Overview
A rundown of Ys, the Morgen Queens
Ys at a glance
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Why play Ys?
-You like Brittany or Merrows or a combination of the two
– You want to be the little girl
– You are salty about Maverni not being in MA
– You are intrigued by the idea of an underwater nation that isnt irrelevant on land
Ys is a nation that has a lot of flexibility. They begin the game with a relatively safe underwater start, but transitions well into mainland operations, with their national sacred cavalry becoming much stronger on land.
Ys at first seems like a typical Elf nation, with commanders that have good access to air magic and high stats that make them well-suited for thugging. This is less viable than it seems due to the nation’s over-reliance on the capital. On the other hand, a coastal fort opens up options unavailable to other Elf factions, allowing for communions and cheap, cost-effective infantry.
Pls no bully.
Commanders
Ysian Scout- It’s a scout. It’s hard to ever find the time to make these due to how busy the capital’s production is, and unfortunately coastal forts have no scouts.
Ysian Commander- Never much reason to recruit these beyond your first. Only 60 leadership and lack of any abilities of note consign him to irrelevance even outside the capital.
Ysian Druid- Your basic underwater researcher. When you don’t need one of the Morgens or an army leader, production should default here. The E2 variant is probably the most valuable for battlemagic and forging, since it allows for boosts like legions of steel and strength of giants.
Knight Commander of Ys- Now this is better. With 80 leadership and boosts to morale, the Knight Commander is a far more appropriate leadership for your second coastal fortress’s troops. Morgens can’t be everywhere, and he is your best option for when none of the Magical Girls are on hand.
Morgen Champion- Why is this poor lady Capital only? As your only one-turn Morgen commander, she has a small niche, but A1 W1 is an awkward place for a would-be thug to be. Without access to mistform, she struggles to do her job as well as say, Sidhe Lords, or crucially Morgen Princesses. If turns to recruit were the only factor she might see more recruitment, but also it is hard to begrudge the 53 resources for a commander who isn’t a pretty pretty princess.
Morgen Princess- The pretty pretty princess. The princess that was promised. The once and future princess. Two less resources because she forgot to put on a hat, but you can fix that for her. Can command the largest armies of any of your commanders with a good morale bonus, and also has the paths she needs to cast the buffs that will let her cleave through armies. Her defense skill is outrageously high and gets more so when you give her a frost brand, but even without one her steed cleans up pretty good. A word of caution is that at battlefield speed 30 they can get into trouble very fast with irresponsible scripts, but in general the Morgen Princess is your outstanding combat commander par excellence. Incidental elemental resistances of all kinds and a good magic resistance keep her reasonably safe without any further equipment investment on your part, but given how scarce they are, a bit of gem over-investment isn’t the worst thing you can do.
As has been noted in the comments, both the Champion and the Pretty Princess suffer from severe spellcasting fatigue issues on account of the hauburk they wear. They benefit considerably from having a lighter armor forged for them.
Morgen Sorceress- Your strongest caster, and really great. Guaranteed A3, how the random path splits helps determine what they can get up to besides storms, but A and F are generally the best. A4 allows unboosted storms and sets you up for Fog Warriors, which will otherwise need a helmet to cast. The Sorceress is your only source of Fire magic, and has access to both the magma and acid cross-path spells. Its worth having Sorceresses for their outstanding battle magic, but they are a waste for researching or forging lesser items. One crucial advantage is they cost essentially no resources, so you can recruit one while still having your full complement of sacred knights.
Pictured: a Morgen Sorceress
Coastal Commanders
Kernou Chieftan- Pretty bog-standard commander. Better in most respects than Ysian Commander, but you really don’t want to be using either. If you cant spare any magical girls and absolutely must use a local commander he does the job tolerably. Better than the indy Commander, at least.
Swanherder- Yeah, you didn’t know you wanted swans. “Summon Allies” is their campaign ability, but allies really oversells the two swans that answer the summons. Nonsensically valuable for castle cheese, but does swan chaff have any other use? Is it worth missing out on druid recruitment? There’s got to be a very silly strategy involving endless hordes of swans, but I haven’t pursued it myself. The in-game description tallks up a good game about how sacred the swans are, but it isn’t actually a sacred unit that can receive a bless.
Swans are sacred to the little girls of Ys.
Kernou Druid- Another Druid, and another national researcher you always want recruiting. This one is more valuable because he doesnt compete with Morgens for production. Also, default Astral with a chance to break into S2 is good for your sitesearching and increasing magical diversity. Can become a formidable source of battle magic with communions. One of the most convenient source of Holy communion, which is notable. M2 is very appreciated for what amounts to a middle-aged guy with a staff.
Units
Underwater Units
Underwater you get your loyal Merrow subjects. The in-game description describes them as fish-eyed and ugly, and that’s hurtful. They mean well and are doing their best.
Green is beautiful.
Ysian Spearmen- At only 3 resources, these are your early expander unit, and can be recruited in the capital with what scraps of resources your sacreds leave behind later. Ranged attacks are very unkind to them, and they aren’t really reliable enough to hold a line. You want to shift away from these when you can.
Ysian Militia- Except for bodies to siege down a fort, there isn’t much conceivable use for these. The lack of a shield is devastating and the price compared to Spearmen is negligably cheaper.
Ysian Infantry- Merrows with bronze armor. You’d rather hold a line with Kernou, but they’ll do. Attack skill 9 means they’ll mostly hold a line while you win a battle instead of winning it for you. They compare pretty unfavorably with Pelagian soldiers, except you can go on land and they can’t. It’s worth knowing your basic troops are a bit inferior to your potential rivals underwater.
Ysian Men-at-arms- Mapmove 1, encumbrance 9 and resource hungry in a nation that never has enough resources make this a niche unit. It does have a niche, though- All units are mapmove 1 under water, and few underwater units can match the Ysian man-at-arms’s protection. This is a good unit to build out of a secondary underwater fort. Your merrows finally figured out the mysteries of attack skill 10 here.
Knight of Ys- 50 gold is a lot for what you get. They are better than their Kernou counterparts though, and get a hoof attack on land. They move very fast and can keep up with your Morvarc’h Knights. Not a bad option if you feel your Morvarc’hs need support since you never have enough. Attack skill 10 for a knight is really unimpressive though, so they are at their best attacking rear and eating up enemy archers/casters. Also the cavalry you want to use underwater, if you want to use cavalry underwater.
Morvarc’h Knights (Capital Only)- Here we go. With glamour and defense skill 19, they are hard to hit, and gallop at speed 30, which lets them chase down horse archers and just about everything else. Compeltely wasted underwater, where they are only dealing half their damage. Put them on land and they get a hoof attack too, at attack skill 14 (these are very elite ponies), and an area-of-effect fire-breathing attack. Its damage is low, but in groups they quickly chew through mooks. The bane of light and medium infantry, they’ll beat most elites handily too with a good bless. You never have enough of these.
Coastal Units
From any coastal (not inland!) for, you get access to your mini-Maverni playset, the Kernou tribe.
Kernou Warrior- Their gold cost is cheap, and you should be running production 3 anyway, so you can have a lot of these. That’s good, because they are solid infantry. The closest comparison is Eriu’s Milesian Swordsmen, who they mirror almost exactly while costing less gold and also having a javelin. Javelins are neat.
Kernou Noble Warrior- Well, so much for having javelins. Their attack and defense skill is higher than any other infantry you have access to, though, and you’ll feel a lot better spending 12 gold on these gentlemen instead of the the Ysian infantry that have the gall to cost the same amount. They can’t help you defend your capital of course, and they are only map move 1, which hurts. If map movement isn’t a pressing factor in your plans, I recommend them over Kernou Warriors, but that’s a big if. It’s also not a bad idea to have a mixed force of both with Noble Warriors coming in from the flanks while the line is held by standard warriors, if circumstances don’t allow for exclusive noble recruitment.
Kernou Cavalry- Yeah, these are kind of bad. You have access to better cavalry out there. They are comperable to Man’s Logrian cavalry, but without the ease of recruitment. Nobody ever got excited about Logrian cavalry.
Blessing & Scales
With all of their best commanders being Priests and access to a very strong sacred, it would make sense to think of Ys as a nation where a strong Bless is viable. And it is, but there are caveats. Ys doesn’t necessarily need a high dominion, since it will run out of resources for sacreds before it runs out of sacred points. Dominion 6 is enough to comfortably let you recruit without concern, ward off death to dominion kill, and save some points for your bless.
As for what that bless should be, there are several options, the most obvious being Water or Nature. Nature is always a strong major bless, keeping your nigh-irreplacable slow-to-recruit and capital-only sacreds alive, while Water quickens your Knights beyond belief and makes them even killier than they were before. A minor earth bless is usually appended to either of these, but doesn’t feel as mandatory for Ys since Morvarc’h Knights will seldom get bogged down long enough for fatigue to be a factor. Choosing Nature over Water helps to diversify your magic, since Ys struggles to get any mages above N1.
General wisdom is that underwater nations should go full heat or cold for points because of the limited effects it has for underwater tiles. Ys might be the least underwater of the underwater nations though, with a mini-Maverni appended to their coasts and a very real interest in expanding onto land as soon as possible. Its still a viable choice, but its worth being aware it isn’t the free lunch it would be for, say, R’lyeh.
You must have three points in production. Even assuming you didn’t want to mass your sacred unit (and you do), your troops lean torwards resource hungry for just about everyone who isn’t a merrow holding a spear. Or a swanherd. Without points in production and a starting location that has too many coasts, you might find yourself only able to make 2-3 of your Morvarc’h Knights a turn. That’s not acceptable.
Initial Strategy
Initial expansion should prioritize all aquatic provinces adjascent to your capital for the resources. After that, the choice of when to go inland or continue expanding underwater should be considered carefully. In a game with other underwater nations, you may want to keep pushing hard enough to get your “fair share” of the aquatic provinces. Ys is not at its best fighting other underwater nations though, so you may want to tread lightly. If you are the only underwater nation, you may want to go into land straight away after your initial capital borders are secured.
It is important not to get locked out of land expansion- A coastal fort with its surrounding provinces should be enough. After achieving that you may want to re-focus on “safe” water provinces that are less competitive before making a move against another player.
Early game research goals are fluid based on the situation and what you think you’ll need, but I would generally recommend Alteration and construction, in that order. Alterration provides the buffs you need to take your magical girls over the top and construction gives them pretty items to hold. A little bit of evocation helps, but a couple levels go a long way.