More Tien Chi !

[Bummer_Duck]

Endoperez said:
Which magic would suit them better, in your opinion? If I did a small mod, what should I change? Celestial Master to FAEWW? with no Astral, cabable of casting (automatically) Magma Bolts, Iron/Steel skin, cabable of getting E2 -> Earth Boots -> Dwarven Hammer?

That wouldn't be bad... With a master/slave items and Earth boots, you could at least cast Blade wind. However, I'm not sure how valuable this would be for early expansion. The real issue I have is with SA. I love the concept of diversified mages and early gem income, but if you can't take any provinces you lose badly. I Can't figure out a good way to expand with the national troops SA gets. It was either poorly thought out, or I am doing something wrong. I think SA should have Cheap Crossbowman, or Longbowman.

Maybe some could suggest a different strategy? So far, I have been unable to expand very fast. I can't afford enough HI, even though the guide by Zen says you should buy a couple a turn. I have better luck with archers combined with a combat pretender attacking after turn 5 (researhing to Alt 3). I have been using a Jade Emp, that casts Quickness, Ethereal, Mistform, and Luck (Astral Shield and Astral weapon later on). However, without at least 30 Archers, the pretender seems to die... Running against HI/HC is pure suicide, as the archers do nothing other than die badly along side the Pretender. So, if this nation starts in a rich neighborhood, I lose every time. Wah!

He would lose his Magic Duel suspectibility, but also the option of casting Power of the Spheres. What about making Master of the Way to S? instead of W?, giving Tien Chi lots of low-Astral fodder to use as Magic Duel bait and as communion slaves, instead?

Now that is a truly good idea!

I have never tried it, but can you give a Crystal Matrix thing to one mage, and cast Communion Slave on the others? Can you mix and match the various communion/slave items and spells? How about the blood variety?

Of course, I would change the starting spells too.

Maybe something useful for taking provinces?