Arcoscephale, Golden Era: a guide

This guide covers Arcoscephale, Golden Era. Plain text states what the nation file, the unit cards and the mechanics pages say. The shaded Opinion blocks are one player’s advice, and a different plan can work as well.

At a glance

The nation’s troop style is heavy foot, chariots and fliers. Its races are human. Its mages reach Nature 3, Air 2, and one level each of Earth, Astral and Holy, with Fire 2 and Water 2 listed as rare paths. Its dominion scrys, which gives accurate military reports inside its borders (Dominion). Laboratories cost less here than the standard price (Forts), and Engineers can build better forts than the standard ones. Its priests are weak and healing-minded, and the nation file says the Sceptic preachers reduce dominion.

How the nation wins

Its core is bronze-armoured foot soldiers and chariots, with winged Icarids added for flying infantry. Behind them stand mages who are strongest in Nature, with Air and the other paths as supports. Priests are weak, so faith spreads slowly. The site data lists three start sites for the nation: Mount Cephalos, with the Oreiad, the Wind Lord and the sacred Wind Rider as home units, the Lykeion, with the Mage Engineer, and the Akademeia, with the Philosopher.

Early turns

Every troop type here except the Melissa is marked in the nation file as recruited at a fort, so provinces without one cannot add them. A province with no fort also produces only half of its resources for its own use (Forts).

The cheapest soldier is the Slinger, a missile unit. The Peltast carries a spear and javelins, and the Cardaces costs the same as the Peltast and carries a spear and shield but no javelins. The Scout is a commander with a short bow and the stealthy ability.

Army and commanders

The nation’s heavy troop is the Myrmidon, with a bronze sword, bronze hauberk, hoplite helmet and shield, and a map move of 8. The Charioteer has the same map move, while the second Charioteer has a map move of 14. The Icarid is a flying soldier. An army moves at the pace of its slowest member (Map movement), and a commander can lead only as many troops as his or her leadership allows (Army management).

Commander choices are the Myrmidon Champion, the Icarid Champion and the Charioteer Commander, with leadership 100, 75 and 75 and map moves of 10, 14 and 10 respectively. The Engineer has leadership 10. The Sceptic is a philosopher commander sent to weaken faith in false gods. The Melissa is sacred, so it can be blessed (Blesses).

Magic and research priorities

The nation’s spell list in the data names these spells: Monster Boar, Summon Hound of Twilight, Sow Dragon Teeth, Bind Keres, Craft Keledone, Forge Brass Bull, Awaken Hamadryad and Procession of the Underworld. Monster Boar needs Nature 3 and Sow Dragon Teeth needs Earth 2. Awaken Hamadryad needs Nature 4, one level above what the nation’s mages reach, and spends Nature gems. Several of the others need Death or Fire, paths the nation’s mages do not list, so they depend on your god or on items.

The commander mages are the Melissa, the Mystic and, from the Lykeion, the Mage Engineer. The plain Engineer has no magic paths. The Melissa has Nature and Holy at level 1 and a chance of a random Air or Nature level on top. The Mystic has Astral 1 and random picks among Fire, Water, Earth and Astral. The Philosopher can research without any magical skill, and a Sloth scale helps philosophers (Research).

Pretender ideas

A pretender has 450 design points to spend on form, paths, dominion and scales (Pretender design). The nation file lists many pretender forms it can use, among them the Gorgon, Titan of the Hunt, Great Archon, Arch-Mage and several dragons. A body that already has the paths you want saves points, because each added level in a path costs more than the one before it (Pretender design). The Sloth scale lowers income and resources (Pretender design).

Weaknesses and counters

Priests are weak. Myrmidons and the first Charioteer have a map move of 8, which makes the army slower than faster troops (Map movement). The armour on the Icarid is lighter than that of the Myrmidon, with a body protection of 8 against 17. Heavy armour raises encumbrance, and each attack adds fatigue equal to it, which wears down defence in a long fight (Fatigue).

Against which neighbours

The Golden Era is the early age, so its neighbours are the other early-age nations on the nations list. The nation file does not say which of them are easier or harder to face.