As the starting sawmill likely has a significant effect on the Conjurer strategies, I'm going to test it again.
Game 1
Alchemy, Conjurer, Specialist, Spellweaver, Nature books
The first thing I notice is, my gold income is horrible - the sawmill eats 4 gold a turn. I have to start the game by building a marketplace to be able to fuel spells through Alchemy.
Earth Lore reveals a node with many Nagas. There is a neutral Barbarian city behind it, but the node cuts the continent in two. I have to use sprites even though I wanted to test bears.
An enemy wizard shows up with their sprites. They are conjurer specialist like me.
I feel further testing on this map is pointless - the enemy has the same advantage so I won't see how much difference it makes.
Game 2
Not going to bother with Earth Lore this time - starting on bears from turn 1. They move 3 so they can explore.
1401 January - I have 6 bears now. That's good but I think I had more in earlier tests. I'm on an island so I have to cast an Earth Lore and make a Trireme. The Earth Lore reveals the capital of a wizard who probably plays red/black.
1401 August - The first stack of 9 bears is ready.
I contact the enemy wizard, as expected, death+chaos, but also has life books. Inquisitor on top of that.
While heading towards their capital, I see a pretty large stack. Mostly weak units, but 8 of them, including a hero. This continent has a lot of hills and mountains. My bears are slow. I should have kept them in the ship but then I would be limited to a stack of 8. My mana income is down to 0 implying I have 13 bears total. I need to stop summoning them.
The hero I saw attacks my settlement. With Wraith Form it can easily reach my continent. Thanks to the 2 Life books, they has Heroism on it. I can't fight that with a swordsmen.
I reach their capital. 6 Ghouls, a hero, a halberdier, wall of fire, heavenly light, a hell hound. My bears will probably lose here and it's 1402 september. I'll try the attack anyway - as expected the bears lose. The hero has 10 shields - heroism+holy weapon. The few bears that even make it there have no hope of dealing damage. Even if I had my additional 4 bears here, I couldn't have won.
The map was pretty bad - maybe on another.
Game 3
Again, I have 6 bears by 1401 January. With Gnolls I could have had like 3 wolf riders. 6 Bears are better but not by a large margin. My continent has no wizards, again. There is a Sorcery node with a few nagas - I make that my first target for the bears. Sprites would be better but they have problems of their own so shouldn't be mixed into this test.
I build my first outpost, next to gold and silver at 18 pop. Lucky.
Thanks to the Sorcery node aura, the 4 Nagas hurt the bears a lot. All 7 of them are down to yellow health or worse, and the 8th one is lost, but I have the node. I found about 500 mana+gold so I can freely keep summoning for a while without having to worry about costs. The damage to the bears is so much it actually shows up on the graph as a V shape.
Two outposts show up on the south part of my continent. They belong to two different wizards.
My bears are finally healed but it's already 1402 March. One of the wizards is a conjurer with sorcery and nature. the other...is the same. Is the game trying to troll me? Every enemy always has conjurer! They both have more military than me but I'm not that far behind. I can probably fight these wizards except, sprites are hard for bears. I decide to attack the one with Lizardmen first. Meanwhile started casting some Earth Lores. I find the other wizard's capital is very close - change of plans, we fight that one. I already attacked the other's units so they can attack, but we aren't at war yet. the outpost of the other wizard...is now up to 2 bears, 2 nagas and 1 sprites. Eww.
I conquer it easily so I can start making ships for transport...but my bears are in no condition to fight now.
I'm contacted by the third wizard. 9 Chaos books and Guardian+Alchemy.
My trireme is ready but the sight of 2 nagas next to it makes me reconsider. I reposition the ship so I can cross without having the bears on water. I see the garrison now. 6 bears and 3 sprites. By the time I'm ready to strike it's 5 sprites. I'm able to win with two attacks, but lose many bears in the process. The wizard decides not to return.
The chaos wizard started corrupting my territory, and I don't seem to have Great Lizard, the only good counter to Chaos wizards in nature. And they have about 3 times my power.
Overall, I don't think this will be a win but I'm certainly fairly strong. I don't think I'm much stronger than if I started with a military strategy though.
Game 4
I start on a small island. I build a ship and conquer a neutral lizardmen city on the nearby other island. There is one more, halfling, one island further away. That one is snatched by another wizard, by a naga. I'm going to attack it anyway, it's a mono-sorcery wizard. Can't let those expand early. I clear out "many skeletons" for 250 mana. 5 Hell hounds on another island yields another 300 gold.
I find another wizard's capital. I can't fight them - only having 4 bears here. As my empire is on many islands, my forces are divided - with nagas roaming everywhere I have to have at least 2 bears in any city. Every land except the 3 islands I control is very far - about 10 tiles of ocean between us. This wizard has books in 4 realms, and their capital is full of ghouls and sprites. Bears would not be able to deal with that anyway.
I conclude that Conjurer+Specialist is still a strong start, but nowhere near gamebreaking without Mana Focusing. It's almost impossible to reach an enemy capital before they have 9 units inside as well, which results in massive losses.
I'm not sure if there is a need to nerf this combo - probably yes anyway, while it wasn't enough to win impossible with it, it performed better than military strategies.
Conjurer needs changes regardless - the upkeep reduction shouldn't be part of this ability - that's Chaneller's domain.
Setting the casting cost to 75% of the normal, but ignoring other modifiers might be an interesting solution. That way Conjurer could provide immunity to Divine Order and Evil Omens cost increasing effects.
Game 1
Alchemy, Conjurer, Specialist, Spellweaver, Nature books
The first thing I notice is, my gold income is horrible - the sawmill eats 4 gold a turn. I have to start the game by building a marketplace to be able to fuel spells through Alchemy.
Earth Lore reveals a node with many Nagas. There is a neutral Barbarian city behind it, but the node cuts the continent in two. I have to use sprites even though I wanted to test bears.
An enemy wizard shows up with their sprites. They are conjurer specialist like me.
I feel further testing on this map is pointless - the enemy has the same advantage so I won't see how much difference it makes.
Game 2
Not going to bother with Earth Lore this time - starting on bears from turn 1. They move 3 so they can explore.
1401 January - I have 6 bears now. That's good but I think I had more in earlier tests. I'm on an island so I have to cast an Earth Lore and make a Trireme. The Earth Lore reveals the capital of a wizard who probably plays red/black.
1401 August - The first stack of 9 bears is ready.
I contact the enemy wizard, as expected, death+chaos, but also has life books. Inquisitor on top of that.
While heading towards their capital, I see a pretty large stack. Mostly weak units, but 8 of them, including a hero. This continent has a lot of hills and mountains. My bears are slow. I should have kept them in the ship but then I would be limited to a stack of 8. My mana income is down to 0 implying I have 13 bears total. I need to stop summoning them.
The hero I saw attacks my settlement. With Wraith Form it can easily reach my continent. Thanks to the 2 Life books, they has Heroism on it. I can't fight that with a swordsmen.
I reach their capital. 6 Ghouls, a hero, a halberdier, wall of fire, heavenly light, a hell hound. My bears will probably lose here and it's 1402 september. I'll try the attack anyway - as expected the bears lose. The hero has 10 shields - heroism+holy weapon. The few bears that even make it there have no hope of dealing damage. Even if I had my additional 4 bears here, I couldn't have won.
The map was pretty bad - maybe on another.
Game 3
Again, I have 6 bears by 1401 January. With Gnolls I could have had like 3 wolf riders. 6 Bears are better but not by a large margin. My continent has no wizards, again. There is a Sorcery node with a few nagas - I make that my first target for the bears. Sprites would be better but they have problems of their own so shouldn't be mixed into this test.
I build my first outpost, next to gold and silver at 18 pop. Lucky.
Thanks to the Sorcery node aura, the 4 Nagas hurt the bears a lot. All 7 of them are down to yellow health or worse, and the 8th one is lost, but I have the node. I found about 500 mana+gold so I can freely keep summoning for a while without having to worry about costs. The damage to the bears is so much it actually shows up on the graph as a V shape.
Two outposts show up on the south part of my continent. They belong to two different wizards.
My bears are finally healed but it's already 1402 March. One of the wizards is a conjurer with sorcery and nature. the other...is the same. Is the game trying to troll me? Every enemy always has conjurer! They both have more military than me but I'm not that far behind. I can probably fight these wizards except, sprites are hard for bears. I decide to attack the one with Lizardmen first. Meanwhile started casting some Earth Lores. I find the other wizard's capital is very close - change of plans, we fight that one. I already attacked the other's units so they can attack, but we aren't at war yet. the outpost of the other wizard...is now up to 2 bears, 2 nagas and 1 sprites. Eww.
I conquer it easily so I can start making ships for transport...but my bears are in no condition to fight now.
I'm contacted by the third wizard. 9 Chaos books and Guardian+Alchemy.
My trireme is ready but the sight of 2 nagas next to it makes me reconsider. I reposition the ship so I can cross without having the bears on water. I see the garrison now. 6 bears and 3 sprites. By the time I'm ready to strike it's 5 sprites. I'm able to win with two attacks, but lose many bears in the process. The wizard decides not to return.
The chaos wizard started corrupting my territory, and I don't seem to have Great Lizard, the only good counter to Chaos wizards in nature. And they have about 3 times my power.
Overall, I don't think this will be a win but I'm certainly fairly strong. I don't think I'm much stronger than if I started with a military strategy though.
Game 4
I start on a small island. I build a ship and conquer a neutral lizardmen city on the nearby other island. There is one more, halfling, one island further away. That one is snatched by another wizard, by a naga. I'm going to attack it anyway, it's a mono-sorcery wizard. Can't let those expand early. I clear out "many skeletons" for 250 mana. 5 Hell hounds on another island yields another 300 gold.
I find another wizard's capital. I can't fight them - only having 4 bears here. As my empire is on many islands, my forces are divided - with nagas roaming everywhere I have to have at least 2 bears in any city. Every land except the 3 islands I control is very far - about 10 tiles of ocean between us. This wizard has books in 4 realms, and their capital is full of ghouls and sprites. Bears would not be able to deal with that anyway.
I conclude that Conjurer+Specialist is still a strong start, but nowhere near gamebreaking without Mana Focusing. It's almost impossible to reach an enemy capital before they have 9 units inside as well, which results in massive losses.
I'm not sure if there is a need to nerf this combo - probably yes anyway, while it wasn't enough to win impossible with it, it performed better than military strategies.
Conjurer needs changes regardless - the upkeep reduction shouldn't be part of this ability - that's Chaneller's domain.
Setting the casting cost to 75% of the normal, but ignoring other modifiers might be an interesting solution. That way Conjurer could provide immunity to Divine Order and Evil Omens cost increasing effects.