Dominions 6: EA R'lyeh Pre-game

[@cobrawat7]

Babel in every previous Pre-game video: "I don't know if i'm pronouncing this right" Babel in the R'lyeh video: *immediately pronounces the name of an Elder God, with no issue* Curious.

[@thewolfpack5290]

:D

[@Timlagor]

Umm... you know it's not Rylay

[@BabelBuilder]

I am not an eldritch horror from beyond that stars. How could I even type with my flesh manipulators even?! Stop being silly.

[@Timlagor]

19:50 I feel you should call out the lack of equipment slots too. Presumably there's gear that would get Aboleths out of the water but they can't wear the armour

[@MazuiLakon]

There isnt 😂😂😂

[@BabelBuilder]

My kingdom for a fitted shirt!

[@Timlagor]

@@MazuiLakon Looks like they can wear the Amulet of the Fish that he mentions later in the video...

[@raphaelsutton962]

Ooh, R'lyeh is fun because it's so unique. That also makes it a little tricky since you need unique strategies as well. At least you won't need to worry about the "blessings" of Rex while you're under water.😅

[@BabelBuilder]

In before geyser spam kills my prophet.

[@wowzank]

you want to play ea rlyeh, interesting :) some clarification on mind vessel: it can only be cast on androleths, the sacred mages from coast forts, it only confers the astral level of the casting aboleth, not its other scools and, very importantly, it makes the vessel mindless and immune to morale play. This is important to rlyeh cause its slave troops and mages are very succeptible to morale plays in mid and late game, with some slave mages as communion slaves, mindless troops and mindless vessel mages as comunion masters rlyeh can have armies that are fear immune also a nice tactic for elemental heavy underwater battles as rlyeh is to have a SC pretender that can teleport on an army, let it waste its water gems for water elementals for 5 turns, teleport out and then attack on the same turn with your own army, which is fully stocked on water gems third tip, rlyeh commanders can be given a "fire rearmost enemies" order, unlike other nations, so having a bunch of commanders shhoting into the enemy rear line on turn one is a nice surprise for unsuspecting opponents :)

[@BabelBuilder]

Nice tip on the teleport play! It feels like such a missed opportunity that you can't use other paths too. I was going to test out a chassis to do winds of death before someone else commented the same thing about it not working like that. :( During the stream, we did get in a bit of fire rear: kzbin.infoEQuRR6xyR4U

[@comeonandslamandwelcometot2418]

I would like to see you make videos like these “pre-game” vids for the nations you don’t plan on playing on stream too, because I really enjoy these. Sooo basically nation analysis videos lol.

[@BabelBuilder]

That might be doable if I made them with less testing. 🤔

[@Timlagor]

@@BabelBuilder Being right about stuff is over-rated!

[@thewolfpack5290]

I like to rebirth(no unique model)/ *twice-born* /(lichcraft (rare)) them(the tentacle dudes)(they even got unique models for undead)).

[@BabelBuilder]

No hands makes getting to D2 hard. :(

[@noop1111]

Fish can't wear shirts so no shambler armour for air breathing. But can't they forge a custom shirt that would fit a fish?

[@BabelBuilder]

No hands, no shirts, why everyone gotta keep a fish down? :(

[@vagrant2863]

For a second I saw the thumbnail of this video as Desmond from Smiling Friends with the gun to his head. Utterly fitting.

[@brastionskywarrior6951]

This isnt la rlyeh

[@vagrant2863]

I remember I played EA Ryleh in a game back in Dominions 5 after they got Mind Vessel. I took an Awake Wyrm for expansion. I ended up being confined to a tiny bit of land on the coast but I remember that Mind Vessel was quite useful as it allowed my Aboleths to be more useful on land. You can also treat mind vessels like grenades for big astral casting since you're just burning astral pearls on what is essentially a better project image.

[@Timlagor]

Y before E and AFTER the L.

[@philnorris3507]

Did it in SP Dom 5 and my strategy was based on using enslave mind communions to "recruit" indy and enemy troops and mages on land. Enslave mind is usually the superior version of Soul slay in most situations, why kill them? when they'll fight for you 😄. The combination of mindblast and enslave mind works well in battles and you often end battles with more troops than you started. Paralysed troops can be enslaved. Took a dormant rainbow pretender for magic diversity and path access, particularly to summon site searchers for death (revenant and mound fiend) and fire (flame spirit land only). They can only be cast on land and now I'd add Gnomes for Glamour. Used the mind vessel spell on Androdai paired with a Mind lord for communion leader, with rune smasher and pen items. Eventually cast Master Enslave with communion. Amulet of Fish really helps get the big cap mages on land so Dormant is important. My theme was mindblast and mind control and it worked. Good luck on stream.🤩

[@philnorris3507]

arcane command is a very good use of a bless point as it lets any sacred commander lead +25 magic troops, including the cheap amphibious slave priest and indy priests on land. That lets you shuffle magic troops around a lot easier including underwater.

[@BabelBuilder]

That's a great point. The god shown here could easily shuffle points for that too.

[@philnorris3507]

Polypal mothers are a way to solve the problem a lot of underwater nations have with dominion coming in from land nations. AS h2 they can preach away enemy candles and also produce a useful freespawn bonus to PD to stop raiding and so protect temples built for dominion spread.

[@Timlagor]

@@BabelBuilder Hmm craft those water breathing items and lose them to lure the enemy into your clutches!

[@Timlagor]

Along similar lines you might try to put up Globals.

[@KermodeBear]

A nation I want to love (and have taken into a MP game or two), but I just can't seem to get the momentum necessary to make them a real contender. I'm hoping you have better luck and can show me some tricks. I found underwater expansion to be pretty decent as long as you have enough mind blast to back it up, but getting onto land can get tough if you don't establish yourself early. I do wish Mind Vessel were less expensive. It's a cool concept (thematically and mechanically), but it's just so damn expensive for what it does. But if you NEED a strong mage somewhere on land, and you need it Right Now, it's a way to do it. Out of curiosity I did try a Grandmother since I needed to push back on some Dominion underwater, and it worked, and the freespawn isn't the worst thing in the world, but 400GP is a lot, and could go toward a useful mage or some decent units or a fort or... I ended up using some Telestic Animation castings which did the trick nicely. Two things that would be 100% game changers for this nation, imo: - An Air Breathing bless. There would still be need to build Amulets of the Fish if you want your big casters on land, but at least you could get your smaller fish and sacred mind blasters up on land. - A Misc Slot that works like the Shroud does, making the unit sacred. This would let you get a Recouperation Bless, which means you can use your big fish for Mind Hunting and not be stuck with a massive, useless pile of upkeep when its cord gets severed. Looking forward to watching your playthrough. Good luck!

[@BabelBuilder]

Airbreathing bless plz and thx!

[@allanmetsar123]

Rlyeh certainly has some Mass Effect Leviathan vibes to it

[@BabelBuilder]

Look, things happen in R'lyeh, and they stay in R'lyeh.

[@krkngd-wn6xj]

I have tested it, and can confirm that Lost Land can be chained to get to initially in land areas.

[@BabelBuilder]

The Builders really liked it when we sunk the enemy capitol. Lost Land is frankly a win condition, if you can get the time/gem income. Thanks for the testing confirmation!

[@krkngd-wn6xj]

@BabelBuilder I just played a really long, grindy game, where I lucked into some good earth gem income early. I ended up sinking like 5 tiles and creating an island for myself, lol. As scouts spot big enemy death blobs approaching my siege, just sink the ground before they can arrive.

[@GrandpuhTy]

Oh I'm excited for this one. High Cultist was a favorite of mine in Conquest of Elysium beside the Illusionist. Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

[@Elvenkin]

I've played EA R'Lyeh. Once. In Dominions 4. It goes without saying I didn't win. So good luck! Btw, Lost Lands looks interesting. Do the landlocked regions bordering the targeted provinces count as 'coastal' after you cast it? It'd be incredibly funny to just saw a continent in half..

[@The_Iowegian]

I have been super interested in their aesthetics, but have yet to try any water nation yet.

[@BabelBuilder]

Always go with what draws your interest, but you might find EA Atlantis an easier nation to get started with water nations. I have a video and a stream on them!

[@The_Iowegian]

@@BabelBuilder Yes!! I still need to get to that and Yomi!

[@MazuiLakon]

Mind vessel is nice because u can add 5 astral to whatever paths the target already has. Including priest.

[@BabelBuilder]

Certainly, a unique spell. I really wish it was all path though! My winds of death pretender would have been cool. >

[@MazuiLakon]

@@BabelBuilder nvm i just found out its a dumb spell that only works on the tentacle lv1 priest thing

[@BabelBuilder]

You now know my pain.

[@Xaxares]

Crafting rings is going to be crucial. Getting/empowering one guy in air 1 to get amulets of the fish will let all your timeless horrors swim up to the surface. Edit the first: Too bad you don't have easy access to glamour here. I feel Astral projection would work wonders here with the fishbowl guys. And I wonder if a Mind lord prophet can also grant his priest levels using the unique share/paths spell they have access to. And now the obligatory musical interlude... Under the sea, under the sea Darling it's better Down where it's wetter Take it from me Up on the shore they work all day Out in the sun they slave away While we're devoting full time to floating Under the sea

[@BabelBuilder]

I was thinking about the mind lord chassis and setting him up for wind of death. Then mind transferring over to a sacrificial body.

[@redman0027]

@@BabelBuilder I tested it today and I'm pretty sure you only transfer your astral path to your Androdai. It would be so cool if you could do more. I tested it on an Androdai with 1 death magic just in case there was some kind of minimum requirement, but he only got my Mind Lords Astral paths.

[@BabelBuilder]

Thanks for the test data! That is so sad to hear. That could have been really unique.

[@Minhar]

Good time to play underwater

[@BabelBuilder]

*Ocean Man intensifies*

[@redman0027]

I've only won as R'yleth in EA once. It was an all in strat for Ether Warriors, I fished (lol) for 3 astral 1 death Abodai, then cast Gate with my God. I converted all my gems to astral pearls and got about fifty ether warriors using abodai and steamrolled the map with slave mage back up. The only negative was the Ether Gate ended up horror marking a huge number of my mages including my god because I forgot Magic 4 dominion causes horror marks and Ether gate increases your magic scales in local province.

[@BabelBuilder]

Nice. How big/long of a game was that?

[@redman0027]

@@BabelBuilder Honestly I can't remember, but it was faster than I expected. I went magic 3 and I had 2 forts pumping out slave mages and the cap was abodai. I think Ryleth is one of the only nations that can get a native S3D1 and Ethers can be cast underwater, so I thought it felt really unique for the nation. Its probably really important that I was the only UW nation though, it allowed me to save my gems where otherwise that probably wouldn't have been as viable. I smashed through the UW provinces with nothing but Atlanteans basically.

[@neversaydie6032]

I think you should have to make the immobile holy threes in each province as a role play thematic requirement. That's how your people reproduce.

[@BabelBuilder]

Ignore grandmothers. Conquer the surface!

[@AAX11111]

This is going to be PAINFUL. I didnt think you'd do EA R'lyeh. Does this mean EA Pelagia is on the table as well?

[@Timlagor]

10 seconds in and the pain has already started.

[@BabelBuilder]

We will add Pelagia to the game and look at them, but they will be a skip as far as dedicated stream

[@andrewcole4843]

Not sure why you go quite so high in earth/water (maybe 4 reinvig instead to allow moral boost?) when that chassis takes boosters like earth boots etc. I guess only alternative to the level 9 flooding is earlier rainbow like pathing also including death/nature. Either on same chassis OR old man of sea - with the cost of top 2 dominion and top water/astral path mitigating the chasis price difference and +20 extra path with one free). Old man dormant can be used (arcane giving magic being limit increase, and UW transport + combat mage/teleport role) to make remote land bases (Islands, map sides etc) viable for non UW summons to allow use of gem types and use those to allow amphibious/teleport invasions to get to thrones/ cave areas/Isolated seas + help niad/kok/undead/darkness/nature plays etc.

[@BabelBuilder]

I think the bless can be refined for sure. 100 earth gems for Lost Land is not a cheap spell, so we have to look at opportunity costs when it comes to gems.

[@Iturnright]

EA R'lyeh was the first nation I tried to play, and I haven't yet revisited them. It wasn't pretty :D I am starting to get a better idea why I thought it was so challenging. All of the aboleth and their spawn look cool, but it felt like they didn't /do/ anything.

[@BabelBuilder]

Cool and need to fund their luxurious lifestyle with a 450g/year contract.

[@Timlagor]

0:10 You're cancelled! R' L Y E H!!!! NOT NOT NOT *NOOOTT!* Rylay!

[@BabelBuilder]

Tim gains Insanity (10).

[@Timlagor]

@@BabelBuilder It's just a shame you're not streaming Dominions this week

[@sevareth7371]

I think your bless is pretty good, but i'd sub Precision and 2x MR for that fire 3 inspirational x2, i found that to be excellent for slave spam. I enjoy Ry'leh too much, and i dare say they are unbeatable underwater. Critical mass gibodais is unbeatable, all enemies just get stupified. Beautiful stuff. I did find the polypal mothers great for province defense, just recruit some in contested provinces before a war and its much harder to take. They only get a d6(?) roll on freespawn so it takes a minute to get the chafe going. Two mindblasts and if they fail they blow up and kill near everything in a decent radius. Mind slime for insanity is decentish. Hopefully no star blows up and obliterates all the hard work these little guys are doin. that'd be an extremely specific and strange way to die off as a nation. Lookin forward to friday.

[@Timlagor]

Plan for getting out of the water : don't. Just bring the land to you! I think you only need 4 Recup for infinite pew-pews since you get one for free. If you need more than 50 you're probably not achieving anything with them anyway so going down to 3 might be OK.. but recuperation is nice for the actual casters too anyway

[@BabelBuilder]

I will try and get some more tests in. The blessing can be streamlined for sure.

[@yugonostalgia8961]

Lore inaccuracy alert! The Aboleths were not the driving force behind the underwater politics of EA - they were journeying up to teh surfact to examine an 'inauspicious star.' The star & it's Starspawn later fell into the ocean, destroying the Aboleth & Atlantian cities & giving birth to the MA Rlyeh aliens who conquered & enslaved the whole of the ocean

[@yugonostalgia8961]

Great video otherwise tho

[@BabelBuilder]

Well, you are correct. Speaking about the timelines, the nation becomes the driving factor by MA. Kinda timey-whimmy timeline stuff. :P

[@NotTzeentch]

I love the reimagining of the ability’s with their grandmothers and androliths. I want to be enslaving populations and creating wormy abominations. Instead I get slaves that have enough free will to run after getting their knees scraped and slave mages that are effectively better at magic than ancient beings from the beginning of time. This nation needs more unique spells and mechanics, because as is it is very close to an indie recruit only challenge.

[@BabelBuilder]

I really like nations that have national spells, *that they can actually natively cast*!

[@NotTzeentch]

@@BabelBuilder Bind keres heard you and is upset

[@BabelBuilder]

Feeling is mutual!

[@lazorr3260]

C'thulhu fhtagn!

[@BabelBuilder]

Been traveling in any deserts lately perchance?

[@lazorr3260]

@@BabelBuilder only endless, maddening ones beyond time

[@lilithwollstonecraft5763]

I clicked on the video when it had 420 views, I'm sorry I took this from you

[@BabelBuilder]

I am okay with this. In fact, you should probably click and and watch all the other videos too. That would help even it out a bit! ;)