Cool guide!
In my experience LA T'ien Ch'i is a pretty tough nation with lots of possibilities. One thing I like to do is let my battle mages fight up front (especially ancestor smith), even with old age they are quite the fighters (thinking of Discworld and Cohen the barbarian).
Oh, and old age on ancestor smiths disappear if they get a nature random giving them 15 (18 with the magic sword that he comes with) in both basic attack and defense value, 15 in MR and 15 in morale. The cost is only 200 and they are sacred.
Basic spells for them to cast in melee (besides personal buffs) are of course the thematic hand of dust/death and fist of iron (haiaaa!).
