Which Nations Are Best for Turtling?

[Agema]

There are definitely some nations who will be better than others at turtling. The obvious problem is a likely lower gold and gem income compared to someone who has expanded aggressively. Thus good turtling nations should probably have:

1) Cheap research mages - if you can get 1 research per 20 gold or less, that's great.
2) Lots of magic paths, either national, or from a rainbow pretender. You want to maximise gem income from your limited provinces.
3) High resource, low gold troops. Generally, more resources spent make units more combat effective for the gold cost, thus you need fewer and it saves on upkeep. Nations that can reanimate or summon allies are handy here.

A major determinant of the usefulness of turtling will be your strategy: you want good scales. A nation with +order, +growth, +magic can equal or better the development of a larger nation with bad scales. In particular, growth means your income keeps on improving, whereas turtling with death dominion is a recipe for disaster.