Traits:

Hardy:
+8 HP



Strong:
Repeating Melee and Physical Ranged attacks deal +2 Physical Damage.
Non-repeating Melee and Physical Ranged attacks deal +4 Physical Damage.

Most of your Damage comes from Melee and Archers.

Poisonous (Monarchy)
+2 Blight Resistance.
Melee attackers have a base 60% chance of becoming Poisoned.
Immunity to becoming Poisoned.

Synergy with Tome of Roots

Defensive Tactics (Aristocracy):
+1 Defense, +1 Resistance and +10% Evasion when standing next to a friendly unit with Defensive Tactics. This does not stack.

With the Feudal rework mounted traits have become better, with Bannerman now as optional cavalary, and are also a viable option. However there are a few things to consider: Aristocracy is the better subculture option, since Liege Guard are optional cavalry. If you want mounted archers, Tome of Fertility can be replaced with Tome of Glades. It is also possible to "buy" the mounted trait from the new Wrangler Ogre Merchant, however having him spawn on a timely manner depends more on luck. Enemies with strong Polearm options like High or Primal become a lot more dangerous. Some animals and summon might slow your army down.


Culture:

Feudal.
Works with Monarchy and Aristocracy subculture. However the build differs in the second Tier 1 Tome, due to different culture Affinity and the need to reach 6 affinity in both Nature and Materium for the Tier 4 Tomes.

Society Traits:

Fabled Hunters: Gain +75% resources from clearing an Infestation, Ancient Wonder, or Resource Node.
Units regenerate an additional +5 Hit Points per Turn.
Start with an extra Ranged Unit.


Runesmiths: Unit Enchantment Research cost -40% Knowledge to unlock.
Unit Enchantments cost -30% upkeep.
Start with an extra Shield Unit or Polearm Unit.


Optional:
Devotees of Good
Cities gain +10 Gold and your empire gains +5 Imperium per level of Good Alignment.
+10 Good Alignment
Units gain +2 Experience per Turn while you are at the maximum good Alignment.
Start with an extra Support Unit or Polearm Unit.

Monarchy: Replace Fabled Hunters, the Nature Trait.
Aristocracy: Replace Runesmiths, the Materium Trait.

Mainly picked for the passive exp gain, to help your units promote. Primarily for the Aspirant Knights as the upgraded Knights are among the strongest Tier 4 units. Though it semi forces you into a Good playstlye.

First Tome:

Tome of Warding

Ruler:

Type:
Champion
Warrior: Lance

Ambition:
Instructor
Major Ambition
Hero leads a full army of Legendary rank units
Reward: 200 Renown

Skill reward
TRAINER
While army leader, all non-Hero units in army gain:
+50% Experience.


Minor Ambition
Rank up units in this Hero's army
Reward: 5 Renown(repeatable)

Mainly picked because it is pretty much guaranteed to max out and Aristorcracy gets massive benefits from high renown with their Liege Lord mechanic. In addition the +50% Experience helps your Defenders, Archers and Aspirant Knights get promoted.


Other Culture Options:

Industrious:
Since the Industrious culture lacks Nature Affinity you need the Monarchy build. Industrious also works well with a Dragon Ruler as their prospecting allows you to find a lot of items, which then produce Gold through the Dragon Hoard. Pick Equipment Hoarders instead of Runesmiths or Fabled Hunters to also produce mana through them.

Primal:
Since the Primal culture lacks Materium Affinity you need the Aristocracy build. Choose Storm Crow or Sylvan Wolf as the Totem Animal, as their chosen terrain of Grassland and Forest works with Enchanted Bloom from Tome of Paradise. Since all their Culture units, besides the scout, are on foot Strong + Athletics might be better Form traits.

1. Tome of Warding
-Phantasm Warrior:
An amazing early game summon, get it as soon as possible to support your Ruler to clear the map.

-Magical Wards:
Inscribes magical wards onto the target race granting:
+2 Lightning Resistance, +2 Fire Resistance,+2 Frost Resistance

-Staves of Warding
Makes Support abilities of enchanted units: Grant +2 Bolstered Resistance to affected units.



2.1 Tome of Roots (Monarchy)


-Blight Blades
Makes base Melee attacks of enchanted units deal:
+4 Blight Damage.
-2 Physical Damage.
+20% damage against Poisoned or Decaying units.

Synergy with Poisonous

-Poison Arrows
Makes base Physical Ranged attacks of enchanted units:
Deal +2 Blight Damage.
Deal -1 Physical Damage.
Gain base 60% chance of inflicting Poisoned, a damage-over-time effect.

-Healing Roots
Target friendly unit:
Heals +10 Temporary Hit Points.
Gains 2 Regeneration.


-Alternatively Tome of Beasts or Tome of Alchemy(Empires and Ashes DLC) could be picked.


2.2 Tome of Rock (Aristocracy)

-Obsidian Weapons:
Makes base Melee and Physical Ranged attacks of enchanted units gain:
+1 Physical Damage, a base 60% chance of applying Bleeding.

-Earthkin:
Makes rock growths develop on the target race, granting them:
+1 Defense. Mountain Camouflage, which allows them to hide on Mountain terrain. Mountain Walk, which allows them to traverse Mountain terrain faster.

-Rock Blast:
Target enemy unit:
Suffers 24 Physical Damage. Has its Defense Mode canceled. Has its Retaliation Attacks removed.


-Alternatively Tome of Enchantment or Tome of Alchemy(Empires and Ashes DLC) could be picked.


3. Tome of Winds

-Dust Storm:
Enemy units in a 2-hex radius:
Sustain 10 Physical Damage. Have a base 90% chance of becoming Blind for 1 Turn.

-Seeker Arrows:
Grants Physical Ranged attacks of enchanted units:
+1 range.

-Zephyr Archers:
Unlocks a tier 3 Archer.

No need for it in Monarchy, since you already have the Longbow.

-Alternatively Tome of Shades(Ways of War DLC) could be picked, if you prefer Skirmishers over Archers.


4. Tome of Fertility

-Blossom of Life:
Friendly units in a 2-hex radius gain 3 Regeneration.

Good and cheap AOE heal. One of your main combat spells.

-Summons Nymph:
Summons a Nymph onto the target world hex

-Temple of Fertility
City Structure: +10 Food income
+3 Food income per Population:
+1 Draft income per Population


5. Tome of Transmutation

-Melt Armor
Target enemies in a 1-hex radius:
Gain 3 Sundered Defense. Sustain 20 Fire Damage.

-Steel Skin
Transmutes the target race's skin into steel, granting them:
+2 Defense. +2 Blight Resistance. -2 Lightning Resistance.

-Transmute Resources
Target owned city converts their Mana income, gaining Gold, Production, and Food income equal to 75% of the Mana income.

Check how much mana the target city produces and how much total mana surplus you have, to avoid getting a negative income. Do not use it on all cities, your enchantmes and summons have mana upkeep.


6. Tome of Vigor

-Supergrowth
Makes the target race grow in mass and stature, granting them:
+10 Hit Points. +1 Retaliation Attack. Decreased number of units in formation.

Decreased number of units is a benefit as the unit needs to loose more HP to loose models, which reduce the damage output. Extremly powerful if it turns the unit into a single unit entity.

-Empowered Beasts
Makes enchanted units:
Deal +20% damage. Gain +10 Hit Points. Gain Demolisher, making them able to destroy reinforced obstacles. Decreased number of units in formation.
Affected Unit Types: Animal

-Summon Greater Animal
Summons a random Tier III Animal unit onto target location. Has a small chance of summoning a Tier IV Animal.


7. Tome of Paradise

-Gaias Chosen:
Infuse the target race with the blessing of nature. They gain:
The Plant unit type. +3 Status Resistance. +20 Hit Points.

Your major racial transformation, giving a good chunk of HP. in addition the Plant type enables some synergies with other tomes and perks.

-Enchanted Bloom
Target friendly city:
Starts altering terrain to Forest and Grasslands (Fungus Fields and Mushroom Forests when Underground) at 1 Province per Turn. The spell extends up to 1 Province outside the Domain. Terrain will gradually revert if the spell is canceled.
While the spell is active, provinces within the domain with either Grasslands, Forests, Fungus Fields or Mushroom Forest features provide:+2 Food +2 Production +2 Draft

-Exhilaratong Pollen
All friendly units gain +15 Morale.
All enemy units have a base 90% chance of becoming Distracted.


8. Tome of the Crucible

-Lava Burst:
Targets a 2-hex radius:
All units sustain 30 Fire Damage. All units are inflicted with Burning. All units are Slowed. The ground is set On Fire.

-Meteor Shower:
Up to 2 random enemy units and enemies adjacent to those: Sustain 10 Fire Damage and 10 Physical Damage. This spell repeats at the start of each turn for the next 5 Turns.

-Meteor Arrows
Makes base attacks of enchanted units: Deal +3 Fire Damage to the target and adjacent enemies. Gain Demolisher, making them able to destroy reinforced obstacles. Effects are increased for Single Shot attacks.
Affected Unit Types: Ranged Unit, Support Unit, Battle Mage Unit, Skirmisher Unit

-Alternatively Tome of Prosperity(Ways of War DLC) could be taken for more defensive unit enchantments and a tier 5 unit.


9. Tome of the Goddess of Nature
-Mass Rejuvination
Heals all friendly units +40 Temporary Hit Points.
Brings all dead friendly Animals and Plants back to life with 50% of their total Hit Points.

-Force of Nature
Enchanted units gain: +20% Critical Hit chance. +4 Blight Damage on base attacks. Effects are increased for non-repeating attacks.
Affected Unit Types: Cavalry, Dragon, Plant, Animal, Fey, Naga

Both work on your racial units as the Gaias Choses major racial transformation turn them into plants.

Scout Tier 1:
Your basic Scout, Every culture has a small bonus on their scout, the Feudal one has -25% upkeep.

Defender Tier 1:
Cheap shield unit. With Aristocracy in can be promoted to Liege Guard.

Liege Guard Tier 3 ( Aristocracy):
Better shield unit. Can bond with a Hero to absorb damage for them.

Militia Tier 1:
Weak Polearm unit, with almost no upkeep. Can be summoned in pairs. It can only be summoned within your city range.

Phantasm Warrior Tier 1:
Cheap shield summon, wihch can get benefits from your racial transformations. It can be used to quickly reinforce armies or replace lost Militia or Defenders. In Aristocracy summons can join the house of the army leader of an army they summoned in.

Archer Tier 1:
Cheap Archer. With Monarchy it can be promoted to Longbow.

Longbow Tier 3 (Monarchy):
Better Archer with higher range and a full-Action attack with even longer range and armor sundering.

Zephyr Archer Tier 3:
Better Archer with a full-Action AOE attack and 40 Movement. No need to research it in Monarchy as Longbow is very similiar.

Aspirant Knight Tier 2:
Mobile Shock unit, can easily flank enemies and cancel their reatalitation attack. Thanks to slippery they can circle charge for the extra damage. They have high base damage but get a penalty for not attacking isolated targets. Can be promoted to Knight

Knight Tier 4:
Mobile Shock unit, can easily flank enemies and cancel their reatalitation attack. Thanks to slippery they can circle charge for the extra damage, in addition they also have Giant Slayer, Inspiring Killer and Gracefull Charge. Can not be drafted and only be obtained through promotion.

Bannerman Tier 2:
Support unit, which can with a melee range heal and has defensive aura.

Nymph Tier 3:
Summoned Support unit, which can give AOE regeneration, temove negative status effects and mind control. If you mind control a enemy unit at the end of combat you get the option to permanently keep it for some mana, cost depending on the unit tier.

Various Animals Tier 1-4:
You get them from Wild Expansion empire tree perk or the Summon Greater Animal spell. They have mostly the Fighter, Shock or Skirmisher class.



Lategame example of an Feudal Knight in an high level Ruler's army, using the Aristocracy build. The Unicorn mounts were bought from the Wrangler Ogre Merchant.

Equipment
-Use the Item Forge to craft a Tier 4 Lance
-Breastplate of the Champion from the Materium Tree
-A flying Mount
-Whatever else can be found, stolen or looted from corpses.






Once you have won a game you can ascend your Ruler and chose an ascension skill based on the unlocked tomes. I recommend Ascended Hunter from Tome of Vigor, since it has synergy with Obsidian Weapons and the Animal Buffs. The Warg can also help a lot in the early game and when clearing wonder.

ASCENDED HUNTER
At the start of battle, summons a Warg that inflicts Bleeding.
This hero's attacks inflict bonus Physical Damage per stack of Bleeding on the target.

Tile Improvements

3 Farms adjancent to each other.
They get upgraded to Farmstead(Feudal), Bountiful Fields(Fertility) and Garden of Bliss(Paradise).

3 Quarries adjancent to each other.
One gets upgraded to the central Quarry(Rock).

2 Forester.
Nessesary for the Armory Building, once it is build you can replace them with Transmutation Circle(Transmutation), Great Foundry(Crucible), Herbalist(Tome of Roots), Spelljammer or Teleporter.

As many Mines and Research Posts as possible.
You do not need Conduits as the Arcane Artisans Perk from the Materium Empire Tree gives your mines +5 Mana income. Also build either Merchants Guild or Scholars Guild in your cities, depending on what type of improvement is more abundant. After that more Farms, Foresters and Quarries, best in direction of ancient wonders, materials or resource nodes.


Nature Bolstering Matrix:
Nature Buff and Healing Spells heal for +10 Temporary Hitpoints.
Since your Buff and Healing Spells come fron Nature tomes.


Materium Amplifier Lens:
Materium Damage Spells deal +10 physical damage.
Materium Debuff Spells also Inflict Sundered Defence.
Since your Damage Spells come from Materium Tomes.