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[ATHATH]

If we use an expense credit to lower its cost to cheap, can ordinary soldiers cast it?

[evictedSaint]

No. 

[NUKE9.13]

Er, sorry - looking back a theatre is too large of an area.  It's reduced to the size of a skirmish to maintain balance.

That makes more sense.
Ironically, reducing the strength makes it more useful.

If we use an expense credit to lower its cost to cheap, can ordinary soldiers cast it?

I don't think it works like that. That wouldn't make any sense.

Alright, so, given the weaker Tubikh Rrahim, it can be used in a useful fashion in certain areas. I think it's actually good enough that we can revise something else- even though the number of uses is limited by our supply of mages... if that turns out to be a problem, we can use the plains population bonus (finally) to create mass-enrolment in magic schooling to provide the hundreds of apprentices per year that we need.

So, we should revise some more mundane weaponry. I believe someone mentioned the idea of bodkin arrows in passing?

Armour-Piercing Bodkin Arrows: Where a conventional arrowhead is wide, in order to do maximum damage to its target, these arrows are tipped with small, thin, extra-pointy arrowheads, to maximise the amount of force applied to one area. They are also made of hardened steel, though the smaller size should mean the cost is not an issue.
These could reliably pierce plate armour at close range, and have a chance of doing so at medium range, giving our (horse) archers a decisive leg-up against Arstotzka's heavy infantry.

[Kashyyk]

I'd prefer the revision of Selective Tubikh Rrahin to allow our magic.

Bodkins aren't a bad option either though.

[Happerry]

If the problem is a lack of mages, we should use our experience with mind magic to try to design teaching spells.

Anyway, I'll vote to revise Tubikh Rrahin to not burn out our mages.

[S34N1C]

I'm gonna go with the bodkin arrows

[Devastator]

Revise: Bodkin Arrows

Mostly because I think we can fix the biggest problem with the antimagic with an order.

Order: Train more faithful to cast Tubikh Rrahin, to save our mages.  Or train more apprentices.  Use the extra pop from plains.

Those who cast the spell live, and can continue on with their lives after doing so, wether as soldiers or whatever.  This should be an acceptable stopgap, as we are hardly asking people to commit suicide.

[Taricus]

revise Tubikh Rrahin to not burn out our mages. Because Bodkins ain't gonna do shit to plate mail.

[Devastator]

I thought they had crappy plate due to being several hundred years early for that.  If they had good plate, there's tons of historical debate about that, but certainly enough so that a good roll will work and a bad roll will work less well.

Also:

Revision: Spear of Allah [1!]
We...may have made a mistake.

In reality, lightning doesn't like being corralled against its will.  Without fail, every iteration of the spell results in the casting mage being struck rather than the target.

As is,  It's not useful at all.  Unless..

Orders: Leak the formula for the revised Spear of Allah to Arstoskans.  Try to rig it so it seems as a national effort, so their chief mage has to cast it.

[evictedSaint]

I thought they had crappy plate due to being several hundred years early for that.

They have the armor of +2.  Justify that however you'd like - it really doesn't matter mechanics-wise.

[Devastator]

If it's actual magic, then I'd go with revising the antimagic charms instead, to get a shot at dispelling them.

If it isn't, then go with the bodkin arrows, as we still should get a roll to see if we can help with that.

I think it's been around for enough years that we should be able to know if that's the case.

[NUKE9.13]

Because Bodkins ain't gonna do shit to plate mail.

There is some debate as to whether bodkin arrows could pierce platemail, but there is certainly some evidence that they could, especially if made of the right materials. And as mentioned, their platemail is presumably not of the highest quality ever.

They have the armor of +2.  Justify that however you'd like - it really doesn't matter mechanics-wise.

...right. So my thinking is bodkin arrows could reduce that to +1, basically.

Orders: Leak the formula for the revised Spear of Allah to Arstoskans.  Try to rig it so it seems as a national effort, so their chief mage has to cast it.

Then they'd be just a single revision away from making a fixed version of their own. No, we shouldn't deliberately give away our secrets. -1

revise Tubikh Rrahin to not burn out our mages.

Hmm. I was thinking since its only apprentices we're using, this isn't that big of a problem. But thinking about it some more, we'd probably want to use it several times per theatre per day, which over the course of a year would add up to hundreds. I'm not sure we have that many...
Ah, I guess countering fireballs and caltrops is something we want to be able to do frequently. Fine, +1 to

Tubikh Rrahim - Non-burnout edition: Careful research reveals to us that the reason Tubikh Rrahim prevents our mages from ever casting again is that the spell is as much directed within as it is without. By creating a small, simple wand through which to cast the spell, we make it so that the internal anti-magic is fed into the wand, not the caster. This does mean the wand becomes useless after a single use, but they should be cheap enough to make.
We could consider deliberately raising the cost to Expensive in order to increase this revision's chance of success.

[Happerry]

Then they'd be just a single revision away from making a fixed version of their own. No, we shouldn't deliberately give away our secrets. -1

This has my support. Don't give away our secrets.

[Devastator]

Can't we try to fix the burnouts with an order?  Casting the spell doesn't hurt people, so if we train rookies just for it it should be fairly easy to do.

Not that I expect to be able to beat the 3-man team of happy, Kashyyk, and Taricus to get a rev through, but so it goes.

[Kashyyk]

I get your point Devastator, but if the burnout was removed then all those rookies could repeatedly cast the spell, instead of only do it once.

However, I still prefer Selective Tubikh Rrahim. Even if we can only cast weak spells that's still weak spells vs nothing.

Tubikh Rrahim (No Burnout) [3] - Happery, NUKE9.13, Taricus
Tubikh Rrahim (Selective) [1] Kashyyk
Bodkin Arrows [1] - Devastator