Getting EA Oceana out of the water...

[Meglobob]

Ironhawk said:

I disagree - Water nations have a serious advantage with the water barrier. Basically they are immune from early game rush attacks from all land nations. It should be hard for them to get out of the water.

As for how to get out - the above posts cover it pretty well. My suggestion is to scout the coastal lands well and find a place with good indy troops and good resources. Then take it and immediately build a fort so you can bang out a land army. Additionally, I've been told that Sea Trolls make for a good amphibious force? Then when you are on land you can summon winter wolves with your water mages, perhaps?

Sea trolls are excellent, no fire weakness like normal trolls, higher HPs, just as good on land as well as sea, 1 sea troll for 1W gem is excellent value. Also sea trolls court is good, did you know the sea troll king produces 1W gem per month? So eventually he repays the 55W gem cost, also what else are you going to use those water gems for?

[Foodstamp]

<Insert my gripe about Oceania here.>

In all seriousness, there have been several threads talking about how Oceania underperforms. It is the worst of the three water nations and has the hardest time of the three coming to shore.

Let me look into my crystal ball and give you some insite into how these threads play out...

Someone tries Oceania and realizes that it is not that great of a nation.

Someone who does not play Oceania snaps at the person saying they do not know how to play the game or use the nation to it's full potential.

Several more people chime in talking about the air breathing amulet, the weaksauce troops that CAN come to shore and independent archers being viable alternatives.

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People who play the nation know that:

Most of Oceania's troops become weak on land, and the ones that do not are weak to begin with.

There is a bug where if a unit that has stealth in the water moves to an enemy land province, or to a province that is taken by an enemy while the land version of the stealth unit is still in the province, it essential dooms the unit to suiciding on the guards or praying the province gets taken back. (Meaning the unit cannot take further actions including "Move" like other stealthed units can)

Sirens have an abyssmal chance to lure a commander.

In the water, Atlantis and Rlyeh say "Here you go, we brought you a gift, your *** on a platter."

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[Endoperez]

Are you talking of EA or MA? It makes a difference. I understand EA R'lyeh is weaker than EA Oceania, and unlike Oceania, EA R'lyeh can't even make Amulets of the Fish.

[Meglobob]

EA Oceania WEAK? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!?!?! RIGHT?!?!

In Dawnstrike MP, EA Oceania has stomped all over EA R'lyeh and is now stomping all over me EA Atlantis. Underwater Oceania is AWESOME, I will repeat, it deserves repetition, UNDERWATER, OCEANIA IS AWESOME.

There knights of the deep even with a minor bless are unstoppable underwater. 21 def/21 pro, fast (30 move), 3 weapon attacks (1 magic) and on top of that they have recuperation...ARAAGH! On land I would just blow them up with AOE spells, but underwater...what can you do? Not alot, 40 of those will go through 100's of your best troops as if they were not there, I gathered 12 lvl 4+ water mages, summoned 200+ sharks, had a army of 100+, hit them with dozens of water strikes/sleep clouds/geysers. It did not stop them.

DON'T YOU DARE SAY EA OCEANIA IS WEAK!?!?!

Please note:- Due to the fact Oceania is currently beating me to a pulp, this post may be a tad extreme...

[Foodstamp]

Bah my stuff is relevant to MA, I missed the EA part. My apologies.

[HoneyBadger]

Yes, I second that EA Oceania is not at all weak, in SP as well as apparently MP. Hippocampi sacred calvalry are atleast as good as Helheim sacred calvalry, possibly better, since you can compare rejuvenation to glamour, and glamour may come out a little ahead, but then add on that you get the hippocampus back if your sacred rider gets killed-plus in the water you're not competing nearly as much sacred-to-sacred. I had half a dozen medium-blessed hippocampi calvalry annhilate atleast 12 independent provinces without any of them ever taking an affliction, let alone losing a rider. Even if one of them had, the affliction would quickly be healed, which enabled me to build them up to 3 stars with 0 afflictions very quickly. If Hippocampi-riders were amphibious, EA Oceanea would dominate the entire game since you'd have more time to build up a powerful sacred force and the enemy would have a lot harder time destroying your economy or raiding you.

Even so, you can equip your triton kings with air-breathing which gives you a minimum 4 water caster with lots of land-based spells, and you'll have lots and lots of them, because you've destroyed all independents everywhere, including the sea-trolls and the amber-clan guards and the krackens and the leviathons and the dragon-turtles, and everything else you might or might not encounter, independent-wise, and R'lyeh and Atlantis won't even look at you funny, they're too busy outfitting the cave-fortresses they have to live in now because you're out there and only getting closer. And your triton kings are going to be hella-tough when they get on land because you've got a bless strategy going for them as well. And that's when you start making amulets of air-breathing for your hippocampi-rider CAPTAINS.

It's a good nation.

[DeathDaemon]

I am having trouble as EA Oceana on land in a current game (AI and MP), even though I am leading the score charts in every category.

Playing Cradle, my strategy:
1. Hire land mercenaries whenever possible.
2. Take the port cities for money and blockading.
Lots of money for improvements and castles, and to spread around the map quickly before nations expand.
3. Build temples at every underwater province
I went with Cold 3, Sloth 3, and high dominion to spread those crap scales around)
4. Site search above and below water.
5. 15+ frozen heart casters per army with usually a 50% FR chest or similar protection.
6. Lots of enchantments and remote spells (not here yet)

My land combat is pathetic. I have hordes of archers and heavy infantry, with javelin light infantry mixed with my triton raiders. The armies do ok against independents, but even with my huge income bonus I can't keep up with 4-5 fronts of AIs, which is quite common on Cradle. The frozen heart spam is nice, but took a lot of research (not much useful in alteration) and lots of money and time (tons of castles to make mages). Unfortunately I don't have a large water gem income to consider Sea Trolls yet. I do have a tons of other gems, but no casters to use them other than my god and 2S2A indy mages. Of course I've started boosting and empowering my randoms, but I couldn't have done any of this w/o a good amount of luck. Maybe I've overextended a bit, but I'm not making much progress on land. Luckily most of the opponents are AI, or else I would have given all my indy land and my castles to them without a fight. What combat magic should I use, and how do you expand on land and keep it?

[Saxon]

Leviation is fun. The Asp Turtle dies and you summon it as an undead critter, so same flying saucer of doom, but no morale issues...