Jomon's new summons (how is Jomon now?)

VedalkenBear · #10 November 11th, 2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sombre

The yamabushi/sohei event was there before. Don't know about the other one.

I don't think using nature gems to summon researchers sounds very viable. How does it compare with lanterns or skull mentors?

Thanks about the event.

Well, how good the Jigami is really depends on a number of factors. First, as a researcher, it's a 2N mage with standard research. That means it generally has 5 research, 6 if you're Magic-3. So it's roughly half of a Skull Mentor, at the equivalent tier in Conjuration and same number of gems, of the same type. It is, of course, also another body, which means something like the following.

It has 45 Supply production. So, in the field (more on this below), it's roughly the same as two Bags of Wine for your army, for the same cost as two Bags of Wine. Considering this is Late Era, and R'lyeh's dominionkill was increased, I don't think this can just be tossed aside. Its battle magic is limited, granted. OTOH, it could be a nice 'buffer'.

Something else that I realized is that it has 2 mapmove. As such, it's faster overland than either of the national mages that Jomon has. This may say more for the poor mapmove of the Onmyoji and Master Shugenja, but it can keep up with your armies, unlike your national mages.

As far as the RNG-nature of Jomonese national mages, 20% of your Mages should have 2 of a given path (this is ignoring Earth and Nature for Master Shugenja). Since most of your army is dirt-cheap, compared to most, you should be able to get many fortifications relatively quickly, and at that point it's all statistics. If you're going to try to give Death Magic to Jomon, the Onmyoji should have it. Probably replace their Nature chance.

Edit: Something I _am_ in favor of is making their mages Sacred. Their armies are very cheap, but as archaeolept points out, the upkeep on their mages seriously hampers development otherwise, and LE generally delays the ability to 'switch over' to a conjured army until it's too late for Jomon.