-The soothsayer can be recruited in a fort without a lab which is the same as dom5. It is very powerful. -Great swords of sharpness are not natively an option but dusk daggers which do armor negating damage and proc bleed are. If that it too pricy hunting knifes are very efficient and low research. You can equip large numbers of the mounted priests with dusk daggers and buff and bless them and send them in with your army. -D4 witch kings can cast bondgrinding with a skull staff and 2 slaves and there are a number of D3 and D4 rituals that are very useful for the nation which they let you cast without any fuss, make sure to bring soothsayers to cast twist fate. This is a play i would generally recommend over rushing vampires. -The two glamor heroes can cast twilight followed up by nightfall which can be crushing against an unsuspecting foe when combined with shadebeasts mixed in with your army. Later on you should replace this with darkness. It is very much worth considering 50% darkvision and buffing your troops to fight in darkness. -Half the damage from shadow blast cannot be negated. This is extremely powerful when cast at high death level against human units and basically worthless when used on high hp units. -Against human players awaken Tatoos is not always worth it. There are plenty of troops that completely ignore it. You really need to look at your matchups and think about if the spell will be helpful or not because the overhead cost of recruiting and deploying the mages needed to cast it is enormous. -The nation in general benefits a lot from padding out its armies with nature and death summons and adding more poison resistant units to fight alongside hydras. -As far as i can tell the nation is ridiculously vulnerable to Abysia and Muspelheim for a long time. Keep this in mind when going into a game and thinking about builds for your matchups. -My general conception of Sauromantia is it is a human nation that excels at killing other human nations in an age that unfortunately for them is filled with monster nations that excel at killing human nations.
Great insights! Ah, I was misremembering the soothsayers as lab foreign recruits. I agree with your last point. Reminds me of Jomen being a great nation that exists and age or two too late.
I use Androphage with larger/Bloodsurge/attack + lizard manflayer prophet as great across rivers/sea fords with heat scales, cheap maintenance (putting swimming rings on other commanders and the autobless item on other Androphages used for logistics). Also ferocity on the mounts & do not really need much spears early game with the sacreds used midline instead (with Lancers as flankers and maybe a fire/retreat archer or horse cav on other flank ) but do need dominion. Spirit sight (or at least LLV) and poison resist helps mix in Hydras and poison arrows. Favourite build favourite nation.
Yeah I love these videos. I am a new player, only got into Dom with the release of 6, so they are very useful to me. And also man you make it so much easier for me to pickup new stuff. I wouldnt have really tried Therodos much, but with your guide I started playing a little more and It's actually a very fun nation. Same with Tir Na Nog, I love the celtic nations, but I didnt really know how to grasp them and what I want to focus on and this all helped. Defo will try Sauromatia now too! They look very sick. Can't wait for the more exotic nations like Xibalba. Defo something that I find interesting, but am too scared to just jump in stumble in the dark (pun intended)
That's great to hear! Helping people jump in and try out new nations is what these are all about! Make sure to share anything cool you discover, because most of us (myself included) are not experts on every aspect and there is always more to learn!
The Witch Kings are D3 with a significant chance to random another D up to a natural D4. That means they have native access to Wraith Lords and the new Lichecraft spell. Even if Immortals aren't the crazy late game option they used to be, having them basically built into the nation is still worth noting.
I tried them once before, and loved using hydras, and hated using tattoos. I prefer going very light on the bless (especially since I already have to awaken the tattoos) and cranking the scales here. And now that I've played more Death nations, I'd probably go heavy hydra/undead.
@@BabelBuilder I just finished my run with that strat. Going hard on the hydras, and never touching a tattoo. I ended up using the Sauromatia archers at first, transitioning to the raiders. Hydras ran up the middle, and ranged units and commanders on the bottom, firing and keeping distance. Lancers as bodyguards. I beelined Conj 1 and then Enchant 5 for skelly spam. Using the D2 and D3 casters to spam out undead along the bottom to meet anything that got around the hydras worked beautifully. The only real problems I had were Tir na Nog good boys in mass numbers, when I didn't position an extra batch of units with the casters (in addition to bodyguards), and their assassins. There was one province in particular that just kept racking up troops when my commanders would get sniped passing through. I used the Vampire Queen for the first time as my pretender. High Order and Magic scales, since I needed gold for the hydras and wanted to go deep into research. I wanted Death, Nature, and a little Blood. It's not listed on her buff line, but in the text, it says she summons a few vampires every winter. That ended up a useless gimmick, as she and her vamps never left the capital, so I probably would have gone with the Idol of Sorcery, as I was really looking for all the magic I could get. After Enchant 5, I took Construction 5 to ramp up on my way to Conj 7-8. I really wanted to summon the super hydra, but I won by the time I got to about Conj 5. I did take a Strong Blood bless, to give 5 poison resist without needing to actually bless, but I don't think I needed it. My only poison cloud deaths were about 6 raiders during a long fight when they ran out of ammo and chased retreating enemies up the middle. Using regular archers would probably prevent that, as they couldn't catch up to the clouds in time, but I liked the map mobility of the raiders, and their spears for fighting up close the few times it was needed. Either way, the combination of mass archers with good tanking and area damage from the hydras was great.
Going to be interesting to see this nation. I actually havent tried Sauromatia yet, even back in 5 I never touched them. So it will be a learning experience for me as I watch you play. Seems to be a very interesting nation that leans heavy into sorceries for its magic so Sabbaths and Communion plays are here if a bit expensive. Some decent Twiceborn targets, and sacred cav are far more interesting in 6 given aura changes and "doubling" up on buffs. I agree that you really cant have enough Warrior Sorceresses given they are your Bless and Awaken Tattoo. As far as Pretender and Bless, the different ideas you have are neat, especially on that last bloodfountain immobile chasis for going hard into Blood, Vampires, BloodMoon, Send Horrors, Horror Seed etc.. Even with the nerfs that were done to immortals (false damage acting as a soul slay) this nation should be pumping out more than enough and they can summon undead chaff to patrol. I still view blood as a bit weak in EA but the paths native to this nation should more than make up for it, especially with such a well built pretender. Very nice. One chasis you may have overlooked or thought too expensive was a heavy scales imprisoned/dormant Titan of Forethought (Bonuses to Order and Production) Rightous Wrath/Cold Res(to combat all your sacred mounts Cold Blood) with the ability to bring you into late game diversity in Fire and Water (Even fire 4, water 3 lets you boost up to Fire 6 Water 6 and he has astral to slot albiet poorly into communions). Great vid and as always looking forward to the stream.
I tested this out once, so light lances can deal up to half strength bonus and heavy lances deal up to full strength damage bonus. In every roll I've ever seen they always get the full damage bonus which is based off "combat speed and size" but because humans/ bird dudes are usually lancers I've never not seen it do max bonus damage.
Lances, even on fliers sure do hurt on that first hit though! Str, size, and speed can all be buffed in various ways if you want to try and max out charge dmg.
Androphag sacreds have potentially more utility because at size 4 they can share spaces with imps, swarm bugs, ancestor spirits, and asps, all which your national mages can cast I also prefer the bow cavalry instead of the melee ones because you can have them sit still for more turns to get many more buffs, and they maintain a straight line by the time enemy line reaches yours.
Sauro is a pretty fun EA human nation, I ignore the big snakes because they just don’t work all that well until the late mid game where I can safely paint poison resist on my guys. Expansion with Oiorpata’s even with a light bless slaughter indies and can hold their own in your first war, once I have my economy pumping I swap to Androphags since they can swim and their mounts do poison damage. And ofc the Enaries are beasts. A fun and cheap way to get my research pumping is dumping my first 15 turns of death gems into Revenants to jumpstart my research without having to put pressure on my first year economy.
@@BabelBuilder with Sauro I’ve found that you have to make a choice in the first year, either you dump your gems into research eco. Or you dump your gold, if you choose gold that cuts way too much into your hordes of horseman which need to be there to support your oriopatas and warrior sorcs and to counter raid anyone or help with misfortune scales. And since (from my brief and noobish MP experience) everyone else isn’t pushing much magical power and are relying on their busted sacreds. I find it’s an easier transition into the mid game burning every death gem into research monkeys to give my squishy horse ladies some magical edge in the early mid game.
The horrid cultural imperialism of the Ermorian Empire strikes again, irrevocably destroying the traditions of marverni & sauro T_T Truly the villain of the dominions saga!!
Haven't played EA or MA of these lads, interested to see how you make them work. AI never makes em look decent, and cav nations are the least attractive to me. Late Age though, on the other hand... Praise lizerd. The temptation to prophet Daughter of Typhon permanently dwells in my mind.
You sound so very much like Direwolf20 and I am actively getting flashbacks to my childhood watching your videos (the highest compliment I can bestow)
I can hear it.
@34:00 Hilarity ensues when you realize that the Partholonian Sorceress a) has homesickness, b) has immortality
She also married the guy who ate her as his seventh wife....
Status: Its complicated.
-The soothsayer can be recruited in a fort without a lab which is the same as dom5. It is very powerful.
-Great swords of sharpness are not natively an option but dusk daggers which do armor negating damage and proc bleed are. If that it too pricy hunting knifes are very efficient and low research. You can equip large numbers of the mounted priests with dusk daggers and buff and bless them and send them in with your army.
-D4 witch kings can cast bondgrinding with a skull staff and 2 slaves and there are a number of D3 and D4 rituals that are very useful for the nation which they let you cast without any fuss, make sure to bring soothsayers to cast twist fate. This is a play i would generally recommend over rushing vampires.
-The two glamor heroes can cast twilight followed up by nightfall which can be crushing against an unsuspecting foe when combined with shadebeasts mixed in with your army. Later on you should replace this with darkness. It is very much worth considering 50% darkvision and buffing your troops to fight in darkness.
-Half the damage from shadow blast cannot be negated. This is extremely powerful when cast at high death level against human units and basically worthless when used on high hp units.
-Against human players awaken Tatoos is not always worth it. There are plenty of troops that completely ignore it. You really need to look at your matchups and think about if the spell will be helpful or not because the overhead cost of recruiting and deploying the mages needed to cast it is enormous.
-The nation in general benefits a lot from padding out its armies with nature and death summons and adding more poison resistant units to fight alongside hydras.
-As far as i can tell the nation is ridiculously vulnerable to Abysia and Muspelheim for a long time. Keep this in mind when going into a game and thinking about builds for your matchups.
-My general conception of Sauromantia is it is a human nation that excels at killing other human nations in an age that unfortunately for them is filled with monster nations that excel at killing human nations.
Great insights!
Ah, I was misremembering the soothsayers as lab foreign recruits.
I agree with your last point. Reminds me of Jomen being a great nation that exists and age or two too late.
I use Androphage with larger/Bloodsurge/attack + lizard manflayer prophet as great across rivers/sea fords with heat scales, cheap maintenance (putting swimming rings on other commanders and the autobless item on other Androphages used for logistics). Also ferocity on the mounts & do not really need much spears early game with the sacreds used midline instead (with Lancers as flankers and maybe a fire/retreat archer or horse cav on other flank ) but do need dominion. Spirit sight (or at least LLV) and poison resist helps mix in Hydras and poison arrows. Favourite build favourite nation.
Yeah I love these videos. I am a new player, only got into Dom with the release of 6, so they are very useful to me.
And also man you make it so much easier for me to pickup new stuff. I wouldnt have really tried Therodos much, but with your guide I started playing a little more and It's actually a very fun nation.
Same with Tir Na Nog, I love the celtic nations, but I didnt really know how to grasp them and what I want to focus on and this all helped.
Defo will try Sauromatia now too! They look very sick.
Can't wait for the more exotic nations like Xibalba. Defo something that I find interesting, but am too scared to just jump in stumble in the dark (pun intended)
That's great to hear! Helping people jump in and try out new nations is what these are all about!
Make sure to share anything cool you discover, because most of us (myself included) are not experts on every aspect and there is always more to learn!
The Witch Kings are D3 with a significant chance to random another D up to a natural D4. That means they have native access to Wraith Lords and the new Lichecraft spell. Even if Immortals aren't the crazy late game option they used to be, having them basically built into the nation is still worth noting.
I haven't actually used the lichecraft ritual yet. Maybe we can get it up and running here.
I tried them once before, and loved using hydras, and hated using tattoos. I prefer going very light on the bless (especially since I already have to awaken the tattoos) and cranking the scales here. And now that I've played more Death nations, I'd probably go heavy hydra/undead.
Hydras are fun, but man when things go wrong...they really go wrong!
@@BabelBuilder I just finished my run with that strat. Going hard on the hydras, and never touching a tattoo. I ended up using the Sauromatia archers at first, transitioning to the raiders. Hydras ran up the middle, and ranged units and commanders on the bottom, firing and keeping distance. Lancers as bodyguards.
I beelined Conj 1 and then Enchant 5 for skelly spam. Using the D2 and D3 casters to spam out undead along the bottom to meet anything that got around the hydras worked beautifully. The only real problems I had were Tir na Nog good boys in mass numbers, when I didn't position an extra batch of units with the casters (in addition to bodyguards), and their assassins. There was one province in particular that just kept racking up troops when my commanders would get sniped passing through.
I used the Vampire Queen for the first time as my pretender. High Order and Magic scales, since I needed gold for the hydras and wanted to go deep into research. I wanted Death, Nature, and a little Blood. It's not listed on her buff line, but in the text, it says she summons a few vampires every winter. That ended up a useless gimmick, as she and her vamps never left the capital, so I probably would have gone with the Idol of Sorcery, as I was really looking for all the magic I could get. After Enchant 5, I took Construction 5 to ramp up on my way to Conj 7-8. I really wanted to summon the super hydra, but I won by the time I got to about Conj 5.
I did take a Strong Blood bless, to give 5 poison resist without needing to actually bless, but I don't think I needed it. My only poison cloud deaths were about 6 raiders during a long fight when they ran out of ammo and chased retreating enemies up the middle. Using regular archers would probably prevent that, as they couldn't catch up to the clouds in time, but I liked the map mobility of the raiders, and their spears for fighting up close the few times it was needed. Either way, the combination of mass archers with good tanking and area damage from the hydras was great.
Going to be interesting to see this nation. I actually havent tried Sauromatia yet, even back in 5 I never touched them. So it will be a learning experience for me as I watch you play.
Seems to be a very interesting nation that leans heavy into sorceries for its magic so Sabbaths and Communion plays are here if a bit expensive. Some decent Twiceborn targets, and sacred cav are far more interesting in 6 given aura changes and "doubling" up on buffs.
I agree that you really cant have enough Warrior Sorceresses given they are your Bless and Awaken Tattoo.
As far as Pretender and Bless, the different ideas you have are neat, especially on that last bloodfountain immobile chasis for going hard into Blood, Vampires, BloodMoon, Send Horrors, Horror Seed etc.. Even with the nerfs that were done to immortals (false damage acting as a soul slay) this nation should be pumping out more than enough and they can summon undead chaff to patrol. I still view blood as a bit weak in EA but the paths native to this nation should more than make up for it, especially with such a well built pretender. Very nice.
One chasis you may have overlooked or thought too expensive was a heavy scales imprisoned/dormant Titan of Forethought (Bonuses to Order and Production) Rightous Wrath/Cold Res(to combat all your sacred mounts Cold Blood) with the ability to bring you into late game diversity in Fire and Water (Even fire 4, water 3 lets you boost up to Fire 6 Water 6 and he has astral to slot albiet poorly into communions).
Great vid and as always looking forward to the stream.
I tested this out once, so light lances can deal up to half strength bonus and heavy lances deal up to full strength damage bonus. In every roll I've ever seen they always get the full damage bonus which is based off "combat speed and size" but because humans/ bird dudes are usually lancers I've never not seen it do max bonus damage.
Lances, even on fliers sure do hurt on that first hit though! Str, size, and speed can all be buffed in various ways if you want to try and max out charge dmg.
Androphag sacreds have potentially more utility because at size 4 they can share spaces with imps, swarm bugs, ancestor spirits, and asps, all which your national mages can cast
I also prefer the bow cavalry instead of the melee ones because you can have them sit still for more turns to get many more buffs, and they maintain a straight line by the time enemy line reaches yours.
Oh, nice catch. Size 4 sacred cav makes me look at larger....
I actually played them recently and it was fun playing s nation that isn't infantry reliant.
Really get to see the cavalry mechanics on full display here.
Sauro is a pretty fun EA human nation, I ignore the big snakes because they just don’t work all that well until the late mid game where I can safely paint poison resist on my guys. Expansion with Oiorpata’s even with a light bless slaughter indies and can hold their own in your first war, once I have my economy pumping I swap to Androphags since they can swim and their mounts do poison damage. And ofc the Enaries are beasts. A fun and cheap way to get my research pumping is dumping my first 15 turns of death gems into Revenants to jumpstart my research without having to put pressure on my first year economy.
Ah, a fellow revenant enjoyer! I don't know how I feel about them here, but I do like them on certain nations for sure!
@@BabelBuilder with Sauro I’ve found that you have to make a choice in the first year, either you dump your gems into research eco. Or you dump your gold, if you choose gold that cuts way too much into your hordes of horseman which need to be there to support your oriopatas and warrior sorcs and to counter raid anyone or help with misfortune scales. And since (from my brief and noobish MP experience) everyone else isn’t pushing much magical power and are relying on their busted sacreds. I find it’s an easier transition into the mid game burning every death gem into research monkeys to give my squishy horse ladies some magical edge in the early mid game.
The whole tattoo thing never made it pass MA 😂
It was mostly just a fad.
The horrid cultural imperialism of the Ermorian Empire strikes again, irrevocably destroying the traditions of marverni & sauro T_T
Truly the villain of the dominions saga!!
Haven't played EA or MA of these lads, interested to see how you make them work. AI never makes em look decent, and cav nations are the least attractive to me.
Late Age though, on the other hand... Praise lizerd. The temptation to prophet Daughter of Typhon permanently dwells in my mind.
I don't think the ai understands the need to activate all the tattoos.
@BabelBuilder 'Tattoo' has two t's
Yes...yes it does. I'll have to fix that tonight. Thx.