Guide by Joste Sea Goats

This Guide is currently a work in progress

Oceania is a nation of nature Pangeans that live underwater. It has a reputation as one of the worst nations, but that is an oversimplification. It has several good things going for it that save it from the trash bin and keep it a low-middle tier nation.

Oceania was Illwinter turning Pangea into a Water nation, and then the developers had called it a day. Not a powerful nation as the original without any new major national gimmicks, except everyone is a mermaid. However, Copying and badly rewriting Pangea’s Answers for the quiz still earns it a B.

Oceania swapped the Forest survival, Unique spells, and powerful Elfing cavalry to give the Pangean roster mer-goat forms.

We will attempt to avoid any direct comparisons to Pangea for Fairness’s sake as comparing any non-broken nation to Pangea would make anything look worse.

Expand quickly → Strong Mage spam midde game → plan your endgame goals before the start of the game

The lack of overtly strong or flash units doesn’t mean you can’t expand. On the contrary, you’re able to perform fast expansion without even without a blessing (and man, they can expand). Being a copy of the Pan, Capricorns are equally good or better at being a large and powerful mage and thug. You can win a lot of fights if you get enough spells researched. Like most nations, The problem comes in endgame from needing tools to combat other players’ super combatants. Pans are a powerhouse, but winning with Oceania at the late game requires specing out your pretender and a lot of Bootstaping for late-game fights.

Like Pangea, they get Bramble Forts, which can be mass-produced with a spell. Temples cost you only 200 Gold .

As Oceania, your coastal provinces suffer extra points of Turmoil, while all other provinces gain a point of Order. This feature allows you to save 40 Designer points on Order scales while saving gold on Sirens and Capricorn when recruited on the coast.

Ichtysatyr Scout & Ichtysatyr Commander: Scout is an expensive merman scout without any survivor abilities. Commanders lead the small expansions.

Ichtycentaur Commander: leads bigger non-stealthy armies, putting non-undisciplined troops in lines and giving +1 moral to troops.

Aphroi Lord: Cap only.Grants the most significant morale boost to troops, giving +2 moral in addition to any inspirational gear you can equip to him.

Aphroi Hierophant: Not a great wizard but your best expansion commander, so placed under commanders. Sit back cast spells like Vine Arrow, Web, Frozen Heart, Swarm, and bless sacreds. Very fast to return to the cap to pick up new Aphroi if your expansion party took losses in the rare instances. WIll provides more utility in raids than Ichtysatyr Commanders. They can also serve as Very light thugs when needed.

Siren: (130 ) Your Research monkeys you will often recruit from coastal forts. A stealthy Water 2 in water or a fast 11 flyer on land. Though they are not a strong as Capricorns, you will have a lot of them from your land enclaves, and the ability to amass highly mobile mages is still dangerous even in the late game.
Very useful when fighting off the early game wars with other underwater nations.
They have more mobility on land. If you get a coastal production center during a water war, they can use the land as a diving perch. You can have them paratrooper down onto any ocean tile. Can help in fights by conjuring Lesser Air Elementals and normal-sized Water Elementals.
Could use your Excess Sirens to quickly scout distant lands.
They can assassinate commanders that are unfortunately near bodies of water, though siren lure is weak and rarely kills anything important.
Being stealth flyer mages, use them to quickly resupply mages on land with gems and gear while using them to counter thugs and fluffing others in battle like casting Gift of Flight, Thunder Ward, Quickening, and as they have a misc slot for a casting of Wave Warrior. If you happened to get an 4 in late-game like Fairy Queen with gems, you could form a flying circus with the extra Siren, using Storm and Summon Storm Power to have 2 Air 2s spam Lighting Bolt and Orb Lightning.

Haliade: (325 ) Discount Capricorn. Not as gold efficient for paths than the Capricorn but faster to Produce. They can’t leave the water without paying extra for a Shambler Skin Armor or Robe of the Sea. Naturally, a Panic Button mage, needing something rolled out from every underwater fort instead of every other turn. They are also Faster but not cheaper researchers, producing 30 Research points every two turns for 700 gold than the Capricorn’s 19 for 360 gold . They are your only national lv2 Priest for what’s that worth.

Capricorn: (355 , 5, 4 rp) The Crown that Keeps Oceania relevant in a game. Pans are the master of Nature magic and are good raiders and Thug chassis. He Is a Water 2 in fish form and 11 on land with an additional 100% + 10% AWE random. It can come out of any labbed fort, so you should be producing many of them if you have the gold . He can cast Foul Vapors out the box and can easily cast Mother Oak with a booster or nature random. They have a Strong Waterbreathing(50), letting you bear mighty non-rusting indies and summons underwater (like Vine Ogres). Gimmicky but can use this Moses trick to move troops faster by b-lining through a lake. Because the land and water chases have an inherent -1 to a path, when it casts Transformation, the Capricorn’s missing path return to grant it 214 +randomes and the chance to boost a path even further when transforming while also removing their High upkeep.

Ichtysatyr: Your cheap Satyr line troops, only the bare-chested ones can sneak. Your can spam them cheaply for your stealth raids (though your only national troop option). Low morale (especially with that additional -1 from being undisciplined) harts some but is still better than indie humans militia, and don’t discount that 13 Magic Resistance. Recommend to always get the shield variants for the most gold for your buck.

Ichtysatyr Warrior: Has proper medium prot, no hat, has a shield. Ok, but your losing out on the stealth.

Ichtycentaur: Often compared to a terrible Pangea Centaur, but those things are OP compared to most national units. It is equivalent to light cavalry, Costing 10 more gold but cheaper in requisition points than the average guy on a horse. Like most cheap cav, it only has one lance attack with no hoof but still an Str13 with Spear after charge. If you notice, they possess Decent Protection for Early age with Turtle armor, a large HP pool of 20 (most calvary only has 10) with Recuperation, with a defense of 16, and that high MR and movement speed Centaurs are known-for. Will shit on the early age independents. If your playing Oceania by minting lots of , Ichtycentaur is one of the better national units to convert coins to value.

Ichtytaur: (40 , 8 Rc, 12Rp) He is a minotaur that can turn into a mermaid. While in water, they are more about hunting big targets with their high strength and barking without the trample. Spears inflict more minor damage than an axe but makes up a little of the loss damage by ignoring 20% of prot while not being penalized when used in water. They become normal minotaurs when on land, becoming A trampler, living off its 30 hp and 12 body prot, running over enemies, and only using the spear when fighting something that has a size equal to them. An alternative camp to Ichtycentaur when it comes to expanders.

Aphroi: Sacred Ichthyocentaurs with poisonous coral armour. People first look at them and think they are trash, but Aphroi are actually excellent at expanding, a priority over Ichtycentaur even with a small blessing. Poison Barbs are handy when fighting enemies that use claws and bites like R'lyeh’s thralls.

Ok, Troops, but you probably want to create more reliant line holders.

Algae Man/ Vine Man/ Vine Ogre: Nature Gem Summons with Two fist attacks. Early on, Algae Men are arguably better than the vine version as they have better natural protection and Better stats underwater. But as Ivy Kings become available, Vine men and Orges start winning out for gems changed, efficiently and having more research to buff them to high heaven. Orges also become strong bags of HP with also two high-strength fists + buffs from Capricorn.

Claymen (Enchantment 3 11) Clayman + 5+1/2lv: Alterative to Vine men as a front line, this time using a less precise Water gem, Better stats, and innate regeneration. Being inanimate, a better poison resit of 25 and average MR than vines makes them situationally more resilient to particular AOE spells.

Naiad Warriors (Conjuration 5 31) Kydnidx15: another good holder unit, significantly when buffed. Are Amphibious Soldier with good Moral and MR. with Bronze Gear And a high Awe of 4, they are hard to kill, especially if you add on the Fog, Marble, and Wave Warriors.

Conjunction 5 is a top priority for a water nation if forced to share water bodies with another player for Summon Water power, School of Sharks, and Water Elementals. So it gets full-size water elements, also picks up Strength of Gaia on the way for Capricorns and Voice of Tiamat to find all the elemental gems in the ocean.

Rushing Enchantment 5 alternatively turns Capricorns into Warcriminals because of Foul Vapors spam (even works underwater). It has the side benefit of picking up thug spells of Regeneration and Strength of Giants.

After that, or in no immediate threats, rush Alteration 5 for Mother Oak. You also get many thugs and earth buff spells for your Capricorns, Destruction to remove armor, Resistance to Fire and lighting, Curse of Stones, Swarm, and Maws of the Earth to make the enemy army slow and easier pickings for troops. Also, Bone Melter for removing single vital targets.

Could consider taking dips in Evocation, Getting Rust Mist, with Freezing Mist to stack a lot of Fatigue and cause freezing. Rain will significantly reduce the effectiveness of fire-based attacks.

• Faery Trod - (Enchantment 5 5, 20) Obtained at the same time as Mother Oak and grants the powerful ability to teleport an entire army between forests.
• Mother Oak - (Enchantment 5 5, 50) the coveted gem generator, your usually in running along with nations like Pangiae to get the right of additional gems per turn.
• Gift of Health (Enchantment 7 6, gems) cast if your doing a Tatarian end game or going hard gambling on the slot machine that is Transformation, as to cure feebled mind from though that don’t have recuperation.
• Tidal Wave - (Evocation 9 5, 15) inflict considerable damage to an enemy’s coastal province’s income. Hurts their income in the long game if you can’t take that shore.
• Voice of Tiamat - (conjuration 5 2, 8 gems) speeds up the Sight searching process, finding all elemental gems sites.
• Faerie Court - (Conjuration 8 5, 40) turns nature gems into Air access.
• Beckoning - (Thaumaturgy 6 5, 20) gobbles up an enemy army that is moving through a forest.
• Call the Worm That Walks - (Thaumaturgy 8 5, 30) Summons an immortal nature mage. The late-game becomes out attrition the enemy of powerful stacks, so having something that constantly returns from the dead evens out the grind with Death endgames of Lichs and Wraith lords.
• Transformation - (Alteration 6 2, 8) Convert Capricorn with their expensive upkeep into something near upkeep less. Capricorns are very spamable but you need to spend gems to not go bankrupt.

Don't At Thum 8, When Lure of the Deep is up, Sirens are 50 Gold cheaper. Including another -10 for each point of turmoil in the fort, a siren will cost 70 to 50 gold to recruit. This enchantment makes them super cheap research monkeys at late-mid game, but that would be a pointless goal as obtaining better mages are a higher priority at that point.

As an underwater Nature nation, Foul Vapores is readily available as a board clearing option. Your troops don’t have poison resistance(you do get Poison ward before Vapores) but so do the non-undead underwater nations.

All spell your nation can cast can be done by Capricorns. In landform or transformed, they get an extra earth path in addition to randoms. Using Strength of Gaia will make it 5 before boosters. Earth randoms go to 2 and can be boosted with Earth Boots and Summon Earthpower for 4.

• Falling Frost effective AOE in the cold.
• Sleep Cloud/Syllable of Sleep turns armies and mages with persistence into easy pickings as long they not mostly replaced with constructs and undead.
• Blade Wind to cul low prot enemies
• Poison Cloud is a more concentrated form of Foul Vapors.
• Lots of outs to SCs: Bone Melter, Liquify, Charm, Curse of the Frog Prince, Polymorph.
• Buff troops with Strength of Giants, Quickening, Legions of Steel, Gaia's Blessing, Iron Warriors/ Marble Warriors
• With Air random and Earth Boots can cast Rain of Stone. Should cast Air Shield first. You don’t have hats but do have shields, so ok to Rain of Stones on the battlefield.

• Personal Regeneration
• Liquid Body
• Quicken Self
• Mossbody
• Barkskin/Stoneskin/Ironskin/Temper Flesh
• Earth Might
• Mirror Image/Mistform
• Flight
• Elemental Fortitude
• Enlarge
• Earthquake

As your troops can easily cover expansion, your primary need is having the economy pay for them, speeding up your slower research rate unless there is another water nation your safe with an imprisoned to arrive late game. You have Capricorns, but nature magic by itself is not a great endgame. Recommend investing on another path. Blood doesn’t work with an immobile underwater, so death is your solution; Liches and Mound Fiends. Also, mixing in nature in the crosspath gives you Lamia Queens as a movable chassis for blood access.

Only Haliade and the Aphroi are sacred. A major blessing can be ignored if the bless doesn’t involve making Aphroi and pretender expansion better. What effects your bless has on a Haliade and Hierophant can be omitted from the equation unless doing some Galaxy brain mage bless.

• Berserker and Blood Surge - Greatly improve their attack and prot after charging.
• Mages: Resistances + improved sight + Forecasting/Magic Penetration
• Father of Monsters: (Attack Skill + minor Fire Resist or Heat Aura) + (Defence Skill + minor Cold Resist or Cold Aura) + Withering Weapons + nxUndying. = Grants protection from common evocation to your pretender and your Aphroi while also boosting their effectiveness in melee. As a water nation, the Chill aura will provide synergy better when dumping for Cold . Withering Weapons can be an answer early on when dealing with Rushers though it’s not so effective in the EA as many of the strong Rush nations are often spearheaded by creatures that live for hundreds of years.
• Poison Resistance: Capricorns are an early game fowl Vapors caster. Pair him up with a unit that won’t die from the fumes like blessed Aphroi.

• Sea Dragon: 44 Expander being a water-bound Dragon with a shell, with an amphibious wizard form for land casting. Skeletal Body is helpful when 99% of UW indies use piercing weapons.

• Aphroi Sage: Expensive Rambow chassis, stealthy, heals Afflictions, and faster map move.
  

• Grand Hydromancer: Your cheapest Rambow chassis, normal mage chasse, and also produces an extra water gem.
  
  

• Father of Monsters: The Virtues of Expansion Titans You have an expander Titan, natural Protection of 13, has 3 attacks including a Fire Brand. The Cross paths of Fire, water, and Death are also helpful in breaking into Death and more fire and Forging unique crosspath items like Rune Smashers later in-game. As you transition, The Father breaks you into new paths, Diving into Fire with Flame Spirits and Fire Kings and Go into the land of Death with Kokythiad, immortal undead mages and King of Banefires. You have the paths to make their two boosters plus Create Staff of Elemental Mastery and Rune Smashers for the Capercorns' utility.

Owl Quill: essential Item for Research so get a air gem income.
Remembering you need to balance your Fatigue in your Thugging, earth and nature grant many reinvigoration items and air crosspaths create nearly Weightless amour.

Your option is the Higher attrition Ichtysatyr raids or the slightly blessed Hierophont thugs. Ichtysatyr needs big numbers to mob PD while Hierophants are more effective. Put some gear on, Natures are better as they cast Swarm. Hierophant Pairs can take on the majority of PD. The Ichtysatyr stacks have the problem of getting an evocation artillery strike if your are not careful, so pick targets carefully and quickly return to the shadows the next turn. Also a sneaky way of cutting off retreating armies. Capricorns are not strong enough to be Super combatants but are still powerful casters be effective heavy thugs when thoroughly fluffed.

Like all Underwater nations, most nations that start on land have difficulties taking your capital, and most will not have reliable solutions until the late game (they can’t hellbless sacred rush you). Losing a war early on with a land nation will not knock you out of the competition, assuming the winner is not be decided in a few turns. The threat of wasting resources on an enemy they can’t eliminate while dealing with other players will grant you breathing space. The Community placing you in low tier also gives you leeway as they don’t give you enough mind as you expand and fortify your holdings. Best case, you will start the game with exclusivity right to an entire lake.

Your big problem early game is other underwater opponents. Other Water nations will have better Aquatic units and research faster. Your main chance of survival is that you only don’t have a decisive edge on other water nations. So reminding them how prickly you are will prevent Nigtionans with other fish people from break down. Threaten them with a big Bless or an awake expander. If war breaks outs, be your Pangea cousins and start engaging in raids, and you have the troop advantage in land battles, with Atlantis being the only inverse where the Aphroi beat their sacreds underwater.

It was almost unheard of when a nation barely changed, the same magic access, and no new spells. In the Middle Age, you get new and better Bronze armored Trident Troops, and your coastal forts only produce 1 turmoil instead of 2 . This is an age where recruitment points are more plentiful, and producing resources matters more to you, assuming you are using the new better-geared units (and you should).

Ichtysatyr Soldier: for more than double the turtle armor’s resources and 2 more encumbrances, you get 3 more body prot and 1 more Defence. It ends up being too many resources and encumbrance that staying with spamming turtle armor will do you better.

Mermidon: Well-trained Ichtysatyr, fighting in squares of 4, in heavy bronze and higher damage Tridents. Easier to Buff but requires Lots of resources, and tight squares make them more susceptible to AOEs. Though the namesake of this nation, the additional bronze Mermidons’ wear is better put on another unit listed later below.

Ichtycentaur Cataphract: take your Ichtycentaur, then give him a Heavier armour and a weapon that’s more effective than a light lance spear. Cataphracts are on the same power level as other heavy calvery of the middle age, like the knights of Ulm and Man. They don’t have that hoof attack, but they still compete by being overall tougher, thanks to their centaur HP and Magic resistance while costing half as much in gold, Resources, and Recruitment points (so they will outnumber them). A strong reason MA Oceania is a Production nation. Unless needed to fight one of the UW powerhouses of the middle age, produce Cataphracts over Aphroi as your expanders.

Ichtytaur & Ichtytaur Warrior: Like Pangea, the fury of the Cowmen has diminished over the ages. Same price but one less Berserker value. Still your Nutcrackers troops and Trampling over Landdweller in their full plate. For 10 more Gold and 11 Resources, the Warrior version gets a better body prot as he wades through the enemy so take them if you need bullmen.

Your troops improved with the coming of better armour, but this is also an age where everyone else is getting their shit together. The strongest nations live here, Especially the underwater nations. R'lyeh and Pelagia are your most significant contenders, with the Mind Flayers stun blast and Slaves deck in magic armour, while the Triton knights are the greatest sea warriors of any era. Even Ys with a strong bless can potency kick your teeth in. You know your going to fight them and can’t diplomacy them not to eat you at the start of the game; you will have to sacrifice scale so your Aphroi can sacred rush them before they can rush you. Indies are a little more complicated but not a severe bump in Oceania’s expansion. There will be land nations with a strong Early, middle, and Late game, so it is easy to form coalitions against these well-known powerful nations.

Your two modes in pretender design are Great scales to boost Cataphract along with late-game diversity access. The second is your failure, the crucial before-game diplomacy with the Pelagia, so you have to sacrifice your chances of winning late to go awake just to survive early.