Bash & Crush vs. Cut & Slash

[CUnknown]

I really like the idea of upgradable national troops as the game goes on, I hope this is incorporated into the game at some point. Not only would it make national troops more viable in the late game, it would increase the number of options available in the game, which is always a good thing, imo.

I think care would have to be taken so as not to make this overpowering (especially for sacred units). In fact, I think that generally improving your units like this should be less effective on a per gem basis than simply summoning better troops. Sort of like empowering is usually kind of a waste. The advantages would lie in mage-time (as in, it's not being used), and it would be an easy way to use up a large quantity of gems and see an effect immediately.

I'm thinking it would work like this: Research up to evocation-6 and construction-6, let's say, and that lets you spend 50 fire gems in any fort (in which you also have a lab) to give all the troops coming out of there fire weapons.

You can already upgrade your troops with Strength of Giants, Legions of Steel, Weapons of Sharpness, etc... since that's a major strength of earth magic, I think it would be problematic to make it available to everyone.

Well, it wouldn't be available to everyone, only those people who decided to make the investment. The investment should be large enough to discourage most people from doing it. Additionally, you could make it require one turn of mage-time, a mage with certain required paths for certain effects if you want to restrict it to nations with certain magic abilities.

This sounds like a great idea to me!