More newbie questions II

[Corporal Kindel]

Hello guys:

Got some more newbie questions. Recently got this game & have been reading through the manual & playing simultaneously. I’ve read up through the magic section of the manual around page 100, got a few more questions that I’m numbering below:

1) I’m trying to figure out how to use the slave matrix & crystal matrix magic items in battle. According to the description on page 279, it’s use is automatic. I created one crystal & 4 slave crystals, added the crystal to my pretender (POD using nation Maverni), and each of the 4 slaves were given to 3 generic recruited commanders & 1 generic recruited priest. According to the description on page 232 the fatigue should’ve been divided by 5 & distributed to the 4 slaves, also my POD should get 2 bonus levels for each path (for the duration of that particular battle I assume). I scripted my POD to cast communion master first to be sure the items were being used then (communion)(cast)(cast)(cast)(cast) .. I’m not familiar enough with all the spells at this point to know which is best to use over computer chosen casts .. I am very familiar with fatigue though because it seems that (virtually) every single battle my pretender is in he gets reduced to 100+ fatigue, once I even noted 160 fatigue! Several games my pretender died as a result (getting attacked etc..). I didn’t notice any difference when I used these matrix items, so I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong, or if I need to do (or set) something differently before using these things?

2) Crystal heart: Playing Maverni now several times I’ve noticed that my Druids tend to get these afflictions (because of the old age trait I’m presuming). The game I’m playing now I noticed the crystal heart (bottom p280) which is supposed to keep him alive after he dies (although at reduced ability). I constructed a crystal heart & gave it to one of my druids, several turns later I noted he had about 8 afflictions and a couple of turns later again he died anyway. I was under the impression the crystal heart would keep him alive after he died? If he still dies anyway, it doesn’t seem like a very useful item. Also relatedly: what things besides gift of health (very expensive at 50 gems) is there that can be done to remove afflictions from Maverni aging druids with afflictions? I think I’ve already lost like 6 to 8 druids already with another 5 currently having afflictions and ready to die. These guys are very expensive at 380 gold and I would like to keep them around longer if possible.

3) The move & patrol option page 69: I have this one particular province that one of my enemies (Caelum) is just bound and determined to take. The province has already changed hands like 5 times, finally I’ve been able to take it & build a fort. Caelum is still fixated on it and has been able to put it under siege like 4 times, I tried to send an army from an adjacent province using the move & patrol procedure described on page 69 (otherwise they don’t attack the besieging army apparently). After I left- clicked the movement (shows the movement arrow) for the commander there is no option for move & patrol when I click a second time. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

4) Do the computer AI’s generally declare war before attacking you, or is just dependent upon the particular AI nation? I’m wondering because I’ve expanded to the point where I’m bordering 5 AI nations (I’m at war with 2 who’ve declared war on me), but I don’t have enough troops to cover all the borders with the rest (I’ve got PD jacked up .. but I’m spending a lot on PD and it’s reducing my overall income).

5) Gem sites: I’ve been searching for gem sites because I’ve finally realized how extremely important gems are in this game. And I’ve found 3 or 4 using the old-man-in-the woods (apparently a special character only available to Maverni), but I’m wondering if this is common, uncommen, or am I missing a lot (of gemsites) .. roughly, what is the density of gem sites in this game? I don’t want cheats or anything, I just want to have some kind of idea what resources I should be devoting to searching. It seems like there are several global searching spells, but they’re very expensive from my POV, such as arcane probing (page 209) 2 gems just to search one province for only astral magic at level 9 seems very inefficient to me .. what are the bangs-per-buck for casting this spell? Will I find astral once in four casting attempts? IOW: Is it worthwhile or not?

6) This last question is just a general strategy question related to gems. I’ve realized how important gems are for many reasons: recruiting stronger monsters that don’t count against upkeep, creating magic items, armor, shields, etc, casting spells in battle by loading down your commander-MU’s with them before battle, and increasing paths via empowerment. After losing my pretender in all prior games, I’ve decided to make him stronger with magic via empowerment this time, so I’ve spent maybe between 200 and 300 gems boosting him 5 to 7 levels in different paths. So, I’ve spent maybe 60% of my gems on empowerment, 20% on magic items, and 20% on summoning type spells up to this point in the game (year 6 spring): I’m wondering if this is the most efficient approach or not? How do you guys divvy up your available gems and how many (on average) are you guys pulling from gem-sites by year 6? My gut tells me I’m not finding enough gems (or not expanding enough or both), but I don’t really know since I’m fairly new. I'm behind in comparison to some of the other AI's on the power graph.

7) Oh, one last question: Do you guys ever send any champions to the arena? The arena has cropped up in just about every game I’ve played. Three times I’ve sent my pretender to the arena and three times he got whacked. I decided to forego the arena in future games. What do you guys do as to the arena option & how do you maximize your survival against others with whom you’ve no idea of their ability? It seems pointless to send a weaker champion if a pretender can't even win.