Re: Site Searching Strategy
The common wisdom seems to be that level 3 and 4 sites aren't worth searching for because they're too rare, but the preference seems to be for remote searches anyhow. I don't follow how this is a good choice if you have national mages with anything approaching decent magic paths.
If you can move and search for 2 level 2 paths you're getting 2 searches every 2 turns (move, double search, move, double search), just as with a remote spell, and saving 4 gems in the process in return for not finding level 3 and 4 sites. You give up some flexibility since your mage is away from home, but as long as you script a retreat order they're still pretty safe (I've even gotten a free mage turn out of it when my mage runs to an unsearched province after a random indie attack). If you have 3+ paths on your mages the benefits of manual searches seem even more obvious to me. I can understand remote searches for single path mages, or ones with 1 map move because it's much harder to path them effectively to avoid wasting turns, but I don't see how it's a better choice for most nations at the start of the game.
Are the shots at level 3 and 4 sites really worth burning the gems to do level 9 searches, or is the preference there just because it avoids MM issues? Or is there some other reason I'm missing?
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