The following is a long ramble, largely to explain myself to me. Im not trying to convince anyone im right, just to explain my own thoughts. Id rather not debate whether im right (as this is meant as pure opinion, and meant to be opinion about my own feelings more than the state of the game), but i would like to know if people feel my reasoning is way off base. I don't want anything to change in response to this post.
So, playing nature, death, chaos hard games, I've been trying to understand why I don't like uncommon and rare spells, especially since there are so many cool ones, and ones that look very strong in a vacuum (like, every summon ever).
And I think the problem for me is this: common spells are available at a time when you need to survive, fend off early wars from maniacal and chaotic wizards. You realistically don't have time to get uncommons to do this, although if your first war is a little later, uncommons can help but rares can't.
Once you've survived the initial rushes you have two options - you can crush your opponent or you can consolidate and expand and focus on lairs/nodes. To me, this is the phase of the game where uncommons and rares should have the biggest impact. But, if you follow through and attack your opponent, chances are the same commons that let you survive are also going to let you conquer as well. And most of the best lair/node clearing spells are.. Highly synergistic combinations of common spells. Occasionally things like cockatrices give big increases when combined with focus magic, but the real power in that combination is focus magic. Uncommon and rare summons by definition don't defeat high end lairs/nodes, and even weaker node creatures often come in far too high numbers for your own summons to defeat without high casualties - which you can't support yet because you don't have enough skill and power income.
So you're back to using city troops. And most of the best buffs for city troops are common (mostly due to cost to benefit ratios since you want a lot of them). So your uncommon/rares don't help conquer enemies sijce you can already defeat them, and don't let you clear the map sugnifucantly faster than the troops you already have. What are you left with? Spells to advance your late game (taking on strong enemy wizards with powerful globals, hordes of city troops, and very rare summons). But for late game, you want your own very rares! Many times I look at my spell list and go 'is this worth the mana I could be saving to summon my first very rare creature or global? Or that I could use in a combat to support my powerful city troops?' And too many times, no matter how good the spell is (and I DO think the spells are very well thought out and balanced compared to other spell tiers) the answer is no. More city troops with common spell support are better.
Overall problem for me is that I can get magical weapon troops in such large quantities (when compared to uncommon/rare spells when they're first available), that its always better to focus there instead, which means mass buffs, which means common rarity buffs.
(Note: things like life city buffs, aura of majesty, and combat summon spells are all very effective uncommon and rare spells. But I never find myself missing any of those, whereas simple things like holy armor, focus magic, and eldritch/holy weapon I miss ALL THE TIME. My strongest impossible strategy is beastmen with 3-4 life books, and the rest retorts, followed very closely by 3 life, 2 sorcery books, and 7 retort picks.)
If anyone thought any of this rambling is justified AND a problem (I'm not sure it is at all, its mostly just a rambling), I think the solution is to increase the power difference between each spell rarity. Uncommons would increase to midway between current uncommon and rare tiers, rare would increase to current very rare level, and very rare would increase to superhero-demigod hero level. BUT I don't think that's a good solution at all because it would make city units largely obsolete at the rare tier of spells, which is completely contrary to how the game is designed; and very rare would make heroes obsolete (which I think is also against the nature of the mod.)
Super TLDR: the mod encourages large city based empires. Therefore the best spells will be those that support that playstyle. But for cost/reward efficiency, the best of that type of spell is common followed by very rare, which leaves uncommon/rare spells feeling quite a bit less useful, largely due to the resources available when those spells are most relevant. NOTE: The spells ARE well balanced and designed. They just get subsumed by other goals of the game and end up FEELING less important.
So, playing nature, death, chaos hard games, I've been trying to understand why I don't like uncommon and rare spells, especially since there are so many cool ones, and ones that look very strong in a vacuum (like, every summon ever).
And I think the problem for me is this: common spells are available at a time when you need to survive, fend off early wars from maniacal and chaotic wizards. You realistically don't have time to get uncommons to do this, although if your first war is a little later, uncommons can help but rares can't.
Once you've survived the initial rushes you have two options - you can crush your opponent or you can consolidate and expand and focus on lairs/nodes. To me, this is the phase of the game where uncommons and rares should have the biggest impact. But, if you follow through and attack your opponent, chances are the same commons that let you survive are also going to let you conquer as well. And most of the best lair/node clearing spells are.. Highly synergistic combinations of common spells. Occasionally things like cockatrices give big increases when combined with focus magic, but the real power in that combination is focus magic. Uncommon and rare summons by definition don't defeat high end lairs/nodes, and even weaker node creatures often come in far too high numbers for your own summons to defeat without high casualties - which you can't support yet because you don't have enough skill and power income.
So you're back to using city troops. And most of the best buffs for city troops are common (mostly due to cost to benefit ratios since you want a lot of them). So your uncommon/rares don't help conquer enemies sijce you can already defeat them, and don't let you clear the map sugnifucantly faster than the troops you already have. What are you left with? Spells to advance your late game (taking on strong enemy wizards with powerful globals, hordes of city troops, and very rare summons). But for late game, you want your own very rares! Many times I look at my spell list and go 'is this worth the mana I could be saving to summon my first very rare creature or global? Or that I could use in a combat to support my powerful city troops?' And too many times, no matter how good the spell is (and I DO think the spells are very well thought out and balanced compared to other spell tiers) the answer is no. More city troops with common spell support are better.
Overall problem for me is that I can get magical weapon troops in such large quantities (when compared to uncommon/rare spells when they're first available), that its always better to focus there instead, which means mass buffs, which means common rarity buffs.
(Note: things like life city buffs, aura of majesty, and combat summon spells are all very effective uncommon and rare spells. But I never find myself missing any of those, whereas simple things like holy armor, focus magic, and eldritch/holy weapon I miss ALL THE TIME. My strongest impossible strategy is beastmen with 3-4 life books, and the rest retorts, followed very closely by 3 life, 2 sorcery books, and 7 retort picks.)
If anyone thought any of this rambling is justified AND a problem (I'm not sure it is at all, its mostly just a rambling), I think the solution is to increase the power difference between each spell rarity. Uncommons would increase to midway between current uncommon and rare tiers, rare would increase to current very rare level, and very rare would increase to superhero-demigod hero level. BUT I don't think that's a good solution at all because it would make city units largely obsolete at the rare tier of spells, which is completely contrary to how the game is designed; and very rare would make heroes obsolete (which I think is also against the nature of the mod.)
Super TLDR: the mod encourages large city based empires. Therefore the best spells will be those that support that playstyle. But for cost/reward efficiency, the best of that type of spell is common followed by very rare, which leaves uncommon/rare spells feeling quite a bit less useful, largely due to the resources available when those spells are most relevant. NOTE: The spells ARE well balanced and designed. They just get subsumed by other goals of the game and end up FEELING less important.
