[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Wendigo:
For SG Etimmu can summon ghosts, act as a SC with Soul Vortex & doesn't cost 35 gems...

And can arrive on turn 2, on turn 30, or not at all. I never build strategies around heroes, it is just too unpredictable when (or whether) they arrive.

There are very few lv4 sites and you have the death ones covered. Not worth it taking 4 just to be able to uncover them. 3 is indeed good, but you can already afford that without taking missfortune.

Let us just say that I am a compulsive gem-gatherer. Additionally, the many L4 paths allows leaders with Shirts of the Battle Saint a large number of useful enhancements (I prefer slapping Rainbow Armour on just about every mage/priest leader but Shirt of the Battle Saint will do in a pinch. The host of minor blessings added to the major fear effect of death 9 [obligatory] also make Wraith Centurions or Bane Lords even nastier SCs)

And regarding fighting you still only have 1 mage with only 5 scripted spells, regardless of his/her might...lv3 or 4 does not make that much a difference.

I completely agree that it does not make much difference in which spells you can cast in combat. You will remember that I specifically mentioned ritual spells for putting up globals or summoning mages (e.g. elemental kings, queens, &etc) to summon other mages. [It is usually much faster to reach spell level 5 from 4 than it is from 3]. That said 3 or 4 makes an enormous difference in fatigue for higher level spells in combat.

You would still be restricted to using your pretender for everything when you put all your eggs on one basket,

Until reaching conjuration 5-7, at which point I could easily summon ANY mage to do the rest of the work within his branch of magic.

while with a better economy you could just hire a few indep mages freeing a lot of your pretender's time: more battle mages, more ritual casters & more forgers are superior to taking a few skills from 3 to 4...you want to cast spells as if you were lv4 in the field? just hire a couple shamen & communion for better results.

Assuming that I get these good independent mages and shamen, which while likely on large maps, is not all that likely on small. As noted earlier, much depends on map size.

You will have more, and better troops with a better economy also.

No, I may have that, if I get lucky. A few 1,500g events in the early game, for instance, will vindicate your position completely. But that does not necessarily happen. You can still have your temples destroyed by earthquakes, have your labs on fire, &etc with luck +3.

In my dead Ermor's experience (mostly from DomI admitedly) a great deal of your chances for success with Ermor rely on maximizing your Pretender's time...you do that through a luck scale that gives you coin for indeps early on, and through a non drain scale that allows you to research the magics to summon magic critters with magic skills later on. How far you go with each has obvious trade-offs, but definitely superior to missfortune & drain in my experience. [/QB]

I never advocated drain. I suggested misfortune and magic, not drain. (In fact, drain is impossible in the Soul Gate theme)

And you may very well be right, it is entirely possible that, on balance, it is better to take the luck 3 than misfortune 3 and the 240 extra points for magic skills, fortress, pretender, and dominion 10. I am just not convinced of it yet, based on my limited Ermor playing.

I am convinced that your suggestion is safer on average, so if your strategy is based on risk-minimizing (which is not a bad default strategy), that is the way to go.

I just suggest you do not write off Ermor with misfortune/magic immediately.