How to Play

Mezari and Vaulters

an In-depth Guide

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Resource Specialization:

Science, Military, Strategics

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Main Victory Conditions:

Science, Supremacy

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Best Assimilations:

Silics, Haunts, Eyeless Ones, Dorgeshi, Urces

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Strengths:

• Starting hero, Avara Lasmak, can be used as both a Science governor as well as a Ranged army commander.
• Easily make tons of Science.
• 2x more strategic resources (a.k.a. metals) in summer and 6x more metals in winter (compared to other factions).
• Can teleport armies between cities.
• Can teleport armies directly to heroes during Dust Eclipse.
• Can use Settlers to create forward bases and instantly teleport in additional reinforcements (terrifying to fight against).
• Very strong in both offense and defense.
• Well-rounded diverse arsenal with good unit stats.
• Can further buff units if using holy resource equipment (Technolover).
• Unique techs and buildings give bonus fortification and certain immunities for cities in winter.
• Holy Resource buff flexibility allows you to choose many different paths of empire growth - Science, Dust, Industry, Food etc. For example, you could go all-in on Palladian boosters and combine it with Spices for incredible population growth.
• Heroes have skills that allow them to enter and exit sieged cities and negate FIDSI penalties from sieges.
• Has very few weaknesses and any war against Mezari is guaranteed to be a bloody one.

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Weaknesses:

• No direct faction bonuses towards industry and economy, therefore the early game can feel a bit slow compared to economic powerhouses like Wild Walkers and Kapaku.
• Low on Dust until Era 3.

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ELCP vs EL Vanilla:

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General Strategy:

The Mezari/Vaulters are a powerful well-rounded faction that specializes in producing Science and strategic resources to stay ahead of other empires in tech level and military strength. There is no significant difference between Mezari and Vaulters other than the fact that their heroes have slightly different capacities and base stats. Even without a Holy Resource, this faction already has a powerful and diverse arsenal. With the Holy Resource booster activated and Holy Resource gear equipped, the Mezari war machine becomes nigh-unstoppable and terrifying to fight against thanks to Technolover boosts on Holy Resource equipment.

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As the Mezari, you have 3 standard paths to victory:

1) Supremacy Victory via conquest;

2) Science Victory via conquest and expansion;

3) Science Victory via great empire building, continual expansion into new regions, and trading with neighbors.

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These 3 victory strategies are not mutually exclusive so you should be utilizing every advantage you can to help you win the game. Being a warmonger does not mean you are not allowed to settle new cities or take advantage of great trade routes.

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You want to prepare not only an early Industry city but also an early Science city [link to City Specialization guide] to maintain your tech advantage over other empires.

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Early Game:

• As is the case with most factions, you should prioritize high Industry spots and spots with Approval anomalies for your new cities. Volcanic is fine. A good all-rounded start is Magic Forest as those have a bit of Food, Industry, and Science which are all resources that you need.
• Research Order: Language Square > Mill Foundry > Mercenary Market (if you have 100 Dust) > Alchemist's Furnace > Sewer System
• Mezari and Vaulter starting heroes have different capacities so your first 10 turns will be different.
• Mezari: can easily reach Era 2 by Turn 10 (Fast). As soon as Avara Lasmak reaches level 2, reassign her as governor in your capital until you reach Era 2.
• Vaulter: cannot reach Era 2 by Turn 10 as easily so best is to continue exploring, parlaying, and fighting to level up.
• Split up your troops and find a decent 3 village region to settle asap. Usually the 3 village region would be your 2nd city (Industry city) but sometimes if you're lucky, your Settler might be able to reach a good 3 village settle spot on Turn 2 or 3. Pacify and assimilate these villages asap.
• You can split up your Marines individually for higher risk and faster exploration but it's ok to keep them paired up.
• If you have 100 Dust to spend, you should consider rushing Mercenary Market and purchasing a Flying or Cavalry scout before you reach Era 2.
• Alternatively, you can research and build some Dawn Officer scouts if you don't want to buy scouts.
• Titanium is generally more in-demand for you throughout the game so you want to try to spend Glassteel instead of Titanium on your unique buildings like the Winter Shelter.
• Activate your Titanium or Glassteel booster BEFORE you settle your 2nd city as your cost increases by 5 per new city. If you're lucky you can activate the booster on Turn 1 for just 5 metals before you settle your capital.
• Faction Quest tips:some text
  • If needed, you can kill and assimilate a dead village and still complete Chapter 1.
  • You can just Settle on top of a Titanium or Glassteel, then Salt and Settle again to complete Chapter 2 Part 1.
  • You should start preparing for war as soon as you reach Chapter 3 because you do not want to be stuck on Chapter 4 for too long.

Mid Game:

• Prioritize taking control of regions with Silics and try to accumulate 9 Silics villages in your empire.
• You should prioritize giving Marines Palladian weapons first before spending Palladian on other units. If you have plenty of another metal then you could use that instead. Whether or not you use strategic armor on units is optional and depends on whether or not you have enough strategics to equip all of your elites.
• Elite army compositions [link to Elite Army guide]:some text
  • Vanguard: 8x Titans or Harmonites; Reinforcement: 8x Marines; Reinforcement: 8x Marines or any unit.
  • Vanguard: 6x Titans + 2x Dawn Officers or 4x Titans + 4x Dawn Officers; Reinforcement: 8x Marines; Reinforcement: 8x any units.
• Save your Pearls for Strategic Intensifiers (anything that gives you more metals needs to be prioritized).
• Faction Quest tips:some text
  • In preparation for Chapter 6, work your way up to Mechanical Exhibitionist on a Vaulter hero and save 2 points so that you can spend it on either maxing Alchemical Genius or Mechanical Exhibitionist.
  • If you are playing Mezari, buy a new Vaulter hero and work on getting her to level 9.
  • If you are playing Vaulters, you can just level up Petrov Judit to level 9.

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Late Game:

• If you're going the warmonger route then you should be fighting and winning wars on multiple fronts. Teleport your armies between fronts if needed. Against AI, you could fight a defensive battle on one side of the map and then teleport your armies to another location and initiate your own attack.
• At this point it’s just a matter of time until you win Supremacy, Expansion, or Science.some text
  • Make 100% sure that your capital is extremely well-defended at all times because you don’t want some fool to randomly come in behind and win Supremacy because you randomly lost your capital to them for 1 turn. I suggest you wall in your capital with many surrounding cities so that you have Watchtowers everywhere.
  • Keep 2 spies in every enemy empire and spam Reveal Spies so that your enemies can’t drop your morale.

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FAQ:

• Holy Resource:some text
  • Q: How to choose and use Holy Resource?

A: Holy Resource booster can be activated by selecting one type of strategic resource as the Holy Resource every 5 turns. Go to your Empire Management screen (F1) and click on your desired Strategic Resource to use as your Holy Resource. Each strategic resource provides a different empire buff when activated. Holy Resource booster cost increases the same way luxury resource booster cost increases.

• Q: 

A:

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