Keldis

From Chaoswiki

Keldis are a mystery to other races, and what they look like is based purely on hearsay and rumour (tall, ashen and thin, so I've been told... never having seen one). They prefer to stay behind strong, tall walls and have a high regard for secrecy, avoiding friends as well as enemies. This has led to a lot of distrust between the Keldis and the other races. Because Keldis Merchants are so rare, they will always draw attention, also making it very hard for Keldis Thieves. They have a reputation as strong builders, but they are careful not to build anything that can be viewed above their mighty walls — until the Royal Palace is started.

Contents 1 Worker Bonuses 2 Unique Bonuses 3 Elementals 4 Race Buildings 5 Additional Buildings Bonuses 6 Unique Units 7 Tips from the Fishman 8 Tips from Kel 9 Historical Notes

Worker Bonuses

Strong bonus - Engineers
Bonus - Builders, Woodsmen, Weavers
Penalty - Merchants, Thieves, Weaponsmiths

Unique Bonuses

No allies
-10% gains from attacking
+5% (land and naval) defence bonus
-50% Wall costs
+100% Morale bonuses from Walls
-20% Land exploration costs
crowding at base 1.6 instead of 1.5

Elementals

Wall Elemental - (ground, unique) 0/6/11 - Also counts as wall when calculating siege
Wave Elemental - (naval, unique) 0/6/10

Race Buildings

Watch Tower
Requires - Blacksmith, Engineering School
+5% Defence modifier

Grand Tower
Requires - Watch Tower, Power Grid
+5% Defence modifier
+5% naval Defence modifier
+5% Morale

Additional Buildings Bonuses

Construction Yard - 10 Architecture Research points

Unique Units

Unicorn - (ground) 0/120/100 — Reduces Casualites 50% — Magic Stables
Airship - (flying) 65/25/80 — Magic Shipyard

Tips from the Fishman

The Engineering Guild is, by far, the most important building for a Keldis player. It should be completed as soon as possible after the Blacksmith. The combination of early walls and Shield Bearers can grant you a large amount of shields early in the game for relatively little maintenance. You should also endeavor to have full walls for most of the age. The halved cost and doubled morale means that you can have an extra 10% morale relatively easily.

Of course, never neglect your raw shields. 100% wall coverage is useless if you only have 10 Shield Bearers. Naval shields are also important, as a player with sufficient naval swords can sail directly past your walls. Using Phoenixes can prove greatly beneficial, as they are flying. They count for both naval and ground shields. Enough of them can make you nigh impossible to attack.

Two other buildings that are useful are the Alchemist's Guild and the Elementalist's Guild. Because of the Merchant penalty, you may want to consider switching to Alchemists very early. With enough research into Alchemy, you can produce more gold per worker than even a human with a Merchant's Guild. The Elementalist's Guild can give you early shields for mana, which you end up producing when you get your Mana Batteries built. Using Shaman at this point is relatively pointless, though the initial mana production can give you a boost to both ground and naval shields for relatively little peasant-turns of maintenance.

Generally, Keldis players will play defensively and explore for most of their land. However, because of the Merchant penalty, even this can pose problematic when compared to other races. With Alchemists, this is alleviated somewhat, but because of defensive elementals and a lack of early-game unique offensive units, Keldis have trouble playing offensively. It can, however, be done. Airships are powerful flying units that can prove devastating late age. However, there is still that 10% penalty to land gains Keldis always have. Fortunately, because of the bonus to Builders and morale bonus from Walls, Keldis can get away with having less land than other races. This serves to fall under the radar of other more offensive players as well as put you under the bully limits of some larger players.

All around, Keldis function well despite the lack of an ally and are rather forgiving of mistakes. I recommend them for new players.

Tips from Kel

A Keldis does well using the Spawn Gold spell to generate the massive amounts of gold necessary to purchase the increasingly expensive land. Because Keldis usually buy up thier land, they must field reasonably sized defensive armies, which are further bolstered by the their racial bonus (+5% shields) and thier two racial buildings which supply a further 10% bonus to shields. If these racial bonuses are supplemented by the Grand Armour spell this can be further supplement to increase the Keldis' shields by 45%, which with walls gives the them an army almost 3 times what they orginally had.

Historical Notes

The name Keldis actually refers to 3 seperate races within Gildor. The race which is playable is the second of these created by Zorax for the purpose of conquering the world. These Keldis were stronger than Orcs, smarter than Humans, and more magically gifted than the Mef. They were however very few in number. Still their extreme skills played a very significant role in Zorax's rise to power. After Zorax's defeat to the wizard Me'Tre the Keldis were hated everywhere and went into hiding. This hatred had existed previously as the Keldis were conquerors after all and represented a brutal empire that completely erased many cultures from the world (some never to return). However it was only with the fall of Zorax and his empire that the other races dared show their disgust openly. Despite this, Keldis still made up Me'tre's closest advisors and a secret guild known as "Tomb Pah" meaning shadow ghosts which served as Me'tre's secret police force. Unfortunately with Me'tre's death the dark magics they used have been completely lost.

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