CHAPTER 0: Time of the Abowhatsits
So this is my 3rd real MP game, and I'll be playing... R'lyeh?
I'm pretty sure I picked Oceania -- how weird. I don't
remember... Oh, whatever, too late to back out now. Still, this
is going to take some thought.
We're playing CBM 1.92, which means there's a lot of changes from
vanilla, not only the general ones, but also specific to EA
R'lyeh. Mainly in vanilla the freespawn and better mages are
aquatic, while in CBM they're all amphibious, but slightly nerfed
path-wise in the case of the mages. Still a positive change all
in all. Let's look at what we've got more closely... and if you're already familiar with EA R'lyeh you will probably want to skip this. Except perhaps to gloat at my missing the totally obvious strengths of this or that super unit...
COMMANDERS
* an amphibious
Scout: Well, it would suck if they weren't. Amphibious, that is. This gives them a lot of mobility (apart from making them usable under water in the first place).
*
Slave Priest: It's an enslaved merman that prays to the god so his masters don't have to. Genius! I'll get one to search the seafloor for holy sites and build temples.
*
Slave Prince: In case I need someone with regular leadership that can also go under the sea.
*
Polypal Mother: Immobile. This would suck on a priest, but the map will be really hard on my dominion, since every one of the water provinces borders a ton of land provinces, so I'll get a bunch for preaching anyway. Also they freespawn polypal spawn and gibodai. Once the mothers have preached dominion as high as they can, they're available to Call God. This may come in handy. So 50 gold for a H2 priest is a steal. The most important thing is of course that they're female, so they can't be seduced.
*
Slave Mage: I have tons of magical units that need magic leadership. These guys are my cheapest option. They have a WESN random: the earth picks can wear Boots of the Earth on land, the nature picks will be sitesearching and later summon naiads, a W3N3 mage. I need at least one of the nature guys.
*
Aboleth: CBM makes them amphibious, they have 2W2S + 1*WESD. More durable than slave mages, but only 2 misc slots. So they have the problem that they can't wear a lot of the path booster items.
*
Mind Lord: an aboleth that's all growed up: 2W3S + 2*WESD and 3 misc slots. A lot tougher and gets 2 enslave mind attacks per round which is even better with quicken self, so Alt 2 could be an early research target. Stunningly expensive and not holy, so the upkeep will be painful. Won't recruit a lot. Not all that many. Not-- THE MIND LORDS DEMAND TO BE RECRUITED. They are cap-only.
TROOPS
* several types of
enslaved sea people: fast aquatic tritons, fast amphibious mermen and slow amphibious atlanteans. They all have really bad morale and generally suck. The amphibious ones I'll maybe recruit -- one flavor of merman has nets.
*
Lobo Guard: they are the definition of chaff. There is a little picture of them right there, that's the definition. They're mindless, so they don't rout. They're magical, so they require magical instead of the regular kind of leadership. At 1 resources they are easy to mass.
*
Shambler Thrall: the lobo guards' big brothers. They are size 3 however, and can trample human-sized infantry. If they don't rout the target squad in the first round of they're attack, they're large low-def low-prot units surrounded by the enemy, so will tend to take a lot of losses. On the other hand, they'll inflict them, too. Situational.
*
Slave Troll: recruitable Sea Trolls! Thank you, CBM. While regenerating poison-immune bags of hitpoints are awesome, they do have some weaknesses. They get hit a lot, and if they get swarmed, that regen won't help them much. Then I'm out of 70 gold per pop. And while they have good morale, I still want at least 5 of them in a squad so they don't have to roll morale every round. Preferably a few more. That's expensive.
*
Giboleth/Gibodai: the mindblasters. Gibodai are holy and cap only, Giboleth are recruit anywhere and not. However, the former also freespawn from polypal mothers sometimes. What is a mindblast, you ask? (probably not, but in case you do
It's a can't-miss long-range paralyzation attack (may also do some real damage) that's resistable by MR. It helps those clumsy slave trolls hit things.
*
Polypal Spawn: this one you can't recruit. Baby aboleths. Yes, I will be using child soldiers. They're aged one out of an old age limit of three milliennia. I wonder if they'll turn into an aboleth if they're hit with a couple of decays? Size one, low HP, low strength, but reasonable protection and MR. The picture doesn't show it, but their base morale is actually 8. Now if only R'lyeh had a highly thematic “lobotomize” buff to turn stuff mindless. Oh well. Their tentacle attack has a damage of -5 but is armor piercing. Magical, so my mages can, and will have to, lead ****tons of them.
So boys and girls, that's it for now. Next time there'll be either more derivative lovecraftian tentacle-fiction or a discussion of my pretender design. It may also have tentacles.