EA R'lyeh challenge 4.20 run.

[Raghar]

Just managed to finish EA R'lyeh 4.20 and win. Scary stuff. I did it as a challenge. Of course only after I spend several hours, I tried to find where are R'lyeth national spells, and found they were introduced in next patch. And then found equipment of R'lyeh generals is rusting in 4.20, because all they are using weapons and armor that can rust, as underwater nation. When I discovered it, I decided to continue, because it was nearly even fair.

So First things I did was to attack both land and sea. And I even captured nearby throne, and build palisades. And then I discovered nearby Tir. And Tir said that's nice throne and fortress you have nearby right? And they attacked it. And I didn't have anything to dislodge them. And when I'd try to fight them I'd spend so much resources I'd lose everything. So I decided I'd conquer water.
After I did large detour around coast, I discovered Thodon was locked between amber tribe, and a throne. So I decided to do some preparations. Of course, against Theodon you do preparations only when you don't want to have economy in conquered territories, and when they would use that time for preparations on theirs own you should be able to defeat them. I was somehow be able to defeat theirs armies. Then conquered theirs territories and spend over 10 months of starvation to conquer Theoros capital. Which ended first phase of conquest.
The second phase of conquest was:

Sit in the water, look at coast, and grin evilly.

Let's show some information about strategic position. Tir was close, and controlled all land neighboring my capital, also he was able to cut all reinforcements from my capital when it would get into the water, there was only small channel to go to rest of the sea.
Fomoria capital was neighboring the sea. It was on the other side of the continent.
There was also Niefelhaim who had capital on the north, and Abysia who was in center. Agartha had quite powerful position on North west. And Berytos was around South West coast. Tir was on a South east on peninsula that controlled waters that were entry into large part of ocean.

Niefheim was doing quite well on North, especially with it's +2 death scales. So I devised a smart plan, let Niefheim do what it wants, be nice on them and bid my time save gold and magic gems, and when weakness appears use it. Niefheim would slowly cripple them and its own land and they would be easier pickings. And I'd perhaps manage to prepare my army and do some research.
Alas wraith lord summon needs 5 skill, and I had 3 without staff. And considering I actually wanted to summon wraith lord on north coast, I would have nearly no death gems left after empowerment and summon, and also I had not enough construction to be even able to make skull staff. At least I spend empowerment to be able to create that nice pirate global when I research it.

Well that was the original plan.
I had about 1100 income and 900 upkeep.

Then someone cast certain global enchantment. I played blind so I didn't looked into what it actually does.
Shortly after that. Tir attacked my three provinces simultaneously and conquered them. And I was forced to move my old units that I though I will not need again after I conquered sea. Then I tried to dispel it, then I spend you don't want to know how many astral pearls for dispelling the global enchantment. So Tir armies died, but they were smart enough to hire province defenses. My income dropped to 900 with 1050 upkeep.

Dear Fomoria, can you stop casting Thetis' Blessing when you don't want to attack the sea? The only nation in sea was me. And I was acting nicely to everyone, with exception of Tir. And that's only because Tir send units against me.

Well it was obvious, I wouldn't be able to survive second or third casting of that spell. So original plan failed, and I was forced to build army and attack now. And try to defeat Tir who would kill me when I'd allow him to become even stronger.

So I prepared an army, send 4 mind lords around coast with amulet of fish, joined army cast few astral gates, and my army of 4 mind lords, 5 troll kings and trolls, some troops, and three etheral lords attacked... Niefheim capital. It's their fault they have it on coast, they should dry sea a little when they have R'leyh nearby.

My attacking force sieged Niefheim capital in one month, Nifheim wasn't stupid and one of theirs main army arrived at the end of the siege, but at least he wasn't able to reinforce its own, and it was still in full strength. Thus I killed Niefheim army, and conquered Niefheim capital.

Now, why I actually attacked Niefeim when Tier was most dangerous enemy, and I DIDN'T have money for another military campaign against Tir? A 14 years old would get revenge against Tir because Tir attacked him. But attacking Tir would lose me the campaign for sure. Tir had stronger armies, could easily reconquer everything I could conquer without sieging, and it could easily wear me down, especially when there was no room to maneuver. Conquering Niefhaim capital surprisingly gave a LOT of gold, and a castle relatively far away from everything.

So I carefully conquered Niefhaim territories and took care to not have common border with Tir. Then Tir attacked Niefheim province. C'mon Tir. Get real, actually you can't. Grow up, actually that would be bad. Don't act as 14 year old child. So you send your pretender into province and I killed him instead of letting him conquer the province, leave province, and reconquer it... But you resurrected him already, why we can't be friends, can't you get over it?

I reinforced province defense and hid behind it to prevent direct attack, then attacked Niefheim province and tried to outmaneuver Tir armies. Meanwhile I assembled a weak force to attack Tir coast, only two aboleths, and native R'lyeh troops. I should send more mages, but I didn't have money on them before the attack, the upkeep was high already. I send another small force to the other side of coast. Meanwhile I managed to get a wraith lord and a little attack on North coast told Niefheim they shouldn't rush to reconquer theirs capital.

Then Tir split the army, and I destroyed the weakened part, Tir send army to reinforce on palisades Tir captured from me at the beginning, and I send my army to conquer Tir's capital. Tir reinforced theirs army and send it against my, after I conquered Tir's capital, so I still didn't evade fight 258 Tir troops against my 205, or so. But I somehow won without being crippled. Perhaps when one of my Mind Lords wasn't scripted he did better than otherwise and helped to with with low loses.
I had serious problems after I spend money on province defenses, hiring units, and temples. I went from 10000 gold at the start to 3000. But even before capturing Tir's capital I had 1600 income, which made all that difference and was direct result of attacking Niefheim.


(actually I think I killed his pretender 3x more during all fights.) But Tir was ultimately obliterated. Hi Agartha, Hi Fomoria. Can we be nice neighbors. Agartha: we declare war on your xxx nation.

So that force that was beating up Fomoria would be beating up Agartha right? Agartha attacked sea province on opposite side than was my main army. They can do that? They have units that can attack sea? So I spend effort to gather sea force that could repulse Agartha, and then protect the province against further Agartha incursions. I needed my main army, and I reinforced it with some nice heavy cavalries meanwhile. And I found a province with fort, that could hire elephants.

Then I was in a war with 3 nations, Fomoria, Niefehaim, and Agartha.


And then Berytos declared the war on me when it was obvious it would be just two of us. It was dom killed in few months without fighting. Berytos acted as a very nice and polite nation, and also survived the longest.
Won after serious mishaps like casting a global enchantment that dispelled my other global enchantment.

R'leyh can be crazy campaign. It quite a bit depends on starting location and your neighbors.

 

[Raghar]

Some comments.
I should probably write detailed post after each day of playing, just to show some strategic planning or advanced tactics. (non cheese) But I was on a verge of losing nearly whole campaign, and I didn't want to waste half hour each day just to see an accident that causes an abrupt end of the whole campaign.

And also posting it each day, might result of some nice person telling me that patch 4.20 has commanders which have weapons that can rust. And the whole point of blind playthrough is finding that little important fact just before an important battle.

I liked when Tir attacked these 3 provinces simultaneously when I couldn't defend myself. That was actually very nice and thoughtful. It interrupted road correctly, and on multiple points so I couldn't resolve it easily. Concentrating the whole force and attacking my capital would require sieging it within one month, because I dispelled it on the second attempt.

I think it's interesting that R'leyh campaign can be split into these stages.
1. Conquer sea, or enough land.
2. Grin evilly, and try to survive and keep what you have.
3. Git Gut.
4. Fight extraordinarily well.
5. Get finally these gems and spells that when cast allows you fight on equal footing. And R'leyh has astral mages that can be improved rather easily to cast that stuff. A6 without empowerment. (Actually wish is easier for ether lords, but R'leyh has mind lords that can cast that summon without trouble.)
6. Start conquering everything.
7. With extreme skill manage to defeat enemies.

One of brutal part of R'leyh is it kinda needs spells that are at level 9 in multiple schools. Wish level 9, Abominations, Astral nexus is paramount, Strands of Astral power are LETHAL. Getting 50 astral pearl from Astral nexus means wish every second month. (of course, it's somehow hard to know what can wish do, these who are doing blind stuff could ask for legion of gods only for kicks)

I kinda miss you can't create Astral gate in EA R'leyh. It would allow nice continuity into MA R'leyh. And it kinda feels unrealistic when all these behind the scenes interactions with astral are not simulated. A dice roll sometimes gives unsatisfactory weird feeling results.