I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.

[Louist]

I have the least experience, and feel for, the MA game, so lately I've been practicing with a variety of races and approaches. My first game wih Man I had some incredible luck--the first crone I recruit has Air 4, which, according to one of the guides is exceedingly rare.

But I've also had some terrible luck- I wasn't watching the clock, so to speak, and I recruited her in Late Winter of year one, which is an instant affliction.

Oh, but good luck once again- She wasn't hit with disease!

For now I have her out site searching as fast as possible, as she is wasted researching and I have no heavy-hitting spells I need her for.

It's a pity I can't get Gift of Life soon enough to save her!

[Frozen Lama]

if you have an N4 bless, just give her a shroud. or failing that, a ring of regen. it will save her

[Louist]

I'm afraid I didn't go for Nature. I do have Growth-1, but that will only do so much.

[Frozen Lama]

then yeah, build her the ring of regen

[Jack_Trowell]

Having Growth 1 should slightly lessent the chance to get a disease in late winter.
Having regeneration from a ring or blessing would prevent the crone from losing HP because of a disease, but it wouldn't prevent her from getting more afflictions from the disease or old age.

My advise would be to forge a thristle mace for the crone in order to increase its Nature magic level, as Nature levels increase the old age cap and enough of it might make your crone young again. It wouldn't remove afflictions, but the crone would not gain new ones anymore during winter.

If a thristle mace is not enough, you could maybe empower the crone in Nature. It is usually too costly to be worth the gems, but is you don't have already A4 with your pretender, keepeing the crone alive would allow you to build the Air boosters later (both need A4).

[rdonj]

It takes something like n4 or n5 to get a crone out of old age territory, so that's not really an ideal method. A ring of regen is the best bet for now, but what it really wants are boots of youth or an elixir of life.

[Gandalf Parker]

"I heard a Sauromatia Witch King say once that Man made good wineskins.
(but later I got the impression he wasnt saying they forged them)"

[Gregstrom]

In desperation, even Transformation could be used.

[Amorphous]

Do not despair unnecessarily. I have played a lot with Man and as long as crones are kept in growth dominion, afflictions are by no means a sure thing. During my games the crones that actually get really debilitating afflictions are in a clear minority.

But make sure you keep her in growth dominion. Pay attention if you site search with her.

If you do not have access to air boosters without the crone, her ability to craft the first air booster is by far the most important feature, so research up to construction 4 reasonably early. As long as you have one booster, her extra point of air magic is nice, but nothing that earth-shattering.

[Louist]

Thanks for the advice, folks. I'm about to enter into the next late winter, and we will see how she fares. Boots of Youth are more or less impossible for me, and any other options are still a ways off with Ring of Regeneration being the closest option to hand.

In the vein of good luck, bad luck, I had the good luck to discover Ulm, my newest enemy, after Asco and Atlantis, has a number of completely undefended territories. I decided to order my Bard prophet, who had been scouting the area out, to capture the provinces.

My bad luck crops up again, though, in that I forgot to update my prophet's battle orders, and he promptly retreated into enemy territory and died!