[curtadams]

Boots of Youth is not a fix for aging. Research is twice as difficult, sages are almost impossible to find (in 4 SP games I've seen one library), and most independent researchers require a lab and temple. With your good researchers old (and therefore not acceptable as researchers) you have to research with low-end researchers. It takes *forever* to get to Con 6 - 1040 research points with 4 point researchers is like bailing a bathtub with a teaspoon. It takes even longer if you want to have your mages *do* anything in the first 25 turns or so, because some have to come off the research line to, well, do something, and because you need to research whatever they're going to cast. My SP games are basically won by the time I get Con 6, and in MP, players will often be dead before that kind of stuff starts showing up.