Is there an incongruous distribution of magic?

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

To original poster: certainly, some nations are definetly stronger in some paths of magic than others, and your choice of two thanks to Pheonix Power and Earth Power, pretty spot on. Your distrubution is interesting.

However, there is a middle-range between weak and strong, particularly with those two paths- and nations with matching national gem income. A nation with lots of/only fire one mages and small starting gem income can easily and cheaply afford to spend one gem as a temporary booster to get their fire path up high enough to cast Phoenix Power and still be useful afterward thanks to the low 20 fatigue cost, If I Remember Correctly.

With this, fire magic isn't cheap enough to throw around all the time like it may be for abysia, but it can help you get out Flaming Arrows in a pinch (F1+gem-> Phoenix Power = F2 -> F2+gemcost+gemboost -> Flaming Arrows of fire 3, fatigue 100). It also enables repeat casting of spells occasionally useful such as Fireball, Firebolt (facing an immunity to your main path?), Pillar of Fire, and Rage for no additional expense beyond that first gem.

It doesn't make them strong, but if I've got the right income, I make sure to keep a stash of minor path gems in hand for emergencies. Not regular use, though.

RE: K
Actually, I think the focus on air boosting items is greatly overrated. There are definetly some times when they're valuable, but I can find other more effective ways to spend them - albeit as a short-term loss, not an investment like conjurations or forging.

It is worth mentioning that valid as keeping them awake is, my strategies for big battles often revolve around knocking spare mages unconcious. Spell-casting fatigue is capped at 200, after all.

"Arrow Fend. A3. Costs a gem, but its great for the value. You want an air 4 or else your mage is knocked out."

It only costs one 100 fatigue. If you've got a nation without access to storms, but ready access to air two, then why not have one knock themselves out? An air two mage can spend one gem to temporarily boost their casting level, and another to cover the base cost. For the price of one of those air boosters, I could use this spell ten times. It certainly has a greater effect than one lone air mage spamming lightning bolt.

Oddly enough, I view Fomoria as somewhat weak in air magic. Generally, getting regular combat magic for them involves some signficant sacrifice, be it gold, staff of the storms, etc. Sure they can bust out a few big spells, but their druids are utterly unreliable, and your captial only one recruit a turn. Fomorian Kings are a very limited resource, and using them for the big spells renders them melee-useless.

"Wind Guide: A2. Cheap, but costs a gem."
A gem? that's cheap. You're not hitting a single target, you're getting a battlefield enchantment.

There are a lot of spells that have a path requirement of A4, but only a fatigue cost of 200- or less. This means your A3 mage can spend two on the cost, and one to boost, IIRC.
Phantasmal Army, Living Clouds, Mass Flight, Storm, but not Fog Warriors or Wrathful Skies. However, with just air one, you're kind of stuck for anything useful to do.

[Sombre]

This is reminding me of this thread about the best nations overall:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...=&fpart=3&vc=1

Air magic certainly gives certain nations some nasty power in the early/midgame. Not exactly a late game deal though.

[Edratman]

Another factor in rating a nations magic is to consider the paths and powers of the recuitable everywhere mages. There are several nations that have real nice capitol only mages but useless recuitables everywhere else. EA Arco comes to mind.

And I recently tried MA Shinu. I didn't like them when I tried them earlier, and I find that I only recruit 2 units (barring initial turn limitations) but I found you can recruit everywhere a mage with 8.25 picks in 4 paths, DEWF, of which I think 3 are great paths. This moved the nation up my list of strongest nations substantially.

[vfb]

Agema said:
I personally consider magic skill of 1 in any path to be virtually useless.

Some ideas on how to make use of skill 1 mages:

Arcane Probing (S1) and Dark Knowledge (D1) are enough to find sites that let you recruit amazing independent mages.

N1 will prevent your armies from starving, especially in MA an LA where tribals are not so common.

S1 also gives you Body Ethereal. It's great to sit your mage on a couple thugs and cast this. S1 also scares off Mind Hunters.

A1 lets you forge quills, making Drain scales more palatable.

B1 bootstraps you into blood much faster than messing around with a bunch of scouts, and B1 mages can Leech.

F1 gives you lanterns.

W1 can boost themselves to W2 at const 6.

Also, about air: am I the only guy who likes Seeking Arrow? Oh wait, I can answer that: no, the AI likes casting it too. Not sure if that's a good sign though .

[Edratman]

vfb said:
[Also, about air: am I the only guy who likes Seeking Arrow?

I believe the answer to your question is a resounding yes. Having seen the AI cast it at me approximately three megagagillion times I believe the biggest problem I have with it is that it generates one additional message that I have to scan every time it is cast.

It may be more effective if directed by a player at an opponents capitol, but the AI doesn't seem to use that targeting logic. Regardless, I have placed the spell into my list of "Waste of Gems" file.


Other than that, how are you doing? Any genius-like discoveries lately? I was sure you would have been promoted to "VFB" by now.

[Torin]

its not a waste of gems. if you target a mage could get killed or get +5 encumbrance wich is damaging for a combat mage.

[jaif]

To the OP:

It seems to me that there is a far from equal representation of each magic type in the whole game,..

Yes, we agree. Why is that important? To me, an uneven distribution of type adds character.

-Jeff

[Kristoffer O]

This is correct. There are different types of magic prevalent during the different eras. Fire is less common in all three IIRC, as is blood. Not sure, but IIRC earth is more common early on. Astral gets more common later on.

[Ewierl]

Torin said:
its not a waste of gems. if you target a mage could get killed or get +5 encumbrance wich is damaging for a combat mage.

It's all about your opponent's nation. Do they have lots of unarmored 9/10-hp human mages? Then Seeking Arrows can do you plenty of good. Otherwise, not so much.

[VedalkenBear]

Some of the nations get path combinations that are very rare outside of them.

E.g., EA Atlantis is one of the few that can pair Fire and Water magic. The only others I can think of are Jomon, EA TC, and Arco. Fire and Air has a similar very small list, which is more or less the above, minus Arco and Atlantis.

Earth/Blood is very rare as well, with Pangaea and IIRC Vanheim having the best access to it.