Pricing of Mages ... is it balanced?

[Edi]

I don't see anything wrong with the mages for different nations costing different sums, because it usually more than balances out in other respects.

A more interesting comparison about cost effectiveness is the one between indie mages you can get from sites. There are some real eye-poppers there. Most indie mages costs 180, with the apprentice Version generally being 80 to 120, but then there are guys like the Circle Master that have D2B2 for 100 gold that are good as cheap researches and blood hunters if nothing else. Admittedly, their magic combo is one of the less useful, but they are some of the best bang for buck I've seen so far. Adepts of Pyriphlegeton are also great, F3 for 180, when most of the 180 gold mages have more or less one fixed and three random picks.

If anybody is interested in taking a closer look at the indie mages (and all other indie units as well, take a look at the Unit_ID.xls from yours truly, available on Arryn's site.

Edi