[HoneyBadger]

I don't know about death magic not being thematic to Oceanea, it all depends on what you view Oceanea capable of-if you want The Little Mermaid version then no, death magic probably isn't your style, but if you want something dark and cold and deep and chaotic, like the sea itself, then it works just fine. I think it's pretty spectacular to imagine Oceanea sending the corpses of hundreds of drowned sailors out to drag their former friends and neighbers beneath the waves. This could be extended into Unfrozen where the dead of a thousand cruel winters take their revenge on those whose blood still runs warm in their veins. There currently are quite a lot of independent amphibious types of unit in the oceans of Dom3 already though-shamblers, icthys, and the sea-trolls who were already mentioned, not to mention the occasional illithid, which as far as I know are usually found in the water. I do have to say that there should be some high level water spell which allows you to bring troops from the water on to land. I don't think the calvalry commanders are capital only, am I wrong? if not then just use large groups of them for calvalry, they'll be better than the standard anyway. Make sure you get ahold of the Queens of Elemental Water-one of them is already amphibious and she's not a bad target for empowering and prophetizing. It's wasteful but so is most empowering, and atleast she's a good chassis. Are asp turtles amphibious? I've yet to see one, but I think they are. Overall, I think empowering a powerful amphibious chassis and using it to summon land-based troops might be the best thing you can do to support your independents.