how to sitesearch effective ?

[Massena]

From Sunray's magic site database, if all sites are equally probable then:
Level 1 mage finds 40-50% of gems in a province
Level 2 mage finds 70-80%
Level 3 mage finds 90-95%
Level 4 mage/Spell finds 100%

So...a Rainbow mage (level 2 in 7 types of magic) will find 5 times (75%x7) more gems than a specific spell - they won't necessarily be all as useful though!

[Vynd]

The problem with taking a Rainbow Pretender as Ermor is that your Pretender will be the only mage you have who can make use of the gems that you find, since Ermor's mages are among the most limited that I'm aware of. So most of these other gems will probably just get converted to Death gems. That's useful, but at a 4x1 cost (2x1 for Astral gems) is it really worth building your Pretender around? Probably only over the very long run.

My advice is build a Pretender that helps you more over the short-term, and find your magic sites by taking over someone else's territory.

[Taqwus]

If Ermor can get to Conj 6, Spectres (D-1, two independent random wizardry picks) will help dispose of other gem types; and if one has a surplus of non-death gems before that empowerment or alchemy is an option as well. Plus, there are non-Death sites that can offer substantial benefits; for instance, there are non-Death sites that offer free fortifications (very nice since Dead Ermor may be hurting for gold), and sites that offer forge bonuses will be very helpful for boosting research via mass-produced Skull Mentors.

[drool]

illuminated ones and members of second and third tiers find magic sites quite easily when walking trhough provinces. no matter if its your own, neutral, or enemy. i`m not sure if all spies are able to do this. black forest ulms are, thats for sure.

[Boron]

thnx for the advice

conjuration / construction are the 2 most important magic classes for ermor anyway or ?

@ vynd what would you suggest that helps me short term more ? only real choices for ermor are a lich , a PoD or a GK right ?

i hoped since i planned to research conjuration quite quickly to be able to summon some support mages for an additional path or 2
hopefully i get some of the queens of air but ermor is slow in research unfortunately
but i think you are right the only really cool summon i see at the moment are really the queens of air .

[Saxon]

Hmm, that is good to know. I did not realize that each magic site had a type, which determined what path of magic was needed to find it. I thought that it was determined by which gems were produced at the site. Thanks for letting us know and sorry for stating that spells like Gnome Lore would find all sites producing earth gems.

As others have said, a spell like Gnome Lore can be used to search two provinces in two turns, while a moving searcher can only search one. This is a big advantage, especially as the sites are worth more, the earlier you find them.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Boron:

@ vynd what would you suggest that helps me short term more ? only real choices for ermor are a lich , a PoD or a GK right ?

Other potential choices, for the short term, are two human rainbows. The Frost Father starts with W1 and is immune to cold, meaning that a Cold-3 dominion doesn't hurt him, nor does enemy cold spells.

Great Enchantress starts with Astral 1, and generates 1 Astral gem a turn. This means that you can use her for a manual site searcher early (while it's relatively safe, as long as she has bodyguards and a small army), and helps pave the way for Akashic Records later.

Both of these let you get a _huge_ rainbow - 3 or 4 in everything as Ermor. Alternatively, drop a path or 2 in order to get a higher path, and a potential blessing, in some of the others.

The nagas are also an option, for combining combat and site searching / magic rituals. Only problem with them is that, imo, they get shafted on potential equipment and have too high a native encumbrance to be worth the 100 point cost, for any nation.