Balancing Very Early Research and Site Searching

[Immaculate]

Let me paint a picture for you:

Its turn 3-4. You've managed to take 2 provinces. You have two commanders in the field leading armies of mundane troops (ie- no bless, no casters). You can probably field another expansion party in another 2 or 3 turns.

Your capital has 3 magical units, lets say two have D2S2W2 (could be anything) and research at about 7-8rp/turn (good magic scales?) and one has D1 and researches 3rp/turn.

How many of those researchers do you pull from research to go site searching manually? At what point? You are gonna want to get that gem income going early but the opportunity cost is reseach. At what point do you say, "now is the time; i want to be able to build 'lightless lanterns/frost brands/whatever' and i am gonna need gems- its time to go find some...."?


Thanks- i am a complete newb so please feel free to talk down to me and assume i know nothing.

[Micah]

If you have a pressing research need then by all means go after it full-tilt, but otherwise get out site searching ASAP.

Gem income becomes immediately useful even if you can't spend it because it stockpiles, whereas if you aren't casting your new spells they might as well not have them (your fireballs don't get better just because you researched them 10 turns ago versus last turn.) So, as with most things, it's pretty situational, but in general you want to front-load gems and have the research "catch up" once your mages are done wandering around instead of the other way around.

[Calahan]

One thing to bear in mind though with early site searching is that it can paint your lands as a very nice early/first target to any aggressive or powerful neighbours you might have. I know if I had the choice of two target of equal power to attempt to rush, and one of them had done a lot of early site-searching resulting in a good gem income, then I'd mostly always pick that one to attack as the rewards for conquering them would be that much higher due to the gem income I'd pick up in the process (and the added bonus of not having had to use my own gems and mages to find those sites)

So if you are a powerhouse nation yourself, then getting the gems flowing early is mostly always a good idea. But if you are one of the weaker nations, getting a big gem income asap might not be such a good idea if you can't hold on to it, and it can even be a potentially bad idea if doing so makes you the most attractive target around to attack.

But it's all situational as Micah says, and all depends on what nation you are, and what neighbours you have. Although I would say it's probably a good idea not to site search until you have found a few, or most of your neighbours. As I find it is usually more difficult to balance early research/site searching ratios without knowing exactly who your neigbours are.

[Micah]

If you're looking to be a possible rush target I'd file that under "pressing research needs." =)

But yeah, finding your neighbors is a good step for sure.

[Ironhawk]

One other point about site searching early is that occassionally you will find sites that redirect your game. A really good discount site or a really good mage site can open up a whole new strategy for your nation. Better to know that sooner than later after you've invested in some whole other plan.

[Immaculate]

This is gonna be another very newb question:

when is it good/bad to site search with your pretender in the very early game (assume they aren't a supercombatant)?

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Immaculate

This is gonna be another very newb question:

when is it good/bad to site search with your pretender in the very early game (assume they aren't a supercombatant)?

What is early in the game? Why are they awake then?

Unless you took them specifically for site-searching (and generally, you're probably going for a dormant pretender for that), early in the game your pretender has set tasks he needs to be accomplishing, which is why you took that pretender. Otherwise he might as well be imprisoned and giving you great scales, a good bless, or both.

[Immaculate]

Well lets say you are a newb and didn't think things through that well and your pretender can either be a super researcher or a super site searcher (opening up sites you wouldnt otherwise get), what do you go with?

EDIT: and also: why would you go with a dormant pretender if its first job is going to be site searching?

[Squirrelloid]

Site searching isn't worth 150 design points.

[thejeff]

It can be, but you've got to have a plan that requires early access to those gems.

In general, I'd agree with you.