pretender magic paths advice/midgard strat talk

[OmikronWarrior]

Well, Air Queens obviously, and earth troll kings. Also, summon storm power is incredibly useful for spamming thunder strike.

As for research priorities, one of my tricks for Midgard is to rush to research const-2 first, which let you build a bunch of research quills to get a boost in the early turns. Next in line is either evocation (for thunderstrike, mists, and storm). Of course, thau-2 will help you get an early jump on your air income with Auspex.

[Aezeal]

Thanks that is good advice.
Summon storm power + storm seems a bit.. expensive .. wouldn't getting the staffs be the better way? (const-6 woudl have to wait a bit for me though)

For my astral mages I'm thinking Thau -2 woudl be nice anyway though

[OmikronWarrior]

If you're up against tramplers definitely rush Thau-4 for paralyze. As for the expense of casting storm, you are partially correct. Not only do you need the gems every battle, but it pretty much removes a mage from being able to cast thunderstrike multiple times. However Storm staffs are 25 air gems (though you can certainly use hammers to reduce that) and const-6. Spending the one or two air gems per battle won't be a biggie, especially if you started to site search early. If you're willing to spend just a few more air gems you can effectively quadruple your artillery (as only 1 in 4 of your air mages will have A3 off the bat).

Also, I forget what path Aim is under, but its very useful, especially if you're trying to neutralize somebodies archers with storm and mists.

[Aezeal]

Are the lower level thau spells not effective enough for mammoths and the like?

[OmikronWarrior]

I'm not entirely sure, but Paralysis is so overwhelmingly effective its hard to justify any other approach. Yes, you get mindburn at thau-2, but thats only 12 damage, hardly enough to quickly take out 20+ mammoths. 60 points of paralysis damage means roughly 30 rounds of not doing anything, and your astral mages can cast it with out any boosters. Another option is False Fetters (A2, Alt-1), but that has to be used close to the front and gives the trampler a chance to break it every turn, where as a paralyzed trampler is pretty much dead.