Which pretender design is best...?

[atul]

Originally posted by Zen:
You just use a different commander. Though you can put them all under a CM if he has the right picks and some magic items.

Aye, CM is the only one I've come up with before, was fishing for someone else because it feels such a waste to use the most expensive mage just to haul troops around. Well, at least with right picks you can use him to cast frost bolt, fire flies, raise skeleton, resist magic, charge body, geyser, acid spells and many others, with just one unit in a single battle. Wipee... Versatility is good, but hey, some restraint.

Originally posted by Zen:
S&A is actually fun in that aspect, since there is no one single unit, outside of the immortals, that can hold your masses of almost totally useless troops

HEY, they're not useless, just... doing their best to give their pretender a good challenge. As even mr Cruise learns in the Last Samurai, there is no honour in a battle you beforehand know you're going to win. Teaches you proper attitude, does indeed.

Besides, the one immortal who actually can haul a sizeable contignent of those troops manages to disease half of your army if something goes awry with the battle orders...

Gotta love S&A, but don't know how much it helps when pitted against other nations.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

I prefer the Nataraja with 3 earth only.

If I didn't care about Bless Effects I'd probably say the same. As you can Summon Earthpower up to cast whatever you'd like, or Earth Boots to cast what ritual you'd like.

What I do know however, is that CM's and most S&A mages fatigue quickly even under a Magic 1 enviroment.

Though I tend to script my casters with Quickness, Eagle Eye, Acid Rain and other such spells.

Without easy communion Access you will run into situations where your mages will only get a few casts, and intrinsic reinvigoration can help.

If you have the points and the thought of a Natty appeals to you, I'd definitely go Earth at least 3. If you have some extra, putting an additional Earth on him isn't going to hurt and it will allow your mages to recover from sleeping faster to cast another spell.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Zen:
If you have some extra, putting an additional Earth on him isn't going to hurt

It costs 32 points more and therefore hurts my dominion. No extra points for me.