[cleveland]

Pretender Build

With natural Astral & Water, the Old Man's kinda like the lord of navigation, guiding ships to safe harbor and whatnot. We’ll give him a bit of Death too, as he likes to send the occasional ship into the rocks (wouldn’t you?). But we don’t need a lot, as good scales are the priority thereby maximizing ichtycentaur output and my chances at an early game upset.

We’ll do a dormant Old Man with Dom9 and S4W4D2, scales at O3S2C3G2L3M1. His magic will let him cast Streams from Hades, Antimagic vs. R’lyeh, create a few Reverants to get the Death pump primed, and maybe even forge a few Astral Rings. He’s no SC, but in a pinch he can teleport in and send off a few water elementals at raiders. Maybe give him a D gem to cast Soul Vortex for the rare front-line detail. If he makes it the late-game (ha!) he can invite a few Abominations.

So I picture something like this:
1) Expand hard and fast with Ichtycentaurs, followed by mermage site searchers.
2) Launch a swift invasion of my closest enemy, preferably R’lyeh, pushing hard toward his capital behind a wall of Light Lances.
3) Bring his capital walls down fast with swarms of ichtysatyrs. I want his capital before the Old Man wakes up.
4) Mop up his remaining provinces, and start some serious Enchantment research. Start sending stealthy Capricorns behind my other underwater pal’s lines.
5) Hit him hard and fast with another Ichtycentaur charge, supported by a massive Capricorn sneak attack scripted for (Personal Regeneration)(Watershield)Attack against his 1PD provinces.
6) Win that war (easy!), then bide my time until Ench-5 & Alt-1 is completed.
7) Pick the weakest looking land opponent, and launch an all-out assault with Foul Vapors doing the damage. Research Conjuration to get Voice of Tiamet & Streams from Hades, just in case my brilliant plan somehow fails, laughable as that may sound.