[OmikronWarrior]

I did the growth and death charts. Search for "Growth and Death by the Numbers." The break even point for choosing Growth-3 instead of Order-3 is turn 43. Coincidently, the fall behind point for Choosing Death-3 to pay for Order-3 is also turn 43, assuming you don't get any plague events, which is an enormous assumption.

Of course, thats just theoretical speaking. The real power of Growth is to combine it with Order to really rack up the multipliers. If you happen to have old mages to worry about, it pays for itself in other ways as well.