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Originally Posted by Wrana
(from each hundred you gain about 2 D2, 2 N2, 2 E3, 2 F2 - very useful all except N2 which you already have from Antlered ones - and all others can at least research or thug out)...
As for research, I'd say that with this nation the main theme would be a Construction. With Alteration and Enchantment as secondary obiections (Probably Ench 3-4 first for Strength of Giants). On the other hand, if you have Magic scale, you will probably need to study Thaumathurgy quite soon - you have no problem with research but need more gems to forge with.
And on Pretender design - Forge Lord would be very thematic, but we are severely pressed to put additional paths on him. So I think that Rainbow or even Immobile would be better here. Actually, some time ago I've toyed with an idea of a Drain scale offset with an Awakened Sage... What would Your Baalziness say?
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No way, the N2 shamans rock so much. It's kind of like trying to pick my favorite child, my favorite one is whatever one I'm looking at now. Put a cheap rune smasher and thistle mace on him (and a void eye if you can find one), a couple of these all over the place and even high MR thugs are suddenly very shy - charm works almost better as a deterrent than a unit grabber. In the early part of the game he's dropping wooden warriors using no gems or boosters (as in with every small army in every fight), later dropping mass protection using just two gems and no booster! This is the guy that makes me comfortable figuring most of my infantry has barkskin for most fights through the whole game. These guys can also cast strength of gia, so with just a thistle mace you're dropping mass regeneration, serpents blessing, relief, add in one of those blood stones and you're dropping gai's blessing and summoning cave drakes with dragon master. True, he can't do anything the antlered shaman doesn't have covered, but that doesn't mean he's not a serious workhorse.
As to where to focus your research, it really depends. There's a couple reasonable ways to go which you can to a certain extent play by ear depending on how a particular game is going. That said, *very* roughly here's how I look at your priorities.
Priority 1: Alteration gives you a *lot* of bang for the buck without spending many gems - which are very tight initially. I already highlighted wooden warriors, but realize you can also pass out a few earth gems and drop a bunch of destructions which works...um...well with dual weapon warriors. You're also looking at wind guide for all those archers and iron skin for your mages and swarm for aggressive enemy pretenders.
Priority 2: Site searching spells. Doesn't take too much research and your alteration buffed super-infantry should carry you nicely in the mean time
Priority 3: Evocation (along with conj-3 for summon * power). you've got awesome evocations.
Priority 4: Construction. It's all the way down here because 1) you have other stuff which is more *immediately* useful and 2) you have had time to stockpile some gems to make the most use out of it.
I see what you're saying re: drain, I don't think I could stomach it on a nation I'm so heavily relying on mages for. You have to always be aware that sometimes trying to be efficient means you don't win the race so it's always a balancing act between finding a good value and making sure you're not bringing a knife to a gunfight because your gun is on layaway. Who cares if I spent 4 times as much as you did for my gun, I'm the only one with a gun in this fight.
As to the forge lord, I certainly agree that he's expensive and there are other ways you can play it. However, how much is it worth to be able to forge air boosters for barely double digit gems (single digit if you can snag the forge lord hammer)? How much is it worth to be able to pass out several elemental staffs to your combat mages and some rings of sorcery to your relatively small death mages? It's very expensive, no doubt, but it can also really mean you're fighting at a whole other level if you can pull it off. There's a really, *really* big difference between fielding several A5 mages (2 boosters + crystal shield) and one guy you've squeezed up to A3.