Quote:
Originally Posted by thejeff
Why is Dispel a loser's game? Just because you don't know how many gems went into it?
I got nailed by Sea of Ice in one game as EA Atlantis. The most frustrating thing about it was that my thugs & SCs could still retreat to underwater from coastal provinces, but were then trapped. No teleport magic on Basalt Kings.
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Dispel is bad for a number of reasons.
First: You either guess high and waste gems, or guess low and waste gems and do nothing to the global. Overwriting is always a stronger play in terms of gem efficiency, since you can then guess high and get something out of it in the form of a stronger global. This obviously breaks down when the global doesn't care who cast it, which is why Sea and BoT are particularly problematic. (Ones like Utterdark at least have the distinction of guaranteeing world-hate, Burden and Sea don't have that balance mechanism depending on nation selection.)
Second: Pearls are worth more than other gems (specifically 2:1 once wish is available). Having to use pearls to dispel a non-pearl global at 1:1 is a losing proposition. Sea of Ice is again especially painful here due to using W gems. At low-level casts the low base cost makes up for some of the disparity, but once someone plows 200 extra gems into a global you're pretty screwed in terms of gem trade. Note that this exacerbates the first problem, since in addition to having to use more "expensive" gems you're also virtually guaranteed to waste a good chunk of them in the dispel roulette.
Third: It's reactive. The global has at least a turn to work before you can fling a dispel, meaning your opponent gets something out of their investment no matter what.
Fourth: There's now a big hole where that global used to be, meaning you might find yourself in the exact same situation next turn.
Think that hits most of the main points pretty well. Extra gems in dispels should count at 2:1, but that's a programming change that's unlikely to happen. Makes a ton of thematic sense as well, since breaking a spell down should be easier than putting it up. Regardless, as things stand, dispel is terrible. (Though sometimes still the best option due to being the only option.)