Going Underwater

[Saxon]

Linked to the underwater question, does anyone have any good hints on how to take out tritons and keep going? Between their flying and the poison, I find that they deal a lot of damage to my troops and occasionally rout them if they get to the commanders. If I run into two or three provinces in a row, it is tough to go through. To me, they are some of the toughest independents. Ok, the dark vines are a pain and so are knights, but the tritons seem more common.

[Scott Hebert]

What I've found is that Tritons are a 2-edged sword. They're _very_ good at routing enemy troops (because of flying and generally high casualty counts), but they're susceptible to the same problems. Generally, when I'm going into a Triton province, I have my commanders in the middle of my troops, and try to bring in a good number more than the report says are in the province. Tritons have very little protection, so it's normally a bloodbath on all sides. Your major task is to break them without breaking yourself. To do that, anything that lowers their morale (Fear) and anything that raises yours (Priests, Standards) are useful.

Just some basic stuff, but generally useful.

[Master Shake]

does anyone have any good hints on how to take out tritons and keep going?

They are a pain for sure. One way to prevent your troops from routing is to put a small suicide squad right in front of a larger main squad. The tritons will first surround (and likely kill) the suicide squad, while your main squad will take mimium damage from the tritons the first round. When your main squad attacks, they may be able to force the tritons to rout, or kill enough of them so you win.

Another way is to recruit tritons of your own. Use a suicide squad again, and let your tritons surround the indy tritons.

[Taqwus]

Anything undead will ignore the triton's poison, and most undead will never rout. Plus, low-level types can be had cheaply, which lets you wrap your commanders in them to minimize that risk. Mechanical Men have similar properties, and have better prot and resistances.

Triton commanders also are vulnerable to Earth Attack and Mind Hunt, and if memory serves don't have bodyguards if you have a fairly tough amphib assassin like a Ashikagan Jonin.

[Saxon]

I will try the independent squad idea, it will still incur losses, but should allow me to control who I lose and limit them. I tend not to play nations with undead, but perhaps I should make an exception, a la Pirates of the Caribbean…

Hiring tritons is also done, but it depends on how many provinces remain to be attacked. The Ickys I can take back on shore once the ocean is cleaned out, whereas the tritons just patrol aimlessly. If I only have a couple of provinces to clean up, I hate spending a lot of cash, and then upkeep, on tritons.

[HotNifeThruButr]

Shambler Reef and Ichtyid provinces are good for going underwater. You should also check every month to see if Ship Wreckers, Master Gibur, or the Fishermen are available for hire. Those are the only mercs that I can think of right now that can go underwater without a penalty. Master Gibur isn't going to conquer any reasonably strong provinces though, it's just himself a big sized water elemental.