Help a newbie play R'lyeh

[magnate]

Ok so I'm not a newbie really but I've never played R'lyeh and I have loads of questions:

1. How do you pronounce R'lyeh anyway? I've heard "Riley", "Arlee-ay", "Rulyeah" ....

2. How does the void summoning work? Can only one mage enter the site at a time? If so does it matter what paths s/he has? Do more powerful mages summon better beasties and/or have less chance of getting fried? Is either of those affected by luck scales (or any other scales)?

To be honest, summoning one beastie per turn, with a chance of getting nothing and having your mage feebleminded, is not really an exciting prospect. I must be missing something. I've seen the AI with way more beasties than there have been elapsed turns.

If you can send more than one mage in per turn, is there a limit? I mean, I could just recruit a star child every turn and soon I'd be summoning 15-20 void creatures every turn!

3. What scales would you take for R'lyeh? They need money so I guess you don't want turmoil. I guess you could take sloth if you went mainly for Illithids. I've never taken death with a non-undead theme - does it matter?

I'm asking because I'm thinking of going for an expensive bless strategy (W9S9 or W9N9 or even F9W9N9) to get those void beasties really buzzing. So I'll need negative scales and I wondered which were tolerable and which were to be avoided.

Thanks in advance,

CC

[Zen]

magnate said:
1. How do you pronounce R'lyeh anyway? I've heard "Riley", "Arlee-ay", "Rulyeah" ....

R'lyeh (pronounced Roo-lee-ah or Rill-AYE-eh)

2. How does the void summoning work? Can only one mage enter the site at a time? If so does it matter what paths s/he has? Do more powerful mages summon better beasties and/or have less chance of getting fried? Is either of those affected by luck scales (or any other scales)?

Only one mage a time at the site. I think they have to have Astral. Not more powerful, but Starspawn, Priest Starspawn (and the Hero) all have greatly reduced chances to go insane. The best bang for your buck is the Priestly Starspawn. I'm not 100% certain that it is affected by luck, and if it is, it seems minor at best.

3. What scales would you take for R'lyeh? They need money so I guess you don't want turmoil. I guess you could take sloth if you went mainly for Illithids. I've never taken death with a non-undead theme - does it matter?

Sloth 3 is pretty common. So is Cold 3, since underwater you are not affected by temperature income hits. It's really up to your playstyle. I don't really like the Illithid Soldiers, especially since the paralyzing portion of the Illithid attack really got smashed to bits with the paralyze time fix. Just not worth it IMO.

I'm asking because I'm thinking of going for an expensive bless strategy (W9S9 or W9N9 or even F9W9N9) to get those void beasties really buzzing. So I'll need negative scales and I wondered which were tolerable and which were to be avoided.

I'd probably avoid a strategy that relies on blessing void beasties. Some have no movement, some are aquatic only and you will have a hard time relying on them for much as far as troop support. You're probably better off using Crab Hybrids underwater only, early, and then piles of lobos and mass starspawn with star children comslaves laying down the beatings for above water and as the game progresses.

[Alneyan]

Death isn't too bad usually, as the population decrease will take a *long* while to really matter: you will need 70 turns to lose a third of your pop in the capital, even with Death 3, and you should have other sources of income by then.

R'lyeh will have a harder time getting those nice provinces with gold sites though, and Death does result in more common plagues, so I would only take Death if those 120 points could be put to good use (I picked Water 2 in exchange for Death 3, and +1 to Dominion, and I know it wasn't worth it).

[Sandman]

It's worth noting that R'lyeh has some of the best heroes in the game. I'd avoid misfortune (and maybe even take luck) for this reason.

[Nerfix]

Lobo spamming seems to work OK underwater. Bring some meatier critters like Tentacle Boogeymen or Crab Hybrids to actually deal damage to those pesky Tritons. I think a Lobo Wave with supporting Shambler Thralls, Void summonings and Illithids set to target archers works ok on land. Quickness and Soul Slay is good. You might want to build up a good Communion with the help of Star Children. Vastness will eat your enemies head.

[Jurri]

R'lyeh has very varied mages (with 2 full randoms!), so you don't necessarily need any magics on your pretender. They are very expensive, though, so it's only logical then to purchase good scales with your points. A no-magic wurm is nifty, since it has a high base dominion and is cheapish and powerful. Underwater, you probably should aim for a slightly more powerful dominion since sea provinces have more neighbors and thus dominion fluctuates more strongly.

You shouldn't be needing productivity, since the mainstays lobos and illithids require only negligible amounts of resources. Under Zen scales the income hit from sloth is noticeable, though.

[Cainehill]

Getting the better beasties : as a mage is successful in summoning from the Void Gate, its void summoning skill goes up. As the skill goes up, the chances get better that a more powerful creature will be summoned, up to a point ( I believe other people indicated that around skill 20, the chances go down again slightly ).

Priestly starspawns do have a better chance not to go insane (after all, they are sacred to the insane deity beyond the gate), and are less expensive than mage starspawns.

Scales : I won a game on the world map with them, scales were something like Heat or Cold 3, Sloth 3, Death 1 or 2, and I might have taken a point or so of turmoil. Neutral or positive luck and magic scales, and a very powerful rainbow mage (void lurker, 15 point new paths) who was able to easily get a-wishing, then forge many artifacts and cast many globals that R'lyeh has a hard time getting otherwise (GoH, Chalice, Gate Stone, etc).

Swarms of cheap lobos (mindless, so they never retreat) backed up by a couple starspawn mages and a rank of 5-10 illithid troops allowed for early expansion until I got teleport and could send my void lurker out as well.

[magnate]

Hmm. So it really is one void summon per turn, ever. (Note to Zen - they are all amphibious, except the Dweller In The Deep, but thanks for pointing out that some of them can't move - I hadn't spotted that!)

Well bollocks to blessing Riley then. If I want to spam mindless fodder backed up with a few mages I could play Ermor or something. I'll try my uber-bless strategy with Pan or Machaka or somebody more appreciative ...

Still, thanks for all the tips. If I ever do play Arleay I'll bear them all in mind.

CC

[Cainehill]

Note that some uberblessings aren't bad for R'lyeh, if that high magic path on the pretender fits into your plans.

Example : E9, for extra fatigue recovery on the sacred mages, and extra armor on those plus void summonings, while you also get to churn out lots of living statues with the pretender.

[Endoperez]

Water 9 Earth 4 would give the mages Blessing of Quickness, which works with the spell of the same name and helps the void monsters (often slow-ish), while Earth gives reinvigoration for your mages. And you are able to churn out lots of Claymen with the pretender.

I don't think any Earth-based underwater pretenders exist, so this would be cheaper, too. Of course, claymen don't compare to the statues, but I have grown fond of them.