Questions regarding R'lyeh Dreamlands

[Corwin]

I am trying LE R'lyeh (Dreamlands) in SP. I haven't played much R'leh before, so I have several questions. I hope people well familiar with R'leh will be able to answer them.

1. What affects free R'leh spam? Is number of units spamed per turn in any given province in a direct correlation to the R'leh dominion strength in that province? So in province with dom 10 there are 10 times more spams than in dom 1? Or is it not such a direct correlation? (or perhaps no correlation at all?)

2. What affects types of unit spamed? Is it affected by the presence of the temple or a fort in the province? (as in case with Ermor) Is it affected by the geography of the province? (for example either coastal or landlocked province far from ocean)

3. Does the chance of the commander going insane depend on the strength of dominion? Does the (+insane) change to the "insanity icon" depend of the strength of dominion? Is the number "insane(N)" on unit's info is a percentage chance of unit acting on its own in any given turn?

4. Are units with high MR less likely to go insane?

5. Once unit is insane, it can start acting on its own. When it happens the unit's icon is "grayed out" and you can't change orders for the commander for this turn.

But as long as insane unit is *not* grayed out during your planning phase, will it always perform what you ask him to do during that turn? Or can it still disregard your orders after you give it to him and act on its own?

6. In Dom2 IIRC when you have too high summoning skill you can't summon Vastness anymore. Is it still the case with Dom3? If so, what is the "threshold"? Should you replace you summoner once it gets too high summoning skill?

7. How does summoning skill affects the type and number of the creatures you summon?

8. IIRC sometimes various void beings are spammed outside of your capital and its void gate. Is it true? If so, what affects the chance of them being spammed?

9. After you give your insane commander orders to build Lab or to forge an item or to cast a ritual spell, can they disregard their orders and do some insane thing instead? (naturally it assumes that you are able to give them orders, meaning they are not “grayed out”. Assuming for a moment that they can still disregard their orders and would do something different during the current turn, will you lose money and gems, or will it be reimbursed to you?

Thank you!

[Aleph]

Here's my experience.

1-2. I believe it's dominion strength, + possibly temples give better spawn. Or maybe I just have better spawns on temples because the dominion is higher. Certainly for LA Ermor temples and forts give better freespawns. It is certainly not a direct geometric progression like 1 dom = 1 spawn, 10 dom = 10 spawns.

3. I believe the answer to all of these is yes.

4. I don't think so, but I don't know. Starspawn are immune, pretty much everyone else ends up insane sooner or later.

5. Nope. A commander is either insane for that round or not. If not, they'll do what you say.

6. Someone else posted 15-20 as the likely point of no return. In the same post, they said this was the kind of information that the designers like to not tell you, so that was just their experience. I would say yes, bring in someone new, since I like Vastness + Gift of Reason far more than I like bunches of othernesses. Plus once you get your clam machine rolling, you'll be summoning Void Spectres like mad to be Dreams of Rl'yeh assassins and to hold your clams (guaranteed S4, ethereal, no need to eat, no gold upkeep - sounds like a good solution for a dying nation with dwindling gold), and they have the summoning skill and are quite a bit tougher than normal Starspawn, so just swap them in as needed with a handful of freespawn bodyguards (I mostly use 3 immobile mind blasters and a couple greater othernesses or things that should not be).

7. I don't think anyone has the exact data you are looking for. Higher is better, although with the caveat of +6.

8. Absolutely - they come with your freespawns. You get lots of othernesses (mostly small ones), and a mix of the little psychic immobile mushroom guys, and the mobile and immobile green swirlies. You're never going to pick up a Vastness or Visitor.

9. That's pretty much what you asked for #5 if I'm getting you right.

Special Bonus info - the strength of your dominion definitely affects the number of people killed per round by the dreamlands. I believe you can usually come out a little bit ahead with growth 3 and dominions of 5 or less. Once you start throwing down temples, though, your dominion will rise and your numbers will start to fall. You can hold it off for quite a while if you use your freespawn commanders for preaching (especially if you end up with loads of prophets), but eventually I always want to start pushing more actively into enemy domain.

[Corwin]

Bump!

Just to clarify, here the list of remaining questions that I would like to get an answer or to get more additional information.

1. What affects free R'leh spam? Is number of units spamed per turn in any given province in a direct correlation to the R'leh dominion strength in that province? So in province with dom 10 there are 10 times more spams than in dom 1? Or is it not such a direct correlation? (or perhaps no correlation at all?)

2. What affects types of unit spamed? Is it affected by the presence of the temple or a fort in the province? (as in case with Ermor) Is it affected by the geography of the province? (for example either coastal or landlocked province far from ocean)

3. Does the chance of the commander going insane depend on the strength of dominion? Does the (+insane) change to the "insanity icon" depend of the strength of dominion? Is the number "insane(N)" on unit's info is a percentage chance of unit acting on its own in any given turn?

4. Are units with high MR less likely to go insane?

6. In Dom2 IIRC when you have too high summoning skill you can't summon Vastness anymore. Is it still the case with Dom3? If so, what is the "threshold"? Should you replace you summoner once it gets too high summoning skill?

7. How does summoning skill affects the type and number of the creatures you summon?

8. What affects the chance of void creatures being spammed outside of the void gate?

Also any additional tips on playing Dreamlands would be appreciated.

[Corwin]

Bump.