Help a newbie play R'lyeh

[Sandman]

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]

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]

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.

[Cainehill]

Getting the better beasties : as a mage is successful in summoning from the Void Gate, its void summoning skill goes up. As the skill goes up, the chances get better that a more powerful creature will be summoned, up to a point ( I believe other people indicated that around skill 20, the chances go down again slightly ).

Priestly starspawns do have a better chance not to go insane (after all, they are sacred to the insane deity beyond the gate), and are less expensive than mage starspawns.

Scales : I won a game on the world map with them, scales were something like Heat or Cold 3, Sloth 3, Death 1 or 2, and I might have taken a point or so of turmoil. Neutral or positive luck and magic scales, and a very powerful rainbow mage (void lurker, 15 point new paths) who was able to easily get a-wishing, then forge many artifacts and cast many globals that R'lyeh has a hard time getting otherwise (GoH, Chalice, Gate Stone, etc).

Swarms of cheap lobos (mindless, so they never retreat) backed up by a couple starspawn mages and a rank of 5-10 illithid troops allowed for early expansion until I got teleport and could send my void lurker out as well.

[magnate]

Hmm. So it really is one void summon per turn, ever. (Note to Zen - they are all amphibious, except the Dweller In The Deep, but thanks for pointing out that some of them can't move - I hadn't spotted that!)

Well bollocks to blessing Riley then. If I want to spam mindless fodder backed up with a few mages I could play Ermor or something. I'll try my uber-bless strategy with Pan or Machaka or somebody more appreciative ...

Still, thanks for all the tips. If I ever do play Arleay I'll bear them all in mind.

CC

[Cainehill]

Note that some uberblessings aren't bad for R'lyeh, if that high magic path on the pretender fits into your plans.

Example : E9, for extra fatigue recovery on the sacred mages, and extra armor on those plus void summonings, while you also get to churn out lots of living statues with the pretender.

[Endoperez]

Water 9 Earth 4 would give the mages Blessing of Quickness, which works with the spell of the same name and helps the void monsters (often slow-ish), while Earth gives reinvigoration for your mages. And you are able to churn out lots of Claymen with the pretender.

I don't think any Earth-based underwater pretenders exist, so this would be cheaper, too. Of course, claymen don't compare to the statues, but I have grown fond of them.