Guide: MA Oceania - OMG, I think I've done it

[Baalz]

Yeah, no doubt this is a challenging position to play which has a lot of handicaps which you're hoping to mitigate but will never get rid of. I do, however, think that it's quite possible to have even *more* strong support mages than most nations. That's because of the way you're methodically building an upkeep free nation. What that means is that you're gonna have *so* many more 350 gold powerful mages than other nations could remotely contemplate.

Using them in combat does present challenges, but I think it's absolutely wrong to feel that you can't use them in combat because of their MR. Some of the forms are going to be particularly hard to use in combat (really high hitpoints and low MR), but that's OK you need research mages to. You'll have *plenty* of mages with tiny hitpoints and plenty more with medium hitpoints who have no problem at all blending into the chaff you should be fielding with them. Summon animals, cast crossbreeding etc. and slap an amulet of MR on a mage who transformed into a black hawk and he'll have nothing to worry about. Against anything but concentrated astral opposition you won't have trouble using even the big animal mages by making extensive use of blood vines, ice drakes, etc. You've got plenty of options for good cheap decoys and enough mages that you can afford to use them all over the place.