Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

I agree with vfb.

I think people who ban most globals are just being whiny because they haven't figured out how to deal with that global. I will not join a game that bans global spells. (I say this having gotten to my first end game in Water Total War, of course...)

Especially Burden of Time - I have no idea why this spell gets banned. Oh no, my opponent cast a global which effects me! Might as well complain you were being mindhunted/seeking arrowed/etc...

Edited to disassociate my comments from my agreement with vfb.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Hey, I never said anyone is being whiny! :)

I think I'm pretty much on the record for saying AC is fun. I just love those doom horrors!

Utterdark/BoT can be pretty exciting too.

AN is kind of not-so-fun, especially if you get into 999-gem AN battles, where no-one is using their gems for .. uh.. fun stuff. But I still don't think it increases MM.

How come no-one has brought up Wish? Not being able to recruit anything anymore is also kind of not-so-fun.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Related to latest comments in updated first post.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

If it's true that removing gem-gen items cripples some nations, then the solution seems pretty simple: Give those nations gem-gen summons. What little I know of modding suggests that the mechanics are there for water, earth and nature gems... can that be expanded to the other gem types?

Edit: Now I see that Fantomen beat me to this idea and has it in another thread... nothing to see here. Move along.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

In terms of Victory Conditions, cumulative victory points more or less guarantee that the game will end at worst at turn X, so they could be used more often. Although they only provide 1 cumulated point per year, so you need to control the VP province on the good turn (last winter or first spring?), they force games to end faster.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Really? I thought it was once a turn. Man that sucks, it being once a year.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Cumulative VPs just don't work. They are added only in the mid summer turn. So you are not rewarded for keeping it, just having it on one specific turn.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Can gem gens made cursed and unaffected by forge bonus? Then increase the price?

So FF would generate like 1 gem every 4 turn on demons.
Say a Clam would cost say 15W10N (not 14 total with hammer), so it'd take 50 turns to pay for itself.
Blood Stone - increase cost to 15B15E.

Curse would make them destroyable.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Burden of Time is problematic because it's very low research, cheap, and unable to be countered aside from a direct gem-war with a dispel (boots of youth and other anti-aging items don't work against it). It also works the turn it is put up, so it can do some nasty damage even if it is immediately dispelled, especially if the caster chain-casts it.

It's also in the "dispel or lose" category for certain nations, and the mechanic is uses isn't at all fun or interactive.

Re: Template for reducing late game MM hell
 

Nope.