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caveat: I am new to dominions, and I've never played multiplayer
(MP), only singleplayer (SP). Most of my strategies are based on
reading other peoples' guides. Pashadawg generously gave me some
of the saved game files from the recent RAND game
which was won by Micah playing Fomoria, so a great deal of this
guide comes from examining his moves.

The RAND game is here:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...art=1&vc=1

1. troops

Fomorian Warrior: This is your best soldier, and generally the
only non-capital troop that you'll recruit.

Unmarked: This is the cheaper of your two sacreds. Most of your armies
will be made from these. Try to recruit as many as you can.

Fomorian Giant: The more expensive sacred. These guys are super powerful,
especially with your bless (more or than later), but at 110gp each,
you're not going to be able to afford many. As cash flow allows, try to
buy a few of these instead of unmarked.

Nemedian Warrior: capital only, stealthy glamour heavy infantry
with 16 defense. Clearly has raiding potential. Spare resources at
the capitol (after building a king, and all your sacreds) should
go to these, when you can afford them.

[TODO: more on the other units]

2. commanders

Fomorian Druid: your only non-capital mage, and the main commander
you'll be recruiting in your non-capitol forts. A cost effective
researcher at 150gp,sacred, with 3 research. The druid also has
10 leadership, which is enough to lead ten Fomorian Warriors.
Surprisingly (to me anyways), one Druid and ten Formorian Warriors
can take out most indy provinces / mild province defense, so that
gives you access to lots of small raiding parties.

All Formorian Druids can cast aim, and one in four can cast eagle eye too,
so they make great combat spellcasters. They also make excellent
combat artillery (more on this later). The Formorian Druid
comes in 4 variations:

A2 can forge thunder bows, can summon storm power/thunderstrike, can cloud trapeze
A1W1 can forge ring of water for W2, then forges frost brand, sword of swiftness, boots of quickness, water bottle, etc
Or arm with a bow, cast aim, quickness, fire closest
You'll also want one (at W2) to cast voice of apsu.
A1D1 raise skeletons, cheap blesser if you need it.
A1G1 with a bow and boots of quickness, script aim, eagle eye, fire closest
One of these should walk around site searching.
As soon as you can, You'll want to empower one to 2G, which unlocks thistle
maces and haruspex.

Fomorian King: this is the centerpiece of Fomoria. Properly
outfitted, the Fomorian King isn't just a thug, it really qualifies
as a supercombantant (SC). They are also excellent combat spell
casters. You should aim to recruit one every turn, after the first
few turns.

There are three common variants of Fomorian Kings:

A4D2 thunderspam, can cast storm with 2 gems or an air booster,
can forge air boosters, or staff of storms
A3D3 as a thug: bless, mistform, soul vortex, attack.
Or, traveling with an A4, summon storm power, aim, thunderstrike
x3 In the late game, with air boosters & travelling with blesser
and staff of storms, consider thunderstike x5
A3W1D2 as a thug, cast quickness, mistform, attack. Or with a
water ring and gems, can cast quickening to haste your warriors.

Nemedian Sorceress: if you recruit a Sorceress, you aren't recruiting a King.
Don't build these; instead, save up for a King.

3. general overview

With a decent bless (e.g., E9/N4), you have incredible rush power.
At alt-3, a king with 6-8 Unmarked and 1-2 Giants can kill most anything that's
around in year one.

You lack magical diversity, especially astral, which is critical.
Astral indy mages are a high priority for you, and you should
probably splash astral on your pretender as well (and possibly
fire, too). If your pretender has S3E2 you can construct golems, which have at least S2 (S3 with cap, S4
with crystal coin, which your pretender can forge). This
will unlock astral forging (amulets of antimagic and caps
for all your kings), althought it takes construction-7,
which is pretty late.
You have a possible end-game in Death magic - well
of misery, tartarians.

Don't forget mercenaries! Even an S1 mercenary can cast arcane probing
for three rounds, which is three chances at sage, crystal mage,
etc.

4. research plan

Alteration: Your first research goal is Alteration-3. This unlocks
mistform, which helps your Kings immensely (along with
Quicken Self on the W1 kings).
Alt-3 also provides Protection, which your A1G1 druids can cast.
Along the way you'll pick up Resist Lightning, Cold Resistance,
Barkskin, Aim, Eagle Eyes, Quicken Self.
Enchantment: take ench-1 for skellispam.
Evocation: Your next goal is Evo-5, for storm. Along the way
you get summon storm power, thunderstrike, and a handful
of other good combat spells.
On your way to Evo-5, break for the site searching spells at
Thaum-2, Conj-2.
Enchantment: Ench-4 has the critial cloud trapeze. Along the
way you'll pick up skellispam (ench-1 and ench-3). Also at
Ench-4 is twiceborn which all your Kings can cast. I'm not
sure if this is a good use of 10 death gems or not, but it's
an option. Probably worth it on the rare 1 in 10 kings with
an extra magic path.

Evo-5 probably marks the transition into mid-game for you, as
you change from small stacks of thugs to massive thunderstriking
power. At this point, you probably want to take
construction to 4 or even 6.

Late game options: construction 8 for forge of the ancients and artifacts;
or ench-6 and conj-9 for lichcraft-tag-tartarians.

5. tactics
5.1 Thugs
Without any equipment but a good bless and alt-3, kings are already
pretty excellent thugs. Splash in frost brand or sword of swiftness,
shields (vine shield is in reach at N2), boots of quickness,
etc, and they're vicious.

All your kings can cloud trapeze as well, so large
air-raids are easy for you (read Baalz' Eriu guide for details).

You desperately want S1 for amulet of antimagic and starshine skullcap
to boost your King's magic resistance.

5.2 storms, thunderstrikes, and you

All your kings and druids work great with storm, summon storm power,
and lightning evocations. With a screen of your incredibly tough
of Unmarked, Fomorian Giants, and Fomorian Warriors, your mages
can pile on evocations with impunity.

5.3 artillery druids

All your Druids can cast aim, and some of them can cast eagle
eyes or quicken self, too. Armed with a bow and quickness
(either boots or self-cast), they make great artillery commanders.
Some decent bows are available at construction-2, which is
sooner than evo-5 for storm. A few standout bows are Black Bow
of Botulf (cheap at 5 death gems), Thunder Bow (10 air gems,
deals *strength* armor negating damage, and your druids have
21 strength), Vision's Foe (5 air, 5 death, arbalest with +10
precision). Add in Eyes of Aiming (all your druids can forge
them) for even more precision.

I really like the synergy with Thunder Bow and the high strength
druids. However, your opponents are probably expecting lightning
damage and may prepare with lightning resistance, so use with
caution.

6. pretenders and scales

6.1 chassis

Because you have Formorian Kings, you don't need an SC pretender,
and you don't need an awake pretender. All your mages are
sacred, and you have fantastic sacred units, so a bless is in
order. You lack magical diversity, so splashing a few magic
paths your pretender is probably also good idea. So for chassis,
your best bet is the cheap rainbow mages. The enchantress is
probably the best among them, but tinker and see which fits
best for you.

6.2 Magic paths

The key bless for you is E9, which helps all your spellcasters
with invigoration (thunderstrike is tiring!), as well as a handy
+4 prot for your troops. Regeneration from the Nature bless
works well for you too, since all your units have high hit
points. But avoid N9 -- when your mages catch an arrow (and
with 32hp, your druids will survive a few), they'll berserk,
rush forward and attack, and you'll be very unhappy.

If you go with the E9 bless, your have a good shot at
the forge of the ancients; also, your pretender can make
golems which will help you crank out all those amulets of
antimagic and starshine skullcaps that your Kings need.

You need Astral. S4 gives a little boost
to your MR-weak Kings, and unlocks ring of sorcery/ring of
wizardry.

6.3 scales

Order: Kings are expensive, you need cash. Order-3 is a no-brainer.
Productivity: You need at least enough productivity to recruit
a King and 5-6 Unmarked or Giants at your capitol, so I wouldn't
take Sloth. But Production isn't really necessary either.
Heat/Cold: You will not have large numbers of troops, so the
supply reduction from heat/cold doesn't bother you. A point
of heat or cold is a cheap way to get a few more design points.
Growth: Not sure about this either. Perhaps 0?
Luck: This is another place to get some design points. Misfortune-2
is probably safe.
Magic: Since you will be using your Kings right from the start, and
relying on research-3 druids and indy mages for research, a
few scales in Magic are very helpful for you.

An example pretender:
Imprisoned Great Enchantress, E9/N4/S4/F1, dominion 5.
Order-3, Cold 1, Misfortune 2, Magic 1
or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 2, Magic 2
or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 3, Magic 3

[[some edits; thanks Endoperez.]]