[LintMan]

Originally posted by Borg:
- Is there a certain "Research Rate" that you like to maintain throughout the game ? How many RP's are you gunning for per turn ?

I don't have a specific research rate, but I tend to *constantly* buy mages - as many as I can afford/produce. (In my Last Arco game, on a huge, rich map, at the end game, I had 30+ astrologers, 80+ mystics, 50+ sages, plus numerous summoned mages (ie: lamia queens, lichs, ether lords, elemental kings/queens, Ivy kings, tartarian titans, etc). That was a bit insane.)

- Do you sometimes interrupt that research ? For shorter or longer periods ? Or do you maintain research at all times ?

Almost all the mages I recruit are used in my "magic pool", where they research unless I need them for something else. (I don't tend to use mages in combat until late game. Unless I'm really pressing to get to a specific research level, I usually freely divert mages from research to site searching by spell, item forging, or ritual spells. Since I'm mostly gem-limited in these activities throughout the game*, there's usually plenty of researchers still available.

* ie: early game, I have few mages, but also few gems to use for rituals and forging, while late game, I have many gems, but many mages to use.

- When you forge items. Do you appoint one or several mages to forge continually or do you sometimes forge 4, 5, 6 items at the same time - so you can fully equip one of your Commanders right away ?

Unless a mage has a special path combo that is need to cast or forge something, I don't dedicate them to forging or rituals. If I have the gems to do it and the need for fast results, I'd definitely pull as many mages onto forging duty as I needed to get the items built quickly. (Unless at the same time I had a special strategy that needed a certain amount of research completed ASAP, but that's not common for me)

- Is there maybe a certain Research level where you stop researching and go on the offensive, because you can cast all the spells you're looking for ?

Nope - I want access to those top level spells. Actually, if I wasn't playing a blood-using nation, I'll probably not bother with blood research.

- Do you have special tips on research which you think other people haven't thought about or might find very usefull ?

Not a special tip or "secret", but my thoughts on mage recruiting: Because I want my mages to be multi-purpose, I partly buy mages based on their research efficiency (ie: sages), and partly based on their random path spread, trying to get good/diverse paths. For example, Arco mystics have 3 random elemental picks. I buy lots of mystics, hoping for mystics with those picks slotted into only 1 or 2 paths. That gives me more chances of having mages to forge whatever items I need or be boostable to cast the ritual I want to do, etc. If I was playing a less magically-diverse race, I'd still try to get as much spread as I could, but then probably focus on efficiency.