Managing your chaff as LA R'yleh

[Szass_Tam]

I think I've got a good handle on how Ermor deals with its hordes of freespawned troops, but playing as R'yleh in SP it seems it's far more of a pain.

With Ermor you've got freespawned mound kings or censors which can lug around 80/120 troops, and summoned dusk elders/archbishops can carry 200+.

But all R'yleh has got are insane cultists which are 55/10. Your recruited commanders aren't all that much better. And the whole thing is complicated by the fact you need both normal and magical leadership.

So what's the best solution to deal with moving and organizing your chaff as R'yleh? And on a related note, which of the chaff costs gold upkeep, and what's the best way to kill them off(assuming there's no battle nearby).

[Tuidjy]

Drowning and starvation. Drowning is faster, but starvation is easier. Pile all
of the unwanted crap in one province with no supplies, and let them starve. It's
not so much about what they cost (most of them don't cost anything) but they
eat food that should go to useful units.

[ano]

First. As db says, all your insane troops cost 1 gold, so you pay 1 upkeep for 15 of them. And of course, void beings such as lesser othernesses cost nothing.
So the only units that are worth getting rid of are tritons and mad tritons. Others can find their niche. Killing tritons is quite easy - just gateway them to the land province.
As for troops management. You get 3 types of cultist in land provinces. The best ones are hybrid cultists who are amphibious and have 10-40 leadership and a rather big chance of astral pick. They are your main commanders to manage magic freespawns. And also you should recruit Illithid lords when you need both types of leadership or use purple Starpawns

[Dedas]

If you have chaff trouble with R'yleh you aren't being aggressive enough.

[ano]

Dedas, in Highlander game I'm being aggressive since start and still I have these problems (however, I'm not sure they can be called "problems"). I've built around 50 temples and build more. And that really aggressive due to R'lyeh evil dominion.
And the backside of such style is tons of freespawns.

[Dedas]

Are you attacking wildly every turn? Throwing horde after horde against the enemy just to be smashed against their walls?

[Szass_Tam]

As a follow up, do the same factors that affect Ermor's freespawn apply to R'yleh?

That is, is the formula something like: dom strength - troop quantity, castle - troop quality? Do temples have any affect(other than raising dominion)?

[Loren]

Dedas said:
If you have chaff trouble with R'yleh you aren't being aggressive enough.

There will come a time when you own the water and are fighting on land. Water-only freespawns will be useless.