*** NATIONS ***

MA Man has spellsinger mechanics. Spells take 50% longer to cast but half the fatigue
They also have cheaper cavalry.

TNN, Eriu, Fomoria's Nemedians also have spellsinging.

Marverni
Magical tatoos with themes: bear (+strength), wolf (+attack), horse (+def & combat speed) Activated by the same spell as Sauromatia.

Sauramatia
Magical 'horse' and 'serpent' tattoos. Activated by the same spell as Marverni.

Abyssia
New crossbreeding national units. Better magic, new national spells.
They also get HALF the effects of Growth & Death scales (both good and bad) except supply (no effect at all)

Lemuria
It has double Magic/Drain scaling effect. Lemuria is even more Magic-dependant now.
Spectral weapons now do half damage if you pass the MR check (also helps Therodos).

New nations: Uruk, Rus, Erythea

Rus have good and mobile troops, but undisciplined.

Erythea
They are Ptoleamic LA Pelagia. Mages can marry between themselves. They can start with afflictions. They are potentially very good mages but kill each other (by Various events, including poison and assassins.)

Yomi
Onis are freespawn, with the right dominion (turmoil, unrest, etc). They don't have gold maintenance. They can't be recruited normally.
-25% income to the nation.

C'tis
Sacred serpents can't be recruited, but recruited 1/month by priests in temples.
Most units gain swimming ability (they can cross unfrozen rivers).

Vanheim
-20% cost to hammers.

Ermor
Units have better MM (they are accustomed to marching)

MA Ermor
Starts at 3 Death (so they lose 120 Pretender Points)

MA Agartha
Statues can't get regeneration with bless.

Pangea
National spells that summons Fort with research 0 in EA, 4-5 (don't remember) in MA/LA

MA Ulm
They have magical armor on troops. And magical shields with higher protection that are harder to break/damage.

Xibalba
There is no hard cap of 100 units/turn. But the new recruitment system means they usually recruit much less.

Ur
Galas also have spellsinging.


***BATTLE MECHANICS ***

Repel is nerfed, now it works more like in Dom3, instead of Dom4.

Length-1 weapons are a bit better. Weapon lengths now go from 0-5, rather than 0-6. All length 2-6 weapons have dropped a category. So previously length-1 weapons benefit from this, since they aren't repelled by previously length-2 weapons anymore.

Critical hits are -25% instead of -50% to protection. And critical hits become more likely at fatigue >= 50

Shields (even magical) can be damaged or broken. They are auto repaired after battle. And yes, magical shields can be lost permanently this way (they only can get damaged, if broken they dissappear). Magic shields get a bonus to resist this.
Slash weapons have +75% break shields
Blunt weapons have +25%
Pierce weapons have +0%

Reinvigoration 1 for everyone (as in, every turn awake units recover 1 fatigue). This means slightly less criticals.

2-hand weapons get +25% dmg bonus.

Ranged weapons have a +33% STR bonus to damage (before it was 0, unlike normal melee weapons), but a bit less base damage, and extra range. Stronger than average archers (like giants) will benefit.

New order: Hold & Fire. They hold '2 turns' and then move until firing range.

Line formation needs a good leader, but it doesn't slow units anymore.

Fort defense works like PD. They have infinite ammo.

Cavalry have -1 to def every extra attacks.

Normal units have -2 def every extra attack.

Flying in battle needs one 'turn' to move from one point to another. If a flier want to move to a close position, they can walk.

All resists stack, but resist work differently now, you still roll if resist >= base damage
Post-resist damage now rounds down, instead of up.

Some AoE attacks have the 'lingering' tag. The effect stay for 3-4 turns.

Some units (usually with multiple head, ie. Hydra) have a bonus against the 'receiving multiple attacks' effect.

New retreat system, good leaders can prevent units from dispersing in all directions.
If instead you have a bad leader, if a province have 5 connection, and only one connected to an ally progince, you can easily lose 80% of the retreaters.
Leader get 75% odds of going to friendly provinces, 87.5% with terrain survival (speaking about retreating)

formation fighter is changed: now increase unit density, effectively "decreasing size", so you can have more size 3 units on square than 2


*** MECHANICS ***

Immortality now has a 'turns to reform' value and two types: full (works everywhere except outer planes), dominion (works in friendly dom only).
Also units resurrect in their home province, not always the capital and some units like vampires require extra turns if they died far from it.
Being Soul-slain doubles resurrection time, and Soul devouring circumvents immortality.

Assassins work better, guard commanders is limited to 5 units.

New ability: sun awe, different to normal awe. It doesn't work in caves, in darkness or in rain.

Gladiators only disappear if they were wounded or if they killed someone.

Uruk still does not lose pretender paths at death. HOWEVER, that mechanic is now much kinder to everyone
Pretender death & recalling loses AT MOST one path, and can even gain you Blood or Death (rarely)
Nature is the most likely path to be lost; you can also lose 1 point of domstrength IIRC.

Some new heroic abilities: Soul Butchering, Troll Blood and Fast Casting

Invisibility: cannot be discovered except by spirit sight units, attackers in melee have -10 attack (not sure about ranged effect).
Spirit sight counter it, and it isn't THAT rare, there's a bless and many undead, demons & spirits have it.

Worm mages have their unique Reform ability:
When the mage dies on the battlefield, they explode in multiple bugs. One however is a 'soul bug', and in X turns the worm mage reforms UNLESS the soul bug is killed first. This triggers 100% of the time (before it was 75%)


*** UI ***

Conservative casting is now saved with orders and there is an * to remember a mage has it.

Commanders show more clearly the number of squads and number of units at their care, and the supplies taken by every group.

Monthly casting and monthly forging are now options in the UI.

You can see unit list (main ones and foreign rec too) and national spells in the Nation description.

Warning Popup saying you can't group up mindless with normal units.

MP messages can be edited.

Hall of Fame shows the heroic ability of every hero.

Item info boxes are now much more informative.

Battle summary log track kills, show icons of units and flags of nations.

Battle log is more detailed (includes penetration rolls).


*** GAME OPTIONS ***

You can have 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 global spell slots.

You can set the default AI level for multiplayer games.



*** MAGIC ***

Province enchantments were changed a bit too. Most now disappear when the province is conquered.

Gods and disciples get their own bless while in Friendly dominion.

Communions are nerfed (fatigue converted to damage ratio increased)

Stellar Cascades is MR halves effect.

Several summoning spells are relatively slow (more than the average, which is 100% casting time).

Item range boosters now boost BOTH rituals and battle range. Each +1 ritual range is +25% battle range.

Demon Knights nerfed. Serpent Fiends buffed (2 slaves only).

Empowering Blood can horrormark you. Low-ish chance, though.

RoS is very nerfed. Capped 1 damage? Though RoS and Stone Bird are much more likely to hit in head.

New F spell to eliminate diseases (but triggers a 20 dmg Fire attack).


*** ITEMS ***

Brand weapons are slightly nerfed.

New W item to self-bless.

Duskdaggers cause bleeding now.

Slave collars give +1 assassin patience.

Boosters have been shuffled around.

Ring of Sorcery and Wizandry are now S6 and S7. Robe of the Magi and Treelord's staff are also a bit easier to get.

Costs of items can be different to magic level requirement (not 5 gems for each path).

Blood items has been shuffled a lot. Blood Thorn is B3. Lifelong and Infernal contract are more expensive but easier to forge.

Amulet of the Doppelganger now gives seduction.

A new pair of boots, gives all survivals including winter move and 'Unhindered' (immunity to tangle vines, earth grip, web....)


*** PRETENDER DESIGN ***

Bless quickness is full quickness (x2), not 1.5 more attacks.

Blesses need 4 in a magic path as before, with the exception of having 3 in every elemental path (A3F3W3E3) or having 3 in every sorcery path (B3S3D3N3).

Some nations gain extra magic path for the Pretender (ie. +2 Earth for Agartha). This two extra points don't count for the minimum points to obtain a bless (if you invest to E2, you gain E4, but it won't unlock E blesses).

Blesses don't normally stack. Weapon blesses are the exception.

Three type of blesses: passive blesses that are always active for holy units, normal blesses, blesses that also need your Pretender to be on the map.

Luck/Misfortune have a lesser effect on event quality (15%=>+10% good/bad events. Fortunetelling has higher values, also).
But note gem events are harsher now (they take gems from commanders).

Order gives a bonus to the ‘recruitment points’ used for (mostly) elite units. Prod might be better now too, because protection is. Note that Order has a smaller effect on gold. Turmoil is much less crippling.
(It’s 2% per scale - Growth is now truly the gold scale.)

There is a random starting research option. Based on Magic/Drain. HOWEVER there is also an option to turn it off

I’d say as a very general rule that blesses are overall slightly weaker. But they can be tailored to your specific needs, of course.

Reconstruction bless negates 'does not heal' on lifeless.

New archmage pretenders (all dom1, most pathcost 10):
Grand Hierophant (S1, fortuneteller 20, +20 research, 100 base points Greek nations)
Grand Hydromancer (W1, 1 gem/turn, amphibian, most water nations and some land ones)
Master (S1 flying ambdiextrous 1, T'ien C'hi)
Aphroi Sage (N1, nothing else)
God-king of the Deep (W1S1 pathcost 20, only MA Atlantis)
Magister Supreme (A1, siege bonuses, mason, LA Man only)

Dom2 disciples no longer pay for dominion. So they're about 40 points cheaper.

Western Dragons have 'dragon master' ability (like the spell).

Asian Dragons have a 'dragon pearl' giving +1 astral or water and a temporary gem of that path. Pearl is cursed and lost at death (I presume), but they don't pay any points for it.


*** STRATEGIC MAP ***

Roads are built-in.

Now priests can know the dominion owners.

Units now see the owners of every province they can move to.

Mapmakers can select the dominion overlay color & saturation

New ability: snow move. Niefelheim, Rus, EA Ulm, Bogarus have it. Snow’s effect on movement isn’t THAT big though.
Also levitation officially works like forest survival & snow move.

Map move: province type is a fixed value (normal and farmland is 6, Forest and Waste is 10, Cave 12, Mountains 16, Snow +2, Enemy Controlled Territory +8 (or 6 for stealthy units), Roads -4). Enemy territory is double (except if you are stealthy).

With the new move system some units can move two UW provinces in one go, like in land provinces. If your troops have a ridiculous enough movement, you can actually just attack a non-adjacent province even without flying.

You can raid with light cav. They’re not quite as good at it as fliers, but you sometimes get setups where you can attack a bit behind enemy lines, or at least launch completely unannounced attacks on their front.
(It depends on the terrain, whether there are any roads, whether the cavalry is stealthy, what survival skills they have, and how many movement points they have, so of course it’s a bit variable.)

Fliers also require a bit less movement points to move through most provinces, but they don’t just negate terrain like they used to. Mountains can hinder them pretty significantly.

Recruitment points are based primarily of the gold cost and base cost ratio. Tags like slave and undisciplined lowers it. Age lowers it.

Some foreign-rec mages that were StR are now only 2 commander points (instead of 4, which would be the equivalent).

Some nations gets ice forts, which can be melted with Heat, turning them in a 'degraded' version.

Default magic site has gone up (60/50/40).

Everyone starts with Palisades, and from there you upgrade the forts. Capital Palisades are different from normal Palisades.

Each 200/300 gold sunk into upgrading your fort also provides more defense, administration etc. than it would in the previous system. You can’t build specific fort upgrades, only upgrade the fort itself.

Palisades need two turns to recruit a normal mage.

Giants in particular have slightly more expensive fort upgrades but also get tougher fortresses in return for it.

Assassins, scouts, cheap commanders only consume 1 cmdr. recruit point. That means you can hire 2/3 per turn in a Fort/Citadel.

Stats for magic forts:
Wizard's Tower (admin 40, +1 commander, +125% rec points)
Citadel of Power (from 3 red seconds, admin 60 +2 commander +200% recpoints)
Kelp Fort (admin 40-something, +1 commander, +150% recpoints)

For LA Man, the admin/+commander points/+recruitment points/wall defenders and times and costs of various fort levels:

Palisades (15/0,/50%/8 tower guards): 4 turns 600 gold
Fortress (30/1/+100%/16 tower guards): 300 gold 2 months
Castle (45/1/+150%/24)): 300 gold 2 months
Citadel (60/2/+200%/32 tower guards): 450 gold 3 months
Grand Citadel (70/2/+200%, 40 tower guards) : 600 gold 4 months. Needs to be built by a Magister

Currently recpoints is more of a question of “who suffers least from this”, a question won mainly by popkill nation, but giants and Abysians also benefit, since they have a very high recpoint:power ratio.
(Abysians actually cost less recpoints than humans do, while Jotuns and Rephaites only cost a bit more.)

Glamour armies now take a penalties to stealth based on size.

Cavalry is in general slightly cheaper (by 5 gold).

Flying is slower in caves.