Foundation Book VII: Nations#

The Nation Dossier Method, Middle Age Arcoscephale, Marignon, Pyrène, Ulm, Man, Abysia, Pythium, Eriu, Agartha, Uruk, Ashdod, T’ien Ch’i, and Machaka#

What a nation dossier should do#

A nation guide should do more than name strong units and recommend a research queue. It should explain how a nation turns its starting roster into a functioning state, how that state changes when research arrives, how its plans fail, and how to rebuild those plans when the ruleset changes.

This volume of the nation library does two jobs:

• establish a reproducible method for every later nation dossier;
• apply that method to Middle Age Arcoscephale, the Old Kingdom, Middle Age Marignon, Fiery Justice, Middle Age Pyrène, Time of the Akelarre, Middle Age Ulm, Forges of Ulm, Middle Age Man, Tower of Avalon, Middle Age Abysia, Blood and Fire, Middle Age Pythium, Emerald Empire, Middle Age Eriu, Last of the Tuatha, Middle Age Agartha, Golem Cult, Middle Age Uruk, City States, Middle Age Ashdod, Reign of the Anakim, Middle Age T’ien Ch’i, Imperial Bureaucracy, and Middle Age Machaka, Reign of Sorcerors.

It offers a safe first route through the roster and opening, but it also follows the harder questions of mage probability, force packages, path access, counters, logistics, and opportunity cost. There is no single build detached from map, opponents, settings, and patch. The dossier instead presents several coherent strategic families and the conditions that favour each one.

Edition note#

Book I defines the common 6.36 live baseline and evidence terms. The dossiers’ structured object comparisons remain pinned to their stated 6.35 snapshot. Unmodded rules, DE 2.16, Divinitus 1.15.3 DE, and the combined load order stay visibly separate. Book IX owns the general mod catalogue; Book VII applies it to individual nations.

How to use this dossier#

The one-page brief, roster, expansion plan, mage roles, research branches, army packages, and turn checklists form the practical core. Probability portfolios, communion failure analysis, access ladders, matchups, reserves, and controlled tests provide the expert layer. Each nation chapter begins again from its own ruleset and evidence label; advice from one dossier should not be carried into another merely because both are Middle Age nations.

Part I: The Nation Dossier Method#

What a complete nation guide must answer#

A useful dossier answers twelve questions.

If one answer is missing, the guide should say so. Concealing uncertainty creates a brittle strategy.

The four layers of a nation#

Every nation should be analysed in four layers.

The rules layer is descriptive. Capacity is conditional: an E2S1 mage does not automatically equal an E2S2 ritual caster; the necessary item, gems, laboratory, and forge turn must exist. Doctrine is comparative: one package is chosen because it fits an enemy, a deadline, and an economy. Evidence determines confidence.

The national conversion chain#

The central dossier model is:

scales and starting assets
-> expansion and borders
-> forts and recruitment
-> mage distribution
-> research and gems
-> battlefield or ritual packages
-> positional gains
-> siege, Throne claim, and victory

A nation can fail at any arrow. Strong troops may expand but consume so many resources that the second fort cannot recruit. Broad magic may remain a collection of low paths if no communion or booster plan exists. A devastating battlefield spell may arrive without the troops, gems, or movement needed to exploit it. A winning army may lack siege or claim capacity.

Each nation chapter records both assets and conversions.

The national identity statement#

A national identity statement should be one paragraph, not a slogan. It should name:

• the reliable early force;
• the recruitment bottleneck;
• the magic engine;
• the information advantage;
• the main strategic transition;
• the principal vulnerabilities.

An identity statement is a starting hypothesis. It must be revised when a patch or mod changes one of those elements.

Roster analysis by job#

Units should first be grouped by job, then compared by statistics.

“Elite” is not a job. “High protection” is not a complete evaluation. A high-protection unit with low combat speed, high encumbrance, and ordinary damage may be an excellent anvil and a poor pursuit force.

Commander analysis by constrained turn#

Commanders compete for recruitment capacity. Their gold cost is only one part of the decision.

For every commander, record:

• commander recruitment-point cost;
• fort and terrain restrictions;
• leadership types and limits;
• research;
• priest level;
• magic and randoms;
• strategic abilities;
• likely monthly orders;
• what is delayed when this commander is recruited.

A capital-only four-point mage has a different strategic cost from a one-point scout even if sufficient gold exists for both. Nation plans should budget fort-turns, capital-turns, and commander points as explicitly as gold.

Magic access as a probability portfolio#

Random paths are not a list of possible maxima. They are a distribution.

For every random mage, the dossier should record:

• fixed paths;
• each random roll and its probability;
• maximum natural paths;
• probability of each important threshold;
• mutually impossible combinations;
• expected recruits needed for a role;
• the effect of bad variance;
• what a Pretender or independent mage can replace.

If a required result occurs with probability (p), the probability of seeing at least one result after (n) independent recruits is:

[ P() = 1-(1-p)^n ]

The expected count (1/p) is not a guarantee. A one-in-eight specialist has about a 65.6% chance to appear within eight recruits, not certainty. It takes twenty-three recruits to exceed a 95% chance:

[ 1-(7/8)^{23} % ]

This distinction matters when the first war arrives before the desired random.

Native, bootstrapped, and imported access#

Every path claim belongs in one of four classes.

The access ledger must name every bridge. “Arcoscephale can cast a Death ritual” is incomplete if it actually means “a rare Nature hero forges or casts into a summon chain that eventually produces Death.”

Research as response trees#

A fixed research queue assumes the enemy and map will cooperate. A response tree has:

• a trunk of broadly useful early research;
• branches for observed threats;
• conversion nodes where research becomes a fieldable package;
• rejoin points so emergency research does not permanently destroy the long plan.

Every node should specify:

• school and level;
• spell or item obtained;
• eligible caster;
• required communion, booster, or self-buff;
• gem load;
• troop or target interaction;
• operational delivery;
• counters;
• what the research delays.

Army packages, not spell lists#

An army package is:

troops + commanders + mages + scripts + gems + formation
+ movement route + retreat route + replacement plan

A spell becomes strategy only when the nation can put the correct caster, protection, gems, and targets in the same battle.

Each package should have:

• purpose: what defence or target it defeats;
• minimum core: the smallest robust version;
• scaling rule: what to add as the enemy grows;
• failure branch: what happens if the script is interrupted;
• counter warning: the most economical answer available to the enemy;
• replacement cost: how quickly the nation can field another.

Matchup classification#

Nation-versus-nation memorisation becomes obsolete quickly. Defence classes are more durable.

Specific opponents can then be placed into one or more classes.

Pretender families#

A dossier should present families, not copied designs:

• awake expansion: buys early territory and deterrence;
• dormant intervention: appears for the first war or path bridge;
• imprisoned scales: maximises the recruitable state;
• bless support: improves a sacred unit that can be recruited in relevant numbers;
• ritual bridge: supplies paths the national roster cannot reach;
• hybrid: deliberately performs two of these jobs at a real cost to each.

Every proposed build must pass five audits:

1. legality in the exact version and mod order;
2. expansion or survival job;
3. scales and recruitment compatibility;
4. mid-game job on awakening;
5. unique late-game access that cannot be bought more cheaply elsewhere.

Verification standard#

Nation claims are verified in this order:

1. official manual or current official data;
2. current structured object data;
3. supplied mod source;
4. controlled game test;
5. detailed community evidence;
6. strategic inference.

The source hierarchy does not make community strategy unimportant. It prevents strategic experience from being confused with engine definition.

Minimum controlled-test suite#

Every nation eventually receives:

• three or more turn-12 expansion runs for each serious Pretender family;
• controlled battles against the main independent types;
• random-mage sampling large enough to detect transcription errors;
• communion fatigue and script tests;
• a research timing test with realistic infrastructure;
• siege and storm tests;
• representative matchups against armour, elites, undead, flyers, tramplers, and magic;
• modded repetitions under each supported load order;
• a save, turn number, settings record, result table, and replay note.

Until those tests are recorded, precise party sizes and timing claims remain hypotheses.

Part II: Middle Age Arcoscephale, the Old Kingdom#

The one-page national brief#

Middle Age Arcoscephale is a human combined-arms nation whose ordinary military is old-fashioned but broad: inexpensive formation infantry, armoured spear lines, chariots, elephants, and a small capital sacred. Its strategic engine is a network of recruit-anywhere Mystics backed by capital Astrologers, priestess-healers, and automatic scrying inside friendly dominion.

The nation converts gold into versatile S1 elemental mages, those mages into communions or independent specialist casters, and research into an adaptable battlefield. It is strongest when intelligence identifies the defence to defeat before the army is scripted. It is weakest when expensive human mages are caught unprotected, when tramplers are exposed to morale or magic-resistance attacks, when heavy infantry is exhausted, or when random-path variance prevents a required specialist from arriving on time.

National profile#

Lore and strategic meaning#

The Old Kingdom is intentionally archaic. Its armies retain cumbersome armour, long spears, chariots, and war elephants while ancient Astrologers return to guide the realm. This is not only flavour. The roster juxtaposes slow, reliable formation troops with volatile tramplers, while the mage corps juxtaposes broad low-level access with capital astral depth.

Three strategic themes follow.

First, knowledge precedes commitment. Automatic scrying inside dominion and Astrologers who read the heavens support a nation that should know what is approaching before choosing a script.

Second, the old army needs magical renewal. The troops can expand and hold ground, but armour, fatigue, morale, large targets, and elite opposition eventually require tailored magic.

Third, restoration is cumulative. Arcoscephale becomes stronger as forts produce Mystics, research broadens, boosters accumulate, and communions scale. Losing a mage core or capital does more than remove units; it breaks the conversion chain.

National special features#

Automatic dominion scrying#

Official: provinces inside Arcoscephale’s dominion receive accurate automatic military reports. Current structured data also identifies this scrying as capable of revealing glamoured units, and disciple partners receive the information.

This is a strategic advantage, not omniscience.

It helps with:

• army size and composition near the interior;
• early warning against ordinary movement;
• more informed deployment of elephants, communions, and counters;
• identifying when a border force has split;
• tracking glamoured forces that ordinary reports may conceal.

It does not replace:

• scouts beyond dominion;
• spies for income, unrest, Province Defence, and deeper provincial information;
• battle replays for scripts, gems, and exact spell use;
• patrols against stealth;
• caution against magic movement, assassinations, remote attacks, and simultaneous orders.

The correct doctrine is a layered network:

1. scouts beyond the border;
2. dominion scrying across owned approaches;
3. reserve mages at central laboratories;
4. battle reports converted into response scripts.

Order limit +1#

The nation can take one more step toward Order than an ordinary nation. This is not an instruction to maximise Order in every design. It is an option to support:

• expensive Mystics and Astrologers;
• fort and laboratory construction;
• elephant and chariot recruitment;
• larger mundane armies;
• reduced dependence on risky event income.

The scale must be evaluated against the Pretender family and opportunity cost. A high-Order scales design and an awake expander solve different problems.

Healing#

Hiereiai have Healing 1. Archousai have Healing 3.

Official rule: a healer automatically attempts to cure a number of afflictions up to the value of the ability in the same province each turn. Healing is a provincial capacity. It does not guarantee that the exact desired affliction on the exact desired unit disappears immediately.

Healing improves the expected service life of:

• expensive commanders;
• Astrologers;
• battle-wounded Mystics;
• a combat Pretender that can be healed;
• surviving elephants and sacreds;
• thugs and summoned commanders without healing restrictions.

Healing does not make reckless attacks efficient. Dead units cannot be healed, some beings have special restrictions, and cursed-item afflictions require removal of the item first.

Recruitable commander roster#

The following table is the official revision-2 unmodded roster. Rec is commander recruitment-point cost.

Recruitment doctrine#

No commander is “free” merely because the treasury can pay for it.

• A Scout competes with a leader or mage for the local commander queue.
• A Strategos is valuable when leadership quality and army size justify the extra recruitment cost.
• A Hiereia can be recruited outside forts, preserving fort mage production while extending temples, healing, supplies, and H1 support.
• A Mystic is normally the default fort investment because it produces research and future battlefield flexibility.
• An Archousa is a healing and H2 capacity purchase, not a generic researcher.
• An Astrologer consumes scarce capital recruitment capacity and should have a defined astral job.

The recurring question is:

Which missing capacity causes the next failure: intelligence, transport, leadership, religion, healing, research, or high Astral?

Recruitable troop roster#

The official revision-2 values below describe the unmodded units. Mounts and coriders are separate combat entities where applicable.

Mounts#

Troop roles and comparisons#

Slingers#

Slingers are cheap bodies and ranged nuisance fire. Their morale, protection, attack, and defence are poor. They are useful when:

• an inexpensive screen protects a more valuable line;
• mass missiles can punish unshielded or low-protection enemies;
• recruitment resources are scarce;
• siege bodies are urgently required.

They should not be treated as a reliable melee line. A routed slinger mass can contribute to wider morale problems.

Cardaces#

Cardaces are the economical formation body. Protection 9 and Defence 13 are respectable for ten gold and eight resources, but their damage remains that of ordinary human spear infantry.

Use them to:

• add square density and bodies;
• hold ordinary light troops;
• screen elephants or mages;
• fill lines when resources cannot support Hoplites;
• absorb attacks whose damage would waste expensive armour anyway.

Do not ask Cardaces to solve high protection, giants, or elite sacreds without magic.

Peltasts#

Peltasts exchange armour for javelins and low resource cost. They support early contact by throwing before melee and are less resource-constrained than the heavy line.

They are preferable when:

• the target is lightly protected;
• mobility and replacement matter;
• a sacrificial screen is needed;
• a province has gold but poor resources.

They are vulnerable to sustained missiles and decisive melee contact.

Hoplites#

Hoplites bring Protection 18 and long spears at only thirteen gold, but cost thirty-one resources and carry Encumbrance 8, Combat Speed 7, and Map Move 14.

Their favourable fight is a direct clash against ordinary, low- or moderate-damage infantry that must spend time cutting through armour. Their unfavourable fight includes:

• armour-negating or armour-piercing attacks;
• high-strength giants;
• armour destruction;
• prolonged fatigue environments;
• enemies that refuse the front and reach the mages;
• operational races where Map Move 14 is too slow.

Hoplites are an anvil. They need a hammer or a magical answer.

Hypaspists#

Hypaspists cost more gold and recruitment points than Hoplites but save six resources, gain Defence 13, Morale 13, Combat Speed 10, and Map Move 16 while retaining Protection 15.

They are generally better when:

• enemy damage already threatens to penetrate Protection 18;
• defence, morale, and mobility matter more than three protection;
• the army must keep pace with faster elements;
• gold is available but capital or local resources are constrained.

Hoplites are better at absorbing repeated ordinary hits. Hypaspists are a more flexible high-quality line. The choice should be made against an enemy damage profile and the province’s resource economy, not by declaring one universally superior.

Chariots#

The chariot package supplies mobility, a trampling mount, and a corider archer. It threatens flanks and lighter units but is less decisive than the elephant against dense small bodies.

Chariots benefit from:

• a screen that prevents premature pinning;
• flank deployment;
• targets lacking large body-blockers;
• magic that improves survival or disrupts the enemy line.

They suffer when:

• surrounded after the charge;
• confronted by large units;
• controlled by magic;
• committed into weapons and buffs designed to punish mounts.

War elephants#

The elephant is Arcoscephale’s most dramatic early force and its easiest trap.

Its 64 HP, Protection 11, Size, Combat Speed 18, Map Move 22, and trample can collapse ordinary human formations. The rider and two elephant archers add bodies and attacks, but the elephant’s MR 6 and Morale 9 create explicit counter surfaces.

Use elephants as a package:

• a disciplined line or screen absorbs lances and delays contact;
• elephants begin behind or beside the screen rather than alone in front;
• leadership and standards support morale where available;
• the target has been scouted for size, anti-large damage, fear, paralysis, and MR-negates effects;
• a retreat route exists;
• the number committed is large enough to decide contact but not so large that one panic destroys the treasury.

Avoid treating elephants as an answer to:

• giants and other large bodies that cannot be trampled efficiently;
• high-defence elite troops that stop and surround them;
• concentrated fear or morale attacks;
• cheap MR-negates control or killing;
• poison, fatigue, and effects that exploit a large valuable target;
• narrow deployment where they cannot reach useful targets.

Heart Companions#

Heart Companions are capital-only, sacred, heavily armoured spear infantry. They are individually better than Hoplites, but remain Map Move 14 and consume scarce capital resources.

Their scarcity changes bless economics. A bless that exists only to improve a slow, capital-only sacred must be compared with:

• more scales for the entire economy;
• an awake expander;
• missing Death, Air, Glamour, or Blood access;
• a combat or ritual Pretender.

A light incidental bless can add value. A major bless needs a campaign plan that proves the capital can recruit enough Companions without delaying other essential forces.

Formation doctrine#

Arcoscephale’s infantry benefits from formation-fighter density, but density has two faces.

It improves:

• concentration of melee attacks;
• the number of armoured bodies holding a frontage;
• the ability to protect mages behind a compact line;
• efficient buff coverage.

It increases exposure to:

• area damage;
• fatigue clouds;
• battlefield-wide debuffs;
• trampling if the enemy is large enough;
• mass routing when a dense formation loses many units quickly.

The default army should not be one dense block. It needs separate functional elements:

• a central anvil;
• one or two flank or trample groups;
• a rear guard against flyers and attack-rear orders;
• mages separated enough to reduce common-area losses;
• spare commanders so one casualty does not strand the army.

Part III: The Mage State#

Why the Mystic defines the nation#

The Mystic is the repeatable national engine:

• recruitable in any fort;
• guaranteed Astral 1;
• one guaranteed random from Fire, Water, Earth, or Astral;
• an independent 50% Fire random;
• an independent 50% Water random;
• an independent 50% Earth random;
• Research +1;
• able to enter Astral communions;
• capable of independent low-level magic even when no communion is appropriate.

The important word is independent. The three 50% rolls are separate from the guaranteed four-path random and from each other.

Mystic random structure#

Let:

• (R) be one guaranteed uniform roll among F, W, E, and S;
• (F_b), (W_b), and (E_b) be independent 50% bonus rolls.

The final paths are:

S1
+ one level from R
+ F1 if Fb succeeds
+ W1 if Wb succeeds
+ E1 if Eb succeeds

There are thirty-two equally likely combinations before any other game effects: four values of (R) multiplied by eight combinations of the three binary bonus rolls.

Mystic threshold probabilities#

The last two rows are strategically important. A Mystic can be broad, but the same guaranteed roll cannot create two doubled paths. Plans requiring E2S2 or F2E2 need boosters, empowerment, a Pretender, a hero, or another access source.

Probability of obtaining a specialist#

For a one-in-eight F2, W2, or E2 Mystic:

Derived: the table assumes independent recruitment rolls and uses (1-(7/8)^n).

This produces a recruitment rule:

A one-in-eight random is a portfolio capability, not a deadline-safe capability.

If a war plan requires E2 by a fixed turn, build redundancy, recruit from multiple forts, or provide another route.

Mystic role classification#

Rename or otherwise record Mystics when recruited. A practical classification is:

This is not a permanent caste system. A war can change priorities. The point is to prevent an E2 specialist from spending twenty turns as an anonymous researcher and then being unavailable when armour destruction is required.

The Astrologer#

The capital-only Astrologer has:

• fixed S3;
• one guaranteed random among F, W, E, and S;
• a further 10% random among F, W, E, and S;
• Fortune Teller 10;
• commander recruitment cost 4;
• Research 13 in the current structured data;
• high magical leadership.

Astrologer probability#

Assuming the 10% roll independently chooses one of the four listed paths:

For any one element:

Derived: these values include the rare 10% random instead of rounding the unit to “one in four S4.”

Astrologer roles#

Astrologers are recruited for jobs that justify capital scarcity:

• reliable S3 master casting;
• S4 or rare S5 ritual and remote-magic thresholds;
• high-Astral penetration;
• a capital communion anchor;
• Fortune Teller concentration;
• eventual high-end Astral rituals and battlefield magic;
• an elemental random that opens a specific Astral cross-path.

An Astrologer should not automatically replace a Mystic as a generic researcher. The capital turn, gold, and recruitment points are the real comparison.

Priestess-healers#

Hiereia#

The Hiereia is N1H1, Healing 1, sacred, and recruitable outside forts.

Her roles include:

• building temples without consuming a fort mage turn;
• blessing sacreds;
• Sermon of Courage and other low-priest support;
• low Nature support;
• provincial healing;
• supply assistance;
• accompanying expansion or siege forces where one affliction recovered matters.

Outside-fort recruitment is a state-building advantage. Provinces without forts can produce religious infrastructure and healing while the forts continue producing Mystics.

Archousa#

The unmodded Archousa is N1H2 with Healing 3 and Leadership 50.

Her roles include:

• stronger healing concentration;
• H2 battle and ritual duties;
• leading a modest army while providing priest support;
• protecting the long-term value of expensive units and commanders.

She is not a substitute for broad Nature magic. Unmodded Arcoscephale’s normal recruitable Nature ceiling is N1.

Recruitment portfolios#

The research-first portfolio#

Use when:

• borders are stable;
• the mundane army can deter a rush;
• no urgent H2 or healing deficit exists;
• an early research breakpoint creates the next advantage.

Default:

• most new forts recruit Mystics;
• capital alternates Astrologers and whatever national need is genuinely scarce;
• Hiereiai come from non-fort provinces;
• scouts are scheduled rather than forgotten.

Risk:

• too little mundane leadership;
• mages accumulated in one vulnerable laboratory;
• no reserve army;
• specialist variance arriving late.

The healing-and-expander portfolio#

Use with an awake or dormant combat Pretender and expensive surviving troops.

Add:

• one or more Archousai at recovery hubs;
• Hiereiai following army groups;
• a safe path from battlefront to healing province;
• explicit checks for beings or afflictions that cannot be healed normally.

Risk:

• buying more healing than the casualty pattern warrants;
• delaying the research or Astral depth that prevents the next wounds.

The communion portfolio#

Use when the first war requires path elevation.

Recruit:

• enough Mystics to separate slaves, masters, independent casters, and research;
• S2 or desired elemental masters;
• reserve slaves;
• ordinary leaders and screens that keep mages alive.

Risk:

• every master is counted but slaves are treated as expendable;
• slaves are also required for independent spells;
• shared self-buffs or fatigue kill the slave line;
• one battlefield clear destroys years of research investment.

The dispersed-reserve portfolio#

Use against remote attacks, flyers, raiders, assassins, or fast fronts.

Maintain:

• small mage cells in several laboratories;
• spare pearls and elemental gems at operational hubs;
• scouts on approach routes;
• a mobile ordinary reserve;
• a protected capital core.

Risk:

• insufficient concentration for the decisive battle;
• gems and items stranded in isolated labs;
• scattered mages defeated in detail.

Part IV: Unmodded Magic Access#

Native access summary#

“Ceiling” here means a recruitable unit before boosters, empowerment, heroes, or communions. It does not mean that every spell at that level is strategically available; school, gems, range, and battlefield conditions still apply.

Native battlefield strengths#

Astral#

Astral is the stable spine:

• every Mystic can join a communion;
• S2 Mystics and S3+ Astrologers can serve as stronger masters;
• low-level Astral offers ethereal, luck, fatigue, mind, and resistance tools;
• high Astral creates remote and battlefield threats;
• capital pearl income supports early Astral use.

Astral also creates vulnerabilities:

• enemy Astral mages can threaten Magic Duel dynamics;
• communion clusters attract area attacks;
• pearls have competing uses in combat, forging, remote magic, and legendary rituals;
• an Astral plan without penetration can fail against high MR.

Fire#

Fire supplies direct damage and morale pressure. F2 Mystics are natural specialists; F1 Mystics can reach higher levels through a communion or self-buff where available.

Fire is strongest against:

• dense ordinary troops;
• cold-aligned or fire-vulnerable targets;
• formations whose protection is less relevant to the chosen spell.

It is weaker against:

• fire resistance;
• dispersed targets;
• friendly formations too close to inaccurate area fire;
• battles where fatigue and gem use outrun protection.

Water#

Water supplies cold damage, control, quickness and resistance effects, and elemental summons. W2 specialists are one in eight; W1 is common enough to support mixed packages.

Water is especially valuable when:

• the enemy lacks Cold Resistance;
• control and slowing matter more than raw kills;
• a Water/Earth Mystic can combine defensive and fatigue tools;
• summoned elementals can exploit enemy size or formation.

Earth#

Earth renews Arcoscephale’s old infantry:

• protection;
• strength;
• armour destruction;
• battlefield control;
• reinvigoration and path elevation;
• constructs and national summons;
• forging.

E2 specialists are among the most important randoms because they can use national Sow Dragon Teeth without ritual access problems and can anchor Earth communions. Earth still does not solve every high-protection fight: the chosen package must specify whether it raises friendly durability, lowers enemy armour, deals high damage, or controls movement.

Nature#

N1 is support, not broad Nature dominance. It provides selected protection, entanglement, poison-related, healing, supply, and small-summon options as research permits.

Without a hero, Pretender, independent, empowerment, or summon chain, the nation does not naturally reach the powerful N3-N5 ritual tier. A guide that assumes easy high Nature is using another age, a mod, or an unrecorded access source.

Communions#

Why Arcoscephale uses them#

Mystics combine guaranteed S1 with heterogeneous elements. A communion:

• raises each master’s known paths according to the number of slaves;
• distributes spell fatigue across participants;
• lets low elemental randoms reach battlefield thresholds;
• makes a roster of modest mages behave like a high-path school.

The official level thresholds are:

The bonus applies only to paths the master already knows.

The smallest useful communion#

Two slaves are enough to raise paths by one. This can turn:

• F2 into F3;
• W2 into W3;
• E2 into E3;
• S2 into S3;
• an Astrologer S3 into S4.

The small communion is efficient for a limited script, but brittle:

• one slave loss can remove the bonus;
• fatigue per slave is higher;
• an overambitious master script can collapse it;
• the master may choose an unintended expensive spell after scripted orders.

Four- and eight-slave communions#

Four slaves provide +2 and are the first general-purpose threshold for turning common F1/W1/E1 Mystics into level 3 casters.

Eight slaves provide +3 and support high-end battlefield effects, but create a large concentration of expensive mages. The cost includes:

• eight researchers leaving laboratories;
• pearls or scripting needed to establish the communion;
• bodyguards and formation space;
• fatigue management;
• risk of battlefield-wide or rear attacks;
• the loss of those mages if the army is trapped.

Master selection#

Choose masters by spell package:

• F2 master for Fire;
• W2 master for Water;
• E2 master for Earth;
• S2 Mystic or S3+ Astrologer for Astral;
• cross-path Mystic when the spell or shared buff genuinely requires it.

Avoid adding masters merely because they can join. Every additional master:

• increases total fatigue placed into the slave pool;
• expands spell-selection variance after scripts;
• raises the value of the target presented to the enemy.

Slave selection#

The cheapest-looking S1 Mystic may still carry a valuable cross-path. Slave selection should preserve:

• rare E2, W2, and F2 specialists;
• S2 masters;
• cross-paths needed for forging or point buffs;
• battlefield-independent casters.

If every Mystic costs the same, “slave” is a temporary assignment, not a low-value unit type.

Fatigue failure#

Official communion fatigue depends on:

• the spell’s fatigue cost;
• the number of participants;
• the slave’s relevant effective path compared with the master’s;
• bonuses and effects included in effective skill;
• the continued number of living slaves.

The dangerous cascade is:

slave becomes exhausted
-> slave stops contributing or dies
-> remaining slaves receive more fatigue
-> master bonus can fall below a threshold
-> later spells become more expensive or illegal
-> communion collapses

The package must be tested with the actual master scripts, gems, self-buffs, enemy pressure, and expected battle length.

When not to use a communion#

Communions are not mandatory.

Independent casting is often better when:

• many Mystics can each cast a useful low-level spell;
• the spell does not need path elevation;
• the enemy can punish a mage cluster;
• the battle is small;
• slaves would cost more mage-turns than the target is worth;
• one pearl per independent caster produces more total useful actions;
• the desired mix of spells is easier to control without shared fatigue.

Community discussion of MA Arcoscephale correctly highlights this tradeoff: a Mystic assigned as a slave is not a cheap acolyte; it is a 190-gold researcher and possible specialist that no longer casts independently.

National spells and rituals#

The official unmodded national list contains one battlefield summon and seven rituals.

National access is not castability#

Five of the eight entries are not immediately castable by the normal recruitable roster. This is deliberate strategic terrain.

• Sow Dragon Teeth is the clean native national tool.
• Craft Keledone requires bridging the missing point on an E2S1 or another caster.
• Forge Brass Bull requires substantial dual-path elevation.
• the Death rituals require imported or bootstrapped Death;
• high Nature depends on a hero, Pretender, independent, empowerment, or another chain.

The dossier separates “the nation owns this ritual” from “the present game can cast it.”

Path-access ladder#

Fire#

1. Recruit Mystics until F1 and F2 roles are available.
2. Use communion bonuses or a Fire self-buff to reach battlefield thresholds.
3. Forge only after confirming the current item path and Construction level.
4. Use Pretender Fire when a ritual requires a dual path the Mystic distribution cannot produce.

Water#

1. Recruit W1 and W2 Mystics.
2. Use Water self-buffs and communions for battlefield scaling.
3. Use booster chains when ritual thresholds require them.
4. Treat very high Water as a deliberate project rather than normal roster access.

Earth#

1. Preserve E2 Mystics.
2. Use Earth self-buffs in battle.
3. Forge Earth boosters when current research and item paths allow.
4. Use E2 to cast Sow Dragon Teeth.
5. Bridge E2S1 to E2S2 for Craft Keledone through a named Astral booster or another caster.

Astral#

1. Every Mystic provides S1.
2. S2 Mystics become stronger masters and forgers.
3. Astrologers provide S3, commonly S4, and rarely S5.
4. Astral boosters extend high rituals and penetration.
5. Communions reach extreme battlefield levels but do not cast ordinary rituals.

Nature#

1. Hiereiai and Archousai provide N1.
2. The national hero Axieros provides N3 if he appears.
3. A single Nature booster can bring N3 to N4 for Awaken Hamadryad, subject to current item legality.
4. Pretender or independent access can make the route reliable.

Death#

1. There is no recruitable national Death.
2. A Pretender is the reliable pregame bridge.
3. Suitable independent mages, sites, heroes, empowerment, or summons can create a later bridge.
4. Once D2 or D3 exists, the national Keres and Lampad rituals can produce units with further magic potential if made commanders by an appropriate current spell.

Air, Glamour, and Blood#

These are absent from the ordinary national roster.

• Air appears on Orokestes at A1, if the hero arrives.
• Glamour and Blood require imported or summon-chain access.
• A Pretender taking one of these paths should have a clear job beyond merely making the national summary look broad.

Part V: Expansion and the First Year#

Expansion objectives#

Arcoscephalian expansion is successful when it produces:

• enough provinces to finance multiple forts and laboratories;
• resource provinces that let those forts recruit the intended line;
• surviving elephants, infantry, and commanders;
• a border that automatic scrying can help cover;
• an early fort schedule that begins multiplying Mystics;
• a credible force against opportunistic neighbours.

Province count alone is insufficient. Eight disconnected or exposed provinces with no second fort can be weaker than six provinces with a defensible boundary and a fort already building.

Starting force#

Unmodded Arcoscephale begins with:

• a Hypaspist Commander;
• a Scout;
• twenty Peltasts;
• twenty Hoplites.

The starting army already contains a screen and an armoured line. It can take suitable human infantry provinces, but the correct first target depends on the actual report. Heavy cavalry, barbarians, crossbows, large numbers, and other high-damage independents can convert the expensive Hoplite line into an early setback.

Starting formation hypothesis#

Strategic doctrine, test pending:

• Hoplites form the central or forward anvil.
• Peltasts begin slightly behind or on a flank so javelins do not disrupt the first contact.
• The commander remains protected and away from the most likely projectile path.
• Orders and distance are adjusted to make the two lines contact in a useful sequence.

This is a starting point for testing, not a universal script. Battlefield terrain, enemy placement, and projectile range alter the timing.

Expansion engines#

Heavy-infantry expansion#

Core: Hoplites or Hypaspists with a proper commander and a cheaper supporting line.

Strengths:

• little dependence on Pretender awakening;
• good against ordinary low-damage infantry;
• survivors retain value in the first war;
• predictable morale and formation.

Weaknesses:

• high resource demand;
• slow map movement for Hoplites;
• attrition from high-damage attacks;
• limited killing speed against dense or armoured enemies;
• replacement can delay infrastructure.

Elephant expansion#

Core: a small number of elephants behind or beside an infantry screen.

Strengths:

• high shock and trample output against smaller human troops;
• fast strategic movement from the mount;
• low resource cost on the rider listing;
• strong deterrent against opponents without prepared counters.

Weaknesses:

• 100 gold per recruit;
• low mount MR and ordinary morale;
• catastrophic losses against control, fear, giants, and anti-large force;
• routs can trample friendly troops;
• a single bad expansion can delay a fort.

The correct number is empirical. It varies with independent strength, screen size, bless, leadership, target composition, and map. The library will not print a “safe” elephant count until repeated tests establish a range under the frozen settings.

Chariot expansion#

Core: chariots on a flank with a centre that holds the enemy.

Strengths:

• cheaper than elephants;
• multiple package elements through rider, corider, and mount;
• mobile ranged and trample pressure;
• useful against light troops.

Weaknesses:

• smaller and easier to stop than elephants;
• less decisive against dense or large targets;
• vulnerable if pinned.

Awake-expander expansion#

An awake combat Pretender can:

• take difficult provinces;
• establish a second route;
• reduce mundane losses;
• deter a first-year attack;
• bring missing magic.

The cost is paid in:

• scales;
• dominion or bless;
• design paths;
• risk to the Pretender;
• healing and support turns;
• the possibility that the chosen chassis cannot safely fight the actual independent.

Arcoscephalian healing makes a recoverable combat Pretender more attractive, but does not make it immortal or immune to lethal counters.

Target classification#

Before each neutral attack, classify the province.

Expansion losses and stop rules#

An expansion party should stop when:

• its next target is outside the package’s favourable class;
• losses would delay a fort or second party;
• the retreat province is unsafe;
• enemy borders make the party easy to trap;
• an elephant or commander has accumulated a material affliction;
• consolidation produces more value than one more exposed province.

The real cost of a dead Hoplite is not thirteen gold. It includes thirty-one resources, recruitment capacity, transport, and the effect of a thinner line on the next battle.

First-year infrastructure#

A robust first year normally needs:

• continued expansion;
• a second expansion party or awake Pretender route;
• a second fort site chosen for population, resources, geometry, and safety;
• a laboratory where the first new Mystic production matters;
• temples where dominion, priest recruitment, or sacred production justify them;
• enough scouts to find neighbours before armies do;
• a treasury reserve against bad events, defence, and fort completion.

The 300-gold laboratory surcharge changes timing. A fort that cannot receive a laboratory on schedule is not yet a Mystic factory.

Turn-12 test record#

Every serious design should be tested through turn 12 with:

• exact scales and awakening;
• exact independent strength;
• map type or seed;
• active mod list and order;
• recruitment by turn;
• Province Defence purchases;
• fort, lab, and temple starts;
• site searching;
• expansion route;
• every battle and loss;
• treasury and gem stock;
• surviving army;
• research level;
• contact and border geometry.

Minimum comparison metrics#

Expansion test hypotheses#

The first Arcoscephale test suite should compare:

1. scales plus starting heavy infantry;
2. scales plus early elephants;
3. mixed infantry, chariots, and elephants;
4. awake combat Pretender;
5. dormant intervention Pretender with stronger scales.

For each, test at least:

• ordinary infantry;
• barbarians;
• heavy cavalry;
• crossbows;
• heavy infantry;
• enemy tramplers.

Precise party sizes remain test pending until those runs are saved.

Part VI: Research Response Trees#

The research trunk#

Arcoscephale wants many schools. The solution is not to research every school evenly. It is to reach small conversion nodes that make the present army better, then branch.

A broadly useful trunk is:

1. Thaumaturgy 1 for Communion Master and Communion Slave.
2. Alteration 3 for Earth Meld, Body Ethereal, Mossbody where the cross-path exists, and a cluster of defensive or control tools.
3. Conjuration 3 for Phoenix Power, Summon Earthpower, Power of the Spheres, and early elemental options.
4. A branch chosen from the observed enemy.

This is doctrine, not a mandatory order. An immediate rush can require Evocation, Thaumaturgy 2, Construction, or another emergency branch first.

Exact early and middle conversion nodes#

The manual confirms the following relevant spells:

The table gives capabilities, not recommended scripts. Friendly-fire risk, magic resistance, fatigue, gem cost, battlefield range, and enemy resistance still determine value.

Branch A: anti-armour#

Problem#

Enemy protection makes mundane spears and tramplers trade poorly.

Early answer#

• Destruction at Alteration 4 from an E3 caster.
• An E2 Mystic reaches E3 through Summon Earthpower or a two-slave communion.
• Ordinary infantry and tramplers exploit the reduced armour.

Middle answer#

• combine armour destruction with Falling Fires, Gifts from Heaven, elementals, or strengthened troops;
• use Stellar Cascades if fatigue rather than immediate kills is the better axis;
• avoid concentrating expensive magic into a battle the enemy can decline.

Failure branch#

If Destruction misses the relevant squares, or if raw HP and size matter more than Magic Resistance, add control, high damage, or more attacks. Repeating armour reduction will not solve that problem.

Branch B: anti-elite and anti-giant#

Problem#

Few high-stat or giant troops defeat ordinary lines and cannot be trampled efficiently.

Tools#

• Earth Meld to hold targets;
• Body Ethereal on critical blockers;
• Mind Burn, Paralyze, and Soul Slay where MR permits;
• Gifts from Heaven for extreme physical damage at accepted accuracy risk;
• elementals to create size and disruption;
• Destruction if armour is the main defence;
• fatigue through Stellar Cascades or prolonged combat;
• a properly chosen Pretender or thug.

Doctrine#

Do not ask one spell to do every job. A complete anti-elite package needs:

1. a line that survives initial contact;
2. control or distraction;
3. damage that attacks the correct defence;
4. mage protection;
5. a plan if the elite force attacks the rear or refuses the centre.

Branch C: anti-mass#

Problem#

Large numbers surround the line and exhaust killing capacity.

Tools#

• elephants and chariots against eligible sizes;
• Falling Fires or Falling Frost against low resistance;
• area control;
• summoned elementals;
• dense formation infantry to hold frontage;
• Fire or Cold resistance on friendly forces when using hazardous battlefield conditions.

Failure branch#

If the enemy mass is mindless, do not rely on mind effects. If it is undead, add priests and check the exact banishment environment. If it contains sacrificial chaff protecting dangerous mages, rear pressure or remote commander attacks may matter more than killing every body.

Branch D: anti-undead and anti-demon#

Assets#

• H1 and H2 priestesses;
• a prophet or Pretender;
• Astral, Fire, and national summoned options;
• morale support;
• precise information from dominion scrying.

Requirements#

• enough priests to matter at battlefield scale;
• bodyguards against undead flyers or assassins;
• protection against fear and fatigue;
• Spirit Sight or another answer when darkness, invisibility, or special sight is relevant;
• an answer to the enemy mages rather than only the undead screen.

The ordinary infantry may hold skeletons but can be exhausted by endless replacement. The strategic target is often the summoning engine.

Branch E: anti-rush#

The emergency branch is selected after reading the neighbour.

Construction can be an anti-rush branch if a combat Pretender or thug is the fastest viable answer. It is not automatically useful merely because items are permanent.

Branch F: remote Astral control#

Mind Hunt#

Mind Hunt is Evocation 6, S4, two Astral pearls, range six.

Arcoscephale can obtain S4 on capital Astrologers without boosters, though not every Astrologer is S4. Healing reduces the long-term cost of some recoverable afflictions, but does not remove detection risk or make indiscriminate hunting sound.

Targets should be chosen from:

• commanders outside Astral protection;
• siege leaders;
• critical priests;
• isolated thugs;
• laboratory mages exposed by scrying and scouts.

The package includes:

• target intelligence;
• several S4 casters if the objective justifies them;
• a safe laboratory;
• pearls;
• healing capacity;
• a plan for enemy Astral detection or domes.

Soul Slay and Master Enslave#

Soul Slay is a battlefield precision tool against eligible high-value units. Master Enslave is an endgame operation, not a research aspiration in isolation.

A Master Enslave operation needs:

• S8 effective skill;
• a robust communion;
• penetration;
• protection from interruption;
• enough fatigue support;
• a plan for mindless and high-MR enemies;
• commanders able to control any captured units;
• an exploitation plan if the enemy army is stolen.

Branch G: battlefield renewal#

Arcoscephale’s mundane army scales when research makes old soldiers survive modern magic.

Key transformations include:

• point ethereal and protection effects on the contact line;
• Destruction making ordinary spears relevant against armour;
• Marble Warriors improving a broad formation;
• Will of the Fates reducing casualties across the army;
• Legions of Steel improving worn armour;
• Army of Lead or Gold creating a late-game protected mass.

The more expensive the buff package, the more important it is to ask whether the troops are the right recipients. A battlefield-wide spell does not make a routed, immobile, poisoned, or bypassed army successful by itself.

Research rejoin points#

Emergency branches should rejoin a larger plan.

Examples:

• Thaumaturgy 2 anti-elite -> Thaumaturgy 5 for Soul Slay -> Evocation 6 for Mind Hunt;
• Alteration 4 anti-armour -> Alteration 7 for Marble Warriors and Will of the Fates -> Alteration 9;
• Evocation 5 damage -> Evocation 6 remote Astral -> later battlefield offence;
• Conjuration 3 self-buffs -> Conjuration 4 Northern Star -> national and elemental summons;
• Construction branch for a Pretender -> boosters -> ritual access.

The rejoin point should be recorded before emergency research begins, preventing a permanent drift across half-finished schools.

Part VII: Army Packages#

Package 1: The old line#

Purpose: defeat ordinary human troops and hold ground cheaply.

Core:

• Hoplite or Hypaspist centre;
• Cardaces or Peltasts as screen or flank;
• one reliable commander;
• optional Hiereia;
• scouts on the operational route.

Scaling:

• add a Strategos for a larger army;
• add elephants or chariots for killing power;
• add a small Mystic cell once research provides a specific effect.

Failure modes:

• high-damage weapons penetrate the line;
• fatigue breaks Hoplites;
• flyers reach the rear;
• the army cannot kill high protection;
• slow movement cedes operational initiative.

Package 2: The elephant hammer#

Purpose: break large formations of smaller ordinary troops.

Core:

• infantry screen;
• elephant group on a flank or behind the line;
• commander with adequate leadership and morale support;
• rear guard;
• scouting of size, morale attacks, and MR-negates magic.

Scaling:

• add enough elephants to create simultaneous contact;
• add point buffs to the screen;
• add area damage or control so elephants are not stopped by elites;
• add Hiereia/Archousa support and a post-battle healing route.

Failure modes:

• panic or control;
• giants;
• rear attack on commanders;
• a narrow battlefield;
• friendly trampling during rout;
• overinvestment in a countered chassis.

Package 3: Independent Mystic battery#

Purpose: obtain many useful casts without communion concentration.

Core:

• several Mystics selected for the same low-level effect;
• one pearl or relevant elemental gems where needed;
• heavy infantry screen;
• separation and bodyguards;
• strict scripts whose unscripted continuation is acceptable.

Examples:

• repeated Body Ethereal;
• Mind Burn from S2 casters;
• Power of the Spheres followed by elemental effects;
• small elemental summons;
• repeated point buffs.

Strength: every mage acts.

Failure: individual path and gem use may be less powerful than a communion; spell-selection variance can scatter effects.

Package 4: Four-slave elemental communion#

Purpose: turn common elemental randoms into level-three battlefield casters.

Core:

• four Communion Slaves;
• one or two chosen masters;
• screen and rear guard;
• gem load calculated from the exact script;
• no unnecessary masters.

Candidate master outcomes:

• F1 -> F3;
• W1 -> W3;
• E1 -> E3;
• S1 -> S3.

Self-buffs can raise paths further, but also change fatigue relationships and must be tested.

Failure: slave fatigue, lost threshold, massed mage casualties, or masters improvising expensive spells.

Package 5: Astral elimination cell#

Purpose: remove a few high-value eligible targets.

Core:

• Astrologers or appropriate masters;
• Soul Slay or another current Astral killing spell;
• penetration where available;
• a line long enough to permit repeated casts;
• target selection based on MR and mind status.

Failure: high MR, mindlessness, enemy Magic Duel threat, insufficient range, or line collapse.

Package 6: Armour-break combined arms#

Purpose: let ordinary troops and tramplers defeat armour.

Core:

• E3 effective caster for Destruction;
• resilient screen;
• Hypaspists, elephants, chariots, or summoned bodies ready to exploit;
• secondary magic if armour destruction lands unevenly.

Failure: the enemy disperses, kills the Earth caster, relies on innate protection, or counters the exploitation force.

Package 7: Fort storm and Throne claim#

Purpose: convert field advantage into victory position.

Core:

• sufficient siege bodies;
• a storming line;
• an anti-commander or anti-mage plan;
• H2 or H3 claim capacity as required by the Throne;
• supply and laboratory support;
• a relief interception force;
• replacement commanders.

Arcoscephale’s strength in field magic does not automatically crack walls or claim Thrones. The claim-capable priest and army must arrive together after the fort falls.

Package 8: Distributed counter-raiding#

Purpose: prevent fast or stealth forces from turning a slow main army into territorial collapse.

Core:

• dominion scrying on approaches;
• scouts outside dominion;
• small Mystic cells in protected labs;
• cheap commanders and local troops;
• mobile elephants, chariots, or a Pretender where suitable;
• fort and laboratory redundancy.

Failure: every cell is too weak, pearls are absent, or the main army cannot exploit the enemy’s dispersion.

Part VIII: Pretender Families#

Family A: Awake expansion and missing path#

Job#

• take difficult neutral provinces;
• preserve national troops;
• deter an early rush;
• bring one or two missing paths, commonly Death, Air, Glamour, or another ritual bridge.

Good fit#

• crowded maps;
• dangerous neighbours;
• weak starting terrain;
• a design whose chassis can reliably expand under the actual settings.

Costs#

• weaker scales;
• Pretender risk;
• fewer design points for broad ritual access;
• possible overlap with elephants.

Audit#

The chassis must be tested against heavy cavalry, barbarians, poison, magic weapons, and MR attacks. Healing is a recovery advantage, not a licence to attack unknown targets.

Family B: Dormant intervention platform#

Job#

• stronger scales than an awake expander;
• arrive near the first serious war;
• carry missing paths;
• serve as thug, battlefield caster, forger, or ritual bridge.

Good fit#

• national troops can expand;
• the likely danger begins after contact;
• the nation wants a high-impact mid-game path package.

Costs#

• no help during the first expansion turns;
• the planned battlefield role can be invalidated by the actual neighbour;
• a dormant chassis that cannot move or fight as expected may become an expensive researcher.

Family C: Imprisoned scales and research#

Job#

• maximise gold, resources, growth, and research scales;
• multiply forts and Mystics;
• emerge as a late ritual platform.

Good fit#

• spacious map;
• reliable troop expansion;
• diplomatic room;
• a plan that uses the additional economic throughput before awakening.

Costs#

• no Pretender during expansion or first war;
• greater vulnerability to rush;
• high-path ritual promises may arrive after the decisive period.

The design succeeds only if the recruitable state survives long enough to compound.

Family D: Sacred-support hybrid#

Job#

• provide an incidental or moderate bless to Heart Companions;
• remain useful as an expander, battlefield caster, or ritual bridge.

Good fit#

• the capital can recruit Companions without sacrificing the rest of the plan;
• the bless also improves sacred commanders, summons, or the Pretender;
• the sacred unit fills a clear tactical role.

Costs#

• capital-only recruitment;
• heavy resources;
• slow map movement;
• bless points that could solve wider national constraints.

Family E: Ritual bridge#

Job#

Provide paths missing from the national roster.

Priority candidates:

• Death for the national Underworld summons and wider Death economy;
• Air for mobility, lightning, forging, and storm tools;
• Glamour for sight, illusion, and control options;
• Blood only if the design includes a credible way to create and sustain a Blood economy;
• high Nature for national N3/N4 rituals and global access.

Audit#

For every promised ritual, write the complete route:

Pretender base path
+ named booster
+ empowerment if any
+ research level
+ gem cost
+ laboratory and province requirement
= legal caster

If one step is missing, the ritual is not part of the build.

Historical builds and current legality#

Earlier project discussions proposed:

• an imprisoned Astral-Earth Titan;
• a dormant Great Enchantress with Astral, Earth, Nature, and Death;
• a later Grand Hierophant with Fire, Air, Astral, and Blood under the combined mod set.

These are retained as historical design families, not copied as current legal builds. Chassis paths, design costs, scale limits, blesses, and mod abilities must be rebuilt in the current Pretender screen before publication as finished designs.

Scale priorities#

Order#

Supports:

• expensive mage recruitment;
• fort and laboratory construction;
• elephants and ordinary armies.

The national +1 limit makes high Order available, but the final value depends on the design-point curve and map economy.

Production#

Supports:

• Hoplites;
• Hypaspists;
• Heart Companions;
• fort provinces with strong local resources.

Elephants themselves are not resource-intensive on the rider listing, so an elephant-heavy opening can use gold faster than resources.

Growth#

Supports:

• long-run income;
• population resilience;
• supplies;
• Blood resistance if Blood Hunting occurs nearby;
• campaigns expected to last.

Magic#

Supports:

• Research Points;
• spell performance through the scale’s ordinary effects;
• the national plan of reaching several response nodes.

It also affects enemy magic in the same province and may interact with events. It is not an uncontested bonus.

Luck#

Interacts with events and the concentration of Astrologer Fortune Tellers. It should be evaluated as part of the whole event policy, not only because the nation uses Astrologers.

Temperature#

Choose after checking:

• national preference;
• design points;
• income and supplies;
• expected battlefield effects;
• mod changes.

Sloth#

Sloth purchases design points by taxing a roster that contains resource-heavy infantry and sacreds. It is more plausible in an elephant- or magic-heavy design than in one promising massed Hoplites and Heart Companions.

Part IX: Campaign Doctrine#

Early game#

Objectives#

• expand without crippling attrition;
• identify neighbours before contact becomes war;
• begin the second fort and its 300-gold laboratory;
• recruit the first Mystic portfolio;
• retain enough mundane force to deter a rush;
• choose research from observed threats.

Questions each turn#

• Which independent class is the next target?
• Is a valuable elephant or commander entering an uncertain battle?
• Does the treasury still meet the fort and laboratory schedule?
• Which Mystic random appeared, and has it been recorded?
• Which neighbour can reach the capital fastest?
• Does the research branch produce a complete package before that attack?

Common early failure#

Arcoscephale can spend on everything:

• 190-gold Mystics;
• 270-gold Astrologers;
• 100-gold elephants;
• forts;
• 300-gold labs;
• ordinary armies.

The nation risks buying one of each and completing none of its conversions. A plan should state the current priority:

expansion force
or infrastructure
or mage throughput
or emergency defence

The other categories receive maintenance, not equal spending.

First war#

War aim#

The first war should have a positional aim:

• remove a dangerous rush neighbour;
• seize a fort cluster;
• secure a Throne corridor;
• take a high-income or high-gem region;
• shorten the border;
• destroy an exposed mage core.

“Use the research lead” is not a war aim.

Preparation#

Record:

• enemy troop defence classes;
• known magic paths and school evidence;
• likely battlefield enchantments;
• routes and retreat provinces;
• fort wall strength and relief distance;
• required gems by battle;
• replacement Mystic production;
• the branch if the first army is countered.

First-war strengths#

• heavy infantry can anchor;
• elephants punish unprepared human formations;
• Mystics can tailor several low- and middle-level packages;
• automatic scrying improves defence inside dominion;
• healing preserves expensive survivors;
• Astrologers threaten high Astral.

First-war weaknesses#

• most mages are expensive human bodies;
• a large communion risks a national research disaster;
• no normal Death, Air, Glamour, or Blood limits adaptation;
• tramplers have clear morale and MR counters;
• heavy infantry can be bypassed or fatigued;
• the 300-gold lab cost slows replacement infrastructure.

Middle game#

The middle game begins when the nation has several forts, multiple Mystic cohorts, and enough research that the opponent must respect several branches.

Objectives#

• turn random-mage breadth into repeatable packages;
• establish booster and gem logistics;
• create at least one remote or mobile threat;
• defend the capital Astrologer pipeline;
• convert won battles into forts and labs;
• begin a Throne claim plan.

Portfolio doctrine#

Do not send the entire mage corps with one army. Divide it into:

• research reserve;
• main field package;
• counter-raiding cells;
• ritual and forging specialists;
• capital Astral core;
• healing and recovery hubs.

The exact proportions change during war. The distinction prevents the same mage from being promised simultaneously to research, forge, cast a ritual, and fight.

Late game#

National late-game strengths#

• accumulated Astral;
• communions capable of high battlefield paths;
• broad elemental response;
• strong research if the fort network survived;
• information across friendly dominion;
• healing of valuable commanders;
• access to high-end Astral rituals and battlefield magic.

National late-game limits#

• low innate non-Astral path ceilings;
• absent Death, Air, Glamour, and Blood unless bridged;
• mortal human mage core;
• expensive fort and lab replacement;
• capital dependence for Astrologers;
• greater enemy ability to clear dense armies and communions.

Late-game transition#

The old army should become one of several shells around the magic:

• protected mass;
• siege and Throne body;
• screen for remote or high-Astral operations;
• distributed defence;
• disposable frontage for summons.

If every late-game battle still depends on unmodified Hoplites and elephants reaching melee, research has not been converted.

Endgame and Thrones#

An endgame plan states:

• current Ascension Points;
• claimable Thrones and required priest levels;
• forts and walls on each target;
• enemy relief routes;
• magic-phase threats;
• claim timing;
• the army that survives after the storm;
• the diplomatic response to visible victory progress.

Arcoscephale’s H2 Archousa can claim Thrones that require H2. Higher requirements need a prophet, Pretender, hero, or imported priest.

Automatic scrying helps defend claimed territory inside dominion, but the victory turn may depend on simultaneous attacks beyond that information umbrella.

Raiding#

Native raiders#

Unmodded Arcoscephale is not defined by stealth thugs or flying sacreds. Native options are modest:

• small conventional troop groups;
• chariot or elephant detachments against known weak defence;
• a combat Pretender;
• a geared commander when Construction and target class justify it;
• remote Astral attacks against commanders rather than province capture.

Raiding doctrine#

The nation should raid to:

• cut reinforcement routes;
• take laboratories;
• force counters away from the decisive siege;
• break a dominion or temple corridor;
• isolate a fort;
• punish an enemy who concentrated against the main line.

Slow heavy infantry should not chase fast raiders province by province. Scrying, forts, Mystic cells, mobile tramplers, and prediction form the counter-raiding system.

Sieges#

The roster supplies many human siege bodies but no automatic siege miracle.

Before besieging:

• calculate whether the army can breach on the required deadline;
• protect the lab and gem route;
• keep enough field power to defeat relief;
• preserve a storming package distinct from wall damage;
• move a claim-capable priest toward any Throne;
• scout every adjacent retreat.

Mystics researching inside a siege army are not free value if a relief battle destroys them.

Diplomacy#

Arcoscephale presents two political images.

The visible image is a conventional human kingdom with slow infantry and elephants. The hidden image is a rapidly compounding Astral state capable of communions, remote attacks, and high research.

This creates predictable diplomacy:

• neighbours may seek an early war before the mage network matures;
• others may value Arcoscephale as a stable border or anti-elite partner;
• Mind Hunt and Master Enslave potential can make later coalitions wary;
• scrying makes covert movement inside dominion less reliable;
• broad but shallow paths create useful gem and item trades.

Good diplomacy communicates enough strength to deter without advertising every random and research branch.

Matchup framework#

Against heavy armour#

Prefer:

• Destruction;
• high-damage or armour-negating magic;
• fatigue;
• elementals;
• a protected line that buys casting time.

Avoid:

• relying on ordinary spear damage alone;
• sending elephants into elite armour without disruption.

Against giants#

Prefer:

• Earth Meld and other control;
• Gifts from Heaven or other high-damage effects;
• fatigue and MR pressure;
• enough line depth to prevent immediate mage contact.

Avoid:

• treating trample as the primary answer;
• spending heavily on protection that giant damage easily penetrates without another plan.

Against high-MR elites#

Prefer:

• physical control and damage;
• armour destruction;
• fatigue that does not depend on one MR check;
• penetration only when the arithmetic is credible.

Avoid:

• a pure Soul Slay plan without enough attempts and penetration.

Against undead mass#

Prefer:

• priest support;
• engine killing;
• morale protection;
• fire, area damage, and fatigue tools appropriate to the exact undead;
• sustained lines that do not exhaust before the summoners.

Avoid:

• counting skeleton kills without measuring mage fatigue and replacement.

Against flyers and attack-rear forces#

Prefer:

• rear guards;
• mage bodyguards;
• wider or staggered deployment;
• separated mage cells;
• predictive interception through scrying.

Avoid:

• a single unguarded communion block.

Against glamour and stealth#

Prefer:

• dominion scrying;
• Spirit Sight or other current sight tools;
• area effects;
• patrol networks;
• redundant defence.

Avoid:

• assuming a missing army is absent.

Against enemy Astral#

Prefer:

• explicit Magic Duel policy;
• non-Astral damage where possible;
• protecting high-S Astrologers;
• decoy and target-priority planning;
• assessing enemy penetration and remote threat.

Avoid:

• exposing irreplaceable high-S casters to cheap duellists without need.

Heroes#

The unmodded national hero pool includes:

Heroes are opportunities, not foundations. A plan that requires Axieros for N3 or Orokestes for Air has no deadline guarantee unless the hero is already present.

When a hero appears:

1. record the exact paths and abilities in the current version;
2. identify unique items, rituals, or movement unlocked;
3. protect the hero according to replacement impossibility;
4. avoid forcing the hero into a role a repeatable recruit can perform.

Gem economy#

The capital produces four Astral pearls and one Nature gem per month.

Astral pearls compete among:

• communions and Power of the Spheres;
• battlefield Astral;
• forging;
• remote magic;
• boosters;
• globals;
• high-end rituals;
• reserve against an unexpected war.

Nature gems compete among:

• support summons;
• boosters;
• national Monster Boar or Hamadryad routes after access exists;
• later globals;
• trades that buy missing Death, Air, or other resources.

An Astral-rich nation can still run out of pearls if every Mystic receives one for every battle. Gem budgets should be assigned by operation, not distributed by habit.

Laboratory and item security#

Because labs cost 300 gold and pool gems:

• do not leave the only forward laboratory exposed;
• keep irreplaceable boosters off commanders taking uncertain routes;
• maintain a rear laboratory for recovery;
• transfer operation gems shortly before commitment;
• record item ownership;
• include retreats and laboratory capture in the invasion ledger.

New-player turn checklist#

Recruitment#

• Is every fort recruiting the commander it needs?
• Was a rare Mystic random identified?
• Is the capital buying an Astrologer for a defined job?
• Can a Hiereia be recruited outside a fort instead?
• Does troop recruitment match local gold and resources?

Research#

• What enemy problem does the current school solve?
• Which mage can cast the spell?
• Does the caster need a communion, self-buff, gem, or item?
• Will the army and caster reach the same battle?

Armies#

• Are elephants screened?
• Is the rear protected?
• Is the commander safe?
• Are retreat provinces friendly?
• Are slow Hoplites delaying an urgent operation?

Economy#

• Is the next fort still affordable?
• Has the 300-gold lab been budgeted?
• Are pearls reserved for the next operation?
• Is a mage promised to both research and fight?

Information#

• What is seen by scouts?
• What is seen only by dominion scrying?
• Which report is stale?
• Could the missing force use stealth or magic movement?

Expert turn audit#

• Recalculate specialist probabilities against current recruitment.
• Separate native, boosted, bootstrapped, and imported path claims.
• Compare independent casting with communion opportunity cost.
• Check every master/slave path and fatigue relationship.
• Audit post-script spell-selection risk.
• Check Magic Duel exposure.
• Recalculate siege and relief clocks.
• Mark every S4+ Astrologer and rare dual-path asset.
• Protect capital recruitment and laboratory continuity.
• Update Throne claim capacity and simultaneous victory threats.

Part X: Dominions Enhanced 2.16#

Scope of the overhaul#

Dominions Enhanced 2.16 genuinely overhauls MA Arcoscephale. The changes go well beyond one adjusted cost.

Source-confirmed changes include:

• a rebuilt ordinary troop roster;
• new phalangite and cavalry units;
• a new mounted commander;
• revised Hoplites, Hypaspists, Heart Companions, Archousai, Mystics, and Astrologers;
• paired Heart Companion recruitment at national sites;
• capital Hetairoi;
• a different hero pool and multihero;
• a large national spell and summon suite;
• national items;
• new late-game Titans, nymphs, heroes, and constellation magic.

The strategic identity changes from “broad low-elemental Astral nation with several inaccessible nationals” to “Astral combined arms with a geography-dependent summon ladder capable of opening most missing paths.”

Recruitment rewrite#

The nation block clears ordinary recruitment and then rebuilds access.

Fort commanders#

All listed terrain forts receive:

• Scout;
• Lokhagos;
• Hipparchus;
• Strategos;
• Mystic;
• Archousa;
• Hiereia.

The Hiereia is also added outside forts in plains, forests, mountains, swamps, wastes, farms, and caves.

Capital Astrologer access remains tied to the Tower of a Thousand Stars rather than the rebuilt ordinary fort list.

Ordinary troops#

The rebuilt list contains:

• Slinger;
• Peltast;
• Cardaces;
• Hoplite;
• Phalangite;
• Hypaspist;
• Prodromoi;
• Chariot;
• Elephant.

Hetairoi are defined but commented out of the ordinary list. They are instead placed at the Tower of a Thousand Stars. Paired Heart Companions are placed at that site and at the Gymnasium.

Starting army#

The mod sets:

• Lokhagos as starting commander;
• Scout as starting scout;
• twenty Peltasts;
• twenty Hoplites.

Revised and new units#

Hoplite#

Source-confirmed delta:

• Defence 11;
• effective gold setting 11 in the mod source;
• new sprites.

Compared with the unmodded 13-gold Defence-9 Hoplite, this is a substantial efficiency and survival improvement.

Hypaspist#

Source-confirmed delta:

• Attack 12;
• Defence 13;
• Combat Speed 14;
• effective gold setting 12.

The source contains two consecutive Defence assignments, 11 then 13; the later value controls. The unit becomes a faster and cheaper elite line rather than merely the flexible alternative to a Hoplite.

Phalangite, unit 9316#

The new MA Phalangite:

• uses half plate, Hoplite helmet, and buckler;
• wields a Sarissa;
• has HP 11, Strength 11, Attack 12, Defence 12;
• costs 16 recruitment points;
• uses the source’s effective 13-gold setting.

The long Sarissa and lighter armour define a more offensive formation unit than the old Hoplite.

Prodromoi, unit 9317#

The Prodromoi are light cavalry:

• Xyston, broad sword, and javelin;
• ring-mail hauberk, half helmet, and buckler;
• Skilled Rider 3;
• leather-barding horse;
• HP 11, Attack 11, Defence 11, Morale 12;
• 13 recruitment points;
• effective 10-gold setting.

They add cheap mobile flank and skirmish pressure that vanilla MA Arcoscephale lacks.

Hetairoi, unit 9318#

The Hetairoi are capital-site heavy cavalry:

• half plate, half helmet, and buckler;
• Xyston, broad sword, and javelin;
• Skilled Rider 5;
• light scale-barding horse;
• HP 13, Strength 12, Attack 12, Defence 12, Morale 12.

Their cost and recruitment values are inherited from the copied Agema Companion because the proposed explicit overrides are commented out. The exact final in-game card remains a combined-object verification item.

Hipparchus, unit 9319#

The Hipparchus is the matching cavalry commander:

• same main equipment family as the Hetairoi;
• Skilled Rider 6;
• light scale-barding horse;
• HP 13, Attack 12, Defence 12, Morale 12;
• inherited leadership and costs from the Agema Commander.

The final inherited values should be captured from the live modded unit card before publication of a numeric quick-reference.

Heart Companions in pairs#

Unit 9322 represents paired recruitment:

• source cost 50 gold;
• recruitment-point cost 46;
• resource cost 28;
• Plate Hauberk, Hoplite Helmet, Buckler, Sarissa;
• Morale 14, Strength 12, Attack 12;
• description explicitly states that two are recruited at once.

Seasonal shapes and nation events convert the paired representation into two ordinary Heart Companions. The ordinary Heart Companion is also rewritten with the same equipment family and improved Morale, Strength, and Attack.

This changes sacred economics:

• the recruitment purchase is indivisible;
• the effective body cost is nominally half the pair cost;
• capital and Gymnasium access matters;
• bless value must be recalculated against two-at-a-time production;
• the transformation/event timing should be reproduced before assuming both bodies are immediately available in every interface.

Archousa#

The Archousa becomes:

• N2 rather than N1;
• 265 gold rather than 235.

This single path increase is strategically central. It turns high Nature from a hero-dependent hope into a booster and summon-ladder project.

Mystic#

The Mystic gains Poor Magic Leadership.

The magic random structure is not cleared or rewritten in the inspected source, so the unmodded path distribution remains unless another loaded layer changes it. Poor Magic Leadership matters when summoned magic beings are moved with Mystic armies.

Astrologer#

The Astrologer gains permission to use restricted-item group 10, enabling the national Zodiac item. The base path structure is not rewritten in the inspected source.

Site recruitment#

Tower of a Thousand Stars#

Dominions Enhanced clears and rewrites the site:

• 4 Astral pearls per month;
• 1 Nature gem per month;
• Astrologer as home commander;
• paired Heart Companions;
• Hetairoi.

Gymnasium#

The Gymnasium is rewritten to provide paired Heart Companions.

This creates two sacred-production cases:

• capital production from the Tower;
• any obtained Gymnasium site.

The frequency and map availability of Gymnasia are not a guaranteed national resource and should not be assumed at Pretender design.

Hero rewrite#

The MA national hero line becomes:

• Aleksandros, the Conqueror;
• Orokestes;
• Pathos;
• Axieros;
• Muse as multihero.

Aleksandros#

Aleksandros replaces Anthromachus in the era’s primary hero slot. The source defines:

• mounted movement;
• Awe and Fear;
• Inspirational 2;
• high leadership;
• sacred status;
• enchanted equipment;
• events that rally local population types when he is present.

The rally events can generate troops and commanders from horse tribes, Raptorians, several Amazon types, elephant populations, Atavi, and other local groups. These are opportunity effects dependent on both the hero and province population type.

Muses#

Muses are repeatable multiheroes with:

• Glamour 3;
• two random picks from a Fire/Air/Astral/Nature mask in the source;
• Awe, stealth, seduction, Inspirational 2, and Inspiring Research 1;
• sacred and magic-being status.

They can open valuable paths, but hero arrival remains non-deterministic. A deadline-safe plan cannot require a Muse.

Adventurers and Divine Heroes#

The nation receives future-site pools for:

• adventurer heroes;
• Divine Heroes;
• ordinary national heroes;
• a broad summon catalogue.

These pools support national spells. They are not ordinary recruits.

National spell suite#

The source-confirmed DE suite is grouped below by strategic function. Fields inherited through #copyspell should be checked on the final in-game spell card; explicit overridden values are reliable source claims.

Immediate and battlefield magic#

The four constellation lights are mutually incompatible with each other and with an Arcoscephalian Light of the Northern Star. They are a strategic choice, not cumulative path stacking.

Astral economy and events#

Event-based ritual outcomes and temporary scale duration should be reproduced under the combined mods.

Nature and elemental summon ladder#

This is the heart of the overhaul. Geography becomes magic access.

Unique and late summons#

Other national summons#

• Headless Men: N2, seven Nature gems, ten-plus Blemmyes; the school and research level are inherited from Summon Ogres.
• Sow Dragon Teeth and the unmodded Arcoscephalian national rituals remain relevant unless specifically overwritten elsewhere.
• The future-site lists also identify Spartae, Blemmyes, Lampads, Hound of Twilight, Keres, Keledone, Khalkotauros, Daimones, nymph commanders, Kerberos, and the three Titans as national summon products.

National items#

Bag of Dragons Teeth#

Source-confirmed:

• Construction 5;
• Earth level 2 through the copied Earth item;
• reduced item cost;
• summons three Spartae at battle start;
• grants one point of magic leadership;
• restricted to a group of appropriate nations including MA Arcoscephale.

It converts an E2 forge turn and Earth gems into a repeatable battlefield screen or reinforcement. The exact inherited base cost should be read from the final item card.

Horoskopos#

Source-confirmed:

• S2;
• cursed and not normally forgeable/found in the ordinary way;
• Luck;
• Morale +2;
• Inspirational 1;
• effects apply to the mount where relevant.

Its acquisition route is not established by the inspected item block. It should not be included in a routine forge plan until reproduced.

Zodiac#

Source-confirmed:

• Construction 5;
• S2;
• Astrologer-restricted item group;
• 50 points of bad-event prevention;
• Twist Fate;
• effects extend to mount.

The mod explicitly authorises Astrologers to use its restricted group. This turns selected Astrologers into provincial event-control assets without changing their magic.

DE access ladders#

Reliable Nature-to-Air ladder#

1. Recruit an N2 Archousa.
2. Obtain a named Nature booster to N3.
3. Cast Contact Karyatid in a forest.
4. Use the N3 Karyatid in forest, with a booster to N4 if required.
5. Cast Contact Oreiad on a mountain.
6. Receive an N3A2E1 Oreiad.
7. Use Air boosters, empowerment, or another summon to reach higher Air.

Every step requires the relevant research, gems, item, and geography. The ladder is powerful because it is reproducible; it is not instantaneous.

Water-to-Death ladder#

1. Preserve a W2 Mystic.
2. Add a named Water booster to reach W3 for ritual casting.
3. Cast Contact Eleionomae in a swamp.
4. Receive W3D2A1.
5. Use Death boosters, empowerment, or further summons to reach D4.
6. Cast The Guardian of Hades or other Death nationals.

Contact Oceanid is an alternate W3 route with random Death, Glamour, Nature, Air, or Earth outcomes. Because the Oceanid randoms are variable, it is a portfolio rather than deadline guarantee.

Astral-to-Air ladder#

1. Recruit an S4 Astrologer or boost S3.
2. At Conjuration 8, cast Daughter of the Evening.
3. Receive an immortal S3A2 commander.
4. Use Air boosters or combine with Water access.
5. Reach A3W2 for Summon Boread or other Air operations.

Constellation ladder#

Astrologer randoms can naturally provide:

• S4F1 for Aries;
• S4W1 for Cetus;
• S4E1 for Taurus.

Because the fixed and rare randoms interact, exact probabilities should be computed from the current Astrologer distribution and verified after the mod is loaded. S6 for Libra requires boosters or another high-Astral route.

DE research priorities#

The mod creates two new trunks.

Constellation trunk#

• immediate Zodiac Cascades provides an early fatigue tool;
• Conjuration 4 gives the ordinary Northern Star and the research neighbourhood for Aries if the copied school remains;
• levels 5-7 progressively add Cetus, Taurus, and Libra;
• the chosen constellation must fit the army and enemy because only one light can operate.

Nymph trunk#

• level 4 Karyatid begins the Nature ladder;
• level 5 Oceanid begins the Water-random ladder;
• level 6 Oreiad and Eleionomae open Air and Death;
• level 7 Nephelae and Divine Heroes expand force;
• level 8 Daughter of Evening and Titans establish late magic.

The best branch depends on gems and terrain. Researching Contact Oreiad without an N4 caster and a mountain produces no immediate capacity.

DE army identity#

The new roster supports a more mobile combined-arms formation:

• cheaper improved Hoplites;
• fast Hypaspists;
• offensive Phalangites;
• cheap Prodromoi;
• capital Hetairoi;
• paired sacreds;
• elephants and chariots;
• constellation-enhanced Mystics.

The nation can now create:

• a mobile Map Move 16 cavalry and infantry wing;
• a slower sacred or Hoplite core;
• Astral fatigue operations;
• nature-spirit and elemental commander support;
• late unique-summon armies.

Mixed movement must still be audited. One slow unit can reduce the route of an otherwise mobile force.

Part XI: Divinitus 1.15.3 DE and the Grand Hierophant#

Layer boundary#

Divinitus does not rewrite MA Arcoscephale’s ordinary national roster in the inspected source. It rewrites Pretenders and adds event-driven powers.

The relevant national interaction is:

Dominions Enhanced national overhaul
+ Divinitus Pretender choice
= combined MA Arcoscephale

The strongest documented interaction is the Grand Hierophant, monster 3053.

Combined object inheritance#

Dominions Enhanced first rewrites the Grand Hierophant with:

• S2;
• path cost 20;
• base Pretender cost 30;
• HP 10, MR 18, and human item slots;
• 50 points of bad-event prevention;
• Disease Resistance 100.

Divinitus loads afterward and sets:

• base Pretender cost 150;
• all known non-priest magic paths +1 through #magicboost 53 1;
• bad-event prevention 75;
• Disease Resistance 100;
• the anointing, teaching, and site-search description and events.

Because Divinitus does not clear magic or reset the path cost in this block, the earlier DE S2 and path-cost values remain in the combined object unless another later command changes them. This is a load-order conclusion and should be confirmed in the Pretender screen.

Paths known +1#

The Grand Hierophant adds one effective level to known non-priest paths.

Strategic consequences:

• purchased path thresholds may be one level easier;
• battlefield and ritual access must be calculated from effective, not merely purchased, paths;
• bless path requirements and design costs must still use the Pretender interface’s actual rules;
• path loss, transformation, and boosters require live verification.

The phrase does not mean the Pretender knows every path. It boosts paths that are known.

Mystic anointing#

The source event:

• requires the Grand Hierophant as god;
• targets a Mystic or Erytheian Mystic;
• requires a temple;
• adds Holy;
• transforms the target into monster 382, the Mystic Prophet;
• is hidden from the event log.

The mod description states that one Mystic at a temple is anointed each month, becoming H1 and sacred.

Strategic uses#

Anointed Mystics can potentially provide:

• sacred researchers;
• H1 communion participants;
• temple builders and preachers;
• bless access in battle;
• priest support without Archousa recruitment;
• targets for the teaching event.

Operational requirement#

Maintain:

• at least one eligible Mystic in a temple province;
• enough temple coverage to place trainees without disrupting the front;
• a record of which Mystic random is being transformed;
• a protected training hub.

Test pending#

The exact preservation of:

• random magic paths;
• experience;
• items;
• age;
• orders;
• recruitment identity;
• prophet interactions

must be reproduced through the transformation.

Teaching deeper mysteries#

The source event for Mystic Prophets:

• requires the Grand Hierophant in the same province;
• requires positive dominion;
• uses #req_domchance 5;
• checks the target’s Astral threshold through #req_targnopath3 4;
• adds +1 Fire, Water, Earth, and Astral simultaneously.

The description expresses this as candles times 5% chance and a maximum of three.

Probability#

If #req_domchance 5 behaves as described, the monthly success chance at (c) friendly candles is:

[ p = 0.05c ]

The probability of at least one success after (n) eligible months is:

[ 1-(1-0.05c)^n ]

At five candles, six eligible months give:

[ 1-0.75^6 % ]

Path consequence#

One success turns a typical Mystic Prophet into a much broader caster. Repeated success can create:

• multi-element communion masters;
• ritual cross-paths otherwise impossible in vanilla;
• high independent casters;
• forgers who compress several national roles.

Source discrepancy#

The prose says paths rise to a maximum of three. The event block visibly gates on an Astral-path condition and then boosts all four paths. A Mystic beginning at F2S1 could, under a literal reading of the commands, receive two successful boosts before Astral reaches three, potentially producing F4.

This is not asserted as engine behaviour. It is a high-priority controlled test because:

• command semantics may cap the other paths;
• transformation may alter the starting paths;
• the event requirement may behave differently from the literal reading;
• another hidden engine rule may enforce the prose maximum.

Until tested, the public doctrine uses the stated cap of three and records elemental over-cap as test pending.

Site-search treasure#

The source event:

• requires the Grand Hierophant;
• requires the Site Searching order on land;
• requires positive dominion;
• uses candles times 5% chance;
• grants 150 gold;
• grants 1d6 of each elemental gem.

“Elemental” means Fire, Air, Water, and Earth in the mod description.

Conditional value#

On success, expected gem gain is:

[ 4 E(1d6) = 4 = 14 ]

At (c) candles, ignoring caps or event interactions, expected monthly value is:

[ E() = 150(0.05c)=7.5c ]

[ E() = 14(0.05c)=0.7c ]

These are expected values, not guaranteed yields.

Opportunity cost#

The Grand Hierophant’s search month could instead be:

• researching;
• forging;
• casting a ritual;
• moving;
• joining a battle;
• teaching at a different hub;
• preaching or performing another Pretender task.

Site searching is attractive when:

• friendly dominion is high;
• unsearched provinces remain;
• elemental gems unlock immediate DE summon or battle packages;
• the Pretender is not needed on the front.

It is unattractive when the expected treasure does not beat the deadline value of another order.

Training-hub doctrine#

A Grand Hierophant training province should contain:

• temple;
• laboratory;
• strong friendly dominion;
• eligible Mystic Prophet;
• guards and fortification;
• no unnecessary exposed gem stock;
• access to the front through a safe route.

The hub converts time into exceptional mages. It also concentrates the Pretender and valuable Mystics into an obvious remote and conventional target.

Security includes:

• dome consideration;
• patrols;
• scouts on adjacent provinces;
• reserve troops;
• an evacuation route;
• alternate laboratories;
• avoiding the capital if that creates one catastrophic target.

Grand Hierophant strategic families#

Research-and-training family#

Prioritises:

• high Magic scale;
• early Mystic production;
• temple network;
• protected training hub;
• ritual paths that trained Mystics can complement.

Risk:

• too much stationary investment;
• delayed first-war force;
• Pretender time consumed by teaching and searching.

Elemental-treasure family#

Prioritises:

• high dominion candles;
• systematic site searching;
• DE elemental summon ladder;
• rapid conversion of found gems.

Risk:

• expected-value variance;
• Pretender absent from critical operations;
• gathering gems without research or casters to spend them.

Battlefield-hierophant family#

Prioritises:

• combat paths and survivability;
• trained Mystics as battlefield masters;
• healing support;
• an awakening timed for war.

Risk:

• sacrificing the mod’s unique economic and training effects;
• exposing the central Pretender and training engine.

Ritual-platform family#

Prioritises:

• paths missing after accounting for DE summon ladders;
• legendary ritual thresholds;
• booster and forge plan;
• imprisoned or dormant timing if the recruitable state can survive.

Risk:

• paying for paths the DE nymph ladder would have supplied more cheaply;
• planning rituals before the gem economy exists.

Part XII: Combined-Mod Strategy#

What the combined ruleset changes#

The combined nation has three compounding engines:

1. cheaper and broader combined-arms recruitment;
2. DE’s national constellation and nymph summon ladder;
3. Divinitus Grand Hierophant training and treasure.

This creates exceptional upside but also severe attention demands.

The player must track:

• Mystic randoms;
• anointed status;
• training history;
• geography for summons;
• national spell research;
• constellation compatibility;
• multiple gem colours;
• hero and unique availability;
• ordinary fronts and Thrones.

Combined opening priorities#

A coherent opening selects one primary engine.

Military opening#

• use improved Hoplites, Hypaspists, Phalangites, cavalry, and elephants;
• build forts;
• keep Grand Hierophant support secondary until borders stabilise.

Mystic training opening#

• prioritise temple and Mystic production;
• accept a slower mundane expansion only if tests prove it;
• protect the training centre;
• research spells that make the first enhanced Mystics immediately useful.

Summon-ladder opening#

• secure forest, mountain, and swamp provinces;
• reach the relevant Conjuration levels;
• preserve N2 and W2 specialists;
• use Grand Hierophant treasure to finance elemental bottlenecks.

Attempting all three at maximum speed is likely to produce too few troops, too few forts, and half-completed research.

Combined magic compression#

A trained Mystic can receive simultaneous F/W/E/S growth. DE then offers:

• constellation spells requiring S plus an element;
• elemental and Nature summons;
• national items;
• high Astral hero and Titan rituals.

This compresses jobs that would otherwise require several masters.

Potential trained roles include:

• S4F1 Aries caster;
• S4W1 Cetus caster;
• S4E1 Taurus caster;
• E2S2 Keledone ritual caster;
• F3E3 Brass Bull caster;
• W3 ritual caster for Oceanid or Eleionomae;
• broad independent Power of the Spheres caster.

Each role must be checked against:

• actual post-training paths;
• ritual versus battle restrictions;
• boosters;
• research;
• gem stock;
• whether using the mage consumes an irreplaceable training product.

Combined path priorities#

The Pretender should avoid buying paths that the nation can obtain reliably and cheaply through DE unless timing justifies them.

More valuable Pretender paths#

• paths required before summon ladders mature;
• paths that unlock national rituals with no cheap bridge;
• paths supporting an awake expansion role;
• paths needed for a specific global or legendary ritual;
• paths that improve blesses used by a meaningful sacred roster.

Less valuable redundant purchases#

• high Nature bought solely to reach N3 when N2 Archousai plus a booster can begin the ladder;
• high Air bought solely for eventual access when Oreiads and Daughters can supply it in time;
• broad elements bought without a ritual, battlefield, bless, or forging job.

Redundancy can still be worth paying for when it removes a deadline or geography dependency.

Combined counter surfaces#

The combined nation can be attacked through:

• temple and training-hub destruction;
• capital pressure against Astrologers and unique site troops;
• raids on forests, mountains, and swamps required for summons;
• gem denial;
• assassination of trained Mystics;
• communion clears;
• anti-Astral Magic Duel tactics;
• resistance to the chosen constellation;
• simultaneous fronts that overload attention.

The correct defence is not a larger single army. It is redundancy across:

• temples;
• labs;
• trained casters;
• access routes;
• gem stores;
• battlefield packages.

Part XIII: Controlled Tests#

Test standard#

Every test record should include:

• Dominions version;
• mod names, versions, and load order;
• game settings;
• nation and Pretender;
• turn and province;
• relevant units, paths, items, gems, and scripts;
• expected result;
• observed result;
• replay or save identifier;
• whether the result was repeated;
• conclusion and confidence.

Change one major variable at a time.

Test 1: Mystic random distribution#

Question: Does the current unmodded and modded Mystic use the documented guaranteed FWES roll plus independent 50% F/W/E rolls?

Method:

1. Recruit at least 128 Mystics under unmodded 6.35.
2. Record exact F/W/E/S paths.
3. Compare F2, W2, E2, and S2 frequencies with 12.5%, 12.5%, 12.5%, and 25%.
4. Confirm no E2S2 or double-elemental-2 result appears.
5. Repeat with DE 2.16.
6. Repeat with both mods.

Purpose: detect current-data or mod inheritance errors, not prove random fairness from a small sample.

Test 2: Astrologer rare random#

Question: Does the 10% extra random operate independently and can it produce S5 or an elemental level 2?

Method:

1. Recruit a large Astrologer sample in a debug or long test.
2. Record S3/S4/S5 and elemental results.
3. Compare with the derived 73.125%, 26.25%, and 0.625% Astral distribution.
4. Repeat under DE.

Test 3: Starting-army expansion#

Question: Which independent classes can the starting twenty Peltasts and twenty Hoplites defeat with acceptable losses?

Method:

1. Use fixed settings and no combat Pretender.
2. Test ordinary infantry, barbarians, heavy cavalry, crossbows, and heavy infantry.
3. Vary only formation and orders.
4. Record body losses, commander safety, battle duration, and next-turn readiness.

Test 4: Elephant package sizing#

Question: How many elephants and screening bodies produce reliable expansion under the chosen independent strength?

Method:

1. Test several small counts rather than one large army.
2. Use identical target classes.
3. Record routs, friendly trample, elephant wounds, and economic replacement.
4. Compare screen types.
5. Repeat under DE because ordinary troop performance changes.

Test 5: Chariot versus elephant#

Question: Against which targets does the cheaper chariot produce a better gold and attrition result than the elephant?

Method:

• compare equal gold values;
• test light infantry, archers, heavy infantry, and large units;
• record total package survival, not only mounts.

Test 6: Hoplite versus Hypaspist#

Question: When do three extra Protection points outperform Defence, Morale, movement, and lower resources?

Method:

• equal gold;
• equal resources;
• equal frontage;
• low-damage swarm;
• high-damage infantry;
• giants;
• armour-destruction support;
• long fatigue battle.

Repeat under vanilla and DE, where both units change materially.

Test 7: Formation density#

Question: How do formation fighters perform under area damage and frontage pressure?

Method:

• dense versus ordinary formation;
• equal troop count;
• melee-only opponent;
• area evocation opponent;
• fatigue-cloud opponent;
• trample opponent.

Record contact timing, attacks delivered, casualties by square, and rout timing.

Test 8: Independent casting versus communion#

Question: At what battle size does a communion outperform the same number of independent Mystics?

Method:

1. Select a single enemy army and research level.
2. Test eight independent Mystics.
3. Test four slaves and four masters.
4. Test six slaves and two masters.
5. Equalise gems.
6. Record useful casts, fatigue, slave wounds, enemy kills, and mage survival.

Test 9: Communion collapse#

Question: Which master scripts overload two-, four-, and eight-slave communions?

Method:

• record each master path before and after communion;
• use exact five-spell scripts;
• test battle lengths beyond the script;
• remove one slave through controlled damage;
• observe threshold loss and fatigue cascade.

Test 10: Shared self-buffs#

Question: Which Mystic master self-buffs are shared with slaves and how do they change fatigue relationships?

Method:

• Power of the Spheres;
• Phoenix Power;
• Summon Earthpower;
• personal resistance and protection spells;
• compare slave effective paths and fatigue before and after.

Test 11: Magic Duel policy#

Question: How does enemy low-S duel pressure affect S2 Mystics and S3-S5 Astrologers?

Method:

• one opposing duellist per target class;
• repeated trials;
• record deaths and surviving caster value;
• compare independent deployment and communion.

Test 12: Mind Hunt and healing#

Question: How valuable is national healing after failed or detected Mind Hunts?

Method:

• S4 Astrologer against provinces with and without enemy Astral;
• record feeblemind, death, and other outcomes;
• move survivors to Hiereia and Archousa provinces;
• record recovery time and failures.

Test 13: Scrying and glamour#

Question: What exact information does automatic dominion scrying reveal in 6.35?

Method:

• ordinary army;
• glamoured units;
• stealth units;
• hidden commander;
• fort construction;
• adjacent and same-province dominion states;
• disciple partner view.

Compare with scout, spy, and ritual scrying reports.

Test 14: Hiereia outside-fort recruitment#

Question: Which province types and structures allow Hiereia recruitment under vanilla and DE?

Method:

• every land terrain;
• with and without fort;
• with and without lab;
• with and without temple;
• record recruitment interface and requirements.

Test 15: Healing allocation#

Question: How are Healing 1 and Healing 3 attempts allocated among multiple afflicted units?

Method:

• identical afflicted units;
• mixed affliction severity;
• ordinary, sacred, mounted, magic-being, undead, and inanimate cases;
• repeat over enough months to distinguish impossibility from variance.

Test 16: DE paired Heart Companions#

Question: When and how does one 9322 recruitment become two unit-747 Heart Companions?

Method:

• recruit at Tower and Gymnasium;
• observe recruitment queue, arrival, seasonal shape, event timing, upkeep, experience, and squad assignment;
• verify whether both bodies receive bless and equipment changes;
• test losses before and after transformation.

Test 17: DE inherited unit cards#

Question: What are the final costs and inherited attributes of Hetairoi, Hipparchus, and other copied objects?

Method:

• capture full live unit cards;
• compare with copied vanilla source object;
• record every explicit override;
• verify rider and mount separately.

Test 18: DE constellation exclusivity#

Question: How do Aries, Cetus, Taurus, Libra, and Light of the Northern Star replace or block each other?

Method:

• cast each alone;
• cast two in both orders;
• use opposing Arcoscephalian casters;
• inspect path boosts, battlefield effects, duration, and message log.

Test 19: DE summon geography#

Question: Which terrain flags satisfy forest, swamp, mountain, border mountain, cave, and underwater restrictions?

Method:

• test every nymph ritual in each plausible terrain combination;
• test forted and unforted provinces;
• test alternate planes;
• record ritual availability before spending gems.

Test 20: Oceanid randoms#

Question: Does #custommagic 29952 300 produce three independent picks from Air, Earth, Death, Nature, and Glamour as expected?

Method:

• summon a statistically useful sample;
• record duplicates and maxima;
• compare access probabilities;
• identify deadline-safe and portfolio-only outcomes.

Test 21: Grand Hierophant inheritance#

Question: Under DE then Divinitus, what are the final S path, path cost, base cost, item slots, bad-event prevention, and magic boost?

Method:

• inspect the Pretender selection screen;
• buy one level in several paths;
• create the Pretender;
• compare design display and in-game unit card;
• reverse the load order in a separate test to demonstrate why the supported order matters.

Test 22: Mystic anointing#

Question: Is an eligible Mystic anointed every month, and what survives transformation?

Method:

• one target at a temple;
• several targets at one temple;
• targets at several temples;
• no target;
• target carrying items;
• target with experience and a rare random;
• record selection, timing, and preserved attributes.

Test 23: Grand Hierophant teaching cap#

Question: Can an elemental path exceed three when an S1 Mystic begins with F2, W2, or E2?

Method:

1. Anoint a known F2S1 Mystic.
2. Place it with the Grand Hierophant in high dominion.
3. Repeat until two training successes or the event stops.
4. Record F and S after each success.
5. Repeat with S2 and ordinary elemental starting paths.

This directly resolves the prose-versus-event ambiguity.

Test 24: Site-search treasure#

Question: Does the event chance equal candles times 5%, and does 1d6vis 51 grant one separate d6 of F/A/W/E?

Method:

• repeat searches at several candle values;
• record ordinary discovered sites separately;
• record event gold and each gem colour;
• compare success frequencies and conditional dice distribution;
• test provinces already fully searched.

Test 25: Combined trained caster roles#

Question: Which trained Mystic thresholds can be reached before a realistic first or second war?

Method:

• run full turn-20 and turn-30 economies;
• include temples, forts, labs, research, troop recruitment, and Pretender orders;
• record number and quality of trained Mystics;
• field one complete constellation or ritual package;
• compare against a military-first opening.

Part XIV: Essays#

Essay I: The Nation Dossier as a Reproducible Argument#

A nation guide is an argument about conversion. It begins with rules, claims that certain capacities follow, and recommends decisions intended to turn those capacities into victory. Like any argument, it can fail because a premise is false, a step is missing, or the conclusion exceeds the evidence.

The most common false premise is stale data. A guide remembers a gold cost, random path, spell level, or bless from another patch or another age. The prose may remain persuasive because the strategic vocabulary still sounds familiar. Yet the actual nation now recruits a different unit, pays a different opportunity cost, or cannot reach the claimed path. Version labels are not editorial decoration. They define the object being discussed.

The most common missing step is access. A national ritual is listed, so the writer says the nation can cast it. A mage reaches one of its paths, so the other path is assumed to appear through “boosters.” A communion reaches a battlefield threshold, so the same elevated mage is imagined casting a ritual next month. These statements collapse distinct systems. Rituals do not ordinarily borrow battlefield communion levels. Boosters require research, paths, gems, item slots, and forge turns. A hero may never arrive. A summon may require terrain the nation does not own.

The most common excessive conclusion is the universal build. A design succeeds on one map against one field and becomes “best.” But an awake expander, imprisoned scales build, and ritual platform purchase time in different currencies. One survives a rush, one compounds behind space, and one accesses effects after research. None can be evaluated without the expected deadline.

A reproducible dossier exposes every bridge. It says which unit casts the spell, which random produces the unit, how likely the random is, which item supplies the missing level, when the item can be forged, where the army assembles, which gem carrier accompanies it, and what happens if the opponent presents another defence.

This precision does not eliminate judgment. It improves judgment by showing where it enters. “The manual gives the Hoplite Protection 18” is a rule claim. “Hoplites are preferable to Hypaspists here” is doctrine based on enemy damage, resources, movement, and morale. Another player can disagree with the choice while accepting the data. That is productive disagreement.

Tests complete the argument. Expansion claims are played to turn 12 with real infrastructure. Communion scripts are allowed to continue after the fifth spell. Random distributions are sampled. Modded objects are read after load order. A battle replay is not used merely to announce victory; it is used to see contact timing, target selection, fatigue, and the first point of failure.

The finished dossier is neither a recipe nor a plain encyclopaedia entry. It connects verified facts to conditional plans, with a method for correcting each one when the situation changes.

Essay II: Arcoscephale and the Conversion of Knowledge#

Arcoscephale’s most distinctive resource is not Astral pearls or heavy infantry. It is the ability to turn information into tailored force.

Automatic scrying inside dominion gives the kingdom unusually good reports where it is politically strongest. Mystics then provide a probabilistic library of Fire, Water, Earth, and Astral tools. Astrologers deepen Astral. The combination invites a particular form of play: observe the approaching force, classify its defences, and assemble the appropriate package.

This promise is easy to exaggerate. Seeing an army does not defeat it. A report can reveal heavy infantry, but the E2 Mystic needed for Destruction may be in another laboratory. The research may be one level short. The Earth gems may be carried by a commander marching elsewhere. The only road may be blocked. Knowledge has strategic value only when the state can deliver the response before the deadline.

This is why fort distribution matters. Each fort supplies Research Points, another draw from the Mystic distribution, and another place from which a response cell can move. A larger mage portfolio reduces variance. A distributed laboratory network reduces distance. A gem reserve cuts preparation time. Scouts beyond dominion extend the warning horizon.

The same system explains the danger of losing a field army. An Arcoscephalian army often carries years of stored options: rare randoms, Astral pearls, boosters, and communion slaves that were also researchers. When destroyed, the loss is not measured only in battlefield gold. The nation loses response branches. An opponent who kills the E2 and S4 specialists may invalidate spells that remain fully researched.

Knowledge also has diplomatic value. Accurate reports discourage weak raids and reveal concentration. They allow credible warnings to allies and more reliable estimates of whether a neighbour is honouring a border. Yet information can make a player overconfident. Scrying inside dominion creates a sharp boundary: the interior feels visible, the exterior does not. Stealth, magic movement, and remote attacks exploit that comfort.

A mature Arcoscephalian state treats information as a chain:

report
-> classification
-> response choice
-> caster and gem assignment
-> movement
-> battle evidence
-> revised classification

The final step matters. A report predicts. A battle replay teaches. The nation that learns faster eventually needs fewer mages and gems to solve the same problem.

Essay III: Mystics, Probability, and Doctrine#

The Mystic appears broad because any recruit can display several paths. The strategic reality is more exact. Every Mystic begins with S1, gains one guaranteed roll among Fire, Water, Earth, and Astral, then receives separate fifty-percent chances in each element. This creates abundance and constraint at the same time.

The abundance is obvious. Five of eight Mystics know any named element. More than one in five know all three. Every one can participate in an Astral communion. Several forts quickly produce a catalogue of point buffs, self-buffs, evocations, control spells, and forging cross-paths.

The constraint lies in doubled paths. F2, W2, and E2 each appear only one time in eight. E2S2 cannot occur naturally because the same guaranteed roll would have to be both Earth and Astral. Two elements cannot both reach level two on the same recruit. A strategy that remembers only the broad catalogue will eventually promise an impossible mage.

Probability changes recruitment doctrine. A one-in-eight result has an expected waiting time of eight recruits, but expectation is not a delivery date. After eight recruits there remains more than a one-third chance that no such specialist has appeared. A state that needs E2 for the first war must recruit from several forts, maintain an alternate branch, or use another access route.

Probability also changes the meaning of an individual mage. An F2 Mystic is more than a stronger F1. It is one of the nation’s limited natural bridges to Phoenix Power, high Fire evocation, and particular forging paths. Assigning it as a communion slave may be correct, but the decision should be deliberate. The same body can serve as a researcher, master, ritual candidate, or battlefield caster, and those roles compete.

This competition explains why communions should be designed from spell packages rather than habit. Four slaves can raise a common F1 master to F3, but those four slaves could also have cast four independent Astral or elemental spells. The communion wins when path elevation and fatigue distribution produce effects that the independent group cannot match. It loses when the battle is small, the target can be solved by low magic, or enemy area attacks make concentration fatal.

The expert skill is not memorising every possible Mystic. It is managing a portfolio:

• label rare results;
• protect deadline-critical specialists;
• keep alternate branches;
• calculate at-least-one probabilities;
• compare independent and communal output;
• preserve enough researchers that victory today does not erase research tomorrow.

Under Divinitus, the Grand Hierophant can change the distribution after recruitment by teaching several paths at once. Portfolio thinking still matters because training introduces another scarce resource: time in high dominion with the Pretender present. The question is not only which Mystic arrived, but which one deserves the next training opportunity.

Essay IV: Healing, Intelligence, and the Preservation of Force#

Arcoscephale possesses two advantages that are easy to undervalue because neither directly kills an enemy: healing and automatic scrying. Together they improve force preservation.

Healing converts survivors into future capacity. A wounded elephant, Astrologer, combat Pretender, or thug may carry an affliction whose cost exceeds the hit points already restored. A damaged eye reduces precision. A crippled leg ruins movement. Feeblemind can remove a mage from useful service. Concentrated healers create a place where those losses can sometimes be reversed.

The useful economic comparison is not the healer’s monthly wage against one cured affliction. It is the value of the unit’s remaining lifetime. Restoring a rare S4 Astrologer may recover remote-magic and ritual access that would take many capital turns to replace. Restoring an ordinary Peltast is worth less. Healing allocation still has a strategic side even when the engine selects targets automatically, because players decide which units gather in the province and how long they remain.

Scrying reduces the wounds that need healing. Seeing the enemy approach allows the nation to avoid presenting elephants to fear, Mystics to flyers, or Hoplites to armour destruction. It permits the correct reserve to move before contact. It also allows damaged units to withdraw through safer routes.

Neither system eliminates risk. Healing cannot restore the dead and may not cure the desired affliction immediately. Scrying does not reveal every stealth or magic-phase threat and only functions where dominion supplies the view. Overreliance produces predictable failures: the combat Pretender attacks because “the priestesses will heal it,” or the capital is left open because “scrying sees everything.”

Preservation requires a full cycle:

observe threat
-> choose favourable engagement
-> protect valuable bodies
-> win with survivors
-> withdraw damaged assets
-> heal and reassign

The final word is reassign. A recovered unit should return to the role its current body and strategic value justify. A once-wounded elephant may rejoin expansion. A recovered Mind Hunter may return to a rear laboratory. A Pretender healed after a narrow victory may be more valuable forging or deterring than repeating the same gamble.

Essay V: From Classical Army to Astral State#

The visual identity of Middle Age Arcoscephale is classical warfare: spear lines, bronze, chariots, and elephants. The strategic identity is a transition away from dependence on those bodies.

In the first year, ordinary troops seize the economy. Hoplites absorb common weapons. Hypaspists move and defend. Peltasts and Cardaces provide affordable frontage. Elephants transform favourable size matchups into rapid routs. The army is not obsolete; it is the instrument that buys time and provinces.

Research changes what the army means. Earth magic can harden it or destroy the enemy’s armour. Astral can make key squares ethereal, paralyse elites, or attack minds. Fire and Water can kill dense formations. Communions turn modest randoms into specialists. At this stage the troops are still combatants, but their greater function is to create time and targets for magic.

Later, the relation reverses. The mage state is the scarce offensive core. Troops screen it, hold forts, absorb attacks, provide siege bodies, and claim territory after remote or battlefield magic has broken resistance. A player who continues measuring strength only by the number of elephants will misread the nation.

This transition creates a tension. The old army is expensive in resources and attention; the Astral state is expensive in gold, laboratories, pearls, and mage-turns. Investing too early in magic produces a small realm that can research but not survive. Investing too long in troops produces a large realm that cannot answer modern counters.

The transition point is not a turn number. It arrives when:

• the next troop purchase adds less capability than the next Mystic;
• a research node defeats a class the army cannot;
• borders stabilise enough for forts to compound;
• enemy magic begins invalidating unbuffed troops;
• a siege or Throne operation requires more than field bodies.

Dominions Enhanced makes the transition richer rather than removing it. Cheaper and more mobile troops extend mundane relevance, while constellations, nymph summons, and Titans create a larger magical destination. Divinitus adds trained Mystics who can embody several elements at once. The classical army does not disappear. It becomes the territorial shell of an increasingly supernatural state.

Essay VI: Geography as a Magic Path#

Under Dominions Enhanced, forest, mountain, swamp, and water access become part of Arcoscephale’s mage roster.

An N2 Archousa is not yet an Oreiad caster. She needs a Nature booster and a forest to contact a Karyatid. The Karyatid is strongest in forest and can help reach N4. N4 plus a mountain produces an Oreiad, which opens Air and Earth. A W3 caster in a swamp produces an Eleionomae with Death and Air. An S4 Astrologer eventually calls an immortal Daughter of Evening with Air.

The map contains latent paths. A nearby forest may be worth more than its income because it begins the Nature ladder. A swamp can become the nation’s first reliable Death bridge. A mountain supports Oreiad contact and conjunction rituals. An underwater foothold enables Titans and the Scourge of the Deeps.

This changes expansion and diplomacy. Terrain is no longer valued only by income, resources, and fort geometry. A treaty that cedes the only safe swamp may also cede Death access. A raid that interrupts the mountain laboratory can delay the entire constellation or nymph programme. A fort built on the correct terrain protects a magical production node.

Geographic access has a cost: it is visible and contestable. A Pretender path travels with the Pretender. A terrain ladder depends on holding the province, building or preserving a laboratory, moving the caster, and surviving the ritual month. Opponents can read the same map and attack the bridge.

The expert response is to record terrain in the access ledger:

N2 Archousa
+ Nature booster
+ forest laboratory
+ Conjuration 4
+ 20 Nature gems
= Karyatid

This notation makes two things clear. First, the access is real. Second, every component can be delayed or denied.

Part XV: Reference Checklists#

Vanilla quick doctrine#

• Expand with tested infantry, elephant, chariot, or Pretender packages.
• Budget the 300-gold laboratory with every fort.
• Recruit Mystics widely; record every random.
• Treat E2, W2, F2, and S4+ as portfolio assets.
• Use communions only when path elevation beats independent casting.
• Preserve the capital Astrologer pipeline.
• Use scrying as one layer of intelligence.
• Use Hiereiai outside forts and Archousai for concentrated healing.
• Bridge missing paths deliberately.
• Convert field victories into forts, laboratories, and Thrones.

DE quick doctrine#

• Recalculate the entire roster; do not use vanilla cost assumptions.
• Use cheaper improved infantry and new cavalry for mobility.
• Treat paired Heart Companions as a separate sacred economy.
• Exploit N2 Archousai.
• Secure forest, mountain, swamp, and water nodes.
• Choose one constellation per battle.
• Plan the nymph ladder from caster, booster, gem, research, and terrain.
• Protect unique summons and heroes.
• Capture live cards for inherited mod objects.

Divinitus quick doctrine#

• Confirm the final Grand Hierophant in the Pretender screen.
• Build temples where anointing can occur safely.
• Record which Mystic is transformed.
• Train in strong dominion.
• Compare teaching, site searching, research, forging, and war orders.
• Do not assume the stated path cap until tested.
• Convert elemental treasure into immediate packages.
• Protect the training hub without concentrating every irreplaceable asset there.

Source register#

Official#

• Dominions 6 Manual, revision 2:
  • Scouting and Scrying;
  • Healing and afflictions;
  • Communions;
  • spell and ritual tables;
  • MA Arcoscephale national summary and roster;
  • national spells and rituals.

Supplied mod sources#

• DomEnhanced2_16.dm
  • MA Arcoscephale unit definitions 9316-9323;
  • vanilla monster rewrites;
  • national sites;
  • nation 50 recruitment block;
  • national spells, items, heroes, and events.
• Divinitus_1.15.3_DE.dm
  • Grand Hierophant rewrite;
  • Mystic anointing;
  • teaching events;
  • site-search treasure event.

Current structured and community cross-checks#

• Dominions 6 Mod Inspector, maintained by larzm42;
• Illwiki Dominions 6 MA Arcoscephale page;
• current and historical community discussion used only for doctrine and hypothesis.

Community claims are not used to override official or source-confirmed object definitions without a recorded current test.

Open research ledger#

The highest-priority unresolved questions are:

1. current live Mystic and Astrologer random display under 6.36;
2. exact scrying interaction with glamour and stealth;
3. reliable expansion party ranges;
4. independent casting versus communion break-even;
5. DE inherited unit and spell-card values;
6. paired Heart Companion timing;
7. constellation replacement behaviour;
8. nymph custom-magic distributions;
9. Grand Hierophant combined inheritance;
10. Mystic Prophet transformation preservation;
11. teaching cap semantics;
12. treasure-event probability and gem colours.

These questions are deliberately visible. The dossier is already usable, but it should become more precise as controlled evidence replaces provisional labels.

Part XVI: Middle Age Marignon, Fiery Justice#

Marignon one-page command brief#

Marignon begins as an armoured human kingdom backed by crossbows, sacred cavalry, cheap Fire apprentices, Astral-capable Witch Hunters, powerful priests, and a capital pipeline of Grand Masters. Its first transition is from ordinary steel into coordinated Fire and Astral battle magic. Its later transition is into angelic summons and stronger strategic magic.

The nation is strongest when it uses each layer for the job it actually performs:

• crossbows punish armour and force shields;
• cheap heavy infantry hold space and add siege bodies;
• Knights of the Chalice provide concentrated sacred force rather than affordable frontage;
• Witch Hunters turn ordinary forts into Fire-Astral war colleges;
• Grand Masters supply high paths, random Air or Earth access, and the best communion masters;
• Inquisitors and freely recruitable Friars turn dominion control into a campaign tool;
• Architects improve the fort network and shorten sieges;
• national angel rituals convert Conjuration research and Astral pearls into mobile sacred power.

The main limits are just as important. Marignon has no dependable native Water, Death, Nature, Blood, or Glamour. Its best mage is capital-only, expensive, and consumes four recruitment points. Much of the army wears enough armour to care about fatigue, armour destruction, and battlefield-wide elemental damage. A plan that only adds more heavy infantry eventually meets a counter it cannot out-armour.

Marignon evidence and ruleset#

The roster and national rules below use the revision-2 official manual. Grand Master randoms are resolved through the pinned 6.35 Inspector export: F3 S2 H2, one guaranteed level from Fire, Air, Earth, or Astral, plus an independent 10% second level from the same set. Advice is labelled strategy. Exact expansion counts remain test dependent because map strength, independent composition, scales, bless, formations, and commander quality change the result.

Marignon conversion chain#

crossbows, armour, and sacred cavalry
-> safe expansion and defensible borders
-> forts, laboratories, and Architects
-> Witch Hunters at ordinary forts
-> Fire-Astral battlefield packages
-> Grand Master communions and boosters
-> angels, remote reach, and Throne operations

The chain can break in three common places. Excess cavalry delays forts. Too many Initiates produce research without enough Astral organisers. Too many Grand Masters consume capital time and gold before the wider fort network can support them.

National rules that shape the plan#

Inquisition is not merely defensive flavour. It supports border conversion, weakens hostile dominion effects, and helps sacred forces operate under their own bless. It is still slower than winning the province and building infrastructure. Priests should support the campaign rather than replace it.

Marignon roster by job#

The ordinary expansion army should normally combine a protected line with crossbows. Pikes are selected when large targets justify them. Great weapons are selected when armour is the problem. Sacred cavalry is used where the charge and survivability change the battle enough to justify its price. Mixing every unit into every party hides which piece is doing useful work.

Marignon commander and mage portfolio#

Reading the Grand Master random#

The guaranteed random gives a nominal 25% result in Fire, Air, Earth, or Astral. The independent 10% second roll slightly raises the chance of seeing at least one chosen path to 26.875%. A double result in the same chosen path occurs only 0.625% of the time.

This produces several distinct assets:

• F4 reaches stronger Fire thresholds without a battlefield boost;
• S3 casts the first national angel ritual directly and improves Astral work;
• A1 opens Air searching and low-level utility, but it does not make Marignon a broad Air nation;
• E1 opens Earth searching and can begin an Earth booster or Summon Earthpower route;
• rare doubled results are bonuses, not requirements on which an opening should depend.

Every Grand Master should be labelled by random immediately. An unrecorded E1 or A1 roll can sit in a laboratory for years while the nation mistakenly plans around a path it believes it lacks.

Marignon opening priorities#

The opening has four simultaneous jobs:

1. expand with a tested infantry, crossbow, sacred, or Pretender package;
2. preserve enough gold and resources for the next fort;
3. begin recruiting Witch Hunters wherever laboratories exist;
4. use the capital on the scarce asset actually needed: Grand Master, Architect, High Inquisitor, or sacred cavalry.

The default capital choice is not automatically a Grand Master every month. An early Architect can create better long-term fort geometry. A High Inquisitor may be necessary for a Throne or dominion emergency. The correct capital queue follows the national bottleneck.

Expansion packages to test#

No fixed troop count is presented as universal. The useful range comes from replaying the actual local independent types under the chosen scales and bless.

Marignon research response tree#

Trunk: make Witch Hunters operational#

Thaumaturgy 1
-> Conjuration 3
-> Evocation 4

• Thaumaturgy 1 opens Communion Master and Communion Slave.
• Conjuration 3 supplies Power of the Spheres for Astral casters and Phoenix Power for Fire casters.
• Evocation 4 opens the national Holy Pyre: an F2 armour-piercing area spell with a large base area, available to every Witch Hunter.

This is a real first-war package because an ordinary fort can recruit the caster. It still needs range, formation, gem, fatigue, and friendly-fire checks before battle.

Branch A: heavier Fire and Astral fighting#

Continue into Evocation 5 when Falling Fires, Stellar Cascades, or another current spell solves the observed enemy. Fire resistance can make a pure Fire branch poor. High-MR targets can reduce some Astral control packages. The army should carry at least two damage mechanisms rather than asking one school to defeat every defence.

Branch B: protect the mundane army#

Alteration 3 gives S1 Witch Hunters Body Ethereal and other defensive tools. Construction 2 and 4 open practical equipment and Earth support when the right Grand Master exists. This branch is strongest when ordinary troops are still winning contact but need help surviving the enemy’s damage.

Branch C: national angel ladder#

Contact Angel of the Host is the first clean conversion point. It turns a reachable S3 Grand Master and seven pearls into a flying sacred combat body. Contact Harbinger is an access project as much as a summon: its A3 H2 path line can widen Air magic and support mobile operations.

Marignon battlefield packages#

Holy Pyre battery#

• protected infantry establishes contact;
• crossbows punish armour before and during contact;
• Witch Hunters cast Holy Pyre from safe range;
• an Astral package protects or controls the most important squares;
• a reserve handles fire-resistant or highly mobile targets.

The spell is national, but the formation is not automatic. Large area can punish friendly troops if the battle line collapses into the target zone.

Small communion#

Use a small communion only when the path gain creates a named spell package. Count every master cast and every slave’s relative path. Witch Hunters are expensive enough that disposable-slave doctrine can lose the research war even after winning one battle. Book V owns the fatigue and collapse arithmetic.

Angel-supported mobile force#

Flying angels solve movement and target-access problems that ordinary heavy infantry cannot. They still need intelligence, retreat routes, and enough conventional mass to hold what they take. A seven-pearl Angel of the Host should not be traded for trivial Province Defence merely because it flies.

Marignon Pretender families#

A durable, resistance-aware bless generally serves sacred cavalry more reliably than a narrow damage gimmick. Flagellants may value different effects because their main problem is surviving contact. The final design should test both bodies separately, including the sacred mounts.

Marignon matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Marignon audit#

• Which capital asset is the current bottleneck?
• Is the next fort followed immediately by a laboratory and Witch Hunter queue?
• Are Grand Master randoms recorded?
• Can the first-war spell be cast by a repeatable mage?
• Does the army have a non-Fire answer?
• Are priests changing dominion where the army will actually fight?
• Are Knights of the Chalice earning more than their fort and resource cost?
• Is Conjuration research attached to an affordable pearl budget?
• Which missing path is being solved by the Pretender, a summon, or an import?

Marignon verification ledger#

Open work remains narrow:

1. expansion ranges for each common independent class;
2. current live confirmation of the 6.35 Grand Master random display;
3. Holy Pyre targeting and friendly-fire formations across battlefield sizes;
4. small-communion fatigue budgets using Witch Hunters and Grand Masters;
5. angel package survival, upkeep, and return on pearl cost;
6. Architect timing versus repeated Grand Master recruitment;
7. DE and Divinitus changes kept in separate ruleset appendices.

Part XVII: Middle Age Pyrène, Time of the Akelarre#

Pyrène one-page command brief#

Pyrène combines unusually resilient human troops with mobile Air-Blood witches, blood-sacrificing priests, forest-recruitable Akerbeltz, cave recruits, and a capital sacred cavalry arm. The nation is not merely “Blood with knights.” Its real advantage is distributed recruitment. Forests, caves, mountains, and ordinary forts can each add a different part of the state.

The opening should convert that geography into capacity:

• forts recruit the ordinary army, Sorginak, and Bishops;
• non-fort forests can recruit Akerbeltz;
• non-fort provinces can recruit path-random Pyrènian Monks;
• non-fort caves and the capital can recruit Bekryde scouts, leaders, and troops;
• the capital produces Emerald Knights and Emerald Counts;
• Blood and Nature then turn population, slaves, and terrain access into a growing magical economy.

The nation has clear weaknesses. Most human troops and leaders have Magic Resistance 9. The best sacred cavalry is capital-only and extremely resource intensive. Crossbows have Precision 8. Akerbeltz are expensive four-point commanders. Native Astral, Death, Water, and Glamour are absent. Air begins at A2, which is useful but does not by itself cast every famous Air spell or the national A3 ritual.

Pyrène evidence and ruleset#

The official revision-2 manual supplies the roster, national summary, and Send Aatxe. The pinned 6.35 Inspector export resolves randoms:

• Pyrènian Bishop: B1 H2 plus one guaranteed Fire, Earth, or Blood level;
• Pyrènian Monk: H1 plus one guaranteed Fire, Earth, Nature, or Blood level;
• Sorgina: fixed F1 A2 B2;
• Akerbeltz: E1 N2 B3, one guaranteed Earth, Nature, or Blood level, plus an independent 10% second roll from the same set.

These are unmodded records. Dominions Enhanced and Divinitus must be treated as separate rosters.

Pyrène conversion chain#

resistant infantry, crossbows, and cavalry
-> forests and caves secured during expansion
-> distributed commanders and blood hunters
-> Akerbeltz crossbreeding and Nature-Earth support
-> Sorgina Air-Blood battlefield groups
-> slave economy, blood rituals, and remote pressure
-> mobile sacred and supernatural armies

Pyrène can own many commanders while still lacking the right package. Distributed recruitment only becomes an advantage when every location has a declared job and the roads, laboratories, and blood-slave routes connect them.

National body and terrain rules#

The ordinary Pyrènian and Bekryde roster has partial resistance to Fire and Cold, darkvision, and broad Mountain Survival. Those traits matter most when the nation deliberately chooses terrain and opponents that make them relevant. Five points of resistance softens common elemental damage; it is not immunity to concentrated battlefield magic.

The extra Turmoil design limit is permission, not a command. Blood hunting, expensive commanders, forts, and knights still depend on population and gold. A high-Turmoil design needs a clear compensating engine rather than assuming national flavour makes lost income harmless.

Pyrène roster by job#

The sacred mouflon is a separate component with strong armour, Mountain Survival, and Cold Resistance. Its low Magic Resistance remains relevant against effects that can target the mount. Book IV’s mounted rules should be applied to both rider and animal.

Pyrène commander and mage portfolio#

Random-path consequences#

A guaranteed one-in-three Bishop random creates F1B1H2, E1B1H2, or B2H2. This gives every ordinary fort a predictable portfolio after several recruits, but it does not guarantee the required result on the first month.

The Monk’s one-in-four random is valuable because recruitment is geographically distributed. F1, E1, N1, and B1 results cover searching and minor rituals without using a fort. The trade is speed: a province producing a Monk is not producing another special commander that month, and the mage still needs a laboratory for most magic work.

The Akerbeltz guaranteed random produces E2, N3, or B4 before the 10% roll is considered. Each result changes its best job:

• E2 can use Summon Earthpower to reach higher battlefield Earth thresholds;
• N3 opens stronger Nature support and searching;
• B4 accelerates high Blood rituals;
• the rare second roll may deepen or mix these roles, but no opening should require it.

Blood economy without self-destruction#

Pyrène has unusually broad access to hunters: Sorginak are B2, Bishops are at least B1, and Akerbeltz are B3 with Blood Searcher 1. That does not mean every mage should hunt.

A working blood province needs:

• enough population to survive the intended hunting period;
• hunters whose slave return exceeds their lost research or battle work;
• unrest control and patrollers;
• a laboratory or a reliable slave-transfer route;
• protection against raids and assassins;
• a declared use for the slaves.

Akerbeltz are excellent hunters but expensive researchers, ritualists, searchers, and crossbreeders. Using every one as a hunter can waste the very path breadth that makes them special. Bishops and Sorginak often provide the scalable hunting layer while selected Akerbeltz handle the difficult Blood, Nature, or Earth jobs.

Blood sacrifice should be budgeted separately. Slaves spent on dominion are not available for rituals or battle. The sacrifice is worthwhile when it changes a real dominion contest, sacred operation, or victory condition.

Pyrène opening priorities#

1. Test the local independent types against shielded infantry, crossbows, knights, or the Pretender.
2. Identify every reachable forest and cave before deciding the first fort route.
3. Recruit enough Sorginak and Bishops to start research and a controlled blood economy.
4. Use forests for Akerbeltz only when the province can be defended and connected.
5. Keep capital resources from being consumed by Emerald Knights when infrastructure is the actual bottleneck.

Expansion packages to test#

Pyrène research response tree#

Trunk: establish Blood and practical equipment#

Blood 1
-> Blood 3
-> Construction 2 or 4

Early Blood research should lead to a named slave use. Blood 3 is especially important for Cross Breeding, because Akerbeltz carry Adept Cross Breeder +4. Construction opens tools for hunters, commanders, and battlefield specialists. The exact order changes when war demands an immediate Air, Earth, or Nature spell.

Branch A: Sorgina battlefield magic#

Evocation 2 and later Air research gives the fixed A2 Sorgina a repeatable damage role. A2 is not A3. Storm, the national Send Aatxe ritual, and several famous Air breakpoints require a real route to A3 or higher. A Pretender, hero, empowerment, booster chain, or later summon must own that bridge. Storm Power can raise a mage during an existing storm; it does not solve who created the first storm.

Branch B: Akerbeltz Earth and Nature#

Conjuration 3 lets E2 Akerbeltz use Summon Earthpower and makes several elemental routes practical. Alteration and Enchantment then provide protection, armour reduction, regeneration, poison, or control according to the actual random and target. Do not research N3 or E3 packages until the matching random has been recorded or a reliable bridge exists.

Branch C: blood battlefield and ritual pressure#

Blood research should be advanced in steps attached to a current army or strategic ritual, not rushed as one uninterrupted school. The nation can support Sabbath structures through Blood, but Book V’s communion correction ledger applies: master throughput, slave paths, gem use, and collapse must be budgeted. A large slave stock is not permission to use an untested communion.

Branch D: Send Aatxe#

The national ritual is Conjuration 6, A3, costs six Air gems, has range four, is anonymous, and cannot be cast underwater. Native Sorginak stop at A2. The research target therefore becomes real only after the A3 caster route is written down. If that route exists, the ritual gives Pyrène a cheap remote pressure tool; if it does not, Conjuration 6 alone delivers nothing.

Pyrène battlefield packages#

Resistant human line#

Pyrènian infantry can absorb modest Fire and Cold better than ordinary humans. Add shields, spacing, and the right troop type before adding magic. The resistance is a margin that makes some trades favourable, not a reason to stand inside full battlefield elemental damage.

Sorgina strike group#

Flying, Storm-Immune F1 A2 B2 mages can reposition rapidly and join selected battles. Their scripts should use reachable A2, F1, or Blood effects and preserve a retreat route. Flying mobility does not protect a 10-HP human body from arrows, assassins, or a collapsed screen.

Akerbeltz crossbreeding economy#

Cross Breeding converts Blood slaves and an Akerbeltz turn into variable bodies. The +4 national specialist bonus makes Pyrène unusually suited to the system, but the output remains a portfolio rather than a guaranteed army type. Record batches, costs, useful results, leadership burden, and attrition before assigning a fixed strategic value.

Sacred mouflon force#

Emerald Knights offer protection, mobility, Mountain Survival, and a sacred mount. They are scarce enough that the bless should improve survival and role reliability. The package still needs magic resistance, fatigue control, and answers to anti-large weapons. A sacred cavalry army that cannot replace losses is a finite resource.

Pyrène Pretender families#

The most valuable design often solves a missing system rather than adding more Fire, Nature, or Blood to paths already available. Air, Astral, Death, Water, or a specific global route can change the whole national tree.

Pyrène matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Pyrène audit#

• Which forests and caves are producing something that no ordinary fort can?
• Are blood hunters separated from battle mages and researchers?
• What are the current slave income, stock, and committed uses?
• Are Bishop, Monk, and Akerbeltz randoms recorded?
• Does the active research target have a real caster?
• Who reaches A3 for Storm or Send Aatxe?
• Is the sacred cavalry queue delaying forts or mages?
• Are MR 9 troops being sent into a counter they cannot armour through?
• Can every distributed recruitment province be reinforced or evacuated?

Pyrène verification ledger#

The next useful tests are:

1. expansion ranges for shielded foot, crossbows, Pyrènian Knights, and Emerald Knights;
2. current live confirmation of Bishop, Monk, and Akerbeltz random displays;
3. Blood Searcher 1 returns across population and unrest bands;
4. Cross Breeder +4 outcome records across a versioned sample;
5. Air transition packages before and after a real A3 bridge;
6. sacred rider and mouflon survival under MR and anti-large attacks;
7. distributed-recruitment payback from forests and caves;
8. DE and Divinitus variants kept separate from this unmodded dossier.

Part XVIII: Middle Age Ulm, Forges of Ulm#

Ulm one-page command brief#

Middle Age Ulm converts resources into heavily armoured human armies, then uses recruit-anywhere Master Smiths to turn a narrow Earth and Fire base into battlefield support and forged equipment. Its forts receive 25% more resources, its smiths add local resources, and its capital produces five Earth gems each month. The result is a nation whose military and magical economies reinforce one another when forts, laboratories, troop production, and smith recruitment stay in balance.

The reliable core is compact:

• half plate offers more bodies when resources are tight;
• black plate offers exceptional mundane protection at a steep resource cost;
• pikes, shields, great weapons, flails, crossbows, and cavalry let the roster answer different physical targets;
• Sappers and Master Masons turn recruitment into siege pressure and stronger fort construction;
• Master Smiths provide fixed F1 E2, research unaffected by Drain, Forge Bonus 2, and a 20% FAES random;
• capital Priest Smiths combine F1 E2 H1 with Forge Bonus 1;
• Black Priests provide E1 H2, Inquisition, and a smaller FAES random;
• national spells add cold-iron missiles, army-wide magic-resistance support, and a late Iron Angel ritual;
• national items give Construction a strategic branch with defined jobs.

Ulm’s weaknesses are equally structural. Most soldiers and mundane commanders have MR 9. The roster is slow, resource hungry, and vulnerable to attacks that bypass armour. Native magic has no dependable Water, Death, Nature, Glamour, or Blood, while Air and Astral appear only on rare randoms. Heavy recruitment can also consume the gold and resources needed to build the fort network that makes the nation scale.

Ulm evidence and ruleset#

The scope is unmodded MA Ulm on the Book I 6.36 live baseline. The roster, costs, and national summary are taken from the revision-2 official manual. Random-path masks, capital sites, national spells, national items, and object identifiers are cross-checked against the pinned 6.35 Inspector export at commit cfac4311bc0b58053b8dead7bffbc036ba9bd5dc.

The two sources have different jobs. The current manual controls the player-facing roster and national rules. The pinned export resolves fields that the manual compresses or omits. Opening priorities, research branches, battlefield packages, Pretender families, and matchup choices are strategy. No live-game result is inferred from a database field when targeting, timing, stacking, or displayed cost requires engine observation.

Ulm conversion chain#

enhanced fort resources and weapon-specific infantry
-> reliable expansion and protected borders
-> additional forts and laboratories
-> repeatable Master Smith recruitment
-> Earth buffs, national priest magic, and discounted forging
-> specialised armies, siege columns, and imported path access
-> fortified territorial gains and late ritual options

The chain commonly breaks in three places. Full black plate and cavalry can absorb the resources meant for expansion volume. Troop recruitment can absorb the gold meant for forts and laboratories. Smiths can be treated as generic researchers, leaving rare Air, Earth, Fire, or Astral results unlabelled and the matching spell branches unused.

Ulm national rules that shape the plan#

The resource bonuses reward a distributed production network. They do not remove the gold cost of that network. A province that can recruit another block of black plate but cannot fund a laboratory, commander, or next fort may be producing the wrong asset for the current turn.

Ulm roster by job#

Ulm should select armour and weapon by job. Half plate increases numbers when the resource ceiling matters. Full black plate increases protection when conventional weapons are the threat. Shields matter under missile pressure. Great weapons and the Black Halberd matter when damage and armour penetration are more important than defence. Flails matter against shields. Pikes matter against large targets and for repel interactions. None is the universal Ulmish infantry.

The armour budget#

The useful recruitment question is whether black plate’s extra resources prevent another soldier, crossbowman, fort, or specialist from being produced on the required turn. A mixed formation can place the most protected troops where contact is expected and use cheaper armour where frontage matters more than individual survival.

The same rule governs Black Knights. Their charge, protection, and mobility can solve a battle that infantry cannot reach in time. Buying them as ordinary line troops turns a resource advantage into a narrow and expensive queue.

Ulm commander and mage portfolio#

The normal fort queue should be read as a capacity decision. Master Smiths are the repeatable magical engine. Mundane commanders move the troops that engine supports. The capital must choose among religious access, Mason infrastructure, elite commanders, and ordinary fort recruits; it should not be assigned one permanent queue without reference to the current bottleneck.

Reading the smith randoms#

Master Smith distribution#

The pinned record gives every Master Smith fixed F1 E2 and a 20% chance of one additional level chosen equally from Fire, Air, Earth, or Astral.

The chance of recruiting at least one named rare path after n independent Master Smiths is 1 - 0.95^n. That is about 51.2% after 14 recruits, 64.2% after 20, and 90.1% after 45. Twenty recruits are an average waiting time for a named 5% result, not a guarantee. A plan that requires A1, S1, F2, or E3 on a fixed early turn needs a backup.

Black Priest distribution#

The capital-only Black Priest has fixed E1 H2 and a 10% chance of one FAES level. The four named rare results are 2.5% each.

The Priest Smith is not a random-path substitute. It has fixed F1 E2 H1, so it supplies dependable access to Iron Darts and Iron Blizzard but never becomes the rare Air or Astral result by repeated recruitment.

Every smith and Black Priest should be labelled when recruited. The label should record paths, home fort, current job, and whether the unit is reserved for a threshold spell, searching route, or forge chain. Rare paths lose strategic value when they disappear into an undifferentiated research stack.

National spells and the caster who owns them#

This table distinguishes research access from caster access. Ulm can research Contact Iron Angel while still lacking any legal caster. Conversely, every normal fort can recruit the E2 smith who reaches E3 in battle through Summon Earthpower, so Tempering the Will has a much more dependable delivery route.

National item portfolio#

The pinned item register separates Ulm’s items into discounted designs and a restricted design. The distinction matters. A national rebate changes cost for Ulm; a restriction changes who may forge the item. Book V owns the general forging rules and the unresolved stacking ledger.

Early discounted blacksteel#

Construction 1 opens the Blacksteel Sword, Blacksteel Tower Shield, Blacksteel Kite Shield, Blacksteel Helmet, Blacksteel Plate, and Blacksteel Full Plate. Most require E1; the full plate requires E2. These items let an ordinary Master Smith equip thugs, commanders, and specialists from the nation’s native Earth income.

The item card should decide whether a piece solves the actual failure. More protection is useful against conventional weapons. It does not repair low MR, fatigue, elemental vulnerability, or command problems. A tower shield, kite shield, weapon, helmet, and full plate also compete for slots with non-national answers.

Later national equipment#

Master Smith Forge Bonus 2, Priest Smith Forge Bonus 1, national rebates, global forge modifiers, and integer rounding can interact. The final gem price remains unresolved. The live forge screen is the operational authority until the current stacking order is supported by a versioned observation record.

Ulm opening priorities#

The opening has five linked jobs:

1. identify whether resources, gold, commander turns, or recruitment points are the immediate ceiling;
2. recruit the armour-and-weapon mix that answers the local independent provinces;
3. reserve the gold needed for the next fort and laboratory;
4. start a repeatable Master Smith pipeline without leaving armies leaderless;
5. preserve enough capital flexibility for a Mason, Priest Smith, Black Priest, Lord Guardian, or Guardian block when its specialised job becomes real.

A safe default is a protected infantry line with arbalest support, adjusted for the target. Pike weight rises against large units and cavalry. Great weapons rise against protection. Shields rise against missiles. Half plate rises when resource-limited frontage matters. Black plate rises when ordinary weapon damage is the main threat and the production centre can sustain it.

Expansion packages to evaluate from reports#

These are decision templates, not published expansion counts. Exact party sizes remain open because the map, scales, formations, commander, independent type, and combat rolls change the answer. No new runtime test preparation is required to use the dossier’s economic and matchup logic.

Ulm research response tree#

Trunk: make fixed E2 recruitment useful#

Enchantment 1
-> Construction 2
-> Conjuration 3

• Enchantment 1 gives Strength of Giants to fixed E2 smiths.
• Construction 2 gives Temper Armors and completes the first ordinary equipment tier.
• Conjuration 3 gives Summon Earthpower, raising an E2 smith to E3 during battle.

This is a capacity trunk, not a mandatory order. An immediate armoured enemy may justify Alteration. Magical beings may justify early Iron Darts. A fort network that needs equipment may value Construction first. Every research choice should name the current caster, army, and expected deployment turn.

Branch A: Earth control and armour reduction#

Alteration 3 gives Earth Meld to E2. Alteration 4 gives Destruction to an E3 caster, which an ordinary Master Smith can reach after Summon Earthpower. Alteration 5 adds Maws of the Earth for E3 and a gem. Later Marble Warriors and Iron Warriors strengthen protection packages, but their caster thresholds, fatigue, and exposure must be scheduled with the army.

This branch is strongest when conventional Ulmish damage is losing to protection or when the line needs Earth control to keep enemies in the kill zone. It is weaker when the enemy ignores armour, attacks MR, or forces the smiths to move too far from the troops they support.

Branch B: national priest missiles and MR support#

Evocation 3 opens Iron Darts for Black Priests and Priest Smiths. Thaumaturgy 5 opens Tempering the Will for E3. Evocation 6 opens Iron Blizzard. The first branch is capital-caster limited even when the research is cheap; the second can be delivered by repeatable E2 smiths after Summon Earthpower.

Do not read the national spell list as one automatic queue. Iron Darts and Iron Blizzard are most attractive when their cold-iron profile and ranged delivery solve the observed target. Tempering the Will is most attractive when hostile MR checks threaten expensive low-MR soldiers.

Branch C: broad Earth force multiplication#

Enchantment 5 gives Weapons of Sharpness to E3. Construction 6 gives Legions of Steel to E4 and a gem. An E3-random Master Smith reaches E4 through Summon Earthpower; ordinary E2 smiths need another real step. High Earth rituals such as Riches from Beneath, Forge of the Ancients, and Earth Blood Deep Well are planning endpoints, not native guarantees. Their E5 or E6 caster and large gem cost must be built before the research can pay back.

Branch D: rare Fire, Air, and Astral results#

• An F2 Master Smith can cast Phoenix Power and reach F3 for stronger Fire battle magic such as Falling Fires or Summon Fire Elemental.
• An A1 Master Smith can combine Air with the fixed Earth base. After Summon Earthpower it reaches E3 A1, including the path threshold for Rain of Stones; that spell’s danger to Ulm’s own human army makes delivery and protection part of the package.
• An S1 Master Smith opens basic Astral searching and utility, but S1 is not a communion engine or the S2 half of Contact Iron Angel by itself.
• An E3 Master Smith reaches E4 through Summon Earthpower and owns thresholds that ordinary smiths do not.

These are portfolio branches. Researching one before recruiting the matching 5% result converts certainty into hope. Record the rare mage first, then select the branch.

Ulm battlefield packages#

Armoured line with Earth support#

A mundane commander moves the infantry while one or more Master Smiths supply reachable buffs. The screen’s armour and weapon are selected from the enemy report. Smiths stand far enough back to survive but close enough for the spell’s real area and range. Adding more spells is not automatically safer: fatigue, script length, and a broken line can turn valuable researchers into casualties.

Priest Smith cold-iron cell#

A Priest Smith combines the paths for Iron Darts or Iron Blizzard with forging and E2 support. Black Priests can cast the same national missiles and bring H2 Inquisition. The cell requires a protected firing lane and an enemy for whom the missile profile matters. Against dispersed, resistant, or rapidly closing targets, the capital mage turn may be more valuable elsewhere.

Rare-path specialist cell#

An F2, A1, E3, or S1 Master Smith is paired with the troop package and research that use that exact result. The unit receives a permanent label and a retreat plan. Rare access should not be risked merely because the spell list permits a dramatic script.

Siege column#

Sappers provide Siege +5, while Master Masons provide Siege +30 and improve fort construction. Ordinary infantry supply bodies. This lets Ulm convert a production advantage into campaign tempo instead of leaving a victorious heavy army stalled at a wall. The column still needs scouts, supply, leadership, and protection against relief armies.

Ulm Pretender families#

Ulm often benefits more from a missing system than from another level in paths it already recruits. The design should name the first site-search target, booster, ritual, battlefield job, and replacement plan for every imported path. A theoretical late spell is not a reason to weaken the entire opening unless its access chain is credible.

Ulm matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Ulm audit#

• Which production centre is limited by resources, and which is limited by gold or recruitment points?
• Is half plate or black plate the correct marginal purchase for the current enemy?
• Are crossbows protected and assigned a target worth their slow rate of fire?
• Does every field army have a commander whose movement and leadership fit it?
• Are Master Smith randoms labelled at recruitment?
• Does the active research target have a named caster and deployment turn?
• Are Earth gems divided among battlefield use, forging, and rituals before spending begins?
• Is the capital queue solving a real religious, Mason, elite, or command bottleneck?
• Does the next fort improve recruitment geometry, resource conversion, or strategic defence?
• Is low MR being answered before the army meets mind or soul attacks?
• Are rare-path smiths protected from assassination, raiding, and routine frontline risk?
• Is a late ritual route supported by actual paths, research, and gems?

Ulm unresolved evidence boundary#

The dossier deliberately leaves the following claims open:

1. exact expansion-party ranges for each armour and weapon mix;
2. live 6.36 display confirmation of the pinned Master Smith and Black Priest random masks;
3. final displayed item costs when national rebate, Forge Bonus, global modifiers, and rounding combine;
4. Iron Darts and Iron Blizzard targeting, friendly-fire, and damage outcomes in specific formations;
5. Tempering the Will’s exact battlefield application against current MR attack types;
6. the economic break-even point for Sappers, Master Masons, and stronger forts on different maps;
7. reliable routes and payback for Contact Iron Angel and the larger Earth globals;
8. rider-and-mount survival outcomes for Black Knights under different attack types;
9. modded Ulm variants, which remain separate from this unmodded chapter.

These are preserved as unresolved claims, not converted into new test assets or guessed conclusions. R-047, R-058, and the broader runtime-testing queue remain parked until hands-on testing is explicitly resumed.

Part XIX: Middle Age Man, Tower of Avalon#

Man one-page command brief#

Middle Age Man turns several modest recruitment pools into a flexible human army. Ordinary forts supply longbows, infantry, cavalry, scouts, spies, priests, and three levels of Avalon mage. Forests add Foresters and Royal Foresters, while non-fort provinces can raise Logrian troops, Monks, and Logrian Wise Men. The capital adds the sacred Wardens and Knights of Avalon, their commanders, and the Crone of Avalon.

The reliable core is easy to state:

• Longbowmen provide accurate, long-ranged mundane fire behind a line chosen for the target;
• Knights of Man give every fort a heavily armoured mobile recruit;
• Wardens and Knights of Avalon are powerful sacred capital troops, but their price and limited queue keep them scarce;
• Monks spread cheap H1 research beyond the main mage forts;
• Bards, Daughters, Mothers, and Crones are Spellsingers with fixed Glamour access;
• Mothers provide the repeatable random portfolio, while capital Crones start at N3 G2 H1;
• Logrian Wise Men recruit outside forts and add low Earth plus Fire, Air, Earth, or Nature branches;
• the Forest and Tower of Avalon supply three Nature and two Glamour gems each month.

Man can recruit many different answers, but it cannot pay for all of them at once. Mothers cost 305 gold, capital Crones cost 465 gold and four commander recruitment points, Knights of Man cost 45 gold and 32 resources, and Knights of Avalon cost 90 gold and 32 resources. A plan that spends on every elite option can delay the forts and laboratories that make the roster useful.

Man evidence and ruleset#

The scope is unmodded MA Man on the Book I 6.36 live baseline. The revision-2 official manual controls the player-facing roster, costs, recruitment locations, national summary, communion description, spells, and rituals. Random masks, object identifiers, capital sites, hero records, and nation restrictions are cross-checked against the pinned 6.35 Inspector export at commit cfac4311bc0b58053b8dead7bffbc036ba9bd5dc.

The official 6.13 patch changed the Forest of Avalon from a +2 Magic increase to its intended +1. That correction is applied here. The patch ledger through 6.36 names no later MA Man roster or national-spell change, but the older structured snapshot is still labelled 6.35. A live display remains the final authority where the manual compresses a random scheme or the database carries a hidden casting restriction.

Man conversion chain#

longbows, infantry, and ordinary knights
-> secure provinces and useful forests
-> forts, laboratories, and distributed recruitment
-> Monks, Spellsingers, Mothers, and Logrian Wise Men
-> Chorus, Nature-Glamour support, and national summons
-> specialised field armies and imported missing paths
-> protected territory, sieges, and Throne operations

The chain tends to break at three points. Gold-heavy mages and cavalry can delay the next fort. The capital commander queue can be consumed by Crones before the army has enough leaders. Random Mothers and Wise Men can disappear into research without being labelled for the spell or forge branch their paths opened.

Man national rules that shape the plan#

Terrain recruitment is part of Man’s economy. A forest can contribute scouts and Foresters before it has a fort, while an otherwise ordinary non-fort province can contribute a Monk or a random Wise Man. Those commanders still cost gold and recruitment time. The map offers more queues, not free capacity.

Man roster by job#

The default army should not mix every row. Longbows need a line that holds for the expected approach. Cavalry needs space and a target worth charging. Wardens and Knights of Avalon need a bless and battle that justify spending the capital troop queue on them.

Man commander and mage portfolio#

The capital queue should answer a current need. A Crone gives paths and ritual certainty. A Lord Warden or Knight Commander moves an elite force. Recruiting the expensive mage every turn without funding armies, forts, and field leaders can leave Man rich in theory and slow on the map.

Reading Avalon’s random paths#

Mother of Avalon distribution#

The manual prints the Mother as N1 G1 H1 with two random levels. The pinned record resolves two guaranteed and independent rolls:

1. one level from Nature or Glamour;
2. one level from Water, Earth, or Nature.

The six combinations are equally likely.

A Mother has a 50% chance to reach G2, a 33.33% chance to gain Water, a 33.33% chance to gain Earth, a 66.67% chance to reach at least N2, and a 16.67% chance to reach N3. Four independent Mothers give about a 93.75% chance of at least one G2 result, 80.25% for at least one Water result, 80.25% for at least one Earth result, and 51.77% for at least one N3 result.

These chances describe recruitment, not timing guarantees. A G2 Mother owns Geas, Summon Cu Sidhe, and the Glamour threshold of Herd of Unicorns. Water and Earth Mothers open different general spell and forge branches. An N3 Mother reaches thresholds that the ordinary Daughter cannot.

Crone of Avalon distribution#

Every Crone begins at N3 G2 H1. The pinned 6.35 record then gives:

• one guaranteed level chosen equally from Air, Water, Earth, Nature, or Glamour;
• an independent 10% chance of a second level from the same five-path set.

The guaranteed result is 20% for each named path. Including the second roll, the chance of receiving at least one chosen path is 21.6%. Ten percent of Crones receive two random levels; two percent receive both levels in the same path, and eight percent receive two different paths.

The current manual compresses the Crone to ?1 and does not expose that 10% second slot on the nation page. This dossier keeps the extra roll labelled as pinned structured evidence until a live 6.36 recruitment card or another current official source resolves the display.

Logrian Wise Man distribution#

The Logrian Wise Man has fixed E1 and one guaranteed level chosen equally from Fire, Air, Earth, or Nature.

For any named result, 1 - 0.75^n gives the chance of seeing at least one after n independent recruits. That is about 57.8% after three, 76.3% after five, and 94.4% after ten. The expected wait is four recruits, but the non-fort provinces, gold, commander points, and laboratories needed to use the result still have to exist.

National spells and caster access#

The Death rituals are the clearest access warning. Man owns them nationally, but its repeatable roster and six listed national heroes contain no Death path. Researching those spells before building a real D2 route creates no casting capacity.

Man national item boundary#

The revision-2 manual does not list a separate Man item portfolio, and the pinned BaseI register has no nation-57 restriction or rebate record. Man can still forge ordinary items when a mage meets their paths. Those designs remain general objects, not national equipment.

This matters for planning. A Water or Earth Mother and an elemental Wise Man may open useful forging thresholds, but their random path does not create a discount. Item cost, booster order, and replacement access should be checked before a rare mage is assigned to repeated forging.

Man opening priorities#

The opening has six linked jobs:

1. identify which nearby provinces need longbows, shields, long weapons, cavalry, or a different answer;
2. preserve enough gold for the first infrastructure target while recruiting a line that can protect the archers;
3. use forests and safe non-fort provinces as extra recruitment points where the map supports them;
4. begin Monk, Daughter, Mother, or Bard recruitment without leaving the armies short of leadership;
5. decide whether the capital commander queue needs a Crone, Lord Warden, or Knight Commander;
6. label every Mother, Crone, and Wise Man as soon as its paths are known.

Recruitment packages to evaluate from reports#

These are report templates, not fixed expansion counts. Independent strength, formations, scales, bless, terrain, and combat rolls change the required party. No battle result is invented here.

Man research response tree#

Branch A: fixed Glamour support#

Thaumaturgy 1 gives every Spellsinger access to Chorus Master and Chorus Slave. Alteration 2 gives G1 Blur and Mirror Image. Thaumaturgy 3 gives G1 Luck and the national G2 Geas. This branch is available before a rare elemental random appears, but each spell still needs a protected caster and a battle where its effect matters.

Chorus is a force multiplier, not a substitute for planning. Masters and slaves should be counted before the script is chosen. Book V records the official rule that an unconscious Chorus Slave leaves the Chorus; the field plan must account for the resulting path and fatigue change.

Branch B: national summons#

Conjuration 3 opens Summon Cu Sidhe to every Crone and half of Mothers. Conjuration 4 adds Herd of Unicorns to the same casters because they also meet N1. The capital already receives three Nature and two Glamour gems each month, but that income must also support battlefield gems, searching, and any other rituals.

Summon Black Dogs and Summon Barghests sit on the same research branch but need D2. They should remain a future option until the nation actually owns a Death caster.

Branch C: Nature protection and pressure#

Crone access makes N3 dependable from the capital. Enchantment 3 gives Regeneration to N3, Conjuration 5 gives Howl to N3 with three Nature gems, and Alteration 6 gives Wooden Warriors to N3 with one Nature gem. Mothers add repeatable lower Nature and a one-in-six N3 result.

The choice depends on the army and opponent. Protection does not answer every elemental or armour-negating attack. Regeneration does not prevent a unit from dying to a single large hit. Howl and other battlefield pressure still depend on placement, duration, and the enemy’s rear security.

Branch D: Logrian Earth and elemental access#

Every Wise Man can cast the E1 Earth Grip at Alteration 1. The 25% E2 result reaches Strength of Giants at Enchantment 1, Earth Meld at Alteration 3, and Summon Earthpower at Conjuration 3. Fire, Air, and Nature results widen searching and low-path utility, but one random level does not make Man a deep elemental nation.

Research should follow the recruited result. A plan that assumes an E2 Wise Man on a fixed turn has only a 25% success chance per recruit. If the branch matters, recruit across several eligible provinces and keep a fallback that uses fixed Nature and Glamour.

Man battlefield packages#

Longbow line#

A Castellan or other suitable commander holds the infantry line while Longbowmen fire from protected positions. The line type is selected from the report: spears for cheap frontage, longer weapons for the right approach, or heavier troops when ordinary protection is the limiting factor. More archers do not repair a screen that collapses too early.

Cavalry reserve#

Knights of Man or the cheaper Logrian Cavalry wait for a flank, rear, or reinforcement job. Their riders and mounts are separate creatures under Dominions 6. Formation, charge lanes, anti-large weapons, and the survival of both parts remain battle questions.

Avalon sacred force#

Wardens bring capital-only sacred infantry with True Sight. Knights of Avalon add sacred Armored Unicorns and mobility. The bless should solve an identified weakness or improve a job the units already perform. Capital scarcity means they should not be treated as a mass replacement for ordinary infantry and cavalry.

Spellsinger cell#

Bards and Daughters provide cheap G1 Chorus bodies, while Mothers and Crones bring the paths that benefit from the Chorus. The cell needs a clear master-slave count, script, gem allocation, guard plan, and retreat route. Losing the cell can remove both battle magic and a large block of research.

Distributed recruitment column#

Forests add Royal Foresters and Foresters. Non-fort provinces add Logrian troops, Monks, and Wise Men. This can replace losses and widen research without waiting for every fort, but the resulting pieces still need commanders, laboratories where required, supply, and a route to the front.

Man Pretender families#

Man already has strong Nature and Glamour. A Pretender earns its cost by repairing a real bottleneck, supporting the scarce sacreds, or improving the economy that recruits the roster. Adding more of an existing path without a funded job can leave the original problem untouched.

Man matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Man audit#

• Is the next gold piece buying troops, a field leader, a mage, or the infrastructure that multiplies later recruitment?
• Does every Longbowman group have a line that can hold for the expected approach?
• Are forests contributing Royal Foresters or Foresters where that queue is useful?
• Are safe non-fort provinces producing the right Logrian unit, Monk, or Wise Man?
• Is the capital commander queue solving a path or leadership shortage?
• Are Mother, Crone, and Wise Man randoms labelled by final paths and assigned jobs?
• Does the current research target have a legal caster already recruited?
• Are Nature and Glamour gems divided between battle use, summons, and reserves before spending begins?
• Is a Chorus sized and scripted around its actual masters and slaves?
• Do the Death rituals have a real D2 route, or are they only names in the spell list?
• Are capital sacred losses justified by the battle and supported by the bless?
• Can the research stack survive a raid, assassination attempt, or forced retreat?

Man unresolved evidence boundary#

The following claims remain open:

1. exact expansion-party ranges for each line, longbow, cavalry, and sacred package;
2. live 6.36 display confirmation of the two Mother rolls, the Wise Man mask, and especially the Crone’s pinned 10% second random;
3. current spell-card confirmation of Herd of Unicorns’ forest-source restriction;
4. Chorus fatigue, casting-time, path-boost, unconscious-slave, and script outcomes in specific battles;
5. Geas target choice, resistance, and practical value against different formations;
6. rider-and-mount survival outcomes for Logrian Cavalry, Knights of Man, and Knights of Avalon;
7. the economic payback of distributed Wise Man and Monk recruitment on different maps;
8. hero arrival timing and the value of late elemental or Astral access;
9. modded Man variants, which remain separate from this unmodded chapter.

These questions stay visible without becoming guessed conclusions or new test assets. R-047, R-058, and the rest of the hands-on runtime queue remain parked.

Part XX: Middle Age Abysia, Blood and Fire#

Abysia one-page command brief#

Middle Age Abysia converts heat, heavy infantry, strong priests, and a capital Blood-mage queue into a compact but demanding war machine. Ordinary forts supply Humanbred screens, four weapon profiles of Abysian Infantry, Salamanders, assassins, animal handlers, Warlords, and two grades of Fire priest. The capital adds Lava Warriors and three Blood-capable commanders, including fixed S2 B3 Warlocks.

The reliable core is straightforward:

• Humanbred cost fewer resources and move faster than the armoured Abysian line, so they can supply bodies where protection is not the only requirement;
• Abysian Infantry provide fire-resistant heavy troops with battleaxe, flail, shielded axe, and shielded morningstar profiles;
• Salamanders add large heat effects and fire attacks, but they are animals, undisciplined, and expensive in gold per body;
• Anathemant Salamanders provide repeatable F2 H2, while Anathemant Dragons provide fixed F3 E1 H3;
• Warlock Apprentices, Demonbred, and Warlocks put Blood access in the capital commander queue;
• the two capital sites generate five Fire gems each month and gate every capital-only recruit;
• national magic spans Fire battle support, Blood crossbreeding, two summons, and a hostile-province ritual;
• repeatable recruits have no fixed Air, Water, Death, Nature, or Glamour access.

Abysia’s roster is narrow enough to understand and expensive enough to punish an unfocused plan. Heavy infantry consume resources, Warlocks consume gold, Demonbred consume the entire four-point capital commander allowance shown on their card, and Salamanders consume gold that could have funded another mage or fort. The first question each month is not which strong object exists. It is which bottleneck the next purchase removes.

Abysia evidence and ruleset#

The scope is unmodded MA Abysia on the Book I 6.36 live baseline. The revision-2 official manual controls the player-facing national rules, recruitment locations, displayed paths, costs, national spells, rituals, and artifact description. Object identifiers, site fields, nation restrictions, hero records, and expanded random slots are cross-checked against the pinned 6.35 Inspector export at commit cfac4311bc0b58053b8dead7bffbc036ba9bd5dc.

The official 6.01 announcement says only that Abysia’s wall defenders were tweaked. It does not print a new defender count, composition, or formula, so none is invented here. The later 6.27 reference to EA Abysia’s AI is not applied to the Middle Age nation. A current unit card, spell card, or battle remains authoritative where the manual and the older structured snapshot expose different levels of detail.

Abysia conversion chain#

heat preference and fire-resistant bodies
-> Humanbred screens, armoured infantry, and early commanders
-> forts, laboratories, temples, and protected recruitment queues
-> Fire priests plus capital Astral-Blood mages
-> Fire research, blood hunting, and national rituals
-> target-specific infantry, heat, assassination, and mage packages
-> protected Blood economy, sieges, and Throne operations

The chain commonly breaks at three points. Too much armour can delay infrastructure because resources do not pay gold costs. Too many capital mages can leave Lava Warriors and field leadership underproduced. A Blood plan can also consume commanders and population without first building safe hunting provinces, patrollers, laboratories, and a reason to spend the slaves.

Abysian national rules that shape the plan#

The Growth and Death exception is easy to overread. It changes several scale effects, yet it does not make population disposable: Death still kills people, Blood hunting raises unrest, and lost population can still reduce later income. The roster’s fire resistance also does not make it immune to cold, armour-negating damage, fatigue, morale failure, or magic-resistance attacks.

Abysia capital sites and recruitment queues#

Together the sites produce five Fire gems each month. That income supports Fire operations, not the Blood slaves or Astral pearls implied by the capital mages. Those economies require their own provinces, searches, trades, conversions, or imported access.

The Smouldercone creates the main capital-queue decision. A Warlock Apprentice costs 190 gold and two recruitment points; a Warlock costs 400 gold and two; a Demonbred costs 375 gold and four. The Temple creates a separate capital troop option, but the same capital must still supply ordinary troops, infrastructure, and commanders. A queue should be planned by the capability required next, not by buying the most expensive unit automatically.

Abysia roster by job#

The four Abysian Infantry versions are choices, not a progression ladder. Shielded troops improve the defensive profile against many mundane missiles and attacks, while two-handed troops preserve a different weapon and resource trade. Exact performance depends on the enemy weapon, protection, size, formation, fatigue, and terrain; the dossier does not assign a universal winner.

Abysia commander and mage portfolio#

The ordinary-fort commander pool and capital pool solve different problems. Warlords move conventional armies. Anathemants provide religion and Fire. The three Smouldercone recruits build Blood and Astral capacity. Treating all eight as interchangeable commanders hides the queue that actually limits each plan.

Reading the Abysian random paths#

The pinned path mask 35968 decodes to Fire, Earth, Astral, or Blood. Its four component bits are 128, 1024, 2048, and 32768. The mask appears in both the Warlock and Anathemant Dragon records, but the roll structure differs.

Warlock distribution#

Every Warlock begins at S2 B3. The manual then prints one random level. The pinned 6.35 record resolves that display as:

1. one guaranteed level chosen equally from Fire, Earth, Astral, or Blood;
2. an independent 10% chance of a second level from the same four paths.

For any one named path, the first roll hits 25% of Warlocks. If it misses, the second roll can still add that path with probability 75% x 10% x 25%. The chance of reaching at least one level in a named random path is 26.875%.

Three independent Warlocks give about a 60.90% chance of at least one result in a chosen named path. Five give about 79.09%, and ten give about 95.63%. These figures measure a recruitment portfolio. They do not guarantee when the result arrives, that it survives, or that the economy can afford uninterrupted recruitment.

The threshold consequences are asymmetric. A Fire double produces F2 on the Warlock; an Earth double produces E2; an Astral double raises the fixed S2 to S4; and a Blood double raises fixed B3 to B5. A single Astral or Blood result instead produces S3 or B4. These path cards open different spell and forge branches, so the final paths should be recorded immediately.

Anathemant Dragon pinned random#

The Anathemant Dragon is fixed F3 E1 H3 in the manual. The pinned structured record adds an independent 10% one-level roll from Fire, Earth, Astral, or Blood. That gives 90% no extra level and 2.5% each for F4, E2, S1, or B1.

This slot is less secure than the Warlock’s printed random because the manual page shows no random marker at all. The dossier uses it only as a 6.35 planning possibility. In particular, native F4 ritual access must remain conditional until a current recruitment card confirms the bonus.

Abysia native path boundary#

None of the three pinned national heroes supplies Air, Water, Death, Nature, or Glamour. Owning a Death ritual does not create a native Death caster. A plan that needs one of these paths must name the source, timing, cost, search route, and replacement plan.

Abysia national spells and caster access#

Inner Furnace is described as strengthening the heat radiated by every Abysian on the battlefield. Its exact radius increase, affected-unit boundary, stacking, and fatigue consequences are not derived from the database effect field. Liquid Flames of Rhuax is an armour-piercing Fire attack and is marked unavailable underwater in the manual.

Infernal Breeding crossbreeds Abysians, humans, and giants with demons, Salamanders, and other beasts. The manual warns that many Hell Spawn suffer afflictions and early aging. Neither the manual nor a spell row supplies a complete current output distribution, so the dossier does not promise a particular creature count or quality beyond the ritual record.

Hellscape is an anonymous hostile-province ritual. Its printed effects are Heat +3, Death +1, population -10%, and unrest +20. The fixed Dragon does not meet F4 without another step; a battlefield Fire boost cannot be carried into a strategic ritual. Researching Alteration 6 for Hellscape should follow confirmed caster access, not precede it on hope.

Abysia national item boundary#

O’al Kan’s Sceptre, item 97, is a unique Construction 9 artifact requiring F3. The pinned item record grants a national rebate to both EA Abysia 16 and MA Abysia 63. The manual lists Fire Spell Range +50%, Cold Resistance +10, Leadership +100, the spell Flare, and a small-area fatigue effect on strike.

A fixed Anathemant Dragon meets the printed F3 forging path. That does not settle the displayed gem cost after the national rebate, other forge modifiers, artifact availability, and rounding are combined. The live forge screen controls that value. The artifact’s late research and uniqueness also mean it is a possible capstone, not an opening solution to leadership or range.

Abysia opening priorities#

The opening should secure four systems before adding exotic branches:

1. enough field leadership to move the troop profile being purchased;
2. a line whose protection, weapon, movement, and gold cost fit the nearby independents;
3. laboratories, temples, and forts that can recruit the next mage or priest without stranding the army;
4. a capital queue split deliberately among Blood-Astral access, mobile Demonbred, and other national needs.

An exact expansion count is not supplied. Humanbred, shielded infantry, two-handed infantry, Salamanders, and Lava Warriors face different risks against cavalry, missiles, high Defence, armour, cold, poison, and morale pressure. Map generation, scales, bless, commander, formation, and combat rolls change the minimum safe force.

The first additional fort should be judged by gold, resources, caves, neighbours, travel geometry, and commander access together. A cave bonus can improve a fort’s value, but the manual gives no number. A rich surface chokepoint may still be more useful than a cave that cannot protect borders or connect armies.

Abysia recruitment packages to evaluate from reports#

Humanbred screen#

Use Humanbred where lower resource cost, higher map movement, or additional bodies matter more than Abysian protection. Spears can extend the weapon line; axes change the damage profile. Their Morale 9 and lower fire resistance require appropriate leadership and positioning; they are distinct from the Abysian line.

Armoured Abysian line#

Choose shielded axe or morningstar versions when the defensive profile answers the observed threat. Choose battleaxe or flail versions when their weapon and lower resource cost justify losing the shield. Keep the line narrow enough for support to reach it and broad enough that slow troops do not leave an exposed flank.

Salamander group#

Salamanders offer Fire Flare, a bite, Heat 6, and Heat Power 1. A Beast Trainer provides the relevant animal leadership tools, while a mage or Warlord may supply the rest of the force. The group should be selected against a target that is vulnerable to its damage and fatigue pressure; fire resistance, dispersal, cold, morale, or fast contact can change the value sharply.

Lava Warrior reserve#

Lava Warriors concentrate capital resources, sacred status, two attacks, Berserker +3, and Heat Power 1. They are an elite answer only when the bless, commander, and target justify scarce recruitment. Low printed Defence and berserking make extraction and casualty control part of the decision.

Abysia research response tree#

Research begins with a battlefield or strategic problem and a recruited caster. Abysia owns several national spells at attractive path thresholds, but it cannot deploy every branch from the same mage pool or gem economy.

Branch A: Fire battlefield breakpoints#

Conjuration 3’s Phoenix Power lets an F2 battle caster reach a higher Fire threshold. Enchantment 5 then offers Inner Furnace at F3, while Evocation 5 offers Liquid Flames of Rhuax to F3 E1. The fixed Dragon reaches both national spells directly; Salamander priests and Demonbred can use an available battle boost for F3 effects but do not gain the Dragon’s Earth path.

This branch is strongest when heat pressure or armour-piercing Fire solves the reported enemy. It is weaker against fire resistance, rapid mage disruption, underwater operations, or a battle where Abysia’s own fatigue and formation fail before the Fire package matters.

Branch B: Blood economy and Infernal Breeding#

Blood 3 makes Infernal Breeding available to all three capital Blood-mage types. The research is only one part of the cost. The plan also needs hunting provinces, patrollers, laboratories, slave transport, unrest control, and mage turns. Apprentices are cheaper crossbreeders; Warlocks carry stronger Blood and the larger Adept Cross Breeder value; Demonbred add flight, priesthood, and Blood Searcher 1.

No expected return is assigned to the ritual or a hunting province. Population, unrest, scales, hunter skill, patrol strength, random outcomes, and current engine rules determine the result. Record actual slaves, unrest, population loss, and outputs before calling the branch efficient.

Branch C: Astral-Blood Warlocks#

Fixed S2 B3 makes every Warlock a useful Astral-Blood platform before randoms. Astral and Blood randoms raise the ceiling, while Fire and Earth randoms add cross-path options. This branch should be chosen after recruiting and labelling the actual portfolio; a research target that needs S3, B4, F1, or E1 is conditional until the relevant Warlock exists.

The capital-only nature of the whole Astral pool creates a strategic risk. One raid, siege, or assassination campaign can threaten research, blood hunting, and high-path casting together. Distributed forts, ordinary priests, protected movement, and reserve mages reduce that concentration.

Branch D: summons and remote pressure#

Conjuration 2 lists Summon Spectral Infantry, but its D1 F1 requirement exposes a missing native path. Conjuration 8’s Contact Scorpion Man is reachable by the fixed Dragon and costs 12 Earth gems. Alteration 6’s Hellscape requires F4 and ten Fire gems, with only conditional native access in the pinned Dragon random.

These rituals should be scheduled from the caster backward. Confirm the path, laboratory, research, gems, province, and opportunity cost first. A national name in the spell list is not a reason to divert research when the legal caster or gem income does not exist.

Abysia battlefield packages#

Humanbred screen with Abysian damage#

Humanbred occupy space and absorb selected contact while more expensive Abysian Infantry supply the weapon needed against the target. The two groups should not be treated as statistically identical. Leadership, morale, movement, fire resistance, and heat exposure differ, so formation and retreat routes matter.

Shielded line with priest support#

Shielded Abysian Infantry form the main protected block while an Anathemant blesses sacred auxiliaries, supports morale and religion, or delivers reachable Fire magic. A Warlord can preserve the priest’s script and commander turn for magic. The package still needs an answer to enemies that ignore armour or attack the rear.

Salamander heat cell#

A limited Salamander group applies Heat 6 and fire attacks beside fire-resistant national troops. Beast Trainer support keeps the animal role explicit. Inner Furnace may intensify the wider Abysian heat package, but its live area and fatigue interactions remain open; do not assume that adding more heat is harmless or universally effective.

Anathemant Fire battery#

F2 Salamander priests provide the repeatable base, while a Dragon supplies F3 E1 and H3. The battery is selected for a specific spell breakpoint and protected by troops and placement. Concentrating expensive priests can solve one battle while exposing research, sacrifice, and preaching elsewhere.

Capital Blood operations cell#

Apprentices perform lower-cost Blood and Astral work, Warlocks provide high paths and crossbreeding, and Demonbred provide mobile Fire-Blood priesthood. The cell needs scouts, patrol, laboratories, slave logistics, and a protected route between hunting provinces and casting centres. It should not sit as one undefended capital stack merely because every member was recruited there.

Abysia Pretender families#

Abysia already possesses deep Fire, Blood, and Astral. A Pretender often creates more value by supplying a missing system, resistance, mobility, or reliable ritual bridge than by adding an unsupported theoretical endpoint. Each imported path should have a first search target, first forge or ritual job, and a plan if the Pretender is unavailable.

Abysia matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Abysia audit#

• Is the current troop queue limited by gold, resources, recruitment points, leadership, or travel time?
• Does each infantry version have a target-specific reason to be in the queue?
• Are Humanbred being used for their actual cost and movement profile, without treating them as disposable Abysians?
• Does every Salamander group have suitable leadership and a target vulnerable to heat or Fire?
• Is the capital commander queue buying the exact Astral, Blood, mobility, or priest capability required next?
• Are Warlock and Dragon randoms labelled by their displayed final paths?
• Does the research target have a legal, protected caster already recruited?
• Are Fire gems, Earth gems, and blood slaves budgeted separately?
• Are hunting unrest, patrol strength, population, and slave transport recorded instead of assumed?
• Is a cave fort valuable for its position as well as its unquantified national bonus?
• Are sacred recruitment and the bless large enough to justify one another?
• Can the research and Blood infrastructure survive a raid, siege, or assassination campaign?

Abysia unresolved evidence boundary#

The following claims remain open:

1. exact expansion-party ranges for Humanbred, each infantry weapon profile, Salamanders, and Lava Warriors;
2. live 6.36 confirmation of the Warlock’s pinned 10% second random and any Dragon random, which the manual does not display;
3. the numerical cave-fort gold and resource bonus;
4. the exact post-6.01 wall-defender count and composition;
5. Inner Furnace’s current affected-unit boundary, heat-area increase, stacking, and formation-level fatigue results;
6. Infernal Breeding’s current output distribution, afflictions, ages, and economic return;
7. displayed O’al Kan’s Sceptre cost after national rebate, other forge modifiers, artifact availability, and rounding;
8. assassination, blood-hunting, Blood Searcher, and patrol outcomes in a particular game state;
9. underwater access, battlefield scripts, and Pretender designs in a specific map and opponent field;
10. modded Abysia variants, which remain separate from this unmodded chapter.

These questions remain evidence gaps; no rule or new test asset fills them. R-047, R-058, and the wider hands-on runtime queue stay parked until testing is explicitly resumed.

Part XXI: Middle Age Pythium, Emerald Empire#

Pythium one-page command brief#

Middle Age Pythium turns a broad legion roster, powerful Astral priest-mages, a separate troop-queue communion recruit, and unusually high capital gem income into a flexible imperial army. Ordinary forts recruit nine commanders and twelve troop types. The capital adds the Arch Theurg, Hydra Tamer, Battle Vestal, Hydra Hatchling, and Hydra through two national sites.

The reliable core is easy to state:

• the legion roster ranges from cheap Slingers and Velites to Hastati, Principes, Triarii, and Emerald Guards;
• Serpent Cataphracts add a heavily protected rider and a separately tracked Armored Serpent mount;
• Theurg Acolytes provide S1 H1, Theurgs provide A1 W1 S2 H2, and capital-only Arch Theurgs begin at A2 W1 S3 H3 before randoms;
• Theurg Communicants are troop recruits with a printed limit of one per month and a pinned automatic Communion Slave field;
• the Cathedral of the Spheres supplies two Air gems, one Water gem, and five Astral pearls each month;
• the national ritual list contains six angelic summons plus Contact Lar and Awaken Hamadryad;
• repeatable recruits have no fixed Earth, Death, Nature, Glamour, or Blood access;
• the official manual gives Pythium an Order scale limit of +1 and a Fortified City at the start.

Pythium has options, but each option draws on a different queue. Arch Theurgs consume capital commander time and 565 gold. Hydras consume capital troop time, 200 gold, and a one-per-month slot. Theurg Communicants use the troop queue even though their purpose is magical. A strong plan names which queue is solving which problem before the capital becomes a collection of expensive pieces without a field army.

Pythium evidence and ruleset#

The scope is unmodded MA Pythium on the Book I 6.36 live baseline. The revision-2 official manual controls the player-facing nation rules, printed roster, costs, recruitment locations, paths, national rituals, and mount statistics. Object identifiers, site fields, hidden random slots, national restrictions, item-rebate fields, hero records, and special unit flags are cross-checked against the pinned 6.35 Inspector export at commit cfac4311bc0b58053b8dead7bffbc036ba9bd5dc.

The official update ledger through 6.36 contains one Pythium name match: a 6.07 correction for Epoteia that explicitly belongs to Late Age Pythium. It is not applied to the Middle Age nation. No ledger record through 6.36 names MA Pythium, one of its listed recruits, either capital site, or one of its national rituals as receiving a direct change. That is a patch-ledger result, not proof that no undocumented engine change exists; a current game card remains authoritative when it exposes newer detail.

Pythium conversion chain#

fortified capital, legion choices, and eight capital gems
-> target-specific infantry, leaders, and early expansion
-> forts, laboratories, temples, and protected recruitment
-> Acolytes, Theurgs, Arch Theurgs, and Communicants
-> battlefield communions, Grand Communion, and national rituals
-> legion support, Astral control, Air damage, and summoned specialists
-> protected mage economy, siege operations, and Throne claims

The chain most often breaks when one resource is mistaken for another. Eight capital gems do not pay the gold cost of a Theurg. Cheap legionnaires do not protect a communion by themselves. A large communion can reach high paths and still fail through fatigue, slave losses, a dead master, or a threatened rear. Pythium works best when its army, mage turns, pearls, and replacement plan are budgeted together.

Pythian national rules that shape the plan#

The strongest national features do not all point in the same direction. Legionnaires reward broad fort recruitment, while Arch Theurgs and hydras remain capital bound. Grand Communion concentrates ritual power in one province, while campaign survival usually rewards distributing ordinary Theurgs and replacement armies. The plan must decide when concentration is worth the risk.

Pythium capital sites and recruitment queues#

The Cathedral produces eight gems each month. This supports Air, Water, and especially Astral work, but not the Nature gems required by Contact Lar, Awaken Hamadryad, Gloves of the Gladiator, or Hydra Skin Armor. Search coverage, trade, site capture, or another explicit source must fund that branch.

The capital has two distinct decisions. Its commander queue chooses between the four-point, 565-gold Arch Theurg and the one-point Hydra Tamer, along with any ordinary commander. Its troop queue chooses among legionnaires, Battle Vestals, Communicants, Hydra Hatchlings, and the 200-gold Hydra. Monthly limits on the Hydra and Communicant do not create extra queues; they only limit those individual recruits.

Complete Pythium roster by job#

The legion roster is a set of cost and weapon trades, not a single ladder from bad to good. Alae Legionnaires put armoured bodies on the field cheaply in gold. Principes and Emerald Guards buy stronger individual profiles at a higher gold and recruitment-point cost. Triarii add protection and reach but also heavy encumbrance. Reports about the enemy should decide which mix is produced.

Pythium commander and mage portfolio#

The ordinary-fort mage line is the strategic backbone. Acolytes put S1 and H1 in every developed recruitment centre. Theurgs provide the fixed A1 W1 S2 H2 package that supports several schools without waiting for a random. Arch Theurgs raise the ceiling, but a plan that uses them for every magical job will overload the capital and leave valuable ordinary forts underused.

Reading the Arch Theurg random paths#

The official manual prints the Arch Theurg as A2 W1 S3 H3 with one random level. The pinned 6.35 record resolves mask 2944 into Fire, Air, Water, or Astral and records two rolls:

1. one guaranteed level chosen equally from Fire, Air, Water, or Astral;
2. an independent 10% chance of a second level from the same four paths.

The mask components are 128, 256, 512, and 2048. The second slot is not visible in the manual’s ?1 summary, so it remains pinned planning evidence without current 6.36 display confirmation.

Arch Theurg distribution#

For Fire, the result is at least F1 on 26.875% of Arch Theurgs and F2 on 0.625%. Air results raise fixed A2 to at least A3, Water results raise W1 to at least W2, and Astral results raise S3 to at least S4. A matching second roll can rarely reach A4, W3, or S5.

Three independent Arch Theurgs give about a 60.90% chance of at least one result in a chosen named path. Five give about 79.09%, and ten about 95.63%. Those figures describe a recruitment portfolio, not a schedule. The capital cost, four-point queue, survival, and arrival order still decide whether a threshold exists when it is needed.

Pythium native path boundary#

The three pinned heroes do not fill a missing non-Holy path. Bartholomeus supplies A2 W2 S3 H4, while Marius Lorca and Hierogallus have no magic paths in the snapshot. Pythium owns two Nature rituals and two Nature-forged discounted items, but national ownership does not create a Nature caster or Nature gems.

Grand Communion and ordinary communions#

The manual distinguishes battlefield communions from Grand Communions. An ordinary Astral communion needs Communion Master and Communion Slave in effect. Masters gain one level with two slaves, two levels with four, three with eight, and so on. Spell fatigue is divided among participants and then modified by the slaves’ path levels. If every master dies or flees, the slaves receive the printed backlash.

Theurgs and Acolytes can cast the Thaumaturgy 1 communion spells because they have Astral magic. The pinned Communicant field places that troop into the slave role automatically. This saves a setup action but also means a Communicant is not an independent battle caster. Exact survival still depends on master spells, slave paths, fatigue, resistances, buffs, battlefield timing, and enemy access to the rear.

Grand Communion is a strategic ritual order. The official example has an Arch Theurg cast Dispel while Theurgs and Acolytes in the province add their Astral levels. Each helper gives up its own activity for the turn. Grand Communion can make a key public ritual stronger, but it also concentrates mages and opportunity cost in one place. It should not be counted as a battlefield communion or as free ritual strength.

Pythium national rituals and caster access#

The angelic branch aligns with the capital’s five Astral pearls per month and fixed S3 Arch Theurg. The first two rituals are directly castable once research and pearls exist. Higher thresholds depend on the actual random portfolio, boosters, empowerment, a summon, or a Pretender. Grand Communion is not silently applied to ordinary unit-summoning rituals.

Contact Lar is the main national bridge into a missing path family. The ritual needs imported N1, but the summoned Lar carries W1 E1 N2. That can create Earth access and reach the printed N2 requirement of both national-discount items once the relevant Construction research and gems exist. Awaken Hamadryad remains harder because it needs N4 before producing an N3 unit.

Pythium national item boundary#

Two pinned item records carry a Pythium national-rebate field:

The structured rows establish a national rebate marker, not the final gem price shown after every discount, forge bonus, and rounding step. The live forge screen controls that number. Neither item should be counted as an early national asset until Pythium has a legal N2 forger, Nature gems, the research level, and a safe forge turn.

Pythium national heroes#

Hero arrival is not a recruitment plan. Bartholomeus expands fixed Water and Holy depth but does not add Fire, Earth, Death, Nature, Glamour, or Blood. Marius and Hierogallus add command options, while Hierogallus retains the same rider-and-mount separation that applies to recruited serpent cavalry.

Pythium opening priorities#

The opening should secure four things before chasing the expensive ritual list:

1. a troop mix chosen for the nearby independent weapons, protection, numbers, and terrain;
2. enough leadership to move that mix without tying a Theurg to mundane command;
3. laboratories and forts that can recruit Acolytes and Theurgs away from the capital;
4. a deliberate capital split among Arch Theurgs, hydra support, Battle Vestals, Communicants, and ordinary troops.

No exact expansion count is supplied. Alae Legionnaires, Hastati, Principes, Triarii, Serpent Cataphracts, Vestals, and hydras all face different risks. Map generation, scales, bless, commander, formation, enemy composition, and combat rolls change the minimum safe force.

The first additional fort has special value because the best repeatable Theurg is not capital-only. A new lab and fort can expand the A1 W1 S2 H2 mage line while the capital handles Arch Theurgs and site recruits. That benefit must still be compared with gold, travel time, resources, border safety, and the troops needed now.

Pythium recruitment packages to evaluate from reports#

Legion core#

Alae Legionnaires and Hastati provide affordable armoured bodies, Principes buy a stronger individual profile, and Triarii add protection and a long spear at a heavy resource and fatigue cost. Emerald Guards are the expensive elite option. The correct mix depends on the target’s weapon length, damage, protection, missiles, and numbers; no legionary type is the answer to every province.

Serpent wing#

Serpent Cataphracts pair a protected rider with an Armored Serpent carrying 28 hit points, Protection 19, and a poisonous bite in the manual. They offer mobility and a different contact profile from the infantry line. The mount can be hit or killed separately, poison can be resisted, and a 45-gold rider must deliver enough value to justify the cost.

Hydra group#

Hydra Hatchlings and Hydras are capital-only pieces with regeneration, poison resistance, blunt and piercing resistance, and Fire Resistance -10 in the printed roster. The pinned rows add Animal, Undisciplined, poison-cloud, Beastmaster, and head-related fields. Use Hydra Tamers, separation, and poison-aware support while keeping exact cloud spread, friendly exposure, head loss, and regeneration behaviour open.

Gladiator reserve#

Retiarii and Gladiators cost little in resources and have useful contact profiles, but the pinned rows mark them Single Battle. They can be considered for a specific urgent fight, not silently counted as a permanent standing army. Current departure timing and the economic value of that exchange remain unresolved without live evidence.

Pythium research response tree#

Research begins with a battlefield or strategic problem and the caster already recruited. Pythium’s paths offer several clean breakpoints, but a large list of reachable spells is not the same as one coherent army package.

Branch A: Astral control and communions#

Thaumaturgy 1 unlocks Communion Master and Communion Slave at S1. Thaumaturgy 2 adds Mind Burn at S2, Thaumaturgy 4 adds Paralyze at S2, and Thaumaturgy 5 adds Soul Slay at S3. Acolytes, Theurgs, and Arch Theurgs cover those fixed thresholds in different numbers, while communions can raise masters further.

This branch is selected when magic-resistance attacks, single-target control, or higher communion paths answer the enemy. It is weaker when the rear cannot be protected, slaves are too few or too fragile, fatigue is unmanaged, or the target’s magic resistance makes the expected return poor.

Branch B: Air, Water, and Astral battle support#

Evocation 2 gives Lightning Bolt at A2, directly available to every Arch Theurg. Evocation 4 gives Thunder Strike at A3, requiring an Air-random Arch, communion support, or another bridge. Evocation 5 gives Stellar Cascades at S2. Alteration 3’s Body Ethereal is available at S1, while Alteration 4’s Quickness needs W2 and so requires a Water-random Arch, communion, or imported access.

The branch should be built around a named spell and formation. Air damage loses value against Shock Resistance, Astral effects can meet Magic Resistance or mindless targets, and short-range buffs require safe delivery. Research alone does not protect the caster or solve gem use.

Branch C: national summons#

Conjuration 5 is the first direct national threshold: fixed S3 Arch Theurgs can Contact Angel of the Host, while an imported N1 caster can Contact Lar. Conjuration 6 adds Angelic Choir and the conditional S4 Harbinger. Conjuration 7 adds Heavenly Wrath and Angelic Host. Heavenly Choir at Conjuration 9 is a separate legendary-scale commitment with an S7 F2 access problem.

Schedule each ritual from the caster and treasury backward. Pythium’s Astral income supports the angel branch, but high capital mage costs, laboratory turns, and pearl stock still matter. The Nature branch needs a new gem economy as well as a legal caster.

Branch D: Dispel and Grand Communion#

Enchantment 5 gives Dispel at S3 and costs 30 Astral pearls before extra investment. A fixed Arch Theurg can cast it. The official Pythium example shows Theurgs and Acolytes joining through Grand Communion to add their Astral levels to the attempt.

This branch is a strategic answer to a specific global enchantment, not a routine use of every mage. The extra pearls, participating mage turns, concentration of valuable casters, and timing all need to be weighed against the global’s actual harm.

Pythium battlefield packages#

Legion line with Theurg support#

A target-specific legion line supplies numbers and protection while Theurgs provide reachable Air, Water, Astral, and priest magic. Mundane commanders keep leadership separate from spell scripts. The package still needs a plan for armour that short swords cannot penetrate, flankers that reach the mages, and spells that hit friendly formations.

Communion battery#

Acolytes or Communicants provide slaves while Theurgs or Arch Theurgs act as masters chosen for specific path thresholds. Guards, spacing, fatigue planning, and a retreat route are part of the package. Adding more masters can multiply slave fatigue, and a master collapse can trigger backlash; size alone does not make the communion safe.

Hydra containment group#

Hydras occupy a separate pressure role with regeneration, fear on the full Hydra, head attacks, and poison. A Hydra Tamer supplies the pinned Beastmaster role. Ordinary legionnaires do not have printed Poison Resistance, so formation and separation matter. Fire damage, poison resistance, low combat speed, animal leadership, and hostile control can all reduce the group’s value.

Serpent flank and reserve#

Serpent Cataphracts move and contact differently from the legions, while a Serpent Lord can lead a mounted detachment. Use them where their speed, rider profile, and mount attack solve a real positioning problem. Do not treat 19 mount protection as immunity or assume a dismounted rider retains the same battle plan.

Pythium Pretender families#

Pythium often gains more from a missing bridge or economy plan than from repeating fixed S3 access. A Pretender path should have a first search target, first ritual or item, gem source, and backup plan. The Order +1 limit is useful only if the complete scale and awakening design benefits from it.

Pythium matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Pythium audit#

• Is each fort limited by gold, resources, recruitment points, commander time, or travel distance?
• Does the legion mix answer the weapons, armour, numbers, and terrain actually reported nearby?
• Is a mundane commander available so a Theurg can keep its research or battle role?
• What is the capital commander queue buying this month, and why is it more urgent than the alternative?
• Are Communicants, Hydras, and other capital troops competing for a planned share of the troop queue?
• Has every Arch Theurg been labelled by its final displayed paths?
• Does each communion have named masters, slaves, path thresholds, guards, fatigue limits, and a retreat plan?
• Are Grand Communion helpers giving up turns for a ritual worth that cost?
• Does the current research target have a legal caster and a force that can use it?
• Are Air, Water, Astral, and Nature treasuries being treated as separate economies?
• Are hydras kept with appropriate leadership and away from unsupported poison-vulnerable troops?
• Can forts outside the capital replace Theurgs if the main army or capital is threatened?

Pythium unresolved evidence boundary#

The following claims remain open:

1. exact expansion-party ranges for each legion mix, Serpent Cataphracts, Battle Vestals, and hydras;
2. live 6.36 confirmation of the Arch Theurg’s pinned 10% second random, which the manual does not display;
3. the current unit-card display and automatic battle behaviour of the Communicant’s pinned Communion Slave field;
4. exact Hydra and Hydra Hatchling poison-cloud spread, friendly exposure, head-loss thresholds, regeneration, and recovery sequence;
5. current Single Battle departure timing for Retiarii and Gladiators;
6. displayed Gloves of the Gladiator and Hydra Skin Armor costs after the national rebate, other modifiers, and rounding;
7. battlefield communion scripts, fatigue distribution in a particular spell sequence, slave survival, and backlash outcomes;
8. current Grand Communion participant display, ritual timing, and opportunity cost in a particular game state;
9. Serpent Cataphract and Serpent Lord rider-and-mount outcomes under specific attacks;
10. assassination, underwater access, Pretender designs, and matchup performance on a particular map.

These are evidence gaps, not invitations to guess. No runtime test or new test asset was prepared during this unit. R-047, R-058, and the wider hands-on testing queue remain parked until testing is explicitly resumed.

Part XXII: Middle Age Eriu, Last of the Tuatha#

Eriu one-page command brief#

Middle Age Eriu joins ordinary Milesian infantry to terrain-dependent Fir Bolg recruitment and a capital-only Sidhe core. Eight commanders and five troops are available from ordinary forts. Highland and mountain forts add two Fir Bolg commanders and five Fir Bolg troops, while the capital adds those Fir Bolg choices plus the Tuatha commander and sacred Daoine Sidhe.

The reliable structure is:

• ordinary forts produce the full Milesian line, Bards, Sidhe Champions, Bean Sidhe, and Sidhe Lords;
• highland and mountain forts add Fir Bolg Druids, Fir Bolg Champions, and five Fir Bolg troop profiles;
• the capital’s Mound of Ancient Kings provides two Nature and three Glamour gems each month, Tuatha, and Daoine Sidhe;
• Milesian Mages guarantee A1 E1 and one random level from Fire, Air, Earth, or Nature;
• Bean Sidhe guarantee W1 N1 G1 and one random level from Air, Water, Earth, Nature, or Glamour;
• Fir Bolg Druids guarantee A1 and one random level from Water, Earth, Nature, or Glamour;
• Tuatha guarantee N2 G3 H2, one random level, and a pinned independent 10% second level from the Bean Sidhe set;
• Geas and Summon Cu Sidhe are the two active national spell records; two additional nation-restricted placeholder rows are disabled and are not counted as usable magic.

Eriu’s main planning problem is geography. A fort can be an ordinary Milesian centre, a highland or mountain Fir Bolg centre, or the capital with its unique Sidhe access. Strategy should therefore be built from the actual province network instead of assuming every fort can reproduce every army.

Eriu evidence and ruleset#

This chapter covers unmodded MA Eriu on the Book I 6.36 live baseline. The revision-2 official manual controls player-facing roster values, recruitment locations, printed paths, national magic, item descriptions, and mount profiles. Identifiers, recruitment sets, capital-site fields, random masks, hero records, national restrictions, and item-rebate fields are cross-checked against the pinned 6.35 Inspector export at commit cfac4311bc0b58053b8dead7bffbc036ba9bd5dc.

The official 6.01 update says Eriu’s recruit in mountain and highland forts did not work and records that correction. It also contains a presentation correction for the Bean Sidhe. These statements establish the direction of the fixes, but they do not replace the current manual’s explicit recruitment lists or prove a current runtime outcome.

Eriu conversion chain#

Milesian capital, five monthly gems, and terrain-dependent recruits
-> target-specific expansion forces and reported highland or mountain sites
-> ordinary mage forts plus selected Fir Bolg recruitment centres
-> random-path portfolios, sacred Sidhe, and stealth-capable detachments
-> Glamour, Nature, Air, Water, Earth, and conditional Fire packages
-> dispersed pressure, summons, fortified borders, and Throne claims

The chain breaks when a terrain recruit is budgeted before the correct province and fort exist, when capital Tuatha are treated as a cheap answer, or when a random path is counted before a qualifying mage has actually been recruited. Eriu needs a roster ledger that distinguishes guaranteed access, random access, and location access.

Eriu national rules that shape the plan#

Eriu capital sites and recruitment geography#

The five capital gems do not pay troop gold or prove a caster for every Nature or Glamour threshold. Likewise, finding a mountain does not create Fir Bolg recruitment until the fort is complete. Recruitment geography should be recorded before construction begins.

Complete Eriu commander membership#

The eight ordinary records, two terrain commanders, and one capital commander reconcile to eleven distinct commanders. The manual, the fort table, the terrain attributes, and both capital sites agree on those membership classes.

Complete Eriu troop membership#

The five ordinary records, five terrain records, and one capital record reconcile to eleven distinct troops. The two Clan Warriors share a name but have different object identifiers, weapons, and Defence values; they are preserved as separate profiles.

Complete Eriu roster by job#

Eriu commander and mage portfolio#

Reading the Milesian Mage random paths#

The manual prints A1 E1 and one random level. The pinned mask 9600 decodes as Fire, Air, Earth, or Nature, with one guaranteed equally likely result.

This is Eriu’s repeatable native Fire source. A selected result appears at least once with probability 1 - 0.75^n: 57.81% after three Milesian Mages, 76.27% after five, and 94.37% after ten. Those figures describe a portfolio, not an arrival date.

Reading the Bean Sidhe random paths#

Bean Sidhe are fixed W1 N1 G1 and receive one guaranteed equally likely level from Air, Water, Earth, Nature, or Glamour. Mask 26368 therefore yields A1, W2, E1, N2, or G2 at 20% each.

A chosen result appears at least once with probability 1 - 0.8^n: 48.80% after three Bean Sidhe, 67.23% after five, and 89.26% after ten. This provides broad access, but each recruit costs 285 gold and two recruitment points.

Reading the Fir Bolg Druid random paths#

Fir Bolg Druids are fixed A1 and receive one guaranteed equally likely level from Water, Earth, Nature, or Glamour. Mask 26112 therefore yields A1 W1, A1 E1, A1 N1, or A1 G1 at 25% each.

The Druid is cheaper than the ordinary Milesian Mage but is geographically restricted. Its value depends on whether a suitable fort is useful for the wider campaign, not merely whether the random mask is attractive.

Reading the Tuatha random paths#

The manual prints N2 G3 H2 and one random level. The pinned record applies the same Air, Water, Earth, Nature, or Glamour mask as the Bean Sidhe, then adds an independent 10% second roll from that mask.

The extra slot is not exposed by the manual’s single ?1 marker, so it remains pinned 6.35 planning evidence rather than a current live-display claim. The very high gold and recruitment-point cost also makes large-sample portfolio assumptions impractical.

Eriu native path boundary#

Eriu national spell and ritual reconciliation#

Two other nation-58 restriction rows, IDs 445 and 446, are named xxx, use school -1, and are disabled in the pinned spell table. They are retained in the evidence audit as placeholders and are not presented as playable national rituals.

Eriu national item reconciliation#

The manual describes Gossamer Cloth as veiling an army of up to 25 units and the Singing Sword as casting Entrancement. Sidhe Lords and Tuatha meet both printed path requirements. The final displayed cost after the national rebate, other modifiers, and rounding remains unresolved without a current forge screen.

Eriu national hero records#

The first four are unique-hero attributes; Fianna is a generic or repeatable hero attribute. No arrival turn, frequency, or guaranteed strategic role is derived from either the hero slot or the uninterpreted latehero value.

Eriu patch reconciliation#

Update 6.01, published 19 January 2024, states that Eriu’s recruit in mountain and highland forts did not work. The current official manual explicitly lists the Fir Bolg units and commanders available in the capital and in fortified highland or mountain provinces, while the pinned data records the same terrain sets. The chapter therefore treats the current recruitment locations as intended rules and does not invent the earlier failure mode.

The same update includes a Bean Sidhe presentation correction. It supports only that a display asset changed; it does not establish a rules or balance change. No later direct Eriu roster change was found in the official ledger through 6.36.

Eriu opening priorities#

The opening should secure ordinary troop production, leadership, scouting, and an affordable mage stream before assuming a terrain fort or repeated Tuatha. Milesian units can form the initial army while Scouts identify routes and suitable fort provinces. Exact expansion counts remain open because map generation, scales, bless, formation, opposing roster, and combat rolls change them.

A first fort has two different strategic meanings. An ordinary province expands Milesian Mages, Bean Sidhe, Sidhe Lords, and the human army. A highland or mountain adds cheap Fir Bolg Druids and the terrain troop package. The correct choice depends on distance, resources, defence, construction time, and the path portfolio already available.

Eriu recruitment packages to evaluate from reports#

Milesian line#

Spearmen and Longspears provide inexpensive frontage, while Swordsmen and Men at Arms buy more protection at higher resource and recruitment-point costs. Slingers add cheap ranged bodies. Choose the mix from the reported target rather than treating the more expensive profile as automatically superior.

Fir Bolg terrain force#

Fir Bolg offer higher hit points and magic resistance than the ordinary Milesian line, plus stealth on most profiles. Axe and spear Clan Warriors answer different targets; Cattle Raiders add berserk pressure; Charioteers add a separate mount profile. Their restricted recruitment makes replacement geography part of the plan.

Sidhe sacred group#

Daoine Sidhe and sacred commanders combine Glamour with higher defence and magic resistance. They remain limited by capital access, gold, recruitment points, and ordinary battlefield counters. A bless should solve a named problem instead of assuming Glamour replaces protection, numbers, or retreat planning.

Eriu research response tree#

Branch A: Glamour control and national magic#

Thaumaturgy 3 provides Geas at G2, while Conjuration 3 provides Summon Cu Sidhe at G2 for five Glamour gems. Sidhe Lords give fixed non-capital G2 and Tuatha give capital G3. This branch is attractive when its control effect or stealth-capable sacred summons answer the current opponent, not simply because it is national.

Branch B: Air and Earth support#

Milesian Mages always bring A1 E1 and can random higher Air or Earth. Fir Bolg Druids always bring A1. Research should be chosen around a spell that the existing mage can cast and deliver. A theoretical A2 or E2 package should stay conditional until the matching random exists.

Branch C: Nature, Water, and sacred support#

Nature is fixed across the Sidhe line and reaches N2 on Tuatha, while Bean Sidhe provide fixed W1 and conditional W2. This supports buffs, protection, recovery, and summons at different research thresholds. Gem income remains separate: the capital supplies Nature but no Water gems.

Branch D: forging and path bridges#

Construction 3 exposes the nationally discounted Gossamer Cloth and other low-level utility items; Construction 7 exposes the Singing Sword. Forging should begin from a current requirement, available caster, and gem budget. It should not consume the Glamour treasury needed for an imminent Cu Sidhe summon without an explicit trade-off.

Eriu battlefield packages#

Human line with mage support#

Milesian infantry supply replaceable frontage while Milesian Mages, Bards, and Bean Sidhe provide the selected spell package. A mundane Champion keeps troop leadership separate from mage turns. The package still needs answers to armour, high defence, missiles, fatigue, and rear attacks.

Fir Bolg stealth detachment#

A terrain fort can combine stealth-capable Fir Bolg troops with a Champion or Druid. This can create a distinct movement and information package, but exact stealth discovery, interception, and battle outcomes remain dependent on current rules and game state.

Sidhe sacred pressure#

Daoine Sidhe, Sidhe Champions, Sidhe Lords, and Tuatha can combine sacred status, Glamour, and Spell Singer access. Their gold and capital constraints make concentration expensive. The force should have a clear target, retreat line, and replacement plan.

Eriu Pretender families#

Eriu matchup and failure matrix#

Monthly Eriu audit#

• Which forts are ordinary, highland, mountain, or capital recruitment centres?
• Is each queue limited by gold, resources, recruitment points, terrain, or travel distance?
• Does the current troop mix answer the reported weapons, protection, numbers, and terrain?
• Has every random mage been labelled by final displayed paths before receiving a job?
• Is Fire being treated as conditional rather than guaranteed?
• Are capital commander turns being spent on Tuatha only when G3, N2, H2, or high leadership is required?
• Are Nature and Glamour income budgeted separately from Air, Water, Earth, and Fire needs?
• Does each research target have a legal caster, treasury, force, and delivery route?
• Are sacred and stealth forces assigned a retreat and replacement plan?
• Is a new fort being placed for its actual ordinary or terrain roster?

Eriu unresolved evidence boundary#

The following claims remain open:

1. exact expansion-party ranges for Milesian, Fir Bolg, and Daoine Sidhe forces;
2. live 6.36 confirmation of the Tuatha’s pinned 10% second random, which the manual does not display;
3. current terrain-recruit interface and any edge case left by the old 6.01 bug;
4. displayed Singing Sword and Gossamer Cloth costs after national rebates, other modifiers, and rounding;
5. exact Geas targeting and resistance outcomes in a particular battle;
6. Spell Singer timing, chorus composition, fatigue, interruption, and survival outcomes;
7. Glamour, stealth, and detection interactions already parked under R-058;
8. rider, Fay Horse, Chariot, and dismount outcomes under specific attacks;
9. hero arrival timing, generic Fianna frequency, and the meaning of Tuan’s pinned late-hero value;
10. specific Pretender designs, scripts, and matchup performance on a generated map.

These are evidence gaps, not invitations to guess. No runtime test or new test asset was prepared during this unit. R-047, R-058, and the wider hands-on testing queue remain parked until testing is explicitly resumed.

Part XXIII: Middle Age Agartha, Golem Cult#

Agartha one-page command brief#

Middle Age Agartha combines protected human infantry with Pale One cave recruits, capital sacred giants, underwater recruitment, and an Earth-led priest-mage corps. Seven commanders and seven troops appear in the ordinary fort tables. The capital adds two commanders and three sacred troops through three national sites, while underwater forts add a Wet One Captain and an armoured Wet One profile.

The reliable structure is:

• ordinary forts recruit the human infantry line, Pale and Wet Ones, Troglodyte Slaves, and all repeatable non-capital mages;
• every cave province can recruit Pale One Captains, Pale One Soldiers, and the lightly armoured Wet One even without a fort;
• cave forts receive extra gold and resources, although the official nation page gives no arithmetic for the increase;
• Golem Crafters guarantee F1 W1 E2 H1 and qualify for the early Fire, Water, and Earth national rituals;
• capital Oracles guarantee E3 D1 H3, one full W/E/D random, and a pinned independent 10% second W/E/D random;
• the capital produces F1 E3 D1 each month and supplies Ancient Ones, Ancient Stone Hurlers, Shard Guards, Ancient Lords, and Oracles;
• twelve national rituals form summon ladders for magma, elementals, olms, living statues, mercury, shadow beings, and undead Pale Ones;
• the manual states that constructs gain Hit Points inside Agartha’s dominion, but exact candle scaling and affected ownership classes remain unresolved.

Agartha’s central planning problem is conversion. Slow, well-protected troops and deep Earth access become strategically valuable only when the nation also budgets commander turns, research, mixed gem types, cave infrastructure, and movement to the target.

Agartha evidence and ruleset#

This chapter covers unmodded MA Agartha on the Book I 6.36 live baseline. The revision-2 official manual controls player-facing roster values, explicit recruitment locations, printed paths, national rules, capital-site output, and national ritual tables. Identifiers, membership sets, site fields, random masks, hero records, and nation restrictions are cross-checked against the pinned 6.35 Inspector export at commit cfac4311bc0b58053b8dead7bffbc036ba9bd5dc.

Official update 6.04, published 2 February 2024, includes a short Lich-shape correction for Agarthan Oracles. The note establishes that an Oracle transformation record was corrected, but it does not supply the resulting form, trigger, or present-game sequence. Those details are not reconstructed from the headline.

Agartha conversion chain#

protected infantry, cave access, and five monthly gems
-> target-specific expansion groups and surveyed cave routes
-> ordinary mage forts plus protected capital recruitment
-> Earth-led research and separate Fire, Water, Earth, and Death budgets
-> elementals, olms, statues, shadows, undead, and battlefield support
-> durable fronts, cave logistics, sieges, and Throne claims

The chain breaks when the capital queue is treated as unlimited, when slow troops are sent on a deadline they cannot meet, when a national ritual is counted without its gem type, or when an Oracle random is assumed before the commander exists.

Agartha national rules that shape the plan#

Agartha capital sites and recruitment geography#