[Tricon]

Originally posted by love crime:

BTW, am I alone in not understanding the cost rational for pretenders? I mean, compare said blue dragon, with frost mage. Frost mage has so few hp that not only can he not be used in battles, but he is an assassination liability, he has a weaker dominion, is a weaker water mage, and COSTS 5 MORE DESIGN POINTS?

I mean, sure he has 10 point cost reqs for ease of rainbow maging... but I really don't understand any of those rainbow mages, at least not at their costs.

What is the purpose of giving a pretender a little from each path of magic, if he can't even fight?

I mean, outside of combat, you need to have gems to get any use out of the magic (from rituals or construction)... So if you are getting a few magic points in paths your nation already doesn't have... how are you going to find the gems to get any use out of your magic paths? The pretender will find them himself? (what a waste of time...) And if you already have mages that can search for magic sites, then why does your pretender need a few points in such many paths, since the mages can use the gems themselves.

Don't get me wrong, a rainbow mage out searching all the provinces could jumpstart your gem income, but I don't see how that justifies the relatively high costs of selecting them as your pretender.

-strange that I should ever defend Rb pretending- but RB pretenders are pretty powerful --- in the long run (well actually most during mid-game).

It's pretty easy to make a rb pretender that has 2 in all magic paths. Keep him safe (bodyguards!) fromm assassination. And yes you do need to go site hunting with the pretender (at first). You'll find about 80% of all sites (don't have the numbers here at work), missing out on the juicy ones... but that can't be helped for now. You'll soon get a steady gem income. After your empire has grown a bit, you can also search via spell (most require 2 in any given path). Get to forging. Forge magic boosters and equip, again most paths require 2, so that's not a problem (where is that usefull magic booster guide when you need one...grumble, it exists , look at some websites, either arryns or cherrys or some of the others)With some of the paths pumped to 3 you have access to magic boosting eqipment to 4(nevermind if you cannot eqipp it all, just leave them in the lab and use as needed). Of course it is not "that" expensive to magically enhance the one or other particularly usefull path to three anyway - in midgame it should be done to the one or two main paths that you want to use. OK, now, you got a pretender with magic paths ranging from 3 to 5, pretty usefull as most spells are readily availlable to you now. Of course none of the real biggies on which to base an entire strategy around, but in exchange you've become very flexible. And Rainbowing serves two other big purposes, too. First you can always sell your fire and earth gems, which is a GREAT way to boost your income. Second, you'll be able to summon a host of usefull creatures to do your fighting and negate your armys weakneses.

I'm not fond of rb'ing myself, but I faced some tough rb pretenders, and have gained a healthy respect for rb strategies.

[ April 19, 2004, 21:20: Message edited by: Tricon ]