[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by llamabeast

I don't think you can compare the gem cost of Alugra's mages with other summonable mages as such, because Alugra is unique in that it has to summon all its mages.

Well, you have some recruitable ones. Masters are 230gp S2H2 capital only mages with 200% AEWFSBD picks. If you are lucky you might get some that can cast useful battlespells (like one with S4 or S3D1), but mapmove 1 sucks. Your recruitable everywhere Manifests are 140gp with 1S1H with 120% AEWFSBD. Mostly useful in thug communions.

The recruitable mages can be useful, but pale when compared to the stuff that's available in EA.

Having the mages be 'summonable' is both a curse and a blessing. They cost astral gems (the best gems in the game), which holds the opportunity cost of not casting any Wishes and making the forging of Rings of Sorcery and Wizardy.. quite painful experience. And althought the training spell can be casted anywhere the troops are capital only, making Alugra even more capitol centric*.

It's a blessing in the sense that you can recruit more mages than you actually have forts. It's also pretty useful to "stash" your experienced (like 3 stars or more) gifted units in a special province and have a Master teleport there for some Training. Any gifted unit with 3 stars of exp will make an especially nice thug.

*= If I ever face Alugra in MP, I'd probably rush for a unrest-causing remote spelland spam it on *the* City of Wonders. I once got hit by a full volley of these spells from AI and it nearly crippled me.