Balance on small maps

[alexti]

It seems to me that on small maps Dom3 has lost a lot of its depth. Now it seems that the only and obvious plan is a bless plan. I was trying to think about alternatives, but to begin with, not many nations have much to offer. Caelum looked like one of candidates. To test it I setup duel vs trivial Helheim rush. I pick good scales, awake high-research pretender and go for evocation. Conflict with Helheim happens at turn 8. I'm obviously coming short of Evocation 4, so it's 2 eagle kings and 5 seraphs with bunch of mammoths and regular troops vs 22 F9W9-blessed helheim cavalry, Caelum regular troops can't do much, the only saving grace is that mammoths require few hits to get killed. seraphs kill about 3rd of enemies with lightning bolts before the battle is lost. Practically any regular troops are nearly useless vs power-blessed armies, some fire nation might have better chance with fire spells, but generally prospects look very bleak.

I think that the main problem is the cost of research. Basically early game doesn't play like Dominions now - it's more like a regular mainstream "rush" game. As an experiment, I've decided to wait few turns (neither hellheim nor caelum were moving or recruiting) just to get Evo-4 before the battle. With Thunderbolts Caelum won (though losing most of its army). But with current rules, it's unlikely to get to 4-th level before 8-9 turn rush. Maybe it would be good to lower the cost of research. Or permit buying research levels for design points (for example, spending 200 points to start with Evo-4). Then different nations could find various strategies instead of relying on trivial rush. Another idea is to disable bless effects until the pretender awakens... Buying research for points or delayed blessings are not likely to change the late game balance. Changing research cost can also be done only for lower level (while keeping higher cost for higher levels) - then it wouldn't affect the late game balance either.