Help a newbie play R'lyeh

magnate · #1 July 26th, 2005, 05:47 AM

Ok so I'm not a newbie really but I've never played R'lyeh and I have loads of questions:

1. How do you pronounce R'lyeh anyway? I've heard "Riley", "Arlee-ay", "Rulyeah" ....

2. How does the void summoning work? Can only one mage enter the site at a time? If so does it matter what paths s/he has? Do more powerful mages summon better beasties and/or have less chance of getting fried? Is either of those affected by luck scales (or any other scales)?

To be honest, summoning one beastie per turn, with a chance of getting nothing and having your mage feebleminded, is not really an exciting prospect. I must be missing something. I've seen the AI with way more beasties than there have been elapsed turns.

If you can send more than one mage in per turn, is there a limit? I mean, I could just recruit a star child every turn and soon I'd be summoning 15-20 void creatures every turn!

3. What scales would you take for R'lyeh? They need money so I guess you don't want turmoil. I guess you could take sloth if you went mainly for Illithids. I've never taken death with a non-undead theme - does it matter?

I'm asking because I'm thinking of going for an expensive bless strategy (W9S9 or W9N9 or even F9W9N9) to get those void beasties really buzzing. So I'll need negative scales and I wondered which were tolerable and which were to be avoided.

Thanks in advance,

CC

Zen · #2 July 26th, 2005, 05:59 AM

Quote:

magnate said:
1. How do you pronounce R'lyeh anyway? I've heard "Riley", "Arlee-ay", "Rulyeah" ....

R'lyeh (pronounced Roo-lee-ah or Rill-AYE-eh)

Quote:

2. How does the void summoning work? Can only one mage enter the site at a time? If so does it matter what paths s/he has? Do more powerful mages summon better beasties and/or have less chance of getting fried? Is either of those affected by luck scales (or any other scales)?

Only one mage a time at the site. I think they have to have Astral. Not more powerful, but Starspawn, Priest Starspawn (and the Hero) all have greatly reduced chances to go insane. The best bang for your buck is the Priestly Starspawn. I'm not 100% certain that it is affected by luck, and if it is, it seems minor at best.

Quote:

3. What scales would you take for R'lyeh? They need money so I guess you don't want turmoil. I guess you could take sloth if you went mainly for Illithids. I've never taken death with a non-undead theme - does it matter?

Sloth 3 is pretty common. So is Cold 3, since underwater you are not affected by temperature income hits. It's really up to your playstyle. I don't really like the Illithid Soldiers, especially since the paralyzing portion of the Illithid attack really got smashed to bits with the paralyze time fix. Just not worth it IMO.

Quote:

I'm asking because I'm thinking of going for an expensive bless strategy (W9S9 or W9N9 or even F9W9N9) to get those void beasties really buzzing. So I'll need negative scales and I wondered which were tolerable and which were to be avoided.

I'd probably avoid a strategy that relies on blessing void beasties. Some have no movement, some are aquatic only and you will have a hard time relying on them for much as far as troop support. You're probably better off using Crab Hybrids underwater only, early, and then piles of lobos and mass starspawn with star children comslaves laying down the beatings for above water and as the game progresses.

Alneyan · #3 July 26th, 2005, 06:54 AM

Death isn't too bad usually, as the population decrease will take a *long* while to really matter: you will need 70 turns to lose a third of your pop in the capital, even with Death 3, and you should have other sources of income by then.

R'lyeh will have a harder time getting those nice provinces with gold sites though, and Death does result in more common plagues, so I would only take Death if those 120 points could be put to good use (I picked Water 2 in exchange for Death 3, and +1 to Dominion, and I know it wasn't worth it).

Zen · #4 July 27th, 2005, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Alneyan said:
Death isn't too bad usually, as the population decrease will take a *long* while to really matter: you will need 70 turns to lose a third of your pop in the capital, even with Death 3, and you should have other sources of income by then.

I think it's appropriate to say here that if you are playing the unmodded game of Dom2, this applies to all nations and regardless of playstyle. It's a good way to get points for not much drawback and thus, letting you build whatever type of Pretender/Domain you desire because of the feeling of 'free' points here.

This is more a factor of map size and opponents rather than cost/benefit.

Smaller maps or larger maps with lots of provinces per player make the end game in these types of scenarios almost-exclusivly based on magic and magical strategy (be it mages or summons).

Goblin · #5 July 27th, 2005, 08:05 PM

I haven't actually played them, but a very unusual thing happened to R'lyeh in a game I was playing - they vanished...

It would have been about turn 20, they had 4-5 provinces then the all to familiar message saying that the R'lyeh god has been killed and has no way of returning - but also that he had not a single province to his name in the end???

Looking at the game statistics they seem to have lost all there provinces in one hit. About 10-15 turns later I was able to walk through R'lyeh's old domain, as there was nothing defending it!!!

Anyone have any idea what may have happened? I know R'lyeh is meant to be mad, but mass suicide should be outside the game play.

Goblin.

Nerfix · #6 July 27th, 2005, 08:14 PM

They were dominiondrained.

Goblin · #7 July 27th, 2005, 09:34 PM

dominiondrained - the Newbie translation for that (is it the same as being Tinkabelled?)

Sandman · #8 July 26th, 2005, 07:56 AM

It's worth noting that R'lyeh has some of the best heroes in the game. I'd avoid misfortune (and maybe even take luck) for this reason.

Nerfix · #9 July 26th, 2005, 08:15 AM

Lobo spamming seems to work OK underwater. Bring some meatier critters like Tentacle Boogeymen or Crab Hybrids to actually deal damage to those pesky Tritons. I think a Lobo Wave with supporting Shambler Thralls, Void summonings and Illithids set to target archers works ok on land. Quickness and Soul Slay is good. You might want to build up a good Communion with the help of Star Children. Vastness will eat your enemies head.

Jurri · #10 July 26th, 2005, 08:39 AM

R'lyeh has very varied mages (with 2 full randoms!), so you don't necessarily need any magics on your pretender. They are very expensive, though, so it's only logical then to purchase good scales with your points. A no-magic wurm is nifty, since it has a high base dominion and is cheapish and powerful. Underwater, you probably should aim for a slightly more powerful dominion since sea provinces have more neighbors and thus dominion fluctuates more strongly.

You shouldn't be needing productivity, since the mainstays lobos and illithids require only negligible amounts of resources. Under Zen scales the income hit from sloth is noticeable, though.