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…

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.

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 48 1	Amphibious Darkvision	The easiest access to generic leadership. High protection. Your troop line up would demand your Commanders have both normal and Magic Ld, but he is the only one to let your slave use formation for that special positioning strat. Also could be an early game thug chasse if you need Melee stats
	Slave Priest 45 1 1	1 Sacred Amphibious Slave	Cheap access to a level 1 priest. Already Half upkeep from Sacred tag, now you pay 60% less because of the slave tag.
	Slave Mage Slave Mage 175 1 2	211100% 13 Amphibious Slave	The Primer Mage of R'lyeh. Have the Ld to be ok-Ish at leading early expansion parties. Has about the same upkeep as a 90 gold mage and a very good researcher. Are your main Combate and Communion mages, with Water randoms can Summon Water Elementals out the box, Astrals can Mind Burn plus Eath and Nature can communion to cast spells that would be in high demand for a chaff nation. your going to be tight on gold to buy them until near the end of year 0, but after that, you would really love to build forts for mass produce them.
	Aboleth 215 1 2	221100% 15 Aquatic Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (5) Taskmaster (+2) eyes(4) abolith Twiceborn(Necrodai)	effcently coseted and powererful water war mage. Will help you win the Oceans with Water summons and mind bullets, but like all abolith, will just sit around doing lab work after that.
	Abodai 265 1 2 Capital Only	12111100% 15 sacred Aquatic Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (5) Taskmaster (+2) eyes(4) abolith Twiceborn(Necrodai)	Dec
	Mind Lord 420 1 4 Capital Only	331100% 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 Traditon suppercombateents given thier limited slots but makes up by being a strong and meaty wizard plus has a AOE lifedrain and Enslave mind attack. Good Thug with some meat sheilds support.
	Androdai 190 1 2 Coastal fortress only	111100% 10% 9 sacred Amphibious Spirit Sight insane(10%) mindvessel	Your "reward" for making a fort on land. By themselves, they may be overpriesed compared to your Slave Mages. They do add Death and Holy magic to your above-water Commionons. as you don't ussaly benefit in most long-runs to make a bless for your troops, you could create a mage bless to make them better in comminons to justify thier cost? The spell Mind Vessel, is the most to justify themselves, as they can copy the Astrol might of a abolith and bring it on land. TL;DR You rather wish making Amulet of the Fish was a easy prosses, but you have to make the best of what you do have. Anouther 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	2 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	Equvelent to Underwater Defence turrets (not ussaly the best thing to spend on your gold on). if they ever see use is dependent on if your on the back foot in the water wars. They produce additional Aquadice chaff, in that craze situation you don't have enough. Are immovable rock priest that mind blast, a way to counter potencal 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 boster the UW procenes defences from raiders while the fort is being constructed. Grandmothers would only see play if your getting swamped by undead. is their a way to teleport Grandmothers so they can claim thrones? TL;DR: in most situation, unless you are under serious pressure buying more abolith is a better longterm investment then Mothers.
	Grandmother 300 1 2	13 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

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

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

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.

• Mind Vessel: 3 Thaum 3 15. Aboleth 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 2 Androdai but worthwhile if you random 4 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 3 and 4s, you could just double down on slave mages.

• Enslave Sea Trolls: 32 Thaum 5 15. ( Slave Trollx5 + [1/2 lv]).

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 5 to make water queens.

nature random Slaves with a single water booster can make Naiads and then Thistle Mace for 4.

Your stuck at 1 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 4 if you want it outside of communions.

Streams from Hades gives Kokythiads for a strong Deathmage with slots. Only gets you up to 4 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 4s. if you can get Earth boosts they can also forge Crystal Coins. That combined with Starshine Skullcap can boost that 4 into 6. 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.

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.

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.

• Anemone Mace Construction 2, 1 5. A thug weapon that grants a lot of attack skills and deals Paralysis and Mortal poison.

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