[iainuki]

Key Spells

Conjuration

1. Tangle Vines (N1): Any gutuater can cast this spell and it is cheap to research, making it useful for assisting expansion against independent provinces; they are also surprisingly effective against certain classes of thugs, since a gutuater spamming them can achieve a virtual pin, allowing ordinary units to beat the thug to death over time.
   
2. Cave Drake (E2): Marverni gets 3 earth gems/turn from its initial site and these tend to be the best summons available at low levels of conjuration in earth. They're best used as tanks for more offense-heavy troops like Marverni bare chests.
   
3. Power of the Spheres (S1)
   
   Voice of Apsu (W2)
   
   Summon Earthpower (E2): An essential spell for combat druids, it gives druids with E2 access to gifts from the heavens, blade wind, legions of steel, and strength of giants; and lets druids with high earth cast them with much less fatigue.
   
   Sounder of Boars (N2): At a quite reasonable price of 1 nature gem per, you get 20 size-3 trampling boars. While not capable of a true trampling rush, they offer a decent cavalry-like force that can run over weaker enemy units like archers and can be blessed. They tend not to have the protection or defense to survive long compared with, e.g., Eponi knights.
   
4. 
   
5. Boar of Carnutes (N1E1): Boars of Carnutes make good midgame additions to your commander mix. While they are better intrinsic fighters than human commanders, their lack of most item slots means they can't be geared up to be useful as thugs; however, they have a lot of hit points and so are unlikely to die from stray arrows or a unit or two making it to the back ranks, unlike unequipped humans. They also randomly generate lesser boars, though not enough to replace normal losses except under the least demanding of battlefield conditions; and have fortuneteller 15, so are useful at warding off Misfortune effects in key provinces (such as your starting province) and where your armies are active.
   
   Contact Naiad (W3N1): Because Marverni has trouble getting more than 1W1N on the same caster and can't get more than 2N or 2W without boosters, the naiad is often a useful supplement with its 3W3N combination.
   
6. Contact Lamia Queen (N5D2): This summon offers the easiest way into death magic for Marverni, especially if you can forge the Jade Mask artifact as well: empower with death an N2 caster and use a ring of sorcery/wizardry, a moonvine bracelet, and a thistle mace.
   
7. 
   
8. Earth Attack (E5)
   
   Faerie Court (N5): While probably arriving too late to make a significant difference in the game, the faerie queen gives Marverni an easy way into air magic.

Alteration

1. Eagle Eyes (N1)
   
   Earth Grip (E1): The druid's version of tangle vines; useful if you have druids in combat early in the game since it arrives with the same 40 research points as Earth Might.
   
   Earth Might (E2): Not a great buff, but Alteration 1 gets both this spell and Earth Grip.
   
2. Earth Meld (E2)
   
3. 
   
4. Wind Guide (A2): This buff increases precision on all spells and missiles, making it a huge benefit both for independent archers, Marverni bare chests, and druids.
   
   Destruction (E3): A good spell in general against heavily-armored opponents, it also combines well with blade wind.
   
   Swarm (N1): Notable mostly for use by teleporting druids to slow down province defense so they can rout it with evocations.
   
5. Wooden Warriors (N2): A great if fatiguing buff for your human troops; use N2 gutuaters to cast it.
   
6. Iron Pigs (E3N1): Marverni's iron pigs are sacred boars: they fill much the same role, but have much higher hit points and protection, though low MR.
   
7. Creeping Doom (N3)
   
   Mass Protection (N3)
   
8. Will of the Fates (S4)
   
9. Army of Lead (E5)
   
   Wish (S9)

Evocation

1. Astral Projection (S1)
   
2. Arcane Probing (S1)
   
3. Magic Duel (S1)
   
   Healing Light (S1N1): One of the few healing spells with good range, Marverni has S1N1 gutuaters to spam it; it combines well with Carnutes, who need to take damage to go berserk.
   
4. Blade Wind (E3): One of the two powerful earth evocations for druids, blade wind is best-suited for taking out massive numbers of low-protection troops; with it, one druid can substitute for an entire squad of archers. The spell's major liability is its huge fatigue cost, so it requires boosters, items or spells, and high-earth druids.
   
5. Gifts from Heaven (E3N1): The other power evocation for druids, gifts from heaven does enormous damage to a small area, with low precision, making it ideal for taking out high-hit-points, high-protection units.
   
6. Mind Hunt (S4): Marverni can remote-attack enemy commanders with the best using this spell.
   
7. Storm of Thorns (N2): Not a great argument for going to evocation 7, but if you end up there, it's a nice attack spell N2 gutuaters can spam without difficulty.

Construction

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. Legions of Steel (E3): This spell looks a lot better than it is because of the way the AI script handles it: casters will preferentially target the lowest-protection units, even if they're unarmored and thus receive no benefit from the spell, before higher-protection units. For Marverni, keeping the archers and bare chests out of range or mixing bare chests in with the Carnutes helps, but there's nothing to do about the druids themselves: they *will* cast the spell on themselves first even though it does nothing for them. If the AI wasn't so broken, legions of steel would be quite strong, but as it is, it's notable mainly for being a buff that's in construction.
   
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   
7. Weapons of Sharpness (E5): One of the single most important late-game buffs, this spell makes Carnutes that much more deadly and helps negate some of the advantage that high-protection and ethereal units have.
   
8. Forge of the Ancients (E5): What more can be said about this spell that hasn't already?
   
9. Golem Construction (S3E2): Golems give Marverni a real thug unit and complement some of the weaknesses of its mortal-based army; also, as Baalz notes, they handle quite well some of the possible counters to druids.

Enchantment

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. Strength of Giants (E3): One of the most important early buffs druids can cast, the strength boost complements the general high-offense and mass-numbers Marverni strategy; note that it also increases javelin damage and range.
   
4. Flaming Arrows (F4): The earlier-arriving complement to weapons of sharpness for missile weapons, flaming arrows gives a substantial boost to massed Marverni bare chests.
   
   Antimagic (S3): Less important when it first arrives than later, antimagic is an essential counter to some of the late-game mass kill spells.
   
5. Ritual of Returning (S2)
   
   Dispel (S3)
   
   Eyes of God (S5): The first powerful global that arrives at enchantment 5, information as always is invaluable so Eyes of God can be worth the investment, though don't expect it to stay up; also note that if someone counters it with Fate of Oedipus, being blind doesn't affect mages using spells that don't need precision much at all.
   
   Gift of Health (N5): Given the reliance Marverni places on old druids has, gift of health is an even better spell for it than for most nations.
   
6. Arrow Fend (A3): Since Marverni fields so many infantry with light armor, protecting them all from arrows offers substantial benefit.
   
   Relief (N5)
   
7. Awaken Treelord (N5): One of the three treelords has blood 1 and represents an easy, though late and not particularly efficient, way to pick it up for blood sacrificing and forging.
   
8. Mass Regeneration (N4)
   
9. Gift of Nature's Bounty (N7): This global enchantment solves Marverni's money problems, if you're unfortunate to have a game last long enough. Three words: "mass druid recruitment."
   
   Arcane Nexus (S8): Of the gem-generating spells, arcane nexus is by far the best because it scales with the number and power of your opponents: the more gems they use, the more you get. That said, arcane nexus is another game-winning global, because if you keep it up, that probably means you've won.

Thaumaturgy

1. Returning (S2)
   
   Communion Master/Slave (S1): Since all Marverni's mages can have astral magic, it has great potential to link them up in communions. A particularly useful application of early communions is to boost the holy level of druids and/or the prophet so they can cast divine blessing and fanaticism; since all divine spells are 0-fatigue, there's no risk to the slaves, and fanaticism can buff 200+ bare chests in one spell.
   
   Curse (N1S1): Curse is a versatile counter to a variety of early-game rush strategies and also has value as a deterrent to enemies: even if they win, they will still be cursed and have the consequent afflictions.
   
2. Gnome Lore (E2)
   
   Haruspex (N2)
   
   Sleep (N2): Sleep makes one of the best elephant counters because of their low MR.
   
   Berserkers (N2): If you don't want to wait for your Carnutes to go berserk because you have to punch through awe, fear, or high protection, berserkers can help.
   
3. Astral Window (S2)
   
   Teleport (S3): One of the most important spells for Marverni, since it gives the slow-moving druids unparalleled mobility.
   
   Panic (N2): While Marverni does not have easy death access to complement this spell, I find it works quite well anyways as a way of routing enemy armies in combination with druid evocations and Carnutes.
   
4. Gateway (S4)
   
5. 
   
6. Vortex of Returning (S4)
   
   Charm (N3)
   
7. 
   
8. Astral Travel (S5)
   
   Master Enslave (S8)

Combinations:

• Sleep Cloud (Evo 3, N2) + Curse of Stones (Alter 4, E3) + Stellar Cascades (Evo 5, S2): In general, I don't feel that in the lightly-armored EA environment that fatigue spells offer much until enemies start passing out from them, since hits tend to kill anyways and there isn't enough armor for the critical hit increase to offer noticeable value for your caster investment. That said, combining several fatigue spells can make enemies pass out, especially against enemies experiencing bonus fatigue anyways, like C'tis fighting in cold climates, or in long battles.
  
• Boars or Elephants + Berserkers (Thaum 2, N2) or Touch of Madness (Thaum 4, N3) or Growing Fury (Thaum 5, N4): One of the major dangers of tramplers is that they will rout and run back through your own lines, but making them go berserk nicely eliminates this handicap.
  
• Eagle Eyes (Alter 1, N1) + Blade Wind (Evo 4, E3) or Gifts from Heaven (Evo 4, E3S1): Blade wind and, especially, gifts from heaven don't have great precision, so combining them with eagle eyes makes them quite a bit more lethal.
  
• Blade Wind (Evo 4, E3) + Destruction (Alter 4, E3): Destruction breaks enemy armor while blade wind is much more effective on targets with less protection.

Key Items

Magic Trinkets

• Black Steel Tower Shield (E1), Enchanted Shield (S1), Raw Hide Shield (N1): While Marverni has more earth gems early, I prefer the enchanted shield or the raw hide shield for protecting evocation druids from arrows, because usually only druids using buffs can afford the fatigue from the black steel tower shield.
  
• Berserkser Pelt (N1): More of a specialized item, the berserker pelt offers the cheapest and earliest way to send a boar lord berserk at the beginning of the battle, but costs some protection.

Lesser Magic Items

• Dwarven Hammer (E3): The most important lesser magic item by far. You should have recruited enough druids to have an E3 one by the time you have construction 2, and your first action upon finishing research should be to forge a dwarven hammer, then equip it and forge another.
  
• Crystal Shield (S3E2): As it is one of the most useful items for druids, period, the crystal shield's only downside is that it is quite pricey in gems. While it is encumbering, the path boost more than compensates for the fatigue in most cases, and it also offers great protection; note that a crystal shield increases holy, helping druids cast divine blessing and fanaticism.
  
• Barkskin Amulet (N1): A great cheap thug item for boar lords.
  
• Horned Helmet (N1): The best cheap offense-enhancer for boar lord thugs, it also offers decent head protection. In most cases, even later on, the cheapness of the horned helmet makes it competitive with the frost brand, especially since the frost brand is not likely to kill more than two troops a turn anyways.
  
• Ring of Water Breathing (W1): Given a land province that has amphibious troops, rings of water breathing can give you enough caster support to let you capture underwater provinces. In particular, while blade wind and gifts from heaven don't work underwater, most of Marverni's best buffs still do; as above the water, the key is overwhelming numbers.
  
• Pendant of Luck (S1): Marverni simply cannot have too many of these for protecting their commanders, thugs, mages, or otherwise.
  
• Eye of Aiming (A1): These items are great for evocation druids, and they even stack with eagle eyes.
  
• Robe of Missile Protection (A1): When possible, I use robes of missile protection as standard druid gear since they are so much cheaper for the protection than the alternatives.
  
• Eye Shield (N2): By dropping enemy attack to 0, the eye shield is the first item that enables boar lords to act as thugs: even with the decreased defense from going berserk, most hits from the blinded enemies won't land. Unfortunately, you have to take a hit in the first place for the effect to activate, so the eye shield is not as good as the vine shield and, in combination with other items, will allow boar lords to kill only light defense without troop assistance.
  
• Cauldron of Broth (N3): When fighting with large armies against enemies with supply-killing dominions, supply items are important, though usually more to avoid the -4 morale than the afflictions. In most cases, Marverni will need to forge a thistle mace before being able to make a cauldron, which means that while the cauldron arrives at construction 2, in practice it's delayed until construction 4. I tend to prefer cauldrons to endless bags of wine because they take up fewer commander slots and only need one dwarven hammer and caster action per forge; however, in raw gems per supply point, endless wine bags are cheaper.
  
• Clam of Pearls (W3N1): Construction 2 opens clams of pearls, but Marverni won't be able to forge them without water boosters, which usually first become available at construction 6. When they do open up, their best use without Forge of the Ancients to mass-produce them probably involves using them to cast battle enchantments without carrying pearls.
  
• Jade Dagger (N1B1): Useful if you have the blood economy to blood sacrifice en masse and usually easy for Marverni to get if they have access to blood.

Greater Magic Items

• Robe of Shadows (S2): While more expensive and not as good as the robe of missile protection, because it does not protect against magic arrows and missiles from spells, the robe of shadows offers astral-only protection for druids.
  
• Crown of Command (S2)
  
• Whip of Command (N1)
  
• Herald Lance (S2): The herald lance is not much of a weapon, but it boosts the Marverni chieftains' standards and still lets them use a shield or another weapon. It is generally not worth forging and equipping without also using a horn of valor.
  
• Horn of Valor (N1): A wonderful cheap item for the various chieftains, it converts their standard (5) to standard (25), with the increased area making it possible for one chieftain to cover most of an army.
  
• Vine Bow (N1): The vine bow is not a good weapon, but Marverni lacks good choices for bows for its human commanders, and the vine bow is cheap and often better than nothing.
  
• Endless Bag of Wine (N1)
  
• Lycanthropos' Amulet (N2): A better way to get initial berserk on a boar lord than the berserker pelt, it also offers a strength boost and regeneration. Eventually, it will turn the boar lord into a werewolf, but few live long enough for that and it's not a huge disadvantage.
  
• Boots of the Messenger (N1): Boots of the messenger are a useful and cheap item for casters casting high fatigue spells like blade wind or wooden warriors; however, for druids most often the demanding spells are earth, so earth boots tend to be better in most circumstancse if you can afford the increased gem cost. Boots of the messenger are also useful for boar lord thugs.
  
• Birch Boots (N1): Inferior to boots of the messenger for most purposes, birch boots deserve an honorable mention for a valuable if specialized purpose: when paired with a frost brand, they give cold immunity; with that, the reinvigoration is just an added bonus.
  
• Vine Shield (N2): The key item for all of Marverni's thugs, neither boar lords nor golems should leave home without it once it becomes available. It's arguable whether or not boar lord thugs are even worthwhile without it: certainly, they need troop assistance.
  
• Thistle Mace (N2): The standard nature booster, by the time you get Construction 4 you should easily have an N2 gutuater or druid to forge it.
  
• Frost Brand (W1): While the frost brand in itself is cheap, it doesn't offer complete protection from its own frost aura and that protection does not come cheap. That said, it still makes good thug gear and especially for golems, whom you are investing more in anyways, I recommend it.
  
• Crystal Coin (E2N2): The first astral booster, crystal coins are best used to get boosts for forging or casting ritual spells, especially teleport (between labs) and gateway, since they are too expensive to equip on many combat mages.
  
• Earth Boots (E2): A huge deal for Marverni, earth boots open up higher earth items and spells as well as all but eliminating fatigue problems from earth evocations. If you can afford them, you want to equip a significant portion of your druids with these items.
  
• Crystal/Slave Matrix (E1S1): Crystal matrices are more useful for Marverni in general than slave matrices since it tends to run traditional communions where the slaves don't have much to do other than to cast communion slave and hold position; the notable exception is when using items that cast spells at the start of battle, like crystal shields do power of the spheres, to pass those buffs to the slaves. If you're using communions, a few crystal matrices are well worth the investment.
  
• Stone Sphere (S2E1): While less flexible than the spell, the stone sphere can save gems if you do a lot of scrying, particularly if you have more earth gems than astral pearls.
  
• Blood Stone (B3E2): If Marverni can get access to blood magic, forging some of these is well worthwhile, since they not only provide an earth boost but also provide earth gems in the field for casting spells that require them.

Very Powerful Magic Items:

• Ethereal Crossbow (S1): A decent cheap missile weapon, it also gives underwater armies the potential for ranged attacks. It does enormous damage, but only to one target and once per two turns.
  
• Starshine Skullcap (S2): Starshine skullcaps are the cheapest astral booster, enough so you can afford to equip a significant quantity of druids with them.
  
• Banner of the North Star (S4): The banner has two purposes for Marverni, acting as another standard booster for their commanders and increasing the astral power of their mages, usually for use in communions. Either purpose alone probably does not merit the expense or the MR hit.
  
• Ring of Sorcery/Wizardry (S5/S6)
  
• Gate Cleaver (E3): A useful item for countering certain kinds of SCs and thugs, its more mundane purpose is that with one or two and a large army, Marverni can usually break open the walls of almost any fort in a single turn.
  
• Treelord's Staff (N5): A nature booster that often isn't necessary, though it can help to forge one when casting high-fatigue nature buffs or reaching for certain nature spells like gift of health or nature's blessing.
  
• Boots of Quickness (W2): These are more golem equipment than something to put on a boar lord because of the price, but have obvious benefits for any thug and even ordinary commanders with missile weapons.
  
• Water Bracelet (W1): The first water booster that Marverni will likely be able to forge, water bracelets allow you to bootstrap water as high as you need it to go for all practical purposes.
  
• Bottle of Living Water
  
• Moonvine Bracelet (N3S1): The second and more useful nature booster that becomes available at construction 6, the moonvine bracelet, thistle mace, and astral rings make it easy to get as much nature as you need.
  
  Artifacts
  
• Gate Stone (E6S6): The gate stone is one of the most game-changing artifacts and Marverni is well-positioned for it.
  
• The Chalice (N4S3): Another powerful artifact that Marverni should be able to forge the first turn after reaching construction 8, it works best when combined with the lamia queen and jade mask for getting access to Tartarians, though it can also heal diseased druids and thus compensate for not having gift of health.
  
• Boots of Calius the Druid (N3)
  
• Boots of Antaeus (E4N1)
  
• Tome of Gaia (N2E2)
  
• The Sword of Aurgelmer (S5)
  
• Boots of the Planes (S5)