold) → Enchantment 1 (Reanimation) → Blood Magic 1 (Bind Fiery Imps) → Enchantment 2 (Revive King) → Conjuration 2 (Summon Crocodiles, Summon Horned Serpents, Summon Simargl, Summon Killer Mantis, Summon Fire Ants) → Construction 2 (Corpse Man Construction, Soul Contract, Lightning Rod, Rod of the Leper King) → Enchantment 3 (Claymen, Raise Skeletons) → Alteration 2 (Alchemical Transmutation) → Construction 6 (Vine Shield, Frost Brand, Ring of Regeneration, Winged Helmet, Winged Shoes, Flying Carpet, Crown of Bones, Storm Spool, Sanguine Dowsing Rod, Blood Thorn, Bag of Winds, Dragon Sceptre) → Conjuration 4 (Summon Firebird, lesser elemental summoning spells, Revive Bane, Dark Knowledge, Voice of Apsu, Contact Alkonost, Send Vodyanoy, elemental summoning spells, Summon Wyverns, Summon Likho) → Blood 2 (Bowl of Blood, Bind Fiend) → Thaumaturgy 4 (Haruspex, Augury, Auspex, Gnome Lore) → Evocation 3 (Arcane Probing, Fires from Afar) → Enchantment 4 (Terracotta Army, Vile Water, Flaming Arrows, Cloud Trapeze, Twiceborn) → Conjuration 5 (Awaken Sleeper, Revive Bane Lord, Contact Naiad) → Thaumaturgy 7 (Vengeful Water, Divine Name, Dark Skies) → Enchantment 6 (Dispel, Faery Trod, Horde of Skeletons, Foul Vapors, Trade Wind, Ziz, Enliven Statues, Heat from Hell, dome spells) → Blood 5 (Bind Storm Demon, Wrath of Pazuzu, Rain of Toads) → Alteration 7 (Transmute Fire, Earth Gem Alchemy, Manifest Vitriol, Transformation, Fog Warriors, Mass Protection, Phoenix Pyre) → Construction 9 (Mechanical Men, Juggernaut Construction) → Thaumaturgy 8 (Stygian Paths, Black Death) → Evocation 7 (Storm, Wrathful Skies, Wailing Winds, Fire Storm, Wind of Death) → Conjuration 9 (Enchanted Forests, Contact Cloud Vila, Contact Mountain Vila, Contact Leshiy, Tartarian Gate) → Evocation 9 (Celestial Rainbow) → Alteration 8 (Wizard's Tower) → Blood 9 (Three Red Seconds, The Looming Hell) 
 + 
 +//Situational tactics//\\  
 + 
 +  * On small maps, feel free to replace Growth 1 and Luck 3 with anything else, like a higher Fire path or a better Productivity scale, or a better Magic scale. Although Luck 3 still might be more useful for income depending on random events. A higher Fire path will give you more gold with Distill Gold and better combat magic on the Pretender.\\  
 +  * On large maps, instead of Deives of the Sun, you may consider choosing an imprisoned Fountain of Blood pretender with the following settings: magic - Fire 4, Astral 3, Blood 5, scales - Dominion 10, Order 3, Productivity 3, Heat 1, Growth 3, Luck 3, Drain 3, bless - Superior Morale, Major Fire Resistance, Strong Vitae, Blood Surge. This will allow using the same strategy as described above, but will also give you enough recruitable troops to be reasonably dangerous from the start of the game, discouraging early aggression and allowing you to develop your Devil factory. However, Fountain of Blood is not as versatile in combat, and you will not be able to start blood hunting from the first turns of the game, and will have no choice but to use your capital to blood hunt with the Pretender until Teleport ritual is researched. Pretender's blood hunting will also create a lot of province unrest, and you will need means to patrol it down before you attempt to blood hunt with the Fountain of Blood. Another alternative is the same Fountain of Blood build, but with Magic 3 in exchange for 0/-1 Productivity and lower magic paths.This will give you a stronger economy, but will make horror attacks on your Soul Contract and Lightless Lantern holders more dangerous and a lot more frequent, requiring either more expensive bodyguards (such as Gelatinous Cubes on Air2 Vanarusian Sages) and a more urgent production of anti-horror item kits described in Common Points section of this guide, or intense casting of Transformation to make Vyedmas into mindless commanders.\\ 
  
 ==== Awake Ghost King (WIP) ==== ==== Awake Ghost King (WIP) ====
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 //Build order//\\  //Build order//\\ 
 1) On the first turn, make your Vanarusian Herse into a Prophet. This will add some ranged damage to your expansion party at no price, making the first few turns a little less difficult. The scout can go explore nearby valuable provinces such as farmlands and thrones. The first commanders you hire should be a Vanarusian Jarl and a scout. The troops are all Chud Skinshifters.\\  1) On the first turn, make your Vanarusian Herse into a Prophet. This will add some ranged damage to your expansion party at no price, making the first few turns a little less difficult. The scout can go explore nearby valuable provinces such as farmlands and thrones. The first commanders you hire should be a Vanarusian Jarl and a scout. The troops are all Chud Skinshifters.\\ 
-2) On the next few turns, secure a full circle of provinces around your capital (unless there is a strong defense somewhere), followed by a forest province, if it is not too far away. Set your Skinshifters to flank enemies, hold and attack rear. Your starting troops need to be sufficiently forward positioned to distract enemy troops, allowing Chud Skinshifters to run to the back unimpeded. As your capital gains resources, you should start prioritizing Chud Hirdmen recruitment. Eventually, you will be able to recruit 4-5 Chud Hirdmen and 4-5 Chud Skinshifters every turn, but these numbers will increase over time. This is because your scales give you a lot of recruitment points, but not as many resources, so you should try to expend both your recruitment points and your resources by balancing between Hirdmen and Skinshifters. For example, you can recruit Hirdmen until you have around 20 resources left, and then recruit 4 Skinshifters with the remanining resources and recruitment points. By doing so you will be able to recruit 8-10 elite fighters instead of just 5 Chud Hirdmen every turn. A party of around 35 Chuds can take most neutral provinces even with strength of independents set to 9. Just keep in mind that Chud Skinshifters are fairly expensive in upkeep and just because you can recruit so many, does not mean you should. Recruit commanders: intermixed four scouts and four Godes, a Vanabog, multiple Vanarusian Sages. Scouts should be sent in different directions and look for enemy nations, while Godes can bring reinforcements and build structures. The Vanabog will become a site searcher.\\ +2) On the next few turns, secure a full circle of provinces around your capital (unless there is a strong defense somewhere), followed by a forest province, if it is not too far away. Set your Skinshifters to flank enemies, hold and attack rear. Your starting troops need to be sufficiently forward positioned to distract enemy troops, allowing Chud Skinshifters to run to the back unimpeded. As your capital gains resources, you should start prioritizing Chud Hirdman recruitment. Eventually, you will be able to recruit 4-5 Chud Hirdmen and 4-5 Chud Skinshifters every turn, but these numbers will increase over time. This is because your scales give you a lot of recruitment points, but not as many resources, so you should try to expend both your recruitment points and your resources by balancing between Hirdmen and Skinshifters. For example, you can recruit Hirdmen until you have around 20 resources left, and then recruit 4 Skinshifters with the remaining resources and recruitment points. By doing so, you will be able to recruit 8-10 elite fighters instead of just 5 Chud Hirdmen every turn. A party of around 35 Chuds can take most neutral provinces even with strength of independents set to 9. Just keep in mind that Chud Skinshifters are fairly expensive in upkeep and just because you can recruit so many, does not mean you should. Recruit commanders: intermixed four scouts and four Godes, a Vanabog, multiple Vanarusian Sages. Scouts should be sent in different directions and look for enemy nations, while Godes can bring reinforcements and build structures. The Vanabog will become a site searcher.\\ 
 3) Identify neighboring nations. Even though Chud Hirdmen are strong enough to simply beat many enemies outright, you still have to worry about outliers. For example, an undead nation such as MA Ermor would require producing many more Godes than you would usually make at the start, and little to no Chud Skinshifters, because Godes need to preach and banish, while Skinshifters will likely die to Ermorian javelins, and the Ermorian cavalry is not particularly numerous. Chud Hirdmen, on the other hand, have good armor and two attacks, which is perfect for destroying hordes of undead. Similarly, if you fight someone like MA Shinuyama, their katanas and no-dachis will slice Skinshifters to pieces in no time, and they do not have cavalry that would justify recruiting Sknishifters in the first place. On the other hand, if you are dealing with someone who relies on elites, such as cavalry, giants, mind blasters, mages, then most of your troop production should be Skinshifters. Mind blasters and astral mages also warrant recruiting Chud Jarl commanders instead of Vanarusian Jarls. Against hellblessed giants, rush research for Evocation 2 to have your Vanarusian Sages and Vanabogs cast Lightning Bolt. Ideally, the amount of Lightning Bolt casters should be approximately 2 for each sacred giant in enemy army. Troops need to be Chud Skinshifters set to hold and attack (hold and attack rear when your army is big enough). It is very unlikely that you will meet someone who can immediately negate both the physical damage of Chud Skinshifters and the lightning damage of your mages. Even if you do, there are still options like casting Holy Word, Steal Breath to get critical hits or forging Snake Rings for your Vanarusian Herses. Either way, you should try to rush for hellblessed enemy's capital to stop their sacred production.\\  3) Identify neighboring nations. Even though Chud Hirdmen are strong enough to simply beat many enemies outright, you still have to worry about outliers. For example, an undead nation such as MA Ermor would require producing many more Godes than you would usually make at the start, and little to no Chud Skinshifters, because Godes need to preach and banish, while Skinshifters will likely die to Ermorian javelins, and the Ermorian cavalry is not particularly numerous. Chud Hirdmen, on the other hand, have good armor and two attacks, which is perfect for destroying hordes of undead. Similarly, if you fight someone like MA Shinuyama, their katanas and no-dachis will slice Skinshifters to pieces in no time, and they do not have cavalry that would justify recruiting Sknishifters in the first place. On the other hand, if you are dealing with someone who relies on elites, such as cavalry, giants, mind blasters, mages, then most of your troop production should be Skinshifters. Mind blasters and astral mages also warrant recruiting Chud Jarl commanders instead of Vanarusian Jarls. Against hellblessed giants, rush research for Evocation 2 to have your Vanarusian Sages and Vanabogs cast Lightning Bolt. Ideally, the amount of Lightning Bolt casters should be approximately 2 for each sacred giant in enemy army. Troops need to be Chud Skinshifters set to hold and attack (hold and attack rear when your army is big enough). It is very unlikely that you will meet someone who can immediately negate both the physical damage of Chud Skinshifters and the lightning damage of your mages. Even if you do, there are still options like casting Holy Word, Steal Breath to get critical hits or forging Snake Rings for your Vanarusian Herses. Either way, you should try to rush for hellblessed enemy's capital to stop their sacred production.\\ 
 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. While the Vyedma and the Vyedun are being recruited for 2-4 turns, the first Vanabog can site search and then blood hunt in the same province. The two (three) of them can do light site-searching in all paths except Astral.\\  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. While the Vyedma and the Vyedun are being recruited for 2-4 turns, the first Vanabog can site search and then blood hunt in the same province. The two (three) of them can do light site-searching in all paths except Astral.\\ 
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 8) As you mass-produce your Vanarusian Sages, look for the ones with a random path in Blood. Separate them from the rest and make them into your blood hunters. With a Blood Thorn and a Sanguine Dowsing Rod equipped, they can be quite effective. In order to start producing Blood Thorns, you will either need to get lucky with a rare Blood3 Vanabog or Empower one (preferably you should Empower one with a Fire path or at least a Blood2 one). Try to get 10 blood hunters or more, depending on your needs and the size of the game. Order 3 and Growth 3 scales allow fairly intense hunting. However, if you see a sage with an Earth+Blood crosspath, keep him safe in your fort. You may need him for Earth forging. After Empowering in Earth and Blood, this rare sage will be able to forge Earth Boots in order to then forge a Blood Stone, and then put both on to forge Iron Face for your titan and Vanabogs.\\  8) As you mass-produce your Vanarusian Sages, look for the ones with a random path in Blood. Separate them from the rest and make them into your blood hunters. With a Blood Thorn and a Sanguine Dowsing Rod equipped, they can be quite effective. In order to start producing Blood Thorns, you will either need to get lucky with a rare Blood3 Vanabog or Empower one (preferably you should Empower one with a Fire path or at least a Blood2 one). Try to get 10 blood hunters or more, depending on your needs and the size of the game. Order 3 and Growth 3 scales allow fairly intense hunting. However, if you see a sage with an Earth+Blood crosspath, keep him safe in your fort. You may need him for Earth forging. After Empowering in Earth and Blood, this rare sage will be able to forge Earth Boots in order to then forge a Blood Stone, and then put both on to forge Iron Face for your titan and Vanabogs.\\ 
 9) Start remote site-searching as soon as you can. Be on the lookout for independent Astral mages such as lizard Shamans. They can be used to find Astral Pearl sites by manually site searching. Also use a priest to manually site search for Ancient Temple, a common Holy site with Astral income.\\  9) Start remote site-searching as soon as you can. Be on the lookout for independent Astral mages such as lizard Shamans. They can be used to find Astral Pearl sites by manually site searching. Also use a priest to manually site search for Ancient Temple, a common Holy site with Astral income.\\ 
-10) If you can choose a target for your wars, try to pick someone who doesn't have Curse, Spirit Curse, Soul Slay, Stream of Life, Shrink or Enfeeble. Most other opponents can be defeated with the right equipment and troops. Your titan is surprisingly vulnerable to undead until Alteration 4, so try to not walk him into a horde of cold-resistant skeletons who wouldn't care about his Chill Aura, but would love to stab him when his fatigue reaches 100. In most cases, later in the game the Father of Winters should have a Ring of Regeneration, an Amulet of Resilience, a Blacksteel Full Plate or Armor of Knights, an Iron Face, a Vine Shield and a Frost Brand equipped. 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 on, he can cast Temper Flesh, Mossbody, Personal Regeneration, Storm, Wrathful Skies (or Storm and Grip of Winter, or just Foul Vapors, or Rain of Stones, depending on what will hurt the enemy most). You may even have some of these buff spells be cast by assisting mages, freeing up scripting space for several battlefield enchantments at once. The titan can complement an army of Chud Hirdmen nicely by casting Storm, Mist, Grip of Winter, Fog Warrios, Mass Protection or any combination of these spells. Although you do not really need him for that, since empowered and boosted mages can do the same, but at the cost of more research and gems. Use your giant Pretender's mobility to pick off unforted provinces which are away from the main enemy force, while pushing your dominion into enemy lands with Blood sacrifice or hidden Vanabog preachers. As the game progresses, the combat effectiveness of the Father of Winters will increasingly depend on the properties of his equipment, such as magic resistance and other protections. Your Chud troops will march to the frontlines by foot and thanks to your scales will be able to pick up useful local units along the way, such as heavy cavalries or heavy infantries. You may consider transmuting your Fire gems into gold if the game does not give you enough gold through events.\\ +10) If you can choose a target for your wars, try to pick someone who doesn't have Curse, Spirit Curse, Soul Slay, Stream of Life, Shrink or Enfeeble. Most other opponents can be defeated with the right equipment and troops. Your titan is surprisingly vulnerable to undead until Alteration 4, so try to not walk him into a horde of cold-resistant skeletons who wouldn't care about his Chill Aura, but would love to stab him when his fatigue reaches 100. In most cases, later in the game the Father of Winters should have a Ring of Regeneration, an Amulet of Resilience, a Blacksteel Full Plate or Armor of Knights, an Iron Face, a Vine Shield and a Frost Brand equipped, as well as Boots of the Messenger. Set him 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 on, he can cast Temper Flesh, Mossbody, Personal Regeneration, Storm, Wrathful Skies (or Storm and Grip of Winter, or just Foul Vapors, or Rain of Stones, depending on what will hurt the enemy most). You may even have some of these buff spells be cast by assisting mages, freeing up scripting space for several battlefield enchantments at once. The titan can complement an army of Chud Hirdmen nicely by casting Storm, Mist, Grip of Winter, Fog Warrios, Mass Protection or any combination of these spells. Although you do not really need him for that, since empowered and boosted mages can do the same, but at the cost of more research and gems. Use your giant Pretender's mobility to pick off unforted provinces which are away from the main enemy force, while pushing your dominion into enemy lands with Blood sacrifice or hidden Vanabog preachers. As the game progresses, the combat effectiveness of the Father of Winters will increasingly depend on the properties of his equipment, such as magic resistance and other protections. Your Chud troops will march to the frontlines by foot and thanks to your scales will be able to pick up useful local units along the way, such as heavy cavalries or heavy infantries. You may consider transmuting your Fire gems into gold if the game does not give you enough gold through events.\\ 
 11) Use your blood income to push your dominion into enemy lands so that you can use your Pretender offensively. But a higher priority is probably demon production. You may choose what to do: forge Soul Contracts to auto-summon fiery Devils, cast Bind Storm Demon repeatedly or cast Bind Fiend repeatedly. Bind Storm Demon can be cast by some Vanabogs naturally, but a better idea is to find Vanarusian Sages with Air2+Blood1 crosspath and give them a Blood Thorn. Same thing with Fiends of Darkness. While Fiends can do well in caves, underwater or in darkness together with undead, and also make good bodyguards, and Storm Demons can support your blessed troops or stand under Wrathful Skies without any problem, Devils are the most attractive because of your Drain3+Luck2 scales. Even though their heat aura is negated by your Cold 3 scales, they still fight well in cold (it's not like they have Fire Power ability). The only downside is the fact that they will have +2 encumbrance due to severe cold, but they usually win battles before that can matter. Just the auto-summoning element of Soul Contracts is enough to consider them. 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 and eclipse the Chud Hirdmen. 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. A Fog Warriors caster should be an Air 3 or 4 Vanabog with Winged Helmet, Bag of Winds, Flying Carpet, Golden Hoplon. You may also try to use intense dominion pressure through blood sarcifice with Alkonosts to domkill enemies and to enhance your casting of Vengeful Water if you decide to use it.\\  11) Use your blood income to push your dominion into enemy lands so that you can use your Pretender offensively. But a higher priority is probably demon production. You may choose what to do: forge Soul Contracts to auto-summon fiery Devils, cast Bind Storm Demon repeatedly or cast Bind Fiend repeatedly. Bind Storm Demon can be cast by some Vanabogs naturally, but a better idea is to find Vanarusian Sages with Air2+Blood1 crosspath and give them a Blood Thorn. Same thing with Fiends of Darkness. While Fiends can do well in caves, underwater or in darkness together with undead, and also make good bodyguards, and Storm Demons can support your blessed troops or stand under Wrathful Skies without any problem, Devils are the most attractive because of your Drain3+Luck2 scales. Even though their heat aura is negated by your Cold 3 scales, they still fight well in cold (it's not like they have Fire Power ability). The only downside is the fact that they will have +2 encumbrance due to severe cold, but they usually win battles before that can matter. Just the auto-summoning element of Soul Contracts is enough to consider them. 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 and eclipse the Chud Hirdmen. 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. A Fog Warriors caster should be an Air 3 or 4 Vanabog with Winged Helmet, Bag of Winds, Flying Carpet, Golden Hoplon. You may also try to use intense dominion pressure through blood sarcifice with Alkonosts to domkill enemies and to enhance your casting of Vengeful Water if you decide to use it.\\ 
-12) If you have Astral-Fire mages, cast Summon Firebird in the capital forever, at a rate of 5 casts per turn or more, depending on your Fire income. This will eventually give you virtually infinite gold and gem income which is not reflected on scoregraphs. Even if you do not have such mages, you can make them by empowering an Astral mage in Fire or a Fire mage in Astral, depending on your situation and gem income. Given time, even one such mage will pay for itself many times over.\\ +12) If you have Astral-Fire mages, cast Summon Firebird in the capital forever, at a rate of 5 casts per turn or more, depending on your Fire income. This will eventually give you virtually infinite gold and gem income which is not reflected on score graphs. Even if you do not have such mages, you can make them by empowering an Astral mage in Fire or a Fire mage in Astral, depending on your situation and gem income. Given time, even one such mage will pay for itself many times over.\\ 
 13) Your multi-buffed armies of Chud Hirdmen and Devils, as well as Soul Vortex+Mistform casting, heavily armed Vanabogs can be enough to put some enemies on the back foot, but if they are not, especially if your Pretender is somehow unable to turn the tide of a war with his battlefield enchantments (for example, he can be shrunk, completely strength drained, cursed and heavily injured or constantly Soul Slayed), then consider casting globals like Vengeful Water or Dark Skies. Vengeful Water will produce Ice Elementals in your Cold 3 scales and can be cast by your Pretender with path-boosting items and Empowering, or by a more expensively Empowered Water2 Vyedma or a Vodyanoy (if you can bring him to land) or a Naiad. Dark Skies is a powerful global debuff which greatly increases the chance to route enemy units and stacks with Wailing Winds and Blood Rain, it can be easily cast by Old Bear Thunder or your Pretender with one booster. Both of these Globals benefit greatly from intense blood sacrificing from your Holy3 Alkonost national summons. You also have the option of casting The Wrath of God, although this spell will be much weaker than it can be because of your Order 3 scales. It can be cast by Old Bear Thunder with some gear and very cheap Empowering. Mother Oak is another niche option that 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.\\  13) Your multi-buffed armies of Chud Hirdmen and Devils, as well as Soul Vortex+Mistform casting, heavily armed Vanabogs can be enough to put some enemies on the back foot, but if they are not, especially if your Pretender is somehow unable to turn the tide of a war with his battlefield enchantments (for example, he can be shrunk, completely strength drained, cursed and heavily injured or constantly Soul Slayed), then consider casting globals like Vengeful Water or Dark Skies. Vengeful Water will produce Ice Elementals in your Cold 3 scales and can be cast by your Pretender with path-boosting items and Empowering, or by a more expensively Empowered Water2 Vyedma or a Vodyanoy (if you can bring him to land) or a Naiad. Dark Skies is a powerful global debuff which greatly increases the chance to route enemy units and stacks with Wailing Winds and Blood Rain, it can be easily cast by Old Bear Thunder or your Pretender with one booster. Both of these Globals benefit greatly from intense blood sacrificing from your Holy3 Alkonost national summons. You also have the option of casting The Wrath of God, although this spell will be much weaker than it can be because of your Order 3 scales. It can be cast by Old Bear Thunder with some gear and very cheap Empowering. Mother Oak is another niche option that 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.\\ 
 14) Use dominion pressure, globals, Cloud Trapezing warrior-mages, buffed armies and your Pretender to gain economic and strategic advantage and win the game any way you can while preventing throne rushes from opponents.\\  14) Use dominion pressure, globals, Cloud Trapezing warrior-mages, buffed armies and your Pretender to gain economic and strategic advantage and win the game any way you can while preventing throne rushes from opponents.\\ 
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   * As previously mentioned, this build only needs Earth2 in order to forge a Blacksteel Full Plate and to cast Earth buffs after the titan's awakening. If you are confident you can take on neutrals and early enemy armies without the full plate, then feel free to go down to Earth1 and get Water4 instead for both Cold Resistance blesses which will benefit your Vanabogs, allowing them to not only survive Frozen Heart and their own Frost Brand but also will free some equipment space for more items. Earth1 is still very useful for casting Ironskin, Temper Flesh and Iron Will, but you may also consider getting rid of that as well, if you think that Barkskin, Blacksteel Plate, Air Shield and a built-in Chill Aura are enough to kill an army. You will still be able to imitate the effects of Temper Flesh with Liquid Body, and you can give your Pretender Ironkskin by Empowering him in Earth or by putting on Iron Face. In this case, you can use the spare design points to get Luck 3, which can make a world of difference by increasing your income and allowing you to get Alchemists in shipwreck events, which in turn will allow you to summon Firebirds and to search for Astral sites.\\   * As previously mentioned, this build only needs Earth2 in order to forge a Blacksteel Full Plate and to cast Earth buffs after the titan's awakening. If you are confident you can take on neutrals and early enemy armies without the full plate, then feel free to go down to Earth1 and get Water4 instead for both Cold Resistance blesses which will benefit your Vanabogs, allowing them to not only survive Frozen Heart and their own Frost Brand but also will free some equipment space for more items. Earth1 is still very useful for casting Ironskin, Temper Flesh and Iron Will, but you may also consider getting rid of that as well, if you think that Barkskin, Blacksteel Plate, Air Shield and a built-in Chill Aura are enough to kill an army. You will still be able to imitate the effects of Temper Flesh with Liquid Body, and you can give your Pretender Ironkskin by Empowering him in Earth or by putting on Iron Face. In this case, you can use the spare design points to get Luck 3, which can make a world of difference by increasing your income and allowing you to get Alchemists in shipwreck events, which in turn will allow you to summon Firebirds and to search for Astral sites.\\
   * Additionally, you may replace Growth 3 with better Luck and Magic scales in situations when you play on a small map.   * Additionally, you may replace Growth 3 with better Luck and Magic scales in situations when you play on a small map.
-  * If you find a Knightly Order site, you may try to start producing Knight Commanders and giving them inexpensive items like the Barkskin Amulet to attack enemy provinces. It's a cheap way to hit your opponent's economy and force them to divert resources from something important.\\ 
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 ==== Imprisoned Frost Father (WIP) ==== ==== Imprisoned Frost Father (WIP) ====
vanarus-guide.1775201364.txt.gz · Last modified: 2026/04/03 07:29 by reinc

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