[Knai]

Early site searching is only half of it, early research the other. 150 extra points for scales and similar is a lot (that can buy Magic 3 from a net 0, which will outpace the rainbow over the long term), but early research can count for a lot as well. It really depends on the nation.

As for Marignon - Marignon is wonderful, for a few reasons. Not least of these is that their national summons are generally wonderful, and can benefit from an E-N bless, which also works reasonably well for their national troops (mostly due to the E) aspect, while both nature and earth are fairly valuable for Marignon. That does leave them with no death or blood, which is unfortunate.

Also of note - Mind Hunt. Sure, Marignon isn't exactly a Pythium grade astral nation, nor can they mind hunt at the Arcocephale level, but they aren't bad. Moreover, given the amount of fire Marignon is packing you want to research Evo some anyways.