Getting EA Oceana out of the water...

[Ming]

If it were any easier to get sea troops on land many (myself included) would be clamouring for nerfing the sea nations, especially Oceania.

I have only played MA Oceania, and only in SP, but I believe the following strategy works in other ages and in MP with minor modifications (In MP you need to adept to what your neighbours are doing):

Step 1: Dominate the seas. Unless the map is cradle or full of sea squares there are likely to be at most one other sea nation. I believe Oceania has an edge vs either of the other two sea nations. So dominating the seas should not be too challenging.

Step 2: Cast Maelstrom. You should be ahead in both gems and gold even before the spell as the land nations busy themself fighting each other.

Step 3: cast Sea King's Court. With Maelstrom and the Troll Kings' gem production it takes relatively little time to gather a large Sea Troll army.

Step 4: Land. In MA the sacred troops are quite tough on land too.

I have left out a few details in case some of you want to have the fun of discovering them yourself.

[Saxon]

Actually, those little details you leave out are what I need! I have done all that you describe in dominating the ocean. I am working towards Maelstrom, but it is rather high level (8) and I need something before that. I have troll armies and the Naiad Warriors, but their numbers are not enough to handle armies, especially those with blessed units. Since a fair bit of my old army is still in the water, I am essentially starting to buld entirely new armies halfway through the game. The land nations can do the same to invade me, but with some medium level magic, they can bring their old armies with them.

[PvK]

Asp Turtles aren't amphibious until you cast Gift of Reason on them and then give them an item to let them go on the surface... I haven't tried yet, but I assume this will result in a flying saucer of doom...

[PvK]

Kydnides are great. Also my Oceania has managed to get (I think more or less as an eventual result of native casters and forging boost items): Naiads, death Naiads, Vine Men & Ogres & Kings, Ether Warriors, Firbolg, Spectres, Faerie Queens, Water & Air (& Earth via pretender) elemental royalty, Djinn... and even without the unique summons I could have several other types but I'm doing fine with these. Wave Warriors and Kydnides make a good army center at least against general foes who don't have too much artillery - human opponents could hurt them easier than the AI. I think it's a bit challenging because one needs to get more creative and mix/match with indies, expensive summons, etc.

[Shovah32]

PvK said:
Asp Turtles aren't amphibious until you cast Gift of Reason on them and then give them an item to let them go on the surface... I haven't tried yet, but I assume this will result in a flying saucer of doom...

Asp turtles with amulets of the fish and rings of regen/lucky pendants might be fun but i dont see them being cost effective.

[BigJMoney]

That's one exact strategy I have been comntemplating in my current game.

I haven't really noticed any problems bringing Oceania to land, myself. The merfolk are weak, but I have an untouchable set of underwater provinces from which to recruit and afford millions of the little buggers. My plan is to slowly waste away my opponents by taking their lands one by one until my economy eclipses theirs. At some point, I'll have so many more inferior troops, it won't even be funny. Also, there is that one cheap water spell that does strong damage to a single target (I can't find my manual right now) so even the weakened mermages can cast that. Creating armies of Triton Kings to make use water bracelets and fish amulets and casting falling frost is working well, too. When they run out of gems, I'll have them assist my puny armies by casting those dehydration AoE spells.

Of course, this wouldn't work in MP, but in MP I wouldn't pick EA Oceania unless someone else was also playing an underwater nation, in which case my goal would be to dominate the seas to gain safe territory.

Also, I don't know what your earlier strategy has been to this point, but it's well known that Oceanic nations do well with very strong dominion and temples everywhere, since it is hard for enemies to go into the water to destroy those temples. This makes shore assaults pretender and prophet friendly.

=$= Big J Money =$=

[Shovah32]

The problem with massing low resource troops to raid enemy provinces and boost your economy is upkeep, 150 10 gold troops will cost you 100 gold per turn, while 150 may seem like alot they will be crushed by better equipped foes(and if they come up against flails/dual wielding units...) so the best idea might be to mass armoured units, just an idea.

[PvK]

Yes, I think Wave Warriors make a fairly good core amphibious troop because of their armor, but they should have at least a light screen of troops with shields in front to protect from archers.

Turtle Warriors on Fire Closest are synergistic with Wave Warriors, but if you don't want them to move together underwater, then dry land shield/javelin Light Infantry tends to be better-equipped.

PvK

[Saxon]

Leviation is fun. The Asp Turtle dies and you summon it as an undead critter, so same flying saucer of doom, but no morale issues...

[HoneyBadger]

How does one summon up (undead) a specific creature of yours that has died? I haven't figured that out yet.