[Norfleet]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
What are you doing to be able to expand fast vs. tritons ? Unless we are talking indies at 5 or lower that is

CharonJr

Tritons, like all enemy fliers, are a real pain in the ***. In the VERY early game, it's probably best to sidestep these provinces: You need a bit of cash to take these out. Illithids are a very poor choice to use against these provinces: As you noticed, the Tritons quickly dogpile onto them and kill them. Illithids are expensive. Since the setup doesn't exactly give them an opportunity to effective employ their mind bLasting powers, it's best to just leave them at home for this. Instead, I find that Tritons can be taken on most effectively by a combination of Crab Hybrids and Shamblers. A block of Crab Hybrids, with their improved protection of 14, can absorb the initial shock of the Triton attack, while the Shamblers can then trample the Tritons while they're locked in combat with the crabs.

Casualties among the crab hybrids should not be of overly great concern, as they won't be much use once you finish taking over the ocean anyway, as long as you don't lose so many that you can't finish the job. Tritons are just going to melee you regardless of how you try to prevent it, so you may as well simply deal with them head on.