[Kuritza]

Yea, you will be able to summon and forge. Just not enough to make difference, if you play as an underdog against a powerhouse.
Oh, and Astral Nexus will be even more imbalanced than it is now, because with your tiny gem income you will never ever come close to dispelling / replacing it.

New strategies wont arise out of *lack* of something. Heavy nerf of summons will make national troops more powerful and controlling territories with magic sites more important. This is the goal of this nerf, as far as I understand.

But then, your neighbour you just defeated in a decisive battle will turtle in his castles, sending black minions with bane venom charms everywhere (calling it 'fighting till the bitter end'), while somebody else will just go AI letting others claim their lands easily. I bet it sounds all-too-familiar. That other lucky dude, having suffered much less casualties and reaping much tastier reward, will continue to grow, while you will fall behind - and there will be no other resources to draw upon, just land and magic sites.

Or take LA Ermor and LA Rlyeh, for example. They get thousands of troops for free; at the moment you can try to use summons and SCs against them. Remove gemgens, and its your laughable recruitable troops against their endless hordes. Right, you might have one or two SCs, but so will they. Game over?

As for 'compensation'... Naiad warriors made cheaper? Oh please.

But in the end, its not my decision to make. I just stated my point - perhaps enough people will agree, and some consensus will be made (like two separate mods, which I'd love). Perhaps not - then I'm just wrong and should join vanilla games instead.