Hidden in Snow

[Zath]

Lazy_Perfectionist:

I would argue that LA Atlantis is better off with simple Claymen for troop summons if you're stuck with too many water gems, especially since the Angakoks can amass much large numbers of them with a couple of boosters. Claymen are about three times as efficient in terms of HP/gem, are easier to research, and they can at least go underwater for a nation that always starts on the coast. For better long term payback, you could also make 5 Bottles of Living Water that could be reused indefinitely while helping you both on land and in water.

Kristoffer O:

If I am not mistaken, Hidden in Snow is not accessible to MA Mictlan's national mages. This would indicate to me that you are likely casting Hidden in Snow with a pretender or a mage summoned by your pretender, and that this spell was only available to you after some diversification in magic was achieved. With that in mind, I think you would have been better off just sticking 2E on your pretender instead of going in a circle and risking vast amounts of water gems for access to earth magic.

PvK:

I am afraid that what you perceive as narrow is to me just getting to the point. Hidden in Snow is a poor spell for solely troop summons, and a poor spell for solely mage summons. Bundling two poor functions together in this case does not produce a good spell, because the effort put into this spell could be better spent in its specialized counterparts instead for greater overall gain.

Risk is a cost that must be accounted for in any investment of resources, and in the case of Hidden in Snow the risk of getting hosed by the random number generator outweighs its potential benefit. Hidden in Snow is certainly a nice flavor spell and could serve the purpose of wasting gems like the level 1 to 5 summons usually do (I don't mean that negatively since games in general need dud options for players to experiment with), but it is quite lacking in terms of giving water magic some punch. As this last function seems to be the intended purpose of Hidden in Snow, I think concerns over its power level are not entirely unfounded.

Sir_Dr_D:

Hidden in Snow could be useful if you needed troops in a hurry for a decisive battle, but I think 5 Bottles of Living Water would have done you more good if you have the oppurtunity to deploy them in a couple of battles. Water Elementals lack protection, but they have better attack and defense, and their four AP attacks can deal with both chaff and whatever blood summons Mictlan comes up with. You can also use them with Darkness since they are blind, and their higher defense will take better advantage of your opponent's lower attack too.