Guide: LA R'lyeh or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dreamlands

[chrispedersen]

Try playing with only the paths indicated. I view him as a vehicle for early expansion; after which searching; after which forging.

You get air on the visitor, you can empower although he will vanish. still, more generally useful, I think

[Squirrelloid]

I like the GK idea. I really haven't played enough with the GK. In part, I've been a little uncomfortable with early game SCs (in general) because I don't have a good feel for just how much opposition they can take (and getting your pretender killed in the first couple months is never a good sign).

I dislike the kraken because new paths are so expensive, iirc. I think you really want to rainbow because you will find a use for just about every gem type, so you want to be able to find some of every gem type.

I also actively like Death 3 as R'lyeh because I want to make my lands as undesirable for prospective invaders as possible. Having population just means people want your lands more. (Edit: And that's why we took Luck 3 in the first place - so we had an income source that wasn't population dependent).

How important are air gems to R'lyeh? Quite important for the move to land in the long term. You'll want access to some protection from archer fire, which means Perpetual Storm is decent, or crafting some staves of storms. (You can't reliably expect to have an A capable mage for Arrow Fend or similar in combat, so finding ways to make your A work for you more remotely is the best you can probably do). With A3 you can Staff of elemental mastery or RoW into A4 and you're in business. And while you can rely on stoneskin/ironskin/army of gold to make your troops resistant to arrowfire, these measures will stack with that and affect the entire battlefield from the start.

A4 also unlocks the Bag of Winds, which is an item with a start of combat summons. Throw one of those, a bottle of living water, and a wraith crown on a starspawn mage and you can feel free to teleport into PD or even weak armies with no other gear. (W1S3D2 and W1E2S3 preferred). Air also allows you to craft the eyes of aiming, which will help your evocation mages hit their targets. (Not that you care if you hit your chaffe - but you'd rather have killed more stuff).

[chrispedersen]

I'm not completely opposed to death - but getting into water as a land nation is pretty difficult already. On the plus side, its points. On the negative side Death3 kills population as fast as your dreamlands it seems. And it costs you 9% compounded income.

The difference is really between year 2 and year 3.

I also don't like so many paths on a kraken;
D/S/N: in combination with VoT gives you a complete search.

More tests!

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

I'm not completely opposed to death - but getting into water as a land nation is pretty difficult already. On the plus side, its points. On the negative side Death3 kills population as fast as your dreamlands it seems. And it costs you 9% compounded income.

The difference is really between year 2 and year 3.

I also don't like so many paths on a kraken;
D/S/N: in combination with VoT gives you a complete search.

More tests!

Well, your dreamlands + Death 3 should be spreading to land with you as well. I agree, water shouldn't need so much extra discouragement, but discouraging your opponent from pushing you back into the sea is a plus in my book.

One note on Kraken vs. GK - GK is land capable out of the box, which, since crab hybrids appear to be better value for your money than just about any other normal troop, gives you early expansion capability on both land and sea.

[chrispedersen]

Why are you so opposed to illithid?
8 Illithids will paralyze 3 usual troops every turn. You hang out in the back with all your troops - they ahve paralyzed 10 troops by the time combat is joined.

The same illithids, in combat will paralyze 3 - allowing your chaff troops (atk values 8) to *hit* them.

Additionally, your illithids ROCK against kraken, and are land capable.

[Radio_Star]

Kraken paths are initially 40 and GK are 20 IIRC, -but- the Kraken's initial cost is zero. We'd do well establish the ideal paths for the pretender 1st and then establish which pretender can provide those paths with the best combat effectiveness

[chrispedersen]

So, I've tried 9 games or so through year 2.

Gk with Air1-2 W6, D3-4 is fairly hardy.
Underwater defense of about 21, ethereal, awe, plus high defense.

To go above water, able to cast air shield - and he gains 3 defense, so usually at 25 after first star.
Ghost King has the additional advantage that he can sneak into a territory to improve dominion.

All that being said, I cannot reliably get more than 10 territories. An early lucky hit cripples the ghost king.

The kraken with E5 reliably gets 15 territories. However, has a much harder time expanding onto land *or* getting into the second waters. D5 much the same - however was lowered almost to death several times.

I'm tempted to try a e3s3 kraken.

I definitely do not like death3. With d3, my income is roughly 220 per turn - I am often not getting enough random luck events to build a mage.

With growth2, even without luckevents I have enough money.