Atavi Villages, at least as far as the recruitment screen shows me, do not give the Maharaja access to the hedge mages (Yogini?) that the Raksharaja gets. That makes the villages even less valuable for them, as they lack one resource (no sacrifices) and offer no special recruitment.

As said there, and perhaps even more important here, archer hordes are useful for the monkeys, and having a magic commander (back rank) is very important for it to work.

This didn't make it into the most recent update, but a unit that scales off Atavi villages is in the works. In the current version, Dvarapalas have been updated to have a more interesting interaction with Atavi villages rather than just build earth walls.

The Vanara Champion is quite a surprise. I was expecting/hoping for another back row spell caster to reinforce the archer strategy, for me, these monkeys came out of nowhere. But they have their value, and quite interesting.

Previously (and to some degree, still do), I wouid use the Bandaraja as a bruiser scout. He's got the attack power, armor, and health to scout around and survive some light combat. The Champion does that, but much better. Increased mobility makes them better at mapping (very important for a gem faction), multiple attacks make them better at fighting, and the akashic magic is a nice cherry on top of everything.

I'd say they make melee cores more viable, as you will want some frontline to increase these guys lifespam if you use them to complement Yogi armies. As a bonus, that will also increase the lifespam of Vanara Scouts. A valuable mid rank commander means you will not get away with just archers, making it relevant to get the better armored bandar troops.

Nice! Glad to hear that they seem to be hitting the mark.

One thing that feels missing from the monkeys is something like the Troll's goblin shaman or the Baki's Bakimono Shaman. A cheaper, capped at 2 caster option that gives you more chances to put casters out if you don't want to wait for your main caster type to roll.

My take: White Markata! Has Luck Magic 1 and rituals like a Yogi. Upgrades to a Markata Guru, but no further.
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The Bandaraja is pretty key to the class's identity, but right now his only job is to spread atavi tribes. Risking him in small engagements doesn't make sense when there are vanara captains. And he's pretty useless leading a main stack which should have casters already. As a result, the incentive is to just leave him somewhere safe and hit S.

I'd say he could use more rituals to encourage a more active lifestyle. Here's a pitch that plays on the trope of ruined temples infested with monkeys:

Infest Temple (costs 50 G, cast on Ancient Temple or Ziggurat). Puts an enchantment on the temple that causes freespawn of markata maces/bows. Probably something like 10 turns to hit 15 units and "pay for itself"? Very rarely, a White Markata will spawn.

The Savoy/Enlightened Guru is a disappointing way to end a tech branch. Caster 1 is not nothing, but in a faction that has Aspara, and now Vanara Champions, it's nothing you don't already have. I have 2 buff ideas, which might necessitate a recruitment cost increase--but better something pricy than a nothingburger!

#1:Give him Enables Recruitment, so that the more gurus you get your hands on, the more offers for Enlightened soldiers you can get. If you love this idea, you might make gurus come on offer more often, and lower the base % for the soldiers.

#2: Give him 1 ritual that fits his usual role as a small lieutenant in a big empire. Since he comes from cities, it would be cool if it costs gold. My idea: Lesser Akashic Summoning, identical to the yogi ritual, except it costs 50 G. A little more efficient than the 30 gems, which reflects how late in the tech tree you get this guy.

I have a few changes already made that somewhat lines up with these suggestions. The "Sculpt Dvarapala" ritual is being moved from the main ritual school to the Bandaraja for exactly that reason, to give that commander more reason to be used and not just something to be owned to unlock recruitment offers. The Vanara champions are gaining level 1 summoning rituals.

The human recruitment offered by Enlighten Humans was intended to be a small buff to normal mercenary/wizard offers without anything too substantial gated behind it. I do think you have correctly identified the weakest aspect of what's offered is the Guru. Notably the Gurus do have a 25% chance to arrive with a magic item which is a trait that won't show up in game, however being a level 1 Akashic magic caster is not special within this faction and they will likely be changed to either a new school of magic or receive some form of a ritual casting feature.

Here's some ideas. You might like them maybe, or no, in which case, you won't like them then.

Kinnara gain new Ritual: Inhabit clouds
Must be cast on cloud terrain. Promotes self to stationary (and lightning immune) Steward of the Storm. Terraforms (aeroforms?) the clouds into Thunderclouds.

Thunderclouds can spawn yielding multiple diamonds, and will be pretty safe from enemies. So maybe this needs a higher cost than the existing inhabit rituals.

A ruby version of this gimmick is harder to imagine without committing to a new unique tile... unless! You use the volcano. Now, volcanoes yield lots of rubies, so balancing that is non-trivial.

I imagine it could require terraforming an existing greater mine, with an abandoned mine being the ideal target. Giving this ritual to the Rudra, a T3 summon, might put this into a good place?
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Whenever I play Monkeys I am jealous of those shiny new pike elephants the senate got. Sure, the bows have longer range. But due to the elephant's behavior, that only matters on round 1. Maybe give the elephant archers hits anywhere, to represent their high vantage point?
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Monkeys are iron hungry even without a bandaraja and his royal troops. Fielding them bottlenecks you pretty quickly. And on pop-heavy maps, it's easy to have more gold than you can spend even fielding the 10 Iron troops. What do you think of this ritual for the Bandaraja:

Royal Commission: Cast on Fortified Citadel (1per). Costs 75G
Spawns a Royal Smith, who produces 1 Iron a turn. Is a bandar with a hammer, and thus no pushover, but otherwise not a remarkable defender.

The cost is higher than say, Lararium for a number a reasons... notably accessibility, and the low risk of loss from citadel placement. As we talked about earlier, I like that it gives the raja something to do outside his palace.

I think rounding out the diamond and ruby summons to also have "steward" rituals makes sense. I think both can go either way with being more expensive with a higher gem yield or just involve a new type of terrain.

A small buff to the war elephant's bowmen is a fine suggestion and I'm on board with that.

I don't have any strong feelings towards this faction and iron income, but I could see some possibility to add a trade boosting effect/unit at some point in the future.

So... monkey casters have this special mechanic where they are effectively immortal until they break their vows, which can happen by equipping one of their offensive spells or... they get in melee, and throw a punch before dying.

I think its pretty silly the way they abandon their religion at the exact moment it is about to save their lives. As a player, it sucks to make a conscious choice to abstain from sinful spells, and then have perk whiff because the yogi unfortunately survived a round in melee. I do not think that this mechanic would make them OP if it was little more consistent--it requires territory control to make it work, after all.

I think that lv.2 and 3 should have their punch removed. The lv. 1 caster should retain the punch, so that he doesn't become a cheap immortal scout, but he should have combat caster, so that he gains a little more self-control.

Interesting observation. Yeah I can see where this can be a bit problematic and I don't think it's a huge buff to simply make them pure casters without a melee attack. The "reincarnation" mechanic is also a bit of a grey area, in that it's one of those "hard coded" traits that can't be easily added to other units. I'll test whether they can be set to respawn with an AP deficit as I've done with true immortal units.

New commander: Atavi Champion
recruited for free by event, more likely based on number of atavi villages owned.

His niche is to offer a reward for holding the atavi villages, which is a pretty noticable part of the class that currently goes nowhere. He is the primo leader for a forest-stealth stack.

He achieves this using the trait that druids have, that gives nearby animals forest stealth--allowing him to supplement atavi with markata.

Season to taste with army trainer, primal font, and/or forest magic.

Obviously he'd be able to establish atavi villages. Perhaps he could also spend a bunch of AP in an Atavi village to summon some atavi.

About the Vanara Champion: I still don't see him as having a clear niche. He is stronk, but midrank. He is fast, but has no fast units to lead.

So currently he has two roles he can flex between:
1:an expensive fast scouting officer who will struggle to do enough mapping to worth it.
2:another flavor of lv. 1 caster for your armies. since in a big army, he probably wont' find himself in melee, he doesn't really feel different from your other, cheaper options to add lv. 1 casters to a stack.

So he does neither of these things super well... Here are some rework pitches to push him towards a clear niche you can invest in deliberately:

Battlemage: Make him a lv. 2 caster, but remove his ability to conduct rituals. This version is the most like his current incarnation.

Warrior: Make him front rank, replace his magical ability with passive Luck. This turns him into a powerful, yet deathprone military asset you'll save for hard fights.

Raid Leader: Give him a new ritual to promote Vanara Swords into fast cavalry, costing gold, gems, and 3 AP, and probably done in a Jungle. This opens up the possibility of a Fast army.

I like the idea of making these cavalry mid-rank melee--that keeps them from being an easy addition to normal armies. It also gives the champion flexibility--he can lead normal armies in safety, or lead cavalry raids from the "front."

Yeah, the champion was a commander I was recently reconsidering what roles it could have. The initial intention was to have an equivalent to the Raksharaja's Yogini, so there was a commander recruit that scaled on Atavi villages, and I made it a "mage knight" to differentiate a bit. But it does feel a bit like it lacks a specific niche as it's a fast commander with no fast units to lead and it doesn't introduce a new school of spells. Currently what I have planned leans towards "raid leader" but more like "developer leader" since this faction will lean more towards being "good" and not destructive.Spell casting will be removed and cost adjusted, and a non-commander tiger rider unit added so that a proper fast army with forest stealth can be built. For rituals, I'm looking into giving the Bandaraja more development that can be done on the map, and I think the champions make for a good "lieutenant" commander that will share some of these rituals, but keep some of the more influential ones exclusive to the Banadaraja (Similar to High Lords and the Baron).

Unit Spotlight: The Cow of Plenty.
You have been saving up for turns and turns. You drop 500 gems on the big honkin ritual. You get a tanky 2/2 caster. It can grant +1 income to farms (you have farms, right?)

I actually like the idea of an economy-focused god that's only so-so on the battlefield. But she needs a little something something. I would buff her:

Give her a powerful "Enables Recruitment" ability that offers you large batches of Vanara and Bandar for slightly efficient, pure gold cost. Ex: 6 Bandar Warriors for about 100 G.

This will mean that you have a way to turn your extra gold into manpower.

I would also add a gold bonus capped by her tile, limited at 2. This will allow her "hold court" on a farm and generate some extra income, as something to do when you don't want her in battle.