Two questions

[Knai]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

[*]You can empower anyone to level #1 Air, and take it from there. However, level #0->#1 costs 50 gems (whereas #1->#2 is only 30) so it's expensive. The problem here is that, because you don't start with any Air mages, you probably haven't found any Air sites, so you probably don't have many Air gems in the first place! You could squander Astrals to acquire them (or conversion rate @4-1 from any other gem). If you conquer enemy provinces from Air-ish nations, they may have done the Air searching for you, in which case you get any Air income, without having to search yourself.[/list]

Regarding gem income, against the AI deliberately losing your provinces long enough for them to search (ideally while also managing strategic surrounding, just to kill things more thoroughly) works well.

Another general option that works involves either astral and nature access, or just nature access, as well as specific research. The spell Charm can outright bring an enemy mage to your side, who might well have air, and this can also be accomplished via a two spell combination in which you take the commander in a way that turns it into a unit, and cast Gift of Reason.