[Boron]

Originally posted by spirokeat:

Now clam hoarding, thats a different one, I aint got my head round that yet either.

Spiro

the best clam horder is atlantis i would say .
but since atlantis has very few pretenders and the only mage with other skills than water magic is the king of deep with 2 completely random other magic skills i think the idea behind the clams was to enable especially the 2 underwaterraces and especially atlantis in the long run to get other magic pathes too .
this general idea is good and works well .

the only problem is ihmo if a game Lasts too long . it depends on the settings and so on .

but i think only if the orania map is played and Lasts long enough it is really a problem or in general when the gem income through clam hording
exceeds the income through all other gemsources greatly.
there are some nations who are potentially great clam horders too like caelum / pyhtium .
but the 2 most dangerous are ryhleh + atlantis i think because the water provides quite good protection in the beginning and still some in midgame .

so at some time if excessevely done it comes to a point where it skyrockets :
to keep it simple i assume there is no water/astralgemincome :
if you have reached e.g. 100 astral gem income through clams and convert all to water gems you get +5 clams ( more with forge items but again simplicity )

then you get :
turn :
(0)100 gems = 50 water gems -> forged to 5 clams
(1) 105 gems , again 5 clams , 5 pearls saved
(2) 110 gems , again 5 clams , 15 pearls saved
(3) 115 gems , 6 clams , 10 pearls saved
(4) 121 gems , 6 clams , 11 pearls saved
..........

normally you have items with forge boni by then and the costs even drop so the increase goes even faster

really dangerous it becomes once the clam horder gets e.g. 2/3/4 times more astral pearl income through clam hording than gem income in total .
and then sometime it comes to a point where you either cast one / two wishes per turn or something similiar .

but i think this can only happen seldom on an orania map where there is the following :
1. only 1 underwater nation ( ryhleh or atlantis ) or if there are 2 one of them is an early quitter
2. if ermor is included it can't pay attention because it has to deal with short term more important "above-the-sea" problems
3. no other player with either a good aquatic pretender or easy access to water breathing items or something similiar realises the danger that is coming from the underwater nation and / or has more important problems with the "above-the-sea" enemies

hmmm that is much longer than what i intended to write

Last question : can you cast flames from afar on underseaprovinces ?