EA Caelum (yet another) guide

[kasnavada]

Following VanillaStrawberry game, some thoughts about EA Caelum and an attempt at a guide. It's by no mean a complete guide, nor a perfect one. Feel free to comment, I'm sure to have missed stuff.


General stuff :

Air magic and decent water magic (most of your troops being resistant / immune to both), your troops fly, stealth priests, size 3, mammoth, cheap troops, researchers are decent battlemages.


Units :

Most of your troops are dumb, nearly pointless chaff, and should be treated as such. Caelum strength is mostly based on the number of mages they can take in, however, it's rather good in large (understand overwhelming) numbers.

Generally most of your troops share the same caracteristics. Very low movement when in a storm, even compared to militia. They all fly, get pounded in melee (2 per case instead of 3 for human size opponents), and flee after a few rounds. You will have very low attrition rate (often around 40%) even with a lost battle because your troops will fly way. That, however, is not true of your opponent... Since you're flying, you will catch most fleeing troops and kill a lot of your opponent's units, including a fair share of ennemy commanders. In a storm though, the low AP will ensure you're losing most of the troops that cannot fly in tempests.

Your troops are excellent castle defenders and sieger, since they fly and are size 3. I find out I rarely need more than 2 turns to breach a castle. Basically you can breach castles in one turn with sufficient troops. They also are excellent patrollers - your taxes can be 200% on the first turn. You fly, so most of the time you do not need shields for arrow protections : your troops are already "meleeing" your opponents.

Detailled description :

Mammoth are, well, mammoth. With 4-5 of them and archers behind, most PD dies. In larger numbers it can annihilate an army that's not prepared for it, or can be used to bluff. They are fun with gift of flight : flying trampling mammoth also instantly flee, resulting in a much lower attrition rate. When fleeing they run over your troops, so you need to be careful with placement / attack orders.

- Spire horns (grey wings) are resistant to cold and shock, move 3, in 3 version : short bow (30 range...), with shield, with lance. All of them have magic weapon though, making them killing machines against ethereal opponents.
- Blizzard warriors (white wings) have somewhat lower protection when you look at them, however... it's only on cold provinces. Protection on their armors gets a bonus of +1 per cold level in the province. Somewhat useful if you've got a reliable way to ensure your province is cold, which, you do have (wolven winter / seraphines), even if it's somewhat costly. Does not resist lightning, but they have magical weapons.
- Raptors (orange wings) are the third clan. They do not resist magic, nor have a "bow" version, and do not have magic weapons. What they have, however, is one more strength and two more hit points. The shield version does come with a hat, but even with it their stats are nearly the same as Blizzard warriors in cold provinces.

Also there is "3" elite caelian troops, basically "better" versions of each tribe :
- Tempest warriors are elite spire horn, and can fly in storms, which is their only benefit over other troops, which is not really a good trade-of since they got mapmove 2. If you do not have storms other caelians are cheaper and stronger.
- Iceclads are elite blizzard warriors, also with mapmove 2. They do not resist lightning, but have 100% cold resistance. Their armor, however, is elite. They have 18 protection in cold provinces. Temple guard are basically Iceclads without wings, but, can be blessed, but capitol only and map-move 1. Both are ressource intensive, however you do not really need ressources for other stuff.
- Iron Crows are raptors on steroids, even more hit points, strength, mapmove 3... they are decent units. However, no magic weapons and higher cost.

PD : special mention to the Caelian PD, one of the only PD able to root itself with nearly no outside help. Shieldless Caelian fly to melee, archers shoot their back, and then roots, which in turn causes the archers to root. It does get pretty good when above 20, because of the addition of a seraphine as second leader (priest 2) and an iron warrior with each point of PD, which augments the livespan of the melee PD by a LOT.


Commanders :

Caelian scout is a flying scout with mapmove 3. Not much to say, not really worth using a fort every turn. Unless you do not find indy scouts at all. A few of them are useful : they fly get past patrolling blocades, and enable you to be the first one with general localisation of all the nations on the map.

Tempest lord are slightly above your average commander : leadership 80 and able to fly in storm, they have a magic weapon. Which means that even in a storm, when your units root, you will have them as commanders of your rooted units. But... that's not really good.

Spire horn seraph are Air 1 mage, 60 gold for 3 research before magic scales. Could be useful for limited situations, like phantasmal warrior spam, "cheap" orb lightning casting platform or maybe a air shielded bow user after casting aim ? It is your cheapest researcher. Also has great precision : 13 out of the box, which makes with air magic, 14 with summon storm power, 19 with aim... you get the idea.

Seraphine are priest 2, stealthy +0, sacred, and that's pretty good ! You will need some to build temples, for scouting, and a lot in attempts to take territory from large number of immortal units. With leadership 40 you can also use them to shuffle units around. It would really be awesome if you had sacred troops in large number. Oh crap... you don't. It's also good for searching holy sites.

Caelian seraphs are your main battlemage and decent researchers. With 14 base precision they will seldom miss. Some of them are old, you need to watch out for them. With 2 air and 1 water, they can cast most of Air and Ice spells according to what's useful in a situation. With no orders however, I found they mostly spam shock wave, orb lightning, phantasmal warriors if in range. With construction 6 and a water bracelet they get access to all water 2 spells and can cast voice of Apsu, which makes them even more valuable.

Harab seraphs are your source of death magic. If facing a death nation, it's good to spam them : they will cast Dust to Dust and take care of most undeads. 10% of them come with death 2 which starts you on the "death" path.

Eagle King are your best mages. Sacred, with A4E1W1 + 10%AWEF and 2 priest level, they are your only -unreliable- source of fire magic but once you've got it, gleaming shields and fire brands are yours to build. They are also the only way to get earth 2 (to site search), can build Air boosters and cast storm with no boosters. Sadly they do have a steep price (400 gold) and are capitol only. They also have 16 base precision and awe+2, 17 base magic resistance and twice as many hit point as most of caelians have. They are magic beings, which may end up being an handicap : any anti-magic unit spell will target them. Their stats make any of them great thugs, casters, with leadership 80 they can also ferry troops around. They are immune to lightning too, and resistant to cold.


Pretender and scales :

From what I've seen you actually have a few possibilities. Either focus on a earth bless, which will make your Eagle kings just *awesome*. Or you can go for a rainbow pretender. Or you can try to do both : earth 9 with magic diversity.

The magic that Caelum lacks most is astral. If you do not go for rainbow I'd advise earth as a major bless with astral as a "side" bless, which gives your Kings more MR making them even better. You will, however, be able to someday breach into astral by summoning spectres with harab seraphs. High astral on your pretender also does give you all magic access by itself with the Amesha Spenta.

About scales, order is useful, sloth do not harm you much. The only units you would need production for are your melee units, like temple guards, iron crows or iceclads... but they are not that useful early. When you have more forts you can build them in decent numbers anyway. Cold 3 is a no brainer, since even cold 3 will harm your opponent more than you. Also, iceclads really shine in cold climate, being heavier infantry than abyssia, except you have more defence, less hit points and you fly. Growth, luck and magic is mostly "as you wish". Caelum cannot really handle high misfortune - their PD will get crushed by barbarians attacks. Your plan is to get loads of mages, and your mages are rather cheap, so magic 1 is a good idea. Also you need to compensate for the fact that the weakness of your troops will force you to compensate with mages going to battle instead of doing whatever other mages do.


I would propose with CBM :
Great enchanteress with : Order 3, cold 3, magic 1 / Magic path : Earth 9, Astral 3, Air 1.

Or

Great enchanteress with : Order 3, cold 3, magic 1 / Magic path : Earth 8, Astral 3, Air 1, water 2.


Point of choosing astral 3 is that with CBM item costs, you do get significantly less ring of sorcery / wizardry, and even if you did get the gems, in my opinion it's better for you to summon Amesha Spenta to get SC material and magic diversity. Getting them costs 300 gems.


National spells :

If you are playing with CBM, a mage with astral can summon Yakaza really early, which are excellent melee units, with awe +2, and you get 6 for 6 gems. They are sacred and therefore can use whatever bless you've given kings, while protecting them from spells targeting magic units (since they are magical units).

Call Amesha spenta : not only do those make good SC / raiders (good magic resistance, flying awe+4, can be blessed and other bonuses) they also break into fire, nature and water magic for you. You will however need good astral income to summon them.


Strategies :

For early expansion you've got some choices. Your archers really are above-average, and really cheap, easy to amass in large number. However, what really shines is a mercenary unit of melee troops with caelians archers behind them. You can also use mammoths if you fail buying mercs: 3 or 4 of them will take most indy provinces, especially with archers behind them. 8 of them will usually beat up 25 worth of PD, usually with no loss. A group of 50+ archers with low mages support (lightning bolt) will also take most PD and indies.

At the first turn you can patrol 200% tax, since your troop fly and most of the time you'll get a safe and orderly land.

The next thing you will need is a strategy. I got some, but that's not really a complete list.
- making Eagle King thugs. Basically, some reinvigorisation (earth bless + girdle of might if needed) and... that's all. A shield of valor eliminates the risk from dying on turn one because of a well placed arrow. With that you can take on low PD and indies by casting stoneskin then mistform, you will rarely lose. Adding astral items like a luck pendant and a robe of shadows makes your kings awesome, being able to defeat absurd amount of troops. Apart from other thugs and mages they're safe, and even them you can use the empty slots to customize them to defeat what's coming at you. Even later in the game, MR gears lets them be safe. As a side bonus, and still in the alteration 3 way, quickness, or mirror image are available. Breath of winter is also surprisingly effective for a spell that is really easy to research. Feel free to equip them, items will not wasted since you'll build excellent spentas later, and with CBM you really have good options like the aesir.
They however fear tramplers.

- Caelian thunder and arrows death. Against moderate PD (up to 30 - 35) a small armies, organize troops like this 5 or 6 groups of : 1 Caelian seraph scripted to whatever your fancy is (usually lightning bolt) + 10 archers in front of him scripted to attack nearest. Your archers will hold enemy troops for long enough to zap ennemies out of the way. Lightning does AN damage and therefore is very effective against whatever the ennemy throws at you. Basically your spells will kill 20 - 30 units in 5 turns, combined with arrows that makes about 45-50 kills, routing a lot of melee forces in equal numbers before they even strike you.
Later in the game, you can add a staff of storm, cast summon air power and go for thunderstrikes. Or you can give a water bracelet to your caelian seraph and use water spells. You can also use corpse man construction to get a powerful screen shield immune to lightning as a bonus : a lightning rod will give you 4 units for 1 air gem, making a sizable force of them cheap and useful, castable with any harab seraph, and lightning rod is build with by King.

- going melee. later in the game your ennemy will have found out how to bring your archers armies to nothingness. That's time to switch to either iron crows (enemy dominion), or iceclads (cold provinces, or careful use of wolven winter).

- harab seraph give you access to death magic. That's important to remember that you do need a sizable number of them to confront most undead threats, and to branch into death magic. Spectres are IMO really important for caelum, since they get you a stealthy astral mages, which is invaluable in neutering enemy mind hunts. Placing a few with the firsts PD-clearing Eagle Kings as bait is just nasty. Another possibility for harab seraph is to thug up those with 2D : give it an armor, a hat, a shield, one air gem and one death gem. Then can cast mistform and soul vortex and laugh at the absurd amount of units it can kill unpunished. It is quite expensive however, but... imagine your opponent crying because he lost 25 worth of PD, and some troops to a 9 hp mage...

- Eagle kings battlefield magic, can cast most of the Air spells, whether it's battle magic or invocations. Any king with an air booster can cast shimmering field, then just... flee. Or wrathful sky, since your units resist lightning, but your opponent do not.

- caelian seraphs "melee spellcasting" with some escorts ordered to "mistform / attack / spell" are usually able to survive a few attacks and then cast whatever they fancy. In your case, the spellcasting AI should go for either shockwave or orb lightning depending on enemy range.

- Eagle kings thugs with "survival" gear can also be set to cast spells instead of attacking, since they will cast orb and shockwave if others get in range. It does make your fatigue skyrocket, making mistform much more likely to fail. Useful for "low" amount of PD and / or early game against indy.


Battle and general tactics :

Basically caelum does not fight fair. You've got excellent mobility, early teleporting thugs, troops, so there is just NO WAY there should be a battle with equal strength on both sides. When you attack, you should aim to take at least half of whatever nation you're fighting. The longer you last, the more probable your raiders will be caught, and you do not want that. Semi-thugs or mages fit with survival gear can hit and run, wearing down ennemy armies, while your troops just wait for the kill.

You will usually have the best mobility around, and fliers are able to attack directly a castle without being in the province next to it, which is a huge advantage. Your best shot usually is taking all territories around a castle in one turn while sending the bulk of your troops on said castle, killing everyone and concentrating all units where they really matter, and start over. By using Eagle king thugs, you can afford (like with most thugs) to play the attrition game. Except that you fly and cloud trapeze.

To conquer an enemy fortress, you should rely on your melee units, for which walls do not matter. Players often script and place armies according to the castle entrance... and you can also play on that with mammoth or indy (summoned) melee troops. Or undeads summoned by seraphs.

A special note on caelian archers. While they are easy to amass in large number, they've got shortbows. Range 25, which means a lot of enemy archers will outrange you, that they will need to advance to shoot, and for some reason they don't seem to fly to range, it really looks like they march.

You basically can counter most of what's coming at you :
- archers ? send in your melee troops. Even your archers set to attack instead of fire are pretty good. You do not really need shields since you will usually not take arrows (being in melee instantly and all).
- numbers of chaffs ? Your archers with wind guide will cut through them. Or send mammoths. Or thugs. Or just blast them to death. Ok, chaff never really works. Still, worth mentionning when you've got armies of maenads or such.
- units with heavy protection : lightning bolt. Later, frozen heart can be cast with any seraph, which you will have plenty of.
- early undeads ? Dust to Dust with harabs, plus wind guide so you will not miss.
- a large army you can't take on ? ignore it, raid the lands around. Someday he will have to split to counter your raid, then you regroup. Make use of your mobility !
- a siege to make / defend ? All of your units fly, so for castle attack / defence they count as if they were 2 regular humans. Laugh as your opponent mass 150 lowly humans and gets the message "you can't harm their walls" with half as many chaff inside.

Your vulnerability however would be that diversifying, while possible, is fairly late-game and does not include high astral nor blood. You can (should, must, have to !) care for astral with at least your pretender.


Research goals :

Early game : Lightning bolt / mistform / dust to dust depending on the neighbours. Then I'd go for site searching spells, construction 4 to start thugging / boosters.

Summon air power is completely useless until you either get to construction 6 and get staff of storms, or evo-5.

For mid-game, you will find a lot of uses for water 3. 2/3 of your recruitable troops are at least 50% resistant to cold. The white winged caelians actually have 100% resistance and iceclads, allowing undiscriminate use of grip of winter, rain, cleansing water, ice strike, falling frost, freezing mist, numbness... You do need caelian seraphs (again) and water bracelet should become the norm there, with a few water gem. Where your native air magic will often do AN damage to one unit, those spells tend to fatigue and / or hit multiple units, adding good versability to seraphs.

Also, wolven winter is a must if using iceclad (18 protection is kind of crazy), and still very good if you do not. Enemy units will be hurt more by the cold than you will ever be. And, of course, you should aim for shimmering field. A king can cast that spell in a storm with no boosters (he does need a few air gems, but you're going to have a lot of them).

As caelum, you will dominate air magic, so wind guide, arrow fend, seeking arrows, wrathful sky, storm, mists of deception should be the tools of the trade. Your enemies will expect this however. Your kings can also provide decent earth magic. It requires breaking into earth 2 (but your pretender should do this), and since all your units have armor and most have a cap, they can be boosted. Spells like rain of stone, marble warriors, rush of strength are in your reach, as are army of gold and the like.


Conclusion :

Basically, Caelum has really good strengths like build-in magic diversity, above average movement, simple counters to a lot of strategies, build-in thugs, build-in army clearers.

Weaknesses are that diversity can come late and does come in limited number. Your troops are "weak" troops but they come in number and are easy to regroup. Sadly, your native magic is really specialised and easy to counter.