Efficient Site Searching
 

I played this game a bit (SP only) about a year ago, then stopped, and have recently gotten back into it again. I am, for all intents a purposes, a newb. I seem to like sub-par nations, rely too little on magic, and have never played multiplayer. None of this bothers me as much as my complete inability to sufficiently find magic sites. No matter what nation I play, or which pretender I use, I reach the mid to late game with a laughable gem income.

Is there any advice out there for a poor newb?

Re: Efficient Site Searching
 

if your pretender is a rainbow than by all means use him to site search in the beginning of the game, before you relegate him to lab duties only. otherwise it depends on the nation you play. some nations have great manual site searchers, others rely more on remote searching. it also greatly depends on what gems are the most important for your nation.

generally remote searching is easier than manual, but it costs gems as well as the mage turns. manual searching is free and can search for more than 1 gem type simultaneously. however it costs twice the mage turns(one turn to walk another to search) and isn't guaranteed to find all the sites in types he can search for(unless it's a level4 mage which is quite rare for most nations).

Re: Efficient Site Searching
 

On one hand it's good to search early to get more gems out of each site, on the other hand this makes you a juicier target (in MP).

The best manual searchers are those with many high paths of course and if possible good mapmove or flying. LA Caelums Harab elders are amazing site searchers for example. This often (not always) means your capital mages are quite good site searchers, use the cheap low path mages from other forts for researching.

It is a good idea to be a bit anal about which provinces to search first, especially with remotes. For example cast dark knowledge on unsearched swamps and wastes before targeting other provinces, haruspex at forests and so on. Same goes with manual search.

Match you site searching strategy with your research goals and overall strategy. Don't waste research turns on gems you don't have a plan for early on.

Keep track of the magic sites setting, the lower the sites setting the more streamlined your search strategy needs to be, and the less return in trying to dig out a third or fourth site in a province.

If your mages are bad searchers, then let other nations do the searching for you. Focus on building a strong army instead, and research offensive spells that don't cost gems. Then look and the gem income graphs and attack one of the leaders.

Re: Efficient Site Searching
 

Sitesearching is definitely one of things you should plan during pretender design. My favorite strategy is taking sleeping rainbow pretender. I check what paths my mages have, and if I can produce mages with lvl 3 magic (or, especially two different level 3 paths on a mage) - I exclude these paths from rainbow design (for example MA Ermor rainbow in my latest game was designed with no paths in S and D), unless, of course, I need these paths for minor bless. So I usually have cheapest rainbow pretenders with many paths 3-4 lvl, which are useful for bless nations and just optimal for a nation which donesn't bid on their sacred units. And forging boots of flying for him is a very good idea.

It also depends on game settings. If research is difficult - I strongly prefer sleeping pretender taking better bless or scales ..If research is easy, then awake rainbow, which can give you both - research and sitesearching - can open many winning strategies for you (like relying your expansion and early wars on spellcasters support,not just raw power or bless units.)

As for manual sitesearching - you can easily calculate and compare...you need 2+ turns of a mage for manual sitesearching. And you need only 1 turn for spell. Each turn you spend you loose potential research. One more factor - it`s better to find sites earlier, as you will start getting gems earlier= will have more gems. All doms are about mathematics.
If you are betting on early finding many sites, it's also good to have a way to spend them, so some priority can be given to constr, or conj. research to optimize the strategy.

Re: Efficient Site Searching
 

I think I saw somewhere that level 2 magic path searches will find 95% of that magics sites, and level 1 was 75%. Legging it can be worth it if your not too fussy about getting them all.

Re: Efficient Site Searching
 

Also consider that while yes lvl 0-2 covers most sites, the "super" sites are mostly sprinkled in lvl 2-3 sites.

A quick look in the DB gives me (roughly, noobie judgment on units):
lvl 2 sites - contain 12+ sites with worthwhile mages/unit for hire, 14 discount sites
lvl 3 sites - contain 7 sites with worthwhile mages/unit for hire, 10 discount sites
lvl 4 sites - contain 1 site with worthwhile mage for hire, 3 discount sites.

It may be very worthwhile to go for lvl 3 search, a discount site or the right worthwhile mage hire can completely change your game. As for lvl 4, I wouldn't bother if you have to spend any tangible effort to get it (eg. taking pretender with 4 pick in a path instead of 3 solely for search when bless is not a consideration).

I didn't bother to look in lvl 1 or lvl 0 sites, I do recall there is a rare sprinkle of lvl 0 site that gives discount, The Oven for construction and the Cedar Pillar I think for example.

Re: Efficient Site Searching
 

As I learned the hard way... set him in back set to retreat. Se "Mage butter" haiku..

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...ighlight=haiku

-ssj