[Boron]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
Boron: Conjuration 9 is HIGH. At that level summons are meant to be very cost-effective, worth every gem you use. Wights are. (Sea) Trolls are nice mid-game, and might be the one thing that forces you to defend instead of researching, or that kills you before you get access to Wights. Also, if you have the right mages and want to use them for summoning instead of researching, you can summon one trolls for one gem. With, say, 10 national mages summoning trolls for three turns you get 30 trolls for 30 gems. It is slower, but very cost-efficient in gems, although less so in mage time. All those mages could be doing something else, like forging, fighting or researching, or searching for sites.

Besides, recruiting trolls for 0gp/piece would become boring after a while, don't you think?

the site where you can recruit trolls should be removed or modified of course . i didn't mention it because i thought it is clear .

ok if you summon 1 troll for 1 gem it is costwise cheaper . but you could instead summon vine ogres. the cost is 1 gem too , with items / special summoners you can get even more .
a ivy crown costs only 5 nature gems and you already get 2 vine ogres / summon .
the vine ogres don't have regeneration but are mindless so they never rout . that makes them ihmo an as useful "shield" as ordinary trolls.

although i don't use them much myself contact draconians is a good comparable spell too :
like trolls you get 15 draconians +1 chief.
the chief is no mage but can summon further draconians. but they are upkeepfree .

worth a test would be to give the troll king summon allies ability too and reduce the gotten trolls to 10 but make them upkeepfree .
trolls are the only summons which you can't summon endlessly if you have enough gems .
this makes them clearly inferior to all other summons . and they don't have such great abilities which justify paying upkeep .