R'lyeh Strategies

[Belcarl]

R’lyeh
I have read some sporadic thoughts and strategy guides to R’lyeh on this forum and since I like the nation a lot and would like a discussion on how to improve my game play I post my take on how to play R’lyeh. I have not had much experience with MP, so some of the tactical choices may not be good from an MP perspective. I also tend to play R'lyeh quite magic heavy, since I find them to have excellent astral mages.

Combat.
The main advantage for R’lyeh is the Mindflayers (Illithids) mindbLast attack. Therefore I find the best way to use this advantage is to place different mindflayer Groups at the far rear of the battlefield with orders to Fire. Before them in the middle I place a large force of suicide infantry. In the early game this is Shambler thralls (24 hp, trample) and Meteorite guards (protection 17) grouped with whatever cheap throw away troops that are available, Hybrid and Hybrid Troopers are very good “throw away” troops. For some reasons I haven’t had much success with Hybrid soldiers, perhaps their Protection (12) is too low compared to their costs and Hybrid Troopers. I want to view Hybrid Soldiers as Heavy Infantry, maybe that is my error.

The infantries job is simply to keep the enemy away from the Mindflayers long enough for them to start paralyzing the enemy. Because enemies seldom get to mindflayers I favour normal Illthids before Illthid soldier, they have a 12 dmg mindbLast instead of 10, but don’t have the soldiers high Protection and melee stats. Simply put, R’lyeh is a horde army with heavy artillery.

Mid- and Late game I prefer the infantry section core to be high hitpoints summons instead. Sea kings court (3w Conj 6) and Abomination (4A 2W Conj 9) tend to do the job well, and can also be summoned underwater. Also, if you have had any luck with void summons a few otherness and other strange creatures fits nicely into the infantry section. Later on one also needs to take enemy fliers and flanking cavalry into consideration. Putting one smaller block of infantry at the rear with orders to guard and expanding the large infantry block into 3 different large parts that covers the with of the battlefield usually solves this.

R’lyehs biggest problem when it comes to armies tend to be that their throw away infantry block needs to be replaced a lot, since it usually takes high casualties (well, that is kind of the plan…). Free troopers like hybrid in coastal fort provinces helps, but it’s not until the mid or end game, when high hp summons are available, that this problem is reduced. Therefore units with some heat, cold or poison area effect are best avoided, since they usually hurt R’lyeh more then their enemies in the long run. (An infantry block of only Summer lions or Devils is doable but relies on magic paths that isn’t R’lyehs strength.). I also find R’lyeh to have bigger problems with other horde armies like Ermor and Pangea, since R’lyeh rely on their Illthids to paralyze the enemy. If their commanders have low magic resistance R’lyeh can make short work of them with mindbLasts and Thaumatergy, but that is kind of universal for all armies.

Priorities
Early game R’lyeh has 3 priorities apart from the usual expansion plans to get gold, resources etc.

1)Get Thaumatergy 1 and a Stargazer with 2 in astral magic to be able to cast Returning, then give him two astral pearls. Set 'Cast returning' on battle orders, and start your void summons.

2)Get a coastal province and build a fort and temple if there is an easy opportunity. With a positive dominion this will give you free hybrid troops.

3) Research Conj 4 to get Voice of Tiamat for easy magic site locations underwater.

Mid game you need to make up your mind on what kind of strategy you are going to use in expanding into enemy territory, will you use summoned armies for infantry blocks (Vine Ogres, Drakes, Trolls etc), or use spellcasters in battle. Both options are ofcourse doable in the end game, but they require different research paths. For summoned armies Conjuration or Blood paths would seem the best. But R’lyeh have powerful astral mages and spells like Soul slay, gateway and enslave mind in the Thaumatergy path is tempting. Evocation 1 for star fires and Alteration 2 for Quickness are also important if you are sending your Starspawns into battle. A side note is that Blood magic, although viable, tend to be harder to use with R’lyeh then other nations because blood slaves cant be hunted underwater and Starspawns seldom start with Blood magic. Since R’lyeh tend to use a lot of throw away troops Area effect evocation spells (fireball etc) tend to kill as many of your own troops as it kills enemies.

Commanders and Equipment.
Since Illthid commanders tend to stay behind their troops and use Mind bLasts melee weapons are seldom used. However some kind of protection from enemy missile and magic fire could be useful. I have had some success in mid game with making heavily equipted Traitor princes and using them on the flanks. I am however unsure if the time and resources making their equipment couldn’t have been spent on summoning more troops instead.