Nomads

**Nomad**

*Nomads are another late game race with decent early and midgame military potential. Unlike Elves, Nomads don't suffer from the lack of population growth, but they can't build food producing buildings.*

*Their military specializes in using bows and having high magic resistance, however the lack of Granary makes them super weak to city curses from the Death realm- the maximal population reduction from Drought hits them especially hard. Nomad rulers have the choice of attempting to subdue Death wizards and destroy them entirely before that happens, which should be easier than usual thanks to the supreme magic resistance, or they can attempt to maintain a peaceful relation and aim for one of the very rare spells that protects their cities from enemy magic or remove those enemies through attempting a blitzkrieg.*

*While nomad units are good, food is scarce, making early overexpansion using Nomads difficult as that would require feeding the larger armies. Using the conquered cities for food production can help, but building them up to have enough food production to support your needs take time and will likely slow your expansion anyway.*

*Nonetheless, the excellent ranged units can help obtaining resources from lairs and nodes which Nomads are likely best at on the plane, making the race suitable for less aggressive playstyles as well. Flavor-wise, the nomadic lifestyle allows them to meet and understand various cultures and styles of magic, explaining the resistance, bows provide a good answer to the inevitable meeting of hostile tribes, and being used to stay on the move explains the unwillingness to rely on agriculture and granaries.*

*Unlike Elves, Nomads can produce priests to clean corruption - their weakness is Drought instead. The “road” bonus also matches the flavor of nomadic lifestyle - even without roads, nomads will travel and trade with nearby nations as if they had them.This even provides defensive military advantage, as incoming enemies can't take advantage of being able to move faster by using your roads, something most other races have to worry about, and which makes having roads for increased gold production have a downside.*

**+80 Growth**

**Settler cost -33%**

**+3 Magic Resistance.**

**Spearmen and Swordsmen have a weak bow attack.**

**Gain up to 50% road bonus as though you had roads even if you do not.**

Spearmen, Swordsmen, Catapult, Magician, Trireme, Galley, Warship

+1 Health, -1 Magic resistance, Water movement.

Horsebowmen (50, Stables) : 4 Melee, 4 Ranged, 2 Defense, 7 Resistance, 4 Movement, 4 Figures, 3 Health.

Priests (100, Parthenon) : 3 Melee, 5 Magical Ranged, 4 Defense, 11 Resistance, 2 Movement, 4 Figures, 2 Health.

Pikemen (75, Fighter's Guild) : 4 Melee, 4 Defense, 8 Resistance, 2 Movement, 6 Figures, 2 Health. Armor Piercing, Negate First Strike.

Rangers (150, Armorer's Guild) : 6 Melee, 7 Ranged (6 ammo), 3 Defense, 8 Resistance, 3 Movement, 4 Figures, 3 Health. Long Range, Pathfinding

Griffons (180, Fantastic Stables) : 9 Melee, 5 Defense, 8 Resistance, 4 Movement, 2 Figures, 10 Health. First Strike, Armor Piercing, Flying

*The excellent Horsebowmen unit is the only early game normal unit that can use ranged attacks while having a high enough movement speed to consistently avoid melee enemy units. This unit had to be repeatedly reduced in power and it's still excellent. Being a cavalry type unit, it has acceptable amount of hit points per figure, making it hard to kill with early game direct damage spells, and the high resistance takes care of not getting cursed. As it's unlikely to die in battles, it works well for a race that cannot afford maintaining larger armies due to bad food production. I personally consider Nomads the best late game race choice on Arcanus for high difficulty due to having this amazing early unit, but the race manages to remain balanced overall as other races offer better late game units or economy potential and weakness to Drought is a much more serious threat than it would first seem. Pikemen lack the extra figures High Men get, but the much higher magic resistance makes up for it. Rangers have very potent bow attacks and great durability and mobility for an archer, and will likely eliminate all enemies unfortunate enough to not have access to magicians or spells that counter bow attacks. Fortunately, both of them are somewhat unlikely, keeping the unit from becoming too outstanding. Griffons are a decent flying unit that have no ranged attacks, making them less tactical than Pegasai, but thanks to First Strike they can still often engage enemies without getting damaged in the process. Their melee attack power might not seem outstanding, but it's still the best for Arcanus flying normal units available in the game, and they are suprisingly durable with a total of 20 health for the unit. Due to the low figure count though, the damage potential is difficult to improve by buffs or unit levels and remains consistently good without becoming too powerful.*