Rainbow Sages: Site-search vs. Re-search

[sansanjuan]

Originally Posted by sansanjuan

Question for the vets (though all can answer) regarding best use for a Rainbow Sage. The tradeoff is between site searching or using the (36) RPs for jump starting research. Likely the answer is "it depends" but I thought I'd throw it out there.

The particular Sage I write of is in Chronicles_MA and his journal speaks of how he chafes at site searching over his natural inclination (as a Sage) to research. The Hell with him. What do you think?
-SSJ

Important nuance... Graphs off. I hadn't even thought of the graphs on angle. Must be getting old..
-SSJ

[AreaOfEffect]

Originally Posted by sansanjuan

Important nuance... Graphs off. I hadn't even thought of the graphs on angle. Must be getting old..
-SSJ

I think it's still the same with graphs off. The key to the early game is survival. More research doesn't just give you the appearance of being dangerous, it actually makes you dangerous.

However, research can be made up for in easier ways. Early gem income is technically better in the long run. Therefore, if you are a confident diplomat and/or shrewed tactician, you might be able to get away with site searching.

My personal preference is to keep the rainbow mage at home and send mages out with your armies. A great sage can usually do the job of several mages in the lab, but can't outperform multiple mages on the battlefield, at least not with your starting research. Have the casters aid in expansion and site search the paths they have access to. When you have reached your preliminary research goals you can then take that sage out to the provinces that didn't turn up anything. This will save much of his valuable time.

[JimMorrison]

Personally what I would tend to do is spend most of the first year searching the provinces adjacent to the capital. After that's done, then it's research time. That way he's never in danger, and you get a little gem income early on that will allow to remote search a lot of provinces at once, when you get around to it.

[OmikronWarrior]

Knowing that it takes 2 turns to site search one province, my advice is get started on the site searching early, especially if you have mages capable of using a gem income your starting sites do not provides. Using your rainbow for a year will only get a player 6 provinces searched, not enough to insure finding all his paths.

[JimMorrison]

Well it generally seems to work out pretty well, and honestly 90% of the time I am talking about only searching 4-5 provinces, depending on if there are nearby waste or swamp.

Honestly, I've noticed that gem income is so sporadic, that it's essentially impossible to expect anything to occur reliably. So you look at what you want, and what you've got, and you meet somewhere in the middle - then hopefully it is enough to crush your opponents.

I also often do my Rainbows Dormant, as the extra 150 points allows a heap more paths/scales, and I just do the few manual searches when he gets out, and proceed from there. I think the situations are very rare, and very specific, where you can do more with 300-350RP, than you can with 150 design points. (EDIT - forgot there were 2 separate threads, though I stand by this next point Though C'tis, with their ability to leverage skellie spam, is probably one of those where it's worthwhile to be Awake, and then research up to Ench3 fast, THEN do some manual searches.