"Vanarus was partly conceived during the development of Dominions 3. Hints were included in the descriptions of Bogarus, but I never got around to finishing it.

Vanarus is the predecessor of Bogarus. It is a nation of ruling Vanir that have subjugated and intermingled themselves with the previous rulers of the land. Kievan Rus' is one of the sources here, but I've also used the Chudes, a people that appears in the myths of various peoples from the eastern Baltic seaboard. I haven't found very much on the Chuds, so they are mostly my creation. The "Pine of Skulls," shape-shifting and shamanic bear cult practices fit the nation. These features, as well as the Thunder Priests mentioned in the descriptions of the nation appear in Rus, the early version of the nation.

I wanted the national troops of the nation to reflect the change from the earlier era to the late Bogarus. Versatile Vanarusian sages are slowly replacing the mighty Vanir and will eventually develop into the Starets and mages of the late era. " –Illwinter

When the Vanir entered the land of Rus in between the Early & Middle Ages, they were simply exploring & looking to trade. However, conflict between them and the local Humans & Chuds over a sacred site spiraled into war. The Vanir won the initial battles, founding the city of Novgård at that site. When the Humans & Chudes allied to push the Vanir back into the sea, the Vanir subdued the Humans with their illusions & superior strength, forcing the Chudes to fight the Humans as well. Then came the Black Knights of Ulm, who were certainly there to conquer. In the face of a greater threat, Novgård & Rus rallied together, defeating the Ulmic invasion. From there, the Kingdom of Vanarus was formed, led by the precious few Vanir that were remaining. As a result of this chaotic period, the Chudes had fallen behind the Humans in terms of numbers, but they still held a bit of their former prestige.

Vanarus trades Astral for Water and Death, and its Skinshifters of old have been lost their sacred status in favor of the nation's few "true" elves. Compared to the Early Ages, most of Vanarus's troops have fallen behind in edge, while the magic spread has somehow gotten even more awkward. Still, you have a wide toolkit you can use to address most problems that come your way, especially once you get your hands on a forest or two.

The bear-worshiping humans and the Elves of Vanheim combined to make a more Rus with better Stealth raiders with better access to Blood and Death.

Your nation is made up of common human Rus, having cold Resistance (3) which grants them immunity to chill Auras combined with most foot troops having Snow-Move, lets them scert by most downsides of being a cold nation.

description of the workhorse options, for the sake of sanity better skip the clearly subpar and generic stuff (common indie like units with no gimmicks), merge units into a single description entry if functionally similar battle roles with only minor differences in gear.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Vanarusian Archer 10 5 9	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Men with short bows. Vanarus has easy access to Wind Guide and moderately easy access to Flaming Arrows from Vyedun, making cheap archers a possible target for these buffs (alongside the many javelins Vanarus also has).
	Vanarusian Huskarl 10 12 9	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Cheap humans with javelins. The spear is more defensive while the axe does more damage.
	Vanarusian Huskarl 10 12 9	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move
	Vanarusian Hirdman 12 17 14	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Upgrade on Huskarls with better armor, morale, attack skill and defense skill.
	Vanarusian Hirdman 12 17 14	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move
	Vanarusian Hirdman 12 19 14	Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Hirdman with greater Attack and Defense skill. More balanced in offensive and defensive capabilities compared to the other two Hirdmen.
	Vanarusian Berserker 15 17 21	ambidextrous (1) berserker (2) Cold Resistance (3) Snow Move	Your DPS guy, being an armored Berserker with a sword and an axe. Doesn't get that shield prot but benefits when mixed in with shielded infantry for survivability while helping them grind down the enemy. Their faster movement means that they should still be behind a shieldwall so that they don't run past them.
	Chud Hirdman 35 21 28	ambidextrous (2) berserker (2) Cold Resistance (5) Snow Move	Successors of the Chud Berserkers. Higher stats and protection than the Vanarusian Berserker. They make expansion easier, though are a bit pricey. Will likely slow down the armies they are with.
	Oath-Bound 35 22 25 Capital Only	sacred bodyguard(3) Cold Resistance (3) glamour stealthy (65) Snow Move	Sacred Elfs going sword and board. Are Hard to kill. Also useful for protecting your mages. As expanders, they will take fewer casualties than Chuds while being able to take a blessing. Like the Chud Hirdman, they are slow on the march.
	Chud Skinshifter 40 5 33 Capital Only	Cold Resistance (5) Snow Move Berserker (+1) Mountain Survival Forest Survival Recuperation Wounded Shape: (Werebear)	Like the EA Skinshifter but suffers that standard demystifying, losing its sacred status and has a weaker Berserk. Now cheaper buying cost, don't have to create a blessing for them, but higher upkeep. Still needs support even though they hit hard and get more HP in bear form. Benefits greatly from casting Regeneration, but their lack of protection makes them more of a tool to be used carefully against tough enemies.

any breakout hits that might sway someone towards luck or away from it ?

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Old Bear Thunder - Last Perkunu Turn Arrival Limit: 5	4131 13 Sacred Poison Resistance(5) Cold Resistance(5) Shock Resistance (22) Shape Changer: (Werebear) Snow Move inept researcher (8) Mountain Survival Forest Survival Recuperation Supply Bonus (30) Summon in battle: (Great Bear)	Your break into high air magic. Also brings astral and Moonvine Bracelets to the table.
	Yngvar - Varyag Turn Arrival Limit: 15	211 11 sacred Cold Resistance(3) inspirational(1) glamour stealthy (65)	Mini-Vanabog without horse. Always brings with him 3d6 Oath-Bounds once as an event.
	Baba Yaga - Hag Turn Arrival Limit: 20	3132 23 Cold Resistance (15) Poison Resistance (15) Shock Resistance (5) Fear (8) Flying Forest Survival Supply Bonus (20)	Fills two holes in your Magic Path lineup, Water & High level Death with a Skull Staff, both of which are not particularly easy for Vanarus to fill.

• Conjuration: Powers, Elementals, Awaken Draugar, Howl, Send Vodyanoy, Contact Gamayun, Summon Mound Fiend, Magic Duel

• Alteration: Mistform, Immolation, Mossbody, Windguid, Incinerate, Manifest Vitriol, Soul Vortex, Frozen Heart. Battle Fortune

• Evocation: Geyser, Sulphur Haze, Fireball, Shadow Bolt/Shadow Blast, Thunder Strike, Storm, Falling Frost, Wailing Winds, Rain of Stones, Astral Geyser.

• Construction: Corpse Man Construction, Research items

• Enchantment: Claymen, Regeneration, Flaming Arrows, Foul Vapors, Ziz, Reanimate Archers, Antimagic,

• Thaumaturgy: Terror, Raging Hearts, Gamayun spells: (Communion, Mind Burn, Paralyze, Soul Slay.)

• Blood: Demon summons

Blood is less about boosters and more about how many blood slaves you can gather so you can empower. Vanarus doesn't have cost-efficient blood hunters so that's a negative. A good way to start nationally is with a 2 Vanabog, empower until 4 so he can make the boosters and the Robe of the Magi to boost other paths, though blood is likely already on your pretender. Vanarusian Sages can make the Armor of Twisting Thorns with some help.

Fire naturally peaks at 2 but Vanabog and sages can forge Skull of Fire, to then summon Flame Spirits to then forge Flame Helmets end ending with a Fire King sitting at 7.

If the Last Perkunu arrives or a Vanabog is empowered, you can make Winged Helmets and then Bag of Winds for 7 Storm queens. in combat a Vanabog with gems can turn your 2 mages into Thunder Strikers with Storm.

Water is easy to boost with a Vyedma summon a Vodyanoy or Beregina. then use Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea to make her 5 to summon a water queen.

Earth access is limited to 1 on Vyedun/Vyedma, or 11 on Vanarusian Sages for earth sabbaths. If you can grease the wheels with some gems or a pretender, you can create Earth Boots and Blood Stone to make a recruitable mage 4 in combat, but more likely to also spend Earth gems on Troll Kings, Earth Kings, and Father Illearth.

Astral is not a native path but if you have a 2 you get Gamayun. Give her a Starshine Skullcap to make her 3 and she can replicate.

You get a Vanabog with Skull Staff for 3 unless Baba Yaga shows her face, then we get into Liches.

We get 3 on a forest mage with a Thistle Mace and 4 in combat (Strength of Gaia). To go higher we need the Last Perkunu, or a Cloud Vila to make a Moonvine Bracelet to make a Treelord's Staff. This gets you a Leshiy. If you want to go absurdly high, get The Copper Arm to equip him with all the boosters so he is 8.

Vanarus has access to the following paths for the purposes of rituals:

Elements

• 2 on Vyeduns, 7 via Skull of Fire (Vanarusian Sage/Vanabog), Flame Helmet (Flame Spirit), King of Elemental fire (expensive!)
• 3 on Vanabogs or Vanarusian Sages, 7 via Winged Helmet (empowerment), Bag of Winds and Queen of Elemental Air (expensive!)
• 2 on Vyedmas, 7 via Water Bracelet, Robe of the Sea, Vodyanoy, Queen of Elemental water
• 1 on Vanarusian Sages, Vyedmas or Vyeduns, 6 via Earth Boots and Blood Stone (empowerment), Troll King and King of Elemental Earth (expensive!)

Sorceries

• No astral magic, 3 via 2 (indie, pretender, empowerment) Starshine Skullcap on Gamayun.
• 2 on Vanabogs, 3 via a Skull Staff, 5 via a Skull Staff, Baba Yaga - Hag (empowerment), Skullface on Lich (expensive!)
• 2 on Vyedmas or Vyeduns, 8 via Thistle Mace, Moonvine Bracelet (Cloud Vila or Mountain Vila), Treelord's Staff, The Copper Arm on Leshiy (expensive!)
• 2 on Vanabogs, as much blood as required via empowering and boosters.

national spell or summon cost and usecase, judgment if it's good. fix from Rus

One of Rus's selling points is its sheer amount of exclusive summons.

• Summon Simargl Conjure 2, 1 1, ( Simarglx1). Too slow if your trying to amass a flying fores but fine as Patrol chaff. You have the air mages but Air gems are also precious, especially when you access better summons now.

• Summon Firebird Conjure 3, 11 2, ( Firebirdx1) hard to use as Vanarus don't have Astral mages but if you get an influx of astral gems, empower and be spamming for the influx of lucky events in your fort, especially since they also something Siegers should mess with.

• Sloth of Bears Conjure 3, 2 8, ( Great Bearx10 + [lv]) Summon more bears for Sieges but not soo good in combate.

• Contact Sirin Conjure 3, 2 8, ( Sirin) if you run into a big astral indie, A way to steal Male Commanders. If that doesn't work, giving them Handful of Acorns and some other weapon that can be used in the misc slot like The Pebble Pouch can dispatch a variety of problems

• Summon Likho Conjure 4, 1 10, ( Likho) Summon and let her sit in a eneimy Provence to cause annoyances.

• Awaken Draugar Conjure 4, 2 12, ( Draugx3) They are undead with a chill aura and fear and hit harder when on their last legs. They are comparable to Wights, with Draugar being better equipped to win the grind game.

• Contact Alkonost Conjure 4, 2 15, ( Alkonost) Summable by Gamayun, they are Flying Greater Priest, leader, and Throne Claimer. Decent alround Utiltiy.

• Summon Rusalka Conjure 4, 11 16, ( Rusalka) Hard for MA to use. Create more Low-level Death mages with water gems and a way to expand underwater. Can kill most things with a Water Lens Summon a Water Elemental and then spam skeletons until the assassination target is dead.

• Send Vodyanoy Conjure 4, 2 20, ( Vodyanoy) only target Sea province. Conjure a Stealthy Water mage underwater. She won't Be Establishing a foothold underwater by herself and without gems, but she can raid if you had already created a foothold down there. Is A means of fighting a water war if the ocean nations had failed to conquer most of the independents. They are also will climb water magic for you, getting you into Water Queens and Naiads
  

• Send Lady Midday Conjure 5, 11 10, ( Lady Midday) Basically summons a weak Disease Demon. Is Very fragle.

• Summon Zmey Conjure 5, 2 5, ( Zmeyx1) Cool 3 headed Dragon but held back by the fact its a reptile and all of Rus's line is a cold nation. May be ok if taking a Hellbless or fighting in hot lands. Lead them with a Alkonost.

• Contact Gamayun Conjure 5, 3 25, ( Gamayun) Get a Flying Air and Astral mage. Very mobile with Fly and Cloud Trapeze to support your army with Paralyze and Mind Burn. If you have Astral on your pretender, summon one then put a Skullshine Skullcap and put her in charge of summoning more.

• Send Bukavac Conjure 5, 4 5, ( Bukavac) only target Sea province. They are very hard to deal with especially if your having a bunch of Vodyanoy sends several aginst one providence. These are Giant Trampler that will clear out Fishman settlement and many of their armies.

• Contact Beregina Conjure 6, 31 35, ( Beregina) a amphibious Water mage with nature support spells and may to take a decently sized force underwater. the Middle age have the easest time summoning them.

• Contact Cloud Vila Conjure 7, 4 40, ( Cloud Vila) Mountain and borders only. Take a Perkunu and make it a flying true Healer instead of a Werebear. You could be spending those Air gems to work towards Air Queens while having an easier time summoning Mountain Vilas.

• Contact Mountain Vila Conjure 7, 4 40, ( Mountain Vila) Mountain and borders only. Nature Air communioning, True Healer 2 mage comes prepage with a Vine Bow for going off-script. Mix of Faery Queen and Ivy King, those too expensive to use recklessly. if you only need a generally strong nature mage, an Ivy King is far more resilient for cheaper.

• Contact Leshiy Conjure 8, 6 60, ( Leshiy Leshiy) Forest only. Takes a lot of climbing to get a nature mage that can be potalty 7 while in forests. Only get so someone, not your pretender can hold up Gift of Health or Enchanted Forests

Get Sages and Forest mages with wide path spreads, Lots of air, thug elf on horses, some Sabbath mages, some good summable mages in Gamayun.

the Vyedma and Vyedun are your mass-produced mages, grabbing a lot of them to focus on an Elemental or Nature of spells. while your fort sages perform a similar role with the exception of blood randomness.
with boosters and gems, they mass evocation and fluffing. Chaffing with Elementals or Swarm, and Sages can Skilly spam with a staff.
If you don't have Earth Boots a gem to Summon Earthpower lets your forest mages fluff your troops' strength and protection.

Some sages create Sabbaths with Blood and air being the main paths that course the least fatigue on the slaves, with Fire, Nature, and Earth also boosted on the master to cast big spells like Rain of Stones and Sulphur Haze, Purify Blood.

Vanabog is your recruitable magic powerhouse when not currently used as a thug. They put up Storm so your plentiful air mages become 2s, and 3s.

THough you don't have native astral the Gamayun should not be discounted as they can be just as hard to nail down as Vanabog, casting Astral spells like Soul Slay and also calling down Lighting.

A tactic in the late middlegame is during a big battle is Blood Rain and Wailing Winds to moral route mortal units.

You Have many National Summons.

Your are one of the few nations to benefit from Summon Flame Spirit as your evocator and Raging Hearts.

Having a Van, makes use of Cloud Trapeze. with Aupex to boost your precious air gem income.

Vanarus gets lots of way to invade underwater, Getting underwater mages, and raid with Send Bukavac. Also spend water gems on Clayman and Green Lions for troops.

You don't have astral in forts but Contact Gamayun gets you flying Air astral mages to summon more Gamayuns for 25. Gamayun can conjure Alkonost for throne claimers.

You do have good death even before Baba Yaga. Corpse Construct and Draug for chaff. Londead Archers to pain someone when you have Wind Guide. Ziz to siege Mound Fiend for more undead chaff. At higher death Wraith Lords is logical with your normal research priorities.

some sages get crossed with Earth and Nature, but your best blood is crossing it with air. With Storm Demons and messing up capitals with Wrath of Pazuzu.

Gets lots of crosspaths for forging.

Can make Kithaironic Lion Pelt to protect a mage's head and chest.

Is recommended to find a way to get Earth Boots so you can get more 2.

Your do have fast researchers, boosted by Owl Quills, Skull Mentor and Lightless Lantern

With 2 boosters you can make important Rune Smashers. Though not native making Spell Focus and Eye of the Void combined with a Rune Smasher grants High Magic penetration on a mage.

Lantern Shield is an interesting item giving your elf thug get an entourage of Corpse Candles and grants fear which pairs well with the van's hard-to-hit nature.

Mass produce Corpse Construct with Lightning Rod and Storm Spool

This is probably the most difficult section to get consensus for. Describe how strong the nation is during expansion, the early, mid and late game, and what makes it strong/weak at each of those points. This should give readers an idea of where the weaknesses of a nation lie (if they have not been shown already) and when to take advantage of a nation's strengths.

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

Deives of the Sun: awake, Order 3, Growth scales, above average dominion strength, Blood 3 at least, the rest may vary, but normally take Heat 1, Misfortune 1, Magic 0 or lower. The idea is to start blood hunting early, in order to start producing Soul Contracts early and en masse. Deives of the Sun reduces unrest in her province by 10 per turn without population loss, so does your Order 3 scales and good dominion candles. She also produces 2 fire gems per turn, in addition to the "free" blood slaves thanks to unrest reduction, which creates a significant discount towards forging Soul Contracts or towards empowering other commanders in Fire/Blood. Growth scales should offset population loss from blood hunting/patrolling, although the intention of this build is to patrol as little as possible. Vanabogs can have Death 2 or 3, meaning they can lead a lot of Devils. Vanabogs also can have Blood 2 or 3, as well as Fire 1, making them into good blood hunters or Soul Contract producers in the latter case. Chud Skinshifters can handle the early expansion. Since you will be using Chud Skinshifters and then Devils, a bless is not necessary.

Dragon (Nature) W5E6N5 Dom5Tur3Slo3Hea1Gro1Luc3Dra3 Awake

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

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

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

Reasoning
Dragon pretender can fly across many provinces on the map, is immune to lance charges and earthquakes, covers the nation's weak start and lack of strong sacreds, can still forge strong items and cast global enchantments thanks to the ability to transform into a human. Hard skin and Recuperation are mostly there for your Pretender. Cold resistances give protection against Frozen Heart, but for the most part this build just needed Water 5 and therefore had bless effects to spare. Your only recruitable sacred troops are Oath-Bounds, 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 40 HP total, powerful attacks and built-in recuperation, so you will use them a lot. Dominion 5 is there to save on design points, but it should not be too big of a problem, because Vanarus can do blood sacrifice. For this reason, you might even consider setting Dominion strength to 3 and getting Growth 2 instead. Turmoil 3 and Luck 3 will give a lot of random events, most of them good. Free gold, free laboratories and free astral mages (in coastal provinces) are what you are looking for. High likelihood of good events also increases your chance to get your national heroes sooner, of whom Baba Yaga and Old Bear Thunder are very useful for forging and ritual casting. Turmoil 3 will also improve the effect of 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-Bounds 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. 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 and Skull Mentors, so why not get more design points. Army-wiping spells from enemies are not too big of a concern thanks to Vanarus's magic path access and research speed.

Expansion
Expand with the Dragon. Don't attack heavy cavalry and heavy infantry (sword) unless they are within your dominion, Wolf Tribe might be a little risky, too. Even though the flying Dragon is immune to lance charges, it still might suffer from lucky attacks from strong independent units. Don't attack barbarian provinces until you have Alteration 3 or a lot of support. Starting army plus a turn's worth of Skinshifters can expand into weak provinces. Around 20-30 Skinshifters can clear most provinces even with strength of independents set to 9, except barbarians and some unique ones. Mercenaries are generally too pricy for this build, unless you get extra gold from an event.

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

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

Situational Tactics:
a) If a Skinshifter becomes crippled, leave him in a province garrison for a few turns to recuperate, then bring him back into the army.
b) The more coastal provinces you have, the more chance there is of getting an Adept of the Golden Order in an event. These guys can cast Summon Firebird, Contact Alkonost, Arcane Probing and later can cast The Wrath of God, if Old Bear Thunder dies from a disease soon after arriving, which he tends to do.
c) You also can cast same rituals if you find High Temple of the Magi or an Alchemists Guild. If everything else fails, recruit a lizardman priest to at least cast Arcane Probing and some other spells.
d) If you get a Madman in an event, give him a Soul Contract. Since they are mindless, horrors will never come for them.
e) You might consider hiring around 10 Scouts or Chud Jarls and equipping them with Winged Boots, Gate Cleavers, Wall Shakers and filling the rest of their slots with morale-boosting items. This stealthy and mobile fort-busting force can help the Dragon bring down forts when other armies are not available. Set them to retreat in combat, so they will avoid confrontation with armies trying to attack the Dragon. High morale and flight should ensure that they do not get lost when retreating, even in hostile dominion.
f) 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.
g) If you happen to have a surplus of death gems due to random sites, consider investing into Likhos. If you send around ten of them into an enemy province at the same time, they become undetectable with conventional means 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). You also can amass Likhos in a forted and well-defended province on your territory to generate random bad events in a bad province (e.g. a small wasteland province). This will give you many hundreds of corpses every turn, which you can either reanimate or convert into death gems with Raven Feast spell. The amount of corpses can be further increased if you recruit Vanarusian Archers in several nearby provinces and send them into that province, while also having a couple hidden Dark Servants with Bane Venom Charms equipped. Eventually your sizeable investment of death gems will bring a significant interest. Moreover, you might be able to force Dragon attacks on garrisoned sheep, and cast Charm on these independent Dragons. Naturally, this trick is more fitting for very large games with many players, in late game, once gold becomes nearly useless, to give you strong undead armies to help your demons. If you have your globals up, Likhos will be very difficult to patrol out even with Spirit sight, as long as they sneak within enemy provinces with your dominion.
h) The globals you cast, and their order, depends heavily on what happens during the game. But Vengeful Water is a must. Wrath of God is close second.

youtube of someone discussing the nation
guide page on steam??
forum thread or AAR

Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos
Middle Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys
Late Ages	Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia