best way to get a non astral nation to s9

[Gregstrom]

Well... You need W3N1 mages if you want to start clamming the moment you hit Con 2. Some nations can take a Mother of Springs pretender to guarantee this. If you have good access to W1N1 mages (and at least one W2N1 mage), rushing to Con 6 lets you forge the boosters you'll need to start the clamming process. Jade Amazons and Enchantresses are your target indy recruits if you don't have suitable national mages.

After the first 10 or so clams the strain on your resources eases somewhat, but you shouldn't expect to be doing much else with water gems for quite a while.

Edit: Executor's point about N gems is a good one - there are always things you want to be doing with N gems.