In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
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If you don't know why gemgens are bad perhaps you should dig up some old threads on the matter instead of practically calling everyone who's against gemgens an idiot.
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No. I want the court jesters to dance for my amusement.
If the case against gem generators, dousing rods and dwarven hammers is so compelling, no doubt it is worth repeating.
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...our wisdom is absolute and finale.
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Or perhaps you can't explain your bias coherently?
edit: and the Turtle God lives again...
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Consider the case where one nation expands to a small/moderate size, then just sits there. You ignore them because you're involved in a series of wars, all of which you win through considerable skill and cunning. Your empire expands until you're apparently the inevitable winner. However, it turns out that the turtling nation has been doing nothing but building clams. Every turn he's just loaded up his turn file, forged another couple of clams, recruited a couple of commanders, given last turn's new commanders clams, and moved everyone into his capital. He also put a few domes up over his capital and summoned a load of chaff so the walls are all but unbreakable. Over the course of the game his clam income has allowed him to forge clams faster and faster.
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Lets see. 20 gem investment in a clam of pearls. 15 with a hammer (not counting the gem cost of the hammer, empowerment, summoning and/or path boosting items). So, 16 turns after you build a clam, minimum, you get a return, assuming an unempowered/unsummoned mage with a free hammer.
You have to take a mage out of commission to start mass producing clams, spend upward of 15 gems a turn and depending on your initial outlay, you're looking at 15+ turns (most generous circumstances) to start recouping on that investment in the form of a net
income. The more mages you need to summon, empower or forge booster for sets you back even further. Claims of hundred of clams are patently ridiculous except in those rare instances where every nation turtles...In a game like that, Clams are not the problem.
...And all this somehow puts the nation that invest in research, thugs and SC's instead of clams, at a distinct disadvantage? I do not think so.