[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Zapmeister:
Add to this the fact that 2 gem types are required for nature-1,water-1 clams meaning that, in the case of R'lyeh and Atlantis for example, a nature gem supply must be found, and the pretender is probably the only unit that can find it.

Untrue. I haven't played Atlantis or R'lyeh, but I often advance into the oceans (when they aren't being played). Even without searching, there's a lot of Kelp Forest nature sites in the oceans - in some games it's seemed like one in three aquatic provinces had one.

So, imo - the nature provinces would be easy to find for Atlantis or R'lyeh.

(I'm neutral on the Clam issue - haven't been in a game yet where they were 'abused'. It does seem like they should be in a "lesser artifact" class - limitted in quantities, perhaps each nation could have one or two. Like the magic salt mill that turned the oceans salty, things that produce things from nothing shouldn't be common.)