vanarus-guide
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vanarus-guide [2026/08/02 11:02] reinc |
vanarus-guide [2026/08/06 02:59] (current) reinc |
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| Vanarusian Herse - low quality commanders with snow move. Somewhat slow because of their armor, so using Godes for bringing reinforcements is sometimes more efficient.\\ | Vanarusian Herse - low quality commanders with snow move. Somewhat slow because of their armor, so using Godes for bringing reinforcements is sometimes more efficient.\\ | ||
| - | Vanarusian Jarl - average quality commanders, useful for setting up formations and generally for strategies which don't involve sacreds and blessing. Jarls themselves are sacred, but there is no reason to use them as combatants when you have Vanabogs. Even if you want to have sacred werewolves via Lychantropos' | + | Vanarusian Jarl - average quality commanders, useful for setting up formations and generally for strategies which don't involve sacreds and blessing. They are cheaper than the Chud version and therefore might be preferable in cases where you need to save. Jarls themselves are sacred, but there is no reason to use them as combatants when you have Vanabogs.\\ |
| __Vanarusian Gode__ - relatively cheap and easily massable priests who can lead 10 troops and have good map movement. They are also your best commanders for building forts and temples. Once they get some experience, they become able to transport more troops, making Herses even less useful. Due to having a low buying price and costing less in upkeep than a scout, you may recruit a large amount of these early without too big of a hit to your economy, which can help with calling back combatant pretenders or fighting undead-focused enemies, or deterring harmful enemy dominion effects.\\ | __Vanarusian Gode__ - relatively cheap and easily massable priests who can lead 10 troops and have good map movement. They are also your best commanders for building forts and temples. Once they get some experience, they become able to transport more troops, making Herses even less useful. Due to having a low buying price and costing less in upkeep than a scout, you may recruit a large amount of these early without too big of a hit to your economy, which can help with calling back combatant pretenders or fighting undead-focused enemies, or deterring harmful enemy dominion effects.\\ | ||
| - | Chud Jarl - a better version of human Jarls with the added ability to bless themselves. There is little reason to ever use them. They do have significantly higher morale and magic resistance than their human counterparts, | + | Chud Jarl - a better version of human Jarls with the added ability to bless themselves. They have significantly higher morale and magic resistance than their human counterparts, |
| __Vanarusian Sage__ - some of the best researchers in the Middle Age. National magic path access and gem income for Fire, Air and Death makes it easy to equip all of your sages with Owl Quills, Skull Mentors or even Lightless Lanterns, allowing them to surpass MA C'tis in research and to potentially match MA Ermor. Random Nature and Death paths may provide with the opportunity to Transform or Twiceborn some of them at some point, while Blood randoms can help Vanabogs with blood hunting, eventually replacing them once Blood Thorns and Sanguine Dowsing Rods become available. Air2 and Air3 ones can be used as combat mages.\\ | __Vanarusian Sage__ - some of the best researchers in the Middle Age. National magic path access and gem income for Fire, Air and Death makes it easy to equip all of your sages with Owl Quills, Skull Mentors or even Lightless Lanterns, allowing them to surpass MA C'tis in research and to potentially match MA Ermor. Random Nature and Death paths may provide with the opportunity to Transform or Twiceborn some of them at some point, while Blood randoms can help Vanabogs with blood hunting, eventually replacing them once Blood Thorns and Sanguine Dowsing Rods become available. Air2 and Air3 ones can be used as combat mages.\\ | ||
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| * If your opponent is using a combatant Pretender, but doesn' | * If your opponent is using a combatant Pretender, but doesn' | ||
| * 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 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 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.\\ | ||
| - | * 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, Wailing Winds and Blood Rain is also powerful, and Dark Skies is also 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. Picking a pretender who can cast Riches from Beneath will also greatly boost your ability to field large amounts of mages and troops, but such option is a lot less attractive when there are strong Earth nations like Ulm, Agartha or Vanheim 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 | + | * 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, Wailing Winds and Blood Rain is also powerful, and Dark Skies is also 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. Picking a pretender who can cast Riches from Beneath will also greatly boost your ability to field large amounts of mages and troops, but such option is a lot less attractive when there are strong Earth nations like Ulm, Agartha or Vanheim 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 |
| * If you get a Madman or a commander version of a Lumber Construct in an event, give them a Soul Contract. Since they are mindless, horrors will never come for them. If you get a Vampire commander in an event, give it gear and use it as an immportal raider.\\ | * If you get a Madman or a commander version of a Lumber Construct in an event, give them a Soul Contract. Since they are mindless, horrors will never come for them. If you get a Vampire commander in an event, give it gear and use it as an immportal raider.\\ | ||
| * Do not overlook Holy site searching. With your first Vanabog, and later with just a Gode, you can always hope to find a couple Ancient Temple 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 Ancient Temple sites with Astral income, which you need badly.\\ | ||
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| + | * Instead of the green Dragon, you may take a blue Dragon instead (same magic paths and scales, except Water magic level will be 3, removing the Cold Resistance blesses). There is an uncommon good event which has your Dragon' | ||
| + | * 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. | ||
| + | * Feel free to remove Growth 1 and replace it with anything you want (but preferably not Productivity) in cases when you play on a small map.\\ | ||
| * 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.\\ | * 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' | ||
| - | * Feel free to remove Growth 1 and replace it with anything you want (but preferably not Productivity) in cases when you play on a small map.\\ | ||
| - | * Because of the ability to do blood sacrifice, you also may consider setting Dominion strength to 3 and getting Growth 2 instead, although this will seriously hurt your ability to use the pretender offensively.\\ | ||
| ==== Awake Deives of the Sun (WIP) ==== | ==== Awake Deives of the Sun (WIP) ==== | ||
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| // | // | ||
| - | * On small maps, feel free to reduce Dominion 10 and Growth 3 in exchange for a better Productivity scale or a bless.\\ | + | |
| + | | ||
| * If you are playing against opponents with strong sacreds, it is recommended to rush Alteration 1 and Evocation 2 or 3 at first. Continue to research Alteration and Evocation for powerful damaging spells as long as the threat persists.\\ | * If you are playing against opponents with strong sacreds, it is recommended to rush Alteration 1 and Evocation 2 or 3 at first. Continue to research Alteration and Evocation for powerful damaging spells as long as the threat persists.\\ | ||
| * If harmful enemy dominion is not a concern, you may choose to design this pretender with a lower dominion score, and in exchange increase the Idol's level of Astral magic. This will save Astral pearls on Empowerment in late game and may allow you to cast Strands of Arcane Power in the late game. | * If harmful enemy dominion is not a concern, you may choose to design this pretender with a lower dominion score, and in exchange increase the Idol's level of Astral magic. This will save Astral pearls on Empowerment in late game and may allow you to cast Strands of Arcane Power in the late game. | ||
vanarus-guide.1785668527.txt.gz · Last modified: 2026/08/02 11:02 by reinc