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r-lyeh-ea

EA R'lyeh, Time of Aboleths

The R’lyeh of the Early Age was a strange parallel of the R’lyeh of later ages. Its basest origins were in strange Polyps of the deepest depths, whose spawn could swim on their own. Over the centuries, these spawn developed into enormous and powerful beings called Aboleths. Even the Aboleths didn’t understand the source of their sapience, but the oldest ones (called “Mind Lords”) eventually developed the power to enslave lesser minds with simply their force of will. These slaves – mostly Deep Ones that picked the wrong gorge to emerge from, but a few from other races as well – were coerced into building small but fabulous cities for their rulers. The emergence of their Awakening God coincided with the Mind Lords’ growing interest in the Stellar Sphere, with one star drawing more attention than the rest…

General Overview

Early Age R'lyeh is like Early Age Pelagia, except that its gimmick is sort of useful for getting ashore. I suppose it helps that R'lyeh also has pet Atlantians.

Under the sea, Early Age R'lyeh will be a pain in the butt to deal with, due to their endless hordes of Polypal Spawn and slave chaff. Their Aquatic Mages are ridiculous with how much they can do, including Mind Blasts and (on the really-expensive ones) outright Enslavement.

On the surface – which is where almost all games are decided, mind you – it's a different story; your troops and Mages are short-lived, and you'll have to rely on either Indies or a steady stream of Atlantian slave chaff to push the tide inward. The investment isn't as ridiculous or difficult as Early Age Pelagia's, but it's still quite rough. This is not a nation for beginners.

National Features

Race Military Magic Access Priests Buildings
Aboleths
Tentacles
Mind Blasts
Slaves:
Atlantians & Deep Ones
Mermen
Tritons
Amphibious Armored Slaves
Lobotomized Slaves
Aboleth Mind Blasters & Enslavers
Free Polypal Spawn
astral 44(Rare 5)
water 44(Rare 5)
death 22
earth 11(Rare 2)
nature 11
Most are Aquatic
Androdai "vessels"
Weak (holy 11)
Immobile holy 33
Standard Forts
Can build Underwater Forts

Capital Special Sites

FIXME

The Gorge of Ancient Cities

Enables recruitment of:
- Mind Lord
- Abodai
- Gibodai
Produces 3astralpearl per turn
Produces 2watergem per turn
Produces 1earthgem per turn

Notable Units

Commanders

FIXME Description of the workhorse options. For the sake of sanity, skip the clearly subpar and generic stuff (no h1's unless there are special qualities, no 40-60 leadership dudes that are average, etc.)

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Comments
Scout
25
1
1
Amphibious
Darkvision
Stealthy(50)
Amphibious scout to see things on land and sea.
Slave Prince
80
49
1
Amphibious
Darkvision
The easiest access to generic leadership. High protection.
Slave Prince is the only one of your commanders with 80 leadership that allows using formations.
Has taskmaster for some extra morale for your plentiful slaves.
Could work as an early game thug chassis if you need melee stats.
Slave Priest
45
1
1
holy 11
Sacred
Amphibious
Slave
Cheap access to a level 1 priest. Really cheap upkeep as he is both sacred and slave.

Slave Mage
Slave Mage
175
1
2
water 22astral 11random1100% 13
Amphibious
Slave
The Prime Mage of R'lyeh. Has leadership for potentially leading early expansion parties.
About the same upkeep as a 90 gold mage due to being slave. The best researcher for R'lyeh.
Your main combat and communion mages. Those landing extra water from randoms can Summon Water Elementals out of the box, astral ones can Mind Burn and earth and nature ones can communion to cast buff spells for all your a chaff.
Their high gold cost is going to be high early game, but near the end of year 0 you would really love to mass produce them.
Aboleth
215
1
2
water 22astral 22random1100% 15
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (5)
Taskmaster (+2)
eyes(4)
abolith
Twiceborn(Necrodai)
efficiently costed and powerful water mage.
Will help you win the Oceans with Water summons and mind bullets, but like all aboliths, will just sit around doing lab work after that.
Abodai
265
1
2
Capital Only
water 11astral 22death 11holy 11random1100% 15
sacred
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (5)
Taskmaster (+2)
eyes(4)
abolith
Twiceborn(Necrodai)
Situational but needed 1/4 of them to be death 22 to forge death staffs for your summoned death mages (because no hands).
Mind Lord
420
1
4
Capital Only
water 33astral 33random1100%
10%
19
resist cold(5)
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (10)
Taskmaster (+2)
eyes(4)
abolith
Twiceborn(Necrodai)
Very powerful. Not as strong as traditional super-combatants given their limited slots but makes it up by being a strong and meaty wizard. Has a AOE lifedrain and Enslave mind attack. Good Thug with some meat shields for support.
Androdai
190
1
2
Coastal fortress only
astral 11holy 11random1100%
10%
9
sacred
Amphibious
Spirit Sight
insane(10%)
mindvessel
Your "reward" for making a fort on land.
By themselves, they may be overpriced compared to your Slave Mages.
They do add Death and Holy magic to your above-water communions.
As you don't usually benefit of a bless for your troops, you could create a mage bless to make them better in communions to justify their cost.
Target for the spell Mind Vessel, allows you they can copy the Astral might of an abolith and bring it on land.
TL;DR You rather wish making Amulet of the Fish was a easy process, but you have to make the best of what you do have.
Another Take: As they have full slot you could also give them a lot of MR Penetrating items so your save or Die spells can go through even the toughest super combatant.
Polypal Mother
100
1
2
Forighen Rec only
holy 22
sacred
resist poison(15)
Mind Slimer(5)
blind
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (10)
unsurroundable (5)
Dominion Monster Summoner(Polypal Spawn)
immobile
Blunt Resistant
Pierce Resistant
need-not-eat
Death wail (10)
female
Equivalent to Underwater Defence turrets (rarely the best thing to spend on your gold on).
Their use is dependent on if your on the back foot in the water wars.
They produce additional chaff, in some weird situation you don't have enough. Immovable rock priest that mind blast, a way to counter potential waves of undead breaking into your fort, and improving your chaff's moral.
Mothers are the most likely to see use as if you first build a temple, they can protect the UW provinces from raiders while the fort is being constructed. Grandmothers would only see play if your getting swamped by undead.
TL;DR: Unless you are under serious pressure, buying more abolith is a better long term investment.
Grandmother
300
1
2
astral 11holy 33 7
sacred
resist poison(15)
Mind Slimer(5)
blind
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (10)
unsurroundable (5)
Dominion Monster Summoner(Polypal Spawn per month)
immobile
Blunt Resistant
Pierce Resistant
need-not-eat
Death wail (10)
female

Troops

Sprite Unit Name Special Attributes Comments
Lobo Guard
Gold 5
1
2
Amphibious
Darkvision(100%)
Magic Being
slave
mindless
The excellent backbone of R'lyeh's armies. Despite easy dieing from most attacks, especially AOE spells, they will hold because they are Unroutable and you can have swarms of them for chips.
Requires Magic Ld but that just means each Slave Mage can hold 20 of them.
Note they are considered slow by underwater standards
Slave Trooper
Gold 9
2
6
Amphibious
Darkvision(100%)
slave
Your Versatile and cheap Killy chaff. They hit very hard with their Trident on land or water and fight without penalty in deepwater.
In moments when you need the numbers (Filling up your Commander's Normal and Magic units).
Slave Guardian
Gold 9
10
6
Amphibious
Darkvision(100%)
slave
Slave Guardian
Gold 9
11
6
Amphibious
Darkvision(100%)
slave

Slave Trooper
Slave Trooper
Gold 9
2
6
Amphibious
slave
Mermen are Less survivability than the Atlantian trooper but can act like fast cav underwater. No armor but could be mixed with other chaff to support with its net attack.

Slave Guardian
Slave Guardian
Gold 9
10
6
Amphibious
slave
Mermen are Less survivablity then the Atlantian slaves but can act like fast cav underwater. They don't offer much to justify themselves except to be used as additional chaff on land, unlike Tritons.
Slave Trooper
Gold 9
1
6
aquatic
slave
Not as Fast as Mermen, but Tritons have some more HP, Atk, and Str over Atlantian.
Comes at the cost of Never leaving the Water and costing you a few gold coins as they do nothing else rest of the game.
The Guardian version is worth it as fast-moving killy chaff if your get into a Water war with another underwater nation.
Slave Guardian
Gold 9
11
6
aquatic
slave
Shambler Thrall
Gold 20
1
22
Amphibious
Darkvision(50%)
Magic Being
slave
mindless
trample
Cheap for what they are but they still cost some amount of gold and Rec points. Only have enough survivavlity to do their job, and that is to expand by running over Indies before they die.
Giboleth
40
1
41
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (5)
eyes(4)
aboleth
Twiceborn(Necrodai)
Your deep sea mind blasters, letting your chaff hoards make mincemeat of stronger enemies while they are stunned.
Because of their confined meant to the ocean, you will never use them unless at war with an Anoutgher underwater or Amphibouse nation.
Unless you need all forts to produce mind blasters, getting Gibodai over Giboleth is better in the long turn as they will cost you less in the longterm when they rot away when all the water threats have been vanquished. Also, They have better melee protection, being blessable, and having a Drain life attack for situational melee.
Gibodai
50
1
41
Capital Only
sacred
Aquatic
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (5)
eyes(4)
aboleth
Twiceborn(Necrodai)
Androleth
50
16
23
Coastal Fort Only
Magic Being
Amphibious
Spirit Sight
The mind blasters you should be using most of the game.
Mind Flayers of the later ages better than aboliths because could fight both in water and land, now you have to go through an extra step of holding a presence on a coast.
They are the massed guys in the back that freezes the enemy in place so your slave could massacre them.
They look like they are well-armed but those are actually for taking out that stray bird in a blaze of glory… They don't survive in melee.
like Androdai, Decay will massicure them, so stay way from Death/Wind mages.

Heroes

any breakout hits that might sway someone towards luck or away from it ?

Img Unit Name —-SpecialAttributes—- Comments
Auluudh - Mind Lord water 44astral 44 21
aquatic
resist Cold(7)
Magic Being
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity(15)
Eyes(4)
aboleth
Twiceborn(Necrodai)

Magic

Research Piroity

Such Flexibility with Water, Earth, Nature, Death, and Astral every path has something and will depend on the situation. WHat would be a priority are Conjuration become water Elementals are important in Water wars, and must get thaumaturgy for communions eventually.

National Spells

  • Mind Vessel: astral 33 Thaum 3 15astralpearl. Aboleth tag Only. A multistep and convoluted method of getting your astral magic on land. an Aboleth can pick a Androdai to let it share his Astral paths, by overwriting the slaves. As it's replacing the paths. Not cost-effective use this on a astral 22 Androdai but worthwhile if you random astral 44 on the Aboleth. Mind Vessel multistep and elaborate spell as it requires that the caster and target be in the lab and you had Constructed a Fort, Temple, and Lab for a unit that requires this spell to justify its price tag. If you plan to mass them, you need a lot of gold, Pearls, and holding the nearest coastal fort to make this an efficient strategy rather than a gimic. If you don't have an urgent need for mages with a base astral 33 and astral 44s, you could just double down on slave mages.
  • Enslave Sea Trolls: astral 33water 22 Thaum 5 15astralpearl. ( Slave Trollx5 + [1/2 lv]): Oh wow, this nation (and this nation alone) makes Sea Trolls good!

Magic Access

EA R'lyeh has very strong access to astral magic and strong access to water. They do have solid cheap mage, but thier stronger are confined under the sea.

To secure your ocean, A good early game research path is conjuration to get summon sharks for combat and then eventually summon water elementals as your cheap slave mages will often have water 3.

As the game progresses and you're doing more fighting on land astral magic can take the forefront. Slave Mages and the weaker Androdai make for good communion slaves while the mind vessel Androdai forms the communion masters.

Your Aboleths are powerful mages but lack the slots for path climbing, but you can do some finagling with your lesser slaves.

A water random Slave mage with boosters is water 55 to make water queens.

nature random Slaves with a single water booster can make Naiads and then Thistle Mace for nature 44.

Your stuck at earth 11 unless you get lucky with a 10%, find an indie, or empower once so you can make Earth boots, and then climb higher with Troll King for earth 44 if you want it outside of communions.

Streams from Hades gives Kokythiads for a strong Deathmage with slots. Only gets you up to death 44 with a Skull Staff. Decent but you need an intervention to go higher.

With The Mind Vessel spell, you can Androdai cast powerful Astral Rituals. you can have an Aboleth copy its Astral paths onto an Androdai, letting you have two astral 44s. if you can get Earth boosts they can also forge Crystal Coins. That combined with Starshine Skullcap can boost that astral 44 into astral 66. From there, a Ring of Sorcery and then Ring if Wizardry is possible to boost any of your Sorcery paths like death by to and elementals by 1. Making the rings requiring a strong pearl economy, so your only getting the ones and should only use them for rituals.

Combat Magic

FIXME 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?

Your a communion nation with some of the most cost-effective communion mages.

Even without communions Slave Mages are strong water mages that can be mass-able numbers.

Already they can random in Earth and Nature into communions with Starspawn adding Higher Astral and death to it.

Just by themselves, a group of Slave Mages is a force, especially with hoards to buff. A decent-sized communion can use Army of Giants, Howl and Bone Melter, Marble Warriors.

Mind vessel Androdai is your above water Astral of your Aboliths and also add Holy and Death spell to the communion. cast Enslave Mind and Nether Darts.

Ritual Magic

FIXME Do you have any National items(Construction Level, Price, and required Paths). Any unique generic items few other nations can forge? What item would be useful on your unit lineup (non-standard recommend thug gear)?

You are very flexible and can help you climb important end game magic, death, and Nature.

Can summon Kokythiads and Naiads with boosters. Nabbing a Ether Gate for Ether Lord could add Air and blood to communions, if not better death.

A Starspawn can easily nab a Highlevel Astral global like Stellar Focus out the box or Arcane Nexus with boosters.

You have very good Mind Hunting game.

Magic Items

National

  • Anemone Mace Construction 2, water 11 5watergem. A thug weapon that grants a lot of attack skills and deals Paralysis and Mortal poison.

Strategy

Power Curve

This is probably the most difficult section to get consensus for. Describe how strong the nation is during expansion, the early, mid and late game, and what makes it strong/weak at each of those points. This should give readers an idea of where the weaknesses of a nation lie (if they have not been shown already) and when to take advantage of a nation's strengths.

Expansion Strategies

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

Example Pretender Builds

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

See More

r-lyeh-ea.txt · Last modified: 2024/07/09 04:33 by johnnydown