What Are the Drawbacks of High Misfortune?

[Baalz]

Ironhawk said:
Thats a really interesting scale combination, baalz. Wouldnt have thought to use that - might give it a shot in my next game. How do you keep all your mages from dying?

In the past I've always used Order/Misfortune. Really you are only in danger for like the first 2-3 turns of the game and after that it pays off very well. And you get attacked by Bogus often which is, outside of the early game, a positive event since it nets you a lot of equipment.

Turmoil/Luck is nice in the early game when a big gold boost can almost double your economic power in a turn. But once your hit the event per turn limit, your bonus becomes static. This is a very serious flaw when playing in medium/large games because nations who took Order will have a strong relative advantage over you since thier income scales faster as thier empires grow!

To be sure, I don't always take those scales, I very seldom take death scales when old age is an issue. For many nations though it's not.

Order is nice, to be sure, I don't think anyone will argue that. I do think it's a bit misleading though to just look at the gold value and say luck's advantage is static. Whats the value of getting a necromancer who starts casting dark knowledge? Without trying to pick a value that's arguably an exponential advantage as your death income grows over time. What's the value of losing the lab at your capital? I'm not talking about during the first few turns, I'm talking about at the point you've got a bunch of researchers and rituals being cast - again this value grows over time even assuming you didn't miss out on critical support for your military. How valuable is it to be able to prime the pump on site searching spells without having to alchemize - potentially from non-astral gems? What's the value of a national hero?

Luck is definitely *not* the most efficient way to gain gold, but gold alone does not win a game.