HELP! (Utgard)

[alctel]

So I joined a LA game at the last minute and got the last country left, Utgard. Now I'm a new player and I know nothing about them (there isn't even an example strat in the manual) so I made a rainbow mage (lvl3 in all paths) as the 'safe' option.

However I started near the only pool of water on the map, and hence LA R'yleh. Now there domain is inching towards mine.

What can I do? Whats the quickest and easiest way to get into the water to knock off R'yleth before they start expanding? What ARE my good units anyway?? HELP!

[Twan]

Without bless, your best unit is the skratti mage, used as a thug in werewolf form, with magical items (ie : vine shield, a magical weapon, hydra skin or other light armor, amulet of antimagic, remaining slot for a ring of water breathing), buffing himself with quicken self and supported by one of your s mages casting body ethearal and luck.

Be aware to shapechange the skrati into werewolf before giving him gear, and never transform him again. Shapeshifting he would lose all his items but miscellanous ones.

As skratis have water magic, you shouldn't have problem to enter water with thugs and mages. Then once you control some seas you can recruit some aquatic chaff if you need to complete your forces.

[Sombre]

When he changes shape, won't he lose the hand slots?

[Twan]

Only in wolf form. Werewolf form as same slots as an human.

(but as said above, jotun werewolf must stay in this shape to keep the gear, as shapeshift order give him the wolf form with only 2 slots)

[Jazzepi]

alctel said:
So I joined a LA game at the last minute and got the last country left, Utgard. Now I'm a new player and I know nothing about them (there isn't even an example strat in the manual) so I made a rainbow mage (lvl3 in all paths) as the 'safe' option.

However I started near the only pool of water on the map, and hence LA R'yleh. Now there domain is inching towards mine.

What can I do? Whats the quickest and easiest way to get into the water to knock off R'yleth before they start expanding? What ARE my good units anyway?? HELP!

Knowledge of your pretender/scales would be quite helpful to those attempting to assist, though a bit revealing if the other player reads it.

Jazzepi

[Amhazair]

It also depends a lot on the stage of the game of course. From your first post I'm guessing it's still early in the game?

In any case, you'll need a decent water income to be able to effectively bring the fight to R'lyeh in the sea. As Twan said, you can use your Skrattis as thugs to conquer lightly defended provinces. If you've taken a bless the giant priests make for good thugs too. As you're facing R'lyeh, make sure to boost their MR. You have the advantage that you have excellent W/D mages, allmost all of whose useful spells will still be available under water. But you'll obviously need to provide the necessary water breathing equipment.

You might want to try to raise a big ruckus in the game thread, about how you're fighting the good fight against the huge threat of LA R'lyeh, and how they will become unstopable if left alone. You might find someone willing to help you out by donating some water gems to the cause. Or if you're lucky even an ally.

Ultimately, you are obviously at a disadvantage when entering the seas. If you're not noticeably stronger than him (or the greatest military genius since Gengis Khan) you might have to settle for whipping his *** whenever he comes out of the water, and raid some lightly defended water provinces to annoy him when you have the opportunity.

[alctel]

I have a rainbow pretender great seer, and my scales are pretty neutral - I have sloth/termoil 1 I think, luck 2 and cold 1.

Also I think the indys are bumped up, I just lost my entire army in the 4th turn to a province with '60 light/heavy infantry' in which turned out to be 110 units, including 3 water mages and 3 water elementals. Ouch.

R'lyth is gonna eat me soon I bet