Re: Newbie questions
In general units with the amphibian or poor amphibian abilities can move underwater. Poor amphibians suffer some stat penalties. Aquatic units cannot go onto land. The various water nations may have some aquatic units but they will also have amphibious units so they can attack land provinces. They'll tend to be weaker on land than land factions though.
If you can take even one water province you can recruit underwater troops there, as well as summoning underwater-only summons with water magic.
I haven't got Dom3 yet, but there were quite a few ways to attack underwater enemies in Dom2 that should still be there. I'll list the ones that spring to mind.
1: Some mercenaries are amphibious. Ship Wreckers may be the best ones.
2: Some land provinces allow recruitment of amphibious units - icthyids and shamblers
3: There are magical items that grant water-breathing (basically the same as 'poor amphibian' IIRC. Some affect only the commander but some also affect his troops. If the commander dies the troops probably drown though. In Doms2 these were in the water and air paths.
4: A few commanders have the special ability to lead men underwater, at least according to their flavour text.
5: Some land nations have recruitable amphibious units. All Agarthan pale ones seem to be good amphibians.
6: There are many summonable units that are amphibious:
Water magic has many aquatic summons, but you need an underwater lab and a water magic capable of going underwater to cast them. There are also some amphibious water summons that you can cast on land. Sea Trolls are the most obvious example.
Many, but not all, undead are poor amphibians and can go underwater.
I believe that many constructs (generally earth magic) are poor amphibians.
7: There might be some global enchantments that can help. I think there was one in Doms2, but I never used it...
Water nations are also very vulnerable to dominion problems because each sea province usually borders many land provinces which could all have temples. If you find yourself in a stalemate where you can't conquer the seas but you can hold all the land then building enough temples may grant you victory.
The AI does not focus much on underwater provinces when playing as an underwater nation. They often do not take sea provinces far away from their home province, focusing instead on nearby land ones. This allows land nations to get a good foothold in the seas. Land nations are much weaker underwater, but if your economy is stronger you may be able to recruit enough tritons etc to hold off a sea nation. Big armies of magical summons could flatten pretty much any AI army with ease in Doms2. The underwater summons were never quite as devastating as those on land but they were potent enough...
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