Researching vs Site Searching
 

I was just wondering what most people's priorities are in this regard, and why?

Does every mage you buy, barring an immediate war calling them to duty, go straight to research, or do once you pop Thaumaturgy 2/Evocation 2/Construction 3 (or 4 if you've got underwater access for Tiamat), you have every available and capable mage looking for magic sites (especially since the 3.08 patch has made that easier)?

I mean, if you rely on your mages heavily for battle assistance in all phases of the game, I guess research with your non combatant mages is a no-brainer.

But if you think you can get by in the early to mid game without them in the field, what's more useful? Race up to Conjuration/Construction 8 for the uniques, or find every last gem producing site in your empire right away, and get that gem income rolling in ASAP, even if you lag in the research department?

I'm interested to hear your opinions. Thanks!

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

Oops, I should have prefaced that - I'm mostly interested in how people would play this out in MP. Thanks.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

I tend to make site search spells a high priority, but I'm fairly new to MP. It may be an error.

It's a tradeoff. If your mages/strategy is more evocation, battlefield damage based, you may want to push the combat spells first. If you want early SCs/thugs, you're going to need the gems to get them.

If you've got access to the research booster items, finding the gems to start producing them early may actually speed up the research by the midgame.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

Generally speaking in mp you want those gem sites ASAP. So researching site searching spells and starting to gem search is a high priority. However there are of course exceptions, you might want to go with alternation/construction to give your awake pretender buff spells/items, or to go with defence in the form of evocation/conjuration if you expect to be rushed early.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

Depends on what nation you play, but getting Thaumaturgy 2, Evo 2 and Conjuration 2 are always pretty high priorities for me, especially Thaumaturgy and Evo.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

I still like manual searching, but I think I'm the only person that does.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

Agree on high priority searching, quicker they're searched quicker you know what you have to work with.

If you end up getting the 50% discount conj site, you'll be wanting to move all your summoning there. Finding it early allows you to plan a bit better. Plus unit production sites, other magic paths, etc.

And the most compelling reason...the earlier they're searched, the quicker you accumulate gems for use later.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

I do alot of manual searching too, especially when I have mages with 2 or more high levels of magic (EA Niefelheim) or mages with many varied paths (EA Tien Chi).

I think its a good idea to put alot of effort into searching every province you own for every single gem you can squeeze out of them. Later in the game you will always face a gem shortage.

Research is very important too, typically by turn 10, I will have at least 8 mage researchers and 2 manual site searchers.

Btw in a MP I am in at the moment I have completed all research, every path to lvl 9 complete. Now I have 200+ battlemages which is really fun and wierd... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

I have that happen alot in SP games, unfortunately i'm too lazy to individually script them so i just toss em in the back of a mess of troops and let em go to work.

I usually only manual search until I get lucky with enough income to get 2-3/turn for site spells. Even if I have a heavy research pretender I'll jump him around if he has multiple paths for a few turns.

Re: Researching vs Site Searching
 

Yeh, in that particular MP game, I only have time to give orders to 1/2 or 2/3 of my nation, so I have put them into 40 mage death squads. 10 spam a army, 10 buff everything and 20 blast the hell out of anything. Not the best of tactics perhaps but good enough when you are not bothered about them dieing...