Two questions

[Gandalf Parker]

Zen said:
Well no need to experiment, it's not better. It gets progressively worse the more Holy you want as well.

It costs 645 Pts to get Solar Disk to F9W9, with 3 Dominion
It costs 650 Pts to get a Water Archmage to F9W9, with 1 Dominion.

All other Human Pretenders are their 35-55 Pts worse, plus the Dominion stepping they have to get the Holy to where they need to recruit.

There is no better, there is only pros and cons.
Does dominion affect a bless strategy? I know its something to consider but does it affect this particular answer?

For those 5 points you get 10 more points of research to make good use of those high magics. Thats ALOT of research early on. And you get more equipment slots.

On the other hand Solar Disc does fly which can be very handy for some nations. There were some nice immunities on the disc also.

Both seem to be front-runners in this particular strategy.

[KissBlade]

Gandalf Parker said:

There is no better, there is only pros and cons.
Does dominion affect a bless strategy? I know its something to consider but does it affect this particular answer?

For those 5 points you get 10 more points of research to make good use of those high magics. Thats ALOT of research early on. And you get more equipment slots.

On the other hand Solar Disc does fly which can be very handy for some nations. There were some nice immunities on the disc also.

Both seem to be front-runners in this particular strategy.

Oh come on now Gandalf, you must have played enough to know that you need at least some dominion points for holy to buy sacreds. Not to mention Solar Disc has more combat potential, better mobility. Also what the heck are you going to do with your most likely IMPRISONED archmage's 10 extra research? By the time he wakes up, it'll be a drop in an ocean.

[Graeme Dice]

Gandalf Parker said:
There is no better, there is only pros and cons.

Of course there is a correct choice here. The solar disc costs 5 points less and gives you a dominion of three instead of a dominion of one. A F9W9 Son of the Sea also costs 645 points, and is available to Oceania, so this is the no-brainer choice for the bless pretender.

For those 5 points you get 10 more points of research to make good use of those high magics. Thats ALOT of research early on. And you get more equipment slots.

It's not a large amount of research, it's about what a single mage provides you. For an underwater nation, who will rarely have to worry about early attacks even from other water nations, I don't see that as much of a concern. As for the item slots, the son of the sea gets the same slots, and can actually be used in the field.

[Gandalf Parker]

That makes sense. I guess the research points arent a big tradeoff. And Son of the Sea does look better.