Worst Nations in Each Era

[Baalz]

At the risk of sounding argumentative I do feel the need to defend my thesis here. The question of N gems does come up in the thread of that guide and I suggest using the small N income you'll get from level-0 underwater N sites (and possibly conquering Oceana lands) to eventually empower a king, and summon a Niad or two using water gems. You won't be fielding much combat nature but you'll have plenty to site search your empire and spend your income, cast GoR, whatever and shouldn't have much trouble having a very solid N income by late game. Lack of D is definitely in the "con" column, but not every end game strategy has to center on Tartarians- particularly with an obvious good tartarian counter (ubiquitous teleporting thugs who can quicken self and F magic for flambeauxs/scourges). What type of national troops you've got isn't significant not just because of SC's but also because of spells like army of lead, will of the fates, weapons of sharpness coupled with acid storm, niefel flames, etc. Obviously I'm not suggesting you're in an unbeatable position, but you've certainly got the tools to fight the good fight against any nation provided you've entered late game in style. It's also disingenuous to dismiss my suggestion as "get lots of money". To be fair my suggestion is to go for excellent scales and push your dominion hard to make the most of it, sharply limit how many troops you're buying, castle up quickly, pump out mages as fast as you can to the exclusion of everything else if possible, and tightly limit what you're researching to the essentials. You're not going to be leading in the research department but you shouldn't be dominated either.

FWIW, I have implemented this strategy verbatim successfully (finished second in a very large game).

[P3D]

I looked at Atlantis again, and experimented a bit.
Problem with EA Atlantis is their early expansion. Why?

The troops have mediocre protection and abysmal to mediocre (7-12) defense meaning they won't last long. Perhaps their most decent unit is the War Shamber, but that sacrifices the extra attack of the Shambler for some armor and shields - and won't get the Coral Glaive hinted in the description. Glaive, an extra point of attack/defence and a sharkskin cap would help them a lot.
Coral Guards/Pillars have just too high encumbrance to be useful with their single attack of 10. The two shamblers of the deep have abysmal defense scores besides their similar MR.
They have serious problems against Triton Guard and Amber clan independents unless they attack in great quantities (which Atlantis cannot afford with 250g non-sacred magi and 500gp BKs). And underwater capitals with the usual 3 neighbors means they will have strong independents next door.

The usual E9N4 giant bless is expensive, as none of the available pretenders start with Earth magic. And the BKs need magical armor to utilize it as all their starting equipment is a quarterstaff and a loincloth. They have a natural protection of 16 (with Earth) but they face either poison or tridents on the stronger independents. Some starting equipment armor+helmet, would help a lot - just slap on some Boots of the Behemoth and go. I'd also change the Dagon pretenders magic to W1E1 from W2, that'd fit better with the Basalt City thematic.

This means Atlantis needs a SC to start with, i.e. mediocre scales and restricted paths on the pretender - and they can afford neither.