Bogarus Quick Guide

[Torin]

As I see it. An early multi-pathed Staret should site-search while an awake pretender helps expansion and you may want to build an additional fort.

The research should be conj3 (summon phoenix power and the summons) and ench 4 (fire arrows) asap. Instead of conj could be thau 1 for communion also.

[Wyatt Hebert]

Also, on the heroes, Alexej, I believe, reduces unrest where he is. You can typically get him up to ~8 Khlysts before they start generating unrest.

[Dedas]

I agree Torin, that works very well in my experience as well.

[sector24]

Lingchih said:
I'm having a hard time beating the AI with your build, DrPraetorius. POD gets afflicted easily, I can't seem to buy a decent number of troops, so the AI keeps attacking me, and, although the research is great, I just can't seem to keep ahead of the curve of the AI building massive numbers of troops to attack me before I can utilize the research.

I have to think that a build with no sloth, so I can build my national Knights, and maybe some drain, since it doesn't really hurt research too much, would be better. At least in SP. In MP, who knows? It would depend on your diplomacy skills.

I agree, Bogarus is definitely one of the tougher nations to play single player. I very much like the PoD for a pretender, but 3 sloth can be limiting. Your other options are equally tough though. You can take drain to pay for more resources, or take less Earth magic on your pretender.

The misfortune pick is also tough because Bogarus has very good national heroes and the free gems from luck events come in handy, especially death gems which you don't start with in your capital. Again your only choice is drain or weaker earth magic on your PoD.

I like the nation quite a bit, although in SP I have to rely a little too much on PD to survive the early parts of the game. I imagine in MP Bogarus players will have to be very aggressive on the diplomatic front to survive.

[Lingchih]

DrPraetorious said:
Are you playing with standard settings?

Because I did several starts with this build, one of the four I had major affliction problems, otherwise no. If it remains a huge issue for you, have him avoid any significant foes until you have equipment for him.

Are you sure that your God isn't casting spells? If you let him cast (which is what he'll do by default), he'll get mauled.

You can certainly do drain instead of sloth. I dislike the gem evaporation events.

EDIT: Also, in single player, there's no reason to attack blind on the first turn. That's the sortof hyper agressive thing I do in MP, but obviously you're going to get killed outright some of the time if you do that.

Yes, standard settings. And no, he does not cast, at least not until he can self-buff himself.

I took another stab at it, playing a little less aggressively. I would take a handful of troops (or just his skellies) with him when I attacked. I put the POD on hold, hold, attack, and let whatever troops I had take the first blows. Then he would come in and mop up. It worked pretty well... he still got afflictions, but not as often, and as someone else said, as long as he can fly in and terrify them away, that's all that is needed. The only one I really feared was the feeble-mind, but I stuck a helmet on him as soon as I could and never got one.

I found it pretty useless to make the initial Scout a prophet though. That may just be part of your hyper aggressive MP plan though. I found it much more useful to have a prophet that could lead a second army. It's a very fun nation to play, with a host of cool summons.

[vfb]

Lingchih said:
...
I found it pretty useless to make the initial Scout a prophet though. That may just be part of your hyper aggressive MP plan though. I found it much more useful to have a prophet that could lead a second army. It's a very fun nation to play, with a host of cool summons.

By making your scout your prophet, you're only losing the opportunity to scout with your scout. Whoever was leading your second army can still do that. Bring the prophet scout along with them if you want him sermoning and smiting. I've never lost my prophet scouts in battle, and they rack up fatigue less than actual commanders because of less armor.

And this way you've still got the option of stealth preaching with your prophet in addition to your FFAs.

Probably the only time I don't go with a scout prophet now is when I've got early access to an undead leader, so I can have the prophet raising dead instead of preaching. Since Bogarus has no death gem income, I don't think it's an option for them.

[vfb]

I thought I'd give massive scales a try, for some SP Bogarus fun. Imprisoned random pretender, and all scales jacked up to the max. I was going to summon a Mound King as my Prophet for some zombie action, but then Koschei showed up. Couldn't resist making him my Prophet!

Since Taqwus didn't supply a screenie, I thought I would:

[Redeyes]

Figured I would give this thread a *bump* as it seems people are currently reevaluating Bogarus.

[Torin]

I dont know why so many people uses the PoD isntead of something easier. Hes prone to get afflictions and is not reliable till you can kit him.
Sure you get good level in death but the cyclops gets you earth and can forge a hammer. If bogarus can take the virtue, its a turn 1 attacker since air shield is research 0 and you can get to awe +7 both making it very hard to get hit.

The wyrm and dragons are safer (& cheaper) for turn 1 blind attack but cant be kitted with items later, not good slots.
Wyrm is cheap enough to get dom10 and strong dominion will hurt neutral or hot nations because of bogarus cold.

I will try out PoD when I get home to see what i get.

[Illuminated One]

Heck, the Bogarus thread actually gave me an idea.

Recruit two Occultists. Recruit a Fivefold Angel and some stealthy units.
Research Blood 1 and get some bloodslaves (doable with powerful sage god and not so bad scales or maybe fountain of blood).
Additionaly get an indie commander/scout to carry bloodslaves.
Fivefold Angel gets the stealthy units and sneaks into the indie province.
Occultists attack the province with (Call Lesser Horror)(Retreat).

Next turn: Take one of the stealthy units from the Fivefold Angel away and drop it into the province (empty province + your unit in it = your province). FA sneaks into next indie province with the rest of the troops, Occultists attack it. That way you are taking one province each turn with an "army" assembled in three turns for the cost of 2 bloodslaves. Only stop when you run out of blood slaves and let your mages bloodhunt.
That's beautiful you're expansion armies are bloodhunters, lab/temple builders and researchers once you stop expanding.