8-book-strategies compared

[occasionalplayer]

Is the werewolves strategy overpowered, as implied in the other post? 
Maybe a comparison to the other books would help. 


The basic underpinnings are: Halflings, 8 books, spellweaver/specialist/sage master. The problem: werwolves are no summon, so they do not require conjurer - (if you combine these and spellweaver, you are not getting the researchable uncommon).

So probably you need to drop specialist in order to advance - research slower. 

Then, lets look at the options: 

Nature: Spiders - good but by no means op. Lizard too expensive. In a good setting you can go for fast lizards, but even then, casting costs too much (maybe drop spellweaver, pick archmage instead). 
Chaos: Fire Giant or Gargoyles. Nothing to write home about. Gargoyles require immolation, Fire Giant unimpressive.
Sorcery: You might start with Nagas plus Focus Magic - but that is expensive and underwhelming. Then, I do not know how good water elementals are.
Life: Unicorns not seriously worth it. Of course you might try prayer. That is good, but certainly not op.

In short, I may be missing something, but death just seems to be clearly the best option.

[Seravy]

Why the Spellweaver? It contributes nothing at all to research or casting the spell if it was a summon. You could pick Conjurer instead and have 1 pick left over. Unlike Spellweaver, Conjurer also speeds research and reduces maintenance so it's a superior option and using wolves lacks those benefits.

My opinion :

Spiders are comparable to wolves. They don't regenerate, but they web flying or ranged units, and their poison allows ignoring armor. They move 5 on the map and can always catch any unit trying to escape in combat as well as avoid getting damaged. While they don't regenerate, Nature can get Nature's Cures to ensure the stack of spiders are always ready for a new battle as a workaround. Unlike wolves, spiders are not countered by Blood Lust or Exorcism so they remain useful longer. The recent removal of Poison Immunity from undead further increases their potential. In fact I'm worried they might be the overpowered unit now, haven't tried them since that change.

Cockatrices with Focus Magic aren't that great, but it's at least an interesting and unique strategy to play.

Lizards are too expensive for this strategy.

When playing a peaceful strategy, Change Terrain, Altar of Peace, Sanctify and Raise Volcano are options for an economy spell. Aura of Majesty to ensure the peace happens. This is obviously something completely different that cannot be directly compared, but it is a 8 book strategy nonetheless.

Going for Nature's Cures, when paired with some sort of a powerful early normal unit stack, can allow advancing really fast, not needing to heal. No idea which normal unit would work for it though.

In Chaos, Gargoyles are actually pretty good. ofc much better with Immolation, but still useful without. This is obviously within the intended role of the realm so weaker than wolves or spiders - Chaos is weak early.

Sorcery should really aim for Aura of Majesty using their 8 books to avoid conflict. They aren't a realm for early aggression. Water Elementals with their ranged attacks, fast naval movement and weapon immunity might actually be viable - it won't conquer as much as wolves or spiders but again, this is a "strong late" realm.

Life, if going the aggressive path, probably wants Prayer early. Divine Order is also a great option. Neither of these will be researched that fast, but not having to go through a bunch of unwanted uncommon spells to reach them is worth a lot.

So overall I think every realm has good options - but only Nature and Death has a powerful rush creature among them. Other realms are not meant to do that sort of thing.

If we want to compare wolves to something, spiders are the only option. While Gargolyes have similar costs and role, they are less effective at this role because Chaos isn't an early realm. Chaos can still do much more expansion using them than one would expect but if it was anywhere near the other two it would be a problem.