Research strategies

[kasnavada]

My opinion is that depending on the nation and opponents, there is a few spells that are mandatory.

As a rule, I would always get :
Trauma 2 for site searching spells, construction 4 for most basic magic items (enough to build up most thugs in mid game).
Then specific spells. For Pangaea, good early spells would be :
- panic,
- summon earth,
- invulnerability,
- if EA reinvigorisation / communion,
- carrion lady & summon king,
- self regeneration.

So, I research those.

Then I go for main spells, depending on the situation I face and the situation I'm in :
- mass protection,
- charm,
- a life for a life (if EA, maybe also for MA),
- construction 6 (necessary for more thugs).

Then I would go for a main strategy : bigger thug and SC with construction 8, elemental royalty, army of gold & lead, fairy court, unique demons...

If I got lots of fire magic for some reason (useful indies ?) I would start getting some evocation up so they can cast useful spells. If I have loads of ennmies that use archers I would get the storm spell and an air caster.

Basically, the path is :
- low level spells "mandatory" spells,
- anti-SC spells,
- my main strategy(ies) spell or any spell that might be useful with my units against my current enemy,
- I don't know, I always have a spell to ressearch.

Basically, I beyond to the "push your research for a particular spell" category.

Should one build a new fort as soon as possible to churn out national mages for research?

In some situations, indy mages are better than national ones for research. In that case, you don't need the fort !