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rovsea-da-big-underwater [2021/03/31 22:17]
naaira [MA Oceania] |
rovsea-da-big-underwater [2023/08/07 19:25] (current)
rovsea [Ys] |
| <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:ea_oceania.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>The last bad EA UW nation is Oceania. Illwinter //hates// Oceania. They have no heroes, basically no summons, their roster looks like a worse version of [[pangaea-ea|Pangaea]] (but UW), they have no efficient researchers, their normally built forts are 1 cp (they can use {{gems>35N}} to make 2 cp forts, on forests or kelp forests), and their transition onto land is awkward, albeit relatively easy. | <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:ea_oceania.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>The last bad EA UW nation is Oceania. Illwinter //hates// Oceania. They have no heroes, basically no summons, their roster looks like a worse version of [[pangaea-ea|Pangaea]] (but UW), they have no efficient researchers, their normally built forts are 1 cp (they can use {{gems>35N}} to make 2 cp forts, on forests or kelp forests), and their transition onto land is awkward, albeit relatively easy. |
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| On many custom maps, Oceania is very very bad because of a lack of UW kelp forests, however they probably have the easiest time transitioning onto land of the “disadvantaged” EA UW nations. Besides ??Haliade??s, all of Oceania’s troops and mages can easily walk from the UW onto land. In this regard, anyways, Oceania can very easily march onto land. It is awkward because the troops change form. ??Siren??s go from {{path>W2}} to {{path>A1W1}} which is more awkward to use without any ??Storm?? casters; Capricorns gain feet, and some of them will have {{path>E2}} and the ability to actually wear ??Earth Boots?? (so you have plenty of Earth magic, at last), but they will also lose a point in Water magic. Overall, the magic options may even be slightly better, but you have to exchange gear properly to not lose boots when moving from land to water (and you cannot make boots underwater), making the transition a bit more tricky. | On many custom maps, Oceania is very very bad because of a lack of UW kelp forests, however, they probably have the easiest time transitioning onto the land of the “disadvantaged” EA UW nations. Besides ??Haliade??s, all of Oceania’s troops and mages can easily walk from the UW onto land. In this regard, anyways, Oceania can very easily march onto land. It is awkward because the troops change form. ??Siren??s go from {{path>W2}} to {{path>A1W1}} which is more awkward to use without any ??Storm?? casters; ??Capricorn??s gain feet, and some of them will have {{path>E2}} and the ability to actually wear ??Earth Boots?? (so you have plenty of Earth magic, at last), but they will also lose a point in Water magic. Overall, the magic options may even be slightly better, but you have to exchange gear properly to not lose boots when moving from land to water (and you cannot make boots underwater), making the transition a bit more tricky. |
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| Oceania’s main strengths lie in having relatively good Earth access, with competent Water mages underwater and very good Nature mages in any location. Unfortunately, they suffer somewhat versus matchups like [[therodos-ea|Therodos]], or [[pelagia-ea|Pelagia]], as their Water elementals are generally the weakest (no easy way to buff ??Body Ethereal??), and they lack native magic weapons or efficient means of killing ghosts. | Oceania’s main strengths lie in having relatively good Earth access, with competent Water mages underwater and very good Nature mages in any location. Unfortunately, they suffer somewhat versus matchups like [[therodos-ea|Therodos]], or [[pelagia-ea|Pelagia]], as their Water elementals are generally the weakest (no easy way to buff ??Body Ethereal??), and they lack native magic weapons or efficient means of killing ghosts. |
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| ===== Middle Age, The Thunderdome ===== | ===== Middle Age, The Thunderdome ===== |
| The Middle Age is filled with sharks, and every UW nation in the Middle Age is somewhat viable, both on land and under the seas. MA underwater consists of five nations again, with a single land nation having pretty potent UW fighting capacity in the form of [[xibalba-ma|MA Xibalba]]. There are also a few undead free-spawning nations such as [[sceleria-ma|Sceleria]], [[ermor-ma|Ermor]], [[asphodel-ma|Asphodel]], and even [[nazca-ma|Nazca]] who can fight UW, but to a lesser capacity than the actual UW nations there. Despite all the UW nations in MA being pretty good, some of them excel even more on land, while some others are a bit better underwater. We will go in the order they are listed in game this time. | The Middle Age is filled with sharks, and every UW nation in the Middle Age is somewhat viable, both on land and under the seas. MA underwater consists of five nations again, with a single land nation having pretty potent UW fighting capacity in the form of [[xibalba-ma|MA Xibalba]]. [[agartha-ma|MA Agartha]] can also fight underwater semi-competently. There are also a few undead free-spawning nations such as [[sceleria-ma|Sceleria]], [[ermor-ma|Ermor]], [[asphodel-ma|Asphodel]], and even [[nazca-ma|Nazca]] who can fight UW, but to a lesser capacity than the actual UW nations there. Despite all the UW nations in MA being pretty good, some of them excel even more on land, while some others are a bit better underwater. We will go in the order they are listed in game this time. |
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| ====MA Atlantis ==== | ====MA Atlantis ==== |
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| ==== MA Pelagia ==== | ==== MA Pelagia ==== |
| <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:ma_pelagia.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>[[pelagia-ma|MA Pelagia]] is also much stronger. It maintains some of its stronger aquatic mage, the ??Triton King?? (albeit weaker), and the ??Pearl Mage??, but also includes some newer, potent mages, such as ??Pelagian Mystic??s (who can get {{path>A2}}, {{path>E2}}, {{path>W2}}, or the aforementioned paths plus Astral), or even ??Amber Clan Mage??s (who can cast interesting Acid spells and give Pelagia Fire access). They even have more interesting summons in ??Daktyl?? and ??Hekateride??s, giving them better access to forging and Nature magic than they would otherwise enjoy. When all is added together, they have loose access to every path but Blood, with competent access to Astral, Water, Air, Earth, and Nature magic. | <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:ma_pelagia.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>[[pelagia-ma|MA Pelagia]] is also much stronger. It maintains some of its stronger aquatic mage, the ??Triton King?? (albeit weaker), and the ??Pearl Mage??, but also includes some newer, potent mages, such as ??Pelagian Mystic??s (who can get {{path>A2}}, {{path>E2}}, {{path>W2}}, or the aforementioned paths plus Astral), or even ??Amber Clan Mage??s (who can cast interesting Acid spells and give Pelagia Fire access). They even have more interesting summons in ??Daktyl?? and ??Hekateride??s, giving them better access to forging and Nature magic than they would otherwise enjoy. When all is added together, they have loose access to every path but Blood and Death, with competent access to Astral, Water, Air, Earth, and Nature magic. While Daktyls do provide access to Death magic, technically, they've only got a 20% chance to roll it. They're therefore not a reliable source of Death access, although if you do get the Death random their Master smith allows forging of Skull staffs right away. |
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| Backing up this strong lineup are more impressive troops, both above and below the waves. ??Knight of the Deep?? is similar to [[man-ma|MA Man's]] ??Knight of Avalon??, but is also sacred, and isjust as impressive as that implies. With 3 attacks (one magic), good stats, and being sacred for 70 gold, Knights of the Deep might be the best underwater sacred in the game for actually fighting underwater. In addition, strong line-holding troops such as ??Coral Clan Hoplite??s raise their UW fighting potential to a whole new level. On top of this, the inclusion of Earth into their MA lineup brings their point-buffing capabilities on par with [[r-lyeh-ma|R’lyeh]], and above [[atlantis-ma|Atlantis]] or [[oceania-ma|Oceania]], making them ferocious in an UW knife-fight. | Backing up this strong lineup are more impressive troops, both above and below the waves. ??Knight of the Deep?? is similar to [[man-ma|MA Man's]] ??Knight of Avalon??, but is also sacred, and is just as impressive as that implies. With 3 attacks (one magic), good stats, and being sacred for 70 gold, Knights of the Deep might be the best underwater sacred in the game for actually fighting underwater. In addition, strong line-holding troops such as ??Coral Clan Hoplite??s raise their UW fighting potential to a whole new level. On top of this, the inclusion of Earth into their MA lineup brings their point-buffing capabilities on par with [[r-lyeh-ma|R’lyeh]], and above [[atlantis-ma|Atlantis]] or [[oceania-ma|Oceania]], making them ferocious in an UW knife-fight. |
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| They also have better access to land, able to make the reasonably armored, fairly heavy-hitting ??Wave Warrior??, who is amphibious. In addition, they have slightly better coastal recruitment selections in MA. Combined with (rusty) sacreds/commanders who can also go on land, and ??Pelagian Mystic??s who are also amphibious, MA Pelagia has much better land-fighting capabilities than its EA counterpart. | They also have better access to land, able to make the reasonably armored, fairly heavy-hitting ??Wave Warrior??, who is amphibious. In addition, they have slightly better coastal recruitment selections in MA. Combined with (rusty) sacreds/commanders who can also go on land, and ??Pelagian Mystic??s who are also amphibious, MA Pelagia has much better land-fighting capabilities than its EA counterpart. |
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| ==== Ys ==== | ==== Ys ==== |
| <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:ma_ys.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>Answering the question “What if Elves lived underwater” is [[ys-ma|Ys]]. The underwater ponyland which harbors the dreaded ??Morvarc’h Knight??s, Ys has plenty of powerful, but expensive, sacreds. Much like [[therodos-ea|Therodos]], Ys also has a lot of good coastal recruits, and once again it is probably the most eager to fight on land because of this. | <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:ma_ys.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>Answering the question “What if Elves lived underwater” is [[ys-ma|Ys]]. The underwater ponyland which harbors the dreaded ??Morvarc'h Knight??s, Ys has plenty of powerful, but expensive, sacreds. Much like [[therodos-ea|Therodos]], Ys also has a lot of good coastal recruits, and once again it is probably the most eager to fight on land because of this. |
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| In UW combat, Ys has some weaknesses, and some proficiencies. Because their overall magic access is similar to [[pelagia-ma|Pelagia]] in some ways, they have the same capacity to buff their Water Elementals. Unfortunately, they lack cheap access to {{path>W2}}, relying on either 25% randoms on ??Ysian Druid??s, or on their cap only ??Morgan Sorceress?es, who are also vital high-level Air mages. Morvarc’hs are also stronger on land than under water, because they gain a fire-breath attack that helps them clear chaff, and can utilize their sailing on land. Merrows, the principal non-sacred UW troops for Ys, are also somewhat underwhelming, with below average attack and defense stats in exchange for more hp/strength. The ??Ysian Man at Arms?? matches up quite poorly with other line-troops of UW nations. | In UW combat, Ys has some weaknesses, and some proficiencies. Because their overall magic access is similar to [[pelagia-ma|Pelagia]] in some ways, they have the same capacity to buff their Water Elementals. Unfortunately, they lack cheap access to {{path>W2}}, relying on either 25% randoms on ??Ysian Druid??s, or on their cap only ??Morgen Sorceress??es, who are also vital high-level Air mages. Morvarc’hs are also stronger on land than under water, because they gain a fire-breath attack that helps them clear chaff, and can utilize their sailing on land. Merrows, the principal non-sacred UW troops for Ys, are also somewhat underwhelming, with below average attack and defense stats in exchange for more hp/strength. The ??Ysian Man at Arms?? matches up quite poorly with other line-troops of UW nations. |
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| Ysian coastal troops are overall a bit more efficient: All the Kernou troops are relatively cheap, with ok stats. In addition, ??Kernou Druid??s are quite similar to [[marverni-ea|Marverni]] Druids from the EA, and grant adequate Earth and Astral magic, with Nature in communions. | Ysian coastal troops are overall a bit more efficient: All the Kernou troops are relatively cheap, with ok stats. In addition, ??Kernou Druid??s are quite similar to [[marverni-ea|Marverni]] Druids from the EA, and grant adequate Earth and Astral magic, with Nature in communions. |
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| ==== LA R’lyeh ==== | ==== LA R’lyeh ==== |
| <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:la_rlyeh.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>We will start with the only proper uw nation, [[r-lyeh-la|LA R’lyeh]]. LA R’lyeh’s dominion has two prominent features which help define the nation, and set it apart from its MA predecessor: popkill and spread insanity. The mage and troop lineup for LA R’lyeh is essentially identical to MA, making the dominion the primary difference between the two. | <WRAP column 64px>{{ :nations:flags:la_r_lyeh.png?nolink| }}</WRAP>We will start with the only proper uw nation, [[r-lyeh-la|LA R’lyeh]]. LA R’lyeh’s dominion has two prominent features which help define the nation, and set it apart from its MA predecessor: popkill and spread insanity. The mage and troop lineup for LA R’lyeh is essentially identical to MA, making the dominion the primary difference between the two. |
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| Like all other popkill dominions in the game, LA R’lyeh’s spawns freespawn for them. Unfortunately, LA R’lyeh’s freespawn is the worst in the game, much of it requiring magic leadership, continuing to eat, costing upkeep, and being aquatic, and therefore unable to move onto land. Meanwhile, your dominion kills your population which makes it impossible to play similarly to MA R’lyeh, and your own commanders will suffer from your insanity dominion. This can sometimes result in helpful consequences, such as spawning extra prophets for you (something only LA R’lyeh can do), and there are some other helpful features of LA R’lyeh, including better access to sacreds from the void, and the Void Spectre summon, which gives extra {{path>S4}} access for just {{gems>25S}}. Despite this, LA R’lyeh is one of the least fun, and least powerful nations in the game overall. | Like all other popkill dominions in the game, LA R’lyeh’s spawns freespawn for them. Unfortunately, LA R’lyeh’s freespawn is the worst in the game, much of it requiring magic leadership, continuing to eat, costing upkeep, and being aquatic, and therefore unable to move onto land. Meanwhile, your dominion kills your population which makes it impossible to play similarly to MA R’lyeh, and your own commanders will suffer from your insanity dominion. This can sometimes result in helpful consequences, such as spawning extra prophets for you (something only LA R’lyeh can do), and there are some other helpful features of LA R’lyeh, including better access to sacreds from the void, and the Void Spectre summon, which gives extra {{path>S4}} access for just {{gems>25S}}. Despite this, LA R’lyeh is one of the least fun, and least powerful nations in the game overall. |
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| ===== Wherein we detail how the UW fights Go ===== | ===== Wherein we detail how the UW fights Go ===== |
| Without getting into specific matchups, we’ll detail here how UW fights can be taken, what magic paths/spells are useful, or viable, and which are less so. | Without getting into specific matchups, we will detail here how UW fights can be taken, what magic paths/spells are useful, or viable, and which are less so. |
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| <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_f.png |}}</WRAP>Fire Magic: Aside from incinerate, fire magic is basically useless under water. The only path with less uw utility is blood, and honestly there’re a few spells available on the strategic map that can be targeted underwater that make even this claim dubious. The few spells that remain are mostly protections from cold or heat elemental magic, and also does include the fairly useful spell boil, which can do armor negating heat damage. | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_f.png |}}</WRAP>**Fire Magic:** Aside from ??Incinerate??, Fire magic is basically useless underwater. The only path with less UW utility is Blood, and honestly there are a few Blood spells available on the strategic map that can be targeted underwater that make even this claim dubious. The few spells that remain are mostly protections from cold or heat elemental magic and also include the fairly useful spell ??Boil??, which can do armor negating heat damage. |
| Air Magic: Much of the air magic in evocation is still useful, including things such as lightning bolt. Often, people will not really consider the use of air magic underwater, and so lightning bolt can be fairly effective in stopping water elementals, one of the uw-bowl’s strongest units. Additionally, high level spells such as shimmering fields and fog warriors (which both should definitely not be available underwater, but are) can be cast, which can radically impact any battle they’re involved in. This is one of the reasons that Pelagia can compete later into the game with Atlantis or R’lyeh. Other strong spells such as thunderstrike, summon air elemental, or the various air crosses that result in clouds, cannot be cast, and therefore air is overall weaker than it would be on land. | |
| Water Magic: As expected, uw warfare is dominated by water mages. This is not because water mages have awesome evocations, or even particularly impressive buffs or battlefield wide spells uw (although there are some useful buffs/battlefield spells as well). No, instead it is primarily because of the conjuration 5 spell “Summon Water Elemental”. Making water elementals, and then using mages to point-buff them to make them more potent, is one of the strongest tactics in the uw “meta” that can be used. Water elementals have 4, relatively high damage armor piercing attacks, with full physical resistances and good stats. Underwater, they also have 20% regen. Once fully buffed and with their solid stats, water elementals can hold off chaff such as skeletons, the small uw creatures spawned by swarm, or even main line-holding troops more or less indefinitely. They can easily chew into normal enemy formations, and are fully capable of surrounding and harassing down thugs, until they punch through any defenses and kill whatever it is they’re striking. Water elementals are the reason that rushing conjuration 5 is a standard move for uw nations that have other uw nations at their borders. Additional strong spells include Shark attack, a host of buff spells such as water ward, and disabling spells such as encase in ice. Grip of winter also works under water, unlike heat from hell, so it’s sometimes recommended that you should dump cold when picking an uw nation. Unfortunately, there are basically no strong water-based uw evocations. Notably, water magic is also the best way for a land nation to get underwater, and once there, to maintain a hold on the provinces they take (most of the gear that allows otherwise air-breathing troops or commanders to go uw requires water magic to forge). Whether it be on the strategic map, in forging, or in combat, water magic is vital to fight underwater. | |
| Earth Magic: Many of the good earth buff spells are still castable underwater, as are earth elementals, and even damage spells such as Maws of the Earth. Overall, earth magic is still quite useful for providing troops buffs, especially for point-buffing water elementals. Because of this, earth magic fulfills many of the same roles and niches, although because water elementals are so dominant, and troops are generally faster uw, many of their spells are somewhat less efficient (earth meld is less likely to hit, harder to get as many buffs on troops before combat, earth elementals lose to water elementals). | |
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| Astral Magic: Like earth magic, most of the astral spells are still castable underwater, aside from those that are solar-themed. This means that antimagic, point-buffs and mass buffs, as well as single target spells like soul slay and mind burn, are all still viable underwater. Similar to earth, there are a few spells which are no longer available, but astral still fills the same niches, as it doesn’t really gain anything in uw combat. Again, point buffing water elementals with body ethereal, as an example, can greatly increase their combat capability, especially against each other, and is one of the reasons that therodos and oceania have poorer water elemental fighting capabilities. | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_a.png |}}</WRAP>**Air Magic:** Much of the Air magic in Evocation is still useful, including things such as ??Lightning bolt??. Often, people will not really consider the use of Air magic underwater, and so ??Lightning Bolt?? can be fairly effective in stopping Water Elementals, one of the UW-bowl’s strongest units. Additionally, high level spells such as ??Shimmering Fields?? and ??Fog Warriors?? (which both should definitely not be available underwater, but are) can be cast, which can radically impact any battle they are involved in. This is one of the reasons that Pelagia can compete later into the game with Atlantis or R’lyeh. Other strong spells such as ??Thunder Strike??, ??Summon Air Elemental??, or the various Air crosses that result in clouds, cannot be cast, and therefore Air is overall weaker than it would be on land. |
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| Death Magic: While some spells such as cloud of death and wailing winds are not available underwater, some of those that synergize well with mass undead, such as Horde of Skeletons and Rigor mortis are. Because many undead also have the native capacity to fight underwater, Death is actually one of the more helpful paths to maintain underwater. Counter spells such as undead mastery and wither bones are also still available, which means that death magic is actually still quite flexible underwater. It can also still summon thugs like wraith lords, or extra mages such as revenants beneath the waves just fine. | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_w.png |}}</WRAP>**Water Magic:** As expected, UW warfare is dominated by Water mages. This is not because Water mages have awesome Evocations, or even particularly impressive buffs or battlefield wide spells UW (although there are some useful buffs and battlefield spells available). No, instead it is primarily because of the Conjuration 5 spell ??Summon Water Elemental??. |
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| Nature Magic: Nature magic is also still widely applicable underwater. If anything, the lack of many fire-based spells to punish mass protection makes it stronger. Additionally, an inability to deal with things like foul vapors can severely harm or take off-guard some water nations (especially atlantis), so nature magic has some counter-play in specific matchups as well. There’s not really a stand-out nature magic spell, per se, but similar to some of the other paths, you just use nature similarly uw as you would on land. | {{ :guides:uw-guide:water_elemental.jpg|}}Making Water Elementals, and then using mages to point-buff them to make them more potent, is one of the strongest tactics in the UW “meta” that can be used. Water elementals have 4 relatively high damage armor piercing attacks, with full physical resistances and good stats. Underwater, they also have 20% regen. Once fully buffed and with their solid stats, Water Elementals can hold off chaff such as skeletons, the small UW creatures spawned by ??Swarm??, or even main line-holding troops more or less indefinitely. They can easily chew into normal enemy formations, and are fully capable of surrounding and harassing down thugs, until they punch through any defenses and kill whatever it is they are striking. Water elementals are the reason that rushing Conjuration 5 is a standard move for UW nations that have other UW nations at their borders. |
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| Blood Magic: Blood has very few usable spells that can actually be cast uw, however, it does have a couple spells that can target uw, and cast remotely. This includes infernal disease, send horror, three red seconds, and probably several others as well. While you can neither blood hunt, nor bring blood slaves underwater, blood nations still maintain some capability to project their magic into underwater provinces, meaning that blood is not totally irrelevant, despite seeming to be strictly limited. | Additional strong spells include ??Shark Attack??, a host of buff spells such as ??Water Ward??, and disabling spells such as ??Encase in Ice??. ??Grip of Winter?? also works underwater, unlike ??Heat from Hell??, so it is sometimes recommended that you should dump Cold when picking an UW nation. Unfortunately, there are basically no strong Water-based UW evocations. |
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| | Notably, Water magic is also the best way for a land nation to get underwater, and once there, to maintain a hold on the provinces they take (most of the gear that allows otherwise air-breathing troops or commanders to go UW requires water magic to forge). Whether it be on the strategic map, in forging, or in combat, Water magic is vital to fight underwater. |
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| | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_e.png |}}</WRAP>**Earth Magic:** Many of the good Earth buff spells are still castable underwater, as are ??Summon Earth Elemental??, and even damage spells such as ??Maws of the Earth??. Overall, Earth magic is still quite useful for providing troops buffs, especially for point-buffing Water Elementals. Because of this, Earth magic fulfills many of the same roles and niches, although because ??Water Elementals?? are so dominant, and troops are generally faster uw, many of their spells are somewhat less efficient (??Earth Meld?? is less likely to hit, it is harder to get as many buffs on troops before combat, Earth Elementals lose to Water Elementals). |
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| | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_s.png |}}</WRAP>**Astral Magic:** Like Earth magic, most of the Astral spells are still castable underwater, aside from those that are solar-themed. This means that ??Antimagic??, point-buffs and mass buffs, as well as single target spells like ??Soul Slay?? and ??Mind Burn??, are all still viable underwater. Similar to Earth, there are a few spells which are no longer available, but Astral still fills the same niches, as it does not really gain anything in UW combat. Again, point buffing Water Elementals with ??Body Ethereal??, as an example, can greatly increase their combat capability, especially against other Water Elementals, and is one of the reasons that Therodos and Oceania have poorer Water Elemental fighting capabilities. |
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| | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_d.png |}}</WRAP>**Death Magic:** While some spells such as ??Cloud of Death?? and ??Wailing Winds?? are not available underwater, some of those that synergize well with mass undead, such as ??Horde of Skeletons?? and ??Rigor Mortis?? are. Because many undead also have the native capacity to fight underwater, Death is actually one of the more helpful paths to maintain underwater. Counter spells such as ??Undead Mastery?? and ??Wither Bones?? are also still available, which means that Death magic is actually still quite flexible underwater. It can also still summon thugs like ??Wraith Lord??s, or extra mages such as ??Revenant??s beneath the waves just fine. |
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| | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_n.png |}}</WRAP>**Nature Magic:** Nature magic is also still widely applicable underwater. If anything, the lack of many Fire-based spells to punish ??Mass Protection?? makes it stronger. Additionally, an inability to deal with things like ??Foul Vapors?? can severely harm or take off-guard some water nations (especially Atlantis), so Nature magic has some counter-play in specific matchups as well. There is not really a stand-out Nature magic spell, per se, but similar to some of the other paths, you just use Nature similarly UW as you would on land. |
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| | <WRAP column 32px>{{ :magicpath:path_b.png |}}</WRAP>**Blood Magic:** Blood has very few usable spells that can actually be cast UW, however, it does have a couple spells that can target UW, and cast remotely. This includes ??Infernal Disease??, ??Send Horror??, ??Three Red Seconds??, and probably several others as well. While you can neither bloodhunt, nor bring blood slaves underwater, Blood nations still maintain some capability to project their magic into underwater provinces, meaning that Blood is not totally irrelevant, despite seeming to be strictly limited. |
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| ===== So How We Be Fightin’, Then? ===== | ===== So How We Be Fightin’, Then? ===== |
| In the earliest stages of the game, uw is focused on expansion similarly to most land nations. Unlike land nations, the uw portion of the map is likely to be limited to just a few players, often only to one or two. If there are two players who start underwater in connected water, a situation may occur known as an “Underwater knife-fight,” where both nations are encouraged to fight each other for control of the entire water area. While this is not guaranteed, it’s common enough for awake pretenders to be a common occurrence uw, so as to help with this early war. Some sacreds such as knights of the deep, morvarc’hs, and even Atlantis’ sacreds are also widely used early for uw combat. One tactic if an uw nation has extra money, is to simply all in by investing into more troops, including independents. This can be viable because there are generally fewer resources available underwater, meaning fort recruitment may be maxed out for some nations before all the available gold is used up. Nations such as R’lyeh, who have mind blast, also try to mass a critical amount of mindblasters to enable their troops to compete more effectively, and often there is a rush to research conjuration 5 for water elementals. While you should research each matchup for its theory if you do intend to enter a game as an uw nation, you should know that all-ins are somewhat more likely because existing underwater makes your flanks somewhat safer; people don’t want to contest you very early for your underwater provinces. A very often switch is into scales should you not share a border with another uw nation. In addition, most LA uw contesting nations also need to consider who they border on land, and aside from Jomon (which is often built specifically to go uw with an awake pretender), these nations tend to build for a more “standard” land-focused game. Even LA Atlantis and Erytheia do this because bless-focused builds rarely help them expand uw faster, whereas scales are overall more beneficial. As the game scales on, hiding uw becomes less safe, and people may start to contest you using their own water mages, summons, or the undead. It’s important to realize that simply “camping” underwater doesn’t really improve your chances to win the game, so you shouldn’t be afraid to expand onto the land and pick additional fights; you should invest mages to improve your position, not just to improve your research. | In the earliest stages of the game, UW is focused on expansion similarly to most land nations. Unlike land nations, the UW portion of the map is likely to be limited to just a few players, often only to one or two. If there are two players who start underwater in connected water, a situation may occur known as an //Underwater knife-fight//, where both nations are encouraged to fight each other for control of the entire water area. While this is not guaranteed, it is common enough for awake pretenders to be a common occurrence UW, so as to help with this early war. Some sacreds such as Knights of the Deep, Morvarc’hs, and even Atlantis’ sacreds are also widely used early for UW combat. |
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| | One tactic if an UW nation has extra money, is to simply all in by investing into more troops, including independents. This can be viable because there are generally fewer resources available underwater, meaning fort recruitment may be maxed out for some nations before all the available gold is used up. Nations such as R’lyeh, who have mind blast, also try to mass a critical amount of mindblasters to enable their troops to compete more effectively, and often there is a rush to research Conjuration 5 for Water Elementals. While you should research each matchup for its theory if you do intend to enter a game as an UW nation, you should know that all-ins are somewhat more likely because existing underwater makes your flanks somewhat safer; people do not want to contest you very early for your underwater provinces. A very often switch is into scales should you not share a border with another UW nation. |
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| | In the Late Age, most UW contesting nations also need to consider who they border on land, and aside from Jomon (which is often built specifically to go UW with an awake pretender), these nations tend to build for a more “standard” land-focused game. Even LA Atlantis and Erytheia do this because bless-focused builds rarely help them expand UW faster, whereas scales are overall more beneficial. |
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| | As the game scales on, hiding underwater becomes less safe, and people may start to contest you using their own Water mages, summons, or the undead. It is important to realize that simply “camping” underwater does not really improve your chances to win the game, so you should not be afraid to expand onto the land and pick additional fights; you should invest mages to improve your position, not just to improve your research. |
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| Lastly, this is just a draft atm, so please feel free to leave comments, subject to review, and any helpful suggestions for future sections or edits. | Lastly, this is just a draft atm, so please feel free to leave comments, subject to review, and any helpful suggestions for future sections or edits. |
| Rovsea out. | |
| | **//Rovsea out.//** |
