[shatner]

It's not that the mages are under-priced (for the most part they aren't, though some are skirting the line), it's that this nation has recruit-anywhere mages which are the equivalent to most MA nation's cap-only mages... in addition to having what is arguably the best top-of-the-line mage in the Middle Age.

Pythium has the most powerful mage of the base game for MA (the arch theurge) which is path-equivalent to the Hidden Master (a 10.1 caster). And for a mere 20 gold more than an arch theurge you get stealth, flight, cold resistance, the ability to throw lightning (not that you'd often use it) and massively less age penalties. And I believe most people would happily trade in the arch theurge's water access for earth. Mictlan has another 400 gold cap-only mage-priest (the Couatl). However, they are only an 8.1 caster with access to only air, nature, astral and holy. Also, they have terrible slots, possessing only a head and 2 misc slots. Plus cold blooded is only a bad thing unless you have paths in death (for the jade mask).

But alright, some nations have crazy-go-nuts casters. After all, the 2nd best caster of the era is the Bakemono Sorcerer who is a beefy, recruit-anywhere, 9.1 paths, map move-2, sacred caster for 300 gold. Granted he's older than dirt but most nations would sell their teeth for a mage-priest like that. However, the armies of Shinuyama aren't nearly so nice or versatile as Shangri-la's. It looks like they modeled Shangri-la's army after MA T'ien Ch'i, since it has a good combination of spear, sword, glaive and bow units in both light, medium and heavy varieties plus nice, multi-purpose cavalry. However, they have both the composite bows of T'ien Ch'i and the dirt cheap, stealthy short bows of Shinuyama. Many troops also carry a slightly better than average shield (parry of 5 instead of 4) for no discernible reason.

This nation has:
1) the recruit-anywhere mage strength of Shinuyama (who has the best of the age), but WAAAY more diverse in it's paths
2) the super capital mage strength of Pythium (who has the best of the age)
3) the versatile and powerful infantry and cavalry of T'ien Ch'i (arguably the best of the age)
4) the stealthy light infantry of Shinuyama/Pangaea (those Bhopa infantry are really nice for their price)
5) the single greatest magic diversity of any nation of any age ever
6) 80 free design points from Cold-2
7) Really nice, build-anywhere move-2 elite heavy infantry
8) decent sacreds (in both human and ape flavors)
9) cold resistance/immunity and mountain survival for everything
10) some of the best heroes in the game
11) some really nice pretenders (with a rainbow immortal, a cheap immortal with high dominion and a titan with Air, Water and Earth for one of the best bless combinations in the game)
12) recruit-anywhere stealthy, astral, spy priests.

... and I still haven't bothered to look at the national summons.

Any given component about this nation is fine in comparison to what already exists in the Middle Age but all together it really strikes me as too much.

Again, tell me I'm wrong, but I'm just not seeing it.