How to counter illithids in early game ?

[Eressil3]

Mind blast is really powerfull. Rushing in the early turns with illithids can be very effective.

How to counter them ?
- hordes of chaff ?
- awaken SC ?
- does drain 3 help ?
- does an astral bless help ?
- ???

[johnarryn]

Yes, hordes of chaff help. As do fast-moving cavalry who can flank the Illithids... the spell anti-magic is also useful, as are effective archers such as longbows or crossbows.

[Manuk]

Theres not much need to a special strategy. They cost a lot of gold.
Everything you posted help. except for a SC that can get paralyzed.

[Teraswaerto]

Yeah, I've found illithids to be underpowered if anything. 50 gold is a lot, and it usually takes several mind blasts to paralyze a basic mr 10 human.

[Morkilus]

They used to be alot better in Dom2, where large armies were pretty rare outside of AE Ermor. And then, you would just kill the mage

I would say yes, large armies of chaff. Find your cheapest-resource guys and throw them at 'em, as long as they aren't mindless (I don't think there are any mindless commanders with leadership?)

[Xietor]

As Pangaea, R'lyeh is a pain soley because Pangaea cannot enter the water after them. High mr and high hps, plus flying, ranged, and fast troops available at low resource cost, make Pangaea one race the R'lyeh should avoid.

In the MA, I can think of no other land based race better suited to fight mind blasters.

[Xietor]

I do not think mind blasters are underpowered at 50 gold.

They are a good ranged troop that can go on water and sea.
They can kill a solo sc rather easily. If you take the high resource version, they are not easy to kill. And they get a life drain attack.

[Teraswaerto]

If the SC has over 20 mr like it should mind blast is extremely unlikely to work. With huge numbers of illithids anything is possible, but I wouldn't say it's easy.

[Xietor]

Let's put it this way, I would not send my sc against an army with either astral mages, or mind blasters. You may get lucky and resist all the spells, and you may not.

[Tuidjy]

Seconded. I have had a MR 23 Air queen die to about ten astral 2-3 mages. She
was scripted for wrath, chaff, retreat, and didn't manage to retreat. One
paralize getting through is enough.

You don't give mind blasters a single target. Unless it's a golem.