Caelum questions, both themes.

[Liadran]

No more classes to teach anymore.

I agree Zen on the point that you don't have 2 fortresses from the start and you research according to your playstyle and strategy. That's why speed is not always the most important thing. Price, later use and etc. make variables and change things around quite often. No best style out there. And yes base Caelum is initially faster in research after you have to change away from Elders for some time, which is an important point to note also.

Pretender is only for few items, harab seraphs can do the rest of the work. I know that base Caelum has an earth 3 pretender (or 2 sometimes) quite often and can do the same. The point was more in the fact that mostly you only have a few earth Users in base Caelum and can't know when you'll get them. Empowering is just too expensive. Base Caelum is more effective with Alteration 2 according to firepower (both are as good in pretender part), Raptors are better in defence (firepower counts for more initially).
But a simple spell like Armor of Achilles (alt2) gives quite much power to your troops (cuts knights like butter in the first runs).

About income. In average Raptors have propably about 5% less income than base Caelum. But you'll propably end with a little lower unit upkeep which takes some of the edge back.

Caelum's lightning approach is not any different than the approach os some other nations (though not all). The same things can be said to other nations also. It was just the point not to rely too much on one thing.


About the changes:

Seraph is still left for some water entry (water increase item needs only water 1). But you still lose most of your water access (not too much left).

Losing the 3 holy priest is bad, but death magic takes some of it back as you'll end up having (most propably) quite a lot of high morale troops. But Caelum fliers get hurt for some as they're the ones needing those boosts.

I agree with you about the dead. Not teh most versatile. Very strong if used well. Reducing enemy economy and very strong summons (and a 2 random mage as your going with conjuration most propably), which do not eat (very important for Caelum) and cost anything.

Lose Temple Guards and gain Ravens Guard. Let's face it as you say Caelum fliers are very fragile (even Iceclad). Temple Guard has the best morale, is blessable, has Iceclads armor and weapons and better stats than Iceclad. They are just damn slow and yes water is very good with them. Ravens Guard on the contrary is the best offensive unit Caelum can get. They have the best damage and 2 attacks and a move of 3 (very important when comparing to Iceclad and Storm Guard) They just lack in defence. But fliers really need more punch than defence. Giving them even more offensive punch makes them much better than Iceclads. I agree on the point that their cost is quite the same in the end (Ravens's guard is easier to get, but cost more also giving possibly the option of taking lower productivity than +3). Harab mages can help them and the effect is there. Also Harabs use more battle summons quite often (depends on base strategy). But in raiding warfare that move of 3 gives the edge, 2 is just too slow quite often in my opinion. Propably you don't use 3 elders (one or two is enough). But the strategy is determined against the opposition in hand, not overally.