Are Clams worth empowering for?

[lillumultipass]

Hi to all,

I am playing Niefelheim with a N10S4 emprisoned monolith and a dominion of 9 I think.

I have a few large armies of giants, mainly with my prophet and one with a Niefel Jarl equipped with a few items like wraith sword...
I am at war with a few nations, namely Agartha, Atlantis, C'tis and Sauromatia. Well, almost everyone actually.

My problem is that, althoug I have done a lot of Arcane probing, I have ony found 3 astras sites, and only one yields perls. Furthermore, I have lost the said province. Hence, I don't have any astral gems at all.
Since my pretender is immobile and knows astral magic I need some perls at least to teleport it (I could also try faerie trod...).
So my question is: should I empower a few mages with N1 since they have W2?
I have cast Mother Oak so that I have a good income of Nature perls, i.e. 18 per turn.

Also, I am a bit clueless as to what to do/research next. I have forged a few skull mentor for my research, and I now have a D5 mage thanks to 2 items so I can forge wraith sword, wraith crown...
The thing is, there are so many possibilities, I don't know on what to focus. I would like to equip my jarls, maybe with
robe of shadows, amulet of anti-magic and the like.

Thanks for any suggestions

[Archonsod]

The value is always relative. First thing to ask yourself is whether you have anything else to be spending those nature gems on.
Secondly, how long are you likely to be without a pearl income? Empowering for the clams is going to be a long term thing (if you gain pearl generating sites you'll have a higher astral income of course), while in the short term it would be cheaper (purely from a gem expenditure perspective) to use alchemy to cover emergencies.

In other words, if you're looking for a cheap short term solution then use alchemy if you need pearls, and concentrate on taking back that site. If you want a higher pearl income, and you don't mind waiting a while for the payoff, then empower.

[Maraxus]

How many Clams could you forge roughly? 1 per turn for quite some rounds? Then it might be a reasonable thing to do. If you only have minimal Water Gems, then it's not going to pay off.

[Gandalf Parker]

I try to only empower only one unit and only once. Thats just to get to the level needed to create a level-boosting item for the others.

[Tuidjy]

I do not think it's worth empowering. If I remember correctly, you have a chance
to roll a mage who can forge them out of the box. The chances may be minimal,
but I know I got one both times I played them in MP. Unless you have a huge
stash of water gems sitting in your lab, I'd say just recruit enough... Skratti?

---------

Yes, I just checked it. Any Jarl can forge a +1 water robe, and Skratti with
a nature pick are common. Empowering would be a hell of a waste of gems.

[Valandil]

Neifelheim afaik cannot get a nature random on a water mage. I'm pretty sure gygjor don't have a chance for water either.

One empowerment, followed by a clam a turn for the rest of the game, would break even in... fiftyish turns?
Probably not worth it.

[Sombre]

Gygjor don't get water.

I don't think long term stuff like this is usually worth it. Clam spamming is also incredibly boring and is the kind of stuff that makes people just quit the game and say 'fine you win' if you actually pull it off. Not something I'd ever feel like doing.

[llamabeast]

1 clam a turn would break even a lot sooner than 50ish turns. After 10 turns you'd have produced 55 pearls, which covers the cost of the empowerment. And each clam covers its own cost fairly quickly.

I reckon after 25 turns you've probably pretty much covered your costs, and you're raking in a fortune from then on.

[solo]

Valandil said:
Neifelheim afaik cannot get a nature random on a water mage. I'm pretty sure gygjor don't have a chance for water either.

A Skratti has a chance for a Nature random. Then all you need is a water bracelet to start clamming.

[lillumultipass]

Ok, thanks for the infos. I will check my skrattis, but I do not think I have one with N1.

Anyhow, I agree that clamming is a lot of micromanagement, but, what else should I do to get astral pearls???