I'm rather interested to hear what you have to say about Readers and Crafters. I started writing this guide to figure out the strengths and weaknesses, not because I was any good. I hadn't tried Agartha until a week ago, and if I make a whole new thread on the subject, I have no objections to borrowing someone else's expertise, if freely given.
Yeah... I knew the Ghost King was a poor choice. But that doesn't mean I didn't want to try. (I want to avoid obvious choices such as Risen Oracle, just because I'm contrary)
I was about to go into the pretender choice i picked... but before I go into any great detail about my master plans (Master as in Southparks'
Underpants Gnomes
I've got step one (steal underpants) figured out, and step 3 (profit). But between there....
So... if you're in the Jaguar game, promise not to read any further, m'kay? Honor system here.
So my pretender for this game (already sent in to keep Sunday from disappearing into the abyss of pretender design and nothing else, so no chance of tweaking) is an awake Drakaina named Scylla, Patron of the Rich, Symbol of Unchallenged Victory. Scylla, is of course, a reference to Greek myth, the monster with six heads, and the dogs sprouting from her. I might have tried other things, too, but I would have been experimenting forever. So, while she's not going to change for now, I am interested in what you would have done differently with her, or suggest I do with what I've got.
She has two fire, three water, three death, and five dominion. Her scales are one order, one sloth, one turmoil, and three magic. Using some math I'll leave out for now, I can get all the way to construction four by fall. I've even done it in one practice game. So this is a research strong empire. The question of balance I'm trying to skew by sending Scylla along with my armies. She's not quite tough enough to take on the independents by herself, but once I hit const. four, she could take a water province by herself.
So while I can hit construction four by my first fall/early winter, I'm not sure that's the best way to spend my research. While I need to expand (and sloth hurts when I can only get resources from two provinces), hopefully my high research allows me to try something out. Do I let some of my mages do other things? I can pinch pennies by hiring earth readers instead of golem crafters, but given my order and sloth, I usually have enough money even to buy mercenaries. Up until I want to buy a fortress. I'm going to have to take some care in budgeting. But not as much with my previous turmoil-1, sloth-1, heat-1, death-1 pick. Rather than a significant penalty, I've got a 5% money bonus.
In the long run (dwarven hammer, construction 6), Scylla is capable of directly or indirectly getting me Demilichs, King of Banefire, King of Deeper Earth, Kokythiads, and the Water Queen. Still doesn't do much for my magic diversity, but does give me quite a bit more range in my chosen fields. That's certainly end-game though, since I'd need the gems for all that junk.
If I make it that far, I've got access to Darkness - though I'm not aiming for utterdark, as my pretender is neither blind, undead or able to see in the dark. Burden of Time would be suicidal with my mages, so thats out.
So while I have ideas about my endgame, I need to work on something a bit earlier than that or just unspecific expand, grow, conquer. Any five-point plans? I'll be thinking on what I'll be aiming for most of today, but I'm open to suggestions.
And I finally found that list of sites. In edi's sig. Which search engine doesn't include. Now, I just have to figure out the 20 sheets. But anyways, ignore my earlier question about sites. I found a rather nice one my last game, that gave me +1 gems all Except Death, Astral. And I found it with an Earth Reader, of all things.
I've done a custom sort on the sites list, tweaked the layout a bit. And its an interesting read, for sure. For instance, Water has only the one Level Four site, but its not unique, but rare, so I can get more than one, and it offers five water gems. And it can only be found on land!
Also, there's no reason to search under water with a priest of level two or above. The only underwater holy site requires H1.All the more intensive sites are above ground.
As for holying a l3 priest, to get a l4 prophet... There are two L4 holy sites. The Temple of Time and The Ward. No need to search for the Ward- it'll announce itself by smiting the undead. With its unrest reduction though, it'd make a nice place to hunt for blood or overtax. The Temple of Time... I'm uncertain about that one right now. But considering I don't need more priests, its safe not to waste a prophet searching for it. Unless it has some benefit I'm overlooking. The level three sites are nice enough , but not enough to go looking for. If I happen to have a way-to-expensive oracle searching for high-level earth sites, though...
If the unrest reduction is active all the time, you can find most of the sites by a little judicious taxation. If not... Also, earth death and fire all offer level one const bonus sites.
Theres all sorts of tidbits here... but I'd lose track of my purpose if I went on about it.