Quote:
Originally Posted by Omnirizon
I'm not for sure, but I think the rationale is something like this:
R'yleh is considered unbalancing because they destroy population. a player who ends up facing off against LA R'yleh in MP will have little to show for it afterwards, while still needing to spend the same amount of gold/gems to keep the war going to the end.
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I wouldn't agree with this. Before that patch Micah spoke about - which is when they were considered overpowered, so that's where we have to look to answer the question - their pop-kill was really manageable. Taking growth 3 (entirely possible considering what R'lyeh needs to get from a pretender - which is not very much) essentially meant your population remained almost stable. It might be (have been) a big part of why Ermor was shunned but R'lyeh... Well they just were awesomely, freakishly strong.
Things they have going for them:
* Water start. The only LA nation with one at that. There are no early game threats to your safety.
* Largely amphibious. Only one recruitable (albeit a very nice one) and some freespawn can't move freely on land.
* Freespawn, very decent low-resource heavyish recruitable blockers (those are the aquatic ones though) and quite possibly a combat pretender make for lightning-fast expansion.
* Mind blasters can deal with severl things you'd otherwise have trouble with. (Knight provinces never were so munchy before.)
Now, all this might look quite tasty, but actually, it's just setting the scene. The tools that allow you to build up a strong early position from which you can deploy your real strength. Magic. Big, beefy, high-astral mages and cheapish communion slaves. There's just about nothing they can't accomplish if they put their mind to it. Buffing that mass of previously crappy freespawn with army of lead? Mind-hunting the lands? Massive penetration soul-slayage anywhere you need it? Killing enemy golem thugs with mind duel? (And yawning while thinking of all the gems your opponents put into this horrible mistake) Teleport dropping on moderate PD without equipment and just 2 or 3 water gems? Cast multiple master enslaves in the first round of battle? Check, check, and double check, they can do it all. Hell, they can cast wish with unempowered, recruit everywhere mages. (And I'm not talking 10% randoms here. Just your average 1/16 S5 mage with boosters they can natively forge)
Unfortunately for them those mages all cost some serious money. And while pre-nerf they had a slightly reduced income from pop-kill, this was amply compensated by the fact that after initial expansion you never had to buy a trooper ever again since you had those freespawn working for you.
Now though... Well, to be honest I haven't actually played a late age game since that patch but it wasn't hard to guess the effects of severly reduced money, and Micah's post above sure confirms it.
