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vanarus-guide [2026/04/05 13:25]
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vanarus-guide [2026/04/22 13:02] (current)
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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.\\ |
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| __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.\\ |
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| __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.\\ |
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| **National heroes**\\ | **National heroes**\\ |
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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.\\ |
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| **Province enchantments**\\ | **Province enchantments**\\ |
| * 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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| //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.\\ |
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| //Expansion//\\ | //Expansion//\\ |
| //Situational Tactics://\\ | //Situational Tactics://\\ |
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| * 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.\\ |
| //Situational tactics//\\ | //Situational tactics//\\ |
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| * On small maps, feel free to replace Growth 1 and Luck 3 with anything else, like a higher Fire path or a better Production 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 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, Production 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.\\ | * 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.\\ |
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| ==== Awake Ghost King (WIP) ==== | ==== Awake Ghost King (WIP) ==== |
