I just finished a game with Ry'leh and meant to post a comprehensive thread about the race; looks like someone beat me to it, so I'll just toss out some ideas here (I'm definately a newbie compared to most the regulars here, but I'm working on it).
Not really knowing how to play Ry'leh, I took bad scales: Order 3, Growth 1, Misfortune 2 and Drain 1. My pretender was a Void Lurker (the big mushroom) with 9 Astral, 4 Water and 4 Air.
If I were doing it again, I would make very different choices. Order 3 was important because Ry'leh's troops are very gold heavy, and order increases gold (i think). Growth was also useful because those damn squid sure eat a lot. Misfortune 2 was an awful idea because it meant I lost at least 7 priests to insanity or horrors lurking in the void gate; I imagine with higher luck I would have fared better. Drain 1 wasn't a huge penalty but research suffered, as Ry'leh's researchers are expensive and there are plenty of other things you'll want to use them for.
As for battlefield tactics, the Illithid mind bLast is definately the weapon of choice whenever possible. A group of about 5-8 squids at the back set on "Fire largest" (or whatever) will decimate most independents and, more importantly, just about any small force. Mind bLast also makes an EXCELLENT pretender killer, as it effectively removes them from battle but still lets you kill them
. The cheap in resources squids are usually adequate unless you are facing fast or flying troops, in which case the armed squids are the only ones with a chance of surviving in melee. Unfortunately, the downside to all this awesomeness is cost, both up front and in upkeep.
The slave troopers are fairly worthless as anything but cannon fodder. I experimented with each different level, even the insanely expensive Version decked out in meteorite armor. I'd recommend just getting the cheapest: the others performed better, but not 20 resources a piece better. These aren't elite troops, they are cannon fodder, so treat them like it!
The lobo troopers are even cheaper, but they require magical leadership. One major problem I had with Ry'leh is the fairly low leadership values of it's commanders. This is especially apparent because a large number of Ry'leh's troops are magical and require magical commanders. Yet magical commanders can often not lead much in the way of normal troops, and vice-versa, which can cause some major problems. The Traitor commander was unused in my game, save as a garrison to patrol the capitol province.
The crab hybrids are quite cost effective (even for their high cost) for underwater combat; unfortunately they can't leave the water. The shambler thralls are fairly similar in pounding power, and additionally, can both trample and leave the water, which I thought made them a better choice in general. The only caveat to consider is that thralls require magical leadership, whereas the crabs don't. They cost the same, so its really a situational thing.
As for the leaders, I stuck mainly to the Starspawn mages, with an occasional SS priest thrown in. The mages are awesome leaders and awesome mages, with quite a variety of magic. If you recruit enough you should be able to access decent spells within every sphere of magic, and if you have some gems lying around, empowering some in the rarer schools is a highly profitable venture. I found earth and death to compliment their inherent astral and water power well. I never really did anything with nature, though it certainly would have been useful (for the supply items if nothing).
I'm still learning what spells are useful and which aren't, so I can only offer vague suggestions in that regard. Water gets some good summons, and astral + a few of something else pulls down some good ones too, so I focused pretty heavy on conjuration. Obviously got the prereqs for body ethereal, personal luck, etc, because with such powerful ethereal mages, it would be silly not to. Hit constrution pretty hard too, as I like to outfit my commanders with lots of toys. Good spells on the battlefield were quickness, soul slay and star fires. Summons I made a lot of use of were fall bears, water trolls, ETHER GATE (cast that one a lot) and in the end game a bunch of abominations just because they are rad.
Finally, I didn't start using indepedent provinces to supplement my squid army until very late in the game, hence almost my entire army throughout the game had been produced in my capitol. In retrospect, this was silly, as just a few squads of archers or heavy inf/calv provide a fairly cheap and effective supplement to your mind-bLasting army. Additionally, independent troops may have better movement than your squid, which were rather slow in my experience.
Hopefully this will spark some debate or at least offer a few ideas into playing Ry'leh. I certainly enjoyed the nation and will be playing them again (after I've tried the rest!
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Re: R\'yleh? - edited
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