LA Man Magister Sometimes No Research

[Micah]

Yeah, Magisters Arcane are gonna be a better bet most of the time, especially since you'll want a lot to get a decent selection of the path randoms, since only 1 in 8 will have a specific path at +1.

Edit: Ah, excellent point thejeff, the fact that you can use them as spies makes them quite useful, and they're pretty cost-effective researchers (especially if you forgo the drain dominion and take some magic with the intent to spam dinky researchers). My above point stands for pure research speed though.

[thejeff]

Agreed with Magisters Arcane for research speed, though once you've got a few castles up is it more efficient to spend your money on 1 MA or several Magisters and/or Judges?

And to hijack the thread somewhat: Pretender ideas? You've got Nature income with no nature mages, so I'd want Nature on the pretender. Maybe Death as well to take advantage of site searches from the Judges. (Nature and death suggests Lamia queens later on) Do they have an SC capable pretender that can get Nature, Death and good scales?

[OmikronWarrior]

As Man's recruitable units are so good, its probably best to focus your pretender around really high scales (paid for in part by Drain-3). Thinks Man could use, though, include an A4 unit to build the Air Boosters, a nature mage to take advantage of gem income and summon uniques, Earth and Astral to build Crystal Coin and Communion Matrixes, and finally death magic for boosters and summoning uniques.

So frankly, I see a Man Pretender as there to spread magic diversity, which is best suited by some form of rainbow pretender (perhaps the Monolith, though that means no to site searching). The Tuatha Sorceress would be a good pick with A2N1 base and the handiness of glamour. Bit expensive though.

[quantum_mechani]

OmikronWarrior said:
The Tuatha Sorceress would be a good pick with A2N1 base and the handiness of glamour. Bit expensive though.

If you are going to pay for that, you might as well spring for a ghost king. Though I still think it's hard to argue with an awake cyclops/prince of death/wyrm for any nation.

[Jagdpanther]

Thanks for all of the info. (I didn't click on the 1? -- just saw the three research.)

[OmikronWarrior]

quantum_mechani said:

If you are going to pay for that, you might as well spring for a ghost king. Though I still think it's hard to argue with an awake cyclops/prince of death/wyrm for any nation.

I actually got the Tuatha and the Partholonian Sorcess confused. The P.S. has base A1D1, two paths Man could really use for diversity. However, she costs 70 points for what is basically your stock rainbow chasis plus glamour. Thats compared to the Enchantress which costs 55 and has E1S1 and generates an astral pearl every turn.

The one thing I feel is pretty much indispensible is Air-4. Even if you want an awake SC pretender, you're still going to need that.

[VedalkenBear]

The way I use no-magic Magisters is as spies (clearly). Basically, I send them out to find castle provinces, sit them there, and cause unrest while my army gets closer. Then, once my army is besieging the castle, I have the Magisters switch to Besieging to pull down the walls faster. If you have a Staff of Storms in the army (which would be likely only if you're using magical troops), then you can use Summon Storm Power to get to Air-2 and use them to throw Lightning Bolts in the battles. Alternatively, just cast Storm in the battle.

I wouldn't give them items if they're used as spies, as IIRC they only have Stealth(0).