[Saxon]

Good, good, good, all very interesting. To bring the thread back to the original question, how do you lift EA Oceana out of the ocean, what is your mid and late game?

Folks have nicely summarized how they are strong underwater and some have argued that it should be hard to get out of the water. Fine, now what?

NT Jedi has pointed out, and I second, that there are few spells and items to allow water only creatures to go on land. There are a lot of ways for land units to get into the water. To get them, you need to have water or air magic and do a fair bit of research. I agree that this is an area that could be looked at by the devs, as even with research and the right magic paths, I have a tough time getting my troops out of the water. One poster has said that getting units out of the water is the same as getting them in, but I must disagree. Open up that manual and show me the spells and magic items. Really, I challenge you! Partly to prove my point and partly in the hope I missed something you can show me.

Find a good independent province, build a castle and build a new army. As Death Daemon points out, you can grab archers and heavy infantry. Now, those are not bad, but do they stand up against the troops you will find on land? Poison hydras, Vans, Magma Children? I have never seen a thread on “Building a killer strategy based on independent troops!” My point is that these troops are not enough, we need more.

Summons. This is where I think the answer may be, but would love to hear more. Sea trolls are good, but it is a challenge to get enough. Most of my magic is centered around water, so there is competition for those water gems. Clams take 15 to build, which takes time to pay off. Also in the water gem competition are the Kynaiads (spelled incorrectly) These are the 15 units for 30 gems summon that have awe. I find them to be very durable and useful in and out of the water. However, they don’t seem to kill much, so I tend to have them as the center of the army, with my mermen with amour and tridents on the sides.

National units. The mages have a tough time coming onto land, I have yet to find a way around this. The sacred cavalry can not come on land (if you know a way, please tell me!) This is why I argue that you should not use a bless strategy with this nation, as the points you spend will not directly help you in the later parts of the game.

What does come on land are the mermen. The cheap one has a net, which tends to nicely blunt the first enemy charge. However, they then die quickly. The heavy unit is good, no complaints. I buy as many of them as resources will permit, every turn.

Death. I think death magic might be the way forward. Get a pretender with some and get him summoning specters as soon as he can. This gives you a wide range of magic. You can search with the long range spells and then build up an army of the dead. My only worry about this is that it is not thematic! I still want to know how to get Oceana to take over the world, as a water magic and water based nation.

Nature. This one seems to be the second choice of magic that is natural to the nation. I have always used this as a good buff magic, but not a summoning or attack based school. Gift of Health is nice, if you have the dominion to go with it, but not a game winner. How can Oceana use this path to power up?