Questions about a game in progress

[lillumultipass]

Hi to all!

I have started playing Dom 3 a few days ago (after playing a bit of Dom2 way back in 2004, but not much since my PhD took most of my time! But now it is almost over!) and I am looking for some advice since I can be considered as a noob (I have to add that my usual playing style in strategy games a la Alpha centaury for instance, is to turtle and be the best in research. This is usually what I try to emulate in Dom3, but I am not sure this is an optimal strategy).
Indeed, my first three games ended in disaster after a few turns while I was experimenting with some new nations and imprisoned pretenders on the Aran map; Then I decided to go back to the basics in order to address two of my main problems, namely, province defense and magic site searching. To this end, I build on Ulm middle age, with a rainbow master alchemist (my mistake was to take Nature 4 and only F1), Order 2, Productivity 2, Drain 3, Misfortune 1, and a dominion of 5. The idea was that; since Ulm units cost a lot of resources but are very resilient, a few would be necessary to expand and gold would not be an issue with Order2 so that later on I could buy a lot of province defense. Also, the rainbow alchemist was supposed to be my site searcher early on.
So, I started a game in the Aran map against 5 Normal Random AI, with Indy strength set at 5 and magic sites at 50.

Everything went according to plan initially and I was able both to expand and to find magic sites while keeping a lot of gold in my treasury. Soon, I was able to build a second castle and I found my neighbor, Pangea then my second neighbor, Agartha. Now, I am in winter of my third year, I have just beaten Pangea and I am on the verge of building my fifth castle. My treasury is 9137, with an income of 3019 and an upkeep of 863. I think I am at a turning point since I am going to clash with Agartha which is the second most powerful nation (as many provinces and forts as me, larger army, but they are way behind in research.). Although my armies were sufficient to now, am I afraid that my lack of magic might be detrimental in the long run so I wonder what I should do. I have started to build a few items to boost my pretender (like ring of sorcery, crystal coin, earth boots...) such that he is now F3 A2 W3 E3 S6 D3 N5. When I have a sufficient amount of astral gems, I will build a ring of wizardry. Then, what should I do? The problem with Ulm is that my master smiths are only F1 E2 so that my magic is very limited. I have discovered a province where I can buy Jade Sorceress which will help me in getting Nature magic. But what else? As to my gem income, I am not sure it is large enough: F+6, A+2, W+1,E+8,S+1,D+3, N+7.
I have a mage cast Gnome Lore every turn, and my only mage with F2 casts Augury. Is it enough? Basically, I can't use my pretender any more since he is forging items. But I don't have access a lot of astral pearls, but I can't forge Clam Pearls since I don't have a lot of water gems either.

By the way, how do you usually search for magic sites? Here, although I had a pretender dedicated to this, I don't feel like my gem income is sufficient...So, I wonder how people search without a rainbow mage. Do you dedicate a large part of your mages to remote searching?

As to the game at hand, any ideas are welcomed. I don't have a lot of experience with high level magic or items, so I am a bit at loss of what I should do next. Thanks for your help!
I know this kind of question depends on the specifics of the situation, but any suggestion would still help me.

[lillumultipass]

I think I might go for more Death magic since I have 71 Death gems. As soon as I have finished Conjuration 6 (2 turns) I could summon spectres which will give me access to more magic.

[Endoperez]

Remote spells make spellcasting much easier, so they are often used. Manually moving a site-searching wizard around can be worth ti too, though, especially if he's a rainbow pretender or a mage with many paths. You just have to make sure your enemies can't attack him.


Ulm Master Smiths can cast some useful spells. In Evocation: Magma Bolts, Blade Wind, Magma Eruption; the ones with Astral random can also cast Gifts from the Sky, those with Air can cast Rain of Stones. Conjuration gives few important battle spells: Phoenix Power and Earth Power let your E2 and the rare F2 mages cast better spells, and is especially good for all those E2 mages who can now cast Blade Wind without carrying gems to battle or wearing Earth Boots. Earth Boots AND Earth Power let them cast their spells many more times before fatigue makes them collapse, but the reinvigoration from Earth Power helps in there as well. You might also consider Destruction, an alteration spell that destroys armor, if you can ensure that the Smith casting that has good enough precision to hit your enemies and not your own troops.

You might be able to summon some mages. Conjuration has some Nature (Lamia Queens, Ivy Kings) and Death (Spectres, Mound Fiend) summons, and Water can get you Sea Kings and Naiads in Conjuration or Unfrozen Mages in Enchantment.

If you have any Master Smiths that have S1, be sure to set one to cast Arcane Probing, to look for further Astral sites.

You do have a laboratory in all of you castles, right? Even Ulmish forces need support mages, and Master Smiths can do that very well. In addition to bashing your enemies, they can cast Legions of Steel and Strength of Giants, especially the first one is very good for Ulm.

[Peter Ebbesen]

I have started to build a few items to boost my pretender (like ring of sorcery, crystal coin, earth boots...) such that he is now F3 A2 W3 E3 S6 D3 N5.

You are working on a ring of wizardry, and you probably don't have a skull cap yet, but sooner or later you should summon a Mound Fiend (D3) - he can then be given the job of summoning spectres to give you more varied magic (D?2, where ? is WESD). S will allow you to sitesearch all astral via spell, W to map all water (on land) with the bracelet.

Early in the game (which you are not), it would have been better to use the cheaper Revenant (and give him a Skull Staff so he can multiply ) to cast dark knowledge.

You say you have one mage sitesearching fire. If you have lots of provinces left that need to be searched, your pretender might want to forge a flaming skull (FD req) that you can give to boost another fire mage to cast augury.

Your paths allow you to contact Naiad (well, one more water, but that is easily forgeable) if you have a surplus of water gems, giving you a unit that can hammer out clams, sitesearch water/nature, or contact other Naiads.

How I usually search for sites (in long games):
* If I have a rainbow pretender, I use him to search for sites the first 10-20 turns after he is activated (awake or dormant, never imprisoned for this), then he is usually retired to forging/rituals.
* If I have any decent national mages with multiple paths or high single paths, I have them out searching manually. Priests too once I have a surplus of them - you'd be amazed how many Ancient Temples with 1 astral gem income slips under the radar if you just use mages.
* Sitesearching spells of all types have high priority in research. Especially if I have mages with D1 or S1, getting that death and astral gem income going early is important. A good starting astral income will help you when sitesearching other paths where you have a low income as you can convert the astrals as needed - it does pay off. The earlier you get things sitesearched, the better.
* Construction 4 to create cheap and useful pathboosters, and to start forging skull mentors with the death gems found, has a fairly high priority as well.
* Use death and nature magic via conjuration to branch into areas of magic your nation doesn't touch at all. If your nation doesn't have good death or nature mages, your pretender should probably have these paths unless you are going for a blessing strategy or a dedicated SC. Sure, you might find good independent mages - but then again, you might not, and having a guaranteed way to get mages in the mid-game to bootstrap yourself into a power in all (or most) of the magic types is important.

Ulm is probably the least magical nation around, but even so, assuming you plan for [get some death/astral income going early on] it you should be able to master at least FWESDN in longer games. (A is harder and B is not going to happen except in Black Forest) Then again, you might get uncommonly unlucky in sites, but, on average, you won't be.

[Endoperez]

Ulm can get 1 in Astral and Air, and 2 in Fire, nowadays, with just Master Smiths' randoms.

Hidden in Snow, Enchantment 6 and W3D1, is expensive at 55 gems but gives you up to two Unfrozen mages who the manual lists as having four randoms. That would be very nice if you had more Water gem income.

[reverend]

Blade Wind at Evo4 and E3 is your friend.

I usually fit every support mage with Earth Boots, bringing them to E3. Just a couple of mages casting Blade Wind can seriously damage a lightly armoured army (I suspect Agartha fits that description), especially one that relies on superior numbers.

At least that's from my limited experience.

[Shovah32]

Or you can just cast earth power (as mentioned) bringing them up to e3 without wasting gems.
If i was you i would (yes i do suggest this to everyone ) i would use my pretender to summon a death mage and then use him to crank out black servants (cheap, stealthy, ethereal, lifedrain) for raiding and spectres (basically the same but more expensive and with magic for buffs) to hunt small armies (or if you send groups they could possibly do better) and equip them with cheap items (protection, strength boosters and vrs most troops fear are all top priorities) from smiths and some different items (special shields, horror helms, luck pendants ect) from summoned mages or your pretender.

[lillumultipass]

Thanks guys for the input!

I see that my early site�searching left much to be desired.
I have one master smith with S1 so I have ordered him to auto-cast arcane probing. Better late than never!
Also, I am going to summon some spectres and mound fiends very soon I guess. Maybe I can start summoning black servants also...