Most Usefull Research Path...

[Frostmourne27]

PsiSoldier said:
It also depends on what size map you are playing, If you are playing on a very large map then Alteration is Hands down the best choice. Just create a pretender with huge astral skill, Do everything you can to find Astral sites and start Wishing for whatever unit or artifact you want and wish for strength and more magic power.

...

Plus you get a few descent globals like Fata Morgana and Mother oak, though you couldnt use Utterdark to your advantage unless you were playing LA Ermor in which case you would own even more.

Wish is overrated, except for gems and maybe magical power. What unit is worth more than four abominations? If you have the artifacts already, units like natarajas might be worth it, but noramlly there are superior options. Yes, there are a few wishes worth making (chalice, mage bane etc,) but it isn't really spammable, unless you need gems of ALL paths, and massing acashics might be a better path to diversity, since it will turn up path boost and mage recruit sites as well. Alteration boost sites also change things quite a bit.

Utterdark is not totally limited to LE Ermor. Any nation that has darkvision could make fair use out of it. Remember that commanders never desert. If you have all the mage you want/need, it can quickly deal with troop centred nations, especially if you get it early.

[PsiSoldier]

Frostmourne27 said:


Wish is overrated, except for gems and maybe magical power. What unit is worth more than four abominations?

Lol, one of my SC's could solo 40 Abominations... I'll post a pic in little while

[PsiSoldier]

Actually I may do an experiment and play a hotseat game with myself and two nations and take a pic of my Pretender or whoever I want soloing 40 Abominations.. Hell I could create a Markata Monkey that could do it if I wanted. Which would be pretty funny.. usually I stick with Vampires since their immortal and fly and regenerate etc.. But Im still looking for a better chassis. I tried gift of reason on a Hydra hoping i could equip 9 helmets but alas I didnt even get one helmet slot =(

Maybe I'll even throw in a few devourer of souls just for the hell of it.

[Atreidi]

Months after I first chose Construction as my first choice, I would now choose Blood Magic. I think my game strategy changed a lot. I now use blood even when playing non-blood nations.

[JimMorrison]

This thread was silly.

"I had a Seraph that could solo 40 Abominations!"

Well, not without Cons8 you didn't. And with Cons, you didn't have Seraphs (going by the question posed here). Somehow I doubt a naked Seraph is soloing 40 Abominations.....

I think it depends on the nation though, for a giant nation, you'd think it would be best overall to go Cons every time. Anyone who builds communions, has to go Thaum. Blood nations, really need the Blood. So..... I think a more interesting question would be if you only got *2* schools. Then you can play with synergies a bit, like Thaum+Evo for Jomon artillery communions.

[Falkor]

I voted for Blood. The most universal path that also focuses on one school only, and suits certain nations like any other path.
- Stable blood slave income (even without SDRods) lets you use your magic, actually. Compare it with crappy gem income for other paths/nations.
- No problem casting high level spells. (just empower your mages, you have the slaves!)

[chrispedersen]

Construction without gems is pointless.

There are a few pretty standards ways the game ends. SC victories. Wish Victories. Surprise teleport victories.

Armageddon/BoT everyone dies kind of victories.

Alteration is a pretty useless school, except
Wish. Utterdark.

I *think* if I have 20 turns with you having Con 9 - and I have 20 turns of me having Alt9 and then combat starts.. And we both have 100 gem income divided as we like ...


I think Alt 9 wins that fight.

[Tifone]

I am so surprised Baalz hasn't entered the discussion to talk in favour of Blood yet :O

Anyway, I picked Blood - not only for his power but because of his *versatility*, which would be the most important thing IMHO if you can have only one path. Blood has everything from communions (aka Sabbaths), nice summons for every level of research (from the beginning to the late game with the infamous Heliophagi), nice (but maybe not exceptional) battlefield spells and great rituals - oh, and think about the globals: expecially if, as it has been done, you want to put 1vs1 paths in a game, Astral Corruption would be a 90% I-win-card no matter what for everybody not having the ability to dispel it.

[Dragar]

Blood is very nice alone, but I was thinking along the ines of which school would be best for the majority of nations, which I think has to be construction. In particular for any nation with decent recruitable thugs, like the giant races. An rainbow pretender would pretty much be a must to get the gem income happening

It would be interesting to have a game to test this, say 12 players, each randomly assigned a research school (so 2 of each), who then go and choose a nation (any age) to suit. On that basis blood could well be a winner with mictlan, but it would be interesting to see what other combinations would challenge.

It would also be interesting if with the lack of magical options normal troops played a bigger part in the game. A strong soldier army like ulm or abysia with alteration for buffs and excellent scales could be a goer. Elephants/hydras are probably even nastier with fewer magical counters.

I think you'd need to have dead seas though, it would be impossible for most nations to enter the water

[Edratman]

Enchantment is my favorite school, but I always have to do construction first so my mages can use enchantment spells.

Thus the foundation is more important.

Of course, without construction one could always empower, but that stacks too many ifs into one question.