Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

With this question I am implying both that I don't get it and a second question:
Under "normal" site frequency conditions, what are the chances of a site being in any given province?

Back to the main question: AR costs 25 pearls; that means if you find 1 1-pearl site, it will pay for itself in 25 turns. It is hard to quantify what "payoff" means in other terms (how badly do you want earth gems vs. pearls, or other types of gems...?), but let's try. If you find 2 sites, say an 1-earth and a 1-pearl site, it pays for itself in 12 turns.
But I usually play "normal" site frequency maps and even with very decent searchers, I often turn up zero-site provinces. But how often do these occur? Does the "40" in "site frequency setting" mean that there will be a 40% that at least one site will occur? Or is some d6oe going on here?

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

I think that 40% sites means a 40% chance a site will be in each of the 4 site slots, so that there's an 87% chance that at least one site shows up. I'm not certain, but I seem to find more sites than seem right if its a 40% chance to find one site, a 16% chance to find 2, and so on.

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

I think the chances are much better at not getting a zero result if you limit your acashic records to mountain, forest, swamp, and wasteland provinces...no farmland or plains...until you have pretty much won the game.

At lest that's my strategy, though I'm no expert.

25 pearls is a lot, though. I always make sure I have a significant reserve before burning pearls in this spell. I don't want my having used acashic record to cost me the ability to dispel a nasty global.

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

AR is seldom if ever cast in MP- too costly... Players usually mostly make mage searches and some path-specific spells, not AR.
In SP you need to have a steady gem income and stock already . It speeds up searches a lot, but is usable only relatively late in the game.

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

By the time i start using AR most of my researchers have 2 clams each and i have at least one gem generating enchantment up.

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

I'll let my AAR speak for me regarding using Acashic ...

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I thought only 1 item of identical type can ever stack with another? Are you sure you are actually receiving 2 pearls on your dual-clam-wielders? (I *thought* I tested this out once and came up negative (only 1 pearl/turn)).

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

I started using it a lot after reading many of the Posts and AARs on the board. In fact, it is one of the main things I look for in a nation when I start (how I would use the nation to get up to cast Acashic as fast as possible) and one of my first priorities I have in a game along with acquiring provinces as fast as possible.

Since I don't use a rainbow pretender and like to keep my mages doing research instead of running around searching, I use the spell almost exlusively to get my gem income going. Once in a while I will have my pretender and/or the priest/mage travelling with him to search while resting and waiting for more troops, but for the most part I rely solely on Acashic Record.

I like to have mages of all types, either through choosing a nation that allows random choices, or finding wizard or other random choice site provinces. I like to be able to forge items of all types, depending on the situation, and summoning of many types. I don't see any way I could research fast and find sites as fast as with casting Acashic Record the way I like to play. Plus, it even finds the hard to find sites that require a higher mage skill to find. I even got an extra fortress and temple in my most recent game this way through finding a site that gives you one. That was a first for me and a nice surprise http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This is precisely why and how I use it.

Re: Why do you like Acashic Record so much?
 

It's too simply too costly. I usually figure out which three gems I can make the best use of, then start casting the specific sitefinding spells like Augury and Haruspex with several mages.

I use Acashic Record mostly because I like finding cool sites I've never seen before. I never looked at the various magic-sites-lists, because I want to find out myself, and don't want to deprave myself from this "Wow, that's something cool!"-feeling. So, it's 25 pearls for a sort of adrenaline kick for me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif