Scourge Lords

I've decided that I don't like the lack of Comprehensive guides on what each class does and thought I'd at least fix that for the Scourge lords.

Starting stats, spells and weapons

Scourge Lord
Hit Points 19
Strength 6
Morale 10 (most likely actually 9 but dark blessing changes this)
Magic Resistance 8
Armor 0
Rank Back

Traits
Dark Blessing (always starts with +1 Morale)
Lifeforce Casting (range 4)
Desert Move
Ritual Caster

Weapons
Cast Spell (Defilement level 2)
Staff (Initiative 5, Range 1, Damage 1-3)

Known Spells

These can be learned or known by a Scourge lord
Level 1 (Random 2)
Bolt of Unlife
Dehydration
Fear
Shadowform
Strength Sap

Level 2 (Random 2)
Finger of Death
Lashes of Darkness
Scourging Wind
Terror
Weakness

Level 3 (Random 2 upon becoming a Scourge King)
Chill of the Dead
Desert Storm
Symbol of Dread
Symbol of Unlife

Rituals and their Descriptions

Progression Rituals
Lesser Ritual of Scourge Mastery (25 lf)
Grants a random level 1 Scourge Ritual

Ritual of Scourge Mastery (100 lf)
Grants a random level 2 Scourge Ritual and converts your Scourge Herald into a Scourge Lord

Grand Ritual of Scourge Mastery (800 lf)
Grants a random level 3 Scourge Ritual and converts your Scourge lord into a Scourge King


Level 1
Call of the Pyramid (50 lf)
Teleports the Caster to an owned Pyramid of power of your choice

Construct Pillar of Power (25 gold 25 iron 3 ap (requires flat ground))
Creates a Pillar of Power draining Lifeforce (max 15 per turn) from the surrounding area and slowly turning it to desert, also slowly spawns ghouls over time that can be transferred into your army

Scourge Summons (50 lf)
Summons random low end Scourge beasts to your army

Dark bonds (150 lf 3 ap(must be cast on a mine))
Summons slaves 6-11 and a Taskmaster as long as the Taskmaster is still alive the mine doubles its normal output to a max of 3 gold and 3 iron


Level 2
Call of the Pillar (50 lf)
Teleports the Caster to an owned Pillar of power of your choice

Construct Pyramid of Power (75 gold 75 iron 6 ap)
Converts a Pillar of power to a Pyramid of power increasing its desertification range and draining more Lifeforce per turn (max 50)

Pyramid Walls (50 lf 25 iron 3 ap)
Fortifies a Pyramid of power with walls

Appoint Herald (100 lf 30 gold)
Summons a Scourge Herald

Dark Blessing (100 lf)
Gives a random dark blessing to your most of your faction including units summoned after dark blessing has been cast
can be cast multiple times increasing the amount of lf you have to spend to cast it by 50 (capping out at 1050 after which you can no longer cast it)
Dark blessings available
Morale +1
Strength +1
Hit points +1-4
Regeneration 5%
Fire Shield 2
Acute senses
Fear +1
Protection +1
Armor +1
Magic Resistance +1
Shock Resistance +50
Fire Resistance +50
Cold Resistance +50

Dark Scourge Summons (150 lf)
Summons Medium end Scourge beasts to your army (can summon a Scourge ant queen which if it loses control of its ant hill turns into a normal giant ant hill)

Construct Guardian (100 lf 10 iron 3 ap)
Summons a Guardian statue to your location


Level 3
Pyramid Gate (100 lf)
Teleports the Caster and his army to an owned Pyramid of power of your choice

Construct Mountain of Power (250 gold 250 iron 250 lf 9 ap(must be cast on a mountain))
Converts a Mountain to a Mountain of Power
This drains the Lifeforce of a large surrounding area (max 100 lf per turn) turning it to desert

Black Scourge Summons (750 lf)
Summons High end Scourge beasts to your army

Summons

Scourge Summons
Spiderlings 5-10
Hyenas 5-8
Black Spiders 3-4
Dark Centipede 1
Black ants 2-6*
Black Soldier Ants 2-3*
Scourge Ant 1


Dark Scourge Summons
Scourge Spider 2-4
Scourge Ant Queen*
Black soldier Ants 4-8*
Basilisk 1
Scourge Flame 1
Scourge Ants 2-4
Dark Serpent 2-5


Black Scourge Summons
Myrmecoleon 1
Scourge Wind 2-4
Apophis 1
Monster Scarab 1
Scourge Worm 1


Construct Guardian
Summons a Guardian Statue with 2 random level 1 Dark magic spells
(fear, dark cloud, tendril of darkness, summon shade, shadow form)

Units and Rare Units

Units
5 Spearmen 50 gold
5 Swordsmen 50 gold 10 iron
5 Archers 50 gold
5 Crossbowmen 50 gold 5 iron
5 Heavy Infantries 50 gold 25 iron
1 Catapult 25 gold 50 iron
5 Desert Warriors 50 gold
3 Camel Riders 50 gold
2 Sellsouls 50 gold (Unlocked after becoming a Scourge King)

Rare Units
Scout 17-24 gold
Shiekh 46-64 gold
Captain 41-49 gold
Assassin 94 gold
Scourge Herald 67-71 gold (only seems to appear if you have no scourge heralds, lords or kings left)

Notes

* gets summoned together at that level
all ants cannot be controlled or transferred into the player army and instead become a friendly wandering army when summoned
Several turns after summoning an ant queen they will create a new nest (ant hills) that generates ants in decent quantities. You can gather them for use in regular armies. It also generates small parties of wandering ants that could be gathered as well. Occasionally it could generate a new ant queen they usually settle down nearby soon.

ap = Action points
lf = Lifeforce
Scourge lords always start with a Citadel(5 Camel riders, 8 Desert warriors), a Pillar of Power, a Market Village and a Scourge Herald

The Price ranges, summon amounts and blessing bonuses are based on what I've experienced if you find a new high or low for the prices or summons or a blessing that I don't have listed please tell me so and I'll adjust it accordingly

If there's anything you think I should add to this as well please tell me

(Thanks to Natpy for more notes on blessings (armor and magic resistance) and the mechanics on ants)
(Thanks to Ighalli for more notes on blessings (cold resistance))

[MOTHER LOVER]

My god, I had no idea how good that bless could be. Regen + fear is insanely good.

[TheDalaiLlama]

I find Scourge Lord the easiest class to reliably access/conquer other planes. The trouble is having no native ability to reach them but between portals or spell scrolls either found or taken from hired wizards there's usually some way to get started and once you set down a pillar/pyramid then you have your toe hold and are bound to break through eventually!

Final note: you can only have 1 scourge king at a time and only he can teleport to pillars/pyramids along with his army. You can use him to ferry armies and commanders between planes; just select the commanders you want in 'transfer units' as part of the kings army before teleporting and then return their autonomy on arrival. Extremely handy if you get an Academy of Higher Magic or other way of getting reliable level 3 casters to help crack planar capitals

[TheDalaiLlama]

Queen ants won't create hills on desert, unsure how other terrains might affect spawning. If you want to antpocalypse you need to keep the dark scourge summons at the front of your advancing deserts and hope for queen ants.

You'd also best keep an eye on anthill areas as if they get unflagfwd by indies they start generating vanilla ants and even start spreading and taking it hers if you're unlucky!

The teleports also work across planes so if you can get a herald/lord down with a scroll and then build a pillar you have a permanent access to the other plane, ai rarely if ever destroys them.

If your bless gives you regen blessed units can survive hades, resistances help invade elemental planes.

You can summon up armies in other planes (and also more drain life force using your monuments though hell and hades give very little. Primal, Aztlan and celestial drain as normal)

[Draal]

The area around the pillars, pyramid, or mountain of power will slowly turn into desert and reduce the amount of life force generated. Any type of settlement, farm, village, town, city, etc., will eventually be destroyed if inside the life draining affect of a pillar, pyramid, or mountain of power. The larger the settlement the longer it will take.

Here are a few other mechanics that I am unsure if is related to the life draining or if is related to the desertification of the area around the pillars or just a natural mechanics of the game. Bigger settlements have a chance to down grade into a smaller settlement before being out right destroyed. Some times instead of being destroyed the settlement will turn into an abandoned or haunted version instead of being destroyed.

[Eriktion]

How much lifeforce can I get from different tiles?

[Natpy]

@Backfire Shot @Ighalli yes you are right. Pillar drains from the closesst circle, pyramid from range 2 and mountaine of power from range 3. So I belive pillar is most cost effective, pyramid is most strategically flexible (as teleportation location that could be fortified), and mountain is almost usless

[Backfire Shot]

Thanks and I did notice that and include that the larger power buildings increase their life drain/desertification range but I couldn't figure out by how much

[Ighalli]

+50 cold resistance is also possible. I'd like to figure out the ranges of each of the Power buildings. It seems like Pillars only drain adjacent tiles, so I'd guess pyramids are range 2. Anyone have a good idea of this?

[Backfire Shot]

thank you i will add the first and edit the second to be more accurate

[Natpy]

1) You can add Armor +1 and Magic resist + 1 to bless effect list.
2) In several turns after summoning ant queen will settled down the nest (ant hills) that generates ants in decent quantities. You can gather them and use in regular armies. It also generates small parties of wandering ants that could be gathered as well. Occasionaly it could generate a new ant queen thay usually settle down nearby soon. Scourge lord can also take neutral ant hills that will start generating ants for him. It is quite possible with some luck to turn entire map into antpocaliptyc land