[Septimius Severus]

I had thought about Caelum as the merc for the current game but decided to go with Atlantis. Though Atlantis had lost most of their land holdings, their few water holdings proved fairly safe from the AI, though they probably need to do a bunch of preaching to keep their dom up because of the way the provinces were set up on this map (wasn't expecting the loss of the initial land provinces). Hopefully they will have the magic were-with-all and have built up enough strength to maybe push back against the AI at some point.

For game 3, Caelum is planned as part of the Heavenly Realm team. The extra player in game 3 will be more of an indy nation than a merc (as we know it in the current game). Of course they will still be free to do as they wish and ally as they please. But I don't want to have a lot of rules on them. I am throwing them in just to spice things up and perhaps have a strategic impact. That is all. They will always be at a disadvantage trying to solo against 4 teams, but perhaps with tweaks to R'lyeh they'll have a better chance if they choose to go that route.

If its a land nation, yes, mountain provinces around their camp might well give them some protection and they could even be sealed off entirely connection-wise.

Interesting to discover which option people prefer. So far we've had talk about how weak LA R'lyeh is and how annoying their dominion is, but I haven't heard any preferences. If I don't hear otherwise, I will give a choice between LA R'lyeh and LA Ermor to the prospective indy player.