[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Tex Pete:
Anyone got any good ideas? I think I like the R'yleh concept the best, but I'm having trouble putting together a victory strategy. Please pick your brain for any tips you might have!

There's several different pretender designs I use for R'Yleh, but every one of them involves order 34, luck 3, and at least magic 2. Sloth 3 is workable, as your Illithids are gold limited, not resource limited. I take luck 3, as I believe that it helps with the void gate summons, and because R'Yleh's national heroes are extremely powerful mages.

Your armies require lots of fodder at the front to give your mindflayers time to paralyze as many troops as possible, this requires a combination of both lobo guards and other warriors to get the most out of the leadership abilities of your Illithid Lords.

For my pretender, I've tried many things, from an Astral 6, water 3 void lord, to an astral 4 void lurker, to a wyrm with no magic at all. Starspawn mages are very powerful and ave 2 random picks, which gives you access to a great deal of spells.

To start I usually recruit a starspawn priest, and as many illithids as I can in the first turn. On the next turn, I place the Illithids as far back as possible, with the cannon fodder as far forward as possible. This makes the tritons go for the infantry first. Your infantry will take losses from the poison, but they are easily replaced. I also tend to send my pretender out to either help with the attacks if a Wyrm, or to cast mind burn from the back row if an astral mage.

You can quickly take most weaker independents under water, and then move onto land, where you can probably move your fodder back towards the back to decrease the accuracy of enemy archers and give more time for paralyzing to happen.

From there just see how the battle goes and try to keep your enemies from pushing out your dominion.