Beating underwater nations
 

How do you go about beating underwater nations in 1on1 MPs (e.g. Ryleh vs. Whomever)?
The story so far is that I rose to Boron's challenge to play Ryleh vs. his Oceania on a small water-based map (Yalun To was chosen). Turned out Ryleh wasn't quite as hopeless against the fast fishy flyers as was thought.
But then we started replaying with different nations. And I just dont see how an underwater nation is really threatenable by a land nation until quite late, at least on maps with decent amounts of water.
I tried doing it in SP and figured: If anything, then Death or Water will help, and at best, both death and water. So I chose Ctis Miasma, which I think is great fun, and played it human-vs-human vs Ryleh in SP with some tiny other AIs around, but Ryleh just lays the smackdown way too early.
So how does one go about beating a water nation? Is it just a choice of maps? (And if so, which one would you suggest for a smallish MP game?)

Re: Beating underwater nations
 

The easiest way to defeat a water nation is to puch them back into the ocean, fortify the coastal provinces, then build temples everywhere while keeping them off the land. On most maps, there are not enough water provinces for an aquatic nation to survive against a serious dominion push.

Re: Beating underwater nations
 

OK thanks.
Got some map suggestions for a small game (1on1, if need be with a couple of AI -- we were playing Yalun To with 3 land and 1 more water AI, but there is just tons of water....)?

Re: Beating underwater nations
 

In is hard to beat a water nation on a map that is primarily water, for
obvious reasons. But if you have to, you should choose Pythium or Caelum.
Not only are these two of the top nations, which will insure your supremacy
on land, but they also have mages that can go underwater. As an added bonus,
Pythium has the very best preachers in the game...