How often do you alchemetize for gold?

[Cohen]

If I play Abysya, who has very costy troops and mages, I alchemize very often ... I tend to stay at 0 fire gems, til I'm going to Const 6 - for Lightless Lanterns.

[PDF]

Originally posted by Cohen:
If I play Abysya, who has very costy troops and mages, I alchemize very often ... I tend to stay at 0 fire gems, til I'm going to Const 6 - for Lightless Lanterns.

Yup, me too. Abysia start NEEDS Alchemy to boost income so you can get all that uber-expensive Abysian stuff.
With other nations I don't alchemize much except to cover small treasury gaps or have an extra 50gp to get mercs.

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Cainehill:
I tend not to alchemize too much in the begining, probably because if I start with fire or earth income, I've plans for it.

Fire I'll alchemize before earth - both because the gold income is better, and because, as Norfleet says, earth just seems more useful.

Usually I'll alchemize 1-5 gems at a time, usually just so I can either get an important unit (typically one of the uber-commanders - Anathemant Dragons, Niefel Jarls, Vanadrotts, etc), or to start construction on a key fort, temple, or lab.

But I also tend to stockpile my gems, if I don't have an immediate use. Meaning that in the mid to late game, I may alchemize 100 out of 300 fire gems, and 50 out of 350 earth, to push my recruitment, building, etc, at a moment when I really need it.

(Really wish there was a keystroke equivalent for selling gems at such times - pressing the up arrow would be -so- much nicer than 150 mouse clicks.)

I half suspect it's a flaw in my play, that I sometimes build up too many gems - I know I didn't use to forge enough, I may not summon enough, and I'm not sure on the subject of empowerment.

I have to agree - if you are siting on 300 gems of any type, than you are certanly not pursuing most efficient strategy, no matter what are you planing to do with them. The only possible exception is if you are planing for some extremely expensive GE spell and want to dump tons of gems into it to prevent enemy from dispelling it. Otherwise you would be certanly better of by using part of your huge gem hoard eaerlier to strengthen you position.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by PDF:

quote:

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Originally posted by Cohen:
If I play Abysya, who has very costy troops and mages, I alchemize very often ... I tend to stay at 0 fire gems, til I'm going to Const 6 - for Lightless Lanterns.

Yup, me too. Abysia start NEEDS Alchemy to boost income so you can get all that uber-expensive Abysian stuff.
With other nations I don't alchemize much except to cover small treasury gaps or have an extra 50gp to get mercs.

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Quite the same thing here, with a tweak: I view the fire gems as special funds, which is to be used for castles and temples (as it is very hard to hoard 200 to 450 gp for a building in the early game). I refrain from using them for the mundane purpose of building troops

Then, when things get rolling and especially if I dont have a sage library, I hoard at least 50 to produce a batch of fire lantorns.

[Jondifool]

i am alcymising early with ulm to get second (and some times )third fortification ASAP.


With Machaka where early magic site searching often gives a broad range of gems, my fire or earth gems tend to by alcymised for a while.
Besides paying for castles , having efficient magic searchers early often pays off.

But sure having a plan with my gem income is an area where I can improve a lot!

[NTJedi]

Alchemists are rarely worth the purchase unless it's a huge game. The alchemist stone is definitely a great jewel !

Depends on how the game is proceeding for how often alchemy is needed... at least in my experiences.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by NTJedi:
Alchemists are rarely worth the purchase unless it's a huge game. The alchemist stone is definitely a great jewel !

Depends on how the game is proceeding for how often alchemy is needed... at least in my experiences.

Are you talking about the Master Alchemist Ulm pretender, or the random site Alchemist?

A Master Alchemist is clearly a design choice (I like Rainbow pretenders, even though I don't play them well), and even though Ulm tends to have a use for all Earth and Fire gems it can get, the bonus isn't a small one.

Random Alchemists I've always thought were a great find. I tend to play nations with little access to Fire magic, while I like missile troops, so finding Fire mages is always nice; when not making money, they can be used as forgers or fill in a battle position.

An Alchemist has a Gold cost of 300, so an Upkeep cost of 20. If you're alchemizing about 4 Earth gems a turn, or 3 Fire, that pays for his upkeep. Not exactly early game, but I'd say that's easy to reach in a non "purely blitz" game, and definitely worth it in solo play (of course, you have to add in the 200 Gold for a Lab, and the 300 upfront cost of the Alchemist; but that's just 34 Fire gems before you get the Alchemist, or 23 after it).