How is LA R'yleh overpowered?

[Squirrelloid]

Not at all overpowered. Making gains worth less is merely a national advantage, much like Abysia's ability to ignore growth scales (iirc), or Ulm's production bonus. At the same time, unlike these other nations they *pay* for that national advantage directly - it costs them gold every turn. Rlyeh has to expand or die - to defeat Rlyeh all you have to do is stop them from expanding - their dominion will do the rest.

Keep in mind that in addition to losing money because of decreasing population, they also pay upkeep on all those freespawn, about half of which are aquatic only, and the vast majority of which are chaff.

Also, no one ever won a game by controlling all the oceans. Sure, they might be hard to invade. So what?