Two questions

[Zen]

Solar Disk.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK you forced me to give this up before I could utilize it.

the Arch Mage of Oceania
Not only is it very efficient in gaining that double bless but you also gain 10 extra research points in making great use of all of that magic. And Oceania is able to handle some harmful scales to pay for it.

By the way, for other people reading this we maybe should mention that these are NOT the best pretenders for dual bless. They are only recommendations for a Fire 9 and Water 9 bless strategy. Other bless strategies can make use of some other very useful pretenders.

I also find it interesting that there seem to be all kinds of dual magic pretenders but no fire and water ones. Maybe Kristoffer should make a mental note to keep an eye out for a pretender that would fit that just to fill that hole.

[Zen]

What GP?

The sheer amount of points on Dominion alone would push you away, along with the fact that you have to push 1 path 8 steps and the other 9.

I must not get your strategy with it.

[dirtywick]

Zen said:
What GP?

The sheer amount of points on Dominion alone would push you away, along with the fact that you have to push 1 path 8 steps and the other 9.

I must not get your strategy with it.

It's probably near as good as most other pretenders going for a F9W9 bless simply because the Archmage is really cheap and the new path cost is cheap. I haven't done the math, but I think you'd probably wind up with around the same cost or more with most other pretenders, and in any case it's probably the best choice if you want to use that bless with Atlantis.

[Gandalf Parker]

Zen said:
What GP?

The sheer amount of points on Dominion alone would push you away, along with the fact that you have to push 1 path 8 steps and the other 9.

I must not get your strategy with it.

He has it. It seemed to cost the same. It took me -3 -3 -2 scales to get it either with Solar Disc or Oceania Mage. the OM costs 0 to get and 10 to add a magic path so that might be the balancer.

I remember testing blessing strategies in Dom2 and being surprised that sometimes a 0 cost 10 to start pretender was better, and other times a pretender with a head start was better. I might run those experiments again one of these days

[Zen]

Well no need to experiment, it's not better. It gets progressively worse the more Holy you want as well.

It costs 645 Pts to get Solar Disk to F9W9, with 3 Dominion
It costs 650 Pts to get a Water Archmage to F9W9, with 1 Dominion.

All other Human Pretenders are their 35-55 Pts worse, plus the Dominion stepping they have to get the Holy to where they need to recruit.

[Gandalf Parker]

Zen said:
Well no need to experiment, it's not better. It gets progressively worse the more Holy you want as well.

It costs 645 Pts to get Solar Disk to F9W9, with 3 Dominion
It costs 650 Pts to get a Water Archmage to F9W9, with 1 Dominion.

All other Human Pretenders are their 35-55 Pts worse, plus the Dominion stepping they have to get the Holy to where they need to recruit.

There is no better, there is only pros and cons.
Does dominion affect a bless strategy? I know its something to consider but does it affect this particular answer?

For those 5 points you get 10 more points of research to make good use of those high magics. Thats ALOT of research early on. And you get more equipment slots.

On the other hand Solar Disc does fly which can be very handy for some nations. There were some nice immunities on the disc also.

Both seem to be front-runners in this particular strategy.

[KissBlade]

Gandalf Parker said:

There is no better, there is only pros and cons.
Does dominion affect a bless strategy? I know its something to consider but does it affect this particular answer?

For those 5 points you get 10 more points of research to make good use of those high magics. Thats ALOT of research early on. And you get more equipment slots.

On the other hand Solar Disc does fly which can be very handy for some nations. There were some nice immunities on the disc also.

Both seem to be front-runners in this particular strategy.

Oh come on now Gandalf, you must have played enough to know that you need at least some dominion points for holy to buy sacreds. Not to mention Solar Disc has more combat potential, better mobility. Also what the heck are you going to do with your most likely IMPRISONED archmage's 10 extra research? By the time he wakes up, it'll be a drop in an ocean.

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
There is no better, there is only pros and cons.

Of course there is a correct choice here. The solar disc costs 5 points less and gives you a dominion of three instead of a dominion of one. A F9W9 Son of the Sea also costs 645 points, and is available to Oceania, so this is the no-brainer choice for the bless pretender.

For those 5 points you get 10 more points of research to make good use of those high magics. Thats ALOT of research early on. And you get more equipment slots.

It's not a large amount of research, it's about what a single mage provides you. For an underwater nation, who will rarely have to worry about early attacks even from other water nations, I don't see that as much of a concern. As for the item slots, the son of the sea gets the same slots, and can actually be used in the field.

[mivayan]

Gandalf Parker said:
I also find it interesting that there seem to be all kinds of dual magic pretenders but no fire and water ones. Maybe Kristoffer should make a mental note to keep an eye out for a pretender that would fit that just to fill that hole.

An acid pretender? (that's the only water + fire spells iirc).

Could be that they dont want F9W9 any more popular/powerfull than it already is.