Most Usefull Research Path...

[Humakty]

I don't trust SC (had some bad (but short) experiences with them), so I would say enchantment, for all the reasons developped above by more experienced players.

I will had the summons are easy to cast, as a 1D mage can search for sites pretty easily, so you don't need much effort before starting to trample the ennemy's elites.(If you understand what spell I'm pointing)

PS : I preffer to field ubber battle mages, rather than SC, I find them to kill more ennemies for the same cost in gems.

[Baalz]

One other consideration - in theory you can trade for construction items. I know that if I can line up a good trading partner early I'm much more likely to ignore construction for a bit. And some of the con-0 stuff you can do without research is decent, particularly the earth items, I think you could have a pretty decent thug without any construction research - if you had the right chasis.

[PyroStock]

Construction.

Cheap path boosters, SC items, per turn unit generators, assassins, supplies for large armies, underwater access for any army/unit, evocations, defensive items for mages, research boosters, gem producers, all the artifacts, communes, etc. No research path can claim to have it all, but Construction comes the closest.

In addition, if one could choose 2 research paths I would predict most would have Construction so they could enhance/access more of the other path more through items.

And what if unique items are grabbed by other nation choose const?

That could be said about almost any of the paths with their unique summons and globals. Even without artifacts you still have a wide variety of powerful items. The same cannot be said about Blood as without your uniques the best SC you could summon would be only an unequipped vampire lord or succubus.

If some MP game ever started based on limiting players to 1 path then the others might target the Construction nation just so they could hope to grab some items to make their uber mages or steal some nicely equipped SCs for themself. But with the right diplomacy the Construction player could make himself the invaluable goto guy for the needs of the others. And who wouldn't want to ally with the only nation who could make the good items? Besides you have to go kill that Enchantment Nation before they get Arcane Nexus up.

[Huzurdaddi]

PyroStock said:
Besides you have to go kill that Enchantment Nation before they get Arcane Nexus up.

LOL! What is he going to do with all of those gems? Dispell people to death?

It would make for an interesting game, but I think that everyone would simply go with construction. OTOH blood and making a pretender that could cast Astral Corruption is a decent play considering no one could dispell it.

[DrPraetorious]

That depends on what you want to accomplish.

Since what you want to accomplish is: killing all those that oppose you, the most useful path, for most nations, is evocation.

Obviously there are exceptions - some nations prefer to kill with thaumaturgy, for example. And, yeah, construction does provide an acceptable mass-death quotient, and it helps you to unzip it and let loose on the smoldering corpses of your enemies, once that state has been effected. But oh, evocation - nothing compares to you.

[Cor2]

I don't suppose there is anyway to set up a test game where each nation gets only one research path. It would have to be an honor system I guess.

[llamabeast]

Well it'd be an honor system, but it'd mostly be pretty obvious if you cheated.

Anyway, everyone around here is pretty honorable, so that would work fine I think.

[Sandman]

Construction really is the backbone of the game. Items open up far more possibilities than the other paths.

Enchantment is probably the next best, with the superb globals and good summons and buffs.

[Meglobob]

You would probably after sign up with your nation plus the single reseach path. Like:-

Pangaea - construction
Caelum - evocation

Might make for a fairly quick, fun game. It would of course be very, very obvious if a player broke the rules.

[Humakty]

For longer games you could allow the first two levels of all paths, to let players have access to many must have spells. I can't imagine a game on a big map without the site searching spells