[Arryn]

Originally posted by Pillin:
Have you considered going for cold 3 for the extra points? this wont hurt you as much as it will hurt all the others bar the cold 3 nations.

-5% gold and -10% supplies will hurt me more than my enemies. The gold in the early game is critical, and the supplies later on when my armies are large. Giants eat a lot, and Bags of Wine, etc. can only do so much. I did consider it, and in my previous games, before Zen opened my eyes a bit, that's exactly what I did. But so far in this game (I'm up to turn 18, though the AAR is only as far as 4), not going for Cold 3 has been working rather well.

You asked a great question, which I'm sure a lot of beginners are curious to know about, and is a point that is subject to debate. If I took the Cold 3, then the points gained might be spent on:

• Magic increase to 3 (I already have more than enough fast magic research)
• Misfortune reduce to 1 (tempting, but I prefer the gold; my nornas will help me to reduce misfortune in my capital, which is the key province)
• Growth to 1 (does not make up for the loss of gold due to cold)
• Astral from 4 to 5 (I should have taken 5 anyway. But this is not the fix for that. I'll make do with items to boost my skill.)
• Dominion increase (5 is enough to start, and trading gold for dominion is not a good idea IMO)