Tips for Vanheim

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Baalz

I don't want to threadjack, but I suppose this is on topic. Owl quills are just plain bad in almost all situations. I'm speaking in general here, not just about Vanheim. Consider that the gap they're trying to fill is very early research which means also that you're very gem constrained. This means not only for the quills, but for dwarven hammers. If you've got a hammer, you're unlikely to have 2, and you're likely to have other things you'd like to use it on. This means, generally, the cost of the quill is often 5A (not 3) and you've not had time to build up a stockpile or income of them. For 5A you're probably getting a research boost less than one more cheap research mage (3RP +1 for a magic scale)....but you've used up a mage-turn forging (another if you insist you managed a hammer) and possibly many more if you're out manually site searching to try and get some early A gems for quills. All this to do the work of (generally) one extra castle spitting out research mages.

Compare this to my suggestion in my Helheim guide where 3 castles are doing the research output of 10 while picking up points being in a drain-2 environment - it's a completely different scale. Obviously it's an apples to oranges comparison, but my point is why it works for the strategy I suggest is because of the point of the game you're at (you've got gems to use) the fact you can have sufficient hammers (because you've got gems to use and need less hammers to process gems into research points) and because of the research concentration (you don't need many forgers or research mages for impressive results). Owl quills are too little bang for the buck, and too hard to output at the point of the game they fit because of your constraints.

Vanheim starts with an a1 mage that can be profitably turned to filling in and making Owl quills as necessary.

Its gem income is 3e and 3 air. Vanheim is capable of researching Con-2 by turn 5, even without a researching pretender. And on turn 5 he will have precisely the gems needed to build the hammer - and unless he has had luck - no other gems *but* air.

It isn't a question of building a 3rd research castle. At this point in the game you are presumably building a *2nd* research castle. Just like all the other nations.... and like them you will also build a 3rd castle.

The question is getting the maximum return on every investment you make in the game.

Building a dwarf hammer on turn 5 will save you 2 gems (or more) every turn - its equivalent to increasing your gem income by 2 (almost).

Early in the game, you have no better use for your air gems. Getting 180 rp for a 3 gem investment, over a 65 turn game is a pretty good investment.

Buying 1 quill per turn over 5 turns is equivalent to *one* additional research level. Over 10 turns.. its 165 rp, or two additional research levels.

I doubt there is a better return on investment than investing in construction early as vanheim.

15 turns of constant one dwarf per turn yeilds you 420 research points. It gets you to cloud trapeze, and one level of research.

15 turns of constant dwarf plus 10 turns of owl quills gets you 585 research points. Ie., it gets you Con-2 plus ench-4 plus *two* levels of research.

And this ignores that you will likely be making a second hammer before turn 15.

In other words, taking construction and building owl quills *pays for itself* before turn 15.