[Baalz]

Well, maybe I was a bit overenthusiastic in implying that sea trolls would win against R’yleh no matter what you did, once one side starts using more advanced tactics you’ve got to do the same with the other side. Let’s see what perhaps a typical very early fight might look like with comparable resources on both sides. I do assume (as suggested) that Atlantis spends a small amount of water gems and conjuration research. R’yleh doesn’t have any real magic support – I’m not interested in playing counter vs counter vs counter vs this deployment vs that deployment, but rather to illustrate that mind blasters can be effectively countered by sea trolls and good tactics.

40 Giboleths – 1600 gold
30 lobo gaurds – 300 gold
Aboleth – 200 gold

Total 2100 gold

Basalt Queen – 160
2 Mages of the deep – 400
150 deep ones – 1500 gold
10 Sea trolls

Total 2060 gold

Setup:
Atlantis – Sea trolls out front all the way forward, flanking groups of deep ones.
R’yleh – set all the way back with lobo guards in front. Giboleths scripted to fire closest.

Turn one:
Atlantis: school of sharks X2, sermon of courage, advances
R’yleh: blasts 100% sharks

Turn two:
Atlantis: school of sharks X2, sermon of courage, advances
R’yleh: blasts 100% sharks

Turn three:
Atlantis: sermon of courage (mages of the deep don’t do anything else productive, assuming no more research), advances
R’yleh: blasts 100% sharks (sharks mostly dead now)

Turn four:
Atlantis – Sea trolls make it into melee, do light damage. Deep ones still advancing
R’yleh – blasts the last of the sharks and mostly hits sea trolls. Paralyzes 5 out of the 10 sea trolls…but those guys are already in melee (close). Also happened to paralyze one deep one

Turn five:
Atlantis – sea trolls don’t do much damage being largely paralyzed. Deep ones close to *almost* melee range but don’t really do anything
R’yleh – blasts sea trolls and manages to kill a few of them with lobo guards. A second random deep one is paralyzed

Turn six:
Atlantis – Lobo guards evaporate in the face of a wave of deep ones
R’yleh – blasts some sea trolls (they’re still front and center of the battle lines), but manages to paralyze about 15 deep ones

Turn seven:
Atlantis – starts chewing on the front line of giboleth
R’yleh – targeting exclusively deep ones at this point, paralyzes another 15 or so

Turns eight - ten – giboleths are shredded.

Final casualties: 2 sea trolls, 23 deep ones vs….haha, not kidding: everything but 2 giboleths and the aboleth.


Now, to be sure, R’yleh could try some different moves, Atlantis could try to counter those, and so on, but I think this clearly illustrates my proof of concept. Also, with a bit more research this would have been even more lopsided. Consider if Atlantis had dropped anti-magic & haste (courtesy of their pretender) plus friendly currents. Sure, he could be magic dueled, but he could also teleport in unexpectedly for the pivotal fight, and magic dueling an S4 immortal gets expensive real fast (H3 coral queens can likely push your dominion around, R'yleh doesn't typically have a strong one either)