Jotunheim:Utgard AAR

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
PS: I really like the style of this AAR

Danke sehr!

[CharonJr]

Gerne !

And I don't even want to think about what time it is in Houston right now, but about 3 am I would guess...

CharonJr

[Aikamun]

I like Gift of Health for Jotun. Your troops Last longer than normal troops, if well cared for. The exp stars exponentially increase the value of a Jotun. Enchantment Five also yields Dispel, providing you with two strategies for countering Burden of Time.

Aikamun

[ February 12, 2004, 17:00: Message edited by: Aikamun ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Aikamun:
I like Gift of Health for Jotun. Your troops Last longer than normal troops, if well cared for. The exp stars exponentially increase the value of a Jotun.

Very true, in my experience in previous SP games.

Enchantment Five also yields Dispel, providing you with two strategies for countering Burden of Time.

Indeed, however it's worth pointing out that I disabled the two nations most prone to castiung that: Ermor and C'tis.

[Norfleet]

Personally, I'm thinking Conjuration 5 looks like a good next target. With Construction 4 imminent, the acquisition of water gem income, and the recent rediscovery of Skrattis, it may be time to start producing those Clams to crank out the astrals. In my experience, you can never have too many Astrals: They are by far the most useful gem type in the game. Combine with the fact that there aren't all that many uses for water gems, as most of the water spells I like tend to be either inexpensive, or free combat spells. Most Water GEs, the really heavy sources of gem expenditure, are undesirable for casting or just not that impressive for a non-aquatic nation.

Gift of Health is a good thing to have, but with a puny 19 nature gems in your treasury and a mere 2 per turn, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Takes at least 200 gems to make a GE stick vs. the AI, and anything worth doing is worth doing with excessive force, as I always say. So clearly, a good starting target is Conj-5, for Acashic Record. Search those provinces good and proper.

[ February 12, 2004, 18:33: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Combine with the fact that there aren't all that many uses for water gems

What I typically do with water gems is first save enough to get a Sea King (and his 15 sea trolls). The king alone will then give me 1W gem/turn thereafter. Then the king can, with his own gem income, summon another troll every turn. This adds up nicely. I find this a must when I play as R'leyh, but I tend to also do it for other nations with my water gems and casters. The king can also make Quick boots as needed.

Please bear in mind that I do this in addition to making clams with the water income. In the mid-to-late game I burn through quite a few astral gems summoning Angelic Hosts. I just love those move-3, fire-3, holy-4 avenging angels. I can never have too many.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Arryn:
The king alone will then give me 1W gem/turn thereafter. Then the king can, with his own gem income, summon another troll every turn. This adds up nicely. I find this a must when I play as R'leyh, but I tend to also do it for other nations with my water gems and casters. The king can also make Quick boots as needed.

Sea King is certainly one method of investment, but his rate of return is rather awful, since you're going to take 30 turns to see a return on that investment. (I'm deducting 15 water gems from the base sea king cost of 45 for the 15 trolls that accompany him, worth 15 gems on their own - The trolls, however, are NOT an investment).

Clams, on the other hand, assuming you didn't want Astrals at all, and only wanted water-to-water, would be a 20 turn investment, assuming you did nothing except build the clams, equip it, and alchemize the astrals produced into water gems at 2 for 1. If your primary concern is the water gems produced by the SK, the ROI on clams is better, and better still if you actually want those Astrals...and it looks like you do, as 3/turn is rather anemic. It gets better if those Astrals are then immediately used to search for more sites via Acashic, which will surely expand your gem income on all sides.

As for the other uses of the Sea King, such as forging those boots of quickness, a Skratti can do that also. You needed the Skratti to summon the Sea King anyway. I personally think you're better off cranking out as many clams as income permits, rather than saving for the Sea King now. If you can summon a Sea King, you can start summoning trolls with your own Skrattis anyway. The Sea King can wait until the gems start pouring in.

[ February 12, 2004, 19:23: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
I personally think you're better off cranking out as many clams as income permits, rather than saving for the Sea King now. If you can summon a Sea King, you can start summoning trolls with your own Skrattis anyway. The Sea King can wait until the gems start pouring in.

Rest assured that I had already planned to do precisely as you just suggested. My #1 priority is the clams for the extra astral. Otherwise I wouldn't be replaying 6 turns I'd already done. I do have one question, since I've never actually tried this: can you give 2 clams to a leader and thus get 2 gems/turn? Or is the limit 1 clam per leader, as I suspect?

PS - all my mages in my R'leyh game have clams, but just 1 each. That game has 3 sea kings thus far, and about a half-dozen on my fav angels. Plus many other, non-void, summons. Very magic-heavy, as you might expect from the squids.

[atul]

Originally posted by Arryn:
I do have one question, since I've never actually tried this: can you give 2 clams to a leader and thus get 2 gems/turn?

You get 2 gems/turn if leader has 2 clams. Works like a dream and makes you very happy for that 'pool' command behind F7.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by atul:
You get 2 gems/turn if leader has 2 clams.

Cool! You just made my day!

PS to all: I need more feedback on what magic school you'd do next ...

[ February 12, 2004, 20:01: Message edited by: Arryn ]