Basic Strategy Questions

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Ice Sickle:
I'm new to Dominions II. I'm having trouble finding information between "Patrol: By giving a leader this command he will patrol the province he/she is located in and..." and "I set my PD to 10 and because I have rock solid Nads with blessing and Volgrave armor I usually mass my VD's with VH's and use summonned Slags as a meatsheiled..." ?????

I have no idea what you're talking about. I can only assume that this gobbledygook is intended to represent technobabble that you don't understand.

1) Basic magic strategy:
I feel compelled to have a rainbow mage regardless of which race I am playing. This lets me find every type of gem and forge nearly every item.

Clearly, you've outlined the merits of having a rainbow mage. Are you similarly aware of the drawbacks? Do you feel that the pros outweigh the cons? Do you LIKE this style? Does it work for you? If so, then keep doing it. If not, then reconsider. This is a valid and accepted playing style, although not necessarily well-suited for all nations and players.

2) Searching for Magic sites
I usually send out a mage with about magic areas (fire, earth, death for example). But of course he/she can't find everything. I want to find them all so I'm tempted to send out my pretender searching after about turn 15 or so. Later if I have a good astral gem income I'll use that reveal all astral spell.

This is certainly a workable approach, but be mindful of the opportunity cost of sending your pretender out on the move, and thus losing all his research. You could try forcibly hauling him around with Wind Ride, thus not having to interrupt him with motion. (Disclaimer: This suggestion was whimsical and is not to be taken seriously, although you're welcome to try it)

3) How do you do this without a rainbow pretender? If you have no water mages you can't find water sites so you can't empower a mage with water gems to find water sites. Do people just not bother looking for gems that aren't primary to their magic?

That is an approach that is used by many. Alternatively, you can use spells like Tiamat, to find all elemental sites undersea, or Acash if you can afford it and feel the game's site frequency in conjunction with the terrain will yield paydirt.

4) Castle strategies. Because of administration I am loathed to put two castles closer than two territories from each other. What's some wiser thinking on castle placement.

Checkerboard placement is certainly a valid way to place castles. There's also the "Mad Castler" placement, that I happen to be fond of, where I just put cheap, low-admin watchtowers in every single freaking province, making any attempt at invasion a serious pain in the ***.

5) How many gems do you put in the hands of mages as you send them into battle? I don't have a good feel for this.

None. In fact, I rarely employ mages in battle except if I have a very specific purpose, as the spellcasting AI is, in my view, incredibly stupid. It's better than that of many other games....but it's still very stupid (read: does not make the same decisions I would have, where my decision wins the battle easily, and theirs loses).

Thus, I do not entrust my mages with gems unless they have been very specifically instructed on what to do with them. Plus I am loathe to give up the research they provide when firmly parked in front of a lab researching. Thus I only bring them out with a purpose in mind....and give them the gems only to accomplish that purpose.