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vanarus-guide [2026/04/21 14:17]
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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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| //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//\\ |
