Playing against Lemuria is infuriating

[Eggplant]

I find playing against Lemuria extremely annoying. This is because of:
1. They are extremely strong against PD.
2. They are hard to invade due to low supply.
3. They have to be annihilated quickly, or otherwise a large swath of the map will be worthless.
4. Their commanders cause fear.
5. They usually go underwater.

Are there any tricks for dealing with these factors, or is coalitioning the go to method for dealing with the ghosts?

[Imperialus]

Coalition is about the only way to do it.
As a coalition member you also want to make sure you have good sacreds with magic weapons.

[No One]

Part of the fun of Dominions is exactly that it isn't quite balanced. If you don't want to play fair for whatever reason, you have that option. E.g. maybe you just want to thoroughly stomp a single-player game one day. Okay, Lemuria or MA Ermor, go nuts. Maybe in multiplayer one of your players is very inexperienced; okay, let them play an exceptionally strong nation to make up for it.

[Rovsea]

Originally posted by Eggplant:

I find playing against Lemuria extremely annoying. This is because of:
1. They are extremely strong against PD.
2. They are hard to invade due to low supply.
3. They have to be annihilated quickly, or otherwise a large swath of the map will be worthless.
4. Their commanders cause fear.
5. They usually go underwater.

Are there any tricks for dealing with these factors, or is coalitioning the go to method for dealing with the ghosts?

Nations such as Atlantis, Vaettiheim, or Caelum are all able to fight them early.

[Eggplant]

6. They are stupidly good at defending forts.

I don't really mind strong nations. However Lemuria feels more like annoying than strong, since they're also quite poor at attacking other nations.

[Perro Grande]

You pretty much have to put in 100% to deal with them which means your neighbors who didn't do that will come out stronger than you even if you beat them due to the lack of gold from their provinces. Honestly I think it could be interesting if these pop-kill nations were able to create like a magic site per province that gives 1 gem of some type to make invading them more interesting / rewarding, maybe nerf their cap income to compensate.

Also don't forget

7. They can steal your sacred units and commanders.

[joeball123]

Originally posted by Tomfoolery:

7. They can steal your sacred units and commanders.

That's probably not a very serious concern - Apostasy's MR-negates-easily and takes an H3 to cast, and Lemuria's H3s are expensive enough that by the time you have any aside from your prophet you've probably got better things to do with them. The casting AI also probably isn't going to choose to cast Apostasy - of the H spells available to Lemuria's higher-level priests, it tends to prefer Protection of the Shadelands so at most you're looking at perhaps five casts of Apostasy per H3 per battle.

[Eggplant]

That's pretty annoying if you're running sacred commanders and no sacred troops though. Quite a few nations have little sacred troops, but plenty of sacred mages.

[Eggplant]

PS, I can't be the only one who feels like Lemuria was intentionally designed to be as annoying as possible.

[LDiCesare]

In MP, either Coaliition or just ban them. Don't let a good player play them.
In SP, well, if you like a challenge, you can go for it but they will be a pain too.

[jojeck]

Counter their dominion with temples and indy priests preaching. Counter their troops with banishment (if you have a good version of banishment). Magic weapons from a bless deals with their troops in combat. Fire Elementals and any troops / thug with a flame shield counter their troops. I think Flaming arrows can beat their ethereal troops on land.

[jojeck]

Originally posted by Eggplant:

PS, I can't be the only one who feels like Lemuria was intentionally designed to be as annoying as possible.

Are you sure you are not confusing the word annoying with challenging? I like playing Lemuria not because they are particularly easy (I play against higher difficulty AIs) but because they are so different. Also I don't mind playing against them I use the tips I gave above as the basis of dealing with them and they are less annoying than LA R'lyeh and the effects of its dominion

[Eggplant]

There is a difference between annoying and challenging, and I think Lemuria is strictly in the former camp. I think this is because Lemuria isn't actually very strong at attacking other factions, and also because overcoming the challenge against Lemuria is not very rewarding. Perhaps also Lemuria feels annoying to play against because advancing against them is so tedious and slow, and furthermore Lemuria focuses on limiting their opponents options, rather than having good options themselves.

[Legowarrior]

The balance between popkill nations and non popkill nations is still rather up there.
I think there are a few mods that treat popkill nations like Yomi, but harsher.

[Emphyrio]

I have regretted joining every multiplayer game that has had Lemuria or Ermor in them. Since you hate them too I suggest only joining multiplayer games where they're banned from now on.

[Sunday Driver]

It's fun to have a nation that plays so differently and has such different threat to them. Having people rush to band against them or take them out early adds some spice to the mix too. Can always agree not to have someone play certain teams if you don't want it.