Give me good reasons why R'lyeh is a balanced nation.

[incognito]

Good points on R'yleh. Let's talk counter-counter strategies for a sec. Strikes me that using staff of storms becomes uniquely valuable vs human players to disable distance attacks. I think there is also a water based spell to prevent fire based magic use, something the illithids rarely use (unless you set your pretender up this way).

Are there other storm creating options besides the SOS? What good (and generally accessible) options are there for shutting down arrows? I like mass protection, but r'yleh seems unlikely to get nature 3 with appropriate numbers of casters to support anything more than a single army or two.

Also, what strategies do people have for the void? I have played multiple games with the R'yleh - most in early stages - and even with luck turned on have only managed to get some lower level stuff. I also have had several attacks on the starspawn (some victories, some deaths). One of my units got up to lvl6 summoning, but had nothing to show for the effort (got killed). Does swapping new starspawn priests in occasionally help? Also, what about starspawn mages? Are they better at summoning?

Thanks for the tips. This point-couter-point discussion highlights the depth of this game.