[kianduatha]

So after finishing a MP game as EA Atlantis with this mod, I can't help but feel like I'm playing a completely different game than even CBM.

-Ride the Currents is amazing and makes you incredibly versatile as far as quickly organizing raids to entire coastlines. I could leave my Basalt Kings in my capital until I needed them, then zoom them out to deal with threats as they come. Think of yourself as coastal Eriu, but with a decent lategame.

-I spent a good chunk of water gems to make water-breathing items, oddly enough. If there was one thing to make underwater nations less obnoxious to play, it'd be giving them national mages(Mage of the Deep, mermage, slave mage) who can grant waterbreathing to troops.

-Coral Tribe Warriors are bogusly powerful. They give you the ability to simply crush R'lyeh because of their high base MR, Defense and repel(plus poison if they ever do land a hit). They even are fairly high damage(15 w/ poison). Especially in EA these guys can go toe-to-toe with almost any land nation. It was like having recruit-anywhere Assartuts, honestly. No bless and lower base damage, but they have a shield.

-Coral Tribe Shamans are amazing. I had twice as many of these guys as any other type of mage, and they let me shoot up the research ladder altogether faster than Atlantis has the right to. It really changed the nature of the game, though, as I actually ended up Astral and Nature heavy in the end. I was actually based off of my coastal forts, and my Basalt Kings were there just for support. I only created a few Mages of the Deep because I needed a token W4 guy to cast Maelstrom and Water Queens. This had the odd effect that I was a nature-heavy nation(Mmm, dragon master-ed Frost Drakes).

So basically my main force was from coastal forts and exclusively the Shamans and Coral Tribe Warriors, with Basalt Kings/Queens for supplementary raiding. If anything I had stronger infantry than most EA nations. The poison also basically makes you exceptionally dangerous to cavalry. Tir Na Nog for instance lost several Sidhe Lords by forgetting to script Resist Poison.

Methinks the Coral Tribe needs to be toned down some--as it is they become your military and magical backbone. I kept on trying to thug out my Basalt Kings, only to realize that they were better spent casting Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants and Quickening on these monsters. Suddenly they're 14 hp, 15 prot, 17 str, 15 att, 16 def murder machines(and that's before the 2-3 stars these guys usually get). Slap on Army of Lead(something you can easily 1st-round) and they're also 17 MR.