[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Ice Sickle:
I feel compelled to have a rainbow mage regardless of which race I am playing. This lets me find every type of gem and forge nearly every item.

Good. Thats not a problem. The long-time players will tell you that finding the nation/theme/pretender combos that fit your playing style will give you much better results than trying to force yourself to play someone elses "killer strategy"

2) Searching for Magic sites
I usually send out a mage with about magic areas (fire, earth, death for example). But of course he/she can't find everything. I want to find them all so I'm tempted to send out my pretender searching after about turn 15 or so. Later if I have a good astral gem income I'll use that reveal all astral spell.

All extremes can be dangerous to pursue. I also want to find every site but trying too hard in that area becomes damaging to your empire. A mage with 1 in a magic isnt worth moving around. Maybe if he has 1 in many many magics. 2 finds many sites, 3 is better, 4 might not be worth pushing for. So I try to get mages with 2 or 3 in multiple magics, maybe some 1's added into it. Also dont forget that priests can find sites also. Its a good idea to send a 2 or 3 str priest along with your searchers.

3) How do you do this without a rainbow pretender? If you have no water mages you can't find water sites so you can't empower a mage with water gems to find water sites. Do people just not bother looking for gems that aren't primary to their magic?

Again, dont try too hard to get everything. I do it like this.... If I have mages for it, then I will search for sites. If I get lots of sites for certain gems, then I increase my mages in it.

Some sites do overlap. I might start out with mostly nature magic. Thru luck of the rolls, I might find alot of water-gem sites (you can find some with nature magic). So I boost a couple mages a point or two in water, make some water items to boost them farther. They look and find yet MORE magic sites. And maybe one for water mages. OK I can take a hint.

disclaimer: I tend to play loosely and take advantage of what the game throws me. Some others use strategys all-thought-out before the game so would consider my method very unplayable

4) Castle strategies. Because of administration I am loathed to put two castles closer than two territories from each other. What's some wiser thinking on castle placement.

The checker-board perfect placement of castles is a strategy of the "formula fiends". Im more of a "random rogue". I look for choke-points that I can make use of a castle in. Such as a long province with lots of resource and population that is between really strong independent provinces or water.

5) How many gems do you put in the hands of mages as you send them into battle? I don't have a good feel for this. I tend to want to pile up gems for empowerment and magic items but I realize that a mage without gems can't do much. On the other hand I have most of my mages doing research anyway rather than out there fighting -- at least in the early game.

As a general rule I like to give them 1 gem for each magic. If they have 3 in nature then I give them at least 3 gems. More if I have plenty. Dont give them too much though, they are greedy gluttonous pigs. If you dont have flying commanders who can do fast deliveries then consider sending scouts along who can stay hidden during combats holding the gems and blood slaves that the mages will need later.