Could you do a list of mages you already have, and their paths? May some of my following humble suggestions don't apply as you either have better or no suitable mages available ..
- conjure(6) a harbinger (Astral-4), which will come with Air-2
- start searching for Air sites
- forge a Staff of Storms as soon as possible. Jotunheim doesn't have that great missile troops, so you won't loose that much. Would be very helpful against missile-heavy nations or heat-radiating creatures, though.
- how much Vine Ogres do you get from that Norna per turn? Her upkeep is 14,7gp, and you tie up 8 or more research points with this summoning.
An indie druid with Ivy Crown and Thistle Mace would be much better suited for the task. Lacking it, a empowered Seithkona, an Amazone, a Coatl or a Lamia Queen might do (I'm not shure 'bout the upkeep of the later ones, though.)
- Nornas with Death-2 can get you (Enchantment-3) Revenants (Death-1) for only 9 gems. Upkeep for those is free AFAIK. They're ideal to pile a ton of feathers, lamps and skulls upon them to get them to 19rp each ...
- Black Servants, Banes and Bane Lords make great Commanders and Part-Time-Pocket-SuperCombattants without upkeep-costs (AFAIK, havn't tested). They start with encumbrance=0, so you can slap the heaviest armor on them and still they won't tire at all. Give them Wraith Swords and they'll regenerate hipoints in combat, too.
Sadly, they have poor prec so you'll have to keep the
- Scepters of Authority for your Jotun Priests. Set them to "cast spells", and they'll use their priest spells to buff your troops or banish undead, unless there's no target in range. Than they'll divert to Flame Bolt with range 40 .. sufficient in most cases. And it's only 5 gems - a real bargain. I'm not shure if "double fatigue during rainstorms" does apply for spells from items. Item usage is only 5fat/turn while the spell would be 20- and fire-2, even if it's doubled you would still need a fire-3 mage to get the same number of spells
without having a Staff of Storms present.
- do not use your prophet for preaching. He's spreading dominion anywhere he goes (kinda auto-preaching
), so he better stays with your army, especially as he's the only priest-4, isn't he?
hope this is somewhat helpful ..
[ February 21, 2004, 15:44: Message edited by: Arralen ]