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"Xibalba is a nation inspired by Mayan mythological concepts as expressed in the Mayan texts Popol Vuh and Chilam Balam. The Popol Vuh describes the creation of the world and other mythological concepts. It also tells of the hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué and their travels to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, through which the sun travels during the night. Ever since high school, when I first came across the pen-and-paper RPG Chill, and found a creature named Camazotz, I've been intrigued by batgods and Mesoamerican myth. The bat-god was actually the first god made for Mictlan, when that nation appeared in Dominions 2. When I started to work on Xibalba it was clear from the beginning that it would be a Mayan nation of bat-people.
Xibalba was also one of the first nations to get a national global spell based on its national backstory.
The concept had been used when we remade the themes and carrion woods into a national spell, but we
were never fond of how that worked out. The Xibalban Theft of the Sun along with the Agarthan
Unleash Imprisoned Ones reintroduced the national global enchantments."
- Illwinter
Xibalba is a vast realm of dark caverns beneath the forests of Mictlan. According to legend, the sun and the moon
passed through the labyrinthine caverns on their daily journey to the eastern horizon. On this journey they were guarded by the bat people, Zotz, that dwelled in the dark reaches of the Xibalban underworld. Being almost blind, they would not see and not covet the splendor of the sun. No one has seen the sun or the moon pass through Xibalba for ages, but the Zotz keep their vigil and their traditions alive. But lately the bat people has lost purpose and the priestly rulers of Xibalba looks to the surface world to once more bask in the splendor of the sun and the moon. The Zotz are led by priest-kings from various cities, and only the priesthood represent centralized power. They still train the sacred Sun Guides once tasked with guarding the celestial entities through the dark world of Xibalba. The Zotz have contact with surface dwellers, primarily those of Mictlan, and have adopted some of their technology and practices.
The Zotz have an affinity for blood hunting and black magic. Despite being guides of the sun, their skill in solar magic is limited. The Zotz are numerous and live in great swarming cave colonies. Numbers rather than strength allows them to win their battles.
Forget Mictlan & Abysia: Early Age Xibalba is the Blood Nation, if only due to the Blood Searcher trait most of your cheap-as-dirt Blood Mages have, and the sheer impotence of all of Xibalba's other options. Abysia and Xibalba are almost complete opposites in terms of ease of expansion & early-game survival, solely due to how godawful Xibalba's troops are. While relatively cheap to amass, The Zotz have to "swarm" even Independent foes to defeat them, which is less than ideal in the early game, and tend to die in one hit. You do get a national Super Combatant chassis, but it's also incredibly expensive. Xibalba's troops are also very bad at Patrolling, making Blood Hunts costlier in the long run. In short, Xibalba is not a nation for beginners.
Cavern of the Sun | House of Knives |
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Enables recruitment of: * Ah K'in Kan Ek' * Sun Guide * Produces 3 per turn * Produces 1 per turn | * Enable recruitment of Onaqui * Produces 2 per turn |
Xibalba is dominated by the Zotz, which Size 1, Cold-blooded, Stealthy Bats. Zotz are easy to kill, meaning they need to use surprise attacks, dropping on the enemy commander as divebombing cannon fodder. Typical Xibalban armies are massive, comprising of weak but easily replaceable troops.
Your commanders, in addition to the normal Zotz trait, also all receive a bonus to blood hunting. This is an especially great trait on a blood nation. However, their units have a below-average Patrol value despite being a flying nation. This is countered by their ability to easily amass cheap troops to patrol out unrest.
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Batab 40 3 1 Cave Rec+ Forest Rec+ | Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | A General use scout and commander. Very useful for doing grunt work. | |
Xibalban Scorpion Trainer 60 1 1 | Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Beastmaster(3) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Like most Beastmasters, they are often the best commanders for beast troops, such as your various Scorpions, as they give beast troops the best morale bonuses for their price. Since they can fly, they have the easiest time reinforcing Scorpions if you take loses. However, Scorpions are not Stealthy Flyers, and so cannot benefit from the extra map movement of this commander. |
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Ajaw 105 2 1 | 1 Sacred Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Your big commander, able to lead 80 bats and scorpions plus 10 magic creaters. He is the best person for temple building as you would prefer the magecs work in labs or hunt for vergins. |
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Ajaw Kan Ek' 170 1 2 | 2 Sacred Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival old age(107/100) | Your Great lead, taking 120 bats into battle with adding +3 to thier moral. they are also your best toop blesser outside of summons. |
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Ah Nakom 70 1 2 | 11 7 Sacred Inspirational(-1) Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Cause Unrest(+2 per month) Blind flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Cheap researchers and blood hunters, as they are effectually lv2 for blood hunting. | |
Chilan 100 1 2 Cave Rec+ | 111 9 Sacred Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Fortune Teller(10%) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | The Sacred Scorpion summoners. Fotune teller is good but focusing on your blood and death magics is often the stronger choice. |
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Ah K'in 110 1 2 | 111100% 9 Sacred Sun Awe(1) Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Fire is overshadowed by blood and Death in recruitment pirotrity but it has its uses. one third are efficient Ozolotol summers, another third shoot mamga bolts, and the final third can decay enemies. | |
Ah Itz 120 1 2 | 111100% 11 Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Discount death mage, only get if you can't wait a two turns for Camazotzs. | |
Camazotz 160 1 4 | 211100% 13 Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | After getting your initial epenation done, these old bat make for the next best expanders. Efficetn with thier four paths, they expand with thier skeli-spams. also strong saboth masters as they bring empowered Death, Earth, Air to a communion. |
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Ah K'in Kan Ek' 110 1 2 Capital Only | 21121100% 9 Sacred Sun Awe(1) Resist Fire(5) Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival old age(103/90) | Descib | |
Onaqui 565 1 4 Capital Only | 31321100% 10% 21 Sacred Stealthy(40) Supply Bonus(10) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Demon Need not Eat Dominion attracts units(Beast Bat) Summon Allies (Beast Batx2) | Descib |
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 |
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Large Scorpion 1 1 2 | Stealthy(40) Undisciplined Animal Blind Magic-being Mindless Need-not-eat Wasteland Survival | Descib | |
Giant Scorpion 5 1 2 | Stealthy(40) Resist Poison(15) Undisciplined Animal Blind Magic-being mindless Need-not-eat Wasteland Survival | Descib | |
Xibalban Scorpion 15 1 15 Limeted Rec(10 Per months) | Resist Poison(15) Undisciplined Animal Darkvision(100%) Eyes(8) Wasteland Survival | One of your better national chaff lines with decent prot and attacking power. They are limited to recruit but you can pump out 10 from each fort. |
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Xibalban Warrior 8 1 6 Cave Rec+ Forest Rec+ | Stealthy(40) patrol bonus(-1) blood Searcher(1) Blind flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Your dirt cheap shock troops. The average life span of a Zot is at the start of the battle they will fly to the back make their attack then die. Often they will Kill most non-supercombatent commanders by wheigth of numbers of attacks. You have Stone lances for dealing significant damage on the initial drop-down (often because of the numbers, not all zotz want to get the charge, they don't survive a round of combat, so all the lance will be used). The other is the club sword in case you need to deal mass of slashing or bludgeoning damage, or the enemy may shut down your flight with a Storm |
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Xibalban Warrior 8 2 6 Cave Rec+ Forest Rec+ | Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded forest survival |
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Xibalban Dart Thrower 8 2 6 | Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) blood Searcher(1) Blind flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Not good, too low damage and inaccurate. Diptie most indies can't keep up with zotzs, archers are still betters shooters. |
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Xibalban Guard 10 4 12 | Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Bodyguard(2) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Improved Warriors with club-swords. Dispite the armor, They are not very good as they still die too ealsy and get encombured to quickly to be worth the pay raise. stuational ok if you need bodyguards, Sun Guide can to this too but you would rather them Die on the front lines then waiting at a fort for the off chance a assacine comes around. They do fill guard well as the asssin game often consit of a hooded man with a pokemon item or a necromancer, so is weak to club attacks on the first battle round. |
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Sun Guide 18 15 24 Capital Only | Sacred Sun Awe(1) Resist Fire(5) Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) Blood Searcher(1) Bodyguard(3) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | One of your best national troops. As sacreds with a strong magic weapon some ok prot, they make for good shock troops. With a minor melee bless, they are your early game anti-giants troops. |
any breakout hits that might sway someone towards luck or away from it ?
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Chek Ahau - Halach Uinic | 213 11 Sacred Sun Awe(1) adept blood sacrificer(1) Stealthy(40) Patrol Bonus(-1) blood Searcher(1) Blind Flying Cold-blooded Forest Survival | Descib | |
Chamiabac - Demon of the Bone Staff Hero turn arrivle Limit(20 | 2433 23 Sacred Stealthy(40) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Demon Need not Eat Summon in battle (Beast Batx2) | Descib | |
Chamiaholom - Demon of the Skull Staff Hero turn arrivle Limit(20) | 2433 23 Sacred Stealthy(40) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Demon Need not Eat Summon in battle (Beast Batx2) | Descib | |
Ahalpuh - Demon of Pus Hero turn arrivle Limit(20) | 13133 21 Sacred Stealthy(40) Supply Bonus(10) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Demon Need not Eat Summon in battle (Beast Batx2) reaper(5%) | Descib | |
Ahalgana - Jaundice Demon Hero turn arrivle Limit(20) | 13133 21 Sacred Stealthy(40) Supply Bonus(10) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Demon Need not Eat Summon in battle (Beast Batx2) reaper(5%) | Descib | |
Ahalmez - Sweeping Demon Hero turn arrivle Limit(20) | 3 11 Sacred Stealthy(40) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Assassin(1) Demon Need not Eat Summon in battle (Beast Batx2) | Descib | |
Ahaltocob - Stabbing Demon (Multi) Hero turn arrivle Limit(20) | 3 11 Sacred Stealthy(40) Cause Unrest(+3 per month) Blood Searcher(2) flying Blind Forest Survival Assassin(1) Demon Need not Eat Summon in battle (Beast Batx2) | Descib |
national spell or summon cost and usecase, judgment if it's good.
Unique Xibalba combat spells. Very good on thugs or to cripple an important single enemy model.
What magic path/mages define your nation, what can you level, e.g., thunderstriking, astral, elementals, earth buffs, blood, what is recruitable anywhere and good, what are some summons you are likely able to get and are useable
What is the best spell you can use in combat. What spells the best support your national lineup, Is their weakness that you need to fix? Any tricks you should be aware you have?
As majority of your nation are flyers, you can safely spam Earthquake without hurting your own troops(as you need a Blood communion to cast, you may want to cast Gift of Flight or Mass Flight on your Blood Slaves if your not finished with casting blood spells).
What is the best ritual you could cast. Are there any globals you want up, any units you should be summoning? Are there any Generic rituals few nations can cast?
Do you have any National items(Construction Level, Price, and required Paths). Any unique generic items few other nations can forge? What item would be useful on your unit lineup (non-standard recommend thug gear)?
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