MA Tien Chi in 3.10

[Gregstrom]

Although that could tie in nicely with the worries about Mind Duel. Get a communion master to cast phoenix pyre on the first round, then get the slaves to spam Duels.

[Shovah32]

Might be a bad idea. The dueling mages probably have a high chance of losing their duel against the enemies, exploding, respawning within your own forces(or enemy forces, dying again and getting more fatigued) and blowing them up after losing their next duel.

[Gregstrom]

Yes - S1 only has a 1/6 chance of killing S4 in a duel, or 10/36 for killing S3. I only suggested it because if you're TC going up against Bandar/Arco in MA, it might be a better way of going up against therir astral mages than sitting there waiting for them to duel you. If the master casts Power of the Spheres too, odds are 10/36 for S2 v S4 and 15/36 for S2 v S3 (NB: these odds include the chance of mutual annihilation - if you don't have Pyre up this might be a bigger concern)

A bit of MM can reduce the odds of at least the first death of each slave hurting any other casters.

[quantum_mechani]

Gregstrom said:
If the master casts Power of the Spheres too, odds are 10/36 for S2 v S4 and 15/36 for S2 v S3

No sort of booster helps magic duel.

[Gregstrom]

Oops.

[MKDELTA]

I realized that Nature opens up the path to Eagle Eyes, which is suprisingly nice little spell as it turns even mundane Fireballs and Acid Bolts deadlier.

Or well, more precise, but that's slightly the same thing, especialy against more regular units.

I'm still trying to think a solid use for the Alchemists and Masters of The Way.

[Shovah32]

Masters of the way aren't terribly useful, although with frozen heart they can be nice. They are also decent researchers - 20 more gold than geomancers but 2 less upkeep due to them being sacred.

Alchemists are protected from magic duel, but thats about all.

[Sombre]

You're right that eagle eyes is very nice. Aim would be too if it had a self target version.

Perhaps in that little mod,...

[Agema]

Most nations access 2-3 magic types, so will rapidly find 2-3 types of gems. (Although by my experience getting N1 mages is pretty easy, from tribesmen provinces.) T'ien Ch'i have a lot of magic paths, so you should have an astronomical gem income. Hire a few of the best multipath ones early, and march them from province to province searching the easy sites.

Secondly, a wide range of magic skills gives enormous versatility. I've forgotten the number of times I've thought "I wish I could access spell X", but my nation simply doesn't have that path open to it.

[MKDELTA]

Agema said:
Most nations access 2-3 magic types, so will rapidly find 2-3 types of gems. (Although by my experience getting N1 mages is pretty easy, from tribesmen provinces.) T'ien Ch'i have a lot of magic paths, so you should have an astronomical gem income. Hire a few of the best multipath ones early, and march them from province to province searching the easy sites.

Secondly, a wide range of magic skills gives enormous versatility. I've forgotten the number of times I've thought "I wish I could access spell X", but my nation simply doesn't have that path open to it.

Yeah, that's true. Tien has immense site searching power. An Imperial Alchemist or two doing searching and someone shooting out that Astral site finding spell (I keep forgetting it's name :/ ) is superbly effective at finding pretty much all the gems you need.