Post by samt on Dec 4, 2015 0:19:55 GMT
It is a sad thing for me to admit that I have an easier time writing about nations with some of the most complicated operational maneuvers in the game rather than a nation with one of the greatest magical diversities. If nothing else it tells you how daunting magic is in this game.
Armored battalions line the horizon, you are but their first obstacle, and they are but the first wave.
Nation overview
In the age of heroes Agartha's Pale Ones, a race of subeteranean one-eyed giants, lead a grand army to the surface to protect their interests in a benevolent god. Unfortunately, they lost badly. Their lack of heavy armor and their lack of offensive capability for much of their forces caused them to suffer greatly against their better organized and equipped foes. As a final solution, an Oracle of the pale ones broke the Great Seal left by the missing Pantokrator (supreme god) foolishly believing that it would give the power to win the Ascension war. Instead almost all the Pale Ones in Agartha died and many more died under the wrath of the insane gods that were contained with the the Great Seal. This lead to great time of mourning in Agartha as the pale ones as a race were but a fading star soon to all but vanish from the earth. But they would not go out with a whimper, gathering what remained of the pale ones and the new statue worshiping humans that have moved into abandoned territories, the Oracles lead a modernized army of heavy infantry, legions of stone warriors, and undead to once more attempt at claiming the surface.
Why Play MA Agartha?
Because you're tired of playing nations that are based on being better than everyone at a certain magic or having the best army in a offensive aspect. You play MA Agartha because you are both patient and ruthless. You're not the knights in shining armor or the proud and noble elite guard. You're the infantry and you know wars are not won by flashy tactics but by iron discipline and coordination under the banner of carefully chosen attrition.
They do not eat or sleep. They may be slow but they will never stop and never retreat.
Army Overview
There are a few key areas of interest in Agartha's armies. First is average to poor attack skill, your warriors will be lucky if they kill move than 2 each against a badly outnumbered and ill suited army. Second is an abundance of high protection, this makes their armies similar to EA Abysia in terms of durability. Third is high hitpoints on Pale one troops, Pale ones may not be good at attacking but they can take a beating with casual grace. Fourth is fantastic siege capability, you have units that do not need to eat, some are good at defending fortresses, and many have high strength with a siege bonus. Fifth, is darkvision, obviously a nation of cave dwellers has above average night vision Finally, a quick muster despite large numbers of heavy infantry, this is a key ability and one that is the heart of many Agarthan maneuvers.
Agarthan Heavy infantry
He's a human with 50% darkvision, 18 protection, average attack, and decent damage. His description is lackluster but he is a solid heavy troop choice that unfortunately competes with many excellent heavy infantry choices. Still, he's cheap in cold if not in resources, so you might use him on the grounds of budget concerns.
Agarthan Infantry
The Heavy Infantry's younger brother and somewhat useful due to his higher attack skill at a rather cheap gold cost. He's a solid medium infantry comparable to legionnaires and gets the job done despite having relatively low hitpoints and only average morale and magic resistance.
Agarthan Light Infantry
Rather fast and cheap infantry that are average in just about every respect. Useful for having map move 2 and a solid if unimpressive combat effectiveness.
Pale One Soldier
The name soldier was added on because the more appropriate name meat shield was too offensive. Medium infantry level protection on a unit that makes many militia units proud of their combat skills. Their big assets are large hit points, darkvision, need not eat, and siege bonus. Cold blooded is an annoying trait as he will be even worse in cold areas. Map Move 1 because Pale ones.
Wet One
Wet behind the ears more like. Your easiest to mass unit and it shows in all the wrong areas. Terrible protection means that he will not last more than a few seconds in close combat even with high hitpoints. Poor attack and defense skill means he has a good chance of dying without even hitting anyone. He is in essence a pale one soldier without the saving grace of armor. They will have difficulties expanding even underwater. (thing to note is that they do improve to only slightly below average stats underwater and you can recruit a variant that has slightly better protection underwater as well.) Their biggest assets are darkvision, need not eat, and siege bonuses. Other than that they are only an expert in dying. Also they get map move 2 to charge towards their graves twice as fast.
Ancient One
Not a bad unit, its just that he's not good either. The Ancient one is an old Pale One. As pale ones never stop growing, he is a big and dangerous warrior that inspires his squad mates to greater feats of courage acting as a proxy for a standard bearer. The only issue is that he runs ahead of said squad mates often and dies. He can throw rocks but that is nothing too great as he is capital only and therefore you will see few of them if ever. As a sidenote he is sacred. Map Move 2.
Ancient One Stone Hurler
You don't want to pay the resources for a proper Ancient One warrior. Welcome to the bargain basement! He's awful at attacking and uses his fist instead of a weapon to do the least damage possible when he hits at all. His biggest assets are his stone throws and his siege bonus. His stone throws are bad due to low precision and he is capital only so you can not really exploit his siege bonus without costing yourself sacred recruitment slots for better units. Overall a poor excuse for a sacred that is takes the weaknesses of the Pale ones and adds more on top of it. Map Move 2.
Troglodyte Slave
A suicide land mine unit. In the Lore, troglodytes were allies of the Pale Ones, but the new human populace was less than impressed by them and now use them as expendable troops and mine slaves. They are size 3 tramplers with great strength and good attack skill while lacking anything needed for them to survive any extended engagement. You can recruit 5 a turn only but given the their expense in gold, you will likely never want more than 5 a turn anyways.
Defender of the Halls
Big, well armored, and great at staying alive with a specialty in siege warfare. He exemplifies the ideals of Agarthan soldiers, tough, strong, self reliant with above average magic resistance. Lore wise these are the warriors trained by human weapon masters and given modified human equipment to defend key areas from enemy incursions, a job they excel at.
Shard Guard
A offspring between the pale ones and great olms. These warriors are used to guard the deeper halls along with the Defenders but with a sacred status. They wield glaives made from shards of the obsidian glaives of the now destroyed seal guards and are resistant to these cursed weapon's effects.
Earth Elemental
A regenerating, low protection, size 3 trampler that gets smaller as it gets damaged. They get these by summoning them using a conjuration 3 spell called Barathrus Pact. Where an Agarthan Earth mage enters the Roots of the Earth and makes a deal with the Elemental King of Deeper Earth to get an earth elemental. Suffice to say this unit is useful but as the Roots of the Earth is only in your capital they are hard to transport once your nation grows larger. Map move 2
Magma Children
These are Primal Abysians, they are strong and powerful against all those that lack fire resistance. They are best used as suicidal units to cause a disproportionate loss on the enemy's side. They are the same as the Earth Elemental requiring a Conjuration 3 spell called Rhuax pact that can only be cast in your capital. They will never rout. Map move 2
Umbral
Agarthan Ghosts that were either Agarthans that died in the effort to lock away the insane and vanquished gods into the Great Seal or were killed when the Great Seal was broken. Their big claim to fame is a large health pool, life drain, and ethereal. But these are not their only asset as stealthy is a very valuable ability to have especially with Agartha's access to shademail. One thing to remember is that despite their large health pool they can die rather easilly to magic weapons due to no protection. They are summoned by earth/death mages which means only your slow to recruit capital only mage can summon them. They do come in packs of four per casting though. Map move 3
Penumbral
The smaller version of the Umbral, available earlier at Conjuration 3 instead of 5. Can't say much for him in abilities or uses as he is basically an Umbral but weaker. That said he is size 3 so theoretically a close formation of them could put twice the number of attacks per square. They like their bigger brothers come in packs of 4 and are only summoned by your Oracles.
Shard Wights
Reanimated pale ones that are better at fighting than actual pale ones. Never mind the description of them being guards and talking buddies. You get these guys to be the offensive arm of your forces in the war. Like the Shard Guards they get magical weapons to let them hurt mistform, ethereal, and lucky units. They have a cold aura and above average attack skill making them hit quite often unlike most pale ones with good protection to cover for their average defense skill. They are overall much more useful from a tactical standpoint than Umbrals and Penumbrals but are much more limited from an operational perspective as they lack stealth and therefore can always be seen miles away. Map Move 3
Living Mercury
Take Magma Children, make them harder to produce but much more powerful and dangerous. This is the result. Mercury according to the lore is a very magical substance and therefore was easy to animate. Overall they are an interesting unit as they lack protection but have multiple forms to burn through, with each weaker than the last. Their biggest claim to fame though is their 3 high strength, armor piercing attacks and the fact that mercury is poisonous so having a barrel's load of it sloshing around everywhere will produce poisonous fumes. Giving them protection is a good idea as they will die surprisingly fast to projectile fire unsupported. Overall I find them too dangerous for you mage corps to use them offensively. Offensively being the key word as they make fantastic land mines against an invading army. Map Move 2
Great Olms
These units are great. They have mind blast which has unlimited range on the battlefield and are your only solid ranged unit choice on your national roster. They can be summoned in caves with Olm Conclave at Conjuration 4. The summon also includes an Olm Sage which will get be described later. In the lore these guys are ancient subterranean creatures worshipped by the Pale Ones for good reason. They will melt your brain if they don't like you. Some even speculate that Pale Ones are descendants of Olms
A Primer on Statues:
Statues are MA Agartha's big armored fist when it comes to troop choices. Not only do they move as fast as cavalry on the global map but they are incredibly durable in battle as well. They have high protection and health with pierce and slash resistance. They are the battle tanks of Dominions, fast when they need to be, armored, absurdly hard hitting, and an incredible resource sink. Though you can get them early you won't be able to mass produce them till the late game at least not without massive resource uses. You see Agartha can often only summon them one at a time for each Golem Crafter or in the case of Attentive Statues, two at a time. They are incredibly valuable but you must remember the big picture, Russia had only a relative small percentage of tanks compared to its total forces in WW2 and you should likely do so as well. Don't look for every place you would like a statue, instead look for areas you will really need them in since Agartha relies on combined arms to win rather than individual valor.
Sentinel
Oh boy, these guys are great. They are minor pale one statues animated by golem crafters that are excellent at patrolling. A key feature is that they are sacred and thus subject to a bless making them effective in combat as well if you have appropriate paths on your pretender. They do not heal on their own in a province without a lab in the province. That said they can take blesses that give them regeneration and can heal that way. Overall they are a tough hard hitting unit made versatile depending on the bless you take on your pretender. Map move 3
Attentive Statues
Decent patrollers but that's not why you get them. These are easy to get, cost effective statues that can deal with most small independent provinces with ease. They may not be able to deal as much damage as other statues but you can produce them two at a time for the incredibly easy to research, enchantment 1. Overall they do what most Agartha troops do best, hold the line and slowly grind down the enemy in attrition. I tend to find use for them in the early parts of the game when I need to expand quickly. Map move 3
Granite Guard
Take a Sentinel, boost up his health by a factor of three, a minor boost in strength, and a larger body. This is the result. Granite Guards are the Statues of the Seal Guard, an ancient military order of Pale Ones that guarded the Great Seal from being broken by the foolish and to keep the Agarthan Umbrals and Penumbrals from overrunning the deeper halls of Agartha. With the Seal broken the ancient order is no more but statues of them still remain and are being enchanted to fight as a living legacy. Overall I would say this unit is alright, but it competes with the much more all around better Sentinel especially due to it costing the same price as 3 Sentinels. That's not to say they do not have their uses. They mainly excel at surviving and stalling what sentinels can not i.e. giants.
What you don't like stone giants walking over all your troops. Too bad!
Commanders
Agartha's commanders are rather interesting as most of them have a key niche in your operations and strategy while a few will also be very useful tactically on the battlefield. Overall they give Agartha the diversity it needs to be threatening despite how slow your army moves across the world map.
Cave Captain
What to say about him. The Cave Captain is a human from Agartha that is a commander. They can lead 80 men similar to a Centurion and they'll generally be tough enough to survive stray archer fire. Overall a solid commander that is very useful at the start when you get one free or when you want to send a commander to lead an army that's not an expensive mage. He is a bit weak though in terms of health and he is not amphibious so he won't be as great a choice for your army later on. Map move 1
Agarthan Scout
He's an Agarthan so he's got darkvision, not a particularly impressive unit since he competes for recruitment turns with mages and troop leaders. The first one you get will ideally be the last one you recruit.
Oracle of the Ancients
A Capital only Pale one mage that is solid all around with high earth, some death and a possibility of water or fire magic. These are the last remaining Oracles of the Pale Ones and they prove their worth with their knowledge of high earth magic and your only national Death mage. Useful in many aspects from searching for death gem sites to creating massive army killing earthquakes. It is often recommended to start producing these sometime during year one of the game. A suggestion I wholeheartedly agree with. They also are amphibious with holy 3 and a solid leadership of 80, making them excellent troop commanders as well as your only national mage that can lead your undead troops. Holy 3 also allows them to cast divine blessing which blesses all friendly sacred units on the battlefield as well as the ability to claim thrones in the absence of your pretender or your prophet. Overall these are your best national mages as they open up so many options. Map move 1 is the major downside as they are capital only and slow to recruit so each one takes an enormous amount of time to get where you need them, making each one at the front lines so much more valuable to the point they become worth more than entire armies later in the game.
Pale One Captain
A good Pale One commander that is sadly still awful at dealing damage in melee. To make up for that he is incredibly durable. His big advantage over the human captain is being amphibious at the cost of a lower leadership of 60 and being cold blooded like every other living Pale one. He's useful as a troop commander so don't count him out but when your mages hit their stride in research you will be using him to move troops underwater and that's about it. Map move 1
Earth Reader
Your cheap lab rat used in areas so far from the front line that research and a minimal burden on the budget are the most important contributions they can give. Lore wise these are the wise men consulted by Agarthans when they need to open up a new cave or to prevent a coming disaster. They used to be all pale ones but now that the pale ones are becoming fewer, this job has been filled by humans. He's cheap and he does a decent amount of research for his cost as well as being an earth one mage so he can summon earth elementals in battle if your willing to give him earth gems. Map Move 1
Golem Crafters
Golem Crafters are descendents of mage smiths from Ulm that were emigrated from Ulm when the Iron Inquisition was formed and began to eliminate "impure" mage-smiths. They were led by the exiled Ulmish Sorcerer Klaus and funded by Pythian (Byzantine) gold to conquer Agartha and seize its riches. In this they have succeeded but by making peace between the diminishing Pale Ones and the human settlers by using both races reverence towards the ancient statues of Pale Ones. Golem Crafters are the one of the three main powers in Agartha along with the Oracles and Klaus who still lives and works to maintain peace between the two factions so that one day Agartha might enter a Golden Age led by him. Golem Crafters are overall very effective mages due to their vast array of available summons and their solid diversity in magic letting them have very powerful battle magic. You'll want to recruit many of them to work with your forces as their low precision hinders their ability to damage enemies. They are also passable leaders and will be your mage of choice for creating statues, and summoning your various non death magical beings. Key Battle magic is destruction (Alteration 4), Blade wind (evocation 4), Magma Eruption (evocation 6), and Acid Bolt/rain/storm (Evocation 3, 4, and 7). Map Move 1
Attendant of Oracles
Valuable for one reason, they are map move 2 and can lead magical beings. Making them choice statue, Magma children, etc. ferries in plains regions. They won't be useful in combat but being able to move reinforcements quickly is invaluable for MA Agartha. Lore wise these are the man servants of Oracles that attend to their every need and generally kowtow constantly to the very large Pale one that can collapse entire caverns.
Marble Oracle
Ancient Oracles do not entirely disappear upon death, some remnant of their memory remains in the statues dedicated to them. When Golem Crafters enchant these statues they gain a mind of their own and can spread faith in the Awakening God to non believers. Not a bad unit as it is basically a very durable, self blessing Thug (commander that can fight groups of soldiers on its own). Its main problem is cost as it will be incredibly expensive to afford this guy when you simply can make more statues instead. That said with boots of behemoth, a good bless (usually for yoru sentinels), and some other protection equipment like vine shields, shields of gleaming gold, and maybe a Fear helmet, the Oracle can be useful especially in an open Plains theater of war where its Map Move 3 will be most effective. Overall a situational superheavy version of the Sentinel that will be used only when absolutely necessary.
Wet One Captain
A leader of awful Wet ones and is only slightly better than them. Useful for leading Wet ones in underwater conquests but not much else as arrow fire will punish limited protection severely.
Troglodyte Trainer
The man with the whip and sword that keeps those Troglodyte slaves in line. Not too much to say about him other than he will give moral boosts to troglodytes he leads, making them less likely to rout. As Troglodytes serve the function as expendable land mines for enemy troops, increased morale is very useful for their role on the battlefield.
Ancient Lord
Large Pale ones that serve as army commanders. Not really that useful despite a faster map move as they compete with Oracles for cap only recruitment for the same leadership with only the minor bonus of extra protection. I would rather take Oracles personally as Ancient Lords bring far too few things to the table in comparison.
Olm Sage
An excellent commander with Map Move 2 and a great research value. Overall a very solid mage that comes with the Great Olms in the spell Olm Conclave. The biggest issue being that Olm Conclave is only usable in caves making them sometimes less useful than summoning Living Mercuries. Also has solid water magic making them a good choice for large water spells.
This is pretty much what you deal with constantly when fighting against MA Agartha
Strategy Overview
Agartha's main issue is mobility for its forces. Without mobility it will not matter how hard to kill your army is or how well supported they are by diverse magics. Agarthan Players must understand the Operational level of warfare through instruction or intuition in order to win against a human player decisively and against and AI efficiently. Therefore in this guide I will only go on about what magics are useful to research and general pretender suggestions at the end after I describe how I operate Agarthan forces despite their low map move. There are a few main questions you need to ask yourself in order to understand Agartha's precarious position. Will the war be won in one decisive campaign or will it be a long struggle of attrition? Should my armies be primarily offensive or defensive? Will the nature of battle be fluid or static? Will infantry or magical forces be more important? The answer to the first question is that it will be attrition that wins the war. The second answer is that your armies must be defensive but used offensively. The third is that the battle will be at first fluid and then static as you come into contact with forts, large opposing production of armies, and surprise defeats. The final answer is that infantry will be the most important in your armies with heavy support from mages and summoned troops.
Agartha will have to fight in a war of attrition. Now you might say, how is that a good thing, considering Agartha's slow map movement making for slower supply lines for your front line forces. This comes with the answer to the second question's answer, that you must use a defensive force offensively. That also sounds at first like an awful plan as you will likely worry about a situation similar to WW1 with the enemy having the logistical advantage. However you are not taking into account one major area of Agartha's armies, toughness and a wide variety of battle magic. This means that each major force will be a tough nut to crack and you can devote much of your resources to produce more units. In terms of sheer durability, Agartha's troops are some of the most efficient for their cost. And now you might begin to see why I consider Agartha similar to WW2 Russia, Slow, vast, powerful, with crude but effective methods relying on advances of tough troops under the cover of artillery and tank support. More over, you do not nearly need the forces necessary for defense as you do in offense especially if your goal is not to win but to bleed the enemy. This is where Agartha really shines with its hard hitting frail specialists and wide array of buffs such as Marble Warriors and Strength of Giants. Now how will the fact that forts slow down battles to a crawl affect Agartha? Agartha will actually benefit as Pale Ones need not eat, meaning that a siege can last years before any meaningful supply issues pop up. To add to that your armies mainstay infantry, the Defender of the Halls gets a siege defense bonus making them difficult even for large armies to storm in a timely manner. Pale ones also get a bonus in breaking down the gates of enemy fortresses, making them even better at threatening the enemy. In short your battles will be more fluid compared to your enemies simply due to your ability to assault castles much faster. Now the final question is interesting as magical forces give you a variety of specialist to work with your infantry to make them more effective. To add to that your mages will support your infantry in crucial battles, and are often the deciding factor. However your infantry are what makes you battles possible due to their skills in sieges and their importance to hold of the enemy from key mages. As well as being a crucial components in any smaller army with far fewer mages and magical beings available. Therefore, on a tactical basis, mages are the most valuable, but on an operational basis both could not survive without each other.
Now in order to give you a better understanding of how I suggest you play Agartha, you have to get a general idea of how the operations to win my wars as MA Agartha. First I determine what is most valuable in my eyes and my enemies and label them as operational objectives. These will be the goals of each broad stroke operation, when I seize many or all, I will be in a strong enough position to get a ceasefire, convince my enemies neighbors to attack him, or to put myself in strong enough position to destroy the enemy completely. Good areas to start for objectives are Capitols, thrones, major production bases, areas of terrain that allows quick travel, and high income areas. Other things can be added such as a certain pretender, army, or global enchantment but those are less reliable targets as they can move or in the case of global enchantments, the solution on how to use your army for such threats is more abstract i.e. getting gems for a dispel.
Now that we know what to hit, we need to know how to hit it, and this is much more difficult as it is heavily reliant on the enemy you are facing and you will have to adapt to your opponent's playstyle to counter them fully. There are some key areas though that should be brought up as they further explain deep operations or deep battle in terms of the Agarthans. One is the break through, this is key as most MA Agartha players believe the best way is to simply send a massive battering ram of troops to smash everything in their way. While I agree this is effective at times, a human player will eventually counter a tactic like this. No, my vision of a grand Agarthan invasion is one of careful diversion and breakthrough followed by multiple waves of smaller defensively oriented armies. The way to do this like most methods is simple, yet difficult to execute. You must first gather forces into a few larger armies to pressure the enemy. These forces will cause your enemy to redirect troops to deal with these threats. Then you must hit them in a weak area while rushing in many smaller specialized armies to make the ground taken very expensive for the enemy to deal with. Furthermore, some of these smaller defensive armies will be reconfigured and joined together to form more larger armies to assault the enemy and make grabs at objectives. if by this point the enemy starts to withdraw forces to deal with the new interior threats, use your forces you move to counter to take the ceded ground and further fortify as the enemy position once again stiffens. With this you will pressure the enemy back, take key objectives and take valuable regions of control he was devoting to the war effort and planning his battles for. How to do this matters heavily on the enemy you face and their army composition. In some cases the enemy will block every path forcing you to grind down at multiple points and exploit breakthroughs when they come to you. Other times enemies will instead choose to raid you, in which case you should attack and take multiple key objectives and fortify them to make it difficult for them to continue raiding. Yet other times, enemies will simply outnumber you, in which case you must pressure them and use underhanded assault tactics such as a army of umbrals or penumbrals with a shademail equipped commander at the border that assaults where the enemy thought there were no troops, an amphibious assault like D-day, or a well planned mass kill spell such as earthquake, Acid storm, or Rain of stones. The point is you will want a force to break into the enemy lines and smaller forces to back them up in order to overwhelm the enemy locally and force the enemy to divert as many troops to deal with the large number of significant if minor threats, letting your other front line forces advance and force the enemy into an even weaker position.
Now lets describe how to organize your troops. The three categories troops will generally fall under are shock troops, diversionary forces, and holding forces. Shock troops tend to be large armies designed to hit the enemy with a well rounded force equipped with plenty of diverse battle magics and solid magic troops such as statues, magma children, great olms and shard wights. Shock troops will be best suited for hitting the enemy hard to make a breakthrough. These can also include the aforementioned shademailed Oracle with Umbrals and Penumbrals since while they can not sneak through enemy territory with their low stealth, they can not be seen by scouts making them a force that literally appears out of nowhere to attack a vulnerable area and make a breakthrough (make sure to give them buffs from oracle or they will die off fast). Holding forces are a different story, these small specialized forces are designed to stop an enemy force cold or at least bleed them so greatly that they will have to withdraw very soon. A holding force can be designed with almost any size, from a single mage with a handful of bodyguards casting a mass kill spell, to specialized and buffed group of troglodytes, statues, magma children, or living mercuries designed to inflict massive high damage hits, or even a small force of soldiers with a mage force scripted to counter a certain threat, these troops durability and longevity are determined by how much your opponent wants to lose in order to regain territory. The final force is the Diversionary forces, these are simply shock troops you did not choose to make a breakthrough with, be they too weak to have a very good chance of victory, or to far from the objectives, the point was that they were too significant a threat for the enemy to ignore and will continue to be one as they move to take ceded ground and any objectives they can seize.
Now that we covered operations, lets talk about tactics and strategy. For tactics, you will generally want a many battle mages to make up for their low precision and troops to protect them. Not much more to say in terms of general battle as your army will push with a big block of heavy infantry backed up by diverse magical artillery to make up for your lack of ranged troops. Everything else from mass kills to sacred armies attacking are standard compared to other nations. For strategy we will start with production, generally you will want your magic units such as statues to be produced near large plains regions so that your Attendants of Oracles (with boots of long strides if you have the nature gems) can march them quickly to the front lines to hold key positions, reinforce armies or even take poorly defended provinces. In every fort you have you should be trying to produce heavy infantry to increase the total numbers of armies you can field and therefore better exploit breakthroughs, create diversionary forces, etc. Producing golem crafters in as many areas as you can afford to is a good option as well as their use as battle mages, site searchers, and summoners are incredibly valuable. Constantly producing Oracles to site search and give you access to death and high earth magic is an excellent idea as well. They also make good leaders when they finally reach the front lines. Sacred Shard Guards work excellently with an Oracle for underwater combat, expansion and amphibious warfare, keep them in mind and if possible, constantly recruit them. Also remember to recruit nature mages as access to nature will give you poison resist items that can make Living Mercuries less of a hassle and boots of long strides to aid in your movement of magical units. Special attention should be payed to the lizard shaman independent recruit as he gives you access to astral as well making him even more useful. With all of this you should have the numbers and positioning to be a threat to most nations despite your slow movement.
To top it all off we will discuss your research options. Alteration, enchantment, Evocation, conjuration, and contruction are all useful areas to research. Alteration will usually be useful since it gives you half of your battle magic with spells like destruction, curse of stone, iron warriors, etc. Enchantment gives you your statues and living mercuries along with your global enchantments and strength of giants, along with revenants to help your death site searching. Evocation will give you the other half of your battle magic with spells like Acid bolt, magma eruption, blade wind, and earthquake. Conjuration will give you shard wights, olms, penumbrals and umbrals, and summon earthpower which is a staple of earth battle magic. Construction is a tricky one as you will get less benefits the farther you go up it. The real valuable items are all around contruction 4 with a few leftovers such as bags of endless wine and shields of gleaming gold at construction 6. Three items I particularly enjoy are snake ring, earth boots, dwarven hammer, boots of long strides, and Shademail Haubergeon for their ability to diversify your options.
Pretender
Pretender options are vast since Agartha can run well on a gold based or gem based army due to its ability to get durable infantry from both. Generally if you want to make use of your sentinels to a large extent you will want a 9 path in Water, Fire, Death, or nature to either make them more tough or to give them more killing power. Other than that scales such as production, and growth are fantastic since they solve your ability to mass mages and heavy infantry better by keeping mages unafflicted with growth and higher resources in each fort with production. Order is a scale up for debate as luck/turmoil might be more in your favor if you want more magic gems which Agartha has no problem leveraging. You will want one in heat however as your Pale ones are cold blooded making cold weather rather disastrous. Overall this area will be up for experimentation as Agartha with a few adjustments can adapt to many pretender's strengths and weaknesses quite nicely making it MA Agartha's big understated strong point.
Armored battalions line the horizon, you are but their first obstacle, and they are but the first wave.
Nation overview
In the age of heroes Agartha's Pale Ones, a race of subeteranean one-eyed giants, lead a grand army to the surface to protect their interests in a benevolent god. Unfortunately, they lost badly. Their lack of heavy armor and their lack of offensive capability for much of their forces caused them to suffer greatly against their better organized and equipped foes. As a final solution, an Oracle of the pale ones broke the Great Seal left by the missing Pantokrator (supreme god) foolishly believing that it would give the power to win the Ascension war. Instead almost all the Pale Ones in Agartha died and many more died under the wrath of the insane gods that were contained with the the Great Seal. This lead to great time of mourning in Agartha as the pale ones as a race were but a fading star soon to all but vanish from the earth. But they would not go out with a whimper, gathering what remained of the pale ones and the new statue worshiping humans that have moved into abandoned territories, the Oracles lead a modernized army of heavy infantry, legions of stone warriors, and undead to once more attempt at claiming the surface.
Why Play MA Agartha?
Because you're tired of playing nations that are based on being better than everyone at a certain magic or having the best army in a offensive aspect. You play MA Agartha because you are both patient and ruthless. You're not the knights in shining armor or the proud and noble elite guard. You're the infantry and you know wars are not won by flashy tactics but by iron discipline and coordination under the banner of carefully chosen attrition.
They do not eat or sleep. They may be slow but they will never stop and never retreat.
Army Overview
There are a few key areas of interest in Agartha's armies. First is average to poor attack skill, your warriors will be lucky if they kill move than 2 each against a badly outnumbered and ill suited army. Second is an abundance of high protection, this makes their armies similar to EA Abysia in terms of durability. Third is high hitpoints on Pale one troops, Pale ones may not be good at attacking but they can take a beating with casual grace. Fourth is fantastic siege capability, you have units that do not need to eat, some are good at defending fortresses, and many have high strength with a siege bonus. Fifth, is darkvision, obviously a nation of cave dwellers has above average night vision Finally, a quick muster despite large numbers of heavy infantry, this is a key ability and one that is the heart of many Agarthan maneuvers.
Agarthan Heavy infantry
He's a human with 50% darkvision, 18 protection, average attack, and decent damage. His description is lackluster but he is a solid heavy troop choice that unfortunately competes with many excellent heavy infantry choices. Still, he's cheap in cold if not in resources, so you might use him on the grounds of budget concerns.
Agarthan Infantry
The Heavy Infantry's younger brother and somewhat useful due to his higher attack skill at a rather cheap gold cost. He's a solid medium infantry comparable to legionnaires and gets the job done despite having relatively low hitpoints and only average morale and magic resistance.
Agarthan Light Infantry
Rather fast and cheap infantry that are average in just about every respect. Useful for having map move 2 and a solid if unimpressive combat effectiveness.
Pale One Soldier
The name soldier was added on because the more appropriate name meat shield was too offensive. Medium infantry level protection on a unit that makes many militia units proud of their combat skills. Their big assets are large hit points, darkvision, need not eat, and siege bonus. Cold blooded is an annoying trait as he will be even worse in cold areas. Map Move 1 because Pale ones.
Wet One
Wet behind the ears more like. Your easiest to mass unit and it shows in all the wrong areas. Terrible protection means that he will not last more than a few seconds in close combat even with high hitpoints. Poor attack and defense skill means he has a good chance of dying without even hitting anyone. He is in essence a pale one soldier without the saving grace of armor. They will have difficulties expanding even underwater. (thing to note is that they do improve to only slightly below average stats underwater and you can recruit a variant that has slightly better protection underwater as well.) Their biggest assets are darkvision, need not eat, and siege bonuses. Other than that they are only an expert in dying. Also they get map move 2 to charge towards their graves twice as fast.
Ancient One
Not a bad unit, its just that he's not good either. The Ancient one is an old Pale One. As pale ones never stop growing, he is a big and dangerous warrior that inspires his squad mates to greater feats of courage acting as a proxy for a standard bearer. The only issue is that he runs ahead of said squad mates often and dies. He can throw rocks but that is nothing too great as he is capital only and therefore you will see few of them if ever. As a sidenote he is sacred. Map Move 2.
Ancient One Stone Hurler
You don't want to pay the resources for a proper Ancient One warrior. Welcome to the bargain basement! He's awful at attacking and uses his fist instead of a weapon to do the least damage possible when he hits at all. His biggest assets are his stone throws and his siege bonus. His stone throws are bad due to low precision and he is capital only so you can not really exploit his siege bonus without costing yourself sacred recruitment slots for better units. Overall a poor excuse for a sacred that is takes the weaknesses of the Pale ones and adds more on top of it. Map Move 2.
Troglodyte Slave
A suicide land mine unit. In the Lore, troglodytes were allies of the Pale Ones, but the new human populace was less than impressed by them and now use them as expendable troops and mine slaves. They are size 3 tramplers with great strength and good attack skill while lacking anything needed for them to survive any extended engagement. You can recruit 5 a turn only but given the their expense in gold, you will likely never want more than 5 a turn anyways.
Defender of the Halls
Big, well armored, and great at staying alive with a specialty in siege warfare. He exemplifies the ideals of Agarthan soldiers, tough, strong, self reliant with above average magic resistance. Lore wise these are the warriors trained by human weapon masters and given modified human equipment to defend key areas from enemy incursions, a job they excel at.
Shard Guard
A offspring between the pale ones and great olms. These warriors are used to guard the deeper halls along with the Defenders but with a sacred status. They wield glaives made from shards of the obsidian glaives of the now destroyed seal guards and are resistant to these cursed weapon's effects.
Earth Elemental
A regenerating, low protection, size 3 trampler that gets smaller as it gets damaged. They get these by summoning them using a conjuration 3 spell called Barathrus Pact. Where an Agarthan Earth mage enters the Roots of the Earth and makes a deal with the Elemental King of Deeper Earth to get an earth elemental. Suffice to say this unit is useful but as the Roots of the Earth is only in your capital they are hard to transport once your nation grows larger. Map move 2
Magma Children
These are Primal Abysians, they are strong and powerful against all those that lack fire resistance. They are best used as suicidal units to cause a disproportionate loss on the enemy's side. They are the same as the Earth Elemental requiring a Conjuration 3 spell called Rhuax pact that can only be cast in your capital. They will never rout. Map move 2
Umbral
Agarthan Ghosts that were either Agarthans that died in the effort to lock away the insane and vanquished gods into the Great Seal or were killed when the Great Seal was broken. Their big claim to fame is a large health pool, life drain, and ethereal. But these are not their only asset as stealthy is a very valuable ability to have especially with Agartha's access to shademail. One thing to remember is that despite their large health pool they can die rather easilly to magic weapons due to no protection. They are summoned by earth/death mages which means only your slow to recruit capital only mage can summon them. They do come in packs of four per casting though. Map move 3
Penumbral
The smaller version of the Umbral, available earlier at Conjuration 3 instead of 5. Can't say much for him in abilities or uses as he is basically an Umbral but weaker. That said he is size 3 so theoretically a close formation of them could put twice the number of attacks per square. They like their bigger brothers come in packs of 4 and are only summoned by your Oracles.
Shard Wights
Reanimated pale ones that are better at fighting than actual pale ones. Never mind the description of them being guards and talking buddies. You get these guys to be the offensive arm of your forces in the war. Like the Shard Guards they get magical weapons to let them hurt mistform, ethereal, and lucky units. They have a cold aura and above average attack skill making them hit quite often unlike most pale ones with good protection to cover for their average defense skill. They are overall much more useful from a tactical standpoint than Umbrals and Penumbrals but are much more limited from an operational perspective as they lack stealth and therefore can always be seen miles away. Map Move 3
Living Mercury
Take Magma Children, make them harder to produce but much more powerful and dangerous. This is the result. Mercury according to the lore is a very magical substance and therefore was easy to animate. Overall they are an interesting unit as they lack protection but have multiple forms to burn through, with each weaker than the last. Their biggest claim to fame though is their 3 high strength, armor piercing attacks and the fact that mercury is poisonous so having a barrel's load of it sloshing around everywhere will produce poisonous fumes. Giving them protection is a good idea as they will die surprisingly fast to projectile fire unsupported. Overall I find them too dangerous for you mage corps to use them offensively. Offensively being the key word as they make fantastic land mines against an invading army. Map Move 2
Great Olms
These units are great. They have mind blast which has unlimited range on the battlefield and are your only solid ranged unit choice on your national roster. They can be summoned in caves with Olm Conclave at Conjuration 4. The summon also includes an Olm Sage which will get be described later. In the lore these guys are ancient subterranean creatures worshipped by the Pale Ones for good reason. They will melt your brain if they don't like you. Some even speculate that Pale Ones are descendants of Olms
A Primer on Statues:
Statues are MA Agartha's big armored fist when it comes to troop choices. Not only do they move as fast as cavalry on the global map but they are incredibly durable in battle as well. They have high protection and health with pierce and slash resistance. They are the battle tanks of Dominions, fast when they need to be, armored, absurdly hard hitting, and an incredible resource sink. Though you can get them early you won't be able to mass produce them till the late game at least not without massive resource uses. You see Agartha can often only summon them one at a time for each Golem Crafter or in the case of Attentive Statues, two at a time. They are incredibly valuable but you must remember the big picture, Russia had only a relative small percentage of tanks compared to its total forces in WW2 and you should likely do so as well. Don't look for every place you would like a statue, instead look for areas you will really need them in since Agartha relies on combined arms to win rather than individual valor.
Sentinel
Oh boy, these guys are great. They are minor pale one statues animated by golem crafters that are excellent at patrolling. A key feature is that they are sacred and thus subject to a bless making them effective in combat as well if you have appropriate paths on your pretender. They do not heal on their own in a province without a lab in the province. That said they can take blesses that give them regeneration and can heal that way. Overall they are a tough hard hitting unit made versatile depending on the bless you take on your pretender. Map move 3
Attentive Statues
Decent patrollers but that's not why you get them. These are easy to get, cost effective statues that can deal with most small independent provinces with ease. They may not be able to deal as much damage as other statues but you can produce them two at a time for the incredibly easy to research, enchantment 1. Overall they do what most Agartha troops do best, hold the line and slowly grind down the enemy in attrition. I tend to find use for them in the early parts of the game when I need to expand quickly. Map move 3
Granite Guard
Take a Sentinel, boost up his health by a factor of three, a minor boost in strength, and a larger body. This is the result. Granite Guards are the Statues of the Seal Guard, an ancient military order of Pale Ones that guarded the Great Seal from being broken by the foolish and to keep the Agarthan Umbrals and Penumbrals from overrunning the deeper halls of Agartha. With the Seal broken the ancient order is no more but statues of them still remain and are being enchanted to fight as a living legacy. Overall I would say this unit is alright, but it competes with the much more all around better Sentinel especially due to it costing the same price as 3 Sentinels. That's not to say they do not have their uses. They mainly excel at surviving and stalling what sentinels can not i.e. giants.
What you don't like stone giants walking over all your troops. Too bad!
Commanders
Agartha's commanders are rather interesting as most of them have a key niche in your operations and strategy while a few will also be very useful tactically on the battlefield. Overall they give Agartha the diversity it needs to be threatening despite how slow your army moves across the world map.
Cave Captain
What to say about him. The Cave Captain is a human from Agartha that is a commander. They can lead 80 men similar to a Centurion and they'll generally be tough enough to survive stray archer fire. Overall a solid commander that is very useful at the start when you get one free or when you want to send a commander to lead an army that's not an expensive mage. He is a bit weak though in terms of health and he is not amphibious so he won't be as great a choice for your army later on. Map move 1
Agarthan Scout
He's an Agarthan so he's got darkvision, not a particularly impressive unit since he competes for recruitment turns with mages and troop leaders. The first one you get will ideally be the last one you recruit.
Oracle of the Ancients
A Capital only Pale one mage that is solid all around with high earth, some death and a possibility of water or fire magic. These are the last remaining Oracles of the Pale Ones and they prove their worth with their knowledge of high earth magic and your only national Death mage. Useful in many aspects from searching for death gem sites to creating massive army killing earthquakes. It is often recommended to start producing these sometime during year one of the game. A suggestion I wholeheartedly agree with. They also are amphibious with holy 3 and a solid leadership of 80, making them excellent troop commanders as well as your only national mage that can lead your undead troops. Holy 3 also allows them to cast divine blessing which blesses all friendly sacred units on the battlefield as well as the ability to claim thrones in the absence of your pretender or your prophet. Overall these are your best national mages as they open up so many options. Map move 1 is the major downside as they are capital only and slow to recruit so each one takes an enormous amount of time to get where you need them, making each one at the front lines so much more valuable to the point they become worth more than entire armies later in the game.
Pale One Captain
A good Pale One commander that is sadly still awful at dealing damage in melee. To make up for that he is incredibly durable. His big advantage over the human captain is being amphibious at the cost of a lower leadership of 60 and being cold blooded like every other living Pale one. He's useful as a troop commander so don't count him out but when your mages hit their stride in research you will be using him to move troops underwater and that's about it. Map move 1
Earth Reader
Your cheap lab rat used in areas so far from the front line that research and a minimal burden on the budget are the most important contributions they can give. Lore wise these are the wise men consulted by Agarthans when they need to open up a new cave or to prevent a coming disaster. They used to be all pale ones but now that the pale ones are becoming fewer, this job has been filled by humans. He's cheap and he does a decent amount of research for his cost as well as being an earth one mage so he can summon earth elementals in battle if your willing to give him earth gems. Map Move 1
Golem Crafters
Golem Crafters are descendents of mage smiths from Ulm that were emigrated from Ulm when the Iron Inquisition was formed and began to eliminate "impure" mage-smiths. They were led by the exiled Ulmish Sorcerer Klaus and funded by Pythian (Byzantine) gold to conquer Agartha and seize its riches. In this they have succeeded but by making peace between the diminishing Pale Ones and the human settlers by using both races reverence towards the ancient statues of Pale Ones. Golem Crafters are the one of the three main powers in Agartha along with the Oracles and Klaus who still lives and works to maintain peace between the two factions so that one day Agartha might enter a Golden Age led by him. Golem Crafters are overall very effective mages due to their vast array of available summons and their solid diversity in magic letting them have very powerful battle magic. You'll want to recruit many of them to work with your forces as their low precision hinders their ability to damage enemies. They are also passable leaders and will be your mage of choice for creating statues, and summoning your various non death magical beings. Key Battle magic is destruction (Alteration 4), Blade wind (evocation 4), Magma Eruption (evocation 6), and Acid Bolt/rain/storm (Evocation 3, 4, and 7). Map Move 1
Attendant of Oracles
Valuable for one reason, they are map move 2 and can lead magical beings. Making them choice statue, Magma children, etc. ferries in plains regions. They won't be useful in combat but being able to move reinforcements quickly is invaluable for MA Agartha. Lore wise these are the man servants of Oracles that attend to their every need and generally kowtow constantly to the very large Pale one that can collapse entire caverns.
Marble Oracle
Ancient Oracles do not entirely disappear upon death, some remnant of their memory remains in the statues dedicated to them. When Golem Crafters enchant these statues they gain a mind of their own and can spread faith in the Awakening God to non believers. Not a bad unit as it is basically a very durable, self blessing Thug (commander that can fight groups of soldiers on its own). Its main problem is cost as it will be incredibly expensive to afford this guy when you simply can make more statues instead. That said with boots of behemoth, a good bless (usually for yoru sentinels), and some other protection equipment like vine shields, shields of gleaming gold, and maybe a Fear helmet, the Oracle can be useful especially in an open Plains theater of war where its Map Move 3 will be most effective. Overall a situational superheavy version of the Sentinel that will be used only when absolutely necessary.
Wet One Captain
A leader of awful Wet ones and is only slightly better than them. Useful for leading Wet ones in underwater conquests but not much else as arrow fire will punish limited protection severely.
Troglodyte Trainer
The man with the whip and sword that keeps those Troglodyte slaves in line. Not too much to say about him other than he will give moral boosts to troglodytes he leads, making them less likely to rout. As Troglodytes serve the function as expendable land mines for enemy troops, increased morale is very useful for their role on the battlefield.
Ancient Lord
Large Pale ones that serve as army commanders. Not really that useful despite a faster map move as they compete with Oracles for cap only recruitment for the same leadership with only the minor bonus of extra protection. I would rather take Oracles personally as Ancient Lords bring far too few things to the table in comparison.
Olm Sage
An excellent commander with Map Move 2 and a great research value. Overall a very solid mage that comes with the Great Olms in the spell Olm Conclave. The biggest issue being that Olm Conclave is only usable in caves making them sometimes less useful than summoning Living Mercuries. Also has solid water magic making them a good choice for large water spells.
This is pretty much what you deal with constantly when fighting against MA Agartha
Strategy Overview
Agartha's main issue is mobility for its forces. Without mobility it will not matter how hard to kill your army is or how well supported they are by diverse magics. Agarthan Players must understand the Operational level of warfare through instruction or intuition in order to win against a human player decisively and against and AI efficiently. Therefore in this guide I will only go on about what magics are useful to research and general pretender suggestions at the end after I describe how I operate Agarthan forces despite their low map move. There are a few main questions you need to ask yourself in order to understand Agartha's precarious position. Will the war be won in one decisive campaign or will it be a long struggle of attrition? Should my armies be primarily offensive or defensive? Will the nature of battle be fluid or static? Will infantry or magical forces be more important? The answer to the first question is that it will be attrition that wins the war. The second answer is that your armies must be defensive but used offensively. The third is that the battle will be at first fluid and then static as you come into contact with forts, large opposing production of armies, and surprise defeats. The final answer is that infantry will be the most important in your armies with heavy support from mages and summoned troops.
Agartha will have to fight in a war of attrition. Now you might say, how is that a good thing, considering Agartha's slow map movement making for slower supply lines for your front line forces. This comes with the answer to the second question's answer, that you must use a defensive force offensively. That also sounds at first like an awful plan as you will likely worry about a situation similar to WW1 with the enemy having the logistical advantage. However you are not taking into account one major area of Agartha's armies, toughness and a wide variety of battle magic. This means that each major force will be a tough nut to crack and you can devote much of your resources to produce more units. In terms of sheer durability, Agartha's troops are some of the most efficient for their cost. And now you might begin to see why I consider Agartha similar to WW2 Russia, Slow, vast, powerful, with crude but effective methods relying on advances of tough troops under the cover of artillery and tank support. More over, you do not nearly need the forces necessary for defense as you do in offense especially if your goal is not to win but to bleed the enemy. This is where Agartha really shines with its hard hitting frail specialists and wide array of buffs such as Marble Warriors and Strength of Giants. Now how will the fact that forts slow down battles to a crawl affect Agartha? Agartha will actually benefit as Pale Ones need not eat, meaning that a siege can last years before any meaningful supply issues pop up. To add to that your armies mainstay infantry, the Defender of the Halls gets a siege defense bonus making them difficult even for large armies to storm in a timely manner. Pale ones also get a bonus in breaking down the gates of enemy fortresses, making them even better at threatening the enemy. In short your battles will be more fluid compared to your enemies simply due to your ability to assault castles much faster. Now the final question is interesting as magical forces give you a variety of specialist to work with your infantry to make them more effective. To add to that your mages will support your infantry in crucial battles, and are often the deciding factor. However your infantry are what makes you battles possible due to their skills in sieges and their importance to hold of the enemy from key mages. As well as being a crucial components in any smaller army with far fewer mages and magical beings available. Therefore, on a tactical basis, mages are the most valuable, but on an operational basis both could not survive without each other.
Now in order to give you a better understanding of how I suggest you play Agartha, you have to get a general idea of how the operations to win my wars as MA Agartha. First I determine what is most valuable in my eyes and my enemies and label them as operational objectives. These will be the goals of each broad stroke operation, when I seize many or all, I will be in a strong enough position to get a ceasefire, convince my enemies neighbors to attack him, or to put myself in strong enough position to destroy the enemy completely. Good areas to start for objectives are Capitols, thrones, major production bases, areas of terrain that allows quick travel, and high income areas. Other things can be added such as a certain pretender, army, or global enchantment but those are less reliable targets as they can move or in the case of global enchantments, the solution on how to use your army for such threats is more abstract i.e. getting gems for a dispel.
Now that we know what to hit, we need to know how to hit it, and this is much more difficult as it is heavily reliant on the enemy you are facing and you will have to adapt to your opponent's playstyle to counter them fully. There are some key areas though that should be brought up as they further explain deep operations or deep battle in terms of the Agarthans. One is the break through, this is key as most MA Agartha players believe the best way is to simply send a massive battering ram of troops to smash everything in their way. While I agree this is effective at times, a human player will eventually counter a tactic like this. No, my vision of a grand Agarthan invasion is one of careful diversion and breakthrough followed by multiple waves of smaller defensively oriented armies. The way to do this like most methods is simple, yet difficult to execute. You must first gather forces into a few larger armies to pressure the enemy. These forces will cause your enemy to redirect troops to deal with these threats. Then you must hit them in a weak area while rushing in many smaller specialized armies to make the ground taken very expensive for the enemy to deal with. Furthermore, some of these smaller defensive armies will be reconfigured and joined together to form more larger armies to assault the enemy and make grabs at objectives. if by this point the enemy starts to withdraw forces to deal with the new interior threats, use your forces you move to counter to take the ceded ground and further fortify as the enemy position once again stiffens. With this you will pressure the enemy back, take key objectives and take valuable regions of control he was devoting to the war effort and planning his battles for. How to do this matters heavily on the enemy you face and their army composition. In some cases the enemy will block every path forcing you to grind down at multiple points and exploit breakthroughs when they come to you. Other times enemies will instead choose to raid you, in which case you should attack and take multiple key objectives and fortify them to make it difficult for them to continue raiding. Yet other times, enemies will simply outnumber you, in which case you must pressure them and use underhanded assault tactics such as a army of umbrals or penumbrals with a shademail equipped commander at the border that assaults where the enemy thought there were no troops, an amphibious assault like D-day, or a well planned mass kill spell such as earthquake, Acid storm, or Rain of stones. The point is you will want a force to break into the enemy lines and smaller forces to back them up in order to overwhelm the enemy locally and force the enemy to divert as many troops to deal with the large number of significant if minor threats, letting your other front line forces advance and force the enemy into an even weaker position.
Now lets describe how to organize your troops. The three categories troops will generally fall under are shock troops, diversionary forces, and holding forces. Shock troops tend to be large armies designed to hit the enemy with a well rounded force equipped with plenty of diverse battle magics and solid magic troops such as statues, magma children, great olms and shard wights. Shock troops will be best suited for hitting the enemy hard to make a breakthrough. These can also include the aforementioned shademailed Oracle with Umbrals and Penumbrals since while they can not sneak through enemy territory with their low stealth, they can not be seen by scouts making them a force that literally appears out of nowhere to attack a vulnerable area and make a breakthrough (make sure to give them buffs from oracle or they will die off fast). Holding forces are a different story, these small specialized forces are designed to stop an enemy force cold or at least bleed them so greatly that they will have to withdraw very soon. A holding force can be designed with almost any size, from a single mage with a handful of bodyguards casting a mass kill spell, to specialized and buffed group of troglodytes, statues, magma children, or living mercuries designed to inflict massive high damage hits, or even a small force of soldiers with a mage force scripted to counter a certain threat, these troops durability and longevity are determined by how much your opponent wants to lose in order to regain territory. The final force is the Diversionary forces, these are simply shock troops you did not choose to make a breakthrough with, be they too weak to have a very good chance of victory, or to far from the objectives, the point was that they were too significant a threat for the enemy to ignore and will continue to be one as they move to take ceded ground and any objectives they can seize.
Now that we covered operations, lets talk about tactics and strategy. For tactics, you will generally want a many battle mages to make up for their low precision and troops to protect them. Not much more to say in terms of general battle as your army will push with a big block of heavy infantry backed up by diverse magical artillery to make up for your lack of ranged troops. Everything else from mass kills to sacred armies attacking are standard compared to other nations. For strategy we will start with production, generally you will want your magic units such as statues to be produced near large plains regions so that your Attendants of Oracles (with boots of long strides if you have the nature gems) can march them quickly to the front lines to hold key positions, reinforce armies or even take poorly defended provinces. In every fort you have you should be trying to produce heavy infantry to increase the total numbers of armies you can field and therefore better exploit breakthroughs, create diversionary forces, etc. Producing golem crafters in as many areas as you can afford to is a good option as well as their use as battle mages, site searchers, and summoners are incredibly valuable. Constantly producing Oracles to site search and give you access to death and high earth magic is an excellent idea as well. They also make good leaders when they finally reach the front lines. Sacred Shard Guards work excellently with an Oracle for underwater combat, expansion and amphibious warfare, keep them in mind and if possible, constantly recruit them. Also remember to recruit nature mages as access to nature will give you poison resist items that can make Living Mercuries less of a hassle and boots of long strides to aid in your movement of magical units. Special attention should be payed to the lizard shaman independent recruit as he gives you access to astral as well making him even more useful. With all of this you should have the numbers and positioning to be a threat to most nations despite your slow movement.
To top it all off we will discuss your research options. Alteration, enchantment, Evocation, conjuration, and contruction are all useful areas to research. Alteration will usually be useful since it gives you half of your battle magic with spells like destruction, curse of stone, iron warriors, etc. Enchantment gives you your statues and living mercuries along with your global enchantments and strength of giants, along with revenants to help your death site searching. Evocation will give you the other half of your battle magic with spells like Acid bolt, magma eruption, blade wind, and earthquake. Conjuration will give you shard wights, olms, penumbrals and umbrals, and summon earthpower which is a staple of earth battle magic. Construction is a tricky one as you will get less benefits the farther you go up it. The real valuable items are all around contruction 4 with a few leftovers such as bags of endless wine and shields of gleaming gold at construction 6. Three items I particularly enjoy are snake ring, earth boots, dwarven hammer, boots of long strides, and Shademail Haubergeon for their ability to diversify your options.
Pretender
Pretender options are vast since Agartha can run well on a gold based or gem based army due to its ability to get durable infantry from both. Generally if you want to make use of your sentinels to a large extent you will want a 9 path in Water, Fire, Death, or nature to either make them more tough or to give them more killing power. Other than that scales such as production, and growth are fantastic since they solve your ability to mass mages and heavy infantry better by keeping mages unafflicted with growth and higher resources in each fort with production. Order is a scale up for debate as luck/turmoil might be more in your favor if you want more magic gems which Agartha has no problem leveraging. You will want one in heat however as your Pale ones are cold blooded making cold weather rather disastrous. Overall this area will be up for experimentation as Agartha with a few adjustments can adapt to many pretender's strengths and weaknesses quite nicely making it MA Agartha's big understated strong point.