[Taqwus]

Originally Posted by Corporal Kindel

Hello guys:

Got some more newbie questions. Recently got this game & have been reading through the manual & playing simultaneously. I’ve read up through the magic section of the manual around page 100, got a few more questions that I’m numbering below:

1) I’m trying to figure out how to use the slave matrix & crystal matrix magic items in battle. According to the description on page 279, it’s use is automatic. I created one crystal & 4 slave crystals, added the crystal to my pretender (POD using nation Maverni), and each of the 4 slaves were given to 3 generic recruited commanders & 1 generic recruited priest.

Full stop. Commanders must have at least one point of magic to make use of those items.

2) Crystal heart: Playing Maverni now several times I’ve noticed that my Druids tend to get these afflictions (because of the old age trait I’m presuming). The game I’m playing now I noticed the crystal heart (bottom p280) which is supposed to keep him alive after he dies (although at reduced ability). I constructed a crystal heart & gave it to one of my druids, several turns later I noted he had about 8 afflictions and a couple of turns later again he died anyway. I was under the impression the crystal heart would keep him alive after he died?

Combat deaths only.

If he still dies anyway, it doesn’t seem like a very useful item. Also relatedly: what things besides gift of health (very expensive at 50 gems) is there that can be done to remove afflictions from Maverni aging druids with afflictions? I think I’ve already lost like 6 to 8 druids already with another 5 currently having afflictions and ready to die. These guys are very expensive at 380 gold and I would like to keep them around longer if possible.

Regeneration items will stop *death* from disease (by stopping the hit point loss, but not reversing it) but will not prevent them from getting more afflictions. Blood magic gives items which stop aging, but you'd still be risking afflictions if you're already old, I think.

Otherwise... the Chalice. Ordinary heal ability won't work on age-related afflictions. Growth scale also would have been good.

3) The move & patrol option page 69: I have this one particular province that one of my enemies (Caelum) is just bound and determined to take. The province has already changed hands like 5 times, finally I’ve been able to take it & build a fort. Caelum is still fixated on it and has been able to put it under siege like 4 times, I tried to send an army from an adjacent province using the move & patrol procedure described on page 69 (otherwise they don’t attack the besieging army apparently). After I left- clicked the movement (shows the movement arrow) for the commander there is no option for move & patrol when I click a second time. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

If the enemies are already sieging, just use an ordinary move (which means don't use 'sneak', if you're using stealthy units, or 'teleport'; teleporters arrive *inside* the fort and don't attack the besiegers).

4) Do the computer AI’s generally declare war before attacking you, or is just dependent upon the particular AI nation? I’m wondering because I’ve expanded to the point where I’m bordering 5 AI nations (I’m at war with 2 who’ve declared war on me), but I don’t have enough troops to cover all the borders with the rest (I’ve got PD jacked up .. but I’m spending a lot on PD and it’s reducing my overall income).

DoW + attack in same turn not unusual. War is heavily affected by their perception of relative strength, and whether you've attacked them.

5) Gem sites: I’ve been searching for gem sites because I’ve finally realized how extremely important gems are in this game. And I’ve found 3 or 4 using the old-man-in-the woods (apparently a special character only available to Maverni), but I’m wondering if this is common, uncommen, or am I missing a lot (of gemsites) .. roughly, what is the density of gem sites in this game? I don’t want cheats or anything, I just want to have some kind of idea what resources I should be devoting to searching. It seems like there are several global searching spells, but they’re very expensive from my POV, such as arcane probing (page 209) 2 gems just to search one province for only astral magic at level 9 seems very inefficient to me .. what are the bangs-per-buck for casting this spell? Will I find astral once in four casting attempts? IOW: Is it worthwhile or not?

Judgment call. Magic site frequency can be set per game, as well as affected by pre-placements in map. Also depends on terrain. The search spells are nice if you already have some income and don't want to spend mage-time moving and searching (in the case of Astral, especially if even astral-2 mages are rare for you).

6) This last question is just a general strategy question related to gems. I’ve realized how important gems are for many reasons: recruiting stronger monsters that don’t count against upkeep, creating magic items, armor, shields, etc, casting spells in battle by loading down your commander-MU’s with them before battle, and increasing paths via empowerment. After losing my pretender in all prior games, I’ve decided to make him stronger with magic via empowerment this time, so I’ve spent maybe between 200 and 300 gems boosting him 5 to 7 levels in different paths. So, I’ve spent maybe 60% of my gems on empowerment, 20% on magic items, and 20% on summoning type spells up to this point in the game (year 6 spring): I’m wondering if this is the most efficient approach or not?

*snip*

Magic items that boost paths are far cheaper, although they don't help if you haven't a single point in the desired path. Dwarven hammers are loved for the discount. Generically I'd bias towards summons, and (particularly against the AI) global enchantments and items, and very little to empowerment. That varies per nation; with MA Ulm, for instance, you wouldn't be known for having lots of terrifyingly powerful national summons, and you're not an obvious candidate for Gift of Health, either. With EA Mictlan, it's all about the bloody summons.

7) Oh, one last question: Do you guys ever send any champions to the arena? The arena has cropped up in just about every game I’ve played. Three times I’ve sent my pretender to the arena and three times he got whacked. I decided to forego the arena in future games. What do you guys do as to the arena option & how do you maximize your survival against others with whom you’ve no idea of their ability? It seems pointless to send a weaker champion if a pretender can't even win.

I wouldn't, because I don't like having a cursed item that forces the winner to return (unless I had a champion without two hand slots, and who therefore couldn't get stuck with it). If I were going to use it, it'd probably be to abuse it (random oddball sent in to cast Curse, Horror Mark, cause afflictions, give a Lycantropos amulet, or so forth) rather than win. Unless the last winner was somebody I saw a reason and an opportunity to kill...