Early Age Atlantis is an underwater nation of fish-frog humanoids loosely inspired by the creatures depicted in H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, with descendant nations surviving into the Middle and Late Ages. In the Early Era the Atlantians have just begun to rise to prominence in the seas, forming a kingdom around the Basalt City located in a volcanic trench. Atlantians live for hundreds of years and don’t stop growing, with their society organised around a hierarchy based on age and size, being ruled by the huge elder Basalt Kings and Queens. Their race is also highly adaptable and has evolved various subspecies, including the pale skinned reef dwellers, who live in shallow water, and the needle fanged deep ones, who dwell in the deep seas and make up the main body of the new kingdom.

• Every national unit is amphibious
• Powerful SC chassis
• Powerful troops
• Strong crosspaths
• High level Magic
• No cheap mage

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Atlantians: ( (50%)) Deep Ones: ( (100%) (5) (5))	Enchanted Basalt, Vicious Bites, Some Coral	2 (rare 3) 4 (rare 5) 3 (rare 4) (Uncommon 1)	Powerful (3) 2 outside capital	Advanced Forts Can build Underwater Forts

Atlantis has access to castle-level forts - one level higher than is standard in EA – which can be built on land and UW. While castles don’t provide extra commander points over fortresses, and thus don’t aid mage recruitment, the additional wall strength can help defend a key chokepoint or throne province and thus they can be worth building for that purpose. The additional administration provided also gives the fort more resources for troop recruitment, though this is usually not enough to justify the 300 gold investment.

Capital sites’ income: 321

Atlantis has access to a diverse range of national troops and commanders in its UW forts, with coastal forts only able to recruit a single unit type and commander, and inland forts having no Atlantian recruits at all. The troops are divided by age/size (regular < shambler), by subspecies (regular, deep one, reef dweller), and by the quality of their equipment. The commanders provide a good selection of leaders and priests, but a very limited choice of mages. Compared to normal humans Atlantians have increased strength and hp, sometimes substantially so, but may also have reduced attack and defense skills. All national recruits are amphibious, and all possess at least 50% darkvision, rising to 100% on the deep ones.

Among the selection of troops, some stand out as being much more useful than others:

Sprite	Unit Name	Magic Paths	Comments
	Atlantian Spearman 10 4 9	amphibious darkvision(50%)	Basic are not much more than amphibious independent infantry and are unremarkable. They die quite easily to ranged fire or troops with more than average offensive capability.
	Reef Dweller 10 10 9	amphibious darkvision(50%) poison barbs(5)	Improve on spearmen by virtue of their equipment. They carry a shield to protect them from arrow fire, and their spear does weak poison damage, which can surprise some thug types vulnerable to poison. Their coral armour also poisons those who attack with length 1 weapons or shorter, giving them a niche use against animals and the like. While they can serve as decent line holders, you typically have better choices in your roster for troops. Reef dwellers are perhaps most remarkable for being your only troop type recruitable out of coastal forts, allowing you to marshal chaff closer to the frontlines when waging a land war.
	Shambler 20 1 25	amphibious darkvision(50%)	The regular Atlantian Shamblers are usually best avoided. The unarmed variety gives high strength for almost no resources, but the gold and rec point cost prohibit their use as siege chaff, and their low prot means they die too quickly for their multiple attacks to make a difference. The armored kinds suffer from the same problem common to most size 3 troops; low attack density which can’t make up for higher strength and hp. War Shamblers suffer from this the most, losing out to other size 3 troop options in pretty much every way. Coral Guard wear heavy coral armour giving them a very high prot of 17. They also wield two-handed glaives in just one hand, combining the weapon with a shield because they're just so strong. While they hit hard and are very tanky, they lack the attack density to make a mark in combat and their resource cost makes recruiting more than a few at a time very difficult. They can serve a niche as a receiver of nat prot buffs like stoneskin; since their prot comes mainly from their armour, boosting their nat prot can lift the total protection up to crazy levels making them effectively immune to weaker attacks. Still, it's debatable whether your gold would have been better spent on other troops.
	War Shambler 25 7 30	amphibious darkvision(50%)
	Coral Guard 30 26 39	amphibious darkvision(50%) poison barbs(5)
	Deep One 10 1 9	amphibious darkvision(100%) Fire Resistance(5) Cold Resistance(5)	The real strength of the troopline is in the Deep Ones, which feature multiple attacks across the board due to their bite attack. Deep ones trade a few points of magic res for built-in cold and fire res +5, making them less vulnerable to battlefield evocations and heat/cold auras, but more vulnerable to the likes of mind burn, etc. Most of the time, this is a good trade, as you’re less likely to encounter MR resist spells than elemental damage, but this can clearly vary depending on what nation you’re fighting. The unarmed size 2 kind provide cheap siege chaff, and good attack density, but are extremely fragile, and they may not hit hard enough to deal with tougher foes. The Deep One Spearman still suffers from the same vulnerability but boasts a 19 magic damage spear attack, very useful if facing ethereal or tough opponents where your own troops’ survivability isn’t a concern. Perhaps Atlantis’ best troop though is the Warrior of the Deep. Size 3, but with two high-quality attacks, one of which does 25 magic damage, these guys can dish out a lot of punishment. They also have ok prot and carry shields, making them more survivable than most deep ones, though defense is still their weakest trait.
	Deep One Spearman 10 7 9	amphibious darkvision(100%) Fire Resistance(5) Cold Resistance(5)
	Shambler of the Deep 20 1 25	amphibious darkvision(100%) Fire Resistance(5) Cold Resistance(5)
	Warrior of the Deep 25 11 30	amphibious darkvision(100%) Fire Resistance(5) Cold Resistance(5)
	Living Pillar 35 56 35 Capital Only	sacred amphibious darkvision(100%) Fire Resistance(5) Cold Resistance(5) Castle Defence Bonus (2)	are Atlantis’ sacred troops and are a massive letdown. A sacred warrior of the deep with 21 prot - crazy high for EA – sounds great, but they are cap only and their very high resource cost means you’ll never be able to recruit enough to make a difference. Their encumberence is also crippling, rendering them unconscious after a few rounds of serious combat, a flaw reinvigoration can only partially solve. Don’t bother with a bless for these guys and spend your resources on better troops instead.

In summary, Atlantis’ armies can be carried on the strength of its deep ones. The size 2 kinds are useful on masse against lightly armored foes and are better at accepting late-game prot buffing magic. At the same time, warriors of the deep provide a formidable front line capable of hurting tougher targets. Reef dwellers can also serve as decent blockers and arrow catchers.

• Summon Monster Fish 6, Conjuration 6, 3 ( Monster Fishx1 ) Summons one monster fish. Can only be cast UW. This beastie is a chunky bag of hp with mediocre protection, which is notable for its swallow attack, which targets a whole square on the battlefield and ignores defense skill, instantly consuming the target to be digested inside the fish. This can be useful in dealing with defense-based thugs, or high value low size units. They also cause fear, so can be useful in spreading that effect to enemy lines. Despite these strengths, it’s an aquatic unit and thus only useful during wars against other UW players, and it’s likely the gems spent to summon the fish would be better invested in water elementals, given how overpowered they are UW.

Magic Access:

• 4 (on 11-in-30 Basalt Kings, with a 1-in-90 chance of 5, both of which can craft the Earth Boots for another level)
• 3 (on 7-in-12 Mages of the Deep, with a 1-in-12 chance of 4, both of which can craft the Robe of the Sea and Water Bracelet for two levels)
• 2 (on 11-in-30 Basalt Kings, with a 1-in-90 chance of 3)
• 1 (on 1-in-4 Mages of the Deep, with a 1-in-12 chance of 11 for the Crystal Matrix & Slave Matrix)
• 3 (on Basalt Queens; you can get 2 from Mothers of the Deep from all underwater provinces)

Notable crosspaths:

12 on Mages of the Deep and Basalt Kings, for casting Manifest Vitriol

14 on Basalt Kings with a booster, for casting Acid Storm.

What is the best spell you can use in combat. What spells the best support your national lineup, Is there weakness that you need to fix? Any tricks you should be aware you have?

What is the best ritual you could cast. Are there any globals you want up, any units you should be summoning? Are there any Generic rituals few nations can cast?

Earth and Water crosspaths allow smithing of Armor Negating Eyecatchers and Quickness granting Jade Armor armors. Armor Negating damage is neat to have, that and eyeloss make it a neat anti-thug tool. Jade Armor is much less impressive, what with innate water paths allowing the casting of Quicken Self anyway.

Water and Fire crosspaths allow the smithing of Rune Smashers. A very useful tool, when used in conjunction with MR, it negates spells like Liquify and Sailors' Death.

do you have a game plan? Anything you should always be working toward? Any National weaknesses?

What kinds of scales dose your nation like? Do they require any to function? Any blesses your sacreds would like? Do you desperately need an awake expander? Examples of Pretenders?

How to expand, potential pitfalls and how to get around them, obvious weakness strength, how much do you have to focus on war/infrastructure

what is the first big research rush, what is the first big powerspike, where do you shift recruitment to? what are the big magic diversity issues, are there particular globals you should gun for

How do you close out the game if you are in it, is the high-level research stuff you can do uniquely well, does your nation fall off, aka do you have to force things to conclude swiftly

youtube of someone discussing the nation
guide page on steam??
forum thread or AAR