LA Ulm's silly starting position, help needed!

[Meglobob]

Okay, had to laugh I am playing LA Ulm in a MP game and I have started on a island, completely surrounded by water.

Fortunataly, its a fairly big island, 20 or so provinces, so is a fairly safe and secure base. I think every LA nation is present in the game. So my main threats are LA R'lyeh and Atlantis. Also Marignon with its sailing and Midgard has sailing as well. Anyone else?

So how would you go about:-

1) Getting to the mainland, securing yourself a base there.
2) Defending your island home.

Assume my pretender is of no help whatsoever and remember LA Ulm has no access to water magic.

[st.patrik]

I forget, can your Sanguine Heritage Vampires fly? If so that might be a way to get to the mainland.

As for defense, I think that's pretty easy, at least against R'lyeh: lots of PD to absorb attacks + squads of ranged troops (probably Rangers) set on 'fire archers' to kill Illithids. The bigger problem will be R'lyeh dominion making your commanders mad. LA Atlantis is more of a land nation, so they may or may not be such a threat (though they do have sailing).

[RamsHead]

I suggest you throw in the towel and declare Agartha the winner!

Seriously though, use your vampire counts to get undead, which will probably be the easiest way to go through the water to the mainland.

[RamsHead]

st.patrik said:
I forget, can your Sanguine Heritage Vampires fly? If so that might be a way to get to the mainland.

Yes they fly, but flying units can't go over water provinces.

[Shovah32]

Using undead to get control of your waters will leave you with a very defendable position, your main goals imo should be:
1)Conquer the island, not wasting magical resources on making anything you cant get over the water.
2)Conquer the water round the island, recruiting many independants to defend it
3)Get a beach-head on the mainland and get some forts out to protect your labs, the island can still be the main research center for safety against flying and stealthy raiders.
4)While doing all this watch out incase you meet rlyeh, if you expect to do so start spamming temples
5)Give most of your gems and money to pangaea for giving you this plan

[Velusion]

Actually there are about 31-32 provinces on the island:

http://67.66.187.69/civproject/sos/eventide.jpg

So you aren't alone... you have (very likely) at least one e land neighbor... possibly 2 (though unlikely we hope!).

Hey, I'd be happy to start on that island... The mainland is going to be a cluster-*bleep*.

[Taqwus]

Some undead will get you underwater (not the fleshy ghoul / wight types, nor vampires)... but you should beware R'lyeh while doing so, because if you have mindless hordes led by a few Revenants or Mound Kings, all the mindblasters will focus on the leaders.

Mechanical Men and Living Statues also are amphib; same caution applies as they're mindless. You'd want to use your astral mages to forge some antimagic items, and ditto earth if you've got a non-spellcaster like a Mound King leading troops (Lead Shield + Antimagic talisman ain't bad; Cons 6 gets you Starshine Skullcap for another +2 MR).

You don't have a pretender with heavy Astral, do you? Astral 5 gets you Imprint Souls, IIRC, which works underwater -- although the priests it summons will also be insane. Of course, you could also cast it on the main continent.

Atlantis is not only sailing but amphibious in Late Era with a lot of their troops. No mindblasters, 'tho, and at least their dominion won't drive your commanders insane, nor will they have Vastnesses.

I see quite a few forests... might be a chance of an Enchantress site.

[Ironhawk]

Wow, what an awesome starting position! Its like getting the defense bonus of a water-nation, without the hassle of being a water-nation. You should immediately kill off any land neighbors so you can begin enjoying having all that uncontested space to yourself.

As for how to get to the mainland: the suggestions given above are fine. You shouldnt have too much trouble establishing a beahhead with one or all of them.

My concern is how you will transport your regular armies from your production base (the island) to the front (the mainland). The first thought that comes to mind is: isnt there an item which gives a commander sailing? Not the flying ship, a different item, which confers the regular Sailing ability. If not, I would suggest you research Gateway and then have a heavy astral mage move key troops to the mainland via that spell every couple of turns.

[Evilhomer]

Gatewaying them across will cost tons of astral gems, a few pocket ships sounds like a fine idea tho.

[Ironhawk]

Yeah the ships were the primary way to move. But really Gateway isnt that bad if you put some command boosting items on your mage. Give him the whip of command (is that what its called?) and the crown of command and let him go at it. Transfer like 150 men at a time or something.