How often do you alchemetize for gold?

[LintMan]

Originally posted by Cheezeninja:
How often and in what stages of the game do you alchemetize for gold? Alot in the begining but never towards the end? The other way around? I usually alchemetize fire gems alot but not so much with the earth gems, earth gems just come in too handy for construction for me. I wont normally alchemetize everything every turn for more gold, but if im 20-50 gold away from being able to complete something important like building a fortress or hiring a mage i wont hesitate. What about you?

Also... has anyone used the alchemists stone with the indy alchemist mages? What kind of gem-gold ratio do you get with that combo?

I tend to alchemize a few gems whenever I run out of gold and then realize I still need to spend a bit more for some necessary unit(s) somewhere, usually not more than 10 or so gems at any given time. That's mostly fire gems, because they're worth more per gem, but I don't do many ritual fire spells, so I don't miss them that much either.

The Alchemist unit costs 300 gold (upkeep 20!) and gives "50bonus" when alchemizing. I thought: Wow! 50 extra gold per gem, that'll cover the upkeep for sure! But unfortunately, not. It's a 50% bonus per gem. Still not bad, but you need to average alchemizing 3+ gems per turn to break even.

There's also an "Alchemist's Stone" unique artifact that also gives a 50% bonus to alchemy. An Alchemist with the Alchemist's Stone gets both bonuses:
Earth gems: 20 gold each
Fire gems: 31 gold each (the 1 extra must be because of some rounding-up going on)

With this double bonus, I'm more willing to alchemize and have raised several hundred gold at a time that way to buy a needed temple or extra mage or two.