Burden of Time

[moodgiesanta]

Sure, there are ways to combat it, but at 70 pearls, it is both too cheap for its effects and too difficult for non-Astral mages to dispel. In my experience, not only Ermor but also Jotunheim and even R'yleh cast it like mad, which ends in every time I dispel it (at absurd cost) it gets cast again right off by the same nation. I think it is a rather overpowered spell. It should be a super-expensive hard to get spell, but it isn't.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by moodgiesanta:
Sure, there are ways to combat it, but at 70 pearls, it is both too cheap for its effects and too difficult for non-Astral mages to dispel.

70 gems is _not_ cheap. That's 7 turns of Ermor's base gem income.

[moodgiesanta]

Considering how it, in a few turns, cripples the armies of all of your enemies, I think 70 gems is very cheap for what it does.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Zapmeister:
1. Violate my assumption that the victim is a "non-astral nation", by which I meant that the pretender has no astral and the nationals could only get it by random pick, at best; or

Any nation can put astral magic on their pretender.

2. Rely on someone else solving the problem; or

Which isn't going to be that much of a problem in most MP games. There are bound to be nations with good astral income that dislike it just as much as the non-astral nations. Besides, casting BoT is an effective method of declaring war on everyone in the game, so Ermor should shortly be overwhelmed.

3. Contradict each other (#6 and #16 can't both work).

That would be wrong. #6 and #16 are essentially the same thing. Filling the global enchantments works via the same effect as casting other's to push out burden of time. Why should they all have to be able to work at the same time in order to be a useful solution anyways?

Add to that the practical difficulty of wiping out Ermor while suffering BoT, being lucky enough to find independants with astral or knowing where and how to kill the casting mage, and the list of practical options becomes somewhat shorter, I think.

How to kill the casting mage isn't that bad. Find provinces with labs and cast commander killing spells at it. Cast them at large armies as well. Use your assassins if you have them.

[ February 03, 2004, 03:00: Message edited by: Graeme Dice ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by moodgiesanta:
Considering how it, in a few turns, cripples the armies of all of your enemies, I think 70 gems is very cheap for what it does.

Cripples? Not really. It gives afflictions to a few of your units every turn, and can kill a few others.

[PvK]

Yes, and dispel only costs 30 (though there is the guessing game on overpowering to consider). Moreover, in a game with more than two human players, casting BoT means they are attacking everyone else, and the others will be even more likely to gang up on Ermor than they already were.

PvK

[Zapmeister]

That would be wrong. #6 and #16 are essentially the same thing.

What I meant was, filling up the table either prevents the casting of further GEs or it doesn't (I'm not sure which).

If it does, then #6 can't work, while if it doesn't then #16 can't work.

I must be missing something ...