Vanheim is a land of misty moors and bitter forests inhabited by a tall and innately magical race known as the Vanir. The Vanir are mortal enemies of the giants of Jotunheim and since the beginning of time they have waged a great war upon each other. They are masters of illusions and are able to trick mortals with their glamour. In halls under the mountains of Vanheim live Dwarves, smiths capable of crafting fabulous items. Vanheim is a land of magic and even the horses are enchanted and exceptionally fast. Vanir are skilled shipwrights and navigators and can sail the oceans. Lesser beings are not held in high regard and their blood is sacrificed to sate the Awakening God.

How the nation plays and what it is good at should go here, aka why would it be cool to play, what's good about it (in general terms) and where they falter possibly there could be a standard for nation classification (sacred heavy, elves, communion nation, blood nation, research, economical, forging, stealth, thug based, etc.) National Features

add the site pics

Vanhalla	The Halls of Andvare
Enables recruitment of Vanadrott, Vanhere. Generates 3 per turn.	Enables recruitment of Dwarven Smith, Fay Boar Generates 3 per turn.

The nation is made up of mostly Elves, Longlived Glamoured units with high defense skill. The majority of your armies will be invisible on most player's tactile maps of other players, making you an ever-elusive threat that can steal land at any moment.

• Sloth of Bears: Conj 3 6 2 ( Great Bearx10+) Need indies to cast. Sacks of HP with high strength.

• Awaken Draugar: Conj 4 12 2 ( 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.

• Summon Valkyries: Conj 4 1 31 ( Valkyriex7) Battle-summon light sacred flying infantry to dive the enemy backline. They can't be scripted and are hard to buff and bless, but can cause a lot of damage.

• Summon Dwarf of the Four Directions: Conj 4 62 43. Shared between the Jotun and Vanir nations. Summon one of the four Dwarf smiths. Get a strong 432200% caster and a forger for your troubles at the cost (or benefit) of some hurricanes ravaging the world. You're unlikely to summon all four, but having them all missing benefits your Vanir nation the most.

Mages in Vanheim is used more for thugging buffs then casting rituals or research. Your best casters are designated more towards melee then spell flinging combat spell or are restricted to the capital. Off cap you have Vanjarls with 21 plus any indies you find, paths that need empowerment or a Storm or expensive communions to be decent ranged casters rather than Mistforming and charging.

Dwarven Smiths are masters are your earth mages and forgers. WhileVanadrotts Handle Air. Boosting a Vanadrott to cast Queen of Elemental Air is the gate to higher air, King of Elemental Earth for earth and Summon Dwarf of the Four Directions brake you into strong air/earth and another path. Climbing blood for Bind Heliophagus gives you more Blood access as well as Death and Fire.

Vanheim relies more on their surprise attack with hard to hit troops and commanders that can solo battalions over traditional magic artillery. Your thugs will be forced to take up the artillery role late game when Glamour stops being a huge advantage in combat, though this is defiantly not the most gold efficient roll for them.

Early game combat involving Van is having a thugged wizards cast Mistform and Flight then attack rear, with summoned Air Elementals for extra support.

Have capital only Dwarf Smiths which bring Earth magic to combat, improving amour with Marble Warriors and harass with Maws of the Earth, Rain of Stones and Destruction. But their movement on the map is see-able by most scouts.

Vanadrotts make up your wind power, being the ones putting up Storm so your Vanherse and Vanjarls can spam lighting spells.

Blood communions are also important to the nation. Vanjarl are expensive for nearly sitting around but are the only national way to empower your mages. With the addition of boosters, can cast higher Air, Earth, Death, Fire, and blood spell (can empower any Dwarf in Blood to join). For example, you can cast Storm without Vanadrotts. Blood is useful for taking out dangerous units with Life for a Life, and shift fighting in your favor with Blood Rain, Wailing Winds, and Rush of Strength.

Wind of Death is an interesting spell as Vans still have between 100 to 500 years of life in them, So armies made up of shorter-lived races and, more importantly, the elder mages that are the backbone armies, will be crippled and die, while only some of your will only be a few decades from retirement. (There are more races in EA with long Life spans, so not always effective.)

Vanadrott and Vanjarl can Cloud Trapeze, Letting them immediately pounce on any province in range, including a surprise blood sabbath.

Late game use Storm Demons as they are strong demons. Also getting Bind Heliophagus and Elemental Royalty for Stronger power.

Your recruitable thugs are mounted mages that are really hard to hit. They may need not that much extra prot, but shouldn't but that much encumbrance on them as they will be casting spells. The better thing is giving them weapons to stab better (Fire Brand, or Frost Brand for AOE, Flesh Eater for anti thugging). Can make Earth, Blood, and even the hard to make air boosters (some rare Dwarven Smiths can forge Skull of Fire). Even make a Robe of the Magi for late-game magic boosting.

• Dwarven Hammer Cont 2, 3, 12: A quintessential item for forging. Forge Discount on an item that gives you Forge discount is an economic win.

• Lightweight Scale Mail Cont 2, 1, 4: light armour for non-van thugs and mages.
• Weightless Scale Mail Cont 2, 2, 8: pay more so the Scale Mail has no encumbrance of a thug build that's more consciences about fatigue produced per turn.

• Cauldron of the Elven Halls Cont 4, 3, 12: if your glamoured army does get reported by a scout or contains non-glamoured units, only a fraction will be reported. If you into mind game strategies having a massive army mistaken as a small raiding party grants you a greater level of surprise.

do you have a game plan? Anything you should always be working toward? Any National weaknesses?

What kinds of scales dose your nation like? Do they require any to function? Any blesses your sacreds would like? Do you desperately need an awake expander? Examples of Pretenders?

How to expand, potential pitfalls and how to get around them, obvious weakness strength, how much do you have to focus on war/infrastructure

what is the first big research rush, what is the first big powerspike, where do you shift recruitment to? what are the big magic diversity issues, are there particular globals you should gun for

How do you close out the game if you are in it, is the high-level research stuff you can do uniquely well, does your nation fall off, aka do you have to force things to conclude swiftly

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