0. 2 Description 3 Credits

-> Shockwave is not so hot.

Const 6 (if you can get this far without fighting another player), Alter 4, Ench 6, Conj 3, Thau 1, Evoc 6

AAEES can cast Summon Earthpower to get to E3, and then cast blade wind (evoc, against Mictlan) or Destruction (alter, against armored opponents,) or Gifts from Heaven (evoc, against giants).

AAEFS can cast Power of the Spheres (Conj) and then Phoenix Power (Conj) to cast real fire magic, particularly flaming arrows (Ench) which is very nice for your all archer army. Otherwise, you can make them communion masters, and then have them follow the flaming arrows with magma eruption (evoc). Astral fires is also a great spell but I think magma eruption is better.

AAESS can cast several utility spells (anti-magic, ench), or if you give them a 4-man communion they can cast enslave mind (thau) and other sexy astral stuff.

Anyway, the spells you want are:

Forge Quills (Const 2)

Legions of Steel (Const 3)

Forge Lightless Lanterns (Const 6)

The various power-boosting spells (Conj 3)

Communion (Thau 1)

Flaming Arrows (Ench 4)

Arrow Fend (Ench 6)

Ghost Wolves (Alter 3)

Destruction (Alter 4)

Curse of Stones (Alter 4)

Wind Guide (Alter 4)

Phantasmal Army (Alter 5)

Phantasmal Army (Alter 6)

Thunder Strike (Evoc 4)

Blade Wind (Evoc 4)

Gifts from Heaven (Evoc 5)

Magma Eruption (Evoc 6)
For the late game, the following spells are really nuts:

Mists of Deception (Ench 8)

Fog Warriors (Alter 7)

Will of the Fates (Alter 8)

Army of Gold (Alter 9)

Master Enslave (Thau 9)

Couldn't you do it with 16 and an S2 Magister Arcane?

Communion Master(16 slaves, +4S) = S6

Power of the Spheres (1 pearl, +1S) = S7

Light of the Northern Star (1 pearl, +1S, cast by someone else) = S8

Master Enslave (requires S8)
Throw in a couple of item boosters and it should be quite practical with 4-8 communion slaves. Unless, I mean, you've got oodles of communion slaves hanging around anyway.

]
[response:

The issue is - do you want the slaves to live? Also, do you want to cast any other spells out of your communion? (answer: yes, you absolutely do, master enslave is great but not THAT great.)
8 Slaves -> Slaves are S4, Fatigue = 800 * 5 / 8 = 500, so instead death.

16 Slaves -> Slaves are S5, Fatigue = 800 * 4 / 16 = 200, so inatant death.

Okay, the actual fatigue the units can survive is:

200 + 9 (hit points) - 25 (for communion slave) - 20 (encumberance * 4 personal cost for master enslave) = 166.

20 Slaves -> 800 * 4 / 20 = 160.
So you can get one off if you have 20 slaves. BUT you can't cast anything else through the communion! This is very bad.
32 Slaves -> Slaves are S6, Fatigue = 800 * 2 / 32 = 50.
So, if you have 32 slaves, you can have two communion masters casting it AT THE SAME TIME. Now we're cooking with gas.

]
-> On another front for LA Man, don't forget the regular Magisters and the Judges.

32 is too much but it's ok to add penetration wich is BADLY needed.

The communion slaves pay their share of the fatigue

There is a hidden mechanism which I described above.

Say I'm an S4 caster with two S2 communion slaves, and I cast "Will of the Fates" (S4, 400 fatigue.)

I'm boosted to S5, so I pay (400 / 2) / 3 ~= 66 fatigue.

My slaves are boosted to S3, so they each pay (400 * 2) / 3 ~= 266 fatigue, and drop dead.

I'm not sure how spending extra gems works into this - it may or may not reduce the fatigue spent by the slaves.

Each communion member takes encumberance individually. The relationship between encumberance and skill level is still not entirely clear.

-> LA Man? Make alot of use of longbows and defenders and try to research buffs for defenders quickly(they rock ).

8.24 Marignon

8.24.1 MA Marignon

8.24.1.1 Assortment of tips

Royal Guard as front line tanks,

Flagellents as flankers, secondary support,

lots of fire mages,

some assorted infantry to taste.
Flagellants are easily a top-5 sacred (imo). They have two attacks, low resources/cost (almost free), can be recruited in any castle. You can easily make armies that contain hundreds of F9 flagellants, that will be decent against virtually every target. It's hard to think of another sacred unit per cost that has the Flagellant's sheer offensive potential.
The only thing about Flagellants is that they can't be on the front line; you have to have a screen of cavalry/infantry to soak up spells and arrow fire to allow them to close.
-> Don't forget the stealth--Marignon has spies, assassins, and stealthy preachers.
Also, if you're going to use a flagellant bless strategy, you have recruitable H3's with high leadership, which makes it a lot easier.
-> I'm playing Marignon at the moment (turn 70 odd) and took an Air-4 Earth-3 Water-3 Nature-3 dormant frost father. For magical diversity it's been amazing. He can make a Winged Helmet and Earth boots, which you can give to your mages with randoms (which you end up with loads of) to get all your territory earth and air searched. You can make a thistle mace or two and give them to some indy shamen. And eventually you can summon a Naiad or a Sea Troll for more water access (I was lucky enough to find a magic site that allowed me to recruit water mages). The only magic I didn't have was death, for thematic reasons. Although recently I've found a Necromancer site and have ditched my morals.
So I went for a low-army high-magic strategy. In the early game I concentrated on Evo, and built hordes of mages (about 3 a turn quite early on). Fireball and Falling Fires are devastating, all you need to do with your army is distract them for long enough that your mages can incinerate them.
On the other hand I think I haven't played brilliant, and making better use of the troops would probably be an excellent idea.
Later on in the game the angels are amazing. I had one angel that almost single handedly captured about ten enemy provinces and killed army after army.
Marignon probably isn't as strong as Pythium - but then almost no-one is. Pythium's very strong indeed I think (good troops, very good magic, hydras, angels). But I don't know why anyone would think Marignon's mages are no good. I reckon they're fantastic.
-> I'm playing a MP game with MA Marignon and have done some tests prior to starting it. I have come to consolidate the following opinions about this nation (in no particular order or importance):

1. Its not really a bless nation. The knights of the chalice are nice but capitol only. The falgelants are crap.

2. Mundane armies are xbows, infantry screens ( pick and choose depending on the opposition there's an answer for opposing cavs, archers and infantry). Those should be backed up by mages and inquisitors. Mages mostly spam evoc. fire spells and priests boost moral and possibly banish/smite.

3. Magical diversity is bad (S+F almost exclusively). Rainbow mage is almost a must on this nation. Its possible to use a hybrid SC/Rainbow chassis or a full SC but I dislike those options as both have negative impact on end game.

4. Astral. Surprisingly Marignon is not the king (at least not when nations such as Pythium, Bandar, R'lyeh, MA Ermor are involved). So special care needs to be taken when facing a strong astral nation.

5. Dominion kill is a viable strategy. It takes some managing investment but sneaking preachers and inquisitors may pull this off.

6. Angels are one of this nations prominent powers. Plan to use them often and well. All the angel types have their uses as SCs/ anti SCs/ Raiders.

1. Harbringer. Awe is good vs. low moral units. A2 gives him air shield for archers, mistform and mirror image. Equip it with vine/charcoal shield, fire/frost brand, cheap armor, boots of stone/quicknes, lucky pendant/amulet antimagic, cat charm/ring of regen. It can and should bless self or an angel of fury partner. It can also cloud trapez, giving it invaluable strategic movement (teleport to front lines or on top of an annoying army).

It can be used to blast undead with heavenly horn/banishment as well. This chasis can get down with any mundane army easy enough. I have seen it chow down armies many a times both in SP and MP. For mere 25S I consider it a bargain.

2. Angel of fury. Heavy duty flying killing machine. Good SC/Anti SC chasis. His base stats are generally better than those of the harbinger and he has fear and blood vengeance.

As an SC you could equip him as the harbringer but remember that it is relatively vulnerable to ranged fire (xbows come to mind) so either pair him with an air shielded harbringer decoy or give him robe/amulet of missile protection. He is blessable so if you have a nice bless pair him with another angel that can bless him.

More HP (around 50 IIRC) on him means he benefits from regen.

The blood vengeance is good for both crowd control (pair with charcoal shield and rime hauberk), retaliate vs. mages and inflict additional damage on opposing SCs.

3. Angelic host. very good vs. undead SCs (banelords, wraithlords and tartarians) due to flambaeu. put the host on guard commander and the angel on phoenix pyre, fire shield, attack rear. BTW, flambaeu costs 20F and the summons 50s, so in situations where its used the summons become quite cost effective.

4. Heavenly choir, I have yet to summon one not in SP nor MP. The above three were always enough to secure victory (or defeat). But the stats do seem to suggest the seraph to be one of the supreme critters in the dominions universe.

5. All angels fly which makes them good at raiding. The host can be summoned to an enemy province (though I usually wouldn't recommend it - the AI will make bad use of it). The harbringer and seraph teleport.

7. Blessable mages benefit from earth bless.

8. The above makes research order clear. Evoc. 4 (holy pyre, fireball). Summon. 7 (angels). Alt. 3 (SC buffs). Const 4 (SC basic items). Thaum 3 (elemental search, mind burn, teleport).

9. The above makes optimal pretender clear. Cheap rainbow mage (don't worry about high dominion due to good preachers). E4-6, N2-4, A2-4, W2-4, D2-4, the rest are optional. Dominion 5-7.

10. Use communion circles (the ones with slaves casting due to hidden mechanism). Example:

Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells

Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells

Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells

Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells

...

Slave, Fire Darts, Falling Fires x 3, spells

Master, Phoenix Power, Personal Luck, ...

This is my summary for Marignon,fiery justice, and will be mainly a sp guide.

I made this guide because marignon is a funny nations but there aren't guides for Middle age.

but don't watse time and let's burn some heretics.

you will not need a sc, because marignon has plenty of angelic summon and crossbow can take care of rush.

Rainbow arent very useful too, because the gem you will need are mostly astral that u can search easily with your mages

I suggest

1)a phoenix with f9/Ax awakened or dormant in order to cast buff to your archer(wind guide,flaming arrows).
2)a baphomet f9/s9 for bless(this will double the life of a flagellant and flaming attacks+improved attack skill means they can hurt).

8.24.1.2.2 scales

turmoil could be good if you need design points(it makes good sinergy with luck)

they cost 20+resources,too much for killing them with your arrows.skip

a little bit expensive(80g,37res) but who dont like a legion of holy knight with flaming weapons? an heretic that must be burnt,i'll tell you.sacred.

on that (if your lucy) you can use enrage from an indie druid empowered without much problem.
flagellant: two attck but low att value(9 and they literally die like flies).

You can recruit them in any fort,so, with a good dominion you shuld be able to recruit a lot of them. a S9/F9 bless really helps them, and is better than W9(S9 gives them 2 lifes and f9 increse att and dmg.)i dont recruit them.sacred

alt4(wind guide)-->cons4-->ench5(flaming arrows)-->evocation5(falling fire)-->conj9

atleast this is the path i take in order to destroy the heretics.

or you can choose to go alteration 6and take iron warriors then construction 7 for sharpned weapons and then buff your horde of flagellant(you will have to use alot of empowered mages,so is not a good strategy)

in thaum4 you can take vengeance of the dead and use your flagellant just to let them die vs your opponents'god/prophet(this strategy works best with a d/b bless,but is more funny than useful)

8.24.1.2.6 summon

8.24.1.2.7 Comments

Actually reading the "guide" seems to confirm my suspicion - a rushed job with no substance whatsoever.

The pretenders section is roughly twice as useful, mostly because you actually mention something resembling strategy.

1. Build crossbows.

2. Buff crossbows with your pretender.

3. Summon angels.

4. ???

5. Victory!

Also, using Smite in expansion and early fights, mapmove 2 armies (everyone except normal infantry and Grandmasters, even them if you get winged boots), using spies to shut off enemy economy etc, what to do if you are at war against Abysia, etc.

8.24.2.1 The Royal guide to Marignon, Conquerors of the Sea

1- Nation Overview and Pretender choice.

2- Units overview

3- Early Expansion and Defense

4- Magic paths

5- Mini-blood guide

Nation overview
Strengths.
Cost effective mages: Marignon has very good (for late age) mages, both in power and research, for the low cost of 150 and 190 gold. The best ones of them are sacred as well, so half the unkeep. It has as well a varied rounded up magic. Assuming you can get one of the dozen of independent mages with nature 1, you have ALL spheres of magic by turn 30 or so.
High level priests. You can buy level 3 priests (which mean you can afford lvl 4 profet) and they are inquisitors as a bonus. Very powerful. Sadly you dont have sacreds worth their name, but still a very good morale boost
Very decent PD: marignon gets 1 pikemen and 1 crossbowmen per PD point, plus 1 halbardier beyond 20. That¿s a bunch of gold and, specially, resources to buff your defense.
Very decent base missile troops: Marignon gets a great missile unit, the crossbowmen, which have great cost efficiency, and can be naturally buffed with wind guide and flaming arrows, which make them powerful
Blood magic: With Mictlan, the only real blood power in Late Age. That means a lot of things.
No reliance on Capital: Only thing you can¿t buy in a normal castle is the Admiral, which you wont buy at all ever.
Weakness:
Lack troop variety: marignon have bassically crossbowmen and royal guards. Everything else, even if they have good stats, have 2 mayor weakness, movement of 1, and lack of shield (which mean YOU will kill them with bolts)