Quote:
Originally Posted by Fate
Just to reiterate, the easiest way (in my experience) to get underwater is assassins (indies only, of course). Constr 2 gets you amulets of water breathing, and UW commanders are generally weaker than land commanders (just watch out for the occassional powerful W mage).
5 gems (3 w/ hammer) and 100 g (for assassin) is a nice investment for a water province.
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Just watch out for all those poisonous weapons.
Also, you need to have access to assassins and water magic for this to be easy. If you do, it is indeed an effective way of taking out water independents, but not that many nations fulfil the requirements to the best of my recollection.
When you are fighting against underwater nations, I find battle magic to be invaluable. You need to use everything you can, of course, but without equalizing magic, natural water nations will stomp all over you.
Thugs are good, but the water nations' thugs are probably better under water, so divert some extra mage time in battle to really buff your thugs up to their new-found gills.
Encumbrance is a very real problem under water, so it is usually a good idea to use troops with low encumbrance and increase protection with spells.
Use a variety of summons if you have the gems to spare; it is often a cheap way to keep the enemy mages busy and away from more important troops. I particularly like Krakens, as they pack a mean punch and are big enough to distract enemy mages from your real thugs.
Finally, do not fall for the line about evocations not working under water - it is probably some propaganda originating from R'lyeh or Oceania (Atlanteans are too busy blasting the other two to bother). There are plenty of air, nature, astral and death spells that do work. You can also exploit an enemy's false sense of security when it comes to elemental or ranged damage in general. Things like a small communion of mystics teleporting in to cover your enemy's ranks in astral fires can win you a major battle and force your opponent to expend valuable resources on fire resistance.