[Saxon]

I thought I would share this, as we are all newbies.

A number of provinces let you recruit nature mages and some have a random on water and such. If you can get W1, you can build a ring to boost water. Put that with a W1N1 mage, and you can cast Summon Naead. Of course, you need a W income, but you can search with Call of Aspu if you have W1 mages with a W ring. You have to plan ahead and you have to get a bit lucky with the provinces you capture. My SC pretender allowed me to take a lot of provinces early, which gave me a good selection. It also gave me a lead in provinces, which has for some reason made some people think they should attack me. Nothing is every perfect…

Once you have summoned, you have a W3N3 mage, which is very useful. I find it hard to get paths I don’t have, but this was a fairly easy and strong one. Of course, as I have discovered, you can not move her around, but nothing is every perfect. Anyway, throw on the thistle mace you can now forge and you have N4, which has some nice uses.

On a related topic, there was a post in the forums that noted that holy sites tend to give astral pearls. I have started searching more with my priests and, sure enough, lots of holy sites. You may wish to check it out. Why I am telling Nero this is beyond me, given what I suspect his long term plan is… Seriously, I had never looked at holy searches before and it has made a difference. It is part of the reason I am doing well on the gem graph. The other part is the provinces, which goes back to my SC pretender and the early expansion. More provinces means more gems. However, nothing is every perfect…

Check out my research, especially early on. While I was searching and taking over provinces, I fell far behind in research and remain behind. I had to spend a fortune in death gems to catch up. That is a problem. No offense Ulm and Abysia, but you guys are in deep trouble… If I have more magic than you and I am paying for being behind, you are going to have some real problems…

The other place things were, and remain, not perfect is gold. I took some bad scales to get my SC pretender. This is the reason I have more provinces, but less income than several players. MA Ermor is different that EA and LA, as I have learned the hard way. Everything is a trade off and nothing is every perfect.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I really should go back to the office and do some work…