Clams overpowered?

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Bayushi Tasogare:
When you take both of these statements together, though, you end up with a conundrum. If Water Gems have little use besides Clams, you're not losing anything to invest in them. IOW, you're not really losing 'present resources' to gain 'future resources', since those 'present resources' aren't useful in and of themselves.

Do you see the issue here?

Yes, yes I do see the issue here: The issue, however, is slightly different. It's not "Clams are overpowered", it's "water magic sucks".

Water magic needs some rituals which are actually useful. THAT is the problem. It has a number of tactically useful battlefield spells, including the most awesome ones, like Quickness....but few useful rituals.

Take, for example, Sea King's Court (which is actually a form of investment in itself, as Sea Kings produce free water gems!): It has several drawbacks, the first and foremost being that the Sea King, and his court, demands upkeep! A lot of upkeep! This, of course, greatly undermines the value of the summoning: You summon troops because you want heavy hitters and/or things that demand no upkeep, preferrably both. Sea Trolls, however, are subpar, being that their protection is poor and their raw physical might not really impressive: Their sole saving grace is the fact that they are aquatic and can invade sea provinces....and this is of absolutely no use if no water nations are present or you are mostly landlocked.

Other water summons tend to be relatively anemic at best compared to the summons of the other elements: Many are aquatic only, which tends to restrict their use to aquatic nations....who already have aquatic troops, and generally need something useful on LAND.

Water evocations, on the other hand, are also very limited: They all tend to focus on cold, and are most effective in cold provinces that, conveniently, tend to contain people that are cold immune!

Water, basically, needs more tricks. Or at least fixes so that Sea King's Courts don't demand massive chunks of your money and wind up bankrupting your empire when you try to spend your water gems there.

[ April 17, 2004, 03:30: Message edited by: Norfleet ]