Quote:
Originally Posted by alansmithee
I can understand reducing the PD, and also changing the troops. But I think the runesmith nerfs are a bit much. More gold (when gold's already tight), more encumbrance, and less paths don't nearly do enough to offset the small research boost. Also, with all castles being so expensive now, your research will lag quite a bit, and recruiting non-caster commanders puts you at an even greater disadvantage.
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I'm inclined to agree; You
will be behind on research, probably by a lot. Your Runesmiths are already at a disadvantage, between massive casting encumbrance and a total inability to thug them. You're more reliant on noncaster commanders than, well, anyone.
That castle-summoning spell is the most ludicrously difficult thing to cast I've ever seen. You have to lug a prophetized astral-random runelord over to a mountain province with a lab, and then he
dies when he casts it? Or I suppose you could make an anvil of doom and then kill
it.
By the way, at this point the whole nation almost works better by getting Magic-1, using cheap Engineers as your main researchers, Runelords for your forgers, and just not getting Runesmiths if you can help it. You don't get as many high-earth casters, but you really didn't need many of those anyways. And on the plus-side, you one-turn siege every castle you meet. And have actual battle-casters that don't fatigue out on turn 3. It's at least a fun strategy to consider--you do lose other things by doing so.
It's my perception that Runesmiths have so much not going for them that they didn't need a cost increase. Frankly you shouldn't be caught dead bringing more than a handful of them into a battle--and that's mostly because you can't get water/astral buffs any other way.
Again, a lot of these things I'd have to be in an actual multiplayer game to test out.
Oh, and no matter what, Dwarves can't be as low-tier as Machaka. Just think of what prospectors can do to Machaka province defense. (Actually it's Rangers that utterly destroy them--those throwing axes simply demolish militia)