So far what nations look strong... and weak?

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
You have to spend an average of 8*90=720 gold on sages to get an astral sage... I don't see that as a very cheap or reliable way to hunt Tien Chi mages...

Don't send the non astral ones to hunt Celestial Masters. :-/

If you are recruiting sages, you will get some with Astral. Facing Tien Chi, an obvious tactic would be to have them Magic Duel the drastically more expensive Celestial Masters. This is bad enough even in the weakest case (Sages), and gets much worse when you face any faction with signficant Astral power.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by LordArioch:
Solution...magic duel immunity item!

I would like to second this.

Maybe a helmet or something. And not "Mind Hunt" immunity, or even more early supercombatants would surface, but perhaps a 6 Construction item that requires a certain amount before you could use it. Say Astral 3. Or you resist a mindhunt, but it has a chance to cause an affliction based on ... something. Totally negating mind hunt with an item IMO would be counterbalancing.

[Jasper]

A Magic Duel Immunity item seems too specific IMHO, but then a broader Astral Immunity item would be too much...

I'd be happier just tweaking Tien Chi's Celestial Masters so they had an extra Air magic rather than Astral. There are enough races with Astral magic as it is.

IMHO this is more in theme with the elemental nature of Chinese Magic; letting CM's Cloud Trapeze is particularly apt -- isn't Chinese Mythology where the idea for the spell comes from? It would also make Tien Chi much more viable.

IMHO even just removing their Astral skill would improve Celestial Masters. :-(

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Jasper:
A Magic Duel Immunity item seems too specific IMHO,

I have no problem with a specific defense to a unbalencing weakness. Mind Duel is terrifying for weak astral mages and providing a way of protecting them adds to the possibilities in the game.

I would suggest a Con 4 helmet, requiring astral 1 or 2, which blocked all use of Astral magic and provided defense versus mind duel - you turn off your own Astral and thus gain protection. Seems reasonable to me.

cheers

Keir

(confusion over Marignon diablolic faith points edited out)

[ November 21, 2003, 21:13: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

Johan ... you were right.

You can't expand fast enough for the theme to work if you play anything but a short/fast game. Perhaps there could be a reworking that maybe population is eaten slower or that the good units (Like the Black Centaur and the Pans) were buildable everywhere.

[Saber Cherry]

Or maybe if lots of vinemen/ogres/mandragoras rise up in strong dominion, regardless of population... then the pop-killing thing with a growth scale would make sense=)