EA Oceania - Knight of the deep too good?

[vfb]

What are you going to research, though? Water Strike? Even Atlantis's cheapest mages are expensive, and 10 guys casting Water Strike are not going to hold off 50 KotDs.

Rlyeh has more of a chance I think. They can hire 17 lobo guards for the price of one Knight, and the lobo guards can mob the Knights, and they won't run away. At Const 4 you can make a Wave Breaker to tire out the Knights faster, or go for Water Strike with a few accompanying mages instead.

[BesucherXia]

I think Friendly Current does not change encumbrance at momement like what the manual states(bug or WAD?), otherwise Wave Breaker+loboguards+sharks can really help against KotDs.

[Baalz]

vfb said:
What are you going to research, though? Water Strike? Even Atlantis's cheapest mages are expensive, and 10 guys casting Water Strike are not going to hold off 50 KotDs.

Baalz said:
Then comes the trick of figuring out how to make your mage superiority effective underwater. Since there are precious few damage dealing spells that work underwater you want to think more along the lines of buffs/debuffs as Meglobob alluded to mentioning destruction. Get some fairly tough summons (supported by chaff, of course) and then have a dozen mages casting body ethereal, luck, quickness, iron warriors, strength of giants, legions of steel, friendly currents, shark attack, school of sharks (great for soaking up that first strike bonus), and destruction. For example, as Atlantis I've been using Monster Fish (their national summon) to great effect when uber-buffed.

Kraken are only conj-3, with 60hp, 20 protection (iron warriors), etherealness, strength of giants and quickness, supported by a couple castings of destruction, school of sharks, etc. you can almost certainly take knights out when greatly outnumbered - not bad for 3 gems. If you've got 10 guys casting water strike you're really missing the point of mages in underwater fights - evo spells underwater are the exception, not the rule.

Atlantis' mages are not cheap, but they are *good*, and due to the fact that you've got good magic diversity and no point in going for a bless you should have very good scales. Combine this fact with the fact that your troops just plain suck and you shouldn't be recruiting too many, and you should be focusing your gold advantage towards mages anyway while Oceana invests in a double blessing and very expensive knights.

[Agrajag]

vfb said:
What are you going to research, though?

Like I said, I didn't really stop to think about what I'd research, I just came up with an idea an wrote it down (and went to play some cards).
As you can see, baalz has given some ideas as to what you can research, and I'm pretty sure his original post about proper use of magic is what inspired me to think about using an awake rainbow pretender as an early researcher.

[Aezeal]

This is as much a battle as asking someone to pass the salt. --> and how much of a battle that is depends on the company in which you are asking that

anyway let's stay on topic now please (you too MX) else the thread will be closed and I will never know more about knights of the deep (I've never even seen them in game but want to be prepared )

[Salamander8]

In Evermore, my shark summoning (I had at least 3 mages with water gems scripted to cast it) would have helped more had I had better flank protection. I met Atul's force with insufficient mindless and militia cannon fodder as my main army was so far west. The knights screamed across the battlefield and were able to hit the Giboleths and mages too early.

I'm a big fan of a Poypal Queen with heavy magic along with sloth3 (and usually growth3), but if I'm ever EA R'Lyeh in an MP game again, I may have to switch to an SC and research 'buff' spells earlier to defend against this kind of thing.