[HoneyBadger]

As per Ancient Krakens with Astral 8 being extremely expensive, they are, but they're also the ideal Pretender for R'lyeh, especially if you're going for Wish rush combined with clam-spamming. I like to build up a posse of 5 (4 wished for) empowered (4 death, 3 earth, 3 astral, 2 nature, 1 water, plus atleast 1 fire and air if you're going to give them amulets of the fish and send them onto land), gift-of-reason Ancient Krakens by mid-game, and by end-game have a Kraken-factory, producing, gift of reasoning, and empowering atleast 1 (different) Kraken per turn. Backed up by communion-slaved Aboleth Mindlords, they really are pretty much unbeatable, being able to handle swarms, SCs, and anything magic you throw at them, since with Aboleths, the one thing you can count on being bigger and better at than anyone else is research. You can use your Krakens as a single force to take out heavy provinces, or divide them up and conquer quickly. They work almost as well on land as they do in the water, and by end-game you can factory-build well-equipped gorgons and void-lords almost as easily as you can your Krakens-(infact, you can summon up any Pretender-type in the game, just summon, equip, and empower whatever SC best suits your needs. You can start laying down Fountains of Blood and moving fast and furious into blood-magic. If you like the units of another nation, make your own. Do what you feel.) You do need a TON of astral pearls though, because each Kraken represents atleast 3 wishes-one to summon and then two to get the gems to empower them to level 1 in each magical path, unless you're getting in 50+ gems of each type a round-which, with this tactic, you should be by mid-game, but each Mind-Lord, once empowered to level 1, can produce clamshells. You'll want a couple hundred of these going by midgame, so get shucking! You also need several (not just one) mages who can cast Wish by mid-game. It can be risky, and it's easy to screw up, because you're basically putting all of your Nation's eggs in one basket, but the payoff can be enormous.