[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by LordArioch:
Oh master race designers ...what's this about using 5 research mages for 140...why not just build bards instead?

They're only 75 and get 4 research...their upkeep isn't halved by sacred, but they're nice for early research and some simple protection spells on your sidhe do wonders, raising their protection up to a very respectable 20. Also the bard is a spy and a standard of course...you lose the air magic and the upkeep is the same, but early bards leave a lot more money for sidhe.

The Bards are indeed very cute and I would build them early except they can neither bless nor lead an army and the barrier on building Sidhe is resources early not gold - sloth1 or 2 are what I've tried. While Sidhe Champions cost in resources they are better value than Daoine Sidhe per resource. You would not have had to worry about this so much relying longbows.

Building one commmander a turn early its a monk for bless plus moving a few troops around or a Sidhe Champion for leading armies and fighting. If the golds coming in nicely the Champion helps research quickness while they wait for a new army to assemble. Another bonus to building Sidhe Champions early is they quickly get into the hall of fame and get a heroic ability.

However you have made a very good point I overlooked - if you don't find Sages early build Bards when it comes time to invest in a real research program research - say sometime after turn 10. This is particularily strong with an even higher magic scale and I can see why you love Bards. The fact that I can't find room to build them early is one of the sacrifices in my present design.

I seemed to be doing decently with my tuatha, even though I had a light bless and relied mainly on longbows for growth.

I'm not of the opinion that Tuatha need powerful bless effects and as you say in time you can turn the Daoine Sidhe into super troops with magic. I'm just having fun with bless effects right now because they weren't in Dom1.

If only Man got the Lady of Fortune as a pretender! With the enforced luck on the Tuatha theme its sorta sad we can't try and maximise the return from luck plus get the added security of extra fortune in our home province. She would also be a great bless effect pretender. I haven't yet discovered the appeal of the Mother of the Tuathas who is perhaps why Man don't get the Lady of Fortune. I wish the Mother of Tuathas was not so good and more affordable as Tuatha doesn't have alot of room to move when it comes to design points.

cheers

Keir

[ November 26, 2003, 08:55: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]